Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape

by Fredrick Stokely

  The chambers twisted and turned, creating a maze. Fortunately, B4hamutt had a map of the area, though Asura couldn't help but snicker at the fact it wasn't complete. She imagined most people didn't want to fully explore such an area. Thankfully, most the spiders didn't attack them so they quickly found themselves in the grand nest.

  The chamber was at least fifty feet up and as wide as a football field. The roof was domed and it looked like a large stadium. Webbing flowed from wall to wall while massive spiders scurried about on their duties. Sacs filled with spider eggs hung from the roof and covered the ground. Large spiders brought in cocoons of webbing that she had a horrible suspicion was their food, and she knew better than to risk thinking about what that food was.

  The webbing began to quiver as she saw 'it'. The matriarch. It was the size of a small house. It was the first spider she'd seen with that design, too. Red and black, the perfect replica of a black widow, complete with red hourglass on its underside. “Why do we have to fight that?” she asked softly. The spider was moving around the webbing slowly, each movement sending its smaller children scattering and making the web jump sporadically.

  “Because we do. Come on,” B4hamutt muttered as he gripped his axe and charged forward. With a single slash he lopped off one of the giant spiders legs, a testament to how high his level was in comparison to it. The matriarch began to click angrily. Its other legs lashed out, trying to bind the dragon with its webbing. “Give me some support!”

  “Oh! Right, sorry!” She held out her right hand. “Greater heal!” A white light instantly covered the dragon and healed the small wounds he had acquired. It was true that they were far above the level requirements for the area, but the spider was meant to be taken on by groups of ten or so. Not two vs one. Even worse was the fact that other large spiders were starting to appear out from the nests and charge at the two of them, intent on eliminating the threat to their ruler.

  B4hamutt grinned as the spiders began to swarm him. He backed away for a moment while his fingers danced along the air, opening menus invisible to her. After a few seconds he was done and he swung the axe into the nearest spider. Flames erupted out and turned all the smaller spiders, and much of the webbing, to ash. Asura watched in awe while he tore through the spiders with ease and his blade exploded over and over into thick flames. She occasionally sent a heal his way, though he didn't really need it. Before long the giant arachnid rolled over onto its back and its remaining legs curled up. With the matriarch dead most of the webbing in the room gave way to reveal a small cavern opposite the entrance of the room.

  “What's that?” she asked before slowly making her way after her friend. At least with the matriarch dead, many of the spiders had vacated and the webbing no longer covered the area as thickly. Without new thread to cover them the old webbing eventually fell off their bodies to leave them free of its sticky and icky feel.

  “Treasure cave. Since the matriarch doesn't drop items itself they have to give the rewards somehow. Come on,” he said before the two walked into the entrance. It sealed with webbing the moment they went inside and they were forced to use the flaming hands spell to see again. No spiders were in the chamber, and it was devoid of webbing which made Asura almost giddy.

  “So, just a chest at the end then? A few gold and an item? Seems almost like a waste after all that work.”

  “Maybe, but some people fight these outer dungeons with ten or more people at a time, so it's a lot easier to do. Not the designers fault we two manned it. Though it felt more like a one man,” B4hamutt said with just a hint of sarcasm.

  “I'm sorry! I really don't like having spiders crawling all over me. Besides, you had it handled completely. My weapon isn't designed to knock out groups of enemies like yours is.”

  “Excuses excuses.” The tunnel started to go up and soon they came to a small room with a large golden chest. It easily opened with a quick kick, and they each got a spider shaped helmet. Asura could barely contain her disgust as she tossed the item away. A stone doorway was all that remained, embedded in the opposite wall.

  When the door opened, the cold, damp air of the forest rushed in to meet them. They stepped out and little spiders began to once again crawl along their body while the webbing tugged at their legs. The door closed quickly behind them, completely melding to the cliff side and appearing as nothing more than another stone in the wall.

  “So now what? We beat the boss, but now we have no leads on where he is. I don't even see any demons!” Asura yelled in frustration before she turned and gave the stone a sharp kick. “I'm tired of this stupid spider infested forest!”

  “You've come a long way to intrude in my domain,” a voice called out from above. They turned up and saw a woman standing above them, holding a large naginata in her hands. The blade was blood red and was partially see through, while the staff part of the weapon was completely black. The woman was wearing black and red armor that covered her entire body and had a red hourglass mark on its stomach. The helmet was in the image of a spiders face, complete with eight glowing red eyes. The matriarch set, the highest tier of the spider armors. It made the helmet they found in the chest look like chump change, though as demon armors go it was on the same tier as the armor she and B4hamutt wore.

  “I know that armor,” B4hamutt said quickly. “It's a specialty type. It allows the user to be unhindered by webbing and be treated as a spider per the mechanics of the game. Pretty powerful in a place like this.”

  “Do you think she's a player or an NPC?” Asura asked while she watched the woman, too far away to see her name. “I've never seen anyone actually spend the time to make the full set of that. Seems like a bit of a waste when the next lower tier is so much cheaper, and a different demon armor of the same tier would be more useful in other areas.”

  “Don't know, but here she comes!” B4hamutt said before he readied his weapon. The woman jumped down from the trees and gripped some webbing on the way. She disappeared in some of the bushes before something burst from within. A massive tarantula spider the size of a horse leaped out and charged at them. As it rushed, it glimmered for a moment, alerting them that it was now flagged for PVP and they could attack it without penalties.

  “She transformed!” Asura yelled before drawing her axe and slashing down on the spider. To her surprise the axe only left a small edge in its thick exoskeleton. A warning came up, letting her know she was attacking another player. She quickly accepted. “It's real! It's not a normal monster, it's high level! It's a real player!” The panic in her began to rise. She hated spider fights, especially in a place like this. What if it killed her? Would she die before it bound her up? Or would it keep her character just alive enough so it could wrap her up in its webbing? Could players do things like that?

  “Keep calm! It's two on one, we've got this! Just stay back and heal me!” B4hamutt yelled before he slashed at the creature with his axe. Unlike the matriarch, this one was strong enough that he couldn't just chop off its legs, though the explosive fire did keep anything else from interfering.

  Asura backed away and watched the fight, occasionally sending out a heal towards her ally. She hated this, hiding in the back lines while he fought the girl-turned-spider. She froze when she saw something get caught on the edges of one of the explosions. Her mouth fell open when she saw the spider armored girl hiding in the now burning bush, the flames having temporarily pushed her out of her shadow meld ability. Asur launched another heal before going through her menus and switching the axe out for her sword. The moment it was equipped she took off. “It's a trick! That's a combat pet!” She yelled before she burst past the dragon and spider, launching herself at the demon woman.

  She swung the blade down on the girl's head while the demon lifted her polearm up to catch the blade with its shaft. Excalibur was stopped in mid swing, drawing a startled gasp from the angel. “I-Impossible. Only a master class weapon could stop this!” She was so stunned that she failed to react in time as the woman kicked h
er in the stomach and knocked her back onto the ground.

  The woman turned and ran. Asura got to her feet and took off after her. With a target in sight she was able to ignore the spiders around her and pursue without fear. She ignored her friend's call to come back, too focused on her prey. The fire hand spell gave her plenty of light while the demon girl ducked and weaved through the forest.

  The demon's armor allowed the spider looking girl to easily move through the webs without being slowed down, but the angel managed to keep her in view. Asura was beginning to wonder if they'd leave the forest when they came to a small clearing, about ten feet around. An altar with a large red gem stood in the center.

  The gem made Asura freeze in her steps. “That's a soul altar,” she said with dread before backing away.

  “Yes it is,” The woman said before turning to the angel. “So you know what will happen if you die here.” The name Evealie appeared over her head.

  “I do...” Asure gripped her sword tightly. She had a bad feeling as she drew back into a defensive stance, eyes wandering nervously. She needed to stall. “Whoever dies near one is sealed in a soul gem. For the gemstone to remain active it must always be held and in use by someone who is of equal or higher level than the one sealed within it. They can't resurrect until these conditions end. While it's held though, the holder's stats take a huge hit and they can't leave it. Not to mention the extreme cost of building one. Why make it?” Slowly she began to circle the demon girl, anxiety filling her voice. “Why lure me here? Having a combat pet lowers your stats, you're at a disadvantage.”

  “You can't figure it out? I figured you'd be smarter than that. Easy. The master class quests will be taking place soon. I'm going to make you and your friend miss them,” the woman said before she struck out with the polearm. Asura deflected the blade with her sword and charged forward, but Evealie leaped back before she could hit.

  “You gotta be kidding me. You did all this just to stop us from getting a second master class? Seriously? How many people have you killed using that little trick of yours? Your bounty must be huge.” She didn't push the attack, hoping B4hamutt would hurry up.

  “Plenty. You and your friend are the third and fourth master class we'll have captured. I assume the leviathan was your friend?” Those words made her freeze for a moment, leaving her open. The demon woman charged forward and slashed across the angel's face, making her HP plummet.

  “You have him in one of those?!” Asura asked with a growl. “These events are a once a year opportunity. After all the work he did to pass the first time, forcing him to miss a chance of gaining his second mastery is just cruel.”

  “It's just a game, a little cruelty is fun,” As Evealie's words finished pain shot through Asura's back. She slashed behind her, but there was no one there. A moment later the same pain shot through her side. She looked down and saw an arrow lodged in her, quickly disappearing into red sparkles. She brought her sword up, narrowly parrying the woman's naginata.

  “Two of you? Cheater!” she snapped angrily before she deflected the blade with her sword. The demon woman was keeping her distance, so Asura couldn't get a chance to counter attack. She had no choice, but to constantly move so the archer wouldn't have a helpless target. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another enemy on her minimap, likely the archer. Unfortunately she was helpless to do anything about it with the demon girl so close.

  “Oh please. You were more than willing to gang up on me when you thought I was an NPC, especially once I gave you the opening. Don't worry, once the quest is over we'll let you and the others out. You won't be our competition then,” Evealie said with a smirk.

  “Competition? How many of you are there? Why are you doing this anyway?” She snapped before she struck the naginata and knocked it to the side. She charged forward to slash the woman open, but was stopped when an arrow lodged in her knee and made her stumble forward. She tried to slash at the woman's legs, but Evealie had already jumped out of reach.

  “Easy, we're going to be the first to master all six classes. Passing this year will be easy considering all the information about them that's available. All that has to happen is make sure the rest of the masters don't compete. Once we make you four miss the quest, that only leaves three more and we'll have years to take them out of the picture.” Evealie stabbed at her while she was on the ground, though she rolled away. An arrow lodged near her hand, but thankfully missed.

  Asura parried and feinted with each word, quickly jumping to her feet. Another arrow lodged into her back, draining her HP again. While she was distracted the naginata shot in from her left. She couldn't parry it with her blade in time so she quickly moved her left hand out to deflect it.

  The blade went clear through her armor and through the wrist within, draining her HP down to the halfway point. “W-what was that?” She backed away while holding her wrist to her chest. Despite the fact the armor was still there she could no longer feel the hand, so she knew it had been removed by the attack. The flames from her hand died out as well.

  “It's my weapon's special ability. It goes through all non-master class weapons and all armors.” Evealie's blade started to strike again, this time going for the angel's legs as she tried to avoid the attacks. Arrows were shot through the air, a few jamming into her sides.

  “That is way too overpowered.” Asura hissed as she tried to deflect the strikes. The demon's blade seemed to glow in the darkness, but she could barely see the rest of the woman since the spider armor was so dark. Even worse, her own armor was completely white, making her a far easier target to find in the shadows. Each hit made her let out a pained hiss as little bursts ran through her.

  “No worse than being able to destroy your opponents weapons!” The demon plunged her blade forward once again. This time Asura moved to the right and ran forward. She struck the pole of the weapon with her left arm and slashed out with Excalibur across the woman's chest plate. “Agh!”

  Asura pushed her advantage, slashing with her sword as quickly as she could and staying close where the woman's naginata was useless. She landed blow after blow, cutting into the woman's armor. Best of all the arrows had stopped, the woman's comrade obviously not wanting to risk hurting her ally.

  The demon woman dropped the naginata and grabbed Asura's arm, holding her still for a moment. The angel still had the advantage though as she tried a threat. “You've lost. Give up, you can't esca- AGGGGGGGHHHH!” She screamed as her back erupted in pain. Her HP plummeted as what felt like dozens of arrows stabbed into her back. Once the attack ended Evealie shoved hard and held out her right hand.

  “Dark echo.” The demon said as pain shot through Asura's torso and she felt the attack hitting her again, albeit dealing far less damage. It still felt the same though aside from hitting her front.

  She was thrown backwards and let out a pained groan as she crashed into the ground. She couldn't believe it, she was going to lose. She was going to lose what she worked so hard for. Her sword had fallen from her grasp when she fell so she no longer had a weapon to defend herself. She held out her right hand. “Ray burst!” Small rays of light shot out from her hand and knocked the other woman back. She dove for her sword and took off, attempting to make space between them as she cast another spell. “Restoration!” It took a few seconds for the spell to fully take effect and she saw her HP increasing rapidly. Best of all she could feel her hand again.

  She gulped and looked at the minimap again, a smirk forming on her lips when she noticed a familiar name had joined next to the archer's. Apparently B4hamutt had finally finished off the spider and caught up.

  With her HP back to half and having access to both hands she turned to face Evealie. “Flaming hands.” Light flowed from her hand once again. The woman was standing a few yards from her, holding the naginata. The demon seemed to be unwilling to make the first move now that her friend was busy. “Looks like my friend took care of your spider and his second class is holy beast, so I don't think your spider
will have left much damage. Seems it's two on two again. No more tricks.”

  “Maybe...” Evealie said with a growl. “You've forgotten three things, however. I'm a master class as well, you're very easy to distract--” She lifted up her right hand. “--and I chose the location.” As her hand came down the shadows molded around the woman, making her disappear.

  “Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” Asura held her flaming hand up. There were two simple ways she knew to remove a demon from stealth. One was having them come into the light, the other was damaging them. The main problem was the flaming hands spell didn't make enough light to knock her out of stealth until she was very close and the angel didn't have nearly enough MP to spend throwing spells around and hoping they hit the woman. Worst of all, Asura couldn't fly without being trapped in webbing and leaving herself open.

  With no options available she held her sword up and waited for the woman to strike while her left hand navigated through the menus. She tried to open a call with B4hamutt. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't answering yet.

  Evealie appeared on her minimap, directly behind her. Asura ducked so the blade went over her head and she swung the sword back. It barely grazed the woman's leg before the demon jumped back, disappearing a few moments later. It happened two more times, each time Asura barely managed to avoid the full force of the strike. She only took minor damage, but was unable to swing her sword fast enough to counter.

  The fourth strike wasn't so lucky as the blade slashed across Asura's ankles and brought her down. In a slight panic she reached out and gripped the shaft of the naginata and pulled hard, even letting go of her own sword. Evealie was pulled forward, refusing to let go of her weapon. Acting quickly the angel grabbed the demon's ankles and yanked as hard as she could, tripping the woman onto her back.

  Asura rolled over on top of the woman and jammed her hand into the girl's chest. “Try going invisible now! RAPTURE!” White light enveloped Evealie and coursed through the woman's body. Rather than exploding into red sparkles the demon instead imploded into a small red gemstone, much like the one on the alter in the clearing. She picked it up and smirked at it. “Can you hear me?”