Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape

by Fredrick Stokely

  She dashed forward, slashing once with her blade at his left side. Rather then dodging, he instead lashed his left arm out and caught the blade. Both weapons were master quality so no flames exploded from the blows. His right fist shot out and tried to punch her in the face, but she let go of the sword with her left hand and dodged around to his left side, trying to circle around his back before she yanked her sword free. She nimbly slid into position and brought her sword down at his back. B4hamutt stepped to his right, barely avoiding the blade so it merely nicked his scales, dealing no damage.

  “You've gotten faster, Mutt. You can almost keep up with me now. Almost,” Asura said before backing away.

  “Maybe you've just gotten slower!” B4hamutt charged forward this time and slashed at her with both claws at once.

  She ducked under the attack and thrust her blade forward, straight at his stomach. He leaped into the air, over her blade, and kicked. His foot connected with her chest and she let out a pained groan when the attack triggered an explosion, sending her flying backwards.

  Asura crashed down a few yards back with a groan, but managed to hold onto her sword. Her opponent charged straight at her so she quickly spread out her wings and took to the sky, holding out her right hand. “Ray!” A burst of white light shot out and struck the dragon in the chest, forcing him to stumble back. She moved her fingers along the air and after a few moments her sword split into two, allowing her one in each hand. She dove down and slashed at him.

  B4hamutt dove down as well, disappearing underground so her blades hit nothing but air, and she was forced to pull up. She frowned while waiting for him to show himself. Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement and faced towards it. A small patch of dirt was shaking slightly, so she turned and aimed her hand at it, ready for him to spring out.

  “Fireball!” B4hamutt's voice came from behind her. She quickly turned, but too late, as flames enveloped her. She let out a scream and hurtled towards the ground, though she was surprised to see her HP had only fallen a sliver.

  “Clever.”Asura picked herself up and glared at him, standing a few yards from her, but she didn't charge this time. “Guessing that was a holy beast spell to make the ground do that?”

  “Yep. Was a little worried you'd know tremor, but seems you haven't been studying their spells too much.”

  “I have a lot of spells from four different classes, you can't expect me to memorize them all.” She gripped both swords at her side. “Guiding blade!” she yelled and the skill took over, causing her to cross the distance between them in a moment, her blades slicing through the air.

  “Oh shi--” B4hamutt was forced to pull back and move desperately to attempt to knock the dangerous blades away, but they were too fast for him to block and a few slipped past his guard and one even exploded. Despite the assault he managed to maintain his footing.

  “Ray burst!” Asura called out before she stabbed her left sword into the ground. She pushed her hand at the startled dragon's chest before a number of rays shot into him. He let out a pained grunt and was sent flying back.

  “Ugh... nice-- agh!” The dragon pulled back when the angel charged forward, holding both blades again, and slashed at him over and over. He tried to block them, but from his downed position it was near impossible to stop them all. One blade sliced through his armor like butter while the other exploded in his face. “Burst!” he finally yelled out, flames exploding in front of him and sending her flying backwards.

  “Heh! You know what? This exploding weapon is actually really awesome! But you still haven't told me what the holy beast weapons do!” she yelled to him as she readied her swords for the next round.

  “Well, I guess it's only fair I tell you,” B4hamutt yelled and got to his feet. “Life draining. Every blow I land heals me for part of the damage I deal. I'm not sure on the specifics yet, since different attacks seem to heal me for a different percentage of health. It's quite useful.” He charged once again. This time when he came close he flew forward to land on his hands and cart wheeled, feet first, into the angel. She was caught by surprise and, flinching when the attack hit, sent hurtling, her swords barely staying in her hands. Oddly enough, there was no explosion that time.

  “Ow... someone's been watching a lot of kung fu movies...” she said before glancing at her health bar. “Wait... you disabled the explosion ability to get more damage, didn't you?” She leaped to her feet.

  “Yeah, why?” B4hamutt jumped to his feet as well, and the two began circling again.

  “Nothing. I'm just surprised your attack dealt such a small amount of damage.”

  “Well yours didn't do much either so shut up,” he snapped before charging forward. His gauntlets struck out again and again while she struggled to parry and avoid them. Unfortunately, he was pushing in very close and she found herself struggling to deflect his attacks with such long swords.

  “Gust!” she called out and a burst of wind sent him back a few feet, though he managed to stay standing. She quickly sheathed her left sword and backed away. She once again tapped on the menus.

  “Trying to go back to one sword? That won't help you much, Asura.”

  “Nope. Something new!” The second sword disappeared before she reached behind her back and pulled out a silver dagger.

  “You're going to lose your range? Isn't that kind of giving up?”

  “No! I just need to do things like this!” she yelled before charging. She held out her left hand when she came within range. “Ray burst!” Rays of light slammed into the dragon, catching him by surprise, while she darted around his left side and brought Excalibur down on his back. Fire burst out from the blade and the edge cleaved through his armor easily.

  “Ugh! Clever distraction but it-- gah!” Mutt pulled away when the dagger slashed at his front and then moments later, when the dagger was pulled back, the long sword went down on his shoulder and more flames erupted around him.

  “Guiding blade!” she yelled before more slashes cut into him over and over while he tried to parry the dancing blades. With the two separate lengths he struggled to get a proper parry and the dagger slipped through again and again. “Crescent flash! Ray burst!” She chained her spells one after another before knocking the dragon's weapons aside.

  Finally after her third ray burst B4hamutt stumbled back. “I give!”

  She was a little too excited and struck him three more times before she realized what he said. “Oh! Right! Um, sorry. Heh heh. Got a bit to into it. So, what's that make it?”

  “Four to three, considering our matches before our second masteries. You've gotten a lot better since then, with you chaining all those skills. Interesting switch on the dagger,” the dragon said as he panted, wiping the sweat from his brow.

  “Yeah. It's kinda hard to fight your fists with my swords when you get in close. It's too heavy to use in my offhand that quickly,” she said before sheathing her blades. She ran her hands through her hair, shaking the sweat out. “Your axe I'm fine against using the long swords. I'm actually surprised how many combos it took before you finally went down though, usually it takes forever to cut through you.”

  “Yeah. Your spells were just eating through my HP, but the weapon attacks really weren't doing much damage. I was pretty unimpressed. I figured you'd be hitting harder.”

  “Well, the dagger isn't a master level weapon. It was still pretty good, but I guess it really cut into my combo damage. I'm getting better at dual wielding though! I'm actually able to kinda defend with them now. A few more weeks of practice and I might be able to use them like a master. Your hand to hand combat has gotten a lot better too.”

  “Downloaded a new training game in preparation for the tournament,” B4hamutt said with a smirk. “Basically, it teaches you how to do all those complex and fancy moves you see in movies and stuff, without all the need to train your body to do them. Most of this stuff I'd end up killing or at least hurting myself pretty bad if I tried in the real world. But it's useful stuff
to learn for the game. Been practicing the last few weeks.”

  “Eh, I've heard those don't transfer over to games too well,” Asura said with a shrug. “Remember all those players who said they had mastered kendo and then got their butts kicked when abilities, game stats and spells got added to the mix?” The two headed back into the castle. “Which training game though?”

  “'Not a victim', second edition. It's actually kinda cool because it teaches a lot of different introductory moves for games and real life. Apparently the series was started by a woman who played this game when it first came out,” B4hamutt said before he glanced towards some of the other training grounds. Plenty of their guild mates were preparing for the tournament, so it was filled with dozens of different players.

  “Oh? She played a lot of pvp and decided to use real martial arts to give her an edge?”

  “No. She had an abusive husband and learned self defense in the game so she could defend herself in real life.”

  Asura went quiet, not really sure how to respond to that. After they walked into the hall in awkward silence, she finally piped up. “I... oh... I didn't mean to... I just...”

  “What? Oh! No! I didn't think you, I mean, just... I was letting you know. Not like I know the person it was happening to or anything,” he said awkwardly before the two looked away from each other.

  “So does she still play? I mean, have you ever talked to her?”

  “No. I honestly don't know if the story about her having an abusive husband is even true. I mean, it could just be a marketing ploy. I could see how it would be true though. I know some people who use these head sets to get hands on experience for jobs now, so learning self defense in the beginning of this game could make sense.”

  “Interesting. Maybe I should check it out. Do they have any weapon training in those?”

  “No, not really. Nothing that would transfer into this game at least, it's mostly hand to hand fighting. Lots of moves on how to disarm someone though. But with all the magic spells a person can learn, disarming isn't always the best move.”

  “That and you got kind of predictable after I watched you using it on the others during your matches. I've gotten better at not losing my weapons too,” Asura said with a smirk before she navigated through her menus again and her shoes disappeared, allowing her to walk bare foot through the halls.

  “Yeah, you did pretty good that time. Last time we fought I remember smacking the sword out of your hand and then just decimating you, this time you put up quite the fight.” He rubbed his shoulders and grimaced. “A lot more than last time we fought.”

  “Aren't still sore, are you? I know I was a little rough on the big strong dragon,” she said and ducked when he took a swipe at her.

  “Shut up! Sheesh. You gotta log out though, right? You going to be on for the tournament?”

  “After all the time I've spent practicing? Hell yeah!” the angel said before she opened the door to her private room in the guild castle, though it linked back to her room at Sanctuary. “I'll be on early tomorrow in preparation. But for now I need to log, see yah.” With those final words Asura disappeared from the game world and Asher came back to his bed. He took a deep breath as he mentally prepared himself for possibly the greatest fight he'd ever have. Trying to get his parents to let him get on early and stay on late for the tournament.

  ------

  “Sure.”

  “But mom, it's a once a year tournament and it's just the one day and I'll give up my game time for the next few days and- wait, what?” Asher asked in disbelief, freezing in the middle of the space station's halls as his parents walked on ahead of him.

  “As much as I hate these online games I've noticed you're...” Asher smiled while his mother struggled to find the words. “More yourself when you're on them.” Until she said that.

  “Myself? What does that mean?”

  “Before this started to happen to you,--” She never could call it by it's name, always just calling it 'this' or 'that' or 'incident' or something else. “--you seemed so full of life and excited. You always had hopes and dreams but once it happened you... changed. That's why we got you these games in the first place. We wanted you to be able to do things again. But whenever we saw you, you always seemed upset, tired or bored. We didn't think the game was actually helping you, instead just making you more distant.”

  “But it was! Because the games fun and I can-”

  “Yes. We know,” his mother said before crossing her arms. “You seem a lot happier when you're playing this than when we visit you at the hospital.” She turned and gave him a hug, startling him. “We just want you to be happy and if playing these games does it, then we won't stop you. Just please, sometimes, for us? Come into the real world.”

  “Okay! Thanks! This is going to be the aweso-”

  “And we're going to come watch it too, see what you're up to in that game of yours.”

  The anvil dropped. He gulped nervously and his eyes refused to waiver from her. “W-watch? Y-you want to... s-see me play the game?”

  “Of course! We'll be watching the entire tournament. Well, most of it. Some of it. What time does it start and end?” she asked him as a ball of worry formed in his stomach. “Well, your father has work and I won't be home until later. We'll come catch the end of the fights. Which one will be you?”

  “I-I'll be Asura. The master angel,” he said as his legs began to tremble. He mentally cursed as he realized he should have told them he was B4hamutt! How was he going to explain he was a girl in the game?

  “Asura? That's an interesting name, isn't it, honey?” she asked his father, who just gave a silent nod. “I bet you're playing one of those big armored knight men you see on all the covers of those video games, right?”

  “... Something like that,” he mumbled. Well, some games. Some covers. He was so dead.

  “Honey, is something wrong? You're looking pale.”

  “Oh, it's probably just a graphical issue mom. Probably the resolution or something. How about another game of grav ball?”

  “Sure.” Once again they began walking through the halls. For the first time since he heard about this tournament a small, very small, part of him hoped he didn't win. That he would be eliminated before they saw his secret.

  After a few quick games his parents logged out and he was left alone to think. He logged back into Landasy Reality for a short bit to travel to the next city, but he still logged out early rest in the real world and let his mind wander. What would they do if they found out? It was just a game, right? Lots of guys played girls in games. At least, they used to. Sure, times were different now and plenty of people played their own genders due to the force feedback, but there were still plenty of guys who wanted to know how it felt to be the fairer sex.

  What if they made him stop playing? What if his guild mates found out? Well, B4hamutt already knew, but he never told anyone else. Would they think less of him? Would his parents make him get a gender swap in game? Would they tell everyone and ruin his reputation? Those thoughts and more filled his mind while he tried to sleep, causing him to toss and turn as much as his body would allow.

  ------

  He was woken up by a loud, sickeningly sweet voice. “Gooood morning sleepy head!” Oh god, it was Jessica. “Are you ready for another day of fun and excitement?” Oh, if he could only wrap his fingers around her throat for just a short moment. He could just imagine how much pain and suffering he could spare others like him, not to mention the rest of the world.

  Instead though, he just smiled and nodded. “Yes... is breakfast almost r-ready?” he managed to say slowly. “M-my parents t-told you I-I was a-allowed to play extra today, r-right?”

  “Yes, they did. Though I can't say I agree, it's such a beautiful day! You should be out and playing in the sun, not locked up in here playing your silly little games.” He bit his tongue and resisted the urge to yell and scream at her. “But, they're the ones who decide, not me. And today we've got a special
treat! Apple sauce with strawberry oatmeal! Doesn't that sound good?”

  “As good as w-warm vomit...” he said under his breath.

  “What was that?”

  “N-nothing. Let's just g-get this over with.” He managed to eat most of his meal himself, struggling to hold the spoon and only dropping it a few times. After the fifth drop she finally took over and fed him. To her credit she only did the 'plane flies into the hangar' once. Namely because he told her he would dump the bowl of oatmeal on her head if she kept treating him like a baby. It was the first time he saw her smile waver, so he felt quite proud.

  He was soon back where he belonged, appearing in a massive medieval city. Stone buildings surrounded the streets which were filled with small stands ran by excitable merchants. Asura barely made it three steps before an angel ran up to her and tried to get her to buy a weapon. Unfortunately, it was an actual player. The neutral trade city of Basharz. Thousands of players came here and set up stands, namely because it was practically smack dab in the center between all six racial territories and one of the few truly neutral locations (at least, NPC wise).

  Most players set up small shops and then ignored them, but a few of the more aggressive sales people would wander from shop to shop, buying and negotiating before selling their wares for even more. She'd heard of some players who barely made it to level twenty, but had managed to accrue more money than three of her. Frankly, she failed to see why someone would go through so much work if they never had a need for better items, but she guessed it took all kinds to play a game.

  Today was extra special. The streets were packed, more than normal, and even the roofs and skies were crowded with people flying in. She was just a tiny bit miffed at how many non-angels were flying by. Sure, she was in her fae form to show off her wings, but now other people could do it too. Everyone had come to see or participate in the tournament. Signs were posted all over the houses and shops as people slowly made their way towards the center of the city where a massive stone coliseum stood high above the ceilings of the many two story homes.