Before Asura could steady herself for another attack, an arrow struck into her chest, followed by three more. Her HP disappeared to nothing and she disappeared yet again. A few moments later she appeared back in her room, mouth open. “How... when did... how did she... I...” She struggled for words as she plopped down on the chair. “How did she... I didn't even hit her! I was using a speed potion! How did she DO that?!” She let out a scream of rage. “Did that bitch hack the game? That had to be it! There's no way she could have... no. Calm down. There's no way she could hack in a tournament like this.” She hugged her knees to her chest and sighed, trembling while she struggled to let the rage flow away. After a few moments of deep breaths, she let out a soft sigh and accepted the truth.
She had just been outplayed. Outplayed completely. “I can't believe she beat me both at a distance, and up close. Ugh. She didn't even use fae-step.” She buried her face in her knees, reveling in her misery while she could.
Eventually, Asura sighed before finally getting up and leaving the arena. She lost, so there was nothing more she could do about it.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a message alert popped up. She glanced at it before paling. It wasn't a message sent in game. It was one sent to his online profile. A message from his parents. Short. Simple. Terrifying. 'We can't find you, which person are you?'
In her panic she almost sent a response, but quickly realized how foolish that would be as it would reveal her in game name. Instead she logged out from the game and sent a message from his online profile. 'I got eliminated really early. You guys didn't miss anything, honest. Meet at the space station?'
He held his breath until he got a response. 'Okay, we're on our way.'
Asher sighed before logging in and soon he was standing in front of his parents. “In the other game, you said your name was Asura, right?” His mother looked a little anxious, but his father seemed distracted and seemed to be talking to himself, though no sounds came out. Asher figured he was probably on the phone with someone at work.
“Y-yes,” he said with a nervous gulp, his hands turning clammy.
“Which one? There were a lot of different fights, but the only one that was still playing when we got on was a young woman. We thought she might be you for a bit but... ummm, we wanted to be sure first.”
He gulped nervously before responding. “What? No! I got eliminated a while before you messaged me.”
“Oh! Oh, that's good. We were worried that you were, well, ummmm... never mind what we were worried about. We're just happy we were wrong.” He could see the relief flooding her face and couldn't help but feel a bit guilty and ashamed. There wasn't anything wrong with playing a girl, was there?
“Mom what i-” He was cut off as the entire world suddenly shifted. The colors changed wildly as everything nearby began to disappear. His breathing caught as he looked about in a panic. Was he having a seizure? Was he going to die? Was he... back in his room?
“--it. I tripped over the cord. Why are they all over the floor?” a man's voice said.
“Shhh! We don't want anyone to know you're here, do we?” It was a girl's voice this time. Jessica? What were they doing? Who was with her? Was he being robbed? Wait, he didn't have anything to rob. He weakly lifted his head so he could get a better view. What on earth were they doing?
“Are you sure he won't wake up?” the guy asked before he pulled Jessica into his arms and Asher could hear them starting to kiss.
“Nah, don't worry. He's just playing his little games. He'll be in them for hours. Even if he did come out he's barely even aware of what's going around him.” With those words he watched her shirt go up. Red heat filled his cheeks as he tried to decide what to do.
On the one hand, Jessica annoyed him near to death and he did want to get back to his game.
On the other hand, he was a male and the age filters on his head set prevented him from seeing anything like this. Could he really afford to pass this opportunity up?
“Maybe we should toss a towel over his head though. Just in case he does wake up...” Jessica said while stroking down the mans back. “He's kinda retarded, so he wouldn't be able to get it off.”
Well, that certainly made the decision easier. He lowered his head back down and groaned. “W-what happened?”
Silence filled the room before she spoke up again. “Asher honey? You're up?” He could hear them shuffling about and struggling to get fully dressed.
“M-my headset disconnected... what happened...” He groaned as he played it up.
“Nothing! Err, lets see. Ah, here we go.” A moment later his headset powered up, the loading symbol appearing over his eyes.
“W-who's that? Is he a d-doctor?” A malevolent part of him loved watching them squirm.
“What? Err! Yes! Just, checking up on, stuff and ummm, we need to go! Bye!” He suppressed the grin as the girl stumbled off, dragging her boyfriend behind her.
“Idiots,” he said before he logged back into the game. His mom was in a panic when he arrived.
“What happened? Where did you go? I thought you had a heart attack again!” she yelled as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
“Easy mom, easy. The game just got unplugged, I was only gone five minutes,” he said while trying to push her away. “Why didn't you call the hospital then?”
“I did! I'm still on hold,” she said before he finally pushed her away. She started tapping some buttons. He guessed she just hung up on them. “What happened? Why didn't you say anything?”
“It was nothing. One of the nurses just snuck into my room to make out with her boyfriend and they tripped on the cord. Once I let her know I was there she plugged it in and left. That's all there was to it.”
“... Make out with her... in front of you?!” He suddenly found himself pulled into a tight hug. “Who did this? Who was making out in front of my little boy?!”
Asher groaned. “M-mom, stop it! I'm almost legally an adult, I'm not a little boy any more!” he said softly. His cheeks turned bright red when some passersby stared at the spectacle.
“You weren't trying to watch, were you?” his mother accused.
He turned bright red and looked around frantically. His father was nowhere to be seen, probably abandoning the boy to his fate. “N-no! Not at all! I-I told her as soon as I came back that she unplugged it! I didn't watch at all!” His voice cracked a little as he tried to defend himself.
“Fine... I guess. Which nurse was it? Was it the blonde one? Oh I never liked her. I always su-”
“No, it wasn't Amy!” He jumped in quickly. “It was Jessica, the red haired one. Don't worry about it though, I handled it.”
“Oh don't worry your little head honey. I'll take care of it with a phone call, okay?”
“Mom. I just said I took care of it. No need to make any phone calls. I got it.” He couldn't keep the annoyance out of his voice.
“Now honey, no need to try being brave. I know how hard it is for you, I'll take care of it tomorrow, okay?”
“Are you even listening to... oh nevermind. I give up,” Asher snapped in annoyance before he flung his hands in the air. “Where's dad?”
“Oh, he had to go. Apparently something came up at work, another strike. But he told me to call him immediately if you didn't come back on. I should probably give him a call and let him know you're okay.” Her mouth kept moving, but no words came out. Well, at least she was getting faster at changing who she was talking too.
Best of all, the sudden cut off had distracted her from the idea of him playing as a girl. He felt a little ashamed having to hide it from them, but judging by their reactions, he doubted they'd understand.
He leaned back against the nearby wall and waited for her to finish the call before she smiled to him. “So how about we try some nice mother-son bonding?”
“Sure,” he said softly and they began walking. “We can go see some more exploration things. Maybe a planet this time.” He added quickly when he saw the
look of horror on his mother's face. “Nothing like the black hole.”
------
After a short planet visit Asher was left alone to do as he wished. He even got permission to stay up late to play his game. It wasn't long before Asura appeared back outside the coliseum and began hurtling messages to her guild rapid fire. “Who won? What happened? What I miss?”
“The dragon.”
“The guy who always wins.”
“I could have beaten him if I didn't get eliminated so fast.”
“The Eighth won.”
The guild responded quickly, though it took her a few seconds to realize what they meant. The Eighth. A high ranking dragon player. One of the highest ranking PVP players in the game and the winner of the 'Hunters of destiny' contest they had when the game began. It had been a contest/scavenger hunt/puzzle type thing where the players had to solve a number of riddles, slay certain creatures, and make certain items in order to advance to later stages.
She had, unfortunately, never gotten past the second riddle of the contest since she had no real interest in the cash prize. Not like she could have done anything with it. In the end the dragon player known only as 'The Eighth' won it. Since then he had been dominating the PVP tournaments and he was seen as one of the best pro players in the game. The fact he won the tournament wasn't a surprise, though it still annoyed her that she wouldn't get a shot at challenging him.
Her biggest annoyance was from something else. She took a look at her friend list before letting out a happy squeal of glee. “Andremedia! We need to talk! Meet me at Yggdrasil,” Asura sent the message before heading off.
Soon the two stood across from each other on, standing on the highest branches of the tree and far from the crowds. “You know why I called you here, don't you?” Asura asked, once again in her fae form.
“I can imagine so. I figure you're pretty mad that I beat you.”
“Well... I'm not mad. Just disappointed. I wanted to know how you did that? I've never seen anyone shoot arrows so fast! I didn't think it was possible! Do you do archery at home? Even if you do the fact you could do it so quickly is amazing!” Asura said in excitement, pacing the entire time. Excitement began replacing annoyance as she talked.
“Oh, well, it's really easy actually. All you do is draw the string back, since the arrow forms by itself, so long as you already know the hand positions you can instantly move the arrow back and aim while you're still pulling it back. It also helps that I took a speed potion right before hand.”
That made Asura freeze. “Wait, you did? Why? Did you know I was going to be there?”
“What? No! I just took one before each fight. I bought a bunch before hand and I wanted to give myself a slight edge. Didn't matter in the end though, I still lost,” she said with a shake of her head. “The item pouch penalties made it a bit harder once my kiting failed.”
“Hey, you still trounced me. So what is the ability of the fae's bow, anyway? I bet it's something awesome.”
“It has another toggle. It either does high damage or allows the damage to increase with every arrow that hits the same target. Basically the more times I hit you, the more damage it caused. Great for kiting. Even if I just nick you, it still counts as a hit.”
“That explains a lot,” Asura said with a disappointed sigh. “Hey, I know this may sounds kinda odd, but do you think you can teach me? I mean, more about the fae class? You've seen my archery and my fae-step. I still need a lot of work before I can do it effectively. I know you're a lot better at it than me so... yeah... think you'd want too?” She couldn't help but feel a little nervous about asking for help like this. Especially considering she had been playing longer. But she hated feeling like there was something she just couldn't do, and if the only way to learn was to ask for help, then she'd swallow her pride and do it.
“Sure!” Andremedia said as a grin formed on her lips. “It'll be fun. Don't expect it to be to easy though. There are a lot of little tricks I'd have to show you.”
“I don't mind!” Asura said and held out her hand. “I'm willing to work as hard as I have to in order to master this class!”
“Okay then. We'll start with the basics. Let's see if we can find you a broad side of a barn to hit,” Andremedia joked before taking Asura's hand and leaped from the tree branches, towards the world below.
Chapter 9
Age: 17 years, 1 month
Months passed with Asura training under Andremedia and, with her new found experience, she once again climbed up the mountain of mastery and found herself on the steps of her third mastery. A tree that stood almost a mile around and many miles high towered over her, a small entrance carved into the base. She took a deep breath before walking inside.
Torches lined the wooden hallway, a dangerous design choice, she walked through. The path gradually slanted up and she soon found herself in a large open area, about the size of a foot ball field, though only a few dozen feet up.
“Welcome challenger! As one who admires the grace of the fae, the strength of the dragon, and speed of the angel a special challenge has been prepared for you! Ready yourself!” Across the wide open region a tiny tree formed and a large red fruit grew from its branches.
“A tree inside a tree? That can't be-- eek!” She jumped back when a pillar of wood shot down and nearly crushed her. A spike of wood shot out from behind, grazing her side, but dealing no damage as it brushed off the leafy protection she got from the dragon class.
Asura charged forward as more spikes and pillars formed from the wood around her, attempting to stab and impale the girl while she ran. The ground suddenly opened out from under her, revealing a pit filled with spikes, but she quickly took to the air with her wings. Three more spikes descended and attempted to impale her. She wasn't fast enough to avoid them, so instead she rolled over before reaching out and, barely, managing to grab one just beneath the pointed end. She was pulled along by it, but managed to avoid being impaled. Fortunately they stopped a few meters from hitting the ground but they still sent her careening against the unforgiving surface with a groan.
“I'm never... doing one like this... again...” She groaned before rolling to the side, just before another spike shot up from where she had been laying. Scrambling to her feet she drew her sword and charged forward, lifting into the air with her wings.
More spikes shot at her as she weaved around and cut through the obstacles. As she came within a few yards of the fruit, massive pillars of wood shot up and surrounded it, blocking her way. She cut once across it and, while her sword did slice through it easily, the wood closed the wounds almost instantly. She flew up when more spikes tried to impale her, this time diagonally from her right. Flying up and then around the pillars she found they surrounded it on all sides. There was a little bit of space between them, but not nearly enough for her to squeeze through, even without her wings.
“Dang it! Not another puzzle.” She let out a growl before ducking under another spike. “Fireball!” Flames enveloped the pillars.
When the flames died not even a single burn remained on the wood. “Come on! There's gotta be a way!” she said before flying back from yet another spike, then diving to the ground. The moment her feet touched the ground she charged forward, around another spike, and tried to grab the fruit. Even pushing as far into the hole as she could she was still about a foot short from reaching it. A spike stabbed into her back, making her groan out in pain before she pulled back, breaking the wood that impaled her.
“O-okay. Let's try this!” She double tapped her foot. Rather than appearing in the center of the pillars, she instead appeared right outside them. She tried a few more times and angled her movements, but she missed every time. Finally she fae-stepped backwards before another spike could come up to impale her.
“Wait a moment. No way, they can't mean to...” Asura grumbled before darting forward to avoid some more of the spikes. She sheathed her sword and switched her inventory around until her bow materialized in her ha
nds. “Well, here goes nothing!”
Her first arrow bounced off the pillars, while her second went through, but missed the tree completely. With each shot she was forced to reposition herself to avoid being impaled, thankfully her training paid off and her fifth shot hit the tree and her sixth one landed true, impaling the fruit through the middle and sending it careening out from the pillars. With two small fae-steps she appeared close enough to grip the fruit and roll away from another spike.
The assault of wood stopped and slowly the deadly lumber retreated back into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the mostly empty chamber. The tree the fruit came from burst into flames and began to grow to the width of a pine tree and up until it touched the roof. Once it had finished growing the fruit in her hands turned to ash and the tree glowed with fire. The red flames slowly changed to green and the tree began to shrink and crumble from the heat. Within a few more moments all that remained was a small stand of crumbly ashen wood on which a black bow rested. Slowly she walked towards it and picked it up.
“Fail-not,” she said in awe before blinking. “Wait, what kind of name is that for a bow?” She rolled her eyes and pulled the string back. To her surprise the string was easy to pull, even taut it gave almost no resistance and she was able to shoot off a few quick shots. “Wow... this bow is weird...” she mumbled before pulling it to full length and shot again. The arrow sailed through the air lightning fast and embedded in the wooden wall. “W-wow... now, to see the fun part!”
True to her expectations all three abilities were able to meld into one weapon. “Can't wait to go see the guys! They are going to freak!” she said with excitement bubbling through her voice before she ran towards the exit and shifted to her angel form.
Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape Page 19