------
Asura landed just outside the castle, eager to show off her gear but, to her disappointment the only player there was 5t4r. “Hey. Where is-”
“What the hell happened to you?” he interrupted while staring at her with wide eyes.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You, your wings! Your face! Your hair! What the hell?” he screamed it at her.
She stood in confusion for a few moments before running straight into the castle and towards the nearest mirror. The sight that greeted her made her jaw fall open and her eyes bulge. Her wings had turned gray and now had black tips. Her eyes and skin had darkened as well as her armor. The blue jewels were now a fiery red and the white parts of the armor had turned a dark gray.
“I... I don't know,” she whispered before turning around for the mirror to look at herself. All over. She reached down and yanked out her sword. To her relief the blade looked fine.
“What happened? Did you get a make over? I didn't even know the angel's could change themselves to look like that,”
“... Me either. I don't know what's happening. Maybe some kind of event?” she suggested, though she couldn't keep the quiver out of her voice. “I'll need to see if anything happened to Mutt or Scales.”
She fortunately didn't need to wait long as soon the dragon arrived in the guild castle. He stared at her for a few moments, his mouth agape. Even a number of their other guild members had come to stare. “What happened to you?”
“I don't know! What happened to you?” she asked before she motioned to him. His scales were now more curved with less jagged edges, and the dark red was now a light pink. “You look... oddly adorable.”
“Hey!” he objected with a glare. “I look darn sexy! You're just jealous of my sexy dragon form.” He did quickly move to a mirror and glared at his reflection. “How could this have happened?”
“Anyway,” she said quickly. “I submitted a ticket, but there hasn't been any response. Star went searching for anything on the message boards, but no ones mentioned anything like this. Have you heard anything from Scales?” Asura asked as she paced back and forth, almost in a panic. What if something was wrong with her character? What if it had to be deleted and forced her to start from scratch? What if someone had hacked her account?
“Asura, calm down. Don't look so worried, I'm sure whatever happens it'll work out in the end.”
“How can you be so calm? What if our characters are destroyed?” she yelled, anger filling her voice as she clenched her fists.
“Easy girl, easy.” B4hamutt said calmly. “It's just a game. Worse comes to worse you--”
“IT'S NOT JUST A GAME!” she screamed at the top of her lungs in fury. She froze then as some of the other guild members stared at her. “I-I'm sorry. Just, I don't want to... I've spent a lot of time working on my character. I don't want to lose all that.”
“Relax. You're one of the most famous characters in the game. They'll fix your character in a heart beat. Besides, it might just be an event.”
“If it's an event why doesn't anyone else look different?” she snapped. After a few moments she let out a soft sigh and hung her head. “I... I need to go lay down. Message me if Scales comes online.”
“Asura...” 5t4r said, but she ignored him as she stormed off. “Why's she so upset? It's not like they'll just toss her character away after all the time she's put into it.”
“Oh, she's just a worrier. I don't know what she's like in the real world but when it comes to this game I swear she's one bad fight away from having a heart attack,” B4hamutt said with a chuckle.
“You know, I heard that could be an issue in some games. Supposedly some people got so scared in one of those horror games that their heart just gave out on them.”
“If you can't handle it you shouldn't be playing it,” the dragon said with a hint of annoyance. “Frankly I don't think anyone who has medical issues should be playing any of these games. It's just asking for trouble.”
------
Asura nestled into her nice, warm, comfortable bed and sighed. She had taken off her armor so she was able to feel the warm sheets while they flowed around her body. It was far nicer than the bed she had in reality and probably a better bed than even her highly paid doctors could afford. It was one of the perks of playing a game like this, so long as you could afford the cost of playing, even the worlds finest luxuries were acquirable. She'd even managed to sleep an entire night in the game world once, though it had required a lot of begging and pleading to get her parents to agree.
For now she just wanted to enjoy herself. She knew everything would likely be fine, but she couldn't fight off that fear in the pit of her stomach. The worry that she just might lose everything she'd worked so hard for. Just the idea made her stomach hurt and tears form in her eyes.
“Asura?” a voice rang out, startling her from her dark thoughts. Standing in the doorway, now opened, was 5t4r.
“What are you doing? I'm naked!” she snapped, face bright red. “How did you even get in here? Wait, are you eighteen in real life?”
“Um, no?” he said in confusion. “I still have the acceptance from last time I was here.”
“Oh, well, you can't see anything then. Anyway, knock next time! You shouldn't be barging into my room like that anyway.” She pulled the covers closer over her body while her other hand disabled his room invite so he couldn't barge in again. “What do you want?”
“Well... uhhh... I wanted to talk with you. I mean, I saw how upset you were. I just wanted you to know...” 5t4r whispered nervously before walking into the room. “N-no matter what happens, we're here for you. I mean, the guild is. All of us. We'll make sure you don't lose anything. W-we'll protest and everything i-if we have too.” His bright red cheeks and the nervous gaze started to make her worry. She'd seen enough television to know what that kind of thing tended to mean.
“I see... Star. Honey. You aren't... I mean, you don't have a crush on me, do you?” Asura asked bluntly.
“What? NO! Of course not! I was just trying to make you feel better!” he said frantically while flailing his arms about, his cheeks burning redder.
Asura let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, okay. Good. Had me worried for a moment there,” she said with a smile. “Thanks, Star. I know everything will probably be fine. Maybe in the end it... hmm?” She stopped as a message popped up. “Scales is here! He's having some issues too! Come on, let's go!” She jumped out of bed.
“Eek!” 5t4r said in a less than masculine manner before his hands covered his eyes.
“Oh... right. Relax, it's not like you can see anything,” she said sheepishly before she navigated the menus and her armor formed back on her body. She charged past 5t4r and darted through the halls until she came back to the throne room.
Scales was standing in front of the throne. Rather than having blue, thin scales his body was covered in almost black scales that, while still smooth, were pointed at the ends rather than curved like a normal fishes. His eyes had turned black while the irises were yellow.
“Wow... I think you got it worse than me. At least you're not pink like Mutt though. What's going on? Did you notice anything odd when you finished your mastery? You did succeed, didn't you?”
“Of course. I'm a master fae now too,” he said with a smirk.
“Wait. Fae? I thought you were going angel?”
“I was. But I decided after watching all the fae-stepping going about I'd go fae instead. I still had plenty of time to level angel anyway.” He paused as realization dawned on him. “You don't think it has anything to do with the fae, do you?”
“Of course it does! We both mastered fae and now our things all messed up!” She gasped. “A-and you mastered dragon second, right? That must be it! Fae and dragon masteries, at least if taken in that order!”
“I guess? What about Mutt? He mastered leviathan,” Scalios said in confusion as the angel started updating her support ticket. To her surprise the origin
al had a response.
“There's a response, hold on! 'Asura, we are aware of the cosmetic appearance changes to your character. Rest assured there are no issues with your character or your equipment. This is caused by a new feature in the testing phases. There is no current or future danger to any aspects of your character caused by this.'” She read out loud before letting out a sigh. “See Mutt? And you were worried about nothing.”
“I WAS WORRIED?!” he bellowed in anger. “Hey! Get back here!” he called after her as she retreated out the door, leaving them behind.
“Sorry, I need to go do some things bye!” she yelled back before taking to the sky.
“... I swear I'm going to smack that girl next time I see her...” B4hamutt said before laying his face in his hands and shaking his head.
------
Her character was safe! But after all that happened, she no longer wanted to show off to everyone. Instead, she wanted to go have some fun. Switching to the leviathan class, complete with reptilian wings and dark scales, she headed straight towards their beginning region. Crabs scuttled along the beach just a few miles from the underwater capital of Atlantis.
Drawing out her new bow she flew along until she saw a small group of crabs all bunched up together. A wicked grin slowly formed on her lips. Landing a few yards away, she drew the string back and fired. The arrow embedded itself into one of the crabs before exploding in a massive fireball of death. She shrieked in delight as the crabs disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles. Within moments the new leviathan was darting to and fro on the beach, exploding every crab she could get within sight. Not only was it good experience, but it was soooo much fun.
Unfortunately, even the best things must end and as she hit level five she found the crabs were no longer giving her any experience. With a sad sigh she turned from her fun prey and turned towards the ocean. Time to head to Atlantis.
She took a few steps into the ocean, letting the waves splash across her ankles as the smell of salt water filled her nostrils. The water was cold and as it touched her she could feel the small pieces of sand getting trapped in her armor. With a few quick button presses the thick white metal armor disappeared leaving her in little more than blue underwear. After another moment her wings followed.
With a deep breath she dove head first through the water and began to swim. Once she was in she began to breath again with a chuckle, though the air gauge still hovered to her right. The game didn't imitate getting water in your lungs or in your eyes so she could still breath, even if her character couldn't. Unfortunately, she could still taste the salt water as it flowed along the rest of her face.
The water was ice cold, partially numbing her body while she moved towards a great glowing dome far off in the distance. Red and blue fish swam through the water, ignoring the leviathan as if she was nothing more than a floating piece of lint.
When she came closer to the structure she could see more of the surrounding area. The dome was completely enclosed and, while nothing could actually be seen holding the water or anything else, coral grew around and up the base of the covering. Underwater caves surrounded the city, enveloped in inky darkness. In one of them she swore she saw a big red tentacle dart inside.
The city itself was an amazing sight. Leviathans could be seen moving about below. Small 'roads' of water twisted and turned down each area, with stone streets set beside each one for the non-leviathan, allowing the gifted swimmers to travel through the city with ease. Small orbs of light hovered in the air to allow their glow to flow through the entire dome. Most impressive of all were the homes. As the entire city was built on top of a massive coral reef the buildings were carved out or, as some seemed to be, grown magically from the underwater substance.
Her oxygen was getting dangerously low, so she took a small rock like object out of her inventory and popped it in her mouth. An air stone. They tasted kinda sweet, designed after rock candies from ages ago, and filled the consumer's air gauge to full. A requirement when visiting leviathan areas, unless you were a leviathan. Or, in her case, were a leviathan who had yet to unlock her special abilities. She had to be careful because each air stone got weaker the more of them she took.
She finally reached the end of the dome and dropped in from above. Almost instantly the world changed from icy and wet to warm and airy. She also realized she was a few hundred feet up in the air and her wings weren't out. She screamed as she plummeted to the ground, flailing about fearfully while trying to navigate the menus, but the ground was coming up very fast.
Before she hit the ground arms wrapped around and stopped her. It took her a few seconds to realize she had stopped as she activated her wings and smacked them into the one who caught her.
“Ow,” a girl's voice said before letting her go. “Wings? I guess you're not a newbie then. Still, you fell for the old noob trap.”
Asura turned to see her rescuer. A leviathan, like her, but with light green scales instead of blue. Both now had large reptilian wings that awkwardly flapped to keep the two aloft.
“You okay?” the woman asked with a cocked eyebrow.
“What? Oh, yes. Sorry. I kinda forgot the whole... wings part. I took them off before I went swimming and I'm so used to having them on I just didn't think about it. Thanks for catching me.”
“No problem. Guessing you're leveling leviathan too? I'm...” the girl trailed off and she stared at Asura for a moment. Her eyes narrowed before she backed up. “Asura? What the hell are you doing here?”
“What? How do... YOU!” she shrieked when she read the woman's name. Yeanna. She took a step back and drew her bow.
“Easy, easy!” Yeanna said and held up her hands. “We're both leviathan's in these lands. No reason for us to start fighting.”
“Easy? After the stuff you pulled?! What are you up to this time?”
“Relax! That was over a year ago. Besides, we gave up on that plan after the quest. Evealie failed the second quest and I'm not really interested in trying for it myself,” the woman said sadly.
“Oh...” She paused and slowly lowered the bow. “I'm sorry to hear that. Did you fail too?”
“No. I'm at three now. Working on my fourth. It's just not the same if you're going it alone, you know? I hear there's only six of us who made it to three. Everyone else ended up failing on their second one, but everyone passed on the third. Kinda weird, huh?”
“Not really. Three of us are in our clan and we're all really good. Supportano is... good as well. The fact he passed doesn't surprise me. I imagine the Eighth was the fifth. The only one who I'm surprised passed is you,” Asura said with a glare.
“Are you still angry about what happened before? Relax! It's just a game. If anyone should be mad it's me. You ended up barely winning in that tournament and then you go and get your butt kicked,” Yeanna said in annoyance.
“You tried to stop me from participating in the mastery quests! You kidnapped my friend and tried to kidnap me!”
“It's! A! Game! Stop taking it so serious. Besides, I just saved your life. So we're even, okay?”
“We are not even! Just... arghh! Nevermind. Just... I don't even.... Gahhh!”
“Yeah, whatever. Listen, Evealie's going to be meeting me here once she gets home. If you want you're welcome to join us. Three masters and all should be easy to plow through things.”
“Why would I want to join you? Last time I saw you... well, the time before that you attacked me, and I-- hey! Come back!” Asura yelled in exasperation, stomping her feet.
“If you're going to just bring that up over and over, I'm not going to listen. You really need to learn to let things go girl, it's just a game after all.” With a single backwards wave the girl headed off down the path, jumping into one of the water roads.
“It's just a game to you...” Asura mumbled softly before turning away. She slowly began walking the town in search of the quest giver, ready to unlock the leviathan's special powers.
------
The wat
er was cold, but no longer icy, as it enveloped Asura. In her right hand she held a wooden club with a few crystals spikes in it. Her body was lightly scaled and, rather than hair, she now had small crystaline shards that protruded from her head. Her scales were dark blue, almost black, and jagged at the ends rather than curved. She wore blue armor much like her angels armor, but more form fitting with flippers on the feet and small scales over all the joints.
She was inside one of the dozens of underwater caves that twisted beneath Atlantis. It was technically pitch black, but she was able to see clearly for many yards ahead of her, the leviathan's ability to see in the dark making it simple. Her body now moved easily through the water, feeling almost no resistance from even the strongest currents. The walls of the caves had long been worn smooth, though on occasion she would see small eels waiting to pop their heads out from holes in the wall. The moment anything tasty popped by, or she held her club out to get one of their attentions, the head would pop out to try and devour what they thought was a meal.
Crabs scuttled along across the caves floor as well, though she took extra care to avoid them as she traveled the caves. While not hostile, she had made the mistake of getting too close to one and it took her a few minutes to get it to finally let her hand go. It still hurt.
Asura caught a glimpse of a red fin disappear around the corner down another tunnel and a grin flashed on her face. She began kicking her legs even faster so her lithe body shot through the water in pursuit of the creature. She turned the corner in time to see it disappear around another, then another, while she dodged and weaved around corridors in pursuit of the beast.
Finally, she turned a corner and there it was, momentarily stopped and yanking one of the eels from the wall, their struggle sending dirt into the air and revealing the edge of a statue's head. The creature's body was that of a large red fish, but its face was grotesque with massive thin fangs that were almost as long as its body was tall. When it turned to face her it revealed two blood red eyes. Slowly it opened its massive jaws, separating almost a foot apart. Despite the great movement of its jaws there was only an inch or so to slide in between its long, thin teeth.
Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape Page 20