Immersion World

by Max Jager

  On the front lines Emmei clashed his sword against the axe-bot's axe, but the bot was by far stronger then he was and he was knocked backwards. But the clash activated his signet, he gained his red aura, giving him a slight strength and speed boost. He quickly flipped back onto his feet and rushed at the bot again, sidestepping a downward slash of the axe and countering by smashing his own sword diagonally upwards at its torso. But the bot quickly pivoted its axe to block the attack, activating Emmei's signet again by blocking and giving him another strength and speed boost.

  Emmei backed off again and immediately lunged in with another attack, this time activating the enchantment on his broadsword, making it rocket forwards and doubling his attack power. Combining his signet with the enhancement he cleaved through the axeman-bot, and his signet activated again making him even faster and stronger. With the axeman bot down he looked around and saw Lynn and Eladienne get taken out by the last gunner-bot. The two sisters were far too inexperienced to be on a battlefield like this, but he was sure they would be okay.

  Emmei pointed at the last guner-bot, which had returned its focus to Estellese in an attempt to help Sasumi take her down. When he pointed at it a glyph with an arrow on it appeared underneath the gunner bot, the arrow was pointed at Emmei. A moment after another glyph with an arrow appeared under Emmei's feet. This arrow pointed at the gunner-bot. After a second's delay both glyphs flashed and launched whatever was on top of them in the direction the arrow pointed. The gunner-bot was thrown through the air towards Emmei, and Emmei was launched through the air at the gunner-bot. As they passed each other in mid-air Emmei cleaved his sword through the gunner bot, gaining another activation of his signet. The broken remains of the bot hit the ground on one side of the room, and Emmei landed on his feet on the other side.

  The moment his feet touched the ground he was attacked from the side by a massive scythe. "Stay back Oliver, until the aura goes away!" The woman called out.

  Emmei quickly blocked the attack then used his enhanced strength to shove the woman back. He immediately took another swing at her with his sword, activating the enhancement again, he was intent on just killing her immediately.

  But the woman was incredibly fast, she quickly sidestepped the swing. As soon as Emmei missed a swing he lost his aura and all of the bonuses his signet was giving him. Noting that the woman was faster, and that she intentionally kept the younger man back Emmei quickly summoned two glyphs, one under each of them. When the glyphs activated the woman was thrown away from him and Oliver was thrown at him.

  Emmei quickly took a swing at Oliver as he stumbled forwards, but the attack was blocked by the man's scythe. Oliver shoved Emmei back and noticed that as soon as he blocked the attack Emmei gained his aura one speed and strength boost, but it was a start.

  "Danielle!" Oliver called out as he quickly backed away from Emmei.

  "It's alright, he only has one stack! Back away when he gets more then three." Danielle called back as she sprinted back into the fight. Danielle was much faster and more agile while her brother was the stronger heavy-hitter. As Danielle rushed in Emmei quickly created another glyph a few steps in front of her, causing her to run onto it as she ran towards him. The glyph, again, launched her away from the battlefield.

  "Oliver!" Danielle called out before she could fly too far. She held out her scythe and Oliver quickly hooked the curved blade of his own scythe into hers, and then he threw her right back at Emmei. Danielle slammed feet-first into Emmei and knocked him to the ground but before she could strike him several vines sprang out of the ground and grabbed onto her legs. The vines ripped her off of Emmei and slammed her back into the stone floor with a bone-cracking snap. The vines lifted her up to do it again but Oliver quickly rushed over and slashed his scythe through the vines to cut them off of her.

  Oliver grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her back onto her feet. But she looked like she was badly hurt. "You okay?" He asked.

  "I think she just broke my arm." Danielle winced in pain.

  "Plan B?" Oliver suggested as he watched Emmei start to stand up.

  "Yeah. Screw conserving ammo, end this quick." Danielle replied, her voice laced with pain.

  "Got it." Oliver replied. As soon as Emmei came rushing at them again Oliver stepped forward and quickly blocked Emmei's attack, causing Emmei's signet to activate again. He shoved Emmei backwards and Danielle immediately lunged in from the side with a quick slash for his chest. Emmei moved even faster then her now, he quickly jumped backwards to evade the scythe, but as the scythe swung past him Danielle pulled the trigger. A shotgun that had been hidden within the pole-like base of the scythe fired.

  Emmei realized a moment too late that they were using elven scythes. He attempted to evade the attack but took most of the shots to the chest and stomach. He was knocked backwards, dropping his sword and he hit the ground in the back of the room.

  "NO!" Cora shouted out and she immediately activated her signet, causing a large tree to spring out of the ground, destroying a big section of the castle. Emmei was scooped up by the tree and encased in a cocoon that was as strong as steel, surrounded by thorny, steel-like vines for added protection. Then Cora quickly shot a vine up to the hole in the ceiling and used it to swing herself across the room. She landed right in front of the tree, intent on protecting Emmei from the two scythe siblings.

  "Cora! Don't go near them!" Pex shouted out as she hurriedly tried to fly after Cora. But being as tiny as she was crossing this massive hole in the castle that used to be a room was going to take a few seconds.

  On the other side of the front lines Kaden faced off against his own axeman bot. As the bot moved in to slash him with a downward cleave of its axe he quickly flipped his scythe upside-down and blocked the attack with the bottom side of his scythe's handle. Then Kaden pivoted the scythe and used the blade to sweep the bot's feet out from under it. As the bot fell Kaden flipped the scythe back around and immediately slashed the bot in half. With the axeman-bot out of the way Kaden turned and rushed to assist Estellese.

  Estellese, Fate, and Kaden had been holding Sasumi back for a while now with Cora's help. But the moment she left, the fight started turning more in Sasumi's favor. When Estellese realized the twins had both been taken down she shoved Sasumi back and turned to Fate. "Fate, go get the twins and bring them into the stone hut with everyone else. Kathryn says they are both alive, and she's still conscious but Katy has been knocked out."

  "You guys need me, Cora just left." Fate insisted.

  "You're injured, and you didn't draw any new healing cards." Estellese stated. "Kaden and I got this, we've been fighting together for years. Get the girls to safety."

  "Alright, if you say so." Fate unsurely replied. She separated from the others and rushed over to Kathryn, helping the woman onto her feet. Kathryn could barely walk, she leaned on Fate's shoulder as the two walked over to where Katy was lying.

  "Kaden! Follow my lead!" Estellese ordered.

  Kaden hesitated for a moment, it was clear he wanted to lead, but he nodded and stepped down. "Got it. You have a plan?"

  "No. I need time to come up with one." Estellese replied. "You?"

  "Nope." Kaden replied. "Mendelen?"

  "I don't know. It's a dead-end. You dropped into a section of the castle that isn't on the map of the castle layout and isn't linked to any of the cameras. I can't see most of the room you're in. I'm watching from the camera in the room above you. I can't guide you all out until you're back on the map. Zanath is looking for a map of this secret area."

  Sasumi had gotten back up and rushed back over to them by now. He opened up by swinging his club at Estellese, but before he could hit her Kaden cleaved Sasumi's arm off with his scythe, sending the metal arm and the mace flying away from them.

  Estellese jumped backwards and then using her control over metal magic she took control of every piece of metal she could in the room, and used her control over earth to push all of them down through the stone floor in a
n attempt to take away Sasumi's chances of rebuilding himself once she locked him down again..

  Sasumi's dismembered arm and the club remained above ground though, and they both shattered apart into a flurry of tiny metal spikes which all fired back at Estellese. Kaden quickly grabbed Estellese and pulled her in front of himself, turning his back to the spikes and letting his thick metal armor block the attack. Then he let her go and rushed at Sasumi, while the small metal spikes all reconnected to his body and piece by tiny piece rebuilt his lost arm and mace.

  Kaden quickly shoved Sasumi backwards with one hand then cleaved him in half with the other. But the metal man just repaired the damage and was back on his feet within seconds.

  Sasumi laughed a little and then lunged forwards. The massive, 8' tall hulking mass of metal could and jump pretty far. He slammed his mace down at Kaden, and Kaden quickly sidestepped the attack. But before Kaden could do anything Sasumi's mace rocketed out of his hand and slammed into him. He was thrown backwards several feet and hit the ground on his back. The mace, levitating on its own, then rose up in the air and aimed to slam down on Kaden again. But before it could strike him Estellese used her earth magic to pull the ground under Kaden towards her, sliding him across the ground and out of the way.

  With a quick wave of her hand a massive stone hand sprang out of the ground and grabbed Sasumi. The stone hand pinned him to the ground. Then Estellese focused and started summoning more and more stones to pile onto Sasumi, burying him in a stone tomb. But Sasumi's body turned into a liquid metal and slipped right out of the hand before turning back into the hulking metal man he was before. His mace flew back into his hand and he caught it, then he threw it at both Kaden and Estellese.

  Both of them dove out of the way, but as it flew past them it shattered into several sharp metal spikes which fired at both of them. Kaden could ignore the spikes since his armor was too strong for them to pierce, but Estellese had to make a stone wall between herself and the spikes to protect herself.

  Estellese immediately sprang out from behind her wall and slammed another stone fist into Sasumi. But it was no use, his body just shattered into small metal spikes which moved away from the fist and rebuilt themselves a short distance away.

  "This thing can't be human." Estellese breathlessly murmured. The exhaustion from using so much magic was taking its toll on her.

  "But he is." Zane replied over the comms. "The only non-human I have within my ranks is Arachnia. You can still surrender."

  "We need to get him into a corner or up against a wall so you can lock him down again." Kaden stated.

  "Same trick isn't gonna work on him twice, he's staying away from walls." Estellese replied.

  They didn't have any time to discuss it further, Sasumi lunged in and slammed his mace down at Estellese, who skillfully sidestepped the swing then quickly jumped back to evade another spike that sprang out of the side of the mace. Sasumi didn't stop his attack though, when his downward swing and the spike missed he turned it into a spinning attack to swing at her again, while also pushing Kaden backwards.

  Estellese ducked under the mace, but Sasumi followed the attack up with a kick. The flurry of attacks was just a little too much for Estellese to evade when she was both exhausted and still wounded from the last fight. Sasumi kicked her hard in the side, thankfully her light plate armor was enough to block the small spikes on his boots but the blow hit her with bone-cracking strength and knocked her to the ground several feet away.

  Sasumi immediately took off running straight at Estellese, intent on finishing her off, and Kaden also immediately ran after her, but Sasumi made it there first. He slammed his mace down at her but before it could hit her a stone fist sprang out of the ground and grabbed onto the mace, holding it back while Estellese stumbled onto her feet. But Sasumi wasn't going to stop his attack, he couldn't break his mace free from the stone fist, and instead shot four steel spikes out of the bottom of his mace. Two of the spikes pierced Estellese's feet, pinning them to the ground, and the next two pierced her legs.

  Estellese hurriedly made a stone dome appear over herself to protect herself, but Sasumi's mace shattered into tiny metal shards and seven of them rushed inside of the dome before she could finish making it. While the rest of the shards flew back into Sasumi's hand to remake his mace. The shards that slipped in forced Estellese to drop her dome and instead focus on controlling the metal shards, pushing back against them with her own metal magic to stop them from stabbing into her.

  Sasumi raised his metal mace, and while Estellese was pinned down both physically and magically, slammed his mace down at her head. But before it could hit her Kaden ran underneath the mace and attempted to catch it. The mace immediately broke both of his arms and badly damaged his spine, causing him to scream out in pain. But with his superhuman strength he was able to stop it. As soon as the attack was blocked Sasumi kicked Kaden, launching him several feet away. Kaden hit the ground ungracefully and didn't get back up or move again after that.

  "Kaden!" Estellese shouted out.

  "Kaden are you okay!" Mendelen called out over the comms, but there was no answer. "Kaden, this isn't a joke, are you okay!" There still was no answer.

  Sasumi started to move in on Estellese, but as he approached her he spotted Fate with Kathryn leaning on her shoulder, carrying Katy to safety. He turned to them and threw his mace at them. The mace shattered into a couple large metal spikes once it was thrown. Katy was unconscious, Kathryn was too badly wounded to evade, and Fate couldn't dodge while carrying Katy and supporting Kathryn. All three of them were struck by the spikes, but at the very last second Fate used her ace of diamonds on Kathryn, making her invulnerable. Fate attempted to push the other sister out of the way, but was too badly injured to throw Katy aside fast enough. Fate was hit by two of the large spikes, and because she was carrying Katy they were both struck and killed. Kathryn was also hit by three of the spikes but Fate's invulnerability card prevented her from taking any damage, she just got knocked over.

  Kathryn quickly got back up and when she realized what happened for was, for a moment, frozen in shock. Then she collapsed and began sobbing uncontrollably.

  Sasumi then turned back to Estellese, who was struggling to free herself. She had removed two of the metal spikes from her legs and almost had the third one out of her foot.

  On the other side of the battlefield Cora and Pex were struggling to hold the line against Danielle and Oliver. As Oliver rushed in from the left Pex quickly flew in front of him and threw him backwards with a powerful gust of wind, focusing on keeping him separated from Danielle. Once he was a short distance away she flew straight at Oliver. She reached him before he could stand back up and quickly touched his leg. As soon as she touched him her signet flashed and Oliver was suddenly reduced to Pex's size.

  "Not so tough now that it's a fair fight are ya!" Pex shouted at him as she landed on the damaged floor beside him.

  Oliver panickedly looked around when he realized he was suddenly tiny, but when he saw Pex land beside him he tightened his grip on his scythe and turned to her. "You people are attacking us! I'm just protecting my home."

  "You kidnapped our friends!" Pex argued.

  "They aren't real! Neither are you for that matter." Oliver argued.

  "I've been in this world longer then you have. You humans are the ones who appeared out of nowhere. So if anyone isn't real it would be you, and I'm not kidnapping your friends." Pex growled. She grabbed a small, fairy-sized longsword from her belt. Normally the sword was useless, but now that she had shrunken Oliver to her own size it was just as dangerous as any other sword. "You're not going to hurt any more of my friends."

  Pex's sword suddenly ignited and was covered in searing hot flames, flames that extended an extra two feet beyond the tip of her sword. Then she took flight again and flew straight at Oliver. Oliver braced himself and was prepared to dodge the blade, but as Pex moved in closer she knocked him down with another gust of wind before flying ove
r him and then thrusting her sword downwards at his chest. Oliver quickly blocked her sword and knocked her away, but not before the flaming extension of her sword badly burnt him.

  Pex hit the ground hard when Oliver shoved her away, his superhuman strength was a bit too much for the fragile fairy to handle. But she got back up and saw Oliver quickly flip back onto his feet. Attempting to repeat her working strategy, she flew at him again and prepared another gust of wind. Oliver, expecting a repeat of her last attack, pointed his scythe at her and immediately pulled the trigger four times. Unlike his sister, his scythe had a magnum hidden inside of the handle not a shotgun. But it still caught Pex off guard, she hadn't seen how Emmei was taken down. She was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the chest. The shots knocked Pex out of the air and sent her crashing into the rubble below.

  She shouted out in pain. She was curled up in a ball, clutching her wounds and struggling to breathe, her pain tolerance wasn't high like Estellese or Fate, she couldn't fight when badly injured.