by Max Jager
Sarah cringed and slowly lowered her hands from her ears. "We really need to get going." She quietly spoke up.
"What about Sophia?" Fate insisted.
"We can't stick around any longer. Especially after... That." Charles turned to George.
George shrugged. "It worked."
"I'm sorry, but if she's out there we can't wait here any longer." Charles replied.
"I don't want to leave her behind." Fate insisted.
"We don't have a choice. Everyone let's get moving." Charles said as he started walking to the door. However as he reached the door someone else opened it from the other side.
"Hello?" A young woman's vice quietly spoke. Charles stepped aside and opened the door the rest of the way and Sophia limped back into the building. Her leg looked like it was broken, her leggings were slightly torn, and the left lens of her glasses was badly cracked.
"What happened?" Brooke, Elliott and Snipes quickly ran over to her.
"The goblins were chasing me in the mall. I ducked behind a shelf and they just threw the shelf at me. I got buried underneath the shelf and a few other things. Knocked me out too. When I woke up I spent a while trying to get out from underneath it, then went looking for you guys. Heard shouting and assumed it was you."
"That's awesome!" Snipes grinned widely. "You're like, a badass hero!"
"Yes, Snipes. You didn't know she was a hero?" Elliott replied. "Glad to see you're alright Sophia."
"Yeah, we were really worried." Brooke replied.
"Jake isn't here?" Sophia questioned as she skimmed the room.
Both Brooke and Elliott looked away. "He was the next victim." Brooke quietly replied.
"Oh." Sophia lowered her head a little. It was like the happiness within the small group of friends vanished. Even Snipes lowered his head and walked away.
"We gotta get going guys." Charles insisted.
"How? She won't be able to walk far." Brooke asked. "I don't mean to stall us, but what do we do?"
Charles sighed. He slipped his mace into its sheath on his hip, then without saying another word he scooped up Sophia, one arm under her knees and the other behind her neck and began walking out of the building. "Lets go."
Sophia shouted in surprise when she was suddenly picked up, and cringed in pain but quickly realized what was going on. She took a moment to compose herself, before saying "Thank you." She didn't really like being carried, especially not by the huge, 6'5" guy who was kinda scary. But there wasn't anything she could do about it. She couldn't keep up with a broken leg.
Everyone else quickly gathered their things and began following Charles's lead. The group quickly made their way north east through the city, sneaking from house to house to try and avoid the swarms of goblins on the streets. It was a five hour trip before they reached the edge of the abandoned city. It looked strange, the city just stopped and became a vast grassy field at one point. Roads were just cut off, a few houses even were half missing on the border. It made the city look very out of place, like someone had just cut it out of one place and stuck it here.
The group hadn't taken more than seven steps out into the grassy field before they heard a very loud hissing sound behind them. "Damnit." Charles cussed under his breath as the whole group turned around. There was a giant spider climbing down the side of one of the buildings. The spider was a little bigger than a bus and was going straight for the group.
Snipes, Brooke, and Evelynn all screamed when they saw the spider and started backing away from it. Elliott, Chloe, and Fate all also started to back away. Carley braced himself and was the only one to walk towards the spider, he held onto his little knife and placed himself between the group and spider, as if he was intending to fight it alone.
"What do we do?" George asked Sarah and Charles as he braced himself, but didn't move. "We can't outrun that thing."
"Stand back, leave it to us." Sarah insisted as her and Charles slowly walked forward.
"We can help." George insisted.
"No. Not for this fight. You won't be able to scratch the thing's exoskeleton." Charles replied.
The spider continued charging towards them as they spoke. Then, suddenly, a portal opened up beside the spider and a massive scythe came swinging out of it. In one swing, the scythe cleaved the spider in half. The scythe then withdrew back into the portal. Everyone relaxed, slightly, and looked very confused as they stared up at the portal. "What?" Fate asked.
"Kaden..." Charles growled quietly.
"Kaden?" Fate asked. "Who is that?"
"He's one of the four Alphas. Only he's not one of the leaders, he's very dangerous." Sarah quietly replied.
"But he saved us?" Fate asked.
"Trust me, while he did save us it wasn't because he wanted to. Mendelen made him promise to help the newer players." Charles replied.
After a moment an arm covered in black spiked armor reached out of the portal, then pointed in a general north-east direction. "There's a village, that way." Kaden stated, then the hand withdrew into the portal and the portal disappeared.
"And that's the 'help' he's giving us." Charles rolled his eyes. "He could have let us walk through that portal and go directly to town. Instead he's going out of his way to be an ass and making us walk." He turned and resumed walking across the field, towards a forest they could see far in the distance to the north east.
As they walked Brooke, Elliott, and Snipes walked alongside Charles and Sophia, chatting amongst themselves as they usually did. Fate and Matthew walked alongside Sarah. George was lingering a little behind everyone with Chloe. Jackson was off to the side, alone again. And Carley was still following from a slight distance, but was staying closer than usual. Spotting Carley trying to get more comfortable with the group, Damion went to walk beside him.
"You're not so distant today." Damion spoke up. "It's good to see that you're warming up to everyone. If you ever need someone to talk to I'm here, I make a good listener." He offered.
"Thank you. I'll keep that in mind." Carley replied. He knew nothing about Damion, he had only seen the man a few times with the group and hadn't ever spoken to him. "And if you need someone to talk to let me know as well, the ones taking care of the group are often the ones who need the most help. So I'm here to help."
"So, what did you do before getting trapped here." Damion asked, and they resumed talking as they walked towards the forest.
The group walked for a few hours before they reached the edge of the forest. It was getting dark and was about time for them to stop and rest for the night. As they approached the trees another group of three people walked out of the forest. Two men and a little girl, although they were a strange group. One of the men was wearing a blue shirt with black jeans, and carried three swords on his hip. He had messy black hair and looked to be in his early twenties. The other man was dressed like a magician, with a black and red cloak, black clothes and a tall hat. He had a rapier on his belt and also had messy black hair.
Even stranger, was the little girl they traveled with. She looked to be about thirteen. She stood at 4'9", just a little taller than Snipes. She had very sharp, red eyes. She wore a baggy, and beaten up brown shirt and pants, no shoes or socks, she had a red plastic necklace, and long white hair that went down to her hips and was braided. However, she was not human. Where one would expect to see human skin she had white and black fur, strongly resembling a panda. She even had panda ears in place of human ones.
Once the strange three people spotted everyone else they quickly began walking towards the group. "Good evening friends." The magician greeted them. "I am Vincent, these are my friends Zadar and Inami." He introduced himself, then first gestured to the other man and then to the little girl.
"Um, hello?" Sarah replied.
"We came here with a pretty good deal for you friends. You see, my friend and I found this little girl in the forest. And, if you can't tell, she's not some ordinary little girl. She's one of the AI of this world, and she's a really powe
rful one at that."
"Yeah!" Inami cheerfully shouted out and nearly jumped at the mention of herself being powerful. "I a reeally, reeeally powerful n awesome."
"Exactly!" Vincent cheered her on. "Her English isn't too good, but she sure as heck can kick the butts of any monsters you run into. Right Inami?"
"Right!" Inami cheered. "I fight monster. Good at it. Very good." She was bouncing excitedly as she watched Vincent. "I do it now?" She impatiently asked.
Vincent laughed a little, not really giving anyone time to respond. "Yes Inami, show them what you can do." He said, then he began leading her through each step. "Fireball Inami!."
Inami jumped excitedly at the chance to show off what she could do. As soon as he said fireball she did a twirl then pointed at a tree, making her own sound effects. "WOOSH!" A huge fireball blasted out of her fingertips and exploded in a massive fiery explosion on contact with the tree. The tree immediately caught fire.
"Now Inami, put the fire out with a water cannon!" Vincent called out.
"Pshhhhhhhhhhhht!" Inami continued her sound effects as she held out both hands palm-first towards the burning tree. A powerful jet of water began to spray out of her hands, like a hose, and she slowly shifted her aim around to douse the flames.
"Lightning bolts Inami!" Vincent called out.
Inami started pointing at random things in the distance, each time she pointed a bolt of electricity shot down her arm then fired off at her target. Striking it each time. "Pew! Pew! Pew!" Inami was struggling not to giggle and was grinning widely the entire time.
"Now finish it with the ice and Aether combo!" Vincent called out.
"That my favorite!" inami chimed in as she cheerfully began throwing ice spikes up into the sky. Then she clapped her hands and a bright light flashed above her. The ice was shattered and the tiny fragments came shimmering down, creating a rainbow of colors. Inami watched and began clapping for herself, still with a huge grin on her face.
"Whoa!" Snipes called out as he moved closer to the front to see better. "She really is awesome!"
Charles quickly pushed Snipes back a little, cautiously watching the two men.
Everyone but Charles, Sarah, Fate, George, Jackson, and Carley were awestruck by what they saw, and were at a loss for words. This girl really was powerful.
"Now." Vincent began. "As I was saying we found her in the woods a few days ago. She's a really powerful AI, one that will follow you around and fight your battles for you. We don't have a need for any assistance, we can win our own battles. So we're going to give you all a good deal so you can buy her off of us."
"Not interested." Jackson spoke firmly as if speaking for the entire group. His eyes were locked on the two men, giving them a distrusting stare.
"Yeah, we don't have the money." Charles added.
"Don't worry, don't worry. I am sure you'll be able to afford it. She can make you a lot of money in the future, so it's really a steal. We just ask for some money you brought with you from the real world. Most of us came in with our wallets. $200 should be reasonable. You should collectively have that much."
While the group was dealing with the strangers Carley and Damion were still talking in the back. Although Carley was keeping an eye on the group and was listening to the conversation. "Me?" Carley asked. "No I've never lost anyone I loved before. I've been lucky in that aspect." He answered, he left out mentioning his girlfriend who he previously said was in the game and probably dead by now, because he didn't know for sure. However right after he finished speaking he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.
One by one, he watched as George, Matthew, Chloe and Charles's wallets lifted out of their pockets, then disappeared. "Hang on." Carley said as he walked over to the group. Upon closer inspection he could see the shadows of the wallets on the ground, slowly moving towards Vincent and his group. Carley quickly reached out and grabbed the air above one of the shadows, and grabbed an invisible wallet.
"Guys?" Carley quietly spoke up. "They are stealing our wallets with some fancy magic trick."
Carley was so quiet that at first only Chloe had heard him. "Our wallets?" She questioned then quickly reached for her back pocket, only to find that her wallet was gone. "HEY! What the hell?!"
Everyone else heard Chloe mention her wallet and checked their own. The group quickly began realizing what was going on. As soon as they realized their wallets were gone they began reaching for their weapons.
"Bail!" Vincent called out to his team. He started backing off, quickly. As soon as he started to back away all the floating wallets became visible again.
His partner Zadar began to back away a moment after he did. Once Zadar started to move the wallets stopped levitating and fell to the ground.
"Already?" Inami asked and sadly looked at them. "They have boy." She pointed to snipes, and seemed like she wanted to stay with her new friend. "Do they no like me?"
"No, they don't like you. We need to go Inami. Comeon!" Vincent insisted.
The little panda girl looked crushed and seemed like she was about to cry, but she started walking over to Vincent.
Fate stepped forward and placed a hand on Inami's shoulder, stopping her from leaving while George, Matthew, Sarah, and Jackson moved past her towards the other two men. "No, you stay here sweetie, we like you. We're going to get them to leave you alone."
"But they friends." Inami looked up at Fate with a confused look.
"They are not your friends, they are using you." Fate insisted.
"Yeah!" Snipes joined in and stood beside Inami. "They are bad people."
"Bad people?" Inami asked, she looked very confused.
"Hey! She belongs to us." Vincent called out, "Inami, lets go."
Inami looked conflicted, but she went to follow Vincent. However Fate kept a grip on her shoulder and didn't let her move. "They bring me Thomas." Inami protested.
"They lied to you Inami." Snipes spoke up. "They aren't going to do that."
"They no do that?" Inami sniffled and looked even more upset.
"Yes we are Inami, Thomas is this way." Vincent called out.
Inami didn't know what to do, she was so conflicted. She sat down and curled up on the ground, covering her ears with her hands and closing her eyes. "Where Thomas." She whimpered.
"Zadar, get her back." Vincent instructed, and Zadar stepped forward to face the four people that were closing in on him. Zadar drew one of his swords, then the other two started magically levitating beside himself.
Everyone hesitated when they saw the levitating blades, but they began cautiously moving towards the two men.
Zadar pushed his hand forwards, and in an instant everyone was thrown backwards. Sarah and Jackson sprang back onto their feet while everyone else slowly started standing up. Getting a head start, Sarah and Jackson rushed at the swordsman, flanking him on both sides. As they moved in there was a bright flash of light from Vincent, blinding them and causing them to stumble.
As they stumbled backwards the two levitating swords lashed out, slashing at both Sarah and Jackson. Jackson bashed his attacking sword away with his cudgel, and Sarah shifted her body to make the one attacking her strike her armor.
George, Matthew and Chloe charged past Sarah and Jackson and went straight for Zadar. Once Sarah and Jackson regained their footing they moved around to try and target Vincent in the back.
There was so many people closing in on the two men, Brooke and Elliott couldn't see an opening for them to get in. But they slowly approached, trying to find a chance to assist. Carley followed along right behind them, also waiting for an opening. Fate and Damion remained behind to keep the two children out of the fight.
Jackson rushed in and attempted to slam his cudgel into the side of Vincent's head, but the man was incredibly fast. He ducked under the swing and stabbed his rapier up at Jackson. But before his strike could land Sarah moved in and swatted his sword away with her spear, and Jackson immediately kicked Vincent in the fa
ce, knocking him backwards. As Vincent hit the ground he pointed at Jackson and in the blink of an eye a beam of concentrated light, a laser, shot out of his fingertip and struck Jackson in the side, burning clean through his clothes and his skin.
Vincent started trying to get up but Sarah was already charging in. She stabbed her spear down at him but he rolled out of the way and kicked her in the shin, causing her to stumble backwards. Vincent sprung back onto his feet and Sarah thrust her spear for his chest again. Vincent sidestepped the blow, but as he moved Sarah let go of the spear with one hand and punched him square in the nose. Vincent let out a shout of pain and he went to stab his rapier at Sarah, but Jackson's cudgel came flying at him from the side and slammed into his ribs with a loud bone-snapping crack. Jackson had thrown it with enough force to knock Vincent off his feet.