Virtual Hell

Leon, as Leo, defeated the two monsters with only a few swings of his sword once he managed to connect the hits after their bizarre dodging efforts. With barely enough time to pause more monsters appeared. Leo prepared for another fight, he was starting to get used to how to fight but wasn't sure how much longer he had until he got tired. He hadn't done anything like this before. Sucks I can't drink while I play this game, he thought.

 

The ground beneath her started to become harder until it turned to rock. It wasn't the soft grass like the forest Sammy walked through before. Hmm....nearing a mountain? Who knows... she paused for a moment pondering. Have I entered a new area? she wondered. A light breeze blew by and with it, she thought she heard the clanging of metal with something else. A battle? Or just my ears? Maybe if I stay still and hear it again, I'll be sure. Nothing much to do right now anyway. Sammy stood very still and listened carefully.

 

Civia walked along in the forest, colorful as it was, even if it was mostly green. Oddly peaceful. She liked peace, but the element of surprise was an advantage to the opposing force right now. To counter, she kept her guard up, looking at any direction she heard a sound--a twig snapping, a bush rustling, a wind howling; many sounds. She hadn't met any monsters, but she picked up a new weapon which she was sure was discarded--and would be again when she finds something a little less close-ranged. It was a survival knife. Not much she could do with it, if she wanted to be safe. She had no healing items, after all.

Then she stopped. Does this game even have healing items?

Shaking her head, she pressed on and focused on listening intently, no matter how hard it was to keep her mind from straying.

 

OOC: It's cool Heartless, no worries. :]

IC:
Rei got closer to the sounds, knowing for sure it was some kind of fight now. As she approached the fight, she saw a human trying to fight off several monsters. "Looks like he might be in trouble," she thought, flipping her wrist claws forward in preparation to battle.
"Hey! You need some help?" Rei called out to him as she ran forward. She was briefly thankful that her armor was futuristically lightweight, otherwise it would be hard to run.

---

Michael glanced at his device, noting that two Players seemed to have met up. "Hm. Time for a challenge," he muttered. He was growing bored of seeing them wander aimlessly.

Target Player: ALL ACTIVE
Send: Four small monsters​

---

"Damn! Where do these come from?" Rei growled, watching eight monsters appear around her and the other Player. She was ready for a fight, but knowing the pain would be real was a slightly terrifying thought to her.

 

Leon noticed another player arrive to the fight as more monsters appeared. The two of them where surrounded by the six monsters, two of them where already weakened but the rest where at full strength. "Don't let them hit you", Leo calmly called out to the female player as he rushed back into the fight and slashed one of the one's he had already weakened from the prior fight.

As time continued to grow Richard got closer to Leon's real world location. This way he could keep tabs on one player's involvement with the game and responses in real life.

 

As the wind blew again, Sammy thought she had heard yelps of of pain and defeat from monsters as well as more sword clashing, but before she could take a step in the direction of the noise, she was suddenly cornered by four monsters. "Oh..." was all she uttered as she stared at them in shock having been caught off guard. Sammy quickly snapped out of it when one small furball lunged at her. "Oh god!" she cried out as she quickly sidestepped the attack and pulled her swords of their sheaths. Hahaha....well, now they show up. she thought to herself cynically. Sammy prepared to defend herself against the monsters using at least one sword kept close to her for defense and somehow take out the group one at a time. All right. I'm ready. The monsters had for some reason graciously allowed her to prepare herself for these few moments. Gritting her teeth, she took a step forward and attempted to strike the furball on the far right with her right sword.

 

Nick was admiring the immensity of the plain he had wandered into. "Wow, this place is ama--" He was then almost pushed over by a group of small monsters, four to be exact. "All right! Finally some action!" He said, unsheathing his Katana. He struck the monster on the far right of the group first, hitting it in the head, but surprisingly not killing it. He swung at it again, hitting its neck, and killing it. "Ok, these guys need some work done on 'em before finishing them off..Fine!" He thought. He ran at the next monster to the left, tackling it, and piercing its heart. After confirming it's death, Nick exclaimed "Alright, On Hit Kill!". The third monster charged him, pinning him down on the ground. The monster tried to take a bite out of his face, but Nick held his mouth back with the blade of his Katana. After a big push, he finally got the monster off of him, and cut into his head, killing it. The final monster tried to run away in fear, "Oh no ya don't!" Nick exclaimed. He pulled out his Tomahawk, and tossed it right at the fleeing beast. He gets a direct hit right on the monster's backside, thus knocking it over. Nick then sprinted over and snapped it's neck to finish it off. "Whew, that was harder than expected...Sweet!" He said happily.He scanned the area to see if more monsters were around. He saw nothing, and continued on.

 

Rai started walking around, looking for any other players. No luck so far. While walking he spotted 4 figures in the distance; definitely inhuman. He unsheathed his twin katanas and charged at them, preparing for a fight.

--

Chris was nearing the location of the player called Raiden. He wanted to investigate and see what effects the game had in the real world.

 

Civia was beginning to lower her guard because of the constant silence (it was like a walk in the park), when Civia heard lots of rustling and lots of snapping twigs. Then running footsteps; but far too many to be a player--or players.

"Monsters, then." Civia muttered. She readied her staff and listened more closely. Whatever it is, it must have been small and light for it to run that fast. The sounds suggested she was surrounded.

Civia backed away just as four small monsters (furry with red eyes. Must have been rats; but as big as a chao chao) jumped from the bushes, two on the right, another two at her left. Civia eyed the four monsters before pulling out the short sword--a 24in wakizashi--and started spinning both her wakizashi and her metal staff.

"I can't duel wield," Civia muttered, smirking, "but I can try."

A rat-monster lead the pack of four, bounding and baring its teeth, crooked, yellow, but most importantly, sharp.

 

Nick was still walking through the plain, the hot sun blasting him with heat the whole time. He then spotted a town way up ahead, and tried to walk towards it, but he was very dehydrated. "Gotta...Get..to..town.." He said to himself. His attempt to make it to the town was a futile one. He fell over front-first, his head turned to the right. "Someone...H-Help me...." he muttered to himself before passing out. His thoughts went frantic, "Am I...Dead? Everything's gone dark, I can't breathe, I can't feel...Damn you, Aeon! Are you purposely trying to kill people?" He thought to himself.

 

"Retreat!" shouted Sammy as she ran from the furballs chasing her. After an intense showdown of constantly trying to dodge, guard and attack against a wall, she managed to strike a fatal blow on one furball. There was no doubt this was embarrassing as she was sure there were much harder monsters in this game, but she just wasn't confident in her ability to defeat the furballs without allowing some kind of harm to herself. And if I get any small injury, it may prove to be costly in the future! So, she ran, her swords still out, wanting to run and attack them for a time before running again. Geez! They're so fast! "Whoa! Gah!" exclaimed Sammy as she promptly fell over, her swords clattering a few feet away. "What the? Huh?" Sammy looked down at what she was lying over. It was a person! The first one she's seen since she started the beta. I thought it was getting a little too quiet. Man, I sure hope he's okay. Collapsing in the middle of a trail, geez. Wonder what happened to him...oh no. Just as Sammy was about to flip him over onto his back and see what was wrong, the furballs caught up to her. "Gaaah..."she looked around for her swords in a panic and quickly snatched them up before facing them again. Sammy stood in front of Nick's body with her swords, prepared to defend him, a new resolution set in her heart that she was determined to accomplish. Protect this boy at all costs. "Urrgh!" she grunted as she swiped at one with her right sword. The furball jumped to the side to dodge it, but then Sammy quickly swiped her left sword at it, defeating it with a fatal wound. There were two more left.

 

Rai was swinging his swords in large and powerful strikes. So far, he had only managed to kill one of the creatures and he was running out of breath. "Don't know... how much more... I can take..." he gasped, keeping his guard up. At this moment, he was doing more defending than attacking. He examined his surroundings, being careful not to take any damage from creatures. He spotted a forest, but he wasn't able to get a good glimpse of it; one of the creatures managed to pierce his defenses and leave a scratch in his arm. Rai yelped in pain and clutched his arm.

 

Michael watched the progress of the Players. After a moment, he decided he would make some upgrades to the game - now that these kids saw just what they were getting into, he could start to fully implement the mechanics of the game. He stood up from his desk and exited his office, stopping at his secretary's desk. "I'm going to work on the game for a bit. Monitor the current active Hunters, make sure they don't kill anyone yet. Contact me if anything gets out of hand," he said, then continued on his way to the server room and began planning his adjustments.

---

"No kidding," Rei shot back. "Things are vicious though, you alright?" she asked as she drove one of her claws into the body of one of the furry monsters as another's teeth latched on to her other arm's armored gauntlet. She tried throwing it off, but the beast held strong, and as a last resort to get it off she slammed her helmet against its head. The monster fell unconscious, and Rei made quick work of it with her claws. The two remaining monsters facing her snarled, to which she responded with, "See if your nasty teeth can get through my armor, you beasts!"
Rei didn't have time to look behind her and see how the other Player was doing, but she hoped he was holding out okay. "Are all the monsters this aggressive? I'd hate to think what would happen to an inexperienced gamer in here..."

 

The rat snarled. Civia jumped back, her legs nearly giving way. This was, compared to the other three rats, the biggest. She panted a little. These rats were too fast. She only learned to fight with the speed of an average human. She couldn't even keep up with an athlete. What more a high-speed furball with sharp claws and equally sharp, if not sharper, teeth made for tearing apart skin?

The rat charged at her. Civia waited. Last minute strikes were important; and extremely risky. What else could she do, though? Low on energy, low on power, her only advantage was surprise, and hopefully, the rat was going for a jumping attack at her face.

But no; it aimed for her thigh. The yellow teeth pierced the skin and its jaws locked. Civia let out a scream she hadn't known she could do--but that was besides the point. She swung her sword across the face of the rat, and surely, it died. It was still attached to her, though.

She winced, but was happy. All she had to do now was get the thing off her. It stung like hell.

 

Having thought that if this game was similar to real life a lot of the same rules must apply, he swung his sword into the ground before him just enough to quickly slash through it. The attack on the ground flung dirt up between him and the monsters. Continuing the swing he had made he spun on one foot raising the sword vertically as he turn 180 degrees before returning it to the height of the monsters and swinging into them. It was enough force to kill the first one but the other two survived from the first monster soaking up the most damage.

Richard found where the player was living, he marked the location on his phone and sent the information to Michael's database. One down, he thought as he went to find another player's home.

 

Nick was beginning to wake up, not only had the area cooled down a bit, but he also felt something fall on him. He was trying to open his mouth and speak, but no words would come out. All he could hear was the swinging of blades and the cries of monsters. "Someone must be close by..." he thought to himself. He tried to muster up as much strength as he could to get at least one word out. "H-Help....Me..." He said as loud as he could (Which wasn't very loud). He kept saying it repeatedly until someone responded or until he passed out again.

 

The furballs were double teaming on her, and since she wasn't running away, Sammy was hit more frequently. She now had a sufficient amount of wounds and scratches and even her clothes were torn a little, her cloak ragged from tears. Her focus was broken a little as she heard the boy waking up and annoying the hell out of her with his incessant pleading. "Shut up, will you?! What the hell do you think I'm doing?! Agh!" she shouted at him before getting clawed by a furball. I am so tired of this. Why can't you just die?! Sammy snarled as she suddenly lunged at a furball, trapping it between herself and the ground with a sword before finishing it off with her other sword. She had a feeling that the other one was planning on trying a sneak attack from behind. Sammy quickly turned around pointing her right sword straight out as the other furball jumped, meeting its end, skewered on the sword. Panting from the exertion, Sammy stood up and glanced over at the boy. She shuffled over to him and knelt down closer to his level and asked him,"All right. What's wrong with you?"

 

He finally got up to his knees, and answered Sammy's question, "Sorry, it's just that I got jumped by monsters too, and after finishing them, the sun's heat caused me to become dehydrated, and I passed out. Thanks for covering me while I was out, by the way." He attempted to get up, but just ended up falling on his backside. "You wouldn't happen to know if there was a water source or town nearby, would ya?" He asked Sammy.

 

"No. But seriously? Dehydration? Are they really making this game that realistic? You're sure you didn't just faint from exhaustion?" she asked incredulously. Sammy helped him get to his feet and walked wondering where a save point would be. "And no problem," she replied lately to his thanks. She hadn't seen a town at all. Just forest and dirt. Surely, I'd be nearing a town of some sort by now? Sammy thought, but suddenly she began coughing violently. No phlegm came up but she could taste some blood. That can't be good. Did they get me somewhere serious? I didn't think they did. Ah well. Maybe after I leave I'll feel better. she figured as she continued to walk with the boy.

Nox simply nodded once at Michael's orders. She immediately pulled up a screen on her computer, a program that kept track of the Hunters from the tracers in their phones. They showed up as blue blips on the screen scattered around. Red blips were the equipment given to the players. Yellow was Michael himself. The red blips stop blinking and remain steady when the equipment was being used, indicating a player playing the game. Currently, she noticed 6 steady red dots. A blue dot was near one of them. She moved her mouse to hover over the blue dot and a tag popped up indicating it was Richard, the Lion. Not a second later, the tag of the red dot near Richard was filled with information besides just a coordinate.Good man. He's found one. The other Hunters were still searching. Though another one was also nearing a steady red dot. She figured soon, that tag would also be filled with information. Nox sent the coordinates of the other players to other Hunters. She was a little hesitant but decided nothing bad could happen if she sent Richard a text praising him. Besides, his reaction might be very interesting. She texted him, "Good job." before continuing her monitoring.

 

"Well, when I passed out, I was uber hot and tir....Nevermind.." Nick embarrassingly said. "Hopefully there's somewhere nearby where we can rest or something, I don't wanna end up passin' out again...Unless, of course, those lazy a-holes at Aeon are so early in beta that they haven't even DESIGNED the freakin' towns yet.." Nick looked carefully ahead for a sign of anything at all. After the mishap that had happened earlier made Nick more suspicious of Aeon's real intentions behind this 'Game'. "Isn't there some kind of law against lethal video games?" Nick thought. "Hopefully having another player with me will make things easier." Nick looked over to his comrade and asked "Hey, I don't think we've exchanged names. My 'Username' is Lars. My real one's Nick." He said, holding out his hand. "How 'bout you?"