His backpack slung over his back, James casually strode out of the classroom alongside over a dozen more students, each whispering amongst themselves before reaching the boisterous hallways. It was…interesting to look at all the groups around in his senior year, and each person he saw he seemed to recognize from some place. Some from the far past, some from yesterday, some from today, while others were people that he vaguely remembered. Each person had changed, and so many had left and come to the school. There was so much change around here, almost too much for him to handle. School was out and all he could hear was the tapping of feet, the slam of lockers, and the usually cuss words that were thrown about at random intervals in time. It had all started with the beginning of Middle School…

Sighing, he threw the thought aside and started off down the hallway, doing his best not to crash into the many people who were coming the other way. Many boys pushed him or made little faces at him, or maybe asked a stupid question, yet he merely ignored them and put on his whole frowning expression that meant ‘I hate you’, which they probably hadn’t gotten yet. In all the years he had done that, they still didn’t understand what idiots they were…seriously. People these days… His eyes were alert again as more people came, walking at a brisk pace and just pushing past him. No ‘excuse me’ or ‘pardon me’ or anything…just pushing past them in that ‘I’m the coolest person in the world’ kind of way, which everyone seemed to follow these days. He quickened his pace a little.

It was…almost scary to look at all the people around him, people who he had known since Elementary School, people who had been sitting next to him for years upon years. Now they looked on him as if he were a nobody, and he knew very well that some of them thought of themselves as nobodies. It was…strange, but it was true that many had sunk into seclusion, ignoring all the other groups and going gothic. Some people, who had once been people he gleamed with radiance, had gone down the drain, now looking like rats who were scurrying around the sewers…yet there were only few amongst them that had fallen so far and so hard.

James pulled the strap a bit closer to his neck and so he ducked under a group of girls, making a few cry out. One of them pointed at him and he merely grinned back at them, knowing that it was nothing but a joke that had gone on since last year…last year. It seemed so long ago that he had been laughing with friends and joking about how college would be torture. Well, of course, it wouldn’t be too bad, but it’d at least be a bit troublesome, at least knowing that his older brother had gone in and told him all about it, yet he had hardly shown interest to it at first. He had never been much into going to college, and was now finally thinking about it. So many choices and yet so little time…yeah, the time of change was definitely close.

He pulled the other strap on his left shoulder and pulled ahead, veering off to the right slightly and managing to almost knock the books out of a girl’s hands. He muttered a quick “Sorry” before moving on, his steps a little faster than before. At the end of the hallway, he threw himself off to the right and flew down the stairs, skipping two steps at a time before making an abrupt turn and flinging himself forward, clearing the remaining steps easily, but with a bit of a shake in his legs. With that, he pushed open the door on the right and moved on into the afternoon air, basking himself in the suns hot rays. The buses were lined up, leaving him to stare at them for a moment. They were just big blobs of yellow. Quite an annoying color, really, but he had never bothered to observe the very things that transported him home.

Shrugging the thought off, James walked off and jumped onto the bus, clearing the steps and giving a quick smile to the driver who manned the wheel. The old man gave a faint smile back, but some of his teeth were gone, so it wasn’t as pretty as just a faint smile. It was still there, though, and he had been on the bus for enough years to know that the guy was pretty easygoing with things. He walked down the familiar aisle, passing freshmen, then sophomores, then the one junior, and one other girl who was his neighbor. She was sitting in the backseat, quietly reading her book. She always had a new one every day, as he saw it. She looked up at him, her face blank behind the glasses that she wore. Her face was clear, while she had long, black hair running down to her shoulders before going down farther. It was nice, really, but her personality seemed to betray the fact that she was beautiful. He found her to be okay, though, at least in the years he had known her.

He took a seat on the row opposite her. At one point he had actually even bothered to sit next to her, but that was a long time ago, almost three years when his mind was completely black. He dropped his backpack on the ground and leaned back on the chair, pressing the back of his head to the chair while trying to close his eyes. It wasn’t like he was going to get any sleep in the middle of the day, but he had to at least try, seeing as his stop was near the last. It was minutes later that the busses started to move and he was off, the bus rocking every now and then but otherwise pretty quiet. Most of the kids rarely talked here. The reason why they never did was beyond him, but it just seemed as if something had come to haunt the bus enough to make people silent. Probably just his own little myth, but it was at least something that would spook a few kids out…especially since Halloween was just a week or so back.

He heard the flip of a page and then the close of a book, followed by a heavy sigh. He blinked a moment before his eyes flickered open, locking onto the girl who was now looking at him. He almost made a reaction out of it, but thought otherwise and tried his best to act as if it was nothing, but it was something. He was being noticed, wasn’t he? It wasn’t like she was checking him out, but people were now actually noticing him…well, he had known her for years, but still! It seemed like every day more eyes set on his face… So what was he doing, trying to just assume that people were looking at him? Was he trying to make himself popular in his own mind? That was probably the answer, even if he did deny it.

When he opened his eyes again, she was at the edge of her seat, leaning forward and looking at the other people who were quietly entertaining themselves with either rubix cubes or their cell phones, both things that he never bothered to do much with. Mumbling a bit to himself about how insane he was, James pushed himself up and slid to the end of his own chair, peering around and letting one long leg slide out into the aisle. There was a conversation going on up again between two boys, and it didn’t seem like a pretty one. It wasn’t like they were going to grab a knife and stab each other, but the words that came out of their mouths made him jump every now and then. They kept it in whispering tones, but the fact that they were two seats in front of him was…big.

“Don’t worry, they’re always like this…in case you haven’t noticed,” the girl muttered. Her name was Jessie, yet the fact that she didn’t have a cowgirl hat kind of threw the whole joke away. She didn’t have long boots either… She wore glasses and was a bookworm, not to mention the fact she took schoolwork quite seriously at this point. He didn’t know much about her, but the things he did were rumors; rumors that he didn’t dare believe. He smiled slightly, but it turned into a bit of a frown as one of the boys pushed the other to the edge of his seat.

Yet he threw up a grin nonetheless. He didn’t know why, but the expression seemed to call to him. “I’ve noticed, I guess, but usually this bus is like a ghost town stuffed into one thing filled with thirty people. Seriously.” There was a silence that followed, as if on queue, and he even thought he heard a cricket chirp, yet it was obviously his imagination trying to call up something funny. Then the argument resumed, only a little less harsh than before. “But…then again, there are times when people talk, though I never remembered Tuesdays as a day for talking…rather, Friday’s the time when this place is packed.” He gave her a quick glance, yet her gaze was averted to the bus driver, who was now stopping to let off the one junior in front of them and then the two boys that had been arguing amongst themselves. You’d think they’d get over this kind of kid stuff by High School…

“Well, doesn’t matter, really. Just so long as we get there, I’m fine,” Jessie concluded, moving back into the safety of her seat and then rummaging through her backpack, as if somehow occupied with finding something that was obviously not there. She picked a gum wrapper out and unwrapped it, her fingers easily running across it and unfolding it to reveal a light blue piece of gum. It wasn’t a wad of gum, but just a plain old piece of gum that you’d see anybody chewing. She threw it into her mouth and started chewing, yet when she offered him a piece, he merely shook his head. He never really had a knack for chewing gum at school, and really, he didn’t have an appetite for gum now anyways.

The bus started moving again and he was left to look out the window for a few minutes, and then the bus stopped, dropping off a few more kids. He slid back over, seeing as she was merely looking out the window. Seeing no other thing to say, James merely asked a simple question…a school question like that. “Hey, uh, that project...you know when it’s due?” She looked at him, cocking her head to the side a little before nodding and then digging through her backpack. When she pulled out a paper, she looked down, her eyes flashing a second before she turned to him.

“Friday,” she stated simply, already shoving the paper back into her backpack. She zipped it shut and then slung it, looking out the window at their neighborhood. The bus driver stopped and waved a hand, a gesticulation that he used whenever they stopped. It was strange that he only used it for them, though. Maybe he was showing favoritism amongst that. He grinned at the thought as thoughts poured back into his head and then briskly walked to the front, dodging a few feet that were thrown out by the freshmen. James stepped down, followed by Jessie, and then the bus was moving off again. One of the boys squeezed his head through the window and yelled something, yet James really didn’t get what he was saying. Jessie did, though.

The two moved off down the road, heading towards the cul-de-sac that lay at the end of their street, only a few houses back. It was a long, silent walk, as usual, and then the two were going their separate ways. Jessie gave a quick wave while James forced a smile at her, biting his lip in the process. He really didn’t enjoy throwing out friendship here and there, and if she got the wrong idea, he had no idea what rumors would spread about him and her…she wasn’t exactly someone who’d let go of a friendship easily, as he had been told. That wasn’t a rumor. That was the truth.

When he looked up, he noticed the dark clouds forming up above, signifying that it was obviously going to rain tonight. Purple and black clouds were clustered about and the first drops of rain started to fall, very slowly at first before picking up the pace and coming in higher numbers. He tucked his chin in and jogged up to the door, pulling his key out of his pocket and then opening the door. There was a click and he was in, instantly greeted by his cat, who was absolutely terrified of rain. The animal let out a meow and tried to jump up into his arms, instead managing to scratch up his arm. He frowned and dropped his backpack, letting it drag behind him until he dropped it on the kitchen table. With that, he scooped up his cat and moved off, making his way up to the stairs and to his room. Why? It was where his body told him to go.

When he walked up to the room, his cat pawed at his chest as thunder crackled up above. He ignored it and opened the door, turning on the light and then dropping the cat on his bed. His desk was there, along with his laptop, that lay open, cerulean light filtering out of it. He looked awkwardly at it, as if it was telling him to move forward, but…he really didn’t quite know what it was trying to get at. His cat purred and took its place next to his pillow, its head falling on the cushion while its body stretched out. It purred again, yet it didn’t manage to catch his attention. He was too busy sitting down and looking at the news to care. What kind of news was there to actually grab James’ many interests? Well, there was the fact that there was yet another big article on ‘The World’…yeah, that game…ugh.

He had told himself before, that last time, that he would quit. That last encounter with Kai had made him want to punch a mirror, letting it shatter into billions of pieces before moving on with life. He hadn’t thrown the game away, and the goggles, along with the disk were still there. He glared at the screen, knowing that it was deliberately throwing him into it just because something about fate told him to go there. Maybe he could talk to her…maybe he could meet up with someone…maybe this, maybe that! No! He wasn’t going to go back and get himself lost in that absurd game like before! His teeth gritted, he grabbed the mouse and dragged it over to the icon…that dreadful icon. Okay, so things told him to go into this game? Well, he was following it!

He – now a bit calmer than before – started to type in his username and password before grabbing the goggles and throwing them on his head, not even bothering to adjust it until the screen was actually coming up. He groped about for the controller, wrapped around its edge, and pulled it close to him, almost glad to have it in his hand again. He took a deep breath, trying to let his thoughts come together like a puzzle, yet it was actually quite hard to do. Calm yourself, James. It’s just a game, and you’re just going to be going through a dungeon. Just a dungeon, nothing more, nothing less. If anything gets in my way, just log out. Leave. Maybe you can try again another day after that, but if it’s serious business, don’t. Calm yourself… All the thoughts ran through his mind in a second and then his grip was tightening on the control. The screen came up, and then he was in ‘The World’ once again.

Golden rings descended in the midst of Mac Anu, letting a Fist Fighter – a strong one at that – materialize into the crowd of players that moved about. His name, his username that he used in ‘The World’, was Shenmock. It was…an interesting name, and he had sure gotten a lot of nicknames from it, but it was at least better than ‘Joe’ or ‘Bob.’ Too bad he hadn’t managed to see somebody with that basic of a name as of late…it just seemed kind of strange that he hadn’t seen somebody make a character like that. Yet right now, he wasn’t here to think about stupid names and the stupidest of players. He was here to go on an adventure, but who his partner would be – if he had a partner – and where he would go was the real question that lingered about.

He should’ve been in the Lambda server at this point, but the sunset, of course, seemed to call. Was he going to go and search the alleys of Mac Anu, daring himself to look into the dark areas of his past, or was he going to just simply walk up to the bridge and relax? Well, the second one sure seemed a lot better, seeing as relaxing and letting his character taste the cool air seemed…nice; a change for him. His emerald eyes gleaming, he marched off to the bridge, moving off through the crowd and ducking through the players. Curses and the occasional swing of a weapon followed, but he hardly noticed, as people made very slow reactions. He almost laughed at one of the girls that made an attempt to slap him for ducking through her group, but he held it back, seeing as she had a group of friends that didn’t look like a pretty bunch to make enemies with.

And then he was on the bridge, sitting on the railing and watching the sun as it fell. Night came earlier and he expected that it’d be down soon, yet the amount of players would obviously be a bit higher than before. He liked the quiet nights, and actually hated to find that so many people had to share his own enjoyment. He just wanted an enjoyable night and then, maybe, just maybe, he would go and work on that project of his. Oh yeah, and that dungeon adventure he was going on. He could wait…and at this point, he didn’t really care. Just so long as it was a person, he was fine.

Dmitri sighed as he got up to leave the studio. It had been a long day. His class had been early this morning, and so he’d decided to just spend the rest of the day at school working. Well, his work was finally done, and as he looked up at the clock, he held in a sigh of relief at just how early it was. Well, early in the sense that he wasn’t spending the whole night in the studio. Nine. It wasn’t bad, a thirteen-hour day at school, and it had put him ahead of the rest of his class for the time being. People waved as he left, and Dmitri paid little mind past a casual wave back, and a meek “Bye guys,” as he left the room.

A little drained, the boy trudged down the hallways, asking himself yet again why his locker was so far away from the studio room. He walked through the near empty corridors easily, stopping momentarily as he passed the theatre wing, but he picked up his stride as soon as he caught himself doing it. It was stupid, it wasn’t like Mona was even going to be around. And it wasn’t like they’d spoken at all since they’d gotten into that argument either. To expect any sort of friendship at this moment from her would just be foolish.

For once though, he felt as if he could talk to her if he needed to. Dmitri unlocked his locker, and then pried it open. As he pushed his most recent projects into the small box and pulled out some others to take home, he thought back to the event. The last time he’d visited ‘The World’. It was becoming more of a place to him, which worried him slightly, but at the same time he knew that the event had actually helped him in a way. His group had succeeded, at least as well as was expected, and he’d been the one to lead them. Despite any problems he might have had speaking, and despite only being a low level in the game, for a moment he’d been in control.

It was something that he’d never felt before, in or out of the game.

He felt strange as he pondered the subject more, closing his locker in preparation to go home. Really, there was a sort of confidence about what he’d done, and what he now knew he could do. And his English was improving. Sure the game seemed to be having a bit of an impact on his time management skills, but he was managing to catch up on all his projects for now. So forcing himself to improve his time management might not be a bad thing.

Dmitri sighed, walking through the empty halls. He knew he was just trying to justify going home and playing for a while, regardless of what he knew he should be doing. The only thing that had kept him from playing for the past week was the amount of work he had. That had just been completed. Well that was pretty much that then. He was playing when he got home. And hopefully he wouldn’t run into that Kaze guy either, and he could do a real quest for once.

“Watch where you’re headed Dmitri.” Those were strange thoughts to picture the whipmaster saying. ‘How would he know my name?’ It was at this thought that Dmitri felt a light touch on his shoulder. Immediately he pulled his eyes from the floor and found himself staring at his English Professor. “You’re going to run into someone.”

Dmitri flushed lightly, but now that he listened for it, he was more intruigued that he heard that mystery player’s voice before him. It couldn’t be, could it? “I… must be going. Sorry Raul,” he nodded to his professor and walked away. It couldn’t. He continued on his way, paying more attention to his surroundings now than he had been before. It was a moment before he shook his head. There was no way. Just no way...

The thought was long forgotten by the time he’d finished walking home. Dmitri fumbled, dropping some of his projects as he tried to get his keys out of his pocket and into the door. It took a few tries, but soon he got his keys in the door, for them to simply be pulled out again. Danni stood on the other side of the door. “I was wondering when you’d get home.”

“You could have opened the door when I got here.”

Danni shrugged. “It’s more fun to listen to you struggle,” he continued smiling as Dmitri picked his projects up off the floor, as if to exemplify his point. It wasn’t a fun situation to be in, but Dmitri knew it was all in fun. Well, his roommate’s fun at least.

It was easier for him to unlock his own bedroom door and throw his paintings down on the floor. Careless? Maybe. Easy? Definitely. Dmitri closed his door, thankful that Danni wasn’t in an argumentative mood tonight. He didn’t want to have to justify playing this game to someone other than himself. Dmitri sat down and turned on his computer, unable to deny that he was perhaps a little excited to revisit this game.

-----

Damek walked through Mac Anu just as carefully as always. He smiled, his ‘nemisis’, if you could call him that, was nowhere to be seen. Damek loosened up a bit, thinking about how he and Kaze always seemed to log in at the same time. Could it be that on certain days Raul got off work the same time he got off school?

The blademaster shook his head. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. For once, this guy wasn’t around, so it wasn’t the time to be thinking about him.

As Damek walked through the city, he found himself headed towards the bridge. A classic meeting place if there was ever one. And it appeared that there was someone here, waiting. Damek couldn’t help but wonder what. This person, a fist fighter, was so awkwardly placed, perched neatly on the side of the bridge. And he was just so… well blue. Not in mannerism, just his character design. The two were actually a little at odds with how they looked, though Damek realized someone who wasn’t involved in art would never realize their juxtaposition, so he decided not to bring it up. But instead, he decided to do something. Something that, frankly, he never thought he’d do in game or out.

He leaned over the railing beside the other player, looking first out to the newly changed sky, and then to the player beside him. “Waiting for someone?” his words were fairly confident, though still marred by a thick, Russian-like accent. He wasn’t really sure he cared anymore, about not really knowing English. And if anything, that was really making things easier on him. He wasn’t stressing so much over how to phrase things. After all, what did he have to lose? It’s only a game.

The clouds hovered over, mixes of pink and amber making it look almost like a dazzling painting done by someone like Leonardo da Vinci. His eyes gleamed as they locked upon a certain pair of clouds that seemed to come over each other, almost forming something like a…like some sort of twist. He didn’t really know what words he could use to describe it, but it was quite an interesting design, along with the fact that the clouds had actually just come that way…or was this a message that was given to him by CCCorporation? Highly doubt they sent clouds to give me strange missions when just about anybody could look up at them, he thought. He was tempted to give him a pat on the back, just for the heck of it, but thought otherwise quickly and instead continued to look up at the sky, the low, bright sky.

The sun gleamed in the distance, so bright now that he was forced to squint. Birds flew about above him, hawks, eagles, big birds, small birds. They were flying to the horizon, towards the sun, their wings flapping while their caws resounded around the buildings and alleys of Mac Anu. He forced a smile, as the digitalized birds dove down and took a formation, one that looked like something familiar, something that made him smile. Yet he didn’t bother to name it in his mind, but instead let his gaze avert so it was pointed at the clouds, the sky, and all things above Mac Anu…and ‘The World.’

Then there was something that nearly made him jump out of his skin. His legs fluttered upward, as if pushed by a bird, and then fell back, smashing against the railing and making it shake for a moment. It was a simple question, yet he was so into the sky and his surroundings that he had forgotten the fact that there were other people out there who might take interest by giving him a quick hello. He almost glared in the direction, but at the sight of a young man, he instantly pulled his glare into a slightly troubled expression, as if confused at why someone as low as him was asking him something like that. He either had some nerve, or he was just curious. Probably curious.

He almost forgot to answer altogether, and eventually turned his gaze back to the ever-lowering sun in front of the two. “No one in particular. Just watching life play out at this point,” he muttered in response. He was just trying to keep it short and simple, so he didn’t get this guy curious. It wasn’t like he didn’t like him…he seemed like a nice young man. Even though he looked much shorter than he was, he at least looked like someone who wasn’t an idiot. He actually looked…well, like someone serious at this point, or maybe he was just trying to make him look great in his head so he’d get convinced to go on a dungeon adventure…

The Fist Fighter sighed and patted his knees before assuming his usual position, trying to act all sorts of casual and pretty much failing in the process. He was fidgety tonight, and really didn’t enjoy staying planted in this one place while this guy – Damek as he read – waited for something more out of the conversation he probably hoped to have. He opened his mouth, but closed it before any syllables could escape them. He was tempted to, but whenever he opened his mouth to say something, nothing came out. The guy was probably holding back laughter at this point, but he didn’t care. He could nail him in the face hard enough that he wouldn’t feel his nose for a few weeks if he did anything like that, yet today, he wasn’t in that mood. He seemed a bit lost in thought, more like it.

“Why? Are you waiting for somebody?” he finally asked, after what seemed like an hour of silence, but was only just a few seconds, maybe a little longer than ten. He was slightly confused at why someone was asking this, but maybe, just maybe, he could be his partner for that little dungeon going of his. Sure, he was much lower than him, but just by the simple statement, he had taken interest to the guy. “Or are you just observing your surroundings, like me?” he added. This would get interesting…and probably fast.

The scenery really was beautiful. Still, as Damek looked up at the clouds overhead, he could only think about how imperfection made something truly beautiful, and these clouds were most definitely perfect. The rounded shapes and billowing movements left nothing undone, but at the same time, there was something strangely mechanical about the movements. For a moment, Damek had almost forgotten that he’d asked a question, when the player offered a response.

The answer was a little surprising. Watching life play out? There was something Damek couldn’t quite wrap his head around. But what life? Though there was the hustle and bustle of real people all around them, the figures before them weren’t real. The people walking down the street, the weapons they wielded, the shopkeepers weren’t even real people. As amazing as this place was, it was simply a fantasyland. Nothing real could be found in a place like this. Except perhaps a voice. And even then, there were all sorts of ways to modify the way you sounded, and there was no guarantee that who you were talking to was even who they pretended. For all he knew, this guy next to him could be a girl. Though he highly doubted it. Such occurrences were rare, from what he’d seen.

Damek watched the other for a moment, his fidgeting and restlessness not going unnoticed. And yet, he wasn’t here to wait for someone? His body language was clearly stating otherwise. Oh, he was waiting for someone, or something at least, maybe just not someone specific. Damek watched as the other attempted to form a word, and failed, on multiple occasions. Where others may have laughed, the blademaster waited patiently, seeing only something that he did all too regularly. Well, not so much as of recently. He doubted the person before him lacked command of the English language. Perhaps what he’d done, just striking up a conversation, was fairly strange in this place, as it would be anywhere. But no matter, this guy, Shenmock, was making an effort, and that’s what counted.

Damek shook his head at the question at first, and as he did so realized that it wasn’t an adequate explanation. “It’s been a long day,” he shrugged, continuing. “I just wanted to find something interesting to do. Someone interesting to talk to. You just stuck out,” the words began to slow as he talked, his searching for words holding up the ends of his sentences a bit. Everything had come out well though, to the best of his knowledge, so he was content with waiting on another response. After all, it didn’t seem right to ask this player to quest with him, with almost 30 levels between them, even though he would have liked to. Questing with a more experienced player did have its advantages, he was sure. Other than “power-leveling” as some would call it, the person had experience to offer; like a handle of the game that not everyone would understand. Damek had benefitted himself from Kaze’s appearance, as much as he hated to admit it, and really he was wondering more and more what another player might have to offer. Screw politeness. Apparently the theme of today was just going to be “what’s the worst that can happen?”.

“And you seem pretty restless at that. Were you waiting for a quest?” he glanced at the other player, trying to gauge a reaction. “That’s what I’m looking for,” blunt? Maybe. Effective? Well we’ll have to wait and see. Damek returned to staring out over the river, up at the sky, trying to find what in its perfection made it lose its beauty.

(( EDIT: Damek's subtle. It's a skill. Added more to move things along...))

He didn’t laugh. He didn’t so much as fidget or make a move to point at how he was fidgeting…well, no one would, but at least giving off a light laugh was regular. Yet this person, this player wasn’t doing what every other person would in ‘The World.’ Finally! He had found someone who didn’t believe wholly in idiocy! Well, as it seemed, he didn’t believe in idiocy at all, seeing as he wasn’t laughing or trying to make stupid remarks when the time most-definitely didn’t call for it. He was already starting to like this guy, even if he really sucked at fighting or something. His personality made up for that.

He stopped fidgeting, and instead focused on trying to calm himself. He closed his eyes, taking the air in and then looking up at the sky, continuing to observe the drifting clouds, the textures, and the shadows they cast over Mac Anu. What was so different about them? What made them different from the sky in the real world? He couldn’t quite figure it out, but at least it was enjoyable to figure things out and try to think about it rather than thinking about the dozen questions he wanted to ask the guy standing next to him. He was polite for one thing, and seemed like a fitting partner for his return to ‘The World’, but…still, he didn’t have the nerve to ask that. Did this player have the guts to ask him, or did he have to do the honors?

His response came, and he seemed to actually slow down with each word that he said, yet he seemed all sorts of casual, which was fine and dandy with him. He smiled slightly and tilted his head to the player. It was a tad funny how he said that he stuck out. He was wearing a black cloak at this point, but with it flapping about, it showed off that he was addicted to the color blue. Not like anybody was supposed to have a certain costume with a certain hairstyle and a certain glove, but no, he was…different. He liked the color. It was the color of the sky, the river, the snow, and so much more that he wasn’t going to bother with. He ran a hand through his blue hair just for the heck of it and gave off a quick laugh, one that he did absentmindedly. Then he dropped his hand and turned to the player, who was continuing to talk.

Restless? Waiting for someone to ask him? No…well, kind of, sure, yes, maybe…yeah. He had a lot of words to describe that, but he wasn’t really restless. He had just gotten back from school and was a bit tired, that’s all, and had decided to go to ‘The World’ to try and make him a little less tired and a little perkier. This was his own little sugar high, something that made him a bit more excited for the rest of the day to come, whether it be a day full of torture or a day full of flowers and lollipops. Didn’t matter, because this thing…it changed him, and turned the day into something new…something different, something that he liked and refused to let go of. Maybe that was the reason why he clung to this game…maybe that was the thing that wouldn’t let him go. This was too much to let go of, and he knew it.

And then he said the magical words. He was looking for a quest, and he said it in such a tone that the boy almost leaned towards him, yet he stopped himself before he could do anything too big. A smile touched his lips and then he slid back before hitting the ground and stretching his arms, then popping them with several crunches that almost made him wince. “Well, it’s your lucky day,” he said, trying to sound all happy about his appearance, although he was also hoping to be a bit…casual? He shrugged it off and looked him straight in the eye. “I’m…a bit lost myself,” he muttered, slowing his pace down a little, “but I think bashing a few brains would do me some good. I need a stress reliever, after all.” He grinned at him, a wide grin that made him laugh inwardly. “It’d be fun, after all, and it’s better than sitting here waiting for the world to end.” He was acting awkwardly, yes, but he really needed to get this player excited…and himself! Even if it did mean humiliating himself!

He started to walk off at a slow pace, waiting for him to follow. He turned his head back before he walked off into the small crowd, raising a brow. “Come on. You can choose the field and all that…just a little fun, okay?” It was fast and furious, but he didn’t care. If he was going to come, he was going to come, and if he didn’t…well, he wasn’t, and he was going to bash some brains out himself!

Was it ever his lucky day. As Damek watched the other hop from his perch and begin walking as he was talking, he couldn’t help but return the boy’s grin. As their characters stood, he found that he had to look up a degree to keep eye contact, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. The more he talked, the more amusing this other person became. The whole awkwardness of the situation was pretty much over his head. So in the end, he was following the other through the busy streets, no questions asked.

The fistfighter made his way through the crowd at a fairly steady pace, Damek taking the rear without much difficulty. As he walked, he reflected on their brief interaction so far. So apparently taking some more chances wasn’t a bad thing, at least not all the time. This proved it. Well, for now at least. He’d gone on a couple quests with other players so far, and he couldn’t reflect on any of them being bad. The meetings had just been a little more organized than this. Except for Fayre, but... he had a feeling that girl would always be an exception. There was something so different about her compared to other players. She seemed much more real.

Damek’s thoughts were cut short, however, by their arrival at the Chaos Gate. Now it was the moment of truth. Well, not at all really. But it was fun to think of it that way. “What would be a good level?” he wasn’t really listening for an answer, but instead spoke his thoughts out loud, an uncommon thing for this particular player. It took a few moments before he decided that level 8 would probably be suitable. He didn’t want to die, but at the same time, a low-level field wouldn’t be the most fun for his partner here. If they wanted to quest together again, Damek decided, then he’d have to start catching up to these other players in level. Not that he’d had a repeat quest with any real player yet, which he also felt wasn’t an uncommon thing in this world, where there were so many people and characters.

As he scrolled through the lists of words, randomizing as he went, people were gating in and out all around him. Apparently there were people who actually chose their destination beforehand. Who wanted to put that much planning into a game? Come on now. Finally, he came across a field name that struck his interest, and seemed to be a good enough level. It would be his first time in a field that was so many levels above his own, but he felt like holding his own wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Hopefully. In a hurry, before he chose the word, Damek added the other player to his party. It wouldn’t be a good thing to forget, that was for sure.

Okay, so maybe this was the moment of truth.

-----

Δ Lost Illusionary Battlefield

Level: 8 Fire

-----

Damek had decided on the field, and the two were transported immediately from the dimming lights of the city to a field where daylight ruled. It was always interesting to change from night to the middle of the day, but that was just the way it was with fields sometimes. This place certainly wouldn’t have been nearly as spectacular in the nighttime, so Damek was thankful the game acted as it did. It would also have gotten much too easy to get lost.

The field stretched in all directions, a vast grassland meeting the cloudless sky in a perfect line. The field was free of hills, but instead had many strange buildings, resembling small temples, surrounded by forests of caterpillar-looking rocks. The two had come into being on the field on top of a platform, on the plateau of a small shrine. Damek hopped off of the platform into the long grass below. As the grass swept against his feet, he couldn’t help but be in awe once more. A week had allowed him to become jaded against how real this game could seem. First, he bent down to examine the individual blades of grass as he swept a hand through, and then he raised himself to touch his hand to one of the strange, circular rock formations.

It looked as if a snowman had been built too high, out of rock and moss. The structure was simply a stack of tapering circular rocks, thrown off here and there to make it more interesting. If all these had just been built straight up and down, it would have made the scenery monotonous. Instead, each formation had the uniqueness of a tree in how it had ‘grown’. “Well, where to now?” Damek turned to look up at his fist-fighting partner. The field was punctuated by series’ of structures similar to this one, but the map showed no sign of a dungeon. They had a long way to go it seemed. Damek didn’t seem to mind though. He was content to follow the other’s lead. Not to mention that things never stayed so calm and dull in for too long in this game.

(( OOC: Monsters -> Fiend Menhir, Bee Army, Mummy Ripper, Hob Goblin (Dungeon) The list is boring, so feel free to grab some of your own level 7/8 monsters and such. Maybe a weirder stronger one in there somewhere too. I don't know. I just don't like having to pick monsters to go together >_>;; lol. ))

It seemed as if the player was going to accept his offer, which he really wasn’t too surprised at, or was he? He had really expected him to be a little crept out from his personality, but instead, maybe the player had taken interest and just…followed him. Maybe it was because of his level and how small a chance there was at getting killed by another player. Nah, it couldn’t be that. From what he saw, he didn’t look like someone who had encountered one of them while walking around in a field. He didn’t look like the type to go alone either, but then again; that was just a wild guess that he wanted to say was the truth. Yeah…not really…

But it seemed he was interested enough to follow him through the bustling crowds of Mac Anu, which always meant trouble for him. It wasn’t a wall of flesh, really, but the amount of people moving about at once made it hard. He wondered faintly why CCCorp. hadn’t let them just go through each other like ghosts…that would make things a lot easier for everybody. It was easier every time he did it, and it seemed as if Damek was faring just as well with things. I can only hope this game continues to be nice to him, the Fist Fighter thought, a bit of a guilty expression on his face. If it was this good right now, how bad could it get later?

He started up the stairs and walked off to the Chaos Gate, admiring the gold border and the blue in the middle that seemed to sparkle with the sun’s rays that managed to creep out over the buildings. He stuffed two hands in his pockets and waited for his partner to arrive. He had let him choose the field for a specific reason, and the reason was quite obvious: whenever he chose a field, something bad happened. Usually, he encountered another player or something that would love to slice him clear in half, which was obviously bad. He tried to hide the troubled expression, but he was sure the player had caught it. For some reason…it seemed as if this might be one of his first few regular dungeon adventures. He had had ones before with people, but that seemed like months ago…actually, it was months ago that he had actually managed to grab a regular dungeon adventure. That was…really what he needed at this point.

Eventually, the player seemed to decide on going to a level 8 field, which seemed like a pretty relaxed field for him. It might’ve looked hard for him in the past, but right now, it seemed just right. He smiled, satisfied with the choice. He gave a firm nod to his partner, already taking a liking to the words he had chosen. He really didn’t bother to pay mind to the other players that watched them go, or the other players that were teleporting in and out of the fields. It was like a train station, yet there was one going off every second or two, which was a tad strange. Maybe this is what traveling will be like in the future, he thought with a wide grin. It would indeed be interesting how they did that, but then again, they might not just get that far into the future. Damek, probably being twice as smart as the Fist Fighter, remembered to add him to his party, and so the Fist Fighter did the same. He was a bit…off from this kind of stuff. Yeah, that was his excuse for today. Golden rings took them up, making his data dematerialize. Then he was gone.

-----------------------------------

It was strange to be in a field again, one where you were almost sure that there were no players to terrorize you and no monsters that could tower hundreds of yards above you. He closed his eyes, taking in the air and everything around him, praying that this would be his one regular adventure, no player killers, no hackers, and most especially, no problem with his partner. He wanted just a regular adventure, one where he could enjoy ‘The World’ to its fullest extent for once. Forget about everything else, he thought, calming himself down even more. He felt like he was one of those people who meditated, but he really needed it this time. It had been a long time.

Then his eyes snapped open, two balls of gleaming emerald seeming to just pop out of nowhere. At first he blinked at the sun that gleamed high above the clouds, its rays sticking out in all directions and making the field look like something with fire crackling underneath it. It wasn’t like everything was red and orange like fire, but it just had a glowing feeling as if fire itself was fueling it instead of the soil that was supposed to be underneath it. There was not a cloud in the sky, just a clear blue dome that hovered over them. What lay beyond there? What happened when you reached the top? Would you fly out into space or would you fall to your impeccable doom? That was more of a pointless question. ‘The World’…in space? Ha! Very funny.

He was tempted to lie down at that point, just to fall down on the blades of grass and sigh to himself, letting all the worries wash away. Hakuna Matata, yeah? Well, not really, but it had to at least have some sort of ‘no worries’ feeling to it, or so help him. There was a bit of a breeze, but not much of one. It was just him, his partner, the sun, and a field full of wonders up ahead of them, but what wonders lay before them? He smiled, ready to actually get down to the Gott statue for once instead of having to just wander around aimlessly until something bad happened to him. His partner seemed ready, and his goal today was most definitely going to be to reach the Gott without having any troubles at all…at least with players, hackers, or anything else! Yeah!

Yet it seemed as if his partner was interested in the intricate designs put on a few rocks at that point. He had to admit they were pretty cool, as if a bunch of Indians had walked into the field and decided to use their special materials to write secret messages on them, but…still, they were here to bash some monster heads, right? Jeez…you’re a little over excited. It was strange for him to be so excited for something so small, but he just…really wanted to do something regular for once. If he could get into this, he could get out of all those other things, all those really bad things that no one wanted in his life. If he was being a little weird, that was fine, because he had a reason to be. He walked across the grass, listening to the sound of it all. It was almost as if he was walking in real grass…huh, he had never really examined that before, but it was actually pretty cool to find they were so accurate with things. Almost too accurate at times, but it was still pretty nice.

Then, his partner turned, asking the simple question of ‘Where to know?’ Of course, the Fist Fighter had no idea how to answer that question other than some stupid thing like ‘We’re going on a dungeon adventure, and you can’t do anything about it’, or something extremely strange like that. He stretched and popped his knuckles once again. Ah yes, this would be indeed a fun little adventure for them. “Well, we could always just try to examine our surroundings, but my guess is that you’d rather get going on this dungeon adventure of ours.” He threw his hands up. “I, personally, am fine with that, so I vote we get going.” And without waiting for an answer, as he already knew what it was (hopefully), he started to jog off, keeping up a bit of a slow pace so the player could catch up without falling behind and getting himself killed while looking for him. He didn’t want him getting in a fight alone, did he?

The jog was short and almost a bit bland to the Fist Fighter, as if he had been traveling for hours, only he had just started. He had done this before, enjoyed the air in his character’s face and the sudden rush as his feet pressed against the grass and then lifted off, as if he was flying through the air. The buildings around him seemed to put a little bit of color into the trips, as everything was just green and occasional specks of gray in the distance. The dungeon wasn’t visible on the map yet, so that meant it’d be quite a while before they arrived, but he didn’t care. The field was okay, and for all he knew, the dungeon could be only a floor or two deep. Didn’t matter, though. He was just here to have a bit of fun, yeah?

He slid to a stop, already having come up to one of the monster portals. He was quite excited, and the sight of it already starting to dematerialize made him grin. He wasn’t here to just twiddle his thumbs and wait. He was here to fight and get something out of this so he wasn’t waiting there for minutes just thinking about what the outcome of the fight could be. He was over that! Way over that. He rolled his shoulders and took a step closer while keeping one eye locked onto Damek. He didn’t want him getting overrun by the monsters, so he’d have to keep a good eye on him, yet that wouldn’t be too much of a problem with this. There was golden light that blinded him for a brief moment and then monsters were appearing, one by one, about three in all.

The monsters were as bland as can be, being only three Mummy Rippers that had their arms back while straps of cloth hung loosely at the edges of their dead fingertips. Most would normally creep out a player, but he had seen them enough in the heat of battle to know that they were actually not too hard a foe to fight, just so long as you didn’t leave yourself open. Just whack one, then help Damek with the other two…come on, whacking something isn’t hard. He sighed and looked down at the ground before looking back up at the Mummy Ripper that stood planted just ten yards ahead of him. With a laugh, he took two quick steps forward before launching himself off the ground and letting his character take flight.

He wasn’t airborne for long, though, and quickly descended towards the Mummy Ripper, proving that you couldn’t make huge jumps like Spider-Man, then come down and make some great punch that could shatter a brick in half. Now he was coming towards the monster with little more than a small punch readied, yet that punch was actually mightier than it seemed at first glance. His feet hit the ground and he pulled his fist up before it could make a move, yelling, “Moon Calling!” His fist glowing, he sent it rushing forward towards the monster’s chest, ready to blow it into several pieces.

The monster roared out in sudden pain as the fist collided with the monster’s chest, all the while light shining around him. It was violet, a sign that it was an ability that held the Ani element. Gritting his teeth all the while, he sent all his strength into the attack, throwing the monster in both a disturbing and spectacular fashion that made a smile creep onto his lips. It was amusing to find that he could take on a monster like this with so little effort when just months before he had had trouble fighting things almost lower than this. Interesting how things played out these days.

Looking over to the next Mummy Ripper, he prepared his fist and let one of his feet slide out in front of him as he took a ready stance that probably would’ve made an ordinary player giggle. He slid up his posture just a bit, trying to make it so it looked like he was deliberately trying to do a split, but it still looked pretty lame as he raised one arm and raised the other in front of him. It was merely a gesture, but still, he hoped that it would get the monster all riled up so it would keep its eyes off his partner there…yet he hoped that he didn’t do too much so his partner wouldn’t get a chance to do anything…

((OOC: Feel free to godmod Shen, seeing as how I didn’t want to leave you with two monsters or leave you with only one. Just…don’t do anything too bad to him, yeah? :lol: ))

Damek couldn’t help but smile at the other’s excitement now. As soon as the words had left his mouth, something seemed to excite Shenmock suddenly. First he tried to play it cool, commenting on Damek’s fascination with the field itself. At this, he pulled his hand away from the rocks. It had just been a while, and as someone who may work on something like this game in the future, he couldn’t help but be interested. Alas, this was not the time to be doing so. It was time to do as the fistfighter said and proceed to a dungeon adventure. As he mentioned continuing the quest, Damek nodded his agreement, though he quickly noticed he hadn’t been given time to answer. The player began jogging off, and Damek struggled to keep up at first, having not noticed at first that the other was leaving, but was quickly allowed to catch up. At least this guy was considerate.

Shenmock managed to keep a steady pace all the way to the monster portal, which Damek approached with a little less vigor. As the fistfighter skidded to a stop, Damek stopped dead in his path, remembering briefly that this was a harder field than he was used to. Still, he wasn’t going to let his partner have all the fun. The monsters were a little frightening, but nothing huge. Really, they looked pretty manageable as far as higher leveled monsters go. One charged at him, surprising him with a burst of speed. The mummy ripper slashed down, and Damek narrowly managed a dodge, but managed to get past the attack with only a scrape. As it was still on the downswing, Damek took a chance to attack, landing a fairly lucky direct hit on to the thing’s exposed back.

The attack dealt a disheartening amount of damage, and Damek managed to pull back and slash again, stabbing up through the ripper’s body this time. Now the damage seemed a little more tangible, however, this moment of triumph was short-lived. The second mummy ripper, who Shenmock had been trying to distract via his taunting, had landed a rather powerful hit. More accurately, Damek could see the ends of the wolverine-style blades sticking out of his abdomen, and he couldn’t help but cringe violently as it pulled the blades out. Damek realized now just how dangerous a direct hit could be. The attack left him with two thirds of his health. He could only take three hits from these things, that is, if that wasn’t its strongest attack. Then, both monsters reared up to attack. Targeting the one that he’d attacked already, Damek decided it would be best to try and finish this quickly.

“Crack Beat!” in an unfamiliar turn of events, on the second strike of the attack, the word ‘DEATH’ scrolled up, and the following attacks brought the creature to its demise. Damek turned around to attack the other monster, but found Shenmock had taken care of it for him. It was fortunate really, a level five player against two level five monsters was barely a match, let alone against two higher leveled monsters. The words ‘Battle Mode Off’ flashed across the screen, and the two players were once more in the midst of the serene field alone, the long grass showing no signs of the recent battle. Damek picked up the direction that they’d been walking before and set off at a quick pace, knowing he’d probably be outrun by the eager fistfighter soon enough. “That wasn’t too bad,” noticing that his health was still fairly damaged, Damek paused for a moment, switching his equipment so that he had ‘Repth’, and used it immediately, bringing his health back up to full. Now he was ready to start another battle. Rather than switching his equipment back, Damek left it, figuring he’d probably need the healing spell soon enough anyway.

The two quickly bypassed the scenery, on a mission now. It was as Damek thought about this that he saw the icon for the dungeon appear in the top corner. He almost charged off in the direction when he realized that there were other figures on the horizon. From the distance, in the direction of the dungeon, he could see two more mummy rippers, though they weren’t close enough to register as enemies just yet. On top of that, before the two was another monster portal, shimmering in the bright sun. The dungeon could be seen in the far distance now, but Damek stood in his place, waiting for the other to open the monster portal. He’d have to activate one sooner or later, but his level put him at a real disadvantage for that kind of thing. So instead, he waited on the other to begin the attack.

The battle was finished, a little easy sure, but it was finished nonetheless. His skill points were almost to max already…neat-o! The fact that it increased at a higher rate gave him the chance to use skills at a constant pace instead of having to wait a good minute before it came up to max. Shenmock stretched for a moment, waiting for his partner to come up a little bit until he was off, taking off at a steady jog. He was tempted to turn around and start running backwards, but he wasn’t showing off that much, was he? Instead, he kept it at a pace so that the blademaster could keep up. Soon enough, they were running side-by-side. It wasn’t exactly a long run, but it was…long enough, to say.

Soon enough they were there, standing before that golden portal that would soon unleash monsters that would try to wreak havoc, or at least try to kill them. Just one meager spell would finish them off, though, and just one meager step forward would active it. He hoped that his partner was ready for the next battle, and from the looks of things, he was already full on health. His skill points had gone up a bit, too, which meant they wouldn’t have to do much waiting before the battle started. He had been used to waiting so often, and now he hardly had to! Well, sure, there were monsters not far behind the monster portal, but still…no long intervals! No nothing!

The Fist Fighter slid across the grass just enough so the monster portal could sense his presence. Instantly, it spun faster and blew golden light in their direction, making him blink. There was a groan and monsters started to materialize in front of him, this time only two rather than the three they had faced last time, and these almost seemed like weaker enemies. They were Bee Armies, almost clouds of black with small intervals to tell the player that they were actual insects. Both buzzed and had stingers at the ready, but the boy was beyond being scared of the monsters. Sure, he had a never ending hate for their stingers and such, but he could easily take these guys out.

He held up a hand in response to it, almost as if to say ‘Talk to the hand!’ or something insanely cheesy like that. No; instead of that, a blue light emanated from the hand. Soon enough it was alight with a sapphire glow, and an aura was surrounding him. He couldn’t help but grin as wind blew up from under the bee army, instantly picking the bees up and sending them spinning about in a bug frenzy. It was hilarious to watch, and the amount of angry buzzes heard were quite a lot, making it all the better for the boy to watch. Ice shattered and water splashed against the black and yellow cloud, making the bees diminish at a quick rate. Seconds later the whole cloud of bees started to sink down to the ground, some falling while others slowly floated. It was a pitiful sight, but the second they dematerialized the boy looked up at Damek’s fight.

Really, the key to hitting them was spells. Swinging a sword at a bee was insanity, and only a sword, staff, axe, or long blade would hit the most idiotic of bees. The only thing that he had seen hit them as of late was a sword, but what did he know? For all he knew, the bees could be quite vulnerable to a blade, but magic just seemed so much…easier? Yeah, that stuff. The stuff that came down on the monsters and wreaked the havoc for the monsters; only the monsters didn’t stay alive long enough to see it. More…they were the havoc. Yes…seeing monsters perish was oh-so satisfying indeed, especially when their one ambition was part of its death.

Yes, havoc was a great thing sometimes.

((OOC: Yuck, I don't like this post... >_< Anyways, it's up and all that...just needed to get it off my plate.))

At least something recognizable had jumped forth from the portal this time. Damek studied the little cloud of bees, recalling that there had been a bit of a trick to beating them. Without thinking, he rushed in, and gave a quick swipe. The health of the bees dropped, but barely. He retreated as he was stung, and caught a glimpse of Shenmock’s example. Of course, an area spell. Feeling slightly dimwitted, Damek pulled out a scroll, not wishing to change his equipment at the moment. “Raging Earth!” the spell came up beneath the bees, and he noticed immediately that the scroll possessed more power than his own spells. It was a good thing to keep in mind.

However, his spell was still no match for the fistfighter’s, and now the Mummy Rippers were here to join in the fun. Looking down at his SP, Damek noticed that it was almost healed and quickly switched equipment to his leather coat. “Vak Kruz! Vak Kruz!” the spell first targeted the already wounded Bee Army, and the second one of the approaching Mummy Rippers, who had gotten dangerously close to Damek. Both of the monsters were caught in both spells, and thankfully the Bee Army died. Not that Damek was really surprised. A scroll and almost full impact from two spells? They’d have to be some pretty tough bees, that was for sure.

It was back to one-on-one, or at least he hoped it was. The other Mummy Ripper had left Damek’s sight for the time being, and he decided to focus on the one in front of him, rather than fret to give either one an opening. Unfortunately, the time it took to make this decision was more than enough to allow the monster before him to make a move. Damek jumped back, but was once more scratched badly by the metal claws. “Sranje…” he gripped his side, feeling thankful that this blow hadn’t been as bad as the first he’d suffered by the hand of this breed of monster. Still, down in four hits wouldn’t do, even if it gave him a little extra time. Damek lunged forward with his blade, managing to catch the monster. For a moment, he kept the monster at arm’s length, twisting his blade into its freshly burnt flesh. A strange noise escaped the mouth of the monster, and Damek threw it back off his blade as it tried to slash at him.

Damek stepped back from the scene, giving a cursory glance around to see if he could spot the other monster. He could almost use his skill, but it would leave him without any SP left, not to mention that he still had a minute or two to wait. Really, it would have been nice to have some sort of savior right now. Speaking of which... Damek wasn’t sure where his partner was, but figured he hadn’t had a problem with his own battle. As it stood, Damek’s monster was had about half its health left, mostly due to the spell. “You think you could finish it off?” he called to the other, battle stance ready should the monster try to take another shot at him in the mean time.

(( OOC: I’m busy busy over here—but I’m still going to try and get posts up as much as possible. They might not all be long, but we’ll keep this moving :3 ))

With the stupid and annoying bees dead, Shenmock found that he was as ready as ever for the next onslaught, more of the famed Mummy Rippers that he had torn to pieces before. He was ready, of course, and let one of them come. His partner seemed to fending off fair enough, yet he would've liked things better if his hit points were just a tad bit higher. The boy was tempted to throw a Repth in his direction, but thought otherwise, as he'd soon be able to heal a lot more. He exhaled and let both of his feet slide in opposite directions. He held his hand back, letting it slide across his shorts until it encountered cold steel. He yanked on it and then stepped forward. There it was; the Meteor Hammerchain. What a beauty it was too, especially when you saw it crash into monsters' faces!

He let it crash into the grass, tearing up grass, soil, and roots alike. It scattered everything, throwing it in all different directions. The Mummy Ripper was moaning and moving forward, that dim, evil look in its right eye. It was the one thing it could use to see, and the rest of its body was in bandages. "You're a little late for Halloween," he commented with a chuckle. He pulled the Hammerchain a little back, making the monster stop for a moment. Then, when it stopped, the monster started moving. It was like red light green light, only with a little bit of a twist. When the monster was within range of his deadly chain, the Fist Fighter wrenched it back.

The steel chain flew back behind him, grazing off his blue hair and then landing on the grass. With a yell, he pulled it around, spinning it in a wide arch before sending it crashing forward. "Green Whirlwind!" Shenmock called. Instantly, leaves and grass alike flew up in frenzy, spinning around one another. An emerald light surrounded him, sending his jacket flying around in all directions while his eyes blazed. The Hammerchain, too, was dosed with this strange aura. When it crashed, though, there was an explosion of leaves and grass. The monster screeched like a maniac and fell over, dead on the ground.

The Fist Fighter, satisfied with his easy kill, stepped over the monster and looked to Damek, who didn't seem to be faring quite as well as he did. His health was at half, and the monster didn't exactly look too dead to him. The monsters steel claws itched for a battle, and at the sight of him, it didn't look quite that excited. A smile crossed his face and disappeared the moment it had come, just a slight show of amusement that only the keenest of eyes would notice. "Repth," he muttered, and found that his partner's hit points were up there at the top once again.

He slipped his Hammerchain away, golden light following before he put his hands on his hips. His hands slid into his pockets and he brandish two nice and shiny hand axes, each seeming to glow with the reflection of the sunlight. Squinting a bit, the Fist Fighter eyed the monster ahead of him. It started forward, coming closer and closer with every millisecond that passed. Yet it wasn't going to land a hit on this guy; not on his watch at least. The monster, its arms flailing about, swung at him, only for the boy to jump and then thrust both hand axes into its shoulders. Blood squirted out and the monster screeched.

The Fist Fighter landed on the monster's shoulders, sending the monster to the ground in an instant. Its health had dissipated, leaving nothing but a red bar. Then, its ghost came up and it was gone, leaving the two in an awkward silence that the Fist Fighter didn't very much enjoy. He could hear the wind, he could see the sun, he could stretch his arms and feel the fresh air; yet he couldn't bring conversation into the field. It just didn't seem to be coming, and he absolutely hated it.

"Shall we?" he offered with a slight smile.

Shenmock had put on quite a display. The instant Damek had braced himself to make an attack, he found his hit points healed. That action alone had stopped him. He was receiving the help he’d asked for, so perhaps there was more to come... And was there ever. A flash of blue, almost unnoticeable in the sky, came down on the monster straight ahead of him. The scene caused him to jump as the blood spurted from the wounds, but he was thankful to know that the person who’d done that was on his side. “Thanks,” he breathed as the other rose. Silence passed between the two, but Damek didn’t seem to mind as much as his partner. After all, he wasn’t a big talker to start with. In fact, this quest had probably seen him the most talkative he’d been in a long time. The thought made him smile slightly. The blademaster sheathed his weapon, preparing to set off once more when Shenmock’s voice made him lose his train of thought.

“Hm? I mean, yeah,” he shook his head a moment, the euphemism coming to him. The phrase itself didn’t lend well to a proper translation, and Damek hadn’t caught it at first. “Shall we what?” would have struck him as an appropriate response not too long ago, however, he was beginning to pick up these little phrases here and there. Damek once more fell into pace behind the other as they headed towards the dungeon. It was a little exciting to be on a dungeon adventure again. Thinking back on it, it had certainly been a while since he’d been on a quest with anyone, and between the last two special events, he’d almost forgotten that this was the real point of ‘The World’.

The two had been moving along in silence which, Damek was beginning to surmise, wasn’t the fistfighter’s favorite activity. For a moment, he tried to think of some sort of conversation to amuse his chatty partner, but found that nothing really came to mind. Conversation was definitely not his strong point. He almost sighed. If only Fayre had been here. With that particular wavemistress around, no one needed to worry about the conversation dying. She made sure to keep it lively. He hadn’t seen her for a while now… at least since the Elimination Area. Damek shuddered at the memory of the Arena itself. What a low-leveled player like him had been doing there he’d never have any idea. Speaking of which...

A topic of conversation hit him. “You were in the Elimination Arena too, weren’t you? I think...” he’d known that the name had sounded familiar when he’d seen it. Of course, the one who’d been unwillingly made into a catapult if he recalled correctly. Not that he was going to bring that up. In his memory… well that player had looked drastically different from this one, first of all, and he hadn’t seemed too pleased about it either. Maybe it wasn't the same player at all, but he really wanted to place where he'd seen this username before.

As he'd been thinking, the two had reached the entrance of the dungeon, a larger building that resembled all the others on the field. This one, however, had a pathway leading down into the depths below rather than a small plateau like the building the two had appeared in.

Long, uneventful, maybe even boring?

Eh, those didn’t seem to describe the situation all too much, and they didn’t seem to describe it very well either. They were walking rather than jogging, as the dungeon was close at this point. He thought that he’d see his partner jumping for joy that they’d made it this far, but he found that Damek was a little silent along the way. Too bad; he had been hoping for a partner who actually talked a bit, and this player didn’t seem to know how to start one. The field provided him a bit of music, but he usually merely ignored it. There were a few portals in the distance that he could see, or it could’ve just been a trick of the sunlight. No matter. They were near the dungeon and soon enough, they’d be leaving all those stray portals behind to face the real challenge: the monster-infested corridors of a basement sort of place. The dungeon was definitely going to be a much more grueling experience, but with the pack he put behind his punch? Nah! It would be cake…at least for him.

Damek, surprisingly enough, brought up a bit of conversation into the air, asking him a question that surprised him. The Elimination Arena…that event he had done about a month or so back, where he had actually accepted that horrid player’s plan. You still need to hunt down that Hijinx person; maybe then you can get your revenge on her for that stupid plan. He was aware that it was probably some famous photo by now, and almost for a week he had been careful to put on his hood in order to avoid detection and humiliation from the crowds in Mac Anu. She had put a fun twist into the event for herself, but had also gotten herself on a list of people to hunt down: actually, she was probably number one right now.

“Yeah, I was there.” Shenmock merely shrugged and then looked at the player a little closely. Now that he thought about it…this guy did look a little familiar. “You were there, too, I presume?” It would be nice to know that his partner was actually someone he had helped in the past, not to mention someone he might’ve even thrown a spell at in order to help the cause a little. The memory was lost in that pit he called his mind, and now he was left to wonder whether or not he had seen his face once before. A frown crept upon his lips, and it soon deepened to a bit of a scowl. Memories always seemed to come in short spurts, and right now…right now it seemed as if they were going to leave him be for a while. Now that he thought about it, Damek was one of the first people he had targeted in the arena, along with another person whose name escaped his mind.

The dungeon was soon looming over him, as big, dark, and scary as ever, only that thought passed by his second for a mere two seconds before falling out, replaced by something new. Maybe he could call it determination to get in there and kick a few monsters in the testicles, or maybe it was a feeling that told him he had to be a little patient. The Fist Fighter’s frown eased up a little and so the boy gestured for his partner to come. On the way, he commented, “But…if I’m correct, you’ve gotten a little stronger since the Elimination Arena. Last I remember you were one of the n – ” He stopped himself from saying that stupid, stupid, stupid word. Sighing, the boy continued. “Yeah, well…it’s good to see that you’ve grown stronger since then.”

A light smile came and then disappeared when he turned the other way. They descended down the stairs and then, opening the door, the two came into the dungeon.

So he’d been right. He had met this guy before. Well… kind of. As Damek mused on what the other was saying, they continued walking towards the dungeon, which was soon enough upon them. He recalled the arena with a bit of difficulty, unsure of whether he’d been helped by this player or not. In the end, he rested equally as unsure as he had been when he started, but never mind that. Shenmock continued to talk, and Damek listened, catching his slight falter in his words and the correction that followed. “It was that event that made me want to gain strength,” the words had been carefully chosen, and Damek could only help that his conversation was getting across as he was meaning for it to.

Damek’s foot soon hit the first step and a small smirk came to his face as the two descended. Finally, a normal quest. Come to think of it, he’d never finished a quest with another person. Well that would have to change. Surely the two could get through the dungeon quickly if they pressed on, and with Shenmock on his side, he couldn’t imagine dying being a danger. This would be the best chance he had so far, so they’d have to make the best of it.

The room loaded before the two, and Damek recognized the setup. A castle dungeon. He’d come across places like this before. The torches on the walls gave off a distorted, patchy light, leaving the players in near-darkness for small sections of the hallway. Visibility may be an issue here, but it was nothing that couldn’t be accounted for. Damek began walking down the long hallway, his feet cushioned by an old, worn red carpet that ran down the center of the hallway. Painted fresco murals decorated the sides of the halls, but Damek paid them no mind. He had delved back into the game, and there was no need to give the scenery any more of a look today. He’d already wasted some time on the details of ‘The World’, he didn’t need to hold his partner up any more. The hallway came to an end at a large, steel door. Though the door was open, the feeling Damek got from it wasn’t all that great.

As he’d thought, the door slammed behind the two after they passed through. A lone golden ring sat in the middle of a rather familiar starting room. More torches lined the walls, and four in the center of the room formed a square around the monster portal. Over all, the lighting in this room was a little better here than in the hallway. Apparently it wasn’t a common thing to be plunged into darkness on your quest, though Damek recalled his first ‘Game Over’, when he’d been slaughtered in the dark by a monster. Thoughts aside, Damek decided it was probably best for him not to hold back on the portal this time. Shenmock couldn’t have all the fun of disarming the monster portals, and he was beginning to get a feel for the monsters in this field.

As he made this decision, Damek charged the middle of the room, the portal exploding as he did so, leaving the room much more dimly lit than when the two had arrived. Still, the monsters before them were visible. Two Fiend Menhir and a Hob Goblin had come to fight. Fair enough. Two on three would be no big problem, and hopefully it would be two on two soon enough. Wasn’t he forgetting something though?

The realization dawned on him. These things could revive other monsters, couldn’t they? And there was two of them, which meant… ‘Why does this have to be difficult?’ Damek thought to himself as the Goblin slashed at him with its little dagger. He decided it would be better to attack one of the Menhirs, even if it would just come back to life. At least then one would be out of SP… then maybe they could take down the other. That seemed like a plan. No doubt Shenmock had figured this one out for himself, and so Damek charged for the Fiend Menhir, hoping to get something in.

“Crack Beat!” the skill was unleashed, and hit the monster multiple times. Unfortunately, he didn’t get his ‘Death’ effect, which always would have been preferable, but nonetheless, the skill was enough to take out a little of the monster’s HP. His toughest attack had almost dented it to three quarters of its health. That seemed about right. As he regrouped, the Fiend Menhir slammed forward into him, not taking kindly to being attacked. Damek fell to the ground. His health hadn’t suffered its worst blow yet, but Damek was a little slow to get back to his feet, the blow still being enough to knock the wind out of him. It attacked again, and he managed to dodge again this time, throwing another ‘Crack Beat’ in the monster’s direction. Once again, the attack was only normal, but now at least half of the monster’s health was gone. This wouldn’t be too bad, so long as he held on to enough HP to avoid needing to use Repth.

The murky, almost dead looking walls seemed to taunt Shenmock as he passed them. Every time he looked at the gray walls and the crimson splashed upon them, he felt almost taunted as if he was no match for the dungeon ahead; only the thing was that he was a good twenty-five levels higher than the place, which was the strange part. Was he looking at it wrong? His knuckles, as he squeezed them, miraculously popped and he couldn’t help but smile as they approached the first door. The torches’ lights started to die down as they came through the darkness and appeared in the next room. Decayed bodies with flesh hanging from their ribcages surrounded him while one thing spun in the middle: a golden portal.

Instead of standing there and stalling, Damek actually charged towards the portal with his blade raised. Shenmock slowly shook his head and followed in a jog, watching as the golden light exploded and sent dots of light spinning in all directions before darkness fell upon the two and the three monsters left in front of them: two Fiend Menhirs and one Hob Goblins. The boy didn’t have a good memory of encountering a Hob Goblin before, but he had memories of the other monsters. They could ressurect their comrades, but then again, that wouldn’t help them much if there was a Fist Fighter there to punch their face in. If they had one, of course!

Sprinting forward, the Fist Fighter targeted the Hob Goblin, planning a speedy victory before moving on to the Fiend Menhir. A funny cry managed to escape his lips as he jumped and kicked the goblin’s head as if it was a soccer ball. He sucked at soccer, sure, but in this game it all depended on your status, and his accuracy just so happened to be high enough. The Hob Goblin let out a screech and was sent spinning across the room before it crashed into the wall. Then, already fading into a ghost, the goblin fell with a thud that made the Fist Fighter wince.

Slowly but surely, Shenmock turned to his next opponent, a Fiend Menhir that actually stood around twice the size of him. It was a large statue that hopped forward with quite a slow speed, but that was beside the point. The fact that it was preparing a spell to revive its comrade got him running, and before he knew it he was crying, “Rai Kruz!”

Instantly, electricity crackled all around it and made a loud shrieking noise before converging on its victim. Because a Fist Fighter used the spell, it was still not strong enough to take it and its spell down. The Hob Goblin rose and he found himself with another opponent, one that would hopefully die in a hole after he killed it again. He gave it a glare before clasping his hands together and facing the monster. Electricity crackled around a few parts of the hand, zapping his character until he pulled his right hand away. It revealed a relatively large orb of electricity, and what did he plan to do with it?

He planned to the blow that statue thing out of the dungeon wall.

“Rai Rom!” the Fist Fighter cried, sprinting forward and then shoving it right into its chest. Wind spiraled forth into the monster’s chest, easily depleting the last of his health, and then it stopped, just like that. The aura that surrounded the Fist Fighter disappeared while his cloak fell down to his side, leaving him to turn to face the monster, his emerald eyes locking onto the Hob Goblin. ‘You’re dead’ was what he mouthed to it before holding up a hand and turning the other way.

“Talk to the hand. Rue Kruz.”

And with that, the monster fell to the ground, dead.

As Shenmock charged into battle, Damek kept with his same monster, now watching the health bar of the other Menhir fall. If the Goblin hit him, it wouldn’t matter at this point in the whole scheme of things. If they could kill both at the same time, the monsters would be done for, for good. He went to slash at the monster again, as his SP started to fill, but found his attack cut off mid-strike by the Menhir’s large stone body crashing into him. This attack damaged his health further, but there was no time to use Repth. Not if they wanted to avoid facing these monsters again.

In a moment, his SP hit ten, and Damek used his skill once more, as the monster prepared to revive the other. “Crack Beat!” the skill was used one last time, and this time it finished off the monster. Behind him, he heard a noise and spun to see the last monster as it disintegrated. The words ‘Battle Mode Off’ crossed the screen, and Damek smiled to himself. They’d finished the battle, but not without a little difficulty. “We should probably stay here until I can heal,” he sighed. His health had taken quite a bit of damage, and it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to continue on in his current state. Not to mention that he had no magic at the moment either.

The torches along the walls had dimmed slightly now, and now that the battle was over, Damek had a chance to take in the rest of the room around them. Each of the four walls had a door, leaving them with three ways to go. Damek decided to allow Shenmock to lead the way. Maybe he’d have a better guess for where to go. Not that it was really possible to have an educated guess in this game.

The battle ended like any other, Damek and Shenmock standing triumphant while the monsters they had defeated had disappeared, leaving nothing but an empty room. There were skeletons, of course, but the Fist Fighter preferred not to look towards the bones and the flesh that hung off the side. The boy shuddered and watched as the words 'Battle Mode Off' popped up onto his screen. A grin drifted onto his lips, but his partner didn't look to be quite in a happy mood. He was injured and would obviously need a healing spell, as he had used the last bit of SP he had on the monster.

Silence passed over them as they waited for his partners' skill points to regenerate. Shenmock took the time to look around at his surroundings, observing the blood-spattered walls and the three doors that surrounded him. He was also careful to keep his eyes off of the skeletons that lay scattered around the room, some in chains while others just lay there, their mouths hanging open. In their final seconds, they had been screaming with pain as the monsters slaughtered them. That was the story, short, simple, but not sweet in the slightest. More horrifying.

So they had three choices, each opening up separate rooms that either held monsters, treasure chests, or maybe even the way down to the next floor. He had a feeling that they were going to encounter monsters first unless he bothered to use one of his Fairy Orbs... Then again, they were here to build up their strength and have a little fun, not to just rush down to the bottom floor in order to snag the treasure. Yes, it was likely something that he could sell for a lot, but the teen had a liking for levels and fun rather than some stupid items. He had money and that was all there was to it!

After throwing a Repth to Damek, the Fist Fighter set off straight. Not left, not right, but just straight ahead. The brief loading screen came up and then was replaced by the room, every detail fitting into place at that very second. It was a long hallway, a single portal taking its place in the middle. Golden light burst around the room, dancing for a moment before revealing two Bee Armies and a Mummy Ripper. They were monsters that they had faced before, but they still looked relatively strong to him.

"I'll take the bees if you can take the zombie," the Fist Fighter teased.

And with those words, the Fist Fighter raced forward, yelling, "Rue Rom!" A tornado burst forth in the middle of one of the armies, sending ice and water around them and freezing a good portion of them in the process. The ones that weren't frozen solid had water thrown at them, instantly bringing down their wings and sending the rest spiraling down towards the ground. The next bee army was hit with the same skill, which had the same result. The two bee armies were down, leaving only the Mummy Ripper that he had left to Damek. Heaving a sigh, the Fist Fighter turned to watch the battle.

Shen, its your usual good work. You interact well, play nice, and you sometimes get caught up in your thoughts. Personally, I don't look at that as a bad thing, 'cause I do it a lot, too. It's always an entertaining read.

Dammy, I just get sucked into your writing. Please. NEED MOAR. xD I look forward to watching your character and your writing grow as you spend your time on the board.

Shenmock: One Level, Silvered Fans
Damek: One Level, Corpseblade, Hunter's Bane