The tall grasses of the Theta Server vacillated back and forth to the direction of the gentle winds that constantly blew throughout the small island. Yet a small patch of grass did not sway or bend to the ways of the winds. The body of a particular Long Arm, which was roughly outlined by the uplifting grass, was left lying there.

Duo, with the back of his head resting against the palms of his hands, laid on the grass, both legs somewhat spread apart, his whole body lax and calm. He was napping for some odd reason, most people would not think of game as a suitable place for rest. Both eyes were loosely closed, leaving nothing but an endless pit of darkness and the occasional floating spot of purple or yellow for his to stare at (like it mattered; he was sleeping), the line between his lips curved up in a smile, the joints in his ankles lost tension, leaving his feet hanging freely. The shadow of a flying bird glided on the ground of Dun Lorieg. The shadow cut across Duo’s face, temporarily halting the little sunrays that he could receive.

That was Duo’s only complaint about Dun Lorieg. The sky was smudged with thick, gray clouds, which ultimately left the sun’s rays unable to shine upon such a beautiful, floating fortress. The big star itself was barely visible in such smog.

A loud squeak escaped the bird’s lips as it reached the steep edge of the island. The noise echoed throughout the floating island and stretched into the sky, where it would echo until oblivion. The sound waves of the noise traveled into the tunnels of Duo’s ears, triggering his eardrum, which resulted in the Lizard to snap out of his state of unconsciousness. His head rocked to the left, a light yawn escaped his mouth as he began to stretch out his legs and arms. His eyelids spread from each other, revealing all that was around him. Duo grabbed the round-rimmed metal of his bifocal and pulled the glasses away from his face. It was rather strange the worlds in his eyes suddenly changing colors; from the light brown tint that his bifocals gave off to the original blue and green that The World naturally casts during the day time.

Birds chirping in the background while resting on the shingles of certain shops, tall strands of grass whipping against each other as random breezes of wind gust throughout the valley, the sound that the wind makes when cutting between the sharp pieces of grass, the tapping of other’s paces, from the hard sole of their shoes, as they jaunt on the hard, cold stone pathways, sounds of voices conversing, bargaining, chattering with one another; this was more than enough to morph a small version of a world, Duo’s world, in his head. The Long Arm was always the one to think of the most awkward things when under temporary blindness from rubbing his eyes.

Duo now found himself at the nearest Weapon’s shop, gazing at all of the newer, higher leveled items that were displayed. His eyes were focused on the Tranquil Lance that hung underneath his currently equipped lance, his Fiend Lance. The Long Arm had more than enough Gp to buy such a weapon, but his will to spend was rather feeble. Another Long Arm, a female, casually gaited her way to the Weapon’s shop counter. She set her lance against the edge of the table. From what Duo could see, she was good-looking, not beautiful (he thought of that words to only be used for environments), but she was definitely someone who stood out from the rest of the players in the City. Duo panned his head to the right to try to get a better look at the details of her body and face. He tilted his head down a bit and turned to left, to appear as if he weren’t really looking at the woman. The navy blue shades helped out; they acted as a ‘camoflouage’.

She was quite petite in a way that she was short; the tip of her head barely reached Duo’s shoulder, or that was his guess, he was leaning against the counter after all. She was also skinny, but not to the point where she was sick looking. The breastplate that covered most of her chest, leaving a small riff between her chests. Her legs were long; almost to the point to distortion. Duo wouldn’t be surprised if she had nicknames like ‘grasshopper’ as a child. Strands of golden, long curly locks stretched past her shoulders. Curls formed at the ends of particular sections of hair. Duo imagined it as a sea of gold, swaying with the wind, breaking off into waves as it reached the shore. Her eyes were twilight blue; one could stare infinitely into her eyes, like the sky during dawn.


The Lady Long Arm glanced at Duo for second, giving him a smile before turning her attention to what she was previously doing. She spoke –her voice was so pure and light-, “I would like the Blitz Spear.”

Duo’s eyebrow quivered when the selected spear escaped her full, plush lips. Such a high level… He thought as the Lady Long Arm walked off. It was obvious that she was level nineteen or above. This, of course, was judging by the level of the spear, which was nineteen as well –he was always a nerd when it comes to weapons-.

A leg hung loosely from the edge of a stonewall; the other laid on its side, bent to the side so that the sole of his foot would be touching his thigh. His back rested against the wall behind him. Duo was currently located near ‘the stairs’, as he liked to call him. The set up of the current area was rather unusual; sets of ten steps were stacked on top of one another. Forever five pairs of steps, there would be one, big step. Duo liked this place; it was a place where he could contemplate on many different subjects; life, death, current relationships, ‘The World’, school, anything that one would think about.

It was still rather weird, for Duo to be pondering about such things that is. The Long Arm was in a comprehensive mood, he had to be thinking of everything. His scapegoat was the voice that still pestered him, though it was beginning to stop talking to Duo.

Duo set the back of his cranium against the rough, stone surface of the rock that he rests against. The chill that radiated from the rock cooled his head. You gonna go questing, buddy…? Duo spoke too soon. The Lizard closed his eyes and said, “Maybe, I’m not sure yet.” And yet, for maybe once in its short existence, it was right. Two months ago was the last time Duo was actually apart of a quest. Even though the glaive that rested beside him did not feel different or foreign in his hands, he still felt that he did not “know” his weapon, or even his class, well enough. Comprehending one’s class and knowing its purposes was something that Duo did not think of before. He felt foolish for not thinking of such a thing earlier on in his history of play ‘The World’.
Duo lifted his head back up and opened his eyes. He stared at the summit of a mountain that emerged from the clouds beneath it. “I’ll go, but later,” he said to himself. For now, he was going to enjoy the sight around him.

Legs crossed together, mind pondering on which field to go to, Duo sat next to the Chaos Gate, staring at all of its blue, glorious wonder. Ever since he joined ‘The World’, Duo had always questioned the longevity of the object’s spin. Duo would stare at the Gate for minutes, not hours (he wasn’t that obsessed), and wait for it to slow down. But it didn’t, surprisingly; the Lizard thought that once in a while the game would have a lag of some sort, but alas, it did not.

The Chaos Gate always seemed to make a noise whenever its light golden rim would pass by him. It was the type of noise like wind rushing past you, cutting around the defined cuts and curves of one’s body, while still pushing one back.

Duo’s mind was temporarily snapped back into reality when a certain Lady Long Arm passed by him. It was the same woman that he had saw from the Weapon’s Shop, pacing by, the silver scaled, metal shards of her armored skirt bouncing to the beats of her strides. Duo’s eyes followed her as she stepped up to the Chaos Gate. He was not targeted at her, –no, no, no, he wasn’t a pervert- he was actually looking at the glaive that she rested against her shoulder. The Lizard was rather jealous that she could actually afford such a weapon (that and the fact that she was at a high enough level to even acquire it). His mouth opened to ask a question…. Yet she was gone; the three, golden rings that were so common descended from the sky and teleported her avatar to her desired destination.

“Damn,” He said, quite frustrated at his procrastination to ask such a simple question. It was not a hard question; he would’ve said something like, “ Hey, what level are you? ” maybe “ Would you be interested in questing? ” Like it mattered. Duo hadn’t been on a field, or even logged in, in almost a month before…well… now.

Duo sighed; he yearned to go back onto a field, yet he feared about the ‘inner animal’ that might, and probably would, take over his body. He worried that he would, again, succumb to the instincts of the reptile, running, hiding away from the enemy. Duo remembered what it was like that day. He felt as if he were the prey, being hunted down by the enemy that was in front of him. His nervous system had gone haywire, snapping from the pressures of death. The Lizard tried to crawl back into his hole, but there was no hole to crawl into.

So where are we going, buddy...? It said, almost mockingly. Duo smiled (maybe this voice was beginning to psychologically mess with his head) and helped himself to his feet. Duo walked up to the Gate. As he stepped closer to the Gate, he noticed that particular noise that it made got louder and louder. He halted at the point where he was about an inch from the golden rim of the gate.

“Sleepy Organ Marter Aqua Field,” He said under his breath. Duo looked up as the three, golden rings fell from the light blue, endless sea of the sky. He closed his eyes as they surrounded him, carrying his avatar to the location he just called out. The Long Arm wanted to open his eyes, but it wouldn’t matter if he did; the sight an ocean of black would be the same, whether his eyes were closed or open, right now at least.

The sky was tinted in a sea of light orange, spreading throughout the atmosphere for about a mile. It was clear that the time of day was dusk; the sun, half of its mass hiding under the line of the horizon, was slowly setting under the earth’s surface. Long strands of wheat grass stood as tall as Duo’s knees. These grasses were occasionally bent to the side from the gentle, calm winds that blew at times. The fields of tall grass were rather nice, yet there were only a few patches of the particular area. From what his eyes could see, the rest of the field was populated with short grasses, and sometimes patches of dirt.
Few trees were dotted around the field, their branches emerging from its trunk, uprooting small twigs that grew spuds of seeds, which ultimately bloomed to make a full, thick head of leaves. The land was relatively flat, give or take the small hills that arose from the ground.

Duo was surprised at how hot the field was, considering it was dusk. He smirked, saying, “And this game was supposed to be very realistic.” The Long Arm didn’t mind though, he favored such warm weather, since it was just like Georgia’s hot, summer days. Duo took off the Chinese-style coat and set it on the ground, neatly, near where he stood (Like it mattered. The thing’ll load onto him once he reentered town). He grabbed the shaft of his lance and observed the glaive that he tightly held in his grip.

The rod of his weapon was died a blood red, with flames of black stretching throughout the shaft. Thicker than his past glaives, yet slender, the lance’s shaft was a perfect fit for Duo’s grip. The blade was your standard, sharp knife. The thing that was unusual about the blade was that it was not as big as other, higher leveled blades in ‘The World’. It curved upward, making a crescent-moon shape. The tip was still sharp, not banal from battle experience. The bland, metallic silver shined in the sky, reflecting the sun’s rays from its surface and back into the sky.

Duo’s other hand grabbed the upper end of the lance’s shaft. He bent his body to the side, applying all of his body weight upon his right leg. His left leg stayed straight, knees locked, muscles stiff. The spear stayed in an angle similar to the angle of his leg. His right leg pushed up, thrusting him to his left, as so his lance. Duo then lifted his lance up, keeping his arms straight as he did so, and slashed downward at the ground. He bellowed as he did this, adding a bit more force to his ‘attack’. The sharp end of his lance hit the ground, penetrating the soft soil, dislodging segments of dirt and grass into the air.

Duo’s feet stomped the ground for every thrust of his lance that he generated. He yelled after each stab, counting, in his head, the number of stabs. The motions of his lance were quick and swift, creating a noise when the Long Arm pulled back his lance. After every strike, Duo instantly targeted another random spot in the imaginary circle that he made. His goal was to stab at the target after every pull back of his weapon. Each strike came consecutively, yet his arms began to tire from stress. Duo –tried- to ignore this fact and prevailed on.

“Double Sweep!” He yelled out. Duo bounded from the ball of his foot, twisting his ankle before going air bound. He bent his torso to the side, keeping them trailing away from his legs. His lance was perpendicular to his body, also trailing behind his legs. His eyes peered down at the ground, looking for the perfect spot to land and execute the finale of the attack. Duo’s feet planted on the ground. The rest of his body followed, along with the glaive, which quickly cut through the tall grasses in front of it, leaving the small, cut fragments to float with the breeze of the sky.

Duo stood erect, taking a deep sigh of relaxation before switching lances. Duo alternated the current weapon with his Lavaman Spear, a lighter spear, to him at least. The Long Arm gripped the lance with both hands, setting them both closely together, one wrist up, the other wrist down. His elbows threw the lance to the side, letting it flip freely in the grasp of his hands. He continued this motion, periodically letting the shaft glide between his fingers. Duo twirled the lance around, almost like a broomstick, letting it twist and turn freely before turning pivoting his torso to let the trick appear to flip near his side.

Fifteen minutes later….

Duo’s experience of the trick grew with time and he was close in reaching perfection of his technique. He even let the blade flip sideways, but stuck to doing these tricks at comfortable times. “Whoops,” Duo said when noticing the loss of grip from his glaive. The weapon flew in the air, spinning endlessly in the deep sky, disappearing slightly from the sun’s rays. Duo paced a few steps to the side, hopefully stepping far enough to evade the spear. He stared up at the sky as the spear ascended. It landed blade first, impaling the ground instantly, standing up straight like the grass around it.

“I’m starting to get tired” Duo said to himself as he yanked the lance’s blade from the ground. He looked up to see a nearby tree casting a shadow that pointed directly at him. Duo paced at the tree and sat down. He rested his back against the rough edged trunk. He would rest, folding his arms in a cross and closing his eyes. It was the perfect environment to relax in; all he prayed for was that no monsters would notice his vulnerability.

The gentle orange and black wings of a butterfly flapped through the calm sky, carrying the small creature around the field. The butterfly decides to take a rest and, for some odd reason, it chose to relax on the pointy end of Duo’s nose. The small, black legs of the creature softly touched the surface of Duo’s nose. The Long Arm would have never noticed the creature resting upon his nose, but the wings that softly brushed against his eyebrow began to tickle him. Duo’s nose scrunched inward as he jolted forward. His eyes opened to see the bug fly off into the sky.

“Well I guess I should-,” He said, interrupting himself by stretching out a bit. He continued, “-Thank that little thing. I don’t want to be here all day, sleeping.” Duo rolled over and lifted himself; he rested on one knee, to let the blood rush back to his legs, and then picked up the lance that laid beside him. He stood up, ignoring the slight light-headedness that usually overcame him in the real world. The Lizard let out a brief sigh as he looked up at the sky.

The time of day, from what he saw, must have not changed considerably, or at all for that fact. The sky, once a sea of light orange, now faded between a cross of violet and orange. There was a border, jagged but still there, where the orange and purple would meet, yet they would not synthesis to make some sort of unique effect. Nearest to the sun was the orange, darker than before, yet still light near the outer rim of the sun. The orange would grow darker and darker until it met with the border. From there, the sky was dyed violet; white streaks were randomly painted across wherever the sun’s rays hit. Duo thought of it as the beach at night; white sand, growing darker and darker until one saw the ocean, where it was black. Heat waves that Duo felt when first entering the field were gone; the temperature had dropped surprisingly fast for the amount of time he was in slumber. He turned around and gazed upon the cotton jacket that loosely laid there on the ground, occasionally moving when a soft breeze came by. The Long Arm shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not that cold yet,” He said.

A breeze brushed passed the Long Arm, forcing the loosely fitted pant legs of his bottoms to flail about wildly. Grass, once tall, began to gradually shorten to Duo’s mid-shin level. This was especially true when he was walking up the small, and rare, hills that pasted themselves onto the maps at times. It was funny, Duo had not seen a monster in the last few minutes, or really since he entered the field for that fact.

The clanking of metal pieces began to sound louder and louder as Duo paced onward. The crimson colored armor of a Heavy Metal began to stick out from the orange and yellow background that was the sky. Duo speculated that the red armor had some sort of a camouflage on his eyes. “Well I guess I get to f-,” He said, being cut off by small tremor that activated beneath his feet. “Fight?” He said, looking over to his side. Duo slid the cold, metal frames of his bifocals down to the end of his nose and cocked a brow. He was curious about what was coming to greet, kill, destroy him. The shadow of a round, tall beast emerged in the sea of orange that was behind it. From what Duo could see, it seemed to waddle about, as if carrying its own weight was a problem for its small, stubbly legs.

A cold chill ran up the Long Arm’s spine as seconds passed by, giving off an uncomfortable feeling in Duo’s head. Such a weird feeling always triggered bad events to come. The Lizard peered down at the left eyeglass of his bifocals. A reflection bounced from the glossy surface, showing the shadow a particular short, red armored, thing.

‘Double Sweep!” He yelled, circulating himself around as if he were a discus while his lance trailed behind. A quick slash was delivered by the Long Arm, only cutting through the armor near the beast’s gut. Duo evened himself out and then bounded. He lifted his lance above his head and struck downward, initially aiming for the axe-wielder’s head. Sharp piercing shot into Duo’s ears as his lance came close to his enemy, a tremble traveled throughout his spear, starting from his blade and then vibrating up to the shaft which ended at his hands and arms. Duo landed on his feet, not looking at the damage he had caused because he knew he did none. Maybe to the monster’s axe, but none to what he had wanted to hit.

A grunt came out of the beast’s mouth as it lifted the axe that it held in both hands to his side. A growl, of some sort, followed as the beast slowly swung the blade horizontally at Duo. The Long Arm simply ducked, evading the axe’s hard swing quite surprisingly easy. So it does have a weakness… He thought as he examined the beast to think of any weak points of attack. Duo stepped to the side, dodging a powerful, yet sluggish, down-strike. The sharp end of the axe struck the ground with fiercely, causing a small radius of the floor to tremor. Dirt, now dislodged from the ground, flew in the air, grass, now beheaded, danced in the air as the wind blew away and an axe was now stuck in the ground.

The Heavy Metal looked up at the Long Arm rather puzzled and confounded at its current situation. It then gazed at the axe and then back at Duo. Half of the weapon’s blade was buried underground so deep that even the strongest of attempts to pull the axe out failed almost completely. The Heavy Metal pulled; kicked, shimmied the axe about, but nothing happened. The beast slumped and, what seemed, to sigh at its useless efforts. The beast’s head, still dipped down in shame, looked up at the Long Arm once again. It took a step back and then held up its fists, as if it wanted to box. Such desperate efforts of trying to defeat a player; the thing loses its weapon, now it tries to box its enemy? Duo found it comical, but he couldn’t leave the monster standing there.

“Juk Repulse!” Duo bellowed. The arm that held his lance dashed forward at the Heavy Metal’s head, thrusting through the small eye-slits that were cut out of its headpiece. The point of his weapon had impaled flesh, bone or something. An explosion erupted seconds after, firing out of the back of the monster’s head, blood, brains and pieces of bone trailed behind. Now on both of its knees, the Heavy Metal dematerialized into the thousands of polygons that it had once been and then blew away.

“That’s enough for today,” He said before looking back to see how far his big little surprise was. The beast seemed to take a rest or maybe another player had finished it off, Duo could not tell. Yet he could not wait for much longer. “Time to go,” He said while navigating the ‘Log out’ button with his cursor. Three golden rings flew below him as his body was taken to root town. From there, the Lizard could see, from afar, a certain Long Arm that he had seen many hours before then. Her long, blonde locks of curls still covered her head like a field of sunflowers, glowing in the sun’s rays. Duo smiled and signed off from ‘The World”. He took off the VR goggles that were strapped to his head and placed them on his desktop. He then got up and walked to his head, collapsing onto its soft surface. And then he feel asleep.

(Kind of a bad ending, but I had to leave soon.)

Duo0017 +1lv. +Copper Lance +Frost Bracer