Well, I'm back with a new chapter. I hope it is better then the last. Thank you all for sticking with me. I have not abandoned this.
Waking with a start, I sit up in the bed. I feel a strange tingling in my hand. The one that was tore off by the fox. Looking down, I see that it is back and now that I'm awake, I can tell that the tingling was just the game registering my new hand. Well I assume. This is close to the feeling I had when I grew my legs back.
Looking at the time, I see that it is six in the morning. Since I'm already up, I get out of bed and clean the blood and soot off my pants and take off the leftover bandages. Everything is whole again and sore as if I got hit by a bus.
After all is washed, I put on my now clean cargos and my casual t-shirt which is just a plain white shirt. Quietly, I retrieve my boots and head out to replace my ammo, armor and clothing. This took some time to find armor near as good as my last set, thank Mother Bridget that my boots stayed together, it would have been impossible to replace these at the moment. I also grab a melee weapon, but this time I also pick up a tomahawk made of high-grade steel with the knife. I see myself destroying the long blade in the future, so I need a back up. Finally, I grab a loose hoodie and cover my
When I finish my shopping and now have a full resupply of goods. I also stock up on components and crystals. All of yesterday could have been avoided if I had a teleport crystal, or made easier with a health crystal.
I set up shop in an alleyway and slowly make my supplies up. By the time I'm done, it is noon, but I still feel the soreness and pains from my battle. To kill the time until Cheshire wakes up, I take a seat in the alleyway and work on some more songs from my advanced books. The new one I pick is "Diary of Jane" by an old band, Breaking Benjamin .
I memorize a few verses before Cheshire stumbles out of the inn looking tired. What time did that girl go to sleep? I call over to her as I get up from the cold ground. She sprints over and all but spear tackles me to the ground. Crushing my insides with a monster hug.
I hug her back and feel her shoulders starting to shake. Pulling back, I see that she is crying. "What's the matter?" I quickly ask, worried that something happened while I was out.
"You! You've been out for two days!" She cries out as she crushes me back into a hug. I stay in her embraces as I wait for her to calm down. Rubbing circles on her back. I hear her mumble into my shirt, "They found the boss yesterday. The meeting is later today. I think it is called [Fenris the Demon Prince]. A really big wolf."
She soon breaks from the rib shattering hug without doing too much damage to my person. Draping my arm around her shoulders, we head out to wait for the meeting in the square where the clock's set up. "Sorry to worry you love. I can say without a doubt say, I did not plan to almost be eaten by a giant fox." She elbows me in the ribs and picks up the pace to the square.
Everyone joins the meet after three hours of waiting in the square, we each eat some late lunch and Cheshire catches me up with what I missed while I throw together my X-rounds and FMJs.. A few people heard about my condition and sent their regards for my health. Apparently, Argo came by to see how I was doing at one point and she spread around that I was down for the count. Blasted girl, always messing around with me.
The meeting began with the blue haired guy once again trying to motivate us to clear the game. Blah blah blah. We go over the strategy for a bit then break for supplies then go off in the standard convoy. Again, Cheshire and I are in the back with a few other misfits. The plan is the usual, guild up front and minors back with the heavy hitters giving support or in the swordsman kid's case, at the feet of the boss, beating the shit out of it.
The ride was uneventful and I just sing a few ballads and buff whoever is in the truck with us. I also start practicing a few verses from the song I was working on earlier. I really want to hear it in its completed version even if the song calls for a guitar. If I pick up the pace, I can bullshit that aspect of it.
We are the first to dismount from the vehicle when they park outside what looks to be a small tunnel like the one with the King in it. We all go in a single file line and soon reach an opening where there is the usual boss door. We enter after another speech from the leader. The room is bare, but has a tall ceiling with no light to illuminate it.
Suddenly, the wolf drops to the ground in front of us with a boom and a large cloud of dust. Everyone draws their weapons and takes aim. Surprisingly, a deep, gravelly voice rings out from cloud, "Hold Humans." As the dust settle, the wolf is there, staring at the group with yellow, feral eyes. "I sense a human here that has bested me master in these chambers." oh not good. he lifts his giant head and sniffs the air.
He quickly whips his head around and looks at me. OH SHIT! As I stare wide-eyed at it, it starts talking to me. "Show me the mark of my master Human and I will make a deal with you." Hesitantly, I step forward and pull off my armor and shirt, exposing the tattoo.
A booming laugh echoes through the chambers, "Ah, I was correct, you have indeed defeated my master. You have proven your worth in my eyes. I challenge you to a duel. Pick your best fighter and fight me. If you win, I will be under your command. If you loss, well... I will hunt down all you love and destroy it."
Looking back at the group, I glance at Cheshire, "Chesh! I'm doing this!" I turn my attention to the swordsman kid I see in the truck all the time. "Yo Kirita or Kirito, whatever your name is, you want in on this?" He stares at me for a bit and nods his head. "Cool, Chesh! If I lose, make sure this raid finishes!"
"Crow you stupid bastard! You just got out of a mini-coma! Why the fuck are you fighting a giant ass wolf now?!" Cheshire yelled after me, using more vulgar language in that sentence than she would in a week. My manners must be rubbing off on her.
I turn back to the wolf as I put my armor back on, "I accept your offer. This swordsman will be joining me." Kirito steps up next to me. Just as I finish saying that, a clear wall goes up between us and the rest of the raid. Well I guess is truly to the death. I draw my rifle and fire the open shot as Kirito takes off at the wolf with his glowing sword.
As Kirito charge, the wolf lunges at him. In a burst of speed, he rolls under the creature's feet and start slashing his underside. My rifle echos the room as I switch it to full auto, take a knee, and start to unload my weapon on its head. Little blood squirts here and there tells me that I am hitting. Since it is the head, each is a critical.
After the first of his seven bars go down, he roars out in frustration as he flings all his limbs out, attempting to crush Kirito. There is a black blur flying out from underneath the prince as he falls. Kirito just did the mother of all dives to get out from beneath the wolf. On impact, a large dust cloud erupts from the ground.
I stop firing because I can't see and Kirito takes a defensive posture. Suddenly from the dust, the prince pounces for me. With a wordless cry, I fling myself to the side before its giant teeth could tear into me. Going full retreat, I see Kirito charging at me at full speed. As we pass, I do an about-face and tuck my rifle in. I do a backwards tumble and came up on my knee with my rifle ready and already having the trigger semi-pressed.
I quickly find the beast's head and we start the game again. Kirito starts to mix it up by swinging around the legs like a monkey and jump between them. I stick to the classics of blowing away its face. You know, the fun stuff. As I fire like a maniac, I had an epiphany. If the master could be blinded, why can't the prince? I soon slow my roll and start to carefully aim for its eye. I fire a burst and miss and hit its snout. which causes it to pause as it sneezes. In this pause, I line up my shot and fire. This one also does not fly true and goes into its ear.
It turns to me and charges. I guess the system made it realize what I was doing. Firing wildly, I run away. Why didn't I pack grenades. Wait, I made a satchel, did I put any in there? I stop firing and focus on running and recollecting. No I didn't, dammit. I did make landmines though. Opening my menu, I hear Cheshire scream. I see a shadow out of the corner of my eye, and dive to the side. Just in time as the place I was standing is now replaced with sharp claws as big as a bed.
Using the time I got, I draw out my satchel and pull out the landmine. I pull the pin as the prince turns to me and throw the active explosive at it. seems, I once again misjudge the power of an explosive I am throwing, and get flung back as it detonates on Fenrir's skull. As I get up, I see Kirito jump and stab the flank of the creature, so I lost its aggro. I put the satchel away and start unloading my rifle into it again. I'll use it when it gets really back.
That did not take long, for a minute later. Its fur starts to turn into a deep shade of red for what I assume is a berserker mode. "Kirito Retreat!" I shout as I pull out the satchel of explosives. I pull out another landmine from it and pull the pin. I throw the bag at the wolf as it chases Kirito and it lands between them. "RUN YOU FUCKER!" I shout in my vulgar way as I throw the active landmine at the bag which the wolf is rapidly approaching. Kirito kicks off with a burst of speed as the mine lands upside down.
It hits just as the wolf steps on it. The shockwave throws Kirito, but he is unharmed because he got far enough away thanks to his insane speed. My hair and clothes are the only thing that gets ruffled by the explosive, thankfully I did not take shrapnel to the eyes again. The wolf takes the full hit however and flies back. Drawing the Foxy Colt, I start unloading on the fallen body as it struggle to its feet. Thanks to all the hits its taken from both of us, the wolf is near its last bar of health.
I finish off all five of my clips of 45's just as it gets its bearings. Out of options, I pull my knife and axe out and charge at the creature as Kirito slashes apart its legs. "Kirito! Give me a boost!" He turns and immediately figures out what I am about to do. Great minds think alike. As I reach the young man, he crouches down and I use his back to vault up the wolf onto its back.
As I land, I bring the knife and ax down on its spine. "Now it's your turn!" I call down as I hook my boots on my weapons and hang down the wolf's flank. Kirito gives me a smirk and jumps, just reaching my hands. He uses me as a ladder and climbs aboard the Fenrir express. Getting back up, I see Kirito just brutalizing the poor thing's head as it whips it back and forth, fruitlessly trying to dislodge him. I just haphazardly stab its spine with my tomahawk as I use my knife to keep myself on the creature as it flails around.
One more strike until it is dead. The glowing weapon came down and hit the back of the roaring creature's head. There was no shattering sound because the creature didn't die, but Kirito did get the reward for killing it and the last attack item. I also got half the experience which needless to say, we both leveled up a few times. I finally reach level 70 of the 350 levels in this game. Min maxing for the win!
I guess the battle is over for the creature stopped moving and my knife got ejected for stabbing an immortal object, so we jump off the wolf and it backs up to face us. "Congratulations my liege and my liege's knight. I am now yours to command." With that he shatters and I gain an item. It just says Fenrir. I shrug, I'm not activating it now.
Turning to Kirito, I give out a laugh that is heavily dosed in insanity as I pick him up in a crushing manly hug. After putting him down, my head is struck by a feminine hand. HARD. Just under the requirement needed to be considered assault. Looking back, I see a PISSED Cheshire. "Um..." I start, but then I break away and flee towards the next level, screaming like a little girl, with Cheshire on my heels shouting obscenities at me. Damn, I really am increasing her vocabulary. I sprint down the road with Cheshire matching my steps if not gaining on me. She took the sprint skill a few levels back and I guess she is just a natural because she is only a few feet behind me.
Suddenly, I trip up as she tackles my legs and I slam my head into the dirt. As I lay there stunned, she quickly clambered up my body and put me in a headlock from the back. "Why didn't you chose me as your second Crowy?" She asks in a sickly sweet voice. OH HO SHIT! Not getting out of this one in one piece.
"Um... I need a close range fighter and well..." I began, but soon gave up on the lie as she tightened the hold. When she finishes strangling me and lets me have air back, I continue with the truth, "To be honest, I thought there was a rather large chance that I was going to die, so I needed someone to make sure the raid finished without anymore causality and well... I can't really willingly put the girl I love in a situation where the outcome would most likely be death or an immense amounts of pain. I am surprised however that, compared to Kyuubi, this guy was a pushover and Kyuubi was blind the entire time. I guess there was a large decrease in power that I did not expect. Sorry to worry you again in so little time," I finish my rambling as she slowly starts to move.
Cheshire slowly loosened the hold as she said, "Okay... But if you EVER do something like that again! I will shoot you in the BALLS with FIRE!"
I flinch like I have been struck and whimper out pathetically, "Yes dear... Please don't shoot me." Make me face a wolf that is the size of a one story house, I'll kick its ass with nary a scratch, pit me against my enrage girlfriend and I crumble in seconds.
She lets me up and asks what I got from the wolf. Her tone taking a complete 180 from threatening my balls to a sweet and curious voice. Nervous of further harm, I go into my inventory and activate the item. Fenrir materializes in front of me, but he is now the size of a Labrador Retriever and he looks AWESOME! "Greetings my liege. As you can tell, I am now your [Pet]. I will follow any orders you give to my fullest extent." Once he says pet, a pop up with the info came into view.
Pets:
Followers that accompany the player. Some have the ability to fight while others support the player and their party. The pet follows all commands the player gives while slowly gaining intelligence to better assist in their role.
Pets can only be traded to the player's wife/husband and can not be sold
Cool! I've seen some people with pets! There suppose to be hard as hell to get. More awesome! "My first command to you is," I pat Cheshire on the shoulder, "This woman takes priority over my life. If we are in danger, you are to help her before even thinking about helping me. Do you understand?" The wolf bows his head, indicating that he understood. "Now the heavy stuff is out of the way, welcome to the family Fenrir!" The wolf seemed to grin at this and took his position behind Cheshire. This is made irrelevant as she summoned the car. She took the driver seat while I hopped in the turret to let my new pet take the front so he doesn't fall out while we are flying down the road. That would be a hammer to the prince's pride.
I take in my surroundings while keeping the gun on a circular pattern to cover us. The new area seems to be a swampy area full of zombies and what seems to be poisonous creatures. That can be worrisome. There was also a reddish-orange giant beetle looking thing. I wonder if they blow up like in other games with red monsters? I call down to Cheshire, "YO! I'm opening fire to test something." She calls back a confirmation.
I line the barrel with the approaching beetle and open fire on it. As soon as the heavy caliber rounds tear into the insect, the body expands by a thousand percent, then erupts in a fiery explosion of destruction. Ho-ly shit. I laugh like a maniac as the buggy flies through the cloud of ash that was produced. "That was awesome!" I cry as we continue down the road. I hear a similar cackling from Cheshire as she speeds along.
I get a message for the reward. I get a rather large amount of experience. Looking at the page, I open it further to see what got me all that experience because that thing died way too fast and since Cheshire is driving this car, then she got half of the rewards. I see that the explosion killed a very long list of undead enemies. Awesome and terrifying because if they were that close together, then this place has mobs that will ambush you in large numbers.
"Chesh! Look for any red beetles! That explosion killed sooo many things and they seem to be a signal of an ambush!" We continue down the road as Cheshire pointed out all the beetles and I blew them up. This helped Cheshire leveled up just as we got into the new town. It seems to be made of scrap metal. The buildings look large, but the materials make it seem a lot smaller than what it would look like if they used say steel. We start to search for the inn, which we find a few minutes later, near the middle of the town. We pick our room and sleep for it took a few hours to get here and we are both tired. Fenrir took the foot of the bed with us.
The next morning found us hunting for some quests to do in the scrap metal town. The first we found was a crying child. Cheshire walks up to the young boy and kneels to eye level. "What's the matter little one?" She asks in a concerned voice.
"M-My daddy was killed by the things i-in the swamp. H-He had to get some wood for our fire, so he and u-uncle went for wood, but *sniff* daddy never came back! My daddy always carried around a pocket watch with mommy and him in it. Could you find it? Uncle told me *sniff* where he died, b-but made me promise not to go until I'm older!" the young child told us while trying not to let his voice break.
Cheshire, moved by the story, hugged the NPC while agreeing to the quest. The child returned the embrace and backed away. I too agree to the quest and ruffle the boy's hair as I pass him into the swamp. The swamp is full of wet mud with trees as far as the eye can see. Cheshire and I take to the tree tops. With my acrobatics and her high agility, we make go time. Fenrir also seems far more agile than either of us gave him credit for as he easily kept go to the area that is marked on our map and soon find a hoard of zombies. In the middle is a corpse of a middle age man. Near him, I see the item we are searching for.
"I have a plan Crow. The standard distract and grab we usually do," Cheshire whispers to me. Glancing over, I see a worried expression on her face. I give her a nudge to the ribs and a smile to get her to continue. "You are still the faster and more agile person in this group. When you start the distraction, I'll get the watch and take to the trees."
I give her a grin, "What? Why not just run in their like a madman and take it like any normal player," I asked jokingly. She kicks me in the shin. After hopping around for a bit, I stop and agree to her plan. Checking my rifle, I sling it across my back and draw my cursed pistol.
"I'll message you when I get the watch." We nod and take our positions
I sneak my way over to the other side of the clearing and open fire on the zombies. I stand there for a bit to make sure they are following, then bolt back to town. I occasionally stop to shoot some more and keep the aggro going. Soon, a message pops up, telling me that Cheshire has the watch and is heading back to town.
I pick up the speed and jump into the tree line to escape the zombies. I soon make it back to the town and sit on the roof of a building to wait for Cheshire. After a few minutes, I see a pair of black blurs launch out of the trees and land inside the town. It is Cheshire and Fenrir. She starts walking towards the young boy.
Getting up and hopping off the roof, I fall into step behind Fenrir. we get to the crying boy and Cheshire hands him the watch. He gets a huge smile on his small face and hugs Cheshire's leg. Well off to do more stuff to get more experience.
A/N - well the we are. Another chapter up. Review so I can become a better writer! Thanks for reading!