"Fine, go on! Leave! It's not like you were helping anyways!" The young warrior shouted at the retreating backs of who she thought were her friends. Her crimson-tipped red hair was flattened against her skull as the rain poured down. Though she sniffled, Ruby refused to cry. Refused to give those who were leaving her in the dirt and mud the satisfaction of breaking her that way, even if the sound and sight would never be known by them. They didn't deserve to know how it affected her.
Knowing that she wasn't safe there, the young woman soon pushed her sadness out of her mind. The beasts of the wood would come for her soon if she didn't keep a move on. The roads were safe enough, but only if you didn't dally. So, off she went. The truth was, she was fully capable of doing this job herself. Her group of friends - or, ex-friends, she supposed - were people she really just brought along for their company. Though she was young, Ruby was very well equipped and was a fearsomely good fighter.
"Stupid jerks.." She muttered to herself, kicking a rock along as she walked down the path. "Don't need them.. Urgh.." Though the journey wasn't especially far, Ruby's lack of a horse (or someone to pass the time with) made it seem much, much more lengthy than it actually was. There was nothing for it, though. Ruby was far too stubborn to turn back and admit failure, and besides, going back to the city would mean that she would have to see the face of her old group - and if she dared show herself without proof that her job was done, they'd have been the smuggest bastards on the face of Remnant.
=^v^=
"Stupid..Idiot..Jerks!" Ruby hissed through her teeth, pulling her blade free from the body of a Boarbatusk. With a grunt, the heavily armored woman pulled the visor of her helmet up so she could let out a huff and take a deep breath. Clad in restrictive full metal plates and wearing a heavy tower shield and a long sword as her chosen weapons, Ruby should have been the slowest thing on the battlefield by far - but in fact, the opposite was often true. She worked hard, damn hard, to make sure that her agility was top notch. That speed of hers, plus her kill count and red-and-black color scheme,, was what had earned her the nickname 'Red Devil' despite only leaving her hometown a scant six months ago.
Usually, such honorifics - especially unofficial ones - were hard to earn even by adventurers who had been venturing out from the safety of city walls for years. Ruby had no idea what made her so special, and didn't really care to find out. She was here because she wanted to be. Because she had some… Sense of duty. Plus, she was good at hunting down monsters - so why not make use of that talent?
"Okay, now then…" Ruby murmured to herself, flicking her eyes to the dissolving corpse of her kill - beside another dozen of the same. "...If I were a giant gorilla who wanted to terrorize the roads along with my gang of equally giant werewolf-thingies, where would I be..?" She mused, looking around.
After leaving the road, knowing that she was ROUGHLY in the same area as her quarry, Ruby had stomped her way through overgrown thickets before pushing her way through dank and murky woodlands, eventually stumbling upon the clearing in which she now stood. Even if it hadn't been dark, rainy, and annoying to have to force her way through the brush - her progress had been delayed pretty constantly by monster attacks.
But, Ruby didn't mind so much. Every beast that fell beneath her blade was a chance to hone her skills further. Every monster that she repelled with her shield was one that wouldn't prey upon those who didn't have her abilities.
"Oh. That was easy." She said, peering through the brush at a cave mouth that looked so ominous that it was almost stereotypical.
"Well.. Here goes nothing." Ruby said to herself, squaring her shoulders up so she could advance once more.
=^v^=
If the beasts near the road and in the woods were a mild challenge, the ones in the cave were on a whole different level. Each fight was harrowing, causing Ruby to push herself to the brink practically every time she rounded a new bend in the underground tunnels. It took an hour or more of hard fought and hard won battles before the passages around her began to widen once more. With a little more room to breathe, the Red Devil leaned against one of the walls before sinking down into a sitting position. The winding corridors behind her were cleared of monsters, and where she sat at least seemed safe enough. Enough, at least, for her to take a breather, dress the myriad small injuries she had, and once more contemplate if this was worth it.
Damn the gold and damn her reputation with the other adventurers, this was about proving to herself that her old group was wrong to leave her. She was an asset, damnit! But, it was becoming clear to Ruby that while she was a boon - she'd somehow worn out her welcome. The argument that had erupted from seemingly nothing had shown that. Or.. Maybe she just wasn't as pleasant as she thought she was.
Suddenly, Ruby was pulled from her self-loathing reverie by faint but distinct flashes of white light in the areas ahead of her. "What the..? Oh no.." She whined, grabbing her sword and pushing herself to her feet.
It wasn't unusual for several hunters, or groups like the one Ruby had been a part of, to track the same prey, or to take on the same jobs. But, it was always a race to see who would get there first to claim the glory. It was a tricky thing, being an adventurer. On the one hand, you wanted to grab all the jobs you could to maximise your chance at profit. But on the other.. Make the wrong gambit, and you'd lose it all.
So, Ruby rushed forwards. Whether it was a case of her still having a shot at at least a partial reward, rescuing a less experienced adventurer, or enacting some well-deserved frontier justice didn't really matter that much to the Red Devil. It was instinctive for her to rush towards trouble at that point.
But, when she rounded the corner at the end of the tunnel she was in, Ruby paused. The sight before her was.. Well, 'awesome' didn't really do it justice. "Whooooooaaaaaaahhhhh…" She breathed out, stuck fast in her tracks.
Before her was a blur of blades and magic, emanating from a figure clad in icy-blue and white garments. As Ruby stood there, practically slack-jawed, she finally caught a glimpse of the warrior before her as she tangled with a Beringel. Decomposing and dissipating around them were the corpses of at least five Beowolves. The whirling dervish before her finally slowed their movements for just long enough that Ruby got a clear look at her.
It was a young woman, maybe only a year or two removed from her own tender age of nineteen, and she was absolutely destroying the Beringel in front of her. A beast that Ruby had estimated would have taken all of her own skill plus that of her entire group was being sliced, diced, and frozen by this one adventurer.
"A Cryomage.." Ruby whispered excitedly, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she watched the battle unfold. The woman mixed lightning quick slashes and thrusts with flicks of her hand that sent icicles cannoning into the Beringel's body.
Though the fight seemed to drag on, so enraptured in watching it was Ruby, in reality it took less than a minute before the Beringel was made into frozen mincemeat. Unable to contain herself any longer, Ruby shot forwards with a blur towards the armored mage. Now that she was standing still, Ruby could see that this mystery fighter was clad in a simple breastplate with a long coat atop it, as well as leather pauldrons and vambraces.
"I've never seen an actua-" Ruby began enthusiastically, before watching the woman whirl towards her with her blade - a rapier, she realized with a little bit of gleeful wonder - raised at her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm no-" She shouted, skidding to a halt and waving her hands frantically in front of her.
"Behind you, you dolt!" The woman shouted out, raising her empty right hand. Ice crystals began to form in her palm, but it was too late.
Before poor Ruby could get another syllable out, she felt the worst pain she'd ever experienced in her life. With the shrieking of talon through bone and metal, Ruby felt something WHUMP into her back - before emerging through her chest. The sudden feeling of weightlessness, as if nothing below her shoulders even existed, terrified Ruby to no end. With shaky motions, she looked down, and her eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Four claws, each probably seven inches long at least, were protruding from the middle of her chest. Covered in blood. Her blood, she realized, though that thought came slowly. Ruby's mouth worked back and forth, but the only thing that emerged from her throat and lips was more of that crimson fluid.
Everything started to grow fuzzy, before her eyes eventually shut. Though Ruby had seen the mystery girl's lips moving feverishly, as though she was shouting, in those last moments - the only thing the Red Devil could hear was a dull pounding in her skull, like the crashing of waves on the beach.
And then, there was nothing. Nothing but the feeling of her body dissolving into pixelated black mist.
=^v^=
"God DAMN it!" Ruby growled out, reaching up to pull the virtual reality headset away from where it sat on her head. With a groan, she sat up in bed and rubbed her temples. "I'm never gonna get used to that.." She muttered before rising to stretch. Since it was a weekend, Ruby was free from her academic responsibilities - which left her all the time in the world to dive deeper into her new obsession. Wasteland Assault Remnant - known as WAR by those who played it - was a fully immersive virtual reality massively multiplayer online game. A VRMMO.
With very few in-real-life social skills, complemented by her awkward nature, Ruby had recently discovered that she had a much easier time interacting with people through the guise of an avatar in a made-up world. But, that would have to wait for the moment. With a two-hour respawn period, Ruby was forced to get up and actually do something with herself. A shower and breakfast would be a good start, she supposed.
But still.. Who was that woman in the cave? It was one of many things that she would have to ponder on while she got ready for the day. What was someone who was a high enough level to be that advanced of a class doing hunting Beowolves and a Beringel? Why was she alone? And why was Ruby so damn awestruck by her?
Whatever the answers to those questions, Ruby was very, very, very much looking forward to diving back into WAR later on.
~.~.~
A/N: Woof.. This one has been a long time coming. I'll spare you the gritty details, but I went through a lot these past six months. I didn't want to write, to create, or even really to think. I'm sorry this took so long, and I hope that I can make it up to you all by giving you a quality story to read. I'm not going to set a demand I can't meet by promising concise deadlines, but I am going to be putting all of the energy I can muster into creating something I can be proud to show off.
To those of you still sticking with me on this ride, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Y'all the real MVPs