Chapter One: Incident

"Geez, you still haven't logged in, Sean?"

Sean groaned; he knew he should have checked his caller ID before picking up. "Calm down, David, I've been trying to get this stuff installed. Had to clear about half my video files just to make room."

"So you lost your collection of last decades music videos. Big loss."

"Stuff it David. So, what am I calling the game again?"

"You're already on?! What's your account name?"

"I told you what it was going to be at school today, Rookie44."

"…ok, I see you on my list now. Just call the game rookie, same password. Did you pick a character class?"

"Yeah, I was looking at some FAQs last night while I was chatting with Allison. Oh, by the way, she told me that she won't be on tonight. Something to do with her taekwondo class came up, a demo or something."

"Eh, that sucks. She told me her class the other day, and I had pulled together all this stuff together for her. So what did you decide on, anyway?"

"A throwing barbarian. It looked different enough to be interesting." Sean grinned slightly. "You know me."

David chuckled softly. "Just can't lower yourself to a cookie-cutter build, can you?"

"Not a chance." Sean responded before lowering his VR goggles over his head. "The games up, so let's finish this conversation online. My phone bills high enough anyway."

Jagger threw another blade into the crowd of squat demons before swinging his axe at one of the boldest of the attackers, easily striking it to the ground. The remaining fallen scattered, opening a path to a pair of shamans along the back wall. Jagger hurled another knife at the nearest one, but an unsuspected resurrection of one of its minions to take the blow spared it the blade. Jagger was able to sidestep the fireball that followed, but the other fallen and regrouped and were charging again. The barbarian groaned and wearily set himself for a second round of fighting.

Suddenly a golden ethereal blur flashed across his field of vision, leaving behind a neat pile of fallen's corpses, The second time it flew by, cutting the shaman down, Jagger was able to discern the blur's identity: a hammer.

"In a hurry, Sean? Most people clear out some of the moor before hitting the Den of Evil. Nice name by the way."

"The barbarian grinned before turning around. "Good timing, buddy. I'm not used to the things I kill not staying dead." He blinked a couple of times that the paladin's gleaming armor, massive shield and wicked scepter encrusted with jewels and gems. "Wow, when do I get that stuff?"

The paladin laughed quietly. "Good things come to those who wait, 'Jagger'. So, you going to accept my invite or just stare at it all day?"

So that's what that blinking light on my display is telling me? Wish I'd known sooner." Jagger accepted the invite immediately. "Dendraz? Where did that name come from?"

"Heh, ask Alli sometime. Anyways, you said you were making a thrower, so I brought you a few presents." Dendraz's character froze for a moment, then dropped two sets of throwing knifes, some leather armor, and a skullcap. After a few more seconds, a strange hand sword of some kind and a shield. "That's for Alli, and the rest of it is for you. You mind giving that to her?"

"Sure, no problem." Jagger responded, studying the knives in his inventory window. "All of these are rares? Thanks man."

"No worries. Now, let's get the rest of this dungeon cleared out."

Jagger jumped back to avoid another swipe from Corpsefire and flung a final knife into the zombie's chest. The monster fell back to the earth; it's torso and legs separating somewhat messily as it impacted, dropping an amulet and a jawbone helm.

"Well, that one went by quickly, eh Dendraz?" When there was no response to his comment, he turned to his friend to see a strange expression plastered on his face. Jagger followed his friend's line of sight to the remains of the unique monster Corpsefire.

The body was moving.

"So this one resurrects too?" Jagger asked. Another look at Dendraz showed very clearly that it shouldn't, so he prepped his throwing knifes and got ready to attack. "Well, we killed him once. Shouldn't be too hard to repeat."

Suddenly, the corpse burst apart, temporarily obscuring his vision with gore. It slowly faded to reveal a monstrous pale beast; it's surprisingly small eyes staring at the young barbarian over mandibles longer than Dendraz's scepter. The paladin immediately raced forward, hammers spiraling off of his body. "Jagger, run!" he shouted, blocking a strike with his shield. "This one's too strong!"

"So why would it be here?" Jagger argued, throwing a blade through the air. It hit home directly between the beast's eyes, but instead of felling it, this seemed to only enrage the monster, and it charged at Jagger, knocking Dendraz to the side. Jagger jumped back, barely dodging a viscous slash. The beast stepped forward to renew it attack only to be struck again by Dendraz's hammers. Even those didn't do any visible damage, but it pulled its attention away from Jagger. When he heard Dendraz tell him to log out again, he didn't hesitate.

Dendraz ducked and weaved around strike after strike, trying to open up enough space to run for it himself. Finally creating enough of a gap to dart through, Dendraz burst past the hideous creature and fled down the tunnel, all the time wondering how this monster had appeared within the Den of Evil.

Unfortunately Dendraz wouldn't be greatly delayed in his arrival on an answer. Just as he reached the exit to the den, the air before him began to shimmer, quite similar to a town portal spell, but translucent. He stepped back cautiously, trying to deduce the meaning of this phenomenon when the beast from before lunged out of the rippling portal and drove it's claws into his chest. His health dropped to zero instantly and he fell.

In the real world, David began to swear at the death of his character, but he was interrupted by a sudden paralysis throughout his body. He shook once, then his eyes closed and the boy fell to the floor, VR goggles popping from his head. Upon the screen of the goggles, a single line of text dominated the screen.

Dendraz was slain by Lister the Tormentor.