A/N: So Lightning has finally found Hope, just in the nick of time wouldn't you agree. The boy was in quite a pickle within the field dungeon. Now let's see them have a little reunion. Don't be shy to review what you think of the story unless what you have to say involves the grammar, in which case, not one word.
NOVEMBER 3RD, 2022. FLOOR 1, BAMBOO FOREST
I shout as I do a charged slash at the last Groundbreaker. Phase right through the monster leaving a large data cut on it. The Groundbreaker roars then shatter. I earned no results from those monsters. Not really sure why must be a bug or something? Then again, when I saw those gorillas, their cursors were gray. That could have meant something.
I stand straight, sheathing my weapon. I turn around to notice Hope is just standing there, staring at me. What's wrong with him? He's wide eye and his expression is shocked, almost like he's seen a ghost or someone close to him die. His staff just drops right out of his hands.
"I-I-It...It can't be..." I can see his body shaking, even if it is slightly. Hope takes his first step, slowly approaching until he's right in front of me. "L-Lightning...Is it really...?"
I say nothing. Just looking down at the little boy. Hope is standing right in front of me, he raises his trembling hands to feel my face, only I grab them and retreated them. "Watch where you are putting them."
Hope takes a step back. "It-it is you." Suddenly, Hope plants his head on my chest, tightly wrapping his arms around me. I became startled, didn't really do anything but look down at him. "I can't believe you're really here. I missed you so much."
I guess I shouldn't blame him. He has been trapped within this game for two weeks. He was probably scared when he heard he's trapped in this game with the risk of death in the real world. I smile a little and wrapped my arms around him.
"It's good to see you too," I say.
Hope and I end our hug, then Hope looks worried. "Light! Your health."
On the corner of my vision, I see my HP is now 57/428. I didn't even realize how low my HP is from those monsters. "It's nothing. Don't worry."
"No, you should worry. It's important to keep your health up. The moment it hits zero, it's over." Hope says. Hope holds his staff in front of him, closing his eyes. Four rings of ancient words circle around him and he speaks in some weird language. It's nothing I've ever heard, but I'm guessing it's a made-up one they use in these games.
As Hope chants, the rings stops, the chosen words in front of the glow while the rest vanishes, one ring-by-one ring. In the end, his hands and staff glow in bright light. shimmering dust comes from the staff and sprinkles around me, causing my HP to go up from 57 to 349.
"How did you do that?" I ask.
"I'm a Cleric. We are excellent healers." Hope looks at me up and down. "I see you're a Swordsman. No surprise." Hope chuckles a little.
I give him a bump on the head. "Watch it you."
Me and Hope laugh a little, then our moment ends when someone cleared her throat loudly, just to get our attention. "Can I get a little help here?"
"Oh. Right. Sorry." Hope does the same position and casts that healing spell on his friend.
Her HP restores, then Hope does another spell, only he speaks in a different sentence in the chant. In the end, just the tip of his staff glows. A shining orb appears on top of the girl and explodes sprinkling light all over her. The yellow icon with the black lightning bolt vanishes from her bar.
The girl stands up, wiping off her clothes. "Thank you." The girl approaches me. "What's a Swordsman doing here?" The girl turns her attention to Hope. "Do you know her, Espeon?"
I'm surprised to hear that then looks at Hope. "Espeon?"
"Yes. That's my character name. You can't expect me to use my real name." Hope says.
"Got me there," I say. I look at the girl. "I'm a friend of his, the name's Lightning."
The girl looks surprised. "Oh. So you're the famous Lightning." I'm surprised she's heard of me. "Espeon's been talking non-stop about you. All though I'm surprised you're playing under your real name."
"Lightning's not her real name. She just goes by the name 'Lightning'. No one really knows her real name, except her sister." Hope faces me. "This here is Leafa. She's been helping me out."
"Pleasure to meet you," Leafa says.
Leafa seems like a fine girl. "Just what are you doing in this game, Light? I never expected you, of all people, to be in Warlords Wrath Online."
Part of me felt offended hearing that, but it is true. Even I would have thought the same thing. "After I heard about the game, I had to do something. So I came in and joined the game."
Hope says nothing for a moment, neither does Leafa. "That's the stupidest thing anyone could ever do. Not even Snow would do something like this and you call him an idiot."
I'm starting to think he's right. Maybe I shouldn't have come there, but it's already too late. Then again, if I haven't shown up, he and Leafa would be dead meat or data.
"I think it's nice. She must really care for you." Leafa looks at me. "Anyways, as long you are here, mind helping us finish this dungeon? Would be nice to have someone on the front lines. You'd be surprised how hard it is to cast magic when the monsters are focusing on you. Although a Crusader would be nice since they're tanks, but I guess a Swordsman is good too."
"When you put it that way, it kind of hurts," I say.
Leafa chuckles a little. My attention turns to Hope, who's accessing his menu. I can barely see what he's doing since I'm viewing from behind and everything's backward. But what I do understand is this small window that appears in front of me that says 'Espeon has invited you to join his party'.
I hesitated for a moment. I did come all this way to find Hope. I guess I should lend him a hand, so I accept his invite. By doing that, two bars appear on the corner of my vision. They're half the size of my own, only they say 'Espeon' and 'Leafa' Their HP bars are pretty thin and the second half of their bars are filled with a blue line.
"What's that blue color on your bar?" I ask.
"It's mana. It's what we use to cast spells." Leafa says.
"Only the Clerics, Dreamers, Wavemasters, Avatar's and Witches and Wizards can have mana cause they cast spells. Crusaders have Holy Power cause they only have little spells and they're for self-healing." Hope explains.
"Man. There's a lot of stuff to learn in this game." I say, earning a laugh from Hope and Leafa. I look at Hope's and Leafa's stats. Leafa is a level 12 with 837 HP and 913 MP, which I assume is this 'Mana' Hope is a level 3 with 305 HP and 430 MP. "Ho-Espeon." I almost blurted out Hope's real name. "You're only level 3?"
"He was level two when he asked for help," Leafa says.
"It's not my fault. Clerics aren't good with DPS." Hope says.
"Yeah, yeah. So you keep telling me." Leafa says.
"Why did you pick a Cleric if they're weak with fighting?" I ask.
"Cause I wanted to try something new. If I knew I was gonna be stuck in this game, I would have chosen Wavemaster." Hope says.
Leafa stretches her arms over her head. "Well, if we're done with the chit-chat. We should get moving before the monsters respawn."
Leafa does have a point. We continue down in the dungeon. The monsters there are full of Savage Wolf's, Groundbreakers and these strange creatures known as 'Faerie Dragoons'. I fight off the wolves and gorillas. I could hardly avoid any attacks so I kept getting hit. What I notice is that Leafa's weapon is a knife.
Hope stays back and starts healing me. My HP bar constantly goes from yellow to green then back at yellow then returning to green. During my fights, I know there's light purple or golden yellow blasts of magic aiming at the enemies. I'm guessing they are Leafa's spells.
All that's left is the one Faerie Dragon, but the creature is in the air I can't reach it. I growl in aggression. Leafa puts a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, I got this." Leafa raises her hand in the air, chanting a spell. In the end, the palm of her hand glows in light purple and shoots a spell orb in the sky. The just goes high until it's out of sight. I pay attention to the Faerie Dragon, only the second I do, a large spell orb crashes onto the Faerie Dragon, destroying it. "Starfire. Always a helpful spell."
We all earned our results. Hope reached level 4. He was excited. I still have a ways to go for level 8. "Hey, I wanted to know." Hope and Leafa turn their attention to me. "When I took out those Groundbreakers back there, I didn't earn any experience or Krystals. How come?"
"That's because they were tagged," Hope says. "When a player hurts or aggroes an enemy, they become tagged. You'll notice their cursor turns gray. That'll mean you won't earn any results when you kill them, only the player that tagged them will."
I suppose that makes sense.
We continue down the dungeon. The rest of the monsters down the path were no match for us. We made quite excellent progress. We reach deeper into the dungeon. The area is some lumber camp with chomped trees on the fields. The people that are chopping down the trees are...well, aren't people. Just humanlike ugly green-skinned creatures.
"What the hell are these things?" I ask.
"They look like Orcs," Hope says.
"This must be the Metal Horde everyone's talking about," Leafa says.
"Move faster you swines! Garrosh Hailroar needs the lumber NOW!" The one orc in the back said. Judging by his armor and command, he's probably the leader of this squad.
"I didn't know the monsters here talk," I say.
"They're not monsters. They're enemy NPC's." Leafa says.
"That orc back there is the dungeon boss. We just need to take him out." Hope says.
So we have a plan. I rush in and take out the Grunts and Leafa backs me up while Hope keeps us alive. We start attacking the first three. As we begin the attacks, the leader takes notice.
"Intruders!? Here!? Kill them you fools!"
The Grunts were quite the fighters, but they're weak. Hope cast some spell on me cause a barrier of light shields me, and the orcs attacks deal no harm to my HP. Hope spends his time using what offensive magic he has. Leafa chants a nature spell, which causes her to shoot golden yellow bolts at the Orcs.
Each Orc that's been defeated, more of them attack us. I reach level 8 during the first wave. I have learned a new ability known as 'Whirlwind'. I try it out by drawing my sword back to my right side. The sword charges and I unleash Whirlwind, spinning at high speed with my sword held out. My attack hits all the orcs near me. I can hardly see anything since I'm spinning around at a high speed.
When I'm done, all the Orcs that surround me are in yellow HP. Me and Leafa finish them off with a couple of strikes and spells. All of the Orcs shatters in defeat.
"Bah! Weaklings! No matter! I will slice you all in half and mount your heads on my wall!"
The leader takes out his polearm. He steps off the platform and his cursor appears on his head, along with his name: Fleeting Commander, and three health bars.
The health bars surprise me. "Three health bars? Is that even possible?"
"Bosses in the Field and Elite Dungeons have greater health than the monsters," Leafa says. "It usually takes a group to take them out."
We ready ourselves then charge in against the Fleeting Commander. "I shall make the Warchief proud!" I strike hard on the Fleeting Commander so he's focused on me, while Leafa stands back, casting her offensive magic.
Fleeting Commander manages to make a few strikes on me, my HP slowly drains. Hope casts a barrier spell on me. I make some powerful ability strikes on the Fleeting Commander. The Fleeting Commander makes some swift swings with his polearm. I dodged the first two then parried the third one with our weapons clashed.
The Fleeting Commander loses his first health bar. "You're tougher than I thought!" The Fleeting Commander's polearm floats inches off of his hands and vanishes, then a sword and shield appear in his hands. "But I will not die that easily!"
Facing the boss with the shield and sword is difficult for me. While I strike with a one-handed sword, he blocks my attacks with his shield and strikes at me with his sword. My health constantly goes down and builds back up from Hope's healing. So far, I could only rely on Leafa to drain this NPC's HP.
It took longer than before to knock out the next health bar. The Fleeting Commander's health turned yellow halfway through the second bar. Fleeting Commander drops his sword and shield. "Enough of this!" He takes out a large ax with a skull in the center of the head. "Time for you to DIE!"
Fleeting Commander swings his heavy ax at me. The blow knocks me back and I crash-landed between Hope and Leafa. I struggle to sit up. When I do, I lost a lot of HP from that one swing. I was at 419 now I'm down to 190.
"Damn. He's strong." I say, getting up.
Hope does his healing on me. "Well, let's see if he's stronger than nature." Leafa raises her arms in the air, in a V form, and chants a nature spell. In the end, vines and roots come out of the ground and grab the Fleeting Commander, immobilizing him in place. The Fleeting Commander struggles to break loose.
I charge in with powerful strikes. The Fleeting Commander's HP enters the red zone. The monster roars and cuts the roots and vines, slowly at first until his swinging arm is free. The three of us are in worry seeing the Fleeting Commander broken free.
The Fleeting Commander glares at us, he jumps high, leaping towards us. I stand in front of Leafa and Hope, blocking the attack with my weapon. I roughly slide back by the Fleeting Commander's attack, trying hard to stand my ground. I can see my HP dropping, even faster than the last few parries.
"Your skulls will make a fine ornament for my armor." The Fleeting Commander says.
"Not on your life!" I shout at him, repelling his weapon from me. Oh great, I'm talking to a 3D animated object. The Fleeting Commander holds his ax over his shoulder, I move my sword to my lower left. Our weapons charged up and we strike. Our weapons clash, but mine cuts through the ax, breaking it in half. The broken weapon crashes to the ground and both pieces of the ax shatter.
I throw some powerful swings on the Fleeting Commander until his HP drops to zero. The Fleeting Commander drops to his knees. "The Metal Horde...will prevail."
The Fleeting Commander falls to his stomach, glows then shatters. The three of us earned our results: 310 EXP, 500 Krystals and I earned a Commander's Breastplate. I turn around to see Hope and Leafa, who are looking at me with shocked expressions.
"What?" I ask.
"You just...destroyed his weapon," Leafa says.
"No one's ever done such a thing like that before," Hope says.
I don't really see the big deal. I do access my menu, checking my equipment. This breastplate gear is a chest piece, so I put it on. My vest glows and becomes replaced with a silver chest plate.
"Well, I think it's time to head back to town," Leafa says. "The dungeon's probably filled with monsters by now. So let's teleport out."
I look at Leafa. "Teleport?"
"Yeah. Use our Teleport Crystals." Leafa and Hope enter their menus, scrolling through their items list. A rectangular-shaped blue crystal appears in their hands. I enter my items list and took out my crystal as well. "Just raise them in the air, say 'Teleport' and then a name of a town." Leafa holds her crystal in the air. "Teleport: Dawns Blossom!"
Leafa glows brightly then vanishes. I'm surprised at the work of the teleportation. Hope and I did the same, and we all teleport out of the dungeon.
[Flashback - Day 4]
The Guardian Corps station. There is where Lightning Farron works as Bodhum Security Regiment. Right now, the young Farron is in her Lieutenant Amodar's office. Lately, she's been in a slump. Barely at guard duty, rookies defeating her too easily in training, spacing out in worry. It's really affecting her job.
"What's wrong with you, Farron? You've been in a slump recently. This isn't like you." Amodar says.
Lightning leans forward down. "Sorry, lieutenant." Lightning sits up straight. "I've...been distracted lately."
"It's that Estheim kid, isn't it?" Lightning slowly nods. "I get it. My niece and nephew are also trapped in that Warlords game."
"I just can't believe this is happening. Hope is like a little brother to me. It's bad enough I've lost my parents, but now..." Lightning looks down in worry.
"At least you still have your sister," Amodar says.
"Yes, I do, sir. But still, Hope is part of the family...ever since he lost his parents from that accident." Lightning points out.
Amodar and Lightning are silent for a while. Amodar can tell just by looking at Lightning she's worried about Hope. "Tell you what." Lightning looks at her lieutenant. "Why don't you take the day off?"
"Really, sir? Are you sure?" Lightning asks.
"Of course," Amodar says.
Lightning stands and gives a small bow. "Thank you, sir."
Lightning goes to her office to pack up her things and head out. She makes a drive to the Bodhum Hospital.
It's been three days since Hope got trapped within Warlords Wrath Online. The moment the news got out, all of the trapped players got transported into the hospitals. Each of the hospitals was able to hook up their helmets to the hospital computers so they can keep living in the game, and Lightning is driving to the one Hope's kept in.
Arriving at the hospital, Lightning approaches the front desk telling the receptionist telling her she's here to visit Hope Estheim. She's given a visitor's badge and takes the elevator to the twentieth floor where Hope's room is at.
Word got around that nearly a thousand people have died in Warlords Wrath Online. Lightning's glad that Hope's not one of them, but it doesn't calm her worries of his risk of death within the game. Lightning arrives on the floor, she walks down the hallway until she arrives at the hospital room of Hope Estheim.
She swipes the entry card on the security panel, gaining entry. Lightning walks into the room, only she's surprised to see that she's not the only one who's here to visit Hope.
"Serah?" Lightning is sitting on the chair beside the hospital bed. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"Me neither." Serah stands up. "I thought you were at work."
"I was, then I got an early leave to visit Hope." Lightning says.
Serah thought that was nice. The two of them look down at Hope, who's laying on the hospital bed wearing the Nervegear. His eyes are closed. He looks asleep, but his mind is really elsewhere: Inside Warlords Wrath Online. He's hooked up to the heart monitor that's showing he's still alive, and he's also hooked to some tube attached to a bag filled with water and vitamins he needs to stay alive.
"He looks so cute when he's asleep," Serah says.
Lightning looks at her sister with disappointment. "How can you say that? He's trapped inside some video game where he could die in the real world if he dies in the game and you're saying how cute he looks while he's in a coma?"
"Lightning. Calm down. I'm worried about Hope, too. But I know he'll be okay." Serah says.
"How can you be so sure?" Lightning says.
"He's a smart kid. I've seen him play video games with Snow and the NORA gang, and Hope always beat them." Serah stands beside Hope, stroking the loose hair on his forehead, that's not contained in the helmet. "There was a time when Snow and the gang did a team battle, all of them against Hope, and he still beat them. They didn't even go easy on them."
Lightning still isn't fully convinced, but she knows it's true. Serah's phone vibrates. She answers it to see a text message. "Snow's here. I'm gonna head home." Serah puts on her jacket and picks up her backpack. She walks past Lightning but stops by her side. "Have some confidence. He'll be all right."
Serah leaves. Lightning watches her sister leave until she was out of sight, then she returns her attention to Hope. Lightning walks to the side, sits on the chair, and holds his hand.
"I'll find a way to save you, Hope." Lightning says.
