Alfheim Online: Contested Forest
Small fire balls fly past me as I weave, trying to avoid getting hit in my attempt to escape. Turning to face my pursuers, I fire a spell of my own before continuing to flee. They probably didn't even realize who they were chasing. I felt my wings give out and disappear, as the flight timer ran out. As physics and gravity dictate, I started falling while keeping my momentum. No amount of passive race buffs were gonna make this hurt less. I collided with the tree head first. Landing on the ground with a thump, I barely notice the seven people landing a short distance behind me.
"Well boys, it seems like this is our lucky day." the salamander says. This elects a few chuckles from his buddies. The words for my only high level spell escape me as my seven pursuers fan out in a semi circle around me. As they tighten the circle, I step back until I bump into the tree.
"Hey boss, I think we should let this one go." the player in dark purple armor says, looking to the center player. Their leader starts to say something but stops when he sees where I'm looking. A group of at least fifteen more players is approaching. I fall to my knees, there is no way out of my situation. The fireball that wipes out the arriving players is enough to draw everyone's attention.
"Salamanders, stand down. That's a direct order." an imposing, dark maroon, armored figure says, as he descends. Landing in front of me. "To think that my own personal squad would do something like this." the newcomer sounds extremely disappointed. He turns around to face me. He is not overly masculine or rugged in appearance. His gaze softens as he gives me a once over.
He steps closer and I attempt to scoot away, only to bump into the tree. As he reaches down, I close my eyes and curl up the best I can. Only to feel a gentle pat on the head. Opening my eyes, I look up. "You're safe now." he says, before turning back to the party that had been chasing me.
"All of you. Return to the capital, and stay there. I'm going to go prevent political warfare." His piece said, my rescuer scoops me up in his arms and takes to the skies.
As we soar over the forest, I ask, "Why did you step in?"
"Because there are rules all nine races follow. They were about to break one." he says.
"Thank you, for saving me."
"Don't thank me yet. Wait till you're back at the Undine capital." With that, we fly in silence for a bit. A cold breeze has me huddle closer to my escort for warmth.
Undine Capital: Kyasuto
Looking at the sleeping form of my sister in the Salamander leader's arms, the first thing I say is, "I'm actually impressed. A sleep spell, Eugene?" He gives a light laugh at my jab, and a shake of the head.
"No spell required. She fell asleep over the marshlands." He says, laying her down on the couch over by the wall.
"I can assume this is a bit more than a social call?" I ask, slipping into race leader mode.
"I caught my own personal squad getting ready to break the rules. She was the target." He says.
"I presume that you are going to punish them?"
"Of course. I was thinking of removing their status as my personal guard, and temporarily exiling them. Unless you wish to go further?"
I dismiss the idea with a wave of my hand. "That's fine, I'm just relieved that my sister is unharmed." I say, reading his expression.
"I can see the resemblance. May I ask one question?" Eugene inquires.
"Ask away."
"May I party with her?"
"If I let her party with him, she'll be safe from Salamander attacks. On the other hand, Eugene is a melee fighter. She wouldn't learn any spells. Unless…. I hope she will agree." Coming out of my thoughts, I say, "Of course, but I do have a condition. I wish to send one of my people with you."
"Of course, I can see why. Now if you shall excuse me, I have a squad to punish."
As the door closes behind the Salamander leader, I let out a sigh. Now for the next task. Opening the faction menu, I navigate through it until I find what I'm looking for. With a few taps of the menu, I compose the message.
"Dear Asuna,
I have heard of your talent for magic, and combat. I ask as a fellow player, if you can come to my office in the capital.
Sincerely your race leader, Alex."
Sent. Now to wait and see, in the meantime time? Paperwork. Lots of paperwork. A ding gets my attention, and that was fast.
"Undine leader Alex,
It would be an honor to meet with you.
Sincerely, Asuna."
Perfect, now hopefully she will agree to her request. Kilala, I hope you don't realize what I'm doing.
Three months later, Ocean Turtle, Pacific Ocean
"I don't care what it takes, keep her alive." The voice over the phone says before hanging up. The overseer of the facility sighs. Three people were arriving via helicopter. One in critical condition, one to monitor the other while she was in the STL. and the third was the twin sister to the first one. This has best be worth the trouble that could occur. Granted the second had some experience in STL, so it wouldn't be a total bust.
Back of a Helicopter, over the Pacific Ocean
Kazuto Kirigiya was thinking about the latest thing that his government contact from the SAO incident had asked of him. Granted he had done this kind of dive before, but the conditions for this one are not very ideal. He looks over at the person he was to watch over. His luck had dictated that they were a girl. They looked to be around his age, five ft six in, pale blonde, maybe a C, and lightly tanned. The other person in the helicopter is the twin to his charge. Once they were in the STL he would need to find her fast.
Command Deck, Ocean Turtle
"Sir, we have a problem." one of the techs for the STL calls out, not looking up from his station.
"What's the problem?" the overseer asks, looking over his own station.
"The STL is refusing to register a second person to connect."
"Who is it not registering?"
"Kazuto Kirigiya."
"Keep trying."
Astara
The Commander looked at the twilight sky, something he had started to do in the recent years. It was then that he saw the shooting star. The star disappears into the Ancient Forest after passing over Astera. He can hear an impact from deep within the Ancient Forest. He would need to send investigation teams out in the morning.
Letting out a low groan, I start to stir from the embrace of sleep. Propping myself up on my elbows, I think out loud, "Where am I?" as I look around me. Massively tall trees ring my small clearing, as the area starts to fall into a eerie silent. The silence is slowly replaced with a low single chittering sound. Getting up fully, I turn to face the source of the noise and stop. A large, spider like creature, slowly enters the clearing, locking its gaze onto me. Without a second thought, I bolt as fast as I can into the forest. As I run through the forest, plants snag at my outfit and skin, roots attempt to trip me, and low hanging branches try to obscure my sight, and smack me in the face.
After what seems like forever of running, a root finally catches my foot, causing me to trip and fall down the slope that was hidden behind ivy. My head gets knocked around, and I can feel and hear my arm break, as I tumble down the hill. My tumble comes to an end as I land in a small stream, panting heavily, in pain, as the cold water soaks my clothes. I can hear the creature emerge from the same spot that I did, but in a more controlled manner. With immense effort, I roll over on my back. Its chittering picks up as it draws closer to my fallen form. Once it's close enough, it picks me up and starts to carry me, back the way it chased me. Arriving at the top of the hill, it climbs a tree with ease, despite the hold it has on me, revealing that it has a series of pathways spanning the tree tops.
It moves much faster, now that it's not chasing me down. In what seems like just a few minutes, but was probably longer, we're already back at the clearing that I woke up in. A deafening roar is heard as we enter the clearing. Massive in size, a blue wyvern descends from the sky, talons outstretched to attack. I land roughly as my capturer discards me to the side. The wyvern roars again, and the spider screeches in reply, both ready to show down. On some unknown signal, they strike, and I can only watch and pray as they tear into each other.
Fire, webbing, talons, and claws, terraform the clearing as the two behemoths fight. A stray glob of webbing grazes me, and pulls me along its wake till it splatters against a tree. I hit the tree just as roughly, and remain stuck to it. I can feel some of my ribs crack from the hit, and my arm break even further, and I cry out in pain. Curling up the best I can, considering half of me is stuck to a tree. I try to make myself a smaller target. It sort of works, as I become increasingly entangled in the sticky webbing. With a great meaty smack and some cracking, the burnt and shredded corpse of the spider thing lands in front of me. The wyvern slowly approaches, taking several deep sniffs as it comes closer. Stopping just in front of me, it looks with a predatory gaze. With care that betrays its large size, the wyvern reaches out with a wing and cuts the threads that bind me to the tree. My bound form falls to the ground, and I land roughly once more. With the same care, I'm picked up and the wyvern takes to the air. As we rise above the trees, I take in the sight below. A sea of vibrant green, with splashes of blue being the only thing to break it. It dawns on me, just how truly big the wyvern truly is. Just two of its talons is enough to span my entire body. It's sea blue scales are as big as my hand. Despite my predicament, I can't help but enjoy the wind.
The trees soon give way to an actual sea. Our course alters to the left a little, and a base built around massive bones becomes visible. We head directly towards it.
So you may have noticed that I've cut out part of the story, and have rewritten it as well. The reason I did so, was so that I could fix the mistake that I had made. Hopefully, I'll have a fixed/new ch2 up by Febuary.