A/N- Thanks for the reviews, guys! I decided to treat you by publishing Chapter Two early. I have decided that I will not include FriendLog conversations, even though some like them. I think it helps the scenario. Anyway, get ready for some action, cause the kids' have just entered Plane One- but will they survive the first wild encounter?
Enjoy the show!
/
CHAPTER TWO- Plane One -The Plain of Spiders– Forest of Mists
/
Eddy awoke to the fact that he wasn't as dead as he might have been.
Looking around him, all he could see was blue sky, green fields and the hint of mountains on the horizon. The sky stretched on for miles, unblemished, punctuated only by misty clouds in completely regular shapes.
Eddy had never been one to believe in the afterlife, but even so he was overjoyed he'd made it to heaven.
Eddy had, in the time after the Big Picture Show, become not only less of a jerk to everyone (though he was still greedy) but a successful businessperson because of two key ingredients- confidence, that he'd never had until he faced up to his brother, and favour, that he'd never had due to his lack of confidence. He was never out of pocket, and made enough money in a week selling crosswords and comics to indulge him and his friend's new tastes- pizza takeouts, and lots of them.
When he got up, the first thing he noticed was his clothes. His normal clothes had been replaced with a strange set of gear- some kind of light, red plate armour, like you'd see on samurai. He also had a bronze, curving blade in a hilt by the side of his waist that he drew and tossed around, light as a feather.
The second thing that he noticed was the small icon in the corner of his vision that said "menu".
Eddy was not one to take bullshit, and he immediately tried to remove this offending item. However, after several attempts at hitting it away, he deduced it was either a sticker on his eye (he shuddered at the thought) or just not there at all. Shrugging, he tried to look at it in focus when the icon depressed and another ethereal object opened on the other half of his vision.
It was a menu just like in a video game- with options for "Stats", "Map", "Items", "Equipment", "Options" and "Journal" right there. Looking at it, he tried to open the "stats" menu by focusing in on it deeply, like he did the menu command. Suddenly, the icon depressed and another menu opened up over it- strictly on the left side of his vision, so as not to remove the power of eyesight from him completely. He was amazed when it showed a picture of himself, with his kooky gear, and a bunch of letters followed by numbers next to it.
EDDY- LEVEL 1 FIGHTER
HP- 43
AP- 12
ATK- 7
DEF- 4
MAG- 4
MDF- 3
SPD- 7
DEX- 5
"Is this some kinda video game? Either that or I'm having some kind of weird afterlife thing…" he muttered to himself. He closed the stats menu and then focused on the "Map" icon- but there was nothing on it. Apparently it hadn't been activated yet. Eddy sighed and looked at the plain.
It stretched on for miles in either direction, with no scenery except for dips or hills and the distant mountains. Come to think of it, there was a large hill coming up to him now that had been blocking his view. Climbing up the steep incline, he took one more step before a white halo appeared around his vision. He turned around – and saw two warriors standing behind him.
His screen had changed, showing his HP and AP, and something called a Limit meter, which wasn't moving at all and seemed to be completely empty. The two warriors approaching him were ninjas, with short katanas hitched behind their black, tight-fitting gear as they crouched to the ground, moving slowly towards him. Most disturbingly, they had eight eyes that were all skull-white. Eddy ran behind the ninjas, who reacted and began to attack, pulling out shuriken and throwing them at him. They thudded harmlessly into the earth, but the ninjas did not show any signs of disappointment as they advanced towards him.
Eddy heard a sound as he thought about attacking them, and suddenly a menu with four options appeared.
ATTACK
SPECIAL
MAGIC
ESCAPE
The ninjas were attacking again. Rolling to the side with a curse, Eddy avoided one katana swing but was struck by the second, which thunked into his flesh with a vengeance. Eddy screamed in pain as he saw his blood run into the soil, with the other ninja readying more shuriken ready to finish him off.
/
Sarah was in a similar place to Eddy, but she could see a whole lot more than he could. The square clouds loomed overhead, the grass still stretched on for miles, and there were still mountains in the distance. But Sarah could see a building- an oriental hut, with a screen door closed to the world. That was weird. Was this some sort of samurai afterlife or something?
She noticed her clothes- they had been replaced with light, red plate armour, just like Eddy's- but her weapon was a crossbow with a set of bronze-tipped arrows in a quiver behind her. She took a few steps to test out the new set of clothes- it was a bit uncomfortable, but was OK nonetheless.
Then she noticed the "menu" icon in the corner of the screen.
(NOTE- So you don't get bored, I'm gonna skip Sarah's discovery of the menu system. Just to speed things along.)
After getting to grips with the menu, she ambled towards the house, which was a good half-mile away. Breaking into a run, she noticed the armour's weight lift, allowing for faster movement. If this WAS a video game, it was very convenient. Drawing up to the house, which seemed oddly silent, she put away her crossbow and opened the paper screen.
/
Eddy moaned and groaned as the number indicated by his HP went down significantly- by the time the numbers had stopped rolling, his former 34 HP reduced to a mere 20. He didn't need Edd to tell him what would happen if it reached zero. Eddy's dwindling consciousness finally noticed the "attack" option, and focused on it, hoping for some kind of special power or something. None whatsoever.
Then he remembered the blade at his side.
Whipping out the blade, he slashed it across the legs of both of the ninja, spurting blood and biting into bone. The attack seemed to do heavy damage, and the ninja with the shuriken collapsed on the ground and, oddly, vanished, leaving only a small bottle of blue liquid and a shard of metal. The other ninja leapt back, readying shuriken from long range, attempting to do some more damage. Eddy noticed his strength was rapidly falling, leaving him vulnerable to long range assault, so he quickly opened the menu and selected "SPECIAL". Only one option was there, and it said:
LEVEL 01 - PROJECTILE SLASH – 3 AP
Selecting it, Eddy saw the AP number on his menu dwindle to 9, and suddenly his sword became enveloped in energy. Slashing at the ninja, he was amazed as the energy around the sword flew off in a curved, boomerang shape and slammed into the ninja, knocking it back and into nothing. The same spoils were left behind as before. Eddy whooped at the conquering of his first adversaries.
Sheathing his blade, he walked to the vial and hard left in the blades of grass and tried to pick them up. He yelped when they melted into white light which flew into his armour, although there was nowhere in there to stow them. The screen showed that he had accumulated a "small energy beverage" and a "mettalite shard", both of which were in his inventory.
"Typical video game…"
Opening the menu and clicking the "Items" option, he was presented with a linear screen holding his shard and liquid. Looking at the liquid, he thought "drink" and lo and behold, the vial was in his hand. Drinking it, he felt a slight spark of energy and his HP rolled back up to 25, reducing the size of the wound in his side. He could not find any use for the shard except for a shitty weapon.
Grabbing and ingesting the other potion, Eddy began up the hill again, this time with no ninja behind him. The hill was high, and he felt about to fall over before he just managed to reach the top. He gasped at the view.
Not only could he see the mountains in great detail, but he could see a village of oriental houses nestled into the mountains guarded from view by mist lower down. There was also a hut far away, with a screen door-
-that someone, in red armour, just pulled open and entered.
Eddy began to go into a run. If he was any example to go by, that could well be another one of his friends.
/
A massive beast sat on a bed of web matter and a throne of stone on a mountain peak that stretched up so highly that it was impossible to see. Below the curtain of mist, the mountain simply ceased to exist- the perfect stronghold. Before the creature sat a huge spider, with pulsing yellow abdomen and a translucent stomach full of skulls visible by cracks in the chitin, grovelling in the creature's wake. The creature boomed out in a voice that both roared with demonic power and skittering clicking, as if it had massive fangs that clacked with each word.
"What is this I hear? Intruders into my realm? Twelve of them? In red armour? Pathetic. Tell our armies to kill them on sight. This land is ours. If, perchance they find one who knows my nature, they may be a threat to my empire's expansion…"
The massive spider nodded fervently. The master was impossible to see and not quake, no matter your race- human, spider or anything else. High-flying birds that got a glimpse of the Master's face actually fainted, and weak-hearted ones just plain died.
"I will tell the Dronesss to handle them, sssir. Ssshould I warn Ssshrogii?"
The master boomed like thunder. "I already have, simpleton. He is waiting in his tower for them to arrive, along with his bodyguard. He is such a fierce warrior that there's no chance he could fall. Still, bait them into his tower. If those below discover I am mortal…"
The massive spider nodded and leapt off the mountaintop, down past rocky ravines and crags that simply ceased to exist under the curtain of mist. So too did its appearance change- where there was once a three-meter behemoth now held a large tarantula, barely a meter in diameter with legs at full stretch. The tarantula landed and scurried off through the plains, towards the misty village and the high mountains.
/
Sarah soon discovered why the room was so eerily quiet.
Both of the occupants in there were long-dead, seated at tables with no flesh left and their heads on the wood. The flies had even abandoned the place, which was in a sorry state of disrepair.
Furniture was broken on the ground, ornamental swords were tarnished, and webbing was thick around the roof of the house, that, though pristine from the outside, looked like it was raided from the interior. Sarah saw a shadow move and drew her crossbow, notching an arrow. It seemed to work like a gun- if an arrow was notched and the string taut she could pull the trigger to snap the fibre forward and fire the arrow.
She crept towards where the shadow was coming from. It seemed to be a strange animal, scratching and chewing at the ground. Concentrating on the shadow, she hit a broken table leg and tripped with an "Oh!"
The creature heard her.
The shadow ran towards her, skittering and leaping and bounding and then-
-it came into view, nothing but a field mouse. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief and then frowned when she heard the clattering of bones. Something, or someone, was moving the bones on the table. With an arrow still notched, she walked through the doorway to the entry hall where she had come through, and looked at the dead people there- and flinched.
They were in a different position, as if they were about to get up from the table. Sarah began to run, but as soon as she turned her back the skeletons moved again, this time when she was looking. The spectres stalked towards her, now fully up from the table, grasping at her with sharpened talons and empty eye sockets. And all the time they made no sound except for the clicking of their bones and an odd, 'twanging' noise every time they moved. Sarah screamed and, with a burst of spontaneous accuracy, loosed her arrow through the skull of the skeleton on the right. It flew off, embedded in the wall, but this made no difference- it was still trying to attack. Sarah struggled to load another arrow, her sense of fear heightening as she readied it. The skeleton on the left, still with a head, ran at her and scratched with sharp claws, knocking Sarah's HP down to 21 which caused her to cry out. She shot the closest skeleton in the arm with a point blank shot that took it clean off. Howling in pain, the skeleton nearest to her snapped off a rib behind clothing and began to swing it around at her, evidently trying to take her head off. She ducked and rolled backwards, out the door. The skeletons hesitated for a moment, and then followed her out. In the light outside, Sarah looked at the skeletons in wonder, and then had a thought.
"They only have clothes on their ribs… which means they have something to hide there!"
Readying an arrow, she loosed it into the chest of the one without a head. The skeleton recoiled and screamed with a high pitch and then fell still, completely unmoving. With green as a contrast, she saw a strange thread stick to the side of the hut and spill out onto the earth, which was almost transparent. Sarah avoided another bludgeon by the remaining skeleton as she leapt over to the dead one. When she ripped open the clothes there, she gasped.
Inside the ribcage, punctured by her arrow, was a spider, sitting on a web that stretched around the whole body that was almost invisible in darkness. The spider had been controlling the skeleton like a puppet from the inside by using the webs as strings! Now armed with new knowledge, she loosed another arrow into the spider inside the other skeleton, which screamed, fell down, and didn't get up. Both of the skeletons disappeared and she was left with two vials of the "small energy beverage" that Eddy had found and two black metal ingots, identified as "ebonite shards". She took both of the potions and then went back into the house. She was just through the doorway when she heard a boy's scream as he fell from the top of a hill and rolled down it like a cylinder- albeit, one dressed in red armour very similar to hers. Something about this boy was familiar, and Sarah found out what it was when he came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.
"Horno-bitch?"
"Asshole?"
It was like a family reunion.
Except with swords and crossbows.
/
Edd was running through the belfries of a town sewer when he tripped up and was caught by the beast following him.
Swinging his stick at the strange beast hard with huge effort, Edd tried to cover his eyes at the eventual bloodflow that would occur from the attack. Sadly, what Edd thought was a hard attack was barely registered by the bipedal ceratopsian, who was trying to crush his life out of him. Edd swung the bladed edge of his staff into the massive "hand" holding him, and wormed out of the small opening that gave him. Landing on the floor, Edd ran a few steps before the beast realised its prey had escaped and charged. Edd flung himself to the side to avoid the charge, while the dinosaurian samurai embedded its horns in the wall.
I must attack this beast now! thought Edd, and, at the mention of the word "attack", his battle menu opened. Selecting the "magic" option, he found himself with three spells available.
LEVEL 01 STEEL MAGICK- EXTEND BLADE – 2 MP
LEVEL 01 FIRE MAGICK- SPARK – 4 MP
LEVEL 01 ICE MAGICK- PARTIAL FREEZE – 4 MP
With only 9 MP available, Edd could cast two of these spells at the beast- but which? Edd suddenly had a flash of inspiration and cast his spell by selecting "Partial Freeze". His staff took on a cold pallor, and as he directed a bold of cold energy he felt the backwash sapping away his will. A patch of flesh on the back of the beast's leg froze solid. Now casting "Spark", with the backwash giving him a nasty heat headache, his staff sent forth a bolt of fire the shattered the ice- and the meat of the monster's leg. Holding back nausea at the sight of the blood, Edd's trick, while not only damaging the creature, had made it a quadruped again and unable to turn and get at him. Avoiding its swinging tail, he ran to a ladder in the side of the sewer and climbed out into the misty night, lit up by fires as the city was sacked by demonic creatures. When had it become night? It was the heat of day when they had got here!
… when they had escaped the apocalypse…
Edd felt a pang of guilt. Evidently they had been saved by the game, as per the menus and battle techniques. But nobody else survived…
Edd half-considered going down into the sewer again and letting the dinosaur-beast kill him. But what would that achieve? The twelve-strong human race would become the eleven-strong human race. Absolutely nothing good.
He hoped his fellows hadn't fallen prey to the many dangers of this world that Shadowsun had created. But why were they given armour and weapons to survive this place?
Edd's armour was standard red plate, and he had a staff with a blade on the top, allowing him to fight in melee as well as conducting magick. In addition, he had a kabuto, an old samurai warrior's helmet, to replace his sock-hat.
The city he was in was concealed by mist and in the mountains, in a valley gouged by a river many years ago. From here, he could see a mountain that arched into the sky, but didn't seem to exist elsewhere, with a peak above the clouds. He ran through the streets, his staff out as a fairly useless weapon as he was out of MP. Miraculously, he was left alone by the creatures of the night, most of them fighting samurai warriors and (mostly) falling. He was about to leave the city when he suddenly heard a shout from the side of the street.
"Ed-boy! Help Rolf protect his charges!"
Edd gasped. Rolf was here? Turning around, he saw not only the son of a shepherd, but Nazz, Jimmy and May, all trying to fight off a huge spider-beast. Edd joined the fray only after closing his eyes and swearing on it, but indeed he leapt into the fight and hacked at a leg.
Rolf was pretty much the same as he had been in the old series, but he had grown used to technology and now had a FriendLog account, bought his parents all kinds of doohickeys to help on the farm and enjoyed video games, though he still talked as if he had culture shock. He was currently straining against a leg of the two-meter long beast, its urticating hairs ripping his flesh, wearing the same red armour as all the kids were wearing and a warhammer, spiked at one end, lay by him on the floor.
May was perhaps the cul-de-sacian who changed the most- she had actually been quite intelligent all along, which shocked everyone except Edd. (who found out the hard way that Valentine's Day) She had graduated from school with good grades, and became fast friends with Sarah and Nazz, who needed some new "girl talk". She was clad in the same armour as everyone else, though she had a helmet similar to Edd's on her head. She was attempting to cast magick with the staff in her hand, but from the badly burnt hair around her and her moaning, she seemed to be out of MP.
Nazz had become the class hottie due to her rapidly developing figure- every boy wanted her, and every girl was jealous of her. She could use her looks to get her a lot of places (notably out of the odd detention she got) and was good friends with May and Jimmy now that he had finally got himself an iota of strength. She was hacking at the spinneret of the creature with a rapier, and her armour was covered in silk.
Jimmy had worked out. Seriously hard. After Sarah signed him up for a work-out summer camp, he had come back six weeks later weighing twenty pounds more of solid muscle. No longer was he a crybaby, either, because he had resolved to toughen himself up by hanging around the other guys. Though at first they ridiculed him, they soon became fast friends. His armour was gripped by the spider's two chelicerae, fangs hooked around his arms, completely helpless with only a longbow to hand.
Edd brought his staff down hard over the creature's head, hitting against the carapace and jolting the beast with surprise. Jimmy fell down with a grunt, and wiped his brow with a "thanks". He ran back in a manoeuvre that could be seen as cowardice- however, the arrow that impacted in the exoskeleton showed otherwise. The creature roared in pain, and began to recede, releasing Rolf. The son of a shepherd leapt up, grabbed his hammer and began to chase after it, only to be stopped by Edd.
"Think about it, Rolf. It's probably the only non-evil spider here." Indeed, other nightspawn refused to flee even when half-dead. The spider leapt down into the sewers, its home, and later had a massive clash with the ceratopsian that resulted in the spider eating the biggest meal it had had for months. But that is another story.
Huddling around a censer burner on a roof in the city, everyone tried to block out the night's chill with the fire. One question was on everyone's minds, but it was only spoken after twenty minutes of grating silence by a tired Nazz.
"Double D, why are we here? Why aren't we dead?"
Edd had many theories, each as unlikely as the next. But he voiced them anyway.
"Well, ever seen the show Lost? Where it all turns up they're dead, but not quite in the afterlife?" Everybody nodded. "I think that this place is similar. Look at it. It's feudal-era Japan. Ancient. It's probably because we were doing it in history class at the end of term. It's made of our memories," said the anxious Edd. Rolf looked at him in the eye. "You aren't telling the full truth, ed-boy. What's your other theory?"
Edd sighed. "I also have an idea that we're in that Shadowsun game we ran at the beginning of the end of the world. Battle menus, weapons based on our personalities, stats… we could be in a video game!"
Jimmy nodded. "If we're the last humans, then let's hope that we aren't all dead after all. We can' be dead. This has to be a video game we're stuck in!" Edd concurred. "Alright, if this is a video game, all we need to do is beat it, and then we'll escape and revert the apocalypse back to never happening. Is that agreed?"
May challenged him. "But did the apocalypse ever happen? How can we be sure it was real?" Rolf was the one who answered. "When family members are alive, we feel a strong blood-tie to them, as you do to your sisters, yes?" May nodded, stunned. "I no longer feel the blood tie to my parents. They are either dead or dying." Rolf's words were cold dread to everyone who felt them.
Everyone in their families, all their friends, everyone they ever knew or knew about was dead, and there was no getting around it.
And that was the worst feeling in the world.
May choked back a tear and stood up. "Then I refuse to rest before we can beat this game! I'll revert everything to normal! Mom!…" and she fell down, unconscious. Everybody realised how tired they were, so Rolf volunteered to stay on watch whilst the others slept on blankets they found rolled up in the back of their armour.
Rolf made a prayer in his foreign tongue and looked at the mist-covered moon above.
"Great Nano… lend me your strength for the times ahead!"
For a moment he felt the warm hand of his grandfather on his shoulder. Rolf looked about, trying to fins the perpetrator of the deed. And then it was gone. Rolf drew his hammer, stood up, and waited till dawn.
/
Eddy and Sarah got on like a house on fire, in the sense that there was the fire burning and the house extinguishing, at the best of times, with Sarah wondering why all the self control she had suddenly vaporised on sight of him and Eddy angry at all the crap she put him through because of that. It was a blissful circle- she losing her control due to some deed he had or had not down, him getting angry, she losing self-control, him getting angry…
And now he had to sleep with this devilwoman.
Not in the sense that 11-year-olds would snigger at, thank you very much, but he had to be in the vicinity of her while sleeping and that was enough for him. Though he was insanely tired because of the wound in his side, Eddy volunteered to go on watch, to look for any ninjas or skeletons that tried to sneak up on them. Truth be told, they hadn't a fire, so unless those ninjas' eyes glowed or something he wouldn't have a clue where they were. More than once Eddy toyed with the idea of abandoning her, but he wasn't a bad person anymore- and if Ed found her there'd be hell to pay.
He walked through the blades of grass, surrounded only by the blackness of the sky and the pallid grip of the moonlight, allowing for little visibility. The world was just endless blackness outside the little light cast by the moon and the house that Sarah was sleeping in.
They had raided the house and had cleaned the bedroom out of spider webs for fear that those skeleton spiders began their grisly meals with living people. They had found very little food, but there was a fruit-bearing tree outside and they found a few rice provisions packed in an airtight container, as if they were conveniently placed for those who came there after the death of the occupants. They soothed their aching hunger and helped their wounds heal, surprisingly, which made the place seem more and more like a video game every day.
The sun was just about to rise when he embedded his sword in the ground and fell to sleep on it.
/
The small tarantula demon that leapt down from the mountain crept through a tiny hole in the roof of the hut, changing its form to being absolutely tiny, only as large as a common house spider. Such an effect is similar to a human holding its breath, for the beast swelled to the tarantula form as it entered. The female was lying on the ground on a blanket, which perturbed it- surely the fabric would have rotted away after it had killed the occupants a month ago? Never minding the complexities, the tarantula swelled to full size and spun a web around Sarah, keeping her knocked out with a narcotic liquid that ran over the fibres. Quickly daubing a message out of fibre on the wall, it webbed her to the roof of its abdomen, shrunk again and crawled out of the hole in the roof, with a miniaturised Sarah stuck to it. The spider broke into a skittering run, moving towards the misty village that its minions had sacked beforehand.
Time to take the third hostage.
/
Rolf was staying ever-vigilant on top of the building safe from the ground creatures when he heard a skittering behind him. He had barely a moment before he was in the same position as Sarah, stuck to the abdomen and knocked out. The massive spider shrunk again and leapt a great leap from the towering building, building a web parachute to glide through the sky and go west of the village. Completely obscured by fog from far away, a misty forest full of autumn trees came into view, with a large tower with open windows in the centre. An armoured glove came out of the window, which the spider landed on, and retracted, where it was revealed to be part of a hulking figure in armour that fully concealed it. The interior of the top floor was wooden floor with a mat in the centre, something like a training dojo, except for the back wall, which was obsidian and engraved with kanji. A large pillar with a spider engraving stood in front of it. There was another figure, clad in red, but it was bound to the wall and appeared to be bleeding. Struggling with the narcotic web, the prisoner got one glance at those who were thrown in with them- and his eyes widened. He got two words out before he fell unconscious again.
"Baby… sister…"
The armoured figure was talking to the giant spider, which had regained full size and was enjoying it.
"Ssso, Ssshrogii, I have them here. No doubt the ressst will come- and fall at the ssslash of your bladesss!"
"Yes, Tsuchigumo. It is advisable that we deal with the prisoners soon, for the web narcotics only seem to last for a day." The figure roared out these words as if it was a sort of beast behind the armour. The spider seemed offended by this. "Are you sssure it'sss not your incredibly loud training downssstairsss?"
Shrogii drew his blade. "If that is your way of dealing with things, then we shall see how you talk with your head on my sword!"
Tsuchigumo leapt back. "Take your temper up againssst the Massster. What a fool you would be to do that!"
Shrogii receded. "Fine. Take your leave. I shall kill them all when they come here." But the spider was already gone.
"You fool. Your overzealousness will be your downfall."
/
Eddy had read the message left by the spider, and was already running to Shrogii's tower in the forest of mists. He stopped for nothing, and avoided the skeletons and ninjas that attempted to attack him. He wasn't taking any more bullshit.
A part of him wondered why he was bothering saving Sarah, who had done nothing but bad to him. He told himself that it was because of Ed's wrath.
At least, that's what he believed.
/
Edd awoke to the sticky feel of webbing.
Yelping, he wrenched his hand from the horrible webs and, in the same moment, saw the horrible message left by Tsuchigumo.
cOmE tO tHe ToWeR oF sHrOgIi In ThE fOrEsT oF mIsTs FoR yOuR fRiEnDs
Rolf's warhammer was laid across the floor to act as an arrow to said forest. He gasped, and hurriedly woke his allies.
"What was that for, Double D?" yelled an irate Nazz, who had yet to see the message. As soon as she saw it, she yelped out in shock. "Oh my god! Rolf!" The rest of them saw what had happened and acted similarly. "Double D? Ever heard of this "forest of mists"?" said a nervous Jimmy. Edd looked at the warhammer that lay on the ground. "It's that way. The spider that did this would have given us a clue if this Shrogii wants to meet us. Come on. It's pointing west." The group of tired adventurers leapt down from the building with a grunt, the smoking ruins of the village below them choking them slightly. The wind was with them, and Jimmy plucked a standard from the corpse of a samurai and placed it in his armour. They needed all the morale they could get.
/
Eddy ran through the misty forest trail, a stone path half-concealed by the falling autumn leaves. The scene was especially tranquil in such a misty forest that he stopped for a moment- and whipped out his katana as an armoured figure appeared behind him. The thing did not pause, and instead began to talk in a strange maner, that sounded like he was a frog croaking out every word.
"Come with me, young one, if you wish to challenge Master Shrogii." With no better option, and the strange strength that the frog-warrior seemed to exude (he carried a halberd on his back that was taller than him) he decided to follow him. The winding autumn path soon came to a kind of hedge maze, and, even with the multi-tiered tower coming into view, he would have gotten lost on the winding path. Eventually, after many twists and turns, he finally saw the oaken door of the tower, guarded by two gryphon statues. The toad warrior knocked three times, and the door opened with great majesty.
Within was what seemed to be an armoury. Swords, shields, helmets and body armour with full face coverage were stacked in piles in rooms off the entrance hall. The steps upstairs were empty, and Eddy began to make for them. However, the toad warrior slipped in front of him and opened his visor, revealing an amphibian face.
"Do you accept the Challenge of Five Warriors for the lives of those taken by the spider god?"
Eddy nodded. This seemed like it would lead to Shrogii. "I guess I fight and kill four guys, then fight that bastard Shrogii at the top floor? I accept it. Where's the first guy?"
The toad warrior drew his halberd. "I will be your first opponent. See if you can beat me, the Toad Master!"
The toad immediately attacked with a thrust that caught Eddy offhand, reducing his HP to 27. He leapt back and charged it, stabbing it in the side and thrusting under the armour. The toad screamed and attempted to decapitate him, but he left his legs unguarded- Eddy swung his blade deep into the toad's leg, causing critical damage. Blood spurted out again from the cut, splattering along the dojo floor. His foe kneeled on the ground, spewing out blood, and threw his helmet off, allowing his wispy hair to flow out. Eddy hesitated in his kill- this was an old creature, a weak creature. Why should he end its life?
A slash crushed into him, forcing him to kneel in pain as his HP became 9. The toad stood before him, bloodied blade in hand, hobbling forward in pain but with an air of superiority. "You fool, hesitating before an old man. Just because I am old does not mean I am weak. This has been your first and last lesson in combat." The old man drew his blade, and readied it to decapitate the kneeling boy. He expected a single tear of regret to issue from the boy as his head came flying through the air. But the boy…
…was grinning.
The toad master groaned in pain as the boy's katana was driven through his stomach, such pain he had never experienced before. He kneeled on the ground, in total shock that he could die to such an inexperienced warrior.
"And this was your last lesson in combat- never lecture Eddy Skipper McGee!"
The toad felt his spirit soar, despite his imminent death. "Thank you, warrior, for my final fight. Go up to the top floor and you will find Shrojii- there are no other warriors left alive to fight you. I know you will climb the plains and prevail in the end, and I hope you defeat the dark master of this land. Goodbye…" and the master died, his body disappearing completely and leaving a pile of crystals, a vial of blue liquid and a pile of gold coins.
Suddenly, on the old master's death, Eddy felt a great surge of energy- a Level Up, all the way to Level 4. He sheathed his sword and took the spoils, swearing on the memory of the destroyed world to slay Shrojii, kill that damn spider and destroy their master.
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END OF CHAPTER TWO
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A/N- So how did you like it? As you can see, Plane One is a samurai-themed world, and you can vote for the theme to Plane Two in my profile poll. R+R, and keep watching!