Shadowfall
Freshly cut.
(A collab between myself and
MahoganyLeaf
)
MahoganyLeaf
)Fara kept on blasting away fireballs onto every enemy in sight, her right hand occupied by holding her staff, while the other held a newly found shield she'd come across on the battleground.
At this very current moment, Fara had, without a doubt, regretted her decision of wearing her fashionable, yet highly impractical Mary Jane pumps today. If she'd known she would end up in such a strange situation as this- Running around whacking off an army of ugly faced monsters on a battlefield in a medieval setting, she would've worn her gray comfort sneakers instead. The ones with the dirty mud stains on it, since they already were in a bad condition, she didn't care if they were to get damaged further. She would've facepalmed herself so badly if she wasn't already about to faceplant onto the ground when nearly losing her balance by slipping on the wet grass.
Just when she'd hoped the last monstrosities had finally gotten disposed of for good, she was expectedly proven wrong. Because now, they were all met by a formidable and ghostly dark figure, the largest one yet and this one had no head but possessed sharp-pointed appendages attached to its gigantic but weirdly formed physique.
Nooooope, nope, nope. Not another one. This one looks really nasty and not to mention enormous. But also... err- utterly slow. Perhaps I can think of a plan to use this as an advantage to butt-kick the hell outta this thing once and for all. Gah, I just wish for this to be ove-
Her pondering was cut off when the helmeted man spoke through the communicator device, and boy did he come with some good information for them.
“It’s a sim. Stamina, weight, and pain are all burdens of reality, so we don’t have to worry all too much about that here.”
And that felt like music to her ears.
Sweet. Well, you could've said this quite earlier you goof.
I guess getting beaten up by these brutes won't be so painful after all as I'd thought.
I wonder if I can fish out more answers from him when we're done here...
Since he was the system admin of this sim, it would make sense for him to know a lot more about the entire place than they ever would. She assumed he would be revealing more answers to them when the right time comes. But still, another question popped into her mind- If stamina played no importance here, would that mean they wouldn't need to either sleep or eat? Was it more of an option to choose? And did weight not matter at all?
Questions could wait. For now, she'd better get going.
It was unknown to her whether her staff was capable of performing other types of attacks styles than using fire. Such as forming its own protective barrier or maybe used for casting any specific spells upon her opponents. Either way, a manual on magic could be very handy right now.
The fact that the monster was a giant, should tell much about its level of strength, however, one could easily dodge any upcoming attacks and outrun it with a bit of ease compared to smaller and more agile enemies.
The NPCS had their disadvantage of dying and feeling pain. That thankfully wasn't the case for her and the team.
Beside that, her magical staff should be able to handle the job of getting rid of it just fine. After all, she'd somewhat already gotten the hang of It's ways.
Erik however, fared a little worse than the magic wielding makeshift wizard that hurled a fireball that whizzed right past his visor. He wasn't phased by this however, as he watched the two little knights jump and prance around the increasingly angry giant. Unsurprisingly, they were ineffective against the shadow beast's legs, but kept it's gaze downwards at the gnats that plagued it. "Alright, there seems to be a bit of a problem." He knelt down next to who he felt would be most useful in this situation, the ranged magic user. "I'll have to get that new user back on her feet, and maybe have this magic user light her arrows. Oooh, sounds fun!" Noticing that he had said all that while standing next to the magic user in question, he cleared his throat.
"Hey, you think you could get up in this guy's face and just blast him?" He planted his Drax-slicked blade into the ground. He used his index finger to wipe it across the blade of the sword, gathering the black substance against the tip of it. "I reckon this stuff is flammable. Looks like petrol to me." He almost put it up to his face to sniff it before his finger dabbed some of it onto his visor. "Right, helmet." He wiped the rest of the stuff onto his pant leg.
"I'm pretty sure you can just jump up to him if you believe hard enough."
"Uhh sure. I was planning on doing that before you'd even asked me." Scratching the back of her head, she formed an awkward smile, as she remembered what he'd said to himself when she overheard him about combining both arrows and fire together. That could indeed make normal arrows more powerful and effective in a battle. But a bit risky too at that, especially for a klutz like her. Fara then added, "Hmm, you know. Setting arrows ablaze before shooting them does sound like a smart idea. It could deal a good amount of damage if done right too... Although, it might be a little risky for me to perform without the knowledge of how to shoot with a bow, coupled with the fact that I'm still learning how to master fire magic and could very likely incinerate someone or something on accident. But I'm willing to give it a try in the future. Anyway. I'll be off."
And with that, she went on, dusted herself clean from any dirt her outfit should've gathered and set off on a sprint to defeat the giant. Or at least attempt to.
"Well, I didn't mean to say-, and off she goes." He sighed. Sometimes, his mal-aug would really go off on him and other people would overhear his monologues, and usually misinterpret or listen in on what he had to say. "Fuckin' Reclaimers." He could go on a tangent about those hypocritical anarchist assholes, but there was a literal shadow colossus before him that was bent on the destruction of his clients and the fleeing NPCs.
Speaking of the black horror, it was now rapidly approaching the assembled group that stood to oppose it, ignoring the fleas that bounced and bit with their blades at it's feet. What it gave no heed to however, is the particularly out of place flea that had charged it headlong with the bane of it's existence within it's grasp. That mere flea was known as Fara Leis, and she was determined to bring down the monster hellbent on the destruction of all things living or standing in it's path of destruction.
However, one of the two fleas, Felgorth, noticed the other sprinting at full speed to the monster that was escaping his grip. "What are you doing girl! Get back now!" He shouted at Fara, before having to dodge out of the way of a massive foot.
One of the sword-wielding warriors who fled to the opposite direction of the monster, had yelled some sort of warning at her, though it'd come off sounding more like a command. Nonetheless, she didn't care much for paying attention to him. He was only but another NPC like the rest.
None of them knew what she was capable of, and they couldn't stop her from carrying out her task. It wasn't as if they even had the slightest bit awareness of her capabilities.
After all, she was immune to harm and damage in this life- or virtual life, rather.
This tiny flea was no ordinary flea. She was the odd one out compared to these other fleas. She wasn't afraid or fearing for her life, nor were she dwelling in despair like certain fallen warriors, who'd cried out for help did. This Fara Leis was actually enthusiastic about something- unlike her former forgotten self- and refused to give up until she could finally deliver her finishing last blow to the demon and bring an end to this battle once and for all.
The fact that her arms and body didn't grow tired from the constant dodging and arm twisting movements, felt overwhelmingly sweet.
The unlimited amount of stamina and energy she held, was a blessing compared to her former and almost permanent state of drowsiness in the reality.
Maybe this won't be so bad after all..?
Yet her naturally cynical part of her mind had to interfere with her newly found positivism, and tell her otherwise.
Or was it her intuition?
Fara reached her target and dodged one of its snail speeding long limbs as it had attempted to knock her out with a hit, but instead got blasted off by large fireballs released from Fara's staff in a series of continuous motions without intervals. "Meh, you are kind of slow, you know." She indirectly told the monstrous being through a series of subtle mumbling.
The creature however, was only further infuriated by these attacks, causing it to fight back, specifically making her as it's sole target now, doing everything in its power to land a blow on her, momentarily leaving the other fighters out of its focus.
But while it couldn't directly hit her, Fara found herself tripping on a rock making her fall nearly face flat- How many times had she fallen today? That would be a new record!- But no pain or damage was inflicted from this, and though she could've easily gotten back up on her feet, she wasn't met with the chance in time. Her temporary distraction had given the black mass an opening to launch a heavy blow straight on top of her, squashing her down further to the ground, causing the earth beneath her to crack slightly from the sudden force.
Had this been real, she would've been dead already. Crushed to pieces.
But that wasn't the case here. As shocking as it might've appeared for the watchers, Fara recovered like nothing happened. And thanks to her quick thinking, she'd managed to throw the magic stave away from reach, saving it from being crushed just merely seconds before the strike.
"That's it. That's. It! I have no use of these shoes right now. Tch." She exclaimed just loudly enough for herself to hear, and threw her shoes to the side in annoyance.
Alright, no more distractions. Only revenge and some ass whooping. Though on second thought. It didn't seem to actually posses one.
She grabbed the staff and resumed the unfinished business.
The monster made skirting blows against the little flea that had now become a much more prominent threat to him. The fire that he had mildly brushed off himself had wrecked havoc for his brethren in previous battles as his conglomerate had previously fallen to. This upstart planned to take him, him, down in such a unhonorable manner. Magic, blasphemous thing. He would never let this little flea live to see another day.
In a growing rage, his form began to compensate for the magical assault he had to withstand. Tentacles shot out at mach speeds towards the flea that had began to scratch and bite at his skin, but the darting forms were burned away in a flurry of flame. His usual method of removal didn't seem to have much effect against the damned flame artist, so he would have to try something more unconventional. From his flaming legs, he spat out a small group of soldiers, lightly armed and armored footmen with spears. To his dismay, they were too concerned with patting out the flames that had followed them as they were spawned from his black ooze. Incompetent whelps.
He raised his foot and aimed to smash the bug that plagued him once and for all.
Fara looked up to see the large figure aim it's foot right above her, ready to step her flat unless she moved away from its reach fast.
Being as flexible and agile as ever and also no longer bothered or slowed down by her unstable platforms, Fara had effortlessly evaded his massive smite in time before he could get to lay his foot on the land.
He grimaced as his foot had finally landed on the ground. Luckily for him however, five out of the twenty spearmen had managed to survive burning at the cost of their body mass. They wouldn't dare come back into contact with him for fear of being absorbed into nothingness again. Desperately, they charged their spears into their master's adversary, eager to score a kill in their Queen's name.
One of the tiny but troublesome pests pierced its spear into her left thigh when the creature eventually received both a kick and a second final fireball in return, burning it alive completely like the rest of the black miniature army. In a manner of seconds, each one of them had been burnt out.
Having swept the area off clean from the mites, Fara turned to face the larger threatening foe, the main source of evil and destruction of this land.
This brute is annoyingly persistent...But so am I.
Their fight went ongoing, and by each flameball unleashed, a stronger and larger set of streaming fire would subsequently follow after the former, each improving the amount of damage inflicted by next turn.
Well. At least I'm improving.
Having had to endure a flaming salvo, his entire form was alight with pain and the agony of a thousand souls. He was forced to a kneel, his flaming form providing an ample fuel for the fire that swept over him. In anger, he smashed down both of his arms onto the assembled group in front of him. Knights went flying, and Erik found himself scrambling for cover amidst the wreckage. Ysolda was sent into the air with her precious cargo, and landed hard onto her back, just to ensure the safety of the girl she was carrying.
The beast was down, but certainly not out. Not without having claimed more lives for his master with him.
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