《Kazama wa Onnaline》 Prologue - Kazama wa Onnaline Prologue Kazama wa Onnaline New Worlds Online was unlike any other game created before it. It was a fully live VRMMORPG game that allowed its players to live their daily lives within its confines and take up any sort of adventure. The game product promised a fully unlimited game, full of vast worlds to explore. The game was very simple, all you had to do was explore the current layout, level up, and finally beat the boss with the other players to advance to the next stage or world. The game was an instant smash hit, with seventy percent of the human population hooking themselves up and preparing to live their new lives out. But after a week of its release, rumors began to spread about players disappearing and never respawning like they should have after dying. Two weeks later, a group of in game hackers announced that they had taken the entire game hostage as well as all the players within. If anyone tried to do something to effect the game play and escape, they would die. They also would die if their HP bar dropped zero and the only way to win was to try and find a solution to ending the game. After three weeks¡¯ time, the death toll had gone up to one million of the in game population, as the players began to do their best to survive in the first world and stage of NWO. But that wasn¡¯t the worst part of the game. The worst part was that I, Kazama, an ordinary guy like anyone else, had had the game system screw up on recreating my real life image in the game. When I came too and looked in the mirror, I saw myself¡­¡­as a female girl! And from that moment on, I, Kazama, had decided that I would live through this game, whether or not I was not fully myself. It was humiliating enough to be the wrong gender, and even more so to have the full blown feelings of a female, but that did not mean I would die as one. I would conquer this game and set myself free and reclaim my manhood!Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ~Kazama, 2079, The Third Week of the Game Chapter 1 – Characters and Death Chapter 1 ¨C Characters and Death Kazama inserted the VR disk of the three weeks old game New Worlds Online into the Inertia Virtual Reality Device he owned and began to hook the controllers to himself. ¡°Wow¡¯¡± he thought to himself, ¡°I finally got ahold of this game! I¡¯ve been waiting half the year for the damn thing!¡± The game New Worlds Online, or ¡°NWO¡± for short, was a new game that allowed its players to live their entire lives inside it for however long they wished. Instead of having to go to school or work a boring job, you could participate with other players and clear dungeons, battle mythical monsters and even become heroes! Or so the game advertising said at least. He finished hooking the final cord to his controller and turned the system off and slowly blacked out. When he came too, he was floating in a giant open space, but he was unable to see his body or anything else for that matter. Suddenly a giant message appeared in front of him. It didn¡¯t take long and soon a new message popped up in front of Kazama again. A secondary massage popped up below the larger one. Kazama seemed a little surprised and spoke up to the game system. ¡°What is the Hunter class and its specific¡¯s? ¡° ¡°So in effect, a hunter is more geared to all out attacks with a few special ones, but is complete shit when it comes to defense? Sounds risky, but it looks rare, so I might as well take it.¡± A new message popped up after he choose his class, this time stating his new class, level and everything else. ¡°How many levels are there for a player character?¡± ¡°Interesting concept.¡± Thought Kazama to himself. After a few more basic messages, the game system finally alerted him that he was ready to see his new in-game body. Kazama was tired of hearing the warning and just wanted to see how he turned out in the game. ¡°Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. If I was to get horribly sick in the real world, the same would happen to me here. Just show me my new body already!¡± Within moments of speaking, Kazama began to feel strange tingling¡¯s as his body was given to him. A body length mirror slid up in front of him so that he could admire his new body. But Kazama didn¡¯t see himself¡­..he some girl! That¡¯s right, standing in the mirror was a pure naked girl, looking at Kazama astonished. He¡­.she thought the girl was someone else or that she was seeing things. Then it dawned on Kazama¡­..he was now a she! Something must have gone wrong with the game system, so she shouted at it. ¡°What¡¯s this!? This isn¡¯t my real life body! I¡¯m a guy, not some girl!¡± The games system popped up a system error message at her. ¡°NO PROBLEM!? FEMALE IN REAL LIFE!? THAT¡¯S ALL WRONG!¡± Kazama put a hand over her newly given breasts¡­something she was only used to seeing on other girl, and mostly always covered up. She sort of blushed at the feeling of them. ¡°This feels good though¡­and they look great on me.¡± She thought to herself, blushing more now at the sight of her delicate looking body in the mirror. The game system completely ignored her outburst and popped a new message this time. The system manifested an entire rack of clothes, all of them different in style as well as stats. ¡°Women¡¯s clothing¡± she muttered to herself as she walked to them, ¡°Just I need. But maybe I can¡­¡± Kazama put her head up and shouted to the game system. ¡°I want to log out right now! That ought to help straighten this whole mess out!¡±A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Another error message popped up and this time was even more confusing. Kazma sighed in a very¡­.feminine way. She went back to looking at the clothes and choose one. An equip message asked her to equip basic underwear first. She pressed the okay button and the underwear manifested on her body. She looked at the mirror and said something she never thought she would ever say¡­.as a man at least. ¡°God, these are comfortable as hell! Why haven¡¯t any of my exes told me about this!? What kind of threads do they use to make these?¡± She was about to go on more about the feels, but covered her mouth with her hands. ¡°What¡­did I just say?¡± Another message asked for to now equip her outfit and again she pressed the okay button. Her outfit materialized slowly, feet up. When it had finished, she was clad in a rather not bad looking outfit, and the stats on it were just as good. The outfit had modest durability unlike others in the selection. The outfit started with matching boots that went just above ankle level, a very short pair of shorts and a tight shirt with sleeves that stooped short of her wrists. The entire outfit was topped with a pair of black gloves matching the rest of the outfit. A basic looking was around her waist and she had a decent cloak on that had equally decent stats for protection and durability. A new message alerted Kazama that she had been given a pair of short blades and one long katana. Then the final message from the game system came. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Just as she had been standing alone, Kazama was suddenly in the middle of a city square with a small group of other player. All the other players looked at her in awe and she could see why. The rest of the players were all guys, just as she really was. ¡°Lucky bastards,¡° She thought to herself, ¡°They all got their real life bodies, but not me!¡± The other players kept looking at her in awe, as if they had never seen such a sight. A few mumbled out. ¡°God¡­.she¡¯s hot¡­¡± Kazama was not currently in the mood to hear such compliments and shouted out at the other players, terrifying them. ¡°WHAT!? NEVER SEEN A CHICK BEFORE!? GET OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I SEND YOU TO THE NEXT LIFE!!¡± The terrified players ran away as they quickly could, but only one remained. Kazama was a little embarrassed by her sudden outburst at the sight of a real girl. The girl walked up to Kazama and extended her hand. ¡°Hi! My names Nabiki! What¡¯s yours?¡± ¡°U-u-um¡­.my names Kazama¡­¡± She replied, like she would have whenever a female would talk to her when she was a guy. Nabiki payed no notice to her nervousness. ¡°Kazama? Well it¡¯s nice to meet you! Say, have you checked out the map yet?¡± ¡°Well¡­no, I haven¡¯t gotten arou¡ª¡° ¡°Here, lemme show you!¡± Nabiki was really energized. She moved her hand and opened up her players menu and scrolled through it until she reached a tab labeled ¡°Maps¡±. When she placed her finger to press the button, a large map appeared before the two girls showcasing a big city. In the top right corner a few words were written. They read ¡°Shara ¨C World 1, Stage 1¡±. Nabiki pointed at a spot on the map. ¡°This is where we are, the square of beginnings. This Shara is supposed to be a rather large city with multiple stages attached to it. Half of the city is divided into sections of safe zones and non-safe zones!¡± ¡°What happens in the non-safe zones?¡± asked Kazama, who was a little intrigued as she glanced at the map. Nabiki was only too happy to explain. ¡°That¡¯s where anything can happen! You can engage in quests, battle enemies and explore deeper into the city! You can even grind levels like me!¡± ¡°Hmmm, guess that¡¯s where I need to go first then,¡± Started Kazama as she began to walk away, ¡°Thanks for all the help.¡± Nabiki shouted out to her as she was walking away. ¡°You can¡¯t just go out their alone! It¡¯s too dangerous. You could die and never come back¡­.¡± Kazama stopped in her tracks and glanced back at Nabiki. ¡°What do you mean die? Wouldn¡¯t that just make me respawn?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± Began Nabiki, who was sort of glancing around herself a bit, ¡°In a normal game yes, you would just keep coming back. But this is not a normal game anymore. There¡¯s a rumor that if you die¡­.you die forever.¡± ¡°Die forever? That should be impossible! This game was advertised as safe for all players.¡± Nabiki looked at Kazama, a little upset. ¡°It¡¯s not the game creators fault. The rumor says that the game was taken over by a group of hackers and is now at their mercy. So many have died already¡­..¡± She began to cry a little, but made sure to hold it in a little. Kazama was a little taken aback by hearing this. The idea for a game to fully match life and death was done once a long time ago, but it was in a very different manner. And that¡¯s when the whole logging out problem finally seemed to make sense to her. ¡°So you mean to tell me the reason why I can¡¯t log out is because of this situation?¡± ¡°Yes, they stripped the game world of any safety measures. If you even try to hack back and re-install them¡­you will just die. You also will die if you go to zero HP.¡± ¡°So then how do we get out of this?¡± Nabiki fidgeted a bit with her hands, then got the nerve to hold still. ¡°They said the only way was to try and find a way to beat the game. But that¡¯s impossible since¡ª¡° ¡°Since the game was to be limitless in every aspect possible, ¡°Interrupted Kazama, ¡°Well, I¡¯m not going to let that stop me from trying to get out of this game. Dying is the least of my issues, trust me.¡± With that, Kazama once again began to walk away from Nabiki, prepared to take the game on. She had only taken a few steps when an incoming message alerted her. Kazama briefly thought about declining the request for the party pairing, but ended up accepting it. ¡°Fine, come along then! You might be able to help me level higher.¡± Nabiki ran alongside Kazama and raised her hand to her head for a salute. ¡°I will make sure to give you the best information I can to help out!¡± Kazama smiled in a very girlish way, then added, ¡°We will help each other to get better and survive this game of terror.¡± The two of them headed in the direction of the western side of the city, the breeze of virtual air in their hair and the faint sound of BG music slowly fading into the distance. Kazama smiled to herself and thought one thing to herself. ¡°I will do anything to get myself to be who I am. I won¡¯t let a game for death make me afraid from realizing that goal. And before I finally get out of here, I will make sure to teach these hackers a lesson or two. I will regain my manhood, no matter what!¡± End Chapter 1 Chapter 2 – Monsters and Showers, Oh My! Chapter 2 ¨C Monsters and Showers, Oh My! Kazama and the girl she was paired with in an adventuring party was rather silent unlike a little bit earlier. They had crossed into the ¡°Un-safe Zone¡± of the game but so far nothing had tried to attack them. Clouds had come in and started to shower virtual raindrops on them, and there was a slight chill in the air that made the weather seem almost real. Even the architecture of the city was amazing and must have been set on 1800¡¯s Europe. Kazama glanced slightly at Nabiki then thought to herself. ¡°This is too weird. She thinks I¡¯m really a girl just like her, but in retrospect I¡¯m a guy. Hell, it¡¯s even weirder for me to understand and handle.¡± Nabiki interrupted her thoughts by talking. ¡°So what do you think about the game so far?¡± She asked Kazama, slightly looking at her. ¡°Well, from what I can see so far, it¡¯s quite beautiful in some aspects. But What I really want to see are the enemies in this game. I¡¯m dying to use this special attack I was given.¡± ¡°Oh, you got a special attack already? What class are you? I¡¯m an archer!¡± ¡°When I was given the choice of picking my starting class, I somehow unlocked the Hunter class.¡± Nabiki looked at Kazama a bit jealously. ¡°Whoa! You got that class! Its super-duper rare! I wish I was a hunter, I heard its pretty badass.¡± ¡°Um¡­Nabkiki¡­.¡± Kazama started, ¡°How do you know so much stuff like this? Haven¡¯t you only just joined the world like me?¡± ¡°To be exact, I joined the game a few hours before you. I know a lot about this because I helped design some of the levels and weapons!¡± She fidgeted with her hands and brought out her player menu. She scrolled through it and equipped her archers bow. It appeared in her hand and she held it out to me. ¡°See this?¡± she continued as I took it, ¡°I designed that bow. It¡¯s a basic model and pretty crap on stats, but it can get molded into a better weapon later and even become a beast of a weapon!¡± ¡°Wow, so you designed a lot of things? Then you must know a lot about the level layouts on this world right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to disappoint you, but I don¡¯t know too much. I was a part of a very large design force and only had a little bit designed by me. But the good thing is that I do know too much for my own good.¡± She smiled at Kazama. The two came to a dead stop in front of a giant iron wrought gate. The gate was opened a bit and it was obvious that players had been through this area before. Kazama looked at Nabiki for any guidance on this. ¡°This is the entrance to a graveyard. It¡¯s a pretty good grinding spot for players. I was here a little bit before you arrived already added a level and made my bow slightly better.¡± Kazama handed the mentioned bow back to Nabiki and then brought up her own player menu. She selected both of her dual blades as well as her katana. The katana materialized on her belt and the dual blades where attached to her belt behind her back. She stepped forward and Nabiki followed suit. ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s go and get this on. The faster we level the better.¡± ¡°Yeah, once we do that we can tackle some of the quests!¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Kazama smiled at her, ¡°It will be better for us once we get this done.¡± With that, they stepped into the graveyard. The weather seemed to get noticeably worse when they walked into the graveyard, and the chill in the air got worse. For a virtual game that could produce near real to life feelings, this had to be the best so far. The feeling in the weather got worse when a loud growl was heard. ¡°Gwaarr¡­.¡± Kazama looked nervously over at Nabiki. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Nabiki crouched down onto her knee and held her bow out in front of her, arrow at the ready. ¡°That,¡± She explained, ¡°Is the sound of an enemy. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not very strong. At least not these versions of it anyways.¡± Kazama stepped forward a little more with her katana at the ready. For a second there was nothing but chilled silence, but then a sudden uproar with the approach of something fast was heard. Out of the shadows of the horizon appeared a dog like creature with its eyes ablaze and its teeth barred. An informative bar appeared over it as Kazama looked at it. Kazama panicked a little inside at the sight of a stronger foe. She glanced at her own HP bar noticed that she only had 15 HP at level 1, and the knowledge made her worry even more. As if sensing her panic, Nabiki spoke up. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It might look intimidating at first, but it¡¯s actually pretty weak. Plus I have you covered just in case!¡± Rather than say anything in response, Kazama prepared to fight the freakish looking dog. The Dread stopped for a moment to gather its thoughts on how to attack Kazama and then began to move again. Kazama stayed where she stood and held her ground as the thing got closer. Finally, the Dread picked up its pace and leaped at Kazama. Kazama wordlessly took a sidestep swinging her sword at the dog as it went by her. Her blade connected with it and the Dread howled in pain. She glanced at the Dreads HP and saw it drop down to half full.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°That¡¯s good!¡± She thought to herself, ¡°This things half down! All I need to do is get one more swing to put it down.¡± Nabiki hollered in victory towards Kazama. ¡°Wahoo! You got it! Now just one more slice and it¡¯s a goner!¡± No sooner then said. The dog began to come at Kazama again. This time it didn¡¯t recklessly charge at Kazama, but circled her and howled. In response to the Dread, a dozen or so other howls could be heard. Suddenly a pack of Dreads appeared, all leveled between 1 and 3. This time it was Nabiki who panicked. ¡°Shit! This never happened to me before! They usually come at pairs¡­..¡± She let fire and arrow at one of the lower leveled ones, killing it instantly. It shattered in a burst of virtual pixels and dispersed from the world forever. Kazama was alerted that she had gained some experience from the downed beast. She shot a look at Nabiki and then turned back to the Dreads. One of the lower leveled ones rushed her and she promptly connected her blade and killed it. An annoying message popped up in front of her eyes just as some more Dreads began to move on her. As this message floated in front of her, one of the Dreads leapt at her and was able to badly scratch her chest. Her outfit matched where the dog attacked her and began to pool some blood. She began to feel not so hot and her HP bar grimly made that feeling worse. She was down halfway now, with a good ten Dreads beginning to come at her. She quickly swung her blade in the direction of the Dread that wounded her and killed it. Nabiki ran up to her and fired a few arrows as warning shots and forced the Dreads to retreat a few steps back. ¡°Hold on Kazama! I got you!¡± Nabiki rushed to Kazama and popped a bottle in her mouth. ¡°Gwaah!¡± Complained Kazama at the intrusion of the bottle. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this here is a good old fashioned potion! Just the kind an adventuring person might need! As she drank the liquid down, Kazama instantly felt better. Even her wounds were gone and her outfit was back in the same shape before she had gotten wounded. The blood stains were still present, but that didn¡¯t matter at the moment. What was the problem was that since Nabiki decided to help Kazama out, the Dreads began to surround them and draw closer in. Nabiki closed her eyes and Kazama couldn¡¯t move at the sight of the Dreads. Just as they had thought they were goners, a sudden bright light flashed and blinded the Dreads and Kazama. The Dreads fearfully darted away and the light began to slowly fade away. As the light faded away, both Kazama and Nabiki blacked out in the graveyard¡­¡­ ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Kazama slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She was a long ways away from the graveyard that she had just been in. She heard a low sound of breathing beside her and she looked in the direction. Kazama almost jumped at the sight of Nabiki laying in the bed next to her, sleeping peacefully. Kazama jumped at the sight and looked between her and Nabiki and saw they both were in their underwear. ¡°What happened between the time we blacked out and now,¡± She hurriedly thought to herself, ¡°We didn¡¯t do what I think we did¡­did we?!¡± As she was going through a few too many lewd scenarios in her head, she then noticed a note of paper on the bedside. She jumped out of the bed and grabbed the paper and looked down at it closely. As she did this, Nabiki opened her eyes and looked up at Kazama. ¡°Uwah, where are¡­¡­.¡± She started and then bolted upright as she noticed they both were down in their underwear. Blushing, she continued, ¡°Where are we? I thought we were fighting and then suddenly¡­..¡± Kazama reddened up in the face and then handed the not to her. Nabiki looked at the note and her face reddened up as well. ¡°Wait¡­¡­this message is from a person waiting for us¡­.And thy want us to shower¡­.together. Because the hot water goes after one use?.....¡± Kazama blushed as well and grabbed the paper back and looked at it more. ¡°It also says that we will receive the answers we are looking for after we cleanup..¡± As she was saying this, Nabiki had begun to stand up and brought her player menu up. She clicked a button and suddenly she stood before Kazama naked. Kazama¡¯s mouth was wide opened at the sight of something feminine¡­..something other than seeing herself. Nabiki blushed some more and asked quickly. ¡°What!? Is something wrong!?¡± ¡°N-n-nothing! Just nothing whatsoever! Let¡¯s get into that shower then! Yep, here I go!¡± Kazama raced over to the open door of the shower/bath room and quickly began to shower. Nabiki walked in and joined her, grabbing a soap and rubbing it over herself. She pointed at Nabiki as she did so. ¡°You might get cleaner if you take the rest of your clothes off¡­..¡± Kazama looked down t herself, then back at Nabiki and reddened in the face even more. She fumbled for the players menu and hit the button to unequip her clothing. She quickly grabbed a soap and copied what Nabiki did. Nabiki got a little closer to Kazama and raised her arms up to let the water wash down her chest and the rest of her body. Kazama couldn¡¯t help herself as she stared at Nabiki¡¯s body. ¡°Wow¡­.she¡¯s beautiful looking. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m showering with a girl¡­¡­.a real human girl, virtual or not! Now I can¡¯t even tell her I¡¯m a guy¡­.If she found out she would kill me!¡± Nabiki walked off and sat in the tub and visibly relaxed a bit in it. She stole a lot at Kazama and smiled. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to join me? The waters lovely!¡± ¡°S-s-sure!¡± Kazama walked over and dipped into the warm waters with her. The water was even better feeling then she thought and soothed her aching body as she sat there. Nabiki looked over at Kazama and opened her mouth to ask a question. ¡°Say Kazama, I was wondering something about you¡­¡± ¡°Y-yeah?¡± Kazama muttered aloud with worry in her voice. ¡°Well, I saw how you fought with ease and thought of a great idea! With the combo of you and me, we should form a guild or something!¡± Kazama sighed aloud at hearing this. She had thought the girl was going to ask something worse of her, or even accuse something. Kazama let herself relax a bit more ¡°Isn¡¯t that for more than two players?¡± ¡°Well yeah, but we can still start it with just the two of us! Then as we begin to get better and recruit other members, we can make a name for ourselves!¡± Kazama stood up and began to dry herself off. As she did, she looked over at Nabiki who was doing the same. ¡°Sure, I guess we could. It sounds like it would make things more fun in the game.¡± ¡°More then you know! You can battle other guilds, gain territory and even more! Or so I¡¯ve heard at least¡­¡± Nabiki blushed a slight bit and finally got her clothes back on. Kazama did the same and they exited the bathroom. They walked out of the room and were surprised at the sight they saw. They were on the second story floor of a giant looking cathedral, a sort of cathedral that would be found in ancient Europe. It seemed that the game really knew what it was basing its first world off of. ¡°Wow,¡± Nabiki gasped as she looked over the balcony wall. ¡°Yeah,¡± replied Kazama, who was also looking over the cathedral. ¡°Just who was it that saved us?¡± A voice behind them spoke up. ¡°I was the one who saved you two fine ladies.¡± Both Kazama and Nabiki turned around and looked to see a young man in a priest outfit smiling at them. They both were speechless at the person. In response to them, he spoke again. ¡°We have much to go over¡­.¡± End Chapter 2 Chapter 3 – Priests, Battles and Graveyards Galore! Chapter 3 ¨C Priests, Battles and Graveyards Galore! The priest smiled kindly at Kazama and Nabiki as they looked at him in awe. Kazama seemed even a little more awed at the sight of such a young priest. ¡°What the hell does he think he is? He looks way too young to be a priest of any kind!¡± Nabiki was the first to speak up to him. ¡°O-oh, who are you? And more importantly, where are we?¡± ¡°You are in a house of the virtual God young lady. As to me, I am but a humble servant,¡± He bowed low and continued, ¡°And my name is Shohei. Now if you would please follow me down the stairs, perhaps I could help you out more.¡± He began to walk down a flight of stairs. Nabiki followed with Kazama behind her not looking all too pleased. ¡°Who the hell is this sweet talker? A humble servant my ass!¡± Once they had arrived at the bottom of the staircase, Shohei guided them past pews filled with people sitting. The people looked at Kazama and Nabiki in fear as they passed by. Kazama asked the priest a question as they walked past the people. ¡°What¡¯s their problem?¡± ¡°The same problem we all face. The complete and utter entrapment in a game that¡¯s supposed to be fun, not frightening. They came here seeking solace as well as a way to get better.¡± ¡°What do they expect to get better at?¡± ¡°They wish to get better in the ways of battle. Without it, they will be unable to participate in the many events of the game. They can still live inside the game however they see fit, but if they don¡¯t find their calling¡­..they will forever be broken and lost in this new life.¡± They entered the far end of the cathedral by the alter, which was much wider and more clear of space then the rest of the building. The priest turned to them and spoke. ¡°You two are quite talented, but to try and take on a pack of Dreads at your levels? That¡¯s how people die.¡± Kazama was finally tired of hearing him speak and was about to yell at him, but it was Nabiki who spoke up instead. ¡°We thought it was the best way to get better. But I myself didn¡¯t expect there to be more Dreads. That was my fault¡­¡± ¡°There is no need to blame yourself for it, it¡¯s a pretty common mistake. You¡¯re lucky I happened to come by and rescue you both.¡± Kazama squinted her eyes a bit and glared at Shohei. ¡°So you were the one that scared them off? So¡­.how did you take our clothes off? Hmmm?¡± Shohei nervously coughed at hearing her ask that and the people in the pews closest had their jaws drop. He extended both arms to reassure them all. ¡°C-clothes? Take them off? Oh no no no! One of the women here was able to do that!¡± Kazama didn¡¯t lose her glare and swiftly changed the subject, not for him, but for herself and Nabiki. ¡°Sure¡­.¡± She started, still glaring, ¡°Then how did you do that all by yourself at that graveyard?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid that has to be my little secret. Now perhaps you both would like something to eat or dri¡ª¡° ¡°Fight me,¡± Interjected Kazama, ¡°And show me. I hate secrets.¡± The people in the pews muttered a loud sigh and Shohei was a bit surprised at hearing this. He composed himself a bit and kindly smiled to her. ¡°Theres no need for us to fight. So let¡¯s just go and¡ª¡° ¡°No, I want to fight you.¡± ¡°Feh, very well, if you insist.¡± Shohei brought up a menu and pressed a button. A server notice let Kazama know she was now about to engage in a player vs player battle. Kazama hastily pressed the button and readied her blade in her hands. Nabiki ran back over to where the people were sitting and sat down, ready for the battle to unfold. Shohei pressed another button on his players menu and his outfit began to change. Replacing this outfit of a priest was a large black trench coat complete with a double sided sword in his left hand. He began to swing the blade around as if it were nothing for him.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Are you prepared to battle¡­.¡± Shohei looked at Kazama as if he was trying to grasp her name. Before he could announce it from the bar he probably saw hoovering over her, she spoke to him. ¡°The names Kazama, and I¡¯m going to show you a thing or two!¡± ¡°I certainly hope so. I don¡¯t like to beat up on girl¡¯s¡­¡± ¡°You take that back! Don¡¯t you dare call me a girl!¡± The crowd around Nabiki were awed at the spirit she had. ¡°Whoa,¡± Said a girl besides Nabiki, ¡°Does she really think she can pull this off?¡± Nabiki looked on and smiled. ¡°Yeah! She got this¡­.I think¡­.¡± Kazama shouted at Shohei. ¡°Let¡¯s start this! What are you waiting for?¡± ¡°I am waiting for you to make the first move little lady.¡± Kazama couldn¡¯t hold back her anger at this point anymore. She rushed at him with her blade pointed for his throat. Just as she was within striking range, Shohei lifted his sword and brought the tip of it down to the ground, causing a shock vibration to be felt throughout the cathedral. Kazama got caught up in one of the waves from the blade and was thrown into a wall. Nabiki winced a bit as she saw her partner crash into the wall. Shohei began to talk smugly, a little too smug for Kazama¡¯s taste. ¡°You can¡¯t defeat me like that. Your anger only helps you defeat yourself. You will never be able to land a blow on me if you continue in that vein.¡± Kazama slowly lifted herself up from the ground as some of her HP drained away. She chuckled a bit. ¡°Really? Don¡¯t make me laugh. Whether or not, I will find a way to strike a blow on you.¡± With that, she charged again at Shohei with blade at the ready. Just as before, he brought his blade down and shook everybody again. But this time Kazama was able to miss the waves from the attack and bring her blade down onto Shohei, instilling a few points of damage on him. Shohei smiled at her for being able to pull of such a feat, as if it had never happened before. He then brought his blade up to meet her. Kazama connected her blade with his and locked eyes with him. ¡°I hate guys like you. You all think nobody can beat you, that you are the toughest in the whole wide world.¡± He put both hands down on his blade and pushed her back a bit. ¡°I¡¯m sad to hear you say that. I like a spirited woman like yourself. But you only chipped away at my health. Can you bring it all the way down?¡± Kazama grinned a bit now and replied in a snarky attitude. ¡°Oh, I plan on it.¡± Suddenly, she charged at him again swinging her blade. He brought his blade down on her and just as he did, she jumped on it. She further catapulted herself above Shohei, swinging her blade downwards at him. Shohei simultaneously swung his blade upwards at her in a blur. In one swift moment, a cloud of dirt blocked the view of everybody watching. Just as it began to die down, Nabiki and everybody watching sighed loudly at what they saw. The game server alerted everyone of what they saw. Kazama was on the ground now huffing for air, but one thing could be seen on her face. She was smiling. The only thing that could confirm why she was smiling was the game server. End Result: DRAW Everybody looked on in utter shock at the feat Kazama had just pulled off. Nabiki ran up from where she sat and helped Kazama up. Shohei sat down and his sword and coat was replaced by his old priest outfit. Kazama smiled at Nabiki¡¯s approach, and Nabiki could barely talk aloud about what she saw. ¡°Amazing! A draw? How did you pull that off!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I want to know,¡± Interrupted Shohei with a light smile, ¡°But I guess I will have to wait and find out.¡± Kazama looked over at him and grinned. ¡°To be fair, even I don¡¯t know how I did that.¡± Nabiki looked over at Shohei and spoke to him. ¡°Now that this is out of the way, do you mind if I ask you a question?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind, just as long as it has nothing to do with how I saved you both and the rest of that¡­¡± ¡°Well, I was talking to Kazama about it earlier, and I noticed all the people here and them wanting something more. And well,¡± she glanced at the people in the church, ¡°I was wondering if you and the rest of them would like to join in the creation of a guild?¡± Shohei looked a little surprised at her asking this of him. ¡°Ahh, why did she have to invite him?¡± Though Kazama to herself. ¡°That¡¯s a very kind gesture of you. I would love too, and I think it will help boost the confidence of these people and allow them to have fun. But I will only join on two conditions.¡± ¡°And what are they?¡± He pointed toward Kazama and smiled. ¡°I will join as long as she is the leader of it¡­.¡± He then turned back to Nabiki, ¡°And that you two would join me to the graveyard to where I found you.¡± Nabiki looked at Kazama, who nodded her agreement to her, then turned to the people. ¡°Well? Do you all want to join us and have to some real fun? Together we will all strive to become the greatest and show others whose boss!¡± The entire crowd of people raised their fists in the air and proclaimed their allegiance to the soon to be guild. Kazama smiled at Nabiki¡¯s enthusiasm and her ability to get the crowd to go. Shohei then began to lead them to the entrance of the cathedral past the happy people. ¡°Then,¡± He started, ¡°Shall we go to the graveyard?¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Shohei lead them through the graveyard that Kazama and Nabiki had been in hours earlier fighting against Dreads. This time, none of the hellish beasts showed themselves and so they quickly made it through with ease. Shohei stopped them in the front of a giant mausoleum and then turned to them. ¡°This here is why I bumped into you both. I had read in a book in the cathedral that a layer of catacombs existed underneath this. I was on my way here when I saved you both. So if you will join me inside this place, I will join your guild after we investigate it.¡± Kazama squinted at the mausoleum in front of them and pointed at it. ¡°Will there be something more in it for us then? Cause I won¡¯t help someone else out unless it helps the whole group.¡± ¡°Of course! Whatever secrets that reside within will be split up between ourselves. And the best part will be your ability to level up fast. And we can claim this dungeon as a part of our territory after we beat it too.¡± ¡°Wait, that¡¯s actually a thing?¡± Nabiki spoke up to her and pulled he bow out of her menu. ¡°Yeah, anything you are able to beat and conquer is yours for as long as you wish. Which means they can become training grounds for members once they are beat.¡± And with that, Shohei opened his player¡¯s menu and equipped his sword, but not his coat. ¡°Then, shall we be going?¡± The girls both in unison shouted, ¡°Yeah! Let¡¯s do it!¡± Rather than reply, Shohei swung his blade at the mausoleum door and broke it open. As the rest of the door lay crumbling beneath their feet, they all walked inside. When they entered, they were invited by the smell of dampness and death. Skeletons in tattered clothing lay scattered about the room. Nabiki gasped at the sight and Kazama gulped a bit. Then, they began to prepare themselves for what lay next inside the dark rooms beyond. End Chapter 3 Chapter 4 – Perverted Skeletons and Undead Bell-Ringers Chapter 4 ¨C Perverted Skeletons and Undead Bell-Ringers Kazama and Nabiki looked around at the bleak room they stood in and noticed a strange odor in the air. Kazama was the first to complain about it. ¡°God, what¡¯s that smell? It smells like old grannies in here¡­¡­¡± ¡°Naw, it¡¯s not that bad,¡± Replied Shohei, ¡°And the scent is the smell of death, not old grannies.¡± He sent something to both Kazama and Nabiki, notifying he was pairing up with them. They both accepted and their adventure party of two expanded to three now. Before they advanced to the next room, Nabiki spoke up to them. ¡°_-I think we should form that guild before we start this dungeon. That way we have full control of it once we defeat it.¡± ¡°Good idea,¡± Replied Kazama, ¡°Do you know how to start it?¡± ¡°Yeah! All you gotta do is address the game system and it will do the rest!¡± ¡°Alright then. System, listen up! I want to form a guild!¡± ¡°Name? Hmmm¡­¡­I think we shall be called Hunters Dream. As for location¡­.¡± Shohei spoke up to the game system for her. ¡°We will be the cathedral I run for now. It has all the space we need, plus it¡¯s free for me to run as well.¡± ¡°Shohei and Nabiki will be my subleaders. Now, please send invites for all the members in the cathedral. Kazama opened up her players menu and saw a new tab labeled ¡°Hunters Dream¡±. She opened it and was shown a map of the city filled with three different colors, with a handful of a few others. The three primary colors shaded in were red, purple and black. A guide indicated that they were colored blue. Compared to the other main colors, Hunters Dream was very small and would take a lot of work before they could prove themselves as the best like Nabiki said. Shohei and Nabiki looked at the map and were interested by it. ¡°Wow, there¡¯s a lot of guilds already, and not to mention three giant ones already. How did they get big that fast?¡± Asked Kazama to no one in particular. ¡°They most likely absorbed other guilds into their own collective. That¡¯s about the main way of becoming the best, you just challenge other leaders in a safe battle like the one you had with Shohei. Once the player loses, you control their guild.¡± ¡°What happens if you lose? Do you get demoted in rank or something like that?¡± Nabiki put her hand under her chin and thought about it for a moment. ¡°Not really. Usually you can still head up smaller divisions within the guilds and battle other guilds for the glory of your group. I think you can even challenge for control of the guild as well. To be honest, a multitude of options can happen with a guild.¡± Shohei had walked to the door on the other side and had turned to them, gesturing for them to follow. ¡°We can worry about that later. For now, let¡¯s just explore this dungeon.¡± Kazama and Nabiki gracefully avoided the skeletal bodies on the floor and followed him. As they went, Kazama looked at some of the bodies and noticed a similarity about them, but then just shook it off. They entered the new room and behold the sight of even more skeletons on the ground as well as chained up to the wall. Something glittering in the room caught Nabikis eye and she picked up her pace towards it. Whatever it was, she had to dig deep through a heap of skeletons until she finally lifted it over her head. She held it out to them and they could see it was a wondrous ring with a deep blue sapphire sitting deeply in it. ¡°Oooo, it¡¯s a ring! And it¡¯s got a big stone on it! I will have to add it to my inventory and research it later!¡± Shohei smiled and gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. ¡°Remember, whatever we find will be split up between us and the guild latter. Oh, and speaking about guilds, we all share an inventory when we get paired up. So if you two get hurt and need a healing potion, feel free to steal from it. I rarely need the stuff.¡± The finding of the ring seemed too easy for Kazama and bugged her to no ends. Normally in an adventure game, you would receive the reward after you defeated some enemies. Otherwise it was usually a trap or something worse.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Guys, shouldn¡¯t we be a little worried and cautious? It seems a little weird for a ring to be found that easy with relatively no pain at our behest¡­¡± And no sooner had she uttered those words that a group of enemies began to form from something surround the floor around them. Just as she was about to walk up to Nabiki, a group of skeletons burst from the floor and grabbed Nabiki and pushed Shohei away. The skeletons clamped onto Nabiki¡¯s arms and held her tight no matter how hard she struggled to be free of them. Shohei slid into a wall as he was pushed away and Kazama was the first to react properly. ¡°I knew it! It was a trap!¡± She yelled at Shohei for help as more Skeletons began to form around her. She swung her katana and Shohei managed to do the same with his sword. The skeletons immediately broke apart but just as quickly as they did, they began to reform. No matter how many times they swung and attacked them, the skeletons would always manage to get back up and attack. ¡°They reform to fast!¡± Yelled Shohei to Kazama, ¡°What do we do?¡± Kazama gritted her teeth as she blocked one of them, and swiftly dislodged another from her sword. The skeletons weren¡¯t a problem level-wise, but when it came to the fact about them reforming, that was what made the outlook look bleak for them. She looked at the ones reforming and saw their informative bars hover over them. She then noticed the ones that reformed had full hit points once again, whereas the ones she just disposed of just had less than ten hit point left. ¡°I got it!¡± She exclaimed, ¡°We need to add a little more pressure on the damage we let out. We keep letting them have a little bit of HP left and reform. Once they get back up, they automatically have full health again!¡± Nabiki shouted as the skeletons holding her began to get a little too frisky for their own good and gravitated to her breasts a little. One of them had fully grabbed a handful and squeezed hard, making her blush hard and then finally snap. ¡°Why you perverted little¡­..HEY YOU GUYS! GET ME OUTTA THIS!¡± Kazama looked and saw the skeletons looked at her and back, not seemingly knowing what they were doing. Kazama ran blade first and put every effort into killing the perverted skeletons. In one grand motion, she swung her blade down hard on them and instantly vanquished them from the world. Nabiki feel a bit and landed her head in Kazama¡¯s chess, causing them both to blush hard. Kazama couldn¡¯t move and Nabiki looked up at her a little lustfully. ¡°Thank you!¡± She exclaimed to Kazama, as she began to hug her tightly. She brought one of her hands up to Kazama¡¯s shoulder and squeezed it tightly and then moved herself away. She looked back for an instant at Kazama and then joined in with Shohei with killing the skeletons. All Kazama could do was stand and think too many things at once inside her head. ¡°W-what just happened there!? Maybe she just tripped and fell into my¡­chest! Yeah! But that look she gave me¡­.¡± As Kazama was going over multiple scenarios in her head, she looked up to notice some of the remaining skeletons begin to rush her. She snapped out of her confusion and cut them all down. After a few minutes, the three had concluded the battle and began the trek into the next room. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. After a few hours and the same battle scenario against the skeletons, the three had arrived into a new room with a stairway leading downwards. Kazama sighed loudly and was clearly bored now. ¡°Feh, this is starting to get repetitive! Every room involves something dead and barely any rewards!¡± ¡°That may be true, but,¡± Shohei replied to her, ¡°It looks like we have yet more to face. Maybe you will be appeased by a stronger opponent?¡± ¡°Meh, maybe.¡± She said as they went down the stairs. When they had arrived at the bottom, they were in the first large room they had seen in the entire dungeon so far. Colum¡¯s lined the room in a circle, with multiple candles lit, eliminating the darkness. A faint bell ringing could be heard in the room and the three looked around the room for it. Nabiki was the first to ask about it. ¡°What do you suppose that sound is coming from?¡± All Shohei could offer was a shrug and Kazama squinted her eyes as she saw something move from the shadows. As if to answer her question, a not very lively looking woman with a bell crept out from the shadows, silently ringing the bell. Within moment more bells could be heard and soon they had been surrounded by the bell ringers. They cackled at the three as they tightly circled them. ¡°I knew I smelled old grannies in this place!¡± Exclaimed Kazama, a little proud about being right. ¡°To be truthful, I was right as well. We both smelt death and grannies. And thus we got dead grannies. Who would¡¯ve known¡­¡± ¡°Well then, it¡¯s time to put them to rest then!¡± Kaazama launched herself at a few and struck them down faster than Shohei and Nabiki could respond. Nabiki crotched down and aimed at them and Shohei stabbed one. As they were put down one by one, more joined the fray until they too were killed by the group. It seemed the more they rang their bells, the more of them that would show up and quickly die to them. Finally, all of them had been put down but one. Shohei yelled in victory as they got together and regrouped. Nabiki was the only one to question the battle this time. ¡°This seemed to easy. All they did was summon more of their monster class and attacked us.¡± Kazama turned around to face her as the bit of pixels from the grannies they killed began to swirl around in the air. ¡°It felt legit to me. Maybe the game was being kind to us or¡­.¡± She stopped herself short as she saw the reactions on Nabikis face. She turned around and saw what she was reacting to. Instead of disappearing fully, the pixels began to form together, creating a large mass. Shohei spoke up now in a serious tone. ¡°It seems like the real battle has begun.¡± The dead bell ringers had conformed into a large body that towered over the three players. A large version clothed in an old clergy outfit had formed and held a gigantic bell in one hand. The giant undead woman began to cackle at the players below her as they saw her name and HP. ¡°S-sister Midnight?!¡± Gulped Kazama at the ungodly sized woman that towered above her, ¡°This is a boss fight?!¡± They all fell back as the woman set her feet on the ground and sneered at them. She lifted the large bell in her hand and began to ring it loudly. All Nabiki and Shohei could manage were a few frightened looks. ¡°Oh boy, here we go.¡± Was all Shohei could manage as smaller versions of the Sister began to form around them. End Chapter 4 Chapter 5 – Oh Sister Midnight the Time Has Come – Part 1 Chapter 5 ¨C Oh Sister Midnight the Time Has Come ¨C Part 1 ¡°Sister Midnight?!¡± Kazama yelled at the sight of the gigantic bell ringer that stood over them. ¡°Is this a boss fight already?¡± ¡°No,¡± Replied Shohei coolly as he began to engage the mini copies of the boss began to form around them. ¡°This has to be the ¡°Mini¡± boss of the dungeon. But even at that monster ranking, it¡¯s still a much stronger adversary then what we¡¯ve all faced so far.¡± Nabiki had to retreat a bit as swarms of the mini copies began chanting some sort of dark ancient words at them. She quickly pulled up her players menu up and got rid of her archers bow. She clicked on another weapon in her equipment inventory and selected it. In a lightning blur, Nabiki swept her unseen weapon at the mini copies and instantly cut them down with no problems. She composed herself better and shouted towards Kazama who was looking at her worried. ¡°I got everything handled over here, you just take care of yours!¡± Kazama saw Nabiki hefting two short axes in each hand, and saw her manage to cut more down easily. ¡°She has those as well? Guess she has all the angles to protect herself¡± As Kazama was thinking to herself, the giant undead woman began to talk to them all. ¡°How unfortunate that such young people had to find the superiors home, and now they have to die for it. But oh well, I guess they will make fine additions to our catacombs.¡± She began to cackle at them and started ringing the giant bell more, sending shock vibrations throughout the floor of the room. Within moments of the bell ringing, instead of more copies of her, a horde of skeletons appeared. These skeletal adversaries were much different from the previous ones that Kazama and the rest had fought. This time they wore heavy armor instead of nothing, and this made them even more annoying than their predecessors. The armor simply rose their defensive stats and thus made the death blow much harder to deliver. Now the battlefield had been divided into three camps: copies of the mini boss, skeletal warriors and finally the mini boss herself. Shohei yelled to Kazama as he faced some of the skeletal warriors. ¡°Kazama! You¡¯re the one closest to the boss! I will take care of these skeletal perverts, you just deal as much damage to the sister as you can!¡± ¡°But what about Nabiki?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I think she has things handled on her own!¡± As he was saying that, Kazama noticed her take multiple copies of the sister again with even more ferocity than before. Kazama made her mind up and strode up to the tall and giant bell ringer who was looking down as she approached. ¡°So, one of the bugs wishes to take me on eh?¡± Replied the sister as she watched Kazama ready her blade for battle. ¡°It looks like I will just have to squish her on my own. But that doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t be hard for me to do! Ahahaha!¡± The giant woman was cackling loudly now and it began to piss Kazama off. ¡°Enough of the boasting sister. You really don¡¯t look all that strong to me.¡± The sister smiled evilly, the most evil of a smile an undead woman could manage. She flicked her giant bell left and right and finally brought it over Kazama. The vibrations of sound were earthshattering for Kazama¡¯s ears and if this were the real world, she surly would have gone deaf from it. Luckily she was able to escape the full blast of the sound and only ended up with some minor ringing in her ears that were annoying, but would go away given the time. Finally as she got her bearing back and was about to charge at the sister, the boss brought her giant bell down on her, enshrouding her in it. Kazama was consumed by darkness for a few moments, but it didn¡¯t scare her too badly. She got down on a bended knee and opened the shared inventory and pulled out a bottle of healing potion. She drank it down and the ringing in her ears subsided a bit. Fully refreshed again, she prepared herself to attack as the bell began to lift upwards again. The bell came up and again the sister sneered at her. ¡°Still alive? No matter, you will die soon.¡± And with a flick of her finger, she began to generate a large dark mass of energy in her left hand. It seemed that this was the only time that boss was truly locked into an attack phase and this gave Kazama an opportunity. Kazama sprung forward and ran around the sister, slashing at the giant bell-ringers ankles with her katana. As she slashed the ankles, the HP gauge over the sister went down a little bit, but not near enough to help yet.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°This boss might be easier than we thought! She¡¯s in essence just a giant version of the bell ringers we fought before, so all we have to do is force her hand a bit.¡± Kazama¡¯s thoughts were cut short when the sister flung the giant ball of energy at her, striking her and sending her flying into one of the columns. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. As Kazama began to stride over to the giant mini boss, Nabiki watched as she fought the seemingly endless copies. ¡°How many are there of her? Their all weak, but still annoying as hell!¡± She swung her dual axe blades around and took more out as she watched Kazama stand before the giant bell ringing sister. Her gaze turned back to the battle at hand and as she fought, she thought to herself more. ¡°Even if this might be a life threatening event, I still find it surprisingly enjoyable and fun. And it partially seems better with Kazama around me as well¡­..¡± Nabiki ducked low and rolled away as the bell ringers began to be joined by the skeleton warriors. The new development wasn¡¯t too much of a bother for her. She continued to fight and think about Kazama. ¡°There¡¯s just something about her that attracts me. I just feel something there, and it¡¯s too strange for me to fully understand at the moment.¡± Her thoughts were interrupted when Shohei decided to come and help her out a bit with some of the skeleton warriors. He swung his blade in semi-circular motion and was able to kill a mix of both copies and skeletons. ¡°Sorry for not helping you out too much! I promise to make it up to you now.¡± Nabiki kindly smiled at him. ¡°No need to be sorry. This boss wants us to be split up and overwhelmed it seems.¡± ¡°It does look that way doesn¡¯t it? If there were a few more of us, then maybe this would be easier, but¡­.¡± He was cut short when some of the skeletal warriors teamed up with some of the undead ringers. Shohei was caught off balance by them and was thrown aside quickly. Nabiki rushed in and angled her dual axes at the skeletons and managed to wound them. The skeletal warrior¡¯s armor began to chip away as she twirled her axes around them. With every successful hit, more and more of the amour dropped away until finally the skeletons were laid bare. In one fell swoop of her weapons, Nabiki dealt the death blow to the shambling bones as well as some copies. Shohei was stunned by her mastery with the dual axes and how they seemed to dance around the enemies. Just as she was taking them out, one of the skeletal warriors crept behind her and raised its blade above her. Shohei snapped to action and quickly swung his blade on it, disposing of it before it hurt Nabiki. Nabiki turned back a bit and was a little surprised that she had missed one. She hastily thanked Shohei. ¡°Thank you! I didn¡¯t that one behind me¡­.¡± ¡°I should be the one to thank you, you saved my ass when I got knocked away. When I was knocked down, I got momentarily stunned. If it weren¡¯t for you, I would¡¯ve been a goner. And please, keep it up with those dual axes, you¡¯re pretty talented with them.¡± Nabiki blushed a bit at all the praise he gave her and turned away to face the copies again. The flow of copies and skeletons were endless whenever the sister rang her bell. ¡°This is getting tricky. If this keeps up, we might as well be dead. If only we could damage her bell¡­.¡± She gazed over at Kazama and saw the gigantic sister flick a dark ball of some sort of matter at Kazama. Nothing could be seen, the impact had whipped up a large cloud of dust obscuring her view. ¡°Kazama!¡± Was all Nabiki could manage as she watched and waited for the dust to clear. To her amazement, a figure could be seen standing in the ruins of a collapsed column as the dust began to clear. The sister looked down on the figure and sneered. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. ¡°Ehehehehe, still alive eh? No matter, I will be sure to finish you now!¡± The sister was laughing at Kazama who had been able to survive the blast from the dark matter of energy that the sister had flung at her. Kazama¡¯s outfit had been surely ripped up and multiple cuts and scrapes were on her body. She simply opened her players menu and grabbed another potion and downed it. Her cuts and scrapes went away, but her outfit remained the same. ¡°Ugh, its durability is hitting the max from all the damage. Once it drops, I will only have the protection of my panties. And after that, I¡¯m dead in the water¡­.¡± This meant that the only thing she could do was evade any more attacks from the sister. If she did that, her durability would rise again and her clothes would be re-mended. The only problem was that it was literally impossible to do that with the amount of summoned enemies all around. The only thing that had to be done was somehow take out the giant bell in her hands and hope for the best. The sister began to form another ball of dark energy in her hand this was the chance that Kazama had. She began to run swiftly and jumped up over the enemies and swung her blade above her. She was able to clear the distance and land a blow on the bell. The bell vibrated from her attack and Kazama noticed a few cracks begin to form on it. ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± thought Kazama, ¡°A few more hits and the bell will be destroyed. And all she will have left is that blasted dark arts attack, and speaking of which¡­.¡± The sister aimed the dark ball at her and flung it. Kazama got out of the way and was able to miss most of the attack, with only a bit of it hitting her. The sister began to fling smaller balls faster now without any real aim, knocking some of the copies of her and skeletal warriors out of the way. ¡°So you think you can jump and attack my beloved bell? You better think twice about doing it again! Ahahahaha!¡± ¡°I surly will,¡± Thought Kazama to herself. She looked at the bell and gauged that it would only take a few more hits to take it out with the size of cracks that it had now. But now jumping was fully out of the picture as the sister flung more and more balls of dark energy. That¡¯s when it hit Kazama. ¡°All I need to do is jump! And with that, she will kill her bell with her own attacks!¡± Kazama stepped up to it and jumped as much as possible and landed on the bell. ¡°Hey, look! I jumped on your bell! Whatcha gonna do about it you old bitch?¡± The sister looked angry and did the one thing Kazama counted on, she flung those multiple dark balls of energy at Kazama on the bell. Kazama jumped off the bell as the balls of energy struck the bell. The cracks widened and finally tore the bell apart. The next thing she saw was a bright white flash as the bell ripped apart around her. End Chapter 5 Chapter 6 – Oh Sister Midnight the Time Has Come - Part 2 Chapter 6 ¨C Oh Sister Midnight the Time Has Come - Part 2 Kazama was falling to the floor as the bell shattered all around her. A bright white light was emitted from the sister, blinding everyone for a moment. Just as it had started, the bright light had vanished and so did all the remaining enemies that were being summoned from the bell. Kazama landed on her feet and looked at the mini boss that had moments destroyed its own bell. The HP gauge for Midnight had gone to the halfway mark and it seemed destroying the bell helped to defeat the boss. ¡°Damn, taking out that bell chopped that much health down? But that still leaves half of her life left and all it¡¯s got are those dark balls of energy.¡± The giant bell ringer seemed angry and upset now and yelled in agony at the loss of her bell. ¡°Arrghh! My precious bell! Now you will all pay dearly for that!¡± The giant undead woman began to shine very brightly and it was to blinding to see. Kazama turned her head away for a moment and when she turned back, she was shocked by what she saw. Standing before her was a young woman in a clergy outfit, not too much unlike the one of giant boss. She held in one hand a giant gilt cross that was longer then she was. She smiled at Kazama and spoke. ¡°If I cannot defeat you as I was, then perhaps this form will be better instead?¡± Kazama wasn¡¯t able to believe what she heard until the game system labeled it for her. The sister was no longer an undead grannie and was now a young and beautiful looking woman. It was as if this mini boss had more of a story to her then just any old boss from some other game. ¡°You want to fight me like that? In hand to hand combat? That¡¯s what you resort to after destroying your own bell? That¡¯s laughable.¡± The sister smiled kindly and lifted her free hand and spoke a few words under her breath. Immediately, a barrier formed between all the ruined and non-ruined columns, sealing Kazama in with the sister. The unfortunate part was that she was sealed in without her partners, who had just finished clearing the rest of the enemies. They pounded on the barrier and yelled, but they couldn¡¯t be heard. ¡°This will be a battle between just you and me. Once I kill you, I will move on and kill your partners. And then I will continue killing until I feel satisfied.¡± Kazama was worried and a bit confused by how she was going to attack. ¡°What are you gonna do, just crucify me? I really doubt that¡¯s going to work!¡± The sister said nothing to answer her and just held her ground. Kazama finally decided it was the time to attack and rushed at the sister. The sister chanted a few words and a glow emanated from the cross and blasted Kazama into a barrier wall. She balanced herself and looked at her clothes whose durability had just gotten a bit closer to being better. This was beginning to look a lot worse than just a giant undead grannie with a bell fetish. ¡°Urk, so that¡¯s what it¡¯s gonna be like when she fights now? I gotta somehow get the damage out to her before she gets me instead.¡± She lifted herself up and looked at the boss in front of her. ¡°Whats her weakness now? Without a giant bell now, she might as well be invincible. But this is a game where anything can happen. I doubt the programmers anticipated the bell being knocked out by herself¡­.¡± Making her mind up, she walked slowly this time towards Midnight. She walked and then stopped and extended a hand to point at the boss. ¡°Really? You call yourself an opponent? A true opponent wouldn¡¯t hide behind their weapon and stand still. Why don¡¯t you truly fight me hand to hand?¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The boss smiled and said nothing. She raised the cross from the ground and swung it in the air until she finally brought it back down length wise. The act created a sudden shock vibration that shook the room. Felling pleased with herself, Midnight strode towards Kazama. ¡°If that is the way you wish to die, then so be it. I will refrain from using my magics in our fight.¡± ¡°Ooo, I feel special.¡± Replied Kazama with a grin. She rushed towards the sister and raised her blade. The sister blocked her attack and brought Kazamas blade and arm down to the ground. Unphased, Kazama let go of the katana and in one swift motion brought out one of her daggers and managed to stab the sister in the arm. Midnights HP gauge went down a few clicks, but nothing extraordinary. The sister swiveled the cross around and caught Kazama square in the waist with it, causing her some damage as well as fling her backwards a bit. She crashed into a column with her back and lost a good deal more of her HP. The sister began to smirk and replied in a happy tone. ¡°You¡¯re no match for me. In a few more moments you will be dead!¡± Kazama looked beyond Midnight and saw her blade still laying on the ground behind the sister. She looked at Midnight and smiled in pain, as the crash into the column really did hurt her but luckily broken backs didn¡¯t apply to this world. ¡°You wish I wasn¡¯t a match for you. But that¡¯s something bitches like you would never be able to understand. You¡¯re all the same, always putting someone down just because you think you can.¡± ¡°Are those your last words?¡± Kazama was beginning to laugh a bit to herself now and the sister raised a quizzical eyebrow. ¡°What¡¯s so funny? Is death really that exciting to you?¡± Kazama looked at Midnight dead in the eyes and in a serious tone said, ¡°No, death holds nothing for me, and,¡± She sprung up now as the sister closed in on her. She leapt up and over Midnight, twirling midair as she did. When she landed, the picked up her katana and swept it on the sister. The blade cut the sister badly and registered a lot of damage on her, but not enough to end her. Kazama continued speaking as Midnight retreated a bit. ¡°I won¡¯t allow you to kill anyone. The only person who dies today is yourself.¡± The HP gauge had gone down to 45 with that sudden attack. Midnight was bleeding pretty badly, but the wounds didn¡¯t show up on her perfectly kept body. She bit her lip angrily and spat at Kazama. ¡°How did you do that? No one should be able to get the best of me!¡± Kazama pointed her blade outward at the sister and smirked. ¡°Things happen when you corner someone. You should about things like that if you truly wish to be the strongest. Now I will finish this fight.¡± Kazama and Midnight rushed towards each other and locked weapons. The sister was still a formidable opponent and was able to push Kazama back, swinging her gilded cross to block Kazama¡¯s attacks. Kazama switched her motions up and blocked a few thrusts from the cross until she found an opening. When the opening in the sister¡¯s position appeared, she struck with all her might and got some more damage off. The HP gauge went ever lower now and was beginning to crack apart now. Kazama and the sister were evenly matched now in terms of battle and remaining health. Kazama smirked at the boss and spoke. ¡°This next blow will decide the outcome of the battle!¡± ¡°Yes, it certainly will. Prepare yourself.¡± Kazama raised her blade and the sister held her ground with the cross held before her. Kazama and the sister engaged in a final free for all that brightly lit the room up. Seconds later, both Midnight and Kazama spread apart from each other. The sound of beeping could be heard in Kazama¡¯s ears and she noticed her HP had less than three points left. She painfully walked towards Midnight, who was on her knees with the cross laying in front of her. As Kazama walked in front of her she looked up and cried a bit. ¡°How! How are you so strong?! No has ever defeated me before! This is not fair!¡± Her HP gauge had less than 1 point of health left and Kazama lifted her blade upwards and spoke to Midnight. ¡°My strength comes from my determination to live. As long as I have it, no one will be able to kill me,¡± As Kazama spoke, she brought the blade down and railed Midnight through the stomach with it. The blade stuck out the other end of her and then was quickly pulled out. Kazama continued to speak as the sister began to fragment slowly. ¡°Now, I wish you pleasant dreams sister.¡± Midnight screamed loudly and yelled at Kazama as her body began to fragment into tiny pixels. ¡°NOOOOO! I WANT TO LIVE! THIS ISINT WHAT I WAS PROMISED BY¡­¡­..¡± Her voice began to fade as she did from existence. Kazma was only able to make out another word before she vanished from the world forever. ¡°SUP¡­¡­ERIOR¡­.¡± And then, she was gone. All that was left behind was the gilded cross on the ground. Kazama bent down and touched it and it was automatically placed into her inventory. The barriers began to fall around the columns and Nabiki and Shohei rushed towards her. Kazama fell to the ground weakly and her eyes began to dim. Just as she was slowly blacking out, she heard the game system announce something aloud. Death Caused By: Sword Strike By Player Kazama Kazama passed out on the ground as Nabiki and Shoehei rushed up to her. As she passed out, she muttered a few words. ¡°She was¡­¡­a player?.....¡± And then, she remembered nothing after that, only darkness. End Chapter 6 Informative Insert #1 So we have come to the six chapter mark and I thought I would talk about the characters we have so far to help you guys get to know them for now. I might do this for all my characters. Now lets go with the main character, who I luckly have some art that was happily done for me by an artist First is Kazama herself. Kazama Age: 17 Eye Color: Blue Hair: Brown Born: March 21 Likes: Games, Fighting and Manga Authors Comments: This is the main character, so I will pretty much praise her for who she (He really) is. I feel like so far shes going along with being a female a little to easily, but maybe its for the best? She''s played tons of games before so she has a heads up when it comes to boss fights etc. I feel like her relationship with real females will get better, in the terms of showereing with them and seeing them in the buff :P She will also possibly have a dynamic relationship with Nabiki, both on the pro/friend level, as well as on the love side :P I dont know what else I can say for her right now, other than shes a badass for destorying a giant evil womans bell. Now here is here art that was done for me by the artist K-Seki! Its only in pencil, but it will better help you to understand how she looks as both genders. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Now onto Nabiki Nabiki Age: 17 Eye Color: Green Hair: Black Born: December 12 Likes: Gaming, Helping others out and Pie Authors Comments: Ahhh Nabiki, she really had a whole array of different roles that she could play. Originally she was going to lead Kazama into the training zone without talking about the hackers controling the game and end up dying. But then I thought she could be a better character to hang out around Kazama, so I kept her alive. I was even going to have her try and kill Kazama, but that didnt sit right with me :P She is very forthcoming and loves to help people out! The amount of times an ! is at the end of a sentence will be over a million by the end of this story. I feel her background of games and being a know-it-all will come forth soon. I really hope she gets to tell Kazama the starnge feels she has for her. More on her in the coming chapters maybe! And now finally Shohei Age: 16 Eye Color: Red Hair: Black Born: July Likes: Helping people, Training and Exploring. Authors Comments: Ahh Shohei AKA Mr. Priest in my head. I really want him to fully come out about who he is and I might be able to get that in the coming chapters with the guilds. I wanted him to originally be an all out warrior who was unkind as hell, but that didnt really work well. So I made him into a guy with a sweet attitude as well as younger than the girls, for possible awkwardness. He always feels like he needs to help each other and thus why he runs an old cathedral in the world of Shara. I feel like he does this because he''s lonesome and has no one to spend time with, be them friends, lovers or family. But lucky for him, he will soon have a family in the form of the Hunters Dream guild with Kazama and Nabiki! And I think I will give him a love interest to boost his morale. I really liked writing him fighting Kazama in the third chapter, even if it was a very short battle. He rocks a wicked double sided/handed sword that he lifts with one hand. I think he will be the most cool headed of the three in the story. And I am jelly of him removing both clothes for Kazama and Nabiki...... And this raps up this first edition of the Informative Insert #1! I promise to have chapter 7 up tomorrow. Once again, thank you for your support! *Bows* Yuma Chapter 7 – Living After Midnight Chapter 7 ¨C Living After Midnight Week 1 and a Half of the Game The Player Character known as Midnight ran through the dark streets of the world that she had been trapped in. She was being pursued by Dreads and she was beginning to lose energy. She turned down an ally and ended up being trapped. She panicked and was slowly backed up to a wall with the Dreads approaching her. She shut her eyes and awaited her fate. As her eyes were closed, she could hear the sounds of the Dreads yelp and then finally go silent. She opened her eyes and saw the Dreads vanish into thin air. Now standing before her was a figure, but she couldn¡¯t make their face. In uncertainty, she spoke to the person. ¡°W-who are you?¡± In a feminine voice, the figure responded. ¡°I am the one who saved you from death.¡± ¡°T-thank you, but why did you bother to?¡± ¡°Because I can offer you something even greater than life. A power that would enable you to hold both life and death in your hands.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± A shadowy smile could be seen from the figure. ¡°Because you are much more talented than you think. Will you take my offer?¡± Midnight was a bit indecisive for a moment, then replied. ¡°If it will keep me alive¡­..Yes.¡± ¡°Very good, now just follow me.¡± And with that, Midnight followed the dark figure into the night bound for something she hoped would keep her alive for as long as possible. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Week 4 of the Game Kazama slowly opened her eyes and noticed that her surroundings had changed. No longer in the room she had killed the boss, she now lay in the bed that her and Nabiki had woken up in. ¡°How did I get here?¡± A voice from the far side of the room startled her. ¡°We carried you back after you passed out.¡± It was Shohei who spoke to her and he smiled when she sat up a bit in the bed. She looked down and noticed she was fully clothed this time. Kazama looked around the room for Nabiki, but she didn¡¯t seem to be there. Shohei could tell that Kazama was a bit anxious to see if she was alright. ¡°She perfectly fine Kazama. Nabiki has been worried over you for day and night. I just sent her to go get some well-deserved sleep.¡± ¡°Night and day? How long was I out?¡± ¡°You were knocked out for a little over a week. You¡¯re lucky to be alive after that fight.¡± Remembering the fight made Kazama frown a bit. ¡°I¡¯m still confused by it. As I was blacking out, I heard the game system announce that I had killed a player character named Midnight. But I thought she was just a boss¡­..¡± Shohei crossed his arms a bit and responded lowly. ¡°And you did, or at least so it seems¡­¡± ¡°What? Did I or didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°You killed the mini-boss yes, but not the player character named Midnight.¡± Kazama was a bit curious at this revelation. ¡°How are you sure of that?¡± ¡°I know because I had someone look into it for me. Every death in this game is recorded by the games system officially for everyone to see. When Midnight the mini-boss died, only the boss died, however the player lived on. According the games system at least¡­¡± Shohei got up and headed for the door. ¡°I will leave you for a few moments to get ready. Once you are, meet me out in front of the cathedral.¡± When he had left the room, Kazama stood up and gathered her thoughts. She ran the memories of the battle over and over in her head, to see if there were any clues that might help her. But nothing seemed to pop out to her other than seeing the girl scream as she broke into thousands of little bits of pixels. ¡°How could she have survived? Are those hackers behind this addition to the game?¡¯ Kazama pushed the thoughts out of her head and got herself ready for whatever lay ahead. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Fully ready for whatever lay ahead, she rushed out of the room and down the stairs. With a hefty push, she opened the door and made it outside. She was greeted by slight breeze and the light moonlight illuminating the night. Shohei turned to the sound of her loudly opening the door and put is finger to his lips.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Sush! You have any idea how late it is right now?¡± Kazama strode to him with a quizzical look on her face. There were plenty of people out and about tonight and they all seemed to be making their own set of loud sounds. ¡°Does that really matter right now? I see a lot of people out right now¡­.¡± ¡°Urk! Your right, but still. Keep it down. There¡¯s gotta be some people trying to get some sleep right now. Now, let¡¯s go.¡± He entered the street and Kazama followed closely. Her stomach began to growl loudly and she pointed and complained to him about it. ¡°Ive been out for a week, so the least you could do for me is feed me well¡­¡± Shoehei sighed loudly and opened his players menu and selected something. In his hand materialized a loaf of bread that did not in the least look appetizing to her. He held it out to her. ¡°Here you go, the best thing I can offer you. It¡¯s the cheapest thing they have in this world and it¡¯s called black bread.¡± Kazama accepted it in disgust, clearly displeased that the first meal in this game was a loaf of bread. But instead of complain more, she took it down like nobody¡¯s business. Shohei was a little shocked at how she ate it. Eyeing his shock, Kazama spoke between bites. ¡°What? Is there something on my face?¡± ¡°Ah! No! Just fine! I hope that helps you feel better¡­..¡± Kazama beamed and thumbs upped him as she finished the bread. ¡°It¡¯s good enough for now. I will just have to have you treat me something more filling later.¡± Shohei stopped in front of a building and spoke up. ¡°That will have to wait. Where here.¡± He held a door open for her and beckoned for her to enter. Kazama did as he wanted and walked into a room illuminated by candles and a fire. A figure in a chair by the fire stood up and bowed to Kazama as she entered the room. ¡°Welcome to my humble home Kazama. I am very pleased to meet you finally. Shohei has spoken highly of you. ¡°And who are you?¡± Kazama was a little confused by this new person. The figure walked up and allowed his face to be seen now. He was about the same age as Kazama and had light blonde hair. He smiled at Kazama and spoke. ¡°I am Shershiro, the master thief and informant at your service.¡± He bowed low to Kazama and Shohei who had walked in laughed a bit at him. Kazama still was a little confused and Shohei spoke for her benefit. ¡°When did you become a master thief> Last I saw you were almost caught by some players you ditz.¡± Sheshiro flashed a creepy creeper smile and spoke to Kazama, ignoring Shohei. ¡°Don¡¯t mind him, he has a hard time believing in me. But, I believe I delivered well for him this time. You have important business with me, no?¡± He guided her to a seat across from him and she sat down. Shohei remained standing behind her, slightly squinting at Sheshiro for ignoring him. Sheshiro sat down and got to business. ¡°So, I heard from Shohei that you killed a mini boss all by yourself? That¡¯s quite a feat.¡± ¡°Well, yeah. But it really wasent that hard¡­¡± ¡°Ahhh,¡± He raised his finger and twirled it in the air, ¡°But the hard thing was the fact that instead of an NPC boss, you got the real deal. Am I right?¡± Shohei was tired of Sheshiro¡¯s charms and let it show when he spoke up. ¡°Just get to the point for her Sheshiro. No need to draw things out.¡± Sheshiro cut Shohei a look, then went back to speaking. ¡°Well, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted,¡± He glared at Shohei and continued. ¡°What you killed wasn¡¯t a new thing to happen.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t? But aren¡¯t bosses and the like supposed to always be NPC controlled through the games system?¡± Sheshiro leaned back in his chair and put his hand under his chin. ¡°Well, the answer is both yes and no. Yes, most if not all bosses are NPC¡¯s and thus are ran by the system.¡± He stopped for a minute to see if she was following him. Happy that she was, he went on. ¡°But your case is different. A few other people have rumored that what they killed were real PC¡¯s like you and me. However, all the people supposedly killed were never made apparent in NWO¡¯s death records of players. The hackers made it so that whenever a person die, everybody can find a record of when, where and how they died. However¡­¡± Kazama interrupted him. ¡°However the one I fought is not dead¡­.at least not her player character¡­.¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct. But from what Shohei told me about this event, this Midnight shattered into millions of pixels just like anything when it dies in the game. This could always be an error by the game system¡­.maybe.¡± ¡°Kazama said nothing and brought up her players menu. She went to her inventory and selected the gilded cross from it. With a loud clang, it materialized onto the coffee table between her and Sheshiro. He whistled at the sight of it and Shohei was silent. ¡°Pwhoo, lookie what we have here. This looks like a rare item. Where did you get it?¡± ¡°From the boss. This was all that was left after she disappeared.¡± Sheshiro picked it up and examined it closely. ¡°Hmmm, this drives the nail into the coffin more. Only the weapons of a player character can be left behind. If it was a full blown NPC boss, everything would have gone with it.¡± He placed it on the table again and rested his hand under his head. ¡°This is troublesome. If a player can become an all-powerful boss¡­.¡± Shohei spoke up finally. ¡°He or she could rampage over the other players and control the game¡± Sheshiro sighed wearily. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what could happen. There are two very troublesome facts. One, this Midnight is still alive, and two is¡ª¡° ¡°That the hackers are not behind this¡­.¡± Responded Kazama. Sheshiro looked troubled at her. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the worst part of it. The hackers would never let some have power like that. If they did, you and I wouldn¡¯t be having this conversation right now.¡± ¡°So,¡± Began Shohei, ¡°There¡¯s something or someone else at play with this?¡± ¡°Unfortunately yes. But why they would do such a thing is a mystery.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter to me,¡± Said Kazama as she returned the cross to her inventory. ¡°I won¡¯t let this bug me. I will find the person behind this and make them pay for this. Weather or not Midnight died, this should never have happened.¡± Sheshiro pooped his head up and brought his own menu up. ¡°Ahh! That reminds me! Seeing as Shohei had me go digging, I found something that might help you out, maybe even tie in.¡± Kazama looked a little wary at what he would say. He continued on. ¡°There seems to have been a large amount of players disappearing around the old magical academy here.¡± ¡°How many have gone missing?¡± ¡°A large amount, all reported to have gone investigating it like anything in this game. There are no records of death for them, so they must still be alive somehow.¡± Kazama didn¡¯t need to hear anything more. She stood up and thanked Sheshiro for the information and began to leave. Shohei followed, but turned back and smiled. ¡°Thanks for the help man. I will play you for it sometime.¡± ¡°No problems, you just make sure everything goes alright from this¡­.¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... When they had exited the building, Kazama turned to Shohei and smiled. ¡°Thank you for taking me to meet this Sheshiro.¡± Shohei smiled and rubbed his head. ¡°No problem, I¡¯m just sorry you had to learn important information from the likes of him. But now what will you do?¡± Kazama smiled more now. ¡°First things first, I will let you treat me to something fancy! Then we will worry about this later.¡± ¡°Fine, I know a little place around the corner, let¡¯s go.¡± Kazama followed him and slowly thought to herself. ¡°I will check this place out later. I don¡¯t want to get Shohei or Nabiki involved in this. It would hurt me if a real girl got hurt instead of me. That¡¯s why I will not involve her in this matter.¡± She let her thoughts drift into the night as she followed him down the street. End Chapter 7 Chapter 8 - Going Alone Chapter 8 ¨C Going Alone ¡°Here you go.¡± Shohei said as he placed a bowl of piping hot ramen in Kazama¡¯s hands. Kazama accepted it with a slight glare towards him. ¡°Ummm¡­.¡± She said as she stared at him. He simply laughed and said, ¡°I know you wanted something fancy, but you see, I don¡¯t take girls out to have a nice dinner when they feel like ditching soon after.¡± Kazama began to redden up quickly when she heard his words, realizing what he meant. ¡°What?!¡± She exclaimed, ¡°You knew I was gonna bail on you?!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, after hearing that creepy bugger tell you about Midnight and all the players vanishing, I just knew that you might try to go find out for yourself.¡± Kazama grimly ate her food as Shohei continued on. ¡°But you know Kazama, I don¡¯t really blame you for wanting to do such a task. But also at the same time, I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not you, heh.¡± ¡°What the hell is the ¡°heh¡± for you bastard?!¡± Shouted Kazama through mouthfuls of ramen. Shohei was giving her a snickering face as he responded to her anger. ¡°Oh come now, you mean to tell me you don¡¯t think there will be nuclear fallout when Nabiki finds out about this? You¡¯re such a na?ve girl¡­¡± Kazama finished the rest of the broth and threw the ramen bowl away in a nearby trash can. Wiping her lips, she snarled a bit at Shohei. ¡°What did you call me now?!¡± ¡°A Na?ve girl.¡± Come on, haven¡¯t you noticed by now?¡± ¡°Notice what?¡± Kazama really had no clue and simply blinked her eyes rapidly at him. SHohei put a finger under his chin and smiled slightly more at her. ¡°The entire time that you were out of it, Nabiki never left your side once. It was a hell of a job just too pull her off of your delicate sleeping body. She practically slept with you the entire time¡­¡± ¡°What¡­..what are you trying to say¡­.?¡± ¡°I¡¯m saying that the short enthusiastic girl wonder likes you Kazama.¡± Kazama dropped her mouth wide open and just stared at him in utter shock. Millions of thoughts raced through her mind, but mainly only of her and Nabiki kissing passionately as they fell into a bed of roses. Breaking off from her thoughts with a shake of the head, she smiled with a slight twitch. ¡°Whatever you say¡­I¡¯m going to the academy¡­..¡± She began to walk slowly away from Shohei in embarrassment, hoping to get away from him before anything else happened. She had only made it three steps away when Shohei spoke up to her again a bit louder. ¡°Do whatever you wish, but I won¡¯t hold Nabiki back once the sun rises. I don¡¯t wanna be in the middle of a lesbians quarrel¡­.¡± Kazama stopped in her tracks as a vein in her head began to twitch uncontrollably. She turned ever so slightly towards Shohei, who just stood there like nothing had happened. ¡°I¡­.AM¡­..NOT¡­.A¡­.LESBIAN!!!!¡± Oh¡­..¡± Stared Shohei as he rubbed his chin, ¡°Bisexual then?¡± ¡°NO! And I don¡¯t sleep with girls I just met you bastard!!!¡± Everybody walking around turned and looked as Kazama stood frozen over what she just said. Even the NPC vendors turned to look at her and it caused her entire face to flush a bright red. She raged as she shook her head back and forth at everybody. ¡°WHAT THE HELL IS EVERYBODIES PROBLEM????!!!!!!¡± She then promptly stomped off into the cool night. Shohei just smiled and waved as she began to vanish into the distance. ¡°See you in the morning Kazama. Whatever doesn¡¯t kill you out there sure as hell won¡¯t stop Nabiki from doing it herself!¡± ¡°Shaddup!¡± Shohei laughed loudly at how easy it was to piss her off. ¡°My, oh my, I think I what Nabiki likes in her¡­¡­.¡± He turned to his left and changed the flow of his words to something nearby lurking in the shadows. ¡°I know your over there Sheshiro, so just come on out.¡± ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± The figure of Sheshiro popped out from behind a wall and frowned at Shohei. ¡°You ruined my dramatic entrance Shohei!¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Shohei squinted his eyes at the thief and a wide smirk formed on his face. ¡°The only dramatic thing your good at is getting caught master thief Sheshiro.¡± Shohei made sure to emphasize on the ¡°master¡± in the title Sheshiro gave himself, making the thief cringe slightly. ¡°Hey now, I am the actual great thief I claim to be!¡± ¡°Great thief¡¯s don¡¯t get caught you loser.¡± ¡°Hey, at least I don¡¯t have to wear a crappy priest outfit and watch over an equally crappy church. I bet I get out more than you ever do!¡± ¡°And at least I don¡¯t waste my time sneaking around and spying on girls Shesiro, at least they come to me in my crappy church. Also, I know what your actual grand plan is¡­.¡± Sheshiro frowned more and crossed his arms while shaking his head. ¡°Hey hey! It¡¯s only a minor detail of my plan Shohei! Anyways, it¡¯s only the first level of the game, it¡¯s not like there¡¯s much to steal here anyways¡­¡± ¡°Says the thief about a large gothic city that spans hundreds of miles wide and deep. You¡¯re pathetic for sure¡­but also useful¡­¡± Shaking off his words, Sheshiro perked upwards. ¡°Ooo! You want me to do something badass?! Finally!!¡± Shohei sighed loudly as he put his hand to his face. ¡°As much as it pains me, I need you to follow Kazama. And seeing as you¡¯re the only one with the skills to stalk wo-¡° ¡°Follow.¡± ¡°Right, whatever you say. I need you to follow her and make sure she stays safe¡­I have a feeling this is way too deep for one girl to manage all by herself.¡± Sheshiro brought his hand to his forehead and saluted Shohei, which in turn made the pried shudder. ¡°You can count on me Mr. Priest man! I will watch and make sure the damsel doesn¡¯t get into distress!¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, cut the crap. I know that you want a price or som-¡° ¡°Ah, that! Nah, my price will be cheap this time. All I require is to become an official member of the Hunters Dream guild! Oh, and it has to be up front too¡­¡± Shohei sighed loudly and opened his menu, quickly sending the guild invite to the pesky thief. ¡°There, sent. Now will you just go!¡± Sheshiro brought his in game inbox and accepted his invite. Then he went on and messed with a bunch of menus faster than the eye could see until the guild place holder for his name said ¡°Sheshiro, Master Thief and Lord of the Badass.¡± Smiling over it, he looked over at him blankly. ¡°Whats wrong Mr. Priest Man?¡± ¡°Um¡­.that title you just gave yourself¡­..¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it? ¡°Um¡­.no¡­nothing. You¡¯d best just get going now¡­.¡± ¡°Alright then! I will see you in the morning!¡± Sheshiro spun around on his heel and ran off into the night, following after Kazama. Shohei simply muttered to himself. ¡°What have I just done? I swear Kazama¡¯s going to kill him when he finds her¡­¡± xXx Kazama huffed and puffed her way through the rest of the safe zone until she made it into the midst of the unsafe zone. Kazama drew her blade once she crossed the threshold and had it at the ready as she continued forward through the darkened city. ¡°Really that damn SHohei, grinning and laughing at my expense. And he doesn¡¯t even know what I really am, the creep!¡± Kazama thought to herself as she crept along. She eventually relaxed a bit, seeing there were no NPC creatures nearby. Bringing up the town mapm she could see that she was getting closer to her destination. ¡°The magical academy huh?¡± She said aloud as she smiled to herself. ¡°That¡¯s pretty cool. Say game systems!¡± >> Yes, what can I do for you? ¡°Can you tell about the magical academy?¡± >> The Magical Academy was the former center of magic¡¯s training in Shara. People from far and wide came to study it here and grow wiser. But one day something happened to the students of the academy. Kazama was intrigued as to what could happen to a bunch of magic students. ¡°What happened to them?¡± >> One day another magic user promised to give everlasting life to the other student¡¯s as well as make them stronger. Only some of the students listened and sided with their fellow student. When they were faced with heresy. The students simply said: ¡°We now know the true power of life. You will not stand in the way of our desire.¡± After these words, the students who had followed the magic user killed the higher staff of the academy and put a spell on the school. To this day, the cursed of the academy live on. Kazama gulped as the game system went silent after telling the short tale. She had finally come to a complete stop in front of a giant wrought iron gate and she spoke up ¡°Is this the place?¡± >> Yes, this is the Magic Academy of Shara. Kazama pushed the old and rusted iron gate open and stepped within the confines of the old walls. She was greeted with a gust of air and a strange odor in the air. ¡°Oh guuuuuh, that stench is horrible¡­.¡± Kazma staggered on through the wide expanse of the outer part of the campus. After a few steps, the strange odor dissipated and Kazama sighed in relief. ¡°Phew, at least it¡¯s gone as quickly as it came. That was go-¡° ¡°Ka-clack¡­..ka-clack¡­KA-CLACK¡­¡± The sounds of hollow footsteps could be heard coming from all around her and she looked at her surroundings. From the shadows of the old buildings, a group of hooded figures could be seen brandishing lanterns. All of them where slowly approaching Kazama and she stumbled backwards a bit with her sword outstretched in front of her. ¡°Wha¡­What are they?!¡± >> Type Class: Cursed Fire Druids. HP: 500 Weapons: Fire, Incantations The games systems explanation made Kazama sweat a little as the cloaked druids kept approaching her. ¡°A bunch of cursed druids eh?¡± She said with a hint of a smile, ¡°I guess I will have to just end their lives for them!¡± Kazama leapt towards one, slashing is square in the chest with her blade, causing it to instantly shatter into millions of pixels. ¡°Hell yeah, one hit kill already!¡± The other fire druids ignored what happened and simply rose their lanterns in unison. In a blinding flash, a stream of fire roared towards Kazama, pushing her backwards as it singed her clothes. ¡°Ahhh! Now that¡¯s hot!¡± She shouted as she struck back with even more force then before. She struck another of the druids but only managed to chip a bit off of its HP, as its comrades decided to help it out and send another wave of flames towards Kazama. Kazama ran from the fire and ducked behind an old crumbling wall. As she crouched behind the wall, the footfalls of the shambling druids could be heard echoing as they slowly approached her. ¡°Ka-clack¡­¡­ka-clack¡­¡­¡± ¡°This is annoying. I already killed one of them, but now it seems they have a way to anticipate my attacks. I don¡¯t think brute force alone will cut them down. If only there was a way to get ¡®em all at once!¡± Kazama shouted out into the nighttime air. As if answering her, the game system responded. >> Sword Repel Attack, aka Return is learnable for you. ¡°Wha¡­? Sword repel at-¡° >> Sword Repel Attack The attack is able to repel any non-sword attack, such as the magical fire of the Fire Druids. Equip? ¡°Y-yeah, equip it! >> Equipping Sword Ability¡­¡­.Equipped! You can now repel non sword attacks. Kazama breathed a sigh of relief and held her blade before her. ¡°Well here goes!¡± She shouted aloud as she hopped over the wall with one hand. She landed in front of the walls and looked in front of herself with a smile. The druids noticed her and quickly sent another large burst of flame towards her. Kazama simply help her sword in a defensive stance before herself. ¡°Let¡¯s test this sword ability out! End chapter 8 Chapter 9 - Three Swords and a Knight of Death Chapter 9 ¨C Three Swords and a Knight of Death Six Hours to Sunrise A cloaked figure slowly walked down a set of old crumbling stairs into a wide room. The footsteps of the person echoed loudly through the room until they came to a dead stop. Kneeling down, the figure offered a gloved hand up, which was in turn grasped by a slender porcelain white hand from the darkness. A feminine voice spoke to the kneeling figure in a very soft tone. ¡°Have you something to report Yurei?¡± The cloaked figure looked up into the shadows and spoke aloud. ¡°Yes mistress. It seems that Midnight has still proven useful to us. The girl took the bait and is on her way to find the others at the academy.¡± Soft laughter could be heard and was quickly replaced with the same soft feminine voice as before. ¡°What a persistent young child, hehe. But it is all a part of my plan, and that girl is a small factor within it. If it wasn¡¯t for her, I may never have been able to come to the next step in the link of this world we now live in. Midnight was the beginning to that plan, and her part has yet to come to a close¡­¡± ¡°Yes mistress, her noble cause is almost to an end. It makes me smile that such a person was able to have such a role¡­.¡± The hand suddenly let go of Yurei¡¯s hand and retracted back into the shadows, almost snaking its way back. ¡°It is now time to show the child with true powers in this game Yurei. Little Midnight was only the beginning, but now you will be the second chain in the link Yurei. Feel free to do whatever you want to her, but make sure she lives through it!¡± The cloaked figure of Yurei stood up and bowed low to the sahdows. Bringing his body back up, only two bright yellow eyes could be seen from within his cloaks hood. ¡°It is as you will it mistress.¡± Yurei turned around and stalked his way from the room slowly as the feminine voice laughed loudly xXx Five Hours to Sunrise Kazama stood still with her katana held out in front of her as the billowing flames approached her with a vengeance. She simply smirked at the flames and began to swing her blade. As she did, the flame met her blade and bounced back towards the druids, setting them aflame. Within moments their HP bars dropped to the breaking point, shattering them into millions of pixels. ¡°Well, that really did work!¡± Kazama gleefully shouted to herself. The game system responded to Kazama once again. >> Cursed Fire Druids are weak to their own attacks. The best way to defeat them is to deflect their attacks back at them. Otherwise they can learn their opponent¡¯s moves and anticipate anything. Kazama smirked at the notion of a bunch cursed magic users being weak to their own attacks. ¡°This is a game after all I guess, and seeing as anything has a weakness¡­.I guess it would make sense for the druids. They¡¯re just a bunch of magic users weak against magic, what irony.¡± Kazama strode past the former space occupied by the druids and made her way to an old stairway, and walked up it. The staircase eventually lead her into a long tattered hallway with old paintings and furniture haphazardly thrown about. She cautiously strode through the hallway until she made it to the end of it. A message popped up alerting her that she was on the first floor of the old central magic division building. Kazama flipped open her map menu and stared at it closely. ¡°So the only way to go is up huh? Ack! This place really has ten floors? Gwuh, this is gonna take forever to clear!¡± Kazama made note of the first set of stairs to the next level and began to climb them when something from the higher levels dropped to the ground. ¡°Whud!¡± ¡°What the hell¡­¡± Kazama said loudly as she turned around. Standing before her on the first level was a new NPC creature, and one that was more frightening than the druids she had killed. The game system promptly answered her questions for her. >> Type Class: Death Knight HP: 1000 Kazama stared with a mixture of horror and wonderment as a giant hulking black knight stood up to its full length before her. Only a chilling set of red eyes could be seen emanating from within the confines of its helmet. The death knight held its giant long sword in both hands aloft in front of it, the tip of the sword pointing upwards. ¡°Holy shit, that¡¯s a jump in HP for this area don¡¯t you think? Those druids only had 500 HP a pop¡­..but this guy doubles that amount¡­¡± Kazama was sweating more now and had to clench her hand into a fist to calm herself down. ¡°What is my current level and HP?¡± >> Player Kazama Level: 19 HP: 950The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Current HP: 921 Current Achievement: In top ten for special class players. Kazama grinned as she read the last part, at being a top ten player for her Hunters class. ¡°Heh, I¡¯m already a top player? Well, I certainly won¡¯t let a stupid ass knight stop me from getting to the top!¡± Upon finishing her speech, she leapt and swung her katana towards the giant death knight. xXx Five Hours to Sunrise Shohei had finally made it back to the cathedral and quietly crept his way through the main room. After passing dozens of sleeping players, he made it to one of the front pews and sat down, clasping both of his hands in front of himself. He simply smiled as he bowed his head to the main alter, filled with flowers and candles to honor the players that had passed in the game. Shohei closed his eyes and prayed for Kazama and her safe return. The thoughts about a group of in game hackers controlling the game was already a lot for Shohei, but now another separate entity that enabled PC¡¯s to wield the powers of a boss was insane. ¡°What the hell is going on with this games?¡± Whispered Shohei to himself. It was already impossible to hack the game, but somehow gaining control of it in the form of boss and mob creation is something new. Normally hacked or not, only the game system of NOW was capable of spawning the mobs, as well as creating the NPC bosses and scenarios within the game. No matter how much the hackers wanted to, they wouldn¡¯t be able to touch that part of the programming. ¡°So who the hell are these people?¡± Shohei whispered into the silent room. A moving form startled him as it sat next to him. Looking at him with a frown, the sleepy form on Nabiki spoke. ¡°Is she out there?¡± Shohei gritted his teeth as he got the mettle to tell her everything. ¡°Yeah¡­.but there¡¯s more to it¡­¡± ¡°Then tell me! Why is Kazama out there?!¡± Shohei put a hand on her shoulder to calm her as he began to tell the tale of the other entity running the game. xXx Magic Division Ground Level Kazama was in the midst of battle with the death knight when it suddenly brought more force to its arm and knocked her into a wall. Kazama took the full brunt of the attack and her HP loss showed for it. >> HP had gone down to 746 Death Knight HP: 890 Kazama slowly moved from the wall she had been thrust into, spitting up blood as she did so. The death knight was tougher then she had imagined and it made all of the previous NPC creatures pale in comparison. ¡°No matter how much I attack, I only manage to get minimal damage on it. Meanwhile I¡¯m just taking tons of damage from this thing.¡± The death knight was beginning to approach her, as fast as its heavy armor could allow it to move. Suddenly it hit Kazama as she watched it move in its ungainly armor. ¡°Wait a second, I remember playing a classic 2d video game with a thing like this! All you have to is be faster than it and chop off its armor! Then it will take damage faster and harder!¡± Kazama sprinted towards the knight, ducking her head just as it brought its long sword down towards her. She spun around behind it and brought the very tip of her katana down, slicing the wires that held the breastplate portion of the armor together. With a loud clang, the death knight¡¯s breastplate fell to the ground, leaving a gigantic hole in its defense for Kazama to chip away at. With another parry, Kazama attacked the new found weakness and chipped more than two hundred HP off of its life. The death knight responded by moving faster and swinging its long sword all over the place, forcing Kazama to parry and avoid it at the same time. Kazama dropped back a bit to regroup herself as well as heal her current wounds. ¡°Damn, I got the breastplate off, but now it can react to my attacks faster. It¡¯s almost like it know about its large gaping weakness, and is compensating for it with all the wild sword swinging¡­¡± As she was talking aloud to herself, the death knight had finally made it to within sword range of Kazama and began to swing crazily again. Kazama connected her blade with the death knights and lifted her entire body in the air, gliding over the knight until she landed behind it. As quickly as she did, she landed another blow on the back of the knight, destroying more of its HP bar. As before, the death knight responded by going berserk with its sword attacks. Kazama took it as a good time to hightail it and get away from it. Bending down slightly, she huffed loudly for air, as the raging battle was beginning to wear her out. ¡°Shit! This thing¡¯s getting closer to death, but I¡¯m also getting closer to passing out. At this rate it¡¯s gonna-¡° She cut herself off when she saw something in an adjacent room sparkle before her eyes. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± She said as she after it. The death knight hadn¡¯t taken notice of her departure and kept with its same random sword swings. Kazama was in an old teaching room and was looking down at a strange looking device that sat on an ancient table. ¡°What the hell is this?¡± >> Item: Weapon Creation Unit This item was used by the academy to produce multiple copies of weapons that were needed for learning magic. It is constructed of three mirrors, and you place the original weapon in front of one of these. Then, the device copies the weapon detail per detail. Use? Kazama quickly looked over its shoulder and saw that the knight was beginning to take notice of its adversary¡¯s departure. She sheathed her blade and placed it down in front of one mirror and shouted, ¡°Well get on with it then!¡± >> Begging mirror copy times two Finishing in 5¡­4...3¡­2¡­1¡­ Complete! Kazama gasped in shock as she saw two new copies of her sword laid out in front of her. Hastily, she took the original and placed it on her belt, and then she copied suit with the two new copies. She placed the two copies one over the other on her left side, while the original was now on her right. Turning around, she slowly began to walk her way back towards the main outer room with the death knight. She grinned as she saw the knight get into an attack posture, sword held outwards. Kazama quickened her pace and rushed towards the knight. Once she was within range, the knight swung its blade towards her. In one swift motion, Kazama drew one of her blades on the left and blocked the blade, while simultaneously drawing her right blade and striking the knights weakness again. >> Death Knight HP: 300 ¡°It¡¯s at the breaking point now!¡± shouted Kazama with glee as she raced to block another blow from the knight. Just as she connected her blade with knights, something changed. A sickly blue lighting began to emanate from the knights blade and reached towards Kazama. Traveling through her blade, the lightning eventually sparked its way up Kazama¡¯s arms, making her gag. The force of the lightning was unbearable for her and it forced her to her knees. ¡°Wh-what the hell?! That¡¯s not a normal sword attack!¡± She shouted in agony, the pain of the lightning digging deeply into her arm. Suddenly a booming voice was heard within the room. ¡°Your right, that attack was not a part of the death knight¡¯s programming¡­but then again, this is not a game run death knight!¡± Kazama¡¯s eyes widened in shock at the sound of the voice, and even the knight seems to stop attacking as the voice continued on. ¡°I¡¯m just so glad that you really did come here! It seems Midnight really does prove to be useful to us.¡± ¡°U-us? Who the hell are you?!¡± ¡°Ah my dear Kazama, you will learn in time. But for now, I am simply the puppet master of these.¡± As soon as the voice said ¡°these,¡± a group of blue and red death knights appeared before Kazama. They quickly flanked the original knight, and even it got its health restored. On top of that, a new breastplate took the place of the old one that Kazama had chopped off. The knights stood ready for their orders from the master that controlled them. ¡°And these are my puppets, my creations! And now my creations, play with our delightful guest!¡± The blue and red death knights began to move towards Kazama, while the black one still remained still and unmoving. All Kazama could manage was a pained smile. ¡°Well, don¡¯t mind if I do¡­..¡± End Chapter 9 Chapter 10 - The Puppet Master Chapter 10 ¨C The Puppet Master Four Hours to Sunrise The six newly created knights that had flanked the death knight were now all rushing towards Kazama as she knelt on the ground. These knights were much different from their black counterpart, as they all wore very light chainmail compared to the black¡¯s heavy armor. The red versions carried dual short blades whereas the blue¡¯s wielded simple pikes. Just as the first wave began to approach Kazama, she leapt into the air and quickly thrust her blade into one of the oncoming knights. Her damage registered and she whooped in victory. The rest of the mob reacted in unison by swinging their weapons madly at her as she came to a free fall behind the damaged knight. Kazama stared at the knights and her lip twitched into a smile. ¡°There¡¯s only six of ¡®em, three of each color. But¡­¡± She glanced over at the black knight as she thought to herself, ¡°Why isn¡¯t that one going all out too? She was immediately broken from her thoughts when the pike bearing knights decided to rush her. Kazama responded with a new found fury, her blades battling the pikes until her they found their way to the knights themselves. The voice spoke up again to commend her for her actions so far. ¡°Wow, you really are talented Kazama! You¡¯re actually surviving a wave of death knights! Normally my prey falls with the first sword attack, but not you. You may prove very useful indeed then¡­¡± Kazama angrily spat as she blocked another blow from a knight ¡°Oh shaddup already! I don¡¯t know who you are, or even what you think, but I¡¯m gonna turn you lips into mincemeat when I¡¯m finished here!¡± And with that statement, Kazama dealt a heavy blow to one of the damaged knights, killing it instantly. The knight shattered and one of its companions quickly stepped in to take its fallen comrades place, not even allowing Kazama to stop for a breath of fresh air. She maneuvered herself around the motionless black knight and prepared herself for the coming wave of knights. From within the depths of its helmet, the knights red eyes blinked¡­. xXx The Cathedral, Four Hours to Sunrise ¡°And that¡¯s why she went to this academy alone?¡± Asked Nabiki as Shohei finished telling her everything that had gone down earlier in the night. ¡°Yeah, and had I stopped her, I bet it would¡¯ve cost my right arm¡­That girl¡¯s tough in many ways¡­¡± Nabiki bit her lower lip a bit and looked down. In a low and shaky voice, she spoke aloud to Shohei. ¡°But even so, why doesn¡¯t she want me to go with her? It¡¯s because I¡¯m weak huh? She¡¯s afraid I will just get in the way¡­¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not true at all¡­.¡± Nabiki looked at him with slight tears forming in her eyes, and he just look at her with a sympathetic smile. ¡°That¡¯s not the reason at all. She would feel guilty if she let you get hurt, and so that¡¯s why she went alone. She doesn¡¯t want to involve any more people in this and let them get hurt cause of these people. But even so¡­.¡± He brought a finger up to wipe a tear away from her face. ¡°Don¡¯t cry Nabiki. Just make sure you let her know your there for her, okay?¡± Nabiki began to frown for a moment, but then turned it into a smile. O-okay¡­¡­..I guess I shouldn¡¯t be angry and upset¡­¡­¡± ¡°Exactly! It¡¯s now four hours to the days first light, so you better go get ready. I told her that I would let you do anything you want after then.¡± Nabiki stood up and smiled at him brightly, causing him to smile more as well. ¡°Alright then! I will just have to wait a bit longer, but I promise you¡­I¡¯m gonna give her a knocking on the head when I see her!¡± Then, she turned around and ran off, with Shohei grinning widely. ¡°See Kazama?¡± He started as he watched Nabiki run off, ¡°You have people here in this game of misery who really care for you deeply. And as such, those people, be they friends, lover or even rivals, will keep you happy and make you stronger. Cause without friends, no one can really call themselves strong¡­¡± xXx Magic Divisional Building Kazama had finally finished another one of the knights of and only four of them remained standing. A moving figure on the second level caught her attention and she glanced over at it. All she could see was a fully cloaked figure staring down at the battle, almost just observing it like a bird of prey, ready to swoop in when the moment called for it. The figure must have noticed and spoke to her.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°You are passing with flying colors Kazama, you managed to put down two death knights. But now I must activate my ace in the hole¡­.¡± The figure raised a fully covered arm and spoke loudly to the black knight. ¡°It is time for you to strike her my pawn! Prove your usefulness!¡± The black death knight twitched and came fully to life, swinging its blade towards Kazama. ¡°Those lesser knights may be easier for you, but the real thing is so much better.¡± Kazama was caught off guard as the other knight¡¯s blades and pikes came down on her. She shut her eyes, fearing her doom when the loud sound of an enemy shattering into pixels pierced her ears. With astonishment, Kazama watched as the figure of Sheshiro stood amidst the falling pixels of two knights. Kazma creid out in surprise, not aware of how he was even there. ¡°S-Sheshiro?! H-how did you do that¡­wait, how did you even get here?!¡± Sheshro closed one eye and thumbs upped Kazama as the remaining knights rebalanced themselves. ¡°Shohei told me to follow you guild leader Kazama!¡± ¡°That bastard told you to follow me?!¡± ¡°Yeah, and oh!¡± He shouted with wide dough eyes, ¡°Behind ya, at about 12 o¡¯clock!¡± Kazama¡¯s face twitched as she spun around, locking one of her blades with the black death knights just in time. Sheshiro looked up at the figure on the second level and grinned with smugness. ¡°Lemme guess, you¡¯re the guy kidnapping the PC¡¯s around this place, huh?¡± ¡°Heh, you got me there. But kidnapping is such a cruel word. I think ¡°Taking in¡± suits what we do so much better¡­¡± ¡°We huh?¡± Sheshiro said as he dusted off his long trench coat he was wearing. ¡°Well it looks like we will have to end your fostering service right here, right now!¡± With a leap, Sheshiro swung two blades from within his coat arms and aimed for one of the knights chests. The knight blocked his attack, but he pressed his swords against the knight¡¯s blades with a happy smile. An oozing sound began to emanate from his blades as they expanded and whipped around the knights blades, sticking it in the face. Meanwhile, Kazama was pushing the black knight backwards with successive rapid fire like sword blows. ¡°Hmpf, I gotta admit, having these extra swords as well as an extra man really helps me kick your ass!¡± Kazama had finally managed to push the knight into a far wall and began to chip away at its HP bar the slow way. As she was chipping its HP bit by bit, the same blue lightning began to glow from behind the knight. Just as it began to snake its way towards her blades, she jumped back to avoid its full force. ¡°I¡¯m not falling for the same trick twice!¡± The black knights glowing red eyes began to twitch, as if it was thinking hard about something. As it did, Kazama brought both of her blades and pointed them towards it. The knight brought down its blade down in response to Kazama¡¯s arrival, but she in turn responded by leaping on top of it and striking with full force at its helmet. With a lough crack, the helmet began to fall apart as Kazama prepared to attack its exposed face. The helmet fully fell away from the knight and Kazama stopped her action and stared blankly at the face of the knight. A PC name tag appeared over the knight¡¯s head. >> Player Name: Yuko ¡°The Wall¡± Shizu ¡°T-That¡¯s impossible!¡± Kazama shouted as the figure above her answered. ¡°Quite the contrary. This is not an NPC creature run by the game like I said, but an actual PC under my full control! She is very useful don¡¯t you think?¡± Kazama stared in horror as the face of a young girl with flowing black hair and fire red eyes stared at her emotionlessly. Sheshiro looked back from his battle and comment with a whistle over the newly discovered identity of the knight. ¡°That¡¯s one of those players you ¡°took in¡± huh? And she doesn¡¯t seem to be aware of the situation or even in control of her own body.¡± Kazama took over the conversation and spoke to the girl. ¡°Hey! Snap out of it already! I don¡¯t think you want to be doing this!¡± The girl¡¯s face twitched at the response, as if Kazama was getting through to the girl lost in the enslaved mind. But instead she raised her long sword and got ready to attack more. ¡°Hahahahaha! You really think she will listen to you? HA! She only listens to the puppeteer and not the audience. She will listen to my grounds until she is ground into dust. Her life is dependent on me, and I can snuff it out in an instant!¡± The girl narrowed her eyes at Kazama and began to swing her long sword. Kazama readied herself in disbelief as the girl swung her blade. Within seconds they connected and tried to force the other away. Kazama shouted once more at the girl as she tried to push her back. ¡°C¡¯mon Yuko! I know somewhere inside you is the real version of you! I highly doubt that guy up there has total control of your will! If you could just listen!¡± The girl was still emotionless to Kazama¡¯s attempts to free her and only attacked once more. The girl behind the longsword really did look like all life had been stripped away from her. Sheshiro finished off his final opponent and made his way towards Kazama to help out. The figure above only rose another hand and sent a shock wave of blue lightning towards him, knocking Sheshiro to the ground in pain. ¡°Now now,¡± Began the figure with a hint of pleasure, ¡°I¡¯m afraid there is no more room for out show today. Please come again soon¡­¡± Shohei sat up and spat some blood as he gritted his teeth. ¡°Looks like I can¡¯t help you out as much as I would like to boss!¡± Kazama looked back towards him with a frown. ¡°It¡¯s no problem, you¡¯ve already done a bunch! Just make sure you keep yourself alive o-¡° Kazama was cut off when the girl began to get erratic with her sword attacks. Kazama decided to go all out with her blades and struck the girl with the force and might of a storm. As they fought, the two women spun up a billowing cloud of dust, obscuring them form view for a few moments. Sheshiro watched and waited as the cloud began to dissipate. When they could be seen again, the two where now apart, with Kazama kneeling as the other girl blinked her eyes rapidly. The figure began to laugh. ¡°Is that really all you have? Oh come on, I thought you were much stronger when you fought Midnight, but this is sad to watch. You can¡¯t even defeat a mere puppet!¡± ¡°You¡¯re wrong.¡± Kazama said with a gleam of new energy in her eyes. ¡°W-What?! I¡¯m never wrong! She is unbeatable under my control! Kazama stood up and wiped some blood away from her face, speaking to Sheshiro as she did so. ¡°Sheshiro, I need you to stand back a bit. Things are about to change. ¡°O-okay boss!¡± As soon as he ducked backwards, Kazama spoke aloud to the girl. ¡°In our last bout, I saw you almost break that creeps spell. He may think you¡¯re completely controllable, but you¡¯re really not. All you need is a push or two to get your head set on straight, and so that¡¯s what I¡¯m gonna do!¡± Kazama rushed in and instantly connected both of her blades with the girls, causing her face to twitch more. And just as before, the blue lightning could be seen seeping from every inch of her body, snaking its way towards Kazama. Kazama made no attempt to move away and struck back with more force, making the girl¡¯s face react for real finally. The lightning began to reach the blades and Kazama shouted loudly into the air. ¡°This is where you break your spell and help me!!! She squeezed her eyes shut as the lightning began to crackle all round her body, racing for her vitals. End Chapter 10 Chapter 11 - Unshackled Chapter 11 - Unshackled The girl in the knight''s suit, Yuko Shizu, watched through her bodies lifeless eyes as kazama brought their blades closer together. Yuko herself wasn''t aware of what was happening, but her body was reacting with brutal force without her say so. The real Yuko was watching as she swam in her lifeless enslaved mind, being fully manipulated by an outside force. Kazama was shouting words to Yuko, but they came in as a garbled mess. The lightning all around them was growing more and more forceful and brighter. ¡°Hey¡­..yo¡­..bre¡­!¡± ¡°What?¡± Yuko thought to herself, the words cutting off in her mind as they reached her ears. ¡°What is she trying to do?....no...what am I doing? Why am I fighting?!¡± Yuko tried to gain control of her body with all of her might, but it was impossible. She was but a puppet on a string, reacting to the will of her master. Kazama was beginning to cough up large amounts of blood as the lightning struck every inch of her body, but she grimly held onto her blades. Yuko went wide eyed as she watched what her hands were doing, slowly killing another PC like herself. ¡°Wait¡­..no! This is not me! I¡¯m not killing her! Let me go. Let me go!¡± She shouted loudly in her mind, as she watched what she was doing, ¡°Let me go! Let me go! LET ME GO!¡± Yuko was shouting at the top of her lungs within her own mind, in a fight with her own consciousness in order to gain control of herself. She yelled and screamed until she finally stopped suddenly, feeling the cool metal of a gauntlet around her hand. She blinked her eyes rapidly as she became aware of her own body again. Kazama was falling to the ground, her HP bar falling well below forty. Yuko stared, then turned her attention to the lightning that was sparking around her and within her blade. With a hefty lift, she brought her blade up and channeled all the lightning around it. Then with a quick turn around, she yelled as she aimed the blade towards a new target. ¡°Yaaaaah!¡± xXx Kazama watched as the girl, Yuko, yelled aloud with her sword pointing in a new direction. In one loud burst, the channeled lightning shot from her longsword and destroyed the second level of the magic divisional building. The lightning streamed towards the second level for one second, and then was gone in the next second, leaving an eerie silence in the room as the rubble crumbled to the floor. Yuko¡¯s armor had been fully destroyed from the blast of lightning and she sunk her blade into the ground with a sigh. Sheshiro was the first to speak, having run over to Kazama to hand her a healing pot. ¡°Did she...kill him?¡± He asked with a hushed tone Kazama took the healing pot and restored her HP bar to the max. With a frown, she answered him. ¡°No¡­¡­.¡± Just as she was beginning to stand up, the room began to shift underneath and all around them. The voice from the figure that had been previously on the second level laughed manically at them. ¡°Ka-hahahaha! You really dare to defy me, you own and only master?! I hope you are prepared to reap the consequences of your decision Yuko!¡± Yuko crouched low with her hand resting on the hilt of the Long sword as the room expanded and became circular. Kazama and Sehshiro watched in wonder as the multiple levels of the room disappeared and new stairways formed along the way, reaching to the very top of the room. And at the very top floated the figure of a man wearing all black, with not an inch of skin being shown. Even his head was fully covered, with only a sickly crows mask for a face and yellow eyes glowing from underneath it. The man clenched both of his gloved hands and shouted loudly with glee. ¡°I, Yurei the Trickster, will show you what happens when you defy me! You will learn from your mistakes! Ka-hahahaha!¡± And with that, he opened his hands and began to rain his blue lightning down upon Kazama and her companions. Kazama frowned angrily as the floating man above them laughed in pleasure as he rained his lightning. ¡°What the hell is he?¡± Yuko lifted her long sword up and readied herself, speaking to Kazama as she did so. ¡°He''s a head member of their group¡­...and he¡¯s one of the nastiest guys they have. He simply rules by fear and trickery¡­¡± As she was telling them about him, the lightning began to strike the ground. As they did, they began to change form until multiple copies of Yurei stood around them, mocking them with laughter. Sheshiro whistled when a legion of Yurei¡¯s had begun to surround them. ¡°Pweet! So he can make copies of himself from simple lightning? How fun! I love being able to fight more!¡± Kazama and Yuko put their backs to him as the former spoke aloud. ¡°So he¡¯s just a nasty coward huh? Doesn''t he want to do this the easy way and just fight us like a man?!¡± Yuko smiled as she looked over at Kazama. ¡°I thank you for helping me become free from his mind-control¡­.but I hope you realize that hes mine!¡± Kazama sprinted and leapt into the sea of Yurei¡¯s with a grin. ¡°Do whatever you wish with him, but I can¡¯t apologize if I get to him with you!¡± The original Yurei floated down to the very top of the stairs and shouted aloud to the three below as they fought. ¡°I just want to make sure you all have as much fun as your little bitty hearts can handle, but don¡¯t make me wait up here too long. I bore very easily you see.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Kazama shouted at Sheshiro ,who stood behind her and was looking defenseless. ¡°Sheshiro! Do you think you can take care of that side of the room? I¡¯m going up to get ¡®em!¡± Sheshiro smirked as he watched multiples copies coming at him with a vengeance. As soon as they came within range, he put his arms out in front of him, pointed towards the oncoming mob. As he did so, his twin blades stretched and formed multiple pointed offshoots. As soon as they had formed, they flew towards the sea of Yurei¡¯s, instantly killing over a dozen of them in one hit. Sheshiro looked over his shoulder and thumbs upped Kazama with a grin. ¡°This is childs play Kazama, so go on ahead without me!¡± Then with a leap, he plunged into the sea of copies. Kazama turned to Yuko and spoke with seriousness. ¡°Let''s go get him together. With the two of us, I doubt anything will stand in our way for too long.¡± Yuko smiled and held her fist out to kazama. ¡°Alright then, together we will kill the bastard who enslaved me!¡± Kazama smirked and bumped her fist with Yuko¡¯s. The the two women ran off into the fray, cutting down multiple copies of Yurei with relative ease. The original took notice of their arrival up the stairs with pleasure. ¡°Well, it looks like the two steadfast women will be joining me shortly., how quaint. It looks like my copies will not be enough to fully stop them, heh. With a flick of a gloved finger, Yurei did something to make the stairs of the other levels begin to move and float into the air. Sheshiro caught sight of the floating stairs as they ripped from the walls and spoke in wonderment ¡°Damn, he¡¯s really pulling all the stops now. This guys running this like a classic boss fight!¡± Kazama pushed a copy next to her off of the stairs and yelled at Sheshiro as she did so. ¡°Just keep your attention focused on the battle at hand! We don¡¯t need your colorful commentary!¡± Sheshiro cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted back, ¡°Whatever you say boss! I just thought I would lighten the tension in the room!¡± ¡°Well it''s not helping right now! And why do you keep calling me boss?¡± ¡°Oh, Shohei let me join your guild, so now you''re my boss, seeing as you''re the leader and all.¡± Kazama began angrily shoving off copies as she raged over what Shohei had done. ¡°Ahhh, that bastard! What does he think he''s doing behind my back! I oughta rail my sword in his gut the next time I see him!¡± While she was raging, Yuko leapt over to the edge and made it onto another floating section of staircase. As she landed, a set of copies went to attack her, but she quickly managed to shove them off to the sided. Sheshiro shouted loudly to thank the two women. ¡°Hey guys, thanks for all the extra copies you keep shoving off the side! It gives me more free time to have fun with. Whooo!¡± Yuko nodded her head towards him, then spoke over to kazama. ¡°C¡¯mon and jump over here! This will lead us to the next level of stairs!¡± Kazama nodded and got herself ready and leapt over the cliff. She barely made it to the edge, and Yuko had to grab her hand at the last second. ¡°Thanks.¡± Kazama steadied herself on the floating staircase and Yuko placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled. ¡°No need to thank me. I owe you big time...um¡­..¡± ¡°My names Kazama.¡± ¡°Ah! Its nice to fully meet you then Kazama. And I am Yuko as you may have guessed by now. Eh, let''s get back to it!¡± ¡°Right!¡± They stood on the floating staircase as it began to move closer to another section. As soon as they jumped onto it, a bolt of lightning struck between them, cracking the piece in half. Yurei laughed loudly as Kazama and Yuko began to float away from each other. ¡°I seem to have underestimated your tenacity. I originally thought one of you would have died by now, but of course I am wrong. But now we will see if you can make it to me in time!¡± He pointed downward at the stairway and shouted more. ¡°It would be dull if I allowed things to move the same, and so I shall change that as well! I wish to fight you both, so hurry up and get to me! Ka-hahaha!¡± Kazama angrily barred her teeth as him and yelled loudly. ¡°Oh just stop orgasming over your tricks already! Like I told you before, I¡¯m gonna slice that mouth of yours in two!¡± Kazama, with all of the intent of getting to him, leapt to another floating piece of stairway. Yuko looked over at her and decided to do the same. As she did, she shouted over to her. ¡°We will meet each other at the top, and together we will end this!¡± ¡°Copy that!¡± xXx Bottom Floor of the Magic Divisional Building As Kazama and Yuko were leaping from stairway to stairway, hell bent on kicking the masked man''s ass, Sheshiro was stuck with cleanup duty. ¡°Uggh!¡± He thought to himself as he cut legions of Yurei¡¯s down. ¡°This is going to take quite some time I think.¡± He bent low as one of the copies attempted to shock him with lightning, which he in turn struck down with a sword to the face. ¡°These copies are fun and annoying at the same time, but if only I could just attack them all at once¡­¡­.¡± He shouted aloud. Yurei laughed from his lofty perch, fully hearing Sheshiro. ¡°I will fulfil that wish of yours if you like!¡± Sheshiro wasent getting a word of what he was saying and replied in confusion, ¡°Whaaat? What does that even mean?¡± Instead of answering, Yurei lifted a hand towards his copies and began to flex his fingers. The copies around Sheshiro began to swirl around him, slowly forming into something else. Sheshiro could do nothing but stand and watch as a new figure appeared before his eyes. Within moments, a new hulking form shrouded in a giant ragged black cloak stood before him. A tag appeared above the new entity, identifying it for Sheshiro. >> Class Type: Soul Reaper HP: 5000 Weapons: Reaper Scythe Yurei shouted in joy as the giant soul reaper stood over Sheshiro. ¡°Isn''t it beautiful?! It''s such a lovely creation don¡¯t you think? I hope I made your wish come true, I do so hope you play with it to your heart''s content!¡± Sheshiro raised his head as he looked into the depths of the soul reapers cowl in horror. ¡°Ummmm...yeah, thanks I guess¡­¡± He was slightly shaking as the giant soul reaper began to move towards him. ¡°I guess this is the mini boss segment of the fight¡­.¡± xXx Kazama and Yuko were getting closer when they noticed a new form on the bottom level. ¡°What the hell is that thing?! Shouted Kazama as she watched Sheshiro engage into combat with it. ¡°That,¡± began Yuko as she leapt to another stairway, ¡°Is called a soul reaper. It¡¯s one of the strongest horror type creature of Shara, and its only thought is to reap its opponents souls. It¡¯s not something you would find right now though¡­.. Kazama looked at her in intrigue at her knowledge of the creature. ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°Experience I guess. But hopefully he can take it down fast¡­.it can get pretty scary¡­¡± Kazama looked down as Sheshiro dodged some of the reapers long range attacks. ¡°The soul reaper is one pf the few NPC creatures that can enslave a PC to its will¡­¡± Kazama looked back at her in shock. ¡°Wait, you mean¡­¡± Yuko nodded her head in grimace. ¡°Yes...that soul reaper is an extension of him. He lives for fear and fun..its because of him that I was trapped within my own mind¡­.¡± Kazama looked at her with seriousness in her eyes. ¡°He''s right there above us. Let''s go teach him a lesson or two now.¡± ¡°Right.¡± With that, they leapt up and landed on a landing that extended well beyond them. Standing with his back to them on the far side, Yurei spoke aloud. ¡°Ah, so you both got up here eh? Well, I guess it''s time to play some more huh? Then,¡± He began to turn around, his crows mask intimidating kazama and Yuko. ¡°Shall we reap your souls for our noble purpose?¡± He had fully turned around and held two long scythes that extended twice his body length. Kazama and Yuko readied themselves as he laughed loudly in pleasure. End chapter 11 Chapter 12 - The Reaper Cometh Chapter 12 - The Reaper Cometh One Hour to Sunrise Sheshiro let his blades do their work as he dodged multiple hits from the soul reapers scythe. He had managed to chip some fifty to a hundred HP off of it, but the thing was a tank when it came to damage. Everytime he swung at it, it simply dodged with an elegant grace. ¡°Dammit, this thing is tougher than I imagined. It¡¯s so fast, it''s basically just floating on air.¡± He swung his blades around and let them stretch to meet the reapers cloak, but its scythe blocked the blow and pushed Sheshiro back. With a skid, he came to a dead stop and looked above him as the stairways began to go back to their normal places along the walls. ¡°I guess they¡¯re in all out battle right now with that man. Maybe I should just ditch this thing and¡­.¡± He was cut off when the soul reaper raised one bony hand towards the stairway and raised a sort of bluish barrier around it, preventing Sheshiro from reaching it. Sheshiro looked back at the soul reaper and muttered to himself. ¡°Well, I guess that ends my concerns about helping them out¡­.¡± He ran towards the soul reaper again as it began to bring its scythe down on him, forcing him to jump away at the last second as quickly as possible. As he dodged the scythe, he attacked a bit of its tattered cloak, enabling him to render some points of damage to it. With a sly grin, he side stepped away from the reaper and prepared for another wave from his foe. ¡°This thing can soak in hits for sure, but nothing can stand in my way for too long!¡± The reaper outstretched its arm, extending the weapon in its bony hand. Sheshiro smirked even more than usual, and began to all out rush the creature, his blades pointed towards it. The reaper stayed completely motionless. As if it was calculating something within its mind. Sheshiro just took it as a sign of weakness and prepared his blades when from within its dark cowl, the reaper''s eyes sparkled. Sheshiro¡¯s eyes went wide as a blast of yellow light seared his entire body, causing him to come to a complete standstill. Trying to move his body, Sheshiro panicked for first time in the fight, genuinely fearing for his life. With a startled voice, He cried aloud. ¡°Hey, let me go dammit! This isn''t how I like to roll!¡± Deep laughter came spilling out from within the reapers cowl, the laughter of a familiar voice. Sheshiro recognized it instantly as the voice of Yurei, who was at the very top level battling Kazama and Yuko. ¡°It¡¯s not as easy as you thought now? Ka-hahaha! That''s a thrill for me, and I can taste the fear sweating off of your body...it only makes my reaper stronger. The more fear you have, the greater hold it has on you.¡± Sheshiro was sweating as the reaper inched closer and closer to him, the maniacal voice spilling out from within its cowl as it mocked him. ¡°Your pathetic...weak¡­.and most of all, you are fearful of death! You fear it even more so now, being trapped within the walls of this game, where death can come at any moment. Ka-hahaha, don¡¯t worry, soon all of your worries will be gone from your mind¡­.you will never need fear again¡­.¡± Sheshiro began to feel shivers run up his spine involuntarily, and no matter how much he tried, it was impossible to shake off the feeling of dread as the cackling reaper got closer and closer to him. As the reaper stalked its way towards him, Sheshiro could almost feel his very soul melt away from his body, the feeling growing greater with each step the reaper took. As the feeling got greater and greater, something told him within his mind to slow himself down. Fearing it was the soul reaper, Sheshiro thought to himself, ¡°I won¡¯t let you take control of me, not like you did with that other girl!¡± ¡°No,¡± Started the voice, a voice very unlike Yurei¡¯s, ¡°I have no wish to enslave your mind, but I rather wish to help you defeat that foul creature that unjustly holds you here. No more should fall to its and its masters gaze anymore¡­..¡± Sheshiro shut his eyes tightly, concentrating on the conversation with the unknown voice. The conversation with someone else helped ease his mind from his fears of the soul reaper and made him think more clearly. ¡°How can we defeat him? Hes uber strong, even among PC standards¡­.¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°That is only because of the code,¡± Began the voice, speaking softly within Sheshiro¡¯s mind as the soul reaper came closer. ¡°And because of the code, many have grown strong through its sometimes...unstable conditions¡­¡­¡± ¡°Code?...¡± ¡°The code of the game, the very life blood of the game server of NWO. Everything around us is made of the life blood, right down to the clothes you wear. Without it, none of this would exist, and we wouldn''t be trapped within its confines.¡± ¡°You''re a PC too, just like us?¡± The voice paused for a brief second, as if trying to decide the right answer. Sheshiro thought it had left him, but the voice quickly returned in the same soft and gentle tone as before. ¡°Yes¡­.I am just like you¡­.but as to how I live now, that has changed. I also have the code within me, but I have been granted it for much different purposes¡­.and now I will use it to save you from its clutches¡­.¡± Yurei began to speak to Sheshiro again, laughing as he mocked him more. ¡°Are you ready for the end? You''re so afraid, I could just eat all of the fear off of you! Any last words before you are mine?...¡± Sheshiro slowly opened his eyes and looked at the soul reaper with a look of vengeance in his eyes. ¡°No...no last words for me...but for you. I will end what you have done to so many¡­¡± The soul reaper stopped in its tracks and spoke to Sheshiro again, but without any mocking laughter. ¡°You''re¡­..different...your fear¡­..it¡¯s as if it''s melted away completely¡­..what a shame.¡± The reaper outstretched its free hand and pointed a bony finger to touch Sheshiro¡¯s forehead. As it did, a sudden force cut the very tip of the finger off. The reaper pulled back its hand in agony as it stared down at Sheshiro in shock, motionless over what had changed. Sheshiro now stood with both of his blades pointed downward at the floor, grinning ear to ear as he looked into the reaper''s eyes. ¡°Like the good voice through me said, I¡¯m gonna end you for all the pain and suffering you have caused. And did I forget to mention it''s going to be very fun?¡± The soul reaper began to twist and turn its body in ungainly positions, as if hearing its victim having fun and not being afraid anymore made its skin crawl. Yureis voice spat out from within the cowl with a slight tone of anger as the reaper prepared itself for the ensuing battle. ¡°So you have lost your fear of me? Then I have no choice but to kill you outright, as a man with no fear has no right to serve our noble purpose!¡± With a wicked swing, the reaper brought its scythe to cut down Sheshiro. Sheshiro had managed to duck his head with only losing the very top of his hair to the scythe. The blade of the scythe cut though the very bricks of the the walls, causing them to rupture and shatter into pieces, raining down on the room. Sheshiro regained his posture and stared down the reaper with laser like eyes, not daring to shift his focus from it, least it do something damaging to him. Sheshiro shouted aloud to the voice that had helped him break the reaper''s powers. ¡°Hey ominous and mysterious voice! If you''re still here, how about helping me out some more? Like, tell me how to attack its vitals...maybe?¡± The reaper began to pound its skeletal hands down on the ground, causing floor to shift and in turn causing Sheshiro to lose his balance. As soon as he was caught off guard, the reaper shot forward with its scythe. Sheshiro managed to catch it at the last possible moment he could, and with a smirk, he batted it aside while he used his free blade to send another attack towards the cloak it wore. Bit of tattered old gnarled cloaking began to fall to the ground as he sped up his attack. As soon as he finished, he ran backwards to avoid any side effects the reaper may cause him for damaging it. Sheshiro frowned as looked at the hulking reaper. ¡°Aw man, that thing is a tank for hits. I can anticipate it with my lightning like thief reflexes, but if the battle takes too much longer, I think I will be the one losing this fight.¡± ¡°No,¡± began the voice that had spoken to him within his mind, ¡°There is a method to defeating the reaper.¡± Sheshiro put a hand over his head and glances around, looking for the source of the voice. ¡°Where are you? I can¡¯t see you¡­.¡± ¡°I am right here beside you, but not in a very noticeable way at the moment.¡± Sheshiro was about to ask what the voice meant by that, when he felt hands run up his arms. HE began to redden in the face when he felt the soft touches on his arms, and with a hurried voice, she shouted to the voice. ¡°I-is that you?! Cause you have like¡­..really soft hand! I mean, how are you doing that?!¡± The voice could be giggling at him like a little girl, and the person was obviously laughing over Sheshiro¡¯s sudden nervousness. ¡°It¡¯s really complicated,¡± The voice answered, ¡°But I¡¯m here with you Sheshiro...and I hope you don¡¯t always tense up like that when a girl touches you, teehee.¡± ¡°Y-your a girl?!¡± ¡°The last time I saw my actual body I was. But don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t bite. But we will have to leant more about each other later, seeing as you and your companions are in desperate times¡­¡± Sheshiro held his blades up and spoke aloud to the voice of what apparently was a girl. ¡°And how am I supposed to defeat this thing?¡± He began to feel tingles all over his body as he asked her the question. He was about to complain when the voice spoke again in a soft and caring tone. ¡°I will guide you to its weak points Sheshiro, you adorable little thief. Teehee.¡± Sheshiro reddened up in the face and gulped as the reaper began its attack once more. With a slight twitch, he smiled and spoke to the voice. ¡°Well, then after you I guess¡­..¡± End Chapter 12 Chapter 13 - The End Near Chapter 13 - The End Near One Hour to Sunrise ¡°Ka-hahaha!¡± Yurei laughed manically as he held his two long scythes before him, twirling as he laughed at Kazama and Yuko. The two women just looked at him with dead stern eyes that went, ¡°Really?¡± Kazama held her dual katana;s out before her, ready to engage the laughing man behind the mask. ¡°So¡­.¡± Kazama began as she stared down Yurei, ¡°How do you plan on fighting him? We have the upper hand with the two of us and al-¡± ¡°Heh,¡± Yurei laughed as he interrupted Kazama¡¯s speech to Yuko. ¡°You may have defeated my simple copies with relative ease, but this time it will be a teensy bit different. Let''s see if you can survive my exact body doubles, ka-hahaha!¡± With a swing of his arms, two copies of Yurei ran to flank both Kazama and Yuko, causing the two to press their backs to each other. ¡°Well,¡± Yuko began with a hint of a smirk, ¡°It seems once a coward, always a coward huh?¡± ¡°You could say that, huh?¡± Kazama grinned as she agreed with the other woman. She cracked her neck as she stared down a manically laughing Yurei. With a crack of her knuckles, she laughed back at Yurei. ¡°Really? You really can¡¯t just go all out with us? Your coward level keeps going above the bar you set!¡± Yurei responded by swinging both of his scythes like pendulum on a clock and spoke the intensity of a child. ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, I would never dream of missing our final fight! I need to truly test your mettle, and I think this will be a good experience for the both of us!¡± Yurei and his exact duplicates began to swirl around Kazama and Yuko, causing the two women to get slightly dizzy and lose sight of the original. Just as soon as it had begun, the three came to a stop around them and all three spoke with a laugh. ¡°Ka-hahaha! Now my dear women, which of us it the fake, and which of us is the real deal?¡± The three Yureis began to lightly circle the two women with hoots and hollers, clearly enjoying the game they were playing. Yuko smiled with a nervous twitch as she watched the act and spoke yo Kazama. ¡°He really loves to make things more complicated huh?¡± Kazama nodded her head in response and aimed a katana at one of the circling Yurei¡¯s. ¡°The only thing we can do is choose one and hope it''s the real coward. ¡° She swung her twin katana¡¯s towards the Yurei, who in turn blocked her attack with his twin scythes. With one elegant grace, he spun his scythes in unison, catching Kazama¡¯s blades and throwing her into a wall. Yuko cringed when she saw her companion in the fight fly into the far wall, but took her eyes back to the Yurei before her. She engaged it with battle, leaving one Yurei to stand behind and watch the two battle. Kazama stood up from the rubble of the wall and braced herself with one katana. The Yurei tilted its head at her and spoke. ¡°Oh you poor little thing, did that hurt you? I can help you feel better with this!¡± He thrust a scythe at Kazama and almost caught her square in the stomach. Kazama dodged the thrust and leapt onto the long pole of the scythes, swinging ehr blades back and forth as she attacked him. With a grunt of pain, the Yurei swung the scythe with all its might, throwing Kazama off of the pole. Then, it ran back and was replaced by the Yurei that was standing alone. The new Yurei spoke to Kazama in a jovial voice. ¡°Awww, now you forced me to change places.¡± ¡°What the hell are you griping about? You''re the one who could''ve stayed with the same damn version!¡± Kazama said, as she noticed the one Yuko was fighting switch places just like hers. The one in front of her responded to her question in a creepily friendly way, as if he was happy to help out. ¡°But this way I am able to fight with every little teensy bit I have. I am not only fighting you, but also her and the one below!¡± ¡°You''re saying you''re extending yourself into every projection you create?¡± The Yurei cocked it¡¯s head like the previous one and continued on with pleasure. ¡°AT the very basic level, yes. To you or any PC untouched by the blessed code, it would seem impossible, no, inconceivable. But I have been touched by that mighty code and I shall use it on all of you!¡± Kazama squinted her eyes as she attacked him again, talking to him as she did so. ¡°Code?¡± What the hell are you monologuing on about now?¡± ¡°Heh, the code is such a simple thing, but for an untouched PC, it is impossible to comprehend. But all that we took in this building now know of that holy code, they even have seen what I have seen! A place where we can all rule together under the holy twelve! Those pitiful hackers think they can control this game with a few keystrokes on their player menus, but they are soon in store for a rude awakening. Don''t you want to join us?¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Kazama looked at him with questioning eyes, for as far as she could tell, he was just an insane raving lunatic with ties to a cult. When it came right down to it, no one should be in control of the game, not hackers or raving lunatics like Yurei, especially when all they had was ill gotten powers. Kazama shook her head as she spoke to him again. ¡°No, what you and your ¡°Twelve¡± are doing is wrong. No one should be in control of this game or have the powers you got. And if there really are more of the likes of you in this game,¡± She flicked a bit of her hair over her shoulder as she spoke, ¡°The I will have no choice but to stop you at every instant, making sure your put down from hurting people. You guys make the hackers look meaningless, at least they don''t over power themselves with this so called code.¡± The Yurei began to twirl the scythes in its hands with a loud sigh, upset that he couldn''t get Kazama to join his side. ¡°Very well then, it seems I will have to force you to our side instead. The code would do wonders, even more so for a player with skills like yours¡­¡± ¡°Sorry, I just don¡¯t like playing for the wrong team.¡± ¡°Then shall we see who will be victorious in this battle?¡± Kazama rushed towards him and the two began to battle once again, but with more fury than before. xXx Bottom Level Sheshiro rushed the reaper with a new found energy pulsing through him. As the reaper swung its scythe low, he jumped onto the top of it with all his might. The voice shouted aloud to him. ¡°The reaper has weak spots, and every single one of them is inside of that cowl it wears. I assume your rare twin blades should be able to pinpoint them perfectly.¡± ¡°Y-yeah, as long as I can get my attack off, they pretty much always hit their mark.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t get a second chance, so make sure they do!¡± He had finally come to a stop where he stood, staring down at the cowl of the reaper. It looked at him with its beady yellow eyes and spoke once again, in a bid to stop him from attacking. ¡°Do you really think you can stop me? How laughable! Why don¡¯t you just give up and join us? We could always use more for our purpose. And you would be granted the powers of the code.¡± ¡°Ya know, that''s the second time i¡¯ve heard about this code thing. And now hearing it from you makes me cringe, so no thank you Mr. Reaper! I prefer growing stronger on my own and with my friends!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know who else has told you about the code, but it seems the choice has been made. And so it must end here, with your death.¡± The reaper''s eyes began to glow brighter as Sheshiro stared down at them, almost in a hypnotic stance. The voice of the girl urged him to move, and he began to lift his arms, pointing his blades deep within the cowl. ¡°I will guide your hand, so be calm Sheshiro.¡± She spoke his name with a soft and angelic tone, and the softness of her voice made him blush a slight bit. He did as she said, and as soon as he was calmer, he felt hands around his. The girl''s voice shouted loudly and Sheshiro reacted in perfect timing. ¡°Now!¡± His blade extended into multiple offshoots, which in turn repeated the process until hundreds of of small points plunged deep into the cowl. As he plunged his blades, the reaper blazed its eyes at Shehsiro, causing the entire room to loudly explode into a shock wave. xXx Kazama pinned the Yurei she fought into a corner and mercilessly attacked him. The Yurei that was standing alone decided to help its counterpart out and swung at Kazama¡¯s unprotected back, forcing her to duck low to the ground. The Yurei ended up atatcking it¡¯s own double, instantly destroying the copy. The Yuko batted her Yurei away from her and met up with Kazama, huffing and puffing as she did. ¡°Y-you got one down!¡± ¡°He got himself to be fair Yuko, I just ducked¡­.¡± Kazama laughed nervously as they moved their heads back and forth between the two remaining Yurei¡¯s. ¡°Now who is the real and who is the fake?¡± Yuko asked, her longsword held closely to her face, almost touching the tip of her nose. Kazama held her twin Katana¡¯s low and mumbled to herself, unsure of what was what anymore. ¡°As far as I know, they both could be real and it wouldn''t make a difference.¡± The we should just go all out and see which one cries first.¡± ¡°I like the sound of that!¡± The Yurei that had killed its counterpart pointed a scythe towards Yuko and spoke. ¡°I am most disappointed in you Yuko, I had so much faith in you for our cause.¡± ¡°I just don¡¯t like being manipulated by another person, it''s really simple. Haven¡¯t you ever learned that no one likes to be a slave to another PC?¡± ¡°Ah, but it is not slavery, it is just pure enlightenment.¡± ¡°Well I don¡¯t want to be ¡°enlightened¡± by the likes of someone like you. No offense, but no one can trust a person who never even shoes himself.¡± Yurei did not reply again and instead the two Yurei;s began to emanate the blue lightning from their scythes. With the lightning striking between their scythes, they began to twirl them so that the stored lightning began to rain down on the two women. Yuko blocked one hit with her longsword as Kazama rushed the Yurei that had spoken, narrowly avoiding the blades of its scythes. Now within range of him, she began to raise her blades towards his chest. He responded as quickly as possible and attempted to guard his chest with a lightning bolt. Kazama saw through the defense and struck through the lightning with her left hand, her blade sinking through it and meeting its target on the other side. For the first time, Yurei yelled in pain. And just as she dealt the damage to his chest, a loud explosion caught her attention. Realizing it came from below, she shouted aloud. ¡°Sheshiro!¡± Yurei suddenly broke her attention away from the lower level with a loud pained yell, one that was not aimed at anyone. ¡°No! How...how could he¡­..how?! Ahhh! The pain¡­..it sears my mind¡­..Ahhh!¡± He dropped his twin scythes and grabbed his head with both hands, gripping it as he raged in pain. Yuko had ran up alongside Kazama and watched as he moaned and groaned. ¡°The other...disappeared¡­.¡± ¡°Yeah, I figured it would now¡­.¡± Yurei was on his knees and slowly took his hands off of his head and looked up at the two women, their eyes staring at him in anger. With a pained voice, he spoke to them. ¡°I don¡¯t know how he¡­.did it¡­.he defeated¡­.my reaper...no¡­.my extension. He should have died from his fear! How?! How could he overcome me?!¡± Kazama pointed a katana at him in anger and spoke in a low voice. ¡°You defeated yourself the minute you attack us. Your own ego drove you to this, and I will end it for you now!¡± She was just about to bring her blade down and kill him when a loud boom broke through the wall behind him. Kazama jerked her hand back and looked as a hole in the wall appeared with the sun of dawn shining in. As the dust cloud settled, a figure stood within what looked like a rip in the air. The man in the portal simply smiled with a wink as Kazama and Yuko stared wide eyed. ¡°Oi Yurei, your losing to a bunch of girls.¡± End Chapter 13 Chapter 14 - The Real Puppet Master Chapter 14 ¨C The Real Puppet Master ¡°Oi Yurei, you¡¯re losing to a bunch of girls.¡± Kazama stared in bewilderment as a man stood within an open portal floating in the air. Yurei turned around and laughed it off, obviously not taking the situation seriously. ¡°Oh come now Fuma, give me some credit for the long fight. Ka-hahaha!¡± The man in the portal half frowned back at him, then turned his attention to Kazama. ¡°I see you have defeated Yurei, but then again, I shouldn¡¯t be all to surprised. The mistress told us that you were pretty tough, but all this guy was here fro was to stall you.¡± Kazama pointed a katana at the man and asked a question. ¡°What do you mean stall me?¡± ¡°We needed to stall you and keep your eyes off of our true mission tonight. We made it look like we stole PC¡¯s around here, but in truth we only spread false rumors. Simple misdirection.¡± He smirked as he spoke, causing Kazama to glare at him in anger. ¡°While you fought Yurei, we were able to kidnap players ranging from newbies all the way to the top four guilds.¡± ¡°Why are you even kidnapping players? Does this have to do with the code, are you giving it to them?¡± He flashed a wide toothy grin at Kazama¡¯s question, relishing the thought of being able to tell her. ¡°That is a matter that only the kidnapped PC¡¯s will have to choose. Many are already choosing the code, and letting it remold their bodies.¡± ¡°And¡­the others who don¡¯t choose?¡± ¡°They will either die or become like the one standing next to you.¡± He was pointing to Yuko and referencing to the time when she was a mindless death knight, hell bent on killing Kazama. Yurei stood up and spread his arms out, as if he was happy to have lost his battle with the women. ¡°Did I do well? I kept to my promise and made sure she lived through it all! I don¡¯t care about losing, not now when we have more followers!¡± ¡°Yes Yurei, you did well. The mistress and the twelve are very pleased with you, so pleased that the mistress herself wishes to speak with you now.¡± Kazama turned her head to the right slightly and noticed another portal open. From what Kazama could see, a woman in tight fitting black armor strode out of the portal with the grace of a queen. The woman¡¯s face was obscured from the nose up by a simple white mask, and her lips wore a deep crimson red lipstick. The lips curled into a smile as she walked towards Yurei with open arms. Putting her sickly white arms on his shoulder, she spoke to him a chilling voice. ¡°You have come so far Yurei and you have done exactly as I instructed you to do! Because of you, our plans have begun to accelerate and proliferate. Please remove you mask so that I can see and touch the face of such a steadfast childlike yourself.¡± The woman talked to Yurei like a mother talking to her child, acting proud for what he did. Yurei hurriedly began to fumble with his mask, nervous to take it off. When he did, Kazama for the first time saw his face and remarked at how similar it was to her own when she lived outside of the game. He had light brown hair and deep yellow eyes, and smiled in happiness when the mistress beheld him. The woman placed a hand on his cheek and spoke to him, in a more chilling voice then before. ¡°It is such a pleasant sight to see such an excited young man. But it pains me to no end knowing this is the last time we speak and touch like this.¡± ¡°M-mistress?¡± The mistress wore her same smile as her hand glided down his cheek and towards his throat. Clenching it, the woman began to sneer at Yurei as she chocked him. ¡°You are too much of a bother to have living Yurei, now that she has her wits again. Now I must revoke your code.¡± Yurei spluttered as she held him by the throat, slowly tightening her grip. ¡°W-what?! B-but why¡­¡­¡± ¡°Because I feel that I have begun to lose you to her again, and I would hate to see that. So that moment does not happen, I shall take your code and your life.¡± Her other free hand rested over his chest and began to glow as it slowly melted into it. Yurei grunted in pain as her hand swished back and forth for something. Finding what she wanted, she pulled her hand out of his chest, holding onto what looked like a blue crystal. Yurei slumped as the woman clenched his throat tighter, smiling in pleasure. Kazama could do nothing and was glued where she stood, but Yuko went into action and yelled at the woman. ¡°What are you doing to him? You¡¯re the one who made him like this, why are you taking his life now?!¡± The woman tilted her head towards Yuko and spoke in a hushed tone. ¡°Why are you worried about him, do you not want to see his life end? After the pain her caused you before and after he received the code?¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°He may have changed who he was because of that damn code, but that doesn¡¯t mean he should die like this! As much as I hate what he turned into, I don¡¯t want to see the creep die like this!¡± Yuko hefted her long sword and began to run towards the women who in turn smiled. ¡°So you wish to trade your life to protect his? How amusing¡­.¡± xXx Shehsiro felt a hand poke his chest as he began to regain consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes when he saw a form standing above him. Freaking out, he jumped from where he lay. ¡°Ah! Who are you?!¡± The form that stood over Sheshiro was that of a young seventeen year old girl with snow white hair and icy blue eyes. She wore the simple tight fitting armor of a paladin and had a soft smile on her lips. ¡°Hey, you okay Sheshiro?¡± Sheshiro nodded his head quickly and tried to stand, falling as he did. The girl reacted quickly and put a hand on his arm to help steady him, while her other hand touched his. As she helped and touched him, Sheshiro redden in the face, pushing it off, he spoke in a cheerful tone. ¡°S-so this is what you really look like? Y-you look good¡­I mean, nice to meet you!¡± ¡°It is nice to meet you too Sheshiro,¡± The girls said as she giggled, ¡°And my name is Hina, and this really is my true body. Sorry about before, not fully being here and all¡­.¡± ¡°Yeah, about that, how come you have a body now?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s really rather complicated and,¡± She pointed up above, ¡°I think we can talk about it later. Right now we better get moving before someone gets hurt.¡± She ran off towards the stairs and all Sheshiro could do was sigh loudly as he ran after. ¡°Ugh, up the stairs we go!¡± xXx The woman released her grip on Yurei and he fell to the ground with a loud thud. She smiled greatly as Yuko ran towards her, blade held high over her head. The woman raised on hand at Yuko and laughed. ¡°To think that this is what saved you Yurei, I still am amazed at you. You were touched by my code, yet you could never kill her yourself. And so now I must do it myself finally.¡± Yuko was about to bring her blade down when a sharp point emanated from the woman¡¯s hand. A sharp spear like weapon pierced Yuko¡¯s chest suddenly, causing her HP to drain quickly. Kazama shouted in her horror as she watched the person she helped save begin to die. The woman with a flick of her wrist, pulled the spear out and Yuko fell to the ground next to Yurei. The spear weapon de-materialized into the palm of the woman¡¯s hand as she looked down on Yuko, who had her head near Yurei¡¯s. From where Kazama stood, it almost looked as if Yuko was speaking into Yurei¡¯s ear, but it was too hard to tell. The woman spoke to Yuko harshly as Kazama began to sprint her. ¡°Such foolishness to think that you could defeat me. Unlike Yurei, I know how to take care of unwanted eye sores. And now,¡± She kicked a foot towards Yuko¡¯s body, ¡°You get to die in his place.¡± The woman¡¯s foot connected with Yuko¡¯s body, which instantly shattered into the familiar shards of pixels. The pixels of death. Kazama had come to a halt, realizing that she had seen her first PC death in the game of NOW. She stared at the woman wide mouthed, unable to summon the words she felt in her chest. The woman looked towards Kazama with the same smile and spoke in her chilling tone. ¡°Well that child was rather bothersome. I have no idea what Yurei ever saw in her, even when I told him to kill her a long time ago.¡± Kazama finally found her words and shouted at the woman in anger. ¡°Bothersome?! That girl was a human being just like you, and you¡­you murdered her!¡± ¡°Spare me your childish outrage child. Be happy, she knows no suffering in this world anymore.¡± ¡°No suffering? Are you blind?!¡± Kazama was rushing towards the woman in anger, pissed off at the woman¡¯s sense of morality. ¡°Now everyone who ever loved her will never see her again! No one will ever see her speak again, but you can just stand by with that attitude?! How dare you!¡± Kazama was swinging her blades when the woman put her hand up once again, but this time to set up a magical barrier. She laughed as Kazama¡¯s blades struck the barrier. ¡°How dare!? Haha, you¡¯re such a na?ve Kazama, but I¡¯m sure in the future you will come to understand me. But until that day,¡± She began to float back into her portal, still smiling, ¡°I will see you later Kazama. Don¡¯t worry, you will hear from is soon.¡± The portal promptly snapped shut as she disappeared in it. The man, Fuma, was slowly vanishing as he spoke a few parting words to Yurei. ¡°I wish you luck in your new life Yurei. Lest just say this was for the best?¡± And with that, he was gone. Kazama slumped to her knees as Sheshiro and Hina emerged from the stairway. They rushed to her side and Sheshiro shouted first. ¡°What happened here?! Where¡¯s Yuko?¡± Kazama looked at him with tears in her eyes, crying for the first time in the game. ¡°S-she''s¡­.¡± ¡°She''s dead.¡± The three turned their heads to look at Yurei, who was wobbling as he tried to stand. He looked at them and his eyes had changed from their previous yellow into a deep amber. Kazama felt a burst of anger burn in her body and she ran towards him. She grabbed him by the chest and pushed him into the wall, snarling at him. ¡°You¡¯re the one who should have died, not her! You¡¯re the creep who put her under your control, but you end up living?!¡± ¡°Kazama, stop.¡± The voice of Hina softly spoke to Kazama in the hopes to calm her anger. Kazama looked at her with wet eyes, not knowing who she was. ¡°Who the hell are you now?!¡± ¡°This is Hina, she saved me, and,¡± Sheshiro was looking at Kazama with a serious look, a little different from how he normally acted. ¡°She knows about this code crap. I¡¯m sure she could help¡­¡­.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Hina started as she approached Kazama slowly. She put a hand on Kazama¡¯s arm and spoke in her angelic voice. ¡°I know the pain you feel in your heart is great, but please calm yourself. I know what you feel, but you need to control those feelings. You must let your anger before you hurt the life that Yuko saved. Do it for her.¡± Kazama tightened her grip and looked at Hina with anger burning in her eyes. ¡°But why did she die? Why save this creep?¡± Yurei began to speak up in response to her question, in a very sullen tone. He had seem to have fully changed from the person her was before, presumably from when the code was taken. It almost seemed as he had returned to the person he was before he was granted that code. He closed his eyes as he spoke, ashamed as he told her why Yuko bothered to save his life. ¡°Because¡­¡­.we were¡­..lovers¡­.¡± End Chapter 14 Chapter 15 - The Passing of Love Chapter 15 ¨C The Passing of Love Daybreak ¡°Yuko and I were¡­.lovers¡­.¡± Kazama stared down as Yurei slumped in her grip, still angered with him. He continued talking to her with his head held low. ¡°It seems like¡­.it was yesterday when we first came here. We were like anyone else four weeks ago, all alone and frightened in a game of death¡­..¡± He opened his eyes as he stared at the ground beneath him, crying sullenly. ¡°I promised I would keep her alive in this game¡­..no matter the price. And that¡¯s the whole reason I met the mistress¡­..¡± Kazama released her grip and Yurei fell to the ground like a wet bag of cement, bending his head low. Kazama turned away and looked out of the massive hole in the wall, watching the sun fully rise. ¡°You say that you wanted to protect her, yet you kept her mind enslaved to your will! How is that ¡°protecting¡± her?!¡± Yurei lifted his head and looked at Kazama as she had his back to him. ¡°There was no way else to keep her safe¡­.that woman, the mistress, would have killed her! She even asked me to kill her a long time ago! You can be angered with me all you want, but you will never know the burden of protecting someone is! Never!¡± He got up on his bended knee and bit his lower lip, causing it to bleed. He was angrily crying now, truthfully upset over Yuko¡¯s passing. ¡°I took the code so that I could protect her! How was I to know of its side effects? All I was doing was keeping her alive!¡± ¡°Then this is not your fault,¡± Kazama and Yurei turned their heads as Hina broke up their heated argument. She held a hand over her heart and frowned with sad eyes. ¡°You were corrupted by that woman¡¯s code, and so the guilt of death does not lie on you. Yes, you may have hurt her in the name of love, but you were only doing what you thought was right. No matter what, please be at ease. Both of you.¡± Kazama frowned as she looked over at Yurei, still very unpleased with him. ¡°But this creep really meant to hurt her back there. How come he¡¯s¡­.changed? It makes no sense!¡± ¡°That¡¯s because the logic of his action were controlled by that woman.¡± Yurei looked up at Kazama with wide eyes, still upset and crying. He raised a hand to wipe a tear away, speaking as he did. ¡°The yellow color of my eyes were from the effects of the code given to me. It enabled me to create and manifest myself through other projections, but the more I used it,¡± He got up and stood with his hands clenched. ¡°The more I grew lost within my own mind, forgetting about Yuko or even who she was. The code had begun to re-work my memory and thoughts, turning me into a rampaging lunatic. All I knew was that what I was doing was in the name of a holy cause. That it was right to hurt others who got in the way of that ¡°noble¡± cause. I was as enslaved as she was¡­¡­.¡± Kazama walked over to him silently and looked into his eyes with a deep frown. She was beginning to let go of her anger towards him and began to listen more. ¡°Then you were never responsible for your actions¡­..as much as it pains me to say, I guess I will have to let you live. She gave her life for yours, so you bet give it your all to live the life she saved!¡± ¡°Why should I? I¡¯ve hurt so many people¡­.even her¡­¡± ¡°Because you and I are in the same boat. We both have been hurt by that damn woman. She killed the girl you loved, and she has manipulated the lives she sent to fight me. Don¡¯t you want to get her back for that?¡± Sheshiro and Hina stood in hushed silence as they watched her talked to Yurei sympathetically. ¡°Id¡­.if there is any way I can be forgiven¡­.then yes. I want to prove to Yuko that I still am the man she loved so long ago¡­¡± ¡°Then join up with me and the guild.¡± ¡°Eh?! Why would you want me?¡± ¡°Because my enemy¡¯s enemy is my ally, and you have a history with the woman. You must know something about those twelve.¡± ¡°I know a little but¡­.¡± He looked over at Hina with a wayward glance, ¡°She might be of more help to you. She¡¯s got the code too¡­¡­¡± Kazama turned to Hina and looked at the white haired girl with a raised eyebrow. ¡°So you have this code shit too? Then you better join us as well, you might be useful for counter acting these assholes.¡± Hina bowed her head with a stern face. ¡°I am pleased to accept your offer, mostly because of this guy over here,¡± She wrapped an arm around Sheshiro¡¯s neck and brought him closer to her with a smile, ¡°He¡¯s just so cool!¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Kazama¡¯s face twitched a bit, not understanding what just happened. With a controlled grin, she said, ¡°W-whatever you say.¡± She shrugged as she looked over at Yurei once more. ¡°And you?¡± ¡°I will join you as well¡­¡± ¡°Cool. Then we better head back to the safe zone be-¡° ¡°THERE YOU ARE KAZAMA!!!¡± Kazama and everybody turned around to see Nabiki huffing and puffing up the stairs. Shohei followed silently behind and waved. ¡°Hey Kazama, Sheshiro. How did things go?¡± Sheshiro nervously rubbed the back of his neck and Kazama stayed silent. Nabiki stopped in front of Kazama and looked at her with big eyes. ¡°What happened? Did you get hurt?! Where your safe?!¡± Kazama put her hands on the anxious girl¡¯s shoulders and gave her a forced smile. ¡°Everything is just fine Nabiki, I was safe. And now we have some new guild members¡­no, sub leaders I suppose.¡± Nabiki looked at Kazama and could tell that something was off. ¡°Your eyes are puffy and red! You¡¯ve been crying huh?! And him too! ¡° She pointed at Yurei, who silently gave her a solemn smile. Kazama frowned, knowing it was impossible to hide her sorrow from the girl. ¡°Something did happen¡­.someone I just met, and someone close to him¡­.died¡­.¡± Nabiki grabbed Kazama¡¯s hands in her own and gripped them tightly, staring up at her with a stern look. Kazama was slightly shocked that Nabiki was so upset with her. ¡°Don¡¯t you hide your pain from me, you hear? I¡¯m always going to be right here whether you like it or not! Your someone I don¡¯t wanna lose your know?!¡± Kazama nodded her head to Nabiki, telling her she understood. Shohei spoke up to break the moment with a question. ¡°What went on here? Did you find out who¡¯s been kidnapping the PC¡¯s?¡± ¡°Yeah, but unfortunately none of them were here. And what¡¯s worse, they say this was a staged event to keep me busy. While I was here, they went all around Shara and kidnapped PC¡¯s.¡± Shohei thought hard to himself as he heard what she said, trying to digest the information. ¡°But how would that make sense? If you¡¯re here, and they have the power to send other elsewhere, why bother? It makes no sense whatsoever, not to mention a waste of time.¡± ¡°Because the mistress and the legion of twelve seldom make sense.¡± This time it was Yurei who spoke, trying his best to answer the question. ¡°The mistress was overjoyed by how you defeated Midnight single handily, and so she wanted to test you once more. The thing is, Fuma, the man from earlier, is her right. He says whatever the mistress wishes him to. Meaning¡­.¡± ¡°Meaning they lied? When why all this misleading¡­¡± Kazama was pretty confused, the actions of the woman and her followers breaking her brain. ¡°I think she was learning more about. AT the same time, she decided to use me to see what lengths you would go to save people. It¡¯s not entirely impossible that they did kidnap PC¡¯s, but just not on the scale Fuma said.¡± Kazama said nothing in response and squinted her eyes in contemplation of the events that had happened. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Nabiki asked, worried about Kazama. Kazama stopped and smiled at her, not wishing to make her upset. ¡°No¡­¡­nothing Nabiki. We have new plans of our own to work on now, like what we will do with our guild?¡± ¡°Well we can just take control of the smaller guilds and expand our territory.¡± ¡°Then that¡¯s just what we will do Nabiki,¡± Kazama was rubbing Nabiki¡¯s hair with a wry grin, ¡°Let¡¯s go back home now eh?¡± ¡°O-okay!¡± Nabiki sprinted off and was followed by Sheshiro and Shohei, who were both arguing over something. Hina walked by Kazama and softly smiled. ¡°Later we will discuss more about that woman and Yurei, hm?¡± Then she sprinted off after Sheshiro. Kazama looked back over at Yurei, who was picking up his old mask. ¡°You coming?¡± She asked him. He looked over at her and nodded, ¡°In a moment¡­.¡± Kazama sighed and turned to leave. Yurei examined the city before him, holding the crows mask before him. ¡°Wherever you are, I wish you peaceful happiness. I will live by those last words you spoke to me. You said, ¡°I know the old Yurei I fell in love with is still somewhere in you, so please come back. Be happy again, and please stop her, not for me, but for everybody.¡± That is what you said, and then you said you loved me always, and I love you still as well. I will make you happy again.¡± As he finished his words, he tossed the mask over the ledge. The wind carried the mask far away from him, and hopefully his past with it too. The he turned and walked away in silence. xXx Unknown Location Fuma bowed low as his mistress sat and spread her legs over her large seat, dangling them over the edge. The woman still wore her mask, but now she wore a long flowing black dress in place of the armor. She smiled as she saw Fuma bow to her. ¡°So you placed the bait for the future Fuma?¡± ¡°Yes, I did as you instructed me to do. They now believe that we have kidnapped PC¡¯s from far and wide. In truth, our operation was much smaller.¡± ¡°Yes, but they must be slowly figuring that fact out by now. What we really did was show the girl that we are much more then she had thought before. We planted the seed and now we must wait to see if it grows.¡± Fuma looked at the woman in dead silence as she continued on, not daring to interrupt her. ¡°And now with that seed, I know she is the one we need for that.¡± ¡°She will be the one granted that secret?¡± The woman¡¯s curled up into a great smile as she spoke, happy over the thought. ¡°Yes, one day my dear Fuma, one day. But until then, she must grow and become more aware of this new world we live in. Now,¡± She stood upright, pointing a finger at Fuma. ¡°Summon the twelve. It is time to make the plane move forward to the next phase.¡± Fuma bowed his head to her with the manner of a gentlemen. ¡°Yes mistress. It is as you will.¡± End Chapter 15 Chapter 16 - Code and Guilds Chapter 16 - Code and Guilds After the events that had transpired the previous night, Kazama and everybody else spent the day checking out the various NPC shops and what not in the safe zone. Night soon approached them and they all went back to the cathedral to take it easy and get prepared for the next day. ¡°Alright guys!¡± Nabiki shouted with an enthusiastic smile as Kazama and everybody sat down in a private side room. ¡°As you all know, we are a guild in the game of NWO! And that means we can take part in the guild wars and rankings!¡± Kazama spoke up with a question, hand in the air and Nabiki beamed at her with a smile. ¡°Um Nabiki?¡± ¡°Yes Kazama!¡± ¡°How do these guild wars work exactly? Do we just beat up on the smaller guilds, or what?¡± Nabiki jumped at the question, excited to answer it. ¡°Oh Kazama, it¡¯s so simple! One guild challenges the other for their territory and members. Thus the winning guild gains more territory and members. That makes the guild stand out more! Pretty neat huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, sounds cool. But how do we challenge other guilds to battle, can any member do it?¡± ¡°Heehee, no silly! Only the leader and sub leaders can send or receive challenges, which may be refused or denied. To be a winner, one side has to defeat all of the subs and leaders back to back to win control Once won, the opposing guild is joined with the winners. The former guild leaders and such can become a separate faction in the guild, built for their own thing. Kinda like the US armed forces!¡± Hina, Shohei and Sheshiro watched in silence as Nabiki jumped up and down, happy with the connection from the real world. Yurei spoke up about the subject at hand. ¡°Basically there can be different factions based on say, classes? Like say a warrior of thief faction and ones that have their own playing style?¡± ¡°In the basic sense, yeah,¡± Shohei said to answer his question, making Nabiki sigh. ¡°A good example would be the Blood Knights.¡± ¡°The Blood Knights? Who are they?¡± Kazama asked in interest, mostly because of the name of the guild. ¡°They¡¯re one of the current top four guilds in Shara, and they rose very quickly in here because of those factions. They pretty much consist of fights and as the name suggests, knights. They live by a strict code of the warrior, and their leader and subs bleed it. Lucky for us they neither accept nor issue challenges, they could trash us in an instant.¡± ¡°So there really are four top guilds in this land? And it¡¯s only the first world to boot!¡± Nabiki was able to speak faster than Shohei and answered Kazama. ¡°Ah! The top four are known for all having strong and tactful leaders and subs. They all play differently, such as the knights with sheer brute force. This may be the first worlds, but I doubt it will just be the top four for long.¡± She winked an eye at Kazama, which made Kazama slightly smile. ¡°Most of the players are scared to death inside this game, which majorly helped the four to get to the top without any degree of difficulty. But with our skills, I bet we could rise up even faster then them!¡± ¡°Alright then,¡± Kazama said as she stood up from her seat. ¡°Starting tomorrow, we will challenge a few guilds. That sound good?¡± Everyone else in the room responded with a resounding yes. Nabiki got up and ran out of the room saying, ¡°I will go send out the challenges for tomorrow!¡± Yurei and Hina got up and walked over to Kazama. ¡°Now that we have a plan for the future, perhaps we should speak of the past and the code?¡± Kazama looked at Hina after she spoke and nodded her head. ¡°Yeah, let''s go talk.¡± She looked back at Shohei and Sheshiro and said, ¡°I will see you guys in the morning. I have a few things to discuss with these two for a while.¡± Shohei nodded and wished her a good night. xXx As the three walked out, Yurei spoke up to the other two. ¡°This talk of guild wars sounds fun for sure, but I have no weapon to fight with anymore¡­.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Kazama looked at him as they walked, realizing he was right. Earlier in the day Sheshiro had donated some of his ¡°Thiefing¡± clothes, but when it came to protection against others, he was utterly defenseless. Kazama looked down at her triple katanas she had at her waist and pulled one out, scabbard and all. She dropped the sword in front of Yurei and he took it with surprise. ¡°B-but this is yours¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s a gift. I was able to acquire that blade in a process that copied my original blade. I don¡¯t really have a need for a third one, the two suit me quite fine enough.¡± Yurei twitched a smile and placed the sword in his belt. ¡°Thank you¡­.¡± Hina smiled and pointed something out to him. ¡°Thats a copy of her original sword, so in some way you have a acquired a part of the original.¡± ¡°I guess, huh?¡± Kazama stopped and the other two did as well when they reached the rooms that SHohei had given them. Kazama walked in first and switched a light on, illuminating the once dark room. The room contained a simple bed and desk, with several chairs about. Kazama went for one of the chairs as Yurei did the same, with Hina choosing the bed. When all three had been seated, Hina began to speak. ¡°As you may know by now, there is such a thing as the code. This code is wide and varying in what it grants to a player, such as the one I have and the one Yurei had. The code also can have effects, depending on it and who granted it.¡± Kazama leaned back in her seat as she digested the new information. ¡°The effects of the code Yurei had were very¡­.psychological. The more he used it, the quicker he rushed towards enslavement to its will. Which in turn meant he was being enslaved to the one who granted it to him. And that person was-¡± ¡°The mistress,¡± Interrupted Yurei, now taking over the next part of the conversation. ¡°Anybody can give a code to another, just so long as they have it in the first place. And thus I promised to live until I died under her, and she gave it unto me. The side effects are because of the one who granted it to me, which means I had a part of her in me¡­¡± Hina nodded her head and helped explain it for him. ¡°Yes, The code can be warped and changed by the person who gifts it to another. That person may put their entire thoughts and soul into it and live in another body. In a way, it''s a spell placed on the other player, making the giftee suffer from whatever was placed within it.¡± Kazama brought a hand to stroke her chin and was interested by this. ¡°You said there were side effect, such as the way he acted and his eye color. But what about you? You have this code thing too, so what the effects on you? ¡° Hina smiled and brought a hand to stroke her soft white hair. ¡°I was gifted the code as well, however the person who gave it to me was not a player.¡± ¡°Haah? What¡¯s that mean?¡± ¡°The person who gifted it to me was the game system of NWO itself.¡± Kazama jumped up with her mouth wide. ¡°Whaaaaat?!¡± Hina smiled with closed eyes, not noticing Kazama¡¯s outburst. ¡°The game system had its very veins cut open when the hacker messed up the game up. That tampering made the code leak from various areas of the game world...or worlds in a way. The system is worried about what the PC¡¯s may use it for, and so it spoke to me. It sold me that it and I had a lot in common, that we both cherished the life of the PC¡¯s and would do anything to protect them. And so it gave me my code, which in turn made my hair change to pure white. I guess you could say I like the light side of things better?¡± Kazama was pacing the room, trying to understand the information dump Hina had dropped on her. She turned and squinted her eyes at Hina. ¡°So that means that the¡­ game system knows about that woman and her twelve.¡± ¡°Yes, the system know somewhat about her, it told me so. That woman is an unknown force inside this game words, and she along with her followers are unable to be tracked by the system. You see,¡± He interlocked her hands and laid them in her lap as she spoke to explain. ¡°Everything PC and NPC can be tracked by the system of the game, yet somehow that woman and her followers can block it. Somehow she is able to put a dampening effect on everything she is involved with.¡± Yurei sighed aloud and spoke to her. ¡°Which would means she''s stronger than you thought. Being able to hide oneself is a complicated task, which means you would have to be very strong. Of course, if she had a wellspring of code that she gives out¡­¡± ¡°She could somehow manipulate it to hide herself and the code with her! That''s what you''re saying!¡± Kazama exclaimed in realization, getting what Yurei was trying to say. Yurei nodded with another sigh, ¡°That means somewhere in Shara is a giant well of code ready for her legions of followers. Just a little of that power handed out by her is too much for a single user.¡± Hina leaned forward and looked down at the floor in a serious manner, making sure her next words were not taken lightly. ¡°We need to find her somehow if she is allowed to reach the next world, there''s no telling what could happen.¡± ¡°What could happen if she did make it out to the next world?¡± ¡°She and her twelve would be able to blend in even easier than they do now. Don¡¯t forget,¡± She pointed to Kazama with a stern look, ¡°This is a game with unlimited worlds, which means unlimited hiding spots. The more we unlock and travel, the more she is able to hide and grow.¡± ¡°How do we get to the next world? Don¡¯t suppose the system would know?¡± Hina nodded her head with a half smile, for the system did know how to get to the next world. ¡°It only told me that the way up is to vanquish the cold hearted one. But I have no clue who or what the cold hearted one is.¡± ¡°We may be able to find out by this whole guild war thing. We need to get stronger and warn others about this.¡± ¡°I agree with you. And I will do everything in my power to help you Kazama.¡± ¡°As will I too Kazama,: Yurei spoke with a stern look on his face, nodding. Kazama got up and walked to the door, speaking as she left. ¡°Then we best get our rest for tomorrow and the guild wars.¡± The next day would be tough, but the guild would ultimately flourish from the next day''s battles. As long as they kept to their strength in others, they would begin to grow quickly and hopefully begin to stop the woman in the mask. It all would begin the next day¡­.. End Chapter 16 Informative Insert+Poll #2 Time to talk about the next batch of characters as of thus I guess? Here is the trifecta of seventeen year olds! Sheshiro Age: 17 Eyes: Grey Hair: Black Born: February Likes: Sneaking, Being sarcastic and spying Author''s comments: Oh God Sheshiro. I basically just really wanted a guy with a thief class in this story and one that would slowly get more facetime on his own. He has two blades that he got in some randon quest and has used them ever since. He has yet to show more of his side of the story.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Hina Age: 17 Eyes: Blue Hair: Pure White Born: ??? Likes: Helping others and laughing Authors comments: The mysterious girl character to be honest. She got her code from the game system itself, but as to what the code is, that is to be seen soon. She wears a pure silver paladins armor that shines in the darkest depths. Ever since helping Sheshiro in the battle against Yurei, she has grown a crush on him. Expect to see her code at the use in the guild wars. Yurei Age: 17 Eyes: Amber Hair: Brown Born: October Likes: Making up for his past Authors comments: Ho boy, this guy was just a sub villain, but then he got trashed by a woman in a mask. Yuko traded her life so that he may live his once more, which makes her themartyr of the story so far. He wishes to show his true strength and get away from his horrible past. He will be a character that will have to develope slowly. And thats all for this informative update! Chapter 17 - Hey, Its Weak Magic Chapter 17 - Hey, It¡¯s Weak Magic Kazama walked into the main room of the church and looked around, noticing that is was more empty than usual. Spotting Shohei sitting in one of the pews, she walked over to him while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Sitting down with a loud yawn, she spoke to him as she attempted to wake up. ¡°Where¡¯d everyone go?¡± Shohei smiled at her and said, ¡°Well good morning to you too Sleepy. Nabiki and the rest went out to take up the guild wars. Hina with Nabiki, and Yurei with Sheshiro, both in groups of two.¡± Kazama stretched out her tired and weary bones and sighed loudly to Shohei. ¡°Ugh, I suppose I better get ready for a guild fight too huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, and I have your guild member fight info right here.¡± He brought up the guild''s name and location, showing it to her. With a quick glance, she looked back at him. ¡°So I¡¯m to fight the ¡°All Girls Club¡± under the Sakura trees in the park? Awww, what a raging pain, beating up on poor defenseless little girls.¡± She stood up and began to head towards the door of the church, with Shohei calling out to her. ¡°Have fun!¡± xXx Northern Edge of Shara ¡°So Nabiki, how are we supposed to fight this battle?¡± Hina asked Nabiki as they walked side by side down the street. They were near the very edge of the northern part of Shara¡¯s city, the edge that was impossible to get beyond. The entire world of Shara consisted of one giant city, and as such, it meant no wilderness hunting and such. Nabiki nodded her head as she wielded an axe in one hand, prepared for the fight. ¡°This is a small guild consisting of only magic users, and they are simply called ¡°Magix¡±. All we have to do it defeat the two subs and the leader to win.¡± ¡°And if we somehow manage to lose, then what? ¡°Then its up to Kazama and the others to stop them from beating the rest of us.¡± ¡°I see.¡± They came to a dead stop between some crumbling building and looked around. Hina had made sure to equip her blade, which Nabiki looked at with wonder. In Hina¡¯s hand was a bright shining Rapier, a blade that was so unique, only a few handfuls used it with any success. Most players went the less elegant way with longswords or katana¡¯s. A rapier was much lighter than its cousins in the game, and as such, must players need to be as light and fast with it as possible to defeat mobs and such. ¡°If that''s her weapon,¡± Nabiki thought to herself as she observed Hina carry the blade in one hand, ¡°Then she must be very skilled to use it.¡± Her thoughts were cut short when a voice from across the street calle dout to them. Nabiki turned her head away from Hina to see as three men in identical black robes walked towards them with vicious smile son their faces. ¡°So you''re the guys who challenged us to a guild war match? Well I guess this will be easier then I thought, a bunch of girls are nothin¡¯!¡± The man in the lead was laughing at them and his two companions joined in as they mocked the women. Nabiki held back an outburst and calmly spoke back to them. ¡°If I were you twerps, I would think twice about mocking us¡­¡± ¡°You two really think you can all out attack a bunch of magic users? We¡¯re gonna trounce you and then destroy the rest of your guild leaders!¡± ¡°Teehee,¡± Hina giggled as she swung her rapier back and forth, amused by the boasting of the magical guild leader. ¡°Magic users are actually pretty weak you know. Unlike us fighter, you guys can actually exhaust yourselves faster with the more magic you use., allowing us to get into your defenses.¡± ¡°We will see about that little girl! Lets just get this thing over with!¡± ¡°Alright then, system?¡± Hina spoke aloud to the game system of NWO with a loving smile. >> Beginning Guild War Combat¡­¡­ Guild War Match may now proceed. The magic users made sure to not waste a second and brought their hands up, shooting sharp gusts of magic at the two girls. Nabiki and Hina dodged the blasts and looked at each other with confidence. ¡°We gotta attack them straight up, their weaker at close combat!¡± nabiki yelled as Hina readied her rapier. ¡°I will take them on from back here with my bow and give you cover fire. You try to do the rest of the up close combat!¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Hina got up and sprinted forward with a nod to Nabiki. ¡°Got it!¡± Nabiki equipped her bow and began to rapid fire arrows at the magical users as Hina dodged several magic attacks. The opposing leaders just responded by powering up their attack, which made Hina in turn swing the blade at the blasts of magic. Sending them back to their makers. One of the re-sent blasts of magic hit one of the sub leaders in the chest, making the leader grunt loudly to them. ¡°That bitch has a special attack built in! Watch your attacks more carefully!¡± Hina¡¯s lips and eyes curled up into a catty smile when she heard them talk about her without respect. She landed in front of one of them and swung her rapier to hit one of the men in the chest. He blocked her attack by coughing up a spell name to from a long wooden pole in his hands, blocking the blade. She smiled softly when he pushed her back. ¡°Oh, you have magic that can form solid objects too? Smart...somewhat¡­But wouldn''t having a short sword or something like that be more useful?¡± The leader of the men pointed a hand at her and sent another magical blast towards her, which she jumped out of the way to dodge. ¡°Screw that, a true magical sorcerer need no weapon other than his magic!¡± Hina giggled at his gruffness as well at how bad he wanted to be a ¡°true¡± magician in the game. She placed an index finger on the side of her rapier¡¯s blade, the tip of it pointing to the sky and she spoke to him. ¡°That means you three are pretty weak then, right? A true player of your class would be wise to equip a blade to their weapons arsenal, otherwise you''re a walking target. I hope when we win, the members we get are better than the three of you.¡± ¡°Why you little¡­!¡± The leader and his two subs were angrily pointing fingers at Hina when an arrow from nowhere struck one of them in the shoulder. The man on the left of the leader cried out in pain as his HP bar dropped well below than the halfway point. ¡°This may be a simple match, but even with the safety procedures in place, the pain is still the same. While your were complaining to me, my companion was able to hide herself somewhere.¡± The leader and unharmed sub looked around in worry, having forgotten Nabiki and her arrows. ¡°Shit, we forgot about the other girl! She¡¯s a sniper with those arrows now!¡± ¡°You guys really have me wanting more,¡± Hina said as she looked at the three terrified men with a quizzical look on her face. She was amazed at how three PC¡¯s like them could actually survive the game world without taking the logical steps in their class. Magic users were some of the weakest classes in NWO, and so the players choosing the class must make every precaution for their own safety. Magic is great if you''re strong enough to battle with it on your own, but those still young to it are more than likely to get themselves killed. It¡¯s the main reason that most players avoided the class all together and choose the more simpler ones in the game. ¡°You guys are weak. How did you manage to live this long?¡± The men angrily clustered together and began to form balls of fire with their hands, tossing them about the place. Hina saw through their defense and swung her blade faster than the eye could see, striking all of the fire balls that floated before her. The three magic users began to sweat and panic as they watched her swat the balls away like swatting a fly away from food. The leader abruptly yelled out a spell name to try to inflict damage on Hina. ¡°R...Ratei Shorai!¡± As he uttered the magical incantation, a gigantic wall of flame rose upwards, flowing towards Hina like a wave about to crash ashore. Hina stopped and stood where she was, unable to deal with such a big magical attack. She was actually grinning over the first attack the guild was able to set up successfully, not afraid at the size of the wave approaching her. Nabiki rose from her hiding spot on a second floor building, firing off arrows at the two subs on each side of the leader, taking them down to the ground as she eliminated them from the match. The wave of flame finally reached and engulfed the leader as she laughed aloud into the air. ¡°Is that all you have?! You couldn''t even stop my best attack! Now how is the weak one here eh? Ahahaha!¡¯ The man had both hand son his hibs and was laughing in joy as his two companions clapped for him. The smoke from the wall of fire began to dissipate and the two clapping sub leaders stopped and stared at the figure that stood before them, mouths hanging to the ground. Hina stood in the exact place where she was struck by the wave of flame, with not a bit of her HP missing. She brushed some dirt off of her armors shoulder and giggled happily as the man shouted at her with fear. ¡°What?! You should have been down on the ground and knocked out of the match! Nothing could survive that blast of magic, not even an NPC monster!¡± ¡°Teehee, you really thought your best could stop me that easily? Thats funny, but you see,¡± She strode over to him with a simple grace and placed the tip of her rapier on his throat, causing him to sweat. ¡°I think it would be best to surrender now to us. You have lost both of your sub leaders, plus you''re exhausted from that great bit of magic you just used.¡± ¡°You foolish girl, you think I can¡¯t simply replenish my magical energy and strike you down right here?!¡± ¡°That may be true, or it may not be. But you see, I am not the only person who is pointing something sharp at you.¡± The leader turned slightly and saw Nabiki approaching him from the rear, with an arrow pointed straight at his neck. He broke out into a cold sweat, terrified about what would happen if he refused her. Shutting his eyes tightly, he shouted loudly. ¡°Dammit, fine! I surrender my guild to yours! Man this sucks ass!¡± The game system heard his announcement and replied to the winners. >>Magix Guild surrenederd to Hunters Dream. Hunters Dream has now gained 94 new members, as well as gained new territory. Nabiki jumped in joy over the announcement, happy over the uber easy battle they had with the magic users. ¡°Sweet, that was really easy! Our guild just got bigger by ninety-four members, which means,¡± She looked at the guild''s information and whistled when she saw the number. ¡°We have over four hundred now, wow. Shohei sure had a lot of members in that church huh?¡± She looked over at Hina and smiled. ¡°Say, should we go and see if their are any other losers to fight? Hina smiled and un-equipped her rapier, and walked over to her. ¡°What about the guys we just beat? Should we just leave ¡®em here to rot?¡± ¡°Heh, I¡¯m sure they can crawl back to their home and tell their other members about what''s new now. Let''s go!¡± ¡°Lead the way then.¡± The members they had beat up in the matched got up and moaned to each other, trying to get the other to tell their members about their loss. The first guild of the guild wars had fallen to Hunters Dream, and another was about to follow up in another section of Shara¡­¡­. End Chapter 17 Author Announcing a new Series I have a new series called "The Phantom''s Net" and it will have some similar things to here in the way of harems and such. But mind you it will have a serious vibe to it as well, since it is a Cyberpunk set one as well. If you would like to see something better then this old story and more well though, well please check it out. I beg theeThe narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It also has a fun story to it as well, cause hell its cool. https://royalroadl.com/fiction/14535/the-phantoms-net-book-1-rise-of-the-fallen