Four explosive arrows hit all around the shield wall, and her eyes lit up. She could see light through the other side of a large crack. Another round of arrows would do it!
She did not allow them to guess what she was doing, and quickly moved away from the corridor. She let them fire at her repeatedly and allowed a few near misses to keep them interested in actually trying to take her down with their bows. She was lucky that they did not have any fine mesh nets or even weighted sheets to try and capture here. They were prepared for normal sized intruders, but a fairy invader had never crossed their minds.
It was time, she was near the corridor once more. She zoomed forward then started to fly upward like she had changed her mind. Arrows flew and three more mild explosions rocked the area.
Ero saw her chance and she dived for the loosened rocks near the shield wall. The outer part, the part where the magical wall met the corridor edge, remained intact. The shield wall could not move to cover the new open space. It was a tight squeeze. She scratched and scraped her body badly moving through the newly formed space, but the bloodied fairy was on a mission. Her friends needed her.
The tiny fairy BFF flew as fast as she could through the corridor. “Scott! Rhea! Hide around the corner! The bandits are…!” Her words died on her lips when she saw what greeted her.
Rhea was on the ground and Scott looked ashen face. He panted and his body was soaked in sweat.
The sorcerer struggled to speak, but the only word he could muster was a silently mouthed, “Ero…” before he collapsed to the ground.
On the ground behind the portcullis, she bore witness to the bodies of her best friends. “Scott! I’m here! Give me your helmet!”
Ero fluttered from side to side and called out again, a growing desperation in her voice. Neither of her friends moved. Her eyes grew wide in surprise. She rushed down to them then started to tug at Scott. She cried out, “Scott! Get up! It’s not time for a nap… Give me your helmet!”
There was no response. His head was warm to the touch, but it was rapidly losing warmth. It became obvious what had happened. Her best friend had died waiting for her to save him. She had taken too long.
She looked over to the beautiful but equally deceased corpse of Rhea and her eyes began to mist over. In the background of her mind she could hear the bandits enter the corridor behind her, and for a moment she did not care. “Please…. Scott… Rhea…”
It was not until bandana man spoke, that she was reminded of the situation. “Ha, dead. You’re in my power now you little bitch. I’ve always wanted to have a guardian.”
Ero’s eyes narrowed. Her normally cheerful expression shifted to a pinched, angry expression. Her voice, typically sweet and upbeat, dropped several octaves and resonated strongly. “Power… You really want my power?”
“Listen to this bitch. I bet she thinks she sounds tough.” said the bandit with a laugh.
That was when the music stopped. Before it had been a normal, jaunty, battle tune. However, now it became something dark, something dangerous.
It was a soft melody, but it had an edge to it. The song that played in the background was primarily a tune that was presented via a piano score, but it was accompanied by the sound of twin electric guitars.
Ero stopped completely. She hovered in mid-air without so much as a single wing flap. “You kill my Scott… You killed Rhea, and threatened to pluck me like a chicken… and then you that say want my power?”
Ero’s tiny head turned toward them even as her entire body began to glow. Sparks of magical energy began to radiate from her, and her eyes flared brightly with an eldritch light. “I’ll let you have it!”
“Fire on the fairy!” snarled bandana man. Several arrows raced out toward Ero, but the tiny little fairy was protected by a sudden extremely powerful gust of wind.
A woman’s voice, one fairy similar to Ero, began to sing in the background as the glowing fairy started to grow in size. She had unleashed her greater power, a power she had not used since the first day that she had met Scott. Ero unleashed [Storm of Emotion].
~Once in the long long ago, a girl cried out for a friend, a true he-ro….~
It was not a power that she could easily use. She had to be in a desperate mindset, and be willing to allow her own existence to end. She was simply not strong enough to use it whenever she liked. However, she no longer cared what happened to her. She stopped holding back and reached deep inside the well of power that existed within her.
The human sized fairy raised her hand. Another gust of wind raced outward. Soon it turned into a continuous gale force blast that sent the bandits hurtling back. Ero had temporarily transcended her limitations. The truth was, that a guardian spirit was far stronger than a common monster. When they unsealed their true power they were actually an entire tier higher on their personal power spectrum. Ero, in her greater form was no longer simply a cute little tier one fairy BFF. She was actually a tier-two creature despite the fact that she was not level one hundred. She was more like a fairy overlord. In short, Ero was a boss.
~Lost in a dark and lonely place, nowhere else to go…~
The distraught and enraged greater fairy guardian moved slowly through the corridor while she continued to blow the bandits back. Soon they reached the end of the passage. The bandits on the far side of the area begged for the shield wall to be erected once more.
~He came to her one day with an explosion and a smile…~
The bandits had dropped the corridor shield in order to chase their prey. They had not thought that she would be capable of ascension to this level of power as such a thing was a true rarity among known guardian species. They had known nothing of the bond that Ero shared with her currently deceased, Scott.
The shield did manage to rise again, but just before it did Ero floated out and into the open air of the arena. The true battle would now take place. Each of the bandits could clearly see their predicament quite clearly. Above Ero’s head bright red letters flared into existence. Those letters spelled the word most terrifying for an unprepared party. It was the word Overlord. The system had detected the situation and chosen to make the encounter into an event battle.
~Though he had a girlfriend, he said come with him a while…~
Bandits attempted to flee into the depths of their domicile, but they could not leave the area. They were trapped in a battle with an enraged fairy who had awakened her true power and then been granted further temporary ascension by system administration.
“Fire! Fire!” snarled bandana man. The bandits readily began to do just that.
~And she came….. And she caaa-ay-ay-aame!~
However, their arrows never even had a chance to come close to Ero. A whirling wall of wind, much stronger that the protective wind wall that she had used during her first day with Scott, rose up to ward off the arrows. The howling barrier of wind was so powerful that it tore the rock ceiling away and exposed the mine area to the brilliant light of day. A storm cloud began to form overhead not long after, and within seconds a stinging rain began to lance downward.
There was no one alive to receive the benefits of her buffs, but there were plenty of bandits alive to receive the de-buffs that came with her attack. Mana and health were rapidly draining away from them with every second that passed. The bandits were easily in their seventies, level wise, but it did not matter. They were losing four hit points and mana per second. Much like Scott and Rhea they would die in a matter of a few minutes if they did not stop Ero.
However, unlike the hapless goblins of that fateful day not so long ago when Ero had last unleashed her power, the bandits were players. They could not attack her, but they might be able to outlast her. The background music continued unabated as the winds and water raged all around, and the bandits struggled to find a way to survive.
~They faced many obstacles, they crossed the oceans. But their friend-ship they won out…~
Bandana man shouted out in an unintended parody of the odd song playing in the background, “H
ide under the scaffolds, drink strong health potions. We’ll wait the bitch out!”
The bandits stopped firing and soon ran to do as their leather-clad leader had directed. They still lost health, but the lack of direct contact from the rain reduced the damage.
Ero did not care. In fact, she had not even heard the man. She was currently lost inside of herself. She could only feel her sadness and the pain of her loss. She could no longer even hear the battle theme playing in the background. Of course, given the quality of the lyrics that might have been an actual blessing.
The one she loved, the one she had pledged to guard for the whole of her life had died. She had failed him. She had hope that he would respawn, but that was cold comfort compared to the fact that she had let him die due to her own weakness.
If only she had been stronger! That was what she kept thinking. If only her tiny little body could use her powers more efficiently. If only.
Several minutes passed, and Ero began to weaken. Soon, her power would die away altogether. She would fade into nothing. She had used too much of her energy the other day in blissful eroticism by forcing herself to remain in an enlarged state. She would be unable to do anything for days.
In many ways, using her true power was equal to taking on the risk of a potential death sentence. Even during the best of times it was likely that she would die with only the hope of her deep connection with Scott to provide her the opportunity of restoration. She could not truly die, not as long as her Scott’s soul existed, and they shared a strong bond. Though, she might end up existing in a death-like state similar to a coma for lengthy periods of time.
As she continued to weaken, her desire to become stronger rose to greater heights. If only she could use more power. Even this was not truly her utmost ability. She was not high enough in level to use the next tier of her power, but she was close enough that she could taste it.
She hated that she could not finish these mean old bandits off! They’d killed her friends. They wanted to sell her for parts! Why wasn’t she stronger now? There had to be a way to become stronger, now!
Her desire led to understanding as she felt a strange tugging sensation within her. She sensed that pull and realized that it was her connection to Scott. His body was dead, but his soul lingered still, as he was not like the mortals of this world. He was a champion, like these bandana-clad meanies, he would revive at some point.
She could feel him within her. It was a sense of strength, of humor, and of warmth. In her darkest time he had come to her and become a light that turned back the darkness, had cast out the loneliness that had plagued her and nearly claimed her soul. Now he was trying to do the same once again, even in death.
Her Scott was with her! She did not want to fail him! The bandits had to die!
Ero was not sure what to do at first, but then she realized something else. Her current method would of attack not work, but there was a way. It would be perfect for trap making rats like these people. Nothing that entered this area could leave until the event ended. That was perfect. She could use that!
She felt her strength beginning to fail for a moment, but then that soothing warmth, that essence of her bond with Scott helped her find the power to continue. Ero knew what she had to do and she began to do it in earnest.
The song in the background shifted to one that was more dangerous. Horns played, and the sound of violins began to echo through the air in an elegant rage.
Drums; violent, deep, and aggressive began to thunder in the background as Ero focused all of her remaining energy on one final gambit. She slammed her palms together and used her magical senses to seek out the water that she needed to use in order to make it happen. Unfortunately for the bandits, they had set up shop next to the largest body of water on the planet.
The ground trembled. Lightning flared all around her, and distinct rumbling sound could be heard. The wall of wind continued to whirl, but the rain stopped.
~The power of your love, my heart you did save… ~
Bandana man came out from hiding to see what was going on, and he looked up toward the brightly lit sky. His eyes narrowed in confusion when a dark shadow was cast across the area. The mine grew darker by the second even as the violins, horns, and drums raged louder than ever.
The bandana-clad man blinked then pointed at something he could scarcely believe. What he saw could not possibly be happening, not in a place like this.
~And when darkness came calling, my love crashed down. Like a-~
“Tidal Wave!” screamed the bandit hysterically while he waved his finger around wildly at the source of his oncoming death. His eyes widened in a hilarious manner and he shook his head back and forth slowly, unable to believe what he was now seeing.
A massive wall of water crashed down with tremendous force. Bright red damage numbers flared up from all over the place as bandits were hit for hundreds, in some cases thousands, of points of damage in rapid-fire succession. Those that managed to somehow barely survive the onslaught knew the horror of hemorrhaging health and mana. The tidal wave that temporary fairy overlord Ero had unleashed counted as one of her storm of emotion water attacks. Their health dropped rapidly with no way to hide from the watery doom that had befallen them. Much like the hopeless situation that Scott and Rhea had suffered, they now suffered the fate of those caught in an inescapable death trap.
Ero remained coherent just long enough to see a message screen flash into existence that congratulated her party for killing off the bandits menacing the area. A brief smile flittered across her lips before she closed her eyes and her body dissolved into motes of light. Four sweetly whispered words echoed in the area as her light dispersed. “Like a tidal wave….” Soon, all that was left was silence.
Chapter 11: Home Sweet Home
His eyes slowly opened but his vision was clouded. His sense of hearing was dull and confused. He did not recognize sounds properly at first. It took a moment to get his bearings due to the strangeness of his senses, but when he did his eyes widened. He knew exactly where he was. Scott was home. Rather, he was back at his house on Earth.
“What…?” he asked intelligently. His speech was slightly slurred, and he had a bad case of cotton mouth. It was like he had spent all night on a drunken bender and he was currently within the throes of a headache free hangover.
It could be a truly daunting experience the first time; that was what Rhea had once said to Scott. However, she had spoken as an immortal goddess capable of surviving almost anything. She knew intrinsically that she only existed in part on the world of ARS. No matter what happened to her body on ARS she had a true existence that was elsewhere. Scott, was not used to such a divergence in cognitive awareness and corporeal separation. It played havoc on his mental state.
Was what he had experienced real? Was it all merely a dream? He had awoken on the floor, so it was possible that he had underwent some sort of near-death experience after hitting his head. Though, that latter possibility was the least likely.
“How did I get back here?” he asked softly. He wipe his face with his hand. In the process of doing that he saw something truly strange. He gripped his surprisingly long hair and pulled a lock of it forward. It was still blue, as blue and shining as the purest lightning that he had ever seen.
Scott rose to his feet and staggered over to his bathroom. His hair had been decidedly brown before he had gone to ARS. If his hair was really blue then he had not been dreaming.
The moment he looked into his bathroom mirror, his eyes widened once more. He had never really looked at himself much before. The man staring back at him from the mirror was almost disturbingly handsome in a thematically anime sort of manner.
“Damn, son…” Scott shook his head and watched his luxuriously fabulous hair wave back and forth. He looked like he had just stepped out of a poster for an eighties era glam metal band.
He checked out his body for a moment and noticed the sleekly tanned and toned goodness. “How have I not really noticed
this before?”
In fact, he now noticed many things that he had merely accepted as reality prior to his first death. Outside of his almost absurd level of masculine beauty, he noticed the lack of background music. He no longer felt like every thought and feeling that he had was the most important thing in the world. Hell, he felt like ignoring them altogether.
It could be said that for the first time in months Scott was truly himself. Without the mind and spirit altering effects of the world of ARS, he could think clearly and logically.
Memories of the actions and choices that he had made in the last few months came rushing to the forefront of his mind. “What the hell have I been doing?”
Scott shook his head again. He had made so many decisions based solely on emotion that it was amazing that he had not died dozens of times already! That was ridiculous. He knew better than that. A proper soldier did not just rush in like an asshole, he scouted the area properly! He does reconnaissance.
After taking a moment to berate himself mentally for his overly emotional idiocy he realized the worst offender in his most recent grouping of offenses. The current plans for corpse rat were riddled with stupid and overly emotional decisions that had made little sense in the grand scheme of things. Holding grudges against a group of unimportant idiots was stupid when the world itself was at stake. Yes, they had captured Scott and Rhea. They had perpetrated terrible things against them, but why the fuck was he still wasting his time on them when he should be focusing on building his power-base?
“It’s a four-to-one ratio, right? So, less than twenty years of ARS time remains till the lords of destruction event starts.” Scott continued to berate himself for wasting precious time for a moment. The most important thing right now was to finish the important business on the current server in preparation for transition to the true battle field.
Origin ARS 4 Page 12
