Chapter 9: 8: Brawl

Aurora. That was fire hair girl's name. I had to take like a bunch of deep breaths just to stop myself from closing the distance and gathering her in my arms. The guy… um… Grerum, he asked me a question, but I didn’t hear what he said. My mind was still stuck on the way Aurora’s eyes were locked with mine.

“Hmm? Sorry?” I asked, still unable to draw my eyes away from those gorgeous orange ones in front of me.

“Have you got travelling gear? You’ll need at least a bedroll and water skin for the journey,” he asked again patiently.

I blinked and finally tore my gaze from Aurora’s, “Oh… I um, I’ll go buy some.”

I rushed off back to the dwarf, who was more than happy to take all his coins back and give me what I needed, plus some meat jerky of some description to use if we couldn’t hunt some food. He was a good dude, and I was going to make sure I brought my loot to him when I came back with it.

When I returned to the party, Grerum had us double check if we were ready. The pretty boy mage had forgotten a water pouch and rushed off to grab one, while our healer was fine. Aurora slipped off without a word to get something, I’m not sure what, she didn’t say a word. I wondered if she was alright with us being in the same party together. She did run away after all. I decided I was going to give her space if she needed it.

It took another half hour or so before we left the gates of the town, and I was eager to see what trouble we could find ourselves. I had heard that dying wasn’t pleasant in this game, even if the pain was reduced, but I had trouble caring too much about it myself. I’d respawn at my last bind point, which was this town, and I’d continue on with my life. I was more afraid of shit I didn’t understand to be honest, like those noises Millie and I had heard outside our tree last night.

Walking with 3 people I didn’t know and one person who… well I knew what her body felt like against mine. Walking with these people was awkward at first, but I tried to just ignore the awkward feelings and enjoy the sun. I loved being in nature like this, even if it was in virtual reality, and it put a smile on my face. We entered the forest following one of the many roads that were like the first one I’d found and the sounds of the forest enveloped us.

The others started to talk among themselves, and I stepped back to listen. It seemed that Grerum and Xethu had been in parties before, and the two of them had heard of Aurora and Florence.

“I’m surprised you put down your lone wolf thing to join our party,” Xethu said to Aurora at one point as we crossed a low stone bridge.

Aurora shrugged and stared off into the distance for a moment, “I have a quest, but I’m too low level to get through it, so I need to powerlevel.”

 Florence the pretty boy mage looked over at Aurora with a disbelieving look and scoffed, “What type of quest do you get from around here that needs any sort of levels?”

“A hard one,” Aurora said curtly, going back to walking and ignoring everyone else's existence.

We continued in silence for a good chunk of the day until we stopped to have a meal and rest at around mid afternoon. I leaned gratefully against a tree on the side of the road, snacking idly on the jerky I’d been given practically for free by the dwarf. It tasted nice, but it definitely wasn’t anything I was familiar with. I was doing my best to analyse the taste and figure out what type of meat it was when the pretty boy turned his arrogant stare on me.

“What about you? I don’t see any weapons on you. Are you a caster? You don’t look very promising as a damage dealer,” he asked grumpily. Damn what was this guy’s problem?

Before I could speak, Aurora spoke up in my defence with a snort, “Oh you’ll find out. It’s more impressive than those shitty little fireballs you’re so proud of.”

I swear she mumbled something about my thighs under her breath at the end there as well and I raised my eyebrows at Aurora in surprise, but she only glanced at me for the briefest of moments.

“Are we going to know beforehand? Or is this all a big surprise for us? How do you know her anyway?” Florence continued petulantly.

“Oh she only knows me in a… roundabout sort of way,” I said idly, trying to keep a straight face.

My little acknowledgement that she had planted her face between my legs a few nights ago was rewarded with a blush that bloomed large across Aurora’s face. She was pretty cute when she blushed, and I couldn’t stop my grin from breaking free of its confines.

“What does that mean?” the pretty boy asked.

“Can you drop it?” Aurora snapped, glaring at him now.

“I want to know if she will be a reliable member of-” he started to protest. Oh fuck this guy. Leave us both alone, fucking hell!

I lept at him with a roar, transforming midway into my demon form, idly noticing that I had claws now. When did that happen? My sudden leap had been intended to just scare him, but he yelped when I crashed down in front of him and tripping backwards and landing hard on the ground with a thump.

I stared down at him with a self satisfied smirk, then calmly walked back to my tree and furled my wings. I didn’t leave demon form this time. I kinda liked being like this when it was practical. Sleeping with the wings would be a pain in the ass, although the strange feather-like leather that they were made of was definitely soft enough.

I leaned against the tree and glared a challenge back at Florence. I was purpose built to fuck him and his caster bullshit up, and I would love a chance to get into a brawl and show him what I could do. Gap closing melee damage dealers were the bane of all mages everywhere.

“Thank you Tami. Florence, you’re not top dog in this game anymore, so stop acting like it. Stop stirring shit,” Grerum said with an exasperated sigh.

The disgruntled mage stood up and dusted himself off, gave me a grumpy look and went back to eating his food in silence.

When I looked back at Aurora I saw she was smiling to herself while she ate her own food, and her eyes flicked up to mine for a brief moment, the mirth dancing in them making my heart do a little flip. Oh goddess.

I grinned and winked at her in return, getting another beautiful blush out of her. Wow she was being very bashful and cute today. I liked it. Damn I was starting to enjoy this silent little interplay we had going on. Brains sucked though, so of course the way she was making my heart dance around reminded me of the last person who had caused it to do that and my mood dropped a little. I turned back to my jerky and started tearing at it with my claws until it was in chewable pieces.

I’d been really distracted by everything that had happened, so I hadn’t really been thinking about Kristina. The breakup was still too raw, and my mind skittered off it like a sword off a shield. Too much pain. Schooling my face into impassivity, I tried my best not to let anyone know I was feeling vulnerable. That Florence cunt would jump on it for sure.

My heartache was interrupted by Xethu’s curious voice, “Tami, what race are you if it’s okay to ask? I haven’t seen anyone who looks like you before, especially with the shapeshifting you just did.”

“Oh um, I’m a Darkling Infiltrator Mk4. It’s a randomiser exclusive,” I told her.

She took another look at me and whistled, “Wow you got that character from the random generator?”

“Genetics play a role in the generation remember, so she probably looks similar to that in real life too,” Aurora said quietly, watching me with a new expression I couldn’t recognise.

I shrugged, unable to tell them that wasn’t true, but unable to bring myself to falsely confirm it. If I had been born a girl I might have looked as pretty as this if I was super lucky, but as it stood I was a guy.

“What type of role do you fill?” Grerum asked.

“Uh, I’m fast and I hit hard, but I’m not really able to take a hit in return. I focus mostly on dodging enemy attacks right now. Getting some thick gauntlets might change that though. Not sure what role that puts me in. I haven’t seriously played a VRmmo before so I’m unfamiliar with all the names people give things,” I told him honestly.

“Ah I see, you’ll probably be working with Aurora a lot then, she fills a similar role. Right now I’m calling it Fast Attack,” he nodded, clearly happy with my role choice.

I looked over at Aurora again and smiled. I liked the sound of working with her… intimately. Oh gosh my brain needed to calm down on the horniness for like two seconds. She hasn’t displayed any more interest in pushing you against a wall yet. She seems almost shy now.

“Alright. Sounds good,” I nodded, drawing my eyes back to my food and keeping them there. I was a little apprehensive about how Aurora would feel about this arrangement. Her running away hadn’t been an issue when I wasn’t really sure I’d ever see her again, but spending four days together out of the blue like this was blowing my awkwardness tolerance apart.

Xethu and Grerum spoke among themselves while the rest of us ate and rested in silence until it was time to go. When we headed off, instead of being alone at the back of the group this time, Aurora sidled up next to me without a word. Neither of us explicitly acknowledged the other as the hours wore by, but it was nice to have her near as we walked. Once or twice one of my wings may have accidentally brushed against her arm, but it was pure coincidence, and had nothing to do with the fact we kept veering slightly toward one another as we walked.

It was coming up on late afternoon as we approached the camp and Grerum decided it was a good idea to slow us down to explain some things about the place before we went in. Apparently, the camp had sprung up out of nowhere almost as soon as people realised you could farm experience in the bleaklands, and it was entirely run by players. This meant there wasn’t a whole lot that one could call the law in this place, so we were all advised to stay wary.

Entering the vaguely defined borders of the place, one thing became apparent almost immediately while my curious eyes roamed the place. It reminded me of some chaotic outlaw town from a western movie, people eyeing each other up and posturing. The odd enterprising player trying to sell potions or weapons. Turning my eyes to the center, I saw with a bit of surprise that there were two or three hastily constructed permanent buildings in the middle.

Our party made our way to an open patch of ground and Xethu began planting some large pins made of bone into the ground. The process Xethu was using seemed to involve pushing the pin into the ground like a tent peg, then tipping a single drop of blood from a vial onto the pin, where it was absorbed and flashed once with a red light.

“What are those for?” I asked her with interest.

“Oh! These are our wards. It protects us from monsters and players alike. Very useful, especially in a lawless place like this one. Be careful when you are outside the wards,” she advised me, her adorable little gecko face turning up in a smile.

“I will! Thank you! I saw some actual buildings in the middle, what are they?” I asked.

Nodding, she looked over at the buildings I was talking about, “The Phoenix Merchant Guild, those innovator types from Motregarnon, built a tavern and a store. That way people can sell their loot here instead of walking all the way back to town.”

I nodded, “Yeah that’s cool. I think I’m friends with some of them.”

“Oh? I’d build those contacts if I were you, they’re looking to become a real power in this region,” she advised me earnestly.

Let me tell you, a serious tiny gecko face is still very cute. Her eyes were like the size of baseballs in that tiny head of hers.

“I will! They were really cool people, helped me out on my first day,” I smiled, then changing the subject to one I was very interested in, I asked, “So like, is the tavern any good? Like Darbs one?”

Shaking her head, Xethu giggled softly, “You are a lively girl! I’m sorry, I have not been inside myself, but I have heard that it is more like what you’d expect in a fantasy game. It is mainly for drinking, boasting and fighting.”

That sounded like it could be fun for entirely different reasons than Darb’s place was! I wanted to get into a brawl! Still, it would have been nice to get onto another dance floor… with Aurora...

“Right,” I sighed, deciding to duck in and check it out anyway, “I’m going to go and take a look inside, it sounds fun!”

“Good luck,” she giggled again, “Don’t die, you’ll respawn back in Motregarnon.”

“I’ll try not to,” I laughed, walking towards the building in question.

The path through all the haphazardly placed camps with their bone pins was difficult to say the least. Impromptu streets seemed to form and disappear randomly based on where people thought was a viable place to set up, and although I could see where I needed to go, the wards kept me from trespassing on other party’s camps. It was like an invisible maze. Finally finding my way onto the one strip of dirt that counted as the main street in this place, I headed towards the very rowdy Tavern with building excitement. I had enough coin left for one drink if I was lucky, but maybe I could punch some more out of someone...

When I entered the tavern I found it bustling with other players, many of whom were gathered around the rough wooden tables with their parties. No one was brawling at the moment, much to my disappointment, so I headed over to the bar and sat down at one of the stools. I watched the pretty bartender flirt with a rogue looking guy who I swear was almost identical to the character I originally made. Dang, I had been so unoriginal. I was so glad I had accidentally gotten this character instead.

It took awhile for the bartender to finish, and when she did she swept right past me to attend to another handsome player. She looked to be a player herself, and I had to hide a grin at her antics. She must have quite a lot of fun in her position. Plenty of good looking men for her to take back to her tent at night, and she definitely seemed like she was warming to a few candidates right now.

I was about to interrupt her fun by calling out to her, when someone with hair that was all the colours of flame sat down next to me and did just that.

“Two half pints of mead barkeep!” Aurora called, perhaps a little roughly, getting an amused snort out of me.

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I flicked a look over at her, finding her watching me with an impassive expression that was almost good enough to hide her cocky smirk. That subtle look was all I needed to feel a warm little spark in my stomach, and I had to take a breath to keep myself from doing anything drastic.

The barkeep girl sighed theatrically and grabbed two mugs, placing them one after another under the tap that had been hammered into a hogshead sized barrel. With both mugs filled to the expected amount, she placed them in front of us and went back to the guy who looked like my first character to flirt some more.

I watched the barkeep for a moment longer, then glanced back to Aurora and rolled my eyes with a mirthful smile. I got two theatrically wiggling eyebrows in return, then she turned to her mead and took a drink.

“Thanks,” I murmured, taking a drink of my own mead.

“No problem. I’ve been here once before. If you’re a pretty girl she won’t serve you for ages, it’s a bit of a pain, even if she is funny to watch,” Aurora said dryly, her cocky grin becoming unmasked just a little more.

“I was enjoying the entertainment yeah,” I chuckled.

We both smiled at each other, eyes dancing with unspoken connection. I don’t know how or why, but this chick and I seemed to have some sort of empathic connection or something. I was already getting the feeling we were having entire conversations in a glance and I kinda really loved it.

We sat in companionable silence for a minute or two before I broke the silence, “So Florence is an ass.”

Aurora grimaced and nodded, “Yeah from what I gather he was a big shot PvP dude in Gale Realm. He thinks that his fame and skill should translate directly into Cora for some reason and is pissed that it isn’t.”

“I can see why it isn’t. Gale Realm was small fry compared to Cora. Those devs murdered their game on birth with that monetisation scheme. He was probably just lucky with their bullshit weapon upgrade system and got some overpowered piece of gear,” I said, remembering my brief and thoroughly unenjoyable experience trying that game.

Laughing quietly she nodded, “Yeah it was a bit of a shit show. I really tried to give it a good run because they had some interesting ideas, but it was tough. It was like the game wanted you to hate it.”

Deciding to gauge how she was feeling about our previous intimacy, I said, “And then there was the part where it wasn’t eighteen plus, so everyone had Ken Doll crotch going on. I much prefer the way this game does things.”

Aurora choked on her drink for a second, a furious blush rising on her cheeks. I hid a grin behind my mug, enjoying how damn pretty she looked when her cheeks were all rosy like that. I wanted to tease her more, just because I loved seeing her normally stony cocky exterior melt, but I didn’t know how far I could go yet and definitely didn’t want to push things. Either way though, she was adorable.

When she had herself back under control, she nodded bashfully and murmured, “Yeah. It’s… pretty good.”

Deciding to cut her some slack and change the subject I turned the conversation towards tomorrow, “So what kind of shit am I going to be expected to punch tomorrow?”

This time she threw an almost evil smile at me when she said, “Mostly undead animals and shit. Good luck with that by the way, I wouldn’t want to touch their gross decaying flesh like… ever. We’ll be keeping to the edges though, and I hear things get weird when you go further in.”

I groaned and entreated the ceiling for help it couldn’t offer. Damn I did not want to punch undead and get my hands all gross and covered in rotting bits of animal. Gross gross gross! I needed to figure out if I could set up any abilities that would help me stay clean.

“Great. Just great,” I sighed, “Ah well. What’s it like further in?”

“Don’t know really, people say there’s like eldritch horrors and stuff, or angels, or like, plague doctors. No one can agree on what’s in there. There’s footage of it all, but it seems like one party will find something completely different from another,” she explained before taking another pull from her mug.

“That’s pretty cool actually,” I said in surprise. I wanted to go further in now!

Aurora raised an eyebrow, “Oh really? Tons of people say they don’t want to go in because it’s so weird in there.”

“No that’s what makes it interesting!” I grinned, getting a little giddy with excitement, “Like, I wonder why it’s like that. Is there like a lore reason or something? Do we know? Oh and then I want to punch the lore reason! I bet it gives good loot.”

She smiled at my enthusiasm and shook her head with a laugh, looking down at her drink, “Wow. You really do like punching things huh? I guess the game chose well for you.”

I slipped a sly glance in her direction and winked, “I’ve been enlightened to a great many wonders since I spawned.”

Luckily for her, she didn’t have her mouth full this time and didn’t end up choking. Instead she simply chuckled some more, then slid her empty mug across the bar along with the coins to pay for both drinks.

Giving me a look that sent tickles of warm energy singing up and down my spine she said, “It’s getting late and we need to leave early tomorrow. I’ll see you back at the camp unless you want to leave with me?”

“Uh… sure!” I blurted, placing my mug next to hers and following her out of the tavern. What did she mean by with her? Oh geez, she hadn’t waited again, but she did give me a look over her shoulder. Where was flirty Aurora coming from again all of a sudden? Was it the drink? Now it was me who was all flustered.

As we left, I saw rogue dude’s eyes following us intently. He seemed particularly interested in Aurora, and I glared at him until he casually turned his eyes away. Keep your eyes off her weirdo!

Jogging slightly to catch up with her, I stepped up next to her without a word, content to just walk next to her in happy silence. Maybe it was the earth shattering orgasm she’d given me a few days ago, but being around her made me feel pretty nice, so I wanted to stay next to her as long as possible. I hoped maybe she might give me another one at some point, if I was a good girl.

We entered the haphazard maze of warded campsites and tried our best to find our way through, but it quickly became clear we’d taken a wrong turn somewhere. It was at our third dead end that we stopped.

“Shit,” Aurora swore, “This place is a fucking nightmare. Someone should impose some damn order on this fucking place!”

“Yeah,” I agreed, turning around and trying to get a good look in the dark as to where the hell we were.

“I can’t even figure out where we are anymore,” she sighed, doing the same thing I had just been doing.

“Yeah it’s nuts, especially now that it’s fully dark,” I groaned.

“Well, let’s turn around and try to retrace our steps I guess,” she grimaced, leading me back to the T junction we had just used.

It was moving so quickly I almost missed it, but thankfully the default passive that I had called earlier crap turned out to be anything but that. A little light blinked at the corner of my vision for a microsecond, and my eyes identified a dagger flying through the air towards my fiery haired friend. I reached out and grasped her robes, pulling her back sharply and out of the way of the blade. It was close, almost skimming close to her face, but she was unhurt when I steadied her.

“Wha-?” she started to say, then stopped when she saw the man who had thrown the dagger, “Ah shit.”

From the other direction another man rushed, and I recognised with not an ounce of surprise that it was the rogue who looked like my old character, wielding a short sword and dagger combo.

“You take the thrower, I’ll get number two,” I said urgently, moving to cover her back as she faced the guy who had tried to skewer her.

“Got it,” she said tersely, already drawing her sword.

I had just enough time before by foe arrived to see her blink forward with some sort of short ranged teleport and take a slash at the dude in front of her.

My enemy got into range and took a swing, which I dodged by dashing left, shifting into a sweep of my leg as I tried to knock him over. The problem that I faced when someone was coming at me with sharp pointy things while I had nothing but fists, was that I had no ability to deflect or block an attack. I was limited to just my skill at dodging, and I was still pretty new to the game and my character. I needed to end this fast.

He came at me again with a lightning stab at my gut, but I was just fast enough to twist sideways and let it pass me. He would have been able to slash sideways and get a hit anyway, had I not grabbed his fist and tried to pry the weapon from it. My attempt to deprive him of one of his weapons was cut short when he drove the point of his dagger at my side. Damn, how was I going to get out of this?

I tried to reset the fight a little by dashing backwards and into the dead end, but he saw that as an opportunity to try and rush Aurora instead. I wasn’t having any of that, so I flicked back in and cracked a stunning strike right into his side. Yes! A hit, I thought as he doubled over and collapsed into a campsite as his side locked up due to my ability.

I followed him down, managing to kick his short sword away in the process and depriving him of one of his weapons. It was about now that I realised something odd. He had fallen into a campsite, which should have acted like a smooth wall to him. Was this their camp? I didn’t have time to ponder it too hard because he was trying to get back up, and my question was answered anyway when I was able to pass through the same way he had.

I drove another fist into his chest, following it with a burning one a second later. He cried out in pain, trying to take a slash at me with the dagger that still remained in his hand. I was about to try retreating, when I noticed one of the large bone ward pins lying discarded on the ground. No way, had these people not set their wards properly? I lunged for it, grabbing it and lifting it high into the air.

Mister rogue stared at it in confusion for a second, before he registered what I was about to try and do with a yelp. I drove it down past his desperate flailing guard and into his chest, then pulled back and waited to see what happened. How would the game react to someone not from the owning party being inside the wards when they went up?

I locked eyes with the terrified and pained rogue as the pin blinked red in his chest. The moment the pin went red, every part of him that was inside the ward violently popped in a shower of gore, blood and chunks of bone that splattered across the invisible inside wall of the campsite.

I sat on my haunches and watched the bits dribbling down the invisible wall with a mix of disgust, awe and for some odd reason, amusement. Wow, that was not what I had been expecting. I’d thought maybe he’d be cut in half or something, but that… well that seemed almost excessive!

I stood up when I heard blades still singing from where Aurora was fighting. Rushing forward, I put myself into a slide, activating my dash at the same time to get through her enemy’s guard, using my forearm to trip him as I went skidding past. Aurora capitalised on his sudden lack of solid guard by slicing upwards in an extravagant flourish that cut his neck clean open. An instant later she was finishing him with a vicious stab that cracked into his skull.

“Whoa,” I laughed, grinning up at her from the ground, “That was intense.”

Her serious fighting expression dissolved into a grin of her own that caused butterflies to go berserk in my stomach. My giddy heart drank in the sight of her, cheeks flushed from the fight and chest heaving enticingly as her breathing began to calm down. How the hell was I feeling all this mushy stuff after watching a dude literally explode?

Taking a cloth out of her inventory, she cleaned her sword and sheathed it, then dismissed the rag back where it had come from.

I watched her step over the body of the guy she’d killed and offer me a hand to get up off the ground, which I took gratefully. She lifted me easily, and that feat caused another round of excited fluttering in my chest. Now that I was upright, I found myself very close to her, able to smell a little of her scent and finding it… well it was nice. She was nice. Wow she was pretty, inside and out.

She licked her lips for a moment, her breathing coming a little faster than it had before as she searched my eyes. We stayed like that for I don’t know how long, I think time was having a bit of trouble staying straight just then. Our lips were so close, I could feel her breath mingling with mine between us, and oh how my heart was racing. I think my mind was having a meltdown, it was firing randomly down lines of thought only to leave them half finished. Oh gods above please just kiss me!

Almost as though she was stepping into a gale, she took a deep breath and stepped away, dropping my hand and saying breathlessly, “Uhhm. Let’s… let’s loot these guys and try to find our way back to camp.”

I had to swallow once or twice just to get my voice back before I replied in a croak, “Uh yeah. Sounds good.”

We got to work seeing what the game would let us take, which turned out to be a reasonable number of coins, plus the thrown dagger and… the guy I had detonated’s nice boots. Everything else would fade and stay with them when they respawned. Quickly dividing up the coins between us, we left the scene of the fight and wordlessly pushed through the maze until we finally found our camp site.

Things felt pretty weird between us, neither of us able to make full eye contact, but trying anyway. I caught her smiling at me slightly when she thought I wasn’t looking, so I was pretty sure we hadn’t made things totally awkward. My heart was having trouble calming down though. Damn! She… gah! I wanted her in so many ways my brain even had trouble deciding what to fantasise about.

When she placed her bedroll down, I put mine down next to hers with a question in my eyes. I sighed with more relief than I would care to admit when she gave a shy smile and nodded. Woo! She still liked me!

The others were already quietly in their bedrolls, so I put myself back in human form and slipped into my own one. I watched with rapt attention as Aurora took her robes off, hearing the clink of hidden blades as she did so. Underneath was that singlet and bra combo again, but this time I saw she was also wearing some breezy looking pants made of spider silk. I was kind of jealous of those actually.

“Goodnight,” she murmured, wriggling into her own bag and looking over for a moment to smile at me.

That smile made all sorts of warm gooey feelings bounce around inside me and I knew that sleeping was going to be damn hard to achieve. Shit my heart had still not stopped beating wildly!

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