Litheal's eyes cracked open, still trying to get used to the sun shining through the windows. He had fallen asleep in the shower again, a good way to start the morning. Falling down the stairs he found himself standing in front of one of his butlers.
"Good one sir." The man spoke jokingly looking up towards the carpeted stairs, "The launch is today sir, you are given the honor to initiate the servers."

Litheal nodded rubbing his head from where he had bumped it, "I thought I was paying people to do that kind of stuff."

"Indeed sir, although you should be .. . -" Trey the butler had started to say but was silenced by Litheal's hand.

"I know Trey, I get it - I was just being sarcastic." Litheal said walking over to a black lounge chair, on top of it was the final product of the Haven headset. "It feels like yesterday when I came up with Haven, do I still have a desktop sitting around Trey?"

Trey was in the process of talking to a maid, looking over "Sir? I think it might be in the storage unit."

Litheal nodded slowly picking up the headset placing it on his head, his body went nearly limp as it fell back into the chair.

Welcome to Haven

The words appeared suddenly over a black backdrop, as they were quickly erased before the words 'Tabula Rasa' appeared. He had chosen the latin phrase for it's meaning, "Clean Slate" also a description of a newborn. The words seemed to be flying up, looking up Litheal knew that they weren't moving, it was his character that was falling.

Hitting the ground, he immediately stood up, the only light in the darkness was on him, in front of him was a mirror.

"Hello, what is your name?" An NPC showed up beside the mirror, she was sparkling in a dress with bows in her hair. "I am here to assist your character creation process."

Litheal looked at the mirror examining it, his reflection was not him anymore - it was a complete gray figure. same body shape, same tone.

Looking at the NPC, "Panda"

His character turned into a Panda.

Switching his character to an elemental, he selected the best looking robes that would fit him. Selected his skills and the NPC sent him to birth village.

Birth Village was only suppose to be a temporary training area for new players, he knew how to play this would not be an area that he would want to stay at for to long. He spawned in next to a fountain, NPC's walked through the village going about their computer needs, whatever they were programmed to do.

This was probably the most peaceful this village will be in a while - soon the servers would be open and people would be crowding this small town square. Leaning against the fountain he lifted his hand looking at the detail. Electricity flowed between his fingers with a current. "Cool."

Swiping his hands thinking about television a small display hud appeared in front of him floating in thin air, it was the press release of the game opening today. There were people all over the world continuously trying to join the server. Swiping his hand again he got the developer menu, typing in thin air he opened the servers.

"Bring em on." He smiled closing everything in front of him, returning to play with the electricity in his hands.

"Come on, come on," Joshua muttered to himself. He was alone in his room, laying on his bed while he tried to join the game. "Launch time was three minutes ago! What kind of company keeps their customers waiting like this?"

*beep*

Joshua's entire body went limp and he felt himself falling. He panicked for that brief moment, then grinned like a maniac.

Welcome to Haven

He hit the floor in front of a mirror. "Braden Blade," he state aloud even as the NPC appeared beside the mirror. He turned to the looking glass, ignoring the pointless woman. All that reflected back was a grey, humanoid shape. "Mirror self, human," he said aloud. His image appeared in the glass before him, a frown growing on its face. "Darken the eyes a shade. Cut the hair. No, regrow the hair, but thinner and straight. Add a slight wave." He kept at it for some time until he was satisfied with his appearance.

His next statement was "Swordsman." A sword and basic equipment appeared on him. It wasn't much, but he did like the feel of it. A series of skill choices appeared for the Swordsman class. He picked out those he wanted--skills that would help his over-all agility rather than brute strength--and the menu vanished. "Finalize." A confident smirk tugged the corners of his mouth up as he raised his sword. The image in the mirror smirked back, right up until he slashed through it with the sword.

The world around him shattered and vanished. In place of the void was the plaza of a small village--Birth Village. Home of the newbie. Only a few other players had already appeared, but he frowned nonetheless; he'd taken too long on getting his appearance right, so others had a headstart. Braden drew the sword from his belt and gave it a few practice swings. He could feel the weight in his hand, felt it pulling his arm down to the ground. It was more weight than he was used to, but he was confident he could get used to it quickly. For the time being, he brought his left hand to the hilt as well to get a little extra support.

More people were appearing as they finished customizing their avatars. Elves, demons, fairies, and all sorts of other creatures were appearing around him. Braden pitied them in a way; no race had a special advantage, so any change was completely for aesthetics. Like they weren't comfortable with themselves as humans. Before it got too crowded, though, he needed to get outside and start training. The sooner he could get away from this over-crowded village, the better.

Aaron leaned back in his chair and stared out the window. "Another sunny day," he sighed. "I almost regret not being able to go out." He looked down a the headset that he held in his hands. "Almost." And then he put it on, and reality faded away into a distant memory.

Welcome to Haven

Tabula Rasa

He barely saw the words as he fell through the darkness. His gleeful laughter echoed in the empty space. "This is what I'm talking about!" One, two, three somersaults before he landed on his back on a flat surface. "Whew, that was fun. I almost wish this game had loading screens if it would mean more of that." Looking up, he saw a mirror waiting in front of him. How convenient.

Rolling to his feet, Aaron waved at himself in the mirror, and unsurprisingly, he waved back. But then his reflection started blurring. He had a moment of panic before he remembered that he was in the game. Mirrors in real life didn't go changing on you.

An NPC appeared beside the mirror. "Hello, what is your name? I am here to assist your character creation process." She was pretty, tall and fair and dressed in a silver gown.

"Mercury. My name is Mercury." He didn't wait for her to start talking again, he just wanted to get to the game. "Hey, can you make the mirror go back?" His reflection returned. "Okay now, let's get to it." He peered closely into the mirror. "Blue eyes. Point the ears... Little bit less point... Perfect. Make me a half-human and half-elf hybrid." He looked at his half-elf child. It was perfect.

An impossibly long list of classes, all with different skills and playstyles, appeared in front of his created being. How was he supposed to know what he wanted to pick with so many amazing choices? Aaron, or Mercury, clicked his tongue in annoyance, and the majority of the long list collapsed. The first class on the shortened list said 'Temporal Mage'. He'd never heard of a class like that before. "Sure, I'm up for something new. Tabula Rasa, I accept your challenge. Temporal Mage confirm." He'd expected that to bring him to the game. Nope. Just to another menu. Mercury selected the outfit he wanted from another long list and then distributed his starting skill points. When the last of the option menu had closed, Mercury was once again standing facing the mirror. On the other side of that mirror, his avatar slept. Looking around, Mercury easily spotted the NPC standing a few feet away from the mirror. He asked the AI helper, "So what now?"

The NPC nodded and Mercury fell through the imaginary floor and more darkness. When his eyes again opened, he was blinded by the light of an impossibly real sun. He stood next to a fountain. That much he was sure of even before his eyes were adjusted. Other characters - or were they NPCs? - walked past him. It was hard to believe that this wasn't reality. It just felt so real.

Mercury checked himself out in the reflective waters of the fountain. Huh, he didn't look too bad. Then he checked his gear. The clothing was really well made. Why did he have a sword though, if he was a mage? Shouldn't he have a staff or a broom or some thing? Oh well, no use worrying about it.

A fountain would usually be in the middle of the town, which is where Mercury assumed he was. Picking a random direction, he sprinted away from the fountain. The real fun to be had was outside the village. Mercury wondered if he'd be able to fight a dragon. More importantly, how the hell did a "Temporal Mage" even fight in the first place? Only one way to find out.

As he laid down in his bed with his headset on and the computer on a desk right next to him, Mike waited patiently for the game to start. He was alerted that the game launched when he suddenly felt like he was falling. Considering his position when it happened, he should have landed on his back, but some unseen force straightened him up before landing. When he did, he saw a mirror in front of him

"Hello, what is your name?" An NPC showed up beside the mirror, she was sparkling in a dress with bows in her hair. "I am here to assist your character creation process."

"Um...Cid" 'Cid' replied

"Please customize your avatar's appearance now" the NPC requested

"This is fine" Cid answered. There wasn't really a need for him to change his appearance, it's not like anyone would recognize him after all

"Please choose a class"

"Mechanic" Cid said. If he was going to use the name Cid, then he had to be a mechanic

"Please choose your starting skills and equipment"

After taking a few minutes picking out what he wanted, Cid asked "ok, now what?"

"Is this character acceptable?" she asked

"Yeah, this is good" Cid replied

"Character creation complete. Welcome to haven." Right after she said that, the world around him changed into a small village filled with people. It was a little overwhelming; he had never seen so many people in one place before

"Woah" Cid flinched at the sheer number of people around him "this......is a lot of people." Not sure what he should do first, he decided to try out his skills. First, he summoned a Machine Scout; nut, bolts, and other scraps of metal converged at a single point before exploding into his new metallic minion "wow! This is amazing" he said in awe as he looked at his tobot

Sparks stared onward at all the new players joining in, one had even created a robot. With over a thousand employees working on every aspect of the imagination models this game had to offer, he had never had the chance to browse through every detail. He dealt with the mechanics and brain imagery mostly, he knew he would be seeing some old favorites from the previous games that he had more of a hand in creating. The robot seemed to obey pretty well, and it's motions were flawless, this was truly a reality unlike any that he had the pleasures of seeing.

Smiling he got up off the fountain and walked towards the entrance of the Village, he might as well give the monsters a few shocks.

Outside the village hundreds of players were now attacking the pheasants that outnumbered them greatly, somebody brushed past him, blood dripping from their side. Shock on their face - The virtual reality simulator could not stimulate pain in the player. But in the mind pain is an emotion, this caused the player to believe they were injured. The player if highly damaged would have distorted vision and fear.

Walking down the path he found an empty spot with a few pheasants gathered around a tree. lifting his hand he felt the electricity tingling at his fingertips, launching his hand forward a bolt shot towards a pheasant, an arc scattered around the birds. A health bar appeared over each of them as they lost a little health. The first one was nearly dead from the impact, the arc hadn't had such an effect on the other four.

Smiling awkwardly as the pheasants glared in his direction, Sparks cried a little inside. The first pheasant was still alive, And it had some pissed off friends!

Screaming out loud as he darted in the opposite direction with his hands out in front of him Sparks let out a war cry and shot tethers of electricity behind him every chance he got. Most missed their targets, but some were dead on. Still screaming he spun around to try and finish off the last one. To late, it was already on top of him, wailing his arms back and forth he kept shooting the pheasant.

"WHY ARE YOU NOT DYING?!" He pleaded insanely to the pheasant as it pecked him in the chest. In mid thought about why the pheasant wasn't dying a hud popped up in the corner of his vision telling him the name of the creature "Evil Pheasant Lv2" Using flash step he turned into a lightning bolt and flew about 5 yards away. Casting more flashes of electricity toward the beast before it went down, burnt to a crisp from the current. Falling to his knees he gasped for air, "I am Sparks, the lightening god! Pheasant slayer. . ." He let out his new motto, probably going to be revised, rewritten and destroyed, but at this moment it felt good to say it.

Walking over to the burnt pheasants he laughed before their bodies vanished. "I win." he said finally.

A notice popped up in view, the killing rewards. [3 Gold, 1 refined bow.]

Pulling out the bow he looked it over. "thanks, I don't need this!" he shouted as every player looked in his direction before most of them started killing more pheasants.

"Maybe it's worth selling. . . " he muttered as he walked towards more pheasants. "Worth millions... yeah, millions."

Tradesman: I'll give you 3 gold for it.
Sparks: DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!

Pheasants would be a waste of time. Braden went straight past the farming fields while other players stopped there, running to reach the forest beyond them where stronger monsters would be waiting. He drew his sword once again once he'd reached the treeline. Braden didn't wander off the path, not before he could find out what monsters were in the area. As long as he didn't step into the woods he couldn't be ambushed by mobs.

Conventional wisdom doesn't hold in a game as advanced as Haven. An enormous snake shot out of the ground, bulling into Braden's chest and driving him to the ground before vanishing into the ground once again. Braden's mind was screaming in pain. Only the terror that that thing might be coming back drove him up to his knees. Once he'd made it that far, though, he realized his body didn't hurt. His mind was still in shock from the blow, but it was slowly calming down now that it realized he wasn't close to death.

It hit him from the back the second time, sending him face-first into the dirt. His mind jumped right back into shock, but now it was coupled with adrenaline. Braden jumped to his feet and brandished his sword in both hands. Nothing moved around him. He needed to know where that thing was coming from next. With a brain high on terror and adrenaline, he connected the pattern as fast as he could. First jump there, landed there. Second jump from behind, so some distance to the right, then it burrowed there. Next would be-!

Braden turned and swung just as the snake leaped from the road. His sword caught the monster on the side of its head, deflecting its attack and stalling its movement so it couldn't burrow again. Braden pursued it, feeling the rush of victory. He slashed at the head again and again, well after the beast was dead, until finally the body vanished. He stumbled back a few steps, taking deep breaths to try to calm his racing heart.

"Ha. Haha. Hahahaha! Take that! This guy is worth a dozen of your stupid pheasants!" he called out to the empty woods. With that confidence boost, he turned to continue down the road.

Two snakes hit him at the same time.

As Braden felt the impact, he raised his arms in a futile attempt at self-defense. To his surprise, they rose all the way to his face. They also felt strangely light. He wasn't holding his sword anymore, that was it. Looking down to see where he'd dropped it, Braden saw himself dead on the ground.

Initially, Braden was shocked. He just stared at himself for a few long moments. Finally he managed to pull himself back to his senses. He knelt down beside the body, looking at the wounds it had. There was some blood flowing from places where the skin had broken, but there weren't any pierce marks. The snakes relied on bludgeoning him to death, not biting him. He'd have to remember that. For when he finished fighting pheasants.

"Revive."

When Braden reappeared in Birth Village, he was happy to see that he wasn't the only person at the spawn point. The other poor fools had all died facing pheasants, though; he had died at the hands of a giant snake. A death is a death, a small part of his mind reminded him, but he frowned it away and entered the central plaza. If he was going to kill pheasants, he'd better be doing it for something worthwhile. He searched around for an obvious NPC. One that had a crowd gathered around him stood out right away. Braden glared, but pushed ahead anyway. He needed whatever that quest was.

“Suckers” said Rose in a quiet voice as she manage to skip the line entirely and pick up her pre ordered copy of Haven. The entire store was pack and the company had sold out of pre orders. Only reason Rose manage to get a pre order is because she pre ordered it on the first day it was available. As she grab the game and exited, she heard the store owner say that they were now sold out. Upon hearing this Rose quickly booked it out of store.

Upon reaching home, Rose greeted her parents and her older brother before letting them know she would be playing the game. Her brother made a comment how the game was bad for her and it was like taking drugs. Rose ignored her brother, he had a fork tongue, often lying and tricking people. Upon reaching her room she closed her door and place on the Headset.

- - - - - - - - - -

Welcome to Haven

Rose suddenly hit the floor with only a mirror and title to greet her. A second later an NPC appeared beside the mirror. The NPC ask for Rose name. Rose was about to ask a question before she stop herself. What if it was asking for her real name or what if it was the gamer name? Would it understand the difference between a sentence and a name? She decided not to take the risk and stated: “Daeris Shadowleaf.” Her body then became a grey figure.

Rose then got what she deemed to be an awesome idea. “Switch gender to male, species elf, class paladin.” said Rose as she saw herself change to a male elf. She began to change several features in attempt to make the elf look as attractive as possible to herself. “There we go.” said rose as she had just finish her character creation. The npc ask if she was sure if this is how she wanted her character to be like. Rose was about to say yes but then a thought entered her head. What happened if someone found out? After all she was eventually going to stream it. Imagine if the students at school found out. They would make fun of her, especially that Joshua kid.

“Switch Gender back to female.” said Rose as she then looked at her character. The class and everything else was no longer the same in her eyes. She wanted something that looked scary. She chose to go with undead elf as her race and dark ranger as her class. Upon making sure everything was fine and changing a few minor details, she finalized her character and was teleported to Birth Village.

She appeared before a fountain and saw several people wondering around. Some players had decided to fight some peasants. Daeris decided to try fighting a single peasant. She saw that one player had attracted the attention of to many peasants and thus she decided to pick off one that hadn’t been damage. She used her first skill and placed a mark on the peasant before quickly firing a shadow arrow. The attack didn’t critical but it still did some damage. The peasant then turned to face her and she got another shot ready and fired as the peasant began to run towards her but her shot miss. At his speed she would only be able to get another shot off. She fired one last shot and this one hit the target straight in the head doing critical damage, reducing its health greatly. The peasant then tackled her to the ground and began to punch her. She drew her sword but not before being hit by another punch, distorting her vision slightly but she managed to swing her sword it straight at the peasant, hitting it in the neck and thus killing it.

As she got up she saw the other player who had attack the peasant being killed off. The now turned and faced her. Realizing that she couldn’t fight them all off she began to run away. The mod of peasants chased her for a while before finally giving up. During the whole chase she had gotten lost and looked at the map and realize she was near the spawn point. She just realized she had a notice pending and opened it. It was a killing reward. [2 Gold]

Daeris dismiss the message. She then saw a swordsman; in fact a typical swordsmen, human and male, nothing that screamed look at me. She had fought an npc and it was a something totally different. Yet an NPC is still an NPC, it lacks certain life to it. She wondered how a fight against a real person would really be like. She check to make sure her health was full and then issued a duel challenge to 1 health against the swordsmen. “Care to duel me and see what rewards is? Or are you going to back down from a girl? Hey if your good enough maybe we can even create party” ask Daeris as she waited for the swordsmen response.

Joseph savoured every moment of opening the case. The nostalgia nearly overwhelmed him, seeing that logo. It'd been too long since he played a game just for himself. Let's Plays were great, but they got old, and this was new. No need to make bad jokes about failed translations or whatever glitchy behaviour that he observed. Just alone with his thoughts while playing a game. He slipped the headset on, inserting the disc at the same moment. Credits flashed, announcing the big developer names that made the game, eventually giving way to a title screen that was literally an interactable world of its own. He almost made the motion that activated his recorder, but stopped himself, a 'Welcome to Theta Gaming' on the tip of his tongue. Not this time, he told himself. He swiped upwards, revealing a small GUI, instantly fitting itself to the game's art style. Speaking of which, he spoke: "VC. Mod implement: Picasso." The world developed a different feel, suddenly looking like it came out of a painting, the GUI, still untouched, became a framed painting. Joseph tapped a series of icons on the menu, replacing the game's music with his own selections.

He signaled the game to continue on from the menu screen to the actual game. Smiling, he said, "Randomize everything. I don't want to think about something like that right now." Feeling his body change, he examined himself, flipping a knife out of his sleeve, around his fingers, and back up his sleeve. He liked this game's attention to detail. He let the games spawn him, the village painted into view around him. He looked around. Not too many players to the point where he'd need to speed through the area to somewhere with less players. He tested the running capabilities, the wind blew his hair back, and he found himself at the edge of the city. A small cry came from a few yards away. He threw a knife out, hitting for a critical. He followed up by running at the Pheasant that he hurt and slashing the remaining health in half with his dagger, and finishing the rest off. He could get used to these controls, or the lack of them, rather.

Now flanked my two robotic lackeys, Cid made his way over to the Pheasants to complete his first quest. Summoning a Dark Cannon, he took aim at a Pheasant and said "attack my target" his plan was to hit the Pheasant with a barrage of attacks, however his minions had other ideas; at his order, the Machine Scouts began to hobble over to the unlucky Pheasant, and the Dark Cannon began to slowly fire at it before they reached it. The beast quickly fell to the mighty assault, and he received his first talon. "That's...not what I was going for. I guess commanding minions is a bit trickier then I thought it would be. Oh well." Shifting his attention to another Pheasant, Cid gave a different order "Scouts, draw it's fire. Cannon, take it out" and just like he ordered, the Scouts distracted the Pheasant while the Cannon wiped it out, netting him another talon. "Okay, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this." This time, Cid decided to decide his forces "Scout 1, take out that Pheasant, Cannon, Give Scout 1 covering fire. Scout 2, take that Pheasant." This time he had both his Scouts distract two different Pheasants while him and his Cannon took them out, netting him two talons "nice!" After that, he quickly killed one more for the final tallon

A duel notification appeared in front of Braden. He stopped moving toward the crowded quest-giver and turned around, wondering who would be picking a fight already. What he found was an over-confident dark elf--undead elf, he corrected himself--trying to taunt him into it. He took a moment to evaluate her, noting the bow she carried and weighing his chances against that. At only level one, there was hardly a difference in stats. That gave an archer a large advantage--unless she didn't know when to drop the bow and defend herself.

Braden declined the offer. Then he sent a new one for a half-health duel. "If you're any good with that bow, this should be easy for you. Ever used one before now?" The square was crowded, people running every which way, but that suited Braden just fine. More people meant more cover from her arrows. Unless she was smart about it and moved them somewhere quieter.

A half-health duel, was this person serious? Maybe it was an attempt to save him from looking bad or to use it as an excuse if he lost. Daeris wanted a full fight but she wasn’t going to back down. “Very well, I accept your terms.” said Daeris as she started to run somewhere that was clearer and increasing her distance between the two. She saw a countdown timer appear, starting at 3.

As the countdown timer began to go down Daeris began to form a plan in her head. She first place a mark on swordsmen. Since it didn’t do any damage she could place before the timer hit 0. Once the timer did hit 0 she would start with a normal shot and quickly follow with a shadow arrow. Then once the swordsman was close to closing, she would try something new. It would involve switching the roles between her sword and bow.

Sparks stared onward toward the city, the roof he knelt on could see the fountain and all of the players gathering around and talking. Two people caught his eye, they seemed to be initiating some sort of duel. Smiling he hopped off the building, before hitting the ground he activated flash step bolting forward in a flash he was on the sidelines watching the two. One was a undead elf, - or was she human, and was just born like that? 'Maybe it's a condition' He thought to himself continuing to watch the two, "Maybe it's Maybelline"

Looking at the ground Sparks kicked the dirt before stepping back. Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his robe he spun around and walked away. Towards the fountain he found Aven, talking to him he nodded. "Do players realize that you are an AI Aven?"
Aven gave him a blank stare, smiling he shook his head, "Players do not expect high functioning AI in their games."
"So you need talons?"
Aven nodded, "good luck."

Outside the city Spark's robes slid softly across the ground, through the grass. Players had cleared out, probably moved on to find higher monsters. Seeing four pheasants huddled together eating something in the grass, Sparks grinned throwing bolts of electricity at them. The moment the first pheasant was dead a lightening bolt came out of the sky and struck him - It was only a special effect to show that he had leveled up - every class has their own effect tailored to them. [Level 2] Sparks smiled, he knew that with a level increase these pheasants were below him now. Their experience would mean nothing towards his level - and the talons would be easier but less worth while than before.

Casting the threads of electricity towards the other 3, they went down quickly. Feeling something on his back he turned around to realize it was a pheasant attacking him. Opening up his quick menu he drank a health potion before zapping the pheasant to oblivion.

Although he was one level above the pheasants, it did not mean that they were weaker, they still did the same damage to him while he wore beginner gear. Walking into town with bloody robes and scratches all over his face he stumbled in front of Aven.

"Here is your bloody talons." He whispered handing them over.

The elf bolted as soon as she hit accept. Braden laughed; she wasn't completely stupid. But he would be if he tried to follow. He was running perpendicular to her path, diving into the gap between two buildings as the timer reached zero. He rolled and came up to his feet, his sword still in its sheath. Now he had time to plan.

The elf had run for the less crowded side of the plaza, away from the pheasant grounds. There would undoubtedly be streets leading him around to get behind her, but that would offer him even less cover and she would be watching. No, he needed something better. Braden threw his gaze about the plaza in front of him, but found nothing that may help.

Turning to look down the alley behind him, a grin spread across his face. There was exactly what he needed sitting there. He ran ahead to the next street--the market street, lined with vendors and their stalls and a swarm of players purchasing items.

Daeris had manage to run to an area that was clear but her opponent had done something she didn’t expect, in fact he had done something that really tick her off, he ran away also into a location with lots of other players. Thus she decided to wait for him in the clear area. He was out of her bow range and audio range but still within visual range. While she waited for him and to make sure he didn’t do anything funny and decided to send him a private message. “So is this going to become a waiting game?” said Daeris as it turned into a message and was then sent to her opponent. She continued to wait, with her bow ready. As she waited thoughts began to enter her head. Maybe she could distract him, send someone after him.

“Ah sweet, that player just gave me a bunch of free gold and he is giving it out to other players.” said Daeris as she pointed towards her opponent. If her opponent was going to use people to his advantage and so would she. Several players who had heard this now moved towards the swordsmen positions asking him if he was giving out free gold. While he was distracted Daeris would move to get up high, on top of a building.

"Not in the slightest," was Braden's reply to the PM. He had what he needed already. A shield vendor had his cart parked on the corner between the market and the plaza. Braden hit the side of the stall at a full run and kept pushing. The wheels were hesitant to go, but he'd added enough force that he was off and running with it before the vendor could try to stop him.

Now with a mobile barrier in front of him, Braden charged straight at the archer. She was cutting toward the building behind her, trying to get up to the roof. Braden couldn't have that; he steered for her heels, coming from directly behind her with the intent to run her over. He blew right past players whining about gold. She might reach the building first, but she wouldn't have time to climb up before he was on top of her. Now Braden drew his sword, keeping his left hand on the cart for steering.

Mercury stared down a lone pheasant. “You have made a fatal mistake, my opponent. A lone enemy is no match for my skills.” The pheasant gave him an annoyed look, but so far he hadn’t done anything to attract the creature’s agro. Mercury’s radiant blue eyes narrowed. “Do you mock me, puny monster? I will strike you down!”

The moment his hand touched the hilt of his sword, the pheasant attacked. “Ow ow ow!” The amount of damage the beginner enemy was doing was ridiculous. A terrible thought popped into his head: had he accidentally wandered into a more difficult zone!? Mercury ran back towards the village, his level 1 enemy close on his heels.

He was nearly at the village before he thought to try using a skill. “Puny pheasant, you’ve activated my trap card!” He quickly scrolled through the very short list of skills that he could use. He spun and held up his sheathed sword between himself and the pheasant. “Time’s Backhand!” A circle of red light appeared, and with it a CAST command. Mercury cast the spell, the magic circle shattered, and the pheasant was sent flying backwards.

“Hell yeah! That’s what you get for daring to attack a superior opponent!” And then he noticed two things nearly simultaneously. First, that the pheasant was already back on its feet and ready to attack, and second, that his attack had done all of 1 damage. “Shit. Let’s try that again.” Bringing up his skill list again, Mercury saw that the skill he had just used was almost ready to use again. Time’s Backhand had a really short cooldown time, too bad the skill was completely useless. He selected the other skill that was available. “Please be a fireball, please be a fireball, please be a fireball. Time’s Arena!” Another red circle appeared, this time on the ground instead of in the air, along with another CAST command. This time he waited to see what would happen if he waited a second before casting, and sure enough, the red circle started expanding outwards away from him.

The angry pheasant charged, entering the magic circle, and Mercury cast the spell. Nothing happened. No fireball, no lighting, no anyth- wait. His vision appeared to be blurred. Everything beyond ten feet was fuzzy. No time to figure it out now. Mercury turned and ran. A sensation like passing through a waterfall passed over him, and then the pheasant slammed into him. How had that happened? The pheasant had still been five feet behind him, and he was faster! What the hell was going on?

“Time’s Backhand!” The pheasant was sent flying off of him, and Mercury scrambled to his feet and drew his sword. “Fine then, if my skills are useless, then I’ll just cut you to pieces.” The pheasant charged again. Mercury’s sword cut in an arc through the air, completely missing the pheasant and spinning him around. You know, he was starting to get the feeling that this game had something against him.

Mercury went back to running for his artificial life, screaming,”Somebody help me! This monster’s going to kill me!”

“A cart?” said Daeris in shock as she quickly stopped climbing the building and began to run. The fact that he was pushing a cart meant she would have a hard time hitting him. That being said it also work to her advantage, if he was pushing a cart then that meant he wouldn’t be able to move as fast as her. As long as she could keep outrunning him and stay away from hills that went downhill she could take a shot every so often. Although most wouldn’t hit, she would eventually win if this situation continued.

Perhaps she could also use the environment to her advantage. If he continued to use that cart perhaps she could get other players or npcs to fight him. After all a person driving a cart reckless was bound to get some players or npcs mad at him.

Seeing a fellow player artificial life, Cid gave the command "Cannon, give him covering fire!" Responding to his order, the Dark Cannon rotated until it was facing the pheasant chasing him. With the beast occupied with trying to peck out the eyes of the other player, the Dark Cannon was free to shoot it to death. With the mighty beast slain, Cid walked over to the other player "um...are you okay?"

Braden let the cart crash into the building as the archer cut left. He was a dozen paces behind her now, and gaining ever so slightly the longer she went thanks to his being Nimble. She could turn and set up for one shot before he would crash into her, sword leading. Or she could continue to run away until he caught her. Braden was completely confident in his victory.

Until he noticed the guards ahead of them. She'd run not only away from Braden, but toward a pair of very unhappy-looking guards. Braden pulled up short and started running the other way, letting the elf go and trying to find cover. "Going to let others fight your battles, are you?" he messaged Daeris. Truthfully, though, he didn't fault her for it. He had stolen a cart to gain an upper hand, and now she was using that to his disadvantage.

He had no cover, not for many long steps. The best he had was an all-out sprint to reach the fountain; he couldn't even use people anymore since the crowd was avoiding the pair and their duel. But he wouldn't reach it in time. His path was at a small angle from where Daeris had been standing, so she might get the lead wrong or even drop the arrow short. Now was the time to find out just how good a shot she was. Three arrows was all she needed to win this duel, two if one of them was critical.

This was a real fight to her. Players using the environments and tricks to each gain the upper hand, not just silly skills and stats. The guards had granted her some cover and now players were avoiding them. This meant everyone she could get a clear shot. She moved away from the guards so they could finish this duel normally now. Daeris ignored the pm she got and fired an arrow which she would then follow up with a shadow arrow. As she fired her first arrow it miss the target but her shadow arrow made up for it by getting a critical hit. Just one more shot and she could win it but it seemed that the guards were getting mad and thus she decided to send a pm. "Looks like the guards are getting mad at us. Perhaps we should cancel this duel." said Daeris as she sent the pm and began to run away from the guards while not shooting an arrows.