I rest for a few moments, before I finally get bored. I stand up and stretch. Time for Awesome Battle Plan #2: Go Eat Ice cream!

I throw my fist into the air. “Come on guys, let’s go eat some of that Ice cream!”

“What is she talking about?” Hans asks Isabelle.

“I have no bloody idea what that girl means, did you hear her calling the spiders cute earlier?” Isabelle responds

“I believe she wants to get some Ice Cream from the store we had stopped at earlier.” The Asian man says.

“I’m right here, you know.” I say, a faint pout on my face. “And yes, that was what I was talking about. There is nothing that we need to do here, so we might as well go back to the mini-mart and grab something to eat, like Ice Cream.”

Groaning from Nicholas interrupts anything else that might have been said. He puts a hand on where the spider’s leg had hit him. There might be some slight scarring there, he did catch on fire after all.

His eyes flutter open, immediately focusing on what was likely a blue screen in front of him.

“It worked?” He says, still a little out of it.

“It worked.” I respond, “A little too well if you ask me, I don’t think anyone survived that.” My gaze turning to the charred and smoke filled city.

“Devouring flame.” he says, “It’s one of the abilities of my weapon.” He doesn’t offer any more explanation than that, but I can clearly see that it lives up to its name.

“Th-that is a lot of points.” He says, looking at the screen in front of him.

Almost as if to compliment his words, a screen appears in front of all of us.

 

 

The rankings continue on for a while, but I quickly skip them in favor of the next screen.

 

 

As I watched, the number of Beta Testers killed by other Beta Testers increased by two. I frown, and move to the next screen.

 

I stare at the screen with annoyance. Those crazy bastard gods. The warning isn’t a warning at all. It’s an incentive.

I watch as my fellow Beta Testers read the screens. Everyone else takes a step back from each other.

I don’t move.

Quiet settles over the place as everyone wonders who will attack first

I clear my throat. “So, about that ice cream. Do you guys prefer vanilla or chocolate? Personally, I’m a vanilla fan.”

Anton pulls his gun out and points it at me.

“Shit.” I say, barely managing to get my gloves in front of me as a gunshot rings out.

I go flying back, through the building behind me. I cough out blood as I don’t stop flying, I hit a brick wall. My vision goes black as the wall crumbles on top of me.

He had seemed like such a nice Frenchman too.

Captain: Cadet! What is the diagnosis?

Cadet: All systems are at critical levels captain. The host Elena Trudeau is currently unconscious.

Captain: Damn! Activate procedure one eleven: plot armor.

Cadet: Aye Aye Captain. Preparing neural cortex interface. Ready when you are, sir.

Captain: Begin.

The captain opens the host’s eyes, slowly getting used to the body it inhabits. The captain opens her mouth, a feminine voice speaking softly. “[You Better Heal Right Now]”

Wounds all over the body that had already been healing, close up in moments. The Captain stands up, pushing the rubble off of her.

The captain studies the situation with a wary eye as the sounds of battle are heard from the other side of the building the host had passed through. “[Enhance Body]” She says, immediately noticing the change as her body follows her every command.

Calmly picking her way through the wreckage, she looks through a hole in the building. Anton lies dead where he had shot the host, his head lying a few feet away from the rest of his body.

Isabelle battled the Asian man who was using the case of his sniper like a shield. Nikolas lay dead in the street, having been stabbed through by Hans, the large man still standing over his body.

Hans, turns around and advances on Isabelle, who is too distracted by the asian man to notice his approach.

The captain makes a split decision, labeling Isabelle as a possible ally based on the host’s intuition.

There is no time for hesitation. “[Unmatchable Speed], [Force Of Many Blades]” The Captain appears behind Hans and punches towards his spine, hoping to disable him in one move.

Something must have warned him, because he jumps out of the way with a speed rivaling his size.

The Captain follows up her first punch with another.

Hans twists around just in time to see the punch. He brings his arm up to block, unable to move his sword in time.

The Captain’s punch lands on the arm, cutting through the skin and muscle with the force of a blade.

Hans roars out in pain, a deep powerful roar. The roar shuts down all of The Captain’s psi abilities, leaving only her [Enhance Body] still active. She stumbles from the force and barely manages to bring gloves up in time to block Hans’ swords strike.

Bones fracture up and down her body as the power of Hans’ sword cracks the earth beneath her.

The Captain’s gloves work overtime as they immediately start healing her fractures. “[Unmatchable Speed]” She casts again, slipping out from underneath his sword and hitting him in the throat, activating every ability she can in her gloves.

The glove hits his throat, but before any damage can be done, Hans disintegrates into dust.

The Captain waits for a few moments, expecting a surprise attack. Nothing happens.

Cadet: Captain! The Host is beginning to wake up.

The Captain nods in acknowledgement, unable to directly speak to the Cadet.

“So you lived huh?” A female voice speaks from behind the captain.

The Captain turns around to face the speaker.

Isabelle looks over the Host’s body with a haunted expression. “I’m sorry, love.” She says, the blood covering her body giving her words a gruesome meaning.

The Captain furrows her eyebrows, before she realizes what Isabelle means. Isabelle raises her sword and stabs forward.

The Captain starts to move, but at that very moment, Elena Trudeau wakes up, freezing her body in place.

I wake up as a painful feeling explodes from my chest. I study the bloody sword in me with confusion, I raise my eyes to Isabelle’s face. “I’m very sorry love, I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this, I really didn’t. But I was warned by my god that if I didn’t kill you, you would come hunting for me.” Her eyes never left mine, a dead empty look in them. “And you would, once you found out what I had done and who I am. You would have no choice but to come for me.” She slides her sword out and I fall to the ground, the last of my strength failing me.

My gloves glow, trying to repair the damage that had been done.

“I can’t have you healing through that, now can I?” She says, stepping over me. She raises her sword above my throat. “In another life, I would have wanted to get to know you better. You seem like a really fun girl.” A bitter smile appears on her face “Do you want to say anything before you die? You deserve that much.”

I nod, coughing up blood. Barely able to speak, let alone move, I say my last words “In my house, in the U.S. I want…” I cough, the taste of iron in my mouth. “I need you to get on my computer… On my computer, there is a file called ‘Private’”

Isabelle hesitates “I don’t think this is the time for-”

“Shhh.” I interrupt her, “Listen to me, it’s important.” I whisper, my voice horse. “I need you to open that file. Do you understand?”

She nods, raising her sword.

“Wait. I’m not done yet.” I continue, stopping her before her sword falls.

“What else?” She asks, irritation in her voice. “I only have so much patience.”

I look into her eyes and see the real reason why she is letting me speak, she doesn’t want to kill me. “When you open that file, you will find another file in it labeled- " I cough mid sentence "labeled ‘porn’. I... I want you to open that file.”

“Look, I really don’t think-” She starts, but I interrupt her.

“Once you do that, there will be two more files, one labeled Orcs and another called futanari.” I cough, blood falling down my lip.

“What-” She starts again, confusion on her face.

“I want you to ignore the Orcs file.” I pause in thought, “I mean you don’t have to ignore it, but wait to open it for later.” I add.

She pulls her sword up, ready to stab down. “I don’t have time for-”

I reach up and grab the edge of her sword with my glove, stopping her from stabbing down. “Can’t you listen to a dying girl’s last words?” I ask, barely a whisper as I widen my eyes in a begging look. I cough up a small amount of blood, adding to my pitiful look.

She looks confused, not sure how to react to that question.

I smile a defeated smile. “Once you open the futanari file, I want you to look for a zip file called Arab Love Slave. Please, get rid of that. It was a terrible video.”

Isabelle’s eyes widen in surprise as I finish.

Then I push her blade to the side, and punch her, activating one of the abilities in my gloves.

She goes flying.

I’d actually wanted her to delete that video. It was pretty terrible.

But the fact that I’d healed myself during that conversation was pretty nice too.

Rose

 

The battle with the orcs and goblins seemed to attract more of their brethren from the surrounding forests. The fighting didn’t stop for a good twenty minutes. By which time, every single one of us are exhausted.

The sound of a car door closing wakes me from my stupor. I had been resting against a tree, drinking some of the water I’d stored in my inventory. The others were similarly strewn about.

I glance at the unlucky Beta Tester who had been killed with one of the first arrows shot at us, before my gaze rises to the man a few years older than me who had stepped out of his car, his female friend still hiding in the passenger seat.

“Wh-What the hell is going on?” The young man asks all of us.

“I wish I could tell you.” I respond, frowning.

“What do you mean by that?” The man zeroes in on me, since I happened to be the one who had responded.

“It’s magic, I actually couldn’t tell you what was going on if I wanted to.” I respond, putting my water bottle into my inventory and pulling out a half eaten apple, still as fresh as when I last took a bite out of it. The inventory was weird like that, you could put steaming hot food in there and it would come out just as hot as when you put it in a few hours later.

I take a bite of the apple. It felt good to have something a little normal, like eating an apple.

“I-I don’t really get what you mean, but thank you for protecting us. I don’t think we would have stood a chance against those creatures alone.” The man says, rubbing the back of his hair. “Hopefully you can explain it to me when this is all over.”

“Hopefully.” I respond, my own doubts falling out. “If we live through this.”

I notice as everyone’s expressions grow grim at my words.

Damn. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.

I put on a confident face, trying to lift their spirits. “I don’t really think these guys are a threat. We just have to be careful and we will win this, then we can get whatever prize is waiting for us at the end of this hell. It had better be worth it.” A little bit of anger enters my voice in that last sentence, as I look at the dead woman, who still had an arrow in her leg.

If only Elena was here. She could have healed something like that easily.

I lift my head towards the east, one of my scanning spells picking up on movement.

“Everyone get ready. We will have company soon.” I say, two daggers rising into the air around me.