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2024-10-29 19:42:56They walked quietly for a while in the darkness. There wasn’t anything much to do. They were in a wasteland filled with ruins, strange creatures out to eat them and not a single soul. Or maybe there were others. Draven had no choice but to trust Leo since he’d been in that game longer than him.
Across the empty dark street, he saw ruined houses, heaps of debris, and something else like a creature. It moved slightly, and he jerked back in surprise.
“There’s something there,” he hissed at Leo.
Leo instinctively crouched down. “Where? What did you see?”
“Look over there!" Draven pointed toward the figure he saw. “It’s looking right at us.”
He looked around, and they were in an open space. There wasn't anywhere to run and hide at that time. They were doomed.
“Fuck.” He cursed.
The creature was close enough that he probably could have thrown something and hit it. Even though his eyesight had adjusted fairly well to the darkness, he couldn't make out its features, except for its height, because the shadows covered it so well. It was a 9 feet tall creature.
It stood there for just a moment, barely visible. Then it stepped back, disappearing into the shadows cast by the ruins.
“Where did it go?” Leo whispered nervously.
“I don’t know. It just disappeared. What are we gonna do now?”
“Well, I think we should just run.” Leo replied not being sure if they were really given a chance to run away or was it just a trap.
“Did you hear that?” Draven asked suddenly as he heard the voice of something coming towards them again. Fear raced through his spine as he gulped the lump in his throat.
It took Leo a few seconds to get what he had just heard. There were fast footsteps, more like heavy pawsteps.
A scowl spread across his face. They didn’t know the particular direction it was coming from. The sound of the approaching creature seemed to resonate in all directions.
They were crouched ten feet away when the creature suddenly leapt in front of them and roared. Just as they were about to turn around, a holographic screen appeared just beside the creature.
[ Name: Shadowmore Doppelganger ]
[ Stats: ]
[ Level 5 ]
[ Attack: 60 ]
[ Defence: 30 ]
[ Agility: 70 ]
[ Illusion Mastery: 95 ]
The creature looked like a human, but it was taller than a regular, tall male human. It looked like it had very pale, almost white, chalky skin, red-rimmed eyes, and four arms. Draven's heart almost stopped when he saw the blood around its mouth.
It swung at them, but they dodged back. Then, suddenly, Leo charged at the man-like creature. It spun around swiftly. Yet Leo was fast too and avoided its attack, displaying strength and power in his eyes. Draven watched them move, circling each other like partners in a deadly dance.
As a silver dagger flashed in his hand like a streak of lightning, it snaked forward into its thighs. It let out a deafening roar, then it took some steps back and stopped moving.
It then appeared that something else was coming out of its body. It was as if the creature was being duplicated. Their eyes flashed with horror.
“Oh no! What’s it doing?” Draven asked.
“Seems like our friend is full of surprises. There are only two options available to us right now: fight or die. This means one life lost. I’m not ready to risk that yet,” Leo replied.
Suddenly, two identical beings appeared, and one charged at Draven. Draven stepped back a little before running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He looked back just in time to see Leo running to the other side, while the other creature followed him.
Draven was thrown against the wall by the creature as it leapt out, grabbed him, and slammed his head against it. Pain exploded in his skull, and he felt pretty sure that he tasted blood on the back of his mouth. He was thrown into another wall again, and as his body collapsed on the floor, he felt everything go black. He thought that maybe this might be the end for him. A blood-curdling shriek escaped his lips.
Leo wasn’t much better. The creature was too fast, too large, and too intelligent. It was as if it knew everyone before he even arrived. It lunged at him, trying to choke him with its other two arms.
Leo punched the creature hard enough that the creature lost his grip and flew backwards, hitting a nearby wall. It got up and shoved Leo against the wall. His hands pinned his arms so painfully that he lost his grip on his dagger.
A piercing shriek rang in Leo's ears. His attacker and he both winced. When he saw Draven, he was startled. The creature was even more surprised when he felt Draven's sword drive into his side. As it snarled in pain, Leo released him, turning his attention to Draven and then Draven and Leo engaged in combat.
“Where’s the other one?” Leo asked as he dodged a punch.
“I don’t know. It just vanished.” Draven replied, his attention on the creature.
“Vanished? How?”
“Do we need to talk about this now? We’ve got a big problem in front of us, dude?”
As they fought a girl was watching them both fight.
"Hmm, interesting." A sinister smirk made its way to her lips.
She wondered for some time whether she should help them or not.
She watched them; her focus was drawn to the Draven. He didn’t look much older than she was. He was only a teenager, yet he demonstrated remarkable courage.
"Let's just have some fun." Whispering it to herself, she approached them.
"Hey!" She yelled at them from a distance.
Draven and Leo heard a female voice and saw a petite girl who looked not more than seventeen running towards them.
Suddenly, a torrent of energy swirled and cracked around her, and she unleashed a devastating attack on the creature. The force of her power struck like a tidal wave and in a second, the creature was lying on the ground without even moving a little bit.
“Let’s get out of here. You both made a lot of ruckus and may have alerted other people towards you.” She turned and started running.
Draven and Leo gave each other a puzzled look and followed her, running as fast as they could.
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Following her swift footsteps, they ran through the darkness until they reached a crumbling house. Leo gave Draven a wary look as he paused at the entrance."Can we trust her?" He asked silently.Leo shrugged and replied, "We don't have another choice now, do we?"Draven's heart was still racing from the encounter with the creature, and he spoke up, "Uuh... Hey stranger. I'm sorry to say this but... are you sure about this place? I'm not trying to be rude but this place looks like it's about to crumble any second."She turned to face them, her expression calm and somewhat bored."You can go back if you want. I prefer having the place to myself." They pushed open the creaking door to reveal dusty furniture, weapons, and equipment inside. Then Leo spoke. "I'm Leo, and this is Draven. Thanks for your help back there."A faint smile appeared on her face as she nodded. "I'm Elena. It's not every day that I come across dumb people. How long have you both been here? You don't have to make
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Draven couldn’t believe it was over. Three months later he was still thinking if he was making the right decision. Assistant David sat in his living room with a bunch of documents in front of him. He paced up and down, not sure what he would do.“You can just sign here,” the man said for the umpteeth time. “It’s not really that hard. You sign that you’ve taken ownership of the game and you decide what you want to do with it.”“But I don’t want ownership of the game,” Draven said again. He had repeated this exact words countless times but the guy didn’t seem to be hearing him.“You should have known what you were getting yourself into when you challenged late game owner Timothy—” David paused and looked to the heavens. “May his soul not rest in peace. You should have known that killing him would automatically make you the owner of the game. Those were his rules.”Draven rolled his eyes. He was sure that Timothy had made that rule because he didn’t believe anyone would be able to defeat
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No one said anything after Diane’s statement. They were so tired and hungry and unsure of what to do next. Draven’s goods felt heavy to him. His sword even felt heavier than normal. He didn’t believe he came back to this game to be ridiculed and placed in a very unstable condition because of a silly fight that was going on between two lovers. When he looked at Diane, he wondered if she was toying with them again. Was she afraid to meet Timothy or what? He knew that the portal might likely take them to Timothy as the owner can easily manipulate events, but at least he was ready for that stage. He could exactly tell what Diane was thinking when she was looking her nose down on the portal.“We cannot just stay here,” Lara said. “Do you want us to keep waiting for him to keep finding opportunities to kill us? We’re certainly going to die of hunger if we keep waiting!”“She’s right,” Draven concurred. “We can’t keep lying about in wait like lambs to a slaughter. We must make the first move
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Everyone was super awkward after the kiss. Leo avoided for the rest of the morning. He didn’t want to talk about it but it was too late; Draven had seen them and announced to the whole pack in the morning that the kiss was probably the most hottest he’d seen.“Whoa,” Diane said excitedly. “You two kissed? That’s great. Are you like a couple now or something?”“It’s nothing like that, okay? It was just a kiss, and a mistake at that,” Leo piped up.Even though he didn’t want to talk about the kiss or look at Lara’s face, he was glad that Draven brought it up. At least he’d air his opioid publicly about it so he won’t have to be in an awkward space with Lara.“Ouch, Leo, you’re a player!” Diane said, laughing. “You can’t say those kind of things to someone when you’ve kissed them!”“I didn’t kiss her, okay? She’s the one who kissed me,” Leo defended hotly.“It’s still hurtful that you say it that way. Have some feelings, pal,” Diane said, her laugh increasing.It sounded mocking and cont
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Leo could not sleep. Draven had been out for close to an hour, yet he wasn’t back yet. Lots of thoughts assaulted his brain, but the one that stayed the most was Diane.Diane. Diane. Diane.He bet she was here to true their life again, and that bet was true. If Leo was the one to handle this, he’d definitely not want to help her out the way Draven was. It was as if the guy didn’t want to learn any lessons about why it’s dangerous to just not help anyone for too long. Draven was lenient when it came to Diane and he didn’t like it one but.He turned his head to the side and saw her sleeping peacefully.“Yeah, like you didn’t just send someone to their death,” he murmured to himself.He wondered if Draven was still talking to the game creator or if he’s been killed. If he was truly killed, Leo won’t honestly know how to handle that. He tried not to think about it because it was depressing enough. He sat up now, still watching Diane. If she had been careful, they won’t be in this shit hol
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Draven waited until everyone was comfortable with him being their security for the night before he left into the woods. Diane was surprisingly quiet and compliant. It was like she was into her head too much to care about what Draven wanted to do. Seeing that all odds were in his favor, Draven waited a bit before withdrawing to the forest. He walked deeper and deeper, wondering if he should just sit on a log and wait for Timothy to appear.“Hi Draven.”He yelped and fell to the ground, startled. His shouts of surprise startled the forest a bit, and so Draven waited it out to make sure no one was coming to check what the noise was before turning his head slowly to the side. There was Timothy, standing under the moonlight. He looked attractive and mysterious and just too handsome to be standing there. Draven sat up as he brushed away the small dirts on his body.“You scared me,” he hissed at Timothy. “You know you should learn not to sneak up on people like that.”“I didn’t sneak up on y
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They camped inside a cave, just as Draven wanted. He’d taken his time and made sure they covered a 12 hour distance just so he could find the perfect place for them to camp. Finding a cave was not just the problem—and caves were pretty scarce. The problem was finding one that was deep and big enough to accommodate more than three persons. When he finally found it, it was nearing dark. The blanket of darkness that fell over them was just the right thing Draven needed to carry out his plans. He’d been thinking for hours how he would get away with talking to Timothy without anyone noticing and this was the best part.“A cave?” Lara asked in disbelief when they stood before the place. “Isn’t this kind of weird, Draven? Some crazy monsters might be in there!”Draven nodded in understanding. “Leo and I are going to check it out and see if it’s free of monsters; how about that?”“I thought you said we were getting to the end of the game,” Lara moaned.Draven gave her a confused look. “Lara,
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They walked a long mile, Draven and Leo leading the way while Lara and Diane walked behind. Diane stayed at the far end so she won’t walk on the same lane with Lara. There was something suspicious about the young girl that she didn’t like. Diane wasn’t usually suspicious of people but when she does, her instinct was definitely right—just as it was right with Draven and Lara. Leo cleared his throat and glanced at Draven. “So… were you lying?”“Was I lying about what?” Draven mumbled.“You know… about what Diane said?”“Why would I be lying about that?”Leo cocked his brows at him. “Don’t forget that I know you all too well, Draven. I know when you lie out of necessity and when you lie out of leisure. I usually don’t catch the leisure one but the necessity one is very obvious.”Draven glanced at him with an amused expression. “Really?”“Yup. You get all tense and defensive and violet most times if you’re pressured about it. It’ll make you want to protect that little lie of yours quite
