【Online Code】

【Prologue】

The girl stood at the edge of the clearing, a small dark alley between her and her opponent. The feeble light keeping the alley bright suddenly flickered. Her heart pounded, and suddenly the girl realized: this was the first unmonitored fight she had ever been in - both in and out of the Code.

Now, she suddenly feared death. Her opponent, a tall man with black hair, had challenged her to a fight a few days ago. He goes by the user name of ‘blackswordmen_’ and kills every opponent he faces. He stood far away, but even with the distance he looked much taller than the trembling girl and strangely enough did not seem to be  harboring any weapons. 

‘How had he won so many duels?’ She pondered.

Still, he had challenged many people. He never fought in public - he only challenged people to fight alone in strange, solitary places. She had trained for this moment, practicing whenever she could, constantly on the Code. The girl had a good feeling that she could be the first person to beat the infamous ‘blackswordsmen_.’

She got into her fighting stance and prepared to strike. The girl smirked -  feeling good about beating this opponent. A dark shadow flew over her head suddenly. 

“What was that?”

The shadow was long, black, and looked almost like fabric. It passed over her head black - strange specks rained down from shadow. They were almost like dry paint. It only moved past her for a split second and then landed on the other side of the alley next to her opponent. The shadow melted away to reveal a tall girl wearing all black and holding a long sword in her hand. A new shadow flew to her left, and another to her right both revealed men. All four of her opponents stood in the alley as the lanterns bathing the alleyway in light flashed off.

‘What is going on? Is it an ambush?’ The girl looked around blindly, raising her hands to search for the walls. As her eyes adjusted, she saw the tall man - the human - grin evilly.

 Suddenly the middle 'shadow' pulled out a sword and ran toward her at full speed. She managed to jump and dodge the attack, then pulled out her duel swords and attacked the shadow, but it was too fast. 

In an instant, the shadow blew away like dust in the wind - materializing a few feet away. The female shadow jumped closer to the underdog, swinging her sword in a lethal pattern. The first girl - the human - managed to deflect the blade and sliced the shadow where it’s head should’ve been, but her opponent was smart and turned back into a shadow, blowing away. 

The two male shadows attacked her at once. The human girl dodged the first attack, but the second managed to graze her arm. She side-stepped and deflected the blades. She swung her knives at the shadow but it was no use - they were too fast. She parried fiercely, gaining a bit of a lead on one of her attackers. She realized too late that the other shadow had crept behind her. She whipped around, her confidence depleting. The second man, grinned at her psychotically, then swiped at her stomach. Red soaked her shirt as the sword cut her midsection. The girl fell, holding her stomach. 

How could this be? The Code was all an online program - how was she still bleeding? Why did she still feel pain?

A figure slouched closer, and the girl squinted madly, attempting to make out who was approaching her. Her original opponent, ‘blackswordsmen_,’ looked the girl in the eye and pulled a sword from the blackness behind him. He swung his sword and broke her twin blades in half. His sword glowed blue, and he looked her in the eye. She could barely see as her eyes teared up. He slowly raised his sword and then quickly ran her through the stomach.

The world around her shattered as if it were broken glass.

As she woke up in her room, sun streamed through the windows she guested it was about 12:30 mid-day. The helmet and controller she had been adorned with were laying on the floor a couple of feet away - she could see them our of the corner of her eye. She could hear a faint scream and a ambulance siren coming into focus.

The world sounded as it she could hear from inside a box and the box was slowly being opened.

She could now hear everything clearly - her parents screaming, the ambulance rushing to her house, a dog barking as her younger sister cried softly. She slowly turned her head and realized that all the wounds she felt in the Code she could actually feel. 

Blood slowly soaked through her shirt as she was carefully placed on a stretcher. 

Her mother tried to grab hold of her hand but as soon as she reached out everything  suddenly went black.