Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

2:1 System Shift

A tall black avatar clad in armor darker than the night sky weaved through the grey tree trunks. Sam aka Sarem the Sanguine rolled out of the way to avoid the pointed black claws of a massive ball of rot and rage called a Brown Bear Revenant. He rolled right past the still corpse of the other bear that was freshly littered with a myriad of his arrows. He got his shield up in time to block the predictable follow-up slash from the bruin and was pushed back from the force of the blow like planned. It gave him enough time and space to toss a fireball into the face of the beast. It yelled out once the fiery projectile exploded, igniting its fur and doing a sizeable amount of damage and even more DoT.

Sam took advantage by running around the thrashing beast, giving a wide berth to its flailing claws, and positioning himself near its back. Once he was there, he charged up a heavy blow with his plus thirty-three Rapier and let it loose. His blade caught the beast right in the center of the back and caused it to stagger forward. That left it open to his finishing blow, the Skyward Thrust. Sam and his weapon began to take on a reddish-orange glow as he quickly built all the fiery willpower needed for the technique and then performed it flawlessly with three rapid stabs tearing into the beast's flesh followed by a final fully extended immolating stab. The beast was nothing more than a pile of rotting burning perforated meat by the time it hit the ground. Sam was awarded a total of fifteen hundred souls. He slid his Rapier into the sheath on his hip and began his trek back towards the Soul Beacon.

"I remember when you guys were a challenge," he said, aware of how needlessly cocky it sounded. It wasn't cockiness that fueled the statement however, but a real appreciation that he had improved so much and under such pressure. As he walked through the perpetually moonlit forest, he saw something that gave him the shakes, far more than any of the macabre creatures he had just fought. The chilling blue light encircling the ground in front of him typically brought one thing, bad news. A shape began to form composed of the same light and soon a black haired slender-eyed man in a lab coat stood in front of Sam looking right through him as if he wasn't there. Like always, the projection of Milner looked completely disinterested in everything around him.

"Greetings, alpha testers! I have an announcement, several announcements in fact. I would like you all to get somewhere safe in the next ten minutes. Those who are not in a safe zone by then will be forcibly terminated and teleported to the nearest Soul Beacon. See you then."

The Milner hologram disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"That psychopathic asshole! Killing them off in the game could end up killing them in the real world if they're in Revenant form. He fucking knows that."

There was nothing any of them could do about it though. In this world Milner was God and his rule was law. The only thing consistent about the man was his cruelty. Sam obediently marched his way to the Soul Beacon, the safest place he could think of at the moment. It worked out for him since he was headed there anyway. He felt bad for anyone who might have been trapped in the Will of the Forest's boss arena. Defeating that boss in ten minutes didn't seem plausible.

Sam made it to the Soul Beacon in no time and was comforted by the stone snake's azure flames. His Health Points, Soul Power, and his container of Soul Fire were all restored as soon as he walked into the encampment and gazed upon the totem. As he waited for Milner's announcements, he thought of his sister, Rui and his mother. He missed them more than he ever did in his life. At a time like this, he even missed that annoying ex of his, Michelle.

"Father, please watch over me. I need your strength for this next trial. I want to see mom and Ru again. I want to apologize to them for not being there when I should have. And I want to keep our promise, father. I want to be the man you've always thought I could be. I want to live, dad. Please, help me."