Legends of Orlea

Chapter 19

Haclaw grabbed his gleaming blade, and white flames flew from it. It was still the same sword as the first time he'd met the man. Crap... thought Zirem, I walked straight into his trap! Groaning, he grabbed his weapon, and accepted the duel. Immediately after the countdown ended, Haclaw pushed forward towards him, barely missing. 

Zirem swung, but the player beside him was already getting ready for his next attack. Haclaw struck, dealing 875 985 damage out of Zirem's 1 000 000 HP. He was going to lose for sure. 

(*#*) (the # is my horrible smile from trolling you!) Trolololololol.

------------9 months later-----------

Haclaw felt a strange emptiness. Since he'd killed the player called Zirem, he'd been able to move freely around floors that had been unlocked, but the rate of progression was much slower. He couldn't exactly tell, but to be honest, he thought the kid had actually given him a bit of... fun. The fun of being in a way, "mentor" of the boy, and seeing how he evolved. Now that Zirem was dead, nothing was bringing back that pleasure.

Meanwhile, on floor 1...

Haclaw had destroyed him. Made it so obvious he would never win that he'd stopped playing the frontier, only going on floors lower than 20. He didn't know what it felt like, but he was probabaly traumatised. Every time a monster would hurt him, he'd freeze up for a second, and then jump out of the way as the enemy continued its assault. 

Of course, he always killed them in one blow, but he was slow and his movements sloppy. Zirem groaned as he felt a spear from a HellShrieker move towards him. He parried, but barely, and then killed it. Phew... he thought, wiping his brow.

That was when he saw a giant black tornado rip through the first floor. Fear such as he'd never felt it invaded his body, freezing and numbing his limbs. He quickly, as quickly as possible, tapped three buttons on the menu, and pressed floor 3, just as he watched the first floor's dungeon get destroyed. 

Quickly, he sent a message to his friends, and heard a rumbling sound. The tornado had no doubt reached floor 2 after devastating the previous one. The frontier was floor 546. However, the tornado moved faster than the players. Much faster. One mistake and they all, no exception, died.

Zirem then went to floor 144 and searched for the boss. The tornado would come here soon. Quickly, he ran over to the dungeon, and ran past all the monsters he saw. None touched him, but he was extremely scared; his old fear was spiking again. 

He reached the dungeon fast enough, and then activated his Aflune to fight the boss. He sighed with relief as he noticed seven other players fighting the boss as well. Zirem rushed forward, and shot out his four (yes he now has four) tails. The appendages each took off a giant amount of its HP, but that wasn't it. Temporarily winning over his fear, the old Zirem swung his sword seven times, then used the final Illusion Wielding skill; Re- make. 

The boss roared, instantly losing more HP, at the same time as being trapped inside its own brain, unable to control its body. Every player present attacked as one, and the boss was soon destroyed. Zirem sighed again, fear bubbling up until he gasped and fell to his knees, sweat pouring down his face, eyes wide. 

He walked up the stairs on wobbly legs, still panting from the ordeal, both physical and mental. Mostly mental. He needed to get rid of that feeling of insecurity before the tornado came. However, he couldn't! He simply couldn't!

"Khh..." he gritted his teeth, and then moaned. He was too weak, and also too afraid to be a frontier fighter again. Zirem quickly started his search for the next boss. He was easily strong enough to get to floor 500, but he just didn't want to. Annoyed, he found a dungeon to raid, and entered. It was the boss dungeon. These days, he almost never found a dungeon that wasn't the boss' one. A runbling came from floor 3. Definitely the tornado. He needed to get to higher floors very fast.