Avilien

A fight to not be deleted

Lance swung the large metal sword in the air, making a swooshing sound while looking at his sister.

"Step away from him now, Nagori. Don't think I won't strike you down just because you're my sister." Lance glanced from Nagori to Luke, his eyes filled with anger and hatred as his arms flexed.

"Is this really why you wanted us to come here, Anna?" asked Nebs as he climbed out of Luke's phone and onto Luke's shoulder. He shook with anger and fear, growing bigger by the second.

"The plan was to use you for easy XP if you couldn't lead us to the knight. Nagori was the only one stopping us three from deleting you and I'm glad she did, since you did find the knight. We were going to delete you because you have zero special abilities—no special attributes, no fighting skills, or any other stats for that matter—apart from a useless human-technology trait. When I saw the two of you on the roof, it clicked that he could be the knight, but I had to make doubly sure." Anna smirked as she watched Nebs lower his head and his four tails grow bushy.

Out of all the game guides created and documented by Lance's guild thus far, it was true that Nebs was nothing special. All he could do was modify human technology. As a game guide, he knew the basics of Avilien like all the others. Targoon, who belonged to Lance, could help heal and inflict poison, Nagori's Trinity could heat through any metal and stone, Cissy's Granite could throw up protective shields, and Anna had Amilia for cooking. Amilia's cooking skill was beyond that of the starting zone, so it made her a real asset. Nebs was nothing more than a hindrance that hung around his sister because he couldn't find his master, and soon he would be turned into little green balls of XP.

Nagori placed a hand on Luke's shoulder before stepping aside.

"Are we really going to do this?" asked Cissy with folded arms and a posture that spoke like she didn't care.

"He's just data, like the rest of us...none of us are human anymore. Amilia says a player deletion is worth two hundred XP, and you get whatever items they have in their inventory. If they managed to get a beta class, we can grab that as an item, too. Sorry, kid, but we're going to use you to level up and then I'll acquire your knight beta class. To the victor go the spoils." Lance banged his sword off his shield, making an awful battle cry.

The size of Lance made Luke shake in his trainers. He didn't want to fight the mammoth of a bully, but it wasn't like he had any other options.

"If you delete us, you're as good as killing us," said Nebs as he jumped to the floor. If he stayed on Luke any longer in his current size, he would crush him.

"He's just data now. You'll join him soon enough too, you stupid cat." Lance dashed forward and tried his best to strike Luke with the golden shield.

A roaring metal lion wanted to devour Luke's face, but it moved so slow that Luke sidestepped the blow and came away from Nagori into the centre of the basement. Unsure whether it was adrenaline or the fact that he'd instinctively drawn his weapon, Luke remained taken aback as Lance stumbled past him and fell into Nagori's gaming chair. Angry that he didn't end Luke on the spot, Lance gritted his teeth and raced out of the chair, swinging the sword. Again, the attack was slow and Luke sidestepped it.

"Hit him already! What are you playing at? He's level zero, for crying out loud," shouted an angry Anna. Perhaps she'd thought it would be over in a single attack.

Nebs—being of no use in a fight—ran to the side of the basement. He remained impressed with Luke's reflexes. If Lance so much as connected with Luke, it was game over and Luke would turn into XP, so Nebs kept quiet so he didn't distract his new master. His nerves tingled and soon fear turned to full-blown anger, prompting him to grow to the size of a lion.