His robes swished around his feet, almost tripping him up on multiple occasions, but he breathed in deeply and made sure to keep his cool. It was the only way he’d get in and out as quickly as possible.
James scowled and headed straight out of the town, and down the ramp. On the horizon he could glimpse distant snow-covered mountains against the bright blue backdrop of the sky. The breeze that came and whipped at his hair smelled like pine trees and felt good against his face. So vivid, full of smells and sights, of feeling and everything. For just a few seconds, he stood there admiring the view, reveling in the fact that this could feel real. And then reality hit him, jolting him out of that strange day dream and back to the reality that meant his job was on the line if he couldn’t get his bosses the information he’d promised them.
It wasn’t the best time to be daydreaming. Checking himself, James mounted his wolf now he was clear of the press of people, and made his way down to the road. He got as far as the fork in the road before being stopped by a hooded figure. How tropeish it was to see a cloaked figure awaiting adventurers to give him a quest or something. He tried to go around them, not wanting to waste any of his time on in-game quests, but a hand darted out faster than his eyes could follow and grasped a hold of his reins.
The wolf stopped obliging the stranger, but James’s temper began to boil. “Who the hell do you think you are?” The anger stayed in his words instead of escaping, and it only made the emotion stronger inside him to the point where he felt it was going to spill over.
A soft chuckle emerged from beneath the hood, and he caught a glimpse of cat-like eyes peeking at him from the darkness inside. Almost glowing orange in their intensity. “Who am I?” The words were almost purred.
“Yes, who are you?” He’d thought he’d spoken clearly enough and tried to yank the wolf’s reins out of their hands, but their grip was steel. Not only did the cloak hide if this was a guy or girl, it also hid if this was a player or NPC. Had he triggered some sort of inane quest he had no intention of completing? His anger flared again, along with some nervousness as he began to scroll through his abilities trying to find something useful that hadn’t been blocked. “I have places to get to and things I need to do and I’m on a time limit.”
He tossed out a Bolt of Darkness, thankful that the instant cast dev abilities were at least still available. It caught the stranger in the chest, sending them flying a good twenty feet down the path. A voice in the back of his mind told him how lucky it was they’d let go of the reins first. James hurriedly dismounted.
The figure staggered back to a standing position, flinging out an arm in a definite spell gesture. It was all James could do to throw up a defensive absorbent shield that leeched away at his opponent’s life to heal himself if damage was taken. Leech Shield was aptly named.
But that didn’t stop his opponent either. Instead, the stranger stepped with assurance, taking strides toward him while flinging spells his way so fast that it was all James could do to defend against them. Finally, standing in front of James, he could see the smile spread across their face as they held their hand up and clicked their fingers. James couldn’t move a muscle, whether to cast or walk; he was simply stunned.
“This is a happy coincidence. I’m on a time limit too.” And this time the voice spoke enough that James was fairly certain this strange figure was female.
“What’s happy about it?” he asked, and a moment later when he could move his jaw, only immediately afterward, he was frozen in place again. Suddenly, there was a loud ringing in his ears, and his fingers felt like they were spasming, twitching, and he couldn’t let go or he’d fall. His muscles constricted and his face twitched. The HUD in front of him glitched, static partially replacing the spells descriptions he’d been leafing through with nothing.
Riasli giggled. “That. That’s happy about it. I just love it when you humans play with your headsets. Gives us so much leverage.” She moved forward to catch him when he eventually fell backward, cradling him in her arms like a baby.
James stared up at her, his inability to move causing nothing but panic in his head. He should have spent more time studying what abilities he did have instead of wasting time trying to figure out how to get back the blocked dev abilities. Hindsight. Always so twenty-twenty.
He couldn’t figure out what this was and knew it wasn’t a part of the game as designed. It couldn’t be. Nothing that could affect you neurologically was in the game. The headsets shouldn’t have allowed anything like that to get through to the players. That was their whole purpose, wasn’t it? It was why the original design had been so appealing to his superiors. No psychological effects.
“Ah, you see. That’s where you’re wrong. Most of the headsets, yes. But some of them…the ones you tinkered with, the ones they tinkered with, and the ones he tinkered with, well, they pushed the boundaries, didn’t they? They bent the rules so much they snapped some of them.” Again, she laughed.
His stomach lurched and a wave of disorientation washed over him. James looked around, but realized he was no longer on that path. He was under huge trees that spiraled into the air with massive leaves, and he still couldn’t move his limbs. Staghorns clung to the trunks in places, producing large and natural decorations. The humidity tried
