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Chapter 25: True Colors

It took Makoto a while to calm down.

The thing is, his anger did not come from actually dying, or from the hatred he felt towards those Bounty Hunters, no.

It stemmed from his own weakness, his inability to do anything while he slowly died.

They had been more prepared than him, had more experience fighting other players and ambushed him, the stakes had been against him from the very beginning.

Sure, he had killed Drake and his party but he never actually fought them head on, never was he on the receiving end of tactics and teamwork, until now.

Determined to get as much information as possible while he was unable to enter Azalon, Makoto turned his PC on and surfed the forums in search for overall knowledge about the classes in Azalon.

Soon enough he found what he was looking for, different Skills from the basic classes like Warrior, Mage and Archer showed themselves.

First he was confused until the truth kicked him in the face like a wild horse.

Every class he read about listed at least 5-6 Skills that they learned when attaining their class.

They were simple Skills sure enough but that didn't mean that they were bad, an Archer would learn the Ability 'Scattershot' for example, it was an AoE and the Damage increased greatly with each level of the Skill.

Also, another thing he noticed was that these Skills naturally corresponded with the actual Class the person had but there was at least 1 Skill that could be used in emergency situations.

A Warrior only had close range so they received the Skill 'Sword-wave' which extended their reach, enabling them to hit targets even 10 feet away.

The Mage class had the Skill 'Earth shell' which allowed them to instantly create a wall around themselves to block off any melee attackers.

And finally, the Archer had not only a tracking Skill but also a short dash which made it possible to escape melee attackers, if only to attack once more.

All in all, every class was well balanced, even when they specialized on range or close-combat.

The demerits of Makoto's Class became even more apparent as he only had 2 Skills from it to begin with and both of them could not be called versatile at all.

Sure he had good regeneration but it would never be able to win against constant ranged attacks, and if he could not even reached his attacker what use was the chance to practically always inflict the 'bleed' status effect.

Makoto's Class was Unique, but if that really was a good thing at this point was questionable.

The Archer from those Bounty Hunters probably used his tracking Skill to find Makoto, it was not explained too well how it worked but as he understood it, the Skill was like a radar that beeped the closer you got to your target.

That was probably the best way to describe it when he never used it before.

He also doubted that they followed him from Marahel as they would have had to cross the river just like him and he never even noticed anyone following him.

They probably came from Elisante, the tracking Skill allowed the knowledge for the general direction of a target as long as you knew the name of said target and got close enough to it.

One thing that lifted his spirits again was reading another blog and finding out that after reaching level 25 you would be able to advance your class, even though he had no idea how that would work with his unique class it was good to know that he was not too far off anymore to possibly increase his overall survivability.

Makoto sat before his monitor until the morning sun started to blind him.

Deciding that it was time to go to bed so he would wake up in time to go over to Veronica's, he turned off his PC.

His mind was still occupied for a good bit, insecurity if he maybe lost one of his items, anger that he would be back where he started and anxiety concerning the time with Veronica, all coursed through him.

.....

Makoto woke shortly after midday.

He had only rested for a few hours, setting his alarm clock for 3 pm, sleep took him once again.

Dreams, dreams about her.

Veronica.

Both mysterious and beautiful, a deadly combination.

No one could really fault him for falling for her, sure enough he was shy but even he knew pretty when he smelled it.

He wanted to know more about her, feel her skin, listen to her past.

But all he ever got from her was lies, petty lies.

Evading his questions, never answering, lying.

He would need to teach her manners, the carrot and the stick, maybe a bit more of the stick.

Letting her feel the pulsating end of his stick.

His dream turned darker, more vicious.

Instead of her beautiful face he saw her crying, begging for mercy.

It excited him.

Anger went through him, anger that she dared to resist, dared to lie.

Burning anger.

Fire that went through him, like the rage of dragons, seething hot and never ending.

Together with the anger a screeching sound started to resound in his head, getting louder every second, further fueling his anger, more stick, more sound, more begging.

Drenched in his own sweat, Makoto finally awoke, his alarm clock right beside his bed was incredibly loud and his ears already started hurting.

After putting the annoying thing on snooze he stopped for a second, the fleeting memory of a dream escaped his mind.

Unable to remember what it was he decided to forget about it, it probably wasn't anything important anyways.

There was more important things to do, like getting ready to visit Veronica for example.

Taking a quick shower and putting on his best clothes, Makoto could feel a strange sensations in his stomach.

Not happiness or being nervous but a mix of both.

At 5 pm he was about to leave from his apartment when his phone rang and for the first time ever, Veronica called him.

Picking up and holding the device against his ear, he could feel how his throat closed up.

"Y-Yes?"

Makoto stuttered, unable to help it.

"Hey Makoto, sorry about this but I have to cancel, something came up."

Surprised, he was stunned for a second.

"W-what happened I mean we have planned this for a while now a-"

"I know, I know, listen.

I will tell you on Monday so no worries, see you until then, I have to go now."

And just like that she ended the conversation.

Looking at his phone, for a second he could feel anger creep in around the edges of his mind until he pushed the feeling back.

Sighing deeply, Makoto decided to still go out, there was no telling when he would be able to respawn again so it was better to just wait until 24 hours passed.

Stopping before his mirror, he looked at his thin and weak self in the reflection.

Who could really blame her for calling it off with someone like him?

Anger went through him and he could see how he automatically clenched his hands in the mirror.

Again he heard the voice of Veronica in his ear, telling him she had to cancel and his rage increased.

Still pissed about the actual situation, Makoto was about to turn away when something he saw in the mirror made him stop.

A red glow had been inside of his eyes just for a second there.

The rage inside of him disappeared, instead confusion took its place and he looked into his own eyes but they were like always, normal.

After a few seconds Makoto decided that he must have imagined it and left his home.

.....

It was the last day of January, a heat wave had been going through the city since Thursday and everywhere you looked, kids ran around only wearing their shirts, it was nearly 60° Fahrenheit after all.

There was a park not far from his home so Makoto decided to visit it, the sun was about to go down and the sky had turned orange.

A comfortable breeze went through his clothes and he watched a group of kids play tag, the laughter of children and happy smiles of parents all around created a nice atmosphere.

Looking up into the bright orange sky a sudden shout nearly made his heart stop.

"Hold it! You goddamn thief!"

Spinning around on the back of his feet, Makoto looked behind himself.

A girl, not older than 19 was running after a man that held a suspicious pink purse, both were headed in his direction.

Before the obvious thief ran past him, a sudden instinct kicked in for Makoto.

Like a stranger in his own body, Makoto watched himself side step and face the running man.

As if he had trained it his entire life, he quickly spun on the spot with blazing eyes and his right leg shot forward, hitting the man directly into his stomach while he was mid-sprint.

A surprised "Uff!" could be heard when Makoto stopped him like that.

Coughing and holding his abdomen, the thief dropped the purse and ran off.

Looking after man, Makoto began to realize what he did.

Staring at his own hands completely stunned, only one thought went through him.

He had reacted just like he normally would in Azalon, no hesitation at all.

Before he had time to think about what actually happened just now, the girl finally caught up to Makoto and stood there for a few seconds, short on breath.

She was no doubt beautiful, long brown hair, petite complexity and sapphire blue eyes.

Her skin tone was a good bit darker than his own and the thing that stood out most about her was the shorts she was wearing, revealing a pair of long and full legs.

It was no exaggeration to call them his perfect legs, slender and thick at just the right parts.

With a bit of willpower he forced his eyes away from her thighs and instead looked into those sapphire blue eyes of hers.

"First of all, wow. I don't think I saw anything like that in my entire life, that was pretty fricking awesome."

Her eyes lit up with visible excitement when she talked to Makoto.

"Secondly, thanks for your help. Appreciate it as no one else seemed to give two shits about my purse, been chasing the fucker for 2 blocks already but you were the only one who actually tried to stop him.

Society my ass, should be called Bystandety really."

Listening to her talk, he couldn't help the smile that creeped on his face.

Naturally the girl noticed his smile which stopped her rant and her cheeks got visibly red.

"Anyways... sorry bout that, it's a bad habit I know but sometimes I just go on and on about things without noticing.

My name is Loren by the way."

The girl said, stretching out her hand.

With another smile he completed the handshake and replied.

"Hi, I'm Makoto and it's alright, after experiencing something like that I don't blame you."

Surprised of how smoothly he talked with this gorgeous girl, Makoto watched her bend down to grab her purse while getting an incredible view of her legs and behind, those shorts really didn't hide much at all.

"Do you wanna walk with me for a bit?"

Loren asked, still a bit embarrassed about her earlier rant.

Nodding and motioning her to lead the way they walked side by side while talking about themselves.

Makoto naturally told her that he was currently in College attending a History Course and that he did not practice any martial art which surprised Loren.

She didn't seem to fully believe him, maybe she thought he was just being modest about it.

They walked slowly through the park while talking and he was able to find out that she recently moved here with her family and that she was looking for work.

"College didn't really seem to be my thing so I went straight to work after High School. Worked in a Coffee shop for a bit over a year as my dad was friends with the owner until we moved.

Gotta say it's a lot more crowded here in the big city."

Loren said while looking at the surrounding skyscrapers, a somewhat lost expression on her face.

Unsure how to continue after a statement like that, Makoto waited for a few seconds and was about to say something when she beat him to it.

"You wanna get some Ice Cream? Haven't had it for nearly a year now."

She asked while pointing to a nearby Ice Cream Van that was about to close shop.

Soon enough both Makoto and Loren were sitting on a bench and licking the cold but delicious dessert.

He was not sure if she was just teasing him or not but the way Loren ate her Ice Cream would have made any modest woman blush and shield her eyes.

Unable to look away he watched her work the thing, her tongue and lips playing a dangerous game.

Makoto was able to see the smile on her lips as she seemed to be very well aware of his stares and she continued to eat her melting Ice Cream somewhat seductively, it really didn't help that she got Vanilla either.

Loren giggled after seeing the way he looked at her during all of that and threw a smile his way.

Trying his hardest not to make any comment about what he jut witnessed, Makoto decided to quickly eat his own cone and be done with it as quickly as possible.

Only the image of Veronica in his mind stopped him from imagining too many wild things.

Overall they talked a bit more as the sky above them slowly turned dark and he had a good time.

"Alright, I gotta go now, see you around Makoto."

Loren said and he was about to wave her goodbye when a sudden feeling made him freeze up.

Instead of stepping away and waving while saying your goodbyes like people normally did, she had stepped closer and her lips found his own in only a heartbeat.

He could feel her hot breath enter his mouth and like a jolt of electricity he quickly put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her closer while desire overwhelmed him.

The softness of her lips, her tongue touching his.

It all melted into a bright and warm sensation that traveled through his body until she finally stepped away.

"Color me surprised, you are a lot bolder than I thought, daring to put your tongue into my mouth when I only meant to give you a quick kiss as a thank you for before.

I will remember that."

Showing Makoto another bright smile while her cheeks started to burn crimson red, Loren waved him once more and walked away.

He stood there for more than a minute, looking at the back of this girl that just stole his first kiss.

Stunned, mentally and physically, Makoto did not move from his spot for nearly half an hour, playing the still fresh memory in his mind over and over again.

His heart still longed for Veronica like before but something else inched its way into his mind, it was a small image of Loren's face, a face that burned itself into the back of his head.

Unable to help it anymore a grin appeared on his face.

He probably looked like a complete idiot right now but for once, Makoto couldn't care less what people thought of him in Real Life.

He was just happy.

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Chapter of today!

Little late as i had to write half of it this morning, that is what I get for binche watching season 1 of Game of Thrones XD.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this little IRL Chapter.

If you got any comments, advice or questions, don't be shy and comment them below :D.

Also, I just noticed that the 3 week anniversary is soon enough so I will try to squeeze out another double Chapter!

Wish me luck!