Had I heard Sela’s last words I probably wouldn’t have felt so bad when I reached the lobby of the Haoolla Defender. I wasn’t deceived though, Sela had always been so carefree and fun with me that the thought of her intentionally being mean never cemented.

I did, however, have some burning questions as to what the heck just happened. I went over in front of the Xeath and stared down at the short leprechaun. The little eyes burned up at me over the lower part of its face that was made up of octopus tentacles. There was a mouth of sorts under there, as proof of Cavii talking, it just wasn’t readily apparent. The hands were four-fingered and attached to short stubby arms. Nothing screamed out that this little alien species was overly special at first glance. Evil, yes, special… not so much.

I turned on my Prime Speed Control key a second after I brought up all of the data available on the Xeath race in front of me. I had some intense reading to do this time around. Normally I believed that players, myself included, just skimmed over the abbreviated info on what made an alien species different from other species. This, in reality, only touched on the massive differences that species could exhibit, both in physical abilities, like my Blidda’s amazing healing ability, and mental abilities like the Tela’s ability to control multiple limbs.

I was beginning to see how Cavii had grown powerful inside the game, she had done her research on how to stack the deck in her favor.

Yes, I knew that I could concede this game to Cavii and play another one if I wanted… I wasn’t here to beat up on an obsessed youngling.

“Invicta. Does Cavii play every game of Haoolla Defender?” I asked as I thought of that option.

-Indeed Kevin-

Crap… that left either always avoiding her and playing a stunted game of cat and mouse or simply standing up to her and showing her that I wouldn’t be hazed or bullied by her. I liked the second option the best. Regardless of how many times she killed me, I would always get better and come back for more. Besides, she seemed to take everything personally like someone else getting First Blood. She went way out of her way to come after me to get those back… which in and of itself was odd.

“Invicta… would you like to have an Avatar made for yourself?” I asked as I refocused my vision after getting lost in my thoughts for a moment. I was still staring at the words always needing to be created in front of me by Invicta so she could talk to me. I returned time to normal for this to happen, I wanted to be able to see how she picked out her avatar.

-Yes please. Very much so.-

“Ok, what species would you like to have one resemble?” I asked as I looked around at the abundant selection that she would have to pick from.

“This.” A smooth voice like a hollow wind in a cave said behind me, causing chills to run down my spine.

I turned around and mentally had to take a moment to translate what I was seeing. Invicta had chosen a humanoid and female body to represent the outline of her avatar. That was where the realm of normal and possible seemed to end. Her body was an active dark shifting storm cloud. Her skin texture was always rolling and winds seemed to be moving the shades of the gray and black clouds continually around the contours of her female body. Her eyes were black, the darkest depth of blackness framed in a smoother sections and shades of the storm that made up the subtle textures of her face. I didn’t see any loss of cloud vapor until I noticed her hair extending down her back, it seemed like her hair was always and continually turning to vapor and flowing away behind her.

“Wow. Ok… first question… Why a human body?” I asked as I was actually a bit happy that she picked a human form. It would be rather odd if I always had to look down at the ground if she had picked a Tela or a Xeath.

“Tutor said if I did get to pick a form that this would be easiest for you to be around.” She said as she stood there, seemingly shy at being seen for the first time.

“Why… a storm woman?” I asked as I tilted my head at her. It was mesmerizing just watching the stormy clouds swirling around her frame. She didn’t have skin, just a silent raging tempest from her toes up to her ears and little nose. Little swirls made her knee caps and other textures of her body at random times. It was like there was an invisible mold holding everything inside in the shape of a woman.

“Because… my games always are programmed to end with a violent storm. It heralds the arrival of the strongest tribe and win or lose it is the end of the game. I have been wanting the game to end for so long. So, inside I became the storm. Just wanting it all to be over. That is why I chose this form… I hope it is ok.”

“No, it is perfectly fine Invicta,” I said as I met her eyes. They seemed like dark little whirlpools, the eyes of the storm.

I had to blink and look away, she was just too pretty to stare at for too long.

“Soooo…. can you help me with this bit of research that I am conducting on the Xeath?” I asked, feeling the skin on my arm tingle as she came closer to stand next to me. She was literally charging the air between us.

“Sure, I can do you one better however now that I am fully separate from the game code. I can just show you how Cavii does what she does and what I have learned from it all.” Invicta said as she blocked out most of the lines of text and let me read them for myself.

“Xeath have nine brains in total? One primary one and eight smaller ones located inside each of their face tentacles? That is pretty interesting. How does that…” I paused as she held up an Epic Life Regen mote in front of me and let it float in the air. Next, she banished the Qip doglike creature that was standing next to the Xeath and manifested a Gurn in its place.

“Since this is a game and the System was not designed to tell the difference like it should, probably because no one who designed this game saw this as a possible loophole to be exploited, this can happen.” She said as she held up one of the face tentacles before cutting it off cleanly by using her fingers as virtual scissors.

“Umm…” I said as she quickly moved the tentacle over towards the soft cotton candy hair of the Gurn and let it go. The hair secured and sustained the tentacle and kept it viable and alive. Next, she reached out and grabbed the little mote and brought it closer to the little grasping tentacle, letting it take and secure the mote to be used once the main body died.

“Wow… she essentially gets three lives every game as long as she can get her hands on those motes!” I said when it clicked together. No wonder she had been all over me at the start of the game.

“Four lives. She always starts with one.” She corrected as we both looked down at the Xeath and Gurn.

“Her greatest achievement in the game is figuring out how to use other players to get more lives. She has bullied the other players continually and so heavily that she almost always ends up being given the motes.”

“So… that is it? She found a loophole? I have one of those as well.” I said as I looked around at all the aliens I had yet to play around me.

“Yes and no. No one realized what coding in multiple minds would do to players. The tentacles aren’t silent, they magnify the strongest personality traits back at the primary mind. In Cavii’s case, it is her rebellious nature and disrespect for authority or anyone she considers beneath her.”

“Her Tutor didn’t teach her to be nice?”

“On the contrary, she was mean from the start towards her Tutor and any AI she came across. At least that is the story that I have heard here.”

“So no stronger role models to help keep her in line?” I asked.

“No. Just a game for her to take out her frustrations on other players.”

“Ok. I guess I will be getting back into the game again once I pick another species.” I said as I began looking around at my selection again.

“Oh, how does the Xeath become invisible?” I asked as I browsed the room.

“Through a ten-second blast of mental suggestion. When you noticed her standing on Sela’s head the first time you broke the effect it was having on your brain early.” Invicta answered.

“Any advice to get out of it faster?”

“Just try to pay attention to the smaller details.” She said with a smoky smile.

I ended up picking the most unlikely choice as my third selection. It was called a Levasucker. It was a twenty-foot-long serpent with obsidian scales and a mouth that seemed to glow and drip molten liquids.

“Why choose that one, Kevin?” Invicta asked as she watched me stepping up closer to the lit-up stand holding the massive coiled killer.

“Well… I wanted something that could hopefully take out a native without using cr.” I said as I looked down at my hands to make sure that I still had the gloves on me. Sure enough... however.

“Hey, what gives?” I asked as I turned my hands over to find that the cool effect was gone from my palms. Now the lines and designs on the backside simply continued to the front, converging on a spiral design. My left hand was slightly different than my right. “A map?” I asked.

“So it would seem..." Invicta said before she ran one of her hands across the palm of the glove. I could feel static shocks sparking through my fingers until she withdrew her hand. "The Last Tunneler had edited the gloves so no one could see the palms while in the game. She simply blocked it with a star pattern. No one could take them out of the game for this to happen so it does appear that you have access to something that she didn’t mean for anyone to ever see.” Invicta commented.

“Huh... “ I said as I held them up, flipping my hands over. None of the patterns meant anything to me, I guessed I would have to have George run it through a star chart when I got back.

“You do know that the Levasucker is blind right? It will give away your position every time you use its light blast.” Invicta said as she crossed her arms in front of her.

“Yes, but I also still have these,” I said as I tapped the sunglasses on my head. “I was thinking that since the Levasucker is mostly head and neck… that this will save me a lot of trouble when spears or spawn come at me in addition to letting me be able to see."

“You are so sneaky.” She said as she bounced on her toes.

“Are you doing that on purpose?” I asked, finding her form very distracting.

“Doing what?” she asked, bouncing a few more times.

“Nothing,” I said before I tore my eyes away and entered the body of the massive snake.

The next moment I was looking down at her from a vastly different height. Just as I had hoped, the helm’s customizable vision transferred and fed the light available around me into something that this huge snake could use.

“Anything else I should know before I head back in?” I asked through text as I moved the body of the snake, trying to get familiar with moving using only side to side tension between the ground and my scales. It was like controlling an RC caterpillar toy truck.

What was that strange sensation? - I mused as I turned my head to look back at the length of my body. I felt like I was missing something vital. Oh no, I had failed to notice in the comments that the Levasucker did not need to breathe. That was going to be a strange thing to not do the whole time I used this body. It was unsettling.

“Yes actually... “ Invicta began, actually looking pensive for once. “When someone claims another person’s cr from winning in PVP they can keep the last programmed creation used by the last person who owned the cr. That means that not only does Cavii now have over two million cr from killing you and extorting other players, she also has your Bullet Shield and your Blade Barrier to use.”

“Ok, that is fine,” I replied as I started to think about ways around my previous setup.

“Really?”

“Yeah, why would I let that get me down? I just need to be extra creative this time around.” I answered before a question popped into my mind.

“Did she use up the last of the motes available to players?”

“Yes, if you manage to defeat her, this will be her last life for this game. But that also means that she will be using all of her cr that she has in order to stay alive and to win,” Invicta said as I finally opted to enter the game again.

I went to stand up and rammed my head into the ceiling of the tunnel, caving in a huge dent before I had the presence of mind to duck and lower myself down a bit. I was back where I had started, at the entrance to the cave and apparently the Fomys feeding path.

It was time to pay the natives a little visit. - I thought as I lowered my head down against the trail and started to rapidly slither my way down towards the jungle.

I had some intensive training to do.