Four droids, twelve shots and no idea how many rounds it will take to destroy my enemies. This is going to be a fun battle.

The Wrangler falls back behind the Frolicking droids and starts to crouch down. Its antenna starts to blink rapidly. It's charging up.

I take my stance pulling my Bone Blade in my left hand and leveling my pistol on the Wrangler using my elbow to steady my shot. As I look down at the enemy I notice a faint red line and a pulsing reticle that's moving all over the place.

During my battle with Tei's group I never noticed anything like that. Then again, I was panicking and fighting for my life.

This time with the group by my side feel oddly at peace.

Moving the line so it's on the Wrangler I wait for the reticle to get smaller. Before I can take a shot one of the Frolicking droids takes a similar crouching stance but instead of charging up, it lunges at me. I cross the pistol and blade to shield myself and it kicks at me slamming the weapons into my chest and knocking on my back.

DmgCtrl They're spunky little monsters. Don't stay down too long!

As his message comes in I spin to the side and get back to my feet. This time I'm not waiting for them to come at me.

I rush the droid with my blade drawn across my chest to let me take aim with my forearm as a guide and see the droids whole body is in the reticle. I fire.

[You hit the Frolicking Droid for 20 points of energy damage]

The shot knocks it back and I get to where it's standing and slam my blade into it.

[You land a Critical Hit on a Frolicking Droid]

[You gain 10 points of melee experience]

[You gain 3 points of ranged experience]

No time to celebrate, out of the corner of my eye I see the Wranglers antenna light is flashing wildly and one of the other droids is crouching. A sharp pain hits my right shoulder and I turn just in time to see the second droid just fired on me!

[Frolicking droid hits you for X point of energy damage]

[Your shield absorbs some of it]

I'm knocked to the side and let myself drop to the sand as a huge beam rips just over my head. That shot would have taken my shield out easily!

No time to lose I level my pistol on the Wrangler and take a shot, the reticle was all over the place and I miss. I roll and slam my blade into the droid next to me, but it's not there anymore.

Getting up to my knee I look for the droid and see it's scampered away. I level a shot at it and the reticle pulses.

Nova: You need to let the reticle set itself when you want to fire. Take a moment to breath.

A breath, then I fire. The shot lands directly on the droids lens and it explodes.

[You destroy...]

[You gain...]

Turning I take aim at the other droid, but it tumbles to the side just as I fire. That's when I see it. The Wrangler was charging!

No time to think I holster my blade and pistol, pull out the bow, draw and fire!

The red light of the Wranglers shot collides with my bow's energy bolt and they erupt into a hot white light knocking me back and engulfing the Frolicking droid.

[You destroy...]

[You gain...]

Laying on my back I toss myself to the side as a laser beam clips my shoulder and knocks me back down. The other Frolicking droid was charging!

[You take damage... shield can only take one more hit]

I can't waste more rounds and it's too close to use my bow to I throw the bone knife straight from it's sheathe at the droid. The blade wobbles and bounces harmlessly off the droid, but it's enough to make it dodge to the side so I throw some sand into the air and tumble to get my blade back.

DmgCtrl: Looking good, but don't lose track of the big one.

I see it's charging again. I can't take another hit. I need to take out the smaller one quickly!

Blade in hand I holster the bow and draw my pistol. No time like the present! I charge the Wrangler firing the pistol at it's lens keeping my blade in an underhand position against my forearm. One hit, two hits, a third hit!

The Wrangler doesn't sit still it lunges at me. Not expecting that I already have forward momentum so I drop to my knees and swing my blade upwards as I slide under it.

I can feel resistance then it's gone, immediately I get back up and turn to fire at it from behind. The smaller droid is right there already jumping onto the Wrangler as jumping off the larger droid to reach me. It fires!

[You take damage... shields are gone]

The sky fills my view as I'm knocked back to the floor coughing from the impact. To my left and behind me I hear the droid land so I immediately flop to the side and take aim with my pistol. Two wild shots, but it's close enough that I land both.

[You destroy...]

[You gain...]

Immediately aware of my vulnerable state I turn to look for the Wrangler and see it's turning in the sand to crouch. No time to think, I throw my blade again in a wild swing and fire at it with the pistol. I hit and it draws back. I pull the trigger and I'm out! No more ammo. The blade flies and the Wranglers antenna lights up. It's wide red lens glows and I can see my death.

I close my eyes and bask in it as the light intensifies.

Then I hear a clink. Glass crackling. The light dims.

I open my eyes and see the blade is sunk hilt deep into the Wrangler and just like that it bursts into voxels.

[You destroy..]

[You gain...]

[You gain...]

[You gain...]

[Frolicking Droid Wrangler drops....]

Faint cheers reach me as I pant and watch the voxel dissipate.

DmgCtrl throws his arm around my neck and puts in a partial choke hold ruffling my hair as I rejoin the group. Nova gives me a shy smile and Burkhardt stands back her arms crossed.

"Well done. Do you mind having Nova examine your gear really quick?" Burkhardt asks.

The moment of elation almost dies off, but when I look up at Nova I see she's also surprised and gives me a shrug and apologetic smile. Their is no way I'm going to make a fuss, so I unholster them and hand them to Nova. She looks puzzled, then she taps something on her HUD and extends her hand to accept the items.

[You have traded a Bone Blade with Nova]

[You have traded a Beatrice's Pistol with Nova]

[You have traded a Charge Bow with Nova]

"Here" Burkhardt says extending a small pistol and blade to me, "Use these and take on those other two droids out there."

I look over the items and then back at her, "You sure about this?"

"You don't have any other items right?"

"I don't but.."

"Just accept the trade."

Checking my HUD I don't see any indication that a trade is being attempted so I just reach out and grab them from her.

[You received a Laser Pistol from Burkhardt]

[You received a Slicer from Burkhardt]

The systems also prompts me to examine their stats. I decide why note.

[Laser Pistol]

Type: Light Ranged Range: Mid-range Damage Type: Energy Affinity: 0

[Slicer]

Type: Melee Damage Type: Physical Affinity: 0

"What's affinity?" I ask.

"Remember all that stuff we told you about proficiency with an item?" Nova says.

"Yea."

"Affinity is basically how the game presents it to you."

"Oh. So does that mean I'm going to do less damage and stuff?"

"Basically."

Sure enough, the second time around the battle takes longer even though there is only two droids. On a positive note, I took less damage. Silver linings right?

The other part that contributed to me taking less damage was seeing a pattern in the droids movement. It only took a few missed shots and dodging them to see that they would crouch and either light up to fire or lunge at me. There's a moment's hesitation between each action and it's enough for me to stay ahead of them.

The reticle and guide laser are both different as well. Very different. The guide only goes out about two yards and the reticle is massive! At first I was excited because it meant the droids were always in my sights, but then I realized it also meant the shots could go anywhere within the reticle. I missed a lot.

Finally done with the droids I head back to the group. This time the fanfare is a lot more subdued, but Burkhardt is smiling.

"That's the Carrots I remember."

"The crytographer is back!" DmgCtrl exclaims.

I chuckle and extend the pistol and blade back to Burkhardt, "Thanks for lending me these."

"Keep'em."

Looking at my waist and then at Nova and my weapons in her hands I respond, "Where? I don't have an inventory remember."

"Oh right. That's going to take me a little while to get used to. Here, I'll store them for you then."

She takes them back and I get my original gear back from Nova. As she hands them back her eyes follow my hands as I attach the holsters to my belt.

"What's up Nova?"

"Hm?"

"You were looking at the... nevermind."

Burkhardt looks up at her and they share a strange glance. Even DmgCtrl's face changes to a ?.

"What's up, why are you looking at my weapons all weird?"

"They're different than I anticipated. Do you mind if I look at them again back in town? I want to pull them up near my workbench."

"Your workbench? Wait, do you mean there is player housing!?"

Burkhardt grins and DmgCtrl's screen turns into a full screen grin.

"I guess it's time to make this all official then?" Burkhardt says to the group.

"Official?"

"Follow us." Burkhardt says and we head back into Vroma and head towards the center of the city.

As we head back in Nova is deep in thought and keeps looking at my pistol. Every few minutes I see she's about to ask me something but hesitates. It's no help that DmgCtrl keeps distracting me with stories about the missions they did in Vroma. He also explained the name of the city. It stands for Virtual Reality Operations and Management Association. Originally it was just a massive VR development center, but more and more people would travel to the city to test out scenarios and build up on their skills, so the traffic attracted shops, then housing and finally it became a city.

After getting past the battle simulators I saw a large building that looked like an old time theater. At first I hadn't noticed it, but as we drew closer I saw the name of the building and my mouth nearly hit the floor.

'Guild Hall'

"You ready to make it official?"

I look at the building then to Burkhardt and back again to the building. "Yes" I say, my voice almost a whisper.

[Burkhardt would like you invite you to join her Guild. Do you Accept?]

The prompt shows up with a 'Yes' and 'No'. I look at my HUD, then past it as my friends. DmgCtrl is all smiles with a ^_^ on his screen. Nova is also smiling and even Burkhardt has a sly smile.

It's time. I'm officially here. With my friends again.

I accept the invitation.

[Welcome to Carrots. You have joined 'The Anomalies']