The world hitched for a few seconds while the area loaded. While outside the forest had been surrounded by an impenetrable wooden and leafy barrier, inside it was far clearer, with the treeline above thin enough that a few small beams of sunlight could pierce through and everything seemed to be coated in a soft, green glow. She couldn’t help being in awe of how beautiful it was. It reminded her of the national park her parents had taken her to when she was a child.

The trees were so tall that she couldn’t even reach the bottom branches without a ladder. The air was filled with the sounds of birds chirping. Even the soft warmth of the sun and blowing breeze ruffling her hair felt so real. She wished she had smell enabled, she imagined the air smelled amazing.

It was so different from the obsidian city she’d been in. Even the thin trees they’d passed by on the way here were nothing compared to this. She bent down and picked up a rock, lightly throwing it to hear the thunk when it bounced off one of the trees. “Wow. This is kind of impressive. So lifelike. Most offline games aren’t even this detailed.”

“Really? You should go to the elf lands. The trees there are massive, even more beautiful. Though if you fall out of them you might die,” Orion said. “This looks a lot like a normal park.”

“Do you have a lot of parks where you are?” Kira asked, glancing over to him.

“A few. Don’t you?” Orion asked, to which she shook her head. “Guessing you live in a high density area?”

“Yep. We have a few parks in the city, but they keep getting smaller and smaller. There used to be this great one about half an hour away, but they tore it down to put in a new apartment complex,” Kira said with a sigh.

“Wow, that sucks. There’s this beautiful park just a half hour away from my home. A lot like this,” Orion said before he gestured towards the trees. “I go hiking there, sometimes. They did try to tear it down a few years back. There was almost a riot, so now it’s protected.”

Kira let out a low whistle. “That sounds wonderful. We don’t have anything like that here. It--” Suddenly she heard a loud, squishing sound that made her go quiet and peet further into the forest. A small, blue square that seemed to be made of gelatin was making its way towards them, leaving a trail of slime in the grass. She gave a light snorted. “Wow. You weren’t kidding about it being a slime monster.” It barely came up to her knee. She raced forward, slicing down with the axe blade of her halberd, cutting it in half. It disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles, making her giggle before she charged off ahead.

“Wait! Careful!” Orion yelled, racing after her.

“Oh, come on. It’s fun,” Kira said, before turning a corner. Half a dozen slimes blocked her way, some just a little taller than her knee, but in an assortment of different colors. She just giggled and charged forward, her halberd slicing into one of the blue ones. The blade sunk deep into the monster, but didn’t go all the way through. She tried to pull back, but it refused to give. Her eyes widened moments before the creature lunged forward, blue spikes forming on its body.

“Kira!” Orion yelled, but he was too far back to help her.

She stepped back quickly, narrowly avoiding the stabbing strikes and forced to release her weapon. Once it passed her she leaped back at it, gripping the pole again in both hands and pushing with all her might. “Draining strike!” The weapon glowed for a moment before surging forward, cutting through the creature entirely. She stumbled forward, barely weaving between three of the slimes that had tried to pen her in before jamming her polearm into the ground and polevaulting over a fourth. Once she landed she spun around and cut the halberd down on one of the smaller ones. It was cleaved through easily, disappearing in a flurry of red sparkles.

“Wow,” Orion said softly. “Are you okay?”

“Come on, these things are slow. You didn’t honestly think I’d lose that easily, did you?” she asked with a laugh before charging back into them, hoping he couldn’t tell how close she’d been to really screwing up there. If the monsters had been nearly as fast as the demons she’d fought before they’d have torn her to pieces. “Cleaving strike!” she yelled, slashing through the blue one she’d already wounded, finishing it off. “Come on, let’s do this!”

“Right,” he said. He drew his mace and brought it down on one of the red ones, sending droplets of the slime flying through the air. Within a few moments, Blueberry and Ervent joined them. While they took a few points of damage the three of them managed to disperse the monsters quickly.

“A bit quick on the draw, aren’t you, Kira?” Blueberry asked, his voice filled with annoyance.

“Huh?” Kira asked, glancing back to him.

“You shouldn’t be rushing off without us like that. You might end up in trouble,” Blueberry said.

“If I end up in trouble, then it’s my fault and I’ll deal with it,” Kira said before turning, racing down the path once more. “Come on. You want to beat these things, right? Let’s go beat them!”

Blueberry shook his head but followed after her. “Orion, she’s going to get herself killed. Us too, most likely.”

Kira rolled her eyes. It was hardly her fault, this was just how she played. They wanted her to come. To her surprise, Orion actually stood up for her a moment later. “I don’t know, I think it’s kind of fun,” he said with a chuckle. “Not everyone is willing to risk themselves like that. Besides, she said she’d deal with it if she got in trouble.”

“Sorry,” Ervent said quickly.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Orion said. “Play the way you want, okay? It’s just a game. Now, come on, before she bites off more than she can chew.”

Kira rolled her eyes. More than she could chew? She severely doubted that would happen. Though the forest was getting a bit darker. She smiled, before stepping into the shadows and activating her shadow meld ability. The world dimmed slightly, showing she was hidden. Her eyes widened up when she caught sight of the next monster. While the monsters they’d been fighting so far had been big cubes, this thing was more like a shimmering, red orb. It was massive, though, at least twice her height and almost three times as wide as she was tall.

“I think I found the boss,” Kira said into the party chat. “I’m gonna stab it.”

“Careful! We’ll catch up in a second,” Orion said.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said, before running forward. “Draining strike!” she cast, bringing the halberd blade down hard on the side of the creature.

The blade bounced off, making the creature jiggle slightly. Kira’s eyes widened and she began to wonder if she really had done as they suspected and bit off too much. “Oh dear.”

Tiny spikes of slime burst out from the creature, like tiny bullets, piercing her. Kira shrieked and stumbled back. The status ailment warning popped up out of the side of her vision. She glanced at it, but couldn’t recognize the image.

The slime wiggled about for a few moments before a large tentacle seemed to rise out of its body, jerking forward with speed she wouldn’t have expected from something so large. She leaped to the right, but unfortunately she now knew what the status effect was. Some kind of slow or hindering ability. She was slower and struggling to move and within a few moments the tentacle wrapped around her sluggish form.

Kira shrieked before quickly jamming the halberd tip into the slime, as hard as she could. The tip managed to pierce the hide, digging in deep. She quickly gripped the polearm, her right hand reaching up to grab onto the bottom of the shaft, holding on tight to stop herself from getting pulled in. The tentacle held her, trying to pull her closer before a large, gaping maw opened in the front of the slime. Fortunately, her polearm didn’t seem to be sinking in any deeper.

“Cleaving strike!” Blueberry’s voice rang out before the dragon charged in, bringing his axe down on the tentacle. It was cleaved off with a loud gurgle. Free of the grip, Kira fell to the ground, her polearm pulling free of the monster. She quickly scrambled away, kicking the sliced tentacle off her leg.

“Regeneration!” Ervent cast. Kira felt her body become free of the slime coating her, her movement restored. It felt so good to be able to properly move again.

“Thanks,” Kira said to the angel.

“Happy to help,” Ervent said and Kira couldn’t help smiling at how proud the girl sounded about it.

Kira turned back to the slime. Orion had moved in front of it, bashing his shield into the creature and drawing its attention. Blueberry was sticking close to him, just to his right and behind, while hacking wildly with his axe.

Kira leaped forward, spinning the halberd and then stabbing into its hide. “Necrotic ram!” she cast. The end of the halberd enlarged, before thrusting forward and digging deep into the creature, only to shrink and pull back a moment later. It left a deep hole in the monster, which slowly began to fill itself back in.

“Look out for the leap!” Orion yelled once the monster suddenly went still.

“Wait, leap?” Kira asked. A moment later, the massive slime leaped high into the air. She shrieked and fled, glancing back after a moment to try and keep an eye on its flying form. Blueberry and Orion quickly threw themselves away, landing on the ground but quickly rolling to their feet. The slime landed a moment later where the two had been standing.

It was now her and Ervent on one side of the monster with Orion and Blueberry on the other. The slime didn’t move for a moment and she held her breath. After a few seconds, it rolled towards her and the angel.

Kira leaped to the right, letting the slime roll past her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ervent staring at the monster. “Move it!” she yelled. But the angel didn’t. A look at Ervent’s face made her realize the girl wasn’t slow, she was frozen in fear. How inexperienced could someone be? She mentally screamed in frustration before trying to draw its attention away from the other girl. “HEY! Big guy! OVER HERE!” Kira yelled. She then brought her weapon up and jammed the hook deep into the monster, latching onto it. She dug her feet into the ground and pulled with all her might.

To her surprise the creature stopped in place. She could barely believe it.

Best of all, the act seemed to shake Ervent out of her shock and the girl quickly spread her wings before taking to the air, out of the slime’s reach.

Kira regretted the decision a moment later when the resistance on her weapon slackened and suddenly the slime rolled towards her. She tried to pull back, but it was too close now. The monster rolled over her and she quickly closed her eyes and mouth before the slime could cover her entirely.

She held her breath, trying to ignore the pain bursts from being crushed to death. It felt like an eternity, though she imagined it was likely only a few seconds, before the creature rolled off her. She groaned, slowly opening her eyes.

“Restoration,” Ervent said, landing besides her. “Are you okay?”

“Ow,” Kira said, struggling to ignore the pain echoing through her body. She glanced over to the right. Orion was between her and the slime monster now, knocking away its tentacles with his mace while Blueberry hacked at them. “Fine.” She got shakily to her feet, gripping her halberd tightly. She quickly shook her head and slapped her cheeks. “Fine! I’m fine.”

“You saved me. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--”

“Gratitude later, fighting now!” Kira said, before rushing at the monster again. “Draining strike!” she cast before stabbing her blade down into the monster’s hide. This time it dug deep into the monster, but she was able to barely pull it free. “Stupid thing!”

“Okay, pull back!” Orion called. The tentacles receded into the monster and, once again, it was an (albeit smaller) orb of slime. She pulled back, though she stabbed when she moved. Once again, her blade bounced off its hide. “Ervent, get back into the air. Kira, it’s going to charge again. Faster this time! Everyone, spread out!”

“Right!” Kira said, before running away from the group. The slime was still for a moment, before it started rolling at Blueberry. It moved far, far faster this time, though the dragon was able to narrowly throw himself out of the way. The slime crashed into a tree a moment later, only to turn around and race at them again. It only came in her direction twice, but she was prepared. After the eighth crash, it finally came to a stop and rolled, far slower this time, towards Orion, shooting out more spikes of slime. He blocked what he could with his shield, while Ervent quickly cast another restoration on him.

“Okay, guys! We’re almost there! Just hit it as hard as you can!” Orion yelled. She nodded and charged in, cutting and slashing at the creature. Before long, it erupted in a flurry of slime, coating the area in green gunk. She shuddered, standing still for a moment while the slime slowly dripped off her.

“Did we win?” Kira asked. She didn’t know how this could count as ‘winning’, though.

“Yep,” Blueberry said. “Flaming body.” Fire erupted across his body, burning away the slime. “Love that spell.”

Kira shuddered, looking down at herself. “Ew. How do I get that?”

“Restoration. Restoration. Restoration,” Ervent cast on each of them, making the slime fall off.

“Thanks,” Kira said, taking a moment to sit down and catch her breath. “And how many of these things are there? That was intense! I couldn’t even hurt it half the time!”

Orion knelt down next to her, though he couldn’t keep himself from smiling. “It got a massive defense boost whenever it was completely solid, no tentacles or anything. Can’t alpha strike it very hard. Sorry, I should have told you before the fight.”

Blueberry rolled his eyes before speaking up. “If you hadn’t run off like that, we would have.”

“It kind of defeats the fun if I know all their weaknesses and stuff before we even fight them,” Kira said, though she couldn’t help feeling a little guilty. “Thanks for helping me, anyway. It was rough, but fun. So, how many are left?”

“Lots of basic monsters and two more bosses. The last one is a big, acidic slime. It’s really, really rough. Will absolutely wreck your armor and weapons if you’re not careful,” Orion said. “Just attack it with magic attacks, not your weapon directly, okay? And don’t let it touch you much or your armor will be toast. The second boss is a lot easier, though. I’ll keep it on me, then we just beat on it for a while. Once everyone feels ready, we’ll get going.”

Blueberry shook his head. “You know, you shouldn’t keep running off like that. It’s considered rude. It’s not going to bother us much, but other people it might.”

Kira slowly rose to her feet, feeling those soft pangs of guilt again. Was it really rude? Wasn’t the only one who might suffer from it her? “If I get in trouble, just let me die,” she said. “You don’t need to save me.”

“Groups usually want to stick together. It kind of rushes it for them. Especially when someone is new,” Blueberry said before motioning to Ervent.

Ervent quickly shook her head. “No! I don’t mind! I think it’s kind of cool. You’re really brave. I’d be way too scared to run off like that,” the angel said rapidly.

Kira barely avoided laughing at that. It was a fake monster that couldn’t really hurt her. What about any of that was brave? “I’m hardly brave. I--”

“You ended up getting crushed and really hurt because you were protecting me,” Ervent said softly and Kira felt the amusement die. So that was what the girl meant by brave. “Because I froze up. I just--”

“You’re not used to this kind of game, it’s fine,” Kira said with a wave of her hand, not wanting to hear the girl badmouthing herself again. Even if the angel was still learning, she was certain she’d figure it out eventually. More importantly, if Ervent was still having trouble telling the game apart from reality, she didn’t want to imagine the kind of impact getting crushed by the slime monster would have on her. “When I first started playing games, I was the same way. There’s nothing wrong with not being good at something you don’t have any real experience with,” she said, before walking to Ervent. She reached out and patted her on the head. “It’s okay. You’re new, we all gotta start somewhere. I’m sure before you know it, you’ll be kicking all kinds of virtual butt. Okay?”

Ervent stared up at her, before slowly nodding. “Right. Of course. I’ll do my best. Thank you for believing in me.”

Kira barely suppressed new laughter at the girl’s reaction. She really hoped Ervent wasn’t that timid in real life, people would walk all over her. “All anyone can ask. Now! Speaking of kicking butt, let’s go!” she said, before she turned and racing deeper into the forest. Acid slime, fire slime, any slime. She didn’t care. She’d kick all of them to the ground. After all, she was ‘brave’. That thought made her chuckle again, this time without her forcing herself to suppress it.

One by one they beat through the slime monsters, though often she found herself ahead of the group and forcing them to catch up. She didn’t mind, though. She was used to fighting alone as in most games the AI allies could be hit or miss. Trusting it to have her back was useless. But the longer the dungeon went, the more confident she was beginning to feel in this group. Even Ervent was beginning to move faster. The angel had even ended up stabbing one of the slimes without freaking out and, while she had gotten hurt in the end, she hadn’t complained about it at all. Blueberry even stopped complaining about her running off alone after that.

Kira had to admit to herself that it was a new experience that she just didn’t get in single player games. When the AI did good or bad, you couldn’t really care too much. It was just a computer program, after all. It couldn’t really adapt or learn or grow outside of what it was programmed to do. In a lot of cases, it was very little.

But seeing the angel getting more confident the longer they fought gave her a small bit of pride. Before she knew it, she wasn’t just running off ahead to deal with things on her own. She was slowing down, just enough, so they could keep up. She could see it in the angel’s expressions how much the girl was watching and trying to imitate her.

That, at least, she was used to. It was a very common trait in a lot of modern offline games with henchmen. Make the player feel special, by having NPCs that obviously admired them and looked up to them, while trying to imitate them. Make a player feel special and they’d feel more attached to the game. But, in the end, it was just a game. No matter how good or bad the player did, the NPCs would still admire them just for that extra enjoyment.

But this was a real person. It made her feel stronger. Made her want to try harder. If she was going to have someone looking up to her, she was going to make sure that she was worth looking up to.

They were almost to the last boss when a green slime rushed at Kira from around a tree. She had moments to dodge, but she stopped. Instead she planted her feet and braced her polearm tightly in both hands before shoving out with it as hard as she could. The slime was sent flying back, crashing to the ground. A moment later, Blueberry’s axe cleaved it in two.

“Are you okay?” Ervent asked.

“Of course,” Kira said, her voice dripping with bravado. “Sometimes you just need to know when to brace yourself and take the hit head on. Can’t run from everything, you know?”

“Right,” Ervent said softly, smiling up at her. Kira chuckled and then ran off ahead once more, the group now following closely behind her. Her eyes locked onto the monster ahead and she let out a low whistle.

She could definitely see why it was the final boss of the dungeon. It was made entirely of a sizzling, green slime and appeared to be in the midst of devouring a tree. It was easily the size of a house, its entire body enveloping the tree. It left a small trail of death in its wake, the grass a black, smoldering mass of destroyed plant life. “Wow,” Kira said, unable to keep the awe out of her voice. The attention to detail was incredible, even by offline game standards it would have been impressive.

“Try to avoid stepping in the goop it leaves behind,” Orion said quickly. “Once it stops sizzling, it’s fine. But while it’s still burning, it’ll burn you as well. Okay?”

“Got it,” she said. “Your shield going to be okay?”

To her surprise, his shield and mace disappeared. A moment later, a massive mace, to rival Blueberry’s axe, formed in his hand. “Nope. This isn’t a fight where I can keep its attention at all times. Ervent, it’ll be a bit rougher for you, but try to keep to the air as much as you can, okay? If you stay up there, it won’t attack you as much. Just keep an eye on it and try not to get attacked. It’s massive, but it’s not nearly as dangerous as it looks. Well, okay, it is. But it’s not very fast. So long as we all keep moving, we should be fine. Just don’t let it pin you. If it DOES pin you, we’ll get you out. If you see anyone else getting pinned, attack it near the base of the limb and call out to everyone. Got it? And remember. Use your magic and skills. Don’t attack with the normal part of the weapon. We all need to attack from different locations. Okay?”

Kira rolled her eyes, spinning her halberd in her grip. “Good, we done? Let’s do this then!” she yelled. She dashed forward, taking it head on. “Draining strike!” she cast, drawing a large gash through the creature’s side. She pulled the blade back a few moments before the magical coating on it disappeared. Bits of slime flew off and sizzled on the ground.

“Cleaving strike!” Blueberry cast, attacking from the right side and cutting a large gash down its side.

“Freezing crusher!” Orion cast when he attacked from the left. Ice burst from the blow, covering a few feet of the massive creature.

There wasn’t any roar from the creature. It merely seemed to start rolling towards Orion. The closest thing Kira could think to describe it was like watching a hill of slime avalanching towards someone. While it wasn’t very fast, it did cover a LOT of area. Orion had to quickly back away, diving to the right when the monster collapsed at where he had been. Small, spiked tentacles began to rise out from the mass, striking out at her and Blueberry. She quickly leaped back, cutting into the limb. “Draining strike!” she yelled, barely remembering in time.

She soon realized why the fight was the final one. While it was very, very slow, it had two attacks. Tentacles that could attack from all over its body and when it attempted to roll over them. Despite the slowness, the area they were in wasn’t very large and whenever they cut off a piece, it would sizzle on the ground for a few minutes. The trail it left wasn’t much better, quickly penning them in and making it harder for them to maneuver around its massive girth.

More than a few times she was forced to step into the sizzling pathways it left behind in order to avoid some of its strikes. The acid burned into her feet and she didn’t have to look down to know her foot armor had likely been destroyed. Still, she didn’t dare take her eyes off the massive monster.

Kira caught sight of one of the tentacles positioning to strike at her and she quickly stepped back, intending to stab it when it launched its assault.

Except there was nowhere for her to step back into. Kira backed right into a tree, trapping her between the slime and wood for a moment. Horror struck her when she realized she’d ended up on the edge of the clearing. She tried to dive to the right, but before she could, the tentacle struck her. She closed her eyes and felt the tentacle coiling around her and the tree, burning away at her body. She was pinned. She hoped Orion and Blueberry could get her out soon. Pain bursts went off through her body while the acid quickly dissolved her. She counted her blessings, at least. Thankfully smell and taste WEREN’T enabled, so she was spared that.

Then she was half free. The tentacle partially collapsed around her, sending searing acid across the grass. She gasped for breath and glanced up. To her amazement, it was Ervent who was near the base of the tentacle. “Ray burst!” the girl called, sending out a multitude of white lights into the creature’s hide and fully severing the tentacle from the body, freeing Kira.

“Thanks,” Kira said. Her armor was covered in burn marks and alerts were popping up out of the corner of her vision, though she ignored them. Her halberd was damaged, but not broken.

“Of course! Restoration!” the angel cast, causing the aches across Kira’s body to disappear.

Kira moved along the creature’s backside, or at least the side opposite where it was attacking, once again using her draining strike. Gradually the monster continued to get smaller and smaller until, after what felt like hours, it was only as big as the first boss they’d fought. Then after many more strikes and narrow misses, the beast finally fell. Rather than exploding like the first boss, instead it went completely still and began to evaporate into small, red sparkles. She let out a sigh of relief, watching the monster disappear. In the pile of sludge it left behind a few items appeared.

Kira fell to her knees and let out a groan. “That was rough...” She wasn’t at all surprised to see the others had collapsed as well while Orion started going over the loot with them. She laid claim to a small amulet that made her attacks leave the slime effect on the enemy.

“You all did a great job,” Orion said, wiping his brow. “I hope you had fun.”

“Of course I did. Why haven’t we done these before?” Kira asked, glancing up at him.

“They’re group events. There’s a lot of them, but we’d all have to do them together,” Orion said.

“Well, we’ve got a group. I’m good for a few more. Well, once I get my armor and weapons fixed. How about you guys?” Kira asked.

Blueberry shook his dead. “I don’t know. It can be rough doing them undermanned like this.”

“I’d like to try another!” Ervent said quickly. That drew a few glances from all of them.

Kira couldn’t help but smile at the player’s enthusiasm. “See? We’ve got you two outnumbered, so now we have to do another.”

“That’d be two to two,” Orion said dryly, cocking an eye.

“Yes, but I’m one of the two, so that counts at least for another vote. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Orion and Blueberry exchanged amused looks, before finally shrugging. “Sure, why not,” the leviathan said. “We can go get our stuff fixed first, though. But there’s a really good dungeon in the dragon zone I think you’d all like.”

Kira nodded, slowly getting to her feet. “Then come on, what are we waiting for?”

------

When Kira finally felt like logging out, she couldn’t believe how late it was. She’d been on the game for hours. They’d cleared three different dungeons and, to her surprise, Ervent seemed a lot more capable the longer they’d played. She’d replaced her cloth armor with leather armor and had even traded up to a longsword and shield. She still had a lot of trouble facing down the monsters, but she didn’t seem quite as scared when they came at her. Once Blueberry and Ervent logged off, she’d started to make the trip back to her home.

A message popped up before she made it very far, telling her that Orion was trying to establish a direct call. She shrugged and accepted it, wondering what he could want.

“Hey,” Kira said. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to say thanks,” Orion said.

“For what?” Kira asked.

“Today. Helping Ervent,” Orion said. “She can be a bit, well, to put it into words, err--”

“Nervous? Shy? Timid? Still freaking out over the VR part?” Kira asked. “Yeah, I noticed.”

“You don’t need to be so harsh,” Orion said.

“There’s no point in avoiding the truth,” Kira said. “But she can get better, it’s not like she’s not trying. We all start off terrible at stuff, it’s how we eventually become somewhat passable, then good, then me.”

Orion gave a light chuckle at that. “Fair enough. But I just wanted to say I’m happy you’re here. Blueberry and I have been trying to help her but it doesn’t work as well, for some reason.”

“Maybe because you’re both big, tough guys who are living out your fantasies of being great, mighty barbarians?” Kira said in a teasing tone.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Orion said quickly.

“’Me smash with giant mace! Me cut with giant axe!’” Kira said in a mock tough guy voice. “I mean, you both chose the dragon-like races too. Playing the biggest, toughest things you could.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” Orion asked, his tone nervous.

“I wouldn’t really say it’s bad. It’s just kind of obvious,” she said. “But yeah, it was kiiiiiind of obvious she was admiring me. Well, in a way different than you and Blueberry were.”

“I wasn’t--”

“Oh, don’t even pretend. I saw the way you glanced at my butt when I got dive bombed by that orange slime,” Kira said, wondering if he’d fall for the trap.

“Wait, how did you see that? I wasn’t--” His voice cut off quickly and she could almost feel his blush.

“Busted. And no, I didn’t see you. But Ervent did and she messaged me. A warning, I guess. And relax. It’s a game character and you’re a boy. I kind of expect that kind of stuff. It’s not like you were leering at my actual butt. Then I’d have to stab you.”

“Sorry,” Orion said quickly, the fluster obvious in his voice. “I really didn’t mean to. I would never try to make you uncomfortable like that. I just--”

“I made my character with a really great ass, what can I say? Besides, not like I don’t do the same sometimes,” Kira said, cutting him off. “But listen, I--” She was cut off when a new alert came up. “Err, one second. I got a text.” She couldn’t imagine why William was texting her so late, though. He should have been home hours ago.

“Sure, no problem,” Orion said.

She quickly connected to it, before reading the text over. Her heart sank. ‘Won’t be back tonight, Larry and I are having a blast and I’ll be crashing at his hotel room. Try to clean up a bit, okay? See you tomorrow.’

All the emotions she’d driven down rose back to the surface, despite her attempts to bury them deeper. She responded with a quick confirmation, before closing her eyes. She couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t coming home at all. It was supposed to date night.

Kira shook her head and lightly slapped her cheeks. “Right. Hey! Orion!”

“Huh?” he asked.

“Looks like my night just opened up. Wanna go fight some more things?” Kira asked.

“What? Well I mean, I don’t have anything I need to do,” Orion said warily. “But I thought you had to go?”

“Plans got canceled and frankly, I just want to go kill some things. You with me?” Kira asked.

“Sure. Here. You’re getting up in levels,” Orion said. “I’ll show you a new zone in the holy beast lands. Have you gotten a pet?”

“In real life?” Kira asked.

Orion gave a light laugh. “So no. You’ll love this. Can I ask you something?”

“Technically that is something, but sure, you can ask another,” Kira said, starting to enjoy how easy he was to fluster.

For a few moments there was silence and she could almost hear him working up the courage to speak. Then, very softly, his voice came out. “Have you really been looking at my butt?”

“Sometimes. But your butt is usually between my attacks and the enemies, so I wouldn’t get too excited,” Kira said.

“Is my butt in danger?” Orion asked, giving a light mock gasp.

“Always. But so long as there are other butts to fight, your butt should be safe,” Kira said in her most solemn tone.

“I will humbly offer the butts of many monsters, then, to preserve my own butt,” Orion said in as solemn a tone as he could to match hers.

Kira rolled her eyes and tried to suppress her laughter. She was certain she should not be enjoying this childishness as much as she was.