Kevin hit the ground and writhed in pain. Groaning and moaning, he was reminded of the time he had gotten very drunk with Roman and had slept the night away on the floor of his apartment. The world still span wildly, “Oh, make it stop.” He mumbled.

“Drink this,” Came Karen’s voice out of nowhere. Suddenly he was drinking some bitter liquid again.

Roman stood over him and Karen. They were in the courtyard of a small fortress that seemed to be dug into the earth. The courtyard was walled, but the entrance to the fortress was a covered staircase that led down into the depths of a small hill. The staircase was dug into a hill with a stone precipice covering the way down into the fortress.

“Where are we?” Karen asked Roman.

“We are at my guild stronghold, Erenhall. I have to tell my Guild Master what’s going on.” Roman looked off into the courtyard, “Sheka, open up chat with Regis.”

Roman stepped away to chat while Kevin lay in the dirt. The spinning world was slowing down, and he was extremely grateful. It was a horrible feeling, he just wanted to sit without falling over.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Karen pushed him back to the ground when he had tried to sit up. “Vendall died because you ran out there!” Tears formed in her eyes again, shining little droplets running down her face.

“Vendall chose to fight the guy himself.” Kevin said as he sat up again, “I’m not going to sit there and let my friend get killed by some AI!”

“What friend!?” Karen hadn’t met Roman.

“Roman,” Kevin pointed to Roman, who was currently talking in the background. There was nobody around him, so he looked odd talking over in-game Chat. “He’s my roommate, he appeared in the middle of the road to join us. Those things were going to attack him, I wasn’t going to sit and watch that.”

“Well he can be revived! Vendall can’t! He’s gone, erased, forever.” She broke down into more sobs.

Kevin was about to say that Vendall was just an AI, but then thought of Destiny. He didn’t want to offend her, if she was capable of being offended. He didn’t know what AI were capable of anymore. Vendall had come out of nowhere to help him, even though it wasn’t very logical of him. He was brave, and Vendall deserved more than to be called a program.

Not knowing what to say, Kevin just sat there as Roman talked in the background and Karen finished sobbing. Soon enough Roman was finished with Chat and he came back towards them.

“It’s decided,” Roman said with excitement in his voice. “My Guild Master is calling all available guild members and affiliates. We’re going to hit these guys, and stop them in their tracks.”

“We can’t go back there! They’ve ruined the town, and if the town is gone then we won’t be able to teleport there.” Karen said.

“We’re going to teleport in mass to Krookville, then we’ll meet them there. That’s the most likely place they would head, and it’s the only place the road from Denhall leads to.”

“How do we know they won’t just hole up in Denhall?” Kevin asked.

“If they do, we’ll go and kick them out. They’re obviously an aggressive race, probably created to stir up some activity in the world.” Roman explained.

“I didn’t join this game to fight.” Karen said defiantly, crossing her arms as she sat in the dirt.

“Don’t you want to avenge Vendall?” Kevin asked her.

“Not like this.” Karen said.

Suddenly three people teleported into the courtyard of the guild hall. Then five more, and then two more, and on and on. All around Kevin, people appeared in flashes of light until the courtyard was overflowing with people and AI from various races. Some were wearing shining plate armor, others wore embroidered robes of all colors. One man waded through the throng to tap Roman on his plated shoulder and they both strode up a flight of stairs to stand on top of the entrance to the ruins. The man with Roman was dressed in shining plate armor with cloth covering the breastplate donning an insignia of some kind. The insignia was a grey square background with the black drawing of a wolf’s head in the middle. He looked more than formidable.

“Thank you for gathering here today.” The man spoke out to the mass of guild members. “I’ve gotten word from Roman here,” He put his gloved hand on Roman’s shoulder, “That a new AI has emerged from the Cloudspire Mountains, and is taking out villages in the vicinity. This would seriously limit our ability to travel and eliminate various AI in the region. Someone has to face this threat, and this race was obviously created to be the enemy of the good people of this realm.”

The Guild Master walked further to the edge of the precipice, “Our guild will be the ones documented to stop these bastards.” He shouted, “We will crush them before they do any more damage. We will be the ones who claim this glory, and we will be the ones to destroy them on the battlefield. We will be glorious, we will be deadly, WE will be victorious! Are you with me!?” He raised his hands and the whole crowd cheered with a deafening roar. Kevin tingled all over, he had never been in a huge battle before. “Good! We will teleport to Krookville and meet them there. Everyone join hands.”

The giant mob took each other’s hands, forming a giant chain throughout the courtyard. Karen refused to hold anyone’s hand. Kevin took a hand in each of his and looked defiantly at Karen. He resented her for not coming at least. She saw the resentment in his eyes and looked sad.

“Now, anyone who has the location, teleport!” The guild master boomed. Suddenly Kevin was falling, then he was inside a village. Flashes of light surrounded him until the entire mob was with him there in the village. Women fled from the streets with their children, and various AI hurried their families indoors at the sight of the entire guild appearing at once.

Kevin waded through the throng towards the sight of Denhall burning in the distance at the foot of the mountains. It was only a few kilometres away, smoke filled the sky to the south. He pushed his way to the break in the mob at the beginning of the south road, and he was joined by the Guild Master and Roman.

“Kevin, this is Regis.” Roman introduced the Guild Master. Regis ignored him and kept his eyes upon the burning village to the south. As expected, a long column of devils could be seen exiting the burning town and heading up the south road. They watched them for a few minutes.

“We should meet them on the road.” Kevin said out of nowhere.

“What?” Roman said, “If we stay in the village, we can launch a surprise attack.”

“If we stay the entire village might be destroyed in the fight.” Kevin argued.

“He’s right.” Regis said, the others turning silent. “We need to meet them out there.” He looked at both Roman and Kevin, no room for argument in his face.

“You take this game pretty seriously don’t you?” Kevin asked.

Regis smiled and burst out laughing, then his expression turned into something that looked like sadness, though he still had a smile on his face. “I’ve been playing since it was released, and I’ve seen many things in this world in the span of a year. I’ve seen good friends who were AI die permanently, and I’ve seen good players turn on each other. We need to keep this world civil, or else it would have been a waste.”

Regis then turned around and addressed the crowd, “Grab your mounts! We’re taking the fight to THEM!” He spoke to his AI and a mount appeared in the distance and ran towards him. It was a huge grey stallion dressed in plate mail. Suddenly all sorts of beasts started charging into the throng as the players and AI spread out. Giant lizards, flightless birds, spiders, and some things that Kevin had never seen before came into the crowd from all sides. Even flying beasts landed among them, griffons, flying lizards, even something that looked like a flying bear.

Everyone mounted who had mounts, and formed a group off to the side. Everyone who didn’t have mounts gathered to the other side of the road. Kevin was separated from Roman then, Roman having summoned a flightless bird with black armor. They started marching towards the enemy in mass, leaving the village and its grateful residents behind.

A moment passed by Kevin as he was marching with the rest of the guild where he wondered just what he was doing. He had started the game yesterday with Derek telling him to do small quests first to gain levels at a steady pace. Now it was the second day and he had battled guild members, defeated a rare monster in the caverns of the Varnu, participated in a battle with the new devil race, and travelled across the span of the world. He didn’t even know where he was on the map, nor how far he was from his home city. This was crazy.

“Destiny, what are my current stats?” Kevin asked her.

“I have projected them upon your arm. Master” Destiny said, “Shall I leave them displayed there?”

Kevin pulled up the sleeve of his robe and saw a tattooed table of his stats on his arm.

“Yes, thank you Destiny.”

“You’re welcome, Master.”

Health 1

Mana 6

Stamina 3

Strength 3

Cunning 4

Agility 3

Intelligence 10

He had gained quite a bit of intelligence from that last battle. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised, having used that much mana. He still felt a little woozy, but he was still on his feet. He didn’t know how he would be of any use in this battle without much mana. He had to go though, he felt like he needed to do it for Vendall.

They walked for what seemed like a half hour before they could see the enemy clearly. The enemy were not far now and had stopped to form ranks. Their number was much larger, with flying lizard riders flying high in the sky above them. They also had riders on the ground, some that caught Kevin’s eyes were riders on large cats seemed to have been molded out of molten rock. They had glowing, fiery designs along their lithe bodies with flames erupting from their rocky flesh at random. Another was a beast the resembled a rhino, except its head was more like a hammer head shark, with a gaping maw of razor sharp teeth. It seemed to have a skin that was the texture of stone.

Regis pranced his horse in front of the gathered mass and turned to address his guild.

“Here they are, Guild Mates! They are nothing! We will scrub them from this world, cut them down like wheat, and turn them all into useless ash!” A great cheer arose from the crowd, countered by yelling and snarling from the devil’s ranks. “Are you ready!?” Another cheer from the guild. ”Charge!”

Regis wheeled his mount around and charged toward the massed devils. All the riders in the guild thundered forth as Kevin and the rest of the makeshift infantry of the guild started running toward the enemy. The line of devils broke forth as well and set forth to meet the enemy on the battlefield. The two sides thundered towards each other, dust clouds left in their wake.

Kevin couldn’t see anything ahead of him, the sight of the enemy was lost in the sight of all the riders charging ahead of him. He quickly cast the shield spell, his body glowing with a blue sheen. He was hit with a wave of dizziness, which he shook off a bit. That was the last spell he would be able to use in this battle, and he knew this. What the hell was he going to do?

Suddenly magic exploded into the rider’s ranks, fireballs igniting huge swaths of them, and lightning crackling and booming throughout the line. A fire ball exploded just in front of Kevin, sending a rider ten feet into the air with his mount. The lizard turned into ash in the air and the rider screamed as he fell to hit the ground hard and then disintegrate. His weapon was left behind, sticking into the ground in front of Kevin. Kevin ran past, plucking the sword out of the ground. Its blade was short, but glowed with yellow runes that Kevin didn’t recognize.

Then the riders clashed in a deafening sound of armor and people colliding. Shouts and bleeped words continuously rang throughout the air as Kevin ran towards the tumult. In the air above, the winged riders swept by each other, some colliding in mid-air. Spells and arrows blasted through the air as the winged fighters desperately tried to hit the others. One of the flying lizards was hit by a force spell, and knocked out of the air. It fell like a stone to the earth with its cursing rider, and hit the earth next to Kevin with a thunderous boom, turning it, it’s rider, and those unfortunate to be beneath them, into a cloud of ash.

Kevin thought that he should be scared. He was running headlong into a cloud of noise, flashing steel, elemental fury, and ash. He found instead, a rush flowing through his body. It heightened his senses and he felt full of strength and primal fury.

Kevin finally made it to the fight before him with the others of the infantry. He dashed towards a pair of riders striking each other with long spears. He jumped at the devil on a molten cat and slashed at him, the hit struck his torso and knocked him off his balance. The rider leaned heavily in the saddle as Kevin crashed into the side of the cat with a yelp of pain, the cat’s skin was burning hot. The Guild Rider, on her giant bird steed, swung around and dashed at the devil rider. A vicious beak plucked the devil rider out of the saddle and threw him into the fray, crashing into fighters nearby, guild and devils alike.

“Thank you!” The woman rider said to Kevin as he pulled himself off the ground. Kevin ignored her for a moment as he studied the beast in front of him. It looked confused and was about to dash away. Kevin acted on impulse and jumped to catch the saddle on top of its back. The giant cat bolted and Kevin hung on furiously as the cat leapt through the battlefield. He was dragged for a bit before he crashed into some fighters the cat passed by. The force knocked him into the air and, keeping hold on the saddle, he fell squarely onto the cats back.

Kevin pulled himself into the saddle and a vibration shuddered through him and the cat alike. The cat pulled up outside the region of the fray, flying riders falling from the sky around him. The feline looked back at Kevin with one large glowing eye, red fire leaking from the side. It seemed to calm and Kevin pulled at the harness attached to the creatures iron collar. It started to move and he steered it toward the battle. He paused not knowing what to do next, but then just let the flow of the battle take him over.

Raising his new sword high, he tightened his grip on the animal with his legs. The molten rock no longer burned him. He roared, “Charge,” and lashed at the harness with the leash in his free hand. The cat charged with a burst of speed and he rocketed towards the battle. The giant cat leapt over combatants and flowed through the battle like a shark flowing through water. Kevin slashed the head off of a devil on his right and then leaned to the left to strike a devil sneaking up on Roman from behind.

Roman turned to see the devil fall to the ground, then watched in disbelief as Kevin weaved through the battlefield on a giant molten cat. “That lucky bastard,” He muttered before turning back to the battlefield as a large devil charged at him.

Kevin weaved through the battlefield and found the woman that he had helped earlier fending off two attackers trying to dismount her from the ground. She fought remarkably well, fending off club and sword strikes from both sides with her spear. She moved with lightning speed, but was unable to gain any momentum on the pair of devils. He steered his mount towards her and slashed one of the devils, sending it into the ground. The woman was able to knock the other devil away, sending him sprawling into the grass. She then turned and skewered the devil Kevin had knocked down, turning him to ash.

Kevin steered his mount toward the other devil and his molten cat automatically pounced on the devil and mauled it until it disappeared into ash.

“Thanks again,” She said. She looked at him with respect and admiration as he turned his giant cat mount towards her. “I’m Neisha.”

“Kevin,” Kevin nodded to her. He then turned to the battlefield, where he saw a huge devil with armor decorated with many skulls of various kinds fighting an intense battle with Regis. Their fight was so fierce many of the combatants of either side stopped fighting nearby and watched.

The Devil Captain wielded a large staff and hammered Regis away whenever he got in close. Regis wielded a shiny greatsword and blocked each strike. The Devil Captain struck him away again and cast fire at Regis. Regis took the spell in the face but charged through it, striking the staff with his greatsword and knocking it away as he barrelled into the Devil Captain. The Devil Captain rolled with Regis in the dirt and then threw him off, sending Regis tumbling away.

As Regis climbed to his feet, the Devil Captain was already casting and sent forth a bright bolt of lightning. Regis, however, was watching the Devil as he rose and just before the Devil cast, he made a motion with his free hand. The lightning travelled so fast, it was hard to tell what had happened, but it hit Regis’s hand and ricocheted back to the Devil, sending him sprawling in the dirt again. Regis had somehow cast a reflective spell, reflecting the Lightning back at the Devil Captain.

Regis stood steady and charged his foe again, jumping into the air and diving at the fallen Devil with his greatword set to impale it. The Devil Captain, raised its staff with unearthly speed to hit Regis out of the air and send him tumbling again. He hit the ground some distance away.

Regis was getting up from that tumble when he was hit by lightning, stunning him on the spot as he cried out in agony. The Devil Captain had stumbled after that last spell, obviously dizzied and not able to cast anymore. He roared in protest and grabbed a sword from a nearby devil. The Devil Captain charged at Regis as Regis kneeled in the dirt, still obviously dazed from the lightning spell.

“No,” Kevin whispered as the Devil came at Regis. It thrust at him, but with instant reflexes Regis deflected it with his blade and hit the Devil Captain in the face with the cross guard of his greatword. He had feigned disorientation to bring in the Devil. He swung at the Devil then, inflicting heavy damage with each strike. The Devil Captain, enraged, swung his stolen sword at Regis too, striking him in every way it could. There was no defense now, just the two combatants flailing at each other, each striking the other with as much force as they could muster.

With a great effort, Regis then thrust his greatsword into the devil and lifted it off the ground. It screamed and flailed in the air, its massive weight buckling Regis’s knees. It swung at Regis while it was in the air, but only hit him twice before finally turning to ash that was blown away in the breeze.

There was a moment of silence on the battlefield, then the remaining devils fled back the way they had come. Some of the guild members left on riders chased them for a time, taking out the stragglers.

Kevin glanced at Neisha, and then rode towards Roman, who was making his way towards Regis. He sidled up to Roman who glanced up at him from the ground.

“How the hell did you manage to steal a mount?” Roman asked with a grin.

“I don’t know, it just sort of happened.” Kevin said with a goofy grin. “Why? Does it not happen often.”

“No, it can. But these are a new kind of mount. Your probably one of the first to actually ride these.” He gestured towards the molten cat underneath Kevin.

“Nice,” Kevin said as he looked at his mount approvingly. They got to Regis who was moving slower than before. Regis looked at Kevin atop the cat and nodded with respect.

“Good fighting, crew.” He said. “I got a new achievement for defeating that captain.”

“Nice,” Roman fist bumped Regis. “What now?”

“I’m going to create a post to defend Krookville for our guild. Once our people recover, we’ll invade the region and find the source of these guys.”

“When’s the next fight, do you think?” Roman asked.

“Tomorrow, same time. I’ll create a notice and we’ll have more people and plan an attack.”

“Alright, sounds good.” Roman turned to Kevin, “You in tomorrow night?”

“I’m just a newbie, I won’t be able to help much.” Kevin said awkwardly.

“You seem to be picking it up quite well,” Regis said.

“I’ll say, he saved me twice.” Neisha strode up on her mount. “I can vouch for his skill. He took out quite a few of those devils.”

“I did the best I could, but I ran out of mana before the battle.” Explained Kevin.

“Yeah, well you switched it up pretty well, you must have gained some good stats. You also don’t have to worry about stamina while you’re on a mount.” Regis replied. Kevin pulled up his sleeve and checked his stats.

Health 1

Mana 7

Stamina 5

Strength 7

Cunning 5

Agility 5

Intelligence 10

“Huh,” Kevin said after reviewing his stats. “Alright, I’m in, I guess.”

“I hope so,” Neisha said. She looked at him with a wild look in her eyes and flashed a smile before turning around and riding off to join some people she knew. Roman chuckled.

“Alright, the guild can disperse now. See you tomorrow, Roman. You too, Kevin.” Regis saluted them both.

“Yeah, see you.” Kevin said before Regis teleported out. Roman looked around the battlefield. Many players and AI were collecting fallen weapons that were strewn across the grassy expanse, but there weren’t many people left. Only about a dozen were left, out of the massive throng that had participated in the battle. “That was a close win.”

“It was. They’ll be more prepared tomorrow, but we will too.” Roman said. “I’m going to go complete some missions, you want to join?”

“Nah, I’ve probably got to get some sleep. School tomorrow.”

“Alright, man. Take care, you better be on tomorrow!” He pointed at Kevin and smiled. He then spoke to his VR AI and teleported away.

When he was left alone, he remembered Karen back at the village. “Destiny, can you store my mount?”

“Yes, Master. I can only store one mount at a time, however.”

“That’s fine.” He said as he dismounted and the cat disappeared in a flash of light. “Can you teleport me to Krookville?”

“I suggest you grab some loot first before you go. It seems logical to gather some of these for auction, their former owners will probably never get them back.”

“Nah, I’ve already got plenty from this fight.” Said Kevin as he sheathed his new sword in the sheathe that had appeared on his belt.

“Yes, Master.” Destiny said as the light enveloped him and he fell to land on the road before Krookville. Kevin couldn’t see Karen anywhere as people in the village looked at him in wonder.

“Destiny, can you open a chat with Karen?”

“Yes, Master.” Destiny paused then said, “She has denied your access to chat.”

“Huh,” She must still be mad at him. He wondered if she would be mad tomorrow at lunch too.

“I’d like to log out of the VR now.”

“Yes, Master. Have a good night.” Destiny said. From the way Destiny had been acting today, Kevin figured she was getting smarter. She had even suggested for him to pick up some fallen weapons. He wondered what the effect of that would be in the future.

He found himself in his room again and prepared for bed.

At school the next day, he sat in the lunch room waiting for Karen. He felt bad for how the previous night had gone. Vendall was obviously important to her, and now he was gone. He hadn’t asked Vendall to fight, though. Why was she angry with him?

He sat eating his sweet and sour pork for many minutes before he realized she wasn’t going to show. This made him angry, she was going to let something that happened in the game affect their real life friendship? He finished his lunch and angrily slammed the tray on the tray deposit before leaving the lunch room.

When he got home, he continued his ritual of eating and cleaning up before going online. While he was eating he thought about his missions that he had taken. He would either have to complete them or grab new ones. Derek would be happy to see him getting stronger so fast. Kevin would be able to help him sooner. He wondered when Derek would contact him again.

Kevin went straight into the game this time, not taking any time to sit in his home realm. He appeared in the Varnu Capital. Given that he was early, he summoned his mount and made his way through the city to the border. People throughout the city gawked at him on his fiery feline.

The Watch that he passed at the mouth of the cavern exiting the city watched him with more interest this time. They saw him and his glowing red mount head into the cavern and disappear.

Destiny left a trail to his next assignment, which was the Raider Cats. He made his way along the trail silently, but brightly. His cat gave off the red glow of its lava-like stripes. Eventually he came to a corridor where the highlighted trail stopped. He slowed to a crawl along the uneven corridor. He came to a ridge in the cavern, with a slight drop below. His cat made the leap down further into the tunnel. A stream ran past him down into a cavern below the precipice behind them. He followed the stream with his eyes and noticed shadows on either side of the stream. This seemed odd to him, he hadn’t seen any shadow he could not see through. Shadows all seemed like different shades of grey with his night vision. He couldn’t see through these shadows at all.

Suddenly a pair of eyes opened, reflecting yellow light back at Kevin. Then another, and another, until fifteen sets of eyes were staring back at him.

“Oh, boy.” Kevin said, unsheathing his sword. Then the shadows came apart and stalked around the cavern, they bared their white fangs and hissed a low tone. “Get ready buddy.” Kevin patted his stead. It roared and the other cats cringed a bit, but, boldened by their numbers, they pressed on. With that many big cats trying to surround him, Kevin turned his mount around and took off running through the tunnel. He heard them chase after them and the drum of their paws on the cavern surface. His mount took off down the tunnel, stalactites whizzing by him at frightening speed.

One of the cats caught up on the right side of Kevin and his mount, and leapt at them. He saw it coming and swung his sword at it, hitting it away. It tumbled onto the cavern floor, rolling and then scrambled back to its feet.

Kevin’s mount kept on going, tirelessly running through the caverns, but so did the Raider Cats. Kevin tried casting lightning bolts and fire at them, but they dodged the spells like water on rock and just kept coming.

Suddenly his mount turned a corner and he saw faint light up ahead. His mount dove for it, outdistancing the raider cats. Kevin and his cat arrowed down the corridor and turned another corner before bursting out into the sunlight. Kevin caught his breath of fresh air as his mount leaped down a mountain slope. He could see grassy rolling hills in the distance, with a massive green forest to his right. The sea could be seen past the hills in the distance, blue and endless. It was beautiful.

Kevin looked behind him to see that the Raider Cats were not following him, so he reined in his mount and they paused to enjoy the scenery and the fresh air. It was a peaceful moment, one that he thoroughly enjoyed. He thought about Destiny then, and his Home Realm, sitting in his hot spring. He would have to set up the house he had summoned.

“Master, Roman has requested to chat with you.” Destiny broke the silence.

“Alright,” Kevin said.

“Chat enabled.” Destiny said.

“Hello?” Kevin said uncertainly.

“Hey Kev. What’s up?” Roman’s voice came out of nowhere.

“Not much, just enjoying a view. How about you?”

“Getting ready for the retaking of Denhall, are you joining us?”

“Yeah, I will be.”

“Alright, we’re getting everyone together now. I’ll meet you in Krookville?”

“Sounds good, I’ll teleport there now.”

“Good, we’ll be there soon. Put on your game face, cause we’re going to kick some butt!”

“Alright,” Kevin chuckled.

“Chat disabled.” Destiny informed him. Kevin took one last look at the vast view and enjoyed the moment while he could.

“Alright, Destiny.” Kevin said, “Can you teleport me to Krookville?”

“Yes, Master.”

Kevin and his mount disappeared from the mountain slope in a flash of light, leaving the peaceful scenery as it was.