Raava the Red Phantom
The dry ground beneath his toes crunched with every step that Raava took as he trudged his way through the maze of earthen pillars with his guildmates in tow. Perhaps as Guild Master he should have been more of a shining example exuberating enthusiasm and bursting with energy and professionalism to keep the spirits of his companions up, but in truth he didn't want to be on his feet. The warlock didn't want to be on his feet at all. Raava glanced behind him to check on how his team were doing then returned his eyes ahead, closed them then attempted to wish himself back in bed at the inn south of this valley with Nora, the large breasted barmaid NPC, serving him breakfast in bed again. Raava's tongue began to salivate, he wiped his mouth discreetly then gestured in the air to open his menu screen which appeared as a translucent box with a various number of tabs and options. He couldn't outwardly complain though. Leaving the Inn early to get a head start on the journey to the Dungeon was his idea after all. Players rarely roamed outside of safe zones during the night and he didn't want to risk running into any more hostiles than necessary. Raava tapped the middle tab to open up a voice chat with Sikes. Sikes had gone on ahead to scout for MOBs of wandering monsters nearby or possible gankers camping the area for unsuspecting player.
Gankers are like the bandits of the online game world. Gankers aren't to be confused with PKers-Player Killers. While PKers hunt and kill other players purely for the fun of it, Gankers typically stalk a party of players who are on a quest and swoop in once they're weakened to slaughter them and take the prize. Gankers...Pkers, which is worse was just a matter of opinion, but Raava wasn't about to take a chance on either.
"Sikes! haven't heard from you in a while. Starting to think you might have slipped off a cliff and fell into a pit full of hungry quigs."
A whistling chill wind blew by, though he was half the invisible layer of his magical armor shielded him from the elements. It was till dark in the early morn and the moon was slowly flying away to make room for the sun to rise in about an hour. Watching the moon took him back to his first days in this world. to the first days he spent with the people who would become his guildmates in this ugly yet beautiful world.
***
Raava was falling from the sky at an ear deafening speed. He dropped through puffs of clouds, a flock of dives and continued spiraling downward like a meteor to a sea of trees stretched as far as the could register. The moment of the actual landing was a blank in his memory but the next thing he knew he was standing in dense forest void of light save for the few slivers that squeezed through gaps between the leaves on a few trees. He wandered around for a few moments scrolling through his when he stumbled across a still pristine like reflecting the sunlight. It was in also in the reflection of that lake that he was able to see the mirrored image of his new form. Velvet black wavy hair, brown evenly toed skin golden eyes tattoos that appeared as perfectly executed brush strokes which ran from his pelvis to his chest, down his back and twisted their way down both of his arms. A tattered crimson headband was wrapped around his skull, a matching piece of cloth was wrapped around his waist, draping a bit past his knees. The warlock's palms and feet were bound with black strips of cloth as well.
Satisfied with his new Appearance he turned to fin some monster to try out his new skill set on and came face to face with a pair of the biggest, most vicious scarlet eyes he's ever seen in his life. It's massive body swiped at him, tore through the invisible layer of his magical armor, ripping through his flesh flinging him through the forest where he crashed into a sturdy tree that shook as it halted his flight in a splinter of searing pain. He fell to his knees screaming. The simulation of the pain was just too real! He was terrified and could hear the creature dragging it's mountainous body through the the forest tearing down trees to his location.
Raava's fear was mounting by the millisecond. The amount of pain he was experiencing, the realness of every sensation and the looking down at the long and wide scratches that now ran along his torso to give him nightmares. Exasperated he struggle to stand on his feet. Raava's health health bar blared before him, depleted of all but one percent of his total.. As the pain subsided he resolved to to fight the the beast and began charging a spell, but as soon as the creature's gigantic eyes locked on his once more, the spell wouldn't cast. Did it just silence debuff him with a glare!? The beast was closing in quick. He'd had enough, he summoned his menu window and searched for the log out option, but it was nowhere to be found. "This can't be right!" he blurted. "It was just there!" The creature was only a yard away then suddenly it was just a few feet!. It's muzzle parted to reveal twin rows of sharp yellow teeth and a moist, wide, pink tongue. I can't believe this. It's going to swallow me whole....I'm going to die...why am afraid to die? It's only a game right?
"This can't be happening be happening! No! No! Where is the log out button!"He was now staring down the creature's throat, tears had begun to form in his eyes when an unexpected thing happened. The creature rolled back in pain unleashing a wail so incredibly loud that shook t every tree for 20 miles.
What had happened?
Raava spotted what seemed to be a stick jutting out from it's eye ball, blood gushed and spilled from it.. Where did that come from? His eyes swiftly scanned the area until he spotted a girl with a curtain of blue hair loading an arrow into her bow atop of a nearby branch who had come to his rescue. The monster turned it's attention to her. It's mouth parted again and sprayed a powerful jet of foul smelling liquid in her direction. Raava reacted before he could, sprinting toward the girl when in the blink of an eye he was in the tree and had scooped her into his arms. He jumped down just as the fluid was about to hit them and next thing he knew he was another few feet away and out of range of the monster's acidic spray that had reduced the tree they were just on into nothing.
The archer in his arms fired another attack, but the monster spat another acidic jet which dissolved the arrow to nothing. Raava sat the girl down then then sent a barrage of lightening flying from his finger tips which surged across the monsters body. ineffective. Raava and the archer cursed simultaneously.
"I don't think this is a fight we can win." He finally admitted. The archer was in agreement and so he swooped her back into his arms and the pair fled as fast as they could, dashing through the passageway of trees past maximum speed with the beast hot in pursuit.
"Over here!" Someone yelled in the distance. A person was waving their them over then disappeared behind a wall of trees. With nothing to lose Raava headed in that way. As soon as he made it past that wall of trees both he and his companion found themselves falling into a hole in the ground.
They were now in now in a cave lit with a few torches. Inside were a handful of other people, players, who had also sought refuge.