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Chapter 13: Revenge of the Sullen

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Rex walked off of the Crown Hotel entrance with no mask, no cloak, just the plain "Siva" with a pure black themed sword on his back and his friends.

His Apollo face with the scar was intimidating. People were walking off their group's path.

"Wow, I never thought you'd be this scary." Muttering behind his left shoulder, Siva turned and saw Samara and Hawkeye laughing to themselves.

When he looked on his right, there were the red-faced Agatha fidgeting and hiding from people's stares, while beside her was the smiling and chuckling Volt.

"What?" Siva asked with honest confusion.

From their left to their right, the purple witch with the pointy hat walking like a cat, the energetic and lively ranger stretching her arms, the berserker with a face of a noble knight, a fidgeting priestess with an unshakable resolve, and the famous Volt whose name is famous in all corners of Terroa.

Except for Siva, the four of them is famous from many different reasons. Especially Volt. He was the first and perhaps the only Engineer to have actually killed a high ranked monster on his own.

The priestess Agatha was famous for her beauty and the way she devotes herself on doing her healing job.

Hawkeye, the only ranger who had a style of an acrobat in the battlefield, a player whose instincts and skills are all uniquely aligned and synchronized that she was also known as the lightning goddess because of her bow.

Then finally the purple witch. She was also famous on her own right. With players having their own styles and their own fighting abilities, Samara was the player that focused on long-ranged to mid-ranged firepower. She can also become a melee combatant by modifying her "Cannons" into hammer fists.

Perhaps what makes her a unique player is the fact that she unknowingly inherited the fighting style of a very famous iconic video game character.

She wasn't aware of that of course since that character attained her popularity a century ago.

And yet, for those who knew her, Samara is the 22nd Century's Morrigan witch.

Her style became The Morrigan Battle.

But Siva... for the people who knew Volt's team as the prominent adventurers and explorers of the continent, or perhaps of Terroa, the addition of this noble looking, yet, intimidating player is a sight.

"No nothing." Volt replied smiling.

Samara and the rest knew the reason why people were looking at them but Siva seem to not see this as his eyes and his mind were already flying somewhere else.

And perhaps this is one thing they liked about him, so they just smiled and continued to walk on.

His mind and focus is stolidly firm to his goal. This is one trait that is both unique and special only to Siva. A person who is easily moved by the curious stares of the masses are prone to commit mistakes in dire needs.

Siva displayed a stout resolution while being bombed by the stares of those who recognized Volt's party. But he just walked on, his head held high. He was watching left and right, looking for something in the crowd, as if he was searching for someone that made Agatha sigh.

"Is there a problem?"

Agatha raised her head and saw Siva looking at her in a manner that could melt any woman. He had the same face as the "Dex" she knew in their neighborhood but what separated Siva and Dex is the fact that there is a tinge of intimidating romantic feel with the way Siva looked at her.

"Agatha?"

"H-Huh? Wh-What?"

"You were sighing all these time. Is there a problem?"

Agatha looked around her and the rest of her party was also worried. She drew her eyes to De-Siva and her heart almost melted.

His eyes showed real compassion, the scar that became a redeeming factor in his complexion was like a beam of hot love melting her frozen heart.

"N-Nothing! There's nothing... wrong with me. Is it?"

Siva chuckled. "Why would I ask you if I know there is something wrong with you?" His smile was so... hot it traveled across the watching crowd. There were sounds of thuds and sighs escaping from around them while a few men glared at him with intimidation.

"E-Ehem... anyways, Agatha, are you alright?"

"Sa-Samara, is there really something wrong with me?"

"We're just worried that you might not actually be okay with the plan."

"Oh, that... well..."

Seeing that she can't answer straightly, Volt took that chance to tell Siva.

"Agatha wasn't really a good flyer. One reason why I bought the Cyclone is so that Agatha can ride with us in the fastest way possible."

"I see." Siva took a moment to contemplate, putting his thumb on his chin. This sight made Agatha and perhaps the rest of the eyes blush and lose strength on their knees. "But we can't really use the Cyclone in the place because it doesn't have defensive mountings and that it also doesn't have anything that can shield it from the attacks of curious Predators."

"True." Samara interjected. "Agatha, you can bear with it, right? Although you can stay here where it's-"

"No!" Agatha bellowed strongly that made Volt and the rest jolt and blink in surprise. "I'm going! I don't wan to stay here. I want to go with you guys."

"But Agatha, you..."

"I can manage! I'll try my best and I will not become a hindrance to you guys! So please... don't leave me..."

Samara and the rest exchanged looks and smiled. Siva put a hand on Agatha's shoulder and the two made eye to eye contact -with Agatha blushing ear to ear.

"Don't worry. You won't become a hindrance."

Agatha's heart seemed to be flying at light speed from the elevated feeling.

But just when their shoujo moment is at its peak...

"What a touching scene."

A female voice from the crowd caught their attention.

"A priestess defying the law of priesthood and a man of mask hiding in the pretense of a normal player."

Siva's group turned to the direction where the voice came and a group of ten or so people parted the crowd.

Swordmages, Rangers, and pure Casters comprised the group of twelve people. Their leader seemed to be a familiar face that Siva only met once.

"You..."

Siva's eyes fixed at the guy on the girl's right side. He was a Caster wearing a set of tunic and a long white staff curved like a serpent. Typical mage get up.

"Yes me." the guy squinted his eyes. "I can't let go of the humiliation you brought upon me so let me bring you the same humiliation along with your friends."

The Mage moved faster than Siva's group could react.

He stomped the paved ground with his staff and a rune circle of symbols appeared beneath the feet of Siva's group. It was skillfully cast, precise, and frighteningly fast that the crowd of people back off in horror.

"Teleportation circle!" Volt yelled. "Hold my hand!"

The five of them reached out to one another and after a brief moment of feeling as if sucked by a vacuum, there came a blinding light and they were gone.

Chilling warm yet gentle wind tinged with the smell of moss came to rape on them.

After the blinding flash of light from the forced casting of the Teleportation Ability, the feeling of solid muddy ground came to their feet. They opened their eyes and checked on one another. No one's missing, instead, all of them were there...

-including the other group.

"Welcome to hell." Said the girl and without warning summoned a large cannon that she held with both her hands. "AND DIE!"

Siva reacted and reached out for Agatha, he jumped off to the right as fast he could.

Volt, Hawkeye, and Samara also jumped off as they trusted Siva to pick up Agatha. All of them flew and hit tree branches on their way up and stumbled off.

"Forest?!" Hawkeye cried in surprise.

"Look out!" Samara yelled.

Three people went after Volt, two at Samara, two at Hawkeye and the five people went after Siva and the priestess in his arms. The large bore of the cannon that the girl had summoned a red light. And in the next moment, it fired off a large blast of energy that burned the forest behind Siva.

Just in time to dodge but not perfectly, Agatha saw his left leg burned with the look of pain in Siva's face.

"It hurts?!" her surprised reaction. Although it was not a normal thing for a player avatar with 70% less pain, the expression on Siva's face alarmed her and so she cast off her trademark ability without reserve. "Heal!"

The two landed on a tree trunk ten meters high up the ground. But there was no time to relax. Siva pushed her head down and pulled the sword on hi back. Agatha's head missed a speeding arrow while Siva's sword hit a second that split in two.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He yelled out to their attackers. "We've done nothing wrong against you!"

"Nothing wrong?" The girl with the cannon cried. "No one humiliates Cassiopeia! No one! NO ONE!"

One Swordmage, the Shank girl named Cassiopeia, and two pure Casters, and an Archer were after Siva. Two Swordmages and a Caster were after Volt, Hawkeye against an Archer and a Mage, and their purple witch were against two Swordmages.

"I never did anything against you!" Siva yelled back, kicked the ground to dodge a cast fire spell and parried an arrow from the archer that was positioned near the girl named Cassiopeia.

"And you even dare forget my face? DIE!"

Another blast came with frightening speed and Agatha was carried off like a bag yet again. The forest burned behind where the two jumped off and Siva looked back to his comrades upon realizing this.

"We're being separated. Agatha, call the others and tell them to not get separated. We don't know where we are and it's dangerous to-" He parried an arrow and blocked a miniature fireball with minimal burns on his cross armed block. "Just tell them to stick together."

The two of them landed on a tree and Agatha stared at Siva's back, trembling.

"Do it now!" Agatha jolted and realized the lost moments, hovered in her inventory and picked up the communicator with one hand.

She put the communicator in her ear and... she gasped.

"There's no signal!"

Siva turned to her, wide eyed, biting his lips. And when he turned again towards the front, the girl with the large cannon landed 30m away and smiling.

"Got you!"

"Tsk."

Agatha closed her eyes, expecting [Game Over]. There was the blinding light and the scorching heat but no information message detailing her death and that it was game over appeared.

Instead, there was a shadow in front of her, covering her body from the burst of melting heat.

The cannon fire ended, smoke and burning trees are all that remained. A crazy laugh of ecstasy can be heard from the girl 30 meters away, and the burning lump of meat feel down to his knees.

"Dex!"