The forced teleport that scattered the players thorughout Experia left Tripper in the middle of a large forest, alone and disoriented. Tripper’s first reaction was to open his game status screen and check his friends list.

While Z and Rae were still both listed in his contacts and Jaggernaut was in a list of [Recently Played With], his attempts to contact them through the built-in online chat functions failed. A blinking red icon in his menus caught his attention and he clicked on it.

[Quest: Save King’s Court; failed] flashed after he opened the icon. Continuing through the menus he found that the log out button was now completely gone, removing the option for the forced back to King’s Court’s battlefield. In the status menu, he was declared a [Level 6 Mage, subclass: N/A, professions: N/A].

His inventory with the small items he’d pulled off of creatures and other mobs were still stored despite the forced port and menu changes, showing that at least some of the recent game data was still active. Unsure of how to locate his friends, Tripper set a waypoint to the original starting town for the game, [Tameron], and began to wander in the town’s direction.

The sunlight coming through the forest canopy began to fade as the sun set, the light faded slowly and imparted a larger sense of urgency to Tripper as he made his way towards Tameron. A few birds cawed and whistled to each other and there was a quiet flutter of wings.

The grass and fallen leaves crunched beneath Tripper’s feet as he trudged through the forest. Small bursts of moonlight and stars broke through the canopy of massive oak trees that were the majority of the woodlands. The sounds of bugs and other critters whispered between tree branches and over roots of trees as he continued to walk.

Each sound put Tripper more and more on edge as he realized just how large Experia really was and how lonely the world could be. Soon enough, glowing eyes shown from between tall oaks and heavy layers of brush. They flickered across as the creatures they belonged to followed him.

A heavy silence floated from the trees themselves and coated the air and ground. Tripper slowed down, he felt something coming toward him. Ahead, the trees began to thin a little and four-legged shapes appeared and kept up with his pace. There was a slight breeze and the smell of sulfur and ammonia wafted through his nostrils.

Tripper gagged slightly at the scent before suddenly doubling over and choking. He forced himself to his feet and began to run to where the trees thinned, spying what appeared to be an open field. Behind him, the shadows and shapes solidified into a pack of four [Feral Cats, Level 5] led by a small winged creature, ID’d as a [Pixie, Level 6], an angry species of fairy.

The pixie glowed with an orange hue, the aura affecting the Feral Cats, with their eyes glowing to match the same color and indicating it was in control of the beasts. The group of cats broke apart, splitting into pairs to surround Tripper as he ran, with the pixie staying directly behind him and in the center of the group.

Small sparks flew from its hands and struck Tripper, dealing small bits of damage but slowing him down. Just as he broke through the trees, he stumbled and the pack of hostile monsters closed in on him. The cats paced around him in a tight circle, getting closer with each orbit. The pixie continued to fling sparks at him as he tried to shield his face from the strikes with his arms.

The feral cats started to take turns swiping at him with their claws. As he blocked their attacks with his arm, he flickered through the various combat menus for the mage class and found a protection spell he could use.

Charging his mana for a moment, Tripper cast the spell.

“Aegis!” he shouted, and a light blue haze enveloped him, blocking the first few hits and allowing him to stand up long enough to get ready to fight.

Focusing on the spells he knew for his level, Tripper loaded one spell into each hand, preferring to fire faster instead of dual casting for higher strength on the blasts.

Tripper struck at the pixie with [Arcane Arrow], hoping that the mana-theft secondary effect would help slow its attacks down. His other cast of [Fireball] struck one of the feral cats dealt a decent amount of damage and burned it for a few seconds, causing the other three to retreat slightly.

The pixie yelled with a high-pitched squeal, launching itself at him and showering him with sparks. The frenzy effect it had on the cats increased, with the pack joining in the attack and wearing down the [Aegis] effect from the beginning of the fight.

A cat got ballsy, jumping at Tripper’s legs and biting into his calf. Tripper screamed in pain as he felt the teeth sink in. He beat at the cat with his fist before shocking it with a [Lightning Bolt] spell. It let go of his leg and he scattered the other creatures with a wave of fireballs, then tried to run further into the field.

The pain in his leg kept him from going much faster than a brisk limp and the animals quickly caught back up to him.

Tripper’s health bar was heading into the danger zone, with his HUD showing a dark orange color rather than a healthier yellow-green like when he first escaped the trees.

Dual-casting [Pulse], Tripper launched a glowing missile of magical energy at the pack, catching them all in the magnetic force of the spell and sending them flying into a pile a few yards back as he continued to limp away. His mana bar was getting low and panic crept into his mind as the pixie flew after him. The pixie’s health was almost gone so he focused on it, casting an [Ice Shard] to slow it down and knocking it to the ground. The tiny creature beat its wings futilely and then clawed its way across the ground after him, leaving a small tract in the earth following its path.

The cats broke free of the magnet status effect from [Pulse] and began to chase him again, though the impact of the spell had damaged them enough to make them weary. Readying [Ice Shard] in both hands, Tripper fired a volley at the cats, killing one and slowing two.

Blood dripped from the mouth of the fourth cat, the one that had latched onto his leg before, and it came after him. The shock from his [Lightning Bolt] had singed the fur of the cat when he forced it away and its health was nearly depleted. Tripper charged up another [Arcane Arrow] in both hands, hoping the stagger effect from the dual-cast would either kill or disable the cat.

The cat leaped at him, angry and with a hungry look in its eyes, as if the taste of his flesh had overwhelmed its instinct for self-preservation. At the height of the jump, Tripper fired the arrow spell, but it grazed the side of its flank and flew into another cat, killing the one behind but not slowing down the first.

Suddenly an arrow erupted from the cat’s ribcage and cut its leap short, slamming it into the ground. Five high-speed shots crashed into the other cats, killing them and leaving the pixie the only enemy left.

The small creature’s insect-like wings beat uselessly as it continued to drag itself along, firing sparks that fell just short of Tripper from one hand while it pulled itself with the other.

“What the hell?” Tripper asked no one in particular, “Why won’t you just back off already?”

With a final burst of energy and the last of his mana, Tripper launched a fireball at the monster, turning it into ashes. Then, he looked around to see who had fired the arrows that saved him.

“Hey dude,” Jag said and walked up to him.

He helped Tripper up to his feet and the two looked at each other for a moment. Jag looked scuffed up and dirty but otherwise fine. Out of combat, Tripper’s health began to regenerate and the injury to his leg faded away.

“What the fuck, Jag?” Tripper asked.

“I was kinda running around looking for you guys, saw you and did a thing,” he explained.

“Did you find the others?” Tripper said.

“Not yet, but this whole game turned into a shit storm of epic levels pretty fast once we all got ported out of King’s Court. I’m glad I stumbled across you when I did or you might not’ve made it.”

“Do you think respawn’s gone now that the game’s all nuts?” Tripper asked.

“Not sure, a few people I kept in my list said that they respawned at Tameron, others I haven’t heard from. Could be the chaos of it, could be worse,” Jag said quietly.

The two took a minute to loot the creatures they’d killed, then headed back to the forest to head back to Tameron and look for Z and Rae.

A while later, the two decided to rest, sitting on the gnarled roots of a large tree. Tripper held a fireball in his hand to give them some light.

“What was it like?” Tripper asked.

Jag laughed, “The forest was kinda dark, I didn’t know how far it stretched.”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking. Come on, man. How were you so chilled out when we popped up at King’s Court?”

For a moment, Jag was quiet. His usual level of perk flickered away for a second, his smile turning grim before snapping back to a joking grin.

“It was like I didn’t exist, not really me. When I first got there I puked,” Jag said, “Well, I tried to puke, nothing came out at first. Not sure if it’s because I hadn’t eaten in-game or if it’s just not possible to actually puke here. We can bleed though, we feel it.”

“Did you try to log out once you got there? I tried but my menus didn’t have the option. The button was there but it was greyed out.”

“I never got the chance to try. I died about thirty seconds after popping up there. I kept dying. I’m not sure how many times, but eventually I guess my reflexes kicked back in. You don’t get to be a tournament gamer by staying still. I’m twitchy I guess,” Jag said, and held his hands up.

Both hands shook, and he let them flop back into his lap.

“Once I started moving, I just started attacking anything that came near me. It calmed me down to focus on it. I think the first couple of hours though were the hardest. Nobody knew what was going on,” Jag said, “We just all kept dying and then coming back in the middle of battle. By the time you guys showed up, I’d been there for almost five hours.”

Tripper nodded. Jag’s tone had an edge to it.

“Do you think we’re really stuck here?” Jag asked.

“I’m not sure. I think the game got a lot more real than it was supposed to get,” Tripper said, “but if we can find a way out, we can go home, right? First we’ve just gotta find Z and Rae.”

“Do you think we’re able to sleep here? If we’re stuck, it would make sense that it would be as close to the real world as it can get, right?” Jag yawned.

“You want me to take first watch and you can test out the whole sleeping thing?” Tripper asked.

“Sure man, saving your ass is exhausting.”

Tripper chuckled and set himself up to keep watch and released the fireball spell he’d held, then watched his mana rise back up from the canceled cast. Jag was already asleep by the time the spell was off, he snored quietly.

Tripper shook his head, and tried to relax while he kept watch. Soon, his vision began to blur and exhaustion overtook him. Guard duty was not his strong suit.