Shall We Play a Game?
Stage 3
KarmaHope

It was a rookie mistake.

So perhaps she would feel better about being chased through the woods by a Wolf nine levels higher than she if she were actually a rookie.

Winry Rockbell panted heavily, trying to draw enough air into her lungs to keep her on her feet as she crashed through trees and undergrowth. Her hair caught on a particularly pesky branch, yanking painfully at her scalp as she kept running. She had only been playing this game for two hours at most, and already she was cursing the creators for their need to make it so realistic.

And also her best friend, for leaving her stranded high and dry.

"Dammit Paninya," she muttered as she dodged yet another tree branch. "'We should split up,' you said. 'It can't be that hard,' you said." She took another deep breath. "Well this is what happens!"

If she were in a clearer state of mind, she would realize that perhaps she was being too hard on her friend. After all, isn't that what they usually did? They would form a party, then she would go one way while Paninya went another, scouting out the area and the mobs and the best place to start. It's how they'd always done it, and they'd been playing together for years.

But AltEARTH was on an entirely different level altogether. Winry had been entirely unprepared for what 'full-immersion' actually meant – she could even smell the scent of nature. Having lived in the city almost all her life, the very lack of urbanization she had encountered so far was overwhelming. Because of this, she had been paying more attention to the scenery around her than she had potential mobs.

A rookie mistake.

Sure, she had passed the ubiquitous Slimes. Disgusting things they were, too. She didn't like actually fighting the things, but at least she'd been given a staff as a starter weapon so she didn't need to get too close and personal with them.

She had also seen a few Rats skulking about that were of a slightly higher level than the Slimes. Even if she hadn't had prior experience or checked their stats, the very fact that they had skeletons obviously granted them more strength than the Slimes had.

So she had killed a few Slimes and Rats, enough to level her up to a Four, but that hadn't been her main focus. The AltEARTH graphics were just so damn intricate and detailed and she was enjoying the sun on her face when a howl from the underbrush scared the hell out of her. Not three seconds later, a large, red-eyed Wolf leapt out at her, its jaws open wide, and she had begun running for her life.

Paninya was going to rail on her so hard when they next saw each other. How could she not have been paying attention? How had she not considered the fact that there were likely aggro mobs out here?

Of course, she thought she had a pretty good excuse and all, but … still. Rookie mistake.

"Whisper Cybergirl," she gasped between breaths. When the Whisper command popped up in the corner of her vision, she said frantically, "Paninya! I could really use some help! There's a Wolf chasing me and I'm not strong enough to fight it!"

It wasn't long until she received a response.

:/whisperfrom_cybergirl: Hang tight, Winry. I'll be there as soon as I can.

But it looked like 'as soon as I can' wouldn't be fast enough. One couldn't jump from one location to the other, at least not until the higher echelon levels. There may have been loads of devices to help facilitate travel, but they were all far too expensive for beginners to afford. No, it looked like she was stuck.

Dying shouldn't have mattered much; after all, she would only lose a level and respawn in the nearest town, namely Central Town. But she didn't want to die – not from something as stupid as this. Plus there was the fact that dying still hurt like all hell, even if it was a videogame and the pain factor had been reduced by fifty percent.

So she made a decision. Even if this Wolf was a Level 12, and she was still a lowly Level 4, she was going to fight it. At least then she could say she tried.

With the Wolf's hot breath against the back of her neck, she summoned her staff. Gripping it firmly as it fell into her hands, she burst free of the forest and into an open field beyond. Running just a few more paces, she braced herself and threw her entire body into a baseball swing using her staff as the bat. She glimpsed the red of the beast's eyes as the thicker end of the wooden staff cracked into its skull.

But there was no reason to celebrate – she felt the reverberations of the impact all the way up her arms, and while she knocked a few points from its health bar, it was not enough to make a serious impact. Instead, she only succeeded in making it angrier. To make matters worse, her own health bar was already suffering due to her mad dash through the woods.

Interesting, she noted absently as she swung at the Wolf once again, mobs aren't the only things that can affect our health. Once again, she felt the shock from the blow all the way up her arms, and her HP bar dropped a couple more points. She needed to find a way to end this, and quickly.

Think smarter, not harder. Her professor's words drifted back to her, and she felt a spark of an idea beginning to take form. AltEARTH was designed to be as realistic as a videogame could possibly be; therefore, wouldn't some spots on a mob be more vulnerable than others? She braced herself to take another swing, this time watching the beast in an attempt to locate its weak points.

As it bore down on her, red eyes glowing menacingly, she realized. The answer was quite literally staring her in the face. She knocked the beast away from her once again, and then adjusted both her stance and her grip on her staff. Now instead of the clubbed end on the offensive, she had the smaller, skinnier end pointed at the Wolf. If this failed, then she would accept her resulting death in peace.

She forced herself to keep her eyes on her opponent, despite her instinct to flinch away. When it was close enough, she stabbed forward with all her might. Her blow glanced off the creature's nose, deflecting straight into its right eye. The animal yelped, and Winry watched with a sense of sick satisfaction at the large number of hit points that rose above its head as its remaining health dropped by slightly less than half. As much as she was exhausted, she had the thought that maybe she could defeat this thing.

The large Wolf stumbled, pawing at the bleeding socket where its eye used to be. Winry nearly puked at the sight – raised as the daughter of two physicians, causing others harm was not something she enjoyed. In other RPG games, the cartoonified violence made everything easier; made it more like a game.

Right now, AltEARTH did not feel like a game.

She shoved up the sleeves of the loose tunic she wore and tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear. "All right, Wolf," she said, gripping her staff once more. "Give me all you got."

The Wolf growled and sprang at her, but with one of its eyes missing, its depth perception was off. Winry stepped to the side and whacked its skull with the blunt end of her staff, sending it reeling. It leapt at her again, and again, and again …

It got past her defenses a couple times, as she was in no way a skilled fighter. A claw gouged into her cheek and jaws clamped around her leg both elicited a screams. Even with fifty percent reduced pain levels, it still hurt like hell.

She knew she had to end this, one way or another. Despite the pain that lanced through her cheek with every moment and up her left leg with each step, she began setting herself up to stab out its other eye. It was the only way she would have a chance. Her health points were still ticking away, and she was at less than a quarter of a full bar now.

Winry flipped the staff in her hands. The Wolf rushed her, and an odd sense of calm fell over her as she lined up the shot.

"Brother! Over here!"

The shout broke her concentration, and she screamed as the Wolf tore through her tunic to scratch five parallel lines on her side. She lashed out wildly with her foot, hitting the creature only due to pure dumb luck.

"She needs help!"

Oh, no. She would not have this victory taken from her now. Even with her breathing labored and her vision darkening and her body in a constant state of pain, she had come too far to let another claim the kill.

"Don't – you – DARE!" she screeched, smashing the thicker end of her staff down over the Wolf's head. She didn't give it time to recover before she hit it again … and again … and again …

She was barely aware that on her last strike her staff met resistance, and then plunged straight through nothingness. Defeated, the Wolf dissolved.

:/gearhead_levelup

Along with her consciousness.

When she came around, it was to the murmur of unfamiliar voices. She blinked groggily, trying to reorient herself as the voices spoke above her.

"– Can't believe she killed that thing," one person said in an obviously masculine tone. "She was only a Level 4!"

Another, closer voice snorted. "Well, she's still kind of an idiot," the other man said, "wandering out so far when she was only a Level 4."

"Hey," she snapped, still slightly woozy. "It was an accident. No one asked for your help," she grumbled.

"Oh, you're awake!" the first guy said, dropping to crouch beside her. "How are you feeling? You were in pretty bad shape … Brother and I patched you up with the few supplies we had, but now that you're awake you should drink a health potion. Then you'll be good as new!"

"I know how health potions work," she said irritably as she looked up into amber eyes. Squinting, she read the name that floated above his head in green. ShiningArmor. Grinning, he offered her a hand.

Winry smiled weakly. "Sorry," she said sheepishly as she took his hand and allowed him to pull her to a seated position. "I'm still a little mad at myself for getting myself into that mess in the first place. This isn't my first time playing, I swear!" She paused for a moment. "Okay, it's my first time playing AltEARTH, but isn't it everybody's?"

The voice behind her laughed. "I'll give you that one," he said, "but every player knows not to attack something that's eight levels higher than him … or her," he amended, as if it were an afterthought.

Enraged, Winry whirled on him. "I'll have you know that I did not attack it. It was a damn aggro, and it leapt out at me and chased me for a good while, and would have killed me! I'm not an idiot, idiot!" This time, her eyes met startling gold ones set in a stubborn face. Her gaze flicked to his username. Fullmetal.

Well, it suits him, she thought wryly.

She blinked, suddenly noticing the Whisper notification that had popped up in the corner of her vision. Silently commanding it to open, she saw that it was from Paninya.

:/whisperfrom_cybergirl: Are you okay? You stopped moving on my map.

Shit, how long ago had she sent that? And could Winry Whisper her back without making herself look even more like an idiot in front of ShiningArmor and Fullmetal? She decided it was worth it to try, and was pleased to find she could compose Whisper messages silently.

I'm fine. I killed the thing, and I'm not in any danger. A couple other players found me – I'll stay here until you get here.

"Uhm … Gearhead? Are you there?"

The long-haired boy before her waved his arm in front of her face, and she brushed it away. "I was sending a Whisper to my friend," she explained. "She was worried."

:/whisperfrom_cybergirl: That's good. I'm almost there.

"Oh, right," he said awkwardly. "Well, uhm. I guess we haven't actually introduced ourselves. I'm Fullmetal, and ShiningArmor there is my brother – you can just call him Armorboy, though. That's what I always do."

Winry smiled. "You know I can read your usernames above your heads, right? And you can read mine?" She giggled at his apparent embarrassment and stuck out her hand. "I'm Gearhead," she said. Her grin widened as Fullmetal took her hand and they shook on it.

:/addfriend_shiningarmor

… ACCEPT FRIEND INVITE? … YES … NO …

She turned and looked at him curiously even as she accepted the invite. He shrugged. "You seem nice enough," he said, "and heck – you just took down that Wolf single-handedly as a Level 4! Maybe we can all play together sometime."

Winry considered it. "Sure, why not?" she said, sending a friend invite to Fullmetal. These two boys were the first players she had met other than Paninya, and they seemed 'nice enough' as well, if she disregarded the fact that Fullmetal seemed to have a tendency to be a bit of an ass at times.

Paninya ran into the clearing then, stopping short at the sight of her with the two boys. Grinning, Winry pushed herself to her feet. She had recovered most of her health points by now, so she wasn't nearly as weak as she thought she would be. "Cybergirl!" she cried, "Guess what? I actually killed that Wolf on my own!"

"Whoa, really?" Paninya asked, jogging lightly over to them. "Those things are like, Level 12! You mean they didn't help you at all?" she asked, gesturing to Fullmetal and ShiningArmor.

Winry shook her head. "Nope!" she said happily. "They helped me afterwards, though. I kind of passed out …" she laughed. "We were talking about maybe playing together sometime. What do you think?"

"Yeah, sure!" Paninya said. "Larger parties are always better, after all! You may have to wait a bit for us to catch up to you level-wise, though."

:/whisperfrom_cybergirl: How did you get so lucky? They're super hot!

Winry inwardly rolled her eyes at Paninya's Whisper. You mean their avatars are, she sent back. And what do you care? It's not like you're interested.

"Cool!" ShiningArmor said, unaware of their private messaging. "Brother and I have a quest to complete now … do you want to help? It's more Wolves."

"Yeah," Fullmetal agreed. "You'd gain experience a lot faster from the higher-level mobs, but Armorboy and I would keep you from dying."

:/whisperfrom_cybergirl: No, but you might be.

"Shut up," Winry muttered aloud.

"What? What did I say?"

She turned to Fullmetal, who had spoken. "Oh," she said, "not you. Paninya and I were Whispering. Sure, we'd love to help!"

She and Paninya disbanded their party, and seconds later she received the invite from ShiningArmor.

:/partyinvite_shiningarmor

… ACCEPT PARTY INVITE? … YES … NO …

She smiled as she selected 'Yes' without hesitation.

Author's Note:

I made a bit of an edit to the last chapter. Ed and Al got to Level 10 in the last chapter, not 3 like I originally stated. I made a new character on the one RPG I play, and made it to level 2 in like, 10 seconds. Everything else is basically the same, except they fought more things than just Slimes.

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

As always, reviews are super appreciated.