Thread: [ Code Crawlers ]

How long had he been waiting for this patch, two or maybe three weeks? Though he logged in everyday Aegis's experience hadn't felt this real since the day his guild had been raided. He (well she if one wanted to go by the context of game genders) could feel the soft touch of the wind, the warm sunlight, and of course the blood of the monsters that dared touch him. Though it was pointless, farming lower level monsters helped vent his frustrations (i.e. getting chewed out by his mother for not receiving an A+ on his Pre-Calculus test) and he could be on the lookout for anyone in Alexei's old guild.

"Double Sweep."

Since the whole event he'd tracked down some of the members, but never the big five behind organizing the raid nor Alexei themself. He assumed that they had discarded their old accounts or changed names to curb suspicion, but from Tiffany (one of the players he'd killed) she should have been in the area. Was she lying? If she was, he'd basically given up the chance to assassinate anoter one of the guild's members.

Well, not that he would give up on his word. He told her that he would spare her life in exchange for information, but something about her voice was strangely terrified. Did she think he was going to kill her in real life? Strange.

"Aegis, Denizen of Ashgate."

A voice.

Aegis turned around to find a blademaster with a treasure chest in his hand.

"Oh sorry, I meant former Denzien of Ashgate. Ah you know how bad with names I am."

He scratched his head sheepishly as he drew his sword out.

"So you already know what I'm here for."

"Well, let's just say a little birdie told me that an even smaller birdie was coming after my head," he replied, moving into a defensive stance, "I know what you did to our other members Aegis and I'm not going to stand by while you have your little power trip."

Spear already drawn, Aegis's lips formed a frown. Marlo had always been one of the more reasonable members of the guild and despite only knowing him tangentially, Carson could appreciate his fatherly (but condescending) attitude.

"You can't sway me Marlo," Aegis hissed, winding up for the Triple Doom, "I spared you last time we met, but not anymore."

The two of them met as they traded blows, Marlo weaving attacks between his abilities while Aegis used his spear to punish the blademaster every time that he came close. What Aegis lacked in speed he made up for in power and range.

"Tell me where Alexei is Marlo!"

"I told you she disappeared after the raid!"

Marlo sliced Aegis downward, landing a huge cut across his arm and forcing him to leap back for a few moments. Even if he looked and sounded old, he wasn't to be taken lightly.

"Tell the truth!"

Each blow brought them closer to each other, but Aegis was losing health rapidly. Whatever weapon Marlo was using, made him bleed too much for his lifesteal to be doing anything substantial and the fact that the masked man had pots to burn meant that Aegis would have to kill him with one quick burst.

"Revolver."

As Marlo began spinning Aegis spun his own weapon and knocked the swordsman to the floor before bringing the tip of his spear to the older man's neck.

"Wait! Don't kill me. I don't know what's going on with this patch but I haven't been able to log out."

Aegis hesitated for a moment, narrowing his eyes.

"If you kill me here, you don't know what's going to happen to me out there, in the real world and I don't think you want my blood on your hands. Please, think this through Aegis, Carson."

"Goodbye Marlo."

After a quick strike, Aegis left the fields in search of more monsters to vent to and perhaps, more people to interrogate.

Sting was having a weird day.


He had suddenly awoken up in the body of his ingame Avatar, Sting. At first he was confused, wondering why he was suddenly REALLY short. But after a little while, he had come to terms with it. He was stuck yah, and the log out button was missing. But hey, there were perks! He just had to figure them out!

As he wandered through the plains, he realized that walking was a difficult thing to do when you were shorter then most of the things out there. With a flutter, he suddenly remembered he had wings. Right. But it turned out that learning how to fly with a new piece of yourself was a lot harder then you might think, and he took more then a few falls trying to practice the whole action. But after a few hours, he finally had it figured out, and it was exhilarating. With a whoop, he takes off throughout the plains. Darting over the fields, a red blur to the area's green.

The server was such a joke. Everyone seemed afraid to tangle with any of the monsters or even move away from the quest-giving NPCs that were scattered around the area. Strangely (or is it logically?) enough, they still acted very mechanically, very much like their game selves which told Aegis that most everything seemed to be in order. It irked him quite a bit since it made the middle of the field very desolate, but by having many of the players clustered together, he could ask them questions wholesale.

"You there," he pointed to a blonde-haired wavemaster, "do you know of the Denizens of Ashgate?"

"I-I only know a little. They were taken down by the Axis of Anarchy a year ago or two," she stuttered, raising her staff, "please don't hurt me!"

"And?" he asked, urging the blonde to continue.

"What? How dare you talk to me like that? Ice burst!"

A shard of ice hit Aegis in the chest, causing the man behind the avatar to cringe but the woman on the outside merely walked forward and grabbed the poor soul, pushing her into a tree.

"Do you want to die?" he asked, "I asked you to continue."

Quickly a twin blade scrambled up to the pair, putting his hands up defensively before whispering to the mage. "Are you crazy Clara? That's Aegis, as in The Spirit of Revenge Aegis. She's been hunting down the Axis members for God knows how long and I'm not ready to see your ass in the hospital because this game's glitched out."

He turned back to Aegis with a weak smile. "Uh she didn't mean that. She just...slipped her hand. Right Clara?"

"Oh uh right!" she piped in, softly slapping her forehead, "I don't know what's up with me today!"

Aegis let go of Clara, stepping back. "So what do you know?"

"All I know is that the guild broke up six months ago (probably because of you), but some of the members are trying to reform what they used to have."

The longarm nodded and dashed away, noticing a red blur in the distance. Perhaps that person would know something too.