Breath: Taken

The Inkweb Spider lunged forth from inside the treasure chest. It caught me completely by surprise; I was really expecting there to be a knife in here.

You're no doubt wondering how I could be so naive. 

Well, even though intelligence is my highest stat, it's still only 3! Not so high in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully leveling up would make it so I didn't fall for such silly tricks anymore...

So now, once again, I found myself pinned to the ground by a giant spider, with its chelicerae (aka fangs) and pedipalps (aka weird mouth-legs that are the spider equivalent of a scorpion's pincers) feverishly twitching mere inches in front of my eyes. 

"Oh, did I say knife? I meant to say there was a giant spider stashed in that chest. I confuse those two things all the time, but that was what you were looking for, right?" said the shadowy face before it broke out into another fit of wicked laughter.

Well, I'd been struggling to stay alive just out of instinct, and not knowing how unpleasant the dying experience would be. But since I was in a game world, death was no longer finite. I could just let them kill me, then come back and confront that face from a better position. But first I probably needed to bite the bullet and find others to form a party with... 

"As soon as I respawn, I'm going to—"

"Respawn? Dear Minori, there is no respawning for players—not anymore—not since the Acquisition..."

My blood froze in my veins.

What?! 

Not only did this thing somehow know my name—my real name—when all the other NPCs simply called me "adventurer" , but it mentioned an Acquisition? What did that mean exactly? 

Usually it was when one company buys out another. Was that what was going on here? Was that why the game was changing? There were new developers taking over?

But how could this world have developers if it were a real world?! 

Oh my, this was becoming a pain. Mysteries and puzzles always gave me such a headache...

Even so, this face seemed like the only opportunity I had to get some real answers. Yet something I'd heard earlier suddenly struck me again: "Don't heed the shadows on the wall... they lie." 

Well, I learned that lesson the hard way—there was certainly no trusting this thing. 

But how did it know my name?! That was the super creepy part because it proved that this thing knew much more than the in-game NPCs did, and probably more than other players as well. But how was I supposed to discern whether it was also lying about this so called Acquisition?

"Who—what are you?!" I demanded, still on my back, trying to stop the chest-spider from eating my face.

The shadow just laughed maniacally as more spiders finally sensed my presence and excitedly scurried over to join the fun.

Well, it seemed like this was it then... if I really couldn't respawn. 

I certainly couldn't fight off multiple spiders while one held me down. It was all I could do to keep this thing's fangs from piercing through my throat.

And now, two more pair appeared overhead, ready to sink into the deliciousness that was my flesh.

The spiders all hissed excitedly, flared their fangs, and bore them down upon me.

Except there was a sudden, drastic change in atmospheric pressure that caused them to hesitate.

"Shalahg Igna!" A gust of intense heat—an inferno—lashed by, quicker than a whip.

All three spiders were incinerated in an instant. So suddenly, in fact, that they didn't even have the chance to hiss about it.

"Ugh, you again..." said the face on the wall with an irritable sigh.

I rolled over onto my knees and looked up to see my rescuer step into range of the torchlight. At first sight of him, my mouth fell agape and my stomach was assailed by butterflies.

Beautiful...

I was speechless—not only because of his pristine beauty, nor from the mere fact that someone was able to take my breath away—but mainly because he was an Elf. 

What's he doing in the Fae starting zone?

He lifted his scimitar and held it outstretched in his right hand, pointed at the shadowy face on the wall. "Fei day-la u-lura!" he bellowed, his tone brimming with righteous fury.

I had no idea what he just said; I didn't speak Elvish and there was no easy way for people from other factions to understand each other. 

It just sounded so cool...

His silvery skin made him look like a marble sculpture brought to life. He had blue, glowing crystalline eyes and shimmering white hair. 

This was a Palace Elf. 

His headdress, sandals and all white attire, however, made him seem like he was from the desert. He was shirtless, save for the thin silk wrap he had elegantly wrapped across his chest then down the length of his right arm. He had a long, billowing cloak and puffy, baggy pants.  

Being that his stats were all question marks, he must be a much, much higher level than me—evidenced by the fact that he had obliterated a handful of spiders with a single swing of his flaming sword.

Judging by his weapon, it was clear he was a Magus. The Magi were kind of like "elite warrior priests" who specialized in balancing sword play with powerful fire magic. This one in particular seemed hellbent on destroying the shadow on the wall. 

A creature which somehow also spoke Elvish. 

"Kinu tah, kien sunsi fini-shuh!" answered the face before yet another fit of manic laughter.

"What are you saying to each other?" I demanded of the face. It must say a lot about my desperation to communicate with this Elf, that I would trust this shadow, that had only just deceived me, to translate between us.

"He said he wants you to heal him, bwahahahahahahaha!"

The Elf turned around, as though only just realizing I was there. Our eyes met, and I lost myself in those immaculate crystals... 

I noticed a drop of blood sliding down his lip. Oh he's hurt. Well, I do have healing spells... but we're indoors, I need to be beneath the moons and stars...

The face looked from me back to the Elf then bursted out laughing again. "Too bad for the insurmountable language barrier between you two—you'd make quite the party, if not the perfect coup—aghhhh!" It was interrupted by its own screams after a pillar of fire shot forth from the Elf's outstretched palm.

As the smoke, flames and debris all settled, I could see the face was gone. There were now bits of shredded darkness coalescing into the palm of the Elf's hand. From that formed a dark crystal, which he then took and put into his satchel before turning back to me for one final, appraising look.

Still mesmerized, all I could do was return his gaze and blink dumbly.

He merely shrugged his shoulders then turned and left the cave.

"Hey, wait!" I frantically wiggled my way back out from underneath the spider corpse, which had basically been turned to a giant lump of coal, then jumped to my feet and ran after him. "Let me heal you, at least!"

He turned around, just as I came out of the cave. 

I pointed to the drop of blood on his lip and shouted: "Moon Beam!" 

The Lime Moon—the closest moon currently hanging in the nebulous night sky—flashed, glowed intensely, then sent a ray of it's lime green energy directly upon the Elf—igniting his face, hair and all the rest of him.

1 Damage—said the red number that flashed above him as the Moon Beam faded. An ember on his hair flared weakly before fizzling out. The cut on his lip remained.

Whoops. 

I'd meant for that ability to heal him, but because he's from a different faction, it registered him as an enemy and did damage instead. 

I forgot I was able to target and attack him because we were in Fae territory, which normally also meant that he wasn't able to target me....unless I attacked him first. 

Which I just did. 

I stood aghast. This was so embarrassing—on so many levels.

His status bar was now red, no longer orange, and I could see a note in my periphery: flagged for PvP. 

Now he was free to kill me as he pleased.

"Please, I..." I didn't know what to say as I put my hands up and started pleading, trying to mime that it was an accident.

He seemed entirely unmoved as he drew his sword.