Chosen

A loud thud sounded out as the maul collided with the body of a sun scourge, toppling the hefty flower monster as its bulky head crashed to the ground in a cloud of dirt. Marcus grinned as he then raised his maul overhead and sent it crashing down, pummeling the downed monster’s head and driving it into the soil. At zero hit points the creature was no more, allowing Marcus to turn to the others just in time to see a gout of corrosive fluid surge across two more flowers. Already missing roughly a third of their hit points, that corrosive wave chunked it down by a fair bit before beginning to eat away at them in tiny increments.

“Hey will, why’s your breath attack so much stronger than mine.” Marcus complained.

“Pff, not on these guys. Acid breath’s meant for groups of armored mobs, and they ain't it. Pretty sure these things are actually weak against fire, and you have a faster cooldown.” Will objected.

“Ya know, maybe.” Marcus replied before charging up his Fire Spit and blasting it at an unfortunate flower mob in the midst of closing in on him.

Despite having just been at full hit points, their health bar quickly dropped to nearly half with the resulting burn damage tricking them down below that. The fire also caused the creature to flinch, giving Marcus an opportunity to land a couple more strikes that finished it off. Before he could feel too satisfied with his victory, three red hit markers appeared at the side of his screen accompanied by an equal number of light thuds.

“Ow!” Marcus grunted despite of course not actually feeling pain from that as he spun to face the creature who had the gall to try attacking him from afar.

Of course, it was another sun scourge a good few yards away. Holding in the button for his Charge ability, Marcus broke out into a sprint, weapon drawn back as he rapidly closed the gap. Before the creature could ready another volley, Marcus was already upon it, bringing down his maul and taking off most of its health with a critical hit. Heaving his weapon back for a sweeping strike, Marcus landed a second hit as the foe attempted to recover. Ready to fight again, it reared its heavy sunflower-like head back and slammed it down, causing Ember to stumble to the side as Marcus neglected to try blocking or dodging it properly. Unfazed however, Marcus made a quick swing to finish off the creature with what little health it had remaining.

“Oof, been do’n alot of swing’n. Arms need a break.” Marcus said as he rolled his shoulders.

Turning to see how the others were doing, Marcus watched as Will held out the tome in his hand before bringing his sword to it and dragging it against the page. Suddenly, the blade shimmered with a frosty sheen before Will slashed into one of the flower mobs with it. Meanwhile, A loud bang could be heard from somewhere near Sam, knocking one of the creatures off of its roots as a small plume of dirt blasted out of the ground. Sam meanwhile could be seen using the butt of his staff to scrawl another symbol into the ground before backing away from it. In Sam’s opposite hand, he also held out a grimoire , referencing it for a moment before he proceeded to use the upper part of his staff to trace a symbol that had appeared in the air before him. Moments later, a long, thorny vine surged out of it and struck one of the sun scourges, slowing it while dealing some impact damage and a DOT effect.

The three of them kept at it, getting their fill of combat on these sun scourges. By the time their spawn rates were significantly staggered, the lot of them had all reached level five and were inspecting their codexes for point allocation.

“Well, It’s get’n late. Think I’m gonna call it.” Will said as he decided on where his skill point was going.

“Yea, me too. What do you guys think so far?” Sam asked.

“Really good so far actually. I should have called out of work, but I didn’t realize I’d like this so much.” Will admitted.

“Haha, that’s what I did~ If only we could all be so blissfully unemployed like Marcus.” Sam teased.

“Hey, I’m gonna get a job eventually!” Marcus barked defensively.

“Haha, yea, you say that every time I bring it up.” Sam retorted with a chuckle.

“Well, I mean, I just haven’t found any good ones yet.” Marcus explained.

“Pff, good luck finding one. All the jobs around here suck.” Will noted.

“Yea, really. Anyway, you guys are done then?” Marcus asked.

“Yep, think I’m headed out right now. Play again tomorrow, yea?” Will asked.

“Yea, definitely! Goodnight guys!” Sam replied jovially.

Wishing each other a good night, Will was the first to log off, followed by Sam. Marcus meanwhile was looking his stats over, trying to decide where to slot his new point. With all that fighting, Marcus gained a Proficiency Point for his Maul which he dedicated to upgrading his Maul Mastery skill. He had also received his first point for his racial abilities, which he spent to further power up his Fire Spit. As for his class levels, he powered up his Rage ability as well as dedicated a point into Critical Fury, a Bloodshed tree skill that increased his Crit Rate while under the effects of Rage. It may have only been a passive, but the prospect of more damage was hard to pass up. Now of course, he needed to decide where this new point would go, and he was pretty certain he knew where that would be. Next up on the skill tree along with a small selection of other options was an ability simply called Throw, which increased the damage and range of thrown objects, however, what really had his attention here was the small attachment at the side, one that would allow him to throw stunned enemies as long as they were of the Small size category. Satisfied, he placed his skill point into Throw before flipping tabs to his options menu and selecting Exit Game. He was all by himself now after all and it was getting late. Reaching up, Marcus took hold of his headset and… he froze.

His gaze was locked upon to the grassy ground of the field in front of him as his breathing began to slow. Though there was nothing there, he did not stare with interest, but because he could do nothing else. Steadily the world around him seemed to grow so silent that he could practically hear his own heart beat. As he stood there, time itself seemed to slow, as if he were suddenly becoming hyper aware of every second that passed, yet his mind was blank of all but a single thing. Why couldn’t he move? What was happening? An errant finger twitch was the most movement he was offered, but his hands remained locked onto the headset which remained unmoving and still secured to his face.

Suddenly, it stopped. All at once whatever seemed to be happening to him simply went away as he fell forward. His hands suddenly felt empty as if the controllers and headset in them had suddenly vanished. He felt dizzy now, and nauseous as he collided face first with something soft. Marcus simply laid there as his whole body felt numb and out of sorts. His muscles twitched as he attempted to move his limbs, but at the moment, they were mostly unresponsive. Eventually however, feeling began to steadily return to his body and he slowly, clumsily dragged his arms forward across the ground and used his hands to prop himself up. Opening his eyes, he found his vision to be astoundingly blurry, as if waking up from a particularly deep sleep. Slowly, he blinked, a few times as vision slowly returned to him. He was light headed and disoriented but slowly the sight of a modest little grassy field with a dense tree line in the distance began to form in his vision. He shook his head at the sight, unsure why this was what he was seeing. He was in his room right? Yes, he was just in the process of removing the headset when he must’ve fallen over. He reached up, shutting his eyes as he felt around for the headset, but all he touched was his own face. He patted his hands around. He could feel his hands, feel his face, yet it was so unfamiliar. His face before had a good bit of stubble as his beard had begun to grow back, but now it was smooth, and somehow, it felt bigger. Confused and still a little out of it, he pulled his hands away to see little red fingers with small black claws sticking out of the brown leather gloves that his avatar was wearing.

“W-what?” Ember asked as he looked upon them, turning them around in front of him while propping himself up on his elbows.

He wiggled his fingers and clenched his hands. They moved so naturally without any of the normal stuttery VR movements, and he could swear he could even feel them curl upon each other, and even feel the leather of those gloves when he touched them. His eyes opened wide in absolute confusion before he rolled himself over onto his back, propped up by something there into a sitting position. He looked down to see the body of his avatar. The furred leather vest and pants, those little, dark brown boots, and that long spaded tail extending across the ground in front of him. Bewildered, he reached his hand forward, patting his torso. He could feel the leather of the coat and the fur along its edges, he could flip it open and not only touch his red belly, but feel it as he did so. He gasped and scooted backwards, sitting up as his hand felt around his throat. Even talking or making any sort of noise felt different now. In a scramble, he stumbled to his feet, teetering with the weight of something he was carrying. Looking back, he could see the long handle of the maul high above him and the backpack it was secured to strapped to him. Beneath that were a pair of small, leathery red wings. He turned his head forward again, looking back down. The ground was so much closer now than it used to be and he could feel the movement of alien muscle groups as his tail swung back and behind him.

Once more, he was speechless, the look of absolute shock yet remained plastered on his face. No, this wasn’t real. He was dreaming! He must’ve knocked himself out when he fell over, how clumsy of him! He patted himself down again, as if having to check once more that he could really feel everything, even concluding his brief checkup with a pinch to his squishy cheek. Yep, he could feel that too. Meanwhile, his tongue, now forked, prodded the little sets of fangs he had. In the process, his tongue picked up the faintest of tastes in the air, and his nose was graced with the scent of flowers and grasses all around him. Absolutely nothing felt familiar as his mind slowly began to piece together what he was experiencing. Shuddering, he frantically looked around, eyes scanning the tree lines as they panned over the fields, turning all the way to the cliff where the field met sea. He stumbled around upon legs that weren’t his own to take in everything, turning and now facing the town of Santa Rio. He shuddered as he clutched his hair, eyes looking up upon that town, this wasn’t real, it couldn’t be! But all of his senses were telling him otherwise. He was no longer just playing Birthright, he was in Birthright! He was no longer himself either, he was now the character he had created for it! There were no words for this, nothing that made sense at least. He gritted his teeth as he broke out in a cold sweat, his heart racing. Completely overwhelmed, Ember shut his eyes and growled.

“W-what’s going oooon!” He screamed, his voice no longer his own, and he very much noticed that.

For the moment, he didn’t care how he sounded, he wasn’t thinking about that. Surely something had gone wrong with the new headset he got. He’s not really in this world, it had to have been some super advanced prototype that secretly had full sensory immersion technology in it; but it was accidentally shipped to his house. He was in his room right now actually and he just needed to cause a ruckus to wake his parents up, then they would come help! He began shouting for them, spinning himself around so every direction was covered. He even began to stomp around, and although his character would only produce the lightest little thuds in game, he was surely shaking the whole apartment with his display.

He stopped for a moment to take a breath, looking around as he waited for help to come, and he did just that. He waited, and waited, and waited for about ten minutes or so. Still, nothing changed. He watched as a handful of players made their way across the darkening field, taking on some sun scourges in the process who seemed to go down particularly quickly now. He looked up to see some bats flying overhead. They didn’t seem particularly large, so Ember was not certain of whether or not they were a threat. Reaching back, he pulled out his codex again, unnerved by the fact that he could actually feel the thing this time. He looked over his character information. He doubted that he would find anything helpful here, but maybe he had a condition like ‘Soul Stolen: Omnisoft yoinked your soul out of your body for some evil and crazy crap we have planned. Have fun, loser!’ Or something like that. Of course, he encountered no such condition, but his eyes returned once more to his Permanent Effects, and those eyes went wide as his ears drooped. He still had the Chosen condition on him, except now, it was orange.

What this meant, Ember didn’t know as the book slipped from his fingers. He thought back on all the other times he had seen it. There were three other people that he knew of with this on them. One was the axolti Ranger, the other was the Streamer playing a Human Paladin, and finally the crying girl who he tried to comfort, the Golem Sorceress. His heart sank at the thought and his teeth grit. Could this have been it? Could this have been the reason she was crying? Her icon was orange at the time, just like his is now, but at the time, his was blue, and that was before…

Ember looked at the ground. It all started making sense in his head, not only what that condition meant, but what its colors meant as well, and that axolti, even if they weren’t crying like the Golem was, he recalled how defeated they looked while sitting on that bench. The streamer however… His icon was blue. Ember’s attention quickly jolted to the town. Maybe he could find him, and warn him about what was about to happen! Ember ran forward as fast as he could. As he did so, he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye. It was his stamina meter steadily draining as he ran, just like it had when he was on the outside of the game. He stopped running for a moment to watch it fill back up, even feeling it as his body regained energy. So, even as an actual entity within the game, he was still bound by the rules of his character. Ember made note of that as he began to sprint once more.