Dragon X A Different Kind of Random Encounter

“[Stinger]!”

Under more favorable circumstances, I probably would have cringed myself for yelling my attack names at the top of my lungs. But these were not favorable circumstances.

My body moved on its own, and I tried my best not to fight against it, letting my Skill take the lead. I tried not to worry about how many laws of physics I was violating as my hop forward turned somehow into me skidding across the ground in some kind of... frictionless powerslide.

...which halted abruptly as my extended blade punched clean through the torso of the last Lizardman in front of me, shearing off its remaining hitpoints.

But even as it shattered into virtual dust, I could hear still more of them roaring in the distance. So another group was still close enough to hear? I mean, it wasn't like I'd been fighting quietly, what with having to shout the names of my attacks and all that, but even so! How many had I even dispatched at this point? Six? A dozen?

But it didn't seem like they were roaring at me – they were trying to get an answer from their now-deceased comrade. And since he couldn't exactly tell them where I was, that gave me a few precious seconds to...

Prepare? Lay a trap?

No way. I'll take “run like hell,” thanks. Ever since the first ambush had caught me by surprise, I'd been fighting for what felt like hours. I'd gone through all but two of my healing potions, and even with my high VIT score, my simulated body was aching from fatigue. Another fight here and now was sure to kill me – and I wasn't keen on dying after wasting so much effort to stay alive.

So I ran. I ran until it felt like I had faceplanted through just about every single low-hanging bough in the entire forest, and until the draconic tail I could barely even feel, much less control, looked to be dragging an entire brier bush along behind me. I ran until I couldn't hear any more reptilian snarls coming from behind me, and until the path opened ahead of me into an open road. And when I saw the lights of Alharth shining in the distance as the simulated sun began to set behind the orchard hill, I flopped down upon grassy embankment by the side of the road, and just lay there, basking in the last rays of daylight.

“Nightfall already, huh?” I murmured. I'd been planning to meet up with the others after dark, it didn't feel like I'd accomplished much of anything. My skills had gone up a couple of levels, but not enough to earn me any new moves – and now that my potions were all but used up, I was right back to square one.

Really, I could only hope that their efforts had gone better, since mine had mostly been wasted on running through the woods and hearing that damn warning sound from my [Detection] Skill every five seconds –
!
“Oh what now!?” I groaned, grabbing my sword and bolting upright as I frantically scanned the area around me for any signs of danger, like suspiciously mobile cardboard boxes.

I didn't find any. But what I did see was a bush that was rustling slightly, as though something – or someone was hiding inside.

...A bush that, now that I had identified its occupant, suddenly had a very familiar symbol floating in the air above it.

A skull background. A golden eagle with three red strikes across it. And below both, a health bar that was slowly but steadily ticking down.

“Hey, wait a second, you're the one from this afternoon!” I exclaimed, lowering my sword. Instead of a greeting or a reply, however, what I got was...

“...Muuuuuuuuuggghhhhhhh...”

Her HP ticked down some more. Confused, and a little bit alarmed, I examined her – and then almost slapped myself for not realizing the obvious answer.

In addition to her Title, I could now see two other bits of information. Specifically, the Status Effects she was currently under.

[Poison: Level 3] [Paralysis: Level 2]

...Yeah, I really should have seen that coming. But seeing as she couldn't move, and the inside of a bush couldn't have been a terribly comfortable resting place, I quickly knelt down and set about extricating her as best I could.

“Sorry, bear with me here for just a sec –” I began, but before I could finish, I slipped up. Maybe I tugged just a little too hard, still not used to my own strength, or maybe I was still tired from running for my life and my legs just didn't want to cooperate. Either way, she did come out of the bush – but I also completely lost my footing and ended up awkwardly flopping back down onto the embankment, bringing her down with me.

So, there I was – exhausted, beaten up by lizards, and now with a girl I barely knew sitting in my lap. But I didn't really have time to appreciate the contrived nature of the situation, since she was, y'know – dying.

Yeah. That kind of put a damper on things.

“Sorry!” I hastily apologized, sitting myself back up and opening my menu. Thankfully, it wasn't like I had much of an inventory to search through – a health potion and the antidote she had given me both appeared in my hands, and I –

...Wait, how exactly was I supposed to administer these?

“...Hey SiLVA, be honest with me here. Am I gonna get reported for sexual harrassment if I make her drink this?”

“Well, it's a little late to ask that, isn't it?”

I winced.

“But you could also just ask her for permission,” SiLVA continued. “She is still conscious, even if she can't speak at the moment.”

“...Oh, right. Uh... you're not gonna slap me the moment you can move again, right? Blink twice for yes.”

She blinked. Then blinked again.

“...Wait, does that mean yes you're going to slap me, or –”

“She's going to die if you don't hurry up, Young Master.”

“Shit! Okay, okay, I'm doing it, sorry –”

I uncorked the antidote potion with one hand, and – shit, how do you open somebody's mouth while they can't move while not being a creep about it? Thankfully, it seemed like she could at least still move that much – so I just placed the potion next to her lips and then offered a gentle little nudge to tilt her head back.

Down the hatch – more or less. [Poison] vanished completely, but [Paralysis] was still around. I guess this antidote only covered the one... At any rate, her HP might not have been decreasing anymore, but at this point it was so low that a particularly strong wind could probably kill her on the spot. I uncorked the next potion.

“Sorry about this. It looks like you should be able to move again soon, so just take this for now.” Her brow furrowed into a grimace, but despite this, she seemed to comply, opening her mouth again.

Another one down the hatch. The empty bottle disintegrated into dust in my hand, and her HP bar refilled to mostly full.

With the immediate crisis thus dealt with, I found myself preoccupied noticing things I had missed in my frantic scramble to save her life. For example, the fact that she was now sitting in my lap thanks to my own clumsiness. Or the fact that I could actually see her face now, her hood having fallen back when I'd pulled her from the bush.

“Ah, right, sorry. I'll, uh, put you down now.” I awkwardly shifted, trying to disentangle myself from where we both had fallen – a task which was made a lot harder than it should have been, thanks to my damn tail.

Seriously, why did I even pick this race again?

My regrets aside, though, the Exile was actually... well, look, I'm not so proud that I won't admit she was cute, even if she was clearly not right in the head. With her hood gone, I could now see pointy Elven ears poking out from somewhere amidst a messy cloud of rather frizzy blonde hair, no doubt mussed up by her hood and her fall into the bush. Her eyes were a brilliant green, and underlined by a somewhat chaotic smattering of freckles over round and full cheeks.

Yeah. She was cute. Would be a lot cuter if she wasn't glaring at me something fierce. Or if – hey, wait, could she move again? Why was she raising her hand –

Well, on the bright side, getting slapped in the face didn't really hurt, since this was just a game and all. But I still said “Ow” anyway, if only out of habit.

“Okay, yeah, I deserved that one,” I murmured, rubbing my cheek. “Sorry about that. I wanted to help but I, uh... put you through a pretty difficult situation there.”

“...I don't believe I ever asked for your help,” She responded icily, scooting herself away from me. Judging by the way she flopped down once she had gotten her distance, it didn't seem like she'd fully recovered from her [Paralysis] yet.

“And why would you waste the potions you just bought on the person you bought them from? That defeats the entire point of me selling them to you in the first place!”

Huh. I guess there was more than one reason why she was mad, then... That unexpectedly stubborn side was really beginning to remind me of somebody. Somebody who could always find her way into a mess, and then resented being pulled out of it... But, well, Ayame had grown up since then, probably... and it wasn't like she'd be playing a game like this even if she hadn't.

Thankfully, though, I at least had some practice dealing with someone this obstinate, so for once, she hadn't completely blindsided me.

“Well, not like you could have asked me to help even if you wanted to, what with the state you were in – so I just figured it was better to be safe than sorry. We'll call it an honest mistake, and say we're even for the potions, since I went and used them of my own volition. Besides, the antidote was a freebie anyway, right?”

“Well, yes, but...” She must have really hated feeling like she owed me for anything. No doubt, she was trying to think of some kind of argument to assuage her stubborn pride, but before she could, I just needed to change the subject.

“Anyway, how'd you end up poisoned all the way out here? Don't tell me you were trying some shady potion again...”

“Of course not!” She answered, now offended for an entirely different reason. Good. “Attempting to identify dangerous potions in the wilderness would just be stupid.”

“Then how did you end up poisoning yourself?” I asked. I just needed to continue this line of inquiry a little further, and no doubt, she'd forget all about...

“Why would you assume I poisoned myself?” She asked, reaching a hand back over her shoulder. True, I guess that wasn't really a normal assumption... but in light of our earlier conversation, could you really blame me?

“Well, how else would you end up –” My jaw dropped a little too far to continue that question when she pulled a knife out of her back.

...How had I missed that?

“I was attacked, obviously. And they're still probably looking for me, so you should really get moving before they find me.”

“Wait, slow down.” I was still reeling from that bombshell, but now I had a more important question. “Who is 'they?'”

“That would be us,” came a familiar voice from the roadway right behind me, followed by a now-familiar alert noise as [Detection] once again failed to do its job until it was already too late to matter.

No wonder Dairoku said it was a useless Skill.

I jumped to my feet and drew my sword, and found myself face to face with two Players clad in white armor.

“Well, if it isn't the newbie from this morning,” Said a certain battleaxe-wielding warrior. “We meet again.”