“Don't judge a book by its cover.”
Fabio Lazoni* #quote
Jessica's coming over today, the
question is, to be or not to be? I think I'll be. Anyway onto the
flash fiction!
Fantasy Family Fun
“I'm helping!” five-year-old
Brittney said to her brothers while she healed with her magic. The
microphone they used to communicate to each other was a bit static-y
but they could still hear each other while playing the game with
their computers set up in different rooms. Since her two brothers
deemed that she didn't need to react as quickly as them she could use
the old third computer they got as a hand-me-down from their odd
uncle who told them it “fell off a truck”.
The eldest brother, a lean, elven
wizard covered with hard-to-get loot from many dungeons replied,
“Yes, Brittney, you're helping. Just keep healing.”
The younger brother, with a huge
avatar covered with sleek black armor forged by the highest level
blacksmiths in the game. “David, couldn't you do that yourself with
potions?”
“Mom said we had to let her play
this game with us. And it she's been doing decently so far, right
John? And it saves money on potions.”
“I'm helping!” Brittney said with
joy as she kept doing her work and playing the game with her
brothers.
John sorted through the items in his
inventory as he waited for his sister to finish healing him from the
damage incurred from their battle in the previous room. “Not as
good as having a high-level healer. Jennifer's pretty skilled.”
“I like Jenny!” The sister chimed
in. The sister met the two brother's friend several times.
David comforted his brother, “Worry
not my barbarian comrade. As we travel through this dungeon our
sister skyrockets in levels since she's battling such high level
monsters and just starting. Also she's wearing a two full sets of
legendary equipment. I did have a limitation on what I could pick
since she only would wear the pretty equipment.”
John's still felt a little worried and
it came across in his voice. “The door ahead of us has a skull mark
which means the next room is the boss room. This is a pretty high
level dungeon. Dying is going to make us lose several levels, which
is days if not weeks of progress because of how far along we are and
the massive Penalty Level of this dungeon.”
David replied, “We've faced much
worse haven't we?” He then opened the boss room door while his
brother thought to himself about those times they at least had a
competent healer.
Brittney in her little elf avatar
covered head to toe with magical jewels chimed in with a giddy voice,
“Now we fight the bad guy!”
The boss room contrasted the rest of
the dungeon. The dungeon the players slogged through the game
designers built out of twists, turns, close walls and bricks. This
room opened up wide and the walls made of rock and the floor of
straw. A large window let in light and it became apparent that the
room's straw served the purpose to illustrate a nest as a dragon
stood before the players.
David told his sister, “Remember
what we taught you. Heal us when the bars on the screen get low and
keep clicking the little boxes that cast the spells that make us
stronger okay? And whatever you do, like always, stay in the back
so you don't take damage.” The thing the brothers worked on
teaching their sister the most was to stay in the back so that she
didn't keep dying and they would have to backtrack for her or deal
with game Penalties.
The dragon roared as John suddenly
laughed, “David look! The dragon! It's the games first boss, This
dungeon has a recycled foe with stronger stats, this should be cake.”
David looked at the data of the
creature in the creature examination window to see that it indeed
merely said, “Greater Dragon Of The Swamp”. Odd considering now
the dragon didn't even appear in the swamp like the normal “Dragon
Of The Swamp”. According to the window the only difference between
it and the first boss was a massive boost in strength.
David told John, “I have never, ever
seen the game designers make any bosses use models of previous foes.
Common guys yeah, but never bosses. Kinda anti-climatic for one of
the super dungeons right?”
John cast a water spell to take
advantage of the fire creature's weakness to that element and
proclaimed, “Easiest. Boss. Ever.” Despite the creature's massive
strength boost from the first encounter with it the players had
enough loot and levels to deal heavy blows to the beast and take
little damage to it. David's axe cleaved and John's spells blasted
the creature's sides and the creature's Vitality dropped while it's
dragon breath barely hurt them.
“I'm helping!” Brittney said as
she healed the small amounts of damage the dragon dealt to them.
David and John stopped attacking when
something strange happened that perplexed the very principles of how
the game operated. White numbers appearing showed how much damage
something incurred so whenever they struck the dragon large white
numbers appeared. Green numbers appeared over them whenever their
sister healed them as that showed healing.
Yet when the dragon hit 10% in
Vitality green numbers appeared over it instead of numbers showing
damage. Each of their strikes did not damage the creature but healed
it. The scales of creature peeled off to reveal a strange glass and
the creature roared twice as loudly as it did when they first
encountered it. David noticed the name changed from “Greater Dragon
Of The Swamp” to “Mirror Dragon”
“What the---” John held back a
curse as he remembered he played with his sister. He went in panic
mode when he realized his Omega Nuclear Spell couldn't save him from
this reversing damage boss as that would probably heal it fully. John
did not want to lose, the Penalty from this dungeon was massive and
it would hit him hard. “This is bad.”
“What's wrong?” Brittney asked.
The Mirror Dragon's attacks hit much harder its previous form though
its defenses were miniscule. Not that they mattered. John tried an
exceptionally low level power reduction spell on it as a test and
even that was switched.
David explained it to his sister in
the simplest terms possible and tried not to use and complicated
words she wouldn't understand. Though the panic he felt also made his
vocabulary degenerate significantly as well as he lost focus. “Dragon
is bad! We're going to lose! We hurt it and it gets healed!” In the
information window about the creature it listed that the creature had
an ability called “Reversal”.
Brittney, like most children,
clarified with a question. “So it's like opposite day?”
The dragon roared and John used
potions on himself and David since Brittney did nothing while she
became lost in thought. The two brothers shouted every psuedo-curse
word they could think of as the Penalty for the failure in the
dungeon ran through their minds. “Darn, dang, shoot, blast!”
Damage numbers appeared over the
Mirror Dragon instead of healing numbers. An impossible thing in
David and John's mind. Several more appeared and the dragon fell in a
few moments as its Vitality was very low compared to even the Greater
Dragon Of The Swamp.
“Did we win?” Brittney said over
the game microphone to her two brothers while a massive glowing
treasure chest appeared while the Mirror Dragon exploded into a white
mist.
John told her, “Yes, we did. And you
were a big help.”
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