System Break

It was no effort for us to keep up with the ferals even if we stopped to fill our waterskins. Gisael scouted their flanks and I'd press their rear and on occasion we killed a one or two to motivate the group onwards.

"What do you call a group of ferals? A tribe?"

Gisael was perched on a branch above me, she was waiting patiently while watching. "Yes. Tribe."

I looked up at her enjoying the view. "What else do you know about them?"

She titled her head to one side contemplating her answer for a moment. "They destroy the forest. Beasts and even monsters can live in the forest in harmony, taking only what they need. Ferals are like a disease that spreads, they kill for their own pleasure and their rituals."

"Rituals?"

Her eyes narrowed and she looked down at me. "I'm yet to see the shaman from this tribe, but that shield on the leader was a sign of a shaman's work. A shaman would make rituals sacrificing life to power their spell. Rather than use their own qi they steal it from others. If the life force is small, they take many lives to feed their defilement."

She spat her disgust.

"The shield the leader possessed - the one that diverted your arrow?"

She bared her teeth at me. "I was impressed when you kicked it. You show potential." She lifted her head and her eyes widened. "They slow."

I scanned the forest and had no idea how she worked that out. She took off and I did my best to follow. She picked off a couple at their rear and I wondered how many we would need to kill to be rid of them.

Although we killed many it seemed as if more ferals spawned from the shadows.

I knelt beside on the branch and with shoulders touching. She sniffed and said, "They are at the forest's edge, but they wait."

"I know what to do." I leaned forward on our branch and I scurried down the thick trunk, falling in a controlled manner. Every few feet I touched the trunk, with hands and feet, to control my progress. When I could see the ground clearly, I pushed off and tucked, then rolled when I hit the ground.

I held my spear horizontally and no matter the beating I put it through, it remained strong.

I was upon them. "Leave or die," I yelled and began stabbing with abandon.

The ferals scampered away in fear from the ferocity of my attack. Then they suddenly halted. They were transfixed despite my aggression.

I continued to fight through to their centre, stabbing and kicking. The leader probably needed some special encouragement.

I killed more than ten before I reached the edge of the forest and I scanned the scene to the south in astonishment.

Fifty ferals were fighting three humongous monsters and dying badly. At first, I thought the monsters looked like giant ferals, but their skin was smoother, and their eyes shone bright red. They had no weapons, they merely swiped at the ferals with their long arms.

Arms too long for their body. If they were twenty-foot-tall their arms were at least twelve feet long. Their fingers ended in long nails which I could only describe as vicious claws.

No wonder the ferals did not want to leave the forest. The sight left me with more questions than answers. I stood amongst a bunch of fearful ferals watching the scene. They cowered in the forest ignoring me with their eyes stuck to the one side battle in the open.

I heard Gisael whistle over the screaming ferals. I ran back into the forest and up a large tree which dominated the border. I was not surprised to find her in its upper reaches.

"What are those?"

She bared her teeth towards the monsters and answered, "Trolls."

"I think we unravelled the mystery," I said. "The trolls are hunting the ferals? Maybe they like to eat them?" And to prove my point a troll scoffed down a feral morsel mid-fight.

She shook her head in denial. "How is it possible they tracked them from afar and were here where the ferals left the forest? And why wouldn't they follow them into the forest? Something is not right."

"Do trolls like forests?"

She nodded. "They like anything with fresh meat. Forests, mountains, or plains they do not care."

I watched the fight, no, the massacre and said, "I need more training."

Gisael looked at me in frustration. "Yes." And she left the words 'I told you so' unsaid.

"Will they enter the forest?"

Gisael did not answer, she merely watched the scene. I almost felt sorry for the ferals. We could hear the panic beneath us, the weaker of their tribe cowered in the forest watching the last of their strength die.

The leader's shimmering shield wink out as he was torn apart by a troll. With half of him in each of its hands it dropped him in its mouth top half followed by bottom. I saw a small blue orb spill from his centre and down its throat.

"Did you see that?"

She nodded once and said. "It was a qi core. The troll becomes stronger."

"Is it like the orb in the willow?"

She looked at me with anger in her eyes. "No, that is the heart of the forest!"

"But it's blue and glowy."

She breathed deeply and dispersed her anger. "A land core and a monster core are not the same. One is much more potent. It feeds and feeds off the land."

"Should we be like the troll and collect the ferals qi core to become more powerful?"

"Yes." She spat. "We failed and our enemies grow stronger."

"But our goal was to chase the feral from the forest. You never mentioned obtaining this qi core before."

"I know," she said in frustration, mostly aimed at herself. She then turned on me, "Is it my fault you are ignorant of everything?"

I nodded. "Yes. Yes, it is." It wasn't a fair statement but the look on her face was priceless.

She growled and kicked the trunk. "You are right. I have failed in my task in training you. I will do better."

I didn't have the heart to tell her I was teasing, after hearing her sincere declaration.

A scream from below brought my thoughts back to the ferals cowering in the forest.

"We must deal with them," she said without remorse, but her anger was gone. "We cannot allow them to stay or we will be sorry in coming days."

"I understand," I said and made my way down to finish off the feral tribe.

She shot and I stabbed as we slaughtered. I kept telling myself it was pest control, but their screams tugged at me.

Twenty odd corpses littered the forest's edge and I turned my back on it. Placing a hand on a tree I said, "It's a simulation. A game. It isn't real." Then I vomited.

She gave me space until I recovered and then we headed back together. We walked in silence for half an hour.

She slid a hand under my arm and pulled me close. "The trolls are a big threat. You will need to train hard and fast."

I stopped and pulled her to me. Her eyes looked into mine and she searched for my thoughts. I grinned and said, "You ain't seen nothing yet baby."

Her brows furrowed but then she shook her head and smiled. "You are strange Benzhi, but I like you."

She stood on tippy toes and kissed me. I threw caution to the wind and put my hands under her buttocks and lifted her, pushing her back against a tree, wedging her between it and me.

Her legs wrapped around me and our eyes locked. She bared her teeth and said, "Training later."

Her hand drifted down to my hard, thick dragon and her eyes widened. I placed my mouth over hers to cover her scream as I thrust into her. Her taut body wrapped around my dragon like a svelte glove that was one size too small.

After a few strokes she was wet, and she moaned rather than squealed. It'd been years since I had sex this good. Sex that I could enjoy.

I ravished her like a wild beast.

When her legs became rubbery, I turned her around and she placed her hands on the tree. Grabbing either side of her hips I thrust a dozen more times before my – out of practice – dragon released its hot load into her.

She quivered and the thick white liquid leaked down the inside of her toned legs. I wiped my forehead releasing the tension that had built up. Some of it since I first saw her and some of it from the carnage we just delivered.

This had to be real or the best game ever made.