VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

The fire burnt the first rose petal.

[Ding!]

[Player Selafia has released the Rat Queens' curse. Players in the dungeon must withstand 20 barrages of rat minion attacks for the ritual to be completely broken.]

As the words of the system can to an end, the blazing of the rose even more to the ceiling.

The rat screamed at her. The voice echoed in the room.

The sound of fire crackling echoed around them as the smoke in the Nest increased.

There was flashes of red everywhere and rats fell to the ground out of them.

Cheng Xiu looked at them blankly.

The rats stood in a single line for a moment.

The female rat screamed at them.

The rats squeaked and squealed as they attacked Cheng Xiu and the others.

Cheng Xiu raised her hand. "Ghost Flame."

The black flame burst out of her palm like a hungry ghost and attacked the incoming humanoid creatures.

The flame covered the creatures completely, eating away at their flesh at a fast rate. There were screams of pain.

"You!" the female rat screamed at her as the death toll of the rats increased every second.

San Zhe stood at a distant, killing those creatures that were lucky enough to escape Cheng Xiu's vicious attacks.

Cheng Xiu closed her eyes for a brief moment, consuming the Qi that the Ghost Flame brought her. Her mind was blank and a sense of satisfaction rose in her heart.

She sent out a second wave of Ghost Flame.

Yaksha stared at her attacks, his thoughts elsewhere. After so many years, he had seen that technique again. He was not sure what kind of feelings that seeing the attack had caused him last time, but this time, he felt a sense of awe and happiness.

When they had played Primordials online, Cheng Xiu was known as an Elementalist because of her control of the elements. But Yaksha knew the truth. She was a master of the Fire. She had used the technique, Heavenly fires against multiple opponents.

The technique was so OP, that the System created the Ghost Flame as a way to counter that technique. And now here she was using the same flame that was once considered a weakness of hers. His own brother was using the Heavenly Fires at the moment, though he was sure that said brother would not be able to reach a proficiency in the technique that she had reached.

In fact, if his brother and Cheng Xiu fought he was sure that Cheng Xiu would win, after all, she knew the techniques more than even him.

And she did have the Ghost Flame now.

There was once a time where she had tried to give up her Heavenly fire to obtain the Ghost Flame.

The system had ruthlessly denied her.

And looking at the devastation that the flame caused in her hands, he knew why it was.

The Ghost Flame, in the hands of even an ordinary person was dangerous, let alone a person like Cheng Xiu who had a strong will and would have better control over her emotions.

As she burned away the last of the rats in the line, San Zhe and Yaksha looked at her with fear and admiration each.

The Female rat screamed again.

Cheng Xiu narrowed her eyes.

There was a row of flashing lights and rats fell to the ground again. These were larger, had a more fluid motion.

Cheng Xiu raised her hands again.

San Zhe looked away knowing what was about to happen.

Sure enough, the sounds of screams of pain reached his ears soon.

He turned towards her. "Sister Xiu..."

Cheng Xiu looked at him, her hand never moving from its position of attacking the rats.

"I always thought that you had a sense of...empathy for the NPCs," he said to her.

Cheng Xiu tilted her head. "You think I am being cruel."

"Aren't you?"

"They are soldiers," Cheng Xiu said as she killed them again and again, "It is a soldier's duty to either kill the enemy or to die in battle once they enter the battlefield. This is their honour and this is what they have trained for."

"But-"

"I have an obligation towards people like Da Hua and Xiao Hua, and those NPCs like Spike and Spoon," she said. Her long ponytailed her fluttered in the wind of the burning flames. "And so if it means that I am helping the NPCs and completing the mission, why shouldn't I?"

San Zhe backed down when her heard her words. He was surprised by her factual tone but he had started to realise that Cheng Xiu could be really cruel when she had to be, and she would not hesitate to kill someone if it meant peaceful for her even if what she have to do was something as cruel as killing others. Or maybe it was because they were NPCs, though he was sceptical about that. She did not seem to distinguish between a Player or an NPC most of the time, so why would this be different?

The last rat of the second barrage died.

There was silence around them.

The red flames started to consume the bodies of the rats that San Zhe and Yaksha killed. There was not even a dust of ash from the ones that Cheng Xiu killed.

Cheng Xiu looked at the Female Rat that stared at the burning bodies in a daze. The creature was confused that such powerful attacks of it was not able to bring the Human cultivators donw.

The rat scowled and opened its mouth to holler to its other minions.

It was only its heightened awareness that made it close its mouth and duck away.

A ball of black flame flew past its pointed ears and hit the wall opposite it, creating a scorched surface.

Cheng Xiu attacked it with her sword next.

The rat stepped away from the attacks and screamed.

The third wave began.

Cheng Xiu scowled and attacked the rat fiercely.

San Zhe stared at her actions for a moment. He realised that Cheng Xiu was not going to attack the third barrage. Rather, she was hell bent on killing the Female Rat.

"Sister Xiu-"

There was a tap on his shoulder.

Yaksha motioned towards Cheng Xiu with his chin. "She is attacking the source to see if there is any way that would stop these attacks, why don't we attack the rat barrages?"

San Zhe blinked. So that was what she was doing!

San Zhe sent Cheng Xiu an admiring look. Here he was, worried about the twenty barrages, and there Cheng Xiu was, trying to kill of the source.

It showed how aware Cheng Xiu was of the situation around them and how much San Zhe actually missed about a dungeon.

It made him wonder if that was why he always died and returned to the starting place again and again.

Not just the Medusa curse, but also his own unawareness.

San Zhe and Yaksha attacked them. San Zhe with his trident and Yaksha with his black blade.

San Zhe did so because he really did not have any other attack power and Yaksha did not attack because he was only supposed to assist them if they asked for it.

The three worked hard for a few moments until San Zhe started to get hit by the passing talons.

Cheng Xiu looked at him in concern as she pushed the rat away from her person with the flat side of her sword.

"I am fine," San Zhe said to her.

Cheng Xiu kicked the rat away.

She stared at the creature that was trying to get back to its feet and then at the rat wave that was seemed to be overwhelming San Zhe already.

"Brother San!" she called to him.

"Huh?" San Zhe said and then hissed at the sharp bite that he received from one of the creatures.

"Swap with me!" she screamed.

Before he could react, San Zhe found himself blocking the attacks of the Female Rat Counsellor, and Cheng Xiu had taken his place to fight against the rat wave.

Yaksha too got serious.

Cheng Xiu used Ghost Flame again.

The number of rats that escaped the attack was even lesser than the last two times.

Yaksha did not have as many rats to kill as before. Sure enough, an experienced player is still an experienced player. Even though it seemed like all she did was cast a single spell, real masters could see the precision and strategic ways that Cheng Xiu burned these creatures.

It was obvious to him that she was deliberately letting go of the weakest to let him handle them while she burned the actual dangerous ones so that they would not even have a chance to attack her.

There was a sense of pride and some other mellow emotion in his heart at that moment when he looked at Cheng Xiu.

***

Author: I wish I had a friend like that, who would die in my place. It is so amazing.

Maya: [Maybe you can be that friend.]

Author: No thank you.

Maya: [Why?]

Author: I am too much of a coward, and am too selfish to do something like that.

Maya: *Flashes away in disdain.*

***

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