Starlit Heroics: Network of Carnage

Charlotte, Max and Solana brush against the harsh winds as they make their way across the mountain. Charlotte catches the sight of an unidentifiable figure in the corner of her eye and turns around.

She sees nothing but a frozen tree and shivers.

"I could have sworn there was something back there..."

"Hmm... You'd think they would have shown up by now." - Max remarks.

"Yes. But maybe..." - Solana states.

A dagger flies at Max and hits him in the thigh. He falls to his knee and checks the wound but winds up smearing his hand with blood.

"Aah! Ach... There's our welcoming party!" - Max yells.

A group of bandits wearing stark white clothes and goggles pop up out of the snow. They bear down on Charlotte's group while holding knives, axes and bows.

"What do you want with us?" - Charlotte remarks as she summons a spectral blade of glass in her hand.

"Pay the toll and we'll let you pass. Play it smart and you won't have to be buried here." - One of the bandits call out.

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Iris catches up to Ian at the foot of the cliff and grabs him. She stops him in place and pushes him to the side.

"Hey! What's the matter with you? We haven't come up with a plan to fight that thing yet!" - She yells.

"What plan do we need? All we have to do is beat it up, yes?" - Ian asks.

"Are you not aware that if we die, we'll be dead for real? Don't just endanger yourself like that!" - Iris remarks as she shakes him.

Ian steps back and gives her a confused glare. He makes a small frown.

"But I thought it was just a game? The new cutting edge in virtual reality?" - Ian remarks.

"... No. Ian, it may be a game, but everything that happens here is all real. We only have three lives before we get killed off. If you waste those, you're gone for good. Did you not read the instructions?" - Iris states.

"No... I didn't think it'd be that serious. Oh jeez..." - He states.

He brushes both hands against his hair and sweats profusely.

"What's wrong?" - Iris asks.

"I've already... lost two of my lives. I just thought that's how the game worked... that you respawn when you die!" - Ian states.

"Oh lord..." - Iris remarks.

She puts a hand against her forehead but is interrupted by the arrival of Canopy and the others.

"Oh hey, you stopped... what's wrong with him?" - Canopy states.

"Turns out he thought all of this was fake." - Iris says.

"... You're serious." - Canopy says as she squints at him.

"I didn't know! That's sort of why I was putting on an act earlier - I was roleplaying. I didn't think it'd be... well, for real." - Ian shrugs with a worried glance.

"Huh... To be fair, your act kind of made me throw up a bit in my mouth." - Canopy nods.

"You uh... You missed that part?" Prya asked. "It was kind of important."

"You already died twice in the intro level?" Ven muttered. Prya elbowed him in the side.

"Well, just don't die a third time, all right? Leave it to us if you have to."

"I don't want to be responsible for him," Elior whispered. "I mean who roleplays a complete dick for himself?"

"Even lowlifes are worthy of saving."

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"Oh, so it's like a basilisk, but instead of turning you to stone... it drains your life away," Kaj said. He smiled to Luna, who smiled back.

"Should be no problem," she said. "We've dealt with problems like this before."

The two followed Rebecca and the rest of the group.

"So, tell us about yourself?" Kaj said, making conversation while out on the road. "I've heard of Rebecca, but what about the rest of you? How'd you all get sucked into this?"

"Library computer." Evan said, "We uh...Shiva and I were looking for a place to have...dinner and then the message came up and now we're here."

Shiva nodded.

"Eh, guess we'll have to grab something to eat on the way to the quest." Rebecca said. "Anyway, I'm in here on my own accord. Supplying weapons for people who don't have their own."

Rebecca turned to Evan and motioned for him to follow her.

"I actually have to have a private talk with Evan for a sec, kay?" Rebecca lied to Kaj and Luna.

Evan cautiously followed her.

"So, okay, you haven't gotten a chance to feed lately?" Rebecca whispered.

"Yeah, guess I'll have to...kill some creature for its blood." Evan sighed. "Because I don't think there are any bloodbanks nearby."

"I'll keep Kaj and Luna distracted when you need to go and feed." Rebecca said. "Hunters all seem to be of the same "vampires are eeeeviillllll blehhhhh" cloth. So you'd be safe to go and eat like a goblin or whatever."

"Wow, an entire goblin just for me." Evan snarked. 

"But anyway, better get back to the group..."

Solana is held back by a crowd of bandits pointing swords at her. Charlotte eases up her pose and puts her arms in the air.

"Alright. How much do you want?" - She asks.

"Everything you have. Make it quick because we're not patient." - A bow-wielding bandit remarks.

Solana gives her a confused glare and pouts.

"What are you doing?" - She whispers.

"Just trust me."

Charlotte goes to open Max's backpack and takes out a small bag. The bandit snatches the bag out of her hand and opens it to see a couple of gold coins.

"... Hmm. I'm afraid pocket change won't cut it. But I guess you'll have to pay it with something else." - He remarks with a vile grin as he pulls a knife out.

"N-no! Please, don't..." - Charlotte pleads as he walks up to her.

As he gets close to her, Charlotte clasps her hands together. The bag of coins sparks with purple electricity and surges all through the bandit's body, causing him to kneel over and scream in pain.

Charlotte's face turns from terrified to stern as she fires ghostly crystal shards towards the bows of other bandits, knocking them out of their hands.

Spearmen and sword wielders charge at her from behind, but are pushed off the mountainside by a lavender barrier that she summons with an arm-thrust motion. 

Charlotte turns around and sees more men running at her, but arrows of light pierce them from behind. They trip to the ground while running, with Solana kicking one of the bodies.

"Hmph. Dirty creatures had the gall to -" 

A robed bandit holding a slim knife sneaks up to her, but she smacks them away with a translucent bow made of light, with the impact of her bow smashing them against a tree. The force loosens snow from the branches and encases the bandit in ice.

Charlotte and Solana rush towards Max and put their backs against him.

"Wh... whoa. You girls are crazy." - He remarks with his mouth agape.

"I'm used to this sort of thing. Are you alright?" - Charlotte asks with a stern face.

"Yeah, I'm just bleeding in the snow a bit, but... jeez." - Max says with a nervous chuckle.

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"I thought I was being charming." - Ian remarks with a sigh.

"No." - Canopy says as she shakes her head.

"Well, anyway... at least now you know that you're in mortal peril. Don't make any dumb decisions, please." - Iris remarks.

"Y-yes... "

Iris walks up to the prismatic pool of slime and gives it a careful glance. She edges her way towards it with one foot in front.

"... Yeah, good first mission. Let's fight a giant monster." - She whispers under her breath.

As she steps towards it, a man with goat horns wearing blue robes with armor underneath shuffles out of a pillar while clutching a wound on his chest. He raises a hand with mist surrounding his body.

"Don't think... I'm done with you!" - He yells.

A tremendous icicle forms out of the air and lands atop the pool of slime, piercing the ground underneath. It pulsates in a violent manner and flails around, forming a tentacle that grabs onto the man and chucks his body against the wall.

He lets out a pained yell before falling limp to the ground, his body disappearing into bits of data. Iris stands completely still as she looks on in horror.

"Oh no."

"Huh, you chose to be here?" Luna asked. "I guess that's pretty generous of you. Thankfully Kaj and I already have combat experience but most people don't go around chasing monsters. They're probably all scared and confused. Best give them the best chance they have to survive, yes?"

Then the two nodded at Shiva's request and let her wander off to talk.

"That's a good point though," Kaj sighed. "Really hope no one with no fighting experience is getting into any trouble right now..."

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"Oh... great..." Prya clutched her starter sword tightly. She wasn't sure what was more terrifying, watching someone die or knowing that she could be next. At least the data effect made it so she didn't have to stare at a body to remind herself just how much danger she really was in.

"Guess we're really fighting it now," Ven said. "At least goat horn man got some good damage in."

"Wait," Elior said. "Let me."

Elior raised his arms and started glowing a soft white. Then the glow twisted and spun in different colors, then lashed out. The green leapt in front of the group and formed several solid, glowing walls to provide cover. The red flickered and distorted the air as it flung itself towards the slime as if it was giving off heat, and the blue rained down as spikes on the slime, similar to the previous man's attack.

"Woah," Prya admired.

"That's what I was saying before," Elior responded. "I can use colors to change the properties of my optic light. And we're fighting a rainbow right now."

"Yeah, I'm a generous girl. What can I say?" Rebecca said, returning to the group with Evan.

They didn't have to know she was mostly in for the mad dosh. 

"Looks like we're almost to the quest area." Chamomile said. "Y'all ready to kick some Charm Beast ass?"

"Of course!" Shiva yelled.

The remaining bandits flee from Charlotte and Solana's onslaught of barriers and arrows. 

Max pours a blue liquid over his thigh wound, with it closing up in a teal light. He jumps up from the ground and yanks out his sword, but notices the bandits run into the snow. He makes a small frown as he lowers the sword.

"... Wow, it's like you guys didn't even need me."

"Even the 'chosen one' needs some help from time to time." - Charlotte says with a wink.

"There will be enemies that even I won't be able to stop, keep that in mind. This, on the other hand, is child's play." - Solana remarks as she throws her hair to the side.

The three of them move forward but stop as more men clad in white hunting camo approach alongside a woman with stark blue hair. She has a black outfit complete with thigh-high stockings, pale skin and glares at the group with red eyes.

"Hey! I don't appreciate you busting up my crew." - She yells at them while keeping her hands in her pockets.

Charlotte tilts her head and gives the woman a confused look.

"I swear she looks familiar. What character is she supposed to be...?" - Charlotte remarks in her head.

"Oh don't give me that! They were about to chop off our friend's hand or something! Plus, they stabbed me in the leg!" - Max shouts back.

The blue-haired woman looks back at the bandit with the knife and gives him a sharp glare.

"... You what?"

"H-hey, it's their fault for not being able to pay." - He says as he shuffles over to her.

The woman gets up close to his face.

"I pay you good money to work as a guard, not a butcher. If they don't have enough, just boot them off the mountain. Stick to just taking money or I'll do more than just kick you out. Understood?" .

She brandishes an ice knife in front of his face, to which he backs off.

"Y... Yeah, miss Veil. I won't do it again, I promise." - He cowers.

"... Veil? Oh! She's the icy soldier one. She looks almost completely different, though..." - Charlotte ponders.

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The prismatic slime monster's flailing tentacles slam against Elior's barrier. The spikes he summoned pierce through the slime's body and sink into it. Iris jumps out of the way of a tentacle and lands on her knee. 

Canopy cracks a wide smile at Elior's color magic and puts both hands on her face.

"That's so cool!"

Ian puts on a distraught frown upon seeing the rainbow slime fill the room with tentacles. He backs up against the group while visibly sweating.

"H-how are we supposed to deal with this?!" - He shouts.

"We... we just have to keep cool. It's just a bigger slime. Magic seems to work really well against these, so..." - Iris says as she takes a deep breath.

She closes her eyes, followed by a blurry, orange-colored being of light materializing beside her. It creates small glowing daggers and throws a steady stream of them into the slime's body as it slides out of the pool.

Ian jumps back out of shock as he notices the being appear beside Iris.

"Wh-what is that?!" - He yells.

"... Huh? Oh, it's something she calls a Vision. It's sort of like a unique power only she has." - Canopy states as she summons her scythe.

"A... unique power?" - Ian asks while trembling.

Canopy shoots out a ball of dark magic with a swing of her scythe. It blows off a massive chunk of the rainbow slime, forcing it to retreat some of its tentacles.

"Yeah, her martial arts teacher said everyone has one... except me for some reason. Anyway, don't you have ice powers? I'll take back the mean things I said about you if you help us." - Canopy remarks with a pout.

"O-oh. Right, of course." - Ian nods.

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[Current OST: Tamariu]

A young, fair-skinned man with blue eyes dressed in a loose gray outfit stares at the moon hanging from the black sky. He has messy brown hair and is clutching onto a wound on his right hip.

He turns around and sees Chamomile's group coming down the road.

"Oh thank god there's more people around here. Do you guys have any healing items I could use?" - He asks with a concerned tone.

Prya and Ven stood behind the barrier, desperately shielding themselves from its onslaught of attacks.

"Looks like things are finally heating up," Ven smiled and ducked out from behind the barrier. Behind him, more icicles formed, and slammed against the slime mold.

"Oh great! Looks like everyone but me has some cool power they can do," Prya said. So much for everyone starting beginner levels. All she could do was wave a pointy stick around, and even then she could barely only do that. "I'll uh... I'll run support... Somehow..."

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"Sorry, we don't have any," Luna said. "At least Kaj and I don't."

"Are you badly hurt?" Kaj asked.

"I think I have some on me." Rebecca scanned the man's face in interest, and then dug into her bag. "What's your name, kid? Charm Beasts are a hell of an opponent, aren't they?"

As she continued to rummage through her bag, Evan looked on in confusion.

Is she....stalling?

Veil strides over to Charlotte's group with a dull frown on her face.

"Alright. You must be real skilled if you were able to beat back my boys like that. However, I also heard you don't have enough cash to pass. That won't sit well with me, you see." - She remarks.

"It seems like you'd save yourself a lot of trouble if you just let us go." - Charlotte states.

"... True, but I've been itching for a good fight ever since I started this gang. I might even call this off if you beat me." - Veil remarks as she cracks her neck.

"... I see." - Charlotte sighs.

"Huh. Well, bring it on!" - Max yells.

He runs at Veil with his sword and shield out. Solana stretches an arm out at him and yells at the top of her lungs.

"What are you doing, Max?!"

He jump-slashes at Veil but she swerves out of the way, grabs him by the arm and swings his entire body into the snow. His equipment falls to the ground and she slams a boot onto his back.

"Please tell me he's just tagging along because that was just bad." - Veil chuckles with both arms crossed.

"... Useless child." - Solana gripes under her breath.

"Okay, that's it. Veil, you want a real fight? Let's do this." - Charlotte scowls as she surges with electricity.

[Current OST: Death License]

Charlotte shoots a bolt of lighting at her but Veil blocks it with a pillar of ice.

"Fancy, but can you keep it up?" - Veil scoffs back.

She summons a pair of icy knives into her hand with a sly grin. She throws them at Charlotte, only for her to deflect them with one of the lavender barriers.

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Ian summons a ice javelin into his hand and chucks it into the slime. All of the attacks slamming into the monster drive it back, with it shaking wildly in response. It shoots out spikes in random directions but they weaken as its body melts into the ground.

"... Did we win?" - Iris remarks with a sweat.

"I hope so. The amount of punishment this thing could take was insane." - Canopy states.

The prismatic slime's body reconstitutes into a smaller, humanoid form. It takes the shape of a tall, green-skinned woman wearing a long red dress, red hair that touches the floor, red eyes and horns coming out of the top of their head.

"Filthy creatures... I'll kill all of you for what you did to my children." - The Queen says with a low, guttural tone.

[Current OST: Battle - Shin Megami Tensei 2]

She shoots a wave of rainbow-colored slime at the group. Iris keeps her ground by blocking it with her Vision while Canopy shoots herself up with a stone pillar. Ian freezes the ground towards the incoming wave but it dissolves and he gets swept up by the ooze.

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The man walks over to the group and nods.

"A bit, yeah. My name's David. I just got sucked into this 'game world' so I have no idea where I'm supposed to be. I don't even know what a Charm Beast is, unless you're talking about the weird fox thing that did this to me."

He takes his hand off of his hip and reveals a deep claw mark to the group.

"Yeah, that's a Charm Beast alright." Rebecca said. "Lemme just grab you a potio- jeez it took a lot of skin off you. The potion will probably heal it straight up, but damn."

"...I'm...gonna go." Evan stammered, "I...can't handle the sight of blood very well. Squeamish, I guess."

And Evan darted into the shadow of some surrounding trees.

"I better go make sure he doesn't faint..." Shiva said, following after him, "Be right back!"

Kaj and Luna watched Evan and Shiva go. Again.

"There's something odd about that one..." Kaj muttered.

"You mean other than the part where they're totally banging and still in the phase where they don't want to admit it?"

"I mean..." Sometimes Luna's directness really caught Kaj off guard. "Maybe? Are they?"

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Elior's barrier couldn't handle the new assault and crumbled. He instinctively threw a new barrier around himself, and only had time for himself. The weight of the rainbow slime threatened to dissolve his new barrier as well, but out of the corner of his eye saw Canopy lift herself into the air with a stone pillar. Just before his barrier dissolved, he copied Canopy and raised himself into the air as well.

Prya was left defenseless against the slime and was swept up just like Ian. She tried to yell out, but was pulled under like being caught in a thick, syrupy ocean wave. Prya clawed at the slime, trying to resurface. But suddenly a large creature pierced through the slime and scooped her up and out. Gasping for breath, Prya noticed she was in the mouth of a large, glowing snake seemingly made out of a bright green light. Ven was gripping it around the neck.

"Don't... tell me..."

"Hey," Ven said. "Like my Vision?"

"You've got to be fucking kidding me. Since when do you have a Vision?"

"Since a while. You never asked."

Charlotte fires off more bolts of lightning at Veil while Solana floods the battlefield with a storm of arrows. Veil drops the arrows out of the sky with ice and darts away from the lightning, but she trips, allowing a stray bolt to hit her in the arm.

The bolt chars her arm and she bites her lip with muffled cursing. Veil stumbles in the snow but she lets out a strained grin.

"Okay, you got me... psych! Try this on for size!" - She says as she slams the ground.

A set of symbols appear on the ground emblazoned with a music note, followed by two blue pillars of light flaring out of nowhere. They clear and reveal two people - the first is a fair-skinned blue-haired man with large sunglasses wearing a white vest carrying a katana nearly the size of his body.

The other is a pale-skinned, blue-haired woman wearing a loose white dress, bat ears and long blue claws.

"What's up." - The man says with a confident, toothy grin.

"Hello!~" - The woman remarks with a sweet voice.

"H-how'd you do that!?" - Charlotte yells in amazement.

"Muse Art, babe. I have a lot of interests and drawing was one of them... you could even say it's a family thing for me. Basically, I have the power to bring my art to life, but they're the only things I could properly animate. Funny, huh?" - Veil chuckles to herself.

"(It's like an unending spiral of character creation... this is getting ridiculous!)" - Charlotte screams inside of her head.

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Canopy fires off another dark ball, but glances over to see Ven's Vision.

"It's a giant snake! Man, everyone has cool stuff! I want a Vision too!" - She yells.

Iris stands her ground against the wave of slime, but she pulls back against the momentum of the wave to propel herself backwards into the air. She grabs onto a stalactite and swings onto the same pillar Canopy raised.

The dark ball explodes onto the Queen and part of her face melts off, but she quickly reforms.

"Hmmm. At this rate we'll be here for a while. We need to come up with a strategy..." - Iris ponders.

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David lets out a loud snort upon hearing Luna's comment, but he brushes it off and straightens up his back.

"Sorry, I just found that funny. Thanks, though. I don't really have any equipment on me and I'm not really good at fighting... in fact, I just got my cinematography degree and I was searching for jobs before this happened." - He says with a shrug.

"Dude, that must suck." Rebecca sighed. "And yeah, they're definitely banging."

Rebecca laughed to herself.

"Nah, I'm joking. They'd know better than to fuck in the woods." Rebecca muttered. "Hopefully he gets less...squeamish as we go on."

"Well, yeah, I mean," Luna stammered. "Like, not now."

Kaj chuckled. "Well, certainly more exciting than your typical job hunt. But anyway, we should be getting to that monster we're supposed to hunt down, yes?"

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"At least I'm not the only one," Prya grumbled.

"I don't know, I think constantly hitting it with our most powerful attacks seems like a fine plan to me," Ven said. "I mean, what else are you going to do? Unless someone would like to reveal that they're a master magician and incinerate it, or freeze it, or turn it to stone."

Prya thought. If only there was some way to stop the slime queen from regenerating. Or maybe there was a core that controlled her, some sort of weak point.

"Do you think she has a weak point?" Prya asked out loud. "Like a brain or core or something? Something she's trying to hide or guard?"