4 Enemy Encounter

The forest was dark, I tread carefully scanning the woods around me. Every once in a while, I heard a rustle in the bushes and started. I saw lights far off in the trees, through the dense forest. I kept my hand on my sword and proceeded forward. I had really no idea how combat works in this system, just my gut instincts to go off of.

The forest was relatively peaceful but held an aura of malevolence. I felt the uncanny sensation of being watched again, and the hairs raised on the back of my neck. Rustling sounded in the bushes, I turned around. A loud snorting could be heard, heavy breaths. The sound of a carcass being ripped apart.

I walked farther into the bushes, I saw the area rustling, and saw a large snout with tusks sticking out beneath the bush, ripping apart flesh of an animal. As I got closer, the boar snarled and jumped up to stare at me. I noticed the cursor above its head was red. It had a health bar in the left corner of my field of vision. It danced towards me, snarling and grunting. I jumped back and scrambled. I pulled my sword clumsily off of my back.

I held my sword in front of me, both hands gripping the hilt with white knuckles. I took a deep breath, planted my feet in an even stance. I tried not to shake, staring at the black slobbering monstrosity in front of me. It pounded its hoofs against the ground, threatening me. I started to circle the enemy,

The enemy charged, I held my sword diagonally across my body to block, the boar slammed against the side of my sword and pressed against me, I planted my feet on the ground to stop myself from being pushed back. The boar tossed its head to the side and I was thrown, falling on my butt in the dirt. The boar approached, hovering over me. Quickly I rolled to the side, away from its hot smelly breath. I grabbed my sword and jumped up, I gripped the sword evenly and charged the tip of my blade slicing cleanly up the side of the animal. The boar screamed and fell back, a bright red line glowed and appeared where my sword had struck. The HP bar in the left corner of my vision started decreasing. It lowered to about halfway.

Now the boar was angry, huffing and hawing. It circled me like a jaguar circling its prey. Steam came out of the boar's nostrils. My HP bar in the corner read I was missing one third of my health. I breathed deeply. I planted my feet again and stared at the boar. I lunged forward, sweeping my sword in a wide arc toward the neck of the beast. I struck home. The beast squealed and its health bar dropped to zero. The beast glowed red and fell to the ground, blood seeping from its wound. Then it glowed bright red, and shattered into thousands of polygons, disappearing.

A yellow bar appeared and filled at the bottom of my screen, as it maxed out, LEVEL UP! Appeared in my field of vision, next to it the words "Level 2". Along with an increase in my stats. I smiled and placed the sword back on its sheath. I felt stronger, rejuvenated. My health was back up to full.

As I wandered through the forest, I came across three more boars, I made quicker work of them, their bodies exploding into thousands of polygons. My level increased again, and I smiled. As long as I can keep increasing my level, I should keep getting stronger.

As I neared the edge of the woods, I heard a low deep breathing. Hissing sounds reverberated through the trees. I inched forward slowly. I saw a large serpent-like monster, it had slimy scales, and two large fangs. It had claws that reached a short distance. The monster spotted me and immediately turned about to face me. I read Level 6 above the monster's head next to its health bar. I cringed and removed my sword from its sheath.

I lunged forward, slicing down the side of the serpent, a bright red line appeared where I cut. The beast hissed and lunged down, fangs flashing. Its teeth clipped my shoulder, and my health dropped down by one third. I hissed feeling the pain in my shoulder, blood dripped down my arm, dripping on to the ground.

I gripped the hilt of my sword. My left arm was weak, from the injury in my shoulder. I quickly jumped out of the way of the serpent's fangs as they descended for a second attack. I rolled across the ground, spinning up and plunging my sword into the belly of the snake. It screamed. The health bar dropped to zero, and the snake collapsed onto the ground. It exploded before me and disappeared.

A black diamond box appeared hovering in the air where the serpents body used to be. I reached for it, and as I grasped it, it glowed, and shattered into polygons. In my hand a white screen appeared in the air. It read:

New Item: Ring of Experience

x2 Exp. from fallen enemies.

I smiled and slid the ring on to my finger. I admired the plain silver band in the moonlight. I'd levelled up to level 5 now.

My shoulder pulsed, I hissed and gripped it, it was still bleeding. My hand came away red, I groaned and stepped forward. I placed my sword on my back and staggered to the edge of the forest. I saw lights, I could smell smoke from campfires. My vision was getting hazy, my head spinning from blood loss. This certainly didn't feel like a video game. My health bar was at a quarter of my health left. I began to shake in fear. I imagined myself exploding into millions of polygons, lost to the data cloud. I thought of Emily, sleeping soundly in her bed waiting for me to come home.

I broke through the tree line, and I could make out a large town a few hundred yards away. I staggered forward, one foot after the other. As I grew closer to the village, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, I my limbs felt heavy. As I approached the village outskirts, I sank to my knees. My hands rested in the tall grass of the field, I breathed deeply. I saw a tall shadow standing over me as I fell to the ground and sank into oblivion.