6 Chapter 6

The VR machine booted into sword and shields automatically and revealed something odd about them. Usually I barely went up to their shoulder but now I'm just as tall as them.

"someone's tampered with my character!" I realised and logged in.

It might be a hacker who's taken all my high-level stuff! I needed to log in to see if everything was fine with them.

When I loaded in my character was in a dark room, text appeared to name the area

"Southern arena," I read aloud and remembered its location.

This was a low-level arena which featured hand shake PVP. This feature meant you must ask the other person to duel and the fight will occur only when the other player accepts. I parted everywhere and checked my inventory all my 8tems were there. Weird, my character looks shorter and less muscly. I noticed how heavy my armour was and immediately felt like I was carrying a safe! I began removing the high-level armour and placed them into my inventory. Luckily this means they stop affecting me physically. Once all the armour was removed, I was left with me under armour. I realised the uniform I was wearing was reinforcing effect of weight in this game. The Nano cubes could grow around to simulate the armour and change their weight as well.

Even my sword and shield were heavy, causing me to stow them in my inventory.

"This is too realistic," I said under my breath.

I began to meander out of this room which led to the fighting area of the arena. There were two people fighting and another yelling orders at the two. One of the fighters was a giant man, he was bare chested which revealed many scares and burns however the rest of his body was covered in bronze armour. He was berserker class and spun two giant swords at the smaller person. The other was a draconic who wielded a trident. She wore light armour which barely provided protection. She had a long skirt which stayed knee length and covered up to her belly button. A chest piece protected her organs with a metal plating however her the rest of her body was bare. Gladiators wore barely little or no armour at all so that they can move faster. I've seen some who have battled in loin cloths! The Draconic ran up the berserker's blade to jump onto his back. She strangled him with the pommel of her trident which brought the hulking man down. She slid back to a few metres near me and noticed my presence. Every person had their name above their character. She was called firespire27.

"Sylvia?" I exclaimed.

Instead of continuing the fight she turned around.

"Philip! You came," she smiled however a giant hand grabbed her stomach.

"Sylvia! Always stay focussed on your opponent!" the other person shouted.

Her action was her undoing, the large man threw her to the ground and his two weapons cleaved her character. The duel was over. Instinct came over me to rush to her to see if she was ok. I began to sprint to her however the large berserker blocked my path. Thundercard17 was his name and he stopped me from heading forward.

"Stop I need to see if she's OK," I yelled at him and began hitting his chest.

My punches bounced off him and hurt my hands.

"Easy there Philip this is training," the man said while pushing me off him "in fact your training shall start."

I forgot that a duel can occur if you hit the other person. He accepted my 'request' and heaved his weapons off Sylvia.

"Come on 'Protector' I want to see how hard you can hit me!" he roared while spinning his blades. I pulled out my sword from my inventory, my muscles clenching to keep the sword pointed at the berserker. I buffed up my character increasing my damage by 20% for the next hit and charged at him. I yelled as I swung the sword over my head, releasing it from my left hand so that the blade could travel farther and strike into him. Instead of the blade cutting through the man, it was blocked by his two swords. My own sword shook in my grip as I tried to press the blade down more however, he didn't give any ground.

"Really? This is all a Feral Fighter can do?" he laughed and effortlessly flung me away.

Feral Fighter is the class I play. They use aspects of certain animals to give them buffs and abilities. The attack usually features a spirit of the animal surrounding the Feral Fighter which makes their attacks harder to dodge.

"Now little Protector, I'm going to do my own attack. Shall we see if your Aspect of the Snapping Turtle will be able to block my weakest move?" he began to charge.

I barely cast the ability before he was upon me. His two swords came down on me and the image of a turtle was in front of me. It was biting down on his blades and stopped the assault. He changed his footing and began pushing with more effort, the turtle disappeared, and the swords was pushing against my shield. My arms were screaming and my whole body was sweating. Breathing became a chore and my vision was becoming poor. Even though this is a game and I've fought people so many times I thought I was going to be crushed. As my shield slowly began to push me into the ground until I was trapped underneath it. My mind was trying to find anything that would be calming. It focused on my shield. It was a beautiful shield. It was made of wood however had a golden metal plate over the shield for added protection, it had 3 circular jewels embed into the top. They changed colour depending on the type of magic that was hitting it; this slowly made the shield become resistant to the magic. None of this mattered as the shield was around my body and I could move.

"This was too easy," the berserker laughed then pulled me by my head out of the shield.

My hands clutched pitifully at his fingers to pull him off. He threw me multiple metres away. As he walked towards me all my muscles were telling me to not move anymore. I ignored them and began to shakily rise to my feet. Why was I still trying to continue? My breath was shallow, and my posture was deformed I could barely see the berserker and the two figures who were watching. One of them was waving their arms in the air. It was smaller than the other and took all my effort to focus on them. It was Sylvia, she was trying to cheer me on. This fight is lost though what am I meant to do? Behind the berserker was my sword. Matching in colour and ornaments to my shield. I only I could reach it.

"Here I come little protector!" he bellowed and began to run at me.

I began charging at him and roared at him as well. He swung his swords down and missed me completely, instead I had slid beneath his legs and landed near me sword. I grabbed the blade and threw it high into the air with my remaining strength. The blade began to fly down while a spirit of a falcon formed around the blade. With a screech the aspect of the falcon collided with the Berserker.