Chapter Ten: an Expected Betrayal

Eris begins to make her way to the quest board on the first floor that lies next to the reception area. Little did she know that there are multiple pairs of eyes following her. And unlike the others whose eyes were filled with fear, these gazes are those of whom hold evil intentions. Eris makes it to the quest board and begins looking around at the many pieces of paper covering the board.

"Hm… this one about the undead wolves looks pretty nice. A good pay too."

Suddenly, a small voice rises from behind Eris, "Um… excuse me."

The vampire turns to see a trio of individuals standing behind her. The one leading looks to be a 16 year old girl, with slightly tanned skin, green eyes, and long, platinum blond hair. Another noticeable feature on her is that her ears are long and pointed. She wears leather armor on her chest, arms, shoulders, legs and thighs and carries a container of arrows on her back and a bow in her hands.

The one to her right is a man who seems to be around 18 years old. He has short, red hair, but he also wears a mask, similar in shape to a black skull, that covers all other facial features. He wears dark, silver plate armor, with a rounded shield on his left arm and an axe secured to his back.

The final person is another female with long black hair, similar to Eris's, strange, purple eyes, and pale skin. She wears japanese style, purple clothing, and carries a katana-like blade on the right side of her waist.

"What do you need?" the vampire asks.

"Um, are you really the Blood Princess?" the blond elf asks shyly.

"That's me. But you can just call me Eris," she answers with a smile.

The elf perks up, "Oh, then you can call me Sylvie!"

"My name's Grudge," says the skull-faced individual.

"And I'm Ryuko."

"Um… my friends and I… were kinda wondering, if you'd consider joining our party," says Sylvie.

"Oh? Are you sure that you'd want to partner up with someone like me?"

"We're all extremely big fans of yours, Eris. And we happen to know that the only time you've killed players is when they challenged you to a duel," says Grudge.

"We have all evolved once, but we're still at a low level. There's no chance that the three of us would be able to beat you, so I suggested that we team up. I'm hoping that if we can spend some time together, then we'll be able to reach your level," explains Ryuko.

"I see. That's rather smart of all of you. Then how about we do the undead wolf subjugation quest together. Undead wolves are fairly powerful so they should be able to provide you with a large amount of experience points. This will also give you some valuable fighting experience."

"That sounds great! Thanks so much, Eris!" exclaims Sylvie.

The trio of the wiat by the door while Eris accepts the quest, but all the while, she tries to contain her laughter and whispers under her breath, "Those idiots. Do they really think that they can fool me with as bad of actors as they are? I better keep my guard up for this trip."

Eris meets the trio at the other end of the quest office, and then sets off with her new party. The four of them made their way outside of the town they were staying in, and into the monster-filled wilderness. Like always in the continent of Necron, the only light in the pitch black sky is that of a blood-colored moon. There's a thin layer of fog that covers the ground beneath their feet, adding further eriness to their surroundings.

"Be careful," Eris advises, "Even though it's thin, the fog can provide excellent cover for trap-type monsters like maneaters and whiplashes."

"Right," the rest of them answer in unison.

The four continue further and further into the forest. Eris keeps her hand resting on the hilt of her sword as the other three lead her deeper into the ominous woods. Then, the three lead Eris into an open area within the forest.

"This isn't the right direction if we're looking for undead wolves," says Eris.

"What do you mean?" asks Sylvie.

"Alright, can we just cut the crap already? Your friends are also terrible at hiding. Even though some of them have stealth skills," the vampire says with a cold expression.

At that point, an evil smile appears on the elf's face, "Alright. You heard her, you guys! Let's just get this over with!" At that point, seventeen more people emerge from the trees surrounding Eris. Each one of them has a different set of armor, wield powerful-looking weapons in their hands, and have wicked expressions plastered on their faces, "I gotta say, I'm surprised. I knew that you were good, but to think that a twelve year old can see through our plan so easily is kinda embarrassing."

"Yeah, I'd be pretty embarrassed too," Eris says with a smug smile.

"However, this mistake is easily painted over. All we have to do is kill you, and we can just say that we won in a fair duel. Hell, we'll even become famous. The ones who vanquished the Blood Princess," Sylvie explains.

"Not only that, but you probably have a crap ton of money in that digital wallet of yours. If we destroy you, not only will we get a massive payout of experience points, but we'll probably be able to start our own country," says Ryuko with a smile similar to Sylvie's.

"I gotta admit, that's a fairly decent plan, and it probably would've worked on another player," Eris eyes the trio in front of her, "But, you idiots have just turned yourselves into my enemies. And if you know anything about me, you should know that I don't believe in the concept of mercy when it comes to my opponents."

"You are one insane little girl!" says Grudge, "There are twenty of us and one of you. Not only that, but all of us have evolved once. You're a fool if you think you can beat us!"

"You've only evolved once? Hahahahahaha! I've evolved twice!"

"What?!" asks the elf with her eyes almost popping out of her skull.

"That's impossible! The game has only been out for little over two years! There's no way you could've evolved twice unless…"

Eris cuts off Ryuko's statement, "Unless I have nothing better to do." All the other players look at Eris with eyes filled with terror as she draws her blade, "I may be a cold-blooded, ruthless little girl in this game, but in the real world, I'm nothing. Right now my body is sleeping on its deathbed, my parents don't pay any attention to me at all, and the only thing I have to do every day is take a few blood tests. My brother got me this game so that I could live the way I want to live, and that's what I'm going to do. And there's no way that a bunch of mediocre, cowardice noobs, such as yourselves, will stop me from doing so."

"Grrrr! That's enough! Mages, take her out now! Use your strongest spells!!" Sylvie orders.

At that point, seven of the people in the circle around Eris take aim, and each fires a different spell. All the spells collide with the vampire's body at the same time, creating a powerful explosion, and sending up a black cloud of smoke.

"Ha! I guess she was all bark and no bite. What a cheeky little bit…"

A voice emerges from the smoke and cuts off the player, "Fat Boy! Finish that sentence and you'll be the first one to die!"

Each of the twenty players peer into the black cloud to find Eris completely unscathed. Moreover, there's a field of crimson red energy surrounding her that she created at the last second by softly muttering the name of the spell.

"N… No way," Grudge says nervously.

"That was pretty cool. If I hadn't put up my blood barrier at the last second, I would've taken some pretty serious damage from those spells. Well, since you guys are going all out, I guess that I can respond with the same courtesy."