Nothing To Lose

I scream.

The arrow strikes me in the lower abdomen, knocking me to the ground. Three successive arrows hit me in the legs, ribs, and shoulder. I'm too stunned to react.

Then the pain hits me. I don't think it's anywhere near the real pain one must feel when shot with four arrows, but it's still too much for comfort. They're like punches more than punctures. There must be some calibration setting I missed, or this particular Neural X has been tweaked for maximum sensitivity.

Once the initial pangs fade, the pain spreads from the wounds to the rest of my body. I'm not enjoying the realness now. I try to stand up but the arrows stick out from me like I'm a human pincushion and I can't bend my leg. The dark red bloodstains on my robe grow larger as I struggle to move. Perhaps the settings for gore are tuned down, or I'd probably be spurting out blood.

There's a semitransparent interface displaying my health and mana points, which must have showed up as soon as I started losing health. The HP bar is now down to 40%.

"Look at how much health she lost! You guys, this hero buff is so overpowered," Desdenia says, stepping on my things and coming closer to me.

The hovering cube is focused on her now, completely ignoring me. Hopefully, my privacy settings haven't changed with the update. I don't want my name to be seen on her stream. The last thing I need is to draw attention to myself.

Desdenia continues to speak to the drone.

"So, the pros of being a hero are: the spike in damage and defense against players, and the glow, of course. The cons: everyone can see where I am on the map. So if you're watching this and on your way to fight me, just don't. You've seen what will happen to you."

The cube hovers away from her as she laughs, and it starts recording me again. It moves towards my feet and scans the rest of my holed-up body. When it stops near my face, I reach out and grab it with my free arm, while I use the other one to hold myself up.

The drone buzzes and vibrates between my fingers, as if trying to get free. I squeeze it, hoping it breaks.

"Hey! That's a live stream!" Desdenia says, getting ready to fire at me again. The cube disappears from my hand and reappears next to her head. Her eyes are fixed on me, her bow's drawstring pulled taut around her finger.

"I don't give a shit about your live stream. Stop attacking me," I say, as if politely asking for an aggressor to stop has ever worked. I struggle to get back on my feet. The arrows on my body fade away, leaving behind the stains on my robe and the dull ache of their perforations.

I stand, grabbing my staff, and casting Water Shield as fast as I can. I try to summon my other shields but nothing happens. Now that I have the Aquifera mastery, all of my spells must be linked to water. I try to remember which water-based spells were available to my class before the update. Like Thalla said, most of them should be defensive. But it's been a long time since I had to use them. For the fight against Lobison I went for maximum damage dealing. Now I need to protect myself.

"Hey! No cursing. There are kids watching."

She fires again, and her shot perforates my shield. It doesn't fade way, but my body is immobilized. It's a Paralyzing Shot. By now I don't know if she hasn't killed me because she enjoys toying with me or because her viewers like to watch slow, painful deaths. I assume it's a bit of both.

It's the first time I notice that there are two separate sensations going through my body. On the surface, I'm frozen almost in midair, since Desdenia shot me just as I was about to run. In the back of my mind, my real body is sitting up in my chair back home. My legs are slightly numb and it's getting warm inside my bedroom. But it takes more concentration to focus on my real self than on what's going on here.

"Stop," I say.

She shoots and I'm paralyzed once more.

"You stupid," I blurt out as soon as the paralysis fades, but I'm interrupted by another Paralyzing Shot. I'm lucky this skill of hers doesn't do any damage, aside from the psychological torment that is being immobilized for 5 seconds. It might not sound like a lot of time, but when you can't move, every millisecond counts.

"Fuck."

She shoots.

"You."

Again.

"And."

Again.

"Your."

And again.

The paralysis gets shorter every time she fires. The last one only lasts one second, and she stops pointing her bow at me and lowers it. At least my health has gone up while she froze me six times.

I can hear the annoying buzz of the drone circling around us.

"Come on. This is getting boring. What do you say guys? Do I kill her?" she says, giggling in that bubbly flirty way I've seen her do on camera several times before. She's like a cat playing with her food, knowing it has no way of defending itself. Of course, she's forgotten to mention that she's perfectly aware I don't know how to use any skills.

Her eyes dash back and forth as if reading from an invisible screen. It must be the comments her fans are leaving on her live stream. Whatever it is, it distracts her, and I finally manage to throw myself onto the ground before she shoots again. I crawl behind the nearest anthill and duck behind it just in time.

Small chunks of red clay spray out into the air. Her arrow hit the anthill, and its inhabitants don't seem too pleased that their home has been attacked. They crawl out by the hundreds, and I back away like a crab. The last thing I need now is to have to deal with resentful insects.

In Amoria, no creature is as simple as it seems. For one thing, these ants are the green and the size of cockroaches, and two pointy pincers protrude from their oversized heads. I hope they don't think it was me who trashed their place.

"She's finally learned to dodge!" says Desdenia to the cube, and continues to read more comments.

For the life of me, I can't remember any water spells and I don't have time to open my skills interface. So I cast Water Shield again. I think of everything, all my spells that use lightning, fire and earth power. But I can't cast them. Perhaps this mastery wasn't the wisest choice. I must look really stupid to the viewers in her live stream. I'm not doing anything to fight back. A different, stronger pain than before begins to creep up my right leg and my health points start to go down.

The ants.

I scream again, even louder than before, as I shake my leg trying to get them off. They don't come off. I move far away from the anthill and start to pluck them out of my leg. Their bite is so strong that their heads stick to my skin as I rip out half their bodies when I pull them out.

The cube circles me, and Desdenia laughs at me until she's out of breath.

"Ahh, this has been fun! But the crowd wants to see some blood. And remember guys, now deaths are semi-permanent. You can't log in for an hour after being killed, unless you're a hero. Our deaths are permanent. Permanent-ish."

"Wait," I say, as I try to remove the heads that are still attached to my leg. "What do you mean?"

"When a hero dies they lose everything. Titles, milestones, reputation, and half their levels. That's the beauty of the tournament! Don't worry; you don't have anything to lose."