The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

When the feed came up on the monitor for Hunter, Elias felt his brain stalling. It was a still image of the business end of some sort of jagged blade. As if he were getting a first-hand look inches from eyeballs at the point of an extremely cruel blade. It was so incredibly still, and Hunter's vision so immobile that he thought their feed or connection was bad. His eyes widened slightly as another moment passed and his brain finally made sense of the imagery. Without saying anything to his main producer in front of him, he reached down and pressed the button that would take the feed and stream it to the main in less than a minute due to their broadcast delay. Elias had been worried they wouldn't take the shot in time so hadn't said anything. Most of the people in the studio who weren't actively engaged in watching other screens, monitoring audio, slipping in ads, or responding to the live text hype on their site were also showing dawning expressions of understanding.

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Hunter stepped carefully away from the tip of the blade by stepping backward one foot, then two, the feel of icy fingertips crawling down from the nape of her neck and down to her spine making her shiver. The feeling of imminent death had made her completely still. The eyes staring at her down the length of the blade did not waver in the slightest. Red pupils surrounded by blackened sclera were locked onto hers, the only part of him that moved as those dangerous orbs followed tracked her as she took another careful step away. The tableau in front of her was frozen as if any sudden movement would cause it to shatter into pieces.

Forsythe had stood in front of her at the crucial moment when the named visage had lunged forward from nowhere, the long rapier having been moments from skewering her right eye and ending her right then and there. He had stopped the advance of the enemy blade by locking his own hilt with the enemy. Had he been a fraction of a second later, or a fraction of a second further back, she would be dead now.

[Appraise]. Hunter commanded.

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Grimgrieve (Level 25- )

DIE

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Before the skill could fully materialize the information regarding the enemy, Hunter's vision swam almost as if she were low health or if she were suddenly enveloped in an enemy illusion spell. Grimgrieve in her appraise vision grew in magnitude by four sizes and took a step toward her that made Hunter immediately start scrambling backward. The rapier in the creatures right hand grew in size proportionally to his body and he started to swing down. Hunter froze as if she were a rabbit in front of a lion.

"What the f-." Hunter started to curse, realizing that she wasn't actually scared but her character literally couldn't move. It was some sort of fear check that her morale had failed against. All she could do was helplessly watch as the blade descended again. The frustration in her voice was heard loud and clear even as the feed in the broadcasting room showed the ludicrous image of the enemy named visage growing in size and stepping forward like a reaper.

"Ugh," Abhy muttered in disgust, but there was no real concern in her voice. In fact, Elias spared a glance around and saw that everyone else in the room was calm as well. No one was afraid for Hunter or worried about her feed being cut except maybe the viewers and perhaps Hunter who was under the knife. MKC Online had been watching a lot of footage lately and there was one hero that, even though they were in the limelight, held the power of quiet respect and awe. No one said anything but everyone was waiting for it. There could only be one outcome.

Hunter's vision resolved immediately as the shape of a human slammed into the huge nightmare creature from the side, smashing into it so violently it almost seemed like it deflated or somehow knocked off a gaseous matter that made the creature immediately smaller. Hunter could once again move and this time she didn't waste the chance with caring about moving carefully or slowly. She turned slightly, keeping her eyes on the action as she sprinted to the shadow of a nearby building, no longer enc.u.mbered by the fear effect at all. Her bow sprang into her hand and she pulled the string back, a notched arrow appearing and flying toward the red eyes that followed her even now.

Grimgrieve stepped backward casually away from Forsythe who had body checked him off-balance and out of line for the killing blow he had planned, no longer paying any mind to the arrow that flew by inches from the side of his head. Black feathers on the side of his pauldrons rustled slightly as the arrow passed but otherwise there was no reaction to Hunter. His red eyes finally trained on Forsythe.

[Die]. The command again, but this time Hunter could see that it really was a spoken fear skill since it was pointed at the swordsman instead of her.

If Forsythe felt the ability no one could tell. Above his head there was a clear ringing sound, almost seeming to surprise Grimgrieve whose shoulders straightened. [INVINCIBLE] appeared in silver above his head.

Almost as soon as the command from the enemy visage the same size as him was issued Fours spoke one of his own. "[Intrepid Strike]."

Intrepid Strike was an ability that focused on thrusts. At the level that Forsythe had trained the skill the accuracy, speed, and damage of three initial thrusts were increased. Additionally, the skill would actually continue allowing for subsequent thrusts to benefit from the skill buff for as many thrusts as the player could manage without missing consecutively. Parried thrusts didn't deactivate the skill, ever-increasing thrusts didn't add any significant advantage. The skill maintained the speed, accuracy, and damage of the buff from those three initial thrusts and could be maintained indefinitely, in theory, as long as you didn't miss and were fast enough. The thrusts had to be made within a small window of time or the skill was broken. The problem was actually hitting with so many thrusts consecutively when the enemy was moving, dodging around, striking back, and so forth and so on. Most swordsman, when faced with an enemy who used swords or an enemy that was humanoid, didn't put much stock in it and called it a skill that was 'great on paper'.

"Heh." Hunter snickered and notched her bow. "[Full Draw]." She pulled the drawstring almost as far as her arms could reach, standing up straight and watching Grimgrieve motionlessly. For the moment she and Forsythe had completely turned their attention to the enemy visage named and trusted on Rat, Riddly, Justin, and the others in Shadow Fall in the vicinity to keep an eye on the ever-increasing number of normal visage in the area.

Fortunately for them, they were further into the broken-down city and were fighting in a small courtyard with rubble and broken skeletons of buildings surrounding them and were further from the main action of the front ring.

Forsythe pressed forward with a vacant expression on his face, ignoring the sneer that was beginning to appear on the face of the visage before him. Grimgrieve was wearing a half-helm that covered the upper part of his face save for his eyes and left the lower half exposed. His red eyes began to burn with intensity as Forsythe delivered the fourteenth, then the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth strike, parrying each blow to the left and then right of his body with the blackened rapier in his hand effortlessly.

Right before the eighteenth landed the red eyes casually glanced over at the Silf Hunter who was in full draw position before returning to Forsythe, finally managing to insert a riposte, or a quick jab of his own, between Forsythe's relentless assault. The red eyes widened as Forsythe turned his body slightly and paid no mind to the rapier point that went by half an inch from his right cheek as he stepped in and thrust once more as if he were a mindless Intrepid Strike machine.

"Open," Forsythe spoke to his opponent for the first time as he took that step closer while narrowly dodging. His free-hand, which up till now he had kept behind him or used to keep his balance, moved to the pommel of his sword and his thrust suddenly had a pressure that it had lacked before. "[Power Assist - Intrepid Strike]".

Grimgrieve stilled, the red eyes widening fractionally as he froze, rapier still extended passed Forsythe in a frozen pantomime of a fencing move, three feet of steel pushed through his c.h.e.s.t and erupting from his back.

"[Release]." Hunter breathed, at last, not waiting to see if Forsythe had killed Grimgrieve. The fully drawn arrow rocketed from her bow, hitting the side of his neck and blowing almost all the way through before coming to a stop by the feathers on one side. The visage named drooped slightly, the red eyes beginning to dim somewhat.

Just as the fight had started initially, now time was frozen in Hunter's vision once again and Elias and Abhy stood in the control room. If anyone had walked in they might have thought they were looking at some sort of weird macabre painting.

"Why does Shadow Fall have all the monsters?" Someone in the silent control room asked.