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<blockquote data-quote="Dr Midnight" data-source="post: 6887197" data-attributes="member: 69"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 5</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Against The Dread Sea-God</strong></p><p></p><p>A fireball burst off of Ar'N'Aeth's thick outer shell, scarcely singing the lumbering crab monster.</p><p></p><p>"Aim between the armor plates!" Lily screamed as she hacked at one of its ten immense seven-jointed arms.</p><p></p><p>Murray screamed back "I'm trying!"</p><p></p><p>The final room of the dungeon was a vast cavern into which they'd walked on a high cliff overlooking black water. The cliff's surface was littered with gems and other offerings the monks had made to the sea god. It had risen slowly from the sea beneath the cliff and swayed before them, building-sized and snapping the claws at the ends of ten long, segmented arms. It was plated in blue-black armor that looked to be a foot thick in places, and in others the shell fit together in layered folds, where the white meat of the creature beneath couldn't even be seen. The best bet looked to be the pale gap beneath its mass of trembling eye-stalks, but it was perhaps a six inch diamond of flesh between plates. A small target at this distance.</p><p></p><p>Murray released a lighting bolt at the beast and though it glanced off the thick armor and struck the ceiling, Ar'N'Aeth seemed to recoil somewhat from the white-blue curls of electricity. "Did you see that?"</p><p></p><p>"I did, hit the weak spot!"</p><p></p><p>"It's too small, I can't!"</p><p></p><p>A claw lunged at Lily and she jumped onto it, landing in a run and scampering out over the slick crab limb, balancing over a fifty foot drop into dark seawater.</p><p></p><p>"Lily, no!" Murray yelled. "What are you doing?"</p><p></p><p>"Giving you a target!" She reached the body, climbing the exoskeleton's spikes as stairs. She reached the center and the forest of eye-stalks turned backward to watch her with unblinking onyx eyes. Each of the ten arms had begun to curl back from the cliff and come toward her with slowly opening claws. With a grunt Lily hewed through the copse of waving stalks, scattering the eyes to fall into the ocean below. Bending over the creature's head she found the gap in the armor and plunged her great sword into it.</p><p></p><p>She released the sword and leapt from Ar'N'Aeth as the claws snapped behind her, missing by inches. "<em>Now!!</em>" she screamed.</p><p></p><p>Murray raised both hands and fired a thick lightning bolt into the hilt of Lily's iron greatsword. Lily's jump carried her over the crackling beam and she rolled to a crouch on the cliff. The crab god screamed from countless mouths as the electricity jolted through the sword and into its body. Steam rose from its reddening husk as it cooked where it stood. It began to sink back into the water, and the water boiled around it as it went. A cloud of steam hung in the air over the churning pool. The bubbles didn't stop for some time.</p><p></p><p>"Great idea, Lilyboo," Murray said. "Sorry about your sword."</p><p></p><p>"Who cares, right?" Lily picked up a handful of shimmering rubies. "I'll buy another sword."</p><p></p><p>"We did it!" Murray raised his fists in triumph.</p><p></p><p>"<em>We did it!!</em>" Lily rushed over and picked Grandpa up in a bear hug, then spun around. His pointed hat toppled off his head. "Ar'N'Aeth is dead!"</p><p></p><p>They added the coins and gems to their inventory. Murray looked about. "I guess that's it, we're done here. Hungry?"</p><p></p><p>"Starving."</p><p></p><p>They celebrated with a gourmet dinner in Italy. Lily gestured wildly with a piece of bread while she regaled a polite yet bored waiter with the story of their adventure. "So one skeleton's got grandpa and the other's in front of me, right? I yell '<em>unhand my Grandpa, you dorks!</em>" and swing my sword and hit the skeleton in front of me with the flat of my blade. His skull flew off and cracked <em>right into the skull of the other one</em>."</p><p></p><p>Murray nodded. "She took out two with one shot. It's one of the best moves I've ever seen, Niccolo. It was like skull tee ball." Lily giggled at this.</p><p></p><p>"Very good, sir," Niccolo said. "Can I get you anything else?"</p><p></p><p>After the waiter had left the table, Lily said "He's no fun. We hadn't even gotten to the room with all the spikes, yet."</p><p></p><p>"You know," Murray said, "That was the best adventure I've ever had. All this time and I never thought that playing one of those with someone else could be so much fun."</p><p></p><p>"It was the best!" Lily replied around a mouthful of risotto. "Why don't people just live like this? I mean regular people, not just fossils like you."</p><p></p><p>"Brat. It's because it's 'not realll,'" Murray groaned mockingly. "Just ask your parents. Do they know you come here, by the way?"</p><p></p><p>"Nah. I barely ever talk to Mom, and Dad doesn't need to know. He just thinks I sit around and watch TV till he gets home. Like that's better."</p><p></p><p>"Anyway, there's a huge movement against living in <em>Full Immersion VR</em> like this," Murray went on. "I'm sure you've heard about it, read the articles. Your mom gave me the business when you visited a few years back. A young person living like this, and I've heard a few do, is considered to be wasting their life. And I guess old folks like myself are... what... just waiting to die anyway?"</p><p></p><p>Lily rolled her eyes. "People want to think the worst of everything that's perfect."</p><p></p><p>"Couldn't have said it better myself, Lilyboo."</p><p></p><p>They ate and ate. As they began to slow down, Lily asked "Hey, can I have some wine?"</p><p></p><p>"Ehh, I don't think that's a good idea."</p><p></p><p>"Why not? It's not real, right?"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but it'd affect you the same way. I don't think there'd be any harm in it, but imagine how your father would react if he knew Grandpa was giving you alcohol in virtual reality."</p><p></p><p>"Good point, I guess." She shrugged.</p><p></p><p>"Your father's always been very serious. When he was eleven I tried to give him a sip of beer. He looks at me and says 'but Daddy, that's against the law.' That's Paul for you."</p><p></p><p>"Why are you two so different?"</p><p></p><p>Murray sighed. "I don't know. He definitely takes more after his mother, but not even she was as serious as he is. Mister good citizen. I always tried to be his pal, but he didn't want a pal."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, he's definitely a stick in the mud." Lily's smile faded when she looked to Grandpa and saw him staring down past his plate. "Um. Anyway, this is really good. I had no idea italian food could be like this. What other countries have great food? We should do all of them."</p><p></p><p>"The biggest surprise is China," Grandpa mumbled. "That stuff is nasty."</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah? How so?"</p><p></p><p>"Don't ask. Trust me, stick with americanized chinese, kiddo, do yourself a favor."</p><p></p><p>More food arrived. Murray forked up a bit of spaghettini. "Look, it's got bits of crab in it. To the defeat of Ar'N'Aeth!"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah!" She stabbed a piece and they tapped their forks together. "To the downfall of the dread sea-god! To the best adventure ever, and to us!"</p><p></p><p>"So where do we go tomorrow?"</p><p></p><p>"Welllll," Lily grinned. "I was wondering. Do you have any space games?"</p><p></p><p>"I thought you'd never ask."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dr Midnight, post: 6887197, member: 69"] [CENTER][B]Chapter 5 Against The Dread Sea-God[/B][/CENTER] A fireball burst off of Ar'N'Aeth's thick outer shell, scarcely singing the lumbering crab monster. "Aim between the armor plates!" Lily screamed as she hacked at one of its ten immense seven-jointed arms. Murray screamed back "I'm trying!" The final room of the dungeon was a vast cavern into which they'd walked on a high cliff overlooking black water. The cliff's surface was littered with gems and other offerings the monks had made to the sea god. It had risen slowly from the sea beneath the cliff and swayed before them, building-sized and snapping the claws at the ends of ten long, segmented arms. It was plated in blue-black armor that looked to be a foot thick in places, and in others the shell fit together in layered folds, where the white meat of the creature beneath couldn't even be seen. The best bet looked to be the pale gap beneath its mass of trembling eye-stalks, but it was perhaps a six inch diamond of flesh between plates. A small target at this distance. Murray released a lighting bolt at the beast and though it glanced off the thick armor and struck the ceiling, Ar'N'Aeth seemed to recoil somewhat from the white-blue curls of electricity. "Did you see that?" "I did, hit the weak spot!" "It's too small, I can't!" A claw lunged at Lily and she jumped onto it, landing in a run and scampering out over the slick crab limb, balancing over a fifty foot drop into dark seawater. "Lily, no!" Murray yelled. "What are you doing?" "Giving you a target!" She reached the body, climbing the exoskeleton's spikes as stairs. She reached the center and the forest of eye-stalks turned backward to watch her with unblinking onyx eyes. Each of the ten arms had begun to curl back from the cliff and come toward her with slowly opening claws. With a grunt Lily hewed through the copse of waving stalks, scattering the eyes to fall into the ocean below. Bending over the creature's head she found the gap in the armor and plunged her great sword into it. She released the sword and leapt from Ar'N'Aeth as the claws snapped behind her, missing by inches. "[I]Now!![/I]" she screamed. Murray raised both hands and fired a thick lightning bolt into the hilt of Lily's iron greatsword. Lily's jump carried her over the crackling beam and she rolled to a crouch on the cliff. The crab god screamed from countless mouths as the electricity jolted through the sword and into its body. Steam rose from its reddening husk as it cooked where it stood. It began to sink back into the water, and the water boiled around it as it went. A cloud of steam hung in the air over the churning pool. The bubbles didn't stop for some time. "Great idea, Lilyboo," Murray said. "Sorry about your sword." "Who cares, right?" Lily picked up a handful of shimmering rubies. "I'll buy another sword." "We did it!" Murray raised his fists in triumph. "[I]We did it!![/I]" Lily rushed over and picked Grandpa up in a bear hug, then spun around. His pointed hat toppled off his head. "Ar'N'Aeth is dead!" They added the coins and gems to their inventory. Murray looked about. "I guess that's it, we're done here. Hungry?" "Starving." They celebrated with a gourmet dinner in Italy. Lily gestured wildly with a piece of bread while she regaled a polite yet bored waiter with the story of their adventure. "So one skeleton's got grandpa and the other's in front of me, right? I yell '[I]unhand my Grandpa, you dorks![/I]" and swing my sword and hit the skeleton in front of me with the flat of my blade. His skull flew off and cracked [I]right into the skull of the other one[/I]." Murray nodded. "She took out two with one shot. It's one of the best moves I've ever seen, Niccolo. It was like skull tee ball." Lily giggled at this. "Very good, sir," Niccolo said. "Can I get you anything else?" After the waiter had left the table, Lily said "He's no fun. We hadn't even gotten to the room with all the spikes, yet." "You know," Murray said, "That was the best adventure I've ever had. All this time and I never thought that playing one of those with someone else could be so much fun." "It was the best!" Lily replied around a mouthful of risotto. "Why don't people just live like this? I mean regular people, not just fossils like you." "Brat. It's because it's 'not realll,'" Murray groaned mockingly. "Just ask your parents. Do they know you come here, by the way?" "Nah. I barely ever talk to Mom, and Dad doesn't need to know. He just thinks I sit around and watch TV till he gets home. Like that's better." "Anyway, there's a huge movement against living in [I]Full Immersion VR[/I] like this," Murray went on. "I'm sure you've heard about it, read the articles. Your mom gave me the business when you visited a few years back. A young person living like this, and I've heard a few do, is considered to be wasting their life. And I guess old folks like myself are... what... just waiting to die anyway?" Lily rolled her eyes. "People want to think the worst of everything that's perfect." "Couldn't have said it better myself, Lilyboo." They ate and ate. As they began to slow down, Lily asked "Hey, can I have some wine?" "Ehh, I don't think that's a good idea." "Why not? It's not real, right?" "Yeah, but it'd affect you the same way. I don't think there'd be any harm in it, but imagine how your father would react if he knew Grandpa was giving you alcohol in virtual reality." "Good point, I guess." She shrugged. "Your father's always been very serious. When he was eleven I tried to give him a sip of beer. He looks at me and says 'but Daddy, that's against the law.' That's Paul for you." "Why are you two so different?" Murray sighed. "I don't know. He definitely takes more after his mother, but not even she was as serious as he is. Mister good citizen. I always tried to be his pal, but he didn't want a pal." "Yeah, he's definitely a stick in the mud." Lily's smile faded when she looked to Grandpa and saw him staring down past his plate. "Um. Anyway, this is really good. I had no idea italian food could be like this. What other countries have great food? We should do all of them." "The biggest surprise is China," Grandpa mumbled. "That stuff is nasty." "Oh yeah? How so?" "Don't ask. Trust me, stick with americanized chinese, kiddo, do yourself a favor." More food arrived. Murray forked up a bit of spaghettini. "Look, it's got bits of crab in it. To the defeat of Ar'N'Aeth!" "Yeah!" She stabbed a piece and they tapped their forks together. "To the downfall of the dread sea-god! To the best adventure ever, and to us!" "So where do we go tomorrow?" "Welllll," Lily grinned. "I was wondering. Do you have any space games?" "I thought you'd never ask." [/QUOTE]
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