Shaggy’s shout of defiance was almost drowned out by the tumult of the crowd, but both Vlad and Ren grinned back at him as somewhere in the arena, a loud horn blew. Shaggy assumed that was the start of the festivities, as several criminals started running in various directions. Some even tried to climb the wall out of the arena. They were met with the stun batons of the guards who had thrown them over.
“Which group first?” Ren shouted.
“Mages first!” Vlad shouted back as several fireballs and ice shard landed in the dirt near where they were standing.
Shaggy saw two criminals go down as shards of ice exploded in the dirt and pierced through their chests. He figured it was as good a place to start as any and he turned and started running, trying to keep an eye out for anymore spells. He thought he could hear the others behind him, but the noise of the arena was just too much.
He dodged to the side as several more fireballs came hurtling toward him. He felt the heat from the fire pass him as he tried to stay upright and kept running. A loud bang sounded in his ears and a sharp pain flared up on his left side. He quickly realized he had dodged into one of the mage’s ice grenades.
“Shags!?” He heard someone shout.
“Keep going!” Shaggy shouted back, wincing as the ice shards were pushed out of his body while he ran.
Not for the first time, he was thankful that his mutation had glitched when he first started. It had made him toss a lot of his early evolution points into his Regeneration ability. Soon all the ice shards seemed to be gone, along with the pain. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep healing himself, but he really didn’t want to test it.
Ahead, he saw the group of Raks. Vlad was already there, tearing into a few of the more unfortunate ones. But the melee gang members had formed a phalanx around the casters and were doing their best to keep him away. That is, until Ren and Tinsel hit them like a ton of bricks. Shaggy smiled as he tried to move faster and join the fray. He could see a few of the Rakgu mages turning their spells on the two massive Perinadons.
Shaggy spread his claws as he rushed forward into the fight. His body felt like it wanted to get lower to the ground, and he had to fight the urge to put his elongated arms on the ground and lope on all fours. The feeling dissipated as he hit the melee where Vlad, Ren, and a few of the other criminals were fighting. They were all trying to push past the ring of about ten gang members that were defending the caster.
He tried not to think about the other side of the arena and the Phreaks as he ducked under a wild swing from a jerk with a metal bat. He raked his claws up the poor guy’s chest and felt warm blood coat his claws. The gang member went down screaming, drawing more attention to Shaggy. He saw two gang members move away from the fast moving Vlad and charge him.
Thinking quickly, he dove at the left one’s legs, slashing his claws out and rolling in the dirt before he popped up to his feet. He saw the gang member go down screaming as his claws had cut off their left leg just above the knee. He momentarily thought about his sharpness upgrade, but pain flared in his head and his vision went blurry as something collided with the back of his head.
“Stay down, you fucking mutt!” someone shouted behind him as another blow landed on his back.
Shaggy did his best to ignore the pain as he slashed wildly in the voice's direction. He felt his claws come into contact with something, but instead of cutting through, the claws on his hand bounced off and he had to backpedal.
As he looked at his assailant, he saw a Rakgu gang member who was obviously a Mutant or an Alien. Her skin was the silver color of metal and she was wielding a large metal pipe. There were claws marks in her shirt by her stomach. She was staring wide-eyed at the small nicks in her metal-like flesh under her clothes before she glanced back up at Shaggy.
“Puppies got claws, huh?”
Shaggy chuckled. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Shaggy was about to charge her, but a fireball smacked him in the side. He felt his clothes catch fire, and he quickly hit the dirt as the flames bit into his skin. He thought he could hear laughter as he rolled away. Once the pain and heat died down, he popped back to his feet and tried to orient himself again. He was just in time to see the metal woman swing her metal pipe at his chest. He lashed out at the pipe with his claws and grinned as he felt his claws cut through the pipe.
The metal woman stared at her broken weapon angrily before she tossed the rest of it away. Shaggy grinned and moved around her, trying to keep the mages in view. As the woman got into a fighting stance, her angry eyes turned curious. Shaggy was sure she was watching his red and crispy right-side heal right in front of her. But he didn’t need her shouting out his secrets to her friends, so he attacked.
He went for her legs, diving into the dirt again. He felt the wind from a powerful punch miss his heads as he rolled passed her and came out just behind her. Thinking quickly, he put his shoulder into the back of her knee and lifted. She came up slowly, sitting roughly on his shoulder, nearly dislocating it. He grit his teeth as he tilted further backwards, slamming her down with a sort of suplex.
He heard the air leave her lungs as he quickly stood back up. He momentarily thought about scratching at her face until he finally got to something important. But the smell of burning flesh and blood drew his attention back to the mages. Vlad, Ren, and Tinsel were all engaged in fights with various other gang members. He was surprised to see his vampire friend’s face was scorched and blackened, probably from another fireball.
Even more surprising was the large human-looking man that was going mano-a-rhino with Ren. The pair were slugging it out like a pair of boxers. Tinsel was fighting off a few gang members near Ren, but their previous beating was obviously hindering them. He made a quick decision and ignored the winded metal woman and charged toward the mages.
He had a clear shot to the group of mage who were still tossing spells at the various criminals fighting their fellow gang members. A few saw Shaggy charging at them and tossed a few ice and fireballs at him. Shaggy didn’t take any chances this time and just dove forward into a roll and came up sprinting again. As he was about to rip his claws into one of the smug-looking mages, he felt himself slam into an invisible wall and he was tossed a few feet backwards, landing on his back.
He caught a flash of green in the corner of his eye as he hopped back to his feet. Some mages were openly laughing at him as they prepared more spells. He heard himself physically growl as his angry rose. He let the rage wash over him as he breathed it out and focused back on the mages.
There were four of them all throwing spells every which way. But as he dodged a few fireballs and a lashing whip of water, he spotted a fifth. The fifth member was behind the others, arms crossed and eyes closed. Shaggy grinned as he figured that was the one casting the shield. One caster using a shield spell couldn’t keep it up forever, right?
He ducked another fireball and charged again. The obvious sneer on the closest mage’s face fueled his rage as he slammed his claws into where he thought the green barrier was. Now that he was ready for the recoil, he only skidded back a few feet. He threw a feral grin at the mages, who still looked annoyingly calm.
He swiped his claws into the barrier again and again as he tried to monitor the fifth mage, who was casting it. But the rest of the mages had taken this opportunity to pelt him with various spells. He felt fire and ice collide with his chest, creating a dense mist around him that stung his eyes. Pain flared in his body as he felt his skin burn and freeze before his healing kicked in. He did his best to ignore it as he continued to slam into the barrier.
Eventually, a whip of water curled around his ankle and flung him away. He felt his back slam into something soft and he slowly rose to his knees. He felt his skin tingle as it continued to heal, but he thought the healing was slowing down. Looking around, he found himself near Vlad, who was in the middle of tearing a gang member’s arm off. The vamp looked like he had gone feral. His eyes were completely black and his fangs were elongated and covered in blood.
“Sup, Vamps.” Shaggy grunted as he stood.
Vlad glanced at him as he took the severed arm in his hands and flung it into another opponent’s face.
“You kill those mages yet?”
Shaggy shook the dust from his body as he grunted. “Nope. Barrier.”
Vlad grimaced as he put his hand through someone who was trying to sneak up on him. “Well, the small fries are almost gone. Let’s go handle your barrier.”
Vlad flitted away as Shaggy rushed off in pursuit. As they got closer to the group of mages, Shaggy was happy to see several of them look scared. A quick glance at the barrier mage showed him nursing a nosebleed and looking extremely pale. But standing in their way was the metal lady. Shaggy could only shake his head as Vlad ran into her and bounced off, sending her bodily into the mage’s barrier. However, Vlad also came to a full stop, nose broken and bloodied.
“Oh lord, that sucked. It was like running to a wall.”
“Yeah,” Shaggy agreed. “She’s pretty dense.”
The metal woman in question was shaking her head and standing back up. Shaggy was sure he saw the green barrier flicker a little as Metal Lady threw an angry look at them. Shaggy patted Vlad’s shoulder and waved him toward the mages. Showing he would take the slim woman. Vlad just nodded and flitted around the group of mages to the other side.
“You are free to give up.” Shaggy grinned.
“Fuck you!” she shouted as she charged him, arm cocked back.
“That’s not really how banter works.” Shaggy joked as he ducked the obvious punch and slashed out with his claws.
He felt his claws rebound multiple times as he circled his opponent. But he kept it up as she continued to throw wild haymakers. He heard a slight cracking and momentarily celebrated, but when his next swipe with his claws brought a twinge of pain to his hand, he backed off. While her metal skin was chipping away, his claws were also cracking under the strain. He could see them healing, but it was very slow.
“Chip a nail?” Metal Lady cackled.
Shaggy grimaced and dropped the transformation on his hands and stared across at her. Her shirt was torn to shreds and her metal body was chipped and cracked in places, but he couldn’t see any skin underneath. He sighed, as he figured she was probably metal all the way through.
“Figure it out, little doggy?”
Shaggy grinned at her. “Shaggy.”
That brought her up short. “What?”
“My name is Shaggy. You’re right though. My plan wouldn’t have worked.” Shaggy said, still smiling.
“Okay. I don’t think you realize how this works. We keep fighting until one of us kills the other.”
Shaggy nodded and crouched slightly, stretching his legs out one at a time. “Oh, I get that. Doesn’t mean we can’t be civil about it.”
She snorted as she raised a fist. “Okay. I’m gonna start hitting you now and I’m not going to stop until your head is paste.”
She dashed forward, right arm held high. Shaggy quickly stood from his crouch, dragging his hand through the dirt and coming away with a palmful. He tossed the mass of dirt straight into her eyes and watched her stop short, trip to her knees, and start screaming. Moving quickly, he got behind her again and wrapped an arm around her neck, getting his elbow below her chin. He used his other hand to control her head, and he squeezed as hard as he could.
She writhed and kicked as he slowly choked her out. Shaggy could feel her neck pulse as she tried to get air into her lungs, but he held on as she faltered. He followed her down and kept up with the choke-hold until he felt her stop moving. He played with the idea of keeping the hold, but he decided he liked her. She was a pain in the ass.
Cautiously, in case she was faking, he let go and eased backwards. The sound of screaming nearby drew his attention, and he turned to see Vlad in a pile of bodies. The vampire was wrapped around a mage, fangs extended and blood dripping down his chin. Shaggy could see the skin on Vlad’s face repairing itself as the vampire licked his lips. Shaggy gave his friend a wave, checking to see if he was okay.
Whenever Vlad fed, it made him a little lethargic and punch-drunk. It was the reason he had been captured in the first place. Although he had said the weaker the blood, the less the ‘feeding’ would affect him. Shaggy hoped the mages were considered weak. They still had another group to go through. He looked around for Ren and Tinsel.
The pair of Perinadons were still standing, and they were amid a few cheering criminals that had been tossed in with Tinsel. Shaggy felt that was premature, but he wasn’t about to stop them. He glanced around the arena and finally noticed the low rumble of the cheering crowd. He had ignored it, but since it looked like they had won, the noise redoubled.
“Their blood vas disgusting.” Vlad said next to him, still using his vampire accent.
Shaggy laughed as he looked at his friend. “Well, that’s one group down, one to go.”
“Let’s wait until they are done first.” Vlad said, pointing across the arena at where the Phreaks were fighting off a few of the criminals who had headed in their direction.
Shaggy nodded in agreement as they moved toward Ren and Tinsel. The two Perinadons looked rough. Well, Tinsel looked rough. Ren seemed to be ok, save for a few bruises and cuts. Shaggy grinned at the big rhino-man.
“Regretting it yet?”
Ren chuckled as he said. “Ding.”
Shaggy raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Ren nodded, affirming that the Alien Player had leveled up mid-fight. The news made Shaggy want to check his own Evolution Trees, but he stopped himself. Now was really not the time, and he was tired, hurt and oddly hungry. They also had another fight to get through.
Vlad sat in the dirt nearby as Ren spoke with Tinsel and the two other NPC criminals. Shaggy looked the NPCs over. There was Tinsel, who still looked worn down, but with a few new bruises. Then there was a humanoid female and an amorphous blue blob in the shape of a man. Shaggy had seen the Blob-person thrash a few Raks with his tentacle-like arms, but the female was a mystery. He thought about introducing himself, but he decided to wait and sat down in the dirt next to Vlad.
Players had learned early on that sitting or laying down increased the regen rate of both the Stamina and Health bars. As he and Vlad watched the Phreaks fight off the four or five criminals that had charged them, Shaggy brought up his Health and Stamina Bars. Both were well on their way back up to full.
HP: 145/210
SP: 150/200
He momentarily thought about asking Vlad what his health and Stamina were like, so he could compare. But Vlad was an RPer, even if he kept dropping his accent, and they could be weird when talking about in-game numbers. Broke the immersion for some of them. He shook off the thought as Ren and the NPCs joined them and sat down.
Shaggy watched an insectoid Phreak swoop down and take a swipe at a criminal with what looked like a sword. He thought that was a pretty archaic weapon for a modern city, but a feminine voice stopped him from saying anything.
“Hi!” said the chipper voice.
Turning, Shaggy saw the female NPC glancing at him and Vlad smiling. She was as short as he was, around five-foot four, and as pale as a ghost. As he studied her face, he saw the desperation behind her smile and wondered what she wanted. Ren made the introductions as Vlad and Shaggy stared at the woman and the humanoid blob creature nearby.
“Ephemara, this is Shaggy and Vlad. They are kind of co-leaders of this outfit.” Both Shaggy and Vlad looked at each other, but didn’t disagree, as Ren continued. “Vlad, Shaggy, this is Ephemara and Blobby.”
“~Hello~” Blobby gave a watery greeting as Shaggy turned to look at the creature. They were currently waving an appendage at them.
Shaggy grinned as a scream sounded from across the arena. “Kind of on the nose, isn’t it?”
Blobby twisted its ‘head’ appendage in a reasonable approximation of confusion. “~It is a noble name among my people~”
Shaggy raised a hand placatingly. “I don’t doubt it. What can we do for you two?”
“Ren said you might take us on?” Ephemara said.
Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Oh, did he?”
“Hey, I just said we would think about it once we were out of here.” Ren defended.
“That’s fair.” Shaggy said. “But we are pretty new down here. We don’t even have a place to work out of.”
Tinsel spoke up from his place next to Ren. “I was actually telling Ren about a place.”
“Not the place they grabbed you, was it?”
Ren and Tinsel glared at Vlad before Tinsel answered. “No. In fact, I was heading there when they grabbed me. They weren’t even looking for me. They were looking for that lizard professor who was selling those weapons.”
Shaggy glanced around before realizing the noise from the crowd was likely overshadowing anything they could say. But just to be safe, he placed a finger to his lips. Tinsel nodded in understanding as Ephemara and Blobby watched the interaction. A scream from across the arena resounded loudly before it was quickly cut off.
“Looks like they’re done.” Vlad said, grinning and trying to wipe the dried blood from his chin.
Shaggy looked across to see several of the Phreaks surrounding and kicking the prone body of a criminal. He counted nine of the original twelve they had come in with. Not a lot of damage done, but every little bit helps. He felt his stomach gurgle as he stood up and grabbed a bit of broken pipe from nearby.
Turning to look at Ephemara and Blobby, he grinned. “Well, looks like we are gonna have try-outs, kids.”
Ephemara grinned back at him as Blobby shivered in what he guessed was excitement. His stomach gave another loud noise, and he felt a pang of hunger assault him. He ignored it and pointed his pipe at the glaring Phreaks and shouted.
“Round two, motherfuckers!”
Shaggy’s shout of defiance was almost drowned out by the tumult of the crowd, but both Vlad and Ren grinned back at him as somewhere in the arena, a loud horn blew. Shaggy assumed that was the start of the festivities, as several criminals started running in various directions. Some even tried to climb the wall out of the arena. They were met with the stun batons of the guards who had thrown them over.
“Which group first?” Ren shouted.
“Mages first!” Vlad shouted back as several fireballs and ice shard landed in the dirt near where they were standing.
Shaggy saw two criminals go down as shards of ice exploded in the dirt and pierced through their chests. He figured it was as good a place to start as any and he turned and started running, trying to keep an eye out for anymore spells. He thought he could hear the others behind him, but the noise of the arena was just too much.
He dodged to the side as several more fireballs came hurtling toward him. He felt the heat from the fire pass him as he tried to stay upright and kept running. A loud bang sounded in his ears and a sharp pain flared up on his left side. He quickly realized he had dodged into one of the mage’s ice grenades.
“Shags!?” He heard someone shout.
“Keep going!” Shaggy shouted back, wincing as the ice shards were pushed out of his body while he ran.
Not for the first time, he was thankful that his mutation had glitched when he first started. It had made him toss a lot of his early evolution points into his Regeneration ability. Soon all the ice shards seemed to be gone, along with the pain. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep healing himself, but he really didn’t want to test it.
Ahead, he saw the group of Raks. Vlad was already there, tearing into a few of the more unfortunate ones. But the melee gang members had formed a phalanx around the casters and were doing their best to keep him away. That is, until Ren and Tinsel hit them like a ton of bricks. Shaggy smiled as he tried to move faster and join the fray. He could see a few of the Rakgu mages turning their spells on the two massive Perinadons.
Shaggy spread his claws as he rushed forward into the fight. His body felt like it wanted to get lower to the ground, and he had to fight the urge to put his elongated arms on the ground and lope on all fours. The feeling dissipated as he hit the melee where Vlad, Ren, and a few of the other criminals were fighting. They were all trying to push past the ring of about ten gang members that were defending the caster.
He tried not to think about the other side of the arena and the Phreaks as he ducked under a wild swing from a jerk with a metal bat. He raked his claws up the poor guy’s chest and felt warm blood coat his claws. The gang member went down screaming, drawing more attention to Shaggy. He saw two gang members move away from the fast moving Vlad and charge him.
Thinking quickly, he dove at the left one’s legs, slashing his claws out and rolling in the dirt before he popped up to his feet. He saw the gang member go down screaming as his claws had cut off their left leg just above the knee. He momentarily thought about his sharpness upgrade, but pain flared in his head and his vision went blurry as something collided with the back of his head.
“Stay down, you fucking mutt!” someone shouted behind him as another blow landed on his back.
Shaggy did his best to ignore the pain as he slashed wildly in the voice's direction. He felt his claws come into contact with something, but instead of cutting through, the claws on his hand bounced off and he had to backpedal.
As he looked at his assailant, he saw a Rakgu gang member who was obviously a Mutant or an Alien. Her skin was the silver color of metal and she was wielding a large metal pipe. There were claws marks in her shirt by her stomach. She was staring wide-eyed at the small nicks in her metal-like flesh under her clothes before she glanced back up at Shaggy.
“Puppies got claws, huh?”
Shaggy chuckled. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Shaggy was about to charge her, but a fireball smacked him in the side. He felt his clothes catch fire, and he quickly hit the dirt as the flames bit into his skin. He thought he could hear laughter as he rolled away. Once the pain and heat died down, he popped back to his feet and tried to orient himself again. He was just in time to see the metal woman swing her metal pipe at his chest. He lashed out at the pipe with his claws and grinned as he felt his claws cut through the pipe.
The metal woman stared at her broken weapon angrily before she tossed the rest of it away. Shaggy grinned and moved around her, trying to keep the mages in view. As the woman got into a fighting stance, her angry eyes turned curious. Shaggy was sure she was watching his red and crispy right-side heal right in front of her. But he didn’t need her shouting out his secrets to her friends, so he attacked.
He went for her legs, diving into the dirt again. He felt the wind from a powerful punch miss his heads as he rolled passed her and came out just behind her. Thinking quickly, he put his shoulder into the back of her knee and lifted. She came up slowly, sitting roughly on his shoulder, nearly dislocating it. He grit his teeth as he tilted further backwards, slamming her down with a sort of suplex.
He heard the air leave her lungs as he quickly stood back up. He momentarily thought about scratching at her face until he finally got to something important. But the smell of burning flesh and blood drew his attention back to the mages. Vlad, Ren, and Tinsel were all engaged in fights with various other gang members. He was surprised to see his vampire friend’s face was scorched and blackened, probably from another fireball.
Even more surprising was the large human-looking man that was going mano-a-rhino with Ren. The pair were slugging it out like a pair of boxers. Tinsel was fighting off a few gang members near Ren, but their previous beating was obviously hindering them. He made a quick decision and ignored the winded metal woman and charged toward the mages.
He had a clear shot to the group of mage who were still tossing spells at the various criminals fighting their fellow gang members. A few saw Shaggy charging at them and tossed a few ice and fireballs at him. Shaggy didn’t take any chances this time and just dove forward into a roll and came up sprinting again. As he was about to rip his claws into one of the smug-looking mages, he felt himself slam into an invisible wall and he was tossed a few feet backwards, landing on his back.
He caught a flash of green in the corner of his eye as he hopped back to his feet. Some mages were openly laughing at him as they prepared more spells. He heard himself physically growl as his angry rose. He let the rage wash over him as he breathed it out and focused back on the mages.
There were four of them all throwing spells every which way. But as he dodged a few fireballs and a lashing whip of water, he spotted a fifth. The fifth member was behind the others, arms crossed and eyes closed. Shaggy grinned as he figured that was the one casting the shield. One caster using a shield spell couldn’t keep it up forever, right?
He ducked another fireball and charged again. The obvious sneer on the closest mage’s face fueled his rage as he slammed his claws into where he thought the green barrier was. Now that he was ready for the recoil, he only skidded back a few feet. He threw a feral grin at the mages, who still looked annoyingly calm.
He swiped his claws into the barrier again and again as he tried to monitor the fifth mage, who was casting it. But the rest of the mages had taken this opportunity to pelt him with various spells. He felt fire and ice collide with his chest, creating a dense mist around him that stung his eyes. Pain flared in his body as he felt his skin burn and freeze before his healing kicked in. He did his best to ignore it as he continued to slam into the barrier.
Eventually, a whip of water curled around his ankle and flung him away. He felt his back slam into something soft and he slowly rose to his knees. He felt his skin tingle as it continued to heal, but he thought the healing was slowing down. Looking around, he found himself near Vlad, who was in the middle of tearing a gang member’s arm off. The vamp looked like he had gone feral. His eyes were completely black and his fangs were elongated and covered in blood.
“Sup, Vamps.” Shaggy grunted as he stood.
Vlad glanced at him as he took the severed arm in his hands and flung it into another opponent’s face.
“You kill those mages yet?”
Shaggy shook the dust from his body as he grunted. “Nope. Barrier.”
Vlad grimaced as he put his hand through someone who was trying to sneak up on him. “Well, the small fries are almost gone. Let’s go handle your barrier.”
Vlad flitted away as Shaggy rushed off in pursuit. As they got closer to the group of mages, Shaggy was happy to see several of them look scared. A quick glance at the barrier mage showed him nursing a nosebleed and looking extremely pale. But standing in their way was the metal lady. Shaggy could only shake his head as Vlad ran into her and bounced off, sending her bodily into the mage’s barrier. However, Vlad also came to a full stop, nose broken and bloodied.
“Oh lord, that sucked. It was like running to a wall.”
“Yeah,” Shaggy agreed. “She’s pretty dense.”
The metal woman in question was shaking her head and standing back up. Shaggy was sure he saw the green barrier flicker a little as Metal Lady threw an angry look at them. Shaggy patted Vlad’s shoulder and waved him toward the mages. Showing he would take the slim woman. Vlad just nodded and flitted around the group of mages to the other side.
“You are free to give up.” Shaggy grinned.
“Fuck you!” she shouted as she charged him, arm cocked back.
“That’s not really how banter works.” Shaggy joked as he ducked the obvious punch and slashed out with his claws.
He felt his claws rebound multiple times as he circled his opponent. But he kept it up as she continued to throw wild haymakers. He heard a slight cracking and momentarily celebrated, but when his next swipe with his claws brought a twinge of pain to his hand, he backed off. While her metal skin was chipping away, his claws were also cracking under the strain. He could see them healing, but it was very slow.
“Chip a nail?” Metal Lady cackled.
Shaggy grimaced and dropped the transformation on his hands and stared across at her. Her shirt was torn to shreds and her metal body was chipped and cracked in places, but he couldn’t see any skin underneath. He sighed, as he figured she was probably metal all the way through.
“Figure it out, little doggy?”
Shaggy grinned at her. “Shaggy.”
That brought her up short. “What?”
“My name is Shaggy. You’re right though. My plan wouldn’t have worked.” Shaggy said, still smiling.
“Okay. I don’t think you realize how this works. We keep fighting until one of us kills the other.”
Shaggy nodded and crouched slightly, stretching his legs out one at a time. “Oh, I get that. Doesn’t mean we can’t be civil about it.”
She snorted as she raised a fist. “Okay. I’m gonna start hitting you now and I’m not going to stop until your head is paste.”
She dashed forward, right arm held high. Shaggy quickly stood from his crouch, dragging his hand through the dirt and coming away with a palmful. He tossed the mass of dirt straight into her eyes and watched her stop short, trip to her knees, and start screaming. Moving quickly, he got behind her again and wrapped an arm around her neck, getting his elbow below her chin. He used his other hand to control her head, and he squeezed as hard as he could.
She writhed and kicked as he slowly choked her out. Shaggy could feel her neck pulse as she tried to get air into her lungs, but he held on as she faltered. He followed her down and kept up with the choke-hold until he felt her stop moving. He played with the idea of keeping the hold, but he decided he liked her. She was a pain in the ass.
Cautiously, in case she was faking, he let go and eased backwards. The sound of screaming nearby drew his attention, and he turned to see Vlad in a pile of bodies. The vampire was wrapped around a mage, fangs extended and blood dripping down his chin. Shaggy could see the skin on Vlad’s face repairing itself as the vampire licked his lips. Shaggy gave his friend a wave, checking to see if he was okay.
Whenever Vlad fed, it made him a little lethargic and punch-drunk. It was the reason he had been captured in the first place. Although he had said the weaker the blood, the less the ‘feeding’ would affect him. Shaggy hoped the mages were considered weak. They still had another group to go through. He looked around for Ren and Tinsel.
The pair of Perinadons were still standing, and they were amid a few cheering criminals that had been tossed in with Tinsel. Shaggy felt that was premature, but he wasn’t about to stop them. He glanced around the arena and finally noticed the low rumble of the cheering crowd. He had ignored it, but since it looked like they had won, the noise redoubled.
“Their blood vas disgusting.” Vlad said next to him, still using his vampire accent.
Shaggy laughed as he looked at his friend. “Well, that’s one group down, one to go.”
“Let’s wait until they are done first.” Vlad said, pointing across the arena at where the Phreaks were fighting off a few of the criminals who had headed in their direction.
Shaggy nodded in agreement as they moved toward Ren and Tinsel. The two Perinadons looked rough. Well, Tinsel looked rough. Ren seemed to be ok, save for a few bruises and cuts. Shaggy grinned at the big rhino-man.
“Regretting it yet?”
Ren chuckled as he said. “Ding.”
Shaggy raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Ren nodded, affirming that the Alien Player had leveled up mid-fight. The news made Shaggy want to check his own Evolution Trees, but he stopped himself. Now was really not the time, and he was tired, hurt and oddly hungry. They also had another fight to get through.
Vlad sat in the dirt nearby as Ren spoke with Tinsel and the two other NPC criminals. Shaggy looked the NPCs over. There was Tinsel, who still looked worn down, but with a few new bruises. Then there was a humanoid female and an amorphous blue blob in the shape of a man. Shaggy had seen the Blob-person thrash a few Raks with his tentacle-like arms, but the female was a mystery. He thought about introducing himself, but he decided to wait and sat down in the dirt next to Vlad.
Players had learned early on that sitting or laying down increased the regen rate of both the Stamina and Health bars. As he and Vlad watched the Phreaks fight off the four or five criminals that had charged them, Shaggy brought up his Health and Stamina Bars. Both were well on their way back up to full.
HP: 145/210
SP: 150/200
He momentarily thought about asking Vlad what his health and Stamina were like, so he could compare. But Vlad was an RPer, even if he kept dropping his accent, and they could be weird when talking about in-game numbers. Broke the immersion for some of them. He shook off the thought as Ren and the NPCs joined them and sat down.
Shaggy watched an insectoid Phreak swoop down and take a swipe at a criminal with what looked like a sword. He thought that was a pretty archaic weapon for a modern city, but a feminine voice stopped him from saying anything.
“Hi!” said the chipper voice.
Turning, Shaggy saw the female NPC glancing at him and Vlad smiling. She was as short as he was, around five-foot four, and as pale as a ghost. As he studied her face, he saw the desperation behind her smile and wondered what she wanted. Ren made the introductions as Vlad and Shaggy stared at the woman and the humanoid blob creature nearby.
“Ephemara, this is Shaggy and Vlad. They are kind of co-leaders of this outfit.” Both Shaggy and Vlad looked at each other, but didn’t disagree, as Ren continued. “Vlad, Shaggy, this is Ephemara and Blobby.”
“~Hello~” Blobby gave a watery greeting as Shaggy turned to look at the creature. They were currently waving an appendage at them.
Shaggy grinned as a scream sounded from across the arena. “Kind of on the nose, isn’t it?”
Blobby twisted its ‘head’ appendage in a reasonable approximation of confusion. “~It is a noble name among my people~”
Shaggy raised a hand placatingly. “I don’t doubt it. What can we do for you two?”
“Ren said you might take us on?” Ephemara said.
Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Oh, did he?”
“Hey, I just said we would think about it once we were out of here.” Ren defended.
“That’s fair.” Shaggy said. “But we are pretty new down here. We don’t even have a place to work out of.”
Tinsel spoke up from his place next to Ren. “I was actually telling Ren about a place.”
“Not the place they grabbed you, was it?”
Ren and Tinsel glared at Vlad before Tinsel answered. “No. In fact, I was heading there when they grabbed me. They weren’t even looking for me. They were looking for that lizard professor who was selling those weapons.”
Shaggy glanced around before realizing the noise from the crowd was likely overshadowing anything they could say. But just to be safe, he placed a finger to his lips. Tinsel nodded in understanding as Ephemara and Blobby watched the interaction. A scream from across the arena resounded loudly before it was quickly cut off.
“Looks like they’re done.” Vlad said, grinning and trying to wipe the dried blood from his chin.
Shaggy looked across to see several of the Phreaks surrounding and kicking the prone body of a criminal. He counted nine of the original twelve they had come in with. Not a lot of damage done, but every little bit helps. He felt his stomach gurgle as he stood up and grabbed a bit of broken pipe from nearby.
Turning to look at Ephemara and Blobby, he grinned. “Well, looks like we are gonna have try-outs, kids.”
Ephemara grinned back at him as Blobby shivered in what he guessed was excitement. His stomach gave another loud noise, and he felt a pang of hunger assault him. He ignored it and pointed his pipe at the glaring Phreaks and shouted.
“Round two, motherfuckers!”
