Chapter 9: Error
Elsaline watched Rachel run out the door, a her smile not returning to her face. She felt...confused. No, conflicted is the word she is looking for. It is without a doubt dangerous for Rachel to go by herself, especially when Elsaline had hinted she wouldn't help. At least, Elsaline was quite sure she did. Maybe she didn't.
Either way it doesn't matter. Is this what Master was talking about how these anomalies throw themselves into danger without a second thought? She knew it was true too since all those challengers, really the ones who knew about her, kept on trying to defeat her even if they were too weak. Elsaline had thought that Rachel would be different since she is looks...real, like she is scared of the world and not scared when Elsaline is about to kill them like other anomalies are. Yet here she was, proving Elsaline wrong, something Elsaline doesn't like. She knows she is stubborn but she normally is proven right most of the time. The only time she ever listened to others when they said that she was wrong was during battles with lives on the line.
"Stupid Rachel, doing something stupid like that," Elsaline pouted, slamming her left hand on the ground, causing it to crack yet again. Elsaline frowned at that. She hit the ground lightly this time.
'Ugh. I can't let my emotions get the better of me. Besides, I came here for another reason.'
Yes, the real reason Elsaline came here. The strange energy source Elsaline detected is located in this base. Now that no one is in her way she can go find it undisturbed. After all, a few guards won't be able to stop her.
Turning on her radar Elsaline found the energy source in no time and promptly started digging through the ground to get to it. After a good eight seconds of digging Elsaline broke in the top of the treasury. There were five guards and one of those people who challenge her a lot.
'...Master calls them anomalies, right? Oh yeah, I knew that already!' Elsaline thought with a snap of her oversized fingers, her smile returning to her face.
The player nearly dropped his sword, stunned at the sudden appearance of a boss. When he joined this group he expected to be fighting other players and maybe even the Duke or the Captain of Eurson, two bosses that are on the side of Good. Yet he has never seen this boss before. And her title...
Seeing her title the player decided to book it. Seeing that Elsaline's smile turned slightly sadistic and a small blush formed on her light cheeks. Her eyes flashed a rainbow color and, as soon as they did, black and dark brown fleshy spikes erupted from the ground around the treasury, forming a thin orange light barrier. The moment the player touched the barrier he disappeared and reappeared a moment later facing Elsaline, back in the same position he was in before.
"No Escape For You!" Elsaline sung, doing a little closed-eye head dance as she did so. Yet, when she opened her eyes again they were a blood red color, her pupils still retaining their light golden yellow color.
If one were to describe the expression on her face it would be that of a demon about to torture a helpless soul after having done nothing for a while.
"Sir Errand, what sha-" One of the bandit guards asked, only he never finished what he was saying. Elsaline couldn't hold herself any longer and lunged forward, her aftershock blowing everyone back except for the guard who was speaking. When Errand looked up he saw what remained of the bandit guard.
A smear of blood and a small piece of gore on the stone wall where Elsaline had tackled him into.
Elsaline had already freed herself from the crater in the wall she made and was now locking eyes with Errand, three limbs clinging to the wall while her right arm was loose, dripping with blood. Her eyes were back to their normal color but, for some reason, Errand thought that these eyes were scarier than the red ones she just had.
Elsaline's smile grew and she clicked her teeth. Seeing that Errand willed his entire body to jump to the left. Just as he did Elsaline lunged off the wall and landed right where he was a moment before. Yet, instead of creating another crater Elsaline hit the wall without causing it to crack, her body rolled up in a ball. Like this she bounced off the floor and went up into the air and unfolded herself, her feet clinging to the wall behind her as a bright light blue energy beam went out of her mouth and clipped Errand who hadn't even managed to get up yet, though he did manage to turn to face Elsaline.
Although the beam wasn't fatal to Errand, he felt like his body was being simultaneously burned in acid and dunked into freezing water where the beam hit him. Even the big red shield he got from a gacha slot machine, supposedly SS Tier, turned black and started disintegrating where the beam hit it. It was until the beam stopped did Errand realize that Elsaline's beam went right through the shield like it wasn't even there in the first place. He also realized that Elsaline wasn't done attacking.
With an impossible turn of her head, moving too fast to react, Elsaline's blue beam shrunk into a smaller purple one aimed directly at the two guards who had yet to fully recover from when they were thrown into the wall. One of them saw it coming and rolled to his left, getting out of the way, but the other bandit wasn't so lucky. The beam went right through his chest, creating a large hole. The bandit had enough time to look at his chest in horror before his entire body lit up with bright glowing purple veins shaped like vines. Then, he exploded into fine black dust.
Elsaline snapped her mouth shut, stopping her beam attack, and launched off the wall, this time destroying it in the process. She landed on all fours right in front of a bandit guard and quickly swiped his legs with her right hand, tearing through his flesh and causing him to start dropping to one knee. Before he did Elsaline's left hand swung up, transforming into a large rock-like blade, and impaled the bandit guard through his chest, lifting him up into the air.
Despite the bandit guard dying Elsaline wasn't done with him yet. Her tail rose up and then she disappeared from sight, a strange bang filling the air. It took Errand seeing the hole in the dead bandit's head to realize that Elsaline just somehow fired a bullet.
'Fuck! I can't beat that!?' Errand thought with tears in his eyes as he watched one of the two guards left get a hand through his hip. Before he could do anything but groan Elsaline stood up and grabbed his head with her free hand and promptly crushed it within an instant.
All while smiling.
'What kind of sick joke is this!? Who would ever allow something like this to exist in a game!?'
It was then that Errand remembered that he was stuck in said game, which means he isn't in a game. Well, he already knows that. Still, the fact that something like this exists...just can't be real. Even if she is a Legendary World Raid Boss or whatever shit the system calls her. She's a monster...a monster that should only exist if it is the last boss of a game. The one terrible evil that must be vanquished. Something that doesn't appear as evil as the legends and rumors say until you face it and see it for yourself.
Elsaline had finished the last bandit guard off by biting his arm off and tossing him so hard onto a chest that the chest broke, turning into nothing but fine wood dust. The bandit guard was nothing but a bloody messy paste.
Elsaline let out a loud and satisfied sigh that somehow didn't sound like she was satisfied, causing Errand to break out of his little mind break and meet her eyes.
Elsaline was on all fours, her right hand slightly raised off the ground, and her eyes were locked on to Errand, the smile on her face growing.
With a little hum she stood up and did a little twirl that turned into a rather graceful bow, one foot over the other with her tail wrapping around her body.
"Танец начинается, и мы в нем, мой друг."
Errand was taken back by the russian but, seeing Elsaline get out of her bow and crouch down on all fours cleared his head. He was going to die. He knows this. But, for some reason he felt a whole lot calmer. So, even if he dies, at the very least he'll give her hell!
Elsaline sensed the spirits lifting in her pre-opponent and her smile grew ever so slightly. It seems her spell worked. The reason why she helped calm the anomaly down? Because these are the highest leveled people she has seen that aren't a boss! Seeing this Elsaline didn't think of holding back too much but, as usual she severely overestimates her opponents and killed all but one in no time flat. But, seeing that Errand is an anomaly, he should fair better as long as he keeps his cool. Even though Elsaline doubts he'll manage to bring her down to her second phase, and probably won't bring her to half her health in her first phase either, she still is looking forward to this fight.
....Yet, even in this crazed state, she can't help but slightly worry about Rachel. She doesn't want her new playmate to get hurt over something so silly. But, it was her choice, just like how it is Elsaline's choice to give Errand a fighting chance.
.------.
Errand's sister, Luuylain, or just Luu Lain, isn't a part of the bandit group. She doesn't want to be involved in business like that, especially considering the fact that this isn't a game. People can get hurt, even if this world runs on a game-like system. Yet, when her brother found a strange artifact containing bits of visible code from what had to be the old Skashrim, Luu rushed at the chance. But, when she arrived she found the place under attack. Luckily she was down in the secret hidden vault by that point s0 she should be safe from justice getting their work done. At least, that was the plan until something dug right into the secret vault.
Luu spun around and saw a orange health bar, meaning whatever it is it is a boss. Yet Luu wasn't worried. She was a high level player who has been playing Skashrim for eight years now. Whatever boss it is, she knows she can handle it.
That is until the dust settled and she saw what, or more exactly who the boss is.
Glowing light blue eyes, a dirty bloody black summerish dress, and the ever-persistent smile on her cute petite face. Standing twn feet in front of her, even though she is on all fours, is none other than the World Raid Boss Elsaline Turnick, a boss Luu could never even come close to beating even while fighting her with more than two hundred players.
'N-no. No no no No! She can't be hear!' Luu thought, backing up, 'None of the stand-alone bosses in Skashrim made it through to this world! How is she here!?'
Elsaline, meanwhile, was busy spitting out some dirt that had got caught in her mouth for the six seconds it took to dig here from the treasury. Eventually she got the bright idea to just heat up her mouth to disintegrate the dirt and dust, and that's exactly what she did.
Seeing Elsaline's mouth start to light up Luu feared the worst and instantly reached for the power source, the light and dark blue cube her brother had found, and brought it in front of her, ready to teleport away before Elsaline could either kill her or block her from escaping. Sensing this Elsaline's head snapped towards Luu and she lunged at her, moving so fast that it should have created a sonic boom. Yet, before she could obliterate Luu, Luu thought with all her might to end this nightmare. To make Elsaline stop.
When Luu looked up she nearly dropped her staff and the power source. Elsaline was right in front of her, so close that she could feel the heat coming off her energy-coated claws. Luu took a couple of steps back and put a hand to her mouth. Elsaline didn't just stop. No.
She was frozen in mid-air, her claws outstretched and her mouth wide open in a snarl. There was a small smile on her face yet her eyes were narrowed, showing that Elsaline was quite serious.
As Luu looked around she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. To her right below Elsaline was a black box outlined white with code on it, the most recent line saying something among the lines of Elsaline_Turnick = (int(Stop)).
"...Is this real?" Luu whispered, her eyes beginning to tear up, "Are we...actually in a game?"
Before Luu could think of the matter anymore the code in the box changed, saying "Error" in both orange and light blue. Then it started going nuts, moving too fast in many different colors. What the line of code was saying was beyond Luu.
That was when she noticed Elsaline's right eye had turned orange, and was clearly watching her.
Seeing this Luu instinctively took a step back. As she did so Elsaline's left eye broke free and stared at her. Then she frowned. Luu watched with growing horror as the right orange eye flashed the words "Err" in red before returning to normal, or if the white of Elsaline's eyes disappearing into large blacker than black hole was normal.
'Is it just me or are the shadows getting darker?'
Deciding not to stay here any longer Luu teleported out of the secret vault. Before she could completely disappear she saw Elsaline break free. Their eyes briefly met and Luu knew for a fact that there was clear hate in them. Then, she was gone.
....And Elsaline let out a massive roar that shook the entire town and could be heard for miles upon miles away.