The Virtual World [AH OT6]

Chapter 4 - Gavin's Companion

Gavin shakily turned around and saw the monster that made the horrifying roar.

It looked less scary than its roar gave the impression. It seems to walk on all fours, back legs hoofs, while the front were hand like with 3 fingers. It looked furry, its neck having the most. It's head was deer shaped, with two sets of horns, ones that curled next to the creatures head, overlapping the other set that were just pointed up. It's eyes were bright blue, without a pupil yet Gavin knew it was looking right at him and this little creature.

It gave a low growl before standing up on two legs and swinging its arm back, ready to whack the two that in it's large shadow. Gavin curled over the hurt creature as he wouldn't have the strength to pick it up, waiting for the pain to come, yet it never seemed to.

Instead, he heard a loud thump and looked to his left to see the creature's hand on the floor, pixelating and disappearing not seconds later. The creature let out a loud cry as it took a few steps back, putting its other hand on the floor to balance itself. Gavin looked behind him to see Michael in a battle stance, one of his two swords clutched tightly.

Michael looked back at Gavin with a scowl "you idiot! Why didn't you run!?"

"I- Michael!" Gavin yelled but Michael didn't react fast enough and the beast hit him, knocking him a few feet across the field. Gavin watched in horror as Michael's body seemed to bounce limply across the grass before coming to a stop, his body seemed to not be moving, though Michael was barely visible with the distance.

Gavin looked back up at the creature, getting a look at it's level, shocked to find it being almost level 50, while Gavin still sat at 10. What confused Gavin more was the fact that monsters at this level weren't supposed to spawn in this field, it was only field 2. However, thinking back, he did read something about really rare spawns of monsters twice the level of the regular spawns. He never understood why they even thought to put that mechanic into the game, but they said something about being more challenging, or good experience for impatient players.

The beast drew it's arm back, ready to hit Gavin again, while Gavin just stayed hovering over the little creature to protect it. With eyes shut tight he ducked down when it swung its arm at him, getting a good hit at Gavin's back, three gashes bleeding through Gavin's now ripped clothing. He bit back a scream from the pain, rather thankful the game has a pain dulling setting which Gavin of course set as low as possible, though it didn't seem to completely rid him of the burning sensation in his back.

Gavin heard the creature move, guessing it was getting ready to swipe again, but instead he heard gun shots, followed by a pain filled roar from the beast. Gav looked behind him to see Ryan standing in front of him, his hands glowing with blue mist as he readied an attack. Geoff standing behind the beast, gun pointing towards it while Ray ran over to check on Michael who hadn't dissipated into pixels, which in the game mean't you died and were forced back into the real world.

Gavin felt a hand on his shoulder as he looked to his left to see Jack with a health potion in hand, which Gavin took and drank half, restoring his health to full and healing the wounds and his shirt completely. He looked down, going to give the creature under him the rest, but was surprised to find that it shrunk to the size of a small cat.

Gavin's attention was drawn back to the creature as he heard it roar loudly, and fall to the ground with a loud thud before disappearing.

Once Gav sat up, he could finally take a look at the little creature properly. It was a light blue color, covered in fur. It did resemble a cat, with dark blue spots like a cheetah, a stripe of the same color down its back, leading to the middle of it's tail, stripes covering the rest. It's legs and neck were not covered in spots, but changed into stripes, like a tiger, with the tip of its paws, and belly being a lighter blue than the rest. It's face had the detail similar to a pharaoh with black lining around its eyes, going down to its nose, with dark and light blue curved stripes making a pretty pattern. Finally, it's ears were large, its left ear having a large golden ring piercing, and its eyes a shimmering sky blue color.