The Spin attack activated and you stamped your foot, a puff of purple haze washing out and wafting up from the ground, “cool down,” you then called, grabbing your fans and waving them at the scorpion to make sure it was well and truly covered in the poisonous haze.
If you could have seen Hansu’s face you would have seen his jaw on the floor. You moved so effortlessly and confidently, completely different to that first time he had come into the game and saved you from being mauled by a cricket.
“She’s certainly worked hard,” he thought as he watched you call for ‘ha’ then jump back and duck as the scorpion tried to get you with his stinger.
Around and around you danced, calling for move after move and never standing still long enough for your foe to catch you unawares.
You narrowly missed a pincer here and there and even got struck on the arm by the scorpions stinger but you held up amazingly well and within a shorter timeframe than he was expecting, you had defeated the scorpion boss and had gained passage into level 6.
As the scorpion evaporated into thin air, you dropped to your knees with exhaustion.
“You ok?” Hansu asked, walking quickly over to you and dropping down beside you.
“Yeah…” you panted, “just a work out… that’s all.”
“What’s your health at?” he asked, reaching into his inventory and pulling out yet another health potion.
“64…” you panted, wiping the sweat from your brow.
He handed you the potion and you drank it, feeling better immediately and standing up to walk out onto level 6.
“Oh! A dessert level!” you said… you had seen this level just recently but Hansu didn’t need to know that.
You both stood there at the entrance of the tunnel and looked out over the rolling sand dunes.
“I’m assuming there are more scorpions on this level then?” you commented to Hansu.
He looked down at the information panel and nodded. As well as sand spiders, sand demons and quicksand.”
“Delightful,” you replied sarcastically.
“Well, lucky for you, you don’t have to take on any of them because you’ve reached your time limit for today,” Hansu said brightly.
“Oh man,” you groaned, shoulders slumping, “Hansu, please… can we at least have a little look around?”
“Of course,” he said, slinging his black swirling arm over your shoulder and using his other purple black mist arm to point towards the teleport pad, “let’s look over there. That place looks interesting!”
“Asshole,” you grumbled when you saw he was pointing to the teleport platform. For a second there you had gotten your hopes up that he was going to let you stay in game for a little longer but no, true to his nature, he wasn’t going to waver from his original intentions.
Reluctantly, you let him drag you to the platform and back off to level 44 you went, leaving level 6 for another time- and by ‘other time’ it meant shortly after 12 am midnight…
Which is exactly what happened- where you could be seen sneaking back into the lab to check out level 6 and practice your new move.
………………………………………..
“Ugh,” you grunted with frustration when you couldn’t follow the more detailed line of the fan blade attack, swishing it up in the air then flicking it over and slicing straight down, “I can get the first part of this attack but then I lose power in the second part.”
You looked back at Ægir, who was standing a little way behind you looking bored. This desert level had no grass or anything for him to chew on so he had one hind leg cocked up and resting, while he shifted his weight to the left and just watched you idly, his watery mane lifting and swishing every so often when a warm desert breeze rippled on by.
“I’ll be honest,” you admitted to your steed, “I don’t really want to take on anything on this level because of the quicksand. I don’t know how to fight that…” You raised your fan, stepped, twirled and slashed it down again, this time following the line perfectly and the edge of your blade lit up a golden yellow to indicate that, had you struck something, you would have gotten full points.
You smiled.
“So I’m sorry but you’re just going to have to watch me dance around and get used to these new moves with the fan.”
Ægir let out a bored sigh through his nostrils, the rims of them shaking with his forceful exhale and you glanced back.
“It’s ok. On our last trip together in here we’ll go to a random level and just gallop around… what do you say?”
You raised both fans to the starting point of a double fan attack and swished them both along their red lines slowly.
The fan in your right hand lit up golden edged by the left didn’t and you grunted with frustration. “I just can’t seem to get them both good…”
Ægir let out a soft whicker and you looked back at him again.
“I know… I know… I only just unlocked the move yesterday… but I need to get good at it FAST.”
You put your fans away and walked back to him, placing one hand on his nose and rubbing up and down the length of his face.
“I’m happy to have you with me,” you said to his watery face, “it’s been lovely to have a strong companion with me.”
He nudged you in the chest and you chuckled then stepped back and opened your information panel to see where your skills were at.
“I’m slowly getting there,” you said to Ægir, “I’ve got a tonne of Mahi and my attacks are starting to get real strong now! Look!”
You pointed through your see through screen for your horse to read your skill levels but he didn’t seem too interested.
[SKILL LEVEL]Move: 22
Spin: 20
Ha: 20
Cool Down: 7
“Now I just gotta get ‘cool down’ to be as advanced as the others but I literally only just got it and probably only used it a handful of times on the scorpion boss of level 6… but if I keep combining it with ‘spin’ then I might be able to boost it in small increments…”
You stood there in the middle of the dessert, pondering your skills as sand flicked around you both.
“I’ll find out from Mirio tomorrow when and what time we’re leaving in game for the mission. Then I’ll know exactly how much time I have to practice before the departure date.”