New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

She stopped thinking and reacted. She kicked her captor in the balls, hoping that would loosen his grip on her throat.

She achieved the effect intended, as Astaroth grimaced and grabbed at his groin. His hand holding the elf loosened just enough for her to attempt an escape.

She curled herself into a ball before shoving both her feet into Astaroth’s chest, pushing with all her might. Astaroth’s grip slipped, and she was free.

The strength of the kick sent her flying away as it pushed Astaroth into the bullet’s trajectory. Astaroth had heard the shot being fired, with his hearing sense sharpened right now, but it all happened too fast.

Since he was now flying into the bullet, he quickly wrapped his arms behind his head, hoping to protect himself from a possible critical hit. The ball-shaped bullet struck true as it pierced his left arm, causing him negligible damage.

Astaroth was still falling toward the ground, but at least he hadn’t been hit in the head. He curled up onto himself, hoping to mitigate some of the fall damage.

The fall still took a significant chunk of his health as it blew the air out of his lungs. He struggled to get up, trying to find cover behind a tree, to hide from the gunner.

Astaroth looked at his transformation timer and noticed he had about eight minutes left on it. Since it still buffed him, he took his anger out on the new assailant.

He knew he wouldn’t find the elf anyway, with her stealth skill working against him. So he turned to the direction the bullet had come flying from and blasted forward.

He heard more shots fired, as he was closing in on the shooter, but he dodged all of them, for now. The shooter was perched in a tree, in a laid-down firing position, as he kept squeezing his trigger.

Astaroth finally caught sight of the gunner when he started getting nearer. It was a small person with a long nose.

‘A gnome.’ Astaroth surmised.

He kept running at the shooter, but the closer he got, the more difficult it became to dodge the bullets, as his reaction time was shortening.

The gnome stayed calm and kept shooting, knowing he would eventually hit his target again. The gnome player was none other than Damien Grimm, gamer tag Azamus.

He had picked gnomes because it was the only race that had guns, and he was religious about those. He had always loved guns and would always love them.

As he was perched there, shooting at the man dashing at him, Azamus was quite surprised at his movement speed. It wasn’t every day you saw a person running at the speed of a car on the highway.

Eventually, the distance between the two became short enough that Azamus no longer missed his shots. So he switched from snipping mode to gunner mode and pulled out what looked like an outdated rifle.

He thought his opponent was an idiot that had dropped all his free stat points into agility, so he would most likely have little health. So he wanted to get up and personal, to humiliate that dumb choice.

“You are quick, beast man! But you can’t go faster than a bullet!” Azamus said as he dropped from his perching spot.

The gnome ran from his tree to an open clearing. He was a pro gamer and was confident enough of his reflexes to kite a player that chose speed over every other stat.

Once he was there, he taunted the man some more, trying to force him into doing something stupid.

“Come fight me in the open, if you’re a man!” Azamus shouted.

“You will know what it feels like to lose to a pro player!” He added.

Astaroth, who was at the edge of the clearing, instantly knew who his opponent was. The difference in skill between the two of them would be a hard bridge to cross.

He walked out of the clearing, trying to look as calm as possible.

“It will be an honor to fight the great Azamus.” Astaroth said, respecting his opponent’s strength.

“Damn right it will, noob. Now, time to face your death. Thank you for the points!” Azamus said, disregarding his opponent completely.

He opened fire on the man, trying to end this as fast as he could to prove his superiority. Astaroth instantly went into defensive mode, as he tried to dodge as many of the bullets as he could.

He was getting hit often, and his health was steadily lowering. Since he couldn’t see his opponent’s health bar, Astaroth guessed it was the same for him.

Because of his current high constitution stat, he had more than enough health to tank the shots, but that would change soon. His spirit melding was ticking into its last minute.

Soon, he would revert to normal, and lose all those bonus stats. He knew that would put him in a tough spot, so he wanted to end this fast.

Sadly, his opponent was not letting him get closer. Every time he tried dashing at him, the gnome kited him back.

Astaroth knew that he could reach the gnome if he ran straight at him, but that meant taking all the bullets. That would leave Azamus with a great opportunity for high damage.

Then his mind clicked on something. Since his opponent couldn’t see his health, he could use it to trick him.

Astaroth smirked as he chose his course of action. He faked anger as he howled in fake rage to the skies.

Then, he dived in a straight line at his opponent, trying to act rage crazed. His act seemed credible as the gnome smiled.

“Fool! A desperate move from a stupid player!” Azamus shouted, steadying his aim.

“Bullet Storm!” He then shouted, unleashing a skill.

His rifle muzzle suddenly flashed many times in quasi-instant succession, firing a quite literal bullet storm.

That skill was a high-damage skill, but it required its user to stay immobile since they needed to hold back the recoil. Astaroth immediately smiled.

His bait had worked! He crossed his arms before him, still running at his foe, and tanked the damage. Azamus panicked when he saw the beastman not go down.

“Die already!” He shouted, his eyes going round.

Astaroth closed the distance before the skill went out and grabbed hold of the gnome. He spun full circle before throwing his troublesome foe into the skies.

ƥαṇdαηθνε|

“Say hi to the birds for me!” Astaroth yelled as the gnome took flight at incredible speeds.

The fight ended there, with Astaroth turning back to normal, and the gnome flying off, far in the distance.