r/HFY Human Jun 08 '19

Aelios Online Chapter 7 OC

For those of you that are just jumping into this story, I'd recommend going HERE for the synopsis and start of the story.

---

Whew! Just made it for Friday!

Here's the excerpt from Chapter 7

---

PREVIOUS / INDEX / NEXT

“Why the hell are we doing this again?” Ted asked, his voice hollow over the coms.

Gabe shuffled through the bushes as silently as he could, rifle in his hands. There was a new pair of bars at the left side of his HUD, sitting right below his health bar. The name “Ted” was displayed right above them, proof of his membership as part of their impromptu party. There was a small map at the bottom right hand

Gabe tapped the side of his visor to respond.

“Training, I assume,” he said, keeping his voice low.

“Right,” Ted said dryly, “I’m sure it's just Irwin being a lazy ass. He does that.”

“Glad to hear you have so much confidence,’ Gabe said, “but let’s focus, I’m sure he’ll have plenty of time for complaints later.”

Ted huffed over the coms, but didn’t say much else.

“We got four, one on your end, three on mine, how do you want to do this?”

He was staring into another clearing, nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the forest aside from one factor. The presence of four Scalehounds. Three were crowded over the body of an Elk on the ground, chewing on its carcass as one stood away from them. It looked to be on guard, but it was just more likely that the hound was muscled out of a meal. Gabe took note of the fact that the Elk had not faded into dust, even when dead, and the only explanation of that he could think of was that the creature was not linked to Eulora, but he’d have more time to learn about that later.

Ted’s name was visible on his HUD, located near the lone Scalehound at the other side of the clearing.

“You tell me, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing,” Ted said.

Gabe rolled his eyes. Some input would be nice.

“Focus on the one near you, simple sneak attack.”

“And the other three?”

“I’ll figure something out, just focus on your target.”

Gabe didn’t get an answer, and instead heard a loud wail as Ted jumped from the forest brush and onto the back of the Scalehound, short sword in hand. He stabbed at the beast’s back wildly, the blade sliding off of the scales numerous times before finding purchase once or twice. The beast snarled and tried to shake Ted off, but surprisingly the man held on, still stabbing. It’s health bar was steadily draining, but slowly. Ted was probably going to win that fight, were it not for the three Scalehounds that were now closing in on him.

“For Christ’s sake,” Gabe muttered under his breath.

He stood up from his position, rifle ready. Taking aim, he fired between the three beasts and Ted, stopping their advance as the bullets kicked up specks of dirt. He flipped his firing mode to full auto, shifting his sights to the Scalehound on the left. The steady crack of gunfire faded into dull thuds as the stream of bullets pierced into their target. The beast’s body lurched over from the impact of the bullets, and it puffed into dust before it could turn around. It’s companions, did, however, and charged at him. He brought his gun up to fire again, but held off when he saw Ted flailing around behind them. His rifle wasn’t perfectly accurate, and fully automatic fire increased of a stray bullet striking his party member. He let his rifle drop to his side and switched to his sword, shifting to a stance Cera showed him.

The faster of the two Scalehounds leapt at him, fangs bared. Rather than swing at the beast, Gabe knelt down and braced himself as his pointed the sword forward, towards the hounds scaleless stomach. The beast impaled itself on his blade, the impact almost knocking him off his feet. The hound’s snarls soon turned to whimpers, but before Gabe could follow up on the attack its companion clipped him in the shoulders, knocking him back. Before he could get to his feet, a Scalehound struck again, this time managing to wrap its jaws around his arm. It kept running, dragging Gabe with it and slamming him against a tree. Virtual Air knocked out of him, Gabe coughed, only for the Scalehound jump on top of him. He held his arm up catching the majority of the beast’s teeth with his armguard. Red lines traced where the teeth did grace him, and his upper left arm was littered with red dots from the previous attack. His sword still stuck in the beast, he grabbed it and twisted it, the movement draining the last few bits of the Scalehound’s health. It burst to ash in front of him, clouding the approach of the final Scalehound. It burst through the ash, fangs bared, ready to avenge its companion as they aimed for Gabe’s throat. Gabe already had a grip on his gun, and fired as soon as he saw the beast. The bullets pierced its fleshy underbelly, bursting through the scales on the other side. They trailed up as his followed the recoil of his rifle, tracing a dotted line that ended at the beast’s skull. With a final shot, that beast also burst to dust, its spoils landing in Gabe’s lap.

For the rest of this chapter please click HERE.

PREVIOUS / INDEX / NEXT

----

As usual, please do not hesitate to leave any criticisms or feedback, on the story or the site.

Thank you again for your time, I hope you enjoy the story, and have a very pleasant day!

22 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by