The sweet summer children

Spencer hadn't known pain. It was a discomfort he avoided. The burn after scraping a knee, the need for air while running. Growing up he avoided sports and fights just to not feel pain. Hell, he even went as far as avoiding his classmates to avoid pain. Being that one weird quiet kid of Saint Peter's elementary school.

Now the first blade struck Spencer's gauntlet. The impact hurt, vibrating through his arm. One miss could leave him dead. Cut up and bleeding. What was worse than pain?

"Princess!" Blaze shouted as he blocked the two creatures before him. One of the users looked like a goblin, the other was some kind of egyptian god with a golden bird head and a human body.

The one standing before Spencer was like a dragon or lizard man.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you, at least not yet." It said.

In a twisted way Spencer felt relief, but dread ached in his heart still.

The lizard man's eyes lit up like lights. Then it headbutted Spencer. He blocked that too, but the sheer force threw him on the ground.

Images of the first vampire princess began to flash in his mind. He remembered her dead body and how that could easily be him right now. Spencer froze, staring at the approaching lizard. Each step it took thudded on the grass.

Relax. Focus in the task before you, Spencer thought to himself. If this was anything like a video game. There was HP, attacks, skills.

Spencer activated his second skill. Phantoms that looked like stereo typical ghosts began to fly around him.

"Shit!" The lizard man's eyes widened.

Each time they passed by him, they bit him. His arms, legs, back. Spencer swung his scythe. It hit the lizard's claws, or perhapes he blocked. Spencer didn't know, but sparks flew at impact.

"I didn't want to hurt you." The lizard said.

"I didn't ask for a fight." Spencer said.

The first attack took 20 mana points. So he had 60 left.

The lizard pulled out a chain with a sharp hook and began spinning it in the air. While he did that. Spencer activated his first skill. His scythe began to burn with a purple fire.

"And this is my winning shot!" The lizard said. The sound of his confidence made Spencer feel afraid. It reminded him of his freind Erika. The way she would make a stupid comment right before beating him at Super Smash Brothers. He hated it with a passion, but even now. This wasn't a game. The silly lines were a death sentence. All he could do was watch as the lizard slung the hook at him. There was no time to dodge, think. All he could do was feel his defeat.

The sharp hook entered right through his stomach. He felt it hit his spine and thats where it stopped. The feeling of the chain going through his abdomen broke his will to live for a few seconds. I'm gunna die just like my grandpa, he thought. He remembered seeing his poor grandpa in the coffin. His face pale, his signiture mustache. He died of a heart attack and that traumatized Spencer as a kid. Ever since then, he feared pain, injuries, and doing anything dangerous. He didn't want to see death at work again.

"Ha! Critical hit!" The lizard exclaimed.

"You fucking pieces of shit!" Blaze shouted.

Spencer felt nasea, then he threw up blood. He saw that coming due to his medical classes. Blood agitated the stomach and his stomach was probibly fucked up.

Spencer grabbed the chain and pulled it to himself. The lizard almost fell forward and Spencer swung his sword. The way the lizard almost fell forward made Spencer realize how strong he was. A little girl pushing around a big lizardman was a good thing. This was more like a game afterall.

The fire hit the lizardman. Spencer activated his special and his weapon changed form. It was still a scythe, but now it was a hook shot.

"I killed you!" The lizardman shouted.

"Heh…this isn't reality anymore. Its a game." Spencer said.

Naturally Spencer would be on the floor bleeding out. But the lizardman's attack only took 25HP out of 120HP with severe bleeding effect. So he was losing 3 hp per second.

"I might look small, but I'm a warrior class. You on the other hand are a tank. You know what that means?" Spencer activated his skills. He pulled on the chain and the ghosts began to attack him again. Then he swung his sword and burned him with the purple flame again.

"You son of a bitch!" It yelled.

"I knew you weren't used to video games. Even less this tournament. You're newbies like us." Spencer smiled.

"New skill activated. Vampirism." A voice in Spencers head spoke.

"With each hit, you will now gain 3% HP back, but its not much." The voice added.

Spencer swung his scythe but it blocked him.

"Help me! Help!" The lizard yelled and Spencer knew it was time.

He pulled the trigger in his scythe and the blade shot forward. It missed the green monster, but then it retracted and sliced right through it.

"A finishing blow!" The alien yelled.

The blade came back and snapped into place with a sharp metalic crackle. Spencer almost fell back at the force of his hook shot.

"She slowly but surely ate up his health and used her special move to finish him off. What a fantastic finish!" The alien said.

"Princess! You're dying!" The skeleton exclaimed.

"What? I feel fine." Spencer said.

Then he remembered and he could feel a heavyness in his stomach. He looked down and saw the chain sticking out of his stomach.

"The other two contestants have surrendered. Penalties have been implamented. Congradulations On your victory." The alien hologram said.

They were awarded one thousand gold each for the win and some experiance points. The alien explained injuries to them and then departed.

They managed to pull the chain out and it healed on its own after a few minutes. It turned out injuries can heal, but if an organ was damaged too badly. Or if an organ is taken out, it can permanently cripple the organ. Rendering it useless. In short, brutal stab wounds were dangerous.

Spencer picked up the key. This was one glowing green.

"That looks like the red key I picked up..the one that turned me into this." Blaze said with resentment.

"Same. I'll hold onto it." Spencer said.

"How did you beat him? I could barely keep myself alive." Blaze said.

"Easy, although tanks are durable. They usually lose health faster than they inflict it. Plus he was a low level like me." Spencer said.

"Tanks? What do you mean…" Blaze rubbed his forhead.

"I was actually top ten on the pvp leader board of an mmorpg I used to play. A lot of these powers resemble those." He said. Blaze fell to his kneese. Spencer's gut churned. He knew he was about to say something bad.

"I'm sorry….but I might end up getting us killed." Blaze said.

"What?" Spencer nearly choked.

"I've got no gaming experiance at all."

They arrived at the bar and turned in the quest. They both recieved three hundred dollars worth of coins and a chunk of experiance points. Both of them leveled up to ten.

"Is level ten strong?" Blaze asked.

Spencer gripped his skirt.

"No. There are one hundred levels. We're still in complete danger." Spencer looked up at the bar tender and waved.

"Let me guess, you wanna the same one as before?" The bartender smiled.

"Yes please." Spencer always turned to drinks when he felt stressed.

"Why so gloomy? You finished a quest. Thats a big deal!" The bartender said as he shook the drink in a silver bottle. He then poured the blue drink into a small mug.

"How many parties are able to enter the finale challange?" Spencer asked.

The bartender gave him his drink and scratched his head.

"Too many to count. The most famous are a handful…like the Iron Maidens, Los Miserables, Skull Raiders, Dark Angels, Cold warriors, whoo! I could go on." He said as he lost his breath.

"Sounds like more then a handful." Spencer said as he shook his blue cocktail.

"Are you sure we can win this?" Blaze whispered at him.

"At the moment. We're at a deadly disadvantage. Most top parties are above level fifty."