Basilisk

"Okay, how high is your highest group MP spell?" he asked her.

"Hmm," Lili's avatar got almost hit by some elemental spell from a stupid jerk.

"Shit. Em. Okay, around 3K HP/s for party members inside my target range for 20 seconds. But it has 10 minutes of cooling and costs me lots of MP and five crystals." She heard chuckles and laughter when she cursed.

'Am I aloud, for everyone to hear?' she asked and reminded herself that she had to mind her words.

"Got it. When I say now, use it. And use potions for yourself." All around her were flying spells. It was one big mess. Sort of battle royal. Some big names appeared too.

But soon, they gave up. The boss was not even half-dead, and Lili's party almost killed all the other parties. Which was fucking amazing if you thought about it.

Suddenly the Basilisk got agitated, roared, unleashed a black wave, and stunned all players. Then another dark violet wave hit them all, and they started to rapidly lose HP.

'YiZhe probably used his MP group spell,' she thought because stun and HP loss stopped. As a healer, she saw stats of everyone in the party and he was nearly dead with low MP.

She heard lots of shouting and speaking in Chinese. Then they moved into a weird formation. Their guardians were putting up a shield before long-range players. Close range ones stopped for a minute. Then they jumped back behind the magicians. Then.

Four things happened at once. Basilisk shrugged, preparing for another spell wave. All long rangers attacked at once in perfect sync, with two magicians sending out something that looked like a mushroom cloud.

Everyone was losing HP. And Thunder yelled NOW into her ears, startling her. She nearly missed her C1 button.

Healing started. She used a potion. Basilisk was left with less than a quarter of life when Doom attacked him. She used normal healing spells for players with low HP. When she noticed that YiZhe was already dead together with XunFuZhe. And nearly all members of other parties were dead, too. OMG, how powerful that magicians' attacks were.

Earth shook. A big explosion happened, and the system stated that her party defeated the boss.

'What the fuck?' she yelled inside her head. She had to keep her perfect image on the outside.

"I think Doom fell in love with your weapon. He got a special skill because of it. Used it as a last option. It's not DPS but was a powerful physical attack," Thunder said with his smooth voice to her. Lili got goosebumps.

"Whoa, awesome," she exclaimed, hiding her body's reaction.

"We got a recipe. Gold one. Should I assume it's a secret one?" Thunder asked, and she was panicking inside. How should she know? It was pure luck she made a weapon like that.

"Mmm, maybe," she mumbled, trying to sound indifferent.

"Will you do it? Will you join me? Will you forge weapons for us?" Lili got a bit surprised by his question and even more by his gentle tone. Making it irresistible to his offer.

"Yes, I will," The moment Lili said these words, she instantly regretted it. Blushed. And imagined something different from agreeing to be a swordsmith in a game.

'Fucking hormones..' she thought, rolling her eyes.

Lili glanced at the clock and almost got a heart attack. She let out a not-so-loud shriek. It was four in the morning. She got to catch a flight, TODAY.

"What's happening?" Thunder asked. There was some background noise coming out on his side, like laughter.

"Hm, nothing. But I gotta go soon. I'm catching a flight today. I'm leaving for two weeks." She heard a loud group ahh from Thunder's microphone. Few more noises. Loud bang. Then a cheerful voice. Doom's.

'OMG. How often I heard him last week that I could recognize his voice,' she thought. But Lili heard Thunder only twice, and she had to admit that his voice wouldn't be so hard to distinguish either. She had a good hearing. Probably.

It shouldn't be just because Thunder's voice was pleasing to hear. Low, but with strength. Velvety smooth, but manly. She could imagine him whispering her things that would make her blush.

She blushed at her thoughts, and she slapped her cheeks to forget these things. But at least she could be glad that the imagination she lost was showing its horns.

"You are abandoning us?" She pulled her headphones a bit away. Otherwise, she could go deaf from his loud scream.

"Noooo, nooo, don't leave us!" She heard another scream. Now it was SIG. She laughed when she heard two slapping noises, a bang, and a rustling noise.

"Sorry about that. I think you were too nice to them. Both..." Thunder was back. She couldn't help it, but her imagination ran wild again, seeing the entire scene of fighting, slapping, and just plain fighting for a headset. So, she laughed out aloud.

"No problem. Well. I have to go. I'm leaving in..." she counted in her head, "Hell, three hours." Thunder gasped and sighed. She couldn't help it and just said that it was okay, that she is used to sleeping a little.

"Oh. Good. Not good. But good. Can I know where you are going?"

'Huh, where did his normal emotionless stoic speaking disappear?' Lili noticed the change in his voice, but more giggles and weird sounds could be heard from his side.

Lili was getting quite curious about what was happening on his side of the microphone. It sounded like fun. Somehow, she wasn't able to hold back a giggle.

"Yeah, sure, closer to you guys. I'm leaving for Hong Kong today. Eighteen hours travel ahead of me." She sighed. Thunder's side was making weird sounds, but he was silent.

Then she heard a load of Chinese. Her curiosity reached its peak, and she became slightly annoyed that she couldn't understand them.

"Okay, guys, I need to go right now. So you can continue arguing without me." There was silence when she said that. They were listening to her and not bickering.

"Just bye-bye. I'll be back in two weeks." She said and disconnected the voice chat.

[Group]SIG: com emeetuswe are in HK

This message was written in a hurry. Lili never wanted to meet strangers from the game in real life. It was dangerous. But she felt tiny anticipation when she read that message.

[Group]Blacklily: If I have time. Now, I need my three hours. Good night... day for you.

She logged out and went to sleep, sure was going to die of exhaustion later.

"Pity. He is more appealing than others," she said aloud when thinking about how Tunder never said anything about her leaving.

'Maybe because he was more mature. And well, his gaming skills were probably worse than mine. So, he seems more... real. Or it is his voice, the voice of a god,' she continued, thinking about him, but that was bad, to think about a stranger like that. She slapped her cheeks once again and shook her head. Better head to sleep.