One shot I wrote for Inuvember, day 25 - AU Weekend
Prompt: Crossover with a video game, which I tweaked into a gamer AU.
Kudos to my dear friend Rahmakapala / The Dah, with whom HeroYa and Sesshoumaru's and Kagome's characters were initially brainstormed for that silly indulgent "stuck in a MMO world" crossover we started writing several years ago and which still collects dust in our desk drawers.
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Heroes of Yamato
Sesshoumaru sat at his desk, plunked his coffee mug in front of his keyboard, and clicked an icon on his desktop to start up Heroes of Yamato, the massive multiplayer online role playing game that had become his guilty pleasure.
He ran his hand through his hair and stifled a yawn.
It was barely five in the morning, as he typed in his login information and waited for the game to load. There was a particular world boss he was dead-set on defeating. He’d been keeping an eye on it for a while now, but the bastard only spawned once a week. And even though the game was massive multiplayer, Sesshoumaru’s in-game friend list was empty. He played alone, and was happy to stay solo.
But that also meant that in order to be able to take on that wold boss by himself, he had to be there early, at a time when very few other players were online.
Sesshoumaru’s character appeared on the screen, standing at the edge of Ashikaga, the starting village for the Tokyo server of HeroYa.
He checked his inventory, made sure he was ready to go and had enough spare room left in his bag to snatch any items the boss might drop after he destroyed it.
All set. Sesshoumaru smirked, and headed out.
The village was thankfully empty at this hour, as he walked across it, heading towards the area where the boss would spawn.
Usually, Sesshoumaru would avoid this area like the plague – starting areas like this were usually teeming with noobs, the most loathsome breed of all his fellow players.
Not that he cared overmuch about any players of the game. At best, he felt a grudging respect to some successful veterans, like the Wanderer, who was a solo player like Sesshoumaru and topped the achievement-lists in exploring and the open world challenges, or Shinigami, a member of the famous guild Bloody Slayers, and whom some other players reverently or jokingly called the god of raids.
Still, Sesshoumaru was here to play, not make friends – which was probably why the only place he enjoyed engaging with his fellow players was in the PVP arena. That was where he spent most of his time when in game, and had racked quite a reputation.
He stopped at the crest of the hill, scanned the spreading valley below. It was still empty, but any moment now…
He drank his coffee and waited.
Sesshoumaru was running through a last minute check of his gear when the air on the flowery meadow shimmered, and a huge dragon appeared.
It uncoiled its massive body, raised its head high and roared.
Sesshoumaru flexed his fingers and grinned as he gripped his mouse tighter.
It was show time.
Alone, he walked down the hill to face the dreaded Ryuukotsusei.
The music picked up as the battle commenced, and anticipation made his heart drum in his chest. This world boss was one of the toughest in the game to beat, and most people would probably say that trying to solo the fight would be suicide… But Sesshoumaru would prove them wrong.
It would not be an easy battle, even if his character was the highest possible level. Then again, he wouldn’t be doing this if he wanted an easy victory.
Sesshoumaru started by laying on the buffs, then dealt the first damage by throwing his favourite ice spell at the dragon. It shrieked, even though the spell didn’t deal quite as much damage as Sesshoumaru had hoped.
He frowned at his screen, rolled his shoulders. Time to get serious, he decided, and clicked Shapeshift.
On screen, Sesshoumaru’s character – the tall and elegant elf druid with a silver-white hair that flowed all the way to his knees – shimmered and vanished. In its place stood a sleek white panther, with magenta stripes running around its legs and an indigo crescent moon adorning its brow; the same markings his character carried in his humanoid form.
The panther roared and charged, swift and deadly. It rushed at the dragon, tearing into it with teeth and claw.
Sesshoumaru’s fingers danced over the keys; furious clicking of his mouse filled the air along with sharp intakes of breath and a few choice words he hissed out.
The panther form was one of Sesshoumaru’s favourites. It was built for speed and stealth and damage. It also worked really well for the boss.
Ryuukotsusei had staggering stamina, and getting its health bar reduced into red would take time and serious investment. It also hit too damn hard.
Sesshoumaru cursed, and downed a health potion. The best strategy was to hit the dragon in the rear and try to avoid the bigger attacks. Thankfully, due to his vast experience in the PVP arena, Sesshoumaru was very good both at dodging and rogue-tactics.
Minutes ticked by.
Sesshoumaru landed a combo attack at the dragon’s exposed back, and finally the boss’ health points dropped into the red.
Sesshoumaru grinned in triumph – and took a hard hit.
He swore, dodged and cast a healing spell.
The final stage of the battle would be the true test. Both he and his opponent would be nearing their limits. With them being so evenly matched, it became a matter of endurance and strategy.
It was time to switch forms, but Sesshoumaru didn’t have enough mana left to cast the spell. He gritted his teeth and spammed physical attacks, but the mana was replenishing too slow. He went for the potion, then hit Shapeshift again.
The sleek panther transformed into a sturdy, muscled wolf with silver-white fur and the same markings he carried in all of his forms.
The wolf would deal less damage, but it had a higher defence than the panther. It would be able to last longer than the stealthy cat.
Sesshoumaru sank back into the familiar rhythm of attacking and dodging, always keeping an eye on his cooldowns, his mana usage, his health points.
And then the boss went on a rampaging attack that Sesshoumaru was unable to dodge.
The screen started to become tinted with red.
Sesshoumaru’s gaze flitted to his mana. Too low to cast a healing spell. He’d just taken a healing potion before, so that was still in cooldown. He clenched his jaw, holding on by the skin of his teeth – and then the red faded.
Out of nowhere, he had recovered 60 health points; a drop in the ocean, really, given how high level his character was… But in this desperation at the end of a long and bloody battle, that one drop could well be the difference between life and death.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. Timely as that regen was, health points didn’t just materialise out of thin air.
Still engaged in his epic battle, he couldn’t really go on and have a look, but he was ready to bet his best PVP gear that somewhere outside the fight there was a healer with a bleeding heart, extending their helping hand. And judging by that miserable drop of 60 points, they also were a goddamn noob.
Sesshoumaru gnashed his teeth, as his character on the screen sank its fangs into the dragon boss’ side.
He was a solo player, damnit! He didn’t want or need help from anyone, least of all from a Good Samaritan noob healer.
He growled and launched into a new attack.
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“Come on, come on, come on!” Kagome muttered, tapping her fingers and willing her mana to regenerate faster so that she could cast another healing spell.
It was early in the morning. Kagome had finally given up on sleep and got up. Wanting to forget all about the impending doom ahead – the math test they’d have that afternoon – she’d logged on to the game she’d started playing not too long ago. Heroes of Yamato was the current obsession of her little brother Souta, and having spent enough time watching the game over his shoulder, Kagome had become curious herself.
She’d just got to level 12 last weekend and got her first real healing spell. She’d intend to just get the daily quest out of the way before she needed to go to school (eurgh!), but then she’d stumbled on a lone druid engaged in a fierce battle against Ryuukotsusei, the world boss that was one of the toughest in the game.
He was doing incredibly well; the fight was in its final stages and he was slowly but surely eroding the boss’ health bar. He fought fiercely, and at first Kagome had simply stopped to admire the battle, awestruck to see a high-level, seasoned player at work, going solo against a world boss. How kick-ass was that?
But when he’d taken a bad hit, Kagome had acted before thinking, and utilised her brand new healing spell. It hadn’t made much a difference – the gap between their levels was too huge for her to be able to heal him properly.
That, of course, did not stop Kagome; even a little help was better than no help, right?
So she settled down and put in some serious effort, casting health regen buff while her healing spell was in cooldown, dipping into her storage of potions to help to keep up her mana.
The healing spell was a very exhausting spell for her to cast, draining a lion’s share of her mana points each time – which only made Kagome more determined to do her part.
She followed the battle, and kept healing and boosting the lone druid to the best of her capabilities, helping him recover his health points inch by an inch.
And then Ryuukotsusei threw back his head, roared, collapsed and disappeared.
Kagome cheered, as she watched the items drop for the victorious druid to pick.
She clicked the chat box active, typed a quick message.
Congrats! Awesome fight!
The wolf-formed druid looted his items in silence, then left without a word.
Kagome shrugged, and went back to picking flowers for her quest.
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Three days later, when she next logged in to the game, Kagome found a surprise waiting in her inbox.
Someone had sent her a gift!
How sweet! Must be from Souta. Or maybe Kaoru?
She clicked on the gift icon attached to the letter, and a wrapped up present topped with a bow appeared at her character’s feet.
She clicked it open – and her jaw slackened when a stack of thirty level 50 mana potions dropped into her inventory.
Who would be sending her such high-level goods? And why? No one she knew had a max level character so it couldn’t have been any of her friends. There’d been no personalised message on the letter, no character nick.
Baffled though she was, Kagome didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Beaming at her screen, she went to find a bank, so she could store her mana potions and keep them safe until she could use them.
End.