Caged Demons: Entrapment

Prologue: "Thirteen Days" The first sign of danger was a small cry in the distance. It was such a tiny sound that it was barely audible, yet it carried a heavy weight. Out of the four figures walking through the forest of green leaves and shrubbery, only one managed to catch the fleeting sound as it bounced across the thick trees that reached high into the heavens. For a brief second, the figure thought that perhaps the sound was merely part of the wind that caused the grass around him to dance, but paranoia made him cautious. This one figure stopped the group march. Wide shoulders and a thicker physique identified the soldier as a man. Red plates of armor covered his entire form. Black straps and padding held the armor in its places as the man deepened his stance. His arms instantly went to the sword hanging from his left hip. While both arms were covered by black forearm protectors, only the left arm had the extra protection of a slick, silver shield that appeared to be branded by a strange symbol of a monster with a wide grin filled with dagger teeth and two narrowed eyes peering from within a cage. The other three members of the man's party quickly noticed of his actions. They followed his lead and took more battle ready stances as well. Each of them wore similar armor to the first man but with different color schemes. That was a signal of the main problem with the party in the crimson man's mind. They were all attempting a similar type of frontline fighting strategy. There was no diversity for support for him, and that made the man's lips painfully dry from stress. "What is it?" another man of the group questioned. His armor was a thick shade of green that almost blended into the shrubbery that surrounded them. "I think we're being hunted," a muffled voice came from behind the crimson helmet. As slowly and quietly as possible, the crimson warrior unsheathed his blade. Despite his caution, the shining single-handed blade still released a light ring as it was pulled from its sheath. The other warriors quickly followed his example. Their drawing of their weaponry was far less careful and quiet, though. The scraping of metal and wood made the crimson soldier wince. "How do you know?" the fighter in green was in near hysterics. His grip on his spear caused the wood of the staff to groan in discomfort. All of his trepidation only intensified as another cry rang through the forest. "It sounds like a bird's cry," a shorter commando with more feminine shaped armor shifted her eyes across the wooded area. The silver of her armor glistened in the sunlight as she turned to the red soldier. "The worst case scenario is griffins, but it could be harpies." "I hunted griffins before. Their cry is really high pitched," the crimson soldier noted. "You don't forget that sound after they scream in your face a couple dozen times." "What are griffins doing here, though?" the final male member of the group questioned. His yellow armor shook and rattled as his internal fear was physically manifested. "This area never had them before." "That was before the update, Tommy," the female soldier gritted her teeth in annoyance at the yellow themed fighter's fear. "With the Entrapment now in full effect, who knows what changed." "Then shouldn't we run?" Tommy's voice cracked as he spoke. "No," the crimson warrior slowly peered around them. The forest was thick with trees to the point that it was difficult to see more than a few paces from their position. Luckily, they were following a rather beaten path. It was rather narrow and rocky, but there was still room to move. Not enough space to properly fight, of course, but it was better than nothing. "Running would be impossible here. Hiding is probably out too, unless your stealth stats are unbelievably high." "Then what do we do?" the woman inquired with a noticeable edge in her voice. "Fight and hope we don't die," the crimson warrior checked each direction. While difficult to see through the shrubbery, the griffins' large frames would still make a lot of noise if they approached through the trees. With so many possibilities for proper ambushes cut off, there was only one direction left for the griffins. "They're going to dive at us! Everyone down!" Ducking down, the lead fighter thrust his blade in blind faith up towards the blue heavens. His quick thinking was rewarded by the satisfying force that met his blade and by an anguished cry that echoed through the forest. Reminded of the sound of a bird being shot out of the sky, the lead man looked up to see a golden blur rush over him. His blade managed to stab itself into the underbelly of the beast and caused a long crimson line to carve into the fiery gold fur that danced above him. In mere seconds, the blur passed over him and crashed into the trees behind him. Not willing to let the beast recover, the crimson warrior spun around and rushed towards the fallen creature. Golden fur covered a four-legged body in a way that looked like honey was dancing through the shrubbery. Instead of a lion's head on the feline body, the curved head of a bird jumped from the torso of the beast. Feathers white as snow twirled about on its skull as the creature twitched in pain. Long wings covered in brown feathers stood proudly on the monster's back and curled around its frame in an attempt to protect itself. He knew that his foe wasn't dumb. The griffin had already been critically wounded in its initial charge. Covering its wound was smart, but it was also a desperate move made in hopes that its enemy wasn't aware of its weakness. Of course, the scarlet man was well aware of the griffin anatomy, so the gamble was wasted. Leaping over the great beast, the crimson warrior turned himself in mid-air to face against the griffin's unprotected back. With a roar, he plunged his blade in between the wings of the mixed creature. His reward was another ear-piercing screech that rung so loudly in his helmet that he thought that his ears would begin to bleed, even if he knew that was impossible in the game. Not moving his blade in the slightest from its position between the griffin's shoulder blades, the red swordsman took the time to finally look at the floating bar above the beast's head. The green filling of the bar rapidly faded away until it was completely empty. Without any of its health, the beast could only twitch in fear before its body shifted into a mass of ones and zeros. Then, with one last screech, the griffin's form exploded leaving only a few fading numbers in its wake. With his own enemy taken care of, the crimson soldier turned his attention to his party members' battles. Two more griffins had descended from the heavens during his altercation. They had lunged to what they viewed as prey. Tommy and the woman were their main targets. This had left the leftover green fighter free to decide his next course of action. Unfortunately, the remaining man chose the path of a coward. The crimson warrior watched as the traitor fled down the rugged path without even a glance back to the party he abandoned. Rage flooded the scarlet warrior's veins. The desire to chase down and punish the traitor rushed through his mind. That was something that would have to wait, though. Without a moment's hesitation, he raced forward to help the person closest to him. The griffin was up on its hind legs and was swiping down at the female member of the group with its front claws. Said woman was desperately blocking the claws with her double handed broadsword but had yet to get in an attack of her own. Both of the combatants were completely ingrained in their struggle. This gave the crimson soldier all the opportunity that he needed in order to help give her an edge. Channeling his magic, the man swung his blade up in preparation for a downward strike. As the sword settled into its position, his magic took effect. Electricity danced around the blade in loud cracks and snaps. With the power of his strike now enhanced, he brought his sword down at the base of the griffin's left wing. Another cry of agony sounded through the forest as his sword sliced through the wing completely, leaving only an angrily red stub in its place. With her enemy now too distracted by the pain to defend itself, the female fighter stabbed her blade upward. It easily pierced through the exposed neck of the beast. Instantly, the creature's health points began to disappear. Seeing its health bar now as red as the stub of a wing on the griffin's back, the woman pulled her blade back and then swung it around to the side of the bird's nape. In a flash of silver metal, the bird head flew off of the lion body, and like the griffin that died before it, the creature was soon only a mass of fading code and numbers. "Ah! Help!" Both of them turned just in time to see the last remaining griffin grab onto Tommy and pull him into the air. Before they could move to help, the griffin was far above the tree tops and well beyond their reach. Peering up in horror, the two remaining party members could only watch as the beast pecked and scratched at its prey as if trying to eat the flesh that did not exist in this world. In an attempt to do something, anything really, to help his ally, the crimson soldier raised his electrified blade but paused when he realized that there was nothing that he could do from such a long distance. "Tommy! We need to save him! What do we do?" the woman questioned the other soldier desperately. "What can we do?" the man's shoulders sagged in defeat. He almost numbly sheathed his blade in acceptance. "Even if we had a long-range weapon, neither of us have the archery or accuracy skills to save Sunblaze…err, Tommy." "Well, we have to try something! Throw something at it! Try to knock it down!" the woman took her blade and flung it up at the flying creature. The weapon didn't even make it a quarter of the way up to the beast before gravity bested it. "I told you…" "I had to at least try!" she looked over to the only man left with her on the trail. "Wait! Throw me up there! I'll save him!" "That's a dumb idea," the scarlet man shook his head. He watched as the griffin continued its assault on the terrified man. It was only a matter of time now before Tommy died. "I can't throw you close to that height, and even if I could, you both would die from the fall." "Then think of something! We're almost out of tim—" Another loud cry blasted through the area. This one came not from the beast, but from Tommy. The griffin had torn its way through his armor and stabbed its beak right into his unprotected chest. With agony and fear prevalent in his heart, the yellow soldier desperately called for help. None could meet the cry, though, and his health bar quickly depleted into nothing. Like the first two griffins, the Tommy's body began to dissolve into ones and zeros. Then the numbers burst out and dispersed into the wind leaving no trace of the being that was just erased. A computerized voice sounded out to formally announce what had occurred, "Party member Sunblaze is dead." "No…" the woman whispered in a pained voice. Her bones shook in grief. The reality of the situation crashed down on her shoulders so hard she had to fight not to fall to her knees. "He…He can't be." The crimson soldier watched as the griffin flew away. Its meal was complete, and its allies were dead. Even if it did return, the monster was outnumbered by two angry enemies. There was little reason to stay in the area any longer. It appeared that the fight was officially over. "It looks like he is," sighing, he waved his hand out in front of him. A small menu opened out in front of him. The holographic pad glowed with the signs of his various options. He slowly began to press the buttons before him and navigate to his inventory. "Then…then we have to go after it! That griffin has to pay for what it did!" his only remaining companion shouted in outrage. "It's just a program. Not like it had a choice in what it wanted to do. We were in its territory. It attacked us. That's its main function. No point in getting revenge over that," he shook his helmeted head. "Besides, we need to keep moving. Tracking that thing down would take at least a day, and we need to get to Cornerstone by tomorrow." "Tommy…Sunblaze just died! Don't you even care?!" the woman removed her helmet. Raven colored curly hair fell from the metal as the helmet was removed. Two violet eyes glared in disdain at the man. "It wasn't an NPC or a monster…but a player! A real human being! My…my brother! And he's gone!" "I do care, but we need to be rational about this," he argued. "Revenge and anger won't keep us alive. The reason we formed a party together was to get to the capital. We're almost there. You can mourn him when we're in a safe area. It's what he would have wanted, Ruby." "What he would have wanted!? How would you know what he would have wanted!?" Ruby glared heatedly at the man. "You're just a player that we picked up yesterday!" "I…" the crimson warrior suddenly felt his lips turn dry again. Even the wind picking up again didn't help ease the burning truth that constricted his throat and heart. "I know, but still…" "Then how would you know!?" tears began to leak from Ruby's trembling eyes. "How would you know? He didn't even want to play this stupid game. I just dragged him here. I thought it would be good for him, but…" "Ruby, I'm sorry," the crimson warrior tried to place a calming hand on her shoulder. Ruby violently slapped the hand away. She peered into his hardened eyes through the slits in his helmet and shook her head. "No, you're not. I can see it in your eyes. Your eyes haven't changed since the moment I saw you. You're just empty." He had no retort for that. With tears streaming down her face, Ruby placed her helmet on her head once more. She moved to pick up the blade that had fallen from her throw. "I'm disbanding this party. You can get to the capital on your own." "And what will you do?" "You were right about the griffin. It would be stupid to blame a dumb program, but there is someone I can blame. I'm going after that coward Rootus," she hissed with a hate filled voice. "It's because of him that Tommy is dead. He deserves to be punished." "Are you going to kill him?" Ruby stared at him for a second. "Because he ran away, my brother died. I can't forgive that. So yeah, I'm probably going to kill him." "I see," the crimson warrior's voice clearly had a disproving edge to it. "What's with that tone? Are you going to try to stop me or something?" Ruby glared angrily at the man. The blood red soldier shook his head slowly, "No, that's your decision to make, not mine." "Good," with that, Ruby turned and began to chase Rootus down his trail of abandonment. The crimson warrior watched as she ran. He made no move to stop her. Instead, he looked back to his menu screen. With a few button presses, he got to his party status. "Would you like to quit the party?" the computerized voice questioned. "Yes," he sighed. With that, the remaining names of the two other players in his menu disappeared. Once again, he was alone. Staring at his menu window, the crimson warrior felt his heart tighten from within his chest. Despite looking at it every couple of hours, he still couldn't believe that so little time had passed. It seemed like the Entrapment happened months ago, but the day counter on his main menu said otherwise. The glaring thirteen made him painfully aware that it hadn't even been two full weeks since everything went wrong.