NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

Chapter 42 - Match's Powers

"Stay back, please. I have a little sister with me." I knew I was lying, but technically, it wasn't far from the truth.

Match was my sister. I saw her that way from the time we had met. But the little girl can never replace Clementine. She can only live on the sides, beside my heart.

"I had a friend, and I treated him as my brother. Did your kind grace us with your mercy?" The warrior asked while pointing his sword in front of my face. Mer shook his face. He was fifty centimetres away from me. "No. They killed him. Just like you, my friends were powerless. But they killed them."

Without adding more to his statement, the warrior leapt from the rock. He landed in front of the five players and readied his sword. He was the group's leader, so the brawny man had to command them to kill me; an innocent bystander.

The players surrounding him also had their eyes on me. They shared the same expression as mine.

Revenge. That was when I knew these players needed to kill me for the crimes I did not commit.

I forced my body to stand and dashed to the sides. This occurrence was the first time that my muscle radiated excruciating pain. But there was no time for me to mend my wounds if I still wanted to see the light of day.

The warrior missed his attack, destroying the stone beside me from before. Mer looked at my figure, running away from him and his five people.

I knew I could not handle them. I killed La Finta and King Arthur, but it was a matter of surprising the two crowned leaders. If I were in a fair match up against those kings and queens, I would lose.

The situation in front of me rang a bell happening all over again. There was no room for me to escape my fate. The only thing left for me to do was delay the inevitable, and hope that I could slide through their defences.

I could not kill them, but these adventurers can kill me. Upon looking around, hundreds of elves met my eyes, all staring above the clouds. Some of them even turned into pixelated dust. Those long-eared creatures died in these player's hands.

They wanted to add me to their killing spree.

The mages fired their projectiles in my direction. I did not know what was coming after me, but I needed to dodge them. I vaulted across the door and went inside an abandoned house. My body crashed and burned as I hit the settee's tip.

Inside this forest, there were tree houses clustered around Nirvana. These houses had various sizes compared to the ones inside the Mainland. Since the elves treated nature as their heavenly place, they built their homes surrounded by trees.

I used that terrain as my advantage. The players and I did not know the place, but I had the lead. My system activated the map and drew the places that I must go. Legends and other landmarks appeared on my pocket-sized monitor, with red icons marking the six players approaching me. There were blue and white coloured dots on my screen, but those were not important right now.

The blast was not enough to destroy the house, given that the elves made it last long against energised impacts. However, the ceiling above quivered every time something crashed against it, leaving me to move forward.

I exited the house and travelled deeper through the woodland. I raced farther away from where the capital's stables were, but it was for the best. If these players knew the whereabouts of Match, they would kill her on the spot.

A water cannon hit my back and stopped me from my tracks. A scorching splash spread throughout my skin. The liquid was not ordinary water that came out of nowhere. The players added their magic enough hit to apply burning damage to the individuals hit by their spells.

My body flailed and tumbled to the ground, rolling to the nearby trunk. I hid behind it and prayed nobody would find me. But my prayers came biting back at me and proved me wrong.

One player on Mer's team spotted me from miles away. "They had a scout!" I gasped, and continued running away.

But by the time I created the distance, the lone fireball hit me on my right leg. The orange and yellow flames slowly devoured my skin. I tried fanning the flame out using my coat, but it was useless.

I looked above my health bar, draining into the opposite direction. The cause was the ignition that came to me. It was a matter of time before I would die from the hands of the fire burning my body.

As if the damage was not enough, the players fired an arrow in my direction. The bolt pierced through my left leg. The players did not coat their arrows with any poison, but the dart paralysed the lower half of my body.

"The game of cat and mouse stops here," Mer announced, and revealed his presence from the rummaging weeds. Beside him were his players, aimed and readied to fire their arsenal in my direction.

"Please. I just need to go back to my sister. She's waiting for me." It was no use. The players did not listen.

They charged their weapons and attempted to kill me in an instant. All of their staves, bows, and blades glowed in the night sky. I thought of them as stairs, claiming the life that I had.

"So, this is it," I murmured. "I failed to avenge Clementine. If only I did not live in this world, then maybe I would have a fun life. What if I was a player? Would I treat the NPC the same way they treat me?"

These grim and bittersweet thoughts flooded my mind. I basked my orbs in front of the illuminating light and closed my eyes. I was ready to die. There was nothing for me to lose other than this pitiful life I had right now.

"I'm sorry, Match. I think I can't fulfil that promise of staying by your side." There was a violent breeze heading in my way. My time had come and claimed this life of mine.

That event should have happened, not until the heat wave came from behind and not from my front. The players were at my fore, so the direction of the spell was inconsistent. But I dared not to open my eyes from such false hope.

Galloping sounds blared near the forest, paired with the neighs coming from the horses. There should not have been any elves, players, and even other creatures riding a carriage in this time of an hour, especially in the middle of a forest. And yet, there was a cart heading in our way.

"Get down, Red!" A familiar screech reverberated inside the jungle. The sound of that carriage and the direction of the heat also came from behind.

I thought that this might be it.

I heeded the instruction and ducked my head on the floor. If it were the usual happenings, those projectiles hunting me would kill me already. But something more appeared at my rear.

A massive twister of fire emerged above my hair, directing towards the five spells planning to kill me. The fiery red light swallowed the puny attacks, rendering them useless.

The flame continued hovering onwards and caught the players inside. Nobody would live from that flame, except for a miracle.

Their screams echoed in the forest, but fate did not let them live. Amidst their wails, pixelated dust crumbled the five adventurers. A mixture of a foul stench of a cooked corpse fluttered in the air, ruining our nostrils. The horrible smell almost made me puke. But I had more prominent things to take care of, like staying alive.

I knew there were more of them. Those players surrounded me and tried to kill me. Mer had six players with him during their pursuit. I was sure of it.

I realised the missing person. Mer did not appear from the scene.

He might have survived the blaze that ate his friends. However, I cannot support that claim of mine. All I knew was the fight was over. Or that was what I had hoped for.

The flames burning in my arms exhausted themselves. It happened so fast that I didn't even notice until there was no pain surging through my skin.

The paralysing effect of the arrow also wore off at the same time as the fire. I wiggled both my legs and attempted to stand up to see the recognizable hero that saved me.

I met Match's eyes, sitting at the carriage front, with her arms extended in my direction. My curved smile shifted almost immediately as the red scars on her hands addressed me. Gripped in his fingers was a stave that I remember. It was the staff that I inserted into my inventory.

'But how did she get it?' I thought, but that was not my concern for now.

"Tehee. You called me your sister. I'm happy, Red. You're my big sister, too…" Match said, using her last ounce of strength before falling on the ground. I was fortunate enough to catch her on time and braced her in my arms.

"What happened to your arms! Match! Match, wake up!" I cried.