Blood Queen Reborn

Erin was engaged with Nate in intense combat, parrying his attacks with her rapier as he applied pressure. She flashstepped to avoid another attack, but as she did, caught a glimpse of Layla fumbling with her bow. She was firing shots that didn’t come close to Nate. They flew comically into the makeshift stands, and she felt embarrassed.

"Sorry!" Layla yelled. "Hands were sweaty," she lied.

In Erin’s mind, it was strange, she knew Layla was a pretty good shot with the bow, and if she was trying to hit Nate, then her aim was way off target.

Sam’s eyes widened as he noticed how inaccurate Layla’s shots were, knowing how powerful each one that landed on him was. He realized that Erin was slightly distracted, so he yelled to Nate.

"Stop flirting with who you’re fighting against and let’s win this thing!"

Nate smirked, ready to land another blow on Erin, as he successfully landed two earlier. He used his arms to form a claymore, turning and exchanging swordplay with Erin.

"For someone so beautiful, your sword skills are impressive," he teased while exchanging strike after strike with Erin. The metal from Nate’s hands and Erin’s rapier sparked with each strike, and the ferocity increased rapidly.

Layla tried to change her positioning, but Sam kept her under pressure with constant wind slashes, and every time she went to aim her bow it felt heavy.

’Crap, that animal meat is making me nauseous, but I can’t just quit now,’ Layla thought, ’I don’t want to fail her again, we need to win this fight.’

She shot several copy arrows at Sam and he easily dodged them, not that they were close. Layla kept getting the urge to vomit and she felt like she was going to regurgitate the meat at any moment.

Erin flash stepped several times to try to distract Sam for Layla. It worked as Sam’s attention broke for a second, and Layla was finally able to awkwardly run about 15 feet to her left.

’What is going on with her?’ Erin thought as she side stepped an overhead slice, ’I know it’s cheating, but right now, Layla is what is important, not some stupid virtual reality match.’

[Blood swipe]

Using her blood skills was something she didn’t want to do in the match as it didn’t deplete her health like it would in the real world. It was exploity, but someone needed her help.

Erin went on the aggressive and sent several blood swipes at Sam. Most of them missed as he used his wind to form a wall, but one managed to land.

Nate used the opportunity to form his hands into a zweihander again, and used his arms to use the devastating blade to try to slash Erin’s legs. She jumped over the swing at the last minute, and held her hand out mid air.

[Blood spray]

The blood spray shot nearly point blank into Nate, who yelled in pain. His health was dropping quickly, and Erin knew this was her opening. She threw out a few blood swipes to keep him distracted.

Nate was on the defensive, clearly hurt. He was trying to use any metallic shield he could form but Erin consistently pressured him. Sam focused his attention on his partner, aiming wind slashes at Erin. She made a small effort to avoid a few of them, but most of them had cut into her body. Despite this, she didn’t mind. She just bit her lip and continued the offensive assault on the metallic man.

[- 12 HP]

[HP 46/80]

Meanwhile, Layla knew the focus was no longer on her and that she could make an impact to end the fight so she could finally get out of the damn capsule.

’I have to do something! I don’t care that I’m about to—’ Layla swallowed the bile that was in her throat, nearly gagging.

’That’s disgusting. I need to land a shot. Just one shot.’

Layla used every ounce of her strength to aim the beast arrow from her golden king tier bow and just as Sam’s eyes completely were away from her, she fired the actual arrow, landing in Sam’s right thigh.

He was officially out of the fight, with the arrow having taken half of his max health.

’Yes!’ Layla cheered mentally.

Now that she knew Layla defeated Sam, Erin sighed in relief, and unleashed a barrage of blood skills on Nate.

It completely overwhelmed him, bloodspray after bloodswipe after blood skills, breaking apart his silver armor. Once she was done, Erin exhaled deeply, tired after everything.

The game declared Erin the winner, and the spectators booed.

They didn’t think that it was a fair fight, nor was it an interesting one as Erin just bum rushed her opponent at the end. Either way, they were all teleported out of the gladiator fight, and back in the lobby.

"Okay, okay, you win!" Nate admitted in defeat.

[Congratulations you have defeated Nate Snell]

[You have gained 400 experience]

[You have leveled up to level 14]

[You have received +2 stat points]

Erin disregarded the rest of the system’s messages as her only concern was for Layla. She rushed over to where she last saw her, only to realize she left the game.

’Huh? Why would she leave like that?’

"You know if this was in the real world and we could use our soul weapons, we definitely would have beat you," Nate said arrogantly, albeit kindly.

Erin was ready to jump out of the game and rush to Layla, but Nate and Sam wanted to talk for a bit.

"That was a seriously impressive attack you used. I don’t think I’ve seen you use that one before," Sam mentioned to Erin, who seemed to not be paying either of them much attention.

"It hurt like hell! What is up with those weird red skills anyway? I’ve seen you use them before and know they’re powerful, but that new one was on a completely different level. It did some crazy damage to my health."

"Just something I picked up while training," Erin said casually, still wondering why Layla left the game.

"Well, thanks for the match. Any time some beautiful ladies want to meet up in the game, even if it’s for a fight, especially your devilishly sexy fri–"

"Stop flirting with her," Erin said sternly.

Sam laughed, "Rejected again bro, when are you ever going to learn that picking up girls in a virtual reality fighting game isn’t the greatest idea?"

"At least she looks out for her friend! You could help a brother out and you know, wingman or something," Nate pleaded.

Erin rolled her eyes, ’These two, I swear.’

Despite their eccentricities, she actually didn’t mind them. They were undoubtedly skillful, and deserved respect.

"Whenever you want to lose, just invite me to a match if I’m online. Bye," Erin said while quickly exiting the game.

In the VR pod, she quickly rushed out and noticed Layla wasn’t around, nor in her pod.

’Where the hell is she?’

—

Layla slammed her hands onto her mouth, desperate to keep it shut. She was feeling bad she left the game early but she didn’t have a choice.

She quickly dashed out of the gaming room, looking for anywhere secluded and noticed there was a dark hallway around the corner.

She knocked over a mop bucket on the way, spilling water across the ground but didn’t care.

She rushed to the end of the hallway, hunched over and began vomiting uncontrollably into a trash bin.

’I hate puking,’ She thought, whining a little, ’This sucks.’

When she thought she was finally done, she kneeled on the ground, the world seemingly spinning around her. She felt like her stomach was going to fight her back, and wished it would stop making all of those gross sounds.

"Not again," she muttered, as she threw up profusely for a second time with pounds of flesh and blood flying into the trash bin.

She took a step back, and stared at the mess in front of her.

’Someone’s going to think there’s a dead animal in here or something. I think I need to get rid of this bag.’

"Well, well. If it isn’t the broke bitch who somehow walked away with a king tier bow. I think I’d like that bow back, I could resell it for a little bit more."

She turned around and saw the same kid with the perfectly smooth hair, the same one who insinuated she couldn’t afford a king tier bow.

’Not this idiot again,’ Layla thought.

"I bought this bow with my own damn money and if you don’t mind, I really don’t feel good right now," She sternly spoke, her head still spinning.

She didn’t really care that Erin had used the influence skill to trick the level 6 user into thinking he sold it. Layla was more than willing to try to pay for it, but he was being an ass first.

The boy slowly started walking toward Layla. Half drawing her bow, she aimed it at the boy.

"I’ll shoot you with my own damn bow if you don’t back off!" Layla threatened.

The boy scoffed, "Ha, like you could actually pull that off. I’m just here to collect what is rightfully mine. I don’t care if you and your little friend paid for it or not."

Layla couldn’t help herself and licked her lips. Ever since she puked all of that meat, she no longer had anything in her stomach to keep her full.

’Someone like this asshole doesn’t deserve to live. No one would miss him if he were to disappear.’