I hunt the Hunfursragg, a monster in the enchanted forest of Kirkwood.
Giant trees tower over me. Beneath a canopy spotted with light, I have enough visibility of the ragged terrain. My booted legs ache from having to trudge through bracken. The shrill Helsinger Birds don't help with their constant squarks giving away my location. How on Nuplestyne, can I properly hunt the Hunfursragg?
The dark greenery wavers in the distance. I raise my blaster rifle. The Hunfursragg is near. It causes visual ripples because it is human cloaked … don't I mean monster cloaked? Am I dealing with a werebeast? A werewolf? Why would this monster be visually cloaked in a human cloaking device?
I see those visual ripples once more. No time to think, just creep slowly onward. I'm not gaining on him, but I don't need to, because this monster is seeking me out. I am both hunter and prey in this fairyfloss day in advanced game play.
Game play? Am I in one of those virtual games? Am I my avatar then? What's my name again? My game handle is … Doomcrawler Estext Warlord 754 on Level Sudden Death. Boggle me! I'm inside one of those fatal gaming holoplays where you can die inside the game.
Focus goddamit or die here! Prog in. Trance in. Blanking out. Blanking out … recentre, seek out prime loci … visual ripples in forest timber evergreens coming in fast. Raise rifle. Aim.
A giant werewolf forms out of the ripples and launches itself at me. I fire, striking it in the shoulder. It howls, undeterred and unhampered by injury. I duck and throw myself sideways. It passes, raking at the air where I had been.
Two shots ring out. What? Is someone watching my back? But neither shot takes out the Hunfursragg werewolf who has regained stable footing. How is my guardian angel firing blind?
The Hunfursragg werewolf approaches me with caution and much trembling. What's hindering it aside from a shoulder wound? Is it afraid because it realises it is fully visible to me? Why would it not be visible? Why is it morphing into a man carrying what looks like a glowing scimitar?
I know this man, but can't remember his name. I vaguely remember him using a similar cutting instrument on me long ago when I was someone called Tutenatrar in Ancient Egypt. Didn't he cut me in half?
Wait! He's starting to disappear! I'm in trouble if I wake from this trance! Fire at once! I toggle the switch on my blaster rifle to scatter-fire. FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!
One of the blasts tears a hole in him, just before his cloaking device renders him invisible as I wake up fully. I heave a sigh as the forest changes into the pillared domain of a bombed out municipal building. The floor is strewn with rubble.
Of course! I am on Nuplestyne having hunted down Alladin before he can use the Armageddon codes. I wrench off my Vamskarl helmet with relief, staring at Alladin's corpse … again. There's no way he's coming back this time with the Vamskarl isolated and neutralised by demonoids.
Fatima enters the bombed out building, cradling her rifle and passing a line of decrepit pockmarked pillars.
She embraces me, crushing her chest against mine. I am awake alright.
Source: r/EyesOnlyWriting · by /u/Philoforte