章節 30: Better the devil you gnoll than the devil you don't.

What? A gnoll that can speak common? Her comment told me that the AI had been watching me, and was very advanced. I was still nervous about being close to the gnoll camp, so I engaged her in dialogue.

"Yeah, I've been killing them to get a chance to fight you. I have heard of your strength and wished for a challenge."

"Your wish has been granted!", she yelled as she prepared to attack.

I held my hand up, " WAIT!"

She paused and I continued, "We should move away from your henchmen , or must the MALES fight for you? "

She growled a deep gutteral sound, "No one fights for me! This is my forest, you will never escape if you try and run. We will move and continue our fight."

I nodded my respect and quickly retreated into the forest, stopping after a few hundred feet. The gnoll interceptor casually kept pace, but stayed at a respectful distance.

I took this moment to analyze the behaviour of this elite monster. It was able to make its own decisions based upon its own feelings, even though such a thing could lead to her own disaster. Such blantant disregard for the core programming of the character and its role in this world made me realize something. I remembered Naxila trying to mind control me, and how it felt. Were it not for my own mental preparation training she would have succeeded, so a low level gnoll never stood a chance. For now it was just a guess, but it felt as if this monster was being controlled by a player. Why would a gnoll elite accept a challenge from a human child?

I would have to be on my toes, if what I'm thinking is true I could be fighting against one of the top professional players of the century. Geez, all I did is make one comment about her boobs. Women and grudges. Maybe I wasn't correct. Surely I was just imagining things.

"Alright this is far enough! " the interceptor growled.

I turned and faced her, holding my weapon in front of me in challenge.

I rushed her and she casually stood there making no move to defend herself as I used power strike and thrust my sword through her chest.

Hit!

You have dealt 100 damage! (399/499 hp)

She grimaced at the pain but smiled as I removed the blade in confusion.

Her wound immeadiatly healed and her hits points were restored to maximum!

It was Naxila, and she was cheating!

What a bunch of bullshit! I was so mad at the woman I almost missed her attack. Her magical blade shimmered as she attacked.

A sub-skill! Monsters aren't supposed to have sub-skills until after level 10! Freaking cheater!

Her blade moved incredibly fast as she used rapid strikes to thrust at me three times. I dove backward, tucking my small body into a ball as I rolled away.

Miss!

Thankfully, Naxila was a mage type professional. Her combat reflexes were amazing but her blade skills could use some work. Her attacks lacked the finesse of a professional warrior who typically make it hard to read their movements by controlling every part of the body. This made her attack fairly obvious and allowed me to dodge.

I backed away from her, trying to get some distance.

Why would she abuse her Avatar powers like this? What good is it messing with me? Why would the AI in charge of blank, Skye, let it happen? Then it hit me. Maybe Skye doesn't like the avatars either. This is her world, created to be meticulously balanced in every way possible. The only thing messing it up is them and technically....me. I think I understood. She wanted me to do something.

I knew what I had to do.

With an evil grin I looked the gnoll interceptor in the eyes as I accessed my inventory. I un-equipped my steel longsword and equipped my wooden training sword as I thought to myself, " You told me not to use it in another player. Technically, right now you are a monster. ".

For the first time the gnoll interceptor showed fear, " What are you gonna do with that?!"

This confirmed I was correct, it was Naxila! She had seen me fight on multiple occasions, and knew she wasn't my match. Certainly, with cheats she would eventually kill me, but with this weapon I could torture her until she backed out from the pain. I remembered her grimace when I stabbed her, which meant she could feel pain.

I smiled, " Oh, you know what I'm going to do you big breasted bimbo! "

The gnoll smiled and put her hands up in front of her in defeat, "You win this round, but next time you won't be so lucky. "

A purple mist exited the gnoll interceptor and floated into the sky, dissapearing from view. The gnoll seemed to regain control of its senses and looked around confused.

Finally, a fair fight.