“Veronica!” yelled a voice. “Veronica!” It continued. “Wake up, Veronica!” She woke up. She looked in every direction possible- She was in her room.

  She was in her bed, a feeling she never thought she would have again. She saw her picture on the wall, of Casey’s competitions, of the future competitions she was supposed to have.

  Veronica positioned her back to rest on the bed frame. She forgot bed frames existed.

  “Could I really be back?” she thought. It was finally over. The stress on whether or not the world was a simulation, a psyop, or any other zany explanation. She could start thinking about other stuff again, maybe making friends or finding a way to actually enjoy school.

  All of these things were more important to her than they ever were before, more…

  meaningful.

  “Veronica!” This time, her name was succeeded by fits of knocking.

  “I’m awake!” she yelled.

  “Are you really?” asked the voice.

  She rolled her eyes internally, “I’m talking to you, am I not?”

  The voice laughed as it continued to knock on her door, “But are you really?”

  “Huh?” she was getting more and more confused.

  “I’ll say it one more time. Get. Up.” the voice demanded Veronica wake up.

  “Get up!” Veronica opened her eyes, she was being woken up by Cardinal while Bike stood aside them.

  “I’m awake!” she yelled as she swayed her arms randomly to gain composure.

  “Haha!” Cardinal started to laugh. “I thought Undead didn’t sleep,” he said jokingly.

  “I could have sworn we didn’t!” she said in response.

  Bike sat down before speaking, “Actually, Most Undead don’t need sleep, but vampires and zombies still have human parts intact like their brain; they require far less sleep than living beings, but still need it sometimes.”

  “Thanks for the info-dump,” Cardinal said with verbal disinterest.

  “You’re welcome!” Bike said enthusiastically.

  She got up from her tree and dusted herself off, “Okay, it’s bright out, everything ready?”

  Cardinal nodded, “Yeah, Bike packed the stuff we needed while you were asleep. I’m fairly decent with crafting potions, so I made 3 small health potions,” Cardinal ended his sentence with the throw of the potion. Veronica caught it and put it in her inventory.

  {Inventory Updated}

  She would never get the hang of those damn magic words.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  After traversing the Fae Forest for what felt like hours, they finally made it to the road again. The pink and lime of the fairy vines transitioned into the brown and green of the standard forest biomes.

  Halfway through the intersection between the normal and Fae forest, Veronica heard a large howling sound echo through the forest. It terrified the hell out of her.

  Cardinal’s ears twitched, “You guys heard that too?”

  Veronica and Bike nodded before quickly joining Cardinal in hiding behind a tree. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then the howling started again. It was a violent howl, like something was dying.

  “What do you think that is?” Veronica asked Cardinal.

  “Wolves or something? I don’t know.”

  Bike stuck his head out slowly, “Maybe an animal is sick?”

  Cardinal had a stroke of genius and remembered what they had just learned, “Didn’t you literally just become a nature guy or something closer to Druid?”

  “Yeah,” Veronica added.

  Bike got visibly annoyed and winced at the statement. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have any skills to use, I just got this class a little bit ago.”

  Before anyone could respond, rustling took the place of the howling. Within minutes of the rustle, a decently sized pack of wolves, some injured, ran past them and into the foliage of the forest on the other side.

  “I think that’s our answer!” Bike said.

  “Great, our answer is that whatever was causing those wolves to stress out is coming our way!”

  “Shh, guys!” Veronica said in a feeble attempt to get their cover to stay hidden.

  Moments passed, and then it showed itself.

  “Oh no…” Cardinal said.

  Bike trembled as he stood between them and behind the tree.

  The body was so large that it forced every branch and twig out of its way. It was an injured Wither. The wolves did some damage but not enough to win.

  “Okay, I’m a rookie Druid Path follower, but isn’t that a Wither?” Bike said.

  Veronica nodded in confirmation.

  Wither were corrupt beings of nature, sometimes invading the Fae Forest to take revenge on them for the wrongdoings of the First Fae King. The only reason Veronica remembered that lore was because she spent so much time here. She would always let other players take care of them.

  “Plan?” Veronica asked Cardinal.

  “Nope. How bout’ you?”

  “Same answer,” she said.

  “I-I think we have to fight it,” Bike said as he eyed the feet of the Wither. The mangled abomination had gotten even closer to them. Wither have the ability to talk to plants, a twisted version of the Druid’s ability to do so. Hiding from it was pointless.

  Veronica stepped out and ran. She knew Withers did nature and dark damage, with a mix of attacks from Undead bosses. Her skeletons do physical damage, making them mostly resistant to the dark damage of Withers.

  Without hesitating, she started her half-assed attempt at a plan.

  “Summon Skeletons!” Veronica yelled as 3 skeletons unearthed and ran towards the Wither. The damage spread across her view as they tore at its body, a body made of dead plant life and animals, notably wolves.

  [-10 -10 -10]

  Taking her opportunity of having an activated “Stat Sight,” Veronica looked at the Wither’s health.

  [ HP:10,000/15,000]

  “Holy Shit!” she said instantly.

  “What?” Bike yelled out with the shared concern of him and Cardinal.

  They didn’t have the ability to see stats like her, for whatever reason, so she didn’t say. “Nothing.”

  After their initial few hits, Veronica’s skeletons were easily dispatched by the swift swipe of the Wither. She turned to Bike as she continued to run, “Use a light attack!” she yelled.

  He nodded despite his fear being visible and cast a light spell.

  [-50]

  The number in yellow gave Veronica some dopamine, but It wasn’t helpful in her predicament. She knew one hit from the Wither would be the end of her.

  Cardinal joined the battle, throwing his daggers to chip at the health, all of which was useless.

  After some running, the Wither had chased Veronica nearly back into the Fae Forest they had just left.

  “Shit,” she started thinking. “We just promised we would lessen the damage done to the Fae Forest; leading a Wither into it would definitely destroy that idea.”

  She was ready to succumb, there was still no way the Nature Spirit could do anything about this, Her skills were useless against the Wither.

  “My apologies,” a voice said loudly.

  I looked up, seeing a trail of red-orange fabric coming from the air. The figure touched the ground, revealing themselves as a witch-hat wearing person with bandaged hands.

  “Fire Blast!” as the person spoke, their surrounding area illuminated with the light of burning hot flames. The flames gathered and shot out into a ball, hitting the Wither head on.

  [-1000]

  The Wither yelled in anguish before swinging again!

  “Air Blast!” Within an instant, the wizard lifted themselves over the branchy arm, giving them the room to finish off the Wither.

  “Fire Blurry” With those final words, the air heated into visible red segments, each bouncing from one to another. They came in contact with the Wither and decimated it, leaving nothing behind.

  The flames were so bright, Veronica didn’t even dare to look at the aftermath of it all.

  She opened her eyes to see the outreached hand of the wizard.

  “You okay there?” They asked.