A new horizon

Auditory Atmosphere Supplement Activated. Now Playing: Horizon: Zero Dawn: The Welcome Of Stones

As the blinding light diminished around John, he saw that his assumption had probably been correct. He was now standing in a lush green forest, encapsulated by rocky mountains. There was a river not too far off from where John stood and he could see a simple-looking bridge going over it. It looked just like in the game…

This was amazing!

Checking himself over, he saw that nothing had changed about him. He almost feared that he would be Aloy now, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. Gary and Thorn were already running to the nearby stream when John received his pop-up for the Barrier:

Type: Hostile
Level: 9
Mode: Video Game (Exploration)
Enemy Type: Machines
Scenery: Sacred Land
Difficulty: 100%
Objective: N/A
Bonus Objectives:
Defeat 3 Sawtooths:
+250 XP
+5 Materials
+50 RP with ???
Have sex with ???:
+300 XP
+1 Skill Level Fucking
+Option to bring ??? into the Nexus

Mode: Video Game
This Barrier mode is a variation of a Barrier exclusive to The Gamer. Recreate the world, or parts of the world, of a video game specified by the item or by random chance. The characters can be slightly different, depending on the powers of The Gamer and the character. Objectives will be set by the Video Game. There can also be special conditions set by Barriers.

Mode: Exploration
You can leave this Barrier at any point you want as long as you aren’t engaged in combat. You will gain a reward after you leave the Barrier depending on the things you have done in the Barrier.

So… This Barrier Information had a lot of things he had to get his head around. Firstly, could he do this with any video game then? If he had some kind of item belonging to that game, or if he’s probably high level enough, could he create a Barrier looking like any video game? This opened so many opportunities!

Second, did the system actively entice him to have sex? This was kind of weird… And who was ???? Was it as obvious as John thought and that it would be Aloy, or would it be someone else? He couldn’t really think of another character that would fit the Objective quite as well…

Third, would the Exploration mode mean that the longer he was staying in here and the more stuff he found and fought the bigger his end reward would be? That seemed kind of broken, but then again, he was kind of broken, as the frequent patches were indicative for.

While John was still thinking about these things, Thorn came running back from the stream, barking distressed. As he looked up, John could see various metallic beasts approach on Gary’s position at the water. Quickly switching to his gear, and to the Angel’s Grace mode of his armor, he sprinted towards his little spider friend.

As he approached the stream, he could immediately recognize the creatures Gary was staring down. Watchers, the weakest of the enemies in Horizon. They were bipedal machines resembling a mixture of a bird and a reptile, roughly as big as a human, even slightly bigger, and a creature that was always around in a herd, as was the case now. Three of these watchers were slowly walking towards Gary with red eyes, preparing to jump.

Now Playing: Horizon: Zero Dawn - Battle Theme 1

Once the first one tried to jump, John immediately jumped into the way of the machine, catching it of guard and drawing the attention of the others onto him. As he stabbed the jumping one, he felt a lot more resistance than he usually did.

Enemy Caught unaware! x1.5 Damage!
Total Physical Multiplier: x1.5
Physical Armor reduces Physical Damage by 20%
29 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)

Ah great, now these things had armor! But, that only seemed to matter against physical damage, so John immediately summoned a Mana Spike, which materialized as a small disk in his hand which he dropped onto the ground. The moment the trap left his hand, he summoned a Mana Dagger and threw it into the eye of one of the ones a few steps back. He hit his mark, making the Watcher screech in simulated pain.

47 DMG

With the impaled Watcher still on his spear, he heaved that one into the ground where his Mana Spike just dropped.

Physical Armor reduces Physical Damage by 20%
36 DMG (Impact) + 31 DMG (Mana Spike)

Removing the spear, he finally had enough time to Observe one of the Watchers:

Okay, those were all in all pretty manageable, they were even weaker than the Elemental Wolves! Impaling the Watcher he just smashed into the ground with a Mana Charged strike, he made quick business of that one by stabbing it through the eye.

Vital Area! 2x Damage!
Physical Damage Multiplier: x2
51 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire) + 26 DMG (Mana Charge)

Seeing as how the machine was still writhing, he stabbed it once again without the mana, dealing the killing blow. Gary had meanwhile blinded the last watcher with a shot of web to the eye. Taking the opportunity, John Charged the thing and then hammered it into the ground the same way he did with the first one.

Charge applied! x1.75 Damage!
Enemy Blinded! X1.25 Damage!
Physical Damage Multiplier: x2.2 Damage
Physical Armor reduces Physical Damage by 20%
53 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire) + 40 DMG (Impact)+ 33 DMG (Mana Charge)

On the ground, he finished it with a Flurry Strike, striking it 3 times.

Enemy Blinded! X1.25 Damage!
Physical Damage Multiplier: x1.25
Physical Armor reduces Physical Damage by 20%
32 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
36 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
36 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)

Okay, two out of three dealt with!

Just as he was about to embed another Mana Dagger in the last Watcher, an arrow pierced the machine’s eye from somewhere behind John. He immediately turned around to look at who took his kill, though he was pretty sure that he knew who that would be.

Out of the green climbed a ginger haired woman with an athletic body, clad in tribal looking clothes with bits of metal sewn into it here and there. An arrow was still in her bow, and it was aimed at Gary.

Yup, it’s Aloy. He was pretty much face to face with the ginger girl that he had been fantasizing about for the last couple of months...

“Stay away from that one! I have never seen one like this one,” she said intently looking at the little mecha spider.

Gary didn’t like that look at all, so he skittered behind John. Aloy, however, interpreted the move as an attack on John. She immediately released the arrow in her bow, targeting just a few steps in front of Gary.

John could see the arrow fly, he could see that it would hit Gary. He wouldn’t sacrifice the little guy again. With his inhuman speed thanks to Propulsion Flash Step, he was able to pick up Gary and pull him out of the way of the arrow. He didn’t calculate, however, that he himself would now be in the way of the arrow, with too little space to dodge it. The arrow embedded itself in his shoulder, sticking nicely out on both sides, showing how much power that shot had.

-131HP (Defense and DR deducted)
Bleeding 5

Well, that was a way to introduce yourself to a girl…