Ambush in the courtyard

Unfortunately for the Gamer, figuring out what happened wasn’t his most pressing concern. A whistling sound alerted him to a bronze streak headed for him from his left. Hurriedly he swiped at the attack with an upwards slash. Metal on metal caused a grinding sound, the **** from the attack almost made him lose his grip on his weapon. He successfully deflected the weapon; however, a searing pain surged in his back. The second chakram had slashed at his back from a weird angle while he deflected the first attack.

The masked assailant wasn’t done with her ****; her dress fluttered as the **** from her kick hit him square in the chin. This attack knocked John backwards onto the ground. Years of beatings at the hands of his bullies had given the Gamer a conditioned response to being knocked on the ground. One of the most important things he knew was that being on his back allowed him to be kicked and stomped on with ease. He instantly rolled away from his assailant into a crouched position. If he hadn’t done this, the follow-up from his foe would have lodged her boot’s metallic tip in his chest

John tried to use Observe to discern if this was another test or an actual attack, but the skill failed.

He didn’t have time to process this, his assailant’s black boot was coming at him with an upwards kick. John was able to pivot to the right to avoid her. His knees sprung him out of a crouch into a backwards jump to give him some distance from the woman. Her empty hand reminded him to look for her weapons. He was surprised to see the chakram bouncing off a wall heading straight for him. He summoned four Mana Bolts and launched the blue energy at the oncoming blade to his left. He wanted to see what happened when his magic met the weapon, but he had to find the other projectile as well as try and keep an eye on their wielder. Taking a gamble, the Gamer decided to check his flank as that was where he was hit during their first exchange. This panned out in his favor: when he’d turned around, he had just enough time to cross his two knives and block the attack.

John had handled that **** pretty well, but when he blocked the attack to his flank, he had in turn taken his eyes off his assailant. A powerful blow knocked him into a nearby wall. A chuckle escaped her that went into another, that quickly turned into full blown laughter that seemed to echo in the ruined courtyard.

For whatever reason she simply stood there laughing as he got himself back on his feet. John was just thankful for the respite, no matter how brief it might be. With a quarter of his health remaining, his HP sat at twenty four. He decided to use this time to try and figure out a way to combat his insane assailant.

Her choice of weapon piqued his interest. Chakrams appeared occasionally in games, but he had always been confused how they were used in actual combat whenever he saw them. Contrary to what was shown in said games, they were used either in close range combat or a thrown weapon that would stab into its target. When he did his research on the weapon, he had seen a media portrayal of the weapon used to bounce off multiple surfaces like a certain popular shield. His crazed attacker was actually using them in the same fashion. This feat was a huge nuisance; the woman was a threat by herself, having to worry about projectiles that could come from odd angles at high speeds put a lot of stress on him, with his minimal combat experience. The four Mana Bolts had successfully deflected the oncoming attack during her previous rush, so that was something positive to consider.

Sadly he ran out of time to form a proper plan. The woman started swaying from side to side before dashing toward him, her chakrams spinning in her hands like frisbees. His only solution was to keep his back close to the wall to narrow her attack options. This lowered his mobility, but the masked assailant was clearly faster than him. Poised for her attack, John used Steel Skin to receive her incoming ****. Chakrams in hand, she slashed at him from his right; he used the knife in his left hand to try blocking the blow. Regrettably the knife was one of the shoddy ones he retrieved from the goblins with poor durability, so he only weakened the impact and was now down a weapon. A retaliation attempt with the Wabbit Knife was easily dodged with a quick backstep.

The woman threw a chakram while mid jump. It bounced off the ground and headed straight for his open chest. The blade did the same after hitting him as it was going upwards, but she was prepared for this as the second chakram was in the air above him to ricochet it back down into him. From that point on she launched a high speed flurry of blows on him that he was unable to react to. If not for Steel Skin bolstering his defense, he’d have already died. With three HP left, the woman stopped her ****.

A punch was coming right at him; he closed his eyes to accept his fate. Instead of the blow that would end his life, he felt a pat on the shoulder. “You held up alright for a newbie.” It sounded a bit condescending, but he was just glad that he recognized the voice of the enforcer he met earlier. Sonia removed the mask to reveal her grinning face.

His surroundings had also started morphing from the ruined courtyard to a blank metallic room about the size of a basketball court, if he had to guess. Cyril and Jasmine were standing not too far from them, accompanied by another woman. With pink shoulder length dreadlocks, her creamy white skin was a nice contrast next to the ebony woman. She had amber eyes with what looked to be crosshairs for pupils. She wore a green jumpsuit, but the part that was supposed to cover her upper body was hanging down with the shirt sleeves wrapped around her waist. The only thing keeping her chest covered was a black sports bra. It was hard for John to get a good idea of her full figure because of how her jumpsuit was situated, but what could be seen was pleasant to the eyes. A short woman with a mature body that didn’t mind showing off her full breasts.

“Another test I assume.” John’s sigh was audible. He was getting a bit tired of their tests.

“More like an assessment. Only I had seen you fight before. The plan was a quick demonstration against me, but when Sonia heard about this, she wanted to have a serious spar with you. We came to an agreement that everyone can enjoy.” Jasmine smirked and gave a wink in their direction. “And you get to be her punching bag.”

The redhead seemed a bit uncomfortable because of her sister’s words. John had a guess as to why, but pushed that thought away. He was about to ask how they knew when to stop, but now that he had the chance to think, the answer was obvious. “The party was how you knew how far you could push me, right? If not, it would have been hard to have a spar with me without worrying about killing me due to the rules of Gamer’s Body.”

“Yep, we were both able to keep track of that. I was ready to step in at any moment, in case Sonia lost herself in the moment,” Jasmine confirmed his assumption.

“It’s good to know in advance that we’d need to worry about friendly fire,” he said, taking a seat against the wall to calm his fatigue. “Some questions for you. How’d I do? And who’s that woman? Another sister?” the Gamer asked nodding in the direction of the audience to his spar.

“I am Reimi Hanako. I am as you guessed an adoptive daughter of Cyril Lewis.” Looking at the woman, haughty was not what he expected from her appearance, but that was the vibe she gave as she proudly introduced herself. “I’m here for two reasons. First I’m the best at manipulating the device that controls this room. Second, I was- Pft-” She covered her mouth stifling a laugh that turned into a low chuckle, only stopping after a nudge from the elder.

The woman’s eyes seemed to sparkle as she rushed toward where John was seated. “As a fellow gamer and a curious mind, you gotta tell me why Gaia gave you the title Gamer. Watching your fight, I only saw a fledgling mage with barely any combat skill. I’m a technomancer, a non-combatant so to speak, and I’m pretty sure I would be able to thrash you with my minimal options.” Her words were like daggers stabbing at his pride. He had tried his best fighting against an obviously superior opponent.

With another sigh John sent a party invite to his new acquaintance. “It would be easier to show you. Since you’re a gamer yourself, you’ll understand once you join my party.” The woman’s close proximity gave him a better view of her face. It was round with a youthful look to it, she had curved pink eyebrows and average lips. ‘Another cutie. Is every woman in the Abyss beautiful or did Cyril pick his daughters based on how good they’d look when they got older?’ he mused to himself as all three women he met so far were beauties that gave him plenty of inspiration for a new kink story.

She gleefully accepted the party invite. With her being a member of his party, she was able to see the character sheet that he opened to explain. John was surprised to see that of the members in his party she was the highest level at fifty two. “So you’re called the Gamer because you are essentially a video game character. Your system seems to be closely related to that of a simple RPG. This interface is purely magical. I can’t access it.” Her amber eyes seemed to twinkle as she scanned the window he had pulled up. “You need to explain everything to me. How do you get experience? What does leveling up feel like? What about these skills of yours? You have a skill for masturbating, how does that even work? How do you get more skills? How do your stats work?” She excitedly was pressed up against him, squishing him with her breasts. He squeezed himself out of her embrace when he saw his HP tick down to two.

“Calm down, calm down. You might kill me if you keep this up,” he choked out nervously. “Can someone give me a health potion so that I don’t need to worry about dying to a paper cut?”

“Oopsie.” The pink haired beauty sounded like a child saying that.

Sonia handed him a clear bottle with red fluid in it. “Here, drink up.”

The Gamer accepted the bottle and prepared himself for the flavor then drank the contents in one quick gulp. His health maxed out in a blink. ‘Why does something so useful have to taste so bad?’ he complained to himself. “We were going to do some testing to understand the extent of my powers, at least that was what I was told. Should I expect any more surprises?” His gaze was directed at the ebony journalist.

With a grin he knew all too well, she responded,