New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The hole in the mountains glowed red hot on its edges, with signs of extreme friction and power passing through it. And the enemy that had stood in its wake?

Nothing remained of it.

The brown dragon stepped aside, getting away from the Dwarf under his body, before collapsing to the ground. That was when Meat-Shield noticed the blood puddle all around him.

The underside of the dragon may still have been in perfect condition. But the back and flanks of the beast were far from.

Deep and thick lacerations covered the beast from the middle of its neck, all the way to the base of its tail. Its injuries were severe.

As its body hit the ground, causing a dust cloud to poof out from under it, it sighed heavily.

'Thank you, stone-dweller. The time you bought me was enough for me to get rid of it. But I am tired now. Unless you require anything from me, I will bid you farewell, and send you on your way out.'

Meat-Shield panicked.

"Wait! Are you certain this thing is gone? What if it comes back?"

The brown dragon huffed out a weak laugh, rumbling the ground under it as its body shook up and down.

'If it took that attack and survived, it would have long since had the better of me. Worry not, stone-dweller.'

Meat-Shield's shoulders dropped in relief. He also felt the hurt crawl up his body as the adrenaline in his system flushed out.

Falling to his ass, he laughed out loud, thinking about what had transpired. As he relaxed, the dragon looked at the tiny humanoid next to it and decided it deserved a reward for saving its hide.

With a single thought, a stone goblet appeared in front of the Dwarf. And with another thought, a small stream of crimson-red liquid filled it to the brim.

'Here. For saving me, your reward. Drink, and leave.'

Meat-Shield noticed the cup haven been too busy laughing his anxiety out and didn't even ask what was in it.

"Ooh! I'm parched. This couldn't be better!"

He grabbed the cup, whose stone exterior was rough to the touch, and gulped down the content without thinking. As the hot, viscous liquid slid down his throat, a salty, metallic taste permeated his mouth.

He almost spat out the liquid, his stomach immediately turning, but still swallowed, reflexively.

"Urgh… What was that? It tasted awful…" he grunted.

The dragon huffed a chuckle again.

'My essence. Blood of a dragon. A reward of great value. I will not tell you what its properties are. You will find out in due time. Now, leave.'

Before Meat-Shield could even process what he'd just been told, his body jerked back, and sent tumbling out of the soul space, floating into a white open area, with no gravity. He tumbled for a while until he could stabilize himself.

But then, the shock of having just drunk blood hit him. His mind reeled, and his stomach churned.

He started gagging uncontrollably, but try as he may, nothing came out. It was like trying to puke, after having already puked a dozen times.

The gagging went on, unabated, for a dozen minutes, until something else washed over Meat-Shield.

Pain.

Incredible pain.

Meat-Shield went from a bent position, gagging his life away to a stretched-out position, screaming out in pain.

"Aarrgghh!!"

This went on for five minutes, nonstop, with his body contorting and snapping in weird positions. His skin felt like it was on fire, and his insides gave him the impression they had turned into a molten slag, boiling the interior of his body.

His head pounded like a drum as the blood pumping in his veins caught on fire and pumped faster. The pain was excruciating.

But once it ended, and Meat-Shield could breathe in normally, he could feel the difference in his body. Something had changed.

He felt… lighter?

His full-plated armour didn't feel as heavy, but that wasn't it. He felt as if someone, or something, had lifted a weight from his mind, as well as his body.

He tried accessing his status screen, but it didn't appear.

'Maybe I can't access it until I'm back out in the dungeon?'

As he thought that, his body suddenly jerked backwards, now falling, and he felt pulled out from the white, weightless space.

His eyes popped open, back in the tree's open ceiling room. And a violent shrieking assaulted his ears.

Shaking his head to get all his ideas back in place, his mind still slightly in shock from the sickness and pain, he looked around himself.

That's when he saw the portal, iced up, and the five players in front of it, with horrified looks. He couldn't see the big guy anywhere and assumed the worst.

But when the shirking stopped, the ground rumbled, as wave after wave of corrupted elves lunged at the five players.

The gnome lunged forward, trying to give a semblance of a front line to the four casters. But he wouldn't last long, judging by the look of exhaustion on his face.

So Meat-Shield did what he did best.

"Alright! Round two, you long-eared maggots!"

Screaming this, he dashed forward, banging his hammer onto his shield, as the taunt spread out like a wave. The enemies reaching the casters abruptly turned to face him, as he passed the latter, and they collided in a mess of arms and weapons.

Meat-Shield rapidly distanced himself from the four casters, trying to give them a safety net, in case he dropped some aggro. But something felt different.

As he fought, he kept getting these strange feelings in his head, like pings of vibration, alerting him to danger. Every time his head received one, soon after an attack came from the location the feeling came from.

The sensation was like someone, or something, lightly tapping his brain in the direction an enemy came from. But it was unerring.

For now, it only came from the directions he wasn't looking, but as time went on, it started expanding in scope and getting more precise. And in mere minutes, he was seeing his surroundings in three dimensions inside his mind, like a hologram of the surrounding situation.

With every step a creature took, the vision changed, showing their new location and position.

Meat-Shield felt like he could close his eyes and still fight without issue. He wasn't keen on trying it, though, but he had a feeling it would work.

'Did I get a new skill? A passive, maybe?' he wondered.

He was so curious, but there was no time to look.

'I guess I'll find out once this mess is over.'