A man appeared in front of me (at least I think he was a man, I couldn't tell because of weird mask). He? She? grunted a bunch of times and handed me a series of cards before disappearing.
"Wait, where the hell am I?" I again tried to yell but of course I just grunted again.
"Beat the game," said a voice. "Beat the game and you may leave."
Well, that's not helpful, I thought to myself. I decided to flip through the cards, looking for any information about what the hell was going on here. "Learning about weapons and Hunting Styles." "Advice section of the menu." "Hunt the Great Maccao."
Wait, the Great Maccao? Was this Monster Hunter? I looked around the stone room to see boxes of supplies and racks of weapons. This was Monster Hunter! I drew the long sword from my back and examined it as well as my armor. Weird. I didn't remember crafting any of these. Oh well, that wasn't important. If all I needed to do was defeat this monster to get home then so be it. After all, the Great Maccao was one of the weaker monsters. Plus, since this seemed to be a training mission, it would be even weaker.
Surprisingly, as heavy as the armor appeared, I was still able to move normally. I guess I was in the body of a Hunter as well. After emptying the supply box, I headed into the arena to get this over with.
The arena was huge. Just the scale of it was intimidating. You don't appreciate it when you're just playing the game, but when you're actually inside the thing, well, that's a whole different story. I don't think I'd seen anything in real life that big except for the one time my dad took me to see the Cowboys play. The entire field was covered with dirt, several tiers leading down into the main pit area. Right in the middle of the stadium was my opponent, the Great Maccao. It wandered on its two legs, covered in green and yellow feathers with a red mane. Then it spotted me.
Well, let's get this over with. I ran into the main area and, at the last second, drew the sword off my back. I landed my first slash and felt something grow inside me, an overwhelming feeling of warmth, the spirit of battle. A second slash made it grow even more. I smiled. This must be the spirit gauge associated with the long sword. I slashed once more, but this time it was ready and dodged out of the way.
It swiped me with one of its claws and I fell backward. The armor stopped it from cutting me in half, but I still took the force of the blow. Now, balancing on its tail, the Great Maccao kicked its powerful legs. I managed to roll out of the way of that attack as well as its lunge. Propelling itself with its tail, the creature launched itself 30ft passed me. Maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.
We traded blows like this for a while, each of us attacking and dodging, neither of us with a clear advantage. With another slash, though, I felt like I was going to burst with power. I sprinted away to get some distance. With all this power, I needed to be sure I was going to connect with every hit of this combo.
Finally, at the center of the arena, I pulled the Shock Trap from my supply pack and set it up. I could hear feet pounding behind me just as I finished. The Great Maccao lunged passed me as I rolled out of the way. It landed right as the Shock Trap activated, sending electricity surging throughout its body, paralyzing it. Now was my chance. I drew my sword and, using the energy surging through me, I began a series of spirit slashes. Each slash hit harder and stronger, finishing it with one final slash. Connecting with the final hit caused the blade to glow white.
The Great Maccao broke free from the trap and kicked me in the chest, sending me sliding through the dirt 10ft away. I struggled to my feet, the creature running toward me. It looked like we were both on our last legs now. As it got closer, I noticed a button floating to my right. A Hunting Art? Ahh, this must be Monster Hunter Generations. I pulled my now glowing white sword and hit the button. As if a mysterious hand guided me, I jumped backward, giving myself just enough room to avoid the monster's charge. Quickly, I followed up with 2 quick slashes, the white blade stronger than before, hitting harder and cutting deeper. And with that, the Great Maccao fell.
"Quest Complete" flashed in front of my face.
Time to go home.
I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was back in the arena waiting area. "What the hell!" I grunted.
"Beat the game and you may leave," the voice said.
"But this is the demo! The real game doesn't even come out until the end of the week!" More grunting.
"Oh well."
So, back to writing. This one was based on the writing prompt from Reddit "Upon waking up , you realize you've been transported into the world of the last video game you played. A voice inside your head tells you to beat the game in order to escape. Unfortunately, the last one you played was..." The action scenes feel a little weak (which isn't good since it's half the piece), but it has been awhile since I've practiced. Plus I don't think a lot of stories go into that much detail with their fight scenes. It's really kind of hard to write an entertaining fight scene, you can't do as much as you could do with film, probably because of the visual aspect. Also, Monster Hunter-Generations just came out today so I'm pretty excited about that. I just need to keep from tweaking on it so I can keep up with my reading as well as all this writing. Also, in case you were wondering, I finished this piece earlier in the week but I waited to post it because I also wanted to show off this
I know I literally just said 2 sentences ago that I was going to try to regulate my playing, but just in case I break that promise, so long life
No comments:
Post a Comment