New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth stopped in front of the grinning woman and looked at her up and down.

"Nice gear," he said, off-handedly.

"Thank you, guild leader. It's the best gear money can buy."

Astaroth smirked. That was exactly what he thought.

"Did you get through the start of this game by buying your way up? Or do you have skills?" he asked, already unimpressed.

Phoenix chuckled to herself from afar.

As a pro player, she had seen her type before. Climbing up the ladder through money.

But when came time to fight talented people, they always fell short, even if their gear was better. Money would never trump skill.

The young woman looked offended at the comment, and already she was gripping her mace.

"I have skill, sir. And I can prove it."

Astaroth's smirk extended.

"Good. Prove it, right now."

The woman looked confused for a moment, waiting for him to tell her how to prove herself.

"Come on, lady. I don't have all day. Prove to me you have skills."

"But sir, you haven't told me how you want me to prove it…" she responded, her face scrunching up in anger.

"Isn't it obvious? Come at me. With all you got. Land one strike, and you are in the protection detail."

The woman grinned. She was confident that she could land at least one hit on the guild leader.

He may be strong, but her gear gave her so many active and passive skills that she was on par with top players, of that she was certain.

Deciding to grab the bull by the horns, she activated one of said skills, and lunged at Astaroth, too fast for what tank should be able to move.

"Quickstep! Hammer Fall!" she shouted, activating the armour skill, followed by a weapon skill.

Astaroth lightly twisted his body, barely moving from his spot, and watched as the hammer slammed into the stone ground of the plaza, blowing a part of it into dust.

"Strong, but too slow. Again."

The woman didn't let herself feel down. She assumed Astaroth was an agility build and decided to not play the chase game.

Instead, she activated another gear ability, this time from her shield.

"Shield Charge!"

As she shouted this, her shield glowed red hot, and she practically teleported in front of Astaroth. This skill was auto-targeted, and the target couldn't escape it.

Raising his hand, Astaroth stopped her charge by doing a partial meld with White to gain extra strength. With this, his hand turned to a white claw, and gripped the shield tightly, stopping the woman in her tracks.

"Again!" Astaroth shouted, shoving her back.

He shoved her with his one melded arm, yet the woman felt like a runaway car had hit her, skidding backward for many meters, before she finally stopped.

She was starting to feel both hopeless and filled with rage.

Why couldn't she hit him? Why did she feel like she was fighting someone twenty levels over her?

This was the first time she felt so helpless.

In a desperate attempt to prove she was worthy and skillful, she activated one last skill from her armour set.

"Atomic Boost!" she shouted, her entire set of armour suddenly shining bright red.

This skill allowed her stats to double for thirty seconds.

With the added stats, she activated skill after skill from her skill tree, hoping one of them would catch the guild leader off guard.

Strikes coming from over, from under, from left and right, rained down on Astaroth, but not a single one hit him. He bobbed and weaved between the attacks, his face reflecting his disappointment and boredom.

After ten seconds of this, Astaroth grabbed her mace while she was swinging it and chucked her away, using the momentum of the weapon and his strength against her.

The woman flew back for a dozen of meters, before landing on the ground.

"Alright, enough. You can stay here and train. I don't need a wallet warrior on my team. Get back in line." Astaroth proclaimed, turning his back to her.

The woman rose back to her feet, dashing at him again.

"I'm not done! I will land a hit!" she shouted.

Astaroth ignored her, thinking she would stand down since he had ordered her to. But sensing the attack inching closer, he reacted on instinct.

Spinning on a dime, Astaroth grabbed her by the throat, cutting the airflow to her lungs instantly, and punched her in the gut, making what little air she still had escape through her mouth, along with a bit of bile.

His eyes squinted as he looked directly at hers.

"I told you to stand down. Yet you attack me when I'm turned. If you want a proper fight, I will be happy to oblige you. But it will not be now. You are going to stay here and train. I don't need dead weight coming along with me in a possibly dangerous situation. Especially not one that doesn't obey orders. Now. Get. Back. In. Line."

As her brain started shutting down from the lack of oxygen, what the young woman saw was not Astaroth's Ash Elven face, staring at her. Instead, what she saw was a shadow covering his face, with eyes of white light, looking at her like a beast.

Astaroth dropped her to the ground, where she started gasping for air, trying to regain her senses. She wasn't sure if what she had seen was real, or a hallucination caused by asphyxia.

But what she knew was that the guild leader was not to be messed with. In that single moment, he had overpowered her like she was nothing, regardless of her doubled stats.

It was like an adult smacking around a child. There was no contest of strength.

Only domination.

She ran back in line, massaging her throat. At first, it tempted her to flee this place outright and leave the guild.

But she felt like it would be riskier to do that than simply step on her pride and soldier on. Starting from that day, rumours started inside Paragon, which eventually reached the rest of the player base.

The guild leader of Paragon was a demon in disguise.