Spiteful Healer

Chapter 27: The Filter

“You’re acting tough, but let’s see how tough you really are. I’ve got something you might like, Winter! Icelance!” Keldan’s last word was the casting of a spell. A giant icicle in the shape of a lance formed above his left hand as he raised it up, and with a swift swinging motion of his hand the lance shot forward at Winter. Winter held up his shield and timed the impact perfectly, but the blow was powerful.

You take 353 Ice Damage.

He nearly died in a single hit, with 9 health remaining, even after using Brace properly. His feet skidded backwards in the dirt from the impact. The lance broke apart upon impact into tiny sharp shards of ice that scattered over his skin, it felt as if being stabbed by hundreds of freezing cold needles. His body shivered and felt numb for a moment before the pain faded, and he quickly casted minor heal three times to get himself back to full.

“Holy shit… he survived that?” Rocknight said in disbelief as they all looked upon Winter with expressions of shock.

“Hah! I told you guys. He’s hiding something. Have any of you ever seen a level 6 player survive a nearly 800 damage Icelance from a level 35 player?” Keldan exclaimed. The chat was speeding through messages of people confused about what had happened, some begging to know Winter’s secrets. The viewers were slowly creeping up to 2000.

“Yo Winter, seriously, are you cheating?” Swiftstar asked.

“I bet his dad gave him an item or something.” Vriflow commented. Winter didn’t reply at first, making use of their awe to look over his skills and stats, confirming his damage reduction. With a combination of his armor, shield mastery, and Brace, he was reducing the attack by just over 50%, and thought about it for a moment.

“Isn’t it just that you’re really weak?” Winter asked in earnest. He realized after he had said it how rude it was, Keldan’s face disfigured while the others went silent, avoiding eye contact with him. “I-I mean, what level is your Icelance skill?”

“It’s level 5, why, got a problem? What level are your skills?” Keldan shouted back embarrassed, he skimmed through his fast moving livestream chat to see the audience mocking him. Winter didn’t answer, he pieced together that Keldan must not have focused on leveling a single skill like Winter had, but multiple, so all of his damage was coming from his stats - the skills themselves were weak. It gave him a bit more confidence that he could get out of the situation somehow.

“What about your Fireball you just used?” Winter asked with a raised brow.

“It’s… look it doesn’t matter okay? I’m trying to become an elementalist as my intermediate, it requires a lot of different spells to be leveled up, alright? It’s not so easy!” Keldan shouted back at him flustered. “It still doesn’t explain why I didn’t one shot you! What level is your Shield Mastery?”

“We’re fighting right now, why would I tell you my skill levels?” Winter replied coldly and heard Vriflow hold back laughter. Keldan heard it too, further aggravating him. He looked at the livestream chat once more to see the messages.

“Is this guy new? Why’s he admitting his skills are so low to his opponent?”

“Aren’t those skills too low?”

“You should focus on one skill first, everyone knows that”

“I feel bad for Winter, this bottomfeeder won’t leave him alone”

“Even my pet hamster would survive those attacks”

“He died to a boar but you can’t even kill him, embarrassing”

Keldan closed the chat and glared at Winter. “Swiftstar, you still got that Wand of Identifying we bought a while back, right?” Keldan latched on to the hope that if he could prove Winter was hiding something, a secret item or skill, it would restore his image.

“Y-yeah, it’s almost out of uses though, and it was expensive.” Swiftstar hesitantly took it out of his inventory. Winter focused in on the wand - he at least knew how it worked. He knew he couldn’t let it hit him no matter what. Swiftstar tossed the wand over to Keldan who waved it at Winter. “Let’s see the truth behind why you are taking these hits.” Keldan smirked. Winter watched the blue beam shoot out from the wand and dashed to the side, it crashed into a tree behind him, displaying the item card for a Pine tree.

“Tch, knew it. He’s got something to hide. Hold him still.” Keldan motioned to the others.

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“Pinning Shot!” Swiftstar shouted, bow drawn. A green arrow flew through the night sky at Winter. Not knowing if his shield would stop its effect he opted to sidestep it quickly, narrowly avoiding it from hitting his head. “Redirect.” Swiftstar shouted. Based on the name, Winter ascertained what that skill did just in time, he turned to see the Pinning Shot had switched directions and was coming at him again from behind.

“Quakestomp!” Rocknight slammed his foot into the ground, shaking the earth of the clearing and causing Winter to lose his footing and tumble to his knees - he had no way to dodge and could only pray his shield would be enough to stop the pinning shot. The green arrow collided with Winter’s shield, and as it did it flashed a bright emerald light around him.

“Richochet Shot!” Swiftstar shouted, and rather than stick into the shield it bounced off and flew upward. “Redirect.” It curved back downward. At least Winter knew the shield stopped its effect, he could still move, but the ground around him was still shaking.

“Light Binding!” Vriflow shouted, and from her hand a bola of light shot out, rotating rapidly towards him. His footing weak, he jumped up off the ground over the bola, meeting the arrow midair and blocking it with his shield.

“Richochet Shot, Redirect!” Swiftstar shouted, the arrow once again bouncing away and coming back at him from another angle.

“Never seen someone so desperate to dodge a Wand of Identifying.” Keldan squealed with anticipation, his viewers shooting up to 2500. “Static field!” A glow of lighting verberated through his staff and out in a wave towards Winter. Trial by fire, Winter thought, as he couldn’t dodge midair he was forced once again to hope that he could block it. The wave of electricity collided with his shield as he pulled his knees up to make sure he was completely covered from the attack. It didn’t work, it wasn’t a damaging spell at all - Winter felt his body begin to tingle and his muscles began to spasm, it felt awful, like sudden cramps occurring all over his body. As he collapsed onto the ground, he was forced into partial convulsions.

“Yo, what’s with the overacting.” Rocknight looked a bit disturbed, pulling back for a second and causing the quaking to stop. Through the pain, Winter was able to roll onto his back and hold his shield up and block the pinning shot once more, this time Swiftstar didn’t ricochet it and the arrow stuck into the shield.

“Hey, Keldan… I think he’s playing at pain threshold 10.” Swiftstar commented.

“So that’s your secret Winter? You took all those beatings to get your defensive skills up? Not a bad strategy for someone who doesn’t know how to fight.” Keldan replied.

“Should we lay off the painful attacks?” Vriflow asked anxiously.

“I mean, we’re just trying to identify him right? It’s his own fault for playing hard to get. One of you guys just snare or root him in place already.” Keldan commanded them. Winter was able to use the time to get used to the spasms. The status effect of shock was hanging in his peripheral vision with a 10 second timer remaining, making it difficult to control his shield.

“Hey, Winter, no hard feelings man.” Swiftstar spoke apologetically as he pulled back another arrow in his bow. “Multishot, Pinning Shot!” Out from his bow fired 3 green glowing arrows.

Winter sighed to himself in frustration as they soared in the air towards him. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Rocknight draw his large battleaxe from off his back and swing down into the earth.

“Shockwave!” He shouted, a violent blast of earth and wind shot forward from the impact in a cone outward from Rocknight towards Winter. He jumped backward to avoid a pinning shot arrow and moved in the direction of the shockwave, using it to propel him, but the wind and rocks were much faster and several crashed into his shield. During this time the other two arrows redirected and curved around, and Vriflow was dashing to maneuver behind him with her hands glowing white.

“Light binding!” She shouted. Two arrows from front, binding from the back, gushing wind and rocks from the side. He jumped up into the air to dodge the light binding, lifted his shield up to block one arrow while attempting to shift his body so that the second would fly over his right arm, but a sudden jolt of shock electricity surged through his right hand, forcing it to spasm upwards into the final pinning shot against his will.

Green magic surged out of the arrow and created vines outward from the impact point which rapidly grew downward and dug into the earth, binding Winter to the ground.

“Nice shot!” Keldan cheered at Swiftstar. 3000 viewers now and climbing, Winter was immobilized by the vines wrapped around his right arm and rooted into the earth. He struggled to break free his arm, but the vines were as strong as metal. He saw in the distance Keldan waving the wand, a blue light shot out from it directly at his head once more. Winter dropped down to the ground, hugging the dirt as the beam passed over top of him, identifying Vriflow instead.

“Seriously? Come on. Rocknight, grapple him or something.” Keldan rolled his eyes, motioning a gesture to Rocknight who stomped forward towards Winter. He watched the shock status effect fade, but the pinning shot would last another 5 seconds. As Rocknight approached with his arms outstretched towards him, Winter’s first instinct was to kick him away, but in the last moment he reminded himself not to - it’d break his bonus. He had to think of something to buy himself 5 seconds of time...

“Psychology Attack!” Winter shouted as if he was casting a spell, but in reality all he did was pull his leather pants down, underwear included.

“Dude what the hell!” Rocknight flinched and turned away, throwing his arms over his eyes.

“Pffft.” Swiftstar couldn’t hold back chuckling.

“Not cool Winter, I’m streaming!” Keldan shouted at him.

“Guys, relax.” Vriflow didn’t look away at all. “He has the parental filter on, there isn’t anything there.” She sounded disappointed.

“Just grab him!” Keldan commanded Rocknight.

“Wait there’s a filter?” Winter asked as he opened his menu up, still being mindful of the wand.

“Why’d you tell him?” Keldan shouted at Vriflow.

“What? Sorry.” She shrugged innocently as Winter waved his fingers in the air at his interface, searching through his options until he spotted it.

Parental Filter

Disabling Requirements: Age 18+, Minimum Account Standing of Good (or higher)

Current Age: 18, Current Standing: Good

[ON] / OFF

[ ] I have read and agreed to the Terms and Services of removing this filter and swear to oblige by the rules set by Averon Inc. I understand that Averon reserves the right to delete any user’s account and ban users from all future usage of Averon products if the terms of this agreement are broken, or the rules set by Averon Inc. are not followed.

• I understand that all accounts are monitored at all times by Avermind AI(™) and if any forms of abuse of this filter (sexual assault or unwanted contact between PC or NPC, ect.) may result in permanent banning and reporting to appropriate authorities.

• I understand that inappropriate behaviour may result in account standing lowered, possibly resulting in a ban, or increased monthly fees to maintain access to The Shattered World online until standing is improved.

• Any and all laws within the United States will be considered as they would be in the real world, and certain offenses will be reported to authorities in the event of a breaching of Averon Inc.'s terms of services, as deemed necessary by Averon Inc. Staff in conjunction with Avermind AI(™).

• Any attempts to livestream or broadcast your gameplay without this filter must be flagged as an adult livestream (18+), or risk being banned from the platform, network, as well as The Shattered World Online.

[Read More…]

Winter didn’t have time to read it all, he hit the checkbox and held his finger over the off button. “Aha, found it! Back up, or I turn it off!” Winter threatened Rocknight, who immediately took two steps back. At this point, the pinning shot effect was gone, the vines fell to the ground releasing his right arm, but Winter felt this tactic was way too effective to stop halfway.

“Everyone calm down... The parental filter only stops working if both players have it turned off. You guys have yours turned on, don’t you?” Swiftstar said with a reassuring tone, but all three of them looked at Swiftstar with guilty expressions. “You guys are perverts.” He sighed.

“Ahah! See? Don’t you get in trouble for streaming that stuff?” Winter threatened Keldan.

“Only if he didn’t mark his stream correctly as 18 plus. You did, right?” Swiftstar asked Keldan, to which he nervously scratched the back of his head. “You’re a pervert and an idiot.” Swiftstar sighed in disbelief.

“Hey, hey!” Rocknight interjected as he held his hand out to Winter to get him to stop, while keeping his distance. “You realize that if you made your character with the filter on, it’s defaulted to, yknow, your real… real one?” Rocknight said, suddenly looking flustered.

“What kind of doctor would I become if I was ashamed of the human body?” Winter replied with confidence.

“Dude I’ve got like 4000 viewers, you’re really going to flash them all?” Keldan tried to call his bluff.

“I’m the guy who died to a boar for 3 days straight. I’m crazy, who knows what I’ll do!?” He smirked back.

“Why the hell does this game even have the option to turn it off?” Swiftstar groaned at Vriflow as the two began a side conversation. The tension from the fighting seemed to have disappeared completely.

“It’s one of the reasons the game beat out competition, realism, y’know.” Vriflow defended it.

“Rocknight, damnit, just turn your filter on and grapple him, you won’t see anything no matter what he does.” Keldan commanded him. Winter watched as Rocknight fidgeted around with his menu for a second.

“There, I’m all good, I won’t see it.” He took a step forward before Winter winked at him.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still there. You’ll know it, deep down in your heart.” Winter gave his hips a little wiggle. This was enough to cause Rocknight to pull back.

“Man, Keldan, I don’t want to grab him when his pants are down, filter or not, it’s not cool.” Rocknight cringed away.

“He might be bluffing.” Swiftstar suggested.

“Eye of Divinity, Form of Truth!” Vriflow shouted while staring at Winter, the spectral eye forming above her. “If it blinks, you’re lying. Are you really about to turn off the nudity filter in front of all those viewers?”

“Yup.” Winter replied confidently. The eye didn’t blink. All of them nearly facepalmed save for Vriflow who took a few steps closer to get a better view.

“You should do it, grapple him Rocknight.” Vriflow said excitedly.

“I can’t believe you guys. Look, Keldan, just turn yours off, problem solved.” Swiftstar shouted in frustration.

“Even if I turn mine off, I started livestreaming with it on, so I’d have to restart the stream…” Keldan looked at the viewer count nearing five thousand. “You guys will come right back, right? No one goes anywhere?” He asked the audience excitedly. The chat was spammed with messages that threatened Keldan with death and other horrible acts if he tried to restart his livestream with the filter on. The general consensus was that the chat wanted to see Winter naked, and they’d boycott the stream if Keldan tried to restart it with an Adult Only barrier, or with the filter on. Keldan sighed with frustration.

“Alright, alright, fine, you win!” Keldan motioned Rocknight to back up, much to his relief but to the disappointment of Vriflow. “I’ll make you a deal. You let us identify you, and we’ll let you live.”

Winter kept his finger on the button in his menu, for all his lack of offensive power, this attack seemed too effective to take his hand off of it, and he shuffled to turn and face Keldan with his pants still down.

“I’m gonna say no to both.” Winter replied.

“Keldan, look away for a second, I got an idea!” Vriflow shouted, to which everyone glanced in her direction. Winter lifted his shield up in preparation for an attack. Knowing she was a priest player he had a good idea of what she was capable of. Keldan hesitated for a moment before turning himself away. Winter panicked, she stared him down with utmost confidence. He watched her hands and feet for any glowing light indicating a spell was coming - her weapons weren’t drawn yet so she likely wasn’t going to try to melee attack him.

“Psychology Attack!” Vriflow shouted, lifting up her chainmail shirt and cloth shirt, revealing her featureless chest - Winter’s filter was still on so in truth he saw nothing, but it didn’t stop him from getting shocked by her action, He reactively flinched to cover his eyes and look away. “Now!” Vriflow shouted. Rocknight reluctantly dashed forward and grappled Winter into a headlock, preventing him from moving his arms. Keldan looked back around to see the scene unfold and violently waved the wand in Winter’s direction, anticipating the blue beam of light firing off and hitting him. Winter was unable to break out of Rocknights grasp in those few short seconds and flinched his eyes shut, anticipating the beam hitting him as well.

But there was nothing. No blue beam whatsoever. Keldan looked down in confusion to see that the Wand of Identifying was no longer in his hand.

“Heh? Huh?” Keldan looked around confused, trying to find if he had dropped it on the ground somewhere.

“What the hell, Keldan!” Rocknight released Winter as all three of Keldan’s party members looked at him in annoyance.

“You guys look like you are having fun.” A familiar female voice spoke. All of them turned to see a female figure standing in the shadow of a nearby tree. [Silentwire - Level 11]. In her hand was the Wand of Identification. Winter had never felt so relieved to see a thief, but the moment he turned to look at her, she glanced at his half naked character and her face turned bright red, immediately looking away from Winter.

“Who the hell is that?” Swiftstar asked as heavy panting could be heard from the forest behind her, slowly getting closer.

“You… you’re… really… fast…” Davoth gasped for air as he caught up a few steps behind Silentwire and stopped to grab his knees, trying desperately to catch his breath. “Hey, Winter… you might... wanna… pull up your pants...”