Author's note: Sorry for grammatical errors or poor wording. To put it mildly, I'm out of practice. I wrote all chapters from here on without editing them as I didn't want to lose momentum. I'm now working on those edits one chapter at a time from this chapter on.250Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtDeEkV9oG
It didn't take long for Leefa to reach the coordinates she had given Lostone. He, on the other hand, took quite a while by Leefa's estimation. Well, it probably wasn't as long as it felt. A quick look at the online clock proved that to be true, but impatience to get started was tinging anything that delayed her looking. And besides, it wasn't a fair thing to fault him for. The difference in their flying speed made it impossible for him to reach her even if he had a head start.
She sat on the ground, conserving her wings so she would be fresh when they started. She wanted to be off as soon as Lostone got there. With their air superiority the Salamanders were the fastest race. She used that knowledge a basis on the furthest an Alf could fly. Drawing a line on her hud map to reflect the furthest Leefa thought Lillith could be from the World Tree. Leefa sat right on that line now. She was going to go north along that line while Lostone would go south. With a couple of clicks on the display she sent the plotted course to her partner.
She knew the odds were impossible, but again that feeling of destiny hadn't wavered in the least. She would find her, and she would kill her. The powers of an Alf were within her reach. Unlimited flight was within her reach.
Finally, she saw the mechanical wings of a leprechaun come into sight and knew Lostone had arrived. Not waiting for him to land she flew up to meet him. As soon as she was reasonably close enough that he could hear her she yelled, "You go south, I'm going north." Before he could even answer she shot off in her chosen direction. The game even added the graphic of a cloud at her feet where she started to indicate the speed.
Nothing would stop her. Putting Lostone out of her mind she paid attention to the ground and the sky. She passed by areas already being searched by larger groups. Let them do the work. If they found her the commotion would be impossible not to notice. She also passed by any areas with any NPC's. If there weren't any players there now, there would be. This helped eliminate about half the areas she would normally have had to search.
This fight would also not take place in a safe zone. By necessity of the likely scale of the battle it would have to be isolated to give them the space to fight. Leefa was also banking on the idea that the admins wouldn't make it hard to spot her when you got close. At least she hoped so. It was the only other way to speed up the search.
Scanning both the sky and the land, and taking the time to do the same to the floating islands, she made good progress.
A gnome took the time to stop her, flying directly into her path and risking being knocked over, maybe even killed. "Hey, you find any clues about where Lillith is?" He asked breathlessly.
What kind of idiot would ask that? She didn't have time to deal with it. Impatiently she replied, "If I have why do you think I'd tell a friend, let alone a stranger?" and without giving him a chance to say anything else she flew around him at top speed and left him with a dropped jaw.
He wasn't the only one to interrupt the search. After the third one, she started taking out her sword in a flourish to let them know she wasn't in the mood to talk. Most backed off, and a few drew their own swords, which she out-maneuvered to their own deaths. Or tried to. But after losing twice and dying she realized the tactic was only costing her more time than answering and leaving.
It was beyond annoying though. They were wasting both of their time on questions that any intelligent person would never answer.
Of course, there were also monsters that she had to either avoid or kill that also slowed her down. At least none of them were strong enough to kill her.
Delays, delays, delays. She had an elevation to obtain. She didn't have the luxury of taking the time for them. Those enemies she fought at least allowed her to vent some of the building frustration.
First an hour passed, then two. She didn't care. It was the weekend, and she'd started early after the failure of the tournament the previous night. She had all day.
Before she realized it she was reminded of how long she'd been on when a warning popped up with a health warning about her bladder. Forced to log out, she thought it was the fastest pit stop in history to get back on.
She logged on just in time to see a fire giant's spout of flame consume her. That sudden death would have shocked her once, but the giants not waiting the customary five seconds to attack had become commonplace.
Back at a revive point she sighed and flew back to where she died. Yet more delays. She vented her anger by pulling Lambant Shadow from her inventory and made quick work of the giant. She sliced it cleanly in two in a single attack.
The satisfaction of the quick kill gave Leefa renewed energy. She simultaniously put the sword back into her inventory as she launched herself back into her search.
Grangar stood in shock. Who was that player? He'd been sitting in hiding hoping not to be noticed by the fire giant when from nowhere a player defeated it in a single strike.
Who the hell was she? For the life of him he'd never heard of a player that strong, and anyone that strong had to be well known. They didn't just pop up out of nowhere. Well apparently someone had.
He pulled up his console quickly. Someone had to have heard of her though. Pulling up the game's message boards and found the player's topic. As swift as his fingers would go he typed out his question, giving a detailed play-by-play of the fight.
A half-hour later he looked at the replies and wasn't surprised to see replies mocking him, saying he was exaggerating the fight in one way or another. It simply wasn't possible. He'd seen her take out something weaker, or it was a full raid and he was too busy checking out the blonde to notice the rest. There were other explanations, but most just laughed at him.
Assholes.
He'd seen something wondrous and it was only a matter of time before he was vindicated as her legend grew.
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