Miyah saw the blinding arc of light crash towards her. Without anytime to react, it engulphed her obscuring her vision as it practically evaporated the mummy beside her. She staggered to the floor, her hands expecting the feeling of sandy grains between her fingers. However, the girl felt tarmac, a feeling one didn’t tend to find in the desert. As the light faded from her eyes, she rolled over, staring up into the lightly cloudy Los Angeles sky. Moving her hands up to cover her face, the girl let out a long groan.

“Shit.” She murmured, the crimson blood that was gently dripping down her wrist reminding her about the injury she had suffered mere moments before. She sat up, lowering her hand to more closely ascertain just how injured she was. The cut may have looked quite bad, a gash running across from the bottom of her palm to the base of her index finger. But it wasn’t very deep. Shaking her head, Miyah pulled a small she had clipped around the holster on her waist, hastily unzipping it and pulling out a bound roll of cotton bandage. Wrapping it around her cut, she let out a small sigh, turning her head to glance up at Elisande.

“I’m fine.” She said concisely, smiling a little. She moved her sleeve up her arm, quickly wiping the residual blood from her face. She sat for a moment, struggling to come up with a response to the pink haired girl. “I guess we won, then?” She asks hesitantly, getting her answer rather abruptly as the white screen maximised itself across her forearm.

Miyah let out a laugh. “You’re joking right?” She muttered under her breath. “Did you just get this too?” She asked, turning to Elisande once again.

---

Miyah felt the sand bellow her feet shift slightly, her boots pushing against each individual grain as she felt the sandstorm hit her. Instead of the aggressive battering of the wind, it seemed to flow around her, curling up her arms and torso, until the flecks of sand stuck into the brown hair on her head. Reaching across her side, she pulled the knife from the holster, and flung it through the air, striking the mummy across its cheek. The bandages around its face ripped away, revealing the layered mass of white and beige bellow.

Continuing to move forward, the mummy swung the large spear around, swiping along the sandy desert. Miyah dove out of the way, her hand digging into the sand. How was she supposed to fight something so big.

“FUCK!” She shouted, pulling her hand out of the sand. One of the smaller balls of bandages had sunk its teeth deep into her hand, crimson blood gently oozing out of the cut as she pulled the white creature off her hand, throwing it across, watching it disappear into the sandstorm. She quickly glanced down at the floor, watching a dozen or more of the white balls pull themselves out from the ground. Heart pounding, she quickly got back to her feet, kicking another creature that was trying to climb up her boot. She still held the glimmering knife in her hand, the other weapon long lost in the sandy howling wind.

Letting out a shout, she began to sprint forward towards the monster in front of her. She didn’t feel it herself, but to anyone else that saw her, she ran at the speed of a greyhound, launching herself at the pharaoh, digging her dagger into its upper left thigh. There was no way they’d be able to kill this thing. She wasn’t even sure if it was alive. But she continued to dance around the monster, her feet skirting along the sand with incredible finesse, dodging both the monsters swings, and the small creatures razor sharp teeth.

---

Miyah threw her hands up, bracing for what she thought would be the screeching sound of Fliss’ bike tearing her eardrums apart. Instead, the noise seemed to breeze right past her, ignoring her entirely. She was sick of this. Had someone fucking drugged her? She gave one of the small white creature an kick, pelting the small ball of bandages across and over the side of the hill. Miyah felt the prick of wind on the back of her neck, grains of sand gently beginning to drift through the air.

“Really, that’s just what we need, a freak act of nature.” She sighed, turning to face the mass of shifting sand the was creeping its way across the desert around them. “Cover your faces! Nose and mouth especially!” She called out to the two woman behind her. It was hard to breath in a sandstorm, even for her. The girl on the bike had her helmet, but the pink haired girl was the biggest concern. Whatever. If they listened, they listened. Miyah grabbed the burgundy bandana from around her neck, fixing it in place just above the ridge of her nose.

“Kill the boss, end this shit?” She called back to Elisande. She wasn’t going to sit on this hill and be mauled to death by a thousand little bandaged cretins. With that feeling of heightened grip on the souls of her feet, the dark-skinned girl made a break for the open desert. She watched the sands begin to bulge, almost like something was trying to claw its way out.

PASSIVE ACTIVATED

Desert Veil: while on sandy terrain, your [SPD] doubles. When in a sandstorm, you become partially invisible. You use [SPD] to calculate your stealth when contested against a tracking/ detection ability.

Miyah rode down the side of the hill, her feet gently connecting against the sandy ground as she took off towards the moving mass of sound. She had no range, no gun to shoot from up high. It was death by a thousand needles, or death by one particularly large needle. She flung her hand down to the knife on her left waist, slipping it out of the holster.

ABILITY ACTIVATED

Tools Of The Trade: Touch a weapon, it becomes enhanced and gains a [PWR] boost equal to half of your own for 4 posts, potentially increasing its rank. 5 post cooldown upon initial cast. Gains a new quality at [MAGI] Rank B.

The black sheened combat knife was enveloped with a golden shimmer, ripples of light gently settling into the cold steel blade clutched in Miyahs hand.

Ahead of her, from the increasingly violent vortex of sand, a hulking creature had begun to pull itself clear. Its upper body and arms wrapped in bandages, all in various states of ware. Pristine white silks were wrapped over dirty blood-soaked rags. From what Miyah could see of the creatures’ upper body, it had to be at least eight feet tall. It was clad In a long rusted set of ceremonial armour. What once would have been embezzled with thousands of gems, was now nothing more than a mass of metal and flaking paints. The warped metal was recognisable as something a pharaoh would have worn, the iconic shapes and colours that one would find in many a pop culture. The firm grip she had on the blade faltered as she slowed down. ‘How do i… What…’ But now wasn’t the time to start thinking rationally. She bit down, her teeth piercing her bottom lip as adrenaline was starting to surge into her body.

“We’re not even in fucking Egypt! GET IT RIGHT!” She shouted, at no one in particular. Trying to compensate for the fear creeping into her body.

---

“No, I’m bleeding for fun.” Miyah says, grinning up at the girl as she slinks the coat around her shoulders, the thick red coat settling around her form. “Far north you say, must be Russia. You have that accent, same one Pavel had, fucking nutjob.” She shakes her head, letting out a small laugh at the thought of her old Russian acquaintance. “He nearly killed me you know…” Miyah held her hand up, pointing her finger beside her head, about an in inch away from her temple. “ Misfired his gun this close to my head, old dog had no trigger discipline.” She smiles. The girl retracted her finger, flicking the small light screen that hovered above her forearm. The bottle promptly disappeared in a flash of light, similar to the one when people travel through the waypoints. Taking another look up at the girl, Miyah furrowed her brow, facial expressions were a clear tell of a persons intentions and some were better at hiding them than others. The pale looking girl was cold. Not because of the cold Artic wind that steadily whipped around them.

“Alexei, lost him?” She asked. “Party member? Brother?” She continued to inquire, steadily beginning to get to her feet. Miyah was honestly surprised. Ever since they’d been thrown into this game, she felt stronger. Not in a raw kind of strength, but those small scratches, slashes and blunt forced hits were stinging just a little bit less than they used too. “I’ll be fine. Why don’t we find your friend? If he's as tough as it looks like you are, he'll be fine, but better find him just in case.” Miyah suggested. The snow wasn’t her most familiar environment, but it didn’t completely nullify her, the deserts got pretty cold at night anyway.

“Those giants on the hill…” She nodded her head past Natasha, at the great hulking mass on the horizon. “They hostile? They look pretty slow, doubt they’ll be able to see us if we stick to the ridge.”

---

Miyah reached out, taking the gun into her hands. Her fingers subtly moved down the barrel, until they rested perfectly, her other hand laid close to the trigger. She took a step back, tilted her head down as she swung the barrel up, lining up the iron sights with the blonde mans head. It was slightly heavier than the guns she was used too. She dropped the gun back down, throwing it back to the man. “You don’t look like you know how to use it kid.” She sighed. “Also, watch those eyes. I catch you again and I’m fucking clawing them out.” She said, an unimpressed look on her face.

Turning to face Sami, she nodded her head. As he spoke, her expression began to drop. He was insane. No way about it. Great, she was going into a high level area with a teenager and a mental asylum escapee. “Fuck me, we wont last 5 minutes.” She muttered, swiping accept on the party accept the insane looking man had sent. He was a higher level, at least higher than hers.

PARTY INVITE ACCEPTED

Miyah didn’t wait for confirmation from Fox, as soon as the party was formed, she strolled forward, disappearing into a mass of bright light, before vanishing. She felt the sudden brush of stale air as she stepped out, the lighting was noticeably worse, the dark and gloomy street corner a stark contrast from the bright and welcoming UK hub. She had a few seconds to herself, before the other two would follow through the waypoint. Scraping her fingers through her messy brown hair, she let out a small laugh. She wasn’t sure she trusted the older looking man, he had eyes that scared her. Not because she felt threatened, more the fact she was unable to read what the man was thinking. The blond one however made no attempt to hide his own thoughts. She’d have no problem breaking his arm if he kept on prodding.

Miyah nursed her leg, sitting on a small rock, her hair gently blowing in the breeze. Her eyes slowly wandered over the skyline, glancing down into the valley bellow her. She was on the very outskirts of the UK hub. After her encounter in the highlands, she was quite contempt with staying somewhere she really couldn’t get snuck up on. She laid back, flicking her arm up, the white screen on her forearm flashed.

She had been watching the ‘Hub chat’ for the better part of an hour, the general conversation, and odd few requests had kept her mildly occupied. But this one was a little more intriguing.

“Anyone looking to explore Gothica? Need a few party members, meet me by the portal. Blonde bloke.”

“Gothica?” She muttered to herself, sitting up. She had heard a few mentions of the place, none of them seemed very eager to venture into the land.


“saw a group go in yesterday, still haven’t come back.”

“Ur stupid setting foot in that place.”

“Any of you dumb enough to go, bring back some pictures >.<”


The light screen on her arm disappeared as Miyah got up onto her feet. “Double the danger, double the reward.” She muttered, stretching out her shoulder as she began to make her way over to the waypoint. Need to catch up, that white haired man was so far ahead, and she wasn’t one to settle for last place.

Spotting the two men talk, Miyah slipped her way past a particularly rowdy group of people, sweeping her short brown hair back. Her eyes fell onto the blond mans rifle. It piqued her interest for sure. She was still sorely missing her own firearm, it would definitely have come in helpful earlier. The other man looked slightly less intimidating, but she’d learnt that that didn’t mean he was weak.

“Miyah. You the ones going into Gothica?” She asked, leaning on her hip as she eyed Fox up and down again. He looked young, and also didn’t look like the type to have much experience with a gun. “Nice rifle, what is it, single round?” She asked, bending down to stare at the firearm. It was allot more sophisticated than what she was used to.

Glancing up, the girl tilted her head as she looked at Sami. Once again, she was the shortest. It shouldn’t have really come as a surprise, but for just once, someone had to be smaller. “Are you okay, you don’t look like you should be out, let alone wandering around high level areas.” She commented, basing her opinion solely on the hospital gown the man was wearing. ‘Please not another Nut case, I’m begging’.