The Demon Lord's health bar was a stubborn strip of red, pulsing like it was laughing at us.
"Spam your skills harder, Keiji!" I yelled into my mic, fingers slamming the hotkeys. My male avatar-six foot something, all chiseled jawline and muscles sculpted by the gods of polygon rendering-swung his greatsword through a pack of skeleton knights.
"I am spamming harder, heal faster!" Keiji barked back.
"Both of you shut up and dodge!" someone else groaned.
I grinned, cramming the last chip from the bag into my mouth and nearly choking on crumbs. Just another Saturday night, raiding with the guild, playing as the ridiculously hot male avatar I'd built years ago. In reality, I was slouched in pajamas, hair a mess, snack dust all over my shirt.
On-screen, though? I was Leonhart, the stoic, handsome warrior who looked like he could crush skulls just by glaring. Every time I saw his cutscene smirk, even I thought, damn, he's pretty.
The Demon Lord raised its clawed hands. Dark sigils burned across the floor. I sat up straighter. "Uh oh. He's casting it-guys, spread out!"
"Too late!" someone screamed.
The circle flared. My monitor flashed so bright I had to squint. Normally, my avatar would just stagger, HP chunking down, healer screaming about cooldowns.
But this time, my head swam. My ears rang.
Wait. That wasn't supposed to happen.
I blinked, tried to shake it off, but the dizziness only grew worse. My keyboard blurred. My hands felt heavy, like they weren't mine.
The last thing I heard was my guildmate cursing before everything went black.
°°°°°°°°°°
I woke up to the sound of steel clashing and monsters roaring.
And pain. Actual pain. My body felt like I'd run headfirst into a brick wall.
"What the-" My voice rumbled out of me, deep and rough, like gravel sliding down a mountainside. I froze. That... that wasn't my voice.
I cracked my eyes open. Instead of my bedroom ceiling, I saw a battlefield stretching under a sky the color of ash. Fires burned where meteors had struck. Warriors-my guildmates' avatars-fought desperately against waves of demons.
Except they weren't on my screen. They were here. Moving. Bleeding. Real.
I staggered to my feet, armor clanking heavy on my shoulders. A weight tugged at my back-my greatsword, strapped across like it had always been there. My vision shifted with the tilt of my head, not with a mouse drag.
I wasn't watching Leonhart anymore. I was him.
"Oh no. No no no no..." I patted down my chest, my arms. Muscles like iron cords bunched under my touch. I reached up, grabbed a handful of hair-the exact color and texture I'd chosen for his character model years ago.
This had to be a dream. Or food poisoning.
An arrow whizzed past my head. I yelped, stumbling behind a half-broken wall. My heart pounded so loud it hurt.
"This isn't happening," I muttered, clutching at the plates of armor. "This is not-oh god-"
And then the thought hit me. The most horrifying, most inevitable thought of them all.
If I was in his body... did that mean I had...?
I looked around. No one was watching. Keiji-now a sophisticated mage in his cloak-was too busy casting spells on a demon in groups. The healers were shrieking over cooldowns.
Okay. Fine. Just a quick check. For science.
I fumbled with the belt on the armor, hissing as the buckle caught. Hands shaking, I shoved a gauntlet off and reached down.
And froze.
"Oh my god." My voice cracked into a strangled whisper. "I have one."
I squeezed my eyes shut. "I actually-oh hell no. It's real. It's there. It's attached. It moves."
I slapped my hands over my face, heat flooding my cheeks. The booming warrior body didn't help-it just made me sound like a blushing gorilla.
Somewhere behind me, Keiji roared, "Leonhart! Quit hiding and get over here!"
I scrambled to re-buckle everything, nearly slicing my own thigh on a sword strap. "C-coming!"
This was insane. I couldn't even process the battlefield anymore. Every step, every swing of my too-broad shoulders felt alien. Like I'd been stuffed into a cosplay suit of a Greek god and told to just act natural.
And then came the final nail in the coffin.
"Hero."
I turned. The Demon Lord towered over the carnage, eyes glowing like burning coals. His jagged wings spread wide as he pointed one clawed hand directly at me.
"You are mine."
The ground cracked under his feet as he advanced. My guildmates-no, my former guildmates-were shouting my avatar's name, looking to me like I was supposed to be the one to lead the charge.
Meanwhile, I was still trying to breathe around the fact that I had pecs bigger than my head and something new dangling between my legs.
Real world or not, I was so screwed.