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Hello everyone. The latest Realms update is now live.

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Anyway, here's the latest update. As always, all constructive criticism is welcome. Enjoy!

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"So..." Katt led off the conversation as we left The Oasis. "Where did you and Silvara meet?"

Guess there was no way out of this conversation, I thought with a heavy internal sigh. Talking with my mother about my first love was something I'd been dreading since my first years of high school. Fortunately, I ended up ducking that conversation during my high school and college years with a lack of any real intimate relationships. Yay?...

"We met during a Breach; it was the second one I'd ever been involved in." We took a seat on a stone bench outside The Oasis as I began to tell the story. "Since the Called can be few and far between, it's unlikely more than one of them will find a Breach and be able to get a full group of other Called together in time to manually get there and back them up. Luckily, as long as someone finds and enters a Breach, they can summon help through more magical means."

"You remember how Xavier stepped through the portal, and Aerilla came out the other side in the bank?" Katt nodded as I continued. "Well, for a Called outside the Breach who gets summoned to help, it works pretty much the same way. They find somewhere private, open the portal on their end and step through, only instead of just changing into their Realm's avatar, they'll also be physically transported into the Breach as well. The Realms application for the phone lets you mark yourself as active for duty and available to help and not doing something that requires your attention. Otherwise it might cause some issues."

"I could see that. A doctor suddenly disappearing in the middle of surgery or a car suddenly losing its driver could cause some serious problems, not to mention incredible confusion. So Silvara summoned you to help her one day?" Katt asked.

"Yeah; it was on one of your days when you had to go babysit for my brother's kid a few months ago. I had just put myself on for duty when I immediately got a summon request from Silvara for backup. I set up the portal and stepped through, and meet her in person for the first time."

I still remember my first impression of the armor clad Crusader I saw when I first stepped through. Her back was to me as she was looking over the trio of lizard men tearing up the abandoned props and sets of the old community theater where the Breach had occurred, arms folded over her chest as she watched them. She seemed cold, calculating and steadfast, enhanced even more by the divine aura of her class. I almost felt like a distraction when I introduced myself, and I remember gulping nervously when she turned her brown eyes on me.

"I initially felt unwelcome and maybe a little inadequate in her presence, so when she picked me up and hugged me tight while thanking the Goddesses someone actually answered her, I was more than a little confused. She was practically on the verge of tears with how happy she was to have someone with her, while I was suddenly starting to worry she might accidently kill me before the monsters would have a chance at it. Apparently confidence was not Silvara's strong suit, which struck me as kind of weird. One glance at her weapons and armor told me she was an experienced player and not some poor newbie who just found their first magic sword and was suddenly now fighting for their life. When she filled me in on the situation, she kept stammering and stumbling over the words."

From what I was able to gather, Silvara had come here to assess the old theater for a potential show when she got the warning that a Breach was coming. Clearing out the bystanders hadn't been much of an issue, since she apparently had a reputation for being a bit of a diva at times. She simply told everyone that she needed some alone time with the building to assess its, "artistic aesthetics" and ordered them all out. Once the Breach started, she stepped into her Realms avatar and put out the call for backup.

"We didn't have much time to wait; the timer was already running down on the Breach and there was no one else nearby we could summon for help. I honestly didn't think we really needed it anyway, given her defensive and healing abilities that came with her class. Silvara would've easily been able to keep their attention and protect herself while I fired off a few of my best spells and finished them in a flash. She was a nervous wreck, though."

"Well, I imagine anyone could get a little nervous knowing their life was potentially on the line. She was probably just afraid of getting hurt or killed." I shook my head as Katt gave her theory. That had been my first thought too, but Silvara admitted that was only a small part of what was making her so nervous. Mostly, she was worried about ME getting hurt or killed. My spells would naturally draw monsters to me as they tried to kill the person trying to kill them, and it was her job as a Defender to make sure their attention stayed on her. As much as she needed my help to close the Breach in time, she seemed almost deathly afraid she'd fail and that my blood would be on her hands.

"So I told her that wasn't going to happen. I told her I trusted her, and that while my life might be in her hands, the only blood she was getting on them would belong to the monsters we were going to defeat together. She seemed stunned in my belief in her for a couple of seconds, then nodded and charged toward the stage. The three of them made their way toward the armored wolf woman in the middle of the stage while I stayed in the aisle and starting preparing some spells.

Playing Realms, especially when expert combat is turned on and players are at the higher levels, can give you a pretty good crash course in weapon's based combat. It is still a simulation, though, and no game could replace the years of training that must have be necessary to become a true expert fighter. I guess nobody bothered to tell that to Silvara, though. Watching her work, I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd learned how to use a sword and shield before she could walk with how well she handled herself.

One of the lizard men got ahead of his companions and swung at Silvara. I barely even saw her hand move as the sword flew out to deflect the blade aimed at her neck. While she blocked her second attacker's sword with her own, she smashed her shield so hard into the face of the first lizard man I was surprised he didn't leave an outline in the metal. There was no way she could get her shield around again as the third lizard man swung at her, and I was sure he was going to take her arm off or at least knock her down as he aimed his vertical strike at the shoulder of her shield bearing arm. She leaned back almost casually and let the blade strike against the front of her armored shoulder instead of directly atop it, turning what would have been a crushing blow into a mere scratch on her plate mail.

Silvara's blade soon ignited with the holy white fire of a Crusader before she swung it in an arc around her, driving all the lizard men back and leaving them and me in open mouthed shock. Even though they outnumbered her 3 to 1, the monsters seemed to be the ones in trouble as Silvara began her counterattack. They could barely even bring their blades to bare against her own, so focused on merely trying to survive her assault they seemed to forget to actually strike back. The three of them barely survived another minute before falling, and that was with me being so caught up in Silvara's technique and intensity that I simply forgot that I needed to be helping her for the first twenty or so seconds.

"She'd been the only one who'd been hurt, yet Silvara's first question was to ask if I was O.K as soon as the monsters were killed. She was so relieved when I said I was fine, and so grateful for my help even though I'm certain she could have handled it on her own. Hell; I probably could've been attacking her along WITH the lizard men and I still think she would've beaten all of us without breaking a sweat. We exchanged our full character names, and I had her friend request by the time I stepped back through the portal home. Since then, I've gotten really close to her."

"You keep saying her, but is that just because all the players have female characters in Realms? Do you know anything about the person behind her character?" Katt asked. It was hard for me to judge exactly the motives behind her asking, whether it was out of concern for me and my feelings or maybe her potential for future grandchildren or something else entirely. I assured her either way that I actually knew quite a bit about Silvy's real world identity, and that there was a woman behind the character. Katt's confusion was clear when I said I was uncomfortable elaborating further in such a public space; no one seemed to be actively listening to our conversation, but the last thing I wanted to give Silvy was MORE unwanted attention.

"Hmm?" My flashing CommChain called for my attention, a small smile crossing my lips as Silvara's face appeared in the air above my outstretched arm. "Speak of the devil..."

"That's rich, coming from YOU, mage." Silvara's giggle broke the holier-than-thou attitude in her voice pretty quickly. "Hey, my little black cat. Do you and Katt have a minute?"

"Sure, I think so. Why, what's up?" A quick tap on the mini-map in the corner of her CommChain picture showed she was right outside Akrahbar's main gate.

"Well, I talked with some of the other Called, and we're going to start brainstorming some ideas for how to handle Breaches. In the meantime, I figured I'd show Katt one of Realm's best features; I know it's one of your favorites, after all." Silvara added with a knowing smile.

"Oh yeah; I can see your close." Silvara's eyes had that telltale glow, and her breathing seemed slightly labored. "Alright, we're on our way!"

Katt asked what the hurry was as I quickly stood up and started running for the arched gate at the main entrance of the city. As we ran past newbie players battling bee swarms and killer cacti, I explained to Katt about the Break bar, or the Beast bar as it was more informally known as. It was a special meter that built up as you took and dealt damage, and when it was full you could trigger it for a boost in your stats and some special effects. As for how that shift in stats and abilities looked when it was triggered, well... she was about to see.

"Silvy!" Cresting the top of a sand dune, I could see Silvara standing in the middle of a ring of hyenas, at least eight or nine of the wild canines growling and looking at the Crusader like she was lunch. I slid down the dune toward her, Katt shielding her eyes from the sand I was kicking up as she followed close behind. "Go for it!"

Silvara glanced up at me and nodded briefly before setting her sword and shield in the sand on either side of her. An observer might have noticed she was shaking, perhaps out of fear of being surrounded by enemies on all sides. I knew better, though; Silvy's body was simply quaking trying to contain her hidden strength. With a yell of, "RELEASE!", she began to let it all out.

One of the hyena's snarled and started to charge toward Silvara, only to yelp and stop dead in its tracks as Silvara began to snarl back at him. With her back toward me, I couldn't see her mouth and nose pushing beginning to push out into a canine muzzle. I could, however, hear a low growling sound that's slowly increased in volume and intensity coming from her. Her voice wasn't the only thing that was increasing in intensity and volume as her transformation continued.

Katt looked on with a mix of awe and shock as Silvy started to huff and puff. She wasn't planning to knock something down, though; if anything, her body was beginning to build itself up. Her flowing mane of hair started going further down her back as the gap between the end of her flowing locks and her bushy tail started to grow smaller and smaller. Said tail getting bushier and fuller as it wagged furiously, a sign that Silvara was clearly enjoying her transformation.

Being a virtual reality video game set in a fantasy world allows Realms to play fast and loose with some ideas. For example, I'm pretty sure Silvara's growing claws on her hands and feet would have had a hard time puncturing through her metal gloves and boots as they were now, or at the very least would have been incredibly painful if more logical levels of reality prevailed. Silvy didn't seemed bothered at all, by that or the pinching caused by her growing calf muscles. Instead, the metal boots simply fell to pieces around her feet, leaving her clawed and now white fur covered feet free to settle into the warm sand.

Silvara could've just let the transformation take care of the bulk of her armor for her, but instead decided to show off a bit. Grabbing her left arm just below the shoulder in her right hand, she simply ripped the armor clear off her arm. I already had a very good idea of how toned Silvara was under her armor, but her bicep definitely reached a higher peak than normal as she flexed her arm. Silvara knows my weakness for strong women is about equal with my weakness for furry women, and seemed to be enjoying how flushed I got as her longer tongue gently licked over her bulging bicep before repeating the same procedure on her other arm.

The white fur that had been growing on her feet had been creeping up Silvara's leg, tufts of it beginning to peek out under her armored thighs. More fur started appearing through the sides of her metal covered thighs as the armored pants strained to hold together under her bulking muscles. Her armor soon gave way, one of the metal plates nearly hitting me as it practically shot off her body when it gave way. The brown shorts underneath kept Silvy decent, but also left little to the imagination as they clung to her tight rear and muscular thighs.

Silvara's chest plate was the only part of her armor that got out of her transformation relativity unscathed, the metal bending and conforming to her expanding chest and back muscles. The now full furry wolfess leaned her head back, letting out a howl that echoed for miles across the desert as her transformation completed. Her white fur combined with her holy Crusader aura made her seem to glow in an almost angelic light. Katt had been left speechless as she looked at the muscular wolf woman that now stood before her as Silvy calmed picked up her sword and shield again.

"I am Silvara Lightkeeper, Crusader and protector of this land." Silvy's voice rang out with divine authority as she picked up her sword and shield again. She glared at each of the hyenas around her individually, each of them whining softly as her gaze fell upon them. When she smacked her sword against her shield, I could still feel the shockwave it caused almost fifty feet away. "The Goddesses have chosen me to be their sword of righteous punishment. You may beg for mercy, but you shall find none here."

"...So, that's Beast Mode." I finally managed to get out to a stunned Katt after I wiped the drool forming on my mouth as Silvara sprang at the nearest hyena. "Any questions so far?"