Achievement Unlocked

There are 25 Ninjas surrounding me.

I feel trapped, but luckily I have my trusty sword handy and a feeling of righteousness flowing through my veins. As the first Ninja leaps in the air, I rise with him, and slash through his body with my blade. The second Ninja comes right after him, but I deftly sidestep his attack and slice off his arms before finishing him with a stab through his torso. His body goes limp, or I assume it goes limp, because I continue to press the attack.

I take out three other ninjas easily, before the desperate group rushes me from all directions. I get tossed in the air, knives pierce by body, I am weakening. My attempts to block are thwarted by their relentlessness. They are an unending army. An army willing to sacrifice just to take out one man. An army willing to die just to destroy me. I am a piece of meat being ravaged by a hungry pack of wolves. I am the hunter who has become the hunted.

I think back to the words that I have learned, the advice and the teachings I have read previously on my journey. I unleash a furious combination that sends the pack flying ten feet backwards. Stunned, yet undeterred, they get up into their fighting stances, and continue to hunt me. I remember the magic that I had learned long ago. In desperation, I run to an open spot in the field, and cast my spell. The sky turns red, and fire rains down from the heavens. My attackers are writing in pain. The ones lucky enough to avoid the flames are retreating. Emboldened, I chase them down, slashing mercilessly at anyone who dared to threaten me. They will not survive. They will not live to see another second.

I stand victorious. Blood soaks the grass. My attackers are vanquished.

I hear a beep, which I had been longing to hear for some time. I look down, and the magic words I have been waiting and hoping to see are revealed.

"Achievement Unlocked"

I quickly press the XBox button on my controller to check how many points I have. That achievement was worth 5 points, which isn't a lot, but is enough to pushing my gamer score up to 10,150. I take a quick look at what other achievements I have within my grasp. It looks like if I have to beat this level's boss to add another 25 points.

I check my friends list to see if who's online and what they are playing. Manny is playing Tom Clancy's EndWar. I think I'll ask him to if I can borrow it sometime in the near future. I don't know if I'll like it, because I'm not really into strategy games, but it could be good. You have to use your XBox Headset to control the units in the game. It seems really neat.

I look and see if the Resident Evil 5 demo has downloaded completely. It's still stuck at 56%. It must be because I'm playing a game. I wonder to myself whether I need to increase the bandwidth on my internet connection. I should call Time Warner about that.

I think about if I need to check on anything else. There is nothing that comes to mind. I press the XBox Button again and unpause my game.

I unsheathe my sword. The boss is waiting.