by Cheek, Jason
“Gggaaa!” Jill shrieked, as she ducked under an Orc’s blow that AJ had lost the aggro on. “Stop flapping your jaws and just hurry the fuck up!”
Obviously, I wasn’t the only one counting down seconds, I grimly thought, as I readied my blade. While my friends who weren’t in the middle of being pounded to a pulp continued to ridicule Domenic for taking so long, I turned my focus on the large number of Orcs arranged against us as arrow after arrow hammered into their ranks. Color me impressed. In all of our time together, I’d never seen Fylreh going all out before. Still, no matter how awesome the Centauride was, there was no stopping the wall of Orcs that was headed our way, especially not with the rest of us nearly out of mana.
“Come on girls,” I growled to Neristhana, Neysa, and Helgath who were on either side of me, as my hands tightened on my Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter’s hilt. “It’s time to buy our people a few more seconds.”
“I’ve got your back!” Neristhana fiercely snarled, as she yanked the Leeching Hand-Axe of Severing from her belt.
‘We are with you,’ Helgath and Neysa’s mental voices rang in my head, as the Silver Dire Wolf lowered into a crouch.
With a wordless shout, I charged into the tusks of the enemy. Distracted by the rain of arrows hammering into their heavy bronze shields and exposed flesh, the horde’s front line didn’t see us coming as I hit them with a Light Word of Censor. As the front line collapsed in a heap, we waded into the stunned line and attacked.
Kicking the nearest Elite Orc Warrior over onto his stomach, I jammed my Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter through the center of the Elite Warrior’s backplate triggering Backstab as my girls laid into the helpless target with everything they had. Immediately, eight hundred and four points of damage registered in my System Window as a familiar tingling sensation rushed up my arms and my hit points temporarily increased by forty-one points. I barely noticed the enraged roar from the mass of Orcs as they charged into the glowing circle while I began hammering the massive two-handed blade again and again into the helpless Orc’s back.
Crackling energy filled my limbs as I parried the first Orc’s strike on the ricasso portion of my blade. Using the impact as a lever, I batted the edge of the Orc’s shield aside and plunged my sword’s point up through the thick leather, below the bottom edge of its bronze breastplate. Once again, energy surged through my arms as the Elite Orc Warrior to either side struck at me with their cleaver-like blades. Ignoring the blows as they harmlessly bounced off of my dissipating Bone Shield, I ripped the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter horizontally out of the wound and brutally slammed my shoulder into the Orc. As the Orc staggered back into the Elite Warriors behind him, his thick hands were urgently fumbling to hold in his entrails that were pouring out onto the ground in a clump of viscera as the Elite Warriors, to either side of him, struck.
As I helplessly watched the Orc’s cleaver-sword on my left thrust at my face, the strike went wide at the last second as the Elite Warrior’s brutal face suddenly contorted in agony. The cause, I figured out a split-second later, was Neristhana’s strike that had split the female’s clawed foot down the middle. I didn’t see the Gnomeling’s follow up attack as I turned to the Elite Warrior on my right. Instead of a cleaver-sword hacking into my unprotected flank, I saw the Elite Warrior redirecting his strike towards Neysa as she slammed headlong into the Orc’s Bronze Spiked Shield drawing agro.
Though the impact drove the Orc a step back, Neysa couldn’t get the Knockdown strike that she needed. As her hardened claws uselessly skittered down the thick metal, I could only watch in helpless horror as the Elite Warrior’s heavy blade bit deep into her muscular neck. Before I could close the distance between us, the Orc tore the cleaver-sword free with a hard yank and followed up with a brutal Shield Bash that drove the bronze spike deep into Neysa’s flank.
This was the first time I’d seen my girl so grievously wounded in a fight. Even though she was officially my combat mount, I’d always managed to protect her from serious injuries. I’m sure that hardcore players watching my Twitch Channel thought I was an idiot for not using her to her full capabilities like any other weapon in The World, but the soulbound connection we shared made it impossible for me to treat her in such a way. As the bright, red blood streaming down her neck and heaving sides stained her silver fur red, something inside of me snapped as I completely lost it.
Grabbing the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter by the base of the blade and hilt, I dropped to one knee and spun around to drive the heavy blade deep into the back of the Orc’s unarmored knee. In that same moment, I saw Helgath duck below the Elite Warrior’s shield to jab her daggers underneath the leather wrap around the Orc’s waist as I drove the edge of my blade through muscle and bone.
Even though Helgath and my strikes barely did any actual damage, the horrified whimper of agony as the Elite Warrior dropped his blade and fell to his knees told a different story. As the Orc’s hands clutched at his bleeding groin, a flash of bloody silver fur lunged past me as Neysa snatched the Orc’s pained face in her crushing jaws, while this was going on, Helgath slipped behind the Elite Warrior’s back to strike with a double Backstab.
With a snarl of rage, I yanked my blade free and spun back around and launched myself in the air. Keeping the same shortened grip on the Bastard Sword, I swung the blade in a tight arc over my head. The secret to fighting when outnumbered was to keep moving, I silently repeated to myself, as I rammed the point of the heavy blade into the base of the Orc’s neck that was facing off against Neristhana. The unexpected strike staggered the Orc, catching the enraged demi-human by surprise as I triggered Backstab.
Once again, a mass of energy surged up my arm and through my body as I used my momentum and the weight of my body to rip the blade free. The odd move combined with the size difference between us caused the blade to sharply rip sideways inside the Orc’s chest, mangling everything inside. The grunt of agony turned into a gurgling shriek as the Elite Warrior’s heart and lungs were shredded before the blade ripped free. The strike was quickly turning into a classic Startum move, I proudly thought, as I dropped to the ground.
Unfortunately, before I could turn around, a massive battle axe slammed into the center of my chest. The blow caught me by complete surprise as, once again, the damage was absorbed by the Holy Shield surrounding me but it shattered into golden sparks soon after. While the full damage was luckily absorbed, it did nothing in regards to the physics of the blow as I was launched into the air.
Not that I went very far. Somehow, in the few seconds of flight, I managed to twist around in midair to get my two-handed sword thrusted out in front of me a moment before colliding with another Orc. As my body slammed to a stop against the Elite Warrior’s Bronze Spiked Shield, the iron blade skittered over the top edge of the shield as the point punched through the new Orc’s eye and the back of her head. As the demi-human reeled from the surprised blow, I heard my Orc attacker’s enraged bellow at being denied the gout of blood it thought the hit so rightly deserved.
Bouncing off another Orc’s shield, I felt a crushing blow slam into my armored back as I rammed my sword into another Elite Warrior’s gut as we both reeled from the impact. Stomping the Orc’s foot with my iron-reinforced boot, I slammed the hilt of my sword into the Elite Warrior’s pained face and shoved them away as an Iron Spike Mace slammed into the side of my helm as my Enhanced Magic Armor shattered into shards of white light.
I don’t really remember much of what happened after that. While our assault started out strong, it all went to shit as blades cut, slashed, and stabbed at me from every direction. The high I received from the rushing surge of energy from each sword strike was counterbalanced by the agony running through my body as I was struck from every direction. My parries, dodges, lunges, and ripostes were automatic as I did my best to weather the storm of incoming blows.
Catching a Shield Bash in the face, I used the momentum to thrust my two-handed blade into the nearest
Orc’s face as I slammed to a stop against the Warrior’s armored chest. As energy surged through my body, a mace slammed into my arm with bone-breaking force as I was sent flying in another direction. An iron spear tip pierced my shoulder a moment before a cleaver hacked into the side of my neck, while other blows skittered across my breastplate or pounded against the shield strapped across my back.
Through the chaotic battle, I caught glimpses of my ladies fighting alongside of me. Neysa’s neck and flanks were covered in bloody wounds as she savagely threw herself at the Elite Warriors attacking me. Even though her muzzle was a battered wreck with one eye swollen shut, she fought with everything she had, refusing to leave me to my brutal fate. As she reared up on her hind legs to force herself past the armored Orcs, I saw an iron-tipped spear suddenly pierce her breast.
Her mental shriek of agony tore at my heart as Helgath threw herself at the Elite Orc Warrior that was driving the iron-tipped spearhead through Neysa’s chest. Clamping her legs around the Orc’s broad neck, I could feel the Half-Orc’s rage at her girlfriend’s agony as she ferociously hammered at the Elite Warrior with everything she had. In that same brief glimpse, I saw a haggard Neristhana with torn clothing and covered in gore hacking at the spear shaft as she did her best to free the Silver Dire Wolf.
I lost sight of their struggle as a crushing blow slammed into my gut, doubling me over in agony as the air was forcibly expelled from my lungs. Another series of crushing blows struck me in the head and back as I was pounded into the ground like a wooden stake. Hugging the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter to my chest, I rolled up into a ball to protect my face and gut from the terrible beating as I was kicked and stomped from every direction. Tears streamed from my eyes at the shame of not being able to protect my girls as my ribs snapped from the brutal beating and my Black Coral armor began to fail. In that moment, I was sure it was all over, when Domenic’s shout changed everything.
“Fire in the hole!”
Hope flared in my chest at the deafening roar that ripped through the pass as the mass of Orcs surrounding me disappeared in a massive explosion. The resulting flash of flames covered everything as the air was sucked from my lungs. The explosion reminded me of the whoosh of fire you’d get when lighting a grill with too much lighter fluid, only a thousand times worse. The intense heat that briefly seared my face and exposed skin felt like a blast oven’s door to hell had been thrown open as the world erupted around me. The heat disappeared in the blink of an eye as a gale-like wind came rushing back into the area. It dragged me across the ground for several feet as the smaller bits of dirt and debris were swept up and expelled into the sky above the center of the immense explosion.
Wow, those Moonshine Elementals really were crazy powerful, I thought with a mental shake of my head. Too bad V-MMORG was going to gimp the fuck out of them come morning. I could already imagine the new Emergency Hot Fix hitting on upon login and Domenic bitching up a storm, especially once he found out that Rani was actually an Admin. I rolled my eyes. Of course, it would all be my fault.
Too bad, because it really was an incredible experience that you could only experience inside of a full immersion video game like this. The nearest thing that I could equate it to was that of my grandfather’s old war stories. Grandpa had been a Marine during World War II and had fought in the Pacific War. Until this day, I still remembered his gravelly voice and serious demeanor when he’d talk about living through battleship artillery barrages or dealt with snipers as the soldiers around him had their brains splattered over half the platoon. Yeah, he didn’t hold anything back, but, even though his stories were extremely graphic, they filled me with a sense of honor and bravery that I’d always tried to live up to.
Shaking the stray thought away, I focused on my HUD as I tried to figure out why I couldn’t move, along with the status of my ladies. My own situation was easy enough to figure out as soon as I saw the various debuffs with their count downs below my name. Stunned, Concussed, and Deafened flashed under my name as I laid on my back looking up at the grungy sky unable to move, which was when the flashing icon for Vampiric Touch disappeared.
If I hadn’t been watching my HUD so closely, I would’ve thought I was dying as the extra twenty-three hundred temporary hit points I’d gained during the fight suddenly drained away in the blink of an eye. The terrible weakness that washed over my mind and filled my limbs was staggering in its intensity. It was like coming off of an adrenaline high, but worse, since the nearly twenty-five hundred points of damage I’d taken was instantly subtracted from my remaining health. As my hit point bar began flashing the angry red of near death, I gasped as the pains of my multiple wounds flooded my senses all at once.
I would’ve puked if I had any control over my body. The weak feeling made me sick to my stomach as my world turned into a sea of agony. I could only lay there gasping for breath as I tried to get a handle on the void-like feeling that left me an emotionally drained empty husk. The extra energy I’d received upon each successful strike of my Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter had made me initially feel invincible, but the mental crash that came over me once the Vampiric Touch had faded away was just as devastating in its own right.
Obviously, the special ability had an almost habit-forming effect, I sourly thought, as I focused my mind to dispel the unusual urge that welled up inside of me to pick up the powerful two-handed blade and slaughter everything in my path. It was an odd feeling that I’d never had to contend with before and reminded me of the fantasy stories I’d read of heroes who’d wielded cursed swords and how they’d have to fight off their own weapons’ addictive effects. Had V-MMORG planned for certain weapons to influence players that way on purpose or was this an unknown side-effect of the unique ability and its effects through the FIVR interface? It was an interesting question. Ignoring the sweat breaking out on my forehead, I stifled the compelling urges and accepted the awful pain of my wounds.
That helped the most. The pain was real … or as real as it needed to be within this virtual world. As the mental pressure began fading away, my thoughts urgently returned to the rest of my team and the dire situation they’d been in just before the explosion. Hurriedly my eyes swept over my soulmates and companions’ status bars listed on my HUD. Everyone’s health was in the yellow of moderately injured except for Neysa’s who’s was flashing the red of near death.
Studying the timer for my own debuffs in comparison, I gauged that there was more than enough time to heal the Silver Dire Wolf up before she died, I thought with a sigh of relief, as I watched the seconds tick down. The unnatural silence was the most surreal part of the experience, besides the burnt bloody chunks of Orc body parts, dirt, rocks, bent armor, and weapons that were raining down from the sky around me. It was like the crazy bridge scene from the movie Twister when the pick-up truck and tractor suddenly came crashing out of the sky after the tornado had passed by.
Knowing that I had to move quickly to save Neysa’s life, I took a deep breath to prepare myself for the effort. As the seconds ticked down to zero, I whimpered in pain while I struggled to climb to my hands and knees. The fingers of both hands felt broken as I braced my chest against the ground and got my battered legs working enough to wedge them underneath my abused body. It felt like the ends of several broken ribs were rubbing against the inside of my warped breastplate as I groaned and pushed myself up on all fours.
At times like this, the in-game pain was unreal, I thought, as I hacked out a mouthful of blood and sucked in a wheezing breath. Doing my best to ignore the agony of my broken body, I urgently searched the torn up battlefield for my soulmates and companions as blood ran from my eyes, ears, and nose from the herculean effort that alone had taken. While I could’ve healed the injuries, I was concerned that I wouldn’t have enough mana left for healing Neysa’s injuries. Focusing in on a spear shaft sticking up out of a pile of Orcs several yards away, I let out the ragged breath I’d been holding as I hit Neysa’s beaten body with a Regeneration spe
ll just as her hit points dropped below a hundred points of health.
‘I’ve gotcha,’ I mentally murmured to Neysa through our shared mental link. ‘Helgath, where are you? We need to remove the spear from Neysa’s chest or she’s going to bleed out.’
Casting a quick Mend Bones, I gritted my teeth through the waves of nausea that washed over me as my mana dropped down to ninety-three points. Thankfully, I was getting used to fighting through the light-headedness that mana exhaustion brought with it as I hooked my forearm around the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter’s hilt and began crawling over the carpet of burnt Orc bodies that littered the ground. Even though healing-wise Mend Bones was a relatively weak spell, I could feel the broken bones in my chest and hands already beginning to knit themselves back together with each painful shuffle I took forward.
‘Can anyone hear me?’ I asked, as soon as it percolated through my sluggish mind that neither of my girls had answered back.
Looking towards where I’d last seen my soulmate and companions, I began to worry as I realized that no one else had begun to move. A quick check of their statuses showed that they still had over a minute left before their debuffs would wear off, which was probably due to the fact that they’d still been on their feet when the Moonshine Elementals had exploded. That disconcerting thought made me do a quick Inspection of the Orcs I was crawling over.
Immediately, I nervously gulped at what I had discovered. While most of the Elite Warriors were dead, it looked like about one in ten were still alive albeit seriously injured. Even so, in my current condition, it wouldn’t take much to kick my ass. Forcing my slowly healing body to its limit, I reached Neysa’s side with thirty-three seconds left to spare before their debuffs ended. I figured, it was going to be a similar story for the Orcs’ debuffs too.
‘Sorry about that, I just realized you’re both still stunned,’ I said, glancing over at Helgath apologetically before laying a comforting hand on Neysa’s blood-matted neck. She had so many wounds that it was almost impossible to know where it was safe to touch her. Seeing the love and relief that flooded into her swollen eye as she looked up at me made my heart ache. As an unconscious tear ran down my cheek, I gently kissed her muzzle as I carefully stroked the side of her head. ‘Give me a second and I’ll get you fixed up.’
