Battle Avatars

by Ed White

Remy nods as he continues to study the glyphs and sigils glowing around him at the base of a large standing stone at the center of the temple, the center point of the city, carved from the living rock of the cavern, at a sacred crossing of ley lines. A torrent of light rises like a geyser to the enormous crystal above.

  An eschen.

  “Lisa, do you think this eschen functions with your Vile Vortex like the one in the Fell Lands?” I say.

  Lisa shrugs. “We can try?”

  Mal shakes his head. “What are you going to do? Hit her?”

  Lisa waves his comment away. “We told you how we got to the Path of the Fallen quest.”

  Despite our attempts, nothing happens.

  “I vote we abandon this idea.” Everyone glances back at me. “Do we really want to arrive in the center of the next Chol city, with at least double the population, who are pissed off by the evacuation of this place? Which, by the way, is because of those bat demon things. I know we can’t stay here. Let’s walk the hell out.”

  Remy waves his hand at the sigils. “I’ve never used one of their gateways, I avoided the Chol when possible. The Lemurian Enclaves are far less populated and more conducive to finding value items and mid-range XP challenges.”

  Mal scoffs, sucking his teeth. “What about the XP for the Boss? If we kill Greywaters do we earn its rewards?”

  He seems to have forgotten no stats appeared when we challenged the Boss.

  Lisa ignores him. “We can’t redirect a gateway to the Enclaves. We have to meet up with Kona and the others in Haven, they must have respawned by now.” She points at me. “And find a way to get David reset in a proper avatar.”

  I look at my avatar body, standing beside me, where I placed it. I’ll need to carry it back to Haven at this rate. The hell. Maybe Julia will sort it out, not kick me out. If I’m lucky.

  Mal huffs and turns to walk out of the temple. “Let’s go, it’ll be a long walk.”

  Lisa smiles her infectious grin. “Maybe Fast Travel will be working soon.”

  Mal grunts, exiting the gateway chamber. “Don’t forget your body, Greywaters.”

  Like I’d forget my own body. What an asshole.

  Lisa looks up at me. “You can’t access any of the skinwalker’s abilities or skill tree?”

  “No. I don’t think this is supposed to happen. Some sort of error?”

  Lisa shrugs.

  With my body over my shoulder, we follow Remy and Mal. “What if I’m stuck like this?”

  Lisa squeezes my desiccated hand. “We’ll talk later.”

  ***

  Our fractious adventuring party emerges at the base of a large collapsed cave entrance, much like the smaller, unaltered cave entrance I first emerged from with Remy. Unlike that cavernous hole in the jungle floor, the jungle growing within this cave entrance is managed, forming a cathedral of natural wonder. A thirty or forty-foot wide staircase stretches from the broad limestone floor of the cave, which is leveled and clear of debris.

  At the top of the resplendent staircase a large stone plaza stretches out, bordered by flat-top, truncated pyramids and the jungle beyond those. We can see where the spiders, having emerged from underground, climbed trees to the vines hanging from sky islands, or shot web strands, to reach the sky islands and weave their parachute strands at altitude. Thankfully, all are now long gone—Kona, Paul, Granger, and Jonesy with them.

  Crossing the plaza, we stop at the edge of the jungle. Broad causeways stretch off, crafted of large interlocking stones raised above the jungle floor along their path—all clear of growth. Odd that any roads are required, but healthy trade is afforded by accessibility. Crafters and the in-game economy supersedes the eating of souls I guess.

  “Canopy?” I gesture at the trees.

  Mal shakes his head, dismissive, stretching an arm to the lowest branch of the nearest forest giant.

  “Canopy it is,” Lisa says and grips hold of a vine. “I bet you can scamper up these trees with ease in that skinwalker body.”

  She’s being playful, well-meaning but I still have to point out the obvious. “This thing is more of a hollow dog man. It isn’t a cat.”

  Lisa giggles, hanging from the vine.

  I grip a thicker vine and find climbing is much easier, even with my true body slung over my shoulder. This body may not be part cat, but it’s strong. I’m soon pacing the rogues, leaving Lisa behind. I may not be able to access my UI or the skills of the skinwalker, but I have its armor class and defensive stats, its strength and stunning demon-thing looks. I joke, but what’s sexy to another skinwalker is not for me to judge. Passive skills should be available and we’ll find out if and when we encounter mobs.

  We continue through the canopy to the marker on Remy’s shared map. The portion of the map he chose to share.

  The Way of the Walk [Fast Travel] online.

  Mal tilts his head. “That changes things.”

  Lisa and I exchange glances.

  “I think the others will have respawned at Haven.”

  Remy nods. “Or from that owl lady to Haven by Fast Travel. Party chat is still unavailable.”

  He’s correct—the option is still greyed out. “Since we can’t talk to each other, the only option is to return to Haven and look for them at the Wilds Edge.”

  Mal flips his hand. “Then we’re agreed. Let’s get down from here and head back.”

  Minutes later, at the base of the great trees, we make ready to go.

  “If we don’t find them, we can create our own quest and have others join us on a campaign against the Chol,” Lisa says to me.

  With that, we each sprint forward and I collide with a tree. I can’t enter the Way of the Walk.

  Determined to get everyone back together, I push away from the wall of smooth bark like a pissed off MMA fighter. It does me no good and the gargantuan tree remains unimpressed. Picking a clear route between the buttress roots, among the relatively thick undergrowth, I adjust my proper body hanging over my skinwalker shoulder and dash forward, stumble and fall into acrid ashen dust.

  I’m back in the Grey Zone.

  ***

  The now familiar chill wind and bitter taste mixed with the baleful silence clutch at me. There’s no escape from this place. I return time and time again.

  With resigned effort, I stand, noting my hands are my own, I’m not manifested in the skinwalker body here in this grim limbo of waste. There is very little smoke and I can see farther across the expansive plane.

  Did the Conglomerate start with the trope of a post-apocalyptic world as a gameplay zone? Maybe not. If a war was waged on Earth, as it is across the Realms, this could be the end result. Am I wondering the Fell Lands or one of the devastated worlds of the Realms?

  Where the hell are the hackers? Are they responsible? This is as close to a game instance and a patch as I’ve gotten since my experience with the red Battle Avatar. This may be a result of their interference. If the hackers know about me, then they are after me like I hunt for them.

  Whoa. Whoa. Is Julia using me as bait? Whatever the case, it won’t help me here. Leaving this place must be key to re-entering my proper body—my game avatar.

  The previous avenue—the fountain—led me into the skinwalker’s body and who knows where the creature’s driving force went. Maybe I’ve displaced the NPC control AI.

  Who knows?

  The red glow from earlier remains on the horizon, deep and sullen crimson, rich like blood. Something to avoid other than to serve as a landmark. No, damn it. Red, that might be the glow of the next sedes if this place is a proper limbo. How far does the immersion of gameplay extend? Magic includes necromancy, why not visit the Spirit Worlds? Or the Underworld.

  So confusing. It doesn’t make sense.

  No game stats, no weapons. Baton won’t equip. No inventory or any UI access, and this grey, desaturated zone. I turn my hands over, glance at my torso, legs and feet. Grey. David Grey. What a sick irony.

  Smoke and ash whirl ac
ross the landscape as the bloody glow draws my attention. The green sedes has helped me several times already, even without being socketed. What value there is in XP and levels is outweighed by weaponizing the green soul box. Ex said the second sedes is close, and red. Is the source of the dread glow not so ominous? Is the pall of crimson emanating from the next sedes?

  Color, vivid green, flares around me. A warm flame, it doesn’t burn me, powered as it is by the green sedes. Until now I hadn’t noticed the cold. This place is an icy hell—Viking style.

  The emerald flames extinguish.

  “David?”

  “Lisa?” I spin around. “How?”

  Lisa stands a few feet from me, her body desaturated in muted colors, almost pastel and lacking the vibrancy of life. “I came back for you. Where are we?”

  “Don’t know. I call this place the Grey Zone.”

  Lisa frowns. “This is the place you saw the wraiths, I mean the players? Where are they?”

  “Don’t know.” I shrug. The lurid crimson on the horizon catches my eye. “What do you mean you came back for me?”

  Lisa steps closer. “We arrived in Haven and you didn’t. Mal said he’s going to look for Kona and the others, Remy didn’t say anything. I came back.”

  “And how’d you get here?”

  Lisa glances around us. “When I arrived where we’d left, both of your avatars lay on the ground in the undergrowth. When I touched you, my UI flashed saying my Vile Vortex triggered. There was a green flash of light blinding me and when it cleared I saw you standing in front of me.”

  I nod and rub my chin. “Hmm. I was just thinking about that, about there being a way back into my body from this place. Has to be. Maybe you can help.”

  “Not from in here. I don’t think I can leave.”

  We agree she’ll try. She makes a few constipation-faces, giggles and outright laughs, but nothing works. We decide to explore the Grey Zone.

  “How’d you get out of here before?”

  I shrug. “It wasn’t really here, in the Grey Zone, it was in one of my visions, sort of. A maze led to a fountain at its center. Once I looked into the pool surrounding the fountain, I woke up in the skinwalker’s avatar.”

  “What do you keep looking at over there?” Lisa points towards the sanguine horizon.

  “The red glow.”

  “Red glow? Where? Everything’s grey here. Even you’re sort of…dull in color.” She doesn’t see the glow and it ain’t the sun setting. Whatever light there is here, it illuminates the pale sky and is devoid of color—pale and weak.

  “Do you see something I’m missing?” She touches my arm and we both flinch. We’re solid here and neither of us quite expect it. I still don’t, half convinced as I am regarding the Grey Zone as a proper limbo of souls and our fading away, to ghosts—wraiths.

  “Maybe,” I say.

  Should we avoid the red glow as there’s no guarantee that it is a sedes? Perhaps I’m the only who can see it because I’m a level two player with a sedes already in my inventory. Anyway, getting out of this place is more important.

  A dark, blurred form rips past me knocking Lisa into the air. Lisa’s Vile Vortex didn’t activate to protect her and I’m too slow to react before it’s on me, its claws sunken into my desaturated body. The green aura of flame blazes around me burning away the smoking shadows on the beast, revealing his body beneath the sheath of shadows. It’s the skinwalker Boss in his skinwalker body.

  What the hell?

  ***

  The creature is equally bewildered, anger and frustration seething through its cold reflective eyes. A hiss rises from the skinwalker Boss as it makes furtive glances around itself, seeming to orient itself to our surroundings.

  Lisa makes a motion to equip her baton, but nothing happens. Confused, she stares at her hands and grunts, turning her head to me with an almost comical look of irritation.

  Shoving the thing away from me, its claws pulled from my chest with the force of my efforts, the skinwalker staggers to a stop. The beast paces, its deep-set eyes dart between Lisa and me. It doesn’t know what’s going on, any more than we do.

  “Where did this thing come from?” Lisa says, crouched in a defensive stance, here fists raised in a boxing form. Cool, what other sides of her do I have to discover?

  I rub my hands over my chest, the wound filled with the green flames of the sedes. “Don’t know, but it’s a Chol.”

  Lisa pinches her brow, my expert observational skills not well received. “Are those green flames from your sedes?”

  “Yeah. Pretty sure.”

  It isn’t clear what we should do. Brains over brawn? Diplomacy? What can a fight achieve here in this desolate place with no rewards, no XP or weapons?

  I raise my hands and pump the air.

  “Hello, my name is David. Lisa and I are trapped here. In fact, I’m stuck in your avatar. Are you a player like us? Trapped here like us?”

  The Boss stares at me, silent.

  “I guess you don’t like that—me in your body. Well, I don’t either and I’d like to get back into my avatar and back to anywhere that’s not here. Well, not just anywhere.”

  The skinwalker nods, speaking in a quiet, raspy voice, “We are trapped here! We relive our past and forge their future.”

  “Uhhh? We? Wait, what do you mean by ‘their’?” I glance at Lisa. “The Boss doesn’t look the same as when he first brought me here. When I entered this place the Boss walked up to me and his form shifted into a suave, metrosexual werewolf sorta demon. But look at him now, the Boss is a skinwalker, just like the body I’m trapped in back in the jungles of the Wilds.”

  What the hell is going on? Dozens of questions and no answers. Time and time again.

  I repeat my question to the skinwalker Boss. “We?”

  Swaying back and forth, the skinwalker taps his hand to his sunken, gaunt chest. “We. The Escuridon.”

  “Must be the name of their sect of playable animystics?” Lisa offers.

  “Okay, and who are they, you know, ‘their future’?”

  The skinwalker remains pensive, silent.

  “This is getting us nowhere.”

  The skinwalker isn’t moving to attack. I motion for Lisa to move toward me as I back away. We continue to retreat as the skinwalker watches us, his body ashen black.

  “Wherever this is, I think it mirrors our location in the Wilds. Let’s find the point of the eschen and maybe that will lead us out of here.”

  Lisa grips my arm. “But what about getting your body back?” She points at the Boss. “Think he has something to do with it?”

  I shake my head. “Nah, if anything, he wants his body and will kick me out, then I respawn and lose the sedes and level two. He can’t stay here any longer than we can before we all become wraiths, forfeiting our current player characters. I don’t care about that, we aren’t here to play, at least I’m not, but I’m not going to lose anything that gives me an advantage until I identify the hackers.”

  “We aren’t making any progress in that direction,” Lisa says.

  Sighing, I have to agree. “Yeah, but I’m not too sure that’s all that is going on. But first, we need to get out of this place.”

  Lisa shrugs. “Unless this place has something to do with it.”

  My eye on the skinwalker, I touch Lisa’s shoulder. “What if I’m not here to find the hacker but to reveal the hacker?”

  Silence. I glance at Lisa, she has a look of ‘WTF’ on her face.

  “Maybe I’m bait? Maybe Miss Beechum and the Conglomerate want to lure the hackers out because of what I did in the game instance. Like, the hackers don’t want revenge, not exactly, but something like that.”

  Lisa nods. “Maybe, so what about him?”

  The skinwalker keeps in pace with us as we walk backwards, but is less focused, almost in a trance and following us not out of determination, but curiosity and habit.

  Eyes closed, I shake my head. “I don’t think he’s an
NPC.”

  “All the cultures of the era are playable and like the old D&D, you can be chaotic neutral or any alignment. The deeper you look into your character stats, you’ll see it all listed,” Lisa says.

  “That’s the thing, none of that is accessible here, even our batons. That’s why your Vile Vortex didn’t defend you and teleport the Boss away.” I wave to the skinwalker, or Chol player, whatever he is, addressing him. “Join us and we might figure this out. As long as you don’t kick me out of your avatar. I haven’t agreed to any player versus player, see?”

  Silence. Whatever the skinwalker really is, he’s said nothing useful.

  Lisa frowns. “It is me or is he acting more like a zombie?”

  I nod. “Like a wraith. I think he’s been in here too long.”

  With Lisa’s watchful eye alert for any sudden moves from the skinwalker, I take a moment to survey the horizon. While this place appears to be a dead plane, a dead world, our arrival suggests there is a gateway, a “beaming point” from which we traveled. The center of the Chol city was a sacred point of crossing ley lines. If the Grey Zone mirrors our location in-game, then the eschen in the Chol city is here too, underground. If this is a limbo of souls, the body of the skinwalker—its psychic powers—served as a gateway. That makes the Grey Zone a psychic zone.

  “Lisa, out in the Realms, the wars are psychic wars, right?”

  She frowns. “Yes. Think this place might be a psychic zone?”

  I nod. “I first thought it was one of the worlds devastated in the wars. You know, maybe the game instance caused an error that jumped me out into the Realms.”

  “One of the battle planes? You think that’s what the hackers are trying to do?”

  I don’t know, but there’s so much about Lenscape I don’t know, and it’s all so damned cool.

  “Wait.” I turn to face the skinwalker. “Wait a minute. You wouldn’t tell me the truth anyhow, but are you one of the hackers?”

  Lisa nods and waves a finger at the skinwalker. “Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.”

  The skinwalker has stopped moving. His body sways, trance like. By all rights, the skinwalker should tear us apart. If he’s just an NPC. He could be a hacker, and if so, hiding undercover as I am. But the Grey Zone makes no sense unless the hackers created it as a staging ground or hidden area of the game unknown to the Conglomerate and Julia Beechum’s staff.