by Pavel Kornev
From time to time, I saw animals that I disturbed among the trees, but I didn’t distract myself with them, continuing my even paced jog. The first time I stopped was when I heard screams up ahead and the path took me to a forest clearing with the gaping hole of an abandoned mine in the middle. Two groups of players were enthusiastically fighting each other. They were letting attacks through and dying but then coming back to the game almost immediately by the raid altars that were installed nearby and simply charged back into the fray. The resurrection points were protected with such powerful enchantments that there were few who were brave enough to attack the enemy camp.
There was no way that a battle could have started in such a strange place at random. The strange mineshaft was probably the reason for the fight. It was even possible that this was another Death Disciple lair with another shard of the Sphere of Souls.
I wanted to sneak inside the dungeon, but then I saw a fireball fly from the clearing and hit the pine tree beside me, making the huge tree light up like a match. I retreated and ran away.
And again, I ran and ran and ran. All night through.
The dead have no need for sleep, but when it was getting close to dawn I couldn’t even think clearly anymore. I was just mechanically moving my feet and looking from side to side thoughtlessly.
Twenty-four hours on my feet — anyone would have lost their minds!
The path had also taken me to the foothills, so I had no need to choose directions anymore. You run and run along the side of the mountain waiting until you find a crossing. I had no map of my surroundings, so I had to take things as they went.
My tiredness had lowered my level of attention, so I didn’t notice the rope stretched across the path with the grass twined around it and just felt its taut resistance, the creak of a tree and the rustle of leaves. My leveled up Dodge skill saved me. My body moved aside by itself and bent down so that the log that flew out of the darkness missed me and swung on the ropes.
My apathy disappeared as if it was never there and I slipped into the bushes, activating stealth mode.
I was just in time!
The bearded man with an axe that jumped out onto the path looked to and for in confusion but didn’t notice me. I didn’t spend time working out whether this was a bandit or a simple hunter, I stepped up behind him and swung my flamberge, hacking through his chest from his left collarbone to his solar plexus. The ruffian fell to the ground, drowning everything around in his blood.
The inertia of the strike made me turn around and I found myself face to face with two vagabonds that were coming at me from behind. One bore a short hunting spear while the other was swinging around a club with metal spikes.
I only needed a little experience to reach the next level, so I didn’t run away, getting a better grip on my two-handed sword, I prepared to down my opponents using Sweeping Strike. I’d already stepped up to them but then suddenly became wary.
The bandits weren’t shouting or gnashing their teeth, their eyes were empty. And dead.
They were undead!
So what happened to neutrality?
I felt the touch of cold on my back, spun around and caught the shadow flying from the bushes with a strike of my flamberge. My wavy blade was right on target, but caused no damage at all. More than that — it was spun around and torn out of my hands!
Shackled Soul: Immunity to damage!
The angry spirit attacked again. I struck back with my clawed hand and it went straight through the ghost, while I was thrown onto my back.
I fell onto the path by the bandits and immediately knocked the legs from under the bearded man with a spear. I had to roll away from the other thug before he could use his club. My roll finished in the spiky bushes, where I was attacked by yet another shackled soul while trying to push my way out of the thorns. My hand fell on my bone hook, so I pulled it out from behind my belt and blindly fought back against the spirit.
The shackled soul simply dissolved into thin air!
Soulkiller’s runes shone with ghostly fire and the handle became noticeably warmer, as if the weapon had imbibed the power of another.
I broke out of the bushes and looked around, searching for the second spirit, but it managed to hit me from behind and knocked me over into the grass. I didn’t manage to get back to my feet this time — Garth appeared as if from nowhere and stabbed the ashen stake he held in his hands straight through me, pinning me to the ground with the sharpened piece of wood.
The ash pierced my lungs and cracked my ribs and my body still became paralyzed even though my spine was intact.
I could move neither hand nor foot!
What the hell?
Natural rejection of unlife: Save failed!
Garth Deathblade fearlessly crouched by my side and stretched his hand out to pinch me on the cheek, but thought the better of it and adjusted his dusty mantle. He didn’t move away though.
Why would he anyway? The piece of wood that was imbued with druidic magic had immediately sucked away all of my Stamina and taken root, with buds and leaves starting to grow upon it. Its outgrowths started to pierce my lungs and suck the liquid out of me. They weren’t even killing me, but honestly and shamelessly using me.
“There are many ways to kill one of the walking dead and I chose one of the most unpleasant for the victim,” the necromancer told me in a confiding manner. “I had to spend some gold as the druids charge huge amounts for their services, but I would only save the best for you. This is only the beginning. When I set up your new log-in location then you’ll fully appreciate my fine taste, I assure you!”
Garth bared his dagger and opened up my rib cage, but he was unable to cut out my heart because it was already entwined by roots.
“Are you sure you want to say that you threw the skull somewhere along the road and that you will be reborn somewhere else? No! You ran away as fast as you could! Anyway, there is no way you can hide from me. You are like an open book to me and I can see right through your thoughts. Don’t even hope for the skull to go down the mouth of a volcano! You’ll not get away that easily. I’ll make sure that you are kept in a comfortable dungeon. Your friends won’t be shy about paying for my services and I’ll provide them with online streaming services instead. They’ll have something to watch.”
I could have told him that I felt no pain, but I couldn’t.
Paralysis, damn it.
TO BE HONEST THOUGH, it made no difference. Garth managed to scare me. I knew that his talk wasn’t cheap. That is what he would do.
Or what he would do if he could, to be more precise. But not this time.
The roots of the ash stake that pierced me reached my head, my eyes went dark and then I went to be resurrected again, how many times, I don’t know.
Before the world finally went dark, I received a system notification.
Vendetta: Garth Deathblade
I guess we killed each other too many times so it can’t have gone unnoticed by the game mechanics...
2
MUD. REED ROOTS. Muddy water.
I got out of the swamp onto a relatively dry patch and powerlessly collapsed onto the sedge.
It was morning and the sun had already risen about the horizon, but it wasn’t too high yet. I was protected from its fiery rays by the bushes on the riverbank. I also still had my cloak and mask. At least something decent had happened, apart from the fact that I’d managed to outfox the insane necromancer yet again. If I could only work out where I was...
“Uncle John?” I heard from somewhere nearby. “Have you already come back?”
“Yeah, I’ve come back,” I confirmed, rising on my elbow and then asked the boy, “Do you have my skull? You haven’t lost it, have you?”
“How could I?” the boy replied resentfully. “It’s here! Do you want it back?”
“No, keep it with you.” I saw down on the cold earth and discovered that I was covered with clay from the swamp from head to toe. “Where are we?”
�
�Near Stone Harbor. It’s a town on the Twisted Lake.”
I thought of the map of the world and worked out that the Twisted Lake was a large body of water with many islands that was two days from the Tower of Darkness. The Azure River led into it from one side and left on the other, taking its waters to the ocean.
The town of Stone Harbor was on a river island connected to the mainland by two bridges. I didn’t want to waste time on visiting it, so I asked, “What happened to the boat?”
“The bottom got breached upon the rocks,” the boy sniffed. “We can’t sail any further anymore, anyway. The Twisted Lake is so stormy now that even the barges don’t dare sail on it.”
I could barely hold myself back from cursing and just muttered, “I see...”
Did I see? Not really, I had no idea what to do next. We couldn’t stay in one place and we needed to move, otherwise the insane necromancer would catch up with us. However, going around the Twisted Lake on foot would be incredibly stupid. Garth could teleport himself to any town on my way and ambush us on the road.
Teleport himself?
I snapped my fingers. That’s right! Teleport!
There should definitely be a Tower of Power in Stone Harbor, which meant that it was possible to use a teleportation portal. It would be rather expensive to teleport to the capital, but if I sold the amulets, I should have enough money. Probably...
“Let’s go!” I called the boy. “How do we get into the city?”
The red-haired boy cast a wistful look at the reed shelter and the fish on sticks over the fire but then immediately forgot about them and strode off along the shore.
“We’ll have to walk until we reach the bridge,” he said to me as we walked along. “There is a guard detail there and they don’t like vagabonds, but if we have some sort of business, they will let us through...”
“A guard detail?” I asked warily.
“Yes, because the army of the dead is somewhere nearby.”
That was the last thing I needed! The proximity of the army of the Lord of the Tower of Decay didn’t worry me at all, but how would I go around the bridge? I couldn’t even think about walking across the river as its bed became noticeably narrower here and the wild stream of its water jumped and foamed over the rocks. If I even tried to go there, I’d immediately be carried into the lake. The bank on the other side was practically vertical. It would be impossible to get to the top without mountain climbing skills.
That meant that I ‘d have to rely on Incognito...
I looked at my black claws doubtfully, sighed and looked for my money pouch. I took out a large silver coin, gave it to the boy and asked, “Go to the shop, buy a pair of gloves and come back. I will be waiting for you here.”
The quest generation menu opened automatically and I just needed to confirm the quest for the boy to start off on a bouncy run along the path that followed the shore.
I stood there for a little while, thinking about the situation that I found myself in and then followed the boy. I climbed up onto a small hill overgrown with hazelnut trees, where there was a view of the bridge. It turned out to be made of solid stone, with two guard towers on the other side. There were no gates in between them, but judging by the tight chains I saw, the guard could raise the last part of the bridge on that side. The pennants hanging on the spires fluttered in the piercing wind that came from the side of the lake. I couldn’t see the guards as they must have gone inside to hide from the bad weather. It was no wonder, as the clouds hung low and there was an unpleasant drizzle.
It didn’t make my fisherman’s cape any drier, which was why I descended from the hill, adjusted the flamberge on my back and walked back towards the reed shelter. I escaped the rain, sat down on the bedding and cracked my knuckles.
I felt uncomfortable. I was annoyed at the delay.
I was way more than annoyed.
To occupy myself with something, I opened my character stat window and thoughtfully stared at the profession specific skill point that I hadn’t assigned yet.
What could I do with it?
I suddenly remembered how well the bone hook had destroyed the incorporeal spirit, so I started to study the one-handed swordfighting section. The set of skills in it turned out the be the same as the moves for two-handed weapons, but there were some small differences. For instance, there were two new moves in the list: “Accurate Strike” and “Sudden Strike”.
The first of these moves would allow me to strike right at the precise point I needed with my blade and increased the chance of crippling the target. The second could be useful for player killers. If an Executioner used it to initiate combat, they would deal a critical hit even without being in stealth mode. However, the increased damage didn’t always apply — it all depended on the comparative Agility of the warrior and the Perception of their victim.
I invested the point I had into one-handed swordfighting which made the moves I studied for two-handed weapons unblocked in this section as well, to my great surprise. I added “Sudden Strike” to them.
Was I a rogue, or what?
It was a shame that it wasn’t possible to use this trick with two-handed weapons...
THE RAIN WHISPERED softly on the roof of the shelter but it didn’t pour inside, so my cloak started to gradually dry out. The swamp mud didn’t go anywhere, though. I looked like some sort of vagrant. A proper scarecrow!
I got out of the shelter, went down to the water and started to wash my clothing. I never managed to clean it entirely, but the fisherman’s cape still started to look relatively acceptable. At the end of the day, the weather was terrible and a traveler couldn’t stay clean no matter how much they wanted .
After I washed my hands, I stood back up and went back to the shelter, but a tall elf suddenly came out from behind it, dressed in green britches and a brown jacket, with a longbow behind his back. The bowman was as surprised at the unexpected meeting as I was and was dumbstruck with surprise for a moment.
Ranger, Level 27 was all I glimpsed from the tag that appeared in the corner of my eye before I dashed off, but being in a hurry didn’t do me any good. I should have gone into stealth mode and only attacked my opponent afterwards, while this way I had jumped up close to the bowman when his companions appeared — a level 23 priest and a level 28 duelist warrior.
“I’ve put my foot in it,” flashed through my head. The only thing that could save me in this situation would be running away, as jumping into the river would see me smashed to pieces against the sharp rocks.
So I didn’t jump into the river. I sent the elf there instead. I just grabbed him and threw him forcefully into the wild stream of the river. My superiority in Strength and Constitution showed itself, as the thin ranger flew from my arms as if he was a missile flying from a catapult. All he could do was scream.
The priest raised a staff with a shining crystal above his head, but I felled him with a powerful kick under the chest and drew the flamberge from behind my back. I immediately hacked its wavy blade into the duelist and growled with disappointment. The warrior had managed to arm himself with dual wielded sabers and crossed them to parry the attack.
I stepped back but then attacked again, using Sweeping Strike. The flamberge whooshed through the air, but the warrior parried the blade with his saber and used a quick pirouette to step aside while cutting at me with the weapon in his other hand.
The damage was not great, so I charged my opponent, wanting to cut him in half with a powerful strike before the priest could get out of the mud. The duelist demonstrated a level of swordfighting unimaginable to me again. Somehow, he got out of the way of my blade and then his twin sabers turned into propeller blades.
One! Two! Three! The rapid cuts took off almost a third of my health. The attacks hit my back so they didn’t inflict any crippling wounds, but my movements still became slower, with my long and heavy blade shaking in my hands.
Damn it! A rogue should never get into a fight with a warrior! Swordfighting is a great sk
ill!
I jumped back and entered stealth mode. This was when the one-sided specialization of the warrior showed itself — he didn’t have enough perception to see me. The duelist retreated, slashing empty air with his sabers.
Catch!
I leapt over to his side and brought my flamberge down on his collarbone.
The duelist managed to raise his shoulder at the last moment, so that my blade got caught on his shoulder guard instead. The hit was made lighter and didn’t completely destroy my opponent, it only took away half of his life.
The sabers rose, one cutting the neck and the other almost slashing open my head. My Dodge skill saved me, but I still went blind in my left eye. I had to jump back, preparing to go into stealth mode yet again.
The duelist also wasted no time, as he took a flask and drank a healing potion.
“Light!” he shouted at the top of his voice.
What was that all about?
I went into stealth mode again and raised my flamberge when I heard a bright flash behind my back. All of the shadows disappeared and it made me turn into a shadow. An ugly and twisted shadow, but one that was perfectly visible with the naked eye.
The duelist charged me, easily dodged my flamberge and swung his sabers. I had to take the left blade on the cross-guard while the rest cut into my hip down to the bone.
I had no chance to oppose a skilled warrior in an honest fight, so I turned around and rushed towards the priest whose shining staff was covering everything with unbearable light.
Sharpened steel cut into my back, immediately throwing my health into the red, but the duelist never expected such speed from me and only chased me after an unforgivably long break for an experienced warrior. I managed to get away.
