by Jakob Tanner
I almost spoke up, but then I hesitated. Something didn’t feel right.
The safety of my friends and the kidnapped kids didn’t guarantee the well-being of everyone else in Laergard; and Bertwald and Jared’s regime would only continue to harm more people in their pursuit of knowledge and power. These guys were evil through and through. An alliance with them was not to be rationalized. It was a sign of approval for all the messed up shit they’d done. No way. I got angrier and angrier as I thought about everyone they had harmed. All the people they’d kidnapped and murdered.
“Your answer?” asked Bertwald.
I conjured two giant fireballs in my hands. “Fuck you, you psychotic murderous piece of shit!”
I lifted my arms and unleashed the flames at the necrotician’s face.
30
The necrotician back flipped in the air and dodged the fire blast.
“So you’ve made your choice then,” smiled Bertwald. He lifted his arms and a ghoulish crackle of green lightning shot through his bony pale hands and out towards a pile of femurs and skulls resting in the corner. The eldritch magic seeped through the bones, levitating them off the ground. The nightmarish lightning threaded itself across the different skeletal pieces, gluing the ossified remains and creating the necromantic cartilage needed to hold all the bones together. In seconds, the pile of loose skulls, mandibles, rib cages, spinal columns and other fossilized pieces had been brought to life in the form of three skeleton warriors, their eyes glowing a bright neon green. They picked up scimitars off the ground and charged towards me.
Skeleton Warrior
Level 9
HP: 360
MP: 9
I hurried to the back of the laboratory, keeping an eye on Bertwald. The king’s advisor skulked around the operating tables, coming towards me with a dagger drawn.
My fingers heated up as a swirl of orange flames emerged in the palm of my hands. I pulled my arm back and swung the fiery projectile at the incoming skeletons. The fireball swirled through the air, knocking straight into a skeleton warrior’s head, decapitating him. The skull of the warrior went flying across the room. The fossilized head crashed against the side of a wall, crackling to dust.
Aha.
I whipped the fireball in my other hand at the other skeleton warrior, knocking its head off like the first. I did the same with the third skeleton warrior as well.
A glint of steel flashed in my vision. I maneuvered out of the way but it was too late. Bertwald’s dagger dug into my shoulder blade. At first it felt like he had only punched me with his fist, but then the steel slid out from my flesh. A cold shiver ran through my body. The attack had taken 15% of my HP off. He swung down again but I summoned another fireball, clenched my burning fingers into a fist and laid a fire punch to his gut. He reeled backwards from the blow.
Bertwald’s eyes bulged and he wiped blood and drool from his face with his pale hand. He ran back at me, dagger in the air.
What was I doing fighting in such close quarters? Hell to the no.
I blasted off from my position in the corner, sliding across to the other side of the room, leaving a blazing trail of fire beneath my boots. I zoomed past the skeleton warriors onto the other side of the room.
But wait. I’d finished them, hadn’t I?
Not quite. The second and third blasts hadn’t been as effective as the first. I had knocked off the skeleton warriors’ heads but they didn’t travel as far as the others had. Instead the skeleton warriors bumped around, hoping to find their heads on the ground at their feet.
I ran towards the three bumbling headless skeletons and summoned a restorative healing rain around us. I hugged the creatures making sure they received the healing dew. The curative power made their bones wither and crumble back to the ground.
+315 EXP!
+315 EXP!
+315 EXP!
I stood by the entrance to the laboratory. “I’m not letting you escape, Bertwald.”
The necrotician grinned. “Your silly move works when I’m not around, but I’m here to undo your damage,” he said. He lifted his bony hand and let his fingers dance in the air, the ghoulish green energy flying out of his fingers and palms. The necromantic power slithered through the air, swirling amongst the rubble of bones I’d killed, picking up the pieces, gluing them back together until the skeleton warriors were back to full health. The necrotician even made sure to grab a new skull for the one missing a head. Worse, when he was finished reanimating the skeleton warriors at my feet, he shot a blast to the pile of bones in the far corner, creating even more skeleton fighters. Shit.
“I have more mana than you boy,” he grinned, revealing in the side of his cloak at least seven MP potions. “Do the math, you can’t win this fight.”
I backed into the corner as the two separate squads of skeleton warriors approached me. What was I going to do? Restorative mist would be able to take out this wave of warriors, but what then? Bertwald was right; he’d win a battle of attrition. If only I had more members of my party here. Of course, they were here. Shade, Kari, and Serena were all lying asleep on the operating tables. How did I wake them up?
The syringe!
My epiphany was cut short by a scimitar’s blade slicing across my back. An icy pain rushed through me. I fell to the ground. White noise—like a hospital heart monitor gone still—filled my ears. My head throbbed. I was at 40% HP. Two more hits and I was a goner. I rolled on the floor and slammed a fire punch into the skeletal groin of one of the surrounding warriors, sending its hip bone flying across the room. Time for healing mist to do its work: restoring my health and killing these fuckers.
The restorative mist and clouds of the healing spell surrounded me, shooting my HP back up to 80%. The four skeleton warriors near me, shriveled and recoiled in pain. Two of them crumbled to the ground.
+315 EXP!
+315 EXP!
I got up off the ground, ignoring the experience prompts and pushed the remaining warriors out of the way. I hurried to the desk and picked up the syringe. Bertwald cackled behind me, bringing back to life more skeleton warriors. I shook my head and ignored him. I gripped the thick needle. I hoped this worked. I hurried over to Serena. Please don’t be poison. Please don’t be poison. I stood over her unconscious body with the needle. The skeleton warriors were encroaching. Here goes nothing. I jammed the needle into Serena’s arm. Her whole upper body shot up. She gasped awake.
“No time to explain,” I said. “But we’re fighting skeletons and Bertwald this very second.”
Four different scimitars fell through the air towards us. I hugged Serena and clutched her close, casting healing mist at the same time. The skeletons recoiled and one of them fell to the ground in a pile of bones. I let go of Serena, bent down and picked up the fallen scimitar and handed it to her. “Until we get your sword back.”
She nodded and jumped off the operating table.
Three more skeletons came straight at us.
“You distract Bertwald,” I said. “I’ll deal with the undead.”
I ran towards the three oncoming warriors. “Great to see you guys again. How about a hug?”
I scrunched my nose in disgust as I bear hugged the middle warrior. My arms clasped around the rotting decrepit bones. The warriors at the side jabbed me in the ribs, a burst of blood shooting out of either side of me. The pain hurt. But it wouldn’t last long. I cast yet again my MVP spell of this fight, healing mist. My HP rose, sealing the open wounds across my body, while wreaking destructive havoc on the undead soldiers. They recoiled and crumbled on the floor.
+158 EXP!
+158 EXP!
+158 EXP!
Behind me, Bertwald cried out as Serena slashed at the necrotician with all her fury. His cloak was ripped and his pale skin beneath was dripping with blood. She lunged forward, sending the blade right into the bastard’s chest. Crimson liquid shot out of the man, blanketing Serena’s face in blood. She spat the red fluid out in disgust and kept on
slashing.
Bertwald lifted his dagger in an effort to block the attacks, but it didn’t work. He was weak without his undead summons to protect him and he was too distracted to re-summon them. Now was our chance.
I came at him from behind, conjuring another two fireballs and let them rip right into the necrotician’s back. His cloak erupted in flames. He screamed out in horror. He fell to the floor, attempting to subdue the fire.
I let loose a blast of water from my palm, dousing the man covered in flames. As much as I wanted to, it was against my own interest to kill Bertwald right now. I bent down to face the suffering man. He cried, shaking from his open wounds, leaking blood from his burnt flesh. I’d let this piece of shit escape his misery after he told me where the children were. Only then. I shook his shoulders. “Where are you keeping the children?”
The necrotician spat in my face. He shook his head and laughed manically. His eyes bulged out from his head, taking on a green neon hue like the undead warriors.
“You won’t stop me and Jared from finishing our final operation. While you’ve been here incapacitated, we’ve been preparing our final ritual. One last necrosurgery to make us unbeatable.” He continued to laugh with unhinged abandon, his skin melting and corroding as if doused in acid. “Your time in our world is almost over, Chosen.”
31
The dead man’s skin melted off. Slimy fragments slipped through the holes in his skull. I grimaced at the sight of it. So we hadn’t been fighting Bertwald but rather an undead homunculus. A clone, another golem. That explained why he had been so low level despite being a hybrid class. I shook my head. These bastards. They’d been one step ahead of us the entire time. Now they were about to kill little Fen and little Mari. And for what? I still wasn’t sure but it didn’t bode well for the players and, if I had to guess, not well for anyone who wasn’t the king of Laergard or his psychopathic advisor. We had to stop them.
A new prompt emerged in my HUD.
Quest Failed: Disappearances in the Capital
By aligning yourself against Bertwald and the King of Laergard, you have failed their quest. But despair not, there are rewards for those who make tough choices. Unique and challenging rewards.
You have lost status with the Royal Laergardian Family. You have fallen from “Respected Guest” to “Wanted Fugitive.”
I closed the prompts and a new quest screen replaced it.
New Quest Alert: Stop Bertwald’s Necromantic Operation
Stop Bertwald from completing his operation and amassing more power. Ritual will be completed within 00:59:35 minute(s).
Quest Type: Unique, Dynamic
Quest Difficulty: Heroic
Reward: The safety of Fen and Mari + ?
Failure: Do not complete quest within 00:59:35 minute(s)
Accept: Yes/No
I accepted straight away, feeling the intense urgency of the situation. The time limit was tough and it was the first time I was seeing a “heroic” difficulty level attached to a quest. It was a higher difficulty than the quest with the gigantic glitch-fueled dinosaur we had fought in Arondale. Of course, in that fight we had a whole army of players and NPCs helping us whittle down the creature. Here we were taking on the king and no one else was on our side.
Serena gaped, reading the quest prompt in her own HUD.
“We don’t have any time to waste then,” said Serena. “I found our weapons by the way.” She pointed to an open cell where her blade, my staff, Shade’s pistols and daggers, and a small Muumuu-sized scepter laid in a pile.
Great. I went over to the operating table where I had left the needle. There was still enough serum in there to return Shade and Kari back to consciousness. I did so one by one.
Kari gasped awake and rubbed her eyes to see if she was dreaming.
Shade blinked. “Did I drink too much again?” He looked around the laboratory with confusion.
“Not quite,” I said. I explained to them what had happened. How Bertwald was an NPC, had a tier 4 dynamic class, and was behind the kidnappings with the king’s assistance. “Oh and if we want to stop them from killing Fen and Mari, we have under an hour to do so.”
All three of my party members looked at me with trepidation. I took in all of our stats.
Clay Hopewell
Level 12
Race: Aeri (Eldra)
Class: Apprentice Mage
HP: 144
MP: 71
ATKP: 3
MTKP: 61
TGH: 5
SPIRIT: 55
LUCK: 3
Serena Wharton
Level 16
Race: Haeren (Laergardian)
Class: Blade Soldier
HP: 295
MP: 20
ATKP: 54
MTKP: 3
TGH: 32
SPIRIT: 3
LUCK: 3
Shade
Level 12
Race: Lirana
Class: Thief
HP: 169
MP: 19
ATKP: 31
MTKP: 3
TGH: 14
SPIRIT: 4
LUCK: 50
Kari Foster
Level 5
Race: Muumuu (Asahna)
HP: 116
MP: 33
ATKP: 3
MTKP: 8
TGH: 6
SPIRIT: 24
LUCK: 11
The odds were stacked against us.
“One more thing, Clay,” said Kari. “I learned a whole bunch of innate Muumuu abilities when Shade and I were training. Check it out.”
She sent over her new skills and I took them in.
Innate Muumuu Abilities
Cure: Heal Ally by 40 HP
MP Cost: 5
Cure Toxin: Remove poison from one ally
MP Cost: 5
Mend: Remove Paralyze, Stun, and Fear debuff from one ally
MP Cost: 7
Protection: Decrease physical damage intake
MP Cost: 5
Fox’s Fun: Randomly remove any buff from an opponent
MP Cost: 9
I nodded my head and closed the prompt. These would be very helpful.
“Listen,” I said. “I have a plan.”
I told them my strategy and they nodded their heads. They didn’t look convinced.
“I know it doesn’t look good, but we can do this. Yeah they have the power of the Prophetic Seal, but that doesn’t make them invincible. When I was younger, I’d play competitive first person shooters and fighting games. Top-level players would find unintended ways to exploit the game; taking advantage of game animations to render themselves invincible for an extra second or reload half a millisecond faster. But knowing those glitches didn’t make you a better player. In fact, at first, it made you worse. It took insane amounts of practice to exploit those moves. I’m not saying we definitely can take these guys down. No fucking way am I saying that. But we have a small shot if we do everything right. Are you with me?”
“I’m in!”
The voice came from below. It was Kari. Her hazel eyes beamed as she looked up at me. Her bushy tail wagged. “You guys saved my life and I want to repay the favor. Plus those kids will need immediate medical attention if we get there in time. I can’t let you guys lose!”
I smiled. “Thanks Kari.”
I turned to Serena. She kept her arms crossed. She picked at her teeth with her tongue. She didn’t like this spur of the moment plan. She was thinking it through. Considering all the flaws, inconsistencies, and every little thing that needed to go right for us to even have a chance.
“This plan is nuts, Clay. You really think we can take on the King of Laergard, his loyal knights, and his overpowered advisor? What level is he even—40?”
It was more likely above 60 but I kept that to myself.
She shook her head. I wasn’t sure what she was going to say next.
She cracked a devious smile. “Fuck it. Sometimes you gotta let your blade do the talkin
g.”
I grinned. She would stick with me, even if at the back of her mind, she thought this plan was batshit crazy.
Finally, I turned to Shade.
“Shade—I want you to sit this one out. We have a tank, DPS, and—” I nodded to Kari. “A healer even. We don’t need you in the fray. If something were to go wrong, you wouldn’t come back. I can’t let that happen to you.”
Shade went very quiet and looked down to his feet. He muttered to himself. He then walked up to me. “I’m sorry.”
He smacked me across the face.
“Ow, what the hell!”
“Mate—if you think I’m letting you go up against those two royal psychos without me you’re out of your mind. I don’t give two shits if I’m not a Chosen like you three. You guys are the first people in a long time to feel like family to me. I’m not going to sit back and watch you three throw yourselves into danger. So let me come or fight me right here and now.”
Shade stared me dead in the eye. His whiskers were completely still and so was his tail. He was not goofing around like his usual self. He was serious. The charismatic suave-as-fuck conversationalist had gotten me right down to my heart.
