Battle Spire

by Michael R. Miller

  Backtracking, I dodged the next attack and scrambled to pull out a mana potion, annoyed at the awkward nature of bringing one out of my bags in combat. While struggling with the potion, my armor disappeared. The high-level rogue caught up and brought his fist towards my side.

  Kidney Punch

  Movement speed reduced by 70%

  Duration: 5 seconds

  It felt like being kicked in the groin, but I was thankful it had caused no damage. Bent over double, I managed to drink the potion, restoring my mana, but I’d have to make every bit count.

  Activating another earth rune, I spent 300 mana on the rock wall option, seeing my barrier appear as a blue outline in the world. Placing it between the two rogues, I cast the spell and a wall of stone erupted from the floor 10 feet across, blocking their path. It would remain in place for 5 seconds.

  Cut off from his friend, my attacker hesitated again. I took the chance to leap at him, drawing a vial of slime and smashing it onto his body. He tried to wipe the green gunk away, but in doing so, only helped to coat his body in it, and his next attack went awry from frustration, clipping my shoulder. Pain seared from the cut, and my health dropped dangerously low but at least I was close enough to ensure that I wouldn’t miss with a fire rune.

  Fireball or Inferno?

  A single fireball primed with 400 mana burst from my hand, hitting the rogue in a shower of sparks. My combat log reported the event as:

  Fireball hits!

  500 fire damage

  And the slime caught fire. It boiled white hot, spitting angrily and causing fire damage from my rune for the second time. A flame symbol appeared above his info bar – a debuff.

  Scorched

  Taking burn damage equal to 20% of inducing attack over 5 seconds

  I danced away from the conflagration that was the player. What with the bleed effect still in place and now the burn, the remainder of his health bar was melting. A part of me felt awful at how the game might be faking the pain of burning alive. Then again, the asshole had sounded like he’d been getting aroused at the thought of killing me for real.

  Biterzogg – Rogue – level 36 dies – 225 EXP

  “Nice work,” Ellie said.

  “Think I’ve blown all my tricks though,” I said, loading a crossbow bolt, even if it would be futile. My barrier of rock crumbled as I took aim.

  The remaining rogue looked to his fallen associate, shock breaking across his face. I fired my bolt and through a stroke of luck, it inflicted the knockback chance of my weapon. The rogue was blown back off his feet, slamming into the ground from the force of the impact, much like the kobold had when hit by Wylder’s attack in the forest.

  That felt like an age ago now.

  I thought about legging it. Sure, my luck would be well and truly up at this point. But if I did, he’d likely catch up with an ability; if not, he’d scour the hallway for my escape route and find the passage behind the tapestry or see me slipping into it.

  My foe began to stir. He’d lucked out in not cracking his head off the edge of the chamber’s heavy doors, landing a hair’s breadth away.

  “Ellie, please tell me the guy I killed was the one with lockpicking?”

  “Yes. Why—”

  I charged forward, sheathing my crossbow in favor of an air rune. My mana had regenerated just enough for me to pack almost 300 into the spell.

  Gale Blast

  Knockback 8 feet

  A swirling cyclone billowed from my hand, picking up the rogue and blowing him back inside the archmage’s chambers. Still running, I arrived at the doors a moment later and pulled them shut with a yelp of effort. Feeling like my heart would explode, I somehow managed to pull out the Emperor’s key and inserted it into the lock without dropping it. I turned it, hearing the most beautiful click as the mechanism locked in place.

  Thumping came from the other side, demands for release muffled by the thick wood. I backed away slowly, but no matter how hard the player attacked the door wouldn’t budge. His hammering slowed then stopped altogether. At last, I breathed easy.

  “Gone to his happy place, has he?” I asked.

  “He won’t be doing anything energetic for a while in there,” Ellie said.

  I wanted to collapse but adrenaline kept me upright, and instinct brought me to Biterzogg’s body to loot it. The game rewarded me with his belt, a rare quality item that helped to explain why he’d been so good at lockpicking.

  Burglar’s Sash

  Belt

  Item level 35

  Requires level 30 to equip

  Quality: rare

  Durability: 35/35

  Armor: +65

  +5 Reflexes

  +3 Lockpicking

  I’d break it down later for leather, but for now, I moved onto scavenging.

  Scavenged Biterzogg level 36 – 34 EXP

  Silver coins x 8

  Dream Silk x 2

  Disorientating Venom x 2

  At least there was something new from him.

  Disorientating Venom

  Enemies injected by this mixture will be dazed and their vision obscured for 4 seconds.

  Applications: 1

  “Thank you, Mr Zogg,” I said. “Now, where did my damn bayonet-dagger drop?”

  I found it a short distance away, bloodstained from the fight with its durability lowered, but otherwise good to go. The silk wire was trashed though, so I’d need to make another one to bind it onto my crossbow. It hadn’t been perfect, but considering I’d been cheeky in lashing my own bayonet to the frame, it had done as well as I could have hoped for.

  Placing the dagger in my inventory, and with nothing left to do here, I started running for the secret passageway.

  23

  Once safely back inside the dark, hidden ways of the Spire, the fire in my blood quelled. My hands shook and I found myself breathless for no real reason. One floor down I stopped to take a break, leaning against the cold wall and fighting to regain control of myself.

  “What’s wrong?” Ellie asked.

  “I nearly died,” I said. Saying it aloud made it tangible, all the more possible. “I nearly freaking died, Ellie. Twice!”

  My body decided it was done holding me up. I collapsed into a sad little ball, struggling for breath as a digital tear welled in my eye.

  “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.”

  This wasn’t like the ambush. I’d barely taken a scratch there, with all the NPCs and bombs as distractions. Fighting Gingey and the rogues had been way too up close. Both far more personal.

  “Zoran, it’s okay. You’re fine.”

  “Yeh, this time,” I said. “Goddammit. I don’t know if I can keep this up.”

  “So far you have.”

  “And just how will I ever beat Azrael? It’s just insane.”

  “We’ve got the ingredients for the poison.”

  “A poison he’ll be immune to as an undead.”

  “You’re forgetting there is a next stage of the plan,” Ellie said. Her voice was soothing, not in any way patronizing. Her bedside manner surpassed any doctor I’d met. “Once we have the poison we’ll take it to Grand Crusader Reginald. He’s still alive remember, held prisoner with Emperor Aurelius.”

  “What good will that do?”

  “There’s a high-level ability in the game called Transmutation. It allows certain magic-wielding classes to alter the magic damage or effect of an item into the power they specialize in. It’s intended for raiding guilds to build up stockpiles of different empowered items for certain encounters.”

  “Sounds kind of overpowered.”

  “Each person can only use the spell on one item a day,” Ellie said. “Anyway, the point for us is that Reginald is one of the most powerful paladin NPCs in the game. He has Transmutation as part of his ability set.”

  “And only he can do it?”

  “The High Priest Velen could have done it, but he died during the ambush. You shot him to draw aggro remember?”

&n
bsp; “Good thing Reginald decided to go with the Emperor then,” I said. My breathing started coming under control. “So, we can get him to turn the poison effect into a holy one instead.”

  “Correct.”

  “Huh, that’s pretty neat.” My momentary relief was simply that. New problems sprung up from my worried mind. “I’ll still have to hit Azrael with it.”

  “Also correct,” Ellie said. “But shall we focus on one thing at a time?”

  “And reach Reginald in the first place,” I added.

  “I can show you the way. Look at the eighth floor on your map.”

  I did so and found another green bubble highlighting an area called the Emperor’s Solar.

  “There isn’t a secret way into the solar, but we can work it out when the time comes,” she said. “For now, let’s go deliver the ingredients to Kreeptic. You should get a lot of experience for the quest.”

  There was a small niggle at the back of my mind about something she’d said but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Something didn’t add up. My head was pounding again, maybe a result of real-world dehydration or just playing the game for far too long. At least the path ahead, for now, was clear.

  Get the poison.

  Get the transmutation.

  Stick it in Azrael’s rotting body.

  “Azrael?” I muttered as another video feed popped into my field of vision.

  His gray face and dead eyes filled the screen, every puss filled wound and scarred tissue gruesomely rendered on his avatar. He wasn’t smiling this time.

  “Zoran, you are becoming quite the nuisance.”

  All my old insecurities rushed to constrict my throat, but this time I pushed them back down.

  “S’up, Azrael,” I said, as cool as I could force my voice to become. “Still looking like shit, I see.”

  He didn’t so much as blink. “I’ve just reviewed some footage from your recent encounters with my men. Using runes to bolster your measly powers is clever. I admit I hadn’t considered those things especially viable in combat, but what is that green substance I wonder?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” I said. “My secret green sauce is helping me to whittle down your goons. You’re at twenty-four cronies now. Like to throw some more at me?”

  The words just spilt out of me, but I very much hoped he didn’t send more players after me.

  “No, I shan’t be wasting any more time trying to kill you. You’ve interrupted my work here long enough and I can’t be distracted any longer. From now on, my men will confine themselves to the upper Spire or the walls. You won’t attack directly because you’re not a complete idiot.” A wry smile, at last, pulled his lips apart, revealing bloodied, dry and cracked flesh. “Would you like to tell me how you are getting so much help?”

  “Like I said before. I’m just that awesome.”

  “So awesome that you could sense when two stealthed players who vastly out leveled you were about to attack?”

  “One guy was breathing like a pervy gym teacher. It was easy to figure out where he was.”

  Azrael leaned, if it was possible to do so, even closer to the camera. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Oh yeh, well how do you th—”

  “I think the AI is helping you, kid.”

  I had the sensation of bricks sliding through my stomach.

  “That’s crazy,” I said. “The AI can’t do that. Totally against her programming.”

  “Her?” Azrael said, smirking.

  Crap, I thought, stamping my foot. You idiot, Jack. Right cool under pressure, aren’t you?

  “Sounds like you’re attached to this computer,” Azrael said. “That’s a shame.”

  Ellie cut in. “Just ignore him, Zoran. Come on. We need to get to Kreeptic.”

  I started moving but Azrael’s words had left me curious. “Why is that a shame?”

  “I don’t see the advantage of wasting breath explaining it to you. I just wanted to tell you of the new state of affairs. I’ll admit, you continue to impress me. But this is where you’re adventure ends. You’re not going to come directly for a group of my crew, so we can just leave things as they are. The less annoying you are, the more time I spend on my mission here, and the quicker this is all over.”

  “How about you rob a bank next time?” I suggested. “Would probably save a lot of time. And all that lying flat on a bed grinding to level cap must have been a killer on your weight.”

  “Throw around childish insults if it makes you feel better. The world is childish, but soon I’ll help everyone realize just how puerile our society has become. You’ll thank me for this.”

  “And just why the hell would I thank you for stealing some money?”

  “Ah,” Azrael said, his eyes bugging in their sunken sockets. “She hasn’t told you, has she?”

  “What d’you—”

  The feed snapped off.

  “—mean,” I said, only now I said it to no one. “What happened?”

  If Ellie was trying to speak to me I only heard static. The crackle and pop carried on in my head, a mess of noise I couldn’t escape.

  Had something happened with the connections within the game? Could Azrael’s hack have screwed with the servers even more?

  Over the stream of static, I began to hear Ellie. “Zoran. I’m still h-here.” Her voice was distant, weak. “Keep going.” Her echoing command spurred me on though I was worried for her and rightly so.

  Huh, I thought. I was worried for her, not for me. That was different. And I’d not stuttered at all when speaking to Azrael. In fact, I’d barely been aware of my usual nerves. Brushing against death might be the cure for social anxiety after all, though I don’t see it catching on.

  I’d descended two more floors of the Spire before the static suddenly ceased.

  “That was horrible,” Ellie said. She sounded breathless, like actually breathless, as a person would be. Just what the heck had she done?

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Think so,” she managed.

  “You think? My God, what happened?”

  “I shut off the feed,” she said. “Bl… blocked him.”

  “So, he can’t message me anymore?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?” I said, my suspicion swelling. “What is it you don’t want me to hear? He said you haven’t told me something. What is it?”

  “He’s lying,” Ellie said. “Just trying to… trying to rile you up.”

  “I thought you were going to tell me the truth?”

  “Zoran—” She returned to static and popping. I threw out a hand as though to catch her. She returned sounding worse than ever. “So weak. The connection is compromised now. I need to establish a new route. Go to Kreeptic. I’ll be back.”

  Before I could protest she’d disappeared.

  “Ellie? Ellie?”

  No reply. She’d left me again.

  Something wasn’t right. Either Ellie was lying or Azrael was. Azrael had every reason to mess me around, but he also had no real reason to lie either. He wanted nothing from me. In fact, all he wanted was for me to lay low and stop being a pesky intruder in his otherwise perfect plan.

  Whatever was happening, I felt committed to the current scheme against him now and carried on down the Spire to the dungeons as Ellie had encouraged. If nothing else, the experience should level me, giving me that margin of extra power which wouldn’t be a bad thing no matter how things played out.

  24

  Back in the torture master’s ‘theatre’, I presented my collection of herbs to the interrogator. I expected him to jump back, startled by my brilliance in achieving what should have been the impossible. What I got was a twitch from his eyebrows, and then his mood seemed to sour rather than rise.

  “You’re not pleased?” I said.

  “I expected you to come crawling back here to tell me the task was too difficult,” Kreeptic said. “A bit of light torturing would have motivated you and I was much looking f
orward to it. However,” he said with a resigned bite, “You appear to have brought me everything I asked for. Hand it here and I shall begin the brewing process.”

  I duly handed him the ingredients and awaited my notification.

  Quest Complete – A Long Road To A Quick Death (Elite)

  From desert plains to haunted forests, you’ve traveled the world to make this poison. Whoever your target is, they better be worth the trouble.

  Rewards

  +10,000 EXP

  Level Up! You have reached level 12

  +3 attribute points

  +60 health

  +60 mana

  Sparks emanated from me for the level up. Kreeptic didn’t so much as blink, though it was unlikely he ‘truly’ saw these elements as they were there for the player’s benefit.

  “Ah, this task had led to a marginal increase in your power. You may not die so quickly.”

  “If you think this is futile, why are you trusting me to pull this off?”

  Kreeptic lay the herbs upon his table, then focused on me, placing his fingers together in a steeple. “I don’t see anyone else here. And I never said I wasn’t going to help you.”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling rather foolish. “I suppose you didn’t. Do you mean you’ll come fight with me?”

  “Perhaps,” he drawled. “When the time is right. I shouldn’t like to interact with Reginald if I can help it. That blustering bore is always trying to ‘cleanse me of my sin’. No matter. I shall decide upon the matter in three hours’ time.”

  “Does it normally take you that long to decide on life or death matters?” I asked. Immediately, I regretted it. Kreeptic reached for his knife but thankfully thought better of it.

  “It shall take me three hours to brew the poison, you ill-informed dolt. Stay and cobble your wares together again if you must or go for a wander around the grounds. But do not disturb me. I cannot work any faster.”