Rogue Games

by Angie A Huxley

  He and Regel parted ways after breakfast, shaking hands and with a promise, from Regel, of catching up with him in the future. Alejander almost wondered if he should have been a cleric instead, especially if they had the ability to heal, but he liked being a rogue and it was the closest to what he had been doing before.

  Hera was refreshed and happy, stats back to normal. Greta seemed eager to leave and Alejander mounted quickly, feeling the breeze a little now that he was light one cloak. He could do with a complete change of clothes given the acid sludge he’d had to fight against. He would also need to restock his potions. They had come in handy thus far, and having experienced their value for himself, he knew it was the wisest choice to have enough to get through a dungeon.

  Leaving the forest behind, Alejander guided Greta out into the open grassland. Grass was a generous term for the trampled, dry and brittle stalks. It reminded Alejander of a ground scorched by sun, though the ground itself didn’t look parched of water. It was fresh and soft underfoot. It seemed to stretch on forever, no discernible shapes above the horizon, and Alejander grabbed the map, trying to make sure that he was still on track.

  It was hard to know for certain with the hills and a shortage of landmarks to orient himself with, but he pushed on, Hera trotting up ahead, sniffing and digging at the ground occasionally. Greta kept up a steady pace with her, just shy of a canter, loping over the ground. Alejander didn’t want to push her too hard, but he had a lot of ground he wanted to cover before they made it into town.

  Just after lunch, he had a quick bite of the little meat he had left, tossing some to Hera who snapped it up. That was something else he would have to replenish. The desert started to intersect with a small stream that wound around to the right and south-east of Alejander’s current path. The ground around the banks of the river were wet and lush, the grass much greener than it had been so far. Alejander paused, letting both Greta and Hera take as much water as they needed, before following the winding stream. According to the map, if he reached the lake, it would only take an hour or so to make it to the town. For a world that was full of people, Alejander thought it strange that he didn’t find many people wandering around, exploring. Most of the people he ran into were in cities and towns.

  Familiar orange balls marked the path as they continued on, and Alejander figured there would be more than a few players around the lake if this was another amnesty zone. Hera’s ears pricked up as they approached, and Alejander could make out the chatter and laughter, occasional splashing breaking up the silence of the afternoon.

  There were only a few people at the lake, some wading, a couple more swimming, but a lot of them stretched out on the grass, watching over various animals – Alejander assumed they were mounts and companions – who had taken to paddling in the water.

  Alejander was sticky and dirty, felt as if he could do with a clean himself. Dismounting from Greta, he kept a hold of her reins as he made his way towards an empty bank, settling a stake into the ground to shove his belongings against. Satisfied that his stuff was tied down securely, and Hera flopped onto the ground next to his satchel, stretched out and eyes closed, he led Greta to the water, fumbling for the brush and comb.

  Greta’s ears flicked back and forth as he cleaned her off, brushing off days of dirt and making a mental note that, next time, he would pay for someone to clean her even if it was only a hamlet. When he was satisfied, he led her back up to his belongings, slipping the bridle and reins back on, tying her to the stake.

  He was reluctant to stick around for too long, despite the amnesty zone, and washed vigorously and swiftly, keeping half an eye on his stuff. Hera was nuzzling at Greta, the two of them alert, both tails flicking.

  By the time Alejander had shaken off most of the water, slipping clothes back on over damp skin, he managed to avoid most of the people around the water. A couple tried to make conversation, but he shrugged them off, aware that he wasn’t doing himself any favors, but he was exhausted, mentally and physically, cold, and wanted somewhere safe to spend the night.

  The lush grass grew thick and bushy, the tail end of the lake surrounded by small saplings and bushes. It wasn’t great cover, but trees jutted out of the horizon, obscuring whatever lay beyond them. The town was obviously settled amongst the trees, and Alejander let Greta put on a bit of speed as they grew closer.

  They left the amnesty area and Greta immediately headed for the break in the trees, hooves sending dirt and dust into the air as she cantered down the path. Alejander blamed his eagerness to get to the town for not seeing the creature before it was upon them, slamming into Greta and Alejander, toppling them both to the floor.

  You have lost: 20HP

  Greta let out a whinny and tried climbing to her feet. Hera had whirled around, growling and snapping her jaws at the air. Alejander rolled onto his knees, staring up at the beast in mounting horror at the size of it.

  Landshark

  Level: 9

  Description: A fin as sharp as a knife, teeth as daunting as death itself, and a penchant for flesh, this shark will find you on all terrain!

  Hit Points: {unknown}

  Damage: ? {bite} ? {claw} ? {tail}

  Reach: Close

  Greta had managed to get to her feet and was trying to dance away from the landshark’s jaws. It was shuffling towards her, tail waving threateningly through the air. Hera took the opportunity to leap onto the landshark’s back, biting at the back of its neck. For something so big and bulky, the landshark had speed, whirling around and getting its jaws on Hera’s leg. Alejander grabbed for the bow over his shoulder, nocking an arrow, thankful to Hera for buying him some time.

  The arrow embedded itself in the landshark’s shoulder and it growled, head snapping around to glare at Alejander. He darted out of the way as it thundered towards him, paying no mind to Hera’s jaws still lodged around its neck. Alejander took the opportunity to drop the bow in favor of a dagger, slashing at the landshark’s body as it skidded to a stop, realizing too late that he’d ignored the tail. It whipped through the air, smacking into Alejander’s side and he grunted, hearing a crack as something in his shoulder probably broke.

  Critical hit! You have lost: 40HP

  Pain radiated out quickly and he tumbled to the ground, trying to put his good hand out to cushion his fall. Hera’s growl was loud and vicious as she scrabbled at the back of the landshark’s shoulders, drawing blood.

  Alejander stumbled to his feet, gripping his remaining dagger. He tried to stab the landshark as it passed, and managed to get it through the furred hide. For something called a landshark, the creature’s skin was more reminiscent of a mammal, with fur over scale. Alejander dodged another strike of the tail but felt the bulk of the landshark nudge him, and he slammed into one of the trees, feeling the vibrations of the hit send pain spiraling out from his upper arm.

  You have lost: 15HP

  Gritting his teeth, he spun around, throwing the dagger in a tight line. The landshark turned and the dagger sliced through the eye to the hilt. The landshark shrieked, thrashing its tail. Hera would have been dislodged if she hadn’t been holding on so tightly with her jaws.

  Alejander could see his dagger on the floor and scrambled over towards it, slipping under the landshark’s tail as it continued to thrash, swiping at its face with a paw. They were thick claws, and from the continued screaming, Alejander assumed it was doing itself some damage trying to get at the dagger.

  Taking heart, Alejander sucked down the urge to scream out as he leaped at the landshark, grabbing hold of the tail and using it to pull himself up the landshark’s body. He felt sick with the rush and speed of the landshark’s turning, his vision blurring every time he tried to get his bearings. He was almost at Hera’s tail, and as he managed to shuffle up the landshark’s back, she released her hold, leaping to the ground and snapping her jaws at the underside of the landshark’s mouth. The landshark rose up, and Alejander had to use both hands to hold on, fe
eling pain rattle his body as he forced his broken shoulder to co-operate.

  You have lost: 20HP

  Hera danced backward, the landshark dropping to its feet, and Alejander reached up with his good arm, plunging the dagger into the back of the landshark’s neck. The landshark let out a grumble and flopped over, body lax as the life drained from its eyes.

  Landshark (lv 9) has died

  You have earned 1600 experience points. Congratulations!

  You have lost: 50 Stamina

  You have leveled up to Level 9!

  You have earned 7 stat points, 65 base HP, 40 base stamina, 10 points to any skill(s). Your weapons all receive +6 to their damage.

  It was easy enough to assign the points this time, especially given his lack of night vision in the dungeons, his attempts at survival with lighting a fire, and with some of the ways he had been attacked and his lack of ability in fighting back.

  You have assigned:

  Acuity: 8

  Constitution: 10

  Deftness: 12

  Efficiency: 11

  Endurance: 10

  Strength: 8

  You have added: 5 points to Night Vision, and 5 points to Survival

  HP: 195/300

  Stamina: 115/165

  Skill Points: 130 + 48

  {Dagger +24

  Dagger: +24)

  Existing skills: Disabling Traps {20} Lockpicking {25}, Night Vision {15} Perception {15} Riding {15}, Stealth {35}, Survival {25}.

  Exhausted and in pain, Alejander needed to fix his wounds. Though he usually replenished his HP and stamina through sleeping, he knew that the more time passed while they were traveling – as long as he didn’t have to fight anything else – his injuries should heal by themselves. Hera was wounded, licking her muzzle, but as Alejander let out a slow breath, she sniffed around his ankles and nosed at his hand. Alejander grunted with pain but ran a hand over Hera’s head and then turned back to check on Greta.

  Having climbed to her feet, she was trotting back and forth, a little skittish, but she let him approach and run his hand over her muzzle with his good hand. She was still dancing on her hooves but eventually calmed down, head brushing against Alejander’s cheek. Groaning, Alejander didn’t know how he was going to mount her given his propensity for using two hands, but he would have to manage somehow.

  Before he did that, there was the body of the landshark to deal with. He didn’t know what the meat would taste like or how tough it would be, but it was meat and the hide would be worth something, however small. Again, there was the dilemma of the broken arm.

  “Dammit,” he muttered, and decided that, despite the lack of good cover, he would just have to set up camp and make it to town the next day. It was only mid-afternoon, but by the time he got the shelter up, using up his remaining stamina, and managed to get a fire going using one of the precious few matches, he ended up with a decent camp around the body of the landshark.

  It wasn’t the most ideal of situations, but he set up an alarm system that would wake him during the night should something happen, and he settled back against Greta and Hera and closed his eyes, cradling his broken shoulder gently as he tried to get some sleep.

  [...LOGGING OFF]

  Chapter Seventeen

  Matthew felt the phantom pains of the broken shoulder as he pulled off the headset. He rolled his shoulder gently, but it wasn’t damaged; he had full range of movement and there was no bruising. It was the oddest feeling, though he didn’t have time to dwell given the fact that the rest of his body did ache and throbbed with pains.

  His eyes were also starting to hurt. It was a bi-product of playing the game so much and he probably needed glasses, or whatever passed for glasses these days, but he was reluctant to admit yet another stage of his growing life.

  Since getting out of prison, he felt as if he had just been coasting through life with no direction and no real plan beyond making money. Now that he was within grasping distance of level 10 – and of being able to sell his wares for actual money – he was within reaching distance of actually being comfortable.

  It would be better if he could leave the room once in a while, but he had no doubt that being comfortable would give him so much more freedom in the real world.

  Rubbing at his eyes, Matthew headed for the bathroom. He needed to shower and wash up before bed and eat something. His stomach rumbled low at the idea of food and he huffed a laugh as he turned on the shower, watching the spray hit the bottom of the stall. The heat rolling off of the water was enough to have Matthew groaning in pleasure and he wondered if that was another hold over from the game. It took him a moment to realize that he was Matthew and not Alejander when the water hit his skin. He groaned, blinking back the water and scowling at the sight of his aged hands and body.

  It was no wonder that people played the game so much, especially if they were Matthew’s age, when the game gave them such an avenue of acting and feeling like their younger self.

  By the time Matthew was climbing into bed, he felt exhausted enough for two people, which wasn’t actually wrong. Two lives coalescing into one. Matthew figured it took a mentally strong person to be able to handle two realities and not get mixed up over which one you were actually living.

  It felt as if he had only been asleep for a few hours when his VR headset started vibrating in tandem with his phone. Fumbling for the nightstand, Matthew squinted down at the display.

  [ALERT: Trap triggered in-game. Log on?]

  Matthew cursed under his breath and grabbed for the headset. He was hungry and tired but needed to see what was happening. He initiated the game screen and lay back on the bed as he did so, wanting to be comfortable.

  [LOGGING ON...

  Alejander jerked awake.

  You have replenished: 105 HP and 50 stamina.

  It took him a moment to find out what had triggered the alarm. On the outskirts of his camp, Hera was growling, hackles raised, crouched low to the ground. She was nudging the string which was triggering the trap. A few feet away from Hera, there was another wolf. It looked younger than Hera, and it was only with another wolf for reference that Alejander realized just how much Hera had grown. It was growling, backing up a little from Hera, as if wanting to attack but knew it might not manage to take her.

  With a snarl, Hera lunged at the wolf, looking frustrated as she tried to break free of the string. The other wolf took off running, Hera in hot pursuit, and Alejander rolled his eyes. She would come back when she was done, so he climbed to his feet, testing his shoulder and body experimentally. Everything seemed to be back in order, as his stats suggested, so he brushed his hands over Greta’s back, whispered good morning into her mane. She was munching on grass, ears pricked forward, and seemed content to lie where she was for the time being.

  The fire gone out, Alejander was reluctant to start another one. He was running out of food anyway, so he might as well wait until he made it to the town, which shouldn’t be too far away. Packing up the camp took less time than usual, mostly because Alejander did shoddy work when he only had one arm clearly, and he was done before Hera got back.

  “Well,” he said to Greta, who was tacked up and ready to leave. “We’ll just have to wait for her.”

  Though, given how easily they had been attacked, he didn’t want to wait around for long. Thankfully, he had a distraction in the form of the landshark, whose carcass was still to be used. The hide was tough and hadn’t yielded much in the way of easy damage access, so Alejander had no doubt that he could get something for it, especially if there were people out there that liked to craft armor or even bags out of dead animals. The meat would come in handy, for Hera if not for himself, and there were huge tusks that he already knew would come in handy.

  When he was done carving up the landshark, which took him a good hour and a half, Hera finally made her way back into his line of sight, blood on her muzzle, but no sign of any trophies.

  “Did what you need
ed to do, huh?”

  Hera pulled back her muzzle in what he guessed was a grin for a wolf and snorted. He tied up the meat, hide and tusks into the WaterRepellant sheet. Saddlebags were a definite purchase. It was getting harder to find ways to carry stuff around.

  Greta didn’t seem pleased with the added weight, Alejander couldn’t blame her, but she didn’t buck or rear when he tried to mount, so he counted it as a win. Leaving the rest of the carcass to the wolves – or whoever else decided they wanted a piece – Alejander gestured for Hera to follow. She cleaned her muzzle as they walked, a difficult endeavor but one she managed, and by the time VARDIGA TOWN came into view, she was clean and Alejander’s stomach was rumbling in earnest.

  The promise of a good meal spurred Greta on, and she trotted through the gates into the teeming mass of people. Though it wasn’t a city, VARDIGA still managed to look as if it was, swollen with people, shouting and laughing, market stalls scattered through the main roadway with no order.

  After living with mostly silence for the last few days, it was quite a shock to Alejander’s system. He winced, guiding Greta over to what looked like the town stable. The stablemaster was nowhere in sight, but the paddock was full outside, and Alejander peered around the stable door enough to see that most of the stalls were full.

  “Hello?”

  At his call, a humanoid wolf – a werewolf? – walked out. They had long hair pulled back into a ponytail, trousers that were caked in dirt and stains that Alejander didn’t want to think about.

  “Alright,” the wolf said, with a grin not unlike Hera’s. “We’re filling up quick if you wanna leave them here.”

  Hera didn’t seem to know what to do with the wolfperson, sniffing at their feet.

  “Sorry,” Alejander said, embarrassed, hissing for Hera. She shook her head, circling back towards him.

  “No bother,” the wolfperson said, still grinning. They rubbed their hands on a rag sticking out of a pocket and then rested their hands on their hips.