by Charles Dean
Even though the teacher had once more rolled out of the fall, negating the damage and getting back on his feet quickly, it was obvious that there was nothing he could do to continue the fight. His hands both hung limp, and he stared at her through bloodshot eyes. “You’re going to pay for this!” he growled, but he didn’t make a move. He just eyed her as if she were a beast that was about to eat him.
“I’m not sure you have the capacity to send me the bill,” Lilith snickered. “But come on. Let’s see if you can deliver.”
She beckoned him over, but he remained rooted where he was, blood dripping down from his wrists and staining the sand red.
Lilith sprang forward with an attack aimed directly to his chest. The old man threw up both arms protectively, but it was useless. Her blade slid down and around even as his arms came up, and there was no way for him to counter her as she stepped around him and drove the knife home into his lower back.
His back stiffened, and he straightened up as he cried out in pain and shock and then feebly clutched around at the wound as if he could somehow stop the bleeding with his useless hands. Involuntary as the action may have been, it still left him open for a second attack. Lilith pulled back and then drove forward, burying her shoulder up into his sternum. It was an incredibly aggressive fighting style that used her body weight and his to send him flying back for the third time.
She dove for him the moment he touched the sand, but he brought up one of his legs between them and tried to kick her way. Rather than abandoning her attack, however, Lilith shifted to the side just slightly, throwing off his aim and allowing herself to wrap her left arm around his leg. She drove forward, pressing his leg back, and then buried her knife into his thigh. She plunged the knife in and out several times in rapid succession, all the while scrambling forward. Finally, seemingly having reached her target, she drove the knife home one last time and ripped it out the back of his leg at a horribly awkward angle. There was an incredibly loud pop as his hamstring was severed.
She rolled off of him and stood up in a single fluid motion, leaving Res to curl up and feebly clutch at his now-useless leg with his already-useless hands. “There we go, gramps, that’s three. One more before we’re done with the first lesson,” she taunted. Then, as if giving a lesson, she turned to her audience and began lecturing: “Speaking of which, since this is a class, I should probably explain what’s happening here. See? This is what I like to call the first lesson of a knife fight: Don’t get into a knife fight. Try to avoid them at all costs. You never know what your opponent is going to be capable of. For instance, you could be a renowned fighter known throughout the entire kingdom, but against a random girl flirting with a guy . . .” She paused and smiled up at Lucas. “We were flirting, right? I didn’t misread that, did I? Sorry to ask, but I just assumed that we were, and I’m terrible at reading social cues . . . so . . . you know, I just thought that I should clarify before continuing on with that assumption.”
The entire situation was so ridiculous that Lucas couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I was flirting with you at least. I think you were trying to convince me not to though.”
“Oh, yes. That’s right. A random girl flirting with a guy in the back of a class might end your existence in a second. It’s impossible to know how skilled an opponent may be. Fat, thin, muscled, papery, tall, short--none of those are good indicators of skill. So, the best way to stay alive and live a happy life is just to not get into a fight at all. But, if you do somehow get caught up in a fight that you couldn’t avoid, move on to step two. Does anyone know what step two is?”
Even from a distance, a single passing glance was more than enough to tell Lucas that everyone gathered in the pit watching hated her. He could see that contempt in their eyes, and he recognized it as the same type of vitriol that he had seen in the eyes of many players trying to save Viola. “Lilith, I don’t think you need to explain what to do if they can’t avoid the fight. After all, dodging fights is a skill that they’ve clearly got down pat already,” he called down.
He didn’t know for sure what her immediate aim was, but he felt he understood her long-term goal: to agitate the students into attacking her. He had no idea why she would want that, but the way she mocked them, the way she walked, talked, and taunted them, made him want to play along. I’m the villain, after all. This is supposed to be my role, not hers, he told himself as he joined in with the mockery. “I mean, look at them! Their respected and venerated teacher is lying there, bleeding on the ground. His tendons have been cut, and he couldn’t even lift up a spoon, much less a blade, yet they haven’t moved an inch! You’re even injured already, and they outnumber you heavily, but they are just standing there like simpering fools!”
Lilith’s already-crooked smile grew both larger and more wicked as it stretched across her face. “That’s right. That’s why the next lesson is how to die quickly. They already know they’re cowards. Why pretend otherwise? Resistance would just be torture. No amount of cowering or flinching or squeezing their eyes shut and praying will stop the blade from connecting.”
“Don’t forget that they’re definitely the type to be picked off one at a time. I’ve seen it before,” Lucas continued. “Even if you attack them with a group, they only retaliate individually. They have no idea how to coordinate an attack.”
“Yes, cowardice is sadly common among people,” Lilith said. “I’ve seen it often.”
“It’s more than that: it’s a pathetic group trait,” Lucas said, walking down toward the middle of the amphitheater. He had no doubt now that if he continued down this road, he’d be in a fight side by side with this woman against the entire class. He could feel their anger growing. He only needed to find a spark. “It only takes one of them to attack, then the rest of them will swarm. They’re like lemmings. Once one of them moves, they all move. If none of them move, they all stay quiet and watch. That’s why they haven’t done anything yet: they don’t have a leader, so they’re just watching.”
“It’s not that,” a male student said. “I think you’re right is why. That teacher always gives me crappy grades because he says I don't have manners, and those grades cause my parents to hate me. Why do my manners matter? I can fight. I’m better than Timothy over there,” he added, glaring at one of the students the professor had been talking to at the beginning.
“Yeah, what Brown said. Why would we help that old fart? He always favors those stupid kids just ‘cause they suck up to him. If he gets killed for that, fine by me,” a girl added.
“Oh.” Lucas felt the student response was a little weird. He had expected the class to all hate them for picking on their instructor, but he hadn’t expected there to be such a divide among the students. Some weren’t directing their animosity at Lilith as he had originally expected, but rather at the instructor, who was still on the ground, unable to stand since a tendon in his leg had been severed. “So, you’re okay with us torturing this poor man because you don’t like him?” Lucas asked.
“Well . . .” the one who spoke first began, but then hesitated. “I don’t think you should torture anyone.”
“What about you? Do either of you mind if I kill him?” Lucas asked.
“That . . . feels a bit extreme,” the other student answered.
“Right,” Lucas replied, nodding knowingly.
“You see? Cowards,” Lilith said.
“Indeed,” Lucas agreed.
“It’s just like you said in the town square: They see the error in the system, but they’re unwilling to do what is needed to rectify it.”
“If it comes down to it, they know the teacher is wicked. He’s a nepotistic, crony-favoring goon who picks and chooses which students pass based on his own favoritism. But they can’t and won’t do a single thing about it,” Lucas said. “It’s like they’re consenting . . . It’s like they’re happy with the way things are. They don’t mind if it stays the same forever because fixing it is more morally offensive than letting it exist.”
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br /> “Or maybe they’re just waiting for a hero to save them,” Lilith added.
“Well, that’s one possibility,” Lucas admitted. “So, Brown, which of these students were the teacher’s pets?”
Brown didn’t respond; he just gulped. Lucas already knew three of them, but he didn’t know the rest, and Brown wasn’t answering. Lucas knew Brown likely saw answering as an agreement to what Lucas was going to do, and the young man clearly couldn’t do that.
“That one,” a girl shouted, pointing at another girl near the front. She then pointed out five more students. “Her, her, him, him, and her. All five of them were getting easy grades, and all five of them are bullies. She’s also getting easy grades, but she’s really nice to everyone.”
The girl deemed “nice” also happened to be the best-looking person in the group. She had beautiful, flowing black hair dyed purple at the ends that perfectly framed her thin, heart-shaped face. The others were just average and somewhat less athletic than Lucas would have expected. Two of the three guys were unusually lanky, and only one was wearing clothes that fit him. The other one wore a get-up that looked like it was two sizes too big, juxtaposing nicely with the last of the three guys, a fat giant of a man who was wearing an outfit that was clearly two sizes too small, the buttons popping out as the cloth struggled not to burst.
The two girls were both thin. One was gaunt, and the other was just under average. Each was wearing a short skirt with shorts combo that didn't seem appropriate for a physical combat class. The one thing Lucas could say was that at least their outfits were fashionable. The gaunt one was wearing a purple and green color combination that paired well, and the other, who was quite tall for a woman, was wearing a combination of black and gold.
“So, those five are bullies, and that one is so nice that even the teacher was easy on her?” Lucas asked, looking to the rest of the class to see if they would confirm what was said.
Several of the other students nodded, but when Lucas stared them in the eyes, they looked away.
“Well, don’t worry,” Lucas said as he pulled out a wand and cast a heal on Lilith. “You haven’t found a hero at all today. I’m not that type of good guy.” He stowed the healing wand away, grabbed his mage’s staff again, and watched as Lilith stretched out her restored appendage, moving it around as if getting rid of pins and needles. “In fact, you could say that I’m the bad guy. If each of these people lived for decades, can you imagine how many years they’d torment everyone around them? How many years they’d make everyone suffer? I’m going to do the most wicked thing because you don’t want to.” Lucas walked up next to the professor, who seemed to have given up all hope.
“You’re going to kill them all?” Lilith asked. “I don’t mind helping if you are.”
Lucas had no doubt that it’d be the other way around. She wouldn’t be helping him; he’d be helping her. “No need,” he answered. He reached out and quickly plucked one of the instructor’s eyeballs from its socket. The man let out a prolonged groan that devolved into a series of sobs and whines. Lucas put the eye in his backpack, which he then dropped to the ground. “I’m going to do this all on my own.” He reached down and tore out the instructor’s other eye, and without hesitation, popped it into his mouth so that everyone present could watch him do it. He made deliberate chomping sounds and didn’t even bother to close his mouth as he chewed, letting little pieces of blood and flesh stain his lips and the ground in front of him.
An event has occurred. You have partially completed another requirement to begin the Vampire quest chain.
The dramatic, cannibalistic display was arguably unnecessary, and Lucas certainly didn’t enjoy the actual act. Not only were the taste and texture of the eyeball appalling, but the thought of what he was doing was so much worse. However, he was banking on everyone else being just as appalled. He wanted to come off as a devil, not a hero. If all he did was go around and kill the bad guys, he’d be no better than a vigilante superhero who actually solved problems, unlike the idiotic ones in the comic books he used to read who would let the worst villains back out into the society again and again as they played their little game of catch and release.
Yes, this will be most effective at making people cringe and crawl away from me if they can, he thought, hoping his plan to build up an even higher bounty against him was working. Nothing was more disgusting than eating an eye.
You have killed Res the Venerable. You have been awarded 1801 EXP. A pair of leather sandals has dropped upon death.
Ah, he bled out . . . “Sorry that I took your prey,” Lucas said to Lilith. “You hadn’t finished your lesson with him.”
Lilith shrugged. “It’s fine. Go have fun. I brought popcorn.”
Lucas looked over at the gaggle of students and smiled. He was somewhat amazed that none of them had come at him yet, but his taunts weren’t simply to rile them up--there was a good bit of truth behind them as well. Despite the fact that he had expressed his desire to murder them numerous times, they were still frozen in horror, unable and unwilling to act. The eyeball really did the trick. They really don’t know how to process what just happened, so . . . maybe it’s time I start things off.
Chuckling to himself, Lucas slammed his staff into the sand and cast one of his favorite spells, Exploding Tear, right at the tall girl dressed in black and gold. She was standing between the two men who couldn’t seem to get their clothing sizes right, and the spell created a huge, compact ball of water that exploded across all three. Jets of water sprayed in all directions from the burst ball, and it looked like the young girl had been hit full force by a five-hundred-pound muscle man’s punch. The blue-eyed, gaunt girl and the last remaining guy began backing away, but Lucas aimed two more Exploding Tears at them. The first girl was struck, but the man managed to duck underneath the attack in a rather impressive dodge. Seconds later, however, his skillful maneuver was made all the less majestic as he stunningly tripped on the wet sand.
At this point, Lucas had accomplished what he wanted--he had made most of them wet--and when he followed the attack up with his Static Web, sending out bolts of electricity across the surface of the ground, they seemed helpless. The girl and the large fat guy were unable to defend themselves or even run away as the electricity crawled across the sinking water on the sand and ripped into them. The two howled in pain as the Lightning attack surged through them, and they both clutched at the dirt as their muscles involuntarily seized up.
While the Lightning net itself didn’t do as much damage as a single target spell might, most of its damage being distributed across multiple charges, it did seem to have an effect. Lucas had noted earlier that the spell, which cost roughly 8 times the price of Zap, did only 200 damage per target. If the target was wet, however, then it went from barely 200 damage to over 600. This meant that the spell combination against a wet target would do enough harm to one-shot a person at Level 50 if they only had 600 Hit Points before Fortitude was factored in. It was a very potent combination, especially since the average player generally didn’t allocate more than 20 to 50 points into Fortitude.
That did the trick. Within seconds, the five students who had been pointed out as bullies sprang into action. Unfortunately for them, not a single one had brought a magic staff into the lecture with them, likely because it was a physical combat class.
You have killed April. You have been awarded 1029 EXP. A fine leather-bound notebook, a silver unicorn hair clip, a fine silk belt, and 32 gold have dropped upon death.
One down, Lucas thought. He estimated that his victim’s level was probably close to 30, and since NPCs tended to value Fortitude more than players, he shot off another round of Static Web just for good measure. Then he noticed something: the fat guy who had also been caught as a victim by the string of electricity wasn’t dead. In fact, he didn’t appear to have even taken that much damage.
The student pushed himself up--seemingly unfazed by the massive jolts and what should have been enough damage
to kill a Level 40, if not 50, player--and looked down at the girl. He slowly turned to Lucas and said, “I don’t know who you are, but you are so dead.” He puffed out his chest and visibly became both wider and taller.
Lucas watched in fascination as the youth grew in girth. He had never heard of an ability like this before, and he was instantly curious. Maybe this is a unique class?
“Mejia,” the lanky guy shouted. “You won’t even have time to kill him before I do.”
“Not on your life, Gabriel. He just killed April, and I’m going to rip him limb from limb.” Mejia, which was apparently the large guy’s name, continued to grow, and his button-up shirt and pants somehow stretched to fit him while still looking as if the buttons would give way at any moment.
What in the hell is that ability? Not only had the large guy not been fazed by Lightning, but he was also now standing six and a half feet tall with at least a 60-inch chest, and he was still bulking up. Without waiting to see the final product, Lucas sent out four Scorching Skulls, one at each of the remaining people. He didn’t actually expect any kill shots--the spell was quick, and the damage was nice, but it rarely killed mobs his own level, much less higher-leveled players--but he needed to know which one of them would scream in pain the most, or more accurately, which might be the easiest to kill.
Thanks to the fact the remaining students were having an argument and ignoring the gravity of the situation as if they were all on some Japanese fighting cartoon, Lucas was able to chain all four spells before any of them bothered paying attention. When they saw what he was doing, they finally began moving.
Mejia stuck his now-massive arm out in front of the remaining girl in purple and intercepted the Scorching Skull that was intended for her even while taking his own on his chest. He just didn’t seem to care at all about the attacks, taking both fiery skulls full on. “I got ya, Rennie,” he rumbled.
