Avalon Rebirth

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  There was one last element to the qualifiers, one quirk that changed it from an organized affair to a wild, chaotic brawl. Players were randomly dropped into the stage and separated from their teams. If they wanted to work together then they had to find their comrades and join up. That meant traversing dangerous terrain filled with hundreds of enemies, all of whom would gladly take the opportunity to swoop in for a kill.

  Darin had plenty of confidence in his abilities, but he was no fool. Even if he had A-rank skills a swarm of D-rank players could overwhelm him, and right now his skills were capped. He couldn't afford to let them gang up on him.

  It was all about finding the others. Darin opened up his menu scroll and looked at the map, then found where their markers were. He made a mental note and then opened up the telepathy link, keeping an eye on the tree line all the while.

  “Everyone, see that rock formation a little toward the east end of the stage?”

  “I see it on the map.”

  “Me too.”

  “Right next to it,” Taji said.

  “OK. Let's try to meet up there. Taji, if you can, hold up there and keep the spot clear. Don't pick fights with overwhelming numbers, and run for it if you don't think you can hold off the enemy, but try to hold it.”

  “Got it.”

  “Everyone else, try to get there as fast as possible so we can provide support. Once the team's together go from-”

  He didn't get a chance to complete his sentence. A blur charged out of the forest, heading straight for him. Under normal circumstances Darin might be at a disadvantage, but the snow slowed his foe's progress a little bit. He had another second to react, and that meant everything.

  The enemy rogue swung at him with both daggers, but by then Darin was gone like as wisp on the wind. His enemy stopped and looked around in confusion. It was only for a split-second, but it was enough. Darin swung his halberd around and caught him square in the ribs with a strike, then whirled his weapon around and came down with an arcing blow, driving the spike right into his foe's neck. The rogue crumpled over and then disappeared in a cloud of multicolored dust.

  First kill. Darin sprinted in the direction of the rendezvous point, feeling a bit of satisfaction. One kill wasn't going to win them the battle, but it was a start. Moreover, he was pleased with how the new build seemed to be working out. Flash Step had allowed him to catch another player off guard and then gave him the speed to launch the finishing blows.

  He used the rest of the ability's time to make some distance, hoping that he could at least get out of the driving snow. The coating on the ground sucked at his boots, slowing him down just as it had done to the recently defeated enemy.

  Darin thought about using Sky Walk to give him an unimpeded path, but that came with its own dangers. Every archer in the vicinity would see him and probably try to turn him into a pincushion. He could combine it with Flash Step once the ability recharged, but that meant using up two of his most powerful assets outside of combat.

  A thicker part of the forest loomed ahead. Darin rushed through the last snowbank and sprinted into the stand of trees, feeling the ground beneath him become clearer. At least now he could run at full-

  He heard a yell and saw the longsword come arcing at him. Darin jumped backward to avoid the blow, bringing his halberd up into guard position. His opponent lifted his weapon and came in for another swipe. Darin dodged again, feeling wood chips bounce off his armor and face as the sword smacked into a tree.

  The swordsman kept coming, making cuts and chops at a blistering pace. On open ground they'd be deadly, but inside the forest they kept catching on trunks and branches. Apparently he only knew one way to fight with the weapon.

  Darin knew more. As the swordsman came around for another strike he made a feint with his halberd, thrusting toward his enemy's foot with the spearpoint. He lifted his foot up to avoid the blow, but now he was on only one leg. Perfect.

  Darin had his weapon in perfect position. He jerked the halberd upward, sending the spike arc into the meat of his opponent's upper leg. As the man stumbled from the blow he pulled back his weapon and made a thrust into his foe's neck with the spearpoint. Two kills.

  “You're racking them up,” Leah commented over telepathy.

  He kept running. “Just two. How are you coming?”

  “Getting there, but I'm avoiding combat. Not really built for taking on people outside of a group.”

  “Heh, no big deal. There's no reward for individual kills.”

  Darin saw his team's total go up again, likely from Erika. Taji wasn't built to inflict kills, not without taking a lot of damage. They were holding steady too, currently at fifth place.

  But their ranking suddenly dropped down to sixth, and Darin almost immediately found out why. The heat and sound of an explosion rippled through the forest around him, faint but evident. Someone had used Fire Blast, apparently on a fairly large group, and vaulted their team firmly into the rankings.

  He couldn't think about it, nor allow himself to become distracted. Raven's Call needed to fight as a team, not go running around by themselves looking for kill. There was still plenty of time to catch up and get to the top. And right now they couldn't afford to be picked off one by one.

  Taji's voice suddenly came over the telepathy link. “I'm under attack.”

  “At the stones?”

  “Yeah.” Taji went silent for a moment, probably too busy fighting to talk. “Looks like a single rogue, but she's fast. I'm going to need support.”

  “Can she kill you?”

  “Not unless she manages to chain several critical hits together, but I'm more worried about what might be coming with her.”

  Darin took a chance and opened up his map scroll as he ran. “OK, I'm getting close. Hold out until we can join up.”

  “Got it.”

  The trees thinned and then parted up ahead, and Darin found himself facing a wide area full of deep snow. The rock formation lay ahead, probably about two hundred yards away or so. With decent whether it wouldn't be a problem, but the snow in front of him looked like it was waist deep. It would take a lot of time and effort to push his way through, and he'd be very vulnerable in the meantime.

  That made the risk worth it. Darin activated Sky Walk and created a series of platforms leading up to the formation. It ended short of his destination, but it would get him most of the way there.

  Flash Step wasn't ready yet, but he didn't have time to waste. The platforms were clearly visible, and anyone with half a brain would know what they were there for. He had to get across before every archer lined him up and shot him.

  Darin leaped onto the first platform, feeling the wind buffeting him. He jumped to one, then another, then another. The stage's conditions certainly weren't helping his cause, but he could at least take a little comfort that everyone else was going through similar struggles.

  “Taji, how are you holding up?” Darin asked as he made another leap.

  “Uh, not good.”

  “Not good?”

  “I'm starting to get swarmed here,” he said. “There's-”

  Taji's voice disappeared for a moment, but Darin didn't need to hear any more to know that he was in trouble. He could see it very well himself. Black dots on the snow were surging up the rock outcropping, attacking a single man in heavy armor with a shield and sword.

  Apparently several of the other teams had decided that Raven's Call needed to be destroyed as quickly as possible, and they were ganging up on them to do it.

  “Leah, Erika, get here quick. We're getting singled out.”

  “Got it.”

  “Almost there.”

  So was he. Darin was in the process of leaping onto one of the last platforms when he saw the timer for Flash Step disappear. He made a quick calculation inside his head and then activated the ability.

  The extra burst of speed propelled him forward as he made his final leap. Darin fell headlong toward his target, a snowbank just on the outside
of the rock outcropping, and made a clean landing. As soon as his feet touched solid ground he pushed off again, using Flash Step to increase his forward momentum.

  The first player in front of him met an unfortunate end on his weapon's spearhead. As his foe fell Darin continued to charge, whirling his weapon around in a wild arc. There was a time to be cautious and defensive, and a time to go for broke. Right now, faced with so many enemies, the later was necessary.

  His ferocious attack stunned the enemy. They tried to recover, but Darin gave them no respite. One, two, then three fell to his blows. Taji was suddenly beside him, lashing out with sword and shield to inflict even more damage. With Stone Skin active his attacks weren't powerful, but they kept their opponents off balance.

  More enemies moved up the outcropping toward them, but they started to falter as they realized that there were two fighters. Darin didn't want to give them a chance to rally or retreat.

  Thinking on the fly he activated Wraith. Four copies of himself suddenly appeared and went on the attack. They wouldn't do any damage, but at the very least they'd buy him and Taji more time for the others to arrive on the scene. Meanwhile he could continue to rack up kills.

  A pair of blurs tried to attack him, but Darin simply whipped his halberd around in a wild arc. Even if the didn't score a hit he'd make the enemy fall back, or at least throw them off balance. One moved away, but the other wasn't able to change direction in time to avoid the axe blade. The rogue stumbled, badly wounded, and then Taji finished her off.

  One of his wraiths disappeared in a cloud of smoke, but it provided him with another distraction. Darin made a leaping thrust and caught his foe under the arm, scoring a critical hit in the process. He yanked his weapon back and finished him off with another sweep.

  The enemy started to fall back, apparently cowed by the fierce resistance they were putting up. Darin didn't blame them one bit. Why bother charging into a strong enemy-held position only to be cut down? There were other, easier targets to deal with.

  But then they had another problem to deal with. The enemy could just retreat to a safe distance to bombard them with destruction spells, and there was very little they could do to counter. Darin had to wait until Sky Walk and Flash Step recharged, and Taji didn't have a good way to get across the deep snow. In fact, how had he gotten across in the first place?

  “Muscle power. A lot of it,” Taji told him as they watched the enemy start to retreat. “Of course, they weren't shooting at me then, so that makes it a lot easier.”

  “I'm sure,” Darin responded, his mind racing. What to do? They had jumped up to fourth in the points rankings, but that didn't mean much if their team was wiped out in the process. Should he have the other two leave and go pick out more targets, just to make sure that part of their team survived?

  Half of the field was still active. That put them in good position to make the tournament, especially because they were quite a few points ahead of fifth place. The top teams seemed to be making kills as well, so as long as Raven's Call finished in the top eight they were fine. It didn't matter if they won by a lot or a little, they just needed to win.

  But splitting up the team also smacked of playing not to lose instead of trying to win, and that often ended in failure. Desperate teams in the bottom were able to make miraculous comebacks as they seized the initiative and made their push. The teams that sat back and just tried to keep their spot ended up struggling, and sometimes lost despite their best efforts.

  What to do…

  He made a snap decision and activated telepathy. “Erika, Leah, if you're still headed for the rocks stop and don't come any further.”

  “We're almost there,” Erika said.

  “Are you together?”

  “We are.”

  “Then it works fine. We drove off the enemy and they're falling back. I'm guessing they're going to start dropping destruction spells on us.”

  “Oh, you mean the group of three or four teams over on the northwest end?” Leah asked. “I wondered why they weren't fighting each other.”

  “You can see them?”

  “Yeah, we can. Hold tight. We'll wait for them to start focusing on you, then we're going in for the kill.”

  Taji made a face. “Two of you against how many?”

  “Eleven, it looks like. Don't worry. As much as I'd like to just drop a Fire Blast on them there's other things we can do.”

  Darin and Taji looked at each other.

  “What are your orders?” Taji asked.

  Darin shrugged. “We'll sit tight. I've learned to trust her on these kinds of things. She knows what she's doing. Hopefully.”

  “You really didn't need to add that last part.”

  “Eh, I felt like it needed a disclaimer.”

  He stood and waited, watching the timers tick down, wondering how long it would take Leah and Erika to put the plan into action. Or, if he was thinking in a more negative direction, how long it was going to take for destruction spells to come raining down on their heads.

  “Well this is pretty intense,” Taji commented. “I never had that many players come after me at once. Made me wish I didn't have to use stone skin to stay alive.”

  “Did you get any kills?”

  “Yeah, two of them, but they weren't easy. It was like I was beating them with a stick, not a sword.”

  “Still points for us, no matter what,” Darin said. He decided to take a look out toward the enemy positions to see what was going on.

  At first the wind and snow obscured his vision, but Darin soon spotted the group of shapes of in the distance. Several were moving, but others seemed to be standing still. And one particular shape moved like a blur…

  He laughed, despite himself.

  “What?” Taji asked.

  “I don't know why I even worried,” Darin said as he realized what was happening.

  Leah had shot one of the players with Bind, probably the strongest one to take him or her out of the fight. Once that was set she started firing arrows and sent Erika loose on their hapless foes. With all their attention focused toward the rocks the element of surprise had been deadly.

  And as a bonus, they had a lot more points. Darin watched as their team marker moved up to third on his HUD, well ahead of the bottom ranks. They just needed to stay alive to keep it that way.

  That wouldn't be much of a problem. The pieces for the were beginning to fall into place. So far the top five teams were head and shoulders above the rest, and everyone else was scrambling for the bottom three spots.

  “What do we do after this?” Taji asked.

  “We hold here and we wait,” Darin said.

  It wasn't exciting or particularly sporting, but every one of the top teams would probably do it. Once they had enough points to feel like they were comfortably ahead they would go into defense mode, likely anticipating their rivals would do the same.

  Sometimes a team with a particular grudge would try to seek out their foe to eliminate them and force them out of the qualifying rankings, but that was a double-edged sword. The hunter could quickly become the hunted, and end up losing their own spot in the process. As much as he wanted to take out their former comrades, Darin didn't want to take that risk. By the look of things neither did Leo and Jon. Their team's marker hadn't moved in a while.

  “We're through,” Leah said.

  “Got it. Join up with us here and let's wait it out.”

  Their first step on the road back to the top was nearing completion.

  14

  Leah could feel the tension in the air as the eight qualifying teams stepped up onto the platform. All eyes seemed to be turning on Raven's Call and Iron Titan, and they certainly weren't friendly.

  She tried to ignore them, instead focusing on the tournament bracket being displayed on the arena's screen. Raven's Call had finished third in the running and picked up the eleventh seed, matching them up against the sixth seed, Swift Angel. Leah didn't know anything about them, but they were the
next team on the list.

  But that wasn't the only thing that had her attention. Iron Titan had placed high as well, beating out Raven's Call, but they had only come in second. Instead, a new team called Crimson Flame had come in first place, and they had done it with a much larger score than the everyone else. Apparently they had continued to hunt and fight even after their spot in the tournament was secure.

  Was it just impulsiveness, or did the team have an aggressiveness, a killer instinct that they decided not to reign in? Both could be very dangerous, but the second more so, especially if it was paired with good tactical sense and a bit of restraint. Unbridled fury could be a powerful weapon in battle, but it could also lead the users to fall into traps if they weren't aware of what was happening around them. Did Crimson Flame have that knowledge? Only time would tell.

  But for now they had to focus on their next match, which would happen tomorrow. They'd have little time to prepare, and if their opponents were smart they would have been watching the qualifiers to do some scouting.

  “Well, at least that's one hurdle down,” she said as the team walked back down the arena tunnel.

  “And at least that gets us decent payouts,” Taji said. “A thousand for qualifying. Better than I ever got with my other teams. Though we never even came close to sniffing the top eight.”

  “Makes up for me having to take this weekend off,” Erika commented.

  “Right. I had to take a vacation day, so this is at least a nice consolidation prize.”

  “It'll be even nicer if we can win the entire tournament,” Darin said. “Remember, these are all just consolidation prizes. The real winnings are at the final.”

  Leah frowned. “We have to get there before we can start thinking of that. First up is Swift Angel. After that it's probably going to be Lightning Strike, if the seeding holds up. And then we have a four-way match. That's not going to be easy, especially if Iron Titan is in it.”

  “That other team. Crimson Flame, was it? They seemed like they were pretty good,” Erika said. “Granted I never ran into them. Must have been on the other side of the stage. But they were racking up a lot of kills.”