The Siege

by Jakob Tanner

  “Let’s discuss this later,” I said, jumping off the ramparts, creating mana puddles at my feet.

  The screams were coming from the middle of the town square. I expected an outbreak of the newly freed Chosen against the townsfolk who had decided to stay. Instead I found a group of Arethkarian Chosen fighting each other.

  I shot off air blast, dispersing the fight. I landed in the middle. The group of people fighting all cowered around me. They looked at me with fear in their eyes. What the heck? Didn’t they see I had freed them? Didn’t they recognize I wanted to help them?

  “Why are you fighting?”

  “They want to leave and go back to an Arethkarian controlled city,” said one group, pointing to the others.

  “It’s just a matter of time,” spat one of the former slaves. “Arethkar will take it back over and everyone who was seen to betray them will suffer worse than we have already.”

  Man. Arethkar had really done a number on these people. They were scared to be free. They were scared it wouldn’t last long. They were nervous this was a test of their allegiance to their enslaving masters. It was messed up. My people came here with the goals of making people’s lives better, and yet I hadn’t convinced these players one bit.

  “No one is going to enslave you again,” I said. “I promise. My people are going to train you all so you get stronger, be it as warriors or crafters or whatever you want to be. It isn’t going to be easy, but you’re going to be free. We’re going to do good for all The Chosen and non-Chosen alike on this continent. We’ll root out the evil once and for all.”

  The eyes of the newly freed Chosen beamed as I spoke. I was convincing them. As I spoke and comforted them, I realized we had a lot of work to do to achieve our goals. The tensions amongst all these different groups here in this town and in the larger continent weren’t going to go away until we stopped Konrad Takeshimi and the Arethkarian High Council and ripped them away from power.

  It was decided. We had to go conquer Iron Citadel.

  9

  A message burst into my HUD.

  P3rson&l Message: CongratUlations

  Cl4y,

  Well-done on unlocking druid.

  Your brother’s suggestion is wise. Hurry to Iron Citadel.

  In the safety of its walls, I’ll tell you everything you wish to know. About Konrad Takeshimi, Operation Assimilated Reality, and even me if you so wish.

  Until then,

  Betina

  The message only made the decision even easier. I marched back into the control center.

  “I’ve decided,” I said to the rest of the party. “We’re going to Iron Citadel.”

  “Are you serious?” asked Serena. She stretched her arms and cracked her neck—the telltale sign she gave when she was irritated. She sent me a follow-up message via private chat.

  Serena: So you’re just going to ignore our discussion about Will?

  I grimaced. I wrote her back straightaway.

  Clay: The rest of the party can tell we’re chatting privately.

  Shade raised his eyebrows knowingly at me while Kari kept her head down, pretending not to watch.

  Serena: Let them. Who cares.

  Clay: Okay, fine. I trust Will. He’s the only family I have left.

  Sadness panged my chest. I gulped back tears. I didn’t have time to wallow in grief. I had to stay focused on the mission at hand. I promised myself along with the memory of my parents, that when I had real time to mourn, I would do it right.

  Clay: I see your points, and I’m happy you shared your thoughts with me. A good leader surrounds himself with people who don’t agree with him willy-nilly. So it’s good. Keep an eye on him, if you wish.

  Serena: Wow, so diplomatic ;) I really hope I never have to say, “I told you so.” Honestly, I hope I’m wrong.

  I was about to turn away and continue speaking with the others when Serena raised a finger, like she had one more thing to say.

  Serena: Your wrong, you know. You have more family left than you realize. For one thing, you have me.

  Her crystal blue eyes stared out at me and warmed my chest. I wiped my eyes and turned to the group.

  “Alright guys, those coming on the expeditionary force are: Kari, Shade, Serena, Will, myself, and Jackson—“

  “No!” shouted Raylene.

  I tilted my head, confused. “What? Raylene, trust me. You’ll like this. You’re going to gain admin controls of Crystal Port. You will be leading this place into tip top shape while we’re sleeping in caves and fighting grumpy Rorn.”

  Raylene and Jackson shared a concerning look.

  “Or, wait, uhh,” I said, at a loss for words. “Did you want Jackson to stay behind?”

  “It’s fine,” said Raylene, crossing her arms. “You’re the boss. Thank you for making me admin.”

  A message popped up in my HUD. Serena in private chat again.

  Serena: Really bungled that one, huh? You gotta stay on top of the romances in your own group moron :P

  I hadn’t realized how much I’d fallen behind on. I was unable to read Jackson’s feelings on the matter. He currently looked mildly pissed off, but he always looked mildly pissed off. I knew what it was like to be in either his or Raylene’s position. I always missed Serena when I went on one of my solo adventures. I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have Serena be so instrumental to our party.

  “It’s fine,” said Jackson. Not to me, but to Raylene. “If I don’t go, these young ones are going to mess everything up. I’m the only one who knows how to keep them in line.” The Rorn then turned to me. “Clay—let’s do this.”

  “Awesome. Everyone go gather everything you need for our big quest and meet at the north gate in one hour,” I said.

  “Not the aerodrome?” asked Shade.

  “Weren’t you listening?” said Serena. “Aerodromes can’t reach Iron Citadel.”

  “Plus, we need to bring as little attention to this mission as possible,” I added.

  “Understood,” said Shade. “I’ll go pack my bottles of—potions.”

  The group dispersed, leaving only me and Raylene in the control center. She kept her arms crossed and avoided eye contact with me.

  “Shall we go over the Town Menu and figure out what to build next?” I said. “We’re going to want to build a teleport gate between Crystal Port and Iron Citadel, once we conquer it.”

  “Mhm,” said Raylene. “When they’re both built, why don’t you separate all the husbands and wives from each other. Keep them in separate towns.”

  “Hey—listen—I'm sorry. I need Jackson on the frontlines with me. He’s our best melee dps fighter and he can double as a tank when we need him. Just like I need you here.”

  Raylene grumbled, “Fine,” and then said, “We need to increase our resource gathering if we’re planning to build so much.”

  I grinned, happy the conversation was back on track. “I was thinking the same thing. I even have a connection where we can mine tons of crystal mana.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “There’s a hidden sky island in the cloud ocean of Argon’s Rage called Zeratha’s Isle. I happen to be the only person in Illyria who knows its exact coordinates.”

  “Impressive,” said Raylene. “So shall we set up an outpost there and start creating a trade route between Crystal Port and there?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Next, I’d say increase farm production on the outskirts and also upgrade the wall defenses. If Arethkar decides to attack us here, they’ll be sure to use their airships and there’s currently no anti-aircraft defenses on the non-coastal walls.”

  Raylene nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll get to it, commander.”

  I nodded and held out my hand to Raylene. She grabbed it and squeezed it super hard.

  “You look after Jackson, okay?”

  I’d never seen the gruff woman so serious before.

  “Yeah of course, Raylene,” I said.

  “I lost him once before,” she said
. “I don’t want to lose him again.”

  “I promise nothing will happen to him,” I said.

  “You better,” she said. “Or I’ll burn this place to the ground.”

  I took that as her way of saying goodbye, except when I left, she followed behind. “Oh, I thought we were done.”

  “I’m coming to see you off,” she muttered, which I came to learn meant saying goodbye to Jackson. They stood away from the group while we waited in front of the gates.

  Shade stretched his arms and gave a wide glance across the town. “I can’t believe we’re going already. It feels like we only just got here.”

  “Because we only did just get here,” said Kari, rolling her eyes.

  Jackson strolled up to us with a goofy grin on his face. Raylene stared daggers at me. “Remember what I said.”

  I nodded and kept a mental note to remind Kari to pay special attention to keeping Jackson healed.

  “Alright,” I said, pointing beyond the gate towards the hazy silhouette of mountains in the distance. “Let’s go!”

  10

  I pulled my boot out of dark green swamp water, stepping onto a patch of dry ground. The marshlands were one giant puddle, only broken up by boulder-sized shards of crystal mana.

  “They say during the great rift,” said Will, “Giant crystals fell from the sky and littered the landscape of Arethkar.”

  “I don’t like this place,” sighed Shade, walking along, bored, hands in his pockets, tail wagging languidly.

  “Wait until we get to the Dead Plains,” muttered Will.

  The route we’d plotted to get to the Storm Mountains involved going through a zone called the Dead Plains. Judging both places on our journey by their names, neither place sounded a) appealing b) safe or c) enjoyable. It would take two days to cross the Dead Plains, which would leave us with about five days to get through the mountains and the underground passes.

  The flat marshland became less muddy and wet. A steep hill emerged. We traversed it, emerging into a magnificent new zone: a valley with tall golden stalks of wheat stretching for miles and miles. Large hogs and boars roamed in packs chomping on the wheat. Resting overtop the landscape were the sublime silhouettes of the Storm Mountains: great blue behemoths of stone and snow. Their peaks disappeared into the clouds.

  “I guess we don’t need a compass,” I said, pointing in the direction of the mountains.

  We continued walking. Honestly, I’ve walked more after the few months in this game than I previously had in my entire life. The amount of journeying to and fro was out of hand. My legs ached, my muscles were sore, all conversational topics had been explored, and so here we were, walking through an endless prairie to a gigantic scary mountain.

  “Are we there yet?” asked Shade.

  “No,” said Jackson.

  “I mean, we’re going to the mountains,” said Serena. “They’re clearly over there and we’re clearly over here.”

  “Geez louise,” said Shade. “I’m only trying to liven up the walk. Sorry for wanting to get to know you guys more.”

  “No great conversations ever began with ‘are we there yet,’” said Serena.

  “Agreed,” said both Kari and Will in unison.

  I was about to jump in when a shrill howl echoed forth from deep across the prairie. The wheat stalks bended towards us as a great gust of wind blew through. The wind was so strong it pushed us all back a step. I shivered from the sharp coldness of the breeze. The wind was rolling in all the way from the mountains. I blinked and my eyes were tearing up. White spots covered my vision. I lifted my hands up to my eyes. I didn’t see anything: not a palm, finger, or wrist. My vision had been tampered with.

  “Uhh guys,” I said. “Is anyone else having trouble, um, seeing?”

  “Ow,” shouted Shade.

  “Sorry, I didn’t see you,” said Kari.

  I checked my HUD and saw the wind had hit us with two nasty debuffs.

  Wind Chill (Debuff): Baby it’s cold outside. You should’ve listened! Movement slowed by 25%, 1% chill damage every 5/seconds (Duration: 2 minutes)

  Sharp Eyes (Debuff): The wind is in your eyes! 70-95% vision loss. (Duration: 2 minutes).

  “Stop moving everybody,” I said. “We’ve been effected by nasty debuffs. So long as we stand still and wait out the debuff duration we will be fine.”

  “Can’t you status cure us?” said Serena.

  “These debuffs aren’t curable at our level of status cure,” explained Kari.

  The ground at our feet rumbled.

  “I don’t like the sounds of that,” said Shade.

  The ground continued to shake below us. The dirt cracked and something erupted from the surface. Hot breath poured down on my face.

  The wind still howled around us. The debuffs reset back to full. I stretched my arms out and weaved them in the air. My fingers danced an arcane pattern, creating a bright light of energy in front of me until a puffy cloud of smoky energy appeared in front of me.

  “It’s summoning time,” shouted Chip. “Ahh what’s this scary worm doing! Master Clay, there’s a horrible giant worm-thing in front of you guys. Why aren’t you doing anything? Fight! Run! Do something before it eats you alive!”

  “I don’t like the standing still plan anymore,” said Serena. “Shall we vote to ditch it?”

  “Great idea Ms. Serena,” said Shade.

  I closed my eyes shut. The wind had died down while the worm thing was continuing to breath down on us. We had to defend ourselves until the debuff wore out.

  “Chip,” I said. “We need you to distract the monster.”

  “Gotcha boss,” said the spirit.

  Loud wisps of energy blasts echoed forth as Chip battled and preoccupied the giant worm.

  I counted the seconds. The cataracts in my eyes slowly faded away. My sight returned. A deadly worm towered over us, sprouting from the ground like a plant, but in a deadly-carnivorous-plant-who-wanted-to-kill-you sort of way. The creature was a long slithering tube of spiked scales culminating way above us where its mouth opened up with four sharp claw-like fangs. At the center of its mouth was a large open hole of smaller pincer teeth. It was a conveyer belt of destruction, a cylindrical slaughterhouse from the opening down through its throat. Its stats floated above it.

  Dread Worm

  Level 30

  HP: 2150

  MP: 35

  A lone butterfly fluttered across our battlefield, still suffering from the wind debuff. The dread worm snatched the bug from the air and sent it down its long destructive throat. What a piece of shit. This was how the worm operated: it waited for the wind to make creatures blind and then when they were defenseless, ate them to shreds. It was survival of the fittest out here on the Dead Plains, but this dread worm was one malicious trash mob: there was no reason to eat the butterfly, it wasn’t going to offer it any sustenance. It was killing for killing’s sake.

  “Oh boy,” said Shade, taking in the worm. “We can’t have nice things, can we? We couldn’t have a leisurely stroll to the storm mountains, could we?”

  “Stop complaining and help us take this thing out,” shouted Jackson, running towards the worm. He jumped and spun in the air, unleashing a fiery kick to the worm’s side.

  The monster recoiled from the attack, wailing. It hissed. Globs of bright green saliva flew from its mouth. One glob flew in my direction, its shadow enveloping the ground I stood on. I burst into a crackle of electricity and reappeared two meters back from where the saliva hit. The toxic spit burned the wheat stalks, leaving a black and green crater of destruction.

  The worm swerved its head and crashed down towards Jackson, taking a bite out of his arm.

  Jackson, supreme badass, didn’t even scream as the worm dug its fangs into his flesh. The teeth punctured his skin and Jackson engaged in a tug of war with the worm.

  Raylene’s words echoed in my mind: You better look after Jackson or I’ll burn this place to the ground.

  Oh crap
.

  “Everyone get Jackson away from the worm pronto,” I commanded.

  Serena ran to the worm and shouted, “Protect Thy Allies!”

  A burst of red energy shot forth from her, rippling into the worm. The creature released its grip from Jackson and threw its sharp-teeth filled mouth in Serena’s direction.

  “Oh no you don’t,” shouted Serena, lifting up her sword in a defensive stance. The worm’s teeth clanged against Serena’s sword.

  Jackson stumbled away from the battle. His face and skin were pale white. He was suffering from the “shock” debuff. Kari sent a bright glow of white light across the battlefield. The curative orb flew into his person. His HP shot back to full. The bleeding wounds on his arm disappeared, replaced by clean smooth flesh and skin. Life returned to his face. He was battle-ready once again.

  He clenched his fists and powered himself up with brawler boons. He ran to the dread worm’s rear and landed a punch right in the worm’s vulnerable underside. The worm swerved away from its clash with Serena and turned its attention to the brawler.

  “Curious how our newest member hasn’t been doing anything?” shouted Serena as she stabbed the dread worm on its side.

  “Me?” asked Will. “What about Shade?”

  Shade appeared out from behind the shadows of a rock, leaping forward from stealth mode with two kunai, heading straight into the worm’s back. The critical hit knocked the worm’s HP down to 65%. The monster wailed, unleashing another showering fountain of venomous saliva.

  We all backed away.

  “Your girlfriend and big bro aren’t getting along,” said Shade. “Which one will you side with? Difficult decision.”

  “We don't even know what class he’s playing,” added Serena, between heavy breaths.