by Drew Seren
“Drink this.” Baladara tossed a vial at Horc. Two more went flying toward the others.
Faster than he could’ve managed in the real world, Horc snatched the glass tube out of midair, uncorked it, and drank it. His health bar flashed and was back to full. He dropped the bottle in his bag as he whipped out a chunk of meat and hurled it toward Wolf.
Horc had just enough time to bring his sword up in an attempt to block Bo’s club. After fighting Ted, the Ursan, switching to a foe who was barely up to his stomach felt awkward, and Bo’s fist blow made Horc stumble backward a couple of steps.
“I’d thought yous guys was up to something,” Bo’ screeched as he swung the club at Horc again. “But the boss said yous was just good fighters. Now yous’s going to be able to fight for us.”
“Back down, Bo’,” Horc pleaded. The NPC wasn’t part of his party, but after all their interactions, he felt like Bo’ might’ve been a friend in another reality. There was something about him that reminded Horc of one of the guys he’d worked with a couple of years earlier who moved from New Jersey to Texas when the sea levels had risen to the point that the coastal towns had flooded and the hurricanes had come so frequently he’d had to leave. “We don’t want to hurt anyone, we just want to get out of the arena and go on with our adventuring.”
Bo’ rolled and dodged away from Horc’s attack. “Too bad, yous ain’t going nowhere.” He sprang to his feet and rushed Horc.
“I don’t know what happens to NPCs when you die—” Horc blocked another attack, this time not losing any ground to Bo’ “—but you’re going to find out.” He wanted to make Bo’s death quick and as painless as possible. If NPCs felt pain.
With Bo’s club sliding along the edge of Horc’s sword, Horc swung up and forced Bo’ to stumble. Wolf was there in an instant and hit Bo’ hard in the chest, carrying the diminutive Goblin to the ground.
Bo’ screamed as his club hit the ground and rolled out of his grasp. He grabbed fists-full of fur and tried to head-butt Wolf.
As Horc went to help Wolf finish off the Goblin, one of the other Pirates, a huge Ogre with massive shoulders and an off-white bald head that made him look undead, swung a huge pike at Horc. The metal tip of the pike clanged off Horc’s sword as he brought the weapon around to barely block the blow. Again, he was forced back as Bo’ continued to scream like the sound was going to defend him from Wolf.
“We need you to die,” the Ogre shouted as he swung the pike at Horc again.
Not exactly sure how he managed to do it, Horc brought his sword down to stop the nasty blade again. As he took another step back from the force of the blow, Horc knew he had to change the tide quickly. From his display, he could tell the Ogre was the same level he was, but was more than twice his size, and had a much longer reach. Constantly having to change the type of opponents he was fighting confused Horc. He needed some consistency.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” Horc caught the massive pike again, this time on the wooden shaft. “We don’t die easily.”
“He’s got that right,” Tufkakes stepped out of the shadows behind the Ogre and drove a blade into its unprotected neck.
Nearly half of the Ogre’s health vanished from the blow.
The Ogre reached back as if to swat at Tufkakes, but he was already gone, disappearing back into the shadows.
Horc took advantage of the Ogre being distracted and rammed the tip of his sword into the big Pirate’s gut and yanked upwards. The smell that rushed out was reminiscent of spoiled fish patties and made Horc gag as the Ogre bellowed and fell back, yanking Horc’s sword out of his hands.
A critical hit notification flashed on the screen and the Ogre stopped moving.
“You killed Slag!” Another large pirate shouted and rushed away from Titanya, swinging his massive sword at Horc.
As he went to bring his sword up to block the blow, Horc realized his hands were empty and his sword was in the Ogre, presumably Slag. He ducked under the new attacker’s swing and punched the big guy as hard as he could in the nuts.
“Don’t run away from me.” Titanya’s next blow caught the Ogre hard in the back, spraying blood in a bright arc that splashed all three of them.
Horc got his hands around his sword and yanked it free of Slag’s body just as the carcass started to digitize and fade away. He wasn’t sure if he’d have lost the sword if it had still been in the corpse when that happened.
The big Human Pirate grabbed Horc’s shoulder and yanked him around. His face was still a wash of pain from the attacks he’d suffered. “You’re toast, Ranger.”
“Not right now.” Horc swung up as hard as he could. He didn’t have time to aim the blow, and it skimmed along the Pirate’s shin and up through his arm.
Titanya managed to get another excellent slash on his back and the Pirate collapsed to the ground, dead.
“You need healing,” Titanya said as she turned to where the other pirates were going down quickly.
Horc glanced at his health bar that was flashing in the orange. He was close to dying. One more good hit and he was done for. Around the arena, the crowds were cheering.
“We don’t have a healer right now,” Horc said, wishing he had a supply of healing potions in his bag. If he survived the arena, he was going to make sure he never left home without them again.
“Then we might be in for a problem.” Titanya frowned and glanced to where Tufkakes and Baladara were fighting the last two Pirates.
“No!” Bo’ screamed, then went silent.
Wolf shook his head, as if he was trying to get the taste of Goblin out of his mouth. From the party icons showing on the right side of Horc’s vision, Wolf was fairly low on health too, but it was something he could help with. He reached in his bag and pulled out a chunk of meat.
“Eat it before following us.” Horc tossed the meat to his companion. He looked at Titanya. “Let’s finish this.”
The Warrior woman grinned and nodded. Her health was about half down. “Let’s.” She charged the Dwarven Pirate Tufkakes had down to almost a quarter.
Horc glanced over to where he’d dropped his bow earlier. It would’ve been smart to shoot the Human Pirate Baladara was struggling with, but it would’ve taken more time than just running across the sand and stabbing it in the back.
Moving as fast and quietly as he could, Horc hoped between the roar of the crowd and Baladara’s repeated short sword swings, the Pirate wouldn’t know he was coming. He didn’t have Tufkakes’ Shadow Walking ability, or Backstab attack, but it didn’t matter. Baladara’s manna was gone and her health was nearly there too. Horc wasn’t under any illusion that if any of them died in the arena, the AI would do its best to keep them prisoners. Even if his health was low, he had to do what he could to save his friends.
Horc managed to drive his sword deep into the Pirate’s back.
“Shit!” the Pirate shouted and swung around fast. He jerked the sword out of Horc’s hands and managed to land a meaty punch to Horc’s jaw.
As the critical hit to the Pirate flashed in Horc’s view, his own health flashed red. Horc stumbled backward. His head throbbed, and he tried to get some kind of focus. In the distance he heard his party mates shouting. He wondered if he was done for. He fought to figure out what was happening, but his vision swam and he crashed to the sand, getting a mouthful of grit and dirt.
He lay there, his health bar flashing red and a low health warning scrolling every few seconds through his vision. The next hit wasn’t even going to need to be a solid hit and he’d go down and stay that way. He’d pushed things too far and lost. It was over. He just hoped the rescue team had his pod stabilized and he wasn’t going to die for real, but even if he did, at least he was going to die saving a friend. That was a good thing.
Something, or someone hit the sand beside him, sending up a cloud of dust that then rained down on him.
A huge hand grabbed Horc’s neck and lifted him from the sand. The smell of rotting vegetation washed over hi
m, making him gag. Horc forced his eyes opened and stared into the angry face of Rothand, the Pirate lord of the arena. His beady red eyes were squinted in anger and his other fist was drawn back to punch Horc hard in the face.
Horc had no doubt that Rothand’s ruggedly ugly visage with its massive tusks was going to be the last thing he ever saw.
24
“You’re a lot of trouble, Ranger.” Rothand’s breath was hot on Horc’s face. “You’ll make a good addition to my stable of fighters.”
Determined to not just go down without fighting, Horc kicked Rothand as hard as he could in the groin.
Rothand’s fist began its journey toward Horc’s nose.
Magic tingled around Horc. It was a familiar feeling. His health bar stopped flashing red as Rothand’s fist landed with a solid crack, sending him back into the red.
“What?” Rothand went to hit Horc again, but a Fireball engulfed the half-breed Pirate.
The healing magic hit Horc again. He kicked Rothand again, then the Pirate huffed and stumbled like something had just caught him from behind.
“Drop him and face me!” Titanya roared. “Let me show you what a woman can do to you when you’re not controlling her.”
As Horc’s health jumped up to half, Rothand let go of his neck and he fell to the sandy arena surface. The swamp-like reek of the Pirate’s hand vanished. Horc’s health dropped back down, but not all the way into the red.
“Anytime.” Rothand turned from Horc and got a face full of angry Wolf before he could take two steps.
The Half-Orc Pirate stumbled and Horc rolled to grab him around the knees. The combined attack brought the man down hard, just as another Fireball went sailing over the three of them.
“Don’t help him dodge my attack,” Baladara shouted. “I don’t have full mana here.”
Horc wished he had a sword, an axe…something. He didn’t think he’d be able to do much against a foe, particularly one with three stars next to his name that had so many levels on him.
His quiver caught him in the back, reminding him that even if he had dropped his bow, he still had his arrows. He grabbed one, it was better than nothing, and jabbed it into Rothand’s thigh as hard as he could. The Pirate screamed, although the attack didn’t appear to do much to his health bar.
Titanya hit him hard in the head with her huge sword. From the way his health dropped a noticeable amount, Horc figured she’d managed a critical hit, but it wasn’t enough to even drop him by a quarter of this health.
A heavy, furry hand pulled Horc away from the fight. “You’d better step back a bit.”
Someone handed him his bow. “You might need this.”
Horc took the bow and stared at the two new players. Bigdaddybear, Ursan, Druid, Level 35, brushed dust from Horc’s shoulder.
Stanoran, Human, Priest, Level 35 pulled out his massive silver mace.
“We’ve got more people coming in if we need them,” Bigdaddybear said with a lilt in his voice that sounded a lot like Greensleeves.
Horc gapped at them. “David?”
Bigdaddybear nodded. “This was Rick’s idea.” He gestured down his body.
“We don’t have time to talk,” Stanoran said. “Even with us, this isn’t going to be an easy fight.”
“Point.” Bigdaddybear grinned. “Good thing the Ursans have a higher constitution than Humans or Elves.” His hands glowed a dark green as he started casting a spell. “Gotta knock this fool down.”
Horc drew back an arrow and added Poison to it. “Let’s do this.”
Between Tufkakes, Baladara, and Titanya they had Rothand down to nearly half, but they were all hurting too. Rothand had pulled out his wickedly curved blade and was doing a good job keeping the others at bay, as they tried to close in on him to do more damage.
Each arrow Horc hit the Pirate with didn’t seem to do any real damage to him, but the damage over time of the Poison arrows did seem to start gnawing at his health while the others hit him with all they had.
Staying back from the hand to hand fighting, Horc kept firing arrows with spells on them to augment their damage for as long as his mana held out. As his mana bar went out, he reached back for an arrow and realized his quiver was empty too.
Rothand was down to three eighths health or so. But the others weren’t faring well. Stanoran had fallen back and was constantly casting healing spells on the others to keep them going, but his mana was starting to drop quickly.
Bigdaddybear slipped behind Rothand and picked him up in a massive bear hug.
Rothand hacked at Bigdaddybear’s arms, but it seemed to be to no avail.
Titanya slashed at Rothand, seeming to aim for his neck, but the Pirate twisted in the Ursan’s hold, and her blow landed on his shoulder. Even still, it was enough to knock a decent chunk out of his health as a Fireball hit him in the face from the other side.
He was down to a quarter health.
Horc looked around for his sword and couldn’t see it anywhere.
Wolf was at Baladara’s side but was down into the red himself.
There was nothing in the arena Horc could use as a weapon. Then an idea hit him; he ran to where Tufkakes was stepping out of the shadows, driving a dagger into Rothand’s neck. The Pirate jerked at just the right moment, and the blow landed on his collarbone, not doing a lot of damage.
“Tufkakes, loan me a dagger.” Horc held out his hand. “We can hit him together.”
“That might help.” Tufkakes pulled a dagger from somewhere and tossed it to Horc.
Again, catching it more agilely than he would’ve been able to do IRL, Horc felt better with a blade in his hand.
“Hurry Guys, I can’t keep him up like this.” Bigdaddybear’s waist was bent backwards, trying to keep the Pirate off the ground.
With a deep breath, Horc focused on the side of Rothand’s shaggy head, hoping he was aiming for the ear like he thought he was. He drove the blade deep at the same time Tufkakes did.
Rothand twisted as if to avoid the blows but rolled his head so Horc’s blade slid into his red eye. The Pirate Lord roared in agony, then went limp in Bigdaddybear’s hands.
Horc let out a long slow breath or relief as Bigdaddybear tossed Rothand’s body to the side. Around them, the people in the stands had gone eerily silent.
Tufkakes rushed to loot the body. After a second he stood with his hands on his hips. “What is this? He doesn’t have any loot. How does the boss not have any loot?”
Baladara brushed dust off her robes. “Not only that, but we didn’t get any XP for that.”
Horc brought up his quest window. The quest to vanquish the darkness was still there. “I’ve still got the quest too. If Rothand wasn’t the darkness, then who, or what is?”
Something rumbled deep under the arena. The ground shifted. Rothand pixelated and vanished as the sand covered his body, then flattened out.
“Health potions!” Horc shouted. They were all down and not in any shape to take on anything else at that moment. Even Bigdaddybear and Stanoran were down some points and they were both low on mana and wouldn’t be able to heal them that much more. Just when it looked like they were finished, something else was going to come at them.
Horc was starting to hate fantasy games again.
25
People in the stands screamed as Horc rushed over to Baladara. “Seriously, break out the health potions.”
Baladara shook her head. “Sorry. All out. This trip has been expensive in terms of potions.”
The ground shook again.
“Not a good time.” Horc paused as magic danced across his skin. He glanced over and both Bigdaddybear and Stanoran were casting spells. The glow of healing magic covered their hands.
“Guys, was that smart?” Horc felt a little better at having his health back to full, but he didn’t like the idea of their healers being low on manna.
“Only option,” Bigdaddybear replied as he reached into his bag and pulled out two potions. “Besides we’ve
got…”
The shaking got worse, and then the sand of the arena exploded up and out.
Horc flew through the air, landing hard on one of the concrete benches that filled the stands. He’d somehow managed to not hit any of the other players on his way to his impact site. He lay there for a moment as deep laughing filled the sky.
He opened his eyes and a huge Red Dragon filled the sky above the arena. In its talons it carried a cage with several captives in it. Slasher was pressed against the metal bars.
“You’re not taking the system down!” The Dragon continued to hover above them. “It’s my system now. You can’t turn things off without killing these people.”
Horc wished he wasn’t out of arrows. Around him, players cast Fireballs, Lighting Bolts, and other distance spells. They all bounced off the Dragon’s hide and didn’t seem to faze it in the least. The text above the Dragon read Pyranous, Red Dragon, Level XXX there were also four stars after its name.
Horc swallowed hard. There was no way for them to take on such a foe. It was the most powerful mob they’d seen in the game.
With another laugh, Pyranous stopped hovering, leveled out and flew off across the ocean, the cage still grasped in his talons.
“What are we going to do now?” Horc asked as he tried to make sense of what he’d just seen. Pyranous had to be the body the AI had constructed for itself, although why it had an identifier when the programmers who appeared in the game didn’t, didn’t make any sense to him. If the AI was so powerful, it shouldn’t be any different from them, unless it was still learning what it was capable of.
“We follow it, of course,” Titanya said. “I really wish I could be Steelmaiden again. I like Barbarians better, even if she had picked up bugs.”
“Let’s talk to Rick about it.” Bigdaddybear sighed and sat on the side of the wall, facing Horc. The thick stonewall was cracked and looked ready to crumble at any moment.
“You do that. I’ll see about rounding up more players.” Tufkakes looked around. “Okay, is it just me, or did most of the other players just vanish?”
