The group was stumped; they sat in front of the gate staring into the blue liquid for what felt like an hour. No one spoke.
Finally, Komodo broke the silence, “Head to the gate they said; we will find the key to the way they said, let the quest come to you—”
“Oh shut up Komodo,” Rampage came back at him strong. “You didn’t have any better ideas, did you?”
“I did say I wanted to talk to our guy at the pub one last time before heading here, didn’t I?” The last words out of Komodo’s mouth mocked Rampage. She didn’t enjoy it.
“I am sick and tired of you mocking me Komodo,” Rampage said. “If it weren’t for Dray and me, your character never would have survived our earlier trials. You think you’re so smart, yet you choose a stupid character like a druid.”
“Hey!” Komodo said, taking offense to what Rampage said. “It was a strategic move. I knew that your dumb self would go with the biggest, strongest oaf you could find and that I would need to have some level of magic to heal you. Druids are the best healers remember?”
“Uh guys,” Michael said, not looking at either of them.
“When was the last time that I needed your healing, huh?” Rampage said in an angry voice.
“Guys,” Michael said with a little more urgency.
“For that matter, Dray doesn’t even need your healing or your magic anymore. The two of us should probably find this stupid key and defeat the boss ourselves,” Rampage continued her onslaught. “Split the money fifty-fifty, how does that sound to you Dray?”
“You two wouldn’t last five seconds in there without me,” Komodo said, a little hurt by this last statement by Rampage.
“Guys!” Michael yelled.
“What!” Komodo and Rampage screamed back together; however, Michael didn’t have to explain why he was trying to get their attention, they could see it. Kimble and his two companions were standing less than ten feet away. The orc was on the back of a bear, the wood-elf was riding a giant eagle, and Kimble was on top of what looked like a griffin.
“Well, well, well,” Kimble started. “Look what we have here. If it isn’t those three that killed my horse back in Lightdale.”
“What do you three want?” Rampage retorted.
“Isn’t it obvious,” Kimble snorted. “For starters, we want to kill Cerberus and collect the grand prize. And, secondly, I still want revenge against you losers.”
“I wouldn’t get ahead of yourself Kimble, or don’t you remember what happened last time we danced,” Michael said confidently.
“Oh, I remember all too well dark-elf,” Kimble said. “But this time, we have the advantage. Try stopping us now that we have our little friends here.” Kimble patted the lion head of his griffin before he continued. “Good luck cutting this guy’s head off.”
“Well, I can certainly try,” Michael said, unsheathing his swords and getting into a warriors stance. The light blue illuminance shined brighter just before a battle. Rampage and Komodo all followed suit.
“Bring it on,” Rampage said, pulling out her broadsword and shield.
“Yeah, what are you waiting for,” Komodo followed, his hands already spinning in circles around a red orb of energy.
“You heard them, guys,” Kimble said. “What are we waiting for?”
Kimble raised his broadsword into the air and brandished his shield. “Charge!” he yelled and pointed his sword in the direction of Michael and his companions. The Griffin leaped in front of the other two, its speed and agility were remarkable. In what felt like a split second the griffin was upon them. It jumped into the air and landed on Rampage. The only thing separating her from the massive jaw of the griffin was her shield.
Kimble and Rampage’s engagement had stolen Michael’s attention. Perhaps he should help her, he thought, but before he could do anything the orc’s bear was right in front of him on its hind legs. The orc itself had dismounted and was flanking him from behind. He would have two of his opponents to deal with before he could help Rampage.
To the right of Michael, Komodo was dealing with his issues. The wood-elf’s eagle had soared into the air and was circling above him—making it quite tricky to hit with his energy orb. He waited patiently for the bird to attack before sending it off; however, when it finally did dive on Komodo, it managed to avoid the red orb that Komodo shot. After realigning itself, it dipped again, and this time it plunged with much more velocity. Komodo had no choice but to take cover under a tree. This was a big mistake. Little did Komodo know, but wood-elves have a proclivity toward the forest, and there are magical spells that they can learn to control them. The eagle paused about ten feet from the ground, and Komodo thought he was in the clear; however, unknown to his knowledge, the roots of the tree were coming out of the field and slowly putting themselves into a position where they could restrain him. So, when the wood-elf jumped from eagle and landed a few paces away from him, he tried to perform a spell, but it didn’t work. The roots pinned his extremities down, and he was a sitting duck. The wood-elf approached slowly, pulled a single knife from her belt, and plunged it into his chest. Within a few seconds, Komodo was dead.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fray, Rampage had managed to shove the griffin off and get to her feet. The small victory did not last long though, the griffin's tail came swinging around at her and knocked her right back to the ground. Luckily, she managed to roll out of the way of Kimble’s sword rotating in her direction. She gathered herself and for the first time made an offensive move. She came out swinging, but Kimble deflected her attack with his sword. In that same second, the Griffin lunged at her. She protected herself with her shield just in the nick of time, but the griffin’s jaw was so large that it caught the shield on the edges and yanked it away from her and spit it out onto the other side of the battlefield. Now, Rampage only had her sword, and it would prove not to be enough. The Griffin spread its wings and tossed a gust of air towards Rampage which knocked her to the ground. It then took flight, diving towards her with its fangs and claws at the ready; however, it wasn’t the griffin the dealt the final blow. Distracted by the Griffin, Rampage never noticed Kimble leaping off the Griffin after it took to the air. With her attention fixed on the Griffin, Kimble landed a foot away from her with his broadsword driving through her chest.
The only one of the group that was left was Michael, and he wasn’t fairing very well either. The bear and orc had made life very difficult. They surrounded him on both sides. He had yet to swing a sword at either of them because he was a little too preoccupied avoiding the bear's claws and the orcs new battle-ax. Eventually, Michael was forced to deflect the battle-ax, and his sword was caught between the blade of the ax and its staff. Unable to free it, or take his attention away from the bear, the orc had a wide open shot to kick Michael in the leg. He went down, and soon both swords were out of his hands. The bear had placed a paw on his back and let out a mean growl right beside his ears. Michael felt like the bear was in the room with him with how loud it was in his headset.
“Stop!” Michael heard between the bears deep breaths.
“He is mine,” this time Michael recognized the voice. It was Kimble. The bear relieved the pressure on Michael’s back only to replace by Kimble’s foot. “Any last words before I kill you and go to destroy Cerberus; thus, destroying all your hopes and dreams?”
Michael could feel tears in his eyes; he didn’t want to give Kimble the satisfaction of hearing his voice quiver, so he stayed silent.
“Alright, have it your way,” Kimble said and drove his sword into Draynor’s back.
Michael’s screen started to stain with a tint of red and blood begun falling from the top. Once it got to the bottom, he would be dead, and Kimble and his gang would be able to pillage everything in his inventory, including his swords. Michael would have to start all over. However, there was a glimmer of hope, just as Michael’s screen was going blurry and the blood had almost reached the bottom of the screen, he thought he could see a vast
horde gathering in the distance. At the front of it, he thought he could see a few plumes of smoke going up, and the faint silhouette of a pointed hat. If they were lucky, the horde of monsters would take out Kimble and his goons. It would then be a race to the spot to see who got their inventories back. As soon as Michael’s screen read, “You died.” He knew what he had to do. Unfortunately for him, the second his character responded, his screen went black. Michael’s dad had other plans for him.
Chapter VII
Michael’s father grabbed the headset off of his head. It came off with ease, and his father swayed backward. He struggled to regain his balance. There was alcohol on his breath. Mr. Maddox had not dealt with the argument with his wife very well. He had spent the previous three hours down at the local watering hole, draining his sorrows into glass after glass of rum and coke.
“What is so special about this thing anyway?” Mr. Maddox asked his son, staring at the contraption with confusion.
“Be careful; you’ll break it, dad,” Michael pleaded.
“Does it matter?” Mr. Maddox retorted. “I am taking it back to the store tomorrow night after dinner.”
“Please,” Michael said. “I have made friends on there.”
“Friends?” Mr. Maddox said with disgust. “You can’t make friends over the internet. You can’t be friends with someone if you’ve never met them.”
“Yes I can, “Michael insisted.
“No,” Mr. Maddox said with finality. “This is holding you back. Michael, you need to go out into the real world and make some friends.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“You don’t have a choice,” Mr. Maddox voice was rising now. “I am the parent, and I know what is best for you. Tomorrow, I want you to come to grips with the fact that we are getting rid of this thing. Make sure you say your goodbyes tomorrow because, after dinner, the two of us are going to the store together.”
Michael stood still, he didn’t know what to do, but he knew that arguing with his father while he was inebriated would only end badly for him.
“Good,” Mr. Maddox said, knowing that he had won the argument. “Now, do your exercises and get ready for bed. You are not going back online tonight.”
“But,” Michael said.
“I don’t want to hear it, Michael Maddox. Do as you are told.”
Michael succumbed to his father’s will and took off the Oculus Rift shoes and gloves and limped to his room. Full of anger, Michael completed all of his stretches and exercises, brushed his teeth, and got into bed. Deep down, Michael could feel his chances of accomplishing his goal with his companions drifting out of his reach. There is no way that his weapons and armor would be at the gate by morning, even if their enemies were slaughtered by the incoming horde of monsters. They were screwed.
In the morning, Michael woke to an empty house—as usual—and made breakfast. Usually, he was the first one out of the group to be online, but this morning he wasn’t. The thought of saying goodbye to Komodo and Rampage wrenched at his heartstrings. He couldn’t believe that—after how far they had come—this was how it was going to end. He ate his breakfast in silence, waiting for his parents to wake up.
When Mr. and Mrs. Maddox finally made their way downstairs, it appeared as though the fight the previous evening had never happened. Michael knew his fate was sealed when his mother was the one who re-confirmed that they were selling the Oculus Rift. Michael has lost. He didn’t even put up a fight; and, for a moment, he even thought it was for the best. His parents were getting along—at least they weren’t ripping at each other’s heads. So, Michael nodded and accepted his fate by telling himself there was no possibility of them winning the prize money anyway. As his parents left the house, he waved goodbye to them and watched them drive away.
After his parents were gone, he decided that there was no point in delaying the inevitable and strapped into his gloves, boots, and headset for the last time. Michael usually watched the entire intro to Archaic Venture—the one with the horde of orcs attacking the humans—but he did not experience excitement this time. This time it just made him sad, so he skipped the intro and logged directly into his online account.
There his character was, Draynor the dark-elf. Draynor had been stripped of all his fancy armor; his hands were full of the beginner blades that he had the very first day that he played the game. Watching him bob up and down with none of the same pizzazz as the day before was like adding insult to injury.
Michael did not run to the place where he had been killed the night before; he did not try to kill some sheep to get some gold; he just entered the options menu and found the messaging board. As long as Michael had been in that exact moment, it was impossible for his interest not to be peaked when he saw that he had two large messages from Komodo. They read:
“Draynor!!!! Where the hell did you go, man! You won’t believe what happened. So, after I died I ran all the way back to the gate and guess what! Everyone was dead. I had a feeling that we were screwed, but I still had hope that you two might pull through. Apparently, you didn’t I don’t know if it was you two that killed them or vice versa, but it appears that a horde of monsters was coming us the whole time. Everyone was wiped out. And, this is the best part, when I got there all of our stuff was still there! I picked up yours and Rampage’s stuff and got the hell out of there. I am not sure why this message isn’t getting through to you. I have a hard time believing that you went offline after that. Please, when you get this, message me, because our stuff isn’t all I found. Apparently, Kimble or one of his goons was carrying the key to the gate. I know it is the right one because before I took off I pressed it up against a notch in the pillars and the blue plasma disappeared. We did it! Get at me right away.”
Michael couldn’t believe what he was reading. He messaged back right away, telling Komodo that he was ready to go. Luckily, because of Michael’s delay in signing on this morning, Rampage and Komodo were already online. Komodo messaged back right away and asked Michael where he was exactly. After explaining to Komodo that he was near Isledorf—the last place that he saved his location—Komodo appeared near the bar. Komodo had the power to teleport to places that he had once been, so once they met up, Komodo teleported Michael to directly outside the silver gate.
“Hey stranger,” Rampage said, playing with her broadsword like it was the first time she had seen it. “Look who decided to finish what we started.”
“Yeah, what took you so long to sign on this morning?” Komodo followed up. “We thought you gave up.”
“It is a long story, guys,” Michael said. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.”
“Yeah, maybe, but enough with the pleasantries,” Komodo said, dropping a lot of gear in front of him. “Here is your stuff.”
Michael moved towards it and picked it all up. He felt so much relief when he saw the glowing blue from his two swords glowing in his hands. “Well, in the words of Kimble, what are we waiting for?”
“I’m with him,” Rampage said.
“Me too!” Komodo said with a laugh. Komodo took a few steps toward the door, pressed a hexagonal key into the side and all of a sudden the blue liquid floating between the silver pillars disappeared. Rampage and Michael followed him through the gate. As soon as the last one of them crossed the threshold, the blue gel reappeared, and it became painfully evident that there was no turning back now.
“Well, what now?” Rampage said, looking around. The three of them were a little confused. Similar to the wall outside, all there was, was white. It was almost blinding, like walking out during a snowstorm. There was no sun, no trees, no snow even, just white.
Michael decided to go first. He took a few steps forward but stopped when the ground began to shake. Nothing changed as far as appearance, but they could tell that something was happening. It started slow, like when you see into a dark tunnel, and the light of a train slowly get bigger and bigger—only this time, it was the opposite. A spec of blackness in the middle
of all the white appeared. It grew horizontally first, and when it was done growing that direction, it was almost the entire length of the screen. Then, it rose vertically. Like gas, Cerberus gradually enveloped the whole screen. It was a monstrous creature.
Cerberus was a mix of slick oil and jet black smoke. Its face would bob and weave and appear on different parts of its body, while its tentacles could expand and diminish at will. It was as if it could have as many or as little amounts of arms as it wanted. It had no legs, no feet, and no real body; it was just a massive mass of darkness and evil, and—as far as Michael could tell—there was no apparent way to kill it.
Finally, Cerberus centered its head and opened its sinister red eyes and mouth and spoke, “I am Cerberus. Congratulations on making it this far, but now it is time to end things. Come, meet your demise.”
Cerberus made the first move; one of its arms extended to the left of the group and made a long sweeping motion like a whip. Michael and Rampage were able to jump over the top of it, but Komodo was knocked to the ground. While Rampage made a slicing motion with her broadsword, slicing the end of the arm off, Michael assisted Komodo in getting back on his feet. It was just in time too, another one of Cerberus’s limbs came crashing down on the space that had previously been occupied by Komodo’s body. Without wasting any time, Komodo feverishly prepared a spell and shot it towards Cerberus. It did nothing.
Archaic Venture_The Myth Of Cerberus Page 6
