The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  “About time you joined the party,” Kenzie snapped in a harsh whisper as Zhou let out a low “Woohoo” through clenched teeth as both women did their best not to give my presence away.

  “This prick is kicking our asses!” Sarka growled under her breath. “Every time we work his Flame Shield down, he leaps away from us until he can get it up again.”

  “Sounds like a typical date night from the Lone Star,” Kenzie muttered under her breath. By now, we were used to ignoring her extraneous information about her country date nights, especially since the Lone Star bar was central to many of them.

  “The bastard dodges out of the way as soon as I release an arrow-storm,” Unalia stormed angrily as she stalked the DPS Warrior from the edge of the rooftop with her arrows nocked waiting for a shot.

  “In case you didn’t know, this guy is a huge fan,” Thompson said, joining in on the conversation as he peaked over the lip of the roof and cast another round of Regeneration. “He’s been asking for you the entire fight.”

  “Good to know. I guess that means he’ll focus on me once I show my face.” I said, as a smile came to my lips. It was good to see everyone was still in high spirits even after the ass-kicking they were getting. “Yun, have you tried hitting him with any Flurry Blasts yet?”

  “Haven’t had any time to attack, we’ve been too busy trying to keep everyone alive that we can!” Yun said in a strained voice, as he raced across the rooftop hunched over. Finding a better angle to keep an eye on the fight below, he knelt at the edge of the roof ready to lean over for a shot at a moment’s notice.

  “Any idea what Thomas has the Royal Knights doing? I thought they were going to be a part of this fight?”

  “He has them hidden in the apartment and shops at the end of the street,” Thompson explained as I heard Apoxsee begin taunting the survivors. “He has them waiting for these assholes to respawn.”

  “Why don’t you losers just give up?” Apoxsee sneered as he came to a stop facing Zhou and Sarka. “You know this is over, right? Trust me when I say, we’re gonna have some real fun once my people spawn back in.” He said, leering at both women. “I always wanted to get my hands on a soldier girl.”

  Quickly, I switched to the raids command chat to give the order for everyone to advance, except for a group of twenty to hold the barricades if it was needed. There was no way I was going to put the townsfolk of this city through any more abuse if I could help it. I’m sure Thomas never thought we’d do this well against the Dread Pack raid headed for his people. His idea to use the Royal Knights for respawns was genius though. Now that we’d cut down the rest of the guild, we had a chance to get on top of the respawn and keep them down. Otherwise, I knew we’d lose the initiative. Giving the rest of our people hurried orders to spread out through the gravestones and to prepare for battle, I switched over to my personal team’s chat, letting Helgath and Fylreh know what I needed. Getting an affirmative from them both, I sent a quick message to Ayda asking her to do whatever she could to give everyone a boost for the final push against this asshole, before switching back to the local raid chat.

  This was the cusp of the fight. We had to take Apoxsee out before the rest of our troops arrived, otherwise who knows how many of them we’d lose to this guy. Focusing on the conversation going on between the combatants, I began giving out orders for taking this asshole down as the first clear notes of Ayda’s lute filled the air. Hearing everyone’s affirmatives, I got into position as Zhou snarled.

  “That was the second mistake you made!”

  “Really, messin with you chumps was the second mistake I made?” Apoxsee asked, throwing his head back to howl in laughter. Overexaggeratedly wiping tears from his eyes, he stood up straight with his sword loosely planted point-first on the cobblestones. “And pray tell, what was my first mistake?”

  “Fucking with my friends, dickhead!” I roared out hitting him from behind with dual Enhanced Shadow Bolts. Within the blink of an eye his Flame Shield collapsed in a cascade of fireflies as he super—jumped away in a blur of motion. Zhou staggered through the spot he’d been standing in, barely slashing through the skin of his leg as Sarka’s charge brought her flying past her comrade a split-second later.

  “It took your chickenshit slowass long enough to show up,” Apoxsee swore, as he double-jumped off the side of an apartment’s wall diving directly at me. “It’s time to get some motherfucking payback in!”

  There was no time to think as I rammed a Flurry blast in his face and dove out of the way while releasing a Frost Nova. Even so, I couldn’t clear the distance before his two-handed blade carved a groove in the back of my coral armor. The hit sent me tumbling away as I hurriedly caught myself and rolled out of my dive. “Shit, the asshole moves fast!” I swore under my breath, while whipping my sword and shield up before me defensively.

  If not for that natural reaction Miya had taught me so long ago in our training sessions, I would have lost my head as the DPS Warrior’s two-handed blade smashed against my shield like a wrecking ball. Swearing like a sailor, I let my body go with the force of the blow as I was swept off my feet. One thing I had to give the Dread Pack guild leader credit for was that he could move fast as hell.

  Obviously, that meant my Frost Nova had done nothing to slow the pain-in-the-ass down. I rolled back to my feet in one smooth motion, while Unalia’s arrow-storm thudded over Apoxsee’s path as three of her arrows found their mark. Her quick-shot was the only thing that saved me from the Dread Pack leader’s follow-up attack. As the dickhead slid to a stop, one of Yun’s Flurry Blasts smashed into the DPS Warrior’s chest, keeping him slowed down as he glowered up at the Priest hatefully.

  “What a chickenshit!” he roared, angrily faced me while I began to stalk forward with my shield up. “Hiding behind these little girls like a coward!” he spat at me puffing out his chest. “Why not face mano-e’-mano like a real man?”

  The dickhead was really playing this up for the camera. No matter what I said or did, he’d use it against me. Most non-gamers watching this would have no idea of the level difference between us and what that meant inside the game. That’s when I noticed the new buff on my HUD from Ayda’s song,

  Song of Defiance – All allies within range of this song will fight to the death. +7 to all stats for five minutes. Drains all the Bard’s mana upon completion of song.

  Plus seven to all stats was pretty major. Basically, it was an instant six level boost. Almost enough to bring an Advance start player into the range of a Nightmare start player in attributes. While it didn’t give any added Class or Profession based skills, it did close the attribute distance between Apoxsee and me down to a three level difference. My lips curled into a savage grin. That was something I could definitely work with. If he wanted to call me as a chickenshit, cheating bastard, he was more than welcomed to bring it on.

  “Why the fuck would I fight an uneven battle like that with a loser like you?” I spat back without hesitation as the man’s mask turned into an ugly sneer. “Besides, you have some pissed off ladies here that would kick my ass up and down the street if I got in the way of their fun.”

  “Ladies, what ladies are you talking about?” he asked, throwing a harsh bark of laughter at Sarka and Zhou’s angry faces. “Why don’t you-“

  The scream of agony that suddenly came from Apoxsee’s lips caught everyone but me by surprise, as Kenzie leaped up from the ground and sank her sword to the hilt in the man’s exposed back. She’d been lying in wait this whole time looking for a chance to jump the asshole slaughtering her and her friends. My distraction and Ayda’s attribute boost was just what she needed to make her move.

  Unfortunately, the surprise attack didn’t save her from the DPS Warrior’s lightning-fast reflexes as his massive blade diagonally slashed through her body, killing her instantly. While he roared in outrage, Sarka and Zhou threw themselves at the asshole’s back as I began blasting the fucker with Flurry Blasts. Not that any of our attacks did that much as the
Dread Pack leader spun around and triggered a slide attack in-between Sarka and Zhou.

  Unalia’s arrow-storm shattered against the cobblestones as Apoxsee’s two-handed blade sliced through Zhou’s knees. The two-handed blow didn’t stop there as he changed his swing to a one-handed grip letting the backswing take Sarka’s head off as he slid past. As both bodies collapsed to the ground, he jumped into the air from his knees and blasted the rooftop where Yun was crouched as my Flurry Blasts hit empty air.

  “Fuck!” I swore under my breath. Between his class skills and his higher levels, he was way too deadly to be fucking around with while he was wielding that sword, I thought sourly. No wonder he was able to take nearly the entire group of my friends down hardly without taking any damage.

  “Too slow, asshole!” Apoxsee taunted in a singsong voice as I reset my Ice Barrier and Regeneration, while his Flame Shield reappeared around his body. “What yeah gonna do now, punk?”

  Definitively not good, I thought, studying the Dread Pack guild leader with my Identify. Even though the shithead’s Hit Points were still over a thousand, I instantly noticed that neither his mana nor health were noticeably regenerating as we slowly circled one another looking for an opening. Every loop, he seemed to get closer as my Ice Barrier flared from the proximity of his shield’s fiery aura.

  We both knew what he was doing as he tauntingly got closer and closer while my mind looked for an opening. If he only had two thousand Hit Points, that meant he’d min-maxed his build. Probably dumping a shit-ton of his attribute points into Strength, Agility and Intelligence, which was why he was so incredibly fast and seemed to have endless mana. I bet he was counting on his Flame Shield to avoid being hit in a fight. And while he was stronger and faster than me, his only real advantage was his sword class skills and Flame Shield ability. If I could take them both out of the picture, I might have a chance to take him down. Giving Helgath a mental head’s up that it was time, I lunged in for the kill.

  My attack didn’t catch Apoxsee off-guard in the least as his two-handed sword flashed towards my head quick as lightning. I was betting on the asshole wanting to completely dominate me with his higher levels and strength as I took the hit on my helmet to get in close, while blasting him with an Enhanced Shadow Bolt to take down his Flame Shield at point-blank range. My Holy Shield shattered in a golden shower as the blow slammed into the Helm of Inaxidor.

  The epic helm easily deflected the blade, while ringing my head like a bell as I staggered from the blow. Luckily, the damage from the single Enhanced Shadow Bolt was enough to drop the bastard’s Flame Shield as I slammed the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden through the top of his booted foot and into the cobblestones beneath. Praying that the sword would be enough to hold the asshole in place, I clenched the DPS Warrior like a boxer trying not to go down in a match and triggered Life Leach.

  Apoxsee’s piercing scream was music to my ears as he threw his head back and howled in agony. Unfortunately, that pleasure only lasted a second, before the DPS Warrior recovered his wits quicker than I expected. While the seventy-five percent pain had been enough to shock the majority of his guildmates into inactivity, he seemed to be used to the in-game pain as he lashed back. Within seconds, the man’s overpowered blows began hammering into my face as he used the hilt of his two-handed sword like a police baton. Each impact hit with bone-crushing force as my clavicle and cheek bone were shattered in seconds, while his other hand did its best to pry my body off of him by using my eye sockets as handholds.

  Luckily, the helmet kept him from poking out my eyes as his fingernails dug into my scalp while blood streamed down my face. All the while, I held on pumping out the very last of my mana to burn the asshole’s Hit Points down to nothing. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it as the Dread Pack guild leader heaved and snapped my neck like a twig. As my arms numbly lost their grip, Apoxsee hammered the hilt of his bastard sword through my throat in a fountain of blood as he then tossed my body to the ground like a boneless puppet with its strings cut.

  One glance at my HUD showed my Hit Points flashing in the red and dropping like a rock from my egregious injuries as I looked up into the asshole’s leering face. The intense pain made me want to puke as I met the man’s hate-filled eyes sneering down at me. I’d almost taken the bastard out, I thought. Not bad for a nine level difference, I thought gasping for breath. His health was flashing in the red with a little less than two hundred Hit Points left as he spit a bloody loogie in my face.

  “I told them that your chump-ass couldn’t beat me!” he crowed triumphantly. “Smile for my fans as I take your head off!”

  “Who said I wanted to kill you?” I hoarsely gasped, coughing out a mouthful of blood as I gritted through the terrible pain. Seeing the confused look on Apoxsee’s face, I gave him a bloody grin as I spat out. “I wanted Fylreh to kill you, dickless!”

  I cackled in glee at the panicked look that crossed Apoxsee’s face as he tried to super-jump away only to be reminded that my sword had him pinned to the ground. Tipping over to fall on his hands and knees, he looked up in horror as Fylreh skittered to a stop behind him on the cobblestones with her scimitars raised over her head to strike. The DPS Warrior twisted around trying to block the blows with an armored forearm, but it was a useless gesture as the centauride’s blades fell, hacking completely through his arm and into his head. His death scream echoed in my ears as my vision faded to a black-like twilight.

  In the blink of an eye, I suddenly found myself standing in the middle of a graveyard with the blood-red letters of a system message directly before my eyes.

  You have been killed by Apoxsee Neoauspex! Do you wish to resurrect at your corpse or release your spirit to the nearest graveyard?

  Immediately, a timer appeared before my eyes counting down from five minutes. Glancing over the two buttons, the words ‘Resurrect’ and ‘Release’ slightly highlighted as I looked around curiously. While there was a part of me that wanted to hang out in ghost form to check out the world from this angle, there was no time to fuck around as I mentally selected the Resurrect button. The information box went away as the still counting down timer stayed in the center of my vision.

  From what I’d read about death in the game and heard from my friends, the timer was counting down the time I had left before my body was automatically forced to respawn at the nearest graveyard. It was probably a default setting in the game to stop people from wandering the world as ghosts. Now that the information box as gone, I could see that there was a ghostly hooded figure floating in the center of the graveyard.

  I didn’t take the time to look at the odd figure further, figuring that it was something like the floating ghost of death and resurrection in World of Warcraft games as I hurriedly glanced around for the exit. Still, it made me wonder whether or not The World had quests that could only be completed in ghost form. Seeing the exit to the graveyard, I pushed the thought away and took off between the gravestones. Heading out of the mini-graveyard, I entered the city at a run without looking back.

  The ghostly world was different from the one of the living. A howling wind seemed to pass through my ghostly body to shiver my soul as I made my way through the silent city like a wrath. My vision seemed distorted, like I was running through some black and white alternative world as I began searching the city streets for something that looked familiar. There were no arrows pointing me towards my corpse, nor was there a map for me to pull up to see how close or far away I was to my corpse. Obviously, it was up to me to find my own body before the time limit was up.

  A massive structure rising up out of the city caught my eye as I saw the familiar outline of the arena in the distance. Turning in the direction of the massive structure, I sprinted as fast as my ghostly body would move, albeit ‘sprinting’ was somewhat of an oxymoron, since my ghostly form didn’t actually seem to move any faster. Catching an eye of the barricades at the mouth of an alley, I headed for the street we’d been fighting on and headed up the wide avenue.

>   In the distance, my gravestone stood out to my ghostly sight like a beacon of light as I silently headed up the street while the timer continued counting down the seconds. It was down to forty seconds when a window with the word ‘Resurrect’ popped up before my eyes underneath the timer’s box, when I was thirty feet away from my gravestone. While I could have resurrected immediately, I figured it wouldn’t make much sense in doing that here, since my companions were probably doing their best to protect my corpse.

  If this had been a PVP situation where I was alone, I’d have found an out of the way corner at the maximum range to respawn into the game. The goal would have been to recover my hit points and mana as quickly as possible, while re-equipping any backup gear I might have, before the enemy found me. Still, with the mess we had going on, who knows what I’d respawn in. Hunching over my corpse, I held my breath and mentally selected the ‘Resurrect’ button.

  Immediately, I found myself huddled over a pile of my gear with the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden gripped tightly in my hand as utter chaos raged around me. Players wearing only a coarse loincloth were being hack to death everywhere around me as Royal Knights and Army troopers swarmed over the Dread Pack players wherever they respawned. I saw Neristhana’s hand axe cleave through the neck of an unlucky newfar that respawned before her. Tearing my gaze away from the player’s brutal death, I quickly touched my corpse. Immediately, the clink of coins came to my ears as I slammed the Helm of Inaxidor on my head and scooped up my Black Coral Iron-reinforced Defender from the pile of gear left from my corpse. Without hesitation, I quickly cast Regeneration, Holy Shield, and Light’s Blessing with the three hundred and fifty points of mana I had upon respawn.

  Everything else, I shoved into the backpack at my feet and hurriedly threw it on my back as Flame Shields began flaring up around me. My troopers screamed in agony as they dogpiled the newfar that managed to get their shields up, while zombies raced around the battlefield looking for new targets to rip apart. A few yards away, I saw Neysa’s fur on fire as she ripped the face off of a player, while Helgath clung to another man’s neck as she hammered her daggers into his face. I was just standing up to help my soulmates when Apoxsee appeared in front of me.