The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  “I agree with Neristhana.” Sarka said uncomfortably. “I don’t think we should leave Startum to his own devices. If he survives that,” she glanced up at the still growing orb, “he’s going to need all the help he can get.”

  “You want to help him, great. That’s not a problem. But, the only way you’re going to do that is if you get a safe distance away from the coming explosion.” Seeing the determined faces looking back at him, Thomas struggled not to snap at everyone. “You can look up the spell’s stats in the in-game wiki yourself, but, if you want to help Star, then all of you need to do is get at least three miles out from ground zero. Otherwise, the lot of you are going to be burnt to a crisp in a matter of seconds.”

  “Now follow the freaking plan!” Thomas roared at the other newfar. With that, he turned around and sprinted north with Kenzie at his side.

  Looking around at her friends unsure of what to do, Neristhana glanced over at Neysa and Helgath who both nodded in agreement with the harsh spoken Devil Dog guild leader. That seemed to resolve the conflict in her heart. While she wanted to be here for Lord Ironwolf, she couldn’t do that if she was killed in the blast. A couple of quick words and all of them came to an agreement, before taking off after the Devil Dog’s guild leader.

  Even with the noon sun high overhead and running through the thick woods, the glow from the fiery orb could clearly be seen all around them. The red shafts of light coming from between the leaves created heavy shadows ahead of them, making it nearly impossible to see the forest floor as they ran for their lives. As they dodged the wide trunks, bushes, and roots seemed to clutch at their legs liking living creatures as they ran for their lives. Even the natural wildlife felt the power of the spell as all around them predators and prey alike bolted for safety.

  Three miles was a long way to go in rough terrain. No one had said how much time they had before the explosion killed them all, but from the nervous glances Thomas kept taking over his shoulder, there must not be much time left, she thought uncomfortably. Neristhana didn’t bother to look back at their impending doom, choosing instead to focus on running as fast as her little legs could carry her.

  While running away made her feel like she was failing in her duty, Neristhana agreed with the Devil Dog guild leader that dying here wouldn’t help Lord Ironwolf in any way. Still, it took everything she had not to run back and try to save her stubborn Lord. Instead, she kept her thoughts focused on the goal of staying alive so she could help him to safety when this disaster was over.

  Up ahead, Neristhana saw Neysa and Helgath come to a stop next to the new newfar that had joined them in Telrain. Looking back towards Telrain, she saw that the fiery orb was only seconds away from plunging to the ground. She hoped that this was the three mile mark that Thomas had spoken of or they were all dead.

  Taking a quick look around the clearing, Neristhana saw that everyone had made it. Her eyes unconsciously narrowed as she focused on the small Gnome that had betrayed them to their enemy. He was animatedly talking with his Half-Orc mate, while the rest of his party spoke to each other in low voices nearby. She didn’t understand why Lord Ironwolf had chosen to let the traitor live. While she knew he must have his reasons, it still angered her to no end to see his homely face smiling as if nothing was wrong.

  If he ever broke his word again, Neristhana silently promised herself that she’d slit his throat. Regardless, if Lord Ironwolf wished it or not. Sometimes, honor had to be served no matter the consequences it might have. Her pensive thoughts were brought up short as Thomas began yelling “Fire in the hole!” She had only a split second to realize that all the newfar were turning away from the city, when a blinding light lit up the sky.

  ***

  Outside of a video game, you’ll never get a chance to experience living through something like a nuclear explosion. Yeah, I know, it’s kind of a weird way to look at it, but life is all about the plusses and minuses. Still, that’s the only way I could think to describe the eruption of flames and debris that shot up into the sky around me. The only other thing that might come close would be if you combined Zip Lining with Sky Diving and a bunch of flames. Either one works, I thought in amusement, as the city of Telrain turned into a lake of lava in the blink of an eye.

  The level 200 scroll of Meteor Strike wasn’t an actual physical meteor like I’d originally pictured in my mind’s eye, when I’d heard of the scroll. Nor, was it like a typical explosion. It would have been more accurate to say the fiery orb just disintegrated the city on contact.

  Oh, don’t get me wrong. There was a bunch of displaced air and explosive decompression as the stone melted on contact with the magic of the orb. That’s why I was currently airborne on a very non-parabolic flight path.

  Still, I managed to keep my wits about me as I hurriedly cast Mage Armor, Bone Shield, Holy Shield, Regeneration, and Ice Barrier. Don’t act all shocked that I was able to fit all that in. Trust me, when you’re flying by the literal seat of your pants, you become very focused on doing everything you possibly can to stay alive, especially when your destination was a lake of lava. I figured I’d have to watch this video once it was posted as my HUD’s timer ticked down to two seconds left before my invulnerability fizzed out.

  Faster than thought, I plowed into the lava, heading way too fast for the wall of the impact crater. Luckily for me, the last tick of my invulnerability took me smack against the crater’s side as I came to a jarring stop plastered against the burning stone. Immediately, my shields flared to life around me as the lava began to eat away at my shields. Sucking in a lungful of what felt like superheated air, I began urgently scrambling up the steep walls of the crater as tears poured down my face. Or, they would’ve if they weren’t immediately evaporating from my skin due to the intense heat.

  Thankfully, I had three shields to burn through before the situation became dire, or, at least, that’s what I thought before my body started to burn. When I say burn, I mean skin melting off my face kind of hot. My eyes clouded and cleared with each tick of my Regeneration spell as my body felt like it was on fire. I whimpered in agony like a wounded animal with every hand and foot hold as I scurried up the melting crater wall.

  Although it wasn’t exactly steep, I had about fifty yards to crawl before I made it out of the fiery inferno. I initially thought my shields weren’t doing anything to help against the heat. That was, until my last shield dropped. I nearly spontaneously burst into flames before I got my shields recast. Once again, my proclivity to learn as many skills and abilities as possible in a game kept me alive. As each shield failed, I’d cast the next and the next to keep myself alive as my Regeneration kept my body together long enough for me to crawl over the rim.

  Rolling onto my back, I just laid there writhing in pain as my Regeneration continued to pump precious healing energy into my barbecued body. Looking at my flailing hit point, I realized just how close I’d been to dying on the wall of the crater as my hit points clicked up to six hundred. Even now, my magic could barely stay ahead of the damage I was receiving, but after what felt like an eternity, or two minutes by my HUD, I crawled to my feet sobbing from the effort.

  Even so, I couldn’t help but sway to a stop as I looked out over the devastation from the level 200 spell. The city was completely gone. In its place was a perfectly round crater a half a mile in circumference that was twenty-five to thirty yards deep. At least, it would probably finish off at that depth once the lava cooled down. The surrounding land around the city was completely obliterated for hundreds of yards in every direction. All that was left of the fields and the forest was a gray, burning ash.

  Letting out a sobbing breath, I staggered directly north. Heat waves shimmered in the air before me as I staggered over the burning coal-like ground, feeling like a “well done” steak. The trek to the edge of the devastation zone took every ounce of willpower that I had left. Once again, I was forced to question the wisdom of playing a magic medieval style of fantasy game at seventy-five percent reali
sm as my HUD flashed the warning that I was critically dehydrated.

  My hit points stopped going up as the warning message flashed urgently in my HUD. Worse than that, my health started to go down even with my Regeneration spell ticking in the background every second. That’s because the dehydrated status equated to starving, which meant my natural healing no longer functioned anymore. On top of that, I was still receiving damage from the extreme heat that now couldn’t be countered by regular healing.

  Needless to say, it was a bad situation, since I still had fifty yards to go and I was taking ten points of damage every second. It doesn’t sound like much until you realized that was six hundred points of damage every minute. With only two thousand, five hundred, and fifty-two Hit Points, that basically meant I had a little bit over four minutes of life left. I sighed tiredly. Maybe handing over all of my gear and then having my friends and companions leave me wasn’t the best of ideas I’d come up with.

  It felt like my mind was mush as I stumbled for the line of green just ahead of me. The meteor spell had been very precise in its destruction. The forest looked like it had always looked after that point on. While the distance didn’t sound like much, my armor had started to smoke from the overwhelming heat as I shuffled forward at my best speed.

  I don’t know when it happened. One moment, I was a few yards away from relief and, the next, I was lying face down on the hot coals. Mentally, I was begging to simply die so that I could respawn anywhere else, when Neysa and Helgath’s urgent thoughts entered my mind. There was a bunch of confused images as I was picked up by the back of the neck and dragged to safety. I tried to tell them to just let me die and I’d just respawn, but neither of them would hear of that as they dragged me back over the line of devastation.

  Excited voices spoke all around me as cold relief washed over my body. It wasn’t until a few minutes had gone by that I was able to once again focus on my surroundings. I was lying back on the frozen ground surrounded by massive trees as Helgath repeatedly pressed her soft lips to mine to dribble water down my parched throat. It wasn’t a lover’s touch, but that of my soulmate trying to save my life.

  Helgath sat back on her knees as I rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder and sat up with help. The dehydration warning still flashed in my HUD as the Half-Orc urgently pressed the water flask to my lips. Leaning back, I let the cold liquid run down my throat. It wasn’t until I was halfway through the flask that my debuff went away. Immediately, I felt warm energy filling me as someone cast a Regeneration on my battered body.

  My eyes instantly cleared as I looked around at the worried faces of my friends and companions looking back at me. Neysa’s hair was still obviously singed from where she’d run into the devastation zone to save me. Even Helgath looked a little crispy, since her armor still smoked. Leaning back against a nearby tree, I breathed a sigh of relief as my charred skin began to heal over.

  “Yo, what’s up Freddy Krueger?” Hefe shouted out as he walked into view. We were actually at face level in this position as he held out his fist for a bump. “Seriously dude, you were ugly!” He said, dragging out the “g” sound.

  “Really? Freddy Krueger?” I asked incredulously. “I just survived a lava bath!”

  “Tell me about it,” Hefe said. “I’m going to have nightmares from seeing your face.”

  Shaking my head in annoyance, I flipped him off as Neristhana knelt down next to me to check over my wounds with Ulia while Krystal hit me with another Regeneration. As I gave her a nod of thanks, the Prince and Princess walked up with Sir Hemmet. The Guardian Knight gave me a salute as both royals profusely thanked me for saving their lives.

  All of my companions came by to express their relief that I’d made it through the ordeal with my life. Even Keela, Rayne, and Brenna who were keeping a watch on the perimeter took a moment to swing by and say a few heartfelt words, before returning back to their watch areas. Mostly, it was things like, “Don’t you ever do something that boneheadedly stupid again.” Still, it was the thought that counted.

  Surprisingly enough, even Kenzie was here, although she was the only Devil Dog that had stayed behind. Her excuse was that she wanted to get in on some of the action, or, at the very least, see the show. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the main group would probably be doing all of the clearing out of monsters while on their march northward. Thankfully, she had the brains to say that on the down-low so as to not piss anyone off. The last thing any of us needed was to have problems with the people we’d just saved.

  The only person I didn’t see there was Fylreh. To be honest, that was somewhat of a surprise. Even if we weren’t dating, I felt better having her sword arms close by. She’d saved me more than once during this trip, and, honestly, it was weird not having her around. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I focused in on the discussion at hand.

  The loss of Telrain came as a terrible shock to the people of The World. The thought that fellow Humans would carry out such an evil act of destruction against the alliance was almost too much for them to comprehend. I did my best to commiserate, but, honestly, there’d been no additional loss of life to the townsfolk. That wasn’t even taking into consideration all of the people that had been successfully resurrected. Sometimes, you had to focus on the wins and not the losses, I silently thought. Besides, stuff could always be replaced.

  Our impromptu discussion turned into a tearful reunion of sorts as Councilor Fulrin and the seven Battle Priests I’d managed to pull out walked up to join the discussion. My people had collected their corpses from the edge of the devastation zone and Krystal had resurrected them. There wasn’t a lot for us to say. They’d done their best to get their hands on that scroll to save Telrain and their Fortress of Light, but none of us had been strong enough to stand up to my ex-girlfriend and her guild.

  The survivors wanted to know how I managed to save them, so I told them about the final moments of the battle, after they’d been cut down. How I’d managed to get the zombies to race them to safety a minute before the meteor hit, getting my ass kicked by Cristiane at the end of the fight, and of course the Talisman of Yeenoktu’s accursed gift. Just as I was finishing up, Hefe put his hands on his hips.

  “I’ll give you props for pulling that shit off, but seriously dude,” Hefe said, dragging out the “u” sound in dude. “I can’t believe you got your ass beat by a girl. If I was there-”

  “She’s freaking nine levels higher than me, doofus!” I exclaimed incredulously at Hefe. “She’d have kicked your freaking ass too!” Hefe puffed his chest out to retort, when Jill cut him off abruptly.

  “Shut the hell up, Hefe!” Jill said, smacking him upside the back of the head with a growl.

  Flinching from the hit, Hefe spun around to give Jill shit, when Krystal smacked him in the back of the head from the other side. “I swear, you’re such a dumbass, Hefe!”

  “Argh, stop hitting me!” Hefe whined covering his head as the rest of us rolled our eyes. He could never stop talking shit and it always got him in trouble. I swear it was the one constant he had. Bonnie Smash bit her lip trying not to laugh as both women continued to smack him around as he bitched up a storm, while the people of The World watched our antics unsure of how to react.

  “Okay, people,” I called out, climbing to my feet. “Let’s get our pets raised so we can get moving.” Following my own orders, I took out a soul stone and began the long process of replacing all twelve of my pets. This time, I chose Orc zombies, since they had the highest magic resistance and I wanted to save the remaining player soul stones I had in case I needed to infiltrate a city later on down the road.

  “How are we going to catch up to the rest of the army?” Prince Lekroth asked in confusion as everyone began preparing to leave. “We don’t have any mounts.”

  “I guess that means you’ll have to use your black Cadillacs.” Kenzie called out, from where she was packing her gear away.

  “Black Cadillacs?” Princess Reeva and her brother bot
h asked questioningly as Kenzie began raising her zombie.

  “Yeah,” I said, giving a light cough to clear my throat. “The term basically means you’ll be using your own two feet.” Ignoring the green tinge on the Prince’s face, I clapped the naked zombie Orc’s back that I’d just raised. “If that’s a problem, I can have my pets carry you again.”

  I hid the smile that tried to split my lips as they both hurriedly said that running wouldn’t be a problem and that they’d do anything required to save the Kingdom of Kader. Sir Hemmet gave me a wink behind their backs as he and the rest of the Guardian Knights stepped up ready to head out. It was as if he recognized that I was trying to toughen the royal brother and sister up. Not that they hadn’t endured plenty from what my ex had done to them, but sometimes people needed help realizing that you had to work within the means of what you had.

  Of course, I was the last to get all of my pets raised. Not that twelve minutes was all that long to wait. Giving commands to get the pets set up in a defensive perimeter around our group, I whistled for Neysa and Helgath to scout ahead as I took off at a run. Within moments, we were heading north at a run.

  This time, our run was uneventful. We didn’t even have to struggle to pass through the underbrush, since two thousand plus troopers had run through here an hour earlier. The plan had been for my friends, Thomas, the Devil Dogs, my companions, and the two Uten Syn players to lead the troopers north until they had to make camp for the night. I’d figured it wouldn’t be a problem for me to catch up on my own. Yeah, I realized now how stupid that was.

  Luckily for me, my in real life friends and companions had seen the situation differently. Otherwise, I’d have been respawning at a graveyard with a level loss from dying due to the environment. Besides, that, it made my heart warm to see that my friends cared enough to make sure I was alright. Also, it made the long run a lot more enjoyable.

  My friends and I had a chance to catch up on the march. They were flabbergasted at the number of troops that I now had at my beck and call, especially when they started to realize that this was just a small portion of my actual force. It was on par with the feeling I had on purchasing my first Yalm in Chaos Online. Umm, for those of you not in the know, a Yalm was the first space ship that could be purchased in the game and marked you as LEET to other players, kind of like entering Delonshire with a small army at your back.