by Jason Cheek
When it came down to it, the Wraith Hounds were only level twenty-seven. Even if they weren’t madly outnumbered a thousand to one, there was no way they could possibly stand toe-to-toe against demi-humans that were basically twice their level. Even the double-shot iron bolts from his BAMF weren’t doing anything more than inflicting serious damage and flinging the high-level Hobgoblins back off their clawed feet without any outright kills. As those thoughts blazed through Conner’s mind, the trigger let out a hollow click signifying the gravity-fed cartridge was empty.
Connor silently raged at the unfairness of it all. The ambush had happened so fast that there’d been no time to pack-up their gear or to even try to escape. Doing his best to hurry, he slipped the strap to his rucksack off one shoulder and swung the massive bag around to his chest to try and strap the crossbow part of the BAMP in place, before the enemy could rip it from his grasp. Conner didn’t know if this would equate to being part of his inventory or not, but it was the only thing he could think to do to not allow the most important part of the BAMF to fall into enemy hands.
Though, without the powerful BAMF forcing the Hobgoblin Warriors back, the wall of Hobgoblins brutally shoved their way past their fallen and scared brethren. Seeing the writing on the wall, Conner mentally cried out to his Wraith Hounds to run and leave him alone to die as his fingers fumbled with strapping the crossbow’s body in place. Not that there was any way they could possibly escape the death that was coming for them, but if they could, there was no sense in them dying here too.
Something about Connor’s heartfelt cry sent the Wraith Pack into a frenzy. At least, that’s how the emotional bomb felt that went off in his head. Even though the Wraith Hounds had been touched by death, they were still his puppies … his babies, and the intense feelings he had for them transcended any consideration of their different species. In that second, he would’ve gladly taken the pain of death, at least in-game, to protect them from being slaughtered if it were at all possible.
Steel and Cobalt spear tips pierced his body as a forest of metal-clad orange legs surrounded him. Even though his death was assured, Conner focused on completing his sole mission to the bitter end. Ignoring the agony shooting through his body with each piercing stab and brutal kick, he struggled to slide his bleeding arm through the rucksack’s strap as his hit points dropped below half, when a bloodcurdling supernatural howl filled with the promise of death came to his ears over the deafening cacophony of battle.
As the Hobgoblin Warriors paused in consternation at the unnatural cry, five black shadows blurred through the enemies’ legs like streaks of shadow. Leaping onto Conner’s arms, legs, and chest, the Wraith Hounds’ glowing blue fangs sank deep into his flesh as they struck as one. As the Wraith Pack’s spectral magic burned through his entire body, Conner felt nothing but love for his puppies as he opened his heart to them, accepting whatever it was that they had planned.
In truth, Conner had simply thought they were trying to kill him before the Hobgoblins did. He simply figured it was a way to make sure he didn’t lose the BAMF since the Wraith Pack could feel how important the weapon was to him through their shared link. To his stunned surprise, Conner quickly realized that wasn’t it at all as a system window popped open before his eyes.
Utilizing the soul-link you share, your Wraith Pack is seeking to transport your physical body into the Spirit Realm. Do you accept? Yes or No
***Alert ***
The Spirit Realm is not for the living. You will be inflicted with five points of spirit essence damage for every second you remain within the Spirit Realm. Any spirit essence damage that is taken while in the Spirit Realm can be recovered by resting for an hour of non-activity such as; sleeping, eating, sitting, or drinking. This can be performed whether or not you’re actively logged in or out of The World. If your spirit essence, aka hit points, reaches zero, your spirit will be unable to reform until twenty-four hours pass at which time your spirit will be released to the nearest graveyard.
***Alert ***
Conner didn’t hesitate for a second as he read through the first system message. As the Hobgoblin Warriors resumed their savage attack, he mentally chose “Yes” not even bothering to read the warning text as his body and that of his Wraith Hounds blinked out of the realm of the living. Even as the world around him altered to the ghostly grays of the spirit realm that he knew from his previous deaths and respawns, another warning popped up in a system window before his eyes even as he took his first burning breath.
***Alert ***
The Spirit Realm is not for the living. Entering into the Spirit Realm with a physical living body will incite a frenzy in all of the Shadow Spawn, Shades, Wights, Spectras, Phantasms, Ghosts, Spirits, and other denizens within your immediate area to seek out and consume your living essence.
***Alert ***
For a moment, Conner didn’t understand what was happening as the brutal strikes of the Hobgoblins’ attacks completely stopped. The relief was instantaneous. Even though his body burned as if he’d used Tiger Balm after a heavy workout, it was nothing in comparison to the beating he’d just been taking. Sagging back onto the frozen ground in relief, he took a second ragged breath as his blood continued to run freely from his many wounds.
‘Must hurry!’ Ankou urgently sent as the Wraith Hound raised his head from Conner’s bloody neck to look him in the eyes, ‘Others come!’
The insistent emotions coming from the entire Wraith Pack over their shared link forced Conner into motion. Even though he didn’t really understand the seriousness of the situation, he found himself struggling to climb to his feet under the weight of the BAMF and full rucksack on his back. At least he’d saved Forrest’s baby from being taken by the Hobgoblins, Conner silently thought in relief, as he quickly scanned through the warning messages that he’d skipped through.
The first was easy enough to understand. Burning lungs from spirit essence damage, check. Though, that meant his time in this realm was limited. How to recover from the temporary damage, made sense, check. Meaning, he was on a time limit of no more than two and a half minutes or so. While that sucked on one level, it was better than being dead and losing the BAMF. That he could be basically forced out of The World for a full day if he died here, weird, but check. It didn’t make any sense to him why V-MMORG would have such a penalty, but whatever, it wasn’t like they’d asked for his opinion on the topic.
In truth, Conner silently thought, as he swayed on his feet while looking out at the creepy landscape, he’d more than likely found a quest hole that leaped him into an advanced area of The World. Meaning, any monsters that he ran into here were probably super-high-level, which was why the last part of the system message had given him the heebie-jeebies. Every supernatural monster in the immediate area would be after his living essence, freaky as hell, but check. Not that this was a place he wanted to be hanging out in. As if to nail that point home, an eerie wailing howl suddenly echoed across the ghostly landscape from not very far away from where they were standing.
‘Move!’ Ankou repeated, urgently nipping at his backside.
‘Not the ass,’ Conner complained, as he started in the direction that the Ankou wanted him to head in.
‘This way,’ Ankou said, trotting out ahead to take the lead, ‘Hurry!’
‘We need to head towards Forrest,’ Conner sent, as Herne and Eammon kept bumping into the back of his thighs trying to get him to move faster, while Torin and Cormac tugged on his wrists.
It took Conner a few moments, but slowly he started recognizing the landscape around them. Though everything had that gray monotone coloring and the ghostly glowing sky, it was obviously the small hilltop that they’d been using for their ambush spot. As the unnatural howling and shrieking cries of fear began to grow around them, Conner’s eyes swept the valley where the Hobgoblins had been slaughtering the Carnivorous Plains Elk herd. What he saw made his balls clench in fear.
Ghostly outlines still filled the plains below,
but while the Carnivorous Plains Elk seem to be slowly fading away to nothing, the Hobgoblins weren’t. Instead, the demi-humans were being ripped apart and eaten alive by shadow-like creatures that came in a plethora of horrendous shapes and sizes. Most were smaller wolf-like monsters with misshapen fangs and claws that were slowly ripping the ghostly-like Hobgoblins apart, while others were massive elephant-sized monstrosities that were capable of bodily picking up whatever it was they snatched up in their humongous black tentacles and stuff them whole into their fang-filled maws.
If Conner had any doubt about the agony the Hobgoblins were experiencing, he just had to look at their terrified evil faces or listen to their horrified screams. It was truly like watching a living nightmare happening before his very eyes. Even though the thought of being attack by one of those gruesome creatures made his blood run cold, Conner didn’t regret the decision that his Wraith Pack had made about pulling him into this freaky realm to try and save his life. Although, it did make him pump his legs that much faster as they raced for the far side of the ghostly plain.
Unfortunately, their anonymity didn’t last for more than half a minute or so. By the time they’d cleared what Conner could only guesstimate to be a hundred or so yards, a shrieking yowling cry rang out from the feeding frenzy going on behind them. Urgently looking over his shoulder, Conner saw one of the massive tentacle monsters whirl around as it caught a whiff of his living essence. That thought alone sent a shiver of horror down his spine, which only grew worse as he saw the unnatural-looking shadow monster racing after him. It didn’t run so much as pull its bloated body along the ground on a small forest of thick black tentacle-like legs that sprang out of nowhere to from its central mass.
An onlooker might’ve assumed that meant the monster would’ve moved at a snail’s pace. Unfortunately, that was far from the case as Conner watched in mounting terror as the greyhound bus-sized shadow monster’s fifty or so different sized and length legs ate up the ground between them like a barreling locomotive heading directly for them. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, the packs of smaller shadow creatures all turned around to join in on the chase. Moving like flittering shadows, they easily outpaced the massive shadow monster.
“Shit … shit … shit,” Conner chanted as he raced after Ankou for all he was worth. There was something about the shadow monsters that instantly filled him with a gibbering fear on an almost instinctual level. From his shared link with the rest of the Wraith Pack, he could tell it wasn’t only him that was terrified as all of them hightailed it across the phantasmic terrain for all they were worth.
‘The ridge ahead,’ Ankou sent as the cacophony of pursuit grew louder and closer behind them, ‘We exit there!’
Conner automatically translated that as the far side of the rise ahead of them. From the surface emotions coming from the shared telepathic link that he had with his puppies, they wanted to be far enough away that the Hobgoblins wouldn’t see them exiting the Spirit Realm. Otherwise, all of this would be for nothing. While he agreed that was the smart call, Conner really didn’t know if that was going to be possible for them as his breathing came in sharp rasping breaths.
Surprisingly enough, similar to when he’d respawned, Conner’s feet seemed to cover more distance than should’ve been physically possible. As the time on his HUD clicked past a minute, they’d easily covered two-hundred yards. A distance that would’ve been impossible to do if they’d been running through the normal world. Though, as they quickly approached the ridge that Ankou had chosen for their exit point from the Spirit Realm, Conner’s heart sank as he suddenly recognized a growing dot on the horizon heading directly for them.
“Forrest … Forrest,” Conner bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Turn the fuck around!”
Conner swore under his breath as his battle buddy kept running towards them. The fucker wasn’t slowing down in the least. He didn’t know if that was because sound didn’t travel properly in this supernatural realm or because Forrest wasn’t paying attention because he was dead. Either way, if the crusty old bastard didn’t start paying attention, he was going to get them both killed. Making sure he was shouting in team chat, Conner tried again. “Forrest, run back to the graveyard!”
“Hey Conner, what in tarnation are you doing out here,” Forrest suddenly called out, noticeably jerking in surprise as he took notice of group chat and the figures approaching him in the distance, “Did you die too?”
“Nnnooo!” Conner hysterically screamed, already Forrest was getting too close to where Ankou wanted them to exit, “Head back to the graveyard and respawn there!”
“Why in the hell would I want to do something like that-” Forrest began to ask, only for his voice to die away as soon as he saw the massive shadowy horror barreling up behind his friend. For the first time ever in their time together, Conner heard the Marine’s voice go up a notch, “Why the fuck are you bringing that thing towards me?”
“Go … back … now!” Conner’s voice came out in a shrill shriek as he excitedly waved for his friend to head back for the graveyard.
“Umm,” Forrest stutteringly said, as his ghostly figure slowed to a nervous walk but still headed in his direction, “do you need help or something-”
“Nnnooo!” Conner panickily screamed in frustration as the ground began to shake underneath his feet. At any other time, Conner would’ve been thankful for his friend’s indomitable nature and refusal to retreat. This was NOT one of those times. As it was, Eammon, Herne, Torin, and Cormac were doing all that they could to block the smaller shadow creatures’ attacks from striking him. If they didn’t get out of here soon, they were all going to die horribly for nothing. Right then and there, Conner decided if Forrest refused to listen, then he was leaving his dumb jarhead ass behind. “Head back to the graveyard now or I’m going to kill you myself!”
Conner breathed a sigh of relief as Forrest abruptly turned around and began racing back for the graveyard. At first, he didn’t know what it was that finally got through the old Marine’s thick head, but was simply thankful that his battle buddy had finally had the good sense to turn around without any further argument. It wasn’t until Conner looked back over his shoulder that he understood why Forrest had finally listened to him as he saw the wall of living nightmares that were nearly on top of him.
‘Ankou,’ Conner urgently thought as he watched a forest of massive black tentacles reaching out to snatch him up in their leathery grasp, ‘Whatever it is you need to do to get us out of here, do it now!’
As he turned around to see what the leader of his Wraith Pack was doing, Conner screamed as he saw a black shadow with blue glowing fangs lunging at his face. Though that was his initial reaction, another part of his mind immediately understood what was going on. Leaping into the air, Conner hugged Ankou to his chest and spun around in midair to land on his back. As they slid across the ground, the rest of his puppies clamped onto his arms and legs as the Wraith Pack sank their fangs into him as one.
Once again, Conner felt the stomach-churning transition as his body popped back into the Realm of the Living. For a moment, he was surprised at that bit of knowledge that suddenly appeared in his mind, until he remembered how his link with his babies worked. Letting out a shaky breath, Conner was just letting his body sag in place, when a system window popped open before his eyes as the Wraith Pack sprung to their paws.
‘We must move,’ Ankou’s thoughts shot through his consciousness as a black shimmering appeared in the air above their heads.
“Gah!” Shrieking in terror, Conner lurched to the side the best he could with the massive rucksack strapped to his back as he minimized the window to clear his vision. It was just in time to dodge the massive black tentacle that came out of thin air to pummel the ground.
Scrambling to his hands and feet, Conner managed to put some distance between him and the shimmering black tentacles as another popped out of thin air to slam into the ground. Conner didn’t need any encouragement to run away as
he raced after the Wraith Pack’s scurrying forms. Though, seeing a black leathery shape out of the corner of his eyes, Conner managed to dive flat on the ground as several massive tentacles momentarily flailed through the space that he’d been standing in a split-second before. As soon as they passed by, Ankou was tugging on his shoulder to get him moving.
Luckily, as he got out of range of the massive tentacles, they simply continued to blindly pummel the area in search of their pray. That, and nothing more of the creature seems to be coming through whatever hole in reality that they’d made to pass through the Spirit Realm. As they put more distance between them and the shadow monstrosity, Conner was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as the tentacles slowly began fading away once again. Within a minute, there was no sign left that the shadow creature had ever been there.
‘Are we safe,’ Conner sarcastically asked as he looked down at the Wolf Hounds, ‘or do we need to keep on running?’
‘Safe,’ was chorused back to him, as Conner plopped onto the ground feeling physically and emotionally spent.
Draping his arms across his knees, Conner let his head hang forward in exhaustion as his puppies began eagerly licking his wounds in-between wagging their tails excitedly and dancing around in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he simply enjoyed the moment of being and the exhilaration of surviving the impossible. Slowly, Conner began stroking each puppy’s back as they pressed in to lick his face, ears, nose, and mouth, sputtering a little as he got a little dog-tongue in his mouth by accident. Nothing of which was unusual for anyone who’d ever tried cuddling with a pack of excited puppies. As the Wraith Hounds excitement slowly began to lessen, he was able to pop up the system window that he’d minimized earlier.
