“We can’t! In a game with spells and resurrection skills, sitting here is useless. We’ve got to whittle them down before they get to town, kill their spawners, then resurrect anyone we can as we fall back! It’s all about attrition!”
SweetPea winced from his extreme volume. HotPants stood on the device, looking nervous. Her gaze kept drifting over the edge as the vessel bobbed. Shadow wasn’t in sight, but the sneaky player was probably with his League of Shadows members, those who had survived.
“And look,” Awesome Jr. shouted while throwing an arm out in the distance. He pointed toward a mob of smoky black that could barely be seen. “World Eaters! We can’t let them get close. They’ll chew down the walls in a moment!”
That made sense. There had to be monsters that would only get stronger if we let them live, and every single beast dead out there was one less to hit our walls. I didn’t know enough about other people’s resurrection mechanics, and a host of players from other games had changed the rules around.
My wife stood beside me looking at the same scene of budding carnage. The field outside [Haven Valley], which had once been a pleasant mix of forestry, grassland, and well-paved roads in both directions, was going to turn into a bloodbath.
My fingers grasped for Xin’s. She looked up at me.
“You’ve got to stay here,” I said.
“Nice try,” Xin responded. “I can help out there, and I’m not leaving you to wander the battlefield alone.”
“You can summon me if it gets rough, and we need someone to stay here in case monsters get through.”
“And you’ll need someone to resurrect you when you do something stupid like dying,” she responded in an angry whisper.
That sounded likely actually. All my stats and skills meant nothing if a monster got lucky. There was just one problem.
“But if you die, then there’s no point in fighting anymore,” my words were hushed. “I can’t handle that. Not… not after all this.”
There were too many viewers watching. Controlling myself to not give away her reincarnated status was difficult.
Her barely restrained irritation with me ran into an abrupt wall. Xin looked away for a single moment that signaled victory. My breath let out gradually in hopes that Xin would be reasonable.
The mob’s leading edge was less than a few miles away. Smaller creatures scuttled along the ground. Birds were flying and nearly here. Dusk’s half meow and chirp of rage could be heard as he took to the sky.
A dozen huge beams of light spiraled outward. Spells, beams, ice, fire, and arrows alike went flying. Players below were pelted by a falling army of former fliers.
“Bring her!” Awesome Jr. brought focus back to the argument at hand. “She can stay on the craft and use ranged. SweetPea will be doing the same thing, and healing, plus she can resurrect. We’ll avoid the Three Strike timer if we’re careful.”
“Dammit,” I said.
The promise of her being vaguely safe was all Xin needed to win this. My ability to argue with her had always been terrible. My eyes closed. We would lose ground with every second we stayed on the wall. Skills like mine were up there with Shazam’s, and we needed to be on the front line, keeping monsters back. As long as none got through, then we didn’t need to protect the gateway itself.
“Stay on the—” Confusion made me pause. What exactly was that ship anyway? It didn’t look familiar.
“Exo Platform Seven R,” the visor-wearing man said. Only his mouth was visible, and it curled in a frown. “It comes with a recall feature when we reach zero. So don’t worry, anyone on board will be brought back to the marker.”
“Perfectly safe,” Awesome Jr. declared. “I mean, how awesome is that? A recall—”
HotPants hit him on the head with her staff. Her lips turned in a worse scowl than before. Further arguing would be pointless. Xin glared at me, and I closed my eyes and nodded slowly. Her warm hands touched the sides of my neck and slid over my shoulders. Her lips pressed against mine. Looking at her was impossible. Letting her join us felt like a failure of one of my goals.
“It’s okay, Gee, it all works out,” she whispered in my ear. My wife misspoke of course. She only wanted this all to work out.
“It’s a party now!” Thorny shouted while pushing her hands toward the floating platform.
All around us, a multitude of colors spun into being. Many twisted into larger cannon-like bolts of energy that arced overhead toward the monsters’ leading edge. They slammed into the dirt, freezing some monsters, burning others, or leaving behind green pools. Shazam’s army crashed into them.
We got on the vessel and flew out after the charging players from three different games. [Morrigu’s Gift] sat in one hand while every possible skill usage went through my mind. [Mechanical Hades Crown] could be used to empower other people prior to their passing.
Dusk was overhead somewhere and fully recovered from our earlier escape. The [Messenger’s Pet] would be able to establish his own uses. He probably intended to fight every flying monster and establish dominance over the skies.
“Hang on!” the man driving warned us. “If you’ve got a preference for where we go, better tell me now!”
His fingers slid along the tops of glowing orbs and spread wide. They tilted toward the front end of our vessel, and we tilted. HotPants hit the floor with a wild look in her eyes.
We made it halfway to the spearhead that Shazam had formed. Xin was casting bone bolts while Beth charged up smaller spells. SweetPea hung over the edge, one hand upon her hoodie, the other outstretched with a blue glow of healing. We were trying to find places to be useful, and we weren’t the only ones mobile. Dozens of players were moving rapidly through the crowd. A man in powerful-looking armor swung a huge hammer at dense concentrations of monsters.
People ahead were already using [Recall] scrolls or homing beacons. A few players in various locations screamed for heals.
There was a thud as part of the mountain top far away moved. Huge, shadowy black wings unfurled. There was a [World Eater] dragon out there, of all creatures to be represented. The huge black dragon let out a roar that carried for miles. Players looked up in worry. Shazam’s bright glow in the battlefield changed course toward the winged serpent. Regular monsters were important, but against them, fighting was more about survival tactics. [World Eater]s were another issue.
“We’ve got to remove that now before it flies over the town! A fully grown dragon’s rating is at least thirty-five! It takes an army on average to take one down!” Thorny shouted while slashing the air. Lights spiraled into a flock of birds circling overhead.
A second roar came from behind us, and people started panicking. We turned to see a huge blue dragon flying straight for the other one. Which each pump of its wings, the air around us vibrated. One of the superhero players shot up a laser beam that weakly brushed off the creature’s side.
“That’s one of ours!” Awesome Jr. yelled. “Get the word out! Don’t hurt the blue one!”
“Is that…?” my words drifted off in wonder.
She was brighter than last time. Her muscles were more defined, and the female dragon’s body wove through the air like a dancer.
“That’s Mylia all right,” HotPants said. “There’s a woman who knows what’s what.”
The red warrior-woman put her pinkies between both lips and gave a piercing whistle. Mylia opened her mouth and roared back, much softer. One of the giant dragon claws descended to grab HotPants’s outstretched staff. The redhead vanished from our vehicle in a sudden whoosh. A red aura rapidly grew in strength around the blonde’s body.
“Yeeeehaaaaaaaaw!” Her face bordered between terror and delight.
Two ships, fighter jets of some sort, flew overhead and launched missiles at the [World Eater] dragon.
“And there she goes,” Awesome Jr. said.
Mylia gave two powerful beats of her wings and soared another mile into the distance, straight toward the black dragon.
> There were too many conflicts going on. We had no one place to help out. The giant dragon sounded like a good bet. My mouth opened to utter a request, but the hovering ship rocked. Scales brushed against me, and we all readied for assault.
[Morrigu’s Gift] was pulled back as the newest passenger became obvious. Scales brushed against uncovered skin on my leg as the [Messenger’s Pet] demanded attention. Dusk chirped urgently before his feet even settled. The hovercraft’s driver looked around in worry but managed to keep us stable.
“Slow down, I don’t understand when you talk that fast!” I told Dusk. Understanding him based on noises alone was rough enough. Only months of traveling together gave me any idea.
Pictures rapidly formed above his head. There were two sets of wings fighting against one. A picture of him growing two sizes flashed next. Then next to the big version of Dusk was a pile of cupcakes with an equals sign.
“What?”
The images repeated. Xin’s free hand gripped mine. She chanted while I tried to sort out what Dusk wanted.
“You want me to make you bigger? To fight the World Eater dragon?” The message started to make sense. “And it’s worth that many cupcakes to you?”
He nodded, chirped, then hopped up and down, making our ship rock. This vessel wasn’t that stable to begin with—we were essentially in a round flying motorboat. His gyrations made the man up front complain.
“You need to escape before the rebound hits,” I warned the [Messenger’s Pet]. Being [Empowered] twice would certainly beef him up, and would last longer if he stretched out his other abilities. “Can you do that?”
Dusk nodded, then shook his head. His body rolled with a shrug, and his thought bubble formed a smiley face.
“You need to be safe, okay?” Dusk had nearly died once before, or at least he’d seemed to during Advance Online. If we were playing a normal game, then my worry would be pointless.
He wanted to fight the big black [World Eater] dragon. Voices above, I thought, this was all going to go sideways. Siege warfare and large-scale battles weren’t anywhere in my skills.
“Do it!” Awesome Jr. waved at me. “We need all the heavy hitters on that dragon! It’s the biggest thing out here!”
The words rolled forth in a whisper. Chanting [Lithium] in front of Xin felt silly. She probably understood, as did SweetPea, the nonsense coming out of my mouth. Polishing armor like a future shoe shine boy sounded far more attractive. I pushed past the dislike and spoke the phrase again.
Small gray lights streaked toward the black-and-gold companion. Dusk’s size doubled, tripled, and continued to grow. The ship tilted again as the [Messenger’s Pet] tried to fly away but fell to the ground instead. His wings didn’t expand in time. Bushes were demolished as he landed on his back. A dozen monsters were pinned underneath him, and many died right away, their health bars quickly reducing to zero.
[Blink] got me down onto the ground. [Morrigu’s Gift] shifted rapidly as my legs twisted. The huge blade sliced across an enraged beast’s face. Slobber and blood washed my face as its head separated from its body. I kept twirling. Skeletons landed beside me in a clatter of bone. They assembled themselves promptly and started fighting.
My pseudodragon friend rolled over and got all four legs under himself. He spread his wings wide and knocked over nearby Travelers and monsters alike with a sweep of his tail. Both wings beat against the ground, and powerful hind legs propelled his body into the air.
“Good luck,” I whispered after his dwindling form.
“Get back up here, Hermes!” Awesome Jr. hung over the ship’s edge and waved. “SweetPea and I have to get over to the main army and start ressing people!”
Shadow: It’s a mess out here. We’re down six people. Four recalled, two aren’t checking in.
Shazam: Seventeen down, three recalled, all accounted for. Healers are behind.
SweetPea: I’m trying… there’s… so many… I’ve managed to get ten people back up… but mana…
Awesome Jr.: I’ve got potions for days, so we’re trying, but it’s about to get worse. Look west and tell me we’re not in deep shit now.
“What the hell?” Xin asked while panting. One of her arms brought up the robe’s hem to wipe off a trail of sweat. Skeleton monsters were busy clearing out low-Ranked creatures beneath us, but my wife gazed elsewhere.
My vision found the only possible event she could be talking about. In the far western distance, near the beach’s shore, was an absolutely huge creature. It looked big enough to be a [Leviathan]. A starship-fighting monster with mollusks, or other sea creatures growing in droves, had beached itself in order to take down huge portions of the monster army.
“That’s the sea serpent! That’s the one I told you about, Uncle Grant!” My niece squealed like a schoolgirl while twisting back and forth. She hopped up and down. “I never thought I would see it again!”
Awesome Jr.’s jaw dropped. SweetPea pulled her hoodie down a bit and peeked out from a mop of hair. In her other hand was an ugly blue potion. Even Xin looked taken aback by my niece’s sudden fangirl excitement over the giant sea monster.
“There are people on top of it,” our driver said. “Do you want me to go that way?”
“There’s an army on top of it,” Xin said dryly. She tilted her head back toward me. “And I thought you did crazy stuff. Look, they’ve got hooks on it.”
“It’s just like a movie!” Thorny stood on the platform’s edge, causing our precarious balance to slowly shift in one direction. She clearly wanted to be over there where the giant sea monster was laying waste.
“Neat,” I said. “How did they get that under control?”
“Hold on, I’ll ask.” Awesome Jr. was frowning and staring into space. His hands kept moving, pulling potion after potion out of the air and shoving them toward our spell-casting trio. Awesome Jr.’s hand slowly dropped down, and his jaw hung open. Drool formed along his chin then was wiped away. “Apparently they rescued its eggs and got to the portal with them. That’s an awesome idea.”
The knowledge that not everyone solved problems with violence made me happy. At least one other person out there tried to talk out their problems. What sort of quest could that have been, to go out into the ocean on a ship while the game collapsed and negotiate with a sea serpent?
Three huge winged creatures fought on one side of the field. The sea creature absolutely dominated the western path. Shazam’s group tore down the middle while heroes of all three game worlds scattered around.
We flew to another spot and started murdering monsters, clearing a small pocket in the tide. Two pinned down Travelers, or Old Souls since they looked to be from Advance Online, were saved.
We rescued a lot but lost others. Still, the tide continued to approach [Haven Valley]. Hours passed in game, and the walls were suffering damage. I lost sight of the three dragon creatures, and the sea serpent to the west moved sluggishly.
Awesome Jr. stood up from his potion station and shouted, “Wait! My dad’s coming across the mountains!”
“Wasn’t he here already?” I asked. We’d left Awesome behind a week or two ago in [ItRainsTooMuch]. They should have completed the journey by now, or [Recall]ed back.
“Northeast! Get us northeast!”
The ship flew quickly, skimming over a chaotic battlefield. Travelers thinned out as monster numbers started to increase. Even out here were signs of our enemies fighting each other as they came down the mountain pass. Their numbers appeared endless.
A thin beam of light came straight up from the ground and grew in size. Our ship turned sideways as the growing blue beam tore into the ship’s side. Our engine sparked as electricity crackled across the vessel’s bow. We fell from the sky.
“Who’s firing that blue beam?” Awesome Jr. shouted.
Deep inside, the beam’s source felt obvious. A nearly identical light had killed me at least once before. Nam Redrum and that weapon’s owner fit into the same category. My niece was a go
od player, but she might not be able to last against Android Seven, the man who had almost completely dominated my [Convict] adventures.
A third blast hit our vessel’s front end. My niece couldn’t hold on. She fell forward off the ship.
“Recall out of here!” I yelled at the others while jumping off.
The ship, along with SweetPea, Xin, and Awesome Jr., was engulfed in a crackling bubble of lightning. My wife’s mouth hung open in a half-completed scream. Then they shrank into a swirl and popped out of existence.
[Blink] got me next to Beth. She was chanting [Lithium] to slow down, but there were a ton of other beams coming at us. We tried to aim for the caravan Awesome Jr. had been leading us to.
Our landing fell short. Thorny grabbed onto a tree for support, which made me lose my grip along with any grace at landing. Once again, I hit the ground and bits of my health bar dropped.
My niece already had her sword out, slashing at monsters diving nearby. Her sword cut single lines in the air that hung like rainbow-colored scars. I got my weapons ready then hacked at creatures assaulting us. [Coo-Coo Rill]s charged by in droves, fighting along with what looked like large lemurs.
“Uncle Grant?” Beth said while trying to create a safe zone.
“Yeah, munchkin?” I said while backing toward her. There were too many monsters nearby, and all of them looked angry.
“When I said we should play together, this isn’t what I meant.”
A blue glow formed in the distance. I had time to see Android Seven’s face light up between the trees. His face looked far more robotic than it ever had, like something out of a science fiction movie with rogue cyborgs.
The beasts kept attacking us, each other, and the straggling band of player killers nearby. I wrapped an arm wrapped around Thorny. She grunted as the air went out from her lungs. My foot pushed off a diving boar’s head, and its face went down while we went up. Once at the apex of the jump, we [Blink]ed again toward Awesome’s convoy.
Session One Hundred Six — Fork in The Road
Hecate: Gee! I’m going to summon you.
Continue Online The Complete Series Page 196
