by Adam Drake
None of the figures, numbering about a dozen, seemed to look in our direction.
“Who're they?” Thorm asked.
I tried to assess them, but came up with character information screens with blank statistics. The fog, or even magic, masked these individuals from prying eyes.
A pair of horses pulled a small wagon. Lashed to the top of the wagon sat a black statue of what looked to be a woman. One arm stretched out in front of her with a finger pointing ahead.
The group stopped directly in front of us and looked toward the odd hill. Their outlines were various, indicating a wide range of races and classes.
But one near the front caught my attention. Its form was sloping and had what looked like wings grasping at the reins of its horse mount.
Then it struck me. I knew exactly who it was.
Just then the figure turned its rounded head to speak with another rider, and I saw a small beak instead of a mouth.
Ogden Trite!
With an avatar of a huge gray owl, Ogden Trite was recognizable even at this distance. This was the individual who had tried to double cross me over the Cloak of Shadows and spitefully put the bounty on my head.
Anger blinded me and I rose up, sword in hand.
Thorm grabbed at my wrist and pulled me down. It took everything I had not to strike out at him.
“There are too many, Vivian,” he said, tone firm. “No need to commit suicide when we now have the advantage.”
“Advantage?” I hissed. “How do you figure we have that?” Getting my anger under control was difficult considering my tormentor was a short sprint away.
Thorm released my arm, and calmly said, “We know we're in the right place, now. Before it was just speculation. Let's bide our time, at least for a little while longer, and try to learn more.”
The rational part of my brain wrestled with the animal aggression which howled for revenge. But Thorm was correct. We had Ogden now. There would be no more hiding. If I wanted to end this once and for all, it wouldn't be gained from rushing at him here. But I wanted to. Badly.
I glared at Ogden from the safety of our hiding spot. There was small satisfaction to be gained knowing he was unaware of our presence, and that I could kill him now. But it would be both suicidal and, most likely, unsuccessful.
Ogden had surrounded himself with a large cadre of guards. No doubt, because he knew I would be out to get him. Another small bit of satisfaction.
Still, he only had me to be concerned about, while I, on the other hand, had a blood-thirsty subset of the server's population out to get me.
“What's he waiting for?” I asked.
Thorm shrugged. “That hill is strange, maybe-.” Before he could finish, Ogden stopped speaking to his companion and raised a wing above his head. A signal.
Suddenly, the hill before us moved.
The vast object heaved upwards as if forced from below by tectonic forces. The sound of cracking rock and earth filled the air, blotting out the natural noises of the marsh.
Stunned, Thorm and I could only watch in wide-eyed amazement.
The hill shambled forward, its huge murky outline getting bigger. Then, it stopped moving.
From the middle of its dark mass two large ovals appeared. They illuminated brightly as if many lanterns or torches burned from within. Then the bright ovals blinked.
I stifled an intake of breath.
They were eyes.
The eyes moved in closer and a colossal reptilian head formed. A hooked beak, mottled with lichen and muddy grass appeared beneath them. It took me a second to recognize what I was gaping at. A turtle. A huge, mountain sized turtle.
None of the group before us fled in fear, they simply waited, as if being confronted with one of the largest creatures in the game was a normal occurrence.
“Whoa,” Thorm said, awestruck.
“Yeah,” I said. I'd encountered nothing like this before. It was terrifying as much as it was impressive.
“Pull up its stats,” Thorm said.
I did.
Name: Wally's Womp
Species: Void Titan
Subspecies: Guardian
Level: Unknown
Hit Points: Unknown
Mana: Unknown
Armor Class: Unknown
Attack Rating: Unknown
Damage Range: Unknown
Weapon Type: Unknown
Abilities: Unknown
Special Abilities: Unknown
Notes: Enslaved. Avoid at all costs.
“Holy cow,” I said, amazed.
“What is a Void Titan?” Thorm whispered. Then in an incredulous tone, said, “And why is it named 'Wally's Womp'?”
My thoughts flitted back to the void portal I had opened earlier that day before Mudhoof sent Kragg through it. I'd seen something big moving in the distance. “That is something we don't need to be messing with.”
The titan shuffled forward, shaking the ground. The dark shape I took for a hill was in fact its shell. This thing was the size of a palace. The gargantuan beast brought its head down to ground level.
I said, “What's it doing here?”
The titan settled its house sized head onto the path before Ogden and his riders, blocking the way.
Still, none of the others reacted in fear.
Ogden moved his horse mount closer until he was only a short distance from the creature.
Then, without being given any obvious signal or command, the Void Titan opened its massive beak. Wider and wider its mouth stretched out until the opening to its throat was exposed.
And there, somehow inserted into the flesh deep within its mouth, was a travel gate, its silver surface shimmering.
“Well I'll be,” Thorm said.
Then, without a bother in the world, Ogden rode his horse over the rounded edge of the monster's lower beak, and entered its mouth. He casually moved up the large tongue which resembled a wide, wet road.
The rest of the group followed suit, along with the wagon, picking their way up and inside the living cave.
At the travel gate, Ogden rode through its flat surface and vanished. All the other riders did the same.
Then, after a few moments, the beak slowly closed. The Titan shut its eyes and was still.
Both Thorm and I were speechless. So that was how the gate was protected. Ogden had somehow secured the safety of his guildhall entrance within the maw of this colossus.
I slumped to the ground, leaning up against the dead tree. How were we expected to gain entrance through that? For the first time in quite a while, I felt utterly hopeless.
Thorm sat down next to me, still speaking softly. “We'll wait here for him to emerge. Then hit him when he's further down the trail.”
I shrugged. “We don't know when that'll be. This arrival could signal the beginning of a long stay. We have no inkling whether he'll ever leave or not.”
After some thought Thorm gently nudged my shoulder. “I believe there may be a way inside, but you'll have to go solo, I'm afraid.”
I gave Thorm a confused look. “Okay, you got me. What way?”
Thorm started to answer when he was suddenly interrupted.
“There you are you FILTERing FILTERs!” shouted a voice from behind us.
Caught of guard we could only spin around and look.
A man wearing a bright white cloak sat on a horse a short distance from us. Behind him, other mounted men rode out of the gloom into view.
These were the guys who'd chased us through all those gates. And somehow, by some miracle of miracles, they'd found us.
“Uh oh,” I said.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Thorm and I were instantly on our feet, weapons at the ready.
The man with the white cloak didn't attack. Not yet. The other riders, well over a dozen of them, began to encircle us.
If it was a fight they wanted, then we would oblige them.
But Thorm had a different plan. He turned to me and said, “I'll slow them down, y
ou go do that trick you showed me.” He nodded toward the Titan.
“What trick-,” I started to ask, but Thorm suddenly lunged forward and swiped his huge broadsword at White Cloak.
The Holy Knight did this so fast that White Cloak barely parried the blow causing his mount to rear back.
Thorm then summoned Snowflake, and the massive snow-leopard instantly attacked the nearest horse, sending the rider sprawling to the ground.
This all happened in the blink of an eye.
Thorm turned back to me, “Go!” He brought out his kite shield just in time to block an arrow from a mounted archer.
Damnit! I thought. Not another friend making a sacrifice because of me.
But I didn't argue. Again, I was forced to act.
A rider rode at me at full speed, but I slipped into Shadow mode, and rolled to one side. As the rider passed by, swinging his sword, I switched to my bow and fired, dropping Shadow.
The arrow struck the attacker in the back and he grunted in pain.
With a final glance at Thorm and Snowflake, who were both fully engaged in combat with multiple adversaries, I hopped up on a fallen log, then leapt through the air.
Smoke appeared directly beneath me and I landed in his saddle. We charged away from the fight. My intended destination was hard to miss.
The Titan still slept, if that was what it was doing, with eyes closed. The fight a short distance away didn't seem to bother it. We were gnats to the giant.
But I rode Smoke right at the great monster's closed beak having figured out Thorm's idea. Now it was all or nothing.
To my left a half-dozen riders broke from the murky tree line and rushed at me. It was apparent they had no clue what the massive hill sitting in the clearing really was.
Good.
I fired a volley of shots at the approaching riders but none found a target.
One rider, a fire mage, swirled his hands in front of him. A red light glowed between them, lighting up his face.
Okay, I thought. This could be bad.
The mage then pushed his hands forward and a large Fire Ball shot from his palms. The molten orb of instant death was quick as an arrow. I pulled Smoke's reigns hard to one side as the fireball zipped past us. The heat it radiated was so intense it singed my avatar's eyebrows.
I looked where it was flying and smiled. Bingo.
The fireball smashed against the Titan's chin with a bright explosion. The light it emitted temporarily lit up the marshy clearing, revealing the details of the Titan's form.
Giant eyes opened and looked at the approaching riders.
Oh, boy, I thought. Still, I kept Smoke pointed directed at the colossal beast.
Wally's Womp lifted its huge head from the ground, apparently unhurt by the fireball.
Behind I heard shouts of shock and terror as my pursuers realized what they were running toward.
The Titan was annoyed now, and there would be veritable hell to pay. It opened its mouth and let out a deafening cry. The sound was like an avalanche of rock which shook the ground and caused nearby trees to crack or fall over.
And still I charged right at the thing.
Come on, come on.
An arrow flew by me and I chanced a look back. Amazingly, several riders where suicidal enough to keep up the chase, regardless of the titan. No doubt they were power-levelers who scoffed at the threat of yet another reroll. They were uber. They were leet.
They were dead.
The Titan appeared to tense for a moment, then its eyes changed color to a deep red. The next instant, huge beams of crimson light shot from its eyes.
Fortunately for me, the vast monster had it out for Mister Fireball instead of the little tiny Shadow approaching its feet.
The light beams raked across the muddy clearing and fell over several riders like spotlights.
The Titan blinked, and the beams stopped.
All the riders caught within the beams had been instantly incinerated. Not even the loot they should have dropped existed. Those, too, had been destroyed.
I was directly beneath the Titan's head, but it was too high above for this crazy idea to work. It needed to be closer.
Pulling Smoke to a full stop, I summoned a magma arrow. Then I notched it in my bow.
This was, without a doubt, one of the dumbest things I would ever do in this game. And I'd done plenty before, trust me.
I shot the magma arrow at the Titan.
My aim was true, not that missing something so huge was hard. The arrow hit the chin of the Titan and started to burn its way through.
The Titan grunted. Not really in pain, but more of a 'huh?' type equivalent. It tilted its head downward to regard me.
Having this gargantuan beast lock you in its death gaze could best be described as 'bowel liquefying'.
It roared and both Smoke and I shook beneath the deafening sound.
Then the Titan lowered its head, opening its mouth wider.
There was no time to contemplate the stupidity of my situation. Instead, I pulled myself up to stand on Smoke's saddle.
As the open mouth of the Titan descended upon me like a falling mountain, I did the second dumbest thing I'd ever do in this game.
Using a foot to push off Smoke's head, and invoking my Leap ability to its fullest extent, I leapt up to the open mouth of the Titan.
With both hands, I snagged onto the edge of the creature's lower beak. It was like clinging to castle battlements. I pulled myself up and over the line of the beak and slide up against a huge wet wall. The tongue.
But I only had an instant to appreciate where I was when I felt the Titan closing its beak. The roof of its mouth, like a vast cave ceiling, fell downwards, ready to crush me to a pulp.
Use Phase Ability.
For the briefest of moments, I thought that was the end, smashed to nothing. But I'd kicked my phase in at the right second. This was the trick Thorm mentioned.
My phantom form was absorbed into the material which comprised the Titan's mouth. I couldn't see, so I rolled to my left and slipped out onto the beast's tongue. Thankfully there is no phasing downward. This prevents characters from vanishing into the ground when corporeal.
Oddly, I could see details thanks to a luminous yellow fungus which lined the contours of the inner mouth. My phase timed out, and I was whole again.
The travel gate was a short distance away, embedded against the back of the creature's throat. I stumbled around, trying to keep my balance. Wally's Womp was on the move.
A system message appeared.
Your mount has been killed by Wally's Womp.
Crap, I thought. There hadn't been time to dismiss Smoke. Now his summoning timer was set to hours instead of minutes.
The mouth suddenly opened and a huge intake of breath threatened to suck me down the throat. It was going to roar again, and I didn't think I could survive the outgoing blast.
Like a drunk on a sheet of ice I ran along the wet tongue.
When I reached the back of the mouth, the throat yawned before me like a mine shaft. My eyes were on the silvery surface of the circular gate.
Just as I jumped the Titan roared.
There was a moment of panic as I felt a horrific rush of air push me upwards.
Then I tumbled through the gate.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
My involuntary upward movement caused me to hit the top of the gate as I passed through. Yet, as I crossed the terminus, I still had the where-with-all to activate Shadow.
The hot wet air of the Titan's mouth instantly changed to frigid cold.
As I flew through the gate, I ducked into a roll, but my landing was far from perfect. The ground was hard, and I bounced to a stop.
Survival instincts kicked in and I quickly took in my immediate surroundings.
I was in a winter wonderland.
Huge pine trees, cloaked in snow, crowded around the travel gate platform as if waiting to inspect new arrivals.
Dusk was approaching as indi
cated by the dark orange hue of the sky which fought to be seen through the trees.
