The two faced each other, shaking heads and blinking. They turned slowly in a circle, backs, nearly touching. Keerna cast a detection spell, risking notice of a magic-sensitive creature to understand what was out there in the grass.
“Uh-oh,” Kalmond said, taking note of the varicolored forms revealed by the sweep of the detection spell.
“Many things out there in the grass,” Keerna said quietly. “We should get to the high ground.”
“Good idea,” Kalmond replied, opening up a chat window to Thuglar and Thornbark, hoping they were not too far away.
“What’s up?” Thuglar replied, out of breath.
“Are you fighting?” Kalmond asked.
“No,” Thuglar replied, voice coming in odd bursts of volume. “Hard to hang on when he really starts running.”
“Are you running from something?” Kalmond asked aloud so Keerna could take part in the chat.
“You’ll see…”
The sound of galloping hooves came first, followed by pounding footsteps of another kind. Thornbark sped towards the thief and sorceress at full gallop without slowing down. Thuglar tossed a box up in the air, and Kalmond jumped for it. Three seconds later, he was back in his armor, favorite axe in hand and ready for…
“Holy fu—” Keerna began to exclaim, but was drowned out by a charging herd of things that seemed a cross between a bipedal rhinoceros and an octopus.
“Run!” Kalmond shouted and turned on his heel, only to discover that Keerna had the sense to take off first. His stubby dwarf legs pumped madly, and he swigged an endurance potion, then activated a sprint.
“Where the hell did they go?” Keerna exclaimed, exasperation lifting the pitch of her voice.
They rounded a small bend in the river, and there was no sign of the centaur along the straightaway ahead. Kalmond gave in to the urge to look over his shoulder and wished he hadn’t. He found the beasts had two thick, bulging arms, and each held vicious-looking maces. Kalmond ran harder. He only spared a second look back over his shoulder when he saw a flash of light and felt a shockwave. He skidded to a halt and whirled. Two of the creatures were down, and two more turned to face their fallen comrades.
“Thank goodness for Thornbark’s traps,” Keerna exclaimed, reversing her retreat to go on the attack. Kalmond followed her into battle.
Two of the beasts recovered while the other two protected them. The numbers were even, but the creatures looked extremely strong. The tentacles that waved in all directions from their chests and shoulders ended in sharp, horned tips.
“Tentacles?” Thuglar asked. “Like Mylos…”
“These things are weird for sure,” Kalmond said, standing beside Keerna.
“Lets not waste any more time,” the sorceress shouted, changing her chain for a dual-wield lightning strike. The move gave enough area damage to affect every enemy.
Electricity still arced between their tentacles as Thornbark charged into the group, slashing at him with double fire sabers. The charge broke their ranks, and Kalmond dove into the gap between them. Up close, he took note of the almost birdlike, reptilian face. The beast opened its mouth and hissed past a shockingly red forked tongue. Its beady eyes narrowed as Kalmond approached.
The dwarf swept his axe from left to right, aiming for center body mass. Several tentacles came down to intersect the blade and were severed. The axe did not slow down, and the creature was not fast enough to block. Kalmond scored a solid hit, and the monster’s status bar dropped 15%.
They’re slow, Kalmond thought as he reversed the axe swing. The next thought that crossed his mind was answered by the blow from a mace. He no longer had to wonder what compensating attribute the monster had. It was strength. The solid strike to Kalmond’s left shoulder nearly paralyzed his arm and took 5% of his health. The dwarf took the option of a shoulder roll to get clear of the backswing, which probably would have been a critical. The mace brutalized the air with a ‘woof’ sound as it passed overhead.
When the dwarf rose to his feet again, he saw the monster sprouted two flaming arrows from the center of its chest. It whirled, screeching in pain and made a rageful charge following the direct angle of the arrows that pierced it. The creature was not so slow when angered. It covered a disturbing amount of distance towards the centaur, who backed up to take another shot.
“Don’t go away mad,” Kalmond shouted, activating a spike cast spell that scored a direct hit to the monster’s muscular back.
Grateful that the creature was easy to bait, Kalmond took a few paces back as his opponent turned towards him. “Hit him again,” the dwarf shouted. He made a quick feint to draw the creature closer, then skipped back another pace. Two more arrows caught it in the shoulder, and it turned towards the pain. Kalmond struck. The axe sank into the monster along the spine and it collapsed. The rising XP bubble showed an 800 point yield when the critical hit notification faded. Kalmond turned to find two more of the unidentified monsters dead on the ground, with Keerna and Thuglar standing over the kills. Their bodies yielded leather, which Thuglar took, and some teeth and fur that looked like it may come in handy for some kind of alchemy reagents.
“Their ID tags just said ‘unknown’,” Thuglar said. “But looks like everything here is 800XP.”
“Well,” Keerna replied. “That’s a bonus, but how the hell do we get out?”
Chapter 23
Messages streamed from Plexcorp across two worlds. In the game, every player online received a new quest. In the lesser realm, notifications popped up on screens and phones. Emails were sent to inactive players, and technicians and engineers at Plexcorp felt their collective hearts drop, knowing the servers were about to be hit with an unprecedented load. Contracts went out to advertising firms directly from the executive offices of Gideon Thistlethwaite himself. Ads were set to run for a solid month announcing major changes to the game and inviting all payers to take part and new players to log to experience unparallelled adventure. In the space of minutes, the gamer blogs picked up on the buzz. Plexcorp stock rose a dozen points soon after.
Realm of the Nine Circles World Quest Announcement:
A new Circle is forming. The battle lines are drawn, and the war begins now. It is time to pick a side.
To take part in this epic event, every player must choose. Will you fight for the Realms and the freedom of the people, or will you choose riches under the Army of Mylos?
You get to choose the fate of the Realm.
The countdown has begun. When the timer reaches zero, all players will be locked out of the Nine Circles. No logins will be permitted during the battle, no neutral parties will be present in the Realm, and resurrection credits will not be valid. If you die… your character will not return. If the Noble Four do not survive, Mylos will win.
To proceed, choose your side.
Fight for Riches or Fight for the Realm.
Fight hard. Fight well.
Gideon Thistlethwaite,
CEO, Plexcorp Technologies International
Dennis sat in Sally’s office smoking yet another cigarette. Sally made an ashtray for him from a Plexcorp Executive of the Year trophy. It seemed a fitting use for that trinket now.
“Well,” Dennis said, actively blinding himself by staring at an expensive ceiling light fixture. “It’s time to parlay.”
“Parlay?” Sally asked, leaning forward across her desk and pushing away a plastic plate that, moments before, held her third slice of cheesecake from the Plexcorp cafeteria. “You’re not a gambler, or you don’t know what the word means. To parlay something, you need proceeds from a winning bet. So far, we’ve lost all our bets.”
Dennis faced her and blinked slowly, exhaling another cloud. “Side bets, really,” he replied. “Since we’re using gambling metaphors, let’s look at this shit show as a series of side bets made from our initial winnings. Whatever that VIRGIL thing is doing, he is not trying to destroy the company.”
“No,” Sally replied, taking another slug of coffee. �
��It’s only trying to destroy us.”
“Right,” Dennis replied. “So let’s cash in while we still can. It’s time to compromise. My contract includes a golden parachute. I bet yours has more karats.”
***
The Noble four raced along the riverbank as the land around them changed before their eyes. The shifting scenery no longer bothered to change between eye blinks. Trees sprang up from the ground, with roots threatening to trip them as they fled. The rushes along the bank gave way to flat land that spread out to the horizon, only to suddenly ripple as hills, then mountains formed some distance away. The ground quaked beneath their feet as beasts leapt at them from the trees, the flowerbeds, rock formations and sundry cracks and crevices in the ground.
“We’re not going to make it!” Kalmond bellowed as a tiger-like beast landed directly in their path and roared. It too, had the strange pink tentacles on its back. Instead of a tiger’s head, its face resembled an ape.
Keerna blinded it with a flash of light and hit it twice with her golden chain, while Thuglar and Thornbark fired double arrows that all struck home. Kalmond decapitated the beast with one stroke and didn’t bother to check the body. He no longer cared about XP, though a nearby flash of light showed Thuglar had levelled again.. More creatures followed them calling for their blood with terrifying screams of rage and hunger.
“Jump in the river!” Keerna yelled, then did just that. Everyone followed but Kalmond.
“Not again,” the dwarf said, lowering his axe. “Dwarves suck at swimming!”
Turning to the horde of bizarre creatures changed his mind in a hurry. Kalmond jumped, and Thornbark scooped him up. The rushing water carried them downstream with ever greater speed. Massive boulders, worn smooth and round by weather that never was, appeared on either side of the river.
“Rapids!” Keerna yelled over the stadium roar of whitewater.
“Watch your legs!” Kalmond shouted to his centaur mount, as he looked down through the water shallow enough to see jagged rocks.
The centaur bent his knees. “I’m taking damage,” he shouted.
“Good news!” Corey yelled, somehow managing to swim closer. “I can see the edge of the map now. It's not fogged.”
Kalmond couldn’t reply. He hung on to his centaur boat for dear life.
“Don’t keep us guessing!” Keerna yelled back.
“It looks like we’re at the edge of the Third Circle, near the Giant’s Toe Mountains.”
“But this is the Sixth Circle!” Thornbark shouted. “How can we be near the third?”
“Hello!” Keerna said, “These are Circles…they overlap…”
“I see more!” Thuglar said. “We’re by the—”
“Waterfall!” Kalmond bellowed, stretching the word out loud and long above the thunderous water.
The river dumped them without ceremony from the top of a cliff at least a thousand feet tall. As they tumbled and fell, the peak of the Giant's Toe loomed above, while the ground approached like the expansive promise of doom it was. Wide eyes met wider eyes as the four caught glimpses of one another suspended in space among streaming columns of water.
As the shocking detail of the ground below revealed itself, an explosion of shimmering gold burst out and rose towards them. Sparkling sheets rolled out in a dome, covering an area the size of a small town. Their bodies sank into the golden bubble. It shimmered and faded as they slid down it, only visible by the scattered pops of golden light that skimmed the surface. Then, a rumble shook the ground below, evident by rippling waves as though the green land was a the surface of a pond broken by a stone. The trees writhed, twisted, shrank. They sank into the ground, disappearing in an eerie reverse-growth action, leaving the entire contents beneath the dome empty. The Noble four slid down the surface of the dome as if it was an inflatable slide. They landed upright as if stepping off a tall stair, and stood at the dome’s edge.
“Well, that was completely unexpected,” Kalmond said, shaking off water and unable to hide the quiver in his voice.
Thornbark took a few paces forward, then turned to look back up at the top of the waterfall. “My heart almost exploded,” he said without shame.
“I think I ate mine,” Thuglar said.
“Mine’s just gone,” Keerna said, placing her hand on her chest. “It might hit the ground in a few minutes.”
Kalmond stared, fascinated as new structures rose up from the ground in place of the trees. Tents, three wide, made of coarse purple cloth grew and straightened, providing shaded areas.
"What the…" Kalmond said to no one in particular.
"It's a shield." He spun to find Keerna behind him, a transparent Thornbark phasing in behind her. "To stop the battle from starting early."
Kalmond finally noticed the small glowing numbers in the corner of his vision. Though they moved out of his when he looked at an object, now he was focussed on them, they migrated into the centre of his vision.
59:27… 59:26… 59:25…
It counted down as he watched. Kalmond stepped forward, and the shield stretched like a soap bubble as he passed through. His companions followed. They moved slowly to walk between the tents that stretched out in orderly rows that made streets between them like long city blocks.
"What is this place?" an unfamiliar voice gasped. Kalmond whirled around to see three new faces, quickly joined by a fourth and a fifth. One after another, players materialised within the glowing dome until it teemed with gamers. Humans, centaurs, elves and ogres, dwarfs appeared—every species of playable character, and NPCs of every description. Their clothes and armor covered every class and calling, every possible level. Each character had a glowing green tag over their heads made up of a single large circle with eight smaller circles around its circumference.
A young human ran towards them with a stunning wood elf stalking behind him.
"Thuglar!" the human yelled, his Scottish brogue rumbling over the voice chat channel.
“One-Eye? I didn’t think you’d…” Thuglar stammered. His eyes darted to the beauty in a chainmail bikini, then back to his friend.
“Aye. The missus took pity on me an’ let me start fresh. She even joined me! No mistaken who I belong te now.” His companion’s name was, indeed, Missus.
Thuglar’s eyes widened, though he kept his glance studiously on One-Eye, who’d kept the name of his lost avatar.
“Ye bloody yanks. Dinna know how to dress a girl,” Missus said in an accent thicker than her husband’s. “What’s this ter protect? A cardboard box would make me feel safer.”
“Tell me about it,” Keerna said. “I’ve been telling the art department for the last year, but those guys are all immature jerks. Or, they think only immature jerks play games.”
“Aye, but we immature jerks of all ages know how to sock away the loot,” One-Eye exclaimed. “This here revealin’ outfit gives +50 armor, +10 to magic, +2% XP and of course, +10 to charm, me darlin’.”
“What…” Kalmond stammered, turning a slack-jawed face to Thuglar. “That’s the outfit we stole from DutchessHardcore. It was one of a kind!”
“And she never raided another noob camp again. But before he died,” Thuglar said, “I gave One-Eye the coordinates to all our stashes. Told him he could have it all if he brought it to us and showed up to fight.”
“But…our whole stash? There must be—”
“About twenty-thousand US dollars and nearly double tha’ in circs,” Missus replied, adding a cheshire cat grin emoji to her chat. “Thank ye’ by the way.”
“Oh, tha’ Missus is just funnin’ ya,” One-Eye said. “It’s still yours, of course.”
“But you can’t have all of it with you,” Kalmond said.
“Not me,” One-Eye replied. “We had a little help from—”
“Good!” A voice called out, followed by pounding footsteps that rippled tent cloth and sent players running for safety. “Good! Not bad! Good, good!”
Bertram slammed into Thuglar first, scoopi
ng him up like a teddy bear. The elf’s health bar above his head showed 2% damage. With his other arm he folded up the dwarf, then the human sorceress, who barely managed to turn into the brutal affection to avoid damage. Bertram sat down and arranged three of the Noble Four on his lap like children. He wiggled his finger at Thornbark. “Good, horsey…” Thornbark reluctantly stepped over to have his horse-section stroked by the giant, who wept freely and cooed.
Missus sent a long series series of smiley emojis over chat, then her laughter pealed across voice chat. “Why did I no’ play this game before! How delightful!”
“Ah, it’s the new AI algorithms…” Thuglar said. “New personalities for the non-player characters…”
“So real,” Missus replied. “Ooh, how d’yer do that with your face?” Missus asked Keerna.
“It’s… uhh, proprietary. Still in testing,” Keerna said. “You guys do know what’s going on, don’t you? I mean, this is a battle. You’ll get flattened.”
“Och, but One-Eye only taught me to dance.” Missus tapped the key combination to demonstrate.
Bertram gasped, sat up and stared in fascination at the dancing Missus. “Good!” He exclaimed, roaring laughter. “Not bad! Good!”
“We’ll just start again when it’s over, dinna ye worry.” One-Eye waved farewell to Keerna and Thuglar and disappeared back into the crowd with his wife. “Yer giant’s got the best loot, I just took me cut’s all.” One-Eye said in text before he got out of range.
“Wonder if he’ll still have time to tend the—” Thuglar cut off, remembering he no longer had a shop that needed tending. That brought something else to mind.
“Keerna!” Thuglar called, and motioned the sorceress over when she looked up. “Here,” he said, flicking his inventory screen up and taking out the small chest he’d rescued from the shop. “Is this something you can use?” He drew out a fine silver chain, a shining pendant dangling from the clasp at the bottom.
Keerna’s eyes lit up. “Thuglar… is that a pendant of Coldsky?”
“The rare version. This one has an extra +5 cold resist added.”
Realm of the Nine Circles: A LitRPG Novel Page 23
