He backed up a little, then circled around to the clone on his left. He heard the one on his right start to run, so he sprinted, burning through half his stamina to quickly get near the other one. Now behind a tree, he heard both Hardass clones attacking him with long range attacks. He couldn’t see which ones they were using. One of the clones ran around the tree, startling him. It went for a whipping strike, which Sam wasn’t sure how to parry yet. He rolled out the way of the whip and quickly ran back to face the creature. Sam was now in close range and waiting for one of the two attacks he had seen before. He also paid attention to any other movements around him. The other Hardass clone seemed to be attacking at the tree again.
Now!
It was attack number two, the sideways slice. Sam was ready for it with his now patented parry. Its arm flew up, its heart was exposed, and more blood soaked Sam’s knife. He smiled as it wilted and gave him four hundred more souls. He had luckily gotten the right one.
He peeked around the tree and saw the last one coming. Since it wasn’t yet attacking, he quickly ran up to it and waited for it to attack him at close range. It moved its arms in a strange way and left Sam unsure of whether to stay to parry it or dodge. In the end he decided to roll away from it. With the blow it attempted, it first reeled back then whipped both its arms out. It didn’t look easy, but Sam figured out the timing of the attack. With the other parries he had executed, he had to find the weak point in the attack and deflect it at its origin. This was no different. The origin of this new attack was the creature’s forward limb, the one it led the attack with. Deflecting that limb would knock it off balance and open it up for critical damage.
With his plan in place, Sam made his way back in front of the creature and waited. It reeled back again, preparing its new blow. This time Sam was prepared too. He saw it lash out and saw the origin of its attack. He deflected the limb just as planned, only this time it did nothing and only his own arm was raised skyward, leaving him wide open to counterattack. The creature’s attack was not a simple blow this time, but a grab.
It wrapped its whip-like limbs around Sam’s neck and body and squeezed him. Sam felt his breath being strangled right out of him and felt life leaving his body. He struggled and finally found himself free when the creature tossed him to the ground after he stabbed its limb. His health was drained to nearly nothing and the poison was still only halfway through its duration.
On his feet, Sam quickly sprinted to a nearby tree and hid behind it while taking his last drink from the Soul Fire. His health and stamina were restored to max and he quickly took off sprinting again. What he knew now was that his chances for surviving this encounter were next to none. Even if he did survive, the poison would claim the rest of his life. And these things were tricky. He didn’t know if the creature had even more attacks that he didn’t know about. That grab move was hella unfair. Sam had parried it clean and still got cheated by it. Then Sam thought of something else.
What if those other things I killed split apart and grow just like the first Hardass did?
That was a scary thought.
7 A Beacon in Dark Times
Sam wasn’t sure if the Hardass clone was still following him. He walked as quickly as he could, waiting for his stamina to recharge. He looked back into the forest when he heard footsteps and saw the clone approaching.
“Dammit, I can’t lose this thing!” Sam cursed. “Even after I ran what feels like a half a mile.”
Sam had to do a double take when he saw four other creatures that looked just like the Hardass clone behind it. It looked like the forest itself was chasing him. All five looked like tiny man shaped trees. All were brown, with purple leaves covering their heads, and hollowed out holes where their supposed eyes and mouth were supposed to be. The leaves on their heads all shook in unison as they closed in on him.
Behind them, Sam could see even more of them and in the distance. He heard one of them screaming that same foreboding scream that the original Hardass had screamed before Sam had attacked it. He was regretting the hell out of that decision now.
He started sprinting again as soon as his stamina bar filled back up and managed to outpace the tree man army behind him before having to slow down again because of his drained stamina. He wondered how long he could keep this up before they finally caught up to him. He couldn’t see anywhere around that could be considered safe. It was nothing but trees, darkness, moonlight, and death around him for miles.
He had to think of something. These tree men were smart. In his battle with them they had managed to strategize a way to box him in. If the army that was chasing him managed that then there was no way out for him. Luckily the poison had completely run its course and he was left with a little bit more than a quarter of his total health. But one attack from a Hardass clone was all it would now take to kill him.
In the distance, he saw an opening in the forest. There was a large concentration of moonlight and he could even see the sky. That was currently his best bet, or a complete dead end. Either way, he’d soon find out.
Now at the forest’s edge, Sam found himself near a cliff. Way below, there was even more forest, and a river, but even the trees looked too far down for him to survive the fall. With the enemies at his back in the forest and certain death below, Sam decided to circle around the cliff and look for some other option out of this mess.
He ran forward and saw that the cliff’s path was leading back into the forest. He knew there was no way he’d survive in there. He looked over the side of the cliff for some place to hopefully drop down to, but found nothing below him. Across the way below an adjacent cliff, he saw a little cave.
He quickly cut through the forest to get over to the other side of the cliff and nearly ran into a few trees during his scramble. He heard the tree men attacking, meaning they were now close. This was his last chance to escape. With his stamina nearly emptying out, he was at the part of the cliff where he saw the opening below it. He hoped that it was really a cave, and he hoped even harder that it didn’t have invisible walls covering the entrance.
“It was here!” Sam proclaimed nearly out of breath. At the cliff’s edge he jumped and felt the wind against his body as he took flight. He immediately looked down to see if his memory was correct. He was in the cave before he even realized it, and instinctively rolled forwards as soon as his feet touched the ground. He huffed and huffed and tried his best to calm himself. He had made it by the skin of his teeth, but his health was still low and he was in a strange place. There was no telling what would happen next.
He first looked back to see if any of the tree men were following him, if any were clever enough to make the jump. He let out a breath of relief when he saw them turn back into the forest.
“Well, at least that’s over with ... for now.”
Sam looked around the cave for anything dangerous and saw that it was nearly empty. The only thing ahead of him was a huge animal totem on an ashen stone pole. The totem at the top was a snake with scales carved into a stone body that coiled in a circle where its head swallowed its tail. When Sam closed in on it and touched it, it lit up and he was given a message.
Soul Beacon Activated
A dim blue light shined from the center of the coiled snake and bathed the area in a warm glow. Though creepy as hell, the whole thing felt sort of safe. The warmth began to course through his body and left him feeling renewed. It gradually refilled his HP to max as he stood near it. He decided to sit down in front of it and hold out both of his hands. Then a genius thought came to his mind. He grabbed his silver Soul Fire container from his hip and held it near the Soul Beacon. Blue fire slithered from the top of the totem and refilled the container to its max five uses. Sam grinned and placed it back on his hip then tied it there.
He let the warmth fall over him, and for the first time he allowed himself to rest. He was already mentally exhausted and it was only the start of the game. It wasn’t real fatigue, but he knew that a little rest would steady his
nerves at least. He let out a long sigh and let his mind wander, thinking of what the rest of the game would be like.
“You doing okay, Sam?” Alex asked in his ear, concern in her voice.
“Alex! Where the hell have you been? I was almost killed out there!”
She giggled and said, “Well, it is a videogame, Sam. You might die once or twice to say the least.”
“In a game like this, I’ll easily die like fifty times. You guys already set up some cheap enemies. Those tree guys just kept multiplying after I killed them. Is that a glitch?”
There was no reply for a little while, so Sam just knew that she was laughing at him behind a muted microphone.
“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you? This is not funny, my life is on the line here. You don’t know how it feels in here. It feels all too real.”
“Sorry, Sam. I couldn’t help it. No, you haven’t come across any glitches so far. Those enemies you fought are called Forest Barkers and they are actually non-hostile,” she explained.
“Non-hostile my ass! Those things almost killed me!” he yelled.
“They’re only programmed to do so after you’ve attacked them. Normally they just go through the forest singing their sad songs and entertaining the other forest creatures, but you just had to try to kill one, didn’t you? Barkers are designed to be a cruel punishment for cold-hearted gamers.”
Now he felt like an ass. It was dumb of him to attack a creature he knew nothing about and he’d almost paid the consequences for it.
“Okay, fine, you made your point. Can you actually kill those things for good though?”
“I’ve told you too much about them already. The point of the game is to learn all this stuff yourself, Sam. There’s enough clues within the game to give you a full picture of everything within the game world. Remember to explore and to read your item descriptions. Oh, and I do know how it feels to be in there. I’ve already tested the game a few times, so I know how you feel. That’s why I’m checking in on you. I know that the Full Dive immersion adds an extra level of stress to the game.”
“Stress is an understatement. By the end of all this, most of your testers are going to have PTSD.”
“Uhh, we’re hoping to avoid that.”
Sam couldn’t help but have a laugh at that. Even though Alex hadn’t admitted it yet, this was clearly a Death Planes game. The opening cutscene gave it all away. The Planes games were already difficult and highly nerve racking. They were the sort of games that blurred the lines between survival horror, RPG, and action game. Now with the added element of being in the game and actually feeling pain caused by enemy attacks, the game seemed designed by default to cause PTSD.
“You guys should nix the realistic pain feature. It might actually cause more issues than its worth in the long run. Is it affecting our bodies in any way?”
“No Sam, not at all. Your bodies are perfectly safe back in our testing lab. All of the sensations you feel in the game are just signals we send to your brain. Remember too, that you can quit out at any time. We don’t recommend it, but you always have that option if the simulation overwhelms you.”
He let out another long sigh.
“Okay, thanks, Alex. That’s pretty much what I wanted to hear.”
“Alright, Sam. Just remember to call me if you’re having trouble. There’s only so much I can say about anything other than glitches, so choose your opponents carefully.”
He could hear the teasing amusement in her voice. He took that for a challenge.
“Thanks for the support, Alex. I think I’ll work on a way to kill those Barkers for good.”
“I liked the pet name you made up for them. My favorite had to be Murder Ass. He was pretty cute, wasn’t he?” She couldn’t control her giggles.
“Now I know you’re making fun of me. I was hoping you didn’t hear that.”
“Don’t worry, I think it’s cute that you name the creatures of the forest. Just do whatever it takes to enjoy the game. I’ll be in touch. Ciao!”
Alex was pretty cool. Sam wondered if she looked as good as she sounded. He liked girls that teased him the way she did and they seemed to like him as well. Despite being a big guy, Sam was fairly popular with women. They usually found him to be cuddly like a teddy bear; he was always told that his dark brown eyes had an alluring innocence to them. That always made him laugh since he was anything but innocent.
He pushed all those thoughts aside and got back into his survival instincts. He needed to get stronger. Skill-wise, he was doing well. He had learned the proper parry timing against the Forest Barkers. That was good, but he figured every enemy would have its own attack pattern, so he’d have to learn a different timing for each one. The idea of fighting some powerful enemy and messing up his parry timing frightened him. He thought his best bet would be finding a better shield, one he could block and parry with properly. The Deflector he had was just too small for anything, but one-on-one fights. He was lucky to have the forest trees earlier to block most of the Barkers’ attacks. If not, he would’ve been wide open.
He also needed a weapon with better reach. The Dagger also wasn’t made for fighting multiple opponents, and was even mostly a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight. Its only saving grace was all the critical damage it did, but you had to be up close and personal to get it.
Sam rubbed his hands near the Soul Beacon and discovered it had more to it then he initially thought. His menu opened up with more selection options than before. The menu for Soul Beacon options inserted itself next to his inventory menu. There were three selections under the Soul Beacon menu.
Level Up
Equip Craftes
Revive
Sam checked each option and read up on it in the digital instruction manual to get a better idea of what each option did. It was the exact same as it was in The Death Planes. He could increase his various stats with the Level Up option. Equip Craftes would allow him to equip any Spellcraftes, Blessings, or Pyromancies that he’d collected, only now he had no Spellcraftes, Blessings, Pyromancies or slots to put them in. And Revive allowed him to return to life as a human if he found himself turned into a revenant.
This time, he started the game in human form, and since he didn’t die, he still had his full humanity. Turning revenant meant he’d permanently lose some of his max HP until resurrected as a human. That gave him another reason to cling to his life.
Sam went to the level-up function and was taken to a screen that looked identical to his stat screen.
Name: Sarem the Sanguine
Class: Cutthroat
Soul Intensity: 5
HP: 140
Held Souls: 1200
Souls to Next Level: 590
VIT 7
DEF 6
RES 7
STR 6
INT 10
DEX 15
SPD 15
SPT 4
BLF 4
PCP 3
His dexterity and his speed were already really high. The attack damage for his dagger was based off of his dexterity stat, and the speed stat affected how fast he moved and how far he roll dodged. The only thing that kept him alive were those three things. Now he needed something to cover his ass when he messed up, so he put a point into his vitality which increased his max health from one forty to one sixty. He was now at soul intensity six and still had enough souls to level-up one more time. The amount he needed to get to soul intensity seven was six hundred and ten. It was all he had left. He used it to increase his vitality again to nine, which gave him a max health of one hundred and eighty. That health would really come in handy, he reasoned.
With no souls left to spend, Sam opted to get up and resume his game. He started by exploring the cave he was in. The light of the Soul Beacon only reached so far into the cave. After a while, Sam couldn’t see anything because the after image of the fire’s light was still there in his eyes. He instinctively stopped then, not wanting to traverse the cave blind.
“Hey, st
ranger. What brings you to my cave?”
The voice was a delicate whisper, and when he heard it Sam’s heart started beating a mile a minute.
8 The Merchant
The cave in front of him was so dark that Sam couldn’t see where that voice had come from. Whoever was in the dark had a great advantage over him. He lifted his Deflector defensively, unsure of what to expect next.
“No need to fear, o’ traveling soul. I mean you no harm,” the man whispered, sarcasm creeping into his voice. Sam kept the Deflector up. He didn’t trust whoever this man was. The man seemed to sense that and just laughed at Sam derisively.
“Can’t see me, can you? Well, maybe this’ll help.”
Sam heard a striking sound and suddenly a flame jumped to life in the man’s hand. The torchlight cast am orange glow all over his features as he placed the torch in a standing sconce then leaned against the cave wall. He was shorter than Sam’s avatar and had an average build. His hair was short, stringy, and russet, the same color of his eyes. He bore a tired-looking half-smile and wore the exact same dark clothes that Sam did. Sam wondered how clearly the man had seen him in the dark.
“Now, that better?” the man asked.
“At least I can see you now. Who are you and why are you here?” Sam asked. The man laughed.
“Always with the who’s and why’s. Not a particularly fair set of questions, seeing as how you haven’t introduced yourself yet.”
Sam remained quiet.
“You don’t need to say a thing. Your story is written all over you, killer. An undead Cutthroat, eh? Well, that’s certainly new. You haven’t lost your quintessence yet, so there’s something you want to accomplish, eh? I wonder what that could be in this forest.”
Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure Page 7
