Forever Fantasy Online

by Rachel Aaron

  “I’m not anyone’s dog,” SB replied calmly. “I just don’t want to die. Are you not also a fan of this survival thing? Because getting in on this fight is a fast way to get us all killed.”

  “Come on, man,” David whined. “Roxxy’s always been bossy, but these last few hours have been ridiculous.”

  “She’s trying to keep us alive,” SilentBlayde snapped. “That’s kind of hard to do when the rest of you aren’t taking this seriously.”

  “She’s the one who needs to be taken down a notch,” the Cleric snorted. “She’s a guild leader, not the president.”

  “Just let the magic go, dude,” SB said, pressing his blade a little harder into the fish-man’s back. “Don’t make me use my interrupt. You’re not gonna like it.”

  David gave him a dirty look. “Threats? Really? You two are out of control, trying to ride herd on everyone. This drill sergeant shit would never fly normally.”

  SB flinched. That remark hit too close for comfort. Maybe it was the undead army nipping at their heels, but SB had been feeling increasingly desperate ever since they’d gotten here, and increasingly impatient with people who didn’t understand the reality of their new situation. He was actually feeling surprisingly willing to stab David to teach him a lesson about screwing around. A very alarming urge since, although he played an Assassin, SB didn’t think of himself as a violent or demanding person.

  “I know we’ve been hard,” he said. “But it’s for your own good. I could sneak my way out of this zone no problem, but I’m not going to because I want us all to get out alive. Why do you think I’ve been sticking around for all this?”

  He’d meant to imply that he was staying to help his friends and fellow players, but David started to chuckle. “I know why,” he said in a sleazy voice. “You can’t run because you’ve got a crush on Roxxy. You’ve always had the hots for her, and now that we all have bodies with working bits and pieces, you’re hoping you can finally score.”

  By the time he finished, SilentBlayde’s face was burning. Thankfully, his mask hid most of it, and he covered up the rest by stabbing a little harder into David’s back. “Nice try, but what I really want is to ride into Bastion like a boss so I’ve got a better chance at landing some of those amazing elf chicks. Being at the head of a raid like this is a good start.”

  “Bullshit,” David said, grinning like there wasn’t a sword poking into his vertebrae. “Don’t even try, man. Everyone in the guild knows you’ve had it bad for Roxxy for years. You never even look at other girls. You’ve passed on every single blind-date dungeon group I ever invited you to!”

  “That’s because you can’t know how many of those ‘girls’ aren’t guys.”

  “First, they were vetted to be real, and you knew it,” David said testily. “Second, the same could be said about all those supposed ‘elf chicks’ in Bastion, except now we have no way of figuring out which hoes are bros and which bros are hoes. Even if we could tell, you’d never do more than look. You’re caught on Roxxy hook, line, and sinker. I’ve seen the videos you guys make together, the ones where you show people how to beat bosses and shit. You must put twenty hours a week into those things for her. No one does that much work for free. I know she doesn’t pay you because she’s always broke, so there has to be something else.”

  He finished with a suggestive wiggle of his eye-ridges, and SB looked away with a wince. This was his least favorite topic. David knew it, too, which meant he’d never let it go. Once he had your weakness, he held onto it like a pit bull. As annoying as that was, though, it also gave SB an idea. It would mean putting a target on his own back, but the golden healing magic was still floating around David’s hands. If he wanted to distract the Cleric from messing with Roxxy, he had to give him someone better to troll.

  “Fine,” he said, heaving a huge sigh that was only partially for show. “You got me, dude. I like Roxxy, and I’ve finally got my chance, so would you please stop messing it up for me?”

  The fish-man’s face transformed into the devil’s own piranha smile. “No worries, man,” he said, letting the magic go at last. “It was totally worth it to get you to finally admit that you like her. Just don’t be getting too high and mighty on your quest to get laid, Mr. Right-Hand-Man. Oh, and you owe me one for making you look good.”

  “Sure,” SB said, sheathing his sword. “Just don’t tell anyone else, okay?”

  “Of course,” David said, running his webbed fingers over his robes as he crossed his heart.

  From the way the fish-man’s round eyes were sparkling, SB was certain the whole raid would know his secret within the hour. Just thinking about that made him want to crawl under a rock and die, but Tina was still fighting, so he slipped back into the shadows instead, moving through the crowd in case anyone else decided to be a dick.

  ****

  The fight had gone on for way too long.

  Tina and the Berserker circled each other on the broken road. She’d managed to avoid taking serious damage, but her head still throbbed from the stun attack earlier, and her chest plate had some new ventilation. Beneath the metal, her front was drenched with silvery blood from all the smaller cuts he’d landed. The only reason it wasn’t worse was because the Berserker kept striking at her heavily armored torso for some reason.

  Watching his feet for the attack she knew was coming, Tina couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t gone for an easier target. Given the size of his ax, he could have taken an arm off. That was what she would have done. She might not be a PVPer, but hit your enemy where it hurts was Fighting 101. But the only cheap shot he’d tried so far was the blow to her head.

  It had to be a holdover from the game. In FFO, players could hit an enemy anywhere, but it all did the same damage. Because of this, most people just whaled on whatever part was easiest to hit, which on Roxxy meant the torso. He also kept giving her breaks, using his abilities then backing off to let their timers reset even though it gave her, the wounded enemy, time to recover. In short, the Berserker was still fighting as if this were the game. Like they were just having a duel outside of town instead of trying to kill each other on a road in the middle of nowhere, and that was where Tina found her advantage.

  The next time he charged her, Tina didn’t brace behind her shield. She knew his pattern now, and she was going to use it against him. Very unfairly. It was time to make this idiot appreciate the new reality they were in, and to convince all the other players who were watching just how real this shit had gotten.

  As always, the Berserker came at her hard, swinging his ax with the torque of his entire body. The crescent blade caught the edge of her shield, tearing open her guard. This time, however, Roxxy let it go, allowing the ax’s momentum to tear the heavy slab of enchanted metal right off her arm and into the surrounding players, who dove out of the way.

  In a normal fight, this would have meant Roxxy was dead. Without her shield, she was just a big lady with a low-damage sword. But the Berserker had been swinging at what he’d thought was the iron wall of her defense. When her shield had just given way, the momentum of his attack had carried him far and high. So high, the heavy ax almost flew out of his hands. And as the Berserker struggled to keep hold of his giant weapon, Tina took her chance.

  Dropping her sword, she rushed him like a linebacker. There’d been no grappling in old FFO, so he was completely unprepared as she wrapped her tree-trunk-like arms around his waist and lifted him right off his feet, turned him sideways, then slammed him into the road with all the force her eight-hundred-pound stonekin body could bring.

  He gasped as he hit, the breath knocked from his body, but despite the crater he’d made in the road, the bastard was still kicking. He was about to kick his way out of her grasp when Tina grabbed his leg.

  Roaring with pent-up fury, she heaved the Berserker over her shoulder, swinging his entire body high over her head. He screeched as he flew, face white with panic. When she’d worked up a good momentum, Tina let go, flinging him
face-first into the boulder she’d stood on for her speech earlier.

  The jeering crowd went quiet as the bolder split with a thunderous crack. The Berserker’s armor crumpled on impact, and Tina braced herself for the blood, but there was surprisingly little. She was even more amazed when her opponent peeled himself out of the broken rock and started getting back to his feet.

  Like hell if she was going to give him the chance. With a snarl, Tina leaped on top of the Berserker. Driving both her feet into his back, she grabbed his face and smashed it down into the granite once more. Then she used her Ground Stomp ability, the one she normally taunted monsters with, to hammer him down again.

  Tina hadn’t forgotten how Ground Stomp had turned the road to gravel when she fought the skeletons. Furious with bloodlust, she brought the full force of it down on her opponent’s back, hammering the Berserker through what was left of the rock and into the ground. Shards of rubble went flying as her enemy roared in pain, but Tina didn’t stop. Unlike her defensive abilities, Ground Stomp had no reset time, so she just stomped again. Then again. Then again and again and again.

  She stomped him until he stopped screaming. Until the boulder was dust under his body and the ground was cratered beneath. Only when his armor was so mangled she could barely make out how the pieces fit together did she finally stop, lifting her boot to let him lie still.

  He was breathing, but blood oozed from every crack in his armor. Satisfied, Tina hopped off and calmly walked over to retrieve her sword and shield. Around her, the rest of the players were dead silent. Some had expressions of horror, others scorn. At whom, Tina couldn’t guess, and she didn’t care.

  Placing her boot on the Berserker one last time, Tina reached down to undo his helmet straps. She stripped the battered covering off his head and tossed it on the ground with an ominous thud. When his bare face came into view, she grabbed a handful of his thick black hair and wrenched his head back, forcing him to look at her.

  “Do you yield?”

  “Screw you, bitch!” he yelled, drops of bloody spittle flying from his broken teeth. “This isn’t over!”

  “You were cool with sending other people to their deaths for your fun and ego earlier,” she reminded him, pressing her sword against his exposed neck. “You ready to man up and be the first to find out how death works?”

  “You can’t threaten me!” he cried, wiggling in her grip. “I’ve got way too much health for your weak-ass damage to kill me!”

  “Oh yeah?” Tina said, pressing her blade down until a trickle of blood welled up from his neck. “Are you completely sure that if I slice open this artery, you aren’t going to permanently die?”

  The man began to stammer, his eyes rolling down to try to catch a glimpse of the sword biting into his throat. He started to shake next, and Tina froze, worried this was some new ability he was activating to throw her off and reset the fight again.

  Then she realized that he was crying.

  “Please don’t kill me!” he sobbed. “I don’t want to die!”

  Tina had to bite her cheek to keep from grinning in triumph. “That depends on you,” she said cockily. “Do you yield?”

  “Yes! Yes! You win!”

  “All right,” she said, removing her sword from his neck. “Fight’s over.”

  She grabbed him by what was left of his armor and peeled him out of the crater, setting him back on his feet. When she was sure he wouldn’t fall over, Tina handed him his dropped ax. “What’s your name, dude?”

  The Berserker put his helmet back on to hide the tear streaks running down his bloody face. “Killbox.”

  “You want us to call you that?” she asked gently. “This here is real life for now. You can use your real name if you want.”

  Killbox blushed, mashing his helmet tighter. “Killbox is fine.”

  “Then Killbox, it is,” Tina said, offering him her hand. “We cool now?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. Loudly, so the rest of the raid could hear. “To be honest, this whole thing didn’t feel real to me until you put that sword to my throat.”

  “Awesome,” Tina said, slapping him on the shoulder. “We’re both cool, then.”

  That statement earned her a genuine smile of relief, then Killbox punched her in the arm. “You fight pretty well for a Care Bear. Gotta work on your counters, though. You know you can out-range Frenzied Strikes just by backing up, right? I can’t move while I’m doing it, which is why I always drop the stun first.”

  “We’ll have to work on my dueling sometime,” she said, rubbing her arm. Dude punched like a truck. They exchanged fist-bumps for a good fight, but when Tina turned back to the raid, everyone was still staring at them.

  “Show’s over,” she said loudly, pulling herself to her full height. “We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s march!”

  Even as she gave the order, it felt too soon. The whole raid looked rattled, their eyes begging her to say something that could explain the horrific violence she’d just unleashed. But while Tina knew she should do something leader-y here to ease their fears and address their complaints, she was too pissed that so many people had been cheering for Killbox to trust her voice. If she opened her mouth now, no good words would come out, and the wrong ones might rupture the rift she’d just bled to keep shut, so Tina said nothing, just pointed imperiously down the road.

  The raid went, shuffling with their heads down and every eye avoiding hers.

  “Okay, NekoBaby,” said the ever-cheerful SilentBlayde from the back. “Now you can heal them.”

  ****

  Hours later, even Tina had to admit that marching through the Deadlands was misery incarnate.

  It was freezing cold, which wasn’t too bad until the howling wind picked up, blowing the stale air straight through the fragile warmth of armor and cloaks. Worse, it was dusty. Tina had never considered dust a problem before now, but the gray road was more grit than stone. Even when the raid walked carefully, their footsteps raised a cloud of ashy dust that choked them and made it hard to see monsters before they attacked.

  Several times, they bumbled straight into dangerous enemies. A rare Grim Reaper miniboss had jumped out from behind a boulder and nearly killed three people before they’d nuked it down with their overwhelming firepower. With no rest or food, though, that was running out as well. Each mile marched and monster killed took a bit out of the raid, and Tina wasn’t sure how much more they had to give.

  “Night is going to be a problem,” she muttered, squinting at the fading light in the gray sky.

  “Why’s that?” asked NekoBaby, who’d been hovering nearby ever since the fight with Killbox. “It’s not like this place changes at night.”

  “Not before,” Tina said. “But we didn’t have to deal with the cold in game, and we’re gonna lose our light.”

  “Is dark a problem?” the healer asked, tapping her magical staff. “We’re all covered in so much glowing bullshit, we’re like walking neon signs. Plus, I can totally see in the dark now. Meow!”

  She made a cat-paw motion at Tina, who had to smile. “Good for you, but seeing’s not the problem.” She lowered her voice. “Look around. We’re running on empty. I’d really hoped we’d be at the Order’s fortress by now, but things must have gotten even bigger than I thought, because I haven’t even seen the sign for it yet.”

  “So much walking,” Neko groaned, leaning on her staff. “I’d kill for even the crappiest mount right now.”

  “You and me both. Even that gross riding slug thing from Forever-Con III would be awesome.”

  Neko wrinkled her nose. “Is there a reason we can’t just stop? You know, make camp for the night or something?”

  Tina arched a metal eyebrow. “Uh… Grel’Darm the Colossal, remember?”

  “But we haven’t seen him or his army for hours,” Neko whined, gesturing at the empty dust bowl behind them. “We’re way outside their area now. They probably broke aggro long ago and went back to have cookies with the Once King o
r something.”

  Tina looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, there was nothing but gray wasteland and dead trees for as far down the valley as she could see. No cloud from a chasing army, no footsteps rumbling through the ground. Nothing.

  “I found a copse of trees we can camp in,” said a suddenly present SilentBlayde. Tina’s hand made it to her sword hilt in surprise before she caught herself. Despite being dusty, a little sliced up, and tired looking, SB still had a sparkle in his blue eyes. She was getting a little annoyed at his disappearing-reappearing act, though. Proof positive that she was more tired than she realized. She normally enjoyed SB’s antics.

  Tina looked back at the raid. Everyone was staring at the ground, their attention focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Once-beautiful suits of armor were caked with gray dust. Even the magical stitching on the Sorcerer’s robes was too coated in filth to glow. Like her, all the Knights and Berserkers had grit in their armor, which caused a grinding noise every time they moved. It was truly pathetic, and Tina’s shoulders slumped.

  “All right,” she said, her voice defeated. “I give up. There’s no way we’re making it to the Order fortress tonight, so we might as well choose where we stop.”

  “I’ve got a good place,” SB promised. “Follow me.”

  Tina called for a halt, and the whole raid turned to follow the Assassin off the road and up a steep hill to the crown of leafless trees at its peak. The copse was small but dense, a tight circle of dead hardwoods just big enough to fit them all. The ground was rocky and sharp, but Tina approved of the cover and visibility the hill gave them. From this high up, she could see miles down the rambling, shoddy road behind them, where not even the tiniest cloud of dust rose to mark the approach of an undead army or anything else.

  “This is good,” she said, setting her pack down. “We’ll spend the night here.”

  The moment she gave the okay, the rest of the raid fell over. They didn’t even bother with beds or fires. Everyone just picked a comfy-looking rock or tree and retreated into their cloaks. Cowls and visors were pulled down as players tried to hide from the glow of their enchanted gear to get some sleep.