by Sam Ferguson
Brian looked at the poisoned arrow in his right hand, and then looked to his empty left hand. What was he supposed to do now?
“Gagh!” Sonji cried out. She had been struck by the yeti king’s hind foot. It wasn’t a direct blow, but it sent her sliding across the stone floor anyway. Her HP bar was precariously low. If the yeti king simply used its forceful roar again, it could probably kill her.
“For Khullan!” Shuggra shouted again.
“No way,” Brian muttered. He watched as Chris and Shuggra both charged the yeti king. Mike blasted the thing with fire bolts, Atheron used a minor lightning spell, Krestin, Freya, and Augustin charged in along with Shuggra and Chris, but went for the beast’s other side in an apparent attempt to flank it.
The yeti king made short work of the attack. He turned toward Freya, Augustin, and Krestin, roaring with its breath weapon and sending all of them to splash down in the pool. The yeti king shuffled around, brought its hind leg up, and stepped on Chris. His HP emptied immediately and his gamer tag went gray. The yeti king then wheeled back the other way and caught Shuggra with a mighty backhand that killed her before her feet left the ground. Her body went oddly stiff, as sometimes happened in games, flying end over end through the chamber to crash into the far wall once more. This time she wouldn’t be getting up.
“Give me the arrow,” a familiar voice commanded.
Brian turned to see Pan standing over him. His crossbow was in his left hand, and his right was outstretched for the poisoned arrow.
“You can’t use this with that,” Brian said.
“I know,” Pan replied.
“Then what’s the plan?”
“I promised my sweet that no harm would come to her.” His eyes twinkled just a bit as a grim smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Besides, I understand now. Wealth has no meaning if there is no one left in the world.”
Brian frowned.
Pan’s smile grew into a genuine one. Brian offered the arrow to him. He took the arrow and sprinted off toward the yeti king.
The monster reached down and snatched Mike from the ground.
Brian watched in horror as it raised Mike up, but just before it threw him into its mouth, Pan fired the crossbow, striking the yeti king in the eyeball. The HP bar dropped just enough to leave a visible empty space, but then it immediately flashed red as the beast turned to see Pan.
“Hey beastie, why don’t you put him down? I promise I’m a whole lot more fun to play with.”
The yeti king snatched the satyr up so quickly Pan couldn’t even try to jab the yeti king with the arrow before his arms were pinned to his sides. Pan laughed as he was lifted to the yeti king’s mouth. He turned back to see Rhonda and smiled at her. “We’ll have to postpone our date, my sweet. You don’t mind, do you?”
Into the mouth he went. The yeti king chewed.
It turned to regard Mike and snarled, curling its lip upward to reveal its bloody fangs.
“Look at the HP bar!” Augustin shouted.
The yeti king howled and dropped Mike into the pool of water as it stumbled backward and fell to the ground. It roared and whimpered as its HP bar started draining quickly.
“RUN!” Brian shouted.
Everyone started for the tunnel as the yeti king flopped about and gnashed his teeth. It got to its feet and took a couple steps forward, then crashed to the ground. Its HP Bar was now at half, but it was still plenty dangerous. Brian ushered everyone up into the tunnel, urging them to run for the kitchen chamber. The tunnel here was much smaller than the tunnel in the back that had been sealed with the ice wall. With any luck, it would shield them all while they waited for the thing to die.
“What did Pan do?” Rhonda asked as she and Mike reached the tunnel.
“I put choke berry juice on an arrow. I was going to use it on the yeti king, but one of those bat things took my bow,” Brian said.
“So Pan took the arrow and stabbed the yeti from the inside?” Mike commented. “Clever.”
“Come on, up the tunnel,” Brian shouted.
The yeti king rose to its feet again and charged the tunnel.
They ran about forty yards in as the yeti king slammed into the wall and snarled angrily. A hand reached into the cave and grasped around a stalagmite. The strong fingers curled shut and ripped the stone apart. The beast fell to its side once more, thrashing and kicking at the cave. Bits of stone fell from above, but the players and companions were unharmed. Then the HP bar fully drained. The yeti king rose again, stumbled to the left, and then howled as it crashed onto its back, arms fully extended to the sides. The giant, wet tongue flopped out the side of its gaping mouth.
[Epic Achievement badge earned. Don’t Monkey Around]
[QUEST COMPLETED: THERE BE GIANTS]
[+ 63,000 XP]
[You are now level 26]
“Whoa, guys, I just went up nine levels!” Brian shouted happily as nine ability points flashed on his HUD.
[NEW BLESSING GRANTED: SHADOW]
Brian quickly checked his interface as others talked about the experience they’d got and the levels they gained. The new blessing was given to followers of Khefir for reaching level twenty. It granted a one hundred percent bonus to sneak for one hour, once every twenty-four-hour period. Wicked! That would definitely come in handy for an assassin.
“Should we go back for Chris?” Rhonda asked.
“He should be all right,” Mike commented. “We all saved back at Bielshire.”
Brian checked his map. “Bielshire is still showing up as having the fast travel spot at the palace.”
Rhonda breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.” She then let out a gasping “oh no.”
Exiting his user interface, he looked at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Ceta’s fast travel is down.”
“So is Enderbury’s,” Augustin said.
“Azumoth, Konji, and Panterra are down too,” Mike added.
“Dang,” Brian said. “Rored is moving fast. What about...”
“No, House Bob is still O.K.” Mike cut in. “Every other point in Fezhik is down, but House Bob is still operating.”
“So if we try to fast travel to the other cities, we’ll teleport and be vulnerable in the open, right?” Rhonda asked.
Brian nodded. “Looks like only House Bob and Bielshire are the safe places where we can expect to travel and be protected.”
“Speaking of, I see Sonji coming,” Mike said.
Brian turned to see the Fang warrior’s HP bar refill now that the battle was over. It was a nice perk for NPCs that Brian wished he had as well. Brian led the others back to the massive monster they had defeated.
“You can do the honors,” Mike said. “It was your poison arrow.”
Brian turned to Rhonda. “But you made the poison, why don’t you check for the key?”
Rhonda nodded and moved up to loot the body. It was a little ridiculous to Brian that the whole corpse disappeared, as if this one tiny human could dispose of something so large. “I have the Arctic Key,” she said. “A lot of items that look like they could be useful for making armor, some alchemical ingredients, and a decent amount of... yeti meat.”
Sonji caught up with them then. “Well?” she asked.
“We have the key,” Rhonda informed her.
Sonji nodded. “Good. We should go.”
Mike held up a hand. “You guys can go ahead, I want to check out where this thing came from.”
“Seriously?” Rhonda asked.
Mike shrugged. “There might be some rare items in there.”
“I’ll go with him,” Brian said.
“As will I,” Atheron added. Freya also nodded, her eyes stealing toward Brian.
Rhonda shrugged and looked to Augustin.
Augustin nodded. “I’m ready to go.”
“You’ll have to exit the cave to fast travel,” Mike said. “It won’t let you do it from inside this area, but we’ll join you as soon as we can get back in Bielshire.�
�
Rhonda, Augustin, Krestin, Sonji, and the last remaining satyr started the trek up the cave.
Brian and the others went toward the back of the chamber.
“How did you find that tunnel?” Mike said. “We thought you had been killed by those giants.”
“I almost was, but then some weird creature led me through the water pool over there.”
They all turned to look at the pool just as the funky-looking creature broke the surface and let out a long, soft set of notes and waved a tentacle.
“Holy smokes!” Mike exclaimed as he stopped dead in his tracks. “That thing helped you!?”
“Yeah,” Brian said with a quick nod.
“Don’t you know what that is?”
Brian shrugged. “Some weird octopus thing. I dunno. Come on, let’s go.”
“Thats a kuatu. They’re ultra-rare, and only live in underground cave pools where there is a deep vein connected to magic.”
Brian frowned. “Okay, but let’s get moving.”
“No, I want to see it,” Mike said. “Give me just thirty seconds. I’ve only read about these things once in all of the Terramyr books. This is sooooo cool!” Brian followed Mike to the edge of the pool and watched as Mike stretched out his hand. “It’s said that these creatures produce milk with magical properties. I bet the giants were harvesting the milk and feeding it to the yeti king. Like some sort of experiment gone wrong.”
The kuatu slowly approached and allowed Mike to touch it. He giggled like a small child. “My max mana just went up by fifty percent,” he said. “Just like in the book. In the book the kuatu could sense the hero was on a vital quest, so it gave him some of its power to sustain him before the final fight.” Mike patted the creature gently and then stood up. “This thing must have sensed you were a hero too, so it saved you.”
Brian shrugged again. “I mean, that’s fascinating and all, but we should hurry. Remember, back in the real world we have some pretty rare finds too, like that alien AI trying to hunt us down.”
Mike’s smile faded. “Ah... right.” He pointed to the back of the chamber and the two ran toward it. They passed through a massive cavern and then found themselves inside another room that was three times the size of the chamber they had fought the giants in.
“How do you think the yeti king survived in here?” Mike asked.
Brian saw a column of light flooding down into the center of the chamber. Where there was light, there was likely an air hole of some sort. Perhaps somewhere above ground there was a canyon or a pit that would drop someone into this space. There were plants and a few small animals roaming about the chamber, but they all seemed to keep to the walls and crystalline growths. “Probably best not to think on it too hard. I imagine it’s mostly just part of the program and they didn’t think too hard about genuine logistics of feeding and housing an ape the size of a mountain below ground.”
“Program?” Atheron called out. “The two of you speak as if you didn’t just take part in the battle that moments ago claimed the lives of several fine people.”
Brian closed his eyes for a moment. He then started to turn around, but his eyes fell onto a pile of dented armor, broken weapons, and old bones. Among the items was a bloodstained book.
Mike pointed to a strange plant beyond the pile with black stems and round, red leaves. “Bloodgrass,” he said. “Do you know what this means?”
Brian did know what bloodgrass meant, actually. Having read several books with bloodgrass in them, he was not eager to linger in the chamber. “So killing the yeti king means we might have destroyed a buffer between the world top side and the stuff in Iverglendar?”
“Or worse,” Mike commented.
“Bloodgrass?” Freya asked. “What does that mean?”
Atheron started to wring his hands. “No, not bloodgrass. You can’t mean...” he walked over to the plant and inspected it, reaching out with his stubby, thick fingers and lightly stroking the leaves. “Oh by the Ancients. Not here. This should not be here.”
“What?” Freya asked.
Brian bent down and picked up the bloodstained book. The Wealth of Kings. He smirked. He’d read the real version of that once. He handed it to Freya.
Freya opened the cover and focused as she flipped through the pages. “Dwarves...” She flipped a few more pages. “Orcs...” She looked up at Brian and then back down to the book. “Mystinen?” She flipped a few more pages and then closed the book. “If this is growing here, then we shouldn’t linger.”
Brian sighed. “Well, let’s hope they didn’t actually build all of that out,” he said to Mike. “Maybe they mean it to be an expansion or add-on pack later.”
“Who did?” Atheron inquired. “Who would be foolish enough to try and expand into... into something like this?”
“Don’t worry, Atheron,” Mike said. “I’m sure there is nothing here. Either way, once we get the Crystal of Power, we can collapse this entire mountain if we want and seal everything in.”
Atheron nodded. “I’m not usually one to agree with ruining mountains... but in this case I would agree. Leveling this cursed spire and sealing the caverns here would be in all of our best interests.”
Brian slapped Mike’s arm. “Come on, we should get back to the others.”
The four of them raced up to the cave exit at the top of the mountain. It took several minutes, but at least there were no giants to slow them down this time.
Once outside, Brian opened his user interface. On the map menu he went to select Bielshire. The city turned dark before he could confirm his choice. “Hey Mike, Bielshire just went down.”
“Yeah, I saw it too,” Mike said.
Brian stared at the map as the gravity of the situation sunk in.
“But the only way for the city to go dark like that...” Mike’s voice trailed off.
Brian nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He cursed himself. They should have gone with Rhonda and the others. “Rored must have gotten to it,” he said.
“House Bob is the only save point I have left,” Mike said.
“Me too,” Brian replied.
“Well, we can’t stay out in the open,” Mike said. “If we die without an active save point...”
“I know!” Brian shouted. “But we can’t go to House Bob either, don’t you see? It has to be a trap.” Brian closed his interface and looked at his friend. “We can’t survive without a save point, but the only save point is now back in Fezhik, where Rored is strongest.”
“Maybe not,” Mike said. “If he conquered Bielshire, he would have needed a large army.”
Brian groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. He needed to think. Rhonda. What had happened to Rhonda? Chris and Augustin too! He shook his head. He had to push that out of his mind. The only way to help them now would be to survive the game. “We have to go to House Bob,” Brian said after a while. “Trap or not, it’s the only save point we can access. All the other cities have had theirs taken out.”
“We could try to get to Kathyr,” Mike said.
Brian opened his map again to gauge the distance to the yet unvisited city. It was possible there was a save point they could use there, but only if they made it in one piece. “What if we die along the way?” Brian asked. “No. Trap or not, we need to get to House Bob and trust that everyone we hired has kept it safe.”
“Then we should go now, before Rored attacks it as well.”
Brian nodded and pulled out Flaming Death. “Freya, Atheron, prepare for a fight. We’re about to go to war.”
20
War Drums
“Give me a couple minutes to spend my ability points,” Mike said.
Brian agreed. “Yeah, I’ll spend mine too. We’ll need to be ready for a fight.”
“Think House Bob is still standing?”
Brian grunted something that almost sounded like, “I don’t know,” but he didn’t really use any intelligible words. Everything was happening too fast. The group had needed more time to gather
the keys. How could Rored have amassed the forces necessary to overtake Bielshire? Had he hired mercs, or convinced another faction to join him? The orcs wouldn’t have joined, Brian knew that. They weren’t above teaming with assassins in general, but they would never work with a group of humans and elves. Brian considered one of the other factions on the continent, the Stonefists.
The Stonefists looked down upon the Morr’Tai. In fact, Enderbury was the only city in Prirodha settled by humans that didn’t have an active Morr’Tai guild. Besides, the Stonefists weren’t necessarily interested in obtaining the Crystal of Power. They would be happy with just pushing the natural races back to keep Enderbury safe and provide a significant buffer for New Konnland.
The Greencaps and Kyra’s Fangs seemed loyal enough too. Perhaps the odd traitor here and there depending on base programming, but otherwise those two groups seemed set in their opposition to Rored.
That left the Rionans and Baltanians. Brian sighed. The Baltanians were mostly interested in trade, but in order for trade to flourish, the whole continent would need to be subdued enough to allow for exploitation. The Rionans, on the other hand, seemed bent on conquest to gain new territory.
The real question was, would either of those factions see Rored as a necessary ally in their respective objectives? He didn’t know enough about either group to definitively decide one way or the other. To be safe, he’d have to assume they would be willing to work with Rored.
Opening his user interface, he reviewed his skill trees. He had to think carefully now. There was no time to waste points on useless abilities.
He put four points into Sneak Strike, giving his swords and daggers double damage while sneaking. Next he put four points in Bow Mastery, adding an additional eight base points to his damage with all bow and crossbow types. The last point he put into Quickshot, making him now thirty percent faster with bows.
