The Red Plague: A LitRPG Trilogy (The Last Warrior of Unigaea Book 3)

by Harmon Cooper

  He barks.

  “Now isn’t the time,” I tell him with my mouth full. “Seriously, we need to focus on saving Florin and then testing Sam’s theory. Shit. Hey!” Wolf jumps at me and I take the food away just in time.

  “As requested, I brought a pot roast for you, Lothar. Two actually. Come down here, because when I take these out of my list, Wolf is going to go crazy.”

  Lothar gets as close as he can to Sam without crushing her. He places his hand out and both pot roasts, held by metal trays, appear in his palm. He quickly eats the food and licks his fingers.

  Wolf looks from the giant back to me.

  “All gone.” I show him my hands and he barks. “Relax, we have more important things to do.” The warm feelings shared between the three of us quickly filter away as my statement sinks in.

  The Drachma Killers, although there are only two, are no laughing matter.

  “How do you propose we do it?” Lothar asks me, his brow furrowed.

  “Sneak attack. Only way possible. Sam fires off a spell and I run in with my electric shield. Lothar, you provide backup support. Actually, maybe we should send you in first. Yeah. That could work. You could rile them up, and we pick them off. Let’s do that.”

  (^_^)

  Best laid plans of mice and men and whatnot.

  The killers are long gone by the time we arrive at their campsite. Their fire is snuffed out, and just about the only thing left is a puddle of blood reflecting the remnants of the night’s sky.

  Crimson on crimson.

  “We’re too late!”

  “They can’t be that far off,” I tell Lothar, who is slightly out of breath. “It’s been less than two hours. Wolf. Track them.”

  With Sam on his back, Wolf starts sniffing at the ground. He moves north, predictably, and then turns to the east.

  “Let’s go!” Sam calls out.

  We take off once I’m on Wolf’s back, Lothar running behind us. We’ll need to catch up first, then slow down and get to stalking. For now, however, we have ground to cover.

  Wolf stops every now and then to make sure he’s hot on their trail, and it isn’t long until we come across a pile of bodies, a few of which are still burning. Lothar coughs, waving away the smell as he tries to catch his breath.

  I recognize their red and black armor immediately.

  Tagvornin guards.

  There are six dead, two still smoldering and the other four in various states of dismemberment. One has been decapitated, his head set on the bloody stump of his neck so he can watch the road. Stuffed in his mouth are severed fingers.

  Two others have their throats slit. They lie on their backs with their faces looking at each other. Upon further inspection, I can see that their intestines have been pulled out, split, and tied to their wrists. Viscera cuffs.

  “What in the actual fuck?” Sam asks as she looks over two of the female guards, who are nude from the waist up and have had their breasts cut off.

  The final guard has his arms and legs cut off and rearranged. He lies starfish style, his legs now where his arms should be and his arms where his legs should be, the light snow beneath him red with blood.

  Lothar excuses himself and walks a few paces to the right to vomit.

  “Such a waste of a good pot roast,” I say as the giant vomits.

  Sam elbows me in the gut.

  “Hey!”

  “My apologies,” Lothar says as he wipes his mouth. “I have never seen something so vile.”

  “We just need to catch up with them, and they can’t be far off now. It takes time to arrange bodies like this.”

  “Not that much time,” I tell Sam. She elbows me again. “What do you expect? I’m a Player Killer. I know these things. You should too.”

  “Are you saying you’ve done something like this?” Lothar asks, horror in his eyes.

  “Fuck no. I said I was a Player Killer, not a mentally deranged serial killer. My guess is they are twenty to thirty minutes ahead. Remember, element of surprise. Just be ready for anything. Fuck, this is stupid.”

  “What do you mean?” he asks.

  “We should be testing Sam’s theory about OMIB-porting to Tritania, but here we are instead, trying to get ourselves killed.”

  Sam laughs. “I guess that makes us who we are.”

  “I was under the impression that outside influences, many of which we have no control over, make us who we are,” Lothar says. The giant now holds his nose in the air, refusing to look down at the Killers’ bloody handiwork.

  “We’ll discuss that later. Let’s go!”

  Sam, Wolf, and I take off, my heart rate increasing with each step Wolf travels. It is a suicide mission going up against the Drachma Killers, especially at our levels, but what other choice do we have?

  There’s not a lot of time to discuss our options. Lothar spots them about twenty minutes later, their forms dark against a snowy hill. The scholarly giant immediately ducks down, even though we’re in a position that will make it difficult for them to see us.

  “They’re on horses,” Lothar says, his breath visible in giant clouds of steam. “I believe they are dragging Florin Talonas behind them. Unless that is someone else’s body.”

  Sam brandishes her wand.

  “Get as close to them as you can,” I tell her and Wolf. “I’ll bail off, and you fire off the first shot. What are you going for?”

  “Temporal Decay. I hope to take out their weapons. That should give us some surprise advantage. If you can get a hit in, even a small one, I can work on one of their wounds.”

  “Good call.”

  “And I’ll be ready,” Lothar whispers, “behind the three of you and ready to offer giant support.”

  “I like that, giant support.”

  “I thought you would, Oric.”

  Pink energy sparks out of the end of Sam’s wand. “I don’t know if this will work on the three of us, but let’s try it anyway. Light Shadow.”

  As soon as Sam says the words, it feels as if my lungs have doubled in size. I get the sense that I could run ten miles now without stopping, that I could swim around the continent in a day’s time.

  Wolf takes off and I swear I hear a sonic boom as we get moving.

  It’s like we’ve entered into a wind tunnel. The Theory of Relativity comes into play – Einstein’s ghost again making his presence known in a dreamworld – and I’ve adjusted to the speed in a matter of moments.

  It’s when I leap to the side and hit the ground hard that I realize just how fast we were traveling. I roll like a goddamn concrete tumbleweed tossed from a Tesla eighteen wheeler just as Sam fires her first blast at the two Drachma Killers.

  Shit!

  The spell doesn’t work, but it does take the Killers off guard.

  I hop to my feet, my electric shield on my arm, and my crossbow pistol in my other hand. As Wolf loops back around, I charge – and boy do I fucking charge! – at the Killer with the spiky blond hair.

  I slam into his horse.

  He flies off as the horse rears up onto its back legs, crying out with terror as electricity courses through its body.

  -289 HP! Critical hit!

  Sam whips past me; Baldy takes a swipe at her with his morning star and misses.

  On high alert is an understatement. If either of these fuckers get a hit on Sam, Wolf or me, we’re fucking toast.

  My Splintered Sword in hand and my shield on my other arm, I engage the younger Drachma Killer. He meets me with his staff; I bring my shield up and send him back with a bolt of electricity.

  -79 HP!

  Confidence swells and I quickly bottle it. If there ever was a time not to get cocky, now is that time.

  A grin on the Killer’s face, he swipes his staff at me, and I’m tossed backwards by a purple mana explosion.

  “Fuck!” My skin is on fire; boiling water rips through my core and out every orifice of my body.

  I stagger to my feet, ignoring the pain, wiping my face to see i
f I’m bleeding. The blond haired Killer approaches me, his staff at the ready, a giant orb of electric purple light forming at the business end of his staff and a menacing look on his face.

  Rage.

  “No, not now,” I grit.

  I brace myself for what’s to come, pain spiraling up through my body as I get into a defensive position.

  The Killer falls, his purple blast goes wide, and I look down to see Florin Talonas, gagged and bound, having just used his legs to take the Killer off his feet.

  The horse that Florin is tied to lifts its head and falls back, the electricity I’ve sent surging through it finally killing the magnificent beast.

  My opening clear, I stumble over to the Drachma Killer who’s nearly back onto his feet.

  Instakill!

  +1 Infamy!

  I ignore the prompts as I press my blade deeper into the back of his skull.

  (^_^)

  Florin glances up at me, both his eyes black and his face puffy. Chunks of his hair have been pulled out and his nose has been broken. There’s blood in the whites of his eyes, dried blood on the gag in his mouth.

  “Thanks,” I tell him.

  He only nods.

  Now for the last Killer.

  I look right to see Baldy turning in circles on his horse as he tracks Wolf and Sam.

  A blue fire lifts from the end of his morning star and cuts into the ground before Wolf, sending the Tagvornin beast to the ground. Sam flies off and hits hard as well, her paralyzed legs sliding to the right in a cringe-worthy way.

  Rage.

  “Saving it!” I scream at the voice inside my head.

  I advance towards the Killer on horseback, my electric shield before me, and I’m just about to slam into his horse when a blazing blue blast tears me off my feet.

  It throws me backwards a good five yards. I land next to Florin, the wind completely knocked out of me.

  “Fuck!” I cough, tasting blood in my mouth. Shock comes over me as I realize that my arms aren’t working.

  My leg muscles balloon and contract in an excruciating way. My biceps feel as if they’re about to burst. It’s as if each rib in my chest is contracting, like a slowly squeezing hand on the stress ball that is my inner organs.

  I sense the Drachma Killer hopping down from his horse. He stands over me now, his feet on either side of my head as a sick mutated blade spreads up his arm. Biomatter lifts off the weapon as it spreads; pulsing acid green veins swell on his arm as the blade hardens.

  He sneers at me, brings his blade up and …

  Florin Talonas rolls over, using his elbows to prop himself up over my body.

  The Killer’s blade goes through Florin’s chest, and is just about to pierce my armor when the ground rumbles.

  Lothar kicks the living shit out of the Drachma Killer.

  So focused was he on growing his mutated weapon that he didn’t hear the giant approach, nor does he stand a chance against Wolf, who has now latched onto Baldy’s throat.

  All this happens in the peripheral as I try to process the fact that Florin just saved me.

  He’s on top of me now, a gag in his mouth, the life leaving his body, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. I’m still paralyzed; and I’m well aware, listening to the sound of Florin’s last breath, that Sam won’t be able to save him.

  Florin bleeds out onto my armor, his face pressed next to mine, his hair sticky with blood.

  The sense of feeling returns to my body. I roll Florin off, sigh bitterly and stagger over to the last Drachma Killer.

  Wolf has ripped the bald man’s throat to shreds. He steps aside as soon as I approach, saving the kill for me as always, blood dripping from Wolf’s chin.

  Baldy spits blood as he curses at me. No fear in his eyes, no trembling. He’s ready to die.

  My blade comes up, and with as much strength as I can muster, I give the man the death he so desires.

  Instakill!

  Infamy + 1

  Chapter Nineteen: Predestined Randomness

  “Florin’s dead,” Lothar says, now crouched before the former governor of Stater’s body. “We’ve failed.”

  “Relax,” I tell the scholarly giant as I limp over to Sam. Wolf joins me in a matter of seconds.

  “Let’s get this over with.” Her Book of Time appears in her lap and she flips to a page covered in chicken scratch.

  “Here?” I ask, still out of breath.

  “Is there any reason we should wait any longer?”

  “We should ride to the plague,” I say. “Do it there.”

  “No need to ride very far,” Lothar says as he stands. He walks to the top of the hill and looks to the north, his hand shielding his eyes. “I believe it is less than two miles away.”

  “You can see it from up there?”

  “I can.”

  I join him a minute or so later and gasp when I see a hundred foot high red wall of translucent lava.

  It has moved over the crest of a mountain in the distance, and from our vantage point, I can tell that it is quickly spreading down the slope. At the rate it’s going, my guess is that it will be here in the next thirty minutes or so.

  “Is it me, or does it look like it is moving quickly?”

  Lothar nods. “It is definitely moving faster than I anticipated.”

  “Sam, you have to see this,” I call down the hill. She joins us moments later, on wolfback, her Book of Time tucked under her arm.

  “Damn.”

  “Damn is right.” I place my hand on Wolf’s head and scratch him behind the ears.

  “Help me down,” she tells me. “We need to do this now.”

  “There’s something else out there,” Lothar says. “Hold on.”

  He turns back to his meditations box, which is about halfway up the hill. I help Sam down, and she lifts her own legs and places them before her. Her Book of Time now open across her lap, she returns to the same page she was on earlier, which I can only assume is the Reverse Time spell.

  Wolf barks and glances from Sam to me.

  After he has rejoined us, Lothar brings his monocular to his face and aims it at the source code bomb. “Just as I suspected.”

  “What’s that?” I ask.

  “People are throwing themselves into the Plague.”

  “Wait, did you say throwing themselves?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m seeing.” He shakes his head in disbelief. “I suppose this is part of the human condition that NPCs have picked up on.”

  “Committing suicide?”

  “In a time of great calamity, yes.”

  “Get the First Artifact out,” Sam says briskly. “We’re doing this.”

  Doubt rises in my chest and I swallow it. This is what we’ve agreed to do. And with this thought comes another: This may be our final course of action.

  I equip the scepter and look it over. The primitive design is at odds with the beautiful ruby at its tip.

  “Where do you want the First Artifact?” I ask her.

  “Just put it on the ground; I don’t want to risk the spell hitting your hand.”

  I place it on the ground before her as Sam lifts her wand, glittery pink magic trickling out of the tip.

  “Wait.” I crouch before her and swallow hard. “How … if it kills you, how will we get in contact?”

  “We’ll get in contact in Tritania, or the real world.”

  “But how, Sam?” I ask. “Tritania is a lot larger than Unigaea. Even if this works, how will we get in contact there?”

  “By our handles.”

  “Oric Rune, Sam Raid.”

  “Two short names meant for one another!” We both look up at Lothar and he shrugs. “This is the end of the world as we know it! No time for formalities.”

  Holy shit, the giant is right.

  I grin at Sam and reach my arms out to hug her.

  “Careful with the wand,” I joke.

  Wolf barks, walking in a circle, and I swear the only thing keeping h
im from tackling both of us and licking our faces is the points I put in MIND, which have made him more considerate.

  “But how?” I ask as I pull back. “How will we get in touch up there? Or in the next place?”

  “Don’t worry, Oric.” She laughs softly. “You act like we don’t live in the 21st century where everything is accessible in a matter of moments. It would take Ramjet all of two milliseconds to find you, in a Proxima world and up there.”

  “That’s fast!” adds the scholarly giant.

  “And you’ll do it? You’ll try to find me?”

  “I already have found you. Don’t worry,” she says, a light behind her eyes I haven’t seen before.

  “Maybe we could meet in real life, in Indianapolis.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I don’t know how long it will take for me to regain my strength after being permalogged in.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now.”

  “Okay, you’re right,” I say, with regret heavy on my heart. I know I should say more, but this is all I can seem to get out: “But you promise to contact me?”

  “I do.”

  “I mean, it, Sam. Cyn.”

  “You have my word, Eric.”

  (^_^)

  Sam lifts her wand and points it at the First Artifact. She whispers the phrase, “Reverse Time,” and the light from her wand strikes the scepter.

  I step back as the intensity of her magic increases, evident in the way the life is completely and utterly sucked out of Sam’s body.

  It begins with falling hair. The effects of the spell appear on her skin as age marks, bruise colored bags sagging beneath her eyes. She loses her luster. Wrinkles move across her forehead, and her shoulders sink, the skin tightens on her frame, veins appear on her hands.

  Sam’s eyes roll back into her head and she collapses.

  Wolf whips himself into a frenzy.

  He barks, nudges her, looks at me with concern in his blue-green eyes, all to no avail. I keep my emotions in check, biting my lip as I hold back tears.

  Lothar is the first to speak after Sam has expired.

  “Goodbye, Sam Raid,” he says, the sadness in his voice something I’ve never heard from the socially daft giant.

  “The scepter has changed,” I manage to say. Not able to fully process watching Sam age to death, I lift the First Artifact and focus on the task at hand.