(World of Valdira 01) The Way of the Clan

by Dem Mikhaylov

  He was doing just the same – examining me explicitly, glancing over my gear and talking in a low voice to Myrna who was standing next to him. Frankly speaking I didn’t like his glance. There was neither threat nor superiority in it. Just focused and indifferent attention with a slight shadow of gloom. I even felt ill at ease. As if it was not a game tournament battle but a real fight with a drugged-out drugster in a street. Our local druggies have just the same look. They seem to look at you and smile, but their eyes are blank.

  - Are you frozen? – Keira pushed me.

  I didn’t have time to reply since Grim the Inconsolable screamed roaring to make the crowd delightful and suppressing its noise. I couldn’t work out what exactly he was screaming as it was pronounced indistinctly. Obviously the second barrel of wine got Grim down, for sure. But his waving by hands war very eloquent although rather ambiguous. He was either inviting us to the tilt-yard or showing something very dirty.

  - Let’s go – the girl sighed out while raising her shield to the chest level – Break a leg…

  - Damn it – I replied, crossed my fingers and followed her – Don’t forget about healing potions. You know, drink them at once, don’t wait until you get ‘red’. But actually you’ll have to make one of your hands free… well… you’ll sort it out…

  The crowd surrounded the fold parted to let us pass and then closed again behind our backs cheering us up and whispering something to one another in a low voice.

  - Beat them!

  - That’s a question who’ll beat! I think…

  - I have no doubts! Have a look at the dude, he’s got level eight!

  - Level can’t make a difference! Hit is the essence and skills as well. In last battle the girl nailed both the she-elf and the dwarf, but the level eight had been standing still the whole battle, didn’t jerk a lot.

  - But he was tanking! He had to be standing still! What could he do instead? Lie down?

  - What are you arguing about? Those who have ‘straighter’ arms will win! And that will be a great luck if they managed to land a crit.

  - The girl has also got a shield! But she hadn’t been just standing! Landed such a hit that the she-elf has been still crying!

  - Come on, guys, make a show!..

  Damn all of you with your comments… I felt like a disabled!

  The gates shut with a strained creak. The latch clanked. That time we were the last to enter the fold. The enemies were standing at the farthest wall with their faces turned to us. They were standing not like a tight team but at about three or four steps from each other. Myrna was standing sideward correctly hiding under the shield. Grume was absolutely mimicking his partner’s pose but he was standing a bit in front of her. Is he protecting Myrna weaker concerning stamina?

  ‘Don’t forget about his winning kick’ – I reminded myself. However, the success of such a kick depended not only on Grume’s strength but on my stamina accompanied with my strength. If his strength prevailed my stamina, that is sometimes called frame then I will stumble and fall on the ground. If not, I’ll just start back and lose some part of my life points. If I, for instance, kick a high-level warrior, I’ll bounce back like a rubber ball from a concrete wall. It looks as if you kick a rock at a run.

  - Well! – Grim started his well-known phrase – Let’s see how good you are! The last battle! Go!

  Grim didn’t become more talkative, it was the last battle though. Thanks god, he started speaking more distinctly.

  Suddenly it became silent everywhere. You could even heard the cracking of burning torches dropping bright sparks on the ground. I exhaled noisily and moved forward keeping my eye on both enemies. It will be resolved soon. I could feel Keira’s breath on my back; she was following my steps and wasn’t hurrying to attack. That’s right. I don’t know our enemies’ tactics. Here it goes! Myrna separates from her partner stepping softly in a prostrating manner, she moves a dozen of steps away from her partner and points out at Keira and then at herself demonstratively. She invites her to fight. So girls are against girls, boys are against boys... well, exactly as we planned! …although it sounds ambiguous and unnatural. The girl following me shortly pats my shoulder and turns aside abruptly to approach Myrna decisively. I continue moving straight forward, watching Grume over my shield. If he jerks towards Keira, I’ll have enough time to catch him on his way to her. But my rival stands still without even trying to come closer to me. It makes me rather nervous…

  One step forward. Grume is still on the same place. Another step, there are approximately five meters left between us. There is Keira’s sharp cry on the left and clinking of clashing blades. Stop watching it! Keep your eye on Grume only! A step forward… Why aren’t you moving? A step for…

  - Ro-a-a-a-r! – Grume cried out madly and turned around himself to cast his shield towards me, he leaped following it and snapped his sword by both hands – Ro-a-a-a-r!

  Turning from a standstill statue into a furious berserker happened so suddenly that I started for a moment and had to step back. A hit! The thrown shield bumped into my knees with a bang and forced me to reel forward. Following my instinct, I swung my arms to keep the balance but at that very moment got a sword stroke in my chest. A purple veil vanished as quickly as it flashed in front of my eyes. A strong hit! Bastard! Leaning back I swung my axe to make Grume dodge aside and after that hit him by the shield edge on his shoulder. Here it is! Grume reeled back enlarging the distance between us and thus giving me an opportunity for looking at the life level digits.

  Life: 137/180! The bloody bastard deprived me from forty hits by one stroke! And what could have been if he had had a crit?

  Grume dashed forward again having lowered his head like an attacking bull. The air being cut whistled shrilly and the sword fell down. I squatted abruptly, raised the shield over my head taking a powerful hit on it. Ba-a-ang! Ba-a-ang! I winced while taking hit after hit on my shield constantly watching my enemy’s feet.

  The crowd went wild.

  - Finish him off!

  - Come on! Come on!

  - Stand up, coward! What are you waiting for?

  Ba-a-ang! Once again! Ba-a-ang!

  Some chips flew past me there were cracks in the shield. So and then the appropriate moment came – Grume saw that my shield was about to fall apart, stepped forward me without caution to land one more crushing hit. He stepped forward just a couple of centimeters but it was enough for me. Leaning all my body forward I swung my axe with a furious scream using it as a mower’s scythe.

  Swishing just over the ground the axe blade slipped through Grume’s both legs. Without losing a second, turn the weapon and slit again but only in the opposite direction. Ta-a-a-ke that! Breaking the distance Grume leaped back but I wasn’t going to give him a chance to drink a healing potion, so I jumped up and dashed ahead.

  Semitransparent stripe over the enemy’s head was flaring alarming yellow. One jerk forward and I bump into Grume making him reel. The potion dropped from his hand and flew to the ground in the form of a sparkling drop. Our faces were very close to each other. Opening my mouth wide I jerked forward and sank my teeth into his cheek with an angry groan. Squalling the enemy stepped back following his instinct – that what ‘total immersion’ means! The psyche is fooling around?! Does it seem to you that we’re in real life and I gonna tear off a piece of meat from your flesh making you ugly for the rest of your life?!

  Snarling like an animal I leaped forward to stab him in his shoulder. I hit the mark! Hi scale is flaring red, Grume’s hand reaches for the belt where a least one more potion must be hidden.

  - Die! – I swung the axe and missed a hit that passed over the shield edge. He’s croaking but still fighting.

  - Tear him apart! Worry him! – an extremely excited gamer is jumping on the top of the fence waving his hands –Yeeeep! Did you see it?

  - Rosgard! Rosgard!

  The crowd is getting wilder and wilder, but neither I nor my rival hears anything. The tournament battle tu
rned into something very personal. Screaming hoarsely we are hitting each other at random striving not to kill but rather to punch in, to tramp in the ground! I miss some more hits, my fatigue level soars notch by notch, a few more minutes and I’ll burn out and slow down. But Grume doesn’t look good either. At each second he move more slowly but his eyes still glow with real nonfictional hatred. It’s time o finish him off… after taking his sword hit on my cracking shield I knock my axe down his chest while smashing his face by my head. The whole enemy’s body shakes and falls to the ground as a broken doll.

  - He did it! He did it!

  - Did you see how he performed?

  Damn that crowd’s yells. What about my characteristics?! Life: 27/180! Bitchen! I was very close to the minimum. Keira?!

  - Ros! – the grey-eyed’s earsplitting scream made me turn around. In a moment I’m dashing forward leaping wide ignoring the fatigue level that is flickering furiously. My eyes like cold camera lens snapped the pic. Knocked-down Keira is lying on the ground hiding under the chopped shield, her broken sword is lying in the dust. Her life scale is flickering discontinuously red. Myrna is hovering over my partner, her life scale is also scarlet red. She is kicking the shield from Keira’s hand and switching her sword to both hands to swing it over the head. And I’m still so far away! Without dropping my speed I swing shortly and throw the axe and then send the shield into the air to follow it, leaving myself absolutely disarmed. Off the mark! The axe came into the ground just at the enemy’s feet, as for the shield… the shield flew over Keira and at that very moment it got under the edge of Myrna’s lowering sword absorbing the hit. The shield flew into small chips with a deafening bang. Wriggling out in an unbelievable way Keira is reaching for my weapon and is nearly to do it, but her enemy is faster. She is ready to land a fatal hit. Pushing my feet from the ground I’m leaping with my head forward and screwing in between them like a grass-snake. I’m noticing the glowing sword and a dark purple veil is freezing in front of my eyes, changing the night’s color into the color of the clotted blood. My body doesn’t respond to my commands anymore and I fall sideward heavily on the ground. The unnaturally twisted head is looking into the sky skew-angle wise, my eyes are hardly moving in the eye-pits, but making an incredible effort I’m turning them to see that the axe hit has made Myrna start and fall slowly on her back with an expression of unbelief on her face. Keira breathing heavily is standing up with a great effort and accompanied with a deafening roar of the crowd is raising her weapon towards the night sky dotted with millions of stars. The victory… we are the winners…

  - Ros! Ros! – Keira knelt down to shake me – We… we really did it, Ros! We’re the winners!

  But I’m not looking at her, my eyes are kept on a huge shape of Grim the Inconsolable who is bending over us. And in the light of a torch squeezed in his giant hand I can see a single tear slowly running over his cheek…

  Achievement!

  You’ve got a first rank achievement – ‘The tournament winner’!

  You can see your achievements in your character’s settings.

  Your award for the achievement:

  +1 to the protection against gamers’ physical attacks.

  +1 to the protection against gamers’ magic attacks.

  Current bonus:

  +1 to the protection against gamers’ physical attacks.

  +1 to the protection against gamers’ magic attacks.

  The brolics who were drawing me to the exit of the area were doing it incredibly softly. I’d rather say tenderly. As soon as we went through the fold gates, my life level jumped from one point to the half of the scale, and I could control my body again. To make the whole situation even better, the purple veil in front of my eyes disappeared at last and the usual colors came back to the world. Carefully like a crystal vase I was put on the ground. Awkward smiles spread on the faces of usually grim brolics who hurried to walk away. Well, sure I deserved honor and respect. At least in the Cradle… well, or in the tavern and in Vlasilena’s house, and it’s not a small achievement! I know one thing for sure now – the saloonkeeper butchers his sheep somewhere but definitely not in the fold. Sheep can’t die there even by any stretch of imagination. And the natural mortality of his sheep tribe can’t have been witnessed for ages…

  - Ros! Oh, here you are! – Keira emerged from nowhere.

  She was covered with dust and muddy stains, rough hair, her grey eyes were sparkling frantically on the coaly face. I couldn’t look without tears at the leather jacket that lost most of its shine and gloss. The girl was squeezing my axe in her hands shaking due to the emotions overwhelming her. All in all if I met such a ‘beauty’ in real life, I would give leg-bail hastily. Although I suppose I didn’t look much better. I also had some fun rolling in the dust.

  By the way, mud on your body and on your clothes is an important factor in Valdira, it can give negative bonuses or positive bonuses. Now I have got ‘-1 appearance’ but it’s compensated by ‘+2 disguise in the natural surrounding’. If you’re going to explore dangerous locations of ‘chaos’ zones alone, first of all find a big pool and roll in it for a while. It won’t hurt. And after arrival at any community you can wash yourself in any bath-house, baths and so on. Or you can, say, swim in a river, lake or any other pool with clean water. I don’t know why but many she-gamers prefer washing under waterfall streams. And always naked…

  - We did it! - Keira distracted me from memoires repeating her recent words – You are so… you are…

  - We did it – I agreed – Give me my axe back, please.

  - What?

  - I said give me my axe – I grumbled taking back my weapon – You’re swinging it everywhere. You can wound some ‘locals’ by chance, we’ll have fun then.

  There were plenty of NPCs flocking about. As well as gamers. Everybody was discussing the tournament, coins were changing hands, gamers were trying to imitate some maneuvers and movements, they had seen during the battles, servers were taking sheep bleating sleepily back into the fold. Nobody even tried to come closer to the winners of the tournament – to us, I mean – thanks to a giant brolic who was standing three steps away from us and frightening excited gamers off us. I was really grateful for that. Although it didn’t stop them from crying out their congratulations and asking something from distance:

  - Well done, guys! Great fight!

  - Where can I get the video of the tournament? Did anyone film it?

  - You’re the best!

  A gamer who I didn’t know and who hadn’t taken part in the tournament, came closer and pronounced loudly:

  - Graz! – he threw something briskly into my direction. I instinctively raised my hand to catch a thing flowing in my direction and looked at my palm. It was a silver coin.

  - That’s a good idea! – another gamer who noticed a silverdump glistening in the air supported him. After digging in his pocket he threw a few coins to me – silver and copper ones. I managed to catch two of them; the other two fell down into dust at my feet.

  - Graz!

  - Congratulations! Catch!

  - You deserve it! What a performance!

  - Graz!

  - You performed honorably! As for the final, it was great! Take it!

  A weak steam of silver and copper coins rained on Keira and me. It lasted about five minutes, until it dried at last.

  - Guys, we don’t need it! – Keira exclaimed raising her hands – You’re so kind! Thank you! That will do!

  - Ladies and gentlemen! – the saloonkeeper went out to the yard and roared loudly raising his hands into the sky – Welcome to my tavern! Let’s celebrate! Drinks are free for everybody today! And I’ve got one more good news for you – a bard came to visit us today – he’ll play and sing for you till the sun-rise! That all is glorious Grim’s treat! Please, welcome! Come in! As soon as everybody takes their seats, Grim will congratulate the winners and hand them their decent prize! Those who fought nobly but didn’t get into the final, will take appr
opriate rewards! Let’s get the fun started! Come in!

  Babbling happily, the crowd dashed towards the door of the tavern eager to occupy the best seats. There was almost a jam in the door but the brolics stepped forward, set their shoulders simultaneously and pushed entrapped guests inside the tavern. Soon there was nobody except for Keira, me and sheep at the backyard.

  - Well, shall we go to get our decent prize? – Keira asked me in a low voice making a step towards the tavern. Noticing that I wasn’t following her, she turned back and exclaimed with surprise – Ros! What are you doing?!

  Standing on all my fours I raised my head for a moment and grumbled:

  - Don’t you see? – after that I kept on sifting dust through my fingers catching out coins and without counting put them into my sack lying beside me. – You’d better help me! Don’t stand still!

  - Forget about them! Stop digging in this mud – the girl stomped her foot with indignation and caught hold of my collar to draw me to the door of the tavern by force – What shall we do if we’re late and Grim goes away?

  While dragging behind Keira I hardly managed to grab the sack and followed the ‘archeological site’ shrinking into the distance with my eyes full of regret. There were a few coins left for sure… well, actually the girl was right – who knows them those great heroes. They may leave forgetting about the prize absentmindedly.

  As soon as we entered an excited roar by everybody gathered in the hall welcomed us. I bowed awkwardly, pressed my hand against my heart and lowering my head hurried to step inside. We didn’t have to look for vacant seats. The saloonkeeper had cared about everything beforehand. He had prepared for us a table in the very center of the hall in front of a small stage a bit higher than the floor-level where the guest bard would perform soon. The seats of honor for the heroes of the day! There were already full mugs on the table. A snow-white head of beer foam was towering over one of them; some white wine was throbbing in another. Oh my gosh, the saloonkeeper remembered what we had drunk before. There was also a plate with mutton ribs and a pile of bread. As soon as I sat down at the table, I grabbed a piece of meat and sent it straight into my mouth. It’s time to recover my life level.