Know Thy Enemy

by Dawn Chapman

  “No. No, it’s fine, people will ask, and I expect Altus will want to know.”

  Drayk placed a pot with water from his pack over the fire and handed her two of his rations. They weren’t going to last long, so the map where he could find local foods was a great find.

  Keriy chewed the bar and started to talk. With her story unfolding, she actually seemed to relax more.

  “We were heading to Altus’ village, as I said. Hoping the move was the right thing to do. My husband, Norel, had wanted to put it off, to join the next party leaving our hometown, but I persuaded him this was the right time. We’d been struggling for months, and it was only going to get worse. There was no food coming in any longer, all supply paths had been cut off. So, I made the decision to move, or we’d not have the energy to do otherwise later.”

  Drayk was shocked at how things were developing for some inside this world. It was supposed to be a fun place to be, not to end up as Keriy was. Lost and alone.

  “The humans attacked our party like we were nothing, just a bunch of NPC’s to be killed for loot. I honestly don’t think they knew we weren’t. Norel and the others defended our caravan as best they could, but he was taken down in its defence. My daughter, Alic was too young, a baby. She was caught in crossfire in one of the children’s wagons. When I realised I’d nothing left, and everyone else was going to die as well, I did what I could to survive: I ran.”

  When she looked up to meet Drayk’s eyes, her tears had gone. What replaced them was burning anger, and hatred, hatred for the human killers.

  Drayk reached out, placed his hand on hers. The spark of her energy hit him like a brick.

  SKILL AWAKENED—MAXOL CASTER—LEVEL 1—TRAINEE

  MANA—5/100

  WITH THE RAW ENERGY INSIDE YOU, YOU MAY LEARN TO CAST AND USE MAGIC

  USE WISELY!

  Drayk took a double take. He hadn’t known he could learn magic in this game. He really liked the idea.

  Keriy’s anger faded away realising she’d done something, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

  Drayk let go of her hand, rubbing it where there was a slight burn mark. “You aren’t players though, are you really? The emotion you’re giving off is much more. Why?

  “Not technically now. We’re native to New Ararat, but we’re still inside their game. However, for us the rules are different. We live our lives inside this game, and when we die it is permanent. We are not re-born like players usually are.”

  Drayk had known this when he’d seen her tears. “I’m sorry, Keriy.”

  “I will seek vengeance, no matter how long it takes. Altus may provide me a new home, a place to rest. But these humans need to know they’re not taking this planet and neither are the Maxol.”

  That statement shook Drayk to the core. If the final prize for them all was the planet, would it mean all Araratian’s were to be destroyed? He didn’t want to kill anyone, but he wanted to survive, of course.

  Drayk let out a large sigh. “We’ll figure this out, I’ll return to the village as soon as I can.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Pierce

  Everything felt just so flat. Pierce could feel everything around him. And he could also feel himself. It wasn’t about what he could see or hear. The whole world was like a big screen, and there he was, right in the middle of it. A small avatar made out of square dots, dressed in black, his hair yellow and with two blue pixels as his eyes.

  The first games he had played were like this. Just a character standing in a world made out of bricks and plants. It was one of the first video games ever created, according to Wayne, and it was very simple. You walked. You jumped. You tried not to get eaten. Don’t let any of the monsters touch you, or you went up in flames. There were coins and rubies which gave you points, and if you were lucky, you’d find a gun that would allow you to shoot a big slow bullet that killed the monsters.

  He could feel his stats, too. They weren’t numbers in front of his eyes, though. These numbers stood high up there on the giant screen which was the world. Pierce had three lives to spare, the charts said. He had zero coins, zero rubies, zero points, and still hadn’t killed anyone. The skills he so carefully developed back on Earth weren’t worth jack shit here. Totally back to basics.

  Pierce could see he was in a dungeon, a world made out of blue bricks, and in front of him was a big square piece of fire. One of the many dangers the world had to offer him, so he figured. The whole thing was quite pathetic for such an advanced player like him.

  But Pierce thought about Mr. Kaleidoscopius back in his dungeon, challenging everyone who got close to him. Pierce was sure that creature wasn’t a part of the original landscape of New Ararat reproduced like everything else he had seen. No, Mr. Kaleidoscopius was a programming error born in that simulation of New Ararat where Pierce was plugged in. An error that had gained consciousness and now had his own world deep down in that mountain. Considering how little they knew about the race that had created that simulation, Pierce wasn’t really shocked that an anomaly such as Mr. Kaleidoscopius existed.

  But there wasn’t time to reflect on the situation. It was time to act. First of all, Pierce had to know his strengths. He tried to kick, and then to punch. Nothing. Those weren’t featured in this version of the game. He didn’t have the gun either. No weapons at all. If a monster appeared in his way, Pierce would have to do the thing he hated the most: avoid a fight.

  What can I do then? There would be a world ahead of him, apart from that square of fire, and he needed to know his abilities. Pierce examined his pixelated self and realized the pain was somehow weaker. That had to be a good thing. If he remembered this kind of game right, he should at least be able to take a good jump.

  So, he jumped up and went higher than he expected, falling very slowly back into the ground. He tried again. This time, as he fell, Pierce directed his body sideways and found out he could bend the laws of physics and control his fall to left and right.

  He started walking. Face to face with the square fire, it didn’t seem so dangerous. He found out he could get really close to it without even feeling any kind of heat. It might not even burn, thought Pierce getting a bit closer, and then…

  He knew that feeling.

  It was like being in his car again.

  It was like having a small hole in the back of his head, and everything he had inside of him was sucked out through a hole. And everything went away through that hole and vanished in the air. It just stopped existing. He had a name for that feeling.

  It felt like death.

  The world changed again. It was a black screen with three Pierce heads floating. A big red X appeared in front of the third one. Only two lives left. Fuck!

  Pierce appeared again in the exact same position in the pixelated world of Mr. Kaleidoscopius dungeon. Everything was back to the normal, only now he was one life shorter. Pierce walked carefully and jumped the square fire. The world moved sideways. He could see more now of what was in front of him. A couple of coins floating in the air and three more fire barriers.

  Collecting the coins felt strangely good like he was taking some kind of drug every time he picked one of them. And it also felt good when he jumped. A few more blocks of fire, and the world moved again. Now Pierce was standing in front of an abyss. There were pieces of brick hanging in the air, each one with a golden coin hanging over it. It couldn’t be hard to jump over them. So that’s what he did.

  It felt good again collecting coins, so good he didn’t realize the floating block he was standing in started to crumble, and he had to jump to the next one if he didn’t want to fall into the abyss. He tried to jump to the next block, but it was too late. Pierce plummeted. He tried to direct his fall to the left, to go back to firm ground, but he wasn’t quick enough.

  His body vanished as he fell down the abyss. Somehow, he thought it wasn’t going to be that painful this time, but it was worse. This time it really felt like he wasn’t going to come back. But there he w
as again Three heads appeared in his sight, but now two of them had red Xs in front of them. Pierce only had one life left, and he had barely started.

  What’s going on, man? Wayne’s voice appeared in his head as he appeared again in the start spot. Weren’t you supposed to be the great gamer? How is your ass getting kicked so easily by something so simple?

  You don’t understand! Pierce’s own voice replied in in his head. This isn’t the same thing. It’s like giving a toy keyboard to a pianist, you can’t expect him to play as well as he did on a real fucking piano!

  Wayne’s voice didn’t like that answer: You are a gamer, Pierce, not a pianist. You need to focus. Your mind is not in the right place. If you die once more here, you’ll be back to that crazy devil’s hands. I don’t want that, and you don’t want that. So, take this game seriously. You can do this.

  He was right. He had to be right. Pierce took a deep breath—at least it felt like a deep breath—and started all over again.

  Don’t touch the fire. Jump it.

  That’s it! Now take the coins. Nice. Just don’t let that warm feeling get in your head. It’s just what they want.

  Here’s the abyss. You know how these blocks work.

  Jump.

  Jump again to the next one.

  Jump again, before it crumbles.

  That’s it, boy! Now the last one.

  Pick the coin and jump.

  Good! You’re on the other side now.

  He was on the other side, indeed. The unknown side. From now on, Pierce didn’t know what kind of danger he had in front of him or how to defeat it, and he had no lives to spare. It wasn’t a good state of affairs to be in, but complaining wouldn’t help.

  The screen moved as he walked, and a few more coins appeared. Pierce believed if he took enough of those, he would get an extra life. Not knowing how many were needed was a bitch. Maybe if…

  He saw the ball of fire coming in his direction just in time to jump and avoid it. It missed him by just a couple of pixels. Only a few more steps forward and he saw the big scorpion-like creature was shooting at him from the tip of its tail. It fired once every five seconds, and Pierce had to jump to dodge it.

  He got closer to the scorpion, wishing he had a gun to shoot it. Instead, he made a jump and landed on the other side. The scorpion didn’t move and kept firing its fireballs in the same direction.

  This isn’t so hard, thought Pierce. The secret is to know how these things work. He kept walking, and at first, it all seemed pretty predictable. A few new obstacles would appear in his way. A spider hanging from the ceiling by a string of web—the trick was passing under it while she was looking the other way. A skeleton holding a sword that you had to jump over, and a poison-spitting snake. In the meantime, Pierce collected a lot of coins and rubies, and when he realized it, the level was finished.

  The sensation of passing to the next level was weird but pleasant. It felt like getting a nice nap without actually sleeping. They counted his rubies and pulled the red X out of one of the heads - another life to spare!

  Before the next level started, a man in a pixelated yellow cloak showed, his words appearing on the screen right next to him: “I’m not supposed to be talking to anyone, but I like your ways, stranger. Would you be interested in some of these fine items?” Below him appeared a dagger, a mace and a sword. Pierce counted his coins and realized he didn’t have enough for the sword, so he selected the mace. “You’ve made a wise selection, sir.” said the Salesman. “Just be careful, for this weapon will make you heavier.”

  With those words, he vanished.

  At first, the only difference Pierce could see in this level was that the brick was all red. Then a ball of fire came from the distance, and he realized there wouldn’t be much time to think. He jumped to avoid the ball of fire, and even though he managed to escape it, he wasn’t able to jump as high as before.

  This weapon will make you heavier, said the salesman.

  Now it made sense.

  Even though he now had a weakness, Pierce also had a new advantage: he didn’t have to run away from his enemies in this level. He could now hit them with the mace. That made things much more interesting.

  The screen moved as Pierce ran, and he saw the new enemy: a red mushroom that spit fire. He ran in its direction, jumping to avoid the mushroom attack, then jumping over it and, before it could turn back, hitting it with his weapon, making it explode in coloured pixels all around.

  Sweet, he thought, ready to kill more of those things.

  Fulfilling that level was a piece of cake. Every time he killed another one, his points went high. There weren’t as many coins or rubies in this level, but Pierce was having a blast. He learned how to use his new weight to his advantage, and at the end of that level, when the salesman appeared, he was able to drop the mace and pick up the sword.

  Pierce had the strangest sensation each level was deeper into the ground like he was going down a strange catacomb. There was an annoying sense of claustrophobia he tried to ignore. Now that he had the sword, he could fight all the skeletons, zombies, mushrooms and whatever they had for him.

  At the end of phase four, he had all three lives and a good number of coins. The salesman appeared in front of him offering a variety of weapons. “This is the best I have for regular customers,” he said. “But you are more than that aren’t you? Would you be interested in something special?”

  The words YES and NO appeared in front of him.

  Pierce selected YES.

  A new item appeared below the salesman: a golden glove.

  “This one gives its owner a strange power, that’s able to eliminate all his enemies at will. After you use it, you can’t get rid of it until the last level. But its price is very high. I don’t want your money; I want your lives. All but one.”

  Pierce thought about it for a second. He could very well finish the game with the axe Mr. Kaleidoscopius also gave him, but he knew that was cheating. He had enough lives to rescue the diamond and come back to where Mr. Kaleidoscopius was waiting for him. But those words, strange power, were intriguing.

  And he had enough coins to refill his spare lives in the next level. He decided to give it a try and selected YES.

  “You’ve made a wise choice, stranger,” said the salesman, as Pierce’s avatar put the glove on. It fit perfectly.

  And then he heard the laugh.

  “Oh, and did I mention,” said the salesman taking off the cap which covered his face. “You’re fucked?”

  The red face, that grin, that goddamn squeaky voice!

  Pierce should have attacked Mr. Kaleidoscopius, but he remembered his words. The next attack had to be the last, and Pierce figured it applied to that world too.

  And he had other things to be concerned about. Like the fact the glove was too tight for him to get rid of it. A weird sensation, almost like an electrical shock, came out of it and it threw Pierce on the ground. He tried to yell, but nothing came out.

  “Now, to make things even more interesting,” said Kaleidoscopius, snapping his fingers. Pierce realized all his scores, all the coins and rubies he had collected, were back to zero. “This is better now. Go on with your game, my son. Between I and I, you can’t break it!”

  Pierce was now on the final level of the game.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Drayk

  Drayk was left alone again. Keriy had finally trodden away from him and headed back toward Altus’ camp. She had left him however with many thoughts. And that scared him. He didn’t want to think, to really understand what was going on around him because it might change his whole perception.

  The tree line ahead was growing denser, and Drayk didn’t really have much with which to clear himself a passageway through. The daggers he had might have been okay if he sneaked up on someone like he just had, but they weren’t meant for cutting down trees.

  The bushes caught on his skin, some tearing at him. He noticed his health bar take minor damage, and he alm
ost laughed at this. How could he be damaged by a bush? Certainly, no more than having broken ribs from the earlier fight.

  Then a pop up filled his view.

  You’ve been scratched by the Epificus plant. Find the right antidote and consume it before the timer runs out. Or you will die.

  What?

  As if this planet and forest hadn’t already thrown him a couple of curve balls, now he had poison to add to the tryst.

  Drayk sighed and decided to look around. When there’d been poisonous plants where he’d grown up, the antidote, usually another plant, had always been close at hand. Seemingly the weirdest way to grow, but it was nature’s way.

  There was, however, nothing surrounding him. Only the plant that had already poisoned him. Crap.

  Drayk noted his health stats.

  Not only was it dropping, but so was his focus.

  HEALTH—75/100

  FOCUS— 5 /10

  This wasn’t good. The more focus he lost, the less time he had to find a cure.

  The ground swelled beneath him, and the animals surrounding him seemed much louder. What animals? He hadn’t seen any earlier. How come there were some around now? Tweeting and growling. Was this the plan of the plant, to lure him in and have him die where he could be eaten?

  Drayk wasn’t sure, but he really didn’t want to find out either.

  The slight rain spatter from above hit him in the face, and he wiped the droplets away. He’d never make it to the mountain at this rate, and that meant he’d never get back to Altus with the result he wanted.

  There was also no way his stats were growing, not like this. Some EXP he’d expected just never showed up; it was almost as though the game were truly against him. Everything he did earned him nothing. No EXP, no way to move closer to being a higher level.

  Was the game against him?

  A voice boomed behind, and as he turned to see where it came from, he was struck in the back of the head.

  Drayk’s eyes went blank, darkness threatened to swallow him. When he looked up at the sky, towering above he saw the large goon from before.