by Jesse Wilson
“Well you do what you think is right, at least for now. If you don’t like how the Delwraths operate though, remember, we won’t forget what you did for us. We plan on leaving the pit together tonight after a raid on the Starlight Castle. You can be there if you want, no need to party up or anything like that, just a friendly invitation,” he said.
“Yeah, hit me with the location and a time and I’ll be there. I don’t think I have anything else to do,” Derek replied and Otham opened up his menu and sent Derek the location and the details of the raid.
“Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll score a Twilight word or some sweet armor,” Otham said and stood up. “Well, I’ll see you there, or maybe not. Good luck on getting logged out,” Otham finished and disappeared in a red light before Derek could reply.
“Yeah, thanks,” he said and had no idea what to do now. He was supposed to be leveling up. But that sounded a lot like work now. When a game started to feel like work, it wasn’t fun anymore. It was just about then a horrible scream was heard coming from the sky. Everyone heard it and looked up. A second later a menu appeared in front of everyone at the same time.
‘Night World Level Spring Event imminent. Meintel, the sky horror has arrived in the Starlight Pit. The spoils of war go to the victor. The blue dragon seeks blood, yours. This event lasts for two weeks. Do not take the beast on alone, for it is extremely powerful. The party that defeats the dragon gets the following exclusive items: One Thunder Ring, two staffs of lightning, one full set of storm burst armor and a limited Cyclone Gauntlet. Will the reward be yours? Good luck, players,’ it read.
Derek watched as the majority of the players seemed annoyed with the popup menu and just closed it right away. There was obviously something he was missing here because that sounded like a fun thing to take on. He looked up in the sky and saw something streak across the moon in the distance. “Just another thing for the clans to jump on,” one human player said to herself as she walked by.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Derek said and stood up to catch up with her. “Huh, oh, well all of the seasonal and special events are taken by the big clans. The normal players don’t have a chance. Especially here in the pit with all the low level players like us,” she said and Derek understood now.
“I see,” he replied and she stopped, turned and looked at him. “What did you do to be so depressed and alone?” she asked. “Oh, ha, I stole a healing potion by accident. I picked it up and added it to my inventory when I tried to give it back. I gave it back but well, you know how it is,” he quickly made up a story.
She laughed a little bit. “Yeah, that happens. It’s why I am an alchemist. I can make all of my potions and stuff. I have no need for that, but supplies are short sometimes,” she said and nodded to herself. Derek didn’t have anything to do, and the Starlight Castle raid wasn’t for a few hours yet. “Mind if I join you?” he asked her and expected nothing. He wasn’t even sure how useful he could be in a situation like this.
“Oh, it’s always nice to have some backup, I mean the worst you can do here is just kill me and if you do I’ll just be back here, sure, come on,” she said and smiled. “I’m Reid,” she said. “My name is Devon,” he replied, almost slipping up and saying his real name.
“Oh, a level five vampire warrior, cool. I’m a werewolf alchemist, level eleven, as you can see,” she said and seemed a little bit nervous. Derek, as far as he understood it, always thought vampires and werewolves were mortal enemies.
She didn’t seem very dangerous or much like an enemy, at least right now. This avatar looked similar to many others in the world. She was slender, attractive and it was getting to the point where almost everyone was picking something that was their version of perfect. He didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“Well nice to meet you, come on, follow me. I need to get some supplies,” she said and opened up a location on her map menu and sent it to him. He accepted the message and together they were off on a new adventure. Derek couldn’t wait to do something else and explore more of this place.
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
Reid and Derek appeared in a different place. He looked around and the ground was dark green and large spinning columns of black and green sand were in the distance. This place was windy and miserable. “What is this place?” he asked and she looked back at him. “It’s the Devil’s Breath, not the greatest of places to be but it’s the only place I can find what I need,” she replied to him, trying to talk over the wind. “Follow me,” she said and started walking. Derek just shrugged and started to walk after her.
“I’m looking for the darkest rocks you can find, they are black and shiny. Obsidian. It falls from the moon sometimes and lands here. It’s what I need to make invisibility potions,” she said over the wind and Derek just nodded. This obsidian appeared to be extremely important in this world for a lot of different reasons.
All the more reason not to tell anyone else that he had a whole lot of it sitting in his inventory. However, he wasn’t quite sure why it came from the moon. It was hard to believe that right now there were players up there doing their own thing so far away.
“Yeah, I’ll help you look for it,” he replied and put his eyes to the ground. He knew what it looked like but how were they going to find any of that here? All of this wind was covering everything with green sand. This was a mess.
He turned around to look on the ground when suddenly his whole body went numb and a familiar green light flashed over him. “Come on,” he said as he fell straight to the ground.
“You newbies always make it so easy. I do need something, but it’s not some stupid rock,” she said and now her voice took on a sinister tone to it. She kicked him and rolled him over. Her eyes were burning with green fire now and against the sand blasted sky, she looked down right evil. “Why?” Derek asked weakly.
“In order to make invisibility potions, I need vampire fangs. One fang can make two potions. And since there are no NPC vampires in the game. I have to harvest my stock from people like you,” she explained and kneeled down to the ground.
“I just do my work here because hardly anyone shows up here to get in the way. Organ harvesting is basically necromancy’s cousin and most people, oddly enough, don’t like it. This is a dark game but I guess even darkness has standards,” she said with a shrug, as if she had done this many times before. “But I don’t,” she finished.
“How much do they cost? These potions?” Derek asked her and she stopped. It was clear no one had ever asked that before.
“More than you can afford. A werewolf lady like me has to eat and dead flesh and vampires just aren’t that tasty,” she said and Derek groaned. “Tell me. I have money. I can pay I bet. How much would it cost to just let me go?” he asked again and she tilted her head. “Five grand a potion,” she said and smiled.
“A greater potion of invisibility costs twenty five grand, but that gives you the power to go invisible for a full month at will. I’d say it’s worth it,” she said and a pair of fang extracting pliers appeared in her left hand.
“Okay, just let the paralyze effect wear off and I can get you the money,” he said and she looked at him like he was insane.
“How is a level five nobody going to get that much money, nope, you’re going to be without your fangs for a few days, don’t worry they’ll grow back eventually,” she said to him and held his mouth open with her right hand. The tool was then lowered to the first fang on the left side. “Don’t move now, this won’t hurt a bit. You being dead and all,” she said to him with a smile that told him that yes, this was going to hurt.
The tool clamped around that fang and he could feel it. He cringed and made a fist in response. It was then that he realized that he could move. The blessing worked just as it said it would. Wasting no time, he quickly used his right hand to hit her in the face. She rolled off in surprise and let out a yelp in shock. “How? I had another five minutes at least,” she said as she stood up.
Derek stood up
in a hurry and felt violated, dirty and pissed off. He supposed not everyone could be trusted in a place like this. It was only a matter of time before he met someone who was not worth the electric flesh they were made out of.
“It’s a kind of magic,” he replied and was just about to shift into his black armor when suddenly she screamed in much more pain than she could have possibly been in and fell to the ground. “What?” Derek asked and it was then something hit him in the shoulder and knocked him forward.
“Halt, vampire, stop your attack on the maiden,” a voice said from behind him and Derek did stop, but he didn’t take his eyes off of her. “Maiden?” he asked himself. What was this guy supposed to be, the resident white knight, he thought to himself. “I know what this looks like, but this is something completely different. You can just stay out of this,” he said and the arrow, to his surprise pushed itself out of his back.
“Nay, I cannot,” the man said and Reid smiled, her eyes returning to normal in a hurry.
“Oh, thank you for saving me, kind sir,” she said in what Derek supposed was her most dainty damsel in distress voice she could use. Footsteps walked past him and he looked at who it was that had come to her rescue. To his surprise it was a shaggy, brown haired bigfoot type creature that towered over the both of them. It was wearing some kind of armor and its axe hung at its side, crossbow in its left hand. Just how many avatars were there in this world anyway? Derek had no idea but he doubted he’d even seen a fraction of them.
“I am Tomas the Brave,” he said and reached down to help her up. Derek rolled his eyes at the bravado. “The brave, what kind of hero shoots someone in the back?” Derek asked him and now he didn’t like either of them.
“The kind that doesn’t care what a monster like you thinks,” the bigfoot replied in a gravelly voice that was hard to understand. Derek wished he could find the subtitle options in the game at any time. “Monster, she tried to take out my fangs, tricked me into this place to do it,” Derek said but it was clear who was going to believed here.
“He was going to rape me out here, he wanted my help to get some extra experience then he attacked me, you came just in time,” she replied and Derek narrowed his eyes. “What?” the bigfoot replied in real shock and pointed his crossbow at him again. “What? No, that’s not true,” Derek said but the bolt was let loose and it was buried in his chest before he even considered how something like this was even possible.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The arrow hurt and knocked him back. His life bar went down to the midway point and turned yellow. Derek fell to his knees in pain. The rage in his soul was building. Hate, it was not good enough a word for a betrayal like this. Sure, he didn’t know her but this was pathetic, and accusing him of rape too just to drive the point home. No, this wouldn’t stand. He pulled the bolt out and it hurt worse than going in, but already his pain was fading away. Tomas seemed impressed. “What manner of creature can take one of my bolts to the chest and live?” he asked and his free hand moved towards his axe.
“Tomas, you must kill it. If you don’t teach it a lesson now, I’ll never be free of it,” she said and stood behind him. The bigfoot couldn’t see it, but she had a wicked smile on her face in Derek’s direction.
“Yes, I believe you are right, fair maiden,” he replied and prepared to fire again. “No,” Devon replied and shifted into his black armor in an instant. The two of them backed off in a hurry. Tomas fired and the bolt bounced off his chest harmlessly, shattering on impact and blew away in the wind.
“Bigfoot, you might be an honest good guy, but that thing behind you isn’t. I am going to give you one chance to stand aside. If you do not, I will kill you both,” Derek’s rage was boiling inside of him. This was something he could not let go. His siege weapon appeared in his hands and he held it in their direction.
“If you’ve never seen one of these before, I can assure you it’s strong enough to kill you both in one hit,” Derek said and slid his finger over the trigger. “I don’t believe you,” Reid said and Tomas shook his head.
“No, the fiend is right. That’s a siege weapon. I know not how he got it, but we don’t stand a chance here. It is best for us to retreat with our lives intact,” Tomas said and Derek glared at them. “No, just you. The wolf isn’t going anywhere,” he replied and Tomas lowered his axe carefully. “Come on man would a real monster give you a chance to leave like this?” Derek asked him and the bigfoot pondered this.
“Fine,” Reid said and without warning her body shifted, it looked painful to Derek but he watched her form immediately change. Her skin tore open, her eyes rolled back into her head. Her bones started to snap and restructure themselves. The hair on her body grew longer and turned pitch black along with the claws on her hands. Her snout extended and her mouth was now full of razor sharp teeth.
The whole process took less than five seconds. It was now that he realized that there was a constant full moon in the sky. He didn’t understand the mechanics of lycanthropes in the game, but he figured this was a buff for them somehow. Now Reid stood as tall as Tomas did and even though she was naked, it was impossible to see anything due to the darkness and all the hair. It wasn’t as if he wanted to see anything anyway. All he could look at now were her teeth and solid white eyes. “Tomas, run!” Derek said but it was too late.
Reid swiped her left claws deep into his back. He screamed in pain as he fell forward to the ground. Derek fired his cannon and let loose his green beam into her. Reid took the blast and was knocked back into the green swirling sand. He ran to Tomas and saw that his life bar was in the red. “Damn,” he said. He didn’t feel bad for the hero, but the damage she did with one attack was impressive. Derek rolled the bigfoot over with some difficulty. Then he opened his inventory and materialized a healing potion. Derek opened it and poured it into the bigfoot’s mouth. Immediately his life bar returned into the yellow and his eyes opened.
“Don’t thank me yet, I hit the wolf but I don’t think she’s dead,” Derek said looking around, but all he could see was the green sand storm. “Aye, my apologies, vampire. I’m always a sucker for women in trouble. I was just passing through and—” Derek cut him off.
“You can tell me what ever sob story you have later. Right now, we need to be alert. Get up,” he said and looked around trying to prevent a surprise attack. Tomas did the same as he got up. It was impossible to hear anything in all this wind if it wasn’t right next to you.
Chapter Thirty
The two would be enemies stood back to back waiting for an attack. “Do you think she’s gone?” Derek asked. “Werewolves rarely give up on a fight,” Tomas replied.
“A simple no would have done fine,” Derek replied and was already annoyed with this guy. Then he realized that Tomas was the weak link in this alliance. She already took him out once almost in one hit. She was going to get rid of him first.
Derek spun around and pushed Tomas to the side. He fired his cannon into the green sand filled air on a hunch. Sure, enough the beam hit something and a high-pitched whine was the result. “How did you know? Tomas asked and Derek narrowed his eyes.
“You always take out the ones you know you can kill first. It’s basic game strategy,” he replied. “You need to get out of here. Just teleport to Pick’s Town or something before you go there the hard way,” Derek said to him. For whatever reason this beast wasn’t going down.
“Find me later, warrior, I will leave this to you,” he said and Tomas quickly teleported away. “I didn’t expect him to actually go, but whatever. That’s what the blood of heroes is all about I guess,” he finished and made his cannon go back into the inventory.
“Alright, dog girl. You want to fight, come and get me,” he said and waited. He knew the attack was going to come from behind. Cowardice in these games was a thing that was considered a virtue in games like this. To his surprise, however, the beast woman came running at him from the sandstorm right in front of him. Despite two direct hits from the ion can
non, her health was still full. “Okay,” he said and now had no idea how he was going to beat her.
Reid leaped through the air and tackled him. They landed hard on the ground and there was pain as his body hit the armor. He could feel her claws rake against the obsidian, but so far, the armor was holding. “Yeah, you’re going to need a better can opener to take this,” he said and his serrated black blade appeared in his left hand. Then he thrust it through her stomach. She screamed, fell to the left into the ground.
Derek watched as she pulled herself off the blade, and as he did, watched as the wound closed up almost immediately. He knew right then and there that was no way to win this battle. This only proved to make him angrier. He wanted to use the celestial attack but he knew that there was no way he was fast enough to hit her. It would have been a waste and he wasn’t sure how much mana he even had, it would have been pointless either way.
Suddenly, in his menu a message popped up. ‘Primary account online,’ it said and Derek smiled. Seconds later a red beam of light crashed into the sand beside him. Sandrine stood there, dressed exactly as she had been before. Reid either didn’t know, or care who she was and attacked. “Watch out!” Derek cried. Sandrine turned around and sidestepped the beast as if she were avoiding a turtle or something else as slow.
She smiled at Derek and didn’t understand or care why this thing was attacking her brother. She wasn’t going to put up with it. Reid howled into the air and her claws began to glow red as if they were on fire. Turning her attention back on the wolf she narrowed her black eyes in her direction as if this was supposed to be a warning of some kind. If it was, it didn’t register. The werewolf leaped and attacked Sandrine. Immediately an ornate silver blade appeared in her right hand. She thrust it through the heart of the wolf, spun around and impaled the beast into the ground in one fluid motion.
