by Dante Doom
"What do we do?" Sahara shouted as she charged over to get in front of Van.
Sang looked around to see that everyone was moving to get into the melee – the assumption seemed to be that whoever won the fight would have the advantage. Instead of running to Van's aid, though, she decided to just charge straight toward the enemies' base. There was a forest on the edge of the plains and she could see a large, wooden fortress there.
As she ran, she noticed that a tall woman with wizard robes was also running back to the base. It appeared that she would be the only defense. Wizards weren't hard to kill, and especially with a bow, but Sang wasn't sure if she'd even need to waste the time on her or not. The goal was to steal the flag – not get player kills. She paused for a moment to consider whether a player killed in this round would die in real life, but then she remembered what the dragon had said about respawning. As long as the timer was still going, it would be okay to kill other players.
The fray behind her was growing louder, and she could hear Van shouting orders and commands to his team, only adding more to the distraction they were providing. Sang quickly made her way into the forest and activated her Stealth mode. Her body became translucent as the word Stealthed appeared above her. The stealth rating she held now was 100% because her character had the Woodland Camouflage trait, which gave her a bonus whenever she was in a forested area.
The wooden fortress was simple in construction. There was a large wall made of wood, with shaved down points made to prevent people from easily climbing over, two lookout towers that stood high above the camp, and a large, red flag in its center. Sang glanced at the gate to the fortress and watched as the wizard named Seloon cast spells on the ground. From Sang's position, she could see small spikes beginning to grow out of the ground and become camouflaged within the soil as the wizard muttered phrases into the dirt.
"How do I get over there?" Sang asked herself as she looked for some kind of footing which could be used for climbing up the wooden walls. They were perfectly smooth and round, lacking any kind of footholds or handholds. The trees surrounding the wooden fortress had been cut down, too, so there was no way she'd be able to climb up above the walls and then leap down. She'd need to figure out some other way in.
The gate creaked open as the wizard woman rushed inside. She left it open, probably to lure players into walking into the trap that she'd just created. Sang had seen where the spikes were planted, though, so maybe she could just go around them.
Sang quietly walked over to the bare patch of dirt where she could still see the barbed tips sticking out of the ground. They were almost impossible to notice unless specifically looked for. There was enough space between each spike for her to step, however, and so she gingerly placed one foot in between the barbs, hoping they didn't activate. Nothing happened. She let out a sigh of relief as she slowly moved between the spikes until she made it inside of the fort.
The wizard was climbing up a ladder leading to one of the watch towers. Her back was very exposed, and it would take Sang less than two seconds to shoot her. So, with a shrug, Sang drew her bow, tracked the wizard's ascent, and fired an arrow straight into her. The words Sneak Attack Double Damage hovered above the wizard as Sang watched the woman's hit points go from 250 down to 15.
"Whoaaah!" Seloon shouted in surprised as she slipped off the ladder and crashed down upon the ground. The words Injury: Immobile hovered above her head as her health dropped down to one.
"Are you… kidding me?" Seloon groaned as Sang rushed past her and began to pull the rope on the flagpole, bringing the red flag down.
"Sorry, but someone's gotta win this!" Sang said.
"At least kill me so I can respawn," Seloon said. "I can't do anything right now!"
"Yeah, no," Sang said with a grin as she pulled the flag off of the rope. The flag flashed bright red and a small flagpole was suddenly in her hands. She had to put her weapon aside to hold onto it.
"No fair!" Seloon said. "I told those idiots to protect me."
"Trust me, kiddo," Sang said as she hoisted the flagpole high. "It's better for everyone if we win this one." And with that, she darted into the woods, making sure to avoid the spikes as she left.
As triumphant as she felt, Sang knew that she was in a bit of trouble. She hadn't realized that she'd have to carry the flagpole the entire way back – without the use of her hands to defend herself. She tried to balance the flag against her shoulder, but the thing was just too heavy and unwieldy to carry without the use of her hands. If Van and the team had been killed off, the enemy group would have no trouble murdering her and getting their flag back.
She reached the edge of the forest and looked over. There was still a fight going on in the center. Van, Kylian, and Sahara were fighting valiantly against four other members, and their health bars were steadily dropping. Fredlin was probably back at the base.
"Why did both of the wizards decide to protect the bases?" Sang muttered as she considered her routes. If she ran straight through the field, she would be noticed, but it would be a faster way of getting to her base – plus, Van and the team could protect her. She could decide to go around and through the woods, as they encircled the entire area, but doing so would take a long time and, if her team died, she'd be stuck having to face off against four players at the base with only the help of a wizard.
The clock was ticking, so she had to make a decision. Sang took a deep breath and made a dead run into the field, charging straight toward her base.
"Holy crap!" exclaimed one of the women as she brought her katana down hard against Van's face. "Is that our flag?"
"Get her!" a man with his battleaxes drawn shouted as he disengaged from the fight and made a mad dash toward Sang.
"A little help, guys!" Sang shouted out as she kept running. The two who were rushing to intercept her would be on her in a split second.
"Now, Fredlin!" Van shouted in between blocking blows from the two who had remained behind to fight against him and Sahara.
Fredlin suddenly appeared in front of Sang. "Close your eyes!" he whispered before raising his hands and unleashing a powerful arcane spell. Sang shut her eyes for a moment, but continued to run. She heard screams of agony from the other players.
"I can't see! I can't see!" screamed the woman. Sang opened her eyes up to see that the rest of her team was all cheering and waving her on as she continued toward the base. Her pursuers had stopped running and were fumbling around.
"Nice work, Fredlin!" Sang shouted as she ran to victory. With no one around to stop her, she was able to reach her base's own flag and plant the enemies' flag in the ground. The words You Win! floated above her head and she smiled proudly. Her heart was pumping pretty hard and the adrenaline was coursing through her. She couldn't believe she had succeeded.
What was more impressive than her own victory was the fact that Van had been able to anticipate her choices and set up a trap to help her get to the end. That was the perfect picture of teamwork, and she felt a giddiness rising up in her. They were doing so well, she couldn't help wondering what the next challenge was.
"Nice work!" Van said as he trotted up to Sang. "You did a killer job."
"I did a killer job," Sang said as she rushed up and hugged him. "You were the one to set up that trap! How did you know I would pick the field?"
"Because you're pragmatic and impatient," Van said. "You'd never pick the slower route."
Sang laughed at that. "Where are the others?"
"Dead," Van said. "The other team got pretty mad that we won and kept fighting us until they were kicked out of the game. Fredlin and the rest will respawn in the next round, though. I got notice that said we'll have to wait out the rest of the hour since we finished this game in record time.
"Oh," Sang said. "Well, I don't mind the break. You know,, I've got to say, this is an absolute blast. I don’t know why we didn't do a competition sooner!"
Van just frowned at the comment. "Ugh, Sang, you do remember why we're her
e, right?"
"Oh," Sang said as she felt all of the excitement draining out of her. The cold expression on Van's face had reminded her of exactly why there were there. "Sorry, I just got really excited. I'm pretty competitive, I guess."
"I keep forgetting, too," Van said with a shrug. "I'm not sure why, but all of this focus on something like winning a competition makes me so single-minded."
"It's fun," Sang agreed. "Fun enough to make me forget all of this mess."
"Yeah," Van said quietly.
"Are… are you going to be able to say goodbye to this place?" Sang asked. Van flinched, but didn't speak. "I'm just... I mean, this tournament was so exciting just a few minutes ago, I can see how easy it is to get wrapped up in this," Sang continued. "I just… I know it's going to be hard saying goodbye."
"I keep telling myself that there's some other way," Van said as he looked at the ground. "That maybe we'll find some kind of a switch that just kicks Draco out for good so that the game stays around. But this technology… this advancement… there's no possible way we'd keep it all going. It'll be gone soon."
"I'm sorry, Van," Sang whispered.
"I am, too," Van replied as he sharply turned away from her. "You've heard about the five stages of grief, right?"
"Of course," Sang answered as she shifted a little.
"I feel kind of weird, but it's like I'm going through all of them at once. Anger, denial, depression, bargaining… what's that last one?"
"Acceptance?" Sang offered.
"Yeah, I don't think I'm feeling that at all," Van said. "Not yet. But I keep trying to tell myself that it's stupid. That it's stupid for me to be so affected over a video game."
"I don't think kicking yourself is going to help," Sang replied as she walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This place is your home. I really get it. Van, I had so many beliefs about gamers and gaming in general when I first came in here. I really thought I had you all figured out. But… I know I was wrong. About a lot of it. Do I think it's unhealthy to have this kind of relationship with technology? Yeah, absolutely, but… at the same time, it's not like there was a better life out there for you."
"There still isn't," Van whispered. "Nothing's out there for me."
"That's not true," Sang snapped. She hadn't meant to come off so harshly, but she could feel the raw emotion surging through her. "Van, you have me. You have prospects. People respect you. You're working with the government on a job. Do they believe all the alien stuff? Hell no, but that doesn't matter. They trust you enough to put you on an anti-terrorist mission."
Van shrugged. "But that's not the life I wanted. I didn't ask for any of this. You know? If… if you made a choice that completely changed the course of your life, wouldn't' you want it to land you somewhere better than you were before? But what's out there that's better than in here? Oh, I have a government job, hurray. In here, I get to climb mountains with my bare hands and stab dragons to death."
"I understand your pain," Sang replied, "I really do, but what if there is something greater out there for you?"
"Like what?" Van asked. "What could possibly be outside of this game that's better? A job? A nice house? A wife? I don't know if you've noticed, Sang, but I've been very content with my life the way it's been."
"But that's the lie this kind of thing sells you," Sang replied. "That things can stay the same. A video game never changes, but to be human is to experience change. If you try to remain the same way your whole life, you'll find yourself miserable. You grow up; you mature. Things take on new meanings based on your age and phase of life. This game? It sells you the dream that things don't have to change. And now… now you're going to have to wake up from the dream. You have to wake up and move on."
"But…" Van said with hoarseness in his words, "I don't want to move on."
"Well tough, because you don't have a choice," Sang replied. "The world is moving without your permission and it always will. The best thing you can do is adapt and change. If you try to keep things the same, you will grow more bitter with each passing year. You can't go home again. No one can."
"I guess," Van whispered. "I just wish it was different."
"You say that only because you don't know what's waiting for you past this. What if the best part of your life is waiting for you outside of this game? What if you took all of this effort and energy that you put into this virtual world and applied it to the real world? Van, I've seen you do some incredible things in this game. I know you can do something great outside."
"You really think so?" Van asked.
"I know so," Sang replied. "You've never cared about the real world because there was a better option, but now it's the only option. You have no choice but to care, but the good news is that you have what it takes."
Van slowly nodded. "I really hope so, Sang. I really hope so."
Chapter Seven
Van paced back and forth as he looked out from behind the steel gate. He could count at least four other gates inside of the coliseum, and each gate would hold a separate team. There would be five teams all competing in a team deathmatch known as The Meanest Mother. The rules were exceptionally simple: the last team standing would go on to the next match. Those who lost would be ejected from the fight.
"I'm willing to bet we'll be fighting mostly warrior types," Kylian said. "So I say we let the wizard stay invisible for the duration of the melee, until it's all over."
"I'm more effective during an actual fight," Fredlin replied.
Van turned to face his team. Everyone had been transported behind the cage and given the simple rules for the fight. It would only be a few minutes more until the gates would all slide open and 25 players would pour out into the arena.
"I’m not so sure, Fredlin," Van said. "If you take a stray arrow or a stealth type gets on you, you're dead. If you hold off until the end of the fight, you'll have a better chance of winning it for us."
"Regeneration's been disabled," Sang said. "So that means no one is healing without a cleric."
"Like the clerics won't be the first to die," Sahara said. "I mean, the moment a cleric is pointed out, everyone is going to be on top of them."
"The order of kills are simple," Van said. "Clerics die first, then the wizards, then the ranger guys, and finally the warriors."
"So, we gotta keep you alive, Fredlin," Kylian said. "They'll all be too busy fighting each other to notice that only four of us came out of the gate."
"Agreed," Sang said. "You turn invisible and wait until there are only a few of them left. Best case scenario, you show up when we outnumber out opponents – "
"Worst case scenario is that I'm the only one left against a freaking tank," Fredlin grumbled.
"Hey," Sahara said, "you were the one who wanted to play the wizard."
A booming voice outside shouted, "Let the fight commence!"
"Well, get to it!" Van shouted as the gate began to slide open. Fredlin, still grumbling to himself, waved his hands, turning himself invisible.
"Alright, we'll try to stay tightly packed together," Van said. "Make them come to us!" Everyone followed after their leader as he walked out into the coliseum. The gates were all open and dozens of players were pouring out of the waiting areas.
The battle was absolute chaos. Arrows and spells flew through the air, and Van could see that very few teams had any semblance of cohesion. Archers were shooting at whoever was closest, warriors were clashing against one another, and as they had predicted, anyone with healing powers was killed immediately.
Sang snapped off a few arrows, but the team stayed together in a closely knit formation. Kylian and Van were holding the front, Sahara was at the rear and in the middle was Sang. This formation was like a two-pronged fork and would help them stay alive.
Kylian brandished his axes and growled, "Come on! Who wants to fight me!" His taunt was successful, as three players – all wearing plate mail and armed with spears – came charging towards him.
Sang fire
d arrows at the charging foes, striking several of them for 50 damage apiece, but this did nothing to slow them down.
"Watch my back!" Van shouted to Sahara as he activated his Berserk power. Energy surged through his body as he swung his warhammer straight at the first player who came within range. Kylian swung his axe at the same time, aiming for the oncoming spear and managing to chop the tip of the spear off before it made contact with Van's chest. Van brought his warhammer down with the full fury of a berserker and watched in satisfaction as the words 300 damage floated above the spearman's head.
"Crap!" The spearman shouted as he stumbled back, and he turned to run but two players had jumped him from behind and quickly stabbed him to death with their knives. The other two spearmen tried to fight against Van, but with four players fighting against them, they didn't stand a chance.
Van cheered triumphantly for a moment before realizing that, now that two men were down, two more were coming straight for him. They were armed with twin daggers and were easily evading the hailstorms of arrows coming from all directions. Van grunted in pain as he felt a crossbow bolt land directly between his shoulder blades. 100 damage! greeted him. A few more of those and he'd be out.
"I thought I said, 'watch my back'!" Van shouted to Sahara.
"I'm trying!" Sahara grunted, but Van couldn't glance behind him to see what was going on; it sounded like Sahara was in a fight with someone, of course.
"Heads up!" Kylian called out as he spun his twin axes and moved toward the advancing players, hacking up and down.
Van pressed forward in a charge, feeling more pain as two arrows struck him from the back. 250 damage! floated above him, but he didn't have time to think about it. Instead, he rushed one of the knife-wielding players and swung his hammer down hard. It was no use, however, as the word Dodge greeted him. The knifer, a rogue from the way he was dressed in leather, leaped to the side of Van's hammer and sank his blade right into Van's hamstring.
"Gaaah!" Van shouted as he saw the words Leg Injury ½ Speed hover in front of him. Fortunately, his berserk power allowed him to ignore all of the effects of wounds at least temporarily, and it seemed that this attack hadn't dealt any immediate damage.
