by Tom Hansen
They danced like this for a few moments. Them swinging at him with their pods, trying to stick him with the thorns. He used the bulbous end of his bo to keep them out of attack range. He connected his staff to the already-injured Kobold, striking him down.
He had overextended. The other Kobold, seeing his kin fall to the ground, made a slash at him. Scarhoof dodged by jumping backwards.
Scarhoof tripped over a rock that jutted from the side of the groove and fell sideways into the massive Passionflower plant. His health plummeted as hundreds of barbs embedded themselves into his skin. The pain from each would have barely registered but he could feel something seep into him that burned just under his skin.
Effect Status: Bleeding! -1 Health/Second.
As he pulled away, each barb broke off, leaving hundreds of cuts across his back, arms, and legs. He swung his bo with reckless abandon, the pain almost overwhelming his vision as tears filled his eyes.
His bo slammed into something squishy, sending jarring motions up its length and into his hands. With blurry vision, he watched the second Kobold slump to the ground.
Quest Available! Killer Kobolds:
You were attacked by rabid Kobolds while collecting the herbs for tonight’s bonfire. Report this strange activity to the Eldermother.
He activated Mending Force twice in a row to bring him to full health and stop the bleeding. But the bleeding didn’t stop.
Effect Status: Bleeding! Your attempt to remove the bleeding effect has failed. Remove the spines causing the bleeding effect and try again.
He sighed, dejected. His back was covered in spines. He would never manage to get them all out on his own. He glanced at the timer ticking down. Forty-five minutes left until he needed to return the flowers to Eldermother and he still didn’t have the passionflowers needed. He also needed to deliver the note for the Chieftain to Kardkaw and catch his fellow guards up on the happenings of the day.
He turned to the large plant that had become his bane and, using the bo, carefully popped off one of the large seed pods.
Quest Update! Bonfire Preparations: Passionflower Pod 1/10
At least he had the right items. He decided that fulfilling the quest was more important than taking the time to try to remove the barbs from his skin. His mana regenerated with more than enough time to keep his health topped off. He would finish obtaining the pods, then hoof it to the guard station and be back in time to complete the quest.
Chapter 04
Despite his detour into the Kobold territory, he made it back to the path and jogged toward the crack in the curved walls that made up the cove.
All around him, the looming sandstone cast growing shadows, making it harder to see. More than once he paused to heal himself and to make sure he was still on the path.
A nervous chill ran up his spine. He wished he’d thought about bringing a torch or had asked Eldermother for a Gloworb, but he probably would have broken it in his fight with the Kobolds.
The constant healing helped keep the thorns in his back from overwhelming his senses, and soon they became a dull pain in the back of his mind. Shadows continued to take over his thoughts.
That and the smell.
Because of the lack of sunlight this deep into the cove, the rainfall might have been a welcome respite from the scorching sun. Instead, it filled cracks and eddies in the rock before turning fetid.
He wrinkled his nose as he stepped in a slimy pool, catching the whiff of an unmistakable smell.
The guard station latrine. He was finally home.
“Hey-ho, Tau’raj!” He shouted in his native tongue, the ancient dialect spoken almost exclusively by the elders of the clan.
Three guards were stationed at Sunset Cove; Sonvey Lonebreath, the eldest of the three and the one that had first volunteered to protect the Cove; Kardkaw Thunderdraft, who was a decade older than Scarhoof but had only been there a year; and himself. They were his tribe, more-so than the rest of the village they were sworn to protect.
Three soldiers, past their prime, continuing to serve.
“Hey-ho, Tau’raj!” He called again, waiting for the proper reply before approaching.
His shout echoed off the walls with an unsettling reverberation. He cautioned a couple steps forward. The floor was slick, and he put out a hand to steady himself.
He instantly withdrew it when he felt something wet and slimy. This was his home, where he spent most of his time, but something wasn’t right. It made his mane stand on edge.
“Hello?”
They should have replied by now.
He was just outside the cut in the rock where the guards lived. What was going on? Something dire was happening but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
There was no light! There was always a lantern hung on the wall, yet, tonight there was none.
Where had it gone?
He took another step forward, and his hoof banged into something on the ground. It rattled away, and the distinctive metallic rattle revealed what he had kicked. The missing lantern.
His fur bristled, his dark mane standing out on his neck and back.
Something is wrong. Where are the guards?
That’s when he heard the moan. It was a painful, pleading cry for help.
His health was halfway down, and he tossed two Mending Forces on himself for good measure. He couldn’t have the pain of the barbs in his back worming its way into his already adrenaline-filled mind.
Avoiding the lantern, he stepped into the rocky doorway. A metallic pall hung in the air like when they slaughtered the pigs once a year.
He peeked through the hewn doorway.
Four bodies lay on the ground; two of them were Tau’raj, one lay horns up with a stricken expression on his pallid face, the other horns down. Neither moved. The other two were difficult to place at first, but the shimmering blue scales gave it away.
He was suddenly very aware of his rapid breathing, and his tail swishing back and forth. His friends lay on the ground right in front of him. He wasn’t here to help them when they most needed him.
Guilt and terror gripped his insides, twisting his innards at the grisly sight.
Remain focused, Scar. Investigate.
He pulled his weapon from its holster and held it at the ready.
First, he checked the dead Nagos, to ensure they were no threat. The large bodies were easily the same size as his, if not larger. The first one’s head was nearly severed from its puncture riddled body.
The second one missed an arm and half of its tail. Its pallid eyes were caked with dried blood.
They weren’t getting up anytime soon.
Scarhoof grabbed the upturned lantern and lit it to see better. He instantly regretted the action.
Blood was everywhere. It coated the walls and the floor. The smell somehow worse now that he could see it.
Despite being accustomed to the smell of blood, this wasn’t a harvest of animals for their meat. This was a bloodbath. His stomach wrenched, threatening to spill its contents all over the worn sandstone floor, but he closed his eyes for a moment to center his thoughts.
He glanced at the slowly ticking timer to take his mind off the grim scene, then brushed it out of the way. None of that mattered anymore. Who cared if there were flowers to be used for the bonfire tonight?
With no imminent threat of attack, he needed to check his companions.
Kardkaw lay face down in a pool of blood on the other side of the room, close to the outside entrance to the Cove. A trident stuck in his side.
Sonvey was on his back a few meters closer to Scarhoof, but neither one’s chest moved.
His life bar blinked once it was below 50%, reminding him of his new-found healing abilities. He targeted the closer guard and released a Mending Spirit.
Target: Sonvey Lonebreath is dead. Healing spells will not work on this target. Use a Resurrection spell in the next three minutes or he will be permanently dead.
He tried again with the same message,
his heart pounded in his tightening chest. “No!” He wound up another spell but let it go at the last second. It was too late. A rush of emotions welled up inside his chest. Sorrow, despair, and fear.
He knelt next to Sonvey, who lay face up in a pool of blood. His face bore a spattering of white powder. Scarhoof was unable to see any visible injuries until he turned him over to see a large gash across his back, along with multiple bite wounds along his legs and arms. Hunks of flesh had been torn from him, creating a grisly scene.
Scarhoof had been around death early in his life and had learned to deal with it. There was a certain serenity in death, a balance to the grief that accompanied the loss of a loved one.
He knelt next to his fallen comrade, reciting a prayer to the Spiritmother for his soul to find eternal peace. His jaw trembled, threatening to overwhelm him as he folded the guard’s arms across his chest and found a blanket with which to cover him.
He heard a moan and whirled around. A slight movement from Kardkaw’s tail signified he was still alive.
He rushed over, placing a hand on the fallen friend. “I’m here, Kardkaw, I’m here.” Scarhoof rolled the bull over and found another blanket to cover him. “I can heal you. Hold on there, soldier.”
Kardkaw’s voice was low and weak, but his arm shot out and he gripped Scarhoof’s forearm. “My brother, the Nagos is inside.” He coughed, but despite this, the injured Kardkaw’s grip never wavered. He was the strongest bull Scarhoof had ever known, and even as the life slipped from him, his strength and concern for others didn’t fade.
Now that he was rolled over, Scarhoof was able to get a better look at his brother in arms.
Kardkaw’s face was also covered in the white powder, and his snout was battered and scarred, but what struck Scarhoof the most was his eyes. Instead of the normal black eyes of the Tau’raj, Kardkaw’s were milky white.
Memories of the two battles he had already fought today flooded his mind. Once-docile and frightened creatures were becoming feral and aggressive. What was happening to make their eyes go white?
The dying bull squeezed Scarhoof’s hand again, jolting him from his thoughts. The pressure in his arm reminded him of the pain in his back. His health continued to tick down and was below 25% now. It was slow, but he would need to heal himself soon.
But his mana was full, and he needed to use his newly acquired abilities to save his friend.
“It’s okay, I will alert the others, but I need to heal you first.”
Kardkaw laughed, a deep, painful wrack. “Heal? You cannot get me to Eldermother fast enough.” He let go of Scarhoof’s arm and pointed a shaking hand toward the village.
“Tell the Eldermother. Nagos,” he paused to cough again, making a violent, gurgling sound. Pink foam edged from his mouth. “Nagos are inside the Cove. You must protect the Cove, brother. Save them, or we all die.”
Quest Update! Mysterious Blue Scale:
Deliver news to the Eldermother. Let her know about the Nagos inside the cove and the attack on the guards. (Gained 50 XP!)
Level Up! You are now Level Two!
+100 Health. +100 Stamina. +100 Mana. +2 Talent Points (Note: Talents will not be unlocked until Level 10). XP Needed for next level: 300.
New Skill! Spirit Shock (Offensive Skill):
Damage: 40. Cost: 40. Cast Time: 1. Shocks the target with a spiritual blast. Each successful blast increases the target’s vulnerability to future blasts by 1%, raises critical strike chance by 1%, and lowers the cost of mana by 1%. Max of ten stacks. Duration: 10.
Scarhoof stared, unable to speak. He had never leveled up before and the euphoric feeling and fancy light display around him would have been breathtaking if he wasn’t in the middle of a crisis.
He didn’t have time to bask in the new-found abilities, he needed to save his friend.
At least the leveling up had maxed out his health, stamina and mana, and wiped out the bleed effect. He now only had one bull’s health to worry about.
Scarhoof stood and formed the words and hand patterns. The power of Spirit welled inside him, building in his chest. He targeted his friend, who’s breath was beginning to come ragged.
Mending Force swirled around the bull. His health jumped to 10%, then promptly dropped back to 8%.
He cast again. Kardkaw’s health jumped another 10, then down by 2.
Target: Kardkaw Thunderdraft has Medium Damage and cannot be healed above 25%. Use a higher-level spell to heal his injuries.
Scarhoof stared at the error message, feeling utterly useless. He’d received the gift of magic today, but what good is all of that if he can’t save his friend’s life?
It would have to do while he got his friend back to Eldermother.
He constructed a stretcher for Kardkaw securing the old bull with leather straps. It would be a rough trip back to the village, but it needed to happen.
Scarhoof hoped he had enough mana to get him back to Eldermother in time.
Before he left, he moved Sonvey’s body to his cot in the corner, promising to come back and bury him properly.
He reached a hand out, clasping the dead Tau’raj on the shoulder as a tear rolled down his cheek. “I’m sorry brother. I will not let the cove fall. I will avenge your death.”
Interlude One
Ewan Alban surveyed the gaggle of reporters looking for nines or tens.
The earpiece was too large, and didn’t fit like it should, but his surfer-dude hairstyle hid the piece from the cameras.
He glanced at his watch. He had a meeting in fifteen minutes with Agamemnon and Mariana. Most of the news agencies had arrived, the rest could just wait for the official feed. Time to get this going. He stepped forward to the mic and coughed to get their attention.
“Greetings!” He waited for a five count before repeating himself, just enough time for people to realize he was talking and turn in his direction. “Greetings, everyone. Let’s get this party started.”
Behind him, the large screen with a picture of the Earth changed to a sweeping shot of Eloria, the game world and the reason they were all here.
“As you all now know, The louVRe Adventure, our latest, and the most innovative game on the planet, went live one hour ago. This was not a bug or a mistake. We were simply … we were done! Our internal testing showed that we wouldn’t have an appreciable increase in quality by pouring more resources into it.”
He flashed a grin, knowing his blond hair, piercing blue eyes and $10,000 suit would be all over the news tonight. He was the face of the company as far as the media was concerned, and he loved the limelight. At 28, he was the youngest director in the company. Being the head of Epoch’s gaming division, the premature release was squarely on his shoulders. Still, he had this.
He turned his right side, his better side, and sidled up to the audience. He wriggled his eyebrow at the cute brunette on the front row and flashed her a coy smirk before continuing.
“Basically, we knew the players wanted to play, and the game was complete enough to release.”
She smiled back, a knowingness behind her smile. He would look her up after his meeting with the CEO.
He squared off on the camera again.
“We are calling this a soft launch. As of right now …” He spun around, and the screen behind him changed to a graph with time and players as their two axis, “… we have eight million players. It’s the first hour. You don’t get numbers like that with a half-ass game. Our AI, Laisseze, is a top-of-the-line algorithm that has revolutionized the programming industry in the last few months.
“It used to take us years with hundreds of programmers, artists, and sound engineers, to come up with intellectual properties. Just last year, we released Borindal Online, hardly a slouch to the industry, but that game took us seven years to create.
“Laisseze cut development time to a few months, and most of that was us fine-tuning out his development strategies and modeling frameworks for standard human interfaces.
He strode
up to the microphone again, taking his cocky side-long stance and eyeing a Japanese girl. “We’re a bunch of bad-ass programmers, and we’re so confident in our coding that we put out the game early. I’d like to see our competitors even come close. That is, if we had competitors.”
This brought a massive round of applause from the crowd. He stepped back, assuming a casual stance as the crowd of sycophantic hand-picked reporters applauded Epoch’s largest fuck-up.
Give it the proper spin, and they would cheer you on for running over their own mothers. He loved every second of it.
As the applause slowed, a voice in his ear reminded him he was on the clock and to wrap it up. He gulped. As fun as this was, he had somewhere to be.
He would need a third girl to make it all worth it, and he picked her out. Redhead. Ooh, she was fine. She would pair well with the other two.
He flashed her a smile and knew that he’d gotten through.
He squared up on the podium once again. “A couple of questions, I think, are in order?” He pointed to the redhead.
She nearly blushed upon his selection.
Alpha. As. Fuck.
It took her a second to collect her thoughts and remember she had notes to refer to. “There have been reports that out-of-game discussions are not allowed in-game. What is the reasoning behind this change and why wasn’t it announced?”
Shit.
He had no idea what she was talking about but returned a knowing nod and a smile. He felt his heartbeat increase and his hands begin to sweat.
Someone in his ear spoke. “Sorry, we got nothing.”
Fucking incompetents!
“Remember, this is the first fully-immersive game ever made. Previous VR games were limited in their ability to interact on a basic level with us, as humans, but this game is available to those with the LDNI chipset.
