by Deck Davis
I concentrated on my map, but it was like watching milk boil in a pan. The more I stared, the longer it seemed to take.
“This isn’t working. The damn overseers have messed with things,” said Eddie.
No sooner had he said the words, then our dots faded in color on my map. I smiled. Lucas might have messed with parts of the New Eden map, but he hadn’t been able to change the fundamentals of a VBR. If you stayed still for long enough, your dots disappeared from the map so that other teams couldn’t see you. Of course, we could still see our own dots, since we needed to know where we were. Except now, their color had dulled a little, indicating that we were hidden.
I focused on the forest ahead of us. “Are they set?” I asked.
Glora nodded.
“Okay then. Then let’s do this. Glora, set a map marker.”
I switched my view back to my map. A second later, a purple pin appeared on the forest area in front of us, indicating that it was a team map marker. This better work, I thought.
With the map marker set, it was a matter of waiting. I hoped that since Glora’s avatar had been bugged so that certain other teams could track our markers, then one of the two teams left would come to get us. They’d see our map marker and know where we were headed, and they wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity to ambush us.
Team Wolfhound’s map dots didn’t alter course. Instead they moved directly toward the Newtown Estates. The New Eden Tronix, on the other hand, suddenly switch direction. They had been heading toward the estate themselves, but now they started to move in a direction that led to the forest.
I smiled. Hope you like that, Lucas, I thought. “Move on my signal,” I whispered to the team.
“Got it,” said Eddie.
“Roger that, partner,” answered Rynk.
Glora didn’t say anything.
I closed the map, and then watched as the Tronix approached the forest from the opposite direction to us. Autumn sunlight shone through gaps in the clouds overhead, and when it hit the Tronix’s ridiculously glittery uniforms, they seemed to sparkle like disco balls. This was pure arrogance. Most teams didn’t want to announce their presence to other fighters by wearing uniforms that danced when sunlight hit, yet the Tronix were diamond -rated, and they thought they were the best team in the world. They believed they were unstoppable. With that said, the fact that some parts of their uniforms were covered by armor was a clear signal that deep-down, these guys knew that they weren’t infallible. We could get to them.
Right now, I knew they’d be smiling to themselves. They would believe that we had no idea that they could see our map markers. So, their plan would be to head to our marker before us and wait in ambush. But I had a smile of my own, and it spread wider than ever when the Tronix walked into the forest, and straight into the series of Hex traps that I’d had Glora place.
Sparks of light shot out within the forest. Blue snaps of light exploded and burst when the Tronix stepped on Glora’s traps. I heard the Tronix team members shout to each other in alarm. One guy cried out orders while another shouted expletives, yet it didn’t matter. They were all held by a trap each now. Even when one trap faded, the forest was so laced with traps that they’d just blunder straight into another.
“It’s time,” I said.
We leapt to our feet and sprinted toward the forest. I brandished my waraxe in the air. Then, not knowing where the hell it came from, I shouted a war cry. I roared like the leader of an invading barbarian army as I closed the gap to the forest. I don’t know if it was anger, exhilaration at having a plan work, or some adrenaline-rich mix of both, but I roared louder and louder.
The Tronix, held fast in Glora’s mana traps, turned in the direction of my shout. Each of the four struggled to move, but to no avail. Even the best coaches, runes and strategists in the game couldn’t help them now, since they were stuck fast in traps of swirling mana.
I focused on the man nearest to me, the one who had been barking orders. As I ran into the shadow of the tree line and then into the mini-forest, I concentrated on him. When I reached him, I swung my axe as hard as I could, burying it deep into his chest. Man, that felt good.
Eddie, Rynk and Glora similarly found their targets, and they wasted no time in hacking away at the trapped Tronix members. Our enemies shrieked in pain and shouted in disbelief, and sometimes uttered unintelligible sounds that I assumed were a mixture of the two. Axes, daggers, and scimitars met flesh. Hitpoints drained, blood splattered, war cries and shouts of agony echoed in the woods. No sooner did some of Glora’s traps run out of mana and release their captors, then the Tronix would stumble into more of them, holding them. One by one, the New Eden Tronix fighters met their end.
With the Tronix fighters finally dead, I sat on the forest ground and caught my breath. My axe blade was covered in blood. My bicep ached from having swung my weapon so often and with such incredible intensity. I heard three thuds as my teammates all sat on the ground too. A combat message icon appeared in the corner of my vision. I opened it.
Level up to Level 8!
-HP increased to 300
-Stamina increased to 281
-Mana increased to 390
Unspent skill points: 1
[Upgrade existing skill]
-Armorer [3/5]
- Terrain Drain [2/5]
- Abmeleon [1/5]
- Skill Steal [1/5]
I decided that Armorer and Skill steal weren’t be worth sinking an extra point into. I already had one spare Armorer and Skill Steal to use, and in the chaos of battle I doubted that I’d get chance to use them more than once. Instead, I had a plan. With that in mind, I spent my point.
Abmeleon upgraded! [2/5]
After using my skill point, I stood up. The forest was eerily silent now, and the bodies of the New Eden Tronix team littered the ground. I faced my team. “You know what to do,” I said.
We each looted equipment from the Tronix fighters we’d killed, swapping some of our armor for theirs. I scored a metal chest piece that boosted my defence by a hundred points. After equipping it, I felt ready. It was time to see some old friends.
Chapter Seventeen
3 Teams Remaining
The last time I’d been in Autumn Steampunk, back in the ill-fated Bernli VBR, my team and I had approached Newtown Estate by the front gates, taking cover near the giant billboard that proclaimed: ‘Welcome to Newtown Estate: A Family Neighborhood.’ This time, we went east and climbed the sloping hill that loomed over the estate.
Below us were a series of 3D printed houses. They looked cheap, and they were entirely free of the elusive ‘character’ and ‘curb appeal’ that people usually looked for in homes. Instead, this was a tightly-packed gridline of white-washed dwellings that seemed to be perfect clones of each other. I could imagine the types of people who’d buy homes like this; families of two parents and two children (a girl and a boy, of course.) The type of family that populated dozens of sitcoms. In other words, your average-looking family unit, with a mom and dad who had nine-to-five jobs, who mowed their lawns every Saturday even when it was raining, and who toiled away at jobs they hated to earn enough money to pay their mortgage and maybe even sneak in a holiday on a sunny shore. Of course, nowadays people didn’t seek out the sun on their sojourns; cold, snow-covered towns were the most sought-after.
This estate had no such residents or families. Instead, two teams fought in the streets. Team Wraith and Team Wolfhound faced off against each other, matching sword for sword and axe for axe. I peered down from the sloping hill and I saw Sera with her green skin and her now-completely shaven head. I saw Vorm wielding a thick metal-rimmed bow, firing arrow after arrow, squinting as he took aim, and chewing on the cigar that hung from the corner of his mouth. Clyde, looking humongous in his bear avatar, loomed in front of them, absorbing the damage from Team Wraith’s arrows and spells using his Mana Shield skill. Nearby, I caught a glimpse of the fourth, and newest, member of Team Wolfhound, but I lost s
ight of them when they ducked into the doorway of a house to escape a volley of arrows. I couldn’t help wondering who they were.
The last time we had been here, Sera, Vorm, Clyde and I had approached the front entrance while Team Wraith had been up on the hills, carefully watching the battle and waiting for a chance to strike. This time, it was us up on the hills.
I turned to my team. Eddie was crouched on his haunches and chewing his bottom lip, studying the battlefield below with the calm air of a future Team Perlshaw captain. Rynk had his scimitar resting on his lap, while Glora rhythmically tapped the ground with the bottom of her axe handle.
“We set on the plan?” I said.
“Are you sure this’ll work?” asked Rynk.
“I’m not sure about anything, but a plan’s a plan, and it’s what we’ve got.”
Eddie nodded. He had an air of confidence about him now. “It’ll work,” he said, with such surety that my confidence was boosted. The fact was, I hadn’t been a hundred percent sure of my plan. Just being near Newtown Estates brought back the helplessness I’d felt when I was here before, back when I’d watched my team purposefully charge toward their in-game deaths.
Things were different now, I reminded myself. This time, the higher ground was ours. Not only that, but my team was different. I knew I could trust Eddie implicitly, and even Rynk had proven himself. Glora was a different story; she’d betrayed us, but I knew she was sorry. Now was the time for her to make it up to us.
“Time to do it,” I said. “While they’re fighting, we’ll catch them off guard. Eddie, you ready?”
He nodded. “I can almost taste my first victory sip of Mulgoon’s Blue Moon. Only available in the Thirsty Rat, by the way.”
“Then let’s go. Glora, Rynk, you know what you’re waiting for, right?”
“C’mon, partner. You told us, and we get it. Wait for you to sneak down and take a couple out, then hit ‘em with my Blade Float and the girl’s Hex Igni. Let’s do it already.”
I activated Abmeleon. Yellow light, almost like mist, began to seep out of my fingertips. It gathered in my palms until it was a ball as big as a pumpkin, and then it washed down my arms, onto my chest, and then over my head and my legs. Soon, my armor disappeared. When I held my arm out in front of me, it was see-through. It was the same golden-brown color as the hills we were stood on.
Eddie, for his part, activated his Sneak Attack. Although this didn’t make him disappear like my Abmeleon skill, it muted his footsteps. When he got close to anything that cast a shadow, the shadows would latch onto him and magnify, almost blending him in. With our skills working, Eddie and I found the least treacherous slope that led down the hill. We followed it, careful not to kick any of the stones and rocks littering it so that we didn’t send them crashing down to the streets below. The further down we went, the more my mana drained. I quickly checked it.
Mana: 365 / 390
Even at level two, my Abmeleon skill drained my mana like a thirsty drunk slurping on a six-pack. I knew I had to save a hefty chunk of it to be able to use my other skills, but right now there was no question of turning it off.
When we got to the bottom of the hill, we found ourselves at the side of a house. There was a window next to me, and when I peeked in I saw a child’s bedroom. There was a poster on the wall for Avengers 28: Re-return of Ultron, and a bunch of action figures scattered on the floor.
I could hear the fighting more clearly now that I was level with it, though the house wall still blocked the streets from view. I heard Sera barking orders at Clyde and Vorm. One of Team Wraith grunted, either through expending effort or getting hurt. Arrows thwacked into the plastic sides of the houses. It was mayhem, a chorus of shouts and expletives, mixed with the whoosh of spells.
I risked a peek around the corner. Nearest to me, Clyde was fighting one of Team Wraith. His opponent was the Wraith member who wore the executioner’s hood. His name appeared in text above his head.
Gary Grimdark [Team Wraith]
Though his avatar was a giant bear, Clyde had more than met his match with Grimdark, who seemed to be only a few inches short of being a giant. He held a scythe than would have been unwieldly for anyone smaller than him. Blade light seemed to shine from the curved blade, and wisps of it drifted off like smoke every time he swung the weapon. A slice from that would sting like hell.
“Your move, Eddie,” I said.
Eddie nodded. With his Sneak Attack working, and steadily draining his mana, he crouched down and moved silently away from the house. Watching him move into the open streets made me a little nervous for him, but he crept toward every available shadow with the practiced movements of someone who’d long-since mastered the Rogue class. He skipped into the shadow of a car, then a tree, each time allowing the black shadows latch onto him and shield him from view.
Finally, he got close enough to Grimdark. As the giant executioner swung his scythe at Clyde, Eddie sprang out from the shadows. He leapt toward the giant with his dagger pointed out. Sunlight seemed to bounce off the small, but hideously sharp, blade. A second later, and he had plunged it deep into the giant’s neck, tearing through skin and tendons, and spraying the pavements with blood.
His Sneak Attack meant that he scored a critical hit when attacking from out of sight. Since Grimdark had had his back to Eddie, there was no chance he could have seen him. Now, when Eddie pulled out his blade, a spray of blood covered his clothes and splattered onto the grey road.
Grimdark sank down to one knee. He tried to stand, but the effort was too much for him. His executioner hood had fallen lopsided on his face, so he ripped it off and threw it on the ground. Pain was written into his expression, deep etchings of it that seemed to get worse with each gush of blood from his neck. Eddie plunged his dagger again and again. Grimdark miraculously stayed on his knees, and even tried to stand up once more. Just one more dagger stab was all it took to finish him completely.
Wasting no time, and all too aware that my mana had dropped below 300, I darted out from the side of the house. My Abmeleon skill adapted as I moved, taking on the grey color of the road, the white of a nearby house, and then the silver of the car parked alongside it.
I fixed my gaze on Clyde. Ever the epitome of cool, he hadn’t betrayed an inch of surprise at seeing Eddie leap out from the shadows. Instead, he raised his sword. It was a bulky broadsword with a gleaming blade. A purple gem was set into the hilt, which meant that it was an arcane elemental weapon. One or two hits of that would have sliced through Eddie, who hadn’t looted good enough armor for such a contest. I had to help him.
I ran across to Clyde. Even as I got close to him, he still hadn’t seen me. As he marched toward Eddie, I intercepted him. He was close enough to Eddie now that he raised his broadsword and was ready to strike. That was when I activated Armorer.
With this skill working, my Abmeleon skill faded, since I couldn’t run two active skills at once. This time, Clyde did show a look of shock, and I couldn’t help grinning as I saw his eyes widen. Before he could react, I gave him a shove. The physical contact brought a line of text in front of me.
Armorer skill activated!
Select a proficiency to steal:
Sword
Axe
Mace
Spear
I quickly selected sword.
Sword proficiency gained!
I knew that now, Clyde wouldn’t be able to swing his broadsword. I waited for it to fall out of his hands, like the wood felling axe had fallen from Johnny Cuthelm’s hands when I stole his proficiency. Clyde was too quick for me. In a split-second, he put his broadsword back into the sheath on his belt. He slung his inventory bag around so that it was on his chest, and he pulled a mace from it.
Damn. I should have known that, of all people, Clyde would be wise to my Abmeleon abilities. He was the epitome of a professional, and there was no doubt that he would have read up on every single fighter in the VBR, and he’d know each kind of avatar class he’d be fa
cing. He must have known that I was an Abmeleon, and that I could steal proficiencies. The problem I had now was that since the broadsword was in his inventory, I couldn’t get it from him unless he was dead. This left me with a new sword proficiency that I couldn’t use.
Out of instinct, I took a step back so that Clyde couldn’t hit me, but rather than try and strike me, he instead closed the gap even further between him and Eddie. He raised the mace and opened his mouth.
I knew what was coming next. Clyde was a Battlemaster, with his chief skill being War Bellow. While I’d shouted a war cry back in the forest, it was mostly for dramatic effect. Clyde’s shouts could actually do something.
He opened his mouth and roared. Red light burst from his mouth and coated the spiked head of his mace. It turned a red color, almost like blood. It grew redder and redder as though it were heating up, and soon it glowed like coal in a blacksmith’s forge.
