by Brian Simons
Everyone stood around Coral, watching in silence as she repeated this symbol on the other eight pieces of armor, using up the last of the salve in the process. Then she stood and held one up to look at it.
“It may have worked,” she said. The Regent and others looked uneasy.
“May have?” one guard asked.
“I started with Carapace Armor I crafted last night,” Coral said. “Now it’s Embalmed Carapace Armor. That means the salve did something. I just can’t prove what. But if my theory is right, it should bring the wearer back to full health after their HP reaches zero. The armor provides an extra attack upon death, which will prevent the wearer’s body from vanishing. When the juvensprig kicks in, it reduces respawn time to zero, which should revive the wearer to full health where they stand.”
“That’s brilliant,” the Regent said, “if it works. If it doesn’t, my guards will perish forever, correct?”
“Correct,” Coral said. The guards seemed unenthused.
“One thing we know,” Daniel said, “is that there is no life outside these gates while Otto carries that axe. He has terrorized the city, killed our friends, family, and countrymen, and still hasn’t faced justice. We can cower here, imprisoned in the castle by our own fear, or we can place our faith in this new armor and each other and fight this threat head on. Who’s with us?”
As he spoke, he saw the guards’ expressions change. He wasn’t sure whether his words were just that convincing, or if his high Diplomacy did the work for him, but he didn’t care. He could see they were really thinking about joining the fight.
Janice was the first to step forward. “I’ll take one. I’ll fight with you. For Havenstock!” One by one, more guards stepped forward until Coral had nine volunteers.
Riding the high of having convinced nine of the Regent’s guards to fight against Otto, Daniel decided to press his luck further. He walked into the center of the castle’s great hall and cupped his hands around his mouth.
“Havenstockians!” he yelled. “Just like you, I’m here because I have nowhere else to go. I can’t just log off and go to work. This is my work. And there’s someone out there trying to take that away. I also can’t just go to one of the other kingdoms. We’re not welcome there. And many of us aren’t strong enough to make the journey without falling prey to other foes.
“What you may not know is that the other kingdoms aren’t safe either. Otto plans to kill Januar with his Soulkeeper Axe. If he succeeds, it will mean the end of rebirth, wherever we run to. It will turn every weapon into a Soulkeeper.
“This week, we sought shelter. We ran, we hid, we planned, we hoped. But today, we fight! Today we take back the streets of Havenstock. We take back all of Travail!” Daniel watched his speech excite the crowd. He watched heads nod and eyes light up with hope. He thrust his sword in the air and yelled, “Who’s with me?”
Swords and maces, bows and staffs, fists and spears shot into the air in unison. The crowd cheered. These were not NPCs whose decisions could be swayed by high Diplomacy. These were real people, young and old, sitting at home with visors on. These were people who spent long days in one room, physically alone, hoping to forge connections with other people virtually and scrape together enough gold to keep the bill collectors at bay. These were people with something to lose if today’s battle went awry. But they were people with a newfound hope, who had a chance to be a part of something important.
The guards were outfitted. The crowd was rallied. As if on cue, a message filtered into all of their world chat logs.
>> Januar has descended from the sky near Havenstock. Countdown to Januar’s renewal: 15 minutes.
Daniel walked toward the front of the castle without looking back. He saw in his peripheral vision that Coral had caught up to him, wearing the tight leather kit that matched his own, cinched with the lizardskin belt she had crafted for the team.
Sybil sidled up on his other side, her white hair bobbing in time with her stride. She carried her spear like a baton, never letting it touch the ground.
Sal appeared next, alongside Sybil, his massive frame rippling and jiggling as they walked.
They passed through the marketplace, once so vibrant and loud, now deserted. They walked past the fountain, past abandoned carts full of rotting fruit and wagons left idle without horses to pull them. They passed the shopping district on their right, where every store had been boarded up indefinitely, and the residential district on their left with houses left dark and vacant.
And they marched. South of the city’s edge and past the expansive farmlands, until they arrived at Havenstock’s welcome point. The place where all young citizens caught the first glimpse of their future, and the place where Januar now stood.
The god stood quietly. His face pointed toward the west. With his eyes on the sides of his head, he had one pointed north toward the crowd and the other pointing south. Large sections of his skin had already pulled away from his arms and the back of his neck. They peeled away from him in strips, revealing more layers of dry skin underneath. Daniel saw the god’s eye open slowly and sweep over the crowd, then close again. He looked tired.
Alua leaned forward toward Daniel. “He has started his final molt,” she said. “He won’t have the energy to teleport away now. Not until he has shed his old skin and revealed his youthful form. We must protect him.”
The crowd waited. None had witnessed Januar molt before, and all seemed awed by what played out before them. Full tracts of skin peeled away of their own accord and fell lightly to the ground. It was as religious an experience as anyone could have in Travail, witnessing the god’s own rebirth. Then the god cocked his head to the side and the crowd was sprayed with blood. Had they seen through the massive deity, they would have noticed Otto approaching from due south.
All hell broke loose. The royal guards rushed to the forefront, forming a blockade between Otto and Januar. Daniel ran close behind, and stared at Otto for what felt like an eternity. Sal stood behind one of the guards, and enacted Severe Bloat. He doubled his height and circumference, looking more like an inflated parade float than a warrior.
Sybil took her position directly behind Sal and planted her spear in the ground, pivoting it on the sharp bottom and tilting it toward her face like a microphone stand. She pulled out her songbook and started to sing Revenge of the Living.
We’ll never let you live in peace now,
That we have you trapped.
And your torture will never cease now,
‘Til your spine is snapped.
‘Cause when you came after one of us,
You came for us all.
But you underestimated us,
And you’ll lose this brawl.
We’re gonna cut you, and gut you, and make you feel pain.
We’re gonna torch you, and scorch you, and poison your veins.
We’re gonna shoot your eyes and brutalize until you go insane.
Then if you make the mistake of staying awake we’re gonna do it all again!
>> All allies get +5% to Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. All enemies get -5% to Constitution.
Coral hung back and drew her bow. She aimed her arrows high and they arced over the crowd surrounding Otto, landing in his neck, his back, his chest.
Other players rushed into the fray, hacking with their own blades, shooting arrows imbued with fire and ice, casting spells that landed on Otto with explosive power or sending tendrils of vines to slow him down.
At long last, Daniel finished Surveilling Otto.
>> You have Surveilled Otto: Level 236 Shopkeeper, 10,260 HP.
Daniel was astounded. He had never fought a Level 236 anything before. Not when he was a high level Fighter, and certainly not now that he was a lowbie Scout.
Otto’s HP was mind-numbing. The constant barrage of attacks Otto took barely seemed to faze him. He swung his axe at the thicket of players that surrounded him, knocking players down like dominoes. First a Fighter fell to the ground, d
ead despite his full set of shining mythril armor. Then a black-belted Monk fell beside him, blood drenching his robes. They quickly disappeared. As other bodies fell, they vanished too. These players had sacrificed everything just to land a hit or two against their shared enemy. Their gold, their gear, their progress, all of it would be irretrievably lost.
After the first few players fell, the melee fighters drew back. The reality of how strong this Otto doppelganger was had started to set in. As they retreated, the royal guards were left as the front line of defense, with a ring of players behind them sending ranged and magic attacks at Otto.
Otto had no special armor. He was still dressed the same as his lowly counterpart, the version of himself that ran a small item shop. He wore simple brown trousers and a green woven shirt. This Otto barely showed any injuries, despite the combined attacks he had sustained.
Armed only with his short sword, Daniel felt like a fraud. He had led all of these people and NPCs into battle, but he himself hung back, too weak and ill-equipped to last in hand to hand combat with the overpowered shopkeeper.
Otto had not forgotten what he came for. At the center of the battle with him was Januar. Otto charged the row of royal guards with his axe, hitting one and sending the others scattering. This gave him access to Januar, and he swung his axe at the molting lizard, sending flakes of skin to the ground. The guards regrouped, so Otto attacked them again, and returned his attention to Januar. The god was taking a beating. Daniel could try to intervene, to protect the deity from Otto’s axe, but he wouldn’t last three seconds that close. He peered at the god for a while to see how he was faring against Otto.
>> Surveil failed. Januar cannot be Surveilled.
Great. So there was no way to know how much longer Januar could hold up. Two of the guards rushed toward Otto to block his attacks on their local god. One held out a sword and caught Otto’s axe midair, the other drove a sword into Otto’s side. The blade sank deep into his flesh, but didn’t seem to affect him. With his free hand, Otto grabbed the sword, pulled it out of his side, and yanked it away from the guard. He drove the sword straight through the heart of the guard that was blocking his axe.
The guard fell to the ground with the sword through his chest. He lay motionless for one second, two seconds. Everyone froze in anticipation. Then his eyes opened wide again and he jumped to his feet. He pulled the sword out of his body and jabbed it at Otto. Otto took a direct hit and the guard kept fighting.
The crowd cheered. Coral’s armor had worked. It brought the guard back from death not only for one posthumous attack, but for good. The other guards rushed toward the center of the fight.
Some of the mages on the outskirts stopped casting spells, likely due to their MP limits. Archers soon ran out of arrows. The lower level melee class players stood in a ring around the main fight, watching and cheering, but too vulnerable to fight up close.
The only wizard still casting spells was the yellow-robed man that stood beside the Regent. Alua stood by his side as well. Her eyes were closed and her tattoos glowed brightly. Then Daniel saw Januar begin to glow in the same shade of green. Whatever Alua was doing, she was trying to protect Januar.
Otto struggled against the guards that had swarmed him. He punched and kicked, but he mostly tried to use his outsized white axe. Death by any other means would still leave the possibility of respawn for NPCs and reincarnation for players, at least while Januar still lived.
Then Otto sank his axe into the shoulder of a guard. The blade sank deep into her body cavity as blood gushed from her body in spurts. She fell limp and lifeless, but then sprang back to life to continue her fight. The guards backed away from Otto at once, noticing something that took Daniel another moment to see. Janice was back in the fight, but her armor had split and fallen off. She was no longer protected by the carapace armor that Coral had embalmed with juvensprig. It wasn’t durable enough to last this far into the fight.
The guards looked confused. They had entered this fight expecting to live through it, but now they couldn’t be sure. When the Regent saw Janice without her armor he yelled, “Retreat!”
The guards fled the scene. Without the players or guards up close, there was nothing to stop Otto from resuming his attacks on Januar. The poor old god looked worse than ever, with giant tracts of skin peeling away down his tail, his eyes closed in exhaustion or pain — who could tell? — and blood flowing down his side from Otto’s attacks.
Daniel didn’t have time to Surveil Otto again, but he could see that his HP bar was half gone. They were halfway home. It was up to him, Coral, Sybil, and Sal to finish this.
Otto tried to sink his axe into Januar, but Alua’s efforts had created some kind of second skin. The blade just bounced off of Januar without doing harm. Daniel wondered how long Alua could keep that shield up. Unable to harm Januar for now, Otto turned toward Sal.
Sal was easily three feet taller than Otto now, and three times as wide. His mallet looked like a puny toy hammer in his massive hand. Otto swung his axe, but Sal blocked Otto’s arm and held it up, stopping the blade from landing a hit. They wrestled for a few moments before Sal pushed Otto back several feet. He landed on his back.
Daniel had hung back from the fray this whole time, which provided one major advantage. He could still activate Sneak. He used the ability to hide himself in plain view and moved carefully behind Otto as he fought with Sal. When Otto flew backward toward Daniel, he landed close enough for Daniel to strike. Daniel jabbed his short sword with all of his force down toward Otto’s neck. Otto lay there on the ground, oblivious to Daniel’s presence.
>> Backstab failed. 19 Damage.
This was supposed to be a major blow to Otto’s health. Instead it placed Daniel within striking distance, exposed. Otto leapt to his feet and swung at Daniel, but Daniel rolled to the side. He jumped up, stabbed Otto in the knee, and then rolled again before Otto could aim another strike. He stabbed again, and rolled.
Otto ran away from Daniel and toward Sal and wrestled with him some more while Daniel stabbed him in the back, the leg, wherever he could see a patch of available skin. It did minimal damage, but if they could whittle Otto down gradually they might just win. He was already down to a quarter of his original hit points.
Sybil continued to sing. The buff she provided her teammates, and the debuff she inflicted on Otto, was an invaluable benefit. Until she ran out of MP.
Otto kicked Sal in the stomach and pushed him backwards into Sybil. She fell over but used her spear to prop herself back up. She lifted the spear to ram it into Otto but he landed a hit first and she fell hard to the ground. Sal dove in front of her and absorbed the next hit, keeping her out of harm’s way a second longer. Daniel stabbed at Otto from behind but felt like he was getting nowhere fast. How many times can you stab the same guy without him dying? It was getting irritating.
Otto swung around and sliced into Daniel’s leg with his axe. Daniel’s vision turned to pure white for a moment as pain rang out inside him. So much for rolling and jabbing. Daniel was left with a limp, and a debuff icon appeared above him of a red drop. He was bleeding out.
Sal and Sybil were back on their feet. Together with Daniel, they surrounded Otto on three sides. Daniel saw Coral off to the side aiming an arrow for a long time, but not shooting it. What was she waiting for?
Daniel wished they had a chance to stock up on potions before coming here, but there were no shops available now that the city had shut down.
Sybil had already run out of MP, and now Sal’s expired too. He shrank back down to his normal size. Otto jabbed his axe at him hoping to stab him with the end of the sharp blades. Sal dodged, but he tripped and landed on his face. Otto swung his axe in a mighty arc, and landed a hit right in Sybil’s side. Daniel heard her ribs crunch under the force of the blow. Sybil dropped her spear and fell to the ground, blood escaping her body like a bottle of spilled wine. She was dead in an instant.
38
Coral stood with her last arr
ow nocked in her bow. All of her other arrows had hit their target, but they did precious little damage to Otto. His Defense must have been through the roof. She was nervous that the battle wouldn’t go their way, and afraid that she would let the team down. She was still the least experienced among them and knew she would blame herself if they all died here today.
She should never have gone into that dungeon. All she wanted to do was pick up cowhide drops from players killing low level cows. She’d have figured out she couldn’t sew leather yet. Then she’d have found something else to do. Why did she agree to go underground with them?
They should have taken someone more skilled, someone who would know how to finish this quest and get rid of Otto. She was sorry she ever got them into this. They didn’t deserve to die here.
