by Mia Archer
“Nobody really liked him, but he had some special abilities since he was faction leader that made it a pain in the ass to try and take him out. Everyone sort of settled into a sucky routine and hoped he wouldn’t be able to make it out this year,” she said.
“Well we’re under new management now, though there is one thing I’m going to insist on keeping from Mike’s reign of terror.”
“What’d you have in mind boss?” Dave asked. More people were gathering around and listening. Actually listening rather than looking sullen at the edge of the clearing. I figured that was a good sign.
“Tell me about his master plan for taking the queen’s caravan,” I said.
“Going back for round two, are you?” a guy said off to the side. I smiled. Nice to know they believed me now.
“Something like that. Now what was the plan?”
Jessica shrugged. “His plan was actually pretty stupid. He was talking like he was going to take out the queen herself, but the plan was really to wait until most of her party had gone by and hit the stragglers in the back in the hopes they were carrying treasure or something.”
“Seems awfully high risk for little reward,” Dave said.
I thought for a moment. If the royal faction really was going through that wooded area it would be the perfect spot to launch an attack. We could hide in the real world and those runes they were all carrying would do a good job of hiding them in the virtual world. We could potentially take out most of the queen’s party before they even knew what was happening. With me on point hurling spells I figured it could actually work.
“You’re smiling like we’re about to do something fun,” Colin said.
I winked at him. It was nice that he said we were about to do something fun and not something stupid. He really was riding a high after taking over the Thieves’ Faction. I turned to my new minions and started outlining the plan. At first they seemed skeptical, but by the time I was done everyone was grinning in a way they hadn’t when Mike aka Melvar talked about taking the queen.
“You’re crazy,” the third dude, his name was Rich, said when I was done. “Are you sure you weren’t sent by one of the other factions to take out the queen? It’s cool, you can tell us if you’re working for ARealms or something.
I smiled my best and sweetest smile. “I’m something far more terrifying. A loose cannon who’s ready to drop a bomb in the middle of all this political faction bullshit you people get up to because it might finally make this game interesting again.”
10: Royal Raid
“Okay, so I have to admit this is actually kind of fun,” Trevor said.
I glanced over at him and smiled ever so slightly. I deliberately had the guards take a meandering path through the playing field. A meandering path that set us right along the path that factionless people would be taking on their way into the game. A path that was the likeliest to put us right in line with people who were new to the game and would think it was a good idea to do something silly like attacking a caravan that was bristling with guards and very powerful looking players.
“Another attack incoming,” Danielle said, staring down at a tablet with wireless Internet access. I was carrying something very similar. Nothing but the best for us, and the best included having a large screen to play with instead of bothering with a small phone screen.
“Got it,” I said. “Looks like the people who launched the arrows are standing right over…”
I pointed off into a field by the side of the road. There were obviously some people hanging around there, but they weren’t wearing a costume that corresponded to any of the factions. I almost wanted to shake my head, but I was having too much fun. This was the third group of unaffiliated people who’d attacked us on our ride through the playing field.
I guess that attack and the rumors about it that spread through the camp the night before were enough to encourage other unaffiliated people to take potshots at me. I loved it!
“I’ll take care of them,” Danielle said. “No need to even break a sweat with this group. Looks like they’re all pretty low level.”
“Right. Have fun and happy hunting,” I said.
Danielle hopped off the “chariot” and went charging at the people. They looked back and forth at each other for a moment as though they couldn’t believe someone was actually charging them. In a moment Danielle was in the middle of them and close enough that she could start using her melee attacks.
In my imagination she was a dangerous assassin dropping into their ranks and wielding a ridiculously oversized sword that would never work in the real world with real physics. In the real world she just sort of stood there with her tablet tapping at buttons while the death ditty sounded from the poor people who thought it would be a good idea to attack us.
I shook my head and looked ahead of us. We were coming up on a wooded area and the terrain was going from flat to a little hilly. If these people had any smarts they would’ve attacked us in those woods where they’d have cover bonuses at the very least.
Not that they stood a chance at all. I almost wanted to sigh in disappointment. Three attacks were three more than had ever happened before, but none of them were from her. From that gorgeous girl I saw the night before. I didn’t even know her name, and yet she still dominated my thoughts. Dominated my imagination.
She’d been the special guest star in some particularly naughty imaginings the night before in my tent. Wink and a nudge.
“Would’ve made more sense for them to attack us in the woods,” Trevor muttered.
“Right. Which means they’re either newbies making newbie mistakes or there’s something more dangerous waiting for us in those woods and the minnows didn’t want to run the risk of disturbing the shark,” I said.
“What are you guys talking about?” Danielle asked as she walked up to the wagon and hopped on. We were moving slow enough that we could hop on and off pretty much whenever we pleased.
“Nothing much,” Trevor said. “Erin here was just going on about all the dark and mysterious dangers we can expect to run into in the woods.”
“Oh good!” Danielle said with a grin. “I could do with a challenge!”
I could do with a challenge too. Though it was nice to see my friends finally taking the game seriously for a change. Finally getting into playing rather than dealing with all the political intrigue that was usually our bread and butter. The sort of thing that I’d done for so long that it really annoyed me now.
The woods really did look dark and foreboding by the time we got there. The trees arched over the path that had obviously been cut and laid down for the Gathering. Whoever did the work for ARealms had cleared the path out, but there were still felled trees here and there that bore the obvious marks of modern tools doing the dirty work which broke the immersion just a little.
As though the tablets and phones everyone had out didn’t do a good enough job of that already.
“Kinda spooky,” Danielle said, looking around.
“Yeah, a little too spooky,” Trevor said.
I peered up into the surrounding trees. The path had been set up to follow the lay of the land which meant we were curving around a series of hills. Basically it would be the perfect sort of place to lay a trap if someone was so inclined. I felt a tingling on the back of my neck. A tingle that usually only showed up when something was about to go down. I looked down at my tablet and checked the mini map, but it was completely empty.
“Something wrong?” Danielle asked?
“I can’t really say what it is. I’ve just got a bad feeling about this,” I said.
“You’re the one who brought us out here in the first place. We could’ve gone straight to the castle but you had to take the scenic route,” Trevor said.
“Yup, and you’ve been enjoying blowing people up the entire way,” I said.
Nothing. Nothing showing up on the mini map. Nothing showing up on the larger map, for that matter. I had a high level detection spell going and i
f anyone was out there they’d be showing up by now.
“I must be getting paranoid after what happened yesterday,” I said with a laugh. “There’s not a chance anyone’s out there waiting for us.”
“Good to hear,” Trevor said.
His smile turned to a frown as his tablet turned a bright red color. The death music played and he started cursing. I put up a shield around myself and Danielle right before a hail of arrows slammed into us. All around the royal guards were tapping furiously at their phones and tablets, and all around us their phones and tablets were flashing bright red as the death ditty played over and over. Some went overly dramatic and threw themselves to the ground role-playing their death throes, but most of them reacted in much the same was as Trevor by letting out a string of curse words that would make a sailor blush.
No one could curse like a nerd who’s just been bested in their favorite video game.
“What’s happening?” Danielle asked.
I looked at my screen again. Arrows were raining down all around us and the little green dots on the screen that showed members of the royal faction were turning into little skull animations all around us. Meanwhile those arrows were coming from nowhere. It was like there were ghosts around us firing arrows and nothing was showing up on my detection spell. Damn it. What was going on here?
“There!” Danielle said, pointing to a ridge or a hill or something off in the distance. I squinted and saw movement. I sent a fireball going in that direction, but I had no way of telling if it actually hit anything. Whoever was up there was too far away to hear the death notification, though that was a pretty powerful spell.
As though in answer a bolt of flames shot out across the map. If this battle was actually happening then it would’ve been a gout of flames wide enough to take out a six foot wide chunk of trees as it lanced down and slammed into my shield which barely held. As it was I could only watch in amazement as the shield slowly buckled.
“Shields at twenty percent,” I said through gritted teeth. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
Danielle had a moment to look at me with wide eyes before the shields failed. As soon as the shield spell dropped her tablet glowed that same pulsing red as everyone else’s.
“Motherf…”
Danielle didn’t get a chance to finish that statement. People dressed in costumes from the Thieves’ Faction were coming down the hill whooping and hollering. Arrows continued to fall. They continued to not show up on my screen. Damn it. Someone had to be screening them from magical spells.
And despite the disaster I found myself in the middle of I smiled. I had a pretty good idea who that someone was. She was out there somewhere in the woods. It was the only way to explain the stealth and that blast of flames that took out Danielle.
I double checked that all of my personal protection spells were still in place. Danielle might’ve dropped, but I still had plenty of stuff ready to go to protect me if this girl wanted to come down and dance. I very much hoped she would make an appearance rather than sending her minions to do her dirty work, because they weren’t going to be around for long.
The attackers were getting a little bonus to their hiding ability because we were in a wooded area, but as they closed in their red dots started showing up on my mini map. The game assumed they were in my character’s visual range at that point and it was time to go to work. I sent a lightning spell out that arced into three characters running straight for me, then shot out to hit two other thieves coming up behind them. Their screens turned red and the death music sounded off at the same time as they started cursing right along with the people from my faction who were standing around watching the battle with the shell shocked look of someone who couldn’t quite believe another player had taken them out.
Members of the Royal Faction just weren’t used to being attacked. It wasn’t something that happened until today. All the more reason to believe that my daring temptress was out there somewhere pulling the strings. I don’t know how she managed to get an entire faction to work for her in the space of an hour, but if anyone could work that fast I’d believe it of her.
A few more thieves were approaching. I held my thumb over my tablet and smiled.
“Anyone else want to try? I’m sure your friends would be happy to have someone to keep them company back at the campground for the rest of the day.”
They looked at one another for the space of a breath and then ran off to fight battles where they might actually have a chance of winning. It sounded like there were still some guards at either end of the caravan who were still fighting the good fight.
Leaving me standing alone with only those who’d already been killed watching me as though they expected me to do something. Maybe try to resurrect them? Not likely while she was still out there.
“I know you’re hiding in the trees somewhere. Why don’t you come out and we can play?”
Oh how I would love to play with her, and not just in the game. I needed to take things slowly though. First I would capture her. Then I would take her back to the castle where she would be in my thrall for the rest of the day and we could play a little game of the queen and the naughty assassin in one of the back rooms where we were guaranteed to have some privacy.
Yeah, that sounded like a very nice way to spend the rest of the day.
Movement off in the distance. Several people turned to look, though even more were glancing down at their tablets or phones as they went into spectator mode where they could watch the battle without influencing it because their characters were dead.
She didn’t say anything. A spell flew out and slammed against me, but it parted around my character as I hit a ward at the last moment. Impressive. If she kept that up she might actually have a chance at defeating me. Not that I planned on giving her the opportunity.
I fired back with the most powerful spell in my arsenal. I reflected on how beautiful she was, and how much fun it was going to be having her beg for me to resurrect her character so we could spend the rest of the day together. She might be the best challenge to come my way since I started playing this game, but it was time to show why no one ever beat the queen.
It was almost a pity. Almost.
The only problem? The spell hit her and split in two. It literally split around her. Okay not literally. I guess it metaphorically split around her since all this was happening in a virtual world, but the point stands. I’d never seen a spell do that before. I gaped at her and felt something I hadn’t felt since I started playing this game.
Worry.
She smiled and hit a button on her own phone. No tablet for her, though she was wearing a pair of AR glasses attached to her phone through the headphone jack. My phone beeped a warning that something was coming, but no spell lanced out towards me on the mini map.
“Is that all you have?”
“What if it is?” she asked.
God her voice. It was intoxicating. It made me feel drunk on more than just the high of the first real battle I’d been in since as far back as I could remember. Was it weird that I was locked in pitched combat with this girl and all I could think about was how much I wanted to be making out with her? Maybe, but whatever. She made me feel the way she made me feel and I was rolling with it. Besides, there was trash talk to lay down.
“I honestly didn’t think you would disappoint me like that,” I said. “I figured you’d be much better.”
Okay, so maybe a little trash talk and some flirting to go right along with it. Nothing wrong with that.
“Oh yeah? Would you like to see just how good I can be?”
Now this is what I was talking about! She was picking up on what I was tossing out there. Granted it had been awhile since I’d flirted with someone like this, but it was pretty damn obvious that she was interested. Good.
“You know it. Show me what you’ve got,” I said.
We were talking about more than just the game and I was so distracted with the flirting that I forgot about the game side of
things until her thumb landed on her screen. Still, I was confident that I’d be able to brush aside whatever she was throwing at me just like I had everything else so far. I was so confident that I threw my head back and laughed in truly maniacal sorceress fashion.
Damn I’d always wanted to do that.
The laugh lasted right up until my phone beeped and all the spells on my spell panel were grayed out. I frowned and stabbed at the screen. Fireballs. Lightning. Wards. Even low level buffs. Nothing was working.
“What the hell? Damn thing would break right now when I need it the most!”
“Oh your panel isn’t broken,” the girl said. “I just cut you off from all your magic.”
I looked up at he and dawning horror spread across my face even as a huge grin spread across hers. I was completely at her mercy. And yet rather than annoying me or worrying me the thought just sent a chill running through me that had nothing to do with potentially losing my position as the top player in Alternate Realms and everything to do with wondering what wonderfully depraved things she might do to me now that the queen was under her sway.
Oh yeah, I could really get into that role-playing angle. I just hoped she was as creatively naughty as I was.
This girl stepped closer. Closer. Close enough that she was mere inches from me. I could smell her. I could feel the heat coming off her body. Her lips looked so inviting as her eyes searched mine. As her mouth quirked up in the faintest hint of a smile on one end.
“You’ve captured the queen, so what are you going to do now?”
Her arms wrapped around me and she pulled me into a kiss. My eyes went wide in surprise, but not for long. I heard a couple of grunts of surprise from the people around us and remembered we still had an audience. I’d gotten so used to thinking of “dead” players as just that that I hadn’t given a thought to them being very much alive and watching this whole drama play out. And what a twisted fucked up drama it must seem with this girl waltzing out of nowhere, besting me, and then pulling me into a kiss so intense that it was making my toes curl and my hair stand on end all over my body.
