Oblivion's Peril

by M. H. Johnson

  Blood bursting forth from the wound.

  With an agonized cry, Julia crumpled.

  And hot terror and fury roared through Val’s soul.

  With a scream, he charged.

  With an abrupt jolt, the contender's gaze snapped up to meet Val's glare.

  Sensing his true prey at last.

  “Glacie Pilum!” Val roared, icy death streaking from his hand, the massive pykrete bolt smashing into his vile enemy’s head.

  Slamming his foe to the ground.

  Before laughter washed over the battlefield.

  His foe snapped back to his feet with a killer’s grace, so like Val’s own. His force field holding, despite the kinetic force behind Val’s blow.

  “At last, my true prey has arrived! I, Tiberius Dominicus, do challenge Valor Dauda Hunter, the Terran crossbreed who dares to walk the Path of Shadow. Who dares to throw down his gauntlet in a bid for the throne! For I have pierced your secrets, and your wards are nothing against me! Come, monkey, save your hybrid wench if you can! Let us end this farce of a contest, and I will show Caligula himself who shall become the rightful Overlord!”

  Test of Skills engaged! Shadowmind vs. Pierce the Veil – Master Rank! You are at a penalty for recently casting magic and embracing your Wrath! And how hot you now burn, Val.

  Shadowmind Pierced! You’re vulnerable before a man who would be king, Val! How long do you think you’ll live? And how does he know your secrets so well, anyway? Remember, Val, there is more than one path to power as an Overlord. You walk but one.

  And in that heartbeat that lasted simultaneously minutes and no time at all, Val and his foe were one. He understood the depth of the hideous betrayal his foe intended to inflict upon Highlord Kentric, but only after he had claimed Val’s head.

  Ever the dagger, never the shield. A phrase uttered almost mockingly about Dauda, Val and Tiberius both knowing how exquisitely true it was.

  Tiberius savored their connection, letting Val feel how intensely Ego Crush would burn before unleashing it with a smile.

  And Val gasped as his mind blazed with fire. Powerless to resist. Tiberius has invoked Ego Crush! Save failed! Natural defenses: None! 125 damage to Health and Fatigue! Now save versus collapse, Val, or you get to enjoy all of eternity within a vat of putrid liquid where the agony never ends!

  A storm of blackness roared from the darkest cracks of his soul, seeking to envelop him in hideous darkness so thick, so vile, it would choke the life out of him instantly. A silent scream without end tore through him. The fiery core of his soul refusing to give up, refusing to surrender to the choking blackness seeking to extinguish his soul even as his body fell to his enemy’s blade.

  He did not fear the caress of oblivion at that moment. Ego blazed back to life with the knowledge that he was oblivion. He was the bringer of death, the destroyer of all his foes. Fury burned bright as he caught sight of Julia’s crumpled form, squeezing the throttle, with so much hate to give.

  Tiberius’s fiery eyes widened. His lips twisted in a snarl. “You will fall, monkey! I will see you dead!”

  Blazing out with Ego Crush yet again, slamming into Val’s soul.

  And he drowned in a sea of flame.

  Save versus Ego Crush failed! 125 points drained from Health and Fatigue! Save versus catatonia…

  Racing forward, holding onto consciousness by the tiniest of threads… his awareness buried under pain.

  Pain so deep, psyche so compressed, no one could hear him, no one could sense him, a mouse’s silent squeak, utterly unheard.

  And the shadows within Val’s mind smiled.

  Even as he screamed and burned.

  Sixteen once more, battered and exhausted after fencing with his closest friends for an hour in his father’s basement, and how he remembered Tim’s warm grin when Val asked for just one more exchange.

  A bemused smile as his friend’s sweat-stained fencing glove wiped loose curls out of his eyes. “Sure, Val. Then let’s help your old man with those steaks I saw him prepping. I’m practically starving!”

  Laughing, they were deadly serious once they put on their helms once more.

  A mad, furious exchange, where neither got the advantage.

  Then, putting everything he had into it as he stepped forward, roaring for courage, Val lashed out with a powerful overhand strike his friend effortlessly countered with a high parry…

  Even as Val swept his blade around, morphing his overhand blow into a tight spinning arc, cleaving just under his friend’s ribs, Val’s training sword protecting his line even as he dropped down, his friend’s Psiblade skittering against Val’s own as it cleaved through Tiberius’s ribs, cutting the man in half.

  Val crashed to the ground. A desperate gasp as he struggled against the choking blackness, his dwarven bike split cleanly in half with his blow, crying out with Tiberius’s dying screams, Val’s mind vulnerable still.

  Your bike has crashed because you cut it in half, lost in your own delusion! Saving throw versus broken neck made! Lungs pierced. Left wrist dislocated. Multiple injuries result in critically wounded status! You have fifty hit points left before expiration! Internal bleeding neutralized by regeneration… a good thing! In addition to critical wounds, you are suffering from stamina depletion! -5 to all physical skill checks! Who knew fighting with your mind lost in dying delusion would be so good for slipping past your foe's blade? He certainly didn't!

  Congratulations! Shadowsplit is now Rank 2.

  It was almost more than he could manage, turning his exhausted head as waves of agony rocked through him, catching Tiberius’s dying gaze with his own. Staring at Val in shocked disbelief. Struggling to say something, anything. Flashing Val a final cruel smile as blood gushed from his mouth and his eyes rolled back. A whistling gurgle fading to nothing, and the would-be Overlord was no more.

  All Val wanted to do was sink into the sweet soothing arms of oblivion, every fiber of his being crying for rest.

  Then he felt the weight of a dying lord’s doom settle upon him.

  Julia’s desperate groans cut through the air.

  “Val, baby, I think… I think I’m dying...”

  Screams long dormant shrieked from the depths of his soul. Screams Val howled aloud as he forced tormented flesh to move, to act, grasping a shimmering red potion from his satchel and forcing, demanding, pleading his shaking arm to just put it in his mouth. Too weak even to uncap it. Crunching down as glass tore through his tongue.

  Even as a furious rush of sweet potent healing magics roared through his body, Val spitting out glass shards even as he trembled with the overwhelming flood of pleasure and pain ripping through him, forcing himself to crawl to the source of those awful whimpers that tore through his soul.

  Looking into Julia’s dying eyes.

  Forcing the contents of a ruby potion between her lips. Holding her so tightly when she cried out with agony and relief, Val’s naked tears soaking her cheeks as they sobbed in each other’s arms.

  Cold laughter suddenly pierced the din of battle, and Val felt the chilly specter of death wash over him and Julia both.

  The stare of a sniper, targets lined up. All it would take to end them was a single squeeze of the trigger.

  “You must be that Valor guy. Damn, I’m glad I signed up under that sorry heap of shit right there. You wouldn’t believe the bounty on your head on Readit!”

  Move, soldier! The voice screamed in Val’s head even as he grabbed a still recovering Julia up and dove for all he was worth, turning it into a mad roll as the ground behind him erupted in howling black flame.

  45

  Val frantically looked around. The ebb and flow of battle had shifted away, and he couldn’t help but note the cluster of soldiers who had stood beside the would-be Overlord, looking like nothing more than desiccated husks at that moment. As if Tiberius had sucked them utterly free of life in a desperate bid to buy himself a few more seconds before expiring at last.

  Skillcheck made! Y
our EM Mastery stabilization field successfully protects Psiblade and forceshield! 10 mana spent! Too bad the same can’t be said for your lover’s equipment!

  “Val, Val, where is he?” Julia’s panicked voice as mocking laughter washed over them once more.

  Quickness check made! Good luck keeping this up!

  And Val ignored screaming muscles and still cracked ribs he was forced to aggravate as he lurched and dashed before dodging to the ground, rolling for his life as the ground erupted in gravel and hideous ebony flame.

  Arcane Perception check made: Death-fire! Suck all life force and heat away! Just like a real fire, but it leaves structures and loot intact, and water does nothing to counter. Insight gained! Could there be a necromancer in the house?

  Odd clapping could be heard. “Nice one! I thought I had you, that time!”

  “Why are you doing this?” Julia screamed, terror in her voice. “We’re human, just like you! We’re on the same side. We want to free Earth!”

  Mocking laughter erupted from just ahead of them. "Oh, that's rich. You're dead, is what you are. Your buddy's worth 10 million US dollars! All I gotta do is post it on the killboards, noobs, and I’m set for fucking life!”

  “But we are!” screamed Julia. “We’re really here! If you kill us, you kill us for real!”

  “You’re lying! You’re just scared you won’t be allowed to come back. You’re both in trouble for fucking with the game big time, since you’re not supposed to interfere with the succession storyline directly. You get to choose which Highlord to root for. That doesn’t mean you get to be a fucking Highlord! And the Devs themselves put up the bounty, since they want your removal to be part of the story. Either way, you can’t use the P word, so all the better for me! Well then, losers, I guess it’s time for you to die.”

  Julia’s eyes blazed. “Not if we kill you first!” she screamed, jutting out her hand towards the voice. “Burn!” The waning afternoon light erupting in a hurricane of flame, Firestream boosted beyond anything Val recognized, Julia’s eyes flickering hotly in the flame’s reflection, even as mocking laughter washed over them once more.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Guess I’m not so easy to kill as all that, noob. And now I can say ‘duel accepted,’ so I get to keep my Virtue Points! I love it when a plan comes together.”

  And Val blinked, realizing he had more tools at hand than Psi-sense, which could tell him nothing. He opened his mind to one of the first skills he had received, trying to understand this world in all its madness and wonder.

  The ether lighting up with the outline of a man approaching from the opposite direction as the voice he projected. And now that Val was paying attention, he could even spot the spell web linking the two together.

  Congratulations! Magesight is now Rank 3

  A veteran player, looking to make an easy kill.

  “Move!” Val screamed, dodging desperately to the side as a stream of inky black arrows sliced through the air.

  Bringing forth his Synergized Ward at last, alongside Julia’s own, both of them facing the mocking voice once more.

  “Oh, sweet. That potion actually healed you losers up enough to make this interesting! I still see you limping, though, and you guys got blood leaking out your eyes and ears. I’ll bet you both need another couple potions. Too bad you’ll never get a chance to take one!”

  Val licked his lips, gazing intently towards the voice. “We can make you potions just as strong, or even better!”

  “Why the hell should I even care? I’ll have ten million freaking dollars. I don’t give a flying turd about your cheating ass or anything else in this game except getting paid so my mom’s not working 60 hours a week like a fucking slave!”

  Val forced an anxious expression on his features, even as he opened his palms, still at his hips, backing away from the voice. "Come on now, you don't have to do this. How about we surrender? Hell, if it’s credits you're looking for, I got over a dozen 100k Elementium coins I found in the ruins! Think about it, man. If I die, my loot trapped in cyber storage is gone forever, and I got more coins on me than that bounty you’re looking to get is even worth!”

  The pause grew thoughtful as Val continued to step back, hands up, clearly terrified of the voice in front of him.

  “Show me.” Cold. Matter-of-fact. No more laughing now. “And then you’re going to tell me where you found them, and how the hell your cyber storage works. And then maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you live.”

  “Yes, absolutely! I’ll show you right now! I keep it all in personal storage because I don’t trust the banks here,” Val said, hand back at his waist, slowly stepping back from where the deadly necromancer’s voice seemed to be.

  You have catalyzed Psiblade! 100 Psion reserved!

  Pivoting around and whipping his blade forward in a savage Zornhau strike, feeling a fierce surge of exultation as surprised brown eyes met his own.

  A kid who looked like a senior in high school blinked and stared down at his chest, ripped open by a vicious slash, blood gushing from his wound. He got a dreamy look in his eyes. “Nicely done,” he said. “Damn, that actually hurt. It’s almost like this is...”

  And Julia dashed to his side. “Don’t disconnect. Don’t disconnect! If you do, you’ll die in real life!”

  The kid smiled. “I just wanted to show my mom I wasn’t wasting my time, you know? Can you imagine the look in her eyes if I...” His eyes rolled back as he gave one last guttural sigh, then collapsed in her arms.

  “Val!”

  But he was already there, slamming the contents of a red potion straight into the gash that had split open the kid’s chest, casting Season’s Mending a second later.

  The boy's eyes opened with a panicked scream as the two flows of healing magic twisted and knotted and surged together, helpless gaze locked upon Val's own, soul unable to flee as hideous agony tore through the shrieking boy. Before he collapsed a second time, his chest whole once more.

  Julia and Val only had time for a single bittersweet glance before their Synergized Wards were crackling with a sudden flood of laser fire as hundreds of troops thundered into view.

  “There they are! The High Council bounty is active! A million credits to whoever brings me that bastard’s head!”

  Hot mercenary eyes glared into Val’s own, and Val suddenly understood what was going on.

  Insight gained! To Jordians it will look like a Council-sanctioned killing. To Terrans it will look like a Dev-sanctioned hunt! Either way, Tiberius had walked far enough along his bloodstained path to assure that any victory against him would be pyrrhic at best! Can you say 'mutually assured destruction’?

  An exhausted Julia forced a grin Val’s way. “Don’t worry. Their lasers aren’t penetrating my Synergized Ward. Besides, with your Haunting Luminescence perk, their aim is terrible!”

  Val grimaced. "Yes. And that's why they're charging forward. Hundreds of them!" Val catalyzed his forceshield to full size, knowing he would need every edge he could get if he was to have any hope of getting an exhausted and still wounded Julia to safety.

  “Titan’s Blast!”

  A massive ball of tungsten carbide roared through the heavens before smashing into the hundreds of troops less than fifty yards away, exploding in a searingly brilliant explosion of tank-piercing shrapnel projected by a core of superheated plasma.

  Val shuddered in awe and horror, grateful his girl could control the arc of the blast. He already knew just how devastating that horrific spell could be, piercing every single one of his potent wards. And of the hundreds of soldiers that had been charging forward? Only a handful of screaming souls holding bloody stumps where their legs or arms had been just seconds ago, at the very periphery of their charge. The majority of the swarming troops had been reduced to a bloody mist, a small crater of churned, gory earth marking their final graves.

  And it was just the tip of the iceberg. Val’s eyes catching sight of hundreds more enemy soldiers still charging forward. Just a few m
inutes behind their recently expired friends.

  And they didn’t hesitate for a second in their mad rush forward.

  Val gritted his teeth, his mind frantically trying to think of a way out of his predicament, forcing a healing potion into Julia’s hands.

  She chuckled bitterly, grabbing Val’s hand as she hobbled to her feet. “Sorry, lover. No can do. This… this wasn’t the first time I was injured today. And you already gave me a red. A third will make me dizzy. And your Season’s Mending will leave me in too much agony to run!”

  Val grimaced, daring only to grab the transceiver off of his ruined bike before doing what he had to do, grabbing a startled Julia up and racing for the massive compound that masqueraded as a chateau, movements slowed as he held his forceshield at maximum diameter behind him, set ablaze by constant blaster fire, the curse blazing upon his soul serving as a rallying flag like no other for all their enemies to focus upon.

  Shadowmind skill check: Failed! You are unable to slip into Shadowmind with 473 souls staring at you, pinned into place by Tiberius’s death-curse! Good luck surviving this one, Val.

  “Help us!” Julia cried out with her mind, just as she had a dozen times before. Val grimaced to catch sight of their enemy flanking them, pivoting left and sprinting as laser fire slammed into the ground just feet away. All his skills and artifacts, so useful in small engagements, were put to the most extreme tests with an entire army now after his head.

  “We’re trying, Julia! They cut us off, even though we’re winning. It’s like they’re willing to die to the last man. But Tiberius is dead, I felt Val kill him! This makes no sense!” Bethany said aloud in response to Julia’s desperate plea. “Alpha, Bravo, pincer them now! Keep your shields up, they’re charging again!” Her voice cut off as a roar of blasterfire and the screech of twisted metal shrieked through Val’s receiver before she switched off her comm.

  Forceshield absorbs 40 hits from Light Blaster. 232 Misses! Zero damage penetrates! 10 Psion per second needed to maintain forceshield against current radiation levels.