Warrior Fantasy Online Omnibus

by Tom Harem

  "Do your thing," he said.

  The other boy raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A windstorm arose out of nowhere and simply diverted the arrows of course, throwing them out of the circle where we were. Damn it. We knew he could have some magic, but not that he could handle it that well. We couldn't see his status except from his level. We were in the dark, not knowing his true potential. The older man laughed again. This time he even drooled and then pulled his saliva back into his mouth. It was disgusting. Me and the girls retreated to the edge of the circle. Jany warned me that if we got out of there, the battle would be over and we would have been defeated, having to give them half of our items and money. It wasn't the best solution. However, if we faced them, we could risk going back to level one.

  We didn't know what to do. Although we had already faced several monsters, we had never fought against people. At least I had never done it before. On top of that, it was against someone who had magic. The arrows didn't work, and it was hard to get close to him.

  "Do the girls need a lot of time to finish whispering?" The older man asked, a trail of saliva winding through his chest hair. It was a yellowish viscous liquid.

  "Let's go for a second round," Jany said to him, "Let's not give up,"

  "She's right. We can do it," I said, increasing morale, "don't forget, as long as we're together, there's nothing we can't do,"

  "You're right. Let's do this. All the way to the end," Carly said and looked at me, her curly hair being blown off by the wind.

  Emma and Mimi went down the slope and stood behind us, already with their arrows ready to be fired. They were both frustrated at not being able to help on the front line but there was no other way. They didn't know how to fight with swords, spears, or any other weapon. They only had the bow with them, and it was worthless in that battle. At least as long as the boy who had magic could use it. Damn it. And that was when an idea came to my mind. That was it! He had a limit on how much he could use that magic. Even if he had set all the points in his magic, he couldn't use it forever. All we had to do was waste it. I should have thought about that a lot sooner. Mimi probably didn't do it because she was so angry. Her teeth were still grinding, and her fingers were shaking on the tip of the arrow that she was holding with two fingers.

  "Fire as many arrows as you can. Block their eyesight," I said, "As fast as you can, go."

  "So, he can divert them or split them in half?" Emma asked me, "We have no magic, James..."

  "Wait, I'm getting his idea. You want to waste his magic, don't you?"

  I smiled. They both knew it right away. Now that we had a plan, everything would get easier. Me and the other girls just had to attack the biggest guy and overwhelm him to the point where he couldn't even protect the other. I didn't think they were even friends. We rushed to him and surrounded him once more, this time maintaining a considerable distance. The youngest boy was a few feet away from us, his eyes on the archers. It was like he knew what was about to happen. But it was too late to stop it. There was no other choice.

  "Now," I screamed.

  Arrows, in groups of two, covered the sky, all towards the boy. The older man also realized what was going to happen and tried to go and help him. However, we stopped him. Carly stretched out her spear and tore part of his pants fabric. He tried to respond by swinging his hammer, trying to hit her but Jany and I used our weapons as a shield. While we were blocking his attack, Kendra popped up on the side and slammed him with the bat right in the face. The man was tossed back and one of the yellow front teeth bounced to the ground. Blood flowed out of his mouth. When I looked away, the boy with the glasses was already on his knees. He was still deflecting the arrows but was losing his energy and at least three arrows had already scraped off his body; two on his right shoulder and one on his left knee.

  "Don't stop," I said to them, "Let's show them what happens when they mess with us,"

  "Don't you think we should let them go?" Emma asked me.

  "No. Players like that don't give up. They only play it to steal other players. Let's send them back to level one. We're doing everyone a favor,"

  "He's right," Jany said, "Let's get this over with,"

  "LET'S GO!" Mimi screamed, drawing everyone's attention, "I'm sorry, I got carried away,"

  They fired two more arrows. The boy struggled to stand up and stretched his left arm. Wind swirls sprang from his hand, dragging us all the way back, each time stronger, until they had grown, and he had a mini tornado sticking out of his hand.

  "What the hell is this?" I said, "He's only level five. Is he supposed to have that much power?" I added, feeling my feet slipping away from the ground.

  We were all thrown into the air, striking the girls and the arches and landing on them. When we looked ahead, the boy was dragging the older man off the battlefield. He had a red necklace inside his clothes, which now shone brightly. It had to be the item that gave him all that power. The battle had a rather anticlimactic end. They got away. Half of their money, which wasn't much, was divided among all of us, and we still got the sword he never used and the older man's hammer.

  "Well, this is for you," Kendra told me.

  "Yes, you're the only one who knows how to use a sword properly," Mimi said to me, "It was a good idea to burn out his magic. For them to run away it was because he no longer had any,"

  "I'm beginning to think that spending those 200 gold coins on a sword was a waste," I said and laughed, raising my new sword. I gained 20 points of attack by equipping myself with it.

  "You couldn't have known this would happen, could you?" Carly asked me.

  Jany had approached her and was asking her if everything was all right with her but Carly seemed to be moving away from her.

  "Yeah, you're right," I said to them, "We better get some rest in a town and leave another castle for later,"

  "You're right. Let's not risk it," Mimi said, "Jany, which way?"

  Jany was still looking at Carly, absent-minded, and Mimi had to repeat the question, "Yes, yes. To that one, I think," she answered and pointed to the right.

  "You think so?" Mimi answered her, frowning.

  "It's dark. It's hard to be sure, but I think so," she said.

  Chapter XVIII

  The lights that had lit up the battle had already gone out. We were left to ourselves and to our ability to not get lost. We trusted Jany and headed to the right. We didn't have a map or a compass. We were tired but we had promised each other to play all night. Meanwhile, Kendra drank a potion and recovered the 20HP she'd lost. Until then we hadn't had much trouble. Even with all the danger at the last battle, none of us had been seriously injured. But if we had had so much trouble winning just a single level 5, it meant that what was ahead of us was a lot worse. We had to tread carefully.

  For the rest of the trip, we didn't bump into anyone. Not even monsters. They all seemed to have disappeared. It was about 3 a.m., already after several breaks to go to the bathroom and even to eat some snacks, when the sun, in the game, started to rise. Fortunately, Jany had been right and we were on the correct path to the mountains. We could already see, from afar, what resembled a scarce city wall. Unlike the city from which we had come, part of the wall was destroyed and what was left were only a few stones placed on top of others.

  "Is this the town you were telling us about?" I asked Jany.

  "Yeah, but it wasn't like that back then. They seem to have been attacked. We better be careful," she answered me.

  We all raised our weapons. The closer we got, the more any noise was a reason to widen our eyes and stop for a brief moment. Still, we didn't see anything suspicious. Just the wind stirring up some gray sticks or the bare bushes.

  When we reached the wall, we realized that there was a soldier hiding behind a cairn. A level-three boy, holding a spear, prepared to push us away with it. His hands trembled every time he straightened the spear, trying to hit someone with it, despite the fact that we were still meters away from him.

 
"You're not coming in here!" He said. He had a wobbly, whimpering voice.

  "We're not bad. I was here a little over a week ago. What happened?"

  "The Raiders... attacked us." He said, dropping the spear and bursting into tears, "I know this is just a game but what they did here... they killed almost all the friends I had made. They never came back into the game after that."

  "How about you? Why did you stay?"

  "I made a promise. I said I wouldn't leave this town unless they threw me back to level one."

  "Did they kill everyone?" Mimi asked, "We want to know if the market and the rest home are still active,"

  "Mimi! Don't be so insensitive," Emma said to him and elbowed her in the arm, "Don't listen to her. Are you here alone?"

  "No. There are more people here," he began to answer but paused before proceeding, "we still have a market and a rest home, yes. You can enjoy and step into the city. It's not like I'm going to stop you. I haven't seen more than one or two lonely travelers in days. You're a sight for sore eyes," the boy said. He smiled without showing his teeth, except for part of his gum.

  We walked into town. Claiming that it was a town was being nice. It was more like a ghost village. There was almost no one on the street. The market was just two tents shared by two NPC's. In the center of the village was a statue of a warrior shattered in half. The soldier followed us a few yards behind us. The retirement home had six floors, of which the three upstairs were burnt.

  "No one's going to tell me who the Raiders are?" I asked them.

  They were all quiet at first. They swapped glances with each other but apart from some babbling no one said anything.

  "They are..." Mimi started, "You see those two guys we met on the way over here? Now imagine them, but in a larger group, all above level 7 and meaner. That's who the Raiders are. The group that everyone is afraid of."

  "Is Damien afraid of them too? Why have they attacked this town but never yours?" I asked them.

  "Damien made a deal with them. 30% of everything the city makes goes to them and in return they don't attack it."

  "Why didn't you just tell me that? Even if we get the city back, we'll have to deal with them, won't we?"

  "To be honest, we didn't even want to think about it. We thought we could wait to solve that once we conquered the city," Mimi replied, looking at the ground.

  "It's odd that you thought of it, or at least agreed. It's not a good strategy and you know it."

  "At the time I couldn't even see a future ahead of us," she replied, "Do you have any idea what to do now?"

  "Not exactly. Maybe the best thing now is to get a room in the rest home and stay there for an hour or two until we all get our HP back. We need to get to level five as soon as possible. If each of us can access a different magic, we can defeat much stronger castles and people by being smarter and plotting a good strategy," I said.

  "You and Jany are the closest to it. Then there's Kendra, and then there's all of us. Do you have any idea what magic you intend to practice?"

  "Fire, no doubt. I'm even used to it."

  "I want wind then. It's strong and it can take down whoever I want," Jany replied.

  "It's decided then. Unless someone objects... No? So it's done," Mimi said, being the leader and strategist of the group. Despite Jany being the strongest, they all listened to every word and tactic Mimi spat.

  I knew they also saw me as a leader, as someone they would follow. And even though I liked that attention, I had always preferred to be a mere warrior. I had never been a big fan of having to come up with plans and strategies and so on. But there, there, they relied on me and I wasn't going to let them down. And gradually, I was starting to understand each one's personalities and their peculiarities. Emma was the most sensitive and clung to me whenever she was afraid of something or someone, while the opposite could be said of Jany who was fierce and liked to fight, showing no fear of anything. Mimi was the most intelligent in the group and didn't like to fight but wouldn't run away from one either. Carly, on the other hand, was the snail's girl, who fought like a lioness, without ever letting her adversary go and Kendra was the fittest in the group and the one who was always there when it was necessary to hit the enemy in order to buy us some time. Not to mention everyone's tics; like Emma’s scratching her ear every time she was cold or Mimi's tapping her fingers in her pants every time she thought of a plan, among others.

  Nobody objected to the magic we wanted or to going to rest. Normal. We were all devastated, tired of walking and probably hungry.

  "Wait," the soldier boy yelled, just as we were about to enter the rest home.

  We all looked at him and awaited him to come running to us.

  "Excuse me," he said, with his hands on his knees, gasping, "I forgot to tell you. One or two Raiders usually hang around here. They like to make sure the city is like this. They never do anything to me. I think they like to know that I have to live with what they did, you know? But, look, if you hear screams, go to the first floor and ask the lady about the basement. There you'll be safe."

  "Thank you. By the way, what happened to the town owner? If he'd gone back to level one, the city would have disappeared, right?"

  "Correct. He ran away. He told me that he was going to try to resolve this matter, that he was going to find someone who was willing to fight against the Raiders but never came back. That was a week ago. I don't know what happened to him. I didn't even have him on the friend list," the boy said.

  "We know what that is," Emma answered him.

  "Thank you," I told him, "We'll be going. Don't get us wrong, but we really need to get some rest."

  "Yes, of course. I get it. I get it. I'll be here for a few more hours. Sometimes I get Away From the Keyboard but I always come back fast,"

  I thanked him again for his help. He turned his back and headed for the wall. I didn't know him, but his attitude was commendable. Even though it was only a game, he had made a promise and didn't seem willing not to keep it.

  "I don't know if he's brave or stupid," Jany said.

  "Why not both? Even a good attitude can be stupid and vice versa," Mimi replied, "but well, we better get going. See if we can still enjoy a few hours of sunshine later and if you two reach level 5 today," she added.

  Chapter XIX

  We went into the rest home. A woman, similar to the one who was in the starter town but redheaded, was behind the desk. Her face looked the same, though she might be years younger. She asked us how many rooms we were looking for and if we were going to be staying only a day or more. I told her a room was enough and we didn't think we'd be there more than a few hours. She handed me a key and told us to go upstairs to the first floor. In addition, she stated that that room was the suite's room and that it was usually 30 gold coins but she had orders not to charge anyone. We were on a lucky streak. We had survived the two men, got to the city and now we had a place to stay. I just hoped the Raiders wouldn't show up while we were there. We wouldn't have a chance against stronger players and the best thing to do was keep a low-profile.

  The room was very different from the one where I had been with Emma. Not only did it have three times the size, but the floor was dark brown, there was a small dresser next to the couple bed and a closet for three or four people. A still chandelier on the ceiling illuminated the whole room despite having half of the dozens of lights fused. We sat in the middle of the room, in a circle, with the guns behind us.

  "You know what we could do?" Jany asked, having an idea on the tip of her tongue...

  "No way, Jany. I know what you're going to suggest and no," Mimi replied.

  "Alcohol, isn't it?" Carly asked, "You really have to stop with that."

  "One drink or two from time to time doesn't hurt anybody,"

  "You know how you get when you drink," Carly told her, restraining the older half-sister.

  "Funny?" Jany answered her.

  "Annoying, very annoying." Carly told her.

  "A glass for eac
h one. That's it. It's not like we have anything much more interesting to do in the next few hours,"

  "She's right about that," I told her, "maybe just one glass per person wouldn't hurt too much?"

  "Okay, just because you said it and just one," Carly said, "Jany, you have to promise."

  "Yeah, don't worry. Let's do this. I'll get a bottle and then bring it to the game."

  "Bring glasses for everyone too," Kendra told her, "It's been a while since I drank alcohol,"

  "Too long..." Emma said, "You're going to put up with me, right? I get a little... emotional after drinking."

  "Even more?" Mimi asked, still seriously, which made us all laugh.

  "Don't laugh..." Emma said, pouting, "I've always been like this. On the outside it may look very nice but it's not,"

  "Why?" Carly asked her.

  "Oh, you know. Sometimes I believe people too much or give them more chances to redeem themselves than they deserve. I'm aware of that,"

  "You can't let people take advantage of you, Emma," I told her, "You have to see yourself more like I see you, you know?"

  "And how do you see me, James?" She asked me, leaning against me and looking at me with her big, bright eyes sparkling.

  "Like someone who deserves the best," I answered her and placed my arm around her. Her cheeks turned red.

  "I'll try! I'm glad you're here," she said, "I like..." she started but was interrupted by Jany's return.