“Are you done yet?” Leesha asked, silently drumming her fingers against her folded arms.
I nodded and started to move, but she held up her hand.
“Just because you’re a bit quieter doesn’t mean I still shouldn’t take the lead,” Leesha whispered. The bright moonlight bled through her dark blue locks and revealed just the faintest hint of freckles on her face. How had I never seen them before?
“Hey,” Leesha said, her face melting into a suspicious frown. “You hear me or what?”
“R-right.” I nodded, clearing my throat. “Sure, go ahead. I’m right behind you.”
My mouth closed, but neither of us moved.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like…huh?”
How had I not noticed how gorgeous she was before? Had I been completely blind? I forgot all about the bandits, my mind instead wandering to various scenarios involving Leesha and I having a romantic stroll in the moonlight and —
A hard slap knocked my Urok mug to the side and broke the spell. I shook my head, instantly pissed.
“What the —”
“Sorry,” Leesha said, pulling the cowl of her cloak up to shadow her features. “Sylvad racial bonus — basically we’re hotter when the moon is out. The clouds were out last night, so it wasn’t an issue. I’m surprised — in beta, it didn’t work on players.”
A smile curled over her full lips. “Or maybe you’ve just got a thing for me?”
Luckily, my infatuation had long passed. “Oh, please,” I scoffed. “I don’t even know what you look like in real life. For all I know you’re a five-hundred-pound dude living in a single-wide in Kansas.”
Leesha winked. “Let’s go with that. Just keep your head in the game, yeah?”
“Right.”
I shook my head again, angry at the devs for messing with my player emotions in such a way. I couldn’t let some stupid fake moon crush affect ruin my chance of saving Brandon. We continued forward, and soon, a thin line of trees was all that separated us from the Blue Hand Raider camp. As soon as we could make out voices, we stopped.
I crawled up beside Leesha and held a finger to my lips. Just enough of her face showed from beneath her hood to tell me I’d earned another eye roll.
“…shouldn’t have moved while they were gone,” a whining voice said.
“Will you shut it?” another growled in reply. “They know where we were meetin’ — just relax.”
“Yeah, well, then where are they?”
“Donovan don’t know north from south,” yet another voice inserted itself into the conversation. “Probably got lost somewhere along the way.”
As the bandits continued their bickering, Leesha and I watched from behind the cover of aspens. Just like the group that raided the caravan, there were both Uroks and Eedari in the camp. Using my Command Assessment, I saw mixtures of level threes and fours — which colored them at Yellow and Orange warning levels, respectively. It wasn’t going to be an easy fight.
Several feet away from the fire, the classic RPG bandit cave entrance loomed as a diagonal gash in the side of a hill. I assumed it was the hideout we were looking for. I glanced over at Leesha and motioned for us to take a step back to a safe zone.
She pointed in the exact opposite direction, toward the cave. I shook my head and jerked the other way. She silently threw her hands in the air but retreated to where I’d suggested.
“What?” Leesha hissed, clearly annoyed.
“We need a plan,” I hissed back.
“I had a plan: You sit here and try not to make too much noise, and I’ll sneak past the bad guys into the cave. They aren’t even paying attention.”
I shook my head. “If we don’t take them out now, they could surround us while we’re in the cave.”
“Then we don’t get caught!” Leesha looked me up and down, and mock surprise dawned on her face. “Oh, right. I forgot who I was dealing with here. Seriously, just let me sneak in, stab a few people in the back, cut a few throats, and then we can take out these idiots out here.”
In the shadows of the trees, the moon charm had no effect, which was lucky because at the moment I wanted to scream in frustration.
“It’s too risky,” I said, folding my arms and adopting a that’s-final tone.
Leesha silently ground her teeth. “You just don’t like it because I’m the one who thought of it!”
“Do you seriously think I’m that childish?”
“Oy! Who’s there?”
Our eyes widened and my heart raced. Before we could make a move, the four Blue Hands had drawn their weapons and were running right for us.
24
The Blue Hand Raiders
With the element of surprise gone, our only option was to charge. Axe in hand, I ran straight at the Blue Hands. I had no idea how they’d heard us — even in the heat of the moment we’d barely been whispering — but that didn’t matter anymore.
Roaring, I knocked aside the sword of the level three Eedari bandit with my axe-head. One of Leesha’s arrows whizzed by my shoulder and lodged into the bandit’s shoulder, spinning him around. Turning to face another foe, I winced as another arrow bounced off the back of my cuirass.
I risked a glare back at Leesha, who grimaced and shrugged. “Sorry!”
But there wasn’t any time to dwell on the mistake. One of the Urok bandits was headed straight for me, and the other two were on their way toward Leesha.
I gripped my axe and started to spin around, activating the Cyclone skill. The move struck only a glancing blow against the level four Urok, but it freed me enough to come to Leesha’s defense before the other two could reach her.
My forearms rattled as my axe slammed into another armored Urok. Before I could pull it free, the remaining Eedari struck my breastplate with his sword, hard enough to rattle my teeth loose. Hot pain blossomed in my chest, and my breath caught in my throat.
Debuff Added — Broken Ribs! Your movement is restricted, and you will gradually lose health for the next 60 seconds.
I staggered back, struggling just to stay on my feet. I had to keep the aggro, but my health was already down below half and still draining away. Fortunately, the bandits were like sharks sensing blood in the water. Rather than swarming Leesha, they circled me, searching for a chance to strike. But I’d played hurt in football, and I could do it in this game too. The pain might have felt real, but I understood for the first time since entering MythRune that it was all in my head. And in the real world, where I was a banged-up has-been on the verge of homelessness, my mind was the only weapon I had.
Instead of waiting to be struck down, I went on the offensive. With only thirty seconds left on the debuff, I already felt good enough to put up a fight. Lunging to the left, I faked a swing in the same direction then brought the full force of my stone axe around to the right. The blow caught the raider by surprise, but he fell back in time to avoid critical or fatal damage.
In that moment, his Urok buddy was on me. I half-turned, but had no room to raise my axe before being tackled to the ground. Pushing back the last dull throbs in my ribs, I fought in vain to keep the Urok from reaching for a dagger. He fought free, striking me with a brutal backhand that left me dazed. Weakly, I raised my hands as he prepared to bring down his knife. Instead, an arrow burst from his shoulder. Roaring, the Urok fell off me, and I recovered my weapon as he staggered away. Teeing up like I was at the driving range, I finished the wounded Urok off.
+1 Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill Point
I gasped for breath, leaning on my axe like a cane. Leesha was mopping up her opponent, but the Eedari I’d injured was nowhere —
The back of my head exploded, and white light filled my vision. After, I realized that, if not for my helmet, my head would have split like a melon. My entire body went cold instantly, and I lost all control of my limbs. I’d managed to land on my shoulder, and the world became blurred — like I’d stepped into the twilight zone. And then I lost all c
onsciousness.
When I finally came to, Leesha was standing over me, a surprisingly concerned look on her face.
“Earth to Z, you there?”
“Barely,” I managed in a hoarse whisper.
“Look, dummy, if you want to get beaten to the edge of death every single time we go into battle, that’s fine by me. Yes, you’re the tank, but you don’t have to be a freakin’ martyr.”
She helped me sit up as my health rose to about twenty percent. I’d heard that speech half a million times from my brother, but there was no way I could tell her that. “Yeah, okay.”
I thought she was going to say more, but Leesha settled for a condescending shoulder pat. “Good. Now get up. These guys dropped some first-class booty, including some Attribute Orbs.”
My eyes landed on a couple of glowing orbs nearby. “I saved you the Defense ones — seeing as how you’re such a sorry excuse for a tank.”
A little surprised she hadn’t taken them all — Attribute Orbs didn’t fall under the party loot rules — I snagged both glowing spheres. I crushed them both in my huge Urok hand and let the power consume me. I felt like Thanos after acquiring the Infinity Gems.
Your Defense has increased by 2!
Character Stats
Name: Zane
Title: None
Race: Urok, male
Level: 3
Total Attribute Points: 19
Attribute Points to next level: 1
Health: 4 (80/80 Hit Points)
Attack: 3
Defense: 6
Speed: 2
Agility: 1
Intelligence: 2
Luck: 1
“Hey, nerd. You gonna help me go through this stuff or what?” Leesha snapped.
Any semblance of attraction to the Sylvad I’d experienced from the deceiving, charm-laden moonlight dissipated in an instant.
While there weren’t nearly as many drops as after the caravan attack, the seventy-five RuneCoins and the quality of the two items I ended up with were much better than the previous garbage we’d sorted through.
Urok Iron Battle Axe
Description: A standard battle axe that would make any executioner proud to swing.
Damage: One-handed (5–8), Two-Handed (9–12)
Quality: Decent (Can be improved by a working smith)
Urok Steel-shod boots
Description: Perfect for battle, not so great for long marches — these boots ain’t made for walking but they will allow you to kick some literal butt and not feel a thing. +4% Defense Rating.
Quality: Fair (Can be improved by most smiths)
With a minor pang of remorse, I dropped the Stone Battle Axe I’d picked up when I first helped Durk chop wood. It had served me well up until this point, but it was time to move on to bigger, better things. Slipping on my new boots, I felt the weight difference at once, but also reflected that Leesha would have a hell of a time shooting me through the foot with my new kicks equipped. I didn’t want to think how much worse I would be at sneaking in the clonkers.
We finalized our loot haul and headed in the direction of the cave, eyes still on high alert for any hidden traps or further enemies. We’d almost reached the fire when Leesha put her arm out in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. Her eyes darted from the cave into the forest.
“W—”
She held up a finger, demanding silence.
Had she seen something? Sylvads were known for their night vision, but I hadn’t even noticed a shadow swaying.
“Sorry,” she said, lowering her arm after a long tense moment. “I thought I saw something come out from the cave. I think it may have been a bat or something, but we should still be careful.”
After my experience with cave ghouls, nobody had to tell me twice. Before entering the diagonal crack in the hillside marking the cave entrance, we scoured the immediate area. Finding nothing, Leesha led the way, scanning for traps. About ten yards in, we came across a ladder to a lower level. With Leesha holding her bow at the ready, I used my Combat Assessment skill to check for potential baddies in the next floor below. Surprisingly finding none, we descended.
The next room proved to be empty. Empty of people, full of…opened chests.
The chamber was about ten yards square and clearly where the bandits were caching all of their loot. Or at least that was where they had been caching all of their loot. Crates, sacks, chests, barrels — everything had been busted to pieces and picked almost clean.
Without a word, Leesha and I ransacked the cave, but our efforts proved futile. We found nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. There was plenty of cheap garbage — candlesticks and other crap that had no use and would possibly bring a coin or two at best.
We’d just about run out of chests to look through when a faint glint caught my eye. In a dark corner of the small cavern, I spotted a small wooden door hanging crooked off its hinge. My heart started pounding. This was exactly the kind of place a tournament token could be tucked away. I grabbed the door and yanked it the rest of the way off the cavern wall. Forced to get down on my hands and knees, I crawled in the space up to my hips then pawed around in the dark. My hand landed on a wooden box, which fortunately wasn’t a trap. I grabbed the box and scooted back out. When the torchlight hit the chest, I gasped. Large letters were carved in gold on the top: LMR. Lord MythRune. This had to be it.
“Leesha,” I said, eyes transfixed on the box.
“You find something?”
I held up the chest.
“What’re you waiting for? Open it!”
I pressed down on the LMR engraving and the lid popped open. Almost at once, a notification obscured my vision.
“What is it?” Leesha said. “Tell me!”
“‘This tournament token has already been claimed,’” I read in a flat voice. “‘Lord MythRune wishes you the best of luck in your continued search, intrepid adventurer.’”
25
Bamboozled
Day 5 — Fifteen Days to Tournament Start
“Intrepid adventurer, my ass!” Leesha screamed in frustration and chucked an empty barrel into the cavern wall.
I would have joined her, but I was too shocked to do much of anything. I couldn’t help but think I’d just blown my one shot.
While Leesha continued to rant and trash the cavern, my shock began to fade, and logic started coming back into effect in my brain. Where had everything gone? I was almost positive that NPC players wouldn’t be programmed to take tournament tokens, but someone had clearly looted the cave. And since the bandits were just hanging around the fire, business as usual, I doubted they’d known all of their treasure was gone. So then when and how…
I jumped to my feet, remembering the shadow Leesha had seen flitting out of the cave.
“I think somebody was camping us.”
“What?” Leesha paused in her cursing long enough to shoot me a wild look.
“That shadow or whatever — it must have been something cast by a player or a player itself! Nothing else would have taken a token.”
Leesha growled in anger and threw another crate against the wall. “I wanted to explore the cave before we killed the raiders. If you had just listened to me, we’d have a token right now!”
Anger coursed through me at her accusations. How dare she blame this on me? I opened my mouth to give her a piece of my mind, but I found I had no argument. She was right. I’d cost us a token, and maybe Brandon’s life.
“I…” Admitting I was wrong had never been a strong skill. Mostly, because I hardly ever was on the football field. When you’re so good at something that no one ever questions you, it tends to bleed over until you think you do everything right. I sighed and my broad Urok shoulders slumped. “It’s my fault. You’re right.”
“You’re damn right I—” It took Leesha a minute to actually process what I’d just said. When comprehension dawned, she just kind of stared at me. “Uh, yeah.”
; Not that me admitting I was at fault really changed our situation. We’d still been screwed out of a small fortune for low-level characters — and a tournament token. Leesha started pacing.
“That bastard set us up,” she said. “Whoever it was tipped the raiders off that we were there — I knew they couldn’t have heard us. The player used us as a distraction and cleaned out the cave while we fought the Blue Hands.”
I stared dumbly at the cave wall. Was every player in MythRune a freaking camper? Out of the two I’d met, one had tried to steal my kill and stab me in the back, and the other had robbed me blind. I was beginning to think I’d underestimated how cutthroat competition for the tokens would be. My mind raced, and panic threatened to overcome me. I had to calm down.
Taking a deep breath, I exhaled into a cross-legged seated position. I forced my mind to go over the practices our team’s sport psychologist had drilled into us each season. Slow down. Focus on what you can control. Stay in the present. My mind was mine to control, not the other way around.
“We still have, what, fifteen days left?”
Leesha’s eyes glanced into space, no doubt checking her clock and date. “Yeah, it’s early morning of day five now.”
“Then there’s still time,” I said, climbing to my feet. “We just need to remind ourselves there’s still time.”
“You’re a strange dude, you know that?” Leesha said, gesturing around. “Just like that? You don’t even wanna break something?”
“When you have a younger brother who’s —” I stopped myself, horrified at what I’d almost revealed.
Leesha peered at me with renewed interest. “Who’s what?”
I didn’t answer. Inside, I berated myself. I was getting careless, too comfortable around her. Fortunately, a lone unopened sack in the corner provided a change of subject. “What’s that?”
God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1) Page 17
