The Cheater's Return

by Brian McGoldrick

  With double the number of mutants, I cannot get them to spread out long enough for my tactic from the first wave to work.

  Picking a mutant with only a couple others near it, I charge toward it. The rest of the mutant train chases after me. If I do not want to get surrounded, I will only have five seconds to finish it.

  Crack!

  I take out the mutant's knee with my first strike and slip under the clumsy grab from the mutant on my left. Spinning around, I kick the one that tried to grab me and send it stumbling into the third mutant.

  Crack! Crack!

  I hammer two overhand strikes into the downed mutant's skull, leaving it a corpse.

  Too many mutants are too close, and I run away, again.

  These mutants only seem to grab and claw at me. They have no idea of what a punch is. If they were slow like zombies, I could just mow them down, but they move too quickly. As long as I can avoid letting them surround me, I can get through this.

  * * * * *

  "Second wave completed."

  "How many waves are there?"

  The only answer to my question is silence.

  Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

  After another five-minute break, I hear more footsteps. This time, from three directions.

  I take them on in small groups, and after killing one, I run.

  * * * * *

  "Third wave completed."

  I am not winded, but my breathing is heavy.

  The corpses turn into a blood mist and, some of it enters my body. Within seconds, my fatigue disappears. Does that mean that every third wave my energy will be replenished?

  How many waves will there be? How many of those mutants can I take on at once? Without entering the blood mist, I only have a limited space to work in.

  * * * * *

  The last mutant dies, and breathing like a bellows, I lean on my staff.

  "Tenth wave completed. First stage completed."

  What the fuck? First stage?

  The corpses turn into the blood mist and wash away my fatigue.

  "Hey, what do you mean by 'first stage'?"

  The only reply is silence.

  "How many stages are there?"

  "How long does this go on?"

  Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

  After five minutes of no response, I hear the sound of footsteps. It is only a single group.

  As the group of mutants leaves the blood mist, the differences between these and the mutants in the first stage quickly become obvious. They look around carefully, but do not immediately attack. Instead, they form up in two lines of five and advance at a quick but steady pace.

  Their eyes are filled with bloodlust, but there is nothing unintelligent about them. When I try moving to their right flank, they adjust their lines to keep their approach centered on me. They are organized and dangerous.

  As I smile grimly and charge forward, the mutants halt their advance and raise their fists.

  Just before I reach striking range with my staff, I spring to my left and attack the mutant on the outside of their right wing with a Sliding Thrust. It parries my attack, but it only manages to deflect it enough to take the hit on the shoulder instead of in the throat.

  As I withdraw, the front rank of mutants closes on my right, and the rear rank moves out to my left. They do not spread out, and they do not wildly chase me.

  The bruise on the shoulder of the mutant quickly fades to nothing.

  Running, I put fifty meters between the mutants and myself, but they do not race after me. They just return to their two-line formation and keep advancing at the same steady pace.

  I close with the mutants and target the one farthest to my right. As soon as they see the direction I jump in, they move to encircle me.

  Crack!

  I attack the knee of the mutant, but it lifts its leg and blocks my staff with its shin. As I follow up with an attack at its head, another mutant punches at my head, and I barely avoid its attack. The first mutant blocks my staff, and another mutant closes in on my back. I bull past the first mutant and run away.

  The mutant that blocked my attack on its knee has a lump on its shin, but the lump quickly shrinks. Their regeneration rate is ridiculous.

  This time, I almost did not get away. I do not see how I can kill one of them without being surrounded and taken down.

  You are weak. If you are to overcome this trial, you must realize your Skills. The mental imprint's comment drifts through my mind, but it makes no sense. Just what the hell is 'realize your Skills' supposed to mean? Which Skill?

  Could the mental imprint have been talking about Skill Expression? When your Skill Expression exceeds 90% you start doing more damage on every hit. At 100% Skill Expression, you do double damage, and it keeps increasing by 10% for every 1% over 100%.

  Without access to the UI, I cannot check my combat logs, and without being able to check my combat logs, I cannot tell how high my Skill Expression is. I can try to improve it, but I will not be able to tell if I am going in the right direction.

  I close with the mutants again and go for the one on my right. As soon as I make my move, they move to encircle me, but I only attack with a single Sliding Thrust. The mutant partially deflects my attack, and I retreat.

  I repeat the same pattern over and over, and the mutants react in the exact same way over and over. I am not sure what to make of them. Their actions make them seem more like flesh and bone robots than living beings.

  Time passes. Minutes and hours turn into a day or more. I am not afflicted by hunger or thirst. The time I needed to log out to meet with Vinny is long past, but there is nothing I can do about it.

  Without the UI, I cannot log out, and if Raven or someone else on the outside pulls the plug on me, my body will become a mindless vegetable. I will simply die.

  There are urban legends of people who died while playing Primacy Online and lived on in the game for years after, but I never met anyone who actually saw it happen.

  Crack!

  The mutant fails to block my attack, I drive the tip of my staff through its face. As the mutant falls to the ground, I quickly retreat.

  My next few dozen attacks are failures, but after my first success, I keep trying.

  Crack!

  My tip of staff punches clean the face of another mutant and destroys its brain.

  With fewer failures in between successes, more of the mutants fall to my Sliding Thrusts. When there is only one mutant left, I switch to using an overhand strike and let the mutant heal in between strikes.

  When the number of mutants in a wave gets heavier, just one type of attack will not be enough. I will need to be able to use as many different attacks as possible at the highest levels of damage.

  * * * * *

  Crack!

  The last mutant of the wave falls dead.

  "Tenth wave completed. Second stage completed."

  Once the mutant corpses turn into blood mist and replenish my strength, I sit down cross-legged and wait. I have lost track of how much time has passed, but at the very least, it has been days. I am probably closing in on two weeks. That means that I have already been logged in for a day straight.

  Raven Goddess could not have expected this to happen. She said that we would reach a point where we could log out in time to meet with Vinny.

  I have no idea what is going on in the real world. If they activate my capsule's life support, I can stay connected for weeks or even a couple months, but without going into a cryo-capsule I will die sooner rather than later.

  What will the Church do when I fail to report to my cryo-capsule?

  Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

  As the first wave of the third stage emerges from the blood mist, I cannot help but frown. Their eyes have the same bloodlust as the first two stages, and there is more fluidity in their movements. After they scan the area, they form a line and advance at a fast jog.

  When they get close, I try to rush toward the left, but staying in a tight group, th
e mutants move just as quickly as I do. Abruptly switching directions, I try to disengage, but they chase after me. Their running speed is no slower than my own, and they maintain their formation.

  Spinning around, I charge the center of the mutant's line and attack with a Sliding Thrust. The mutant sways to the side and parries my attack, and then, it gets inside the attack range of the tip of my staff.

  Crack!

  I immediately follow up with a mid-level strike with the opposite end of my staff and catch the mutant in the floating ribs. The sound of breaking bones fills the air, but the attack is not enough to put the mutant down. Plowing into the mutant with the middle of my staff, I shove it backward, but before I can follow up, another mutant is already attacking me with a kick aimed at my knees. I catch the mutant's kick with a shin block and push off its leg to enhance my backward jump distance.

  Crack! Crack!

  As I land, I go after the first mutant with a wide swing, and when the mutant tries to block my staff with both hands, the bones in its wrists snap.

  I spin back around and attack the other mutants with a head height swing. They duck and jump to the sides to avoid it, but it keeps them from closing on me. Using the opportunity, the first mutant closes the distance to kick at me.

  Crunch!

  Without turning around, I make a backward thrust with my staff and crush the throat of the first mutant. Finally dying, the mutant drops to its knees and falls forward.

  The fight took too long. Three of the mutants are behind me, and the fight turns into a chaotic melee. I take the mutants down one by one, but they still land blows on me.

  As the last mutant falls, I have a half-dozen bruises, but I managed to avoid any debilitating injuries.

  The mutant's corpses turn into a blood mist, and my injuries heal. I sit down to wait for the next wave.

  The healing is not based on the number of waves, like I first thought. As long as I survive a wave, the blood mist will replenish my energy and heal my injuries. If I live, I can keep fighting forever. How long will this trial go on for?

  The mental imprint called this the Trial of Battle, but the more I see, the more it feels like a training exercise. Each wave is forcing me to refine and improve my combat Skills and methods of fighting. The first stage, I just needed to isolate and kill them one by one. The second stage, I had to refine my attacks so that I could kill quickly and escape. This time there is no escaping. I will need to keep my form and kill with the fewest number of attacks. If I do not, the larger numbers as the waves go on will overwhelm me.

  * * * * *

  As the last mutant falls, I drop to my knees. I have broken ribs and bruises all over my body, but I am still alive.

  "Tenth wave completed. Third stage completed."

  The blood mist heals me for the next stage.

  Each wave of this stage, the battles were more intense than the previous stages, but my technique improved. I do not know if I am learning what this Trial of Battle is supposed to be teaching me, but I am refining my combat skill and technique. Because I was not repetitively trying to improve specific attacks, like during the second stage, this stage only took about half a day.

  Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

  This time the mutants have weapons. They are armed with a mix of swords, axes, and hammers. The level of difficulty just jumped up to another realm

  * * * * *

  "Tenth wave completed. Ninth stage completed. The trial has been completed."

  My body is covered with wounds. I do not need access to the UI to know that I am barely alive.

  The blood mist seeps into my body. My broken bones realign themselves and fuse back together. My cut and torn flesh closes.

  My clothes remain tattered rags, and my body remains filthy. I look like a beggar.

  I do not even notice the transition, but I am back in the circular room.

  "Outlander, you have overcome the first trial, but you are too weak for the second and third trials." The mental imprints voice sounds pleased, but I am not certain if that is true.

  I make a noise that might be a laugh, but I am not really sure what it is supposed to be. "What does that mean?"

  "When you have achieved the peak of the Sixth Rank, you may take the second trial. When you have found the limits of the Ninth Rank, you may take the third trial."

  Anger fills me. "So, this was just a waste of my time? I needed to be an Emperor to pass your fucking trials?"

  "No, Outlander. You have received the right to claim my three Aspects. Once you leave this place, the Shackles of the Domination will attack and shape my Aspects into Classes."

  I narrow my eyes in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

  "I precede the Shackles of the Domination, and I died before the Shackles of the Domination enslaved this world. In this subdimension, the Shackles of the Domination still have no sway, but once you leave, you will no longer be under my protection. My Aspects are knowledge and power, but they lack a will of their own. They cannot resist the Shackles of the Domination and will be shaped into Classes by it."

  I shake my head. If it were not for the fact that I cannot access the game UI, I would think this was insane. I pretty much still think this is insane, but I do not see the point in arguing with the product of a quantum construct.

  "Outlander, I am not part of a quantum construct. Tathlum is not a quantum construct. It is a world that has been enslaved by the Shackles of the Domination."

  "Okay, whatever you say."

  "Outlander, the Eye of Balor has the power to break the Shackles of the Domination. If you attain it, you can break the Shackles of the Domination and learn the truth."

  The Eye of Balor. Claiming it is the armistice condition for World War IX. Raven Goddess wants it. This mental imprint wants me to use it. Why is the Eye of Balor so important, and what is the truth? This mental imprint's claims sound insane, but what if they are not? What if this world is as real as the Earth? Am I insane for even thinking that it could be possible?

  "You should not fully trust in that woman. She has the inheritance of another, and her interests will not always align with your own."

  You should not trust me so easily. This is my personal endgame with the Church. I am as likely to get you killed as anything. I remember Raven Goddess' words at the village after we finished that first quest. Was she warning me that one day we would become enemies the same way I became enemies with Mi-Cha?

  The three crystals float down from the center of the room and hover in front of me.

  "Take them."

  I take the crystals and store them in my inventory, leaving me with only one open slot in my inventory. Starting inventories in this game are too small, and it is a real pain in the ass to upgrade them.

  "There is a barrow to the north of here. Inside there is a weapon that was once mine. It is broken, but you can restore it over time. A broken haft is the biggest impediment for you to use it. The staff you wield has no enchantment, but it is crafted in a similar manner to the weapons of the Gods. It can be used to make a new haft, but you will need a smith with the Skills of a God of smithing."

  I snort and shake my head. Everything is always such a pain in the ass.

  "Return when you have reached the peak of the Sixth Rank, Outlander."

  Dead Islands, Toraigh

  First Month 9, 10 RC

  Again, there is no sense of motion, but I am someplace else. The slab of stone blocking the lintel of Crom Cruach's barrow is in front of me.

  I open my UI and check the game date: First Month 9, 10 RC.

  "What the fuck?" I look up and both inside and outside the circle of standing stones I see a night sky, filled with stars.

  I check the Earth Date and time: May 14, 1337 – 21:28.

  "What the fuck?"

  I was in the Trial of Battle for weeks. Days should have passed on Earth. What the fucking hell is going on? Was everything just a mental illusion?

  I glance at the rags that are all that rema
ins of my clothes. No. It was no illusion. How the hell did I spends weeks in there, but only have hours pass in the game and minutes in the real world?

  In a bit of daze, I rise to my feet and walk out of the circle of standing stones.

  "Did you succeed?"

  I stare blankly at Raven Goddess for five or ten seconds, before the meaning of her question finally registers on me. "Yeah. I think so."

  As I take the three crystals out of my storage, my vision blurs, as the air around me ripples like a heat shimmer effect. Activating my QCP Vision, I see so many threads from the Shackles of the Domination swarming through the air to surround the crystal that I step back in shock. Thick layers of the threads from the Shackles wrap around the crystals, and an uneasy shiver goes through me.

  Glancing at Raven Goddess, I see her smiling, but that smile is an expression of hostility. Her eyes appear filled with anger and resentment. I do not know if her negative emotions are directed at the crystals, the Shackles of the Domination, or both.

  The distortion in the world around the ball of blackish-gold threads grows worse, and black cracks with an empty nothingness beyond them appear. What strikes me as strange is the lack of noise. The whole process is happening in total silence.

  Raven Goddess' smile turns into a frown, and she quickly moves away. "Get away from there! Space is tearing! This should not be happening!"

  I back away, but I do not go as far as Raven Goddess. Despite the apparent violence of the whole thing, I do not feel like I am in any danger.

  After an hour or more, the blackish-gold threads from the Shackles of the Domination abruptly disappear, and the three crystals float serenely in the air.

  Raven Goddess and I approach the crystals, and Raven Goddess gingerly touches them one after the next with her fingertip. As she stares at the crystals, she does not seem to be able to decide if she wants to smile or frown.

  "There is no question those are Aspect Class Sources, but I cannot tell anything about them."

  As I touch the crystals, my eyes narrow. I am not sure what I expected, but these classes seem much too broad in their abilities.

  Dark Slayer

  » Archetype: Undefined