by Jakob Tanner
Serena, Shade, Kari, and Jackson were all sitting at a long row of tables. The rest of the crew was sitting there too. Serena used a ladle to serve everyone a bowl. Everyone ate and spoke and occasionally looked up to the world of clouds above us and the schools of different sky creatures. For a brief moment, I forgot we were on a deadly mission or that we were racing against a foreign super power out to destroy us or that the odds of us succeeding weren’t very high. For a brief second, I relaxed. I played footsy with Serena, joked with Shade and Kari, asked Jackson questions about the cloud ocean around us and felt at one with the world around me.
Even I knew the moment couldn’t last forever.
Our ship vibrated. Everybody stood up, ready to act.
“What was that?” asked Kari.
Serena pointed ahead and everyone’s mouths gaped.
It was a sky squid as big as our ship.
13
Everyone stood up from the table. The crew ran to the rope ladders and climbed up the ship, adjusting the sails. We were currently heading straight in the direction of the alarming creature. It had wet white skin from its fin to the bottom of its mantle. It was angled in such a way we only saw one of its bulbous purple eyes. Its long slippery tentacles weaved in and out of the air like seaweed tendrils. Pink suckers lined the bottom side of the squid’s multiple arms. Its stats appeared in my HUD.
Ologos
Level 25
HP: 1280
MP: 28
The mana engine was burning at a low rate, so we were coasting through the air at a gentle pace. We were about a minute away from the bowsprit poking the squid right in the eye.
“Is it about to attack us?” said Kari, gripping her small healer’s staff.
“I’m not sure,” said Shade, reaching down for the revolvers at his waist.
“My guess is it’s upset we ate its dinner,” said Serena, reaching for her sword. “I bet it really likes sun kelp.”
“Or is it jealous about the tasty smell of my stir-fry and saddened to know it will never eat a meal so delicious?” I chimed. “It’s the sad depressing truth about having so many tentacle arms and no cooking utensils.”
“Chill out master chef,” said Serena. “The stew was good, but not so good as to cause a giant sky monster to have an existential crisis.”
Shade turned to Kari. “Was that an example of a ‘burn’ you’ve been telling me about?”
I turned to Jackson. “You’re the most adept sky adventurer amongst us. What do you think?”
“Everyone remain calm,” he said, walking slowly back towards the ship’s steering wheel and mana engine. “There’s no reason we need to fight this thing.”
The stout Rorn man grabbed hold of the ship’s steering wheel, adjusted the rudders and angled the ship away from the squid.
We all stood on the deck, cautious and ready for battle, as we slowly drifted across the sky.
“Now we’ll crank the engine,” said Jackson, “And escape this monstrosity—”
A tentacle arm blasted out from its mouth, stretching out across the sky, and wrapping its arm around the mainmast of our ship. The tentacle coiled around the wooden pole, its pink suckers suctioned themselves to it.
The ship stalled. The engine let out mana exhaust fumes but we didn't move. We were stuck. The tentacle clutching our ship, clenched and throbbed. The arm was pulling us back towards the squid and the dark abyss of its mouth. Between the slithering tentacles I saw its insides, how its mouth was a circle of sharp tiny teeth followed by a smaller ring of teeth and so on and so forth. A kaleidoscopic meat grinder.
“Jackson—can we crank the engine, rip its tentacle out?”
“I don’t think so, mate,” said the helmsman. “It’s too great a risk to the ship. We’re better off facing this thing head on. If it wants a fight, let’s give it to him.”
“Load the cannons,” I yelled across the deck. Crew members shuffled below and I heard the sounds of the cannons being readied. “On count of three,” I ordered. “One, two, three!”
The ship shook as the ignited cannons fired their massive metal bullets across the sky into the mantle of the squid. Black smoke leaked from the hull of our ship and around the body of the Ologos squid. The smoke cleared. The monster had taken zero damage.
What the—?
“Turrets are ready,” shouted one of the crew.
“Unleash turret fire,” I yelled.
A wave of laser blasts slammed into the side of the squid. The squid took no damage again.
“Aim for a weak spot,” I said. “Shoot its eye!”
The two crew members operating the turrets at the front of the ship, re-aimed their guns and fired again at the big purple eye of the squid. As the laser flew across the sky, the monster raised a tentacle arm, blocking the attack.
Shade slid across the wooden platform of the deck, getting cover from the balustrade at the side of the ship. Peeking over, he fired off rounds from his pistol. The bullet punctured the skin of the squid but bounced off it.
“None of our attacks are doing anything,” said the Lirana, ducking for cover. “I think it’s immune to purely physical attacks.”
The squid let out a horrible wail, followed by a burp of oily black muck flying across the air and splattering across our deck. The black muck was slippery and poisonous. Crewmen screamed as the liquid entered their bloodstream. Kari rushed over to them, stepping around the muck and sending orbs of healing at all the crew members.
I stretched my arms out and triggered air blast, sweeping off the black muck from the deck. Next I shot out a quick water blast to get the final residue of the squid’s poison attack off the deck.
The squid flung another tentacle towards us. Jackson jumped in the air and did a spinning backflip kick at the incoming arm. The tentacle recoiled and pulled back towards the safety of the squid’s main body.
Two more tentacles flew at us and Jackson jumped in the air and kicked one. He ricocheted off it, heading towards the other with a flaming fist but he was too slow. The tentacle grabbed one of the crew members, wrapping itself around his stomach.
“It won’t let go,” the crewman screamed. “I can’t get out.”
His screams became indecipherable as the tentacle dragged the man out into the clouds. The squid brought the sailor to its mouth and ripped off his head like chewing on a tough slab of beef jerky.
The battle was not going well. We needed to play offensively.
“Let’s stop waiting for this thing to attack us,” yelled Serena running to the edge of the ship. “Let’s take the battle to it!”
Serena jumped off the ship towards the monster. Her blade soldier class came with loads of acrobatic jump abilities quite similar to my own mana puddles. Her jumps allowed her to ricochet off the air so long as her stamina bar was high enough.
Serena jumped and flipped through the air, landing on top of the squid’s bone white mantle. She slid down it towards the top of its head, where its eyes were and the tentacles sprouted out from. She lifted her sword and swung down on the monster’s gelatinous purple eyeball.
Here comes the damage. Let the critical hit messages stack!
Serena’s blade slammed into the eyelid, squishing it like a pillow. Serena pulled away and the eye returned to normal; the sword hadn’t punctured the gelatinous surface or dealt any damage at all.
Even the eye was immune to physical attacks?
I whipped fireball after fireball at the squid, but the tentacles simply slashed them in the air, cancelling their attack. Damn—did magic not work against this thing either?
I stretched out my hands and focused on the head of the squid where Serena was standing and cast flame wall. A stretch of flames ran across the head of the monster.
“Serena,” I yelled. “Slash your blade through my flame wall then attack!”
The blade soldier nodded her head and got to work. She did a crushing blow attack, slamming down on the Ologos with all of her might. The blade travell
ed through the air, my flame wall, and then the squid’s flesh.
Critical hit!
A chunk of HP fell off the Ologos and it wailed and squirmed with angry frustration. Serena unleashed her strike combo next: a series of jabs with her sword getting more and more intense with each attack, culminating in a mega crushing blow. Her sword burned with a fiery brilliance.
The tentacle wrapped around the mainmast of the Horizon’s Dream uncurled, letting go of the ship as its tentacles went after Serena. Bright golden orbs flew out from Kari’s small fox hands, leaving buffs and protect spells on Serena as she became the squid’s central target.
It hadn’t completely forgotten about the ship though. A tentacle smashed into the hull, dealing damage to the ship’s health.
“It’s no longer keeping hold of us,” shouted Jackson. “Now is our time to escape.”
“Crank the mana engine,” I yelled back to him. I hollered out to Serena. “Get back, we’re making our escape.”
Serena front flipped off the squid, jumping across the tentacles, making her way back to the deck. Once she was aboard, Jackson cranked the mana engine to full blast. The surviving crew tilted the yards and adjusted the sails. We zoomed off through the clouds, the tentacles of the squid chasing after us.
Each tentacle slowly gave up, except for one. The arm stretched and punched the back of our ship, damaging the mana thrusters.
The ship shook and tremored. My teeth chattered from the intensity of the turbulence. The ship descended into the clouds.
“What’s happening?”
“The dented thruster is alternating our course,” said Jackson. “We have a big problem guys. We’re fucked.”
The squid had gone off in a new direction in search of other prey. It was somewhat hard to believe given where we were minutes ago, but the squid was now the least of our worries.
I turned back around and saw our ship heading straight towards a swirl of violent purple lightning. We were not going to be able to exploit this to make us go faster.
The lightning struck the deck, shattering the wood. Jackson held onto the steering wheel but I didn’t think it was making a difference. Our ship descended into the dark depths of the cloud ocean.
14
I woke up to the smell of stone and dirt. My head ached while a cold hardness pushed against my cheek. I found myself lying on a cliff face, my head resting against stone. Smoke and debris floated through the air. The smell of ash filled my nostrils. My throat burned. A message appeared in my HUD.
Death’s Punishment (Debuff): You feel the horror and pain of death. You lose all EXP gained towards your next level (373 EXP). You gain 30% less EXP on kills (Duration: 6 hours). All ATKP and MTKP damage reduced by 10% (Duration: 6 hours). HP and MP regeneration 10% slower (Duration: 6 hours).
Ugh. I had died. The memory of my death was already fading away, the pain and horror replaced by the simple rational fact I had died and come back. This was the fifth time I’d died in the game since entering it. I had been stabbed to death by a corrupted glitch-fueled rat creature, decapitated by the king’s most loyal advisor, splattered on the ground after an airship accident, mauled apart by ferocious sabre tooth tigers, and now splattered to the ground from an airship accident a second time.
I faintly recalled the blank nothingness of dying in Arcane Kingdom Online but even now, waking up seconds after my fifth death, it was already more of an abstract idea than anything else. I knew death was horrible and I never wanted to experience it; the comfort of knowing I’d come back didn’t make it easier. Would I eventually hit a limit where I’d start remembering the deaths, the pain, the awfulness? How many times did you have to die in this game before it really messed you up psychologically? What about those players enslaved by Arethkar? How traumatized and screwed up in the head were they after having lost control of their avatars for so long?
I rolled over and rubbed my eyes. I sat up on the ground and took in my surroundings. A smashed-up Horizon’s Dream lied entrenched in the ground from its crash landing. Black smoke emanated through the cracked wood of the deck. I jumped up and ran to the ship. Wood split and cracked across the deck and smoke emanated from the inside. I climbed up and went below deck and found the small remnants of a fire. I stretched out my arms and cast water blast, taking care of the flames.
I leaned my head against the wall, sighing. The ship was badly busted up; I had to stop it from getting any more destroyed if we hoped of ever getting out of here. Wherever this was.
I checked my HUD to view the ship’s stats.
Horizon’s Dream
Type: Air Frigate
Size: Large
Turning Radius: Wide
Classification: Warship
Min. Crew: 16
Crew: 18/200
Cannon(s): 14/32
Cargo: 45/80 (tonnage)
Speed: Fast
Crystal Mana Fuel: 0% (Empty)
Food Supply: High
Health: 15% (Bad)
Crew Morale: Defiant
Gold: 10,000
If the burning wreck of a ship in front of me wasn’t enough to sink my spirits, the updated stats of the ship were. Holy fuck. The engine had busted, sending our crystal mana fuel down to 0%. The ship’s health was in the red. The crew morale had dropped by several notches, which was unsurprising, since we now had barely the minimum crew members to operate the ship. We had lost fifteen men to the crash.
My stomach churned. Energy drained out of my body. My chest became heavy. My legs wobbled unable to stand straight.
The giant pit of guilt was eating me alive from the inside out.
I had made the decision to go with the faster route to beat Arethkar to Ariellum. I had chosen to go through this dangerous path and look where it had gotten my crew and me. In my desperation to beat General Oren Kaige—to save Land’s Shield, to protect those I loved—I’d ended up hurting myself and others more than if I had done nothing at all.
No. I shook my head. The crew’s blood wasn’t on my hands. Their deaths weren’t my fault. We were the last hope between our current Illyrian world order and a way worse one dictated by Arethkar. We had to do everything in our power to stop them.
I snapped out of my thoughts and climbed out from below the ship. Beyond the cliff face I’d respawned on was a jungle of palm trees and exotic plants. The silhouette of a mountain loomed in the distance. Emerging from the trees were two familiar faces. Shade and Kari ran up to me.
“Clay, you’re back,” said Kari. “We weren’t sure if you’d respawn on the island or—”
She didn’t have to finish her sentence. We still weren’t sure what happened if you died falling from the cloud ocean. Did you respawn on the most recent grounded location? Or did you continuously respawn there in an endless loop? I figured the developers wouldn’t let the latter be the case, but then again, it wasn’t something you wanted to test and find out. Also, the developers—including the mysterious creator Konrad Takeshimi—had proven themselves to be absolute psychopaths again and again in terms of design decisions.
“What happened?”
“We went straight into a lightning swirl and the ship fell,” said Shade. “I thought we were done for. This was it. Sayonara Shade. It’s been fun but it’s all over now. But alas—oh thankfully alas!—Kari held onto me, casting protect and heal over and over so when we crash landed on here we stayed alive with a few scraps of HP between us. Most of the crew wasn’t so lucky.”
My stomach lurched with guilt again.
“Where are we even? I thought the cloud ocean was an endless expanse of open air.”
“For the most part, yeah,” said Shade. “But the great rift wasn’t so neat and tidy, pockets of Illyria separated completely from the main continents, forming sky islands dotting all across the cloud oceans.”
“I learned that at the academy,” added Kari. “The Muumuu isles to the east are a whole cluster of islands like this, rather than a giant slab of land like Laergard and A
rethkar.”
“Does this place have a name or inhabitants?” I said, peering into the jungle, searching for signs of life. A new message popped up in my HUD.
New discovery! Zeratha’s Isle
You have discovered Zeratha’s Isle. Recorded in history books, its exact location has puzzled cartographers and sky sailors for centuries! The coordinates have been recorded into your captain’s logs. Submit them to a skyfarer’s guild in any major Illyrian city and collect a reward!
“Anyone else seeing this message?”
“I am,” said Kari.
Shade nodded as well. “Great news for us—that is, if we ever get off this bloody island. A discovery like this will net us a mountain of gold coins.”
The crew morale in my HUD bounced from defiant to unhappy. The prospect of more gold even in dire straights was enough to raise people’s spirits just a little.
“Jackson! Serena!” yelled Kari, pointing behind me.
I turned around. The two had both materialized on the cliff face. My shoulders fell and the pit of guilt in my stomach faded. I wiped my eye and ran towards them. I hugged Serena first. She whispered in my ear, “Looks like shortcuts can be dangerous.”
“I’m just happy you’re okay.”
“Me too,” she said. “I mean, I’m happy you’re okay. I mean, I’m happy we’re both okay.”
We laughed. It wasn’t a happy occasion or a moment where laughter was anywhere near appropriate, but we laughed anyway.
Jackson scratched the back of his head. He stared out into the distance, not talking, looking over the ship stats straightaway. He headed over to the ship and poked around. When he came back, I asked him, “What do you think?”
We waited for his response with trepidation.
“The mana engine is busted but I think I can fix it. We’ll need to chop down wood and repair the deck. We won’t be able to get the ship back up to 100% health but we can get it to a functional state. We still have one last problem though: we lost all the crystal mana fuel.”
