It was very hard to ignore the screams.
Grey and Patrick sat in a building overlooking the next teleporter, their backs against the wall as they let the orcs rush out and kill everyone and everything around them, the bright blue light illuminating the room. The idea was to protect the teleporter for as long as possible, driving away anyone who might consider taking it over and possibly ending the mission early. They knew the civilians around them were NPCs, but that didn’t make their inaction towards their deaths any easier.
Grey glanced out of the window. “Still nothing.”
“Nothing apart from the war, you mean?” Patrick responded.
“Just the game being normal.”
“The most surprising thing of all.” Patrick looked at Grey as they sat down again. “You’re unusually calm about all this. I thought you were the roleplay obsessed one.”
“I was doing that because I wanted to have fun. This isn’t much fun anymore,” Grey admitted.
“Might take your mind off stuff at least,” Patrick said. He paused, before asking, “You’re not worried about James at all, are you?”
“I have faith in him, whatever he’s doing.”
Grey opened the friends list and checked James’ entry. He was online, but his location came up blank.
“Haven't you stopped to think about how crazy all of this is?” Patrick asked.
“I stopped to think about it before any of us realised the deep shit we were in,” Grey replied. “Even just minor research into the topic sent me down a rabbit hole of insanity. I don’t know how Kabletech keeps any of it covered up.”
Patrick shrugged. “Maximilian Kable controls basically everything in our lives at this point. Can’t be hard to cover up some rumours that sound like an ancient creepypasta. I’m certain he has ways of covering stuff up that none of us know about.”
Grey raised an eyebrow. “It certainly doesn’t feel like he does.”
“That’s what makes him so damn clever. Mum said it was the same on the other side of the world. They didn’t realise what they were losing until they looked back on everything they had lost in the past ten years. These people don’t crush you when they gain control, they slowly strangle you to the point you can’t breathe. That’s why she ran away to Europe, met dad…only for the same shit to happen again.” Patrick scoffed. “And to think they used all the money they saved up to live in Avalon. Right under the oppressor’s foot.”
“I’m…I’m sorry. I never realised that’s why you came here.”
“It’s fine, I never told you guys. It’s not something I really want to talk about…or really can.” He smiled. “Honestly, I’m happy to have loving parents at all, looking at what happened with Amelia. They could have broken from everything, but they came here and raised me and Rehannon. I’m eternally grateful for that.”
Grey nodded. “My family aren’t the best people, but I can handle myself just fine. I remember meeting your mum and dad. They seemed…kind.”
Patrick looked surprised. “I don’t think I’ve ever met your parents before.”
“I haven’t seen them in years. Here’s hoping I don’t need to.”
“You never got a foster family like James and Amelia have? You’re just…living alone? In a place as expensive as Avalon?”
Grey nodded. “I grew up fast. I can handle myself.”
Patrick snickered. “You were the most stereotypical emo goth I’d ever met when I first came to high school, that’s not growing up fast in my book.”
Grey nervously rubbed the back of their neck. “I was mature on the inside…”
“Suuuuuure.” Patrick smiled.
Teleporters Remaining
2/4
Patrick jumped in surprise when the message came up. He looked outside just to check they hadn’t completely screwed up their mission, but luckily their teleporter was still intact. He breathed a sigh of relief, but then he noticed something. The orcs that had originally been standing around, specifically there to defend the teleporter, were beginning to advance down one of the side streets. Patrick ran across to another window and looked out to see a woman in black armour carving her way through orcs.
“Shit!” He shouted. “She’s here.”
Grey ran over to see Knight Oblivia slice an orc’s head off with minimal effort.
Orc 78
0/60 HP
She was still a few buildings away, and seemed far too focused on the greenskin horde to notice the two camping players. Despite this, she was cutting through them like a hot knife like butter, none of them staying alive for more than two slashes of her massive cleaver.
“Amelia must have lost,” Grey said. “I expected it to happen, but I didn’t think she’d get here so soon.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“How the hell do we stop her?” Patrick asked. “We can’t shoot her directly.”
Grey thought for a moment.
“We can shoot her,” Grey corrected him, “we just can’t damage her.”
“What difference does that make?”
“When you’re in the middle of fighting an army, running on adrenaline, just coming out of a fight with a woman who almost certainly pissed you off, and focusing on something you think might save lives? Quite a bit.”
Grey threw a single bolt of energy. Oblivia instinctively dodged to the side, not realising the attack was from another player, before going back to dueling orcs like nothing had happened. Patrick smirked.
“Oh, I get it now.”
Patrick scanned the area for anything he could use, and quickly noticed an ornate balcony near where Oblivia had locked swords with a menacing looking orc in black armour. The balcony was lined with ornate statues made of some kind of marble.
“Force her over to that balcony,” he said, pointing the statues out to Grey.
Grey smiled. “I see what you’re planning and I like it.”
Patrick and Amelia kept chucking energy bolts that Oblivia dodged with exceptional ease, slowly pushing her under the balcony.
“What the hell?” Oblivia muttered “This wasn’t in the raid before. Did they update it since I last played?”
As soon as Oblivia was under the balcony, Grey sent one bolt of energy flying directly into her chest.
Warning
PVP is not possible outside of designated areas.
Please move to the nearest Arena or use the Dueling Dust item if you wish to continue.
Oblivia glared at the building where the two were staked out.
“Oh, you son of a bit-”
Trident743
Firebolt
----
Trident743
190/250 Mana
The balcony above her exploded. The balcony’s stone hung in mid air, adding to the choking dust that was beginning to cover Corigrad’s streets. The statues, on the other hand, were not made of floatstone. Soon, the art pieces crashed down onto Oblivia, hitting her on the head with a first one, and then proceeding to bury her and a very unlucky nearby orc in finely carved marble. Patrick and Grey high fived, before they looked around in horror as Oblivia burst out of the rubble, hunched over, armour damaged from the impact, no sword in sight.
KnightOblivia
36/250 HP
----
Orc 95
0/60 HP
“How the hell isn’t she dead?” Patrick shouted. “What the hell do we do now?”
“She doesn't have a weapon,” Grey said bluntly. “We’ll be fine.”
“All she needs to do is grab it and get out! What’s gonna stop her fr-”
They were interrupted by a large group of orcs dogpiling Oblivia, immediately beating her into submission.
KnightOblivia
0/250 HP
Available Revive Time: 3 minutes.
“And that’s why I never let Amelia plan anything,” Grey said. “Brute force isn’t the answer to everything. All you need to do is run rings around your opponent until they’re so annoyed they make a mistake.”
“She was a lot weaker than she made out to be,” Patrick commented.
“She’s just a player like the rest of us, and her level got dropped upon entering the dungeon. She still had all her high level gear and more special moves, so it’s no wonder she beat Amelia, but she wasn’t that far beyond us.”
At that point, a few of the orcs looked at them, pointing at where they’d seen the energy bolts, and began to rush towards them. Patrick looked on in horror.
“Please tell me this was part of the plan,” he said. Grey walked back and magical energy formed around him as he prepared to cast his buffs.
“It was a foreseeable problem.”
“So you have a plan?”
Grey looked embarrassed. “It was foreseeable. I just…didn’t see it.”
Patrick spun his staff around as he prepared to start setting orcs on fire. Before they could do anything, a message pinged on both of their friends lists. They opened it up to see a text.
“James did what he needed to. Get us the hell out.”
Message from SoulArmoury
They both let out an exasperated sigh. It was exactly what they’d been hoping to see since they got here, at precisely the wrong time.
Grey stats: Level: 8 VIT: 200/200 STR: 15 DEF: 15 DEX: 15 SPL: 30 INT: 1 Healing Pool: 400/600
Patrick stats: Level: 8 VIT: 150/150 STR: 35 DEF: 10 DEX: 20 SPL: 25 INT: 1 Mana: 190/250
Gungnir Stats: Level: 8 VIT: 150/200 STR: 30 DEF: 5 DEX: 25 SPL: 5 INT: 0
Lambda Stats: Level: 8 VIT: 75/150 STR: 15 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 25 INT: 0
