Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  These negative stereotypes of perceived differences quickly turned to hatred when it came to any race that wasn’t considered a humanoid. A prime example of this were demi-humans. Mainly, this was due to the fact that many of the demi-human races treating the humanoid races as a viable and, oft-times, preferred food source. While this made sense when it came to Orcs, Goblinoids, Trolls, and the other more monstrous demi-human races, it didn’t justify the hatred suffered by Centaurs and other intelligent races that were haphazardly thrown under that umbrella.

  This was probably half the reason why Halflings were hated so much. We didn’t fall into any single humanoid or demi-human category. To make matters worse, with races such as Half-Orcs being around, Halflings were considered by most pureblood humanoids to be on the borderline of the demi-human races and thought of by many as abominations. Due to this prejudice, Halflings were expected to hate every race outside of their unique house. As with everything, there were unique exceptions that could adjust this innate animosity for mix-bloods, dependent upon the individual’s actions and the reputation they acquired with a certain city or race. Usually though, this occurrence was extremely rare and was why Halflings were generally not accepted in most humanoid societies. Hence why my refusal to act as the Dark Elf expected completely threw her off on discerning my intent.

  “Release my people and I will ensure that the honor of the House of Tuin’Dyrr is upheld,” Sub-Leader Pevnuth gritted out. The barely concealed feelings of rage and humiliation clear on her face as she sought for some way to save face.

  “Please release them,” I reiterated, meaningfully looking between Thomas, Kenzie, Krishna, Angie, and Assault Leader Dell. Even though I received several unhappy frowns from my friends, everyone complied with my request as the Dark Elf raid glanced around at each other nervously, before Shadow Stepping as a group into the higher branches of the trees around the graveyard. The only exception was Sub-Leader Pevnuth who reappeared on the lowest branch of a tree at the edge of the graveyard. As the Dark Elf’s silvery-blue eyes met mine, she sneered down at me.

  “While I will honor the agreement of the House of Tuin’Dyrr’s Head of Midnight,” Sub-Leader Pevnuth proudly called out, as her voice rang across the graveyard from over our heads. “I promise you that this is not over between us, Halfling Lord.”

  “You’re to report to the Head of Midnight,” I shouted back, as I shot her a one-finger salute, while Kenzie, Thomas, and the rest of my friends looked at me as if I were an idiot for letting them go free. Before anyone could comment further, I continued to the Dark Elf woman. “Any of your people who are found remaining behind will be executed.” To emphasize my words, I shot a Homing Zap off at the Sub-Leader.

  Immediately, three glowing white flares shot from my upturned finger, heading directly for the arrogant sneer on Sub-Leader Pevnuth’s face at a quarter speed of a flying arrow. To say I was surprised at the slow speed of the flaring balls of energy would have been an understatement. I’d been expecting the spell to be just as fast as the level one Zap. Meaning that, while you couldn’t have outrun the shots easily even mounted, the shots were simple to dodge if you had access to a skill like Shadow Step.

  Unfortunately, the superior smirk on the Assassin’s face grew as she realized the simple truth of that fact too. Make a show of it, Sub-Leader Pevnuth lifted her arms and disappeared in a swirl of shadows with a contemptuous ease as the white energy flares blazed through the space she’d been standing in just a second before. To say I was less than enthusiastic about that Homing Zap would have been an understatement, while the female Dark Elf appeared ten yards away in another tree with a scornful look plastered to her face as she flipped me off.

  For a level 30 attack spell, Homing Zap was most obviously a dud, I sourly thought. No wonder Krishna was so aggravated with his magic tree. The move had mostly been as a way for me to warn and chastise the Dark Elf woman for being such a condescending fuck. I was just contemplating hitting the annoying Assassin with another spell, when to everyone’s surprise but the Uten Syn guild’s, the brilliant flares of energy suddenly looped around in midair and began racing towards a dumbfounded Sub-Leader Pevnuth.

  A panicked expression came over Sub-Leader Pevnuth’s face as she hurriedly Shadow Stepped again as the three second cooldown for the spell reset. Unlike before, she royally screwed up this time around as she reappeared ten yards further back inside the forest. The look of horror that filled her eyes brought a smile to my face as the Homing Zap flares unerringly altered course for her once again. With a panic born of desperation, the woman turned around and ran towards the trunk of the tree, trying to buy enough time for her Shadow Step spell to reset.

  Before the Assassin had taken three steps, the energy flares slammed into her back. The woman’s scream of agony echoed through the forest as the blast hit her with enough force to send her flying out of control towards the enormous trunk. Surprisingly enough, Sub-Leader Pevnuth managed to Shadow Step again further into the forest. While I didn’t see where she blinked off to, I imagined she was less than happy as the rest of the Dark Elf raid blinked away together without looking back. I was just updating Tengsly’s message to Mike about the situation, when the Flying Squirrel suddenly disappeared in a puff of green fireflies that dispersed within seconds before my eyes.

  “Fuck my life,” I swore under my breath, trying to figure out what had happened to my manifest pet. The reason hit me a second later, when I realized that Tengsly’s timer must have hit the twenty-four hour mark. Grumbling to myself, I began casting Manifest Giant Squirrel again while holding Tengsly’s image in my mind, when my companions came to a stop around me.

  “You should have killed the arrogant bitch,” Ulia casually said, as Neristhana came to a stop on my other side. “Now she’s going to try causing us as much trouble as she can.”

  “No, he shouldn’t have killed her,” Sarka argued, as she unhappily came stomping up to me with the rest of my team at her back. “Are all of you crazy?” From the look on Unalia’s face, she was of the same mindset, albeit Yun and Tinyr seemed to be a little more conflicted on the matter as Sarka continued in a disagreeable tone. “Why in the hell did you threaten to kill all of them for just being rude? Isn’t that going just a little overboard on this whole Lord Ironwolf bullshit?”

  “I made it clear to you earlier that I wasn’t down with senseless deaths,” Unalia added, obviously upset. Though, before I could defend myself, Kenzie and Thomas came striding up visibly bent out of shape.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Kenzie incredulously demanded. “The stupid bitch didn’t follow her orders during an active wartime situation. Then she threatened her own allies because of her own personal prejudices. Star should’ve slaughtered the lot of them and been done with it!”

  “You just can’t go around killing anyone who dislikes you like a bunch of cold-hearted murderers,” Sarka argued back, obviously distressed at the Devil Dogs’ callous perspective. “It would be different if they were a bunch of monsters, but these people are our allies!”

  “They’re a bunch of honorless scum trying to take advantage of a commander they barely consider to be human … I mean humanoid … err …,” Kenzie paused, suddenly unsure of what to call my race, before shrugging the confusion away with a flick of her hand. “You know what I mean.”

  “It’s not like he was planning to kill the Dark Elves,” Lyeneru offhandedly said, as she walked up with Krishna, Angie, and Gaelin. Surprisingly enough, everyone seemed to be getting along great as she continued unconcerned about the looks she was getting from Sarka and Unalia. “Lord Ironwolf knew exactly what to say to bend Sub-Leader Pevnuth to his will.”

  While I appreciated the support, looking at the four of them hanging out together hurt my brain. I wasn’t sure if I should be disturbed at how friendly they were becoming with one another or not. Were they turning into a foursome, agreeing that whatever they did in game didn’t count, or where they basically broken up with each other
and dating their new lovers? Whatever, I thought, shrugging my confused feelings away as Tengsly popped back into existence in the air in front of me. Immediately, the Flying Squirrel landed on my shoulder and began snuggling up to my chin.

  Whether or not I understood it, who was I to judge? If they were happy and they all got along together than what was it to me? Although, from my own personal experiences, I could only say that rarely did things like love and sex not come back to bite you in the ass. It was hard enough for two people to get along together in an intimate relationship, let alone four. Silently wishing them all the luck in the world, I nodded my thanks to Lyeneru as Sarka raised her voice.

  “Trust me, he would have slaughtered them all if he didn’t think he could trust them,” the warrior woman unhappily complained as Unalia nodded in agreement behind her. “I mean, look at how he handled the whole Dread Pack situation.”

  “Seriously?” I asked in total surprise. “You saw what those assholes did to the people of Darom. They slaughtered most of the men and all of the children in cold-blood and then used women as slave labor in-between molesting them. So, please tell me, how was I supposed to handle the situation differently?”

  “Wait?” Kenzie exclaimed, slapping Thomas on the back as she looked at the two of them incredulously. “Are you upset about that?”

  “No,” Sarka said, as her face screwed up in distaste. “It was that whole thing with how he tortured Bungholio.”

  “You mean the guy who was slaughtering any sailors that didn’t agree with his actions on top of threatening their families as hostages even after slaughtering their children behind their backs, and raping anyone that perked the scumbag’s interest?” Thomas asked, speaking up for the first time. “You’re sticking up for that guy?”

  “We just didn’t like the fact that he was tortured for information,” Unalia said, after trading silent looks with Sarka.

  “Couldn’t we have handled that differently?” Sarka asked, trying to regain her moral footing in the face of uncomfortable truths and horrors outside of her normal purview. “You know, just killed the assholes instead.”

  “You know the reasons that I chose to do what I did,” I said in exasperation, as everyone started to argue about what happened in Darom. Most everyone was for it, while Yun and Tinyr were on the fence. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my nerves as I thought over what both women had said.

  Did I really need to torture Bungholio? Probably not, but the information he provided had helped me come up with a successful strategy in taking Darom back from his guildmates. Not to mention, the guy was such a complete tool that I didn’t regret what I’d done to him in the least. Besides that, the suffering that he and his guildmates had caused to the people of Darom was horrific. They were truly on par with some of the worst fascist war criminals throughout history. While all of those things were true, I’d known that actively choosing to torture someone could possibly cause dissention amongst my friends. Part of the problem now was that now both Sarka and Unalia felt guilty for not saying anything sooner against my actions and were overreacting now when it came to possibly slaughtering people that might deserve it.

  “Hold up, everyone!” I called out, only to be promptly ignored by everyone. Looking around, I saw that my companions and vassals were getting somewhat nervous at the strong words being thrown back and forth between my newfar friends. Knowing I had to get a handle on this before it turned ugly, I tried again, this time shouting out at the top of my lungs.

  “Would everyone just shut the fuck up and listen to me for a second?” Surprisingly enough, my harsh words made it through the clamor as my friends turned to look at me in annoyance.

  “Look guys,” I said, apologetically holding my hands up to calm everyone down. “I understand where Sarka and Unalia are coming from. For them, what I did to Bungholio seemed excessively brutal and premeditated.” My eyes focused on the Devil Dogs and Uten Syn guild members. “That’s nothing to be angry with them about. Where does someone draw that line at what’s over the top and what’s acceptable?” I focused my attention back on Sarka and Unalia. “Did you have a problem when Helgath used her cleansing spell against Councilor Achronis to get her and her cohorts to abdicate from the Council of Light?”

  “Of course not,” Sarka answered in no uncertain terms, as the Ranger nodded in agreement. “That made sense and it’s not like you were physically torturing them.”

  “So really, the only problem you had with the whole Bungholio thing was that it was physical and premeditated?” I asked, trying to understand exactly what had got them both so bent out of shape. Seeing the nervous glance my friends shared, I suddenly understood it was a little bit more than just that. “You’re also upset that it was a newfar and not a person of The World.”

  “It’s not like we want to see anyone treated that way,” Unalia said, sounding somewhat embarrassed at the looks on my companions and vassals’ faces who were intently listening in on our conversation. “But, it seems like doing that to a player is uncalled for.” She traded an uncomfortable glance with the warrior woman beside her before continuing. “I mean, this is supposed to be a game for fun, right?”

  “Can’t you just kill the assholes next time instead,” Sarka unhappily complained, as she continued Unalia’s train of thought. “Or just threaten to hurt them and not go directly to breaking their kneecaps?” She uncomfortably rubbed the back of her neck as she looked around at everyone for support. “That whole thing just made Unalia and I feel dirty.”

  Seeing Jill, who had walked up during the discussion with the rest of their group, taking a deep breath to say something nasty at Sarka’s comment about feeling dirty, I hurriedly gave her a head shake to shut her up as AJ casually elbowed her in the ribs. That caused a brief pushing and slapping match between AJ, Krystal, and Jill, which had Hefe and Bonnie silently backing away so as to not get mixed up with the threesome’s fight. Obviously, that was Bonnie’s positive influence, since Hefe wasn’t usually smart enough to figure things like that out on his own. Though, surprisingly good support came from a direction I hadn’t been expecting.

  “How the hell do you think Star was going to get the information he needed to come up with a strategy to take back Darom?” Phoenix asked in exasperation, as I gave her a nod of thanks before continuing.

  “Look guys,” I said, running a nervous hand through my hair as I glanced around the circle of players looking back at me. “Torturing players is not my normal MO.” I held my hands up to stop Sarka and Unalia’s protests. “Now, that doesn’t mean I won’t take some time to pay a person back in the same way for some bullshit that they’re pulling,” I did air quotes, “aka like griefing other players.”

  “We don’t have a problem with doing things like that-” Sarka began to say, as I hurriedly overrode her words to finish what I’d been saying.

  “But some people might not understand the difference between doing something like that and physically torturing a player you know has been doing horrific things to the people of The World,” I contended as Sarka stopped arguing back to listen. Looking into my soul, I tried to speak as plainly as I could.

  “Look, you know I’m no angel. I’m just a regular guy doing my best to do what I think is right for my friends,” seeing Thomas and Kenzie’s nods of agreement, I continued, trying to find the right words as I ignored Jill rolling her eyes. “I can’t promise I won’t ever do anything like that again. If I think it will save my friends grief then I’ll do whatever I think is right to make sure we are not the victims.” My eyes momentarily focused individually on Sarka, Yun, Tinyr, and Unalia’s faces. “Do you think those asshats would have blinked an eye at slaughtering us over and over again if they’d had the upper hand in Darom?”

  “No,” Unalia uncomfortably said, looking down at her feet before continuing. “They would have slaughtered us until we broke our connection.” Letting out a heavy sigh, she looked up to gaze at everyone in the raid.

  “It’s not th
at I have any problems with paying these cocksuckers back,” Unalia explained, as a number of friendly chuckles sounded from around the circle at hearing the quiet woman swear. “But, at the same time, I’m just not comfortable holding fellow players down and torturing them to give up information on how to beat their friends. There’s something about that which just seems altogether wrong to me for what is essentially a game.” Unalia’s eyes pleaded with us individually. “Is that really too much to ask for us to be better than that? Honestly, I just don’t want to log out of my egg and wonder if I’m one of the good guys or not.”

  What she said had merit, I uncomfortably thought, as I noticed even the Devil Dogs shifting under the weight of her stare. Watching everyone’s reaction, I was somewhat surprised to see that only the Uten Syn guild members seemed to be untouched by her heartfelt words, but then again, they’d been through a level of abuse at the hands of the Global Brutality players that few could comprehend. While I might not completely agree with Unalia, I could respect her point and do my best to honor it.

  If a situation did come up again in the future, I’d have to weigh the pros and cons, before doing what I thought was best. Honestly though, with all of the Emergency Hot Fixes that had been introduced, I didn’t see torture as being a viable option in the future. V-MMORG had basically removed that as a valid option. After a moment of contemplation, I nodded my head in agreement.

  “I can live with that,” I said, keeping my conflicting thoughts to myself. Again, I saw Jill go to speak up only to have both AJ and Krystal shush her as I continued. “Just so you know, I wasn’t planning on torturing the Dark Elves. If they couldn’t be trusted and weren’t willing to keep to their word, I’d have just slaughtered them and moved on.”