by Cheek, Jason
“Sounds like it’s time for us to seal the trap,” Evil Sandra agreed, as her eyes swept the field below. There were slightly less than three hundred zombies clawing at the stones they’d packed before the shattered gate of the second wall. The distance was too short for the siege engines to take them out like the rest of the horde, which meant they’d have to be taken out by hand.
“Seriously, this whole battle has been one huge let down after another,” Shapo dismissively said. “I thought this guy was supposed to be some great tactician or something?”
“Tell me about it,” Evil Sandra agreed, the exasperation clear in her voice. Not that she dared to tell Julie that. Still, maybe she could use this yet to her advantage if it knocked some sense into some of her bigger trouble makers in her group, she thought, as two idiots came to mind. Both of those guild leaders seriously needed to be knocked down a peg or two so that they’d follow orders for once. “You know what, I think it’s time that Dante and Yusuk got to strut their stuff.”
“Ha!” Shapo exclaimed with a bark of laughter. “There’s no way those Global Brutality idiots are going to be able to handle a group that large, and everyone in Yusuk’s raid is still under level 30.”
“I’m sure that didn’t stop Dante from talking his shit,” Evil Sandra said, as an ugly sneer came to her lips. Not that Yusuk was any better. Still, he wasn’t half as annoying as Dante. Even from on top of the wall, she could hear the self-proclaimed God’s gift to women flapping his big mouth in front of the makeshift barricade below. She didn’t hold back the disparaging snort of disgust she felt. “I wonder if Dante would still be acting like such a tough guy if he knew that we’d all heard that he was hung like a gerbil in real life.”
“Poor Shirley was so disappointed,” Shapo exclaimed, laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes. “I told her she should always check to make sure the guy’s not stuffing their pants, before heading home with them.”
“You know what?” Evil Sandra said, a wicked gleam coming to her eyes as they both finally stopped laughing. “Remind them that if they fuck this up, I’ll make sure they’re off the list for the bonus for good!”
“Gawd!” Shapo howled. “This is going to be so funny! Let’s go tell them now.” Shapo stopped to look back at her raid leader a few feet away from the steps down. “You coming?”
“I’ll be down in a second,” Evil Sandra assured her friend. “Once those losers head out, get everybody else formed up.”
“On it!” Shapo replied, before racing down the steps. Turning back towards the upper gauntlet, Evil Sandra looked out at the bloody field below as she held the top of the stone wall in a white-knuckled grip.
She’d show them how it was done … she’d show all of them how it was done, Evil Sandra silently promised to herself, before heading down the stairs after her friend.
Chapter Eight
(First Assault Group: Dangas – Aussie Guild Leader, in the gauntlet and southern graveyard, Domenic’s fortress)
You have been killed by Dicky Wankerson! Do you wish to resurrect at your corpse or release your spirit to the nearest graveyard?
“Fucking shit!” Dangas screamed in frustration to the ghostly silence of the graveyard around him as a timer immediately appeared before his eyes that was counting down from five minutes. Taking a ragged breath, the Aussie Guild Leader selected the “Release” button, before spinning around and sprinting for the gauntlet one last time. If he didn’t make it out of the gauntlet this time, he’d have to take the chance of resurrecting at the graveyard.
“The fifth time is the charm,” Dangas said, forcing himself to chuckle at the bad luck of it all as he traced the path he’d memorized back to the gauntlet. As his shade raced through the eerily silent world, a cold wind pierced his ghostly body as a hungry howl rang out in the distance. Looking around nervously as he ran, Dangas didn’t know what the hell that was, but he had the distinct impression that it was something he most definitively didn’t want to run into.
As he ran, an odd premonition came over him. Almost like he was inside a horror movie or a nightmare and being chased by some horrific, formless creature that he innately knew would kill him if it caught ahold of him. The feeling of dread continue to grow as he raced over the bottom of the valley towards the mouth of the gauntlet. Each step made Dangas feel like it would be his last as he began to uncontrollably sweat. Even though he couldn’t see anything, the sounds of claws seemed to be coming closer and closer as he ran full tilt for his body. That’s when the bone-chilling moaning came to his ears. The eerie sense of dread felt like it was rising to a crescendo and Dangas knew he was going to die being ripped limb-from-limb, when an all too familiar window popped open before his eyes with the word, Resurrect.
Something in Dangas’ primitive mind warned him to not wait a second longer as he mentally pressed the button still twenty-five feet away from his corpse. He’d learned after his first death not to respawn directly on top of his corpse. It was a lesson he’d known from the past games he’d played, but since it was only his third time dying in The World, he’d been playing it a little too loose. Not that the second respawn thirty feet away had worked out that much better. The third time he’d respawned, Dangas had managed to collect all of his gear before dying again. Even though he’d been inside of the defensive wall, some asshole had managed to get a Lightning Storm AOE above the wall that was taking everyone out in the area.
As soon as his body fazed into the world of the living, Dangas began looting his corpse. Shoving everything he could into his rucksack, he slung the bag onto his back and scooped up the remainder of his gear, before racing for the mouth of the gauntlet while swearing the entire time. All around him, thick bolts of lightning crashed into the ground at seemingly random intervals. Each bolt was as thick around as a large tree trunk and hit with branch-like bands of death in a five yard radius around the strike.
Dangas could make out the surviving members of the raid about twenty yards away, retreating at the edge of the terrible lightning storm as they fell back for the mouth of the gauntlet. All of the ranged classes were busy focusing their attacks on the gaping hole in the defensive wall where the Chaos Storm Alliance raid was trying to break through. Surprisingly enough, Arcturus and Dmitry seemed to be holding the surviving members of the raid together without adding to their death toll. Feeling like a fool for not following Star’s plan, Dangas silently promised that he’d play smarter next time around as he did his best to jink left and right trying to make a harder target to hit. Yeah, it was ridiculous, but it was the only thing he could think of to do to get a few more feet ahead.
“Dangas!” The Aussie guild leader heard Dmitry’s heavily accented shout as he closed to within ten yards of the raid. “Begi bystreye!” As if to emphasis the foreign words, the Russian hit him with a Regeneration spell.
He’d just about reached the edge of the spell’s maxed range and was just a handful of yards away from safety, when his vision flared white. For a long moment, Dangas didn’t know where he was as a roaring filled his ears. That feeling of mental disorientation went away in the blink of an eye as soon as he saw the boiling storm clouds overhead. He mentally began swearing up a storm, when he realized he was lying flat on his back with his hit point bar flashing the angry red of near death and his Stun debuff flashing in his HUD.
Above him, a boiling storm cloud floated overhead as lightning flared around him from the numerous strikes hitting the ground. Knowing he was looking at his fifth death if he didn’t get help soon, Dangas looked around the best he could using his peripheral vision. At the angle his head was cocked, he could see the familiar faces of his guildmates mixed in with the rest of the raid as they fought a fighting retreat. Brilliant blasts of magic flared from the raid’s lines intermixed with flights of arrows as the Barbarians and Warriors did their best to keep their shield wall together to reduce the incoming damage from the more direct spells being hurled their way.
As he watched, Dangas co
uld see that Dmitry was trying to reach him, but the flaring blasts of lightning and other magic attacks kept driving the Russian back. Realizing that there was no way for him to reach his fellow guild leader, the large blond man cast another Holy Shield on Dangas, before being driven back to the safety of the raid. While Dangas appreciated the effort, in his heart he knew it wasn’t going to be enough to save him.
Obviously, whatever shield and heal spells his friends were able to cast on him hadn’t been enough to stop the blast that had taken him down to nearly zero health. Maybe, if they’d been able to drag him to the safety of the raid things would have been different, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen as a flare of light began forming in the dark clouds high above him. There was a brilliant flash of light a second before Dangas once again found himself standing in the center of an all too familiar graveyard with the blood-red letters of a system message box floating in the center of his vision.
You have been killed by Evil Sandra! Do you wish to resurrect at your corpse or release your spirit to the nearest graveyard?
Before he could chose to be released at the graveyard, Dangas heard the same eerie howls echoing from the forest around him. Once again, a shiver of dread ran down his spine as he hurriedly selected the “Release” button below the blood-red numbers counting down. The Aussie was just letting out a sigh of relief, expecting to faze into a graveyard controlled by friendly forces, when he appeared in the middle of a shitstorm.
Dropping to his hands and knees in the frozen snow, Dangas peaked between the permanent gravestones trying to get a feel for how much he was fucked. Obviously, Star’s plan was completely in the shitter, but, luckily, none of the nearest players had taken notice of his sudden appearance in the middle of their ranks. Largely, that was due to the fact that he was dressed like most of the rest of them, aka wearing only his starter linen clothing and a backpack full of gear.
Everywhere Dangas looked, there were enemy players from different guilds with red names over their heads franticly running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Most seemed to be blasting at a large group of his guildmates on the northern side of the graveyard a good thirty yards away. Well, most of them were, Dangas mentally corrected himself. The handful that weren’t were spinning around with crazy eyes randomly blasting at the top of the trees around the perimeter of the graveyard, but that was only because they were under attack by shadowy Dark Elf assassins shimmering in and out of their ranks.
“I’m not going down without a motherfucking fight this time around!” Dangas promised to himself, as his hands began urgently searching the snow for something to use as a weapon. He could have tried searching his backpack for his spare gear, but that was as good a way as any to end up on the wrong side of a pair of daggers. As his head swiveled around like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, his hand suddenly closed around a thick piece of wood that was the length of a cricket bat. Hefting the heavy piece of wood to get a feel for its weight, a wicked grin came to his lips. It was time to get primitive, Captain Caveman style.
Seeing an enemy player spawn in before him, Dangas took a two-handed hold on the rough hunk of wood and sprang at the man’s back, swinging the makeshift club as hard as he could. Instead of breaking in two like he’d half expected, the player wordlessly collapsed in a heap as a black gravestone appeared next to the body. Grinning like a fiend, Dangas launched himself at the next player.
It didn’t get more primitive than this, Dangas though, as he blasted a Mage off his feet in a spray of blood and teeth with his next swing. Obviously, the majority of the players fighting for their lives around him were respawns in their underwear, aka beginner clothing, and had no weapons, gear, health, or mana to speak of. What they did have were their Nightmare tree offensive spells which were impressive to say the least. As if to validate his point, the Mage blindly sprayed out a wave of flames into the overhanging branches of the trees around the graveyard. Ignoring the searing heat that singed his skin and nearly set his clothing on fire, the Aussie guild leader dodged to the side and heel-stomped the man’s head in as he registered his second PVP kill for the day.
With the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Dangas went after a lanky player that looked like a Ranger. Knocking the man down easily with his extra mass, the Aussie Warrior began beating the enemy player to death. Each brutal blow splattered Dangas’ face and chest with dark blood as the Global Brutality player let out a wailing scream instead of dying immediately like the other two players had. A part of Dangas wondered if he should be disturbed at the joy that was bubbling up inside of him as he worked out his frustration at being killed five times in a row, but he shrugged his concerns away easily enough. It didn’t get much clearer than this. PVP was a kill or be killed situation that players agreed to when they entered a game like this. Besides, he knew from experience that the enemy wouldn’t have hesitated in the least if their places had been reversed.
Unfortunately, Dangas realized his easy ride was over as he looked up from his registered third kill to see a group of seven enemy players rushing towards him. Knowing there was no way he could fight that many players at once, the Aussie took the only option he could think of. Turning around in the opposite direction, he sprinted towards the packed enemy players hurling spells at his people. A quick glance at his HUD told Dangas everything he needed to know while giving way to a savage grin.
In the time since his respawn, Dangas had basically recovered a little bit more than four hundred hit points. That was more than enough health to take a few hits and survive if he had to. Meaning, he was going to treat this next bout like a rough and tumble game of street rugby. As the hands of the players chasing after him began dragging at his shoulders trying to pull him to the ground, the Aussie yanked free as he blindly swung the makeshift club behind him. The blow was enough for him to break free as Dangas leaped into the air at the rearmost player shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Captain Caaavvveee-Mmmaaannn!”
Dangas did his best to match the echoey-reverb shout of the primitive superhero he’d been channeling, upon picking up the wooden club, as he delivered a flying elbow to the back of the man’s head. If that didn’t grab everyone’s attention, the Aussie silently thought, than nothing would. By fortune’s luck, the Chaos Storm player he’d clobbered was just releasing a lightning blast, but instead of frying the line of Dangas’ people fighting for their lives not fifteen yards away, the bolt of crackling energy took out an entire swath of the enemy players fighting off to the side. That dual assault immediately got everyone’s attention focused on Dangas in a bad way as the mass of players surged toward the lone Aussie in their midst. Not that it stopped the Warrior any, as his makeshift club broke the woman’s nose next to him.
As the woman went windmilling back into the massed players behind her, the enemy group that had been chasing Dangas down slammed into his back. The momentum carried him further into the press of bodies as he was repeatedly pummeled about the head, neck, and back. Although the Warrior staggered under the blows, he didn’t go down because of the packed mass of bodies holding him up. Luckily, he was the only one in the vicinity armed with an actual weapon. Twisting around, Dangas thrust the jagged end of his club into the nearest knobgobbler’s eye.
Even though he was being beaten down from every direction, the Warrior never stopped swinging. The outright mayhem was like any scrum Dangas had ever been in, except without the severe pain, Dangas thought in wry amusement. With his Advance start, it felt more like being hit hard in the face with one of those old-school plastic bats. Meaning, it stung but didn’t really hurt as the Aussie took a hard hit to his nose. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Dangas head-butted the fuckstick that hit him, before being dragged away.
The Aussie lost track of time as he fought for his life like a man possessed. Well, not really his life. Dangas had long ago given up on that being an option as his hit point bar began flashing an angry red. All that he was trying to do now w
as survive the moment while inflicting as much damage as possible before he died. Several idiots hurriedly flung a handful of offensive spells in his direction, but mostly they ended up doing more damage to his attackers than to him as horrified screams rang out around him.
Danga’s hit points dropped down to fifty-seven from a particularly hard strike to the side of the head. As the Aussie reeled from the blow, the Fatal Midnight woman that had hit him twisted the wooden club from his bloody hands. The Aussie wasn’t sure if she just straight up overpowered him or had some good buffs that made her so strong. Not that it mattered either way. Instead of fighting to keep ahold of his makeshift club, Dangas let go and throat punched the woman before she could recover. The look of absolute shock on the Fatal Midnight woman’s face as she gasped for air and fell back sent a thrill through the Warrior. There was nothing like using superior technique against brute force any day.
Unfortunately, the opening that was suddenly created from the woman’s collapse and the lessening in the number of attackers in front of him, meant that there was nothing left holding him up. As if to drive that point home, the rough hands that had been pummeling and shoving him from behind, now sent him crashing to the ground. Just like a scrum in real life, once you were on the ground, it was nearly impossible to get back to your feet. Curling up into a ball and using his arms to protect his head, Dangas reacted from experience. He didn’t bother trying to fight back further. That was no longer an option. For now, all that he could do was try to block the worst of the stomps and kicks being aimed at his head and face.
Honestly, even if he was about to die, Dangas had felt like he’d given better than he’d gotten. If anything, he’d done his best to protect his guildmates and hopefully given them a chance to escape this cluster fuck. Although the Aussie guild leader didn’t understand what had gone so wrong, he still did his best to make a difference. There was an odd sound of air being displaced around him, when the group of enemy players around him suddenly collapsed to the ground in a bloody heap. Dangas only had a second to take in the black leathers surrounding him in a defensive circle, before strong hands were dragging him to his feet.