Gladiators of Warsong

by Thomas K. Carpenter

Alex used the momentary distraction to sprint to the other side of the circle.

  Cree frowned, looking at her spear as if it were defective. "She did that to me."

  "Sure," said Garret, his expression souring, "just don't do it again."

  When they advanced again, Alex repeated her tactics, Cloud Taunt on Garret and then Misdirect Cree's attack. She was down to half health by the time she skittered away from the pair, who glanced at each other with furrowed foreheads.

  "Stop screwing around and kill her!" called out Tormane, whose pulsing jaw suggested he was unhappy with the result so far.

  Enraged by her taunts and the constant shocking damage, Garret rushed her, abandoning the cover that Cree's long spear had been giving him. He left his guard high, which let Alex trip him into the dirt.

  Cree moved to support, but Alex snapped her whip in her direction, pumping faez into the spell. A burst of prismatic light shimmered across her face.

  Cree Carrow has been mesmerized by Whip Tricks!

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Whip Tricks

  Cree staggered as she stared into space, the tip of her long spear in the dirt. Alex used the distraction to fling her weapon out of the circle, then turned to Garret, who had regained his feet.

  With Cree weaponless, the rest of the fight was a formality. Alex took Garret down with Cloud Taunts and yanking his feet out from under him, then afterwards finished off Cree with a strangulation.

  You have defeated Cree Carrow!

  You have gained experience: 1,000 XP

  You have gained conquest points: 2 CP

  Quest Progress: Defeat 5 Novices – 4/5 Defeated

  Tormane glowered at Alex, but she smiled back sweetly, adding a wink for good measure, which only enraged him further.

  "You'll pay for your insolence!" he screamed at her.

  It was exactly the result she was hoping for. If she couldn't fight more than one match a night, then she needed multiple opponents for more conquest points. Anger was the easiest emotion to manipulate, but she'd have to tread a fine line.

  The last match of the night was Blaze's, which was normally an honor, but the honor went not to him, but to Andreque the Bold, who was nearing elite rank. The match was meant to be a coronation for her achievement.

  True to his usual tactics, Blaze began the match with a potent fire bolt, which had more oomph than normal due to his practice. This didn't seem to bother Andreque, who shouldered it away as she loped into a charge with determined grin.

  She brought her twin scimitars high to make a double attack at Blaze's neck. He looked like he was in the middle of casting a second fire bolt, but Alex could tell he wasn’t putting any faez into it.

  As Andreque leapt forward, Blaze launched himself at her, arms equally wide, but without the scimitars. They looked like lovers after a long absence, throwing themselves wildly into each other's arms.

  But the moment after Blaze wrapped his arms around her and before Andreque could register surprise, the center of the circle turned into a bonfire.

  In the span of two heartbeats, and accented with a high-pitched scream, Blaze took Andreque from full health to zero in a conflagrational embrace.

  Blaze Frostmane has defeated Andreque the Bold!

  Quest Completed: Help Blaze Frostmane win a match

  You have gained experience: 1,000 XP

  Quest Chain II: Help Blaze Frostmane reach novice rank (+1,000 XP)

  The silence from the unexpected turn of events was only matched by the gaping jaws of everyone around the circle. Everyone but the unranked, anyway.

  Alex threw a second set of robes to the naked Blaze, who wasn't trying to hide himself as he had during their practice session. The glory of his victory washed away any embarrassment.

  When he wandered to the group of them, Alex said, "Maybe Nadia can make you some chainmail underwear for future matches."

  "Once I reach novice rank," he said.

  Alex smiled at his newfound confidence. "Once you reach novice rank."

  Buoyed by their victories, almost flawless with only Sorrow in the loss column, they marched to where the unranked tents lay, arms full of wine they'd liberated from the center of the camp. Alex had been avoiding any more than a sip of alcohol before, but joined in the celebration of their victories.

  After a few hours of recanting the tales of their battles around the fire, Alex wandered into the grassy plain to get fresh air. Tipsy and unsteady on her feet from a large mug of watered-down wine, Alex admired the swath of stars stretched across the darkened heavens. With no moon in this world, she was treated with a gorgeous night sky.

  "Thank you for helping us," said Nayiri, wandering up from behind.

  The petite girl stopped at Alex's side, their shoulders brushing. Nayiri smiled coyly, knocking a strand of black hair away from her face. A warmth filled Alex that went down to her toes.

  "You're welcome," said Alex, barely able to speak above a whisper.

  Alex glanced at Nayiri out of the corner of her eye, her face growing flushed when she thought about the softness of her bow-like lips. After the day of practice and victory, the knowledge that her new friends were NPCs was difficult to maintain. They felt as real as any friend she'd ever had, which wasn't saying much. Her friends had usually been online, the only interactions coming through her headphones or during games.

  But they had been real people represented by online avatars, where Nayiri and the others were not real at all, or not real in a way that she understood. Or maybe they were something like Ethel Stormfeathers.

  "Alex?"

  The petite girl faced her, so Alex turned. They stood only a handsbreadth apart.

  She looked slightly different than Alex remembered, though it could have been the wine talking.

  Nayiri's sweet breath washed over Alex's face. Her experience with dating was pretty limited. She'd had two brief boyfriends and one girlfriend in high school. Their relationships had mostly existed through chat and a few awkward kisses after school waiting for the bus.

  But as Nayiri's lips parted expectantly, she knew two things in that moment. One, that she didn't care that Nayiri was a NPC, she felt real to her, and two, that they were going to kiss, and her whole body exploded with tingles in anticipation.

  Alex was slightly taller than Nayiri, so she leaned forward, head tilted just so. Nayiri's hands brushed Alex's midsection, sending warm jets of pleasure up her spine.

  When their lips pressed together, Alex felt like nothing existed in the world except the two of them. She put her hands on Nayiri's shoulders and pulled her close, letting the deepness of their kiss intensify.

  Alex felt like her body ceased to exist and that the world became the kiss, and high above, a melancholy song rose into the night. It wasn't until the words registered that she realized the song wasn't in her head, but that it was being sung nearby.

  "What?" asked Nayiri, forehead hunched as she pulled away.

  "Do you hear that girl singing?" asked Alex.

  Nayiri glanced to the side. "That's not a girl."

  It was then Alex realized who she heard singing.

  "That's Sorrow!"

  Holding Nayiri's hand, Alex dragged her down the hill towards the source of the singing. They found Sorrow sitting on an old stump, his sword lying across his knees, eyes closed with song lilting from his lips.

  As they approached, Alex felt a tug as the song wrapped its tendrils around her head. Only when she realized what was happening did she shake it off.

  You have resisted Sorrow's Song of Dread!

  But next to her, Nayiri stared blankly ahead.

  Alex cleared her throat, which interrupted his song. Alex stared at him with the biggest grin on her lips.

  "Sorrow! You're a bard!"

  Chapter Nine

  The next three weeks Alex and her friends trained at the pond during the day and fought in the battle circle at night. It was grueling, intense, joyous work that Alex loved every minute of.

&nbs
p; Nayiri had reached veteran status, Blaze and Mancalf were novices, and Sorrow was working on climbing out of the unranked. He had yet to win a match, but that was mostly because it'd taken a few weeks to convince him to sing in the circle, and then a few more battles to work on the tactics involved.

  Alex was sure he was going to win soon, but she was preoccupied with the upcoming battle with Tormane the Tower for control of the Bravebear clan. She'd worked through the chain quests and had gained the fifty conquest points necessary to challenge him in that short time due to the multiple opponents he'd been sending at her.

  As dicey as those battles had been, the one with Tormane worried her. She'd seen him fight in the clan battle they'd had with the Blackwater Twins. While his tactics were terrible, they’d been effective. He’d allowed the rest of his team to get picked off one by one, and when it was him against four Blackwater clan members, he'd almost won.

  His failings as the battleleader were clear to Alex. He was afraid to let anyone learn enough to challenge him, which kept the clan weak. He was a tyrant who showered attention on his closest followers, encouraging them to drink and party each night so they wouldn't ever be good enough to beat him. It's why his best elites were only level 23.

  On the morning she was going to challenge Tormane, Alex was sitting in her tent, scraping the dirt from her leather tunic with her jagged bone knife. Nayiri had already left to work on juggling her daggers, which she had said helped her wake up. Alex guessed was one way to do it, though she preferred coffee.

  Alex still hadn't gotten used to the idea that they were dating. Was it real since she was a NPC? Or was this a fantasy made possible by the verisimilitude of the game?

  Either way, her reluctance had kept Alex from fully consummating their relationship. Alex had kept things at the hot horny teenagers in their parents' basement stage.

  She was reaching for the tent flap to climb out and join the others for breakfast when she got a notification pop-up:

  ** System Message from Professor Marzio **

  I need help with a school project. If anyone wants to earn extra credit, log out now and see me in my office. I'll give you a level worth of experience for your time. Should only take a few days.

  Alex reached up to swipe it away, but her hand hovered in the air as she grimaced with indecision.

  "Merlin's hairy balls. I don't have time for that."

  But she couldn't ignore the opportunity. Tormane was level 26, which put him more than five levels above her. Passing that threshold meant her damage would be greatly reduced and some of her abilities wouldn't even work on him. If she were going to have a shot, she needed to be level 21, but the experience gains had been nonexistent. Sure, she would be granted level 40 if she became Champion of Warsong, but she'd never be able to compete if she couldn't gain in power along the way. The conundrum of the zone setup made it so she couldn't advance towards that goal, nor could she leave the zone to level up and come back later.

  She was also curious as to Professor Marzio's job. For nearly her entire existence in Gamemakers Hall, she'd been stuck in the game. Alex knew nothing about the hall or the city. A chance to further her knowledge while advancing herself in-game seemed like a no-brainer. And maybe she'd get a chance to meet more of her fellow classmates.

  Alex stuck her head out of the tent to tell her friends that she'd be away for a few days, but no one was sitting around the fire.

  ** System Message from Professor Marzio **

  I don't have all day. You've got two minutes to meet me in my office.

  After climbing out, Alex poked her head in the other tents to find them empty. They'd been drinking less and rising earlier to practice each day, a fact she would normally be proud of.

  "Hey guys, I have to go. I'll be back soon. Don't worry." She milled about for a few more seconds. "Wish someone was here, but I can't wait any longer."

  Alex activated the logout.

  She paced around the camp, wishing one of her friends would show up before she left. As the countdown neared one, she heard someone threading through the tents towards their little corner of the camp. She ran in that direction, hoping to explain.

  She saw Nayiri's daggers flinging above the tents in a circular pattern. Alex hurried towards her, breaking around the corner to make eye contact right as the countdown hit one.

  "I'll be..."

  Nayiri missed a dagger catch right as Alex logged out.

  Chapter Ten

  With Nayiri's image hanging in her mind, Alex sprinted to Professor Marzio's office. She'd only been there once, so she took a few wrong turns on her way through the labyrinth-like house.

  The door at the top of the awkward tilted hallway was open, and a figure stood at the top, facing the interior of the room. Alex didn't have time to determine which one of her classmates had joined the call, because she heard Professor Marzio counting down slowly.

  She knew instinctively that he would not take close enough, that she had to be in the room, or she might as well log back into the game.

  "9...8...7..."

  "Shit," said Alex, burning carpet as she ran towards the sloped hallway and bounded up it like a mountain goat, using the walls to bounce further up. Her only parkour experience had been in games, but she understood the concept.

  "...5...4..."

  As she pushed herself to reach the professor's office, Alex realized who was standing at the top. It was Lily Brodziak, the red-haired girl she'd met last year. She was watching Alex scramble up, arms crossed with a smirk on her lips.

  Then Alex's tennis shoe lost traction and she fell face-first. She scrambled upward, clawing at the hardwood to reach the threshold.

  "...2...1..."

  As Marzio said zero, Alex lunged upward, getting her fingertips past the line.

  "Thank you for joining us, Alexandria Duke. Care to join us upright people in my office?" said Professor Marzio.

  Looking up at Lily, Alex said, "Could I get a little help?"

  Lily snorted derisively. "No."

  It felt like Alex was climbing over ball bearings, but eventually she managed to claw her way into the room. Professor Marzio sat at his desk with his hands clasped in front of him, a frown hooked to his lips. His bald head and kept beard was imposing enough, but the tightly squeezed lips put a stone into her gut.

  "Are we done?" he asked with a single eyebrow arched.

  "Yes, sir," said Alex as she fixed her hair, which had become a messy halo during the scramble.

  "Yes, Professor," he said.

  "Sorry," she said, then cleared her throat. "Professor Marzio."

  His disapproving mien disappeared as he stood up, clapping his hands.

  "Wonderful," he said. "I would have preferred a few more helping hands and of a higher level, but you two will have to do."

  "What will we be doing?" asked Alex.

  "You're going to help me with the Second Year Contest, designing it that is," he said.

  Professor Marzio pushed past them, and with his hands stuck into his pockets, slid down the angled hallway. Lily matched his practiced elegance, but Alex didn't trust herself, so she went down on her rear. Lily rolled her eyes at her but she ignored it.

  Leaving the hall, Alex's mind was filled with questions. The Second Year Contest was the big event every year in the Hundred Halls, in which mixed hall teams would compete in a specially designed game. The winners would usually get magical trinkets or cash prizes. Since the events happened behind closed doors, little was known about the details during the events, but afterwards, winning teams were known to publish books about their adventures.

  When Alex was younger, she remembered a particularly brutal Second Year Game that involved flying a magical ship through a floating city, which when crashed—which was often—threw the teams off their ships to plummet to their deaths. Alex wasn't a big fan of heights, so the idea of death from falling bothered her.

  The games were played using the same magical technology as Gamemakers Online,
so Alex was excited to learn about the design side. Maybe she'd get to learn more about how the NPCs were constructed.

  Professor Marzio led them to the train station. He paid for the three of them at least, and took a car in back. It was a strange sight to Alex, seeing the well-dressed professor standing with his hand on the support pole. He looked like he should be a judge behind a bench rather than a guy riding a train.

  In front of them, a couple of kids were playing a game of Five Elements, which was like rock-scissors-paper except with the magical elements. They were noisy as they battled back and forth, flame and water, making the air stink with ozone, until Professor Marzio made a heavy throat clear, which brought a moment of panic from the two kids.

  But then the taller one seemed to recognize the professor and mouthed Gamemakers while rolling his eyes. The two kids moved to the car in front, laughing and glancing behind them derisively.

  It was the first time that Alex really realized how small and insignificant her hall was. While games were her whole life, and Gamemakers had an important part to play in the functioning of the Hundred Halls, they warranted little attention outside the city.

  As the train rumbled through the city, Alex positioned herself in Lily's line of sight, which drew a heavy sigh. Lily wore her jean jacket full of buttons and her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes were ringed with bags, suggesting she hadn't been sleeping much in game.

  "How's your part of the game world going?" asked Alex, feeling a little weird talking about it in front of Professor Marzio.

  Lily sighed and rotated herself to the right so she was no longer facing Alex.

  "Mine is going okay. I'm in—"

  "I don't care," said Lily, voice filled with venom. "Like, really don't care. You're an exploiter. You don't give a shit about the rules, only how you can twist them to your benefit. Let's just get our work done, earn our level, and get back to the game. We don't have to be friends."