by K D Brand
Colin, curled up in the corner of the alcove, trembling, eyes wide with terror, sobbed into his hands. His gaze begged Ty to rescue him.
He wasn’t sure he could.
The gnoll didn’t seem to care. It shot forward with its claws raised. Ty clenched his teeth and raised his sword, but the gnoll was way faster than he was.
Pain seared across his left shoulder as the gnoll’s claws ripped deep troughs in his flesh.
-13 HP!
Eyes watering, Ty stumbled backward and toppled to a knee. Warm blood gushed down his chest and mixed with the water, staining it a soft pink. He struggled to catch his breath, but the gnoll wasn’t finished.
Another slash of claws raked across his jerkin, tearing through the protective leather as if it were paper.
-8 HP!
A warm sickness welled in his guts, and Ty felt lightheaded, blackness creeping in on the edge of his vision. Head swimming, he fell onto his butt in the murky water, then onto his back. The muck embraced him, and he felt it stinging in his wounds.
-3 HP!
You are bleeding!
No idea how many health points he had in the game at his level and current incarnation, Ty was pretty sure he didn’t have a whole lot more left given how bad he felt. A tired wooziness washed over him as if to emphasize the point.
The gnoll loomed above, chuckling, sounding like a hyena, its laughter reverberating through the tunnel.
“I think I’ll eat you first, I think,” it said, grinning and showing off its ravenous mouth full of sharpened teeth, black with rot. “The boy will make for a nice desert, though, you’re not much bigger than he is. Perhaps I’ll devour you at the same time.”
Ty ignored the slight and glanced at Colin huddled in the alcove. The horror that distorted his features was made even worse by the gnoll’s boisterous threat. The kid might have known subconsciously what the monster intended, but hearing it spoken so plain had broken him. He wailed, curling up into as tight a ball as humanely possible, no doubt hoping to disappear into the cracks in the wall.
Ty knew it would do no good if he were to die. He was the boy’s only chance to survive, pathetic as that was.
-1 HP!
Bleeding!
He clawed at the muck beneath him with his free hand, trying to sit up, his other still clinging desperately to his borrowed short sword. The gnoll watched him squirm. It clearly savored every moment of his struggle, hovering, taking it all in.
Ty knew it was only a matter of time before the creature tied of his gloating and finished him off. That or the bleeding would do it for him. Either way, he had to do something.
Finally, he managed to clamber to his knees. He kept his sword beneath the surface of the water so the gnoll didn’t catch sight of it, but Ty didn’t hold out much hope that it would do him any good. He’d barely managed to take out a goblin with it, and the gnoll was twice the size of it.
A quiet rumble sounded, and the gnoll patted its belly and laughed. “I believe that’s a sign I’ve waited long enough, human,” it said. The gnoll’s grin widened as it leaned in, raising its claws, ready to strike Ty down and satisfy its hunger.
“Wait!” Ty cried out. “We can make a deal!”
The gnoll chuckled. “You’ve nothing to offer me that I can’t simply take of my own accord.”
“I have…friends,” Ty spit out. “They’re in the tunnels. I can take you to them. You can have them.”
An eyebrow rising, the creature grinned so wide that Ty could barely see anything past its teeth. “You would betray your friends to save your own skin?” it asked. “How…cruel.”
-1 HP!
Bleeding!
“I would.” Ty nodded, doing his best to meet the beast’s leering gaze. “They’re just over—” A sharp cough cut the rest of his sentence short. He gasped, trying to catch his breath, then coughed again, spittle flying.
“Spit it out, human!” the gnoll growled. “I would know where your friends are.”
Ty coughed again, finally stopping. When he did, he tried to continue, his voice raspy and weak and barely audible. “They’re just a little way down…” His voice faded out, the last of his words so quiet the gnoll didn’t hear a single one.
“Speak louder,” the gnoll demanded, leaning in to hear Ty. “I can’t—”
Ty grinned and slammed a handful of muck into the gnoll’s face, grinding it into its eyes, nose, and mouth in equal measure.
“Can you hear me now?” he screamed as the gnoll reared back, coughing and spitting, choking on the handful of rancid nastiness. “Eat poop, poophead!”
With the last of his energy, Ty leapt to his feet and thrust his sword into the gnoll’s throat. Blinded by the muck, it didn’t see the blow coming.
The blade cut deep, sinking into flesh. The gnoll howled, then went silent as Ty used both hands to whip the blade sideways, tearing it from the creature’s neck, slicing through its carotid on the way out.
Surprise attack!
+30 stabbing damage. Critical blow!
+10 slashing damage.
Blood spewed, and the beast stumbled, clutching to its savaged throat. Still unable to see, it thrashed about, flailing with one set of claws, desperate to strike down Ty. But sued to large opponents, his swings were wild, too high to be effective.
Don’t let anyone say being short can’t be an advantage sometimes.
Barely having to duck, Ty slipped beneath the frenzied hail of claws and stabbed the gnoll in its gut, just below its extended ribs.
+28 stabbing damage.
The gnoll gurgled in response to the blow and reached for the blade, but Ty didn’t give it a chance to latch on. He twisted the blade upward, driving it into the well of the gnoll’s chest. Air hissed as the sword punctured a lung and dug deep into the gnoll’s chest, blood spewing out in sputters, running down the blade and warming Ty’s hand.
+15 stabbing damage.
He yanked the blade loose, twisting it as he did to do maximum damage.
Apparently, it was enough.
+10 slashing damage.
You have killed a gnoll!
You have earned +600 XP!
The creature made one last pitiful effort to slice Ty with its claws, then fell to a knee. It glared through crap-covered eyes, and then died, falling face-first into the sewer muck with a splash that kicked up a foul cloud of rancid funk.
Barely able to stand, Ty used the sword as a kind of cane and stumbled over to the gnoll’s body. He glanced over to check on Colin and forced a smile when he saw the boy looking at him, eyes wide.
“You’re safe now, Colin,” he assured.
-1 HP!
Bleeding!
Barely, he thought, knowing he only had a short amount of time to get out of the sewers and get Colin to safety before he succumbed to the bleeding. With nothing to use to tie his wounds off, he was going to keep oozing blood until he dropped.
He waved the boy over. “Come on, Colin. It’s time to go home to mama.”
Colin clambered to his feet and started over slowly, still unsure. Ty didn’t bother to rush him. He needed a few seconds to search the corpse at his feet, the gamer in him leaping to the forefront in hopes of cool loot.
Still leaning on his sword for balance, he bent over and examined the body, wishing he could just click on the thing and have an inventory window pop open. Actually, searching a corpse was kind of morbid and disgusting at the same time.
It clicked in his head a few seconds after fondling the dead gnoll that the stupid thing was naked, and unless Ty was willing to go hunting in holes for hidden treasure, it was pretty clear the gnoll didn’t have anything.
-1 HP!
Bleeding!
He grunted as the notification flashed. While he was half-tempted to take a few seconds to search the alcove, he realized those extra seconds might be the difference between successfully completing the quest and dying before he got Colin back to his mother.
If that happened, he wo
uldn’t earn anything from his effort. Plus, he’d drop into the crap water again if his health points hit zero.
No thanks. I ain’t going out like that.
“Come on, kid,” he told Colin. “Your mom’s waiting.”
He wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulder and urged him on, and the two of them hurried as best as Ty could manage toward the sewer entrance.
The entire way, Ty scanned the tunnels, the gloom growing deeper the farther they moved from the gnoll’s fire. He pressed on, and Ty desperately hoped not to run into more of the rats. There was no way he could take one on right now.
-1 HP!
Bleeding!
They reached the ladder just as another notification popped up, and Ty could tell he was on his last legs. His entire body felt numb, an uncomfortable chill running through his veins, extremities tingling.
So, this is what it feels like to die, huh? I don’t like it.
He nudged the boy up the ladder ahead of him, each rung the next greatest challenge he’d ever faced. His vision so narrow that he could barely make out his hands before him, he was surprised when he bumped his head against the steel grate.
“I’ve got you,” Deven said, rough hands grabbing his arms and yanking him through the grate.
Ty flopped onto the floor with a tired gasp. The last of his strength was seeping from his veins.
-1 HP!
Bleeding!
“Here,” Charice said, suddenly appearing in front of him and holding something to his lips. “Drink this.”
Unconsciously, not able to defy her anyway, he let her pour whatever it was into his mouth without protest. It tasted sour, like old lemons and tree bark, and his mouth tingled as he forced himself to swallow.
+25 HP!
You have stopped bleeding!
An instant later, the darkness peeled away, clearing his vision, and he could see the three NPCs looming over him. Worried expressions marred their features. He sighed and sat up with Charice’s help.
“Thank you,” he managed to spit out. “Healing potion?”
She nodded. “Figured you might need one, so I grabbed it when I collected the torch.”
Ty grunted. “Probably would have been good to give it to me before I went into the sewers.”
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. “You know, you’re probably right.”
Ty chuckled, beginning to feel much better. “All good,” he assured her.
Once her guilty expression faded a bit, he eased sideways and looked past the three NPCs to where Colin stood, impatiently shuffling his feet but staying put. Ty then glanced over at Nettie, realizing she was doing the same.
Both waited to be prompted to finish the quest.
He sighed. Stupid game mechanics.
“It’s okay, Colin,” Ty said. “Go to your mom.”
As if released from a spell, the kid whooped and ran for his mother. She wailed and snatched him up, pulling into a suffocating embrace. The two sobbed at their reunion, only Colin’s kicking feet visible as he enveloped him.
“Easy there, Mom,” Ty warned “I didn’t bring him all the way back for you to smother him to death.”
Success! You have rescued Colin and completed the quest Reek and Find. Congratulations!
+1,000 XP!
+3 RP!
Your reputation has increased for doing a good deed. Soon, the people of Altunn will look upon you with awe. But not today. Today, you’re just another PC awkwardly wearing girl pants and clown shoes. Try harder.
Ty groaned at the notification, but the next one made him smile.
You have leveled! Congratulations! You are now level 2!
Before he could celebrate, Nettie came over. With Colin in tow, tucked under her arm, she dragged Ty into her embrace. It was several moments before she let him go and stepped back, a gleaming smile illuminating her face.
“I can’t thank you enough for saving my child,” she told him. “I don’t have much to offer you, but I hope you’ll accept this small token of my appreciation for what you’ve done for us.” She dropped a number of coins into Ty’s palm.
You have received 5 gold.
Ty grinned at seeing the coins. Gleaming in his palm. Normally, he would have refused the money, given it back immediately, especially since the woman and her son looked as if they could use the cash way more than he could, but Ty knew this was a game thing. She could have handed him a million gold and it wouldn’t change her life in any discernable way as it wasn’t really hers to begin with. So, he simply accepted it without argument.
“Thank you,” he told her, pocketing the coins. “May you and your son live a safe and happy life.”
Nettie beamed, nodding her agreement to his sentiment, and Ty tried not to spoil the moment by commenting how he knew the kid would wander off the next time any adventurer happened by and end up in the exact same situation again.
Poor woman, he thought. She’s got to relive this horror over and over for all eternity. Well, until the next patch changes the quest she’s tied to, anyway.
He had to admit, it was a pretty horrible way to live, and he hoped the woman never gained even a tiny bit of the self-awareness that Charice, Amon, and Deven had.
Stopped from dwelling on that thought when Nettie and Colin thanked him again and waved goodbye, he watched as they headed off toward their home. Nettie clung to her son, determined to never let him go again.
Once they were gone, the NPCs circled him.
“That’s was amazing, Tyler,” Charice said. He realized it was the first time she’d said his name.
“Just call me Ty,” he told her. Only his mom called him Tyler. Or the principal, when Ty was summoned to the office for doing something stupid, which was probably more often than he wanted to admit.
She grinned. “And you can call me Char…like my friends do.”
The sentiment caught him Ty guard, and he stuttered, “Uh…yeah, thanks…Char. That’s great.” He managed a sly smile after that.
Friends…
“I think it’s time for a drink,” Amon announced. “On me.”
Ty grinned. This time, he’d take the man up on his offer, if only to wash the taste of crap water out of his mouth.
But first, he had something to do.
“You guys go ahead,” he told them. “I’ll meet you there in just a little while. Got something I need to do real quick.”
“Where are you going?” Charice asked, confusion narrowing her eyes.
“I’ve got to see a guy about some training,” he answered.
“To each their own, I guess,” Deven muttered, raising his hands in the air to imply he meant no offense. “I mean, I’m not one to judge a man’s proclivities, but it’s probably best you don’t just go throwing that kind of sordid thing out there in public. Never know who might be listening.”
Ty’s face flushed as he realized what the butcher implied. “Wait! No! That’s not what I—”
Deven cut him off, motioning as though he were sliding a zipper across his lips. “Your secret’s safe with me, boy. You do what you gotta do. We’ll meet you at the Shady Orchid when you’re done getting…trained.”
Charice winked at him. “Have fun storming his castle.”
“Ahhhh! You don’t get a Wizard of OZ reference but you can spit out a Princess Bride one like it’s nothing?” Ty cried out as the NPCs took off, laughing and joking amongst themselves. “And that’s so not what I meant!” he yelled, but they ignored him and kept walking.
“Son of a biscotti,” he muttered under his breath, marching off to the trainers, his cheeks still burning.
Ten
Whac-a-Troll
TY, HAVING GOTTEN turned around in his hurry to escape his embarrassment, decided it was best to simply circle the town as if he’d meant to do that. After he got over it, he headed toward the outer wall of Altunn, which would eventually lead him to the trainer huts.
He wound around the golden wheat farms to the south and eventu
ally reached the wall to the east, where he caught sight of a town guard stationed at the open gate to the world outside Altunn. It was a different guy than it had been before.
Serious-looking, hand on the pommel of his sword, Ty eased up toward the gate to take a look outside, hoping not to arouse the guard’s suspicion.
I swear, that muffin will haunt me forever.
Since he remained a few feet from the gate itself, this side of the guard, it worked. The man ignored him, Ty far enough back to keep from triggering him. While Ty stood there, the sentry continued his lazy pacing back and forth, surveying the various people of Altunn as they traveled in and out of the gate, going about their daily business. As the guard followed his circuit, he cut in front of Ty, only offering a quick glance his direction before continuing on.
Confident the man hadn’t recalled seeing him on some wrinkled wanted poster in the guard’s station—Pastry Thief! Wanted Dead or Alive!—Ty looked out across the open field in front of the wall, toward the distant tree line, and his breath caught in his lungs. There, the horde stood gathered in all its disturbing glory.
And though he’d seen them in bloodthirsty action just a day earlier, the goblins and orcs tearing through the town, slaughtering anyone who got in their way, seeing them massed up near the tree line was strangely even more terrifying. There were thousands of them. They milled about restlessly.
Grunts and snarls carried over the distance, the mechanics of the game allowing him to hear them to instill fear while ignoring anything resembling reality with regards to a reasonable allowance for hearing something that far away.
It worked, though. He trembled.
Ty caught glimpses of tiny stars, the sunlight reflecting off the horde’s armor and weapons as the creatures shuffled about. The shimmers left black dots dancing on his eyes, and he wondered how cruel the programmers had to be to stage the horde just outside of town days before the invasion was scheduled to happen.
Then he had an idea.
Probably not a good one, but an idea, nevertheless.
Though he couldn’t be sure things worked the same way here in UO as they did when he played on his computer, Ty recalled an interesting aspect of the game he’d run into now and again.