Umbra Online- Halgor's Horde

by K D Brand

  He ran over to the counter. “I’ll take two minor healing potions.”

  Savan grinned. “That’ll be two gold.”

  Ty grumbled as he dug in his pocket, but he yanked out the asked for amount and set it on the counter. Savan slid them gracefully into her hand and made them disappear, then set two small glass vials on the counter.

  “I appreciate your business,” she told him. “Please, come again.”

  Ty laughed. The way things were going, he’d be back like clockwork in another twelve hours, then twelve more after that, ad nauseum, if Defiler had his way.

  Ty stuffed the potions into his pocket, arranging them so he could reach them easily should he need them, and then turned to face the door, pulling his blade out.

  The mirror nailed to the wall jumped with every blow to the door beside it, and Ty wondered how long it would be before the goons tore it apart and made their way inside.

  Ty fought to slow his breathing, sucking in slow, deep breaths as the mirror bounced, reflecting the room in crazy waves of blurred images, the shelves dancing, the door wavering. His hand felt slippery on the hilt of his sword, and he clenched and unclenched his hand so hard his knuckles popped.

  He wondered if he should hide, duck down beside the door and wait to backstab whoever came through—

  Wait! The door!

  Ty glanced to the mirror, realizing that, with it nailed right beside the door, there was no way it could be reflecting its image.

  Yet, there it was.

  Right behind Savan.

  He spun about and leaned to look past the healer, and there, just a few feet to the side of her, was a large wooden door.

  “Where does that go?” Ty asked, nearly breathless.

  Savan looked casually where he pointed and shrugged. “Nowhere.”

  “I’m not doing this again,” Ty grumbled.

  Before Savan could object, Ty leapt over the counter and circled around her, racing to the door. He clasped the handle, heart thunderous in his chest, and turned.

  It came open easily, and the outside world stared back at him bright, daylight gleaming.

  Ty nearly squealed as he launched himself outside, kicking up dust in his wake. He muttered a thanks to Savan and shut the door behind him, then sprinted down the alleyway at the side of the healer’s hut, breaking into a jog as he emerged along the row of trainers.

  He could hear Defiler and his goons still at Savan’s hut, hollering and threatening and banging on the door. Ty couldn’t help but chuckle. By the time they broke through, he would be long gone.

  Ty set a course toward the Orchid to collect his friends before Defiler learned Ty was gone and went back to take his frustrations out on them.

  He found them waiting outside, pacing. They brightened at seeing him.

  “You’re okay,” Char said, rushing over to embrace him.

  “I’m glad, too,” Deven said, “But I ain’t going to hug you, boy.”

  Amon just grinned, his cheery expression telling Ty everything he needed to know about the man’s happiness at seeing Ty alive again.

  “I’m sorry I…couldn’t—” Char started.

  “It’s not your fault.” Ty cut her off before she could finish. “I told you this world is strange. It has rules that need to be followed, and which can’t be circumvented. You not being able to fight Defiler and his goons is one of those rules.”

  “Well, it’s a shitty rule, if you ask me,” she complained.

  “No argument here,” Ty told her, offering up a grin. “Still, it is what it is, but we’re going to have to discuss all this later. Defiler is going to realize I’m not at Savan’s, and he’s going to come here straight away, feeling murderous. It’s best we weren’t here when that happens.”

  “Where can we go?” Amon asked.

  “You’re not going to like it,” Ty replied, offering a sympathetic shrug.

  “Tell us,” Char pressed.

  “Well, it’s clear I’m not capable of taking on Halgor and his horde seeing how I can’t even kick the butts of a bunch of bullies,” Ty explained. “That means I need to earn more experience and to get stronger, but I can’t do it in town since Defiler and the others will be looking for me—for us. They spent twelve hours waiting to ambush me at the healer hut, making it clear they aren’t going to let this little vendetta go anytime soon.”

  Deven grunted. “Then if you can’t earn experience here in Altunn, that only leaves…” His eyes went wide as he realized what Ty had in mind.

  Well, some small part of it.

  Ty nodded. “Yup, we need to hop the wall to get where we’re going. There’s a place up in the mountains, off to the northeast, where we can go, and I can do what I need to, though it will be tough.”

  “But…the horde!” Amon groaned.

  “We’ve still got a little time before the full moon, and as long as we avoid running right up on their lines and pissing off Halgor, we’ll be okay,” Ty argued. “but you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I understand.”

  As he offered a way out, angry voices wafted down the street to them.

  “I don’t know how he escaped, but I’m gonna kill that little punk, and all of his friends, too!”

  There was no mistaking Defiler’s angry tone.

  “I think that pretty much sums up our options,” Amon moaned. “When do we leave?”

  “Right now!” Ty told them and darted off.

  Still too weak to face down Defiler head-on, let alone Halgor, Ty needed to max out his stats and skills before figuring out how best to go about taking out Defiler, and then the horde.

  He sighed.

  Who wants to live forever, anyway?

  Instinctively, he raised his hand, looking a little like an idiot as he ran.

  Me, that’s who.

  Seventeen

  Dungeons and Dismemberment

  “THIS IS A really, really, really bad idea,” Char muttered, her hands turning a shade of porcelain as she clasped them together in front of her.

  “Probably,” Ty agreed, then gestured for her to climb the stack of boxes he’d arranged beside the guard shed.

  “What about Cord?” Deven asked.

  Ty gestured toward the pacing sentry, clearly oblivious to what they were doing. “I think we’re okay,” he assured when Cord didn’t so much as glance their direction.

  Amon harrumphed. “You think someone with the title of guard would be a little better at, you know, guarding things.”

  “Be glad he isn’t,” Ty countered as he helped Deven up the rickety, makeshift stairs after Char. “The last thing we need is Cord coming after us on top of Defiler and his thugs.”

  Amon nodded and came over once Deven had climbed up to the wall. He easily scaled the boxes without Ty’s help, showing off his feral agility.

  While Char and Deven huffed a little, clinging to the wall as they stared out over it, Amon stood beside them without so much as breathing heavy. Ty clambered up after them. Then he went and squeezed between one of the crenulations and dropped to the ground outside the wall.

  Char gasped at seeing him do it, slapping a hand over her mouth.

  “How will we get back inside?” Deven asked. “Shouldn’t we use some rope…I mean, other than to hold your armor on?”

  “Har-de-har-har.” Ty sneered. “Just jump down. We can walk through the gate to get back inside, so no need to tie off a line.”

  “But won’t Cord—” Amon started to ask, then glanced over at the guard. He grunted. “No, I guess he won’t. Never mind.”

  With a reluctant sigh, Amon dropped off the edge and landed casually beside Ty. He looked up at the others. “You coming?”

  “Oh, you’re brave now, huh?” Deven jibed, then dropped off the wall. He landed like a sack of bricks, grunting, his plump cheeks a bright red at the effort.

  Char followed him, and she plopped down without too much hassle.

  “Where to now?” she asked once she straightened her outfit.<
br />
  Ty waved them on. “This way,” he said, starting off down the line of the wall, purposely staying as far away from the howling and hooting horde in the distance.

  The NPCs cast worried glances the horde’s direction, and Ty understood their concern, but the three apparently trusted him enough to believe him when he said the horde would stay put.

  When they reached the foothills of the Malvorm Mountains, the horde out of both sight and hearing range, the party seemed to relax slightly.

  That, of course, is when disaster struck.

  A low growl sounded directly in front of them, drawing the party to a sudden halt. The sun setting at their backs, a deeper shadow moved among the darkness, creeping toward them.

  “Gah!” Ty let out, grabbing for his nandao. “Random encounter!”

  A waft of warm, fetid breath struck them, and Deven waved his hand in front of his face as he drew his weapon. “How did you not smell that thing, Amon?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  “It was upwind,” Amon defended.

  “No time to argue, folks,” Ty interrupted.

  The creature burst from the shadows, tendrils of darkness trailing behind it. Lean, obsidian muscles fueled its forward motion, and it came at them like a sleek missile, all teeth and claws.

  Ty blinked as he watched it come at them, seeming unable to pin the beast down in his vision. Every time he thought he could see it clearly, the thing blurred and warped, making it hard for him to follow its path.

  That was when he realized what it was.

  “Fudge!” Ty cursed. “It’s a phase beast.”

  “A what?” Char asked, but its nature became apparent before she could get an answer.

  The cat-like creature raced forward, appearing to come after Ty, when it suddenly shifted, the motion little more than a shimmering blur, and ended up in front of Deven. The butcher muttered a curse and was bowled over by the massive cat. He went down swinging, blood splattering from the wound to his midsection as the cat gnawed at him.

  Char didn’t hesitate to help him.

  She lashed out with her sword, cutting a clean wound in the side of the cat. Grayish-black blood sprayed from the gash, and the phase beast hissed and shifted away, appearing a few feet from where Amon stood.

  “Ah!” Amon squeaked but, to everyone’s surprise, possibly even Amon’s, he leapt forward and stabbed the beast before it could phase-shift again.

  The cat roared and reared back on its hind legs, ready to lash out at Amon. Ty couldn’t let that happen.

  He ran up and slashed at the creature, slicing open its exposed belly. Its guts bubbled from the wound, as did the most horrible stench Ty had ever smelled.

  Hand over his nose, he stumbled back to the party, eyes tearing up, blurring his vision even more than the cat had.

  You have killed a phase beast!

  You have earned +250 XP!

  “Oh…gods!” char muttered, her face wrinkling in disgust. “I thought the thing smelled bad on the outside.”

  “That’s what Han said,” Ty laughed as the phase beast toppled to its side, going still and silent.

  “Who’s Han?” Deven asked as he picked himself up off the ground. His wound, while smeared with blood, looked shallow from where Ty stood. It had already stopped gushing.

  “He’s a stuck-up, scruffy-looking nerf-herder,” Ty replied, grinning. “But never mind all that. You okay?”

  Deven glanced down at his side and shrugged. “Looks worse than it is. Critter got me good, but my apron took the brunt of it. I’ll be fine.”

  “You sure?”

  He nodded. “I’m tougher than I look.”

  Ty grinned. Deven looked pretty tough to him. “Just want to be sure. Where we’re headed, it’s not going to get any easier than this.”

  “Speaking of…where exactly are we going?” Char asked. “You never really told us.”

  Ty pointed into the gloomy distance, a dark hole in the face of the looming mountains. “You see that cave up there? That’s our destination.”

  The three NPCs stiffened as one.

  “You’re taking us to Raalor’s Doom?” Char asked, her concern written across her face in scrunched lines.

  “Seriously?” Amon questioned. “You know, there’s a reason the word doom is in the name, right? It’s because people die there. Doom is bad.”

  Ty chuckled. “What do you know about the place?”

  “The legends are legion,” Char explained. “Raalor used to be a grave digger at the tombs outside of Altunn. One night, while he was supposed to be preparing a grave for an unfortunate soul, he was caught doing foul things to the corpse…dark, necromantic things.”

  “He fled north, and as the townsfolk gathered, they discovered what he’d done to that poor dead child was nothing compared to the atrocities he had committed inside the temple. Bodies were strung up everywhere, tortured, hacked apart and sewn together again in the bizarrest of fashions.” Amon shuddered as he told the tale.

  “Furious, the townspeople formed a party to hunt Raalor down, and they chased him to the foot of the Malvorm Mountains. They caught up to him there and unleashed their fury, beating him to within a heartbeat of death. Then, believing that too kind of a release, they dragged his beaten form to the mouth of the cave there and hurled him down inside the shaft, leaving him to suffer until he drew his last breath.”

  “But rumor has it, he lived,” Char took back over. “Little more than a broken, very much like the corpses he tormented, he’s wandered the caves for centuries, taking his vengeance out on anyone foolish enough to wander into his demesne.”

  “It’s a really bad place,” Deven added.

  Ty grinned. “Stories aside, it’s a good place to earn lower-level experience without the risk of running into Defiler or his jacktard thugs.”

  “It’s also a good place to die,” Char added. “You sure you want to do this?”

  “Want to? No,” he admitted. “The place is dangerous, and we’ll need to be careful to avoid getting in too deep, but the simple fact of the matter is, I need to be as strong as I possibly can be in order to face down Halgor and his horde. And since I can’t do that in town anymore, this is the closest, most effective way to go about doing that.”

  “Then let’s get this done and over with before I change my mind,” Deven muttered, starting off toward the cave a short distance ahead.

  Ty chased after him, and the others came along, however reluctantly.

  His memory of the early days of Umbra Online still a bit hazy, Ty vaguely remembered adventuring in the dungeon once he’d earned enough experience to escape the start town’s level restrictions.

  And though he didn’t have any specific memories of the place, he didn’t recall it being all that more difficult than the quests and battles in Altunn. PCs used the place as a kind of waystation to gain levels before they moved on to the next town and the higher-level quests that became available there.

  Ty had gone through the dungeon on his own back then, and though he’d been AzzKickerofTheGodz420 in name, he hadn’t been particularly more powerful than he was now. He’d only started the game and only had the barest of equipment, and he hadn’t been all that adept at allocating his level points.

  Now, he had all his knowledge of the various traps and riddles in the game, as well as knowing how all the tricks to defeating the more difficult monsters they might run into. Plus, he had some scrappy NPCs to help out…sort of.

  Still, as he climbed the last of the makeshift stone stairs that led to Raalor’s Doom, he was sure he could make this work. A few hours of lurking about in the dungeon, and he’d be ready to go back and level one last time before he had to contemplate how to face off with Halgor.

  The darkness beckoning them in, Ty sucked in a deep breath and started forward. The NPCs followed and, together, they entered Raalor’s Doom as a party.

  Then they stopped.

  “Uh…anyone happen to have a torch?” Ty asked glumly. “I can’
t see crap.”

  “I gave you the only one I grabbed from the store,” Char groaned as she held hands up in apology. They were barely visible ghosts in the blackness.

  “Don’t look at me,” Deven told him. “Not that I can tell if you really are looking at me. I’m a butcher not an adventurer. It’s your job to carry the adventuring gear.”

  “Oh, Ferane,” Amon muttered, calling out to the goddess of the ferals.

  He stalked into the darkness, only his soft footsteps giving Ty any clue where he’d gone. An unidentifiable scrape echoed through the gloom, and he returned a moment later. “Here,” he said, stuffing an old, spider web covered torch into Ty’s hand.

  “Now, we just need something to light it with,” Ty grumbled.

  “That I have,” Char beamed.

  She fumbled around in the darkness a moment, Ty unable to see what she was doing, and then an explosion of sparks erupted, searing his vision and filling it with stars.

  “Uh, a little warning next time, yeah?” Ty groaned, watching the sparks dance across his eyes.

  “Sorry,” Char told him, but he really didn’t think she sounded sorry at all.

  She came over and sparked the flint and tinder once more—and, again, not warning Ty—and the torch in his hands burst to life. He squawked as the flames crackled and popped, washing out what was left of his vision.

  “Thanks for that,” he groused once he could finally see.

  Char grinned. “Here to help.”

  “Clearly.”

  Now able to examine the cave entrance, Ty glanced about. Cold shivers met his gaze.

  The place was every bit the terrible-looking dungeon he remembered, only now, Ty could experience the entirety of it in 3-D.

  The air was chilly enough that his breath misted as it left his mouth and goosebumps formed along his arms. Cobwebs were everywhere, covering nearly every inch of surface in a gray sheen. The shaft where Raalor had been tossed looked more like a slide than a well. It circled down into the depths of the mountain, disappearing into the darkness long before an end to it could be determined.