Umbra Online- Halgor's Horde

by K D Brand

  Ty smiled, saying, “Thanks,” grateful that Nikky wasn’t pressing the point and making him explain everything.

  Glad to have escaped an inquisition, he glanced down at his hand again, surprised to find that it was fully-formed once more, the bandage having slipped off. His heart thudded in anxious relief, and he flexed his bloody, raw-skinned fingers, turning his hand this way and that to examine every angle.

  There was a weird disconnect between his emotional state and his mental one.

  His mind understood the mechanics of a regeneration potion and how it worked in-game, but the emotional side of him struggled to come to terms with the idea that he’d just had his hand and half his arm completely severed and now it was there again.

  He couldn’t look at it without seeing the rusty blade falling, hearing the sullen chunk of the sword striking the bone and cleaving through, the coppery stink of his own blood. He’d had his hand cut off, and no amount of magic would ever make that experience go away, even if the results of it had already disappeared.

  Ty took a deep breath and let it out in a slow, shuddering exhalation. He just stared at his hand as he wiggled his fingers. The skin stretched tight, clearly new and a bit tender still. The coloring was slightly lighter than the rest of his arm, kinda like he’d gotten a reverse farmer tan. It was weird to look at, but Ty couldn’t stop. And while he hadn’t seen a notification, having shut most of them off, he knew he’d lost a handful of mental points that’d take a long time to earn back.

  Char didn’t let him wallow in it, though. She reached down, hooked her arm around his, and yanked him to his feet. “Now’s not the time to shut down,” she whispered as she helped him up.

  “We should get out of here,” Deven commented, seeming to read into Ty’s demeanor.

  “We should never should have come here in the first place,” Amon admonished.

  “Why did you?” Nikky asked, aiming her question at Ty.

  A bit unsteady on his feet, despite not actually being wounded, Ty took a moment to gain his balance. “The same reason you’re here: experience.”

  “This isn’t exactly a good place to be for an undersized thief and three shop NPCs,” she told him. “It might be a novice-level dungeon, but you guys don’t look prepared for it at all.” She motioned to the party.

  Ty had to agree. His experiences were still so tainted by his time as AzzKickerofTheGodz420 that he really didn’t have any reasonable understanding as to how to operate as a lowly…well, a lowly whatever the heck he was. At this point, it was pretty clear he couldn’t count on his gaming experience when it came to expecting outcomes in the real-life version of the game. They were two entirely different things, he was realizing.

  “I was…uh, trying to push it, to power-level a bit,” he admitted. “Figured I’d gain more XP taking a couple of these monsters on rather than hanging out and running through the starter quests.”

  “Can understand that,” Nikky said. “You still looking to level?”

  The implication of her question catching him off guard, Ty looked at her with a blank expression. “Wait! Are you offering…?”

  Nikky nodded. “Sure. Why not?” she asked. “It’s not every day a girl runs into an enigma. I can’t tell what you are, your class info a scrambled mess of symbols, nor can I see anyone by the name of Tyler online in the system registry, but I’m figuring there’s a really interesting story behind all this…not that you’re going to tell it, bard-boy,” she finished, breaking into a casual laugh. “Still, can’t hurt to befriend a mystery man in the game, right?”

  Ty nodded and grinned. It was funny how mercenary the gaming world was. People were always willing to help, but they always had their own agenda. It was something that the game fostered in its players, a kind of hyper-aggressive Pavlovian response built into the system.

  The entire game was predicated upon the idea of individual advancement, every quest, every fight, every interaction offering up a reward to push the player to the next stage of the game where, of course, they earned even better rewards.

  So, that in mind, he couldn’t really blame Nikky for wanting something, however vague it might be, in exchange for her help. It’d been the same with Theolin and, though he disliked admitting it, the same would have been true for him had the situation been reversed.

  “Happy to accept your offer,” Ty told her, straightening his armor, and doing his best to ignore the spatters of blood—his blood—that stained it.

  “Good,” she replied, and a notification to join her was offered seconds later.

  Ty acknowledged the request and, while he had no idea if they could earn XP, he was glad to see she’d extended it to the NPCs, too. They were all in the party together not more than a minute later.

  Nikky waited until they collected their weapons and made ready, then she started off down the corridor the same direction they’d been traveling when…

  Nope, not going there.

  Ty decided he didn’t want to think about that and pushed the loss of his hand from his thoughts, picturing things he would much prefer to imagine.

  Chicken nuggets, brownies, chocolate shakes, red velvet cupcakes…

  A moment later, refocused and annoyingly hungry, he was in a better frame of mind. Which was good because the dungeon wasn’t through with him yet.

  “Incoming!” Nikky called out and, not more than a second later, he saw what she referred to.

  “Crap!” Ty grumbled. “Trilks.”

  Evil, vile little demonic-like imps spawned from the flesh of the dead, five of the trilks giggled like maniacal children, jagged claws extended, mouthfuls of shark teeth dripping with yellowish saliva.

  At least they’re smaller than me.

  His nandao in his new hand, the hilt felt weird to him, his nerves overly sensitive, Ty found himself uncomfortable with his grip. He snarled, clenching tighter, afraid he might lose his weapon.

  His lack of focus caused him to hesitate.

  Nikky didn’t have any such hang-ups.

  She launched herself at the trilks, undisguised glee brightening her cheeks. “I love these things!” she shouted.

  Both swords out, having clearly spent a bunch of time training dual-wield, she was a Cuisinart in graceful, murderous action. Her blades whirled left and right in vicious downward arcs.

  Two trilks lets out twin shrieks as she cut them diagonally across their torsos, the swords cleaving them from their shoulders to their hips. Blood and imp guts gushed and splattered the floor at their feet.

  Ty scrunched his nose at the sulfurous stench that rose up and stung his nose and fought the urge to vomit. He growled at his reaction, clenching his teeth, and forcing himself to watch the flailing deaths of the trilks as Nikky followed up with backswings, cleaving the creatures in half.

  I can’t let this bother me, he grumbled in his head.

  He knew his tentativeness, his squeamishness, was rooted in his injury, and he hated it.

  A dang skeleton gave me PTSD!

  Your party has killed two trilks!

  You have earned +400 XP!

  The notification scrolling across his vision surprised him. Within minutes of joining Nikky’s party, he was already on his way to hitting level 5.

  He grinned, the potential of letting Nikky power-level him struck home and washed away any lingering uncertainty he had regarding his hand.

  Ty squeed—though he’d never admit it—and tightened his grip on his sword and raced forward to engage the nearest trilk.

  It slashed at him with its tiny claws, slicing the air in front of him. Ty eased back slightly, moving just out of the range of the blow, then darted in, driving his blade into the trilk’s gut.

  The imp howled, one childish hand clasping to the blade, trying to keep it from being pushed deeper into its flesh, but the other hand rose to rip Ty’s out. He leaned away, hoping to minimize the damage.

  A flash of silver ended the threat.

  “A hand for a hand,” Nikky chuck
led as she skipped past, angling toward the remaining trilks.

  A spurt of blood erupted into the air as the trilk’s hand spun in the air like a pinwheel, having been cut free by Nikky. The creature groaned, stumbling back a step, red eyes dimming, but by then, Ty had recovered his composure. He whipped his sword sideways, ripping it free of the trilk and cleaving it open in the process. The little imp crumpled to the dusty ground and died without so much as a grunt.

  Your party has killed a trilk!

  You have earned +200 XP!

  Nikky just kept going, crashing into the second to last of the creatures. Char was there at her side. The two of them tore into the imp, hacking and slashing, not giving the trilk a chance to do anything other than die. It slumped in on itself and flopped to the floor in a pool of its own blood.

  Your party has killed a trilk!

  Desperate to end the last of the monsters, Ty went straight for it, weapon raised. Deven and Amon ran alongside him, apparently ready to get in on the killing before it was over.

  Ty batted the trilk’s claws aside as it reached for him, then put all his strength into a backswing, slamming his sword into the creature’s side. The imp shrieked and staggered away, crimson ruining down its hip and thigh.

  Amon slashed at the beast but missed, his attack too hurried, too awkward to have done much even if it had landed. Deven, however, put his years of chopping meat to good use.

  He stepped to the left of Amon and brought his blade down at an angle. The edge bit deep into the imp’s shoulder, and the creature’s arm dropped limply at its side.

  That didn’t keep it from being dangerous.

  It clawed at Deven with its other hand, and only the heavy leather apron the butcher wore kept him from taking a serious wound. As it was, Deven threw himself backward in a rush, jagged grooves dug into his apron right where his heart was. He huffed as he raised a hand to his chest.

  His heart pounding in his chest at what nearly happened to Deven, Ty leapt in drove his foot into the gut of the trilk. It slammed into the wall at its back with a grunt, and Ty followed it up by driving his sword into the creature’s throat.

  The trilk gurgled, offering up one last red-eyed glare, before sinking to the floor.

  Your party has killed a trilk!

  You have earned +200 XP!

  Ty yanked his sword free and turned back to look at the party. He grinned as they looked back at him.

  They’re not much to look at, but they’re mine.

  “That worked out pretty well,” Nikky said, nodding. “Want to keep going?”

  “Like you need to ask,” Ty replied with a wide grin. “Lead on, fearless…uh, leader.”

  Nikky let out a throaty laugh and spun on her heel, marching off down the corridor, leaving the corpses of the trilks behind.

  With no treasure to be had by searching the dead imps, Ty waved the rest of the party on and trotted off after Nikky. “Come along, my pretties,” he called out, doing his best witch impression.

  “He must be talking to you,” Deven told Char, “because neither me or Amon are anything resembling pretty.”

  Amon cleared his throat and ran a hand across his scalp, pinning his ears back. “Speak for yourself, butcher. I’m quite the handsome beast.”

  “Emphasis on beast,” Deven shot back.

  Ty chuckled, letting their grumbled back and forth fade into the background as he imagined the experience to be had ahead.

  “Treasure bath!”

  Nineteen

  Which Craft

  NIKKY GENEROUSLY LED the party around for another two hours after the encounter with the trilks. She pushed on hard, barely providing breaks between battles and handing out minor-healing potions as if they were candy, all of which kept them moving along a pretty good clip.

  She was also super generous with the loot, giving it all to Ty as they came across it. Not that there’d been a ton, but overall, they’d raked in about ten gold coins and a metal bracer that was +1 to defense against the undead. It was, of course, way too big for Ty to wear. Still, it was the first magical item he’d collected as loot, not counting the collar he’s stolen from Vile One.

  Finally, a small group of skeletons scattered into their component parts around them, she held up a hand to call a halt to the dungeon crawling, having led them back around to the entrance of Raalor’s Doom.

  “Hate to do this, but I’ve got to head out,” she told them. “Gotta get ready for work and get out of here before I’m late again…for the third time this month,” she added with a chuckle.

  Char’s eyes narrowed. “This is not your job…adventuring?”

  “I wish.” Nikky laughed. “No, I get to spend the rest of my day asking folks if they want fries with that.”

  “Fries?” Confusion washed across Char’s features.

  Nikky cast a sideways glance at Ty. Ty shrugged.

  “Uh…they get a little lost when it comes to OOC stuff,” he told her, hoping that would clear things up and he wouldn’t have to explain anything else.

  “They’re not the only ones confused,” Nikky said, lifting her chin a bit as she looked down on Ty. “Maybe one of these days, you’ll explain things?” It wasn’t so much a question as an expectation given the way she expressed it.

  Ty nodded, sighing. “I think I’m going to have to eventually,” he admitted, more to himself than to Nikky. “I’ll hit you up in chat if, uh…if you can explain how to open up a private link.”

  She grinned. “You’re kind of helpless, aren’t you?”

  Ty couldn’t help but agree. Seconds later, an invite appeared in his notifications, offering up a private chat between Nikky and Ty.

  You’re definitely going to have to explain things, she told him over the link, her voice sounding in his head. I don’t know what’s going on, but these NPCs are a long, long way from being combat ready. Not only are they likely to get you killed, no offense to them, they seem like great folks, but they also have a weird impact on experience gains.

  Ty stiffened. What do you mean?

  You didn’t notice?

  Clearly not, he mumbled back, wondering what she referred to.

  She nodded. I thought I was missing notifications early on, more focused on keeping you guys alive than I was on XP, but I scrolled back through the logs and noticed that every time one of these guys landed a killing blow, no experience was awarded to the party. That’s something that can really bite you in the ass when it comes to an important boss fight.

  Ty thought back and realized she was right. He’d unconsciously spotted that, too, but didn’t give it a thought, brushing it off as a side effect of his messing with the notification settings or just him missing it during the confusion. But now that he was thinking about it, he remembered the same thing happening back when he and the NPCs faced off against the rabid raccoons.

  When Char had killed the first of the raccoons, Ty had been so wrapped up in congratulating her that he hadn’t been paying attention to the XP dump. Now, he realized there hadn’t been one.

  That’s weird, he told Nikky over the chat link.

  She chuckled. Among all the other weird stuff circling around you. She offered him a knowing look, turning her head sideways a bit and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. Anyway, your secrets and all that, blah, blah, blah. Whatever you’re doing, be careful the system doesn’t catch on and delete your account and your friends as glitches.

  Ty’s eyes flew wide. He hadn’t even thought that a possibility and, to be honest, he really hadn’t wanted to.

  What happens if the system resets on me? he thought.

  Now, it was all he could think of.

  He swallowed hard, and stood there, unable to speak, shuffling back and forth. The NPCs looked at him oddly, clearly wondering what was going on in the overly-long silence that had settled over, no clue Ty and Nikky were carrying on a private conversation.

  Well, I’ve clearly given you plenty to think about, she transmitted with a laug
h. I’ll leave the channel open, so anytime you need anything, hit me up. I’ll do whatever I can. And when you feel like discussing things, I’ll be around.

  Nikky turned to the NPCs. “Was great getting to crawl with all of you.” She reached out and squeezed Char’s hand, offering up a pleasant smile. “Hope to fight with you all again.”

  Ty did, too. He’d earned enough experience to put him just past level 7, which was convenient since it was the max the trainers in Altunn would level a PC. He was excited to train his deficiencies and gain what little power he could.

  As Nikky dropped to the ground, she waved quickly, then her chin dropped to her chest. A moment later, she was gone, vanishing as she logged out.

  Ty stood there a second, staring at the empty space where she’d just been, but he knew they were still in the dungeon zone and random encounters would eventually pop up. Without Nikky to keep them safe, he figured it was best to get moving and back to town.

  He led the party from the dungeon, and then pushed south, headed back toward Altunn. Night had settled over already, and the trip back to town was cold and dark and foreboding.

  Fortunately, they made it back quickly enough, avoiding any encounters. The hooting and hollering of the horde, though, followed them the entire way.

  The programmers had designed the noise to haunt the characters, especially at night, and it worked. By the time Ty led the party to the city’s gates, he had goosebumps running up and down every inch of his skin.

  Deven grunted. “I knew we should have left some rope dangling so we could get back inside.”

  Ty ignored him and knocked on the gate, each thump echoing loudly in the night.

  A few moments later, with much grumbling coming from the other side, the door set inside the gate was creaked open, Cord’s annoyed face glaring out at them.

  “Hiya,” Ty said, offering up a twitchy wave.

  Cord stiffened and whipped the door open fully. “What are you fools doing out after dark?” he shouted. “Get in here before the horde comes and rips the flesh from your bones.” He reached out and physically ushered the party inside, yanking them about and kicking up dust before slamming the door shut behind them.