VEG

by Zachery Nims

  Chapter 8: The Match

  Time: Six Years Prior

  Source: Personal Computer Log

  User: Evo

  The cold air nipped at my exposed left arm. I wore clothing that mimicked my characters skins, so it left my arm exposed to show off my pixilated tattoo. Skins were augmented gear that you picked up by questing, PvP, looting bosses, or drops off killing random creeps. It was like a new pair of virtual clothing to show off to other users. Each item made your character stronger or weaker depending on what kind of character build you wanted to specialize in.

  One could wear heavy suited armor for tanking. Most tanks do little damage to others but can stay alive forever with the right healers. Tank characters, such as warriors, are meant to run in and take the brunt of the attacks so that the weaker players may stay alive. I didn’t like the defensive build, due to the fact that it was monotonous. So, I went with lighter armor, leaving myself with little defense. It made me more of an offensive killing machine. My character build maximized chances for critical hits giving double the damage with a single blow. This also gave me higher probability to bash and stun my enemy leaving them susceptible to all sorts of attacks. I was agile for a warrior and almost felt like a rogue.

  A lot of people asked why I didn’t go for the rogue class. I didn’t take to the rogue because they had too little health. In prior video games, rogues could go invisible allowing them to come in close for a surprise attacks. In VEG everyone can see you so, without the element of surprise I ranked rogues around the level of useless. Lots of others would argue their case. Gamers would defend their class by developing outside the box strategies while watching PvP replay footage in a foul smelling basement. Tricks only lasted for so long though and were countered within a day or two.

  A single file line was gathering at the south entrance of Central Park where my guild was scheduled to meet. Gatekeepers with scanners sat at the north, east, south, and west entrances. Gatekeepers were rule police / administrators. They wore riot gear and helmets that masked their identity. Their helmets reminded me of a cross between Daft Punk and Cobra Commander’s headpieces. It was meant to conceal their identity from disgruntled players. To be able to fight in PvP you had to be scanned by a Gatekeeper to access the arena. If you didn’t get scanned your player would be banned once you walked into the park during PvP hours. VEG users had been working for years on how to hack or bypass the barriers to PvP arenas without success. You could still get hacked armor and swords past the PvP barriers but illegal entrance was impossible.

  I met up with Kira, Knightcr@wler, and Phantom upon arrival. They were the usual crew that I ran missions with.

  “What’s up Evo,” Phantom said while shaking my hand and hugging me.

  My full user name was .iIi.Evolution but people called me Evo for short. The symbol “.iIi.” was what I felt resembled the evolution of man. We had started as animals, evolved to a certain point, then began our decline. That was until VEG appeared. I had used that name though in the days of console and computer gaming and it had kind of stuck. I gave everyone a quick hug. “Ready to ride once more my brothas?” They all smiled. I felt comfortable with these guys and we had become close friends over our years of questing.

  Kira, the only female in our group, was tall and slender with long black hair. On PvP days she wrapped it up in a bun, otherwise she said that it got in her way. Being half Japanese and half American earned her the nickname Half Jap which she received when a song came on the radio by Weezer where the first lyrics said “God damn you half Japanese girls.”

  Kira was one of the best healers in our clan. She used a Spirit Mage as her class. Spirit Mages called upon nature’s spirits to heal the living. She had a high damage per second build (DPS) for PvP, which catches a lot of users off guard. She could switch skins at the drop of a hat, which allowed her to play both defensive and aggressive. Her armor she currently had equipped was a beautiful pink and purple robe that draped behind her feet when she walked. She wielded a long golden staff with a miniature phoenix trapped inside a glowing red orb at the tip. Her phoenix had a yearlong cool down period. That meant that once summoned, you would have to wait a year before you could use it again. It was only used if we were in a dire situation. Various glowing rings covered her fingers and both her wrists were lined with different golden bangles. She had beautiful blue eyes that stood out from her creamy beige skin.

  The second member in our group was Knightcr@wler who played a speed knight. The speed knights were one of the original classes of VEG and one of Charles’s favorites. Most classes were given bonuses for physical movement but the speed knights relied on their natural speed to be able to do the most damage. Charles had incorporated these bonuses to encourage our country to get back into physical shape. We all joked about how if VEG hadn’t taken over Knightcr@wler’s life that he would have won an Olympic gold by now. It was most likely true; he was the fastest person I had ever seen. He had a runner’s physique and only at his top speeds was he a brilliant player to watch. The faster a Speed Knight could run the more damage he would build up on a single blow. If he reached a certain sustained speed, he was given more options for devastating attacks and spells.

  Knightcr@wler and two other people in the US could reach a speed that would allow them to unleash the deadly apocalyptic fury. The apocalyptic fury spell stunned every player within thirty feet of the knight, draining half his or her life no matter what class. The target of the spell would either end up dead or on the verge of death. It was argued that the spell was unfair, but then again, only a few people could reach the speed required to cast it. Many users had tried to use cars, bicycles, and mopeds to trick the system into thinking they had acquired the speed it took but it never worked. One had to reach the speed themselves with their own two legs. The best part about the speed that Knightcr@wler could attain was that he could cast another spell that made him invulnerable upon retreat. This gave him a good ten seconds to escape as long as he maintained his momentum.

  The speed knight was also given buffs and bonuses the faster he or she moved while attacking. You had to be agile and have an incredible amount of stamina to be elite with the class. Knightcr@wler was number one in the US and I was happy to have him by my side.

  Our final team member Phantom was an Assassin. Assassins are great for ranged attacks or close hand to hand combat. His had a range build where he would load up DPS on characters we were attacking. It didn’t take someone that skilled to be an assassin but Phantom was good, plus we all liked his personality. He was quick witted and provided a good laugh from time to time.

  Our clan leader’s name was Kenshin, which was fitting because he played an undead samurai. He was standing next to the gatekeeper and ushering us in one by one. “Everyone meet by the Hallett Nature Sanctuary and we will discuss strategy,” he called out as the group filed through the gate.

  We were all part of the clan called Pure Pwnage after one of our favorite Canadian TV shows. Pure Pwnage was a comedy about pro gamers, need I say more. It attracted almost everyone I knew to the group. Even one of the characters, FPS Doug from the show, was in our guild but no one ever got to play with him because he rarely came down south to raid or PvP with us.

  Once gathered, Kenshin informed our clan that the other team’s castle was located in Sheep Meadows. It was a wide-open grassy field that would most likely have a makeshift castle made out of scaffolding and temporary walls. Kenshin had given our group of four a separate mission from the main clan. We were ordered to scout the grounds and to kill any stragglers. Also, we were tasked to try and find another way into the castle. We took off at once at a light jog; our speed would increase once we had Sheep Meadows in sight.

  I felt a chill run through my spine, climbing from the base, making my fingers tingle. I was always a bit nervous no matter how much confidence I had in my crew. The castle came into view in t
he distance and our jog increased into a sprint. We cut along the tree line on the outskirts of the clearing. We had almost gotten to the western edge of the castle when Phantom stopped dead in his tracks. He was gifted as an assassin and had the ability to perceive bad events before they occurred. Kira grabbed me by the shoulder pulling me down to the ground. Knightcr@wler fell in behind us. Not more than one hundred yards was a group of a hundred crouched enemy users. Luck was with us because they were too busy starring at the clearing to notice us. It was a group set to flank our main from the east.

  Communication was cut off from our army because of a standard area of effect spell that had been cast by the enemy. It made it so that any message over ten feet would be rejected. There would be no way to warn our approaching army that was still a good fifteen minutes out. Attempting a retreat would compromise our position. The distance was also too short for Knightcr@wler to build up speed for the appropriate amount of time to perform his deadly apocalyptic fury. We had to act though, knowing that a flanking group of this size could destroy our army.

  Knightcr@wler crouched low beneath the brush and began moving his fingers furiously in midair. He looked like an idiot savant composing Mozart to deafening silence. A message appeared suspended in front of us saying the following:

  Knightcr@wler - Can’t pick up enough sustained speed from this distance to have a chance to take them. If I backtrack I could be seen.

  We all sat in silence then another message appeared from Kira. Kira - In ten seconds, run at them, I will make you a path, and then attack at their rear.

  Kira moved her rod in a circular motion as if practicing Tai Chi. Her rod twirled in her hand as she chanted French words that sounded like lyrics to a love song.

  Charles incorporated a unique language for each class. Spirit Mages used French to cast spells and summons; Assassins spoke Arabic; Warriors used Old Norse; Speed Knights revived Latin. Because of this, we were all fluent in at least a second language if not a third. Kira was fluent in English, Japanese, and French. One of my favorite parts of VEG was that it had revived dead languages. Some people even studied Egyptian hieroglyphics for quests. VEG encouraged education and rewarded intellect with rare treasures. The more knowledge a user had, the more useful they were to a group, and the better equipment they could attain. Charles wanted to bring America back from its slumber. He wanted all children to be bilingual like most other countries in the world and it worked.

  Kira was standing up now with her head tilted downwards, her words once curing turned quick to poison spewing from her venomous lips. We could hear some yelling in the distance. Before I could locate the source, Knightcr@wler was already sprinting at full speed, darting in and out of trees as to evade line of sight attacks. Through our Jackers, we could see white streams streaking behind him, his character resembling the wind. Kira, in one fluid motion, brought her hands crashing together and an enormous beam of white light was unleashed from her staff. Of course, a damage over time ray, I thought. Damage over time spells did more and more damage the longer one stayed in the line of fire.

  The entire army was bunched together. If they decided to stay, by the time Knightcr@wler got to their location they would all be drained by at least a third of their life. If they decided to flee they would give Knightcr@wler the running room he needed to release his devastating attack. It was working; they began to scatter, running to evade the now blinding focus beam. Knightcr@wler ran right into the center of Kira’s spell, to where his blur of speed and her light beam became one.

  Kira was now shouting French words, strengthening the beam into a white-hot fury. I didn’t even think about the fact that our healer was now attacking, leaving Knightcr@wler completely vulnerable. He would need help if he wanted to have any chance of making it to the rear of their group alive. Phantom and I must have realized it at the same time because we both jumped up and began using all our buffs on Knightcr@wler, who was barely within range. I cast my warrior’s protection bubble, which had a monthly cool down. It would leave me pretty defenseless but I knew that this could be the act that won the battle.

  The enemy users were fleeing in every direction from the focus beam. The ones that had fled too far to the east had placed themselves on open grounds and Phantom was shooting to kill with a hunter’s accuracy. Knightcr@wler went through them in a flash and then it happened, we saw the wake of a nuclear blast shoot ripples across the erupting ground. A mushroom cloud shot up into the sky rocketing at the hunter’s full moon. A simple matter of cleanup was in order with a couple of area of effect spells and the entire army was dead. We all came out unscathed, cheering as we watched the army leave to the west gate. Once dead, you were automatically instructed to exit to the nearest gate. If a player took steps the opposite direction of an exit, they would automatically be disqualified from arena fights for two months. Communication links were terminated and VEG access was denied.

  The caster of the communication spell must have been within the group that we just slaughtered because messages were now getting through to Kenshin. Our clan linked to our chat about the flanking army to the east’s eradication. Text cheers poured in, filling up our vision like a virus. The battle was looking to be in our favor.

  We rendezvoused at the front of the castle, thinking that they were close to surrendering. We knew we were wrong when we heard the roar. An enormous black dragon summon clawed its way free of the castle walls, screaming into the night’s sky. I had never seen one, but had heard of them. The quest to receive the summon was near impossible, because it required enough money to travel around the world twice.

  We could hear cheers hailing from the interior castle walls. It irked the hell out of me and I felt my temper rising from somewhere dark inside. The place where sick sadistic thoughts brewed, yet never emerged. Those cold chilling visions of kicking a cute puppy, pushing your friend in front of a car, or stabbing someone with a serving knife at Thanksgiving dinner. Momentary lapses of insanity that lay dormant within the mind. I smiled thinking of one that very moment and calmed my mind to focus on strategy.

  We didn’t need to warn Kenshin about a possible ambush from the west because he had already sensed it and adapted his original plan. He had split the army, ambushing the western enemy army from all three sides. We knew that would help our cause but the dragon was still approaching. Kenshin front loaded his warriors, and began the long grueling battle with the black dragon. With no monthly cool down spells left, our group would be of little help, so we broke off and went around the backside to take a peak.

  The castle was built from shiny black stones that looked like they had been pulled from a riverbed. The walls loomed over us. Guard towers rested upon the castles four corners. We were frozen, mesmerized by its size, leaving ourselves exposed to attack and Hunters were intent on exploiting our mistake. They did little damage from their range but it was still a nuisance. As we rounded the rear, all hope was lost. There was a sole wooden door, reinforced with steel bars, with no chance of infiltrating it. If we could get inside we could kill the caster of the black dragon summon. Once the caster died most summons vanished.

  Messages were pouring into our chat board asking for ideas. I had read a book on Genghis Khan recently that made me think of something. It would be risky but it just might work. Our main army was taking heavy losses from the dragon. Our numbers had dwindled down to around fifty. We had no accurate count of how many opponents were left protecting the interior of the castle. I just hoped that their numbers were low enough to make my plan work.

  The brush was thick enough to conceal me before I ran at the back door with one of my prized secondary swords. I never used it in PvP because if I died it automatically dropped. Items that dropped upon death became available for anyone that pleased to pick up. It was a rare sword called Colossus. Colossus had the power to destroy barriers, mainly castle doors, by a single user. My sword crashed into
the wooden door sending shrapnel flying from the steel bars. Phantom was a couple feet behind me. The only hope we had in entering the castle was that the two hunters on the guard towers were all that was left to protect the rear. Phantom dropped a battering ram and summoned eight simple drones to operate it.

  I was slashing wildly at the door with Colossus. The enemy hunters focused fire on Phantom at the start but quickly turned toward me once they saw the sword I was wielding. My life was dropping at a slower rate than I expected until five more DPS users joined in. The door was losing its power and cracks began to split the reinforced wood. Phantom’s battering ram was now engulfed in flames from a fire mage. His drones were dropping like flies but he was summoning an army of them, when one died another quickly took its place. I was feeling optimistic at this point because we had the door to half health but then Phantom fell. I didn’t see which tower the attacks came from but two players had popped a monthly cool down spell that both struck Phantom in the head. He died quick and I knew I was doomed. The drones perished only seconds later and the battering ram’s wheels had collapsed leaving a worthless tipped log smoldering on the ground.

  I tried to retreat but another two monthly cool down spells took me from the rear. I gasped as one of my most precious swords dropped to the ground naked and defenseless for anyone to steal. Just before my screen logged off I had seen that our main force had been cut down to a mere twenty-five users, luckily Kenshin was still amongst them. My screen began to flash red, signaling me to leave. I made my way toward the west gate furious, thinking about my lost sword.

  The rear gate to the castle creaked open, and a sole vulture of a user came scurrying out to the Colossus sword. His greedy little hands fondled it, admiring the stats before pocketing it in his inventory. He turned and began his cowardice retreat when he stopped dead in his tracks. The door that he had left from seconds ago was now held open in place by tree roots. A sword slammed into his right shoulder from the rear stunning his character for ten seconds, which was all Kira and Knightcr@wler needed to make their grand entrance. Kira cast bubble protection spells that resisted all ranged attacks for a full minute hoping that a warrior wouldn’t be waiting on the inside. They lucked out, there was a group of eight approaching from the front gates.

  The interior of the castle was barren except for the central castle’s keep that usually housed the NPC king. NPC stood for non-player character. There were two ways to win in this PvP game. One was to kill everyone on the opposite team. The other was to take out the castle’s king.

  Knightcr@wler began sprinting at the warrior and rogues, his hand held fast to his samurai sword resting on his left leg. Kira slammed her staff into the ground creating a thick fog that filled the interior of the castle. The fog would only last for a second before characters switched their vision to see real life but that second was all Knightcr@wler needed. He attacked low at the first warrior spinning his blade upwards, slashing two rogues across the chest. He then did a back flip over his opponents before they had time to switch their visual feed to half and half. They were all still facing Kira when Knightcr@wler did his second attack with a devastating whirlwind slash, sending all eight users flying into the air, keeping them suspended in a tornado.

  Kira was now twirling her staff around her body at an incredible speed making it turn bright red and within an instant it was ablaze. She then threw her spinning staff upwards toward the moon and a phoenix rocketed out of its fiery sphere. The phoenix began spitting fireballs as it dove toward helpless groups of users, its wings setting the ground afire in its wake.

  The battle was far from over, the black dragon was now heading back to defend the castle. Kira directed her summon toward the castle’s keep instructing it to seek and destroy the summoner. The dragon leapt onto the outer wall shrieking with fury as it snapped its monstrous jaws. It sucked in a deep breath, arching its head back as it wiggled its neck. It appeared like he was trying to suck all the stars from the sky to create a night as black as the scales that armored his impenetrable body.

  Kira and Knightcr@wlerís protection bubble was gone and there was nothing they could do to defend against its deadly fire attack. The dragon then launched his head downward, his mouth wide open with fire dancing and gurgling in his throat. They both crouched down protecting their bodies for what seemed like ages. Nothing came. Kira looked up and the dragon had vanished. Her phoenix! It must have killed the caster. Cheers filled the skies as texts erupted all over their vision. Knightcr@wler was not taking chances though and was already in the process of opening the castle gates. Pure Pwnage users poured into the interior of the castle, taking out the rest of the opposing team. The battle was over and they had come out victorious once again. Equipment and gold was distributed among the clan as the opponents walked to the exit in shame.