Animal Kingdom- Riot

by Aaron Oster

  -25 HP, stabbing.

  Arthur gasped as icy cold pain flashed through his body. Despite his burning pain, there was no time to sit around. He was outnumbered 3 to 1 and had the disadvantage of being unarmed.

  The guard grinned an ugly grin, then tried to lean forward and drive the blade deeper. Arthur let him, gasping as his vision flashed red and another -20 HP was shaved off. Arthur felt the blade sink through him, but it accomplished what he’d been trying to do. It brought him closer to the guard. He promptly punched the man’s face, using Spring at the same time to retreat and taking the man’s weapon with him.

  “Hopps!” he yelled, voice oozing with pain and panic as he landed ten feet away, watching his HP tick down another 10 points.

  “I gotchya, mate!”

  Hopps’s buff hit him then, restoring 20 HP and boosting his attributes. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Arthur yanked the weapon free, letting out a hiss of pain as another 12 HP was lost.

  “Can you buff me again?!” Arthur called back, panting hard as the three men closed on him.

  He was down to just 23/70 health and couldn’t afford to take another hit.

  “Sorry, mate. The buff has a 60-second cooldown!” Hopps called.

  Arthur cursed under his breath, trying to lift the sword he’d pulled from his gut into a defensive position. Despite his best effort, his wrist refused to support the weight and kept dipping forward.

  Of course, the weapon would have a Strength requirement, he thought bitterly.

  Tossing the weapon to the side, Arthur reached down to his belt and removed the Centipede Mandible. It wasn’t a proper weapon, but perhaps it could do more damage than his bare hands. The poachers seemed to have around 80 HP each, which wasn’t too bad. The only problem was that there were three of them, and he had to keep their attention on him for fear that they would kill Hopps.

  The guards had hesitated when he’d pulled the mandible, but seeing as it wasn’t a proper weapon, their fear soon vanished.

  “I’m gonna enjoy killing you. Animal banger pelts go for a premium on the black market,” the lead man said, his eyes gleaming with the light of greed.

  The others chuckled at his comment and moved to flank him on both sides. They had him outnumbered, and his surprise attack hadn’t managed to take any of them out of the fight. Victory was as good as theirs.

  Arthur ignored the man’s comment, his eyes flicking between the three of them, noting their health. The easiest target would be the one he’d disarmed, but he was also the one with the most health. His best option right now would be to focus on one at a time. He’d keep close to the one he picked and use their numbers against them. They didn’t seem to be well-coordinated, so maybe, just maybe, he had a chance of getting out of this alive.

  Acting preemptively once more, Arthur launched himself at the man with least HP using Spring. It seemed that he’d been expecting this, however, as he thrust his sword forward in an attempt to skewer him. In desperation, Arthur threw his right arm up, slamming the mandible into the flat of the blade and managing to throw it off course.

  The sword still sliced across his left shoulder, inflicting 8 points of damage, but he’d avoided a death blow. Arthur knew he had his high Agility to thank for that, as he would have never managed to parry a blow like that if he’d been any slower or less dexterous. He also knew that he had the game to thank, as there was no way he’d be able to fight like this in real life.

  With a yell, he slammed heavily into the man, driving him to the ground and using Poison Touch once again. Then, he used his Tae-Frog-Do, hitting him for another -8 damage. Then, without even looking, he spun in place, ducking low and slashing out with the centipede mandible.

  -11 Damage, slashing.

  Arthur was rewarded with a scream of pain as his makeshift weapon sliced through the man’s left thigh. Feeling the whistle of his sword as it passed over his head, he spun back, stabbing down with the mandible, piercing the eye of the poacher as he attempted to rise.

  -22 Damage, stabbing (critical). Human Poacher dies! +180 XP

  Arthur used Spring once again, flipping back from another expected attack. When he landed back on the ground, panting hard, his entire body trembling with adrenaline, he found that one man was lying on the ground and howling in pain as he clutched his leg. The other was running for his sword.

  Arthur’s eyes flicked around frantically as he tried to find Hopps. He breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted him crouched in a small thicket of bushes, outlined in blue. His eyes then flicked up to his Stamina bar, noting that less than half remained. It was plenty, so he didn’t need to worry much. His HP was another story. He was now down to 15/70. A single hit would still kill him, and it was about 30 seconds before the buff could be recast.

  Dashing forward, Arthur landed bodily on the grounded guard and began rapidly stabbing down at the man with the mandible, feeling his fingers become slick with blood.

  “Gah! Stop! Please have mercy! Don’t kill me,” the man begged, trying to throw his hands up and block his assault.

  Arthur didn’t hesitate, continuously stabbing down until the poacher’s HP bottomed out, and he received another death notification. Shaking worse than ever before, Arthur regained his feet, turning his gaze to the last poacher who had by now managed to recover his weapon.

  Killing things in AKO had never felt this real. The NPC’s never begged for their lives, and the gore had been minimal. Arthur had yet to eat anything in the game, but he could feel bile rising in his throat. The mandible clutched in his fingers was slick with the man’s blood, and the entire front of his shirt was painted red.

  The coppery taste of blood was in his mouth, as well. It had gotten everywhere when he’d been savaging the man. He could feel his earlier panic returning as the man’s face flashed in his mind. Images of the man looking on in horror as his chest and face were being torn apart by the mandible. The way the pieces of his flesh had clung to the serrated end as he’d pulled it free...

  He was vaguely aware of the third human running at him but found himself frozen in place, the horror of what he’d just done too overwhelming.

  Then, just as before, his panic vanished, leaving him feeling calm and collected, as though the abject trauma he’d just inflicted upon his psyche had never happened. His eyes snapped up, his body swaying to the side as the sword came whistling through the air, missing his body by the span of an inch.

  There was a wet squelching sound as the man’s sword thudded into the corpse of his recently deceased comrade, and his eyes went wide in shock.

  “How did you…?” he began to ask, just as Arthur attacked.

  Poison Touch, followed by a double kick, threw the man back, making him lose his weapon once again as it stuck in his dead comrade. Arthur was on top of him within a second, the mandible flashing as he stabbed down over and over. And this time, he felt absolutely no pity, no remorse, and no disgust as he butchered the man.

  Arthur was now in the Animal Kingdom. Here, only the strong survived.

  He didn’t stop attacking. Even when the death notification flashed before his eyes, he kept going. The mandible kept rising and falling over and over, blood flecking his face, teeth, and lips.

  “Um…Arthur? Mate, are you alright?”

  Arthur’s head whipped up, his manic eyes falling on the small frog standing a few feet away and looking at him worriedly.

  As soon as he made eye contact with the small amphibian, his animal rage vanished, replaced instead by a feeling of emptiness.

  What the hell just happened?

  He looked down at himself, finding his body coated in even more blood. The guilty feeling refused to come as it had before.

  Just what’s going on? Why can’t I feel… anything?!

  Arthur shuddered, remembering the almost blinding rage that had overtaken him back there. As soon as the guilt had faded and he’d made eye contact with the human poacher, he’d just lost control. What was this world doing to hi
m?

  “Arthur?”

  Arthur was pulled from his thoughts as Hopps called out to him once again.

  “I’m…alright,” Arthur said, taking a deep, shuddering breath and forcing himself off the dead poacher.

  “I just need a minute.”

  Arthur turned his back on the dead men and went to lean against a nearby tree. He then allowed his feet to slide out from under him and stared up at the gray sky above. Closing his eyes, he sat there in silence, feeling the drops of rain falling on his skin and washing away the accumulated blood and gore.

  There was no way this was a game. Not anymore. Perhaps Animal Kingdom Online had once been a game, but this new version of the Animal Kingdom was most definitely not. No game could be this real.

  “Arthur?”

  Arthur looked down, hearing the uncertain voice of Hopps. The frog was sitting a few feet away, looking remorseful.

  “I’m sorry I did that. I don’t know what came over me back there. I’m normally very forgiving, but for some reason, when I saw the wankers, I just felt this…”

  “Rage?” Arthur finished for him. “Like you lost all control over your actions and just needed to see them dead?”

  The small frog nodded his head vigorously, seeming more than a little afraid.

  “What’s happening to me?”

  Arthur shook his head, looking back up to the sky.

  “I don’t know, Hopps. I don’t know…”

  6

  The two of them sat together in silence for the better part of an hour, each reflecting on their own experiences. Arthur knew now that whatever had possessed him during the battle, had affected Hopps as well, meaning that it wasn’t only limited to him. The new information left him with just more questions, such as who was doing this to them and why, and was it only them, or was it affecting everyone?

  At some point, he couldn’t take thinking about it anymore, so he instead turned his attention to the flashing notifications he’d been ignoring.

  Quest Completed: Froggy Vengeance

  Rewards: 1,500 XP, 50 Silver Coins, Dagger Handle

  Level Up!

  Congratulations, you have reached level 4. You now have 5 new Attribute Points to allocate.

  Level Up!

  Congratulations, you have reached level 5. You now have 5 new Attribute Points to allocate.

  Ability Available!

  Due to your repeated actions, new abilities have become available to you.

  Frog Slicer

  Parry

  Skill Available!

  Due to your repeated actions, a new skill has become available to you.

  Knife Wielding

  Arthur was glad to see that he’d gained 2 new levels, as well as the points that came with them. He immediately distributed them, using the same formula as before: 3 into HP and Endurance and 4 into Agility. He’d raise the others eventually, but for now, these would help him survive. He scrolled down to read over his new skills and abilities.

  Frog Slicer

  Frenzied attacks are good, right?.

  Ability Level: 1

  Cost: 5 Stamina per second

  Cooldown: N/A

  Damage: +15% with bladed weapons

  Effect: Attacks deal 15% more damage while skill is active

  Parry

  Looks like you can do more than just swing around a hunk of metal!

  Ability Level: 1

  Cost: 20 Stamina

  Cooldown: N/A

  Effect: Stagger an attacker for 2 seconds after a successful parry

  Knife Wielding

  It’s not the size that counts, but how you use it!

  Skill Type: Combat

  Skill Level: 1

  Effect: +10% Damage while wielding small bladed weapons

  Arthur looked over his selection, remembering well how his last fight had gone. He also recalled that in his quest rewards for killing the poachers, he’d received a Dagger Handle. If he were guessing correctly, it would allow him to turn the Centipede Mandible into a proper weapon.

  He’d been scarily effective with that, and it hadn’t even been a proper weapon. He hadn’t had any of the skills or abilities, either. The parry had also been scarily effective, and it had undoubtedly saved his life. While some might say it was a waste, as his skills and abilities were limited, he was going to take them all. He then went over his status, noting that some of his skills and abilities had leveled up as well.

  Character Status

  Name: Arthur

  Race: Humanoid - Poison Frog

  Class: None

  Level: 5

  XP: 190/2,000

  AP: 0

  Survivability

  HP: 100/100

  MP: 70/70

  STA: 180/180

  Armor Rating: 0

  Attributes

  Strength - 4

  Constitution - 10 (+3)

  Endurance - 18 (+3)

  Agility - 20 (+4)

  Intelligence - 7

  Wisdom - 6

  Charisma - 8

  Luck - 5

  Skills

  3/8

  Unarmed Frog-Bat: Level 3

  Perception: Level 4

  Knife Wielding: Level 1

  Abilities

  3/8

  Tae-Frog-Do: Level 2

  Frog Slicer: Level 1

  Parry: Level 1

  Racial Bonus

  Poison Touch: Tier 1

  Spring: Tier 1

  Closing his status, Arthur looked down at Hopps. He blinked a few times, clearing the raindrops from his eyes.

  Had he gotten bigger?

  Arthur had never actually examined his new companion’s status, though he knew that had been a colossal mistake. If he depended on someone in battle, he should know their strengths inside and out. Concentrating on his smaller companion, Arthur brought up an abbreviated version of his status.

  Name: Jeremy Hopps Croaksalot

  Race: Goliath Bullfrog

  Level: 3

  HP: 50/50 MP: 160/160 STA:100/100

  Skills/Abilities: Invigorate, Recover, Water Bomb

  Hopps had leveled up. Did that mean the frog would grow in size as he leveled? Arthur would have to keep a close watch. He had a few questions for Hopps now that he’d seen his status.

  “Hey, Hopps, I know what your Invigorate can do, but what about your other skills and abilities?”

  The small frog perked up, seeming all too happy to talk about something rather than sit and worry over what had happened with the poachers.

  “I got them both when I reached level 3. Recover allows me to recover 20 HP every 5 minutes, and Water Bomb allows me to attack an enemy, dealing 10 - 15 Water damage in a 3-foot radius.”

  Well, there was some good news. Now Arthur would have some backup while fighting, and Hopps would be able to recover some HP if he was injured, which would make his job much more manageable.

  “I think we’ve hung around here too long,” Artur said, forcing himself onto his feet.

  “Right you are, mate,” Hopps replied, bounding up to land on his shoulder.

  Though the difference was slight, Arthur noticed that the frog was heavier than he’d been before. It appeared that his earlier hypothesis that he would grow as he leveled was proving to be true. He, on the other hand, would be staying the same size, no matter how many times he leveled.

  Looking down at himself, he noted that almost all the blood had washed out of his clothes. However, he could still see where it had stained the brown material, leaving a few splotchy darker patches. A rippling pool of collected water at his feet caught his attention, and Arthur got his first good look at himself since entering the game.

  He was indeed just over four feet tall, and his back was slightly hunched, with his neck being a bit shorter than what he was used to. His facial features seemed to be almost entirely human, with his skin being a mix of red and white. His eyes were a bit larger than before and his mouth a bit wider, but they were such minor diff
erences that one would have to look closely to notice.

  His hands and feet were the biggest giveaways, with his legs being about twice as long as a human’s, though with the long limbs bent double on themselves, it didn’t give him any extra height. His hands were more like Hopps’s, with webbed fingers and pads at their tips.

  Turning away from his reflection, Arthur headed back into the camp, glad to see that the game’s cleanup was still working. Corpses would vanish precisely one hour after they were killed unless there were players in their vicinity. Now, all that remained of the battle were a few spots of blood that had yet to get washed away.

  Arthur’s eyes were immediately drawn to a small pile of items at the center of the camp. Despite how unrealistic this was, it was better than having to go through the men’s corpses to collect his quest rewards.

  Crouching near the small pile, Arthur lifted a small leather bag that jingled slightly when he did so. Opening the mouth, Arthur saw a small collection of silver coins glittering back at him. Closing the bag, he tied it to his belt.

  The coins would come in handy when visiting Hopps’s village. If they had any goods to purchase, he would be glad to have it, even if the price of obtaining them had been the lives of three men.

  Next, he lifted a curved handle of smooth ivory stained a deep black. One end was open, and when Arthur placed the bottom of the Centipede’s Mandible into the slot, the handle glowed, then sealed shut, fusing with the deadly blade. Holding the weapon up, Arthur twirled it in his hand, then performed a few slashing and stabbing motions. It felt much smoother than it had been when he’d been using it without a handle. He examined the dagger’s properties and was amazed at how good they were.

  Item Found!

  Name: Centipede’s Carver