by Tamryn Tamer
He repeated the process but he felt his elemental magic slowly growing weaker. The more he succeeded, the more his sense of powerlessness faded and slowly his wrath began to starve. And there were over ten left and reinforcements were likely on their way. There was no way the dead members didn’t contact their guild and tell them the situation.
“Master,” Jinx said likely realizing Jericho was running out of steam. “Would you like me to transform? Scumbag. Sleaze.”
“Sure,” Jericho said wondering why she hadn’t transformed earlier. “Transform.”
“Kiss me,” Jinx said with resolve in her golden eyes. “I won’t be able to kiss you again for some time. Pervert. Deviant.”
Jericho grabbed her and kissed her as a warm feeling began encompassing him before vanishing as her lips dissipated in bluish green flame. Her glowing yellow eyes became even more vibrant when surrounded by her consuming fires. The human visage remained for a moment before transforming into a tiger.
“Let’s go,” he said relieved that in her spectral form they likely couldn’t do much to Jinx. She rushed forward swiping away at them with claws of blue spirit flames. The damage they did wouldn’t be fatal but it’d certainly hurt like hell while opening them up to more powerful attacks.
They slashed away at her but quickly found landing blows on spirit monsters to be nearly impossible. And since hunting spirit monsters was more of a player versus environment activity, they were ill-equipped to handle her.
“This is fucking insane,” one of the guys was laughing. “He’s got to be hacking. And what the fuck is that?”
They continued to defend themselves against the circling players. Jericho hadn’t realized it but as soon as the fight began word had spread around Rend that a mage was battling twenty members of Endgame. And when he’d cast the fire pillar into the sky, the entire city wanted to see what was happening.
Within a couple minutes of the battles start players from all over the world were watching, recording, and reporting the hacker mage only to get a response from developers he’s not hacking, he’s a proper mage. And word had spread even further to people in other cities who were portaling in hoping to catch the end. Including the former most powerful mage in the game, Owl who immediately recognized the former fifth most powerful mage, Jericho.
“Seems we have an audience,” Jinx growled. “So much for keeping quiet about your magic. Failure. Incompetent.”
“I know,” grumbled Jericho as the ring of fire faded and he resorted pushing people back with wind as the players closed in around him. He was exhausted, emotionally and physically, and his magical pathways were taking longer to fill. He turned to see a player lifting an axe above Jinx and even with her feline agility she wasn’t going to be able to avoid it, “Look out!”
Just before the axe fell a nearly invisible arrow pierced the man’s head killing him instantly and saving her. She quickly darted back toward Jericho who’d erected a weaker elemental barrier to protect them. A couple of seconds later another arrow landed in one of their eyes.
“More fucking magic,” growled a warrior holding up his shield unsure of what was happening. “This has gotta be a fucking joke.”
“That’s not magic,” smiled Jericho.
Jericho figured that Terra hadn’t run away, she was repositioning. While she frequently boasted about her high kill count and player versus player ability, nearly all of her kills were using a single method.
“Fucking impossible,” the warrior said while pulling a glass arrow from his dead friend’s eye socket. “The elf! Does anybody see her! She’s gotta be around here somewhere!”
Jericho knew they wouldn’t see her as another invisible arrow landed in a skull. She was nearly a mile away in the trees, well outside anybody’s line of sight.
Before Forbidden Arcana, Terra cut her virtual reality teeth in a VRMMO called Rush, a futuristic shooter where she excelled at long range assassination. Disappointed that rangers in Forbidden Arcana lacked actual snipers, she decided to create one.
There were several conditions that needed to be met for her build. The first condition was her bow, a molten giant’s longbow that was only usable by warriors because of the extraordinarily high strength stat required to draw it. She also enchanted it to increase its range, further increasing the strength requirement as well.
The second were her glass arrows which were lightweight, invisible, and enchanted for increased flight speed because faster speed meant more distance. The fastest arrows in the game enchanted to be faster and only usable by races with the delicate touch passive like elves. Also, they were so low damage they could only kill a target if it was a headshot. And if that wasn’t enough, they shattered dealing no damage if they hit anything other than flesh.
The third condition was using a potion of godly strength only craftable by two alchemists in the game, Jericho being one of them. It was the most powerful, and expensive, strength potion in the game. That was for the plate boots which required a minimum strength stat to wear but allowed her to wear more plate armor. Each piece of plate armor was enchanted with more strength and she needed to put the armor on in a specific order to wear it all. By the time she put it all on, the plate carried just enough strength stats to allow her to draw the bow.
The big secret was the way it all interacted with elf passives and ranger abilities. Increased ranged weapon proficiency while in trees from being an elf and increased ranged weapon proficiency from being a ranger snowballed everything.
This gave her the range necessary to hit almost any target she could see and then some. That’s where the eagle eye potion came in. Expensive to craft and almost universally considered worthless for anything other than hunting rare monsters or treasure. It gave the user the ability to see things miles away as if they were nearby.
Combining everything she became Forbidden Arcana’s only sniper.
“Die! Die! Die!” Jinx said while chomping the head of one of the fighters distracted by the incoming arrows until his health reduced to zero. “Murderer! Scum!”
“Fuck this,” a warrior said while turning to run back to the safety of the city. Jericho wasn’t having that, he lifted his arms and a wall of stone formed blocking the escape of the warrior. With a few more quick movements the warrior was encased in a stone box and finally with a handclap, the box shut. Other player killers tried to run but Terra’s arrows came in killing them instantly.
Finally, there were none left.
“Look the corpses!” Jericho commanded, barely keeping his wits about him. “Taking everything, quick!”
Jinx nodded while quickly rushing around the battlefield clawing everything and putting it into some invisible inventory. Coins, weapons, potions, player killers were always prepared which meant they were always carrying good stuff.
“Go! Go!” Terra yelled while running from the forest hopped up on enhancement and speed potions. Jericho and Jinxed followed quickly behind her while chugging speed potions to keep up. “Hurry up!”
On the other side of the city gates, Jericho saw warriors rushing to exit the city so they could kill them before they entered. Clearly, the call for reinforcements had finally made its way to the main guild. It was a race.
“We’re not going to make it,” Jinx said. “Slowpoke! Idiot!”
Jericho realized she was right. The reinforcements from Endgame would definitely make it out of the gates before they made it through, but a sneaky idea popped into his head.
“Keep going,” Jericho yelled to Terra who was merging with them a short distance from the gate. “Don’t slow down for anything, just keep running as if they’re not there. Okay?”
Terra and Jinx both nodded and picked up speed. Endgame had exited the gates and set up a shield and spear wall with rangers behind them lining up their bows. A volley of flaming arrows came at them but Jericho swept them away with water and wind.
“Anytime now,” Terra said as they approached. “We have to get through that gate.”
/> “Just trust me,” Jericho smiled while filling his magical pathways with the happiness and excitement he was feeling. “And we’re not going through the gate.”
Right before they reached the front gate Jericho released his earth pathway launching them into the sky, but that wasn’t nearly enough to get them over the wall. He lifted his hands and released his water pathway encasing the three of them in a bubble.
“What the fuck?” Terra said while the three of them hovered for a moment waiting for gravity to kick in. “This was the plan?”
“Nope,” Jericho said guzzling a fire resist potion and tossing extras to the others who immediately guzzled them down. “This is!”
With a clap of his hands, Jericho released the entirety of his flame and wind pathways directly below the water bubble blasting it away in an instant. The force continued launching them away with enough force to propel them over the wall.
“Fall damage!” Terra screamed while guzzling health potions to offset the massive amount of damage the explosion caused. “Idiot! Fuck!”
Chapter 6
Endgame
Jericho concentrated as they rapidly descended toward the city road. He was emotionally and magically spent. Fortunately, just before they landed a whirlwind formed, blowing upward and cushioning their fall just enough to avoid death.
“Nice work,” Terra laughed.
“Wasn’t me,” Jericho laughed while looking around. He noticed Owl standing there concentrating and nodded at him. He was wearing his black and white checkered mages coat and a black harlequin mask. “Thanks.”
“Now you owe me,” Owl smiled menacingly. “And I’m going to want to collect.”
“Of course you are,” Jericho sighed realizing that he was going to need to give Owl at least some secrets in exchange for helping him. “We’ll talk about it.”
“Oh, I know,” Owl laughed before wandering off, clearly pleased with himself for taking advantage of the opportunity. “Ping me and we’ll discuss, sooner rather than later.”
“Will do,” Jericho said while rising to his feet. Jinx transformed from her large spectral tiger form to her tiny spectral kitten form and glared at him angrily. He picked her up and put her on his shoulder.
“So that’s Jinx’s real form?” Terra laughed excitedly. “She’s a cat! Her personality makes so much sense now! No wonder she’s such a bitch!”
“Says the elf cumdumpster,” Jinx scowled furiously. “Slag. Whore.”
Several people surrounded them while gathering information on the players to post. That wasn’t going to be good for Terra in particular. A lot of players had been killed by her sniping but nobody had known her identity before.
“This is unexpected,” a short dark elf girl in formalwear approached as the crowd parted for her. Jericho knew her from somewhere but couldn’t quite figure it out. She turned toward Terra, “I never would have guessed the elf stripper and her pimp were the cause of all this trouble.”
Jericho immediately remembered the dark elf girl that’d purchased Terra’s panties for a thousand gold. Except she seemed different somehow, it must have been the setting. Several people had backed up behind her and Jericho started to notice Endgame insignias surrounding her.
“You gave my guys quite a bit of trouble,” she smiled. “Even I was coming to the battlefield. Shame I was a bit late. But things being as they are, I think I’ll tell my guys you two are off limits for now.”
“Three,” growled Jinx. “Jericho, how many elf whores do you know? Bastard! Cheater!”
“Three,” the dark elf girl confirmed while ignoring the insult. She walked toward Jericho while eyeing Jinx suspiciously. She pointed at the tiny spectral cat, “Can I hold her?”
“Jinx?” Jericho asked for confirmation as a courtesy, but it was obvious he wanted her to do it. Jinx crawled down his arms into the tiny dark elf’s arms.
“Jinx,” the dark elf repeated while petting the warm spectral flames. “She is just adorable. Where can I get one?”
“There’s only one of me,” snapped Jinx. “Slut. Cunt.”
“I don’t think we’ve ever been formally introduced,” the dark elf held out one hand toward Jericho while holding Jinx in the other. “I’m Raven Darkmoon, the Guildmaster of Endgame.”
“Jericho Voidcaller,” he said taking her hand. “And you’ve met my familiar, Jinx.”
“Familiar,” she smiled. “Is it a special type of follower? I don’t suppose you intend to share how you acquired one?”
“Nope,” Jericho shook his head. “Unless you want to share how you farm the Stygian Prison solo.”
“Tempting,” she smiled. Everybody in Forbidden Arcana had their own secrets. Even Terra’s sniper build was a closely guarded secret. Jericho only figured it out by chance since he crafted her potions. “Even if I shared how I do it, you’d need the mechanical abilities to execute. But still, I’d hate to lose that farming spot.”
“It is a nice spot,” Jericho smirked.
“Terra,” Raven tried to hide a smile. “Nice to see you again.”
“You too,” Terra grinned widely. “I hope today doesn’t impact our relationship.”
“It won’t,” Raven said while handing Jinx back to Jericho. “I’m good at compartmentalization. Anyway, the equipment and items you looted from my associates. I’d like them returned.”
“No,” Jericho said without thinking. Terra went to grab his arm but paused when she saw the anger in his eyes. He was furious at the suggestion. Jinx laughed in approval.
“No?” Raven said with a look of excitement. “In front of all these people, you’re going to say no? You understand you’re not leaving me much in the way of choices.”
“I understand,” Jericho said stepping forward, his anger growing as he thought about everything. A small layer of frost began to emerge on the tips of his hair and the cuffs of his clothing as he attempted to keep his composure. “Had your men simply attempted to kill us, I’d happily give them back their items. But they didn’t, did they? They attempted to haul off Jinx and rape her. Not only will I not return their items, but every time I see one of their faces in an area where player versus player is permitted, I will kill them. And I won’t be forgetting their faces.”
“That’s a two-way street,” Raven sighed. She put her hands on her hips and closed her eyes. Her fingers tapped and slid on her sides as if she were working some invisible abacus. After a few moments, she opened her eyes. “This is an issue.”
“What do you mean by that?” Terra asked nervously. She definitely didn’t want to be on Endgame’s bad side, especially since every person ever ganked by invisible arrows was going to be gunning for her soon.
“It’s a philosophical question,” Raven said while rubbing her temple. “A follower is simply a thing, fundamentally no different than a bow. Yet, they’re different. I can’t fault my men for doing what they want to a thing. Additionally, they were well within the rules of the game. Yet, there is definitely something inherently wrong with it.”
“What’s wrong is I’m not a thing,” Jinx said angrily. “You’re just too stupid to realize it. Cumbucket. Slut.”
“I’m thinking,” Raven said while holding up her finger. “I’m not prepared to rule on NPCs in general but I will rule that followers should be off-limits. At the very minimum raping one would be akin to using somebody else’s sex toy without permission, which would be both disgusting and wrong.”
“Sex toy!” Jinx said angrily. “Bitch! Whore!”
“What!” one of her men said. “That’s fucking bullshit. This is what we get for following some stupid cunt.”
“Anybody who’s unhappy with it can leave,” Raven said while shooing away the person, ignoring his insult as if she’d fielded them a thousand times. “As for the issue at hand, since my men have never touched my followers, I can assume they inherently realize that followers are personal. Therefore they realized that what they were doing was personal. Per the guild rules, personal p
roblems are personal responsibility.”
Several members of Endgame were muttering to each other. It was difficult to make out but several profanities were being laced with calls for creating their own guild. Finally, one with the markings of an officer came forward.
“That’s not going to fly,” the officer said nervously. He was a huge scale mail clad orc wielding a spear. “It’s not the follower thing. The follower thing is fine. It makes sense. I mean, I wouldn’t be cool with somebody cumming all over my spear so I get it. But it can’t be applied retroactively like that. That’s kind of bullshit and you know it.”
“Fine,” Raven nodded. “Remove those men from the guild.”
“What?” the orc was shocked. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You can’t punish them for…”
“I’m not,” the small dark elf said coldly while stepping toward the orc. He was twice her size but half as intimidating. She spoke with complete vitriol, “Those men were an embarrassment, Kaos. Would you have lost to these two? Would I have lost to these two? There were over twenty of them, and they lost to these two. They even had the element of surprise and they lost. Do you feel they represent Endgame?”
“No,” the orc answered emotionlessly. “They don’t represent Endgame.”
“Who invited them?” Raven asked while pulling up a menu escalating the issue. “I want to know.”
“I invited a few of them,” a lower ranked officer stepped forward realizing she was going to find out anyway. “They’re friends.”
Raven ignored his response and rapidly scrolled through a menu clicking on demotes and revocation of privileges including recruiting. Then she turned her eyes back to the orc.
“You will take over recruiting and testing the recruits,” Raven said. “Orion has been demoted for delegating the recruitment to lower level officers. You’ve been promoted.”
“Give it to Amber,” the orc groaned. “I mean, fuck. You know how I feel about doing shit.”
“You know what,” Raven said hotly. “I’m not doing this now. Call a meeting, tomorrow at nine. We’re going to look at the problem and deal with it. Clearly, our recruitment is off. We’ve recruited people who are weak and stupid and engaged in nepotism. It’s impacting the bottom line and the damage done to our brand is going to take weeks to fix. In the meantime, any issues booting those players from the guild?”