The Birth

by Paul Kite

  “Gergie, look! That is the human who killed me,” the crossbowman shouted—he and the dwarf had sat in the bushes—and a bolt hit the stone next to me. It was followed by an arrow, shot by one of the archers.

  I was standing in the middle of the cave, in a completely open place—they would kill me easily. But then, having spotted a possible shelter closer to the wall, where stalagmites and stalactites had formed an almost proper wall, I activated a skill and instantly found myself behind them, leaning my back on the cold stone. Should I activate invisibility or not? If a magician or an archer of level 50+ aims at me, then the invisibility won’t help me.

  “And where is the second bastard? Who’s seen his partner?’

  ‘Nobody!”

  “So, Rudmak, Dacro, get down. Search everything there!” Their group leader ordered in a high, gruff voice. So, that was Gergie. “I need targets!”

  “And if they kill us?” Someone dared to rebel.

  “They’ll be killed right after you. Come on, come on! We’ll cover you.”

  There was a metallic crash and some cursing. Considering that only those dwarves, who’d laid in the bushes, had steel armor, Gergie had ordered them to go down. The warrior I’d killed was more fit to fight rabbits than anything.

  “How will we find this bastard, if he’s invisible?” One of the dwarves asked their leader.

  “First, deal with that one who’s there,” Gergie advised, apparently pointing to my shelter, “the second one will then appear. He won’t leave his partner in trouble... But who knows. Still, try it!”

  The sounds of footsteps, thudding metallically the stone, began to approach my shelter. Fuck you! And where should I go? Okay, I'll try to hide in another place, to get away from the shooters.

  I activated the swift movement skill again, hoping to get to the very end of the cave, where the totem statue was located. But the duration of the skill ended unexpectedly, leaving me short of the marked place by quite a bit. I had to dive at one of the stalagmite protrusions and, somehow putting my head and knees to my chest, completely hide behind it. Vzhih-vzhih, arrows hit next to where I was. But, strangely, the dwarves, who’d descended into the cave, didn’t follow me. Well, it’s their problem.

  The seconds where the skill was coming back off cooldown passed painfully and slowly. Maybe Dazrael will finally help me? The dwarves will come here sooner or later, if they haven’t already changed their minds and are rushing at my shelter with all due vigor. I can hardly handle both of them, when they’re focused and ready for battle. And I can’t peek out from cover, even for a second, to assess the players’ location. I’ll immediately have an arrow or a bolt or even something worse from the magician Gergie embedded in me.

  I heard steps. Oh, no, those weren’t steps anymore. I clearly caught the frequent sounds of steel on the stone. The dwarves were running. Deciding to take a chance, I quickly looked out from behind the shelter, and almost received a successfully fired arrow straight to the forehead—the plumage had even touched my hair. If the archer had fired his shot a moment earlier, my cooling corpse would already be laid out on the cave floor.

  But the main thing I saw was that, for some reason, only one dwarf was running toward me! And where was the second one? I was just going to peek out again when...

  I noticed a strange movement and a glimpse of steel with my peripheral vision, the body, due to some reflex, moved a bit to the right and...

  Bzdyn! The ax blade struck right next to me. How had this damned gnome gotten so close?

  “Damn!” the warrior didn’t raise his weapon again, realizing that I wouldn’t give him another chance to strike. He hit me in the side with the broad side of the ax, knocking my body to the floor.

  The palm of my right hand was cut by some kind of cold, metal rubbish on the floor and... A strange system message appeared before my eyes.

  Not now! I don’t care!

  I immediately realized it was a weapon! My slightly bleeding palm moved along the narrow blade, groped for a stiff, ribbed handle, and I jumped to my feet, diving under the already descending ax, and thrust the short blade exactly into the viewing slot of the helmet. I took a step back, and the dwarf fell dead at my feet.

  The whole fight had ended in a couple of seconds, if not less.

  “Uh, it’s strange how quickly you died,” I only had time to note the fact that the enemy was defeated, as a deafening, wild roar sounded from off to my side, and I turned around, cautiously taking a few more steps to the side.

  But the other dwarf didn’t have time to reach me. Dazrael suddenly appeared behind him and his sword was stabbed somewhere into the dwarf’s side, finding a gap in the seemingly solid steel armor.

  The arrows flew belatedly, not even aimed...

  “You...” The cheekbones on the elf's face cramped from tension, and such rage and annoyance appeared in his eyes, that I, slightly afraid, stepped back, putting the dagger in front of me. “You...” Dazrael didn’t even pay attention to one of the arrows, which had, somehow, hit his leg. “You are holding one of those very daggers! The Devil take you!”

  “I am?” I didn’t pay attention to his cursing. “It doesn’t look like much.”

  Chapter 16

  “I t really doesn’t look like much,” I raised it closer to my eyes. It was the most common, simple dagger, with a narrow, double-edged blade, about a foot long; it had a small, arc-shaped guard instead of a stopper; the handle was wrapped with strips of hard, rough skin; the pommel was in the form of a flat ball and, apparently, played the role of a balancer, so the dagger could also be thrown.

  But when I went to look at the characteristics of such an unusual thing, forgetting that we were playing the role of targets for the shooters, the elf quite unexpectedly and unceremoniously grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me over the stalagmite where I’d killed the first dwarf. And then he slipped into the same shelter himself. Of course, it was too small for both of us, but it saved us from a huge fireball that hit the very place where we’d stood just a moment ago. Hot stone crumbs fell on us.

  “You can admire it later,” the elf gritted his teeth, approaching me on all fours. “And don't forget to pick up the second one,” Dazrael glanced cautiously at the second dagger, lying next to us. “All the same, you’ve already been attached to them, like the goblins’ totem, and there is no way out.”

  “Yeah, let’s just get out of here,” I quickly reached out my hand and grabbed the second blade. “The dwarves are dead. The magician and archers know perfectly well where we are. What if he throws another fireball?!”

  The elf quickly looked out over the shelter and pulled his head back, “Run! It’s already flying!” Dazrael, like a real sprinter, exploded into motion from a low start and, after a few steps, he bounded into the air, trying to gain more momentum.

  I activated my swift movement. The skill worked flawlessly, and I rushed after the elf, although my target was another stalagmite protrusion not too far away, but still, it was at a safe distance from the wolf statue. Booooom! sounded behind us.

  “We will run until their arrows and mana run out. Yeah, and then they will get spare ones, the magician will have regeneration, and the race will continue,” I grinned ruefully.

  My train of thought ended. The magician threw another fireball, and I don’t know how, but it was right in front of me, when I was a miserable step away from cover.

  "Fucking ba..." - I simply didn’t have time to curse the magician.

  All words completely left me when I saw exactly where my body was being thrown by the explosion.

  I turned a couple of times in the air, my eyes widened in horror, and just before I hit the black, dust-covered statue of the wolf, I closed my eyes.

  This is the end! If I survive the impact, then being in the very center of the totem’s aura... is going to be fatal.

  My body hit the wolf’s hard back with such a smacking sound and the game system happily reported the damage that I didn’t really care ab
out. The effects of the aura would begin soon, and I couldn’t even imagine how this would affect me.

  A second passed, then another, but there was silence all around me. That’s strange, have I already died? Then where is the message about my death? And why are the handles of the daggers still in my hands and why are they so cold?

  “Stop lying on your back... idiot!” Dazrael's angry cry made me open my eyes. “You have the daggers! Even the biggest ignoramus would guess that the aura of the wolf-totem doesn’t affect the owner of the blades!”

  “Yeah,” I slid off the top of the statue like I was sliding off a hill and pressed my back to it.

  I tried to hide the daggers in my inventory bag, but they categorically refused to go there, simply ignoring its existence, as if I didn't have any gaming equipment. There was no time to reflect on this new system error, and, like a pirate, I put them on my belt. I took another medicinal potion and emptied the bottle in one gulp—a pleasant, warm wave rose up from inside me, bringing my life back to its maximum amount.

  “Where are you?” I didn’t see the elf, so the question was quite relevant.

  “Nearby!” Dazrael shouted. “I am thinking about how we can get out.”

  “Any ideas?”

  “No,” the Master of Shadows said, clearly annoyed. “And I don’t like the fact that the archers and the magician are silent. They’re probably preparing some kind of bullshit.” And the elf wasn’t mistaken.

  The group of players perfectly understood that to descend into the cave again meant once again saying goodbye to their lives and, maybe, some things, and that shooting, if you couldn’t see the enemy, along with throwing fireballs, was also not the best option.

  Therefore, they came up with a way to solve the problem, using a method as ancient as the world itself—smoking rats out of a hole! Above my head, an arrow with a burning rag tied to it whistled by, followed by another and another.

  The flow of arrows intensified, and soon the entire end of the cave was littered with smoldering, smoking rags, emitting an unbearable stench!

  “We should move to that platform,” the elf’s voice sounded, broken up by his coughing. “What about your invisibility?”

  He’s right! There was so much smoke here that no skill could help the magician and shooters notice a character activating invisibility.

  “Okay!” I happily answered the Master of Shadows.

  “Then come on, hurry. If you find yourself exactly under the ledge where they are standing, deactivate the invisibility. We will think about how to get up there. They’ve already cut the rope.”

  They did? I hadn’t even noticed it.

  “So what?” I leaned against the wall just under the stone ledge, while the elf was already standing nearby and thoughtfully looking at the smoke screen that was gradually filling the entire cave and inevitably approaching us.

  “I can try to climb the wall.”

  “They won’t let you do it—if they notice you, they’ll shoot you down.”

  “While invisible,” said the Master of Shadows. “And you should distract them!”

  “Maybe I could dance?” I smiled wryly.

  “If you like. You can even sing! The main thing is to attract all their attention!”

  Heh, I'll try. I’m not really going to sing. I’m afraid they wouldn’t appreciate it, but I’m going to dance and dodge the magician’s arrows and spells.

  I went to the edge of the site, where I could be best seen from above, “Hey there!”

  Immediately, an arrow flew by, quite near me, and large icicles appeared in both of the magician’s hands.

  Why not a fireball? I skipped over the icicles. Personally, I would’ve continued to throw fire!

  That’s it! What a great idea! I have the class skill "Shadow". And I’ve used it more than once in the arena, with Urosal, and then with Dazrael.

  I don’t remember exactly what the skill level is and, accordingly, the duration of the action, but one minute should be enough for me to arrange a small, local apocalypse. Unlike their magician, I'm not going to be conserving my mana.

  There was a second respite, and I activated the skill, choosing Gergie as the target. Yes! Now I’m also a magician, great! I immediately opened the character’s stats and smiled happily—level fifty, and with a dozen different spells. In addition to icicles and fireballs, that I already knew about, there were three spells for slowing foes down, a couple of mass damage skills, along with one incomprehensible skill, with the short name ‘Krat’. I hadn’t seen this name in the library of the Guild of Shadows. And I’d read a lot of books there. Zorkhan had forced me daily to study a lot of specialized literature on various classes in the world of Noria.

  As I was constantly in motion, the enemies, probably, didn’t even notice how I’d transformed. I froze sharply and raised my hands in the direction of the stone ledge where they were standing. I activated the class skill ‘Thorn’ and thorny, nasty bushes began to appear among the players, slowing down their movements and clinging with their prickles to their clothes and weapons. Next came ‘Swamp’ and then ‘Insects’—nasty, buzzing, small creatures that didn’t cause any damage, but were wildly annoying and disturbing.

  “The swamp is so-so,” I commented with displeasure, the level of skill was not high, there was little use to casting it.

  I tore off the bottle with the mana potion from my belt, restored the half-empty bar, and while the DOTs were still active, I used the first mass damage skill.

  It was as if someone, gigantic and invisible, had scooped up a handful of small stones, and, all at once, poured them onto the heads of ants, fussing about in the grass under his feet. The players definitely didn’t like ‘Stone Rain’. Furious screams and curses, mixed with the demand to cure their wounds fell on the poor healer immediately and without delay, who, as I understood it, was standing in the back of the passage and wasn’t participating in the fun game ‘Find and kill me’.

  “Now where is Dazrael?” I got distracted for a couple of seconds, while the players came to their senses.

  Of course, I didn’t find the elf, as he was invisible. I hope he’ll climb up there soon, as just a dozen seconds are left until the end of the “Shadow” skill.

  Realizing that I didn’t have time to activate the second mass spell, I launched ‘Krat’.

  “Wow! I didn’t even do that on purpose!”

  From me, as if from a stone thrown into water, waves of darkness, three times my height, began to spread, moving immediately in all directions, and the mana bar instantly dropped to almost zero.

  The duration of my class skill ended, and I became myself again. Anxiously glancing at the walls of darkness slowly but inevitably approaching the stone ledge and the wall, on which the elf could’ve still been climbing, I froze, unable to move.

  The first wave reached the players, then the second. When the third wave did the same, the system happily informed me about the increase in my level—apparently, the healer hadn’t restored anyone and the player’s death leveled me up nicely. Thanks, I don’t mind, of course; later, when I get some peace and quiet, I’ll definitely look at everything and distribute points into the stats.

  Five waves, only five waves, but what beauties they were! Where did Gergie get such a delicious spell?

  On the ledge, there was a noise, the sounds of metal hitting something, and soon, the rope flew down.

  “Climb up,” the very angry and slightly battered Dazrael looked at me with such a look that I immediately wanted to huddle somewhere far away, for example, under the wolf statue, he definitely wouldn’t go there—the aura was harmful and dangerous for him, but kind and fluffy to me.

  “Is everything all right?”

  “Kra-ven!”

  “Well, what if someone else is still alive up there?” I wasn’t going to hide, but didn’t want to climb up, either.

  “After that insanity you used at the end of your solo performance?!” the elf ironically snapped. “I’ve finis
hed off the corpses still moving around on the floor. So it’s as clean here as it would be on the floor a butcher shop.”

  Good comparison.

  “Either you climb up yourself, or I am coming down there,” the Master of Shadows said again, with a threat in his tone.

  “No need,” I slouched to the rope guiltily, with my head down.

  “Do you ever use your head?” As soon as I climbed up, the elf loomed over me and began to glare at me angrily. “I asked you to just distract them. And not to try and kill me with dark magic!” Dazrael finished with a scream. “I am a light elf! Not dark! I don’t worship Vegor! I don’t have the ability to interact with the darkness!”

  Okay, I understand everything, stop shouting. Why is he so noisy? After all, he was almost unhurt, except the slightly darkened skin on his face.

  “The amulet is broken,” the Master of Shadows continued, still irritated, but more calmly now, removing one of the small, flat crystals, blackened and cracked, from the chain around his neck. “What’s strange is that I can’t even begin to guess where an ordinary magician got such a strong spell…”

  Me neither, I mentally agreed with the elf, but I liked it! Magic is great!

  “You’ve mentioned the incarnation of the totem,” I recalled the elf’s story about the goblins and Zuraval arn Rar and diligently tried not to imagine what would happen if the black wolf were to unexpectedly, despite Dazrael’s earlier words, wake up and take offense at the fact that we’ve completely destroyed his people. “Maybe we should do it?”

  “As you wish,” the elf shrugged, walking over to the magician’s corpse. “I don’t see anything bad in Zuraval arn Rar forever remaining in this cave as a statue.”

  “From your mouth to God’s ears,” I said quietly, and, pulling the daggers out of my belt, called up their characteristics to inspect them.

  Weapons: The Daggers of Chaos (full set - 2 2 items).

  Quality: Impeccable.

  Material: Moon Silver.

  Damage: Character level * 2 (for each item)