Rohan's Calling Online

by A. J. Chaudhury

  I stretched out my arm.

  And then I touched Ravana’s arm. The moment I did so, I felt like I had touched a live wire of electricity. Intense pain enveloped me and I went rigid. I could no longer maintain my balance on the trunk and down I tumbled, towards the forest floor at full speed.

  I heard a cry reach my ears. Was it Lovebird?

  Before I knew it, I had hit the ground. My health fell by a good 75% immediately. Pain flared. I yelled out, my eyes filling with tears.

  I felt a health vial being put next to my lips and I drank it like a person who hadn’t seen a drop of water in days. My health climbed back up. The pains remained, but they were fast going away. My body also felt less rigid and I was able to sit up. It was Lovebird who had given me the health vial. I was so thankful to her.

  “What happened?” Mastermind asked, a crease of great concern on his forehead.

  “I don’t know—”

  As if to answer Mastermind’s question, a pop up appeared in my vision.

  You touched an object that requires far greater Karma to touch than what you have presently.

  The statue required Karma to even touch? But I had carried it so easily back in the volcano!

  I told about the notification to my friends.

  Mastermind scratched his head, seemingly not coming up with any explanation.

  Lovebird snapped a finger suddenly.

  “They quest said you would need to meet some additional requirements in the second try,” she said. That explained everything.

  “So now we’d have to acquire more Karma if we want to even touch the statue?” Mastermind said.

  “The question is ‘how much?’” Grimguy said. “Rohan was able to get Karma from the Dinomen by making them do a good deed, but the thing is how much Karma would exactly suffice so that we are at least able to touch the statue without being thrown away?”

  “I think I know,” I said. It had only come to me then thinking about what the tree had said regarding that she could only carry the statue and not transport it to the ground with her aerial roots. “The tree has Karma of over one hundred thousand. And she could only support the statue. I think we would require at least twice that to be able to bring the statue down.”

  Mastermind fell backwards on the ground. He slapped his forehead.

  “Two hundred thousand Karma?” he said, “I don’t even recall the last time I had heard of that much Karma. Only the Karma-richest person would be ever able to touch the darned statue!”

  “There’s got to be a way!” Lovebird said, and she was really trying to be hopeful.

  I replayed what Mastermind had said only moments back, even as I tried to be hopeful myself. Karma-richest person…

  “Wiseazz!” I said aloud, so that Balekh, standing with his raptors frowned severely at me.

  “That guy sure has Karma in plenty,” Grimguy said, realising what was playing in my head. “All we need to do is call him here!”

  If he was alive that is. I recalled the last time Death13 had attacked him and sucked at his Karma. Wiseazz had barely escaped with his life. I was sure that Death13 had probably gone after him again, perhaps sensing the great amounts of Karma that he possessed. I shook my head. Wiseazz was a clever guy. He would have survived.

  “I will message him,” I said.

  I checked my message folder and saw that Wiseazz was indeed online. A great relief came over my heart.

  “Hey Wiseazz,” I messaged him, “I really need your help.”

  “I would like to help,” Wiseazz replied, “but I am afraid to leave my hiding location. There are gang members prowling all about the streets of Kapilpura and I am in their hotlist because of my Karma. Death13 has weird moods and it’s possible to escape him to an extent, but the gang members have actual minds. If they see me they would catch me and take me to Death13 and then I would be done.”

  “That’s bad. But you are the only one who can help us now. You are the only one who can save the world.”

  It was a moment before Wiseazz replied.

  “Am I?”

  In as few words as possible I explained to him why he was the only one who could save the world. He eventually agreed to come, saying that he would take the risk. He said he was ready to sacrifice himself if that could possibly save the lives of thousands of players stuck in the game world, and I couldn’t help but be really grateful to him. At the same time I hoped that he would be successful in avoiding the eyes of the gang members which wouldn’t be an easy task considering his unmistakable size. I also told him about the Rakshasha village where the portal was. Even being a senior player he apparently didn’t know that a portal existed so close to the town of Kapilpura.

  And then the wait began. It would at least be two or three hours before Wiseazz could come, and that was considering no misfortune befell him. We barely spoke to each other in the intervening period. Balekh was the one who made the most noises. And no, he didn’t talk with any of us. It was his raptors with whom he was talking. They seemed to understand him and he was fond of them.

  “How did you tame them?” I asked, more out of boredom than out of curiosity.

  “It’s not hard,” Balekh said. “You just need to be with them ever since they come out of their eggs. And you need to feed them and behave really nice to them.”

  “Any situation when a raptor went rogue?” I asked. I was pretty sure that seeing meat or blood at the wrong time would bring out all sense from the head of a raptor, and make it attack even its masters.

  Balekh nodded sombrely.

  “Quite a few actually,” he said, “but usually it’s the fault of the master. You need to feed them on time, otherwise if they see that you are not serving them, they would not serve you… which is why I am getting worried as of now.”

  “Why not ask them to go eat something?” I asked.

  “These raptors have never come to these parts,” Balekh said, “what if pursuing a prey they lose their way?”

  Just then a message came from Wiseazz.

  “Okay, I am about to enter the Rak village,” he said, “are you sure they are not going to kill me if I ask them if I can use the portal?”

  “Trust me, they won’t do anything,” I reassured him.

  “One thing though, I have been feeling like gang members are pursuing me. I have seen shadows behind me.”

  “Once you are inside the Rak village you should be relatively safe from Kartoshi gang members,” I told him. But then, thinking about my message, I couldn’t help but realise how weird it must sound. Safety in a Rak village? If someone had said something like that only a few days ago, I would have laughed at their face.

  The minutes that came next seemed to really drag at snail pace as we anxiously awaited Wiseazz to come. I wondered how it would have been like had it been possible to transfer Karma points over great distances. We could have perhaps already defeated the vile Death13 by now and brought down the great Kartoshi gang. Well, everyone needs to work with certain sets of limitations.

  Chapter 26

  It was a really uplifting moment when a bright light flashed near the holy tree. The next moment Wiseazz materialized. An orb of light kept hovering mere metres in front of him. Wiseazz could still return to Kapilpura within twenty four hours.

  I went and threw my arms around him in an embrace. The big man hugged me back.

  “Things have been really tough in Kapilpura recently,” Wiseazz said. “I wish I had never gone perma.”

  “You don’t need to regret having gone perma,” I said. I pointed up to the statue of Ravana hanging in the tree. “That statue is going to solve all our problems.”

  “So I just need to transfer my Karma to you, right?” Wiseazz said. “I have still about five hundred thousand left. The remaining was lost in a couple of encounters with Death13.”

  I rubbed my chin. Was it really necessary for Wiseazz to give me the Karma? If he did so, suppose for some reason the plans didn’t work out as we wanted them to, he wou
ld lose the added protection that he received against Death13 on account of his Karma.

  “Um, you can also climb up the tree,” I said to Wiseazz. “All you need to do is bring down the statue.”

  Wiseazz seemed to think about this. He looked up the tree. He seemed to wonder whether the tree would be able to support his weight. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the orb of light that marked the portal flashed brightly.

  The next moment an armed man had materialised. In the span of a few seconds, several more armed men materialised. I recognised one of them to be Mayester. The same guy who had killed me earlier, unwittingly helping me to escape from the Kartoshi gang members, thanks to his hotheadedness.

  The gang members didn’t tarry even a moment, and immediately threw themselves on us, roaring like devils. We found ourselves in the midst of a much unexpected battle and because of this element of surprise, they began to win. But none of the gang members attacked Balekh. Perhaps they were too scared of his raptors. He and his raptors just waited and watched us suffer heavily at the hands of the gang members. I looked at him with pleading eyes even as I tried to block blows from a very muscular man. But Balekh just looked at us confusedly. He seemed to be in a dilemma whether he should risk the lives of his dear raptors.

  I punched the man attacking me on the nose. He winched in pain, even as his nose bled, but it only seemed to infuriate him further. I had thrown paralysis on two of the other men who had come for me, and at that moment the spell wore off them and they attacked me. One grabbed me by the waist while the first muscular man raised his sword, aiming for my chest. The third man had already taken away my sword, while I had been busy with the first man.

  My heart hammered in my chest. I didn’t want to die at this point, not after I had come this far. With massive effort, I let out a cry and I lifted the man holding me off the ground onto my back.

  The first man was already bringing his sword down, and thanks to the inertia, the sword pierced into the back of the man that I had lifted up, even as he squirmed to be free. I heard his cry of pain and felt victorious. I let the man fall to the ground. I picked up his fallen sword quickly and raised it just in time to stop an attack from the third man who had my Ravana sword. The Ravana sword was powerful compared to the one which I had and which I reckoned had already taken quite a few blows and my new sword shattered in my hands. All the same I survived the blow.

  Immediately I grabbed the wrist of the man and for a while the two of us struggled to get a hold on the Ravana sword, which was mostly in the grasp of the other man, but I wasn’t going to give up yet. I pushed him against a tree. And then I did something wild. I leaned close to him and then bit his ear off.

  He cried out in pain. His grip on my sword loosened and I wrenched it away from his hand. I sensed a movement behind me. It was the first muscular man. He had picked up a big stone and was coming to strike me. I let loose a bolt of electricity from my sword and it struck him. His health immediately fell by half even as he was thrown backward. I turned to the man whose ear I had bitten off.

  There was still the taste of foul blood in my mouth and I spat on his face. Next, I landed several hits on him with my sword and finished him off. I didn’t wait and moved towards the first man, who was slowly getting up to his feet. In a couple of moments he was dead.

  I now took considered the situation. Initially I had been so surprised with the coming of the gang members that I had forgotten to use my spells on them or else I could have finished my three attackers much earlier.

  But more and more gang members were pouring out of the portal with each passing second. I reckoned that they had seen Wiseazz come to the Rak village. Perhaps they had paid extra to the Rakshasha Humabel who was usually in charge of the portal. The greedy Rak had allowed them to go to the exact place where Wiseazz had gone.

  The gang members were too many. Wiseazz alone was fighting five of them, while Mastermind, Grimguy and Lovebird were occupied with four each. And then I saw the worst thing possible. The book of immortality was down on the ground, perhaps Mastermind had dropped it in shock when the gang members had come. Mayester picked up the book and shot a look towards me. Our eyes met and he grinned like the evil bastard he was.

  My heart sank.

  Use your spell, damn it!

  Why yes, the short rest had helped me regained my mana and I had enough of it to paralyse one man. I uttered the word for the spell, Mayester froze. I ran towards him. But barely did I reach him when the spell wore off from the hot-headed man.

  With a snarl he threw a kick towards me. I tried to evade it but was too slow. It landed hard on my stomach and for a moment the pain made me want to vomit. I hadn’t even recovered from it when Mayester hit me on the cheek with a hammer like fist. I felt like my jaw would break, even as I tasted blood oozing from the inside of my mouth.

  “Fooled me the other day, eh?” Mayester spat at me. He grabbed my neck and lifted me from the ground. I struggled. My hands and feet went weak and even though I had the Ravana sword still with me, because I couldn’t breathe I felt like I was holding something much heavier in my hands and I could barely move it.

  “Do you even know how much I was humiliated in front of the others?” Mayester continued to say, apparently wanting to give me a slow painful death.

  I forced myself to smile. I had just remembered how I had made Mayester kill me the other day.

  I looked into his eyes.

  “D-Do you want to know the-the image that c-came to my mind the other day?” I somehow managed to say. It felt like a task of herculean proportions to me at that moment. “About y-your f-family…”

  Mayester’s face convulsed with extreme anger. He looked like the devil himself. With a roar, he slammed me onto the ground. I felt like my spine had broken, and my eyes watered with the pain. I reckoned trying to trick Mayester was going horribly wrong this time. The Ravana sword had also fallen from my grasp.

  “You are never going to speak again!” Mayester yelled, and he raised a fist, intending it directly for my mouth. Perhaps he was going to tear out my tongue. I gulped. Shit.

  As he brought it down, the head of a raptor suddenly appeared behind him. The next moment the raptor had closed its razor like teeth around Mayster’s head. I heard the definite sound of his skull cracking. And then he went limp and was quite dead, even as the raptor’s jaws were stained with dark blood.

  I massaged my neck and my back, and picking up my sword I stood up. I didn’t waste any time in getting a health vial out of my bag and emptying it in my mouth. My heath levels shot back up and it was quite a relief to see that. By then, the other raptors were throwing themselves on the gang members. The gang members tried to fight back, but the raptors were not easy to fight against.

  Balekh had walked up to me by then. He picked up the fallen book of immortality that I had forgotten to pick up and handed it to me.

  I looked at Balekh.

  “Thanks,” I said. He nodded, not meeting my eyes but observing his raptors fighting the gang members. I put the book of immortality into my bag so that it wouldn’t fall off again. Suddenly my eyes met with those of Wiseazz who was still busy dealing with a stout gang member. Immediately I felt a sudden rush unlike any I had experienced before. A notification popped up in my vision.

  Wiseazz has transferred 500,000 Karma points to you! You should be really thankful to him!

  I looked up at the holy tree and at the statue of Ravana entangled in the aerial roots high above. Getting the statue was my top priority. The gang members would be dealt with by my friends and the raptors.

  I immediately began to climb the tree, using the creepers that winded around the massive trunk of the tree for footing.

  “You are too weak,” a voice said and I knew it was the voice of the tree. “I do not wish to take your weight.”

  “I am not,” I said and was surprised that there was authority in my voice. “This time I won’t be thrown away when I touch the statue
.”

  It was a moment before the tree replied.

  “Okay,” she said, “but this is your final chance. If you fail again, I shall not bother supporting a weakling.”

  “Fine,” I said, “just don’t throw me away this time.”

  I climbed higher and higher. Once I stopped and took a look below. The cries of battle had completely ceased by then, and I saw that the reason was that all the gang members had been killed by the raptors and by my friends. Most of the corpses of the gang members had already disappeared and only the ones who had been killed at last where still slowly disappearing. All the same, I knew that the gang members being players would respawn where ever they had kept their birthstones and it was possible for them to make their way to this place since they now knew the location.

  In a few minutes I reached the place just right next to the statue of Ravana from which I had earlier fallen down. I wondered how I should go about the process. Would simply touching Ravana wake him up?

  Nah, that was an irrational thought on my part, for I had touched and even lifted him up in the volcano before messing up everything. My main focus should be to get the statue down to my friends.

  I reached out with my arm. My fingers went closer and closer and then I finally touched the statue. I expected to be thrown away for a wild moment. Nothing such happened thankfully. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Now how should I take the statue down? I found it hard to imagine that I would be able to carry it down on my shoulders. Then I noticed the strong aerial roots and an idea came to my mind.

  I jumped from the branch I was standing on. I grabbed hold of the aerial roots before gravity could pull me down. One by one I began to remove the aerial roots that were holding the statue. It took a few minutes but finally all the aerial roots had come off and the statue was being supported by my hand alone. Thankfully the statue didn’t feel heavy at all.

  With the other hand I was still holding one of the aerial roots. I loosened my grip on it, just enough so that I slid down a few metres, before hardening my grip. My hand felt like it was on fire, thanks to the friction with the aerial root. I figured I would have quite a bleeding hand by the time I reached ground. I hoped a health vial would be enough to fix it. Using this method, I began to go down a few metres at a time. I could see my health falling, but there was enough of it that I wouldn’t die before I reached ground.