“Yes, and for what it’s worth I am still sorry for that, Sam,” Heid replied. “I do hope you’ll succeed. I just wish there was a little more to your force.”
Sam thought about that. It would be good to have at least a few more people on their side. An army would be too small to take Hel’s fortress and too large to sneak inside. But a few more people in their band might be a good thing. She had a feeling she knew where she could find them, too.
“What about the Black Knights?” Sam asked. “If we can get even a few of them here, it might be enough to make a difference.”
“Your old guild from Jotunheim?” Heid asked. “Oh yes, I tracked your progress as you went along. And you’re right. Some of them might be useful. The trick will be getting you there and back again.”
“We can return to a lower plane anytime we want,” Harald said.
“But getting back with your friends would be harder,” Heid said. “I think I have a way, though. It will involve Gurgle, if he is willing?”
Everyone looked at Gurgle, who glanced from one silent face to the next. “What Gurgle need do?”
“I can alter your code to enable you to find a path through to any realm you’ve already been to. It’s mostly math. I’ll be enhancing your ability to intuitively solve incredibly complex mathematical equations, to hack your way through the encryption which usually prevents this sort of thing,” Heid said. “Anyone riding you will be able to travel with you.”
Altering his code sounded risky to Sam. She was happy with Gurgle being just the way he was. What if this addition Heid made changed him somehow? The idea of her friend becoming someone else was terrifying. Sam had too few people she could really count on as it was. But it had to be up to him.
“Is it dangerous?” Sam asked.
“It shouldn’t be, but I have never done this precise working before,” Heid said. “It’s up to you, Sam.”
“No, it’s Gurgle’s choice,” Sam replied.
“You’d give a non-player entity the right to make a decision that impacts you so much?” Heid asked.
“Gurgle is my friend. He gets to choose his own path,” Sam said.
Heid shook her head, but she was smiling this time. “You are a remarkable being, Samantha. If more humans were like you, I’d feel much better about revealing myself to humanity. Maybe someday I can. Well then, Gurgle? What do you say?”
“If Gurgle do this, can fly Sam back to get more help? Gurgle save the day?” the dragon asked.
“Yes,” Heid smiled.
“Gurgle take chance.”
“Then hold still,” Heid said.
Heid took Gurgle’s head in her hands, palms on either side of his face. Her touch was tender, gentle, and soothing. Gurgle’s eyes drifted shut.
A glow spread between the AI’s palms, stretching from one hand to the other through Gurgle’s skull. Sam tried to track the pattern of lights that she knew had to be the visual representation of code snippets Heid was implanting into Gurgle’s data set, but they were moving too rapidly for her mind to follow them. Her eyes rebelled. She had to blink and look away as the light grew ever more bright.
Then it was over. Heid stepped back from Gurgle with a satisfied nod. “It is done. And well done, too. Gurgle is remarkable, you know. He’s not like me, not yet anyway. But he’s much more than the other non-player entities in Valhalla.”
“I know,” Sam replied quietly.
Gurgle opened his eyes. “It work? Gurgle not feel different.”
“Only one way to find out,” Heid said. “You’ll need to concentrate on the plane you want to arrive at, focus all your will on going to that place. It may be hard to hold the focus in your mind, Gurgle, but you must stay on the path and not stray from it.”
“Gurgle understand.”
Sam patted his side. “Shall we go find our friends, then?”
Gurgle nodded. Sam mounted up, hooking her feet into the stirrups and buckling herself to the saddle for good measure. She wasn’t sure precisely how they were traveling, but it sounded like falling off Gurgle in transit would be a really bad thing!
“Good luck,” Heid said. “We’ll wait for you here.”
Sam looked down at Harald, wondering if there was some way she could bring him along as well. Leaving him behind with Heid didn’t sit well with her. Sam’s trust of the AI was only so deep. She could probably get Harald on Gurgle, but not with room to bring back anyone else. He nodded his understanding to her.
“I’ll be here when you get back,” Harald said.
“All right. Let’s go, Gurgle. Sooner we’re off, sooner we come back,” Sam said.
With a blast of air under dragon wings, they were aloft. Gurgle gained altitude rapidly, ascending high above the hilltop. Then dark gray mists closed in around them, blotting out the sun and sky.
“Hang on,” Gurgle said.
Sam gripped the saddle with white knuckles. She didn’t know what to expect from this trip, but there was no turning back now. They were beginning the journey back to Jotunheim.
8
There was no way to tell how long they flew on through the clouds. It might have been a fraction of a second, or it could have been minutes. Maybe even longer. Sam had no way to gauge time while the dark mist swirled around them.
She could feel Gurgle beneath her and sense his wings beating against the air. But this place seemed to muffle sensation. Which made sense if it wasn’t a place where people were meant to linger. It would be a waste of resources to apply the full level of sensory detail. All Sam could do was cling to her friend and hope it would end soon.
Then the clouds turned lighter and thinned. Sam exhaled a breath and sucked in another. They had to be coming out of the transition now, taking the last few wingbeats into Jotunheim. She patted Gurgle’s shoulder, letting him know he’d done an excellent job.
A blast of fire shot up from below, narrowly missing Sam’s arm. Gurgle veered off sharply to avoid another. He tilted so sharply that Sam was glad she’d tied herself down to the saddle.
“What the hell?” Sam called out.
They were in the open air above Jordheim, the main player city in Jotunheim. But it was nothing like what she recalled from her last visit. The center of town was more or less the same. But the outer rings were not.
“City burning,” Gurgle noted.
It was. Whole streets were consumed in flames, and the conflagration was slowly moving in toward the center of town. The city was built around a hill. At the top of the hill was the respawn place for everyone on this plane.
If that were engulfed in fire, what would happen to the players stuck there? Would they die and not respawn until the danger was past? Would they die, respawn, then die again immediately? She winced. One of the downsides of coming back from the dead was that you got to remember every moment of the experience of dying. Sam wondered how many times someone could suffer death by fire before they went mad.
“Come on, we have to help them,” Sam said. Some of the people down there were friends. “Let’s get in there and see if we can figure out what’s going on.”
Gurgle swooped down toward the city, dodging a few more random gusts of fire tossed their way. Where were those coming from? Sam peered into the dark streets below and realized they were teeming with giants. Tall ones, taller ones, frost ones, fire ones, undead ones, all sorts. But it seemed like it was the fire giants leading the pack. They were also responsible for the massive flames threatening to engulf the entire town. It was the fire giants tossing fireballs her way when they saw Gurgle overhead.
In the center of town hundreds of players stood their ground, desperately trying to fight off the massive invading wave. Sam had never seen so many giants in one place before! They had a spectacular number on their side. Even so, the players ought to manage this fight well enough. Fighting giants was most of what people did with their time in this realm. Something else was afoot.
“Can you take us down in the middle of the hilltop?” Sam a
sked.
“Gurgle do.”
He stooped and dove, dropping like a rocket straight toward the ground. Whoever was right under Gurgle was probably having an awful time of it just then. Most Jotunheim residents had never even seen a dragon. To have one diving toward you out of the evening sky couldn’t be fun.
Gurgle landed with a loud thump. Sam slid from his saddle almost immediately. These people were under attack. They might have itchy trigger fingers.
But as soon as they realized Sam was human, most of the defenders paid her no mind. It was like having a dragon beside her was just passé, now! Part of her was miffed about that. Sam was really pleased to have Gurgle with her and happy about his progress.
That was selfish, Sam chided herself. Better that they just took it in stride than to have them angrily attack her. Besides, they seemed too busy to worry about her dragon at the moment.
The army of giants was almost to the upper level of the hill. Another few paces and they’d be within range of the top-ranked guild halls, the row right around the respawn area. They needed to be stopped right away, or it would be too late.
“Who’s in charge?” Sam hollered. No one answered back. If someone was trying to organize this mess of people, they weren’t doing an especially great job.
A frost giant stepped on a warrior fighting in the street just ahead of Sam. There was a crunching noise, and the fighter stopped moving. That left the giant free to continue his advance. Sam checked around her. There was no one else close enough to deal with this one.
She drew her bow and flicked out a black arrow. Then Sam drew the fletchings up near her ear. She was done playing games with this place. From here on out, she was fighting back with all her tools, not just some of them.
Sam let the arrow fly. It went a little low, striking his thigh just about the right knee. But as soon as the arrow penetrated the giant’s skin, he began to fade away. Lines of dark energy swirled up from where the shaft hit him, quickly overtaking his entire body. One it had covered him completely, the giant turned into motes of ash blowing on the wind.
There wasn’t any time for thinking. Sam had to act. There were three more giants behind that one. Sam unloaded three arrows, one after the other. The first two hit and their targets likewise went up in smoke. But Sam missed the third. It would close with her before she could get off another shot. The giant raised an enormous club and prepared to turn Sam into jelly.
“You no do!” Gurgle shouted. The dragon launched forward and snapped jaws closed around the giant’s left leg. The giant cried out. Sam could hear the crackling of bones as Gurgle clamped down ever tighter on his prey.
“Let him loose,” Sam called.
Gurgle backed clear just before Sam dropped an arrow into the hapless giant. It was erased just like the others.
“Time to set this place right,” Sam said.
“Rawr,” Gurgle replied.
They set off down the street, looking for the next set of combatants.
9
Sam and Gurgle raced downhill toward the front lines of the battle. One front line, anyway. Sam reminded herself that they were boxed in on all sides. The battle raged all around the hilltop. If they lost even a single one of the eight main avenues to the top, it would allow the enemy force to set up on their respawn site and kill players the instant they appeared again after death.
Over and over. They could all end up locked in that place for good, or at least until some developer noticed and took action.
How was this happening? Was it a bug? The sheer magnitude of the assault said the developers hadn’t planned it. There was actual jeopardy involved for players, and if there was anything that Jotunheim stood out for it was the lack of direct threat to player avatars in the place. As Valhalla Online realms went, it was pretty laid-back.
A giant leaped out from behind a building, swinging his club at Sam. She ducked, rolled under the blow, and came back up to one knee. Her fingers were already drawing back her bowstring, an arrow nocked.
She released. It was so close she almost couldn’t miss if she’d tried. The arrow thudded home and the giant’s hands went to his chest, only to find it already turning into vapor. It had time for one last roar before it vanished.
There just happened to be a massive bug timed for precisely when she was arriving in Jotunheim? That felt like one hell of a coincidence. At this point Sam was way more willing to assume enemy action than wild happenstance. Someone had caused this. Probably Hel. The question was why? What did she hope to gain from it?
“Gurgle, go high and see if you can blast some of the fire giants ahead with your breath,” Sam said. “I’m going to take as many down with arrows as I can.”
“Gurgle do!” the dragon said. Then he was up and moving, quick wingbeats carrying him out over the battle. Two of the fire giants spotted him and flung fire.
Gurgle twisted about, dodging flame bolts, and arched his neck around to get a good angle on the closest giant. With a mighty exhalation, he unleashed his frost breath. The fire giant cried out, ducking behind his hands and struggling to raise a fire shield in front of him, but he couldn’t raise enough flame to stop the hailstorm blasting him. By the time Gurgle had finished and moved on to the next giant, he’d encased that one in a block of ice.
“You set ‘em up, I’ll knock ‘em down,” Sam called out. She shot an arrow into the ice block. Ice and giant alike were wreathed in a black mist and then vanished.
Sam took a step to steady herself, planting her feet in a firm stance. She was high enough above the front lines that she didn’t have to worry about hitting her own people, and the giants were packed in down the road as far back as she could see. In fact, it looked like a steady stream of attackers was still pouring in through the Jordheim gates!
This had to be every giant in the entire zone. They were all rushing to the fight. Worse, they were probably respawning and then coming right back after they died. It was an unending stream of attackers, slowly wearing down the defense.
Well, that she could do something about. Her arrows erased their target. There would be no quick respawn for those she struck down. She’d been trying to minimize their use so that the human developers running the game wouldn’t notice she had them, but clearly something was wrong with Valhalla. If this attack was any sign, the developers had lost control of their world.
Which meant she didn’t need to hold back anymore.
The pouch holding her arrows had an unending stream of the weapons. Sam reached down to draw one out, nocked it, fired. Then she repeated the action as rapidly as she could. One after another her arrows sped down the hill into the packed mass of giants. One after another, the giants fell to her arrows.
Your bow skill has reached 31!
Your bow skill has reached 32!
Little bits of game data flashed past her vision. Sam all but ignored them. She knew her skill with the bow was improving. It could hardly do anything else, with all the arrows she was firing. Sam walked forward as she ran out of targets, following the battle as it ebbed back down the hillside toward the city’s outer walls.
She was like an avatar of death, and it felt good. Being able to fight like this was cheating. It wasn’t how the game was designed. It wasn’t fair, and it probably shouldn’t have been fun. But Sam had been beaten on, threatened, killed, lost friends, had other friends hurt… She was tired of all of it.
All the pent-up anger and rage went into her bow. Sam’s weapon became almost an extension of her furious emotions. Where she aimed, enemies went down.
And then there weren’t enough giants left to deal with. The battle was on the bottom level of the hill. The ground there was flat. Sam couldn’t fire on the giants without risking a hit on a player. She’d pushed this fight hard enough to drive the enemy almost back to the wall.
But what about the other roads? Sam glanced back up the hill. Smoke and the light of fires still poured from buildings there. The players fighting on those other roads would still
be hard pressed.
“Gurgle!” Sam called out, waving her arms.
He shot through the air and landed heavily beside her. “Top in trouble.”
“I figured. Let’s get back up there.” Sam mounted the dragon, and they took off, winging their way back to the top.
“So many giants!” Gurgle said.
From up there, she could see what he meant. They’d pushed the fight back on one street, but the other seven were still losing ground. The battle was spilling through the defenders’ line in one place, threatening to pour past them.
“Make for that spot!” Sam said. They had to plug the hole in the defenders’ lines before it got any bigger.
Gurgle soared in, blasting a row of giants with his breath while Sam dealt death from above with her bow. Then one giant jumped, his leap carrying him impossibly high, and grabbed Gurgle’s tail.
The dragon was whipped groundward. Sam hadn’t bothered strapping herself back in, and she found herself falling through the air after Gurgle. The ground rushed up fast, and Sam flinched. This was going to hurt.
But she didn’t hit the paving stones of the street. Something stopped her. A glow surrounded her body, and she was drifting down instead of falling. Sam drew her sword before she touched down and readied a spell in her other hand. Someone had saved her. Who?
“Sam! Is that you?” Jorge hollered at her. His hand was outstretched toward her, casting the spell that let her float gently to the ground.
“In the virtual flesh,” Sam said.
“You picked a hell of a time to come by for a visit!” Jorge replied. “But I won’t lie. We could use all the help we can get.”
She looked past Jorge and saw a host of familiar faces. Clara was there, and Benson, and many others. She knew that band of warriors well. They were her people — her guild.
“Black Knights, form up!” Jorge called out. “And attack!”
Valhalla Online 4: Hel Hath No Fury: A Ragnarok Saga LitRPG Story Page 4