The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  Coming to a stop at the edge of the pit, I took several deep breaths to keep my rage in check as my eyes studied the men and women hard at work below. There were hundreds of them digging through the pile of corpses, lining up fresh bodies to be resurrected, and pulling guard duty to keep the pit’s scavengers at bay. There were even guards stationed on the outskirts of the operation.

  At the center of it all was the familiar face of my friend, Krystal. Her shock of long white hair was matted to her sweaty, dirty face from raising the dead. This close to the pit, I could see that the sleeves and lower half of her light gray robes were filthy from her work. As she finished healing the swordswoman she’d just raised, I saw why she was so dirty. As her assistants rushed forward to help the still injured woman to her feet, Krystal tiredly sank to the muck-covered ground from over expending mana exhaustion.

  In every MMO style game we played as a group, Krystal had always chosen to be a healer. She enjoyed the challenge of keeping everyone alive in the various games’ high-end dungeons. Not that she was hesitant to attack enemies or cause damage. She was also a skilled PVPer and had dominated the various Battle Grounds with either her Shadow Spec’d Priestess or her Combat Medic. But seeing her now in the middle of this pit of horrors, she truly looked like a beautiful dark angel of mercy.

  Leaving Krystal to her work, I Stealthed over to Jill who seemed to be directing everything outside of the pit. Her normally sardonic face had a look that I’d never seen on it before as she kept an eye on the newly raised children and coordinated with the guards to keep a watch out for enemies. Her people had just spied Thomas and company, and were gearing up with make-shift weapons, when I popped out of Stealth behind her.

  “Hey Jill, what’s up?”

  “Gggaaakkk!” Jill screamed at the top of her lungs. Spinning around, she stormed, slapping at my shoulder and chest as the troopers around us shifted uncomfortably unsure of how to react. “What the fuck is wrong with you Jay! You freaking have us come to this horror show and then scare the shit out of my … you’re such a freaking bastard!”

  “Chill out, Jill!” I shouted out as I gave ground while holding my arms up to block her strikes. “Dammit Jill, stop hitting me … that freaking hurts!”

  Just when I thought she wasn’t going to relent, Jill lowered her fists and buried her face in my chest. For a second, I didn’t know what to do. Jill was not one to show her feelings when she was upset. Relaxing somewhat, I murmured soothing words as I stroked the back of her head and held her in my arms. Even though I’d never seen this side of my friend, I understood how horrific tragedy like this hurt the soul. At least the recently resurrected troopers around us had somewhat relaxed.

  “What’s wrong with these …,” Jill momentarily struggled to find a bad enough word, “these fucking assholes. I thought we were finished with The Syndicate when we joined The World.”

  “I think you answered your question already … they’re assholes.” I said with a shrug, as Jill pushed away from me trying not to smile as she popped me in the chest again.

  “They give assholes a bad name.” She groused, while wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. I didn’t comment further on Jill’s show of weakness as she got her emotions back under control. “I hope you have a plan to take these guys out, because they really need to die.”

  “We’ll have to see what we can do.” I said uncomfortably, as I met Jill’s hard eyes. “We lucked out in taking the Dread Pack out in Darom, but …,” my eyes looked over the walls of the city, “first we need to see what we’re up against here.”

  “There’s at least two thousand Chaos Storm members in the city.” Jill immediately answered.

  “All Nightmare start?” I asked as Jill nodded.

  “We won’t have much of a surprise on our side if we choose to fight this time around.” I said with a frown. “Once they know we’re here, they’ll do their best to keep ahold of the graveyards as they hunt us down. Any idea what kind of magic profession Chaos Storm has from their Nightmare start?”

  “Something with lightning,” Jill said, thinking back to what the survivors had been talking about. “Lightning Shields, Lightning Bolts, even Chain Lightning, and a storm-like AOE that sounds pretty nasty.”

  “Fuck!” I said, cursing under my breath. Lightning magic was no joke. In most games, the skill tree was considered a top tier magic with affects that ranged from locking up muscles, increasing damage to metal wearing targets, and inflicting stuns. You know, besides the whole massive damage and area of attacks they did naturally. One I honestly wished that I had access to.

  My eyes were pulled towards Thomas as he approached with his group. There were a lot of cheerful shouts coming from the Royal Knights as they saw Sir Hemmet striding next to my friend. Although, I saw Sir Degarre and the other Guardian Knights questioningly looking back and forth between Sir Hemmet and me. I’m sure those men were quite confused how all of this had come about. Quickly, I scanned the rest of the survivors only to see them warily eyeing Fylreh and my friends’ approach, making me wonder how all of this was going to go down. I dispelled my concern with a shake of my head. It would all work out one way or another. Everyone here owed us a life debt, I thought, before focusing back on my conversation with Jill.

  “I’ve got some thoughts, but I’d like to get a better idea of our resources and a feel for what we’re truly up against.” I said thoughtfully, as my mind began chewing on the Chaos Storm issue. “AJ, Hefe, and, Bonnie are still in the city now getting answers, right?”

  “Supposedly,” Jill said sourly, “if you call drinking beer with a bunch of ex-soldiers getting answers.”

  Before I could say more, I saw Kenzie come running up with her group still in Stealth as Neysa and Helgath sprang to a stop atop the nearest pile of bodies above Krystal. They both reported that the area was clear of enemies as everyone but the Royal Knights raised an alarm. Unconcerned, I sent the all-clear through Raid chat as both of our scout groups popped out of Stealth while Neysa slid down the mound of bodies with Helgath, before springing up beside me in one easy bound.

  The sudden appearance of our forces in the middle of the survivors’ ranks nearly threw the majority of them into a panic. Especially when the massive Silver Dire Wolf came to a stop in front of me. Krystal relaxed as soon as she saw me patting the massive wolf’s side and immediately began calming her people down inside the pit, while Jill did the same thing for her people up above. Seeing Jill’s annoyed look, I gave her a shrug.

  “Sorry about that, they just finished scouting making sure there were no enemies in the area.” I explained before introducing my friends. Catching Assault Leader Dell’s eye, I asked him to look into finding Stealth class survivors to be put out as scouts. As we finished up the introductions, Jill leaned in close to whisper into my ear. “Wow, she’s really hot …” Seeing my confused look, she nodded to Fylreh who stood back from everyone with a bow and arrow held loose in her hands. “For a horse!”

  “She’s a Centaur, not a horse, Jill!” I snapped at her in annoyance. “Besides, we’re, more or less, broke-up for now.” Seeing the questioning look on her face, I waved it away. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”

  “That I’ve got to hear,” she smirked at my uncomfortable look as I turned to introduce Neysa and Helgath. Jill loved the Silver Dire Wolf. Speaking to Neysa in a baby voice, Jill told her what a beautiful girl she was, before looking back at me and saying she wanted one too. Helgath was another story altogether. The meeting between the two women was cordial, but I could see Jill was confused by the Half-Orc’s homely appearance.

  The meeting with the Devil Dogs went off like a charm. Even more surprising was that Jill and Kenzie immediately hit it off together. I don’t know if I was relieved or afraid. Having one sarcastic bitch in a group was bad enough. I wasn’t sure if the rest of us could handle the two of them working together in unison.

  It wasn’t that Jill was a bad person. I loved her
to death and she was a lot of fun to have on your team, besides being a kick ass player. At the same time, she could make a strong man cry just from her sharp tongue if she got a wild hair up her ass. Kenzie had a similar personality. All of us by now had experienced her good and bad sides. Thankfully, there was more good than bad, but the bad was seriously bad … with both women, I amended. None of my friends new each other enough to know what I’d just unleashed upon us all. Hopefully, we could use that against our enemies, I thought with a smirk.

  It wasn’t until I was introducing my companions that things got ugly. The look of disgust that suddenly crossed Jill’s face as Neristhana, Ulia, Keela, Rayne, and Brenna stepped forward caught me off guard. Before I could introduce any of them, Jill’s voice took on that acidic mocking tone that she was known for.

  “Oh yes, please don’t forget to introduce me to your personal Harem.” You could have heard a pin drop as soon as the words left Jill’s mouth. Even Kenzie bit her knuckle to stop her mouth from saying something stupid as all five of my companions’ heads jerked back in unison at the unexpected attack. “

  “Don’t be an ass, Jill!” I snapped, surprised at the attitude she was giving me. “Besides, I’m not sleeping with any of them.”

  “If they’re not your harem, then why did you sleep with them?” Jill said, pointing at Ulia and Keela. “That sounds like a harem to me. Next thing you know, you’ll be balling them all in bed and …”

  SMACK

  Stunned, Jill stumbled back as Neristhana fist broke her nose. A follow up fist dropped her on her ass as she clutched at her bleeding nose in shock. There was nothing quite like an angry Gnome or Gnomeling to wake your ass up, I thought. Coming to a stop above her, the pissed off Gnomeling ripped the Leeching Hand-Axe of Severing from her belt as she glared dangerously at Jill.

  “You know nothing of what this Half-Elf did to save me and my family. I owe him everything!” Neristhana screamed down at my in real-life friend at the top of her lungs.

  “He could have had anything from me if he so wished,” Neristhana stormed, “and I would have gladly given it to him!” The Gnomeling’s high-pitched voice turned into a shriek. “And you know what? He’s treated me with nothing but respect! I’m not his floozy! I am his protector! By the Dark as my witness, if you ever use my honor-bound pledge to disrespect Lord Ironwolf again, I, Neristhana Lightouch, will take your head!” With that said, she stomped away as my other female companions approached one by one.

  “I fuck a lot of people,” Ulia said, her face tight as she glared down at the other woman. “What the fuck concern is it of yours?” She spat, before following after Neristhana. Keela didn’t even bother to make a comment. Instead, she just shook her head in disgust and followed after her girlfriend. Ryane and Brenna approached the stunned newfar and shook their heads in reproach.

  “How dare you denigrate the relationship I have with my lover?” Ryane said, her voice dripping with venom as Brenna crossed her arms over her chest. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized they were a couple. Brenna’s odd attitude at times towards me suddenly made a whole lot of sense, I thought, seeing them both standing there together. “Startum saved us all from a fate worse than death. In return, we chose to watch his back, not sleep with him, you ignorant cunt!”

  More than one Devil Dog choked back a laugh at the use of that word. Sarka and Unalia were biting their tongues as Yun and Tinyr looked away covering their mouths. There was more than one confused look at the use of that term. I was right there with them, until I remembered that I’d said the word to Sub-Leader Cailamin back in the city of Myathlune and warned him never to use it against a newfar. Ryane must have picked it up then, I thought with a bemused look.

  “If Neristhana decides to take your head, all of us will be there to give her a hand.” Brenna said, her voice rough with emotion, before both women turned and walked away.

  Neysa and Helgath’s body language had noticeably changed too. The Silver Dire Wolf’s fur was sticking straight out as she loomed over Jill threateningly with her fangs bared and an unsmiling Helgath on her back. Before my soulmates could express their opinions on what had been said, I stepped forward to put myself in-between them and Jill.

  “Good job stepping on your dick there, slick.” I said under my breath, while patting Jill a little too hard on the back. “Next time, try not to be too judgmental before you know the score.” The look of utter embarrassment on her face was priceless as I walked away shoving Neysa towards the pit while calling back over my shoulder. “Just remember, even though they’re my companions and soulmates, I can’t stop them from killing you if you push things too far.”

  With that said, I headed over to the edge of the pit to talk with Krystal. She was back to working hard at resurrecting everyone that she could. By now, I was so relieved to see anyone else capable of using Resurrecting that it almost brought tears to my eyes. As I climbed down into the muck, I was splashed with a wave of muck as Neysa and Helgath joined me. Taking a deep breath, I rolled my eyes in annoyance as the Silver Dire Wolf began to lick my face clean of the disgusting gunk. By the time I pushed her away, I had a curious audience watching. Giving everyone an embarrassed wave, I made my way over to Krystal.

  “How’s it going,” I asked, giving her a hug. “You’re doing an amazing job here!”

  “Hey back, you ass.” Krystal replied back, with a smile on her lips to take the bite out of her words. Seeing the hurt look on my face, she waved the comment away. “Sorry, I’m just joking. You know how Jill can be.”

  “You heard?” I asked, somewhat surprised.

  “Please, who didn’t hear?” Krystal gave a hard bark of laughter. “After all of the talk on the forums, we thought you might have been being skeevy with your female companions. You know as well as I do how serious Jill takes stuff like that.” At my noncommittal grunt, she continued unconcerned. “But, after all that, I’d say everything was cleared up nicely. Don’t worry, I’ll talk with her later.” With an easy smile, she switched topics. “I was calling you an ass about not warning me about this,” she waved her hands around us at the stinking muck and the piles of bodies, “ahead of time.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that.” I said, rubbing the back of my neck embarrassed. “I didn’t really know where Sir Hemmet had been dumped. He just said he’d woken up under a pile of his men, before crawling back to Darom.” Seeing the incredulous look on her face, I told her the whole story as I’d heard it.

  “Well then, I guess I can’t be mad at you for this,” Krystal said with a shake of her head. “Excuse me for a moment.” She apologized as she stood up to resurrect the next corpse in line.

  Catching Helgath’s eye, I nodded for her to join me as I followed suit. I felt the Half-Orc reach inside of me to tweak my magic as she compressed the mana being used and split it up. A minute later, there was an incredulous uproar as six corpses suddenly came back to life. Hurriedly, Krystal and I passed around heals to everyone, before sitting back down to recover our mana.

  “How in the hell did you manage that?” Krystal said, giving me the once over, before eyeing my soulmate.

  With a smile, I introduced Helgath and explained the basics on how we’d met and the soulbound rune we shared. During that time, Neysa plopped down next to my side as I cringed. We’d all have to wash up after all of this for sure. Neysa snapped at my face playfully as she caught the thought and voiced her opinion at being forced to take baths as Krystal’s eyes grew big as saucers. Waving her questioning look away, I explained the connection the three of us shared and why my Silver Dire Wolf was bitching. Thankfully, that seemed to settle Krystal down as we got back up to do another round of resurrects.

  It was then that I realized that Krystal was using a slightly higher level spell of resurrect than what I was using. While her upgraded spell couldn’t restore an arm or a leg, it did have the ability to restore eyes and other missing organs. That started another round of questions between us. It ended with me telling Kr
ystal how I wished we could find a high enough level priest for Yun and Thompson to learn the basic resurrect spell, when a nearby trooper interrupted our conversation.

  Krystal introduced the Swordswoman’s as Misty, who hurriedly explained that there was a Temple of Light in the city. I should have run an Identify on the woman, but there was just too much going on at the time. The last thing Misty had heard was that the priests were holding up inside the temple refusing to work with the Chaos Storm guild. She assured us that there were priests who could teach my people the Resurrect spell. While that was great news on one level, I had no doubt breaking in to even talk to one of these assholes was going to be tough as hell.

  Assholes, you might ask? Yeah, I wasn’t too happy with these Priests of Light after the many stories I’d heard from the commoners in my service. These were the healers that wouldn’t lift a finger to raise a peasant, because they felt that expending the time and energy to bring such an individual back to life was beneath them. Basically, that was because they viewed peasants as worth less than animals.

  Unfortunately, this attitude wasn’t anything knew, but a sickness that had repeatedly occurred throughout human history, and was one of the major triggers that had ignited the French and American Revolutions in the seventeen hundreds. It made me wonder if this was purely a human condition that was reflected in The World or not? Did the Dwarves, Gnomes, Dark, and Light Elves have different issues related to their own individual races? Or, was this something that crossed all specie lines and was a problem created by the development of civilization? Rolling my eyes at the train of my geeky thoughts, I focused back on my conversation with Krystal.

  She was exhausted and wanted to know if I was going to assist her in saving as many of these people as possible. While I knew I was needed here, I was also needed in the city. It was essential for me to get a feel for the situation in Telrain. Was it possible to get the princess out? Could I talk to the brother? Did we have a big enough force to remove Chaos Storm from their seat of power? The only way for me to know those questions and others was to head into the city myself.