The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  Now, on top of it all, he couldn’t even level up his character to stop the bullying he was getting from N3rd girl. Instead, he was being forced to pull guard duty on a graveyard like an NPC. This shit had been going on for almost two week now. Honestly, if not for the good paycheck, he would have told them all to go fuck themselves and went with the competition. Letting out a deep sigh, TJ was just getting back to his patrol when the screaming started.

  “Oh my god, there’s so many of them!” A panicked voice suddenly screamed out in guild chat. “They’re eating Shlean’s face off!”

  “Who is this and where is your position?” The stern voice of the Watch Commander Clark demanded. Instead of getting an answer, the voice ended in a horrific gurgling scream. Switching gears, Clark’s voice rang out in the main guild chat. “All raid leaders are to report in their current status!”

  “East graveyard here. No attacks to report.”

  “South graveyard reports all is well.”

  “South western quick response group reporting in.”

  “South eastern quick response group is good.”

  “West graveyard is clear.” TJ heard Amazonian’s voice answer professionally. He was just starting to relax somewhat, when another terror filled voice blasted guild chat.

  “North eastern quick response group-“ The man’s voice suddenly cut off in mid-sentence, before urgently continuing a moment later. “Holy mother of mercy … north eastern needs support now!”

  “Who’s attacking you? What are their numbers? North eastern report!” Instead of any words, there was a lot of wordless shrieking before the man’s voice went silent.

  TJ was starting to make his way over towards the center of the graveyard where the rest of his raid was, when more and more reports started coming in. Some guildmates reported they were being attacked by players, while others reported that they were being torn apart by zombies. The most troubling part of the whole thing was that whatever was attacking them was obviously coming from the north side of the city like a wave taking everyone out.

  Before TJ could reach the rest of the twenty-four member raid he was assigned to, a horde of human-like creatures charged into the graveyard. Amazonian was still shrieking for everyone to form a shield wall, when the wave of death crashed over them. TJ’s mouth dropped open in horror as Shapo, Dicky, Jord, and even Lisa were thrown to the ground like rag dolls and eaten alive. He was just turning around to run, when TJ heard Amazonian’s terrified shriek.

  Whipping back around, TJ was just in time to enjoy seeing the Rogue’s arm get ripped out of her socket. Somehow she managed to stagger away from the bloodthirsty monster as it began feasting on her bloody limp appendage. As she staggered around to run, she looked up in time to see his gleeful face just before a pack of zombies tackled her to the ground. TJ knew in his heart there was no way he was going to escape this death, but never the less, he turned around and ran into the city as fast as his legs would carry him.

  People might think this was due to cowardice on his part, but he’d seen how quickly they’d slaughtered the rest of the raid. The only hope any of them had was to lead the zombies out of the graveyard so they could respawn without being slaughtered. While it was a decent plan, he found out the unfortunate truth about these creatures within the first ten steps he’d taken. All of them seemed to have super-charged stats as they caught up to him in the blink of an eye.

  As he was tackled to the ground by a wave of undead, TJ silently thanked his lucky stars that he’d been forced to take a Basic start. With all of the graveyards in the city being captured, he knew there’d be no safe place for them to respawn at. Besides, with the quickness these zombies had slaughtered the rest of his raid, he knew they stood no chance on taking out these creatures on their own. Instead of trying to run to his corpse or respawn at a graveyard, TJ just triggered the emergency logout button.

  Yes, he knew he was choosing the “rage quit” option, but there was really no other choice in the matter. While it wouldn’t save his avatar from being repeatedly ravaged, an experience he was loath to experience, it was better than enduring the ignominious deaths of being spawned camped by zombies. As the game pod opened up, TJ stripped off his gaming suit as he headed for his laptop. Maybe he could catch the guild leader’s stream to see what the hell was going on.

  ***

  I’ll give Prince Lekroth props, he must have grown a pair over the night. Instead of just lying there bleeding to death, he snatched up a stone flower pot and smashed it against Julie’s head with devastating results. The force of the blow sent her careening head first into the nearest baluster. Not waiting to see the results of his surprise attack, the young man snatched up another stone pot and flung himself off the balcony at the surprised Executioner as pandemonium erupted behind him.

  For a split second, I caught a glimpse of Councilor Fulrin’s determined face as the line of Battle Priests drew their weapons and advanced. I only caught glimpses of the action as I raced forward with the mass of undead. The secondary command that had been setup for each of them was to follow the orders of my own pets. The Chaos Storm’s officers had zero time to react. They were just turning around at the commotion when the wall of undead washed over them like a living, err dead, wave.

  Booming explosions rang out as actinic flares could be seen from under the dogpile of zombies. I couldn’t see exactly what magic was being used, but whatever they were using seemed to be having zero affect against the undead. The only bad thing was that the sounds of combat seemed to shake the players surrounding us inside the inner courtyard out of their mental fugue. I could only hope that it would take them a few moments to get organized as I focused back in my portion of the assault.

  Climbing up onto the stage, I saw the Battle Priests hammering at the nightmare newfar as Julie shrieked orders like a woman possessed. Councilor Fulrin’s troops had slammed into her officers’ backs hard. At first, the surprise attack seemed to overwhelm the nightmare players. Star insignia weapons rose and fell, hammering at the downed players and wrecking their day. Within seconds though, I saw golden flashes of Holy Shields and Regeneration spells being cast on the downed players as the Chaos Storm officers fought their way back to their feet.

  Julie had always been an incredible healer in every game we’d ever played. With her FPS skills and sword work, she was able to get her people back on their feet. In short order they’d managed to form into a tight circle around their guild leader. Like any pro-gamers worth their salt, they began fighting back with everything they had as they fell back towards the baluster from the press of the Battle Priests assault.

  While such a tight formation of highly skilled players with a healer would have normally meant trouble for any regular force, the twenty-one Battle Priests all had the same skill set as my ex-girlfriend. Flashes of Holy Shield and Regeneration flared up and down their lines as they hammered at the newfar with their overwhelming numbers.

  I tore my gaze away from Councilor Fulrin’s assault as I was forced to focus on my own situation. The fifteen Chaos Storm officers were fighting for their lives against the zombies, most of which never got a chance to draw their blades as they were overwhelmed in a scrum of undead while they screamed in agony at being eaten alive. A quarter of the newfar were struggling to stay on their feet as they hammered at the zombies shredding their bodies and ripping their hit points away with their hands and feet. I only caught glimpses of them though, since within seconds they lost the battle as they were tackled bodily to the ground.

  Only two of the Chaos Storm officers had actually been able to stand up to the initial rush. Standing back-to-back, the man and woman were working their blades like Ginsu Chefs as they pivoted and slashed trying to keep the mass of undead off of them. But, no matter how hard they fought, they couldn’t stop the press of undead I redirected towards them.

  The nightmare and advance corpses couldn’t be one-shotted, nor did piercing or slashed attacks do much in the way of damage to them. Only by r
emoving the head could you take the undead corpses out. Within seconds, both DPS Warriors were still screaming in rage as they were forcibly dragged kicking, punching, and screaming to the ground.

  A quick glance around the inner courtyard showed me that the advanced players were just starting to attack from range. Actinic flashes of lightning began hammering into the undead ranks behind me along with waves of arrows and bolts that overall had little to no affect. Unfortunately, I knew that was going to change once they closed to melee range. Meaning, I was running out of time, since there was no way I could stand up against a force that large with only six hundred plus half-controlled pets.

  The thick bolts of lightning coming from the Chaos Storm members’ ranks were more than disturbing. Traditionally, lightning was one of the strongest magic’s to have in a game. Frost or Ice magic was good for slowing down targets and controlling the battlefield, but traditionally cold attacks did lower overall damage. Fire magic was generally a high damage tree that focused on AOE attacks that was for burning down large numbers of targets at one time. The Arcane fell somewhere in the middle, as the magic tree could be used to take down groups, but that wasn’t its bread and butter. It was best suited for taking down single targets quickly.

  The lightning tree in most games was another story altogether. Typically this tree pushed out a massive amount of group damage, more so even than the Fire tree with its burn-over-time damage after the spell was expended. On top of that, the Lightning tree usually came with the added effect of stunning its targets. While that sounded unfair on one level, it did make a certain kind of sense for the type of element it was supposed to represent. I’d always considered it the top of the magic tree for taking out large groups of enemies. And now my ex-girlfriend who hated my guts obviously had this ability.

  “Fuck my life!” I muttered sourly under my breath. Thankfully, for now nothing needed my direct intervention, which allowed me to hide in the mass of zombies unseen. I’d have to come up with a plan for how to deal with the Chaos Storm guild later. With a heavy sigh, I began shoving my way past the frenzied zombies looking for the quest targets I was here to collect. I’d nearly made it to where I’d last seen the headman’s block, when the Prince came into view once again still fighting for his life.

  Obviously, Prince Lekroth had struck the higher level player a wicked blow since half of Executioner JoJo’s face was a bloody pulp from where he’d taken the hit from the stone flower pot. Unfortunately for the Prince, it wasn’t going to be enough to save him. In an Impressive feat of strength, the newfar picked up the Prince and slammed him to the ground hard enough to rattle the younger man’s teeth. These Chaos Storm members weren’t anything like the Dread Pack guild, I thought as I targeted the Prince while the newfar reached for the hand-axe hanging from his belt. I managed to get off a Frost Nova to freeze the PKer in mid-swing, before casting a quick Regeneration and Holy Shield on the Prince’s battered body.

  I was just ordering my personal pets to attack the enemy, when Executioner JoJo suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. He reappeared a split-second later six feet back from his original position as his head swiveled around to glare at me. Instead of refocusing his attack on me like I’d hoped, the Chaos Storm player snarled and lunged for the Prince who was scrambling for the stone flower pot he’d been using as a makeshift club. Before he could reach the weapon, the newfar roughly slammed the smaller man down with a meaty fist as I fought to reach the PKer. I frantically slipped through the melee raging around me while hitting the asshole with Flurry blasts the entire way as I watched the hand axe drawback to strike.

  Executioner JoJo simply ignored my attacks as he brought the hand axe down putting his entire body behind the swing. Whatever the weapon was, it dealt some serious damage as the Holy Shield burst into a shower of golden sparks. There was nothing more I could do as I helplessly watched the edge of the blade sink into Prince Lekroth’s chest with a meaty thud.

  Thankfully though, the blow didn’t kill him. Instead of bleeding out and dying as the newfar ripped the bloody axe head free, my Holy Shield had kept the younger man alive long enough for the next tick of the Regeneration spell to kick in. The HOT kept filling the Prince’s battered body with two hundred and forty points of heath every second as the large newfar spun around like a wild man looking for his next target. The man knew as well as I did that he only had a few seconds before he was going to be taken down.

  Batting a zombie out of his way, Executioner JoJo lunged for the Princess. Grabbing a handful of hair, he slammed her to the ground as she kicked and screamed with her hands still tied behind her back. My Bone Fangs spell began ripping into his skin when I was three yards out, but that didn’t stop him from drawing his hand axe back to take her head.

  Thankfully, my zombies made it to him first. Springing into the air like offensive linebackers, they leaped on top of the Chaos Storm player in an undead frenzy. The first three zombies wrapped their bodies around the man’s arm, clinging to him like white on rice as they ripped bloody furrows into his bare chest, back, and face with their bony clawed fingers, while their fangs tried to bite through his arm.

  Even bound as she was, Princess Reeva wasn’t acting like a helpless maiden either. As soon as the hooked nose newfar let go of her hair, she flipped around onto her back and slammed her bare feet into his junk, kicking for all she was worth. The man bent over howling in agony as more of my undead pets piled on top of him. The next five clung to his legs and feet as they shredded everything in reach, while the next four zombies bodily tackled Executioner JoJo to the ground. Futilely, the newfar struggled to bring his axe to bear, but it was impossible with the zombies hanging on his arm.

  Before I could reach the other player, the man suddenly disappeared again from the midst of the zombie-pile. He appeared a split-second later six feet behind the snarling zombies looking like he’d lived through a weed-whacker attack. That is, if the machine had blades as thick as a finger, and had worked him over from head to toe. The idiot sneered at me as if he’d won, while he waved his axe back and forth threateningly. Before he could even think to advance on me, my pets dogpiled him once again.

  If the zombies hadn’t been formed from nightmare and advanced players, there’d have been no way for them to stand against the man’s incredible strength as he fought like a madman. Dropping into a slide tackle, I slammed my Dark Blade into Executioner JoJo’s abdomen as the man’s piercing screams filled my ears. Ripping the blade free, I jumped up to my knees to strike again, while the entire pile of zombies rose up into the air as he tried to break free.

  Growling in frustration, the Chaos Storm player blinked away a second later, when his cooldown was finished. Even outnumbered and under attack, Executioner JoJo managed to fight back. Appearing behind me, the hook-nosed bastard sliced into my shoulder, before my zombies tackled him to the ground again. Hitting myself with a Regeneration, I turned around and rushed to the dogpile. Gripping the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden with both hands, I took the man’s leg off at the knee a second before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  I didn’t bother to look around for him this time as I redirected my pets to rush the space behind me, while I dove forward into a somersault. As the axe blade ripped through my fluttering cloak, I blindly swung the Dark Blade behind me as I rolled to my feet. There was a moment of resistance, before the blade sliced through the block as Executioner JoJo shrieked in agony and fell to his knees with my pets piling on top of him, too predictable.

  Spinning around in a crouch, I saw the man’s severed wrist still clutching the hand axe lying two feet in front of me. Without a second thought, I snatched up the hand axe and lunged forward swinging with all my might. Executioner JoJo’s eyes widened in fear a split second before I brought the oversized blade down against the back of his neck.

  There was a puff of smoke as the newfar disappeared from beneath the zombie-pile. But not before the man’s head plopped to the ground at my feet. I was honestly surprised that
I’d taken the higher level player’s life so easily. Even after all of the attacks he’d endured, Executioner JoJo’s life was still nearly two thirds full. At level 40, his hit points were nearly half again that of my own. The question was answered a second later, when I checked the purple colored stats on the hand axe in my hand.

  Vicious Executioner's Axe of Cruelty

  Item Quality: Uncommon

  Item Type: Crafted

  Attack: One-hand Edge

  Weapon Type: Axe

  Damage: 160-185

  Durability: 287/300

  Weight: 15 kg

  +30 Strength

  +30 Stamina

  -200% increase of pain inflicted with every successful hit.

  -Deals double damage on targets under twenty-five percent health.

  -Rend, causes the target to bleed with every successful hit for an additional 25 points of damage for 15 seconds.

  -100% decapitation when struck against the neck of any large or smaller incapacitated target.

  I whistled silently to myself at the one hundred percent decapitation ability that the hand axe had as a special attack. No wonder the asshole was dressed up the way he was, I thought, grinning in spite of myself. I froze as I eyed the hand axe questioningly. So, if I still had the weapon in my hand, did that mean it was considered a PVP drop? Did the man’s hand somehow bug the game and not load it into his gravestone?

  The greed monster the resided in my chest gasped for breath as I carefully pried Executioner JoJo’s hand off the weapon’s shaft. That or the game considered this my PVP drop for the kill, I silently hoped as I worked. I immediately breathed a sigh of relief when the weapon didn’t disappear from my hand as the other man’s hand hit the wooden stage. Even though everything looked right, I didn’t dare put the weapon down until I officially looted the body.

  Hurriedly, I knelt down next to the headless corpse and the black gravestone. Looting the body, I took the coins from the man’s corpse with my smile growing even bigger as I realized that the Vicious Executioner's Axe of Cruelty was now officially mine. Although it wasn’t the Leeching Hand-Axe of Severing that Neristhana had acquired from me during the Morticians battle, it was still a sweet ass blade. I silently chortled, that was going to be one pissed off player once he got back to his corpse.