by Erik Colombe
John slipped into the warehouse after everyone else had left and began stuffing his inventory with anything that seemed useful, mostly rations, food, and some fresh vegetables that John took greedily. He never realized how much he missed vegetables when his diet consisted of dried meat and whatever he happened to hunt on the road.
John dropped a few gold coins where the vegetables had been to make himself feel a little better for the blatant robbery and then ran from the place as fast as he could. He shouted for Max, and the Rahka stopped using her Ancestor Animal magic to harass the unprepared soldiers and raced behind John. He used his God Step to run over the bubbling tar sea. They had planned this while they had waited for the sun to come up. The compressed air that John left didn’t disappear right away. As long as he kept a constant pace that Max could keep up with, she could run on air behind him. John didn’t know how long the Tar Sea would go, but he believed he had enough mana to last them until they crossed it. Several hours later proved him wrong.
They were in the middle of the Tar Sea and could see nothing but the sticky tar in every direction. John’s nose was full of the scent of sulfur, and if he didn’t have his waypoint, he would have been lost the moment the Tar Sea swallowed the horizon. He had used his God Step for hours, and he ran at a speed that would leave most horses in the dust, but it didn’t seem to matter to the Tar Sea, as he had already run for hours and his mana bar had slowly started to dissipate. He needed to rest for a few hours to recharge his mana supply, but there was nothing in the Tar Sea. He was reaching his limit, and if they didn’t find a place to land soon, they were going to end up falling into the black sticky pit that waited patiently below them.
Time to get a little desperate, he thought to himself.
John stopped running and used compressed air to create platforms. He watched his mana pool start to drain quickly, and he worked fast. He summoned a fireball and started to feed mana into it to make it larger until it was roughly the size of a car. He summoned his wind magic to create a sphere around the fire. His mana fed the fire and kept it bright, while the wind constricted the fire, shrinking it, putting it under pressure until it was the size of a baseball, and he hurled it into the tar sea. It passed through the tar, and as soon as it hit something solid, it exploded.
Tar rained up, and John could see a hole that had been created quickly fill back up with Tar. The sea was about ten feet deep, and there was mostly rock underneath. The explosion had done its job. A slab of rock large enough for the pair to rest rose above the surface of the tar.
“Jump,” John yelled to Max as his mana ran dry and his God Step disappeared. As soon as they landed, John’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto his back, his hands shaking from the lack of mana.
New Magic acquire: “Flame Grenade”
Effects: Condensed flame magic is put under extreme pressure. When one side of the magic hits a solid object, the result is equal to five TNT charges. The condensed air that has not touched a solid object acts as a container forcing the explosion in one direction.
“That was not well planned,” Max said.
“Yeah, so sue me. Who the hell would have thought this thing was this big? I mean, who’s ever heard of a tar sea? What could have happened here to make this?” John asked while catching his breath and checking his HUD to judge how long it would take to get his mana back.
“We’ll rest here for a while. Luckily, it’s not very deep. If we take it slowly, we’ll get to the other side,” John said, taking food they had stolen and giving some to Max.
John looked down at the tar pit and used his analyze skill on it while they ate.
Name: Tar
Notes: What did you expect?
John tried again looking up at the horizon where all that stretched was the tar.
Name: Tar Sea
History: Created from intense heat and pressure. The Tar sea used to be a great forest where an army of unimaginable size marched through. The army was destroyed with a spell that had so much intense heat and pressure it turned all matter in the area into tar.
Notes: Be careful the Tar Sea is meant to be a wall to keep others out. Those who have tried to cross it have met with fates worse than death. They become part of the Tar Sea; their consciousness never fades and becomes part of something unnatural. If you stop to rest, you stop to die! RUN!
John took down the last bite of his food before standing and drawing his sword. His mana was nowhere near replenished, making escape an impossibility.
“Get ready. We’re going to have company soon,” John said to Max, who had already scarfed down her food and was looking at the horizon, trying to find the enemy John’s analyze skill had warned them about. They didn’t have to wait long.
John saw white stones start to head towards their little boulder. Swords were poking above the Tar Sea, and as they bobbed closer, John could see they weren’t stones but skulls and bone. They were different types of creatures he couldn’t make out. Some were human and familiar; others were elongated, with fangs or missing too much of their bone structure for him to make out what they were. They were trying to encircle them.
Max let out a howl, and John could see a blue magic shroud cover her as she activated her Animal Ancestor magic. It granted her magic armor, while giving her claws as sharp as swords for weapons.
John used his analyze skill on the skeletons.
Name: Tar Warrior
Level: 25
Magic: None
Class: Undead
They were numerous, but they were slow. John pulled out Slaver’s Whip from his inventory.
Notification: Slaver’s Whip equipped
A whip used by slavers. It does little damage but will take up to fifty mana from a creature every time it is struck.
John lashed out the whip at the first skeleton that came out of the tar pit near him. The moment the whip struck it, the skeleton fell into a pile of ash.
The skeletons are being held together by magic. Time to farm for mana. John thought as he let the whip fly and strike the skeletons all around him. He had an eight-foot radius he was able to work in, and Max destroyed any of the skeletons that got too close. The magic made them impossible for her to kill, but she had the ability to rip off their arms and pelvis, throwing the parts back into the Tar Sea and letting John turn the rest into ash when he had made his rotation around the rock.
Hours passed, and the skeletons kept coming. Their slow pace made it, so John and Max weren’t overwhelmed, but they were becoming tired. The skeletons seemed endless. John had long recovered his mana and was tempted to use his God Step to start running again, but they needed rest, and they couldn’t keep running and fighting to recharge.
“We need to find what’s controlling these things,” John yelled to max. “Can you smell anything?”
“No, the whole place smells of only death.”
Well that’s great. I need to fight the boss, but he’s hiding somewhere… What if he’s hiding in plain sight? John thought, and an idea flashed in his mind.
“Keep them off me while I try something,” John yelled out to Max, and she rushed forward, knocking all of them back, using the last of her energy to fulfill John’s wish.
John started converting his mana. A fountain of water started to come out of his arms as he spent almost all his mana in a giant fifty-foot spray of water that came down on top of the tar.
He summoned lightning down into the new tar and water mixture he had created, draining his mana. A gurgled scream erupted from the Tar Sea for John’s troubles, and he smiled.
“Hey big guy, you kept me waiting,” John said taking out the Hammer of Dawn.
Notification:
Hammer of Dawn equipped
A hammer stolen from another hero. Capable of stealing the life force of anyone it touches and giving it to the user. Max is 200% original health. Plus 50 in attack; minus 50 in defense.
John leaped high into the air, bringing down his hammer where he had heard the scream co
me from. Tar and blood splashed his face. His feet sunk a few inches but found purchase on something soft and malleable. He jumped back to his rock where Max waited. The skeleton army had stopped in their tracks after the first scream. Now they retreated into the tar as if being called home.
A large black mass of tar rose from the sea. Its flesh was an ebony black so deep it seemed to suck light into it, making it impossible to see where the Tar Sea stopped and the creature began. As it rose and revealed itself, John could see an endless array of skeleton arms protruding from its belly. They all moved independently, clutching, clawing, some being sucked back into the tar and others taking their place. It’s face, as near as John could tell, was a collection of skulls, all of them biting at the air, moving independently, being sucked into the tar as new ones took their place.
“What the hell is that?” John asked, using his analyze skill.
Name: Undead Collective
Level: 75
Magic: random
Class: Undead
The Undead Collective are the souls of the mages, warriors, and captains of a forgotten army. The body is in constant chaos as the souls scream for control and are constantly replaced by the souls of the thousands that create its body. It attacks using its massive body and will use magic, depending on the souls that are currently active when attacking. It has a hunter’s mindset and lives only to attack anything that enters its territory.
John returned his hammer to his inventory quickly as the creature reared back, aiming to slam its massive girth into them.
“Max! Follow me,” John yelled out and immediately jumped off their rock and used his God Step to run.
“What is that?” Max asked as they ran.
“It’s called the Undead Collective. We need to find a way to kill it,” John said, trying to analyze the creature.
“That lightning was effective.”
“I’m out. We need a new plan as I’m about to run dry of magic and landing in that tar would just make us a target for that monster,” John said, circling the Undead Collective.
The creature’s body smashed into the ground, sending a wave of tar twenty feet tall around it. Slowly, it raised its body, readying to attack again.
Fuck! Another undead creature. My game didn’t have them. I have nothing to use against it. Other games had holy magic to use, but I have nothing. John thought as he racked his brains trying to think of anything that might work against the Undead Collective, something that would help him. He felt a sinking feeling settling in the bottom of his stomach. He was used to using brute force to get out of everything, but he was stuck in a trap. There was no way of overpowering it.
Maybe... John thought and came up with a plan quickly. He had no experience to base it on, only gut instinct based on how magic worked in this world. He equipped his slavers whip.
“Max, jump back to the rock!” he yelled, and Max jumped to the rock where it stood. The creature wasn’t completely solid, and that filled John with hope that his plan would work as he jumped to the front of the creature, where all its bleached skeleton hands still undulated.
John took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and jumped into the Undead Collective. He closed his eyes as hands grabbled at his body and pulled him into the tar, tearing at his limbs, trying to scratch and claw his face. John struck out the whip. Even with his eyes closed, he could see his HUD and watch his mana. It sat there, nothing moving, and for a few seconds, John thought he would drown in thick oozing sludge. A spark of hope filled him as he saw his mana bar start to shoot up.
The whip stole mana every time it struck a magical creature. A magic creature now surrounded John. It was like had just plugged a wire into an electrical outlet. His mana was starting to overfill him; his body spasmed and threatened to force him to let out the breath he was holding.
He immediately started to cast heal. It was one of the lowest leveled spells he had and cost two hundred mana every time he cast it and healed a measly fifty HP. It was a spell that all characters learned in the beginning of the game until you could afford health potions. He remembered some games where healing an undead creature hurt them, and he hoped this world would work the same.
He felt a reverberating shudder run through the creature as it must have been screaming. John took that as a sign in his favor and kept casting heal, while the breath in his lungs slowly grew stale. His chest started to beg him to let it out, to breathe. He fought against the urge, while he kept casting heal over and over again on the Undead Collective.
He struggled to get out of the tar, casting heal while he tried to move, but skeleton hands held onto him. Every cast of heal made them shudder and turn to ash, but more hands were there to grab and hold him as every inch of his body was covered in tar-soaked bone hands as if they were greedy to take him, to feel him. He felt his limbs go limp, and finally, a gasp of air escaped him. He was going to breathe in the black tar, and it would fill his lungs.
He felt his body being shaken as if there was an earthquake and felt something envelop his body before ripping him out of the Undead Collective.
Max? He thought as he could finally open his eyes.
The skeleton hands kept grabbing at him, while he struggled to keep his mind aware to cast heal. He felt himself being ripped free of the tar, and as soon as he could feel the fresh air, he took a deep gasping breath. He immediately started to cough out bits of tar that had slithered their way down his throat. He opened his eyes, wiping away the tar that was stuck to his face to see Max covered in her Animal Ancestor magic, except it wasn’t just covering her body, but expanded away from her, creating a large magical golem. It looked like she was the center of a giant werewolf. One of its arms held a gauntlet that led from the forearm into three large blades.
John looked at the Undead Collective. It was still as large as when he had first entered it, but the heads and hands were no longer rapidly replacing themselves. Instead, it felt to John like the creature was less than it had been; it wasn’t overflowing with a surplus of undead souls.
Max held John in the air with one hand around her shoulder, while she moved quickly, the magical werewolf construct moving with her. She used the giant claw blade arm to crash the creature into the ground. It writhed and wriggled like a worm as it struggled, pinned to the ground.
“Max, what the hell is this?” John asked.
“You are my master. I am your retainer. We share a bond. You went into the tar. I felt a power I have never held in my life. This is the result,” she said.
“How long can you hold this?”
“Not much longer,” she said, her voice strained.
“Grapple the creature, quick!”
Max grabbed the creature, holding it in a bear hug. John reached out and put his arm that had the Slaver’s whip still coiled around it into the tar. His body spasmed as he stuck his hand back into the giant power outlet. Max struggled to hold the monster, but she managed. John felt skeletons grab at his hands greedily, clawing for him, and he healed them. Slowly, the size of the creature started to dissipate and shrink as John healed the thousands of souls inside it and robbed it of its mana until it was nothing more than a slug wiggling on the ground. Max raised a large foot and squished it with her magical construct. John could have sworn he caught the hint of a smile when she did.
Max used the last of the excess energy from their bond to claw at the Earth, raising a slab of rock for them to rest on while they readied themselves to cross the rest of the Tar Sea, with far less difficulty now that the guardian of the hellish area was removed.
John and Max rested for only a few hours. Neither of them wanted to fall asleep in the Tar Sea and, instead, made their way across it using John’s God Step. Both of them moved slower, their muscles aching, their minds sluggish, and their eyes drooping as night descended. It almost became impossible to see which way was up or to judge distance as the pitch-black tar reflected all the stars in the sky.
It was difficult to differentiate between the sky an
d the ground. John felt himself nodding off several times. There was no noise as they ran; running on compressed air had that effect, and the endless expanse of the starlit sky above and below them stretching to the horizon left John mesmerized as his eyelids grew heavy, begging him to let them fall.
“Master!” Max yelled.
John snapped awake to see they were falling, and he quickly grabbed Max’s hand, activating the God Step again. They both stood on air between the clear night sky and its reflection.
“Sorry, I nodded off there, but I’m fine now. Nothing like a quick plummet to your death to get the blood pumping,” John said, feigning laughter. Max did not laugh back.
“Let’s keep going. There’s got to be an end to this damn place sometime,” John said.
“How can you be so sure? This may be the edge of the world,” Max said solemnly.
“Worlds are round. They don’t have an edge,” John said matter-of-factly.
“How can you know?”
“Where I’m from, it’s taken as fact. Worlds are spherical.”
“Have you seen this?” Max asked.
“No. I wanted to,” John sighed as they ran. At least conversation would keep him from drifting off again. “I supposed that’s a pipe dream now. I doubt this place has a magical version of NASA lying around. All that hard work for nothing,” John said looking into the stars.
“I don’t understand.”
John turned to Max and wondered how much he could tell her about himself. She had saved his life and seemed like she was going to be sticking around him for a while. Besides, holding onto the secret was killing him inside.