Shattered Lands 2 The Fall Of Blackstone: A LitRPG Series

by Darren Pillsbury

  “Nor ever met one, I would surmise.”

  “It is well known,” Byrel said, “that your fairer-skinned brothers hate your kind. Not as much as they hate us, true… but a dark elf trying to persuade a forest elf to help a human? I would have better luck if I went naked to the castle gates and begged the sorcerer for the city back.”

  “I can talk to the dark elves, then,” Mira snapped.

  “Then the chances of your success might improve by, oh, say, one in a thousand.”

  “We don’t know that. Not until I try.”

  “Mira,” Daniel said, “I could use your help.”

  She stared at him coolly. “Could you use my help, or do you just think I can’t do it?”

  “No – ”

  “The whole point is to stop Eric. Wouldn’t it be better with a bigger army?”

  “I’m just saying – ”

  Byrel interrupted. “You can decide amongst yourselves what you will do. But I warn you, it is a fool’s errand.”

  “Where would I find the dwarves?” Daniel asked, trying to take some of the heat off of Mira.

  “Their largest concentration is in the Kingdom of Morril, of course,” another knight said.

  “Where’s that?” Daniel asked impatiently.

  “You seriously don’t know?”

  “I’m not from around here.”

  “It is not far by the flight of your griffin,” Byrel said. “We shall have someone draw you a map. You can navigate by sight as you fly.”

  “And where would I find the elves? Dark elves,” Mira amended.

  Every knight stared at her.

  “You wish to convince your own kind, and yet you do not know where they live?” one man asked.

  “I’m not from around here, either,” Mira snarled.

  “Fine,” Byrel said. “We’ll draw up two maps. You both should leave as soon as possible.”

  “Tonight?”

  “That would be as soon as possible,” Byrel said drily.

  “Is it that far away?”

  “Not on the back of a griffin – but it might be better to leave under cover of night, rather than risk attracting the attention of a certain dragon,” Byrel said

  “Where do we meet back up?” Daniel asked.

  “On the Northern road, where it crosses the River Tlannon. What forces we can persuade to fight will meet there at dawn in three days.”

  “Draw up the maps,” Daniel agreed, “and we’ll set out tonight.”

  Just then, a foot soldier raced up to the group.

  “M’lords – the sorcerer has declared himself king,” the man cried out.

  “Well… now we have confirmation of what we all knew would happen,” Byrel said in disgust. He looked out at the group, and lastly at Mira and Daniel. “Let us make haste, my fellow warriors, lest in a week’s time he declare himself king of all the Shattered Lands.”

  67

  After each knight was given a different kingdom to approach for their help, the meeting broke up. Byrel and the others dispersed to begin their separate treks, and Daniel and Mira set off through camp to return to their griffins.

  Foot soldiers and riders were organizing into separate groups for their night marches to other kingdoms. There were a half-dozen different races amongst their ranks – humans, Taurians, wolf-creatures, and orcs, though humans were predominant.

  There were also a few elves and dwarves. If Byrel were to be believed about the two races, though, that probably made them players rather than NPCs.

  Twilight had fallen, and the gloom under the forest canopy was deep. No campfires broke the darkness; only dim shafts of moonlight found their way through the trees.

  Daniel and Mira walked silently for a while amongst the soldiers making ready for departure.

  Mira finally said, “You lied to me.”

  He knew exactly what she was talking about. The first time she’d seen the sword – on the quest to the Mines of Alark – she had asked about it, and he’d told her he’d stolen it from Merridack.

  “You should have told me,” she said accusingly.

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Daniel took a deep breath and exhaled. “…because I was ashamed.”

  She looked at him curiously. “Why?”

  He frowned. “What do you mean, ‘why’? I robbed somebody, Eric killed an old man, and I helped him cover it up.”

  “As much as I hate when Eric says it, he has a point: this is a game.”

  “So?”

  “So you can live out lives here that you wouldn’t in the real world. You can try things. You can make mistakes and there aren’t any consequences.”

  “Ask Byrel if there weren’t any consequences,” Daniel said bitterly.

  “Again, as much as I hate it when Eric says it… Byrel’s a computer program. He’s not real. If he acts sad, it’s because he was programmed to act sad. He doesn’t actually feel anything.”

  “That doesn’t mean we should go around murdering people just because they’re computer programs.”

  “I didn’t say you should. But I think you can cut yourself some slack… since it’s a game,” she said as she pushed his arm lightly.

  Daniel smiled, but it quickly faded. “What if the game brings out your true nature, though?”

  “I think it does, eventually – which you should remember, because you risked your life to help thousands of people today.”

  “But what about the robbery?”

  “You just said ‘what if the game brings out your true nature.’ Doesn’t mean you’re going to act the same every minute of every day, or that you won’t do some bad things along the way. We all do. We all act selfish sometimes. We all lose our tempers, we all hurt people. But in the end… your true nature comes out.”

  “So you’re not… disgusted or disappointed at what I did?”

  “It’s a game, dude. You were training as a thief. Eric was training as an assassin. Was it the most wonderful thing you could have done? No. But look at where you are now.”

  “And look at where Eric is.”

  “Yeah,” Mira muttered. “Talk about the game bringing out your true nature.”

  “So what were you upset about, if you don’t care about the robbery?”

  Mira stopped, and Daniel turned back to look at her. They were about fifty feet beyond the edge of camp, alone amongst the trees.

  “Because you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. You thought I’d judge you, so you shut me out. That sucks.”

  Daniel nodded. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

  “…okay.” Mira smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Friends?”

  He smiled back, took off his metal glove, and extended his bare hand to shake. “Friends.”

  “Aaah, screw that noise,” she said, and walked over and gave him a hug.

  He was surprised, but he put his arms around her.

  He knew that it couldn’t have felt very good to her to hold him, what with his hard armor. But his ungloved hand was touching her bare back, and he was struck by the warmth of her skin in the cool night air… the softness of her long, silver hair as it brushed against his fingers…

  As they stopped hugging, he stepped back the slightest bit to look at her face.

  She stared up at him, her yellow eyes searching his. Her lips were slightly parted.

  Daniel’s heart pounded in his chest, and he slowly leaned in.

  She did the same –

  And then a voice spoke up out of thin air. “I hate to interrupt this touching scene, but I think we should confer.”

  Mira sighed in exasperation.

  “Dr. Wolff,” Daniel said, letting his own irritation showing through.

  “Well done with Byrel.”

  “No thanks to you,” Mira said snippishly.

  “SOMEONE told me not to intervene,” Rebecca snapped.

  “Wait – could you have intervened?” Daniel asked. “Could you influence Byrel
in any way?”

  “No. The… other party working with Eric has locked out dozens of protocols. I can’t sway NPCs one way or another.”

  “So everything that happened where we convinced them – that all that was us?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes.”

  Daniel raised his eyebrows as he smiled at Mira. “Not bad, huh?”

  “Not bad at all,” Mira said, then looked up at the empty air. “So why are you contacting us?”

  “To remind you that your goal is not to go convince a bunch of NPC dwarves and elves to fight in a war, but to convince Eric he needs to give himself up.”

  “We’re getting around to that,” Daniel said, annoyed.

  “We LITERALLY just walked out of camp,” Mira said. “Can’t you give us at least a couple of minutes?”

  “Well, there WAS something else I thought you should know.”

  “Aaaand what’s that?”

  “You’re being stalked by three non-NPCs.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows shot up. “What?!”

  Suddenly a huge shape stepped out of the darkness, and an ax blade pressed up against his throat.

  Mira reached for her bow, but a sword tip appeared right under her chin.

  Both Daniel and Mira froze as a thickly accented voice spoke from out of the darkness.

  “Vhat is up, bitches.”

  68

  “…Drogar?!” Mira said in shock.

  The hulking shadow stepped into the moonlight, revealing the barbarian’s craggy features and long, black hair.

  “And Vlisil,” a voice said much closer to the ground.

  “And Lotan,” someone whined from the shadows right next to Mira.

  Moonlight glinted off the sword threatening Mira. It was wavy-bladed – which meant it was the droth’s.

  Drogar, Vlisil, and Lotan were the three human players who had accompanied Daniel, Eric, and Mira on the ill-fated quest to the Mines of Alark.

  Well, they were human outside of the game. Inside the game they were a barbarian, a goblin, and a humanoid fish-like creature.

  Daniel felt a weird mix of emotions. Happiness to see his three former companions alive – but he could have done without the battle ax at his neck. He’d had a few too many weapons pointed at his jugular today.

  “I’d say it’s really good to see you guys, but the weapons are making it a little weird,” Daniel said.

  “Not so goot to see you, Daniel.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mira asked.

  “What’s with leaving us for dead in the mines?” Vlisil hissed.

  “Yeah,” Lotan whined.

  Daniel could see the two of them better now – Vlisil’s green face and woolen-capped head, and Lotan’s fish-like head and lanky body.

  “We didn’t!” Mira protested.

  “You guys you were already dead,” Daniel said. “We would have taken your bodies out, but we were getting chased – ”

  “Vhat about me? The lahst thing I remember before I respawned was your little ahss-hole friend making a freakeeng Cthulhu come out of my chest.” The barbarian pronounced it kah-TOOL-hoo.

  “That wasn’t us – that was Eric!” Daniel argued. “We fought him after that happened! He tried to kill us with his dragon! He even possessed me with a demon and tried to make me kill Mira!”

  “…really?” Lotan said in ‘gee willikers’ kind of voice.

  “And yet, here you are,” Vlisil jeered, “safe and sound.”

  “I wouldn’t say ‘safe and sound,’ exactly,” Mira said, eyeing Lotan’s sword.

  “Did you die?” Vlisil demanded.

  “No…”

  “Then I’d say you got off pretty light, then.”

  “We waited around for hours for you to respawn,” Daniel said. “We even logged out and came back online when your lock-out period should have been over, but you never showed up.”

  “That’s funny,” Vlisil said in a tone of voice that suggested he didn’t find it funny at all. “Because when we respawned, WE all respawned together – but the two of you were nowhere to be found!”

  “We left horses for you at the mine!” Mira said, becoming more irritated by the second. “AND supplies! Did you get those?!”

  “That’s true,” Lotan said to the others in his whiny voice. “They did leave us stuff.”

  Vlisil grumbled like he had to concede the point.

  “Vhat did you do after we were dead?” Drogar demanded. “Did you split all da loot with Eric?”

  “No, you asshole – we came back here to fight him!” Mira snapped.

  “How?”

  “With this.”

  Mira’s griffin crashed down through the treetops and thudded to the forest floor ten feet away, flapping its wings and screeching.

  The barbarian, goblin, and droth nearly fell over themselves as they stumbled backwards.

  “HOLY CRAHP!” Drogar yelled.

  “What the hell?!” Vlisil shrieked.

  “I think I made a body of water in my pants,” Lotan whined.

  Daniel drew his sword, and Mira pulled out her bow and aimed an arrow at Drogar.

  “What up, bitches,” Mira said angrily.

  “That’s a very dramatic entry you keep making with the griffin,” Daniel said to Mira.

  “I know.”

  “I keep forgetting I have one, too.”

  “Yeah. Your best asset, and you’re totally under-using it.”

  Suddenly Daniel’s griffin crashed down beside Mira’s, sending Drogar, Vlisil, and Lotan screaming and scurrying backwards another five feet.

  The bird monsters both snarled with open beaks.

  “Dose are yours?!” Drogar asked in awe.

  “Yup.”

  “Where the hell did you get those things?!” Vlisil asked as he backed away even more.

  “We… have a little help. Dr. Wolff, can they hear you?”

  “They should be able to now,” Rebecca’s voice said.

  “Who’s dat?!” Drogar yelled, spinning around to see where the voice was coming from.

  “AAAH!” Vlisil screamed, swiping his sickle randomly in the air like he was trying to kill a fly.

  “More water in my pants,” Lotan whined.

  “This is Dr. Wolff, guys,” Daniel explained. “She’s a computer programmer.”

  “Computer scientist,” Rebecca said curtly.

  “Computer scientist, sorry. She works at Varidian with my dad.”

  The barbarian raised his eyebrows and nodded appraisingly. “She sounds hot.”

  At the same time, both Mira and Rebecca said,

  “Ugh.” “Ugh.”

  Mira looked a little surprised, like she hadn’t expected to ever agree with the scientist.

  “What’s she doing helping you?” Vlisil asked.

  “Eric’s teamed up with… somebody shady,” Daniel explained. “He hacked some of Varidian’s servers from my house, then he slaughtered half of Blackstone’s army and took over the throne. We’ve got to stop him before he does something even worse.”

  Drogar, Vlisil, and Lotan just stared at Daniel.

  “Wow… you log out for a day, and everything changes,” the goblin murmured.

  “Are you sheeting me?” Drogar asked, astounded. “He’s really keeng now?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That little piece of crahp…”

  “Can we all put down the weapons now?” Mira asked. “Seeing as we’ve established we’ve got a common enemy?”

  Drogar, Vlisil, and Lotan all looked at each other.

  “Yeah, but get those griffins away,” Vlisil said nervously. “They keep lookin’ at me weird.”

  “Haha – dey probably vant to eat you, doot,” the barbarian laughed.

  “Shut up!”

  Mira and Daniel had the griffins move about thirty feet away, and everyone gradually sheathed their weapons.

  “Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way, when did you guys get here?” Daniel asked. “
Did you fight in the battle?”

  “No, we literally just got here like thirty minutes ago,” Vlisil said. “We saw all the dead bodies, though – Eric did that?”

  “Yes.”

  “By himself?!”

  “No,” Mira said, “he’s got an army from Hell.”

  “Where’d he get ‘em?” Vlisil asked.

  “No… he literally got an army that came out of Hell.”

  “…oh,” Vlisil whispered.

  “Oh crahp,” Drogar muttered.

  Lotan just whined.

  “Yeah,” Mira said. “So – do you think we’re working with him now?”

  “No…” Lotan said in his wimpy voice.

  Vlisil slumped down. “Sorry about the… you know,” he said, gesturing to the sickle attached to his belt.

  “Yeah – my bad, doots,” Drogar said.

  “What are you going to do now?” Lotan asked.

  “What’s left of Blackstone’s army is leaving to go get different kingdoms to join in the fight,” Daniel explained. “Mira’s flying east to try to get the elves to join us, and I’m going to fly south to talk to the dwarves.”

  “Okay, I get she’s an elf,” Drogar said as he pointed to Mira, “but why are you go-ink to talk to dwarfs?”

  Lotan got it before Daniel could say anything. “Simik…”

  Daniel nodded. “We think the dwarves might help. Maybe.”

  “What should we do?” Vlisil asked.

  “Well, if you really want to fight Eric…”

  “HELL yah,” the barbarian said.

  “Definitely,” Vlisil agreed.

  “Um… okay…” Lotan whimpered, kind of going along with the flow.

  “If you could each go to wherever there are tons of your kind and ask if they’d fight, that could totally help. We need as many people to attack Eric as possible.”

  “You mean, like… goblins and droths?” Vlisil asked.

  “Yeah, and…” Mira looked at Drogar. “What kind of barbarian are you again?”

  “Hurokian. I guess I go to Hurokia, huh?”

  “Hurok, actually,” Rebecca said.

  Drogar looked up in the air from left to right, as though trying to find the source of the voice. “Dat’s freaky, man…”

  “We don’t know where our… ‘kind’ are,” Vlisil said.