Terramyr Online: The Undiscovered Country: A LitRPG Adventure

by Sam Ferguson

“Are you sure?” she pressed. “Once you march out to battle, there is no turning back.”

  The user interface opened, giving him one last chance to formally confirm his decision. He equipped the master assassin attire, as it gave him slightly better stats than the Morr’Tai foot soldier armor, and then he took in a steadying breath and closed his eyes.

  “Khefir, you better be right,” he said as he began the final quest.

  The HUD shrank away as Brian was pulled into a camera view that zoomed up and turned back toward the town of New Viverandon. Minotaurs pounded armor. Centaurs checked their bows. Satyrs crafted traps and catapults. The Fang warriors sharpened their blades, tightened their armor, and fell into formation. Many in the army rode upon horses, rhiquin, or strange, six-legged panther-like creatures, but the majority were on foot.

  The camera then flew upward and out across the treetops. In the distance rose a cliff that put all others Brian had ever seen to shame. It was a few hundred meters high with no climbable slopes around it. The entire mountain was like a mesa, except the top wasn’t flat, but instead had a peak jutting from the center. The sides slightly resembled Devil’s Tower with long, jagged vertical rows that looked like some giant monster had clawed the very stone. The cave opening was in the top third of the cliff and was large enough that two yeti kings could have easily fit inside at the same time.

  Before the cliff stretched a foggy patch of marshy ground bereft of trees. Scorch marks and long trenches dug by dragon claws marred the land, and no animals seemed willing to wander into the area. The camera flew toward the cave, offering just a peek inside before turning around once more and showing several large groups arriving at the marshy valley at the same time.

  From the east came Kyra’s Fangs. The warriors chanted a song to their goddess and beat on their shields like drums.

  “They aren’t with the others from New Viverandon,” Mike commented as the camera continued sweeping over the battlefield.

  From the northeast came the Stonefists, an entire army of Konnon men and women bedecked in full plate armor and carrying weapons of all kinds. A battalion of mages marched next to the soldiers, singing to Basei as they let off red and orange displays of fireballs that zipped and soared through the air.

  From the north came the heavily armed fighters of the Baltanian faction. They pushed catapults and mangonels into position as their knights rode upon tigers the size of elephants. Their foot soldiers were primarily satyrs wielding spears, bardiches, and halberds.

  From the northwest came the Greencaps. They had a mix of heavily armored warriors and lightly armored mages. The mages mostly used lightning, though some wielded fire. Their army was possibly the smallest of those come to join the battle.

  Next to the Greencaps came the Rionans, a faction that none of the group had interacted with much. To Brian’s displeasure, they housed an extremely large group of assassins within their ranks.

  Finally, from the west came the natural races that had allied themselves to Brian. The minotaurs took up the front, centaurs on the flanks and satyrs bringing up the rear with their machines.

  The camera sank down quickly, bringing Brian and the others not to either the natural races or the Fang warriors, but rather placing them at the front of the Greencap army.

  “Ah crap,” Chris muttered before the scene was over. “This sucks. This is total B.S.”

  Brian agreed, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. The camera zoomed back into their respective avatars and the trumpets began to sound.

  As agreed, the group stood still as the Greencaps sprinted forward. From the top of their hill overlooking the valley, Chris could see the Fang warriors charging in and turning decidedly northward as if trying to make their way through the Stonefists to reach them. The natural races also turned northward, clashing with the Rionans.

  “Actually, this might work in our favor,” Mike said. “Both the Rionans and Stonefists are flanked on both sides by enemies.”

  “We got trouble!” Chris shouted.

  Brian turned to see a contingent of Morr’Tai footmen cutting their way through the Greencap ranks. A nearby Greencap mage lifted his hand and showered a mess of ice spikes down on several Morr’Tai, killing one and injuring others, but a spear flew through the air and pierced the Greencap through the heart, ending his life and the rain of ice spikes.

  “FOR KHULLAN!” Chris shouted. Brian shook his head, but he understood the sentiment. Chris was scared, terrified even, and pretending that this was a game helped to take the edge off.

  Krestin and Augustin charged the Morr’Tai alongside Chris. Brian and Freya charged in just a couple seconds later. There were too many dots above the enemies to know exactly which one was an easy foe or challenging one. Experience-point messages seemed to be turned off for this battle too. One of the Morr’Tai footmen broke through the line and charged Brian with a spear. Brian blocked with Tontt’Hul and was amazed to see that it didn’t simply block the attack. It sliced through his opponent’s weapon and didn’t drain any of his stamina. Brian slashed across the man’s chest and smiled when the footman went down with one hit.

  Another broke through from the side, but Freya charged in and dispatched him with two quick hacks at the soldier.

  Chris dropped a cloaked assassin as Augustin ducked to allow Krestin to swing his axe and cut down another charging footman. Augustin then leapt up and cut down two more.

  A fire bolt hissed as it flew overhead and struck another footman in the face, dropping him instantly. One assassin scored a hit on Chris, but it was only a minor wound. The assassin ran as if to attack Brian. He held the katana up in a high guard, ready to strike, and Freya moved in from the side, but at the last moment the assassin veered off, then circled around them and went for Rhonda.

  “Rhonda!” Brian shouted.

  Little Man was there in a flash of blue fur and white fangs. The assassin was knocked to the ground and the wolf tore into his neck, viciously tearing and shaking until the assassin went limp. The wolf then turned and ran toward the front line, leaping over Augustin and Chris to take down three more soldiers on its own.

  “I’ll be all right, worry about yourself!” Rhonda shouted.

  Brian’s eyes were still locked on the wolf as it moved faster than Mike’s lightning bolts, tearing through the enemy ranks and scaring many of the Rionans from the field of battle.

  “Right...” Brian muttered. The group pressed forward. Chris, Augustin, and Krestin formed a tight wedge, Brian and Freya behind them. Little Man circled back around to rejoin Rhonda and focused on protecting the group’s flanks. Mike must have been close behind, because fire bolts and lighting streaked through the sky overhead, pushing the enemy back. They fought on, working their way through the Morr’Tai ranks easily at first. They had killed a couple dozen when Mike called out from the back.

  “We’re surrounded!”

  Brian turned around and saw that the Morr’Tai had in fact surrounded them, and not just with a few stragglers that managed to creep around, but with scores. Some of them seemed to pop up from holes in the ground, others emerged from behind bushes. It was as if their sneaking abilities had been enhanced for the final battle.

  “Back-to-back!” Mike shouted.

  Brian wasn’t sure that was the best idea, but the group circled up. Rhonda stood in the center of the circle, throwing out a couple of exploding potions that would send three or four enemies flying through the air as they let out blood-curdling screams. A couple of her potions appeared to be noxious smoke. They’d pop and fizz when she threw them, then green and yellow gasses would fill the immediate area and send the Morr’Tai coughing and sputtering away. Some would drop dead, but most survived.

  Little Man snarled and continued to dash in and around the circle, taking down anyone he could. A couple of footmen charged with swords. Freya took a hit but then killed her enemy. Brian was luckier, blocking his foe’s attacks with speed he hadn’t before possessed in the game. Whether it was a
function of his adrenaline, his increased level and abilities, or the sword from Khefir he couldn’t be sure, but he wasn’t going to question it now. He hacked and slashed at the swordman until he fell at his feet, and then he repeated it with the next enemy, and the next.

  A loud explosion shook the area and a flash of white flame erupted just feet in front of him. At first he thought it might be the dragon, but then he realized that it had been one of Rhonda’s potions. There was a hole in the sea of enemies now. A scorch mark had ripped the marshy grass from the area and bodies littered the immediate vicinity.

  Before the gap refilled with Morr’Tai soldiers, a heavy, low horn sounded from the south and then people screamed and cried out in pain. A massive minotaur bellowed with rage as he charged through the enemy ranks, picking up several fighters and trampling countless more as he plowed through them.

  “Reinforcements!” Mike shouted.

  “Bout time!” Chris cried out. The group was soon enveloped by a group of heavily armored minotaurs.

  “Come with us,” one of them shouted at Brian.

  “Let’s move!” Brian commanded the others.

  Rhonda started dealing out potions and Mike did what he could with his minor healing spells to get people back to full HP as they rushed down deeper into the marshy valley.

  “This isn’t the plan!” Mike called out. “We’re supposed to hang back until the dragon comes out.”

  “We’d be fighting a sea of Morr’Tai,” Brian argued. “There’s no way we’d survive much longer. Look there!” He pointed to the Fang warriors that had taken a hill just a hundred yards north of the valley’s center. The minotaurs were heading to the hill as well, escorting Brian and the others to the best-defended high ground.

  Overhead there were massive stones and firebombs hurled by catapults from all directions. They exploded with tremendous force, shaking the ground and erupting with thick walls of smoke.

  “We’ll be exposed in the middle,” Mike said.

  “No, look,” Rhonda called out. They all looked to the east as the smoke cleared in the light breeze and saw that most of the Fangs were directly engaged with the Stonefists, and the Baltanians had apparently joined forces with the Greencaps to attack the Stonefists from the other direction. It was like the Stonefists were caught in a vise of steel and magic. Brian glanced back to the Morr’Tai. Most of them were dead, and the Rionans were fully engaged with centaurs scourging their flanks, minotaurs ripping through their center, and satyr-operated catapults pummeling the rear.

  The fight was going much better than Brian had anticipated.

  The group reached the top of the hill and surveyed the area.

  “Um... guys,” Augustin said. “I think round two is about to start.”

  Brian turned around and looked up to the cavern in the cliff. A long snout emerged from the cave, followed by a serpentine neck covered in light green scales underneath and dark, forest-green scales on the sides. It curled its neck downward, peering at the valley with hungry, red eyes. Smoke snaked from its nostrils as it snarled softly, pulling back its upper lip to reveal fangs so large that Brian could see them easily from his position. The dragon arched its neck upward as it pulled in a breath, then it quickly extended its neck, opened its mouth, and roared so loudly that all the fighting stopped and the whole valley shook terribly.

  Warriors screamed in terror across the valley, many of them turning and fleeing the field.

  “Guys! My avatar won’t move!” Rhonda shouted. “There’s a weird icon of a person shivering on my HUD. Am I frozen?”

  “No, no, you aren’t shivering from cold, the dragon terrified you,” Mike said. “Don’t worry, we’ll stay close.”

  Most of the minotaurs and Fang warriors held their ground as the dragon gripped the edge of the cave with its forelegs.

  Catapults and arrows now turned at the cave and fired. Most of the missiles fell miserably short of the cave. The few that managed to reach the dragon appeared to do nothing to it. The beast pulled itself through the opening, and then, just as it appeared it was about to fall, it propelled itself with its hind legs and stretched massive wings that cast a shadow across the entire valley. It was about a hundred feet long from snout to tail. Brian studied the proportions and estimated the neck to be slightly shorter than twenty feet long, the tail about twenty, and the body right around sixty. Each set of claws could easily rip through animal and human alike, and the scales shone like granite shields.

  The HP bar appeared and Brian about had a heart attack. It stretched from one side of his HUD to the other. The background music, which he had turned off for his gaming, broke through with a heavy metal band backed by choral vocals as the dragon circled through the air and poured flame across the ground.

  The Rionans were the first to get destroyed, losing everyone that hadn’t already fled except for maybe fifty Morr’Tai fighters.

  A flurry of magical fire, ice, and lightning erupted from every mage in the valley, including Mike. Those blasts were followed shortly by a volley of arrows. Unlike the first barrage fired at the cave, most of these struck their mark. The HP bar dropped by maybe five percent, but that still left an awful lot of HP.

  “Brian, use the other choke berry poison. Prep an arrow and kill the dragon!”

  “No, wait,” Augustin shouted. “If he misses, we’ll never get the arrow back, or if it hits the dragon might simply deflect it with his armor.”

  Brian hadn’t really intended on using the poison, but Augustin had a point. “The scales are too thick. Most of the arrows are bouncing off harmlessly.

  A catapult caught the dragon in the eye with a massive stone. The HP bar dropped only a bit, but the dragon was forced to land. It shook its head violently, then turned and bathed the eastern side of the valley in flame. Kyra’s Fangs, Stonefists, Blatanians, and Greencaps were all caught in the flame. Screams filled the air, nearly drowning out the sound of the dragon’s breath weapon as it flooded the valley.

  It then turned eastward and breathed through its snout, exhaling a strangely, thick green cloud. Soon there were Fang warriors sputtering and choking.

  “Poison breath!” Mike called out.

  “I can move again!” Rhonda said. “Here, take these!” She handed out two antidote potions to each person in the group.

  “To battle!” one of the minotaurs shouted.

  The whole group rushed from the hill.

  “We should go too!” Brian shouted.

  Chris, Augustin, and Krestin formed the wedge, and everyone took up the same positions they had before.

  “Douse that blade in poison!” Mike ordered.

  The whole battlefield seemed to find its willpower at the same time. All around them warriors were charging in. Catapults struck the beast along the wings, magic pelted it from all sides, and knights charged in on every imaginable beast that could carry a warrior.

  Above the tall minotaurs, Brian could see the massive tail rise up and flick out to the side. It came down with a heavy thawump! The screams of the dying rang out briefly, and then the dragon jerked its tail backward, sending bodies flying toward the cliff.

  Knights charged in ahead of Brian and the group, cutting, stabbing, and hacking at the dragon’s legs. The dragon slapped at the knights, knocking rhiquin, giant tigers, horses, and all their riders aside as easily as if they had been nothing more than rag dolls.

  Turning its head, the dragon smothered the field in poison gas again. This time the heavy cloud slammed into Brian and the others, slowing them down and ultimately forcing them to their knees.

  “Antidote!” Rhonda said. She first gave one to Little Man, and then to herself. Brian quickly used his, as did the others. They rose up along with about half of the minotaurs. The others died there in the marsh, unable to breathe or move.

  The dragon lurched upward and spread its wings, but heavy ballista launchers fired a score of thick missiles attached to heavy chains. These barbed missiles ripped through the dragon’s wings and
held the monster to the ground. It snarled and hissed as the heroes continued their charge.

  A second wave of knights hit the dragon’s right foreleg. A scale fell from it and weapons began hacking at the exposed flesh. The HP bar started to drop significantly.

  “There!” Mike said. “Get the poison to that exposed area!”

  Brian found the final bottle of choke berry juice in his inventory and was about to apply it to his blade when the memory of the fiasco with the poisoned arrow in the yeti king’s cave surfaced. He would hold off until the right moment. He didn’t want to waste this hit.

  The dragon whipped its tail around, sending another half dozen creatures through the air. It then snapped its jaws shut around a pair of rhiquin and their riders. The dragon’s HP went up as a result.

  “HEAVE!” someone shouted in the distance. The heavy ropes attached to the barbed missiles started tightening as the ballista launchers drew in the slack.

  The dragon howled in pain as its wings tore. Its HP went down by a whole third as a result, and then the beast’s HP bar flashed red.

  “Oh crap!” Mike shouted just as they reached the left foreleg. The massive claws rose upward and ripped two minotaurs from the ground in one swoop.

  “MOVE!” Chris shouted. Everyone dove to the left as the dragon turned and spewed its fire westward, catching several ballista launchers and destroying them, along with the ropes attached to the barbed bolts and the crews that had operated them.

  The dragon then turned and stepped forward, its right foreleg landing just inches from Brian’s foot. He quickly rolled to his feet, jumped up, and slashed the dragon across the exposed flesh.

  The HP bar dropped noticeably, but not enough to seriously injure it.

  “Watch out!” Freya called.

  Brian turned around as two assassins came at him. He dodged left, slicing one across the abdomen and killing him, but caught a dagger to the chest from the second. His HP dropped to two thirds.

  Freya rushed in and finished the second assassin off.

  “They’re still coming after us!?” Chris shouted. “This is absurd!”