End Online: Volume 5

by D Wolfin

  Verde and Sir Laurence log in just after I do. They take two steps back in surprise and cover their eyes to block the falling snow. It doesn’t take long to adjust to the storm and they slowly uncover their faces.

  “Welcome back,” I say to them as they acclimate to the storm.

  Sir Laurence nods his head curtly, his cold attitude having returned upon entering the game. Verde sports a sour expression that is completely new to me and doesn’t respond. Her scrunched up face is surprisingly cute to look at and I sneak a few glances at her. Perhaps Fen notices this, as she suddenly grabs onto my arm with an iron grip.

  “Mason and Matrix are still in Grenton, aren’t they?” Verde asks suddenly with a voice that causes me to shiver.

  Wondering what it is they did wrong to Verde, I decide to abandon them to their fate. “I assume they are. The last time I heard from Mason, he and his brother were defending the city quite valiantly.”

  “Good, we’re going to Grenton.”

  “What? Why are we going to Grenton?”

  “To kill them.”

  “What did they do wrong?”

  “Nothing. I have some frustration to take out. Now let’s go.”

  Sir Laurence watches from the side as Verde states her mind and walks off. Knowing the area we are in, I try telling her that she is actually walking south, not north. I am rewarded by her physically throwing a dagger at me which flies toward my head with incredible accuracy and I am only saved by a small ice shield deflecting it at the last moment. I thank Fen dearly for it, but Verde is clearly in an extremely poor mood.

  At least Verde hears me and we begin walking north. Due to the war currently going on between the three kingdoms, there were very few players to the east of the city, but there are plenty to the north. The further north we travel, the more players there are. Most players are in groups of at least four, trying to make their way to Grenton discreetly. Of course, it isn’t very discreet when no matter where you look there is at least one group of players.

  Two arrows and a fireball are the greeting we get from the first opposing group of players we encounter. We haven’t even left the frigid climate of the Kingdom of Glace when they ambush us. At least we aren’t alone, several other groups are suffering attacks as well.

  A second volley comes shortly after the first, but we are prepared for it and dodge the attacks while using their trajectory to locate the position of the attackers. We only lose a small amount of health before successfully tracing the attacks back to a group of four hiding in some nearby bushes. It isn’t a bad hiding spot; if they hadn’t attacked, we would have walked right past them unaware.

  The players are between level 100 and 150 judging by their attacks. Either that or they have extremely low stats for their level, which isn’t uncommon among certain groups of players.

  The enemy party only remove ten percent of our health thanks to Sir Laurence’s shield tactics before we wipe them out. The party leader also drops his ‘Unique’ magic staff, which is a happy surprise.

  Elusive Staff of Flame

  This staff is said to be crafted from the oak of a ten thousand year old tree which developed its own wisdom. Late at night, this staff may whisper to you.

  Requirements:

  ~ Level 115

  ~ Int 42

  ~ Dex 27

  Weapon Type: Staff/Two Handed

  Attack: 52-60

  Durability: 65/65

  Weight: 11.3 lbs

  Abilities:

  ~ Increases damage of fire spells by 35%

  ~ Increases movement speed by 8%

  I have found many better weapons than the one dropped by the defeated party leader, but this is still good and will sell for a small amount of money. I inwardly laugh to myself as we split the gold dropped by the group and continue heading north.

  The second group we meet is along the border of the two kingdoms, in a thicket of bamboo-like trees where the snow begins to thaw. This group sticks to the bamboo area, using the surroundings to enhance their battle tactics by jumping between the stalks above our heads and slashing long katanas at us from our blind spots.

  I try to use ‘Backstab’ and Fen launches several spears of ice at them, but they are simply moving too fast to hit. As soon as I appear behind one, they are already several meters away and I have wasted my stamina.

  My health, along with everyone else’s, is slowly whittled away over the next ten minutes. I finally end up having enough and throw multiple dire flame fireballs around the area, burning down the bamboo and trapping the enemy on the ground. Hellfire-red flame slowly spreads around the base of the forest, burning down the bamboo shoots one after another. The enemy are utterly shocked and aghast at my actions while I keep telling myself how the victors write the history books.

  The players from Grenton shout out all sorts of profanities and curses at my actions as we overwhelm them with speed on the ground and start cutting them down. The dire flames in the area do barely any damage to the players as they have an extremely large amount of health. My dire flame attacks are great in that the fire can’t be extinguished with conventional means, but at the same time the damage it deals per second is extremely small. I’ve also noted that it is much slower to spread than normal fire.

  This group of enemies doesn’t drop any equipment upon death, but they do leave nearly a thousand gold coins for us to split. The money is obviously from them killing players from Iceridge here. They were a very formidable group with a good tactic between them.

  Four more groups and a super-levelled solo player attack us while we ambush three more over the next several days. Verde’s mood also hasn’t improved at all during this time, resulting in her being frighteningly aggressive against every group we attack or get attacked by.

  While travelling, the items I auctioned sell as well. I excitedly check the final price of the items after a personal alarm signals the end of the final auction. The four main pieces of equipment sell for prices that cause my jaw to unhinge.

  Violet Flame Shamshir - $1040

  Inflammation Axe of Carnage - $1220

  Venomous Scorpion Tail Whip - $880

  Emperor Rahad's Sceptre - $3280

  The myriad of lesser items sells poorly in comparison. Only half of the items sold for a cumulative amount of 200 dollars. I relist the others automatically, but don’t really expect them to sell.

  After travelling for nine days and fighting ten more parties of players from Grenton, the capital city finally becomes visible in the distance. I can see the main army from Icebreak, or at least the remaining forty percent of the initial siege force, swarming one of Grenton’s main gates. I overhear a nearby passing group of players say that an enormous force from Swordbreak is assaulting the gate on the other side of the city at the same time.

  A single small group like ours can’t affect the war much from the outside, but a sinister plot begins to unfold in my mind as we approach from a different side: Eldenweiss Forest.

  “You all have your ‘Necklace of the Elves’, right?” I ask Verde and Sir Laurence, causing them to sigh helplessly as I equip mine.

  “You’re forgetting we didn’t participate in that quest. That was when Verde went missing and I went to join the church and become stronger.” Sir Laurence shoots a quick glance at Fen, but thankfully doesn’t comment on the root cause of Verde’s absence.

  “Ah, sorry. Well I have one and Fen is with us, so it should be alright.”

  We head around the battle and into Eldenweiss forest, which most people still consider to be impassable thanks to the disorientation spell that is active within. Due to my having a ‘Necklace of the Elves’, our entire party becomes exempt from the illusion and passes through it effortlessly. The elven village is the same as when we left it, only abandoned, but is not our destination. I am also feeling incredibly guilty that the large burnt down section of the forest still exists.

  Twilight arrives before we manage to reach Grenton’s walls. We follow the wall to the
south for a while then double back and travel north until we find the small tunnel in the wall that Verde followed the innkeeper’s daughter out of. Thanks to this, we successfully infiltrate the capital city Grenton.

  Inside the city, the lights along the streets flicker into life as the stars begin to shine in the night sky. The city appears to come alive as the upper levels also have the street light lit.

  “Lost, I know that we are at war but that does not mean you can use your fire magic in this town. Understand?” Sir Laurence furrows his brows, almost as if he thinks that I’m some kind of pyromaniac.

  I laugh it off, and explain to him, “I learned my lesson last time. Also, I still have a bounty here so let us not alert them to the fact I am here.”

  “Hee, that may be a good way to relieve some of my stress,” Verde laughs heartily for the first time in several days and I feel slightly insecure as a result.

  ‘What are you, a sadist?’ I think, without saying it out loud, of course.

  There is very little room to hide in the city apart from the back alleys, but anyone skulking around them would arouse immediate suspicion. We decide to approach the problem with the concept of hiding in plain sight. Walking down the center of the street with our kingdom’s symbols on the backs of our hands casually hidden by placing our hands behind our backs or in a pocket, not a single player gives us a second look. Some people stare at the girls for a second or two, especially Fen, but not out of suspicion.

  “Fen, you must promise me that the moment it gets dangerous, you will immediately flee and log off,” I say as seriously as possible to the girl hanging off my arm. “That includes if there are too many enemies together.”

  The wolf girl seems reluctant, but agrees after I press her a few more times.

  Speaking to Verde and the prince now, I say, “Also, once the fighting starts, we will split up in groups of two to have a better chance of at least some of us escaping. I’m sure you realize this is practically a suicide mission?”

  Verde responds with a smile devoid of happiness. “We are only here to kill Mason, and Matrix if possible, then we can escape. It isn’t like we are fighting against Grenton’s defending army.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Just remember everyone in this city is an enemy.”

  We walk toward the east gate, which is the nearest, when someone finally recognizes us.

  “Lost! Oh my god, is that you!? What are the chances of seeing you here!?” A man in his mid-thirties with a broadsword strapped to his back bigger than he is shouts out excitably to me.

  I immediately panic and make sure to hide the symbol of Glace on my right hand. Following the man’s unnecessarily loud declaration that I am here, more people take notice of us.

  “My goddess, Fen, is here! Fen, please look at me!”

  “Fen, please be my wife! I will do anything for you, even-” The second person is cut off by several ice spears immediately skewering him to the ground.

  Several others start gathering around us and make comments about the various people from our party, until one person states the one thing I feared, “Aren’t you people from the kingdom of Glace?”

  Everyone’s voice trails off and is replaced by silence until, with a smile, I utter the words, “Kill them all.”

  Fen and I are the first to jump into action. I leave faint after images behind as I move from one person to the next slashing with the ‘Twin Nightingale’ at critical locations such as the neck and knees, even the wrists of some people that appear to be archers. The critical hits don’t disable them, but slow down their actions for a while.

  Fen’s ice formations become a beautiful sight that mesmerize the attackers and cause them to halt their actions. Two ice daggers materialize in her hands and what appear to be rose petals made of ice rain down from the sky around her. These razor sharp crystalline petals follow the movements of her arms and flow around her with a gentle ebb. She follows my actions, using the high speed of a high class boss monster to stab and slash as many people as possible. The ice petals around her form a natural defense even as they attack, damaging not only the people that get too close to her, but the people she closes in on as well.

  The players from Grenton soon overcome their shock and respond to our attack. Several panicked shouts and death-screams from the weaker players alert everyone that the enemy is inside the city. Some people even shout out our names, alerting everyone who we are as well. The memory of the bounty on my head causes me instant mental grief and I begin to regret coming here.

  I notice Verde and Sir Laurence out of the corner of my eye, fighting the endless reinforcements coming in from behind. Verde is slashing and stabbing the players, causing grief-stricken faces as they are disabled in ways my character can’t manage. Sir Laurence protects her, thrusting his shield at every attack aimed at her. Despite this, some still manage to slip through and damage her.

  Just as I am thankful that all the players fighting us are low level and weak, karma brings stronger players to the fight.

  A player dressed in heavy armor violently thrusts out a kite shield with the image of a serpent on it. I barely have time to react before it hits me and knocks me back with a five second stun effect. The weak players take this opportunity to hack and slash at me with their crude weapons. A single strike does very little damage, but a hundred of them causes my health to plummet.

  Fen reacts violently to my predicament by forming an ice wall in front of me and dropping a dozen stalagmites as large as an elephant on the beginners. I see her mana in my peripheral view drop sharply from the attack, but the weak players are killed off in droves and the ground becomes covered in gold coins. Some players even stop attacking to pick them up.

  “Fen, time for you to escape!” I order as soon as the stun wears off.

  The wolf girl adamantly refuses, but her mana is down to twenty percent and her health is starting to drop. Reinforcements keep coming as well. She eventually agrees to leave, joining Verde and Sir Laurence to create a hole in the encirclement and allow her to escape into a small alley. Some players break off to chase after her, but I know they will never catch her when she is running as fast as she is able. Despite that, I still harbor a bit of anxiety for her.

  Sir Laurence heals Verde and himself, but ignores me to save mana. The chauvinist act is almost as disgusting as the high quality home-brew potions I am forced to drink to stay in the fight. I even break my word and use ‘Dire Flame’, which wreaks havoc among the low level players and even spreads to some of the nearby buildings. My belief in the religion of Grael quickly rises as a result of all the players dying from fire damage and the scene soon includes the carnage of flame and dead bodies.

  With Fen gone, the endless tide of people swarming in overwhelms us as our mana runs out. Despite holding out for half an hour since the beginning of the battle, Sir Laurence is the first to die, using the last of his mana to give one final heal to Verde.

  Verde looks down at his body with contempt, picking up and stealing the helmet and money he dropped on death.

  “You must kill him. Kill Mason,” Verde says to me before she also falls in battle.

  I drink more of my potions and restore my health to almost half. Now the players are going to attack me from every direction, which I cannot possibly survive.

  ‘And she still expects me to kill Mason?’ I huff in exasperation and defeat while looking at what must be about three hundred players filling the street and surrounding me. ‘We should have gone with the alleys. Surely that would have had more luck than this?’

  I’m not about to give up without a fight, however. Even though I am surrounded with about five meters between me and an angry sea of players, I once again sprint to one side, leaving afterimages behind me and slashing at three players who turn out to be high level and suffer little damage. I think of using ‘Back Stab’ to break out of the encirclement, but I know the skill won’t work on a player as far away as the back of the crowd.

  Just as the sword of one of
the players comes swinging down toward me, it cuts through an afterimage as I dash toward the other side of the encirclement, which is rapidly shrinking. The players there expect me to appear and raise their swords, axes, spears and bows. Just before I reach the players, I jump in the air as high as possible and extend the short swords out beside me like a pair of pitch black wings.

  The players stare in amazement as I glide through the air five meters above everyone, rapidly approaching the back of the crowd that nearly had me trapped. Several arrows whiz through the air to narrowly miss me as escape appears in reach. My attention shifts slightly when I notice a large group of the city guards mixed in with the players.

  As I start losing altitude, an arrow of pure wind assaults me. The arrow has a wide area effect, preventing me from escaping by knocking me off balance and dispelling my gliding ability. I crash onto the hard packed dirt road and sustain heavy damage from the fall.

  Just as I am wondering what in hell just happened, I hear a familiar voice, “When I heard you were in Grenton attacking innocent citizens, I couldn’t help but disbelieve, but I was soon convinced and rushed here as fast as I could. I wouldn’t normally engage you one on one even when you are exhausted, but sometimes just the right opportunity presents itself!”

  Of course, it’s Mason, gloating with his head held high. Everyone else around is now keeping some distance and not attacking due to the dozens of city guards standing behind Mason. Just looking at them causes my face to pale.

  “You know, those are the words of someone who is going to lose.” I laugh at Mason sinisterly, trying to buy time while I work out how to kill him.

  “Unfortunately this isn’t some fantasy novel, else I would be a little scared. Matrix, hit him till he is nearly dead and can’t move, but don’t kill him. Hah hah hah!”

  “What’s so funny? You’re plotting something, aren’t you?”

  “If I just kill you, you’ll revive in three days. That won’t be much of a punishment for challenging me on my home turf and causing such an uproar in the city. Had I known you guys were coming, I would have had Matrix watch that hole in the wall I’m sure you crawled in through.”