Digitized Online

by Richard J Thorn

  We all stared at Orge. Was this real?

  Clint cleared his throat. "So, what happens when all these dots are gone?"

  Everyone - even Trexxa - leaned closer to hear his answer.

  "That's when we make our final stand. And we better fucking be ready." He explained with a seriousness in his voice that I'd never heard before. "The highest creature in the game is a red dragon. Level 105. The highest a player can go is 100. She can't hurt us outside the game world, but she can absolutely destroy us from the inside. We better fucking be ready."

  A few more minutes of last minute prep and we were ready to go. We were all scared as shit. No one really knew what they were doing, but we were doing it anyway. We had to.

  We tried to calculate if we could pull her adds without pulling her, but decided against it. We had exactly one chance to win the initiative against her. It was decided that Trexxa would hold the adds and we'd burn them down. I'd mark them, call out heals on her and make sure she keeps aggro on them.

  "You understand that, Trexxa?" I asked. "Your job is to hold aggro on those smaller spiders. We'll keep you healed up. Okay?"

  She nodded and hissed her agreement.

  Clint stepped forward. "I'll keep the big bitch entertained. Just hurry. I value my life too much." He smiled wryly.

  "You ready guys?" Orge whispered.

  Everyone nodded.

  "Okay, on my mark." He counted down from three. "Try to stay out of her web. Go!"

  I marked the closest baby spider and together as a team we all rushed into the room, Trexxa in the lead, her tail wagging furiously. Like a fucking pro, she ran around the room and gathered up all the smaller spiders - all five of them - and started wailing on each one.

  The spider queen screeched her disapproval and began shuffling around in her anger. Trexxa took a beating, but with heals backing her up, she held aggro like a fucking champ.

  I watched Orge out of the corner of my eye sneak up behind the marked spider and - with a flourish - backstab it, causing it to crumple to the ground. Thank the devs these were easy.

  I marked the next one, made sure Trexxa had aggro and then began pelting it with my arrows. I froze one of them so that Trexxa wasn't taking as much damage. I could hear Clint yelling obscenities at the spider queen as she replied by screeching and casting spells. Just keep her entertained for a bit longer, bro.

  With all of us bringing everything we had to bear upon the baby spider, the second one crumpled to the ground like the others.

  "I'm running low on mana!" Trevor yelled. Edgar, the paladin, stepped back and took his place healing Trexxa and Clint while Edgar regenned.

  I felt a thrill race through me when the last baby spider crumpled to the ground. Candy gave a great barbarian war whoop and turned toward the spider queen.

  I hoped that was the last of the adds and that she wouldn't send any others.

  The nice part was that Clint had built up a bit of aggro.

  "Go in! I've got him covered." Trevor shouted over the roar of the fight to Edgar.

  Now the big fight. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and began hitting every spell I possibly could. Like Orge said, it was do or die time. I looked at the spider queen's level and saw that she was, indeed, 15. Six levels above me. Fuck. I wished I could have leveled before fighting her.

  Trexxa hissed and raced toward the overgrown spider, settling into a spot behind her. Good, I didn't want her getting hurt. Since I knew the traps weren't going to work, I left those alone.

  The spider queen threw webs everywhere. I found myself dodging them often, which made things more difficult. I looked at her hp and saw that she had over 1k.

  Esmerelda and her imp stood back next to me, both of them firing off their fire spells. Fire Blast, Fire Bolt, Fire Ball, and others I had no idea the name of. Fire rained from the heavens as she cast spell after spell.

  Every now and again, Edgar looked around and cast a spell on someone who'd taken some errant damage.

  The spider queen shrieked and pumped bolt after bolt of dark energy into Clint, who continued his taunting all throughout the fight.

  “Hey, you overgrown arachnid! Your momma’s even uglier than you!” Clint shouted, angering the queen even further.

  Time seemed to stand still as our little band of untrained misfits battled against the AI's minion. Every time I looked at her health bar, it seemed that it had only budged an inch.

  I freaked out when I reached back and realized that I was completely out of arrows. Holy shit! How did that happen?

  I contemplated my options. I didn't think it would be wise for me to melee her to death. So that left darting in and gathering them up.

  "I have to get my arrows!" I whispered to Esmerelda and she nodded.

  I scanned the room and quickly gathered up the easy ones, firing them off as soon as I got them. Then I had a bright idea.

  Coming up behind Trexxa, I tapped her shoulder and pulled her back.

  "Trexxa. I need your help."

  She hissed.

  "I'm completely out of arrows. Can you scrounge around and bring me back as many as you can? I'm worthless without them."

  She nodded and scurried off. I resumed my position next to Esmerelda and waited for Trexxa to bring me some. This meant that I had not been prepared. I guess I was going to have to carry a back-up quiver.

  Trexxa handed me about fifty, which allowed me to get back into my groove. I sent her off to get me more. I didn't like taking her off the boss, but as she wasn't fully grown yet I doubt she was doing much damage.

  Suddenly the spider queen shrieked and webs erupted from everywhere on her body, netting all of us, even the ones who were hidden. That allowed her to disengage her aggro on Clint and come around to the back where us unprotected DPS were.

  She cackled and looked around, no doubt deciding who to terrorize. Unfortunately, she chose me.

  I struggled against the super-strong web, but it was to no avail. She had me dead to rights.

  "Ah, my dearie..." Her manic cackling turned into a recognizable voice. A wicked shiver raced up my spine. That was the voice from my dream. She ran one of her long legs against my face. "I remember you. Didn't I warn you to stay away?" She nodded. "It's too bad what I'm going to have to do next. I will so enjoy it."

  "No!" I cried out, struggling hard against the bounds. "I won't let you win! You picked the wrong people to mess with!"

  The spider queen threw back her head and cackled madly. "Oh, you are a strong one. Just for that, I'm going to take you out first. Permanently." She lifted an arm to cast a spell and I suddenly saw my life flash before my eyes. Could she really kill me permanently? I wasn't ready to die yet.

  The moment she cast her spell, my entire body went limp and everything went black. I heard screaming and yelling all around me, then it all went silent.

  Chapter 17

  So this was it, then. We'd come all this way, fought the good fight and...in the blink of an eye, it was all pulled out from under us. I looked around me, but everything was absolutely, completely pitch black. I tried to rub my eyes, but could feel nothing.

  Was this hell? Was this the ether that Orge was telling us all about? Where was I?

  I panicked when I realized that I had let everyone down. I was their leader. And now I was dead. Useless. The thought struck me like a boulder to the gut. How could I have been so careless? Maybe if I'd have clawed my way up to 10th level none of this would've happened.

  An indeterminable time later, I found myself floating above my body. I could see the entire battle all at once. I watched in utter fascination as the team tried to take the spider queen down.

  But without me, they were demoralized. Even Trexxa seemed to have less pep in her step. I tried to enter my body, but every time I did, the spider queen cast some kind of spell at me that knocked me back.

  I tried three times and each time was thrown back harder and more violently. I pounded my ethereal fist into my ethereal palm as I watched as
one by one our group perished to the spider queen.

  Until only Trexxa was left.

  It was a valiant effort, but in the end, we fell to the powerful AI. I shook my head and started to turn away, tears running down my ethereal cheeks, stinging my eyes. But out of the corner of my eye I saw something that at first I couldn't understand. What was going on?

  Trexxa teased and taunted the spider queen, pulling on one of her legs, then jumping back. She kept doing this over and over, moving closer to the door each time. What is she doing?

  I watched the plucky raptor bring the spider queen down ever-so-slightly from 26% to 25%, then lead her out the door. I knew that once she kicked the bucket it would all be over.

  I followed, intrigued by what the overgrown lizard was doing. That's when she looked right up to where I was and pointed to my body.

  "Stone." She said cryptically. "Use stone!" Then she turned her attention back to kiting the spider queen further away.

  Stone? What --

  I snapped my fingers. That's it! She's leading her away so I can get back to my body and use the dev stone to destroy her. Holy shit! How smart was this overgrown lizard, anyway?

  As quick as I could, I fumbled around and finally jumped back into my crumpled body. Shaking off the disorientation I felt, I found my pack and - with shaky hands - pulled the dev stone out and gripped it in my hands so tight my knuckles turned white.

  I could hear Trexxa hissing in the other room and with all the strength I had left, I ran out of the spider queen room to find Trexxa on just a sliver of health.

  I hoped this fucking worked.

  Just as Trexxa fell to the ground, I closed my eyes tight and concentrated on the stone. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I felt the familiar warmth spread throughout my body.

  I was dimly aware of the spider queen shrieking in glee as she had no doubt thought she'd destroyed us. But she hadn't. Not yet. The rustling wind picked up around me as I concentrated all my power on destroying the spider queen.

  A moment later, I felt her first spell strike me, but oddly enough I was unhurt. Something - the stone, I assumed - absorbed the spell’s damage. That gave me even more confidence.

  I smiled in spite of myself.

  One by one the others come out of the room, saw what was going on, then took up their weapons and charged against the spider queen.

  The overgrown arachnid shrieked even louder and began pounding on me with all her might. She hurled obscenities at me even as she brought every bit of spell power to bear on me.

  "Hurry, everyone!" Esmerelda yelled over the enraged spider queen. "Take her down while he's holding her off!"

  I kept my eyes tightly closed, allowing me to absorb blow after blow of the spider queen's wrath. But, more importantly, she stayed glued right to me. What I was doing was apparently such an anathema to her that she had to destroy me at all costs.

  And that was her ultimate downfall.

  She might've stood a chance against us had she not been so absorbed with the dev stone. It was the one thing that was more powerful than her and she couldn't stand it.

  The lower her hp bar fell, the louder and more desperate she became. Her sickening wails echoed throughout the room, bouncing off the walls and reverberating back, creating a cacophony of madness.

  Suddenly I heard Trexxa's familiar hiss and instantly knew that everything was right with the world. A moment later, Orge hollered out:

  "Kill her! Concentrate every amount of energy you have inside of you and funnel it into her body." He instructed me.

  I tightened my eyes even harder and imagined all my energy being projected through the stone toward her. She shrieked and cried out and flailed around and with one last hiss, Trexxa slashed her with her wicked-sharp claws and the last thing I heard was a heavy thud as the spider queen fell to the floor.

  I opened my eyes briefly enough to see her terrifying spider legs curl inward and tremble in their death throes.

  Then it all went black.

  Epilogue

  I don't know how long I was out. It could've been minutes, or hours, or even days for that matter. The only thing I remember is seeing the people who were still trapped smiling and cheering. When they saw me, they clapped and even though I still couldn't hear them, they were shouting and carrying on.

  What happened? Why were they so happy all of a sudden?

  "You're our hero!" The little girl mouthed through the barrier.

  Hero? I wracked my brain trying to recall what she was talking about. Then suddenly it hit me. The spider queen. The dev stone. Trexxa and our group bringing her down.

  Did we win?

  If so, why was I here?

  I waved to all the trapped souls. There were a lot fewer of them now and I wondered if we'd ever be able to get them out.

  After an indeterminable amount of time, I was suddenly awoken to a loud crash. My eyes flew open and my mouth was completely parched. It was so dry I couldn't even swallow.

  The room was dark and for several moments all I could do was just lay there, listening. Panting. What was going on? Where was I? Was I dead?

  I tried to swallow, but it felt like razor blades sliding down my throat. I lifted my arm, but it barely moved.

  "Hello?" I called out to the darkness, but my voice was weak and feeble. The only reply I heard was a thumping of a tail.

  A tail?

  What was going on?

  Then I heard it. A light hiss!

  "Trexxa?" I called out, even though it stabbed my throat to do so.

  Trexxa jumped up on the bed and licked my face excitedly. I had never been so happy to see someone in my life.

  "Trexxa! Oh my God, it's you!" I weakly hugged the overgrown lizard to my chest as she squirmed in my lap.

  "Are we alive?" I rasped. "Trexxa? Did we...did we...?"

  Trexxa then said the two words that sent shivers of thankfulness down my spine and throughout my body.

  "We won!" She said simply, thumping her tail even harder.

  I just held her in the darkness, tears streaming down my cheeks as I internalized her words. I couldn't help it. I just sat there and sobbed, too stunned to say anything.

  Once my strength returned, I sat up and lit the oil lamp on the bedside table. Suddenly, light filled the room and I saw that I was back in my old room at the inn. At Patch's inn.

  "How'd we get here?" I reached in my pack and greedily drank down every last drop of ale.

  Trexxa hissed and pointed toward the door.

  I nodded and when I felt strong enough, staggered downstairs.

  "There he is!" Every single person we saved was sitting around a large table, drinking, laughing and having a merry time. They instantly broke out into a beautiful - if not a bit off-key - rendition of 'For He's A Jolly Good Fellow', bringing a stinging tear to my eye.

  I stood at the top of the stairs until they were finished, then wiped a tear from my eyes and descended.

  It truly felt like coming home. These were my friends, my family, my everything. We had fought the greatest threat humanity had ever faced side-by-side and came through the other side. Not unscathed, as we each had our own battle scars, but we made it.

  "Guys..." I said drinking a mug of ale someone handed me. "I couldn't have done it without this special lady..." I swept my hands toward Trexxa, who bowed and hissed. "At one point, she was the only one still alive. She distracted the spider queen, allowing me to rez. She's also the one who told me about the power of the stone."

  "Yay! Go Trexxa!" Esmerelda hollered and raised her mug to the overgrown lizard. Patch chimed in and everyone began clapping in rhythm, chanting, "Trexxa! Trexxa! Trexxa!"

  I looked at her and saw that she was beaming.

  "Here's to the best overgrown lizard ever!" I said and even when Trexxa hissed, it didn't dampen her enthusiasm one bit.

  "She's the real hero here." I said and took a seat at the last open spot at the table. Patch had gone all out with this hero's feast. Ther
e was every kind of meat imaginable: Roast beef, duck, bacon, pork, venison and too many others to name. Then there were the fixins. Mashed potatoes with gravy and corn. Biscuits slathered with either butter or gravy. Green beens, peas, carrots and when we were stuffed with all that, he brought out several pies. Pecan, pumpkin, apple, cherry.

  It was honestly more food than I had ever seen in my entire life. We were going to be eating leftovers for weeks there was so much.

  We discussed the fight, wondering what we could've done different. There really wasn't anything we could've done. She was just too powerful for us. It was just that simple. Not only was she a higher level, but she had powers that the devs had not given her.

  It was a foregone conclusion from the very start that we would lose. But the AI didn't count on the dev stone. Didn’t know about it.

  "Why can't we use that all the time and just power-level?" Clint asked, dabbing the corner of his mouth and patting his full belly.

  "Because it would call down too much attention upon us." Orge explained. "Right now she's going to be furious that her minion wasn't able to wipe us out." He shoved another slice of pecan pie in his mouth, chewed it up, then continued. "This is why we must move on."

  "The AI is going to start watching us. She's going to start putting obstacles in our path. And we're going to have to watch out for this." He continued.

  "Like I've said before. This is not the end. This is just the beginning."

  We all stuffed our faces further, but along with the food, we chewed on Orge's words.

  Finally, Candy replied. "What kind of shenanigans should we expect?"

  Orge shrugged. "Pretty much anything you can think of. Her main goal right now is to finish devouring the souls - of which there are fewer and fewer of every day - and then she'll turn her full attention and wrath upon us."

  "I'm sure going to miss you guys." Patch wiped a tear from his good eye.

  "Oh, don't worry, big guy." Orge patted his hand. "We're going to be stepping up our efforts from now on. We have to. In fact, I'm going to work on setting up a portal between the next questing area and here so we don't have to travel so far."