by Edward Brody
You’ve received: Sharp Battle Axe. 20-40 Attack Damage. Requires 25 Strength. Durability: 6/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 2.9
With my 10% magic resistance, the flames had only knocked off 10% of my health pool, but with the bleeding, I was down to the last 25%.
I dashed to the shield and picked it up, not wanting to give Ike another chance to get it.
You’ve Received: Large Round Shield of Absorption. +15 Armor. Requires 30 Strength. Durability: 5/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 4.7. +1 level to block. Absorb low-powered magical projectiles.
It wasn’t as heavy as it looked, but it was the first time I had actively equipped shield, so it felt awkward in my hands.
Ahead of me, Ike was stumbling back to his feet and away from the last remnants of the dying Fire Curtain. His armor looked charred, his helmet had fallen off, and he seemed a bit in a daze as he turned around towards me.
He looked alarmed when he saw that I had his axe and shield in my hands, and I raced towards him with the axe raised. He glanced around, looking for his sword.
When I was in striking distance, he ducked as I swung the sword at his head.
Whoosh.
I swung again.
Whoosh.
I felt super slow and awkward with the axe and was having trouble gauging each swing. With no axe skills whatsoever, Ike had no problem ducking my blows.
He threw at me with his fist, and I easily dodged the sloppy attack.
Another axe swing—missed.
This went back and forth for a while, me swinging the axe at him, and him dodging out of the way as I dodged his kicks and punches or blocked them with the shield.
You have reached level 6 in Dodge!
It must have looked like an action fighting movie—two guys who were so skilled at fighting that neither of them could do substantial damage or turn the fight in their favor—but really it was just two guys whose dodging and blocking skills were much higher than the weapons they were using, and both on their last drops of stamina.
The crowd was eating it up though. No one was booing, but instead, people were standing up and cheering as each struggled to get an advantage over the other.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker, and I knew that if I didn’t end the fight soon, I’d simply bleed out enough that Ike would overpower me.
Ike swung a hard hook at my head, and I ducked, dropped the axe to the ground, and shot an Arcane Missile at his foot. He screamed and lifted his foot up, and while he was distracted, I grabbed the axe again by the hilt, and slammed it hard against the calf of his other leg.
Advancement! You have learned the skill: Axes. The fastest distance between two points is hacking through whatever the hell stands in front of you! Axes is linked to the base stat Strength. Increase your Strength to increase your affinity with Axes.
The strike cut into his plate leggings, and Ike fell back and to the ground as if he had slipped on a banana.
I swung the axe high as Ike clenched his teeth and yelped at the pain in his leg, and swung the axe hard against his chest.
Ike cried out, but either my axe skill was too low or the thick plate absorbed much of the attack to do any serious damage. He held up his hands trying to block, as I raised the axe three more times and hammered it into his body. Blood spewed out of his mouth, but he still seemed to have not taken a death blow.
I raised the axe one more time as Ike’s hands started to fall limply to his side, and slammed it down into his skull, but almost as soon as the axe made impact, a strong energy pushed the axe out of his head and threw me backwards.
Hundreds of people in the stands stood to their feet and clapped, and the intensity of the applause was overwhelming. The onlookers threw confetti and ribbons out into the fighting grounds, and I stood up straight and lifted the bloody axe defiantly in the air.
Though I sucked with an axe, it looked badass, and I felt an inclination to train it one day just for the visuals alone. The shield wasn’t too bad either.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
I flinched and dropped to a knee as I felt another stinging pain from the wound that Ike had made in my gut. As the medical team rushed onto the fighting grounds, one of the healers veered off in my direction.
She quickly healed me and started bandaging my wound, and I watched the other healers checking on Ike.
The announcer scurried out of a door, and I knew that I had little time before the healers dragged my opponent away.
“That’s good. I’m fine,” I said to the healer as she tied off my bandage. I brushed her away as I stood back up and rushed over to Ike.
The medical team was lifting Ike off the ground as I approached him, and he grimaced when he saw me. The healers didn’t seem to know why I was there and looked worried that I might make a move to attack Ike and finish him off.
I dropped the axe and shield in front of Ike, and took another step closer. “You’re not really a newb, man. Come find me in place called Edgewood if you ever get the chance.”
Ike’s lips were set in a straight line, and he didn’t reply as the medical team carried him away.
Chapter Twenty-Four
1/29/0001
You have completed the quest: Tier 1 Battle!
You have gained 3200 XP!
Advancement! You have reached level 20 and gained 3 ability points. To assign your ability points, open your status page. You can also increase any of your known skills by 1 level. Choose wisely, as your choices cannot be undone.
“Damn dude! Great fight!” Ozzy cooed as I climbed back into the stands.
“That was awesome,” Jeremy said. He raised his arm in the air, making a mock of him slamming an axe down repeatedly.
I raised my eyebrows and waved my hand for them to come closer. When they closed in, I whispered, “He was a Reborn.”
“Really?” Jeremy said.
I nodded.
“Lots of Reborns showing up lately,” Ozzy said low.
“Inevitable, I think,” I said. “Now that they’re leveling up, they’ll be visiting the big cities more often.”
“How’d you know he was one of us?” Jeremy asked.
“He called me a ‘bitch boy’.”
They both started snickering loudly.
“Bitch boy?” Ozzy laughed.
“Yeah, and I called him a camper and newb. Got him a little riled up.” I chuckled and lifted a sack of gold in my hand. “650 for win number four though.”
“Nice,” Jeremy said. “This fighting gig is good money. I’m definitely going to give it a try when I gain a couple levels.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a chubby blonde lady with leather pants and a white shirt standing a few meters away. She was flanked by three guards and pointed our way.
“Are you sure that’s the guy?” I could hear one of the guards say.
The lady nodded.
The guards leaned over and said something to the other guards, and within seconds they were marching towards us.
“Hey, look out,” I said instinctively.
Ozzy and Jeremy turned as the guards approach, and one of the guards immediately grabbed Jeremy by the arm.
“Hey, what the hell!?” Jeremy spat.
“You need to come with us,” the guard said.
“Hey, what’s going on?!” Ozzy shouted.
The two other guards walked right past Ozzy and each of them placed a hard hand on my shoulder. “You too. You’re coming with us.”
“What? Why?!” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” one of the guards said as he started pushing me towards the exit.
“What about me?” Ozzy asked. “They’re my guild mates.”
“You’re fine…” a guard said, “…for now.”
“Uhh…” Ozzy groaned, trying to follow
us behind the guards. “What do you want me to do, Gunnar?!”
I shook my head. “I don’t know! Just tell Jax and the others what happened, I guess. We’ll meet you at the village as soon as this is cleared up.”
Ozzy sighed, nodded, and ran for the exit.
Embarrassment flooded over me as all the people in the stands around us gossiped and watched as Jeremy and I were escorted roughly out of the Arena. Even Boris, the guy who sold tickets, seemed surprised when he saw us been hauled out the door.
Jeremy started tugging and pulling as we were on the main path, and one of the guards jerked him towards him hard and slammed a knee in his gut to get him to calm down.
“What the hell?” Jeremy groaned. “Why are you doing this?”
The guard said nothing and yanked on his arm as we continued down the path.
We reached the footpath that led to the King’s castle, and just a few meters past that path was an unpaved trail that sloped down as we walked. It curved, was unmarked, and turned back in the direction of the castle. When we reached the end, I looked up and could see that we basically a story or so below the castle, which basically put us at the castle’s basement.
“What is this?” I asked as we walked up to an iron door that was guarded by two soldiers.
“Highcastle Prison,” one of the guards said.
“Prison?!” Jeremy shrieked.
My eyelids shot open wide. “Prison for what?!”
A guard opened the iron door, and the others pushed us inside where we were immediately met with humid air and a thick, musty smell. On each side of us were rows of small cells made of dark, dirty stone with thick, metal bars running down their front.
The guards pushed us forward, and we passed many empty cells. A few were occupied with people sitting on the stone and hay beds inside—all of them looking tired, decrepit, and hardly interested in what was going on around them. Some weren’t moving.
“In here,” a guard said as another guard unlocked one of the vacant cell doors. The guards shoved us inside so hard that we stumbled and almost fell to the ground.
“What is this?” I shouted. I was trying to remain calm through it all, thinking that there was some sort of misunderstanding and that everything would work its way out, but I was reaching panic point as I realized that we were really going to be locked behind bars. “We deserve an explanation!”
“This is bullshit!” Jeremy spat. “We haven’t done anything.”
One of the guards stepped inside and started patting Jeremy down and taking all the items out of his bag. They took the weapons he had sheathed to his belt as well.
That’s when I started really panicking inside.
There was kroka in my bag, and they were going to find it. Had someone seen me buying kroka and could that be the reason we were being arrested? And if so, why was Jeremy brought to prison too? It made sense.
My heart started racing when the guards finished taking Jeremy’s weapon and items and turned their attention to me. I had left my broken sword in the Arena, so they took my bow and quiver first, then checked all my pockets and crevices before turning to my bag.
First came my keychain, and then a bandage and a potion. I wracked my brain as I tried to think of a way for them not to find the kroka or an explanation for why it was there, but I just couldn’t come up with anything fast enough.
The guard snickered as he lifted the white sack of powder from my bag. “Oh… what do we have here?” He tossed the bag up in his hand and looked back to the other guards.
“Uhhh,” I groaned. “I don’t… Um… Someone must’ve put that there. It’s not mine.” I cringed a little when I said it, because I thought back to all the cop shows I had seen on television when I was back on Earth. The people who were caught with drugs always said the same stupid thing.
The guards snickered. “We haven’t heard that one before, have we guys?”
The other guards chuckled.
“Well, if you weren’t in trouble before,” the guard said, “now you’ve definitely got trouble.”
The guard tossed the kroka to one of the other guards before gathering up my items and stepping outside of the cell. Watching him confiscate the kroka gave me a strange feeling of distress that was almost as strong as the stress of getting locked up.
“You can keep your armor on for now. We’ll confiscate it later after you’ve received an official sentence.”
“Prison sentence?” I asked. “Why are we here now if we haven’t been sentenced to anything. What the hell is going on?”
The guard slammed the prison door shut and locked it with a metal key. As soon as he pulled the key out, a wave of white energy passed over the bars, walls, and floor of the prison and disappeared. He tugged the door a few times to make sure it was secure, and then he frowned. “You’ve been brought here on the suspicion that you’re connected with a murder—the murder of a noble.”
“Murder?!” I shouted and shook my head. “We haven’t murdered anyone!”
The guard snickered again. “We have witnesses, and the evidence…” The guard scanned me up and down, shook his head, and snapped his lips. “The evidence is stacked against you, so to speak.”
“What do you mean, evidence?!” Jeremy asked.
The guard ignored our question. “If the King is feeling well, you’ll stand trial before him tomorrow to learn your fate. If not, you may be here a few days.”
With that, the guards all started walking away.
“Hey wait!” Jeremy yelled. “Don’t leave us in here!”
A minute later, we heard the iron outer door of the prison slam shut.
Chapter Twenty-Five
1/29/0001
“This is bullshit,” Jeremy snapped as he sat on the cold dirty floor of the prison cell. “Something must be wrong with the game. We didn’t murder anyone.”
I leaned back on the hard, prison bed, and when I pressed my hand into the hay, I immediately pulled it back when I felt something wet. I looked down to inspect it, and could see that there was a small trail of water that was dripping down the wall and pooling in the corner of the bed. I sighed and wiped my hand on my pants. “Well, technically you killed some people in our village.”
Jeremy groaned. “Ugh, technically, I guess.”
“But Edgewood is elven territory, so I’m not sure how that would work, and they said it was a noble who was murdered. I think it’s safe to say that your attack on the village has nothing to do with this.”
“Yeah, and why would they lock you up if that was the case? None of this makes sense.”
“There must be an explanation,” I said. “We’ll find out soon enough, but I doubt there’s anything wrong with the game.”
I ruminated to when I teleported to the small, desert prison in the Sands and thought that I might have been the victim of a bug. It turned out that I had been victimized but not because of a bug, and I had summoned Dr. Winston in vain. This time, I was marched to the prison by NPCs and told I was there in connection of a murder, so there was little reason for me to think it was a bug.
Jeremy probably hadn’t been in a situation as compromising as that, or held captive by slavers, or been in the same guild as a murdering madman who was holding a harem of woman captive for his pleasure. Getting marched to the prison in Highcastle and told our crimes was tame in comparison to some of the things I’d been through.
“And quit calling it a game,” I added. “This is our lives now.”
“Some life this is,” Jeremy snapped.
“Did someone say game?!” a beady voice said excitedly. “I want to play a game! I want to play!”
I looked to Jeremy, stood up, and moved up to the prison bars. In the cell directly in front of us was a bed where a man was sleeping—at least he appeared to be sleeping. He hadn’t moved an inch since we had been brought in, and his skin was wrinkly and decrepit. There was a chance he might have been dead. I didn’t see anyone else.
“Who’s there?” I calle
d.
“Me. I’m here.” The voice was coming from my left, and when I pressed my face up to the bars, I could see a skinny, fur-covered arm with thick claws sticking out from the cell beside us. “Let’s play a game.”
“Sorry, pal,” I said. “We don’t have a game to play with you.”
“I heard you say game!” the voice whined. “Trynzen wants to play!”
“Your name is Trynzen?” I asked.
“Yes, Trynzen. My name is Trynzen. Let’s play!”
Jeremy stood up from the ground and started walking over to the bars. “How about we play ‘tell us how to get the fuck out of here!?’,” he shouted.
“Hey,” I said, shaking my head. “We’re not going to try to escape.”
“Why not? This place is miserable.”
“If we were to escape, we’d be wanted criminals and wouldn’t be able to come back to Highcastle. This is the closest big city to Edgewood, so our livelihood kind of depends on us being able to come and go freely.”
Jeremy sighed.
“Once we figure out what’s going on, we’ll decide what to do,” I said.
I didn’t include the fact that I had been fighting in the Arena for a chance to meet the King, amongst other things, and if we escaped, I wouldn’t get to fight in the Arena anymore. Getting brought to prison threw a huge wrench into me becoming a champion and winning an audience with the King. But, because of the circumstance, I was actually going to meet the King after all and a lot sooner than I expected.
Standing trial before the King wasn’t how I had planned to meet him, and it wasn’t the best way to make a first impression, but I knew that I wasn’t guilty of murdering anyone. Surely, during whatever trial they had planned, my innocence would be resolved, and I’d have a chance to speak with the King about Dryden Bloodletter.