AVARICE ONLINE: KEL'VAN RED HAND

by Titus Nettles

  After checking that everyone was ready and in position, Kel’Van motioned his chin toward the cave.

  "Alright people, let's go in. "Kel’Van whispered. They descended past the overgrowth and entered the cave.

  The group's pace slowed a bit in order not to make much noise." No need to raise the alarm to announce we're here," Kel’Van explained to his team. It also allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness. There were some plants that glowed almost blue in the dark. They were in clusters spread out and looked like overripe mushrooms scattered in different places, but they were few and far between to get a constant view as a street light would provide.

  The passage they were in was only the width of two people walking comfortably. Which was perfect for the formation they were traveling in. Voresh stopped the group by signaling one fist in the air. Looking around, he then came back to Kel’Van and pulled him toward the front.

  "See here? “pointed Voresh. His eyes were looking in the direction of a rock with bloodstains on it. "She sat here for a while. See how much blood is pooled in this one spot?" He then pointed towards some footprints. "Also, the tracks are much deeper here than the tracks leaving. She could not have left more than a couple of minutes ago."

  "Good work Voresh," said Kel’Van. Voresh just nodded his head and pointed in the direction the trail was leading them. To Kel’Van, this was important that Voresh had gained the skill for tracking so quickly. The time Voresh and Belar had spent with Mal'kep had not been wasted.

  "I wonder what level his tracking is at now?" thought Kel’Van absently. He promised himself to make a mental note and check on it later.

  They quickened their pace through the caverns. It wasn’t only because they were very close to their goal, but because they really wanted out of these caves. As a player, exploring caves was rather fun and mysterious. Now, experiencing the total darkness and creeping fear of what laid here might permanently kill him made going through these tunnels more somber and something to avoid when possible. Best be done with this creature and head back, the practical side of himself screamed.

  Voresh whispered behind him, “She’s up ahead.”

  Kel’Van slowly unsheathed his bone sword. The others followed his example and did the same. The caves were beginning to become more well-lit with glowing mushrooms, or maybe their eyesight was starting to become more acclimated with the dark. Kel’Van didn’t know which, but the cave became more visible to the eye as if it was looking at a room with a dull candle. It wasn’t long until they spied the female Holmgren.

  She was taking her time walking. Every once in a while, she would touch her face briefly. The bleeding had stopped only a short while ago. Now her face was crusted with caked blood and a dull ache on its left side. Hopefully, she can reach a healer in time to save her eye. The thought alone brought on a more profound pain. Those were mewling babies that had injured her and brought down her campmates. At least, the ones she fought. The shame could be dealt with though, if she could reach home. They would return and find those “tree and rock slugs” and cut them wide open.

  “Yes,” she thought while moving. “Cut them open from throat to stomach.”

  Voresh pointed out what the whole group could already see. The Holmgren was walking toward what could only be described as a rickety bridge of rope and wood planks. It looked like something right out of a bad Indiana Jones flick.

  The cavern was better lit, but not enough as Fer’shad almost slipped on some loose gravel or rocks. It wasn’t a lot of noise, but it was enough to garner the attention of the Holmgren they were hunting. She stopped in her tracks, then began turning her body in a 360 motion and saw Voresh crouching towards her. She bared her teeth in a growl as if she couldn’t wait to engage in another fight. Then the Holmgren started sprinting for the debilitated-looking bridge.

  “Shit!” Kel’Van said under his breath. “Get her!”

  Voresh and Fer’shad took off at a sprint with Kel’Van and Belar racing behind them.

  The Holmgren thought she could make it across the bridge before the surface slugs could catch her. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and kill these …things…following her. Particularly the one that scarred her face, but priority lay with getting back home and reporting what she had seen. If they were willing to follow her home, then where their camp was stationed for the night was of some importance. Her thoughts were interrupted by the swinging of the makeshift bridge. Her people did not build it, but they knew it was too flimsy to hold more than two people at once.

  “What are those surface slugs thinking?” the Holmgren thought as her body warbled in panic as the bridge started to sway even more….

  “What in the hell were we thinking?” Kel’Van thought to himself.

  Voresh and Fer’shad were in hot pursuit of the enemy. Voresh rushed the bridge, as the Holmgren slowed down her jog too fast walking, as the bridge began to sway even more with the added weight of her two pursuers. She grabbed both sides of the ropes rails with her hands and restarted her jog across the bridge. Voresh and Fer’shad did not slow down in the slightest, even while the bridge warbled with more veracity. It only increased when Kel’Van and Belar ran onto it. That familiarity of watching an Indiana Jones flick had only grown. Especially with the roaring waves of the river water underneath the bridge, completing the scene perfectly.

  To steady himself, he held on to the rope railings. The wood planks that made up the bridge was not that sturdy. What was not so obvious until you got on the bridge was how the anchors on both sides were not constructed to handle the amount of weight the five of them were putting on it. He thought about calling it off and returning back empty-handed, but at the last minute, he noticed that Voresh and Fer’shad were almost upon her.

  It was that moment when everything went to shit.

  The Holmgren had just cleared the bridge by jumping the rest of the way. Behind her, she could see her pursuers almost close enough to cross the bridge themselves. She took out her blade and started severing the ropes from the anchors.

  While Fer’shad and Voresh were closer to the end of the bridge, Kel’Van was half-way over when he saw her cutting down her side of the bridge from his vantage point.

  “Shit!” cried Kel’Van there was no way they had enough time to backtrack; they had to reach her before she finished, or his team falls down below. Kel’Van yelled, “Everybody, hang on to the ropes!”

  “Thwipp!!” was the sound made as her sword cut through one of the rope railings. The bridge leaned almost immediately to the left. Fer’shad and Voresh almost fell into the river as they clamped desperately to the side of the bridge that wasn’t cut down. Belar and Kel’Van were practically half-way across, so at least their side of the bridge was somewhat more stable since it still had its railings to hold on to.

  “Gah!” yelled Voresh as he slipped from the rope. Luckily, Fer’shad reached out and caught him by his arm. Voresh then grabbed on the wood planks of the bridge to pull himself up. He nodded his silent thanks to Fer’shad. His huge framed friend nodded back, pointing his chin forward at the Holmgren. She was busy cutting the last of the rope holding the bridge together. Her face, matted with caked blood on one side, was plastered with a manic smile and vicious glare as the strands began popping from the rope to the anchor. A smile that started to wither, as Voresh, with a mighty heave, grabbed her feet as the last of the rope was cut.

  Voresh’s hand gripped her foot like a vice. As he fell, nature and gravity did the rest. The Holmgren fell backward, her head slamming into the ground while being pulled off the ledge and still in the grip of Voresh. His right hand held on to the other half of the bridge.

  The Ulgo Orc was looking at the Holmgren dangling upside down in his grip. She was looking down at the roaring body of water below them. She ceased her struggle as if she completely sobered up and came to a somber conclusion. Voresh also noted she still had her blade in one hand. The Holmgren looked up from gazing at the water with a devilish grin. She then
raised herself enough in Voresh’s grip to try to hack off the Ulgo’s hand. He quickly let go of her, just as she swung her blade and catching nothing but air. Her face was a visage of hate as she descended into the rushing water below screaming.

  Kel’Van saw none of this. The moment the Holmgren woman cut the bridge down, he yelled, “Belar to grab on the ropes!” He needn’t had bothered. She had already wrapped her forearms around the ropes for support. Kel’Van was hanging on the wooden planks of the bridge. It swung along the rock wall still attached on one side.

  He looked down and saw that the other half of his team was still hanging on and not in the river below.

  “Belar, start climbing to the top. We can help the others once we get clear.”

  Belar never got the chance as the four Ulgo’s combined weight, plus gravity, pulled the anchors from the ground and the rock wall. The bridge fell into the massive river below, taking the screaming Kel’Van and the Ulgo’s with it.

  CHAPTER 12

  “Kel’Van, wake up!”

  The man woke with a serious headache.

  “Kel’Van!”

  “I’m getting a little tired of you always waking me up, big guy,” Kel’Van croaked. “Help me up.”

  Kel’Van’s teeth were chattering non-stop. He looked around and noticed he was sitting on cold mud, from what he could tell. Everything, including the air, was dank and cold.

  “Kel’Van, are you well?”

  “Yeah.”

  Then it all came back to him. The Holmgren. The bridge. The falling down.

  “Holy shit! Where are the others?!” screamed Kel’Van.

  “They are still stuck in the water. I need your help to get them out quickly,” Farshad’s deep voice bellowed.

  Kel’Van mood was rotten, and his head still felt like it was between two rocks grinding together. He followed Fer’shad slowly, still trying to get his bearings. He cast a heal on himself, and the clanging in his head became a mild thump. Only the mushroom plants they saw earlier gave off any semblance of light through the darkness. They trudged through what seemed like a rushing lake that was waist-high. Not as turbulent as what they fell into, but still a body of water.

  “Here Kel’Van, help me,” said Fer’shad.

  At the edge of what looked like another waterfall was a bundled mess of rope and wood, tangled in the sharp edges of rocks near the cliff of said waterfall. There were other things tangled up in what was left of the bridge. Fish flopping around helplessly, and his teammates. He looked for Belar first since she was the one who was injured before they fell. The bandage was soaked, but she wasn’t bleeding out. He broke up some of the debris holding her up above water.

  “That bridge actually kept her afloat and from falling from over the waterfall,” whispered Kel’Van. He marveled at the sheer luck of the situation.

  “Kel’Van,” whispered Fer’shad

  “Huh?”

  Fer’shad had hefted Voresh over one shoulder while carrying his weapon in the other hand. He pointed Voresh’s’ sword in the direction of the waterfall's edge. There… crashed upon the jagged rock with water bashing over the body was the Holmgren woman they hunted.

  “Oh crap,” mused Kel’Van. She must have fallen in before the bridge fell, because there was no buffer between her and the rocks like they had. The sharp stones had punctured her body through the chest, arms, and legs. It was the only thing keeping the body from going over the edge. Her head must have bashed every rock before getting impaled, because almost nothing was recognizable of the ruined mess that was her face.

  “Yes, I think our mission is complete Kel’Van,” remarked Fer’shad.

  “Yeah, she’s not gonna be in the next expansion.”

  “I do not think that this lone dead Holmgren will deter their hunger for an expansion…. but yes, she will no longer be counted among them to try,” remarked Fer’shad

  Kel’Van closed his eyes in frustration.

  “That is not what I…. you know what? It’s not that important. Let’s just get these guys onto dry ground and find out our next move.” mumbled Kel’Van in mild annoyance.

  Fer’shad shook his head at his leader’s quirks and began to walk back towards dry land. Kel’Van followed behind until he saw a new message appear on his D.S. while the fish began flopping again in the bridge debris.

  “Captain, I just-,”

  “I know Fer’shad, I got it too,” Kel’Van muttered. “Again, let’s deal with what’s in front of us.”

  Fer’shad shook his head at his leader’s quirks and began to walk back towards dry land. Kel’Van followed behind until he saw the fish flopping in the bridge debris.

  “Once we put these guys on the shore, we need to come back for this stuff,” huffed Kel’Van. Fer’shad only gave a questioning look for an answer.

  “Just trust me,” he smiled.

  The two Ulgo’s dropped the two-unconscious comrade in arms on dry ground. After waking them and making sure there weren’t any extra damage done, they returned to the lake and the broken bridge.

  “Wait,” said Kel’Van. He started picking up the slippery fish in his hands and then looked at Fer’shad. “Don’t be alarmed. I’m taking food for all of us for later.”

  He mentally accessed his D.S. The screen appeared in his peripheral vision.

  “Do you wish to put the item in your inventory?”

  Kel’Van pushed the button yes. The bundle of fish faded from sight and disappeared in the same fashion that items did when a dead body is looted.

  “What did you do to that…” thing?” asked Fer’shad.

  “That…thing is food big guy, and you are going to be very happy I packed the fish and the other stuff later.”

  “But how did-” Fer’shad began to stammer.

  “Not now,” Kel’Van interjected. “I promise you we are going to have a big pow-wow about everything later. Right now, we need to get the pieces of this bridge, return to dry land, and to get out of these wet clothes. I’ll explain everything after.”

  Farshad’s confusion was quite evident on his face, but he followed Kel’Van’s lead. They gathered more of the fish and debris, then Kel’Van put all of it into his inventory. Fer’shad traveled ahead of them, while Kel’Van gathered more of the wood and rope that was left. He then wearily trudged through the water back to dry land, where they joined the rest of their team.

  Voresh was sitting up next to the rock Fer’shad had laid him next to earlier, just a short distance from the lake. Belar was sitting just opposite from him with Fer’shad. As Kel’Van sat down, they gave a brief rundown of their current situation.

  Kel’Van looked around for anything that he thought would burn. As he stared down what looked to be shrubbery, he received a notification on his peripheral:

  New skill acquired:

  Dark sight I: Allows seeing in the darkness of caverns and the night. This skill allows you to see twenty meters in front of you.

  “Finally!” thought Kel’Van. He was wondering when that skill would appear or if his current character status would even allow him to even pick the skill up at all. With that question answered, the only thing remaining to be seen was if his team is capable of receiving those same skills being NPC’s.

  He gathered the “shrubbery” and brought it back to his make-shift camp. Belar and Voresh eyed Fer’shad questionably at what just happened. He merely raised his hand towards them, in a gesture for them to wait. Kel’Van sighed as he gathered nearby rocks into a semi-circle in the middle of their group. He then put the shrubbery in the middle of the stones.

  “What is this you are building captain?” asked Voresh.

  Kel’Van smiled to himself. “It’s called a campfire man. Learned it while I was little going out into the mountains with my dad.” His smile faltered a bit, now recognizing the time for secrets has passed.

  “Burn,” he quietly said.

  The usual redding of his hand commenced, and the shrubbery caught fire.

  Au
dible sounds and murmurs of relish escaped the mouths of the Ulgo’s then. They inched up closer to the fire to feel its warmth and escape the bout of coldness upon them.

  “If Fer’shad has not already told you, I have what is called an inventory bag. It allows me to carry large amounts of items in a single space. Watch.”

  Kel’Van opened his D.S. menu again and selected inventory. Then he began pulling out the wooden planks and the ropes. All pieces of the bridge he could get from the water. He piled them just a little bit away from the fire.

  Voresh’s mouth was hanging wide open. Belar was clutching Fer’shad’s arm in shock.

  “You see, it was just as I said!” Fer’shad said smugly.

  “You said he filled his bag with a large number of items. You said nothing at all about him, bringing back the whole bridge in that bag!” yelled a shocked Belar.

  Kel’Van shook his head in silence. He then drew out four fish from his inventory. He placed a plank on the ground, then laid the fish on top..He began separating the scales and bones from the fish, then sliced them down the middle with his sword. Kel’Van then took a stick and began whittling down to stakes on both ends. He stuck one sharpened end into the ground at an angle, then placed the skinless meat on the other side into the flames. Then he did the same with the sticks he broke off from the shrubbery, and he handed them off, one at a time to his teammates.

  He then reached out his hand, sending arching flames into the burning shrubbery once more, turning the fire into a roaring blaze.

  “Do as I do,” Kel’Van instructed.

  He took his stick with fish on it, and let it roast in the fire, and the others did the same. As the fish cooked in the pyre, all was quiet. They all stared at their leader, expectantly.

  Kel’Van let out a long sigh before he spoke. “Best be done with it,” he thought in his head.