Towns and Towers: A New Land

by Shawn Kass

  “No,” responded Kat. “The beger usually comes out from the hole over there.”

  “Which one?” asked Kai, as he feverishly looked from one hole to the next.

  Shaking her head, Kat admitted, “That’s just it. There’s usually only one hole and one beger.”

  “Okay, so the Tower has increased the difficulty again. What do we need to know when fighting these things?” asked Sam.

  “You need strength and speed,” said Mace, as he hefted his massive axe onto his shoulder. “Begers are both quick and brutal, so you have to be even more so if you plan to get out alive,” and with that, he looked past Sam’s shoulder and said through a fierce blood-thirsty grin, “Time’s up.”

  Facing the far wall, Sam spotted the three creatures lumbering out of their respective holes. Each one looked to be about the size and shape of a polar bear, but instead of the distinctive white fur which would normally cover it, these creatures were orange with black stripes and looked to weigh close to a thousand pounds. Taking a half second longer than it should have, Sam realized that their name was derived by the combination of bear and tiger.

  Not wanting to give the creatures the potential for the first attack, the wizards and archers in the group unleashed their assault from afar, while the knights and other close combat fighters rushed into the melee. Unfortunately, most of the arrows simply bounced off the begers’ thick fur, and while the magic struck its target, it seemed to do little more than annoy the creatures, much like the fireballs Sam had thrown at the yeti. The only hope the group had was the direct physical attack their front line would dish out.

  Holding back to see where he could be of more use, Sam took all of this in, even while he launched a few fireballs towards the creatures accompanied by Anna’s arrows. His attacks looked to catch the begers’ attention for a second when they hit, but their concentration was quickly brought back to the front line once the swords and axes started pounding away on their flanks. Each blow cut deep into the creatures’ flesh, but none of them looked to be life threatening yet.

  After a few more seconds of ferocious battling, the massive creature in the center reared up on its hind legs and swiped out at the group with its claws. The attack was fast and powerful, just as Mace had said, and it sent two of the slower fighters flying across the room. At the same time, the beger on the right apparently grew tired of being beat on as well and pounced forward to sink its teeth into one of the knights. As its jaws snapped shut, the creature’s teeth cut through the man’s armor as if it were tissue paper and plunged deep into the man’s body. His screams were cut short as blood sprayed out in the most visceral display Sam had witnessed since arriving in this world, and then he was abruptly tossed aside as the beger picked out another opponent and tried the same move. Luckily, this knight got his shield up in time and was simply knocked back a few feet.

  Unable to stand back and watch any longer, Sam drew his sword and said, “Keep hitting it from here, Anna,” before he put on a burst of speed and joined in the melee.

  By the time Sam stepped up to the front line, the other attackers had paired off into smaller groups of three against each one of the begers, which left Sam to randomly pick which group to join. Figuring Mace was probably one of the strongest players, he decided to jump in with his group in hopes that they could dispatch the beger twice as fast and then devote themselves to the remaining two beasts. At this point, he wasn’t so focused on experience or loot. He just wanted to help as many people survive this encounter as possible.

  As Mace went in for his next attack, the beger flinched away from his axe and then dove forward to try to sink its teeth into the big man. Mace, however, seemed to have anticipated this possibility, because rather than try to dodge out of the way, he simply let go of his weapon and caught the beast’s massive jaws in his gloved hands. Surprised and frustrated, the beger dug its claws into the stone floor and dedicated itself to closing its teeth on the big guy, leaving the rest of its body unguarded. Seeing this, the other two fighters quickly stepped in and began wildly slashing and stabbing the monster on each side. The problem was, either they were too weak or their blades weren’t sharp enough, because neither of them seemed to cut through the beger’s thick fur.

  Seeing no safe way to get close on either side, Sam ran for the beger’s hindquarters and tried to cut away at its flank. To his surprise, the creature chose that moment to drop its hips and attempt to pull free from Mace’s grasp, and rather than cut deeply into the meat of the beast as he had hoped, he ended up slicing through the creature’s striped tail.

  Howling in pain, the beger violently whipped its head back, leaving Mace holding onto a handful of thick whiskers, and spun around to face Sam who stood just a few feet away from its severed tail. When it recognized its appendage on the floor, the beger went into a frenzy and began lashing out, one massive clawed paw after another, leaving Sam with the only option of parrying the blows with his sword.

  After a dozen hits, Sam noticed that the creature’s paws were now coming in slower than they had been, as if the beger’s frenzy was dying down, and that they were covered in blood. Realizing that each of his parries must have been cutting into its paws and that Tezukayoshi’s Burning Blood

  enhancement on his sword was having an effect, Sam grinned and said, “Come on, you ugly kitty. I’m going to take you apart a piece at a time.”

  “Keep it busy for a few more seconds,” commanded Mace, as he turned his back on the group and ran to pick up his War Axe.

  Not bothering to reply, Sam watched as the next attack came in, and he made sure to drag his sword down, leaving a fresh cut as he parried it.

  Wincing as it put weight on the limb, the beger gave up on trying to claw Sam and dove in to bite him instead. Unfortunately for it, Sam’s agility and speed were more than enough to dodge its enormous jaws, and he used a backhanded swing to open up a long laceration along its cheek which caused the beger to howl in pain.

  Pressing the attack, Sam stepped in and cut open several more gashes in the creature. Each time he focused his attacks on speed rather than power, not really trying to finish it off so much as he was trying to weaken it. He hoped that the Burning Blood effect Tezukayoshi had placed on his sword was poisoning the beger a little more with every swing.

  After a few more seconds, Mace returned to the front line with his War Axe and called out, “Hey, are you done playing with it yet?”

  Hopping back out of reach from the beger, Sam spared him a dirty look and sarcastically commented, “Just waiting on you to finish playing fetch, big guy.”

  Smiling a wicked grin, Mace said, “I just wanted to see what a greenhorn like you could do.” Then focusing on the beger, he said, “Now, watch what a professional can do.” Winding up, Mace swung his War Axe up over his head and bent himself back until the weapon nearly touched the ground behind him. Then, with an ear-splitting yell, he heaved himself forward, putting all of his weight into the attack and threw his War Axe at the creature. Spinning end over end, the blade and handle blurred into one continuous circle of death. When the weapon found its target, it eagerly chewed its way through the beast’s abdomen like a buzz saw, disemboweling the beger on its way to the wall beyond.

  Having never seen an attack like that, Sam stood wideeyed and asked, “What was that?”

  Breathing heavy, Mace answered, “Power Tomahawk. It’s not something most people can do, but the men in my family have passed its secret down for generations.”

  Realizing that it must have been a class restricted attack of some sort, Sam took a second to look back and forth from the dead beger to Mace before he asked, “You realize that wasn’t a tomahawk you just threw, right?”

  Nodding, Mace said, “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. I can pretty much throw anything like that once.”

  Figuring that it was the big guy’s special attack like Kat’s Heaven’s Rain ability, Sam understood that powerful moves like that were limited to a specific number of uses in games. T
hat meant that he probably wouldn’t be able to count on Mace using it again so long as they were in the Tower.

  Turning to the other two fights which waged nearby, Sam saw that one of the begers was now the focus of nearly all the mages’ and archers’ attacks as well as the three front line fighters. The beger seemed to be both slowing down as well as backing up. The third beger, however, was still fighting hard, and the two knights seemed to be doing all of the work while the third guy, Kai, stood just out of reach.

  Lifting his sword, Sam said, “Come on, Mace. We’re not done yet.”

  In a commanding voice, Mace said, “No, wait. They’ve got this.”

  “Are you sure? It looks like two against one over there.”

  Nodding, Mace said, “No, they are just the distraction. It’s really a one-on-one.”

  Confused, Sam looked back to the second group and was surprised to see that Kai was now mumbling something to himself. The mumbling wasn’t loud enough for Sam to make out what Kai was saying, but after a moment, Kai roared at the top of his lungs a harsh sounding, “I’m really angry!” like Bruce Banner did just before he turned into the Marvel comic infamous giant green wrecking machine, and from there everything changed. The little guy’s fat and flabby skin swelled and grew taut, bulging with what looked like steroid-induced muscles, and his roar of rage continued, echoing off the gray stone walls.

  Either from having seen something like this before or because it was their plan, the two knights took this as their cue and stepped back from the beger leaving it unsure of who to attack. Its confusion took care of itself, however, as the creature finally took notice of the one making the most noise and sprung forward for its attack.

  Whirling around with bloodshot eyes, Kai gave another thunderous roar and leapt forward to meet the beger, despite the fact that pound for pound the beger had Kai beat with every ounce. What the beger didn’t know and what Sam had no way of knowing, was that with Kai being fueled with the nitrous-like fuel of his barbarian rage, the beger didn’t stand a chance.

  Sam watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as Kai reached back over his shoulder while in midair and pulled forth a gigantic mace which was nearly as big as himself. The physics of such a thing made it completely impossible to hide while being strapped in back, but Sam couldn’t deny what he was seeing either. The only explanation Sam could think of was that this was a game world, and he must have had a sheath similar to the sacks which he and Anna used to carry their supplies. Either way, Sam knew from past games that how it was done wasn’t nearly as impressive as what he expected to see Kai do with it.

  Having just enough time to bring the mace forward, Kai swung it as hard as he could with both hands, causing it to crash into beger’s solid forehead. The blow was so powerful it not only crushed the skull bones beneath, but also forced the beger’s mouth to snap shut hard enough to break one of its fang-like teeth. From there, Kai let loose a flurry of blows, each hard enough to pulverize concrete, but they were all focused on the thick hairy flesh of the monster.

  After about a minute, Kai began to flag. Soon he dropped his weapon completely, unable to lift it as his muscles shrank back down to their natural flabby state, and his rockhard abs melted into what could only be described as a potbelly. Luckily, the beger wasn’t moving any more by this point, so Kai didn’t have to worry about the risk of retaliation.

  Looking over at the last of the monsters, Sam noted that it, too, had been taken down. Hugo, the other front line attacker from the Reckoners clan, was just now stepping up with his sword at the ready to give the beger the coup de grâce. Not needing to watch the finishing act, Sam scanned back the other way to look for Tezukayoshi and found the lizard munching on the first beger’s tail which Sam had cut off a few moments ago.

  “Looks like we did it,” said Kat, as she walked over with the rest of the archers and mages in tow.

  Nodding, Mace grumbled, “Yeah, we did.”

  “How many did we lose?” asked Anna.

  “Two are dead, and one is pretty injured,” answered Kat shortly. “Ziffra over there will probably make it after the paladin and mages are done healing him, but he’s not going to be able to continue on with us from here.”

  “Neither am I,” said a voice Sam recognized. Stepping between two of the knights, his chest heaving as he panted for breath, Kai said, “I’ve only just been hanging on up to this point, and I’m afraid I only get one of those last attacks per day. I won’t be much help to you all from here on out.”

  Nodding, Kat said, “We thank you for your assistance, Kai, and I’d like to ask if you would be willing to help the dead and injured return to the town.”

  “I can, but I’ll need some help,” replied Kai. “They fought bravely and don’t deserve to be dragged.”

  Stepping forward, one of the knights who had fought with him said, “I can help. It’s the least I can do. My weapon couldn’t cut into either of those things, and Ziffra saved me.”

  “Okay,” acknowledged Kat. “Then I leave them to you two. Please make sure their clans know how bravely they fought.”

  “Aye, ma’am, we will,” said the knight, and then with a brief salute, he turned and led Kai back towards the dead and wounded.

  Facing the remaining fourteen party members, Kat asked, “How are the rest of you? Are we ready to move on?”

  “The mages need some time to meditate and rebuild their mana if you want them at full power,” said Rue.

  “Okay, Rue. That’s a good idea. We might as well let them regain their strength while we’re safe in here. Tell them to take a few minutes, and then we can press on further. In fact, why doesn’t everyone use this opportunity to rest? We still have a bit of a ways to go, and I don’t want to see anyone else fall if we can help it.”

  Speaking through their mental link, Tezukayoshi said, ‘Sam, I think I found something you may want.’

  Stepping back, Sam said, “Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” to the others and walked over to his familiar. When he arrived, he was pleased to see that the little guy didn’t have anything disgusting hanging out of his mouth this time, and so he asked, “What did you find?”

  Tilting his head, Tezukayoshi set a large white tooth down on the ground at Sam’s feet and suggested, ‘I’m betting the blacksmith could use this to make something for you.’

  “Wow, you’re right. He probably could. In fact, I hadn’t been thinking of it earlier, but we should probably be trying to grab something from each of these monsters.”

  Grinning a toothy smile, Tezukayoshi said, ‘ I’ve made sure I have,’ indicating that he had been sampling his way through the Tower’s various monster meats.

  “Hey, is everything okay over here?” asked Anna as she walked over.

  “Yeah,” replied Sam. “We were just thinking about the crazy stuff in this place.”

  “I told you the Tower was strange,” said Anna. “The creatures in here do not conform to any standards similar to those which appear outside.”

  “Obviously,” acknowledged Sam. “I was just thinking we should try to get some more of the creatures’ parts for Kip. You know, like we did with the spider’s legs and the yeti fur. He might be able to make us some even better equipment once we get out of here.”

  “That’s a smart idea,” said Anna. Then looking over at the dead beger near bye, she asked, “Why don’t you see what you can get from that one? I’ll set up the dinners I picked up from town.”

  “Sounds good,” admitted Sam, and he quickly jogged over to see what he could find with Tezukayoshi following closely behind, hoping to get some more of the rare monster meat.

  Chapter 18

  After cutting yet another beger tail off along with a swath of fur, Sam dropped the items into his sack and left the remains for Tezukayoshi to help himself while he went back to eat dinner with Anna. As it turned out, Anna had done better than the trail mix and jerky they had on their previous trip and had prepared tacos and burritos. Silently thankin
g the game’s logic for its continued ignorance of physics in the real world, Sam sat down to a nice hot Mexican dinner, and by the time they finished and packed things back up, Sam registered that he felt much better than he had before. Remembering his previous meals in this game world, he figured this was the logical result of his hit points and mana being replenished by the food and smiled.

  From the center of the room, Kat called, “Okay, folks, we’ve got to press on. Let’s pack things up and head for the next location on the map.”

  “Which way are we going?” asked one of the mages. “Your map doesn’t show these three cave openings.”

  Nodding, Kat said, “I know. Each time we’ve come through here, there has been just the one. The Tower obviously changed things since there are more of us.” Gesturing towards the rest of the Reckoners, she said, “I’ve been talking with the rest of my clan, and after looking into each of openings and finding nothing unique about any of them, we have all agreed that our path forward should most likely be the middle one. It’s the closest one to the position where the old singular opening used to be.”

  “Most likely? So we’re guessing now?” asked one of the barbarians whom Sam thought was named Torix. “That doesn’t exactly seem safe. I thought you guys knew how to get there.”

  “We do,” began Kat, and then she amended herself and said, “Well, we did, under normal conditions. Look, we can’t turn back, so we have to choose. Considering they are each next to one another, we’re betting that they all lead to the same place.”

  “Why not just send someone in to scout things out?” asked one of the archers who looked like a ranger type.

  “For the same reason we decided not to split up before,” answered Kat. “What if we send someone, and they walk in there only to get ambushed by a group of monsters calibrated for all fifteen of us? They won’t have the ability, never mind the opportunity, to run back to us for help. They’ll get slaughtered.”

  “I don’t know,” said a young man who had been fighting the last beger. “This was supposed to be a quick rescue mission with known monsters and a well-trodden route. Things are starting to look a lot more complicated now.”