by Alex Mulder
LEVEL 22 ATTAINED
CONJURE SWORD 4 OBTAINED
PIERCE ATTACK 4 OBTAINED
Luke ignored the level up icon, instead gathering his swords and moving to face his next opponent. He pushed forward into a lunge, utilizing one of his newly upgraded combat skills.
PIERCE ATTACK 4
Time seemed to slow down as he moved forward. He heard a crack, like thunder as he tore through the air. The force was so great he felt as though he’d leaned his head out of a car window, or rather, a jet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough.
His blade had only barely made contact with his intended target’s golden armor when another enemy slammed into him from the side. Luke was thrown into the compound wall. He crashed violently against it, losing three quarters of his health.
Immediately a spell landed on him, healing most of the damage. The new threat was still rushing toward him. It was the Head Arbiter, the same one that he’d seen and fought at the guild meeting. Luke tried to use his mirror images to absorb its second attack, but the Head Arbiter acted like it could see right through them.
It took every single one of his swords for Luke to block the Arbiter’s opening strike. All of the conjured blades shattered into ether, and though Luke tried to counter, his physical sword merely glanced off the Head Arbiter’s armor without doing any damage.
“Give up!” yelled the Head Arbiter. “You’ll be allowed to live, but only if you surrender!”
“Force them out!” yelled Luke. “We have to-”
Another blow from the Head Arbiter slammed into him. He was only able to recover by falling into a dive roll. His health was down to a sliver, and a quick scan across the walled battlefield revealed that most of the other players were in a similar situation.
The Head Arbiter pushed forward, focusing on Luke. None of the healers were free to restore his heath, but with his regeneration self-buff in place, Luke was still able to hang on, barely.
He rolled out of range of the next spear thrust, moving toward the destroyed gate. An idea popped into his head, and he put it into action without a second thought.
The Head Arbiter is always focusing its attacks on me. Let’s see if I can use that to our advantage.
Luke ran through the gate and sure enough, the Head Arbiter followed after him. It leapt into the air with inhuman strength, landing in front of Luke outside of the compound.
“Close the door!” Luke yelled back to Tess and Kaoru over his shoulder. “Do it now, craft another gate!”
CONJURE SWORD 4
Luke restored his swords and spun them in a defensive whirlwind around him. In front of him stood the Head Arbiter, behind him a company of subordinates. It was abundantly clear to Luke that his swords weren’t going to do much good. He was going to die.
“Luke!” Tess was yelling from the edge of the compound. “Get inside, hurry!”
There were still two Arbiters left inside of Dunidan’s Rest, and despite being outnumbered, they were putting up a formidable fight. Luke knew that he couldn’t risk leading anymore back in through the still open gate. He shook his head.
“Kaoru, make sure the gate goes up.”
MIRROR IMAGE 3
With the last of his magicka, he brought back up his doppelgangers and dropped into a defensive stance. The Head Arbiter made no move to attack. Instead, he let the rest of his soldiers move into position behind him.
Luke put every ounce of his energy into defending as the Arbiters attacked him. He defended an assault from a two handed sword with two of his swords crossed overhead. Immediately after, he fell flat to avoid the lethal point of a spear aimed at his chest. Next a hammer came down, and only by rolling blindly to the side did he avoid a one-shot.
Luke stood to one knee and tried to block the two handed sword again. He moved a split second too late, and though he was able to deflect most of the blow, the enemy sword made contact, dealing a significant amount of damage.
“Just give up.” The Head Arbiter stood to the side with his arms crossed. He watched Luke’s gallant attempt to defend himself with derision. “This isn’t a fight that you can win. You’re too weak to stand against us.”
Luke caught a glimpse of the compound as he rolled away from a line of approaching Arbiters. The gate was back up. He had no idea what was happening inside, but Katrina and several of her guild members were moving across the top of the wall, watching the action below.
A mace strike slammed into Luke’s thigh before he could move out of the way. He screamed in pain. A hail of arrows began to rain down from the Athena’s Wrath archers. The Arbiters took very little damage but did retreat a few yards.
“Run, Kato!” yelled Katrina.
They’re safe now, but I’ll never make it away. This is the end…
Luke tried to maneuver to keep the Arbiters from surrounding him and bumped into one of his conjured swords. Suddenly, another idea came to him.
“Cover me!” He waved to Katrina and her guild as he sprinted alongside the wall. “Just for a couple of seconds!”
The Arbiters moved to intercept him, but Luke had no intention of trying to maneuver his way across the ground. Instead, he began positioning his conjured swords in formation in front of him.
He jumped into the air and let his foot land on one of the blade flats. It dipped slightly, but held for long enough for him to push off, like a thin tree branch. Luke got enough height from his step to reach the next sword positioned slightly above the first.
One of the Arbiters jumped forward, reaching out a metal gloved hand to grab his leg. A hail of arrows stopped him in his tracks. Luke took another step on his swords, and then another, traveling up the wall as if he was performing a garish magic trick.
He grabbed the edge of the wall as soon as it was within reach. Katrina and Kaoru grabbed his arms and pulled him up, ducking down the other side as soon as he made it over. Several spells shot through the air where their heads had been only a moment earlier.
Luke was still for a couple of seconds, and then let out his breath.
I can’t believe that worked.
“I can’t believe that worked,” said Kaoru. Luke laughed.
CHAPTER 33
Luke, Kaoru, Katrina, and Tess gathered together in the guild hall. Tess cast a healing spell on Luke, though it was a little redundant now that he was back to safety and his self-healing buff had done most of the job.
“Thanks,” he said. Tess smiled at him and rubbed his shoulder.
She knows I’m at full health. She’s just healing me because she can.
“I knew you were going to be okay, Luke,” said Tess. “It’s weird… after everything I’ve seen you do, all the times you’ve pulled yourself and other people out of danger, I just knew.”
Luke shrugged.
“I got lucky,” he said. “Though that new technique worked surprisingly well. I think I’m going to call it ‘sword stepping’.”
“The Arbiters are holding back for now, but it’s only a matter of time before they attack again.” Kaoru stared out the guild hall’s front window with her arms crossed. “Katrina, did you have your guild members reinforce the gate?”
Katrina nodded.
“It’s stronger than before,” she said. “We never seriously considered the possibility that we’d face an attack like this. It should hold better, but that doesn’t mean much against an army of Arbiters.”
“How long would we have?” asked Luke.
“Ten, maybe twenty minutes, depending on how badly they want to get in.” Katrina sighed. “They’re still back in their camp for now, but that doesn’t mean much.”
Luke paced back and forth along the length of the guild hall. Finally, he turned to Tess.
“What’s the situation here in Dunidan’s Rest?” he asked. “How many were injured in the attack? How many are…”
How many are dead? And especially, how many that have gone all in?
“We lost seven out of the 53 players that were gather
ed from the guild alliance,” said Tess. “One of them was all in.”
Luke nodded, hiding his frustration the best he could.
“Make sure everybody is healed, and if anyone needs weapons, armor, or anything out of the general store, tell the merchant to let them have it for free.”
We can’t stay here. We have to jump forward with the plan.
“I know what you’re going to say.” Kaoru shook her head and held up one of her hands. “We can’t.”
“Why not?” asked Luke. “If we don’t summon Makorin now, we aren’t going to have an army to fight with.”
“It’s too early, it would give away our plan,” said Kaoru. “Besides, the Arbiters aren’t worried about us. That’s the main conclusion that I can draw from the encounter we just had.”
“What?”
“If they wanted us dead, trust me, we would be dead right now.” Kaoru scanned all of the faces in the room. “I have no doubt that they could take this compound and slaughter everyone in it, if they really wanted to.”
“Then why haven’t they?” asked Luke. “It doesn’t make any sense…”
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re waiting for something, or maybe they don’t consider us a threat. After the attack on the meeting at Megwin’s Bay we only have a fraction of the force we should have.
Luke took a deep breath and then forced it from his lungs.
“Katrina, round up the guild leaders here in Dunidan’s rest and have them summon the rest of their members. We’re going to need all the reinforcements that we can get.”
Katrina nodded and left the hall. Luke turned to Tess, finally giving into his emotions and pulling her into a tight hug.
“I believe in you, Luke,” she whispered. “We’re going to be okay.”
Luke remembered his waiting attribute points and quickly assigned them using his character record. Kaoru looked out the window at the sun, nearly set over the horizon, and then looked back at Luke.
“It’s almost time,” she said. “We’ll be nearing our destination in the real world.”
“Right,” said Luke. “I should just… check in with everybody, first.”
He grabbed Tess’s hand and squeezed it.
“I still remember our promise,” he said. “Once this is settled, once we have control over Yvvaros, I’m looking forward to us having a chance to be happy.”
Tess smiled.
“You know we probably could have found a way to be happy without having to instigate a rebellion.” She winked at him. “Not that it hasn’t been fun…”
Luke laughed.
“Yeah, well, I guess I’m a bit of an overachiever.”
He walked out through the door of the guild hall. Tess and Kaoru followed next.
All of the allied players were gathered around the oasis. They turned as Luke approached and broke out into applause.
“Ka-To, Ka-To, Ka-to!” Their voices all chanted his name in unison, many of them clapping and cheering alongside. Luke smiled and scratched his head as he walked toward the group.
All of their hopes, and many of their futures, lie with me. I can’t let them down!
“We’re going to do it!” Luke’s voice was barely loud enough to be heard over the noise, but he didn’t care. “This is Yvvaros! This world belongs to us!”
Kaoru grabbed his hand and pulled him aside.
“It’s time,” she said. “We have to get back to the real world.”
Luke nodded and waved to the crowd.
“I’ll be back!” He shouted to them, as much for his sake as for theirs. “I’ll be back, and we’ll settle this!”
He looked to Tess. She met his gaze and blew him a kiss as he pulled out his character journal. He playfully caught it as he signed his name to log off.
The sensation of the bus seat rumbling underneath him, and his warm laptop sitting on his legs greeted Luke as he returned to the real world. He pulled off his headset and looked over at Kaoru, who was already calibrated and composed, as always.
“We timed it perfectly,” she said. “We’ll there in a couple of minutes.”
Luke looked out the window of the bus. It was almost ten o’clock. Outside he could barely decipher fields and what might have been a farm. It was hard to tell, thick clouds blocked the light from the moon and stars.
“So we’re just going to walk?” asked Luke. “How far is it, exactly?”
“Not far. A few miles.” Kaoru fit her headset and laptop back in her backpack and then set it down by her feet. “We’ll leave our bags behind and go slow for the last half mile or so, to make sure we aren’t spotted.”
This almost feels like a spy movie, except we have no equipment, and no training.
“And you’re sure that we’re going to be able to get in?”
“No, of course I’m not.” Kaoru’s face was expressionless. “I bribed one of the guards to leave a door unlocked for us. That should give us a way in, but there is a security system that’s active. We have to be careful to avoid being detected.”
“Well, we’ve made it this far…”
The bus drove for several more minutes, before turning into the station. It made a slow lap around the parking lot before finally coming to a stop. Luke and Kaoru were the last two to get off. Stepping down onto the concrete lot felt very symbolic to Luke.
I can’t lose faith, not now.
“Come on,” said Kaoru. “We have no time to waste.”
Luke followed her. They were on the outskirts of a small town, but Kaoru wasn’t leading him into it. Instead, they headed away from the buildings, away from civilization, and away from the street lights.
It was only a minute before the two had to resort to navigating by the light of their phones. They walked on the shoulder of the road. Cars passed by only rarely, but Luke was still concerned about the risk they were taking by walking so late at night.
Five minutes passed in silence, then ten, and then twenty. The only sounds that Luke could hear other than their footsteps was the wind blowing fallen leaves, each of them scraping across the road like the rattling of bones.
“We’ll duck off in into the woods here,” said Kaoru. “It’s at the end of the next turn ahead of us on the right, but walking along that road would probably give us away.”
“Alright,” said Luke. “Uh… Kaoru?”
Luke wanted to say something to her. He wanted to thank her for everything she’d done, for her role in what was happening. She was getting as much use out of him as he was out of her, but Luke felt like he’d found a friend as well as an ally.
“If it’s not about the plan, just hold on for now,” said Kaoru. “We have to keep moving.”
Luke smiled.
Straight to the point, as always.
Even with their phones, navigating through the darkness of the woods was more difficult than following the road had been. Tree branches jutted out, looking like sinister arms in the darkness. The ground was wet and muddy in some spots, and covered with prickly bushes in others.
Eventually, Luke could see lights ahead of them. He was able to make out a building, single story and a few hundred feet long. The sides were constructed of corrugated metal sections that reminded him of storage rental units. Kaoru held out her arm, signaling for him to stop. They both crouched low and hovered at the edge of the tree line.
“This is it,” she said. Luke was surprised. Her voice was slightly hesitant. He had never heard Kaoru doubt herself or their plan before.
“Which door did you have your contact leave unlocked?” asked Luke.
“The side one.” Kaoru pointed over to the right. “We’ll have to stay in the woods while we sneak around, and then find a way to get in close while still staying out of sight.”
They spent another minute moving along the tree line at a snail’s pace. Luke felt like they were making too much noise, and creating too much movement in the brush. They traveled toward a part of the forest that jutted out the farthest onto the building’s lawn. Thi
s meant they’d have less distance to cover without the protection of the forest, but it also meant that it would be easier for anyone listening to hear twigs breaking and trees rustling.
“We’ll leave our bags here,” said Kaoru, once they were in position. “We can come back for them once the job is done.”
Luke nodded and let his slip to the ground.
“Alright,” he said. “I’ll go first.”
Kaoru, surprisingly, didn’t object. Luke summoned all of the knowledge he had from years of watching spy movies and playing stealth games. It felt useless to him now, and it probably was.
There. That’s a security camera, above the door. It’s angled toward the parking lot.
He moved away from the cover of the trees and slowly made his way across the neatly trimmed grass. With each step he held his breath expecting an alarm or a motion sensor light to go off. He moved at a diagonal, heading toward the back of the building. The whole time his eyes were trained on the camera, afraid it swing in his direction.
It didn’t. Luke made it to the door after about a minute, his heart racing faster than his legs. He raised a hand and motioned for Kaoru to follow, and she did, following his route to the step.
“Alright,” she said, her voice almost inaudible. “It should be unlocked.”
Luke swallowed hard, and then slowly turned the door’s handle. It gave no resistance, and the door swung open easily. He smiled at Kaoru as he stepped inside, his heart still beating like a drum.
“We’re in.” Kaoru scanned the hallway ahead of them, and then started walking forward quickly. “Come on, I know where it is from here.”
Luke hurried after her, trying not to think about what would happen if one of the unbribed staff members had decided to work late. Kaoru led him forward, past an intersection, and through another door.
“Here we are.” She reached her hand out and set it on Luke’s shoulder.
They were standing in a room the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Most of the floor was sunken about a meter into the ground. It almost looked bigger than the facility had from the outside. The center of the room was filled with row after row of black two meter high boxes. Luke knew this was what they’d come for.