by Adam Drake
And loving it.
The taller of the four managed to aim a swing right at my head, and I half-ducked, half-blocked it. His axe cracked firmly down on the my forehead, and I felt the skull cap crack.
An explosion of stars blinded me, and I staggered, desperately swinging my axe in front me to keep them at bay.
That's when the Mark worked its wonders.
Even though I couldn't see it, someone slashed at me with a sideways swing. It should have eviscerated me, ending the fight right there. But as I blindly swung about, I felt the Mark tingle on my shoulder.
The next moment I found myself leaping upward and sideways, my body spinning like those ice skaters of old.
I felt the swing pass through the air directly beneath me.
The Mark may have helped me avoid the attack, but it didn't help with the landing.
I spun in the air, then fell hard to the ground. This should have been a death sentence.
They were on me in an instant, swinging and kicking at me. I caught a lot of the blows, but instinct took over and I thrashed about like a rabid tiger. For each swing that hit me, I gave two hits with my axe. This pushed them back a little which helped because I needed to get to me feet or I was dead.
As I staggered up to a standing position they surge forward as one.
Use Devil's Dance
I'm not sure how to accurately describe the next five seconds. The moment I used the ability it was like the Mark of Dodge, but with the power of a Trans-light drive.
I easily evaded each and every swing they put to me. My body spun and twisted away from attacks which should have landed. I danced like the devil, as it were. And as my body performed these insane magical contortions, evading blows, I attacked. Swinging my axe and connecting each time.
But the five seconds flitted by and I felt an axe glance across my lower back. No more magical evasion.
Still, two of the burned men were dead on the ground, blood spilling from fatal wounds. The other two were hurt, but still determined.
As one lunged to catch me as I slipped in a puddle of blood, I used Bash. Although I lost my balance, my axe powered through his attack and buried deep in his chest, cracking through the sternum to the heart. He fell to the ground, but my axe was still in him.
The last man swung at me and I danced back, desperately looking around for another weapon. I suddenly noticed he had a Mark across his stomach. What could it be?
As he came at me, I quickly snatched up another axe from the ground, but not without getting cut across the back of the left arm for my efforts.
I spun about, catching him across the chin with the very tip of the blade. He grunted, but kept coming. As we dodged and swung, I saw I'd really cut him up badly, but despite all that, he fought on.
For at least two minutes we fought. I hit him more than he hit me, yet, he stayed on his feet. To be honest, he'd taken more damage than any opponent so far.
But we were both slowing down, the adrenaline in our systems petering out. He and I were at the point of exhaustion.
Why wouldn't he just die already?
Finally, he took a wide, tired swing, giving me an opportunity. I ducked the swing and came up from beneath it. My axe slashed across his throat, and arterial blood exploded from the wound, drenching me.
He collapsed to the ground, spasming, holding one hand to his fatal wound in a feeble attempt to stanch the flow. In seconds, he was dead.
I fell to the ground, gasping for air and bleeding from a dozen wounds. A glance at my health told me what I already knew.
2%
I had only one chance. Before, while I was watching the burned men from my hiding spot, I saw an inventory stone near a small jumble of rocks. Groggily, I looked around for it, my vision blurring. When I found it, I crawled.
So focused on my destination and the fact I was at the point of death, I didn't even notice the slaves watching me from a distance. Once I reached the stone, I had to drop the axe in order to heave myself up over its lip to access its opening.
I gobbled down the two Blood Berries like they were food from the heavens.
As I sat there, slumped against the stone basking in their healing effects, I checked one of my stats.
Power: 1
Well, there you go. Thanks to using both my abilities, which sucked up Power, and fighting seven energetic opponents, I'd brought myself to complete exhaustion.
Fine, I thought. I had a fix for that. I ate some of the green mushrooms as quickly as I could. My stomach ached from all the food.
Finished, I pulled up my Passive tab, bought Power Play, and dropped my last talent point into it. It wouldn't be a major booster to my Power regeneration, but it was better than not having it at all.
Movement to my left caught my attention.
Shockingly, one of the burned men was still alive, and crawling across the ground toward me. His face was drenched in blood.
Then I remembered he who's eye I'd jammed my thumb into.
He looked very angry as he crawled across the uneven ground, cutting his legs and hands in the process. But he didn't care. He was after me.
“You bitch!” he spat.
With an exaggerated sigh, I pushed myself up to my feet. I waited a few moments as he crawled closer, then I made a point of slowly bending over to pick up the axe.
“The Magma God will consume you!” he said, still coming. “Your flesh will burn for an eternity!”
Zealots, I thought, slightly bemused. Bored of his ranting, I walked over and easily dispatched him with several quick blows.
I looked over the grizzly carnage. Seven dead bodies, weapons and puddles of blood mixing together. The Devil's Dance proved its worth, as well as the Mark.
The slaves hadn't fled as I expected, instead clustering together and staring at me like frightened children. I wasn't sure what to say, as this wasn't a rescue mission. They'd been slaves for the burned men and now they were mine.
Uncertain how to process that, I quickly picked up all the axes and placed them in the inventory stone. But as I started to look over the first body to salvage it, I heard a sobbing coming from the slaves.
Their terrified expressions pulled me toward them and I tried to calm them down.
“It's okay,” I said, yet knowing different. Based on what Chak wanted to do with them, they'd simply go from digging one mound to another. When I looked any of them in the eyes, they quickly averted them, trembling. They were filthy, naked and strapped in their strange harnesses.
I moved closer, free hand raised. Although I sensed they wouldn't attack me, I kept the axe at my side.
The crying intensified, coming from a man crouched at the rear of the group, his back turned.
“Hey, it's okay, you're safe now.” The others parted, flinching at my every move.
The man's body racked with sobs. I worried he wouldn't be able to move and I didn't feel like sticking around to babysit.
I touched him on the shoulder, and he spun around to look up at me.
I gasped.
Despite his face being streaked with tears and grimy dirt covering every inch of his skin, I instantly recognized him.
Pullman.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
He gaped at me, terrified until I realized the skull cap partially covered my face, so I removed it.
“C-captain?” Pullman said, eyes wide.
“Pullman!” I said, surprised. He was here in the sim with me. But what relief I felt in that moment evaporated when he suddenly burst into tears.
“Oh, Captain, I'm so glad you're here! It's been terrible!”
I blinked in confusion. I'd never seen the man cry before. Over several years of surveying together, he'd barely shown a hint of emotion. “It's okay, Pullman,” I said, a little taken aback. What was wrong with him?
“I-I thought they were going to kill me,” he said, wiping snot from his nose with the back of his hand. The motion was limited by his harness.
“Well, they're
not going to now. They're dead,” I said, and felt a pang of annoyance. He'd been standing here the whole time I fought and didn't help? That wasn't like him at all. He'd served twelve years in the Stellar Corp as a dropship marine. Seen combat dozens of times. An injury forced him into early retirement where he found his way into interstellar surveying. This was a man used to blood and death. But seeing him blubber like a baby gave me pause.
“Pullman, what happened to you?” Maybe if I let him tell his story, it would help.
He calmed down a bit, sniffling. “What happened to me? I got kidnapped is what happened. One minute, I was in engineering, tooling up the impulse engine as you asked, then this white light filled the section. Blinding. The next minute, I found myself here, in this spot, tied to these people. I was confused as all hell, no clue as to what was happening. Those bastards with the crispy skin immediately jumped on me, beating me almost senseless. Commanded me to dig at this stuff. I was completely shocked! I still am completely shocked!” He broke into tears again.
I watched him, confused, trying to sort out what he said. “So, did you select a character to play? A class?”
“What are you talking about? I didn't choose to have this happen to me!”
A faint spark of angry flickered at the back of my mind, but I pushed it down. The man was traumatized. I needed to go easy on him. “Pullman, this is a sim. We're playing a damned sim. You know that right?”
“Of course I do!” he suddenly snapped. “I'm not daft you know. Just a little overwhelmed by it all. I figured it was some kind of program or sim when I could pull up information screens on people and things. Not that any of it is useful. I can't find a way to log out!”
“Have you seen any of the others? Caddie or the rest?”
He shook his head, miserable. “No, no one. Just you.” His eyes looked over at the bodies. “You really messed those boys up, Captain. I've never seen anything like it before. You moved like a tiger jacked up on stims.”
For some reason, talking about my fighting ability made me feel uncomfortable. Probably because I was an Interstellar Surveyor, not a mass-murdering crazy woman. I changed the subject. “We're on the surface of the planet.”
“What?” he said, baffled. “Not a sim on the ship?”
“No, the planet is part of the sim, or so we think. Otto is in a high orbit scanning its surface.”
The exaggerated expression of relief on his face was almost comical. “Otto is here?”
I nodded, then gave him a very quick breakdown of everything that'd happened to me since the ship was attacked. He listened intently, mesmerized.
Once I'd finished, he nodded enthusiastically. “Okay, this is starting to make a lot more sense,” he said.
“It does?” I said, surprised. “Because I'm still in the dark.”
“No, I mean this place and why I'm here. I've been at a complete loss until you explained it.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “You got to select a class and god, but I didn't. What does that mean?”
Good question. I had no clue. But something Chak said about my respawning tickled the back of my brain. “Pullman, have you been bound to a Life Crystal?”
“No, not as you explained it. I haven't.”
I looked around at the slaves who hadn't moved an inch from their spots the entire time. “Does anyone know if there is a Life Crystal close by?”
Their terrified looks told me I wouldn't be getting any answer from them.
“They don't speak at all,” Pullman said. “Their tongues are gone; cut out.”
Damn. It made them look all the more piteous to me.
Pullman stood, wiping tears from his cheeks. He was no longer crying. “I thought they'd do the same to me, those men. But it amused them to make me say things for them, then threaten to cut me like the others. Why are you looking for a Life Crystal?”
“For you,” I said, and looked off at the approaching lava flow in the distance. It was getting much closer. “I'm not sure what will happen to you if you die in this sim. I respawn because I'm bound, but I don't know about you.”
“Well, let's not find out, then, eh?” he said, and for the first time, grinned.
A hissing noise made me spin about.
Skaggs. Four of the giant creatures were clamoring over rocks and entering the area. Their focus was on the bodies.
Both Pullman and the slaves gasped. I held my hand up for them to be quiet. “They're not here for us, they just want the corpses.” I wanted those bodies, too, to salvage. But that wasn't going to happen now.
“What are they?” Pullman said, horrified. One of the skaggs roped a corpse with its tongue and deftly slid it into its massive mouth.
“A problem if we stay any longer,” I said. “Everybody get to the other side over there!” I motioned to the area I'd first entered from.
Thankfully, the slaves moved without further encouragement. Pullman stayed along side me. The harnesses limited their movements and each still carried a pick axe.
“Where are we going?” Pullman asked.
“Away from here,” I said, keeping myself between the skaggs and the slaves.
“Back to that Chak fellow? Doesn't he just want a bunch of slaves, too?”
I found myself not wanting to answer the question. Then I realized something. “Wait! Stop here.” We were at the other side of the area, standing between tall pillars of stone.
“What? What's wrong?” Pullman said, alarmed that we weren't still running from the monsters.
I scanned over the bodies, slipping the skull cap back on. “I forgot something.”
“Are you joking?” Pullman said.
I wish I was. Then I spotted the body of the man with the Mark on his stomach. He was right in the middle of the area, surrounded by skaggs. I couldn't explain why, but I had to get that Mark.
Disregarding any sense of logic, I said, “Stay put. I'll be right back.” Then I ran toward the skaggs.
“Captain!” Pullman shouted, but I ignored him.
The four skaggs were busy dining on burned men. Each creature had a different set of colored scales; white, grey, black and green.
As I approached the body, the white skagg turned toward me. A burned man's head vanished over the lip of its mouth, the form of the body sliding down its gullet.
I slowed, trying not to look menacing. Its globular eyes swirled about, one on me, the other on the body between us.
This is mine, asshole, I thought. Carefully, I reached down and grabbed the body by the arm, gripping the wrist.
At that moment, the skagg opened its mouth and its long pink ropy tongue whipped out, wrapping around the body's legs by both ankles and squeezing them together.
I glanced down at the Mark. It was mine. I earned it. Then I pulled at the body, trying to drag it away.
The skagg seemed momentarily baffled by me, then took a step back, pulling with its tongue. The body between us lifted off the ground. For several moments, we had a tug of war with me trying to dig my feet into the hard ground.
The skagg was infinitely stronger, managing to get the legs of the body into its mouth up to the man's waist.
I still hung on, even dropping my axe to grab the other wrist. Around me, I heard hissing and the scraping of claws on stone. The other skaggs were still feeding, but their distraction wouldn't last.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, a small voice was asking what exactly did I think I was doing, but I ignored it. I wanted that Mark.
The skagg's initial bafflement didn't last. Annoyed, it snapped its jaws together, biting deeply into the body's waist. Giving further claim to its prize, it twisted its head and pulled.
It dragged me along with it, and shook my from side to side, but I still wouldn't give up.
Suddenly, I heard a wet tearing sound. The body ripped across its middle. With both of us pulling hard, it tore apart.
I flew back, falling to the ground, the torso landing on top of me. A ragged spinal column stuck out fro
m below its navel, blood and innards spilling out. The skagg, momentarily mollified, slurped down its half of the body.
Not wanting to wait and see if it wanted more, I got to my feet, and sprinted away, slinging the torso by the arms over my shoulder.
As I approached the others, I could see the look of complete horror on their faces. “Let's go!” I shouted. “We need to get some distance from them.”
Not wanting to disobey the maniac woman carrying a bloody torso around, they ran, Pullman included. I glanced back. The skaggs had devoured all the bodies and were snapping at one another. The white one didn't pursue me, but I didn't want to take any chances. I followed the others.
A short distance away, we came upon an inventory stone and slab of obsidian. I called for them to stop, then dumped the torso on the ground. To my amazement, the Mark hadn't been damaged.
Pullman stood beside me, eyes wide. “Captain, what have you done?”
I pulled a replacement axe out of the stone, then crouched beside the torso. “It's not what I've done, but what I'm going to do.” Carefully, I sliced around the edges of the Mark.
Pullman swayed on his feet, then lurched away to vomit behind a rock.
Cutting the last of the Mark free of the skin, I marveled at how quickly I'd adapted to the gruesome nature of this sim. I should be vomiting, too, but I was simply going through the motions. Doing what needed to be done to get the hell out of this place.
Finished, I slapped the Mark onto the slab like a bloody pancake, eager to see what it was.
Mark of Greater Health
+50% Maximum Health
Claim Mark for 300 Blood Points – Yes/No?
I barked a laugh. So that's why the guy lasted so long against me. No matter what damage he took, he kept on going. All because he had the health points to survive longer.
Well, now this was mine.
Grinning, I selected yes, and the Mark dissolved, reappearing across my midriff.
I explained what it was to Pullman.
“Wonderful, Captain,” he said, looking grim. “Glad to see you've really thrown yourself into this sim. I know I don't have the stomach for it.”
Someone has to, I thought, but didn't say it allowed. We weren't going to get out of this situation if I had to rely on Pullman, that was certain.