Forever Fantasy Online (FFO Book 1)

by Rachel Aaron

  She was about to yell for Killbox again when he suddenly appeared beside her, running down the road with NekoBaby perched on his back like a feline Yoda. They both cringed when they saw her, and Tina realized belatedly what her face must look like. She didn’t bother fixing it, though. If any situation deserved a death glare, it was this one.

  “Where am I going?” she yelled over her shoulder at Frank.

  “Straight down the road,” Frank yelled back. “Can’t miss them. And save my armor, please!”

  Tina gave him a thumbs-up over her shoulder and started running faster, kicking herself all the while for sending one Ranger instead of a full party. Retrieval should have been her top priority, but she’d left them back here without even sending a healer for support. If SilentBlayde died because of her bad decisions, she’d never forgive herself.

  “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she muttered, pushing herself even faster until Killbox was struggling to keep up. They were both panting by the time they finally spotted the two small figures in the dust ahead. One was lying on his back. The other was bent over his body, giving him what appeared to be CPR.

  The sight of the emergency measures spurred Tina even faster. She sprinted the final distance, sending her own mini dust storm rolling over Zen and SilentBlayde as she skidded to a halt.

  “How is he?”

  The Assassin’s face was a horrible ash-gray color that no living being’s should be. He was so still, Tina almost couldn’t look at him. Still, she held on to hope, dropping down beside Zen with a crash that shook the road.

  “Well?”

  Zen looked up from her CPR, her dusty face streaked with tears. “I’m sorry, Roxxy,” she said, her voice hoarse. “He died of hypoxia right after Frank left.”

  “Hypoxia?” Tina repeated, her voice terrifyingly flat even to her ears.

  “Lack of oxygen to the cells,” Zen clarified, staring down at SB’s still body. “I’ve been an ER nurse for ten years, but I’ve never seen a case this severe. It’s as if all the oxygen in his body was used up all at once. If we’d been in the hospital, I could have administered some O2 to get his blood oxygen up, but there’s nothing like that out here. I’ve been giving him CPR for the last twenty minutes on the off chance, because you never know what people can come back from, but now…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I did all I could.”

  “You did your best, Zen. Thank you.”

  Tina’s response was automatic, just words that fell from her mouth. She wasn’t actually sure where they came from, because everything else—her concerns about the guild, the march, mana and ammo, food, even the army behind them—had vanished, leaving nothing but emptiness behind.

  After almost half a minute of silence, Killbox said what Tina couldn’t. “We’re outside the six-minute window for the Raise Ally spell. If the graveyards and shrines don’t work, that’s—”

  Tina cut him off with a jerk of her hand. She didn’t want to hear it, because she didn’t want it to be true. She refused to accept that SilentBlayde was really dead, especially when he didn’t even look injured. “SB,” she whispered, leaning over his still body. “Haruto, please, don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”

  The emptiness in her chest stabbed with every breath. It couldn’t end like this. SilentBlayde had been her first real online friend. She’d met him back when she was fourteen and he was fifteen. Since then, they’d played FFO together almost every day for seven years, but it was so much more than that. He was so much more. Of all the stupid, annoying, boat-anchor people that filled Tina’s life, he was the one who’d been different.

  She wouldn’t have gotten into college without him. When James had screwed her over for getting a loan and she’d needed money for tuition, she’d gone to SB with the idea of filming their guild’s raids and turning the footage into how-to videos that showed other gamers how to do the fights. He’d volunteered to help right away, recording footage, editing, even doing solo runs for achievements so they’d have more content. Some of their videos had racked up over a million views, paying her way to college and then some. When she’d offered SB his split of the advertising income, he’d refused to take a penny. He’d said he didn’t need it since his family paid for everything, but he knew she did, so he’d given it all to her.

  At first, his generosity had made her feel like a moocher, especially since SB put so many hours into their channel. Eventually, though, she’d come to accept that that was just who he was. In game and out, he was the only person in her life who’d always been there for her. Who’d always helped. And now she’d failed to help him.

  “You deserved better than this,” she whispered, resting her heavy head on his chest. So much better than to die here, in this gray shithole of the Deadlands where she couldn’t even bury him properly. She hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye.

  Tina wasn’t sure how long she knelt there, but the other players were shifting nervously, watching the road.

  “Tina,” Zen said at last, pointing at the first of the undead army turning the bend, several miles away. “We have to go.”

  Tina didn’t know if she could. Fighting that army to the death over SilentBlayde’s body sounded more appealing than trudging alone back to the recalcitrant raid that hated her. But as her hand fell to her sword, NekoBaby plopped down beside her.

  “I don’t think all of that CPR was for nothing,” the Naturalist said, prying open SB’s closed eyes. “There’s still something in here!”

  Tina’s heart jerked so hard it nearly stopped. “What?”

  NekoBaby leaned over him, poking various points on SB’s body as if she was exploring pressure points. “There’s still a spark of something in him, but it’s fading fast.” She shot back to her feet. “I’m going to try the Raise Ally spell.”

  She grabbed her staff and began hastily weaving together the magics that only casters could see. Tina stood up as well, barely daring to breathe. Then disappointment crashed down again as Neko’s hands dropped. “I don’t have enough mana!” she cried in despair. “I’m so sorry, Roxxy! I just don’t have the juice. It recovers so slowly without food and sleep. I’ve been nearly dry since we went on that stupid ghost quest, and Raise Ally takes too much!”

  Neko’s words hit her like punches, but now that Tina knew there was a chance, the emptiness inside her had been replaced with determination.

  “Zen!” she cried. “More CPR! See if you can buy us some time!”

  Zen immediately started cycling breath and chest compression into SilentBlayde once more. While she worked, Tina tore off her backpack, going so fast, she ripped the stitching on the top as she flung it open. Bread. She needed to find her ration of bread. It was the only food they had.

  At last, her searching fingers closed around the stale half loaf, and she thrust it at NekoBaby’s face. The jubatus grabbed it and dropped to the ground, gagging in the effort to eat as fast as possible.

  “Gah!” She choked. “How’d we ever eat like this in game?”

  “Eat,” Tina ordered, looming over her.

  Eyes wide, Neko kept shoving the dry bread down her throat.

  When the last bite was gone, Tina yanked the Naturalist back to her feet. “Please tell me that’s gonna be enough.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Neko said, raising her hands again.

  Tina held her breath as the jubatus began weaving the magics. Back in the game, Raise Ally was a ten-second cast. Many more than ten seconds later, though, Neko was still at it. Sweat poured through her fur as she cast and cast, her clawed hands weaving in increasingly wild motions. Tina couldn’t see magic herself, but she could feel the immense power building in the Naturalist’s hands, and a look of fear crept onto Neko’s face. Then just when it felt like it was all about to spiral out of control, the jubatus suddenly leaped up on her tiptoes, throwing her hands into the air in what Tina recognized as the final motion of the spell.

  For a second, nothing happened, then bright-green-and-golden light e
xploded from underneath SilentBlayde’s body. Flowers, grass, and other glowing plants filled the broken road to form a verdant bed around him. As their light blossomed, the horrible ashen color retreated from SB’s face. Zen stopped compressing his chest a few seconds later, sitting up just in time as SB coughed and drew in a ragged breath.

  It was the most beautiful sound Tina had ever heard. NekoBaby immediately began to strut, dancing down the empty road as she crowed, “Boo yah! I did it! Who’s the greatest healer ever?” Zen, who normally looked on such antics with disdain, grinned from ear to ear, giving Neko a high five before leaning down to help SB sit up. Even Killbox looked overwhelmed, though he was doing his best to hide it behind manly posturing as he bent over to slap SB on the back.

  Tina was the only one who didn’t move at all.

  She wanted to. She wanted to rush in with the others and hug SB until every bit of her was convinced he was really alive. But her feet stayed rooted in place, because she didn’t trust this body yet. Raise Ally only brought people back with twenty percent health. If she hugged SilentBlayde as she wanted to, she might kill him again by accident with her strength. That would be a sorry way to end a miracle, so Tina forced herself be still, smiling down at him instead until her whole face ached.

  “Whoa,” SilentBlayde said shakily, looking around in confusion. “Was I dead?”

  “As close as a living person can get,” Zen said, the brilliant smile slipping off her face. “But what the hell happened to you? How did your blood-oxygen levels get so low?”

  SB shrugged. “I have no idea. All I know was that after I put on the speed to get away from the army, I had trouble breathing. No matter how much I panted, I just couldn’t seem to get enough air. Then I passed out.”

  Zen frowned, her lovely elven face scrunched into a stern scowl. “Not enough air after running,” she muttered. Then her eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you said you ‘put on the speed.’ Just how fast were you running?”

  “Really fast,” SilentBlayde said with a smug smile. “Do you know how much Agility gear I’m wearing? I’m practically the Flash now.” He winked at Tina. “World’s Fastest Elf.”

  Tina smiled weakly back, but Zen punched SB in the arm. “There’s your problem! You must have used up all the oxygen in your body when you moved faster than anything organic should.”

  “Wait,” Tina said, staring at her. “You’re saying he literally ran his body out of oxygen?”

  The green-haired Ranger nodded. “His gear gives him godly speed, but that doesn’t mean his body can take it. He probably burned everything he had in that burst, and his lungs just couldn’t work hard enough to replenish his O2 levels.” She glared sternly at SB, who was rubbing his arm. “Don’t you ever do that again! You’re lucky you didn’t give yourself a heart attack.”

  “Yes, Sensei,” SB said, crestfallen. “But this sucks. I just found out I have super speed, and you’re tell me not to use it. I was outrunning arrows!”

  “Better slow than dead,” Tina said angrily.

  “You can still go fast,” Zen said assured him. “I’ll admit, I ran faster than I probably should have, coming to find you. The speed boost from Agility gear is heady stuff, but you have to be careful. It’s easy to lose track, and I might not be there to give you CPR next time you decide to go faster than a speeding bullet.”

  SilentBlayde nodded, pulling his mask back up over his face. “Thank you, Zen.”

  The Ranger nodded and rose to her feet. SB was moving to stand as well when Tina stepped forward and offered him her hand, the most she could risk. “Come on,” she said gently. “Let’s get back to the others.”

  SB nodded and grabbed hold, letting her pull him to his feet. When she released him, though, his legs gave out immediately, dumping him back into the gray dirt. He was struggling to stand again when Tina leaned over and picked him up.

  He looked comically shocked as she lifted him into her arms. “No fair, Roxxy,” he said as a blush crept up past his mask. “I wanted to be the prince.”

  “I’m a little harder to carry than you are,” she said. Then in a softer voice, she added, “I’m happy you’re okay.”

  “I’m happy to be okay,” he replied, his blue eyes warm. “Thank you for coming to save me.”

  Tina was glad that stone cheeks couldn’t blush, because mentally, she was fire-engine red. “I actually did the least,” she said brusquely, looking away before she started stuttering like a teenager on her first date. “Zen, Neko, and Frank were the real heroes. They’re the ones who—”

  A piercing howl cut her off. Down the road, they’d been spotted by one of the packs of rotten hounds that scouted ahead of Grel’Darm’s army. The undead mastiffs were still far enough away that they didn’t seem willing to charge, but they were still much closer than Tina was comfortable with.

  “Time to go,” she said, nodding for Killbox to grab Frank’s gear, which was still lying in a pile on the roadside. Once the Berserker had shoved all the armor into his pack, they took off, sprinting up the road back toward the raid.

  ****

  It was a dreadfully upset raid that greeted their return. When they ran up, everyone was standing in the road with their shoulders slumped and their heads down. When Tina looked around to see why, she noticed that the two Assassins she’d sent to check the graveyard were back and were back alone.

  Tina’s stomach sank. “Let me guess,” she said, turning to set SB down gently on a nearby rock. “David wasn’t at the graveyard.”

  The jubatus Assassin, ZeroDarkness, shook his head. “There was nothing,” he said angrily, cat ears lying flat against his head. “No gear. No body. Nothing.”

  The words hit Tina like a punch. That was it. The sliver of hope she’d been holding onto ever since the Dead Mountain had just turned into the final nail in the coffin. The Sorcerer really was dead. So was David, and that made her chest ache even more than she’d expected it to.

  She was still processing that when she realized the rest of the raid was staring at her. “Looks like there’s no more respawn,” she said, keeping her voice calm. “Good thing we’ve been playing it safe.”

  She’d meant that to be reassuring, but the other Assassin, KuroKawaii, jerked as though she’d said something unforgivable.

  “Don’t you care that David is dead?”

  “Of course I care!” Tina yelled at her. “David and I leveled together. He was my friend! It hurts like hell!”

  KuroKawaii’s elven eyes narrowed to slits. “Whatever. I bet you’re happy he’s gone because it means you were right. Death is permanent. Satisfied now?”

  The hate in her voice made Tina take a step back. “You think I give a shit about being right?” she said, suddenly furious. “I’d pay to be wrong right now, because perma-death sucks! The only thing I’m glad about is that we’ve made it this far with so many of us still alive. It could have been way worse.”

  KuroKawaii turned away, but Tina still heard the elf mutter, “It’s your fault he’s dead.”

  With one giant step, Tina lurched forward to grab the Assassin. Her stone hand completely engulfed the short elf’s petite shoulder, and the thought of how easy it would be to break such a squishy, fragile creature flashed through her mind. Instead, she turned KuroKawaii around to look at her.

  “Say that again,” she ordered. “To my face, this time.”

  KuroKawaii bared her teeth. “You want to hear the truth?” she growled. “Fine! It’s your fault David died! You wouldn’t let us fight Grel when we were fresh! You made us, veteran players, practice fighting like we were noobs! You wasted all our mana on bullshit, then when it actually counted, we had to run because of you! If we’d been prepared on that hill, David wouldn’t have died. You didn’t even try to rez him, though that clearly wasn’t because you had problems with the spell.” Her gleaming eyes flicked to SilentBlayde, who looked like he was focusing everything on not passing out. “Why did you have to carry him back? And why does he look like that?”r />
  Tina bared her own teeth. “That has nothing to do with—”

  “The hell it does!” Kuro shouted, her fists clenching as she tried to wrench herself out of Tina’s hold. “I saw the Raise Ally light go off in your direction! He died, didn’t he?”

  Tina let her go after that. Not voluntarily, but because she was shaking too hard to hold on.

  “Why’d you save SB and not David?” Kuro continued, standing on her tiptoes in an effort to get in Tina’s face. “Is it because David didn’t jump to follow your orders like Silent—”

  “Enough!” Tina roared, turning to face the rest of the raid, who were all watching the argument very carefully. “Yes, SB died, and we got lucky as hell that Raise Ally worked on him. But he died on the road, where we could reach his body. David, on the other hand, died under Grel’s boot! He was reduced to a bloodstain! What were we supposed to do? Keep the whole raid back fighting Grel—who crushed me in one hit, by the way—while our healers scraped up what was left of David and tried to raise it? We didn’t even know the Raise spell would work! It barely worked on SB, and his body was still intact. David was obliterated, and we might all have been obliterated, too, if we’d stayed there, trying to raise him in the middle of Grel and his army.”

  Kuro lifted her chin defiantly, and Tina gritted her teeth.

  “Hindsight is real twenty-twenty. It’s easy to look back and say we should have done this or we should have done that. I admit I’ve made some mistakes, but I’m doing my damnedest to keep us all alive.” She pointed at her battered armor. “I’ve nearly died twice saving your hides. Don’t forget.”

  “How could we forget?” Kuro asked sarcastically. “You’re always reminding us. But the fact remains that if we’d fought Grel back at the beginning like we should have, none of this would have happened.”

  “Fought Grel?” Tina said, her voice turning nasty as well. “Are you stupid? Have you been paying attention at all for the last day? This is no longer a tank-and-spank raid encounter in a nice clean boss room. We’re stupidly outnumbered, and the only reason you’ve stayed ahead of the ax this long is because I’ve made you!”