Maelstrom

by Ajdin K. Denic

  The food was delicious and with a few drinks loosening their tongues, both started talking. It quickly changed from random comments to them ending up in Kaden’s apartment. An unknown time later, both lay there naked, breathing heavily. Neither seemed to remember anything about it, but the smell that lingered in the room was evidence that it must have been good. Kaden’s windows were fogged over, witness to the act. What followed was a very long and uncomfortable silence.

  "I'm sorry," Kaden said after he couldn’t take it anymore. "I truly am, but how could I have known? I was just blown away by your beauty and by the fact you have been visiting me in my dreams. How could I have known any of this would happen?" His words were honest and heartfelt, but that didn’t change the fact that he had condemned them to almost certain death.

  "You know, I have been dreading this moment for hundreds of years and—"

  "Hundreds of years? Are you a god or something as well?" Kaden interrupted, more intrigued than anything else.

  "No and yes. Bardos he—" she trailed off, refusing to meet his eyes, "he punished me for indulging in humanity’s sins. I was one of his favorites, but then he cast me away. Once I had beautiful white wings and a burning crown atop my head, but now, I'm nothing. Just a fallen angel who threw everything away to try the forbidden."

  "Man this is just too much to take in. God, angels and what’s next? Demons? Satan? Monsters from my dreams? This is too much to take in for one day."

  "Yeah well, when you wake up, all of this is going to be just a dream," she said with a comforting smile, caressing his cheek as their gazes met. "Reality is going to be much, much worse."

  "You have such beautiful eyes," were his last words before a wave of drowsiness swept over him, dragging his eyelids down. For the last time in this world, he drifted away into the land of eternal nightmares.

  Chapter 2

  Kaden found himself waking up beside Laney on a small patch of grass. It wasn’t any larger than someone's backyard, but it was lush with greenery, nonetheless. A metre wide stream passed through the centre, showering them with drops of cool water. Groggily, Kaden sat up first before shaking Laney awake.

  "What? Are we already there?" she murmured taking Kaden’s offered hand, sitting up and looking around. Her eyes went wide with fury as she looked around her. "Really?’ she screamed furiously. ‘You do this to me again? You asshole!"

  "Wait what? You have been here before?" Kaden asked, trying to take hold of her arm. She turned to him and pushed with both hands as if he was the one at fault. He was, but it was debatable based on the technicalities.

  "Yes! No! Wait, not exactly, but he had me staying on such a patch of land for a hundred years during my banishment! Do you have any idea how that felt? It sucked!" She sighed and slumped into the small stream, the water swirling around her knees. Kaden crouched down next to her, mouth open to say something, but he wasn’t sure of how to even begin for a while.

  "How is this world called? In my dreams I have been hearing the name Maelstrom," he asked after a long moment had passed in awkward silence. She shrugged and got up out of the water and sat next to him. Her long hair was damp and stuck to her perfect body. Without even realizing it, his eyes swept over her, from head to toe. She scowled and punched his shoulder.

  "Really? You are checking me out in this situation?" He sighed and turned away from her. She did the same before going on. "I think this is an area between Maelstrom and whatever planet you are from. The rules are basically the same down there and up here," she said, motioning into the water. There, an image of a massive planet appeared.

  "That's where we will wake up in a few days?" he asked astonished. The blue and green ball looked beautiful from what he could see.

  "Yeah. And you need to know some things beforehand. I mean, I was never there. But from what I heard from Bardos, it's an ever-evolving world and game in one. Killing other people and monsters earn you points. From those points, you get so-called levels. The more levels you have, the stronger you are. And then there are classes, jobs, or specialties or whatever you want to call them. They give you specific skills or magical spells. So let’s say, you are a magician that deals in fire. There will be certain skills available to you which you can then in turn use to kill things."

  "I see. So he basically took inspiration from games we used to play on Earth?" he asked.

  "More or less. However, to come back to what I was saying, you have a limited amount of spells that you can cast in a day. The higher the level of your said spell, the stronger it is and the more bonus effects it adds. At a certain point, the spell should be able to increase usage time. In some cases I remember him speaking about special cases where they evolve somehow, and you can use the skills over and over again on a cooldown. But we ain’t special, so once we get our jobs or how you want to call them, you better be careful with the usage. Or you will run out when you need the spells the most."

  "Wow, that was quite the speech. Never heard you say so much at once," Kaden teased. She gave him a cold stare in turn.

  "Never would have meant that we knew each other for longer than a day, which we don’t, so please."

  "Right. Anyway, how about getting more use out of the spells or whatever we get? Do we have to kill monsters to get some kind of points or special potions to restore them?"

  "Not really," she replied with a look that made him think she didn’t have quite the high hopes for him. "They get restored over time. So let’s say, if one spell has twenty-four uses, every hour spent alive will restore you one point. If one had four uses, it would restore one point every six hours. Simple, right?"

  "Right. And how is it that you know all of this?" he asked. Laney sighed and shook her head as if giving up.

  "Does it even matter? I know because he wanted me to know. Now, how about you let me be for a while?" Laney asked, giving him an evil eye.

  Kaden shrugged and got up, stretching out in the mild sun. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he would deal with it if he could, and if it proved to be impossible, then he would bend over and die. There wasn’t much he could do against a god, and to be honest, anything was better than going to prison over killing your asshole boss. He would have to bend every day in there as opposed to once over on Maelstrom.

  "Say, what is that over there?" he asked, pointing his finger into the distance. Some kind of sandstorm was approaching very quickly, and from what it looked like, they were directly on its path.

  "Shit!" Laney cursed as she got up and stood next to him. "It seems that we are starting much earlier than anticipated. We might wake up only to find never having this conversation, but try to remember this stuff, as I might forget as well. Who knows what that bastard has in store for us."

  "Alright then. So umm, do you want to hold hands or something as that thing slams into us? Maybe hug? I wouldn’t mind dying in the embrace of an angel, you know. And literally at that." Laney slapped him in exasperation, but then leaned in and put her arms around Kaden without a warning.

  "We will probably forget about this anyway, so might as well indulge my executioner with another one of his wishes," she teased, despite a shadow lurking in her eyes. Her emotions were in turmoil. A part of her wanted to kill him, rip him apart, while another was sorry for both of them.

  He was the one who did this to her, but then again, he wasn’t. Bardos was behind all of her suffering, be it her past or the future, but only if Kaden hadn’t been in the drugstore. No, she was partly at fault here too. Bardos himself admitted to making Kaden kill his boss and go there. Bardos set her up, and for that, he would one day pay with his life.

  Mere moments later, the sandstorm swept them away, ripping their bodies apart and putting them together again. The pain was agonizing but brief. When she woke up, there was a sight to behold. An army of Goblins stood only a few dozen meters away from her. There was no use to try to fight them as she was unarmed and naked. How would she even have a chance against any of them, even with them being so sma
ll?

  "What do you think of them?" came Bardos’ voice from behind her. As she whirled around, her face was only inches apart from his.

  "What do I think of them? They’re disgusting and reek to the heavens!" she snapped in turn.

  Bardos laughed madly, stroking Laney’s face. She turned away from him in defiance, but his firm grip on her chin forced her to look back at him.

  "Don’t be like that. I would hate to see you suffer needlessly. Besides, I'm giving you two a better head start than many. When you wake up again, you will have basic protection. Also, I have run countless simulations within my mind to find the best classes for you two. At first, you will hate them, and with that, me as well. But later on? You will thank Bardos for bestowing these powers on the two of you."

  "Hah, let me guess. We will be a healer and a warrior? You really like to play games, huh?"

  "Hmmmm. Not quite. You will have to wait a bit longer and see for yourself. In any case, I have decided to change the rules of the world, at least for everyone starting anew on Maelstrom, which means basically everyone as it was wiped clean only days ago. The game will evolve with you, the players and your actions will have consequences. Now, go to sleep, my love. If only you had never done that back then, you would still be my favourite. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be."

  "Did you make me do it?" she asked through clenched teeth. Her violet eyes turned purple from the rage she felt within. Bardos shrugged non-committedly and turned away from her.

  "Who knows? Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't. Or maybe I just pushed you in the right direction. I guess you will never know."

  "Bastard!" she yelled and slammed her fists into his back only to be knocked backwards. His laughter was all she could hear as he disappeared. The pain and hatred were equal in measure and would fuel her fire for a very long time.

  The sound of incoming projectiles caught her attention, and she barely managed to turn around and duck below three incoming arrows. Each one of them grazed her however, drawing lines of blood as they cut her. She nearly fainted from the blinding pain caused by the projectiles, but managed to stay awake just long enough to get to Kaden who was fast asleep.

  "Wake up, Kaden! Please!" Laney yelled, desperately trying to rouse him. She was already bleeding profusely by the time he opened his eyes and looked around. An arrow slammed right into his shoulder a second later, shattering the bone and causing the jagged pieces to bulge beneath his skin. Pain shot through his body and a dull cry left his mouth. Laney’s voice rang out in the background, crying and screaming.

  You have sustained 21 damage from Goblin.

  For the second time in a minute, he struggled to regain some sense of awareness. Laney's cries and screams were basically moans by the time he could see again. Eyes cloudy and filled with tears, his vision gradually cleared. All he could see was dry earth, sand and rocks covering a vast area. The occasional hill and tree stump were all that graced the land, together with a few vultures that were picking at corpses.

  Laney lay a few metres away from him, multiple arrows protruding from her body. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, trying to stand up. By the look of her, she would die soon. Her eyelids fluttering, her breathing shallow.

  Kaden tried to search for a way out but there was nothing he could do. He stood up and trotted over to Laney amidst a roar behind him. He lifted her up for a split second before dropping down as two arrows had found the back of his head. Laney fell first, crushing her skull on a sharp piece of rock before Kaden’s body covered her. Their first life lasted only seconds.

  "Laney?" Kaden muttered as he came to and saw her lying asleep a few metres to his right. She was naked, but had been reborn with a sword and shield. A shrieking sound drew his attention to where a large group of small monsters were jumping around and dancing. They looked somewhat like Goblins, though quite a few were larger than the rest.

  They were small and hideous, having green and brown skin, with pointy ears and screeching voices. There was a variety to their weapons, some holding small bows with quivers strapped to their backs while others wore spears and some swords with shields. Among them, there was one different from the rest. He was big and green, holding a staff in both hands while he was yelling at the Goblins.

  "What in Bardos’s name?" Kaden asked out loud. He caught himself cursing the god who had sent them here and looked around, afraid of divine retribution. Laney groaned beside him as she tried to stand up.

  To their front, some twenty metres ahead lay two bodies, riddled by spears and arrows. Squinting his eyes, he tried to focus on the bodies ahead. "The hell, those are our corpses over there!" Kaden said out loud. He breathed heavily as his heart threatened to burst out of his chest.

  "Leave me… don’t feel… die," she replied murmuring in her sleep.

  "Laney?" he said, shaking her shoulder. Laney wouldn’t wake up so easily as she was still groggy from their last death. Painful laughter greeted Kaden as a bolt of lightning struck down from the heavens, throwing him to the ground.

  You have sustained 71 damage from Orc.

  "Get up!" Laney yelled as she crouched next to Kaden, who was staring up at the sky, dazedly observing the clouds flying by. "Get up you idiot! Do you want to die again?" Laney’s voice brought Kaden back to his senses.

  ‘What just happened?’ he asked, trying to sit up. His arm was numb, but it slowly regained feeling. Panic hit him as he stood, accidentally evading a spear thrown his way. It landed a few meters behind them, waiting to be used as an instrument of destruction.

  ‘As I came to, you got hit by a lightning bolt. That big green thing there was its origin I think.’

  ‘I see. That spell hurt like a bitch.’ Kaden stopped for a moment and looked at her. ‘Spell? So magic is real here on this world?’ he exclaimed.

  Another spear passed within a few inches by him. Without thinking, Kaden ran over to the spear and grabbed hold of it as if his life depended on the weapon. It actually did.

  Laney ran forward towards their corpses and plucked the five spears sticking out from their backs, evading two more as they flew past her head and right shoulder. She ran back, hoping nothing would hit her, the short throwing spears in hand. Making it all the way to Kaden, she turned them around and slammed them spear tip down into the soil. It would be much easier for her to pick them up that way and throw them at the Goblins.

  Kaden looked at her in awe before returning his gaze to the Goblins jeering at them. The Goblins were confident they could kill them with little effort, making sport of them for the time being. He was both impressed and frightened at the same time, not knowing what to think of Laney, her bravery and acceptance of their situation.

  "What do you make of this?" he asked after she was done. She gave him a funny look as if not sure where the question came from.

  "You understand we are in a lot of shit, right?" she replied, motioning at the Goblins. Kaden cringed at her comment.

  "Yes I do, in fact. In a lot of shit I mean." They looked at each other and Laney spit to the ground as if annoyed by his reply. "You know, that attitude won’t do us any good."

  "Shut it. It’s your fault that we are stuck here, so deal with it or get lost. You need to grow a pair and man up as in right now. You do realise we have died already once, right? Just how many times will he revive us?"

  She had a point, but Kaden couldn’t just switch off his humanity. To kill and hurt other people, or in this case, Goblins, was wrong. It didn’t matter where you came from or what the situation might be, killing shouldn’t be done so lightly. A spear streaked past Kaden's head so close he could feel the breeze caressing his cheek. He flinched and fell on his ass, cursing at himself for the no light killing.

  "Alright, fuck that. I don’t want to die."

  Laney chuckled at his change of heart. "Good boy, now go kill em."

  He frowned at her, then stepped back a few meters, whirled around and ran before he threw the one spear that had been in his hands. He aimed st
raight at a small group of the creatures, hurling the spear into their midst. Luck was with him as his spear decapitated one of the smaller Goblins at the front and killed another one behind it. A chime rang out within his head as a message appeared in front of him.

  You have inflicted 99 damage to Goblin.

  You have gained 220 experience. You have gained one level and one skill point.

  Please choose a subclass by learning one of the three basic skills.

  It would be an understatement to say the few lines of text weren’t responsible for what happened next. Arrows flew straight towards the two, bringing them back to reality as the small projectiles embedded themselves into Laney’s bare skin. She howled and dropped to the ground.

  Kaden stepped towards her and got impaled on a falling spear. The spears were short but nasty with a thin tip that could penetrate the bare skin easily. His body fell on top of Laney’s, ramming the spear into her shoulder. She cried out in even more pain and yelled at him, but it wouldn’t matter much as they were dying at a very fast rate.

  "Are the wounds deep?" Kaden gritted through his teeth, trying to get up. She shook her head and looked at the band of Goblins still harassing their corpses. They tore them literally apart, limb by limb and then the head as last with shouts of glee at the end.

  Kaden gagged within himself and turned away, trying to clear the horrifying image from his mind, desperate to get his bravado back.

  "Just look at the damned things. They quartered our bodies as if it was nothing!" Laney cried out in a rage, but she couldn’t move from the pain and the spear that had passed through both of them, first Kaden and then her.

  Kaden turned his head towards the horde and could only guess that there were more than a hundred of the monsters opposing them. Not that it mattered if the group was fifty or a hundred and fifty strong. It had been an unfair matchup from the start.

  "Did you get those messages as well? The ones about gaining a level and to choose a skill?" Kaden asked. His voice high-pitched, he did all he could not to fall unconscious. The blood loss was getting to his head, making him drop further down on top of Laney, causing the spear to grind against her clavicle. She cried out in pain before she whispered back.