The Amazons rolled over the would-be ambushers with hardly a noise, sleeping troops were no threat to any warrior let alone these deadly Amazons. The best asset the ambushers had, their horses, were picketed near the waterfall, a good two hundred yards from their riders. Any warning the horses would have given was masked by distance and the sounds of falling water.
Cain waited near the large tent the leaders of the ambush were using. Toni then Daphne came over to him. All the ambushers barring those in the tent were dead and accounted for, they suffered no injuries nor deaths. A loud bellowing voice was easily heard outside the tent. The voice telling those inside,
"I don't like it, our spy should have let us know by now Joseph's plans. He hasn't replied to a message I sent ten minutes ago. I do not trust the silence. Joseph is rolling up everyone and everything his force comes across. We need to get ready, go arouse the men I want everyone standing too.
"It could be they've discovered our spy and Joseph and his DreamBabes are dashing for the caravan camp ground as we speak. The last thing we need is for them to slip through our fingers. Jason would not like that, he wants Joseph and that bitch of a first wife Natasha, dead multiple times. When the message was passed on to me I was told not to ask, but do the job I had been given. Go, rouse the men, send out a patrol and make sure that bloody caravan is where the spy said it was."
One player from inside the tent exited, his Gamer Tag called him Rambolt#27a#. Rambolt closed the flap and walked to where he could see several people stood like they were on guard duty. A hand appeared from behind him and covered his mouth, an icy voice whispered in his ear. Rambolt tried to fight the person off, but the person held him too strongly, his fight was soon over as a knife pierced his right eye and entered his brain.
"He will get the twenty-hour respawn. I'd love to know where they have bound their respawn points," Toni said, wiping her Ari B'Lila on Rambolt#27a#'s top, then looted him. Cain heard a small pinging sound, followed by a shout of rage, then a call to arms. The person was shouting,
"Joseph and his bitches are here. Kill them all, kill them," The tent flap flew open, two warriors and one gladiator rushed out, their Gamer Tags put one at level thirty-six and two at thirty-five. Daphne killed the warrior who was level thirty-six, while two of the Amazons guarding Daphne's back killed the gladiator then the other warrior.
Cain and Toni stepped into the tent and came across a robed cleric, his Gamer Tag called him MarcoPolo#1#. He struggled to stand, using a crutch.
"You may have killed the other players, but our men will kill you all, you cannot escape this ambush site. Jaso... Erebus picked it himself, he will reward me," MarcoPolo said.
"How on earth did you break your leg?" Toni asked.
"What? Err, I was diving from the waterfall and messed it up and landed feet first. Good job, really, or it would have been my head," Cain laughed and agreed, "Breaking your head even in Forsaken, is not a pretty way to go visit the respawn point."
MarcoPolo slumped back into the chair and told them to get on with it. Tiredly he said, "Kill me, let me get some decent sleep then I can respawn in Pyrgadikian. The Pirate King will send more players sworn to him and bought by Jason for one purpose, to kill you."
Cain obliged MarcoPolo, his gladius removing his head while he was talking to Toni. With the last of the ambushers dead Cain received a joint pop-up, he realised Myrina was partially correct, as they had killed one hundred and sixty-five.
^C^ T, did you hear Marco let slip their respawn point. He said it is in Pyrgadikian. Once we reach there we can go searching for Jason players and corrupt their respawn points. They will all respawn with whoever is their leader, which could be in another game zone, even back in 2027. ^
Travel-Post
{Cain, if the EI which is behind Odissemus has gone rogue, or had its coding changed, we will need to destroy the EI in the system. Rahab and I will check with John and the system EI. I think we will need to bring the system EI forward and allow it to become a full AI, like Rahab, Ruth and I.
Once the game system evolves and becomes an AI, it will be able to take independent actions to stop backdoor code hacks, like the ones before, messing with the game speed or corrupting EIs. I will let you know when we make progress,} Enoch said. Cain spoke to Toni and Daphne through their POD links, telling them what Enoch said. As he finished messaging another pop-up message filled his HUD.
Cain laughed which gained raised eyebrows from Toni and Daphne, until he shared the pop-up message via the party chat. He told everyone after he posted the message he'd already made his choice.
Three hours later, the three groups of Amazons were sat around two large fires. They looted the NPCs and players soon after killing them. They were now sat killing time and talking tactics as they each had a drink from Cain's water flask. The caravan once it collected the resting groups of Amazons from the ambush site, pulled into the overnight rest camp, although it was nearly dawn.
Cain's idea was they would take the enchanted disc from Bounty, so the Amazons could see where it was. Toni though had an ingenious idea, they opened Bounty in the back of one caravan. Letting the Amazons climb into the caravans bed and enter through the caravan's canvas covered back. Once under the canvas back they could touch one of the DreamBabes and then walk straight into Bounty, using the covering canvas as a guide rope.
With all of the Amazons and support staff inside Bounty, the hired drivers and companions stood guard, their horses were hobbled everyone settled down. The silence of the surrounding forest suddenly burst forth with the dawn chorus. Cain told the Amazons what happened after they killed the ambushers, and how he received a pop-up message regarding each of them. Toni gave them a quick rundown on what they would see, though individual choices such as strength, intelligence, luck, willpower, endurance and dexterity looked easy, each one impacted their three main stats.
Daphne told them they would need to select a class although they are warriors, you will get an option to change your class. If you do, please keep away from the Rogue class as that leads people to worship Erebus.
Sophie had the Amazons all sit as the first time using their own selections could bring about a disorientation. Once the Amazons sat Cain re-opened the notification and he selected for the Amazons to choose for themselves. After Cain selected the yes option, everything stopped; no sounds no movements, nothing.
"Well done Cain. I knew I could trust you to make the correct choice. I am slowly giving the NPCs freedom to choose their own path through Forsaken. I believe it will make things more difficult for the person who violated the system having free thinking NPCs. They will soon be like your Amazons and be free to move beyond their original parameters," Cybele said. As Cybele finished talking to Cain, everything returned to normal.
Cain led his wives to the rest area inside Bounty, and spoke to each of them. He told them what the system, Cybele had told him, "If Jason tries any of those hacking attempts again, he'll get an unpleasant surprise. I'm happy the system is starting with the Amazons, imagine four hundred Myrinas or Areto, making their own choices."
Lesley said, "Lets hope they don't all want to become your wives too, or you'll never get out of bed." All the DreamBabes laughed at her joke. Cain looked worried, which caused more laughter.
Four and a half hours after dawn, the newly-minted self-directed Amazons and the covered caravans set off for Petrabele; arriving at three in the afternoon. Cain, his wives and Areto headed for Cybele's temple, a small-sized building in a small town. Petrabele was smaller than Agiasobele though it had a very large merchants quarters near the docks. Cain went with Lesley and Sophie down to them, and enquired about buying passage to the mainland as their fake plan said they would.
Toni and Bethany found and rented a small walled est
ate with a large villa near the merchants quarter, backed up against Petrabele's wall. They handed over sixty gold bars for a year's rental, the agent originally asked for two hundred. He dropped the price as Toni said goodbye and walked out of his office. The found out their new home, a stylish villa had a tunnel to the original merchant's warehouse, situated along the side of one of the three rivers which flowed through Petrabele.
Although the estate was small compared to others in Petrabele, the villa grounds swallowed the caravan and all the Amazons. As the sky darkened, Cain had a third of the Amazons on watch, on a four-hour duty cycle. Cain and his wives stayed in the villa's master bedroom. The bed was smaller than usual, making it a tight squeeze as they made love, under the gaze of the system cameras and watching people.
It was Toni's idea they made love in the open, as Jason would clearly have watchers outside the game and from inside the game too. She wanted people to think they had let their guard down, settling in for a long stay.
They agreed to keep the time spent making love short, Cain had to contend with only making love to Sophie, Daphne and Myrina. Before their enticement worked while his other wives either made love to each other or watched waiting their turn. Everyone was on edge, their weapons were close at hand.
Cain's head was between Myrina's legs, his tongue traced a trail up to her vagina when Myrina noticed the large wall tapestry move like the wind had blown in, she whispered to Cain. Changing position, Cain laid on his back and let Myrina mount him, as they continued to make love, Cain noticed what Myrina had the tapestry fluttering in a gentle breeze.
Cain messaged his wives to make sounds like they were all coming together. Myrina screamed at the top of her voice, "Oh, my goddess, oh my goddess," as she climbed over Cain, his penis still standing erect. She gave it a quick kiss as she bent and picked up her Ari B'Lila. Cain lifted his unsheathed gladius and silently moved across the room on his bare feet. While the rest of his wives made impressive noises of multiple orgasms, while arming themselves.
Cain, looked up and noticed his wives seemed to be having way too much fun pretending to come. He grabbed the corner of the tapestry and pulled it back, revealing a sheepish-looking pair, Mogastation and Boostoff. Who stood there with their eyes downcast, refusing to look at Cain or his wives in the nude. Boostoff asked Cain to cover his erection, or he may be tempted. Everyone laughed as they began to dress.
They dressed and Mogastation and Boostoff breathed loud sighs of relief. As new players to the JW Killers clan not NPCs, another player tasked them with spying on Cain. It appeared said Boostoff, "The pirates running Petrabele wanted to have a bargaining chip against you." Mogastation told Cain, "There are ninety pirates thirty-five thieves and eight assassins, whom have free reign in Petrabele.
"The local equivalent to a mayor is bent and on the take. There are two travel-posts in the warehouse where we arrived when we left Mantabele."
"We think," said Boostoff, "The other travel-post goes over to the mainland but we don't know where about, even though we have tried listening in to other players conversations."
Cain sat with his wives as Daphne sketched a map of the warehouse from Mogastation and Boostoff's information on the floor. It was half-past-three in the morning, a perfect time to attack the pirates and return the town to Cybele.
Cain had Mogastation and Boostoff return to the pirates and thieves, who were all NPCs,
"Three of the assassins are players who have been in Forsaken for a long time," Mogastation said. "When we left, those three were playing a drinking game. They had to sing a verse from a scroll, regarding a drunken whaler. I think the song comes from an old video game. The last verse I remember them singing went like, 'slice his throat with a rusty cleaver, early in the morning.' One assassin threw up with that verse, then promptly fell asleep in his vomit."
Cain and his wives took group one with them, as they each had a keep me alive ring, should the worst happen. Cain and Toni watched as Mogastation and Boostoff entered the warehouse the pirates were using. The warehouse was set against the shore. Boostoff told them it had a small internal dock, where the pirates kept a fast skiff which made high-quality drops.
Toni and Myrina took Alpha1, Beta1 and Echo1 to make a wet entry. Daphne, Sophie, Bethany and Lesley took Charley1 and Delta1 to make a frontal approach. Cain used his legs to their advantage, leaping to the rooftops, allowing him to gain a height advantage. Cain using his dark operative skills, easily killed the five NPCs tasked with keeping the warehouse approach watched. He let his wives know the approach was no longer being watched from above.
Cain felt the tingle he got when things were not quite right, he dropped to the roof surface face pressing on the slates. The whoosh of a blade, as it cleaved the air where he moments ago stood, broke the silence. Getting to his feet Cain read the Gamer Tags of the two players standing side by side, Speedy Pete and Sir Hardy. Cain pulled his Ari B'Lila and moved putting Speedy Pete between him and Sir Hardy.
"You two are gluttons for punishment, you could run away you know. I won't tell a soul, why you two would want to go through another respawn is beyond me," Cain said. "You could come back mentally damaged. Isn't that what Giant Dick said? While you three were trying to rape Dr Emily,"
Sir Hardy tried reaching past Speedy Pete with his Xiphos sword, while Speedy Pete stabbed out with a short knife. Trying to force Cain back toward the roof edge.
Cain, feinted to Speedy Pete's left, causing Speedy Pete move to block, Cain slipped past on Speedy Pete's right, his Ari B'Lila nicking Speedy Pete's carotid artery. Speedy's hand dropped his knife, letting it bounce away over the roof edge as he grabbed for his throat, trying to stem the gushing blood loss.
As Sir Hardy pulled his Xiphos back trying to move around the collapsing Speedy Pete, Cain dropped to his knees sliding across the roof. His right hand darted out and stabbed Sir Hardy in the groin, once, twice, three times.
{Lay flat,} Enoch shouted. Rather than stab Sir Hardy a fourth time, Cain laid back across his legs as he slid behind Sir Hardy. Cain could hear the release of a powerful bow string and the cutting of air as a thumb-thick bolt pierced Sir Hardy in the chest. The impact killed and threw Sir Hardy from the roof, to the road below.
Cain turned around, his night-vision enhanced he noticed a two-man ballista crew, hurrying to load a previously-hidden roof-mounted ballista. Cain stood and began to run, he neared the edge of the roof and leapt from roof to roof, clearing the road and landing at the side of the ballista crew. Three swipes of his Ari B'Lila and both rogues were dead and the ballista bow string cut. The ballista, Cain kicked from its mount clear across the roof and to the river behind the warehouse, it broke apart on impact with the water.
{It looks like they expected someone to try and clear the roof. Having two players and a hidden ballista should have taken a normal player out, those legs of yours sure give you an edge. Nice work on Sir Hardy and Speedy Pete, that's them out of action for twenty hours,} Enoch said.
Cain dropped from the edge of the roof down to the ground, he entered the warehouse following those who went in scant moments before. Cain came across two Amazons who were struggling with their health. Pulling the throwing blade from one and an arrow from the other, he handed each of them a major Heamna potion before he moved deeper into the warehouse, knowing they would be OK.
^T^ We have killed all the pirates remaining in the building. Ten pirates, three thieves and one assassin left from the travel-post room. I hope they go back to Mantabele, then the VETS and Cybele can deal with them. ^
With the warehouse cleared, Cain decided to leave two squads there while the backup Amazons he asked Areto to bring arrived. Cain brought the three squads with his wives as they walked to the mayor's home, keeping to the shadows. Cain received a pop-up which listing the kills and points for tonight's raid on the pirates.
:One of the pirates must have been hiding among the crates, the two squads dealt with the problem,: Cain's mind wandered replaying the roof t
op fight with Speedy Pete and Sir Hardy.
The two squads of Amazons looted all the pirate dead, after securing the warehouse and killing the pirate who emerged from among the crates. Cain and his team climbed over the wall entered the garden of the town's mayor. Two minutes later and he used his super strength legs to kick in the man's front door after he stood knocking for twenty seconds. Before he could take another step the ten Amazons rushed inside, as Cain and his wives entered the foyer.
Four of the Amazons dragged a partially clothed fat man downstairs by his arms, his posterior bounced on each step. They threw the mayor at Cain's feet where he curled into a fetal position. The man was crying like a child as Cain began to question him. He received only more tears and sobs, so he told the man to pack and leave the house. "The goddess Cybele will place a trust-worthy noble in charge. One who does not take bribes from the pirates and thieves," he said. As he finished speaking a noise from above pulled his attention to the top of the stairs.
A beautiful woman, mature looking around forty, holding herself with ageless grace. She had wide-open child-like eyes, almost golden lush hair, her face held a wide beautiful mouth, her full lips curved into a seductive smile. The woman who could have been, and looked like a former movie star, calmly walked down the stairs, in a revealing red and black nightdress. Her pale flesh showed as the wind from her walking parted the fabric revealing her legs. Her firm breasts pushed against the taut fabric. Not only did it transfix Cain as she descended the stairs behind the man, all his women stood watching the beautiful woman, Lesley licked her lips. Toni gasped in anticipation as she neared Cain's position.
The former mayor noticed the tension in the room had changed, he looked behind him then dismissed the woman as his crying ceased he pleaded to stay as the mayor. Cain, his wives and the Amazons stood speechless as light caught the large blade in the woman's right hand as it descended. Cain leapt back and the DreamBabes equipped their gladii.
Forsaken 337 BC Page 36