Forsaken 337 BC

by Sharon Leslie

  "Work in fives for the NPCs and double up on the players. Good hunting," said Cain. He led the combined groups through the doors and into the ballroom, finally he laid eyes on the Pirate King.

  Although Cain could not read the Pirate King's Gamer Tag, he knew the Pirate King was an NPC controlled by an EI, which Jason had somehow corrupted.

  The throne was a huge affair, made from bleached bones and skulls of a variety of sentient beings. Cain could see human, Centaur, Satyr and Ogre skulls, rib cages and assorted leg and arm bones. A large pair of Harpy wings, complete with feathers hung over the back of the throne.

  The Pirate King looked on disinterested, like he did not care that Cain and his people had come to kill him. Cain took a good look at the Pirate King's body as they walked across the ballroom. Cain realised the Pirate King was easily double his own dimensions. :Damn, he is huge lets hope our archers can take some of his health off,: he thought. Cain could tell the man sat upon the throne was a good eight feet tall, his shoulders over five wide. His face looked plain and with no distinguishing marks though the eyes seemed focused on things not in this room.

  He had straggly black hair, braided occasionally with coloured beads and ended in pieces of ivory. Although the Pirate King had no facial hair, he had a goatee braided with small pieces of ivory that reached his chest. At least it was ivory Cain hoped.

  Someone dressed the Pirate King in a white toga, trimmed with a light blue and green band around all the toga's edges. They adorned his neck with several finger thick golden rope necklaces, his fingers each had a large ring upon them.

  Each of Cain's DreamBabes worked with a group of five Amazons, they began by targeting the players. The Amazons not grouped with Cain or his DreamBabes linked together into units of ten. Once they made their groups, they targeted the NPCs first leaving Cain and the DreamBabes groups to tackle the players.

  Fifty of the Amazons retrieved their bows and quivers from Bethany and Lesley before they entered the ballroom. They targeted players and NPCs alike, aiming for those who were un-obscured by fighting. In the first minute of fighting fifteen NPC guards were dead and five players were awaiting a respawn.

  After the initial attacks the fighting became harder, the players and NPCs tried to keep the attacking Amazons and players between them and the archers. Bethany noticed what was happening as she used her sneak skill and buried her Doru into the back of a cleric, a player called **DS**, who was casting AoE healing spells. Her thrust severed his spine and ripped apart his heart. :Yes, no more healing bitch,: thought Bethany as she looked for another target.

 

  The guards and players were not expecting such a move, especially the PVP players who normally played as multiple vs one fights, those more tactically aware as they had been a PvP clan; they were all equally caught flat-footed.

  The move exposed the opposition forces and their archers whittled down the NPCs and players alike, as they turned the fighters and defenders of the Pirate King into pincushions. The sudden unexpected tactical move removed two players, leaving only six, and three of the five NPCs.

  Even those fighters and defenders who were alive had arrows sticking out of exposed flesh. As the attacking groups moved to continue the fight, the Pirate King who had been watching with total disinterest spoke.

  "Joseph, I thought you were akin to a giant, listening to the players talking about you. They talked about you as though you are a bogey man, an invincible demon a tactical genius, a nightmare the system has birthed and sent to destroy them.

  "Ha! I can see you are nothing but a lowly level thirty-nine. How do you expect to scratch my skin me let alone kill me? I am level one hundred, the highest any player or NPC coded can reach. Come Joseph, lay down your blade and join me for you cannot win.

  "I will give you hundreds of bitches, each one more beautiful than these haggard harlots. You can have it all as my first lieutenant, can you not see you have no chance against me?"

  The archers who had been leaving the Pirate King alone fired two arrows each at him. Each arrow bounced off his flesh their arrow heads bent as though they had hit steel. One arrow through did not bounce from the Pirate King's steel hard skin as it hit the Pirate King's left eye, punching through the eye and severing the optic nerve.

  "Aargh, you bitch, who did that? I will kill each of you slowly and painfully. Why are you fighting against me, Circe's binding spell still works, see the glow from this ring, it contains the linking spell binding you She-Devils to my service. MY SERVICE not his, this pathetic runt of a player," shouted the Pirate King

  The Amazon archers launched another flight of arrows as the Pirate King spoke, each one targeted his face especially his eyes. Noticing his vulnerability the Pirate King turned his head and placed his right hand over his right eye.

  Again, he screamed, as two arrows went up the left side of his nose piercing the cartilage and rupturing a blood vessel or two. Blood flowed down over the Pirate Kings top lip, dripping over the goatee and staining the white toga he wore.

  {[The system AI and the Athena EI have started their joint attack. If you're wondering why the Pirate King is not moving from that hideous throne, that is the source of its power increase. Athena is attacking the code written into the throne while Cybele is attacking the EI's code.

  {[Someone has added a code to the throne, it acts as though they have enchanted it. The enchantment raises the level of whoever sits upon it, to one hundred and granting them steel skin. You will notice when the throne loses its enchantment as the Pirate King will lose his size advantage and muscle mass. Destroy the throne and make the Pirate King lose his bonuses,]} Rahab and Enoch said.

  Now knowing the Pirate King could not leave the throne, Toni and Cain attacked the remaining players with renewed vigour. Two of the players fought as one and they attacked Cain and his five Amazons. One player, a warrior called King Nikolai, swung a large war hammer and knocked two of the Amazons to the floor, smashing their shields. An Amazon thrust her Doru into King Nikolai's upper chest, her Doru somehow missed the lung, the blade of the Doru scraped against the back of his armour.

  King Nikolai screamed in agony as he swung his war hammer and hit the Amazon in her head sending her flying away, the enchantment on her ring saved her life. Two shield Amazons rushed to their fallen sister, one giving her a high strength Heamna before helping her up from the floor, the other shielded them from the players and NPCs.

  The other player of the pair was a gladiator called Franky Night, who used a net and a trident. Unfortunately for Franky his trident pierced the Aspis shield becoming jammed as he tried to pull it out. His net had captured an Amazon which left him open for Cain to first hamstring him, then thrust one of his gladii through his neck, severing his spine.

  Cain noticed the war hammer heading at his chest and he deflected its path downwards, so it smashed and caved in Franky Knight's face wedging in Frankie s destroyed head. As King Nikolai struggled to free his hammer, Cain chopped off his left arm at the elbow, which elicited a scream of rage and pain.

  Cain then rammed his right gladii into King Nikolia's abdomen, jamming the gladii hilt against King Nikolia's armour, the force of Cain's thrust knocked King Nikolai backward.

  Cain pulled his gladii out as King Nikolai stepped back, twisting the sword with a sideways movement, which opened King Nikolia's stomach dropping his intestines onto the floor. Cain moved on to his Amazons, he made sure they were all fine or had taken a Heamna to recover. King Nikolai died on his knees looking at his intestines pooling around in front of him.

  Catching the last two NPCs between four groups of ten Amazons as they used their Doru and mobility. They herded the two NPCs as they stood trying to survive, fighting back to back. One of the original Alpha1 group took control of the attack, calling out, "Front, left, right and back." The correspondi
ng groups attacked as she called the direction. The two NPCs seemed to meet each direction blocking and deflecting Doru strikes. They came unstuck when the leader said, "All sides." Now the two NPCs were speared sixteen times died, held upright on the sixteen Doru.

  Toni and her five Amazons fought against a Rogue class player, called Romi18. He used his Back-Stab skill to good effect seriously wounding four of the Amazons. They were still in the fight thanks to using medium strength Heamna's. One of Toni's group of Amazons, looked like they slipped on a large patch of blood. Romi18 ignored the slip as he was deflecting a Doru thrust. If he had taken notice the Amazon who slipped had laid her shield horizontal to her body. Once she was laying in the cold coagulating blood, she thrust the shield forward as hard as she could.

  The shield hit Romi18's left knee, causing him to fall to the ground. As he landed on the ground, three Doru pinned his right leg to the stone floor, Romi18 tried to move as one of Toni's gladii traced a thin line across his throat.

  Romi18 dropped his two daggers and tried to stem the blood flow, when the Amazon on the floor smashed her shield into his face breaking his jaw. Toni held out a hand and helped the smiling Amazon stand, who said, "I am so looking to having a shower after this carnage. I bet there are no showers in the castle though." Toni gave her a hug telling her, "That was an inspired move, dropping down and using your shield like that, very different and it caught that player out. Well done."

  Lesley and Bethany fought the last two players with their Amazons providing shielding and spear support. Fighting a player who was a level thirty-eight Ranger class called BomBShell, Lesley clipped his side with a Doru, knocking BomBShell off his stride. Rangers have high dexterity and BomBSHell's dexterity was over sixty giving him a stamina of two thousand one hundred and twenty-seven.

  BomBShell was hopping and jumping around like a hare in March. His jumping stopped when he landed on a shield dropped by one of Lesley's Amazons. As BomBShell's feet shot out from under him, they caught him with two Doru, one in his chest the other in his groin. Lesley swung her left arm the gladius removed his head, a look of surprise plastered on his face.

  Bethany had been fighting a player called Ivor Bigone, he was a level forty-six Rogue class and used his stealth skill adroitly. Each person in her party had received several wounds, some serious, their Heamna potions saved each of them, including her. She heard the player Lesley had been fighting die, then saw his surprised face bounce into her field of vision. As Bethany turned her head, she noticed Lesley had turned her back to her fight and was helping one of her Amazons. She felt rather than noticed Ivor Bigone use his Death Strike ability as he moved at speed toward Lesley's unprotected back.

  Bethany made her body nearly fly as she threw herself placing her body between Ivor's Death Strike and Lesley's unprotected back. The Death Strike hit Bethany in the middle of her chest, her hands closed around Ivor Bigone's hand and pulled him in close.

  Lesley, on feeling the brush of Bethany's hair against the back of her legs spun around, her gladii followed her turning and cleaved into Ivor Bigone's head, killing him outright. Although Lesley knew Bethany was not really dead it was her avatar, she could not stop the anguished cry escaping as tears flowed down her face.

  Kneeling next to Bethany, Lesley removed the dagger Ivor used to kill her sister wife. She noticed Bethany had a smile on her face, her sister saved her life, at the expense of her own. The Amazons surrounded Lesley as she held Bethany's body to her chest, crying over her.

  Chapter 33

  Pirate King's Demise

  Cain could feel the fighting slowing around him as the Amazons, Toni, Lesley and Bethany were killing players and NPCs alike. His eyes and focus were on the Pirate King and any message Enoch sent. After killing the player King Nikolai, Cain and his five Amazons waited and watched, ready to attack the nearly-impregnable one eyed pirate.

  Cain could tell the system AI and Athena's EI were fighting to change the code added to the throne, the Pirate King was ever so slightly shrinking. Getting ready to fight Cain equipped his Aspis shield as he knew fighting sword-on-sword against an NPC, which was both EI-enhanced and boosted by the throne would be difficult. Cain heard the anguished cry of one of his wives as a pop-up flashed on his HUD, skimming the message he closed the prompt and pushed his feelings deep inside.

  {[You should see a change in fighting the Pirate King soon, the system AI, Cybele and Athena's EI have altered the coding on the throne, they said they have removed the boost given to whoever sits upon the throne. They started to attack the EI's own code behind the Pirate King directly. The system AI has the two EIs of Athena and Myrina running sub coding tasks in the attack]} Enoch and Rahab said.

  Pulling the Aspis tight into his body, Cain was not expecting what happened next, the throne made from the bones of many creatures and humans alike turned to dust. One moment a large pile of bones made into a throne, the next a mound of bone dust. The Pirate King no longer sat on the bone throne rather he sat on the floor in piles of bone dust. Getting to his feet the Pirate King laughed.

  "Thank you so much. I have been sitting, stuck on that throne for the past eleven years, yet it feels as though it has only been a few days. Throne or not I am still the Pirate King and you, my friend, will die," said the Pirate King.

  He pulled out a wicked-looking Scimitar which hung in his wide belt, the light bounced from the polished blade. Cain could see the Damascus patterns in the steel, a material not yet invented in the real time line. Cain noticed his HUD was flickering as it tried to display the Pirate Kings Gamer Tag and details, it was as though Cain wished for the information to be there, suddenly, it was. The details and the NPCs name.

  Although he had been told his name Cain was pleased to see the confirmation, the Pirate King was called Odissemus, while he was a lowly level thirty-two, yet when his EI core was corrupted and the code was changed somebody maxed all his skills out at one hundred. Odissemus was a maxed out warrior, with a health and stamina level both over nine thousand points. Swinging the Scimitar to warm up his muscles, Odissemuss was unaware of his body slowly shrinking. :Well unless Cybele and the EIs make huge inroads to shrink Odissemus I won't least two clashes with him a level one hundred and me a thirty-two. Such is life at least I get to respawn while he will return to Forsaken,: thought Cain.

  Cain's HUD flashed Odissemus' details again, his skills and levels were down to level ninety-five. The drop though reducing his skill levels, Odissemus' health and stamina were practically eight thousand three hundred points. He swung his Scimitar lazily at Cain, who blocked it with his shield and thrust at Odissemus with his Gladius, which bounced of the tough skin.

  Both stood back until Odissemus made a double swing with his sword, Cain again blocked both swings though he did not return the strike. Cain's HUD flashed the details again, Odissemus' skills had dropped to level ninety, the health and stamina was now a lowly seven thousand five hundred points.

  His third attack was faster than the first two, the power and force behind the strike on Cain's shield was enough to crack the Aspis' wooden frame. The crack where the Scimitar hit the Aspis, now looked like the glued flap on an envelope. Throwing the Aspis away from his arm, Cain caught another shield thrown from one of his Amazons.

  The pace of the fight increased with both fighters trying hard to disable and kill the other. Cain nicked Odissemus several times on his sword arm, blood welled in little beads but coagulated before running.

  Cain was the first to take a serious wound, as Odissemus made a lunge with his Scimitar, the point of his blade pushing through the Aspis and deep into Cain's left bicep, removing one hundred and fifty points on its entry and three hundred points when Odissemus twisted his hand before pulling the blade out. :Damn, that one hit removed four hundred and fifty health and sixty-two stamina from me. I can't take another two of them even though I still have over a thousand eight hundred health,: Cain thought as he moved back.

  Cain cut the binding on the shield let
ting it drop to the floor then kicked it away toward the Pirate King who stabbed it with his scimitar before flicking it away. Cain shrugged his shoulders trying to will the feeling back, as his left hand was one of numbness. Odissemus paced side to side making fake lunges at Cain, whose blood was freely running down his arm wetting the floor.

  "You see I told you, you can not win against me. Why did you not take up my offer? I know these women would have come to your bed, especially if I made them. That is why Circe cast the control and binding spell on the Amazon warriors," said Odissemus.

  "If I had wanted, these women they would have come to my bed on their choice. I would not force them like you did to your captive Amazons," replied Cain. Odissemus stopped his pacing and swung the Scimitar faster yet, trying to force his way past Cain's defence, hitting at both sides which Cain defended with a single Gladius.

  Cain forced one strike up into the air as he turned his gladius around the Scimitar. As Odissemus' blade pointed at the ceiling Cain thrust the gladius into Odissemus' left pectoral muscle but had to pull back as the Scimitar swung back from pointing up aimed at Cain's head.

  Although Cain's thrust took two hundred and thirty health from Odissemus, Cain could see he still had over seven thousand health. Odissemus swung the Scimitar in anger after Cain wounded him, clipping, stabbing and slashing the blade's point against Cain's body.

  As the fight passed the ten-minute mark Cain received another prompt as Odissemus visibly shrank in front of him again. Odissemus' levels had suddenly dropped to fifty-five, giving him a health of over two thousand eight hundred. Cain checked his and noticed he had under fifteen hundred health left. As Cain tried to get his left arm to pick a Heamna potion from his inventory, Odissemus pushed against him making their blades lock. Cain was strong but Odissemus was over half as strong again, having more stamina left than Cain's nine hundred and thirty-six points.