by M B Reid
I could see the thoughts flashing behind his eyes in slow motion as I closed the distance. He was terrified, and wanted to run. But he was between me and the river, which meant he couldn’t go backwards. He could only side step in one direction because his partner was on the other side.
I hit him at full speed, skewering him on one of my horns. He staggered backwards, then managed to twist to one side and tear himself free. His partner swung at me from behind as I stumbled. Red flashed through my vision for a moment indicating I’d taken damage. The kobold I’d charged was preparing to swing his club, so I swung my axe around to meet him.
Unlike a graceful duel between fencers, we collided in brutal fury. My axe buried itself in the club and we both came to an unexpected stop. The kobold recovered first, punching me in the stomach while its companion clubbed me across the shoulder blades. My health flashed downward again. I released my hold on the axe and grabbed the kobold in front of me. The creature dropped its club in turn and started to beat my shoulders with closed fists. No matter how hard it tried it could do nothing to stop me as I lifted it off the ground and threw it with all my might.
We were still facing the river, and the scaly creature sailed through the air with all the grace of a brick. It hit the water with a solid splash and vanished from view.
The kobold behind me struck me with its club and my health dropped by another chunk. I was at half health now, and absolutely furious.
I took a risky moment to glance at Logan. He was walking backwards, throwing bolts of purple energy in front of him. His skeleton was wrestling with one kobold. Another was trying to regain its footing as Logan bombarded it with spells. The third lay dead on the grass.
The kobold nearest me took another swing with its damnable club that I barely managed to dodge. My axe was still embedded in the other club a few feet away. Instead of lunging for it, I punched the child-like creature in the nose.
The kobold wailed as blood spurted. Apparently its slightly pointed nose was prone to breaking. I lunged for my axe, placing one foot on the drowning kobolds club to pry it free. My foe was still clutching at his mangled face and whimpering, the fight suddenly gone from him. I was still seeing in shades of furious red as I cleaved into the creatures neck. The critical hit icon flashed above it as the kobold collapsed.
Logan yelped as the kobold nearest him pricked him with its spear. At the same time a kobold scored a lucky hit against his skeleton, which collapsed into a pile of bones. In an instant they had faded out of view. I lowered my head and charged. I hit the kobold that was attacking Logan from behind, knocking him to the ground.
The last kobold standing stabbed at me with his spear in a lazy drunken thrust that I easily parried. A little icon was hovering above his head, but I had no idea what it meant. I swung my axe down on him from above, the sharpened blade cleaving through the top of his skull. The creature shuddered once and then fell to its knees, the critical hit icon flashing above its crushed skull.
Logan blasted the kobold with a thick bolt of purple energy and it crumpled.
“What was that icon?” I asked Logan, figuring it was something he’d inflicted on the poor creature.
“Diseased. The skeleton can inflict it with a bite.” He answered, touching himself with his left hand to make sure the spear hadn’t punctured anything critical. Of course, being a skeleton he didn’t have any organs, so it was a pointless gesture.
My skull tickled as my spellwork horns receded. I slipped my axe back into its belt loop and started to loot a corpse.
“That’s cool. See? That wasn’t so bad was it?” I asked as I rifled through the drops.
There were a few gold coins, a chunk of unidentifiable meat, and the sharpened stick it had used as a weapon. No armour to take. The spear granted a throwing attack. A ranged attack would be nice to have, but not at the expense of throwing the weapon away. I was confident my axe was still the better option. I pocketed the coins then went to the next drop.
“The skeleton was fucking awesome!” Logan laughed as he looted the corpse nearest him.
“Hell yeah” I agreed. The skeleton had helped flank them, and had kept the three spear kobolds busy while I’d dealt with my two. Things would have been much more difficult without it.
The next corpse had a few more coins, another pointed stick, and a pair of sandals that offered no abilities. The kobold hadn’t even been wearing the sandals, that’s how bad they were.
“Have you found anything good?” I asked, and Logan just shook his head in response.
“The loot in this game sucks” He announced, kicking the nearest corpse.
I made my way over to my first kill, and started rummaging through its pockets. This one had a few more gold coins, the club (which, while painful, still couldn’t match my axe), and a scrap of paper. A short note was written in a five year olds handwriting:
U gard west rode.
It took me a second to realise it was an order: you guard the west road. Logan had appeared at my shoulder as I was rifling through the loot drop so I offered him the message.
“I guess that means they’re to the east.” I said, looking out across the open plain. There was no obvious kobold hangout between here and the mountains in the far distance. Surely a first level quest wouldn’t expect us to walk so far?
“Shame we didn’t keep one for questioning” Logan mumbled as he dropped the piece of paper.
As if on queue, a spluttering kobold pulled itself up the river bank.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Couldn’t have planned that better myself” I announced as I approached the spluttering kobold. He was in no state to fight.
“Please don’t kill me!” The creature pleaded. Its enormous eyes sparkled with tears.
“We don’t need to kill you if you can just give us some information”
“Anything! I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Just don’t kill me. I don’t want to die” His childlike face peered at me, eyes wide. I felt like I was torturing a child, it was disgusting.
“Who’s your leader?” I asked.
“The boss man? I don’t know his name. He’s just the boss, only one of his kind to stay with us.”
That didn’t surprise me but it also didn’t explain anything.
“What do you mean his kind?”
“The leaders. They taught the tribes to work together!” The kobold was talking in awe, as if these leaders were like gods to him. It was clear he didn’t have a more useful name for them.
“Where can I find him?”
“The boss man lives in the forest.” He pointed a scaly finger towards the trees.
“You walk toward the mountains from this bend. When you reach the pointers you stop and go toward the trees. The pointers point the way.” The lizard creature looked awfully proud of himself, as if he’d just recited an arcane ritual by heart.
“Well thats it then” Logan said from beside me. The kobold cowered away from him, giving me a pleading look.
“You promised you wouldn’t kill me!” The creature whined.
“I did, and you’re free to go.” I stepped aside, allowing the frightened creature to walk past me away from the river. It took one tentative step forward as it eyed me cautiously. When I made no move to stop it, the creature dropped to all fours and sprinted forward like a gecko, his hind legs whipping from side to side as he scurried. He made it about a hundred meters before a bolt of purple energy obliterated him.
“You didn’t need to kill it.” I scowled at Logan.
“It’s an NPC that tried to kill us. There’s no reason not to kill it.” He shrugged. Clearly he didn’t suffer from the same moral qualms I did. I could only hope that sentiment didn’t also extend to other players.
“Well, at least we know where to go. Oh, don’t forget the teeth.” I made my round of the corpses again, this time using my carving knife to pry the teeth from their gums. This was officially the most messed up thing I’d ever done. I’d never been hunting in the real world,
but I could understand killing something for food. This was different though, I was literally pulling teeth from a corpse to turn a profit. Some mad dentist I’d make.
Once I’d finished my gruesome task I started in the direction the creature had pointed, across the open field toward the mountains. Logan followed.
“It’s probably an orc right?” Logan asked after we’d been walking for a while.
“What?”
“You know, the big boss guy. I reckon it’ll be an orc. Does Liorel have Orcs?”
“I dunno. Could do I guess.” The only playable race - aside from undead - was human, but there were all sorts of non-player sentient races out there.
“It’s kinda cliche. The ostracised orc assembles the ragtag clans of kobolds under his rule, and together they take over the world.” Logan laughed at his own story.
“I guess. Though they’re definitely not going to be taking over the world any time soon. We’re noobs, and we just beat their five man ambush.”
“True that. I reckon we can take an orc, even if he’s surrounded with his little kobolds.” Our skirmish with the scaly buggers seemed to have done wonders for Logan's morale. If he kept this up, I might have to accept he’d caught the adventuring bug. That’d be preferable to him hiding away in that dungeon until someone saved the world.
“Oh, we can definitely take an orc. There’s nothing that can stop us.” I announced, beating a hand on my chest like a viking warrior before battle. It was nice being able to goof off with my friend for a moment. Nice enough that I momentarily forgot about the fact we were trapped in a videogame. We carried on walking toward the mountains, talking shit we didn’t know anything about.
There was no mistaking the pointers when we found them. The big wooden arrows pointing toward the trees were impossible to miss. A surprising amount of coordination had gone into hammering them into the ground and pointing them in exactly the same direction.
I crouched down behind the first one we spotted, and peered along it’s length at the forest. The arrow seemed to point at one very particular tree that was somewhat taller than those surrounding it, making an easy landmark. We started off in that direction, and about five minutes later we found another arrow. This one had a small knapsack at the base of it.
Logan stopped and hesitantly glanced from me to the pack, and back again.
“Fair enough” I mumbled, and bent down to open it. If anyone was going to set off a trap, it ought to be me. I was the tank after all. I kept my curses silent, not wanting to sour the jovial mood Logan was in. Nothing happened as I pried open the draw string. I peered inside.
“Just a bunch of apples” I said, handing the pack to Logan. His stomach rumbled audibly at the words. Logan wolfed down most of the apples as we walked, keeping only a few for later if we got hungry. I was hoping one decent meal per day would be enough. The handful of gold coins we’d taken from the kobolds didn’t even add up to what I’d spent on supplies already. We were going to have to up our game if we wanted a reliable stockpile of food kept in the dungeon.
“Hey, are you sure we should head in there? It’ll be dark in a couple of hours” Logan said around a mouthful of apple. He had a point, it would take us close to an hour to get back to the dungeon. On the other hand, we’d spent the last couple of days messing around at the dungeon. This was a damn good opportunity to clear a couple of quests, and I didn’t want to delay it by an extra day just because Logan was afraid of the dark.
“We’ll be fine. One orc to kill, a couple of kobolds to finish off, and then we’re done. Quests complete.” I said in my most confident voice. Logan looked at me for a moment before nodding.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’d prefer to sleep at the dungeon than out here is all. It kinda feels like home, you know?”
Oddly enough he was right. The dungeon had taken a rather homely feel. It would certainly feel safer sleeping there rather than sleeping out in the open.
“Yeah, I get that. We’ll make this fast then.” The trees loomed in front of us, less than a few kilometres away. I got the sudden uneasy feeling that we were being watched, but nothing around us was moving. If kobolds were lying in wait for us they were well camouflaged.
Without saying anything I slowed down a little to let Logan catch up. If we were about to be ambushed I wanted to be close enough to watch each others backs. Logan seemed oblivious to my paranoia.
“Hey, you know what you said about the priestess? Reckon they’d let us stay at the church?” He asked, completely absorbed in his thoughts.
“Boo” Something invisible nearby said.
I screamed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Childish laughter filled my ears. Logan had already dropped into a defencive crouch, and I was busy fumbling for my axe. A kobold had popped into view, but instead of lunging at us he was lying on his back on the ground.
Laughing.
His eyes were clouded with tears and he was struggling to breath through the laughter, his arms and legs flailing like a dying ant.
“Oh my. Oh my. You should have - should have seen the look on your - on your faces!” He gasped, then burst into uncontrollable laughter again. Logan had lowered his wand and was looking at me in confusion. The childish creature slowly regained its breath, then sat up.
“Oh that was too good. I’d say you must have seen a ghost, but you guys might be into that.” He leered.
“And that scream? Oh, too good.” He laughed again. It was a little more controlled this time.
“Who are you?” I asked, trying to direct the conversation away from my totally-manly-scream-of-surprise.
“Jerry’s the name. Ranging’s the game.” The kobold rhymed, then he offered me one small scaly hand.
I shook it.
“Azoth” I said, by way of introduction, “And this is Logan”.
“Oh I’m very pleased to meet you. Very pleased indeed.” Jerry gave them a theatrical bow, then wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Why aren’t you fighting us?” Logan asked
“Why, there’s no need. As luck would have it, we all want the same thing. Oh, well, more or less anyway.”
“What do you mean?” I asked
“You’re out here to kill the tribe right? Me, I’m not part of the tribe. Oh, I guess I’m not part of any tribe now. Alls I want is for the Leaders to die, and this here tribe has a Leader.” The kobold gave me a mischievous wink.
“Oh it’s a long story alright, the story of how I came to be here. The short of it is I don’t like the Leaders, and the Leaders don’t like me. Kicked me out of my tribe they did! I came here, thinking these fellas would be more open minded. But nope! They’ve got themselves a Leader as well. And so here I am, rearranging some pointers to confuse the thick buggers, and getting what petty revenge I can on the Leaders.” Jerry pointed at the pointers, and then to the trees.
“You’d think they’d find their way home without ‘em wouldn’t you? But no, the ones out this side are thicker ‘an two planks. Oh I thought if I could get a few lost, all turned around like, I could form my own tribe. Get as many folk away from the Leaders as I could, you know?”
I felt quite confident that I did not know. In fact, I didn’t even have the first inkling of knowing. As far as I could tell, this kobold had taken a hard knock to the head. And yet he seemed coherent, just nonsensical.
“You’re not making a lot of sense.” I allowed, carefully watching the kobolds reaction. I wanted to be ready if his eyes took on the murderous glow the rest of his race had shown.
“Oh, slow are you? Here it is, plain as day. The Leaders ain’t our folk, they’re from under the ground. They started coming up from the dark, started convincing the folk to do as they say. Great riches they promised, great glory for the folk. Me, I don’t believe them. Me and the fellas are doing well without them, you know? Got some friends in walled places as are willing to trade, makes us enough to live happy.
Anyway, these folk from under the groun
d - the Leaders - they don’t like me not liking them. They can’t kill me of course - the fellas wouldn’t stand for that. But they turn ‘em against me real slow, until the fellas suggest I find another tribe. A tribe with more friends behind the walls. The Leader has them thinking our friends behind the walls aren’t friends at all! Madness I say, pure madness.” The kobold wound a finger in a circle next to his ear to indicate his point. Or perhaps it was his subconscious telling us he wasn’t right in the head.
“This leader, is he what the others called Big Boss?” I asked
“Oh yes! Those over here do call him the Big Boss. I still calls them the Leaders though, coz that’s what they do.”
“What about the kobolds? What if we have to fight them?”
“Oh, you do what you do I suppose.” Jerry looked a little crestfallen.
“Them that are with the Leader are pretty loyal. Even if the Leader died, they’d probably go looking for a new Leader. I don’t think they can be helped.” He continued.
Jerry seemed off his rocker but if we were going up against a group of kobolds, and this mysterious Leader, I’d take any advantage we could get.
“Say we help you, what’s in it for us?”
“Oh, you’re quite the businessman aren’t you?” Jerry laughed.
“I can take you to the camp. You kill the Leader, and I’ll make sure you get all the loot you can carry. Plus, and this ones important, you’ll be friends with ol’ Jerry. I’m gonna have me own tribe here once the Leaders are gone, you’ll want to be my friend then.” He flashed us a pointed smile. Perhaps this little kobold wasn’t quite as crazy as he sounded.
I glanced at Logan until he nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Okay Jerry, you’ve got a deal.” I extended my hand, and he shook it enthusiastically.
“That’s good to hear. Oh my, is that good to hear. Here, presents for the both of you!” He exclaimed.
He dug around in his pockets for an inordinate amount of time before extracting a leather belt and a set of linen wraps. The logistics of how he could have carried these in the tiny pockets of his pants were ignored by the game mechanics of Liorel.