As her eyes settled on the altar in the center of the room, she smiled. “See that altar?”
She pointed to it, and I nodded. It was about five feet tall, covered in crushed red velvet, and made from some kind of black stone. Bits of dried gore clung to the altar, but otherwise, it seemed fairly clean, and if the inch of dust clinging to it meant anything, it was that no one had used it in a long time.
“Yeah? What about it?” I asked, and her smile broadened.
“Can you leap on top of it?” she replied, nodding at me. “It’ll help with the explanation, so just go with it.”
“Um, okay,” I said, not sure where she was going with this. Cautiously, I approached the macabre altar and studied it. I didn’t see anything suspicious, so I took a deep breath and jumped up onto it. Nothing happened. “Um… okay?”
“Do you realize you just did a five foot vertical jump without thinking about it?” she asked, pointing at the altar for emphasis.
“Uh, yeah, so? It’s a game, and you said I could do it.” I shrugged, hopping down. “What’s the big deal?”
“That is the big deal.” She smiled like I’d fallen into her trap, which honestly, was a bit disconcerting. “See, a lot of those elite guys, they know the limits of their bodies. They’ve spent countless hours trying to overcome those limits, and because of that, those limits become hard stops.”
“What?” I asked, creasing my brows. “I’m not sure I follow…”
She waved away my question. “Let’s say you have a guy who is Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris all rolled into one. He’s a total badass, right? Let’s say that same guy has spent a year trying to improve his five minute mile speed by ten seconds. Now bring him here and tell him he can run a mile in two minutes, and what’s more, he could run a hundred miles at that speed without breaking a sweat, and you know what he does?”
“No?” I replied, shaking my head, and as I did, I realized Crash and Two’ Manchu were both watching her carefully. Evidently, they were just as intrigued as I was.
“He can’t run a two minute mile because he doesn’t believe he can run a two minute mile. The game mechanics are there to let him do it, but he just can’t. He’s too used to the limits of his own body.” She shook her head. “It takes a certain someone to forget bodies have actual physical limits, and usually the people who do that aren’t really physical dudes. They’re people like you, who never thought about what they can do. You realize you’re in a game, and the ‘normal’ rules don’t matter, so you can do better, be better. Finding seals like that are rare. They exist, sure, but they’re rare.” She ran a hand through her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “And most of them have been sent here and died because they got too cocky and did something stupid like leapt off a cliff thinking they could fly.”
“I still don’t get why you’d use gamers though,” Two’ Manchu said, enunciating every word very slowly. “It’s not like using a mouse and keyboard translates to fighting with swords and shit. Even if they can’t react as quickly, their innate fighting skills would be way better.”
“Doesn’t that matter though?” Dark Heart asked, shaking her head. “You saw your character use that axe a bunch of times. Hell, you see yourself as Two’ Manchu the legendary barbarian who was third ranked at Titan Gate in the world. You know what combos to do, and you don’t have silly things like a physical body and lack of practice to make it ‘not work.’ Here, you think your character should be able to heroic leap across a room, and because you think it should work, it does because the game is designed to let you do it. Most people can’t think that way or won’t think that way. Instead of doing what the game says they should, they try to use their real world skills, but that’s sub optimal. Even if you can punch really hard, it will never be as strong as say, using Power Strike.”
“I still feel like that’s something that can be resolved with training,” Crash said, shaking his head. “Just like in that scene in the Matrix where Morpheus and Neo fight.”
“Yeah, but it takes longer to realize it isn’t air you’re actually breathing. A lot longer,” she said, running a hand through her hair. “We actually found it out by accident when one of the coders who worked on the original Titan Gate jacked into the sim world we used to try to help acclimate a group of soldiers. It was immediately apparent he was better at basically everything inside the sandbox VR mode we used for the training. Not just a little better, but like a thousand fold better.”
“So you kept trying it and found that more likely people who played the games a lot just could do the stuff they thought they should because they didn’t have the same hang ups?” Crash asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “It makes sense. It’s why I have trouble diversifying because I keep expecting things to work differently…”
“Well, that’s just great,” I mumbled as a sigh escaped my lips. “So, why aren’t there more people here?” I gestured around the room. “I mean, I haven’t seen a new player, and we’ve been here a while, and while we’re at it, where the fuck has Ivan been?”
“I’m not sure where Ivan has been.” Dark Heart frowned. “He should have been back here ages ago, especially with that whole brain synchronization thing that happened… As far as the new player thing? Well, newbie zones are instanced, so we probably won’t encounter any players until we get out of this zone and into the main game. The only reason we’re here together is because we were linked together when we entered the game.”
“I guess that makes a certain amount of sense. With the player thing, not the Ivan thing,” I said, shaking my head because Ivan really should have shown back up. That he hadn’t, bugged me. A lot.
“So are we going left or are you guys going to sit here flapping your gums all night?” George asked, hopping toward the door. “Because I’m ready to find the sword and save the world.” He put one paw up and beckoned us closer. “Fuckers.”
10
As we stepped into the left room, a dozen zombies turned to face us. The smell of decaying, fetid corpses filled my nose, and I had to resist the urge to gag as their blood curdling screams echoed off the walls, and they sprinted across the black stone floor, mouths agape.
Their teeth gnashed through the air as panic rocked me to my core. I’d never wanted to be in a goddamned zombie movie, much less one with fast zombies. Unlike the slow, lumbering ones we had fought in the wasteland, these ones were quicker. As they moved to encircle us and cut us off from escape back through the door, I was betting they were smarter too.
Part of me wanted to run, but I knew I couldn’t. If I did, we’d get overrun. No, it was better to stand and fight together. That way they couldn’t get behind us. No, they had to be held here! If I was just going to be a sissy about it, I’d make a mistake and die.
I leapt into action, raising one hand and blasting the lead one in the face with an Energy Bolt. The blue arc of magic struck the creature and knocked it off its feet. It fell backward to the ground, entangling the two immediately behind it and causing them to crash down on top of it.
More screams erupted from the group as I stepped back and equipped my bow. As I readied an arrow to let fly at one of the zombies, Dark Heart stepped in front of me and swung the two-handed sword she’d gotten from the cobalt demon we’d fought in the last dungeon.
The blade slashed through the torso of the zombie I’d been about to shoot, rending it into two distinct pieces that flopped to the ground. Only, instead of finishing it off, Dark Heart was already whirling to engage the next monster. As the rent zombie’s lower half exploded into shards, the thing’s top half kept crawling toward her.
“Holy fuck!” Two’ Manchu cried as he stepped forward and brought his axe down on the creature’s skull, obliterating it and causing my experience bar to increase by six percent. Relief surged through me because for a second, I’d worried they couldn’t die, but that relief almost immediately turned to elation.
“Wow, that’s a shitload of EXP from one monster!” I cried as I gl
anced past Dark Heart at the coming horde. There were at least a dozen more in here. That’d be enough for me to level up!
“Yeah, that only matters if we don’t die,” Dark Heart said as she swung her sword again, cleaving into another monster. Her blow sheared off its blocking arm at the elbow, which while cool, was bad because more were coming.
“Well, then don’t die!” I snapped knocking an arrow and letting it fly into the zombie at her back. The silver arrow flew through the air and struck the zombie in the side of the head with enough force to send it stumbling sideways, and allowing Two’ Manchu to step into the fray, put his back to Dark Heart’s and begin to hack at the horde.
As they did, worry started to fill the back of my mind. While they were fighting like devils, I could already tell we would be overwhelmed in seconds. That wouldn’t be good. Once that happened, we’d be toast. Still, I couldn’t see another way to win. We’d just have to keep fighting until they were all dead. After all, once they were all, well, corpses, we could stop and regen.
“Spectral Blades!” Crash cried, summoning the energy blades out of the ether and directing them to attack the horde, while I began firing my bow with reckless abandon.
It was sort of hard to miss because there were so many zombies, so I focused on keeping the creatures from overwhelming my friends. Worse, Two’ Manchu and Dark Heart were both being forced steadily back toward us by the undead horde, and their health was dropping by the second. Not a lot, but it told a tale that would end with our tanks dying.
“Damn!” I cursed, wishing I had my scythe, but wishing wouldn’t help me now. Instead, I raised my hand. “Fireball!” I cried, hurling the projectile into the zombie horde. It hit them and exploded outward, catching several of the creatures on fire, which was when I realized that’d been a fucking terrible idea.
“Good job, fuckwit! Now instead of having to fight zombies, we have to fight flaming zombies?” Two’ Manchu snarled, tossing me an evil look. Unfortunately, that distraction allowed a zombie to penetrate his defense and slam a rotting fist into his cheek. His entire head snapped sideways, and he wobbled, glassy eyed as the icon for stun glinted above his head.
“Knock them back!” I cried at George as I grabbed my dagger and short sword and charged forward to take his place at Dark Heart’s back.
“Will do, boss!” George replied, launching a wave of ice at the zombie who had decked Two’ Manchu. The monster shattered, and my experience surged upward another six percent, but more importantly, I managed to interpose myself between Two’ Manchu’s stunned form and the horde.
My black mithril dagger lashed out, slashing through the closest zombie, and like it had done with the skeletons, a fissure of dark flame erupted from the wound. The creature shrieked and began to bat at itself, so I did what any self-respecting adventurer would do, I stabbed it again.
Another cry of pain tore from the zombie as I moved forward to hit it with my short sword, but before I could, another zombie snapped at me. Its jaws sank into my wrist, dealing three percent damage even through my coat and chain mail. Worse, as I flailed to throw it off, the creature stumbled backward with its jaws locked around my wrist and pulled me forward into the horde.
I had half a second to cry out, and then I was in the midst of the creatures.
“Kahn!” Dark Heart yelled, trying to cut a path through me, but I could already tell she wasn’t going to reach me in time.
The zombies pounced on top of me, driving my face into the ground. The cold press of their hands decaying on my body overwhelmed my muscles as I tried to throw them off and as skeletal fingers tore at me, struggling to pull me toward gaping jaws, my health began to drop.
A scream tore from my throat as I fought, trying to pull away. Before I could, a zombie’s jaws latched down on my thigh, causing fresh pain to spurt up inside me, and as I tried to beat it off with my fists, more zombies grabbed ahold of my arms and hauled me backward.
Panic exploded through me, they were pulling me away from my friends, and if that happened I was screwed because I didn’t have enough health to survive this onslaught for long. No, I needed a way to buy Dark Heart time to save me.
Agony lanced through me as I lashed out, trying to wrench myself free, but it was no use, there were too many hands holding me, too many zombies gnawing at my flesh. While they hadn’t managed to kill me, I knew it wouldn’t be long. I needed more health, and while I could try and heal, I knew I couldn’t do enough for it to matter.
No, I had to do something that’d give me more health right now, or you know, simulated giving more health.
“Mana Shield!” I cried, casting the spell right before I took a foot to the face. My head snapped back as blue energy encircled my body, so instead of reducing my health, my mana pool absorbed the blow, dropping it by three percent.
I stabbed at the zombie biting my wrist with my dagger, but because I couldn’t really move under the throng of bodies, I didn’t manage to do much damage to it. My blade barely gashed it open, and honestly, seemed to piss it off more than anything. Worse, my mana was down to fifty percent already.
Panic spread through me as I flailed again, trying to bash in the skull of the zombie biting my wrist when a wave of cold hit me. My teeth chattered together as ice spread across the zombies to my left.
George! He must have shot them. A surge of relief temporarily shot through me as I jerked my arm to the left, wrenching it free of the frozen zombie’s teeth. I glared at the creature for half a second before burying my dagger into its face.
Its body evaporated into shards, and as I tried to push myself up, two more leapt into the space it’d occupied. Another blast of cold hit them, and I attacked again, getting myself to my knees. My mana was plummeting now, but maybe that would be enough. Even though I couldn’t see my friends because I was buried beneath the zombie horde, I knew they were coming for me because my experience bar kept going up. I just needed to hold out until then.
That was when my Shield spell, which gave me extra armor, and my Holy spell, which gave me extra damage, decided to renew themselves. As the glow of the spells wrapped around me, consuming eleven mana, a cry of anguish exploded from me. That was over ten percent of my remaining eighty mana, and while not a big deal normally, right now I needed every last mana point I could get.
“Fuck!” I cried, knowing I couldn’t use Body to Soul to regenerate my mana in this situation because it’d reduce health I desperately needed nor could I use any spells to escape. No I was stuck with normal attacks, which unfortunately, weren’t killing the zombies fast enough to let me get to my feet, let alone escape.
“Join us in death!” a zombie croaked before leaping onto my back and pushing me forward onto my hands and knees. My breath exploded from my lungs as I tried to reach back and strike the monster, but before I could, the creature buried its teeth in my shoulder.
“We’re coming, Kahn!” Crash yelled as a spectral blade slashed through the zombie on my back, reducing it to glittering shards. Relief surged through me, but it was quickly evaporated as another zombie grabbed me by the hair and flung me down onto my back.
I lashed out anyway, struggling to bring my dagger to bear as I kicked my legs. It didn’t do a lot of good because undead arms and teeth had me pinned in place. As a zombie covered from head to toe in frost lunged at my throat, teeth bared and wide, my mana reached zero, and my mana shield shattered into a zillion shards of sapphire light.
A cry of pain exploded from my mouth as the zombie buried its teeth in my neck. The pain was so agonizing, my mind sort of spun sideways into shock. My hands came up in a desperate attempt to beat at the monster as I shrieked and pulled and flailed all to no avail.
I was going to die here. Die beneath a horde of zombies.
No. This couldn’t happen. It just couldn’t.
A scream of rage erupted from me as I bit down on the pain and drove my dagger into the zombie’s neck, severing its head.
Elizabeth said something a
bout a critical hit as its body erupted into spectral shards, but I was already throwing myself to my feet, only as I did, a hand wrapped around the scruff of my collar and jerked me backward. Decayed fingers tore free of me and undead teeth ripped from rotten gums as I crashed backward onto Two’ Manchu.
The zombies came for me anyway, but Dark Heart stepped in front of us and raised her hand.
“Water Wave!” she cried, unleashing one of the level three spells she’d learned from Gereng. Water erupted from her outstretched palm in a tidal wave of crystal clear blue liquid that slammed into the surging zombies, throwing them backward into one another. Only, as I knew from experience, the spell used a ton of mana, thirty four to be exact, and did very little damage. No, it was only good for creating space. Fortunately, that was exactly what we needed.
“Fire Wall!” Crash said, raising his own hand and summoning a wall of flames in between the zombies and us.
As I lay there, barely able to breathe, relief exploded through me. I had survived. I had fucking survived!
My health had dropped to thirty six percent, and I had zero mana, but I’d lived, and it was all thanks to my friends.
“I can’t hold this for long!” Crash said, gritting his teeth as sweat broke out on his forehead. His mana was dropping fast, and at this rate, I knew he’d be out soon.
“I think we need to strategically run the fuck out of here,” Dark Heart said, moving back toward the doorway. “If we get to the door, we can use it as a choke point to fight one at a time. It’ll be slow, but at least we won’t die!”
“Works for me,” I said, getting to my feet and stumbling toward the door. It was hard because my heart was still hammering in my chest. I could still feel the zombies all over me, even though I knew they weren’t on me. Their phantom bits and scratches gnawed at me, but I forced it down. If I didn’t, I was screwed.
“Then make it fast. We’ve got two, maybe three seconds before I’m out of mana,” Crash cried as the first of the zombies burst through the firewall. The water clinging to its clothing had turned to steam, and flame licked at him, but either way, he was still coming.
Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2) Page 7