The Orb of Agner
Page 3
“Hey Lorcan, I’ve got an idea. How about we use that or-”
The bushes ahead of them rustled.
Jacob stopped walking.
“What Jacob? What’s your idea?”
“Shh!” Hushed Jacob, as he pushed the red orb into Lorcan’s pocket.
The bushes up ahead rustled one more time, and out walked a very tall figure wearing a black cloak with the hood pulled up over it’s head.
“Yes Jacob, what is your idea?” The shadowy figure asked.
Jacob sighed. Another player, not a monster. Clearly a weird and intimidating guy, but they were in no danger.
“Let’s keep walking Lorcan, this guy is weirding me out.”
All of the bushes around them began to rustle.
Eight players dressed in black and brown clothing, each with leather arm bands down each arm. The marking of the Rogue class. People that chose the Rogue class typically were most interested in stealing from and even killing other players. They were able to stealth walk very quickly which explains why they were able to sneak up on them so easily. Sewn into their arm bands were images of a tiger with its claws extended. This meant they were all part of the same guild, and probably were a group of bandits. This must mean the black cloaked figure in front of them was their leader.
“Enough wasting time,” said the shadowy figure, “We know you have the Orb of Agner. Hand it over to us or we’ll have to kill you.”
Jacob laughed. “We are in a PvE area, there is nothing you can do to us. Come on Lorcan let’s keep going.”
The black cloak stood there as Jacob approached. Suddenly, it’s leg came up and kicked Jacob square in the chest. Jacob flew back a foot and landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him.
90 of 100 HP remaining.
“H-how could you kick me and deal damage? We are in a PvE area, attacks won’t work on other players!”
Now it was the black cloak who laughed.
“For normal players you are correct. However for me, I can turn a PvE area into a temporary PvP one.”
The cloaked figure disappeared briefly and reappeared behind Lorcan.
“Lorcan! Watch out!”
Lorcan turned his head right as the black cloak swung at his head, knocking him down.
Jordan watched as his friend laid on the ground, motionless.
1 of 75 health remaining.
The Warrior’s eyes turned red as he took out his sword.
“Warrior stance: Berzerker!”
The eight bandits took a step back, looking around frantically at each other.
“He’s just a level 10, how could he know this stance already?!”
The black cloak didn’t move.
“Interesting… did someone gift you a book containing this move, or did you find it on a mob?”
Jacob ran at the cloaked figure, rapidly swinging his sword diagonally from the top right to the bottom left, and then left to right horizontally. He wasn’t able to answer even if he wanted to. Berzerker stance causes the user to lose all control of their senses, only allowing them to attack their enemy until one or the other is dead or unconscious. The received a huge boost in raw power in exchange.
The shadowy figure danced an inch out of the range of the blade.
“Impressive speed… for a child. Perhaps a better prize than the orb would be you…”
The figure disappeared again. Jacob looked around sporadically with his red eyes. Where was his opponent? He hadn’t hit the assailant yet so there is no way he was defeated.
Jacob stopped. His eyes faded from red back to their normal blue. He slowly looked down at his chest.
A glowing blue dagger was sticking through him.
0 of 100 HP remaining.
The world started to go dark.
“Lorcan… I’m sorry…”
Everything faded to black.
Chapter 9
Lorcan saw Jacob collapse, the shadowy figure standing over him with a blue glowing dagger painted in Jacob’s blood.
He wanted to cry.
He wanted to scream.
He wanted to kill.
But he just laid there, unable to move.
The black cloaked figure picked up Jacob’s body with his right arm and held out his left hand, palm down, in front of him. Suddenly a giant black horse popped into existence where his hand was pointing. He tossed Jacob’s body up towards the front of his horse, and then mounted it himself.
Turning back to the bandits, he said “This Warrior either has the orb on him or hid it, so I’ll be taking him. Deal with the remaining trash as you will. My employer will pay you for your assistance when you make it back to your camp.”
With that, the horse took off into the forest and disappeared from Lorcan’s sight.
The circling bandits started slowly moving in.
“Eh, Jarvis, shoul’ we kill em?”
Lorcan broke into a coughing fit as he was kicked over onto his back.
The biggest of the Rogues stepped over him and smirked down.
“I don’t know, he’s a Mage so it’d be like killin an endangered animal or somfin.”
Jarvis started to pat down Lorcan, removing his gold. His hand made it down to the pocket with the Orb of Agner.
“Well, well, well… what do we ‘ave ‘ere?” k`1`2
His hand pulled out with the orb in it, pure excitement painted on his face.
“That Warrior gave the orb to the weakling? No way…”
The other Rogues all gathered around closer, awestruck at the swirling orb.
“Woah…”
“What are we gonna do wit it?”
“Shoul’ we sell it?”
“One thing is fo’ sure, the Mage was holdin out on us,” sneered Jarvin down at the helpless Lorcan, slowly waving the orb in his face. Taunting him. “I guess we will ‘ave to kill ‘em after all!”
This was met by cheers all around as they pulled out their weapons.
I… I’ve got to try something, Lorcan thought as the orb was slowly waved in front of his face.
Jarvis pulled out his dagger with his free hand and pointed it over Lorcan’s heart.
“Sorry lil’ Mage, you lose.”
Lorcan’s arm shot up and grabbed the orb.
And all he saw was light.
Chapter 10
Stars twinkled in the night sky as Lorcan’s eyes opened again. Was he dead? He tried to move his fingers. It hurt, but he was able to. The pain also meant that he was still alive so he took that as a positive. He slowly sat up which caused the Orb of Agner to roll off of his chest into his lap. The empty glass ball had lost its red glow and now didn’t seem particularly special. The trees around him for a couple hundred feet were all collapsed, and the bodies of the eight bandits were strewn across the ground.
So this is the power of the Orb of Agner, thought Lorcan. No wonder that cloaked man wanted it so badly. Why did he take Jacob’s body? Was Jacob still alive?
Lorcan clinched his fist.
If only he had activated the orb earlier, then Jacob would still be okay! He punched the ground while trying to hold back tears. This was his fault and he needed to fix it. The cloaked figure said that he could find use in Jacob, which meant that there was a chance he didn’t actually kill him and instead just knocked him out.
He began looting the bodies of the fallen bandits. Most of them hardly had a gold on them, but he wasn’t particularly concerned with that. He was searching for a clue – any clue – where their base could be. One of the last things Jacob’s kidnapper said was he would send the money to the bandit’s camp. After checking the seven other bodies, he went over to where Jarvis lay. He appeared to be their leader so if any of them were going to have a lead for Larcan, it would Jarvis. Digging through his things he found about 50 gold and a lot of worthless trinkets. Exasperated, Larcan kicked at Jarvis’ feet, which caused the dead man’s boot to fling off. Larcan collapsed. What was he going to do? He could go back to Drax and ask around to see i
f anyone heard of Jarvis, but that would take ages and who knew how far Jacob would be taken in that time. Lorcan scanned the ground again desperate to find footprints or a trail they left.
Then he noticed Jarvis’ boot on the ground. There was a small piece of paper peeking just slightly out of the top. Lorcan picked up the boot in a rush and opened the note.
“Jarvis,
You and your crew come highly regarded as people that can get things done without asking too many questions.
There are a handful of legendary items that my associates and myself are looking for. If you are willing to accompany me whenever one pops up in our radar, we will pay you 1,000 gold per item you help us recover and 25 gold a week just to be on retainer.
The man who delivered this note will work with you if this is to your liking.
I.”
A lead! It wasn’t much to go on, but it was something! Maybe other people were approached with this deal and could help explain where Jacob went. Someone with the name starting with “I” was the one that sent the cloaked man in the first place, so he was surely headed there with Jacob. Lorcan needed to get a group together. He needed a tracker and someone strong. Lorcan stood up straight and tried to think. The Lame Duck tavern seemed to have the kind of smarmy clientele that would be good at tracking people down, and maybe some were even approached earlier by the cloaked man. He tried to think of how he could find strong people. Ideally the tracker would be strong, but having at least one more strong person in the party would be great. Lorcan casually noticed his hands were resting on his hips. He had a sudden flash back to a shiny golden dwarf taking the same stance. Oh right, Larcon thought, that guy had to be strong in order to be a different race. Even better, I know just where to find him if I hurry.
Lorcan began stumbling back to Drax.
“Hold on Jacob,” he said aloud, trying to reassure himself.
“I’ll find you. I just need to get a couple people to come with me.”
He gripped the Orb of Agner in his pocket with his left hand.
“And I’m gonna bring you back.”
Without thinking, his right hand started to spark with flicks of electricity.
“Then I’m gonna find that cloaked creep.”
The electricity elongated several feet and formed the shape of a blue sword. He held it before him menacingly.
“AND I’M GONNA KILL HIM!”
The next book in The Accidental Mage series will be released in late January / early February 2017!
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