by Seth Ring
“Watch out, I’m coming,” Bluefire warned him. Accelerating, she dashed toward him, her body weaving unpredictably. Startled by her speed, Thorn swung his tetsubo in a long arc to try and force her back. Undeterred, Bluefire lowered her body until it was almost parallel with the ground and accelerated even faster, darting in under Thorn’s swing and using the force of her dash to smash one of her tonfas into Thorn’s side.
Unable to respond in time, Thorn could only take the blow. Since he couldn’t dodge, Thorn decided to aim for mutual destruction. Switching his grip on his tetsubo, Thorn struck back at Bluefire with the back of his hand. Though confident in her attack, Bluefire still raised her other tonfa to block Thorn’s counterblow.
Seeing the situation, an involuntary cry escaped Julia’s lips. Yet the scene she had imagined never manifested itself. As the blow from Bluefire’s tonfa impacted Thorn’s side his body barely shivered. Feeling her blow connect, Bluefire was horrified to realize that her impressive strength was not that impressive next to Thorn. The attack she used was enough to send anyone else stumbling back, but Thorn simply grunted.
The rebound from the blow left her hand feeling numb, almost making her lose her grip on her weapon. Dumbfounded she forgot to dodge Thorn’s counterattack, taking it solidly on her tonfa.
*crack*
A loud sound echoed across the ring as the silver tonfa broke in half. Under Julia’s stunned gaze Bluefire broke apart into little lights, disappearing into the air. A blue light shot down from the ceiling to reveal Bluefire, as good as new, outside the ring. Impassive, Thorn put his weapon away and stepped down out of the ring, sighing as Bluefire flinched back.
“Did...did you just die?” Julia asked Bluefire, barely able to get the question out.
“Yes.” Bluefire sighed, depressed about how the fight had ended.
“But didn’t you block?”
“The force was overwhelming, activating a crushing blow.” Eyeing Thorn contemplatively, Bluefire asked, “What is your class, Xavier? My weapons give me significant damage reduction, but you smashed them like they were nothing.”
“I don’t have a class.” Admitted Thorn sheepishly. “I’m just naturally strong.”
“Naturally strong might be the understatement of the century. Naturally strong doesn’t let you break a defensive weapon and one-shot a melee class. I mean, my defenses are not the best in the game, but they are not shabby.”
“Haha, I think you were so stunned that your attack did not do anything to him that you forgot to dodge.” Julia laughed, remembering Bluefire’s stunned face.
“Please, you would have been crushed too. I hit him with everything I had, and he didn’t even feel it.” Bluefire stared accusingly at Thorn. “I want another round.”
Five hours later, an exhausted Thorn threw himself down on the platform causing it to shake. After sparring for hour after hour he was spent and covered in bruises. While Bluefire had never been able to deal any significant damage to him, every one of her strikes left Thorn aching. It had been hard to keep up with her speed, but Thorn found his reaction time getting better and better as they fought. Already quick for someone his size, Thorn found it easier to respond to Bluefire’s sudden movements as they practiced together.
Standing to the side, Julia waved her hand and a white light fell on Thorn’s giant figure, filling him with energy and healing his bruised body. She had always thought that Thorn would do well in Nova Terra, but the last five hours had completely upended her view of the game. Thorn was like a mountain, immovable. Against a blunt weapon like Bluefire’s, Thorn was invulnerable.
“With good enough armor, he would be invulnerable against bladed weapons too,” Bluefire seemed like she was able to read Julia’s thoughts. “If he had a bit more training and experience, he very well could be the most dangerous melee fighter in the game. Even without a class. I just can’t get over how solid he is.”
“How are you feeling, Xavier?” Julia asked as Thorn rose to his feet.
“I’m feeling pretty good. It is convenient that the system can reset us so we don’t have to wait for the bruises to heal. Plus, I feel like I am getting a better grasp of how actual combat works. So far, I have done a lot of brawling, but all of my fights end quickly so it is hard to practice.”
“Well, I think you are just fine.” Bluefire tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You have the most ridiculous advantage in strength, reach, and stability. You just need to practice anticipating your opponent’s movements. Even though I couldn’t do anything to you, remember that I am one of the better melee combatants in the game. Most other people are not as quick as I am.”
“Hah, listen to her.” Julia rolled her eyes. “You just spent five hours attacking him without dealing any real damage.”
“What, you want to give it a try?” Bluefire sneered. “I bet you wouldn’t last more than ten seconds.”
“I was wondering, is there a place to train against abilities? Or magic?” Thorn asked. “I ran across some players who had some pretty crazy abilities. I don’t know if I would have any chance against them.”
“Sure, let’s give it a try. Bluefire, do you want the first round?” Julia asked, looking at her blonde friend.
“Yeah, why not. Maybe I can get some of my honor back.” Bluefire joked, stepping onto the platform and readying her tonfa again. With a low shout, she summoned a blue flame that covered her weapons. “Watch out, big guy. These things are dangerous,” she warned Thorn, waving her flame covered weapons.
The mystical fire dancing along the edge of the tonfas radiated danger so he readied himself, watching them carefully. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, Bluefire tapped her weapons together rhythmically before dashing forward. Each footstep left a burning imprint in the ring’s floor as she moved forward.
Within half a second, she was right in front of Thorn, a strike flying at him. Startled by her increase in speed, Thorn fell back half a step, raising his weapon to block. With a loud clang, the weapons impacted one another, and the two players bounced apart. His hand numb from the force of the blow, Thorn estimated that the mystical flames had tripled Bluefire’s attack speed and doubled her strength.
Under his watchful gaze, Bluefire chanted some arcane words, causing the fire that flickered along the edges of her weapons to burst out, forming blades that extended almost two feet beyond her hands. Warning bells started ringing in Thorn’s head as he looked at the flickering blades.
“Those look dangerous.” Thorn blurted out, as Bluefire began to bounce again.
“You have no idea,” Julia smirked at Thorn’s nervous tone.
Focused, Bluefire sprinted forward again, her blades slashing out with ever increasing speed and ferocity. As he warded off the first few blows, Thorn felt that the attack was manageable, but that quickly changed. The attacks came in faster and faster, causing Thorn to retreat. Every time he blocked an attack a chunk of his weapon would break off, carved out by the mystic blades. Fed up with his passive position, Thorn gritted his teeth and struck out, ignoring a stab coming toward his side.
Her eyes flickering, Bluefire abandoned one of her strikes to deflect Thorn’s counter-attack while her other blade continued toward his chest. Feeling her blade bite into Thorn, Bluefire smiled in triumph. Once her blade connected, it was over. Yet the fight failed to follow her predictions as Thorn’s counter-attack continued toward her despite the growing stab wound in his side.
The moment his attack approached her weapon, she knew she was in trouble. Before it even connected, she could feel the compressed air from the tetsubo pushing her back. “If that hits, I’m dead.” Bluefire thought. Decisively abandoning her attack, she yelled out an arcane command and disappeared in a flash of flame, reappearing a moment later twenty feet away.
Losing his target, Thorn stumbled to the ground, falling to one knee. The flame blade that hit his side had cut deep and the blue flames continued to lick at him. Grimacing, Thorn clapped a hand over the wound as
he stood to his feet. Despite patting the burning area a couple of times, Thorn found that the flames did not go out, instead of continuing to burn.
“Poison Flame doesn’t stop burning unless you get magical healing,” Bluefire remarked as she watched Thorn try to put the flame out.
“Huh, really? That is cool. Do they go out if you are defeated?”
“Um, yeah. I guess. They go out if I unsummon my blades. But how are you still standing? Most people who get hit with them are rolling on the ground within seconds.”
“Oh?” Thorn looked at Julia who was doing nothing to conceal her utter amazement. “It’s just a stinging feeling. Sort of like a hot electrical shock. I mean, it hurts but it is manageable.”
“Ah. Forget it.” Bluefire shook her head in defeat, unsummoning her blades. “I don’t want to fight anymore. You’re ridiculous. A total cheat. This is so unfair.”
“Haha,” Julia laughed as she waved her hand, restoring both combatants to peak form. “Isn’t he amazing? Xavier, I knew that Nova Terra would suit you. Not everyone can force Bluefire to put her blades away.”
“Hmph. I could have won, it just would have taken a bit.” Bluefire grumbled.
“Thank you very much for sparring with me.” Thorn clasped his fists in a traditional martial arts salute, bowing his head toward the complaining lady. “It is very helpful for me to face such skilled opponents.”
“No problem, Xavier. I noticed that you were surprised when you saw my blades. Have you not had much experience with magic?”
“I haven’t. I’ve seen people use it, but I have not fought against it before.”
“Well, why don’t we change that?” Bluefire turned to Julia, “Xavier still has a few hours before he can go back into Nova Terra, why don’t we call Odele and Jasmine so he can get some practice in? It would be good for them too, they have been getting pretty lazy.”
“That is a great idea! Thorn, Odele, and Jas are two of our best casters. I’ll call them over and they can give you a rundown on how to fight against a caster as a melee combatant. Though you better get some armor on, their attacks pack a serious punch.” Julia pulled up her messaging interface as she spoke, sending a quick text.
Excited, Thorn equipped his armor as he waited. He had been feeling a bit depressed about his loss to the group at Embersplit Mine. Taking a deep breath as two women walked into the gym, Thorn greeted them and got into his stance. A deep excitement burned in his chest. He had never felt more alive.
CHAPTER NINE
An armored guard leaning against the wall of the temple nearly jumped out of his skin when Thorn’s massive figure appeared right in front of him. After a few hours of practice against the two mages from the Society of Roses, Thorn felt like he had a much better idea of how to fight against a magic user. In fact, that knowledge was carved deep into his skin. He had been burned, frozen, shocked, and impaled over the course of the fight, each spell giving him a painful reminder of what he should have done.
The fight had evened out when, in a moment of frustration at his inability to close the distance, he had pulled out his large arbalest and dispatched one of his opponents with a massive bolt. He had still lost that fight, quite brutally in fact, but he felt as if he was on the edge of figuring out how to deal with casters.
The repeated losses had taught him that his body was largely impervious to damage due to its density and overwhelming strength and stamina, a trait that only increased as he added armor. However, direct blows to his head or neck were just as deadly to him as they were to other players. While he could take more damage than the average player, he still had the same weak points.
This explained why he had fallen so fast at the mine. The female swordswoman had targeted the back of his neck, paralyzing him before finishing him off. Thorn had been so engrossed with crushing the red magical shield that he hadn’t bothered to protect his neck. While armor could help with some of that, Thorn had no desire to cover himself in metal since that would further reduce his already low mobility.
While his blunt force damage was high, excessive even, the repeated fights against the ladies from the Society of Roses demonstrated the value of piercing force. Every time he died, it was because of some magical damage that ripped straight through his defenses. Thorn did have his immense strength on his side, often allowing him to trigger a [Crushing Blow], but that did not help against magical defense that negated all the force, or at least, cut it down significantly.
Bluefire’s magical blades had been eye-opening. She used them for both defense and offense, combining blunt force with sharp, piercing damage to great effect. The more Thorn thought about it, the more he realized that this was what Master Sun had been trying to get him to achieve. Combined offense and defense that flowed into each other without warning.
In hand to hand combat, Thorn was close to unbeatable. His excellent taijiquan training, combined with his inhuman strength and weight made it almost impossible for him to lose. At melee weapon range his training with Master Sun and his impressive force was enough to give most fighters fits. Even his long-range combat abilities were higher than average due to the raw damage his City Defender arbalest granted him. However, once magic entered the equation all his advantages evaporated.
No matter how tough he was, he couldn’t block a chaos bolt or avoid the slowing effect of an ice arrow. No matter how strong he was, he couldn’t punch his way through an invulnerability bubble. Just like the fight against the spirits in Hati's Ascent, magic needed to be fought with magic. Rather than discouragement, Thorn felt renewed energy after losing to the Society of Roses mages. After all, it gave him something to work toward.
Nodding and tossing two silver to the gaping guard, Thorn sauntered off toward the inn where he was going to meet Oberlin. He had re-spawned in Embersplit since it was the last town he had been through before his run-in with the players at the mine had gotten him killed. He had just stepped out of the temple courtyard when he saw three familiar red-armored players standing in the middle of the street.
“There he is, boss. I told you he would log in.” The female warrior who had killed Thorn pointed a well-manicured finger at him.
“I can see that Telis,” the handsome man in red armor narrowed his eyes as he glared at Thorn’s massive figure. Planting himself in Thorn’s way, he rested his hand on his sword. Having started a fight in a town before and paid the significant cost, the gesture almost caused Thorn to laugh out loud. Thankfully for the red-armored man’s blood pressure, Thorn was able to stifle the chuckle, turning it into a cough.
“Hello, nice to see you again.” Thorn smiled down at the three players blocking him. Seeing that they were not about to move, he stopped. “What can I do for you?”
“What did you do with our boxes?” The red-armored warrior Thorn had nearly killed in the fight at the mine stepped in front of his boss and pointed at Thorn’s chest.
“Sorry? I’m not sure what you are talking about.” Thorn raised his eyebrows as he stared at the finger.
“Korith, stand down.” The red-armored leader called the warrior back. “I think we might have started off on the wrong foot. My name is Angdrin, Ragnarok’s fourth seat. I lost something during our scuffle last night that is important to me and I want it back.”
“Nice to meet you, Angdrin. My name is Thorn, and believe it or not, I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Hmph. I hope, for your sake, that is the case. If I find out otherwise you will suffer for it.”
“Oh yeah?” Annoyed at the threat, Thorn stepped forward until he was almost on top of Korith, his eyes hard. Reaching out a huge hand, Thorn picked Korith up and put him to the side without any visible effort. Staring down at Angdrin, Thorn smiled, “It has yet to be decided who is going to suffer. We still have to settle our fight from before.”
Shocked by Thorn’s aggressive move, Angdrin stepped back before he could stop himself. Realizing that he had just backed down, he flushed, the anger in his eye
s growing.
“Hmph. Watch yourself.” Angdrin spat before turning and leaving, Korith and Telis trailing behind him. He could not start a fight in the center of town and from the look in Thorn’s eyes, he had no idea what this exchange was about. Frustrated, Angdrin could only lead his followers away.
Watching them go, Thorn had a contemplative look on his face. Oberlin had not mentioned anything regarding this, only telling Thorn to meet him at the Green Goblin when he logged back in. Despite his silence, Thorn was positive that Oberlin had something to do with the missing items.
The Green Goblin was just as small and rickety as it had been the first time Thorn had visited so he did not dare squeeze in. Waiting for Oberlin to come out of the inn, Thorn thought about the encounter he just had with Angdrin. He had mentioned something about being one of Ragnarok’s seats, but Thorn did not know what that meant. Was it some sort of leadership position? Like a council? Resolving to ask Oberlin, Thorn’s thoughts drifted to Mina’s message.