Quest for Vengeance

by Benjamin Douglas

  They were my family.

  Even that unpleasant fucker Nemo.

  I chuckled and coughed up blood. Then I thought of Nemo’s last words, and inspiration struck. There was a 50/50 chance it had legs. I activated Mana Sight, then toggled to Spirit Sight to be sure.

  My odds improved.

  “Fuck you,” I muttered.

  “I’m sorry?” Tommy said quietly. “Did someone say something?”

  I rolled over onto my back, my head lolling on the ground. “I said fuck you. Fuck all of you. Go fuck yourselves.”

  He took two slow steps toward me. “I’m not laughing anymore, kid. You care to improve your manners, or do I need to significantly increase the intensity of your correctional therapy?”

  “Fuck manners. Fuck your therapy. You can take both of ‘em and shove ‘em up your ass.”

  Tommy took another two steps. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. “I challenge you, Tommy. I challenge you to a duel.”

  He frowned at me. “No thanks. I prefer a fair fight. You look about as fit as a mummy left out in the sun.”

  “Fuck fairness.” Now I was up on both knees, gathering myself to stand. “What’s the matter. You scared? Scared of the big bad mage?”

  He pressed his lips together.

  “I think you are.” I smiled and grunted as I stood. My head swam. “I think you’re scared shitless that I’m gonna teach you a lesson in front of all your little bitch-babies here. Then what? Maybe they’ll just take your precious dungeon for themselves. Maybe they won’t need you anymore. More for them anyway, am I right? If your cut goes mysteriously missing?”

  “That’s enough you little shit.” He charged me, hand raised. I stuck out my chin in defiance. At the last minute he paused. A nasty smile slowly spread over his face. “You know what? Ok. Ok dipshit. I’ll fight you. You want to duel? I’ll fight you. And if you win, I’ll let you walk free. No strings attached.”

  I crooked my eyebrow, waiting for the other shoe.

  “But if I win,” he growled, “you show me the dungeon door. Immediately. No more pissing around. Sound fair enough for you?”

  Fair. Right. As if I could ever take him on in a fair fight. With weapons? I’d be dead before I hit the ground. But that was alright.

  I had no intention of playing fair.

  “Right here,” I said, nodding. “Right now.”

  “Alright.” He drew his sword. “I would offer to go without steel, but I fear I’d be putting myself at a slight disadvantage. I don’t quite know what you’ve been up to down there, you see.”

  Great. I’d have to dance around his blade for a bit.

  “Fine. Let’s do this.”

  We began to circle one another. He was graceful, light on his feet. I was still dizzy and stumbled to my right.

  “That’s some fine footwork you have,” he said. “I see you’ve put my dungeon through its paces.”

  “Fuck footwork.”

  “Huh.”

  He telegraphed his first lunge and I managed to dodge by leaping to the side.

  “Ok,” he said. “Not bad, taco. Thanks. This will be a good little warm-up for my day.”

  “My name,” I growled, “is Chipdip.”

  He frowned and cocked his head to the side. “Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

  “It was a gift. From my people. Your people, these ones here, what do they give you? Cowered obedience?”

  He sneered. “Careful, now. I’m having fun. Don’t be a spoil-sport. I can make this extremely unpleasant for you, don’t forget.”

  I spat blood. My mouth was still full of it. “Fuck fun. And fuck you.”

  “Yes, I think we all understood that already.”

  He lunged again, a bit more subtly this time, and stuck me in my upper left bicep. I winced at the pain.

  Damage Taken

  -30HP

  Damn, that was a lot of damage for a non-lethal hit. I wouldn’t have had a chance even if I’d been at full health and had a sword of my own. Not that I’d have known what to do with one, either. Tommy shifted his position and backed away like a classically trained dancer, watching with glee as blood soaked my arm. Yeah. This guy might be a total piece of human waste, but he definitely had leveled his fencing skill.

  “It bleeds,” he said over his shoulder. His grunts chuckled darkly. They still held the others hostage at the ends of their weapons.

  “Let them go.” I nodded at my friends. “Let them walk out, and I’ll end you quickly. A merciful death.”

  Tommy scowled. “It’s not funny anymore kid, this whole tough guy act. And you don’t wear it well. Cut the shit and fight.”

  He came at me slashing from the side and I pulled an object from my shadow bag to parry. Steel clanged against enchanted stone, and the blade bounced off.

  Tommy’s eyes opened wide at the sight of one of my Eternal Torches.

  “What the—what is that?”

  Dolan peered at me, his eyes slits. “And how did he keep it after dying?”

  Tommy shrugged. “Soulbound, maybe?” He rounded on me. “You get some kind of quest down there, little shit? You find an NPC who bound that to you?”

  “Something like that.” I readied myself. We’d almost made a half-circle around one another, putting me in position by the runestone. Just a couple more steps and I should be close enough to—

  He charged me without warning. In a second he closed the gap, sword raised, to put an end to me and take the torch. The instinct to survive took over and I dove on the ground, sliding under his sword-arm and rolling to the opposite side of the cavern. Away from the runestone.

  Shit.

  Shit, shit, shit!

  “I’ve had enough!” Tommy yelled. “You’re not going to stand and fight? Then the deal’s off. Dole?”

  The elf nodded, nocked an arrow, and put it through Gemma’s skull.

  “NOOO!” I roared and reached a powerless hand toward her, watching her HP shoot down to zero. She fell, lifeless.

  “Do the mongrel next.” Tommy’s voice was cool now, all business.

  Another arrow loosed. Fangs’ limp body hit the floor.

  “You bastard!” I yelled.

  “Yeah?” Tommy spread his arms. “Who’s to say? You? C’mon. You called these your people.” He nodded at the dead bodies. “I don’t see you protecting them. You’re a fucking failure, kid. My people here, see, they’re comfortable. Well-fed. Safe. Rich, even. Well fucking cared-for. So tell me again, which one of us is the bastard?”

  “Don’t listen to him, Dip,” Jane said. “Burn his ass!” Jess silently came up from behind and drew her dagger across Jane’s throat, opening it and spilling blood all over the stone floor. I stared into her eyes as she fell and died.

  “There it is again! Burn me!” Tommy’s voice was harsh and gutteral. “What do they mean, Dipper? Burn me? You gonna do something with that?” He pointed his sword at the torch. “You gonna burn me with that? Just you try, fucker. I dare you. I bet you can’t even get close!”

  I was seeing red. Fine. It was almost done. I only had one thing left to do. Still holding the torch, I activated Spirit Sight. The familiar red flames engulfed it. They fanned out from the runestone, too. Because it was a spirit object.

  “No,” I muttered. “I’m not gonna burn you.” I shoved the torch in my mouth, my body almost failing from the pain, and coated it in my blood. Then I pulled it back out and drew it back, keeping eye contact with Tommy the whole time. His mouth had fallen open.

  “I’m gonna burn all of us.”

  I threw the torch. It spun, end for end, like a dagger. Keeping Spirit Sight active, I watched as it met the red flame of the runestone. I willed it to sink deep inside the magical object, taking the blood-fueled, volatile power with it.

  Angie. Goddammit, Angie. Why did you have to do it?

  Because she was my sister.

  Her half-ogre body leapt in front of me, shielding me from the blast. As before, the s
pirit magic exploded in a violent eruption of sound and light and chaos, scorching the ground and incinerating everything in its path. Bodies burned, lost in the scream of a dying sun. My senses were overwhelmed and I fell, oblivious.

  ___

  I don’t know how much time passed, but eventually I came to. Cave of Wonder had buffed me back to half health. I was still shell-shocked from the explosion, but I was alive. I climbed to my feet, coughing in the dust-filled air. I swiped more boxes away. I’d have a lot of reading to do later. I’d probably leveled. Whoopee for me.

  “You stupid bastard.”

  I wheeled to find Dolan pulling himself up from behind a boulder. I cast a quick look around but didn’t see anyone else. Just scorch marks. I swallowed a lump.

  “You stupid, fucking bastard. You’ve killed us all.”

  I frowned at him. “What are you talking about?” He was alive. I was alive.

  He shook his head. “Oh, dipshit. You really don’t know anything, do you? You’re just slinging magic around and hoping it works. Huh.” He nodded at the shattered remains of the runestone, damaged far beyond all repair. Just a few crumbled pieces in a smoking crater. “We were bound to it, dumbass. Soulbound. You have any idea what that means?”

  “Yeah, so? Now the binding’s broken, I guess.”

  He laughed mirthlessly. “Spawn objects weren’t made to be broken! Your drop-point doesn’t get reassigned. And the runestone doubled as the binding and the portal. Don’t you see?” He pointed at the scorch marks where other players had stood. “They’re all dead now. Dead. As in, permadead. No respawns. No new drops. Because you blew up the fucking gate!”

  My head spun. I tried to breathe but my chest had grown tight. Gemma!

  Angie.

  “I suppose the only silver lining,” he said, nocking an arrow, “is that when I’ve killed you, you’ll be permadead, too.”

  I had no way to stop him from killing me. And anyway, if I could have stopped my brain and processed what he had just told me, I think I would have wanted him to end it right there. But I wasn’t so lucky.

  The ground quaked and his arrow went wide, pinging off the stone wall behind me.

  Dungeon Event!

  The use of dangerous spirit magic in these caves has awoken an evil long thought gone from the world. Rhakshaka, the brother of Thrannick and elder god of spirit, stirs! He is angry from his long imprisonment, and will wreak havoc on the surrounding environment. Run if you can! The very mountain will fall.

  “Shit!”

  I crawled toward the tunnel that led out of the caves. Dolan had the same idea, only he stayed on his feet and kicked me in the gut as he passed. Then he was gone.

  The quaking grew more intense and chunks of rock began crashing down from the ceiling. I got up and sprinted as best I could, dodging a boulder as it thundered down and made a deep crack in the my path.

  “Ugh!” I grunted as I dove into the tunnel. I’d half expected to sprint another trap, but maybe they’d been disabled by the spirit blast. Or maybe Dolan had turned them off to get past.

  A loud, deep growl emanated from the cavern behind me, the vibrations rolling through stone itself. The enormity of it… I imagined a creature as big as the entire prison.

  Rhakshaka.

  I got dinged with Heart of Fear but made myself struggle forward, hampered by the debuff.

  Partway through the tunnel I rounded a corner and found myself face-to-face with a grisly sight. It was Dolan, or at had been. His body had been impaled by a long stalactite that had shaken loose. I stared into his dead eyes and was sick. Permadeath? Had he been telling the truth?

  I kicked something as I tried to get around him. It was his bow. I knelt down to pick it up and found he’d dropped a number of items. I tossed the bow, a quiver of arrows, and two katana-like blades into my shadow bag. He wouldn’t need them now.

  Another quake, another growl, this one even more menacing, and I was frozen in place with Stun. I watched in panic as more pieces of the tunnel roof collapsed around me, but I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t so much as scream. I got another debuff called Black Lung, but I swiped it away impatiently, finally able to move again, and ran for my life, hacking up blood as I went.

  When I finally emerged it was under the cover of night. I breathed fresh air for the first time in weeks and nearly wept as the debuffs faded away. I made it several meters over bare rock and under the cover of trees before pausing to turn and take one last look the Fiesta Bowl. It looked different than I’d remembered it. From deep within the fissure, a dark red glow pulsed. And high above the cliff, where the stone had risen before to a gentle peak, a bulging mass of stone now blotted out the stars, welling up and threatening to swallow them whole.

  I turned and kept running.

  EPILOGUE:

  FOR VENGEANCE

  _________________

  I ran most of the night.

  I ran over the brook. Through the clearing. Into the Thieves’ Forest. Whatever creatures dwelt here now gave me a wide berth. Once I thought I spotted a rogue dwarf like the ones I’d encountered when I’d first logged in, but whatever it was ran away. It was no match for me now.

  Only when birds began to herald the morning did I slow, finding a patch of thick undergrowth to lie down in. I recoiled from the sunlight, being a night elf. Or maybe because I hadn’t seen it in almost a month.

  Even for all its leveling through Hard Labor, my stamina was tapped out. I let my body calm down. In response, my mind began to race. I couldn’t deal with the thoughts about what had happened. Instead, I pulled up the cascade of dialogue boxes I’d shoved away.

  You Have Leveled Up!

  You have reached Level 4! You now have 1 unassigned attribute point and 1 unassigned skill point. Choose well, as these choices cannot be undone. You will reach level 5 in 470XP.

  You have been assigned 1 attribute point in spirit.

  Passive Skill Leveled: Spirit Manipulation

  Just like any other mystical energy, spirit can be shaped, channeled, and weilded. Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill: Spirit Manipulation. It will take a long time for you to be a true master of spirit, but everyone starts somewhere. Spirit Manipulation is a passive skill that can only be leveled through use. You’ve taken the first steps on a road of great power, but remember that spirit can burn till nothing remains. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

  Skill: Spirit Manipulation

  Type: Passive

  Level: 2 (scalable)

  Effect: 7% increase in ability to manipulate spirit from user’s body; 5% increase in ability to manipulate spirit from environment

  Error! Trail Skill Overload. Racial Trait unprocessed. Coding error 4385$5%$2@8???

  You Have Killed 7 Players!

  What are you up to? That chaotic trait getting to your head? Look out! Player-v.-player gameplay might be fun, but it carries strict penalties if you get caught. Lucky for you, player deaths yield double the XP as monsters. Reap the sweet rewards now. The bitter may find you later.

  You Have Leveled Up!

  You have reached Level 5! You now have 1 unassigned attribute point and 1 unassigned skill point. Choose well, as these choices cannot be undone. You will reach level 6 in 700XP.

  You have been assigned 1 attribute point in spirit.

  Passive Skill Leveled: Spirit Manipulation

  Just like any other mystical energy, spirit can be shaped, channeled, and weilded. Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill: Spirit Manipulation. It will take a long time for you to be a true master of spirit, but everyone starts somewhere. Spirit Manipulation is a passive skill that can only be leveled through use. You’ve taken the first steps on a road of great power, but remember that spirit can burn till nothing remains. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

  Skill: Spirit Manipulation

  Type: Passive

  Level: 3 (scalable)

  Effect: 11% increase in ability to manipulate spirit from user’s body; 7% incr
ease in ability to manipulate spirit from environment

  Passive Skill Leveled: Fleet of Foot

  As an elf, you naturally possess a slim, limber frame more suited to agility than most races. Nevertheless, honing the skill to mastery will take a little time and effort. You just took the first steps on that journey—congratulations! Fleet of Foot is a passive skill that can only be improved upon through use. It is the sister skill to agility, which can be leveled with attribution points.

  Skill: Fleet of Foot

  Type: Passive

  Sister Skill: Agility

  Level: 3 (scalable)

  Effect: 20% increase to natural agility

  I read them, going cold.

  Two levels. For killing seven players.

  No wonder the Newlanders had been so OP’d. They’d killed all of us again and again. I glanced at the unnassigned attribute and skill points, but I didn’t have the heart to do anything with them right now. I set them aside.

  I had party notifications too. XP gains. Notices for when everyone had died. These were all grayed out, cementing the fact that I was the sole survivor. The last notification caught my eye.

  A Party Member Has Sacrificed Herself To Save You

  Player Angie_29 dove out to take the figurative bullet. As a result, she triggered a special skill, Self Sacrifice, which prevented you from losing all HP in the blocked attack. Thank your lucky stars. That was close!

  Huh.

  I felt tears welling up. One rolled down my cheek, hot, and I wiped it away, sniffing. Damn. This game.

  It explained why I’d survived. Surely just the mass of her body wouldn’t have been enough to save me from a blast that killed a player like Tommy. His level must have been insane.