Arrival

by William Dickey

  “Come on, we have to remain in town for a week for Klein to resurrect so we might as well continue working on the quest for now. We just have to be careful,” said Warren.

  “But, I’m the only one benefitting,” I said. “You shouldn’t have to shoulder that risk.”

  “Come on we’re your friends,” said Warren. “You need help so we will be there. The four of us can take on the last two bosses. You took one out all by yourself.”

  “But…”

  “Warren’s right,” Abbey interjected. “We are your friends. Let us be there for you. We can keep working on the quest until Klein resurrects. Then we all get out of here before the roads are cut off.”

  “Arrrh… fine, we’ll do it that way,” I gave in, rather pleased. ‘So this is what it was like to have friends. Maybe it’s not so bad.’

  I looked to the east, where the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. It was a new day and despite our loss, things somehow felt like they were up. With such good friends, anything seemed possible.

  Chapter 6: Surprise

  “Today’s the day,” Abbey declared.

  “Yeah, Klein’s coming back. Do you have his things?” Warren asked.

  “Yep,” Abbey nodded as she pulled Klein’s clothing out of her pack.

  A week had passed since the disastrous night hunt that had killed Klein. In that week we had successfully defeated the boar boss and all that stood between me and becoming a Bane of Creation was the fish boss. I may have been hesitant to continue at the start of the week but now, with my goal in sight, I was all in.

  “So are we going hunting today as well?” I asked. The exact amount of time it took for a person to resurrect had some variance so we weren’t exactly sure what time Klein would arrive and I figured we might as well continue working in the meantime.

  “We can’t just ditch Klein. He needs his stuff back,” Abbey replied.

  “But… the last boss…”

  “But Klein,” Abbey pouted with a fierce look of disapproval. I felt guilty about wanting to push on for my own ends but we were so close.

  “Klein sacrificed for us to come this far. He died for this quest. He’d want us to see it through,” I argued.

  “Klein did sacrifice for this. That’s why he deserves to see it through. We can wait until he returns,” Abbey countered.

  “But we don’t know when today Klein will appear or how long it will take to lure the boss out. We don’t have any time to waste,” I explained for the umpteenth time. Tomorrow we had to hurry across the mountains before snow buildup cuts us off. We probably would have left the second Klein arrived if not for cabins placed at one day march intervals along the road. If we left in the afternoon, we wouldn’t be able to make it to the first cabin before sundown.

  “What’s the rush?” Abbey asked. “We can worry about the fish boss after we’re across the mountains.”

  “The lake and rivers here are full of fish,” I explained. “It may not be easy to find a place where the fish boss can be so easily attracted.”

  “Guys, guys, no need to fight,” Warren cut in. “Why don’t we split up? Abbey can go to town square and wait for Klein. The three of us can go after the fish boss.”

  “Just the three of us,” I questioned. Abbey was our healer. The boar boss had been a lot easier than any of the bosses except for the bunny, but if the fish boss was anything like the wolf, we’d be in serious trouble.

  “Don’t worry it’s a fish so it’ll be confined to the water,” said Warren. “Worst case we just stay out of the water and strike from afar. You even have those spare spears now so we can all attack from range.”

  After learning Javelin Toss, I bought half a dozen cheap spears from Kanis at the Beating Hammer. Javelin Toss had a high chance of losing the spear so I just bought whatever had been cheapest.

  “Like, Warren’s right,” Faye said. “We can like totally handle a big fish.” By that point, I’d noticed Faye and Warren seemed almost like a single person. They were always together, always doing the same things, always taking each other’s side during a discussion. It was no surprise she agreed with Warren.

  “Great idea,” Abbey concurred. “This way I’ll be able to run some errands. There aren’t any other towns until we get over the mountains so while I’m waiting for Klein I’ll go shopping for some supplies. Do any of you need anything?”

  Seeing it was three to one, I gave in and after giving Abbey our lists, Faye, Warren, and I went down to where the river ran into the lake.

  Faye and Warren moved to opposite sides of the river and began targeting passing fish while I waded into the water and skewered them from close up. I could have shot from the shore but I had a limited number of throwing spears and didn’t trust my aim on something as small or fast as a fish.

  After a couple hours of slaughtering every poor creature that had the misfortune to pass through, I noticed a change. The river started to rise.

  “Get out of there,” said Warren. It was a warning I didn’t need. My butt was already on the move, struggling against water that was already surging up past my waist. I made it out just in time to see the silhouette of an enormous fish moving upstream.

  The fish boss rode a wave of water that made the river just deep enough for it to remain submerged.

  “Fire,” Warren shouted only to be answered by an icy stare from Faye. “You know what I mean, just attack.” The three of us shot the fish boss from the relative safety of the riverbank. The increasingly agitated giant fish splashed and bit at us to no avail. It was confined to the water.

  “See Isaac, what did I tell you? Piece of cake.” Warren rapidly drew and released a steady stream of arrows. You could tell they were effective. Each one drew a small trickle of blood that gave the river a faint tinge of crimson. While each wound was small to a being of such size, the number of arrows was monstrous. This was death by a thousand papercuts.

  Suddenly, the fish started to emit a pale blue light. Beginning from the eyes the blue light crackled outward, spreading like lightning first across the fish boss’ face then down the entire length of its body.

  “Wwrrrryyyyyy,” the fish shrieked. A dozen narrow columns of water erupted from the river’s surface, waving and waggling like living tentacles. Within seconds, one of the watery tentacles shot out at me, forcing me to dive out of its way.

  “Yeah, piece of cake,” I called back as I dodged a second strike. Warren and Faye were similarly doing their best to avoid the fish’s magically projected arms.

  “Pull back,” Warren cried. “The tentacles can only reach so far.”

  We retreated. Soon we were 100 feet away, well out of reach of the tentacles. The fish waved frantically, frustrated at being unable to pursue. Our attacks on the fish boss resumed. At this distance, my spear throwing wasn’t accurate but the fish was large enough that aim didn’t matter.

  Unable to strike back, the fish resorted to a new method. The river water deformed bending into a sphere around the fish, making a great glassless fishbowl. Half of its dozen watery tentacles turned downward embedding themselves into the ground. These arms, or rather now legs, supported the magic fishbowl as the guardian hoisted itself from the river and began to gambol about. Never was this fish out of water.

  I switched from the throwing spears to my regular one and charged. There were times to hang back but this wasn’t one of them. It was time to attack. I bobbed and weaved my way through the worst of the fish’s swipes and stabs towards the giant fishbowl and the fish boss. Faye helped clear my way by freezing some of the water tentacles before they could strike me. When an arm froze, the fish would let the frozen piece fall and shatter on the ground. While this made my path easier, it didn’t seem to hurt the giant fish in the least. A new arm simply grew in its place.

  I stabbed the fish through the water enclosing it while doing my best to avoid the arms. The arms were blunt instruments and thus were greatly obstructed by my armor, but whenever they hit I was sent back, sp
rawling, and would have to make my approach all over again. As the fish’s strength waned, the arms propping up the water bubble gave out dropping it to the ground and immobilizing it.

  “He’s weakening,” Warren yelled. “Faye I’m going in. Clear a path.” Warren charged in towards the floundering fish, loosing arrow after arrow along the way. Faye unleashed a flurry of spells, freezing over half of the fish’s remaining arms. As Warren neared his target, he dropped his bow, bounded up one of the arms Faye had frozen solid, and leaped onto the fish’s back.

  “Try these on for size.” Warren drew a pair of identical serpentine daggers from his hips and pounded them both straight into the fish’s head. The blades were long and unlike the arrows were able to penetrate deeply, all the way into the fish’s brain.

  The fish squealed as it met its end. Slowly its magical arms splashed helplessly onto the ground as its magical control over the water waned. The life sustaining bubble surrounding the fish soon followed suit. The giant fish flopped around a few times as it struggled to breathe in an environment it was no longer suited for.

  You gained 3875 EXP

  You gained a level

  I couldn’t be happier. Even without a healer, everything had gone smoothly. I watched as the fish withered away, leaving nothing but a crest.

  I walked towards it, squinting from the intense pale blue light the fist-sized sphere emitted. The final piece was waiting, calling to me. ‘This is it. All my hard work will finally pay off.’

  Suddenly my vision was clear. The glare was gone. I opened my eyes more widely. Warren had gone ahead and picked up the crest. I reached out to take it from him, but he took a step back.

  “Warren… Pass it here,” I said, extending a hand to accept it.

  “Sorry buddy,” said Warren coldly.

  “What.” I tried to take a step toward him but couldn’t. I looked down at my feet. A layer of ice was forming, fixing them to the ground. I peered over my shoulder. Faye was casting ice magic.

  “W-What’s going on?” I asked.

  “The special class,” Warren answered waving the last crest in front of my face. “I want it.”

  “It’s my quest,” I said. “It can only go to me.”

  “Is it yours?” said Warren in a flat tone that implied he already knew the answer. “It goes to the one who collects the eight crests, anyone who does.” Warren shot an arrow into the back of my hand forcing me to let go of my spear.

  “How do you know it can go to anyone? It’s my quest.” I kept trying to pull my feet free, but with every second, that task grew more impossible.

  “I suspected it from before we even met, from the moment Klein told me about your quest,” Warren explained. “But after the first boss, I knew. Remember the deer boss. I made sure I was the first one to pick up the crest and sure enough I received the quest as well.”

  “But, I have all the other crests. I’m not going to give them to you,” I said.

  “You don’t have a choice. You have them now, but when you die, you’ll drop them and they’ll be mine,” said Warren.

  “Come on you don’t need to do this,” I said, voice cracking.

  “You’re right I don’t need to,” said Warren. “But I want to.”

  “But should you?” I tried. “Is it right to lead someone on, kill, and steal from them? Even in this world theft and murder is against the law.”

  “Right. Wrong. Law. Come on, Isaac. Do you still believe in those things? The rules of right and wrong don’t apply to us. We stand immortals, beyond the reach of death’s grasp. How could we possibly be punished? All that matters now is power. Grabbing up all of it you can, whatever the means.”

  I turned to Faye. “Please, you’re my only hope. Don’t do this.”

  “Sorry but it’s like what Warren wants,” Faye answered. Faye walked to Warren’s side. Warren held her close.

  “What about Abbey… Klein?”

  “They’ll never know. We’ll like say you died in the fight with the boss. And like Warren and I were totally forced to flee,” she answered, clearly prepared.

  “But in a week-”

  “You’ll be back, but we’ll be gone. Remember the snow. The mountains will be blocked off by the time you come back. You’ll be stuck here for 5 or 6 months,” said Warren.

  I struggled frantically, desperate to free myself from the ice but it was hopeless. It had already spread up past my knees. “Please, you don’t have to do this. Let me go, we can just forget about it and-”

  “Goodbye, Isaac.” Warren fired an arrow into me. Pain flooded my chest, a raging inferno that started in my heart and shot straight to my head, scrambling my thoughts. I watched helplessly as the arrow in my chest acquired a few companions. My health bar drained away to nothing and my body went limp.

  Chapter 7: Purgatory

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  Death was remarkably similar to life in this world. I could still see, still hear, still smell and, unfortunately, still feel. I could still feel all five arrows Warren put in me. The only real differences were that my health bar had been replaced by a clock, presumably counting down the seconds until I resurrected, and that I could no longer move my body in the slightest.

  I had remained standing. Faye’s ice had frozen my feet and lower body in place. Now my body was leaned forward in an awkward unbalanced position that would have caused me to fall over if it wasn’t for the ice. I could see my feet but that wasn’t all I saw. Extra spears, a few potion bottles, and most notably the animal crests that I had thought were safely tucked away in my inventory were all strewn around my feet.

  “Like what now?” Faye asked as Warren moved around my body collecting up the crests I’d worked my ass off to acquire.

  A surge of fury ran through me. ‘You bastards! Stop messing with my stuff. I will pay you back for this, even if I must hunt you down to the ends of the earth.’ But all my anger and indignation couldn’t change my powerlessness. Although I was internally raging, Faye and Warren saw nothing and kept going on their merry way.

  “I guess we should dispose of the body,” said Warren after he finished collecting all of my belongings.

  “So like we’re burning him up like we totally did to Klein,” said Faye.

  “No, with all that ice it’ll be a pain to get a strong enough fire going,” said Warren. “Let’s just move him into the bushes or something. Somewhere he won’t be seen.”

  “But isn’t that like a tad cruel,” said Faye. “Like the animals…”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Warren. “This is his first death, after all. He should experience the full weight of the event, just like we did.”

  Warren and Faye ended up dragging me around 150 feet to a ditch between two hills. They didn’t even bother digging a hole or covering me up. They just left me there, half-encased in a block of ice.

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  My next week was utter hell. Or at least, it would have been if hell had frozen over. Unlike Klein whose body we’d burned, Warren and Faye left me intact. Since my body wasn’t destroyed, I spent the week inside it, retaining all my sensations while being able to do nothing about it. In my case, I spent the week feeling those five arrows Warren had quivered in my chest, but that was just the start.

  Within minutes, the frost of Faye’s magic seeped in, suffusing my entire body with the all-encompassing stinging pain you get whenever you leave your hands or feet out in the cold for too long, the feeling that thousands of the tiniest needles are piercing every pore and digging in all the way down to the joints. Since winter was near, the weather was cold enough that Faye’s ice never melted. I suffered that entire week in an icy embrace.

  One bit of good fortune, I didn’t have to experience being eaten. Most of the otherworlders who died in the wilderness experienced being eaten alive by predators, scavengers, and all manner of insects, but I
never had to. The ice kept them away.

  With little happening, time seemed to slow so that my week seemed more like a year while I laid there absorbed in my own thoughts.

  I spent the first few days in a rage. ‘My damn companions, they think they can stab me in the back and just get away with it. I’m going to kill them, I’m going to hunt them down and kill them. See how they like it here.’

  I spent hours imagining the most horrible and gruesome means to enact my vengeance. ‘I can freeze Faye to death and return these very arrows to Warren. Then I’ll have dogs eat their innards while they are forced to watch… Hehehe…’

  I don’t know whether it was because of the lingering pains of my wounds or because the all-consuming darkness brought by the inability to move or speak, but no amount of raging on Faye and Warren was enough and my wrath soon extended outward.

  ‘Damn that leather worker for not giving me better armor. Then maybe I wouldn’t have been killed so easily. Damn that mage who taught Faye ice magic. Shouldn’t he have made sure such power fell into responsible hands? Damn that fish…’ The list went on and on. Some were rational, most were not.

  ‘Damn Klein… getting me to let my guard down and join that group… Damn Abbey… bailing on me… leaving me alone with those monsters. Damn… damn… damn me… for being so weak… so foolish. I should’ve been stronger… smarter… more cautious… more aware.’

  I could blame everyone and everything. I could use any and every excuse my imagination afforded me. But in the end, I couldn’t run from the truth. Ultimately, blame rested squarely on my shoulders.

  I swore then and there to not make that mistake again. I swore to accept this set back and use it as an opportunity for a fresh start. ‘I can do better this time. In a world as harsh and cruel as this one, where I have to fight to hold on to anything, I need to drop my Earth sensibilities and be ruthless. I need to do everything in my power to be stronger. I won’t let this happen again.’