His head disappears from the sky and Nancy swoops in his place. “Alright, adventurers…”
“Barf!” Dean places his finger in his mouth and fakes vomiting.
“What?” I laugh. “Are you not inspired to reach great heights?”
He rolls his eyes. “Come on, you know it’s pandering. Pangea is not set up to give everyone a fair shot. I’m only here because of you. The beta testers are only there because of you. And you were only able to do any of this because you got lucky. When you had the lucky break, you used it, but there’s a reason why you’re the only famous person from The Boxes.”
I place my arm around him. “Young grasshopper, aren’t you a little too young to be so cynical?”
He laughs. “You know I’m right.”
I do. But right now, we have bigger things to focus on. “We can get philosophical later. Right now is your chance to make the most of your lucky break.”
“…and the ring will continue to shrink until the final circle. If multiple teams are still alive, the ring will collapse, damaging all parties until only one remains. So get ready, your chance at glory awaits!”
She snaps her fingers, and everything goes black.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cool wind blasts against my face. To my right, just like in any other battle royale mode, Dean is connected to me by an invisible tether as we fall toward the earth. The tether will disappear once we touch ground or one of us chooses to release it. All around us, one hundred and ninety-eight other players dive like falcons toward the Broken Lands.
From this high up, I can see the edge of the circle that marks the boundary of the battle royale. Beyond that, open fields and forests expand in every direction. Florian towers above Carolton in the distance, and lightning rages atop Thunder Mountain.
I focus on the circle below us, searching for a safe landing space. Our opponents begin to spread out, diving toward all edges of the map.
Ryken and Dawn dive straight down. My guess is they want bracers, weapons, and vials above all else. Ryken doesn’t shy away from combat. For us, we want to play it smart, fight as few people as possible, and survive until the final round. While some champions will want to put on a show, I’ll be happier fighting only one battle at the end rather than defeating a hundred enemies to get there. A win is a win, and there are no bonus points for showmanship.
Dean points at the far-left edge of the circle. “Let’s hit those ruins. It doesn’t look like anyone is going there.”
I lean to the left and we shift course, diving faster toward the ruins of an old keep at the edge of the map.
I land in a superhero pose, knee bent and hand pressed to the earth as dirt and debris flare up around me. Luckily for us, the initial dive does no fall damage as we touch down.
We’re scouring the area for items when someone lands nearby. I can’t see them, but they are close enough that I heard them land.
My head turns on a swivel as I search for enemies among the trees and ruins. “I thought you said we were alone.”
“I thought we were. They must have been in my blind spot.” Dean disappears behind a rock. “Here, I found a battle-axe and a halberd.”
He holds up a one-handed battle-axe with ax-heads on both sides and tosses it to me. It’s heavy, but I catch it by the pommel. It’s pretty basic with no fancy runes or engravings, but it doesn’t have to look good to get the job done.
“There they are!” someone shouts.
A bright pink face snarls as she shoots an electric bolt at me. I dive to the right, and the bolt explodes against the earth.
Annabelle’s black hair flutters around her as static coats her body. With her tight jeans, leather jacket, and combat boots, she looks like she belongs on the cover to some heavy metal album from the distant past.
Her apprentice, Kirsten, emerges from behind a cluster of bushes carrying a spear. She’s dressed similarly to Annabelle, with a chain that runs from the piercing on her nose to her ear. “They don’t have bracers or magic, only weapons. Let’s push.”
I take a step back and ready for their attack. “Dean, I need you over here.”
He rushes to my side, halberd pointed forward. “This place was a crapshoot. We need to get moving.”
I point out our two opponents as they approach. “First, we need to deal with these two.”
Annabelle unleashes another bolt. I dodge again, but the bolt hits so close that my hair stands on end.
I take cover behind an ancient pillar with Dean. “One has electric magic. The other has a spear. I don’t see any bracers, so we need to end this quickly. Aim for vital spots. You take the one with the spear; I’ll deal with the other.”
A branch snaps on the other side of the pillar.
“Come on out, and we’ll make this quick. We know you don’t have any magic. You put up a good run, but it’s over.”
Dean grips the shaft of his halberd. “Split on three?”
“One,” I whisper.
“Two,” he echoes.
“Three.”
We attempt a technique we’ve practiced many times over the past few days. In the event that we get pinned down, Dean rushes out to the right and I do the same to the left in an attempt to divide their attention.
I jump out from behind the pillar and charge. Annabelle yells like a barbarian as she casts Chain Reaction, and three bolts of electricity hit me in the chest. Pain flares through my body but my mouth clenches shut, making it impossible to scream. I can’t move, stunned in place by the three simultaneous hits.
Metal clashes nearby as Dean fights Kirsten, but I can’t turn my head to look.
Annabelle steps in front of me, her lips curled up in a devious smile. She draws her finger down my cheek. “Like taking candy from a baby.”
She reaches to take the battle-axe from me, but the stun has it lodged in my hand. She frowns, jerking again, but it still doesn’t come free.
The stun fades. I push her back and kick her in the chest before she has time to attack again. Annabelle falls to her back, grimacing as she points her open palm at me. I duck and the bolt soars over my head. Before she has a chance to cast again, I bring my battle-axe down on her head.
My whole body feels jittery after the electrical attack.
Behind me, Dean and Kirsten are engaged in a fierce battle. Kirsten parries a swing of the halberd, letting the blade scrape down the length of her spear. She follows up with a jab of her spear, but Dean is ready, deflecting the blow to the side.
She’s so focused on Dean that she doesn’t even notice me before I bury my axe in the back of her skull.
Dean sets his weapon on the ground and shakes out his hands. “Man, I didn’t expect my adrenaline to get going like that. This was intense. Look at my hands.”
He holds them out and they vibrate with excitement.
We survived the first trial, but I doubt this is the last of the excitement. I give him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “This is the real thing. Now, let’s get moving. We need bracers and magic ASAP.”
He drops the halberd to take the spear off Kirsten’s body, and we head toward our next objective.
In the top right corner next to the map, there’s a counter for the number of teams and players still remaining.
Teams: 89
Players: 147
Forty-three players eliminated already, and we’ve been in the ring less than five minutes. Judging by the numbers, there are quite a few solo players running around. They’ll be less aggressive, so we’ll need to keep our eyes peeled.
A gong reverberates across the battlefield, and the location of the next circle appears on the map. There’s a ten-minute timer underneath the map icon, letting us know how much time we have before the ring begins to shrink. Once the ring closes in on the next circle, we’ll receive another timer before the ring shrinks again. So on and so forth until a champion is crowned.
We’re close enough to the next circle that we can take our time and make sure we
find a suitable position to hunker down. We make our way toward the next set of ruins, careful to keep as low of a profile as possible.
“Sweet!” Dean kneels next to a boulder and picks up a brown vial. Earth magic.
He offers it to me, but I push his hand away. This is his show, so I want him as stacked as possible.
“You take it. I’ll get the next one.”
There’s a sound like a sudden gust of wind just before I spot an elf hovering in the air holding a bow. Her back is turned away from us as she scouts the area.
“Quick, take cover under that tree.” I point toward a towering oak that should keep us hidden if we hurry.
We run toward the tree and take shelter beneath its dense foliage.
“Close one.” Dean peeks around the edge of the trunk. “Looks like she was heading toward the next circle.”
“Good. We’ll hang back for a minute and try to rotate farther east. We don’t have the range to handle them at the moment.”
At the next set of ruins, we find two pairs of white bracers and a vial of wind magic. There’s also a mace and a second halberd, which we leave behind.
I down the silvery liquid from the wind vial, and we continue to creep around the edge of the map.
Something hits me lightly in the back, and I turn to see Dean about to toss a rock at me. I hold up my hand in apology. With the added movement speed, I have to remind myself to slow down for him.
The circle starts to shrink, and an energy field filled with silvery veins moves inward. We spent enough time in the training grounds that we know what’s coming. The outermost circle is impenetrable while the match is going, but as the boundary shrinks, the space between the outer boundary and the inner circle becomes a constant storm. Players can stay in the storm but they take constant damage while doing so. Each time the circle shrinks, the damage from the storm grows. By the time the final circle comes, the storm can drain full health in only a few seconds. We stay a safe distance in front of the collapsing circle, but if things look daunting, we can always retreat into it to regroup.
Dean grabs me by the tunic and kneels behind a boulder, pointing to a bush at the top of a hill. “Looks like a solo.”
Sure enough, a rainbow-colored clown crouches behind the bush. His rainbow striped afro sways like a technicolor bush in the breeze. We observe him for a few minutes, but no one else shows up. I remember his apprentice as a pink unicorn centaur. He must not have been so lucky.
“It’s an easy kill. Want to hit him with a little meteor shower?” Dean smirks.
We came up with code names for some of the magic combos so that we could easily call them out in battle.
We crouch as we move closer to get in range. Once in position, Dean shoots a boulder straight up overhead. I ready Gale, and once the boulder drops, I fire off a gust of wind. It launches the boulder like a cannonball, hitting the unsuspecting clown in the back. There’s an audible crunch like glass shattering as his shield breaks and he loses half his health.
The clown crawls from the bush and uses gas cloud, covering the area in a thick cloud of poisonous gas. We lose visual as he hides in the gas. Unfortunately, for the clown, our current combo counters his gas pretty well.
Dean casts Rockslide, and a barrage of rocks falls in front of us. He doesn’t have the range to hit the clown from our current position, but another gale launches the smaller rocks like a shotgun blast, ripping through the gas cloud. The player counter drops by one, and I know that we got our man.
When the gas dissipates, the clown’s body lays hunched on the ground.
“Nicely done!” I extend my arm and fist-bump Dean.
We loot the body, finding a dagger, white shield bracers, and two minor health potions that restore twenty-five percent health. I give one to Dean and keep one for myself.
As the circle continues to shrink, we hang back, staying a few yards ahead of it. When the gong sounds, signaling the start of the next round, over half the playable area is now outside of the storm. We’ve also lost over half of the challengers as well.
Teams: 63
Players: 96
We head toward the next ruins on the map, an old mill down by a rather large creek. The ancient water mill no longer works, but the stone walls and staircases offer great positioning during a fight.
I grip the battle-axe tightly in my hand as we walk. “We still need better gear. These bracers aren’t going to cut it if we get caught in a big fight. And these aren’t our best magic combos either.”
There’s an explosion to our right, so we change our trajectory slightly to the left. We’ve fought when we had to and when an opportunity presented itself but we’re not ready to rush into battle.
“At least we’re two for two on fights so far.” Dean smiles.
When we arrive at the old mill, the ground is torn apart and close to a dozen bodies lay in the vicinity.
Dean kneels over one of the bodies to loot it. “Man, this must have been a heck of a fight.”
I find a pair of blue bracers on a fallen dwarf. “No kidding. I’m glad we chose to stay further away.”
I swap out my battle-axe for a sword I pick up off a werewolf. The werewolf’s fur is singed in places, revealing blistered skin.
Dean calls to me from the bottom of the stairs. “Nice! I found a fire vial. This guy must have been going for it when he died.”
A dead lizardfolk lies face down with an outstretched hand towards the small red vial.
I use Updraft to launch me into the air to the top of the dilapidated tower on the water’s edge. No one else must have had the foresight to look this high up, because I find an electric vial, a crossbow, and a pair of red bracers.
“Here!” I toss the top-tier bracers to Dean. I’ll upgrade mine again when we find more. “Any chance you want a crossbow?”
He shakes his head. “No, I’m happy with my spear. With the fire magic and these bracers, I’m pretty much set.”
The gong sounds again, and the circle begins to shrink. The biggest ruins still remain within the circle, a location I aimed to avoid at all cost simply because of how populated it was certain to be.
There’s likely to be good items, but if the water mill is any indication, then it was undoubtedly a bloodbath.
With nearly a hundred players still left, we’ll be forced to fight again soon. We can’t hide forever, and sooner or later, we’ll run into opponents.
We wade through the cool water to cross the creek. On the other side, my boots slosh with each step and I find myself envious of anyone with water magic right now.
A long stretch of rolling hills stands between our current location and the next ruins. The terrain obscures our visibility, so we’re extra careful.
The clank of a crossbow firing is followed by a cry of anguish not far ahead. As we sneak up the hill, a stream of ice shoots out in front of us. A moment later, a blood-covered Talia and Chadwick skate by on the ice path they’ve created. They alternate shooting ice at the ground, allowing for continuous travel. Talia fires an ice dagger over her shoulder, but there’s no telling if she hit her target.
Both of their health bars are extremely low, around twenty-five percent, and their backs are ravaged with wounds. Chadwick pulls a crossbow bolt from his shoulder and tosses it aside. It wouldn’t take much to take them out and lower the playing field even more, but that’s not my style.
“Talia!” I call out. “What’s going on?”
She turns around wide-eyed as she slides to a halt. They were traveling so fast on the ice that she’s already at least fifty yards away. “We’re being chased. Run!”
At that exact moment, her pursuers crest the hill, using the ice path to their advantage. A burly pig-man in studded armor and a cat lady wearing fine linens skate by without noticing us.
We could easily let this play out without helping, but I can see in Dean’s eyes that he wants to help.
“When we catch up to them, melt the ice,” I order.
We ta
ke off in pursuit on foot. Talia’s ice path is winding, so we are able to cut the distance in half, meeting them as they crest another hill.
I hold up my hands. “Get off the ice. We’ve got a plan.”
It will only be a few seconds before their pursuers crest the hill and see us.
Talia and Chadwick get off the ice path without questioning. Dean uses fireballs to melt the ice and form a large puddle. The pig-man and cat-lady skate over the hill and fall face-first when their feet hit the puddle at full speed.
I shoot the puddle with a lightning bolt, damaging half their shields. I follow it up with Chain Reaction, and the three simultaneous bolts are enough to stun them in place and crack their blue bracer shields entirely.
Dean summons a fire wall on top of them, but the stun prevents them from crying out in pain as their health dwindles. A few well-placed spear jabs finish the job.
I rush over to Talia. “You guys look like hell. What happened?”
Talia looks around panicked. “Can we move somewhere safer?” She downs a minor health potion and her cuts begin to heal.
“Yeah, let’s loot the bodies first.”
Dean is already sorting through their belongings and has them stacked neatly beside the corpses. He hands a set of blue bracers to both Talia and Chadwick. When a player dies, their shield bracers are automatically restored to full strength for whoever loots the body.
There’s also a crossbow, a flail, and a major health potion.
I pick up the health potion and give it to Chadwick. “You look like you could use this.”
He chugs it and hands the minor health potion he was about to drink to Talia. “Thank you.”
Chadwick takes the flail, and Talia takes the crossbow even though it has no bolts. We retreat toward the stream and find an alcove to hide in while Talia fills us in on what happened. Her cuts have healed but her skin and clothing are still caked in blood.
She crouches against a tree as she tells her story. “We’ve been running for our lives since we touched down. I don’t know how it happened, but we landed with Ryken. That apprentice of his almost took my head off with an axe, but I was lucky that I found bracers before anything else. Chadwick got hit with Rockslide, and had two other teams not shown up to try and take out Ryken, he would have died then and there. We didn’t have any weapons, so we watched as Ryken and Dawn destroyed both teams. Then we ran as far as we could. But the next site was no better. We found two ice vials and barely survived a fight with two paladins. Right as we were trying to heal, these two came along.” She points at the dead bodies. “They’ve been chasing us for about a mile, slowly picking us apart with her crossbow. Eventually, the cat lady ran out of bolts and we were far enough ahead that their magic did minimal damage, but it was only a matter of time before they caught us. We owe you big time.”
Pangea Online 3: Vials and Tribulations Page 25