War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  Still too hurt to speak, Lieutenant Kato nodded weakly toward Seiki, and one of the men immediately understood him and produced another vial of liquid from his chest pocket and handed it to Seiki.

  You have received: Pearl-light Flask. Clears all lingering shadow damage effects over 20 seconds, restores 100% health over another 20 seconds, and imbues user with 10 minutes of extra shadow damage resistance over another 20 seconds. Damage taken during any of these stages may lessen effectiveness.

  It was only then that Seiki realized that some of the cuts on his body had not healed, even when combat was over.

  “It cures shadow wounds,” said the soldier, but explained no more.

  The flask sounded like something too complicated to be wasted over minor injuries, and so Seiki opted for his own normal healing potion first to see if the shadow wounds healed themselves over time.

  The West Gate had re-opened and supplement troops were arriving to take care of the fallen.

  “How many?” asked Lieutenant Kato faintly as his men helped him to his feet.

  “Half the third unit,” said one of his men grimly. “And the entire fourth unit, including Unit Chief Endo.”

  Lieutenant Kato took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Notify the families,” he said at length. “And write up a report of all the names. I’ll make sure their families are compensated.”

  In the middle of the abandoned marketplace, the dead were laid out on long bamboo mattresses.

  “And the civilians?” asked Lieutenant Kato.

  The men shook their head, and one reported that only a few had survived.

  In the rows of bodies, Seiki noticed quite a few mangled bodies of women and merchants, and he wondered if it needed to look so realistic. The samurai in black he had seen trying to fight the demons earlier was also there.

  “Wait,” said Seiki under his breath as he noticed something.

  The man was labeled Shinshioka Soldier. HP 0/1330. Not lootable.

  “Oh.” Seiki slapped his forehead as it dawned on him. He looked up at Lieutenant Kato. “This is the tutorial, isn’t it?”

  This whole thing had been his personal instance, and the real players had been phased out and replaced with copies of themselves as soon as the attack began. When this happened, usually the NPC copies would find a way to exit the scene as quickly as possible, and the realistic reactions from them against the Demonic Clan had completely thrown him off.

  Seiki was not sure if he should groan or laugh. No wonder the sorceress had been Level 17—three levels above, difficult but not impossible. He wondered if Ippei had known about this and had simply kept quiet to give him the full experience.

  Naturally, Lieutenant Kato did not respond to the question, but he gave him a solemn nod. “You did well today, Seiki. I’ll make sure the Shogun hears about this.”

  “Lieutenant,” said Seiki, chuckling tiredly. “You need to stop being on the brink of death in every tutorial instance.”

  The young lieutenant turned to one of his men and asked for his horse.

  “Lieutenant,” said the soldier worriedly. “Should you not rest a—”

  Lieutenant Kato shook his head. “No. If the Demonic Clan dared attack us right on our wall, it’s likely that Muraki Fort is also in danger. I’ll go there tonight. Come with me, Seiki.”

  Seiki let out an amused sigh. “I see. And here’s where you explain the lore to me.”

  Genta and his crew were waiting on the side. Having been given NPC versions of healing potions, they were back at full health, and their cheerfulness had returned. Saburo could not stop talking about how he had slain one demonic attacker with a decisive blow and how Shinshioka would be triumphant in the end. All around, the NPC soldiers seemed to be regarding the boy with mild enjoyment.

  One of the supply carts had survived the attack. Lieutenant Kato ordered the rest to be resupplied and sent as soon as possible, before moving out with the first cart, together with a group of thirty soldiers—put together from his surviving unit members. He beckoned to Seiki to join him, and Seiki called in Fubuki and rode alongside the lieutenant.

  The four villagers had no mounts, but the cart went at a walking speed, and they had no trouble keeping up. Saburo was eagerly asking questions about the Demonic Clan from the foot soldiers, and Seiki was quite sure if he had listened he would have learned a thing or two as well. But at the moment, he was too tired, and was rather enjoying the peaceful sunset ride up the hill toward the fort.

  The road to Muraki Fort branched off to the left, shortly after the split toward Nezumi Temple. The mouth of the road that led up a gentle hill was always guarded by elite Shinshioka soldiers, who denied access to players lower than Level 14. So this was the first time Seiki had been allowed on it.

  “That Card I gave you had powerful inscriptions that contain ancient powers within,” said Lieutenant Kato. “Some harness power from the valorous deeds of our ancestors of old, some from elemental forces, and some capture the power from Seeds of Light.”

  Seiki decided that he would rather wait for Ippei’s explanation in order to skip the lore part, and so he did not ask further and the lieutenant offered no other conversation.

  Muraki Fort was the hub for War Players. According to Ippei, after unlocking the zone, everyone had a small private chamber and a territory box, which would be upgraded according to their military rank.

  The fort was situated on top of a low hill and guarded by a solemn-looking bunch of Shinshioka Guards [Level 35 Elite]. A simple torch stand was positioned on each side of the gate, open flames burning bright in the dusk. Through the entrance, beyond the old carved wooden sign that spelled out the name of the fort, Seiki could make out a courtyard surrounded by rather rustic single-storied buildings. A large metal fire stand blazed in the middle of it, beside a wooden noticeboard and racks of weapons.

  As soon as he stepped through, rapid notifications flooded his consciousness.

  Welcome to Muraki Fort! PVP status: disabled.

  Quest completed: To Muraki Fort [Level 14]. 255 XP gained.

  You have received: War Token [x1]

  Achievement earned: First Battle! 250 XP gained.

  You have received: 25 Combat Valor.

  Congratulations! You have now unlocked further upgrades for your troops.

  Bonus rewards for first successful trial earned!

  You have received: War Token [x1]

  You have received: War Coins [x3]

  You have received: Inscribed Card of the Steady Steed – Kitsune Card of the Horse Deck. Riding energy requirements reduced by 20% for all players. Burn this card at a tano-shrine to activate its effect.

  You have received: 15 Combat Valor.

  “Get some rest and come find me in the central hall,” said Lieutenant Kato before Seiki could completely sort out what he had just received. The man pointed toward a black-roofed building on the opposite side of the road, before turning to give orders to his men, who quickly ran off as they had been instructed.

  There were a few people milling about in the courtyard. Seiki noticed Michiyo of the West Defenders [Level 19] riding in with her group of archers. So, he was no longer in a personal instance.

  As if to confirm this, two post pigeons immediately fluttered down beside him. Seiki knew he only had to grab one for the messages to combine.

  Ippei [Level 14]: (23 minutes ago) Run out of Shadow Shock from the spear guy.

  Ippei [Level 14]: (4 minutes ago) Done yet? I’m by the campfire out the west wall.

  CHAPTER 07

  Sitting on top of a steep, dense hill and fortified with sturdy stone battalions, Muraki Fort was a tight cluster of black-roofed buildings around a large pebble courtyard. In the center of the open space, the large metal fire stand crackled brightly in the cool night air, casting dancing waves of light and shadow onto the wooden noticeboard beside it.

  Around these, a few players had gathered, discussing groups an
d resets. As Seiki squinted, he could make out a few words on the board’s various notice signs, mentioning a village and oddly something with the ‘rainbow’ character, which seemed rather out of place.

  Seiki remembered Ippei saying how it was nearly impossible on Tuesdays, right at the reset hour, to wade through the excited crowd just to get the Shogun’s War Order from one of the officials located in the buildings. Right now, the fort must have been less crowded than usual, but there was still a constant stream of players riding in and out on armored horses, their well-trained units shadowing them in tidy rows. Perhaps to make room, the NPC troops often quickly dispersed into a nearby building labeled ‘Soldiers Training Hall’ as soon as they came through the gate. Only people above Level 20 had mounted soldiers, so Seiki could only guess that it would take a while to collect enough War Tokens to buy horses for his four wide-eyed villagers, who were now staring at the interior of the fort, looking rather impressed.

  Unlike the colorful Shinshioka or the sparsely-populated Wilderness in the east, Muraki Fort had about it a unique air of solemn solidarity, and after a while Seiki managed to figure out why. Since only the Shinshioka Armor Set provided reliable resistance against shadow damage, everyone here was in uniform: red and black, with minimal variations perhaps according to rank. The armor sets for NPC troops also largely matched this design, as well as those worn by Shinshioka Guards [Level 35 Elites] manning the gate and walls. Under the Shinshioka banner flying from the top of the central hall, everything seemed united with a sense of purpose.

  With the four pieces of Shinshioka armor he had collected from military mission reward boxes, Seiki could not help feeling he fit right in. No one paid him or his tiny unit any special attention and they slowly walked through the courtyard, admiring the untidy weapon racks scattered around the edges.

  Seiki soon found the side door on the west wall, tucked between the armory and the storage building and propped open by a broken weapon rack. The pebbles directly in front of the doorway were thinner than in other places, perhaps indicating frequent traffic.

  Making way for a ryoushi girl marked Retsuko of the Toma Clan [Level 16] who was hurrying through the opening with a furious expression, Seiki stepped through and found himself on a grass ledge about ten feet wide. The narrow ledge, perhaps intended to be a walkway, neatly wrapped around the outside of the fort. Directly beyond it was a cliff that dropped sharply into a vast expanse of trees below, now a sea of dark foliage under a moonless night.

  The ledge provided a perfect vantage point into the west over the immediate forest. Far at the horizon, the mountain range the Demonic Clan called their home appeared even a shade blacker than it surroundings. In War Games, players pushed westward, gaining grounds closer and closer to the seat of the Shadow Lord as they progressed through a series of encounters. How many there were exactly, no one knew yet, and so the west was still a great unknown, threatening, but undeniably exciting. Despite the cuts on his shoulder and leg that somehow had not yet faded, Seiki was glad he had planned a long session this evening.

  “Hey,” called Ippei. The samurai was sitting alone by a small campfire further down the grass ledge to his right.

  Ippei did not have his unit with him, so Seiki—not quite sure how to dismiss and call back his unit—simply asked Genta and his crew if they would like to take a tour of the fort by themselves and then to wait in the courtyard when they were done.

  As Seiki walked toward Ippei, a few players followed him out the door. Curiously, they all immediately changed their minds and turned back into the fort as soon as they came out.

  “The ledge is instanced,” explained Ippei, who seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood. “The threshold is right there.” The samurai pointed somewhere around Seiki’s feet. “It gives your group some private space to discuss strategies if you don’t want to be crammed inside. Plus, you can’t beat this view.” He turned to look fondly into the darkness.

  Seiki agreed. It was quiet outside the wall, and despite the fact that they were staring straight into hostile territories, the fort felt safe, warm, and well-lit. Under the starry sky, the forest around was filled with the melody of nocturnal insects, giving the elevated stronghold the feel of an island of civilization amid the untamed wild. It was difficult to believe that the place was less than five minutes away from Shinshioka.

  “On a clear day, you can see public runs from here.” The samurai nodded toward the trees below. “Muraki Woods just down there. You can actually see trees shaking and hear people curse when the demon gecko gets them.” He continued to gesture toward things in the dark Seiki could not discern. “Togatsu Village, and there’s Kehara Plain to the left. Kitane Keep up there on the northern border of the world. And if there’s a public run at night, you see the sky over there burning bright red from Nenshou Firefields.” He made a face. “That one’s quite annoying, actually.”

  Ippei looked rather disheveled. His armor already had quite a few new scrape marks on them, not to mention the long ugly gash across his leg guard that had not fixed itself, but his eyes were sparkling with life.

  Seiki realized his own gear was not in much better shape, as the damage from the last encounter seemed heavier than what he usually expected from mission runs.

  “So…” The samurai grinned and turned toward Seiki. “How was it?”

  “The tutorial?” Seiki’s nostrils flared. “Intense. I could have used some warning in advance, you know.” He looked at his friend suspiciously. “Did you know?”

  “I knew they changed it,” said Ippei, unable to hold his laughter. “I didn’t know they changed it to that.”

  Seiki only now noticed that his friend had in front of him a wooden tray with a ceramic teapot and two small cups.

  The samurai sipped his drink, before continuing. “And I didn’t know they made the tutorial private. It used to be a simple escort quest where you ride with Kato and some demon scouts attack you on the way, and the lieutenant says ‘loot this guy and then go burn it at that shrine over there and that’s how War Cards work’.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Now I can’t believe that the first thing they let you do in War Games is burn two raid saves back to back.”

  Before Seiki could say anything, Ippei spotted the bleeding cut on Seiki’s shoulder, which was still trickling dark blood. “Here,” he said, pouring him a cup of his drink, which appeared to be some sort of strange-smelling tea.

  “I see you had the same idea about saving the pearl-light flask, which is smart, since that will save you a few War Coins.” He raised his teacup. “If you’re broke, you drink this instead. Asaguchi Herb Tea, +4 HP with every sip. Free from the fort kitchen.”

  Seiki had not paid attention, but his friend also showed several unhealed cuts on his right arm, which were eating away at his health as they continued to bleed—the black blood disintegrating into a wisp of ominous black smoke as it left the wound.

  The tea smelled bitter and tasted even worse than Seiki expected. After sipping it once, he gulped down the whole cup in order to avoid tasting it more than he had to. Although rather vile, the drink brought his health back to nearly full.

  “The guys used to call it the bitter taste of defeat, since most of the time you don’t beat progression,” said Ippei. “But you start to acquire a taste for it after a while.”

  “Do these cuts even heal?”

  “Yeah, after an hour or so if you’re in a safe zone. You can go hang around in the courtyard and hope a healer passes through, but they’re far and few between, and their lockout is usually too precious for them to use on strangers. Or, if you’re in a hurry, just bleed out and resurrect in the fort morgue to get it over with.”

  The samurai explained that at higher levels, to add an extra layer of challenge for healers, the demons sometimes had the ability to apply a lingering bleed effect whenever they managed a full connect with their attacks.

  Ippei pursed his lips. “This time, they really went big a
nd hit you with everything from the start: Shadow Shock, that energy drain. Even the adds had shadow-bleed. In Beta, it wasn’t until you got deep into Amato Pass that these things started popping up. Actually, when Sakurai mentioned Shadow Shock, I should have suspected.” He paused for a second. “And all this without warning. I wasn’t even in range of Kato when they phased me into the tutorial.”

  Quest texts were known to always be a little misleading, with more important quests being the worst offenders, so Seiki was not surprised. Up until it happened, he had expected an escort quest, too.

  “Yeah, what’s up with the mask thing at the beginning anyway?” Seiki’s forehead creased. “The demon boss disguising himself as a… geisha?” The masked figure actually looked nothing like a geisha, but he had no other point of reference.

  Ippei blinked. “What mask thing?”

  “There was this white mask on one of the carts…” Seiki stopped as he realized his friend had no idea what he was talking about. “Okay, never mind,” he said, deciding that could wait. “Maybe that’s just some dubious Shadow Manor trick.”

  Ippei’s mind was clearly already on something else. “Hey, which Jade did they let you use?” the samurai asked. “The Light Deck?”

  Seiki tried to recall the details regarding the jade piece that had dropped off the Demonic Sorceress. “Uh, it did a crazy thousand-percent damage?” he said uncertainly, nearly shivering as he reminisced the feeling of pure energy coursing through his veins. “But, uh, maybe start from the beginning?”

  “Yeah, that’s the Light Deck.” Ippei beamed, looking like a child showing off his favorite toy and much too excited to pay attention to Seiki’s request. “Liked it?”

  “No,” said Seiki with a straight face. “It felt horrid and I hope I would never have to do anything like that ever again.”