Nice Spot for a Grave Plot
Sardinexx’s POV
The group kept walking onwards, watching as the scenery gradually changed to a bleaker setting exactly like any other groups that arrived at Everfree Graves. And as the path got too thin for the group to keep their formation, they switched it up.
Siren flew above the others, keeping her crossbow armed as she kept watch in all directions. The fog made it difficult, but staying airborne was a better idea then walking off road where she was exposed to a surprise attack.
That left Kal, myself and King all in a triangle pattern with myself and Kal in the back. Kal was also a ranged attacker with that magic firing tome while I was close range. Although if we were going to fight a horde of zombies, I wasn’t sure how well an axe would do against an army but it’s what I had.
That left King taking point at the front. His spear made him a good choice for taking on an attack but that wasn’t why he wanted the front. In fact, he kept swearing up and down he needed to be in front so that he could find all the traps and hidden treasure that he was told this area has.
Although to his credit, King was able to find the traps. I would even go as far as to say that he found all of them.
With his face.
On this one trail alone, even before we found any of these tombs King was talking about, we had to have run into about ten traps already. Most of them was something that hit King but there was the occasional fight that broke out from zombies and skeletons that had come out of nowhere. The zombies were pathetic but the skeletons had their weapons.
As it stood now, our health was somewhat weathered.
Sardinexx: 239/286 *
Ballzdeep69: 128/145 *
KingDingBing: 129/195 *
Siren_t@le: 113/147 *
Unfortunately, King checking everything we passed by didn’t do much in terms of finding anything valuable. We had set off more than two traps and in return all we got was something under 40 Bits. Considering we earned more than that fighting off wolves just to get here it was nothing.
So after this most recent attack, King turned back towards us and pointed up at his health bar. “Hey guys, can one of you give me a potion?”
“No,” I huffed.
“Why not?” King’s voice picked up in a whine. “It heals fifty points. I’m more than fifty down!”
“Then fall back and let Sarge take the lead,” Kal offered, gesturing to me. “He has all that HP for a reason.”
“Would that even matter?” Siren asked from above us. “King’s setting everything off anyways.”
“Well how else are we going to find everything?!”
“We’re not finding anything,” I reminded him. “King, this place is like the dungeon; we don’t heal outside of battles. If you run around setting everything off, we won’t be able to handle an actual threat.”
“But you’re the one who’s upset that I paid to find out about this place,” King shouted back. “How am I supposed to show you we can make that money back if we don’t look for it?!”
“Stop. Shouting.” I watched until his attitude was back in check. “A potion costs 100 Bits. Every potion we use is another hundred wasted. If you want to use yours, fine. Use it whenever you want.”
“But all of you have more than one!” He made a sweeping motion with his spear, which I caught when he tried to point it at me.
“No. We don’t.” I shoved his spear away from me. “We rationed them. We only have one each. So we’re saving them for when it’s necessary. If you think you’re too low on health, either drink a potion or give up on the small piles of money. They’re not worth it anyways.
“Besides,” I went on, not dropping my tone as King closed his mouth again. “You said the real treasure’s in the tombs. So we’re going to the tombs. If we can manage to break even, we call it a day and leave.”
King opened his mouth several times but nothing came out other than stuttering and groaning. All that proved was that talking to him was as meaningful as talking to a fish. So when he watched me stare him down without regret he turned to Kal and Siren for backup. To which he realized very quickly that no one was on his side.
So instead, he screamed at the sky, turning around and stomping off down the trail as his screaming faded into grumbling.
“We’d already have our money if people just listened to me...!”
“Everyone’s fault but his,” Siren lulled. “Does he really think this place is worth 400?”
“Probably,” Kal muttered. They both kept quiet enough so King couldn’t hear them over his own complaining. “I don’t get why though.”
“People like him can’t admit they’re wrong,” I told them. “Even if we don’t get enough, he’ll find something to blame it on.”
“We cannot keep putting up with this.” Siren landed next to us. “Ever since he joined, he’s had problems. And it’s going to keep happening.”
“We picked him up at the castle because we thought he was stressed about being trapped here,” Kal explained. “Maybe he still is, but...Sarge?”
I held this stupid hoof up against my temple and thought it over, just like the last two times. The first day he was with us, he proved he could fight but he kept wasting potions every time he got hit. It’s why we now kept potions in personal inventories. In one day, he used five potions. That’s 500 Bits wasted. But it was day one so we let him off with a warning.
Then he wanted to learn how to use a crossbow like Siren so everyone had a ranged option. Siren and King with crossbows, Kal had magic, and I had throwing axes. However, that backfired too when, at some point, he used all the fire bolts we stocked up on during practice. They’re expensive and you only could get so many a day. Warning two.
Now this crazy scheme. Even if it paid off, we couldn’t keep doing this. This was only day three. And I wasn’t about to pick one volatile person over two good teammates.
“We finish up today,” I told them. “We finish, give him most of whatever we get, then cut him.”
“Most?” I could see Siren’s eye twitching past the fog.
“Are you guys coming or not?!”
From ahead, King glared at the three of us, tapping his hoof. He was more irritable now. “We need to keep going!”
Siren let out a low growl before she flew a few feet off the ground. Then, without looking at me, I heard her mutter, “Fine. Most, then we’re done with him.”
She flew over while Kal and I followed behind. One more and we’re done, I told myself.
One more.
Alex/E1ectric_B1itz’s POV
I stood outside against the fence of our third tomb, massaging my neck. Even if it was twenty minutes ago, that giant zombie hit like a truck with that axe.
E1ectric_B1itz: 139/178
Light_Chill: 101/101 *
F1eur_de_7is: 114/114 *
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 166/166 *
Like Gwen mentioned right before the zombie chopped me, health didn’t regenerate outside of battle. Probably because the zombies were always walking after you. If that was the case, maybe that’s why my neck still felt sore. Still, I’d rather a sore neck than a beheading from that axe.
Since this was the third tomb, I decided to stand watch outside this time. Joey did well standing guard but there’s only so many times I can walk off and hope nothing happens to him before I lose my head. Hehe.
Now that I was on lookout, maybe this was the safest place for him to be though. If Joey ended up in a bad tomb, it might end up badly fo—
I shook my head and kept my eyes on the path. About seventeen zombies were walking towards the tomb. None of them anywhere close enough for me to care.
Don’t think like that, I told myself. He’ll be fine. He’s with Rachelle and Gwen. They won’t let anything happen to him.
I glanced back at the health bars for the tenth time now. Still nothing. All of their abilities were ready too. They didn’t have to use them.
Maybe it’s a treasure tomb, I thought. The second tomb we went into ended up being treasure. There was an enchanted warhammer, a unique set of light armor Gwen took, which was why her health was almost as good as mine again, a few health potions, and plenty of Bits.
Then there was the Rusted Greataxe we got from the zombie that wanted my head but it was pretty much worthless. My warclub was stronger and apparently ‘Rusted’ weapons were worth nothing when sold. So, to the back of my inventory it went.
I leaned on the iron fence and started thinking about what came next. This was the toughest side quest out of the pile and so far it was a cakewalk. The only difficulty we had was the Craga…
I felt a chill run down my spine. Back up, Alex, I told myself. You can’t just write that off. That was a random enemy and three of us almost...Stop taking things for granted.
I sat down, staring at the zombies as another part of my brain got angry. Don’t write it off. It’s not like you can just hide forever. Even Joey’s not doing that.
...What is Joey thinking?
Before my mind could start a shouting match with itself, I heard something running up the stairs of the tomb’s entrance.
“Alex! Alex!”
I turned around to watch Joey breach the outdoors and run at me with a huge smile spread across his face. As Joey ran, this thin stick floated behind him like he was pulling a balloon with him. “Treasure,” he cheered. “We got treasure! And look what I got!”
He slide to a stop in front of me and brought the stick forward in his magic, waving it in my face until I finally snatched it into my hooves.
This stick was made up of two pieces of wood coiled around together. One piece was a solid white and the other solid black. It gave the object this ying-yang aesthetic.
It didn’t take much longer for me to realize exactly what it was; a wand.
“Alright Joey,” I cheered, holding it out in front of me as if looking down the sights.
“Light Chill,” he corrected, his happiness more subdued for a moment. “And yeah! I thought I’d be stuck with that first staff for a while. This one is so much cooler looking though!”
“Just as long as you remember who found it, yeah?”
Rachelle and Gwen walked up the stairs at a much more relaxed pace, both looking much different then when they entered.
Rachelle had a brass bracelet around one of her front legs with a blue gem set into it. At the same time she was now wearing this set of leather armor that, after glancing at the health bars, her HP was a little higher now. She must have just put it on.
Then there was Gwen. Aside from the dark leather armor that she got from the last treasure tomb, she had on a new cloak that seemed to almost blend into her surroundings, making her even harder to spot from within the fog.
I chuckled. “Better haul than last round I take it?”
“Yeah. It’s working out well too.” Gwen took a second to admire her cloak. “Rachlle’s bracelet boosts ranged attacks and the cloak reduces aggro from dumber enemies. Like zombies. Oh. And here’s something for you.”
She tapped around on her menu for a second before summoning a large blue crystal which she then tossed over to me. I had to toss Joey’s wand back to him in order to catch it in time.
“It’s called an Experience Crystal,” she explained. “Whoever crushes it gets a boost in XP. Figured the weakest of us oughta get it.”
“Yeah. The weakest,” Joey parroted, trying to hold back his laughter.
I knew I should’ve felt upset about that but just seeing the group taking a second to smile made me relax. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Thanks guys.”
Wasting no time, I smashed it into my hooves and watched the glowing dust fly into my username and HP bar before vanishing entirely. I’m sure if I checked my menu, I’d have more experience but it wasn’t enough to level me up yet. I couldn’t have been far though.
“So. Where does that put us now?”
“Well, axe wielding maniac tomb had thirty-four Bits,” Gwen counted out. “Plus the previous tomb’s 179...Then this timb which...wishing I had fingers..." Gwen muttered aloud. “...Over 300 Bits.”
“And still one treasure tomb to go. Nice.” I smiled. “Any luck on the shield quest yet?”
“Nope,” Joey answered. “It’s fine though. This place is way easier than I thought it’d be. The zombies aren’t even that scary. Maybe we should even try out that seventh cr—”
“No,” Gwen cut him off.
“But. B-But why not?” Joey’s bravado was down like a brick.
“It’s not worth it. At all,” Gwen told him. “That seventh tomb is the area’s boss. It’s entirely optional and way overpowered.”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that,” I butted in. “You brought it up on the way here. Do you think that boss might be holding one of those Elements?”
“No. It’s not even a real boss,” Gwen dismissed. “Apparently, it’s just a high level monster from another part of the game reskinned for this place.”
“Does it have any treasure?” Joey tried to ask.
“Don’t even think about it, Chill.” Gwen gave him a look that would shoot down any child’s excitement. “We’re not going.”
“Then let’s go ahead and hit the other tombs we can go to,” I told them. “And let’s hurry. The zombies are finally getting close.”
I pointed as the first couple of zombies started to wander near the gate as some of the zombies further back were...suddenly turning around?
Huh? I blinked. I thought Gwen said they never stop following you.
“I’ll do it,” Joey cheered, arming himself with his new wand.
Before anyone could stop him, Joey flicked the wand back and forth, throwing another barrage of bolts that riddled the zombies to pieces in mere seconds. Well, the magic that hit. Most of the blasts sailed past the stationary zombies since Joey wasn’t aiming and flew off into the sky. They faded out a few meters later.
When the job was done, Joey let out a heavy breath and turned around. He was a little dizzy but less than he was using a barrage with the old wand.
“I could. I can do that again,” he said through his breathing.
“Hopefully you won’t have to.” Gwen started walking. “Come on. We’re halfway done. Sooner we finish this, the sooner we get back.”
No one had any arguments. Instead, we fell back in line and started down the trail to head towards the next tomb.
Sardinexx’s POV
It took about five more minutes before the path spilled out into a large valley covered in fog, tombstones, and the most unimposing zombie horde I had ever seen. The sheer number of them would have been concerning had it not been for the fact that they move as slow as possible.
What did make me concerned was the sudden shift in King’s attitude. On the way here, he stayed at the front of the group with his head low as he grumbled and complained about everything. He wasn’t checking every rock we passed by anymore but I could still see him turn to look at a suspicious rock or tree only to remember we were all right behind him.
But once he walked up on the scene with the zombies, he stopped. He stopped moping, he stopped grumbling. He even stopped standing. He instead sat down as he looked over the field of zombies, watching them all.
Curious, I tried to look out where he was staring. The zombies were all over the place but most of them were moving in two directions; some towards one of the trails leading out of the area and others towards us.
I looked at King, watching as he drank his potion. His health went from 129/195 to 179/195.
“This would have been so much easier if you all just listened to me,” he complained in that same furious voice. Except his face didn’t seem to match. His face was uncharacteristically calm.
“Nooo,” Siren began as she and Kal walked up next to us. “If we listened to you, we’d be down more hit points and probably forced to use our potions like you.”
King gave a slow nod. “...Yeah. That was kind of the point.”
King turned around to face her and, using his magic, ran his spear through Kal’s neck.
Through Kal’s screaming and twisting, King shook his head. “Had you listened to me, this would have been easier.”
Siren leveled her crossbow, firing point blank as King raised his shield to block the bolt. Then, as I brought down my greataxe to cleave him in half, he leapt away, pulling the spear along with him and giving Kal a chance to back away.
“You son of a—” I tore my axe free from the dirt and rested it over my shoulder, ready to charge.
But King didn’t answer. Instead, he gave out a low whistle.
From the sides of the road, one behind a tree and the other from a ditch, flew out two Pegasi that were waiting. Before we realized what was happening, they fired crossbows, both on me.
One struck my shoulder and the other wedged itself in my spine before both erupted in a burst of fire, cooking me and my hit points alive.
“Siren’s Wail,” Siren muttered, taking in a deep breath before—
Alex/E1ectric_B1itz’s POV
wooooaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH~!
We were almost back out into the main area when suddenly this heavy screeching, almost loud enough to make us cover our ears, made us all stop moving.
Everyone took out their weapons, looking around as all the zombies suddenly turned to look towards the loudest noise possible. It helped to figure out where it had come from.
“Là bas!” Rachelle declared, pointing back at the entrance path. From atop the hill we saw a visible burst of air firing into the sky, passing over two pegasi that were flying above. We could all see the obvious player gems gleaming above their heads.
“Alex?” Joey looked up at me.
“We need to hide,” I told them, looking to Gwen.
Her eyes started to dart back and forth. “If they’re here, another Seller probably told them. We shouldn’t hide in the tom...ugh...come on.”
She put her daggers back and took a sharp turn, heading towards the only path she told us not to go earlier.
I walked after her. “That's the seventh to—”
“Yes. I know. Everyone that sells this place tells everyone not to go there. Which is exactly why it’s the best place to hide. Now hurry up before they see us.”
We didn’t have time to argue. We put away our weapons and started running.
Sardinexx’s POV
Siren’s scream forced the pegasi to cover their ears as their hit points dropped slowly. At the same time, it took all that they had to start flying apart from each other.
“Quiet,” King spoke, bringing the spear forward to puncture Siren’s jaw.
I ran between the two and let the spear embed itself in my torso. Then, clenching my jaw, I brought my axe down in return. King used his magic to bring up his shield, catching most of the impact before the axe cut somewhat into his shoulder. In the corner of my eye, King’s HP only drop thirteen points from where it went up.
Sardinexx: 96/286 *
Ballzdeep69: 99/145 *
KingDingBing: 166/195 *
Siren_t@le: 113/147
King took a few steps back and took his spear with him as he eyed the space. Kal had already recovered and was now firing magic blasts at the pegasi in the air, focusing on the same one Siren was still screaming at. Meanwhile, the second one had already loaded his next fire bolt and was about to return fire on Kal as he flew to flank the group from behind.
Then King turned to me. The fire along my back was finally dying out and the hole in my chest was still there but the pain had faded. But rather than charge at him and let him poke me again, I stood up on my hindlegs and wound back my axe like a lumberjack.
“Grand Strike!”
“King’s Men!”
I swung my axe ahead of me and watched as a lime green slash appeared where I had swung. It then closed the distance on King, attempting to cut him in two.
But at the same time three glowing ponies, all dressed as royal guards, faded into reality. They stood at attention in front of King and acted as a human shield, letting the magic strike cut them to pieces and dispel. They were gone as fast as they appeared and took the Grand Strike with them.
At the same time, Siren’s screaming stopped and she was forced to take a breath. Everyone could hear one another again.
“Fire the leader,” King commanded.
And they did. The archer that was aiming at Kal instead turned the crossbow to me. Before I could turn to see where he had flown, I found another bolt in my back and I was on fire once again.
44/286 was my health after the bolt. Then the burn damage.
42/286.
40.
38.
As it counted down, Kal and Siren fired magic and bolt respectively, both of them hitting the guy who just pinned me with the next arrow. Both hit their target and the pegasi’s health dropped down to two-thirds. The same as the other archer.
36.
34.
“Let’s talk. Sarge.” King sat back down and watched me slowly burning alive. His face was eerily calm. It never changed since the start of this. No trace of that short-fuse he had before.
“Fuck you,” Kal shouted, firing another magic missile at the pegasi as they lazily drifted above us. The one that didn’t shoot me had his next bolt aimed at me.
“They won’t live,” King told me. As if I didn't already know that.
“Stop.” I demanded, turning back towards the others. “We surrender. That what you want?”
“Partly.” King shrugged. When Kal and Siren saw the last of the fire leave my body, my health read 32 HP all the way from the 239 I started this with. King had more than any of us and I spotted the potions on the archer’s belts. They were prepared.
“Those were our fire bolts,” Siren accused, dropping her crossbow as I dropped my axe. Kal settled for closing the spell tome.
“Were,” King focused on. “So were the potions. And money. And everything else you have on you right now.”
“You’re. You’re mugging us?” Kal blinked a few times, watching as the two pegasi were landing to the side of us. Both of them had their crossbows trained on me. One shot was enough to kill me.
King nodded a few times, glancing at his two friends before nodding some more at him. “Yeah. Yeah that’s about it.”
“So you’re gonna kill us regardless then,” Siren argued. “Because if we walk away from this, we’re telling everyone to stay away from you.”
“Not exactly. You see these crystals above our heads?” King pointed up at the player gem that hung above him. It was still blue since he was still our ‘friend.’ “If you kill another player, this small mark shows up saying you did it. Even if we just have one of us finish you all off, people will see us in the same group. So, I figured, it’d be in everyone’s best interest if we gave you a chance.”
“We’re not working for you,” I shot that idea down.
“Trust me, I know.”
King stood up and walked over to me, plucking the axe up off the ground and into his arms. I couldn’t use my ability without a weapon and he knew it. Because I told him that when Kal and I invited him.
“You know how I said one of the tombs was a bigger trap? I wasn’t lying about it. In fact, that’s something I hoped you’d ask about a little more, but, oh well.” He moved over to Siren next, staring right back at her narrowed eyes as he tossed her crossbow over to one of his buddies.
“We’re going to all walk over there nice and quietly,” he explained, still watching Siren as he pointedly said that last word. “And me and the boys are going to give you a nice escort too. I mean, we don’t want you dying to the zombies on the way there. Especially since you don’t have anything to fight with. Which, speaking of. Ballzdeep? If you’d be so kind.”
King held out his hoof, matching Kal’s furious gaze with a calm smirk. This was a completely different person. When Kal saw one of the crossbowmen aiming at him, he caved and levitated the tome into King’s hoof.
“Thank you,” he dripped. Then he walked over to reclaim his seat in front of us all. “So. The rest of your things please. Money, armor, supplies. The faster you do this, the faster we leave you alone.”
We had no choice. Begrudgingly, we started turning over the rest of our inventory. Since I was wearing armor, when I unequipped it, my HP fell to a terrifying number.
Sardinexx: 1/236
When all of us were now truly defenseless, King looked at his new Bit count and smiled.
“What I tell ya Sarge? After all the things we got from you, we did make triple of that 400 Bits you thought I spent. And we haven’t even gone inside the graveyard proper yet.”
“I was right,” Siren let out.
King’s calm smile slowly curdled. “What?”
“I was right,” Siren repeated. “It was the two guys that said to give you a chance. I didn’t like you from minute one. Now I have my reason.”
“Siren,” I looked at her. “Stop. Nothing you say wi—”
“No, no. Sarge. It’s fine.” King got up, his calm demeanor stalling somewhat as he approached Siren. “Please. Keep Talking.”
Siren stared back, watching King’s eyes dilating as he tried to hold back that same fury he showed with us. I guess it wasn’t all fake.
And when Siren saw that, she smirked. “Why not? You already said you’re not gonna kill us. It’d mar your perfect record, wouldn’t it? That sounds like a positive to me.”
King let out a single breath, his anger showing up more as he started turning his head back and forth. “...Is that right? Well. You volunteering?”
Siren turned the idea around in her mind for a second, locking eyes with me as I kept shaking my head.
“I guess I am,” she decided.
I closed my eyes. You idiot...
“Okay. One fire..”
I heard the sound of a crossbow ting and a thud of the bolt sinking into its target. Then the fire ignite.
To my shock, the screams weren’t from Siren. With how many times her ability went off, we all knew what her scream sounded like. Instead it was a man’s voice.
I forced my eyes open to watch as Kal started shaking to put the fire out on his body, his health burning away.
By the time he looked back up, King was already there with my axe raised high above his head.
“NO!”
Without hesitation, King brought the axe down and cleaved straight through Kal. As the axe slammed into the ground, Kal’s hit points were down in an instant. He couldn’t even look up in time to see us before he was a pile of code spilling across the dead grass.
“You little—”
“Stop. Talking.” King tapped the ground with his other hoof as the second crossbow pegasus aimed at me. “Like I always said Siren. If you just listened to me, this would go so much better.”
“You killed him.” I stared him down. “You just killed him. He didn’t do anything.”
To prove my point, a little orange orb appeared beside his player gem, marking him a player killer.
“I wouldn’t have had to if everyone. Just. Listened! Is that too hard?!” He started breathing heavily while his two friends kept still.
“So. You gonna listen. Siren? You think we won’t do it again? You gonna listen?!”
“...” Siren said nothing. Confidence was gone.
“Right answer.” He turned around and went through this breathing exercise while we were forced to stand there.
“Now. Guys, stay above us. You two? Follow.”
He started to walk down the hill, my axe over his shoulders as he readied his spear again. Siren looked at me and I nodded along, jaw clamped.
Kal. I’m so sorry...
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