Before the Storm
Alex/E1ectric_B1itz’s POV
Gwen got to work pulling everything she learned from the forums and copying it from her book onto a single page. Unfortunately, this was an optional boss which meant it was much harder than beta testers were prepared for. She had only read about a single group that admitted to killing the monster. Everything else was only how to avoid dying quickly.
While Gwen had gone over this, I started to plan myself. Before we left for the Graves, I bought my own blank book to fill out information about all of us. Originally, this book was going to be for planning out the Ruined Castle dungeon.
Only now that we were sitting above a boss chamber, this book suddenly became much more important. So I started taking down everything I hadn't already written down and then started interviewing Sarge, Sardinexx's nickname, and Siren for their stats and abilities.
As we did our nerd thing, the others searched the mausoleum. Aside from the boss below, the mausoleum was made up of the central room with the stage and pews and four side rooms with small chests and supplies to ransack. Aside from more money and a couple of daggers, they found another health potion that went straight to Sarge.
When it came time to lay everything out, we bunkered down in one of the side rooms with a large table inside. Good thing too. Because a few minutes after 5:30, when nightfall started and the Graves became deadly, this was the message Sarge got from the player killer.
From: KingDingBing
Where u go? Cant c u
Silence cast over us all for an eternity. We sat and listened, hearing as King called from outside the building; screaming and teasing Siren and Sarge. He started asking if the four of us ever came by. What was worse is that one of those ambush players remembered our names.
“One’s of ‘em’s named Light,” King had shouted at one point. “He’s smaller than everyone else! You see ‘em?!”
When he said that, Joey stepped behind me so I was between him and the door.
Ten minutes after he stopped shouting, Gwen turned invisible before stepping into the main room. The player killers were gone. Instead the gate was now wide open and the main hall of the mausoleum had several crossbow bolts wedged in the backs of the pews. They must have thought Siren and Sarge were hiding from view.
We were safe. For now.
We all reconvened in the side room and after closing the door, Siren pushed a bookshelf up against it just in case.
Siren looked to the rest of us. “You think he left for good?”
“Probably.” Sarge frowned. “Gray, did that friend ever write back to you?”
Gwen nodded. “Uh-huh. Oct said he’d start looking into it. He also said he’ll tell the admins. Even if they can’t do anything, people still listen to them. That, plus the rumor mill, and everyone in that town and the next will hear about those freaks.”
“Good. Then let’s hurry and get ready.” I furrowed my brow, setting my book down and shaking the feeling of dread. “So. I think I know how we’re going to do this. But we’ll need to ration out everything first. Everyone put all their inventory down on the table.”
Everyone, save for Siren and Sarge who had nothing, obeyed. After a minute, everything was laid out. From weapons, to armor, accessories, and then five potions and a caramel apple.
“Caramel apple?” I blinked. Then I looked at Joey. “What’s that for?”
“It said it heals you. And goes bad after today.”
I looked over at Gray. “You said this candy doesn’t give any bonuses.”
“It doesn’t,” Gray insisted. “It heals you by, like, twenty HP. Since we regenerate health, I wrote it off.”
I frowned. “Well now I wish we didn’t eat the candy bars before coming here. Put it with the potions.”
Joey obliged and read over my notes. More out of habit. I already knew the stock of what we had since I wrote that down earlier.
“Alright. To start, everyone’s read Gray’s page on the boss, right?” The others nodded and affirmed it. As did Rachelle after I asked the question in her language. “It’s going to be a three part fight. Because it has over 2,000 HP that means it has four full health bars; 500 per bar. Phase one will last until we do over 700 HP. As long as we pay attention and dodge the slow attacks, we’ll be fine.
“Phase two’s harder,” I went on. “It lasts for 1,000 HP. It’s attacks become faster and it starts flying and pouncing. Which means more mobile. Ranged attackers will need to make sure they have room to get away if it flies at them.”
“Phase two’s where most of the attempts against it failed from the beta-testers,” Gwen revealed.
“Probably because this isn’t a computer game,” Sarge considered. “This game has us as the fighters. It’s a good bet these testers got exhausted because they didn’t pace themselves.”
“We need to be ready for a long fight,” I deciphered. “Gray, Sarge, and I need to be ready to let the monster switch his focus between us so the others can catch their breath.”
“But what about phase three?” Siren frowned. “By the time we get there, won’t all of you be exhausted?”
“Probably,” I admitted. “But that won’t really matter. Phase three only has 500 HP. If we play it right, we can burn through that bar in a matter of seconds.”
“So your solution for the hardest part of the fight is rush it?” Siren scoffed. “That sounds fu—” “Siren? Kids,” Sarge cut in.
“...It sounds effing stupid,” Siren adapted. “That page she wrote said there were trees in that cave, yeah? Why not trap it between them and wail on it then?”
“We don’t know if that’s possible,” Gwen argued. “All the forums said was that there were trees. That could mean it’s a jungle down there or only two stupid pine trees. We can’t rely on what the place looks like.”
“Siren, I don’t think he means we dogpile the thing,” Sarge backed me up.
“No,” I confirmed. “We need to bait it. And.” I took a breath. “We do it with her.” I pointed across the table.
“What?” “Really?” “Ehh?” “Why?”
I started laying out my plan, going over what needed to happen. In truth, I only had an idea; something that looked great on paper. And if this was some regular computer game, that would probably be enough. Although it was as Sarge said. We were the fighters. We needed to all agree to this.
As I continued explaining, I admitted that it wouldn’t only be based around her setting up the trap. This would be something everyone would jump in for. Well, everyone but myself and Gray at least.
“So we are rushing at it.” That was what Siren believed after I finished.
“Would that do enough damage?” Gray wondered. “What if it reaches them?”
“If they can combine their abilities, it’ll hold the monster back,” I explained. “Long enough for them to get enough attacks in.”
“What about phase two?” Sarge brought up. “How do we start that off?”
“It wouldn’t be that hard,” Gray admitted. “At the start, the monster never runs or pounces. It only walks. It’s weird but there's going to be a grace period.”
“We catch our breath, get into position, and then we set it off like planned,” I assured. “The only hard part will be whittling down that 1000 HP gap.”
“...Okay,” Sarge signed on it. “It needs molding and we need to make sure everyone knows their steps, but...alright. I think this will work.”
Slowly the others started to agree to the plan as well, all except for the one who was the cornerstone for the endgame. Admittedly, I had a couple back up ideas but this was the one that I felt the most confident in. Still, if she didn’t want to go along with it, I would understand.
So as I asked her one last time. She put her opinions down for a moment and listened to me sincerely. Then she kept her head facing down at the table. Maybe a good idea considering our faces might have guilted her into saying yes.
While she thought about it we split the potions and caramel apple. We were going to need to heal ourselves up regardless. Then, when she was finished considering whether or not she could do it, she looked at the rest of us and gave a solemn nod.
She was in. The plan was on.
3rd Person POV
Once the plan was decided and every foreseeable detail was ironed out, the group finished splitting their supplies amongst each other and collectively readied themselves for the fight downstairs.
Sarge moved the bookshelf out from against the door and Gray went invisible one last time before checking the mausoleum’s entrance. Everything was as before. The yard was empty and the same amount of crossbow bolts were wedged in the pews.
King had left them for dead.
When the coast was clear, the party shuffled out of the room. Most of the weapons and armor were traded around in such a way where everyone seemed different. Blitz’s rock armor was now on Sarge, Gray’s armor to Fleur, Joey’s wand with Siren. Not to mention everyone now had at least one dagger on their person.
After the potions were used up, the party was looked confident with their numbers. They had held on to two more potions thanks to Sarge’s recommendation. Blitz and Gray each held one.
E1ectric_B1itz: 128/128
F1eur_de_7is: 130/130 *
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 160/160 *
Light_Chill: 101/101 *
Sardinexx: 271/306 *
Siren_t@le: 133/147 *
The party crossed the room and stopped at a small archway that led down a descending stone staircase. From what Gray explained, there were several flights of stairs and then the large cavern below. There were no candles or torchlight through the stairwell.
The group had Sarge take point with Fleur behind him casting a light spell with her magic. The others followed in a single file line with Chill in the back using the same spell so no one would trip on the steps.
As the group reached the second flight of stairs, Chill looked to his brother ahead of him. “...Alex?”
“Yeah? Joey?” Alex looked over his shoulder for a moment to spot his brother. Chill had his new wand and Gray’s cloak that reduced aggro. Though it shrunk to fit the mage’s form, it looked too big for the child.
“We’re going to be okay...Right?”
Blitz turned back so he could watch his step. Even if his brother couldn’t see him, he was smiling. “Yeah. We’re going to be okay. Promise.”
Gray listened and kept her tongue still. She complained enough today. None of which she felt she deserved. However, as she thought about it, she complained more than anyone else today.
She knew she didn’t deserve that luxury either. She wasn’t allowed to complain. But even back home, she remembered finding ten things to complain about before she could even get out of bed. The worst part was that her complaining tended to force people to let her have her way.
And it worked again. Gray pushed these kids into doing what she wanted so she could get money to get out of having to put in any work in this crazy game. They went along with it too. What, because they had nothing better to do? They might have been bumming it up in town but at least they weren’t laying down their lives for strangers.
So she promised. She’d swore that all three of those kids will make it out of this game. She’d use her dumb Karen, ‘my way or else’ powers to ensure they survived. No matter what.
Toward the front of the line, Siren looked past Fleur and at the only person she knew in this group. “Sarge?”
“Yeah?”
“If…” Siren cursed at herself. “When we get out of here. We should do something. For Kal, I mean.”
Since getting trapped in the game, Siren became more closed off. The only reason she stuck with Sarge was because they met before the incident. Even then, she never really trusted him. It was worse with Kal too. And while she was right about never trusting King, she noticed the downward spiral she was going down.
But what happened to Kal? He didn’t deserve that. And, of course, Siren blamed herself. It was her mouth that sent King over the edge. All to call a bluff. Why? Even if they actually would have died later, that’s more time to find an escape.
The worst part was that Siren realized she was one of two people Kal could trust. And yet she never thought the same in return. That’s what made her feel worse. She had to make up for that.
Sarge nodded. “We will.”
Since he was in the front of the group, no one could see the absolute hatred crawling on his face. If Siren blamed herself for not trusting one of their teammates, one could imagine how much Sarge blamed himself for trusting the wrong teammate.
He should have cut King out at the first sign of trouble. At least then no one would have had to die.
Regardless of the hate threatening to pour from his lips, his tone remained entirely neutral. “As soon as we pick ourselves back up, we’re going after King.”
Siren’s scowl, her default expression, settled in more seriously than it ever had. “Yessir.”
While walking between Siren and Sarge, Fleur couldn’t understand a word that they said. Back in town she could understand the NPCs but those weren’t real conversations. Beyond Blitz and his basic French, she couldn’t talk with anyone.
Rachelle's school required English class and students were expected to be somewhat bilingual by her age. Unfortunately, Rachelle never bothered to pay attention. She never imagined English would be important enough for her to care. So instead, she relied on friends to help with assignments in exchange for doing their homework for other classes. She'd handle Math class, they'd handle English. They all agreed.
But now? If she made it out of whatever this hell was going to be, she was going to ask Blitz to teach her English. Actual English. Not keywords to command her in a fight. Not basic English words everyone had heard of. She wanted to have an intelligent conversation with actual, real people. Not fake video game clerks. She also wanted to do it without texting them from three feet away like some airhead.
Each of the players descending these stairs had reasons to survive waiting for them at home. Most had families and for those that didn’t, there was still something they had lost. However, none of them thought about that.
So instead they worried about what they could deal with. What they could do while they were still stuck inside this game. Those were things they felt they could strive for without it feeling so far away.
Eventually, the group climbed down the last set of stairs and spotted a large stone tunnel stretched out ahead of them. At the end of it, it opened to a cavern of lush greenery and life.
The floor had dew-coated grass and mossy rocks with a stream cutting across the cave. It stemmed from a large pond to the west, fed from a waterfall pouring out where the rough stone wall became the ceiling.
Then, stretching to the top of this massively vertical cavern were colossal trees. There had to be about a dozen of these trees with each of them about two meters in diameter. Growing along their trunks were blue, luminescent mushrooms. In fact, these mushrooms dotted the entire underground garden, acting as the only light source in what would be a room shadowed in black.
Finally, opposite of the tunnel the players emerged from, was an altar. The floor of it was a large stone slab with a tombstone the size of castle doors carved into the stone wall behind it. Along the floor of this altar were chests and piles of offerings and gifts long left behind. More numerous than any treasure tomb the four adventurers had found before coming here.
Nestled within these gifts was the pile of bones that were once a pony. The only object that remained was this immaculate wooden shield, cracked in half as it leaned up against the remains.
In Blitz’s vision, a notification came up.
Quest Update: Of Shield’s Past
You’ve discovered the adventurer and shield! Collect the shield and return to Oaken Handle with what you have learned.
Blitz clicked his tongue. “Huh. Turns out we had to come down here anyway.”
“Does that make this better?” Siren asked.
“Not at all,” Gray spoke plainly. “If anything, it makes me regret pushing us here more.”
Gray took a moment to turn to the others. “Once we step on that grass, the stairs close behind us. No going back. Everyone ready?”
The other five had varying levels of worry or nervousness but no one backed away. Instead, they all took a moment to steel their nerves.
Then they stepped on the grass.
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