Campaign (Blades VR Book 2) Read online

  “Ahh.” Shale nodded, realizing that Mercy could have done the same thing—pulled for their group—but then Shale would not have been able to learn the skill.

  “He just hit one,” Ezref said, as Shale saw the Paladin strike a skeleton with his mace. It broke into pieces, the shards falling in a pile on the ground. “No way they got experience for that one.”

  “He doesn’t care if a few perish for no gain. That isn’t why he pulled the entire group,” Xander sneered. “He did it to make sure we couldn’t get any.”

  Fen groaned and Mercy nodded.

  “Well, two can play that game,” Sebastian said. “Mercy can go out and pull the next bunch. Get them all so they see how it feels.”

  Mercy snorted. “I don’t play games with my enemy.”

  “Then what?” Shale asked. “Wait until they get tired and leave so we can get some mobs?”

  “No.” Mercy uncrossed her arms and moved toward Xander. “We will deal with this.”

  “Good.” Fen smiled. “Skeletons were getting too easy. A little group-on-group battle will be fun.”

  Mercy shook her head. “Only Xander and I.”

  “Aw, come on.” Fen frowned. “That’s no fair. We wanna play, too.”

  “Go sit against the wall.” Mercy put her arm around the young Death Stryker and turned away from the group. “I must instruct Xander before we engage them.”

  “How long’s that going to take?” Sebastian asked.

  “A few hours.”

  “What?”

  Mercy nodded at Shale. “Go out and grab a mob if you are able.”

  “What if the Paladin steals it from me again?”

  “I expect that’s exactly what he will do.” She smiled. “Pretend to be upset about it. Complain if you like. Play along. That will lull him into thinking that his plan is working.”

  “And the rest of us?” Fen asked.

  “Be ready in case Shale is able to bring a skeleton back. Pull small ones. I will be watching in case things get out of hand, but I am confident you can deal with them.”

  “While you instruct Xander?” Sebastian asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And then what?”

  Mercy’s smile was cruel. “You will see.”

  9

  Shale was truly beginning to get angry.

  She had returned to the field and attempted to pull five more times. Each time the Paladin appeared and stole her mob, laughing as he ran off with the skeleton focused on him instead of her.

  She was tempted go to his camp and complain, but Mercy had seemed pretty serious when she told her not to do that. Hours had passed. The sun was now directly overhead. While she had been out here, the rest of the group sat and watched. Except for the two Death Strykers. They remained apart from he group, with Mercy talking and Xander listening.

  “Waste of time,” Shale muttered. There was a whistle and she turned toward her group. Fen was waving for her to come back. “Finally,” she muttered. “A bit of action.”

  Mercy was addressing the group as Shale joined them. “Pack up your gear. I want everyone ready to leave when we return.”

  “Aren’t we going to stay and grab some XP after you take care of them?” Fen frowned.

  “No.”

  Aleron groaned.

  “We achieved our goals at this spot yesterday,” Mercy snapped. “The purpose of today was to reinforce your confidence and perhaps get a piece of loot.”

  “Which I would still like to do,” Fen nudged his shield on the ground with the toe of his boot.

  Shale laughed. “You sound like a spoiled child.”

  He grinned. “Perfect, that’s the tone I was going for...”

  “There is better treasure to be had elsewhere.” Mercy said. “Do as I say.”

  “What are you planning?” Sebastian asked.

  She smiled and placed her hand on Xander’s shoulder. The young Death Stryker looked nervous. “Don’t worry,” she said. “You will see what our efforts produce, even from this distance.” She raised her hand and spoke a single unintelligible, harsh word. Black mist appeared and began to swirl around them, getting thicker as the seconds passed. Then it began to spin and surround the two until they were invisible. There was an abrupt flash and the mist disappeared.

  The Death Strykers were gone.

  “Damn,” Fen breathed. “That was kinda cool.”

  Xander squinted as they moved through the shadow corridor. The air was colder here, the sights and sounds muffled. Traces of blackness darted along the edges of his vision but did not prevent him from seeing the field beyond. Mercy’s hand rested on his shoulder as she steered him forward.

  “Look for the pile of bones,” she said. “Bone dust and shards will be abundant and spread around them, after the number of skeletons that they’ve dispatched.”

  “I will.”

  “The best time to strike is when he returns with a fresh group and has transferred aggro.”

  “Okay.”

  They arrived at their destination. The party was made up of three young men geared and armoured as warriors, a robed healer, and another who wore robes of gold and red. Xander could see that each was surrounded by a faint aura of gold. “All of them follow the Light?”

  “As I had hoped.” She steered him to stand against the wall, twenty feet away. “This will please the Lady greatly.”

  The priest raised his head and turned toward them. Mercy laughed, the sound soft and muted in the corridor that they occupied. She raised her free hand and waved. Blackness dripped from her fingers and dropped to the ground. The priest stared for a moment and then looked back toward the melee.

  “That priest is high-level,” she said.

  “As high as the Paladin?”

  “Perhaps, but not likely. If he was much higher, then he could have exposed us. He sensed something, but not enough to investigate.”

  “Stick to your plan, then?”

  “Absolutely.” She squeezed his shoulder. “This is excellent practice for you. The Lady has generously provided. Do not waste her gift.”

  A short time later the Paladin returned with a new group of skeletons and moved to position the mobs so that their backs faced the young warriors. After a few seconds, the Paladin of Light took a step back.

  Mercy leaned close to whisper in Xander’s ear. “Whenever you are ready.”

  Xander nodded and closed his eyes. He took a deep, slow breath and held it for the count of three. Then he exhaled and focused on the icy coolness of his altered eye socket.

  “Silver knives,” he whispered. “Liquid death.”

  He took another breath, exhaled, and repeated the words. After completing the process for a third time, he nodded and stood straighter.

  Mercy released her grip on his shoulder, and he opened his eyes.

  Grandar grinned as the skeletons clawed at him, their feeble attempts falling harmlessly against the thin shield of Light that protected him from their touch. “That’s it, lads,” he called. “Take them with full swings.” He laughed as one skeleton broke and fell to the ground. “Good work, Tern.”

  A strange coldness touched his neck, and Grandar turned, frowning, as a young man appeared from thin air to stand near the group. Grandar looked closer and noticed ebony mist trickling from the newcomer’s body and drifting toward the ground like black oil.

  “What the—” Grandar’s eyes widened as he realized they were under attack. He opened his mouth to alert the priest, but his words caught in his throat as the attacker’s eye blasted a bright pulse of silver-blue light. Grandar drew the great sword from its scabbard and stepped forward, silently calling upon the Lord of Light for assistance, but it was too late.

  The magic from Xander’s eye infused thousands of bone shards strewn over the ground—the by-product of so many destroyed skeletons—then filled them with silver light and transformed them into sharp blades. With a great boom of thunder and a whooshing influx of air, the silver shards rose from the g
round and streaked toward a centre point in the unsuspecting group. The shards cut through metal armour, cloth, flesh, and bone as easily as a hot knife through butter. The bones were so thick as they swirled that it looked as if a white fog had set in. Xander could hear screams as the party members were flayed alive. Suddenly, the bone fragments flashed upward into the sky, forming a lethal column of destruction. Unable to fight back, the group disappeared in an instant, obliterated outward and up in a spray of flesh and blood.

  As suddenly as the bone fragments had gained their power, they lost it and began to fall to the ground, drifting down in the sudden silence like crimson-stained snowflakes.

  Xander dropped to his knees and bent forward, gasping for breath as the magic rushed out of him. He looked up and saw Mercy smiling, her expression of pride obvious. “Well done, Xander.” She closed her eyes and touched the lids with her fingertips. “May the Lady accept your gift.”

  He straightened and nodded, bowing his head with reverence as his fingertips touched his own closed eyelids, completing the unholy litany of his order. “Let Darkness cleanse them.”

  10

  Mercy led the way across the field, her pace slow. Xander followed, legs shaky and stomach feeling gaunt, as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

  His maimed eye socket throbbed with a coldness that burrowed into his skull. He reached up and held his hand as close as he could to the skin without making contact. It gave off an icy chill that quickly began to make his hand tingle. Mercy called it Death’s Kiss. He smiled. It did sound better than icy eye socket.

  A clacking sounded from their left. Xander trained his good eye on a pawn skeleton that was haphazardly racing toward them with arms raised and mouth open. Mercy made a casual shooing motion with her hand and spoke a word. “Rest.” The skeleton collapsed, the bones coming apart and crumbling into a pile that skidded in a wave, coming to rest near their feet. Xander drew back one foot to kick the skull.

  “Don’t.” Mercy’s pace did not slow. “The creature is gone. There is no need to be cruel.”

  Xander laughed. “We’re Death Strykers.”

  She cast a glance at him over her shoulder. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Being cruel. Isn’t that what we do?”

  Mercy sighed. “I’ve never dealt with a Traveller who was one of us before. I’m not sure if my patience is up to the task.” She slowed her pace, allowing him to catch up and walk beside her. “Being a Death Stryker doesn’t mean that everything we do must inflict pain and sorrow. And it does not exclude basic manners. We may work more intimately with death than others, but we still respect it. Many of our order would argue that our respect is greater because of our role.”

  “Huh. That’s good to know.”

  “Is this concept something you will struggle with?”

  He considered the question before answering. “No.”

  “I’m pleased to hear that. It may help you to survive the process for longer than most.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Another skeleton rushed them and again Mercy de-animated it with a flick of her wrist. “In the order of Darkness—the grand hierarchy of the Lady—Death Strykers are placed above all others. As such, more is expected of us than everyone else.”

  “I understand.”

  Mercy shook her head. “You don’t. But I will teach you. And, should you prove lacking in any way...”

  Xander searched his memory of game lore, specifically that of the role-playing game. “If I fail, you kill me.”

  Mercy’s hair swung back and forth as she shook her head. “The price for failure is more severe than death. Should you prove unequal to the task, I will completely obliterate your soul.”

  Xander’s eyes widened but he said nothing.

  “There are moments along the way when you will be given the opportunity to withdraw from your training without penalty. Chances to walk away and live. Now is one of those times.”

  He shook his head without hesitation. “I do not wish to withdraw.”

  She watched him for the space of a few heartbeats. Then she nodded and continued walking.

  ***

  Mercy stopped a few feet from the group and waited for Sebastian to speak.

  “What,” he gestured with his chin to the opposite side of the Chessboard, “the hell was that?”

  Mercy’s eyes reflected the amused smile that appeared on her lips. “Xander cast a spell called bone storm.”

  “What?” Fen laughed and pumped his fist in the air. “Well done, man. From our vantage point it should be called blood shower.”

  Xander grinned.

  “It was spectacular to witness,” Sebastian said.

  “Beyond spectacular,” Ezref said. “My previous master was powerful, but not enough to cast that spell in such a way. Bone storm usually has a very slow cast time and involves a lengthy set of rituals to invoke the magic.”

  Mercy shrugged. “As a regular spell, it is fairly useless. By the time you call the magic, the party has either moved out of the area of effect, or you are dead. But this isn’t a normal spell for Xander. It’s an ability that he can access using Death’s Kiss.”

  “Ahh, I see.” Sebastian leaned towards the young Death Stryker, nodding as he peered at his icy eye socket. “This is a good thing to have in our arsenal. You are fortunate to possess such an ability, lad.”

  Mercy moved to her backpack, opened the flap, and withdrew a sandwich wrapped in paper. She tossed it to Xander, then stood and shouldered her pack. “We should leave now.”

  “In case anyone comes to find out what happened?”

  She nodded. “We could deal with any issues, but there’s no point in calling extra attention to ourselves.”

  “I agree.” Sebastian reached for his own pack. “Where should we go?”

  “Back to Kieran,” Aleron said.

  Sebastian frowned.

  “It will be worth the trip. Shale levelled.”

  “Yay!” The ranger jumped up and down, clapping her hands together.

  “And Ezref.”

  “Finally.” The young apprentice scowled, but after a moment grinned.

  “How ’bout me?” Fen asked.

  Aleron paused and then nodded, laughing as the warrior cheered and pumped his fist in the air.

  “And Xander?” Sebastian asked. “His recent victory might have dinged him. Maybe even twice.”

  “Not twice.” Aleron shook his head and held up four fingers.

  “Truly?” Xander’s eyes widened.

  “Mhmm.”

  The group surrounded Xander and congratulated him with slaps on the back and encouraging words.

  When the excitement waned, Sebastian spoke. “Then yes, we definitely need to get to a Scout, but I’d prefer not to see Kieran.”

  “Why not?” Aleron asked.

  Sebastian scrunched his eyes in a pained expression but before he could speak, Mercy chimed in. “I agree. It would be best to visit a different Scout.”

  “How will we locate another?” Shale asked.

  “Aleron can sense them,” Mercy said.

  The young Scout frowned but nodded.

  “Something wrong?” Sebastian asked.

  “Mercy seems to know an awful lot about Scouts.”

  “That’s true.” Sebastian turned to Mercy and raised an eyebrow.

  “You said it yourself a few days ago.” She smiled. “I am a high-level Death Stryker, privy to the most intimate knowledge of my order. I don’t know everything, but I know ‘an awful lot’ about many things.”

  Sebastian chuckled. “Find us a different Scout, Aleron.”

  “Before that,” Fen ran a hand through his hair. “What’s wrong with looking for some loot?”

  “Where?” Aleron asked.

  “The party that Xander just slaughtered.” Sebastian looked to Mercy, and she nodded with a shrug. “We can stop for a quick look on the way.”

  “Dibs on that Paladin’s shield and hammer.” Fen
sprang to his feet and began to jog across the field.

  11

  For those who will play the new FIVR game, Blades VR, the act of leaving one’s body to enter a new reality is certain to be a powerful experience.

  To make the transition as smooth as possible, immersed players will find that many, if not most, of the mundane features inside the game are exactly the same as they are in real life. For example, inside Blades VR everyone will drink tea and coffee and call it tea and coffee. Salt will look and taste like it does in the real world. NPCs will call a caterpillar exactly that (unless it is a bloodworm larva, which is very different and should never be confused). The butterfly that comes out of its cocoon may look different, but it will still be generically referred to as a butterfly.

  Don’t worry, even with the large number of similarities, there will be enough differences to provide players with years’ worth of authentic and new experiences. Of course, it is possible that players will rename items and areas, introducing slang and terms that are accepted and used by the NPCs over time.

  It is not only our hope that players will impact the virtual world in more ways than we can imagine, it is our expectation...

  Gamer Monthly — interview with Sebastian Darndhal, co-founder of ARC Gaming and chief designer of Blades VR

  Sebastian bit into the sandwich, smiled, and closed his eyes. After a couple of chews, he opened his eyes and reached for the knife resting inside a jar of yellow paste, slathered a bit onto his food, and took a bite. “Wow, yeah. Perfect.” He laughed. “Tastes just like mustard.”

  “That’s good, since it is mustard.”

  Sebastian turned and grinned at Ezref. “Wasn’t sure things would taste the same here as they do back home. They do, though.”

  Ezref grinned. “I know things are different across the ocean where you come from, but many things must be similar as well.”

  “They are, but it’s hard to believe that until you experience them for yourself.”

  “I suppose that makes sense.”

  Sebastian spooned a dollop of sauce from another container onto the sandwich. “How was your visit with the Scout?”