Eighth Chapter

Edwin P. Ust

            NUTRUA.  The word hung in the black behind Eddie’s closed eyes.  A little below a clock counted down the final seconds keeping him from the game.  The clock he had found while trying to kill the last remaining two hours.  In someway the clock had helped, giving him a constant update as to how much longer he’d have to wait.  But really all he had done was sit and watch it ticking down the seconds of each minute.  It was agony. Waiting.  Watching each second count down.  The hands on the clock moved backwards.

            Now it was counting down seconds.  Then ten seconds, his heartbeat accelerated.

Five. 

Now Two. 

Breath.

            “Open.” He said.  The word, NUTRUA, moved towards him; getting larger, towering over him.   Soon the letters were so big that he could only see UTRU, then just TR.  The letters came to a stop with Eddie staring up at the R, the other letters forming a towering wall running in both directions.  In the base of the R there was a door, nestled between the legs of the letter, a wooden door with a latch and handle.  Eddie reached for the door, not with his physical hand but with his hand nonetheless, his mind’s hand.  He grasped the handle and depressed the latch with his thumb.  There was a click and he pulled it open.  Sun blazed through the door, forcing him to close his eyes.  He stepped blindly through the doorway.

            Eddie felt a breeze on his face and opened his eyes.  He was standing in the middle of a large square room.  Tapestries featuring combatants of every kind hung on each wall.  The tapestry on the wall to Eddie’s right was dedicated to magic users of all kinds; magic flashed and crackled in a live action smorgasbord of various powers and disciplines.  On the left wall rogues and rangers scampered and scuttled about, looking for as much trouble as one could find on a tapestry.  The third tapestry, directly in front of him, was covered with warriors.   The warriors were stoically stomping around the tapestry, displaying their muscles and weapons.   The fourth wall, behind him also had a tapestry.  Eddie couldn’t remember going through it, but he must have because now it covered the entire wall from which he had emerged.

            His eyes roved over the tapestries, images he focused on flashing on the fourth wall behind him.  When he turned and looked the last character that he had been looking at loomed larger then life on the tapestry.  Stats and information scrolled down the edges of the tapestry.  Eddie had played many games that focused on building up your character.  Over the years he had come to learn what strategy worked the best for him.   He preferred strength over speed and power over stealth.   Eddie had never enjoyed magic as a weapon; he respected the power it could lead to.  The problem was it took so much time to level to a point where it could do enough damage.  He felt much the same about ranged weapons, and he never had the patients for stealth.  He liked the close combat, felt that it took the greatest skill and could deal the greatest damage.

With this foresight Eddie looked mainly at the warrior tapestry.  He wanted a character that could be feared but also regal.  This gave the samurai template some appeal but he wanted to avoid the cliché of a sword. He could tell that the template that he picked would heavily influence what he would look like in the game.  But what he was not sure of was whether the template would also effect how he would fight.  Eddie paused, how did he want to fight?  If he didn’t want to use a sword, what weapon did he want?  An Axe, no…two axes, a brawer with an axe in each hand would be awesome.   So he started to look for a template that was big and his eye settled on the Viking.  He turned to the fourth wall and took a closer look at the template.

            The Viking was big, and fearsome.  A metal skullcap tried to contain a massive mane of hair.  Hair covered the Viking’s forehead; bangs seemed to fall into the bushy eyebrows that in turn seemed to droop into the beard falling down to his chest.  Broad shoulders were covered by spaulders; a chainmail shirt over boiled black leather protected the rest of his barrel like frame.  Brown leather pants and heavy boots completed the outfit. 

            Eddie thought that this was a good start, the Viking had qualities that he like, and with a few tweaks it would look truly intimidating.  The tapestry had many lists surrounding the image of the Viking and with a little experimentation Eddie found that it was really easy to adjust the appearance.  He first pulled the hair back a little and added a leather headband to reveal a little more forehead. Then he adjusted the hair color so that it was blond, almost golden. This became a moot point when he started to play with helmets.  Eventually the choice came down to a skullcap with horns, or one with that extend down to cover the eyes like goggles.  He finally went with the goggles as that seemed to be the more fearsome, and the horns were a little corny.  Fur made a great addition to the shoulders, hanging down like a half cape.  It brought a regal air to what was becoming an overall fierce demeanor.  By adding greaves to the legs, Eddie was satisfied with the appearance of his character.

            The appearance phase of creation done, the tapestry changed the list of options.  Now instead of colors and garment types, it displayed only two choices; one was a list of races, the other was a long list of weapons.  He started with weapons.  He knew just what he wanted, the list being in alphabetic order he just need to go as far as the end of A.  But he found that he could only use one.  This was disappointing, but he consoled himself that it would be something he could upgrade down the road.   Now he turned his attention towards choosing a race.  Scrolling thought the races offered, Eddie noted that each race offered a few attributes. For some it was the ability to see at night, others to breath underwater, and generally there was an element of magic that the race preferred.  It seemed that the race would have an impact on how he played.  The Norseman race fit well both for appearance, as it would not change his earlier choices, the also matched the play style he was looking for. 

                          

Norsemen-Strong men from harsh environment these brutes can take a pounding, raised on war they can use any weapon.  Abilities:  double wielding weapons and two handed weapons, increased damage and hit points.  Affinities: Ice, Water and Wind.

This was the obvious choice; dual-wielding axes was exactly what he wanted all along.  He quickly locked in his character.  The image on the tapestry dulled and Name your character appeared superimposed across it. 

This threw Eddie.  For whatever reason he hadn’t thought about a name at all.  He had been playing games like this for years, he must have played thousands, and all required a name of some kind.  Some games had you play out a story, enacting a characters quest. Often these would have canned characters, written and named by the game developers.  But many others utilized character customization to help the player feel connected with the character; a big part of that connection was naming the character.   Many gaming communities judged you by your pseudonym, and often they played a larger role in how other players treated you.  Eddie was not going to take this lightly. 

Eddie backed up the edit appearance screen to mess with the appearance of the Viking while he tried to think of the best possible name.  He made small changes and added little details, quickly dancing between menus, his mind running a mile a minute.  The perfect name needed to be short, easy to say and memorable.  He also wanted it to go with the Viking theme. While he was thinking and tinkering with the character, he decided that he would rather use a two handed battle-axe.   Then he played with the idea of changing to a dwarf, but preferred to be taller then a dwarf would be.  After that train of thought was completed he turned his attention back to the name question.  He really had nothing; he didn’t really know any Viking names.  Well that was easy to fix, and he pulled out of the game and switched to the Internet browser.  Soon he had a list of Viking kings displayed.  There were good names like Erik and Godfried, a few Olafs and finally he found Ragnar Lodbrok.  Now that was a great Viking name.  Ragnar people would remember that.  Flipping back into the game, he entered the name.  The Viking completely disappeared from the tapestry.

By completing this setup you will be locking in this character.  This will be your alter ego for the game.  You will only be able to create a new character if this one is terminated and removed from the game permanently. 

            Eddie took pause at the warning, but when he thought about it he saw nothing that he wanted to change so he continued the process.   To do this he activated the Go on button at the bottom of the tapestry.  The image moved to the fore again as the writing faded away.  Then the Viking started to move, struggling against the tapestry as if it was holding him prisoner.  The tapestry bulged, as he strained the fibers to their max.  One fiber snapped with a loud pop.   The Viking reaches his right hand to his back, and it come back holding a huge double bladed axe.

            The first swing sent the blade through the tapestry, leaving a gapping hole.  Suddenly the fibers of the tapestry blasted outward, and the Viking leap out.  Eddie felt that he should be scared with this Viking towering over him.  Instead he felt a thrill, this game was going to be great.  The Viking swung the axe with both hands in an overhead arc.  Surprised Eddie jump to the right, but the Viking was fast, turning the swing horizontal.   It was a low blow that connected firmly with the back of his knees.  He didn’t feel much pain but suddenly his world rotated and he found himself lying down.  Looking up he watched in slow motion as the Viking brought the axe down. 

            Was it over? Was he dead? 

Then he felt himself move, shifting out of his body.  Rising towards the Viking.  Then he was looking down at his body, down at Eddie’s body.  He could feel the weight of the helmet, the cold of the metal on his checks.  Ragnar took a deep breath and looked down.   Eddie’s head had been decapitated and both knee were at a broken crocked angle.  Ragnar flexed his arms adjusting to the weight of his gear, shifting the way it settled on his shoulders.  He made a few practice moves to see how quickly he could arm himself.  The heft of the axe felt right in his hands and he made a few practice swings.

            He looked around the room with fresh eyes.  Now he gave himself time to appreciate the red marble floor and columns.  The four tapestries hung from beautiful classic arches.  The dome was dominated by a vivid fresco.  The fresco document the evolution of the computer; from a man looking at his five fingers, to the abacus, pocket calculator, finally a picture of a man with a TAP looking at his hand bringing it full circle.  Ragnar was thrilled by the art; he was taking his time looking at each panel.  He had never seen art like this, a still picture that didn’t have anything to sell.  Not that these pictures didn’t have a message, it was just more of a story about ideas, not shoes.   

Then he heard a sound behind him. 

            As he spun he pulled the axe from its holster on his back.  This was fortunate, as he needed to use it immediately to fend off a sword swing that was aimed at his neck.  He batted away the sword, but just barely.  Only then did he pause to see who was attacking him.  He as shocked to see that his assailant was non other then Eddie, with a sick grin, brandishing a sword in both hands. He was hardly standing upright, as his knees were still shattered, the decapitated head sat askew on its neck.  He could hardly stand so Ragnar didn’t think that he would be much trouble.

Then Eddie leaped forward in a furious attack.  Ragnar tried to block an over-head chop, but found the swing to have more force then expected, in fact it was all he could do to deflect it over his shoulder to the side.  The next frantic swing was aimed at his hip.  Again he blocked it, and then another reckless thrust aimed at this head.  He could see vulnerabilities in Eddie’s defense but no matter how big the opening seemed to be he could not find the space to exploit it.  The swinging swords seemed to move faster and he was slowly being pushed back, worse he was completely unable to mount any kind of counter attack. If he could push Eddie back for just a moment, if he could break the attack he could win.  As if triggered by that thought, Eddie stopped.

            “Now it is time.” The words came out a liquidy burble.  “Now you must create your first special move.  I’m going to come at you.  Focus on what special move you would like.  Think carefully, though you will be able to earn new moves later, it is this move that you will have to rely on in the beginning and as such will greatly influence your fighting style.  Once the move has been created it cannot be changed.  This special move could very well define you as a player.” 

Think. 

“I hope you’re ready.  Now I come.”

            Which was no joke.  This attack was even more vicious then the last, faster and the blows fell harder.  Ragnar was ready; he wanted his style to be aggressive, overwhelming opponents with his speed and strength.  To balance that aggressive style he wanted a defensive move to rely on to break up attacks. Held out his axe in both hands then he let the wind take him, and he spun.  The circle he created with his axe became his buffer.  The wind coming off the blade was sharp, creating a vortex of blades around him.  Eddie caught in the circumference was hurled away with several new wounds.   Ragnar leapt after the falling body knowing that he needed to finish this fight now.  He caught Eddie on his knee, driving him into a wall.   Ragnar bounced back, away from Eddie and with one smooth stroke of his axe he re separated Eddie’s head from its body.

            This time as the body fell it seemed to shimmer and fade.  Before it had hit the floor it was gone.  Ragnar was left alone in the marble room.  The cold stone room felt different now.  The light had shifted, withdrawn, and there were shadows in the corners.   The room felt like a tomb.  Ragnar looked around for a way out, the next step.  He turned, looking around the room and saw nothing.  Nothing had changed at all. 

“Well if nothing had changed look again at what is there,” he counseled himself.

The tapestries that hung in the arches caught his eye.  The three with the classes remained as they were before.  The characters were unmoving, giving no indication of the way forward.  The fourth tapestry was still torn, a huge rip in the fabric created by Ragnars emergence.   Ragnar looked through the rip.  Instead of a wall like he expected there was a long dark hallway.  At the far end there hung a lantern, which cast a circle of light on the floor.  It also illuminated a small round door.

            The door was heaver then he had expected.  It had big straps of iron and a massive hinge.  The rough wood caught in his beard as he put his shoulder to it.   As it slowly swung outward, bright light flashed momentarily blinding him.  When his eyes cleared he ducked to step through the small circular doorway into a sun dappled tranquil glen.  It was a clearing surrounded by tall pine trees, their evergreen scent wafted on a light breeze.  Ragnar turned to find that he had just stepped out of large hole in an old tree trunk, the hole created in a twist in the bark where a branch had rotted a long time ago.  As for right now there was no one around.  Somewhere in the back of Ragnar’s mind he remembered someone else, he could feel the closed eyes when he let himself. 

Eddie opened his eyes.  His room was bathed in its usual gray light.  It was almost nighttime and the shadows were deep and long.  He had been playing for about an hour.  He closed his eyes and entered the game.  Once again he found himself facing the door in the crutch of the R.  The door delivered him to the woody glen.  He walked through the clearing, which now resembled a long hall; with his back to the tree-door he began to hear the tinny sound of weapons and the shouts of people fighting as if the sound was wafting on the breeze from a great distance.  The sound got louder and his heart speed up a little.  Then he saw the sign, it was a plain wooden board nailed to a post.  On it was written,

Every Man for Himself Battle

Level One Only

He walked past the sign, lvl 1: Pass in green flashed once at the bottom of his vision.  The tree trunks that lined the hallway ended suddenly, before him stretched a featureless plain; so flat it could be called a lawn.  The noise of battle was a roar now.  He pulled his axe from his shoulder and ran into the fray. 

As Ragnar ran he tried to take stock in what he was running into.  It looked to be maybe fifteen characters, bunched together.   From a couple of different directions he could see other characters running into the battle.  By now he was nearing the battle and started to look for a target.  There was a lizard man in purple that drew his attention.  In one hand the lizard held a dagger, the other flickered with lightning.  Ragnar watched a small flash of light as the lizard sent a blot into the crowd.  If it had any effect Ragnar couldn’t see it.  The lizard didn’t see Ragnar at all, when his shoulder connected with the lizards back it sent him flying into tall woman wrapped in furs, she held a short spear with a small skin buckler.  The impact knocked her to a knee, the lizard man went sprawling.  Ragnar was quickly on him and buried the blade of his axe in the top of its flat scaly head, right between it’s eyes.  1 kill +1 xp flashed on his vision. 

He wrenched the blade up, and then turned to see who was next.  This was fortuitous as the woman in furs was crouching to pounce on him with her short spear.  Ragnar attacked first, leaping forward with his axe held before him.  She hopped back the pivoting on her feet she swept her spear in a low circle trying to take out his legs.  He dropped the head of the axe, the weight of the head working to give it the speed it needed to block the blow before his knee.  Reversing his weapon he brought it up in a vicious arch towards her torso.  His blade connected almost cutting her in half; the axe smashing up into her rib cage.  But he didn’t see the kill sign; looking up he saw an arrow sticking from her eye.   It must have killed her before his blow connected, damn!

There were more people charging into the fray, however instead of bunching up like Ragnar had assumed the fighting had spread out.  There were small groups, mainly pairs fighting each other.  He heard a howl from behind him.  He spun and saw a hunched hairy man with a curved dagger in each hand.  WolfBane flashed above the man’s head as he howled.  He turned his head to the sky as he howled and Ragnar could see that his face was slightly elongated.  As the howl died off WolfBane turned and grinned.  His canine teeth glinted in the corner of the grin, then he charged.

About five feet from Ragnar, WolfBane leapt; one blade a vicious swipe at his throat, the other a follow though stab aimed at his stomach.  Ragnar stepped to the side and let him go by, the flat of his axe on WolfBane’s back to help him along.  Wolfbane spun with a snarl, but Ragnar was already on the attack.  He came with a strong overhead two-handed hack. WolfBane used both daggers crossed to stop the blow; he blocked the attack but was driving to his knees by its force.  Ragnar kicked him in the chest, WolfBane was knocked to his back, but he was fast, and he was able to wriggle away from Ragnar’s over head chop.  Quickly regaining he feet after avoiding the attack.  Crouched over he backed away with his daggers held in front of him.  Then he Howled.  Then he changed, he hair grew and his faced stretched further.  The daggers seemed to retract into what were rapidly becoming two claws. 

When the transformation was complete Wolfbane was taller and better muscled then he had been.  Ragnar was not surprised by the change, and he readied himself to fight the werewolf.  WolfBane howled then attacked.  It was a head on charge, Ragnar knew the leap was coming; the trick was going to be the timing.  The leap came and Ragnar was ready, he skipped to the side, and with a quick inside out swing brought the blade up in to WolfBane’s throat.  Ragnar could tell it was a clean hit, from the sweet feel of it. 1 kill +1 xp. 

The next foe that approached him was an elf dressed in blue.  The elf had a thin pale face with shoulder length black hair.  Dressed in a flowing ocean blue rob, as he moved steal blue armor glinted underneath. LeBlu flashed above his head. In both hands the elf held a long spear, a blue pennant hanging from just below the leaf shaped blade.   LeBlu twisted the tip of the spear then thrust it straight at Ragnar’s chest.  Rangar was not planning on being there when the thrust arrived.  Stepping into the thrust he deflected the shaft with the heft of his axe.  Spinning along the spear he swung his axe low, looking to catch he foe on the knees.  But LeBlu saw the attack coming and some how retracted the spear, managing to defect the blow.

LeBlu then went on the attack, his spear thrusting from all angles.  The attack was frantic and fast, but not as fast as the Eddie zombie had been.  However every time that Ragnar thought he was getting inside the spears radius LeBlu found a way to get the spearhead around.  Suddenly Ragnar saw it; the shaft itself seemed to move.  Once again he went on the attack, this time deliberately watching the shaft as he got inside the attack radius.  This time he saw it for sure, the spear shrunk.  LeBlu’s special move must be the ability to change the size of his weapon.  Well two could play at the special move game.  Ragnar had been looking for a good time to try out his special move.

Ragnar knew the pattern LeBlu would attack with a thrust, all he needed to do was avoid it then step inside and strike.  It worked just like he had drawn up.  He blocked a stab aimed at his chest with the flat of his axe.  Then stepping inside the spear’s head he triggered the spin.  The wind coming of his blade was cold and sharp; it surrounded him with its swirling protection.  Though the move had been designed with defense in mind in this case it proved to be an excellent offensive weapon.  On its first pass the blade of wind tore the spear out of LeBlu’s hands and flung it off into the melee.  Ragnar keep the spin going with the intention of finishing LeBlu off the next revolution.

As he turned he saw something out of the corner of his eye.  Someone had been sneaking up on him.  It was a dwarf all in red plate armor.  He had a shield and his sword was raised to attack.  Ragnar had been completely oblivious to his presence and if he had waited a few more moments before triggering his special move, he would have been killed.  Lucky for him, not lucky for the dwarf.  He only had to make a subtle change in the elevation his axe.  The blade of wind made the quite sound of paper cut by scissors as it sliced across the dwarfs exposed neck, eviscerating throat. 

Ragnar was not able to raise the axe to its original plain by the time he reached LeBlu.  However it seemed to be enough, as it caught LeBlu high on his chest.  The blow cut though the LeBlu’s robes and armor and bit deep into his chest sending him spinning. 

Ragnar halted his spin ready to follow up and finish off the blue adorned elf.  1 kill +1 xp, 1 kill +1 xp, Double kill +2 xp; flashed across Ragnars vision.   That was amazing, he was starting to gain some serious xp.  He was also starting to get quite tired, and the crowd was getting bigger, more people joining the battle every minute. Though it had gone by quickly Ragnar felt he had been fighting forever.  He muscles were tired and his concentration felt strained. However he knew that he could not wait long to pick his next target so he surveyed the people around him trying to pick his next victim.  

THRUMP.  The impact staggered Ragnar to one knee, pain exploded in his shoulder he could feel the thrum of the arrow vibrating.  THRUMP, another impact and another arrow, apparently Ragnar had waited too long to pick a target and someone was targeting him.  He turned to see his assailant.  Instead of an attacker he had a quick flash of brown as another arrow entered his eye.  He only had the time to wonder, what happens when you die?  The ground came up to meet his remaining eye and then the worlds went dark.