KnightChade
Annoyed.
She had stolen his kill
Annoying.
Attracted by the sounds of a fight, in the tree tops, KnightChade had come on MoMony in time to watch him finish off Barbie. With the fight done, KnightChade figured that he could wait for the right moment to pounce. He had been wrong. With a shimmer a woman had appeared behind MoMony and without ceremony she had stabbed him in the back.
Annoying.
The best way to deal with this annoyance was to kill her, of course. She was bent over the body, looting it. He prepared for the leap onto his hapless prey, his tail twitched in anticipation.When she stood up and cursing, kicked the body he paused. Her frustration was laughable, it served her right that there was nothing of value on the body. He prepared his leap once again. Carefully positioning and re-positioning his paws on the branch he gauged the angle. When she bent back over the body, he had to dig his claws into the branch to prevent a undignified miss and spill.
If there had been nothing of value before what was she looking for now? Curiosity got the best of him. He had to know what she was doing. Carefully KnightChade worked his way further out on the branch so he could get a closer look at what she was doing, He noted her name was HidY KillER, she was level two. She was whip thin with short spiky blond hair, with a strip of pink. And she had wings. The wings were hard to see, as they seemed to disappear into whatever was behind them. At first KnightChade thought this was because they were clear, as he watched he saw that this was incorrect. They weren't clear it was like they were mirrors reflecting what was behind them creating almost perfect camouflage. This explained how she was able to sneak up on MoMony and steal KnightChade’s kill.
Annoying.
Not just that she had stolen his kill. She had ambushed his target in much the same way he had intended to. No question, she must die.
When HidY KillER stood back up she was holding MoMony’s Token, staring at it in her hand like she was reading it. When she pulled out her Token, a beam of energy shot out of it and hit the Token in her other hand. MoMony’s Token absorbed the energy for a moment before it exploded sending blue energy crawling along the ground. Most of this loose energy gathered on MoMony’s body. A little of the energy had broken off from the rest and now it circled HidY KillER’s neck. KnightChade was disturbed to see that the energy crawling over MoMony’s body was consuming it. In a few moments there was only energy; the body was gone. The energy now traveled back to HidY KillER and was quickly absorbed by her Token. Where the body had been there was now a small headstone. Once again KnightChade tensed his body to pounce, this time there would be no escape.
Momentum is a powerful force, and terrible.
Painful...Embarrassing.
Annoying.
KnightChade peaked from under the tree he had come to rest under. How had she known, how had she escaped. One moment she had been there, then she wasn't and he had gone tumbling, crashing into the tree. He was impressed, that was annoying. The next time he saw her he vowed she would die painfully. He looked around the clearing, making sure he was alone. Once confident he was unobserved, he dragged himself from under the tree. He walked to the small headstone, with his back straight as if he hadn’t just fallen on his face. Nobody saw it. It didn’t happen.
His curiosity was piqued when he read the headstone.
RIP
MoMony
It seemed so final. What did it mean? What was that energy? What did Tokens have to do with it? There were so many questions. He realized the only way he was going to get answers was if he went out and took someone’s, anyone’s, Token. That wasn't going to be too hard, all he need to do was find someone to kill. With that he took to the tree tops again, swiftly heading towards town where the hunting would be easy. Full of stupid noobes just waiting to be killed. He moved quickly and quietly keeping an ear open for the tell tale sounds of another moving through the forest, hoping to ambush someone before reaching town.
It was not to be. Soon he could hear the steady din, that was many people all talking at once, long before he could see the town. He felt his hackles rising, people were annoying, lots of people was very annoying. Plus town was much too public for what he was trying to do. Still he sprinted across the the open space between the forest and town. Once in the shadow of a building he put his back to the wall and scanned the area, looking for any eyes or other signs of unwanted attention. Convinced that he was hidden, KnightChade scaled the wall, lying flat on the roof he paused to make sure he was still unseen.
Keeping to the rooftops, he move to the edge of town that was the furthest from the main road. This part of town was still mostly unused, dark in the shadow of the forest. It was here he hoped he could find the perfect combination of privacy and someone foolish enough to be alone. It seemed that it was not to be. The problem being to much privacy, also a distinct lack of fools. He sat on a roof below the peak, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. He wanted to take a moment to think through his next move. There was nothing to be gained by going into town and interacting with others. He wanted to kill them not make friends. That left the passive option of waiting here and hoping some fool came by, Or the active, going into the forest hunting,
The answer was clear, waiting was annoying.
Thankfully he didn’t have to. There was buzz of a voice, moving towards him.
“Did you hear what she said?”
“What?...”
Two voices.
“...you mean about the Tokens?”
Wait! What?!
“Yeah.”
Damn! The word was out. Even though he had watched it happen, he really didn’t know what it all meant. Annoying.
“I’m not going to worry about it, and neither should you. It doesn’t even matter if we don’t have them.”
KnightChade crouched lower on the roof. He had forgotten that the Token came when he reached level two. Annoying. This meant he needed to kill a level two, not that hard if he ambushed them. He would find a level two.
“Come on, where are you going now?”
The idiots were still here.
“You said you heard what else she said.”
“Yeah, Tokens and whatever.”
“Treasure! You idiot! There’s hidden treasure all over the place. There was a sign.”
“Yeah, I didn’t read it, just tell me what it said, come on.”
“You’re ridiculous, there’s treasure, like millions of dollars. It’s hidden, and I’m going over there to find some.”
KnightChade hoped ‘over there’ was near him. These idiots must die. He still couldn’t see them but he could hear them.
“Why do we have to go over there? I wanna go into the woods.”
“We don’t have to. I’m going there to find treasure, you can do whatever you want.”
Well one out of two is better than none.
“There’s no treasure there, people will have already found them if there were.”
“you don’t know that! I’m going.”
Finally.
“Fine, but you’re going to waste all our time. When we find nothing, you better say I’m right.”
“Whatever, let’s go.”
Excellent. KnightChade moved to the edge of the roof, and waited. Waiting was annoying. He paced in place, anticipating his leap. Fortunately he didn’t have to wait long. Two dwarves turned the corner, still bickering.
“If you don’t look you’re never going to find anything.”
“Shut. Up. I am looking.”
“Really?! You think they are just going to leave treasure out in the open. You really are an idiot. Get down on your belly and look under that building. God this is so boring.”
KnightChade was done listening to these fools. He looked over the edge of the roof. He could only see the two stubby legs of a dwarf. the legs were laying down, The other voice was hidden by the eves, more than likely leaning against the building. The memory of his lost kills raised KnightChade’s heckles and reminded him that he should move fast, no more thinking. So drawing his machete, he rolled off the roof.
Landing lightly on his paws, KnightChade saw his assumption had been correct. Leaning against the wall was a second dwarf. KnightChade had started to swung his machete as he landed. Unfortunately the swing was at the height of a human, not a dwarf. He tried to make the height adjustment that was needed to not completely miss his target, but was unable to change his swing enough for the decapitation he was going for. Instead his blade struck the dwarf in the forehead, directly below his helmet. The blade thunked into the wall behind the dwarf before he could finish dropping his jaw in surprise. 1 kill +1 xp.
The body was still standing. A look of stupid surprise on its face, a red line across his forehead the only sign of anything amiss. KnightChade jerked his machete free, only then did the body collapse at the knees. The helmet, with the top of the head still inside, hit the ground and rolled around on its edge almost making a complete circle before falling brain side down.
KnightChade heard muffled screaming. He turned from the helmet to see that the body had fallen across the legs of his buddy, and now the dwarf who was laying down was completely stuck. KnightChade thought for a moment about drawing out this kill, then he remembered he was on a mission; these level one noobs weren’t going to do it. So he brought his machete down, once, twice, three times. 1 kill +1 xp. After he checked their wallets, found 5ng on each of them. He looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched. Convinced he was alone, he disappeared into the woods.
KnightChade wasn't sure where he was heading and soon he found himself back at the clearing where MoMony had been tokened. This time the clearing was empty. Annoying. Or maybe not. The quiet and still surrounded him. He breathed deep, a breath full of the sharp scent of pine. As he let the breath out slowly, the sounds of the forest came alive. There were so many layers of sound. First was the sound of two birds, in duet, the song a call and response. The duet was matched by the staccato beat of a hidden woodpecker. The next layer, under the feathery trio, came the sound of wind. More exactly it was the sound of the branches moving. It was a sound that could come only from the whole forest swaying in unison.
He took another breath and new layers of sound emerged. The constant buzz of insects. Beneath all these sounds, almost beyond KnightChade’s hearing, was that of the forest growing. He taken by this new sense of the forest, this closeness of nature, it was something he had no experience to compare it with. He felt something inside himself unlock. The muscles in his face relaxed; if anyone had seen under his mask they might have thought he was smiling. But, of course that wasn’t possible.
Fortunately the moment was quickly ruined, bringing his perpetual scowl back. The moment was ruined by voices. Normally he would have been incised, but in the peaceful sway of the tree he only felt anticipation. This ended quickly as he realized it was the two idiots he had just killed back in town. Annoying. He watched as they walked into the clearing still arguing.
“How about this place? Come on, It must be far enough, I’m tired of walking. COME ON.” Whined the dwarf with the annoying name of SuperBest. Now that she was no longer under a building KnightChade saw that she was a she.
“Shut up. It’s my choice, remember. You wasted all that time looking for the damn treasure. And what did we accomplish? Nothing. No we’re doing what I say. I say we level up.” This speaker’s name was BestSuper. Annoying.
“See, we wouldn’t have a plan if we hadn’t gone looking for treasure.”
“What are you talking about? All we did was get killed.”
“True. But one of the killers told us to kill each other to level up before he killed us.”
“I hate you, I really do.”
KnightChade’s patience was running out. He was willing to wait to accomplish his goal, but he wasn’t sure that he could take any more of their yammering. Luckily they were getting to it, each pulling an ax from their backs they began circling each other. And circling, neither willing to make the first move.
“Bring it, you toad!” BestSuper shouted.
With a shout of anger SuperBest lept forward with a mighty overhead swing. BestSuper saw the blow coming so was able to step to his left avoiding the chop. SuperBest’s momentum brought her past BestSuper, With an inside out swing BestSuper took off his opponent's right leg above the knee. This brought SuperBest to an abrupt halt. With a small yelp she collapsed, sliding face first for a few feet. BestSuper was on her quickly. With a quick chop of his ax, it was over.
KnightChade watched from the tree hoping that BestSuper had what he need to level up. But as the kill-statue appeared and BestSuper bent to loot his friends body, he knew it was not to be. Once again KnightChade wrestled with the doubt that he was doing the right thing waiting for these two idiots to kill each other enough time for one of them to level up. However SuperBest reappeared while KnightChade was weighing his options.
“I have another idea.” SuperBest said.
BestSuper hefted his ax then replied, “fine, let’s hear your idea.”
“OK, so I think we should stop fighting. I think it will be faster if we alternate killing each other, no more fighting.” She held out her ax as if pleading.
“That is a terrible idea.” BestSuper said with a voice heavy with disdain. “You need to practice, How are you ever going to not suck?”
KnightChade knew there was more to this statement. BestSuper most likely enjoyed killing his friend. This assumption was given more credence when SuperBest was quickly killed with an ax to the head; it was proven when he laughed after. He then knelt to loot his friends body. In doing this he missed what KnightChade saw. The kill-statue didn’t show the battle, it was a replica of BestSuper holding out the level up scroll! KnightChade was elated, all this waiting and patience was about to pay off. His excitement was great, but he knew he had to wait for BestSuper to get his Token.
It didn’t take long. BestSuper quickly scanned the scroll then replaced it. KnightChade’s excitement boiled over when he saw BestSuper pick the Token up from the pedestal. It had felt as if BestSuper was moving in slow motion, but as soon as the Token was removed time seemed to snap into fast forward. KnightChade was out of the tree before he had thought to move. He hit the ground and drew his machete at the same time. Two quick steps and he was on BestSuper before BestSuper had time to turn around. Whether he even knew he was under attack became a moot point; he was hacked in half, from shoulder to hip. 1 kill +1 xp. KnightChade watched the two halves slide apart, then pounced on the lower half as it hit the ground is a slight puff of dust.
When KnightChade reached into BestSuper’s wallet it was easy to pick out the Token as it was easily twice as thick and bigger than the other coins. When he tried to gather the coins and the Token it became clear that he could take Ngs or the Token but not both. He wanted the money but his curiosity over the Token won out. He straightened up with the Token in his hand. As he did he felt a movement on his hip, in his wallet. Reaching inside he found his Token was twitching, with a deep breath he pulled it out. Once out of the wallet it began to vibrate faster, becoming almost hard to hold on to. KnightChade felt like his Token was shaking in anticipation. a clear light shot out of his token and hit the other one. When he looked at this light he saw there were words scrolling through the light.
To absorb power move Tokens closer: WARNING this is permanent
Whatever that meant KnightChade didn’t really care; he had decided to do, what? As he stood there he realized he had no idea what he was going to unleash. Absorb power sounded good, also HidY KillER hadn’t seemed to suffer when she did it. KnightChade had waited long enough there was no way he was not doing it, whatever it was.
He brought his hands together.
Starting at his Token, the energy connecting the two Tokens began to change. Red and Black tentacles quickly advanced across the bridge the energy had created between the Tokens. When they reached BestSuper’s Token there was a flash and then energy and tentacles shot in many direction. BestSuper’s body and the kill statue were consumed. As they finished the red and black were all that remained, these moved along the ground then up KnightChade’s feet. most returned and were reabsorbed into his Token. A few crawled up his back them moved no more. Tokened -1
Where the body had been there now stood a little headstone. Assuming it read RIP Bestsuper, KnightChade didn’t read it. Instead, like HidY KillER, he looked at his Token. It looked normal. A movement on its face drew his eye. It was the dial that showed his skills, it was slowly spinning; instead of showing two skills like it should there were now three. This was interesting. Then a sobering thought dawned on KnightChade. The skill that he had just gained most likely came from other Token. The guy whose Token it was was dumb, really dumb. What were the chances that he had created a skill that would be of any use.
Pacing around the clearing he waited till the new skill rotated into view. Strong Block 2, maybe KnightChade owed BestSuper an apology. A skill called strong block could be quite helpful. “Hey!Who are you?”
It was SuperBest. KnightChade had taken too long, and she had re-spawned. Annoying. “What’s that on your back?” Her voice grated KnightChade’s nerves. “Gross! Is that hair?”
KnightChade had no idea what she was talking about. It didn’t matter. She was going to die. He slowly turned to face her. When she saw his mask her eyes got wide. “Oh.” She said in a small voice.
