Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (33 page)

“Uncle Grant?” a female said.

I looked up the ridge to see a character that looked like a superhero version of real life. My niece stood with reddened skin and a sword on one hip. Furs and leather clasped around her legs and forearms. The uncovered portions of skin revealed far too much skin for such a young girl.

She looked confused and at the path I had walked to get here. I turned my head to look behind me to see the graveyard of bodies once more.

“Were you down there?” she asked without sounding upset or grossed out.

Teeth grabbed onto my bottom lip and chewed briefly. Various answers ran through my mind before I gave up. It was overly bright out here, and the world still reeled from my Voice assisted fall to
[Arcadia]
.

“It’s been a long week,” I answered.

Session Seventy Nine - Wood You?

We walked a ways west while talking. Beth told me about the news recordings she had watched with Liz. Apparently my sister had passed out on the couch upstairs while the television kept right on going about all things wrong in the world. Middle age had firmly caught up with Liz and me.

The messages annoyed me. I never asked to be a
[Criminal]
, but technically I did the crime. My breath came in a shudder. There was a good deal of other things to do. At least the broken
[Brand Anchor]
allowed me to roam around without pain, but I had no idea who managed to shatter the item or how.

“How did you even get here?” I asked abruptly. Continue Online was huge, even my
[Light Body]
,
[Blink]
, and autopilot moving while I slept or worked couldn’t have made it here so fast.

“We made scrolls to summon raid members to the Tower of Stars. Even though we only made it halfway, I had a few left over,” she answered. A moment later, her hands were spread wide above her head. “So whoosh, here I am!”

My niece had mentioned that, hadn’t she? Almost two months ago the young lady had babbled about fighting a boss up top and being blown away. It tied in nicely with the fact that bodies of the deceased upstairs became undead down below. I turned to look at the jutting tower a few miles away.

“But you, you look like a giant dog has been chewing on you, Uncle Grant.” She unhesitatingly pointed at my face. “And that weird spot around your eyes. It looks like, tears, or scales. And they’re kind of stripper glittery.”

My eyes closed and the skin around my cheeks crinkled again. The ARC feedback presented my scales as stiff, like having sunburned skin. I brought my fingers up and wondered about the little token of Dusk’s gift. Tears, huh? This avatar was rapidly becoming a weird combination of elements.

“It wasn’t dogs. They were zombies. I guess.” I had tried hard not to equate that pit to glowing pale unholy monsters, but it fit. The issue of my scales looking like tears would be left for another time. “From dead bodies on the top floors.”

“Oooh. Were you in the bottom? Our guild doesn’t go there because that’s where the convicts all go. Is it neat? It’s neat right?” she said excitedly while circling around.

Beth was a bundle of energy even in-game. Her footsteps moved a pace that held more grace than even my Ultimate Edition given stats did. I remembered that first reckless run she made through a starting city while I hung on in the Second Player helm.

“It was neat, once I got past the other players.” Plus unpleasant. Dealing with that dungeon had been like crawling through a nightmare made of trippy glowing wall hangings while running for my life. A scary rush only made survivable by the fact that this world was a virtual reality.

There was a howl in the distance. At first, the noise was singular but as it died down an entire chorus of noises took their place. We were off the beaten path in a game which included monsters.

“Wolves!” Beth shouted. She pulled out a sword and slashed at the air. Trails of color hung behind each swing making a pattern of sorts. It seemed to be
[Lithium]
, but more like a mathematical formula than flowing script.

“Wait, we could run!” I suggested.
[Blink]
ing away helped me avoid most stupid fights during my traveling around. It wasn’t that I couldn’t battle, it was that I had letters to deliver and fighting every little game monster slowed me down.

“No time, howls mean they’ve aggroed, get ready!” she shouted with an uplifted tone. Both her eyebrows were focused on the drawing being cut into air. My mind tried to figure out what role to take in the upcoming fight. I didn’t group with people that often.

[Power Armor]
would be overkill against wolves, but one of the beautiful things about Continue Online was that everything could cause a game over if not taken seriously. Where the monsters got a Traveler, how big their teeth were, the concept of Rank only implied a complexity of abilities, not danger.

“Here they come!” Six wolves poked their heads out from between trees. The one in the lead snarled.

My heart thumped. They were not like normal wolves in reality. Those wolves typically ran from humans and had very little terrain left. Entire subspecies had been wiped out during the last thirty years. Continue Online’s wolves were bulky muscled creatures with jaws dripping rivers of saliva. They moved in unison straight for us. Dirt and roots chipped as their bodies surged across the forest.

Months of frequent virtual reality combat helped me know how to handle this. I pulled out
[Morrigu’s Echo]
and whipped the spear shape forward. It barely completed transforming before excessive amounts of
[Brawn]
sped it rapidly along. The lead wolves dodged and a third went flying as the spear impaled it upon a tree trunk.

One down.

I swung
[Morrigu’s Gift]
in its two-handed form. The blade rippled into shape barely before my
[Blink]
went off, placing me in front of the ones charging for Beth. The remainder of my partially completed swing lined up perfectly with another wolf’s face. An obsidian black edge sliced through the open jaw and carved a path along the beast’s body.

Two down.

My gaze turned toward Beth. Another slice of light poked through as Beth’s forehead dripped with sweat. The biggest wolf veered straight for my niece, Thorny, as her in-game character was called. Her clothes wouldn’t stand up against the monstrous teeth, and another one was headed for her.

[Blink]
’s cooldown needed a few more seconds. Voices damn it, Dusk could have taken one. I cursed at myself, transferred
[Morrigu’s Gift]
over to one hand, and lifted my other weapon for a throw. The shot sliced a bit of fur and caused the running beast to turn toward me with a saliva filled snarl.

Paws caught my backside. I kicked with one foot then twisted. Teeth tore into my arm as the metallic sound of
[Power Armor]
expanding from my laces could be heard. The toga went stiff and expanded.
[Wild Bill]
’s brim folded down into part of the armor. A jaw releasing to snap at me again yelped as tender flesh turned to something like a knight’s armor. I still only had a vague idea of what this ability looked like outside the suit.

Tails mingled badly with fur and a sliver of vision. My armor was being chewed along with bits of health where teeth poked through. Beth’s chanting finished and my niece snapped the sword toward her other hand, holding it in front like a baton.

“Incoming bombardment!” Beth shouted while pushing forth the
[Lithium]
formula carved into the air. Light pulsed from the carvings and I lifted my arm up to avoid being blinded. From the formation, a wall of small balls flew out rapidly. Energy of all colors trailed behind them as they rapidly sought out targets.

A wolf yelped and the pressure on top of me dropped. My own abilities were only a portion of their original amount. I lay flat and looked around as much as the armor would allow me. Four more bolts hit other wolves. My hand swung
[Morrigu’s Gift]
into a wolf that had been knocked off of me but didn’t go far. A crunching sound preceded the creature’s abrupt yelp. After a mess of orbs flew out they stopped coming forth. I stood quickly then looked around for a target to
[Blink]
toward and kill.

“Are you okay?” Beth asked me.

They were all dead. Six wolves, I had only defeated three of them.
[Convict Brand]
’s partial reduction might account for some of it. My niece, a sword carrying mage of some sort, had destroyed the others with one spell. Two wolves showed scorch marks, the third had frozen with a bit of melting fur that had been green colored.

“Uhhh…” I said while trying to evaluate the damage. Even TinkerHell hadn’t been this effective. That friendly woman had done ice bolts and walls but not a heat seeking multiple element spell. “Voices, that’s neat.”

“Sure is. It’s a pain in the ass to learn though. I had to get my elemental affinity up to rank seven in three categories.” She actually blushed a bit while putting away her sword. “If I get lightning up there then it’ll get more powerful.”

I thought about it for a moment. There were a lot of things we knew about each in real life due to being related and living together briefly. Our game characters were almost completely alien to each other, aside from meeting near the end of that great battle.

Elemental affinities didn’t mean much to me. I had Rank one in
[Fire Spell]
s and could only manage the small lighter. Basically, I used it to start fires when camping, and now with
[Breath of Flame]
even that attempt at learning
[Lithium]
felt worthless.

[Power Armor]
slowly slid back into the toga’s positioning. One shoulder remained uncovered while the fabric wrapped around front and latched in. It looked like the classic cloth, but at least latched in places so that I could move around quickly without suddenly turning naked. The biggest issue was drafty lower legs, which
[Gait of Bowman]
’s wrappings helped with. It was odd that a pair of fancy shoes resulted in full body clothing.

“Dusk,” I said as thoughts caught up. My
[Messenger’s Pet]
was missing in action and we hadn’t paused long enough for me to reach out to him.

“Nightfall is a few hours away,” Beth said with a half-formed smile. Her lips quivered a bit.

“No, Dusk, my companion. I need to summon him.” I ran to a clear spot on the side of our recently dead attackers and scrawled the spell circle.
[Morrigu’s Gift]
once again transformed into a small blade with the blacker handle. The runes that normally lined
[Morrigu’s Gift]
sat on its flattened edge.

“Oh, the cute little dragon,” Beth said while my hand speedily followed the system assisted pattern. The younger woman came over and looked down at the patterns. “You know you could probably get a chalice and cut down on the spell time.”

“I’m still new at an actual spell circle,” I said. This wouldn’t even be possible if it weren’t for my unique connection to Dusk. Once again I wished that my skills might have included a spell caster route, but abilities in Continue Online had more to do with personality and tendencies.

“Oh. Well, if you find time to research, study some of the Wiccan ritualistic stuff.” There was a sound of feet shuffling behind me as Beth talked. Her tone sounded almost embarrassed. “I’ve got a friend who uses different tools to shortcut spell circles.”

“That’s neat,” I muttered. The idea of following witchcraft in a video game seemed odd. Then again Continue Online was designed to allow everyone a mildly unique path through. It was a shame so many people ended up being the same.

“I—”

I raised a hand briefly. “I promise a dozen cupcakes at my earliest convenience!” I shouted the keywords at my dirt engraved circle.

Nothing happened. The circle didn’t flare with light or look even remotely special in any way. All that happened was me trying to look cool in front of Beth but flopping. My head hung downward as I studied the spell circle. Maybe Dusk hadn’t died. He could even now be guarding Wyl. I remembered asking him to do exactly that before running into a hoard of undead shamblers.