CD Chapter Twenty-three (Patreon)

Myles grimaced. Gesturing down at his masculine shape, he grumbled, “Could you at least use the right pronouns?”

Sighing, Alpha offered, “Mr. No-More-Secrets, then?”

Instantly, the AI perked up, grinning impishly at her. “Still don’t have time to answer, but I appreciate it!”

“What do you mean, you don’t have time?” Alpha demanded.

Myles pointed over her shoulder, and she felt Toggle press his shivering little body against her legs. Turning, Alpha saw that D3th Angel, his hand already restored, was approaching at a run, and two other players trailed behind him.

Oblique - Poison Knight. Level 79.

Blood pack: 12 units

Vexxx - Lightning Mage. Level 81.

Blood Pack: 9 units

“Hey!” D3th Angel shouted, catching sight of Alpha, Myles, and the little gnome standing in the shallow alleyway. His finger pointed at Toggle. “Give me back my gnome! I found him first!”

Oblique, a petite half-elf who had clearly focused on giving herself the sexiest makeover possible when creating her character, swung a broadsword at them. A virulent pink crescent of force flew through the air, impacting them all. Myles and Toggle staggered, both turning slightly magenta as some effect took hold. Alpha flinched, but felt nothing.

Myles groaned. “I hate poison. Makes me wish I could still throw up.” He swallowed hard, but his sword reappeared in his hand. Alpha nodded, and her own huge longsword flashed into being, dwarfing his more delicate rapier-type weapon.

Alpha glanced down at Toggle. “Can you run?”

The gnome nodded, his color already fading back to normal. He hadn’t been kidding about his regeneration. Gnomes must be resistant to poison, as well. “But Mistress-”

She shook her head. “They want you. If you can get away, head to the Traveler’s Guild outside the western gate. Otherwise, wait here and follow us if we have to run.”

Toggle’s stubby fingers pulled anxiously at his hat, but he nodded, and Alpha turned back to the fight. Myles was doing his best to give Alpha and Toggle time to make a plan, but he was being pushed steadily back as he had to intercept attacks by the trio.

She needed to end this. Whether by killing the obnoxious players or by running away from them, she didn’t really care. Fortunately, she still had boosted regen from drinking Mai Ley’s blood, and her mana and stamina were both full. Raising her sword, she dodged around Oblique and swung at Vexxx, who was clearly readying a spell. As she did, she triggered [Fear], and an almost visible wave of dread rolled out from her, striking all three of the enemy players, though it ignored Myles, since he was in her party.

You have inflicted Fear on D3th Angel. D3th Angel flees in terror!

You have inflicted Fear on Oblique. Oblique is Frozen in Terror!

Vexxx resists Fear.

Vexxx leaped backwards agilely, avoiding Alpha’s strike, though he did break off the spell he was muttering. Oblique froze mid-swing, and with a grunt, Myles struck off her head, sending the gory object flying through the air. Meanwhile, D3th Angel turned and ran, but he retained enough control to fire off a volley of arrows as he did so.

You have lost 75 Drops of Blood. Damage is doubled due to racial weakness to Fire.

Your Right leg is Impaired.

A burning brand stabbed into Alpha’s thigh, and she staggered, going down on one knee. Fortunately, this caused the miniature bolt of lightning Vexxx had sent toward her to miss, though it hit Myles instead. His body locked up, much as Oblique’s had.

::Ten second paralysis,:: he sent over chat. ::Just keep him busy.::

Alpha used her good leg to propel her forward into a roll, slamming into Vexxx with the full force of her body, knocking the teenage spellcrafter to the ground. He coughed as he landed, and his expression flickered from angry to emotionless for a brief moment. She grinned. He was playing using a headset, not a pod. At his age, he probably hadn’t been playing long, either.

As she rolled back to her knee, she sent a sharp jab up toward Vexxx’s face, and instinctively, he lifted a hand to block the attack. Somewhere in the real world, he flailed, knocking off his headset with the bulky gloves that were the other half of his gameplay interface. His affect went instantly flat, and his arms fell to his sides. Hefting her sword, she awkwardly stabbed him, having to thrust the blade in between their bodies, in a space much too small for it.

You have dealt player Vexxx 93 points of damage.

She cursed as the mage staggered backwards, sliding off her blade. She’d been hoping to do more damage before he recovered, but she had at least succeeded in distracting him long enough for Myles to recover. The Sword Reaper was in motion again, his slender weapon darting in between Alpha and Vexxx, sliding easily in and out of the mage’s shoulder. It didn’t seem like a bad wound, but the boy’s eyes widened as he read something.

“What the hell? A death countdown?” He turned to look at D3th Angel, who had shaken off his fear and was just coming back in range of the fight at a dead run. “Hey, man, you didn’t tell me-” His words broke off as a shadowy figure in a long, dark robe appeared above him. The skull in the robe seemed to grin as it swung its scythe through Vexxx’s body. The mage dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.

Alpha stared at Myles, who flicked her a tiny salute, before they both turned on D3th Angel. The annoying player instantly raised his hands, offering a conciliatory smile as he slowed to a walk. “Whoa now. Now harm, no foul, right? I mean, you guys stole my gnome first.” A distinct whine crept into his voice. “And  you cut off my hand. Do you know how much it cost to fix that?”

He stopped, and his fingers twitched. A malicious smirk appeared on his face as he drew near enough to use a skill. A rain of fiery arrows appeared in the air above Myles and Alpha, covering a ten foot diameter circle with flaming projectiles.

Instantly, Myles pushed Alpha away from him, almost managing to thrust her out of the area of effect. Several arrows struck Myles, and he reeled.

Myles2Go has dropped below 50% health.

But Alpha didn’t have time to check on her friend. Two arrows hit the leg that dragged behind her, and the damage was enough to reduce her to less than fifty percent health, as well. Instantly, the edges of her vision went a hazy red.

You have lost 97 Drops of Blood. Damage is doubled due to racial weakness to Fire.

You are now Bloodthirsty. +10 to Strength. +10 to Dexterity. -10 to Intelligence. -10 to Wisdom. -40% Pain

Inexorably, she found her gaze drawn to D3th Angel, who stood less than fifteen feet away, nocking an arrow and laughing as he got ready to fire at Myles’ fallen form. The veins and arteries that had been hidden beneath his skin now seemed to throb in her vision, making him look like he had a network of red roads running all over his body.

The world narrowed to the player, who glanced at Alpha and then froze, clearly shocked by whatever he saw. She didn’t care. She just knew that he had ten units of blood, and she wanted it. She put her weight on her injured leg, only slightly surprised to find that it not only bore her weight, but obeyed her. With an effortless flexing of her muscles, she launched herself at the archer, who barely had time to scream before her fangs were buried in the wide highway of blood right behind his jaw.

You have slain Player D3th Angel.

You have restored 918 Drops of Blood. Your Health is now full.

You are no longer Bloodthirsty.

Your Right leg is no longer Impaired.

You are now level 84.

[Fear] is now level 3.

You have gained one Class level. Master is now level 3.

Shuddering, Alpha dropped D3th Angel’s body like it was half a worm she’d found in her apple. Her stomach heaved, and she was desperately grateful that the developers of Veritas Online hadn’t felt the need to include vomiting as part of their efforts to create a realistic game. She turned a horrified gaze back toward Myles, who was just climbing to his feet, recovering quickly now that the battle was over.

“That was not okay,” she whispered. “Amythyst, you have to turn me back. Or just kill me, and we can power level a new character. We have four weeks, and you’re an all-powerful-”

Myles held up his hand, expression unreadable, and Alpha found that she couldn’t speak.

A Moderator has placed a temporary mute on you. Please be more respectful of those around you in future.

Drawing closer, Myles leaned in, setting his forehead against hers so that when he used party chat, it almost seemed like he was trying to speak directly into her mind. ::Don’t say it. There are algorithms set up to track certain combinations of words, and that’s one of them. They get thousands of false positives a day, but they keep watching. Carl was paranoid about triggering some kind of sci-fi Doomsday, and now that he’s gone, Bridge runs it through a whole series of filters to see if anyone suspects there may be… one of those running around. She doesn’t need to know what we’re doing. Not yet. Not until we have proof.::

Alpha nodded jerkily, forehead banging against Myles’.

You may now speak normally. In future, follow the rules to make sure Veritas Online remains a fun place for everyone to play!

“I can’t do that again, though, Am- Myles.” Alpha pointed at D3th Angel’s corpse, which waited patiently for her to loot it. “It forced me to bite him, even though I didn’t want to. It’s one thing to be paralyzed, or to run away, whether you like it or not, but losing that much control isn’t all right with me. I know some players love [Berserk] because the game does their fighting for them, but I don’t.”

Myles nodded. ::I hear you. Let’s get out of Bloodhaven, send a message to Tessle, and it’ll be about time for you to log out for a bio break anyway.:: He hesitated, but said, ::I promise, it won’t happen again before we have a chance to talk about it.::
She was dubious about how, exactly, the AI planned to prevent that, given that the trait was built into the Vampire race, but she nodded anyway. ::Okay, then. Let’s see what these guys have on them, and then get to the Traveler’s Guild. Toggle will be waiting.::

Myles snorted as he knelt next to Oblique’s body. ::No, he won’t. He’s right behind you. You know escort quests have a distance limit.::

Alpha spun around, staring down at the little gnome, who was, indeed, right behind her. His eyes were huge and watery, and he swiped a big, wobbly tear away with one knuckle. “I’m glad you’re all right, Mistress. I’m sorry I couldn’t obey your orders, but if I left, you’d fail the quest, and I want to go home.” More tears followed the first, and Alpha crouched down in front of the gnome.

Sighing, she patted his shoulder. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t usually take, um, this kind of quest, Toggle. I forgot.” She summoned a square of Spider Silk from her inventory, and handed it to him. He promptly blew his bulbous nose into it with a loud honk. She waved it away when he tried to hand it back to her.

“I can loot them for you, Mistress,” the gnome offered eagerly, his tears drying up as quickly as they’d started.

Alpha hesitated, then stood, nodding reluctantly. After all, loot was what she was all about. Or had been. Still, she didn’t want to touch D3th Angel, even long enough to see if he was carrying anything worthwhile that wasn’t tucked safely away in his main inventory. She was willing to bet he was. He was too cocky and juvenile to want to ‘waste’ time doing inventory management.

As Toggle started patting D3th Angel down, she turned her gaze on Vexxx. Since she’d help kill him, she would get some part of whatever he was carrying. Still, he really was very young, probably not more than fifteen. It felt kind of wrong to take anything from a kid, but she leaned down, touching him lightly. She scrolled through a page of random junk left behind on his fallen avatar.

“Troll teeth, wolf tails, broken emblems… Oh!” She eyed the two Slime Cores consideringly. The small one was technically a rare drop, since most cores were broken when the slime was killed, but the Slime Dungeon was so popular that even its rare items were actually pretty common. The second one was an Acid Core, though, and must have come from the Acid Cube that roamed the dungeon as a wandering boss. The mob wasn’t terribly strong, but its acid could damage or destroy even expensive equipment, so most people ran from it, instead of staying to fight.

Sighing, she shook her head, and continued cycling through the list of dropped items. She had no particular use for an Acid Core, except to sell it, and she could buy a lot of gold with the money Amythyst had given her, if she really needed it. When she reached the end of the list, she went back up, taking a few things that would stack with items she already had, and thus not take up any more room in her inventory. After all, if there were no consequences of his actions, the kid would never learn.

Finished, she stood and looked at Myles and Toggle. “Done?” she asked. At their nods, she turned toward the western gate. The temple was on, of course, Temple Street, which was a broad thoroughfare that crossed Bloodhaven from west to east. She was about to start walking when something occurred to her. Looking at Toggle, she asked, “Did D3th drop anything white? Or, I don’t know, anything with a spiral on it, or maybe some fancy water?”

The gnome smiled, and dug through his belt pouch. NPCs weren’t supposed to have inventories like players did, but somehow the gnome pulled a clear glass vial the size of his head from the small bag. Alpha raised a brow, but accepted it.

Vial of Cleansing Waters - This water will cleanse any wound, preventing infection or contagion from taking hold. Drop rate - 1% Weight - 2 lbs Rarity - Uncommon

Alpha accepted it, nodding her thanks. This was also from the Slime Dungeon, which actually produced a fair number of liquid items, ranging from incredibly cool to completely disgusting. She’d been hoping maybe D3th had been fighting with his mage friend, and it looked like she was right.

Glancing from Toggle to Myles, she shrugged. “Be right back.” Turning, she jogged back into the temple, placing the vial on the altar.

Your Relationship with your Deity, Quezal, has increased by 5. It is now Friendly.

Quezal grants you a buff. You are now Invigorated. Your health and stamina regeneration double for 1 hour.

She grinned, feeling like she was settling back into her own skin for the first time since a strange player named Amy slid a knife under her ribs. This was how things were supposed to work. When she was heading out on a quest, she prayed and made an offering, and her god buffed her. Boom.

Sensing the bond between you and Quezal grow deeper, the Egg of A Blessed Creature you were gifted begins to hatch.

The leathery little egg she’d stashed away to look at later removed itself from her inventory - something that was supposed to be impossible - reappearing in her hand right before it broke open. Mucous poured from the crack, along with what looked like a small, limp, white worm.

Well, crap.