Oh shit, indeed.
Carrow stared at the dragon as it swooped down to land near where it had burst through the ground, stretching out its legs to balance on the side of the mountain above the town like a cat ready to pounce on its prey. She’d never seen a dragon before, only crude pictures that some of the crazy old hermits who lived up by the springs had drawn, but it was obvious what it was.
The dragon was huge. Even from where they stood on the other side of the town, Carrow could see every detail clearly. It was beautiful, in the sort of way a raging forest fire was beautiful, terrifying and thrilling all at once. The dragon’s dark scales glimmered in the sunlight with an almost pearlescent teal sheen, no color Carrow had ever seen before; its claws were each the length of her forearm at least, if not the entire length of her arm, and Carrow didn’t even want to think about the size of the teeth in the dragon’s fearsome snout. It lashed its tail, taking out a building with the all the effort it took a person to swat a fly, and the mighty roar the dragon gave shook the ground like an earthquake.
Then came the fire.
At the end of its roar, the dragon turned its head to breathe a great gush of fire at Highspring. No normal flame, it was red and green and blue all at once, imbued with the dragon’s magic. The buildings closest to the dragon—and the townsfolk—were gone in an instant, consumed in the inferno. Even this far from it, Carrow could feel the heat of the fire as it stirred the air and licked at her skin.
In shock, Carrow watched as someone down the road holding a bucket full of water from the well threw it at the patch of fire closest to them. The water hissed and turned immediately to steam, completely useless against the magical fire. Above it all, the dragon trumpeted another wordless roar, rearing back on its hind legs.
“Fuck this,” Carrow heard Zaccai yell over the cacophony of the dragon and the fire and the cries of the villagers. It took Carrow several long seconds to drag her eyes away from the dragon and look over at him; when she did, it was to discover that the Adventurer was already gone, pelting down the road toward the village’s entrance as fast as his legs could carry him.
Screams drew Carrow’s attention back to everything happening around her. Close, down the road toward the center of town and across the square, Carrow could see a few townsfolk struggling with something at one of the doorways, desperate to get inside and rescue whoever was in there before the flames licking at the roof spread.
Move, Carrow tried to tell herself. Go help. Do something, anything. She repeated the words over and over, but it was for naught; try as she might, the fear coursing through her kept her frozen in place. Carrow had never been afraid like this, never felt so helpless and overwhelmed.
In the end, it was good that she didn’t try to help. A moment later, the dragon turned in a circle and lashed its tail in a wide arc, destroying every stone building that stood in its way, including the building the villagers were at. Shiya immediately dove out of the way as rubble and debris came flying at them.
Carrow couldn’t bring herself to move. She watched the debris come closer and closer, suddenly certain that this was the end for her. Like so many of the other villagers, she was going to die to the dragon rampaging through her home, and there was nothing she could do about it.
“Look out!” someone hollered in her ear.
Suddenly, Carrow felt herself moving, yanked to the side. She crashed hard to the ground on her hands and knees, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a large piece of wall that landed inches from her right leg. Trevien landed son top of her an instant later, eyes wide, and only then did she realize that the Cleric had pulled her out of the way and saved her life, nearly getting crushed himself in the process. Even now he was using his own body to shield her from the hail of smaller debris raining down around them.
The Adventurer who had been fighting with his friend wasn’t so lucky; he yelped as another piece of a building knocked him from his feet, and a moment later he was nothing but a small tombstone half hidden by the wreckage.
“I hate to say it, but I think Zaccai might have had the right idea,” Trev yelled over the noise. He pushed himself to his feet, eyes trained on the dragon.
Carrow raised her head slowly, staring at the ground around her. Half the town had been wiped out in minutes, and she knew it would only be minutes more before the rest was decimated, too. She had to get up and run or she would die with all the others. But a handful of inches from her fingertips was a rusty old sword, likely thrown from Trader Myles’s weapons cart as the dragon’s tail swept through the town. All Carrow had to do was reach out and grab it. It would be nearly useless against the dragon, of course; it probably wouldn’t even scratch the thing’s scales. But Carrow had to do something, didn’t she? This was her home; this was her life, and it was all being destroyed before her eyes.
Run, Carrow told herself.
She stretched out her arm and closed her fingers around the hilt of the sword instead.
A dizzying array of words seemed to flash before her eyes:
Title Unlocked: Adventurer New Class: Warrior World Event: Danger! Zolzrinth has awakened! New Quest: Fight or Flight. Face Zolzrinth... if you dare. Otherwise, RUN!
Taking a deep breath, Carrow shook her head to dismiss the words, tightened her fist around the hilt, and took a step toward the dragon. Maybe if she could just get its attention and run, try to draw it away so anyone left alive would have a chance to flee—
“Are you insane?” Shiya hollered.
Carrow found herself being yanked around to face the Adventurer, whose eyes were wide as the moon in her face.
“Let me go,” Carrow ordered. Her command didn’t work, not that she had really expected it to, what with the way her voice wavered on the words.
Shiya stared at her, grip like a vice on Carrow’s upper arm. “You can’t take on that dragon—look at it. It’s so high I can’t even see what level it is! It’d be suicide!”
That much was true; when Carrow looked over at the dragon again, she could now see its name floating in the air above it, similar to how she could see the names and titles of people around her, even Shiya and Trev—no, his full name was Trevien.
“I have to do something,” Carrow protested weakly. “It’s destroying everything.” No sooner had she spoken than the dragon began hopping and splashing around the hot springs and the rubble of the buildings closest to it, looking for all the world like a kitten at play. Except this kitten was enormous and had a tail that decimated more and more of the town with every twitch; it had claws that could crush a building in an instant and it felt like an earthquake every time it landed with all its weight on the ground.
Shiya shook her head as all of them staggered in place on the shaking ground. “I know. But you can’t help anyone if you’re dead, right? We need to run.”
“Shit—Shi, it’s not letting me join the party. Quick, add me,” Trevien interrupted, arms waving in the air as he tried to keep his balance.
“I told you not to leave the party before logging out at the end of the beta,” Shiya snapped, releasing her grip on Carrow at last.
“Yeah, yeah, just hurry before the dragon decides it’s done playing and it wants a snack,” Trevien hollered over another roar from the dragon.
“I am, I am—”
Just then, a particularly large jolt sent Carrow staggering to the side, right into Trevien. The Adventurer managed to keep his balance, but Carrow tripped over one of his feet and crashed down to the ground. There was a flash of pain that signified a ding to her health pool, but Carrow was distracted by more words that popped up in front of her eyes for a moment:
Joined party! Members: Shiya, Zaccai, Carrow
“Uh…” Shiya said. “Huh, why’d it let me—whatever. Trev, don’t move this time.”
“Kinda can’t help it,” Trevien grumbled. Bracing himself against the wall, he reached down a hand toward Carrow.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Still gripping her sword like it was a lifeline even though she had no idea how to use it, Carrow accepted the help and got back to her feet. It killed her to look around and see the chaos all around her, to hear the screams of people she’d grown up with. This was her home, and it was being destroyed by a creature no one, not even the Adventurers, had any hope of defeating.
New party member: Trevien
“There we go,” Shiya said. “Now let’s skedaddle! Run like your ass is on fire, ‘cause if that dragon sees us, it will be!” She took off just like Zaccai had earlier, heading for the main road out of town and the forests and foothills beyond.
She knew she had to follow, but Carrow still lingered, torn. The world of Acadia was dangerous, but this? This was too much. What had Highspring done to deserve this?
Trevien took two steps to follow Shiya, then realized that Carrow wasn’t following. “Hey,” he said, turning back. He reached out and rested a gentle hand on Carrow’s shoulder, squeezing slightly. It was strange—Carrow didn’t usually think of Adventurers as people who cared about small, inconsequential villagers like her. But when Carrow turned her head to look at him, Trevien’s expression was sympathetic, as though he knew how upset she was. “I’m sorry.”
The two words were simple, so quiet as to be nearly inaudible. But there was an unexpected kindness in them, and it gave Carrow the courage to do what she knew she had to. Swallowing hard, she nodded her head and turned to follow Trevien away from the only place she’d ever known as her home burned and crumbled behind her.
----------------------------------------
* * *
Quest Completed: Fight or Flight. Escaped from Zolzrinth!
XP Gained: 510
Level Gained!
New Level: 5
“Whew!” Shiya exclaimed, dropping from a run into a trot, then coming to a stop. She leaned over to brace her hands on her thighs, shaking her head. “I know I’m not actually running, but I’m tired after that!”
“That was… interesting…” Trevien said. He turned to look back in the direction they had come, shaking his head. Highspring was hidden behind trees and hills since the road curved around the base of the mountain, but a dark plume of smoke was clearly visible in the sky toward the town and the dragon’s roars, although distant, were still audible as they echoed across the land.
“You can say that again,” Shiya agreed, far too cheerful for someone who had just been forced to run away from a rampaging dragon wearing nothing but her underwear.
Carrow sighed heavily, far less cheerful than the others. She was glad that she had escaped from the dragon, but… what was she even doing out here? She didn’t have the first idea how to survive in the wilds. Even with the help of these strange Adventurers, chances were that a monster would be using her bones to pick its teeth by nightfall. But it wasn’t like she could go back to Highspring; her home was gone, crushed beneath the dragon’s claws, and Old Madge and everyone else she knew was gone. Carrow’s best chance now was to rely on the Adventurers to help her get to another town where she could try to start over again.
Then again, she wasn’t sure that these naked Adventurers would be much help at all.
“You took so long I thought you might have been a snack for the dragon,” Zaccai said, emerging from around the curve of the road just ahead. His appearance was sudden enough that it should have startled Carrow, but she had somehow known he was there. An understanding of where the others in the party were was just there in her head like it belonged there. They were linked together now, whether Carrow wanted to be or not.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Shiya replied sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him.
Zaccai gave a mighty eye roll and crossed his arms over his chest, half turning away as though annoyed by Shiya’s presence.
“Well… now what?” Trevien asked after a moment when all of them fell silent, listening to the distant, triumphant bellowing of the dragon as it made clear to the world that Highspring now belonged to it and no one else.
The sound made a shiver crawl down Carrrow’s spine. It had taken armies of mages from Farria to help save Albia the last time a dragon had come calling; that was the reason the centuries-old prison barrier around Farria had been lifted in the first place. That had been a high dragon, true, much larger and stronger than the one who had attacked Highspring. But this one seemed more than capable of further devastation if it decided to turn its gaze past the ruins of Carrow’s town. It was clear that it would take a very large force to defeat the dragon.
A decidedly unpleasant thought struck Carrow then: what if there were more?
“Let’s sum up what we know,” Shiya suggested, drawing Carrow’s attention back to her. “Player levels have been reset, either through a glitch or intentionally, and we don’t know if they’ll be fixed. Not the end of the world since we were only like 12 anyway, but a bummer. Also, dying seems to crash the game.”
“Word PvP is definitely working,” Zaccai added. “So not that any are around, but we probably want to stay away from other players right now…”
“M-hmm. Most of them will probably be in the starting areas though, right? Only beta players will be out and around the world for the moment, and everyone will be dealing with the reset, too. We were unlucky in that a World Event happened to drop right onto our heads, though it is kind of cool. I’d guess the dragon is going to be there until someone can kill it? Which is going to be a long time. That fucker was max level, I think.”
“Where’d it even come from, I wonder?” Trevien mused.
“The springs,” Carrow said, finding her voice at last. The three Adventurers turned to look at her in surprise like they’d forgotten she was there, but Carrow kept speaking. “The-the town was built because of them. A couple of the crazy old hermits who live in the mountains always said there was a dragon sleeping down below and that’s what made the water hot, but no one believed them. I… I guess they were right,” Carrow said quietly. She hadn’t had any family in Highspring, but it was still strange to think that she’d never see any of the other townsfolk again. The road behind them was still empty. If there were any other survivors, they were elsewhere, but Carrow doubted many had gotten out alive.
“Uh… why is she here?” Zaccai asked, frowning.
“Accidentally added her when I was trying to get Trev,” Shiya replied. “I’m surprised it let me add a NPC, actually. That’s definitely new.”
“Well un-add her and let’s go. We’re sitting ducks for mobs just standing around here like this. I already tried to kick her, but it wouldn’t let me.”
Shiya frowned at Zaccai. “Who died and made you king, huh?”
“You yourself said you didn’t even mean to add her, so I don’t know why you’re giving me shit,” Zaccai shot back with a scowl.
Not entirely liking being talked about like she was invisible, Carrow frowned as she inspected the trio of Adventurers. She had no idea how, but she knew more about them than she had before. Zaccai was obviously Human like Carrow, but now Carrow knew by looking at him that he was a Warrior. His amethyst eyes stood out from his inky black hair and pale skin—an unusual combination for townsfolk, perhaps, but not for Adventurers, who often seemed to have strange colors of skin, hair, and eyes. Shiya and Trevien were both Farrian, with the strange grey-brown skin and pale hair common of the race. The Mage’s hair was light pink in color, her irises the same; in contrast, Trevien’s eyes were the same as Zaccai’s and his pale hair was a silverly-lilac shade. Trevien seemed to be the kindest of them from what she could tell so far, so it didn’t surprise Carrow to see that he was a Cleric.
Being able to look at them and see this information was strange enough—but knowing that she herself was now a Warrior was even stranger.
“Actually, we… kind of need her,” Trevien said slowly, as though he was thinking something through. Carrow raised an eyebrow when she looked over at him and saw him staring pensively at her.
“What? Why?” Zaccai demanded. “She’s just an NPC and I’ll be damned if I have to do an escort quest while running around in my underwear. Dump her.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right,” Shiya grumbled, jerking her chin to indicate Zaccai. “We’re not exactly in a position to be dragging an NPC around, fancy new AI or not. It’ll be a miracle if we can get somewhere safe without dying and getting booted from the game. God, I hope they fix that soon.”
“That’s exactly why we need her help,” Trevien insisted, turning to the others. “Her level didn’t get reset like ours did. She’s only level five, but that’s four more levels than we are. And she seems to be a Warrior now, however that happened. If we can get her to help kill stuff for us…”
“…the whole party gets XP,” Shiya finished with a grin.
Trevien nodded. “It’ll take a while to get back to where we were when the beta ended, but even getting a few levels under our belt will help with survivability until we can get somewhere safe. And if we’re lucky, the mobs will drop some gear to tide us over until we’re high enough to equip the stuff we’ve got again. Or at least until we get to another town where we can buy better stuff.”
“This is ridiculous,” Zaccai grumbled.
“Hey, if you think you can outrun any monsters along the road until the next town, leave the party and go for it,” Trevien said mildly, raising his eyebrows at the Warrior. “That’s what I thought,” he added when all Zaccai did was scowl and cross his arms again.
“I guess the only other option is standing around waiting for them to fix the reset—if they’re going to,” Shiya mused, drumming her fingers on her chin. “And it let me add her to the party, so maybe we’re actually meant to have NPC’s in the party and stuff now?”
“They did promise big things with the AI they were adding at launch,” Trevien agreed, sounding excited. “Maybe this is part of it? Being able to interact with NPCs as if they were players? The goal for Acadia was always a living, breathing world, after all. I didn’t realize NPCs could have the same classes as us, but the devs kept a lot secret so players could figure it all out on our own…”
“I’m standing right here, you know,” Carrow snapped. After everything that had happened that day, it was very irritating the way the Adventurers were talking in their mysterious code again after already discussing her like she wasn’t there listening to everything they said. Whatever they were on about, it certainly seemed to have something to do with her, and the least they could do was include her in it.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Carrow regretted them. All three of the Adventurers turned to look at her, Shiya and Trevien with wide smiles and Zaccai with his ever-present scowl. It was clear from the way Shiya looked her up and down that they wanted something from her, and Carrow wasn’t sure she was going to like hearing what it was.
Gods help her. What had she gotten herself into now?