The southern region of Alka plains, unlike other parts, wasn't a grassland. It wasn’t even a solid land, nor was it made of any water body. For miles and miles trees stretched, not on the ground, but on the sea of other trees beneath them. Canopy of leaves and branches so thick that the actual ground level was buried three miles deep to form the southern Alka Plain. It took nature centuries to weave the trees so intricately that it had become an ecosystem of its own.
It was a forbidden territory for humans as it inhibited Articores and some other non-sentient beasts. Only foolish or brave adventurers ever tried to venture close to it. Even fools weren’t foolish enough to pry what lay in its depth.
Karo had teleported them in the middle of the southern Alka Plain, a few hundred meters deep in the forest. Before any of them could even properly look around where they were. Karo said, “Me and Ghun will see you in a minute.”
As everyone turned towards Karo to see what he was yapping about. They saw the Swordmaster unsheathing his ordinary-looking sword, and with a swift motion of his wrist, he separated Ghun’s head from his body.
Their eyes -in synch- widened in horror, as they saw their most experienced companion trying to catch his own head. The dense canopy of leaves and branches up didn’t let any direct starlight from Quro-the white dwarf penetrate to where they were. Only a few scattered strands of light lit the cavern(Cavitree) with a dark ambiance. Cavitree: a cavern whose roof, walls, and whole infrastructure were composed of many dead tree trunks amassed over the centuries.
As Ghun’s headless body fell, it crunched the reddish-violet heap of leaves. A few insects stirred and ran to find a new place to hide their insignificant life.
Una started shivering, her mouth slacked, and started stuttering uncontrollably. She turned towards Karo, not knowing what to think or do. A deep pain sprouted in her chest, the claustrophobic space they were in only added the pressure.
The players, on the other hand, reached for their weapons. But to their next shock. Ghun’s body, which was bleeding profusely, scattered into light particles and disappeared. Head, headless, and the blood. It all disappeared.
Karo snapped his fingers and he too disappeared. Leaving the party in the middle of a dimly lit Articore and insect-infested ever so-expanding nest.
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Ghun had both his hands on his head. He gasped so loud as if someone just pulled him out of deep water after a few minutes. Before he could take a breath of relief and get out of his panic. Karo too appeared in front of the Teleportation hall.
The sword which had cut him asunder, was still in his hand. Without saying any words, Karo relentlessly started striking the panic-stricken Bomber.
“Hey! That’s the Swordmaster Karo.” One of the bystanders recognized Karo.
The person’s voice pulled others’ attention as they all looked at the scene unfolding in front of the Teleportation hall. Most people there didn’t know what a Swordmaster was, but they were too busy looking at the spectacular sight to ask that question.
The so-called Swordmaster hurled strike after strike at the poor Bomber. Yet there wasn’t a single hit that forced back Ghun. It was as if Karo was striking not a human, but a statue made of the hardest metal. Progressively, Karo increased the strength behind each consequent strike. Each time his sword hit Ghun, the collision sent shockwaves so intense that the bystanders standing a few hundred meters away started feeling their bodies pushed back a little.
With the progression of the sword strikes, Ghun was also regaining his composure. His body reflexively tried to block Karo’s attack with his hands. Yes, those were just reflexes; he still didn’t have any sense of semblance for the last minute of his life.
After almost 10 hits on Ghun’s body, all the people in the Plaza, the main street, and the Teleportation Hall’s external lobby scattered away to take cover. With strike-booms as loud as lightning and combined with high-pressured wind currents generated from them, Karo’s presence was akin to a hurricane.
Eventually, Ghun came to his senses, still scared, and confused a bit, but he was aware of the things going around him. His eyes focused on Karo and he was reaching some conclusion. It had been 59 seconds since Ghun resurrected, Karo stopped his attack and abruptly everything went silent.
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The Swordmaster gave the Bomber a sweet smile and said, “See it works,” and added mentally for Quro, ‘See this is called show-off.’
“Y.Yes…” Ghun nodded in broken acknowledgment.
“Here,” Without saying anything else Karo tossed another Pseudo-Life towards Ghun.
The bomber looked at it with complicated emotions, and with much effort, he asked, “Can I keep it for my wife?”
Karo raised an eyebrow and gave Ghun a menacing stare. All colors left Ghun’s face. The Swordmaster sighed, “Keep it.” he said.
Ghun carefully stored the marble and thanked the Swordmaster. The latter snapped his fingers and both disappeared. This time Karo didn’t bother putting efforts to dumb down his way of teleportation.
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“No! No! No!” Una shrieked in terror, she dashed towards Ghun’s body.
Isha hugged Damien, she was fear-stricken, and Damien tried to find comfort in her embrace. It’s not like they haven’t seen death in the past few months. Every player had. It’s just that Ghun was akin to a brother. They were shivering at the image of his depreciated body. And the eerie place added to that morbid scene.
The moment they had teleported in that Cavitree, all the insects hissed and creaked, making the air dense. Christian was simply thrown from a blissful dream to a Nightmare. His sanity doubted this more than real unreal-reality to be just a game. Yet again. He took a few steps back, the sudden shift in reality induced nausea so intense he threw up.
Yu had it worse, but not more than Christian. He was only 19. Although he had seen many deaths in-game, none of them held such significance. All he had witnessed, players die. Usually, they swore and threw vulgarities in their dying moments to come back for revenge. Most of all, nobody mourned for those players when they died. Yu stood in place frozen, only staring at Una, not being able to imagine her misery.
“Cease your shouting; it could draw the attention of the Articores.” Karo berated Una.
Negligent of the recent event’s reason and significance, hearing Karo’s voice, Una recoiled back in fear. She then went confused to see Ghun standing beside his own murderer.
To keep things short Karo briefed with no facial clues, “I was just demonstrating to Ghun that the Pseudo-life actually works. We can continue our expedition, I am looking forward to it.”
Everyone realized what just happened, but they didn’t know how to react anymore. Players were confused, they still were sickened by what they had just seen. Una on the other hand couldn’t hold it. There was obvious hate in her eyes.
She picked herself up from the ground, walked towards Karo with heavy and angry steps, grabbed the collar of his robe, and threatened, “Do you think life is a game? Try facing death for once, have a stare in its eyes. Then you will understand the meaning of life.”
She tightened her grip, “Send me back. I don’t want to continue this raid anymore. Take us back.”
Karo looked at her disappointed and was about to take them back all to the city when Ghun stepped in.
“Una, may we talk alone for a moment?”
The scene of Ghun’s falling head haunted her, she shook her head to get rid of it. Then the spearwomen let go of the Swordmaster and both Ghun and Una separated from the group putting away a distance of a few meters.
“Listen I know it must have been worse for you to see me dying. More so with your experiences. We have sworn that we won’t bite more than we could chew for any raid. But with Karo being here, I can guarantee you that the Swordmaster won’t let anything happen to us.”
“But he is playing with our lives. He could’ve simply asked us to believe, and we would have trusted him.” Una pointed at the culprit with a jerk of her hand, without looking in his direction.
“Didn’t he already ask? You believed. I didn’t. That’s why it was me who experienced what I did. Also…” Ghun grabbed both of Una’s shoulders, and looked into her eyes, “Isn’t it similar to what we have done with Damien, and are going to do with Christian? Just because they are immortals, doesn’t mean we can play with their lives. We have seen Players die. Their deaths might not be permanent, but their pain is real. I can say so after experiencing death myself.”
Una looked down in shame as she realized her prejudice towards the immortals as she remembered Damien running away from the lv30 Articores, screaming in horror. She looked towards Christian who was on his knees, and then muttered in a soft voice, “Let’s tell him our plan and let him decide whether we continue or retreat back..”
Both Una and Ghun walked back to the group. Despite her growth and Ghun’s explanation she still couldn’t help but look at the Swordmaster as if he was a monster. All the players had complicated emotions towards Karo as well. Especially Christian, he had been a corporate officer most of his life. Seeing someone getting their head chopped off which he might not even have heard of. This was a murder he had seen in the worst possible way, and the culprit was standing in front of him. It shattered his understanding of life and the world he lived in. Life was so fragile, and players or not, these people were playing with it.