“ElizadeathMotherf: @ElvenBroThomas12 Anthony, change of plans. We’ll head to you through the sewer system. Don’t worry, with the player map, we should be able to reach you without much of a hitch.”
*Ping* A reply was quickly given to her surprise.
“ElvenBroThomas12: Ok then head here immediately. We found some buses used by what seems to be Marines of sorts, they’re in pristine condition and there’s more than enough buses for all of us.”
“ElizadeathMotherf: Mhm, we also lost MotorideKiller.”
*Ping*
“ElvenBroThomas12: Take good care of the remaining and make it back here in one piece.”
The chat ends and the people in the camp immediately prepare to enter the sewer when they hear sounds of rotors approaching them. ElizadeathMotherf runs to one of the roofs of the buildings next to their camp. She sees silhouette’s of helicopters in the distance. She opens her player tab and materializes a telescope from her inventory. She sees about fourteen UH-1Y Venom transport helicopters and six AH-1Z Cobra’s rapidly heading to their position. She looks right on top of her and sees a Reaper drone flying overhead.
With great haste, the woman immediately runs back to the camp and signals everyone to enter the sewers as the helicopters slowly start banking left and right, dropping down ropes on open intersections. The surviving Knights and grunts then orderly enter the sewers and their walk to the Bus terminal begins through the darkened hole where the stench and muck had long solidified from how long it all had been neglected and abandoned.
With cracked walls and veins crawling out on them, the sounds of plate armor and chainmail rattling about echoes through the tunnel as above them, soldiers sweep the main roads, going door to door and wrecking any tent they come across.
As the terminal was just recently manned by the Marines, Thomas has his chance now to take the enemy on before more soldiers appear. The buses are parked on the furthest part of the terminal and Marines started bounding to the main ticketing area, taking their turns and scanning each and last cranny of the parked buses.
Sir Benny sees this and prepares to ambush the Marines headed towards the Terminal while Thomas with his elite Elven players takes on the ones on the right side of the bus terminal, scanning the open exit and entrance for the buses.
The squad of Marines were about to look into the entrance when the Elves ambushed them. One of the Marines dropped silently, unable to unload a Mag on one of the Elven Knights as they stealthily used their bows to crawl their way to the edge.
But then, one of the Elves who was next to one of the buses tried to pick up an assault rifle and was instantly riddled with bullets; it was only able to damage its specialized armor; the Knight cut down the Marine with ease with a quick draw of his knife. Flinging straight into the face of the skeleton, the small blade itself went through the glass of the ballistic goggles it had on and promptly dropped the man.
As the shots ring out on the terminal and the Marines in it suddenly shift their stances into a more combat oriented one, guns up and looking with their sights. They didn’t walk with their guns in a ready position, but were actively pointing the barrels at random directions, scanning and scanning. Thomas sees the squad enclosing them and takes the lead with his bow. Swiftly coming out of cover and with one pull, the enchanted arrow hits the skeleton, making it burst into a divine powder as he pulls out his curved sword and alloy shield.
One of the Marines with an M16A4 assault rifle with an underslung M203 grenade launcher fires one at the shining Elven Knight. It didn’t even move him, his long white gold hair flowing steadily as he stood atop the bus and with a stoic stare at the Marines red glowing eyes, he ran towards the undead soldier, tanking his shots with his shield while his Knights took on the ones on the ground.
Jumping down, he crushes the neck of the skeleton and instantly lifts it up to bounce incoming bullets as the Squad leader was aiming for his unarmored head this time thanks to the closing of distance. With immense speed, he bashes the undead Marine down and puts an end to it with a fast draw with his sword.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Terminal, the second squad of Marines are fully aware of the presence of the enemies in the sector, they throw the flashbang and tactically enter the waiting room The covered Knights await their turn. As the undead warriors entered the main lobby of the terminal’s waiting room, one of the Knights cast fire and multiple soldiers were set ablaze.
The Knights of Libertus then unsheathe their swords and start fighting the burning Marines in close quarter combat. As they slash and slice, the burning Marines show no signs of stopping, as even in their fiery form, the others attach the bayonet to their rifles and stab the Knights while pulling the trigger whilst others who got down to brass tacks had to get their M9 Berettas out.
The brutal fighting was done, the saving grace being the Special Knight’s armor being able to tank some of the shots and when they drop the last one. Sir Benny lost multiple Knights, leaving him with the majority of his men being low level player grunts.
As the situation worsened, he ordered his remaining Knights to continue on and support the Elves attempting to capture the buses.
Opening the door of the terminal's waiting room, they could see flickers of light as gunfire was still ongoing at the opposite. This made them dash through the open grounds, where the bullet holes riddled the broken up road and derelict buses.
With the Knights reaching the other side, they were about to open the door that leads to the back of the ticketing desk, a Marine with an M4 Benelli semi automatic shotgun burst through the door, quickly blowing apart the chests of the three Knights near it. Sir Benny and the now handful of Libertus Knights quickly cut down the last Marine and hastily ran to the main parking lot at the end.
There, they see that the Elves have valiantly won against the Marine Corps. The Knights of Libertus check the buses and Sir Benny approaches Thomas who was checking the baggage compartments as there were loads of guns and ammo on it.
“Wow, I guess I should’ve expected just as much from Keyneth’s Hero Prince.”
“They fought well for being a bunch of bones wearing body armor.”
“Should we take their guns? My mens swords are starting to get dull. Slicing through bullet proof helmets and body armor isn’t really helpful.”
“Don’t even think of touching their equipment. If you touch those guns, you basically admit defeat. We’d be no better than these sore losers. Going this far because they’ve ruled the Dark Continent for so long.”
“Dude, this has been nothing but an absolute slaughter house. We could barely fight back. Magic is all that gives us a fighting chance but all of my Mages are dead back at the Port. I’ll take my chances and grab a sidearm and some grenades just in case.” Sir Benny quickly shoved the Elf aside as he leaned down, pulling out the crates. “To you low levels, be sure to not point the barrel to anything you don’t plan to kill. Harald, you know how to use a gun right? Teach the low levels. We don’t want any accidents.
Thomas just shrugged and sighed as he watched the Knights of Libertus ravage the crates of ammo and weapons. “Then do as you will, Libertus has its reasons but know that you're basically letting them win.”
“As I said, I’ll take my chances and get myself a firearm. Knights, you too. Grab the assault rifles if you wish. Don’t just contend with the pistols.”
The Knights of Libertus grab some assault rifles from the corpses of the Marines before they fully despawn, some even grab Kevlar vests and grenades.
Meanwhile, Elizadeath and the survivors of the camp run through the tight sewers of the city. They could hear the heavy tracks and wheels above them as dust from the ceiling fell down to the murky brown coloured water in the center of the tunnel and after running for a few more minutes nonstop, they entered a large Flood Discharge Tunnel underneath the city, they spotted Rostock’s VDV Airborne troops with Eldwood’s Army Engineers unloading what seems to be unneeded essentials that they found from the dead and captured.
The dump trucks exit through the large entrance which leads to the city’s Flood Canal. Echoes himself unable to grasp the situation as he intently stared at the huge dump that’s accumulating before them.
There was little security with only a handful of players leading an 8 man squad of skeletons looking about the massive tunnel. One of the only sections of the underground of the city with functional lights still but it was only on the area below and not on the maintenance bridge high above.
“Those equipment they dumped, they seem to come from both ours and Libertus and those patches on their arms… Rostock Guild and Eldwood?! I think King Breznick and his Retinue’s worst fears have come to life. The Guilds of the Dark Continent, those with modern weapons, their uniting!”
“Keep your head low. Those skeleton soldiers could spot you if you peek out too much. I can sense their power from here, those airborne ones are different and the players leading them aren’t to be joked with. As usual with the people in these Dark Continent Guilds.”
“Of course ma’am. Let’s continue then, if the map is correct, the exit should be near.”
“Hm. Be careful alright? Don’t let them spot you.”
Elizadeath and Echoes lead the group across the Flood Discharge Tunnel’s upper maintenance bridge, going through the catwalk high above the soldiers below.
“Nguyen, how many more trucks are we expecting?”
“Ten more, comrade Santiago.”
“Gah. We’re being called to do maintenance work on the Seaport. The Men of the Woods are bringing in munitions of Cruise missiles for the Destroyers… can you maybe spare some units?”
“Comrade, our Ekranoplans did not have heavy equipment. Only tanks and armored vehicles.”
“Dang it. I might need to call High Command and have the skeletons do it then. Those containers need to be delivered. If Libertus or Breznick were to send a counter attack force, their sheer numbers and powerful players would make this all for nothing!” The officer quickly ran to the humvee, picking up the radio as some bits of rust fell on the hood. “Valkyrie One, this is Peterbilt actual, I need helicopt-…” more rust then fell nearby, making him stop and slowly look up.
The Rostock player notices the Eldwood officer looking up to the dark ceiling. “Hm? What is it, comrade?” a loud crackle then came at the radio. “Peterbilt, Peterbilt. This is Valkyrie. Repeat your last, over.” hearing General John on the other side, he quickly looked down once again. “Y-Yes sir! I need helicopter transport for some heavy equipment. Forklifts for container vans to be exact.”
High above, Elizadeath had her bow ready while the Knights were all prepared with their hands on their pommel. Echoes could only breathe a sigh of relief as they fully crossed the bridge.
As they continue moving on, they exit the Discharge Tunnel and into the city’s flood control canal. The artificial river cuts across as it provided a moat to the cityscape proper and a division from the woodlands. The bridge a few hundred meters from them was crawling with armored vehicles all rolling inwards to the center of the abandoned metropolis.
As the silence of the city slowly dawns on her and the group, they hear rotors once again and this time it's approaching them rapidly. She looks above and catches the glimpse of a drone inside the clouds high above them. The single point of contact with her eyesight with its grayish color was all she needed to fully make out what it was. “EVERYONE! RUN! TO THE THIRD CANAL!”
The group starts running through the concrete river, following it as it leads through the last sewer entrance they need to get to and it's a straight shot to the bus terminal.
Two MH-60L Blackhawk with a MH-47G Chinook transport helicopter appear, the helicopter's door gunner opens fire with its mounted M134 Miniguns.
The shots landed near but none hit. But it made the ones lagging behind run even more frantically. The tandem rotor helicopter faces backwards and lands, its ramp opens and a squad of Black Ops soldiers exit, a player in a prim and proper green General uniform complete with a white shirt and necktie, even polished Oxford shoes then follows, with his hands behind his back. He looks at the survivors running for their lives.
On his visored hat, rather than an eagle, it was replaced with a skull that has the wings of a Dragon. Four silver stars in hs epaulets and brightly coloured gold braided lacing on his trousers and sleeves, it looked no different from a modern day General, except this one was nothing but a pile of bones that could walk and animate actions.
Elizadeath looks at her back to check on the group and she notices the blue glowing eyes of the General. She immediately thinks “That’s no ordinary skeleton…” and she stops running just as she is about to enter the sewer.
The Sword Saint then takes a long and hard look at the person and makes a cross, the player's name pops up. “PilotMan”, she gives him a stern look, as the survivors run past her.
Jackson immediately felt the aura of a strong opponent and the two stared at one another. Behind him, the MH-60L Blackhawks start fast roping two more squadrons of Black Ops soldiers. She notices this and gives a smirk at the Knight General before disappearing into the darkness.
PilotMan signals his troops to move forward. He casually walks towards the sewer while his skeletons jog past him, guns up and their killer intent is felt through their movement alone and at the mouth entrance, he gives the sewer a thousand yard stare and goes in.
“Master, I don’t recommend this.” A soft, womanly, and motherly voice came out of his jacket’s inner pocket. “Don’t worry Bahamut. It’ll be fine.”
“I sense great danger in that Hero. A Sword Saint. Master, her blade is meant to cut down Undead and Ghosts. As potent as a Dragons. She is not one to be toyed with.”
“The Hero Title comes along with it the Heroic Skill. One of the most arduous and hardest to achieve in this game. In such a dark and dangerous game, playing nice and goody two shoes is not something to be laughed at as it actually takes time and skill and most of all, patience.” He then lifts his hands, gesturing that he doesn’t really care. “That’s why I got the title of Death Knight. It's way easier to just kill and destroy things… She’s admirable but her drive is what’s gonna get her killed. No one becomes a Sword Saint just by being a patient person when there’s so many trying to act like good people.”
He then turns his head down a bit, seeing the eyes of his Dragon companion glowing in the inner pocket of his jacket. “I understand but please, do be careful Master.” Though he couldn’t show his expression, the player instead just pats the small unnoticeable bulge on his jacket. “No worries. Just rest. I’m sure we won’t need you till the last minutes if Libertus actually manages to send a sizable response force.” With a sigh, he walks in the tunnel. His Black Ops soldiers closely around him as they check the perimeter and every duct they come across.
“What about Breznick, Master? They have more people than Libertus.”
“My tanks already did the job. Its Libertus who managed to retreat as I have way too few of units to separate and have them chase down those players. I hope Rostock can send more people later on. I am sure they’ll be back and with more people.”
“And the Men of the Woods, Master? Have they done their part yet?”
“They're sending more ammo. Missiles, shells, and even munitions for the ships. We will be able to continue using Cruise missiles till next week if the expected rate of delivery is constantly met.”
“Good. We are against two extremely strong Guilds, Master. Even though the Dark Continent is ours. They must be mustering an army tenfold the size in Mid Continent.”
Inside, the only source of light comes from the manholes from the streets above, and you can only hear the thumping sound of the boots as it splashes the water inside. “I know. Breznick’s logistics is genius. To mend Magic into it and teleporters. They can muster a force of Five hundred thousand players if they need to.”
“Though Master, they will only be able to continue that campaign for a handful of days.” The Black Ops soldiers stalk the survivors through the dark sewers, with their Night Vision. Goggles down, the Special Forces keep a good distance away from the survivors as they near the bus terminal while on the back, Bahamut and Jackson keep having a casual conversation. “With a force of that size, Bahamut? They can wipe us clean in a day even with your help.”
“Ah, they have a Chromatic Dragon, right, Master? That is indeed a problem. Unless I get access to my God form. This body of mine won’t stand a chance against such an ancient threat.”
“That is why we’re hoping for the Men of the Woods to come through with their part. They’ve assembled what could possibly be the largest Undead Army in all of Dark World’s history and they're all wearing modern equipment.” Jackson then raises his hand, gesturing for the chase to come to a sudden halt.
Elizadeath’s group of survivors finally reaches the manhole that leads to the bus terminal, and there’s no signs of the skeletons following them. Echoes could only stare blankly as his heart was racing to the top of his head. His ears seemingly looking for any oddities in his surroundings as the Sword Saint rested her hand on his shoulders. “Are you good?”
The Knight just shrugged his head. “Couldn’t be better. Let’s go.”
Elizadeath with Echoes waits at the base of the ladder, the two guarded the North and South paths to them. Letting the survivors exit first as above the manhole, the Elven Knights with the soldiers of Libertus help up the survivors.
Three buses wait on the street guarded by the remaining Knights of Libertus.
As the final survivor exits the manhole, Elizadeath takes one long hard look at the sewer, as if she’s waiting for the soldiers to pop out and ambush her. Echoes taps her shoulder and signals her to go up the ladder.
The two safely exit the manhole and enter the buses ready to drive out of the retaken city. Inside the comfy vehicles, most of the players deflate. Some even take out their plate armor and the chainmail underneath even the gambesons. Leaving only their tunics and trousers on as they blast the Aircon to the max. Wiping sweat and blood from there hands and shoes
The Sword Saint enters the third bus and as it drives into the highway, a blue reflection catches her eye from the passenger side mirror, there she can see the General standing on top of the manhole they exited from, blankly staring as the coaches left for the Northern freeway out of the city.
The three buses drive off onto Highway Zero One, the city behind burning and its skies full of helicopters and fighter jets flying over it. As they’re about to enter the tunnel that leads to the outskirts, two AH-1Z Cobra performs a low flyby over their convoy.
On the other side, the concrete road slowly turns into a dirt road and the city’s skylines disappear behind them. Everyone in the group, from the Knights to the Grunts breathe a sigh of relief but Elizadeath and Thomas aren’t celebrating. They know this is just the beginning. The two immediately open their Guild group chats and start messaging and typing.
Inside a derelict Police station near the town hall, it's been turned into a makeshift forward operating base. In the main lobby, Jackson is talking to someone through a long range radio.
“This is Manager actual, the guests has left the hotel.”
“Affirmative Manager. Air Taxi here confirms that the guests have left the building, out.”
“Mhm, thou’est performed a good show. Now, We must start’eth the counting of the enemies’ losses.” Hassans commanding old voice silences the High Command Frequency, then another player butts in the conversation. “Amazing comrades! The Rostok Group thanks you for this wonderful show! Ahahaha!”
“Thy Knights of Eldwood thanks thee.”
“We’ll be pulling back our troops as it's been long and most of our members play in Eastern Europe. We shall return to the other side of the Dark Continent with this victory in hand! Please do call us if you ever need anything!”
“Of course. Do tell Premier General Nikolai Molotov, we salute him.”
After listening to the goodbye. Jackson then turns the knob of the long range radio, changing it from 178.9 to 155.4. Immediately, voice is heard:
“This is Delta, we’re RTB to the airport. Requesting helicopter transport at LZ Charlie.”
“Affirmative Delta, a Venom from the courthouse is being redirected to LZ Charlie. ETA 1.4 Mikes. Be there, out.”
“Roger that Boathouse.”
“This is Manager actual, I can confirm that the Knights have left the city. You have a green light for the bombardment of the surrounding villages, over.” blackjackpecker, the commanding Officer of the Navy Air Force swiftly replies.
“Good copy on that Manager. I’ve scheduled the flight of six F/A-18 Hornets armed with GBU-13s and One-Three Tomahawk Cruise Missiles at Fifteen Hundred Hours to destroy the surrounding NPC villages and prevent the two Kingdoms from staging a counterattack. Admiralty Out.”
“Good copy to all Admiral. Good hunting.”
After hearing all the buzz, Jackson puts the mic back on the radio and stands up. He then walks up to a squad of Eldwood army soldiers idling inside, in angst to follow him to battle.
He looks at his watch and stares at it for a few seconds, noticing that it's been 2 hours before the strike commences. He boards a Humvee outside the Police station. “Take me to the hills that overlook the mountains.” With a nod, the player takes him to the outer edges of the city, where the frontline had stopped.
As the player takes him into the highway, he could notice an odd illusion appearing. As if the mountain ranges were disappearing right before his eyes. A transmission breaks through the radio inside taking his attention away from it.
“This is Alpha 1-4, callsign Duncan, we have what seems to be a player at Checkpoint Foxtrot. He’s currently being uncooperative with us. We don’t know what he is saying, some sort of messed up English… he also seems to have… a family with him…” This made Jackson’s head tilt at the odd communication. “Huh? Who would have a family in the Dark Continent? You can’t even build a wooden shack before it's ransacked by mutated animals. Driver, reply to that.”
The player nods and takes the receiver. “Affirmative on that Duncan, Dime Two, recommends you fire warning shots and force him to turn back, might be some foreign player from God knows what trying to cross into the city, over.”
Stolen story; please report.
“Copy but there’s something odd here. I’ve never seen these people before in my life. I think I need an officer here. Is anyone on the net with a rank higher than Lieutenant? I am confused about the order here.” Jackson instinctively picks up the receiver and with a heavy tone, speaks into it. “This is Manager actual, I’ll be heading to your checkpoint Duncan. I want you to keep that man there till I arrive. Good copy?”
“Roger, Manager, we don’t even speak the man's language. We’ll sit tight, Out.”
Jackson then looked at the driver who knew his new route and the Humvee veered off the road and headed off into the Northwest side of the city and took a small road that heads off into the dense forest. Unbeknownst to them, the skies itself had changed drastically, to the point that normal birds were flying around their territory.
Arriving at the checkpoint. It was mostly made out of HESCO barriers and concrete street barriers to guard the dirt road. The players there were only a squad sized number and the two vehicles they had was an Oshkosh MRAP and a 5 ton truck. Apart from that, they were basically guarding an empty forest that sat in between the hills that cover the city.
On the main road, they had stopped a wagon drawn by two horses which made Jackson scratch his head. “Who the hell is crazy enough to ride an unarmored wagon here?” The Humvee stops when it reaches the back of the checkpoints command tent, the General exits out and looks around.
Hearing the sounds of chirps, he looked up to see flights of birds heading southward. This made his right eyebrow raise as high up as it can get. “Sir!” he then opens his hand, the squad leader confused as he pointed at his pair of binoculars.
The player immediately handed it to him as he lifted it up and observed the flock of birds. They had iridescent beaks and feathers of clear white. But they didn’t have any killing claws nor armor at all. This made him slowly return the apparatus back to the soldier.
“Are you callsign Duncan?”
“Yes sir. Our Sentries had stopped a stranger speaking an unknown language.” The General then opened his menu, and no indicators were popping up. “Where’s your player name? There’s nothing on top of your character when I open my Player Menu.” This made the Sergeant confused as he made a small cross and his eyes widened. “E-Eh?! Same to you sir. Your player name has also disappeared. Might be a glitch? Is the server under maintenance or update?”
“Weird. What time is it in the real world? One in the night? I don’t remember any scheduled maintenance from the Devs. We specifically made this the time as there should be no scheduled anything in the month of January.”
“No idea sir.”
“Ugh, we’ll take this on later. For now, what the hell is this? How did this guy get through the air patrols with a carriage? Heck, how did he even reach the forest of Eldwood? The valley is filled with Wyverns.”
“I apologize sir, but I contacted the aircrafts nearby and they didn’t spot him go through.”
“Okay, I want you and your squad on me. I’ll talk to the guy.”
With his uniform on, the General walks into the main road from the command tent and sees a man attempting to communicate with the NPC skeleton soldiers. Upon noticing the Woman on the wagon and what seems to be two children inside, peeking through the top of the seats. He couldn’t help but want to return to his Human form to show his expression. Even though he was a skeleton, he had started to scratch the back of his skull.
“Okay, who the Hell are you?” The man looks at Paul who was a mere skeleton who seems to be very animated and expressive in its movements. The person then speaks in a very anxious tone. “Elloh rish, Tis Gibson Dertruit mormd teh egallige eof Talmur. I em…” The General just kept shrugging his head, lifting his hands. “ENGLISH. EEENGGLISH.”
The person just kept talking and talking, making the General just scratch his head further. Now moving to his nonexistent cheeks and chin. “How can I not understand you? My Translation Skill should be able to translate any language into International English.” he then turns to the Sergeant who immediately replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Seeing this promptly made Jackson facepalm and sigh.
“I am trying to get to the village of Talmur, Mister Skeleton. Please let us through, my wife. She is in need of medical aid and only that village has a mage capable of healing magic.”
Hearing this, Jackson further just shrugged his head, this time with his hands. “The what now? The only surrounding villages here are Reverick and Piotus. Both are EXTREMELY dangerous places. Where is this Talmur?” The Sergeant then couldn’t believe what was happening, this made the soldier cut him with his hand raised. “Speak.”
“Wait sir, can you understand him? How? The guy is speaking some sort of gibberish.”
“What? No, He is speaking perfect English now. I can understand him from the first to the last words. I think my Translation Skill just had an error or something in picking up his voice.”
“Huh?! Wait what? Sir, that is no language. I study History and I don’t think a lexicon of that sort has ever existed on planet Earth… and sir, I swear the hills around us are supposed to be taller.” The General then just got left speechless as the man wearing a ragged tunic butts in between the confused soldier and general, he tries to politely interject between them with his head bowing profusely as he avoids eye contact with the strangers. “Uhhh… good sirs, me and my family have been traveling this road for decades now. It's always been like this. My name is Gibson Trene. I came from the village of Anglost and wished to just get my wife to a healer.”
Something then fell into the back of the wagon, gaining the attention of the players. It was a small child who was no older than five picking up a wooden mockup of a Knight. The mother quickly pulled the kid in as the Sergeant removed his helmet at what just happened.
“S-Sir… is that a kid? In Dark World?”
“W-W-What… how?!” He then turns his face to the ragged man. Pointing his finger at him. “What kind of sick joke is this? What’s with the children? Why would you bring children into a game like Dark World? Do you know this is against the rules?”
Gibson becomes baffled by the words the man speaks to him. “I apologize but I do not know what those words mean. I do not know demon culture.”
“Drop the roleplay and answer me. What are you doing here and why the hell are there children? There’s no children in this game for a reason. It's already banned in some countries for its extreme and realistic depiction of medieval violence for pete's sake!”
“Sir, this is not a game. I do not know what you're speaking of. I just want to pass by and be on my way.”
Jackson takes a long hard look at the man and stares him at his eyes. He can see that his man is either lying in an ingenious way or is mentally ill and genuinely believes he has a family in a virtual world. After some seconds, the General pinches the area between his eyes.
“Look, are there any more children? We can’t have those around here. This is an extremely dangerous place. I am talking about Wyverns, Killer Birds that can kidnap a full plate armored person, and even horses… don’t even get me started about the Demons that roam Eldwood’s forests.”
“Oh my, what would you skeletons want from children?”
“N-No. I just want to tell you that this is an extremely danger-” The woman in the wagon screams “I WON’T ALLOW YOU TO TOUCH MY CHILDREN, SKELETAL DEMON!” The General just shrugged his face then tugs the radio mic of Duncan next to him and speaks
“This is Manager actual, I got a bunch of deranged players here with children. I don’t know how they did it, probably a glitch with one of the spells that shrinks a person. I need transport and reinforcement. We… I know they're virtual but I can’t sit and see children get dragged up to this mess. Can someone get a truck over here?”
“This is High Command, all call requests are halted. We have a situation developing, all units are to continue their current objectives, out.” The quick and cold reply made him drag the receiver away and again, just had a second of silence. “Damn, did Breznick and Libertus make a move already? That’s not what we planned…”
Gibson though taps on his shoulders, taking his attention away from the odd response. “Uhm sir, may we pass now? I must get to a healer.” He just lifted his hands with open palms and deflated. “Again, your roleplay is incredibly cringey, please stop. I get it wanting to really get into the medieval fantasy larp, but kids…? I think we’re crossing multiple lines here that shouldn’t be. This community is already as unhinged as it gets. We don’t need more scandals and controversies and have Dark World get outright banned.”
One of the children suddenly stands up and taps the mother shoulder
“Momma, that dead man is saying some funny words.”
“Honey, step back inside the wagon and keep your head down.”
The Sergeant then started walking to the wagon. His rifle, loosely dangling by his fingertips as he slowly approached it. Jackson immediately bends over the checkpoint pole, going underneath it and heads over the wagon. He rushes past the Squad Leader and climbs onto the driver seat where he could have a view of the wagon's back. “PLEASE! STOP! NOT MY CHILDREN!”
In panic, the father pulls out a knife and stabs the General. In sheer disbelief on what just happened to him. He looks the man straight in the eyes. “Pull the knife out. I’m not joking this time. My patience has been diminished with this messed up roleplay of yours.” Jackson then proceeds to look into the eyes of the man, the burning courage made him retreat a bit as he scratched his jawbone.
“I… I will legit contact the Devs and get you all banned permanently for this messed up roleplay. People get all sorts of things done to them here in Dark World, why would you bring children here? This virtual world has aged Twenty One plus for a damn reason.” Obviously shaken by what he just did, Gibson’s hands are frozen as he grips the knife tightly. “Pull the knife out.”
The father then shrugged once and this made the General forcibly remove the sharp object from the back of his body.
Jackson then briefly turns into a Human and punches Gibson straight on the face. The light punch makes him fly a few meters. The woman on the wagon is shocked by what just transpired. It took her a few seconds for the confusion and fear of what just happened to sink in. She hurriedly steps down the wagon, protecting her husband and dragging her to the back with the children.
The General though couldn’t believe himself. He turned to his fist and how the punch reverberated ever so realistically through his veins and adrenaline started to pump to his head. “L-Look, that’s a light punch. I’m sure only a portion of his health is taken… wha-what the heck was that?!” he then could notice his entire body had an entirely different feel to it. His shoes now weighed more and he could feel the muscles of his well built avatar to the tee.
This made him turn back to a skeleton almost instantly where he couldn’t feel anything except the rattling of his bones. “H-Huh?!” seeing their General react so intensely, the squad of players then started to look around them, noticing things they normally wouldn’t have. “S-sir!”
Gibson, although shaken, stands up once again, obviously bleeding from his nose and his face all red from the punch. Jackson could only stand at what was in front of him as the squad of players began to panic slowly. He takes a step back and translates what he’s seeing. “Calm down everyone! CALM!”
“Uhhh sir! I am telling you! Something is SUPER weird!”
“In all my years of playing this game, when you hit someone, they don’t bleed like that…” As flashes come at his vision, he finds himself back in his position. “You only remove a portion of their health and bleed a little. Wha… that also looks… oddly real…” though he had no functional throat, he made the sound as if he swallowed all the saliva in his mouth in one go. “Then, wait…”
The squad leader in the checkpoint checks Gibson who was bleeding and notices the texture of the blood is not of a game. “S-Sir… Though Dark World has real life-like graphics, the gore and blood can be spotted as fake when up close. This one though, it's obvious that it's real blood, General!” He had to take a few steps back to process what’s happening and hearing the children crying and panicking only confuses the soldiers even more.
In absolute horror to what he just did, Jackson steps back inside the checkpoint. He looks at his hands in shock at what is happening. Unable to take in what just occurred, even though his skeletal form doesn’t show his current emotion, his body's stance shows the panic and confusion he’s in. After collecting himself, he walks out of the command tent. Duncan and the soldiers look at him in silence.
“Managar to all actuals. Calling for a medic, preferably someone good. I got a Whiskey here with two Charlies in need of assistance in checkpoint Charlie… and have the Admiralty on the radio.”
“Uhhhh… Manager. Angel copies but what does Whiskey and Charlie mean?”
“It's an old identifier we used on Wife and Children. Come here quickly.”
“Sir, there’s no kids in Dark World.”
“I have no time to explain. Just come here and see it for yourself.”
Jackson then walks back to the man with his nose bleeding profusely and offers him a handkerchief. “Okay, going by what you told me. First business of the day is that I apologize for punching you. Secondly, we’re not from the Demon Lord's army or any of the sort… and Third, We can’t allow you to pass due to a city that we built. It’s currently locked down from a war.”
He then wipes his skeletal face, breathing a long hard sigh. “I have a medic coming here. Eldwood is equipped with high level healers. Whatever your wife is suffering with, we can heal it. Now I need you to tell me something.”
Though he said that in a stoic and straight manner, his hands buried deep inside his pockets are shaking from the confusion. Gibson holds the Handkerchief to his nose to slow down the bleeding.
“But please, let us through still. The Kingdom of Rose has been attacking people. The Nobles can’t do anything as they need what that Kingdom is selling for the economy. My wife’s disease is born from their rampant Evil in the lands!”
He didn’t have a reply to all that, it had gotten to the point that the General just stayed like a statue in the entire sentence. “O-Okay, let’s meet halfway. Is there another route you could take that could maybe go around this one? And Kingdom of Rose? There shouldn’t be any Kingdoms here… let alone one that can be rampant… they don’t roam this continent as it has a large number of high level players…”
“There is, but it's dangerous. Wolves and Orcs litter the alternative route and this is the most straightforward one and how do you not know the Kingdom of Rose skeletor? From what I heard, they have some of the best wine in all of Threa. That the beauty of their citizens is known throughout the land, even the Elves see them as equals.”
This made Jackson put a finger forward as his head tilted upward to the left. But before he could speak, the Squad leader tapped his shoulder. “Okay, wait one, on that thought.” He looks at Duncan who was pulling the receiver of the long range radio to his face. “It’s High Command, sir. Taking it, he slowly puts it to his ear.
“H-Hello, High Command, is anyone there? This is Knight General PilotMan, what seems to be the problem? And where is the assistance I requested, over.”
“Hey Pilot, Mustard here, important update. The land has changed, we’re requesting all units to RTB to the airport. Officers are to abandon their current objectives and all posts, return to the airport, this is an emergency. No buts. Out.”
He then puts the radio mic back at Duncans kevlar vest “Wait here till Medic arrives and sort this entire thing out.” He immediately heads off to the Humvee. Leaving the checkpoint behind.
On his way back, he notices that the hills have completely changed its shape, even the threads their tanks made weren’t no longer there and the tunnel from the highway is gone.
Their abandoned city is sitting out on flatter terrain, with lower leveled hills that couldn’t even protect the tips of their skyscrapers. Even more confused to what has happened, a mass exodus of land and air military vehicles exits the city all rapidly speeding back to the airport as he crawls to the gunner's hatch and opens it.
He instinctively had to wipe his face multiple times to see that the ocean was no longer there. Instead it had changed to a large lake that leads to the mouth of a mountain valley. Turning around as their humvee enters the elevated highway which shoots straight to the airport, the mountains that once protected the city were long gone.
It was now replaced with vast empty plains and the mountains now far beyond the horizon. “And here I was looking forward to adventuring with you Bahamut and going through your storyline…” he looks down to his pocket and lightly taps on it.
Awakening, the Dragon peeks its head out the jacket. “Master, something is happening. I advise you to return immediately. The land, the air, the mana. It's all different, the smell of the land has changed and the skies are different… and I feel… strange… As if I have what you call a headache.”
“I-i-i don’t know… what’s happening? How… did… the something flip? Did a player open up Pandora’s box or something…?” He then looks back down to the Dragon and lifts her out of his pockets. “YOU HAVE A MIGRAINE?!” He looked left and right, in absolute panic as Bahamut just gently pushed her head to his chin. “Don’t worry, Master. I just feel… overwhelmed…”
“Eh?! Eh?! Bahamut, Dragons don’t get headaches unless their brains are infected or getting chewed from something!”
“N-No. Master, with a Dragon as old as I am. Do you think something like that will kill me?” He briefly turns back into his human form and kisses the small Dragon’s face. “Oh Bahamut. Rest as much as you want. I’ll cook us some meat when you wake up, alright?” He then tightly hugs her and she reciprocates by licking his chin and cheeks, though slowly and less energetic than she usually would.
“Oh… it breaks my heart seeing you like this.” He then gently returns the Dragon to his pocket. Jackson with his little companion takes the Humvee back to the airport, the entire landscape has changed.
The once hilly and forested land of Eldwood has turned into a massive open plain with now smaller hills covering the outskirts of the city. The road he took had a direct and open view of the city, the old and aged skyscrapers to the bridges and highways.
He could see it all and what made his jaw drop still was the fact that the ocean was no longer there, replaced with a large pond that has basically landlocked their Navy surrounded by giant mountains. “Ho-holy shit…” he kept massaging the area where Bahamut was, carefully tending to her as all sorts of thoughts filled his head.
The player driving also couldn’t believe his eyes. “S-sir… wha-what-what happened?! Did we get teleported into a new region?!”
“I don’t know… I don’t… know. Soldier, did you understand what Gibson was saying?”
“Gibson? Who is that sir?”
“The village guy on the checkpoint.”
“Negative sir. All I heard was gibberish. Pure gibberish.”
“Just what the hell happened?!” His hand then tightens to a fist as he punched the armored window of the Humvee.
Nearing the airport, its entire tarmac is full of parked helicopters and F-16 lined up on the taxiway. His transport drives up on the once empty airport parking lot, now full of vehicles, but even the massive space was not enough to park all the vehicles and some are littered on the street and the soldiers idly roam the airport terminal.
Stopping at the Arrivals and he immediately walks to the security wing of the Terminal. As he does, the soldiers around him start unloading sandbags and M2 Browning machine guns. Putting them around the terminal and upping up its defense.
Entering the hallway, he sees John outside the security conference room with Trevor, talking to one another. Full of adrenaline and confusion, he gets in between the two. “What the Hell happened? I’m like, super scared right now. What the fuck guys?”
The two other Eldwood Knight Generals just shrugged their shoulders. “Don’t worry, we’re all scared and confused too. My Delta boys just returned and the entire landscape changed. Uhhhh… guys? What’re we gonna do?! The navy is landlocked, the fucking forest of Eldwood has changed into plains!” as if the trio were radiating pure madness, the players of Eldwood avoided the hallway they were in.
Leaving the three uniformed Generals with their thoughts as they paced around like restless ghosts. John, who was the calmest of them all, was already trying to get everything together as everyone kept walking around the hallway like headless chickens.
“Paul remember, I’m Mustard, he’s BleedingHearts. We’re all in skeleton form right now and identifying each other without name tags is confusing.”
“Yea yea, and I’m PilotMan. Look, is this meeting gonna commence?”
“It will. Just wait.”
“Fuck, Trev man. I can’t believe this is actually happening, did we just disappear from our beds and seats back home?”
Jackson on the other hand could feel his heart beating out of his empty chest. Though he had no lungs, he was breathing as if he was on the verge of feinting completely. His hands twitch and shake frantically as he tries to read the entire occurrence without going nuts.
“No idea bro, look one thing is sure. We somehow got transported here by some miracle or something. Full dive VR is good, but it’s not this real. Never this real, everything has a level of authenticity to them that we have yet to achieve.”
“Ahhh man, I need to get back home. There’s no quit button or log out!” Frantically standing, the man in uniform trembles the more he thinks. Opening his Player Menu, the exit button was no longer there, making him shake profusely. They both could hear the rattling of Jackson's bones while John kept a constant breathing method. Remaining composed.
“Calm down everyone, I’m sure there’s a way back home.”
Jackson’s eyes were looking at everything, the walls, the ceiling, his fingers, the chairs. Everything was seemingly different even though they were the same, as his vision completely fades in and out. “If there’s a way in, there’s a way out. We just have to find it. We need a calm heart, a calm heart prevails.” Trevor was also just as scared as Jackson was but was doing a better job at being calm, processing the entire ordeal.
But this all stopped when something crossed his mind. “... What if we die though?! I can’t die here guys. None of us should die here, so far from our loved ones and family! LET ME OUT!” He goes back to his player menu and in the settings tab. Constantly trying to press the empty space where the Log out option was. “No… NO! I WANNA GO HOME!”
“Look, we don’t even know if death is finality here. There’s still the player tab, that means there’s a chance that we’d just respawn. Calm down Trevor, Jackson, you good?” As he was massaging his jacket, the General turned to him and looked straight into his empty eyeholes. “You gonna test that out?”
John lifted his hand and shrugged instantly at the violent tone of the man. “Heck no. I have my thoughts but I’m not gonna transform back to human form and jump off the roof! Chillax! Everyone!”
But then, Jackson remembers, they’re max level in the game. He translated this as having power far from a normal human. As they are all Death Knights. “But guys, aren't we, like max level? Would jumping off roofs even kill us now? Our bodies are supposed to be like that of Legends. Falling from heights like that shouldn’t kill us…” he once again stares at his boney hands, evidently trembling nonstop.
“You have… a point. I think we’ll have to reserve our magic and Eldritch Knight powers as a last resort. I don’t like fiddling with this. I don’t want to accidentally kill someone here. Look, Jackson. What did you meet out there?”
“A family… a nuclear family… a wife, two kids, a husband… I couldn’t believe it. My eyes… Hah… oh Lord. Please, let me get back home!”
“Let’s just stay calm for now. Panicking won’t solve anything. Jackson, you were in the military, you should know this better than anyone.”
“That’s the thing though! How am I gonna get help for Bahamut?! What if we’re the only ones here?! My poor Bahamut has a headache. Trevor, you know what that means for Dragons.”
“Bahamut has a headache?!” The two other Generals reply in unison as Jackson leaned his head forward and replied with a quick. “UH YEAH.”
John then just lifted his hands and breathed out. “Look, one problem at a time. Don’t let this linger for too long. We have to gather and talk about our next move, how we’ll react and operate here. We’ll find Bahamut help, but for now. Let’s think of what our next way will be, alright?”
“I guess…? But what about all the weapons we have here though? What’re we going to do with it?” Hearing this, Jacksons head started to race as if he had done some calculations on his mind already. “Per Eldwood Player, it’s seven skeleton soldiers right?”
“Yea, and for Pilots, Two is just enough for the mission they need.”
“Guys, we have an undead army. Would… the people of this land think… Like Gibson…”
The atmosphere suddenly turns methodical as the three men start exchanging stares at one another. Lifting their hands up her chins and cheeks.
“Okay, we’ll see about that. If the local native population has a Demon Lord, I’m sure we’ll be grouped together with the guy and also get attention. The bad type of attention.”
“Yes, the not-so-good kind of attention.”
“Oh God, we’re gonna have war in our hands won’t we? We need the Men of the Woods help. We can’t fight a long war. Trevor, John. Our units don’t have the type of logistics meant for a prolonged conflict. We were just supposed to open the fight for the Dark Continent.”
“Crap, let’s just think of a way to contact the Men of the Woods and get access to Iron Mountain and its factories again.”
“I’m pretty sure before we do that, we’ll have to mentally prepare ourselves for survival, this world is gonna be holding us by the balls if it's something far deadlier than we can imagine.”
Trevor then flicks his finger. “What if though… if this world has no mages or magic? We can easily find a way home with our access to magic and modern tech.” Jackson immediately shrugged his head at him. “Hearing what Gibson said with the healer. I doubt that at all.”
The three anxiously wait in the hallway and as they idle, 9 more High Ranking officers join them. It's the entire high command of Eldwood in one place.
From the Admiralty to the Air Force command all waiting for the permission to enter the conference room. After a few more tense minutes of waiting and lingering aimlessly about the hallway, deep in thought as millions of things come into their minds, the conference room door opens slowly, and the leader of the Knights of Eldwood is revealed.
The Generals sit at the large table. One sitting in front, five on each site and another one in the back. The room is full of screens and military boards full of plans and routes. The air of the dark room, only lit by the televisions. It slowly becomes tense, as the skeletons wearing modern general uniforms lean into the table. Even though unable to show facial emotion, their body language shows the severity of the situation they are in. The man in the front then opens up, with a heavy sigh, he starts talking.
“In around fourteen hundred hours, the landscape on our maps, and surroundings suddenly changed. Without a warning, we’ve been transported to somewhere else with our equipment and the things we made.”
His tone seemed old and weary, tired and depressed. He continues.
“I requested all of you here to plan our next route. I’m willing to accept questions and queries about the land and what we got ourselves into.”
KrankenWagen, with the real name of Escobar first opens up.
“Sir Hassan, what exactly did you mean that we’ve been transported here?”
“As exactly as I said, we got teleported to an unknown land. I’m sure many of you noticed the strange terrain that filled our surroundings.”
“Knight General Paul here, I can confirm this. I came from Checkpoint Charlie and on my way back, the entire landscape has changed. Even the mountains covering our city have completely disappeared and its skyline could be seen miles away.”
“Knight Admiral Elmer here, I’m one of the first ones to report this. My fleet’s radars suddenly found random pots of land in the open sea, new elevations were suddenly popping up out of nowhere and the winds shifted, the weather also became more calm as we were escorting our Russian friends.”
“Which I confirmed. Knight General John, My F-16s and B-52s suddenly found the terrain to be different and the weather formations to suddenly change. As if out of nowhere, the terrain instantly shifted, the entire air wing reported that we’re in an entirely new continent.”
“And Checkpoint Charlie is our first contact with the inhabitants of this world?”
“Yes, a man with a family, women and children. I couldn’t believe it at first, I thought maybe it was part of some update or something. There’s never been children or such realistic blood in Dark World VR.”
“Knight General Escobar, I still haven’t wrapped my head around this entire situation. Have we gone insane from playing this game too much?”
The conference room falls silent as the Generals try to take in the entire situation, confused and scared.
“Look, we cannot mope around like this. We have an entire modern military in our hands that has cruise missiles and tanks. We must assure that this equipment doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. We have to find our Allies, like the Men of the Woods..”
“How are you so calm about this entire thing? We have a family and things to do, you know. Paul has a company to maintain, John has to graduate University and I have a business venture to attend to! My entire life is on the line with that!”
“What about me? I have two nephews to look after and I’m not panicking. Look, the best we can do right now is figure out what this place is about, who are the inhabitants and are we alone.”
“What do you mean by “alone”?”
“If you and the entire Guild of Eldwood including its two thousand four hundred members get transported here, what about Breznick and Libertus? Heck, what about the Wizards Guild or the Sages Department? We have bigger problems to attend to here. If we reveal ourselves, who says they’re still not out for blood?”
“Shouldn’t we prioritize contacting the Men of the Woods? Heck, if we can, let us send a plane to Woodstock immediately and get President Grahame to meet with us.”
“Escobar, do you even have an idea where they might be? Right now, we have nothing but local signals with our antennas and radars. Unless we get satellites which is basically impossible unless the Spaceman Guild or the nerds that love Rockets have actually built working ones. Even then, we would need to set up a network. We have no idea where they are or if they are even here. Only Zavalda has such tech in their hands.”
“Then what about finding a way home? And what the heck is the Kingdom of Rose?! Or even yet, Evil is rampant in the area where that Gibson guy came from?!”
Hassan slowly stands up, as if he’s an old man. He puts his right arm behind his back and with a slouch, he points at the large screen behind him.
“If you look closely at the map behind me, this is a rough outline of the new terrain. It's entirely different, though good news for us is that the Port is still in water, though it's no longer open seas but a large lake.”
“Not only that, making the Carrier group stay inside such landlocked water is a death sentence. Right now, my ships are mooring into the Port but we’ll have to immediately send scouts and see where the lake heads off to and if the entire length, it could fit the Nimitz and the Iowa class Battleship.”
“Let us not get ahead of ourselves, Admiral. We’d first have to perform an all heads count, we have thousands of tons of equipment and logistics with players who also want to go home right now, so we should be able to continue our operations for a while but we must first check if the game mechanics still work. We have to find out if we can still manufacture spare parts and munitions.”
“I’ll immediately talk to our friends at the logistics department and see if we can still make those. In terms of fuel, we have to see if we might have to synthesize them from the ground up.”
“I’ll immediately ground all our aircrafts. The B-52s and KC-135 Stratotankers we loaned from the Men of the Woods would have to make a pilgrimage back to our Airbase as it's only one of the two places we have right now that has space for them. The airport is currently full so here's hoping the direction is correct.”
“I’ll send my Special Forces to help out in finding places for resources.”
“What about the upkeep of our facilities? We already have maintenance vehicles from the Engineer and Logistics Corps but I don’t think we have enough to maintain the city and the airport.”
“Sorry, if I was quiet the entire time like the other guys. Knight General Francis. I’m buried in the player tab right now, figuring out the logistical challenge that has been thrown at us. One thing is for sure, this isn’t even a player tab, it's some sort of a Magical Interface.”
“Are the functions still the same? Did anything change?”
“Yes, some stuff is missing here including crafting, Though I’m sure there’s a lot of changes here that we haven’t seen yet. If we’ve been transported here, I’m sure that the functions we have right now have risen to a variety no game or system could comprehend but I also fear that the longer we stay here, the more there is a chance for it to disappear as our body and soul get accustomed to this foreign world.”
“Good thing we voted to have an Army Materiel Command. For now, we’ll set up a defensive perimeter outside of the airport.”
“Good, everyone, you know what you’ll have to do. I know a lot of you haven’t been able to speak but for now, we’ll do this. Our time is short and we must act quickly. Meeting e-”
Just as the Five-Star General was about to end the meeting, the entire airport and the city became frozen.
Out on the horizon, six figures are seen flying high above the ground. It’s the greatest player Mages of Dark World VR. They’ve casted a spell of gigantic proportions. A seal that puts the entire military to sleep through ice.
Even with the high levels of the generals in the meeting room, they’re unable to quickly move to cast protection spells on themselves. Their glowing eyes slowly fade out as the ice engulfs them fully. Turning everyone into statues, stuck in time. But before General Hassan fell, he let out one last deathly whisper to the Mages that did this to them.
“Hear… me… mages… we shall not fade into the night… without a FIGHT.”
The entire airport falls silent. The runways, the aircrafts, the tanks, the streets and equipment are all frozen in place and the skeleton soldiers not moving an inch from where they stand. A deathly aura was casted into the damned army, as they waited for a chance to awaken from their sleep and explore the new world that awaits them. Snow falls turning the place into a lonely cold Hell.