Noah was kneeling on the cold ground in the giant yard of an abandoned farm, shivering slightly despite the warm wind blowing in from the Rattletail Forest a mere half-mile south of him.
Everything about the new zone Noah was in set his teeth on edge. The cold. The darkness. But it was also conspicuously empty of life, yet Noah occasionally got a faint whiff of decay.
He was a mere hundred feet from a two-lane road, next to a huge tree that had fallen over. He stared through the scope of his Springfield, which rested on a large branch of the broken tree.
Red was on one side of Noah, and Lika was pressed up against his other side, shivering as well. “What do you see?”
“A tiny town, obviously of my people—America, I mean. I’m not sure which one it is, though. I just see a few low-end houses, a lot of them obviously busted up.”
“Busted up how?” Lika asked.
“Missing segments of walls, scratches in the outside, lots of shattered windows. And no lights at all, anywhere, which is making it damn hard to see anything in this perpetual darkness.”
Lika reached over and slapped Noah on the back. “Well… no use staring. Let’s go check it out.”
She stood in a crouch, and started forward.
Noah started to follow, but at the edge of his hearing, he heard a clacking noise and hoofbeats.
“Get down, Lika,” he called out, pitching his voice to carry just so.
She turned then hit the ground, crawling back to Noah. He pointed in the direction of the noise, then pulled his gun, staring through the scope again.
It took a moment, but he found the source of the noise, coming down the two-lane road—a rotting horse with a black coat and red eyes pulled a large old-timey wooden wagon, like something from a Victorian novel, but more sinister. It had a huge cage in the back instead of the normal carriage. On the front of the cage, holding the reins, was an overweight man with a top hat, of all things, and the cage was filled with people in ragged clothing—two adults and three children.
As he hovered the scope over the driver, a card popped into view.
Bartholomew Crimson, Vampire Bloodseeker
Undead [Vampire, Crimson Clan] Creature
Overland Monster
Health: 35
Attack: 9
Defense: 9
Magical Attack: 6[Death]
Magical Defense: 4
Special: Blood Hunter: Any Mortal entity killed by this card drops a Blood Vial resource token card
Special: Ecstatic Kiss: Any Mortal entity hit by this card’s magical attack is rendered incapable of taking actions
Special: Flammable: +100% damage from Fire
Special: Sunlight Weakness: This card takes a true damage every fifteen seconds in sunlight, and all its stats are halved.
Special: This monster has a 10% chance to drop a card. If it does, that card has a 50% chance to be a Crimson Bloodseeker.
“Crimson Bloodseekers are the backbone of our clan, for we rely on blood for power even more than a normal vampire does.”—Avicii, Crimson Progenitor
“I hate the gods,” Noah muttered, leaning back against the tree, his rifle against his side. “They’re vampires. Night City zone, dur. Of course it’s vampires.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Vampires as the overland monsters?” Lika asked, her eyes wide.
“Yeah… why?” Noah asked.
“Well, I don’t know for sure how this will work on Arena, but vampires are smart overland monsters. Smart as in, not animals. The gods of the Great Game almost never place intelligent monsters as roamers unless someone really screwed something up,” Lika said.
“Like losing a contest so bad every player was eliminated?” Noah asked.
"Yeah, that. But they’ll fight way above their stats, ‘cuz they can organize and stuff. Like us.”
Noah nodded, then took his gun and aimed it over the side. “Well, we need to rescue the humans. Are vampires immune to anything?”
“Not beyond the normal undead type,” RED cut in. “But they also aren’t subject to a lot of vampire weaknesses you think you know about. If it isn’t on the card, it’s not a thing.”
“Go kick his ass, RED,” Noah said, and fired one of his precious bullets. The cart had reached the point on the road closest to Noah, and the crack had barely sounded in Noah’s ears before his shot hit the vampire in his upper arm—a bit below where Noah had aimed. It didn’t do as much damage as it ought to have if it hit a human—the Bloodseeker’s stats made him need about three times as much damage to kill as a human.
But it still did a lot, and it pitched the vampire over the side of the cart on the far side.
Lika was already up and running, as was RED. She pulled her deck, and Noah hit his as well, since surprise had been used already.
Lika got close and threw her Modding Station down. It was an open air room, about ten by ten with no roof, and had workbenches and advanced tools. It made great cover when needed as well.
The vampire came flying over the edge of the cart, moving faster than a human could, headed directly for Lika.
Noah tried to reload as fast as he could, but fumbled the bullet. Cussing, he hit his Short Circuit, and did chip damage to the undead as it came in.
But RED was there, and slashed with his plasma knife. He had an effective nine magical attack, so he would normally do eighty-one damage—but it was doubled against the already wounded vampire, which scrabbled at RED’s armor with his claws, leaving faint scoring on it.
But RED outright cleaved through the vampire’s chest, and then the whole creature burst into bone-white light. Shockingly to Noah, who hadn’t gotten lucky on much in the Great Game so far, the dead monster also dropped a card.
At the same time, the cart dissipated into bone-white light, and the people in the cage fell to the ground with a couple startled yells. A card floated down behind them as well.
Noah placed his bullet back in his shorts and ran up to where the vampire had died. “Everyone all right?”
“Um, yeah,” the man who had been in the back of the cart said. He took a couple steps forward, holding his hand out. “I’m Hank.”
Noah took the hand and shook. Hank was covered in bruises and dirt, and his skin was sallow and pale. His family, still behind him, appeared the same.
“I’m fine too,” Lika said, picking up the two cards. “Check this out—it got modified by RED’s special.”
She held the card out, and Noah saw that it was an uncommon Golem “Scrap Seeker” drone golem.
“Interesting,” he said. “What is the other one?”
“An undead vehicle card, Bone Carriage.”
Before Noah could ask about that, Hank cut in. “Are you fighting the vampires? Are you a hunter?”
“I just got here,” Noah said. “I’m looking for my girlfriend, Hope, who was in Kansas City, at the university for pre-med, when the apocalypse hit.”
Then, even though it was almost certainly impossible, he asked, “Have you heard of her?”
Hank shook his head. “No. But if she was there, she’s probably fine, or kinda fine.”
“What? She is? Really?” Noah asked, an uncontrollable happiness rising in his chest.
Hank nodded, giving Noah a tremulous smile that almost immediately faltered. “Kinda, yeah. I mean, probably, like I said.”
“How come?” Lika asked, pointing back at the partially smashed farmhouse near them. “Seems like everyone here got attacked and killed. We haven’t seen anyone.”
“Well, most of the surrounding towns and suburbs got hit by giant undead dragons, and a lot of the dead people rose again as zombies. The rest of us ran—I was from Gardner myself, and yeah, we all ran or died. So these places are pretty much all dead.”
“But?” Noah asked.
“But, some of the people that we saw in the refugee camps, when we ran, said that Kansas City got a vampire infestation. They tend to, um, farm humans more than kill them.”
“Mostly,” his wife said from behind them, her voice dark.
“Yeah, mostly,” Hand said. “That one guy, Chester, he said that they killed his wife outright. But he’s the only one. And, that’s what Bartholomew said they were taking us for, too.”
“Who in the twelve hells is Bartholomew?” Lika asked.
“The vampire that you just killed. Me and my family, we got caught by some orcs, who have a settlement just past the dead zone. They sold us to the vampires to be a source of blood.”
“I’m sorry,” Noah said.
Hank shrugged dejectedly, coughed once, and wiped at his eyes. “It’s that kind of world now.”
For a few seconds, no one said anything.
Then Hank continued. “So, I mean, if you really want, you can probably still reach her. Although the vampires run everything in what they’re calling Night City. So you’ll need to be circumspect.”
Noah sighed. He had to get in, find out where Hope was, and rescue her and Grace both. In a city hostile to humans, where vampires ruled.
He took his rifle off, and handed it to Hank. “If you follow the forest’s edge for about two days back west, you’ll find a path into the forest. It’s dangerous, and I’m not going to lie, you might all die. But if you can travel the path and survive for five days, you’ll reach Nexus City. You’ll be safe once you get there.”
“Can you come with us? I’ve got kids,” Hank said.
Noah hardened his heart. “If you want to come with me, to Kansas City, you can. If not, well… I just gave you my rifle, since I can’t conceal it in town. Time to step up, Hank, one way or another. You can head to town with me, or you can head to Nexus City through the Rattletail Forest. There isn’t a third option, I’m sorry. I have to rescue Hope before I do anything else.”
Hank stared at Noah for a moment, but then he nodded. “Yeah, you’ve got your own family to look after. I get it. I’ll head to Nexus City.”
Noah patted Hank on the shoulder. “Good man.”
Then he turned back to face Kansas City, miles ahead, past where he could see. “We’re going forward.”