Okay we are getting closer and closer to the actual game and I wanted to use this chance to say something concerning these last few chapters. Also, hi to the few new follower of my story, I am happy to have you and hope you can enjoy my story.
Spoiler :
First of all, I wanted to say sorry for the short and few fights. I am sure you expected a bit more when I started this whole 'battlefield' scenario, I did too, really. But, I realized shortly after starting these chapters, that a normal human fighting atop a normal battlefield is really rather boring to discribe and would just drag these chapters to the length. After all I am not a writer who likes his protagonist to be a martial arts legends unheard of even in the heavens, at least not in the beginning of the plot. And, people doing casual backflips over enemies or slashing through hundreds of enemies at ease or doing some crazy anchorman spin-moves... that's not what an ordinary person does, a ordinary person just up and dies after having killed a maximum of two soldiers in a real battle and which is what I tried to portray in these chapters instead.
So instead of making Sascha a OP-(curse word), I tried to show that he is quite capable at keeping himself alive, though at this point I am not sure whether I succeeded at that. Or rather, I am quite sure that I did not succeed. But I am still just starting, there's still lots of improvements I can and will make, so i hope you will stick around regardless and help me to do so. And, I promise, that once I become an actual good writer and have ascended beyond the realm of grammatical incorrection, I definietly will return and edit these chapters and especially these fights to be a lot cooler and read-worthy. Till then I hope you will still enjoy the show.
Aaaand third of all, anyone got some good idea for chapter names? I freaking suck at naming something in less than 8 hours, hot damn, it took me months to find a name for my protagonist. I can't name these chapters on my own so.... Please help me (T-T).
Also, though I didn't quite to do what I wanted to with these chapters, they still do have their reason for being here, so don't think I am just stalling or something.
Now, second of all, I am sorry for these time jumps. I only just now realized that every single chapter is a time jump which ist probably not helping the flow of my story and I would love if anyone could give me a few tips or alternatives as to how I should go about this instead.
Last thing now. I heard somewhere that after a stories 10th chapter one gets a thread where his story can be discussed and stuff. So I wanted to ask whether people would want like... a Q&A thread or anything of the like. If so do tell please or any other ideas you might have.
Also, one last note as to get people hyped, next chappie shall be boss chappie. I'll try to make that one as good as possible (*cough* not promising anything *cough*) so stick around for that.
Nice day to you all and-
~Peace out.
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There was no way to tell how much time had passed since I had entered my capsule back in the real world. It could have been hours, or even days, though if I were to trust the day and night circle within the game, five days must have passed.
I was currently resting on the wide open platform at the top the tower, leaning against the battlement and stuffing my pipe with tobacco. Each a gift by a knight whose life I had saved on the first day.
Up above me in the cloudless night sky glistened countless stars and I tried my hardest to blend out the voices of the dozen knights all around me. Only the fewest of them actually on look-out for enemies.
Left with nothing else to do but to tell the heroic tales of their daily achievements they gathered here after their shifts, just like me, though there were enough worried fathers among their midst to cause every conversation to eventually turn depressing. Which was exactly why I stayed clear of these groups.
Ever since yesterday they just couldn't help themselves but to constantly talk and worry about the countless smoke columns that had been rising from the third city plateau. Although this kind of grief and sorrow had persisted ever since day one, as the first two plateaus had been almost instantly overrun.
'Well at least the constant crying inside the tower has stopped.' I thought as I lighted my pipe.
Though I couldn't resent these men for worrying about their life and the life of their families. After all, unlike me, they actually lived in this world and could also die in here.
The thought drove a stake of pain through my heart.
'Who am I to judge a crying father who has lost both, his family and his home and is about to lose his own life, too.'
The only reason we were still alive was because the tower was easy to defend and we had gathered within it by the hundredth. Yet still, with each passing day I awoke between fewer men than the day before, all the while the enemies before our door only grew stronger and stronger.
I knew we wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, which was exactly why I tried to gather as much information as I could, while I was still stuck in this trial.
Were it not for the countless clues I could gather during the daily fights I would have long since committed suicide to get out of this place already, or would at least have left my capsule just once. The thought of Alice all on her own drove me almost mad with worry and by now I hated every second that I was stuck here and which left me unable to go looking for her.
'Might as well make the best out of it.'
I blew a cloud of smoke from my mouth as I repeated everything that had happened since day one once again, careful as to not forget or leave anything out. After all I had literally paid with blood and sweat to get a hold of these information.
When I had awoken from my unconsciousness I had been surprised to find myself still alive within the game and mostly healed. Though that was less due to the bandaging and care-taking of the healers, but rather because my body apparently healed on it's own if left alone for enough time. Though, that still didn't leave me with enough time to recover in between fights and the more serious wounds on my body, which I had received on day one, still persisted to haunt me.
For example, I still had a deep oozing gash running along and just above my hip on my right side, where on the first day an axe had penetrated my armor. It had healed enough to no longer send me staggering to my knees upon contact, which allowed me to finally wear my armor again, but it still caused me constant pain.
I didn't mind it though, the constant pain was a perfect reminder off my folly of the first day and since then I had learned from my mistakes. A whole lot actually.
Sure, my reckless charge had made short work of most enemies at that time, but it would have been my end had I to faced one of the enemies that were coming at us these days.
Instead of becoming a sitting duck within my own front line, I had learned to move in sync with my comrades. Which made it a whole lot easier to fight within the confined space of the front lines.
While, during the first day, I had just constantly received hit after hit without the ability to retaliate, I now found myself swaying back and forward in a constant rhythm together with the knights at my sides. Which allowed us to tank the hits as we moved back and then to effectively return them as we shot forth in unison.
The fur covered barbarians we had been fighting on day one no longer proved any challenge to me the second I had figured this out, though they had been replaced shortly thereafter by better armed warriors whose equipment was only sub-par to our own.
Most of these new enemies bore a striking resemblance with vikings, as they had horned helmets atop their heads and the viking typical round shields, also they wore proper armor now. Though it didn't cover their entire body the same way our plate mail did and only provided partial protection for areas such as their chests, arms and legs. Yet, that was already enough to make them a whole lot harder to kill and very good target practice as I had been forced to learn how to attack precisely, even when fighting within a moving crowd.
Also, ever since I had slain my one hundredth enemy, I had been able to see enemies health bars and name tags above their heads.
Apparently these barbarians we were fighting were so called [Warriors of the North], who were further sub-divided into the categories [Young-], [Hardened-] and [Veteran-]. Only the fewest enemies actually being veterans, which was good since those were incredibly tough to kill. Not only because of their equipment, but because they had thrice the health of a [Young Warrior of the North].
The young warriors actually only had twelve Hit-Points, or short Hp, but my sword only dealt around three to six damage depending on how and where I hit them. Which made the thirty-six Hp veteran warriors a pain in the ass to deal with.
Yet, ever since I was able to see Health-Bars, I had made an entire multitude of new discoveries as to how different game mechanics worked. The most important being critical hits and health distribution.
Critical hits weren't very complicated to get a grasp on, as they worked the same way as they did within Lands of Arcania Online. You simply had to hit the enemy in a weak spot such as the head, the throat, their armpit, heart and so on, which would result in a critical hit that would deal double the damage. This on its own wasn't very breathtaking, but combined with the health distribution mechanic became a whole lot more complex.
The deal with health distribution was the following, though it was just a theory I had come up with after observing enemies dying from hits that did not reduce their health points to zero.
An enemies health points were apparently split and distributed throughout a beings body. Effectively making it so that different body parts, such as limbs and even organs, had different amounts of health, which, when reduced to zero, would be destroyed. Thus making it possible to instantly kill an enemy with a hit to the head, even if he was still at full health.
Though I still seemed to miss something, as the Northern Warriors seemed to have more health points spread throughout their body than their Health-Bars noted them to have. Most likely the distribution was percentage based... I would have to figure out the proper numbers later though, as right now I simply had to few enemies to go by.
So far I had done some throughout testing on the common young warriors though.
Their heads had less than six Hp (Health Point) and would result in an instant kill when destroyed, also a hit to the head would always result in a critical hit. Arms had exactly six Hp and could be cut off with two slashes to either upper- or forearm, or with a single critical hit, which could be made by hitting a joint. Hands had more than three Hp, but were cut in a single strike when aiming for their joint, which resulted in a critical hit, while fingers apparently had less than three Hp. Which left only legs remaining, which had in between seven or nine health points, as they needed three normal hits or one critical plus a normal hit to cut off.
Also noteworthy was the fact that, if an enemies health was reduced to zero, he would not instantly die, unless decapitated or likewise injured of course, but instead would become unconscious and start to bleed out.
I hadn't been able to make any further tests concerning this specific death mechanic or on how much Hp feet had, but also thought that I had enough data for the time being.
The last and also important discovery I had made was the fact that momentum actively affected attacks and not only ones own, but also the incoming momentum of an enemy. Though this was a rather obvious mechanic I still had been quite surprised the first time around when I had effectively dealt five damage instead of three to an incoming enemies arm, which I had met mid swing with my sword.
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“Hey Sascha, you thinking again?”
I looked up, a scowl on my face as my thoughts were interrupted once again, though my features instantly lit up the second I saw the smiling face of Gerhardt.
Gerhardt was the name of the general who had saved my life on the first day and then once again on the second. Over the past few days we had become rather friendly with each other and had even exchanged our stories. And, though I wouldn't admit it, I had come to quite like the grumpy man's personality, as, unlike his usual general behavior would suggest, he was actually really gentle at heart and turned out to be a great listener, too.
He had served in this city for over thirty years already and had a lovely wife and two girls waiting for him at home on the fifth plateau, for whom he was willing to do anything in order to keep them safe.
I on the other hand had told him a bit about the real world, though nothing specific and had sought him out every time when I needed confirmation for one of my theories. Also, we've had a long conversation last night about Alice and me, born from the question as to why I had come to this world.
“I am fine Gerhardt, only watching the stars and thinking. Did you know? We can not see the stars back where I come from.”
I smiled, though inwardly I couldn't help but feel a surge of pity clawing at my consciousness.
'Poor Gerhardt. I am so sorry for you. Your an AI trapped in this place, with memories of wife and kids which most likely don't even exist, destined to fight this horde of enemies for the rest of your existence and most likely even beyond that.'
Meanwhile Gerhardt sat down on the empty space next to me, where he then took out his own pipe.
“You chosen and your world confuse me, did you know that? You fight like a mad man yet you come to me each day asking questions that even the dumbest recruit could answer you. And you do not even have stars? You actually dare to make me worry that my family and I will be reincarnated in such a weird place.”
If not for his eye-patch I could almost see the family man that he supposedly was, as Gerhardt sounded a lot kinder now that he wasn't constantly screaming every word in his usual ordering demeanor. Though even he wasn't able to hide the bitterness in his voice, which he desperately tried to hide behind a layer of humour. Unlike most others he also knew that we were all doomed to die one of these days.
“We do have stars, we just can't see them. You know Gerhardt, we chosen and you people, we are not all that different, it's just our worlds that are. My world won't exist for much longer though, so you'll most likely find yourself and your family stranded on a planet even weirder than mine.”
Upon hearing this Gerhardt's eyes grew wide and he almost dropped the pipe.
“You mean there are even more worlds than ours and yours? And what do you mean with 'won't exist for much longer'?”
I had to chuckle at the sight of his dumbfounded face.
“Well, of course there are more worlds. Just look at all those stars above us, did you know that each and every single one of those stars is similar to the planet we are standing on? Though none are the same, in between all those hundreds of stars there is at least one more place almost the same as this world. So you see, there are hundredths, millions, if not even infinite other worlds out there.”
Hearing this Gerhardt went silent for a while, as if deeply in thought. All the while I kept on explaining.
“As for my world, the problem is that the humans that life there are stupid. We have forgotten how to live in harmony with nature and have destroyed it and now we can't do anything but watch as it dies. Which is one of the reasons why all of us escape to places like this, though it won't save us in the long run... Welp. At least it helps us forget.”
One way or another I had managed to destroy the atmosphere with that last part and neither of us said another word as we spend the rest of the night thinking in silence. I tried to sleep at one point, but couldn't as Alice's letter kept appearing before my eyes and time after time again her scream for help sounded through the insides my head.
It was the same for Gerhardt, though in his case it were the screams of three girls that kept him awake.
It was almost nearing morning again, the sun already slow ascending on the horizon and painting the still clear sky in a multitude of pink and red colors, though the crescent shape of the moon still hung up above us. When all of a sudden the silence of the morning was disrupted, as someone sounded the alarm.
Gerhardt and I instantly jumped up and made a run for the battlement, the both of us trying to get a peak at what was happening on the walls beneath us. Though Gerhardt had more luck than me as the knights crowding atop the tower made way for him to look, unlike the people in front of me.
“Dammit. Hey Gerhardt, any clue as to what is going on?” I shouted towards him.
“No, but we are getting attacked so get ready, we are heading down!”
Yet, before any of us could make a move, dozen of hooks suddenly came flying over the battlements. Instantly the alarm was drowned beneath the pained cries of a few unlucky knights, who had been penetrated by some of the hook and left unable to save themselves as they got pulled across and down the battlement.
“Men get ready! The enemy has breached our ranks and is entering the tower. We won't make it down in time so gather your courage and make this tower your last stand!”
Gerhardt's usual general voice sounded above our heads and caused everyone to go silent. Dozen of faces all around me instantly grew pale as the men understood this would be our end. It was the same for me, though I knew I wouldn't really die and yet, still, I couldn't help but feel scared and somewhat regretful now that I was certain that all of this was coming to an end.
I threw one last glance towards Gerhardt, then drew my sword and started barking commands into our ranks as to get everyone into formation.
It took us the better part of three minutes, as everyone was in distraught and more than half the men without their equipment, but we eventually got everyone settled and in order. Luckily I had been cautious ever since day one and had never went anywhere without my armor, shield and sword.
Suddenly a loud howl pierced the silence, causing all the hair on my body to stand up in shock, all the while more and more howls sounded out aloud throughout the battlefield. There was no more time though, as the first batch of enemies ascended from behind the battlement.
Men screamed all around me, as unlike the expected northern warriors, an entirely new enemy appeared instead. One which none of us was prepared for and whose claws ripped our men into pieces as if their armor was made from butter.
In the instance of a single heartbeat the scenery atop the tower had turned into a massacre, as half a dozen of men were reduced to mere pulps off flesh and scattered all across the platform.
“Stand united men! They have send their Worgs at us and we will all die if you can't end them swiftly! Help and defend each other and we shall win!”
I only barely managed to catch Gerhardts' words, but as soon as I did, the space above the heads of the enemies lit up and now read [Worg, Demonic Beasts of the North].
There was still no health bar above these creatures heads, but it was still a great discovery to find out that I could identify enemies as soon as their identities were revealed to me.
This was neither the time nor the place to go about my research though, as the second batch of enemies arrived.
A Worg landed right before me and finally I could get a proper look at them, though honestly, I wish I hadn't.
These Worgs, as they were called, were feral canine beasts, whose appearance was reminiscent to that of an werewolves. Except these creatures had hunched up backs, which seemingly brimmed over with muscles and gave them the appearance of an animal rather than that of a transformed human. Though my eyes rested only shortly on their muscular torso, as their fangs and claws, which protruded from their maws and paws, were much bigger eye catchers as their size was truly frightening.
The sight almost made me freeze up again, but I was left with no time to remain afraid as the Worg already charged at me. A crazed, blood hunger visible in it's red eyes.
The creature raised itself up to stand up on his hind legs, all the while both of its paws, claws included, came shooting towards my face and chest.
Taking cover behind my shield I managed to dodge the high strike just in time, though the claw coming for my chest smashed into me and even though I blocked the attack, send me actually flying backwards a few meters into my own ranks.
Luckily I was somewhat caught and placed back on my feet before the Worg caught up to me, but I had more or less lost hope of defeating the beast already.
'How am I supposed to fight this thing. It just literally send me flying. Holy shit.'
My entire left side burned, even my former wounds flared up again and I couldn't feel my entire left arm at all anymore. I could still move it though, so it wasn't broken.
The Worg in the meanwhile had already taken care of two soldiers, both of which had stood besides me only moments before, but were nothing more than two bleeding pulps on the ground now.
Again, I almost lost it, as anger churned in my insides, but staring into the beasts eyes I knew that this sort of stupidity would be my death now. So, instead of raging and throwing myself at the beast, I waited for it with utmost caution.
That didn't help a whole lot though, as the Worg simply jumped at me in a fashion similar to a tackle. All the while its claws and even its maw shot forward, seemingly determined to rip me apart.
“Bad Dog!” I roared, as I, unable to dodge in time, jumped up instead while trying to get my body into a horizontal position. Both of it's claws shot past and below me, as my sudden jump surprised the beast, yet it's eyes still brimmed with bloodlust and it's maw was coming right for my face. Which was when I screamed “Sit!” with everything I got and smashed my shield right into it's face, my sword penetrating it's unprotected back only a second thereafter.
I was almost thrown up and above the creature as it smashed into me and my shield, but managed to keep myself in place just above the Worgs head as both of us slammed into the ground.
A painful sensation ran through my knees and up my waist, yet my pained whistle was drowned by the loud and pain filled yelp escaping from the Worg's maw. Which now found itself buried under my shield and pressed down into the ground beneath my body.
The monstrosity struggled fervently and it took me all the strength I had just to keep it in place all the while I had to endure as it's claws dug deep into my legs.
I wasn't even able to pull my sword out of its back and hack away at it, but without even having to say anything my comrades were already at my side and going ham at the vulnerable creature.
Not a second to late and with united strength we managed to eventually kill the beast. Countless holes filled it's corpse and it was instantly clear to me that this so called Worg had much more health than any of the enemies I had seen thus far.
While slowly standing up on wobbly and bleeding legs I inwardly thanked Alice for every wrestling match she had ever forced me to watch with her. Since the technique I had used had been my copy of a move called a 'Sprawl', though my version had succeeded because of luck rather than technique.
The victorious smile on my face faded almost instantly though, as a howl, louder than any of the howls before, sounded across the battlefield and drowned out any other noise.