Parrying the strike from the soldier before him, he kicked out to the left crumpling another’s sternum. Slashing to the right another one fell in a spurt of blood. As soon as the soldier fell two more came to take his place.
A sharp pain in his abdomen announced the arrival of a spear head. Almost at the same time his right shoulder was struck with enough force to cause him to drop his sword, the large feathered arrow sticking out of his arm rendering it useless.
Weaponless, the man continued to engage his enemies with his sole good hand, dodging the thrusts of spears and the slashes of swords. He could not see past the massive army that had come for his head, but that did not matter. The sheer number of them would eventually overwhelm him, he knew that, but even then that did not matter. He only cared about taking out the next enemy. About the next kill.
His body was covered in numerous wounds and scratches, each a testament to his sheer perseverance and willpower. Finally fatigue began to catch up to him. He hadn’t a moment since the start of the battle to catch his breath and the signs began to show. His body slowed down despite his silent protests, telling its master that it needed rest.
The man paid no attention. There was no option. Stopping meant death. Snapping a soldier’s neck with a twist of his left arm, the man stumbled as a soldier with a large shield slammed into him from behind. Tumbling to the ground the man landed on his back.
This was the end. The man stared up at the sky with not a cloud in sight. The sun blazed red as his body was pierced by the spears and swords of the soldiers. The bloody red burned into his pupils as he saw the approach of an axe reaching towards his head in slow motion. It almost felt like if he tried hard enough he’d be able to catch the crescent blade as the axe descended, but his arms hung limp at his side, refusing to move.
The man breathed out a sigh. He had done his best. That was all that mattered. Then everything went dark.
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After a few moments, the Pod opened and a young man stepped out. He had just been playing an old version of Hordes of Dimenia; a virtual reality game that had been out on the market since the arrival of virtual gaming itself. The premise was simple. Fight the soldiers of Dimenia and protect the Kingdom of Slate. However the version Kale had been playing had been a patched version of that game. In the one he played the Kingdom of Slate was already overrun and only the hero of the kingdom had survived. There was nothing to do in the game but fight the endless enemies that attacked.
Nobody played the game anymore. It was no longer anything special. In fact, many despised the game as the only thing it had going for it was its level of realism. There were no special stats or skills. No unique combat system and no magic. It was simply a fight to the death as a normal person. Most people died within minutes. The record was said to have been just over three hours and that was accomplished by one of the world’s top martial artists.
Kale checked his time on the machine and was rather disappointed that it was lower than last his last attempt. He’d only lasted 87 minutes. His highest time yet had almost reached 2 hours. Where Kale was disappointed with his time, most would have been extremely proud. Enduring such a hopeless battle was not something just anybody could do.
There was no set pattern to the attacks in the game and no known way to cheat. The technology of the virtual reality capsule, or Pod as it was commonly called, was beyond anything normal people could understand and even experts in the field were baffled when they took the machine apart.
When the technology known as virtual reality was released by Tearnex, a relatively unknown company at the time, it revolutionized the modern world. The amount of features and the level of realism that accompanied it exploded in popularity. No longer did people have to pay exorbitant fees to travel to exotic places, with just a click of a button you could be anywhere, do anything. The Pod's also included a vast collection of resources that were made accessible through its online library and you could learn almost anything you wanted through the machine.
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At first there had been sceptics. People had doubted the possibility of virtual reality and had expressed fears at its usage, but over time those fears had dissipated. The Pod was regulated by Tearnex and no misuse of the Pod had been documented to date. The truth was, however, that Tearnex had never had to enforce any regulations on the Pods. The security and technology put into each of the Pods was far more advanced than what people could possibly crack. The Pods themselves were connected via a space station privately owned by Tearnex and did not rely on any outside providers. Anybody trying to hack into the Pod's system would have to also hack into the space station itself. The only problem with the Pods was that they were expensive. Exorbitantly so.
Originally Kale came from a rather wealthy family and would normally have easy access to the latest technology, however his father and mother had died in a plane crash when Kale was seven, and he himself had miraculously survived the crash with only a few injuries. His supposed inheritance, his mother’s company, had been seized by greedy corporate workers and Kale was left with nothing.
Luckily for him, not all of the executives at his father’s company were heartless and a Mr. Eisen Vesznel took him in. He was a large opinionated man who thought the world revolved around himself and he had only taken Kale in because he believed he owed it to Kale’s mother.
Despite having taken Kale in, Vesznel had no real interest in Kale himself. He provided him with only the basic necessities to grow up and Kale was brought up having barely any interaction with his guardian. Still Kale didn’t mind, he was capable enough of making his own way.
Eventually Kale approached the age of 18, and he knew that he would have to leave his guardian's house and set off on his own. To prepare for that Kale threw himself into his studies and worked himself to the bone, taking on several part time jobs to save up enough to get a decent start.
In the end Kale had managed to save up several thousand dollars and had been accepted into a local college on a scholarship that covered most of the tuition. What he had was not quite enough to get by on, but it was enough of a start that he would be able to earn the rest of what he needed to make it past graduation.
The Pod Kale had just used was an older model and one that Mr. Vesznel had been planning to throw out until Kale asked if he could use it. The man had agreed, not really caring about the outdated Pod, and it was one of Kale's favorite past-times.
Kale’s eighteenth birthday was today, and it was also the day he would move out of the house. It would take him four years to earn his bachelors in engineering, three if he pushed it.
His meager belongings already packed, Kale gave one last look at the house he had grown up in, saying goodbye to the staff that had brought him up all these years. He was a little sad that Mr. Vesznel had not come to say goodbye, but the man was always busy and such a thing wasn't unexpected.
The journey by bus to the college dorm was uneventful and Kyle made his was to his new room. It was a double, meaning Kale would have a roommate for the next few years. Upon entering the room, Kale couldn't help but notice the brand new Pod that rested against one wall. Thinking the Pod belonged to his roommate, Kale tried his best to ignore it as he went about unpacking. Only having brought a small amount of things with him, he soon found himself standing in the middle of the room with nothing to do and his eyes were, naturally, drawn to the Pod.
It was the latest model that had been released by Tearnex, a state of the art matte black design with a single chromatic streak across the center of it. Despite all that had accomplished by the company, it was the release of their latest development, a game called New Genesis, which had truly made them a household name. The hype around it had reached such a level that it was called 'the game to end all games'. A VRMMORPG (virtual reality massive multi online role playing game). Pod games themselves were originally pretty popular and quite a few people would get one of the cheaper models for just such a reason. However after the release of New Genesis all of that changed. New Genesis was a new world. A place where anyone could become anything. The possibilities were endless and soon the masses were hooked. Its biggest seller was that the time in the game flowed at a ratio of 5:1. 5 hours in the game meant 1 hour in real life.
For Kale, however, such a thing was a dream come true. You could only play New Genesis with the latest Pod models. Stepping closer to the Pod, Kale examined it with envy. It wasn't something he'd ever be able to own. Letting out a disappointed sigh, Kale forced himself to turn away. Maybe his roommate would be kind enough to let him use it from time to time?