What better way to end the week than with a new chappie? I hope you enjoy reading this!!
*
I was 10.
The Woodpecker (AKA my older sister) and I were playing this game that she found on the Internet. It was a simple beat-them-up game where you control a character and proceed to beat several kinds of crap out of random grunts that turn up. As expected of a game of this kind of genre, there’s even a boss at the end of each level.
“Take this!! Kugi Punch*!!”
My older sister expertly controls her character, a muscle bound Brawler, to make him fire off multiple punches at the side of the boss monster, a Chimera easily twice his size. The Chimera attempts to counterattack by breathing fire at the brawler, which was easily shrugged off by the fighter. As expected from my older sister, however her prowess with the book will not lose to that attack (I’m pretty certain of that, having experienced it myself).
Meanwhile, my character, a slim and agile Twin-Blader, was lying on the ground, having been knocked out by a swipe from the Chimera’s claws.
“Damn it, Howard. You suck at this game.” my sister taunted, tapping at the controls to make the Brawler aim and shoot an energy ball.
“It’s not that. I just need to use a Continue.” I replied, pressing the Start key on my Controller to revive the Twin Blader. As soon as the Blader revived, I entered a command, and the Blader unleashed his ultimate attack, attacking with 9 slashes and 9 Stabs while moving with great speed.
The Chimera, having had its hit point bar depleted, collapsed and blinked away to nothing.
“What a waste. That Chimera’s only a mid-boss right?”
“Oh, be quiet, ?? (Older Sister*). At least we killed the boss.” I retorted, but I was pretty happy with the kill. While there was some pride to be taken with gaming skill, there was something pretty awesome about unleashing powerful attacks like this.
“…” my sister was unable to reply to that. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then suddenly swung her arm at me.
“Whoa!!” I avoided the incoming attack by shifting my body, having expected it.
“Dang it, sis. Don’t just respond with violence for everything!!” I yelled angrily, having just avoided impending death.
“Shut up, stupid brother. I’m 18 this year, I’m not old!!” my sister shouted back.
“What makes you think that I’m implying tha- wait, wait, wait, don’t use the spine!! It will freaking hur- Ahhhhh!!”
And then I was badly mauled by the Woodpecker, who used the killer move that will certainly not lose to even a 100-ren Kugi Punch*.
Author’s note:
* Kugi Punch (Nail Punch): One of Toriko’s signature moves, where he concentrates multiple punches at a single spot. Multiple punches will increase the damage dealt at an increasing rate, but the attack will put immense strain on his body. As of the time that this story was written, Toriko can use this attack 100 times, or 100-ren (50 times per hand).
**By right, it’s supposed to be ??; but ?? is how Howard addresses his older sister sometimes.
**
Weird, how is it that this memory would suddenly spring into mind, I wondered to myself as I walked along the golden path amidst the thick dense fog that covered everything.
I had been walking on the path for some time, but there barely seems to be any end to the path. Nothing seemed to appear as far as I can see. Then again, it wasn’t much.
Dang it, how long must I keep walking? If I hadn’t logged out of the game, then I must not have died, so why did I suddenly end up here, away from the fight?
I decided that this must be due to me currently being under the effect of Berserk Impulse. It was a passive skill that let me increase my stats and HP regeneration by a large amount when my HP falls below a certain level, but in exchange, I would lose control of my actions while the skill is active.
I did recall that I was being beaten up by a number of undead, but as my hit points fell, my consciousness fading away as my HP fell.
That was supposed to be how Berserk Impulse worked. From experience, I could not recall what I did while I was under the effects of the skill. This was the first time I had ended up here, walking along the golden path in the midst of a foggy road.
Then again, the skill proficiency for Berserk Impulse was a lot lower then, so this must occur when I hit a certain level, right?
So many questions, but sadly I didn’t have a proper answer for any of them. I could only keep moving forward, leaving the questions unanswered.
***
Jeanne, or Combatante as she was known in game, watched with amazement at the sight that unfolded before her.
Incidentally, Jeanne hid her real name from others, since she was pretty embarrassed about the circumstances under which she had given herself that name, but that was another story for another time.
Howard was practically wiping the floor with the undead as he silently swung his spear shaft. While the blow appeared to be simplistic, the attack had a great amount of force behind it and it shattered several undead monsters in its wake. The skeletons and zombies that were struck just shattered and fell apart, the bone fragments disappearing in a grey flash.
“Was he always hiding this level of ability?” she wondered in admiration. She then broke out of her revelry, raising her spear just in time to guard against an attack from a skeleton. She was in the middle of a battlefield after all.
She aimed a thrust at the skeleton, managing to pierce its skull. Having gained a quick respite, she smiled and letting go of the spear, drew a short sword from a scabbard that was hung on her waist, slicing the skeleton’s spine with the same movement. The sword was about 60 centimeters in length and doubled-edged, with a crossguard in between the blade and the hilt.
Her Spirit Soldiers, having beaten up several undead soldiers themselves, gathered in front of her. While they were usually rowdy, it was a different case when she draws her sword. She picked up the spear that had fallen on the floor as the skeleton disappeared.
“Well, no matter what, I can’t exactly lose to a junior now, can I?” she said to herself, the spear held underarm on her right hand and the short sword on her left. Like Howard, she also had a trump card up her erm… sleeve.
She pointed the spear at another horde of zombies.
“Destroy them all. Onwards, Spirit Soldiers!!” she cried in a loud voice.
Shouting and yelling the spirit soldiers charged, waving their weapons as they collided with the zombie troops, with Jeanne at the forefront. She swung the spear in her right hand and approached the wave of undead in a straight run. She called out the skill name:
“Twin Pierce!!”
The shaft covered a wide area, slashing several zombies. The banner that was hung on the edge of the spear billowed out in the spear’s wake.
Midway through the swinger, she followed up by stepping forward and punching the half-extended right arm outwards, and the slash suddenly shifted into a thrust. The short sword in her left hand followed behind it, and the two points pierced into a zombie one after another.
She withdrew the two weapons from the zombie and then used a dash-type skill to move quickly among the zombies, slashing and stabbing everything within sight with her sword and spear. Her movements could be compared to a dance, but the blood and gore belied her graceful actions.
Combat Sequence: Dance of Sword and Spear.
[You have performed a sequence. The frenetic dance movements have raised the attack of your party by 10%.]
The Flag Bearer’s attack skills not only deal damage, but also have powerful secondary effects that aid his or her party in combat. As such, the Flag Bearer can play the roles of an attacker and a support at the same time, and the class’s true potential is brought out when fighting in a group, or when she has her Spirit Soldiers.
The wave of zombies was eventually cleared out, and she relaxed, scanning the battlefield for the next crowd of mobs. Suddenly, she stiffened, having seen something strange.
“What the hell are you doing?! Stop attacking me… Gaaaah!!”
Howard had swung his spear shaft again, striking his target by the head. The enemy swayed and fell over. It was the right thing to do in a war. Yet… Were zombies able to speak at its current level? While some undead retain some vestige of intelligence, lower leveled zombies and skeletons do not rank among those. In fact… that’s not an undead creature or an Orc.
As it transpired, Howard was not just attacking the undead that surrounded him, but also the people around him. His actions, within this crowded area, were easily noticed by the other combatants in the Vanguard.
“Damn that guy. We are in a life-and-death situation now, and he suddenly does this?”
“Has he gone mad?”
“What is he doing?”
“Don’t get cocky, bastard…”
“Get him before he dooms us all!!”
Other players sought to stop him, but he didn’t flinch, and quickly dispatched the players with a series of thrusts that was aimed at different spots on the body. Following that, he quickly moved between groups, attacking enemies left and right with swings of his spear shaft.
It was as if an avatar of death and despair had descended on the battle field. His spear shaft had suddenly become the Grim Reaper’s scythe, indiscriminately harvesting the souls of the fallen on the battlefield.
“Amazi- no, wait. Damn that boy… was he hiding that much combat potential from me all along? In fact, what the heck is he doing? Doesn’t he realize that this is a horrible place to become a PKer right about now?” Jeanne ran forward, her Spirit Soldiers following behind.
Even in a Player VS Player (PvP) situation, building up a killing spree (read: killing multiple player characters) is a terrible thing to be doing on a battle field. For one thing, it attracts attention from other players and practically makes you a target. In Player VS Enemy (PvE), it’s a really idiotic thing to do since the enemy’s just in front of you and you are attacking your allies instead. In short, it’s practically a death sentence.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“That guy must be a battle-crazed idiot, releasing his true potential on a frenzied battlefield like this.” Jeanne speculated. How far from the truth she was.
“That idiot, always needing someone to solve his problems for him… Well, that’s what the senior’s here for anyway…” Jeanne sighed to herself.
And so, as the other player characters in the Vanguard banded together to put Howard down for his own good, Jeanne joined them. Someone had to be on hand to save him from his own idiocy, right?
***
In a medieval castle somewhere, it’s the defenders against the raiders!! The defenders have to hold off the raiders who seek to pillage the village and raze it to the ground, and hopefully break into the castle and kill the king while they are at it.
The battle thus begins with the following sentence:
“We’re Red, right?”
“Sean, I can’t believe you can even mix your teammates up like this.” I sighed, shaking my head (or rather, my avatar sighed and shook his head as I pressed a command). In that particular game, I was a halberdier. I wore a full face helmet with chainmail, greaves and leather gloves. The halberd that I was equipped with was about 1.5 to 1.8 metres long, and consisted of an axe blade and hook topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft.
“Hahaha, it’s fine as long as you don’t kill your own team during the match.“ Jacob piped in with his own opinion. Jacob had chosen to be a Man-at-arms, and he wore leather armor and was equipped with a sword and shield.
“Yeah, now that we finally have time to come together for a game, let’s have some fun while we can!!” added Michael, who opted to become a knight. He wore full plate armor, and wielded a massive two-handed sledgehammer. Yes… let’s have fun by violently bludgeoning people to death in a game. Yay~
In this particular game, it was a computer game played in a first person view. You get to pick certain classes with preset gear and stats, and then duke it out with one another in many different modes. It was pretty well-known back then for its impressive ability to imitate real life combat to a large extent.
Anyways, as Sean had said earlier, we are Red, which means that we are currently the raiders. And our current job is to burn the village, and kill all the filthy peasants. The goal here is to kill 40 peasants within the time limit, and houses count as two peasants. Our enemy is the Blue side, who are the defenders, and they basically have to prevent us from accomplishing our goal by killing as many as possible.
“Ah, here’s the countdown.” I motioned to the screen.
3…
2…
1…
And we are off. Our current avatars starting moving towards the village; and upon arrival started on the assigned task with great gusto. With a click of a mouse, the halberdier that I was currently controlling swung his weapon, the blade catching a fleeing peasant by the back and killing him instantly.
[You have killed a filthy peasant.]
[You have killed SeanKingston100.]
Oops. It seems that I have not considered the range of the weapon and hit Sean by accident, killing him instantly as well.
“Are we playing with friendly fire option on?” I typed.
“It seems to be that way. Be careful about how you swing that Halberd.”
From my rather limited view, I could see the others picking up the burning torches by a bonfire conveniently standing by the entrance and throwing it at the houses, the thatched roofs easily catching fire.
I really have to question the game design though. If they wanted to prevent us from setting fire from the village, shouldn’t they put the bonfire at the middle where it won’t be easily used against them?
Either way, it was only a matter of time before the enemy team showed up. A team of knights, wielding great swords, maces, axes and flails suddenly came rushing over, looking to impede further advancement into the village. I quickly rushed over to another peasant, running him through with the spike on my halberd. I quickly withdrew my weapon and ran further into the village.
The key to winning this round was evasion, but beating up the enemy works too. Already Michael was putting in work, his sledgehammer rendering the opposing knights literally headless as the weapon crashed into their heads.
Either way, two more knights gave pursuit, chasing me like dogs on the hunt. However, as they were knights, the plate armor slows them down greatly, and they were among the slowest classes in the game. In contrast, my halberdier was lightly armored, and its original purpose was to charge down the enemy anyway. The fastest class would be the man-at-arms with its leather equipment.
“Dang it, why did we all have to choose the slow people!!”
Ah, I’m starting to see that they are beginning to regret their choice.
If they were defending a enclosed location like a castle or fort, then a heavily armored knight would have been a sensible choice as a defender. However, as the targets are located all about the arena, it would have been better to use a class that is light on their feet like a Man-at-arms or a Watchman.
And the game of cat and mouse is on, as I ran through the village, killing as many peasants as I could.
[You have killed a filthy peasant.]
[You have killed a filthy peasant.]
[You have killed a filthy peasant.]
[You have killed a filthy peasant.]
[You have killed MikeKiller978.]
“Ah, oops. Sorry. :P” I typed out on the team chat, adding a emoticon.
“It’s fine, just don’t do it again.” came the reply.
Still, you have to concede that they are persistent. I soon ran out of places to run, and they managed to corner me.
Fortunately the halberd is well-suited for taking on armored opponents as the additional angular momentum allows it to punch through armor easily. And a cornered rat must eventually show some fight, right?
“Hang on Howard, I’m coming!!” Michael cried as he ran over, his hammer raised for another attack.
At the same time, I swung my halberd… and scored a double kill. An excellent and praiseworthy feat; except…
[You have killed randomknight01.]
[You have killed randomknight02.]
[You have killed MikeKiller978.]
“Ah, sorry about that.” I typed.
“You weren’t sorry about that at all!! :evil:” an angry face punctuated the following reply.
“You know… I think Howard should have been on the other team… -.-” Jacob typed.
We still won, by the way.
****
Another weird memory just went through my mind as I walked through the thick and dense fog, looking down on the road as I moved. It was as if I was looking for something precious that I have lost... Wait, I’m not sure that this phrasing was entirely accurate. Since when have I lost anything?
Strange… it’s as though I’m walking through memory lane. Completely random memories that I thought to have long forgotten are being dredged up and screened as though they were completely recent and fresh.
OF COURSE. THAT’S BECAUSE WE ARE IN YOUR MIND.
A reply came from the distance. For some strange reason, I could practically hear the capital letters in the sentence as well. Normally capital letters are associated with loudness, but this is somewhat different from what I was used to…
Anyway, I was surprised, and I looked up. I could somewhat make out a shadow standing in the fog. Finally, someone who could possibly shed some light on the topic!!
“Erm, who are you?” I called out, hoping to make contact.
GOOD QUESTION, BUT NOT SO EASILY ANSWERED IN MY CASE. WHO AM I, I WONDER? I WAS HOPING YOU COULD HELP ME WITH THAT.
It doesn’t seem that the guy can speak. Hang on, then how is it that that guy can communicate?
TELEPATHY? Came the helpful reply.
“I guess we can go with that. So what’s all this about this being in my mind?” I asked, moving forward towards the shady figure in the fog.
GOOD QUESTION. IT WAS JUST A GUESS. I WAS HOPING YOU COULD HELP ME WITH THAT AS WELL.
Is this guy an idiot?
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CALL ME THAT?
Is he a mind reader?
NO, YOU ARE JUST REALLY EASY TO READ, LIKE THAT OSSAN SAID.
“Don’t remind me…”
SORRY.
“Anyways, who are you?” I kept walking forward, and I could somewhat make out more of that guy’s features as I walked.
DO YOU HAVE TO ASK ME AGAIN? I’LL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO DECIDE WHEN WE MEET. SEE YOU LATER.
Saying this (or rather, channeling this thought through telepathy), the shady figure vanished.
“Another weirdo…” I sighed. Thus far, the individuals I have come across seem to have rather… colourful personalities.
But it seems that my best bet would be to hunt down that mysterious shadow. More questions started to bubble in my mind, but I ignored them as there were no satisfactory answers. I can only keep moving forward, with an increasing number of questions left unanswered.
*****
EDIT: Author's note:
Thought I'll put it up here, but the last memory's based off a first person medieval game known as Chivalry. It's pretty awesome and fun to play, but Halberds don't seem to agree with me.