Carried by the changing wind, smoke drifted out from behind the stoic defenders waiting atop the wall and a large mass of clouds cut off the light from above. The dim glow of torchlight combined with this image to create the impression that hell that waited for the attackers beyond the gates. In direct contrast, many of the defenders were envisioning horrifying ghouls roaming around in the dark beyond the wall, just out of their range of sight. It didn't help that troops were going around slaughtering the livestock in the fields around the village, all out of sight of the walls; the sounds of the frightened and dying animals only reinforcing this picture in the minds of the defenders.
Not much had changed about the situation in the few minutes since Taylor had begun to sort through the skills, looking for the ones that she would adopt for her Warrior Path. All of the defenders were already in position. This didn't mean, however, that nothing was being done to correct this lack of development. On the contrary, for as Taylor had just begun to narrow down her choices for skills, a messenger came running down the rampart behind her and stopped beside the Guard Commander, breathing with exertion. The messenger smacked a fist to his chest in a quick salute and passed the report he'd been tasked to deliver to Gerard, before stepping back to give the Commander space.
Gerard turned towards the messenger in acknowledgment before turning his eyes to the report in his hands. After a few seconds, the Commander bundled up the letter and tossed it into a nearby brazier. Grunting, he dismissed the messenger with wave of his hand and turned back around to face the darkness that contained the gathering army. Taylor took all of this in as she studied her skill choices.
[4 Skills Selected]
[Please Confirm]
{Y/N}
[Warning: All Selections Are Final And Cannot Be Undone]
In front of her floated a list of her choices along with a prompt asking her to verify them. She had spent the past ten minutes or so going over the wide list of options that the developers had provided for the Alpha Testers to experiment with. To be fair, many of the choices seemed to be variants of the same effect that just utilized a different affinity. Which, honestly, made a lot of sense. Things like Attribute boosts and Search skills all shared the same goals: to keep the user competitive and help them to complete common objectives. With basic skills, a Warrior would be seeking utility and practicality above all, so why would their starting skills handicap them right from the jump by giving one person too much of an advantage over another?
Pushing those skills aside, Taylor had gone over the more combat oriented skills and quickly compared them to each other, noting that combat seemed to be where the Affinities began to truly provide new Warriors with a glimpse of what they should expect from their Paths moving forward. All of the usual suspects had been there: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water.
However, to her delight, there had also happened to be more specialized Affinities that were on offer, such as Metal, Light, and Nature, that seemed to take advantage of the large gap in the coverage between the four traditional elements. Something that had drawn her attention even more was the lack of something like a Darkness affinity, which, based on most fantasy tropes, was one of the classic Affinities usually offered alongside its opposite, Light.
A hunch began to form in the back of her mind as she pulled up the list of Light Affinity skills and began to read through them. It didn't take long for her hunch to be proven correct: the Light Affinity was all encompassing. What was Darkness but the absence of Light? They were two sides of the same coin, and so, if one could control the presence of Light, naturally Darkness would follow. The only issue with this was that, by default, Darkness wasn't actually a tangible Affinity and couldn't actually be controlled as such. Taylor saw how many of the advanced Light skills actually took advantage of this duality of Light in order to create pretty heavy control skills, such as Blindness, that, as the skill name made obvious, completely deprived the target(s) of the ability to see by preventing Light from reaching their eyes.
She nodded in appreciation, 'Pretty cool. Not my cup of tea though. Let's look at the others.'
That mystery solved, Taylor eventually determined that Light wasn't the only Affinity with duality. Others that didn't have specific natures that distinguished them enough from the more general Affinities had just been combined in order to facilitate simplicity. Earth and Metal were good examples of distinguishable Affinities, as were Light and Energy, it seemed. Non-distinguishable Affinities seemed to be those such as Vibration, which was a fundamental principle of all Affinities, and Electricity, which was just another form of energy but with no duality to justify itself like Light, so neither had become its own thing and each had been integrated appropriately.
'Gotta actually have a balance if you want to be able to control it.' Taylor deduced correctly.
Seeing that higher level Authorities even granted Warriors the ability to use more than one Affinity if they wanted, she could even imagine how becoming proficient in one general Affinity could lead to increased ability in the specialized Affinities, like an Earth Warrior taking on Metal, or how combining certain affinities could lead to power greater than the sum of its parts, like potentially creating steam or using Air to exponentially increase the power of Fire.
This analysis was how she spent the first five minutes of her time on the wall. Of course, all of this information wasn't learned on the spot, it was compiled from experience.
As a gamer in the current world, where VR and AI had become center pieces of modern society, having an intuitive understanding of the basics of science and of video game mechanics was a given. As a pro-gamer, Taylor's ability to understand the premise of most variables naturally and quickly was something that she had gained from thousands of hours of immersive experience. To top it all off, modern VR games borrowed heavily from the players real life abilities, as they directly controlled their avatars with their brain, making the concept of synchronicity vital. Because of this, all forms of real life martial arts and physical training had become necessities to thrive, making it so that even the most un-athletic members of society maintained the bare minimum of personal fitness to allow them to properly function within the virtual world.
Taylor herself had trained under several different martial artists to gain a basic grasp of various arts. Her goal not to become a master in any, but to build a broad base from which to understand her opponents and allow her to make quick decisions in VR combat. She had understood early what many had misunderstood, and that was VR combat was, first and foremost, cerebral. In a situation where an opponent could create huge explosions with a thought or turn their bodies into indomitable tanks, it was much better to be able to adapt to any situation than to pigeonhole one's self into a certain fighting style. Not that she thought that specialists were weak, it was actually the complete opposite.
Taylor just had a different goal than others. Hers wasn't to be the best fighter, it was to be the best period. Someone that had honed themselves into a weapon was nearly unbeatable in a fight, while someone that could seize multiple weapons and turn them to their optimal purpose was unbeatable on the battlefield. If she had to sacrifice personal combat strength for enhanced adaptability then so be it. This was exactly why she had managed to place in, but had failed to win, the ICGC 1v1 tournament.
These thoughts and feelings flickered through Taylor's mind in the space of a single moment. This was who she was and what drove her to make the decisions she did. Her instincts had been honed to an almost primal degree and she trusted them over any kind of advice, no matter the source. Another five minutes passed as she finished making up her mind. Soon, Taylor had selected her last basic skill and confirmed her choices once the prompt came up. Relaxing a bit, she smiled as the system showed her the list of skills that would become the framework for her development moving forward, and, she had to say, they weren't too shabby.
[4 Skills Selected]
[Category of First Affinity: Primary]
[Affinity Chosen: Energy]
[Skills Selected: Basic Energy Sense, Minor Efficiency Increase, Basic Energy Manipulation, Basic Energy Conversion]
[Recommended Role: Support]
[Number of Skills Mastered: 0]
[Overall Proficiency: Novice]
[Current Synchronicity: 0%]
Yep, she'd ignored Ollie's warning and gone with an Energy Affinity. She had no qualms about it either. Why would she? Even though she had felt a strong sense of disconnection from the Energy Drain skill earlier that day, she refused to let her emotions and fear prevent her from choosing, what she believed, was the best possible Affinity provided. At the end of the day, energy was at the heart of almost everything. One day, once she had synchronized with her affinity, most of the others would be laid bare before her due to it's all encompassing existence.
So what if it was going to be more difficult for her to master? Mastery wasn't going to happen in a day anyway. What she needed now was to focus on playing her part in the upcoming assault and make it out alive. Hence, not only had she forgone any of the standard basic skills that had been recommended for all new Warriors, she had specifically chosen skills that would enhance her longevity in battle by making the most of her mediocre energy stores while enhancing the variability of it's usage in combat.
Basic Energy Manipulation alone had already given her plenty of cool ideas when she'd first laid eyes on it, but, when Basic Energy Conversion had reared it's beautiful head, Taylor had been sold. Sure, some of the ideas buzzing around in her head might be considered far beyond what Warriors of her proficiency level could achieve, but she'd be damned if she didn't try to make them a reality.
No, seriously, she'd definitely be dead if she failed. According to Futures, combat and physics would be so close to reality that it'd practically be indistinguishable. Meaning, even with the increased durability inherent to every Warrior, if she got hit just right, or failed to dodge a strong enough attack even once, her chances of dying on the spot were high. Skill and reaction speed would play a huge role in this game, something that Taylor felt she lacked compared to the rest of the Testers, not to mention all of the AI that had their own extensive combat abilities. This wasn't going to be like anything she'd ever done before.
And she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Word from the Arbiter just came in, " the Guard Commander stated without diverting his attention from the land beyond the wall, "Seems like most of the Rogue forces have made it out of the hills and have already cleared all of the land around the village to give their shock troops more room to operate once the assault starts. Movement's been spotted to the north, but we don't have to worry about that. What we need to worry about is what's right in front of us."
Taylor didn't say anything for a moment, letting the crackle of the brazier behind them bridge the silence while she focused on the possible reason behind the Commander's sudden need to share.
"You think they've got more than one reason for having cleared out all that land, don't you, sir?"
Gerard cleared his throat and spit into the darkness over the wall, "Yep. I also think that we don't want to wait to find out what that reason is."
Taylor nodded, "I agree. Not knowing what the enemy is capable of is already an intelligence handicap, no need to let them take out our knees too."
"Glad to hear you're on board," the Commander said gruffly, finally turning his attention to Taylor, "Tell me again, Warrior, what's your Affinity?"
"Energy, sir." Taylor said casually, relieved to have just finished choosing her skills, "I'm geared more for strategic deployment over direct confrontation."
"Hmm. So whatchur sayin' is that, if I happened to need someone to lead a group of Warriors down below the wall to disrupt any possible offensive that the enemy Rogues might try to get started, while still maintaining a slim chance of making it back alive. ."
Smirking, Taylor finished the Guard Commander's sentence, ". .then I might be just the girl you're looking for."
"Perfect. Keep your head on a swivel. When the time's right, you'll know."
To the side, the conversation had caught the attention of some of the nearby Guards, who had all turned an ear to try and pick up some of what their Commander was saying. One Guard, in particular, had heard it all and made his opinion on the situation known immediately.
"H-hey! Wa-wait a minute!" Gabe yelped with frightened concern, "If she g-goes down there, who's going to fi-fight up here?! A Rogue could aim right up here and ba-ba-bam! We'd all be p-pASTE!" The young man's voice went up a few octaves towards the end as he scrambled to keep his composure.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Gerard chuckled grimly but didn't even bother to look the frightened Guard's way, "Kid, if she ends up needing to go down there, we're going to have bigger problems than maintaining this section of the wall." His ominous words hung over all of the nearby men, suppressing any further comments and forcing Gabe to meekly gulp in response.
Several more minutes dragged by without a word being spoken. A faint breeze was felt as the winds once again shifted direction, pushing the smoke and sending it back, away from the wall towards the west. Along with the smoke, the clouds covering the sky over them also began to drift, giving the defenders a much clearer picture of the fields ahead of them. The night around them was once again clear and able to provide plenty of light to illuminate the farmlands of Regnad village for miles. Metal creaked and leather strained. Several people cursed and Taylor thought she heard the sound of someone throwing up.
"Now, that's not something you see everyday," Taylor quipped darkly. She began to bounce up and down to get loose, shifting from foot to foot, her danger sense cranking up to eleven with the revelation the light had revealed; and what a scene it was.
Left to right, troops stood at the ready. Hundreds of them were staggered across the landscape, in formations of small groups, as opposed to nonsensical lines, that allowed the enemy to widen the battlefield and made the defenders realize that their current battle plans were obsolete.
Further behind these rows of enemies, stood smaller groups, sometimes only a single person, that, even at a distance of over several football fields, gave off the aura of the elite. The armor of these groups were all the same, grey and red, giving them a look of uniformity and cohesion.
"They're going with wave tactics," Taylor muttered to the Commander, with the latter simply grunting in response, "It'll allow them to make better use of their resources while forcing us to continuously expend ours without rest. The current plan isn't going to work."
"I can see that, " Gerard mumbled, not an ounce of concern on his face, "We're going to need to buy some time to reposition the troops. Otherwise, it's going to be a slow massacre." He motioned for a runner to relay the situation to the Academy and turned his attention to the smaller groups of troops in the back. "All of that cleared land makes sense now. If their Rogues can create defensive positions between them and us, it'll allow their smaller troops to advance further without taking casualties. It'll also give them rally points to fall back to if they feel pressured." The Commander rubbed his chin with edge of his shield as he rapidly cycled through possible solutions. Movement from behind the enemy sent a rustle along the wall, and a balding man wearing the same armor as the rest of the army rose up, flying across the battlefield until he was only a spear's throw from the battlements. Even without using her new ability to sense energy, Taylor could feel the raw power that emanated from the Rogue.
Gerard's expression hardened and his eyes seemed to sink as he took in the fearless man that had dared to lead an army to wage war against the Southern Region, "Luca Bryson."
Guard Commander Gerard stepped up onto the battlements, giving everyone along the walls a clear line of sight of the stoic sight of him as he placed himself fearlessly between them and the former villager turned traitorous villain. The enemy leader took notice of the Commander and moved over until the two could trade words face to face.
Neither spoke a word for an extended moment, gauging the other or reminiscing, Taylor couldn't tell. Just when it seemed that the staring contest had gone on for far too long, Luca opened his mouth to speak, "Guar--," only to be cut off by Gerard, showing flagrant disregard for Luca's obvious power.
"Luca Bryson. Get the fuck out of my village before I whip your ass beyond recognition and bury what's left out with the rest of your kin."
The words were spoken calmly and without any sense of malice, like the Commander was only talking to a local delinquent that had been caught vandalizing a neighbor's property. Such a delivery made the content that much more incendiary. Because of the complete silence on both sides, Gerard's projected words could be heard loud and clearly. A collective breath was held, everyone waiting for Luca's response. The man in question didn't seem shaken by the Commander's provocative declaration at all. Moreover, what happened next left both sides at a loss.
After the words had settled, Luca bowed deeply to the Guard Commander from the waist until his face was facing the ground. He held this position for a few breaths until he once again rose to look Gerard in the eye, "Guard Commander, I apologize for the inconvenience. At the same time, I must also ask you to forgive the fact that I unable to concede to your request as it is out of my hands. What will happen has already been decided and isn't something either of us is in a position to prevent. Just know, it is not my wish for senseless death and violence, but the freedom of everyone and the end to this terrible system of slavery that, even now, corrupts the hearts and minds of our people." Luca's eyes flickered towards Taylor as he finished speaking.
'Uhh. . what? Slavery? Why'd he look at me when he said that? Maybe it's part of the storyline for the main launch.'
Her conclusion seemed reasonable to her, only to be further reinforced by a system notification appearing in front of her.
[ A Main Quest Line Has Been Activated]
[Faction Quest {Defense of Hervan} Added to Quest Log]
Reading the words in front of her face only made Taylor more confused than before.
'What's Hervan?' Why di--'
She instantly felt a strange pressure build behind her eyes as she read the quest details. The pressure amplified many times until she was forced to close her eyes in response, despite it not being painful. The hardware was designed to prevent the player from ever feeling actual pain after all, however, the discomfort caused by the pressure wasn't something that could be ignored. It quickly passed, and after Taylor could open her eyes, the details of the quest once again appeared before her. Nothing had changed.
[ A Main Quest Line Has Been Activated]
[Faction Quest {Defense of Regnad} Added to Quest Log]
'Why did I only just now get this quest? Why not when I woke up in a burning building or during the briefing? What the hell is going on??'
Irrespective of Taylor's confusion, events continued without pause. The two commanding figures fell into another silence that was broken by a mild chuckle from the Guard Commander.
"Hehe. You haven't changed much, despite becoming a crazy, murdering bastard. Listen here, Bryson. I don't care what sort of fancy, dancy reason you think you've got for dragging an army out here and threatening the lives and livelihood of everyone that calls this place home. The moment you decided that aiming to kill innocent people was acceptable, you became just another body to be put down. Now go. Let's get this thing done."
Luca's face contorted slightly but he seemed to expect the Commander's response, bowing from the waist in front of everyone, in spite of it, before returning with speed to his former position at the back of the enemy forces.
Gerard turned on the spot and faced all of the men along the rampart, "Well, you heard him! It's game time people! Stick to your training and listen to your officers! Last person standing buys the first round!"
The Commander hopped down amidst laughter and nervous chuckles, his gallows humor helping to ease the tension for at least a few.
He stepped close to Taylor and motioned for her to follow him back away from the men. The two walked a few paces back and faced the village so that the wind would carry their words away from the men behind them. Gerard's voice kept the same fluid calmness it had while he was speaking with Luca.
"Mitchell, wasn't it? There's no time to be gentle so I'm just going to be blunt: we're screwed. I've been around enough Warriors in my time to be able to feel the difference in power between you." Despite his prior words, he hesitated a a second before he asked the question that would determine the direction of everything, "That kid Bryson, he's a monster, isn't he?"
Nodding, Taylor didn't see a reason to deny it, "He's strong. Definitely stronger than me by an insurmountable margin. I doubt anyone but the Administrator or that Arbiter sent by the Order has a chance of facing him. It doesn't make any sense though. How is he so strong without the guidance of the Order?"
Gerard shook his head, "It doesn't matter. Nothing we can do will stop him so we're not even going to worry about him. Leave that up to others."
"Understood." Taylor simply agreed, eager for the conversation to progress and to find out why the Commander had pulled her aside. It had to be for an important reason.
Gerard looked at her inquisitively, his gaze carrying more weight than it had been. It didn't take him long to make up his mind.
"We need to reposition the troops before Bryson makes his move. Do you think you and a few others can buy us some time to get it done?"
Finding herself at the center of events, facing the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of lives, and knowing that the next several minutes would dictate the outcome of the battle significantly, Taylor couldn't help but grin internally. This was her element. The reason she loved games. Danger. Excitement. Thrill. The opportunity to stand for something beyond herself even if it didn't really matter in the end. She had the power to set it all into motion.
"You want me to stand in front of an army of hundreds of bloodthirsty soldiers, and what? Keep them entertained?"
"That's exactly what I'm asking." the Commander joked while staring out over the village, a village that would soon be razed to the ground if any of them made a single mistake.
Taylor snorted lightly as if offended by the question, "Sir, I can give you eight minutes. After that, I'll be useless."
A fierce smile appeared on Gerald's face in response to her answer, "Eight minutes, huh? What're you trying to do? Show off?"
Slapping her on the back, Guard Commander Gerard turned his back to the village and faced towards the enemy. Waving a messenger over, Gerard sent them to relay the plan to his officers down the line. Orders given, there was only one thing to left to say.
"Let's get it done, Warrior."
Taylor stepped forward and around the Commander, "Yes, sir."
Jumping up onto the battlements made all eyes fall on Taylor for a moment before several other Warriors followed suit, lining up along the edge of the wall like sacrificial lambs. Across the gap of cleared lands and trampled fields, the staggered groups of enemy troops began to move in unison, each detachment moving forward with grim resolve. The distance to the wall wasn't short, giving the Rogue forces ample time to build speed and momentum in their charge. The world was still. Neither side yet to say a word, even the wind seemed to have died down in anticipation of what was to come.
Standing on the edge of the precipice, Taylor closed her eyes and steadied her breathing, savoring the stillness and the distance thunder of the approaching Rogue forces; even while her allies began to sweat and shuffle nervously.
'Ollie. You there?'
"Yes, Taylor." the AI responded immediately, like it had been waiting, "What do you need? Don't you have a fight to be focusing on?"
'Yep. Just have a question. I know this is a test and we're operating on a separate server, but do you still have access to my gaming playlists? I don't have access to the system here.'
"Sorry, while I can access them as part of the system, the nature of the test prevents access to outside sources."
'Damn.' Taylor thought disappointedly, 'It'd been nice to have some tunes to beat these guys asses to, you know?'
A brief pause followed, Ollie not saying anything. Taylor hadn't felt it's presence leave, so she figured it was working on solutions. It didn't disappoint her.
"While I can't access external source for you, the system naturally has extensive archives of musical work. If you could tell me names of specific tracks, I can play them for you through the system."
Their conversation had only been going on for a few seconds, but the enemy troops had already closed a fourth of the distance. Taylor smirked.
'Can you mix them a bit? You know, "DJ Ollie" me a battle mix? Say, around 8 minutes?'
Ollie sighed audibly, "The things I do for you people. What tracks do you want?"
'Hehe.'
Taylor listed off some of the tracks from the playlist she'd used during the ICGC and the AI repeated them back for confirmation.
"You want the first 50-ish seconds of Bring Me to Life, followed by the entirety of Cyberfreak by Khantrast and Toxic by Britney Spears? That's a bit off from 8 minutes."
'Work your magic, DJ Ollie. Fill it in with whatever. I'll take what I can get.'
The following few seconds were nothing short of chaotic. The Guards fell into disorder as they scrambled to follow the lead of their officers and reposition themselves to properly receive the enemy. The enemy forces continued to gain momentum as they advanced, though they had yet to reach the halfway point between their original lines and the wall. Meanwhile, detached from all of this, the Warriors simply followed the orders relayed from the Guard Commander, maintaining their positions on the battlements stoically as they waited for Taylor to give the signal to engage.
More precious seconds ticked by as the enemy rushed closer. The Warriors began to feel a sense of urgency and nervousness from Taylor's inaction. Some traded slightly anxious looks across the expanse between them but their hands were tied by their orders. All they could do was wait.
Ignorant to all of this, Taylor kept her eyes closed and went through her pre-game mental exercises. Filtering out all of the noise, all of the distractions, she focused purely on what she wanted to achieve and how she wanted to achieve it. This was standard practice for professionals in all areas of life, and the approach worked exactly the same for VR gamers.
In just a short time, she began to emit an aura of tranquility that was picked up immediately by those around her, some questioning if the Warrior had lost her nerve in the face of the massive tide of oncoming enemies. How could they know that, in her mind, divorced from reality, she was fighting; tearing, crushing, and annihilating the enemy around and in front of her without mercy.
To others, what she was envisioning would be considered wanton mayhem, savagery; but not to her. To her, each move was precise and calculated. Every decision a tailored solution to a problem. A choreographed dance only she could lead.
Taylor didn't think that she had a fix for every situation. Far from it. She recognized that there was much she didn't know and, when she found herself outplayed, she would retreat without hesitation; letting the playing field reset before jumping straight back into the fray. This decisiveness was her greatest strength, so she trained it. Battle after battle, she pushed herself relentlessly against her most dangerous opponent: herself.
In the fields below, the enemy had finally reached the halfway point. Releasing bellows of rage and excitement, the advancing troops surged; turning their rapid pace into an all out sprint to their goal. In tandem with the bloodthirsty roars of their mundane brothers-in-arms, the Rogues in the rear made the opening move of the battle.
Several Rogues stepped forward, energy of all Affinities surging and beginning to coalesce into the recognizable forms of various long range combat skills. As they built in power and intensity, the Rogues took to the sky, giving themselves room to charge their skills further without endangering their fellow Rogues. Without an audible signal being given, the Rogues began to release their skills in arcing waves, the power of the attacks sending ripples of trepidation through the organizing defenders. Many along the wall found themselves frozen in terror, the pressure from the rapidly approaching attacks preventing them from thinking clearly.
The charging mundane, seeing the powerful assault of their Rogues hurdling towards the walls, generated an even greater frenzy, the resulting roar of defiance hitting the defenders harder than even the threat of the descending death.
Ollie's system generated voice remained nonchalant.
"Done. Ready when you are, Taylor."
Opening her eyes, Taylor looked out across the battlefield, all traces of humor and brevity gone from her face. What was left instead, was an expression of apathy. Why should she have any feelings on what she was about to do?
The enemies reflected in her eyes were already dead.
She raised her voice to be heard over the din of battle, "HEY! COMMANDER!"
Gerard looked up from his position on her right and raised an eyebrow, "HUH. THOUGHT YOU'D CHECKED OUT! WAS ABOUT TO PUSH YOU OFF MYSELF!"
Humor glittered briefly in her eyes before being suppressed. She was in The Zone.
"ENJOY THE SHOW."
Leaning forward a bit, she lifted a hand and sent the 'go' signal to the relieved Warriors.
'Hit it, Ollie.'