Fayne stood in the middle of a clearing, sweat slicked her brow, her robes clinging damply to her back. She wiped her face on her sleeve, staring at the corpse of the dire wolf at her feet. Wren was hard at work kneeling down and slicing the beast open, at this point he was a veteran when it came to skinning and butchering meat. “Two more to bring back,” the rogue muttered, tossing Fayne a thumbs-up before whistling for the others to come help.
Fayne forced herself to nod and scanned the surroundings, her eyes stinging with exhaustion. It had to be mid-morning back in the real world, but here? She’d lost track. It had been an endless cycle of hunting, healing, dragging carcasses, and paying adventurers for their kills. She’d managed to recruit more hunters through word-of-mouth. It wasn’t hard when word about the “real money” spread faster than she could have hoped. New faces trickled in from Ashvale and neighboring towns, greedy for easy bounties. Some worked alone, others grouped up. Fayne didn’t care so long as the meat arrived.
“Fifteen thousand pounds from yesterday alone.” The number rattled in her head, relentless. It was progress, real, measurable progress, but nowhere near enough. She estimated some 150,000 pounds would be needed to meet the demand, which meant another solid five days of hunting and nearly a downpayment of a house in cash. She silently thanked her parents for that inheritance and knew that if she could save even one life, it would be worth it.
A familiar warrior jogged up to her, though she couldn’t remember his name; a hulking bear slung over his shoulder. “Oy! You’re gonna need to pay extra for this one. Thing nearly took my arm off!”
“Drop it at the marker,” Fayne said wearily, ready to send off another payment. Her voice felt detached, hollow. “You’ll get paid.”
“I know you’re good for it Fayne, I’ll just send you a message for every kill I get, and you tally it up at the end of the day. We all appreciate what you’re doing, even if we can’t figure out why the hell you are doing it,” he said before trudging off to find his next kill, leaving Fayne standing there as she tried to remember how long she’d been at this. Two days in-game? Maybe more? It was hard to say. All she knew was that her group was starting to flag, their movements slower, their jokes quieter.
“Fayne! Gotta drop this off and then we’re heading out on a group hunt. You coming?” Brodin, the Berserked called out, hauling a cart with goblin corpses. The stench made Fayne’s stomach churn, but she just waved them off.
“Yeah, I just need a moment, it’s all been a bit much lately…” She wondered if things would ever return to normal. “I’ll catch up.” she was so tired already, and still there were days ahead of her. She and her group had leveled up so many times, that they were only a group in name, as each one of them was able to collect a share of kills on their own. She, herself, was limited by her healing specialty and unable to secure anything by herself, but she could still top people off with heals and keep them working nonstop.
Brodin gave an affirmative nod, though there was concern laced on his features as he started unloading his haul. Fayne walked off a short distance and dropped onto a stump, her body screaming as she finally allowed herself to stop moving. She pressed her palms into her knees and let out a shaky breath. Immediately her mana began to restore, slowly but surely.
The thought of the trapped players gnawed at her, making her stomach twist. Fifteen more hours before this task is over. She’d done the math earlier, and it terrified her. By now, the others, especially the ones who had been online longer, were likely somewhere between four and six hours of real-world playtime with no means to log out. It was far from a life-threatening number, but surely they had to be dying for a bathroom break by now. Unfortunately, she could imagine how they would be after a full twenty-four hours of being trapped. What if someone had a medical condition? The questions pressed on her mind and she could only let them go, for fear of driving herself mad.
“Goddamn it,” Fayne muttered to herself, raking a hand through her hair. “Five more days? They’re going to be in rough shape at this rate.”
Her mind flashed to Darian, to the hive, to the promise she’d made. If I can bring him enough, they’ll go free. The bargain hung over her like a guillotine.
Fayne stood abruptly, her body protesting with a surge of pins and needles. She ignored it. There wasn’t time for rest. Turning toward her new friend, or at least she felt like they were becoming friends, she jogged over and helped him finish with the goblins.
“Need a hand?” Fayne called, brushing a stray hair from her face.
“Finally decided to stop staring at the trees, huh?” Brodin shot back, grinning. “We’re just about done. A couple more minutes and maybe a quick snack, and then we can head out again.”
“Good. That’ll give us time to regroup and plan our next target,” Fayne said, full of determination.
The rogue Wren appeared from the treeline, dragging another goblin behind him. “If we keep this pace up, I’m gonna need a new pair of boots. These things weren’t made for goblin guts.”
“You won’t need boots where we’re going,” Fayne said.
Brodin looked up, wiping sweat from his brow. “What the hell are you talking about? Boots are essential”
“Okay, no, you’re right, that sounded cooler in my head,” Fayne replied sheepishly. “The goblins are too easy, too small, and we’re burning daylight. I say we go after trolls. They’re bigger, stronger, and there’s far less competition closer to the mountain.”
Wren raised an eyebrow. “Trolls? Last time we went after trolls, sure we crushed it, but if we run into more than a couple, we might be in serious trouble”
“You’re stronger than you think, have you even checked your level lately?” Fayne said. “We’ve been hunting all day yesterday and non-stop for hours today. Besides, at ten times the weight, don’t you guys want to make more money?” she played on their greed.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Brodin cracked his knuckles. “Trolls, huh? Been a while since I’ve had a good challenge. I’m in.”
Wren sighed, shaking his head. “Fine. But if this doesn’t work out as you expect, you’re buying me that pair of boots”
The group gathered their things, leaving the goblin meat safely stacked for retrieval. With Fayne leading the way, they began their ascent into the rocky foothills, the terrain growing steeper and more treacherous with every step.
The first troll came at them in a lumbering charge, its rough gravelly roar echoing through the mountain pass. This couldn’t be an ordinary troll, it easily held half more mass in its form than any of their previous encounters.
Fayne’s party fell into a practiced formation as the Ranger took a few quick leaps up a rocky outcropping to take the high ground while the Rogue slipped into the shadows and the Berserker, well he met the Troll with the same fervor for battle.
Brodin darted in first, his massive axe cleaving into the troll’s arm, above the elbow, burying deep into its flesh until it collided with bone. It howled in pain, swinging a tree trunk-sized club at him, but he hung tight to the axe, swinging around with the troll’s every movement until enough force dislodged it and sent him tumbling to the side. Wren flanked the troll, his daggers flashing as he targeted its vulnerable joints.
The troll shambled around briefly, its head darting to Fayne, Sienna, and over to Brodin, flicking between them several times as it tried to establish a target. Eventually, it settled on the Berserker that had wounded it and still had not arisen from their tumble, though the incident was only seconds prior. Trying to throw its arms forward, the right side holding the club obeyed, but the left side was unresponsive. It grunted in frustration and charged a second time.
Brodin looked up to meet the troll, and his gaze turned to panic. He scrambled to his feet just in time to leap to the side and avoid the beast's downward blow. This time, quicker on his feet, he sprung up and took off after it, hoping to get the jump on the monster before it had time to strike again.
The troll attempted to slide to a stop, trying to brace its legs but stumbling as the momentum was too great. The wound on its left arm already healing and allowing it to gain minor function back. As it came to a halt it was rapidly pelted with arrows, several landing clean in its neck while others forced their way through its knees, causing it to collapse to the ground. As the troll began to push itself back up, a black ball came whizzing at it from the shadows, exploding into a neck that spiraled through the air before pinning the creature back down. Brodin saw his moment and had finally made it within striking range, lifting his axe high and dropping it down on the neck of the helpless monster, decapitating the troll.
Fayne stood back, having watched the entire fight, no need to engage or cast a healing spell, she was perfectly rested if not a little disappointed in being left out.
The battle hadn’t been a terribly long engagement, but every time they fought with that much passion, with that will to not only survive but thrive, it took a lot out of them.
The group rested near a jagged boulder, catching their breath. Fayne leaned against it, looking on at her group with admiration.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” she said, knowing full well she did little to nothing.
Brodin let out a hearty laugh. “Not bad? That was the most fun I’ve had in days!”
Wren smirked, tossing a dagger into the air and catching it. “Did that thing look a little bigger than the others?.”
Fayne nodded and began to respond, “Absolutely, it had to be at least…” but she was cut short as the ground beneath her began to tremble. The boulder she leaned against shifted, tilting slightly before lifting off the ground.
“What the…” Fayne stumbled back, her eyes wide as the boulder began to rise further, shaking off dust and debris and revealing massive, segmented plates of stone-like armor.
The Stonebacked Armadillo Goliath towered over them, its hulking form casting a shadow over all of them. Its whip-like tail lashed out, smashing into the ground with enough force to send debris flying.
“Formation!” Fayne shouted, scrambling to her feet.
Brodin roared, raising his axe as the beast turned its glowing, beady eyes toward him. Wren cursed under his breath, darting to the side to avoid the creature’s sweeping tail.
“Guys, this is really bad” Sienna spoke without her typical prestige, ditching her professional demeanor for something raw and simple.
“No kidding” Brodin responded, but Sienna was already speaking again.
“No!” she bellowed, “The ground, it’s not secure! The troll wouldn’t be able to do anything to crack it, but this thing is going to shatter the entire…” The ground rumbled again as the Goliath rose up on its hind legs and slammed down toward the Berserker.
“Why is it always, meeeeeeee—” he shouted, his last word extending as the entire clearing shattered under their feet and sent the party and their gargantuan foe tumbling down into darkness.
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"Shit! Do something!" Wren's voice was barely audible beyond the wind ripping at their ears as they plummeted down toward the cave ground.
"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Brodin continued, his bulky form building speed with the unwanted aid of gravity.
Fayne's mind was racing as she dug through her list of spells before remembering a recent addition. Rapidly she cast 'Feather-Fall' on Brodin, who needed it the most, then Wren who was in her direct line-of-sight, but she couldn't find Sienna anywhere.
"Slow yourself Fayne" Sienna screamed, "I'll be fine"
Trusting in her teammate, she self-cast the spell and felt herself decelerate, praying that Sienna would survive this.
One by one, starting with Brodin, they collided into the market stalls below, without time to process why exactly there were market stalls in a cave under the mountain. Each party member coughed and wheezed as they tried to regain the breath that was stolen from them. They writhed and rolled around on the earth before finally regaining enough awareness to realize their situation. This was the exact time that the Goliath slammed into the ground, the impact causing them to bounce off of the earth and flung them several feet into the air before yet again submitting to the whim of gravity and colliding with the floor again, this time, with far less force.
The frightened wails of foreign entities filled the chamber only to be drowned out by the pained roar of the Goliath that had landed on its back and rolled back and forth in an attempt to right itself.
Brodin was in no condition to jump into the fray, but as his eyes began to shimmer with red specks he found the strength to rise to his feet. The flickering shimmering sparks rapidly combined with one another until they swirled in his eyes, moments later bursting into a glowing flame as his Berserker rage spilled loose. With a new fire lit under his ass, and in his eyes, and consuming his entire body, Brolin surged forward, his axe not only grasped, like trapped in the vice-grip of his hands. Leaping into the air, he flew above the Stone-Armadillo and gazed down at its exposed underbelly. He raised the blade high and drove it down with all of his might, the axe head digging deep into the chest of the creature, a shrill screech spilling from its lungs. His feet, firming placed on the thrashing beast, he ripped the axe out and slammed it in again, and again, carving a chunk out of the beast until it could scream no more.
The strange wails still echoed throughout the cave, as figures were seen fleeing through various tunnel exits amidst the chaos. Trying to be heard over the madness, Sienna shouted, "Did any of you know he could do that yet?" as she descended from above them, repelling down via grappling hook and touching down harmlessly on the ground while everyone else struggled to regain their composure.
Brodin was still chipping away at the corpse of the monsters when they grouped up to investigate the area. As his rage died down, he collapsed on the form of the beast, drifting off into sleep.