Void Page 11

  A dagger pinged off his armor, as the weasel tried to have its last hurrah. Putting his foot to the werewolf's stomach, Ajax shoved it away. His sword tore free of its bowels, and he heard steaming guts slosh to the ground.

  Enemy killed

  +250xp

  An exclamation mark flashed in his mind. He had leveled up and felt stronger already! What a grind that was...

  Right then, he couldn’t do anything about it. Another werewolf was out there, and Lillus and Yana needed him.

  Their hp bars appeared in his mind’s eye. He might not be able to see well enough to fight alongside them, but he could toss around some heals. Both had taken damage, so he quickly healed them up.

  It sounded like his female companions were up against two werewolves now. How long does this damn blindness last?

  In between healing the women, he got his own health back to near full. He still had all his cooldown abilities, but he’d hold onto them if he could, as there were plenty of other werewolves out there. After they were done here, they’d need to head back to Dawnspark, and hope she didn’t incinerate them on sight, thinking they were more enemies. Then if the One God was on their side, she would be strong enough to take off and they could get the hell out of there.

  All of a sudden, the blindness faded and Ajax could see again. Lillus and Yana had slain another lycanthrope, and now only one remained. With his help, they quickly put the werewolf down like a mangy dog.

  Shared kill +150xp

  Breathing heavily, they stared at one another. Then Lillus grinned. “I just leveled up!”

  A FEW MINUTES LATER, they carefully made their way toward Dawnspark. Ajax pondered where he should put his talent and stat point. Now that he wasn’t going to be joining the army, did he need to pursue the healing tree? He imagined himself one day having to lead people into battle. So wouldn’t it make more sense to start placing points in the DPS tree so that he could fight near the front line?

  But then, Spiritual Warriors would never be a match for the other melee damage-dealing classes. Templars (the Spiritual Warrior damage dealing talent tree) were adept at area of effect attacks (AOE), which could be useful in battle. But they were also heavily mana-dependent, which meant they needed to be careful about when they used their AOE abilities (or carry around lots of mana pots and invest heavily in increasing Spirit).

  A mana-less Templar was easy pickings.

  So far, Ajax had focused heavily on healing. It would take several talents invested in the Templar tree before he really saw a noticeable increase in damage output. If he invested two more points in the Paladin tree, he would enter the second tier of abilities in the class skill focus. Some of the useful abilities included being able to cure sickness and disease, a mana intensive group heal spell, (not as good as the Spirit Mage class who had the best most mana efficient group heals) and a Greater Heal. Other high-end abilities included Summon Angelic Aid, which summoned an angel for two minutes, who would heal hp and restore party mana.

  At level 18, he would get—

  Lillus stopped him. He brought his mind to focus. He could spend his points later.

  Dark shapes moved in the trees all around them. Ajax drew his sword and moved to protect his two companions.

  They were surrounded.

  CHAPTER 20

  DARK SPIRIT OF THE SKY

  THREE LYCANTHROPES emerged from the dozens of werewolves around them. They didn’t seem like they were going to attack, as they proceeded forward slowly, with no drawn weapons.

  Ajax brought up their basic information in his mind’s eye.

  Moon Tribe Warrior

  Level 12

  HP: 190/190

  Moon Tribe Hunter

  Level 11

  HP: 155/155

  Moon Tribe Caller

  Level 12

  HP: 140/140

  Ajax didn’t know what a caller was, for he had never played the Terror Incognita expansion pack (the first expansion pack for Visaria Online) as he never used to play the game. But based on the low hp (and the class name), he surmised that it must be some sort of magic caster.

  Great, he thought to himself, as he came up with a plan of action.

  If they were attacked, he’d try to take down the caster before it could get a spell off. Then he’d turn and charge the other two. If he took damage, Lillus and Yana could buy him the precious seconds to cast a few heals on himself. If worse came to worse, he would use some cooldowns.

  And by then, the rest of the werewolf horde hanging back in the trees would descend on them.

  This could be bad...

  As the three werewolves approached, Ajax pointed his sword at them. “Stay there, or I’ll—”

  “Wait,” the caller said, coming to a stop. “Don’t attack. Peace.”

  Ajax’s heart pounded. The voice of the werewolf had been more high-pitch than he had expected. Could it be female?

  Lillus kept her finger pointed at the caller. “Stay where you are, and don’t make any sudden moves.”

  Yana hissed at the hunter as it trained a crude bow on them. “If you try to hurt my mistress, I’ll snap your neck with my whip.”

  The hunter growled at her, and started to notch an arrow.

  “No kill. Peace.” The caller held both her hands in the air to show she had no weapon. Not that she needed one. She likely had magic spells at the ready, and her claws alone, were long enough to tear off huge chunks of flesh.

  Light from the dragonfire flickered off the trunks of the trees. Using the fiery glow, Ajax scanned for more werewolves coming up from around them. The rest of the lycanthropes continued to hang back. Waiting. Watching.

  “Why do you want peace?” Ajax asked. “Your kind isn’t known for being hospitable to outsiders.”

  The female caller studied him. “Our kind is not what it once was. We are no longer under the sway of the Hark Reaver. You players killed him long ago, and in so doing, set us free.”

  Ajax glanced at Lillus who only shrugged. Clearly, she knew as much about this as he did. Visaria Online was a sandbox now, and anything could happen. “What do you want with us?”

  “We want to know why you’re here. Were you with the dark spirit of the sky?”

  “Dark spirit of the sky?” Lillus took a step toward the female werewolf. “Do you mean the dragon?”

  “Dragon. I know that name. But that beast is not the dark spirit I speak of.” The caller studied the sky. “Came here, it did, then left us... until a few hours ago.” She lowered her face. “Then it returned, the dark spirit of the sky, a storm cloud given life. Once again it spoke to me of Visaria’s unmaking.”

  “I saw it too!” Ajax stepped toward the female werewolf, but stopped as the Moon Tribe warrior and hunter imposed themselves in front of him.

  Ajax put his sword away to show he meant no harm. “It attacked me in my mind, but I managed to drive it away. I thought I’d imagined it, like a daydream or something.”

  The caller motioned her two escorts aside. When they had moved away, she reached out to Ajax. Swallowing his fear, he took her hand. Yana hissed a warning at him, but he ignored her.

  “Let me sync with you, human,” the caller said in a soothing voice. “We can share what we know of this dark spirit.”

  They both closed their eyes, and Ajax waited to see what would happen. He couldn’t believe he was clasping the hand of a werewolf, the things born of B grade horror movies, videogames and crappy urban fantasy books that no one read.

  Then he felt a presence all around him, swirling like a whirlpool. The presence pressed against him, and passed through his digital flesh into his very being.

  We are one, for as long as this syncing lasts. The moon caller materialized in the darkness behind his closed eyelids. She moved to stand in front of him, then embraced him as strongly as Yana might. Now we’re synced, our numbers, our code, have blended together. Her body pressed against him.

  You know what you are? He gasped. That you were programme
d to be part of a game?

  I know many things, human. I see this world for all that it is. Now, be silent, and let our numbers be at peace.

  Ajax tried not to shudder at the thought of sharing the code that made up his avatar in Visaria with someone else. Most especially, an NPC werewolf he knew next to nothing about.

  Then a vision came to him. He saw through eyes far sharper than his own, smelt forest scents with a nose keener than any humans. Looking down at himself, he saw his body was covered in dark fur, and that he had rounded breasts sticking out the front of his chest.

  You are inhabiting my body and seeing what I saw, the caller said. Just as I am in your body, seeing what you saw.

  Ajax felt weirded out at all the strange sensations and thoughts that flitted through his mind. Most he couldn’t understand, but some he could. The most pressing thought was that of being watched by something malevolent in the sky.

  He looked up into the cold blue expanse. A vast gray cloud hovered above him. But it was no ordinary cloud. This was a manifestation of the void.

  A hideous face swirled within the dark gray nothingness, forming a pale mockery of a human one. Nylus. Nylus. I have come to speak to you. The voice was slow, sinister and emotionless.

  “What do you want, dark spirit of the sky?” Ajax had spoken, but they were not his words. They belonged to the werewolf caller Nylus, spoken in her guttural language.

  Join us.

  “Join you? I don’t even know what you are. Be gone, foul thing.”

  We are the unmakers. Those born of the tears of the old world.

  The cloud grew larger, until it had expanded across the whole sky. The color, the bright digital tapestry of Visaria, seemed to wither, as if the dark sky spirit was sucking the life out of the digital world itself. We are the void. The corruption. The end of all things.

  Nylus shuddered at the sound of the dark spirit’s voice. “I want nothing to do with you. Go away.”

  Already, our legions move. The vanguard is already here in Dernmore. Your blood brethren to the west have become one with the void. The gray cloud darkened to a deep gray storm front, swirling menacingly over the whole world. They march in our legion. Now, it is your turn. Bring your tribe to us willingly, or we will unmake you all. I give you two days to gather at the bonfire at the base of Ithycan Mountain, for that is where you will join us.

  The cloud began to fade. Two days. No more.

  Then it was gone.

  Ajax returned to his own body, and gasped in air. Falling to his knees, he opened his eyes and found Nylus crouched before him. She gazed at him with wisdom-filled eyes. “Now you see the choice I was given.”

  He got to his feet. “What are you going to do? Are you going to join up with the void?”

  Nylus stood and shook her head. “That happened more than a week ago.” She stared at the flames burning in the distance. “Our moon scouts reported seeing a band of our Blood Tribe brethren, the ones who had joined the void.” Her tail curled up between her legs, just like a frightened dog’s. “Their faces were blank, their keen eyes, filled with a gray nothingness. They were...” She whimpered. “No longer themselves.”

  She turned back to him. “So I have brought my tribe east, to join with you humans. The dark spirits of the void are coming, and my tribe cannot stand alone against them.”

  Ajax blinked. He had never expected this. Somehow, he’d encountered a second group of allies, in another unlikely place. “How many of you are there?”

  “Around a thousand.” She paused. “Many of us fell to a terrible plague that spread among my tribe several years ago. The sickness came from an abandoned raid dungeon, that you players left behind after you had migrated onto the next expansion zone. One of my pack entered this ruin in search of treasure, and returned inflicted with the plague.” Her ears drooped. “It spread quickly, killing us in the thousands, and we lacked the healing abilities to stop it from claiming more victims. We are no longer the power we once were.”

  Before Ajax could say something to console the werewolf, Lillus spoke. “We know of this void.” The Demon Mage told Nylus everything, then about Ajax being the Chosen One.

  Nylus studied him. “When I was inside you, I could sense your power, your synergy with Visaria and the numbers of the past and present. Your power clings to you like an aura. Visarians will follow you, even though they might not know why.” She grasped his arms, and to his horror brought her nose to his and held them together. Her nose was wet and uncomfortably cold, but her breath was sweet. “This is how my kind expresses our admiration.” Then she licked his lips with her tongue, leaving them covered in sticky saliva. “By this gesture, I have bound our paths as one.” She withdrew. “We will fight with you when the time comes, Chosen One.”

  “What will you do in the meantime?” Ajax tried to fight the urge to wipe off the doggy saliva, fearing it might offend his new-found allies. “My two companions and I must first go to the Oracle, the heart of Visaria, so we can’t remain here with you and fight the void if it returns.”

  Nylus conferred with the Hunter beside her. They spoke in their own language for a time, then she turned back to him. “We’ll head northeast and meet up with this Cassius your Demon Mage spoke of. When we arrive, we will tell him we met you, and that we wish to fight in the coming war.”

  Ajax couldn’t believe his good fortune. Clearly, the extra point his cloak had added to his Luck stat, had made all the difference!

  Quest

  Objective: When you return to lead the war against the void, call upon Nylus and she will rally her tribe to your side.

  Rewards: 2000xp. You will bolster your ranks with an army of lycanthropes, increasing the likelihood of your ultimate victory. Just be thankful, these werewolves aren’t the type to go around smelling each other’s backsides, unlike their real-world canine counterparts.

  Warning: Since you synced your code with Nylus, she has developed an unusual fondness for you. You have already captured the hearts of Lillus and Yana, do you really need another? Two is company, three is a crowd, four is a circus.

  Strangely, Ajax found himself also uncomfortably attracted to Nylus. Her hair, her canine snout, those brown eyes, oh, and that tail! His face burned. What the hell is happening to me? She looks like a walking dog! Stupid number syncing, crazy, weird—

  Nylus was waiting for him to speak. “Ahem. When I return, I will call for you.” Ajax accepted the quest. “In the meantime, our dragon...” He glanced at the flames in the distance. “Umm, has she—?”

  “She killed several dozen of my warriors,” Nylus snorted. “Those foolish enough to approach her. I came out here to try to speak to her, and find out why she had come.” The caller gave Ajax and Lillus a toothy grin. “But now, I know. She brought our savior.”

  Ajax winced. “You’re not, ah, angry about your people dying?”

  “The moon warriors made their own decision to approach her, and didn’t seek my council. Their deaths are on them.”

  “Right...” Ajax hastily let the subject drop.

  “If the dragon is up to it, we’ll be flying out of here early in the morning,” Lillus said. “We have a long journey ahead of us.”

  Nylus removed something from her inventory. “Take this, dark mage.” The werewolf handed Lillus a tier 2 black cloak.

  Dark Witch’s Cloak of sugar-free candy

  This cloak was once owned by a witch on a weight-loss diet who lived in a house made of artificially sweetened candy in a dark forest glade

  +5 Intellect

  +2 Spirit

  +20hp

  +10def

  * Too much artificial sweetener can give you diarrhea.

  At least Ajax could see what the item was called. Perhaps the extra point of Intellect his Flitter Flutter cloak had given him, made a difference after all! Lillus ran her fingers over the gift, then removed her old travel-worn (and tattered in a few places) cloak, and put on the new one. She turned to Ajax. “How does it look?”<
br />
  It was a little dark to get a clear picture of her, but he did his male duty and said, “It makes you look more beautiful than ever.” And I don’t even have to lie! It really does.

  The warrior werewolf who had escorted Nylus removed a sword from his inventory and handed it to Ajax with a grunt.

  After a brief hesitation, Ajax took the weapon and nodded in thanks.

  Atlantean Bastard Sword of the Legendary Hero of old

  Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!

  +40 AP

  + 10 damage (Sharp Blade)

  + 15 Damage to the enemies of Visaria

  Special Ability

  Hold it up and it will catch the light of the sun, and carry your voice, so that it inspires all those who follow you.

  * Reduced level requirements for a player who has performed exceptional heroic deeds.

  ** This is a restricted item. If you have come across it, please contact our support staff as you have been given an item that belongs to the developer build of Visaria Online and was never intended to be used in the live version of the game.

  Failure to comply, will result in account termination. You have been warned.

  I hope that threat at the end is no longer able to be enforced, Ajax thought, then held the weapon up reverently. “Where did you get this? From a dead player?” Maybe someone had hacked the dev build of the game, and transferred it over to the public servers. The werewolves carried weapons of their own, but the workmanship was far different to that of this weapon, and the stats far inferior. “You didn’t kill the guy who owned this sword recently, did you?”

  The werewolf glowered at Ajax and said nothing in defense of himself. Nylus answered for him. “Would you think less of us if we admitted that we have the blood of your kind on our fangs?”

  Ajax spent a moment to consider his answer before speaking. “No. You were created to fight us players, and kill our NPCs. I wouldn’t blame a lion for eating a gazelle, no more than I’d blame you.” He grimaced. “And another reason I don’t blame you, is because players once took great pleasure in slaughtering your kind for quests or for farming crafting materials and xp.”