Spiteful Healer

“This is insane…” Mikael said with wide eyes, standing atop the stone walls of a small keep. Several days had passed since he’d arrived in Puagas, and a battle was unfolding before him. Tall pine and fir trees surrounded them, but a small clearing stood between their large gray brick Keep and the tree line. What had his eyes wide was the black mass of reapers soaring towards them in the distance.

“Do we open the gate?” Mightymira asked from across the wall. Hundreds of NPC guards stood amongst them, armed with bows, crossbows, and spears. Their weapons were readied and aimed at the approaching mass. The keep itself was simple, with a fortified wall built in a pentagonal shape around the central castle-like building, basic crafting stations, and resting areas in the space between the wall and the structure. Aside from the walls being manned, no additional soldiers were waiting in the wings behind the walls.

“No. He said don’t open the gates until he gives the command.” Mikael replied, and she nodded back anxiously. The trees began to rustle and teeter violently with the approaching winds caused by the mass of reapers. An ominous, gusting silence fell over the keep, broken only by the movement of NPC soldiers as they adjusted their poses slightly.

Knowing it was just a game didn’t help Mikael calm his nerves. He knew he was seconds away from a battle with an extremely deadly foe—truthfully, though, excitement was his dominant emotion.

Then, a stampede of hoofs could be heard in the distance. A small dirt road leading out of the treeline towards the Keep’s main gate was suddenly alive with movement. Many horses galloped out of the forest and towards the keep, with Renault leading the charge. Mikael recognized the others on horseback immediately - some were NPCs wearing the same yellow Puagas symbolism as the ones on the walls alongside him, but most were his missing guild mates and the other fallen players that had arrived on the airship with them.

“That kid really did it. He got them all out of the corpse camping nightmare!” Mightymira cheered excitedly as she saw this.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Mikael smirked.

“OPEN THE GATE!” Renault shouted as he led the charge. Mightymira didn’t hesitate; she quickly shouted, and the NPCs complied by pulling a wheel mechanism beside the gate to lift the iron portcullis while the doors swung open slowly.

As if timed perfectly, the horseback players and NPCs slipped under the rising portcullis and into the Keep, spreading out around the interior. Once inside, they all quickly began to dismount, and Renault watched the gate tensely for the last horse to get through.

“Alright, shut it. Everyone into the keep, take the underground pass to the eastern fields where your Airship will be waiting for you.” Renault shouted to everyone. The players and NPCs dismounted, and many rushed into the large central structure. Simultaneously, Mikael and Mightymira hopped off the wall to join him.

“Have fun?” Migthymira asked mockingly to Jeremax.

“Yeah. Loads. Lost all my high-level accessories. This place sucks, I won’t be buying a t-shirt.” Jeremax rolled his eyes at her.

“Let’s bail.” Another guild member hastily said as he began heading into the keep alongside the others. Mikael was preparing to thank Renault, but Renault was already not paying attention to them. He started giving orders to the NPCs who’d arrived with him to assist in manning the walls, which caused Mikael to turn his attention back to the swarm of approaching reapers.

“What about you, you coming with us? We can get you out of Puagas.” Mikael called out to Renault, barely getting his attention.

“I have to hold back Seraxus here, or you won’t be able to escape,” Renault said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“You’re going to sacrifice yourself? What about your gear?”

“My gear is all basic crafted crap at this point. I don’t care about it.” Renault snapped at him.

“Why are you sounding so pissed off then? If you don’t want to die, just come with us.”

“I don’t care about dying!” Renault sighed. “It’s them I’m pissed off about. They’re all probably going to die. I wasn’t done training them to fight him yet. But you idiots showed up out of nowhere and got yourselves all killed, making him stronger.” Renault finally turned his full attention to Mikael to explain the situation briefly before returning to the approaching swarm.

“You don’t have to stay here and fight that guy, right? I mean, that sword is stupidly broken. A sage class player isn’t goi-” Mightymira started to reply but was cut short.

“If I don’t, who will? No one is coming. None of you stupid streamers give a shit.” Renault replied coldly. “It’s my fault he got the sword. It’s my job to stop him.” Renault added after a brief pause, calming down somewhat.

Mikael went quiet, turning from Renault to see most of his guild members had already headed inside the Keep with the other fleeing players. Only Jeremax and Mightymira remained and exchanged looks with one another as if talking with just their eyes.

“We caused that kid a lot of trouble, huh?” Mightymira sighed.

“You haven’t completed your quest yet, right? None of the Zeus players who came with us did.” Jeremax mumbled.

“Nope.”

“Ah…” Mikael shook his head to himself with a grin. “I suppose it’s time we earn our guild name.” He turned towards the last players visible through the Keep’s main building gate. “Schadenfreude, stop running. We’re not going anywhere.” Mikael shouted to get their attention. There was a lot of hesitation, but several players stopped inside and turned, including none guild members. “We came here to destroy a sword, and we’re not about to leave with our tails between our legs. If this guy is brave enough to stay and fight them, so are we.” Mikael spoke loudly so that all could hear him.

With some reluctance, all of his guildmates slowly made their way back out of the Keep’s main structure. Surprisingly, alongside them came all of the Zeus crusaders and other players who’d joined on their journey despite not being members of their guild.

“What are you guys doing?” Renault looked down at them with disbelief.

“What do you mean what’re we doin’? We’re doin’ what you’re doin’.” Mightymira smirked as she hopped back up onto the walls of the Keep, and shortly after, so did all the others. Not a moment too soon, either, as the Reapers broke through the tree line and began diving down at them in droves.

“FIRE!” Renault shouted, causing the NPCs to release a volley of bolts and arrows that killed the first wave. Mixed in were large explosions of divine energy and magical fire from the players from Tarolas, helping to clear the skies and hold off the swarm.

“At least these things give experience. It’s not a bad way to grind if Seraxus is just going to send them to us mindlessly like this.” Jeremax shrugged as he shot down several and saw the experience numbers flying through his interface.

“The problem was never the low-level abyssal creatures…” Mikael mumbled as he saw four players riding on horseback towards the Keep from the treeline, wearing fancy high level armor and one of them wielding a large black sword. “It’s Seraxus himself.”

Tension filled the air as Seraxus nonchalantly hopped off his horse alongside Hajax, Zuon, and Gambit. They had big dumb grins on their faces despite several NPCs turning their crossbows onto them. Gambit used his monk reflexes and stepped out front, catching and deflecting the shots with his fist with incredible accuracy.

“What’s this, another one of your hidden military forces?” Seraxus asked Renault mockingly. “They’re weaker than the last one.”

“They’re good enough to stop a piece of shit like you,” Renault shouted at him.

“Haha, jeez, so much hate.” Hajax laughed condescendingly. Mikael, unnerved by their interaction, decided to break it up by leaping down off of the Keep walls onto the small dirt road in front of it, standing between the Keep’s main gate and Seraxus’ group.

“Who the hell’s this guy?” Hajax motioned to him with a confused expression.

“I think that’s the guild leader of these Tarolas dudes.” Zuon shrugged.

“That true? You are the leader of these clowns that I slaughtered?” Seraxus asked, eying Mikael’s livestream number of only 2000 compared to Seraxus’ 25,000.

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“The only clown here I see is you,” Mikael replied while drawing out a large iron greatsword and enhancing it with holy energy so that it gave off a light glow.

“Look at this 2k viewer nobody tryin’ to act all tough,” Seraxus said mockingly to his viewers.

“Mikael?” Mightymira asked worriedly.

“I can take him. He’s just a battlemaster with a cute toy.” Mikael replied to her calmly.

“Yo, he says he can take me?” Seraxus laughed, and his other party members joined in. At this point, the swarm of reapers were on the Keep, distracting the NPCs and other players greatly. Renault was paying attention to the encounter but was forced to use his spells to protect the NPCs on the walls from several dive attacks coming from the Reapers. The sky itself was barely visible due to the sheer number of them.

“You afraid of a one-on-one?” Mikael smirked.

“I ain't afraid of no scrub crusaders. Bring it.” Seraxus returned the smile, then lunged forward towards Mikael with no hesitation while simultaneously causing his 5 weapons to appear floating behind him, with only his black sword of hatred held in his hands.

As he approached Mikael, he swung the black blade downward, forcing Mikael to jump to the side to avoid it. Then, he took a wide swing with his greatsword to deflect the attacks of Seraxus’ other weapons.

Just the swing of the black sword through the air released a strange holding whisper as it cut past Mikael, releasing a dreadful aura that sent chills down Mikael’s spine and made his hairs stand on end. The virtual world was able to accurately simulate the fear caused by just being near something that powerful, and despite not hitting the ground the blade left a scratch in the dirt where Mikael had been standing just moments before.

“They’re mocking you. They don’t respect you. Make them fear you. Kill them. Show them who is the strongest.” Several voices whispered, overlapping each other and carrying on the wind. Mikael barely heard them, all at once, in the moment that the sword had narrowly missed him.

He hadn’t time to process it, though, as Seraxus wasn’t one to idle in the middle of a duel and quickly turned to continue striking at Mikael.

24 Hours later…

The same Keep now stood in ruins. The gate had been utterly destroyed, the portcullis lying flat on the ground. The walls were broken through and the main structure had holes blown in its walls. Smoke was still rising from the interior with black scorch marks staining the walls, showing signs of a recent violent fire. Not a single soul was left alive, though some items dropped by the fallen NPCs and players were left on the ground.

Dark gray clouds hovered overhead, and heavy rainfall poured down on the surrounding landscape. Aside from the pitter-patter of raindrops on the stone, sizzling on the glowing embers that remained from the great fire, there was silence.

The silence was broken inside the Keep, at a statue of Freyja built near one of the back walls that was now missing its head. Mikael had logged back into the gameworld after having been forced out by Seraxus. He was the first, and one by one the others slowly logged in after him to look upon the destroyed Keep, until finally Renault was able to log back in.

The players didn’t talk with one another, but all had their heads hung low as they began scavenging through debris for any items that might still be there that they’d dropped when they died.

“Sorry. I wasn’t strong enough.” Mikael apologized to Renault who paid no mind to this and began lifting up some scorched wooden planks to retrieve his simple wooden staff that’d dropped.

“Neither was I.” Renault sighed before walking towards the gate leading out of the Keep.

“What are you going to do now?” Mikael asked him.

“Find more survivors. Protect and train them, then kill Seraxus.”

“You’re going to try again? That was a massacre.” Jeremax asked him in disbelief, but Renault paid no mind to this and kept walking in silence.

“Would you like some help?” Mikael asked, which caused Renault to pause, turn and face him.

“Why would you help? Is it good content?” Renault asked coldly, eying the livestreaming icon above Mikael’s head.

“Kind of, but that’s not the reason. That guy pisses me off, and I won’t be able to reach my advanced class if I don’t stop him. No point leaving till the quest is complete.” Mikael shrugged.

“Oh.” Renault replied slowly, scratching his chin as if pondering something. “What about your Airship?” Renault asked.

“What about it?”

“Will it stay too?”

“I don’t know. I think so? The pilot is a bit eccentric.”

“Then… maybe there’s a chance…” Renault continued pondering.

“A chance at what?” Mightymira asked curiously.

“To remove the time limit…” Renault replied as if this explained something, but the others only continued to look confused.

One week later…

Renault and the others were all aboard the Airship with Ryner at the helm. The Ship was sailing along the outskirts of Puagas. It was visible, but they were far enough away that they were not under any threat.

Jeremax and a wizard player had just returned to the deck from Puagas and began unloading supplies for the NPC crew members of the Airship, of which several more had now become Elite due to the constant interactions by Mikael’s guild as they used the Airship as their base of operations.

Renault, too, was onboard the ship, looking over the sides while squinting his eyes. He was not staring in the direction of Puagas, though—rather, he was looking to the open skies to the northeast, where nothing but black mist was visible at first.

“There, I see one. The first one is coming.” Renault shouted excitedly as he saw a small speck approaching on the horizon.

“What should I do?” Ryner asked as he squinted to see it, hands still on the ship’s wheel.

“Just like we planned. Intercept the ship.” Mikael instructed him, to which Ryner nodded anxiously. He began using several Airship pilot abilities to steer the ship in the direction the approaching vessel was coming from. As it came more clearly into view, an unfamiliar blue banner with a white wolf’s head could be seen on the main sail - the vessel was visibly larger than Ryner’s even from a distance.

“That’s from Lanusk.” Jeremax commented as they closed in on it. Once the ships neared each other, they both slowed to a halt and veered to fly side by side.

“You’re not pirates, are you?” The captain shouted to Mikael and the others once they were in earshot. “Because you picked the worst possible ship to raid if that’s the case. I’m ferrying Gladiators for the monthly tournament. It’s hosted in Puagas, of all places. You don’t want to pick a fight with these guys.” The captain explained as Mikael eyed the many players aboard the deck of the Lanusk Airship.

They were all well-geared, high-level players standing in groups of five with eager expressions as if they were all hoping for a fight.

“No, we’re not pirates.” Mikael shook his head.

“We’re here to protect you,” Renault added.

“Protect us?” The captain raised an eyebrow at them before looking at the players on his ship, who some began to chuckle.

“Yeah. Seraxus goaded the first gladiator winner into hosting the tournament on Puagas because he wanted to bait Airships to Puagas so he could leave on one of your vessels. If he does that, he’ll destroy another island and get even stronger.”

“Seraxus, that’s the guy with the artifact sword, right?”

“Yeah I saw his stream a few times, he’s crazy.”

“I heard he’s good at PvP..” Several players aboard the Lanusk ship began to mumble amongst themselves.

“I think we’ll be able to handle ourselves.” Another player added calmly.

“Maybe. But maybe not. We can’t take the risk. He can control swarms of Abyssal creatures that’ll easily take this thing down from the skies. So, this is as close to Puagas as you should get.” Mikael replied to them.

“We’ll use our wizards to fly all of you to the island safely and provide supplies to your Airship to make sure you can hover here and make your return journey.

“Are these guys serious?”

“That’s way too much trouble.”

“We’re supposed to walk to the gladiator arena from here?” More players mumbled in disbelief from the neighboring vessel. Mikael ignored their mutterings and turned his attention to the captain.

“We’re doing this as a favor to you. We’ve been here awhile. We’ve seen how dangerous things get on Puagas.”

“You can, of course, ignore our warnings. But there’s a good chance you’ll be saying bye-bye to that big expensive Airship.” Mightymira smirked at the captain, who locked eyes with her and went deep in thought for a moment.

“Alright.” The captain cleared his throat. “We’ll do as they say…” this was immediately met with groans. “I’ll remain on the outskirts of Puagas until the tournament has ended so I can fly you all back to Lanusk. But I won’t be getting any closer to the island. Coordinate with these players to be flown to Puagas and back.” The captain spoke firmly. Immediately following this, murmurs and discussion broke out between players on both ships, and Mikael took this time to walk over to Renault and see a relieved expression on his face.

“Good, it worked. If we can convince all the ships ferrying gladiators to follow this procedure, it’ll keep Seraxus trapped on Puagas indefinitely.” Renault said to Mikael, still sounding somewhat worried about the situation.

“That’ll give us all the time in the world to kill him.” Mikael grinned at Renault.

“Won’t he just try and find another way off the island?” Migthymira asked as she joined the conversation atop the stern, near Ryner, who was listening.

“No, I don’t think so. His sword is powerful, but this game still has absolute forms of damage and death. One of them is falling damage… I don’t think he’ll risk leaving the island unless he’s sure his transport is secure. One defeat is all it takes for him to lose the souls in the sword.” Renault explained while motioning to the black abyssal sea of clouds below their Airship.

“A defeat is enough? Not even needing to kill him?” Mikael confirmed.

“Yeah, so if he loses one of his gladiator matches to one of these teams, it could all be over.” Renault nodded.

“That’s why you wanted to make sure they safely arrived on Puagas without outright stopping them,” Ryner mumbled to himself as he understood the situation.

“Well, then maybe we ought to start training up too and enter the next one. ‘Cause we’re not leaving Puagas until that sword is destroyed.” Mikael declared, which caused an ever so slight smile to appear on Renault’s face.

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