2:30 P.M.
Enter GM.
The smokey black shadows dissipated, leaving a smiling villain standing between Tantalus and Ashcroft. GM began to speak, but he was completely drowned out by the sound of a hundred players screaming abuse and obscenities. Ashcroft’s revolver was out of its holster and pointed at GM before anyone else’s. The leader of the Knights of Ashes looked at GM with such hatred it was as if he thought he could harm GM with intent alone. It was impossible to hear Ashcroft over the riotous din of the crowd, but it seemed that Ashcroft was shouting “I’ll kill you!” at the top of his lungs. In contrast, Tantalus’s mouth was closed, and his hands were in his pockets. The Great Strategist seemed to be deep in thought.
Ashcroft cast his revolver aside and charged toward GM. Halfway through the charge, Ashcroft drew his saber from its sheath. As soon as the sword had loosed its scabbard, however, Ashcroft’s charge halted. The charge interruption was clearly not planned, and Ashcroft’s expression was one of intermingled rage and surprise at his body’s betrayal.
A moment after Ashcroft moved, players from the crowd began to charge the stage like a wave of approaching flesh. In an instant, the atmosphere changed from high-spirited to deranged. A riot had broken out in the middle of Osiris.
It appeared as if the charging mass of people would trample GM underfoot, but he seemed unphased. GM’s smile was gone, but he did not surrender his position in the center of the stage. Tantalus and Ashcroft, seeing the approaching mass, fled. The two ex-Scions jumped off the back of the stage and kept their eyes on the crowd.
Naturally, the crowd was not able to reach GM. None of them could get within fifteen feet of the God of Machines. It was as if GM was surrounded by an invisible force field. The sound of shouting faltered as a feeling of confusion pervaded the players on the stage.
GM tried to speak, but Enzo could only hear him say, “...need to hear this.” Clearly, the crowd would not let him speak. GM visibly sighed in annoyance and took out a leather-bound notebook from his coat pocket. He pretended not to notice the dozen firearms pointed in his direction.
With this, the people in the crowd began shouting at each other. Tantalus and Ashcroft had jumped back on to the stage, and they were trying to get the other players off the stage. Tantalus was shouting, “What are you doing!? You can’t possibly hurt him! If we just listen to him talk, we can get more information! So shut up!” Of course, no one heard this, so it did not help.
Enzo, Pixie, and Elias were on the stage trying to figure out how to kill GM. Enzo shouted, “Maybe we can get around the safe-zone limitation if we set a trap for GM.” No one could hear him either. Redgrave was also on the stage. He was muscling through the crowd in an attempt to reach Tantalus.
Without warning, GM’s voice cut through the sound of the crowd. His voice reverberated supernaturally as he began to chant.
“Edict. Mortus. Trecenti pes.”
The crowd began to retreat with the same speed that it approached. Someone shouted, “He’s using magic!” Before GM finished chanting, the stage was clear once more.
“Quinque secundus. Silentium.”
There was a flash of light under GM’s feet as he finished chanting, though Enzo could not see the source of the light from his position off of the stage. Upon the completion of the chant, the sound of the crowd ceased. Those who were talking found their voices trapped in their throats, and silence pervaded the park. Save for the ambient sound of wildlife, there was no sound for several seconds.
“Excellent,” GM said, clapping his hands once. “I’ve got twenty-five more of the speeches to do today, so I’ll keep this short. I’m here now to dispel a false notion that many of you seem to have latched onto. Your time in Ferrum will not be a ten-year vacation. I am not on your side. For as long as I live, I will not allow any of the three hundred thousand people among these eleven servers to know true peace. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of players will die before you will be able to escape. By overcoming these obstacles, some of you will achieve fulfillment, but more of you will die.” GM pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch.
“Speaking of which,” GM said, looking up from his watch, “the players of this city seem to be the most organized of the cities I’ve seen so far. I’ve decided to test that resolve. In five minutes, an incursion shall crash against the three Gates of Osiris. This incursion will be far too great for my shards to repel. Should you do nothing, everyone in this city will be dead by nightfall.”
There was a deafening crash as something detonated about fifty feet behind GM. This sound was soon followed by a series of explosions that echoed throughout the City from all directions.
“I’ll leave you all with a piece of useful information,” GM said. “The resources you all have right now are not nearly sufficient to harm me. Right now, the Osiris Safezone is protecting all of you more than it is protecting me. Had we met like this outside of the City walls, you would all be dead. Accumulate more resources, master this game, and come kill me at the Island of Merkopia!” As soon as GM reached the end of his speech, he was enveloped in an unnatural shadow and shot into the sky.
Panicked voices once again filled the air as GM’s spell faded. Most players in the crowd began to run in various directions, and a few dove for cover under nearby trees. One voice, however, cut through the rest.
“Hey! Hey! Shut up!” Ashcroft shouted. The players that remained near the stage quieted down at Ashcroft’s shouting.
Tantalus then began to shout, “We need to get to the Gates as soon as possible! It’s about a mile to each one, so we’ll need cars to get there in the next five minutes! If you can, steal one! I’ll go to the West Gate, and Ashcroft will go to the North Gate! Ashcroft here just told me that the North Gate is the most poorly defended right now, so we’re sending all of the Knights there! FullDan is in charge of the East Gate for now!”
Tantalus then began to gesture at the crowd, splitting it into thirds. “Okay! All of you in this third of the crowd, go to the East Gate. This third, go to the North Gate! This third, go to the West Gate! If you’re not going to fight, find a structure to hide in!”
There was a pause before Ashcroft said, “You heard the man! Go!”
At this, the crowd quickly dispersed. They had their orders, and they fulfilled those orders with enthusiasm, though this enthusiasm was not particularly organized. The group which had formed outside the West Gate, with the addition of Pixie, FullDan, and Bebop, re-formed in this panicked atmosphere.
Redgrave spoke first. “I should go to the East Gate with FullDan. He should have at least one skilled player with him.”
Tantalus grunted in agreement. “Take Enzo and Dendrite with you,” he said before turning to the two of them. “By my approximation, you two are probably equivalent to C-rank players in Ninth Oasis. You’ll be a helpful addition to FullDan’s team.”
“Aye, Captain,” said Dendrite.
The East Gate Party drove away from the park in the pickup truck. FullDan and Redgrave were in the front while Enzo, Dendrite, and four other players were crammed into the truck bed. These four players were called: Damocloid, Stumpt, Reversio, and Poldra. All were men except for Poldra. Enzo explained the basics of combat to the four new soldiers on the drive over. He explained the orcs’ weakness and the specifics of how to operate their firearms.
The pickup truck arrived at the East Gate before the assault had begun. Dozens of NPCs stood at the Gate’s opening with their weapons at the ready. About half a dozen players stood around, looking confused. Redgrave shouted so that the NPCs and players could hear, “They’ll be here in less than a minute! Ready yourselves!”
“What should we do, Redgrave?” asked FullDan.
“You’re in charge,” responded Redgrave, “but you should put some soldiers in the battlements to get a good cross-fire going.”
FullDan ordered two players to each battlement. Enzo ended up going to the battlement to the left of the Gate alongside Poldra. Redgrave, FullDan, Damocloid, and Stumpt were ordered to stay at ground level.
Enzo ran up several flights of stairs until he had reached the top of the battlement. As soon as he reached the top of the tower, he saw a flood of orcs and goblins appear from behind the various structures built near the East Gate. By the time the people at the Gate could see the Deluvians, they were less than fifty feet away from each other. A sane military architect would make sure there was a long stretch of land between the Gate and any cover so that the defenders could kill the attackers before they could get close. The NPCs’ focus on melee combat gave them a distinct blind spot when it came to gun combat.
Enzo leveled his rifle and began to open fire on the approaching horde.
Below, FullDan anointed his bayonet with blood from the palm of his left hand. As the Deluvians approached, he gave one order, “They’re coming. Kill them all.”
FullDan’s bashful demeanor had completely disappeared as soon as he saw the first orc round the corner. It was replaced by the calm exterior of a professional with a job to do.
The first wave of orcs was quickly dispatched in a flurry of anointed bullets. Redgrave fired his sidearm until it clicked empty, scoring three kills. A dozen orcs fell to the ground dead, but the tide of grey did not falter. The defenders on the ground level were all forced to reload at around the same time due to their guns’ limited capacity. Though the first dozen orcs were easily dispatched, the next dozen were able to close to melee range.
The bayonet on the end of Redgrave’s rifle pierced the lead orc three times in quick succession. The NPC standing next to Redgrave fell to a greyskin’s scything longsword, but Redgrave did not allow the NPC’s blade to fall to the ground. In one swift motion, Redgrave grabbed the NPC’s saber, cut his own leg, and removed the head from the orc that had killed the NPC.
Meanwhile, FullDan was engaged in a pitched melee of his own. Every orc that dared enter striking range was dealt a debilitating but not immediately fatal wound. The first orc to approach FullDan was blinded by a single savage cut. The remaining five orcs dispatched by FullDan slowly bled to death over the next ten minutes. During his time in the Scions, FullDan learned that he could save half a second killing a target if he merely disabled rather than killed. Ultimately, FullDan killed six of the orcs from the second wave, and Redgrave killed three.
The guttural screams of the dying orcs temporarily halted the advance. Just as Redgrave allowed himself a moment of respite, he saw a number of goblins wielding firearms peek out from behind the cover of the houses. In a moment of panic, Redgrave realized that he was out of cover, and several rifles were pointed at him. Redgrave dove for cover behind a concrete divider and landed hard. He felt an explosion of pain in one of his kneecaps. For a moment, Redgrave thought he had landed incorrectly. When he looked down, however, he saw that he had caught a bullet in his knee. Redgrave took a moment to heal his wound. That was the worst pain he had ever felt, thought Redgrave. He really did not want to be shot again.
Redgrave used the blood from his knee wound to anoint another magazine of .45 ACP. He popped his head out of cover and saw that the goblins had been killed by the combined fire of more than twenty players.
Slowly getting to his feet, Redgrave saw the figure of FullDan kneeling out of cover. Horrified, Redgrave ran to FullDan’s side. “FullDan!” Redgrave shouted.
As he got closer, Redgrave realized that FullDan had used a blinded and disarmed orc as a human shield to survive the unexpected volley of bullets. Redgrave could see that blood was flowing from a wound in FullDan’s shoulder where he was not covered by the orc. The orc was completely unharmed because the goblin’s bullets were not anointed, and it was struggling blindly to escape from FullDan’s headlock.
“I’m okay,” said FullDan. He casually slit the blind orc’s throat and detached himself from the grapple. “Getting shot sucks, though.” As FullDan spoke, the hole in his shoulder sealed itself. “How did you fare?”
“I took a bullet in the knee,” said Redgrave.
“A few more of those, and the two of us will be dead,” sighed FullDan.
At this moment, a player confidently walked up to Redgrave and FullDan. He was a middle-aged white man with short grey hair who stood at about six feet tall. He turned to FullDan and said in a clipped English accent, “I suppose you’re FullDan, then?”
“Mander!” FulDan said happily. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see another S-rank.”
“Yes, well, sorry for the tardiness,” said Mander. “I didn’t know the situation was so dire here.”
“Will you take command?” asked Redgrave.
“If that is what is desired of me,” said Mander. The Englishman looked at the situation around them before saying, “Clearly, we’re going to need better sight-lines. The nearest house can’t be more than ten meters from the Gate.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” said FullDan. “But how could we get better sight-lines?”
“Arson,” Mander said with a smile. “We burn those houses,” Mander pointed at the structures near the Gate, “and we reclaim the advantage.”
From Enzo’s perspective, the beginning of the battle was incredibly simple. He sat on his perch above the battle and spent the next five minutes picking off any goblins that stuck their heads out of cover. What he did not know is that his skill with the rifle had made him a priority target for the Diluvians. The “sharpshooters in the battlements” severely hampered the assault on the East Gate, and this information was quickly communicated to the Deluvians’ commanding officers.
Redgrave, Dendrite, and a decently-skilled player called VK volunteered for arson duty. Mander had acquired some rags and gas cans from the NPC officers. The job should have been easy. Ever since the third wave was repelled, nobody at the East Gate had seen any Deluvians. Mander intended to use this opportunity to burn down the houses to expand sight-lines and, perhaps, hinder the Deluvians’ advance.
The three men of the Arson Team moved quickly to their pre-planned positions. They split up. Dendrite took the left, Redgrave took the center, and VK took the right.
Redgrave was pouring gasoline on a wooden house when he spotted a flickering shadow out of the corner of his eye. He unholstered his sidearm and kept it at the ready as he used a long gas lighter to start the fire. The house lit up amazingly quickly as the fire spread like a gluttonous serpent.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a roar of thunder that emanated from the wall behind Redgrave. He turned and saw as the battlements to each side of the East Gate slowly collapsed to the ground. The Deluvians had struck the East Gate with artillery.
Enzo looked down at Redgrave as he disappeared into the dense maze of suburban houses just outside of the East Gate. Poldra sat on the ground next to him; her rifle was leaned against a dip in the parapet. As Enzo watched, Poldra took out a packet of cigarettes with illegible symbols on the packaging and began smoking. She wordlessly offered a cigarette to Enzo who turned her down with a wave.
After letting out a puff of smoke, Poldra asked, “What do you think happens after you die?”
“I don’t know,” Enzo answered truthfully.
“I kinda like the idea of reincarnation,” said Poldra. “Eternity seems like such a drag. Even if I went to heaven, it would probably get tiring eventually. With infinite life comes infinite boredom. But with reincarnation, it never gets tiring because you don’t remember the previous lives. It’s kinda like… ignorant bliss, ya know?”
“Not really,” said Enzo, confused. “Why do you bring this up?”
“I don’t know,” said Poldra.
Bang.
Enzo’s only memory of the explosion was an awful, all-encompassing pain and a world-shattering bang. Every part of Enzo’s body was seriously damaged. Despite the serious damage he had taken to his brain, Enzo was able to barely retain enough consciousness to heal himself.
The explosion had put Enzo in a fugue state where none of his senses were working. When he awoke from this fugue state, Enzo found himself lying on the ground with his face in the dirt. His clothes were torn up, and he couldn’t find either of his guns. Enzo groaned in pain as he sat up and looked around. Three mangled corpses were strewn about the ground. Two were NPCs, and one was what remained of Poldra. With a sigh, Enzo stood and began to run back to the Gate.
When he returned to the East Gate, Enzo found a scene of panic. Players were running back and forth, trying to find the source of the series of explosions they had just heard. FullDan ran up to Enzo and asked, “Enzo, did you see what happened?”
“The battlements were hit,” Enzo said. “Everyone on them except for me is dead.”
FullDan swore before he was cut off by the sound of incoming fire. He and Enzo ducked into cover. “Get a gun!”
Enzo turned to survey the scene around him. A player near him fell to the ground, and Enzo ran to the fallen man’s side. The player wasn’t moving. Enzo took the man’s rifle and began returning fire. He had killed three goblins before he felt a terrible pain in his stomach.
Enzo looked down. A hole had formed in the concrete barrier just in front of his stomach. Enzo put a hand on his abdomen, and it came away slick with fresh blood. An intense light-headedness gripped him, and he fell to the ground.
