The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 46: Reptilian

Cael and DicingDevil had already killed three players as they slowly moved towards the misty Western woods. DicingDevil heard a sound coming from behind some trees, which sounded like the weak tinkle of a low-level sword. He ran off to investigate, and possibly complete a quick kill.

In the mean-time, Cael peered into his inventory and wore a [Gentleman's White Suit], a stiff, large white shirt with a gold, red and blue diagonal stripe across it. The stripe descended from the right shoulder. He had also looted this from the couple slain earlier. Since it was late, it's possible that the couple had been planning to go to the expensive, upmarket bar in Northern Kruxol after a brief grind in the woods. This would explain their choice to carry clothing around. Most players went to the cheaper, more Southern bar because it had more company and less rip-offs, but the Northern bar was still popular among wealthy couples.

After wearing the suit, Cael also took out a [Mask of Salamander], an ashen mask with red veins, and found that this scaly mask was a bit like a thick black ooze, drooping between his fingers like a liquid as he held it. Regardless, he wore it, and felt the dark slime spread across his face until he looked like a combination of a lizard and a theatre's Melpomene mask of tragedy. At least he wasn't easily recognisable.

As he prepared to continue his walk to the West, he heard a loud thud to his left. Turning towards the noise, he saw a level 49 Knight approaching him tentatively. The Knight must have heard him and prepared to attack, but was now walking slightly shakily. Cael guessed that they might have been scared by the mask, and were now hesitant to approach this horrifying, but very gentlemanly lizard. Nonetheless, Cael saw the Knight, named [HolyProtector], still bravely half-stepping towards him. There was no choice but to fight.

Cael cast [Meditate] to improve his MP regeneration, then struck HolyProtector with [Magic Missile] to slow the Knight's advance. Cael stepped away from the Knight, keeping the distance between combatants, and cast an INT buff on himself. Thin, light-blue circles appeared around him as he cast the buff, and these circles dissolved to white and disappeared. As HolyProtector shook off the blow, with 90% HP remaining, Cael followed up with [Mana Beam]. This knocked the Knight back again, giving Cael more time to distance himself. The Knight still had 76% HP remaining, but Cael saw that his [Black Cursed Draugr Staff] had inflicted the [Disease] status effect, which was rapidly eating away at HolyProtector's HP. As Cael stepped around the misty maze of trees, he briefly lost his balance as he stepped over a tree's long roots. This forced him to crouch down and regain balance, and he saw that HolyProtector was gaining ground on him and was almost certain to catch up. He retreated behind a small group of trees.

HolyProtector charged forwards quickly, angling slightly left, and barged past the trees towards Cael. However, Cael sidestepped to the right as soon as he saw HolyProtector reach the trees, and used [Mana Strike] to shove HolyProtector's helmet firmly into a tree as the Knight shoved his way past it. This gave the hasty Knight's head a firm, blunt blow, and he fell straight to the ground. While HolyProtector tried dizzily to rise, Cael cast [Arm of Hades] and followed this up with [Spark]. This weakened the dizzied Knight, who let out a whale-like cry as if they were drowning, and slumped against the tree. It also caused [Disease] again, leaving the Knight's remaining 45% HP depleting rapidly. Seeing that HolyProtector was leaning his head against the tree, Cael walked up to the Knight and swung his zombified arm to deal a hard, blunt blow to the back of the Knight's head. There was a faint, metallic ring as the front of the Knight's helmet collided with the tree. Soon, blood poured out beneath the helmet, mixed with sweat from the sweltering [Disease] effect.

Cael cast [Mana Push] to shove HolyProtector's sword out of the way, since the Knight's grip on it was very loose. At this point, DicingDevil emerged from the bushes beside Cael. Seeing the scene, he casually raised his arms and backed away.

"It's not my kill," he said jovially to Cael, "You finish it."

"Thank you, nice to have company," Cael replied, "This idiot attacked me."

"Unwise. Don't they know not to mess with DeathGang?"

Cael briefly gestured towards the nametag above HolyProtector's head, and chirpily replied, "Well, we're not really about DeathGang, we're just sold to the highest bidder. In this case, I'm being paid by Jarius from [GildedKnights]. The leader of [The Fountain] was caught insulting [GildedKnights] and trying to spy on them, so now I'm being paid for killing [The Fountain] members. I heard you got a similar task?" He had heard rumours of this sort about the leader of [The Fountain], as well as snippets of the other conspiracy theories running wild during these stressful times, but was still mostly making this up. He spoke feigning a hushed tone, so that HolyProtector would be tempted to eavesdrop.

DicingDevil hesitated for a moment, then smirked and said, "Yeah, now it's Fountain targets, maybe next we'll have to kill GildedKnights, who cares? Money doesn't have allegiances. Of course the DeathGang war is mostly pretend, why would they get rid of their hired guns? They're just trying to scare our leaders to make sure that the Guild remains focused on these services." He saw that this Knight wasn't going to respawn, and hence wouldn't tell the town that they were DeathGang members. As such, it didn't matter what he believed, and they should just come up with a conspiracy theory to demotivate and confuse him before death.

"Do you reckon you'll afford a whole new suit of armour after today?" asked Cael.

"Once they add housing, I'll get a cottage of my own," laughed DicingDevil.

"You reckon they fix this bug soon, then?"

"Yeah, yeah. They are probably almost done. Pity that the bug you're killing now won't live to see it."

Cael heard HolyProtector swearing in a strange American-British accent, occasionally interspersed with exclamations like, "Some allies they were," and, "Mercenary scum." As the Knight tried to claw against the tree in order to stand up, Cael once again used [Mana Strike] to shove the Knight's head against the tree. HolyProtector slumped to the ground again, without resistance. The Knight was slightly faint, and dizzied by the blunt strikes to the head, so they had been having difficulty getting up. Cael didn't feel much urgency in killing this Knight, so long as they had no weapon and were some distance away. He regained MP instead.

As HolyProtector made another desperate attempt to leap to his feet, Cael floored him with a combination of [Arm of Hades] and [Magic Missile] sending a row of mana projectiles that seemed to almost chill the air around them with a deathly, pale glow. This weakened HolyProtector to 7% HP, and Cael saw that the [Black Cursed Draugr Staff] had inflicted a [Disease] status on the Knight. This effect's DoT soon exhausted the Knight's remaining HP. Shivering feverishly, HolyProtector moaned in a faint, high-pitched voice as he died.

"So did you find anyone?" Cael asked DicingDevil.

"I found a couple of guys, actually," laughed DicingDevil, "both were weak, I killed one but the other was a Ranger and fled towards Kruxol."

"Good, good," said Cael, "they'll tell the guys in town that they were attacked by DeathGang."

"True. But I hope the guy doesn't feel left out."

Cael laughed. "Now you sound like Hashin." He remembered the similar brand of humour that Vladislav and co. had been fond of.

"A Hashin guy had seen me ganking on the first day, and he gave me some advice. He had a sense of humour, I think he was called Drifter?"

"That's their leader." Cael laughed even louder now, and DicingDevil began to join in.

"Oh lord. Don't tell Darys! He'll excommunicate me."

"Sure thing."

"Alright, where are we heading from here?"

"There are a few mobs to the West, I think that small Guilds need them for quests. If you find anyone weak, kill them. Try to hide in the mist. Once we reach a straight path, we can head down it to a cottage. We can hide near it."

"Why not in it?"

"Um, for very good reasons. What's is the cottage should dissuade other players from coming near us, but we certainly don't want to run into it."

"I see. Well, this isn't a crowded place, so it's a good place to hide anyway."

"Yes."

They set off towards the West. As they were passing through the mist, they heard a couple of low-level players fighting mobs to either side of the mist.

"Take the player on the right, I'll get the one on the left. That way they can't squeal and frighten the other away," said DicingDevil.

Cael nodded, and walked carefully towards the right edge of the mist. There, he glimpsed a level 40 warrior, from a Guild named [Parson]. The warrior was toiling away hard, and was focusing on the mobs. After casting [Meditate], Cael easily struck with [Magic Missile], and the warrior wearily lurched towards the mist.

"Who's there? Show yourself, coward!" said the warrior.

Cael slowly stepped away from the warrior, to prevent a direct attack, then began to charge [Mana Sphere]. After 10 seconds of charging, he let it go, and the sphere flashed brightly before pummeling the level 40 warrior and reducing them to 60% HP.

However, the flash as the spell was cast had allowed the warrior to glimpse Cael through the mist, and he moved intently in Cael's direction.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" cried the warrior.

Cael, however, calmly backstepped around some trees, forcing the warrior to slow down in his pursuit to avoid these obstacles and duck under some branches. As the warrior approached further through the dense trees, Cael used [Mana Strike] to shove the warrior against a tree. The hardy warrior kept defiantly to his feet, supporting his body against the tree, until Cael saw an opportunity and cast [Spark]. This was well-timed, as it weakened the warrior's resilience and sent them easily to the ground. As they fell, the warrior's hands scraped harshly against the tree bark, and his sword fell down and spun off into the thick mist. They were now on just 30% HP.

Cael took advantage of this opportunity, and used [Minor Illusion] to create an image of the sword's hilt emerging from the mist. The warrior raised their face from the ground to look for their sword, and saw this illusion. As the warrior scampered over to pick up the blade, Cael cast [Magic Missile] again, and this time the attack led to the [Disease] effect. Since the attack sent out multiple missiles, each hit had a chance of causing [Disease], which was more effective than a single attack if the target was mostly static and would get hit by most of the projectiles. At higher levels, he had heard that Mages planned to rely on multi-hit elemental spells, at least when in single combat, for this reason.

As the warrior's HP crawled to 14%, he crawled his way to the apparition of the sword. As he picked it up, he found that most of the blade was missing. He also found that Cael had prepared a powerful [Mana Sphere] with his remaining mana, and this struck the tired, sweating warrior with almost explosive force. Their body seemed to be coming apart at the seams as they died, trying to scream with their mouth opened unnaturally wide. Cael shrugged.

This fight wasn't difficult. He could win hundreds of such fights. Against a slow warrior, the Mage's ranged attacks typically gave a decisive advantage. The Mage also had more variety in attacks, and was less predictable. It is as if his enemy was wielding a short sword and trying to single-handedly overwhelm a phalanx of spears. In this terrain, filled with trees and mud, Cael could also strike with an unpredictable [Mana Strike] at any moment, dealing a fatal blow to the warrior's attempted approach. When the warrior was lower level as well, it was barely a difficulty.

Cael heard some muffled screaming as DicingDevil choked his opponent, presumably asking about the Guilds' plans for war. Cael walked over curiously, and saw that DicingDevil was grappling a player named [Boisie] from the [Communion] Guild.

"The hell is Communion? A Catholic Guild?" said Cael dismissively.

"They are allies with [The Fountain], I'd guess a small Guild that acts like a division of the big one," replied DicingDevil.

"Are they talkative?"

"Yes, but they don't know that much. The war will happen soon. They had last-minute doubts about joining, so they came here. Allegedly the leader of The Fountain will be in the frontlines, to lead the troops -"

"Lies!" said Cael, "They shouldn't lie to DeathGang."

DicingDevil nodded, then used [Black Spot] to draw blood from Boisie's neck, before tightening a chokehold. Cael cast [Healing] on Boisie, and Boisie squirmed in panic, screaming, "Fine! Fine! It was lies, he will be hiding with the Northern troops before joining the fight near the [Arts Building] if it is nearly over."

"And?" said Cael.

"And he is accompanied by flagbearers, so that he can pretend to be part of a striking victory."

"What a great chap. But a person's striking victories are only important until people decide that the person is a villain. After that, they are just more incriminating information." Cael turned his attention to DicingDevil. "Anyway, get some spies to spam [The Fountain] local chat with messages about the missing leader, and how he left everyone to die. Make sure to mention that he is neither at the abandoned village, nor the [Arts Building]. You ask your weaker members to make spy alts in enemy Guilds, right?"

"Yes," said DicingDevil.

"If they sneak towards the East, they can spam Guild local chat in moderation. It's easy to notice a missing leader, but harder to know if a frontline soldier is at war or just hiding among some trees."

"Understood."

"Anyway, any other information from this guy?"

Cael cast [Shock] impatiently, and Boisie vomited blood as he flattened towards the ground.

"His Guild has contacts in [The Fountain] who are trying to improve the Guild's image as a bastion of community and caring. He's hoping that it will bring members over to his own Guild," said DicingDevil dryly.

"Contacts? Is there a GM there? Possibly named FGRT?"

"Yes!" moaned an agonised Boisie, "He's not from [The Fountain], but he is close to them." He seemed scared of facing another [Spark].

"FGRT is like a pick-up artist," Cael explained, "he exploits the hopes of secretly power-hungry Nice Guys in order to further his own aims. He probably hinted to Boisie that Boisie's Guild could become influential and powerful, but without actually trying to do that himself. The GMs are astroturfing a lot of these Guilds, to do things that the GMs aren't allowed to do, like start fights and wage war."

"I see. That's new to us, mostly," said DicingDevil. He turned to Boisie, and asked, "So why do they want your Guild to be caring -"

"Easy question. I can answer that," said Cael, "By making the Guild act more selflessly based on vague principles, and turning them into a weapon against ganking Guilds, the Guilds become easier for FGRT et al to manipulate and use to their own ends. A Guild's identity can be difficult to displace, a 'force for good' is just a confused force that you can turn one way or another."

"Very good. Do you have another question to ask of Boisie?"

"Yes. Can we kill him already? Honestly, I'm getting bored of him, why can't these worthless creatures just drop dead immediately?"

Cael used [Arm of Hades], and then cast [Spark] on Boisie. Boisie entered a half-faint trance, his body still squirming in pain. DicingDevil put an end to this with a [Silent Stab] to Boisie's throat.

"Thank you. Now let's go to the cottage," said Cael.