Mudhoof chuckled. “Got something to share with us, Booger?”
The ogre seemed to wrestle with himself over spilling the beans. I gave the orb another little nudge.
“Okay!” Kragg finally said. “I’ll tell you what I know. Just stop pushing me!” His eyes stared at the gate in fear. And he had reason to be. Once inside the Void there was no way out. Not any way that is known. He could be floating forever in there. Even if he died or deleted his character, the new one would appear back inside the void, floating through space.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know where he is at this exact moment. But, like you said, he has a guildhall.”
“Where is it located?”
“I don’t know the exact spot,” Kragg said.
Mudhoof snorted and tapped his horns, which were tipped in steel, against the orb. The orb moved closer to the portal.
Kragg held up his hands. “No one knows exactly where the guildhall is, but I know where the travel gate is that will lead you to it.”
I waited a heartbeat then motioned for him to keep talking.
“Wally’s Womp,” Kragg said.
“Wally’s Womp?” Mudhoof said. “There’s a place called Wally’s Womp?”
Kragg shook his head. “No beef-for-brains. It’s the name of the travel gate.”
“Watch your mouth!” Mudhoof said. The two scowled at each other.
“Huh?” I said, befuddled. “Wally’s Womp is the name of the gate? That doesn’t make sense.”
Kragg waved a hand dismissively, “You know what, this is crap. How am I suppose to deal with someone so dense? Besides, without an invite from Ogden himself, you won’t gain access to the gate.”
Mudhoof said to me, “Do you believe him?”
I saw Kragg give the Void Portal another worried glance. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Really?” Mudhoof said, sceptical. “Why?”
“Because if I faced my character floating through a void for all eternity, I’d spill the beans, too.” I said and meant it. I looked to the Void Portal. The view it gave was beautiful but cold. Then I thought I glanced something moving, far off in the distance, snake-like and huge. But before I could query the game for an identity and statistics, the thing was gone.
Mudhoof’s voice pulled me back to the situation.
“There is no such thing as a Wally’s Womp,” Mudhoof said. He hitched a thumb at Kragg. “This green sack of unicorn dung is worthless.”
Now enraged, Kragg stood up in the orb. “It does exist! But if you weren’t so daft you would take the time to check it out.” He punched at the orb. “Let me out of here and I’ll turn you into hamburger, stupid man-cow!”
“That’s it!” Mudhoof yelled and with nostrils flaring suddenly used his Charge ability.
“No!” I shouted and reached for Mudhoof. But there was no way you could stop a charging minotaur.
Mudhoof head-butted the orb at full speed hitting it with a loud crack. His head whipped back from the impact, snorting with rage.
The orb shot away, with Kragg panicking inside, and passed straight into the Void Portal. The moment the orb crossed over from our dimension into the other, the gate instantly shrunk and vanished.
Mudhoof looked at me with a sheepish grin. “Been wanting to do that since this started.”
“That was uncalled for,” I said. I intended to let Kragg go, but by leaving him here in the Orb for a few days, at least. Once we checked out if the gate existed where he said, I would return and reverse the orb’s creation. Now that would not happen at all.
Mudhoof shrugged, “Yeah, maybe a little, but it felt good. So, Vee, what do we do now?”
I let my anger subside. Mudhoof was one of only a handful of allies I had in this entire game. I could not afford to alienate him by losing my temper. Instead, I put Kragg out of my mind and answered Mudhoof’s question.
“Now?” I said. “Now we go kill Ogden Trite.”
CHAPTER THREE
We emerged from the dank chamber and out into the shadows cast by the high cliffs which surrounded us.
I glanced over at the river and its opposite bank. There was no one here. None of Kragg’s cronies had arrived, yet. But I did not doubt they were coming. We may have trapped the ogre in the Orb, but that did not prevent him from using the in-game chat to call for help. While we were interrogating him he was calling in favors.
Mudhoof must have been thinking the same thing. “We need to make tracks, Vee. The cavalry may be coming.”
“Agreed,” I said, “let’s find the closest Locators Guild, then try to get a bead on this Wally’s Womp.” I pulled up the local area map and did a quick search.
While I did so, a chat request appeared at the edge of my vision. From ‘Bishop The Red’. I rejected the request out of annoyance. Whoever it was could wait.
Mudhoof snorted and kicked at the sand. “Wally’s Womp? Nonsense. We couldn’t trust that guy to tell the truth, anyway. Yeah, it was worth the shot to trap him, and kinda fun, too, but come on. Can’t trust him as far as I could throw him.” He thought for a moment. “Oh, wait. I did throw him, and damn far, too. Never mind.”
I tuned the minotaur’s rambling out and found what I needed. “Ingot’s Perch has a Locators branch. And, hey, it’s just down the river from us, not that far.” I closed the map. “Okay, we need to-”.
I didn’t get a chance to finish. Mudhoof was looking at me when something over my shoulder caught his attention. As he opened his mouth to shout a warning, I was already moving.
But not fast enough.
My simulation suit registered a sudden deep pain under my left shoulder blade.
The combat log window at the lower right of my vision blared a message in bright red font:
Perriwinkle KillUGood Backstabs Vivian Valesh for 388 hit points of damage.
Then beneath that:
You have been poisoned. Poison unidentified.
My avatar was stunned and collapsed to the sandy ground. I twisted around to look at my assailant.
A man wearing a dark hooded cowl whirled away. In one hand was a long crystal dagger, covered in blood. My blood. Across his back was a quiver, and a sword sheathed on one thigh. He had struck from a point of camouflage.
Another Shadow! I thought as I watched Perriwinkle run away.
Mudhoof roared, a double-bladed axe appearing in his hands, and gave chase. But Perriwinkle was quicker and made a dash for the river. Had Mudhoof not already used his Charge ability back in the chamber to knock Kragg’s orb, he may have been able to use it now to catch the fleeing Shadow.
As Perriwinkle reached the edge of the river he dived into its rushing waters and vanished. Mudhoof stopped at the edge and screamed filtered profanities at him. I know he wanted to keep chasing him, but I needed help.
Fuming, the angry minotaur returned to my side. “Sorry, Vee! He came out of nowhere. Nothing I could do.”
I nodded and tried to get into a sitting position. Mudhoof eased me up a little, cradling me in one massive arm. “No worries,” I said. “Now I know what it’s like to get attacked my a Shadow.” I managed a laugh but my avatar coughed up blood, instead.
Mudhoof looked me over. “How bad is it? Tell me you ain’t gonna have to re-roll. Not now.”
A green icon shaped like a water drop appeared in the top right corner of my view-screen, indicating my poisoned status. That backstab took almost eighty percent of my health in one fell swoop. Had I not turned when I did, I might have been killed instantly.
But now, what little health I had slowly ebbed away because of the poison.
“No re-roll. At least not in the next few minutes. But time is counting down.”