“Here, take this Health Boost,” Mudhoof said passing a little square packet with a red cross on it. “Should buy you some time.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d already used a Health Boost during my initial encounter with Kragg. Applying this one so soon after would dull its effect. I still used it though and my health bar only went up fifteen percent. This was looking grim.
“I need a Temple,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Right,” Mudhoof said, nodding vigorously. “Good idea. I’ll just-”.
An arrow suddenly thunked into the side of Mudhoof’s head just below a horn.
“What the…?” he said. He grabbed the arrow and yanked it out. He looked around, angrily. “Who the hell did that?!”
I pointed weakly upward.
Far above, on the edge of the cliffs that encircled this little sandy patch, stood a row of archers. From what I could see, there were close to ten of them.
“Oh, FILTERED,” said Mudhoof as he gazed up at them. “Kragg called in an army?”
“They’re not players,” I said when I tried to focus on one of them.
“Huh?” Mudhoof said, then another arrow hit him in the back. Several others hit the surrounding sand.
Frustrated, Mudhoof brought out a shield from his inventory. It was a black segmented shell from a huge beetle. From end to end it was almost as tall as Mudhoof.
Braced against an arm, Mudhoof put it over us as he hunched down. A volley of arrows cracked against its surface and were deflected. None of them could even pierce it.
“Nice,” I said, trying not to stare at my dropping health bar. Got to keep an upbeat attitude in the face of impending doom.
“Picked this baby up while doing a Daily Quest, believe it or not,” he said with a wide grin. More arrows struck the beetle shield. “Sometimes mindlessly grinding experience points can pay off.”
I had pulled up the local area map, again, this time enquiring about the nearest Healer’s Temple.
“Ingot’s Perch,” I said.
“What?”
“It has a Temple!”
“Oh,” Mudhoof said as if realizing our current situation. “Right. Well, Vee, there seems to be only way to get out of here.” A machine-gun like cracking of arrows assailed the shield as if to emphasize his words.
“What’s that?” I dared to ask.
“Time to pull out the big Sausage,” the minotaur said with an even wider grin.
I shouldn’t have dared. “What? Sausage?” I said confused.
“Don’t mind while I whip this out, ma’am?” Mudhoof said. He dismissed his battle axe and motioned the free hand toward his waist.
I was beside myself in disbelief. “What the heck are you going on about, Muddie? Now is not the time for juvenile jokes about your-”.
Mudhoof laughed and tipped the shield up a little and pointed at a patch of sand next to us. “Here, check out my big Sausage.”
At that moment, a massive pig popped into existence beside us. No, not a pig. A warthog!
I blinked in surprise. Huh?
“He’s my new mount!” Mudhoof said with pride which was partly drowned out by a staccato of arrow impacts.
The creature was nearly twice the size as Smoke, and easily a million times uglier. A jumbled forest of tusks stuck out at all angles from its mouth. Thick tufts of hair bristled from unspeakable nooks and crannies along its dark pitted hide.
Fastened to its arched back was an almost comically small saddle.
“You named your giant pig mount, Sausage?” I said, shrinking health bar momentarily forgotten. Then I started to laugh, and couldn’t stop.
“That’s the spirit!” Mudhoof declared. “Now let’s get out of here!”
With that he hoisted me up with his free arm and, while keeping the beetle shield over our heads, ran to his mount.
Mudhoof leapt into the saddle and wedged me between him and the enormously wide neck of the warthog. Arrows thunked into the animal’s thick hide, but it didn’t appear to even notice.
Mudhoof grabbed the reigns and kicked at Sausage. “Go! Go! Go!”
Sausage snorted loudly, spraying an ungodly amount of mucus and spit all over the place. Then he wheeled about and charged toward the river at full speed. Arrows continued to rain over us, and I grudgingly had to acknowledge the skill of those archers, so far up.
As we neared the river’s edge I asked, “Does Sausage have a Leap ability?”
“Nope!” Mudhoof said.
“Do you?” I asked in alarm as the roiling water neared.
“Nope!” he said again.
When he reached the very edge of sandy bank Sausage made an effort to jump. And barely a third of the way across we dropped straight into the water.
For a few moments we sank like a stone, but to my relief we all popped back up to the surface. Sausage was more buoyant than he looked.
As water sloshed around us, we looked back. The sandy spot, and the archers on the cliffs above, slipped from view.
“This is good,” Mudhoof said, watching the landscape fly by on either side of us. “We’ll be at Ingot’s Perch in no time. How’s the poison situation?”
I looked at my health bar. What tiny gain the health boost had given me was gone, and the rest was slipping away. The edges of my view-screen distorted and blurred. “As bad as you’d expect.”
Despite his size and burden, Sausage excelled at swimming in the churning waters. Soon, a small town appeared by the river in the distance.
“There it is!” Mudhoof said.
My health bar was at eleven percent. Things were going dark.
As we reached Ingot’s Perch, Mudhoof steered Sausage’s massive bulk up onto a low part of the shoreline. A man, fishing rod in hand, stood nearby lost in contemplation about a potential meal. He fell back in shock as Sausage surged out of the water and stood dripping next to him.
“Where’s the Temple?” Mudhoof roared at the fisherman.
The man was wide eyed with shock and I could only imagine how we must appear to him: larger than life and terrifying.
“Wh-what?” he asked, confused.
“WHERE IS THE FILTERING TEMPLE!?” Mudhoof bellowed.
The man shrank back in fear, dropping his rod. “At the town square,” he said, pointing.
And we were gone, Mudhoof driving Sausage at high speed. Sausage’s large hooves clopped loudly on the cobblestone streets, as townsfolk scrambled to get out of the way.
We entered the square at a full gallop. Mudhoof yanked on the reigns to turn Sausage toward a large squat building, topped with a pyramid. At the pinnacle was a statue of a dove.
He drove Sausage up the Temple’s stairs and through the open entrance. I heard shrieks of alarm, and Mudhoof shouting orders, but now my simulation suit was locking off my hearing, and my vision was an opaque slate grey.
There was movement, and I had the sense my avatar was being carried. I heard the words, “FILTERing backstabbed with poison.” Mudhoof? I couldn’t tell.
I looked to my health bar, panic rising in my chest. One percent.
A message appeared.
You have been rendered unconscious.
Then my view-screen went black.
CHAPTER FOUR
I watched my black screen with concern, but then my health bar shot upwards.
Much to my relief the screen brightened, and I could see again.
Mudhoof hovered over me, huge battle-axe in one hand, and the long shell shield in the other. Next to him was a small bald man with a white topknot of hair hanging down his back. The Temple’s healer.
“You okay now, Vee?” Mudhoof asked, his eyes darting around. He looked nervous.
I was about to answer when a system message appeared, floating in front of me.