The walk was a long one, but the night chill woke me enough to get me out of my own drowsy musing. I looked up at the night’s sky. We were at war with goblins, my back had been ground into powder, a girl with an overly sensitive sense of responsibility for things she couldn’t control kept getting into trouble, and even though I suspected I’d struggle to get some sleep, I took that moment to gaze up in awe. I was in a virtual world and it was hard to remain consciously aware of that. There was nothing in the world that gave it away except for a few unnatural gaming systems that mimicked augmented reality pretty well.
“We have to be there tonight!” Victoria’s voice carried. We were less than a block away but hadn’t rounded the last corner to our home for the night.
“You ran into danger today without anyone at your side,” Peter replied.
Kline and I halted.
“Lucius was there!”
A nudge from Kline’s elbow gained my attention. He winked.
“And you were depending upon a man who had his back broken twelve hours earlier.”
“I told you he was fine.”
“Yes, but you hardly know him well enough to make that determination. Still, you bet your life upon his recovery. I promise you, at the least, he is currently second-guessing everything he does. It’s impossible to know how he will react. It could be months before he’s fully recovered, if he ever is.”
How encouraging.
“Still. If I am going to lead, I need to be there tonight to fight with my people.”
“No!” Peter said, raising his voice for the first time since I met him. “Victoria. You let your emotions determine your actions. Taking the initiative tomorrow to search for the goblin base will be enough. They will see it and respect you. From now on I don’t want you going anywhere unless Oliver and I are with you. Do you understand?”
Hesitation.
“Fine.”
The commotion ceased. A door opened and shut.
Kline and I turned the corner.
“He’s right, you know.”
“Yeah. I hope she doesn’t run off like that again.”
“No, I mean about you getting hurt. You did well.”
“Eh. Thanks.”
“I had a fight against this guy that wasn’t even really that good. It should have been an easy victory. Early in the fight, I threw a standard shin kick while still trying to figure out his rhythm. My shin caught his knee just right and snapped in two.”
My stomach rolled. “Let me guess, you hobbled after him, wrestled him to the ground and won the fight in seconds.”
“Nah. The guy tried to kick me, so the ref ran up and pushed us back. I fell and wiggled around on the ground like a breakdancing chicken.”
I grinned and winced at the same time.
“With modern medicine, I was physically ready to go again in less than a week. After that happened though I didn’t show up at the gym for an entire month. When I did show up it was a year before I could kick someone again without freaking out. Once your body experiences something like that its sense of danger is heightened even if you find the courage to face it. To protect itself your body naturally goes into flight mode. The best thing to do to get past it is to get out there and fight. We need to find you a hobgoblin and kick its butt.”
My heart beat pounded a warning at nothing more than the thought.
Noticing my response he shook up and down like a giggling jackrabbit. A very buff giggling jackrabbit.
Chapter 13 – Overwhelmed
I lay awake, my mind at war with itself over whether to get up and do what Kline had recommended. By getting out there and fighting he probably didn’t mean tonight, but my reasons to do so were piling up.
The chest of my friend rose steadily on a couch caddy-corner from my own. We slept in the living room which was well furnished with a coffee table and a dining set splitting the room in two. Not bad for two freeloaders. The padding of my makeshift bed was stuffed cotton, almost as good as the cots in the inn. Peter and Oliver took the master bedroom, and Victoria had the guest room all to herself. They were down the hall to the rear of the house. The hall split the living room and the kitchen, leading straight to the door. I could see the hall and into the kitchen due to moonlight flooding into windows in both rooms.
Despite the chaos, I was still a gamer. My goal here had not changed. With over 50 million followers the most difficult part of my job had been accomplished. I now had more than enough followers to go pro. All the work I had put in outside of this game, or experiment, had given me minuscule results in comparison.
Now that I had the fans necessary my role was about to change. I was always trying to gain followers, but now that I had them it was time for full-throttle maintenance mode. They deserved my thanks. Besides uploading images, I couldn’t comment or share anything with them. The one thing I could do was fight.
The more I considered the events from the last two days the pattern was beyond just fighting the enemy. If I was honest my skills were severely lacking. The one thing all the events had in common was that I had thrown myself into absurdly dangerous situations and somehow pulled off a victory. I needed to find a way to continue that pattern in the safest way possible.
I rose silently from the couch. Standing there, I equipped the long-sleeved undershirt and all my armor, which had been inventoried while I slept. It helped fight the chill, but I’d soon be facing a bigger enemy than the temperature.
There was no need to worry about Wink. She woke with me. Making her invisible to the others also made her silent to the world.
The door creaked as I opened it and shut it behind us. Everyone had been given security access to the house, so the lock wouldn’t be a problem. It would recognize my voice.
Checking my local map, I saw three dots that remained still on the map behind me. One grew brighter than the rest because Peter and Oliver were in the same room. The rest of the houses nearby didn’t register anyone in them. It wasn’t because they were empty. I was only able to see my group because we were grouped together. Anyone else would have to be in my line of sight or heard by me to show up on the map.
I drew my sword and swung it, cutting the air. Visualizing a goblin, I had no qualms with parting it from its head. Easy enough with an imagined enemy. Remembering the hobgoblin didn’t go so well. The same spot where its club had left a crater in my back began to itch. Licking my lips wasn’t enough to satisfy my dry mouth.
Forcing myself to relive the hobgoblin’s death only proved to remind me it had taken our entire group to kill it after it was already down.
Timur hadn’t had such difficulty. He was also naturally inclined to such fighting in both body and spirit.
Sheathing my sword, I gritted my teeth. Blah. Enough. Let’s just do this.
My legs didn’t move.
The dam that I had built up mentally to deal with my injury was rended in that moment from top to bottom.
A quivering sob escaped my mouth, driven by tremors from my chest. My legs went weak. I had to step forward to keep myself from falling.
Peter and Kline had both warned me that it could take a long time to recover from a serious injury. How had I managed to act fine today if the very thought of a hobgoblin overthrew my nerves?
Simple. I hadn’t been thinking about my fear but helping.
Victoria. Perhaps having Destiny appear as an attractive girl had its drawbacks. With Destiny gone was I drawn to Victoria for reasons other than her looks and kindness? Was she Destiny’s replacement because I missed my friend?
Still willing to move forward, my legs simply wouldn’t respond. There was so much I had to do.