“Ugh, not you, too, Mina,” grunted Melee. “I don’t want to watch—anything—with cheesy dates and cat magic.”
Dakkon watched the scene play out before him with a contented smile. The last hour and a half had been a blast and he was quite fond of everyone. Mina was young, but she was incredibly smart and had a bubbly disposition. Cline was a bit of a joker, but he didn’t seem spiteful so much as curious. Roth was both laid back and interesting. He was the kind of guy who seemed to have everything figured out. Melee was a firecracker. She was lively and courageous. Dakkon imagined that her hair in the real world was every bit as crimson as it appeared in the game. Dakkon felt like he had met the equal and opposite counterparts to the sinister lot who had tricked him only so recently. He was thrilled to group with them.
“All right, all right,” Dakkon said with a chuckle. “Let’s take a break. We could all use one. And for the record, I’m not much into cat magic either.”
“At least someone has some sense here,” Melee shook her exasperated head.
“But I don’t like it either,” Cline said in a voice that was hushed and not altogether convincing.
“It’s all right, Cline,” said Mina. “You can like whatever you want.” Roth shot Cline a thumbs-up.
“But… I don’t. Really,” Cline said disheartened.
“There now,” Dakkon said. “It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”
“Speak for yourself,” spat Melee as she turned to Cline. “You should feel shame’s burn, you cat magic lover. Feel its fiery burn!”
C
HAPTER 10:
T
O
B
ATTLE
During the party’s break, events related to their quest began to unfold without them. A large force of some 30 goatmen appeared from the western woods and attacked the village of Greenburne in broad daylight. Since the goatmen had only attacked after dusk before, players and townsfolk were caught entirely unprepared. The goatmen rolled in as freely as the tide on a beach shore, killing and plundering until they had gathered as much as they could carry back, then receded into the forest as though draining back into the sea.
Dakkon had been browsing through forums in an attempt to find out how quickly and how meaningfully increasing agility would affect his movement and ability to dodge. After he began reading what he believed to be a particularly good post on the matter, he heard the scream of a woman. Without delaying, Dakkon backed out of the browser and thanked the developers that the massive glowing media console was visible only to him.
Cline had also noticed the woman’s scream and the two met each other’s eyes. With a nod, they drew close behind a tree and watched a parade of goatmen carrying and dragging away what could only be the spoils of Greenburne.
One goatman held the screaming woman by her long, brown hair, leading her onwards as though tugging the leash of an obstinate dog. “Bahahaha,” the goat bleated in a laugh that sounded to be deep and pleased. “Come,” the goat commanded in a brutal, throaty recreation of the common tongue. The goatmen were of varying sizes. Some as short as a boy, others taller than a man. Each had its own distinct curvature of horn. Some were neat and short, while others spiraled wildly outwards like a ram. Every one of them had the head of a goat which melded, like a chimeric abomination, into the torso of a man. The men torsos then each transformed back into two legs of a goat. They marched along like a war party of corrupt satyrs.
The goat band had already passed Dakkon’s party by and were heading towards the northwest. Dakkon turned to Cline. “Listen. I know that looks pretty bad,” he said as Cline nodded with wide eyes, “but this is our best chance to follow them back. I don’t see anyone else trailing them, although that doesn’t mean we’ll be the only ones. One of us needs to follow them, and the other needs to wake up the others or—in the worst-case scenario—wait for them to tune back in and then tell them what’s going on here.”
Cline was the picture of uncertainty, but he nodded all the same. “You look eager, so go on ahead. I’ll inform everyone. We should be able to keep in contact with this.” Cline targeted Dakkon and said, “I’d like to add Dakkon as a friend.” A window opened in front of Dakkon.
|Cline wishes to add you to his friends list.
|Accepting will allow him to communicate with you, regardless of distance.
|Would you like to accept? ( Yes ) ( No )
Dakkon gladly accepted, and immediately began to trail the herd of goatmen. He kept his distance, but in a forested area he found it difficult to remain completely silent. Fresh on his mind from his research during the break, Dakkon knew that increasing his agility should allow him to move more carefully and would help him keep quiet. The thought of spreading his points too thin worried Dakkon, but as he was already leaning towards agility as one of his primary stats… He went into his character window and distributed half of his 40 free stat points into agility.
Immediately, Dakkon could feel the change it made. His movements came more easily, his sneaking pace increased, and he was far more silent. It wasn’t as though he felt particularly clumsy before, but now he couldn’t imagine how he had lived before while constantly bumbling about. Although his agility rose from a mere 10 points to 30, it wasn’t as though he had become three times as agile. Still, he felt significantly changed. He felt improved.
Dakkon was now able to gain on the raiders while managing to carefully move through the trees. He didn’t dare to get too close, however. He knew, no matter how long it might take, he would have to follow the goats from a safe distance or, not only would he ruin his perfect opportunity to make a small fortune and save a village, not only would he be barred from the game for another grueling 11 hours in which sleep would be entirely out of the question, but he would let down the people he had just ingratiated himself with. He trailed the monsters for 15 long minutes before he was contacted by Cline.
“Dakkon,” Dakkon was startled by the sudden address from Clines mildly-echoing, disembodied voice. It didn’t seem to come from any discernable direction, but it was there all the same.
“Has everyone come back yet?” Dakkon said aloud in an unnecessarily quiet whisper. Then waited in silence for a few seconds.
“Dakkon, if you’re unsure of how to reply… Think of my face and the word contact, or message, or anything of that sort. The system should take care of the rest.”
As he followed Cline’s directions, a strange sensation overtook him as though he had completed some sort of link. A connection was established between the two players and it could be felt. “Cline? What’s the status on your end?” Dakkon thought the words.
“Everyone is up and anxious, I assure you,” Cline’s voice filled his mind.
“I’m still following the goats in the same direction we saw them heading before, travelling at the same speed.” Dakkon transmitted the message through the new outlet of telepathy.
“Right, in that case we can probably get there in about 10 minutes. Maybe sooner if we hurry.”
“Just take off towards me at about the same speed you saw us set off. If you get here too soon anything could happen,” Dakkon emphasized. “Have you seen anyone else in pursuit of them?”
“No one else, as far as I can tell,” replied Cline. “But I’ve been trying to force these guys awake and explain things. Everyone’s anxious, but we’re gonna head your way.” And as easily as his voice had appeared, it left Dakkon. The sensation was akin to cutting a taut string with a sharp knife.