End Online: Volume 4 (17 page)

“No one here could care
less as to what grade insignia you have. What we do care about, is the fact that
you are not a part of the blue team. Your torso armor is white, which gives you
away.”

I pull open my cloak again
and look down at my body. It is just as they say, my torso armor is still
completely white. But this doesn’t mean I am not a part of the blue team. All
the other players on the bench also suddenly equip their weapons, ready to
attack at any moment.

“N-no! It isn’t like that
at all! It is an effect of my class skill that causes everything to turn white!
Look! Look!” I hastily open my cloak completely and point out my boots,
clothing, and anything else that could be served at evidence.

“That is completely
unconvincing!” Another player calls out.

“Let’s just kill him and
be done with it!”

“Hold it, everyone.” The
person who speaks up is an almost adolescent man in the middle of the line. He
is the same person with the ‘Epic’ insignia.

“GordonOx, he is clearly a
spy. The red team must be planning an off-arena assault, and they sent him to
stab us in the back the moment the battle begins.”

“Are you afraid of the red
team? His armor isn’t red either. The truth will be revealed when he is called
up to battle. Whether he fights for the blue team, or the red team.”

“It won’t matter if they
surprise attack first.”

“That’s why I propose we
move him to the front of the queue. If he is a part of the red team, we will
find out soon enough.”

Just like that, everyone
shuffles back on the seat and forces me to sit at the very front. Hostile
glares assault me for the next five minutes before a message finally appears in
front of not just me but everyone else.

“T-that’s me.” I say as I
stand up and awkwardly walk toward the arena with only one player waiting on.

“Blue team it is! Good
luck!” The same player who stuck up for me and proposed I go next in line gives
me a smile and thumbs up.

I climb a row of cracked
stairs to arrive on a solid platform that is thirty meters wide and long. The
player on the other side is equipped with full heavy armor, a large heater
shield, and a menacing battle axe which leaves trails of fire through the air
when it moves. Unfortunately, I can’t make out his face as his helmet
completely covers it.

When he sees me, he
suddenly raises his battle axe to point it at me, leaving a fire trail in its
wake.

“I know you! You’re Lost,
from that video with the elves!!” He shouts out at me.

More than one of the
battles on the other arenas stop while the players look over at me with
astonished faces. The sounds of the crowd also doubles from the excitement of
everyone trying to shout over one another and be heard. Though there are too
many voices mixed together and I can’t even make out if they are calling
positive things or negative.

“Yes, I am. But there was
really no need to shout.”

“I’m sorry! I was just a
little excited after seeing you appear right in front of me. I was completely
captivated by that video, so I could tell it was you right away even if you
weren’t wearing the hood. Please, tell me how you found it! The elves, I mean!”

“This really isn’t the
time for it. Perhaps another time.”

“Of course, of course. You
must be new to Swordbreak and the arena considering you were in Grenton not too
long ago. Do you know the rules of the matches? Ring out and you lose, last man
standing in the ring alive is the winner. Haha, you’re Lost, of course you
already know. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Firecore.”

I have a feeling this
person is rating me much higher than I deserve to be. Before I can respond to
him, he starts running toward me with his weapon raised. He is fast, but his
heavy armor must be slowing him down by a lot.

I draw my two short swords
and wait for Firecore to get closer. When he is ten meters away, he does
something completely unexpected. His axe glows with a fiery light and he swings
it down at the ground. The fires from the axe instantly explode forward toward
me in a narrow cone shape. I am forced to jump to the side, but still get
singed by the flames and lose nearly a full quarter of my health.

Shaking off my shock, I
move toward the enemy at a high speed. Not as fast as possible as I still
cannot control it properly and will most likely end up running straight out of
the ring, but enough to hopefully surprise him. Firecore starts moving back at
the same time as I move forward, swinging his axe horizontally to intercept me.

The moment his axe touches
me, my body disperses into mist as the result of using ‘Backstab’. If Firecore
paid as much attention to the video of me fighting as I suspect, he is fully
aware of the two shortswords about to stab him in the back.

The attack lands
perfectly, yet despite landing a critical hit, barely does more damage to him
than what his glancing blow did to me. I swifty retreat, and not a moment too
soon as steel and fire cut through my previous location.

“Hahaha! That’s good!
You’re as good as I thought you would be! Come, I want more!”

This guy is obsessive and
crazy, I understand that now. I take the opportunity to use ‘Multi Mirage’, a
skill that works wonders against a single opponent. I first throw a collection
of throwing knives at him from all angles, even if only a few are real.
Firecore picks a direction and raises his shield to block. He is lucky and
turns to face the right direction, successfully stopping the real throwing
knives. I can’t let him off that easily though, and rush forward to start
attacking with my other sacred arts.

I use both ‘Triple Thrust’
and ‘CrossX’ from all sides to confuse him. I manage to land two attacks before
he notices which is my real body and ignores the rest of the mirages. With the
skill’s effectiveness now over, I allow all the false images of me to vanish
and once again activate ‘Backstab’.

The axe once again passes
through my body horizontally only to have it turn insubstantial and vanish.
Only, this time his axe is glowing with a blood red light, and continues its
path. Firecore releases an attack that causes him to spin and attack in a full
360 degree range.

The attack interrupts my
‘Backstab’, blowing me away while at the same time doing heavy damage. I stop
near the edge of the ring with my health dangerously low. I had thought that
this would be an easy battle considering my dominance in speed, but this player
seems to start moving before I do and ends up matching my attacks.

Firecore’s health looks to
be getting low as well. I decide to take a gamble and raise my speed by another
level. I push off of the ground a little harder than before with my weapons
raised. The attack catches the player from the red team by complete surprise
and unable to block. My blade cuts straight through his arm, armor and all to
leave a large red scar on his player avatar.

What little health he has
left is immediately emptied, causing him to fall the ground and vanish. There are
no player drops in the battle colosseum, and the death penalty is much lower
than the usual, so there are no hard feelings formed between players killing
each other in the arena.

I easily accept yes,
moving on to the next challenger from the red team. The second victory will
give me two points of fame, while the third giving me four points, and doubling
with every consecutive win. Once you reach the sixth consecutive win, however,
the amount of fame awarded will not exceed 32. It is hard to even get this many
wins considering the short break you get between challengers to eat and recover
whatever health you can.

I hastily sit down,
bringing out some dry, long life food from my inventory. After restoring enough
of my satiety, I withdraw my best medicinal herbs and consume them to start my
health recovery. The healing speed is simply too slow as I calculate how much
health will be restored by the time the next challenger appears in front of me.

‘I will have to start
the battle with less than half of my health!’

-Lost-

I eat a large bunch of
medicinal herbs, switching from the higher quality herbs to the lower quality
ones. At least this way my health will continue to slowly increase once the
match begins.

A large-busted female
player walks up to the ring, wielding a small round buckler and a rather long
kris that emits an eerie purple glow. Long brown hair flows down and her tight
heavy-orc leather cuirass hardly does anything to hide the curves of her body.
She has an hourglass figure which constantly attracts my eyes and makes it hard
to concentrate on the fight. I take note of the red-stained cuirass which has a
plain white gladiator’s insignia on it.

‘Either she is weak,
or new to the arena like me.’

“You must be the infamous
Lost.” She says while gently smiling at me and lowing her wavy blade towards
the ground.

“Apparently I am. But I am
really not fond of the term ‘infamous’, you know.”

I hope to be able to stall
her long enough that my health will continue to increase and reach a safer
level. She starts walking to the side and I match her step for step, resulting
in us circling one another.

“You have a bounty on your
head for wanton arson in the Kingdom of Forste. Everyone knows who you are and
many want to interrogate you for information on the elves. There have also been
a few hate posts on the forums from the guild leader of ‘Swords of Light’. I
think that confirms your infamy, don’t you?”

“The arson wasn’t my fault.
I only… no, nevermind. Explaining probably won’t help anymore.”

“You’re right, it won’t.
And I think you have stalled for enough time. Consider my patience an
appreciation of who you are.”

Suddenly, her smile drops
and her feet glow white as her speed triples. The sudden movement takes me by
surprise and I barely manage to dodge the blade before it passes through where
my chest was moments ago.

Next, something strange
happens. The blade changes directions with such a sudden turn it is almost as
if it bounces off an invisible wall. The attack is completely unavoidable and
it cuts deeply into my chest. The attack isn’t nearly as strong as Firecore’s,
but I still can’t afford to take any more of them with my slightly less than
half-full health bar.

I take the next
opportunity to activate ’Backstab’ while retreating. This isn’t the combination
which I would normally use, retreating while using an attack skill, but it
serves its purpose. The ploy completely fools her, right up until the moment
the false image in front of her vanishes.

Her defense is clearly
much lower than the previous red team member, since my attack crits and takes a
full quarter of her health. She pales from the attack while turning around and
backing away from me defensively.

The crowd roars from
excitement. A myriad of voices saying what I should do to her enters my ears,
cries of hidden techniques I should use and shouts of how long she has left. My
last battle with Firecore must have had a big impact on the crowd. Of course, I
still make out some voices that are directed at the other arenas, but they have
no effect on me.

“Not bad, I really should
have seen that one coming. Not many men manage to sneak up behind me, the
mighty AmberMoon, and sink their fangs in like that.” Her eyes are livid and
her smile twists wickedly.

I find her words to be
somewhat disturbing and take a careful step back. From here on, I will need to
use my speed to its full advantage. AmberMoon’s body sways from left to right
and she dashes directly at me with her shield and kris raised. My heartbeat
doubles when I see her chest swaying from side to side dangerously. With each
step, the particular objects in question threaten to expose themselves,
naturally drawing not just my eyes but many of the crowd’s as well. I find
myself unable to avert my eyes, awaiting the moment all is revealed to the
world.

I break out of the trance
at the last possible moment and find her already upon me. The blade of her kris
once again cuts into me, this time across my upper arm with a slightly numb and
stinging sensation. A small, square status symbol with twin purple lightning
bolts over the silhouette of an arm indicates that my arm is paralysed.
Reflecting this, my arm drops down limply like it has suddenly fallen asleep.

A hint of doubt toward
whether I can win this or not forms in my heart. I try to dispel it as I move
away and add more distance between us, but the feeling lingers. I dash forward,
moving fast enough to leave a false image of myself along my trail while I
attack her from two steps ahead of where I appear to be. The first attack is a
massive success, even if I am only capable of attacking with one arm. The
second is a glance, while all other consecutive attacks end up being
intercepted by her shield somehow.

I can not even tell how
she is seeing through me and reading my moves. Despite having a greater speed
than her, she is constantly one step ahead. She doesn’t bother chasing me, but
she would not be capable of catching me even if she tried. AmberMoon is simply
standing in the center of the ring, constantly facing me to intercept my
assaults and launching her own counter-attacks at the same time; each one
getting more and more accurate.

I take off half of her
health, but at the same time am only left with fifteen percent myself. The lack
of health takes its toll on my body. My breathing becomes heavier, my mind
becomes dazed, even the roar of the crowds starts to become distant. I launch a
vain attempt at distracting her with ‘Haunting’, but she completely ignores it
and manages to cut into me again. The weapon appears to have quite a low chance
at causing paralysis as I still haven’t had anything else paralysed.

“H-how?” I ask, stupefied.

“You are far too
predictable. You would be fine against any monster or creature out there, but
this is two real people fighting. It is completely different.” AmberMoon sighs
with vindication, starting to lose interest in the match.

“But you still shouldn’t
be able to see me most of the time.”

“No, but I can hear you.
And I can block your attacks because like I said, you are too predictable. It’s
all about the element of surprise. I will show you as I end this.”

At that moment, the
familiar white glow sprouts from her feet and her speed increases
exponentially. I don’t stay still either, skipping off to the side to avoid
her. She approaches within ten feet of me, still beyond both of our attack
range, when she swings her weapon at me.

I don’t quite understand
why she would swing through the empty air, but I recall the cartoons about a
character releasing a wave of sword energy with the swing of the weapon and try
to duck. If it is a wave of sword energy being released, I have nothing to
worry about now that I am out of the line of fire.

I am wrong, the originally
wavy kris straightens mid swing and becomes nearly three times as long. I dodge
the first swing, but my eyes widen as the blade seems to bounce off another
invisible wall and slashes my throat. It is a critical hit that removes the
final section of my health. A small smirk appears on the girl’s face before my
entire screen goes dark.

***************************************************

My vision returns to me
and I find myself staring up at a dim sandstone ceiling. Relief flushes through
me as I realize the information about respawning in the battle colosseum is
indeed correct. I had feared being sent all the way back to Iceridge at the
final moment.

I can’t help but recall
the battle just now. It was so completely different from what I am used to that
I could not adapt. My speed is also severely limited due to the size of the
arena, and apparently ‘Haunting’ is a stealth-only skill. I still don’t know
why AmberMoon didn’t turn around when I used it. She knows I can appear from
behind her so why did she not register the noise and turn. Could she have known
it was a desperate ploy?

I open up my player status
to gauge how bad the death penalty is for dying. I read that arena deaths only
incur half of the normal death penalty, but I have never seen any proof. I gasp
and chuckle a bit upon seeing the penalty.

I had lost much less than
what half the death penalty would have been; one point from each stat to be
exact. The person who put up that information either has incredibly low stats
and only lost a little, or is trying to hide the information.

Looking around at my
surroundings, I appear to be back in the underground rooms of the colosseum.
However, this is one room that I have not been in before.

I am on a bed against the
wall of a long corridor. I can easily see to both ends, but it is still quite
long. The walls have recesses in them where beds are stacked two high and run
the entire length of the walls. A sparse number of torches are attached to the
walls at no particular interval, providing just enough light to be able to
comfortably see.

I can see a few other
people peacefully resting in some of the beds, but not many. Something about
the place reminds me of an old mausoleum.

I get up out of the bed
and walk to the end of the corridor. At the far end, there is another passage
that extends from left and right. More corridors lined with recessed beds just
like the one I woke up in. At the far end of the passage is a door leading to
another area.

I walk straight to the
door and go through it. On the other side is an area I am much more familiar
with: the central room under the arena where the off-duty gladiators are
practicing their ‘Smithing’ and selling their wares between one another. The
door I come out of is the only room I didn’t inspect earlier.

A player catches my eye as
he waves me over. It is the same player with curly brown hair and freckles that
I talked to before entering the arena. Fen is also in the room, awkwardly
sitting in front of some player playing with a few throwing knives he has for
sale. Seeing that she is busy, I first approach the male player still trying to
signal me over.

“You came out of the
resting room? Looks like you died while in the arena. Did you at least get one
win?”

“I did. Lost the second
one though.”

“You went for two in a
row? That’s gutsy! Hahah!”

“What do you mean? It’s
either that or step down.”

“You can just return to
the waiting bench. You will have plenty of time to recover your health that way
as well.”

I almost hit myself for
not thinking of that. But at the same time, I really wanted the consecutive
double fame points.

“Hahah! I see you didn’t
know that. Well, at least you won a single match. Who did you lose against? I
know a few people around here.”

“Some girl by the name of
AmberMoon. She has long brown hair, a small buckler shield, considerably
large-” I use my hand to correspond with my description of her, indicating the
length of her hair and size of the shield. Thankfully, the other player cuts me
off before I make a truly incriminating posture.

“I know her! She is quite
famous you know. While she is new to the arena, she has been a name passed
around for quite some time. AmberMoon is a prodigy when it comes to fighting
against other players. There is no shame losing to her.”

“I suppose it’s acceptable
if you put it that way. Say, I collected the two hundred horns to become a
gladiator so I know how difficult it is to become one. Is it just me or are
there a lot of players here who seem a little… weak.”

“You collected them by
yourself? I have to say, I am impressed. Most people simply buy them.”

“What? Buy them?”

“Yeah. There are a lot of
people who would pay good money to be a part of a competitive arena like this
one. Antril horns are harvested in such large quantities for resale that if
this wasn’t a game, it would be outlawed.”

“How much do they sell
for?”

“You can get them with
gold, but you are aware what Swordbreak’s market is like. They usually sell for
anywhere up to a dollar each, depending on the day and how many are available.”

“Oh well, I will leave it
at that for now. Thank you for your time.”

The price causes me to
instantly lose interest. The money is not bad, but nowhere near what I can live
off considering the extreme amount of time I would have to invest for little
return. I still make more by selling my items. When I checked this morning, the
‘Grand Elven Highbow’ auction had reached $427, while both the ‘Quicksilver
Boots’ and ‘Quicksilver Gauntlets’ were around $110 each. This is only 24 hours
after posting the items with a $50 starting bid!

“Go collect a few of the
Antril horns and see how it goes for yourself. Get enough and you can probably
pay for a month’s worth of the game subscription. Also, the quartermaster hands
ores out as compensation for death. It isn’t much, but we players should take
everything we can.”

“Thank you for the advice,
I guess I can try collecting the horns once.”

I turn around and leave
only to collide with Fen, knocking us both over. She emits a short chirp as she
falls down while I make a disgraceful grunt. The player behind me who I just
finished talking with lets out a jolly laugh at the sight.