World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (14 page)

With his sharply honed
fighting instincts, the player senses another piece approaching.
Wesley calmly executes a dive and roll to his left, and lifts his
shield to block the head butt attempt by a knight chess piece. The
force of the blow against Wesley's shield pushes the valiant knight
back a few steps. He quickly pushes his body forward while slashing
his sword from right to left, cutting the knight piece into two.

Relying solely on his
finely-honed instinct now, the ex-marine leaps back while covering
his chest with his shield, blocking a forward attack from another
black pawn piece. Lashing out with a quick stroke of his long sword,
Wesley makes quick work of the attacker.

Standing in front of
his line of still inanimate white pawns, Wesley notices that the
black pawns in rows “g” and “h” have reached his pieces.
Before he could take a step closer to the enemies, the two black
invaders knock the white pawns at g2 and h2 on their sides, and
immediately take over the spots formerly held by the white pieces.
"Oh no you don't!" the player yells as he begins to
understand what the pawns are trying to accomplish. Moving as fast as
his legs could carry him while decked out in full steel plate armor,
the cavalier somehow reaches the right side of the chessboard in
time. He swings his long sword and cuts the black pawn in row “g,”
while the pawn in row “h” moves forward again, knocking the white
rook aside.

With a
“
puff
,”
the black pawn is immediately promoted to a black queen!

Before the second black
queen on the board could move however, Wesley chops down on the piece
in one powerful stroke, cutting the second queen into two. The knight
turns his head back towards the black territory, and sees that some
black pieces have stayed in place to protect the king piece by
surrounding it.

Wesley takes a moment
to assess the situation.
It is
obvious that the dungeon designers want me to win this WoE version of
a chess mate before I can move on to the next stage. And to do that,
I have to knock off the black king.
"Time for
checkmate," he says aloud for the cameras. Locking his eyes on
the king's position, Wesley dashes forward across the board in that
direction.

As if reading his
intentions, the black pawns at d7 and e7 hop onto d5 and e5,
respectively, to mount a defense to protect their king. The black
bishop at f8 moves forward diagonally to e7, while the black knight
at g8 leaps over to f6, standing in front of the unmoved pawn at f7.

Reaching back into his
mind for the rules regarding movement of chess pieces, Wesley decides
to launch an offensive from the f4 position.
If
I go to e4 instead, I would have to fend off attacks from two pawns
and one knight piece. That is simply not going to work.
Arriving at f4, he launches a quick slash strike to make short work
of the black pawn at e5.

While the adventurer
attacks the black pawn, its companion at d5 takes another step
forward.

“Oh no you don't!”
Wesley shouts as the adventurer moves to the just vacated d5 square,
and attacks the black pawn from behind. Wham! While Wesley is
attacking the pawn piece, he is blindsided by a surprise attack from
the black queen! Wincing at the 5% damage to his health bar, the
ex-Marine finishes off the pawn quickly and pivots to face off with
royalty.

The black queen hops in
the air, and lands hard on the d5 square.

Wesley dives away to an
adjacent square, and starts his counter attack. He jabs at the queen
with the point of his sword, but the piece reads the attack and jumps
in the air to avoid the jab.

As it lands back on the
square, the queen tilts its crown forward.

Wesley blocks the blow
with his shield, but still takes a 3% hit to his health bar. He
counters again and scores a hit on the chess piece. This time, the
queen stands her ground and dogged slams its crown against the shield
again. The attack between the two continues back and forth for
several rounds. “Geez! You're tough for a woman,” he quips after
scoring a half dozen hits on the still standing chess piece.

The black queen
responds by using a different attack. She bull rushes into his
square, trying to knock the knight flat on his rear.

Reading the move, the
cavalier easily sidesteps the attempt, trading places with the queen
on the chessboard. Launching a shield bash from behind the black
queen, Wesley finally knocks the chess piece to the ground. Holding
his long sword upside down and high in the air, he stabs the weapon
into the ground and pierces through the queen.

The black queen spasms
for a few seconds, and slowly dissipates into thin air.

Bam! The other black
knight piece knocks the adventurer out of his square, depriving the
victorious knight of a precious moment to savor the hard fought duel
with the black queen.

Wesley rolls on the
ground until he reaches an adjacent square, and quickly pops back to
his feet. Springing toward the knight chess piece, the adventurer
launches a chop with his weapon from high in the air, intending to
finish off the enemy in one blow. Clang! The blow leaves a slight
scratch on the horse figure's head.

Narrowing his eyes
inside his virtual reality headset, the player turns his head to
check his avatar's stamina bar. “Ah, man!” Wesley whines when he
sees that the bar has been fully depleted, making his blows as
powerful as a punch from a newborn baby. Seeing that his cavalier's
health bar is still at a relatively vigorous 60%, Wesley decides to
save his slowly recuperating fatigue for the king piece.

Surveying the
battlefield quickly, the ex-Marine sees that the remaining opponents
are the king piece, the rook on the right, the bishop placed in front
of the king, the pawn next to the bishop, and the knight piece still
chasing him.

The black knight piece
hops down on his position, forcing the adventurer to hop back to an
adjacent square. Before the chess piece could jump away, Wesley jumps
on the horse figure's back!

The knight piece
frantically jumps several squares, unable to dislodge the adventurer
off its neck. In blind desperation, the piece launches itself off the
chess board and into the left wall!

“Time to get off!”
Wesley remarks as he pushes himself off the errant chess piece, and
watches with glee as the horse figure knock its head into the wall
and vanish. BOOM! No trace of the chess piece remains but for a crack
in the wall.

“Boy, that was fun!”
the cavalier says as he rises to his feet. Checking his stamina bar,
the player sees that it has refilled to 15% already. The knight draws
his long sword and takes long, purposeful strides towards the king
piece. Walking along the left wall, he walks straight down column “a”
until he reaches the a8 position at the upper left corner of the
board.

The black bishop keeps
moving back-and-forth between the e7 and d8 squares.

Wesley observes the
movement by the bishop, and smiles at the restricted movement by this
chess piece. This movement confirms his suspicion that the chess
pieces have been programmed to follow the rules of chess, including
the requirement for each side to make a move per turn, no matter how
useless and disadvantageous the move may be.
The
only pieces that can move along row “8” are the bishop, king, and
rook pieces,
he observes.
The
remaining pawn piece at f7 can be safely ignored, because it won't
reach my side of the board for a promotion in time to affect the
outcome.

Turning right from the
a8 square, the cavalier marches along row “8” at a slow pace.
Checking his stamina bar, the player sees that it is now 25% full. As
Wesley steps into the c8 square, the black bishop pulls back to the
e7 square. He also sees the king and rook pieces perform a “castling”
move, where the king takes two steps towards the rook, which is then
placed next to the king on the other side. Thus, the black king is
now occupying the g8 square, while the rook is at f8.

Seeing that it is now
his turn to move on the chess board, Wesley suddenly dashes into d7,
and slashes at the bishop before it could move to avoid the player's
attack. He ignores the vanishing chess piece as he checks the board
to see what move the black side will perform next.

In response, the black
pawn takes two steps forward from f7 to f5.

Alertly staying out of
row “8” to avoid the black rook, the knight takes another big
step to the right to e7 and attacks the stationary rook piece.

The black king finally
makes a move, going to the f7 square.

Wesley turns and swings
his long sword at the king piece. But his timing is late and his
adversary avoids the slash by hopping high in the air and tries to
land on the adventurer. The cavalier alertly tumble rolls back to d7.

The black king follows
the cavalier and moves to e7. It presses the action with a hit from
its crown.

Wesley blocks the
powerful blow, but feels the impact on his left forearm, earning a
sting from his left glove in the real world. The player quickly
checks his health bar, and sees that his character took a 5% hit
despite the fact that his shield had absorbed the hit. "I guess
the royal pieces are a lot of more powerful than the rest," he
notes.

BAM!
The black king attacks again with its crown.

“Uff!” Wesley
blurts out as he absorbs the blow with his shield. The military man
drops his sword, and puts his right hand on the shield. He pushes
back, and knocks the chess piece onto the ground. Retrieving the long
sword, he holds it upside down, lifts it high in the air, and slams
it down with all his might.

The impaled king piece
twitches once, and slowly disappears. The remaining pawn, which has
already reached white territory, also dissipates. The entire chess
board is now cleared of all black pieces.

Wesley sits cross
legged on the ground to rest for a moment. As he takes a deep breath,
the player basks in the after glow of his hard fought victory.
I
really worked up a sweat today
, he thinks as he feels the
sweat dripping down his back in real life.

A glow of blue light
abruptly appears on the wall to the north, slowly tracing the outline
of a doorway from the top and working its way down in a clockwise
manner. When the outline is completed on the wall, the stone wall
surface within the outline begins to dissolve into a glowing, blue
hue surface.

FLASH! An overwhelming
shower of blue light blinds the victorious knight temporarily,
forcing him to turn his head away from the blinding light. When the
flash disappears and he looks back to the wall, Wesley sees that a
blue portal has formed.

The portal possesses an
elliptical shape, and its dimensions are approximately six feet in
height and three feet in width. In truth, the portal is a hole in the
stone wall, with absolutely no indication of where it leads.

Slowly, the battle
weary man rises to his feet. “I need a smoke badly,” he mutters
to himself. The knight tugs on his weapon, and pulls the long sword
off the ground. Sliding his weapon back in place in its scabbard, the
cavalier boldly marches through the strange portal.

Seeing the blue door
slam shut behind his leader, Conrad turns to face his own red door.
Taking hold of his ivory club, the big man walks through the southern
doorway.

SLAM! Having just
witnessed the door shut behind Wesley, the barbarian is not alarmed
when the same thing happens to himself. The seasoned warrior pauses
for a moment, his eyes taking in his environment and slowly adjusting
to the dark. Although he does not possess true night vision, his eyes
have a superior ability to see in the dark. Slowly stretching out his
hands, he feels the width of the passageway.
It's
three and half to four feet wide
, he notes to himself.

The adventurer takes
light steps forward. The tunnel is silent but for the sound of his
pounding heart inside his chest. He continues progressing forward,
stopping every few steps to check and listen for sounds not of his
own making. Hearing nothing that points to a suggestion of company
inside this long, dark, winding passageway, Conrad continues to push
forward. Although the barbarian could light a torch, he resists the
temptation to do so, and attract the attention of whatever happens to
be in the tunnel.

After an indeterminable
amount of time has passed, the man notices a flickering light up
ahead. Slowly, he moves laterally to his left, and crouches down next
to the wall.
Something isn't
quite right here,
he thinks to himself as he observes the
unexpected scenery beyond the opening.

The chamber beyond the
passageway appears to be a common dining room straight from the
common inns that Conrad has patronized hundreds of times before.
Inside the room are a number of patrons of various ages. At the far
side of the room is a fire place, with a large crock pot over the
fire. There are no patrons sitting in front of the fireplace.

On the right side of
the room is a door that swivels back and forth as a young looking
woman enters through the door holding a tray with dirty plates. A
moment later, she comes back out, holding a large wooden tray with
plates full of delicious looking food.
That's
apparently the kitchen
, the silent observer notes in his
mind. On the left side of the room is a long oak table, with a
barkeeper standing behind the table. He is serving up large mugs of
mead to a handful of patrons sitting in front of the table. The
barkeeper is a big man nearly the size of a bear, with big hands that
make the mugs look tiny in his hands.
This
guy is trouble
, Conrad notes as his eyes are drawn to the
large, double-edged war ax hanging on the wall behind the counter.