The Warped Forest Read online

  You have become a ghost!

  The Midnight Razorelk buck rushed through her, giving Alex a moment to take stock of the battlefield. Her minions had returned to the air, having imparted their abilities, while the enraged buck spun around in the high grass, tearing the undergrowth to shreds as it turned.

  The rest of the herd bugled, hooves stomping into the dirt as they moved in defense of their leader.

  While her body was incorporeal, a faint outline of existence, she fled through the water, almost stumbling when it offered no resistance. The Midnight Razorelk buck rushed into the water, broad chest sending up a spray as it tried to get after her.

  Alex easily made it to the opposite side of the pond before the ghosting wore off. The herd rushed into the pond, desperate to avenge the audacity of her attack on their leader.

  You have hit the Midnight Razorelk with Cloud Taunt!

  The Midnight Razorelk has resisted Cloud Taunt!

  Alex growled under her breath. "It says resistance, not immune."

  As if her admonishment had influenced it, the second attempt to cast Cloud Taunt on the Midnight Razorelk buck succeeded.

  You have hit the Midnight Razorelk buck with Cloud Taunt for 43 damage!

  You have hit the Midnight Razorelk with Cloud Taunt for 34 damage!

  Her vision briefly filled with damage messages as the spell cascaded through the herd, abetted by the watering hole's affinity to transfer electrical damage, but eventually the program cleared them away so she could see again. She mentally cheered before sprinting to the back of the pond where she'd originally set up.

  As the razorelks strained towards her, Alex cast a new spell.

  You have hit the Midnight Razorelk buck with Wind Gust!

  You have hit the Midnight Razorelk with Wind Gust!

  Gail force winds staggered the herd, preventing them from making the final ascent out of the pond. She needed the extra time to let her faez regen and for her minions' abilities to reset.

  With her faez pool up to 38%, Alex tried her Cloud Taunt again before the razorelks reached land, but they resisted. She cracked the buck twice with her whip before turning on Pinky again.

  You are invulnerable!

  Alex focused on hitting the buck as many times as she could, straining her shoulder as she snapped the whip.

  You deal the Midnight Razorelk buck 21 damage!

  You miss the Midnight Razorelk buck!

  You deal the Midnight Razorelk buck 15 damage!

  The Midnight Razorelk buck is affected by Shocking Strangler for 34 damage!

  The final hit cascaded through the herd in a web of electricity, dealing mass amounts of damage.

  Alex was so focused on trying to bring down the buck's health, she missed that her invulnerability had worn off.

  The Midnight Razorelk buck hits you for 83 damage!

  The rack slammed across her chest and shoulder, tearing away flesh and knocking her into the mud, which splattered onto her face. Her chest was on fire, wet and soaked with blood. It felt like someone had dumped lighter fluid on her shoulder and ignited it. None of the attacks she'd ever sustained in Gamemakers Online had ever hurt as badly.

  Distracted by the eye-watering agony, she didn't notice that the buck was preparing a second attack until it was too late. The razorelk raised his hooves, preparing to stomp her, when Pinky darted in the way.

  The Midnight Razorelk buck has hit Pinky for 0 damage!

  Pinky has gained Reactionary Armor!

  Pinky is invulnerable!

  Alex didn't dare misdirect the spell to her, in case the attack would kill her minion. It was one thing to hit Pinky with her whip, it was another for her to take the full brunt of a razorelk attack.

  But the distraction gave Alex a chance to trigger another round of ghosting from Inky.

  You have become a ghost!

  She ran directly through the herd, causing chaos and confusion as she passed. The razorelks crashed into each other, slicing their fellows with their deadly racks as they spun.

  The herd splashed and thrashed behind her, desperate to get at her, as she sprinted through the shallow pond. They bellowed as their razor racks ripped away flesh.

  Between the sounds of razorelks screaming and aching pain in her shoulder, Alex didn't see the razorelk buck, who had run around the pound, until he was charging at her with his rack lowered.

  In a desperate attempt to save herself, Alex triggered the Screechlion Jerkin.

  You have hit the Midnight Razorelk buck with Debilitating Screech!

  The Midnight Razorelk is restrained!

  The razorelk buck almost crashed over as the spell seized its limbs, freezing it in place.

  Ignoring the torn flesh in her shoulder, Alex cracked her whip, twisting her wrist to wrap the end around the razorelk's neck rather than hitting it with the shocking end.

  You have h*it the Midnight Razorelk buck for 18 damage!

  You are strangling the Midnight Razorelk buck!

  You have gained a skill point: +1 One-handed Whip

  The buck stood motionless while Alex yanked on the Shocking Strangler, while behind her, the herd, having finally reoriented themselves, were rushing towards her with wild eyes.

  Alex pulled harder as the first razorelks closed the distance. A quick check with her minions showed their abilities hadn't refreshed, which meant she wasn't going to survive, but at least she could take down the buck, making her next attempt easier.

  As the first razorelk crested from the water, stomping through the mud, Alex gave one last tug on the whip.

  You have killed a Midnight Razorelk buck!

  You have gained experience: 2,500 XP

  Special Achievement Reached: You have killed a herd leader!

  You have gained bonus experience: 10,000 XP

  Luck of the Bold triggers! All health, faez, and abilities for you and your minions reset!

  Alex did the trick with Inky, gaining the ghosting ability right as the herd crashed through her. With no leader to impart magical resistance, or a sense of restrained order, the herd turned fanatical in their attempts to kill her.

  But as an incorporeal being, she passed through them, dragging them back across the pond. Without their leader providing magical resistance and a semblance of order, she was able to use her regular tactics again. After two castings of Cloud Taunt, the Midnight Razorelk herd was defeated.

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Mastermind

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Cunning Strategist

  She also gained a truckload of experience.

  You have reached level 12!

  After putting two points into Cunning and one into Intelligence, Alex went about looting the corpse. She was excited about the Midnight Hides she received in abundance, which would help her improve her Transference spell and hopefully provide a nice pair of pants, possibly with magical resistance. She was also rewarded with a pile of worthless baubles and a couple of large chimeric stones, bringing her total to eleven.

  She looted the leader of the herd last, holding her breath when she touched his corpse.

  You have received: Amulet of the Herd Leader

  The necklace was made of razorelk rack, but despite its deadly edge, failed to slice her when she touched it.

  Item: Amulet of the Herd Leader

  +2 Endurance ׀ 50/50 Durability

  It was her first found item that offered magical stat bonuses, an effect that was common in online games but had eluded her thus far in Gamemakers Online. It truly had proved to be the hardest game in the world, but Alex was feeling proud of herself for making it this far.

  Not only had she gained a level, a bunch of crafting materials, and a new item that would give her more hit points—a stat she hated neglecting—but she'd seen her passive ability Luck of the Bold trigger for the first time. Plus, she'd proved her ability stealing technique, which had won the battle.

  "I'm going to do this," she told herself, thinking about the remaini
ng challenges: the last of the wandering herds, the spire, and the Warped Mother.

  When she spoke, the weight of her intentions felt like she was at the head of a massive army.

  "Nothing can stop me now."

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Alex had never been one to customize her avatar's appearance in games. She didn't care about changing the color, or adding more spikes to her pauldrons. The only thing that concerned her was the math behind the pixels. How much armor did it give? What abilities? Were the set bonuses worth collecting?

  But in those games, she'd been playing someone else, a fictional persona meant to represent her, but they'd never been her.

  Gamemakers Online was different. Instead of an avatar, it was Alexandria Duke, the real flesh-and-blood person, the one with a scar on her knee from falling out of a tree when she was eight years old and brown eyes with gold edges. Though she knew she was in some sort of matrix-like creation, the fully immersive senses made it feel as real as the world outside. Which meant that because it was her silky black hair, her button nose, her wide face and hips, her freckles in the game, it changed how she viewed her character.

  The Midnight Razorelks had given her a pair of black leather pants that provided a slight magical resistance, but it wasn't the ability that excited her, but the way they clung to her shapely hips and shimmered in the afternoon sunlight as if galaxies swirled beneath the surface.

  With the whip over her shoulder, she felt like a feral dominatrix, a wildling of this strange land, or the ringmaster at a BDSM circus.

  "I don't know if my mom would even recognize me," she remarked, sensing that the game had changed her in ways no other game had.

  In the weeks since the razorelks, she'd made short work of the remaining herds. Two of them had herd leaders like the razorelks, but neither of them caused as much trouble.

  One of the last few were a group of Arctic Devillions that she suspected might create a challenge. Alex had sent Pinky after them, but her minion hadn't been gone long when she sensed a rapid return. A brown shape zipped through the trees, darting around them in short bursts.

  "What is it, Pinky? Did Timmy fall down a well?" she joked when her minion reached her.

  After leveling again, her minion looked like a sleek bat with wide round eyes. The disgusting proboscis remained, but it was tucked beneath her belly.

  Pinky hovered in the air, darting nervously like a hummingbird on crack.

  Her minion couldn't talk, but she could send emotions and vague images. What she received was a blurry blot and the sense of vibration.

  "I don't know what that means," said Alex. "Can you give me something else?"

  But she didn't have to wait for Pinky, as she caught the sound of angry buzzing at the edges of her hearing.

  "A swarm?" asked Alex, receiving an affirmative from Pinky.

  Alex squinted in the direction of the noise. Through the trees, a couple hundred feet out, she saw a hazy blob moving in her direction. Nearer the spire, larger groups milled about, but she hadn't been able to get close enough for fear of causing a chain reaction.

  Homing Terrorbees, Warped Animal, Level 9

  "Hmmm...level nine, that's not so bad," she said.

  Alex had made level 13 a few days ago. It would be the first time she'd be fighting something of a lower level. But like the Ghostly Cobrawasp, their flight ability would be problematic. The reason the pond worked as a makeshift AoE conduit for her Cloud Taunt spell was that they were fighting on a two-dimensional plane. Creatures who could fly created a new set of challenges, because she wouldn't be able to use the pond.

  Despite the added difficulty, Alex wasn't worried. She'd fought mobs that were much higher level, and her spells would be more effective against the terrorbees due to her superior level.

  But when the swarm flew close enough that she could see the individual terrorbees, doubts crept in. She'd been fighting against herds of ten to twenty animals that moved on flat ground. The swarm of Homing Terrorbees looked to contain upwards of fifty individuals, each one the size of a basketball.

  As they neared, Alex analyzed them again, hoping to learn more about them.

  Homing Terrorbees, Warped Animal, Level 9

  Ability: Unrelenting Attack

  The terror part is redundant

  A shiver passed through Alex as she thought about the implications of Unrelenting Attack. When she was a kid, she'd accidently stepped on a hive of ground bees and they'd chased her for a whole mile, stinging her over a dozen times, until she threw herself inside the trailer.

  Concerned that the terrorbees could permanently kill her minions, Alex sent them back to camp. If she died, she would resurrect at her spawn point, but they couldn't, and she didn't want to lose her valuable friends.

  The three minions rose high above the trees, quickly disappearing from her thoughts. This was a battle she would have to win alone.

  When the terrorbees hit the edge of her range, Alex hit one with Cloud Taunt.

  You have hit a Homing Terrorbee with Cloud Taunt for 38 damage!

  You have hit a Homing Terrorbee with Cloud Taunt for 48 damage!

  You have hit a Homing Terrorbee with Cloud Taunt for 42 damage!

  The crackling electricity jumped to two other bees, affecting them with her favorite damage-over-time spell, but that left another fifty or so terrorbees to deal with. She calculated she could cast Cloud Taunt another six times before running out of mana, which meant at best she could affect another twenty terrorbees, if each spell hit two more, and she doubted that would kill even one.

  With the swarm closing the distance, Alex hit them with her second-tier Wind Gust. The heavy gusts pushed the swarm back into the trees and dealt them a small amount of damage. The higher-tier version of the spell came with a damage component, but she hadn't taken the time to max it out yet, which meant it was only a temporary reprieve.

  Alex blasted a cluster of terrorbees with a Cloud Taunt, catching six in the spread after it hit. Maybe she could group them with Wind Gust and take down the swarm with Cloud Taunt, but she'd already used nearly half her pool of faez. There was no way she could continue the battle without a way to slow their advance.

  Before the swarm could regroup, she hit it with another Wind Gust, then took off running northward so she didn't lead them back to her spawn point. If she could regen enough faez between Wind Gusts, she might be able to kite them through the forest until the damage from the spell took them down. It would be a race against her fatigue levels, but she had no choice but to try. If it didn't work, she could devise a new tactic and try again after resurrecting.

  Alex stopped on a rise near a copse of flowering trees that looked like they'd had paint spilled over them. A check of her faez pool showed she'd gained most of what she'd spent on the Wind Gust spell. The strategy was messy and slow, but it could work, she decided.

  As the heavy buzzing approached, Alex thought it sounded different than before. She turned her head to the left and right, calibrating what she was hearing. It sounded like a faint echo reverberated in her ears.

  When the swarm flew up the rise, Alex calculated that she could spare a Cloud Taunt before hitting them with Wind Gust. As she readied the spell, she realized why she'd heard an echo.

  Alex spun around right as six Homing Terrorbees shot down from above. She'd gotten so used to her minions providing a "creature radar" for her, that when she sent them away, she'd forgotten that they weren't watching her back.

  You have been stung by a Homing Terrorbee for 17 damage!

  A Homing Terrorbee misses you!

  A Homing Terrorbee misses you!

  Critical hit! You have been stung by a Homing Terrorbee for 29 damage!

  A Homing Terrorbee misses you!

  You have been stung by a Homing Terrorbee for 15 damage!

  Each hit burned as if she'd been jabbed with a sharp stick. A third of her hit points drained away with the surprise attack. Alex returned fire with a Wind Gust, blowin
g the six terrorbees into the air. They tumbled over themselves until they hit the upper canopy of leaves.

  The distraction allowed the bulk of the swarm to close the distance as leaves fell from above. When she cast Wind Gust, it only caught half the swarm since they'd spread out around her.

  A Homing Terrorbee misses you!

  You have been stung by a Homing Terrorbee for 22 damage!

  A Homing Terrorbee misses you!

  Alex flailed around with random Wind Gusts, hoping to keep the terrorbees off her, but it was a losing battle. The constant stings kept her off balance until enough damage had been done.

  You have been stung by a Homing Terrorbee for 17 damage!

  You have died!

  Chapter Thirty

  Alex respawned seconds later at a spot a few hundred yards away from her camp. She'd picked a small hill with a good view of the surrounding area, next to a strange fruit tree. The reddish-yellow oblong fruits had edible skins and a flavor that reminded her of a spicy kiwi.

  After punching the ground in frustration at dying to the swarm, Alex grabbed the lone fruit on the tree that must have spawned since she'd checked it last.

  You have received: Blood Lemon

  New fruits didn't spawn that often, but they had a great flavor and were a nice consolation prize for dying. Her teeth ripped through the tough skin, and the watery fruit exploded into her mouth, excess liquid dripping from her hand.