War Aeternus: The Beginning Read online

  “Ahh!” He screamed in pain as the wolf’s long teeth sank into his leg. Still, Lee had the animal in a headlock, and he wasn’t going to let go. Almost immediately, the dog switched from biting his leg to trying to free itself from the trap it was suddenly caught in. It scrambled backward and fought to turn itself about, but Lee refused to let the dog’s head leave his grasp. He held on as tightly as he could with one arm and smashed at the dog’s face with the pommel of his sword. It wasn’t exactly headbutting a zombie, but smashing things in the head had proven effective before, so he continued with gusto until things got gooey.

  You have killed the ravenous wolf. Your party has been awarded 9 copper, one wolf hide and 42 Experience. Your share of this is 4 copper, one wolf hide and 21 Experience.

  Finally. Lee took a deep breath as he stood up, grabbing the sword that had been knocked out of his hand earlier and looking over at Miller.

  The Firbolg was doing his best to fight off the two remaining wolves, but for the most part, it seemed like he was just taking the biting from one wolf on his arm and twisting the spear so that other, the one he had injured with his first and only attack, couldn’t bite anything but the wooden shaft. Lee came in to help, this time going for the injured one.

  Rather than repeat his mistake of simply slashing it, he put away his Blade of Failure and switched his Adventurer’s Starter Sword to his right hand. Then, when he approached, he leapt forward and grabbed onto the scruff of the dog’s neck with his free hand. He yanked the wolf off balance and away from Miller, and without ever letting go of the animal, he stabbed his sword into the wolf’s soft belly. At first, it felt like the wolf was going to break free from his grasp. It bucked and writhed around, simultaneously trying to break free and swing its head around to tear at Lee’s wrists, but gradually, Lee felt the wolf’s life slowly give away. At last, the prompt let him know the kill was successful.

  You have killed the ravenous wolf. Your party has been awarded 8 copper, one wolf hide and 42 Experience. Your share of this is 4 copper and 21 Experience.

  One more to go, Lee thought, turning to see that he didn’t actually have to work on this one. Miller had taken advantage of the fact he now had a free arm and simply reached out and, rather than using his spear to stab the wolf, used his brute strength to lift the dog and repeatedly thwack it into the ground over and over again. Lee watched the feat in captivated horror.

  Your party has killed the ravenous wolf. Your party has been awarded 9 copper, one wolf hide and 42 Experience. Your share of this is 5 copper and 21 Experience.

  You have learned the proficiency skill Unarmed Combat. This skill is currently at Initiate Level 1. This skill improves one’s reasoning and execution of unarmed abilities in combat.

  You have been awarded 2 Intelligence for discovering a new skill without the assistance of class trainers or a manual. Current Intelligence: 17.

  Alive. Lee bent over and braced himself on his legs and panted. The pain and fatigue that had been suppressed during the battle washed over him all at once. He had been aware of the sharp, deep pain in his thigh from the bite when it happened, but now, it felt ten times worse. He had seen the prompts pop up during the fray, letting him know how much his fall, the bites, the nips and cuts from the wolf’s advances had done to him during the engagement. It was all plainly visible, but the adrenaline from the near-death experience had stopped it from entering his stream of consciousness until post-conflict.

  “See! We’ve done it! Success is ours!” Miller grinned as he looked up, using one of the dead beasts as a prop for his foot while he posed and inflated his chest. “Justice has prevailed, and victory is ours! I told you we could do it so long as we had faith!”

  Vomit. I want to vomit. Lee blinked several times as he looked up at the overly-confident warrior in front of him. Who the heck even talks like that? he caviled internally, but he couldn’t argue with the results: they had won. Sure, his thigh still had the wolf’s last dental mold fresh in it, and his chest felt like it had been partially caved in, and he was down to 64 health, but they had won.

  “Don’t look so glum. We must celebrate our victory! Unless . . .” Miller bit his lip as he looked down at Lee, who was looking at one of the animals that had almost killed him. “Unless you, as a man of the cloth, need to say a prayer for the enemies you have defeated? Do you need to make sure their souls go to the proper place?”

  Huh? Lee looked back up at the Firbolg and then down at the wolf. No. Lee forced himself to take a deep breath. “This is just my first time killing something that wasn’t already dead,” he said, realizing how dumb the sentence sounded as it left his mouth. “I mean, I’ve killed a zombie before, but not something that was technically still alive.”

  “Oh, did you not have to kill anything for food in the re—” Miller bit his tongue, clearly stopping himself from saying ‘real world.’ “I mean, did you not have to hunt or kill animals as a child? I figured, in this harsh environment, there must have been at least one time you had to kill a chicken?”

  “No . . .” because Chinese takeout comes ready to eat. “I never had that experience.” And even if I did, it’s a dog! I mean, it’s a wolf, but it’s pretty much just a wild dog! Who could ever be okay with killing a dog? Lee stared at the pooch’s corpse in horror. I did that. I murdered a dog. I’m going to hell. War and killing were never justified—not even in the movies. The one exception, however, was if some random kid killed a dog. At that point, any character, and especially the main character, was free to go on a seventy-plus kill streak and be completely vindicated in his behavior by every moviegoer. That was the strength of the dog-loving culture that had infected Lee’s bones since he was a child, and that was the pull on his conscience as he stared at the dead animal in front of him.

  “Wow, you really must have been very poor or very dedicated to the cloth to forsake the taste of meat.” Miller misunderstood what he meant as he reached over and picked up one of the animals and put it over his shoulder like the one-hundred-and-fifty-pound animal didn’t weigh more than a regular school backpack. “I’ll tell you what: Tonight, after we rescue Mr. Ying’s daughter, I’ll cook us up a hearty meal of dog meat so good any man in Satterfield would die for just a bite of it.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea . . .” Lee’s frown deepened. Can you at least keep calling it wolf meat? I know they look similar, but please don’t call it dog meat!

  “Nonsense! It will taste like nothing you’ve ever eaten before. Trust me, people kill for flavors this delicious. We can even cut aside some of the fat for you to offer to your god,” Miller insisted.

  “Seeing as Augustus is the god of Alcohol and Crafts, I’m fairly certain he would rather you pour out an offering of booze for him, but . . . let’s just get on with the quest.” Lee was tempted to turn the offer down outright, but then he remembered that he had, in fact, killed the animal. More importantly, he also remembered that he didn’t have a clue as to what he was actually going to do for dinner. Food was still a big concern, and he was just waiting to see how long he could get away with not eating in this game world.

  Once that was settled, Lee set Ethan back on the trail of the missing daughter. The small mouse had scurried out of his pocket without him noticing during the fight, and it was ready waiting next to a tree a small distance away.

  They tracked the girl for a mile and a half before they finally found the bandit camp. From what he could tell, the encampment wasn’t heavily occupied. There were four men sitting on logs around a campfire joking around, and although two were decked out in leather armor, none of them was holding a weapon. Each one had some type of armament nearby, but from Lee’s estimate, he’d have two or three seconds at the minimum before they reached it—and he was already trying to figure out a way to get to the weapons before they did.

  “This has to be the place,” Lee said as he studied the men. The mouse says the trail of blood ends here.

  “Ah, and there is Ying’s daugh
ter!” Miller motioned, pointing behind the bandits while pulling on Lee’s shoulder.

  Lee followed the finger toward a rock just a little distance away from the bandits, where, instead of the young child Lee had expected to see with all the talk of ‘daughter,’ he found himself staring at an incredibly beautiful, full-figured, young, human woman with ivory skin and black hair. Compared to how bland the father had looked, Lee had serious doubts as to whether or not this particular woman was the right one.

  Wow. His brain stopped for a moment as he stared at the gagged woman in a red dress and watched as she struggled against her restraints. No, no don’t lose focus. Deal with the bandits first. He had to actually pinch himself to get his attention back to where it needed to be. He had lived in a city with millions of people for a long time, but this was the first time he had seen a lady like her.

  “Okay, I think we need to find a way to get their weapons from them before the fight starts,” Lee whispered to Miller, trying to formulate a plan.

  “What? No, we need to charge in there and show them the fury and power of justice. Only when defeated head-on by the righteousness of those who do good will they be able to learn the errors of their ways!”

  “But . . .” Lee could feel Miller’s irritating optimism drawing cringe-wrinkles across his face as he tried to deal with it. “No. Look, just no, man,” Lee blurted out, finally putting his foot down on something. I am not going to get myself killed because you need to act like the hero. “What we’re going to do is this: We’re going to do our best to sneak up on them. If we can stab two of them before the fight begins and get to the weapons before the other two can react in time, we’ll have a quick and easy victory. How about we go with that?”

  “But sneaking around, stabbing people in the back, stealing their weapons and fighting with an unfair advantage . . .” Miller’s face crumpled up and turned sour like he had just drunk a bottle of lemon juice. “How does that not make us the bad guys?”

  “Miller, look at me,” Lee said, then pointed toward the girl “That’s how. We’re not kidnapping young women and carrying them away for god-only-knows-what unspeakable acts. We’re killing people who do that and rescuing young women. Now, look at her,” Lee said, firmly pointing at the girl yet again. “Tell me, do you think she wants us to fail to save her the right way, or just save her any way possible?”

  “Well . . .” Miller looked like a child who had just been scolded by a parent. “Umm . . . I suppose . . . I would . . .” He bit his lip again. “I think she just wants to be saved and doesn’t care how.”

  “Good. Now, what do you think the chances are that you can take one of them by yourself before they realize you’re there?” Lee asked.

  “These tactics will besmirch our reputation and dignity as knights!” Miller protested again.

  “Miller, do we have to go over the importance of making sure that girl gets home to see her father?” Lee expertly wielded the guilt card to keep his gung-ho knight friend in check.

  “Fine, I can do it. I’ll kill . . .” Miller paused, squinting to make the figures out more clearly. “I’ll kill them using your dishonorable method.”

  “Good. So, when we jump them, we need to make sure to stop the other two from getting their weapons,” Lee reiterated.

  “I’m still not okay with this plan,” Miller protested quietly once more, but he gripped his spear anyway.

  “But you’ll do it?” Lee pressed. He needed to know that Miller wouldn’t mess it up at the last minute due to some belief in a higher sense of honor or moral conduct.

  “But I’ll do it,” Miller grumbled.

  The four men in front of them were split into two groups. Their tents and supplies were on one side of the campfire, the girl was on another side of the campfire on a rock, and the kidnappers occupied the remaining two sides in pairs, each sitting on a log. Of the two closest to them, one of them was wearing a long, black robe, and the other one was wearing brown leather armor very similar to Miller’s. The robed guy had a quarterstaff near him, and the man in leather had two swords like Lee’s nearby.

  On the log adjacent to them, to Lee’s left, were the other two men. They were both just wearing regular clothes. Their garb wasn’t even the type of tight-fitting clothing that one might expect someone to wear for battle, just loose, brown garments like they had taken potato sacks and decided that wearing them was a good fashion choice. In front of those two lay a couple bows and two pairs of daggers that looked as if they had been being cleaned.

  Okay, so those two must be the more roguish types of the group . . . That means the ones directly in front of us are probably the brutes meant to absorb damage, Lee reasoned. He wasn’t used to battle, but after his two short skirmishes, the reality of his situation had begun to set in. Although some small part of his brain still refused to accept what was going on, another even larger portion had been ruminating on how he might handle another battle with a zombie like Brian. His aimless slashing had been completely ineffective, his attempts to stab the zombie had resulted in his weapon being knocked away, and smashing into his opponent had required him to absorb a heavy amount of damage while pinning his opponent to the ground. Knowing that, it was hard to decide what he should do. Quick, piercing attacks seemed like the best option, but those were going to be even harder to pull off than simple slashing cuts with his sword.

  “Let’s get that pair.” Lee pointed to the two closest to them as he readied his weapons. He reasoned that, even though he’d likely be able to kill the unarmored ones much faster, it’d be much easier to deal with daggers and bows than swords and a quarterstaff in melee combat if he could take out the armored ones earlier.

  Miller’s eyes regained their earlier zeal, causing Lee to worry about whether or not he understood the point of a sneak attack. “Excellent! I’ll get the robed one and then proceed to educate those other two hellions on why they shouldn’t behave in such an atrocious manner.”

  And if you have the fourteen-damage weapon, why am I the one attacking the guy in leather? Lee frowned. He had already won one argument, though, and it was clear from the battle with the wolves that Miller was much better at defense than offense, so he didn’t press the point.

  Maybe his armor will protect him against the daggers if things don’t go smoothly, and I can peel one of them off after?

  “Alright, follow my lead.” Lee crept forward as silently as possible, encroaching on his first target. He thought they were doing a good job at masking their steps, but as they rounded one tree after another and made it halfway to the enemies, the daughter made direct eye contact with Lee and started to scream as loudly as she could with the cloth gag tied into her mouth.

  Are you . . .? You idiot, you’re going to get us caught! He did his best to hasten his steps toward his target, weaving between the trees one after another.

  All four of them turned to face the young girl, and one of the men in leather stood up and shouted, “You can yell all you want, wench, but no one is going to save you out here! We’re over a mile away from the road! Who is going to hear you?”

  So, you were useful after all! Lee thought appreciatively when he realized that his sneak attack would be flawless now that the noise from his final steps was being masked by her muffled cries. He rushed in and stabbed both of his blades into the man’s back. He wanted a clean kill, but neither of his swords fully penetrated. The man shouted a warning, but blood gurgled out of his mouth and cut off his scream before the words could form. Without a prompt showing up with experience and loot, however, Lee knew that his foe was still alive and breathing.

  Strangely, after piercing through the leather and digging into the man’s back, both blades seemed to get stuck. It felt like he had stabbed a tree, and his swords had stuck deep into the wood to a point where he couldn’t pull them free. He could see the other two already reaching down and readying themselves to join the fight in his peripheral vision, and he knew that things were going to turn bad rather quickly if h
e allowed the fight to draw out any longer than he absolutely had to.

  With his weapons buried in the man’s body, Lee took a cue from zombie Brian and used his shoulder to slam the man, knocking him to the ground face-first. The man yelled and tried to turn over, and Lee took the initiative and placed one foot firmly on the man’s back. Not only did it stop the man from turning over, it also gave him the extra bit of leverage he needed to wrench his swords free. As soon as his blades came loose, he stabbed the man in the neck. He expected the bandit to turn complacent, unable to move after the attack, but he began thrashing about instead, all four limbs twitching and flailing about. Lee pulled back with one sword and began rapidly stabbing the downed man in the back of his neck.

  Why the heck isn’t this going through and killing him? As soon as he thought of the question, he realized the answer was probably something incredibly intuitive to most gamers: because he still had hit points left. It was just like when Lee played first-person shooters. He could shoot his opponent square in the face with a shotgun, but he’d live because he had enough hit points to take the bullet. Luckily for Lee, even though the opponent had enough health to be stabbed in the back twice, and then repeatedly have his neck poked at, he still couldn’t help the fact Lee had him solidly pinned to the ground and was attacking as viciously and quickly as possible so that he wouldn’t have a chance to retaliate.