Yvvaros: The Clash of Worlds (34 page)

PIERCE ATTACK 4

Luke focused his attack on an Arbiter wielding a bow. He slammed his sword into its neck. It turned, but not quickly enough. Using several of his blades, Luke was able to hack it down to the ground.

The Arbiters he’d moved away from were hot on his heels. Luke dodged left, and then rolled right, cursing the hopelessness of the situation.

The plan has fallen apart. Makorin was a dead end.

One of the Arbiters smashed into his chest with a head butt. Luke was thrown backward off his feet, his neck twisting painfully as he tumbled through the sand. He slowly pulled himself to his feet, and then remembered something. Putting the Elemental Crystals into place had given him a new ability, and he’d been too busy fighting for his life to give it much thought.

PROGENITOR’S SOUL

The air around Luke wavered, as though heated by an invisible fire. Blue light began to leak out of his chest. It looked as though a bright star had coalesced next to Luke’s heart.

“What… is this?” Luke stared down at his body in shock. The Arbiters didn’t seem to know what to make of it, either, and held off from attacking or making any sudden movements.

The light felt warm. It didn’t behave normally, and moved through the air with purpose. The blue light spiraled around Luke’s arms, legs, and chest. He felt his entire body pulsing, as though a gentle electric current was being pushed through it.

A spear of light shot out of his sword hand, creating a sheath of energy around his weapon. All of the light solidified at once, forming a tight protective barrier around him.

It’s… armor? And a new sword?

Luke only had time to quickly glance down at himself as the Arbiters resumed their attacks. His body was covered in armor unlike anything he’d ever seen before. It was thin, and almost skin tight, onyx black with bright, shining blue lines running through it, like veins.

The armor wasn’t composed of pieces. There was no separation between the chest piece and the pauldrons. Rather, it felt as though Luke was wearing a second skin, a single living, flexible unit that moved as he did, amplifying his strength and speed.

One of the Arbiters lunged at him with a large axe. Luke swung his sword up at it and stared wide eyed as he watched the result. His blade matched his new armor, black with a bright blue line running the full length down the center, and it sliced the axe in two without slowing down.

The sword left a blue after image in its wake. As Luke fell back in a defensive stance and twirled it around him, a dancing blue light followed. Two Arbiters approached at once, and Luke rolled out of range as they attacked together.

His armor let him move faster, and more naturally. The Arbiters weapons passed through empty air with a hint of blue light marking the spot where Luke had just been standing.

I’m stronger, now. Much stronger.

He charged forward. Time itself felt like it was working in his favor. The Arbiter’s reactions were slow, and he had no trouble maneuvering his blade into catching them off guard. His sword did massive damage, taking three quarters of one’s health bar and killing the other, slicing through the Arbiter’s shoulder armor and tossing a severed arm into the air.

“Get back!” Luke yelled at the top of his lungs, fearing that the clamor of combat would drown out his voice. “Everybody, get back!”

Three more Arbiters moved to intercept him as he charged toward the main battle, and all three fell like training mannequins against his new equipment. Luke’s armor and sword hummed as he moved. He swung his blade and decapitated another Arbiter, and then punched at one maneuvering to his side. His fist went through the armor of his enemy’s chest, and Luke felt as surprised as the Arbiter looked.

What the hell is this?

He pulled his fist free. Blood dripped from it, and Luke could feel the sticky warmth through the skin of the armor. Several more Arbiters attacked him at once. He swung his sword in a smooth arc, spinning and keeping its momentum as he sliced across all of them, killing most and wounding the rest.

Several of the players, Kaoru and Tess included, were watching him from their defensive positions. All of the Arbiters were turning their attention away from the regular players and toward Luke. He launched straight at them, not giving any thought to his own safety.

I’m the biggest threat now. This battle isn’t about them.

Luke was death incarnate. He pulled his conjured swords in and spun them around him. They didn’t do very much damage, but it created enough of a distraction to let him hold dozens of Arbiters at bay.

One of them managed to get a spear strike through his defenses. Luke felt the blow and surprisingly, his health bar took about as much damage as it usually would have. He immediately countered, knocking the nearest Arbiters back. He gave himself room to breathe.

I’m not invincible. The armor is more about enhancing my strength than my defenses.

Kaoru was leading some of the remaining players in a charge against the distracted Arbiters. Luke frowned and tried to wave her away, killing two more approaching enemies with fast strikes.

HOLY REGENERATION 2

MIRROR IMAGE 3

With his own passive combat abilities active, along with Progenitor’s Soul, Luke was more powerful than a single player had any right to be. He took down Arbiter after Arbiter, dancing across the sand, leaping through the air, and moving with superhuman dexterity.

The Arbiters still managed to land the occasional blow. Even with Holy Regeneration active, the attacks chipped away at his health bar. It didn’t matter. Luke wasn’t trying to take on all of the enemies at once anymore. He was giving the rest of the players the example they needed, restoring their hope and their will to fight.

Luke moved deeper into the center of the violence. Something flashed in the corner of his vision. He turned to the right, swinging his sword to counter, but wasn’t quick enough. A blow struck the side of his head, hard enough to produce a field of stars in his vision and to knock him off balance.

He shook his head and turned to face off against his new foe. The Head Arbiter stood nearby, one hand clutched into a fist and the other around a spear. He stared at Luke with eyes that were neutral and emotionless.

Luke hesitated. The memory of the Battle of Kantor, and his fight against the Tymian his father had been controlling echoed in the back of his mind.

It’s not him, not this time. He’s already dead.

The Head Arbiter moved to attack with the same predictable, straightforward movements shared by the rest of the NPC Arbiters. Luke blocked and countered, watching its monotonous, almost robotic movements carefully.

The two were evenly matched. Luke had his hands full blocking the spear strikes while still clearing out regular Arbiters as they attacked him from the side and flanks. He shifted across the battlefield, moving in closer to where Tess and Kaoru were fighting for their lives.

The Head Arbiter lunged forward with his spear. Luke deflected the strike, but the point continued, carried by the momentum of his enemy’s weight. Tess was next to him, and a millisecond dragged out into an eternity as Luke realized what he’d inadvertently done.

PIERCE ATTACK 4

Luke used the skill instinctively, the same way he might duck or throw a punch in the real world. He slammed into the Head Arbiter before it could react, turning what would have been a killing blow to Tess into a shoulder graze.

The Head Arbiter was knocked off balance, and Luke took the opportunity that he’d been given. He spun and slammed his sword behind him as he turned away from the Head Arbiter. The tip of his Progenitor’s Blade pushed through the golden armor, and the Head Arbiter’s health bar dropped to zero.

The rest of the Arbiters continued to fight, but the tide of the battle had been turned. Luke’s new armor and sword faded out of existence a couple of seconds after he’d slain the Head Arbiter. He wasn’t sure if the new ability had a time or energy limit. It didn’t matter. There were only about a dozen of the Arbiters left, and even as strong as they were, the resolve of Luke and the remaining players was enough to take them on.

Kaoru killed the last Arbiter with her whips, wrapping them around its neck and using a skill that choked it to death slowly. Luke scanned the compound one final time before slowly sheathing his sword.

“It’s over,” he said. Tess moved to him and he wordlessly pulled her into a tight embrace.

“We did it…” Kaoru was slowly rolling up her whips. She grinned and turned to what was left of their army. A cheer went up, and Luke couldn’t stop from smiling, either.

“It’s going to take some serious time and money to rebuild,” he said, shrugging. “But we have all the time we need now. Yvvaros is free.”

Most of the fires in Dunidan’s Rest had already burned themselves out. Katrina and a couple members of her guild were filling buckets and heading off to take care of what was left. Luke suddenly realized how tired he was. He felt like he could collapse where he stood and sleep a long peaceful sleep.

“What was that skill?” asked Tess. “I haven’t seen anything like that before. You were so powerful.”

Luke nodded slowly, and then remembered something.

“I received it when I set the Elemental Crystals into the spires on Makorin,” he said. “Speaking of which, Kaoru, where the hell did you get your information? That place was a death trap.”

Kaoru looked confused.

“I talked to one of the beta testers.” She frowned. “I guess it’s possible that the information I got was bad. But you still got something out of it, and we managed well enough without needing to be a part of the plan.”

Luke opened his mouth to explain further, but before he could, blue light shone from the center of the courtyard. The Universal Truth was standing in the center of it, and she slowly walked over to the three of them.

“Makorin was one of my cities, corrupted during the Severance Onslaught. By restoring it, you have restored a part of me. And by freeing the world’s essence, you have released me from my chains.”

“The world’s… essence?”

The world state server? Is that what she means?

Luke looked up at Makorin. It still hovered in the sky, just above and off to the side of Dunidan’s Rest. It looked ominous, and there was something about the Universal Truth’s words that made him uncomfortable.

“Something’s wrong…” Luke shook his head. Over by the oasis, there was a player at the center of a group yelling something in a panicked voice.

“You have liberated Yvvaros, and with it, yourselves,” said the woman.

Luke took a step back. Katrina was rushing to him. Her eyes and face were wild with panic.

“Kato… Nobody can log out,” she said.

“What?”

“Try to log out,” said Katrina. “Just see if you can.”

Luke looked at Tess, and then at Kaoru. Kaoru had pulled out her character journal, and after scribbling on it for a moment with a quill, her mouth dropped open in surprise.

“She’s right,” said Kaoru. “I can’t log out either.”

“What…?” Luke looked around Dunidan’s Rest. A number of the other players appeared to be discovering what they just had. Some of them were handling it better than others. One player was pulling at his hair, as if trying to will his body in the real world to match his virtual movements.

The Universal Truth floated slowly into the sky until she became a tiny, shining blue dot set against the night sky. Luke walked toward the gate, as if to chase after her.

“There is much that you do not understand.” The woman’s voice boomed from all directions. “You are my children now, and I must keep you safe.”

“What have you done?” shouted Luke. Tess squeezed his hand.

“I have given you what you needed,” said the woman. “You will come to see the truth, in time.”

“Luke…” Tess pulled him into a hug from the side. “It’s going to be okay…”

The wind blew through the open doors of the compound. The Arbiters were gone, no longer a threat. The fires were out and the remaining players stood in the center of Dunidan’s Rest watching Luke and Kaoru.

“I can’t believe this,” said Luke. “This doesn’t make any sense!”

He reached into his satchel and pulled out his character journal. Kaoru frowned at him, and Tess put a hand on his shoulder.

“Luke, it’s not going to-”

He signed his name, and in an instant, everything changed. The world went black. Luke blinked in surprise, and then pulled off his headset. He was in the motel room, in the exact same spot he’d last been when he’d logged in.

“…Kaoru?”

She didn’t answer. Her headset was still on, and her body was still. It was late at night, and Luke could hear an ambulance’s siren outside in the distance.

“I… can still log out.” Luke stared down at his hands, and felt the bed beside him, as though expecting it to feel hollow, like a bad simulation.

What does this mean?

He put a hand on his forehead and took a deep breath. The weight of a world strained against his shoulders.

END

AFTERWARD

It’s hard for an author to keep their own personal biases and speculation out of a science fiction novel set in the near future. I’ll be honest, I tried. I really did.

I wrote this book in the summer of 2015, before virtual reality gaming existed in a mainstream capacity. Even now, at the first publication of this novel, it’s hard to make any definitive predictions about what the impact of such a level of immersion might be on society and the way we view reality.

The world is a fascinating place, and the future is looking very, very bright.

Thanks for reading.

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