The Crystal Crusade Read online

  “I guess that makes you the flies,” I said.

  “Cheeky.”

  L’ocean stepped out of our squad line. “Are you in charge of this hostile takeover?”

  “Sure am.”

  “Why are you invading a neutral town?”

  “Neutral? We are living in war times, milady. The main continent is on fire, if you haven’t noticed. Choosing to be indifferent means you have picked the losing side.”

  I watched the reaction from the players. No one dared to fire or intervene. Interesting. They were immersed in the scripted story event, and L’ocean seemed to channel all the curious players present.

  “What do you want?”

  The captain walked within the safe perimeter of his black guard squad before he stretched his legs like a dictator giving his speech to the downtrodden. He reeked of over-confidence and its nasty side effect: attitude.

  “This town is an important hub in the geo-political war for Fourlando. Whoever controls Montobay gains access to the trade routes of the northern sea, but I’m sure you already know about that.”

  I didn’t know much about the geo-political issues except for the general story.

  The captain of the renegade faction continued. “Territorial rights can be a bloody mess. Our employer wants to settle this dispute once and for all.”

  “Who’s your employer?” I said.

  The captain looked at me with squeezed eyes. “Why do you care? It’s not like you’ll live long enough to tell the story.”

  He sounded like a flat NPC copy of Rokkit with the same level of smug but better gear. The captain’s black guards shielded him and activated their mid-range melee weapons.

  The analyzer of a single unit said:

  Enemy: Blackguard Pikemen

  Type: Elite human guard

  HP: 675 base + 125 armor/Armor: Medium plating (+3)

  Weakness: Armor-piercing

  Drops: Neosteel shields, auto-pikes, 250-400 credits

  We were dealing with the elite of the military sub-faction.

  “I tell you a new story,” the captain said as he unsheathed his massive gunblade and raised it toward the sky. “This one’s called Kill All Cadets. Guess how it ends?”

  “Please don’t tell me, I hate spoilers.”

  “Stop talking to him,” Rokkit said and put up his shield-and-attack stance. “This isn’t a virtual novel.”

  “I like this one,” the captain said as he pointed his blade toward Rokkit. “I think I’m going to wipe you out first.”

  “Give it your best shot.”

  Our squad readied for the final confrontation. The boss captain sent his elite henchmen after us and yelled the attack order. Rokkit welcomed the nearest black guard with a shield swoosh. These units outranked the previous soldiers in level and attack behavior. The black guard evaded the brute force offensive and sidestepped with his pike risen, ready for the attack.

  “Those are tough bastards,” Rokkit said.

  The boss captain distanced himself from the skirmish and taunted the players. He yelled at his attacking guards which seemed to spur them on, doubling their attack speed and damage output. Two guards protected his rear and circled him like drones. Our player squads dispersed and focused on the elites first. Minions always counted as the number one target since their presence distracted from focusing on the boss. Once they were taken care of, all of us could surround the captain and finish him off quickly. The emphasis put on ‘taken care of’, because the guards gave us hell. They charged in arrow formation and swung their auto-polearms. These melee weapons carried serious range and kept the Lancers at bay, who used their shields to avoid the quick jabs. I quickly sidestepped and avoided the proximity of the Lancers to attack from the safer second rows. I threw another smoker which clouded the area, but to no avail. The guards continued fighting with no confusion sign hovering above their darkened helmets. Wu fired a couple of arrows but couldn’t penetrate their armor. He switched to the few and costly armor-piercer darts that lingered in his gear quiver. I tried to find an opening and readied my light melee gun saber. I made sure no guard targeted me and fired the pellet at the unit attacking Rokkit. The projectile hammered into the black guard’s rear and pushed him over for two seconds, although he quickly regained balance. Rokkit used the tiny break to slash his hammer into the front chest plate which cracked upon impact, absorbing most of the damage. The reloading time of my gun saber strained my nerves, but I wanted to avoid a close-range battle at all costs.

  “Watch out, Dash,” L’ocean said.

  A black guard tried to flank me on my left. I switched the gun saber to melee mode and tried to deflect his polearm jabs with my blade. His jabs doubled in speed and pierced my armor, draining my HP. I stumbled back and shouted for help. With my current build, I was useless as a frontline attacker.

  Rokkit arrived to my assistance and rammed his shield into the attacker who fell back. He used a skill called Breach which battered enemy shields. Another Lancer taunted a nearby black guard who launched after him. A few meters in front of the player, the enemy stepped on a charge and knocked over. His armor shattered, HPs dropped like crazy. A fellow WarTech from the allied squad smiled—the same girl who had disarmed the mines from the roadblocks before.

  A few meters next to me, a black guard pierced a TechMage’s light armor while his comrade jabbed her from behind, causing 150% of the normal damage. The player collapsed into critical mode and shouted for help.

  L’ocean hurried to her help, but Rokkit yelled. “It’s not our squad, L’ocean, focus on our support.”

  She hesitated, which caught the attention of the two black guards who just KO’d the other TechMage. With my gun saber reloaded, I knelt and steadied my aim, focused on the incoming guard, and blasted him right in the chest plate. Being at a close distance, the sucker staggered, and Wu used the opportunity to unleash two armor-piercing darts in rapid succession. I followed up with a vertical slash attack and sent the guard into digital nirvana. Unfortunately, the maneuver had distracted us, and the other player’s TechMage died after the countdown.

  Worse, the silent, bystander boss charged into the battle with a speed I hadn’t seen before.

  Enemy: Rogue Faction Captain

  Type: Human (Boss)

  HP: 2750 base + 1250 armor

  Armor: Medium-heavy chest plating (+4.5)

  Weakness: Armor-piercing

  Drops: Mid-rare boss weapon, potions, medium-heavy armor, 4500 credits

  “Watch out.”

  Fast one. He must have cast ‘haste’ or a similar speed enhancer, because he whooshed around the players like a blitz on steroids.

  “Take care of the last henchmen,” Rokkit said to me, “while the big boys focus on the boss.”

  And the boss delivered damage deluxe. He bypassed the attacks of our Lancers and picked the weakest units in the squads, especially the TechMages and Rangers who had low armor. He stormed toward Wu, and unleashed a wide-angle pellet blast that blew him back. I trained my own gun saber but missed the shot since the captain moved too fast. While I reloaded my gun saber, the boss switched to melee mode and unleashed a whirlwind of cuts. Wu’s light armor broke and all the slashes cut away his HP. It happened so fast I was afraid to blink. Wu dropped to his knees and lost the tek-bow, which clonked on the ground. The captain fired his boot into Wu’s chest and knocked him over. He faced critical mode and needed healing ASAP, but the captain surrounded Wu like a predator defending his prey.

  “You stay down,” the boss said to him.

  “Help me, please.”

  I tried to. But when the captain trained his gunblade at me and pulled the trigger, I could barely escape his blast. The projectile whooshed past my head with a speed twice as fast as my pellets. L’ocean finished healing a co-player and tried to focus on Wu, but Rokkit held her back. “It’s too late.”

  Unfortunately, he was right.

  Wu died before our eyes.

  30

  I was
too wired to react to the tragedy. I tried to aim my gun saber from the knee up when I realized I had leveled enough to use the dart thrower turret I had disarmed at the beachhead.

  “I have an idea,” I said to Rokkit, who was just about to launch a shield bash attack.

  I planted the thrower next to me and activated it. With half of the original ammo left, it focused its selective arrow fire on the captain and slowed down his advance toward us.

  “You cowards. Is your own machinery so terrible you have to use ours?”

  I ignored his whining. The status effect ‘Suppressed’ appeared over the captain. And with his speed cut in half, my next gun saber shot hit him right in the shoulder plates. I told all Rangers to launch their explosive and armor-piercing arrows at once. A quick glance at the ammo box of my ‘new’ dart thrower showed half of the arrows gone, but the suppressed effect lingered on which allowed the long-ranged players to hit the captain easily. His HP downed as the armor plates chipped apart under the Ranger bombardment. I looked at Rokkit and roared my manliest voice. “The moment the turret’s out of darts, the suppression effect will wane. That’s when you charge in.”

  Instead of firing a snarky remark, Rokkit nodded, looking almost grateful. My dart thrower spat its final volley of arrows which was the cue for Rokkit to go full shield bashing. He rammed his mighty device into the staggering boss and caused critical damage. The captain roared across the plateau with his ear-shattering yell. He collapsed to his knees and hit the ground with his face shield first. I froze to the spot and expected another trickery attack, but the captain did finally die.

  Two of the technical-minded players stormed toward the jammer, attached to the router of the comm relay, and deactivated the mechanical device. The semi-transparent menu updated in my HUD:

  Quest update:

  Secure the beach and enter the township of Montobay.

  Reach the Central Square and secure it.

  Access the Comm Tower and regain control.

  Congratulations! You have eliminated the enemy presence and liberated Montobay.

  Experience trickled in as I upgraded to Level 8. I should have smiled but the previous fights had exhausted my capacity for happiness. I hurried toward Wu lying among the piles of black guards and other players.

  “Can you hear me?”

  I know he wasn’t really dying, but to see him like that, his player body fading in front of my eyes, it connected to my deepest fear. The real Wu was probably sitting at home, somewhere around the world, probably wiping his eyes and wondering how the hell he had lost the boss battle. I wished I was able to revive him, right here, right now, but this part of the game had passed. Permanent death was the destiny we all faced now.

  “He was an incredible asset,” Rokkit said as he joined my right side. “He’s probably already creating a new character and leveling up as we speak.”

  “It’s just… all this hard work and careful tactical planning, and whoosh, he’s gone.”

  “Welcome to the real gaming world. Deal with it.”

  Cruel, but right. Life had to go on.

  Together, we looted the enemy bodies although most players had already taken the special items. I received a few potions and a thousand credits, which felt disappointing after all the trouble we went through. Or maybe the other players snapped all the precious polearms while I was busy observing Wu’s digital corpse.

  “What about the captain’s weapon? It was a collectible gunblade, right?”

  “Someone took it already,” Rokkit said with a lackluster voice.

  The update from our mission master back at the beach bay sounded on our devices. “All cadets, the mission is a success. Please return to the initial rendezvous point. The transporter boats will part in fifteen minutes.”

  The timer updated on my upper-middle vision.

  All of us returned to our initial squad selections, whatever was left of them, and returned to the beachhead, which only took us a couple of minutes. With all the resistance gone, we rushed right through the historic center of the township and blasted along the main road. On our run, citizens returned to the streets and cheered for us. A group of civilians gathered in the plaza and unleashed joyous laughs. I felt like a real hero, like I actually changed a human being’s life for the better, even though they were all NPCs. But one question bugged me. “What happens to the township now?”

  “The ruling faction is going to resume control.”

  I wondered whether that was a good or bad thing, but our squad had already reached the beach where the transporter boats had opened their hatches to welcome us back.

  For the first time since the field mission, I realized how many players had actually died during the liberation mission; including me, only nine other players returned to the boats, which meant fifteen had died during the mission.

  What a devastating result.

  We treaded through the water and marched into our designated ship transporter. L’ocean and Rokkit planted their butts in front of me, while a Stalker from an ally team joined our ranks.

  “Call me Ishmael,” the Stalker said. “I’m the only survivor of my squad.”

  “Thanks for your service,” the support NPC said and pointed toward my empty right seat. “Your fallen comrades will never be forgotten.”

  That was true. Every dead character would show up in the game’s database as an entry—the closest thing to a tombstone in the world of Fourlando.

  The Stalker sat down when our ship kicked into gear. We steered away from the beach and roared back to the deep waters of the northern sea, course set to the Academy.

  The mission master applauded us. “Your performance is being evaluated and will be shared once you arrive at the Academy.”

  Convenient timing, but I lacked the words to voice my bewilderment. The team felt empty without Wu. Rokkit looked as ready as ever, like he just finished an exercise before breakfast. His lips curved upward which meant another nasty comment was about to be set loose. “I gotta say, I’m semi-impressed, Boltzmann. You managed to kill a few enemies and survived to tell the story.”

  L’ocean nodded. She had been oddly quiet during our return, hopefully not because of me.

  “We worked well as a team.”

  Rokkit’s smile froze. “If that was the case, Wu would still be with us. No one in my past squad selections has ever died during a quest.”

  “Well, it was a field mission after all.”

  The silence ebbed.

  We soon arrived at the bay of the Academy and anchored. My boots touched the planks of the footbridge. It felt good to be home again, especially with all the success on our backs. Our support NPC instructed us again. “Cadets, please assemble in the central hub for your final evaluation.”

  No break, no check-up at the infirmary. We hustled straight through the hallway guiding us to the central hub where hundreds of other players mingled. I had totally forgotten that our twenty-four player platoon wasn’t the only group that had dispatched for a field mission today. As L’ocean had told me earlier, three other twenty-four unit platoons joined their respective operations.

  The Academy principal, yet another NPC, announced the final player results in rapid succession. She said a few words about every cadet and revealed the positives followed by the negatives. My ears tuned out most of her speech until she mentioned one name:

  “Dash.”

  L’ocean—heck, even Rokkit and the Stalker from before—set their eyes on me. The pressure upped my heartbeat, and my real hands sweated.

  The principal repeated my name, which wasn’t half as flabbergasting as the final score that appeared on the board.

  I couldn’t believe it.

  31

  “B minus.”

  Ugh. I had to look at the result to believe it.

  B freaking minus. The worst grade a player could get while still passing the field mission. I needed to read the scroll a second time to make sure no glitch had slipped into the evaluation. The update lande
d in the log section of my e-scroll, where I could analyze the details of my mission results. According to the report, I hesitated too many times and failed to use my skills in an appropriate matter. Disappointment showered over me. I thought I had performed much better, but hey, at least my avatar was alive.

  Congratulations, Cadet Dash. You have passed the field mission with a B- ranking. You’re now allowed to roam Fourlando as a free agent.

  Tip: to get started, check the helpful how-to courses in the log section of your e-scroll.

  I should have been happy about passing the final test, but the result irked me. Especially considering how much better my team members faired. L’ocean received an ‘A’ while Rokkit still snatched an A minus. Wu had died during the mission, so his rating was omitted. I remained the worst ranking player in the squad, and boy, did it piss me off. My hopes of attracting a sponsor shriveled. Sure, companies almost never recruited players straight out the Academy, but a good school ranking promised attention on my streams. At least the graduation upgraded me to Level 9; another hard-earned skill point I could spent now.

  Rokkit approached me. “What’s up with the sour face? You passed the test.”

  “With the worst possible score.”

  “You survived the mission, which is a miracle in itself.”

  I was tired of his verbal bites. He must have noticed it too, because he stopped his mouth from moving again. L’ocean joined his side with a demanding glare. Rokkit shrugged and opened the trade window. “Before you go all crybaby on me, here’s a little gift from the final boss.”

  He invited me for a trade. I accepted the deal and expected another joke but dropped my mouth when I spotted the item.

  Weapon: Sunblood military-grade gunblade

  Type: Light melee/mid-range hybrid

  Quality: Good

  Ammo: 8 pellets per cartridge