Another Online: Clockwork Read online

  I gulped and took a step back. “I see you have a new friend.”

  “Once I saw you and your Elder Dragon in the battle of Stone Keep I was like, I should get me one of those also. Thanks for the idea.” If looks could kill I would be dead a thousand times over from the expression the Crimson King was giving me.

  “Yeah, no problem.” I took another step back.

  “Now, time to die! Crimson Victory, attack!” He pointed at me and the dragon rushed at me.

  “Oh, come on, it isn’t even red! Dumb name!” I shouted as I jumped into the air and darted towards the stables.

  “Shut your damn face, you stupid bitch!”

  “I see your skills of linguistics haven’t improved much since the last time we met!” I rounded the castle, flapping as hard as I could. If this dragon was anything like Tundra, it would be able to fly just as fast or faster than me. I peeked behind me and it was hot on my heels. Like, literally on my heels, it was actually nipping at them. “Nope,” I mumbled as I rolled in the air, pointing my finger at the dragon. “Entangle!” I had used this spell when I captured Tundra, it had stopped her in her tracks. Granted, Tundra was extremely low health then and this dragon was full HP, but all I needed to do was buy some time. And buy time it did, the mess of threads wrapped around the dragon, tangling up its wings. It hit the ground hard and collided with the barracks below. Swarms of Empire soldiers were already coming out of the barracks, and a grounded dragon was an excellent target. I gave my handiwork a nod and flew to the door of the stables.

  I threw the door open and placed my fingers between my mouth and whistled as loudly as I could. “Come on, girl, it’s time to get up.” A low rumble of a groggy dragon came from deep in the stables. “Yeah, I feel you, but it is time to get up!” and slowly stumbled out my sleepy dragon. “That's my girl.” I stroked her under her chin then jumped on her back. “Come on, we have some work to do!” and she took off like a bullet from a gun.

  It didn’t take long to get back to the fight. Crimson Victory, such a dumb name, had taken out most of my underlings. That was to be expected; Elder Dragons were just so much more powerful than normal minions. As soon as Tundra spotted Crimson Victory, she screeched and spat out an ice blast without any command to do so. From my reading over the last few years, I had found that dragons were extremely territorial, so it made absolute sense that she would react this way, or the System would make her react this way. Free will was a bitch here in AO. Her ice breath struck Crimson Victory square in the back. It let out a pained shout and reared its head to look at us. Before it could do anything, Tundra shot at Crimson Victory, claws ready to strike. I could sense the power of the imminent hit and jumped off Tundra’s back. That move was the right one, because the force of the hit made a shockwave that killed every last palace guard left and blasted the barracks into nothing but little chunks of stone and wood. “Ugh, that will take forever to rebuild.” My shoulders sunk.

  “Var, behind you!” Xor shouted from my balcony. Without looking, I darted to my left and a huge metal chunk went past where I was moments before. I turned to see the Crimson King holding a chunk of stone that was the size of a large shed. I raised my eyebrows at that. This guy must have done some work on his character because that was a lot more strength than he had when I saw him last. He tossed the stone at me like it was nothing. I easily avoided it and weaved my way to the Crimson King, avoiding more and more rocks he was throwing my way.

  With all my speed, I kicked the little punk right in his stupid face. He went flying and impacted on what was left of the tower behind him. I cut a good swath of life from him, so he must have stopped using barriers after I beat him last time, but seconds later he was back at full HP! Damn it, leave it to this guy to come up with some new exploit to make him a real pain in the butt. “Ha, a kick? Super lame.”

  “Will you stop flapping your mouth, your voice is like nails on a chalkboard.”

  “Whatever.” He spat as he stood.

  “Really, this whole thing won't go your way. It would probably be best if you left.” I took a step towards him.

  “And why should I do that?”

  “Because you are in my territory this time, you fool.” I pointed and screamed “Attack!” and just like I had hoped, several people came darting out of the castle. Drac was nothing more than a blur, his time magic making him hell on wheels. Ral ran, sword at the ready with more hate in her eyes then I had ever seen, but that was to be expected; this jackass had enslaved her and her sisters for god knows how long. Tilln wasn’t far behind her sister, spear glistening in the morning sun. Amber jumped off one of the outer castle walls, both swords ready to strike from above. And to top off the onslaught, Thaz came out, crossbow firing flaming arrows. It was a wave of high level Ns ready to take this jackass down.

  Every last one of them hit the Crimson King. The battle was so fast and chaotic I couldn't keep track of what was happening. My allies jumped back and there stood the Crimson King, full health and a dumb smirk on his face. “My turn,” he spoke softly and tossed two alchemist fires at my people. Alchemist fires were nothing to scoff at, they were one of the most powerful bombs that can be bought and were a favorite among players as it does a ton of damage for non spellcasters. Drac easily made it out of the way seeing as he was one of the fastest people in all of AO, but everyone else wasn’t so lucky. Large swaths of HP dropped off all my companions' health bars. Drac darted over to me in a blur. “Mother, it seems as if we have a problem here.”

  “Yeah, this guy is a pain, last time we fought he used an item trick to make him almost invincible. He’s probably doing something similar this time.” There was a roar and an explosion behind us that made Drac and I spin around to see Tundra and Crimson Victory plow through a greenhouse on the castle grounds. “Ow, that was our vegetable greenhouse, Milly is going to be pissed.”

  “It seems that he has brought a friend to fight also?” Drac glowered at the fighting Elder Dragons. “What should we do about that? I don’t think Alexander would be happy about all this damage to the castle grounds.”

  “I’m not happy about it either. Maybe some of us should help Tundra out?”

  “Probably a good id-” Two more explosions, probably more alchemist fires, cut Drac off.

  “You, Tilln, and Ral keep that jackass occupied! Amber, Thaz and I will take the dragon!” I shouted so everyone could hear me. There were shouts of agreement and rushing about the chaotic battlefield. Moments later, I found Amber and Thaz by my side. Thaz had a huge grin on her face. Amber seemed focused and ready to fight a war. “What’s with you and me and dragon hunting?” Thaz slapped me hard on the back between the wings.

  “Thaz, focus!” I barked at her. She responded by rolling her eyes. “Okay, I’m going to distract this thing from above, Amber, you do strafing runs under it, get its underbelly as much as you can.”

  “Yep.” Amber nodded, not looking at me, her complete attention was on that dragon.

  “Thaz, I want you to use your most powerful attacks on it, and you run your little kitty butt off as they are cooling down. As soon as you can use your abilities, you hit it again.”

  “Wait, did you just use player jargon?” Thaz looked shocked. I mean why wouldn't she be? I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. “Seriously, what’s going on wi-”

  “Thaz, I’ll tell you later; right now, dragon!” I pointed furiously at the dragon fight that was currently smashing all Milly’s veggies.

  “Oh, right, later.” She pointed her crossbow at the fight.

  “Move, move, move!” I darted into the air at about Elder Dragon eye level and pointed at Crimson Victory. “Algid Soul!” This was only the second time I had used this spell, but one of the advantages of AO was once you had a skill you were kind of a master of it, like you always knew how to use it and you have used it a million times. The jet of frigid arctic air burst from my outstretched hand. My aim was impeccable, I hit Crimson Victory right in his stupid dragon face. Ice covere
d his entire head and a good amount of his neck. The extra weight of the ice made his head plop to the ground. This iciness probably wouldn’t last long but it didn’t need to, I had an Elder Dragon, an extremely skilled swordswoman, and a max level player with all the legendary gear on my side. All they needed was a few seconds to rip into this thing, and rip they did. Tundra took this opportunity to bite into this thing's neck and bunny kick the hell out of it. The action reminded me of when my girlfriend's cats would fight, back in the real. Amber ran full speed under Crimson Victory's legs and stabbed and slashed at every vulnerable bit she could reach. Thaz was shooting arrows so fast it was almost like there was an entire platoon of archers shooting from her position.

  There was a loud cracking sound and the ice shattered from Crimson Victory’s head. He jerked his head and bit onto Tundra's neck and tossed her like a rag doll, right at me. I tried to get out of the way but the dragon was just too big and she was moving far too fast. She collided with me; we smashed into a castle wall and we continued right into the castle itself. I found myself laying sprawled in the chapel. The statues of the dark gods lay broken and scattered across the floor, the pews not much more than splinters. I staggered to my feet and let out a grumble, felt my face tense up and embers drifting out of my mouth. “Okay, I can accept a lot of crap, but as soon as you break my statues and artwork we are going to have a problem. Tundra, I think it’s about time we took this thing down.” Tundra also got to her feet and let out a low bass growl that shook the air around it. “Shadow Swarm!” and I cast my spell that turned shadows into a swarm of dark tentacles; not on myself, but on the dragon. The amount of wiggling and pulsating tentacles was massive, I had never seen this spell used to such effect.

  We were going to take this dragon out! I screamed, fire flying from my open jaw like a broiler with its door open. As soon as I made it out of the hole, I pointed my hand at the Crimson Jerk Dragon and yelled as loud as my voice could manage, and that was a lot. “Black Hole!” The ball of black nothingness hit right in the dragon’s side. It screamed in pain and jerked its head to me. I could see power accumulating in its open mouth, probably getting ready to blast me with some kind of poison blast, but I didn’t give it a chance. I darted off to the side so Tundra and her swarm of shadow tentacles could rip into the damn thing. Tundra didn’t disappoint, she moved faster than I had ever seen her move and hit Crimson Victory like a magrail train! Crimson Victory’s head shot up from the hit, and the attack he was readying shot up into the air, sending a shower of acid rain down onto the entire castle grounds. I didn’t care. I took the damage from the rain, barely registering the pain from the droplets. I rushed to Crimson Victory’s wings. “Surge Claw!” My claws arced with valiant energy and I plunged both of my claws right into the spot where the wing met back. I slashed and ripped into the thick dragonhide. His wing jerked and tried to pull away from me but there was no place it could move to. I kept rending into the dragon, not letting up for a breath or thought.

  I don’t know how long it took, but I eventually ripped past the hide and into the meat and veins. Blood welled up from the wound and without thinking I bit into the exposed flesh. So, over the past few years I have kind of turned into a blood connoisseur, knowing what people and races would taste like, and knowing what my favorite kinds were. Player blood, race Siveen, young age, gender female, was the vintage I liked best. Emphasis on was, because the moment Elder Dragon blood flowed into my mouth, there was no going back, this was the best thing I had ever tasted. I took long deep gulps; each moment was heavenly. Well that was until the world turned upside down and there was an enormous wait pressing over my entire body. It took me a moment to realize that the dragon had rolled onto its back, pinning me under it. I tried to scream but all I got was gurgling, my face was firmly planted in an open dragon wound.

  It took all my might but I managed to move my hand to the gaping wound on the dragon’s back. I shouted “itn boot!” I was trying to say Titan Bolt, but there was far too much blood to really have anything make sense. Lucky for me, the spell didn’t need to be audible for it to work. Energy pulsed out of my palm right into the wound, and through the blood, right into my face, mouth, torso, anything the blood touched, which was just about all of me. I never said I was good under pressure. What was left of my barrier was gone and it wouldn't recharge until after the battle, nothing to do about that. Luckily for me, this was also unpleasant for Crimson Victory because it jurked and thrashed enough that I was able to roll out from under him.

  I sat up and shook my head, trying to get the pain from the energy to go away. Once the pain was just a heavy tingle, I looked around to see what was happening. I found Amber standing nearby, staring at me. “By the Void, Var, your hair.” She snickered and turned away from me, trying, and failing, to not laugh at me.

  “Wa abo y air?” I asked, but I found words weren't working because my tongue and the muscles around my mouth were completely numb. That’s when Amber burst out laughing and ran off, both swords pointed to Crimson Victory. I frowned, or again tried to, all I got was slack jawed numbness, and reached up to my hair. Normally my hair is sleek, smooth, and cascading down my back. Right now, it was a puffy ball of silver. With all the cooked blood covering my body I must have looked, well, down right crazy.

  Acid sprained right into my back and sent me rolling into what was left of the greenhouse. Right, we were still fighting an Elder Dragon. I stumbled to my feet and turned to see Tundra holding the Crimson Victory on its back, shadow tentacles ripping at Crimson Victory’s mouth and eyes, Amber on its belly plunging both of her swords over and over into its gut and Thaz on some rubble shooting arrow after arrow into its wounds with extreme accuracy. It seemed at the moment those three had this side of the fight covered. I scanned the grounds to find the other part of this fight.

  Things weren't going so well for Drac, Tilln and Ral. The Crimson King was currently trading blows with Drac. Drac had only a third of his health left where the King still had full HP, because of course he did. Ral and Tilln were fighting hordes of... somethings. I had never seen things like these before. They were like if a baboon and hippopotamus had a baby, and then stretched out its limbs on one of those medieval stretching torture devices, what were those called? The Rack? Well, their limbs were super long. Ral barely managed to dodge a strike from one of the baboon hippopotamus things. Okay, I need to think up a name for those things, Babopotamus? Yeah, why not? “Ire-orm!” trying to shout Firestorm, this was getting old quick. Balls of blazing, white hot fire went streaming at the Babopotamus. The thing didn’t see it coming and each ball struck it, blasting it into oblivion. Ral looked over to me and her eyes widened. “Oh wow…” she said under her breath.

  “I know, I know” I said. Well, only the vowels came out, so instead I said, “I o, I o.”

  “Well, should we help Dra-” And another Babopotamus jumped her. The two went tumbling through a beautiful flower garden, or what was left of it, most of the flowers were currently on fire or crushed. Ral braced her sword against the torrent of claws and teeth of the Babopotamus. “My Queen, I have this, you help the Prince!” Ral kicked the Babopotamus right in its nuts and it shreeked an ungodly noise.

  “Eah, ok.” Oh, thank the dark ones, I was starting to get feeling back into my face. I flew over Tilln who was currently standing on top of a Babopotamus with her spear planted in its ugly face, and shoulder checked The Crimson King. He didn’t see it coming and tumbled into the dirt, sliding a good distance away from Drac and me. “Mother, you look-”

  “I know. How about we hold off on the snide comments and focus on the fight.” His eyes lingered on me for a few more moments before turning back to the King, who was rising to his feet.

  “You bitch, I’ll burn this whole castle down for that!” The King stood and turned to face us. “What the hell is with you?”

  “Oh, trying a new look, what do you think?” I ran my claw through the frizzy mess.

  “I like it, it gives y
ou an evil hag motif.” Drac’s eyes were now locked on the King.

  “Well, thank you, Drac, I think I may keep doing my hair like this.” I also didn’t look away from the King, but that didn’t stop us from bantering.

  “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” The King stomped his foot and flailed his morningstar up and down like a child who people weren't paying attention to so they were throwing a fit.

  “Hey man, if you are going to come to our house and break our stuff, the least you can do is let us banter to each other.” Out of my peripheral vision, I could see Drac cross his arms. “I mean, it’s just common courtesy.”

  “I know, right? Kids these days.” I put emphasis on the word kids.

  “I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” And just like I had hoped, that sent him into an uncontrolled fury. He ran at us both, morningstar held in a high attack possession. Without a word Drac and I rushed at him at the same time. Drac moved faster than I did and made contact first. Drac clotheslined the guy. The Crimson King’s feet went spinning out from under him and he moved like a pendulum around Drac’s outstretched arm. I used this opportunity to slide under the King and put my hand right under his back. “Unholy Lance.” Normally I shout my spell names, it adds a sense of power and gravitas, but this time I whispered it smugly right in the King's ear. The two black and purple lances shot into the Crimson King’s back, sending him shooting into the air, spinning head over heels. I noticed his health drop for just a second and then jump right back up to full. The little shit must be using a ton of healing items and magics to heal super quick. A few moments later there was a sound of metal hitting stone with a satisfying CLANG! The King continued to bounce around a bit more before coming to a stop. Both Drac and I looked to find the King sprawled across a bit of rubble. I looked at his health and it was still full! What did we need to do to this guy to kill him?! “Really, he’s still alive?!” I thrust my hand at him. “This is getting annoying!”