Rebirth: Rise of the Slave Master

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Playing a Game

“N-no! Wai- URK!”

Like an executioner’s blade, [Skullsplitter] lived up to it’s name. Theo didn’t see the head flying from the man’s shoulders, but he could certainly imagine it.

Spears and sabers cut through the space that stood between the attackers and their target. In the minds of the bandits, they could already see the man skewered and broken, but all that could be heard was the clattering of weapons. Horses stamped and whinnied as they were left with nowhere to go. Some knocked into one another, while others turned and kicked at their own shadows in fright. There was another thunder-bolt like crash as something heavy caught the neck of another bandit and pulled him free of the saddle.

There wasn’t any screaming.

“He’s there!” at least three of the men said it at once.

Turning the startled animals in any direction only revealed the harsh outline of swinging poleaxe. When he was moving, Theo was like a stalking tiger, and when he struck he did so with comparable ferocity. Here, there, weapons were launched at anything even remotely resembling the adventurer. Some of the bandits wanted to move back, others thought to close in, but without a leader they were left flailing like a headless serpent.

“Everyone, we need to- fuuargh!” anyone with a bright idea would immediately paint a target on his chest, upon which [Skullsplitter] seemed to hone with an unerring, deadly accuracy.

“Thirteen,” the voice was detached, uninterested almost, but it was like an alarm bell in the bandit’s heads.

All of them silently wanted to know, without the time to count, how many of them were left?

Up to this point, Theo’s weapons when facing more powerful enemies had always been momentum and fear. The psychological effects of self-preservation were two-fold, fight and flight. The determination of which route the foe would follow was balanced on a precarious edge known as choice. Aggression arose from a failure to find a way out of a dangerous situation, whether brought about by mental or physical stimuli. Even if there was a clear path of escape, one could manage to hold their ground if they refused the other option due to the effects of honor, courage, desperation, or any number of other reasons.

In that case, the only choice was to crush these mental barriers one after another, until there was nothing giving the man a desire to fight. It was important to make the afflicted choose, of their own free will, to abandon all hope of victory.

“Twenty-three.”

Theo was standing outside the front gate with the bodies of the fallen bandits littering the ground around him. Not one of the riders had chosen to flee, showing just how determined they were to finish off the man who had killed their leader. Camaraderie and revenge were both powerful motivators, as the Slave Master knew from personal experience. This only worked in his benefit, as the bandits were mercilessly evicted from the world Orpheum.

Horses scattered in fear, seemingly more intelligent than their riders. The army standing on the horizon wasn’t paying much attention until the dust finally cleared, revealing the lone adventurer standing among the carnage. It was the first message Theo wanted to send to the bandit army.

If you come here, you will die.

All races in Dream World Online were capable of impressive and impossible feats of strength and skill. It wasn’t unreasonable to believe that such a threat existed, carefully hidden by the enemy in the event of just such an invasion. The casual way the man looted the corpses of the fallen and sat on the ground with his poleaxe leaning against his shoulder sent a second message.

If you don’t come here, you won’t die.

Theo’s plan didn’t include rushing into the enemy camp in a suicidal attempt to kill as many of the men as possible. His only goal was to stall as long as he possibly could. With so many incoming attacks, it was impossible to not take some damage, and the multiplication effect of his [Rampage] ability was a double-edge sword. Down to a little under half his HP, Theo took full advantage of the game’s increased regeneration value when sitting every opportunity available.

With his current stats, it would take minute or so to fully replenish his health before the next wave of attacks arrived even with the increased values. The only question was, what was going to come his way next?

“Fuck… that monster actually got stronger...” one individual in particular was watching the fight with rapt attention.

The Shapeshifter, under the guise of Army Commander Hoak, hadn’t taken its eyes off Theo since his arrival on the field. It was no stretch to say this whole course of events had been orchestrated to put the adventurer down for good. Theo’s eventual goal in coming to Aleside had been clear from the outset, but what wasn’t clear was why he hadn’t left the Oasis territory on a ship already. Once he did leave, they wouldn’t have a chance to remove him again, so Old Man Snake Eyes had called in a favor to bolster the forces of the bandit army.

With their ability to gather information, the time limit for Theo’s execution was already known. When the punitive force from Oasis managed to get here, it would be an absolute slaughter and the Black Mountain Clan would be permanently destroyed. The Shapeshifter could not have cared less; however, time was of the essence because the adventurer must be dead before that happened..

“Commander Hoak! Your orders?” and officer spoke to his leader.

The so-called Commander Haok was a thin, scarred-faced man with long black hair and underlying attractive features. It was clear to see that even on the horse he looked tall, and behind his broad shoulders was visible a pair of matching blade handles.

The Shapeshifter carefully weighed its options. The goal was to kill Theo, not to ravage Aleside and aggravate Castle’s relationship with the government. The hardest part, prying out the elusive target, had already accomplished, but it was done in a way which also tied the Shapeshifter’s hands. Even if he sent his entire army out, it wasn’t as if they could all attack the man at once. If they brought out the archers, Theo could simply retreat into the city.

“They’ve got a tough nut, but we have more than enough weight to crack it,” Hoak’s voice was thin and dignified, “Have the men attack in shifts, don’t give the adventurer a chance to rest.”

“And the mercenaries, sir?” the officer asked.

Hoak’s smile was gnarled by a variety of scars, “Send them first, of course, why else are we paying them?”

Just because the Shapeshifter was Old Man Snake Eye’s slave, didn’t mean it had any love for Castle. There was no such thing as trust or affection in the creature’s cold, dead heart.

“Silly Theo… do you really think I won’t come out if you’re standing around in the open?” the Shapeshifter hissed.

From the distance, Theo watched as another group of men started moving out from the enemy formation. It looked to be about forty men, mostly mercenaries. It would take them approximately two minutes to reach him, and right behind them was another contingent of soldiers waiting.

“So they want to play it slow? Fine by me…” he stood up, his voice booming out over the battlefield, “Try to cross me, and it will be the last step you ever take!”

The words did nothing to slow the charging Castle mercenaries, and a mass of black clad men quickly swarmed over Theo’s position.

A cry of pain rang out.

[Skullsplitter] roared and crashed into the nearest soldier. Theo didn’t hesitate to dive into the mob, his weapon bending and thrashing as his body turned, carving open a path in the impending dogpile. Before he could be encircled, he crushed an unsuspecting attacker with a precisely timed [Lunge]. He parried one blade and dodged another, interrupting his opponents further attempts to advance with a rapid-fire barrage.

Although his attacks were strong, the [Rampage] effect had worn off a while ago, and the mercenaries had plenty of HP. His life would be easier if he could cut these guys down in a single blow, but that wasn’t a possibility at his current level.

The raging poleaxe didn’t discriminate against its targets, and its wielder treated the entire mass of soldiers as single, confused, slow moving entity. Large groups were only useful against a single agile opponent if they could successfully tie him down, and Theo had no intention of letting that happen. He never focused on killing any specific enemy at one time, and carefully conserved his skills for emergencies. Just by using [Dodge], [Counter], and [Parry], he was able to weave in and out of the formation.

[Lunge], [Fend], and [Inflict Pain] were reserved for opening up routes of escape.

It was impossible to make out the words of the mercenaries as screams of pain, provocation, and rage muddled together under the clashing of steel.

“Twenty-four,” Theo called as one of the men’s HP was finally depleted.

“Do you need to see it? Why your strategy won’t work?” Theo mused to himself as he crushed his target’s windpipe with the haft of his poleaxe.

“Twenty-five.”

“Twenty-eight.”

“Thirty-three.”

Time crawled, the number of wounds continued to grow, and every blow became that much more likely to take a life. The pile of bodies mounted, and the men only grew more more frantic. Confusion started to spread, and several of them struck one another by accident as they swung wildly to preserve their lives.

“What are you doing?” the shapeshifter, who was watching from a distance shouted at his officers, “I told you to attack in shifts! Why aren’t they retreating!?”

The confused bandit leader stared on with a shocked expression, “They! They are! It’s just…”

“Thirty-five!” Theo roared as he used [Lunge] to chase down a fleeing target.

“Where are you trying to run?” Theo’s cold eyes gleamed, “Didn’t I tell you earlier? The minute you try to cross me… you’ll die?”

He raised the [Skullsplitter] and drove it into another man as he tried to run past, activating his [Inflict Pain] in the process. The bloodcurdling screams that followed were so chilling that even the Shapeshifter felt the fear. Of course, the dazed mercenary wasn’t long for this world.

Theo smiled, “Thirty-six.”

“Idiots! Send out the order! Have the second detachment attack!” Hoak roared.

It took a few moments for the order to propagate, but the waiting forces eventually charged into the fray. Seeing the bloodshed, these old war dogs naturally wanted to try their hand at the crazed adventurer. How could they be mercenaries, if they weren’t willing to risk their lives in the first place? Just the thought of what kind of bonus they’d receive if they killed the black-haired man caused their blood to boil.

However, there was a difference between risking one’s life, and running into certain death. The first batch of soldiers to face Theo’s [Skullsplitter] was already beginning to learn the distinction, and it would only be a matter of time before the other ones followed.

Guard Captain Alaine, who had quickly taken up one of the few spots in the gate’s cramped little watchtower, was also witnessing the events unfold below. The way Theo fought was slow, methodical, and cautious. No movement was wasted, but there was a subtlety to his actions that was difficult to catch if you weren’t watching from a distance. The men who were jostling for their lives in the melee wouldn’t notice it, but they were being herded and separated one by one. It was like the adventurer could sniff out their fear and pain, and placed the soldiers closest to breaking the furthest away from salvation.

The moment they tried to make a run for it.

“Heeheehee! Fifty-seven!”

This kind of awareness in the midst of a life or death battle… no, this wasn’t a battle...

“It’s like he’s playing a game,” Alaine couldn’t pull his eyes away.

Theo pried [Skullsplitter] from another job well done, and turned to look over his shoulder at the field of bodies.

“No more?” he was still in good condition, but had lost track of how much time had passed, and his head was starting to throb.

Players were blessed with essentially infinite stamina, leaving the bandit’s plan to exhaust him utterly pointless, but the fighting was beginning to take its toll on his mind. Everything felt slower, hazy even.

“Seventy-eight…” Theo felt a pain in his heart as another few bodies faded away into particles.

He just didn’t have enough time to kill every last one of them and also gather up the loot. Every minute, a few more would disappear from the field. They were probably still laying around taking up space in the eyes of the NPCs though. It was nice that he could ignore the clutter.

It seemed as if the invading forces were deciding their next move.

Theo inspected his skill progress during the lull while he sat down and took another breather. There was nothing more refreshing for his tired mind than enjoying the spoils of his efforts. The results were actually a little better than he expected, since most of these guys were a higher level than he was, though he could only imagine what kind of stink this was going to make when the devs caught wind of it. Well, all they could really observe was the numbers, they wouldn’t be able to see him fight. It was their own fault for making the fights so preferential to the players.

“Oh, I’m pretty close to reaching Good alignment… I need to watch that…”

Thankfully, there was a limit to the amount of Good points one could gain from killing over a certain period of time. The cap was pretty low, so it would take at least a few more days of ‘punishing’ evildoers like this for his alignment to make a change. Theo wasn’t entirely sure what happened to a Slave Master who ended up with the Good alignment, but if it was anything like the other classes with restrictions, he would lose all access to his class specific abilities. That meant he wouldn’t be able to use the [Slave Master’s Brand] to command his slaves anymore. It might even release them, for all Theo knew.

“Do I need to torture somebody or kill a random guy?” he couldn’t help but think as eyed the number.

As he was idly investigating the changes in his attributes, Theo looked up to sound of approaching hooves. Heading towards him were a number of riders, similar to the bandit elites who had approached him earlier. There was no way for him to know what kind of conclusion they’d come to after sacrificing that last group of soldiers, but if the leaders were showing up now, it was probably time for things to get serious.

“Adventurer Theo!” the man who called out to him was an average looking guy with short hair, who could have passed for a farmer just as easily as a bandit, “We seek to discuss new terms with you on behalf of the Black Mountain Clan.”

Theo let out a cold breath as he looked over the thirty or so heavily-armed riders. It wouldn’t be the death of him if he tried to kill them here, but he was uncertain about the one who had spoken. Unlike the previous bandit officer that he had taken by surprise, it wouldn’t be so easy to get the best of someone who had already seen him at work. He also couldn’t lock down mounted soldiers the same way he could the regular troops, and they would inevitably get away if they chose to flee.

It would have been better if they had just sent another mob his way.

“Speak then, what do you want?” he didn’t give them the slightest amount of respect.

The rider seemed to expect this kind of treatment and didn’t appear to mind it. In fact, Theo scared him half to death just by standing there, “A duel!”

“Denied!” Theo was far more comfortable keeping to the status quo.

The man frowned, “Don’t be too quick to decide. We might not be able to hold you down, but that isn’t the case for the people behind you. Our target was you to begin with, so we’ve mercifully held back our attack.”

In other words, they were holding the city hostage. It was a ridiculous sentiment when they hadn’t even scratched the gate, but with their current numbers, neither he nor the guardsman would be able to stop them. The other thing that worried Theo was that they didn’t swarm him with their far greater numbers. He was confident that he could still escape and try to take off the head of the proverbial serpent even if they tried to fill the entire field with bodies, which had been his plan. It was bothersome that they hadn’t tried it before offering the duel option, as if the leader was avoiding him.

If he was a free man, Theo could just leave the city to the bandits for a day or so before the punitive forces arrived, but he was under contract with the Adventurer’s Guild to protect Aleside. He also felt it would be a shame if those idiot guards went and got themselves killed.

“Explain,” Theo didn’t feel like wasting any extra words, and he felt his stomach turn over when the bandit smiled at him.

“You will face a warrior of our choosing six hours from now, at our camp. Bring only yourself and your weapon, and we’ll resolve this conflict.”

“This is such an obvious trap he might as well just tell me to kneel right now…” Theo’s thoughts were venomous, but he didn’t need to respond in kind.

He didn’t need to say anything.

“We’ll be waiting for you,” said the man before taking his group and leaving.

The horses trotted carefully, as if they were avoiding obstacles in the path that Theo couldn’t see.