Chapter Nine: Dust Clouds

Looking down on them all Zenna set within the box, the arena bellow was poorly made, it was constructed from wooden planks forming large bleachers in a heptagonal shape while only large boards that could not withstand the impact of an arrow let alone a sword, axe or hammer separating the lower stands from the arena. The low cut grass had already been stained red by blood, but the gods grace had already cleared up the foul debris of deceased corpses that would otherwise litter the playing field having already dissolved leaving only their gear behind. Zenna often wondered why the gods supported such people in their actions of living and dying, so much so that both life and death became meaningless to them.

In the arena the strongest combatant forces from two of the five state sponsored guilds stood: Mons were a faction specialising in taming and controlling monster to use the beasts powers for themselves. Their opponents White Light had the sole ethos, which was to: deliver justice, whether this meant punishing offenders, or fighting wars it did not matter. There were currently two corps one specialising in capital affairs and the other in war. It was the latter performing.

Zenna looked down hopelessly, seeing the two sides stand against each other. Turning from one to the other, she decided would much rather have White Light win the day, Seeing as she was being forced to marry the victor.

Mons stood shrouded in long dark robes that concealed their body, no armour, and wielding only knives as weapons except for the leader who carried a hatchet in his left hand. While about their feet crawled flame hounds, level fifteen monsters capable of imbuing both their claws and their fangs with flames that would spread over anything they touched. Every member of the group had two of these beasts under their command except for the leader who controlled the alpha and a strange looking bird that perched on his shoulder.

“How on earth did that man get hold of a wyvern, it may only be a minor wyvern, and a newborn at that but they’re still deadly creatures that specialise in poison.” Dast declared shocked. Zenna looked at the little creature, it was pale whit with wings similar to a bat and a long muzzle full of vicious teeth. Its tail covered in spines and in general it had a vicious appearance. Of course their opponents were not to be trifled with either. They wore heavy armour formed from iron scales sown onto thick leather jerkins; each carried a heater shield and a large sword axe, hammer or similar weapon. Physics declared that they should be unable to hold their tools in a single hand, but a supernatural strength supported them. Of course their leader was an exception, he wore a breastplate and carried a two handed flamberge as large as his body able to swing it in one hand though the held it in two.

Before a word could pass between them the battle began. The head of White Light guild slung his blade forward the edge throwing up dirt to blind the charge of flame hounds pushing forwards. Shields were dropped to the ground, tips sinking into the earth, as the beasts approached. They were summarily cut down by heavy-handed strokes. Of course the so-called tamers did not stop to watch the battle unfold. They leapt in huge bounds over the shield wall.

“Masterful strategy of Mons part.” Officer one declared

“But White light is a mighty force!” the other countered Zenna watched with rapt attention. As the Mons members landed among their foes their blades began to cut and rend to little affect but White light was unable to respond having to drop their weapons lest they injure their comrades in the close proximity before ripping the invaders limb from limb with ease. But the lack of attention to the shield wall brought its collapse the wolves rushing in to tear them apart.

It seemed white light had lost only its leader remaining pushed back of the corpses of his comrades. But it seemed he had not given up the will to fight. “Hallowed slash!” the head of White Light invoked a sacred art that made his blade glow bright white, swinging his blade around his body in a singular motion dropping to one knee as he finished the complete circular slash. All opponents within the radius of his sword and roughly two metres beyond were dead, cleaved clean in two.

“What was that?’ Zenna questioned gesturing to the attack the man had just performed.

“When blessed ones become skilled enough in a certain field they can gain classes just like us except their classes are almost always battle orientated. The head of each guild has a class of some power, I believe the head of White light is a ‘Golden Paladin’ or something similar, it comes from having an incredibly bond with Aborai.” Dast explained calmly “I’m not sure what class the head of Mons holds though, he’s a secretive fellow.” Zenna looked at the hooded man who had only two lackeys and their beasts waiting on him now.

“Wish I could do that.” officer number one sighed to his own chagrin.

The head of Mons pointed his left arm, which held his hatchet forwards instructing his men to attack. They moved towards the paladin and were dead in an instant, the weighty blade cleaving through flesh and bone with ease.

“There now we can fight one on one.” The head of Mons declared pointing his hatchet at his foe. The wolf at his heels growled as the wyvern took to the air.

“I think you mean three on one, Voldore.” White Lights leader proclaimed

“If you say so Klain.” Mons’ Head chuckled. “But before we begin let me demonstrate my class.” He proclaimed holding his hatchet high above his head “Ilomwure Saltain – Imbue fires!” The man cried his blade caught flame in the air above him. Every man, woman, child in the audience watched and wondered. “So Klain can you beat an arcane tamer?”

“I don’t believe it that’s magic!” Dast proclaimed standing “The Blessed ones always natters on about, it I never thought it real. Humans able to use a form of Mahus, It may be weaker than a monsters, but still, it is damn impressive!” Lillan looked in horror as Voldore leapt forwards swinging his hatchet with wild abandon. Klain managed to fend it off pushing Voldore backwards until they stood at the edge of the arena, it seemed that imbuing magic into a weapon did not improve the wielders skill. With a flick of the wrist Voldore was disarmed hatchet sliding away

“Surrender now and I’ll spare you your life!” Klain demanded his blade to Voldore’s throat. Sighing Voldore removed his hood revealing a slightly warped face. On his cheeks there were scales and rather than hair the man possessed a mane of ragged fur running down the back of his head; he shared the traits of his beasts. The man held up his hands taking a deep breath, Zenna could see a vile glint in his eyes as he wheezed out towards Klain. From his mouth the man released a toxic gas, coloured a sickly green blowing it into Klain’s face. Rolling to ground Voldore grabbed his axe as his wyvern swooped from above and his flame hound pulled Klains legs from under him. And in an instant Voldore was up axe raised and bringing it down across the paladin’s helm, again and again, a single blow not enough to finish him off. It was bloody and it was brutal. The man looked up laughing, ebullient.

“Our victor is Voldore of Mons!” The king declared hands held high.

Zenna did not know what she could do…

So she ran.

The sun was bright above having barely passed its zenith, but the cities alleys were cast in shadows formed from the rising buildings about them.

Zenna was running, through the side streets and back-alleys taking random turns in an attempt to throw him off, the patting of her feet against the dirt roads the only familiar occurrence about her. She ran, she didn’t know where to but she knew she had to run, because her pursuer had already found her trail, that flame hound possessed a sharp nose and she knew her chances of escape were slim, still they were better than none. She could already hear its footsteps treading along behind her. She leapt and wove through piles of debris and waste that littered the backstreets of the city. They were nearing the southeast of the city, an area where waste was disposed of, human or otherwise. She had run there in the hope that it would distract her hunter and mask its sense of smell but it seemed that neither Voldore nor his beasts were so easily deterred. Above she saw a flash of white and knew that the wyvern was watching her. She ducked under cover and changed direction once again, perhaps if she made it to one of the main streets he’d let her go or at maybe some would be hero might have come to help. Though deep down she was aware of the painful truth that she was trapped in a cage she could never escape.

Rushing down another blind alley, she stopped. A small distance away she could hear the clamour of a main road, it was low nearly empty most people would have likely migrated to the festival grounds.

She spun around as he turned the corner glaring at her, beasts at his back. Voldore stood their grinning at her, his mouth full of pointed teeth, like so many needles shoved into his maw, savage and bestial, a wild animal that had finally cornered its prey. Marching forwards hands in the pockets of his robe he lunged hands flying out grasping her wrists and pinning her to the wall, face but an inch away.

“Did you forget you’re mine?” He questioned grinning at her. His eyes were sick looking her up and down her immobile form as a lizard like tongue flicked from his lips. Zenna screamed.

Rey Standon

He stood there a light sweat on his brow looking at the executives of the company. He was wearing a stuffy suit, but had forgone the usual matte black tie in favour of a red bowtie, which he’d already discarded deciding he looked even older than usual with it on.

“So the update what exactly will change?” One of the board members questioned. Olympus was a big company now, though Rey remained its head, with Alpha’s support they could never oust him no matter what political moves they made. In truth most of the people about him were just money-grubbing fools who only showed up to check that they didn’t need to pull out their stocks while they still could. Rey and Alpha did everything accept marketing and a number of other such jobs that neither was qualified for.

“Uh, pretty simple really, people complained about a lack of HP bars, and soon they’ll need MP and Stamina bars as well. So we’ll be including those, then there’s the addition of the name format, we will be changing the naming process to a random one, and players will only receive a second name after breaking the level thirty threshold. We’ll also be adding some added information panels for jobs like blacksmithing and farming, as well as item panels that provide information. Of course this information will be limited by what the players know so it was difficult to program. Though the addition of names and titles above monsters was a cinch by comparison. We’ll test it in a blank world server before release. Alpha’s already working on next months update, the town builder one, however now we’re also going to release the possibility for summoner based classes, along with fairies, spirits and elementals.”

There was a general aura of ‘that seems fine’.

“How about a report on the current player base?” One of the board members questioned. Rey sighed having to acquiesce to the request,

“Currently we only have hard core gamers, and they’re struggling to level, as such all of the more powerful monsters have been further isolated. We believe that a wider range of players will come with the increase in the number of copies being released. Expanse is becoming popular, and with the candidates for the television series chosen we will begin filming in one month after we get their permission and we will broadcast between one and two months later. I have already hired the editors who are due to start work when we begin.” Rey looked to everyone who seemed pleased. With that he wrapped up the meeting, he didn’t want to deal with them any more than he had to.

He left the room the discussion finished and made his way to the elevator. But just before the door closed one of the IT technicians rushed in dragging his laptop behind him.

“I’ll be heading to floor twenty.” He declared. Rey smirked nodding reaching down to press the appropriate button.

The technician turned to look at him pausing mouth agape. “Ah sir, I’m sorry I’ll step out.” the technician floundered as the elevator began to descend.

“Little late for that.” Rey pointed out with a smile.

“Sorry.” the man sighed rubbing the back of his head.

“Don’t worry about it… Patrick.” Rey looked towards the man’s name card. The man seemed in his late forties with bags under his eyes and a shock of red hair that was starting to thin. They stood in silence as the elevator moved.

“Say sir, my daughter is going to take up the game do you have any advice?” Patrick questioned looking at him.

“Just that it’s better to use logic in expanse than to follow proper game tropes especially when it comes to levelling, that’s why some people are nearly level twenty and everyone else is level six.” Rey explained.

“Right so treat it like a real world then?” Patrick questioned.

“You got it, after all that’s what it was designed to be, a virtual reality, and sometimes it is just as cruel as it is kind.”