2 days remain of contest A, Saturday.

It is Saturday evening, after a full day of setting up our encampment, just outside the gates of Leviathan Fortress. The fortress has high, slick walls and towers of coral with shell roofing and gangways between towers. The fortress itself is on a steep island, the cliffs of which make it a natural fortress already. The entryway is across a narrow footpath, which the tide covers at certain points of the week. The footpath continues up a steep and narrow road that winds back and forth to the gates. Under the island, in dark sea caves, are creatures which can be summoned as guardians. There were rumors of the creatures on the forums, and in the chats, but I had assumed this is information ‘plants’ to try to steer away any would-be attackers—now I am not so sure.

Kisma Carn, the reporter, I first saw in the newbie island, is stalking around our camp, with her floating eye-cameras, interviewing people. Above us, one of the Beholders is focused on myself and Sauce.

“Get that thing out of here,” Sauce yells at the reporter.

She walks over. “Care to make any statement? This could be the fight that wins the Yarrow region. She gives us a quizzical look that I realize is because we have our name and clan tags off, so she only knows that we are alliance.

Sauce leans in and I cannot make out what he says, but her face bunches up and she storms off. He laughs and turns to me. “The alliance has strict orders not to have clan or name tags on to not identify alliance leaders, she has no idea who we are.”

“I think she might,” I say, watching her walk away. I‘ve seen the way she keeps within a certain distance, and that one of the beholders is always kept roughly pointed in our direction. “Even if the alliance members don’t say anything, their actions speak to who we are. People are always coming up to us, and they move aside when we walk around. I think it’s pretty obvious.”

I check the #uwupdate channel and see she is hyping up the battle and probably giving away information to our enemies inside the walls.

“I have a little surprise I found in the alliance upgrade tree,” Sauce says and shares a screen with me. “It’s encrypted voice communications with all alliance members, so alliance members can talk openly, and their voices will sound like a garbled mess to anyone listening.”

“Let’s buy it,” I say.

Notice: alliance upgraded with full-encryption voice communications.

“Okay, let’s try this out,” he says. “I’m going to go with the full-encrypted mode and not the intended-target mode. The default will not encrypt for NPCs, or players not in the alliance, who you are directly looking at. So you can still buy things, but any comms over our channels or directly to another member will be encrypted automatically, even if they are standing right in front of you.”

“Perfect,” I say.

Sauce fiddles his fingers in the air, moving interface knobs.

Notice: Voice override. All alliance in-person voice currently encrypted.

“Okay, so we can talk freely now?” I ask.

“I think so. Let’s find out,” He walks over by the red-haired reporter and says, “So about that offer of a private interview in my dorm. I really did mean the part about whipped cream!”

“I bet she has fake read hair,” I say to Sauce, then look at her.

She looks from to Sauce and says, “Is this some kind of joke, I can understand you, but everyone else is speaking some kind of garble, is my headset broken or something?” Other players around her talk to each other and she looks more confused and then abruptly logs off.

We open alliance-moderated voice, which only allows a few of us to speak. I say out loud, “Okay, we are fully encrypted for a bit. You guys know what to do. Deep’s Party and AoWSuck’s party are going to flank up the sides once it is dark. Snowbirds and EatThis are going right up the front to try to draw their attention.”

I wave at them and they all pretend to fall over from the imaginary weight of my hand. I give them a chuckle. “Falling Knives have some interesting new tactics we are going to try. If they don’t work, then it could be rough for us, but we have a backup plan. Luckily, we brought out a temporary portal stone and set it up in a cave nearby. We can get back fast if we need to—it can still take a whilethey are probably going to figure out that is there pretty quick.”

“These guys are ready for us,” Sauce says, stepping up as Kisma Carn reappears with her beholder eye cameras. He pauses, and then continues, “Nightflower and I have been running you guys rough, but just another day and we can all cash in and have some fun.”

He does not mention we will almost immediately need to start working on the region battles. I have already sent spies to the other regions and am awaiting more information.

“Falling Knives, on me. We’re moving out,” I say. We all as a group form up, and I walk us over to the Stone Giants who have a large fire pit and a humongous wagon next to them that they had brought through the portal.

I hear Kisma Carn say, “I knew it,” as she tries to walk over and ask us about the first dungeon and the story instance. I don’t bother to try to say anything. Everything we say is garbled to her, so there is nothing she can understand unless we speak directly to her.

I make a signal to the giants, who nod and get up. I begin to walk my way to the edge of the camp where I make another signal to several alliance members who make their way back to the reporter and begin talking to her about the killing competition scores. She is so happy to understand someone she stays put.

That taken care of, we need to test some tactics out.

***

Away from the camp and the eyes of the Fortress, we help the giants get our contraption put together. This was an idea Briar had, and it is so insanely crazy it might work. He had explained it to me, but now we need the Falling Knives ready to climb in this thing so we can field test it before tonight.

“So, guys, here is the idea. You know how we all have that aspect skill Feather Fall? We are going to shoot ourselves over the top of the castle with this rogue-a-pult, and then Feather Fall down behind the gates,” Briar says as he gestures at and displays the catapult as if he was selling a kitchen appliance. “We are the shock troops who are going to let our army in, but we need to get there first, and this is the fastest way.”

The stone giants start cranking the catapult down, watching us with amusement as they work.

“That is … so cool!” the Falling Knife named Burnt says. Under his cloak he has long hair that hangs into his eyes. He is a natural predator in the game, one of the unofficial leaders of the group. “Because we only have two Feather-Falls per day with the aspect we can only use one of them to practice each,” he continues.

“That is right, and we made a target over there. I am going to go and place a glowing beacon on it,” says Briar, who promptly jumps in the catapult. He straps on some goggles he got…somewhere, and then he simply nods at the stone giant, who presses a lever. The sudden twang of the contraption is the power of magic and physics, which slings Briar a quarter mile into the sky and probably half a mile down range. He slows considerably as he begins to angle downward, we can see him slowly and gently float down to the ground.

We hear him “Whoop!” and raise a hand.

Instantly, all the Falling Knives line up and begin trying to cut in front of each other to climb into this death trap. They are excited—no, eager—to do this near-suicide mission. I intend to reward them if we pull this off. This will be a story told like the ‘Falador Massacre’ in the legacy of the old game Runescape. We’re taking advantage of a bug—or feature—in unintended ways. In this case, the Feather Fall aspect skill. We are turning ourselves into silent missiles, parachuting assassins. No matter if this works or not, there will be people claiming they were here for the Leviathan battle for years to.

It’s my turn. Ginga, I wish I had thought of getting goggles. I jump in and nod.

***

Now that it’s nighttime, there are lights of flame and magic near the gate, and the crews are keeping the enemy busy. I keep checking my shadow meter we just need it to be a little darker.

I can see that everyone is looking in on the chats and forums to see what is going on at the gate. That reporter is still trying to get her story, and the GMs have given her access to the Fortress so she can stream the battle. I may need to take out those beholder cameras. I check on Sauce, his team is in position, unnoticed, and scaling the wall. They will wait for our signal.

I see the shadow meter get to the right light level.

“It’s time,” I say and stand up. “Remember, this is pure stealth. We don’t want them to know how we pulled this off if we can help it.”

We don’t need to be exactly the perfect distance, we can turn with Feather Fall and angle as needed into the fortress. Briar and Burnt go first, and then two other Falling Knives. I change the angle slightly and I go along with the rear troops to make sure Deep’s Party with Sauce gets in the back.

Along with the twang is, the momentum, something that in the real world I know would have knocked me out, or juiced me from the acceleration. The game is not quite that developed yet. I feel wild rushing of wind, and at the peak of the launch, I’m weightless for a couple seconds. A quick flash of fear goes through my mind, “did I accidently use Feather Fall earlier in the day?”

I slow my decent and breathe a sign of relief.

I drift slowly, fully wrapped in my cloak and the darkness of night, heading directly to my destination: one of the towers in the rear. It has one bored guard at the top manning a ballista. I maneuver directly above him and cancel Feather Fall as I pull my knife out. I notice over his shoulder that he was looking at chats, he didn’t see me before the critical hit turned him smoke. I quickly dismantle the ballista and pick up a box of the explosive tips that were stocked on the roof, then go to the stairs and begin my descent.

Halfway down the stairs is a window, I set the box there with a lantern next to it. Moving farther down, I take out several NPCs quietly and another level-seventeen player who had ducked into the tower to check a forum, or something. In ten minutes, the first guard I killed is going to alert the rest when he logs back in, so I have some time, but can’t be careless. I hide the bodies as fast as I can, and as I am dragging the body of the player, two NPCs open a door and walk in. I fling daggers and then pounce—one nearly got away before I silenced her.

Back in the deep shadows I move down onto where the wall is and signal Sauce and his crew to come up. His job is to secure the rear for now and then move forward when the alarm is sounded. I point out the lantern in the window and quietly mention that he can blow the tower in half should he need a distraction. He nods and uses hand signals with his team.

I meet up with my Falling Knives rear guard Burnt. We all move forward, it’s now time to do our gate duty.

We move through the courtyard among players and NPCs unnoticed and find Briar with a pile of bodies. With a crooked smile he nods at the gate. There are two big lizard looking NPCs, I use Identify, they are Scalemen—level 19 warriors. We might need them to be distracted, the ten-minute window is nearly up.

I see a notice in our group chat “Thirty seconds left since the first Feather Fall.”

“Sauce, we need that tower to come down,” I say in voice communications.

Ten seconds later I hear a deafening boom, the fortress shakes and rumbles as stones fall and grind to the earth. The players on the front wall turn in horror, and more than half gather NPCs and start moving to go and secure the back fortifications. One of the Scalemen goes, and the other enters the gatehouse, the one that has the turning wheel for the lowered gate. I nod at the Falling Knives and they leap forward to try to bring the giant lizard man down with wicked backstabs.

If this doesn’t work, I need to blow up that whole gate.

On the heels of the Falling Knive, we follow the Scaleman and all leap on it, but it is tough, and this is going to be a fight I don’t have time for. I have my distraction, so I move to the opposite inside of the gatehouse, and dispatch an NPC here, and I throw the lever for the wheel. As soon as the lever moves, I toss an explosive into a burning brazier—at the same time I use my teleport to move to the doorway where the Falling Knives are still fighting the Scaleman warrior. I see one of the Falling Knives drift away in black wisps, dead, another is mangled and tries to drink a healing potion, and the last is circling the wounded creature.

The explosion behind me pushes me forward and I plunge my knife into the Scaleman and leap back.

You hit Scaleman for 62 (+12 backstab) damage.

You apply poison to Scaleman

Scaleman dies.

We leap on the wheel to raise the gate.

and two other Falling Knives should be dealing with the players on the wall by now.

The explosions above us rock the earth and everything is knocked loose, including braziers and lanterns, which cause fires. We continue to crank up the lowered gate until it won’t budge. The smoke is becoming a problem, so I grab an iron brazier stand and stick it through the chain. The wheel and chain tangle up in the stand and bend the metal so that the chain cannot be moved in either direction. The gate is up, mostly, and we have done our part.

“Welcome to Leviathan fortress,” I say on the alliance channel as I get a notice it is now Sunday, our last day of the contest.

Stepping back out in the courtyard, I see that Sauce and his crew had cut a swath back to the front of the Fortress. They have just blown the front door of the castle. The players on the wall get cleaned up and the front gate force comes in, all smiles.

“Where is that bitch,” Roll says, looking around.

“I imagine she is in the room with the Heartstone,” I say, feeling a rumble, “Looks like we are going to have to fight a guardian first.”

Huge tentacles appear over the side of the walls and a massive squid-like beast pulls itself up and enters the courtyard. The creature has two enormous eyes and what looks like about ten tentacles as well as a beak and a large oily body behind it.

“It’s the damn Kraken!” Sauce hoots, shooting an arrow directly into one of its eyes.

Deep, resonant music starts as the tentacles begin grabbing alliance members and shoving them into its huge beak. Roll sends his air beast summon at it, which blows the tentacles away briefly. The Kraken is next to one of the towers. I dash to its side and quickly climb the stairs to the top; I grab the crate at the top and run back down. Placing the explosive on the inside near the base, on the side where the Kraken is. We have twenty greyed-out alliance members now—this is an epic guardian and it is going to kill us all.

I take out my dice of the dirty summons and roll; a giant boar appears in a cloud of laughing gas. It attacks the kraken, and though it does some damage it is quickly eaten.

I take a torch and throw it into the tower at the explosives which catches some grass on fire near the crate. Damn! Sprinting across the courtyard I get scooped up by a tentacle. Damn! Damn ! As I am lifted up, the crate explodes and all of the stones at the base of the tower violently eject out and pummel the kraken. The tower itself begins to fall.

I am released, dropped in a sick blob of giant squid parts. The kraken has taken deep wounds, but is still not dead, I see tentacles farther down the ramparts flailing, players being swiped from the walls.

My army is in ruins. There are a few stragglers wounded, and I try to rally them as I climb from the muck. The comms are in chaos, so I just take explosives from my bag and light the fuse.

If we are going down, I am going out with a bang!

The Kraken is wounded and all the tentacles near me are mush. I notice a rock wall where I can get above where its head is. I only have a moment before the Kraken gets free and my explosive goes off.

I leap up the stairs, the fuse trailing little bouncing lights along the path. I heft the sack and sling it right at the Kraken’s head as it bellows, I begin to duck as I see the little trail of sparks go deep into its beak. I curl up behind the stones as the explosion hits with a thud I feel through my chest. A wall of squid juice and entrails sprays the courtyard the Fortress and silence sets in

I pick myself up, and I walk through the open doorway of the inner Fortress and go directly into the Heartstone room. The light is low, it’s just low enough to really show off the glow of the stone.

I am here. I am really here!

An arrow sails through the hood of my cloak, flinching, I hear, “You are not going to take this fortress. I worked too hard.”

I tumble forward, I lift my arm and teleport behind her.

You hit SilverBtch for 71 damage.

You apply poison to SilverBtch

Screaming, she turns while firing arrows impossibly fast

SilverBtch hits you with arrow-revolver for 53 damage

SilverBtch hits you with arrow-revolver for 61 damage

SilverBtch hits you with arrow-revolver for 56 damage

I am stunned, and she pounces, pounding my face with her fists. I summon my spider from my cloak, which jumps on her, and I climb away to the stone. The game mechanics have me crippled from the blows for a time—I need a healing potion. I can’t use the deck of transmutation or I will just end up a wounded animal. I look at my hands, I had forgot about the Ring of shadow cast, which creates a simulacrum. I activate it, allowing me to hide in theshadows as a fake copy of me is doing what I am doing. I try to position myself.

Josie finishes the spider and limps over; she pulls out an arrow and aims.

SilverBtch takes 15 poison damage.

“You are weak and you can’t beat me. You can never beat me.” She says, spittle coming out.

She releases the arrow at the shadow, and I take that moment to spring up.

You hit SilverBtch for 87 (+15 flank) damage.

You kill SilverBtch

I slump down and sit for a minute. The battlefield outside is quiet, no-one is there, and nobody is coming. Standing with a wobble, I walk over and place my hand on the perfectly blue stone. I leave a little smear of blood. The timer starts in the corner of my interface, the timer that will change the rest of my life.

Rousing music rises.

I let out a sigh—that narrator is going to have a field day with this one.

--end of book 1--