Thank you everyone who reads my fiction and especially those who leave comments. I know I’m not the best author so I know there are some problems with my story, but I do my best, so…yeah…not sure where I’m going with this.

There are so many things I want to do and places I want this story to be so I can write all the things in my mind that are all over the place. I have free time now and I’m gonna use it.

Please enjoy.

Chapter 12: Shadows

Frost took the stone steps one at a time, slowly, carefully, and as quietly as he could. There was someone in the room at the bottom of the stairs but he couldn’t risk going back up. He also couldn’t just stand there and wait for them to find him. He needed to get away from the door and the stairs where he wouldn’t easily be found. He had to be quiet, so he had to be slow. He had to be quick, so he needed to move fast. He had to balance his actions and he could hear voices coming from behind the door at the top of the stairs.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and ever so slowly opened the door. There was an orc inside, mumbling to himself in their guttural language while playing with a pile of copper coins. He looked disturbed and Frost had the feeling that it wasn’t an orc he should be messing with. There was just something very wrong with the creature and he hesitated. The door at the top of the stairs creaked open and Frost had no choice but to enter the room as quickly as possible and shut it behind himself.

The creature stopped playing with its coins and looked up at Frost. He tensed, knowing that if it screamed, he was screwed, but he also knew he didn’t have enough time to reach the creature before it could scream. However, it turned back to its coins, picking them up and dropping them over and over again. Frost moved to the right of the door so he could hide behind it when the orcs came down. He should be able to hide behind the door and surprise them when they came down.

He watched the strange orc as he prepared to pounce on the orcs that came through the door. The door opened and a single orc walked into the room carrying a wooden bowl full of some nasty looking slop. It hadn’t noticed him and Frost looked out the door to see that it was alone. He activated Lightning Strike silently and stabbed the orc in the back and through the heart. It collapsed to the floor dead after a moment of silent shock.

The strange orc stood up and Frost noticed that it had been sitting on a chest. He watched the creature but it seemed that the thing was simply interested in the dead body. He opened up the chest, pulling out another sack of coins and a cloth wrapped bundle, which he stuffed into his bag to look at later. A squelching noise came from where the creature was and he moved over to see what it was doing. It was eating the other orc as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

He had to suppress his nausea so he turned away and closed the door to the room. After a bit of time passed, no one came to check the situation downstairs and there didn’t seem to be any commotion, so he left that room behind, closing the door and trying not to look at the gruesome scene he left behind. He decided to forget that he had ever seen that thing and moved onward.

Frost looked under the door at the top of the stairs and didn’t see anyone so he slipped out of the building and into the night. He sat in the shadows for five minutes to calm himself. Still, no alarm sounded and there didn’t seem to be any big commotion in the village. He stood up and observed the fourth house. It was one of the houses with guards and this one would present more of a challenge than the others. He saved the biggest and most difficult building for last.

He had to circle around to not be seen by the guards that were surrounding the largest building in the area. These two buildings were close together and made of brick and slate rather than wood and thatch. The back door had no guards so he tried the door. Locked.

He hopped back a few times to get a better view of the building. The roof had two tiers, which meant it would be possible to get onto the first floor roof if he could climb or jump up. It was just within his reach if he wanted to try to wall jump it, but there was a chance he might not be able to reach it with the first jump. He grabbed a nearby barrel that looked sturdy enough and rolled it up to the wall. He used the barrel as a step to gain some height and managed to get onto the roof with relative ease.

He approached the window and when he started to jam the dagger in, he realized it wasn’t latched. Frost remained cautious as he pulled open the window and looked inside. There was a fat orc snoring loudly, surrounded by empty bottles of what had probably been alcohol. Frost smirked as he looked in the orc’s direction. It had an earring and multiple rings.

He removed the rings and then the earring, with slow, careful movements, then examined the rest of the room. The only thing in the room with any real value was a golden candelabrum with rubies hanging off of it. That quickly made its way into his bag. Everything else was just painted gold to look expensive and it was sloppily done.

Making his way through the house added two paintings, some silverware, and a few porcelain bowls to his new collection. He found a wooden rod that looked to be entwined with ivy. It didn’t appear special, but it caught his interest so he took that as well. Then he made his way into the basement where he found a locked wooden chest. He would have liked to take the whole thing and open it later, but it was too big to fit in his bag since it couldn’t fit through the opening. He used his staff to smash the lock repeatedly until it broke. It made more noise than he would have liked, but it was in the basement and the doors would muffle the sound. He claimed another bag of coins and an assortment of items.

Frost went back up the stairs to exit the building the way he came in. He took one more glance at the fat orc and stepped out onto the roof. He clung to the shadows as he studied the large house next to him, trying to think of a way to enter. He was about to step off the roof when he had an idea that made him smile. He climbed onto the second tier of the roof and measured the distance in his mind. It would be close, but he could make it.

He walked away from the building, along the peak of the roof and then turned around and ran at the edge of the building. He jumped and found himself floating for a brief moment with a fall that could easily break legs below him. He was focused on the edge of the roof though so he didn’t have time to worry about the fall unless he missed the grab.

Thunk. His feet braced him against the wall while his hands held onto the edge of the roof. He held on, looking down to see if there were any guards coming to check out the sound. Frost was beginning to believe that it wasn’t his skills that kept him unnoticed but rather the negligence and disregard of the orcs. He made his way around the edge of the roof in a cat hang position until he reached a window. Much to his surprise, it was actually open.

He looked inside and grimaced. There were a lot of orcs in there. Most of them were laying on a king sized bed around one large orc. This orc had to be seven feet tall and just made of muscles from the looks of it. Its level was at least twenty four since he was level fourteen now, having spent the last few days fighting orcs in the area. This was the boss and Frost did not want to wake him. However, it would be too hard to open another window at this height and position so he had no choice.

Frost slowly entered the room stepping around the few members of the orc leader’s harem lying on the floor. He felt no envy, as they were some ugly beasts as far as he was concerned. He spotted four keys hanging on the wall next to the bed and redirected his path there. He took them one at a time, slowly and carefully, because if the orc less than five feet away woke up, he was in serious trouble.

He made sure to grab the axe next to the bed as well. It looked to be made of steel and obsidian, and he sure as hell didn’t want the orc to be swinging it around. Frost made his way straight to the basement where he let out a small sigh of relief. There were three chests, which three of the four keys unlocked. He found a huge amount of treasure, which he stuffed into his bag, not even taking the time to look at any of it. At this point he was ready to leave and escape the village with a good amount of their treasure.

The infiltration mission had been an amazing success and now all he had to do was run away. He turned away from the last chest, toward the door to the ground floor only to find a wall in his way. It was green and appeared to be very solid as well. He looked up. It was also angry. Very angry.

Frost reeled from a blow that he wasn’t expecting as his health dropped twenty percent. The orc roared and charged him, aiming its fist at Frost’s face. He used the orc’s momentum, grabbing the fist and using a shoulder throw to put the monstrous orc on his back. He sprinted up the stairs, throwing the door open with the orc leader hot on his heels.

Frost ran for the nearest window and attempted to dive through it, hoping the force of his weight at a full run would be enough to break the latch and send him through the window. With a loud crack, the window broke and he tumbled to his feet as the guards finally noticed him and started chasing him. There were other orcs around so he guessed that they had noticed one of the other buildings had been robbed or that orc he killed had been found. They must have come to warn their leader just as Frost was getting to the basement.

Orcish howls of rage began to fill the night as they chased him towards the walls of the village. The orc leader obliterated the door to his house in pursuit of Frost who was running at full speed to get away. His heart and mind were racing as he took note of where he was and moved to the closest escape point. There were ramps leading up to the walls and that’s where he’d make his escape.

Luckily, much of the village was still confused as to what was happening other than that there was a commotion. Turning a corner, he noticed that there were a lot fewer orcs chasing him and the leader was not included in that group. It didn’t matter though, so he kept running towards the wall, gaining distance with his high speed. He reached the ramp and ran up, shoving an orc guard out of his way and jumping off into the night.

He rolled to reduce the impact of the fall and keep his forward momentum. He had managed to escape. Well, he would have, if one very large, ferocious boar didn’t follow him off the wall moments later, carrying one seriously pissed orc. The orc leader had a wicked looking spear and was followed by some other orcs who had ridden their boars out of the gates. They were all shouting war cries and it was only a matter of time before they ran him down.

He tried to think as the orc leader quickly closed in on him, but there was nothing he could do. He was in the middle of a low hilly area and there was no cover or anything to hide behind. He couldn’t escape and he couldn’t fight. He was going to die his first death here and it pissed him off that he couldn’t do anything about it. At least he had stolen a lot of items from the village and wouldn’t lose most of them when he died.

He wasn’t giving up. Far from it. He was just accepting the fact that he was going to die and was considering what to do with knowledge. He could try to take down the leader, which was unlikely with all those other orcs not too far behind him, or he could do something crazier than that and probably die anyway. Hell, it was worth a shot.

Frost pulled out his staff and lowered his speed by a little, letting the leader’s boar catch up even faster. He crested the top of a small hill and jumped, using the metal staff and his high strength to pole vault himself as high into the air as he could manage. He also twisted his body so he was facing the huge boar bearing down on him. It was moving fast enough to get under him as he fell while the orc struck at him with the spear.

He managed to deflect the blow so it only cut across his ribs as he crashed into the leader. His health dropping again, he kicked the orc leader in the face, knocking it back off the boar as he punched Frost in the stomach. Frost grabbed the reigns as the beast went wild, thrashing about and trying to throw him off. He managed to get a hold of the beast and looked up just in time to duck beneath a blade that was aimed at his head. To Frost’s horror, the boar was running straight at the other riders, in the direction of the village.

He did what he could to avoid their attacks while maintaining a grip on the boar, but there wasn’t much he could do. By the time he passed through the group, his health was below forty percent. Holding on to the boar for his life, he noticed it wasn’t just running back to the village, it was sprinting headfirst at the wall. Just before it crashed, he let go but he still tumbled into the wall from the momentum. By the time he regained his senses and his feet, he was surrounded. The boar that crashed into the wall appeared to have knocked itself out.

The orcs formed a half circle around him and stood still, trapping him against the wall. He didn’t have to worry about what they were thinking, because it wasn’t long before the orc leader entered the encirclement with an axe. He pointed at Frost and barked something in orcish as he held up his axe. Frost brandished his own staff and motioned for the orc to make his move. The orc bellowed with rage as it charged at him, wildly swinging the axe.

Frost stood his ground, barely dodging an attack and retaliating with a strike to the orc’s back that hardly put a dent in the thing’s health bar. He let out a breath to steady himself before entering the fight in both mind and body. The orc’s axe flashed a reflection of torchlight as it cut the air and only the air. Frost danced within the reach of the monstrous orc, striking with staff and body when the opportunity presented itself. He had plenty of stamina to last through the fight and had locked away his fear.

Frost didn’t know, but using a staff and calming his mind allowed him to move and flow that felt right, putting him into what people usually call “the zone”. He knew he was talented with the staff, but he thought it was simply because it was something he enjoyed, so he had put more work into it. His body moved without needing the mind to fully work out the next course of action, and he flowed from one move to the next, as if the staff was a part of him.

The orcs watching him were amazed, never having seen an opponent last more than a few seconds against their leader. Now, a mere thief was dancing around their leader and slowly bringing him down. The sight would have been more impressive if they had noticed that the leader was not fighting to the fullest of his capabilities for multiple reasons.

First the orc was tired from lack of sleep and irritated by the thief, so his mind was clouded and his body was slower. Second, his usual weapon, the obsidian axe, had been stolen so he wasn’t using the weapon he was most familiar with. Third and finally, he was growing more and more frustrated with the thief since he couldn’t hit him even though he was already damaged. He was nothing but an annoying horse fly, but he wanted to kill that fly more than he had ever wanted to kill anything else.

The orc leader swung his axe in a wide arc, forcing Frost to roll away to safety. He then ran over to his boar and roused it by screaming at it and shaking it. Frost attacked furiously, trying to prevent the orc from mounting, but he shrugged off the blows and got on the boar anyway. The orc leader smiled in triumph, knowing he had a huge advantage on the boar.

“What are you smiling at asshole? I have friends too.” ‘Howl’ Frost let out an eerie howl that caused every single one of the orcs in the area to raise their guards in concern. Two mist spirits in the form of wolves appeared slightly behind Frost and on either side of him. They charged with Frost, fanning out to attack the boar from the sides. It panicked, natural instincts telling it to run, but it was slow to speed up, unlike the wolves. The wolves tore at its throat, trying to bring it down, while Frost moved into position.

The orc leader regained control of the beast just as he was struck in the head by Frost’s staff, once again knocking him off. Frost had held the staff near one end and swung as hard as he could in a baseball swing, activating heavy blow and dealing a lot of damage to the orc with a critical hit. Frost jumped on him, pulling the dagger from his belt and rammed it into the orc leader’s eye. He pulled it out and slammed it into the other as the orc punched Frost off of him. The orc did a lot of damage every time he struck, this particular hit knocking him to just under twenty percent health and activating the adrenaline skill.

The orc leader was low too, and blinded since both his eyes had been stabbed. Frost jabbed the orc in the throat with his staff, then kept dealing blows while the orc leader tried to defend itself. He struck the knees and knocked his legs out beneath him, finally finishing him off with a strike to the temple. Frost stood there for a moment, using the staff as a support while he breathed heavily. He was lucky they had let him duel their leader without interfering. However, as they readied their spears to strike him down, he knew that was the end of it.

Frost backed up to the wall, determined to get as many experience points as he could from this battle, even though he knew he would lose a lot of them for dying. At least the game didn’t take away stats for dying. He would only lose experience points and skill experience, which was still really bad, but much worse in the later levels when skills were hard to level.

The orcs stopped and stared in his direction, fear and confusion on their faces. Frost realized they were not actually looking at him, but rather looking behind him. He spun around to find that there was a claw that looked like it was made of darkness coming out of the wall. It grabbed him before he could do anything and pulled him into the wall. Just like that, Frost was gone.

A system message popped up saying that he was being logged out by force, as his character would be unconscious for at least an hour, real world time. Reid took off the headset and tried to occupy himself so he didn’t worry too much as he went for a jog, ate, and took a shower. He sat down at his desk and turned on his computer to see what was happening while he had a bit of time before he could log back in.

Reid looked at his email and saw that he had one from Undertones Game Company. He drank some water as he read it, choking on it when he saw the contents because he inhaled suddenly. For him, the message contained only bad news. The game’s developers had decided to change everything. The three-month beta test was shortened to two months, at the end of which, the tournament to decide the best player would occur.

Players could remake their characters if they desired to do so and were open to do so for the next forty-eight hours. However, the most important news was that they wouldn’t be resetting the game. Everyone would be able to keep their current characters without having to reset at the end of the beta. Reid had actually somewhat expected that one anyway, and their were a few hints and leaks about that as well. Who would make a three-month beta and then force everyone to reset their characters?

Their reasoning was that the game had almost no flaws and they didn’t ever really need a beta in the first place. They said they had meant that the beta could go for up to three months and the only reason they weren’t going straight to the tournament now was to give everyone a little bit more time to prepare by leveling up and getting classes.

Reid was pissed. They were just making excuses for getting bored with the current situation. He still needed more time to level up since the more time passed, the closer he would be to the top level players in stats and ability. He was convinced that with the current state of the game, he would have easily won the tournament, but now…

He sighed. It wasn’t over at least. He could still win the tournament, all things considered; it would just be a little bit more difficult than he had thought. Perhaps a lot more difficult. He sighed again and stood up, looking at the gaming headset with determination.

‘I won’t lose.’