Chapter 54: Speaking to a Shield

“I don’t have anything left to say.” Rakkan growled. Aegis quickly fidgeted around with his interface, a part of it that he was unfamiliar with, and eventually managed to issue a duel challenge to Rakkan in front of him.

Duel Challenge!

You have challenged the player [Rakkan] to a duel.

… Waiting for [Rakkan] to accept ...

During a duel players will not drop below 1 health. All consumable items will be disabled for both players. If a winner is not decided after 5 minutes, health recovery will be reduced by 50%. If a winner is not decided after 10 minutes, health recovery will be reduced by 100%, and mana and stamina recovery reduced by 25%. A winner is decided when one player hits 1 health, or one player forfeits the duel. Players reduced to 1 health while in a duel will become immune to damage from other players for 10 seconds following the end of a duel.

(You can automatically decline duel requests through the user settings menu)

“You’re challenging me?” Rakkan asked in disbelief.

“Amlie explained to us what happened, she told us about Seraxus.” Aegis replied.

“What, so you think you get me now?” Rakkan growled as he accepted the duel challenge.

“No, I don’t. I don’t know all the details, and even if I did, I can’t say I’d understand how you feel. The reason I’m playing this game is because I’m angry at someone too, but it’s different.” Aegis began to pace as a few other players heard them talking and cautiously walked wide around them and the graveyard to avoid getting in the way.

“I did notice something though.” He tapped his shield. “I’m not sure if it's because of the pain threshold being set to 100%, but when I started playing this game, letting boars hit my shield, I could feel just how wild and mindless they were.” He continued pacing several feet away from Rakkan as Rakkan tightly gripped the handle of his longsword in one hand, spear in the other.

“Then I fought the Boar king, I blocked it’s hits and, strangely, I felt the difference. It did more damage of course, but It was hitting my shield with pride, not recklessness. I also took hits from a desperate assassin, and I could feel the desperation as I held him in smoke and he suffocated.” Rakkan’s stance broke slightly from how calmly Aegis said this.

“The point is, even though it’s a game, I can get a sense of how something is feeling when I block their attacks. It’s like a different language, but the shield can hear it. So, you’re right… I don’t know how you feel. But I’m a good listener.” Aegis raised his shield up and gritted his teeth as Rakkan bent his knees to prepare a lung after hearing this, interpreting it as a challenge.

“Charge strike!” Rakkan shouted, and with a burst of forward momentum he crashed into Aegis’ shield with his longsword as Aegis braced the hit, but now aware that Rakkan’s highest damage weapon was the spear, took extra care to dash backward and avoid the strike from it completely as he thrust it downward, hitting loose dirt instead of Aegis.

You take 110 Slashing Damage.

“Healing Wind!” Aegis shouted as the white magical light flew out of his fingertips and wrapped around himself, beginning the process of healing him over time. Rakkan did not relent and continued charging, this time dashing right and left to make it harder for Aegis to predict where he’d strike from, but he suddenly stopped mid charge.

“Switch, Rapidfire!” Rakkan called out, replacing the longsword with the crossbow and rapidly firing several bolts. As he fired he continued his charge, trying to use the shots to pin Aegis down rather than hit him directly. Aegis saw through it and ignored the bolts, dashing through the shots rather than allowing them to direct his movement, and taking a hit long the way, but this allowed him freedom to hold up his shield and block the thrusted Spear of Rakkan as he leapt forward at Aegis, the sound of the spear’s blade clashing with Aegis’ Reinforced shield rang through the otherwise quiet cemetery. Several passing players had now stopped to watch the duel, but Aegis’ didn’t have time to take in his audience.

“Switch!” The crossbow was gone, replaced with the bladed fist as he kept the pressure up on Aegis. As Aegis anticipated, he was relentless and wouldn’t give him time to heal, making Aegis thankful he had leveled up his Healing Wind spell through enchanting. The recovery from the spell wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Aegis quickly pulled out his sword to help block the onslaught of attacks using parry, prioritizing dodging the spear strikes and allowing several bladed fist attacks through.

All the while dodging and blocking, he continued to jump cautiously through the cemetery and Rakkan, despite his anger, never once recklessly swung to damage one of the gravestones.

“It’s not desperation.” Aegis spoke between breaths in the midst of their attacks. “It’s not reckless either.” He continued as he dashed backwards. “Healing Wind!” He refreshed the healing spell on himself. “But, it’s also not anger.” Aegis spoke after getting a few feet of distance between them using several quick dashes. This stopped Rakkan for a moment.

“Oh yeah? Then your shield might be deaf!” Rakkan shouted out at him.

“No, that’s not it. If you were angry, it’d feel different. That spider boss, she was angry. This is…” Aegis said, and as the realization hit him, he saw it in Rakkans face. “Guilt.”

“SHUT UP!” Rakkan roared with emotion as he lunged at Aegis again, this time with much more ferocity. Aegis was still on the backfoot but he had some distance, quickly dashing as far as he could.

“Minor Heal!” Aegis began to cast, just barely finishing it in time to jump to the side and avoid a downward swing of Rakkan’s axe that he’d just switched out with his bladed fist.

“Still not even fighting back!” Rakkan growled.

“I told you, I’m just listening.”

“Yeah well you’re deaf!” Rakkan shouted back between several more swings.

“I don’t think so.” Aegis braced a hit and dodged another, they were now on the outskirts of the Graveyard in the open fields outside of Orm, dancing around the stumps of cut trees that hadn’t yet been uprooted by the woodcutters of Orm, while Aegis caught a glimpse over Rakkan’s shoulder that Sapphire was among the onlookers.

“You’re feeling guilty about what? What happened to Puagas?” Aegis asked. Rakkan cautiously dashed to the side around Aegis, feigning a strike towards his ankles under his shield but with a quick dash, he managed to hit him from the side with the spear instead.

You take 221 Piercing damage.

“Shit. Nope, that’s not it.” Aegis pulled away. “Healing Wind!” He refreshed it on himself, noting that the healing effectiveness would be dropping soon.

“Switch!” Rakkan replaced the spear with a crossbow and leapt with great height into the air above Aegis, flying over top of him while shooting the crossbow bolts down at him from above. “Rapidfire!” Aegis raised his shield up to block three bolts as Rakkan landed and lunged at Aegis from the side with incredible speed. Faster than Aegis could bring his shield back down, Rakkan’s longsword was at his neck, and Aegis was forced to instead parry the attack away from hitting him, but Aegis saw Rakkan’s heavy breathing - he was expending large amounts of stamina to continue the onslaught.

Aegis took advantage of this state to get distance again, and Rakkan was unable to dash after him immediately due to low stamina.

“Minor heal!” Aegis quickly recovered some of the damage that’d been inflicted.

“It’s only a matter of time. You’re tanky for your level, and your healing is stronger than it should be at level 13, but you’ve got no offense. Once the healing debuffs kick in, I’ll crush you.” Rakkan gloated as he caught his breath, buying himself time for the stamina to recover.

“Not just Puagas, but all of it. What happened to Taeyal, and your Grandfather… you think it’s all your fault.” Aegis replied, he too was out of breath from expending stamina on brace and blocking. Rakkan just gritted his teeth and glared at Aegis, preparing to lunge again. “But, it isn’t.” Aegis said.

“What the hell do you know?!” Rakkan shouted out angrily at Aegis. “You think you know what happened just ‘cause of some story Amlie told you? I’m the only reason they found that sword! I read the maps and the runes in the temple, and I opened the secret pathways that lead to it. Only a sage could’ve done it!” Rakkan yelled out, and in this time Aegis saw that Amlie, Lina and Darkshot were standing not far off from Sapphire, watching with a few other onlookers.

“You couldn’t have known what was going to be in that place.” Aegis replied.

“Nah, but I had plenty of chances to stop them after. I…” Rakkan hesitated, torn between rushing at Aegis again, or explaining himself. “I’m the reason he started playing... I wanted to make him happy again, but all I did was break his heart one last time.” Rakkan’s voice trailed off, Aegis saw his will to fight draining from him as his grip loosened on his weapons. His voice was not loud enough for anyone but Aegis to hear. “He married Taeyal, he was so happy, and I knew if I didn’t stop Seraxus it was only a matter of time, but I didn’t try until it was too late. So of course it’s my fault.” Rakkan spoke in a low whisper now as Aegis took a few steps forward.

“He wasn’t always like that, it was that stupid stream. All he cared about was viewers, polls, it was all so stupid, how many people he tore down. I begged him to stop, to not go to Pellagrove, and instead he made it into a joke, made a big show out of it. He made sure I was watching the stream when he did it.” Rakkan’s voice picked up in anger once more.

“And you, streaming, you act like you care, but it's only a matter of time before you’re just like that. They’re all just like that.” Rakkan waved his hand out at the onlookers, pointing them out, Aegis saw that a few were streaming to small audiences of less than 10 viewers, broadcasting their duel. “This game, everyone’s lives, it’d all be better without it.”

“You can’t go around killing everyone who streams, it’s not going to solve anything.” Aegis replied.

“Yeah, but at least I’ll feel a lot better. And when I get strong enough, I’m gonna smash that sword in half like I should’ve when we found it.” Rakkan regained his composure and glared at Aegis. At this time, the duel had been going on for over 5 minutes and the healing effectiveness was reduced.

“You’re not going to be able to do it alone. Lina told me that to get to the top, you need at least a party of 5 players. So why not join us?” Aegis asked with a half smile.

“Did you not hear everything I just said? You’re one of them!” He shouted back.

“The reason I started this game, the streaming, all of it, was because a guy who called himself my Dad made a deal with me that if I ever surpass him, he’d quit the game, quit streaming, and delete his character.” Aegis’s smile vanished from his face.

“He abandoned me and my mother the moment he got famous streaming, so I know a little bit about what happens to people in the face of fame and money.” Aegis replied coldly, the expression in his face filled with anger, throwing off Rakkan slightly as he took a step back without realizing it.

“I refuse to do it like he did it, or like Seraxus. I’ll do it my own way, without abandoning anyone or destroying this world that people live in.” Aegis paused. “I don’t know much about PvP, but our goals are similar. If you join, I’ll help you take down Seraxus. And in return, you help me surpass him.” Aegis spoke with determination.

“Who?” Rakkan asked with pure curiosity.

“Makaroth.” Aegis replied quickly. At this, Rakkan’s eyes went visibly wide with shock, but as he pieced several things together, the realizations built up and he seemed to calm down. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment until a slight smirk formed on the corner of Rakkan’s mouth.

“How do I know you’re gonna keep your word? That you won’t just turn into one of them.” Rakkan asked.

“If I ever start becoming like those guys, you have my permission to corpse camp me.” Aegis stared back at Rakkan, their eyes locked onto one another as if for the first time they were understanding each other. The tension was broken after only a few seconds, however.

“Excuse me, what's this about corpse camping?” A beautiful female elf shouted from the crowd of onlookers, but she wasted no time pushing past them and stomping towards Aegis and Rakkan. All attention was quickly turned to her, as her character was nothing like anything they had seen before. Beautifully long wavy blonde hair down to her waist with pointed ears protruding out the sides. Wide, bright blue eyes with fair skin and a slim tall build wearing simple blue silk robes with a gnarled staff fastened over her shoulder. Over her head stood the name [Pyri - Level 6].

“Cancel that silly duel already, I’m so tired of walking everywhere, I want my Spoody.” She demanded.

“M-mom?” Aegis asked in disbelief as Rakkan’s, Darkshot’s, and Lina’s jaws all collectively dropped, while Amlie looked around confused and Sapphire let out a chuckle, losing interest in the scene.

“Of course, who else would it be?” She replied condescendingly.

“How long did you spend on character creation?” He asked with wide eyes.

“As long as I needed to! Character creation is half the fun of an MMORPG.” She spoke in a matter-of-factly tone. “Isn’t that the boy that attacked you in Darxon, and Shinji had to edit out of all the footage afterwards?” Pyri motioned to Rakkan.

“Y-yeah.” Aegis replied reluctantly.

“You shouldn’t attack your friends like that, it’s rude. If you have a problem, use your words first.” She scolded Rakkan.

“Y-yes m’am.” Rakkan’s demeanor completely changed to that of a polite little boy, while Aegis got a message that the duel challenge was forfeited by Rakkan.

“Good, invite him and he can help you get my horse as an apology.” She commanded Aegis.

“Bu-” Aegis was about to protest, but saw a threatening glare from his mom. Aegis quietly sent a party invite to both Pyri and Rakkan, as Darkshot and Lina were already members of his party and were watching from a distance.

“O-okay m’am.” Rakkan bowed politely, and both of them accepted the party invite without hesitation.