Ashes of the Fallen

"Oi, what kinda hell 'ave ye gotten yerself into this time Sigurd!" yelled a man from the distance, cutting through the tension like a sharpened knife through soft flesh.

I nearly coughed as I let out a small guffaw, then chuckled at the dwarf in the distance. A familiar face appeared right when I needed one, and none other than that little dwarf Barik Grimsson.

He waved at me and came over with a bellow, "so, what did ye do this time?"

That Aussie, he had great timing.

The other players backed off slightly as if they weren't sure if they should attack or not. A fight between unknown numbers scared people, especially in a large open space. Barik walked right up to me and stood in front of me, fully aware of the eyes that were watching our every move but without a care in the world.

"Well, funny seeing you here Barik," I greeted as I shook his hand.

Letting out another laugh, I couldn't believe the turn of luck that just saved me some money and experience. An unbelievable coincidence, but I would take it. With a bit of a grin I figured it wouldn't hurt to briefly explain the situation.

"Unfortunately, I had to teach a few young upstarts a lesson in manners."

"You don't say, well good on ya," he replied with a pat on my shoulder.

"You guys hitting the fourth?" I asked seriously, and loudly enough for the others in the vicinity to hear. There were a few people still eyeing us with their weapons held loosely at their sides, so I wanted to put a little fear into them.

"Gonna give it a burl, see how far we take it," he said with a lackadaisical attitude while looking around at the strangers surrounding us. "Got five, you locked for a bit?"

"Yeah, about an hour anyways, maybe another time," I said with a shrug.

It couldn't be helped, he wasn't online when I started nearly twenty minutes ago and he was most likely with his guild. New parties were always coming and going here anyhow, so if I wanted to return with another group it wouldn't be an issue. I mainly just needed to escape unscathed while the people here were distracted.

"Oh, what do we have here, sweet child of mine," I said playfully as my ex-party members had appeared outside the portal. It had been fifteen minutes now, and they must have resurrected right after their death timer expired. The two casters saw me and one instantly sprinted off into the forest as the other threw up his hands.

"Don't kill me, please!" he begged shamelessly. He was the one that didn't say anything and only nodded, the one that was chased by the goblins. I found him the least bothersome, so I let him go.

"Get going then," I said plainly as I tossed my hand over my shoulder and pointed behind me with a thumb. "I've got no further business with you."

There was a hint of fear in the man's eyes, though to call him a man was somewhat misleading. They were definitely kids, late teens or early twenties at the most. Young adults, by all accounts, really. Though it was a bit strange to think about, the fear of dying to another player actually made sense in this virtual reality.

It was different than dying in a console game, where you saw the actions but it was on a screen disconnected from your body. Here everything was in first-person and was represented in a way that was hard to separate from reality.

This was, for all intents and purposes, our reality at the moment.

The player literally saw the axe flying towards his face as if it were real, then when he was hit, the pain he would experience felt nearly lifelike. Of course the pain was turned down quite a bit, but to some kids without any life experience, it was probably realistic enough.

To think that some people were legitimately scared from PvP encounters, and even some PvE encounters, was reasonable. Being attacked by two wolves in the dead of night with naught a soul nearby, illuminated only by the soft reflections of the moon, with howling and growling in the dark, glowing eyes, then a sudden leap out from the darkness only to find a wolf nearly as big as you are, snapping its jaws at your face.

I had to admit, the first time that happened I damn near had a heart attack.

Even now, I wasn't entirely used to night encounters.

Hell, even daylight encounters with wolves and bears still scared me a little.

Somehow goblins… despite being as disgusting as they were, didn't bother me as much. And fighting other players, I strangely found it rather easy. It was easier to kill a fellow player, a human being, than it was to kill a rabbit. I couldn't explain that.

Maybe it had to do with the rabbit being cute.

I didn't know, nor did I really care.

"Message me if you need a fifth later ey?" I told Barik for good measure.

"Will do, might be awhile," he replied with a nod.