The Destroying Plague Read online

  I took a few steps back and hid behind a broad twin bas-relief column. I wasn’t completely sure, but it looked as if our worst fears had come true. Big Po, although unsure that I’d kept my Threat status, but surely burning with a thirst for vengeance, had shared his suspicions with the preventers. And they had somehow got access to the guest room from the Mayor of Darant. Fine. I’d thought about this outcome as well.

  Flashing a glance around the other side of the column, I looked toward the exit. The stocky, bearded level-fourteen dwarf called Gonzo had already gone through the checkpoint and was now moving into the guest hall.

  Imitation worked successfully. Great, now I was Gonzo the dwarf, tested in the fire of the True Flame. I walked out from the other side of the column and confidently melted into the crowd. Where was Crag?

  Banger from Excommunicado was heading to where Scyth was hiding. A hobbit pattered behind him with a minor elemental floating above his shoulder, distorting the air with its heat. Nether!

  True Flame Spirit, level 224

  Elemental

  Tierz’s pet.

  I tried not to look worried and calmly headed for the far end of the hall, where the scribe tables stood in long rows. I’d register and then take it from there.

  “Gonzo, wait!” I heard from behind my back.

  I didn’t realize at first that the shout was meant for me. I took another step or two out of inertia, then stopped and turned. The lopher Banger walked toward me, while his partner, the hobbit Tierz, was looking behind one of the numerous portals, trying to find the elusive Scyth there. The portals work only one-way to this side and only for new players, so logically, there was no way I could get through there, but the hobbit still checked it. Unsurprisingly without success.

  “What?” I asked in displeasure. “I already went through the checkpoint…”

  “Have you seen a tall man around?” Banger boomed, narrowing his eyes. His arms were as thick as my torso, but with human hands. Huge, monstrous, but human. “Um… Nick Scyth, level twenty-six. Rare class, too… Um… I forgot it! So, you ain’t seen ‘im? He was just there, behind the columns…”

  “I saw him,” I nodded and waved toward the far corner end of the guest hall. “He went to the scribes.”

  “Ugh, damn him,” Banger decided. “He’ll get checked again after he registers anyway. Show me your wrist!”

  The sudden order made my heartbeat faster, blood rushed to my face. The elephant-person turned to his friend.

  “Hey, Tierz, come here, let’s check this noob!”

  The halfling was examining the wrist of a level six forest elf that had just come out of the portal. When he finished, he gave the pointy-eared player a gold coin and walked over to us. Looking around again in search of Crag, I decided to leave on my own. It seemed something had gone wrong. Taking advantage while Banger was looking at his colleague, I activated Depths Teleportation.

  The falling sensation and the visuals that take place when you use that ability are pretty extreme. I’d compare it to jumping off the top of a skyscraper; the contents of your stomach rise to your throat, your heart beats a hundred miles an hour, your vision blurs… In short, it’s an acquired taste. I instinctively closed my eyes.

  Even then, I realized something bad had happened. System messages don’t care if you have your eyes closed.

  Depths Teleportation interrupted!

  Unable to leave Darant Town Hall Guest Room without finishing the character registration process!

  Nether! Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. The worst of it was that the system still counted the ability as used, and the talent started its half-hour cooldown time.

  Then Crag appeared! I would never have recognized him if I hadn’t seen the nickname; the previously tall man had become a short dwarf. Artful waves in his beard, a tattoo covering half his face, his hair immaculately braided. It was obvious what had delayed him. He’d been giving his character a new look!

  His appearance drew the attention of the Excos, and both moved to intercept. The elephantine Banger didn’t seem quick on the uptake. He checked himself, turned around and barked out:

  “Stay there, Gonzo! We’ll check you and you’ll get a gold coin! For nothin’!”

  “I already got one, thanks!” I pulled out a coin with my free hand and span it before him for effect. “Or are you going to give me another?”

  “Um… Nah, we won’t give you more. It’s never enough for you, noobs! But you’re still getting checked! Got it?”

  “Got it,” I agreed peaceably. “I’ll wait.”

  I was really in trouble! If they’d had a one-time-use artifact, they might have spared me, but with an elemental pet, these checks cost them nothing. I threw Crag a group invitation. He immediately accepted it and I began to think feverishly.

  My clanmate started making all kinds of excuses, playing a dumb noob that didn’t understand what the hobbit Tierz wanted. The Excos couldn’t use force on Crag, since Darant was a peaceful zone, and any aggression could send their reputation into the minus points. On the other hand, the network was full of conflicting information, but how it was in reality…

  Play for time I wrote to Crag, then lost myself in the crowd. When the lopher turned, I was no longer Gonzo, but Rayman; a paladin at level three hundred and forty-seven, from the Azure Dragons. Yes, I took a risk, but it worked out. If I reached a scribe and registered, nobody would be able to stop me from grabbing Crag and jumping to Kharinza.

  I bowed my head and crossed half the hall before I saw that I was about to be next to the real Rayman. I couldn’t turn back into Gonzo — he was nowhere to be seen now. Turning around, I focused on Banger and turned into him. The trick looked normal to those around me — just someone swapping one equipment set for another. The name shows up only when you look close. In the meantime, Crag smiled stupidly while the hobbit Tierz explained something to him.

  “Hey, Bang! What’re you doing over here?” a tall elf in a green mantle hailed me, Koba from Modus. “The Exco inspection zone is over there. Where’s Tierz anyway?”

  He pointed to the far end. Fortunately for me, the real Banger was hidden behind a column at this point.

  “Tierz is over there…” I copied Banger’s manner of speech and intonation and vaguely waved my hand. “I’m… Um… I lost track of a noob, actually. He disappeared in the crowd. Just lookin’ for ‘im…”

  “What?” Koba asked. “You let a noob get away?”

  “Well, yeah. No problem, I’ll find ‘im…”

  “Alarm!” the elf suddenly shouted into the signal amulet hanging around his neck. “Potential Threat! Cover the exit!”

  The next instant, several soldiers from Modus gathered at the exit and dragged those leaving the room back inside. A gaggle of commands filled the hall, including from Koba’s signal amulet.

  “Entrance covered! We’re locking down the building! Repeat all the checks!”

  The elf kept hold of his amulet and asked:

  “What’s the noob’s race, name and nick?”

  “Um… One sec… Gonzo, I think. Level fourteen dwarf.”

  “Got it,” Koba nodded and shouted into the amulet again: “Nickname Gonzo! A dwarf…”

  I slipped through to the scribes and stood by the desk of the nearest free one, an elderly gnome lady in glasses and an extremely unhurried way of talking. After listening to her welcoming speech, hurrying her up and interrupting her, I finally got it through to her that I wanted to register.

  And that’s when I ran into a roadblock. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Crag was flooding me with panicked messages and threats to give me up to the preventers if I didn’t keep my promise, the gnome lady in front of me shook her head and said something. It was tough to hear her in the cacophony, but I noticed she wasn’t hurrying to hand me a registration sheet.

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Switch to your true form before starting the registration procedure, young human!” the gnome said strictly,
raising her voice.

  She emphasized the word ‘human.’ A girl standing at the next desk shot me an interested glance. In the meantime, Crag stopped writing coherently and just spammed my direct messages with exclamation marks. Crawler and Bomber had joined him, realizing by our delay that something had gone wrong. Hung was swearing so hard that the chat window even blushed.

  “Stop holding up the queue, ya big lug!” someone hissed from behind. “What’re you doing here anyway?”

  Now I’d drawn even more attention. I shot a glance over my shoulder and saw a little level one fairy called Mint floating in the air, piercing me with a gaze of displeasure.

  “Sorry, kiddo.” I stepped away from the desk.

  “You’re a kiddo, elephant boy!” she shrieked. “Stick that trunk you-know-where!”

  Quickly slipping behind another column, I switched back to my true form. I heard blood bumping in my ears when I reached the newly vacant desk of scribe Ionescu and began the registration process, trying not to pay attention to the shouts from the other end of the hall. The bustle and chaos behind me grew, and I felt myself begin to sweat.

  “They’ve caught a Threat!” a gnome standing nearby suddenly gasped in surprise. His eyes widened, he stared and excitedly clicked his tongue. “Woah!”

  I heard shouts from all over. The people were watching as Crag was dragged from the other end of the hall. Tierz got his way after all and revealed Tobias’s status.

  High-level players all over the hall rushed to help the already strong group. I couldn’t even see Crag himself now behind all the preventers clad in gleaming armor.

  Crawler and Bomber had caved before the anxiety of the unknown and jumped to the town hall building in Darant. They already knew that a Threat had been caught. Rumors spread throughout the Commonwealth instantly.

  Woeful messages filled up the clan chat — the guys had already mentally buried not only Crag, but me too. The city guard, high officials of the Commonwealth army and all the players were gathering outside the town hall. Scyth, write something, anything! Bomber demanded. Who have they taken? You, or Crag?

  Without answering, I agreed that my character choice was final and not subject to change and handed the completed arrival sheet to the scribe Ionescu. He glanced at it and nodded in satisfaction.

  “Welcome to Darant, Scyth!” the scribe said, stamping the form with a dull thud. “Next!”

  Modus, Azure Dragons and Excommunicado loudly shouted across each other and had already started arguing about whose territory should be used to eliminate the Threat. The neighboring hall stirred with the sound of teleporters activating, and preventer leaders rushed into the hall. I saw Yary among them. A leader of Modus, he had invited me to visit him after the final of the junior Arena.

  The leaders congratulated each other on the move, smiling and joking, and the junior ones stopped arguing when they appeared. It seemed likely that Tobias was about to be dragged away and taken somewhere where he could be quietly eliminated, with no witnesses. Crag filled my message inbox with demands to do something, anything at all.

  All attention, eyes, and, I don’t doubt, recordings of what was happening — it was all directed at the procession of preventers, so I calmly shifted into the form of the fairy Mint…

  What? I looked down and saw that my legs weren’t touching the floor! Of course, I’d turned into a damn fairy! That was why everything around me looked so big! With that thought, I soared up to the ceiling. Don’t even ask how — I just wanted to go up, and I went up.

  Depths Teleportation hadn’t cooled down yet, and there was no way to get Crag out without it…

  “Hey, little one,” I heard from below. “Come down, we need to check your status.”

  Tierz the hobbit from Excommunicado gestured for me to fly to him, offering a gold coin in his other hand. The little True Flame Spirit smoldered beside him.

  Chapter 2. Plan B

  WHILE I FURIOUSLY tried to come up with a way out, the hobbit’s signal amulet buzzed. “Tierz, we’ve found the dwarf Gonzo and checked him. He’s clean. Tell banger he’s an elephant, ha-ha-ha!”

  “Got it, thanks. I won’t tell Banger anything, he’s already sick of your lame jokes.”

  “Alright, alright… Listen, the boys outside are wondering who we’ve taken. Is it really the guy with potential A?”

  “No,” the hobbit answered, frowning. “I can’t tell you; the elders have forbidden it for now…”

  Without listening to the rest, I seized the moment and flew to the end of the hall, where I started watching Tierz and what was happening with Crag.

  The hobbit seemed to have gotten on my case for formality’s sake. What threat could a level one fairy be anyway? Especially since he’d already found a Threat and relaxed. So, without bothering to look for me, he spat and joined his celebrating comrades. The sound of corks popping filled the hall. The Elvish sparkling wine was making the rounds.

  Nonetheless, some preventers stayed at the hall’s exit and kept checking everyone, even the level one noobs. Anyone who didn’t need to be there was sent packing. Judging by the voices from the signal amulets, it wasn’t just happening within the building, but around it too.

  By then, they’d brought Crag to a registration desk and started processing him. I carefully flew closer and hid underneath a huge chandelier covered in lit candles, then messaged the guys to tell them what was happening. I decided to try and listen to what Yary was saying:

  “Don’t do anything stupid, kid,” one of the Modus leaders said with an arrogant grin. “We know all about you: Tobias Asser, sixteen as of yesterday. You live, to put it mildly, in privation. Your parents are about to lose their citizenship. Do you want the same for yourself?”

  “No,” Crag shook his head. “But I won’t get shit if you eliminate me. I just built up a little Threat, you can’t particularly climb with that…”

  “You’ll climb, Toby,” Yary clapped him on the shoulder. “Just not now. All in good time. We’ll take care of your future…”

  Crag grew thoughtful. Or he was waiting for me to do something. He held the registration sheet in his hands but seemed in no hurry to confirm it. The scribe waited patiently.

  Crawler, level 31 mage, and his group (Bomber, level 31 warrior) want to join your group.

  Accept? Decline?

  I accepted the request and told them what was going on, hoping that the three of us could think of something. The answers came quickly:

  [19:48] [Group] [Crawler]: I’m on cooldown too. But Bomb can get us all out. The important thing is for us to be close by, otherwise the teleport won’t catch you.

  [19:48] [Group] [Bomber]: The trouble is those damn preventers are chasing everyone off, and the guards are helping them! We’re a way off the town hall.

  [19:48] [Group] [Crag]: Do something!

  Apart from the group chat, my direct message tabs blinked. I answered at once.

  [19:49] [Private] [Crawler]: Scyth, get yourself out! It’s too late for Crag! We’ll help him level back up later.

  [19:49] [Private] [Crag]: Scyth! You close by? What do I do???

  [19:49] [Private] [Scyth — Crawler]: Stick to the initial plan while there’s still a chance. We have to get him out! Anyway, I doubt I’ll pass their checks. It’s still me inside here.

  [19:49] [Private] [Scyth — Crag]: I’m close. I can see and hear everything. Stay calm and stall for time, Toby. Depths Teleportation is on cooldown for now.

  With a slight hum, a Dome of Silence formed over the section of the hall around Crag. The mage had spared no mana in making it large enough to cover all the interested parties, and fortunately for me, I ended up under the dome too. And of course, I could have sat there until the preventers left, but I didn’t like that idea. Crag and I were far from friends, but I’d promised to help him. Even his threat to give me up if he got eliminated didn’t bother me. The important thing was keeping my word.

  In the meantime, Yary continued trying to win Tobias
over.

  “Think about it. I can’t speak for the other preventers, but I guarantee on behalf of all Modus that we will automatically accept your next character into the clan. And that means equipment, boosts, help with leveling up, a paycheck.”

  “Why are you messing around?” a gnome mage said, the level three hundred and seventeen Niu Lu from Azure Dragons. “You…”

  Yary shot a glance at the gnome and he shut his mouth. Modus itself had respect, but its leaders commanded even greater respect and fear. Yaroslav-Yary wasn’t the chief, but he was practically second after the clan leader Hinterleaf.