Midsummer Feast

It hadn’t even passed a week since the update, and other players were already making the most of the new possibilities they got.

The holy city of Po-po is under attack! The attacker is the Guild, “The damned army”, and according to sources, so are their goal to take down the region of “Blessed Angels”, which is well-known for their exclusive PK-hunting, to set an end to their endless torment. Both the guild and the city are calling to arms, but of whose only the city is able to promise a reward.

Merie honestly thought that the person writing the message could’ve left out the part about the reward, as it put the odds against the damned army. But at the same time, what could be done about it when one of the parties was a larger group of PKs? And most probably so wouldn’t there be any change if it’s been the army offering a reward. At the very least, so wouldn’t it have mattered to Merie. In both cases so would she still head headfirst into the mess, killing her fellow PKs and a couple of her allies “by mistake”.

She ran through the town, toward the teleportation area. Ready to get some free kills and hopefully a larger reward than she deserves. Honestly, so might she deserve even less if she looked deeper into it, as she would try out her bombs. Which had turned out to be far more complicated than she’d thought. Sure, she got the basic, but she’d soon noticed that the slightest sidestep from the recipe could create a whole other kind of bomb. For example, only a slight increase in a fire-based herb gave the bombs more similarity to napalm. Which could be of great use depending on the situation. And she’d still had a bunch of bombs she hadn’t tried out yet, so this attack was a huge blessing.

Reaching the teleportation area, noticing that just like the last attack so were there tons of players preparing to join the fun. And even though they weren’t showing it off, so was she sure a bunch of PKs were there too. “MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER THE NAMES OF THOSE YOU SUSPECT OF BEING PKS. THIS IS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO SORT SOME OF THEM OUT!” And, of course, so did those kind of people also be there. But no matter how much she disagreed with them, so couldn’t she deny that it indeed was a golden opportunity to find a bunch of PKs, if those idiots didn’t do anything to try hiding their names. An idiotic cheer followed the “speak”, as if it shouldn’t be anything they could’ve figured out themself. But did they think that it would be easy telling players apart as there didn’t exist anything telling them apart?

But enough of that, Merie equipped her cleavers and set her bombs where she easily could reach them. Not putting the slightest thought about sorting them, as she knew she would be able to see the result afterwards. And done with that little preparation, so did she head straight into the teleport, arriving in Po-po just in to face an explosion sending a bunch of players flying. Taking the opportunity, she sprinted off to finish off those who didn’t die from the blast. Only getting the time to cleave the head of one as she saw someone she could guess was a PK. As he wore a pitch-black cloth-like armour, covering his whole body.

The PK didn’t waste a second after noticing Merie before he attacked, showing that he at least had the attitude of a PK, ready to kill any other players. Other PKs or normal players, it didn’t matter as long they got the thrill from fighting someone else. Seeing him taking the first step so didn’t Merie waste a second following his example, holding the cleavers tighter and rushing toward him. Without warning so did he pull out a wand and throw a water-bolt toward her. An attack Merie barely dodged, but she didn’t slow down for a second. Continuing forward, reaching him, swinging one cleaver toward his torso. Missing, following up with a spin and an attack by the other cleaver. Hitting him over his chest with the dull part, doing far from the damage she’d hoped for.

Grounding both her feet well, facing his back, and launching into yet another attack. Swinging, an attack blocked by his lower arm. Suggesting his arms might be protected. But she wouldn’t let those slight hiccups bring her down, following up with yet more attacks. Which was meant to slowly ground down his health as she ensured he wouldn’t get time to throw any more potent spells.

But unlike what she wanted, so did he seem to be the one having the upper hand. Not even bothered by her attacks and still able to throw spells of all kinds. Honestly not giving her any other choice than to rely on her bombs. Stepping in at him, instead of attacking, simply dumped one of the bombs and set off running in the other direction. A couple of spells passed her, followed by an explosion. Merie wasn’t sure how hard the bomb had hit him, or if it even had hit him. But considering the kind of bother that PK had been, so didn’t she have the slightest interest in continuing the fight.

Finishing off some as she passed them, but only those she was sure weren’t anti-PK idiots. “YOU CAN DO BETTER, GIRL!” A loud scream interrupted her deeds, and as she located the voice so did she see Lart. With full plate armour and his, infamous, large battle axe, killing everyone around him. Seemingly sparing no time considering what kind of players it was he killed. “AND YOU SHOULD MOVE SOME MORE, MISTER!” She couldn’t think of anything else to answer him with, but she didn’t need to say anything else as she soon had passed him either way. Continuing forward in search of new, fun, prey. And thinking about it, she eyed a group fighting wildly. Rapidly grabbing one of her bombs and throwing it into the mess. Only seeing the explosion in the corner of her eyes, but not the final result.

After some more running and finishing off weak players, so did she spot an opportunity she couldn’t let pass. Two groups of players fighting each other, which of one wore an emblem she knew quite well. A bloody paw print, meaning the group was from bloody kittens. Yet another PK-Guild, which Merie didn’t have any connection with, but it didn’t change the chance, showing, itself. She’d read the bragging about their exploits on the forum, and she’d enjoyed it greatly. And now, so was she presented with the chance to maybe put a few of them down, as they were engaged in another fight and were standing with their backs against her. Rapidly preparing herself for an assault, jumping at the when she was close enough. Slashing the back of the neck at one, landing and making a rapid turn. Cutting the side of another’s neck in the process, heading straight into the heart of the fight. Moving her hands quickly to drop two of her bombs, hoping that at least one was napalm-like, and dodged wildly flying attacks as she left.

In the midst of her escape so did she get the familiar tingling feeling, and a chunk of her health disappeared. Nothing strong enough to kill her, but she must’ve missed an attack.  The surprise attack was followed by yet more explosions, cries and curses. Hopefully, the result of her bombs, which she honestly might need to level up even more before another PK-Guild decided to take over another city.

Before she knew what had hit her, so could she see an intense firestorm, followed by a tingling feeling and the world fading to black. Meaning she’d died. Which she couldn’t deny sucked, but it wasn’t as if she felt bad about it. She’d after all been in the middle of a battlefield where anything could happen. Looking at the window, showing how long it would take before she was revived, she wondered if she should join the battle again. It’d gone well this time, but if she was unlucky, so wouldn’t she get the chance to kill just as many the next time, which would mean that she might lose EXP. Still, she did have enough bombs to continue for another round. And if she just was careful, so might it be worth it. With those thoughts in mind so was it set, she would go for another round.

Merie couldn’t believe how tough the battle had ended up being. Last day so had she joined twice, both rounds going well, before she needed to log out. She’d just logged in again, after school and all, and it turned out the battle had ended just an hour earlier. Meaning that it’d gone on for about a day. And in the end so hadn’t ‘The damned army” been able to achieve its goal, but it was undeniable making quite a bent on the Blessed Angels’ supply.

Joining the party chat to see how it’d gone for the others, Merie was greeted by a message from Opiom, “If you happened to die in a fire-storm, nearby Bloody Kittens, so might you’ve got in the way for my attack. And I apologise, but I won’t promise that it won’t happen again. As everything goes in war, baby~.” Thinking about the matter, so couldn’t Merie even say that she could see that Opiom had done anything wrong. Merie had been running through the mess like a madman, and it should be able to miss her, so it was surely an honest mistake. Which Merie also answered before heading toward the party chat. Seeing that everyone seemed to have taken part in the war, Opiom seemingly was worse as she only left for a couple of minutes to call in sick before joining again. “There was talk about a reward from Blessed Angels and Po-po, when will we see anything of that?” Adu had a point. There had indeed been talk about that at the start of the war, but not after that. “We might need to wait for a little while and let them group up again before we hear anything more about it.” Merie could think that both the Guild and the city would need to get a clearer picture of it before they even could think about what they would do to reward the joining players. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Those parties have already started to send out the reward, and I’ve got mine. But you may just lay further down the list and will get yours soon enough. Otherwise so might you need to contact them.” Opiom had already got her reward? Sure, she’d taken part in it more than the test, it seemed like, but shouldn’t they send out everything at once?

“I’ve contacted them, and I think there might be another shitstorm coming up in Po-po. When I asked about rewards, so did they say that they only were rewarding those players, spending more than twelve hours fighting for them. The rest of us had their gratitude and nothing more.” Anlie was probably not wrong that there might be a shitstorm coming to the city again. There weren’t many players able to spend over twelve hours playing during the week, and even if it would have been during a weekend, so was twelve hours too much. “So simply saying, so might we’ve risked of getting exposed as PKs for nothing? Just because we couldn’t spend half a day online?! I think we should call upon the tribe to attack and slaughter those making the decision.” Adu had all right to be angry, but did she honestly think that they would be able to fight back that easily? No matter how many they were, so were they up against a city and could at most pull away their legs for a second.

Not that it was said, by anyone, that they wouldn’t join if there were many others thinking about getting back at the city, as their behaviour had been simply horrible and quite “assholery”, to borrow Opiom’s expression.