Midsummer Feast

“FUCK THIS. I THINK WE SHOULD GO FOR A HUNT OF SOME KIND. PLAYERS OR MONSTERS, LET’S FUCKING KILL SOMETHING!” Opiom wasn’t acting like herself, clearly pissed at something and needed an outlet. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we should attack other players yet. I know quite a bunch, of innocent players that have got punished for being PKs, and some of them were even forced to either restart the whole game or live at the run. So I don’t think we should put more fuel on the fire, Opiom.” Lart was right. No matter how much it sucked, so was he right. There had been quite an amount of people that had got unjustifiably judged as PKs, and some were even forced to create new characters to be able to continue playing. Merie had read a couple of posts about it, some even calling for the heads of the developers if this didn’t come to an end. “BUT I WANT TO KILL SOMETHING! I WANT TO SEE SOMETHING SUFFER AND SCREAM IN FEAR AND PAIN!” Opiom had never expressed desires like that before, so whatever was going on, so might it be kind bad.

Merie took a break from the party chat, opening private messages, and wrote to Opiom. “I don’t know what going on, or what might have put you in this mood. But if I can help, so will I do so. If it’s just something you need to talk about, so can you just catch me when I’m online, so will I keep you company.” It was almost the same attitude as Anlie and Merie had toward each other. If something was going on, so was it just to catch the other when chances were given. But since Merie only knew Opiom through the game, so would it only be in the game that she would be able to talk with her. But it was still better than  nothing.

Done with the message, and not wanting to miss anything from the party chat, so did Merie return there to check what was being said. “I’ve some problem with a tribe, NPC, looting my area. And I wouldn’t mind getting rid of them, either put them in chains or in the ground. So if that is fine enough, so can we join forces and have some bloody fun.” Adu was making use of the situation, and it seemed both Lart and Opiom could go along with the idea. “I don’t know how we should see the rule we’ve with not killing NPCs. As I can agree that we might need to kill them to help Adu with her tribe. But at the same time, if we should agree with this, so should we be allowed to kill all NPCs we come across, which would make the rule useless.” Anlie had a point, even though she was thinking too deeply about it. “I say that we’re are allowed to protect property and kill NPCs for said protection. So if we, Mein Skitie, would become a guild and create a city, so are we allowed to kill to protect our city. As we’re asked by Adu to kill to protect hers. It doesn’t mean that we can go around and kill NPCs who don’t belong to our property.” Opiom did have a good solution to the question, “I can agree with Opiom. If we need to kill, so should there be a good reason behind it.” Merie couldn’t think that any of them would go on a wild killing spree if they didn’t have that rule, but if they should have that rule, so was Opiom’s idea the best.

Surprisingly so wasn’t it much needed to convince Anlie that it was the best way to build up the rule, and it was soon said that it was how it would be read. And followed up by asking Adu where they would meet to get to her village. “Since it’s a pain and a half to get there by foot, so do I suggest we decide to meet in a city, and then we all uses teleport-stones to get there.” “I’ve been in the city before, so I can share some stones to get us there.” Merie didn’t even want to give Adu a chance to answer, if she would think about the painful idea of getting there by foot. “As I said to Merie, I don’t like the idea of using things I can’t produce in my tribe, but I think she’s right. So let’s go there and plunder the tribe!” Adu did at least have that much sense to understand what was best, for the moment.

Merie had been first to Adu’s village, as she could go there herself, but was soon joined by the other, which of she was most surprised seeing Opiom looking like her own calm self. At least on the outside, and as they decided to leave so was she the one screaming highest, promising to make them suffer. “Is there something going on, Opiom?” Merie had asked her before through the mail, but she didn’t feel like she could let it be, asking her as they walked. “It’s nothing special going on, it’s just one of those days when you wish to crack every head open and set the world ablaze. You know what I mean?” Opiom didn’t have to ask the last part. Of course so did Merie understand what she meant. That and the fact she wanted to beat some to bloody pulps were the main reason why Merie started to play violent video games to begin with. So she could only nod in agreement with the opinion. “You are not stealing my Dear from me, right Opiom?” And Anlie had to jump in, making Opiom chuckle. “If I would’ve tried to steal this Cutie from you, so would I’ve asked only her to join me.” Didn’t that more or less say that Merie might need to be slightly more careful if Opiom would ask her to come along to an adventure for only the two of them? No! Opiom was most likely just making a bad joke out of it again. Nothing new to care the slightest about. “It’s cute to hear you fight over the cutest girl in the group, but don’t you think you better prepare for the upcoming fight?” Adu wouldn’t be wrong, if it all just wasn’t a game. So it made no difference at all if any one of them happened to get injured. And couldn’t she simply have called Merie by her name instead of calling her the cutest girl in the group? Was it something wrong with the members of this party? “You don’t need to mind their behaviour, Adu. Sure they might’ve turned worse since those two left. But as it’s now, so can Merie tell them to jump from a cliff, and they’ll ask which one. And of course do it.” Lart couldn’t be serious that things had got worse since Cleara and Marcus left. If anything, so had things got better. And it wasn’t as if they would do anything Merie would tell them to do. Sure they act as little close as a group, but it wasn’t as if Merie was bossing them around. And even if it would’ve been she could, so was there no way she would do it. “I see. In that case.” Adu stopped and turned to face Merie and the two others. “Behind this bush is the tribe, and I want you, Merie, to-” Adu’s request was cut short, as Opiom ran past her, leaving the girl surprised to turn in Opiom’s direction. “She left…” Adu didn’t seem to know what she should think about it, looking after the maniac with an empty look. “I think we should do the same if they wanted a slice of it.” Merie was feeling for the girl, but there was no chance she would miss letting loose, rapidly following Opiom and soon followed by Lart.

Merie wasn’t laughing, but smiling broadly, as she ran toward one warrior. Who held his spear tight and aimed it at her, a thrust with the spear, easy to sidestep. Coming up along the side of him, taking a small jump, catching the front of his throat with her claws and pulling him along backwards. Easily slashing it wide open when she noticed he lost his balance. She couldn’t say that this was anyhow as relaxing as slaughtering players, but it wasn’t bad either. And even better was that everyone in the party had joined, and Opiom had gone nuts with her fire spells. Throwing them in every direction, killing warriors, civilians, burning down huts and destroying the landscape. Anlie wasn’t as active as usual, mostly spending her time helping Adu to catch prisoners, and to protect them from Opiom’s stray spells. Merie set off towards her next target, an archer she apparently had missed earlier, slowly trying to chip away at Lart’s health as he’d his hands full with massacring another group of warriors. Coming up from behind, sinking her claws into the side of his neck, and pulled. Then pulling out a bomb, “LART, STUN YOUR BUNT FOR A SECOND ARE YOU KIND!” She recognised the attack as he started, and took the opportunity to throw the bomb. Just letting it leave her hand, “LART! BOMB INCOMING!” Lart didn’t seem to have been prepared for it and threw himself out of the way, barely being missed by the blast. “NICE ONE! BUT A LITTLE MORE TIME NEXT TIME, PLEASE!” Lart wasn’t the slightest annoyed Merie almost had hit him, and he almost seemed to find it funny that she’d used a bomb. Not to mention that Merie found it amusing to use bombs. Menacing Opiom had been right that it was fun blowing things up in the game.

“FUCK!” Had Anlie been attacked? “CAN YOU PLEASE TRY TO AIM THOSE SPELLS, OPIOM!” “THAT WAS ANOTHER ONE!” Adu’s following up with Anlie made it clearer what it all could be about, most probably, had Opiom taken down yet another civilian. Which might be the fifth or sixth by now. “I CAN, I WON’T. I’M HORRIBLE!” And Opiom was still not caring the slightest about what she’d done. Not that she would care more about it than anyone else, as they all honestly were doing something horrible and eradicating a village of NPCs.

–

“That makes twenty civilians and five warriors. So I think we should consider this a good hunt.” Adu seemed to be proud of the haul, which could have been larger if they just had put their spines into it. But Adu had asked for a slaughter, and a bloodbath it was. “But with that done. May I ask you if you always are doing your own fights as a group? Aren’t you working together?” Adu’s question gave Merie a bad feeling, as she didn’t want Adu to turn out to be another of those leader-freak-idiots. “I think it’s wrong to say that we only are doing our own thing. Sure, we’re doing our own thing, but we’re keeping an eye open for each other. As you maybe saw when Merie blew up a group attacking Lart.” Opiom wasn’t quite right, but neither was she wrong. They did their own thing, and they kept an eye on each others’ backs. But when Merie had blower those warriors up, so had it been more for the sake of it than to help Lart. Who would’ve been able to handle it fine himself. “Opiom is often holding our backs from a distance, casting spells when someone gets too close to us. So she held a slightly different role today as she stopped caring about anything.” “And Anlie is usually carving a way for us with her bowling, so she also had a slightly different role today.” Lart followed up on Anlie’s rapport of Opiom with a rapport about her. Which might have been a little too much information for Adu to handle at one time. Leaving her with a look as if she was questioning life itself. “So you’re usually not an organised killing force, hunting poor players and killing them without mercy?” “I wouldn’t call us organised. We’re more going after, as Opiom say, an anarchistic approach. But the rest is right, until it’s time to escape to avoid capture and exposure.” Merie answered Adu’s question rapidly and as well as she could. Hoping it would give Adu a slightly better insight into what kind of group they were. Even though it somehow would’ve been clear from how they had been acting in the chat. Which maybe Adu had seen as if they were fooling around.

Adu was thinking about something as they slowly started to lead their prisoners back to Adu’s village. Merie didn’t like the silence, but it wasn’t as if they could do anything about it. If Adu felt that something was amiss, so would she hopefully speak up about it. And if she thought that something was amiss, so was it hopefully not bad enough for her to cut all contact with them. “After some thinking…” Adu broke the silence, maybe thought through what she needed to think through. “I don’t think I can let anyone of you join my tribe, as we’ll be able to have a certain level of teamwork.” Fair enough. Not that Merie had thought about joining her tribe, as she would rather spend her time with Anlie. “But I can offer you a place as special forces, when it’s necessary, where I’ll send you out on missions where it might be slightly chaotic. Of course only as allies and brothers-in-arms.” It didn’t sound bad at all and sounded as if it would be fitting them better than the other position. “I can’t, as always, promise we will always be there to help you. Neither that everyone always will join. But if we can and are willing to, so would we like to help you and fulfil that position.” Anlie spoke with a strong voice, one of the few times she gave off the feeling of being the one handling the party.