Adam Drake - Blackout

“Last call for Benton Fields!” Bellowed the sky-barge captain. I crouched next to a pile of wooden crates a short distance away.

The captain boarded, and the ramp retracted. The barge lifted up.

“Clear?” I asked Phlixx.

“All clear, my love!”

I ran, Phlixx clinging to me. Bolting out from my hiding place I charged right at the ascending barge. When I hit the edge of the dock, I activated my leap ability and jumped. Although I didn’t have a lot of skill points in leap, it was enough for me to catch the barge railing with both hands. After pulling myself up and over to stand on the deck, I looked around. The other players gave me indifferent looks, but no one said anything. Just another crazy player risking a re-roll because she couldn’t wait for the next sky-barge.

“That was fun,” I said. But Phlixx gasped and pointed.

There, on the edge of the receding dock, too far to jump from now, stood the red ninja looking in my direction.

“Oh, crud,” I said. “I could have handled that better, Phlixx.”

“What? Why?” Asked Phlixx looking gravely concerned.

“Now he knows where we’re going,” I said, feeling immensely stupid. “And we’ll have his friends waiting for us at Benton Fields which is a PvP zone.”

And if they caught me they’d get the Quest scroll.

I sat on the bow of the sky-barge, feeling forlorn.

Phlixx sensed my despondency and patted my shoulder. “Don’t be sad, love of my life. It can’t be all bad.”

Companions weren’t the most perceptive of game constructs. I doubted Phlixx even fully understood why I was annoyed with myself. But it gave me someone to talk to.

“I’m not sad,” I said, watching a carpet of green forest pass below. “Grabbing this barge was a short sighted mistake. I should of taken a different one leading somewhere else, like Kratin’s Crater or the Far Banks. Then made my way to the Quest site. Would have given whoever is trying to follow me another direction to go.”

“Can’t we do that at Benton Fields?” Phlixx asked. The wind made little waves across his fur.

“Nope. The Quest site is on the way there. Would take too long to circle back.” I shook my head, thinking I was taking this too seriously. My intent was to jump off the sky-barge at its closest point to the Quest site. But once the sky-barge arrived at Benton Fields and I wasn’t on it, whoever waited for me there would figure things out.

Still, maybe it wasn’t so bad. I’d still have significant lead time to finish the Quest before anyone else got a chance. And the moment I officially activated the scroll everyone’s gossip feeds will spill the news that a new Legendary Quest was available.

In essence, I had only one chance to complete it because soon there would be legions of players descending on it.

Phlixx tapped the hilt of my sheathed sword. “We are arriving at the place.” I had Phlixx tuned into the drop-off point so I wouldn’t miss it. Letting your mind wander while floating for hours on a sky-barge was a gamer’s hazard.

I stood and peered down. The sky-barge was approaching a range of high hills. They would shorten the distance I would have to fall.

“Going to have to put you away for a bit, little buddy,” I said to Phlixx.

The ferret looked aghast. “But why! I don’t want to leave you now, oh, dearest one! It would break my heart.”

“Yeah, but a fall like this will kill you, and your death respawn time is too long. Unsummoning you drops that to a fraction of the time.” I offered my little companion a reassuring smile, but it didn’t work.

Phlixx started crying, sitting on the railing and wailing into the wind. “No! Please! Don’t do this!”

The hills were now passing by. I didn’t have time for this. “I’ll see you soon, I promise.”

Before he could respond I selected my companion icon and Phlixx blinked out of existence. I’d bring him back once I made to the Quest zone.

Gripping the side rigging, I scampered down a rope. Trees swept by underneath at an alarming speed.

No point delaying this. It’s now or never, I thought, and released the rope. At the same time I activated my free-fall ability which would slow my drop speed. It wouldn’t do much but I had to try to use it.

As I fell the wind whipped at my face and clothes. The ground raced up to meet me.

Whether good luck, or grave misfortune, I hit a tree and snapped branches as I dropped through the foliage. It may have slowed me a little, but it did damage, too.

The moment before impact I selected a health booster icon on my view screen. A message ‘Health Increased 400%’ appeared before me. Then I hit the ground, hard.

For a few disoriented moments I lay on my back and tried to get my bearings. High above, through the tree canopy, I saw the sky-barge pass from view.

Wow, that’s really high up, I thought. The drop had been greater than I anticipated.

I sat up to find myself in a shallow crater that my fall had made. Branches and leaves from above cascaded down around me.

My health indicator now said, ‘Health at 3%’.

Sheesh, that was bad. Without the booster I would have been re-rolling my character right now, cursing up a storm. All my gear, including the Quest scroll would have been left here at my point of death for anyone to come along and take.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I stood and checked myself over, not that I expected anything to be really broken.

Although my health was low, I couldn’t use another booster, or even one of the salves in my inventory, for a few more hours. I’d needed some genuine healing magic to fix me up.

I looked about. Trees and greenery everywhere. Pulling up my map I checked the location of the Quest zone, then I set off in that direction. It was still a fair distance away, so I set my avatar to auto-walk and pulled up a game news-feed to pass the time.

Nothing interesting. Just more of the same. Rumors of hacks and cheats. Interviews with high-level players talking about their adventures. Along the bottom was an auction house ticker which displayed the latest high value items and their most current (insane) bids.

One headline did catch my interest. A group of lore-hounds, players who studied and cataloged the games vast and detailed history, stated that some game characters were now discussing the possibility of the Demon King’s return to the known realm. This was a trope played out for years. The ultimate goal of the Demon King, like all big bad guys, was to destroy the world and enslave the survivors. Thousands of years ago his minions had spread evil across the land, but only the mighty efforts of a few stalwart heroes drove him back to the Demon Void.

Typical stuff. But now, it seemed the game had decided to reintroduce this big bad guy, instead of keeping him relegated to the history books.

I shrugged and checked my map. The Quest location was close, so I closed down my news-feed and resumed control of my avatar.

A majestic view of a mountain range presented itself as the forest thinned out. The terrain became more rocky and my walk turned into a climb. My eyes kept darting to my low health bar, but there was little I could do about it now. As long as a bear or wandering monster didn’t surprise me I would be okay.

Soon I reached what looked to be the place where the red ‘X’ on the map was. A flat rock wall against a large rocky outcropping appeared to be the most likely spot. I peered about but saw nothing else remarkable about the area.

From behind me I heard a noise. I whirled around sword in my hands ready for an ambush. No one was there. But the noise continued from nearby. I realized the echoing effect off the rocks confused my senses.