Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) (27 page)

Item(s) Acquired:

Pig Skin X 1 (
Poor quality
)

<<< * >>>

“That was great.” said Scott. He clapped his hands and Rhea took a bow.

“Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all night.” replied the girl.

Scott quipped. “Such a lucky field, it gets to spend the night with you.”

She winked at him then cocked her hips to the side. “Yep, it sure is.”

He laughed at her unabashed cockiness. Her confidence was fun to see.

She tossed her hair back, lifted her chin, and then made an imperious gesture. “Let all who oppose me, become meat for my table.”

Scott could not help but say, “Ha, and I thought the boar was the only ham here.”

Rhea snorted at him then broke down into a fit of laughter. Being full of herself for a moment had been fun.

They took off again and began to search for more boars. They fought nearly forty of the things that afternoon. They were weak but plentiful in the area. Some were a little larger, others were a bit smaller. None of them gave Scott any experience but he did earn another thirty-six ability points by the end of their trip.

The sun started to dip low on the horizon. It was time to head back. Scott had not gained much from that hunt, but he did not mind. Rhea had enjoyed herself. She had even allowed herself to show off a little, which was a reward in its own right as far as he was concerned.

The sorcerer and his elf love interest walked hand-in-hand toward town. There was little to fear in this part of the world, not at their level anyway. The strongest monsters outside of the mine were the pigs. They could do little damage to Rhea and no damage at all to Scott. Even without his weapons and armor, he was far beyond their limited powers.

They spoke of simple things along the way. Their conversation continued happily and soon they could see the farm house from earlier just up the road.

“What do you want for dinner?” asked Scott.

Rhea smiled and squeezed his hand. “Anything but pork chops.”

He laughed at her and started to respond, but his response died on his lips. The background music changed from a soft, almost romantic, travel score to a more dangerous and edgy tune.

<<< * >>>

You have entered a specialized combat zone! Special effects have been activated.

Special Effects:

No log-out

No Escape

Magic Nullification

<<< * >>>

“What the hell!” exclaimed Scott.

“A special battle zone? Scott, watch out!” Rhea dropped his hand and readied her sword.

A loud, cruel, laugh echoed from the house up ahead. They turned toward the sound and saw a large brutish looking creature walk out. The orc, as Scott suspected from the tusks and green skin, strolled casually out to the road. Above its head a bright red name appeared. That name was ‘Aen.’

“What are you doing?” called out Rhea. Why would someone set up a special zone here? Common bandits would not go so far. Special zones required zone crystals and they were expensive items to purchase.

The orc snorted at her then replied, “Don’t worry your pretty little head, girl. You’ll find out soon enough.”

Seven more guys, each with a bright red name floating above their heads, strolled out of the house in a casual manner. Two more of them were orcs. The rest were some sort of goblin.

“Scott... These people are all known murderers and they have set this zone to nullify magic. Be ready.” said Rhea.

He nodded to her and took up a fighting stance. Her warning was unnecessary. It was obvious from the change in the atmosphere and the way that these people were acting. They meant them harm. Still, he appreciated her attempt at a heads-up.

“Well, since the party guests have arrived... Let’s start the party.” said the apparent leader of the group.

The massive orc points one ham-fisted hand toward them. “Get ‘em, boys.”

Four of the goblins howled with blood lust then streaked down the road toward them. They were fast, damned fast. The goblins reached the trapped couple in only a scant few seconds.

Scott ducked under a flying leap from a green skinned goblin, only to be forced to block and redirect the strike of another. The leaping goblin quickly recovered and swung its black blade at him with precise fury. He span around the blade and tried to take advantage of the creature being off-balance, but its comrade lunged forward with its own knife. He was forced to move out of the way again.

Rhea managed to parry the strike of one incoming goblin and deflect the attack of the other. However, her excessively high agility could not save her from her opponents entirely. It was clear from the start that they were at a higher level than her. She had the agility of an elf who hunted zealously, but they had the agility that nearly matched her own.

One-on-one, either of the goblins would have been a problem for Scott and Rhea. Two-on-one made it inevitable that they would take damage. Despite the level difference, it was Scott who received the first strike.

The sorcerer performed a low sweep to try and take one of the goblins off his feet. However, the wiry creature leapt up to avoid the attack and stabbed forward with his blade while still in mid-air. Scott managed to narrowly avoid that strike, but he was out of position and could not avoid the hard downward stab of the murderer’s companion. The blade bit deeply into his thigh. A bright red number twelve floated upward from his body signifying the amount of damage that he had taken.

Scott cried out in pain, but the true horror of that attack made itself known afterward.

<<< * >>>

You have been poisoned! You are slightly paralyzed and your movement speed will decrease over time.

<<< * >>>

That was all it took for the battle to shift completely. The blades were poisoned with a paralytic substance. The goblins laughed gleefully as they attacked Scott now. They did very little damage with their knives. Instead they were satisfied with slowly cutting him apart.

He would try to block or parry their strikes, but his decreased speed prevented him from moving quickly enough. He took shallow, but painful, cuts to the hands and his arms. Each time a blade struck he would be hit with more paralyzing agent and his speed would decrease further.

Rhea had her armor on and managed to avoid a similar fate for a moment. It was proof against their daggers. However, it did not matter in the end. She could not use her magic and her opponents were easily twice her level, possibly more. She received a shallow cut along her cheek. The paralysis hit and she began to slow down.

“Scott! Scott!” cried a tiny voice inside his mind. Ero had woken from her nap due to the sensation of pain that she felt through her bond with him. The fights with the boars had not been enough to rouse her, but her master was in serious danger now.

Scott found it hard to think or move now. The goblin players gleefully sliced him up. They were taking their sweet time, making it hurt. The hateful bastards could have killed him easily. He suspected that they were actually higher level than he was. It was like fighting two sadistic mini-bosses at the same time.

“Scott, use my power!” cried Ero inside his mind.

“You can’t yet... Need four days, remember?” Scott spoke aloud. He was losing his battle with both the goblins and his consciousness and fell to his knees. He felt a knife blade slide cruelly across his shoulder, lightly flaying his flesh. The pain was muted due to the numbness throughout his body, but the damage was racking up.

“No, my lesser powers! Use my power, you know how! They don’t count as using magic! You can use them.” cried the girl.

He felt a swift slash cut across his face. Blood began to pour from the superficial wound. His head drooped. At this point even breathing was difficult. It was hard to think, hard to do anything. How did he use Ero’s power? He knew it, he thought he knew it, but it was so hard to think of it.

It came to him like a flash of light. He envisioned the tiny fairy and called upon her to banish his status effects while boosting his abilities, and did so in the only way he could think of at the moment. He threw back his head and screamed. “Ero, Power!”

“The hell? Ero Power?” asked one of the goblins. Was he some sort of pervert?

Ero cried out loudly and then Scott cried out immediately afterward. A bright red burst of light flared outward from his body. He suddenly began to feel a lot better.

<<< * >>>

You have activated a special guardian ability, Power. It can be used once per day. The effect will last for ten minutes.

All status effects are nullified.

You will regenerate health and mana at accelerated speeds.

Your attributes have increased by forty percent.

Your attack speed has risen by ten percent.

Your attack and defense power have risen by twenty percent of total capacity.

<<< * >>>

Scott immediately tried to thank Ero, but she did not respond. The once per day ability, Power, had granted him ten minutes of greatly increased combat potential.

A goblin murderer tried to attack him again, but this time the outcome was drastically different that previous assaults. Scott’s above-average stats for his level combined with his attribute boosts to make Scott far more formidable than before. The knife flashed down and skittered off his flesh like it had struck metal. A bright red zero floated upward from the sorcerer’s body.

The players were using weapons designed to do little damage. They were tools of fear, an item used to perform weak attacks that maximized the pain inflicted. Even hard strikes would only generate enough force to do a few points of damage to the man before. Now they were completely useless against his flesh. He might as well have been wearing full body plate armor.

“Surprise, asshole.” said Scott before launching his body upward. His fist rocketed upward in a powerful uppercut that slammed into the jaw of the confused goblin. The creature’s jaw shattered like he had been hit with a sledge hammer. The murderer was sent flying backwards with great force. A bright red number three hundred forty flared above his head.

He had been slain outright due to his low defense. Scott’s attack power was several times higher than the agility focused players’ total defense. That difference in capacity included their light weight leather armor. The nature of a sorcerer allowed them to have attack and defense four times higher than their strength and agility. Even before, if he could have hit them he could have hurt them badly. Their agility was too great to overcome at the time because they were just a little above him in level and stats. Now, his agility was closer to their abilities and the difference showed.

“That mother fucker just killed Gan!” snapped one of the smaller orcs.

“Fuck him. He was one-shotted by a sorcerer seven levels below him, he deserved it.” said Aen.

“Yeah, but at this rate he could kill all of them.”

They watched as Scott pressed his sole remaining opponent using a series of powerful combination strikes. He had not managed to hit his opponent cleanly, yet. However, one good strike would finish him.

“What? You scared?” asked the hobgoblin, Redfang. He was the only goblin not currently in the melee.

“Scared? No. Why let that guy kill our people though?” asked the annoyed orc.

Aen shrugged. “Let the fool have some hope. He’s stronger than I thought he would be, but he still doesn’t have a chance.”

Aen whistled loudly then shouted. “Forget the elf. Take out the sorcerer.”

The goblin players attacking Scott and Rhea immediately turned toward Scott. Rhea tried to go after them but she only took three excruciatingly slow steps before she fell to her knees. The paralysis poison had reached dangerous levels within her body.

Scott slipped around the attack of the closest player, and attempted to strike him in the side of the head. Unfortunately, he narrowly dodged the strike.

Three-on-one it was impossible for him to dodge, even with his heavily boosted stats. Their knives did no damage, but it was hard to line up a killing blow.

After a series of strikes skittered off of his flesh Scott stopped fighting altogether. He stood in place impassively and stared at the closest goblin.

“What’s he doing? Is he giving up?” asked Redfang.

Aen smirked. “No.”

The group leader casually said, “Rode, get ready.”

“You serious?” asked Rode.

“Yep, looks like that guy is tired of screwing around, and I agree.” said Aen.

The goblins laughed as they slashed at him. Even one critical hit would be all it would take to end the fight. If he chose not to move then he just made it easier for them.