World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (58 page)

The sister remains
tip-lipped, but offers a mischievous grin.

Diana narrows her eyes
again as she finally put two-and-two together. “It was all work
related, wasn’t it? Since Lucious and I are player consultants with
Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc., you thought you might
be able to get some nuggets of information regarding stuff that we
may be beta testing for EDE. I bet you even installed secret
surveillance software on my computer! Is this true?” she growls.

“I needed to do it,
because my boss asked me to,” the sister admits. “My company has
been going through tough times due to the ultra-competitive nature of
the casual gaming market, and my boyfriend needed fresh new ideas to
put to market. He was desperate and I just couldn’t say no to him,”
Priscilla explains with a shrug.

“So you betrayed me
for love? How wonderful,” Diana mocks her sister.

“You are not in a
position to judge me,” Priscilla retorts. “You don’t know how
nasty the real world is out there. You have been in academia for most
of your adult life. You have yet to step foot in the ruthless
business world. So don’t act all high and mighty when you’re just
a know-nothing.”

“Yeah, I know nothing
about backstabbing people. Perhaps you can give me some lessons,
after your lose this tournament. Enough of these chit chat. I want to
beat the stuffing out of you before time expires,” Diana grumbles
as she smacks the steel ball of her mace against her left palm.

“Yes, it’s time to
show the world what a big cry baby you are,” Priscilla agrees as
she adopts a stance. Armed with steel claws over the back of her
hands, the ninja leans her left arm out while keeping her right hand
over her chest.

Suddenly, Diana makes a
dash straight for her sister. “Hiiiiyahhhh!” she screams as the
priestess holds the mace over her head with both hands, and tries to
bash Priscilla in the head.

The ninja offers a leg
kick to her assailant’s mid-section, forcing the priestess
backwards. “My turn,” Priscilla says and quickly dashes forward.
She jabs at Diana’s chest with the left claws, but the priestess
blocks the blow with her mace. The ninja follows with a strike to the
face, but Diana throws her head back to avoid the claws.

The priestess allows
the momentum to drop her body to the ground, and blindly kicks out
her feet.

Having extended her
body forward for the strike to Diana's face, the ninja is caught off
guard by the sudden kick to her abdomen, and flies backward.

Seizing the
opportunity, Diana quickly removes the bola from her belt hook, and
throws it at her sister’s chest. The bola hits the target head on,
and the momentum causes the weighted balls on the ends of the rope to
swing around Priscilla’s arms, wrapping them to her ribs.

The ninja tries to run
away, but the priestess tackles her legs. “Oh no you don’t!”
Diana yells. The priestess straddles her sister. “Good night!”
Diana says before bashing Priscilla’s head with the steel mace.

With the dreaded “Game
Over” flashing on her view screen, Priscilla rips the virtual
reality helmet off. “Damn it!” the defeated sister slaps her
thighs.

Wesley keeps his focus
on the enemy before him. Before the knight could get within range of
his long sword, the ninja tosses three sets of throwing knives in
rapid succession. Wesley reacts quickly to block them with his shield
and protect his head.

The opponent uses the
opportunity to throw a smoke bomb and hides by activating the ninja
class skill, “Concealment.”

Seeing the smoke around
him, Wesley quickly moves away from his position, just in case the
ninja tries to throw more knives at the warrior. Once the smoke is
clear, he is not surprised to see that the ninja is nowhere to be
seen.
I didn't expect to be
playing hide-and-seek today
, Wesley thinks with amusement.
The ex-Marine starts to move around, seeking signs of his hidden
opponent. There are a number of trees and large rocks that the ninja
could be hiding behind, and perhaps even on the ground with some
ninja concealment skill being used.

As the cavalier walks
around the landscape, he suddenly hears a scraping sound from behind.
Wesley quickly gets down on one knee and raises his shield.
Buuooommm! The strike aimed at his head is followed by a low kick
aimed right below his left armpit. BAM! The kick hits Wesley
squarely, and the force knocks him off-balance. The player takes a
glance at his avatar's health bar, and sees a five percent drop.
Ouch!

The seasoned warrior
allows the momentum to carry his avatar and quickly rolls to his
right, narrowly avoiding another strike. Wesley continues rolling on
the ground, to put some distance between his avatar and his attacker.
I only need to keep my opponent
occupied for the remainder of this tournament,
the
cavalier reminds himself.

The strikes continue in
rapid succession; the attacker hits nothing but dirt.

Finally, Wesley swings
his long sword wildly in the air, forcing his opponent to back off to
avoid being cut. He uses the brief respite from the fight to return
his avatar to its feet. Wesley looks at his opponent, and sees that
the ninja is now using two Tonfa sticks. "Lucky me, I get to
fight a martial artist," he cracks.

The ninja twirls the
sticks under his forearms, to show his proficiency with the weapons,
and start bouncing lightly on his toes. Suddenly, the ninja takes two
quick steps forward and thrusts the right Tonfa stick at the knight's
face.

Wesley blocks the
strike and returns his own sword thrust to the ninja's face.

The opponent ducks
under the blade and tries to jab at the chest.

However, Wesley
counters by twisting his forearm downward, knocking the Tonfa stick
aside with his sword. He punches forward with his shield and slams it
into the ninja's face.

The ninja allows his
face to move backward with the momentum of the blow, and hops back a
few steps. Seeing that the blow has resulted in Concussion status,
the ninja quickly tosses another smoke bomb on the ground, and rolls
away from the area. Before the smoke could clear, he tosses another
bomb.

Wesley wisely moves
away from his former position, choosing to hide behind a large rock
formation.
I guess he really
does want to play hide-and-seek
, the warrior thinks with
amusement.

Once the Concussion
status is gone, the ninja activates his “Stealthy Movement” skill
and starts looking for his prey. He stumbles over a loose rock with
his left foot, and stomps on the ground with his right foot to steady
himself.

Wesley nears the sound
nearby and quickly jumps out of hiding. “En garde!” he says as he
tries to stab his opponent in the heart.

The ninja’s Tonfa
stick blocks the blade, and he quickly snaps a foot into the
warrior’s torso.

The unexpected kick
forces Wesley to shuffle a few backward as the cavalier tries to
remain on his feet.

The ninja uses the
opportunity to strike at his opponent’s head, intending to deliver
a Concussion status.

Wesley regains his wits
in time to block the stick with his shield. Suddenly he feels the
shield being tugged to the right. The experienced warrior experiences
a flashback to the mock fight with the Chinese intern a few months
back. Knowing exactly what the ninja is planning to do, Wesley
rotates his avatar’s body, pivots on his left foot, and kicks out
his right foot in one motion.

The move slams the leg
into the ninja’s back, catching him off guard and pushing him in
front of the ex-Marine.

Now!
Wesley thinks as he thrusts the sharp end of the long sword into the
ninja’s back and skewers his opponent. Wesley waits a moment and he
sees that the man is motionless and hanging limply on his sword.
Wesley plants his hand on his defeated opponent’s back and pulls
out the sword in one smooth motion.

The ninja’s body
lands on his knees; then he topples, face first, onto the dirt.

Wesley raises his sword
in the air, striking a victorious pose for the camera.

“Wow! Another victory
for the Eternians!” Evan exclaims excitedly, trying to muster up
some enthusiasm for the viewers at home as the outcome of the Hundred
Man Tournament is becoming obvious now.

“Yeah, the Eternian
players have been riding a string of victories in the individual
match ups. And with five minutes remaining on the clock, it looks
nearly impossible for the Virtuans to break through,” Antoinette
agrees.

“There are only a
handful of Virtuans remaining on the field: three on the mountain top
and two more on the ground; that makes a total of five. On the other
hand, there are still eight Eternians in the game,” Evan notes.
Even though the lives counter on the viewer screen will show exactly
how many players are still alive, the host still wants to bring it up
in order to fill some air time, so to speak.

“On top of that, the
Eternian necromancer is still maintaining the Wall of Bones. I assume
the two Virtuans hiding on the ground are hoping the necromancer will
run out of mana, and then rush through the portal when the wall
collapses,” Antoinette adds. “But you have Heimdall and his
impossibly long reach with his halberd to guard the portal. So a mad
dash through the portal strategy wouldn’t necessarily work on
Heimdall.”

“So it looks like
final hope for a Virtuan victory rides on the shoulder of the CEO of
Virtuous Gaming Co. With that, let’s turn our camera to the duel
between the two company chief executives at the Town Square,” Evan
says.

* * *

Charles Winter is
sweating heavily. He can feel the sweat dripping down his face. He
would like nothing better to log out of the stupid game and take a
nice, long shower. However, he can’t. Not when the fate of the
company now rides on Charles’ duel with his hated rival.

Richard takes a wild
swing of his long sword at the monk’s torso. Although he is keenly
aware that his players are winning the Hundred Man Tournament,
Richard would like nothing better than to humiliate Charles with a
complete and utter defeat.

Charles blocks the
blade with his wooden staff.
Why
did I pick monk class anyway?
The man takes a moment to
consider the rationale behind his choice of avatar class to bring
into the game.
Oh, right. I
wanted to showcase the Oriental Expansion, and monk was one of the
new character classes introduced into World of Eternia. Also, I
wanted to show that I’m different, not some Joe Smoe always picking
the safe warrior class.
Charles smiles at the thought.

“Now I think you must
have gone insane. How can you be smiling when you’re about to lose
your company, Charles?” Richard taunts.

“It ain’t over ‘til
the fat lady sings,” Charles retorts while taking a big swing with
his staff.

Richard blocks the blow
with his shield and counters with a slash at his opponent’s torso.

Charles hops back just
in time to avoid the long blade.
I
think I finally got my timing down.
The monk starts
spinning his staff in front of his body.

"Are you trying to
show off now?" Richard taunts and lounges his shield into the
staff.

Charles sidesteps the
charge effortlessly like a bull fighter, and whacks his armored
opponent in the rear.

Richard quickly turns
around.

Charles suddenly jabs
one end of his staff against the ground, and pushes his body off the
staff. The unencumbered man flies, feet first, through the air and
kicks the knight squarely in the face.

The blow disorients
Richard and drops him flat on his back.

Charles quickly takes
advantage of the momentum to jab repeatedly at the fallen man.

Richard raises his
shield, but with the Concussion status in effect his avatar is unable
to block a majority of the strikes. His health bar starts to decrease
rapidly: eighty percent, seventy percent, sixty, forty, twenty, ten.
. .

Suddenly, fireworks go
off in the air. BANG-BABA-BANG! The tournament has ended!

With the Concussion
status suddenly gone, Richard lifts his torso off the ground and
smashes his shield into his opponent's abdomen in one smooth motion.

As Charles was looking
up at the sky when the shield is shoved into his avatar, the monk is
knocked off balance and his character is forced to take several steps
back.

"It's over. You
lost!" Richard gloats.

Charles stares with
hatred at his rival, and sudden remembers that the duel is being
streamed live. He offers a fake smile for the cameras and drops his
weapon. He claps his hands. CLAP-CLAP-CLAP! "Well played,"
he says cheerfully and casually walks up to Richard with a hand held
out.

"Great match,"
Richard smiles graciously and shakes the loser's hand.

The two stare at each
other, neither man willing to say another kind word to the other.

* * *

"And there we have
it! The Eternians have won the Hundred Man Tournament!" Evan
says while clapping his hands in appreciation of the players'
efforts.

"It was a great
match full of surprises," Antoinette adds. "I think the MVP
of this event has to be Heimdall."

"I agree. He took
down so many opponents by himself in the passage way, after his
comrades got bombed out of the game. The man refused to back down
despite the severe man-disadvantage, and held down the fort. Heimdall
offered a clinic on the art of melee fighting," Evan praises
generously.

"But the runner up
has to be Laura Deathmaiden. If Heimdall is the ace, then Laura is
the closer who shut the door literally and saved the Eternians from a
disheartening loss," Antoinette notes.