Chapter Two
Chapter Two
His head spun. Attila staggered but kept his balance.
He could walk! Okay, let's try it again.
He took another
step. And again, trying to relax and breathe in synch. That was it. He was
fine. He wasn't wheelchair-bound anymore. He wasn't a cripple. His legs were
there: strong and healthy, his amblers, his supports, his very own limbs! He
could will them to move! It wasn't his cartoon character on screen but he
himself, Ivan Attila, happily sauntering around!
Attila ran his hands
down his thighs, then did a few sit-ups. He laughed. He couldn't remember the
last time he'd been this happy.
The wind rippled
the grass around the portal station; it ruffled the branches of the towering
poplars whose tops pierced the clouds. The sun would come out, revealing
patches of bright blue amid the menacing clouds and spotting the valley below
with gold. Then the clouds would close in, submerging the world below in a
chilly gloom.
Shaking his head,
Attila took in the cool air. So this was the Dead Canyon. The land of sorcerers
and necromancers, of witches and the undead, vagabond pioneers and Royal
legionnaires, peddlers and dark knights; of humans, dwarves and Elves as well
as monsters of every possible caliber.
Right. Time to turn
to business. No matter how good he felt, he had a few debts to pay. Which meant
he had to get the God's Eye off his hands and pretty quickly, too.
He shifted his
shield from his arm to his back. Off we go, then! All the way to the Unicorn
Tavern, chop chop!
Yeah right, dream
on. Immediately he noticed the Rot glowing in front of the castle wall. This
was one hell of an acid-like aberration that could eat right through you down
to the bone. Next to it lurked an almost indistinguishable Butcher, betrayed
only by a slight quivering of the fabric of reality by one of the poplar's
roots. This was something much worse: a gravitational aberration that could, if
you weren't careful, suck you in and grind you into bone dust, then spew you
out scattering your powdered remains to the wind. In daytime you might just
about notice it if you were lucky but at night it was virtually invisible.
Aberrations were
localized phenomena of magic nature that had been discovered at the Dead Canyon
after the first Magic Storm. Although dangerous, they could generate artifacts
of unique and useful properties. This generated a considerable infusion into Gryad's
economy as its artifact market was estimated at several million dollars.
The area bordering
on the Dead Canyon was known as the Frontier Valley and the ruins of a castle
and the wall around it, the Fortress. It used to be controlled by the Awesome
clan but recently they'd been driven out. Afterward, the area had been trampled
by one of the occasional monster stampedes. These days it was a quiet location,
neutral and sparsely populated.
Lots of things can
change in a game. Players come and go; the internal balance of power can change
and so can the map of aberrations. Some things, though, remain the same. Like
the Unicorn Tavern, always open in the Fortress donjon: a place to stretch your
legs after a raid and to sell or swap your findings.
Attila gave these
aberrations a wide berth. He climbed through a breach in the wall and walked
past a couple of ruins overgrown with moss. The donjon rose before him. He
slapped his belt bag where he kept God's Eye and hurried on, not forgetting to
watch where he was going. The Dead Canyon was one dangerous place. If he was
killed now, the cheat would probably stay on his corpse. Which meant he'd have
to retrace his tracks from the portal station, risking being late for his RV
and - much more importantly - risking someone else picking God's Eye up from
his dead body.
The tall angular
donjon made of large slabs of stone towered before him. A squawk came from above.
Mechanically Attila reached for his sword, then swore under his breath. This
was Bestia, a harpy that lived alone in her nest on top of the donjon. She was
as mad as a bat. Harpies are, normally, but this one had a couple of screws
loose. Every time someone approached the center of the fortress she would
scream her head off warning the tavern's guards about a new visitor and
showering him with her fossilized feces. Although she never actually hit anyone
with it.
The breach in the
donjon wall that offered access to the tavern faced north. Attila was
approaching it from the west. Instead of entering the building, he stole a look
around and turned toward a tall copse of bushes. He climbed inside and crouched
on the ground. Then he opened the Book and reached for the God's Eye in his
belt bag.
No player was ever
without his Book. You couldn't lose, sell, steal or give it away. The Book's
appearance differed depending on your level. At first it was little more than a
miserable-looking journal bound in cheap leather, but as you progressed through
levels, it transformed into a precious manuscript inlaid with precious gems.
You could leaf through it; alternatively, you could transfer your interface
onto its cover. As a level 29 Ranger, Attila owned a beautiful Book bound in
embossed morocco leather and topped with a fancy frame surrounding the magic
screen. Instead of all the buttons and the joy stick he had four oblong
crystals, one in each corner of the Book: white, blue, green and black. You
could press them, sinking them into the soft leather, and also turn them
knob-like... overall, this was an excellent thing available to everyone level
20 and above. It had cost Attila two hundred gold but it was worth every penny.
He pressed the
white crystal, then turned the green one. The bag on his belt twitched. The
silver disk of God's Eye soared into the sky, clicking; it splayed its arms
out, unfolding into a steel six-pointed star. An open eye glowed in its center,
its black pupil floating in a hemispherical pool of mercury. Its arms dripped
magical runes that slowly melted in the air.
The artifact
stopped about fifty feet above the ground. Attila pressed the white crystal
slightly, activating its stealth mode. The star streamed charges of lightning,
dematerializing. It wasn't a hundred percent invisible but if you didn't know
it was there you'd be hard pressed to find it.
He reached into the
bag again, producing his pride and joy: a pair of large copper goggles complete
with a leather strap. Attila had modeled them after the Goggles of Underground
Gloom which he'd bought from a dwarf player who'd managed to come back from the
Steam Tunnels alive and in one piece. The modified goggles still allowed you to
move in the dark dungeon without a torch or other source of light, but now they
also served a new purpose.
Attila put the
goggles on and secured the strap around his head. He turned the black crystal
on the book cover. A small round window appeared in the goggles' left lens. He
turned the blue crystal slightly, and the Eye in the sky rotated, following its
movement.
The little round lens
blinked. Overlapping the view around, it offered a bird's eye view of the area.
Bestia soared over the donjon, oblivious to God's Eye watching her. Ruins bared
their grinning stumps of walls from the sea of greenery. Slowly God's Eye began
to rotate, offering a panoramic view.
So, what did we
have here? The Eye offered a view of the donjon's flat roof complete with
Bestia's nest made of a paraphernalia of twigs, bones and withered pelts of
small forest creatures. Then she was back, landing and taking her place in the
nest. Harpies were sharp-fanged creatures dressed in scruffy tunics made of
animal pelts. They had female bodies, emaciated arms and a pair of scraggly
skeletal wings on their backs. Harpies were known for their nasty and
quarrelsome character, aggressive with newbs and cowardly with established
gamers.
Bestia crouched in
her nest and froze, staring into space. Attila couldn't see her face from above
but he could well imagine it, spiteful and dumb. Despite the fact that harpies
walked around half-naked, they were about as sexy as a geriatric frog.
He motioned the Eye
further on and squinted, focusing on a hole in the wall overgrown with
brambles. This was the entrance to the Tavern.
A man clambered out
and stood up, looking about himself. He wore a checkered bandana, a gray and
green hunter's jacket and a tartan kilt. A highlander, oh right.
The man carried a
leather backpack. In one hand he held a short spear. And if Attila lowered the
Eye slightly and looked at him from a different angle... oh, yes. Now he could
see the man's short dark beard and his bushy eyebrows. His powerful legs were
stuck into a pair of fur boots.
The highlander
shrugged and began forcing his way through the bushes. At least he seemed to be
heading in the opposite direction from the portal station. Attila wasn't
exactly looking forward to meeting the guy face to face.
In any case, it
looked like the Eye was working. True, it wasn't exactly legal. It could easily
get him collared by the legionnaires:
the players hired by the Admins to perform police functions. The only thing
left was to get paid for it.
Attila stood up.
The whole thing was a piece of cake. He had the goods; his customer was now
waiting for him in the tavern, prepared to part with a hefty sum of money. So
why did he have this bad feeling? He seemed to sense someone's stare focused on
his back.
Attila changed the
Eye's settings so that it hovered nearby the donjon, rotating slowly. The image
in his goggles and on the cover of the Book also began to rotate. Good. Let it
stay there and scan the area. This wasn't some Mickey Mouse business. Attila
was playing big time. Security was key.
He shut down the
Book view and began walking around the donjon, keeping an eye on the image in
his goggles. Immediately he stumbled into some gelatinous goo. The fabric of
reality around him thickened, rippled with interference. Then it all ended. An
aberration? There was no record of anyone encountering them so close to the
tavern. A glitch? Most likely. Never mind. It didn't seem to have affected
anything. Time to move on.
He climbed through
the narrow hole and found himself in a room with a door watched by two NPC
guards. A torch burned brightly. One of the guards was sitting on an upended
bucket; the other was leaning against the wall. Whoever entered the room, their
modus operandi didn't change: the one on the bucket raised his loaded crossbow,
aiming it at the guest, while the other laid his hand on his broadsword and
demanded,
"Who the hell
are you? What's your business?"
"Need a
drink," Attila dropped as he walked through the door.
"Leave your
weapons over there!" the guard barked at his back.
He went down a
staircase lit by another torch which was stuck into the crown of an enormous
skull that sat on one of the steps. Below, a copper-lined door led into the
tavern. Joel the guard stirred next to the shelves laden with various weapons.
He was an NPC, too.
"Lay your
weapons onto the shelf!" he commanded.
You couldn't enter
the tavern while carrying weapons in any shape or form. The door just wouldn't
open. Every game had to have safe locations like this.
Attila ran a
nonchalant hand across his chest, removing his sword and the shield, then
unbuckled his knife and laid it onto the shelf. Joel watched over him, playing
with his broadsword. The only thing Attila had kept was a large iron medallion
on his neck in the shape of a two-pronged fork. Attila had been allowed through
while carrying it hundreds of times before; the game security just failed to
detect it. And still he breathed a sigh of relief when the door opened before
him.
The tavern was lit
by oil lamps hanging from hooks. Two patrons were engrossed in a game of cards
at the nearest table; they turned their heads for a look and immediately lost
all interest in him. A gaunt stooping Elf nursed his mug on a bar stool; he
looked around, saw him and reached for his backpack lying on the spare stool
next to him, moving it onto his lap.
Two more men were
having dinner at the other end of the room next to the door that led to the
castle's dungeons. The one that was facing him raised his head, meeting
Attila's stare; then he looked back down at his plateful of meat stew. His
friend kept rattling his spoon against his own bowl gulping his food down
greedily, his ears moving with the effort.
Attila nodded to
the landlord behind the bar. His name was Barb - and he was actually a unicorn.
Or rather, an animal humanoid. His body was perfectly human, ending in a
horse-like neck and head topped with a long horn. A long time ago, when Attila
had still been learning the local lay of the land, someone had told him Barb's
story. His name was indeed Barb: a seedy vendor dealing in some questionable
goods who one day had the misfortune to rip off a Barbarian Shaman by selling
him some run-of-the mill deer horns in place of the unique Unicorn horns famous
for their magic properties. The shaman - who happened to be a worshipper of the
Beast God - saw right through his little scheme and cursed the landlord,
turning him into his current shape. After that, no one wanted to deal with him
so he opened the tavern instead.
Upon seeing Attila,
the landlord shook his mane and neighed curtly, motioning him to enter. Attila
found it funny that he could both speak and neigh like a proper unicorn.
Finally Attila saw
his customer.
A large bearded
half-orc clad in a shiny bulbous cuirass (he'd identified himself as Beast at
their initial RV) was sitting at a table not far from the bar. In front of him
lay his helmet adorned with a picture of a fanged orc skull and crossbones. It
was tacky as hell but it did catch your eye. An enormous mace lay on the table
next to it.
The half-orc raised
his huge beam of an arm, motioning Attila to approach. He bared his yellow
fangs in a grin, then raised his beer mug by way of greeting him.
Attila took a seat
at the table next to him. The half-orc had pale-blue skin. A scar ran across
his temple. His long beard was tied in a knot at the end; as for his hair, it
was unusually thick, resembling a nest of little snakes. A bowl of pickles
stood on the table next to a second mug. Beast reached out and filled it from a
keg.
"Cheers, man!
May the Canyon be good to us!"
Attila reached for
the mug and drank the toast. Beast's Adam's apple twitched as he poured the
beer down his neck. Then he grunted, pounding his nearly-empty mug onto the
table. Attila barely touched his drink.
"So? Have you
got it?" Beast craned his powerful neck toward him. His voice sounded
impressively husky but still Attila thought he could detect a sour note. His
customer must have been young - most likely using a voice changer attached to a
microphone to sound older.
The customer cast a
furtive glance around and leaned toward Attila. His dark orcish eyes glistened
as he repeated,
"So, you got
it? Show me. Can't wait."
His boyish
intonation didn't match his militant stance. When an enormous bearded hulk of a
half-orc complete with scars, weathered skin and fat greedy lips begins to
fidget and pull faces, it admittedly looks funny.
"Relax,"
Attila said. "Calm down, man. You're attracting attention. You sure you
got the money?"
"Where's my
cheat?" Beast raised his voice.
Attila cast a
worried look around. "Put the voice down, you idiot!" he hissed.
Beast shrunk his
head into his shoulders. "Why?" Not receiving an answer, he sat up
straight again. "Who do you think you are?"
Jesus. Attila
heaved a sigh. "The Eye is hovering over the donjon's roof," he said.
"It's transmitting the images here," he reached into his bag for the
Book and laid it on the table. "Wait, I'm gonna turn it on now. Can you
see? You can control it via these crystals. Here, try it."
Continuing to
explain, he pushed the Book toward Beast who immediately began pressing and
turning the knobs, open-mouthed with the effort. When the image in the frame
obeyed his actions commanding the Eye to move, he beamed like a little boy.
Yes. This was a
boy. He must have stolen the money from his parents. Having said that, some of
these kids were quite capable of earning large sums by gaming, much more than
their dad could bring home by busting his hump on some assembly line. Attila
kept explaining the details while casting occasional glances at the helmet.
What a stupid logo.
The bad foreboding
arose in him again. He cast an inconspicuous look around. No one seemed to be
paying any particular attention to them. Everything was business as usual. And
still-
The landlord and
the hunched-up Elf by the bar were talking in low voices. The Elf finished his
mug in one swig and cast a nonchalant glance at Beast and Attila.
Attila didn't like
it. Then again, there was nothing suspicious about the man. It wasn't even the
patrons that worried him, it was the tavern itself. There was something wrong
about the whole setup. What could that be? He didn't notice anything out of the
ordinary.
"Cool,"
Beast mumbled, playing with the Eye. The image on the book cover kept rotating.
The picture in Attila's left goggle lens mirrored its movement. He could see
the room and he could also see the overlapping view of the ruins outside, the
bushes and the donjon.
Beast had found
Attila via one of his old clients. He'd contracted him to make the Eye: an
absolutely indispensable thing for every ranger, whether alone or in a group. A
cheat like that could seriously improve your chances of survival in the Dead
Canyon. The problem was, it wasn't exactly legal. The emphasis being on
"exactly". The truth was, the Admins had chosen to close their eyes
to the players' use of cheats which admittedly added to the game's appeal. On
the other hand, they tended to unsettle the game's balance which was why cheat
builders were prosecuted, arrested and heavily fined.
Admins didn't
bother to arrest them themselves, though. They had specially hired players to do
just that. Called Legionnaires, these too were obliged to follow the game's
rules just like everybody else. Well, almost. The constant standoff between the
legionnaires and cheat masters that often resulted in major confrontations were
Gryad's special feature: a fun addition to the game which added to its
excitement.
Attila frowned.
There was one other strange thing about the tavern. It was nearly empty.
Normally, the Unicorn was packed. He'd never seen even half of its tables
empty; now virtually all of them were deserted.
"I'll take
it," Beast announced.
"Quiet,
you," Attila hissed. "What's wrong with you, man? Can't you keep your
voice down? It's five and a half grand."
Beast's eyes opened
wide with indignation. "You said it was four!"
"I had to buy
some native software. Couldn't get any hacked ones. Didn't I warn you that the
price might rise? I did. So if you want it, you'd better pay now."
Attila pulled the
Book closer and closed the Eye's view on the cover, opening his payment
provider instead. Beast stared at him, mouthing something.
Attila knew this
old salesmen's trick. You had to hand the goods over to the client so that he
could hold it, touch it and feel that it was already as good as his. Then you
took it back from him. Subconsciously the client would already regard the item
as his own and would be much more prone to buy something he otherwise wouldn't
have. So now Attila was sure this Beast wasn't going to reconsider.
He was desperate,
too desperate to be unscrupulous over such tricks. Besides, he'd indeed gone
over his budget while working on the Eye. A visit from some shady debt
collectors was the last thing his wheelchair-bound body needed. He had to raise
the money today, by hook or by crook.
Beast sniffed
unhappily.
"Have you ever
used the in-game banking system?" Attila asked.
"Of course I
have. Who do you think I am?"
"I don't know,
do I? I'm not talking about shopping. I mean a direct transfer between
accounts."
"I know what
you mean."
"So send it,
then. Or are you not taking it? I'll be off, then," Attila reached for the
Book. "It's not a problem to find another customer for this."
"I am!"
Beast gasped. Stealing a look around, he reached for his backpack that lay on
the bench next to him. He rummaged through it for his own Book and placed it on
the table. It looked truly Barbaric with its rough leather cover, all scratched
and dented. Instead of crystals, he had four skulls mounted in the cover's four
corners. The screen was framed with a pattern of bones.
"Don't
look," Beast said, leaning over his Book and covering it with his elbow.
"I need to enter the password."
Attila, however,
looked hard - but not at the Book. He was peering at the outside view that the
Eye was sending to his goggle lens, watching five legionnaires circle the donjon.
They were clad in light knee-length chainmail shirts with an emerald sheen.
Their signature helmets were topped with birdlike beaks. The legionnaires were
armed with bastard swords which they wore whenever they weren't undercover.
They never used shields, relying on their powerful arm bracers with which they
parried the fiercest of slashing blows.
They hurried
through the brambles toward the donjon. Were they just patrolling the area? Or
were they on a manhunt?
Slowly Attila
turned his head and looked at Beast. The understanding came too late.
Beast glared back
at him. "Quit staring! I don't need no password spies!"
Attila cast a quick
glance at the two men by the back door. Why had they chosen that particular
table? And the card players by the front entrance, weren't they sitting there
to cut off all possible escape routes? And this Beast... he was trying too hard
pretending he was an unskilled noob.
Shit. This was a
sting.
They'd been waiting
for him. Wanted to catch him red-handed. He, Attila, had given the RV details
to his customer who was in fact an undercover legionnaire. This wasn't the real
Tavern: the NPCs had lured him into its copy created specifically for the
purpose of entrapping him. What was that spell called - Smoke and Mirrors? A
powerful piece of magic and prohibitively expensive, too. To cast it yourself
you had to be a level 80 wizard which was something only Elven wizards - and
maybe the Drow too - could afford with their racial magic bonus. And the
gelatinous goo he'd walked in as he tried to enter the donjon was no glitch,
either. By walking through it, he'd triggered the trap.
The Elf by the bar
stood up. The landlord leaned over him, explaining something while casting a
big horsey eye at the table where Attila and Beast were sitting.
How sure was he
that this was indeed Barb? Most likely, the character was being controlled by a
legionnaire player, someone in the RussoVirt office who'd taken over from the
game's AI for this occasion.
"Whatcha
lookin' at?" Beast asked warily.
"Waiting for
you to enter the goddamn password," Attila mouthed while undoing the top
button of his shirt. Pulling inconspicuously at the chain, he produced the
two-pronged medallion. It was flat and almost as large as the palm of his hand.
Immediately it began whizzing. Bright blue charges of lightning emitted from
both its ends.
"What d'you
think you're doing?" Beast tried to grab Attila's hand while reaching for
his mace.
Attila stood up and
jabbed the fake customer's chest with his weapon. A blue light flared out; the
air crackled with static, spreading an aroma of seaweed. Beast flew back like a
dry leaf caught in a gust of wind.
Triton's Fork was
one hell of a weapon. Triton was an ancient sea god; the medallion had
preserved a tiny speck of his strength. To resist Triton's Fury spell, you had
to have a top set of armor and a whole bunch of Earth-bound amulets.
Leaping to his
feet, Attila scooped his Book from the table and kicked the bench to trip the
stooping Elf who was rushing toward him. The Elf clattered over the floor.
Beast cussed and grabbed at the wall trying to scramble to his feet, then
tumbled back down on his rubber legs.
Attila whipped out
a vial from a belt pouch and poured its contents down his throat. He had over a
dozen such pouches with a wide choice of potions and elixirs, each in its
respective quick access slot. He could feel the Giant's Strength fill him with
enough power to lift the table and use it against the two guarding the back
door, sweeping them off their feet. Giant's Strength was an enhancing elixir
that only worked a few seconds, but that was plenty.
By the time the
legionnaires stomped into the room, Attila had broken down the back door, run
through a small passage and rammed a second door that led into a small
storeroom. Once inside, he slammed the door shut propping a heavy crate against
it, and then kept running.
He'd never been in
this part of the tavern: a succession of dark pantries and storerooms. Attila
very nearly stumbled into a heavy chest that stood in the middle of one such
chamber. Without stopping, he leaped over it and ran out, finding himself back
in the dark low-ceilinged corridor. The grim pattern of the walls' stonework
repeated itself again and again.
Finally, the
stairs. They should lead into the donjon's main room. He ran up the steps,
simultaneously whipping out the Book and lowering the Eye trying to make it
enter the main room. But operating the Eye on the run wasn't easy. He missed.
The steel star hit the wall. He could hear screams and a hell of a racket outside.
Attila stopped and
began fiddling with the Book's crystal knob. The Eye left the donjon's wall and
ducked into a window. Attila rearranged his goggles and hurried on, peering at
the view in his eye lens as he ran.
Far below, he could
see the donjon's round hall overgrown with grass and small shrubs that grew up
through the cracks. The stone floor was littered with bones and bits of broken
furniture. Attila noticed a round trapdoor in the floor by the wall. Was it
where this staircase was taking him? It definitely looked that way.
Two men stood over
the trapdoor. One was wearing the beaked helmet and a bastard sword. The other
wore a checkered bandana and a kilt. He was holding a short spear. Had Attila
chosen the Imitation mode, he could expect a prompt to jump up next to the
player's spear,
A pole weapon used for thrusting and throwing and used
both as a projectile and melee weapon.
So this highlander
was on the Admins' payroll too? An undercover agent, oh great. They were
waiting for him, the tips of their two weapons pointing at the trapdoor.
He heard the sounds
of splitting wood far behind him. The crate hadn't stopped them. They were
coming for him. He had nowhere to escape.
He could already
see the end of the stairs and the barred trapdoor. Attila slowed down, trying
to step noiselessly. The two men above him mustn't hear his approach. They had
no idea he could see them.
He recognized
Beast's indignant bellowing. Attila gulped. Thoughts rushed through his mind,
running in circles like a pack of excited dogs. There's always a way out. He
spun the crystal knob, causing the immobile image in his eye lens to jerk back
into motion. The heads of the two men began to fade away until the Eye reached
the room's ceiling.
Attila spun the
knob in the opposite direction, forcing the Eye to go back. The bandana agent
must have sensed something. He was about to turn around when the eye smashed
into his head.
Thump. The image
jumped and rippled. Attila didn't watch further. He forced the bar aside and
swung the trapdoor open, jumping inside. Before the second agent could recover,
Attila sent him flying with a hearty well-aimed punch. Yelling, the man landed
crunching onto a heap of stones.
Attila darted
across the room, heading for the door. Now: command the Eye to soar up, direct
it out of the window and refocus the Eye to watch the area behind it, synchronizing
its movements with Attila's own. This way he could see his pursuers.
Actually, he
already could. Beast, the five legionnaires, the stooping Elf, the kilted agent
- all present and correct, chasing after him.
Attila scrambled
deep into the thicket where they couldn't see him. His pursuers ran out of the
donjon and paused, looking around and listening.
Should he log out
and quit the game in a hurry? But that way, he risked losing the Eye. Then he'd
have nowhere to get the money from. This was his own fault, choosing the life
of a lone recluse. Not a good thing, especially when you're handicapped. Now he
had no friends to urgently borrow the money from. So losing the Eye wasn't an
option.
Should he hurry
back toward the portal station? If he ran they'd hear him but if he walked
fast...
He took a few
tentative steps, leaving the donjon behind. The hole in the wall gaped right in
front of him. Now run, swiftly as a fox.
He climbed out of
the hole and crossed the gooey area again, successfully leaving the virtual
trap. Hiding in the tall grass, he peered at the portal station. Shit. They
were waiting for him there.
That left him with
only one option: the Gamekeeper's hut. This was now the nearest portal station.
Not the safest of places, considering the ghoul that lived in the marsh nearby.
Few players ever ventured there.
He began walking
away, listening to the disturbed donjon's noises and to the voices of his pursuers.
As he passed some poplars, he was very nearly caught by another aberration, the
Stinging Thorns which pierced everyone they trapped with long bone needles. He
gave them a wide berth and entered a small grove while controlling the area via
the Eye. His pursuers had split: Beast in his bulbous cuirass and stupid helmet
was clutching the mace, leading six legionnaires in the same direction as
Attila was heading. The second group had taken a sideways route, gradually
moving away from him.
The Stinging Thorns
were now in Beast's way. If only they trapped his pursuers! But Beast raised
his hand, motioning his men to stop. He'd seen it, the bastard. They
circumvented the aberration just like he'd done a moment ago and continued on
their way.
Attila walked faster.
The legionnaires had to know about the second portal station. That's exactly
why they were moving in that direction. Never mind. If he stayed on top of
them, they wouldn't be able to catch him red-handed. Their job was to apprehend
an offender in flagrante just as the
illegal software was changing hands. In order to prosecute him, they needed to
catch him in the act. So he absolutely had to beat them to the station. Because
if they caught him...
He shrugged the
thought away. If they caught him, then he'd have problems. Big ones.
A special
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Release date: October 12 2015
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