Avilien

Dangerous game

Lance landed on his back, dropping his sword with a clatter. Luke, across from him, exhausted and panting, doubled over and dismissed his sword so he could rest his hands on his knees. Not only had Lance been beaten, but his pride and reputation as the guild leader of the Daggers had been tarnished. He might not have realised it or even known, but the fight was like a re-enactment of the very first fight between Luke and Lance in Forest of Winter. Master mooch facing off against Awesome Biscuit. That fight ended in the same manner, with Luke taking no damage.

PKers deserved what they got, as far as Luke was concerned. They were nothing but horrible bullies and thieves. PKers—or PKing—stood for player killing or killings, and although it wasn't disallowed in Forest of Winter, people frowned upon it. Servers had been torn apart by large-scale PvP battles outside of the intended war grounds where PvP was acceptable and loved. Inside war grounds, your items and gear were protected and until the time of the battle arena ticked down, you could respawn a minute after each defeat. Outside of the selected areas, you had a total of four safe slots in your bag. The rest of it, including equipped gear, could be looted if you fell victim to a PKer.

A one-day respawn timer for dying outside of a war ground in Forest kept people on their toes. Not only would the loss of their gear be hellish torment enough, but by the time they logged back in, stripped of their gear, the tormenter would be either long gone or there again for another easy PK. For those that PKed, the server automatically placed gold on their heads as a bounty. Player hunters could PK against the bullies with bounties without facing any repercussions and without having a bounty placed on themselves, and were often loved by players.

"How? How did I lose to a level-zero nobody?" Lance gazed at the ceiling as he lay on his back.

"Impressive for a newbie. Did the red-haired monster teach you that?" Anna asked as she came over to inspect Luke. She acted nice, clearly fishing for information.

Brit had taught Luke zilch. Squeeks, on the other hand, had given him a lot of valuable information. They had known each other for near a week now and Brit still couldn't remember his proper name.

"No she didn't, so you can stop fishing for information and stop being nice to me. Guess I am okay to stay here now?" Luke looked over at Lance as Amilia stuck up her nose at him.

"With moves like that, you're not Awesome Biscuit...are you, Luke? I joke; of course you're not him." Cissy laughed and Brit spat out her food all over the fridge and then slammed it shut.

"Duke is not my husband. With his garbage computer setup, he couldn't come close to my beloved. He's a fanboy." Brit gloated and then ate her way through a full pack of chocolate éclairs with Nagori's name written on the plastic box.

"Who said anything about a husband?" asked Cissy before Nagori cut in, "You're too young to marry. Are those my éclairs?" She got ready to fight Brit over puff pastry. Cissy had to hold her back by the arms as Nagori became a beast when it came down to sweet foods.

"I'm married to Awesome Biscuit. He's my husband," said Brit as she chewed through another éclair. She bit into it nice and slow to see Nagori squirm."Well, we just need to marry in this world first, but we are married in Forest so that means I am his wife, regardless. These are really good—double cream and proper Belgium chocolate.Got anymore?" Brit sucked her fingers clean of the chocolate coating and threw the packaging on the floor.

Luke had married Brit in Forest, but not for the reasons she believed. He'd married her as the only female he knew, but it was only to complete a certain quest line that required two people. He'd made that crystal clear at the time, too, and finished the entire quest line solo to snag the elusive item he was after. It was also nice how she came to the conclusion that he couldn't be Awesome Biscuit because of his lousy, cheap computer setup.

Attention shifted from Luke and Lance to Brit as she waffled on about Awesome Biscuit. The resentment and anger towards the name could be seen on all the girls' faces. Aside from Brit, they hated the player.

"Are you really a fanboy? Sounds rather lame." Nagori looked at Luke with disappointment. Luke scratched the back of his head, his nervous tick that he performed when in a pinch. He wasn't going to announce who he was.

"I still like you regardless," said Nagori as she sat back down. "We all hate Awesome Biscuit. He's a no-good show-off, a flashy idiot who prances around like the saviour of Forest of Winter. The fact that he destroyed the guild and left us in such a dire situation that other player-versus-player guilds raided us every week and desecrated Matt's grave means we will never forgive him or her. I heard a month or so later that he attacked us because we looted and camped some poor girl. Two wrongs don't make a right." Nagori puffed her cheeks up exactly like Brit did.

"Give us all the details you have on the unholy Paladin, the agents, and Nate. A deal is a deal, and I never go back on my word. If I did, you can delete me now without resistance." Lance got to his feet. Luke expected him to be resentful and bitter; this sudden change caught him off guard.

"Forgive me, but I don't know much about the Necromancer who Brit is chasing after, and you probably have way more details on Mock than I do, seeing as you were in a partnership with the black market thing. As for the government agents, they are after my dad, mainly. They think he has given me something. I overheard them saying that he's Awesome Biscuit. If not for Brit and her abilities, we would have been deleted back at my house.

"Squeeks and Nebs verified the man to be level fifteen. All I know is he felt evil when he equipped his armour and sword."

"Your dad is Awesome Biscuit?" shouted everyone in the room. Brit choked on more food and banged on her chest.

"Wait! I'm married to your dad? That makes me your stepmother," said Brit.

"You're not dating my dad," shouted Luke a little louder and angrier than he would have liked.

"Okay, just to clarify, we now all hate your dad," said Cissy as she folded her arms.

"Putting the agents aside and Brit's delusional mind, the town is in danger, and so are we, seeing as we are in it. Nate will attack this place tomorrow. He will carry out the order under the Court of Bones banner," said Luke as Squeeks covered Brit's mouth as she tried to scream various words.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Lance. "I don't really care about the town's people and it sounds like we should stay clear of both Nate and the unholy Paladin. Would be safer to hide out here and fortify the place until Avilien arrives. I would love to get my hands on a beta class, though, before we enter Avilien and Nate is the only one now available." Lance rubbed his chin and walked over to Cissy and Nagori.

"Do we even know where Nate is?" asked Cissy, "We could attack him after he's launched the attack on the town."Both she and Nagori spun around in their chairs and started typing away on their touchscreen keyboards.

Luke watched as dark websites linking to Avilien appeared and millions of players in a ranking system sprung up. Names, addresses, pinpoint locations, XP earned and gained, and other data had been amassed on the gold and red site. Illegal, and it was beyond reason as to why a webpage like that existed. Nagori scrolled down to Luke's name—not at the very bottom, as he had a class selected—and all of his personal details were laid bare.

"Nate is currently at Islington Cemetery, if the phone pings are correct," said Cissy as she pulled out a lollipop from the drawer and passed it to a happy Nagori.

"What kind of site is that?" asked Luke as he drew closer to the computer, having never seen anything like it before.