Project Dawnfall

— CHAPTER TWO —

A Moonless Night

-Fritz-

The roundabout was in chaos. Hooded Resistance runners dashed in every direction carrying torches with magical flames that resisted the rain. They shouted over the storm, herding a growing crowd of frightened civilians who huddled in their nightclothes, trying to cover themselves from the downpour with whatever they could grab on the way out of the house - pots, pans, blankets, a cutting board. In the center of the square, the Resistance had dragged a wooden cart in and were now tossing weapons from it to anyone willing to fight.

Livitha jogged over to the wagon and sorted through the items. "Heads up!" A piece of glass glinted in the darkness just before it smacked into my face. Fumbling, I managed to catch it against my chest as it fell. It was a vial of red liquid - a little more vibrant than wine. Pulling up the info menu on it put it as a 'Minor Health Potion'. She threw them out to each of us. "Put those in your belt pouches for fast access!"

There were eight little pouches attached to my belt. Opening one, I slid the vial inside and watched it vanish with a brief flash of light and a notification: 'Item Added to Inventory: Minor Health Potion'. Going into my inventory menu, I saw some of the slots were in a different color. Eight quick-access slots, each able to hold one stack of items. Gotcha. I nodded.

One of the Resistance agents came sprinting up to Livitha in a panic. "Ma'am!" he gasped out. "The King's men are attempting to surround the city! We've lost control of the southern perimeter- the only route we've got left is the forest to the northwest!"

"Blast." Livitha spat. She looked to us. "You hear that? The northeast forest is your target! Do we have a group ready to evacuate?"

"Here!" Another hooded figure waved from the edge of the roundabout, corralling a knot of frightened civilians.

Livitha gestured to us. "These adventurers will escort you to safety while we hold off the King's men - follow them!" Then she gave us one last look. "May the Goddess' speed be with you!" And then she was gone, dashing off shouting orders to the Resistance runners.

A notification popped up in front of me with a little chime: 'Journal Updated: Welcome to Rosenburg.' At the same time, a holographic blue arrow appeared on the ground pointing down one of the streets branching off the roundabout. That would be the way to go, but the dozen-odd NPCs were staring at us like we were their last hope in the world.

"Do we just go and they follow us?" I asked.

Excalibur jabbed a finger down the indicated street. "Alright, maggots, get a move on!"

The crowd shuffled into motion, keeping close together as they followed her instructions. I took up a position at the rear, herding any stragglers and keeping an eye out for pursuit.

As we sloshed through the streets, they mumbled among themselves.

"Why has the Goddess forsaken us?"

"Damned Resistance rats, bringing this nonsense to our doors."

"It were bound to happen sooner or later. The King's gone looney, I tell you."

"Why'd they have to hole up here, of all places?"

"A f-friend of mine lived over in Annesburg - apparently that was the Resistance headquarters until the King's men flushed 'em out a few weeks back. Now they're scrambling all over the countryside, looking for a new base."

A little old lady hobbling along near me said, "Making trouble for good people is what they're doing."

"S-someone's gotta do it. Do you think they'd take me, even after I ran out of my house screaming earlier?"

"If you're set on opposing the King, you're better off siding with the Prince."

"Are you daft, boy? This'll be the second king in a row killed by his own son! They're all loony - it's in the blood!"

"Bold of you to think it'll go the same way. The King's fought this war before, and he's not sitting idly by while his son and the Spymaster plot against him. Rumor has it screams can be heard in the Capital at night. Dark experiments - cooking up monsters of steel and warped flesh to sic on the rebels."

"... Sorry for calling you daft; this guy's got a head full of noodles!"

"You mark my words! Something ain't right with that Citadel! The cause of all this madness is buried under there! Someone's gone and dug up a skeleton that never should've seen the light of day!"

Streaks of lightning flashed across the rough clouds, briefly illuminated the buildings around us. The structures thinned and shrunk as we moved away from the heart of the city, and mud started filling the space between the cobbles.

A woman clutched a golden star pendant against her chest. "Oh, Goddess of the moonlit skies, in this dark hour, grant us the shield of your divine light, guide us through this perilous night. May your love surround us like a gentle breeze, and lead us to safety through these troubled seas-"

"Aah!" She was interrupted by a scream from the front of the group. The crowd fell backward like a chain of dominoes, throwing them all onto the pavement. The elderly woman had an arrow protruding from her chest. Screams of terror burst out as the NPCs scrambled and tried to drag themselves out of the pile.

A bolt of lightning crashed in the city, not more than a few blocks away. Its light caught on the metal of armor as three red-clad soldiers charged down the street toward us. Two had swords drawn while the third nocked another arrow to his bow.

"Traitors!" the lead swordsman shouted. "Put 'em to the sword!"

"Forgive the doubts and fears that drive us astray!" the praying woman pleaded on the verge of tears. "In your wisdom, lead us back to your gateway! Goddess of dawn and night, pray be our guiding light!"

The swordsman bore down on the defenceless woman, sword raised high. As he brought it down, he was slammed aside by the full weight of Fritz Carlton bowling into him shoulder-first. The impact sent him staggering back a few paces, then he squared up against me.

"Not today, scumbag!" I reached over my shoulder and closed my fist, feeling the haft of a spear materialize in my grip, then swinging it into a ready position in front of me. It was a simple, roughly six-foot-long shaft with a diamond tip. Nothing fancy, but the edge was plenty sharp.

The soldier stepped in, reeling his sword back for a wide horizontal slash. I slammed the butt of my spear against the ground, and the tip began to glow, preparing my thrust skill. Stepping in to meet the soldier, I stabbed, easily outranging his strike. The empowered spearpoint crunched through his breastplate to impale him through the gut. It felt like... well, stabbing a can of meat. There was the initial clang of resistance against the armor, then a pop through into a soft, dense, squishy mass. It was... a little disgusting, honestly.

The man let out a wheezing gasp and stumbled backward, his sword arm falling limp at his side for a moment as his free hand grasped the shaft of the spear protruding from his stomach and pushed it free. I stood there, frozen by a feeling of 'what did I just do?'

The wound took the form of a textureless, blue wireframe patch etched across his chest. The soldier wiped his mouth and hardened his grip on his sword, squaring up again as if it was nothing. He took a determined step toward me, intent on continuing the fight.

Before he could close the distance, an arrow whizzed past my ear and buried itself deep in the man's unarmored throat with a meaty thunk. A heartbeat later, a crackling ball of flame followed, exploding against his face in a burst of sizzling embers that hissed and sputtered in the rain and left a hint of a barbeque smell.

The soldier stumbled for a moment as molten flames consumed his face. From the wounds in his chest and neck, glowing blue fissures spread across his body like shattering glass. When the light had consumed him entirely, his body lost coherence, disintegrating into a swarm of motes of shimmering blue dust that scattered into the storm. All that was left was a little pile where he had been standing.

I looked over at the other two soldiers, but they had already been taken care of. Rose was sheathing her sword by another pile of dust, and Excalibur was dancing by the archer's disintegrating body. "Yeah! That's what I want to see!"

The NPCs were staggering back to their feet and gathering around the old woman who'd been hit by the first arrow. "Stay with us, granny!"

She was mumbling unintelligibly, lying limp with her eyes closed.

"There's nothing we can do for her. We have to keep moving, before more of them show up."

Her body began to glow and dissolve just like the soldiers, her little pieces blowing through the air and scattering like dandelion fluff. The woman who had been praying closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Goddess of the moonlit night, please accept her into your embrace."

"There ain't no moon tonight, girl." the crazed man growled.

Percival walked past me and knelt down, scooping up a handful of the soldier's remains. As he touched the dust, all three piles vanished. A small notification popped up on the side of my HUD: 'You have received: 1 pfennig.'

"Auto-distributed, AoE looting." Percival noted, standing back up. "That's convenient."

"Keep it moving, folks!" Excalibur shouted, waving her daggers further down the street. "Exit's that way!" The terrified NPCs huddled closer together and hurried onward, giving the dissipating clouds of dust a wide berth.

I released a shaky breath, following behind them and trying to regather my wits. The game wasn't playing around with the effects; that really felt like I'd stabbed a man. And... I didn't want to do it again.

But the others didn't seem too bothered. Maybe it was something I just needed to get used to. No one was actually getting hurt, I reminded myself. I decided I could try using my spear to herd the mobs together, keep them occupied while the ranged fighters took them out. That seemed like a decent middle ground, for the time being. At least until I adjusted.

Soon, all semblance of an ordered road turned into a muddy rut, and the forest appeared as a dark void in the low grey of the distant cloud cover. As we came onto the last street leading out to it, the civilians cried out in relief and broke into a run.

Rose narrowed her eyes. "I don't trust this."

"Neither do I." I agreed. They wouldn't end this quietly. I drew my spear and ran after them.

Sure enough, as they closed in on the treeline, a squad of King's soldiers filed around the last corner, blocking their escape. I couldn't get an accurate count at a glance - seven or eight of the red bastards. Rose and I ran around the crowd, putting ourselves between the two groups and got ready for a fight.

I said, "I'll knock back the center, then take the right side. Think you can handle the left?"

She flashed me a cocky grin. "Easily!" And then she was gone, charging at the left flank.

I repositioned my grip on the spear, holding it more like a bat, and held it behind myself until the tip started to glow. With a shout, I swung in a wide arc. A shockwave of force rippled outward, slamming into the center of the enemy line. Two soldiers were thrown back into the darkness, their armor clanking as they tumbled end over end.

But that was just a temporary measure. The three on the right flank were closing in fast. I met them head-on, wielding my spear more like a quarterstaff. Whack, thrust, parry, dodge - I goaded them close together.

Excalibur shot past me, leaping onto the nearest soldier and swinging around his back like a rabid squirrel. Her knife flashed, then she kicked off him, jumping away as the man clutched at his throat. Blue dust sprayed out of the wound, catching me full in the face.

I sputtered and spat, frantically wiping at my eyes. By the time my vision was clear, Excalibur was finishing off another victim, and the third stumbled back, flames leaking between his fingers as he held his face.

The two soldiers I'd sent flying came charging back out of the woods - and they weren't alone. A pair of hulking knights, each easily eight feet tall, stomped after them. The armor was a deep red, concealing every inch of skin, and their eyes glowed yellow in the narrow slits of their visors. They didn't run. They walked, slow and implacable, like the goddamn Terminator.

A sharp, metallic grate rasped from one their helmets. "Your defiance of the King shall not go unpunished. Your souls will find no solace in death, for eternal damnation awaits those who dare challenge the will of the Divine."

Excalibur let out a screech and flung herself at the nearest knight. It backhanded her in mid-air, sending her soaring a good ten feet through the air to smash into the side of a building. She slid to the ground on a pile of loose firewood. A fireball whizzed past me and burst against the knight's armor, but it didn't so much as flinch.

"Fritz, armor break!" Percival shouted.

I turned to face the thing and gripped my spear, but... I couldn't do it. I was afraid! This god damn game - all I wanted to do was kick back, have a drink at the tavern, maybe go on a quest or two. But now it had me too scared to move! It was... worth every penny! I'd never felt more alive!

I laughed, raw and more than a little manic, and slammed the butt of my spear on the ground. Lunging forward, the blade of my spear punched right through the plate and hit something fleshy underneath. That threw me off a beat; the lumbering awkwardness to their movements made me expect machines or animated constructs. I was also expecting it to at least flinch.

It looked down on me, entirely ignoring the spear impaling its chest, and raised its longsword with both hands.

Fwip! An arrow appeared in its visor - dead in the eye, sinking halfway to the fletching. The knight's head snapped back, and it fell off my spear, struggling to catch its own weight.

"Nice shot, Davi!" I cheered.

"What?" Davi asked. He was standing a few yards to my left, ineffectually peppering the other knight with arrows while Rose dodged its swings.

"Ahh!" A battle cry rang out as a man ran past me, a massive battle-axe held high. He brought it down on the knight's sword arm, shearing right through the metal. The severed limb hit the ground with a clang and began to dissolve into dust.

Another man - another Lancer - another player! - ran up beside me. "Sorry we're late! Are you alright?"

"I'm feelin' great!" I smiled.

Another arrow plinked off the knight's helmet, right next to the eye slit, but the Barbarian had it covered. He hefted his axe high, and the blade flared with light. He brought it down hard on the neck of the still-recovering knight. There was a screech of parting metal, a gout of sparks, and the knight's head tumbled free. The rest of its body remained standing for a single second before toppling backward and exploding into motes of light.

Meanwhile, Excalibur had regained her feet and ran at the remaining knight. Rose had its full attention, nimbly evading its attacks and poking back where she could. Cali circled around, looking for a chance to strike.

"Excalibur!" Percival shouted. "Turn its helmet around!"

She froze mid-step, then a wicked grin spread across her face. Quick as a fox, she dropped her knives and dashed at the knight from behind. A leap carried her onto its back, and she scrambled up the last foot to latch onto either side of its helmet and wrench it sharply clockwise.

The knight staggered, suddenly blind. It flailed its sword, trying desperately to ward off anything in front of it while bucking Excalibur off. The girl jumped off on her own terms, and Rose stepped back to let it struggle. We all lined up a few yards away, watching it lurch and windmill, stabbing at empty air.

"Wow." the Barbarian said. "That's almost disappointing." He raised his axe. "Better put it out of its misery!"

The knight fumbled at its helmet, managing to screw it back around to the front, only to find itself staring down all of our weapons on their way to its face.

As it died, I turned to the newcomers to introduce myself, but a crash of thunder shook the earth. A whinny pierced the night.

From the darkness of the forest strode a monstrous warhorse, its eyes blazing red. It dragged behind it a macabre bundle - the broken bodies of blue-hooded agents and rose-red-armored soldiers, their wounds seeping azure dust as they dissolved into nothingness.

Astride the steed loomed a hulking figure in midnight armor, a greatsword clutched in one gauntleted fist. Sulfurous yellow eyes glared from the depths of a horned helm, regarding us with impassive contempt - like flies. Above its head hovered a special, boss-level nameplate:

The Black Knight, Captain of the King's Guard.

At the sight of the thing, the NPCs we'd been escorting fled screaming back toward the city. I couldn't blame them, but I didn't think the buildings were going to protect them. No, I held my ground, raising my spear. Beside me, the others braced themselves, weapons ready.

But a shout rang out behind us. "There the beast rises!"

I whipped around to see a squad of soldiers in rose-colored armor closing in from the city. For a moment, I thought we were caught in a pincer of King's men, but these guys were focused on the Knight. Their leader, a stern-faced man with a military haircut, wore no helmet. No ominously glowing eyes.

"Send word to the Prince! Soldiers, hold your ground! We must waylay it until his arrival!"

"That won't be necessary, Lieutenant; I would never miss this." A rich baritone voice cut through the clamor.

The soldiers parted, and a man strode forth in gleaming ruby plate. Shaggy black hair spilled down to his shoulders, framing the face of a noble warrior. Prince Nicolaus.

"Eight years have I been waiting for you, monster. Eight long years, and you finally crawl from my father's Citadel! By every grace left in this kingdom, I swear that you will never return!"

He drew his sword and shield, then ignited the sword with a fierce azure flame.

The Black Knight slowly dismounted, its armor clanking and the ground groaning beneath it. It was easily over a story tall - it could see over the roofs of the surrounding cottages. "Your flames of rebellion pale before the inferno that awaits you in the abyss, Prince." The Knight's voice scraped like metal on bone. "There is no place in this world for those who challenge the Divine Will."

It raised its greatsword high. Lightning split the sky and struck the blade, leaving it writhing with tendrils of black and violet fire.

Beside me, the Barbarian hefted his axe. "Aw, hell yeah! Let's go!"

"Lieutenant!" the Prince called out. "Secure the city! I will have none interrupt my hunt!"

The lead soldier snapped a crisp salute. "By your command, my liege! Come, adventurers, fall back to the town square; we must regroup and open a new escape!"

As the soldiers began to withdraw, the Barbarian snarled. "No way, man! Gimme a shot at this guy!"

But a soft voice said, "Please, just follow the instructions. We need to get through the scenario." A woman in a white robe I hadn't noticed was standing at the back of the group. Then I saw the kid clutching onto her robe. He was... I can't tell kids' ages - he was probably old enough to have started school, but couldn't have a double-digit age. And he looked absolutely terrified.

"Yeah." I said. "There's a whole world waiting for us - let's get into the proper open world, shall we? No need to rush it."

The Barbarian exhaled gustily but let his weapon vanish in a shimmer of light. "Fine, fine."

Metal sang on metal as Nicolaus and the Knight began their duel, their flames reaching outward and pressing into each other.

Before turning away, the Barbarian jabbed a finger at the thing in ebon plate. "But you listen up, bucket-head! This ain't over! I'm coming for you, and I'm not going to wait for you to leave your citadel! Don't doubt that for a second!"