Orc Wars : Uprising

Chapter 9 - Keep

As he cut down the attacking mob, they burst into bright little pixels, fading into the background. Lazarus fought with accurate precision hitting a target with every move he made. His agile body turning and twisting, finding targets easily. Their numbers dwindled as he hacked and slashed. The air around him was thick with bright floating pixels. New ones exploding before the others could fade.

Finally, they were all gone, every one of them who had attacked him. He stopped, breathing hard and looked around. He caught movement behind a dried up tree and tensed. There were more watching, waiting to attack. How many of them were there? He wondered.

Oww, now he felt the few bites they managed to land on him. He shuddered as he recalled the sharp teeth and oozing sores on some of them. Slowly, he backed out the way he had come in. The shadows stalked him at a safe distance, wary of his fighting skills. Almost there, he thought as he saw the main gates.

A howl went up as the starving crowd realised their prey was getting away. They rushed him desperately, hoping to bring him down before he could escape. Lazarus ran towards the gates, slashing the few bodies that came in between him and freedom. Body parts fell as blood squirted at him before disappearing as bright dots. He jumped out the gates and rolled into a half crouch, facing the village, knife in hand, ready for them. But the zombies stopped at the gates, a boundary they could not pass. They were programmed only for the village.

Lazarus let out a sigh and relaxed. They were crowded at the gate, jostling each other, eyeing him, salivating at him. He shuddered as they continued clawing in the air in his direction grinning and making mewling sounds. They had probably eaten every living thing in the place. No wonder the village had been deathly quiet.

His Health bar was blinking orange.

Warning : Health thirty three per cent

Enough to go on a while more he thought confidently. He opened his pouch and teleported to another potential location.

He spawned in mid-air and this time fell onto his side in a heap. There was nothing graceful about this landing.

"Ughh" he grunted.

Lazarus felt terrible. His neck was throbbing painfully. He touched the wound and more blood came away with his hand. Why hadn't it started healing? The blood should have dried by now. He tried to stand but fell as his legs gave way. His legs and arms were throbbing too. There were blistering red bite marks all over his body.

He sat up and opened his pouch. There was a vial of Healing potion in there somewhere, he was sure of it. Where was it? The items on the menu swam as his eyes watered. His Health bar was blinking red urgently.

Warning, Health nine per cent.

I know, I know. His hand trembled as he searched through the Items. Finally, he found it. He touched the icon in relief. Select and apply.

"C'mon, c'mon," he felt nauseas. His head was pounding. The world was spinning.

Health is restored.

"Whoa, this is crazy," he breathed shakily as he felt health and energy being restored in his body.

The bite marks disappearing as the healing potion worked its magic. He felt much better now. Those people must have had some sort of poison in their saliva or he wouldn't have deteriorated so fast.

Simtrixx is not making this easy. They were probably getting footage galore as the Players struggled with the first quest, he thought grimly. The Beta testing was a walk in the park compared to this. He knew the Players would feel everything their Heroes was supposed to feel during their adventures and quests, but actually experiencing it was beyond crazy. It was insane. He wondered what else they had in store for them. Alright, back to work.