The Maple War
Kenji: Ahem, welcome to my story! (fanfare in background) This is also my first story! (fanfare in background) And I hope you enjoy my story. (fanfare in background) Black! Stop messing around with the special effects!
Black: But… it's soo cool!
Kenji: I'm warning you! Knock it off or else!
Black: Fine…
Kenji: Now, say the disclaimer.
Black: Awww, but why? Everyone knows that there's no way a cheapskate like you could ever own Maple Story!
Kenji: Because you have to!
Black: Fine… Kenji doesn't own Maple Story. Any characters in this story that sounds like anybody you know (unless it's really them) are merely coincidental. There, happy now?
Kenji: Yes, I am. Now, on with the story!
Relationships
Black-Senses-Lotus very good friends
Black-Roy good friends
Kenji Author! And Kenji isn't my real name… Just a name I use for stuff I wish to remain anonymous for, and because my mom doesn't want that kind of information online >>
Chapter 1-The Beginning
"Great, so this is going to end, huh?" Black groaned while shooting another fire arrow at the monster, seeing how all the odds were slim of them even getting out of there alive. He was a tanned fire wizard with black hair and held a +3 wand in his hand. He was dressed in nx cash shop clothes and had his faithful dog, Eddie, right by his side.
"It's not over yet!" Shouted Roy, who used a salvage blow and killing another yeti, which just summoned another transformed one. "As long as we're alive, we stand a chance of winning!" He roared as he killed yet another monster, though more were circling around him. Roy was a fairly pale skin colored bandit that was both courageous in battle and kind in times of peace. Roy backed away from the monsters, used a few of his small supply of potions he had left, then turned and ran at a wraith, using salvage blow to kill it.
"This doesn't make any sense!" Black moaned, as he got hit by a golem. "Why are all of these monsters showing up here in town? Half of these monsters don't even exist on Victoria! What are they doing spawning here inside Henesys?"
This was a very strange situation for all of the people fighting along with them. Never before had anything like this ever happened, well as far as anyone knew. Sure, every now and then someone would summon a few monsters to kill the beginners just getting off the ship from Maple Island and get a good laugh out of it, but that was nothing compared to what was going on right now. Monsters were spawning almost everywhere all over Victoria, in every town, on every map. It probably was also happening in Orbis, El Nath, and Ludibrium, but nobody was willing to leave and find out while all of their friends were dieing trying to protect each other. Besides, all of the very high leveled pros were asked to go there, for even stronger monsters were wrecking havoc there.
Black fired another barrage of fire arrows at a king block golem, when he got a maple messenger invite from Lotus in Kerning, assisting the people there. Lotus was a semi-tanned red headed ice/lightening wizard and, though poor, kind enough to give his friends gifts from time to time. He was a fairly laid back kind of guy with his dog he named popcorn, but when it came to fighting monsters, he was there. Black opened the messenger to find that Senses was already in there. Senses was a lightly colored, brown haired cleric and the richest, though the lowest level, of the three. Senses was in Perion, along with his dog, Shelby, defending that area with all of the other fighters.
"How are things looking over there?" Black asked, as he jumped on a rope to get away from a stampede of iron hogs that was charging at him. They all ran back and forth waiting for him to drop down.
"Not so good," Lotus replied gravely, "The wraiths and curse eyes have managed to kill a few lower leveled allies, and it seems like we're losing more and more men."
"Have they respawned yet?" The cleric asked as he healed a few mid 20 warriors all fighting a golem, though not showing much progress.
"No," Lotus groaned, "For some reason, when they die, they don't show up again. I tried even tracking them but it says that they are unable to find him. And I highly doubt that all of them are being disconnected."
"Do you think this is the work of a hacker?" Senses whispered, even though they were the only ones who could hear it in the maple messenger. "I mean, this is so chaotic it has to be!"
"Most likely not," Black responded, eyes closed and deep in thought, "hackers normally do crazy stuff because it benefits them at the cost of others, but judging from what I see, nobody here is winning. There must be something bigger involved than just a hacker."
Just then, Black got kicked out of the messenger. Then, he got a whisper from someone he had never seen before. And strangely, it didn't say who it was from.
"Good evening Black." Said the bright green text. "I bet you're wondering what's going on right now?"
"Of course not, why would I be wondering why monsters are spawning in towns, killing everyone permanently!" He almost screamed, but bit his tongue for he had no idea who he was dealing with. Not until he learned the slightest bit of information about his opponent would he act, even their name would be helpful right now.
"Oh come now Black, I'm not going to be giving my name away that easily," He mocked, as if reading his mind, "But I will tell you this, for now I will be testing you and your friend's will to survive. Of course, I'll be a good sport and start off easy."
"Wait! How are you doing this? Why are you doing this? What point does this serve? And how do you know my name?" Black cried out, though to everyone, hoping that whoever this mysterious person was, would respond.
"Now now Black, I believe you have more important things to do than question me," The strange new foe replied to both Black's hopes and fears, "Like…. oh, I don't know, maybe help your friend Lotus in Kerning."
And, as if on cue, Lotus invited Black to a maple messenger, or more like 5 of them in quick succession. The fire mage stared at the little box in disbelief, until he finally came back to his senses and opened it.
"Black! Finally, we need your help over here in Kerning! NOW!" The ice mage commanded him. "There's King Slimes over here, and I'm not sure if we can hold the attack off much longer!"
Black was a little bit confused. "What are you doing a party quest for Lotus? People are dieing and you need help killing a king slime? Jeez, they're not that hard to kill!" Black sighed.
"WHAT? You think I'm doing a party quest? Ok, first of all, I'm to high a lv to do it anymore. Second, Yes, I need help here. And third, They are spawning out of nowhere! There's at least 15 of them here hopping around Kerning killing anyone who gets in their way, and more are spawning!" Screamed Lotus, who was breathing a little bit heavier after that little outburst. "And I thought you were smart," muttered Lotus on a little side note.
"Ok, I'm on my way," Black confirmed, ignoring his friend's comment as he quickly gave his friend Roy a town scroll to Kerning, silently asking for the bandit to join him. "Just leave some for us when we arrive, I don't want to waste a town scroll for nothing you know." He joked as he used the scroll and was sent away to the run-down town of Kerning.
"Black, this is no time for jokes!" Lotus scolded as he finally managed to solo kill one of the King Slimes that was terrorizing a few beginners.
"I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little" Black grumbled as he fell down on a platform with a tombstone of a fellow magician on it. The magician had a crying facial expression as he suddenly disappeared, most likely never to be heard from again. The sight of that sort of unnerved him, but there was no way he was going to back down now. Besides, he was all out of town scrolls.
"I've got to make sure that we don't lose any more men than we already have," the ice wizard replied as he exited of the messenger, leaving Black to his own thoughts.
"So, Roy, are you ready for the fight of the century?" Black said to his bandit friend.
"As always" Roy responded as he jumped down the platforms and into a group of bowmen holding off 2 of the humongous slimes.
"I just hope I am…" Thought Black as he shot a fire arrow, killing the colossal slime that a few other magicians have already weakened. "And who is this person we're dealing with? And if this is the first "easy" challenge, what else does this maniac have planned for us?" Black thought, getting more and more worried the more he thought. He then dismissed these thoughts from his mind for he had much more important things to think about. He quickly jumped down and shot a fire arrow that landed right on the forehead of one of the slimes… that is if you can call where it hit a forehead. The blob screamed in pain as it slowly melted.
"Ewww," thought Black, though it may have slipped out of his mouth, "Note to self, remember to bring thicker boots when fighting slimes." He complained as he slowly walked through the pool of ooze. He suddenly slipped and fell face first, getting a mouthful of the liquid. "Oh man, I think I'm going to heave," he complained as he spat out… whatever you can call it. He slowly got back up and thought for a second. "Hmm… oh, of course!" He exclaimed as he teleported the rest of the way across, "Man, if I actually paid attention to which skill I level up have thought of that sooner." He thought as he ran back into battle, as he already wasted enough time there.
"Ahh!" Someone screamed, making Black stop in his tracks. "Someone help me!" She cried as one of the king slimes had her cornered. "Hold on, I'm coming!" Black shouted as he started running over there. He was just about to kill that slime with a fire arrow when a magic claw came out of nowhere and fell the slime.
"Hey, are you ok?" The mage that just saved her asked. "Here, let me heal you," he said as he healed most of the wounds she had.
"Thank you." She said as she ran off into battle again. Black was going to see who that person was but he was gone when he looked back. Confused again, he shook his head and went to look for Lotus.
"Now, if I was Lotus, where would I be?" He thought for a second before it hit him almost instantly. "Pet Park, of course!" He said as he rushed to the park, killing any slimes that got in his way. It wasn't long before he reached the entrance to the park when he found Lotus there, guarding the area with his life.
"No way am I letting any of you freaks get into here!" Lotus shouted as he froze 2 more blobs with his magic, though there were about 5 around him.
"Lotus, you really need to get your priorities straight." Black smirked as he jumped into the battle and letting lose his fire arrows on the slimes Lotus just froze, melting them as well. "Even though it is because of your messed up priorities I found you."
"Just help me kill these things will you?" He sighed as he used his, though weaker, thunder bolt, to get the attention of a few king slimes teaming up on some beginners that were cornered.
"Hey Black, you ready for our combo?" Lotus asked, as he looked at his friend, grinning as he took a quick glance back at his friend, not taking his eyes off the slimes for more than a second.
"Yep" He said, casting meditation on them before they started.
"Ok…" Lotus whispered as he started making a huge chunk of ice as Black was focusing more and more energy into his arrow. "Now!" He shouted as he launched his huge ball of ice at the slimes, then Black fired his arrow, not at the slimes, but at the ice. "Tsunami!" They both shouted simultaneously as a flood of water came down and killed the slimes, and because they were liquids to begin with, they were washed away, unable to resist the flow of water.
"Ha, it's been forever since we've done that!" laughed Lotus, who calmly walked over and helped the beginners. They all thanked the mages as they ran off hoping to actually kill a king slime. Lotus and Black stared at them, wondering if they would need their help soon.
"Hey Lotus," Black said, looking left to right. "Is it just me or are the king slimes not showing up as often?"
Lotus looked around as well near the pet park and only ran into one more, but quickly dispatched it. And after looking for about another minute, they couldn't find any more.
"Could it finally be over?" Lotus whispered, so not to jinx it. They both wandered over back into the main part of Kerning, where they saw a bunch of weary comrades celebrating for their victory. The two friends couldn't help but smile, even if it was just for a second.
Just then, shattering the silence and peace, a fellow combatant came dashing out of nowhere, pale faced and arms flailing like a madman.
"ZOMGWTF, tehr is sum blu silme ovr ther in teh sewas!1shift+1" The beginner, with very poor grammar, was screaming as he was running away as fast as he could from the sewers.
There was an awkward silence, while Lotus and Black just stood staring at the little warrior wondering if his information or his grammar was more surprising. "Did you understand him?" Lotus whispered.
"Not a bit." Black responded in the same fashion. "But I think we should go over to "teh sewas" to check it out" he said as he jumped down and walked over to the opening. Lotus shook his head and started to follow him. But before they could go in a thick blue liquid started pouring out of the entrance to the sewers. Black jumped back in disgust, as a little bit of the gunk landed on his shoe.
Without warning, Black jumped back and almost knocked Lotus over in surprise. "Ahhh! This crap just got my shoes dirty!" Black screamed as he started wiping as much of it off as he could. He was scraping violently at the slime while Lotus was staring off into the distance behind him, probably thinking about eating or sleeping at the moment.
"Woah!" Black shouted as he fell backwards in shock and almost knocked Lotus over a second time. "This weird stuff just jumped off my shoe!"
"So?" Lotus shrugged, not looking at him showing no interested in the least of the situation, or didn't hear what Black was so worked up about.
Black got up and started charging at Lotus with a gradual increase in speed. "Let me repeat that, it JUMPED off!" Black yelled at his ignorant friend.
"Ok ok, you've got my attention," Lotus quickly replied, not wanting to get on Black's nerves right now. "So it jumped off, no big deal. Besides, it's off your shoe."
Black hit his head with his hand in frustration. "That's not the point!" Black retaliated, "Blue chunks of crap don't just jump around! Well, except for slimes and bubblings, but that's different… hey, are you listening to me?" Black scolded at his ice mage friend because he was looking up past him.
"T-t-turn around Black." He said, pointing behind him, he looked nervous and had a drop of sweat fell down from his forehead. Black turned around to see a whole swarm of the bluish liquid like the one that was on his shoe piling all into one quickly growing heap. Soon the pile was bigger than Black and Lotus combined and was still expanding.
Lotus as starting to shake as the top of the blob towered over the sewers. "Uhhh, Black?" Lotus nervously replied, backing away a little bit from the deformed mass. "You remember that one combo move we did with the water on those king slimes earlier?"
"Of course," Black calmly replied, not feeling threatened by the deformation in front of him. "What's your point?" He asked as he turned around to see how his friend was handling the situation. He was paler than Roy.
"I think it wants revenge," Lotus gravely finished, his body started to turn so he could get a head start in running away if things got too ugly, but it didn't take long for just a moment later, he was running away.
To be Continued...
Black: That's it? That sucked!
Kenji: Shut up!
Black: You made me look like an idiot!
Kenji: What else is new?
Black: That's it! I quit!
Kenji: You can't quit!
Black: Watch me!
Kenji: No, seriously, you can't, you're the star of the story! (And you're under contract)
Black: Oooh, star! Ok, I've changed my mind.
Kenji: (Yes, he fell for it.) Ok, now say it.
Black: Please Review, or else I'll burn you with my fire arrows!
Kenji: Eh, good enough.
