Retribution II
A Maple Story Drabble by Kal Ancalas
Author's Note: Sometimes, authors get that feeling of depression when they haven't written anything in ages while everyone else continues to write. Their own stories are swept away in the depths of the abyss, but they continue to simply lie back and remain unable to do anything about it.
…So I wrote this on insomnia. Oh yeah, my hunter is Level 47 now, and ignore my plea for an Olympus because my girlfriend gave me one. It's crappy but who am I to complain:D
Now, on with the story! It's both humorous and angst, in a way…Oh, just read it.
BTW: You do not need to read Retribution to understand this story, but it is helpful.
-----
Level 8
"Finally!" The young girl rushed into the forest, full of ecstasies. "Stupid snails…They'll have it coming to them!" She brandished a wooden wand and leaped into the lush, green forests of Ellinia.
"MAGIC BOLT!"
She hit slimes and stumps with blue bolts of energy, barely stopping to catch breath. It wasn't until later that she finally stopped to rest, leaning against a tree.
"Heh." She smiled, twirling her wand in the palm of her hand. "Someday, I'll be just like him…"
Just then, another slime dashed by, and her thoughts were thrown to the wind as she chased after it.
-----
Level 15
"MAGIC CLAW!" "MAGIC CLAW!"
The fields west of Henesys rang with shouts as a female magician, wielding a sapphire staff to match her eyes, flung blades of blue energy through the air at lightning speed. The young warriors, bowmen, and thieves tried to sneak in a kill, but were no match for the determined girl.
"Yes!" She roared in triumph as a Lemona flew from a withered slime. Eagerly, she slipped the blue glove onto her hand. It was a perfect fit.
Some of the warriors behind her growled. "Stupid bitch…Can't you hunt somewhere else?"
She turned and flicked an arrogant glance at them. "Actually, I'm quite fine here." She smiled and killed another group of monsters. "And I'll thank you to keep your language to yourself."
-----
Level 26
The magician brushed her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her head. Growling in annoyance, she flashed a glare at the assassins frequenting the Ant Tunnel. "Leave me alone! Stop getting in the way!"
"Hey, lady," one of the assassins said, "you're racking up as many kills as anyone here. And besides-" he pointed a Steely knife at the bordering cavern- "you could go hunt in there for a change."
Her only reply was a grunt and a muttered obscenity as she refused to yield. However, she did retreat one cavern back, just to placate them. It worked-for a while, anyway. However, another mage came down to where she was and began to pick off the mushrooms.
If truth be told, there was plenty of room for both characters. However, the girl was somewhat of a hot-head. She roared, "GET OUT OF HERE!"
The mage simply raised an eyebrow in derision, but he did leave the cavern.
-----
Level 33
A blonde-haired teenage girl ran past the dry, dusty landscape of Perion, sliding past the entrance of the dungeon, Wizard Wand in tow.
"COLD BEAM!"
Her new skill, subtly acquired from the Magician Job Instructor, worked perfectly. Cold blades of ice materialized and took down the Fire Boars with relative ease. Her aim: To find the glass shoe that the fairy Arwen of Ellinia had lost.
"Stupid fairy…Can't she keep track of her own stuff?" the girl growled as she struck down another porcine target. "I'd never be so messy…" She flung her hair behind her head and struck again and again, ignoring the cries of the pigs as they withered.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a warrior appeared. He was a level 36 Spearman, armed with a Nakamaki spear. The watered steel blade shone dangerously in the sunlight.
She ignored him, continuing her massacre of the boars. Despite the fact that she had about 2 kills for each of his kills, she found herself quickly annoyed by his presence.
"Can you leave?" She asked in a curt undertone.
The spearman shrugged. "You can take the left side and I'll take the right side."
At first, she had to admit it was a good idea. But as time wore on, she found herself growing impatient with the warrior, finding herself restricted by the narrow boundaries of her territory.
So finally, she teleported over to his side and began to kill the boars.
"Hey! What are you doing!"
"I'm helping you." she said dryly. "If you can't handle that, then leave. I don't like you anyway."
The warrior looked as though he was about to reply, but he merely turned and stalked away.
-----
Level 41
The wizard brushed hair out of her face, angrily blasting Zombie Lupins with beams of ice and narrowly dodging the bananas that were being flung at her.
Wizards are not made for hunting zombies. Clerics are more suited for the task. The stubborn girl, however, refused to entertain the fact that she was a pathetic monkey fighter. Despite the fact that her HP points were taking serious blows, she continued to fight, collecting cursed dolls for Rowen the fairy of Ellinia.
"Stupid fairies!" she screeched as a banana caught her in the face. "They are so freakin' irresponsible!" She hit her attacker with two ice beams, collected its doll, and set off into a tree cave.
Then, another warrior arrived. A Level 47 Fighter, equipped with Hero's Gladius and wearing a Jangoon set. He struck down the screeching animals with relative ease, although it must be said that fighters are not particularly good at fighting zombies either.
Slowly, the wizard moved up the tree as the warrior moved down the tree. A clash was inevitable.
It all came to a head when the fighter struck down a Lupin that had been in front of the wizard, despite the fact that she couldn't have gotten it because she was being swarmed with more monkeys. However, her temper got the best of her.
"Oh my god!" she screamed. "Get out of here! Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Keep your hair on." he said coolly. "There's plenty of monkeys to go around."
That was the spark that lit the fire.
"WHY YOU-!" She roared, beginning to fling chunks of ice at him. Of course, there's no PvP in MapleStory yet. Boo, shame.
"Jeez! What the hell is wrong with you?" The fighter snarled angrily, impaling a Lupin in anger. "This is a free world, you know!"
"Oh, shut up! Just go die already!" She tossed her head back in annoyance.
Moral: Don't mess with crazed ice mages.
-----
Level 57
The wizard's hair danced as she lashed out with ice blades, killing Lioners. The beasts fell to her magical fury as she leaped past the clouds, yelling "COLD BEAM!" every few seconds.
For once in her life, she was perfectly at peace. No annoying warriors to bother her, no stupid assassins to steal her kills. Everything was simply divine.
That is, until another mage appeared. Well, a cleric to be exact. Roughly about level 70.
He began his massacre, slaying Lioners with his holy arts. Even though holy attacks don't normally have much effect on Lioners, his damage was nevertheless extremely high and his kills were spectacular.
Needless to say, our protagonist was worked into a rage quite quickly.
"Hey! Get out of here! I was here first!" she yelled.
The priest merely smiled and closed his eyes. He'd encountered people like this before. Of course, he'd been defamed several times before, but right now, fame was meaningless to him.
"So? This is a big place, and besides, you don't seem to be doing too great." He nodded at a series of cuts and burns on her Anakarune robe. "Hey, wanna party?"
This was a very good suggestion, as his Holy Symbol and Shining Ray would have allowed her to gain much more experience than normal. However, once again, her temper overruled her common sense.
"No! Leave me alone!" she yelled, flinging chunks of ice at him and killing a few Lioners.
The priest wasn't bothered by her attitude. He merely smiled, nodded, and casually strode to the Garden of Darkness. He was on his way there anyway.
-----
Level 80
The archmage casually strode through the dungeon at the center of Victoria Island, taking her time to slay monsters with ice/lightning blasts. She was on her way to meet a very special person.
Over the years, she'd built up her intellect, her power, her strength, and now she was a very capable archmage. Despite her fiery temper and her bad habit of blowing off steam by KSing people, she shrugged it off. After all, people had to be tough. It was the only way to survive.
Eventually, she reached the deep sanctuary in Victoria where deadly, dangerous monsters lurked. However, she wasn't worried. She merely struck them down with her composition arrows, collecting their spoils along the way.
"He did say he was somewhere around here…" she murmured, her Dark Ritual staff in hand. "Now, where could he be…"
A foul scent reached her nostrils as she discovered just where she'd landed in.
A gigantic Jr. Balrog showed itself in front of her, its eyes a dark crimson and its mouth oozing with saliva. Blood was on its claws.
"Oh. Shit." she moaned, stepping backwards. It followed her, its eyes narrowed.
The thing shot a blast of fire at her, scorching some of her hair. She tried to retaliate with Magic Composition, but it did little damage. Angrily, the huge beast slashed at her with its huge claws, leaving a gash through her arm. She screamed in pain and dropped her staff, edging away from the monster.
Then, suddenly, a clear voice rang out.
"STRAFE!"
Four arrows whizzed through the air and struck the Balrog through the heart. It let out a shriek and collapsed onto the hard stone ground.
A Level 114 Ranger stepped out of the shadows, clutching a legendary Metus. He smiled and shook his head, ruffling his blonde hair.
"Nice of you to drop by, sis." he said, taking out a handkerchief and wrapping it around her wound.
"Hi." She smiled meekly. "I can't believe you live here…Don't you ever see the world?"
"I've seen enough of the world." he sighed. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."
The ranger's house was surprisingly comfortable for someone who lived in the Victoria Dungeon Sanctuary. Books on archery and the like were neatly stacked in columns. A bed was in the corner and a series of bows were pinned to the wall.
"You read all those?" she asked, pointing at the books.
"I wrote them." he responded in kind. "They're not exactly best-sellers, but…you know."
"Oh. What do you do for food?" the mage asked her brother.
"People come here all the time looking for Balrog, you know." He winked knowingly at her. "I save their butts, and they give me food. Say," he said suddenly, "did you bring anything to eat?"
She dryly flung a Pure Water at him. It ricocheted off the wall and hit a blue Olympus bow, cracking it.
"Oh…sorry."
"That's okay. I can fix it." He took the broken bow and began to mend it. "So…what have you done for the world?"
"Er…what?"
"You know, Mom once said that every life has a purpose. Don't tell me you've forgotten that."
"Oh…well, I…" The archmage racked her brains, but could not particularly remember doing anything nice. In fact, if truth be told, her entire life had been spent screaming and Ksing other people.
He sighed. "Just what have you done?"
She spilled out the story of her life.
"That's not…" He bit his lip, as though not wanting to say what was on his mind.
"What?"
"That's not how I wanted you to turn out. That's not how Mom would have wanted you to turn out…" He ruffled her hair. "You used to be so sweet…What happened to you?"
"What do you mean, 'would have'?" she asked wryly.
"Mom died a year ago." he said stiffly. "You didn't attend the funeral."
"Oh, well…I…" She recalled an experience involving Zombie Lupins and a certain fighter a year ago. "I'm sorry."
"Everything doesn't revolve around you." he said matter-of-factly. "You have to realize that there are other people in this world. Do you realize how many people you might have hurt?"
"Why should I care about other people? They're all morons." she said, shrugging.
"Not everyone is like you." he said, glaring at her. "If you actually took the time to be nice for once, you might see that some people are a little nicer than they appear."
There was a shout outside, followed by a roar.
"I've got to go rescue another moron now." he said coldly, snatching up his Metus. "Make yourself at home." He left.
The archmage stared at herself in a mirror.
Everything doesn't revolve around you. You have to realize that there are other people in this world.
Listlessly, she picked up a book from the stack next to her and opened it. On the page was a single statement:
We shape our own destinies. Some people take the path of goodness and virtue. Others take the path of selfishness. Help others find the right path, lest you find yourself on the wrong one.
"What a corny load of crap." she muttered, returning the book back to its place.
THE END
Author's Note: Yes, it was a strange ending. Yes, it was worse than the last one. Yes, I don't care. Review if you wish.
I don't know if there will be a Retribution III. I seriously doubt it, though.
-Kal