Chapter 2: Let the Games Begin
The Next Day:
Shigeru was still asleep as his body was being shifted from side to side. After a while he was startled awake by the sound of somebody's car horn followed by two people talking.
"Oh man we're going to be late!" said a man.
'That sounds like Makoto.' Shigeru though still in his haze. 'What's he going to be late-' His thought was cut short as he was slammed into a wall. He hit his nose but not hard enough to make it bleed. His eyes popped open and to his surprise he was in a moving van.
"What the hell?" Shigeru got out as he tried to look around but couldn't, his body was being weighed down by a suit of armor.
"Um, he's up." Maya said as she looked at her friend from the passenger seat.
"Great," Makoto said trying to ignore his friend's yelling and focus on the road.
"Makoto, what the hell's going on?" Shigeru continued to yell as he struggled to get up.
Makoto kept his focus on the road.
Shigeru finally got up and maneuvered to the front of the van. "I'm going to kick your as-" he fell backwards as Makoto made a hard right turn. Once again he struggled to get up. "Come on!"
Maya looked back. "It takes a while to get use to the armor."
"Don't worry we're almost there." He reassured them.
"You're so dead when I get my hands on you!" Shigeru declared getting back to the front. Before that could happen the van stopped and he fell back for a third time, this time tripping on foam weapons and shields. "Again, really?" he questioned. "What the hell?"
"We're here!" Makoto announced while he and Maya exited the van.
"Where is 'here'?" Shigeru questioned while leaning on the back door of the van.
He heard Makoto's muffled voice from the outside. "Tis a place where we are no mere mortals but heroic adventurers." He opened up the backdoor causing Shigeru to fall out. "Tis the kingdom of EverMore!"
Shigeru looked around the parking lot they were in and growled out in frustration. "You bastard!" he stood up. "You kidnapped me, dressed me in this heavy ass armor and brought me to this imaginary world in the forest to play dragons and wizards! What's wrong with you?"
"There be no dragons in EverMore." Maya piped up.
"Whatever!" he said annoyed. "Can you just take me back to civilization?"
Makoto laughed. "My naïve friend, this is civilization."
"Stop talking like that." Shigeru groaned.
Makoto whispered in his ear. "Dude we can't break character." But then went back to his more powerful voice. "I am Mornuk the Paladin of the Threshold Clan."
"So that's a no, huh?" Shigeru groaned as he looked his friend up and down. "Also, what are you wearing?"
"Tis thee wear of a Paladin of such high class." Makoto or Mornuk answered. He was wearing full body armor tinted blue and then he picked up a large blue and white shield. Also from the van he picked up a huge thunderous hammer and an enchanted staff with a magical crystal on top and placed it in his back holster along with his satchel.
Maya also went to the van and picked up a standard sword encased in a sheath.
Shigeru looked at her and was a little shocked. From the van he couldn't see that she was wearing a lot less than what he's normally use to seeing. Maya had on leather made arm gauntlets, purple tinted body armor protecting her from the chest up, a long purple loincloth and daggers strapped to each side of her legs. She even had on a long black wig and fake pointy ears. In other words she looked oddly stunning. 'If there's more women dressed up like Maya here I guess I can get into this.' He thought finding an upside to this force full endeavor. "Fine I'll bite, what's your character's name?"
"I am Melythra the Druid of the Threshold Clan. I am a master shapeshifter who harnesses the vast powers of nature and unleashes it upon my enemies."
Mornuk placed a hand on Shigeru's shoulder. "My friend, thou have been recruited to fight for the Threshold Clan and the kingdom of EverMore. Are ye willing to accept that great task?"
Shigeru looked from one friend to another and sighed. "You're my only ride back to the city."
'I'll take that as a yes.' Mornuk thought. "Verily! Now ye will need a new identity fitting of a warrior." He looked over to Maya. "Melythra, the scroll."
She grabbed her leather made sack and pulled out a piece of rolled up paper. She then handed it to Mornuk.
He unraveled the paper and looked at it before reading. "Ye will be known as Strandominto the Warrior. Low class as of now but in time ye will be a powerful as us!"
Taking all of this in Shigeru or Strandominto thought of something. "Wait, why I'm I low class?"
It was now Melythra's turn to speak. "Did ye really think ye would be as high as us? Mornuk is a level 79 and I a level 64. You're a level 1."
"In other words a noob." Mornuk butted it. "But we can fix that."
Starting to go along with this and slightly interested Strandominto simply asked "How?"
"Within one more power boost I will be a Grand Paladin able to grant more powerful spells!" Mornuk shouted. "I'll be able to advance your skills 100 fold and then we'll finally have enough power to beat them!"
"Who's 'them'?" Strandominto raised an eyebrow.
All of a sudden the trio and everyone else around heard the screeching of tires making their way towards the parking lot. Then in a thick cloud of smoke a blue Renault Alpine came to an immediate stop.
Strandominto recognized that car anywhere. 'You've got to be kidding me!'
The back and passenger doors opened up to reveal one male and one female. The male had on large full body armor like Mornuk but tinted red and had spikes on the shoulders. Also on his back was a large black shield and he carried a double handed battle ax. The female on the other hand had a lot less armor on than the Warrior, wearing fine tan metal gauntlets with a gem lodged in each one, upper body armor, shoulder armor and fine draped bottoms. As a Mage she only carried a long Bo staff and a magical satchel.
Next the driver's door opened up revealing another women with long purple hair. She wore green upper body armor, leather fingerless gloves, a long green loincloth and leg bracelets. Also on her back was a case of arrows and in her hands was a large metal bow.
All three people closed the car doors and started to walk towards the Threshold Clan.
Strandominto looked from the approaching trio to his two friends. "Your rivals are the Major, Doctor Akagi and Kaji? Are you kidding me?"
"I do not know of the ones ye speak of," Mornuk said sternly. "But only Miowiel the Hunter, Kailijan the Warrior and Raisa the Mage, they together make up the Strongforge Clan."
"I think you're all fucking nuts." Strandominto muttered.
"Quiet," Mornuk advised. "I'll do thy talking."
The Strongforge Clan stopped in front of the others and stared them down. Misato or Miowiel smirked at Mornuk. "I see thou has recruited another into ye ranks."
"Tis only a noob," Kaji or Kailijan laughed. "This'll be a piece of cake."
"We bid ye the best of luck in the outer zones of EverMore." Ritsuko or Raisa said. "For ye sake I hope we don't cross paths."
They walked off leaving Strandominto confused. "Um…what just happened?"
"Tis our main rivals who also quest for high power." Stated Melythra.
"Follow us to thee Record Keep," Mornuk said. "There things will be better explained." They walked off in the opposite direction.
Strandominto sighed "What other choice do I have?" he soon followed his friends.
The trio walked for a while until they reached a mid-sized tent and saw a man.
"Ah, here we are." Mornuk said. "Ediakin my good man!"
The man known as Ediakin looked over to Mornuk and smiled. "My Paladin friend, to what do I owe this visit?"
"We have recruited another." He said pointing to Strandominto. "In time he will be a strong warrior. But for now we have brought him here to be registered in today's battle."
"Verily," Ediakin said. "Let us get this warrior ready for battle."
They all entered the tent. "Maya, can you get Shigeru registered while I explain the rules to him?" Makoto asked in his normal voice.
She nodded. "Sure." Maya went then went with the other LARPer.
Back with Shigeru and Makoto, Shigeru was generally confused. "What the hell is going on? You're speaking normally again, I thought you said you couldn't?"
"I can't" Makoto answered. "Out there, but in here I can. This tent is where we can explain rules to new players."
"Before this day is over you're going to pay!" Shigeru threatened.
Makoto shook his head. "I don't you should be threating me, remember I'm your only ride back."
Shigeru sighed in defeat. "Fine, but why did you drag me here in the first place?"
"Maya and I thought it would be good to get your mind off of things for the weekend." Makoto told his friend honestly. "This is how we relieve stress and thought it would help you."
"Well…thanks man." Shigeru said feeling bad for not really letting Makoto explain. "I appreciate it and I have to admit you guys do like bad assed."
"Great, so you're in!" Makoto smiled.
"Yeah, so how 'bout explaining a few things to me," Shigeru asked but then started to lose a bit of his composer. "Like how in the hell did our superiors get involved in this?"
Makoto thought for a minute. "Well at first I was the only one doing this and then somehow the Major got involved and eventually got Doctor Akagi to come along. Soon afterwards Maya started playing and when Kaji showed up in Tokyo-3 he joined too. I thought he was doing it to get close to the Major but I found out that he had been LARPing in Germany and already was at a high level."
Shigeru took all of this in. "Okay, now I've got another question? What's up with this level stuff?"
"Well at the beginning everybody starts at level 1 and then works their way up." Makoto began to explain. "I'm a level 79, Maya is a level 64, the Major is a level 80, Doc Akagi is a level 68 and Kaji is a level 77."
"So I'm way behind?" He asked.
"Yep." Makoto nodded. "But I can fix that."
"Oh yeah, you were saying something like that before." Shigeru noted. "You're going to level me up or something, right?"
"Right again, but first I have to level myself up first." Makoto smirked. "Once I reach level 80 I'll have the rank of Grand Paladin. Then I'll be able to cast more powerful spells, like the one to power up my clans mate."
Shigeru raised an eyebrow. "Well how are you going to level up?"
Makoto reached inside his satchel and pulled out a piece of wore out paper, when he unraveled it was a hand drawn map. "This is the map of EverMore showing all four of the Outer Zones. Right now we are in the mainland known as Northshire it is surrounded by the Deadwind Pass, the Swamp of Sorrows, the Grizzly Hill and the Crystalsong Forest." He said pointing to each location. "In the Outer Zones we fight other clans in order to level up and also strive to gain supremacy in our respected territories." Makoto looked to his friend. "Are you with me so far?"
"Yeah I get it." Shigeru answered. "Battle others and gain experience points to level up, that seems pretty easy."
"Not really," Makoto said. "Everybody has their own unique ability and are able to cause a lot of damage. Also it doesn't help that you're so low one hit could probably kill your warrior. "When we start I suggest you stay close to me."
"Fine." Shigeru sighed realizing that a somewhat cool concept just got lame again. "So when do we start?"
They both heard a loud battle horn outside. Maya finally walked back over to her friends finishing registering Shigeru and Makoto smirked. "Right now."
Author's Note: That the end of chapter 2 were instead of picking the obvious choice I went for something different, hope it didn't disappoint! Chapter 3 will be up sometime this month but currently I'm working on a Halloween themed EVA story! Look out for that soon and update on my other stories.
-eastWOLF