Fate: Rise of Legends chapter 3
Raiders of the north
The black-haired young man with heterochromia stood on the bow of the Viking longship. His name was Gael and he was a lancer. His left eye was ocean blue and his right eye was emerald green. In his right hand he had a spear that was pointed on both ends and in the left he had a shield as wide as his arm was long. His armor was leather with fur covering it.
He held his shield in front of him and blocked the incoming arrows and javelins. A few mages fired spells at the hull of the ship, but the waves were making it difficult to aim. You would think the Vikings would try to sink the enemy ship, but they were after something on the ship. Something arguably far more valuable than the exp.
When the longship crashed with the British vessel he lept off it's bow and charged shield first into the melee. His fellow Vikings soon followed him when he scattered the enemy's archers by spearing one of them while airborne, landing on top of him and finishing him off with a second stab.
He bashed one enemy onto the floor of the ship before stabbing another one in the chest and using the spear to pull him to the side, leaving him to the rest of his crew. He then raised his shield in time to block a sword from an enemy saber. The saber was a woman with red hair in a long braid, covered in chain mail and armor plates. Reyes couldn't see her eyes under the helmet. She wielded a normal longsword.
She tried to swing at Reyes's side, but was stopped by the shield again. Reyes took this chance to stab her with the spear, but he didn't count on her grabbing the spear afterwards and pulling him in for a head but. The blow stunned him for a second, but that was all it took for her to pull her sword back and drive it into his gut.
Reyes's eyes widened in shock, but a hatchet flew through the air and buried itself in her side. The saber flinched and decided to fall back with the rest of her allies.
"Thanks," Reyes said to his fellow Viking. The other Viking nodded before pursuing the enemy saber, only to be stopped by a shield wall. "Wait, stop! We need to regroup!"
The other Vikings halted and glanced at him for a second, considering his words before halting their advance and waiting for an opening in the shield wall, but Gael knew that they weren't going to break through without a powerful caster or some kind of bombs. "They'll turn us to mincemeat in a space like this. We'll get skewered on those spears and then they'll slowly force us off the ship." At the moment the two sides were at a stalemate, and nobody wanted to make the first move.
That was when a man stepped up to the front of the Viking ranks. He was a lean man with short black hair and blue eyes. A shield and axe were on his back, and around his waist were throwing knives. His armor consisted of mostly furs, but there was visible chain mail beneath. The man was named xXPaganXx62 (We're online, you knew it was going to happen.) The man confidently strutted up to the British crew. The woman with red hair pushed past the shield wall and approached him.
The woman pointed her longsword at him. "Halt you filthy heretic," she shouted.
The Viking captain gave her an annoyed look. "Stop it with the fucking roleplay." The woman slowly lowered her sword and pouted. The captain saw her name, Tw1ghl1ght474, and chuckled. "Hehe. So Bella, where's all the goods?" The rest of the Vikings laughed alongside him.
The female knight glared at them. She then whipped her head around at the knights who laughed alongside him, silencing them in a heartbeat. She sighed and turned back to the Vikings that had boarded her ship. "We don't have anything worth raiding us for. You've wasted your time." The rest of her crew looked at her weirdly, but a few of them silenced their guildmates.
The vikings weren't buying it. "Shut up, we know you have a ton of food and ores from mainland europe," Pagan growled. The knight and her companions flinched. How did they know that?
Gael put a hand on his ally's shoulder. "Let me handle this," he whispered. "We probably won't win this fight. I'll take care of this and make them hand it over." Pagan looked at him for a second before nodding. Gael approached the Knights calmly and slowly, noting the golden cross symbol on one end of their health bars. "Lieutenant Twilight of the 'Golden cross,' a guild that is part of the 'Holy knights of Britannia' alliance. I think we can settle this without anyone else getting hurt, don't you think?"
A brown haired knight yelled, "You could have said that before you attacked us!" Other knights agreed with him, cursing the vikings.
"Why are you doing the talking for them anyway," Twilight teased. "You're not even part of their guild. What, do the Frost Wolves not have any backbone? Need an outsider to settle your problems for you?" Her taunts nearly worked. Several vikings with the wolf head symbol in the center and frost around the edges snarled and almost charged in. The other knights chuckling at them didn't help.
Gael kept his cool. "We had to make a point. You wouldn't have given it to us otherwise." The vikings agreed from behind him and the knights slowly quieted. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is you giving us seventy-five percent of your supplies and we let you go on your way. Now that we've shown our power you should know that we're not to be taken lightly." A few knights mumbled under their breath while a good amount of the vikings started complaining. They were silenced by Pagan. "We're actually being quite generous. Most other vikings would demand all of it."
"And what about the hard way," An archer in the rear shouted. As he did so he drew an arrow, setting the Vikings on edge. The knights responded in kind, closing their shield wall and raising their swords and spears.
"I was going to get to that." Gael knew that this was a risky move. "Hopefully they don't call my bluff. If they do we're finished." He cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes dangerously. "The hard way is that we kill all of you and loot the ship and everything on your bodies. Or we could sink the whole thing and find another ship to raid. I'm sure some of my companions would love the second and third option. It's your choice."
The tension between the two parties was growing thicker and thicker. It was only a matter of seconds before someone initiated combat again. It all depended on the knight lieutenant and whether she thought she could win or not.
And the crews were engulfed in light.
As a massive berserker class viking, Nidhogg was usually avoided by the weaker players. But those that he did hang out with helped him control his anger. The mad enhancement ability was powerful, but it came at a cost. If you didn't control yourself you risked hurting your allies, and in some cases yourself. That's why he practiced with it whenever he could. The berserker class made him get angry easily, and the angrier he got the stronger he got. But with enough practice one could find the perfect balance between power and skill.
One of the bandits looked up at him. "What are you doing here? This is our turf! Get out!"
Nidhogg just laughed darkly. "Poor bots. If only they knew just how strong I am." He raised a shield on his left arm and readied an axe in his right. The action made all 5 of the bandits raise their response in response, a dane axe, a sword and shield, two shield and spear users and an archer. Nidhogg grinned madly and let out a war cry before lunging at them.
He blocked the archers arrow and dashed past the spear users, going straight for said archer. The axe wielder almost had him, but a parry and shove into the swordsman temporarily took care of them. His mad enhancement increased all of his physical stats, making him run faster than the spear users could keep up with.
He easily took the archer's head off with one swing. When he spun around the spear users were closing the distance, but that didn't stop him from using one of his skills. When he made eye contact a passive fear debuff stopped him in his tracks. The other, a woman, was parried and her shield knocked out of the way, leaving her open for a kick that sent her sprawling on the ground a few yards away. Nidhogg followed up by jumping into the air and cleaving her chest wide open. The heart was one of the most damaging spots in the game, along with the head. A mad enhancement boosted berserker could annihilate a low level bandit like this one without trouble.
But as he turned to face the other spear user he was slashed across the back by the swordsman. An axe cleaved into his shoulder, but was stopped partway by the shield. As he noticed this he was stabbed in the back by the spear user. He had gotten himself surrounded and was now paying the price for it.
That was when his rage truly took over. For a moment he let his berserker side take over. He let out a wild roar as he instantly overpowered the axeman, throwing his axe to the side with his shield and splitting his head open. He then chopped the swordsman's hands off before he could swing, followed by an upward swing to the chin. He then turned to the last bandit, the one with the spear and shield. His passive skill activated and his opponent began backing away, hesitating to attack him. Nidhogg unleashed a flurry of relentless attacks, butchering the poor sod and leaving him armless and full of gashes before shield bashing him onto the ground to finish him off.
As Nidhogg's mad enhancement faded he looked at the time on his menu screen. It was getting late, so he decided to head back to a nearby viking village. Norway was covered in a thin layer of snow at this time, so, it was a good thing he was currently covered in furs.
As he reached the gate the guards let him pass without trouble. He was registered in this village when he started the game in Norway. As he entered a few players took notice of his berserker tag and steered clear of him. He could hear whispers of "Look at his class," "He's a berserker," and "This guy is insane."
But as he entered a small wooden house a group of players greeted him with open arms. "Hey Nidhogg! How'd the hunt go?" A saber class viking with a bastard sword on his waist, (it was good quality, probably stolen during a raid) wrapped an arm around his shoulders and the two of them laughed.
"It was good Darksword. The poor bastards didn't stand a chance," Nidhogg replied.
An archer with a bow on her back said, "Oh yeah, then why is your health still regenerating?" She chuckled along with some of the other vikings.
Nidhogg shrugged. "I thought I'd at least give them a chance," he replied. He then joined his friends in a hearty laugh.
A lancer with a spear and shield suddenly spoke up. "Oh shit, I'm gonna be late for dinner! Let's hope my mom hasn't barged in yet."
"Yeah, we don't want her making you disconnect on the middle of the floor again," Another archer with javelins teased.
The lancer said his goodbyes but suddenly froze. "Uh, guys, where's the logout button?"
The other vikings looked at him weirdly before checking for the logout button themselves.
"What the hell?" "That's weird." "Guys, what's going on?" "We can't log out!" "What's going?"
Darksword started to speak up. "Alright everybody, this is probably a bug that will be fixed soon enough so don't panic! I'm sure people are already sending complaints and those of us that live with other people will be disconnected soon enough." The rest of the vikings began calming down somewhat.
Suddenly the lancer from early jumped in surprise. "What's that?" he pointed to read warning signs that had appeared in front of his face. Only a second later he began screaming and clutching his head in pain.
"What's wrong with him?!" "I don't know!" "Is it his nervegear?"
And he collapsed on the floor. "MY HEAD'S BURNING UP! MAKE IT STOP!" A sign suddenly appeared above his head saying that he disconnected. Someone had obviously pulled his nerve gear off, but the strange part was that it seemed to hurt him.
Nidhogg's jaw dropped, his mind trying to process what had just happened in front of him. "The pain nullification should have prevented him from feeling pain. How the hell is he in pain?
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" Whiiiirrrrr…
The Vikings were teleported into the center of the starting area, surrounded by thousands of confused and panicking players.