By the time the troll had hit the ground with a great thud, before dissolving into a great cloud of black particles, Andrew had reached Aurora and was leaning down next to her. I quickly looked around us to see nothing but eerie trees covered in fog and ourselves standing, exhausted and injured with our weapons held loosely out our sides. Finally dropping my guard, as the sun rose slowly from the misted horizon into the sky, I ran over to Andrew who was holding Aurora up into a sitting position . Her eyes were slightly opened and I saw that she had only survived the battle by a few stubborn pixels of health which remained in her health bar.
"Stay with us Aurora, its over now. Just hang on a while so we can get back to town." Andrew said hurriedly but with relief that Aurora, although hurt, exhausted and vulnerable, that she was alive and still somewhat conscious. I heard her mumble something in her near unconscious state before she buried her head into Andrew's chest and placed her arms tightly around his neck.
"Come on Andrew we need to get her back to town so we can tend to her wounds and so we can all get some rest." I say quickly with a worried and anxious tone, not wanting to stay in the forest any longer than we needed to. At this Andrew nodded and gently picked Aurora up by her legs and back with her still holding tightly onto his neck. To my right I saw Andrew and Oliver quickly raising their weapons and ready their stance, I look over into the space where their eyes are fixed and see an number of shadows moving through the misty tree line.
Suddenly a crossbow bolt flies from the misted tree line and planted itself heavily into the ground, just in front of me. I look up and see three more bolts flying rapidly from the forest, one deflected by Andrew B's shield and the other two closely missed Aurora and Oliver who had moved quickly to avoid the attacks. A moment after the ranged attack failed a large group of cloaked and hooded figures ominously walked from the dark and misty forest and formed long line to face us. They all wore long black or brown cloaks and hoods which shadowed their faces, except for a figure wearing a skull mask. They numbered around 15 and they all held their hands upon the hilt of sheathed swords upon their leather belts.
I looked a them and saw the usual health bar of a normal monster with a name above it but I also saw small yellow and red crystals floating above their heads. That's when I realised that these people weren't monsters sent by the game but players that seemed intent on fighting. I looked over at my friends to see the realisation of what was happening in their eyes. As I did this the 15 players simultaneously drew their blades and held their sharp Katanas some with both hands others with one hand, but all pointing at us.
I raise my sword to meet theirs and Oliver Andrew B and Sky quickly follow suit. I turn to Andrew and say calmly "Get the hell out of here, we'll meet up with you when we can." before quickly turning back to the opposing players, as I hear Andrew start to run the wall of cloaked players charged down at us , intending to cut off our escape. I held my stance and readied my sword, not knowing how the fight would end.
As the players came within a meter of us the closest swung their swords at us, met by either a block or strong parry, while the others kept running to get behind us to surround us completely. However as our swords clashed we began to quickly move backwards in an attempt to prevent flanking and start our escape to the town which was just visible upon the horizon.
As we began our haphazard retreat we were forced to fight for every inch of ground which we moved backwards, with swords flying at us from every direction and hasty blocks raised to deflect. Swords and shields clashed mercilessly against each other and blades swung through the sky missing us by inches or cutting deep through our armour and into our flesh. Very quickly our weapons were moving in a blur which shimmered wit the reflected light of the rising sun. As we fought for our escape I could see branded marks upon their arms, black coffins half opened with a bone arm within the coffin and a creepy smiling face upon the opening lid of the coffin, this mark was clearly visible on each of the players' arms.
As we began to move into more open ground, coming out of the lightening forest, we spread out a bit more to allow more room for manoeuvres, however this also let them spread out around us quicker without the problem of trees getting in their way. This quickly led to us getting surrounded, bringing our escape to a crashing halt. However as they surrounded us they backed off to form a perfect circle around us. As the four of us moved back to back one of the players, boasting a red crystal and a long notched and blood stained sword, stepped forward with his sword held to his side and a smile on his face.
"You have fought valiantly and with a commendable skill. But your time is at an end. We are the Laughing Coffins and we shall be the last you see of this fictitious world." He said with a growl of a voice as he raised his sword signalling the rest of the players to move in. We raised our weapons slowly in grim defiance knowing that there was no way that all of us were going to get out of this alive.
Suddenly as the laughing coffin guild started to close in to finish off their kills we heard a rush of movement and a roar of battle cries coming from the rising sun. All of us, including the cloaked players quickly turned to see a wave of red and white armour charging over the hill towards us all with weapons raised. From the glare of the sun we quickly saw a large group of Blood Knights charging down at us, who they were after however we weren't completely sure of.
As they drew closer the Laughing Coffin guild swiftly sheathed their swords and sprinted towards the forest which they quickly vanished into. We however stood our ground with our weapons still raised not knowing the Knight's intentions. But as the group of 25 fully armed and armoured Knights reached us the leader of the group ordered a small scouting party of 5 men carrying spears to race after the cloaked players in an attempt to track them down and then walked up to us with his sword held at his side.
"I see you've been having trouble with these, "Coffins" I believe they call themselves." He said in an annoyed voice as he sheathed his blade and put his group at ease. "Those murderers got 5 of my guys before we could do anything. After a little fight they retreated and obviously came across you lot. Did you loose anybody in your attack?" he asked curiously but with sincerity.
"Not as far as we know as we had sent two of our friends, one of them badly hurt, straight to the town while we stalled them. But apart from that we've all stayed alive." I say slowly now beginning to worry about Andrew and Aurora. "But do you know anything else about the Laughing Coffins as this must be one of the first player killer groups of that size and danger?" I ask seriously, hoping that they would have more information than myself.
"None at all, but we think they were formed recently, apart from that and the fact that they have no problems with killing we know nothing. And we did see a person carrying another, seemingly in a hurry, rushing back to town so that could be your friends." He replied as the scouts he had sent out returned glumly with no success. "Well we better be on our way, need to report back to Heathcliff on this and the event battle." He said in a way of farewell.
"Well thanks for the help with the Coffins." I say before the commander orders the group to move out and walk towards the edge of the forest, seemingly still wanting to find the Coffins. I look to my friends who had stayed silent this whole time, Oliver and Andrew B obviously annoyed at the encounter with the Knights which they dislike so much and Sky who looked distracted and with her mind somewhere else.
"Can we get moving now, we need to make sure Andrew and Aurora got back safely." She said in a quiet voice which clearly showed the worry that she held for the safety of her friends. I nod and we start running back to the village yet again with no idea to what would await us within the walls of the town.