Nido: Apocalypse

Walat

The group took formation as they headed into the woods towards Walat. Being in a swamp-like area, they knew to expect Goblins and DinoGators and the blood-sucking insects that would randomly attack.

Swift took the lead as the main attacker. Behind him was Grimm. He would focus on support and healing. In the middle was Lazy and Power. Lazy would be able to defend Grimm and Power from the middle. Power, on the other hand, felt useless. He only had a mace and a shield. All of his skills would only matter once he was able to reinforce people's weapons and armor. At the very back was Nitro. With his ranged weapon, he could attack enemies and not worry about being too close. Even if an enemy could attack him at melee range, he was still a Pugilist who could defend himself.

Even though they were all in a game, or what is now their new reality. It felt just like real life. It was just as hot and humid. Sweat would roll down their faces as they traveled through the woods.

Swift pulled out his sword to cut the branches, making a path. They wanted to travel faster, but were watching out for monsters. Most monsters in the swamp area's like to ambush their prey. DinoGators would hide in the water with their eyes sticking out. Goblins would rather ambush in numbers. They are weak creatures, but dangerous in groups. Similar to any of the large insects. One is easy to kill, but in large swarms they are deadly. Many players would gatekeep nests to farm them for exp. Some larger guilds would section these area's off and have people pay them a fee to power level them. Granted, it would only work for players below level 20.

As Swift lead the way through the woods he and the rest of the group could hear fighting in the distance.

“THE GOBLINS ARE EVERYWHERE” someone cried out!

“Let’s go guys! Remember to cover each other. Grimm focus on healing. Lazy protect those that you can. Nitro, shoot the goblins and Power, make sure you do a head count and let’s save all we can!”

“Right”, the group called out!

The group quickly made their way past some trees to see an ambush. In an open path there were 6 humans in shoddy armor fighting 15 level 3 goblins. Each goblin looked malnourished. Their green skin was much paler as their bellies protruded from them from the lack of food. Every goblin wore a tattered and dirty loin cloth and held stone swords or wooden clubs. The humans were in a circle formation around one comrade lying on the ground with a stab wound. He looked pale as blood poured out of him. He did his best to add pressure to the wound.

“Help us. Please!” One of the humans in slightly better armor called out to the group.

None of the goblins paid attention to the new group of humans.

Swift took up a crouching position with his swords behind his back. He coated his swords in his aura before he jumped straight up into the air swinging his blades. He jumped nearly 15ft into the air towards the group and beheaded two goblins that surrounded the humans. Before any other goblin could react, the players charged forward!

Nitro circled the group, firing off two shots of his aura. One missed a goblin. The other hit the goblin's chest and exploded in bone and gore. Lazy used his shield to push some goblins out of the way to give Power and Grimm and clear a path to the humans. Power used his mace and attacked another goblin. The goblin's skull sounded like bark breaking under the force of Powers' swing. With his path clear, Grimm ran up to the injured man. He placed his hand on him as a white magical sigil appeared over the stab wound. It wasn’t painful for the man, but he felt a slight tingle as the wound started to close up and he started to feel better. He still wasn’t in a condition to fight but he was definitely going to make it.

Without the element of surprise, Swift was having a hard time with the goblins. He was so used to being at a much higher level he forgot how hard the earlier stages were. Power tried his best to block attacks, but without many skills or crafted items, Lazy had to use his Power Shield to block attacks as well. Trying to join the fight, Grimm raised a hand as a beam of darkness erupted from the palm of his hand straight into the eye of a goblin, blinding it.

"Aghhhh" the goblin screamed out in pain, thinking it was hurt.

"Attack it now Lazy", Power called out.

Lazy extended his shield, turning it to an angle. Mimicing his hand as he made a chopping motion, the shield followed. The shield came down, slicing the goblins' heads in half. Thankfully, the group kept their lunch down, seeing the gruesome sight. With one down, the rest quickly followed. Grimm blinded another and gave Swift an opening to attack. With his Aura infused swords he swiftly cleaved through the blinded goblin.

Nitro continuously ran around shooting bolts of Aura. He would occasionally miss, but when he did hit, limbs would go flying. The group slowly found their groove. Grimm would rotate between blinding the goblins or healing the other when a goblin managed to attack them with their stone swords. Swift would lash out when given the chance, while Lazy and Power used their shields to block attacks. Only after a minute or two the group managed to kill 8 goblins.

"FLEE!!" A goblin cried out. They little over half their numbers and didn't manage to kill a single person. Their ambush failed. Completely giving up the goblins started screaming and running away. Leaving their backs exposed the group lashed out one final blow. Lazy's and Power missed their swings. Grimm blinded a goblin giving Swift a chance to swing, while Nitro shot at some of the fleeing goblins.

.

“Don’t chase them” Swift called out while sheathing his blades. “We will find them later. We need to get these guys back to safety first.”

The man in the best looking armor, stepped forward.

“I am Captain Charles” he extended his hand to Swift. “Thank you for helping us! We were out on patrol. A member of our town said they had seen a couple of goblins roaming around. We followed one and it led us to an ambush. Donney got stabbed first. We did our best to stay up but thankful for your intervention.”

“It’s no problem Charles. We just arrived and were happy to help.”

Captain Charles paused for a moment.

“Just arrived? Are you Champions” he exclaimed?!

Swift had a look of confusion on his face before remembered that that was the name the people of the land called the players; Champions.

“Yes we are”, Swift declared.

“I am Swift, the one with the crossbow is Nitro, the one who healed your friend is Grimm, with the shield and mace is Power and the other one is Lazy." He paused and realized what he said and chuckled. "His name is Lazy. Although he can be sometimes."

“Hey!”, Lazy chimed.

The group chuckled a little as they all collected themselves.

“I hate to ask, but would you Champions mind accompanying us to Walat? We would surely be grateful. We can even reward you for helping us.”

“We would love to! We are currently looking for supplies to travel further into the Wildlands but have no horses or anything. We were even going to offer to eliminate the goblins around here as compensation”, Swift explained.

“Heading further into the Wildlands”, Captain Charles asked? “Why are you going there? I’m sure one of the larger nations will give you better housing.”

“There are more Champions than us and we are all heading to a city to possibly build our own. If you have a map, we would be more than happy to show you.”

Captain Charles' eyes lit up!

“The Champions building their own city?! This is unheard of!” He then slowly grew wary of the idea. “You do know the great nations will see this as a plot against them, right?”

Lazy stepped up, interrupting Swift.

“Oh, it’s not official yet. We haven’t decided what to do. We won’t be starting our own city. Just a base of operations to help the great nations. Nothing is set in stone yet.”

Captain Charles gave them a look before putting the issue aside.

“Well, if that’s the case, we should head back to Walat. Men are you ready?!”

“Sir yes sir!”

“Okay, let’s head out!”

The large group walked for a dozen minutes before getting to a clearing leading to the main road. It was weird for the players. They lived in the real world and saw how lively the main road in town was. All the cars on the road were rusted and covered in nature. Even the buildings were half destroyed from erosion as nature reclaimed them all. The once bustling little town was dead and empty. All that remained was Walat. An even smaller town made by the people of the world trying to survive.

As the players got closer to Walat, they could see its steel walls. Made by flipping cars over on their side and a ramshackle chain link fence in front. Even the metal gate was just a conglomerate of sheet metal melded together. To the players, this was a bizarre sight, but to Captain Charles and the guards, this was home.

Swift turned to the group.

“Well boys. Looks like our journey starts here.”