Project Athena: Dawn of War Season 1

I Take Back What I Said, Bad Graphics Isn't All That Bad After All

Wylver

Night has befallen the land. My not-so-fairy-like friend Dana and I had been going on circles around the forest for several hours. This is of course, due to Dana accidentally tripping on a trap meant to release a raging ogre that chased us into the forest where we lost the monster, but also lost ourselves.

We had already tried different ways to get out of being lost. We marked the ways they have already walked through, walked in one direction, and even tried to climb a tree to see the forest from above, but the trees seemed to go on forever. That should be impossible since I didn't remember the forest being that big. Before we went through the forest, it was but the size of a tree park.

My face got smashed into a nearby tree when Dana accidentally tripped—again—on a twig and tried to hold on to me to avoid falling, pushing me in the process.

The rough bark of the tree grazed my pale face.

"I'm sorry." Dana tried to regain her footing but fell on her back.

I still can't believe how his clumsy and awkward friend became a fairy, or how I turned into a lepre-kin—humans that descended from leprechauns. The system is supposed to generate a character based on the characteristics of a person, and in no way did I feel like one of the lucky bunch.

If I'm really lucky, then give us at least a hint to the exit of this maze of a forest. I whispered to myself.

That proved to be my undoing. As soon as those words left my mouth, I found a fire burning in a clearing. Around the fire was a dozen small tents made from animal hide.

Beside the bonfire sat five grayskinned people no taller than a child, but those were no children. The fiery orange light from the fire illuminated their faces that resembled men already in their eighties.

Goblins.

When I was a kid, I thought that better graphics make a better and more immersive game. Now that I had seen the peak of gaming realism, I thought that immersion wasn't that good after all.

The small creatures were alarmed by the arrival of their new guests. They quickly went for their swords, which were actually more like jagged knives. Nevertheless, it still wouldn't make their situation any better.

I unsheathed his two-handed sword. I at least had some training using medieval weapons when he was a child. My hometown used to have Historical European Martial Arts club, though that had been a long time ago. When I moved into another town, I could no longer find any club that teaches medieval fighting. My more recent training the military didn't really teach swordfighting, as they already have guns. Unfortunately, I was only provided a sword considering we were supposed to be playing a fantasy game, so I would have to hope that I remembered how to wield a sword.

The goblins step forward but took care to stay away from the reach of my blade. They knew that I couldn't take all of them at once.

"Aren't you gonna help?" I shot Dana a quick glance.

"How? Poke them with my stick?" Dana took out her wand—a foot-long piece of twisted oakwood.

"Why don't you shoot them with your fairydust, huh Tinkerbell?"

"I told you, I don't know how this thing works. It's not like they gave me a manual for magic."

With all those hours walking around, you could have practiced using that wand. I thought, but I just left that thought aside, since that don't really matter now. Survival is their priority.

Goblins love gold. I recalled. Goblins were dwarves who stopped halfway through evolution. They still cannot resist the sight of treasures. I remembered that we were provided with a few gold pieces when we started.

I took out my pouch and tossed the gold coins. It only distracted the goblins for a few moments, but it was enough for me to strike down a goblin with my sword. I plunged my blade deep into the creature's neck.

One down, four to go.

The goblins reacted quickly and slashed their blades at me at the same time. I was able to parry one and pushed the goblin aside bumping into its comrade. Dana hit another one with a tree branch in the face, stopping it from reaching me. Though the fourth one was able to slip past them and stab me in the leg.

I quickly withdrew while clenching my teeth. The devs were really serious when they said that the players would feel pain in the game as if in real life.

That puts running away out of the options.

I feigned a strike towards a goblin who reacted by placing its sword in front of its face to protect it, but I aimed for the leg, incapacitating the creature. Dana took this opportunity to bury her makeshift weapon into the goblin's face.

I was about to prepare another strike when the goblins stopped moving. They looked behind them as if looking at a horror, then started running past me and Dana.

We thought that the goblins were rushing at us, but soon realize that there was a bigger thing to worry about.

The ground shook. The trees were pushed aside as the ogre from before erupted from the forest.

Without a word, I pulled Dana along into a run. Just when we thought that we had escaped from the hideous thing.

Adrenaline rushed in my veins. I ignored my bleeding leg and ran with all my strength. If I stopped because of a broken leg, then my whole body might be broken as well.

The two of us outran the ogre, but we can still hear the footsteps following them. It was still too early to relax. We searched for a place to hide.

The moonlight illuminated the wall of stones in front of them. It was an abandoned fortress.

"We should go inside." I said in a hurry, my heart still pounding from the rush.

"What?" Dana's eyes widened. "Who knows what lies inside that old building?"

"I'd rather be spooked by a ghost, than be crushed by an ogre." I motioned for Dana to follow.

"Yeah, but how do we get in? I don't see an entrance?"

She was right. The wall spanned meters in length, and there was no door to be seen.

The ogre sprang from the forest. It searched its surroundings for a moment, and started at the two of us as soon as it saw us.

I looked around for an escape when I suddenly felt lighter. My feet hovering a few feet off the ground. I turned to look at Dana who was also floating continously upwards.

It must have been the bloodloss. I had already lost too much blood from the leg wound that I was starting to hallucinate.

I realized that it wasn't my imagination when we landed on the fortress' wall away from the ogre.

"How?" I cut myself off when I saw Dana's pockets glowing.

Dana took out her wand which glowed with a soft green light that was starting to dissipate. "I guess it is not a piece of trash after all."

I nodded. The wand did bring them to safety, but that wouldn't last for long. If the ogre was able to find them in the forest maze, then surely it wouldn't have trouble finding the entrance.

We should find a way out of here, but first, I has to tend to my wound, unless I'll be having hallucinations for real next time.

I tore a piece of cloth from my shirt and wrapped it around my wounded leg. The adrenaline was also starting dissipate, allowing pain to go through his leg. "Don't yo have a healing spell there?"

"I honestly don't know how I did the float spell," Dana rummaged through her bag, "but I think this might help." She took out a red leaf and handed it to me.

I chewed it, sipping its juice and placing the remains on my wound. He let out a sigh of relief. "That's better than nothing."

I stood up and looked at the door to the tower beside us. I looked at Dana as if to ask if she is ready.

She shrugged, still worrying about the things they might find inside the ruins. She had always been freaked out by darkness.

Maybe that's why she was selected as a fairy, because fairies are creatures of the light and joy. I shook the thought aside. I picked the torch beside the door and lighted it up. The light from the flame might disturb the creatures living in here, but it is better to see them when they start attacking. The inhabitants of this place must surely have some way of navigating in the dark, so they will be in a huge disadvantage if they went in blind.

Dana seemed to support this decision as a bit of tension left her face when she saw the torch being lighted.

The decision to light a fire turned out to be good as the second room they went to had several spiders the size of a cat. They moved out of the light's reach as if it were burning them.

I thought about killing the spiders, but decided against it. They might fear the light, but if provoke they might attack them whether I had a torch or not, and we appear to be outnumbered.

The third room has a door directly in front of us, and a staircase a few feet away from the door. Other than that, it was empty except for the cobwebs.

When I headed towards the door, I felt a surge of pain in my mind. It wasn't from my wound, but rather it was more of a sound that is so annoying that it almost caused pain. This feeling worsened as I thought about going to the door.

"What's wrong?" Dana's expression of worry returned once more.

"It's nothing."

Behind the small cracks of the door, what seemed like an eye was peeking out the holes and watching them. I wasn't sure if it was hallucination, but I didn't like to take my chances. The eye might be trying to ambush them once they got near enough.

"Do you know a door opening spell?" Wylver looked at Dana's wand.

"I don't."

"Could you try flicking the wand or something?"

She shrugged. "Why?"

"I think something is watching us behind that door."

"What?" Dana looked back and forth between me and the door.

"It might be trying to ambush us. We need to get rid of it either way."

"Can't we just make a run for it?"

I shook my head. "It knows the castle better than us. We'll just get lost and it will eventually find us. Better to catch it by surprise."

"I'll try, but if it doesn't work, then we're making a run for it."

I nodded.

Dana placed her wand in front of her and had a deep breathe. She flicked her wrist, but nothing happened.

"Try it again."

Dana sighed. I promised that we would make a run for it when it didn't work, though she found it no place to argue.

She breathed heavily again. She focused on the door as she flicked the wand. A bolt of white light blinded them for a moment before hitting the door, which broke and scattered in splinters.

The creature behind the door screamed in pain. I was right, there was something behind the door. Though I didn't expect that Dana will shoot it with electricity and enrage it.

The creature's scream of agony was soon replaced with that of anger. I placed the torch in front in order to see the creature better. It wasn't a good idea since it looked way worse than the ogre. It had the head and hooves of a bull and an upper body of a really swole man. It's a minotaur, or at least it was. The decaying flesh hanging from its body suggested that it was no ordinary minotaur. It was also undead. Smoke puffed out of its nose. It went into a stance, preparing to charge at us and pound us into ground meat.

That is, until the most unexpected creature came to aid.