Chapter 12: Chapter 12 – Crusade in Harehill II

“He’s here! Search the camp!” Vincent barked out orders.

Danny immediately headed into one of the nearby buildings while Sarah put her fingers to her temples. A portal emerged right in the middle of Main Street, causing me to back up considerably. Out of the blue portal, several soldiers dressed in the knightly armor and purple cloaks of the Crusade emerged. Each one was distinct in only their weaponry, their uniforms identical. The Crusade began to ransack the town, men going in every direction. I began to run away, but two of the men grabbed me. My strength stat was far to low to even attempt to fight them off.

“Cuff him to the fence post there.”

“JEREMIAH?! WHAT DO WE DO?!” Theresa’s voice emerged from the darkness.

I scanned profile after profile. Level 15…Level 17…Level 19…Level 16…Level 18….Level 15…Level 19…fuck. “SURRENDER!”

Vincent’s eyebrows went up and he gave a smile. “I appreciate that, Mr. Lakewood. You saved your men’s lives today. That’s honorable.”

Out of the Pony, I saw five others emerge. Theresa…Cain…Rosco…Nick…Graham. Did Lincoln get away? The purple cloaks shoved my guildmates down next to me, cuffing them to the fence post as well. I saw Vincent’s demeanor break as he yelled at another soldier with a yellow S embroidered on their cloak. “Where is he?!”

“We can’t find him, sir.”

I saw Vincent walking calmly over to me, his eyes much more angry than his face would suggest. “Mr. Lakewood, in the interest of saving your own life, I suggest you tell me where he went.”

“I thought lying was a death sentence. I'm already dead.”

“I’m willing to forgive the first offense if you turn in the criminal….now.”

“Anything I tell you will be a lie. I really and truly don’t know where he went.”

Vincent seemed to believe me. He drew his sword and placed it to Nick’s neck. I guess Nick had picked up a few 'being a badass' lessons from the rest of us as he didn’t even flinch. “Mr. Lakewood, I will give you one more chance before I sink your guild into the history books.”

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October 1st, 2049 - Abilene, Texas

Caulfield & Werner. It felt better and better for Vincent every time he walked into the firm and saw his name on the doors. His golden tie stood out on his black suit marvelously. He carried his travel mug of coffee and stepped in through the door to the office. The 19-year-old blonde secretary was sitting at the desk and gave him a grin. “Mornin’, Sarah.”

She gave him a wink back. “Good morning, Mr. Caulfield.”

Banging the secretary might have been a fireable offense, but it always felt worth it at 2am. It felt like there was a secret only the two of them shared after they showed up to work at 8am and tired as hell. He gave her a nod and walked up to his office suite. He had paperwork to get done today, but it was Friday and no one pushed hard or worried about much on Friday’s.

He sat in his comfy office chair, in front of the degrees on the wall, and nodded to the knock on the door when he heard it. “Come in.”

Trent Werner walked in with a grin. “Thought you’d be late coming in.”

Trent had been his partner since college and Vincent loved the man like a brother. “Oh? Why’s that?”

“Seems like you were up late.”

“What makes you say that?”

He gave a shrug and a knowing smile before sitting down in the chair across from me. “News reports are weird today.”

“Hm?”

“Lots of cars are randomly dying. Cell towers are blinking in and out and stuff. They’re talking about grounding all the flights.”

“Shit. Is Percy supposed to fly out to Buffalo today?”

“He was. I went ahead and cancelled it. I told them that he will fly out next week when this all clears up.”

Vincent gave a shrug. “Gotta do what we gotta do.”

“Gotta do what we gotta do.” Trent echoed the thought. “Anyways, glad you made it in. Would hate for people to get suspicious. Might have to fire you.”

Vincent raised an eyebrow. Trent grew up rich, and not just normal boring rich either. Trent grew up loaded on an estate. Therefore, on paper, Trent owned a hell of a lot more of the firm than Vince did. “Would you really fire me for that?”

Trent’s face got very serious for a minute before turning into a smile. “Who do you think is fucking the head of HR?”

Vince’s jaw dropped. “She’s married, Trent!”

“So are you.” He smiled and waited for the joke to land. When it didn’t, he mumbled an apology and left.

Vincent rolled his eyes and leaned back in the chair. For a guy so smart, Trent always made one joke too far.

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Caulfield & Werner had been at work all day. Every single one of their clients was calling them for assessments after electrical work all over the country began to fail. By 5pm, most cars across the country had stopped rolling. The weirdest part was that energy itself seemed to nearly stop functioning. Trains and older cars that had no reliance on what we’d call electronics just died. It made no sense at all. The country was concerned. No one was rioting yet, but all 50 state governors were on TV somewhere.

It wasn’t until the clock hit six that some people tried to leave. On the dot, all of the power in the entire city shut off at once and everyone in the office got the same message. “GAME START!”

Several employees immediately said they were going home. They’d walk if they had too. Trent gave one of his usual speeches. “Everyone! Everyone! Calm down. Everything is going to be fine. No reason to walk home until we figure all this out. Just calm down and we’ll get through this together.”

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It took ten minutes before someone accidentally opened his menu. Percy Williams, a young lawyer at the firm, instantly analyzed it. It took an hour before we realized we were in some sort of game.

At 7:30, the dragon showed up. Vincent, through the window of his dark office suite, was staring at the stars for the first time in several years when the complete darkness of Abilene was filled with orange fire. He watched as several buildings crumbled into pieces.

“There’s a goddamn dragon!” Several employees screamed and bolted out the front door. Trent was busy keeping people happy and Sarah found herself in Vincent’s office, hoping to make this all go away.

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Life in a Level 20-25 area of Abilene was hard. The first month was the hardest. Trent had begun to crack down on everything. At first, it was normal survivor type stuff. People darted out into the city to get supplies before either returning or not returning. The group levelled up quickly due to the levels of the monsters around us. Percy, despite being one of the newest lawyers, immediately took on a leadership role as he found a small sewer system underneath our law firm building that was a Level 5-10 area. The giant rats and alligators and roaches and other creatures there were killable.

Vincent hit Level 5 just as quickly as Trent and Percy. Upon doing so, they all got to pick a class from the list of 12. Vincent chose Paladin. It looked fun and he had remembered playing a Paladin in a game or two on his off time. Percy saw the list and chose Knight. He said that he didn’t feel confident in magical abilities and wanted the strength and survival of a Knight. Trent’s choice made everyone uneasy: Warlock. His first active skill was called [Life Stealer].

The split came after the first month. Trent had gone from doing things that were shady at best to downright evil. He had started stealing, forcing women into doing horrible things, and when the janitor spoke up...he drained his life. Vincent wasn’t sure why he never stood up to him, but they both had been implementing their usual arrangement: agree in public, argue in private. Behind closed doors, the arguments got worse. Trent was on a power rush and Vincent couldn’t stop him.

When Michelle Williams, Percy’s wife, was called up to see Trent, everyone got silent. Trent told her that he wanted her for the night or he’d kick her and Percy out. Vincent guessed that Trent didn’t expect the response. “Then kick us out.”

Percy and his younger college friends were just as strong as the older men at the firm, if not stronger. When social classes were replaced with actual classes, things got turned on their heads. Several members of the group clearly stated they’d leave with Percy and Trent snapped. He had been going slowly insane for a long time. Trent began to drain Percy’s life, demanding he submit. Percy and the rest of his friends attacked. They made quick work of Trent.

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Despite the mass carnage and death, Abilene was packed with survivors. Percy took charge and led the group out of the law firm building, conquering several more large structures in the city. Many of the offices and apartment blocks had dozens of players or more still inside. Percy eventually reached the edge of the city, claiming the section he had conquered as Persopolis. As he did so, the game recognized the boundaries. “Persopolis: City (Friendly)”. With the medieval setting and the joking city name, most of the guys close to Percy started calling him a king. Within another week, he was a King with a capital K.

After 2 months, the kingdom had expanded to over 800 people. Percy and his men were taking in ten to twenty more a day. Groups were spread out around Persopolis to save people from high level zones and take the combatants to low level zones were they could improve their skills and gear. After a small gang war caused the deaths of several men, many by friendly fire, Percy ordered that members of the Abilene Crusade guild wear purple for ease of identification. The higher level plate armor that Vincent wore, a knight’s uniform with a purple cloak, was copied by a few who had learned the armor warping skill and began to be imprinted across the group.

By February, there were 10 companies of 41 soldiers along with 600 or more supporting members of Abilene Crusade. Percy had shown himself to be a master of this world and Vincent would follow him anywhere. Vincent was the second-highest man in the kingdom, and Sarah was his right-hand woman. They had food, money, and stature. It was more than he deserved for standing by while Trent did what he did. Percy told him that all Vincent had to do to make up for it was help them thrive. That was exactly what he was going to do.

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“He left.” Theresa had a tear streaming down her face. I couldn’t tell if it was rage or fear.

“Where?” Vincents tone was sinking into anger.

“We don’t know.” Theresa met him eye to eye.

After staring at her for a second, he stood up, brushed his armor off, and called for his men. “Alright. Lincoln’s sins are forgiven. He didn’t kill me after all, he killed one of my men. He put an arrow through poor Sarah here, but that’s alright. No hard feelings right?”

I blinked. Where was he going with this?

“We can’t find him, so we’ll just have to make do.”

Oh, fuck. I tested my cuffs, only to find that they were nearly unbreakable.

“Hmm…Ranger…Knight…Shifter…Priest…Mage…Samurai. Leader seems a bit unfair….”

“Wait…” I spoke up, my throat dry.

“Can’t kill your only healer….”

“Wait…”

“Samurai is just too fucking cool…”

“Wait.”

“I can’t kill a kid…right?”

“WAIT!

“Any how could I possibly kill your only tank?”

“PLEASE WAIT!”

Vincent gave a grin at Rosco, who only gave him a sharktooth grin back. Rosco transformed into his Thorncat form, his hands shifting into paws and slipping out of the cuffs easily. Quills and teeth went everywhere, but the lightning spells coming from Sarah started to cook his flesh. I screamed. “DANNY! DO SOMETHING!”

Danny, that fucking coward, stood there and watched. His eyes were sunken in and I could almost see tears, but he didn’t move.

Rosco feverishly bit at the armor of the closing circle of soldiers around him. It was useless. I watched as Rosco transformed into his hawk form in a last ditch effort. Unfortunately, Sarah was a master of her craft. She watched the bird fly before sending a [Lightning Missile] at the escaping Shifter. Rosco, already at red health, didn’t stand a chance. The hawk exploded in the air.

Cain and Theresa screamed and cried as they fought against their cuffs. Graham sat solemnly next to me, Nick crying into his shoulder. I stared at Vincent. “You’re evil.”

“No. We are order.” Vincent crouched down. “I know you won’t believe me, but I am sorry. The keys to your cuffs were left with your rabbit chief on the orders to release you after we’re gone. You are all survivors, and you’ll survive this. Best of luck to you, Mr. Lakewood. CRUSADERS! LET’S GO!” The purple cloaks went through a newly opened portal before Sarah, Vincent, and Danny got onto their horses and rode out of town.

I checked my guild log menu to see two entries. The first was simple. “9:18 A.M. - Rosco B. killed by Vincent C.” The second took me a second to understand. “9:22 A.M. - Lincoln T. has left the Harehill Commonwealth.” Our guild roster had gone from 7 to just 5 in the span of 4 minutes.

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