Young Writers Society

Merrick

Chapter One: Invasion of Windrock


"OH. MY. GOD!!!"

Merrick cackled somewhat drunkenly as the scrubs respawned, only to find his hammer waiting for them.

"DUDE! Don't you have anything better to do?"

Merrick thought for a second, then shouted back.

"Yeah! But I'm havin' a bit to much fun with ya scrubs."

The mage rushed him, throwing every spell in the book towards his enemy.

The ice spikes and fireballs bounced harmlessly off of Merricks armor.

"Your a level twelve ya srubbedy scrub! Your best bet'd be to run."

The mage cast a smokescreen, summoning a cloud blackish grey gas to obscure Merrick's view.

"You already tried this!" Merrick laughed, then pointed his hammer to the left and cast BurstFire Chaos.

The Mage lost his mind as his character exploded into pieces.

"YOU ************ ******* **** *************"

Merrick cackled, hitting the record button in the options.

"WHATS YOUR PROBLEM MAN? YOU FRIGGIN NO LIFE PIECE OF **** ******"

"Dude, calm down, Its just a game. If you want you can go respawn somewhere else, like in RavenWood!"

"NO! I WANNA DO PVP!"

"Then just go play pvp? What's stopping you?"

"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!"

Merrick watched as the kid rage quit. Laughing until his stomach hurt.

Then an arrow lodged itself right in the back of his neck.

"Ooooohh Meeeerrrrriiiicccckkkk."

the Killscreen turned to Revan's sprite as it sat in a tree, taunting him.

"Its time to go do quueeeeesssssttttsssss."

Merrick groaned.

"Aww c'mon Revan. Ya gotta wait until I check my mini-map.

"A good warrior is always checking his mini-map."

"Screw you."

Revan jumped down from the tree and began firing arrows into Merrick's dead body.

"Oh dude, screw frigging you!"

"Well you can do that later when I'm not nailing you in the face from half a mile away. Right now we gotta go meet up with Arch-Mage Gala-something."

"Galatubular."

Revan laughed.

"Galaradical."

With that the two warped off to the capitol.

The two appeared on the balcony, Revan about a minute before Merrick.

"Dude, what's with your wifi?"

Merrick groaned at him.

"We talked about this. I live on a hill. Life is hard for interweb fairing people on hills."

Revan shrugged, then continued towards Galarad who at this point was practically invisible in the crowd of players.

Merrick clicked furiously on the exclamation mark above the Arch-Mage's head. After about four or five tries the text finally appeared.

"Ah, Champions! You've come at last! What you see before you is a vision of the Astrolabe of Rerenega, a magical technology hidden in the mythic city of the Aviti." He pointed to a comet streaking across the blue-and-pink coils of stars in the sky, headed to the planet Galari. "By our calculations, the vessel will land any moment now in the Windroc Basin, which I'm sure you know is the home of our Malice brothers and sisters."

Merrick raised an eyebrow at this. Of course he wasn't exactly attached to the Malice race but it was nice to be vehement about something.

"For our Malice Brethren! We'll kill those filthy aliens and all that good stuff!"

Revan shushed Merrick, the Arch-Mage had more to say.

"However, our seers have detected life within the vessel, and while we cannot be certain of their intention, your mission is clear: defend Galari at all costs!"

With that, the two were taken from the cutscene and into the loading screen. There was silence for a second, then they arrived at a seemingly alien landscape.

Merrick equipped his hammer, Archon, before muttering to Revan.

"Dude, since when did Windroc have purple comets?"

Revan had done likewise, his bow already in his hands.

"Since DLC. Now shuddup and keep melee enemies away from me. I'll deal with all the mages."

With that, Revan jumped up onto a higher ledge, surveying the area.

"Nothing up ahead. You may proceed."

Merrick trotted forwards, adding healing spells to his hotbar for good measure. Revan jumped from ledge to ledge up above, not making a sound.

"Hold up, we got enemies up ahead."

Merrick saw nothing.

"They're idle as of now. Try to sneak around 'em?"

"I cant even see them Revan."

"About a dozen enemies around the bend. They're holding guns but nothing like we've seen before."

Merrick gasped.

"New weapons! Revan, the DLC added new weapons!"

"Yeah, duh. Its called new content for a reason. Now pay attention."

Merrick laughed as he walked forwards.

"Dude, why are you so serious? We're level seventy, there's seriously nothing that can kill us."

Revan sighed in exasperation.

"These guys are level seventy five."

Merrick was silent for a moment, thinking about what that implied.

"There.....there's a new level cap?"

"DUH!"

Merrick peeked around the bend and sure enough, the enemies levels were all seventy five, with grey skulls next to their health bars.

"Well. Be ready to cast those exploding arrow thingys. I'm not a tank and were gonna need some respite."

"Don't worry bud. I gotcha. On your mark."

Merrick nodded, then charged out of hiding, instantly casting a small immolation to set up Boon of the Blade.

The enemies turned and fired, beams of radiant energy striking out towards Merrick. The warrior ducked and rolled forwards, reaching the first of the enemies just as Revan's first arrow hit it's mark, doing AoE to the group.

Merrick struck, casting Spellsword to buff his and Revan's attacks. However, he had no such luck.

"Dude, a defense boost?"

"Works for me. Keep shooting!"

Merrick's hammer came up to block the first strike. Quickly, he swung the hammer's haft to the left, hitting the enemy directly in the chest. The alien being stumbled back, but it's health was barely affected. Merrick dodged the next round of fire by spinning to the left and scoring another hit on the enemies unprotected flank.

"Hit the one I'm hitting!" Merrick yelled, backpedaling furiously to dodge a laser blast.

A fiery explosion engulfed Merrick's target. Merrick didn't pause to check if the alien was dead but continued on, striking with a frenzied haste at the next target. The enemy was at a disadvantage at close range seeing as it only had a gun. Merrick's hasty attack quickly overwhelmed it's defenses and knocked down its health a notch.

"Now hit this one!"

Revan's flurry of arrows ensured the death of the next target. Merrick cast Chaos again, ensuring the continuation of Boon of the Blade. The spell did almost no damage at the range he was from the next opponent. Merrick charged forwards, hammer raised in full offense.

A laser smacked him right in the chest. Instantly, he felt his health draining.

"Revan! Kill them! Kill them very, very quickly!"

A rain of arrows answered Merrick's call. The beam stopped, and Merrick fell, gasping as he felt his health stabilize.

"Take a health potion! I'll keep 'em busy!"

Merrick downed the potion without hesitation, then charged back into battle. He leapt over the first laser to bring his hammer down on the opposition's head. Another rain of arrows followed his strike.

"Merrick! I'm out of mana. Can you hold out until I recharge?"

Merrick grimaced, batting away a rifle barrel pointed towards him. He went down on a knee and bought the head of the hammer up to land a blow on the enemies chin.

"I guess I got no other choice."

"You don't. All I need is a minute."

Another laser shot past Merrick. He vaulted a rock, taking cover as another burst of fire whizzed through the air. Boon of the Blade faded as the seconds ticked by. Merrick peeked out from behind his cover. Five enemies remained of the original twelve. They approached slowly as a group, ready to end the fight.

"Yo Revan. May I go ahead and say something?"

"You may."

"This is the first damn battle of the DLC and were getting whipped by basic enemies."

"We have taken down seven of them."

Merrick peeked his hammer over the pile of rocks and fired Chaos again. The attack did next to nothing.

"Well, I'm probably gonna die right now but hopefully there's a spawn zone somewhere here where you can come get me."

"Your not gonna die Merrick."

Merrick leapt out from cover, barely dodging a volley of lasers. He turned and struck the base of a cliff, causing the edge of the thing to topple.

"How's that mana regen going?"

"Thirty more seconds."

Merrick ran to the top of the fallen cliff just in time to meet the first of his enemies. His strike sent the alien toppling down. Then a blast caught him on the leg and his health began to fall again.

"Revan! How's that mana regen going!"

"Twenty seconds! Hang tigh-- oh."

Revan appeared at the top of the cliff and shot a volley of arrows down at the attackers. They hardly flinched and returned the volley, causing Revan to duck back. Merrick glared angrily at the place where his friend had been. Stupid mana users with their stupid spells an--.

Merrick's eyes widened. That was it! Mana!

"Revan! Hows the regen?"

"Ten seconds!"

Merrick grinned.

"This ray doesn't let me move but it does allow the use of mana. I'm going to charge Immolation. You use your ult when I say go got it?"

"Okay."

Merrick began to charge, mana flowing around his character. He checked his health, and smiled. All those weeks grinding the Elven Ruins had paid off. His health, still dropping, drastically slowed as the first of his enchantments came into affect.

"Ready?"

"On your mark!"

Merrick waited for another second, then shouted,

"Now!"

A line of pure white shot down from the cliff, striking Merrick's attacker and downing the foe.

The beam vanished as the enemies turned to fire on Revan. Merrick held his hammer to his side and stretched out his free hand to point at the remaining opposition. Instantly, they were engulfed in fire as the spell took affect. The alien's screams were silenced shortly as Revan struck once again, firing a volley of explosives. Then, the battle was over.

"HAHA! SUCK IT YOU SCRUBS!"

Revan laughed, enjoying the hard fought victory.

"Dude! That was insane! How the hell did we do that!"

"Probably because I saved your arse."

Merrick laughed, to happy to come up with a comeback.

"Well we won and that's that. Shall we move on?"

No response. Revan was staring off into the distance.

"Revan?"

There was a pause before Revan's voice answered him.

"Boss fight."

Merrick gagged, then ran to the edge of the plateau and surveyed the area.

"Where? I don't see anything."

In response, Revan fired an arrow. It shot straight and true, right into the hulking mass of...something, coming up the hill. Merrick's mouth went dry as he watched the monstrosity mount the hill.

"Run?"

Merrick backed up slightly , sheathing his hammer. He turned, only to dodge to the side as four massive tentacles burst from the ground to block his path.

"Uh. Not an option, that."

Merrick suddenly heard a choking noise from the other side of the connection.

"Revan? You okay?"

"Yeah. But you wont believe what we're up against."

Merrick turned and faced the massive beast. Next to it's enormous health bar, the number eighty shone malevolently, a golden skull next to it.