Life After the Apocalypse

Max felt the lightning crackle through the air, heard the explosion, felt the heat and impact of the blast as a wave of low levels were disintegrated. Part of him cringed in fear, part of him wondered what it would feel like to die, and then respawn as some few had described. Mostly, he wanted to beat the wizard into the ground.

Max had played these games for a long time and knew he had no hope of reaching the ranged characters with a tank build, but he could do his best to get these others into the safe zone.

Guard up to try to shield those in the other group somewhat from the incoming attacks, the huge dwarf paused to yell to the incoming group.

"Keep moving toward the marker. If you don't make it, the respawn is in the city."

The huge dwarf turned toward the attackers, he wouldn't make it. "I wish I had leveled enough to have charge.".

A familiar feeling came over Max. Every hit he soaked was one less someone else took, it was his job, always had been his job, years of dungeon runs and raids.

Max ran toward the attackers, each step propelling the massive body forward, he laughed like a psycho in the face of the oncoming attacks.

After all this time -- He Was The Tank!!

Colin stood in the no man's land in between the returners and the adventurers beginning to pour forth from the city as the lightning struck. He watched as dozens of folks who'd shared his confusion at awakening in this new place--who had helped him through the shock and depression of finding himself trapped in this new world--were suddenly vaporized in a brightly colored flash. Had he pulled himself free of the crowd only a few moments later, he likely would have been one of them. "They'll all respawn," he told himself. "They have to."

He moves out toward the party of returners. The attackers' aggressive actions have decided for him which side he's on.

Clara watched, her eyes wide as the vibrant crowd at the gate was suddenly punctuated by empty spaces, the remnants of those who had been vaporised into dust. She suddenly forgot to breathe. Were those people truly gone? Just like that?

The sight of the catfolk sorceress across the clearing with her smug expressions ignited an uncontainable fury within Clara. "I never thought one day I'd hate a cat," she bared her teeth, fur bristling. "But you are straight-up disgusting."

At this moment, a voice cut through the chaos. The tall red-haired man in heavy armour was encouraging them to keep moving towards the zone marker.
Respawn? Does that mean...

Clara snapped out of her rage and reached out to Raquel and Grace. "We need to keep moving. Those people aren't gone. We can't let these creeps get the satisfaction of seeing us waver."

"You’re right," Grace replies. "To the marker. We’ll get to the city whether they kill us or not."

With that, she uses the boots’ magic to bolt.

"Let's go!" Raquel says, moving to follow Grace.

Brophy will stay with the dwarf to lend a hand in the delaying action. To think someone who was once human would do that to other humans with out a second thought is very disturbing.

Atalanta nods. "Let's hope that this part is still a game too." She mutter to herself as she begins to run forward at speed.

>>>Like a dam holding back floodwaters, everything was okay until suddenly it wasn't. All the bitter emotions of sorrow, fear, loss, anger, desperation, depression and rage at suddenly being yanked from lives that had connection, order and mostly made sense had been bottled up through fear. All that broke through and came spilling out the moment Tabitha Blackclaw's lightning spell callously struck down half a dozen people in cold blood. Once the avalanche had started, it was too late for the pebbles to vote...
>>>What started as a dozen or so Adventurers streaming into the Dead Zone turned into a flood. While the higher level Adventurers hesitated, the lower level folks swept into the Zone outside the City. And like a flood, it brought absolute chaos... Where most wanted to just vent some fury on the PK-ers, others just wanted to vent all the bottled up emotions twisting inside them. Whether it started as poor judgement, inexperience or malicious intent was possible to say but offensive spells and weapon clashes erupted across the welling surge of low level Adventurers, turning the wave of rescuers into a seething mass of in-fighting, confusion and madness.

---

>>>"Uh oh..." the Pirate surmised the sudden swing of the situation succinctly. Well, this just turned into what I like to call a 'Target Rich' environment! YAR HAR!!" the glee returned to his cheeks as he watched the surging mob turn on itself rather than directly at them. He pulled an enormous, cannon like Blunderbuss out of his Inventory and hefted it, aiming towards the surging crowd.

>>>"ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod, you Guys! This is SO much fun!!" the night colored cat squealed with utter malicious delight. Lightning Nebu--!" The other black Catfolk caught her arm before she could launch another AoE spell, interrupting the deaths of more Adventurers.


>>> "..." V let go of her arm as she snatched it away. "Don't run through all your MP so fast, Tabs. You won't have enough left to fight if any of them make it to us." Tabitha leveled her eyes at VerminTude but heeded his warning and held off, for now, her murder spree.


>>>Even Serena had to admit that things had gotten a bit of of control... But that admission she kept fully to herself and pushed down that little voice of panic that had started to rise in her mind. "Just keep the rabble off of us, Pete. Surely you can handle some try-hards..." she wanted to sound cool, unflappable, haughty and dismissive, that little voice inside her head adding just a hint of uncertainty to her voice. "At least hold em off till I can make these Noobs pay for starting all this mess..." Her eyes zeroed in on the Enchanter in the purple cloak and her Guardian friend as she drew her bow.



Party 1

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
9	Atalanta	13	90		60
14	Calamity	13	100		66
9	Fren	13	64		92
8	Grace	12	72		72
7	Isbjorn	12	60		90
13	Raquel	13	84		78

---

Party 2

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
14	Brophy	10	78		50
6	Colin	10	70		50
12	Maximum	10	80		40
6	Tabby Fatts	10	50		70
Xx	Wheeler	10	60		60

---

Party 3

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
7	Arga	13	72		90
15	BradL33	23	138		138
5	Guy	17	132		84
8	Piphany	12	72		72
10	Tina	17	84		120

---

PK Party

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
11	Mr.Boaty	45	??		??
10	Serena	47	??		??
10	Tabitha	47	??		??
12	VerminTude	45	??		??

Grace still thinks it best to get to the village and not bother with this needless battle. Though a part of her would love to rush the caster or the archer. But the PK’ers would take me out easily. Calico’s right and you know it.

Unfortunately for Grace, no matter what she’s thinking now, the PK’ers will act before she gets anywhere.

Brophy has made his decision to stay with huge dwarf and protect as many people as possible. His time as an MP in the Army allows him to keep clam as he has conflict before.

Max glanced over his shoulder to see the dam break, the rush of low levels out of the city. They had all been huddled in the city, wrapped in fear, eating crappy food. It felt good to be doing something. Despite the new perspective of being in this body, this at least was something Max understood.

The wolf Brophy was following him, "Let's keep them busy as long as we can."

Clara's pupils narrowed as the crowd devolved into a frenzied stampede. Her tiny stature made her particularly vulnerable. Luckily, her party was still together, at least for the time being. She recognised the look of hesitancy on Grace's face. Yelling over the noise, she managed to get a few words out. "Stay close, everyone! Don't lose sight of each other!"

What she really needed right now was a vantage point. "Isbjorn, would you mind giving me a boost?"

He hadn't expected a coordinated infantry charge, but he certainly hadn't expected this. The rapid descent into grand melee, aside from spawning a thousand new grudges and rivalries, would seriously blunt the attack's psychological effect. He'd hoped the gankers would be spooked into retreat, but it was all going to shit.

And now, amidst the sea of legs, he couldn't see shit either.

"Unfh!" he grunted as his meaty mitts gripped the lip of a chunk of rocky debris. He wasn't sure what part of the collapse of human civilization had put up and then collapsed a stone palisade around the entire town, but those were questions for another day. His legs kicked and scrabbled as he hauled his bulk up onto the fallen rock, panting as he sprawled on his stomach, taking just a moment to catch his breath. He hauled himself to his feet, shading his eyes with one hand as he took in the chaotic scene.

Things had spiraled entirely out of control. The only thing he could do, maybe, was tip the scales.

He glanced behind him, gauging his distance to the zone line and the protection of the guards, before squinting across the field to the sorceress who'd almost blasted him apart. One paw brought up his GUI, and he tapped the only spell he had that might help.

"Buah!" His body was suddenly taken. He wasn't yanked around like a puppet on a string, but he moved without conscious intent. His hand reached down to his belt, and retrieved his staff, ratcheting it out to its full length with a too-dramatic flair. He was suddenly extremely conscious of his exposure and visibility from his tactical rock, as whorls of mana swirled around him.

And through him. The fur along his spine rippled as the truly alien sensation crawled through his extremities, shaped by some process he grimly thought should be conscious, but that his... body(?) was performing as if by programming.

Then, as if he wasn't enough of a target, his legs thrust him into a heroic pose, his staff sweeping forwards, as a very, very slow miasmatic cloud of dark purple mana arced over the crowd, towards the sorceress. At least if it hit, he would have a few moments to duck to safety...

"Bastards! Take THIS!" Raquel shouts. Her katana glows with radiant energy as she sweeps it in an upward arc, sending a blast of power at the PK Party! She then sprints forward, rushing in after the blast to get into melee range of Serena to keep the archer distracted.

Grace isn’t about to leave Raquel on her own. She turns to dart in the assassin’s wake, though her wavering came at the cost of precious time.

Even with her magical boots, she won’t get to the high-level ‘Gank Squad’ before they unleash hell on the masses—or on Raquel!

"This is sheer madness!" exclaims Colin, watching the other city-goers erupt into senseless violence. "Fight the invaders, not each other!"

His entreaties fall on deaf, bloodthirsty ears, and he sighs and sprints forward to join Brophy and Carnage as they begin to push back against the PvP charge.

"Hello mates," he says. "I don't know who the hell these folks are, but what'da you say we teach them we don't take kindly to artillery practice?"

Colin pulls a wooden toy sword from his belt. As he speaks, he flicks the absurd blade about in annoyance and with a series of audible creaks and snaps it visibly grows within his hands becoming a fearsomely serrated blade of jagged dark wood tangled with thorny vines.

"Be careful, grand melees are not a good place to be caught in."

>>>With a swirling mass of personal battles going on around them and a band of murderous PKs on their heels, the Party finds themselves between a rock and a hard place; in more military terms, between a hammer and anvil. Going neither forward nor back seems like a good option...
>>> Fortunately there are at least some willing to brave the fray to stand beside the band of 'returners' against the PK-ers. Rushing to their aid, the vanguard of the brave lot reach the 'returners' as the real battle begins!

>>>"Guardian Wolf!" the young-looking Druid called up his only Summon to help defend the Party.
>>>Past him raced a wall of red-haired muscle and metal followed by a Wolf-Fang Swashbuckler nearly the same size. The two raced past BradL33 as they tried to close the distance on the PK Crew, taking the fight to them. Hell-bent for leather, Maximum and Brophy rushed towards the menacingly jolly PK Pirate.
>>>Isbjorn, tearing his eyes off the terrible state of things around them, shook his head and raised Calamity up in his wide shoulders to get a better look at the situation. He gave her a deeply concerned look as he took the magical staff, win from the King Triffid battle, out of his Inventory and readied it for battle. >>>Raquel also decides to take the fight to the PK Crew, turning and racing at them as she unleashes her Sweeper Attack. Her blade slashes the air ahead of her and a wave of deadly intent lashes out in front of her towards the target of her fury. The wave of energy strikes the PK Party, sending dust flying behind them and the Catfolk Sorceress to be pushed back a step.

>>>Moved to action, VerminTude calls forth a massive creature to help even the numbers game.
>>>The Status Box above it labels it as a ' Gargant Tarantella'. The size of a delivery truck, the giant spider/crab raises its legs and hunkers down in front of the two Catfolk PK-ers intent on guarding them from further harm.

>>>"Here comes the PAIN! YAR HAR!"the tubby Pirate levels his Blunderbuss and fires at the approaching Adventurers. Brophy, Maximum and Raquel are the closest and he has a bit of a conundrum about who to shoot... Erring in the part of caution, he targets the two Weapon Specialists. The enormous BOOM sent scattershot at the Swashbuckler and the Assassin, both sidestepping the deadly hail.

>>>Zeroing in on Tina, she lets the deadly arrow fly to find its mark. Seemingly unaware, the target of Serena's hate worked her fingers in the air on a mission known only to her...hoping her Guardian friend could cover for her.
>>>The arrow struck home in Guy's armor, staggering him back a couple of steps as he intercepted the arrow meant for Tina. 'Whatever you're playing at, you've got some very pointy attention..." the Guardian gasped, recovering from the heavy hit. >>>"OW! THAT HURT! You're gonna get it now!" the night-black Catfolk's ears flattened back against her head and VerminTude was too busy to hold her back this time... Grand Serpentine Lightning!!"
Party 1

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
9	Atalanta	13	90		60
14	Calamity	13	100		66
9	Fren	13	64		92
8	Grace	12	72		72
7	Isbjorn	12	60		90
13	Raquel	13	84		78

---

Party 2

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
14	Brophy	10	78		50
6	Colin	10	70		50
12	Maximum	10	80		40
6	Tabby Fatts	10	50		70
8	Wheeler	10	60		60

---

Party 3

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
7	Arga	13	72		90
15	BradL33	23	138		138
5	Guy	17	132	-34	84
8	Piphany	12	72		72
10	Tina	17	84		120

---

PK Party

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
11	Mr.Boaty	45	??	-38	??
10	Serena	47	??	-38	??
10	Tabitha	47	??	-38	??
12	VerminTude	45	??	-38	??

---

Summons

INIT	Name	LvL	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
15	Guardian Wolf	16	96		66
12	Gargant Tarantella	38	???		???
6	Talon	12	48		72		[Flying]

Initiative.

Fren wakes up dizzily from the second blast. "Second blast? What is happening?" he thinks and raises his head. He tries to stand up and sees what is happening around him. "How long was I passed out?" he thinks as he sees his friends attack an unidentified group and other adventurers fighting between themselves. "Well, this is more like Mounted Blade, he thinks and he remembers that game that had huge online melee battles in a historical medieval europe." Seeing his friends battling the unknown group he knew where his bearings were.

Insictively he said a chant and his Ritual Tattoo glowed a neon purple colour. He felt power surge through him and felt his body lighter.He saw the two casters and the summoned spider-crab, or it is a crab-spider?