Hacking the Game Didn’t Go as Intended

“You sure have the habit of wrecking the base,” Vernie playfully accused his comrade.

“There are more than enough worthless hands available to clean up this mess,” replied the conjurer, his eyes crazed as his body overflowed with power.

Vernie snickered, his response eliciting Rexar’s rage who started pacing menacingly toward him. With an icy gaze, Rexar asked, “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Elena and Milo gripped their staff in a spell of outrage, already connecting the dots.

“Maybe this will answer your question,” murmured Vernie as he outstretched his arms. As he unfurled his fingers akin to a musical conductor, roughly a dozen humanoid creatures materialized from a ghostly mist, flanking him on both sides.

Milo blanched. “Those are… d-demons!”

“You bastard!!” Rexar snapped, his fang piercing his lip in his fury. “Are you the one responsible for the demons attacking our village?”

“H-How could you?!” Elena cried, her face flushed with grief and anger. “Do you have any idea how much pain and suffering you’ve caused? Every day we lived in fear of our home being raided and our loved ones being killed. Don’t you have a heart?”

“Answer me this,” said Vernie with a bizarre grin, regarding the grieving Beastkin over his nose. “Do you show compassion when you spear a fish or slaughter a pig—no, you people are far less meaningful than these references. Do you feel remorse when you crush an ant beneath your feet?”

Elena screamed in a rage, her fingers tightening around her staff—and Rexar poised to launch himself into a reckless charge, but Milo managed to stop them both.

“Rexar! Elena!” pleaded Milo, struggling to hold them back. “You both have to calm down; don’t fall for his provocation.”

“Calm down? CALM DOWN?!” Rexar snapped, absolutely appalled that Milo could retain any level of composure after what was said. “Didn’t you hear that bastard? He’s responsible for the demon invasions!”

“I heard him!” responded Milo, “b-but we have to keep our wits about us—”

WHAM!

A fist to the face sent him crashing to the ground, and Vernie laughed out loud at the unexpected sight.

“You wouldn’t fucking understand!” snapped Rexar. “You’re a goddamn human just like he is, so you wouldn’t understand how we feel!”

Milo bit his lip, the sting from his friend’s words more painful than the blow to his face, but he pushed the heartache aside and looked from Elena to Rexar.

“…Have you both forgotten what Haxks told us?”

The grip of rage over the duo loosened as they recalled the sobering memory.

— “It’s likely that we’re going to get to the bottom of the frequent demon invasions that’s been plaguing Elmridge village. But I want you three to promise me something—don’t lose your cool. It’s bad enough that we’ll be fighting on the enemy’s home turf; if you don’t keep a cool head, we’ll be at a bigger disadvantage and I’d rather not bring back any tragic news to the old woman.”

Rexar hung his head and grinded his teeth, feeling bitter and regretful for what he had said to Milo. But before he could open his mouth to form words of apology—

“The demons!” Elena called as she gripped her staff defensively. “They’re coming!”

“OHHAIIRRGHHH!”

An ear-piercing screech had the trio ducking their heads and wincing in pain. Rubble cracked and crumbled underfoot as the vile creatures charged in on the offense. The demon in front—the one that heaved the deafening howl—gripped one of the many spikes protruding from its hard exoskeleton and broke it off with a deep grunt.

Rexar watched in horror as the appendage slowly began regenerating, then the demon slowly, intimidatingly, tilted its head. Curved horns took root from where its eye sockets typically would be, but Rexar could clearly feel that his presence was perfectly captured within the creature’s perception—and when it lunged at him with its makeshift weapon, he knew it to be true.

Daisuke took off like a bullet, blowing past one of the golems like a violent wind. Several streaks of light illustrating the delayed trajectory of his blade flickered across the golem’s body, but there was little to no damage.

The conjurer guffawed. “What a shame! After the bold remark you made earlier, to think all you could manage is a cool gust of wind.”

Daisuke glowered at the bastard. Dammit! This is turning out like that fight against the Volturax. But unlike that monster, these golems don’t seem to have any kind of weakness. In that case…

Turning on his heels, Daisuke tightened his hold on his dagger and dashed toward the conjurer at top speed. As an extension of their arm, the golems crafted a sword, mace, and hammer to launch a combined assault, but their bulky forms couldn’t compete with the speedster.

CLANGGG!!

Daisuke’s eyes widened in shock while the conjurer heaved a face-splitting grin. Sparks flew as the blade of the dagger laboriously scraped against the stone cage within which the man was suddenly enclosed. The flash of light from iron and stone illuminated their expressions.

“FOOL!” the man spat condescendingly, drunk from Daisuke’s rare show of dumbfoundedness. “Assassins are a spellcaster’s greatest weakness; do you honestly believe I wouldn’t have an ace up my sleeve?!”

Daisuke didn’t have time to flinch, scoff, or even curse the man to hell; instead of sustaining its form or crumpling, the stone barrier morphed into a plethora of sharp projectiles and detonated like fireworks.

Unfortunately for Daisuke, his impressive speed wasn’t quite enough to entirely evade the surprise attack. He grunted, his body reflexively folding as a pang of pain suddenly ignited in his thigh.

“Dammit—this is bad!” Rexar exclaimed at the sight of Daisuke’s predicament, even as a demon invested its entire strength into its makeshift weapon, slamming it into Rexar’s gauntlet-protected arm. “Haxks is in trouble!”

Elena and Milo grimaced at the news, but they couldn’t look away; the demons were ruthless and relentless in their onslaught. In addition to fangs, claws, talons, and the hard appendage procured from their bodies, they threw stones and rubble, anything to secure an advantage in the delicious slaughter.

“Hahahaha!” the conjurer laughed boisterously at the sight of Daisuke’s bloody wound. He was disappointed that the sneak attack didn’t leave his foe looking like a porcupine, but the injury would certainly suffice. “With that leg, you won’t be able to move around as swiftly as you did before.”

Daisuke clicked his tongue, his gaze filled with scorn. But instead competing with his own scornful stare, the conjurer cast his comrade a telling gaze as he summoned his power, willing all the golems to combine into one.

Despite being engaged with three of the five demons, Rexar didn’t miss the silent message between the two men.

WHOOSH!

A fireball conjured from Elena’s wand engulfed a demon coated in the flammable liquid from several Poison Darts. Like a humanoid torch, the fiend illuminated the chamber, flailing and screaming as the poison and flames devoured its vitality.

While it did little to no damage, Milo had been firing off several Magic Missiles to distract one of the demons. Finally, when the creature could not tolerate the human’s incessant meddling any longer, it broke off two of its appendages that grew in length for the occasion.

Crossing them like blades, the demon warded off the feeble attacks while closing the distance between predator and prey. But its plan was reduced to shreds, along with its very body, as Elena let loose a series of blades forged of wind.

Like wild primates, the three remaining demons lashed out at Rexar in unison then in turns. They employed feints and combination attacks in an attempt to win the upper hand, but one thing had become very apparent.

They’re weak, thought Rexar as he effortlessly countered the demons’ desperate attempts at his life. Then his gaze shifted to find that Vernie was more engrossed in the fight between Daisuke and the conjurer than his own. This bastard! Instead of strengthening the demons that he’s in control of—

Rexar’s eyes widened as an unsettling epiphany dawned on him. The demons weren’t meant to win—their unimpressive strength probably hinted that they were merely distractions. Once Daisuke was thoroughly defeated by the golems, they would be next in line—crushed beneath the heel of injustice.

With a wide swing of his arm, Rexar swept away a demon that had locked weapons with him, sending it flying into a high arch. Then he urgently turned to Milo and Elena to relay what he had deduced.

But demons were tenacious and vengeful creatures, and Milo had taken note of this, which is why he was the only one to notice as the airborne demon twisted its body and launched a razor-sharp projectile from its back.

The healer’s body moved before his brain could process the selfless response. Rexar groaned at the import of a jarring pain in his left side as Milo tackled him, knocking his body outside of the range of a potentially fatal attack.

Instead, the projectile pierced a hole through Milo’s shoulder like a bullet from a rifle. He fell to the hard ground with a pained cry, blood staining his attire.