The Way of the Outcast by Alexey Osadchuk

Author:Alexey Osadchuk [Osadchuk, Alexey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ficion, Fantasy
Publisher: Magic Dome Books
Published: 2016-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

You've built the simplest mechanical creature: a Swarm of Fleas!

Number of swarm members: 3

I had no time to look into their stats but their levels were good enough. Three fleas the size of a toaster each leaped toward Spitfire. She was already casting her magic, promptly reacting to the scarab's attack.

Boris' scream immobilized Gloom whose tiny eyes seemed to be popping out of his head.

"Surprise!" I said with a vindictive grin.

Almost simultaneously my steel tank rammed into him, sending him flying like a bag of potatoes.

"Progress is a wondrous thing," I began crooning the old ditty from a Russian children's movie, "it can do most anything. It can fly you to the skies, it can make you rich and wise..."

In two powerful wingbeats, Boris soared over Gloom's head. "Give us another one, Steely Guts," I ordered, pulling the slingshot. "No more worries, lots more shirk... Let the robots do your work."

The sorceress was a terrible sight. Judging by the fleas' rhythmically moving bellies and the woman's eyes bulging with fear, they weren't going to leave a single drop of blood in her. One of them had bitten into her neck while the other two hung onto her arms. Black gangrenous spots were rapidly growing around the bites. This was the Venom of Swamp Monks in all its terrible glory.

Both her arms were already black. They looked scorched. A lump blocked my throat.

Her already short Life was dwindling rapidly. With a blood-curdling scream, Spitfire tried to pull the flea off her neck. As if! She was only a buffer, not a tank. It would be all over soon.

As she died, she looked up and stared me in the eye. Her glare was filled with so much pain and desperation... and hatred. It looked like I'd just made myself another enemy. Apparently, she'd spent all her mana reserves on Gloom who was now getting his ass kicked by my two pets.

Well, at first glance her gesture deserved every respect. Sacrificing oneself to save a team member was a noble deed any way you looked at it. But-

This was a game. In a couple of minutes, the sorceress would resurrect at her respawn point and continue playing. Somehow I doubted she could repeat her gesture in real life.

Gesture? More like cold calculation. In the real world things might have taken a totally different turn. She might have simply legged it at the first opportunity.

Someone might say this wasn't the way to treat a lady. Point taken.

Still, I had to defend myself. She'd already robbed me once, leaving me naked in the middle of the road. But here, a thief didn't rob a player — he robbed his family, taking their hard-earned real-world money away.

How many players had already become victims to Gloom and his gang? How many had he managed to pick clean?

Each and every one of them were real human beings who'd invested their own savings into the game; some might have even taken out loans like I'd done. All of them had husbands and wives, children and old-age parents.

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