Dream Drive: Yuri Ch. 01

The girl's cries drew his attention. She was upright now and she ran inside, her dress torn and covered in mud. She was clutching the bodice of her dress to herself, lest her breasts be exposed. Her chest was heaving. Her face was completely white. Her eyes were wide with horror. Yuri noted they were also very blue. "They're coming!"

Yuri raised an eyebrow as the girl trotted over to cower behind him. Another small ball of white light touched his chest. The brute at his feet was dead and the number next to the word Essence under his health bar now read 36.

"Who's coming?"

A big man in brute uniform suddenly appeared in the doorway. He looked at Yuri, then at the man on the floor. More men showed up behind him, all wearing the same brown leather vests over dark green trousers and shirts.

With an enraged snarl, the big man's hand flew to his scabbard. He drew his sword so fast that the tip whistled through the air. At the end of his swing, the heel of his hand impacted the doorjamb and the sword went flying from his grasp to clatter across the floor. His roar of rage turned into a groan of agony upon impact.

Yuri wasted no time and rushed at the man with his knife raised. The big man fell for the faint and raised his uninjured arm to block Yuri's overhead stab. Yuri pitched his whole body forward and swung his arm wide. The man's arm tried to catch Yuri's, but failed. As Yuri dropped to the floor at the man's feet, he ran the blade of his knife down the inside of the man's leg. The man fell back with a pained scream.

While the big man's comrades were pulling him back out of the doorway, Yuri got back to his feet. One of the brutes rushed in, his sword aimed at Yuri's belly. Yuri stepped aside and let the man's momentum carry him forward. He slammed his elbow into the man's throat, incapacitating him and sending him to his knees.

A second brute rushed in, his short sword slashing left to right. Yuri jumped back, mindful of the corpse from half a minute earlier. The slashing brute missed it in his rage and tripped over it. He churned his feet to keep his balance. Yuri stepped inside the man's reach and grabbed his arm. He pivoted into a shoulder throw and the brute ended flat on his back at Yuri's feet.

You have created a new skill: Arm Lock

You have created a new skill:Shoulder Throw

Yuri stomped down on the man's throat twice, crushing his windpipe.

The girl screamed in horror. A sudden pinching sensation came from Yuri's abdomen, front and back. He looked down to see a sword tip sticking out of his navel. The sword vanished back inside Yuri's belly and the strong pinching sensations vanished with it. A warm, putrid breath tickled Yuri's ear. "That's what you get-"

Yuri blindly stabbed his knife over his shoulder. The man squealed in agony. Yuri reached back with his other hand and grabbed the man's ear. He casually threw the man over his shoulder and stomped on his throat.

You have created a new skill:Ear Twist

He spun around to see two brutes. The first was the one Yuri had elbowed in the throat. The second was trying to help the first back to his feet. They were both staring at Yuri's abdomen in shock. He grinned back at them.

A white mist rose from the first man whose throat Yuri had stomped on. It coalesced into a ball and rushed into Yuri. Another ball rushed in through the door and did the same. The two brutes looked behind them and saw that their comrade, whose leg Yuri had slashed open, was lying dead in a large pool of his own blood. When they looked back, a white mist rose from the body of the second man whose throat Yuri had stomped on. It, too, was absorbed by him.

Finally, the standing brute shrieked in panic and ran out of the inn. The kneeling brute jumped up and hurried after him. Yuri bent down to retrieve his knife from the eye of the last brute he had killed, when he noticed that each of the brutes had a proper knife in a sheath at their belts. Yuri took the dead man's knife. As soon as he handled it, he could feel it had superior balance and durability compared to the kitchen knives he had used. It was much sharper, too.

"Praise God," the girl said in astonishment. "It's you! It's really you!"

Yuri shot her a look before retrieving another knife from another corpse. "You know me?" Yuri decided to take the man's belt, too. To have someplace to keep his knives.

She nodded, her mouth hanging open. "You're one of the Saviors."

Yuri paused at the strange wording. "Well, I saved you, so I guess I am a savior, of sorts." He grunted as he lifted the dead man and pulled his belt off.

"You're one of the prophesized ones," she said and pointed to his tattoo. "You have the mark, just like the fallen angel had foretold."

"Oh," Yuri said, glancing at the back of his hand. This was another problem with RPGs. You just got handed a big, important quest out of the blue, on account of prophecy. It was sloppy writing, as far as he was concerned. He put the man's belt on, complete with sheathed knife, and fastened it.

Some noises came from the outside.

"They'll kill you," the girl said, her voice trembling.

"Hardly. I scared them so much they won't stop running until-"

"There's more than a hundred of them!"

He could just about make out the sounds of boots stomping quickly through the mud outside. "Whoopsie." Yuri looked at his health bar. That sword through his gut had taken more than half of it. The essence number under the health bar now read 80.

He rushed to stand behind the door. A brute ran in, sword held out in front of him. Yuri tripped him up and he went flying headfirst into a table that had been tipped over on its side. The second man, that ran in right after him, couldn't stop in time and Yuri bashed him aside with the door. He tripped over one of his dead comrades and fell flat on the floor.

Yuri planted his foot on the ground right behind the door as a third brute slammed into it, hoping to bash Yuri aside. Instead, the door bounced off Yuri's foot and the brute smashed his face against it.

While the man was stunned, Yuri's hand shot out and slit his throat. The man gurgled as he went down. His comrades cursed and then grabbed him by the shoulders to pull him out of the way, so they could come inside. Yuri didn't have time to count them, but there were more than a few. He slammed the door shut on them all and latched it. He drew his second knife from its sheath and killed the two fallen brutes as they were scrambling to their feet. Two more essence balls flew into him.

The girl gasped and he noticed his skin started glowing white.Now what?

His essence counter was ticking down from 115. The door behind him boomed as it was impacted from the outside. He had more pressing things to attend to than figure out some game mechanic. He gathered two more knives and their sheaths from his fresh kills and stuck them all in his belt.

"You're leaking essence," the girl exclaimed. "You gathered it from them and now it's leaking out of you! How!?"

The door boomed again, splintering a little near the latch.

Another ball of essence flew in through the door, sending Yuri's essence counter up to 124. It kept on ticking down. It seemed like a waste. "Game menu."

His avatar now sported his clothing and held a knife in each hand. A piece of text that saidDouble-Edged Knife was written next to them. Two lines also connected the text to the blades in the sheaths on his belt.

The new thing on his game menu was an inverted pentagram. He focused on it and it expanded into a list of attributes.

Strength

Vitality

Agility

Compulsion

Persuasion

Spirit

The door boomed again. It was going to give soon. Yuri found that he could move with his game menu open. He backed away from the door and sheathed one of his knives. His virtual avatar exchanged the knife in its left hand for another in a sheath. The lines extending from the knife's text also adjusted to the change.

He checked his health bar and essence counter. He had 19/50 health and 121 essence. 120. He didn't know what essence did, but he'd need the hit points if he was to defeat the brutes banging the door down. He looked at Vitality. A description popped up.

Vitality - Stamina and health. Increase your health bar. Shrug off physical status effects.

Next to the description was a slider for adding essence. "Sold," he said and willed a hundred essence into Vitality. His health bar now read 129/160. He still had 18 essence left.

"Oh, God," the girl exclaimed in a panic.

The door gave in and a giant brute barreled through it. The game menu faded from Yuri's vision as he focused on this new enemy. The man looked to be a seven foot tall, three hundred pound mass of muscles.

The rest of the brutes began filing into the inn. Yuri did a quick headcount. There were seven of them, besides the giant. The three to one side of him looked scrawny, but feral. The muscular foursome that fanned out on the other side of the giant sported some scars on their faces and looked like they knew what they were doing. Each of the seven was a head shorter than the giant in their center.

When the giant brute began advancing on him, Yuri gave ground. He glanced behind himself to see the terrified girl backing up, as well, trying to get as far away from the men as she could. Yuri set his jaw. He had a sneaking suspicion that the guys from the skunkworks had set up some way of recording what he was doing in this game so they could tease him about it later, when he returned his rig to them. He was torn between not wanting to show any weakness and not wanting to do anything suicidally stupid.

Then he saw, in the corner of his vision, his hit points tick up to 130/160. He grinned. All his doubts left him. With a healing factor working for him, this was just too easy.

With hardly a thought, an orange box appeared on the brute's jugular. Before the giant could come to a stop, Yuri threw his knife and drew another. The giant brute reacted with confusion to the sudden impact on the front of his throat. He reached up by reflex and pulled Yuri's knife out. He tossed it aside and snarled at Yuri, even as a steady stream of blood started pouring out of his neck.

The giant started blinking and swaying on his feet. He stopped advancing and held his arms out for balance. He slowly sank to one knee.

While he was doing that, the rest of the brutes were flanking Yuri. He grimaced. He should not have yielded the door. That was a terrible tactical error on his part. If his old Army instructors were here to see him, they'd tan his hide.

He looked at the group of three scrawny brutes. Particularly, at the throat of the leader. An orange box highlighted the man's carotid artery. Yuri threw his knife at the man, only to see it clatter off the man's leather vest, just below the throat.What the hell? He had kept his eye and the orange box on the carotid, why had the knife impacted below it?

All seven brutes rushed at him with swords leading and war cries echoing. Yuri stood his ground, but wheeled to face the scrawny trio. The brutes stumbled into one another, getting in each other's way, but two came at him from the front and another two from the rear. He focused on the closest of the scrawny ones rushing at him head-on and sidestepped the man's stab. He grabbed his wrist and elbowed him in the throat. Three swords sank into his gut, one from the front and two from the back. Their owners roared in triumph.

Yuri took the sword of the brute whose wrist he was holding and, with one swing, slashed his throat, as well as the throat of the scrawny man that had run him through from the front.

"What the hell," asked one of the men behind Yuri, even as he was pulling his sword out of Yuri's back. He could see the holes in Yuri's shirt and vest, but no blood.

Yuri turned around and slashed the astonished man's throat open. Three brutes were standing behind the fallen man and they pushed around him to try and stab Yuri. He stepped back, dodging their wild thrusts and swings as he pulled the remaining swords out of his gut. He flinched at the sharp pinching sensation that shot across his upper back twice and dropped the second sword. He had forgotten about the third man on that side. His shirt fell open at the back.

White mist rose from the giant brute and rushed into Yuri. He saw his essence counter run from 3 to 28.Wait, three? Wasn't it eighteen a moment ago?

The three brutes in front of Yuri kept swinging and one scored a hit across his forearm. Prompted by the sharp pinch, Yuri jumped backwards. He slammed into the brute behind himself. Yuri dropped the sword he was holding and grabbed that brute by the ear. He pivoted and threw the man into his comrades, knocking two of them down to the ground.

Yuri noticed his essence counter now read 18.

The last standing brute swung again and Yuri jumped out of the way of the blade by reflex. He then stepped inside the man's reach and headbutted him in the face. He grabbed the man's wrist and ducked under his arm, twisting it. The man yelped in agony and then his body could no longer resist being launched into a somersault which ended with him flat on his back.

You have created a new skill:Twisting Throw

Yuri stomped on the man's throat and took the blade out of his limp hand. He rushed forward and stabbed mercilessly at the trio that was trying to untangle themselves and get away from him. In just a few seconds, it was all over. Seven balls of essence rushed into him. His skin began glowing again. He looked at his essence counter. It was ticking down from 132. 131.

He willed another hundred points into Vitality. He now had 30 Essence and 200 Vitality. His hit points read 117/245. He bent down and scavenged a few more knives and their sheaths to stick in his belt. He fastened two to each hip, and two to the small of his back. His hit points were regenerating at a rate of about three a minute. They were already at 120.

"So," he said to the shocked girl, "care to tell me what's going on around here?"

She opened her mouth to speak when a shadow fell over her face. She gasped and looked behind him, wide-eyed. Yuri followed her gaze. A long-haired brute stood in the doorway, looking at the carnage with fear and slack-jawed amazement. He took one look at Yuri and then pulled the door shut as he retreated through it. "Burn this one down, boys!"

"Huh," Yuri said. That was a far more original and realistic reaction than he had expected from a video game character. The girl let out a panicked sob. He turned and winked at her. "Wait here! I'm going to deal with this real quick."

He went to the door and pulled it. It came open just a few inches before being pulled shut again. Through the gap, Yuri saw that the long-haired brute was holding the door closed. "I need some help here," the panicking man yelled out.

Yuri picked up a sword from one of the brutes he had killed. He planted his feet and gave the door a harder tug. It came open by a whole foot. The long-haired man was trying to pull it back with both hands. Yuri stuck the sword out through the gap and slashed the man's forearms. The man let go of the door with a pained yelp and stumbled backwards, holding his arms up and staring at them in disbelief.

Yuri threw the door open and followed the man. He stabbed the brute in the chest and twisted the blade. He could feel the blade scrape against the brute's ribs. The brute stared at him with unseeing, bulging eyes. Yuri had to use his foot to kick the dying man off his blade.

A small ball of essence left the brute as he fell into the mud and rushed into Yuri. His Essence counter now read 48. He looked up and saw six brutes standing at the corner of the inn, holding torches. They roared as one and tossed the torches aside to draw their swords.

Yuri spared a glance at the inn's door before turning around and running away. It wouldn't do to bring the girl into more danger, particularly not right after he had rescued her. He ran down the muddy street, glancing all around for a choke point. The boots were very uncomfortable around his feet. He wished the game would put some socks on his feet, but nothing happened. The wood and adobe houses were stuck together, but he saw a small gap between two of them down the street. Some brutes walked out of it. As soon as they saw him and his pursuit, they moved to intercept.

"Damn." He was again surrounded on both sides. He wasn't going to repeat his earlier mistake. He dropped his sword. He ran towards one house and then pivoted to run full tilt at the house opposite. He jumped up at the last moment and his feet slapped against the wall to convert all of his forward momentum into vertical. He grabbed the window sill on the upper floor and pulled himself up.

You have created a new skill: Wall Run

He planted his feet against the sill and extended a hand towards the eaves of the roof. The brutes collided with one another directly below him. They tried jumping up and swinging their swords at his heels, but they came up short by an inch.

Yuri grabbed the beam at the edge of the roof with one hand, then the other. He pushed off with his feet and swung his upper body over the edge. He scrambled for a bit and then managed to get his legs up, as well. The brutes yelled for him to come back down. They brandished their swords as they swore vicious oaths.

He got up into a crouch on the very edge of the roof. He looked around. He was in a small town and thick pillars of black smoke were rising in many places. Despite all the fires, there were plenty of houses stuck close enough together for him to rush across their roofs and lose his pursuers. He flipped them the bird. "Bye, boys!"

He took a step and immediately fell through the roof. He landed heavily on a wooden floor. Thatches of straw were raining down on him. He groaned, more in humiliation than any pain. He could hear the creaking of wood and the shouts of the men below him. They had gotten into the house and were breaking the door down.

He frowned. That didn't make sense. If they were already inside-

The cracked floorboards beneath him gave way and his upper body fell through. He grabbed at the intact floorboards to his sides, but they also gave way and he landed heavily on a table on the ground floor of the house.

The brutes wasted very little time in stabbing him. Pinching sensations erupted all over his body. His health bar dropped down to less than a quarter full. The brutes gasped as one and stared alternately at him and then at their swords. There was no blood anywhere, not even on his clothes, which were slashed to ribbons by now.

Yuri rolled off the table and got his feet under him. The nearest brute, a big, bald fucker, swung at him. Yuri ducked back. The brutes came at him, swinging away and he had to give way. They backed him into the wall as they fanned out. They all inched closer to him, baffled and intimidated by him being unhurt, but intent on ending him, all the same.

At the bald brute's nod, two moved to cover the ladder that led to the upper floor. As they moved, Yuri saw a clear line to the door. Only the table he had fallen on stood in his way. The brutes were parting around it as they moved in on him.

He remembered his basic training. Jumping over the length of the table wasn't all that different from some of the obstacles he had trained on. If he could pull it off in one go, he'd make it out unscathed. If he needed to stop on the table, his remaining hit points would be carved away from him.

"Whatever," he whispered. It wasn't like he wouldn't respawn.

He dashed towards the table, jumped up, leaned down upon the table with one hand, and then found himself propelled clear across it. The brutes flanking the table swung at him, but only hit air.