Dream Drive: Yuri Ch. 01

You have created a new skill: Speed Vault

He ran out the door and turned on his heel. He drew a knife. The first man that came through the door got it right in the jugular. The next three fared the same. The fifth brute stopped and stared at Yuri. His colleagues tried to push their way out of the small house. Yuri threw his fifth knife at the man's throat and drew his last blade.

The brutes gasped as one and shut themselves inside the house.

Yuri frowned. Surely they could plainly see he only had one knife left? It was only then that he noticed his skin was glowing again. His essence counter was at 118 and dropping. "Oh, for the love of..." 117.

He willed another hundred Essence into Vitality. His health bar now read 102/320. The essence counter was down to 17. He really needed to look into this essence leakage problem soon. There was probably some way to increase his capacity, just like he did with his hit points.

He strode to the door and knocked on it. "Gentlemen, please open the door so I can kill you all."

"Bugger off! We ain't openin' nuthin'!"

He kicked at it. The door groaned and shook, but held. He could tell they were all pushing against it. Breaking down the door would be a bother and it would only bring him face to face with the enemy.

"Bugger off! We don't want no part of this!"

Yuri looked up and grinned. He jogged backwards and then ran full tilt at the wall. He jumped up and his feet glowed as he ran all the way onto the roof. He crouched and looked down the hole in the roof. He hopped through it, setting his knees to brace for impact against the table below.

The legs of the table didn't withstand his second landing and the table was flattened beneath him. Yuri's body had performed thousands of shoulder rolls on the obstacle course. It had become reflex for him, years ago. His reflexes didn't fail him now.

You have created a new skill: Shoulder Roll

He found himself standing right behind the brutes, who were leaning heavily against the door. They screamed in panic and scrambled to open it. They had piled the bodies of their slain comrades against it and now they struggled to toss them aside in their rush to get away from Yuri.

He looked at the back of the neck of the nearest brute and loosed his knife when the orange box appeared. The brute fell into a boneless heap. Another ball of essence rushed at Yuri. He crouched and retrieved two more knives that he buried into the backs of the necks of two more brutes.

The last two gave up on their struggles and turned to face him. One fell to his knees and put his hands together in supplication. The other just stood there, trembling as he stared at the dirt.

Yuri retrieved another knife and brandished it. "Alright. Tell me what's going on around here."

The standing brute shook his head and whimpered. The kneeling brute swept his long, shaggy hair out of his face and licked his lips. "Will you let me go if I do?" Yuri glanced pointedly at the standing brute. "Us! Will you let us go?"

Yuri nodded.

The shaggy-haired brute licked his lips again. His eyes seemed drawn to the inverted pentagram on the back of Yuri's left hand. "Alright. Alright. Uh, the Mage sent us. We're to gather up these heretics and bring them to him."

"Heretics?"

The brute shot his colleague a look of astonishment. It was not reciprocated. He faced Yuri again. "Uh, yeah. They're devil-worshippers here. How do you not know this?"

"I'm not from these parts."

"Oh." The brute's face brightened. "Oh, well, then, this was all just a misunderstanding, right? You didn't know, right? That's alright. You can join us. How about that? You can join." He gestured at his colleague. "We only joined the other day, too. It's alright. The Mage pays good money."

"So, you're paid to kidnap these people?"

"Yes! Yes, you get it."

"Then why are you killing and raping them?"

The brute smiled. "Ah, well, what's life if you can't have some fun while you work, eh? Besides, it's not like the Mage minds. There's thousands of these devil-worshippers around and no one's going to miss a few."

"I think someone might notice an entire town gone missing."

"Pffft. The local lord disappeared a town just like this one and nobody lifted a finger in protest. And the Mage said the lord wouldn't even need know about this place." He spread his arms. "How about it, friend? Join us! It's good pay, there's fun to be had and, and a man with your abilities...whoo-hoo. I don't need to tell you... Plus, the Mage! The Mage would love to meet you, friend. I bet he would! You'll do good with us, friend. Real good, indeed. Mark my words!"

"And you don't mind me killing your previous friends?"

The brute looked at the corpses all around him. He chuckled and winked. "The split goes less ways now." He licked his lips. "What do you say, friend? Are you with us?"

The other brute raised his fearful gaze at Yuri. Yuri pretended to consider. He made many a "hmm" noise as he bent down to retrieve six knives and put them back into his holsters. He then picked up a sword and considered it.

"You know...killing and raping aren't really my things, so I think I'll pass on this great op-"

The kneeling brute swung his arm. A knife thunked into Yuri's cheek, obscuring a part of his vision. He yelped in surprise and pulled it out on reflex. He blinked. He was amazed by the fact that he had not plucked his own eye out.I guess this game has some limits to how much gore it will simulate.

"What are you?" the standing brute whispered in despair, his eyes wide as he stared at Yuri.

The kneeling one jumped up with a yell. Yuri ducked to the side and then blocked his sword with the flat of his. He deflected the second swing and then had to jump backwards away from the third. He stumbled on something and barely managed to stay upright.What am I doing? I can take a hit; I can't get tripped up to take a dozen of them.

He stopped backing away and held up his left arm as bait. The shaggy-haired brute's sword slashed through Yuri's forearm with no resistance. The brute lost his balance and churned his feet to try and regain it. Yuri jumped forward and ran him through. The man keeled over.

Yuri looked at the last brute. "How many of you are there?"

A ball of essence rose from the shaggy-haired brute and was absorbed by Yuri. His essence counter read 79. The last brute shrieked in panic and turned to try and clear the door. He mumbled, "no", over and over again as he wailed and keened in a panic.

Yuri felt sorry for the cowardly character, but the noise he was making represented a tactical liability. Yuri ran the brute through, silencing him forever. His essence counter now read 94.

"Game Menu."

As he was clearing the doorway of corpses, he looked up his six main Attributes. He already knew what Vitality did. Strength and Agility were pretty straightforward. The last three were new to him.

Compulsion - The compulsive power of runes. Force the world to bend to your whim.

Persuasion - The persuasive power of runes. Convince the world that your way is better.

Spirit - Sense and use essence more efficiently. Resist the effects of magic. Hold more Essence at once.

He found it strange to have three Attributes that could stand in for the more common Mana. From their descriptions, he guessed that Persuasion was a stand-in for the more common Charisma and that Spirit was the equivalent of Wisdom.So much for creativity, he thought.Crux just renamed half of the six basic RPG attributes and called it a day.

Just like Vitality, each of these five Attributes had a slider to put essence into them. He also noticed an option concerning the essence counter. He toggled it and a blue bar became the background of the number 94. A small section of the bar at the very end of it was empty, only an outline of how much it could be.

Yuri put fifty essence into Spirit and the blue bar's solid part suddenly shrunk into one fifth of its size. The number across it was 44. Apparently, putting 50 essence into Spirit more than doubled his capacity to hold more essence. He wished the display would show exactly how much was the maximum value, like it did with hit points, but nothing happened.

At least I won't be wasting any more essence.

He cleared the doorway and jogged down the street to the inn. The inn's ground floor was empty. "Huh," Yuri said. He had expected the girl to stay right where he had left her. Now that she was gone, what was he supposed to do in this game? Kill the bad guys?

His hit points were ticking up slowly, but steadily, already making him all but invincible to them. And they hadn't even been all that formidable to begin with. Like all RPGs, this game was already brewing a yawn in him. He sighed audibly and trudged back towards the front door.

"You're alive," the girl fearfully exclaimed.

Yuri spun around to see her emerge from the kitchen door. She was wearing a dark brown cloak instead of her ripped, yellow dress. She had a bundle over her shoulder, but she dropped it and ran towards him. As she moved, he could see that she was wearing a simple shift under her cloak. She latched on to him and sobbed. He could feel her warmth through the slashes of his clothing.

Yuri stood there awkwardly as she cried into his chest. After a few seconds, he began to run his hand through her curly hair. It felt just like Wada's. "Ok. It's ok. Everything's going to be alright. It's ok."

She shook her head no and then pulled back. "No. No it isn't." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "They have my father. They've taken all our women and children. They... They've..." Her chin trembled, but she managed to draw a deep breath and fight back another wave of tears. "We have to go. We have to go get the men from the fields before it's too late."

She tried to break loose from his grasp, but he held on. "Wait! Tell me what's going on."

"They've come to take our women and children away. We have to go get the men from the fields and go after them. We can't let them get away with this!" She tried to break loose again, but he held on.

"Hold on! Let's clear some things up, ok? The able-bodied men of this town are away in the fields, right?"

"Yes! I have to go get them!"

"How far away are these fields?"

She frowned and looked up at him with hostility. "What are you doing? Let go of me! I have to go and, and... Let go of me!"

"How far to the fields?"

She stared at him with an incredulous frown. "About three miles. Across the flood plain and the river and through the woods."

"Can someone see the town from the fields and the other way around?"

"No. That's why I have to go and warn them, bring them back!"

"Could the men in the fields see all the smoke rising from the town?"

She stopped struggling and looked up at him in surprise. "Yes."

"So, the men in the fields have seen the smoke by now and are probably running here as we speak?"

Her eyes darted around as she realized he had a point. "Yes."

"Now, do the men in the fields have horses with them?" She nodded. "Wagons, too?"

"Yes."

"So they could be riding here, right now?" She nodded again. "Moving on to the second point; you said the bad guys have taken your women and children. Where have they taken them?"

"To the town square. They're rounding them up. They're going to put them on the wagons and take them somewhere." Her brow scrunched up as her lip trembled. "We'll never see them again."

Yuri snorted. "Nonsense. Guide me to the town square and I'll handle this."

She shook her head. "No. No, that's not the way it goes. You...you've been sent here to lead us to safety, to our destiny, not..."

"We'll get to that bit later. Right now, you need to point me to the town square. Which way?" He started pointing around. "Which way to the town square?"

She pointed in the opposite direction of the one he had come from. "Turn left past the butcher's shop and you're there."

"Thank you." He turned to go.

"You can't go there alone! They'll kill you! We need you! The prophecy-"

"Wait here and I'll be right back!" He winked at her and was out the door. He set off in the direction she indicated, keeping his head on a swivel. There were fresh corpses littering the streets, mostly old men and women, with a few boys in the mix.

As he moved down the street, he peered carefully around the corners of the side alleys. He could see that many houses were on fire by now. A steady breeze was helping the fire spread. This entire town was going to go up in flames. He should have told the girl to get out, not wait for him in the wooden building. He turned around to go back for her and saw her come out of the inn to follow him. He put his hands on his hips and tapped his foot in the mud as she jogged awkwardly towards him. She was hefting the heavy burlap sack over her shoulder.

"I thought I told you to stay put?"

"Half the town is on fire. If we stay here, we'll burn. We have to go."

He shrugged. "Ok. Lead the way."

She nodded and walked down the street, her hair whipping this way and that as she cast her gaze all around. Smoke wafted into their noses, carried by the breeze. Yuri could hear noises as they were coming to the end of the street. She stopped at the last house in the street and slowly peered around its corner. He joined her and found himself looking down a bigger street that opened out into the town square.

Much like the town itself, the square wasn't very big. It was packed tight with dozens of wagons and carts. The brutes were very busy. Some stood guard over groups of townsfolk who sat in the dirt, clutching at each other in fear. Some brutes were tying nubile girls' ankles together and loading them onto the wagons. Others were hitching horses to those same wagons.

No one was looking Yuri's way. He tried to do a headcount, but the scene before him was quite chaotic. He estimated that he was dealing with around sixty, or seventy men.

"They don't have enough horses," she whispered, sounding almost happy.

"What?"

"We'll be able to follow them. They won't get far. When the men come back from the fields, they'll be able to catch up to them."

"I'm not going to let these brutes get away with this." He looked around and took note of his surroundings, identifying tactical elements.

She pulled her head back from the corner and looked at him. "Of course not. But, there's nothing we can do about it now. We'll follow them and guide our men after them and-"

"Nah," Yuri said. Stalking some kidnappers sounded boring. "I've got a better idea." He stepped out into view of the square and nodded at the corner house. "Hide inside."

The girl gasped in fright and tried to pull him back, but she pulled her arms back at the last moment, lest she be seen by the brutes.

Yuri gathered a few of his knives into his left hand and held one by the point in his right. The orange box showed up on the back of the neck of the closest brute. Yuri let loose with his knife. The brute collapsed into the mud unnoticed by his colleagues. Only one of them noticed when the ball of essence left the corpse. The man's eyes followed it as it flew at Yuri. Yuri's next knife caught the man right in the throat. He fell over, gurgling and spitting up blood.

Some of his colleagues noticed this. They looked at each other in confusion. When the next one collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut and a knife handle sticking out of his neck, half a dozen of them followed the ball of essence to Yuri. Yuri threw his next knife into the jugular of the fourth man and then they rushed at him with a roar.

He ran from them, but not down the side street he had come from. He dashed down the bigger street, which could easily fit two cars, side by side. His feet were sending stabbing pains to his brain, like he had just ruptured fresh blisters. He shook his head to himself. In this video game, wearing ill-fitting boots without socks hurt worse than being run through with a sword. He led the men past a few burning houses, so their friends in the square couldn't see them for the flames and smoke, and then dashed inside a narrow alleyway. His feet slid through the mud at one point, but he managed to stay upright.

Yuri stopped halfway through the alley and turned around, making sure of his footing. Within a heartbeat, a brute ran in after him. He caught a knife to the jugular, just like the next man. The third tripped over them. The fourth vaulted over the mess of bodies with a battle cry. His feet slid apart as he landed in the mud and lost his balance. Yuri stepped forward, grabbed his sword arm by the wrist, and took his blade. He slashed his throat open and tossed him down on top of the man that was trying to rise up.

Two brutes stood at the opening of the alley, looking hesitant to join the fray. Then they stepped aside and a cloaked figure pivoted around the corner. It was another brute, Yuri saw, but this one was also holding a crossbow. Yuri blinked in surprise. The bolt had a wicked-looking blade attached to it. Before Yuri could react, the bolt went through his gut, shaving off a big chunk of his remaining health bar. Yuri nearly swore out loud. He only had sixty-two hit points left. He should have put that last fifty essence into Vitality, not Spirit.

The bolt had left him with two pinches, one in front and one in back and that was that. His shredded shirt gave up the ghost and slid down his chest and back. He was left standing in his cut-up leather vest and two sleeves that were now only connected by a narrow strip of fabric across his shoulders.

The other two brutes confidently advanced down the alley. "Not so fast now, are ye, laddie?" They laughed as they stopped to help their comrade to his feet.

Yuri jumped forward and slashed one brute's throat open before slamming bodily into the other one. The two living brutes fell atop their dead comrades and Yuri stabbed them to death. One of them managed to slash at his ankle, but this only took ten hit points from Yuri.

Yuri looked up at the crossbowman. The man's face turned ghostly pale and he fumbled with the crank on his crossbow. Yuri waded over the corpses and stabbed the panicking man in the gut. He pulled his sword free and slashed the man's throat open. He went down gurgling. Soon, another essence ball went into Yuri.

Yuri peered around the corner. There were no more brutes coming. No one was even bothering with looking this way.They must have thought this was enough for one man. He pulled the crossbowman's corpse around the corner and sized it up.A bit pudgy in the middle, but otherwise my size.

Working with all haste, Yuri exchanged his ripped up clothes for the man's dark green trousers. He took a shirt from one of the men he hadn't stabbed in the gut. All of their boots and socks stank so bad that Yuri chose not to take them, even though his feet hurt badly enough to be distracting. He donned the leather armor. He gathered up three belts from the fallen men. He used one as a belt and the other two as bandoliers. He fitted ten knife sheaths to his front and sides and filled them with blades. He girt a sword at his side. He cranked the crossbow and loaded a bolt.

He had fifty-six hit points out of three hundred and twenty possible. If he was going to beat all the brutes, he was going to need more. His essence counter read 177. He willed another hundred into Vitality. His hit points read 131/395. He found himself wishing he could find some kind of medkit, or healing potion. The two hundred and sixty four hit points missing from his health bar seemed like a big handicap, but he would have to do without them.

He needed to properly scout the situation, survey the streets surrounding the square and pick out his choke points and lines of retreat. He also needed to figure out their command and control structure, see which ones he could draw away and pick off unseen. He donned the dark green cloak and pulled the hood up to conceal his face.