Liam Barrett:
"This is fine," I tell the others, gripping my battle axe. "This is fine. It's your classic beginner quest, with low-level enemies and easy loot. It's a fetch quest. No problem."
The glowing arrow above my head turns to the left, guiding us deeper into the forest. By now, the sun is setting, and with it, the sunlight is beginning to dim. Combined with the twisted branches overhead, I regret not stealing a torch from Honeywood.
"Not to mention, we have a solid team here. Two warriors, one mage, and even one rogue. Yes, we are quite literally the definition of 'ragtag' but this, I believe--"
Before I can finish, some leaves rustling make our rogue jump and scream. He pulls out his knives and swings at the empty air.
"At ease, rogue," the warrior leader says, patting the rogue on his shoulder. Realizing it was only the wind, our rogue pats his chest and pockets his knives.
"Uhhh, you guys didn't see anything. Gotten?"
"Gotten."
"Yes."
"Indeed."
Walking a little further, the arrow starts twisting and turning in all different directions. I look at it as it keeps spinning wildly.
"What the-?"
As we keep walking, we hear more leaves rustling. The rogue rolls his head and turns around to face us.
"Haha, I'm not falling for that again."
"Uhh," I say, looking back at the rogue. "That wasn't us."
"What?"
Before any of us can do anything, goblins, a whole bunch of them, jump out from behind the bushes. The goblins, small humanoids with round heads, pointed ears, and dark green skin, pull out small stone knives from their rope belts. They screech and laugh as they surround us. As the four of us turn around and throw our backs against each other, I notice one of the goblins, the smug bastard, holding a silver necklace with its clawed fingers.
"The necklace," I shout, pointing at it. "That's the quest item!"
Everyone follows my finger and looks at the necklace. Seeing the necklace, the warrior leader raises his sword into the air and shouts.
"Chaarrrge!"
Running forward, we each face a goblin with a stone dagger. As I approach the first golbin with my battle axe, I see its level and name appear above its head with transparent lettering.
"Golbin. Level 1."
I scream and throw my battle axe behind my head, but when I do, my battle axe slips out of my hand. It drops to the ground and hits my foot.
"Ouch!"
As I grab my foot and bounce around, I see my red health bar dwindling.
"Oh, come on! That's not fair."
Hearing more yelling, I turn and see the warrior leader swinging his sword. However, he swings it too wide and almost cuts off the rogue's head. The rogue ducks in time, but the top of his hood still comes off.
"Hey," the rogue shouts.
"A thousand apologies," the warrior leader says. "I'm...new at this. I never actually swung a whole sword before!"
"You never swung a sword before? Not even a plastic one? What about a lightsaber?"
"Aye, I did, but then my saber of light broke!"
The rogue let out a big sigh. Even with his hood up, I can still see him rolling his eyes. He reaches behind him and pulls out an arrow. Loading the arrow into his longbow and pulling back the bowstring, he aims at a goblin.
"Take this, you ugly bastard!"
The rogue screams and shoots his arrow. However, it flies past the golbin. Our rogue misses completely and instead hits the mage in his butt.
"Ouch! What the hell!"
Turning around with gritted teeth, the mage looks at the rogue still holding his bow. Our rogue lets out a small laugh.
"Ha. Opp. Bad aim."
Our mage looks at our rogue with red eyes. He raises his hand and chants a spell. Fire gathers in his hand, spiraling and turning into a small, orange and red fireball. Our mage throws his fireball at our rogue, but our rogue dodges it, jumping and rolling out of the way. Our mage's fireball flies through the air and hits the warrior leader on his back. Our warrior leader's health drops as the fireball explodes and small flames cling to his back.
"Ho!"
"That's not my fault," our mage yells, "I wasn't aiming for you!"
Our mage raises his hand and prepares a second fireball. He throws it again, and again, instead of hitting our rogue, the mage almost hits me. I jump back as the ground in front of me bursts into flame.
"Stop throwing fireballs," I shout.
"Stop shooting arrows at me," our mage screams.
"It was only one time, and I said sorry," the rogue yells back.
"Cease thy squabbling and face thy foe," the warrior leader cries out. Swinging his two-handed sword again, our warrior leader actually kills one of the goblins.
We all watch as the goblin falls back to the ground with an empty health bar. We, and even the goblins, all freeze when seeing the goblin lying dead on the ground. We finally move when he sees the warrior leader get some experience points. In fancy, white lettering, I see "+2 EXP" appearing above his head before fading away.
"Ha!"
The warrior leader yells and points at the dead goblin. He then lifts both his hands and his sword into the air.
"By my troth, I have done it! I slayed a goblin!"
The warrior leader, still smiling, turns to the other goblins. When I see his smile, it isn't joy or happiness, but something else. I feel a shiver run down my spine as the warrior leader lowers his sword.
"Feel my blade, monsters!"
The warrior leader laughs as he runs forward, swinging his giant sword. In one massive swing, he hits and cuts down three more goblins, their health bars flickering red and black as they drop to the ground. Seeing the warrior leader as he charges forward, it fuels our rogue and mage. They stop fighting each other and focus on fighting the goblins.
The rogue throws his bow away and puts out a set of twin daggers. Running at first, he dives into the ground and rolls, like some hero from an action movie. Landing on his feet, our rogue swings his dual daggers, killing two goblins. Just like the warrior leader, he gains four experience points. Hearing a bunch of booming sounds, I turn and see our mage throwing more fireballs.
Our mage raises both his hands and calls forth two more fireballs. Throwing them at goblins, he misses hitting them directly, but the flames from the explosion jump onto the goblins. They scream and cry as they burn, dying after a few minutes.
"This is so awesome," our mage yells into the air, summoning more fireballs in his hands. As the warrior leader, our rogue, and our mage kill more and more goblins, I look around.
"Where are you? Where are you? There!"
Amid all the yelling and black smoke, I see the goblin still holding the silver necklace. Seeing most of the other goblins die, the goblin with the necklace drops his stone dagger. He turns and starts running toward the trees.
"Oh no, you don't!"
I lunge, jumping and tackling the fat goblin to the ground. Falling on top of him, the goblin turns around and elbows me in the face. I feel the sharp but blunt force, but still hold on.
"Give it to me! Give me the necklace, you bastard!"
Punching me in the face, the goblin knocks me to the side, but I still hold onto the little bastard. We roll around in the dirt. The goblin tries to scratch my face with his claws, but as he swings his hand, I grab the necklace from it. Raising my foot and placing it against the goblin's stomach, I then kick him away, knocking the dumb goblin into a tree.
Pushing myself up, I hold the necklace in my hand.
"Ha! Sucker! Yes! Quest complete---"
Before I can finish, another goblin jumps out from a bush. It jumps onto me, grabbing one of my shoulders and raising a stone dagger. Slamming the stone dagger down, it pierces my chest. Immediately, I feel my whole body heating up, like the mage had just thrown another fireball at me, but at the same time, it also feels so cold.
The pain is sharp. It is shocking. It feels so real. I scream while holding the wound. My vision blurs, and the world spins. Everything, from the orange sky with the setting sun, to the forest with the green trees, to the ground with all the dead goblins, disappears. They all turn black, and I'm now hovering in a void.
A message with giant glowing letters appears in front of me.
"Game Over. Respawn in 10, 9, 8, 7--"
I can literally feel my heavy jaw dropping.
"You've got to be kidding me."