“Run! Run, fucking idiot! RUN!!!”

The screams came to Sarah seemingly out of nowhere when she was still standing there with her ears buzzing, trying to focus her sight and figure out where she was. This seemed to be still the Enchanted Forest, but there was no lake, no Uberyn, or anything that she remembered from before meeting the Sorceress. The woman had teleported her somewhere else inside the same realm. Or at least that’s what Sarah hoped.

With a superhuman effort, she turned her head and tried to identify the source of the screams. They weren’t directed at her. Someone kept urging someone else to run and hide, but everything was happening out of her sight. Her vision was still blurry, and with tremendous effort she could concentrate on the trees in front of her, until the image was sharp and vivid. Now she heard the full range of noises coming from everywhere: a battle was being fought all around her, only the trees and shrubs were too many and too close together to let them see what was happening.

She drew her sword and jumped forward.

“Run, Maggot, run!!!”

The voices came from farther away now. Those people (it had been a man at first, now a woman yelling) were abandoning their friend, or whoever this Maggot was. Horrifying cackles from what must be little evil creatures froze Sarah’s blood in her veins; there was also a sound of stomping, as if a giant was razing the area.

The thought occurred to her then: The Sorceress said I needed friends, but she also said there were people who needed my help. So she sent me here. I just didn’t know my help would be needed so soon.

Sarah let out a battle scream and jumped forward once more, moving the blade in front of her to slash the thick vegetation. When her feet touched the ground again, she found herself in a clear in the forest. Now everything was happening in front of her.

There was a giant indeed, walking slowly and menacingly in the direction of a small, ugly man who stood in the middle of the clear. He was holding a small sword, similar to Sarah’s, but his arm was shaking in terror and his face was covered in sweat. He wore a piece of leather armor but it looked old and it was torn and tattered. He seemed not to have heard the others; they had already fled the scene, leaving him alone to face his certain death.

At the other side of the clear, five or six goblins watched everything, giggling and cackling at the poor guy’s misfortune. They were redcaps, just like the ones Sarah and Uberyn had massacred before. Their hats were red because they used the blood of their human victims to paint them, or so went the legend.

There were also two or three creatures of a different kind that Sarah couldn’t readily identify. They looked a bit like hobbits, with their gigantic feet and abundant hair on their whole bodies, but they looked every bit as evil as the goblins.

The giant stood about twenty feet tall. In his raised arm he held a bludgeon that was no more than a huge branch he had torn off some tree. The man they called Maggot had just four or five seconds to live before the bludgeon came down on him and turned him into a bloody pulp.

There was no time to lose.

“Hey, you ugly thing! How about fighting someone your size?”

Both Maggot and the giant turned at her as if they thought she was addressing them.

“Not you,” she told Maggot. “I meant the big one.”

The guy looked confused, as if his mind was wandering through some other realm, but his expression revealed his relief and thankfulness. At least he’s aware of what was about to happen, Sarah thought.

The giant made a turn and, as slowly and heavily as before, started walking toward her.

OK, Sarah thought, let’s learn a bit about you.

She invoked the Scrutinize command and a bunch of data about the giant appeared in her field of vision. He was a NPC, of course, and according to his stats, he had 6000 hitpoints. Sarah frowned: neither her own metrics or Uberyn’s detailed any amount of hitpoints, and she wondered if the Health numbers were the equivalent. If so, she only had 100, while Uberyn would easily be able to defeat the giant just by rubbing himself against him repeatedly, because his own 10,000 units of health would surpass the giant’s levels.

The giant had a name (Gurglr), a class (Giant), a super low level of Agility and a super high level of Strength (700). Sarah wondered if calling his attention had been a good idea at all. But then then gave a quick glance at the small, ugly man the giant was about to slaughter, and invoked Scrutinize on him. And she knew she was the only chance he had at staying alive.

MAGGOT

Class: Bard

STRENGTH : 005

AGILITY : 005

ENDURANCE : 005

INTELLIGENCE : 005

PERCEPTION : 005

CHARISMA : 005

0000 Mana 0030 XP

Health : 020/050

Stamina : 050/050

Skills:

- Exploration

- Scrutinize

How is it possible that you have only thirty points applied to traits? Sarah thought, horrified, while Gurglr kept approaching her at a snail’s pace. As far as she knew, every player started the game with one hundred points, and you couldn’t even get through the trait selection screen without using them all. And how is it possible that you have chosen such a hideous face? I mean come on, I can understand the name, but couldn’t you at least be average looking?

It was no use asking those mental questions. She would ask Maggot himself once she had defeated the giant... if such a thing was even possible.

Gurglr gurgled, then trumpeted like an elephant. He started “running”, stomping his huge feet on the ground, holding the improvised bludgeon way above his head. The goblins and hobbit-like creatures cheered and laughed. Maggot raised his sword arm but stood in place, undecided.

Now... how do you kill a giant?

The enormous creature was already coming at her, eating the distance between them, the huge branch already starting to describe a downward arc that would meet her head if she didn’t act fast.

“Raaaawwwrrr!” she yelled, and charged forward. She was feeling incredibly strong and energetic, and the adrenaline coursing through her veins felt like an addictive drug. It was as if this character, Sajya, were already lending her some of her non-physical characteristics: a bit of her warrior soul.

Sarah took one, two steps, jumped in the air, and then came down rolling. She rolled on the ground and went through the giant’s big, slow legs. Once she was on the other side, she stood up, turned around, and threw her sword at Gurglr.

The sword stuck itself in the middle of the giant’s back. Gurglr let out a scream of fury as a message appeared on Sarah’s vision:

+5 Damage

Only five points? You gotta be kidding me. Oh well, 5995 to go.

The giant tried to reach the sword, which was tiny for his size, with his left hand, but it was stuck just out of his reach. Then he tried to use the other hand, the one with which he was holding the gigantic branch. He didn’t drop it, though. The branch drew a sideways arc around his right side, and when it went stationary as Gurglr tried to figure out whether it was better to keep holding it or get rid of it, Sarah started running, jumped up, and landed on it.

“Huh?” Gurglr grunted, and started turning around. But Sarah was already reaching for the sword. She grabbed the handle with her right hand as she secured herself to the branch with the left. The giant moved his arm and Sarah recovered her sword as it got unstuck from his back. A second later, Gurglr had moved his arm all the way back and Sarah was facing him.

“Hello, pretty,” she said, and jumped forward, holding the sword with both hands.

She drove it down into the giant’s left eye. The eye imploded, oozing a viscous substance that splashed over Sarah’s face and chest, but she held the blade firmly in place. The creature yelled in pain, dropped the bludgeon, and stepped back blindly.

+1207 Damage

Ah, that’s more like it, Sarah thought.

Now she was hanging from the handle of her sword, impaled on Gurglr’s eyesocket. Her body danced to the left and right as the giant lost balance and started falling backward in a slow, clumsy path. He flailed his arms around, tried to grab his minuscule attacker, and after a couple of attempts, writhing in pain and half collapsing to the ground, he could get a hold of her.

“Aaarrgggh!” the creature yelled, and threw the girl aside hastily. She flew several yards, hit the trunk of a tree, moaned in pain, lost all the air in her lungs, and plummeted to the ground.

But she was still holding the sword.

+20 Melee Attack

As the giant completed his fall and hit the ground with a mighty stomp, she sprinted forward once more. Gurglr was covering his eyesocket with his hands, whimpering in pain. She jumped up, and landed on his chest, driving down the blade right into his remaining eye.

+1500 Damage / Enemy disabled

Now for the coup de grace.

As the giant flailed his arms blindly, alternating between covering his nonexistent eyes and trying to hit her, she sneaked around between the huge arms and located the exact place in his neck where a hit would be lethal. She saw was the artery there, bulging with pain and fury, and unprotected.

Sarah stuck the sword in there and moved it around to broaden the wound. A jet of blood shot up from the opening, covering her from head to toe. There was so much blood that she found it difficult to keep her feet on the ground without slipping and falling. Gurglr gurgled, writhed, quivered, and after a while, he stopped moving. His arms fell down at both sides, inert.

+3288 Damage / Enemy dead

And after a second or two,

+100 XP

Sarah looked around. There were no goblins to be seen, nor those things that looked like hobbits. In the clear of the forest there were only a dead giant, a warrior girl soaked in blood, and a weak, ugly bard standing there with a horrified expression.

“Hey,” Sarah said as she did her best to wipe off the blood by rubbing herself with the giant’s clothes. “You’re welcome!”

“Th-th-thanks,” Maggot replied, approaching her with shaky legs. “You saved my life.”

“I’m Sajya,” she introduced herself. “I’m a newcomer to the game. So what’s your story? It seems like you haven’t made much progress.”

Maggot shook his head. Everything in him seemed to be feeble and uncertain.

“Zero. Zero progress,” he said. “It’s like... I can’t do anything in this world. I’m just not good. Not good at all.” He glanced around as if he feared that two or three more giants were about to spring up from between the tall trees.

“But you’re playing,” Sarah said. “You must have done some tasks, acquired some skills. Right?”

Maggot shook his head and looked down. For a while, he said nothing. Then he looked at her.

“I can’t make friends here. I... I have nothing to give. I need people to protect me because I’m weak and clumsy. It’s not that I don’t try. I just can’t. I’m useless.”

Sarah mulled over his stats. There was definitely something weird there. He was low on everything and even the caps were lower than hers. And she was a new player.

“You know,” Maggot said, almost whispered, “it’s not like before. I feel... numb. I can barely hear a few feet away. Jumping is hard. I’m always weak. Like I’m... old or something.”

“It’s easy to see,” Sarah replied. “All your stats are low, and some of them are capped below normal. You’ve been nerfed from the start. Why? Do you know?”

Maggot looked at her as if he didn’t understand what she was saying.

“What do you mean, nerfed? Are you saying other players have it easier? Is it not my fault?”

“Of course it’s not your fault. Your stamina is maxed out, but it’s capped at half the normal number. Same goes for your health. You are actually putting way more effort than me, but the system is stacked against you. What happened when you entered the game? Anything you remember.”

Maggot shook his head. A tear ran down his hideous face.

“My memory is not what it used to be either,” he said slowly. “I don’t even remember much of my life outside the game. It’s like that part... my memory... has been nerfed too.”

Sarah stood pensive for a few moments. She realized she hadn’t actually eaten anything since she logged in: her only hunting excursion had been interrupted when she tried to kill the Sorceress in the form of a deer. The tea had made her forget the hunger, but it was now back in full force.

Then she made a decision.

“OK, I’ll tell you what,” she told Maggot, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to work on your abilities. We’re going hunting together and you’ll earn some points across the board. How do you like it?” she smiled.

Maggot smiled back. He looked miserable but grateful.

“And after we fill our bellies with our hunt,” Sarah continued, “I’ll take you to someone who can help you even more. An experienced player.”

A shadow of a doubt clouded the poor guy’s face.

“I... I don’t know if I can get along with other players,” he said. “You saw what happened. They — they left me behind. I was a burden to them.”

“Don’t worry,” Sarah said cheerfully. “He will help us. He’s got the highest stats I’ve seen. He can protect us and train us. In no time, you’ll be killing all those giants instead of me.”

Maggot still looked doubtful, but he smiled again. And this time there was some relief in that smile.

There is just one problem with this plan, Sarah thought, as they started making their way in search of that day’s hunt. I don’t know where the fuck I am, much less where Uberyn is. But that can wait. First of all, we need to eat.