"Come on you filthy knife ears, the others had already left." Fred yelled out to T. T was carrying multiple items on him that weighed him down. He was moving slower than a slug.
"Why didn't we have Robert with us? He could have held all these items." T looked up ahead and saw that Robert, Will, and Gale just walked through the portal. Momo Looked at Fred and demanded he help T. Fred took a Magical laptop out of thin air. He typed T's character's name and looked through his inventory. T felt light as a feather. He was moving faster as if the weight of all the objects had disappeared.
"What did you do?" T asked. Fred smiled and stated that his ability was to manipulate the game to an extent. Momo called out to T and Fred telling them that Lary was waiting for them at the portal.
The three of them arrived at the portal with Larry looking at a device that seemed to be emitting a light blue light. T asked Larry what that device was for. Larry Explained that the device was used to blind people for about 10 seconds. Larry tossed the device through the portal and a Loud bang was heard from their end. Larry was the first to jump in followed by T then Fred, Momo jumped towards the portal, but the portal seemed to have closed shut. She began to panic but a familiar voice called.
"They will not need you there." She turned to look at the cloaked man who was standing behind her.
"My friends need me. Open the portal. NOW!" She demanded that the Cloaked Man open the portal, but he refused. He asked her to follow him. She felt disrespected and demanded again for him to open the portal.
"Have I ever Provided you with incorrect information?" The Cloaked Man asked. She agreed that he has always helped out in a time of need. She followed the Cloaked Man to another portal. "What you seek is to help those in need. The portal will open by nightfall. You will enter the portal and walk Northeast. You will know what to do." Momo looked at the portal door and looked back at the Cloaked Man to ask a question, but he had left.
***
Larry, Fred, and T exited through the portal and noticed that a bunch of players were now blinded. Larry handed T and Fred a mask that covered their entire heads. The mask looked like skulls with rebreathers. Larry took another device out and pulled the pin out from the device. The device began to leak gas. The players that were all blinded started to look drowsy. Larry motioned for the others to follow him.
The group walked along the road until they reached a graveyard. Larry pulled out a device that seemed to lead him to an area where the dirt looked fresh. Larry motioned to T to turn around. T did so and placed the bag he was carrying all the equipment they needed on the dirt floor. Larry looked at all of them and motioned for silence, he then proceeded to point at the ground. The group grabbed shovels out of the pack. Larry pulled out not one but 5 different devices he began to place a base as quietly as he could. Then he places three cylinders on top of the base, and it connects at the top to make some sort of cannon like object. Larry put his hand on the top of the cannon-like object and pointed to Fred. Fred walked over and placed his hand on the top of the cannon-like object where Larry left his hand. Larry began to rummage through the bag quietly and pulled out a green liquid that glowed bright even in the daylight. He then moved Fred's hand and placed the tube of green liquid into the center of the cannon-like object.
Larry motioned for T to move in close. He flipped the switch on the cannon-like object, and it began to spin. There was no sound emitting from the Cannon like object either. The cannon-like object shot out a greenish light and surrounded them in a greenish dome. "We can Speak but it must be quiet." Larry spoke in a soft voice.
"Must we keep the mask on?" Fred asked.
Larry responded quickly "If you take your mask off you will breathe in the chemicals that were in that liquid, and you will die slowly but painfully. Now follow my instructions carefully. We need to do this before we awaken the undead. Use the shovels to dig up the freshly made grave. We must then stake the vampire once it awakens."
"Won't the Vampire die since it's daylight?" T asked.
"The Vampire is protected by the chemical barrier. This barrier will keep sound in as long as it's not yelled, and it will be enough light to keep the vampire asleep for an additional 30 minutes. Now we need the garlic powder and that silver wire you packed in the bag." T rushed to grab the garlic powder and the silver wire. "Fred, start digging, this vampire is not 6 feet under like the others are." Fred did as Larry asked. 2 hours passed and both T and Fred looked exhausted. They were about 20 feet deep into digging when Larry asked them to stop. "I need you guys up here."
"Can't we take a break." Fred sounded like he was going to collapse any minute. T looked and felt the same as Fred.
T wanted to verbally agree with Fred but instead he looked at Fred and said, "Stop being a fairy" and used his hands to imitate wings. Fred lifted his hands as if he were going to attack him, but Larry hopped down to them and spoke.
"We are almost done. We need to finish this before nightfall, or we will have to do it all over tomorrow." Both Fred and T climbed up the hole and lifted Larry up from the hole. Larry took the wire which smelled of garlic that was so strong that all three of them could smell it through their rebreathers.
"Jesus Christ." Fred said as he took a deep breath.
"Yes?" T responded. There were Laughs and chuckles because his character's name was called Black Jesus.
Larry looked at them and said, "Let's finish this now. We need to place the silver rods around the inside of the barrier and wrap the wires to it then place salt on the in front and back of the rods. I didn't have the time to dip the rods in wax because Momo didn't show up with containers."
Fred pulled out his laptop and summoned the containers that were needed. Fred told them that that was the last of his money that he brought so he could not create things until they came back to the guild. Larry dipped the silver rod in wax which smelled of garlic and began rolling it on salt. The silver wire was then passed through the holes in the rods. They placed the 13 rods in a circle and finally moved the wire to make a pentagram at the center of the circle.
"Why did we do this?" Fred asked.
"It is the only way to get this to work. At nightfall we have until dawn to summon it. We must not say its name in Death Valley. It will summon creatures we don't want to fight. Larry grabbed a notepad from his pack and wrote down the name of the creature, "Mirg Drol". Fred and T looked at the notepad carefully. Both of them seemed to be scared of that name. Larry looked at the note and asked what was wrong? T said read the name backwards. Larry seemed to have figured it out as he began to shake in fear.
"We can't stop now." Larry said, "we needed to help Jay get out of Purgatory and save The Cloaked Man from dying by helping him get his third half out." Larry went on. He seemed ready for a fight. Both Fred and T looked not as enthusiastic as Larry, but they wanted to make sure they could bring Jay back from Purgatory.
"We must finish digging and wait until nightfall." Larry, Fred and T all jumped in the hole shovels in hand and began digging until they hit the casket. They opened the casket, and the vampire seemed to be squirming around as if it were in an unpleasant area. Larry Climbed back up to the surface and tossed a stake to Fred and T. Larry then walked to the dome device and laid his finger on the off switch. Everyone knew their place and knew what they had to do, it was only a matter of time.
***
The moon lit the abandoned graveyard. Essence of death and decay filled the air as the green dome began to get sucked back into the Device. Hands of undead creatures have begun to reach out from their holes. Vampires began to rise from their coffins and looked at the halfling in the circle as if it were their last meal. Larry did not seem afraid of the vampires. He was watching intently at the bottom of the hole.
In the hole T and Fred were struggling to keep the vampire down. T finally managed to hold the vampire down and Fred grabbed the stake and drove it through the chest of the creature. A loud yelp could be heard throughout the graveyard. All the awoken undead turned their heads and began running towards the noise. The vampires that were already aware of the creature there sprinted past the undead that were in front of them to try and attack Larry from all angles, but they could not pass the circle that was placed around them.
The vampire in the hole began to turn to ash. Larry asked Fred to take the ashes and put it in a jar. He then asked T to command the undead and make them move away from the circle. T used almost his entire mana to get rid of all of the undead. Larry tossed mana potions to help rejuvenate T's mana. Fred hopped out of the hole with a jar filled with ashes. "Now we must begin the ritual." said Larry while taking a deep breath. Larry placed the jar at the center of the pentagram. He then pulled out a knife and cut the palm of his hand. He moved his hand over the jar and let 13 drops of blood land on the ashes in the jar. T moved closer to look at what Larry was doing. He noticed that the ashes started to turn into a bubbly black liquid. When Larry was done with the last drop, he turned to T and asked him to cast a spell. Larry warned T that the spell will use all of his mana and that he won't be able to cast spells for a day. T asked Larry if this was necessary since he wouldn't be able to battle with the group. Larry said, "Everything will be fine."
T then casted a spell that emitted a ferocious red light that beamed outward in the sky. A figure that was standing behind a tree ran and jumped into the circle. Larry, T, Fred and the mysterious figure all vanished from the graveyard. Leaving behind only the hole that was dug at the graveyard. The three rose up looking at a towering monster. The creature had a cloak that looked like it was bathed in blood. Its face could not be seen through the hood the monster was wearing. Its hands were bones, and it carries a scythe that has serrated edges. T yelled out to cast the first attack but no luck. The monster looked at the three and in the blink of an eye summoned the scythe to his hand.
Fred tried to summon his laptop but could not get it into the area he was in. Larry threw multiple flash grenades but for some reason the monster seemed to be immune to it. The creature began to laugh horrendously. It slammed the scythe into the ground and summoned 4 vampires. "This isn't right, Mirg Drol isn't supposed to summon four vampires if there are only three people fighting it.", Larry said to the group.
"There aren't three people fighting it." A familiar voice echoed behind them. The three looked back at the mysterious figure. The mysterious figure looked like a man covered with a ragged cloak that made him weak. His face resembled that of their friend Jay. T squinted and yelled out "POPS!".
Mirg Drol's voice sounded irritated as he yelled "You dare turn your backs on ME!" He swung his large scythe at the three closest to him. Larry, Fred, and T all turned to see the blade stopped in front of their face. Just passed the large blade they saw Pops who looked muscular stopping the scythe from moving any further with only one finger.
Mirg Drol pulled the scythe back toward Pops. Pops elegantly moved his body so that the blade missed him. He then held the blade with only 2 fingers and stopped Mirg Drol from pulling his scythe back. "Larry, you did well but this guy would have killed you three." Pops smiled. "If you don't mind, I'll take care of this guy just keep the vampires off of me." T lured one of the vampires to Fred and Fred used the stake Larry had given them to instantly kill it.
Pops pulled the scythe out of Mirg Drol's hand and tossed it aside. " Mirg Drol you must be strong; it was hard to pull that out of your hands." Mirg Drol aura seemed to emit a Dark deathly feeling to everyone except Pops. His aura seemed to have killed the remaining vampires and weakened T, Larry, and Fred. "You may want to drink health potions!", Pops yelled out to the group. The three of them realized that their life bars were draining quickly and drank a health restore potion. Pops in a blink of an eye was now in the air facing the Mirg Drol face to face. Mirg Drol laughed and as the scythe was now floating behind Pops. The three of them could not shout out a warning because they had to keep drinking restoration potions or else they would die. The scythe slammed down, appearing to cut Pops in half.
T, Larry, and Fred all had tears in their eyes. They all drank the last potion they had for the fight as they admitted defeat. The dust cloud showed a large figure wielding a Scythe floating towards them. "Nice knowing you guys." Larry said to Fred and T. The dust cloud faded away to reveal Pops floating with a smaller scythe that looked like Mirg Drol's. "Trust me Lord Grim is ten times harder than this guy." Pops announced. They all stood up and sighed with relief. The plains they were in started shifting into the graveyard in Death Valley. "Why were you all here anyway?" Pops asked. "We have information that the Cloaked Man could be one of three locations.", Larry answered.
"We are still looking for Jay" T interjected.
"We know he's stuck in purgatory." Fred added.
"What are the other 2 locations we need to go to?" Pops asked.
"Canyon of the lost and Castle Grim." said Larry.
"Another reason why I came was to ask to join your guild." Pops said while looking at Larry. Larry sent an invitation which Pops accepted. "We should get back to the guild. It's going to be a bit dangerous here in a second. Oh, and T this scythe you can have; it's no use for my class." Pops tossed the scythe to T, and everyone began to walk out of the graveyard to head to the portal back to the guild.
***
The portal door opened in front of Momo. She rushed through and headed Northeast. She flew up high, noticing that a thicker fog was now dying down. The forest started becoming much more beautiful and she heard cheering and laughter. Then it all stopped. The cheering and laughter became wailing and sounds of crying. Someone yelled out Robert! She dived down like a bullet being shot out from a gun. She halted as she saw Meeks hoisting Robert's lifeless body. She asked the Meeks to put him down. Will and Gale were now emerging from the other end of the forest. They were both awes struck seeing Momo there.
"The Cloaked Man told me that I should come," said Momo. She pulled out a pouch and had a diamond that was forged by a dragon's breath. She took her staff and performed the magical spell to resurrect Robert. Robert's eyelids flickered as he recovered. "I kill?" Robert asked.
"Yes, you killed very good." Gale said while hugging Robert. "You killed very good."
King Tulati walked up to the group and said "What you seek will be in the Castle Grim… But advice to our friends I must give. Lord Grim must Die before the king of the castle will show."
"Isn't the king of the castle Lord Grim?" Momo asked.
King Tulati looked at Momo as if he was confused and said "The King of the castle is the one you seek. His name must not be spoken. His name brings a curse upon the person who seeks him. You have a name for him we can say, and that name is the Cloaked Man. Saying his name will give power to this creature, but it is also the only way to summon him. I'm afraid that this is the only information I can give you, my friends."
"Your help is greatly appreciated. Gale, Will, Robert, we need to go back to the guild and tell the others!" Momo exclaimed. The others agreed and began heading to the portal. As they drew nearer to the portal a notification popped up in front of them. It read 'Welcome Pops to the guild.' Everyone stopped in their tracks.
"It couldn't be." Will said looking in disbelief.
"Is he really here!" Momo seemed excited. They all booked it to the portal hoping to be the first to see Pops Arrive at the guild.