RD: Chapter Nine - Respawn

Dolli put herself between the murderous man and the child frozen in fear on the ground. She gripped her broken staff, pressing her thumb onto the power gem and spoke casually, “What brings you out to the Crossroads, Keegan Plague Ender?”

“You know goddamn well what brings me.” He tossed Rufus’ head into the road. It made a wet splat that turned Dolli’s non-existent stomach.

Dolli looked at the child behind her. “Run and hide, now!”

When she turned back, the air around Keegan was vibrating with red and black Spark. He dashed forward, covering fifty feet in a blink. Dolli knew this move and tried to dodge, but she was far less the creature she used to be. Keegan’s hand gripped Dolli at the wrist and wispy throat. Pain seared into Dolli’s being where he touched her, and her health bar started to drop one hit point at a time.

“I want my quest reward,” Keegan growled the words.

His voice was a demonic baritone that shook Dolli’s soul. The child on the ground screamed harder, piercing the air with his terror. Dolli’s head ballooned with pressure until she thought it might pop, but she kept her calm.

Dolli smiled despite the pain and her dropping health. “That’s never going to happen.”

“That’s just not fair!” Keegan squeezed her throat and the pressure built behind her eyes. “I did my best. I followed your instructions. The game system said the quest was done, so you owe me my reward!”

She’d never seen him this furious. Keegan wasn’t able to hurt Dolli when she was a citizen, at least not without provocation, and Dolli would always let her garden do the hard work when he’d come around.

Now, Dolli was a dungeon Overlord, prey to a hero like Keegan. Prey or not, what he’d done was wrong. “You murdered my people.”

“NPCs aren’t people,” Keegan spat the word like a curse.

Dolli had heard Keegan and other heroes use that term; NPC. She didn’t know what it meant, but given the heroes’ flagrant disregard for their wellbeing, she assumed it meant they were considered lesser creatures, as one wouldn’t care if they stepped on an ant. Dolli was a witch of the wilds, she cared for all living things no matter their stature.

“You’re evil, and I will never reward evil.”

Keegan put his sword up to Dolli’s chest. It thrummed with sanguine desire. “I don’t think you understand. I’m going to set up camp in your pathetic little dungeon and spawn kill you and your monsters until I get my reward. So, last chance before I shish kebab you.”

Fear knotted her chest, and her head swam, but she couldn’t let the people of Little Crossroads down. She wouldn’t pay this man for the murder of their families. “I refuse.”

Dolli’s chest exploded in fiery agony as the magical sword passed through her. She gritted her teeth and cast a Spark Lance through Keegan’s skull. The magic passed through him like a gust of wind, dealing just ten points of damage.

Keegan grinned. “Not so powerful anymore, are we?”

He flicked his sword hard to the right, sending the impaled Dolli flying. She dropped to the ground next to the wailing Wendigo child, her health bar flashing a critical warning.

She looked down to see the tiny beads of Spark that made up her being dim and turn black, sending a cascading wave of icy death through her chest. She pressed her hands against the wound, but it did nothing to stop the slow draining of her life. Darkness crept in at the edges of her vision and the child’s screams sounded far off.

“I’ll be waiting for you,” Keegan said. He raised is sword over the child and Dolli’s health bar hit zero.

The view of the world disintegrated in a tinkling of green sparkles, then Dolli was flying away from the horror-show Keegan made of her village. She watched his sword slice through the air, a spray of red painting the street. Dolli wanted to claw her way back down there and gouge out his eyes, rend his stomach and spill his guts, poison him, hang him, burn him alive!

She should’ve fought him the second he spoke. She should’ve thrown everything she had at him. She should’ve corralled the child to safety. She should’ve…

The village receded farther and farther in her green sparkling vision until she was dropping through the trees into her cottage. Then, all was black.

It was dark for only a flash, and then Dolli was floating in her cottage. The angle of the sunlight through the broken window told her it was nearing supper time. She opened her Overlord menu and went to the Lifestream. Her settings of prioritizing the lowest level monsters still held, and so she’d be spit out before most anyone else. Rufus was almost ready to spawn, and Dolli selected the slot in the Lifestream he occupied.

[Set Spawn Point]

Do you want to set this creature’s spawn point to a specific location within your dungeon boundaries?

[Yes] [No]

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Dolli selected “Yes” and an aerial map appeared of the valley between the two mountain ranges. She zoomed in on her cottage and set the spawn marker just outside.

The thundering of Nubiri’s steps were absent. Dolli looked back at the Overlord menu and found Nubiri in the Lifewell. Dolli’s mind’s eye came alive with the vision of Nubiri chomping down on Keegan, shaking him like a rag doll. Yes, Dolli would need Nubiri for the coming fight.

She waited for Rufus to finish restoring, then took all five Lifestream slots for the wyvern to significantly speed her resurrection.

Rufus materialized in a shower of green light amid the remnants of carnage that had happened there in the early morning. He screamed, shielding himself for a fraction before coming to his senses. He looked around the clearing, his eyes landing on Dolli.

Rufus’ wide-eyes and heaving chest morphed to a wrinkled-brow snarl. “Where is he?”

“In town, spawn camping us.” Dolli began tidying the broken things around her kitchen for something to do.

“We have to stop him,” Rufus said, seething.

Dolli nodded. “Oh, I will.”

“No, not just you, Dolli.” Rufus strode forward, a pleading look in his black eyes.

Dolli saw those eyes dead and hollow, blood dripping from the end of his severed neck. She recoiled, looking away from him. She didn’t want that to happen to him again, even if he could respawn. She didn’t want that to happen to anyone in her village ever again.

“I know that look on your face,” Rufus said in a soft, yet accusing tone. “Don’t shut yourself up again. Don’t go hiding off in your cottage and leave the village to its own devices. Don’t pretend you’re separate from us because you’re not. You need us, and we need you.”

They needed her like a hole in the head… none of this would be happening if Dolli had just made the plague cura herself those years ago!

Dolli steeled herself, hiding her emotion and pacing out into the ruined garden. “We’re too low level to take Keegan on as a team, we would just get in each other’s ways. I need the wyvern and a couple of healer Wispelle.”

The egg roost was empty. No shell bits or blood, no indication that the babies were killed. Keegan must’ve stolen them. Good. That would be more than enough fuel to whip Nubiri into a murderous fury.

“If you think that’s best, Overlord,” Rufus said with a dismissive tone that played on Dolli’s last nerve.

Dolli whirled and faced off against the towering Stagarth. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Yes. Revive your people. Move the seat of power and start over somewhere else, somewhere the heroes won’t find us.”

Dolli scoffed. “You want to run?”

“I want to live!”

The clearing went quiet. No birds or bugs, not even the wind through the trees. Rufus ringed his neck, perhaps remembering the pain of having his head removed.

Rufus started again, softer. “I wanted to kill those bastards who’d ruined us, but now more than anything I just want us all to be able to live.”

Dolli wanted them to live, too, but she couldn’t let Keegan win. He needed to pay for what he’d done. He needed to concede. Keegan hadn’t completed the quest, he didn’t deserve a reward. He’d murdered her people and called it salvation, demanding payment. He’d treated them like their lives didn’t matter, and Dolli was going to show him how egregious an error he’d made.

Rufus dropped to a knee beside Dolli, bringing his eyes to her level. “Is there anything I can say to change your mind?”

Dolli sighed. “I don’t even know if we can move the seat of power outside of the zone limits.”

“But we could try,” Rufus offered, hopeful.

Dolli shook her head. “If we run, the heroes will find us. Keegan will find us. We have to put an end to him as many times as it takes to secure our safety. If that means we’re locked in an eternal battle with him—well at least it’ll be a lot of experience points.” She smiled ruefully.

Rufus blew out his cheeks. “Fine. But you need more than a few Wispelle and a wyvern. You need me.”

“That eager for another beheading?” Dolli asked, an air of comedy to the grim topic.

“Not gonna happen this time.” Rufus ringed his neck again and Dolli touched the spot on her chest where Keegan’s sword had run her through.

“We’re going to make that asshole pay. For your sons.” Dolli placed a comforting hand on his knee, for it was all she could reach. Rufus put his hand on hers and smiled.

“So let’s go get ‘em.”

Dolli checked the respawn timer on Nubiri. It was still two more hours, and she needed to get a few Wispelle out of the Lifewell, too. And it couldn’t hurt if Dolli could get another level. She was just three away from her own level ten transformation and couldn’t wait to see what power awaited her.

She moved a few things around in the Lifestream and got Julie, one of the other Wispelle, in a slot, then set that slot to prioritize only Wispelle.

“We have three hours to get me another level or two, and we can’t stay here. Keegan will likely roam back up here looking for me.”

Rufus nodded thoughtfully, then smiled. “I have just the thing.”