I swear I don't forget to upload on purpose
Okay, bit of context here. Yesterday I had a pretty rough Chemistry exam on information the professor barely covered, and went at a speed rivaling that of a Nascar race while covering what she did. I was completely drained afterwards, and felt like moving as little as physically possible. During this time, I unfortunately forgot to upload the next chapter.
But yeah, apart from that, nothing much to report. The plot for the scifi story I'm making next is coming along nicely so I hope to get that started by Christmas break. Also, I think I'm going to move updates officially to Wednesdays instead of Mondays. It's in order to alleviate the stress of having only 3 hours of down time on Monday and feeling obligated to still upload. So without further Adeu, here's Chapter 30!
Qilin lay under the house that had fallen on him, unmoving. Not dead, just not moving.
After he had slammed into the floating Keep, his character had fallen down into a building full of Hackers and spawnstones. His body had crushed the spawnstones, along with an unfortunate rogue that had spawned in mere moments before, and scattered the Hackers hiding inside. Before either party could recover, the roof collapsed in on them, pulling the walls with it. The Hackers that had survived had crawled out and run off, taking anyone who hadn’t made it out for dead.
Which they all were, except for Qilin.
Qilin sent a message to Sharps and the guildmasters, detailing his plight. They got back to him saying that he was behind the Hackers, making it impossible to rescue him until they got where he was. Qilin sent an affirmative and closed the IM, settling in for a long wait.
It wasn’t like he couldn’t get out or anything; as long as none of the wires used to control his appendages were cut, he could free himself in no time. In fact, he should free himself, his mind told him. The Hackers were putting up a stiff resistance, and the Coders needed all the help they could get.
And yet, here he lay. Doing absolutely nothing. For the first time since he was made leader of the Coders, he had no drive to stop the Hackers at all. All he could think about was what had happened immediately before he’d been launched. How they’d ignored him. What Axinator had said, “This is what happens when you don’t take the fight to the enemy. Outside your Coders, your lack of action has made most of Rune hate you quite a bit. They don’t respect you, so they don’t listen to you.”
Did Axinator tell the truth? Had he really lost the respect of the rest of Rune? It certainly seemed to fit the actions of the other players. It was apparent that they disliked him at best, downright hated him at worst. All because of the war that he’d started. A war necessary to protect Rune, but a war nonetheless. A war that tore Rune in two as the two sides fought for supremacy. And Qilin was the face of one of the sides. The other face, Arachanoid, had yet to be seen in public, making Qilin essentially the face of the war.
No wonder they hated him. They probably hated him even more than when it started, since he had let it drag on for so long. But it was unavoidable, he reasoned. Or was it. Had he kept on the offensive and not holed up and resorted to raids, could they’ve harassed the Hackers enough to make them leave? Probably not, but whatever the result was, it probably would’ve been better than what he faced now. The Hackers were on the verge of accessing the Core, the Coders and players were fighting the Hackers into a stalemate, and a stupid building had fallen on him. Most if not all of it was Qilin’s fault. He had failed.
The player behind Qilin gritted his teeth in determination. He was done failing.
There was a large clattering of footsteps near Qilin’s rubble. Since he was still behind the front line, they could only be Hackers. Qilin gripped the largest piece on top of him and with metal groaning and control wires splintering, he shoved it off of his body and to the side. He tried to stand up, but his legs refused to cooperate. Looking down, he saw that the knee joints in the left leg were bent out of shape; usable, but its use severely diminished. The right leg was a different story all together. Halfway down the thigh, a long neat gash marred the otherwise seamless piece of metal. Whatever had caused the gash had also severed every single control wire that dealt with the leg- rendering it useless.
Ignoring the wound, Qilin pushed on his legs with his hands and stumbled into a standing position and grasped at his right knee, finding a bolt there and pulling it. The bolt locked his knee in place, making his right let a makeshift peg leg.
Standing up properly, Qilin surveyed his surroundings. The building he had fallen on was one of several on a street. The clattering he had heard was indeed Hackers, who had stopped in surprise when a massive iron golem stood up from a pile of rubble. They pulled their weapons free and advanced menacingly. Evidently, they expected other Coders to appear from the rubble and begin attacking. But there wouldn’t be any other Coders.
Qilin was on his own.
But that didn’t mean he was defenseless.
The two lead Hackers suddenly stumbled and fell backwards as crossbow bolts appeared in their chests. The remaining Hackers backed up in surprise as the two massive crossbows that had sprouted from Qilin’s chest cavity reloaded and fired again, taking out another two Hackers. Seeing that they’d be picked off if they didn’t attack, the Hacker group charged Qilin, only to be buffeted back by a blast of fire from Qilin’s mouth. As the fire roared, Qilin selected his remaining ranged upgrade that he hadn’t shown yet and activated it.
As the fire died, the shaken Hackers advanced once more; unaware of the danger they faced, but beginning to grasp the scale of it. They further grasped the scale when a cluster of shuriken fired out of a hidden launcher in Qilin’s left arm mangled the throat of another Hacker and inflicted minor to major damage on several others.
At this point, the Hackers abandoned all attempts at being tactical and simply charged the leader of the Coders, hoping and praying that they’d take him out before being taken out themselves. Qilin continued to attack them with fire shuriken, and crossbows until they closed to melee range. When the first Hacker, a spearman, thrust at Qilin, he grabbed the shaft and squeezed it, shattering it into wooden splinters. As a goblin tried to jump on his back, he rotated his right arm around and lightly swatted at him, throwing the Hacker into the building across the street.
The spearman by now had drawn a small axe and attacked Qilin. It hit his right forearm and bit in slightly. Qilin looked down briefly at the axe in annoyance before ripping it out with his other hand and tossing it to the ground. He then activated his melee module.
Qilin’s right forearm split lengthwise and two saw blades slid out of the opening, moving back and forth at a ferocious rate. The spearman that had caused him so much trouble was the first victim. The Hacker tried to block with his forearm gauntlet, but Qilin cut through the metal plating along with the flesh beneath it. The severed appendage thumped to the ground and Qilin finished the Hacker off at last by sawing through his chest. Qilin dispatched several more Hackers in this manner before the remainder of the Hacker force fled in terror, only to be cut down by Qilin’s crossbows and shuriken. The street fell quiet at long last, save for the distant fighting noise and the occasional fireball or spell lobbed over the rooftops by magicians. Qilin had beaten them.
But not without a cost. The cut from the small axe was not Qilin’s only wound, nor was it the largest. That honor belonged to a lucky strike that had fouled some of the gears controlling Qilin’s neck, causing it to tilt at an awkward angle and be unable to turn more than a fraction in either direction. The strike had also bent his jaw hinge out of alignment, allowing flames to escape at irregular intervals, although that was more of a detriment to the Hackers than anything. Qilin awkwardly shuffled in a full 360 to make certain that no other Hackers were coming before opening the chatroom with Sharps and the Guildmasters.
Qilin1: Got back up. I’m pretty banged up, but otherwise ready for combat. What’s the sitrep?
Sharps: Still advancing, but taking heavy casualties. Hackers are spawning in at buildings we can’t reach.
SpicyMooshroom: Qilin, I’ve set up a portal service to get Coders back faster but can’t do anything for the other guilds
THEMurderous_Richard: I just lost my best mage. When he respawns, I’ll have him set up portals for mine. Suggest you do the same.
Axinator: Agreed. Not doing too well up here. GN, Janus, and Miles are going up the stairs, but Hackers keep trying to breach. Fire from mages and archers is keeping me from taking down the ladder. Can you take care of them?
LegoLass: My guild is closest to the Keep. ETA 3 min.
Axinator: No time. Down to five percent health. Activating berserk stage. Gonna try to take as many out as possible.
Qilin cursed. Things were getting bad out there. There were teams placing explosives all around the castle, but they alone wouldn’t be able to cause a server shutdown. That all hinged on GN’s team to destroy the Keep. And if Axinator was killed, the Hackers could undo all of GN, Janus, and Miles’ work. But the Coders and the guilds wouldn’t be able to reach the Keep in time.
That left only Qilin.
Wasting no time, Qilin set out, hobbling on his peg leg as fast as he could. Fortunately, he had not landed too far from the Keep and in less than a minute, he rounded a turn and the ground beneath it was in sight.
And a sight it was. Multiple Hackers with ranged attacks were firing towards the ledge at the base of the keep. Those with non-ranged weapons were climbing up the ladder up to have a go at Axinator. They would reach the top and disappear for a few seconds before their bodies fell off of the ledge and thudded to the ground. Then the process would repeat. But Qilin noticed that each time a Hacker reached the top, it would take slightly longer than the previous to be thrown off the ledge. Axinator was large with vast stores of stamina, but even those stores had their limits. Evidently, he was reaching them.
Realizing that time was short, Qilin sent up a brief message to Axinator explaining what he was going to do before reopening the compartments in his body. He aimed the crossbows into the crowd, and released, firing a bolt every five seconds. The ranged Hackers were his first and foremost target- they were preventing Axinator from getting to the ladder and cutting it from the ledge. Many began to fall, but this only attracted the attention of the Hackers waiting to climb the ladder. Several broke off from the group waiting and raced towards Qilin. Rather than redirect his crossbow fire, Qilin instead armed his shuriken launcher and began firing at them. Several were taken out, but most had medium to heavy armor and the shuriken merely bounced off or embedded themselves into the armor without dealing any damage. As they neared him, Qilin tried to open his jaw to spew fire at the Hackers. To his dismay, the misaligned jaw kept him from correctly opening, limiting Qilin to irregular intervals from which to use the weapon. Making a quick decision, Qilin reached up with his right hand and ripped his jaw from his head, tossing it away. The ensuing torrent of flame was greater than anything Qilin had ever produced, reaching thirty feet out and roasting the Hackers in the middle of the assaulting force as well as the closest of those still waiting for a turn up the ladder. The Hackers that survived dove to the sides of the flame, beating out smaller fires that sprung up on their gear.
The fire didn’t last forever though. Qilin only had so much fuel on him and once it was out, the flames were gone. The surviving Hackers got back to their feet and raised their weapons and charged Qilin for a final time. Qilin kept firing on the mages and archers until his line of fire was obstructed by the lead Hacker who got two bolts in his gut for his trouble. He collapsed, and the Hackers behind him merely stepped over his body and continued advancing, reaching Qilin.
The lead knight stabbed at Qilin’s exposed crossbows to try and take them out. Qilin grabbed the sword with his right hand and shoved it to the side, but not without losing several fingers in the process. Before the Hacker could recover, Qilin activated the chainsaw once more and punched the Knight in the side. The fist bent the armored plate but otherwise did no damage. Qilin kept the fist going until the saw blades on his forearm came into contact with the armor and sawing through it like butter. Qilin then pushed into the knight’s gut, inflicting a critical hit and killing the knight.
As Qilin pulled his arm free, another Hacker jumped onto his back and clung on tight. Already out of balance from his bad leg, Qilin teetered to the side and crashed down. Several other Hackers tried to take advantage of Qilin’s moment of weakness by attacking him. Qilin earned a handful of cuts on his body before he managed to roll away from his attackers. As he rolled, the Hackers on his back let out several squeaks before going limp and letting go. Having rolled a safe distance away, Qilin pushed himself back up to his knees. As he did, he discovered that in his desperation to escape, he had neglected to retract his crossbows. As a result of his rolling away, they had been reduced to kindling and string. Not wanting them to be hanging out of his chest the way they were, Qilin yanked them out before tossing them away. The Hackers who had been attacking him were by now within melee range, but Qilin spared a few moments to fire off a handful of shuriken to take out several mages and an archer.
A fellow iron golem walked up to Qilin and bent down, sneering at him. “How the mighty have fallen,” he said. “You know, you and your Coders have been a pain in the ass for us for quite a bit of time. And you were at the head of it all. I expected more.”
Qilin turned his head as much as he could and looked at him. “Ex-cuse me?” he managed to get out of his mangled mouth.
“Look at you; I spent my entire time in the Hackers hearing about you; how massive you were, how powerful you were, how you were a literal god on the battlefield. When I heard you had been seen, I hoped that I’d be able to find out which of us had created the better golem. And this is what I get? A battered piece of scrap that’s missing most of its weapons? I’m disappointed.”
Rage boiled in Qilin’s stomach. Not because what the golem said was wrong, but because he was right. Staying away from the more populous areas of Rune since the battle that left Professor BA in a coma gave Qilin very few chances to train. And now he was out of shape. The Qilin from 16 months ago would’ve rolled through the Hackers in front of him like they were paper mache. The Qilin 16 months ago would’ve never let himself be caught unawares and hit with an arrow.
The Qilin from 16 months ago would’ve never let the Hackers get to where they were now. He would’ve ended the war mere months later. They had been to that point, he knew it. He had a chance to take them out and he had let it slip through his grasp. Axinator was right. He had grown soft.
Not getting a reply, the golem tilted his head and moved in closer to Qilin. “What? Got nothing to say, scrap ma-” before he could finish, Qilin’s left hand shot out and grasped the golem’s face. Confused, the golem tried to pry Qilin’s fingers off, but found they were locked on and couldn’t be budged.
Qilin leaned in to where the golem’s ears would be if he had them and whispered, “Let, show what, true god, do.” Qilin increased his the pressure of his grip on the golem’s face, bending the metal. Frantic to get free now, the Hacker activated several upgrades and attacked Qilin with them all. Qilin ignored them and continued to squeeze, buckling the metal underneath his grasp before finally ripping it away to reveal the interior of the golem’s head and his most precious keepsake; his core.
Having nothing to do with the center of Rune’s source code, the core could be found in every animated character’s head. So long as it was intact, the player could control anything that was connected to it, although they could choose to leave at any time. It could even be removed and replanted in another suitable body should the need arise. This gave any animated character fighting options that no other character type had. But it was also their greatest weakness. It was extremely fragile and could be destroyed with the bare hands of even the weakest player.
Which was nothing compared to the forced Qilin exerted upon the Hacker’s core, smashing it into a fine dust. Immediately, the Hacker’s body went limp and fell into Qilin’s arms. Rather than let it drop however, Qilin grasped the remainder of the head and pulled it off of the body, leaving the jawpiece in place. He then removed his own head while the rest of the Hackers watched, still stunned by the brutal attack and slow to move. The last act of his old battered body was to slam his head down on the decapitated torso of the Hacker. Immediately, his HUD flickered and changed showing the new weapons he had available. The iron golem had been prepared to say the least.
Standing up straight and proper, Qilin worked his new jaw while watching as Axinator finally caught enough of a break thanks to Qilin’s work, to smash down on the ladder, causing it to fall down towards the Hackers still waiting to get on. Qilin then looked at the Hackers still standing in awe at him and smiled at them.762Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhPRC2tQ2V8
“Right,” he said, “Who’s first?”
So that was chapter 30! I didn't notice it until today, but this means that HOR uploads have been going on for over a year. and that we actually hit such a high number of chapters. I had no idea when I began writing HOR that i'd end up writing 30 something odd chapters.
So now we're nearing the end of the story. We have less than half a dozen chapters left before this story comes to a close. I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to all of you who've run across this little experiment of mine, and decided to stay for the ride. It's been a blast and I hope you all have enjoyed it so far. I'll see you all in two weeks.
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