Stan felt a chill on the back of his neck, and he knew immediately that something was wrong. He could tell by the widening of G’s eyes that G could sense it too. As a sword appeared in the fan’s hand, G whipped out his pickaxe and knocked the blade aside. The fan’s sword, which would have pierced Kat in the stomach, instead stuck into the ground, and G’s pickaxe slammed across the fan’s head, knocking him to the ground.
Kat’s sword was out of her inventory in a flash as the second fan-turned-assailant whipped out a bow and arrow. Kat slashed the bow in half before the player could fire, just as the third assailant pulled a green potion out of her inventory and threw it at G’s head. Kat struck the flying bottle out of the air with her sword and the bottle exploded, spraying G and herself with poison. Two slashes later, all three of the fans lay unconscious on the ground.
Stan’s senses kicked into overdrive as all over the courtyard, figures hastily pulled black tunics and caps on. Fifteen figures throughout the crowd pulled swords from their inventories, which swiftly changed to the same colour as their tunics. In unison, the figures raised the black swords in the air and belted out, “VIVA LA NOCTEM!”
Stan immediately recognized that, whatever this was, it was not random. This was planned, this was organized, and this was dangerous. The figures surged forwards and converged towards the centre of the courtyard. The partygoers sprinted away from the black-robed figures, screaming in terror. Stan reached into his inventory and slung his bow across his back, put his quiver of arrows at his side, and held his diamond axe in his hands. He saw that two of the figures were rushing towards him, and he prepared to engage their black blades in combat.
However, Stan was totally caught off guard when the two figures jammed their black swords into their sheaths and whipped out more potions, both green and dark purple ones. Stan realized in horror that these were Potions of Poison and Harming. In a matter of seconds, four potions flew through the air towards Stan, and he was forced to hop and skip backwards to avoid being caught in the blast radius of the shattering bottles.
Stan was uneasy, never having fought against players who used potions as weapons before. Taking what he found to be the logical approach, Stan drew his bow. The string of his bow twanged twice, and an arrow flew into each of the dark figures’ tunics. Unfazed, the two players drew bright red potions from their inventory and in one swig downed the entire bottle. The effect was instantaneous. The arrows popped from the chestplates, leaving only a small hole in the tunic in their places.
Stan was shocked. What was this? Who were these players, where did they get all these potions, and how did they learn to fight with them so well? Stan, desperate as more Potions of Poison and Harming flew his way, looked around for help. He realized with a jolt that all the high-ranking officials of Element City, all his friends, were now engaged in combat with these players. He was equally alarmed to see that all the mysterious players fought using potions, keeping even master sword fighters like DZ from getting in close enough to use their skills.
As Stan drew his axe to engage his attackers at close range, he reminded himself that he had to be careful. He had no idea where these players came from or who they were, but they were clearly in the order of assassins. That meant that besides escaping the attack and staying alive, Stan had an obligation to take these players prisoner. If he killed the players or let them escape, they would never be interrogated and Stan would never find out why they had attacked him.
Stan ducked another Potion of Harming, and he slammed the butt end of his axe into the thrower’s head. The player, whose eyes were barely visible under a ninja mask and black leather cap, looked stunned. He fell to the ground at Stan’s feet, just as Stan felt a sting on his unarmoured back. As he cringed, Stan realized that he had been hit with a Potion of Harming from another assassin. Stan spun around just as the attacker was about to throw another potion. Stan ducked the bottle, and he swung his axe blade under the attacker’s legs, knocking him to the ground. Stan surged forwards and stepped on the player’s chest, pinning his throwing hand to the ground with his axe.
“OK,” said Stan, breathing heavily. The potion stain on his unprotected back was burning, intensifying his rage. “Who are you people, and why are you attacking us?”
There was no hesitation. The attacker, with his free hand, drew a purple potion from his inventory at light speed and poured the entire contents down his throat. There was a quick shudder, and the attacker’s hand went limp, the empty bottle rolling to the side. His items burst about him in a ring, a sure indicator that the attacker had died.
Stan looked around and saw that like himself, all of his friends had bested the attackers. The black-robed forms now all lay on the ground. In the hands of each of them were the glints of empty glass bottles.
Stan was stunned. What motivation could these players possibly have had that they would rather die than be captured? Stan looked down and realized that one of the attackers was not dead, just unconscious. Well, I’m sure he’ll be able to explain this to us, thought Stan as he dragged him by the knees over to the others.
Kat and G were each drinking a Potion of Regeneration to counter the poison that had exploded in their faces. Kat was using another potion to heal her dog, Rex (who had appeared from nowhere to defend his mistress). Bob was using a Potion of Healing to mend a burn that a Potion of Harming had left on Ivanhoe’s side. Besides that, everybody seemed fine.
Five players were rushing over the Element Castle drawbridge. As they approached, Stan recognized them as Blackraven, Councilman Jayden, Archie, the Mechanist, and Gobbleguy. They looked around in shock, disgust and horror at the black-clad corpses that littered the ground, and the empty potion bottles beside them.
“What happened out here?” asked Gobbleguy, his face stricken with worry.
Stan explained, “We were having an after-party to celebrate the Zombies winning the Spleef match, when out of nowhere a few of the fans tried to kill Kat. Then a bunch of other players pulled out black caps, tunics and swords, and tried to kill the rest of us.”
“Wait, they yelled something before that, didn’t they?” asked DZ.
“Yeah, they yelled ‘Viva la Noctem,’” said Charlie.
Jayden’s and Archie’s faces morphed into alarm. “Did you say … they yelled ‘Viva la Noctem,’ and then they tried to kill you?” asked Archie.
“Yeah,” said Kat. “Why? Does that mean anything to you guys?”
“Oh, boy … yes it does,” said Jayden, pressing his hands together, sweat accumulating on his forehead. “You know how Archie and I said we had business yesterday?”
“Yeah …” said G slowly. The two of them had had to leave the council meeting early because of it.
“Well, we went to a Noctem Alliance rally in the Residential District,” said Jayden.
“You did what?” shouted Stan, taken aback.
“Yeah,” said Archie. “We went undercover there. We wanted to know more about the group, you know, check out whether or not they were just a protesting group, or something more threatening.”
“And what did you find?” asked Bill. Stan was dreading the answer.
“The guy speaking there said that the upper-level citizens of Element City deserve better than to share the streets with what they called ‘lower-level trash’,” said Archie.
“Yeah, well, we know that’s what the views of that group are, they’ve made that very clear from the get-go,” said Charlie. “But what does that have to do with what happened today?”
“That’s just it! The guy at the rally said that the Noctem Freedom Fighters – that’s what he called them – must be willing to go to any lengths to preserve their ideals. The rally finished with the leader doing that chant. The entire rally started chanting.” A shadow crossed his face as he said the phrase once again.
“Viva la Noctem. The motto of