Evolution Island: Kill to Survive

Blaze away

Aaron was still fighting the dire wolves, when he heard his friend’s dying screams. Seeing Zach’s body drop dead on the ground sent shudders down his spine. Everything went dark before his eyes and his mind blanked out.

A wounded dire wolf took a swipe right across Aaron’s chest. The pain brought him back to his senses, as blood dripped from his chest, staining his white Karategi. Something suddenly snapped inside Aaron’s head and he lost all control. Driven by blind rage, he unleashed a flurry of s***h attacks, slicing the dire wolves up. One by one, he struck down all 12 dire wolves.

“So, you are the human who set fire to our camp.” Rothnak threw his spear at Aaron, just missing Aaron’s head as he ducked at the last second. “You are a quick little one, just like a juicy hare. Come, let me take a bite of your flesh!”

“You bastard!” Aaron rushed at the Dark Orc with his knives ready to rip open his throat.

Rothnak picked up another spear from the ground and dashed towards Aaron. The dual knives were short-ranged weapons, which put Aaron at a severe disadvantage. Rothnak’s spear gave him greater reach and even served as an ideal weapon for blocking attacks from small bladed weapons.

“Blade Dash!” Instead of wildly flinging himself at the Dark Orc, Aaron activated his dash ability. In the blink of an eye, he covered the entire distance and cut right through Rothnak’s enchanted leather armour. The Orc thrust his spear forward, but only connected with the air. Aaron’s blinding speed had taken Rothnak completely by surprise. By the time Rothnak made sense of the situation, Aaron had already rushed past him and shredded his chest piece to pieces.

Destroying Rothnak’s enchanted leather armour made him much more susceptible to fire damage now. Aaron quickly turned around and pressed the advantage by summoning a group of Firelings.

Rothnak’s defences were down now, but he was still in possession of his cursed battle horn. Aaron had burnt the bodies of the dire wolves with his fire attacks, which made them useless to Rothnak now. However, the battle horn had another special talent. As Rothnak blew the horn, the Firelings disappeared and Aaron’s summoning skill became blocked.

Aaron now understood that the battle horn was not only capable of re-animating dead animals, but it could also dismiss all low level summons and block out the enemy’s summoning skills.

“Your little friends won’t be able to help you now,” Rothnak scoffed.

Aaron looked him dead in the eye and shouted back, “You wanna go 1v1? Alright, I’ll f*****g solo you, you bastard!” Tilting his head forward he stretched apart his arms. “Pyro Charge!”

Flames engulfed Aaron’s body and he dashed forward like a bolt of lightning. Rothnak held his spear in front to block Aaron’s attack, but Aaron broke the weapon in half and knocked Rothnak back.

“Ember Kick!” Aaron didn’t give the Dark Orc any time to recover. With a powerful blow to the chest, he stunned Rothnak. “This is for Zach!” Aaron leapt up in the air and plunged his knives into Rothnak’s eyes. It was a critical hit and reduced the Orc’s HP straight to zero. Aaron didn’t pull out the knives but left them stuck in the Orc’s face. He was so overwhelmed with rage that he wanted to keep going at the Dark Orc, but the dead body soon disappeared, leaving behind a floating DNA fragment.

[*Dark Orc Camp Destroyed!*]

[*Dark Orc Warlord killed!*]

[*Achievement Unlocked: Barbaric!*]

[+30, 000 Sky Gems Earned

+ 150, 000 XP Earned

Level Up!

Current Level: 20

All stats increased

3 Skill points Acquired]

[2 New Abilities Available!]

Aaron turned off the Z-band, but not before it had auto-absorbed the DNA fragment from the dead warlord. Without wasting another moment, he rushed to where Zach’s body lay. He had no pulse and his limbs had already turned cold.

“This can’t be happening. Wake up, bro!” Aaron shouted, banging his fists on the ground. “I can’t do this without you. We are a team, damn it!” Tears streamed down Aaron’s face and his voice cracked.

As Aaron sat there helpless, Zach’s body slowly started fading and then disappeared completely. Aaron wiped his face with his sleeves and got back up. He now remembered that this wasn’t real. Their bodies were still in the real world and this was only a digitally rendered model of their gaming character. Though Zach had died in this game, he could still be alive in the real world.

Dusting himself, Aaron turned his Z-band back on. There was only one person who could answer whether Zach was still alive or not.

“Gilbert! Can you hear me?” Aaron yelled into the Z-band on an open global channel, hoping to get through to the rogue game developer. “We’ve completed the side quest! Give me a reply, damn it!”

Despite Aaron’s desperate pleas, there was no communication from the other end. Only a new notification popped up on the display screen of his Z-band.

[*Side Mission Complete!*]

[*Reward Obtained: Level 10 Egg!*]

[*Golden Loot Chest Acquired!*]

[*New Objective: Return to Dewdale Village*]

Aaron wanted to throw away his Z-band and let go of it all. Zach was gone now and he was all alone once again. He wanted to jump off the cliff himself to see if it would wake him up from this nightmare, but he couldn’t find the courage. Everything felt far too close to reality. There was a slight chance that dying in the game would break the connection and help him get back to the real world, but it could also backfire and send his body into cardiac arrest.

As Aaron stood there lost and helpless, he suddenly had the urge to check his friend list. There was only one name there: Zachary Finch. Clicking on Zach’s name showed that he was offline and under it was the additional info—last online: 7 minutes ago. That was just when he had been killed by Rothnak. Aaron was about to close all tabs, when suddenly the small digital dot beside Zach’s name started blinking green.