“What gives you the right?” Sang demanded. “What gives you the right to tell us how to live our lives?”
“There it is again!” Lemuel chuckled. “Are you familiar with Joseph Stalin? Perhaps one of history’s most horrific killers. The man made certain to eliminate a large chunk of his own people. They say that he killed roughly 60 million people. You, Sang, in your mad bid for independence and freedom, are condoning such behavior. There are no such causalities on the planets where we rule and reign. Instead of violence, brutality, and starvation, there is order. There is progress.”
Sang opened her mouth to speak, but realized there wasn’t anything that she could say to fight against this creature’s logic. With his alien mind, would he even truly be able to comprehend freedom? It was doubtful that this thing even knew how to think like a human could.
Lemuel continued. He seemed quite pleased with the fact that he was communicating his species’ plans with them. Perhaps he hoped to convince them to his way of thinking, Van thought.
“After decades of imposing order,” the lizard creature lectured, “we discovered a powerful method. Rather than fighting against you anarchists as a whole, which would often lead to needless bloodshed, and the… occasional surprise... we learned that we could convert others to our way of thinking through indoctrination. Of course, it isn’t easy to convince someone to turn against their own people, so we developed a method of weeding out the weak and finding the strong. Individuality is weakness, but teamwork—ah, teamwork is the ultimate strength. So, we invented games such as this one, as a way to find those who are strong leaders. They could understand the necessity of order and, as such, our recruitment efforts went smoothly. In only a short period of time, we were able to seize control of a planet and allow the native race to experience one perfect storm of chaos. Those who remained afterward would be sympathetic to our rule and would march in lockstep with us. They would adopt order, and chaos would be no more.”
“And you don’t feel bad about all of the deaths?” Van shouted. There was a hoarseness in his voice that underscored just how angry he was with this lizard creature.
“Oh, of course, we feel terrible. But what is the alternative? Allow these races to continue to exist in chaos? I fear there are no easy answers, so we have chosen the most pragmatic method. Believe me, if there was another way, we would choose it, but you’ve got to realize that every lesser race drinks chaos in as if it were water. Even now, as you disagree with me, I can see the urge to fall into chaos as it grows upon your faces. You tense up, wanting violence to solve your problems. You seek to end my existence so that you can feel better about yourselves. Even in your desire to protect humanity, you are fueled by the individualistic desire to personally do a good thing.”
“Screw you!” Sang said as she released her bow, firing an arrow toward Lemuel. He leapt to the right, narrowly avoiding the hit.
“Think carefully about your decision,” Lemuel said. “There are some things that you cannot take back. You haven’t even heard my offer yet.”
“What could you possibly offer us?” Sang asked.
“An excellent question,” Lemuel said as his tail thrashed up and down. He didn’t look perturbed by the attack at all. In fact, Sang could have sworn that he’d smiled when she attacked him. What was going on?
“Allow me to be up front with you both,” Lemuel continued. “If we wanted you dead, we could have easily ended your miserable lives. We could have done a host of things to make sure you’d never be able to interfere with us again, but that’s not very sporting, is it? In case you haven’t noticed, Dragon Kings of the New World is very rules oriented. We programmed a very intense series of rules and logic into this game, and everything follows it. That is because rules bring order. We do not deviate from our rules. As such, you will be interested to know that one such rule which we follow, our sacred rule, is that only those who are strong will be worthy of respect.”
“Why respect strength?” Van asked.
“Because strength requires discipline in order that it be attained. Discipline comes from order. We like a race that shows strains of order. In the end, when all races have been properly tended to, there will be a grand hierarchy. Those who show great skill, even when geared toward chaos, will be rewarded with positions of power. Think of it sort of like your United Nations, with the most powerful races being the ones who will help usher in decisions.”
“So, like a trial by fire kind of thing?” Van asked, stepping slightly toward the girls. The lizard didn’t move or change his expression as Van began moved. Van inched his way closer to Bidane, who had begun to stir.
“Exactly. We are looking for only the best. Which brings me to my offer. We will allow you two to continue down your path for as long as you can survive. It would be unfair for us to change the rules of our game just because we don’t like what you’re doing with it. To change our operations based on that consideration would be a decision made in service to chaos.”
“So, what, you just let us take what we want, then?”
“If you can fight hard enough, sure,” Lemuel said as he strolled toward the back of the ship. “It was nice to finally meet you two. I was hoping that wretched Xevov would be with you, but it appears that it was smart enough to avoid this entire area. Soon enough, we will find it and kill it. Of all the races, I’ll tell you that I despise the Xevov the most. It is ridiculous to know that they are relying entirely on you humans to rescue you. They have no strength. Goodbye.”
And with that, Lemuel simply vanished from the room.
“Well, that didn’t go as horribly as I was thinking,” Van said.
“Don’t talk just yet,” Sang said as a door on one side of the room slid open. Four burly men armed with spears and wearing plate mail emerged. Sang quickly pulled up their character sheets to find that they were all identical, albeit very simplistic.
Character Sheet
Name:
Warrior
Leveclass="underline"
20
Health:
25
Strength:
15
Items:
Plate Mail (Damage resistance +50%)
Spear (10 damage)
Helmet (Reduce critical damage)
Much to Sang’s surprise, it appeared that these warriors had lower health levels than normal, but then again, Sang’s health had been pretty low in the previous fight, too.
“Oh, crap,” Van gasped as he dropped down and cut Bidane and Dolly’s ropes loose. “Girls, you better get out of here.”
“What in the hell was all that about?” Bidane demanded as she pulled the gag off of her mouth. She tried to stand, but her legs were too weak and she buckled to her knees. Dolly wasn’t doing much better, as she wasn’t speaking at all and could barely stand.
“Look out!” Sang said as she aimed her bow at the four men who were in a square formation, standing shoulder to shoulder. “Hey, back off! You guys have one chance to back off; if you don’t, you’re going to die.”
The men said nothing, but continued marching towards Sang. One of them lunged forward and hurled his spear at her, but she was able to dodge out of the way. The spear crashed into one of the screens behind her, causing the entire wall to fizzle and spark.
“Oh man,” Van said as he grabbed a dart from his belt and chucked it at one of the spearmen. The dart bounced right off of the plate mail. The words Insufficient Penetration floated above them.
Sang snapped another arrow off. It sailed through the air and lodged itself right between the shoulders of the front spearman’s armor. 20 damage floated above him. He winced and dropped to one knee, and Sang could see blood dripping out of the wound.
The three remaining soldiers broke formation, raised their spears, and rushed toward Sang at the same time.