Memoirs of Adventure Creative Writing Contest (NA) - Official Entry Thread

[Demosthenes]

The Warrior of Light kills gods for a living.

Yeah, every time he rolls into a new town, he basically ends up mowing everyone's lawn and taking out everyone's trash, but that's probably just because he's a really nice guy. We all know what the real hero’s business is: killing primals. And he does it like nobody else. The guy is a portable Ragnarok. If you’ve done the math, no less than twenty eikons have met their ends at the Warrior’s hands. Some of them over and over (and over) again.

But I think everyone agrees that one primal stands out. There are millions of Warriors of Light, each of them on their own journey—yet across all those countless parallel stars, on the Source of fourteen sundered shards, there are two words to put fear in the hearts of every one of Hydaelyn’s champions.

Titan Extreme.

You never forget your first fight with the Lord of Crags. I flexed into the Navel full of confidence. Normal modes? Easy. Hard modes? Easy. Maybe I had to sweat a little to kill Garuda, but what could titan bring that would be that much worse?



Oh.

I spent hours falling into that pit. Once you fell, you were stuck; no do-overs. There was no coming back from the nap, not until everyone else in your group messed up or decided to start over.

Apparently the canonical explanation for wipes is the Echo shows possible futures that do not come to pass, so I’m pretty sure that my WoL spent more time staring at the possibilities than a certain Doctor did in a movie franchise that will remain nameless.

But this isn’t a story of failure. I refused to be beaten.



You bet I was.

I dodged Landslides until I could do it in my sleep. I maneuvered around bomb boulders like it was Dance Dance Revolution. To me, this is what high level raids in an MMO are all about: When you’re confronted with a seemingly insurmountable challenge, you rise to the occasion. Together with your friends, you formulate a strategy, you practice that strategy, and inch by inch, phase by phase, you see it all come together, until that one shining moment of victory that makes it all worthwhile. That’s why so many deep friendships are forged through games online. it’s by sharing in the struggle that people come closer together, and I can confidently say that vanquishing Titan was the most rewarding moment in my whole time in Eorzea.

So, after that, it was smooth sailing, right? After all, what could possibly be harder than Titan?



Oh. Titan. Titan could be harder than Titan.



Looks like I've got some work to do.

(Prize: Noble Barding)

[veregna]

It was a cloudy evening.

The grey skies afforded sight of neither the stars nor moon as the encroaching night wrapped the bright lights of the Crozier in its gentle embrace, causing them to shine ever brighter. I sat on an abandoned bench, waiting. The chatter of the market seemed malms away as the snow drifted lazily down, muffling everything in a cold silence, and I could hear naught but my own thoughts, unwelcome as they were. But they would not be deterred.

The setting sun, washing the immaculate floors in a burning red, had started ebbing away. Gloaming casting darkening shadows that crept toward us, just as the dread beneath the surface of my courage roiled in my gut. I paid it no mind. The Archbishop had to be stopped.

I would have died, were it not for you.

It was a moment that stretched forever, between the hope that you would hold and the dread if you could not, and the relentless regret that I hadn’t the foresight to prevent this from happening.

A sharp ringing filled my ears, the keening growing louder and louder--

And then, silence.

Smile. A simple request, privilege of those who wouldn’t bear the consequences. But a request I had no right to deny, tumultuous emotions burning in my breast.

And then you were gone.

I glanced at my companion, having arrived as I was adrift in my thoughts, and I curled my fingers into a hard grip, seeing the resolve in her eyes that I sought to grasp in my heart. Near imperceptibly, she nodded.

There were things yet to do, that we must do. This was the privilege of those who lived, who had no choice but to accept the consequences. I couldn’t squander the gift you left me, a hope that could not have been known without first having borne despair, and I prayed that I could do for others what you had done for me.

That night, we left the city. City of ash and smoke and bitter solitude, its fleeting lights swallowed by the darkness and ice. And beneath all the fear and pain, a city of hope.

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(prize: Gaelicap)