by Ed White
“Probably damage from falling rocks,” Mal says. “Were you hit in the head by rocks too? Help us kill this thing.”
Through intensity of battle and concentration, Mal still appears distracted and in some degree of pain. He gives a brief shake of his head and catches my eye. “Greywaters, the fuckin’ spider! Focus on the spider.”
Malcolm’s still hearing the screeching. I can’t hear anything besides the fight between us and the spider over the rumble of falling stone. Still, I do as ordered, with my Blazing Axe equipped, sinking it into the nearest leg joint of the stunned and sluggish beast. The blade bites true and deep, a gush of dark, foul liquid spews over me. Wonderful.
Great Spider 5/80
We might actually do this, kill a monster beyond our level.
Then I see them—reflective eyes in the flash of Remy’s baton. The crackle of rapid ice formation causes the eyes to shift at an angle, the cock to the side of the head in which they’re socketed?
Oh shit.
I hear the high-pitched shriek of the creature as refracted light through ice reveals a bat-like, demonic body—veined, translucent leathery wings and all.
The creature hangs from the bulbous rear of the spider, near its web spinner. Moisture, probably blood, oozes from the spider’s armored skin. The vampire thing is feeding on the spider and I doubt it’s alone.
“Guys! Mal, Remy, there’s something feeding on the spider.”
“Good! Shut up and keep hacking at it!” Mal says.
Remy is less aggressive and more concerned. “Feeding? Malcolm, take this seriously, we’re in more danger than killing this spider.”
Mal sucks his teeth.
The Blazing Axe slung over my back, I level my baton at the screeching bat demon. “The thing looks like Dracula in his bat body. A giant Man Bat!”
“Camazotz!” Remy says. “Like actual bats, there’s going to be hundreds of them. We have to get out of here. If the game is glitching, then it probably won’t recognize our levels.”
I check the Fast Travel option again.
ERROR: The Way of the Walk [Fast Travel]. Unavailable.
Yes indeed. Trapped down here with a stranger, an asshole, a giant, giant spider and bat demons.
***
The Great Spider, partially encrusted in Remy’s ice, struggles in place as I continue my standoff with the bat demon. The spider is close to death and I wonder whether Mal, Remy and I must share the kill with the bat thing.
Random encounter: Zotz Demon.
Rewards:
1000 XP
Ley Crystal +3
Creature
Name: Zotz Demon.
Species: N/A.
Level: N/A.
Class: N/A.
Subclass: N/A.
Affinity: Underworld.
HP: 80/80
MP: 30/30
AC: 15
Attributes
Strength: 16
Dexterity: 50
Movement/Speed: 5
Combat Rate: 1.65
Constitution/Endurance: 32
Physical Defense (PD): 3.2
Energy Defense (ED): 3.2
Body: 16
Stun: 32
Recovery: 6.4
Intelligence: 2 (-4)
Mental strength: 11
Senses: Blindsight 10 ft. Dark Vision 60 ft. Perception 13 (passive). Presence/Charisma: 4
Abilities/Skills
Multi-attack. Climb. Grapple. Flight.
Weapons
Claws. Melee attack: +6 to hit.
DAM: 8 (slashing)
Bite. Melee attack: +6 to hit.
DAM: 7 (piercing/necrotic)
Zotz Demons dwell between Subterranea and the Underworld, venturing to the surface world to feed.
Sharing XP with one or dozens of demons is reason enough to kill the creepy bastard. With that, I fire into the horrific face of the bat demon.
Shimmering Blast.
Range: 10-foot cone.
DAM: 10.
Zotz Demon 70/80
80 HP. It’s going to take more than eight successful hits to kill just one of these demons and more are swarming up from the great below. But the game favors brains over brawn, I know it. What’s the strategy in this, how do we win? Or is the game functioning properly? Has the hacker assault changed the rules? Maybe literally? For every attack, a patch, yet for my mission to be necessary, there must be hackers within Lenscape—how else would I locate them?
Damn it, focus.
Strategy. Tactics. If we break for the surface, the sunlight, if we reach it, might drive back the demons. But they’re not vampires, do they avoid sunlight? Nothing on their index mentioned weaknesses to sunlight and they can fly.
If we enter the tunnels to the main Chol city, the confines of the passageway will limit the number of demons able to enter. We can defend one demon at a time against one of us. Remy can block the path with an ice wall. Maybe we can collapse the limestone to create a permanent obstacle.
Two options, both unknowns of high risk. Always the way of things.
Life.
Chapter Nineteen
Rolling away from the ice-locked spider, clear of its reach, I remain focused on the demon laying on the webbing behind the spider with its head in its clawed hands. I’ve done it harm, but it’s far from dead. Oddly, there’s some degree of similarity in the head structures of the demon and a Setec. While Mal doesn’t have any nose structure on his Setec face, the huge bat ears of the demon and the protrusions and pointed chin on Malcolm’s head are similar. But while the Zotz demon is a dark leathery brown, Mal is a mustard yellow. Are aliens cursed by demons too? Perhaps there’s no true separation between the supernatural and the location—for each planet and sentient species, a Hell.
The Great Spider collapses, the demon climbing over a limp leg as Remy refocuses onto the demon, his socketed staff having additional charges compared to mine, and fires again.
Zotz Demon 61/80
The demon shatters most of the ice around himself as Mal adds to the mix with a blast from his baton and a slash across the throat of the demon with his clawed fingers.
Zotz Demon 50/80
There’s got to be a brains over brawn solution to this. Perhaps not for every player but certainly for me.
Shimmering Blast.
Range: 10-foot cone.
DAM: 10.
Zotz Demon 42/80
Mal elongates his gnarled, bone-like fingers into foot-long talons and slashes away at the demon.
Character
Name: Mal.
Species: Setec.
Level: 1
Class: Rogue.
Subclass: Assassin.
Affinity: None.
Bound by the remains of Remy’s ice, the demon is unable to retreat. The ice causing a slow drain of additional damage.
Zotz Demon 32/80
We’re out of time, the shrieking spills up from the darkness below.
The baleful cries assault our ears, Mal most of all, with a shrill piercing toll. Successful strikes from the three of us might kill the demon, but not before its grim fellows swarm us.
Brains and brawn. The solution is to use both.
We can’t escape to the surface, not fast enough and it won’t matter—the canopy blocks most sunlight, if that even hurts the demons, and any escape from them means climbing the trees. Hell, if we’ll manage that before they catch us.
If we die I lose the sedes.
Use it before you lose it.
The sedes blazes into my hands, equipped from my inventory, it’s our only hope. Emerald light pulses at its heart, for that is what it represents.
“Guys, back up, get behind me. Now!” I’ll broker no questions. I know what I must do.
Remy and Mal flip and leap from the corpse of the dead spider. Even Ex hustles back.
The sedes bristles with energy, glowing in my outstretched hand. The now familiar numbing cold, like a jolt from an electrical socket, bites into
me as its power surges into my baton.
Ley Bridge.
Shimmering Blast.
The sanctum fills with intense light from the green flames fired from my baton. A vicious cyclone whirls around the blast creating a tornado in the tunnel, tearing the swarm of demons away.
Green bolts of lightning strike at the abominations, their bodies rupture and burst, their demonic pneuma scattered along the force of the mana bolts.
The whirlwind ends and I fall to my knees, spent and numb. Remy and Ex are at my side yelling at me to stand. Mal stands beside us with his baton ready, all of us lit by the emerald inner light of the soul box.
Greywaters HP: 3/10
The crystal cube pulses in my hand and into me, restoring me.
Greywaters HP: 10/10
Rejuvenated and slightly high, my vision fills with my UI.
LEVEL UP!
Level 2 achieved.
Rewards:
10 HP.
Level 2 tiers and ranks unlocked for skills and abilities.
Second baton socket unlocked.
Increased ability scores.
I notice strength increases constitution much like exercise.
Character
Name: Greywaters.
Species: Human.
Level: 2
Class: None.
Subclass: Novi.
Affinity: None.
HP: 22/22
MP: 10/10
Attributes
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 50
Movement/Speed: 5
Combat Rate: 1.65
Constitution/Endurance: 12/24
Physical Defense (PD): 2.4
Energy Defense (ED): 2.4
Body: 12
Stun: 24
Recovery: 4.8
Intelligence: 12
Mental strength: 12
Senses: ?
Presence/Charisma: 12
Abilities/Skills
Shimmering Blast Range: 15-foot cone. DAM: 20
Weapons
Baton. Blazing Axe.
Looks like I’ve gotten extra HP too. Time to find Lisa and the others.
***
Mal and I sprint down the narrow Chol corridor away from the spider burrow. Remy remains in the web-sheathed tunnel, his ice freezing the limestone, collapsing the entrance, barring entrance by anyone. The shrieking, surviving Zotz demons, perhaps not true demons after all, but creatures of flesh, are on their way. The entrance blocked, the screeching muffled, Mal still hears something at a pitch I can’t. Even so, Mal and I are clear of the creatures for the moment.
The light of my baton has replaced the green sedes. Returned to my inventory, but not soul bound, I have to get it socketed or I’ll lose it if—when—I die and respawn. Socketed, it becomes one with my baton and a SX/GN baton is soul bound to a player, part of a player.
Ahead of me, Mal jogs at a steady pace becoming silhouetted against a stronger light source revealing the end of the corridor. We pass several alcoves and side corridors before I find the light of my baton unnecessary. With all the architecture carved from the rock, with few evident additional construction, there are no defensive walls, or rather, there are breaks in the floor-to-ceiling walls, each of which we pass through with caution but no opposition. The Chol are gone.
There is evidence of collapse, of huge sections of stone fallen into the city below, but areas of the city still hang, or rather descend, from the cavern ceiling. Inverted pyramids and rectangular buildings of stone are carved from the cavern ceiling. No metal, no Atlantean technology evident in the structures. Or is metal even necessary for Atlantean “technology”?
Mysteries for another time.
Mal catches me gawking and slaps my shoulder. “Back to the present, Greywaters.”
Remy joins us, having phased through the collapsed rock and followed the corridor.
Mal points a clawed finger at Remy. “Would we know if you’re possessed? Those meat bags may only be vessels for the true demons.”
I hadn’t considered the possibility of the bat demons being hosts.
Body jumping. Skinwalkers. Is that what happened all those days ago with the red Battle Avatar? A fluke of a game error assigning an ability I didn’t have, or that the guest avatar wasn’t assigned? Hackers. It makes me wonder if it was all a game hack.
Mal seems convinced by Remy’s explanation, whatever it was I didn’t hear it, and we survey the swath of the city and the source of the light illuminating the vast cavern—a huge crystal. A giant crystal, that’s Atlantean enough for me.
Mal clicks his fingers together, a Setec version of snapped fingers. “This is your plan, Greywaters, I’m going along with it and you’ve got to stop spacing out.”
Asshole.
Remy points at the crystal. “The gateway will be there, at the crystal. The sacred center of the city. From there the Chol royalty travel to other Chol cities. If we’re lucky, I can recalibrate the navigation of the portals.”
That doesn’t sound easy and something like an old TV show—portals to different places, random and risky and we never find our way home. Nothing new I suppose, but we could travel directly to Haven and start fresh. The others must have respawned by now.
What if they didn’t?
Possessed players are not dead—they lose HP the longer they are possessed. I saw it on my UI. Once a player’s HP drops below zero, the skinwalker must vacate the body. But if I’m wrong, Lisa, Jonesy and the others won’t respawn, to the crazy owl lady or to Haven. Worse than the lost avatars walking as doppelgangers on the Path of the Fallen, Lisa and Jonesy will remain trapped inside themselves unless we find them.
“Mal, how’d you survive, how would you survive possession by the Chol?”
Mal flaps his hand dismissively. “Setec telepathic immunity.” He runs his claws down his ripped, muscular torso. “A shapeshifter’s mind is as fluid as the body.”
Ew.
“Remy can you re-target the portal?” I say.
He shrugs. “Won’t know until we’re there. Long as the city really is empty.”
Mal slaps me on the back. “You’re level two now, Greywaters. Time for you to take the lead on attacks.”
Ex saunters past us toward the center of the city. “You’re next sedes awaits, and none other may claim it without achieving their second level.”
The four of us—six of us, as each player has an imp—enter into the outskirts of the stone city.
***
A mournful cry is followed by another and soon enough, a hellish chorus echoes about the mammoth city cavern. I’ve heard this wailing before, in the labyrinth on my first day in Lenscape—Wilds Wraiths.
Mal flexes his jaw and Remy studies his shared map. He doesn’t have this specific city logged, but the Chol follow ritual designs and key alignments that make each city and central avenue similar. Already at a steady jog, we follow him at a sprint toward the sacred avenue.
“Guys, this reminds me of the labyrinth. Are we headed to the Avenue for our bearings or to the four corners of the city?”
Mal looks at me like I’m stupid. “That was for training purposes, idiot.”
Remy is less harsh. “The city is not so easily overcome. The wraiths here are meant to protect the city and while it is rare that a Chol city goes empty, it happens. Wraiths tend to occupy ruins and the like, especially in Subterranean, and here the Chol control them as guardians of the city.”
Great.
“So we run for it?”
Mal snorts. “Look, it’s still a big question of what the hell do we do if we can’t redirect the gateway. We don’t even know where the others are. Returning to the surface was a better choice.”
“You agreed with me.”
Remy stops and we run past him.
“Got your attention? Good. We couldn’t survive those demons even in the jungle or the canopy. They live between realms and I doubt the sun is enough to kill them.” He raises his hand to Mal. “Perhaps s
low them. Even so, do we follow the Chol to their next destination? I have the maps, I have the next likely location. I say we direct the portal to Haven. The others will respawn.”
I don’t know if that’s true. “Are you sure?”
Remy nods. “That’s usually the case.”
“I don’t agree. Not yet anyway, where did the Chol go? If they captured Lisa and the others, that’s where they’ll be.”
Mal huffs. “The Chol collect bodies to build their armies. They only need avatars to serve as warriors.”
I shake my head. “But as animystics, they control the spirits.”
“You’re going too deep, Greywaters.”
I study the UI map and ignore Mal. “So Remy, you have major cities on the map but we can’t zoom in?”
“Yes. No city plans unless I’ve been there or acquired a map.” A red dot pulses on the grid. “Given their direction of flight, this is the city, the red marker that the Chol are destined for.”
Still pissed off with Mal, I don’t let things go. “Kona won’t be under the control of Chol skinwalkers if Setec can’t be possessed. So where is she? You don’t seem too eager to rescue your girlfriend.”
Remy waves baton. “Gents. Focus on the wraiths. They’ll be on us any second.”
The first of three wraiths swoops in from above as we trigger our batons Ghostbusters style.
Ley bend.
Charge Mastery.
While Mal and Remy ley bend, I employ my unlocked Sacred Root, Rank 2.
God and Ghost Exchange.
The Wilds Wraith, trapped in our channeled ley bending, shrieks as it loses its form, pulled apart and into our batons.
