City of the Dead

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “Get out of there!” Valia yelled, though Tailyn was way ahead of her, dashing as fast as he could toward the gate. The closer the minion got, the hotter the air around him felt.

  But the white creature wasn’t about to give up on its quarry that easily. Nobody knew what was going on in its head, but when it saw the boy take off, it hurried after him. The hall resounded with the shrieks coming from the burning monster—hurrying away from its protective dome, it found itself out in the scalding air. And while its personal shield kept it from taking damage, it didn’t do anything about the heat roasting the creature alive. But there was no stopping it. The first minion leaped forward and latched onto Tailyn’s legs, the boy stumbling and falling just a few steps away from the gate. He howled wildly, intensely, feverishly. The pain that exploded through his legs was like nothing he’d ever felt before, and he wanted to scream, shriek, yell. But when the wave of heated air engulfed him, his lungs were seared, and he couldn’t do anything. The boy was crazed by the pain and jerked, trying to shake off the glowing creature. Somehow, the thought flitted through his head that he didn’t have enough coins to buy himself a regeneration potion—he was going to be a cripple for the rest of his life. But something flashed by right then, the heat subsided, and Tailyn slipped away into a dark slumber that was free of pain.

  Ka-Do-Gir looked at his partner, or rather what was left of him, and couldn’t figure out what to do next. Tailyn’s legs were gone. They’d roasted away, nothing left of their delicious-smelling meat. His body had suffered heavily, too, every inch from his waist to his head covered in blisters. Really, he’d gotten very lucky that he’d been able to crawl close enough to the shimmering film to stick his hand out. The lix had been able to grab it and yank the boy out of the oven he was suffering in. And while the shimmering film kept the heat in, the first minion just lay there on the ground, unwilling to die. Its protection was incredible.

  Valia pulled herself together after going through another wave of nausea brought on by looking over at Tailyn. It was amazing the boy was still breathing. She’d never seen such terrible wounds that close up, and when the smell of burnt meat hit her nostrils, she buckled over. It was too much for her. Suddenly, the lix came over and pointed in the direction of the gate. Their opponent was lying there, still alive. In a pull of melting stone. The lix gestured toward the card she was still clutching in her hand before once more pointing at the minion. Valia nodded and went over to the gate, leaving Tailyn behind her. She couldn’t look at him, anyway—he was most likely beyond anyone’s power to heal. With one charge left on the card, the girl wasn’t particularly hopeful, but she went ahead and blew.

  The fireball smacked into the minion, and its body exploded like an overripe nut. Valia froze, her mouth open wide. It was incredible. The creature had been able to grow itself another protective dome and had hidden inside it to protect it from the heat. If it hadn’t been for that final fireball… There was a short cry of pain, after which the god decided One’s first minion had suffered enough.

  Status change: combat complete.

  Tailyn was surprised to realize he was conscious of himself. Off in a black nothingness with no body to speak of, he still knew he wasn’t some ghost. It was him, Tailyn Vlashich. The sensation of floating was odd if pleasant, and the boy even spread imaginary arms to pretend he was a bird. Suddenly, white letters popped up against the complete darkness:

  You completed the additional mission and destroyed One’s minions.

  Your group receives a reward: +1 to a random attribute.

  ***

  Your request was processed and approved.

  The first initiation stage does not fall under the agreement with Crobar!

  Regeneration (1) attribute received.

  Regeneration. Description: an attribute given by the god in special cases that permits the body to heal itself. Anyone who receives this attribute demonstrated incredible mastery bordering on heroism to the god. Integrates with Enhancement.

  ***

  You were severely injured.

  Time for full recovery: 5 hours.

  Chapter 16

  VALANIL LOOKED at Tailyn with mixed feelings. When the lix had carried him over, the first thought that had crossed her mind was that he wasn’t long for the world. She’d seen plenty of burns in her lifetime, and that experience told her the boy wasn’t going to survive the kind of wounds he’d sustained. And that was a shame. She’d already built all kinds of plans on the little brat, and changing them all was the last thing she wanted to do. There was no regeneration elixir anywhere, either. But a few minutes later, Valanil’s brows shot upward—the boy’s breathing had evened out. The blisters were starting to disappear, with smooth, clear skin appearing on his face. And the only thing that could mean was that the kid had gotten his hands on regeneration. Valanil instinctively touched her scar. While she told everyone she’d gotten the burn from a poisonous shark flower, there actually wasn’t even a burn to begin with. Regeneration kept the woman’s body in perfect condition. No, the problem was that she had to wear a special pad to hide the tattoo that was forbidden on that part of the continent, concealing it with what looked like an ugly old wound. It was the badge of the mage hunter school. The badge of Crobar.

  The woman began to think to herself, unsure of what to do. On the one hand, it was great news that the boy was going to survive. She could get back into the academy, even if just as the ward of a student. On the other, five years of brutal training in Crobar had beaten into her that she needed to immediately destroy anyone with regeneration. Only mage hunters had the right to it. If she hadn’t been renounced, Valanil would have strangled the boy on the spot regardless of the lix being there. Dying was better than letting the infection spread.

  It was a difficult decision to make, but the herbalist decided to let the boy live. Over the twenty years that had passed since she’d been banished, she’d learn to prize herself over the greater good. The boy would live. And she’d figure the rest out later. But where had he gotten regeneration? The attribute had been pulled from the standard list, making it difficult to pick up no matter how much you begged the god or showered it with gifts. Could Tailyn have met someone else from the Crobar school? But that would still have been strange—she couldn’t sense anyone else, especially not someone strong and great enough to be able to teach attributes.

  Suddenly, a chill ran down Valanil’s spine. The only mage Tailyn had come across serious enough to give him regeneration was Forian Tarn. A favorite of the dean of magic cards, one of the most promising young mages at the academy, and someone at the top of the to-kill lists. Could he really be a Crobar agent, as well?

  Valanil jumped up and began pacing the room, taking a look at the puzzle from different angles. The numericals watched her in surprise; Dort paid her no attention. The Culmart elder’s son had yet to take his eyes of Valia. Accustomed to complete deference from everyone around him, the slender creature was having a hard time coming to terms with the girl fate had thrown at him. Sure, it would have been fine if Tailyn had hit him. He could have just gotten him back later. But a girl… No, Dort couldn’t accept that. He needed revenge, and he was plotting how to make it as painful as possible.

  Tailyn woke up precisely five hours after receiving the regeneration attribute. Opening his eyes, he found himself looking up at a gray ceiling, and it took a while to realize that he’d been carried over to where everyone else was sheltering in one of the city’s abandoned buildings.

  “Come on, get up!” the lix barked suddenly, and Tailyn leaped to his feet. Casting a sullen glance at his partner, the boy wanted to give the creature a piece of his mind but stopped suddenly when he realized he was standing. Vertically. On his own two feet. Looking himself over in disbelief, Tailyn couldn’t stifle a stunned cry—there was nothing left of the wimpy boy he’d used to be. His arms were strong and meaty. His stomach, which generally pushed out against his pants, had disappeared. Unable to help himself, he peered unde
r his coat only to find abs. A six-pack. He’d never been that strong, and he was a fan of the changes.

  Valanil wanted to say something to Tailyn, though she changed her mind, and the lix dragged the boy over to the shimmering film covering the entrance to the palace. At least, he started to drag him over. When Tailyn asked what the hurry was, Ka-Do-Gir just uttered one single word that was enough to send the boy running off under his own power.

  “Loot!”

  Eight minions presumably made for a nice little haul. Ka-Do-Gir understood that; Tailyn understood that; even Valia, who tagged along as usual, understood that. And while the little group was making their way over to the palace, the boy checked out his cards and parameters.

  The battle had left him with just three mana. However, his status table told him he had forty-eight, and the boy couldn’t figure out what had happened. Mysticism just gave him three mana an hour—that should have meant just another fifteen five hours later. Obviously, he couldn’t pull up his logs, but Tailyn was finally able to figure out what was going on. It was enhancement. It was up to six, and adding it to the three from mysticism came out to exactly the right number. What an attribute it was. It was just a shame it didn’t integrate with his card saturation skill.

  Tailyn’s wave of fire card was completely out of charges. His fireball card was down to 116. The rest were more or less charged, though that was when Valia guiltily handed Tailyn the card she’d emptied. The girl wasn’t able to recharge cards. Right then, the god asked if he wanted to combine three cards, though he declined and gave the girl one of his full fireball cards. It didn’t seem polite to him to ask Valia if she had level two mysticism. She could have asked him something in return, as well, and he wasn’t about to answer any questions like that.

  The shimmering film hadn’t gone anywhere. With the lix and girl waiting behind him, Tailyn stepped right in, dismissed the message about gaining access, and went over to the minion lying on the ground. The heat still hadn’t completely died away, so Tailyn grimaced as he bent over his fallen adversary. The world around him lit up with messages the moment he touched the box of loot.

  Ka-Do-Gir receives Booster-I amulet x3.

  Ka-Do-Gir receives ZK-III protective dome.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Last Chance epic card.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Booster-I amulet x5.

  ***

  You have 3 identical boosters. Would you like to combine them?

  Forgetting the heat, Tailyn watched the purple sparks illuminating his hands. It didn’t even bother him that the lix had gotten the dome—what he was holding was far more valuable. At least, that’s what Tailyn himself thought. Putting off reading the description of the card he’d gotten, he agreed to combine the amulets. There was no reason to have three of them lying around.

  You combined 3 Booster-I amulets into Booster-II.

  Loot received:

  Booster-II amulet. Description: rare item. A self-regenerated amulet worn around the neck that significantly boosts the wearer’s chances of surviving. Shield level: +10 * (level + Enhancement); mana level: +70 * (level + Enhancement); Mysticism +1. Initial charge level: maximum.

  Forgetting all about the purple card, Tailyn flew out of the palace. The lix was looking his protective dome over, so it took him a second to figure out what the boy was asking for.

  “What?” he asked.

  “What do you want for one of your amulets? To give it to me for good.”

  Ka-Do-Gir thought for a second. He’d already combined three of them to get a level two amulet, but he had one extra left. Like all the intelligent creatures in the world, he was quite capable of counting, and analyzing even the loot other people got was an important part of his life. Did he, a lix, really want to go making a human stronger? What would happen if they met on the field of battle after leaving the city? He definitely didn’t want to find himself facing an enemy with a level three booster amulet.

  After peering back over at portal one more time, Ka-Do-Gir handed the young mage the amulet. Surviving in the present was more important than worrying about the future. Their opponents were getting stronger all the time, and that meant their group needed every advantage it could get. Even if that cost the lix battles in the future.

  “It’s yours. Take it.”

  Tailyn’s breath caught in his throat when he took the amulet and made two combinations.

  You combined 3 Booster-II amulets into Booster-III.

  Loot received:

  Booster-III amulet. Description: rare item. A self-regenerating amulet worn around the neck that significantly boosts the wearer’s chances of surviving. Shield level: +20 * (level + Enhancement); mana level: +100 * (level + Enhancement); magic attack: +3 * (level + Enhancement); Mysticism +2. Initial charge level: maximum.

  “Yes!” Tailyn shouted happily, dashing over to hug Valia in his excitement. The maximum charge level meant he suddenly had another 700 mana at his disposal. Not expecting that turn of events, the girl hugged Tailyn back, her reaction more automatic than intentioned. The ground beneath her feet was swept away, and the world around her circled as the boy picked her up and spun her around. And while she wanted to pull herself away and yell at the impudent kid, she couldn’t. Actually, no—she didn’t even want to. Instead, she was enjoying the moment of shared happiness. Throwing decorum to the winds, the girl clutched Tailyn tightly and, for the first moment since she’d been captured, felt happy. Calm. Protected. The idiot boy and the scary lix were going to get her out of there.

  “Stop that hugging—we have a lot of work to do.” Ka-Do-Gir couldn’t have cared less about the boy’s emotions. The lix just wanted to find the book, fulfill his promise, and get out of the location. He’d already gotten more than he could have dreamed of. With the protective dome, his tribe was going to surge well ahead of the rest so long as the shamans were able to find a way to charge it. Tailyn had been lucky the first minion hadn’t been able to use magic. There weren’t any limitations on using cards inside the dome, so sticking a powerful shaman in there would cause a world of problems for the enemy.

  “Yes, we need to go,” Tailyn replied, begrudgingly releasing Valia. The girl suddenly remembered something she had to take care of around the corner and ran off as if chased by a horde of minions. She was embarrassed. And it wasn’t because of what she’d done—there wasn’t anything wrong with hugging. No, it was that she’d enjoyed it. She’d enjoyed hugging Tailyn, in particular. Whenever her nurses or teachers had hugged her, she’d always thought it vapid and excessive.

  The boy watched her go in confusion. Shrugging, he decided to check out the god’s second gift before heading back into the palace.

  Last Chance card. Description: an epic magic card that creates a thick cocoon around the activator to isolate them from the source of damage they’re taking. Can only be used in combat status and when taking one kind of damage. Limitation: damage other than the kind the cocoon is protecting against destroys it, so be careful with its use. The cocoon also serves as a restoration field: shield and mana are restored at a rate of Magic Attack per second. Duration: Magic Attack seconds. Includes 5 charges. Charges remaining: 4. Time between uses: 48 hours. Can be recharged.

  For perhaps the first time in his life, Tailyn wasn’t happy with a gift the god gave him. Sure, he’d figured out how the first minion had survived after just about burning him alive, but Tailyn wasn’t going to be able to use the card for a very long time. It was going to take years to build up his wisdom. And that just left him with selling it for coins as his only rational move. Tailyn was sure he’d collect a tidy sum, perhaps even enough for the mage’s headgear. That, at least, would be a great haul.

  But when Tailyn stepped into the palace, all thoughts of the card vanished—he had a job to do. He needed to figure out how he was going to get up to the second floor with the stairs completely burnt out. The boy headed over to the charred remains and looked up, seeing how high the next level was. Jumping was out of the question.
The walls were smooth, with no decorations, and so climbing wasn’t an option, either. Really, Tailyn just had one choice: he was going to have to climb up the snakes on the other side of the hole he’d made. Valia had already explained that the devices, as they were actually ancient devices, were called cables or wires depending on how thick they were, and energy flowed through them from a source or supply circuit. That was precisely what Tailyn was looking for—the control block had to be connected to an energy source. Talking with smart people really had its benefits.

  Tailyn wasn’t going to be able to get through the existing hole, so he had to break off more chunks of the wall. That was simple enough. The plaster broke easily, and the material the shaft had been covered by had long since rotted. The only strange part was that the cables themselves hadn’t rotted. In fact, against the dusty shaft, they looked unnatural, almost as if someone had laid them recently and kept them clean since. Tailyn tugged on the thickest cable. It turned out to be taut, barely moving, and it was even warm and vibrating slightly. Next to the cable, there were two thinner wires, though the boy didn’t bother touching them. Neither looked all that reliable.