by Arthur Stone
Cheater shook his head. “Just a camouflage ability, but with no protection.”
“And I got garbage,” Tat complained.
“Then we will hope the Shards do their job. So they will protect you, but will 30 seconds be enough? I don’t know. There is always risk. So watch the chat window, and activate precisely when I tell you to. You must not be even one second late. Squeeze the Shards immediately.”
“But we could go further out,” Cheater insisted. “Improve our chances.”
“You could,” March allowed, “but it won’t affect your chances. As soon as I am done, the Unnamed’s magic will disappear. Or rather, the unnatural fear he imparts to all things. That fear that makes even players terrified to speak of him. It is the greatest deterrent the Continent knows. And it works on more than just players. As long as the Unnamed lives, he is the incarnation of terror. But once he dies, that protection is over. It might take the infecteds some time to realize he is dead, but they will realize it. And they will come to have a look around this once-forbidden territory. They are stupid, in that way. They are probably certain that this area is filled with food of all kinds. When they do come, you must be as far away as possible. There is one more thing. Kamikaze kills everything that lives, but some Unnamed Ones have a special ability. As long as the spore sac is not cut out, it can very quickly regenerate the Unnamed One’s body. If you are delayed and this regeneration reaches a dangerous level, you will be unable to reach the sac. The Unnamed has armor and defenses which a dire elite cannot even dream of. Every second will be precious. You must not lose any time!”
Cheater nodded. “I understand.”
“At last. Alright. Go where I pointed you to. We have seven minutes left.”
Cheater extended a hand. “Good luck, March. See you soon.”
The leader met his eyes and clasped his hand.
“Bye, Cheat. If this works, I’ll buy you a beer. Just don’t ruin the last shred of faith in humanity I still have left, OK? And both of you, try not to shit your pants. This thing is so evil, Cthulhu would be jealous. Hold it together.”
* * *
Cheater squinted, watching March intently. The man did not offer so much as a glance in their direction. He sat on a broad, flat stone, lazily sipping on a beer. Two cans were down, and he rushed the third, confident that the horror of horrors was about to appear.
Tat kept looking around, every which way. She approached.
“Something’s wrong.”
Cheater followed her gaze, but noticed nothing amiss. Just the same red-soiled wasteland, tinted with the gray of rocks and the green of rare cacti. No movement, except for the dust storm that was approaching—wait.
It was an odd dust storm. Where did it come from, in the midst of the quiet desert day?
It was heading towards March.
Cheater looked at him. The man was looked towards the same storm, a whirlwind in their sights now, and for the first time since they had parted, he looked up at them and saluted with his beer can.
“Chat!” Tat shouted. “Here we go!”
Cheater pulled out the sphere, paused for an instant to make sure March’s command had indeed shown up in the chat, and crushed the orb in his hand hard.
He also activated Smile of Fortune. Now, as long as March killed the beast within 14 seconds, the party should have a higher chance of getting good loot. That was the reason that teams brought along high-Luck players.
Cheater’s luck was not only high, it was astronomical.
For 14 seconds.
Chapter 30
Life Nine. Utter Tranquility.
The Kamikaze which hit their eyes almost immediately after they activated their Shards of Invulnerability did not blind them entirely. The world simply melted into black and white. Details became difficult to discern, and at the same instant, a frighteningly sickening sound hit their ears, making their hair stand so much on end that it tried to pull out of its roots and take flight.
Perhaps the Shard of Invulnerability protected them from all harm, but it certainly did not protect them from all discomfort. The sounds and lights seemed enough to blow out their eardrums and fry their retinas. It was excruciating, in a perfectly safe fashion.
All of it disappeared in a moment. The silence was just as deafening, and his eyes closed involuntarily. It was a full ten seconds before Cheater found the strength to open his eyelids. Attempting to blink the world into normalcy, he opened his mouth only to hear himself mutter, “Holy hell...”
Looking around groggily, he tried to remember where he was. Reality had been transformed while his eyes were closed. The metal debris was still present, but new slices of it glistened with a shine brighter than a crystal mirror’s.
Yet it was the same place. Something strange had happened to the vehicles.
Where is March?
No one was near the rock on which he had last seen his comrade. The rock was still there, yes—although it did look different now. Beyond lay a formless hulk resembling something like multifaceted inflatable shapes connected by an intricate network of various sizes and thicknesses of rope. It was staggering in size. Fifty yards long, and up to fifteen yards across in some places. If his estimate was exaggerated, it was not by much.
And it was likely under-exaggerated.
Cheater opened the menu and went to the party section. March’s icon was black.
For the first time in the whole campaign, he was dead. Of course, they had all expected that.
But Kitty’s icon was still black, as well, which renewed Cheater’s worry.
All this time, Tat had been standing still as a pillar. She shook her head. “Damn.”
Cheater nodded in agreement.
“Did that hit you, too?”
“What do you think?”
“It nearly blew my eardrums clean into each other. What the hell was that? An atomic blast?”
Cheater looked around at the cacti, which were in a sorry state. Then, he picked up the pieces of metal, their new cuts glistening. No rust was visible on the freshly-exposed sections, and they were smooth beyond all polishing.
On a hunch, he brought the slices to each other, pressed them together and held them for a few seconds, then let go of one piece of metal—continuing to hold the other. Nothing happened. Contrary to the laws of physics, the steel remained attached, though unsupported.
He tried to take them apart. Yet it seemed that the pieces had been welded together.
Tossing the weighty toy aside, he rose and shook his head again. “Doesn’t seem like an atomic explosion. But I don’t know what it was. My head can’t make sense of what we saw here. Some things, I guess, it’s best not to know. Remember what March said?”
“Yeah. Did you have time to see what it looked like?”
Cheater shook his head. “Like the wilderness threw itself at March. Everything around him started... changing. As if something pulled at a million threads that linked all of these cacti and rocks. Pulled them all at once, and then let go, and rang them like so many massive rubber bands of reality.”
“I’m just as confused. I think my eyes gave up. It was just too much for them.”
“We have to hurry. March gave us about a hundred warnings not to waste any time.”
“Wait, Cheat... Something’s wrong. Where is it?”
Cheater pointed at the strange bulk. “I think that’s it.”
“What is that? It doesn’t look like anything. That could not have possibly been a living thing.”
“Look at what happened to the cacti. I don’t mean the ones that were severed by a thousand razors. I mean the one that escaped that. It’s like they’re—welded.”
“Is that March’s ability that killed them?”
“It might be. After getting hit by that, the carcass might be in terrible shape.”
“I guess so,” Tat nodded. “It definitely doesn’t look too good. But even after a nuclear blast, some form remains. That looks nothing like any form that I know. I
don’t even know how to describe it.”
“Come on, back to your senses. We have to handle this quickly,” Cheater said.
“Handle it? There hasn’t been any victory message.”
Cheater cursed his idiocy silently. He hadn’t noticed that. Nodding, he made a confident suggestion. “This must be a special Unnamed.”
“What?”
“Don’t you remember? March mentioned them. They can resurrect themselves if you don’t take out their spore sacs. So if we keep chatting, that carcass will eventually get up and take us out. Here—” Cheater offered Tat his pistol.
She was surprised. “Why?”
“March’s rifle was bound to him, so it’s gone. You never know what might happen. This way, at least you have a few shots.”
“You think a few shots will save us from...” Tat squinted towards the mass.
“Like I said, no time to chat. Go on!”
* * *
The Unnamed was more like the Undescribable. Perhaps, when they had more shape, all these individual polyhedrons with smooth edges did not resemble a heap of angled sausages drawn together with threads but something completely different. Maybe once it had charged those cables with some unknown energy and used them to effortlessly and cleanly dissect everything in its path.
But now, it was simply a mass of unsightly fibers and revolting polyhedrons. Supersized. He wanted to stay as far as possible from this alien creature.
Did the thing even have a neck? Where was it located? Without knowing the answer to that, Cheater would have to gut one “sausage” after the next, which could take several days of work without food or rest.
Thankfully, Tat was with him.
That was very good news.
The girl began searching for Shards of Invulnerability. She knew them well since she had just handled one, and this creature was full of them, just like infecteds were full of webbing.
Tat found what she was looking for quickly.
Then, things became complicated. The loot was nowhere near the surface. They had to make their way through the wieners and wires. With no tools besides their knives, Cheater’s hatchet, and Kitty’s short sword. And, of course, their bare hands.
Thankfully the “sausages” gave way to their metal adversaries easily enough, with only a little resistance. But the cables could not be severed. The pair had to push them apart and aside as they made their way.
The journey, though short in distance, took three hours. All the while, whitish filth with an acidic stink dripped on and coated them. The “sausages” would spray it at them upon the slightest damage.
Finally, after they dealt with yet another obstacle in their path, the way was somehow clear. Like a short tunnel, running right through the carcass.
Tat stared at a particularly thick “sausage” at the end of the tunnel and muttered, “It’s there.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you sound like you don’t believe it?”
“I don’t. I sound fine. I’m just tired of all of this. Let’s finish this quickly.”
Cheater nodded. “I understand. Hang on—we’re almost there.
Twirling the hatchet in his hand, he turned his back to the girl and stepped towards the key section of the carcass. At last they would write the final piece in the message the System was about to present to them.
He took one, two, three steps—and froze.
A characteristic sound. One that anyone who spends times with firearms would not confuse.
Turning, he saw Tat hastily cocking the gun. A cartridge fell to the ground, her finger pressed the trigger, and once again the same sound was heard.
Cheater slowly shook his head. “There’s one part missing. Without it, the gun won’t shoot.”
Tat changed her mind about cocking the gun again, stepped back and dropped the castrated weapon, and gave a nervous grin. “So how long have you known?”
Not moving an inch, he watched her. “You were acting strange. I was especially bothered by the fact that you were not surprised. Not surprised at all. I was continually shocked by the utter calm in this region. You weren’t. As if you knew it would be calm. That was suspicious. March noticed it too.”
“And I thought you were an idiot. March too.”
“Perhaps. But you’re such a shit actress, even idiots could see right through.”
“Why didn’t you kill me right away?”
Cheater pointed behind him. “You have an ability that is very useful for when you need to find something quickly. Without you, this would have taken me a week.”
“So you just needed me so that you could quickly gut Unnamed Ones? I understand now.”
Cheater squinted to the right. There, the rifle lay, out of reach.
Tat followed his gaze.
“So that means yes, then.”
“You’re a big girl. You can figure it out. But I don’t understand why. You could have gotten rid of me at the very beginning, when we were looking for my things in those bushes.”
“I realized you would be more profitable to stay with.”
“Then why isn’t it still more profitable? For us all? We’ll divide it up into three, like March said. What problem do you have with that?”
“And you believe March? No one can be trusted in the Continent, Cheater. No one. This heap of sausage is packed with so many goodies it can turn a player into Superman. If it all goes to one single player, that is. So unless I kill you, you’ll kill me. Quit looking at me with those holier-than-thou eyes. It’s too big a temptation. Why do you think March can’t find a partner in this business? Because anyone in this world would do the same. This is the Continent. Here, saints die. You’re no saint. And neither am I...”
The girl reached for her belt.
Cheater whirled his hatchet and prepared for the rush, watching his opponent’s hands. Her sword was more dangerous, and if she had been telling the truth about her fights in the arena, she had much more hand-to-hand experience.
“So, an honest fight, then?” She smiled as she unsheathed her sword.
Cheater nodded. “An honest fight.”
“Never,” Tat hissed.
Instead of grabbing the hilt of her sword, she rushed forward with a hand pointing at Cheater, fingers spread. Sensing something was amiss, he swung and nearly managed to throw the hatchet. It even flew out of his hands, but not at his target.
Cheater, with his divine Accuracy, missed. At point-blank range.
His whole body, from head to toe, was engulfed in flame. As if Tat was spraying burning gasoline at him from her palm.
Screaming from the unbearable pain, Cheater blindly dove to the side, trying to fall, to roll, to put out the fire. But he stumbled over a pile of organic mass and collapsed into a puddle of sour white slime. Which helped. It wasn’t water, but it helped. He writhed in the substance, which hissed as it contacted the fire and enveloped his skin like a resin.
With no idea whether the flame was out or not, he stopped screaming then. His voice just stopped working. Rolling onto his back, he saw Tat above him. Her legs wide apart, she held her sword with both hands, ready to strike.
Catching his eyes, the girl spoke, her voice filled with loathing. “How do you like my ‘garbage’ ability? At last I have a combat skill, praise the System. I’ve been wanting to try it since the border crossing. So, you asked why. Cheater, you're a moron. Here, it’s not all about profit. Here, you stay close to people you want to trust. We could have been together, you know. Don’t you get it? We could have had complete trust between us. But you throw everything away for some whorish bitch stuck on the other side of the world. You’re just the same as all the rest of them. Foolish man.”
Cheater gritted his teeth.
“Strike, then. End the fool’s misery.”
The sword swung forward, then froze before it cleared six inches.
Tat’s eyes froze, staring at a single point, and her body twitched as though trying to escap
e an invisible fetter. Only the lower part of her body moved, not the upper part.
For nine seconds, she was frozen.
Cheater, moaning from the unbearable pain, pulled out the sharpened steel bound to his forearm, and with a fierce cry raised himself up on his elbow and thrust the unpretentious weapon into Tat’s stomach, right up to the hilt.
Its handle was very simple, wound out of thin aluminum wire.
He fell onto his back, exhausted, voice filled with satisfaction. “Die, you traitorous bitch!”
It was not a mortal wound. Even if he had ruptured her intestines, it would take her a long time to die.
Unless the steel was slathered with poison from the flakes left over from the lifejuice brewing process.
Tat’s legs went limp, but her body did not fall. It was ridiculous, as if she was hanging from an invisible rope. Cheater had called Tranquility on the hilt of the sword, and its immobilization was more powerful than even gravity.
If this terrible world even had traditional gravity, and not just a bastardization of it.
After nine seconds elapsed, Tat collapsed into the puddle of slime. They lay there, side by side. The priestess would not be coming to save Tat, but Cheater had some options.
He was alive. That was good.
The list of positive tidings ending there.
The entire front of his body was charred, along with part of his back. He could not see out of his left eye, and only poorly out of his right. The pain was so bad that he wanted to howl for hours on end—but his vocal cords had been damaged, too. All he could do was wheeze and moan, an under-cooked worm in a pool of mucus.
There was something he had to do, no matter how little he wanted to. Time was running out.
First, the spec. March had found some on the battlefield, left by an unnamed Spider who had been sliced, and then cremated flamelessly by the System.
Spec was just what he needed. As long as you weren’t dead, spec allowed you to do many things.
Then, his golden egg of regeneration. Cheater was thrilled he had saved it until now. It wouldn’t give him a surge of Stamina like the spec, but without medical help, a man with burns as serious as his might die quickly.
