Awaken Online- Flame

by Travis Bagwell

  “Grab hold of Julia,” Finn whispered to Kyyle.

  “What? Why?” the earth mage shot back in confusion. He looked behind him as he was pushed further back along the ledge, and his eyes went wide. “Wait! You’re not really thinking—”

  Finn didn’t wait for him to finish.

  Time seemed to slow for a fraction of a second, and, in that brief window, several things happened at once.

  The fighters all swept forward with their blades, bands of energy slicing through the air toward them. Grabbing the earth mage’s arm, Julia hauled him backward, while Finn’s blades sheared through the makeshift glass platform they were standing upon. Meanwhile, Kalisha’s eyes widened as she saw Finn and his group begin to drop into the pit, and Vanessa’s mouth opened to shout her anger as her prey escaped.

  Finn’s stomach lurched as he suddenly went weightless, trying his best to keep hold of Julia even as the fighters and merchants began to grow smaller above them.

  And then they were free falling, downward into the Abyss.

  Chapter 14 - Weightless

  Bilel’s Journal – Entry 64

  Something unusual happened today. One of the librarians brought me another mage – a journeyman whose arm had suffered an old injury. He was complaining that his mana had been behaving oddly and that his total mana pool had been reduced following the injury.

  I observed the injured mage with the sight and was surprised to see that the mana in the limb had indeed dwindled to very low levels, making it almost undetectable to my sight. Even more strange, the man had no trouble moving his arm and voiced no complaint of pain or weakness.

  Upon further study, and with the assistance of a healer, I was able to determine that the mage had inadvertently damaged the Najima in his arm. A small piece of shrapnel had been embedded in his flesh. This appears to indicate that these clusters have a physical nexus within the body and that they are subject to manipulation. Needless to say, this is an intriguing new development which I intend to investigate further.

  ***

  The wind whistled past Finn, pressing his robes tight to his body but doing little to slow their free fall. Julia clutched firmly to both Finn and Kyyle, refusing to relinquish her grip. The earth mage hovered nearby, his eyes wide and panicked as he stared at the ground – a small circle below them that was growing larger with each passing second.

  Only a short moment after dropping from the ledge, the group passed through the shimmering blue barrier that stretched across the Abyss. As soon as they touched that veil, a notification flashed in front of Finn.

  System Message: Entering the Abyss

  This dungeon is designated as a “raid-level” encounter. Thirty or more players are recommended to successfully complete this dungeon.

  A two-week reset timer (in-game time) will apply to this dungeon. Any players who die inside the dungeon will respawn inside the Abyss. Given the size of the dungeon, multiple respawn locations are available. Your current respawn location is unknown.

  Shit. Finn swiped away the notification, struggling not to look at the ground. He couldn’t let himself give in to the fear.

  They didn’t have long.

  “Daniel,” Finn barked, and the AI flashed into existence nearby, his flaming body speeding downward through the chasm, creating a line of fire in his wake.

  “Yes, sir… oh my—”

  “Calculate estimated time to impact and damage,” Finn barked, interrupting the AI.

  A brief pause and then, “Based on available map data, the estimated time to impact is 27 seconds. Considering your current velocity and acceleration, death is imminent – even using your armor and isolating the damage to your legs.”

  Fuck. Finn’s thoughts wheeled and spun. They couldn’t die here – the prompt had made that clear. There was no telling where the hell they would end up.

  Rachael’s face flashed through his mind’s eye.

  And there was far too much at stake to fail.

  Think, asshole! You need a way to slow down.

  “24 seconds,” Daniel chirped helpfully.

  “You have a plan?” Julia shouted at Finn, her words ripped away by the wind. He could see the fear in her eyes. This might be a game, but none of them relished the idea of being pulverized against the bottom of the pit.

  Finn’s eyes panned to the nearby wall. The edge of the Abyss was solid glass, the smooth surface gleaming as sunlight reflected down through the chasm. Kyyle’s ledge had also forced them out toward the center of the shaft, the group blurring past the columns of glass that occasionally crisscrossed the pit. There was nothing out here that could blunt their fall. Even worse, his abilities offered no help.

  But what about Kyyle and Julia?

  His daughter was strong – he had seen that himself.

  And the earth mage could dissolve different types of earth and form ledges.

  Finn eyed the smooth wall of the chasm again. They could probably angle themselves toward the sheer side of the pit, and his companions’ abilities did offer one possible way to slow down, assuming they were able to work together quickly…

  A plan was starting to materialize in his head. It wasn’t great, but anything was better than smashing into the ground at full speed.

  “22 seconds,” Daniel chimed.

  Finn whipped his attention back to Julia. “We need to angle ourselves closer to the wall and stay together.” His daughter nodded and started moving, shifting her weight and limbs. The others followed her lead, and the group drifted closer to the wall of the shaft.

  “Once we get close, you’re going to use your blades to slow us down,” Finn continued, shouting over the wind. His daughter just stared at him like he was crazy but didn’t try to argue. He could understand her concern – the glass was thick. It would likely destroy her blades within only a few seconds.

  But that’s where their earth mage came in…

  “Kyyle,” Finn shouted. The young man barely reacted, his eyes still staring at the swiftly approaching ground in horror. “Kyyle, fucking snap out of it!”

  The earth mage finally glanced at him. “Once we’re in range, I need you to dissolve the wall. Don’t completely destroy it, just soften it up. Aim for a spot well ahead of our current position and keep casting!” A faint nod from Kyyle confirmed he had heard Finn.

  “19 seconds until you all die.”

  Finn grimaced. This next part was going to require split-second coordination. One mistake and they were going to be liquefied against the ground. Even then, it was still a toss-up. The impact was going to hurt… badly.

  The wall loomed in their vision, the glass reflecting the sunlight from the surface and glimmering in the encroaching gloom of the pit. Once they were nearly within arm’s reach, Finn shouted at Kyyle. “Okay, start casting now!”

  Kyyle nodded, and his hands wound through the gestures of Dissolve. He soon finished his spell, the rigid glass crumbling but not entirely dissolving. Then he began again. He cast over and over as he partially dissolved the glass in a line pointed straight down. The earth mage had to lead the target quite a bit given their velocity, casting at the very edge of his control range and reducing the mana output to avoid completely dissolving the wall.

  At the same time, Finn continuously cast his Magma Armor. The hot material soon slid up and over his legs and then coated his back. Yet he continued adding more layers until his legs were almost entirely immobile, and he felt like a dense, molten shell coated his back – like some sort of desperate, magma turtle. He just hoped it would be enough.

  Then Finn dove forward below his companions, reaching back to loop one arm around Julia and the other around Kyyle. His arms strained as he pulled them close. Unfortunately, both of his companions were going to have to keep their hands free – Julia to slow their descent and Kyyle to keep casting Dissolve.

  So, it was up to him to keep them together.

  “10 seconds,” Daniel reported. Even the AI’s voice sounded frantic now.

&n
bsp; “Go, Julia!” Finn screamed.

  His daughter didn’t hesitate. She slammed her daggers into the glass wall, and her blades crashed through the softened material. The entire group jerked hard as Julia’s blades initially tore into the glass, and her arms strained to hold their weight. Yet she managed to maintain her grip on the daggers – despite the pain and hardship – gradually slowing their descent.

  A shower of jagged fragments rocketed away from her daggers as they slid down the wall, carving deep furrows in the surface. The shrapnel sliced through her arms, chest, and face, disintegrating her armor within only seconds. Julia’s blood soon joined the fragments of glass, raining down upon Finn.

  He wasn’t in any better shape than his daughter. Struggling to keep hold of both Kyyle and Julia, he pushed himself to the very limits of his strength. Something tore in his right arm – the one that clung to Julia – but he ignored the sensation, keeping his fingers locked in place and grinding his teeth together. This was just a taste of what was coming.

  Only a few short seconds later, they stabilized, slowing gradually as they continued to fall. I hope this is enough, he thought frantically.

  “5 seconds until impact,” Daniel shouted.

  Finn saw the ground now looming large in his vision. With their last few seconds, he shifted slightly, making sure he was positioned directly below Kyyle and Julia so that his reinforced legs and back would act as a buffer.

  “3 seconds!”

  Finn said a silent prayer to the Seer. “Please let us live through this,” he whispered. “We have to live through this.”

  Then the group hit the ground.

  Finn felt his legs strike first. For the barest fraction of a second, his feet and limbs held, reinforced by layers of magma. But then he felt them give way, his armor and then his feet crumpling under the force of the impact. He felt Kyyle and Julia ripped away from him and torn out of his grip as his shoulder dislocated. His skin tore and the bones in his ankles and shins splintered, the process seeming to last an eternity as his Dodge skill activated.

  It seemed a cruel joke. How the hell did he dodge the ground?

  Yet Finn didn’t have the time or attention to appreciate the irony as the pain completely consumed him, a futile scream tearing from his throat. Despite the agony radiating upward from his legs, he somehow still had the presence of mind to curl as he felt the limbs fully give way, rotating onto his back to let the armor absorb more of the blow.

  His mind started to drift, overwhelmed by the pain.

  He had felt this sensation before. Once. Long ago.

  This sense of being trapped, careening along a path with no control.

  The sharp burning sensation along his spine. The crack and snap of bone.

  And then the blissful lack of pain.

  His vision blurred and tilted, listing to the side. He could almost see Rachael again, her face framed with auburn hair, and her eyes wide and panicked. Could almost hear the hiss and screech of broken hydraulics and tearing metal. Except, this time, he wasn’t in a car. And it wasn’t Rachael that flew and tumbled through the air.

  It was Julia, her face bloodied and scratched and her hand reaching for him.

  And then there was only darkness.

  ***

  Finn came to with a gasp.

  The world lurched and stuttered around him, cast in a hazy red glaze. It took him a moment to realize that this was due to the blood that coated his face – his blood. He tried to wipe at his eyes but found his arms unresponsive. He barely managed to tilt his head and saw Julia and Kyyle lying beside him, unconscious and bloodied along the floor of the shaft.

  A glance at his UI confirmed that they were still alive.

  Finn was in far worse shape. Red notifications were flashing in his peripheral vision. They all said the same thing in different words…

  He was injured. Badly.

  “Sir?” Daniel chirped, hovering in front of him and weaving in the air anxiously.

  “How… how bad?” Finn croaked, each breath costing him dearly.

  “Um, both your legs are broken – most of the bones have been shattered,” Daniel replied hesitantly. “You have a spinal fracture and are currently paralyzed from the waist down. Both of your arms are broken in multiple places, and your shoulder is dislocated. While most of your major organs are intact, internal bleeding is significant, draining your remaining health in… 13 seconds.”

  “Health potion. Pack,” Finn managed to grunt.

  The AI flashed once and then darted for Finn’s bag. He soon came back with a single red vial suspended in his flaming body, the energy already beginning to warm the potion’s contents. The AI popped the cap and then drained the contents into Finn’s mouth, the substance splashing his face and cheeks. As soon as he finished off the vial, the AI went to grab another.

  A few agonizing seconds later, Finn’s health began to stabilize and then grow, albeit feebly. He ventured a look down at his legs and immediately regretted it. The bones in his feet were starting to snap back together, muscles and tendons wrapping around the ivory frame as the potion’s content accelerated the healing process. His legs shuddered as the broken bones shifted and popped back into place.

  For once, Finn welcomed the numbness in his spine and below his waist.

  He didn’t want to feel what was happening right now.

  Besides, the pain in his arms and chest was already bad enough. He felt his arm shift back into its socket with a crunch. Finn closed his eyes, grinding his teeth together to stop himself from crying out as he waited the slow, pain-filled minutes for his body to fully repair the damage.

  “Sir, you should be okay to move now. The others require assistance,” Daniel chirped a moment later.

  Finn’s eyes snapped open. He tried to move again, and this time his arms responded. He was able to wipe at his face and eyes, clearing the blood and dust coating his cheeks and picking out the shards of glass that were still embedded in his pink, freshly healed skin.

  With a grunt, he even managed to sit up. His legs still looked awful, covered in blood and dust. But he could see now that the bones had been mended and flesh healed, healthy skin now coating intact feet and shins.

  If only it was this easy in the real world, he thought grudgingly.

  With that morose thought, he managed to push himself to his feet, wavering slightly but managing to maintain his balance by leaning heavily against a nearby glass column. He retrieved his bag and supplies. Daniel already hovered above Kyyle and Julia, administering healing potions. Finn checked the earth mage first since he would have borne more of the fall, and his health pool was smaller. His legs were broken, but the damage didn’t look too bad. Finn must have been able to blunt most of the impact.

  Then he turned his attention to Julia.

  She was a mess, and he could feel his stomach heave as he looked at her. While Julia hadn’t taken the full brunt of the fall, Finn had underestimated the damage caused by the spray of glass as she held her blades in place. It had carved up her face, neck, and shoulders – practically pulping her skin. He looked up and saw the long furrows she had carved in the wall of the chasm, the trenches trailing up for several hundred feet.

  He had no idea how she had managed the feat, much less borne the pain and damage of the shrapnel. It was a marvel that she was still alive. Her health pool and natural regeneration must have been incredible to withstand the injuries – even ignoring the damage from striking the ground.

  At that thought, Finn’s tilted his head back toward Julia. He should check to make sure that none of the shrapnel had damaged her Najima. After the purge process that Abbad had shown them and reading Bilel’s journal, Finn was sensitive to possible injury to those mana clusters. The last thing they needed was for any shrapnel to get trapped inside her Najima while she healed.

  Finn tugged back at the sleeve of Julia’s armor, revealing her arm…

  And then he immediately forgot what he had been planning to do.

>   His eyes widened in surprise as he took in Julia’s wrist and forearm. The potion had already begun to heal the most recent cuts, yet her skin was riddled with crisscrossing patterns of white scars that ran across her knuckles and then up her arms, covering nearly every inch of skin. The injuries didn’t look recent. In fact, it appeared there were multiple layers of wounds, as though the skin had been torn open, healed, and then been torn open again – causing her skin to feel leathery to the touch.

  Was this just from the fall? Finn wondered, a heavy weight settling in his stomach as he surveyed the injuries. Or was this something else?

  He felt Julia shift below him, and her eyes suddenly snapped open, her fingers curling around his wrist and a blade materializing in her other hand. In an instant, the tip was at Finn’s neck, a mixture of anger, pain, and fear flashing in her eyes.

  “Julia, it’s me,” Finn croaked, feeling blood trickle down his neck where she had nicked him. “It’s your dad. It’s okay.”

  She blinked. Then blinked again.

  “I… shit,” Julia murmured, her voice gravelly. The blade drifted away from Finn’s throat. She took a deep shaky breath, as though fighting back tears.

  Then Julia saw that Finn had pulled up her sleeve, and she shifted, pulling her armor back into place and not quite able to meet his eye. “I take it we survived. How’s Kyyle?”

  “Injured, but not as bad as you or me,” Finn replied. “He’s still unconscious.”

  Julia moved to sit up. “Hey, take it slow,” Finn urged her.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped, pushing away his hands. “I’ve been through worse.”

  Finn’s brow furrowed at her reaction, his eyes drifting back to her arm. Had she really been through worse than that fall? Those scars had seemed to be extensive, which lent some credibility to her claim. Although, it begged the question of what she had endured.