by R J Triveri
Seeing her chance, Ranna tipped her blades at the exact moment River set her center of gravity into the tip of the attack and sent the offending blade crashing into the ground next to her robed form with a spray of sand and dust to mark its landing. With River off-balance, Ranna took the opportunity and sent the partner blade in to attack a moment later, trying to catch River off guard with another silent strike.
“Oh, hell no!” Using the fallen blade as a lever, River commanded her body to obey with a simple trigger. “Vault!” Her muscles flexed, tensed, and released her into a full flip, bringing body and blade into the air and sending her opponent stumbling into where she had just been. Turning on her heel with an agility only a dancer could muster a moment after landing, River dragged the blade through the soil, sweeping up and out from the sand and into the air in an attempt to cover her next attack. “Cleave!”
“Blade defense,” her opponent ordered, and her blades flashed almost of their own will to deflect the incoming attack once again.
At least, it appeared that way at first until the smaller of the two flew from her hand with the spray of Inciperian earth and vanished in a flash of data.
Critical success! Ranna’s wakizashi has been disarmed (0:45).
Surprise spoke from every angle of Ranna’s face a moment before River continued to press her new advantage.
The critical success had refreshed her attack cooldowns.
“Cleave!”
And that was all she needed as the blade struck against Ranna’s side and dug into the hip of the other warrior. There was a scream, and River pulled Aquamarine free just before the narrow katana could connect with her arm in a similar manner. Data sprayed in the blade’s arc for a few moments as the gravity of the injury played to the audience’s lust for violence. Everyone knew critical hits were rare to land, and in the arena, they were always destructive to the body as Ranna took a knee.
Raising the blade above her head, River said a single word as she loomed above the weakened Ranna. “Submit.”
The woman’s head shot up at her word and sneered as she made an attempt to hold herself up. Her blade was at a strange angle, trying to support its master and ready a strike at the same time. “Never.”
Coming down with an audible slice, the air parted and the blade found a new resting place in Ranna’s shoulder. “Okay,” River replied as if she were talking to a child, then wrenched the blade free with another spray of data. “Have it your way.”
There was no more to be had as Ranna fell backwards from her knee. Her eyes were open in shock, a pair of small, colored dots in the white of her surprise as her body froze and all weapons were forced back into their inventories or sheaths.
Before the dust could even clear from around her opponent, the announcer was already there in his cleanly pressed suit, easing River’s hand into the sky with all the tact of a Wild One. “What a winner, folks! Let’s hear it for River Hexi!” came the cry a moment later as messages filled River’s informative window.
Victory Achieved!
Ten gladiator credits have been added to your inventory (10/9999).
As the medical team bled from the sides of the arena to tend to the injured party, River took in the sights and sounds of the crowd. Basking in the light of her victory let the vicious love of the crowd nurse her bruised ego before the announcer spoke again. “Next fight in five minutes, folks. Stay tuned!”
With that, River vanished back into the bowels of Gladiator’s Wake with the telltale jerk of teleportation and the sound of the Announcer whipping the crowd into a growing frenzy for the next combatants.
***
Back where she started, River sighed happily as she sunk into the plush chair. To her surprise, her opponent was sitting directly in front of her, rubbing her shoulder and side as if to rub out a kink or a sore muscle.
Getting up from the chair, River offered the other her hand. “Good fight, Ranna.”
Seemingly surprised by the woman’s conduct, Ranna just stared at the hand for a moment. “Could have been better, but you’re not the slouch I thought you were.”
Her hand continued to hang in the air, making River feel just the smallest bit awkward as she held it aloft. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Ranna smirked and nodded. “A small one, but we’ll see next time. When’s your next scheduled match?”
“Well…” The woman was never good with dates, but she swore she had known it this morning. Opening up her arena schedule, River nearly fainted from what she saw.
If Ranna hadn’t seen the unflinching nature of the other combatant, it wouldn’t have prompted her question. “What?”
Torn between anger and elation, River’s face stood deadpan. “All arena events involving River Hexi have been suspended by order of Unum.” That wasn’t the part that worried her though as she read on to herself.
Additional Note: Your ability to arrive is beginning to be questioned. Hurry if you want to keep your place in my service.
The words made Ranna grin just a bit. “Someone’s jealous,” she teased before getting up and finally taking the woman’s hand to help herself out of the deep, plush chair. “Good luck, River. Maybe I’ll be fighting a real champion next.”
River scoffed just a bit as her windows closed. “You couldn’t handle me this time,” she quipped, but let the nerves slip from her mind. I have to get Dante! “Good luck.”
“Good luck,” Rana reciprocated before turning her back to the other woman.
Without a moment’s more hesitation, River dashed to the travel arch, plugged in her location, and sling-shotted herself to the entrance of The Comet’s Fall.
Chapter Twenty-One: Streaming Service
“Dante!” River nearly screamed as she pounded through the door and into their room. When he didn’t respond immediately to her arrival, she really did scream. “Dante!”
His head poked out of her room a moment later. “Yeah?”
The strange intrusion into her privacy was enough to jostle her out of her frenzy. “What are you doing in my room?”
Entering into the room proper, Dante smiled as he held the incubator aloft in his hands. “Things.”
A sigh escaped from River’s breath rather than a curse as she put aside the rest of her questions. It had to be something to do with that stupid egg, she figured as she took another deep breath. “We need to go to the temple,” she said a few moments after he had entered their sitting room. “Unum is tired of waiting.”
Until her last words, Dante seemed unfazed by the entire situation. Once the name of Incipere’s god was invoked, things changed rather quickly. “Then why did you come back for me? I told you I wasn’t invited.”
“And I said you were coming,” River defended. “Who are you going to listen to: your best friend or an all-powerful god of a secondary plane of existence?”
Dante didn’t even smirk as his response came. “An all-powerful god of a secondary plane of existence.”
River frowned, grabbed him by the arm, and began to drag him out of the room. “Wrong answer.”
As the pair approached the door, Dante returned the egg to his inventory and sighed. “No, it’s the right answer. You just don’t want to hear it.”
“Nope,” River confirmed as the pair passed through the door.
Dante knew better than to argue with her when she was determined, so he gave up the goat as they continued into the hallway on their way to the front of the shop. It was just another in a long list of things he was right about in his eyes.
“So much to do, so little time to do it,” River sighed as she opened her windows and swiped to the SIFS control window before her feet stepped out of the inn. With the controls in front of her again, she paused the cast and began the work of renaming and reworking it.
“That’s what they all say,” her partner joked before stepping past the threshold. A grin continued to paint his face as he watched her before groaning like an impatient child. “Come on. If you want to
get there anytime soon, we need to get moving!”
“You know what? Shut up,” River commanded as she continued to check boxes and change sliders. “I need to make sure the settings are alright before we leave.”
Dante just shrugged. The standards were always alright for him, not that anyone actively watched male Inciperians often outside of the Delve Team. Hell, even he had watched them take on dungeons when he was on the outside. When he decided to make his stream public, he rarely had more than ten people compared to their thousands. Though he did have his repeat viewers. Today though, things were a bit different as he watched his active viewer count climb past the hundreds the moment after he set up his room. He whistled softly as he looked over to his friend and captor. “Are you going to make the chat live today?”
She thought for a moment as her finger hovered above another box. It was an important day. It was possibly going to be the most important day in Inciperian history… “Do you think we should?”
“We?” he asked as another few people passed the street. “No one ever wants to talk to me. Even the three or four that watch me are usually silent. I’m as good as white noise.”
With a few thousand in queue to watch now as soon as she left the blackout zone, River was anything but eager to check that box if the letters had been any indication of what to expect. “Well, comes with the territory, I guess.”
“I’ll go live if you do,” he assured as he opened his window. “Imagine the viewers if they can watch you be the first Inciperian to go inside Unum’s temple. Imagine the support you’ll get.”
She had imagined it, but something tugged at her just a bit more after her first brush with fame.
“Imagine the catcalls,” she said as she clicked the final box to confirm an interactive chat, “but it’ll all be worth it.”
Dante nodded and clicked his window. The next words he spoke would be heard by everyone, not just River or the passersby. As if to confirm his thought, River’s private message flashed across his window.
(Party) River Hexi: Ready?
(Party) Dante Rior: I’m already live.
With a confident step, River embraced the fame she had earned already, and the onslaught of opening messages came before she could even get a word out. She wasn’t alone in it either. The pair had never seen the text roll by so quickly. Thankfully, all the chatter was contained in the window on their right pane. The text raced faster than either could have ever imagined, but it all said the same, sometimes auto-translated, words.
First. Hi. Hello.
Getting her composure up, River took a deep breath and took the lead for the pair. “Morning, guys! I guess you all heard the news and some of you probably saw what happened in the exhibition today or at least saw the Midday Pits stream the other day.” Dante cocked an eyebrow, but she continued without missing a beat. “We’re not just the first to survive Tenebrae’s raid portion, Dante and I are on our way to be the first mortals inside the depths of Unum’s temple!”
And the chat went wild with Dante watching haphazardly as he continued the momentum. “Yeah… well, she was invited. I’m just tagging along as far as they’ll let me. When they kick me out, I’m just going to work on hatching my familiar.”
At that moment, almost three-fourths of his viewers vanished. Knowing that he wouldn’t be hanging around with her must have disappointed them, but positive messages still flashed by all the same. As always, from the same viewers.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Jynx: What are you trying to raise?
Dante switched into the text chat to answer as River took over his momentary silence. “We’re a team, Dante. They take us both or they take neither. “
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Dante Rior: Only the best, of course.
“Yeah, yeah, but they’ll take you one way or the other.”
She just radiated confidence. “They’ll take you.”
The chat supported her words as the good vibes flowed…
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Radium_T: You’ll be great! I( - - )I
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Bloo-haw_72: Rock on!
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Bite_It_Dead: No worries!
In comparison, River’s chat was… not as supportive of her close friend.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) CardMasterPokes: Leave him in the dust if you have to!
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Inside_Incipere: Show us some action! 6_6
River took it all in stride and smiled to the phantasmal crowd as she spoke again. “He’s my partner. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him, so shut up and deal with him.” She may have had the looks, but she was sure they’d learn to love Dante. If they didn’t, well, she could always just go live during the Pits and arena fights until they did. I’ll teach them the meaning of respect if it kills them. Or I do. I’m sure there’s a way to beat some respect into them from here.
Dante’s spoke a different tune as more of his viewers, and he used that term loosely, switched to River’s now that she was live. He could feel the weight lift off his shoulders as the viewer count dropped below the two hundred mark.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) SyLph: Don’t worry about it. You’re awesome to watch.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) xXToppeXx: Their loss.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Jynx: Totally, Toppe.
Dante just smiled and gave his viewers a thumbs up as River continued to lay out the day’s events. “Right, it’s going to be a little uneventful until we get there, so maybe this is a good time to get to know each other. I don’t know what the SIFS page says about us, so, ask away?” Before a hat could even drop, the girl made sure to add, “And keep it PG, guys. I don’t want to spend the next hour sitting around banning people. What fun would that be for everyone else?”
Dante snickered a bit as he followed River’s lead. “I guess I could play along. Might be a little weird to say things walking down the street, so why don’t we take it to the chat?”
River nodded as she turned down the street and began to walk. Her voice had a chipper nature to it that seemed to surprise Dante. Then again, she rarely let others know when she was truly enjoying herself. “You heard the man. Send us your questions, and we’ll be sure to answer as many as we can until we reach the temple!”
And the flood began a microsecond later.
***
The friends walked for a few moments as the chat populated full of a range of questions. From food to life to their own personal likes and dislikes, the questions truly ran the entire gamut of their lives.
Dante, being Dante, picked the most seemingly common one first.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Melon_Ocelot: Are you going back to Tenebrae?
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Dante Rior: Do I look like I want to die right now? Raiders have very short lives. Check the page on Luna Gate, and you’ll understand why, Melon.
The idea of going back chilled his code and would have frozen his blood if he still had any. There was no way they could even hold out hope of taking out the Lord of Shadows without the help of a rather large, well-equipped army or a god. Either way, that wasn’t the only question the group had in mind.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Jynx: I know you’ve said you aren’t a couple, but why not?
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Melon_Ocelot: Yeah, I’ve wondered about that, too.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Dante Rior: There’s got to be a reason for everything, right?
Dante just smiled as the chat agreed with him. He figured there would be a few about River after what River brought up.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Dante Rior: Look, she’s great and all, but she just isn’t my type. We’re friends. It’s just that simple.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Melon_Ocelot: But I ship you two so much! Even the SIFS page says there has to be something going on there!
All Dante could do was laugh and smile. If the SIFS page said it, it must be true.
(SIFS Chat: Dante Rior) Dante Rior: Don’t believe everything you read out there. We don’t control the SIFS page
s as much as you think. All we do is create it and populate it with basic information. Everything else is kept up by the viewers and gods.
***
Whereas Dante was enjoying his walk and chat, River tried her best not to show her frustration as she answered question after question as quickly as possible.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Fictitious_Awesome: What’s the meeting about?
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: No idea. Just said that Unum wanted to meet with us. I just hope it’s a lead on where that bastard went.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Dead_Love: Did Athos really beat an entire floor alone?
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: If he didn’t, that was one well-planned event.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Keyed_Fic: Are you going to kill him if you see him again?
She hesitated at that one, but it was only for a moment.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: If he gets in my way, I’ll crush him.
Then came the obvious question.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Do_Or_Don’t: Can you beat him?
What did they expect her to say? No?
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: In a fair fight? Hell yeah, I can!
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Raven_Dark: Did you know there isn’t any information on him in the SIFS Wiki?
Now there was a surprise. She hadn’t really even had a chance to look him up. It did do a little to calm her fears of him being a real boy, though. No true SIFS entry was a dead give-away that he had to be an event creature.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: Nope. It’s good to know that he is just a Wild One, though.
Then, the chat took a different turn as the pair passed out of the residential areas and into the heart of the business district.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) Zeiav: What about Dante? What’s going on there?
River hesitated for a moment. She knew Dante had probably gotten the same question by now and just brushed past it. How had he answered it though? Was he completely honest or just like he always was? With a shrug, she took the direct route.
