Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  But that was only until the explosions began. There were three in quick succession ahead of her on the left and then again on the right. Silver imps exploded into existence and began running towards the very surprised Grind Guild. The shield bearer glowed orange. The glow quickly covered his shield, and in a red blur, he dashed forward five feet to meet the first imp. They met in a squelch of necrotic imp flesh against the guild’s single shield. The imp was thrown back and sat on its rump, stunned. The other five imps swarmed him and he was thrown back with the weight of the small horde forcing him to a stop. As Mayah sprinted forward she watched as the imps bounced off of the shield, driving the shield bearer back further and instantly began to attack the warrior and the barbarian.

  Shield-boy’s trying to take aggro by hitting the imps. That would have worked if they were summoned creatures, but these are necromancer dolls. Yaaaay for Grandma!!!

  Whenever the shield bearer smashed or hit an imp, it just flowed past him to attack one of his partners a few feet away. Mayah ran forward activating Whack-A-Vole and Crushing Blow. As the last of the imps passed by the shield bearer she leapt ten feet into the air and swung a massive overhead blow at the shield. It gonged loudly and stumbled Shield-boy back about eight feet, but he had successfully deflected a lot of the force. Twisting while she landed, she spun happiness up and behind her head and ran at the shieldbearer with a grip on the handle like a major league slugger. The second blow separated him totally from his friends as he was pushed back again. Shield boy grit his teeth, planting his feet solidly and prepared for the next hit.

  Mayah yelled, “Now!!!” The weight in her hood disappeared and the shieldbearer screamed. He fell backwards and Grax jumped out from under him and kicked him so that he rolled on top of his shield. Then he began freezing him like he had the beastman

  Mayah’s head swung around at the sound of four more explosions. The imps had moved the remaining pair away from each other, further separating the Guild. The barbarian was faring pretty well, but the warrior was struggling to keep the four imps at bay. His weapon slung out red flashes but with three imps hitting him for ten DP every time they swung he wouldn’t be able keep his damage counter above theirs.

  It looked like a wrap until a purple glow rose from the warrior and shot out in a circle. Mayah’s feet were just outside of the AOE. The ground began to crack outwards with the warrior as the epicenter and a cloud of fog sprayed out from the ground and then exploded into purple fire. Mayah had turned to run, but was knocked off her feet by the concussive wave. When she looked up, the warrior was rushing past the stunned imps towards her, sword raised. There was no way to stop the hit. She reached for the necklace of sonic disruption when a sizzling black arrow struck him in the side. Black lightning sizzled over his spasming body. It was quickly followed by an icepick in his other side. Frost began to grow across him. She rolled up onto her feet, pointed happiness at him, and then simply shoved him over. She gave Margaret and Grax a quick thumbs up and turned to face the barbarian.

  He was now completely surrounded by seven imps, frantically swinging his axes at the surrounding imps trying to make a path through them. She ran towards him and triggered her combo, aiming for his exposed back. Milliseconds before she struck, he screamed so loudly that she thought time had stopped. She was almost pushed back in midair. His aura glowed red and his massive arms flexed to the sky. The blow connected. Instead of causing damage, however, the barbarian seemed to grow taller, his muscles swelled, and his torso expanded. To top it all off he looked like his wounds were healing, the skin visibly stitching itself back together. She took another swing and definitely saw his healing speed up.

  Don’t know what this Ability is, but I don’t like it, not one bit.

  She hopped back and tossed an Acid (D) grenade—one of the special ones with six total grenades at his feet. Between the first explosion and the next, the barbarian’s glow disappeared underneath a splattering of Acid (D) and sizzling imps still weakly clawing at him. Still he stood there, larger than before, with his arms upraised. Mayah got her hammer ready just in case. And then he shuddered and quickly twisted and fell to the ground to writhe screaming in the puddle of Acid (D) until he stopped moving altogether.

  Margaret was still downfield with her bow at her side. Grax was already out of his armor and back in cat form. They met up and walked off of the field to the cheers of the audience. They graciously waved and smiled as they walked.

  “I was worried about that barbarian for a sec,” Grax shouted over the crowd. The last three words echoed about the waiting room as the door to the stage closed behind them

  Mayah used the dealmaker’s voice and said, “Worries? Who needs worries when you have grenades?”

  Margaret chuckled.

  “You’se guys ready to plan the next round?”

  Grax opened the door and waved her through the doors to the outside. “After you, Don Fluff.”

  She hadn’t noticed it before, but there were a lot of paladins wearing patchwork cloaks in the crowd. it was less than 10% of the people she had seen but it was a definite trend.

  I wonder where all of these cloaks came from. I remember the funny looks I got when I first wore it. She pulled up her CrysWeb and searched Majesta Fluffy. She clicked on a website called ChildrenofEarth.web, and was rewarded with a page that showed videos of her duel, her speech, and her words at the smithy. There were a few forum strings, and their hit counter was approaching the seven million views mark. It had only been 12 hours real world time since her duel with Travisty. She was taken aback at the sheer numbers.

  I hope this fluffy thing blows over quickly. I never did do low key well…

  She read one of the forums as she made her way to the food vendors who had moved to the new and improved magic range, and bought a few things to eat. There was information there about helping the Majestans and actually getting strength and stamina bonuses. Mayah was surprised at seeing paladins actually working with the Majestans, which was at first an unheard of thing. NPCs were usually just that, not sentient aware individuals. Revelations of their seeming-sentience plastered the threads. There were threads where people showed videos of what they had learned to increase their stats. They were also calling the extra points from those trainings “Princess Points.” She put her face into her hand and groaned.

  First Fluffys, then Princess points soon there will be memes.

  “Grax have you heard of Princess Points?”

  “Of course, I have. You just started noticing the cloaks and went online, didn’t you?”

  “If you knew, how come you didn’t tell me?” Mayah slit her eyes.

  “Like I wanted to be the messenger on that! It was gonna be my fault whether I said anything or not, so I chose not. Besides, I’m gonna look at some of the Princess Builds they’re suggesting. Maybe I can get stronger that way.” He looked over his glass as he sipped his ice tea, pinky extended, of course, for the extra burn.

  “After this dungeon cat, I’m gonna skin you.”

  “Please pass the sugar,” he said, his eyes never leaving hers. She finally handed it down to him

  “If you two are done threatening each other, let’s talk about this next match,” Margaret suggested.

  “So far, we haven’t had a chance to use our initial strategy. Fluff what’s up with that?” Grax said, piling the shade on.

  “Seems that so far we didn’t need the extra protection for Margaret. We haven’t fought any ranged paladins so far. This match might be different. We’ve only seen two of Strongdalf’s spells and…”

  “…Strongdalf?” Margaret queried.

  “Yeah, the wizard guy without sleeves.”

  “Oh, the one that looks like Ganondorf with muscles.”

  “Yes Margaret, that one.” Grax and Mayah looked at one another shaking their heads conspiratorially. Mayah continued, “We’ve only seen two of his spells, so he either has a melee-based ability like the barbarian’s thing or he still has another magical atta
ck. The samurai is a little different from what I’m used to. You know anything about his character Grax?”

  “He seems familiar for some reason. Something from an old anime, I think.”

  “Think on it hard because he’s your opponent. I’m taking Strongdalf. Margaret, you try to disrupt that shield cast, then stay in back and send the imps in to bang away at that shield. If you can get a clean shot at anybody, sizzle them. We sacrifice the imps to the bomb. Just pile them up on top of the box. Grax you and I throw trees to get cover and wait it out. First, we throw grenades, then we throw whatever imps except the platinum at the shield. Keep the platinum as your guard if things go sideways,” she said to Margaret who nodded.

  “Okay, now that that’s over with,” Margaret sighed, “We can finish this lovely meal together.”

  A small voice from behind startled Mayah, “Excuse me? ...are you really her?”

  Mayah took a deep breath. This was so not what she wanted. “Yes, it’s me, but please don’t make a scene I just want to eat a meal with my team and finish this tournament.”

  “I’m sorry, but all I want is your autograph.”

  Really? like an insta-celeb?

  “C’mon Fluff, give the girl your autograph,” Grax chuckled.

  You are so gonna pay for this, cat.

  “Okay, fine.” She looked at the girl and asked her name.

  “Emily.” Her cheeks grew rosy with happiness.

  She pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and some quill and ink and activated her calligraphy skill. She wrote “Dear Emily thank you for being there to cheer me on.”

  She looked at the girl. “You know what? This is the first autograph I’ve ever given, so I’m gonna make it different from all of the others. What kind of character do you want to build?”

  “A warrior, just like you.”

  Mayah had to laugh at that. “Actually, I’m an engineer.”

  The girl looked confused. “But you fight so well.”

  Mayah waved her praise away, “Yeah, I’m okay. But mostly, Travisty was just a blowhard. Now, I’m gonna tell you a secret. One that you can only tell one other person before you leave the village, and the same goes for them. In-game and out. Okay?”

  “I, Emily Castl’dor, swear to follow the directions that Princess Cuddle Fluff has given me. May Ba'alquion take me if I break my vow.” The golden glow washed over her and she smiled widely waiting for the secret.

  “There are two parts. The first is, buy every book you can find.” Emily looked a little perturbed at the first part of the secret. “Doesn’t sound like much? Just wait until you do it. The second part is, don’t distribute your stat points until level nine or ten.”

  “But, how do I get stronger?” Emily questioned.

  “For starters, ask a Majestan. Spend a couple of days in the training village dealing with the Majestans. You might be surprised.”

  She looked like she was starting to catch on to what she was saying. At least I hope she is.

  “Thank you so much!” She began bouncing in place. As Mayah was about to pass her the autograph she paused and cast enchantment.

  Ding!!!

  You have enchanted: Autograph

  Plus 10% fire resistance to the bearer of this autograph

  She cleared her notifications handing the autograph to Emily. “Hope to see you out there helping people.”

  “Yes ma’am!!!” She saluted with an enormous smile.”

  Grax smiled at her as she left. “...End scene. now we just gotta edit out the part about the secret and post it.”

  “And where are you gonna post it?” Mayah growled.

  “In the Children of Earth forums of course. If you look me up on there, I’m Diablo Gato. I already had to turn down a moderator position. I told you to let me be your manager,” he said matter of factly.

  “Well, just for your knowledge, Josh Bannon is looking into a live stream group for us. So, stop giving away all of our product for free. You haven’t shared the dungeon feed yet, have you?”

  “No, I wasn’t gonna do that until I logged out.”

  “Good! Sit on it.”

  “Sheesh. Fine.”

  “We only have twenty minutes left. Let’s eat up and head back.” Grax and Margaret agreed.

  …..

  7.4 The Final Countdown

  The six paladins, the finalists of the classed division team tournament, sat in their respective groups in the furthest corners from each other as possible. The Lion’s Roar Sect were high end spa relaxed. The samurai was reclining on the bench. one foot was up with his knee lazily splayed to the side, the other on the ground. His straw hat lay over his face. The tinker paced back and forth in a small elliptical while doing math on his fingers. Mayah deciphered some, but not all, of the series she saw him muttering. Strongdalf sat, leaning back against the wall, his big Macho Man Savage guns crossed across his chest as he exuded calm and cool control. He was staring directly at Mayah from underneath his dark eyebrows. Their eyes held, neither giving sway, cool as two cucumbers. There was no lightning or daggers. Just cold calculating stares. Grax was playing asleep, his paws over his nose. Margaret had herself backed into the corner and looked into an empty corner.

  The dwarf stopped pacing and his eyes glazed over. He must be using the party chat. Mayah decided to do the same thing.

  Fluff: Hey guys how are you doing?

  Grax: Ready for warfare!!!! :3

  Mags: I’m ready

  Fluff: I see you shortened that handle finally. My OCD was kicking in when your name ended way over to the right of ours.

  Grax: You’ve got OCD too??? That explains a lot.

  Fluff: Will it explain why I’m going to beat you until your backside falls off and runs away when this tournament is finished?

  Grax: Such hostility…

  Mags: You should be careful Grax she’s likely to feed you to Jensen for quest duty.

  Grax: No thank you. I apologize from the bottom of my heart.

  Fluff: Oh, shut up.

  Looks like it’s showtime.

  Mags get that shield down. Grax enjoy yourself.

  Mags: Aye aye cap’n

  Grax: Don’t you know it.

  They stood up as the mages entered from the stage. Lion’s Roar was being escorted to the field first. They were almost to the door when Mayah decided something in that split second. “Best of luck to you,” she yelled over to the Lion’s roar.

  Their heads swiveled to her without breaking their stride. When only the samurai was left in the room he turned again and said “Ganbatte.” in a hushed tone.

  Do your best? Okay, I will, she smiled.

  They followed them out onto the field moving to the opposite end. Grax lined up on the swordsman. He armed his weapons and armor and bowed to him. The samurai returned the bow. Margaret went behind them and got into her shooting stance. Mayah looked at Strongdalf with Achilles Heel and saw very little blue. What kind of buffs does he have? She cleared her head when she noticed him looking at her.

  The horns sounded! Mayah and Grax followed one of Margaret’s arrows as they sped downfield. Strongdalf was casting his signature shield spell. The first arrow, aimed at Strongdalf, was deflected by the samurai, but another was already flying high over his head. He threw a sword at it, but Grax deflected it with a well-aimed stiletto. The sword spun just enough to let the arrow scoot by. The samurai ran to catch the falling sword while drawing out his two other swords to start his juggling bladey slicey dicey thingy. Samurai was lucky he did, as Grax began throwing a torrent of knives at him.

  Margaret’s doll exploded close enough to the tinker to sit him on his butt, but not enough to do any significant damage. He pulled out a small short sword and scrambled away from the imp, to the far side of the box. The imp followed and the tinker began to fight the imp using his box to keep the imp at bay. Strongdalf finally finished the shield and cast it around the tinker. Unfortunately for the tinker, the imp got caught inside the barrier and was
still attacking.

  Mayah activated Crushing Blow and Whack-A-Vole and swung towards Strongdalf. His hand glowed orange and he punched at the swing, stopping it, but the force dropped him to a knee. Mayah reversed her direction aiming her next attack at his chest. He hotkeyed a small buckler shield onto his arm and blocked her underhanded blow, using the momentum to stand up and step back. She swung another overhead blow, which he barely dodged by sidestepping and spinning to her right. She was slightly unbalanced by her miss when she took a spinning back heel kick from his right leg to her ribs. Her vision spun as she hit the ground and rolled.

  That shouldn’t have hurt so much. I also shouldn’t be laying on my back right now.

  Her health was down by about thirty percent and she couldn’t figure out why. Until she saw the glowing foot about to descend on her face. She rolled out from under the strike as fast as she could, and heard the ground crack next to her head.

  Strondfalf was distracted as he took an Acid (D) arrow to his shield and stepped back looking for the source. Mayah kept rolling until she got enough distance to get to her feet. She summoned Vergie. Shadows boiled down her arm, shooting at Strongdalf. She took a second to take stock of the situation. Grax was battling the samurai with one sword and a melting stiletto. The samurai’s swords were flying straight at Grax. only to miss as he deflected with the melting blade. What’s he doing? Margaret had six imps down field pounding on the shield. She turned back to Strongdalf to see his shield was sizzling, but he was merely dodging Margaret’s arrows instead of deflecting them while Vergie tested his defenses.

  Mayah powered up her combo and dove back in with an overhead swing. He turned to take the blow on his shield just in time, and the force knocked him back two steps. Mayah tossed a single Acid (D) grenade at him. The Acid (D) splattered over the shield and onto his bare shoulders and beard. He faltered from the pain. Vergie slashed her claws across his calf making him cry out. Mayah conjured Spike (W), and in a beautiful golf swing lobbed it at his feet and knocked his shield upward with the follow through. She pulled back and Triggering Crushing Blow, thrust Happiness, headfirst straight into his lower abdomen and staggered him back again. He dodged the next blow completely and bashed her in the side with the shield as he ran towards Margaret who was fifty yards away. She turned to see the samurai start to push Grax back, then he disappeared completely—only to reappear ten feet behind Grax. He also ran for Margaret. Between the feet of the imps she noticed the box.