He flicked the prixi awake, and it immediately began to clack its beak indignantly and try to bite him. The demon closest to the entrance stopped and listened to the strange sounds. Eredani pinched the prixi, making it chatter all the louder, and the magus crept toward the bait. Eredani touched the prixi again, but the demon activated dark lightning in preparation for an attack.
“Fuck!” Eredani swore and shook his hand. The prixi twisted and turned, and bit his finger.
“Have you been collecting loot?” I asked Yasya in a whisper. “Give me a weapon blank.” She didn’t argue, and I prayed for Barliona to gift me a common object. The system was taken aback at such a strange request, but responded without query. No bright suns or titanic flashes. Everything standard and casual.
“Gnaw on that,” I said, putting the glaive on the floor and making it accessible for interaction. Eredani understood me and held the fluffy ball to the shaft, and the corridor filled with the loud crunching of wood. The prixi’s beak worked more efficiently than a pulverizing machine.
The demon’s four eyes widened in surprise, and it rushed the pest. Although… that’s a lie. The demon’s eyes widened decidedly more when it was struck simultaneously by three level-fourteen players. It didn’t have time to squeak before being dispatched to the Abyss to rail against us indiscriminately.
“Give!” With effort I managed to tear the piece of wood from the prixi’s jaws. It squealed angrily, which attracted the attention of the next demon. The situation repeated itself down to the last detail, except that there was nothing left to snatch away from the prixi. The beastie had gobbled the handle of the glaive whole, and the blade vaporized as a now unnecessary element.
“You’ve got to take it quicker or you won’t save up enough loot,” said Eredani amiably, watching out for the next magus. The clearing tactic was working.
“Where are my servants?!” screamed the demoness, and the last magus left alive got bustling, upending tables in the process. The waiting phase came to an end, and we proceeded to the active phase. I took aim at the creeping low-life and whacked it with a demon strike, sending it scuttling off to the Abyss. It didn’t have a hope against my level thirteen.
“What the hell is going on today?” the demoness said in a huff, before defining her personal space with a crack of her whip. Closer than three meters was dangerous. The hirelings entered the room one by one, pressed up against the wall. The demoness watched them, but didn’t react.
“We’re staying put.” “I’m not going in there.” Eredani and I spoke together. The demoness’s passive behavior was vexing. And not only for us. Diabettis was turning his head, assessing the situation in the room, and pointing to ledges which could be jumped onto in order to avoid the whip.
“Darling, we gotta talk.” The demoness waited a while longer and switched on her first ability. I was drawn into the room against my will. Clutching at the stone projections, I tried not to move, but my legs opposed me, wanting to deliver me to the fair lady. Seizing hold of the doorframe, I also managed to grab Eredani. He was delirious and also gravitating toward her for a serious chat. The We Gotta Talk debuff was active for just three seconds, but it was plenty for all her enemies to come within striking distance. A swish of the whip, and for the first time I could remember, Diabettis’s composure betrayed him.
“Bitch! Attack! Destroy the beast!” The boss’s strike was dreadful. All three hirelings lost the power of sight for ten seconds. The whip slashed across their eyes, invoking Blindness, and I squirmed to imagine what they were feeling. Approaching the demoness was not a good idea.
“Tail! Bind!” I shouted. My partner reacted quickly, winding his tail around mine. Aniram and the fish appeared at the same time, and we went to hirelings’ much needed assistance. The demoness handled with consummate skill not only the whip, but also her body. The hirelings had only been able to touch her using wicked strike, which they directed at her legs and either sprang immediately back, or felt the sting of her whip. Diabettis waited before nipping at her from close range, but she easily jumped aside and again called her ruthless weapon into action.
A double demon strike made the elder wife totter. Rubbing her breast and pursing her lips, she hissed, “You hurt me, and I trusted you. We gotta talk. Come! I have a kiss for you.”
I clung to the door, and my tail immediately tensed. Eredani was still trying to communicate with the demoness. While dragging him back, I noticed she had her sights on Yasya. We Gotta Talk acted on her too. She’d got too close and was now being strangled in the demoness’s embrace. She tried to wriggle, but couldn’t break loose from the boss’s iron grip, and the kiss was reducing her HP. The demoness was drinking the player, like liquid from a vessel.
“I’ll kill you, beast! Leave her alone!” Maestro roared. He slipped under the mob’s arm and flung a spear at her head. It was a spectacular crit: the elder wife began to rock and released her victim. Nevertheless, she somehow reacted to Maestro’s second shot, batting him to the far side of the room with a swing of her arm. Diabettis pulled the dazed Yasya to the wall and ran at the boss to distract her. The Tishkins were temporarily out of action.
The second of the boss’s abilities didn’t impress me. At all. So little, in fact, that I cussed immodestly, imbuing my words with maximum vulgarity. For the demoness, cracking her whip for the nth time, began enthusiastically to clap her hands: “Oh, how charming! I want one! Darling, we gotta talk urgently.”
The epic breastplate — my pride and joy — flickered and disappeared as though it had never existed. The exclamations, “Hey!”, “What the hell?!”, and “Where…?” indicated that each of the players had lost something valuable. So valuable that their ability to challenge was powerless in the face of their wrath.
Damage dropped substantially. The countdown timer started, and we had fifty-five seconds before the next I Want One.
“Everyone back!” Diabettis’s cry heralded a new Kiss of Jealousy, coupled with a challenge. Ostensibly the players had learnt to avoid these abilities, but each time the demoness reached out to one of them with a kiss, Yasya noticeably quaked.
The minute flew by so quickly I had no time to gather my wits. The next time I struck the demoness, I stared incredulous at the timers. All three of her abilities had recovered, but she was in no hurry to employ them. The reason for this became clear a few seconds later — her HP was down to thirty percent. At a rate of knots she dashed to Maestro and hung over him, staring into his eyes. He could neither avert his gaze, nor jump away.
“You don’t love me! At all. You don’t buy me anything, or give me presents. My sister’s husband takes her to the lava crater, showers her with gifts. I want one! You’re cheating on me. We gotta talk urgently. Come, I have a kiss for you!”
The combo of four abilities plus Ballbuster was brutal. Maestro didn’t stand a chance, his body melting from the kiss. Yasya attacked next and, despite Diabettis, Eredani, and I covering her, she got a good thrashing.
The second I Want One relieved me of the glaive, which reduced damage even more. Were it not for the difference in level, the demoness might already have been celebrating victory. But there were four of us, all level thirteen-fourteen, and we were pissed off. Almightily so.
“Mama-a-a!” the beast wailed a summons, and there was another being in the room. An exact copy of the elder wife, the only difference being that its HP was full.
“My girl! Where is this wastrel? Who have you wasted your best years on? He’s not worthy of you. I warned you.”
A superb new character! If I’d had the time, I would have stopped to applaud. The replica was, of course, a tad beaten up, but perfectly recognizable, and enough to distract the players for split second. I hesitated, not knowing who to shoot at, and that was a critical mistake. The elder wife’s abilities were restored, and she was back with Yasya. “You don’t love me…”
“You don’t love her…” the mother-in-law chimed in, pouncing on Diabettis.
A We
akening scroll appeared in my hands when the shimmering Yasya was already melting away in the boss’s arms. Diabettis survived by activating Retreat right as the mother-in-law was kissing him, but it wasn’t easy: he slammed into the wall, slid to the floor, and froze. The list of debuffs was so long that if he didn’t urgently neck a potion, he would definitely be joining his gang. Minus the belt and gauntlets, but that only served to put me on my mettle. Making one last appeal to Aniram, I administered a devastating strike. Crit!
Dorel’s Frontier task progress
You have destroyed 222 out of 222 demons.
Phase 1 completed.
Commander Uldaron has been informed of your success. Supervisor Tarlin has been dispatched to you with reinforcements. Arrival time: 2 hours.
Phase 2: Fend off 3 waves of demons before supervisor Tarlin arrives. The first wave will arrive in 20 minutes.
Potion in hand, I moved toward the hireling, but Eredani intercepted me. Skewing his eyes to the side, he shook his head and raised his eyebrows in question.
“Think of yourself and the future of the clan,” he whispered. “They’ve fulfilled their part of the bargain. We’re on our own now. Nothing will go to waste.” He pointed to a pile of objects that had appeared, among which I recognized my red chestplate and all the other items which had been taken. “Don’t worry about the hirelings. They’ll be fine. They have their own clan.” The tiefling continued to work me. “We’ll soon be leaving the nursery, and the bonuses won’t hurt. Two epics. You’ve dismissed people from projects because you didn’t need them, yeah?”
“Yes, I have,” I confirmed, staring hard at the loot. I made my decision on the spot and was in absolutely sure of it. My rational mind agreed that my partner’s suggestion was right and beneficial to the general cause. However, aside from the benefits, other factors also affected the decision, and they could also sway me. “You’re right, Eredani. But it’s one thing to dismiss employees for incompetence, so as not to harm the project; it’s quite another to leave people unpaid for their good work. That’s something I’ve never done.” I freed my hand and went over to Diabettis.
“That’s why you were dismissed yourself,” he called after me in irritation. “There’s no place for the righteous in business.”
He was mistaken. It wasn’t so much moral principle, as a desire to set a few things straight in our relations. At that moment I was ready to make a small sacrifice, and I didn’t think the hirelings had anything valuable anyway. But Eredani would understand I wasn’t going to follow his orders blindly.
Leaning over Diabettis, I forced his mouth open and poured in a restorative potion. I had nothing for removing the debuffs, and had to wait a minute for them to remove themselves. The hireling came round and jumped to his feet. His look, at first lost, soon became comprehending and, seeing the pile of objects and identifying his own things, he looked questioningly at me. I nodded, acknowledging his right to take what was his.
“Two rings.” Diabettis gutted the demoness. “And a key. Yasya had the others, so…”
“There they are.” Eredani pointed to where the girl had died. Two keys twinkled on the floor. I picked them up and extended a demanding hand to my partner for the first. Eredani slapped the key into my palm, Diabettis handed over the fourth, I put them together, and…
And nothing. No flash, no system notification, no reward. Just four cold heavy metal objects, lying silently on my palm.
Player Diabettis discards 34
Player Diabettis discards 71
Player Diabettis discards 63
“For me, Yasya, and Maestro.” The hireling explained his actions. “Let’s roll dice for the rings.”
“They’re dead and can’t be involved in the carve-up,” I said. Standing off to the side, Eredani sniggered and took my response as an attempt at rehabilitation. I told him mentally where to get off. He could think what he liked.
Both rings went to Eredani. I looked at the timer: there were just over ten minutes until the demon attack. We had to have time to sort out the ghosts’ reward. I approached the wall. The map reiterated emphatically that there ought to have been a doorway in front of us, but the wall was as plain as could be. A standard, run-of-the-mill wall, just like all the frontier’s other walls.
I took out my pick and, imagining what the door looked like, picked a spot and struck it. Not hard, but enough to produce a sheaf of sparks. Previously there hadn’t been such a bright lightshow. I looked thoughtfully at the tool — it was in good order. I struck again, this time without swinging back, and created no fewer sparks. When I merely scraped it along the wall, the effect was identical.
“Move aside,” Eredani ordered, producing a Frost Strike scroll. I scarcely had time to run before an icicle hit the wall. “Now strike!” The pick sank halfway into the wall. I pulled it back, knocking out the nearest brick. The wall soon rid itself of the hoarfrost by turning the spark-sprinkler back on. Thrusting the pick into the hole, I pushed, and picked out another brick. To paraphrase Archimedes: “Give me a place to stand, and I’ll knock down any wall.” Swing by swing I widened the entranceway, uncovering a heavy metal-plated door. It wasn’t locked, and it led into a miniscule room, or rather a niche, where on a stone plinth stood a trunk. As we approached, the lid flipped open, presenting us three neat, named sacks. The loot turned out to be pukka gold.
“Kvalen, I give you full access to my share,” said Eredani. He didn’t want to take the gold himself. Each sack contained five thousand gold coins. Not a bad haul for newbies!
I stepped out of the niche and regarded the pick. How many more secret rooms were there at the frontier? The guardian, the ghosts… Who said we’d fulfilled all the bonus tasks? What if a legendary card was hidden somewhere? Just reach out a hand, and it was yours. What I really needed to do was trace the entire perimeter of the frontier, scraping the pick along the wall in search of sparks. But that would take forever, and there were no guarantees. Still, you could sell the idea!
An unsettling droning sound reverberated around the frontier. The first wave of demons had arrived.
Notification for players at the Demon-Hunter Training Camp location
A local event, the Cleansing of Dorel’s Frontier, has been successfully completed. From now on players have access to tasks concerning the protection of the Frontier from hordes of demons. See supervisors for more detailed instructions.
Be prepared! Demons will attack in 48 hours! Are you ready to face the beasts of the Abyss?
The message indicated that supervisor Tarlin had arrived at the frontier. I sat down on a wall and sighed with relief. Three waves of demons had utterly drained me. They weren’t strong and they weren’t powerful; they were just too many. But the main problem was that demon hunters didn’t have a single mass-damage spell, so we had to beat the beasties individually, chasing them all over the frontier. They didn’t give experience either, because they were only level seven. Kids’ stuff, but you had to catch them first. Which we did.
“Well, well.” Tarlin found us at the wall and looked disparaging. “Two Tieflings decided to become heroes, hey? Did you think folks would treat you better if you took back Dorel’s Frontier?”
“We didn’t think anything,” I said wearily. “We were just doing our job.”
“We did it well too,” said Eredani. “We freed the restless souls of former defenders.”
Tarlin screwed up his disfigured face. It was hard for him to admit we were right. He turned to Diabettis: “I’d like a word with you. I have a task.”
Dorel’s Frontier task completed
Reward:
Experience: +45, until next level: 92
Reputation with Light of Barliona faction: +18
Reward: Pants from the Unending Happiness set
Bonus reward: Helmet from the Unending Happiness set
“Hey, you! There are pens full of prixis down there. Destroy them all! Don’t let that plague spread!” Demon hunters and priestesses began to run all
over the frontier, fulfilling Tarlin’s orders. I didn’t want to know where they’d all come from. There were definitely not that many NPCs in the camp.
“Diabettis, can I have a word?” I put my hand on the hireling’s shoulder, stopping him from leaving. “Tarlin gave you a shoulder protector from the set. I want to buy it. Ten thousand.”
“Are you kidding? I could sell it for two or three times that at auction.”
“No, I’m absolutely serious. Ten thousand gold, and not a single coin more.”
His eyes bored into me long and hard. “I accept your unprofitable offer, but only because I heard you,” he said to my surprise. “I appreciate that. It’s nice to work with people like you. But… ten thousand — and the question of the keys we decide together. Deal?” I nodded my agreement, and the system winked to signal the transfer of ten thousand to the hireling and the receipt of the new object.
A Second Chance Page 33
