by Jeff Sproul
“Nevermind,” she said, forcing a half smile. “But let me walk you out and find you a driver,” she spoke as she went after him.
Chapter 14: Saros
Riley waved to the rook that had driven him all the way back to the market in Gargantuan City. The rook waved back to him and then slowly pulled away. Riley diverted his attention to the market itself. There were a good many people milling about. Except for the players who were noticeably wearing certain gear-centric items, it was difficult to tell who was a player and who was an NPC. On some occasions, even NPCs had gear. Players would sometimes target those characters in-game if they felt they were weak NPCs and could nab some easy loot, even at risk of lowering their reputation within the city.
Riley looked around at the various stalls that were set up in the first floor of nearby buildings. He headed down the narrow street and kept an eye out for Seth and the others. There was about a block worth of ground to cover, but he had a loose idea of where they might be.
He was surrounded by stalls, filled with all kinds of items. One area might have foods, another would have necklaces and rings. At the end of a street, he found a pet vendor. There was a snake, a racoon, a penguin, a squirrel. Nothing too exotic, as far as he was aware. He kept looking around, scanning the characters nearby. The looming structures ranged from a single story, to easily seven stories high.
Sigil Online had a robust NPC network of characters that went about their normal lives. Office jobs, manual labor, construction, etc. It was all simulated to give a very lively city feel.
Riley passed by a cart that was grilling ‘meat on a stick,’ as he called it. It smelled delicious, but he didn’t want to waste more time with niceties. He was able to save a little of his money due to the free ride back to Gargantuan, so he wasn’t about to start throwing credits away again. Though, he had to say, seeing Warcry again was totally worth the fifty credits it cost to take the taxi over there. Knowing how well she was doing, despite everything that had happened, caused his lips to curl. Part of him was glad that he was no longer around Glasser and Shadow. Blue wasn’t so bad, but the other two really got on his nerves at times. But to be fair, he imagined he hadn’t been the best person either.
“Riley!” a voice called from a distance away. “Riley!”
He turned his head, looking around at the various people to the left of him. Then, he spotted Seth with that new white hair. He turned and went towards him, quickly noticing Todd, Brenda, and Erica were with him.
He lifted his arm and waved to them, letting them know that he’d spotted them and was heading over, as the surrounding people were making visibility a bit difficult.
About twenty seconds later, he reunited with Seth and the others. “Hey, sorry for joining you guys late,” he said. “I needed to pick something up for Seth.”
“Yeah, you’ve got me super curious about that,” said Seth.
“It’s all he can talk about,” Erica sighed and then impersonated his voice as best she could, “no, we don’t have to look at weapons! Riley said he was gonna get me something!”
Seth chuckled at Erica’s comment and shook his head. “I didn’t say it like that! I was just letting you guys know we didn’t need to spend time—” he then stopped and sighed. “Forget it, never mind!”
“Seth told us about your new powers,” said Brenda, taking a step towards him. “You gonna hunt with us today?” she asked, as if the answer seemed to be an uncertainty.
“Yeah, I definitely want to still hunt with you guys!” said Riley. “I raced over to a friend’s place so I could pick this item up for Seth. I’m hoping with my powers, we might be able to take on some stronger stuff, despite Seth being set back. Did you guys find some gear for him, for damage and survival?” Upon asking that question, Riley then lifted his hand and opened his inventory with a simple gesture. He pressed the icon for the clasp and it materialized in his hand.
“We managed a couple bargains,” said Erica. “Nothing amazing, since it’s not always the best-case-scenario to spend a lot of money on equipping tier zeroes. Life expectancy for zeroes is just so low in Sigil.” She turned her head to Seth. “No offense,” she said with a smirk.
“Well, I’m about to increase the average,” said Seth. “Watch me hit paragon before any of you!” he claimed.
Todd chuckled and Riley smirked.
“So is that for me? That...diamond clasp band thing?” Seth asked, looking down at the item that had appeared in Riley’s hand.
“Oh, yeah! I figured it’d do better in your hands until you can find some powers. It’s the same thing I used back on my old character.”
Riley handed the item over.
“Doesn’t look like a weapon to me,” said Brenda.
Seth accepted the clasp and stood there silently as his eyes scanned the description for the item.
-
Diamond Piercer Clasp
Increase Power stat by 5
Increase Critical Strike chance by 3%
On-Use Effect: (Focus)
Upon focusing, a player can fire a beam of white-hot energy at a target.
All Critical Strikes with this attack, do an additional 72% damage (beyond the normal double damage of a critical strike.)
(Damage based on Power stat.)
-
“A white beam?” asked Seth. “Totally my style! Silver and white!”
“Which are like...almost the same exact thing, visually,” Erica sighed. “I swear, the game is going to give you a purple or green power or something, and completely screw your style up.”
“This thing is pretty nice,” said Seth. “Actually, it’s probably better than you envisioned, since a couple of the items I picked up also increase my crit strike chance.”
“Then it’s perfect,” said Riley with a smile.
Seth looked up to him and reached out, slapping him on the shoulder. He squeezed his shoulder with a shake, before he released it. “Thanks,” he said. “Means a lot, you helping me out like this.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Riley said, his hands slipping into his pockets. “Just glad I could help, even though I couldn’t do anything when you all got attacked.”
“At least those bastards didn’t get you,” said Todd. “We all thought you were dead. Was glad to hear you made it outta there though. Those guys were tough.”
“But I hear you and Erica held your own against the three of them,” said Riley. “Even when you were low on health. That’s impressive!”
Todd’s lips curled a bit, his cheeks reddening somewhat from the compliment he got from Riley. The stout man wasn’t used to smiling so much. “Ah, well. We do what we can,” he said.
“I was super pissed that I got froze,” Brenda grumbled. “I just stood there, staring at that damn debuff until it vanished. I couldn’t follow their movements too well, since I had to look through a sheen of frost and ice, but once it melted I threw out some heal bolts and started laying down cover. I wish I could’ve seen the look on their faces when we turned the fight around on them.”
Riley nodded. “Yeah, hopefully we don’t run into those guys again in there. Do you think we should keep going there? Or try another location?”
“I think we’re going to find PKers like that anywhere we go,” said Brenda.
“Yeah, she’s right,” Seth agreed. “But I’m open to changing up the scenery if that’s what everyone wants to do. Since I’m the odd one at the moment. But with this clasp, I’ll at least be able to throw some attacks around.” He then reached over and set it around his right wrist, a bigger smile forming on his face. He looked around, as if wondering if there was something for him to shoot, but there were far too many NPCs and potential players around.
“I’m fine with whatever you all decide,” said Riley, looking among the other four.
“Well, are we done equipping Seth?” asked Brenda.
“We looked around for a while. I doubt we’re going to find any other bargains here,” said Seth. “I guess
we could try another market somewhere in Gargantuan, but at this point, I think our time is better spent hunting monsters. I gotta get some levels!”
“Let’s grab some food buffs from one of the stalls,” said Erica. “Something cheap. We can decide where we’re—”
She paused, as a shadow overtook the group and the street around them. Everyone looked around, seeing the heavy shadow that was too dark to be mere cloudcover. It took only a couple seconds for the first people to look into the sky.
An enormous dark hand hovered overhead. It was silent as it moved, but several moments later, it clutched one of the seven story rooftops. It squeezed and crushed the rooftop, its fingers dug in and sent debris falling down to the streets below where everyone was standing.
People shouted and pointed. Others ran.
Riley and the others were on the safer half of the street as they watched the hand clutch the roof of the tall building. Riley’s eyes followed the hand to the wrist, and then its long dark arm. The arm came from a massive portal in the sky. The portal seemed to swirl with black and purple energy. The hand was made up of similar shading.
“Invasion event!” someone yelled.
“Get out of the plaza!”
“Run! Run!”
“We have to fight it!”
“We’re going to get killed!
Dozens of voices shouted over all the other incoherent yelling.
“What’re we going to do?” asked Riley.
Seth stared up at the portal. So far, the arm that had come out was a left arm. It only took up a small portion of the portal’s surface.
“What are you asking me for?” said Seth, his eyes wide. “I’m going to be useless!”
“You’ve got that clasp now, you can help with damage,” said Todd. “Erica, you think we can keep it at bay?”
“We can try!” said Erica. “This thing is massive! It’s going to be a raid event. We better hope other people join the fight.”
A moment later, five fingers breached the surface of the flat circular portal. Another hand appeared, then its wrist and arm. It came out, moving at a relatively slow pace before clutching another rooftop and squeezing. The roof of the other building was in the next street over, but there were several large alleyways connecting the two. The tallest buildings were on the sides that the hands were clutching, with shorter buildings of only a story or two in the center.
“We attack?” asked Riley. “I can—”
A silence fell over the plaza as a mouth with white teeth appeared from the portal. Then, a pair of large red eyes with black pupils. The head was like a snake’s, but more alien and rounded. Its maw opened, its jaw—if you could even call it a jaw, lowered.
A horrific mix between a hiss and a deep exhale of air escaped the monster’s mouth. Each tooth in its mouth was easily the height of any of them. Its head continued to stretch out of the portal. Its eyes peered around the streets below.
There was chaos all around them. People were collecting up their things and running. NPCs were panicking as much as players were.
Then, Riley heard a familiar sound come from the street parallel to theirs. The sound of a shotgun burst.
A hail of red energy pellets flew up at the monster’s face and impacted its shadowy skin. The creature’s right eye narrowed partially as its head turned, his eyes gazing down into the other street.
Several more shotgun blasts filled the air and passed by rooftops as the red pellets smacked into the monster. Above its head, a health bar appeared. Above it, appeared the name ‘Saros, The Interdimensional Terror.’
Riley recognized the identity of the first attacker. Marcella had told him that her name was ‘Red Shotgun.’ If that was the case, then it meant they had at least one paragon in the area. A paragon that had no qualms about engaging a raid-level monster. Usually, powerful raid-level monsters out in the open were referred to as ‘world bosses,’ since they could appear anywhere. They also tended to be more powerful than raid-level bosses in hunting areas.
Invigorated by someone else taking first blood, Riley thrust his arm into the air and sent his right-spike soaring into the sky.
The shotgun blasts weren’t letting up. The monster’s face was being pounded by the pellets, as a gray cord rose from the street below. Up and up it went, until finally it snagged into the side of the monster’s face. The creature, Saros, didn’t even seem to notice. The cord went taut and a purple-black essence ran swiftly down the cord.
“I guess we’re doing this!” said Brenda as she slotted a red bolt into her crossbow.
From the other street, a green jet of liquid shot up at the monster. It impacted and sprayed against the elongated neck of Saros. The monster’s jaw lowered, its eyes widened. A dull purple glow formed within the creature’s mouth.
“It’s charging some kind of attack!” said Seth.
Todd turned his head to look over to the other street. He didn’t have a good line of sight on the combatants over there. He took a step forward, thinking he could cross the distance in time to erect some barriers.
A moment later, the ball of purple energy in Saros’s mouth flashed and a hail of purple laser-like bolts streamed down into the street.
There had been a definitive series of screams, followed by the sound of energy bolts pelting the street and structures. Afterwards, there was an eerie silence.
“They’re not all dead are they?” Erica spoke up a moment later. On their street, people were still running and taking cover.
“I don’t think so, they’re probably just recovering,” said Seth.
Riley absorbed the essence from Saros and almost immediately, his eyes shifted to a dark purple color. “Who wants a boost?” he asked, looking around.
“I hate to say it, but you might be better off checking the other street first,” said Seth. “If there were other paragons with Red Shotgun, it might be better to boost them first. Come back here once you find out, alright? Sooner we take this down, the safer we’ll all be. Gargantuan’s economy is going to suffer every minute this thing stays alive.”
“Sounds like a good plan!” said Todd as he lifted his arms up, creating makeshift sections of concrete barricades, pulling the stone up and at an angle, giving them cover to hide behind.
A single red bolt shot through the air. It smacked into the right arm of the world-boss, but the hand didn’t even flinch. Brenda groweld. “Ugh! Maybe we can cause it to retract its head if it loses hold of the buildings?” she asked.
“Could be a waste,” said Seth, “But I’ll help! Riley, get going!”
Riley nodded, looking to Seth as his friend pulled his arm up and fired a single white beam out at the monstrous hand clutching the nearby building.
“Damn, this is cooler than I thought it’d be!” said Seth.
Riley turned and began to run, heading through the nearby wide alleyway that connected the two streets of the market area. Several people were holding their heads, crouched around sturdier sections of the building. Riley could easily see into the other side of the street, but there was a good five-hundred feet to traverse. He wasn’t the fastest runner, nor did he have a huge amount of stamina. Running was going to drain some of his stamina, and make it harder to use his powers quickly.
Chapter 15: Red Hand
Riley saw several people running in the opposite direction of the interdimensional monster. Some of them were in rather stylized clothing, making him believe that they were actually players fleeing the area.
His arms pumped, crossing the halfway point in the mid-street. He could see the right hand of the monster, atop one of the structures in the other street. Looking directly up, he couldn’t see the head at that moment.
As Riley reached his destination, coming around the one-story structure protecting him, a wave of purple mist washed through the street. Riley froze, noticing the wave coming. He dove back into the side-street, just barely avoiding the forceful purple mist.
He heard incoherent shouting coming from the
nearby street, and a few seconds later, the mist swept through and abated, vanishing entirely. He pulled himself off the concrete and looked into the street. It was only then that he realized he might not have needed to of avoided the attack, since he had the monster’s essence. But then again, with such a high level boss, he might’ve taken some damage regardless.
Broken and damaged kiosks littered the street. Dozens of characters were on the ground. Some of them were moving and trying to stand, others were still but not yet deteriorating—which was a sure-sign that death had yet to occur.
He spotted a woman with red hair and a red jacket. She had black pants and boots. She was thrusting both of her fists into the air at the world-boss. Each time, a flurry of red energy beads burst from her fists with that unmistakeable shotgun sound.
Riley looked into the sky. Saros’s mouth was horrifically distended, lowered at an unnatural angle, but it was slowly closing.
Red Shotgun was on the right side of the street and well within the range of his cord. He was about to throw it out, but remembered that there would be a small bit of damage inflicted. He didn’t want to incur Red Shotgun’s wrath with even a meager attack. He needed to let people know that he was there to help them. He rushed down the street, heading in the direction of both Red, and the monster.
As he ran, he watched as a woman on the left side of the street was holding her hands together and firing off streams of concentrated green liquid. She must be the one responsible for the attack he’d seen from the other street. Half her hair was green, while the other side was black. She had dark skin and wore a pair of brown pants with a green jacket.
A man with blue hair, wearing a gray shirt and blue denim pants, stood in the center of the street. Riley only took notice of him because he was waving his hands around. He lifted his arms up to the sky in the direction of Saros. As he did, a gray and blue-speckled vapor gusted from his palms. The almost smoke-like creation rose and twisted in the air until it buffeted the world-boss’s head. It didn’t seem to do any noticeable damage, not that any damage had really affected its health so far, but the monster swung its head slowly to the side, as if to get out of the smoke. The blue-haired man’s arms shifted with the monster’s movements, keeping the cloud of vapor around the monster’s head.
