Sigil Online: Paragons

by Jeff Sproul

  “Let’s keep it blind!” came a woman’s voice from up ahead of Riley.

  As Riley got close to Red Shotgun, he noticed that it had been hers. He stepped quickly to the side, but in front of her and within her vision. “Hey, I’m a support!” he offered up. “But my powers take a sliver of health when I use them on people. Is that cool?” he spoke quickly, as if he couldn’t blurt out the explanation fast enough.

  Red looked down at him, her fists slowing and stopping. “Just do it!” she said. “We’re not taking this thing down alone!” she looked back up to Saros and began pumping her fists again, the sounds cracking heavily in the air.

  “Right,” said Riley. He threw his left hand out, and the cord stuck into Red’s stomach. Her eyes would’ve flashed, but Riley didn’t see her even look at him, as her attention seemed entirely focused on the sky.

  The cord went taut and the essence flowed into her. Her normal blue eyes took on the dark purple color he’d acquired—but was now losing as he empowered her. As her eyes assumed the dark purple glow, so did her energy pellets. They were now red, sheathed in dark purple.

  “That’s damn cool,” she muttered as she kept up her attacks. “This some sort of bonus damage?”

  “Something like that, it’s dependent on the monster...which is Saros,” said Riley. He then turned to look to the acid-shooting woman, but she’d already taken notice of him.

  “Power me up next!” the woman called over, before he could even ask if it was alright.

  “I need to pull more from the monster!” he yelled back, above the sounds of conflict all around them.

  Riley turned and noticed the giant hand squeezing the roof of the nearby building. He decided it was a much easier target, so he threw his cord out and the spike streaked through the air, hooking into the wrist. It didn’t take long for more essence to flow down to him. Once he’d collected a ‘single serving’ of it, he tossed his other cord to the woman with the green and black hair. Just as he’d done with Red, he empowered her as well.

  “Grab the mist guy next,” Red instructed him.

  “I’m on it,” Riley confirmed. “Are you all together? How many of you are paragons?”

  “Me and Green Melter are,” she said. “I’m Red Shotgun. Not sure who the blue-haired guy is,” she commented.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of you. I’m Riley,” he offered as he threw his cord out again to start the process over again. “Is there any other paragons around? My group is in the other street. I figured there’d be higher levels over here, since I saw your attacks.”

  “Sorry,” said Red. “Just me and Green, that I know of. Since you’re over here, empower everyone you see. We’re gonna need it!”

  “Sure thing,” said Riley as he focused on repeating his combo of sticking the monster’s arm. “Blue-hair, mist guy! I’m going to buff you, it might hurt a little!” He warned the other player as he sent the cord to snag the guy’s back.

  “I thought you said it was gonna hurt?” The blue-haired man called back. “That’s only like, a percent of damage.”

  Riley rolled his eyes. He sent the next helping of essence to the smoke creator. As he did, he saw the purple-tinged green acid that Green Melter was firing up on the monster’s arm, since she’d missed a couple of hits on the world boss’s head, due to all the smoke in the sky. At least the arms were an easy stationary target.

  After empowering the blue-haired man, the new smoke he created, had a darker glint to it. He wasn’t sure if it helped blind the monster more, or what. So far, the monster hadn’t thrown another attack at them.

  Riley was looking into the sky at the monster. His eyes widened as he saw a blue portal slowly open up near to where the monster’s head was swaying side to side.

  “Is it getting reinforcements?” he asked.

  Several seconds later, he saw a sharp-looking chunk of concrete jut out from the portal. It jabbed into the smoke, and seemed to slow down its movement as it found its target in the monster’s neck.

  A loud crunching noise filled the area as even from their vantage, they could see the left arm rising up, the hand leaving the building it was attached to in the other street.

  Saros brought its hand up, its blackish and purple palm met the blue portal that had been created. There was a sudden flash of blue light, as the portal dissipated upon contact with the interdimensional creature. Then, Saros’s fingers closed against the large chunk of stone impaling its neck. It pulled it out, and a sparking purple ichor fell from the clouds. It landed and poured down the side of one of the buildings that separated the two streets. The blood of the monster dissolved and destroyed anything it came into contact with, before the purple liquid was used up and disappeared.

  “Don’t let the blood touch you!” Red called out to anyone that could hear her, having seen what the purple blood had done.

  That massive hand took the chunk of concrete, even as red pellets, green acid, blue smoke, and the occasional red bolt from the other street, all attacked its face.

  Saros threw the spike of concrete, much like a javelin. It didn’t appear as though the monster could see all that well, but it was likely that it had a rough idea of where people were in the streets. The monster’s attention was still on the street that held Red, Green, Riley, and several others. The concrete spike came crashing down a little ways back from Riley. He heard several shouts come from the area of the impact, but dust was being kicked around.

  Moments later, several yellow discs came from the street Riley had left. The discs flew through the air and cut into the monster’s neck, causing smaller trickles of blood before the discs dissipated.

  So far, the monster’s health didn’t look as though it had moved even five percent yet. Due to the distance and the size of its health bar, it was hard to get an accurate reading.

  “We need more damage on this thing!” Green Melter shouted.

  Riley managed to pull another helping of essence. He looked around the street. There were still various people around. They were mostly in disarray. He then spotted a guy waving to him with a red glowing hand. He was just behind the concrete spike that had been thrown into the street. “Over here!” he called out. “Help! Can you pull me out? I’m stuck!” The guy was waving to Riley, but it could’ve easily have been to anyone else. Visibility wasn’t the best with the dust that had kicked up.

  Riley ran towards the guy who was laying on the ground. His hand glowed in a strange light. It was hard to tell what his power was, but at least it helped him see where the guy was. As he neared him, he noticed that he had a black slick-backed mohawk, light skin, a pair of black denim pants, and a red shirt.

  “Can you power me up? I might be able to pull free with a little boost,” the guy said to him.

  Riley saw the guy’s legs behind the concrete spike, there was rubble littering the area.

  “I got you,” said Riley. “Can you take a couple percent of damage?” he asked, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t going to kill him by trying to help him. He figured he could top-off the person’s health at least, even if giving him the essence wouldn’t actually increase his strength or anything.

  “Yeah, I can take a small hit,” he said. “I saw you empowering the others, but then I got hit by this damned rock.”

  Riley threw his cord out and stuck it into the guy’s arm. He sent him the essence he’d gained, and in doing so, his own health took its normal ‘small hit,’ as he was essentially transferring over some of his own health, which was always topped off when he stole more from the monster.

  Once the transfer was complete, Riley lost the purple-glow in his eyes, but the other guy had gained it. He walked over and started to kneel down to help pull him out. Now that he was closer, he turned his head to look to the guy’s trapped legs.

  But the guy’s legs weren’t trapped at all. They were just behind the concrete spike, covered in just a few pebbles.

  He turned his head to look to the guy on the ground. “You don’t look—�
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  His voice was cut off as the guy’s glowing red hand suddenly grew to a much larger size. It was much like a red neon wireframe of an actual hand, but it was twice as large as Riley. It shot out and opened up and grabbed him, causing his arms to go flat to his sides as his body was squeezed. His hands were flat to his pants, unable to twist or turn with the fingers squeezing him. His vision flashed red as he began to take damage from being crushed by the red energy hand.

  “So stupid,” the guy said as he slowly rose off the ground, keeping his arm held out towards Riley, his hand clenched in a tight fist, which he kept squeezing. “Let’s see what you drop, when you go pop!” he said in a low voice. One of the fingers wrapped over Riley’s mouth, preventing him from doing anything more than a grunt and murmur, muffled by the pressure of the large red finger.

  The sounds of the other players fighting, drowned out any sounds he could possibly make. His eyes were wide as he stared at this player. He...he was going to get killed, in the midst of this boss encounter! And not even by the boss, but by another player that wanted some easy loot! He twisted and turned in the player’s grip. He kept taking damage, but it was slow and in small amounts. His vision kept flashing red, but not intensely. It was then that he remembered the barbed protection charm he’d recently equipped. He’d put a few stacks on it already, from the players he’d empowered. Each time he took damage from this guy, he was actually getting tougher. But it wouldn’t matter. Everyone was distracted by the monster and he couldn’t call for help.

  Riley attempted to twist his hands, but he couldn’t turn his palms away from his legs. Even if he could’ve fought the other player, his powers were utterly useless in a one vs one fight. His eyes narrowed, staring at the other player who was grinning from ear to ear. He’d survived a monster eating him. He’d gained powers after a month of work. For what? To be taken out by this greedy bastard?

  His mind raced, trying to think of anything he might have in his inventory, that he could summon and use to get out of this situation. But with his hands bound, he couldn’t make suitable gestures to access his inventory. He was trapped. He had no special items to save him. This was going to be it for him. His eyes flashed again, he was dipping below forty percent health. Each new hit of damage was causing less, but it wouldn’t matter. He was running out of time and if the boss decided to—

  A sudden flash of red streaked across Riley’s vision.

  The sound of a shotgun cut into his ears.

  The guy’s body flung to the side—just behind the pillar of concrete. The grip on Riley’s body dissipated as the red glowing hand opened and moved along with his assailant’s body.

  Riley fell about a foot to the ground and just barely managed to stay standing.

  A series of quick footfalls sounded to his left. He turned his head and saw a woman in a red jacket. She ran past him.

  “Red?” he asked, his eyes wide. He stood in partial paralysis from the turn of events.

  Red Shotgun dashed behind the large concrete pillar. All Riley could see from his angle was the guy’s feet. Then, he saw a series of bright red flashes.

  BANG, BANG!

  BANG, BANG!

  BANG, BANG!

  “I’m sorry!” he heard the guy called out.

  “You’re about to be!” Red yelled.

  BANG, BANG!

  BANG!

  The flashes stopped. The guy’s legs dissolved into thousands of colorful particles.

  All Riley could do was stand there, watching.

  Red Shotgun stepped out from the concealment of the pillar, holding something in her hand. She shoved the object to Riley’s chest.

  “This is yours. Let’s get back to the fight, we’re going to lose this if we don’t get some real help,” she said in a stern voice.

  Riley lifted his hands to his chest and caught the item she’d pushed to it. Red passed by him and then ran back towards where she’d been before, and the shotgun bursts started back up again. He hadn’t even noticed their absence when Red came over to save him. He’d been so caught-up with his imminent demise.

  Riley looked over to the concrete pillar, where the guy had been laying only seconds earlier. Now he was gone. Riley looked down to the item Red had given him. It looked to be some kind of necklace. The guy that had attacked him must’ve dropped it, and so Red had given it to him?

  The information for the item was already visible, but there were a lot of words to read. He could read it when he was safe. Red was right, he didn’t have time. Every second counted, and he’d wasted too much already.

  With a quick gesture, he sent the item into his inventory. He turned around and saw something orange ascending one of the nearby structures. The person had a mass of pointy orange-glowing tentacles coming from the center of their back. They were using them to ascend the wall to get to the top of it.

  Riley figured that the orange tentacle person should be his next buff target, so he ran back towards the others, watching as the orange-haired person reached the roof and then rushed towards a nearby rooftop to get close to the large dark hand. Upon reaching it, the tentacle wielder sent numerous tendrils out to stab repeatedly at the hand. The hand didn’t move, but the thing’s blood started to seep down into the building. Apparently, they couldn’t do much of anything to the monster without its blood affecting the nearby area in some way.

  Riley sent his cord out to the arm of Saros and pulled another helping of essence.

  “Orange guy! Buff incoming!” he called as loud as he could, but wasn’t sure if the orange-haired person would notice. He sure hoped the mid-length orange-haired person was a guy. He couldn’t entirely tell, as the clothes didn’t give him away and he couldn’t see the person’s features all that well.

  The tentacle wielder didn’t respond. Riley decided to go ahead with it anyway. He sent the left cord up, which caught the guy’s arm. The last thing Riley wanted was for someone to think that he was trying to PK them. Hopefully the minimal damage was a good indicator that he wasn’t trying to kill them.

  The guy stopped mid-attack and looked down into the street, right at Riley.

  Riley stood there, his arm still out with the cord going taut. “It’s a buff! I’m empowering you!” he called again, hoping that he had the person’s attention.

  “Alright!” the guy called back. It sounded a lot more like a guy’s voice, than a woman’s. But Riley still wasn’t one-hundred percent convinced.

  He sent the Saros essence up to the other player and empowered him, as he had the others. Once empowered, the guy’s tentacles took on a dark purple aura. Without hesitation, he started attacking the monster again.

  With his cord returned to him, Riley looked around. He didn’t see anyone else trying to fight or help. There weren’t any good targets to empower. “Red! I’m going back to the other street! The buff doesn’t last forever, I’ll be back in a bit!”

  “Don’t get killed! I’m not saving your ass again!” Red called back as she kept firing up at the world-boss, without even looking at him.

  Riley smiled, then turned and ran.

  Chapter 16: Combos

  As Riley darted into the mid-street, he saw that the monster’s left hand had re-taken its position on one of the roofs of the nearby structures, but not the same one. It took him a bit longer to get to the other side, since his stamina was lower than it had been when he first ran over. As he neared the opening to the street, he could see lines of white energy streaking up and hitting the wrist and arm of Saros. It was the telltale sign of the item he’d given Seth.

  When he reached the other side, he looked to the right and saw Seth crouched behind a toppled stall. He wasn’t far, and when Riley started running over to him, Seth turned his head. “How’s the other side looking?” he asked.

  Riley shook his head. “Not the best,” he answered as he took cover behind the stall, and surveyed the area while talking. “Red Shotgun is over there, with someone named Green Melter. Two high damagers, as far as I
can tell. There’s a guy creating that smoke up there,” he said, pointing to the cloud that still debilitated the monster. “There’s a guy with orange tentacles coming out of his back. Not sure if he’s tier one or two, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else over there. Besides the guy who tried to kill me.”

  “Kill you?” Seth yelled. “Someone tried to PK you during the fight? Holy hell.”

  “Yeah, Red Shotgun saved my ass,” Riley said, sighing.

  “I didn’t even think to send someone over there with you,” said Seth. “Sorry man. But yeah, you probably shouldn’t travel alone in a warzone like this. Tons of people try to take advantage.”

  Riley nodded. “I noticed.” Riley had never seen firsthand the sorts of lows people would stoop to, to take advantage of a bad situation. Saros attacking the city, was bad for anyone who operated in Gargantuan.

  “Look out! It’s doing the jaw thing again!” came an unfamiliar voice, a short distance up in the street.

  Riley looked out from the cover of the fallen stall and saw the guy responsible for the sharp yellow disks. The guy had streaks of yellow in his red hair, and wore a pair of gold-trimmed shoes with a black jacket and gray pants. He was pointing into the sky, at Saros.

  Riley followed his gesture and saw the immense jaw of the monster lowering out of the smoke. If the previous attack from the monster had been any indication, then they were about to be hit with that wave of purple energy, but which street would be hit? The monster was still in the middle.

  Once the monster’s jaw had lowered enough to point down to the street, a gust picked up. It sounded like a turbine, and the effect was almost instantaneous. The smoke the player in the other street had created, was getting sucked into the world boss’s mouth and was diminishing far faster than the player could create it.