Sigil Online: Paragons

by Jeff Sproul

  Brenda took aim and fired consecutive green bolts at the woman with frosty blue hair, blue pants, and a white blouse. She was standing off to the side, looking over in another direction.

  The landscape was littered with stone columns that hurt visibility. It was easy for two people to hide behind any of them, at the right angle.

  “Over there!” Seth shouted, pointing to a woman with half green hair and half black. It was Red’s friend from the Saros fight, Green Melter.

  Brenda switched her aim and fired several healing bolts at the woman with the green jacket and green hair.

  Seconds after the healing bolts landed, a dark blue arm swung out and smacked her away, causing her to smash into the side of one of the dark red columns.

  A creature stepped out from behind the column that Melter had been standing near. It was humanoid with dark-blue skin. It was easily one and a half stories tall. It was muscled, but from the attack it had just made on Melter, it was also relatively fast-moving. Once it stepped further into everyone’s line of sight, it was easy to see that its eyes were covered over with a black blindfold and its mouth was sewn shut. But that wasn’t the only mouth it had.

  Instead of a stomach, there was an open maw of jagged and distended teeth. The rotund belly of the monster, was easily large enough for a certain White Weevil to crawl out of.

  “Riley, engage the boss!” said Laura. “Everyone else, focus the Weevil!” She knew the Weevil would be able to hear the command. They weren’t fighting some artificial intelligence. The Weevil was just like them, except somehow it had become incredibly powerful without becoming public knowledge.

  “Where the hell is Paladin?” Red shouted, as she fought with the Weevil, whose attention remained on her for the time being.

  But once Red spoke of Paladin, the Weevil leapt back. His head turned, as if it was looking at the new arrivals, which were all squared off against him.

  “The Weevil killed him, late last night,” said Laura. “We just found out. It’s just us.”

  Red didn’t take her eyes off the Weevil. “Damn, are you kidding me!” she shouted at the white bug.

  The Weevil’s right hand lifted into the air. Its fingers tapped rapidly.

  There was an orange glimmer as something materialized in its palm.

  “No!” Red shouted as she threw her right fist and fired a volley of red bolts at the Weevil.

  Time seemed to slow, as everyone watched the orange cube appear in the Weevil’s hand.

  Red’s blast rushed for the Weevil, as his arm came up to defend itself from the oncoming blast. But it wasn’t defending itself, as much as it was defending the intensely fragile cube.

  The Weevil’s fingers closed, seeking to crush the costly orange cube and vanish from sight, as it was apparent that it knew what was going on.

  A sudden beam of white light shot across the Chasm. It avoided the closing fingers and the Weevil’s arm, as it vaporized the orange cube in the blink of an eye.

  The Weevil’s hand closed into a tight fist, a moment after the beam broke the cube. The energy blast from Red impacted against his arm. The Weevil froze for but an instant, before its head turned. Its black eyes spotted Seth crouched on the ground, his arm out with the clasp around his wrist that Riley had given him.

  “My part’s done!” Seth yelled. “Get him!”

  A mess of ice and sleet streamed out from Snow’s hands. The Weevil swung its arm, knocking the initial portion of the stream away as it spun and ran for Carla and Brenda, who were standing in close proximity.

  Brenda slotted a bolt in, then fired a rapid volley of a multitude of bolts at the oncoming Weevil.

  The Weevil leapt into the air and dove towards the crossbow wielder.

  Carla’s fingers and hands moved as she whipped up a dozen lotuses at once. No longer was she confined to single-lotus creation or even the limitation of healing, slow, and explosive.

  The twelve lotuses rushed into the air to meet the Weevil’s descent. Blue, orange, purple, black, red. The Weevil twisted to avoid touching them, but with a squeeze of Carla’s hand, the chromatic lotuses exploded all around him.

  The Weevil was knocked off course as the explosions from several of the orange lotuses had pushed him away to land in a crouch about thirty feet away. Its attention was focused upon Carla now. It pushed off to run, but its right foot was caught, keeping it pinned to where it had crouched. It looked down, seeing crimson vines entangling its long foot and creeping up to wrap around its leg.

  The white bug swiped with its long boney fingers and cut into the vines, tearing them away to free itself. The moment it was able to pull its leg free, a shadow appeared around him. The Weevil looked into the sky as a boulder, the size of a van, came smashing down upon him.

  “Nice hit!” Carla yelled.

  “Just happy to have solid ground to move!” said Todd. Far above, a globe-like chunk of red stone was now missing from the wall of the chasm.

  The boulder broke all around and crumbled outward against the location the Weevil had been at. As all the pieces rolled away, it was apparent that the Weevil had struck into the air and used the force of its punch to break much of the potential impact damage from the boulder.

  “This guy’s just full of surprises!” Todd grunted.

  Nearby, Riley was engaged with the monster. His spike was already sunk into its shoulder as he pulled essence from it and buffed up Melter first.

  “Thanks kid!” Melter said, as she pulled away from the column as the large brute swung its fist, which collided with the spot she’d impacted.

  “We need help over here!” Riley called, looking back to his friends who were occupied with the Weevil.

  Laura had already separated half a dozen duplicates and was creating more. “On my way!” Laura called back. She looked down to Seth. “Keep an eye on the Weevil at all times, save your shot if you have to. If he’s got another orange cube, it needs to be destroyed. We’re never going to get a better chance than this.”

  “I’m on it,” said Seth, who was occasionally taking whatever shot he could at the White Weevil.

  Laura split herself into more copies and sent them over to Riley and Green Melter. With his new powers, she figured he didn’t need to buff her before she split. Riley seemed perfectly capable of buffing everything in sight in a short time.

  Once the last duplicate was created, she pulled her revolver and waited for an opportune shot.

  Since Riley had managed to hit the monster, he was able to see that the creature’s name was ‘Chasm Mutant.’ Its health was at nearly seventy percent, so whoever had been fighting it before his arrival, had at least taken a chunk of its health away.

  A short burst of bullets rained down upon the mutant. Riley looked up, seeing one of Chase’s spider-bots clinging to the side of one of the tall pillars. Every so often, it would release another burst of orange bullets down at the mutant, which was still focused on Green Melter.

  Riley pulled more essence from the boss, as Laura’s duplicates arrived with their melee weapons. One by one, he buffed them up without any issue. The main concern was the White Weevil, but they had to keep pressure on the Chasm Mutant, else it would come over and cause extra chaos to the group dealing with the bug.

  Riley positioned himself as best he could, so that he could fire off globs of essence to his allies fighting the Weevil. It was easy to spot which one of them the Weevil was trying to attack, so he gave essence to everyone that the Weevil wasn’t targeting. It didn’t take long until everyone’s health was topped off. His allies, along with Red, Green and Snow, were all sporting a pale blue glow to their eyes.

  Red Shotgun rushed for the White Weevil every chance she got. She punched and fired her red energy blasts, keeping the Weevil moving, but also pushing it into traps that the players around her were creating. Todd would throw chunks of earth, while Erica kept ensnaring its legs whenever she could. Brenda and Carla remained close to each other, to act as a damage-buffer any time the
Weevil tried to target them. The Weevil couldn’t strike out at one, without taking significant damage from the other.

  Chase’s robots kept short and steady damage on the Mutant, while Laura’s copies helped take some of the aggression off of Green.

  Snow shifted over to join Riley and Green, using her icy powers to slow the mutant down to help Laura’s copies last longer.

  Riley found that the columns that speckled the landscape, made visibility difficult at times. But the tall stone columns weren’t obstructing his vision, when something appeared in the corner of his eye. The sound hit him, before he could look over.

  Zzzt.

  When his gaze landed upon the figure, it took only a moment for him to recognize who it was. “Shadow Witch?” he whispered. There was no one directly around Riley to hear his muttered words. No one else had noticed Witch’s arrival.

  Shadow Witch stood there, looking the same as she had earlier that day. Her hand lifted without a sound. She tapped in the air and then held out her hand. White cubes appeared in her palm. She clenched it into a fist and broke them all.

  With only seconds of delay, other figures appeared in white flashes of light around her.

  Crimson Spear.

  Aurora.

  Glint.

  And a man who wore a black cloak. The same kind of cloak that had been worn by the PKers he and Laura’s friends had killed.

  Shadow Witch stepped forward, her eyes focused on Riley. He was only a hundred feet away from where she’d appeared.

  The players that had been summoned around her, were looking around at their surroundings, taking it all in.

  “You should pay your debts!” Shadow called over, and immediately drew the attention of Green and Snow, as well as Laura and Chase. “I guess you forgot about your old buddy Teller? He didn’t forget about you, Radiance. Glasser sent me a message, told me who you were, so me and Teller had a friendly little chat. He says hi by the way.” Shadow then gestured to the man wearing the cloak. “This is our friend Shade. He and his guild, also have some unsettled debts with you.”

  The player with the Cloak of Concealment lifted his hand and tapped in the air. A few seconds later, a green cube appeared in his hand. He promptly crushed it.

  Nothing happened, at first.

  There was a dull green flash. A moment later, a player appeared. He had blonde hair and wore a Cloak of Concealment.

  Two more green flashes. Two more cloaked-players appeared.

  More flashes popped all around the original cloak-wearer until twenty players had appeared around him. Each bore the same cloak. Their upper faces veiled in shadow, except for their hair and mouths.

  Riley found himself a hundred feet away from a small army of twenty-five players. If Shade’s guild members were anything like the ones they fought, then they were all tier one and two.

  The odds had quickly stacked against him and his friends. The White Weevil, the mutant boss, and now this army of PKers?

  He took a single step back. For a moment, he froze.

  Crimson spear pointed over to where Red Shotgun and the others were fighting the White Weevil.

  “They’re hunting the Weevil,” he said in a boisterous voice.

  “Good, this is going to be more profitable than we thought!” said Shadow Witch. “Let them deal with the monsters, while we pick them apart, one—”

  Riley’s hand lifted in the air. His fingers tapped rapidly at the inventory and buttons only he could see.

  A green cube appeared in his hand. Above it, read the message ‘The Rooks of War.’ Without hesitation, he crushed it.

  Chapter 32: All In

  The PKers across from Riley took a momentary pause and looked to their respective leaders. The cloak-wearers looked to Shade, while the paragons around Shadow, looked to her.

  Riley could hear mumbling.

  Ten seconds had passed.

  Then, fifteen.

  “Kill him!” Shade yelled.

  The cloak-wearers dispersed and headed for Riley. Some began pulling out their powers. There was a myriad of various colors appearing as powers ignited.

  But the best color of all, was the green flash that appeared in front of him.

  The red t-shirt, the black cargo pants, the sleeveless arms with intertwining tattoos running down them. The red hair, down on one side and shaved on the other.

  The cloakers that had been running towards him, slowed their advance.

  Warcry looked around and gained her bearings. She turned her head and saw Riley behind her. A smirk curled the corners of her lips.

  She turned back to the cloakers, some of which were still heading for them. Then, she leaned back and threw her head forward as she bellowed a tremendous roar.

  The ground vibrated beneath Riley’s feet, as he even took another step back from what Warcry was doing. He bumped into something and suddenly spun around.

  He was face to face with a guy with green hair with red frosted tips. The same one that he’d encountered at the entrance to the Rook Den. The guy grinned at him. All around him came a multitude of green flashes as players wearing dark clothes, with different colored hair and skin, all appeared.

  Several dozen players formed around him. Most were holding weapons, much like Laura’s clones did. He remembered that Warcry’s guild was mostly filled with un-powered tier-zeros, but he would take whatever he could get. There were close to twice as many of them, as there were the cloakers.

  “You’re looking the wrong way,” said the guy with green hair as he reached out and spun Riley back around to face Warcry and the oncoming cloakers. But the cloakers that had been advancing, were no longer running. They were gripping their ears and stumbling.

  “Rooks!” Warcry shouted, without turning to look back at them. “This is just like any other fight! Your enemies are before you, and I will always be by your side! Kill our enemies, my rooks!” Warcry took in a deep breath and shouted again, but this time, Riley didn’t feel the ground tremble. Instead, he felt bolstered as a new energy seemed to course through him. His skin took on a red aura.

  The rooks around him, all charged forward, as a third of the cloakers were still stunned from Warcry’s shout, but the effect was quickly fading.

  Dozens of players rushed past Riley, each of them bearing the red aura Warcry had buffed them with.

  Warcry turned to Riley. “Got yourself in quite the mess, didn’t you?” she asked with that iconic grin of hers.

  “Sorry!” said Riley. “They just popped in on us.”

  “Us?” Warcry asked, then looked around, noticing the other players nearby. Her eyes widened as she spotted the White Weevil in the distance. “Is that?”

  “The White Weevil,” Riley answered. “Complicated situation, but we think the White Weevil is a player, and we came here to kill him. We’re going to need your help with this PKers. I’ll do what I can to buff you guys.”

  Warcry looked and saw the mutant boss as well. “Damn, this is really some crap you’re in,” she repeated. “Screw it. We’ve got your back, we’ll take em. My guys are with you.”

  Riley found himself smiling. He squeezed Warcry’s shoulder. “I owe you one,” he said.

  Warcry bumped his arm away and pointed at him. “No, this is a friend being there for a friend,” she said and then reached out and gave his cheek a little slap. “Go kill some monsters. Even if they’re players,” she said, then turned and ran after her rooks to join the skirmish.

  For a moment, Riley wasn’t sure what to do. Then, he remembered the monster still had his hook lodged in its flesh. He rushed over, placing himself between the rooks and where the Green and Snow were fighting the monster. Warcry’s rooks maneuvered to encircle and prevent the PKers from breaking through and reaching him.

  “What the hell is going on?” Laura called over as she ran towards him.

  Riley reached out and began pulling essence from his spike. He didn’t hesitate as he threw the globs over to Warcry’s rooks. He spotted Laura runn
ing over and heard her voice. “Um, a bigger fight than we were expecting! Kill the cloakers and those PKers we fought earlier, everyone else is a friend!”

  “Alright!” said Laura. She kept by his side as she looked around the battlefield. In one area, they were fighting the White Weevil. In another, they were holding the mutant boss at bay. Now another conflict had erupted between the PKers and the rooks. “This is crazy,” she muttered.

  It wasn’t long until everyone in the area was aware of the scale of what was happening.

  PKers, including the four paragons they’d fought earlier that day, were managing to cut through the rooks. Laura diverted her clones to help intercept them. She then spoke through one of her clones that was near Clara and Brenda and instructed them to join the fight to take out the PKers.

  The White Weevil continued to fight. It wasn’t going on the offensive, but rather, it seemed intent on surviving.

  As the three separate conflicts raged on, the battle lines became murkier as the groups began to intermingle. The White Weevil sought to put distance between itself and the players attacking it. It maneuvered closer to the boss, which only seemed interested in fighting the nearby players. The Weevil allowed hits to be scored against it from nearby combatants, but in doing so, it gained the time it needed to control the mutant. It used the boss’s stomach-mouth as a conduit and fired a large blue beam which cut across the area, taking out a cloaker and several rooks. The beam sliced across several tall pillars and brought them crashing down, kicking dust into the air and further limiting visibility.

  The rooks were holding their own as best they could. They knew that they might die and the tier-zeroes were taking greater risk, at the cost of being able to inflict greater damage on their adversaries. The cloakers weren’t suited for long engagements like this, and there were only a couple support and heal-capable players in their group, besides Aurora.

  The boss’s attention shifted to anything that was around it. It ran and smashed its fists into rooks and cloakers alike.

  Snow did her best to control the monster’s movements, but she soon found herself in a one on one fight with Shadow Witch.