The Drachma Killers (The Last Warrior of Unigaea Book 2)

by Harmon Cooper

  [Drachma Killer, Level 49]

  Motherfucker. I keep right on walking until he is far behind me. As I walk, I try to remember the faces of the Killers I saw in Ducat. I can’t. Their black shire horses, their cloaks. Nothing but fleeting images.

  I wonder if he was one of them, I think as I continue towards the pier at the far end of the Canal District. A man steering a gondola full of supplies sees me, nods, and continues past, taking a left at the main thoroughfare and moving under a bridge.

  I glance around, checking to see if anyone is trailing me.

  The streets are more or less empty. There are a few vendors out, and a few strolling couples, but no one seems to be paying attention to anyone else. With this in mind, I turn to the canal, keeping my eyes on the murky water.

  From my current vantage point, I can see the stilts that hold up the buildings of the district. The waves lash lightly at the stilts, the tide at its highest point.

  After one more look around, I stretch my arms over my head and dive in, my armor disappearing midair.

  (^_^)

  One deep breath in and my exhalation turns to bubbles. I swim deeper into the sea, and once I’m about eight feet below the surface, my ears are popping, I bring my hand to the vampire bite on my neck and notice the mark is now warm to the touch.

  This is so great.

  A fish with a silver tail passes before me, light reflecting off its fin. It speeds up, whipping deeper into the abyss. The murky water is cold, but aside from the initial shock of jumping in, I have quickly grown used to it.

  Something about the water reminds me of Lake Michigan, the mystery beneath its depths, the lives it nourishes. I remain stationary for a moment, getting my bearings. It won’t be too hard to find the Drachma Killers’ guildhall–currently to the right–but I’ll need to be careful to make sure I’ve affixed the explosives on the right pillar.

  Another deep breath in – damn, that’s cool – and I begin swimming towards the Killers’ guildhall. I move at a quick pace, but I also take my time, getting used to the movement and the way it feels to have as much in common with a fish as I do an ape.

  That’s one way to put it.

  Something touches my foot and a tingling sensation spreads up my spine. I whip away from a jellyfish, its body illuminating turquoise. The little bastard stung me, but I’m not in too much pain.

  I do, however, check my stats just to note what a Drachma jellyfish does to one’s HP.

  Oric Rune

  Class: Level 15 Player Killer

  Subclass: Level 4 Herbalist

  INFAMY: 50 Players killed

  HP: 1776/1945

  HP recovery rate: 3% per minute

  ATK: 218 +90

  DEF: 196 +69

  Damn, that much? Well, at least it didn’t poison me.

  While I may be able to breathe, my vision is more or less the same as it would normally be underwater – blurry and hard to make out objects. No matter, the objects I’m looking for are solid masses, and it isn’t long until I see one ahead, the pillar’s form illuminated by the sun and the crimson sky, which, oddly enough, reminds me of the Hindu Holi celebration I’ve seen.

  Weird where the mind will take you if you let it run loose.

  I swim to the stone pillar and reach my first conundrum, climbing to the top. I wrap my arms around and shimmy up and out of the water.

  Moss along the column makes it difficult to hold steady, but I use my core – or at least I think it’s my core; I’ve never been able to get fitness terms right and still snicker every time someone says “burpee” – to reach the top of the stone pillar.

  With my legs wrapped tightly around the pillar, I begin the process. I start by first applying some seaweed to the wood ceiling above me. Technically the floor of the Drachma Killers’ guildhall, the wood has been stained with something that protects it from water damage.

  I equip dry seaweed, swipe the seaweed against my wet arm, and stick it to the wood. It stays, and I do the same thing again, this time using the bit of water still on my arm. I wrap more of the seaweed around the pine cone and attach it.

  From there, I press some Aramis weed onto the wet seaweed, add some more seaweed and some extra burn bush, and put more seaweed on top of that.

  The glint of a gondola about seventy-five feet away catches my eye and I slip into the water. I keep to the surface, and slowly press my eyes out like a frog.

  The gondola passes and once I’m clear, I climb back up the column to add a little more seaweed, just to make sure the pine cone stays in place. It ends up looking somewhat like a mud dauber’s nest, but rather than give myself a pat on the back and admire my uniquely human ingenuity, I drop back into the water and head to the next pillar.

  I shimmy up the same way, using my legs to keep my body stable as I place the explosive. I still don’t know if this is going to work, or what our escape plan will be if it doesn’t, but I believe with twenty of these pine-cone IEDs, something will happen.

  Glancing around, I realize that my current pillar is the centermost ones. Being as such, I start another pine cone on the opposite side of the one that I’ve just set.

  “Fuck,” I whisper as I fumble the pine cone and it falls into the water. Once it pops back to the surface, I drop down to retrieve it and climb back up to the top. “It’ll dry,” I say as I get the pine cone in place. I cushion it with more Aramis weed, then add some more seaweed and more burn bush.

  As I move to the next column, my thoughts drift to the last few days, and how different they’ve been from my life just a few weeks back.

  This is one thing I’ve never been able to grasp about humanity – the futility of it all, ha!

  Thinks a man permalogged into a digital world, sticking explosive toy-soldier-infused pine cones to the underside of a guildhall filled with the worst Player Killers an online game has ever known.

  Once I’m finished, I drop back into the water. I swim to the next one just as a large catfish surfaces at the far end of the columns. It stares at me for a moment, the beast easily the size of a sheep, and I instinctively go for my sword.

  “Fuck,” the curse word leaves my lips as I get the déjà-vu feeling. Having had one underwater battle against a sea dragon, I’d like not to face anything else.

  My heart settles as the fish drops back in, but keeps its fin out long enough for me to see it swim away from the guildhall.

  Still, not taking any chances. I stay frosty – easy to do in frigid water – as I put the fifth, sixth, and seventh pine cones in place.

  I climb the eighth pillar and get to it again, affixing two to this one as it faces the back side of the guildhall, and I want to make sure any fuckers standing back there get what is coming for them.

  I lower back down to the water this time, cautious of anything that may be swimming around me.

  A couple more columns to go.

  Chapter Twenty-One: The Fate of Icarus

  I wouldn’t say Deathdale awaits me anxiously in our hotel room, her legs wide and ready for more, but she does go for me immediately after I’ve returned, and it doesn’t take her more than two kisses to notice the smell of the ocean on my skin. So we move from the bed to the hot stone bath, which quickly warms (advantage of hooking up with a Solar Mage). Once I’m clean, it’s back to the bed after I’ve lit some candles, and from there, onto the floor.

  Animals.

  At some point, Wolf gets tired of watching our digital coitus, so he heads out onto the balcony and rests there with his nose sticking out from the bannister.

  “I wasn’t expecting that,” I say after everything's said and done. We’re back on the bed, and I’m still breathing more heavily than I would like.

  Deathdale, her blanket pulled to her chest, shrugs it off. She rests now with her back to the headboard, her cheeks slightly red, a smile on her face.

  “I hope you didn’t, um, lose any energy.”

  She chuckles.

  “What? We have big plans for tonig
ht.”

  “A date?”

  “Yes, you could call it that.”

  “My energy level is fine.”

  I face her, my head propped up on my hand. “So, what now? You hungry?”

  Deathdale rolls her eyes.

  “What? Did I say something wrong? That took a lot out of me. Remember, I’d been underwater for like two hours or something before everything that just happened. It’s been a day.”

  I nod to our discarded clothes on the floor as if they hold the answer to some oft-sought-after question.

  “Just a little longer.” She sighs and closes her eye.

  With little else to do, I move closer to her, pressing my face against her warm chest. She has her gloves on, yet her hands are still warm as they curl around my arm. It doesn’t take long for me to drift off, sleeping heavier with each breath in.

  I don’t know how much later it is when I wake, but the sun has set and the sky has gone from crimson to, well, dark crimson. Still a developing augury, still an Armageddon-to-be if someone doesn’t do something about it.

  Doomsday.

  I’ve grown used to the foreboding sky, and the fact that I’ve become so accustomed to gloom and doom strikes me as odd.

  I try to recall my late afternoon dream. Something about Chicago, some colorful graffiti at the 18th Street station, a woman riding the train with striking features, her body that of a gazelle, her shoulders broad like a yogini, her hair decorated with feathers, her features sharp not unlike the Obelisk.

  I settle on an image of her dark, lifeless eyes boring a hole in my soul.

  Remind me not to take long naps.

  After a long yawn, I move away from Deathdale, who has turned to her side with her back to me, the blanket draping over her body and accentuating the curve of her shoulder. Wolf comes in and makes the whining sound he makes when he’s hungry.

  It’s dark in our room now, but I don’t need light to take something from my list.

  “I’ve got … ” A quick swipe through my inventory and I see I have some jerky left. Don’t know where I got it, as I thought I had eaten it all; but there it is, so I grab it and toss the majority to Wolf.

  He leaps in the air to catch a big piece and swallows it down without even tasting. I chew my piece and turn to the balcony, my clothes appearing on my body as soon as I take my second step.

  A breeze lifts to meet me, carrying with it the smell of the sea and fire burning in a few fireplaces in the Canal District.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Nothing. Just a dream I had.”

  Deathdale steps up behind me, her clothing tight to her body. She seems well rested, happy even. The candles in our room have been lit, likely her doing.

  “About what?”

  The door smashes open and two Stater soldiers burst into the room.

  (^_^)

  Stater soldiers!?

  My mind can hardly comprehend what’s happening as everything goes to bullet time – my movements slowing, the world around me frozen, my heart stuck in place.

  Time speeds up.

  “Shit!”

  Wolf leaps to tackle the first Stater soldier; my armor attaches to my body and I go for the next man, who wields two short swords.

  [Stater Soldier, Level 19]

  Two swords lunge at me and I bail left, clipping my shoulder on an end table and crashing into a chaise lounge. Both his swords come down and I roll away just in time.

  Focus, focus, focus!

  A solar blast from Deathdale sends the man with two swords into the mirror on the opposite side of the room. I go to Wolf, who has his jaw clenched around the other soldier’s wrist and is whipping his head back and forth.

  -8 HP! -14 HP! -9 HP!

  “Get out of the way!” I shout to Wolf just as another Stater soldier runs in.

  How the fuck did they know!?

  My Splintered Sword drawn, I drive it into the skull of downed soldier.

  Instakill!

  Instinct has taken over; the fight for survival has once again beaten the living shit out of the calculating part of my psyche.

  We will not go down this way.

  Wolf greets the other man as I try to pry my weapon out of the Stater soldier’s face. Shit is harder than it looks! I get a grip on it and yank it out, splashing the wall with blood.

  Another blast from Deathdale slices the arm off the man with two swords.

  -378 HP! Critical hit!

  He cries out, the wound instantly cauterized, as I go to meet the next Stater soldier running into the room.

  Our swords clank together; he tries again and I parry, my eyes catching yet another soldier coming through the entrance.

  We have the advantage, I remind myself, smiling at the soldier before me. As long as we can pick them off as they come in, the fact that they’re entering a fatal funnel will work to their detriment.

  Oomph!

  A surprise boot to the gut knocks the air out of me, and I just barely raise my arm in time to meet my assailant’s follow-up attack. We crash through a small table, shattering the crystal tea set on top. I quickly overpower him, only to be kicked in the back by another soldier.

  This one flies across the room courtesy of Deathdale’s power.

  She’s wasting her energy.

  -96 HP! -111 HP! -73 HP!

  I start to bash the soldier before me with the hilt of my sword. His helmet does little to protect him and soon, his face is covered in bloody welts.

  I stand, lift the armor on his stomach with my toe, and quickly drive my blade in.

  -258 HP! Critical hit!

  I go to meet two soldiers Wolf has whipped into a frenzy. They’re trying to strike him, but there’s not enough room. They’re clearly afraid, and having trouble tracking him with the way he moves.

  More are coming.

  I don’t know how they’ve gotten here, and I get the sense it has something to do with Florin Talonas and possibly Metica, but they couldn’t possibly have moved this quickly. Word doesn’t spread that quickly in Unigaea; the place is designed that way.

  Unless they were already en route.

  “Do it!” I shout to Deathdale suddenly. “Destroy the guild! I’ll handle them!”

  The Solar Mage stands poised at the balcony, the ends of her dress beating in the wind, energy radiating off her body.

  She looks at me, and that’s when the fire starts.

  (^_^)

  The candles near the drapes. The fire flares up just as another Stater soldier runs in.

  A candle can’t be that strong … I think as the warmth from the raging flames meets my face. The true culprit comes in the form of a fire-tipped arrow, which sails through the open balcony door and strikes our bed.

  “Destroy the guildhall!” I shout to Deathdale as I bring my Splintered Sword up and use sheer strength to knock one of the Stater soldiers backwards. Wolf goes in for the kill and I go in to protect Wolf as he mauls.

  Sparks fly as my sword meets the sword of the soldier in front of me, as another fire arrow flies into the room.

  A one-second glance over my shoulder and I see Deathdale charging, a spiral of blistering red and blue light curling up her legs and arms as a halo forms around her head.

  -148 HP!

  Wolf snarls and growls as he shakes the life out of his prey.

  I cut one of the soldiers down, my foot moves onto his face, and I press my weight forward, snapping his neck.

  -59 HP! Critical hit!

  I meet the sword of the last soldier standing. He completely misses my right fist, and as he stumbles back from my punch, I swipe his sword out of his hand. I charge him, get him by the neck and slam him into the wall, knocking his helmet off.

  -93 HP!

  Another fire arrow comes from the open balcony door and is deflected by a tentacle of light radiating off Deathdale’s body.

  I return my attention to the soldier in my grips.

  “Who sent you!?” I scream, my h
and tightening around his neck. I slam the back of his head into the wall again and lift him.

  A wild look paints over his eyes. He spits in my face and I end it right there with my Splintered Sword.

  Instakill!

  “Fucker!” I shout as I kick his dead body.

  Wolf looks up at me, blood dripping from his chin, his eyes beady, and nods. He returns to tearing out the throat of the man on the ground before him.

  I make my way over to the Solar Mage and crouch near her, ready to protect her if more soldiers run in. The light radiating off her makes it hard to make out her features. I cover my brow with my hand just as a concentrated beam of energy six feet tall and eight feet wide erupts from her body.

  The beam of light hits the Drachma Killers’ guildhall and for a moment, nothing happens.

  In that moment, I look at Deathdale, her body nearly translucent as light radiates from every pore. The explosion that follows shakes the ground, rattles the furniture not already toppled over in the room, and fills the Canal District with fire – and rather than drop down, as I expected Deathdale to do, she actually moves higher into the air.

  A fire arrow sails towards her and it’s licked out of the air by a tendril of her solar energy as she continues to fry the Canal District.

  My eyes settle on a sphere of vibrant energy forming around the Solar Mage’s body, energy coming into her from every direction, as if she were at the core of a plasma globe.

  Another explosion rattles the hotel room.

  “Enough!” I scream to Deathdale as I come to grips with what she’s doing. I reach for her only to be tossed backwards into the room by her flaming aura of light.

  Wolf meets me seconds later and I place my hands on him. “I’ve got to stop her! She’s trying to destroy the entire district!”

  I push myself up, the lights before me so bright I can no longer make out Deathdale’s form.

  All I can see is a radiating inner sphere, red tendrils of light fizzing out as they add power to the outer shell.

  She’s now ten feet above the balcony.

  I look away, black spots appearing on my vision pane from staring too long at the orb of blistering light.

  “Deathdale! Stop!” My lungs hurt as I scream her name as loud as I possibly can. “Deathdale, please!”