by Nikita Thorn
Suddenly, he understood now what he had been struggling to do, as well as why it mattered.
“Give me a second,” said Seiki. This was his instance. It would wait for him.
Shousei scoffed. “Decide wisely, boy.”
Paying no attention to the swordsman, Seiki got up and walked to the creature. He stepped through the ooze, ignoring how it scorched his feet, drew his Hikari and placed its tip vertically on the sinewy end in the middle of the creature’s back that connected it to the bell. The creature started closing its liquid arms around him, but Seiki just let it burn.
He looked into its pitiful sightless eyes and tightened his grip on the Hikari. One thing now was clear to him: no matter what anyone did, there should be a limit to suffering. Enough was enough, and maybe it only took one snap, one thought, one realization to free yourself.
It was lightning that had killed the young monk, so it would be lightning that freed him. And lightning, as far as Seiki was aware, was just pure energy.
Directing a sharp burst of energy downward through his arm, Seiki felt it go deep beyond the floor, beyond the bell tower, deep into the earth in one straight vertical flash.
The tip of the blade snapped the elastic sinew and the energy bout shot through Seiki like a warm jolt of electricity. The creature let out a loud long wail as it started to disperse into thick black smoke, and the bell began to swing on its own against the striking log.
Congratulations! You have learned a new ability: Vertical Spike. Range: 0.2. Damage: 64. Energy required: 71.
Vertical Spike [Seiki – Level 12]: spike the ground with your weapon, dealing 64 damage to the target. Having two hands on the weapon doubles the damage, energy cost and lockout time, and sends out a shockwave that stuns up to 3 targets within 2 feet from the point of impact for 1 second. Requires a weapon to use. 12-second lockout. Required energy: 71. Ability modification: none. Enhancement: none.
“You found it,” Shousei said, his eyes burning in anger. “And you took it. You think you’re worthy of my father’s sword techniques?”
Amid the deafening sound of the clanging bell, Shousei rushed in with a roar. Seiki placed two hands on the grip of his Hikari, and he pierced it vertically down on the floor between them as the man came within range. This time, the move felt as if it really reached the core of the Earth.
Chapter 24
The tower was shaking as Seiki broke out in a Slide down the stairs, his second charge carrying him much further now, and the spiral steps made for a very dizzying ride.
The bottom of the bell tower, where there used to be a door, had been blown wide open by the explosion earlier. Seiki ran out into the night air, and he retraced his steps back between the prayer halls and shrine buildings to the room where the clones of his friends had been. The explosion had alerted the monks and they had rushed out across the opening with torches and staves. As Seiki glanced back, he could see Shousei, who had been delayed by the stun effect, emerging from the bell tower, and cries rose up as the monks engaged him in combat.
Seiki understood everything now and, though he could not be perfectly confident, he knew exactly what he needed to do. Politely cutting off the old monk who had rushed in and tried to wrap up the instance with an explanation on how he had found a cure for his friends, Seiki whistled to Fubuki and rushed out of the temple gate as fast as he could.
In front of him was a sea of grass, just tall enough to hide the change of scenery, and Seiki simply rode ahead in the direction he had come in. It had been night in the instance, but outside the sun had just set. The phasing effect made it look as if it was dawning in the west, and the moment he exited the instance he had to let out a surprised cry and duck to avoid a small flock of post pigeons that appeared out of nowhere.
Seiki could imagine what their messages said, yet it was not until he reached the road where he had accidentally accepted the quest that he stopped to grab the nearest bird.
“Don’t bother,” said Ippei. “It’s all us.”
Seiki jumped, and only then did he notice that his two friends had been waiting for him right where he had left them. He remembered telling them to meet at Kensoku Temple earlier, but now he was very glad that they had not listened to him.
Seiki was about to tell his friends what he had to do when Ippei asked, “What the hell was that? You were trying to abandon the quest, and the next second you just picked the parcel up and disappeared into the field. We tried running after you and had some very fun time with a Level 15 snake.”
The instancing must have happened sooner than Seiki thought and his friends had obviously not been able to see the group of armed men at all. The quest description had told him to grab the parcel and run, which was perhaps what the game had showed his friends.
“Oh, uh, it’s an ability thing,” said Seiki.
“Oh,” said Ippei. “The spike? Nice. I thought that one started somewhere in Shinshioka with some lost animal you had to find.”
“Grats!” said Mairin. “What is it?” she asked, excitedly, before noticing Seiki’s expression and repeating her question, this time with a different meaning. “Okay, what is it?”
Seiki did not know how to put it. “You know, I told you I was done with clan drama,” he began.
Ippei narrowed his eyes. “But?”
“I’ve got to go and stop that siege right now.”
His friends stared at him. Mairin opened her mouth as if to ask how, but then she probably realized he had no idea either and decided not to.
Ippei studied him for a moment as if not sure if this was his attempt at a joke. “You know you can’t stop a siege with a one-second stun, right?”
Seiki tried to explain that was not exactly his plan, but the thing was he actually had no plan.
Mairin giggled. “Dang, I’d love to see that,” said the kitsune girl, her eyes lighting up with mischief, no doubt imagining a scenario where they rushed head-first into an oncoming army and he tried to stun them with whatever spike ability he just got. Now that he thought about it, he felt he should be more excited about a new ability, but there were too many things he needed to consider at the moment, and every second was too precious to waste.
If the Fuoka Army had really started mobilizing troops at dawn, the siege must have been going on for at least five or six hours. Seiki finally decided to go one step at a time. “First give me ten minutes?” he said, still racking his brain for a strategy. “I need some real-life energy potion before the game kicks me out.” This would probably get him into a decent amount of trouble, but he could not care less about that at the moment.
“And then, uh,” he faltered, as he failed to come up with any remotely viable idea. Considering how he did not even know what a siege looked like, it was perhaps not surprising. “We’ll think on the road.”
Ippei stared at him for another second. “Okay,” he said, before giving a casual shrug. “Guess I’m calling in sick tomorrow.”
It did take a bit longer than ten minutes to get everyone back and settled in for what would be a long night. After all, they still had an hour or so on the road before they reached Nanamura, and Seiki explained to his friends during the ride what he thought had happened in the first invasion.
Akari broke character to expose the White Crane Order recruitment plan and, during the chaos, she used that chance to invite her colleague in. Teruo came with the key, unlocked the box, learned the scroll, then relocked it, before leaving the key in the public clan chest. Akari then came in a few days later to blackmail them and, when they refused to pay, she told the Fuoka Army that the White Crane Hall had been behind the assassination all along. Should the Fuoka Army try to check, the scroll would be gone, and then war would be inevitable.
“Decent theory,” said Ippei. “But there’s one major problem. To make this work, this Level 13 ninja who went in must have Level 30 Pottery skill.”
“Is that highly improbable?” asked Seiki.
“Yes. You know how leveling becomes a real grind after Level 18? It’s like that for trade skills, too. The cost of the materials would be ridiculous. And if I remember correctly, this ninja person has also wiped his account, so that means a potentially really good scroll has just gone to waste.”
Seiki mused for a moment. His friend had made a very good point, and he was going on nothing but a mere hunch. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to try?”
Ippei chuckled. “Knew you’d say that.”
Kensoku Temple soon loomed up in a dark gray silhouette a short distance away on their left, and seemed a dense cluster of tall towers and trees, dotted with yellow lamp-lit square windows. The road they had been following led to the temple, but they decided to turn right and head toward the East Main Road instead so as not to get lost, having judged that it was now past peak hours, and the Rogami Clan did not see them leave Mannaka Village. Of course, a Locate attempt would reveal their general location once they got close to the main road, but they were already an hour away.
Seiki tried to get Ippei to explain more about how sieges worked, since he was quite sure it was more nuanced than just simply trying to kill as many enemies as possible.
“Well,” said Ippei. “Your clan resources come into play: ladders and NPC arrows take from your Wood reserves; cannons and trebuchets take Stone and Coal, and so on. But they do encourage a quite bit of chaos, so once the siege starts, they put in a siege bar for both the attacking and defending clan. You start with a full bar, so you can use War Abilities that you’ve unlocked. Every enemy your clan kills recharges it by a little. It’s up to each clan how they delegate authority on how to use the siege bar. For example, you can allow ranked members to use it to refill your resources if they’re running low. Or, even better, you can mass-resurrect your clan members or temporarily boost clan members’ energy regeneration for three minutes, or get people off Fatigue. There’s a hilarious one where you can call in a stampede of cows, but of course these RPers have no sense of humor and no one wants to spend Clan Honors on that.”
“Uh, okay,” said Seiki, not sure if he completely grasped the whole thing. He then quickly decided that he would tackle that particular learning curve later and went for a more relevant question instead. “You think we’ll be in time?”
“At the beginning of a siege, the defending side has the advantage. So, if they’re well-supplied, and if that ryoushi that guy sent to the spirit shrine managed to warn them in advance, they might be able to hold for at least a few hours.”
Seiki exhaled. It had been more than a few hours, but he was determined that even if the White Crane Hall was overrun with the Fuoka Army by the time he got there, he would still walk in and try to explain why they were wrong, even if it ultimately made no difference.
“Keep in mind, though,” said Ippei, “…that events that trigger wars are often just excuses. So you can go in and say whatever you have to say but, once things get to that point, it’s like trying to stop two trains set on a course of collision with your bare hands.”
“You’re right,” said Seiki. “This is probably a stupid idea.” The best he could hope for was not to be accidentally killed on the spot as soon as he got close to the battle. “Actually, maybe you guys should do the sensible thing and not get involved.”
Both his friends scowled at him in such disapproval that Seiki had to remind himself for the hundredth time that he had to stop doing this. “Okay. I take that back. I’d be very delighted if you would come and get yourselves killed with me.”
Ippei chuckled. “If I want sensible, I can always do more of… real life, you know.”
“And, for me,” said Mairin. “Getting killed is always better than selling charms.”
Like most journeys, the way back often felt much shorter. They ran into nothing else that forced them on a detour, except for an unexpected lone wolf that had presumably pursued someone to the main road, lost its prey, and decided to follow Seiki and his friends for a short while before giving up. They did not fail to note that the beast was a mere Gray Wolf [Level 14], which meant they were getting closer and closer to Shinshioka.
Seiki was about to ask again if Ippei honestly thought they were too late, when he remarked that the south sky to his left was burning orange.
Mairin let out a long exhale. It did not take further explanation to tell them which direction they were supposed to be heading toward. The sight was nothing new to Ippei, who seemed suddenly invigorated and cried, “Let’s go!” and turned his horse off the main road.
Being closer to Shinshioka meant that the monsters roaming the forests were no longer much threat, and they did not encounter any, at least not live ones, since all around were dead deer and boars and wolves, as well as a carcass of something labeled Nodeppou [Level 15]—a kind of small mammal that Seiki could not identify.
“Signs that an army has passed this way.” Ippei laughed.
The area around Nanamura was a sparse wood with pine trees in small clusters scattered throughout. As they proceeded in the direction of the fiery sky, Seiki started to notice sounds of shouts, hooves, as well as faint explosions, before a large group of people slowly came into view.
Warning! Ongoing siege event. PVP enabled in the entire zone.
Seiki had always been curious as to what war looked like, or how it would even work without completely descending into utter chaos like a city brawl. The first thing he observed, as they drew nearer to the source of the commotion, was endless swarms of NPC troops in Fuoka blue, rushing around with swords, spears and shields. Many of them were on horseback, but there were just as many on foot, all of whom traveled in smaller groups numbering anywhere from five to twenty, led by Fuoka Army members of different levels. Everyone seemed in a great hurry and, as Noriaki of the Fuoka Army [Level 16] rode past them with a dozen or so NPC archers, Seiki realized that this was going to be more complicated than he had thought.
Before long, they found themselves in the middle of the crowd. A couple of people glanced their way, but quickly dismissed them as stray adventurers here for the spectacle. At one point, Karin of the Fuoka Army [Level 18], bursting past on her white horse, shouted at them to get out of here if they did not wish to be caught in the crossfire.
Further away in the distance, Seiki could now spot the source of the flames, which turned out to be the whole village of Nanamura. He strained his eyes as he searched for the White Crane Hall, located at the back of the village, but he could not quite yet make out whether it was still standing, as all he could see was thick billows of smoke coming from the burning roofs.
“What’s the plan now?” asked Mairin, as she looked around at the Fuoka Army members going about their war business, some of whom cursed at them as they pulled their horses out of the way, muttering something about how it was a hassle to have to avoid trampling on low-level players.
“I think we need to go talk to whoever is in charge,” said Seiki. “Uh, what’s his name? Akihisa?” He could not help but wonder if he had been too naïve in assuming that he would simply find someone called Akihisa standing on some kind of a stage, orchestrating the whole siege. Now that he was here, he understood that there was no way he would be able to locate the clan leader, and it was very unlikely that a polite request from some low-level strangers to be taken to the man would be taken seriously.
Ippei seemed to be observing the clan members with interest and taking note of people’s levels and the number of troops. “Might be worth talking to that guy first,” said the samurai.
“Eisuke?”
“Yeah, he’s a ranked member. So, if you can get him to listen, there might be a chance.”
How did Ippei know that? This was perhaps not the right time to ask.
Mairin turned her horse around as she scanned the crowd. “Well, yelling ‘Eisuke!’ is probably not going to work, is it?”
Ippei reflected for a moment. “We’re going for stupid ideas over here, right?” He suddenly leapt off h
is horse. “Dismount and raise your hands,” said the samurai.
Before Seiki could ask what he meant, Ippei shouted at the top of his lungs, “We’re with the White Crane Order and we want to defect!”
“That’s the idea?” said Mairin.
Hotaka of the Fuoka Army [Level 19], a large man with a wide saber on his back, was leading his mounted troops ahead past them, and Ippei’s bold proclamation immediately caused him to rein his horse to a stop to stare at them. At the same time, Aoi of the Fuoka Army [Level 15] spun around and drew his bow, an action that his six NPC subordinates instantly copied.
“It works.” Ippei shrugged as he put his hands up in the air, nodding at his friends to do the same. Mairin’s eyes widened in disbelief and, perhaps unwilling to undergo such indignity, popped into a white fox. Seiki got off Fubuki, dismissed her and slowly raised both his hands.
“We’ll only talk to Eisuke,” Ippei said to the wary Fuoka Army members. “And, no, we won’t give up our weapons. If you kill us, then Eisuke won’t hear what he needs to hear that might affect the outcome of this siege.”
The Fuoka Army most likely did not get defectors every day, and Hotaka and Aoi, unsure how to proceed, exchanged uncertain glances. Finally, it was probably Hotaka’s responsibility as a higher-level member to decide. “Fine. Keep your hands away from your weapons and follow me.”
Clamorous noises of explosions and shouts grew louder as they made their way through the Fuoka crowd, as if navigating a train station during the rush hour. A Level 21 swordsman rode past them, shouting, “They’re trying to resupply! We need more people on the east wall!” and immediately a few people turned and followed them, most with their train of NPC troops.
Seiki had thought that the higher the level, the more NPCs players commanded, but he soon learned it was not always the case. Hotaka had around fifteen men under his command, all of whom had swords drawn and were glaring at Seiki and his friends. However, he could see that slightly ahead of them, Fumika of the Fuoka Army [Level 24], in a long blue kimono with a silver staff on her back, only had four robed NPCs behind her.
