The Slayer

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  I cried out in agony as the conflicting energies of the two familiars clashes inside of my body. Each of them were vying for control, sending jolts of energy through my insides. It felt like the very fabric of my being was about to tear apart.

  Razyr’s voice echoed in my mind. “Zander, I must,”

  “No, Razyr! Stay with me! You too, Kord! We can do this!” They were resisting, trying to leave. They wanted to spare me the pain… but damnit I could take it! I had to!

  Another wave of pain swept through me, causing me to slam my back into the ground. I arched my back, screaming in agony as the torment continued.

  Bonding two familiars simultaneously, it was ripping me apart… and yet, something inside of me was changing. It was starting small, but I could feel the power of the two familiars melding at my core, swirling together with my own energy. It quickly began to swell, like a bomb ready to explode!

  Arden approached, clearly perturbed by Ivan’s distraction. “Now, where were we?” He said, leveling his blade with my neck. “Ah, I remember now.” He pulled his sword back to strike. “We were right… HERE!” Arden swung his blade.

  Just then, I erupted with power.

  ><><

  The crowd gasped as Arden went skidding through the sand, blown away by my sudden release of energy. A soft azure light surrounded my body, making me stand out like a beacon in that sea of blood and sand.

  I summoned nevermore to my grasp and slashed out at the blade that held me pinned, slicing off the hilt in one powerful sweep. I easily removed the remainder of the broken blade from my leg and rose to my feet.

  I could feel their power, Razyr’s strength and dexterity, Kord’s dexterity and constitution, as well as a third unifying power. I felt indomitable… Was… was this the power of the azure wardens?

  “Whatever you’ve done, it won’t save you!” Arden spat, climbing back to his feet. “I’ll… I’ll kill you!”

  I ignored the duelist’s errant threats and fell into fighting stance, hoisting nevermore into the air.

  It was time for round 2.

  Arden charged in with a wild yet powerful swing, smashing his blade against my own in fury. I leaned in to the parry close enough to drive my shoulder into his nose, then executed a slick double strike as the duelist stumbled back.

  Arden howled in pain as the second strike sliced into his flesh, removing a chunk of his HP. My movements were so fast, so strong! It was unclear what had happened to me, but one thing was certain. I was The Slayer!

  He dived in again only to meet the sting of nevermore, over and over. He may have been the higher-level competitor… but there was no way he could match my newfound speed.

  Arden stumbled back, his health bar splintered from all the damage he was taking. Still, the man would not relent. “No!” He spat. “It doesn’t matter if we’re dead… I still won’t let you beat me!”

  The duelist charged in with reckless abandon, his eyes now absent of lucidity. I focused on my HUD (which also glowed a faint blue) and pulled up my skill set. Mage blade, one of my go to familiar skills was gone. It had been replaced by a new skill… Azure Blade.

  Arden lifted his sword above his head, preparing to strike. I countered with a swift boot to the chest, staggering the maddened foe. He tried to steady himself, but his eyes had gone wide, his gaze locked on the marvelous azure glow that surrounded my sword.

  I struck, slamming the weapon into the man’s chest, shattering the thin armor protecting his flesh in an eruption of light. Arden sunk into the ground, laying very still as trails of smoke rose off his battered body. The duelist has been felled.

  I began to walk past the man’s smoldering body, but his arm shot out, grabbing onto my ankle. I hadn’t noticed, but the tiniest sliver of his HP remained. “N-none of this matters.” He choked out. “That’s why I did it.”

  “Did what?” I growled, yanking my boot free from his weakened grasp.

  “I… I killed them all. Whenever we finished up a task or a quest, I… I would use them as protection…. And when the quest was over, I would kill them all and soak up all the power.”

  “You’re sick.” I replied, shaking my head in disgust.

  “Oh no, no, no.” He coughed out, blood forming between his lips. “Those bastards who developed this game… they’re the sick ones! You see, I wasn’t like this before, not until they unplugged me!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “My brother and I… someone tried to pull us out of the game. But they didn’t know… they didn’t know there was no leaving this place. When they tried to sever us from the headset, they killed us… they killed our real bodies.”

  “That doesn’t make any-“

  “I could feel it!” He snapped, his eyes welling with tears. “I could feel the detachment. My brother… he went mad first… he completely lost it.” His face twisted into a look of sheer pain. “They killed me and left my subconscious here to float on in this hell… to be consumed by this madness!”

  Arden suddenly began to cackle as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, the madness fully taking hold. “We’re all dead!” He yelled. “Dead, dead, dead!”

  True or not, the man’s words sent a chill down my spine. I gave him a final glance… the once intimidating duelist was now pathetic, babbling to himself in the sand, too well beaten to be any sort of threat. So be it. Someone else much more important required my attention now.

  I dismissed nevermore and began sprinting towards Hilda’s fallen form, a feeling of dread quickly consuming me. She’d taken so much damage… gods, please let her be breathing.

  The azure glow surrounding me faded as Razyr and Kord exited my body, falling to the ground in heaps of exhaustion. A rest well deserved.

  “Hilda!!” I yelled, sliding through the sand to the woman’s side. “Gods, no. Hilda!” I rolled the woman over and cradled her in my arms. Was… was she smiling?

  “Z… Z-Zan,” She coughed, clutching at her abdomen. “Y-you were awesome.”

  “Stop speaking! Save your strength!” I pleaded. Her health bar blinked a furious red, a warning that she was on the precipice of death.

  I lifted my head and gazed out into the crowd. “Cleric! We need a Cleric here!” A few people in the crowd stirred, but none of them came running. It was then I realized that we were no longer alone. Surrounding us were at least two dozen arena guards, weapons drawn as they moved in.

  “And that’s it folks!” The announcer shouted. “It looks like Arden’s down, Zander’s been disqualified… and, well, I’m sure an official ruling will be soon to follow! Stay tuned!” The woman immediately spun off on her floating disc, no longer interested in commentating on the events that were unfolding below.

  Guardsmen dashed in seizing my arms as I struggled to stop the flow of blood from Hilda’s wounds. “Get off me!” I screamed. “Get the hell off me!” I freed one of my hands and punched the nearest guard in the face. Another three guards took his place, diving on top of me and pinning my body to the ground.

  I turned my head to meet Hilda’s gaze as she lied there, bleeding out in the sand. “Hil-“. I began to speak her name, but a swift punch caught me in the cheek, jumbling my thoughts, making the formation of words impossible.

  The men hoisted me to my feet and began to drag me away. I made one final lunge at the guardian, but their grip on me held firm. A sense of helplessness washed over me as I watched a pair of guards begin to drag her body off.

  Suddenly, something heavy and blunt connected with the back of my head… and everything faded to black.

  41

  My vision was fleeting.

  Glimpses of the stone beneath my feet flittered in and out of the blackness. Voices… men arguing about what to do with me… someone barking orders… the words “special cell.” It was all just a haze.

  I’d been struck from behind in the arena with some sort of debilitating blow… more than likely a damned rogue skill. It had sapped me. I couldn’t focus. I
couldn’t fight back. Instead, I hung limp in their arms while a pair of guards dragged me through a dark, unfamiliar corridor.

  The whiny creak of a cell door brought some clarity, and I immediately began to wrestle with the guards as they heaved me towards the open portal. It was no use.

  My body slammed onto the cold, hard stone as the cell door slammed shut behind me. I rose on wobbly legs and turned to confront the men, but they were already standing on the other side of the locked door.

  “Why the hell are you locking me up!” I yelled. “Arden’s the one who had gone mad! You should’ve been more worried about him… about saving lives rather than carrying on with your damned show!”

  The guards didn’t respond. In fact, they wholly ignored my pleas and began to leave the chamber altogether.

  No, I wouldn’t let them leave me down here. I threw my slayer’s mark up on the nearest guard, readied my shadowshift and… nothing?

  I peered at my mana bar, which oddly read 0. Typically, a slow, natural regeneration would kick in and begin to replenish it… but still, nothing.

  Maybe I could send a message… a plea for help. I focused on my HUD and pulled up my friends list…. Damnit! Everything appeared scrambled!

  With my patience growing thin, I approached the bars of the cell door and gave them a rough shake. They didn’t budge, not even in the slightest. Damnit this was infuriating!

  Tired and frustrated and mostly lost, I sat down on the stone floor and peered up at the celling. My eyes went wide.

  Scribed onto the stone roof of the cell was a massive glyph, it’s etchings glowing a faint blue color. Was… was this part of the cell? The glyph pulsed with a dull light every few seconds, as if it was absorbing some sort of unseen force. I gave the thing a quick inspection…

  Binding seal

  A powerful glyph that seals off the use of mana and mana-dependent abilities in a selected area.

  Well, there goes any chance I had of escaping. “Razyr, What the hell do we do?” I asked. Having the sprites at my side at all times was just natural now, as if they were a part of me. My body shuddered as the cell remained silent.

  “R-Razyr?” I stammered. “Kord?” Frantically, I began to search the tiny cell, as if I would magically uncover the beasts under a pile of dirt and dust. My mind raced, trying to find a way to process it all, to accept my harsh reality.

  My familiars were gone. Hilda was gone… and who even knew what happened to the others. I was alone, trapped in a cell on a foreign world, and nobody would be coming to my aid.

  This was rock bottom. This… this was the darkness that this world had to offer… my own personal desolation… With little else to do, I laid back on the cold, dark stone and shut my eyes.

  ><><

  I wasn’t sure how long I’d been laying there… the passage of time was difficult to measure in a place like this. I was constantly guarded, under watch by a single guard and a massive stone sprite that lumbered along at his side.

  My captors had fed me twice, which gave me some semblance of hope that they planned on keeping me alive. Still, I couldn’t wrap my head around why they locked me up. I was trying to save a life… it didn’t make any sense!

  Growing restless, I climbed to my feet and walked over to the cell door, pressing my face up against the thick bars. “Any idea when I’m getting out of here?”

  The guard gave me a sidelong glance, then quietly resumed napping in his chair.

  “Hey!” I shouted. “What the hell are you guys gonna do with me? I need to know what happened to-“

  A stone fist smashed into the iron bars, knocking me back into the cell. The earth sprite grunted, then recoiled its fist and resumed its dormant state.

  Well, it looked like I wasn’t getting anywhere with these two!

  I continued to sit in silence as the minutes… quite possibly hours ticked by. Finally, I heard movement at the end of the chamber. The large steel door swung open as another guard entered, heavily armored in a full set of gray Airrigarian plate.

  “Take a break.” The guard said, waving off the original guardsman.

  “You sure?” He asked. “My shifts not over for another hour.”

  The armored man nodded. “Captain pulled another squadron off wall duty to help secure the arena for the finals. Ended up with a few too many of us at the gate so he sent me down here early.”

  “Gods, that’s great.” The first guard replied. “My feet are killin me!”

  “Get some rest then, soldier.” The armored man said. The two shared a salute, and my original guard began to head towards the door. At the last moment he turned to acknowledge the man in plate. “Hey… a, you need my stone warden to stick around with ya?”

  The armored man gave the earth sprite a quiet stare, then waved the thing off. “I’ll be fine solider. You can take your sprite with you.”

  “Fine by me.” The man replied, and he and his sprite lumbered out the door. The chamber fell silent for several moments as the plated guard stared into my cell. I met his gaze, trying to picture the man that hid under that helm. Something about those eyes of his peering out that slit in the plate… they just seemed so familiar.

  “Are you well?” The man asked, folding his gauntleted hands over his chest.

  “Well enough.” I replied. “Your allowed to speak to me, then? Perhaps you can tell me when I’m getting out of here.”

  “Very soon.” The man replied, slowly removing his helm. “It seems the time has come to carry out your assignment.” Long black hair fell out of his helm and settled on his shoulders…. that’s when it hit me. I had seen those eyes before. They belonged to the assassin Morose.

  ><><

  “Have you come to get me out of here?” I asked with eagerness, once again pressing my face into the bars.

  Morose approached, meeting my gaze. Then, flatly replied, “No”.

  I gave the bars a shake in frustration. “What the hell do you mean, no?”

  “You have a mission to accomplish, less you forgot.” Morose lifted one of his gauntlets, revealing an oh so familiar raven symbol inscribed into his hand.

  “I think it’s safe to say I’ve failed.” I said, pointing to the steel bars. “Vazryn saw what I did. I interrupted his precious tournament”

  Morose let out a chuckle. “Not everything is as it seems little raven. The great lord himself is currently arranging for you to have an audience with him this very night.”

  The words hit me like a guardian’s crushing blow. “Wait… what?!”

  Morose nodded. “He’d like to speak with you about something… perhaps he was impressed by your battle prowess or your act of heroism. At least, that’s what word amongst the city guard is.”

  First, he had me locked up… now he wants to meet with me? Damnit, I had a bad feeling about this. I pondered for a second, then cut my gaze back at Morose. “Why Don’t you just head up there and do the deed yourself? It appears you’ve already infiltrated the city guard.”

  The assassin shook his head. “That was a task in and of itself. Vazryn is under watch by the Cinderguard, each of them personally selected and loyal to no end. It would be impossible for me to get close to our prestigious lord.”

  “So, now I’m just expected to walk in and slay the man where he stands? I’m going to get slaughtered! This entire plan is-“

  “Calm yourself, Darkblade!” Morose snapped, swooping in close to meet my gaze. “Each of us has a role to play in this. This is the role given to you by High Raven Wesley. You mustn’t fail him… not when you’re this close.”

  I forced back a scowl. “And what do you get from all of this madness?” After all, Morose was another creation of the game world… he wasn’t looking to find a way home.

  “Each serves the High Raven in his own way.” He responded, then began digging in a satchel at his waist. In seconds he withdrew something, a small silver orb inlaid with dull sapphire crystals. The object fit perfectly in his grasp.

  Aether Bo
mb

  “Take this.” He said, passing the item to me between the bars. “And when the time comes… put it to good use.”

  Morose turned and began to exit the chamber.

  “Wait.” I stammered, carefully cradling the supposed ‘bomb’. “I just… I just don’t know if I’m ready for this. This… this is crazy!”

  Morose nodded, then turned to face me once more. “Very well.” He said. “I won’t continue to argue with you over the matter… I’ll inform the High Raven. It’s a shame, though… I thought you’d be more eager to avenge the one you love.”

  My heart sank as I dropped to my knees in the cell. “She’s…. Dead?” When last I saw her she was still struggling to stay afloat, her health bar teetering on its last remaining points of health. I… I had hoped with all my heart that she had made it to a cleric in time. Fresh tears began to swell in my eyes… my soul had been crushed once more.

  Morose nodded. “Bled out just outside of the arena’s battleground. A shame really, to lose another raven like that. Her death could’ve been easily prevented if Vazryn wasn’t so intent on watching his little show unfold.” Morose reached his hand through the bar. “Give me the bomb back, then, and-“

  “No.” I said defiantly before tucking the item into a hidden pouch in my shirt. “He’s going to pay for what he did.”

  A look of acknowledgement stretched across Morose’s face. “Good.” He said, then turned to leave the area.

  A few seconds after Morose disappeared out of the chamber, the first guard came clamoring back through the door, apparently winded. “Where’d he go?! Where’s that other guy at?” He stammered. His earth sprite began to circle the chamber, unsettling the stone floor as it moved.

  I shrugged. “He left a few minutes ago. Didn’t say anything.”

  The guard eyed me cautiously for a few seconds, then let out an exasperated sigh. “Damned fools can’t keep their assignments straight... they’re gonna get me fired one of these days!”