“Naturally,” the druid responded in surprise. “But how will that help us?”
“I have a thought…” I looked at the girl slyly. “What if the cynocephalian actually did fall in love with her?”
Learning progress: You have reached teacher 12 of 12 (+2 optional teachers)
Congratulations! You have completed the Academy and may return to the main Game world. Timeframe for return activation: 30 seconds
It took us about ten minutes to reach the last teacher. Killing the guards by attacking them in invisibility mode, I followed Dolgunata’s advice and spent several years learning how to use the emotions accumulator, bringing the process of Energy replenishment to an automatic skill. One of the teachers had said that within the Academy the “Accumulator” ability was not available to a player. No point in arguing with him‒ I was sure he knew what he was talking about. However, for some reason he had not bothered to inform me that it’s possible not only to use the artifact as an accumulator, but a random object as well. As a neutral ability I chose the option to improve my night vision. There was nothing else in the offered list of abilities that interested me.
We were going to the Chancellor’s tower without too much haste, killing everyone we saw along the way: monsters, nomads, strange flying creatures, players, who decided that they were stronger than we. We had just one goal: to achieve the maximum level possible before we saw the central tower of the wastelands on the horizon. One time we even had to spend the night there, so hard and tiring was the battle with the flying monsters. They could not penetrate our protection, but there were so many of them that we spent several precious hours cleansing the world of that plague. The flying creeps would not as much as look at the grass called up by Dolgunata, and mocked us mercilessly.
As the end point of my route I was going by the location of Teart, a level one player. The leprechaun was staying in one place, so I used him as a beacon. However, when we were about a hundred yards away, it became clear that I was not the only one who did it. Zangar was standing next to the leprechaun and looking in contemplation across the mirror-still water at the enormous tower, whose spire was lost in the haze.
“I was tired of waiting,” Zangar said calmly, turning towards us as if nothing unusual had happened between us. “Wondering when you’d show up. I had thought it would happen much earlier. Dolgunata, Sakhray,” the necromancer nodded, greeting my companions. “It’s a pleasure to see that you are alive. Let’s go. We need to complete our quest. Teart, I release you. You have fulfilled your mission.”
The leprechaun cast a quick apologetic glance at me, and exhaled in relief. His torture was over. But as soon as he took the first step, the necromancer’s spear neatly separated the leprechaun’s head from his body. Spraying everything with blood, the head rolled a couple of steps away and stopped. The leprechaun’s eyes, open wide in surprise, stared at our group, and an instant later, glazed. Another instant, and blood, head and body disappeared, letting the Game color Teart’s icon in grey, and putting the Emperor’s symbol over it. The leprechaun did not exist any more. At least, for the next three hours; I remembered very well that he had a conditional initiation.
Emotions moved me to rush forward, but common sense overruled them. Not now. Having promised myself that Teart’s death will not go unpunished for the necromancer, I shuffled my feet as if preparing to lunge when, as if called up by magic, a wall of ice appeared between us. A mocking chuckle from Marinar indicated that she wasn’t too far away. Had I rushed forward without thinking, the ice would have formed around me. Oh well, we would settle our scores later.
“He was weak.” Zangar clarified his actions in the same calm and confident tone. “Did not see Way. Wanted to survive. Such player not needed. Such should be destroyed. You are strong. Made it here. Yourself. Proved you’re worthy. Mages failed quest. They are weak. Will be punished. Nothing to fear here for you. No threat, partner.”
“Former partner,” I corrected the presumptuous cynocephalian. “You betrayed me. You are not worthy of being my partner.”
“Wrong. I tested you. Only strong can survive. You interested the druids. You are strong. Our agreement fulfilled. You passed through Academy. Help meet my teacher. He is interested.”
“What a touching scene of the group rejoining,” the space around us rumbled with the Chancellor’s voice, preventing me from telling Zangar where he could go with all of that. It took me too long to prepare an adequate answer. I should have taken lessons from Sintsov: beautiful curse passages would have been more than appropriate right now. “You made it to my castle. You have truly earned your reward. Welcome to visit me! Dolgunata, Sakhray, please join us. It’s always a pleasure to talk to Archibald’s students.”
Quest “Visit” is complete. You are invited to the Chancellor’s castle. During the visit to the castle attacking other players is prohibited
The air over the lake shimmered, to turn into a spectacular crystal bridge leading to the central tower on the island. On the bridge, just a few yards away from the shore, a tall blonde man wearing a dark robe was standing, tilting his head to the side with interest. Appearance in the Game had nothing to do with real age, so I did not even bother to guess how old the Chancellor could be. For us he chose the image of a handsome thirty year old man whose red eyes seemed to pierce one through, and turn one’s soul inside out.
“How interesting.” Even though he was there in person, the Chancellor’s voice made each member of my body vibrate. “You seriously believe that Marinar is an incarnation of Madonna? You believed your teacher’s words to such an extent? That’s funny… very funny… I am changing the rules! Dolgunata and Sakhray: come with me into my castle and enjoy a pleasant conversation. As for the three of you – only two will step on the bridge. I don’t care who it will be‒ the necromancer, the mage or the Paladin. One of you will die here and now. Each of you is at level fifteen. I take off all the extra experience; you will receive it when you make it to me. If you make it. All three do not have official initiation. Fight. Battle. The task is simple: to kill one of you with finality. Or two, it doesn’t matter. The winner will receive a reward. I will tell you from the start: you cannot make an arrangement so that one of you leaves the Academy. In that case everyone will lose and no one will receive a reward. So watch carefully, so that your enemy does not have time to activate his return. I think that’s it. Come, druids. This show does not concern you.”
“Here!” Dolgunata whispered, quickly passing to me everything we had bought from the trader. “I hope you figure out from the first attempt how to use all of this. Don’t you dare die! I’ll kill you personally if you do!”
Chapter Thirteen. Finale
NEVER believe anyone. The Game does not forgive trust. It’s created to test the loners; everyone else is weak by default and must be destroyed. That’s the main principle of the Game and I fully absorbed it with each death the mages and Dolgunata dealt me. There is no place in the Game for friendship, relations or attachment. Only cold calculation and profit.
I did not know the true reasons why Dolgunata and her brother were helping me. Perhaps because of Archibald’s orders, perhaps because of Dangard’s demands, perhaps for some other reason… So, after returning from the training range of the last teacher, I limited myself to simply saying that now I understood the operating principle of the Energy accumulator. That was enough. What actually happened during the five years was known only to me and the teacher, sitting there in a meditative trance and completely not caring what was going on.
I was preparing for battle.
My history of using exploding scrolls showed that they were horrifyingly effective, even though their range was limited. I knew that near the Chancellor’s place I would have to battle Zangar, and possibly even Dolgunata and her brother, so I had prepared to both potential scenarios. In any case, I did not believe that the druid would fight the necromancer. They all knew each other too well to interfere with each other’s plans for the sake o
f some strange Paladin. Therefore, I would have to take care of Zangar myself. The time slowers and viscous space amulets I had received from Nata during the last few seconds before the battle were too untested a thing for me: I would never rely on them. As for trust – what did I know, they could block me as well. I couldn’t count on Molotov cocktails either – I simply had nothing with which to ignite them, and hoping that the throw would generate a spark and that the mixture would ignite by itself would be stupid and inadvisable when your own life is on the line. There was only one thing which would enable me to survive in the battle with the necromancer: scrolls. I decided right away that it would be useless just to put them on the ground: Zangar was so fast that as they activated he would not only be able to run out from the impact area, but also to drag me in there as well. So the scrolls had always to be next to the target. I even grinned, stuffing the thick pack of scrolls I’d prepared into the empty arm guard on my left arm. The Chancellor had not bothered to restore my hand before the battle, leaving me defective against two formidable opponents. Apparently, he’d already made the choice for himself and now just wished for it to come true as soon as possible. So I’d have to disappoint him.
I activated invisibility, but literally in an instant the energy shield exploded in a shower of sparks; I was thrown a couple of meters back: Zangar did not wait for the formal signal to start the duel and attacked first. The cynocephalian couldn’t care less whether he could see me or not. Years of training paid off: the necromancer was running on autopilot. I fell on my back, rolled to the side and immediately a wall of ice crashed into the place where I had been a moment ago. Marinar followed her partner in everything. I scowled angrily: the hit of the spear ate up 120 Energy units. Had I not had the amulet for enhancement, there would have been my corpse fading in the Academy, my body cut in half with one quick blow. Rolling over once more, messing up the mage’s aim, I felt one more horrendous blow, then another and another: Zangar figured out quickly that my resistance level was pretty high, so once again he turned into black lightning, dashing around and periodically striking sparks from my shield. One blow would take 60-90 Energy units depending on the speed and trajectory of the necromancer’s movement. He was working on me expertly.
It would be suicide to stay in one spot; Marinar was creating boulders of ice every ten to fifteen seconds. The Book of Knowledge came to my aid: boulders appeared above me, casting a shadow on the ground, and the artifact granted me literally just one second to leave the impact area. Missing one blow that nearly flattened me and gobbled over 300 Energy units taught me to react to the mage’s attacks way faster. The elixirs disappeared at a scary rate: only a minute had passed since we started fighting, and I had already had to take five vials. According to all the rules the outcome of the battle was determined before it started. I was not given a single chance to survive; they were methodically and systematically robbing me of Energy.
There was just one “but” – this couple did not take into account that I came from a third-rate world called “Earth”. The world that knew the concept of self-sacrifice. The world that created the kamikaze.
The necromancer’s speed was awe-inspiring: even after a minute the Book of Knowledge could not predict where he would appear in the next moment. It could only determine an area with a precision of several meters. In any case, even this was enough for me. Thrown to the side once again, I did not take an elixir‒ the remnant of Energy would be quite enough to live for a few seconds. Clenching my fists, I waited the signal of the Book and clicked the detonator button. Five seconds. Four. Three. Two.
One. Swing.
Blow!
You were killed and sent to a respawn point
You lost one level
Your current level: 14
With my good hand I grabbed from the inventory another roll of scrolls and stepped forward, hugging the necromancer who appeared next to me. He was stronger. He was faster. He was more powerful. But I needed just five seconds to hold him within an area of fifteen meters. The cynocephalian’s arms started moving like pistons. Beating the breath out of me even through the shield; yet I felt better than ever. Because just one second was left and…
You were killed and sent to a respawn point
Step forward. Embrace. Activate. Five seconds of pain. Respawn. Step forward. Embrace. Activate. Five seconds of pain. Respawn. Step forward…
I had plenty of scrolls. Rightly believing that the necromancer’s defense was much stronger than that of the druid, I put the entirety of forty Templar’s blows into one bomb. Due to the amulet for attack enhancement, the scrolls were a lot more powerful than before. All that I needed was Zangar’s presence within the impact area of my home-rigged charge. Given that I died first, and therefore respawned first as well, the necromancer had no chance to extricate himself from my clinging embrace. He appeared in the Academy already in my arms. Another explosion and another respawn cycle. I was not going to spare either him or myself.
The respawn stone “printed” me yet again and with my habitual move I hugged the necromancer as he was appearing. He had nowhere to go: he could not push me away, nor run away, nor jump over me. Well, he could have, but it would have taken him much more than five seconds. Zangar could face and beat a hundred, if not a thousand enemies, but apparently he had never run into an enemy who would be willing to die just to kill his opponent. The cynocephalian didn’t know what to do, and it worked in my favor. Because sooner or later he would want to talk and it would give me an additional break. Which I needed like a breath of air.
“Yari, we need to talk!” the necromancer rasped, trying to unclench my hand. “This is pointless! There will be no winner! We’ll both die!”
“So we will,” I growled in response, extracting another scroll from the inventory literally with my teeth. Since Zangar had started talking it gave me a faint chance of victory. “We’ll all die, some sooner, some later. I have decided that we‒you and I, my partner‒ will do it together! A worthy completion of the Academy!”
The Game started asking me questions verifying if I really wanted to activate the Widow’s Kiss, so that didn’t improve things. It was hard to struggle with the necromancer and at the same time carefully read everything that flashed in front of my eyes, but I had no other choice. Clicking on the buttons without thinking could lead to unexpected consequences.
“Let’s make peace!” Zangar suggested as he suddenly stopped struggling. Apparently, he also counted the required five seconds and, seeing that there was no explosion, decided that I was interested in negotiations. Naive cynocephalian: I would need a minute to activate a scroll! Suppressing an urge to jump with joy, I pretended that I was interested in listening to Zangar’s proposal, asking him directly:
“How can there be peace between us, if the main goal is to kill one of us? You’ve heard it – leaving the Academy is not an option. No one will let me go, because then there will be no reward.”
“We’ll kill Marinar,” Zangar said calmly as if it were an obvious solution. “I was wrong. “Chancellor helped me see. She’s not incarnation of Madonna. OK to kill her. Pass the bridge together. Receive reward. Help meet my teacher. Help develop. I like your approach.”
“WHAT?!” The girl’s stunned voice sounded from somewhere to the side. “Zangar?! What are you saying?!”
“Need to admit mistakes,” the necromancer replied, not at all embarrassed by the girl’s reaction. “You are weak. Thought you were strong. Don’t like mistakes. You will die.”
“But I believed you!” There was so much indignation in the girl’s voice that I was spellbound, and nearly missed yet another message from the Game. It would not settle down and kept asking me to confirm that I really did want to use the scroll.
“Your weakness. Game not forgive that.” It seemed like the necromancer didn’t care for anyone at all, except for his own precious self. He had been working with the girl so closely prior to our battle that hearing this admission from him was quite unexpect
ed. Marinar confirmed this impression by dumping a pile of ice on us. Minus half of the Energy, but plus a few additional seconds needed for the “Widow’s Kiss”.
“Useless, Marinar. Resign. You die soon. Don’t have to resist. Come, Yari. We kill her. Become equal partners. I tell you all. Explain why mages want Paladin. For what … WHAT IS THIS?! NO!!!”
The cynocephalian’s wild roar was probably heard throughout the entire Academy. The Game, finally, took mercy on me and activated the “Widow’s Kiss”. Given that Zangar, like myself, had level 4 now, the news of the scroll activation was quite unexpected and unpleasant for him. The new bomb scroll appeared in my hand, the detonator discharged and the countdown began. The countdown on Zangar’s life.
“YARI, NO!” He screamed, with the last of his strength, trying to unclench my hands, hitting me every which way. “STOP! NO! DON’T…”
“I don’t like traitors!” was all I had time to say, before the world was filled with red, and replaced with absolute darkness.
You were killed and sent to a respawn point
You lost one level
Your current level: 2
Case “Zangar’s Betrayal” has been closed, due to the final death of the suspect
Roll over, jump forward, activate the artifact and… Nothing happened. No one tried to kill me, crush me with boulders of ice, immobilize and send for respawn. Looking around I saw a slumping Marinar a few steps away from the respawn stone; she was sitting on the ground and staring aimlessly at one spot. The girl didn’t even move when I came right up to her.
“Do it quickly…,” I heard her whisper. “So that it doesn't hurt.”
I lingered, not expecting such a proposition, and finally Marinar lifted her head. Her eyes were red and full of tears.
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 46
