by Alyson Belle
I tried to summon them back, throw lightning, or blow my icey breath, and none of it worked—I glanced at my buff list in frustration and saw that I’d triggered an AoE silence trap when I attacked them.
“I’m a Spellblade, you moron,” Haxor muttered while Lefay dusted herself off and raised her staff menacingly. “Who leads with spells against a Spellblade?”
“You got here fast, didn’t you?” Lefay asked. “Too bad we were ready for you.”
“Let Jazzus go,” I warned them, taking a step forward with my hands curled into fists. My foot fell upon an invisible pressure plate with an audible click, and a blast of fire three or four times the size of my flame jets roared up from the ground to envelop me. I’d triggered the trap we knew Haxor would lay, but I was as immune to this damage as anything else he’d prepared. I stood in the middle of the inferno, shoulders back and chin lifted, and in a sudden moment of inspiration I summoned my wings and flung them wide, letting the heat and wind from the magical blaze whip my hair around my shoulders.
I threw my head back and laughed. “Neither of you can lay a finger on me. Did you forget?”
“Wow,” Lefay breathed, taking a step backward. “Uh… when did she gets wings?”
“I don’t care if she has wings, spells, or a bloody flaming sword,” Haxor growled. “Stay on the defensive and wear her mana down. You know our orders.”
The dirty look Lefay shot him was priceless, but she lifted her staff again and set herself in a defensive pose. Our silence debuff began to fade as the flames died down around me, and I cracked my knuckles. Nobody was backing down here. Again I thought about calling Topper, but why risk him? Without Krom here, maybe I could take them down by myself. I wanted to see what these new abilities could do.
“Having second thoughts, Krom?” Haxor asked. “It’s not too late to flip sides and give up, you know. You can’t win.”
“It’s Lacey now, Haxor. And you’re about to find out just how much things have changed.” I almost spouted off about Krom being on their side now, but I didn’t want Vierdimin’s troops to know we knew about him. They had no idea how much I’d heard.
“What, you’re going to suck me off before you try to fuck Lefay this time?”
I wasn’t going to dignify that with a response, and I didn’t need to trade barbs with Haxor anyway because that was the moment when my silence debuff fell off. Instantly I was back to being a sorcerous badass.
All three of us blurred as we sprang into battle at full speed. Immediately I activated my Sexy Shadow and broke off toward Lefay as I sent it streaking toward Haxor. It took all my concentration to keep my illusory double moving and throwing down spells—which actually had some potency!—while I also cast my own spells, but it was enough of a feint to drive Haxor into another backward flip, meeting each of her casts with a counterspell while I focused on Lefay.
The dark elf had chosen a different tact entirely and was using some kind of wind-based dust devil spell to hurl debris and rocks toward me. None of it hurt me, but it was really annoying and made it difficult to see her while she Blinked around the battlefield, leaving her own illusionary doubles with each teleport. I struck down one after another with angry shots of flame, frustrated that most of my Courtesan AoE stuns were useless against PCs (except for Kama Sutra, which required me to be able to physically touch them, and I couldn’t seem to lay a finger on the real Lefay).
Finally, I got tired of burning the doubles and threw my arms wide to dump a huge chunk of my mana into Chain Lightning. The bolts criss-crossed all over the arena, shocking doubles as quickly as they sprang up, and finally one landed on Lefay. The debris fell to the ground as her sustained whirlwind spell winked out and she stumbled backward with a third of her health missing.
“Owww…” she moaned.
I grinned. “Spells hit pretty hard when you have god-level Charisma, huh?”
But Haxor had finally gotten close enough to my shadow to slash at it with his dagger, dispelling the illusion, and now he and Lefay flanked me. I tried to whip spell after spell at them, but each one was met by a counterspell as they grimly stood their ground. At 20% mana I stopped, my chest heaving. I could still pop my last cooldown, Dragon Rage, but I didn’t think it would help with the counterspells, and I wanted to keep some tricks up my sleeve.
Fortunately, there was another card I was holding back.
“All right, Topper!” I shouted. “Come on out!”
“Fuck!” Haxor grimaced and spun toward the arena entrance. “I thought he’d be out by now if he was here.”
Topper came charging into the stone clearing with a bellowing roar, blazing sword arcing, and began to trade frantic, clanging blows with Haxor.
“Why didn’t you call me sooner, Lacey?” he demanded as he laid into his opponent.
“Why didn’t you shard his fucking gear when you had him captive, Lefay?” Haxor spat.
Lefay and I shared an annoyed glance. Then she shrugged. “Didn’t occur to me. Let’s dance, girly-boy.”
Now that Topper had Haxor’s full attention, it was back to just me and Lefay, and the way she kept backing away from me suggested that she was a lot less confident than she sounded. Last time, she’d been able to keep me at bay easily, but I was a combat caster now, and she was going to be in trouble. Counterspell had enough of a cooldown that she couldn’t chain-cast it like she and Haxor had been able to do together, and after she caught a well-timed Flame Jet to the face that dropped her health to 25%, she threw up a Mana Shield out of desperation.
“When did you get so strong?” she cried. “This is bullshit.”
I had to admire her persistence. She stood tall, teeth bared and breasts heaving, her clothes and skin singed from my spells, and channeled the ethereal blue shield around her body. I’d expected her to gate out again, but apparently failing the Lich lord once was as much as she was willing to handle. Despite that, we both knew it was over. I slammed a double gout of Flame Jets into her shield, emptying the rest of her mana and bringing her to her knees. She crouched there panting, completely out of options. Unlike my skill set, once a Wizard was out of mana, they were basically useless. She wouldn’t even be able to gate out now.
Ignoring my defanged opponent, I turned back to the other battle that raged across the clearing. Haxor had always been a skilled player and a difficult opponent, but his specialty was fighting casters—a raid-geared main tank Paladin five levels higher than him was giving him real trouble. Topper was still nearly at full health, regenerating it as quickly as Haxor could damage him, but he’d managed to whittle Haxor down to 54% while I’d dealt with Lefay. I still had some mana left, but I held my spells in reserve, remembering what Topper had told me about this being his fight.
There were other things I could do, though. With Lefay and Haxor distracted, they couldn’t keep the suppression spell active on Jazzus anymore. I saw her stir inside the energy cage and rushed to her side, watching her from just beyond the blue energy bars. She looked a little pale, but otherwise okay.
“Hang in there Jazzus!” I told her. “We’ll have you out soon.”
“Lacey? You came for me…” she murmured, lifting a shaky hand to her temple.
“Of course I did! I wouldn’t ever let my friends down.”
While I tended to Jazzus, Haxor and Topper’s duel continued with unabated ferocity. Haxor was still losing—badly—and Topper shrugged off everything that Haxor could throw at him. Lefay and I watched from opposite sides of the battle as the Spellblade grew more and more frantic in his attempts to dodge and counterattack.
When Haxor popped his final Agility cooldown and flipped backward a few meters to escape another of Topper’s nasty swings, the two men paused their flurry of blows to catch their breaths. They stared at one another with narrowed, angry eyes. For a moment, Haxor’s face softened and his daggers dropped just a little. It looked like he wanted to say something to Topper—but it wasn’t that kind of fight. Topper launched himself across the
space separating them and slammed the pommel of his blade into Haxor’s face, stunning and blinding him with a Pommel Bash. While the Spellblade reeled and windmilled from the surprise attack, Topper took the opportunity to step around his clumsy swings and lay into him again and again with the righteous edge of his blade. Haxor fell to the ground, defeated, and at the last possible minute Topper tossed a Flash Heal at him so he wouldn’t die.
He crunched over in his steel boots and brought one down hard on Haxor’s shoulder, driving him into the arid dirt. Haxor was at 2% health and in no condition to fight back. He coughed out some dust and laid his cheek against the ground, body going limp.
Topper stepped back, slammed his blade tip-first into the ground, and leaned once more on the pommel.
“Why did you do it, Haxor?” the Paladin demanded, shaking his head at his former friend. “You owe me that much. Are you really so scared of Vierdimin you didn’t think we could beat him together? None of this had to happen this way.”
Haxor coughed again and slowly pushed himself to a kneeling crouch under Topper’s stern glare. “You’re underestimating the Lich,” he murmured quietly. “You think I want to do this, Topper? You think I’d be on his side if I really believed we could beat him?”
“Why wouldn’t you trust us? You make me sick. Where I come from, loyalty matters. Friendships matter. You don’t throw your friends over the side as soon as the going gets tough.” Topper spit on the ground. It landed inches from Haxor, and the Spellblade flinched. “He wouldn’t be fighting us if he wasn’t at least a little scared. Have a little courage.”
Again the sad, faraway look flashed across Haxor’s face, but then his face hardened again. “Everything I’ve seen since joining The Secret Order has convinced me I made the right call,” he replied. “You’re my friend, Topper. You always will be. I’m sorry I let you down. But when Vierdimin wins, you’re all fucked. And me? I don’t plan to be here.”
“Look out!” I shouted as Haxor grabbed for an object at his belt.
He leapt toward Topper, swinging it wildly. Topper slid back just in time, yanking and raising his blade from the ground once again.
“You’re still going to fight us?” Topper growled. “Fuck you, Haxor.”
“What is it?” I asked, taking a quick glance at Lefay to make sure she was still behaving. She’d remained where I left her and now watched the battle with a curious expression, evidently as confused as we were about Haxor’s object.
“Just a little something special Vierdimin gave me as a last resort,” Haxor said. He brandished it toward Topper, and I could see it was a small, metal cone, about the size of a dagger, with a razor-sharp point. “It won’t hurt Lacey, but it’ll freeze your ass permanently, Topper—GM style character suspension, with no cure.”
How can Vierdimin make something that simulated a GM character suspension? I wondered. It was a tool they only used when a really disruptive player was creating problems, until they had a chance to deal with the chaos. It totally shut down the in-game avatar of a player, and it wasn’t anything that a player should be able to make in-game. But I wasn’t sure why I was surprised at anything Vierdimin could do anymore. He might have limits, but he was obviously getting better at circumventing them.
“Yeah, well it looks like you need to get close enough to hit me with it for it to work,” Topper growled. “Come on then, asshole. You feel lucky enough to land a blow before I cut you down? Or you think I’m going to be able to take you out and use your little toy against Vierdimin myself?”
Lefay chose that moment to finally make a break for it. She lurched into a hasty scramble toward the exit, but I spotted her just in time. I raced over and tackled her, rolling end over end through the dust with the dark elf and finally came out on top of her.
“Get off me!” she sputtered. She struggled hard and was much stronger than I expected—I was still used to my male body’s strength—but weight counted more than strength here, and I was just heavy enough to keep her down.
“Hurry, Topper!” I shouted as I struggled to keep Lefay’s shoulders down. “We’re wasting too much time! Jazzus is who we need. Grab her and let’s go!”
Haxor licked his lips and blinked nervously at Topper, his outstretched hand shaking. It didn’t look like he really wanted to try his luck against the Paladin, but Topper was done playing games. He took a step toward Haxor. Then another step.
“Stay back! I’ll use this! I don’t want to, but god damn it, Topper, I will!” He shuffled backwards as Topper approached. His back would be against the wall soon. He looked wildly to his left and then his right. “Don’t make me do this!”
“Damn it, you pussy! Man up and go for it!” Lefay screamed from beneath me. “Vierdimin will be pissed at both of us if we fuck this up!”
Haxor shook his head and cursed under his breath. “He really will, won’t he? Fuck. Fuck! Why can’t you all just give in like I have? You don’t know what he’s capable of. He’d go easier on all of us if we just do what he wants. ”
“You’re an idiot if you believe that, Haxor,” Topper replied. “When has Vierdimin ever kept his word? He’s going to fuck you over just like everyone else.” Finally, Topper’s voice softened. “Come on, man. What are you doing? This isn’t you. Throw the weapon down and help us out. We can beat him together. I know we can. Think about all those times we fought together, all the times we had each other’s backs. This isn’t any different. You know you can trust me.”
Frustration, fear, and desperation warred on Haxor’s face. I held my breath.
After a long, tense moment, Haxor dropped his gaze and slowly lowered the cone to his side. He gestured, and the energy cage around Jazzus winked out. She climbed unsteadily to her feet.
“What are you doing, you moron?” Lefay shrieked.
The tip of Topper’s greatsword dipped down, and a smile broke across his face. “I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t really betray us, Haxor.”
Haxor turned his back to Topper and cast a sad look over his shoulder. “You always were too brave for your own good, Topper.”
Before either of us could react, Haxor leapt the few meters to where Jazzus had just regained her footing and thrust the cone into her stomach.
“Jazzus!” I cried helplessly while Topper closed the distance and cut Haxor down with a final blow. The Spellblade’s body hit the ground, disintegrating on impact, and left his gear in a smoking pile. Jazzus staggered into Topper’s arms and fell, clutching the sharp metal cone protruding from her stomach.
She gazed up at him with wide eyes, struggling to speak.
“Jazzus? Jazzus!” he cried, clutching her tightly.
I didn’t care what happened to Lefay anymore. I let her go and rushed to Jazzus’s side, yanking the cone out with a quick jerk. I knew she shouldn’t really be in pain, but the fear on her face was real, and unlike anything I’d ever seen in game before. Her mouth moved, but only moans emerged. A blueish gray splotch of flesh had begun to grow outward from the entry point of her stab wound and spread slowly across her body.
“Can’t you heal her, Topper? Do something!”
He shook his head, his face a mask of desperation. “I can’t, Lacey! It’s not a normal injury. It’s a GM suspension. I’ve seen it once before. She’s going to freeze up.”
I fell to my knees, clutching her hand. “Jazzus! Jazzus, listen to me. You’re going to be okay. This isn’t over. We’re going to… we’re going to get Vierdimin. Somehow. And we’re going to make him reverse this. Don’t be afraid! We won’t abandon you.”
I could tell she was trying to talk, but the blueish-gray color had spread to her throat now with no signs of slowing. Her eyes were wild, but for the briefest of moments I felt her fingers tighten on my hand. She trusted me to save her. She trusted me to get her out of this.
Then I felt her stiffen as the pallid, grayish color spread to the top of her face and snaked out through her golden hair, sapping the color from it like the dying embers of a fir
e turning to ash.
Her grip loosened, and Jazzus’s hand grew cold.
Chapter 7
Haxor was beaten, but Jazzus was gone. It wasn’t a win in my book. We owed her more than that.
Topper settled her gray, lifeless body gently onto the ground with a grim expression, and silence reigned for a long moment. The situation felt hopeless. Rescuing Jazzus had been the key to our whole plan, and the only way we’d thought of to find Vierdimin. Now, we had nothing. Had we really come all this way just to crash headlong into a dead end? It didn’t seem fair.
“What do we do now?” I whispered.
Topper didn’t reply. He just shook his head. Then he spun on his heel and drove his fist into the rock wall beside him, crunching into it with a powerful blow.
I understood the feeling.
“Why did you wait so long to call me?” he growled. “I could… I don’t know, I could have done something, maybe. Something different.”
“No. I didn’t call you because I was eavesdropping. You won’t believe what I saw, but… I’ll fill you in on the way back to Jaiden’s Crossing.”
The timing didn’t seem right to tell him about Kromgorn being back in game, and I wanted more time to think about it anyway. I still couldn’t begin to figure out how it had happened, or what Vierdimin’s crew was planning to do with him.
Topper dropped his fist and let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry, Lacey. I’m not really mad at you. I’m just mad at myself. I shouldn’t have killed Haxor so quickly,” he said. “It was reckless and dumb.”
I reached out a hand and placed it softly on his shoulder, letting it rest there for a moment. The cool steel of his pauldrons shook slightly beneath my palm, and I realized his whole body was trembling. Was the poor guy really that worked up? But then, he’d always taken team losses personally, and this was like a triple loss for us.
“It’s okay, Topper,” I said. “We didn’t need him. You did the right thing, even if you couldn’t save Jazzus.”
