Mika’s hand never leaves mine as we make agonizing progress across the lake bottom. Moving through the water is already slow, and we keep our pace measured to avoid kicking up too much dirt. I don’t think Ajax or Mereta can see us down here, but I’m not taking chances.
We’re plunged into deeper darkness as we fall under the shadow of the bridge. Mika’s grin is an ivory tear in the dark as we change direction and make our way under it.
Every step I take, I expect disaster. An enormous lake monster that the estate owner planted on a lark, maybe. Flesh eating piranha. Or Ajax’s hateful whip slipping through the water to tear my face off.
But nothing happens. After the last few minutes of sheer terror, I’ll take it.
The lake suddenly ends at a wall just under the start of the bridge. There’s no gradual ascent. The water just ends. I merge bubbles with Mika again. “Man, whoever designed this place wasn’t even trying.”
“Considering the party and the brothel and all that, I think they were worried more about pleasures of the flesh than landscaping.”
“Designing with the dick?”
“Hey, that’s insulting. Ladies are horny, too.”
“Okay, fine. Designing with the vagina.”
“You can call it a pussy,” she says with a vulgar pop of the p. “We’re both adults here. I won’t be offended.”
“Oh, thank God. I was gonna call it the juicy zone, but that’s so much sexier.”
“Dude, don’t make me laugh. Not enough air left in my bubble.”
“Oh, I’ve been replenishing it as we walk. You didn’t notice?”
“No, I did,” she says, staring up to the shore. “Gotta fall hard for a guy that takes care of his lady.”
“Always, love.”
She squeezes my hand. “Have we BS’d long enough? You think they’re gone?”
I sigh, admitting to myself that we’ve put it off long enough. “Only one way to find out.”
We rise as carefully as we can, and when we surface, I only put my eyes above the waterline. There’s no movement save the lapping waves of the lake. No breathing, no scuff of boots, nothing.
Next, I extend my gift outward as far as I can, which is pretty damned far in the open air with no walls or other obstacles to deal with. I quest along the bridge first, sending my mind almost all the way back to the walls of the island. Nothing. Next, I push along the forest path that leads to the bridge. No movement. Nothing living that I can detect.
“We good?” Mika whispers.
“I think so, unless they can mask themselves from me.”
“I think I’ve got most of my strength back. If they’re somehow waiting, I can light the forest on fire as we run away.”
“Okay, Beavis,” I say. “Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.”
“Beavis,” she says, reaching up for the lip of the shore. “That some old guy reference?”
“Kids these days,” I sigh. “No culture at all.”
“Whatever. Help me up.” The lips about five feet above her.
“Uh, not much to grip unless I…”
“That’s the idea,” she says with a wink.
Don’t have to tell me twice. I get a double handful of her full ass and heave upward.
She pops up like a cork and lands with surprising grace on the shore. She turns to help me up, reaching for my outstretched hand. “Well, that was nice.”
I climb up next to her and get to my feet. “You didn’t really need my help, did you?”
“Nah. Just gotta keep you thirsty.”
“In that case, mission accomplished.” I turn to the lake, taking in the burning pyre of the island. The fires rage unabated, so bright that even at this distance I have to shade my eyes. “Goddamn, Mika.”
“Yeah,” she says, face drawn in sudden worry. “That was… I didn’t mean for it to be so… So…”
“Powerful?”
She leans into me. “Yeah. I think I lost control a second.”
“Hey, no worries. Definitely ruined the Obsidians night.” I give the island the finger. We’ll explore whatever happened when her eyes changed color later… For now, I want her ready for whatever comes next. I hoist my finger higher. “No celebratory butt sex for those dickwads!”
“Hah, yeah,” Mika laughs, grinning broadly. “Hey, why don’t we celebrate like that?”
I choke a moment. “You’d… let me? You know. Go there?”
“Hell yeah,” Mika says. “I told you, gotta compete with alien girl somehow.”
We start down the path, hurrying despite the light mood. “And I said that you don’t have to worry about that.”
“I know.” She looks up to my face, cheeks pink. “Maybe I like it. Maybe I used that dildo my cousin bought me in more inventive ways than I’ve let on.”
Oh, yeah. Definitely putting a pin in that one.
We reach the exit door of the estate with no incident. If the Obsidians are still here, they’re either dead or still searching the lake. I pause with my hand on the doorway. “You remember the way back to the hideout? Because I don’t.”
“Four blocks straight, turn right, six blocks, left, three blocks.”
I hug her. “You’re amazing. You didn’t need flame powers. You were a superhero before the Citadel.”
Mika ducks her head. “I love you, even if you are an old timer.”
“Be ready for anything. They probably have someone watching the street.”
A ball of flame pops into existence above her palm. “Let’s do it.”
21
Acheryx Streets
Player: Sam
Level 4
The only person waiting for us when we tentatively make our way through the door is Wick. My relief only lasts a moment, though. He melts from shadows across the way and dashes to us the moment we appear. His head swivels, watching the street as he comes to a panting, twitching stop at our feet.
Mika goes to her knees immediately. “Wick, what is it? Why aren’t you at the hideout?”
“I was,” he says, ears wilting. “But had to come back.”
“What’s wrong?” I squint at a couple players up the street, but they’re clearly drunk off their asses as they lurch away from us.
“I don’t know,” Wick says. “The streets are just… Weird. Lots of activity for this time of night, more Obsidians in town than I’ve ever seen… Something’s up.” He finally looks to us and gasps. “Shit, what happened to you guys?”
“Whose got two thumbs and has apparently pissed off enough people since we got to Lifestream that Kara’s made friends with Obsidian?” I hold up my fists with thumbs extended. “This guy.”
“Oh, lord,” Wick moans. “What the hell did you guys do now?”
“We’ll talk about it later. For now, we have to get back.” Mika ties her hair back with a couple of deft movements, the kind that always seem like black magic to me and every other male on Earth. “Sam, anything happening?”
I grip my power, ignoring the constant ache in my brain. I’ve used it a shit ton over the last hour, and though my mind seems to be able to take a lot of punishment at this point, it’s still wearing me out. I need time to recover.
God. I can’t believe we lost the healing potion. I didn’t realize how much I’d counted on that, and the Convalescence chambers before, as a safety net. It didn’t matter how jacked we got, because aside from the possible PTSD levels of mental trauma, we could count on being back to one hundred percent at the end of it all.
Now? Well… Nothing for it but to be careful.
Like that’s possible.
I throw my power out in an enormous web, but it’s pointless. There’s too much background noise for me to focus on any one thing; players in buildings, birds flitting overhead, and even something enormous moving in the sewers below the street all create a mental cacophony that dashes any hope I have of singling out possible threats. “Too much going on. I can’t pin anything down.”
Mika curses. “
Wick, is there a back way we can take? Somewhere a little more incognito than strolling through town?”
“Yeah, but it takes a lot longer,” he says. “Way more roundabout.”
“No good.” I grit my teeth as the seed of worry in my heart blossoms. “Obsidian might have already found the apartment. We need to hurry.”
“Then let’s get after it,” Mika says. “Sam, how’s your back?”
I’d almost forgotten about it. “Why, does it look bad?”
Mika’s hands are warm where Ajax’s whip tore through my shirt and flesh. “Actually, no. Definitely cut you up a bit, but when he hit…”
“Yeah. It felt a lot worse than that.”
“Levelling up increases your durability,” Wick says like we should already know this. “Added on to whatever mad gains you got from that Citadel place you were talking about… You’re probably tougher than you realize.”
“Huh. Good to know. Okay, let’s move. If we hurry, we can–”
Mika’s hand clenching my wrist kills my words. “Sam, up the street. Obsidian. Blastronaut. Level 12.”
I follow her gaze. Far up the boulevard, almost lost in nighttime mist, is a figure. Hulking like it’s wearing some kind of armor and headed right for us.
Shit. Does he see us? Do we run or fight?
Something spirals up from his back like a bird shooting skyward. It arcs higher and higher, barely visible at this distance. We watch in horror as it clears the rooftops and then explodes in a red firework.
A signal.
That we’ve been found.
“Run.” I’m already moving, pulling Mika along. We dart across the street, losing sight of the Obsidian, but there’s no way he didn’t see us flee. “Mika, we need a detour.”
She chews her lip as we race along the sidewalk. “Okay, turn right up here. We’ll change the route up a bit.”
“If there are enough of them, it won’t matter which way we go,” Wick pants.
“Thanks, Captain sunshine.” I urge him ahead of me with a push to his furry back. “Stay with her. I’ll back you guys up.”
A few curious onlookers watch us pass, players returning from adventuring for the night or vendors closing up late. But none of them remark or try to stop us or even seem to really care; I guess in a place where Darth Vader walks the streets, two humans and a cat running an impromptu midnight marathon isn’t really noteworthy.
We weave a complicated path along back alleys and less trafficked streets. The route isn’t any faster than the main streets, but at least we’re hard to track.
I hope.
Halfway there, we clear a pile of discarded boxes in another bizarrely clean alley and spill back into a main thoroughfare. “Shit,” I say, pulling the other two back into the shadows. “Any way to avoid this way?”
“No.” Wick shrugs apologetically. “This road cuts through the entire city, and the hideout’s on the other side. The only way to avoid it is the sewers, and you do not want to fight the shit they keep down there.”
I remember the huge thing I sensed lurking below us back at the Estate Hub. “No arguments here,” I say. I poke my head out and glance up and down the alley. There are a few milling players and a street vendor in sight. “Mika, any of these guys Obsidian?”
“No,” she says. “Coast clear?”
“Not really,” Wick says, little tongue flicking out nervously. “Shitload of guilds work for them or owe them money. You never know who’s reporting back.”
“Man, you are just a ray of hope in the dark,” Mika sasses.
“Sorry! Just…” he hunches. “I don’t know about all that stuff you talked about back in Three’s. Saving the world, being dead… It all seems… Impossible.” He looks upward, beyond the towering buildings that surround us like silent giants in the dark. “But you ask me or anyone else five years ago, and we woulda said that aliens invading and wiping out most of humanity was impossible, too.”
“Wick, are you saying you want to go steady with us?” Mika squeezes his paw.
“Just… Just don’t want you to die is all. Which might sound weird coming from a kid that tried to kill you a few days ago… But yeah. I’m gonna do whatever I can to keep you alive. Which isn’t much, I know.”
I smile, squeeze his shoulder. “So, I suppose this is a bad time to tell you that the whole ‘exploding chest’ thing was fake?”
“Oh, you asshole,” Wick laughs, punching me in the knee. “You had me shitting myself, you know!”
“Ow! You punched me in the knee!” I say, shaking my head at Mika. “Who does that?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Wick laughs. I love how he’s already over my bullshitting him about the bit of Astra we put inside him. I have the strangest feeling he already knew. “Okay. We need to get. Up this street, um…”
“Three blocks,” Mika supplies.
“Yeah. Right.” Wick scratches his cheek. “How does she do that?”
“Big nerd energy,” I say, poking her ribs.
“Fine with me. I get that, you get the big dick energy.” She grins. “Working well so far.”
“Okay, now I hope Obsidian finds us and kills me so I don’t have to listen to you two anymore,” Wick groans.
“Yeah, yeah.” I step into the street. “Lead on, short round.”
We’re less than a block up the street when we hear it. A hissing whine from above. I look up in time to take in a few very unfortunate details.
One: Blastronaut stands on a rooftop above us, watching us flee.
Two: He’s launched a rocket that’s currently shrieking toward us like a falling star.
“Look out!” I shout, throwing myself forward. I take Mika in one arm and Wick in the other and roll forward, throwing a shield up behind us.
I don’t see the rocket impact, but I feel it. It explodes against my shield, painting the dark street in hideous shades of argent and crimson. Windows shatter for a hundred yards and the air stinks like char.
It doesn’t break through my shield like Ajax’s whip does; Blastronaut is way lower level than his guildmate, and I guess his attacks don’t pack as much of a punch. But it still weakens me way too much, and fresh trails of blood snake from my nose.
I drop the shield and stagger up. “Hurry, move, move,” I cough.
Mika’s arms light up. “We have to handle this asshole. He can’t follow us back.”
I scan the rooftops. “Where’d he go?”
“There!” Wick calls as another rocket spirals up from the rooftop next to us. We can’t see Blastronaut; he’s pulled back onto the roof to rain death down on us from a spot where we can’t attack him directly.
Or so he thinks. “Mika, give me a fireball.”
She holds her hands up and a flame ignites above it. “What’s the plan? I can’t see him!”
“Don’t need to. When I tell you, throw the fireball at the rocket.”
“How’s that gonna help?” Wick hunches, ready to scramble away.
“You’ll see. Wait for it… Wait for it,” I mumble, tracking the rocket as it stops shooting upward to arc over. It plummets downward though it’s still higher than the rooftop that the Obsidian hides on. “Wait for it…”
“Now!” I call when it’s almost even with the rooftop.
Mika’s aim is perfect. Her fireball whispers up like lightning, impacting the rocket as it pulls even with the roof.
The explosion is spectacular. The rocket’s power and Mika’s flame are ten times stronger than either would be alone, and the impact is enough to tear the top of the building off. I throw up another shield to protect us as brick and wood rain down into the street.
Screams, from inside the building. Players wander into the street from others, pointing upward and shouting for help. A few launch into the sky, flying upward like Superman before diving into the ruined building.
We’re already up the street, running for all we’re worth. “Did we get him?” Mika pants. “How can we tell if–”
She suddenly
gasps, stopping to lean against the wall. A ding echoes through the city, and I watch as energy pours through her and heals the little nicks and wounds on her cheeks and hands. Even her hair looks more lustrous as she stands up, grinning. “Level 3.”
“Think we got him,” I laugh. “Lucky. Must not have been enough XP to get me to 5.”
“Damn, she looks good when she levels,” With says with a wink.
“Uh, she looks good all the time,” I correct.
“See, take notes, kid,” Mika says, kissing my cheek. “That’s how you score man points.”
“I said it first,” he whines as he leads us on. “Jerk.”
We scramble up the street, avoiding a few shouted questions from the crowd behind us. I’m not sure if they know we’re responsible for the damage and the dead Obsidian, but no one stops us. “How close?”
“Left just up here,” Mika says. “Then four blocks til we’re there.”
“Good,” I say, skidding around the corner. “Because we’ve wasted too much–”
My words die as we’re bathed in harsh red light. It pours down on us from something above, so bright I can barely see and so hot that I gasp in pain. “What…”
“Eye of Alkazar!” Wick cries out. “Gotta… Escape… It’ll paralyze us… Until its caster gets… Get to us.” As he speaks, he falls to his knees, then all fours, body shaking uncontrollably.
Mika and I weather it longer, not falling, but I can feel it draining my strength as I peer through the red glare to the source of the light.
It’s an eyeball like the one we saw from the rooftop, but ten times larger and more terrifying. Its enormous pupil is fixed on us, the source of the crimson light that bathes us. Red veins as thick as my arm snake along it’s glistening surface. “Why is it so much bigger… Than last time?”
“Strength of the caster,” Wicks moans. “We have to… Get out…”
Mika raises her hand and tries to ignite flame, but it wicks out the moment it sparks. “Can’t… I can’t fight it…” Her legs turn to jelly, and she falls.
“Magic resistant,” Wick grunts. His body is prone and his face is pressed to the stones.
Only I still stand, but I’m weaker by the second. My body shakes like a leaf, and I have the almost uncontrollable urge to pass out.
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 43
