by Rick Scott
I notice she said ‘we’. Did that mean she was actually on board? “So this means you did come to help us then?”
She sighs. “Yes, Reece, why else would I have come?”
That’s a relief at least. “I dunno. Val thinks you might have come here to stop us. Like you did back in the Shards. Why did you do that, by the way?”
“Stupid Val,” she mutters as she steps through a leafy mass of underbrush. “God she irks me.”
It wasn’t really an answer, but I respect I must have triggered something, so I don’t push it. I wait a bit before asking my next question. “What’s up between you two anyway? I got Val’s version of the story, but I’d love to hear yours.”
“Oh did you?” She looks over her shoulder at me again but this time her pretty violet eyes twinkle with interest. “And what was her version?”
Your barter increases by 0.1
Whoa. I didn’t think I was haggling, but I guess even fishing for information counts. I give Aiko a recount of what Val Helena told me. About her, Becky and Aiko all growing up in an orphanage and then defeating the world boss together. And then them living for ten years on the surface before their fateful journey to the Vale of Sorrows, where they lost Becky and what eventually led Val Helena’s return to the Shards.
“So is all of that accurate?” I ask when I finally get finished.
Aiko just snorts. “Typical she’d leave out any part that would make her look bad.”
“What do you mean?”
Aiko whips out her kunai and cuts through some hanging branches, clearing a new path through some of the thicker underbrush. “Like how she basically forced us all to come here and to stay for so long.”
“I don’t get that one. How did she ‘force’ you?”
“Well you’re here aren’t you? Ask yourself that question.”
I recall the decision we all had to make to journey to the surface. “She didn’t force me. I chose.”
“You think you chose. But did you really? Or did she lay on her sob story so thick that you really had no choice?”
I pause at that one. It was kind of true and my stomach sours a bit as I contemplate it.
“She calls me evil, but she’s the master manipulator. And my idiot of a sister worships the ground she walks on.” And then Aiko cuts her eyes at me. “Like most of you idiots.”
I tread carefully both through the forest and the conversation. I love Val like a sister, but I don’t know if trying to defend her right now will cause the best of reactions from Aiko. I try to play it neutral. “Wow, you’ve really got some history there, don’t you?”
Your barter increases by 0.1
“She’s a bossy control freak who always gets her way.” Aiko slashes at more branches, perhaps more violently than she needs to. “I just got sick of it.”
I never thought of Val in that light before. But in a way, I guess she does kind of get what she wants. Even from me. “So that’s why you resent her so much?”
“She turned my own sister against me,” Aiko says bitterly. “And I hate them both for it.”
I stop and watch her walk away, brooding. I’m not sure if Aiko has a vulnerable side, but if there ever was one, this was probably it. “Can I ask you something, Aiko?”
She stops as well. “What?”
“Why didn’t you want to come back? Don’t you want to save your sister?”
Her eyes flare with venom. “Don’t you dare ask me something like that!”
My heart leaps as my stomach does a flip flop. Totally screwed that one up! “Sorry…” I say quickly. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I won’t mention it aga—”
“The truth is I don’t know okay?” she says, cutting me off. And then her eyes become unsteady, glossy and her voice cracks a bit. “I just don’t know if I can do it.”
“Do what?”
“Fight the Shadow King again.” She then scoffs out a laugh. “Same way how you just didn’t have it in you to deal with Braxus? Well same kind of thing.”
That didn’t make sense. “Yeah but that’s just a monster. Braxus was…”
“I don’t mean like that. I mean it’s like a mental block for me. I just don’t know if I can do it.”
I step toward her cautiously. “Was it that bad?”
“I’ll put it this way. You fought Ullithilli right?”
Man, it seems like ages ago now, but I do remember that squid like sea monster and how bad it kicked my butt. “Yeah, it’s like that?”
“Think Ullithilli but spamming AOE attacks that fast.”
Holy Crap! “How did you tank that?”
“I didn’t half the time,” she says. “I died. Twice.”
What!? Died? “How? If you die here you die for real, don’t you?”
“You can still be raised as long as your head doesn’t get crushed or something. My sister was able to raise me both times. But trust me. Dying here is not like dying in the Shards. It’s… it’s like dying for real.”
I swallow nervously as I see her eyes stare off into space perhaps reliving the trauma. “Val said that you nearly died. But she didn’t say you actually died.”
“Well I guess from her perspective it’d seem that way. You get the same one-hour timer that you do back in the Shards when you release and leave a tombstone. I guess since it never went to zero, it didn’t seem like true death to her. But that’s just like her anyway. Always seeing things from only her perspective.” And then her words fill with vitriol. “I told that stupid cow that I didn’t want to do it anymore. She could see how messed up I was from it. I told her too. I told her how horrific it had been for me. To go through that. To feel your life slipping from you and then complete nothingness. But again she starts with the begging and the whining and manipulating my sister. And before I knew it the two of them were gone into that damn maze together.”
I make no hesitation to reach out to her then, placing my hand on the small of her back as she fights what are obviously tears. “I’m sorry Aiko. I had no idea,” I say, rubbing gently. For the first time I actually feel really sorry for her. She has to be suffering from some kind of PTSD or something. “So that’s why you came back to the Shards?”
She simply nods, then sniffling back a tear she says, “I had to. I couldn’t fight a single thing without having flashbacks to my own death. Even once I got back to the Shards I had to almost fool myself into doing it. Telling myself it was just a game again. That I couldn’t die. At least not for real.”
“That why you started streaming too?” I ask. “Val said it’s like you became a different person.”
She shrugs. “Maybe I dunno. Look I’m not trying to psychoanalyze myself here, okay?”
Whoa…time to back off with the questions.
I look up and smile at her. “Well you must have gotten over it, because you tore into those guards pretty good.”
That gets a short cackle laugh out of her. “They’re nothing. Humans I can deal with. Unlike you I suppose.” She then gives me a smile. “Guess we’re opposites in that respect.”
“Guess so,” I say, thinking of my own limitations. “So what did make you come back in the end? Are you over it now?”
She looks at me but doesn’t speak. “I’m not sure. Anyway, let’s just focus on getting through with this first.”
She starts off again and I follow behind her.
“So why do we need to kill this spider thing, exactly? You haven really explained that yet.”
“It drops an item we’re going to need. But to kill it we’ll need to use this.” She materializes a strange purple crystal in her palm and shows it to me. “This is what I went back for last night.”
“Besides your clothes, you mean?”
“Yes,” she says and then she scowls at me. “And I did catch you staring at my butt you little pervert.”
Eesh! I blush a little but then she laughs.
“Man, you’re easy to wind up. Don’t worry I won’t tell your girlfriend.” And the she w
inks at me. “Unless you want to see it again, of course.”
What the heck? Did Aiko just come on to me? But then I figure she must be just trolling me again. I decide to ignore her. “So what is that thing?”
She twirls it in her finger, the sunlight shining through it like a prism. “It called a null shard. Cancels all magic for a time. Single use. Very rare. I spotted it in the dungeon when Braxus locked me up down there.”
I refrain from asking any details about her dungeon exploits. “So we need that thing for what we have to do?”
“To kill the Witch Spider, yes. And you were right to be apprehensive about it. The name says it all. I wouldn’t normally go near the things. They can mess you up quick. But with this, they’re pretty much just a big spider. So long as we kill it before the effect of the shard wears off.”
“How long does it last?”
“I’m not sure. A couple minutes maybe.”
I shudder. “Still sounds gross. I’m not a big fan of spiders.”
She laughs. “Who is? But better let that help you kill it faster then.”
“Don’t know how great I’ll be in that department either right now,” I say and show her my single kunai. “I only got one of these now.”
She mulls it over with a hmmm. “Guess you’ll need to hit 85 before we reach the Shadow King. Maybe just use charge attacks for now.”
Charge attacks? “What’s that?”
She stops. “Are you serious? You don’t know what a charge attack is? What the hell has Val been teaching you?”
I shrug feeling like a total noob again. “Sorry. I’m still pretty new at this, you know? Up until last week my extent of game knowledge was limited to mining.”
She shakes her head and laughs but sounds surprisingly good natured for once. “Come on rookie. Guess I get to teach you something else today.”
Chapter 29: The Silken Hollow
We travel for another hour and reach the edge of the Silken Hollow and it’s plain to see how it got its name. The area looks more like a swamp than a forest, with dead, ashen trees covered in thick layers of cobwebs. I get the heebie jeebies immediately.
“How many of these Witch Spider things are there?” I ask, already shuddering.
Aiko surveys the area which spans at least a couple of football fields. “There’ll be only one. It’s sort of like a queen. Should be near the center. We’ll need to kill the smaller ones to lure it out though.”
“How big are the small ones?”
She shrugs and then says quite unhelpfully: “Not too big. Come on, let me teach you how to use a charge attack.” She points to a dead tree. “We’ll practice on that.”
We approach the tree and I draw my kunai. “Okay, what do I do?”
“Whip your arm back like you’re going to hit it. Reach as far back and as fast as you can. Then stop and try swinging forward again.”
Sounds kind of weird but I tighten my grip on my blade and prepare to do what she says. I focus on the tree trunk and toss my arm back so fast my shoulder nearly pops. I jerk it to a stop and when I try swinging forward again, it feels like my arm is being held back by an elastic band.
What the heck?
A horizontal gauge appears on my HUD and quickly fills to 100%.
“Release it when you’re ready.”
I let it go and my arm flies forward like it was shot from a catapult. My kunai strikes the tree with loud crack and rotting wood splinters everywhere.
You hit the tree for 412 damage!
Whoa what a hit!
Something large, gray and furry comes running out a hole in the tree and scuttles down the trunk toward me. I release a high-pitched yell and perform a Retreat without even knowing it, my heart racing. I look back at the tree and my flesh crawls when I see a spider the size of a dog clinging to its bark. It has to be a good three feet across including its leg, two of which are now pointed in the air at me in warning.
Holy crap!
A cackle comes from behind me. “Oh my god! That was too funny!”
I back away from the spider and then give Aiko a hostile frown. “Did you know that was going to happen?”
She nods still grinning. “You should have heard yourself, Reece.”
“I did,” I say feeling none too proud of the very girlish scream I just performed. “That wasn’t cool, Aiko.”
“No, but it was funny.”
Who knew Aiko had a sense of humor? “Well, I’m glad you found it amusing.”
“But, hey, congratulations on performing your first charge attack.”
“Thanks,” I say. I look at my blade and the deep gash it left in the tree. “Why don’t I see other people doing this? That was a pretty strong attack.”
“It’s pretty situational,” Aiko says. “And it depends a lot on your playstyle and weapon type. You basically triple your attack delay to get full strength damage. Most times it’s not worth it. But it’s good for stacking with things like Backstabs or Power Attacks.”
“Oh, wow, I never knew that.”
“Works better for people like Val with big slow weapons and who have a lot of strength. You’ll have to experiment and see if you get better DPS from just swinging normally or from hitting slower with charged attacks.”
“How do I gauge that?”
She points to the massive spider still eyeballing me with its eight nasty black eyes. “Try it and find out.”
I cringe and suppress my revulsion as I focus on it.
Giant Bark Spider
Level: 65
Often found nesting in hollowed out logs and trees, these stealthy predators ambush their victims with speed and immobilize them with potent venom before digesting them from the inside.
Affinity: Dark
Even the description makes me jittery. “It says these things are super poisonous.”
“Don’t worry I got some antidote vials. Just try not to get bit.”
That’s reassuring.
I steel my nerves and then launch myself at the nasty creature with a Charge Strike. I fly towards the spider with my kunai, hitting it with a Stun that removes 10% of its life. I use its brief moment of immobility to ready a charged attack and unleash it. My blade chops heavily into its big hairy abdomen and it loses another 50% of its health. But then it leaps at me at an incredible speed and I have to pop an Active Dodge to avoid it. I find it near impossible to load up another charge attack while dodging the quick moving arachnoid, almost screaming as it hops around me like a giant toad. I eventually slice it down with normal hits, taking off about 10% with each one. The thing eventually dies and curls up on its back, giving me another case of the willies.
You defeated the Giant Bark Spider!
You gain 11000 experience points.
“So what you think?” Aiko asks, folding her slender arms across her chest.
I shrug. “I don’t know if I like the charge attack so much. Didn’t feel natural to me.”
“Maybe if you weren’t dodging, it would work out better. Anyway, let’s go kill ourselves a witch spider.”
* * *
I quickly check my character before we head into the hollow.
Name: Reece
Class: Ninja
Level: 82
Strength: 6+25
Dexterity: 80+5
Agility: 80+5
Intelligence: 4
Mind: 6
Vitality: 26 +20
HP: 1202/1202
Stamina: 277/277
TP: 166/166
Whatever we’re about to face I hope I’m high enough level for it. I cloak us with Shadow Wall and then we venture into the forest of creepy dead trees. My skin immediately begins to prickle as I sense multiple ‘things’ watching us.
Your awareness increases by 0.3
From the tops of the hollowed-out trunks I see the nasty creatures perched and ready to pounce on us. I’m not sure if they can see us through the stealth, but I know the moment we fail a sneak attempt, they’ll probably be on u
s in a flash. We stay hidden, taking turns rebuffing Shadow Wall as we trek our way slowly toward the center of the dead forest.
We eventually reach a large tree that stands looming above the rest.
I’m not sure what kind of tree it is—or was—but the trunk is wide and gnarled and its bare branches twisted like serpents, coiling back over the top of one another. In between them hang thick sheets of white webbing, enchasing sacks of I don’t even want to know what.
Around the great tree the others are short and stunted, but form a natural ring. As we enter it, I can’t help but feel we’re entering some kind of boss arena. And then it dawns on me. We probably are. This is the surface but it’s not the ‘real’ world per se. Not like back home. Here everything is constructed by the Builders to mimic the game worlds of Crystal Shards.
Why wouldn’t it make a forest designed to be just like a boss arena?
We edge towards the large tree and Aiko stops. She then appears from stealth, peering at it. “Makes sense it would be in the corpse of a mana tree. Come on, let’s buff up. We’ll kill the small ones in those trees on the perimeter to lure it out.”
I’m not sure what a mana tree is, but a dead one being home to something called a Witch Spider does indeed seem fitting. And scary. I cast Shadow Haste and Shadow Copy and wait for Aiko to do the same. I then pick up a rock and prepare to throw it at one of the smaller trees trunks about thirty feet away. “You ready?”
Aiko nods back at me and for the briefest of moments I catch something odd. There’s a look of absolute terror marring her pretty violet eyes. Her throat flexes in a swallow as she draws a pair of ornate silver kunai and stands at the ready. “Just stay back to back, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I mean it,” she says insistently. “Stay back to back.”
Man, I hope she doesn’t freak out or something. “Ready?”
She nods and I toss the rock.
My aim is true, and I hit the tree I’m aiming for but then the rock bounces off and hits the one next to it. Five or six spiders leap from out of the old trunks and come skittering across the dead foliage toward us.
