by Rick Scott
19%
Maxis begins releasing power attacks of his own, further downing the boss.
16%
15%
“I’m going for it!” Aiko cries and quickly turns invisible as she crouches behind the boss.
She reappears a moment later, slammed both kunai into the back of its calf.
Aiko uses Backstab!
Aiko uses assassinate!
Aiko fails to assassinate the Shadow King!
“Damn it!” Aiko curses. She does a healthy dose of damage, dropping it another 2%, but nothing else. “Reece you try!”
Aiko uses a War Cry to spin it away from me, giving me the opportunity to Backstab it, but the monster doesn’t move.
“No! You got too much hate! I can’t get it to turn!”
Crap! My Perfect Dodge is about to run out too. I’ve got to activate my Assassinate skill somehow. A crazy idea pops into to my head, but I have no idea if it’ll work. Or if I can even pull it off!
Please let this work…
I cast Decoy Shadow and focus my senses just as my invincibility drops.
You cast Decoy shadow!
You take 314(628) damage!
You gain the effect of Shadow Cloak!
In the split second of my invulnerability, I prep Backstab and stack it with Assassinate. I launch upward with a Charge Strike, sailing through the air and take a blast of fire in the process, becoming visible again.
You take 641 damage!
I cry out as I come face to face with the creature from my nightmares. Its throat rages like a furnace as it releases a wail, blowing my eardrums apart. I shove my kunai blade straight into its gaping maw and endure the searing heat as I cut through its insides.
Reece uses Assassinate!
My blade rips straight through the bone hinge of its jaw and right out the back of its skull.
You successfully assassinate the Shadow King!
Reece has defeated the Shadow King!
I hit the ground with a roll, the same time the massive body of the monster collapses into a heap of nano-dust on the floor behind me.
You defeated the Shadow King
You gain 975000 experience points.
You gain a veteran point!
You gain a veteran point!
You gain a veteran point!
You gain a veteran point!
Gilly gains a level!
Gilly gains a level!
A portal Appears!
[Congratulations! You have gained access to a new area!]
[You may now access the Labyrinth of Onizoso]
Holy crap…we did it…
I collapse to the ground exhausted, my head swimming. My body aches and throbs. I finally remove the Witch Spider’s ring so that I don’t accidentally kill myself while trying to recover. I roll to my knees to get my breathing under control and force my mind to slow back down to normal reaction times again.
But as my thought process reverts to normal, something worrying comes with it.
What the heck was that thing??
All around me, my teammates cheer in victory but for me there’s no elation. Just confusion as my mind struggles for understanding. I don’t know what the heck just happened, but I’m either losing my sanity, or the Shadow King is not what we think it is.
I look to the portal that has formed where the “Shadow King” died. It’s oval in shape and reminds me of the portals in the Nexus back in the Shards. It’s swirling with multicolored light but I can’t see through it, and I fear that maybe it’s not going to lead us to where we think it will.
“Guys, something’s wrong,” I say still a bit out of breath.
Val Helena looks to me with concern furrowing her brow. “Reece? Are you okay?”
Everyone rushes to me then. I stagger to my feet and my brother helps me up.
“What are you talking about?” Maxis says.
I look at each of them as they stare back at me with worry and fright, perhaps fearing that I‘ve been mortally wounded or something. “What did you guys all see?”
“What do you mean?” Gilly asks.
“I mean what did the Shadow King look like to you?”
Gilly shrugs. “Like a giant samurai in black armor, sorta. Right, guys?”
“That’s accurate,” Rembrandt says. “Why? What did you see?”
“I saw the same monsters that I did down in the mines,” I say. “A bit smaller maybe, but the same. A body like smoke with a skull face and fire in its throat.”
No one speaks for about a minute, shocked like I am, probably.
“What does this mean?” Val Helena says looking about, but no one has an answer.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m going crazy or something.”
“Or maybe when you nearly died, you gained some kind of insight,” Aiko says stepping toward me. “You’re the only one to have seen those things. Maybe it’s given you some kind of ability to see them for what they are.”
I do remember my HUD getting garbled when I was there. But did it give me some kind of special ability? “Maybe…I dunno.”
“Guys,” Val Helena says. “I hate to say it, but we don’t have time to worry about this right now.” She points to the swirling blue oval that has appeared. “The portal is open. We need to move before it closes.”
“Wait!” I say. “Are we sure we want to go in there? If that wasn’t the real Shadow King then maybe that won’t lead us to where Becky is. Maybe it might trap us in that Hell place I saw.”
A wave of uncertainty courses through us as we look at one another with new doubts and fears.
“Man, I hate this,” Gilly says. “Nothing is what it seems.”
“Maybe for Reece,” Rembrandts says. “But not for us. I say we go.”
We all look at him. “What?”
“There’s no reason to believe that the Shadow King was a fake,” he says. “How it looked to us, is the same way it looked to you before, yeah? And it had a name. That means the Builder recognizes it somehow.”
“What are you saying?” I ask.
“That maybe you just discovered what the Shadow King really looks like. But it hasn’t changed from what it was before. I’m thinking that that portal will still send us to the same place.”
“I’m with Rembrandt,” Aiko says folding her arms. “It followed the same fight mechanics. To a Tee. If the Labyrinth is somehow connected to that Hell Place, then maybe it always was. And maybe that’s where my sister really is.”
That sends a new wave of possibilities churning through my mind.
“We need to decide soon,” Val Helena says. “Or we’ll have to fight that thing again for another opportunity.”
Val’s right. This mystery and how it’s all connected will have to wait. Our opportunity is now and we have to take it. “Okay, let’s do this. We’ll figure it all out on the inside.”
“Let me heal us up first,” Gilly says.
She raises her bow and it glows, returning our Health bars to full.
“Don’t want us to be heading in there weakened,” she says with a grin. “You don’t know what we might—”
Her words cut short as a Thud! fills the air.
She lets out a little gasp and I look down to see a meter-long piece of crystal jutting from her chest. My heart stops. Gilly looks back at me with incomprehension and shock in her eyes.
“Gilly?”
Her eyes roll back as she falls to the ground, revealing an equal length of crystal sticking out of her back. Oh my god…!
“Gilly!” we all cry.
I fall to my knees and shake her, her white witch’s outfit quickly saturating with dark blood. She doesn’t respond. She doesn’t move! Her HP is at zero! Her green eyes grow fixed and lifeless as a trickle of blood drips from her mouth.
My heart drops through the floor as my mind comes undone.
“GILLY!”
Chapter 42: Guilt
Bruce felt the buzz in his pocket, and reached for his comm device while
still sharing a laugh with Gina. He set his mug of herbal tea on the small coffee table in front of the couch and fished in his pocket for the device.
“Excuse me a moment,” he said.
Gina smiled politely and took a sip of her tea, cradling the steaming mug with both hands. They hadn’t really talked much thus far, just small chat really and remembering some of the old days. But even having the opportunity to open up was lifting the burden from his soul.
Bruce was just about to automatically cancel the message and return the device to his pocket, when he noticed it wasn’t a normal message. It was a relay from his own update device. The same he had just given to Gina.
But this one was monitoring Gilly.
Bruce read the message and his stomach went into free fall.
* * *
I’m shaking.
Uncontrollably.
I don’t even register what’s going on around me anymore.
I’ve only vaguely aware that the rest of my teammates are screaming, but all I can focus on is the light that has left Gilly’s eyes and the hole that it’s left in my soul. She’s dead. Gilly’s dead! My skin goes numb as I cry out in anguish and incomprehension.
How could this happen!?
Grief turns to anger as my countenance darkens and I look for someone to blame.
I look up to find what attacked her and finally see what my teammates are shouting about. There, about halfway between us and the edge of the caldera is a line of huge animals that look like mammoths, perhaps a dozen or so. Just behind them is a line of giants as tall as the mammoths, and behind them several ranks of soldiers. A whole army.
But that’s not what truly draws my attention.
Atop the mammoths are saddles that resemble platforms with tented roofs, large enough to fit two or three people each. And on the center one I see a face I know all too well.
“Braxus…”
My heart stirs with hate and anger at the mere sight of him. How the heck was he even here? I think back to when we were escaping. Was that the mission he’d given to the general? To cut across the mountains and wait to ambush us when we arrived at the Vale? Braxus was a war game strategist. A move like that would totally make sense. I look at the giants and remember my quest becoming obsolete too. It didn’t have anything to do with the Wild. Braxus must have killed the giants and taken the territory over for himself.
Braxus stands with Lord Xavier by his side. He brandishes something I can’t quite make out in his right hand—a hand that I took. It’s shiny and metallic; a gauntlet perhaps, encrusted with jewels. As I stand, he catches sight of me and grins, tapping his gauntlet to show it to me. He then pantomimes aiming at something with it and then flings his arm back as if by a powerful recoil.
No….What has he done…?
A sickening feeling fills my stomach as I check the combat log.
King Braxus uses Crystal Spear.
Gilly takes 847 damage.
King Braxus has defeated Gilly.
The anger in my heart froths into a boil….he killed Gilly…and then spews into rage!
“HE KILLED GILLY!”
I’m running before I know it, my weapons drawn, screaming. The anguish in my heart bites deep into my soul. Nothing I’ve worked for matters now. Not without Gilly!
“Reece stop!” someone calls.
I ignore them. I don’t care anymore. He took Gilly from me and he’s going to pay! My anger surges, but the pain in my heart doubles, because I know I could have stopped this.
Should have stopped this!
I should have killed Braxus when I had the chance!
“Arrrgh!”
A Battle Mage next to Braxus readies a spell, as does Lord Xavier and several more mages who are atop the mammoths alongside them. I don’t care. I’ll reach that sick freak even if I die trying.
Something slams into me just as their spells go off.
I go flying face first into the hard shale.
I hear a cry from behind me and look to see Aiko, pierced by one of the crystal rods that was meant for me. The sight of it snaps me to my senses. “Aiko!”
She grunts and kicks at the rod to free herself. I rush to help her and cut the spear with my blade. She breaks free and grabs me by the scarf.
“What are you doing, you idiot!” she hisses at me. “We’ve got to go!”
“I can’t!” I cry. “Gilly’s dead!”
My world crashes down around me as my knees hit the floor. My mom, Citadel, even finding my Dad. All of it pales in comparison to losing Gilly. How am I supposed to do any of this without her? How could I have let her get killed so stupidly? So easily!
“It’s all my fault,” I whimper. “I killed her, Aiko. I killed Gilly.”
“Reece, come on!” she tugs at my shoulder, but I slap it away.
“You don’t understand!” I cry. “I had a chance to backstab him. If I’d had the guts to kill Braxus earlier none of this would have happened! None of it!”
“Reece!” She shakes me again. “Gilly is not dead… not yet! Look at your HUD. She has time!”
I look at the red zero next to Gilly’s name and see a countdown timer beside it.
58:34
58:33
58:32
“We can still save her, Reece,” Aiko says. “We can save her from going to that place you went. She just needs a raise. We can save her just like I saved you.”
I know that, but her idea is impossible!
“How!” I say and jab a hate filled glare toward Braxus. “Ask him for one? We’re in the middle of nowhere! We can’t run to some village to find a healer. Don’t you think I’ve thought of that already?”
“We’ll get to a healer,” Aiko says forcefully. “I promise you.”
“How?” I say with tears in my eyes. “Who?”
“My sister,” Aiko says and looks toward the labyrinth entrance. “We just need to find her before Gilly’s time runs out.” She looks back at me with a grimace. “And then pray that Becky’s still alive when we do.”
I look back at Aiko stunned. Her violet eyes search mine for an answer. “My sister is the best healer in the world,” she says again. “We just need to find her before it’s too late.”
It’s a gamble, but she’s right. It’s the only way. I look to the line of mammoths where Braxus is still leering at me and my heart swells with anger and hate. But there’s no time for that now. Gilly needs saving first. “Okay, let’s do it!”
Aiko nods and we take off running back down the caldera towards where the others are still gathered around Gilly. Behind me I hear a war horn blow and the ground trembles. I look over my shoulder to see Braxus ordering his army to charge. The wall of behemoths trample down the basin towards us at frightening speed, followed by the giants and soldiers.
“We’ve got to move!” Aiko shouts to the rest of the team. “Run for the portal!”
When I see Gilly again my heart melts. I’ll save you Gilly, I promise! I steel myself as I knell down to scoop her lifeless body into my arms. She’s still warm as I clutch her to my chest, but I dare not look at her face. I can’t break down again. Not now. I run towards the portal instead, locking my emotions inside. Val Helena and the others are already ahead of me, vanishing through the portal in shimmers of blue light and puffs of nanodust.
I stop right before I enter and give a final look back to Braxus as his army thunders down the caldera. Our eyes meet across the distance and I give him a vengeful scowl.
Gilly first, I promise him before stepping through the portal.
Gilly first…and then you.
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading right through to the end. And even for reading this! I hope you enjoyed Book 2 of Crystal Shards Online. I know this one had quite a bit of action and introduced a lot of new ideas, but I hope you enjoyed them. I know some of you might be itching to get inside the labyrinth as well. Rest assured, number three will be coming out as soon as possible.
Stay tuned!
And if you enjoyed the book, please remember to leave me a review! As an indie author those reviews go a long way to achieving success, so please leave one if you can!
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-Rick Scott
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