Goddess Complete

by Michael Anderle

  Veronica, who had been darting between the players, casting Healing Hands to keep each player topped up to full health, overheard. “I told you Battle Mages were frowned upon. Finally, someone else in the group sees it.”

  Chloe smirked, not wanting to show Veronica that she was getting to her. “Yeah? Well, at least I can do this!”

  Chloe poured additional energy into her blade. Four ghouls came out of the shadows, sprinting toward her. She broke free of the group, her sword lighting up the shadows. She twirled the sword in one hand as she summoned the etheric in her mind and prepared for what was to come.

  “Watch out!” someone shouted.

  Chloe grinned. The ghoul’s arm reached for her and missed by an inch as she stopped and turned in a full twist around the creature. She swung her sword behind her and opened the ghoul’s back in one swift motion, then used the momentum of the blade to stab the next ghoul’s shoulder blade.

  The ghoul cried out in pain as the other two came from either side.

  Chloe released her grip on her sword, leaving it embedded in the ghoul’s shoulder, and spread her arms wide. With one hand, she focused on her Shadow Tweak ability, feeling a smug sense of satisfaction when the shadows snaked toward her, creating a small wall directly in front of the ghoul on her left.

  With the other hand, she summoned Creepers Crawlies, bending the plant life to her will and pulling down several vines that formed a block in front of the ghoul on her left.

  She raised both hands, and the spells lifted higher.

  The ghoul on her left tripped over the wall and fell on its face. A blanket of shadow appeared and cloaked its body, keeping it pinned to the ground. The ghoul on her right groaned as the vines coiled around its legs and dragged it into the air, suspending it several feet up.

  With deliberate slowness, Chloe sauntered over to the second ghoul and retrieved her glowing sword from its back. She kicked it away, assessing its health with Creature Identification and seeing the bar now on zero.

  She turned to the suspended ghoul and drove the blade into the part of its body where she presumed its heart to be; she couldn’t know for sure. Either way, the area was glowing ever so faintly, thanks to her Monster Slayer skill, which showed her the weak points of the monsters they battled.

  In a final maneuver, Chloe sawed the blade through the shadow blanket and finished off the last of her ghouls.

  Veronica and Therese stared at her in stunned admiration. Behind them, Gideon, Blueballs, Huk, Ben, and Leonie were engaged with half a dozen ghouls of their own.

  “Oh, this?” Chloe said, raising an eyebrow and wandering back toward them. “It’s nothing. Anyone can do this. Y’know, master the sword and the etheric.”

  “Can you do that?” Therese muttered out of the side of her mouth to Veronica as Chloe laughed and moved to join the rest of her party in battle.

  Veronica’s face soured. “Shut up.”

  There were more ghouls on the other side now, coming in droves from deeper in the woods.

  “We must be near a nest,” Ben called to the others. “They just keep coming.”

  “A nest could be fun,” Chloe said, appearing behind Ben and slapping him on the back before sprinting into the fray.

  Ben shook his head and grinned. He brought his eyes back to his bow and continued raining arrows on the ghouls.

  Although Huk, Leonie, Gideon, and Ben were doing a great job holding the ghouls back, Blueballs was the star of the show. His arms pinwheeled in a blur of blue fur, bowling through the creatures and weakening them for the others to pick off. Chloe could see him, a short distance into the dark, powerful arms sweeping the ghouls off their feet and hurling them against the trees.

  The area lit up in a flash of blue as Gideon shot electricity from his hands.

  “You might find life a bit more fun if you played with your other powers, y’know,” Chloe said.

  Gideon shrugged. “I like electricity, okay? It’s…cathartic.”

  “I see.”

  “Besides, how else can I get the spell to level 5?”

  “Level…” Chloe’s voice trailed away. She quickly scanned through her spells-dex. “That’s not fair. My best is Telekinesis at level 3.”

  “Maybe train that one a bit more?” Gideon suggested. “Looks like it’s easier to level up one skill if you keep using it.”

  Chloe shrugged. “Fine. But not now.”

  Her hands lit up with the great spheres of crackling purple fire of Purple Blaze. Gideon stared at her wide-eyed. “We’re in a forest, the whole thing will be set ablaze!”

  To his surprise, Chloe was laughing. The orbs shrank to nothing. “You should have seen your face. Of course, I’m not going to throw fire at them. I remember what happened last time, doofus. What do you think I want to do, kill one of our party?”

  The party tracked the ghouls to a clearing in the trees. Ghouls piled out, one after another.

  The nest.

  In the clearing was what looked like a large moss-covered rock. A hole led down into a dark tunnel. Even now, more ghouls were crawling out, reaching toward the KieraSlayers.

  Huk wrinkled his nose. “It’s like watching a cow give birth.”

  “How many of those have you seen?” Leonie asked.

  “Enough.”

  “Shall we block the hole? Find a way to stop them from coming out?” Gideon suggested.

  Chloe tilted her head to try to get a better look inside the shadowed tunnel. “Unless we want to explore their hole and see what we find?”

  “You sound like Ben after a few too many drinks,” Therese quipped.

  “Hey!”

  “We won’t fit in there,” Veronica crouched and ducked her head. Blueballs squatted at the cave’s entrance, bashing the skull of any ghoul that dared to crawl to the surface. The action reminding Chloe of the Whack-a-Mole game she’d seen at arcades. “It’s too small.”

  “Huk could go,” Leonie suggested.

  “You want to bet?” he replied.

  “Or Therese?”

  Therese scoffed. “I’d sooner lick Blueballs’ backside.”

  Blueballs cocked an eyebrow.

  “Oh, no offense, pal.”

  “Okay, well, blockage it is, then,” Veronica said, clapping. “Who’s going to do the honors?”

  They turned to find Chloe already focusing on the tunnel. Her hands glowed with etheric energy, and soon they could hear the rock sinking into the ground. The cave entrance closed, looking more like a clamshell than the hole it was.

  The cries of the ghouls quieted to a soft mumble as Chloe finished focusing on her Telekinesis spell. “There. Problem solved.”

  They all nodded, each taking a second to stare at their notifications and allow Veronica to heal any wounds they might have acquired.

  Chloe stared at her own menu and saw the updates in bright letters.

  Enemy defeated: Ghoul (Lv 7)

  +530 exp

  Enemy defeated: Ghoul (Lv 9)

  +590 exp

  Enemy defeated: Ghoul (Lv 8)

  +550 exp

  Enemy defeated: Ghoul (Lv 8)

  +550 exp

  Enemy defeated: Ghoul (Lv 8)

  +550 exp

  Chloe was also pleased to see that her two spells had leveled up.

  Spell power increased: Creepers Crawlies (Lv 2)

  Now that your spell has leveled up you can—you guessed it—control vines and foliage with a greater level of efficiency. A wider range of plant life is available for your manipulation, too.

  Requirements: n x 17MP per second (where n is equal to the number of seconds taken to cast the spell)

  Spell power increased: Shadow Tweak (Lv 2)

  Ever thought of producing puppet shows? Just an idea. I suppose there are better ways to manipulate the shadows (extra points for creativity and innovation).

  Requirements: n x 12MP (where n is equal to the number of seconds taken to cast the spell)

  Not bad, Chloe thought. Mayb
e I should try harder to level these bad boys up.

  Not that she hadn’t already been trying. Spells seemed a lot more reluctant to grow than her other skills. She wondered about their increased potential, making a note for herself that when she had a quiet moment, she would experiment with her newfound etheric skills.

  Finally, scrolling through her menu, she looked up her skills and stats, curious to see how close she was to obtaining her next character level. She had a hunch something would happen at level 15, but she wasn’t sure what.

  After her review, Chloe was pleased to see that she wasn’t far from reaching level 15. Thanks to the KieraSlayers’ journey from Killink View toward the mountain city of Hammersworth, they had encountered a whole host of local monsters and enemies that had boosted their experience.

  Which was perfect, considering she now had one final obstacle to face before she finally reunited all of the pieces of KieraFreya’s armor: finding and taming KieraFreya’s noble steed, Shikora.

  Who knew what dangers lay along that path, and what strength they would need to complete the last of KieraFreya’s mission? With their party down two men, they needed all the bonuses and benefits they could get. It had been bad enough losing Jessie in the battle for the armor, but to have to leave Tag safely guarded in Killink View while they continued on their travels without him?

  That had been a tough pill to swallow.

  Even now Chloe could picture his lifeless body on the bed in the sleeping chambers of the Twisted Spire inn. The real Tag was logged out and radio silent since the loss of his digital girlfriend.

  They had left a note with the innkeeper, and Ben continued to try to communicate with Tag in the real world, but they couldn’t stop and wait while Tag dealt with his demons. They were a party, and they had a job to do.

  When they emerged from the trees, the group blinked stupidly at the bloody sunset beyond the vast stretch of the Yoren mountains ahead. Fields and streams covered the several-mile stretch between them and their destination. Small villages and farmhouses littered the land that bordered the legendary city of Hammersworth.

  “Is that it?” Veronica asked, coming up beside Chloe.

  Chloe shielded her eyes. She could see the high white stone walls encircling the city, which was half-tucked into the mountainside, reminding her of her first sight of Killink View.

  She nodded. “I don’t know what else it could be.”

  “And do we really think he’ll be there?”

  Chloe took a deep breath; the description of the man Prince Gilligan had told them about was still fixed in her mind, their only lead on this wild goose chase across Obsidian.

  “Dear God, I hope so,” Chloe replied. “Because if he’s not, we’ll have come all this way for nothing.”

  “Not for nothing,” Gideon said.

  Chloe raised an eyebrow.

  “Every step we take together brings us closer as a party. No time is wasted in Obsidian.”

  Chloe smiled, pride swelling in her heart. She looked ahead and took her first steps onto Hammersworth’s farmland.

  Chapter Two

  Killink View was large, but Hammersworth put it to shame.

  The largest city in Obsidian, and often considered the realm’s capital, Hammersworth was the oldest inhabited city, its history stretching back thousands of years.

  The walls surrounding the city were of thick, impenetrable stone. The houses and buildings inside were a mix of old and new, most of them constructed from the same rock that made up the city’s walls. Every inch of the city was built to last.

  Flags and trebuchets marked the walls at intervals, and dwarven guards were posted at the gates.

  That was the first thing Chloe had noticed after they had ridden in and been granted entry: the number of dwarves populating the place. Talbot had informed the party that Hammersworth had once been the foremost mining town, way back in the days where resources were few and the world was growing.

  Now the city continued its tradition, tunneling deeper and deeper into the mountains from which the city spread. Many dwarves still called Hammersworth home.

  “You must be in paradise,” Chloe said to Therese.

  “I’ll be honest; it’s nice to outnumber you guys for a change. Everywhere you go, it’s humans, humans, humans.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “Have you met your kind?”

  They spent their first day in Hammersworth getting their bearings and laying low. The city was divided into four main sections, and they soon found themselves a comfortable place to stay in the residential quarter while they hunted for the mysterious man Prince Gilligan had told them of.

  As with Killink View, it took a while to convince the innkeeper to let Blueballs stay with them. They’d expected nothing less, having learned that toffets were a rare breed, found only in the depths of the Heartwood. Even there, there seemed to be few of them left, considering Blueballs was the only one they’d crossed paths with.

  After some gentle monetary persuasion (coin taken from the reward the king and queen had given them after the party’s assistance to the Killink monarchy), the innkeeper had yielded.

  “Prince Gilligan said he’d be hanging around stables, or anywhere, really, that had animals,” Chloe said to Gideon as they made their way through the cobblestone streets. “Apparently he has quite an affinity for them.”

  They passed a great many dwarves, as well as a number of humans and elves. There were also some locals whose race confused Chloe. They were wide like dwarves but almost as tall as humans. Chloe wondered if there had been any incidences of cross-species breeding in the city.

  “Well, that should be easy, then? Surely?” Gideon replied, eyes lingering on an apothecary shop as they passed. It featured a cage with a rather lively bat hanging from a hook on the outside.

  Chloe laughed. “We’ll have time to go shopping later.” Gideon’s ears flushed. “Once we’ve found this guy, we’ll be able to grab the horse, complete the quest, and bathe in the riches of the mythical rewards. We’ll be back to exploring and hunting for adventures like you used to do in your other games.”

  Gideon gave a half-smile.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure I want it to be like any other game,” Gideon said. “It’s because this hasn’t been like any other game that I love playing so much. In Relic Hunter, it was always the same: gather items, slay the dragons, and level up. This is the first game where I’ve felt a sense of purpose. I didn’t realize being a mage could be so much fun and bring so much to the team. Being a warrior never gave me that. I was just another brutish busybody with a sword and a lust for blood.”

  “You? A lust for blood?” Chloe winked. “I couldn’t imagine such a sweet-hearted guy could be so…”

  “Reckless?”

  “Sure, let’s go with that,” Chloe replied with a smile. “Oh, excuse me!”

  Chloe ran over to the dwarf who had come around the corner. In his hands he held several leads for the llamas he was currently trying to drag through the streets. The creatures were stubborn, their hooves planted as though the last thing they wanted to do was follow him to his destination.

  The dwarf grunted, his face turning red as he pulled, gaining inch by painful inch.

  “Excuse me,” Chloe repeated, closer now.

  The dwarf looked at her with angry eyes. “Not now, girl. Can’t you see I’m a little busy? Come on, Felicia. You’re setting the example for the others.”

  Veins bulged on his biceps as he pulled.

  “Maybe we can be of some assistance?” Chloe said. “You see, we’re looking for people around here who know about animals—”

  “I don’t need any help.” The dwarf grunted, eyes closed as he strained. “I’ve gotten them this far, haven’t I?”

  “Gotten who where?” Gideon asked.

  The dwarf stopped straining, took a breath, and massaged his shoulder with his other hand. “What do you mean?”

/>   “Well, you’re saying that you’ve gotten them this far, but we really have no frame of reference. If you’ve dragged your llama friends from way outside the city walls, then that’s something we can applaud. For all we know, you’ve dragged them from there,” Gideon pointed toward a junction between buildings, just twenty feet away from where they stood, “to here, in which case, it’s not as impressive.”

  Chloe tried to hide her smile but failed.

  The dwarf looked as though he’d just been kicked in the face. “Look, mage. I’ll have you know that I’m one of the strongest damn dwarves in this city. I can haul a rock twice my bodyweight and bench-press my goddamn wife until she falls asleep. I don’t need your wise-cracking logic or your approval of my strength to get these goddamn animals to the stables.”

  “I meant no offense,” Gideon said. “Your comment was just ambiguous, is all.”

  The dwarf couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “Look,” Chloe said, stepping between the two and moving closer to the llamas, “let’s put a stop to this demonstration of wits versus strength and look at the problem at hand.”

  The dwarf opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, Chloe continued.

  “Sure, you could continue to drag these beasts across the city, straining and struggling to make any distance. You could. You definitely could.

  “Or we could help you on your way and make the whole thing easier. We’re not challenging your pride, and we’re not saying you can’t do it, we’re just saying it might be easier with some help. How about that?”

  The dwarf considered for a moment, curling a finger through his thick beard. A wry grin crawled up his cheeks. “Fine. Let’s see how you motivate these blockheaded beasts.”

  Quest unlocked: Stubborn Llamas

  This dwarf is having trouble getting his llamas to cooperate with him. Maybe a little gentle persuasion could yield a generous reward?

  Difficulty: 1/10

  Rewards: 500 exp

  Accept quest: Y/N

  He offered a lead line to Chloe, but she had already selected Y and was walking to a llama’s side. The frontrunner stepped back as she approached, its eyes wary.