Quest: Kill ten Shadow Terrors
Reward: Three hundred gold and increased reputation with the Pride
Quest: Kill ten Rage Claws
Reward: Three hundred gold and increased reputation with the Pride
Quest: Kill ten Spirit Corruptors
Reward: Three hundred gold and increased reputation with the Pride
Quest: Disrupt the Spirit Calling
Reward: Seven hundred gold and an item from the Quartermaster stores.
“We’ll do so as swiftly as possible,” Gerald said, saluting again.
“Mind those Spirit Corruptors,” Malckil said seriously. “Don’t underestimate what they can do.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Gerald replied. “Until later, sir,” Gerald held the salute, waiting for Malckil to return it.
Finally returning the salute, Malckil pointed off to his left. “Take that path down the mesa. It will serve you better than any of the others.”
“Understood,” Gerald said and led the others away from the Herder.
“Fluff,” Alburet asked softly, “why are the people in charge called Herders?”
“Because it’s impossible to herd cats,” Fluff giggled.
Karen groaned, “Really?”
“I don’t actually know, but that is what I’ve always thought,” Fluff giggled again.
“It makes sense,” Gerald muttered. “Just look at the camp, it’s very cat-like.”
“Not as disciplined as they should be,” Tiny rumbled. “Shameful for protectors.”
“I bet they throw great parties though,” Bob said.
“Aye, Lilith has told stories of some of the parties the camps in these lands throw when something memorable is accomplished by adventurers,” Kitten purred from behind the group.
“Cats,” Gerald muttered again.
Marysue squeezed his arm. “You miss Claudius, don’t you?”
Gerald nodded. “A little, but I’m happy here with you.”
“I’m sure your father is taking care of him,” Marysue said.
“He is, he loves the mutt as much as I do,” Gerald replied, a small smile coming to his lips. “Can’t believe dad let me keep him all those years ago.”
“You have a dog?” Alburet asked, never having really gotten to know many personal things about Gerald.
“When I was ten, a stray dog followed me as I was escorting Marysue on one of her shopping trips. It followed us from store to store, waiting outside and trailing after us. When the car picked us up and took us a few blocks over, the dog showed up again when we were leaving the store. When we stopped to eat, I brought out my leftovers and gave them to him. I figured it was nice having something wanting to be with me, like—” Gerald cut off the sentence with a cough before continuing. “Anyway, he somehow followed the car home, and the next morning, he was sitting outside of the gate. When I left the house, Claudius started barking happily and dancing on two legs. For weeks, I snuck him food and gave him attention. My father found out after two months and was upset that I had been letting a stray sleep inside the garden shed. While he scolded me, Claudius snuck up behind him and licked his hand. Startled, he spun to see Claudius on his back gazing up at him with soulful eyes. Dad didn’t say anything more. He just left, and the next day a doghouse arrived, along with a vet, to make sure Claudius had his shots. He’s been in the family ever since. He’s grey in the muzzle now and probably doesn’t have much time left, but he’s been a good dog all these years.”
Everyone listened to Gerald talk about Claudius, fascinated to hear the normally taciturn man speaking so openly about his pet. “He’ll still probably try to knock you down, like he did when you came back from camp before high school, and shower you in licks,” Marysue said, her eyes sparkling.
A pained smile came to Gerald’s face, but he nodded. “Yeah. He’s been such a good boy. I felt a little bad leaving him with just dad for this, but…”
“Thank you,” Marysue said softly, her eyes tearing up. “Dad wouldn’t have let me without you. You’re making my dream happen at the cost of Claudius’ last bits of time with you.”
Gerald stopped and turned to Marysue, pulling her to him. “No. He would approve of this. He only ever wanted me to be happy, like I want you to be happy. Maybe we can take a month away from testing at the end of this one to wrap up whatever else we have to take care of, and convince your father that this is what’s best for you.”
Lips trembling, Marysue leaned in and kissed Gerald lovingly—a love the quartet could easily feel. As the kiss lingered, Bob landed next to Alburet and shifted from foot to foot. Alburet looked down and saw the Imp with his jaw clenched and a pained look on his face.
Albured gently bopped Bob on the head, causing the Imp to look up and see Alburet shaking his head. “Don’t,” he silently mouthed to Bob.
With a deep sigh, Bob took to the air again and flew ahead of the group. The kiss ended a second later, and Tiny, scuffing the ground, brought the pair’s focus back to what was around them; namely the group, who all wore bemused expressions. “Umm…” Marysue said, blushing.
“We understand,” Fluff said softly. “It’s fine with us, we know what it’s like to let the love of another transfix you.”
“We ready to go?” Gerald coughed and took Marysue’s arm again.
“Yes,” Marysue said, obviously a little flustered.
“Onward to adventure,” Alburet said, helping them out of the awkward moment.
Chapter Nineteen
The view from the edge of the mesa was beautiful, the green-brown desert stretching out before them with small ridges and washes to break up the flat stretches of ground. Scrub brush, mesquite trees, and cacti of various kinds dotted the landscape. Small creatures darted from bush to bush while hawks glided on the air currents. Off in the distance, an artesian spring could be seen fountaining, showing that, unlike the Dead Lands, there was water and life here.
“Reminds me of home,” Alburet said softly.
“The deserts of Nevada outside of Vegas,” Fluff agreed.
A spike of pain shot through Alburet at Fluff’s words. Stacia gripped his arm tightly as the momentary pang faded. “Al,” Karen said, looking at him, “you okay?”
“Memories,” he said and shook his head. “I’m fine now.”
Fluff gently touched his arm, “I’m sorry.”
Putting a smile on, he put his arm around her. “It’s fine, Fluff. I’ll probably have small moments for some time yet. I’m sure you’ll have moments as well, but we will support each other, and our two lovely wives will support us as well.”
“Damn straight,” Karen said, joining the hug.
“As be right for any family,” Stacia agreed.
A polite cough brought their attention to Gerald, who stood at the path leading down the side of the mesa. “We should get going.”
The discomfort that Gerald exuded was easy for them to feel. “Sorry,” Alburet said as he got the group moving again, “we’re good.”
The moment passed as they took the trail down the side of the mesa, descending toward the floor of the desert. Eventually, they reached the bottom of the path and discovered several branching trails. “Anyone want to pick a direction?”
“I’ll pick one,” Bob said as he gained altitude. After a moment, he came back down. “This way,” he said as he flew along a path, “I saw movement in this direction.”
Gerald led the others after Bob with a shrug. “Good enough.”
The trail that Bob led them down ended up dropping into a wash. Alburet looked at the small dry waterway with a pang of regret. It was in a desert like this that he had gone shooting with David and Kaylee. Pushing the memories from his mind, he tried to focus on the here and now instead. Bob suddenly fell out of the sky with a scream of pain, blood showering down from his now visibly broken wing.
The group surrounded the Imp, facing out in all directions, trying to find what had hurt him. “A Shadow Terror,” Bob said with a
hiss of pain as he folded his wings back, “just over the hill.”
“What did it hit you with?” Gerald asked. “We didn’t see anything.”
“No idea, I barely caught sight of it before my wing was hit,” Bob grunted.
“We’ll pay it back,” Tiny rumbled. “Master, may I?”
“Follow Tiny and TJ in first?” Alburet asked Gerald.
“We don’t know what these things can do, so yeah, I’d rather hold back for a moment. I know Tiny and TJ can lead the charge.”
“Okay Tiny, we’re behind you,” Alburet said, “but take it slow to start. We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew like we almost did with the Matriarch.”
“Yes, master,” Tiny said as he and TJ made sure their axes and shields were ready. “For Bob,” he rumbled as he started walking.
Stacia and Kitten both hit Bob with Comforting Touch, regenerating most of his health and helping to repair his wing. Alburet touched him with Demonic Vitality to help replenish the rest of it. “Don’t go airborne until we’ve engaged. I don’t want you to get shredded again,” Alburet told him.
“I don’t want it to happen again, either,” Bob said, flexing his repaired wing. “I do want to burn that thing into ash, though.”
“You’re going to get the chance,” Alburet said as they followed the others. “Kitten, be ready to try and control them. We need to know what you can and can’t do to these things.”
“Of course, master,” Kitten purred.
Tiny climbed the ridgeline and looked down to where Bob had said the mob was, but didn’t see anything. Climbing up beside him, the others all saw more of the same empty scrubland they’d been seeing. “Where did it go?” Tiny rumbled.
Marysue cried out as twin daggers sank into her back, taking everyone by surprise. Knees buckling from the unexpected attack, she winced at the pain. Her fall, though, revealed a brown furred Lunine that seemed to meld into Marysue’s shadow from its waist down. “Shadowdancer,” Karen said as she appeared next to the Shadow Terror and slammed her blades into it.
Kitten tried singing to mind control it, but the Shadow Terror suddenly shimmered, five of them appearing behind various group members and breaking her ability to target the mob. “I can nay mind control Shadows,” she told them as Tiny, TJ, and Gerald all lashed out at the Shadows closest to them. The black shapes blocked the attacks before counterattacking. The echoing sound of solid metal hitting metal filled the air.
The other two Shadows attacked Karen and Fluff. Both women did the best they could to hold off their attackers, but neither had many defensive abilities. “Tiny, stop fucking around and get these two rounded up,” Alburet yelled at his minion.
TJ taunted the one off Tiny, so he could go help the women. Tiny rushed to Karen first, slamming his shield into the Shadow before spinning and planting his axe square in the back of mob on Fluff. “Give me a moment to establish aggro,” he rumbled to them.
“Bring them together,” Gerald said as he began leading his Shadow toward Tiny.
“Understood,” TJ rumbled.
Banishing Stacia’s Copy, Alburet summoned BJ. “AoE spread full blast,” he told the two Imps. “You’re free to fly.”
“You got it. It’s time for payback,” Bob said as he and his faded twin took to the air.
Marysue did her best to get the women healed up and to keep Gerald topped off, but TJ was taking a beating. “Al, he isn’t going to last much longer,” she warned, as Alburet was focused on wading into melee.
Looking at his minion, Alburet grunted. His heal wouldn’t be enough, and Stacia could only buy TJ another few moments with Comforting Touch. “Gerald, you’re about to get them all, but we’ll burn them down quick.”
“I’ll keep my mitigation ready,” Gerald said as he area taunted the group of shadows.
“Stacia, heal Tiny,” Alburet commanded as he dismissed TJ and resummoned Kitten. His AoE would hurt them, so he opted for melee damage instead, his flaming maul leading the way.
Fluff and Karen, having been healed up, jumped onto a single target, joined by Alburet as Bob and BJ began to land alternating Fire Bursts. Gerald used Ground Stomp to stun the Shadows for a moment, giving himself a momentary respite and holding off on using his mitigation. After a few barrages by Bob, four of the Shadows vanished, leaving the last one to become a brown furred Lunine again.
“Gang bang that fucker,” Bob snarled as twin Fire Bolts hit the Lunine in the head.
It didn’t take long for the group to kill the Lunine, though it did get a brief respite by using an ability to reappear behind Marysue again. Fortunately, Gerald had been expecting something of the sort and used Intervene to appear before it, his shield blocking the attacks. With Fluff joining Gerald almost instantly with her Leap, and the others rushing over, they finally dropped the mob.
“Bit of a work out,” Karen said as Marysue looted the body.
“That Shadow Clone Ability was different,” Alburet said. “I saw an Assassin use decoy copies before, but the copies dropped with a single hit each.”
“Our Duplicate Ability is just to help throw off enemies, it’s not an offensive ability like Shadowdancers get,” Karen explained.
“We have an idea of some of their tricks now, at least,” Gerald said. “We still need to find the Spirit Corruptors, which should be Shamans, and the Rage Claws, which sound like Berserkers.”
“Surprised it’s ten of each,” Marysue said as they started walking again. “Instead of the twenty, twenty, and five that it’s been in other places.”
“That’s a good point,” Gerald agreed. “The last quest sounds interesting, too. Disrupt the Spirit Calling. I don’t think it’s going to be a dungeon.”
“They do seem to like mixing it up on the last part,” Karen commented.
“It’s nice,” Marysue said. “It does help break up some of the monotony of the quests.”
“Yeah,” Alburet agreed. Brow furrowing, he switched topics, “I think this zone might be overtuned for solo people.”
“Only a crazed man would hunt alone,” Stacia replied with a raised eyebrow. “Everyone knows it be safer to hunt in a team.”
The others exchanged glances as they tried to avoid talking about Alpha World as a game, but the idea of not being able to solo did seem like a major drawback for Mindblown.
“Maybe that’s the point,” Marysue finally said. “Think of how often we’ve seen a solo hunter. Even just a two-person team would have vastly increased chances of survival. They want to know if people will continue coming to Alpha World with that being a factor.”
“Forced grouping?” Gerald winced. “That’s never worked out well in the past.”
“It’s not, though,” Fluff said. “It would just take a solo hunter longer, as they’d be on the bottom end of the leveling curve.”
“Aye, which be why people always group up instead,” Stacia nodded. “Even then, most people take their time. They be nay like ya Two-souled, who are always wantin’ to fight; Da’ and the others used to take weeks off between zones.”
“We can’t,” Alburet reminded her gently.
“Aye, we can nay do tha’ now, but before the Overlord’s Quest we could have.”
“But…” Karen cut the sentence off, realizing she would have to try to explain that Alpha World was a game. Switching tracks, she tried to explain it differently, “The way we come to this world normally—not like our Guild is doing—but the average Two-souled, only has limited time per day to be here. The rest of the time, we take care of things on our other world, so this is a type of release for us.”
“Aye,” Stacia nodded, “but to us natives, ya seem a bit manic.”
Gerald chuckled, “Fair enough, and the way we are here would point in that direction.”
“Incoming,” Bob said as he landed next to Alburet. “I see two Lunine coming this way and I don’t want my wings shredded again.”
“Gerald?” Alburet asked.
“I’ll take the
front this time. Tiny, be ready to protect Marysue,” Gerald said.
“With my life,” Tiny rumbled, stepping next to the healer.
“Okay, let’s go see what these two are,” Gerald smiled grimly.
Climbing up, Gerald looked over the ridgeline where Bob had indicated the two mobs would be. Before he could call out to the others, two shapes appeared next to him in a blur.
“Fuck,” Gerald yelled as two Rage Claws tore through his armor like tissue paper, “help!”
Gerald’s life plummeted under the attacks from the twin Rage Claws, both of whom were using Piercing Strikes to ignore half of Gerald’s armor. Marysue, shocked at seeing his life fall so quickly, used Bubble to make him immune to all damage for two seconds. Divine Heal was next, her long cooldown instant heal buoying his life back up. “I have you,” she called out to him as Bubble dropped off.
The Path to Peace Page 16
