by G. Akella
"Take that, shithead!" I growled, immobilizing my foe with Shackles, then slipped behind him with a Step through Darkness. Only three seconds remained till his Jump would reset! My twin's sword struck the wall harmlessly at the same exact moment I Ruination drove through the small of his back. Crit! I was still rocking Infernal Rage! The demon jerked, but his feet were still shackled, and the Ice Blade that followed the next second dropped his HP into the red. Die, die, die! Twisting in the most unnatural way, my twin managed to meet a chopping blow of my sword with the blade of his own, but Ruination sliced through the metal easily, then through the helm, the head, and nearly half the torso, getting wedged somewhere in the vicinity of the ribcage. Fatality, bitch! A sword of this caliber was nothing to scoff at, and not so easy to copy, evidently!
Running chaotically the length of the blade were tiny white sparks, like fireflies playing tag. Even the slaying of Yllial hadn't produced this effect. Odd... But I would worry about that later. I need to find out what happened to the others. As if hearing my thoughts, the reality flickered, and... The first thing I saw was the assassin's anxious face.
"Roman! Are you all right?"
I turned, saw my sister, and exhaled with relief. She looked stressed, her brows furrowed and biting her lower lip with tension, but clearly alive and in one piece.
"I'm fine! What happened to all the others?"
"I'm rocking Kirana's Moonfire. That bitch didn't suffer long!"
"Alyona..."
"Alyona what?" my sister's frown deepened.
"Nothing," I smiled. "I'm just glad you're all right."
"Oh, that... Well, me too," suddenly bashful, she averted her eyes, turning to Donut. "So, where are the others?"
"The others aren't as quick as us," he shrugged. "You're rocking Moonfire, and only the devil knows what your big bro has got up his sleeves. And I'm not the worst duelist in the world, either. As for everybody else, they're in for what you might call a more standard operating procedure. Aside from Max, I suppose. I worry about him least of all. After the two of you, that is..."
Just then, a gray lion materialized out of thin air several feet away, as if in support of his words. Taking a quick look around, the majestic feline saw Alyona, growled in satisfaction, and shifted into a smiling Max.
"Alyona! Heal, quickly!" Donut bawled, pointing behind me. "Remove poison first, then heal!"
Darting past me, the rogue leaped over a bloodied lizard corpse pincushioned with arrows, and just in time to scoop up his girlfriend's body as she passed out. The huntress hadn't been as lucky—Mopsy was dead, and her own HP bar was in the red on account of what looked to be a nasty DoT. The right side of her chainmail was ripped in two places, and her arms nearly elbow-deep in blood. Somebody else's blood. Presumably, she had been trying her best to save her pet, at the expense of her own health. By the time Donut was catching Masyanya, her health bar was already restored to full—my sister's reaction time was something wicked. Mopsy, however, was a goner. But it wasn't a big deal—he could be summoned again in a mere few hours, good as new. And even if he lost a few percent of XP, that was hardly the end of the world.
"He..." the huntress said in an estranged voice, motioning at the corpse, intelligence coming back to her expression. "If it weren't for him..." Masyanya's eyes welled up with tears as she struggled out of Donut's arms and walked up to the corpse. "Where are the others?"
At that moment, Bonbon materialized next to Max, looking awfully relaxed and lacking any apparent injuries.
"A duel of two tin cans is a sight to behold!" he chortled upon seeing us. "It took a while, sure, but that bizarro Bonbon hadn't graduated from Donut's school of dirty tricks. He had no chance!" The bald man looked, then arched his brow quizzically. "You all had twins of your own, right? Or did everyone face off against their own Bonbon?"
"One of you is more than enough," Max smiled, but the next moment his gaze became hard as stone. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" my friend growled through clenched teeth.
A feathered arrow shaft stuck out of Rexar's right eye socket. There were two more arrows: one in the right section of the breast, the other in the hip. Helliona's corpse had ported through in cat form, her muzzle badly torn up, with the right ear stripped clean off, and a terrible open wound gaping from the shoulder to the ribcage, with broken bones sticking out. Luffy's chest was a molten hole—the young man lay on his back with his arms spread out, endless astonishment frozen in his eyes. There was no blood anywhere, neither under his body nor under the dead priestess'. It was almost like he was sleeping... All four bodies had appeared out of the air simultaneously—apparently, the System was waiting for Bonbon to finish his duel before declaring the result. Six-four in our favor, only it wasn't a victory anyone was cheering. Just then, reality came crashing down upon us with all its weight. Along with the smells of blood, burned flesh and fabric. A silence engulfed the temple platform. They say blood smells like oxidized iron, but I don't know... The blood of your people always smells rotten, and it's not a smell you want to get used to.
"What now?" the huntress asked dryly, breaking the silence.
It was clear the young woman was bluffing her calm. A kind of female stubbornness akin to male bravado.
"Is that everyone?" She added quietly, peering into Max's stone face. "Go... Put that bloody Tear in its place, and let's be done with it."
"Yeah, sure," he gave a bitter chuckle, and turned to the altar. "Let's hope that—"
The earth shook, and the smell of ozone permeated the air. With an ear-splitting crash, a ten-foot-tall monster manifested next to the altar, its name, level and HP bar hidden from view. Clothed in filthy rags, it wore five human skulls with a bunch of thin long bones on its waist, and wielded a staff with a red pyramidal pommel. A shaman of some kind? Completing the wacky facade was a bald avian head on a wide-shouldered humanoid body.
My sword, which I still held in my hand, had in the meantime begun to radiate a brilliant light, like a luminescent lamp. My black sword, mind you! Radiating a white light! What kind of Jedi shit is this? I thought absently as the ugly peacock's gaze fell upon my blade, and instantly turned from smugly triumphant to terrified.
"Kellas?!" he half-squawked, half-screeched. Then, tearing his eyes from the blade with some difficulty, he looked up at me. "No!!! You are not him! But the blood... The masters... They must know!"
He drove the staff into the ground, his belt of bones rattling, then leaped toward us with speed belying his massive proportions. He froze upon landing some ten feet away, arms spread open wide.
"Attack!" Max bellowed, wrenching everyone out of a kind of trance.
A dark gray beam shot out from the grounded staff that hit the boss and turned the moss in front of his still figure to dust. I was a measly three feet away from the enemy when the spell hit me, freezing me with my arm outstretched, the tip of my blade aimed at his ostrich-like mug.
You have been paralyzed!
With a nod of satisfaction, the beast craned his neck and started up a kind of plangent, screeching song.
The time of paralysis wasn't displayed; the icons for Jump, Step through Darkness and Infernal Rage—inactive. Just like that time, visiting that scumbag Belvert. There wasn't any pain, only a nasty kind of itch all over. Too bad Setara's Shield is on cooldown...
"What the hell is happening?!" Max roared into the channel, his body paralyzed mid-Charge a few feet away from me.
"Directed aura," explained the rogue, stuck in what looked to be rather an awkward pose. "Works strictly in front of him, one-hundred-and-eighty-degree range..."
"But don't we still have Alyona's buff?" the warrior objected. "And why isn't the bastard attacking?"
"This is directed aura," the rogue repeated patiently. "If we deals us even one point of damage, it will vanish. And this bird, whatever it is, seems to be scared stiff by your sword, Roman. Moreover, I suspect I know who he's trying to summon, and I have absolutely no desire to meet any of them. Alyona," he turned to
my sister. "You have only twenty percent of the negative effect, and the aura's edge is just three feet away... Can you move at all?"
"Oh, so now you remembered?" my sister sniped back with sarcasm. "Yes, I can! Just barely, but I'm doing it. Tell me what to do!"
"Cast your Moonfire from a distance at the pommel of the staff," Donut explained, suddenly cheerful. "Just like that time at the sanctuary, remember? Man, do we get lucky with this shit or what? Just don't get too close!" He warned in conclusion, then added, "How you doing, Masyanya?"
"I'm fine," the huntress grumbled.
"Why doesn't anyone ask how Bonbon is doing?" the tank muttered his feigned offense in the channel. "What if I'm itchy? Or, worse yet, hungry? No one cares... Oh, look!" he continued in a now-normal tone. "The show is about to begin!"
And indeed, a gray cloud had begun materializing behind the boss. It grew with each passing second, taking on the contours of a portal.
"Alyoooona!" the rogue almost croaked in the channel. "We're running out of time!"
A huge black shadow was starting to manifest in the billowing fog. Breathing became harder, as if someone had dumped a few bags of cement on my shoulders. The blade in my hand no longer shone—it literally blazed with dazzling white light. The hilt pulsated warmly in my spasmed hand, and the screeching singsong of the beast standing mere feet away incensed me just as much as my own debility.
"Done!" breaking out of the affected area of gray ash, Alyona ended up a pace behind the frozen boss, level to the still-growing portal window. The girl threw up her arms, then dropped them sharply, unleashing a beam of milky-white light at the staff sticking out of the ground. Nothing happened. My sister threw up her arms again, but to the same effect. Cussing in exasperation, she cast a Shield on herself, and took three steps forward, putting herself in the way of the gray beam.
"Alyona!!!" Max bellowed. "Get away!!!"
The Shield lasted a fraction of a second. My sister's body jerked, but she kept her footing. The portal window stopped growing as the pyramidal pommel of the grounded staff changed in color—from red to bright scarlet. The beam kept shining, and my sister obstinately kept blocking its way. Rage and horror consumed me whole. I forgot everything: how to breathe, how to speak... What the hell was she doing?!
After what seemed like eternity, there came a soft crunch, and the staff's pommel shattered into a myriad pieces. My sister's health bar, having gone down by a third, went from red to gray. The window of the portal folded in on itself with a squelching sound. Alyona turned around, a weary smile playing on her lips, and began to slowly collapse to the ground.
"Nooo!!!" wailed the boss, having regained his senses. Turning around at once, he spotted Alyona and struck out with a jade-colored lash that had materialized in his hand.
Donut was a fraction of a second faster. Quick as lightning, the rogue pushed the falling woman out of the way, but ran out of time to dodge the attack himself. The lash sliced his body in two, leaving a trail of black smoke on the ground.
"Die!"
As the ugly bastard turned to me, the tip of my blazing-white blade plunged right into his throat. The next moment, a heavy two-hander came down with a crunch on the bald avian head, leaving a wound gaping crimson. And then again, and again! Four arrows plunged into the target's side in quick succession. The boss jerked and tried to push me back, but I doubted anybody could pull that off at this moment in time. My blade had found a glorious feast in this fosterling of the Ancients—ravaging his flesh, paralyzing his will. My sword's thirst—and its jubilation at slaking it—was almost palpable. The HP bar of the boss, flailing his arms helplessly, was literally melting away. Finally, with one final twitch, the monster's body crumbled to the ground in a heap of ashy-gray flakes, apparently consumed wholly by the sword. Sliding my now-blackened blade into the scabbard, I rushed over to my sister's body, pulled out a potion of greater healing from my belt, and carefully poured its contents into her slightly parted mouth.
Alyona didn't move a muscle. Her face, even her wrists, were an eerie, ashen shade. As was her HP, of which less than sixty percent remained, with life ticking away at a rate of one percent every three-four seconds.
"Max! Put the Tear on the altar! Quickly!" I shouted, realizing that I was losing my mind. For the first time ever, the potion hadn't worked! Why now, of all times? And why on my sister, of all people?!
Without saying a word, Max ran over to the altar. Maybe the goddess would make it here in time to help?! Deep in my gut I felt—no, I KNEW—that if I didn't pull her out now, this would be forever! I would simply lose the person dearest to me in the whole world. Hart! Hart! Hart! I drew a deep breath to steady myself, then looked around me. Masyanya stood fifteen feet away, as if frozen in time. Still clutching her bow with her mouth agape, she stared blankly at the two terrifying chunks of flesh swimming in a pool of blood... But Donut was going to resurrect! What was I going to do?!
"It's done!" Max bent down across from me, taking Alyona's hand in his. After a moment, he looked up at me, his jaw set.
"What?"
"Falanir! The elf from the cave! This is how he died! These bastards' spells tear away at the body's astral projection. Potions are useless here!"
The Two-Faced One is not likely to help, Jaelitte spoke coolly. This really isn't her area of expertise, in case you forgot...
What, then?
Blood! Only your blood! You told me once that Providence would recognize you as brother and sister. Here's your chance to test that theory.
And then what? I almost howled at her mentally.
Remember the ring you looted off Saethdien? It can dispel any magic, but only an Elder can equip it. So, if you two are blood kin—
"Roman!!! Snap out of it!!!"
"Yes..." I pushed aside Max's hand that was shaking me, threw off my gauntlet, and bit into my wrist. "Here you go, sis. You will live!"
Making a hard fist, I raised it over Alyona's face—for the blood to trickle into her mouth—set my jaw, and was still. My sister's health was down to twenty six percent... There would be no other chance. If she died, I wouldn't be long for this world... Max was looking at me without moving a muscle. Oh, if only I had his faith in me.
"Don't look at that, Jane! You shouldn't! Come, let's pick daisies instead!" Bonbon's soft voice sounded at my back. "Now, where are those daisies..."
At five percent HP, my sister's body convulsed, making an arch, and a ripple ran over it...
"Hold her down!" I bellowed, squeezing her palm with my hands, and literally thrust the ring onto her middle finger.
Yes! My sister's HP bar jerked, the color changed back to normal, and began to quickly recover.
"She's alive!" Max exhaled. "Thank Hart, she's alive..."
Bringing his hands to his face, he kept them there for several seconds, then ran them through his disheveled hair, and rested them at the back of his head, a blissful smile touching his lips. "You know, she's going to give us both hell for this!" he nodded at her, and chortled nervously.
Alyona was still unconscious, and looked pretty unusual... For a dark elf, at least—her bloodied face and neck notwithstanding. I had to admit, the horns looked cute on her. But then I always did have a thing for demon girls. And a cute little tail to boot, with a furry red switch. She could decorate it ribbons and stuff... Max was right, though—it would be best to keep out of her way for a little while.
"Why us?" I shrugged. "You're the husband—you should bear the responsibility."
"Oh, sure," my friend smiled again. "Go on and tell her that."
"What bloody daisies?! Are you mad?"
"Blue, yellow, red..." Bonbon sniffed behind me. "Does it really matter? The point is that you're back to your senses. Remember, girl, this isn't forever. They'll all resurrect in six hours' time. Unless the goddess revives them sooner."
"Thank you," Masyanya said softly. "But how did you know my name?"
"You mentioned it back in Talyan, when meeting Alyona... Who
a!" Bonbon froze three yards to my right. He shifted his gaze to Max, then to Alyona, reached slowly for his pipe, and lit up, eyes still fixed on the girl lying on the ground. "I reckon this was the only way to save her, huh," he shook his head, then exhaled the smoke. "But maybe it's for the best? At least now everyone can clearly see that you're of the same brood."
"My God..." the huntress exhaled, peeking out from behind him. "Did you change her race or something? And why does she have horns when you don't? Or is she already in combat form?"
"I don't know," I shrugged, getting up. "Could be because I'm biracial myself."
At that moment, Alyona opened her eyes. They were bright blue, with vertical pupils...
"What's with you all?" Grabbing onto Max's arm, she pulled herself up off the ground, and cast a bemused look around at our faces. Then her eyes fell on what had remained of Donut.
"He... he did that for me," covering her mouth with both hands, Alyona screwed shut her eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at Masyanya. "I am so, so sorry."
"Don't worry about it, he'll be back with us soon," the huntress reassured her.
"Yes, of course, I... How long was I out? Cause I had some strange visions... Pyramids, ten times larger than the Egyptian ones, and I was there to... What the hell?!" Noticing her bloodied hands, she proceeded to examine her chestguard, and then spotted her tail. She threw up her arms, felt her horns, took a step back, and turned to us with an expression of torment.
"Count your lucky stars, girlfriend," Masyanya sighed, her voice tinged with envy. "Now form you look like a true predator even in your regular form. How many forms is that now, anyway? And your eyes..." the huntress gasped with awe. "I'd die for those eyes! Why can't I have a demon for a big bro?"
