“At a guess, I’d say you’re in sixth or seventh place – based on the last rankings I saw anyway,” Julia observed, her tone unapologetic. “But just like you, the other A-listers are going to have to purchase their own equipment, assuming they haven’t already. No one is going to get away with dueling in rags as we approach the finish line. So that should even out over time.”
“A-listers?” Finn asked in confusion.
Julia just stared at him. “Seriously, I’m with Kyyle here. How can you be so observant and yet so oblivious at the same time?” She sighed as she saw him shrug. “That’s what the other novices have started calling the top-ranked students.”
She shook her head. “But none of that stuff matters.” She dropped her voice to a whisper, “You now have at least two minutes’ uptime on your knives.” She noticed his expression. “Yes, I can do math too, and I was paying attention earlier. That’s a loooong time in a duel, and it will only improve as you continue to level.
“Right now, all you need to think about is the duels,” she added. “Your new ability is going to take this homicidal mage prison by storm. No one here is going to be running a similar setup.”
An excited smile stretched across Julia’s face, and she held up Finn’s token. He could see that the surface glowed – indicating that he had been summoned to a duel. “They’re never going to know what hit them.”
Something in Finn responded to his daughter’s excitement. She was right. He knew he needed to update and overhaul his fighting style if he was going to be competitive for the remainder of the duels. Which meant updating his equipment too, even if it cost him a small fortune in points. That’s why he had started down this path in the first place. Instead of focusing on how much progress he had lost, he should be thinking about making up for lost time.
His eyes centered on the glowing token. He was also curious to see how his new abilities would perform in a real fight. Finn could feel his mana respond to both the excitement shining in Julia’s eyes and the sudden adrenaline spike that typically accompanied a duel. The warm energy seeped into his bones, and that familiar sense of boundless enthusiasm pushed aside his anxiety.
Finn snatched the token from Julia.
“That’s the look I was waiting for,” she said, observing the flames that now danced in Finn’s eyes. “Now, let’s get out of here and go kill some people.”
Chapter 29 - Subtle
After purchasing the gear, Finn darted into the changing room in the requisition’s hall, quickly donning his new attire while Julia tapped her foot impatiently outside the stall. Afterward, he discovered that leaving the requisition hall proved just as difficult as it had to get inside, students crowding the tight space.
By the time they had made it out of the room, Finn had already burned several precious minutes, and he didn’t have much time to reach the dais. As they hit the hallway, he and Julia broke into a light jog, aiming for the guild’s central courtyard.
Julia glanced at the corner of her UI before turning to Finn. “We’re going to have to pass through the abandoned section if we’re going to make it in time,” she huffed.
Finn grimaced. He knew she was right, but that also increased the odds of them getting ambushed. The players had grown more daring and had even begun attacking novices at random. A death was costly, even if the player hadn’t been summoned to a duel yet. Frankly, he was surprised that the faculty hadn’t caught wind of what was happening. Or perhaps they simply didn’t care.
On the other hand, after spending a small fortune on his gear, Finn couldn’t afford to lose any more points by missing this duel.
“Fine,” Finn grunted. “Let’s just be careful.”
At the same time, he summoned Daniel, the elemental flashing into existence beside him and easily keeping pace. “Scout ahead,” Finn ordered.
“As you wish,” the AI replied in a slightly sullen voice, grumbling to himself as the AI’s fiery form darted forward and illuminated the dark hallways. Finn swore he heard Daniel complaining – something about not even managing a “hello.”
He suppressed a grimace. Daniel’s mood swings were a problem for another time.
Shifting course, they took the next branching hallway. Polished and well-swept stone soon gave way to dreary, half-forgotten halls filled with dust and cobwebs. Finn and Julia slowed slightly, changing their pace so that their footsteps landed more softly against the stone floor.
Seconds ticked past, Finn eyeing the shadows and adjoining hallways cautiously, anxious for a surprise attack. They had almost cleared the abandoned section when they heard a familiar alarm.
“Danger. Two players ahead,” Daniel shouted, his voice echoing through the hallway. A moment later, the AI’s light winked out. Finn suspected that Daniel had been destroyed – which just mean that Finn would need to wait an hour to re-summon him.
“Damn it,” he muttered. With a quick swipe of his wrist, he pulled up his map. This hallway had no branching paths. It was either push forward or circle back. He glanced at his clock. They didn’t have time to backtrack.
Finn’s and Julia’s eyes met. They wordlessly communicated the same message. They were going to have to fight this one out – and quickly.
Julia immediately dropped into Sneak, sliding back into the shadows, and disappearing from sight. Meanwhile, Finn bit at the inside of his cheek, his mind racing as he tried to decide how to handle this. Julia would focus on scouting the nearby area, ensuring that there were no witnesses. They had long ago decided that this was safer. They didn’t need any players claiming there was a thief in the guild hall.
Which meant that Finn would need to handle the two players himself. To make matters worse, he didn’t have much time. Maybe another 30 seconds before the players were on him – at least judging from Daniel’s last location. As he eyed the hallway, an idea came to him.
He pulled his new daggers and carefully placed a blade on each side of the hall before backtracking slightly to give himself some additional room. With his enhanced HUD active, he made sure to keep the hidden blades within the translucent circular arc that now denoted his control range.
Then he waited.
Less than a minute later, two men sauntered down the hallway. They must have known this hall had no connecting paths, and there was no easy way for their quarry to escape. The obvious deduction was that this was a regular ambush location for them. They each carried a staff and wore the gaudy style of robes that Julia had just been making fun of only a few minutes earlier. That indicated that the pair had some points to spare but were relatively inexperienced.
Amateurs then, Finn thought to himself.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” one of the players taunted. “Why are you wandering these vacant halls? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”
Finn stayed silent.
The other player chuckled. “He looks confused,” the other player taunted. “Maybe we surprised him.”
“Or maybe he’s just stupid. Where’s your friend?” the first mage asked, some of the humor bleeding from his tone.
Finn’s brow furrowed. How did they know about Julia? The answer came to him quickly. They must have hidden a scout further back, and he was relaying information using the in-game chat. Finn’s estimation of the two players rose slightly. That was clever.
Hopefully, Julia would be able to address that problem.
“The silent act is getting a little old,” the first player said, taking a menacing step forward. “Where did the other mage go?”
“Perhaps she ran away after their pet shouted an alarm?” the other player offered. “No matter, I doubt she’ll get far. Keep this one busy while I tell the other group.”
The first mage nodded, his hand moving as he cast an Ice Bolt, the frigid shard forming in the air beside him. The other mage then swiped at the air, presumably to pull up his chat window. Finn immediately connected the dots. This was a habitual ambush spot for these novices. Their scout stayed hidden and r
elayed information to the two mages ahead. Then the group used a pincer-strategy, trapping unwary mages in the hallway by striking from the front and back simultaneously.
Which meant Finn needed to act quickly.
Finn bowed his head, using his hood to keep his eyes concealed as he summoned his mana. He also folded his arms and his fingers began to twine slowly through a series of gestures, the movements concealed by his robes.
He murmured the incantation softly, keeping his lips as still as possible. He had developed this little trick after training with Julia. His daughter was just a bit too observant. While she couldn’t understand the words, she had trained with him often enough that she could recognize the spell he was casting by the sounds. He had been forced to adapt.
As he neared the end of the spell, Finn realized he needed a brief distraction.
He addressed the two players, “You have no need to worry. My friend didn’t run away,” he said calmly.
They were now focused on him. One snorted. “Well, she’s not here. Face it. She bailed on you.”
As Finn saw the telltale flicker of orange flames rising behind the two mages, he shook his head, feigning sadness. “Ahh, I see the confusion. Let me clarify. She did leave – you’re right about that – but she isn’t running away.”
He looked back up, his eyes now glowing a vibrant orange. “She’s just making sure there are no witnesses.”
The players’ eyes widened, and the water mage moved to release his spell.
He was too slow.
Finn’s twin blades launched forward, the burning metal simultaneously stabbing through the back of each player’s neck. The tips of Finn’s daggers emerged from the front of their throats, crimson blood bubbling around the wounds. At the same time, Finn stepped to the side. The water mage released his spell reflexively, the shard of ice flying past Finn and smashing into the nearby stone wall.
Then he stood calmly before the two players, his eyes glowing orange and the warmth of his mana thrumming in his veins. Their throats were impaled by his daggers, and he imagined the feeling was excruciating – simultaneously unable to breathe and the fire burning through their vocal cords.
They let out a faint gurgle, clutching at their throats in vain, and their eyes bulged. Finn took pity on them. With a jerk of his fingers, the blades retreated, leaving gaping holes in their wake. Blood fountained from the wounds. Between the critical damage and the blood loss, their health drained at a frightening rate, both mages dropping to their knees.
Finn moved forward with unhurried steps, dismissing his Imbue Fire.
He watched impassively as the life fled their eyes, staying silent. If they looked back on this footage, Finn didn’t want to give away any hint of who he was or how he had killed them. A moment later, both bodies lay still, cooling upon the stone floor.
“Oh, damn,” Julia said from behind him, looking at the corpses.
Finn whirled, a tantalizing mixture of adrenaline and fire mana still surging through his veins. “Hey, it’s just me,” Julia replied, raising her hands. “We’re good, and you can drop your mana.”
That was easier said than done. Finn had to force himself to push aside the fiery energy, reluctant to look at what he had done without the cauterizing effect of the mana. After a moment of struggle, he managed to release the energy, his body feeling weaker and more lethargic as the mana fled his limbs.
When Finn looked back at the bodies on the floor, he felt his stomach writhe. Thick soupy blood pooled beneath each player. Yet their throats were worse. The flames had partially cauterized the wounds, leaving a charred, ruined mess of flesh and blood, their vacant eyes staring at him accusingly.
I did this? he thought to himself.
Under the effects of his fire mana, the horror of combat was burned away. Even in the duels, he usually didn’t give himself time to linger or look at the bodies, choosing instead to simply grab the player’s token and return to the guild hall. However, he couldn’t avoid the sober reality of what he had done here.
He had brutally murdered these two people.
And he hadn’t even given it a second thought.
Finn shook his head, tearing his eyes from the corpses and trying to clear his dark thoughts. “You okay?” Julia asked, concern tinging her voice.
“Yeah… I’m fine,” Finn replied. “They mentioned scouts?”
“Already took care of them. It seems this group had a higher-ranked mage helping them. They set up a little scouting position and concealed it with an illusion. They dropped it once these two gave the signal. Never saw me coming,” she added with a chuckle.
Finn just nodded, retrieving his new knives and wiping the metal off on the robes of the dead mages. He steadfastly refused to look at their wounds.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Julia asked again.
“Yeah, it’s just harder to stomach when I’m not summoning the mana,” Finn said softly. Although, that was only part of the truth. Finn didn’t want to acknowledge the real problem. That panicked look in their eyes reminded him of his nightmares – of Rachael, a hand outstretched toward him.
“You don’t have much time left,” Julia said softly, waving at the glowing stone chit in Finn’s pocket.
He grunted in response, rising to his feet and sheathing his blades. “What about the bodies?”
“Don’t worry about it,” she replied with a grimace. “I’ll clean up this mess. Probably move the corpses into a nearby room and then clean up most of the blood.”
She rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright,” she offered. “These assholes had it coming to them. They would have done worse to us. Besides, it’s not like it’s real.”
She might be right, but it sure looked and felt real. Finn wondered if he had become so focused on winning – on beating the next opponent or learning the next spell – that he had lost track of why he was doing this in the first place. That intense drive and singular focus were familiar. Yet the last time he had given himself over to his passion, it hadn’t ended well – which was probably the understatement of the century.
Are you repeating the same mistake here? a nagging voice whispered in the back of his mind. The problem was that he wasn’t sure how to answer that.
Finn shrugged off Julia’s hand. “It’s fine. But you’re right, I don’t have much time left. I need to go take care of this duel. I’ll see you in a bit.” With that, he took off down the hallway at a run.
Julia’s eyes followed Finn’s back. The humor had fled, and she stared after him, her expression a chaotic mixture of emotion. There was pain there. And sorrow. For only a moment, she was just a girl, standing beside a pair of fresh corpses, watching as her father walked away.
Then she shook it off, the hardness returning to her eyes as they focused once again on the bodies. The blood had pooled and left a giant mess, and she was already imagining what a pain in the ass it was going to be to drag the bodies into a nearby room. Especially if she wanted to avoid getting blood all over herself.
“Damn it,” Julia muttered.
Chapter 30 - Infamous
Finn breathed in, letting the warmth of his mana pool in his chest until the pressure built and expanded, threatening to overflow.
He exhaled, and his fingers danced.
Mana flowed out of Finn’s body in an excited rush, as though anxious to be set free. He channeled the energy into the orbs of flame that whirled through the air of the courtyard in a complicated pattern. Even with his eyes closed, he could visualize the concentric rings. He sent the spheres spinning outward until they hit the edge of his control range before the pattern inverted and they were sent spiraling back toward Finn.
“Uh, what exactly are you doing?” a voice asked.
Finn’s eyes snapped open, and he saw that Kyyle loomed over him where he sat cross-legged on the dais in the center of the guild’s courtyard. The young man’s gaze jumped between Finn and the four orbs that were floating above the platform. Meanwhile, th
e other novices hovering near the dueling columns had given Finn a wide berth, shooting him the occasional odd glance.
“Practicing,” Finn replied with a shrug.
The rhythm was effective for training his Mana Mastery. Finn had been able to slowly increase his control range by repeating the same cycle over and over. He could now use his abilities within fifteen feet, his mod updating automatically to reflect his enhanced range.
“I think he means showing off,” Julia snorted from beside him. She lounged on the stone, looking bored. She had rarely left his side since the attacks had escalated, only taking the occasional break to return to the real world.
“It seems like you’re making people nervous,” Kyyle observed, gesturing at the other novices that littered the dais. Despite the crowd, no one dared approach Finn and Julia. “What did you all do?”
Finn grimaced, trying to decide how best to frame his response. It was more about what Finn hadn’t done. Specifically, he hadn’t let the other novices kill him.
The attacks had escalated drastically over the last few days in-game. The encounter in the hallway had just been the first skirmish of many. At this point, he was getting attacked almost every time he left a public area, regardless of whether he had been summoned to a duel. The attacks also seemed to be targeting him now, as though there were groups of students stalking his every movement. Maybe the other novices were trying to slow him down.
At the same time, their attackers had gotten smarter and more tenacious. It was no longer easy for Finn and Julia to avoid the encounters. Which often left only one option for dealing with the attacks – as well as quite a few corpses. Not that Finn was going to openly admit that to Kyyle, of course.
As a result, it was now far too risky and time-consuming to return to their training room, especially if they needed to be discreet about dispatching their attackers. That delay cut into Finn’s points. So, he and Julia had taken to camping in the courtyard. Although, this unsettled the other mages for a different reason…
Awaken Online: Ember (Tarot #1) Page 31
