by Nikita Thorn
“Now that’s more like it!” Ippei grinned, his eyes now sparkling with life. He swung his bamboo sword excitedly, pleased that it would do more damage.
“Okay, what happened back there?” Mairin asked casually, looking at them. “One moment we’re starting the quest, and the next, this rituals guy is sprinkling incensed water over me in the morgue.”
Seiki felt relieved she did not seem at all bothered by it. He quickly explained, and she wrinkled her brow. “Shadow Manor?”
“Seems to be a group of ninjas,” said Seiki. That was as much as he knew.
Mairin rubbed her chin. “What did you ever do to them for them to waste Shogun points on a low level?”
“What’s that?”
“Every time you initiate an attack on a player, you actually lose a few points with the Shogun.”
“Yeah,” said Ippei. “That’s how the Shogun keeps his citizens behaving and discourages serial killers.”
With Mairin there and Ippei leveled, it was suddenly much easier, and Seiki realized this stage of the quest was not even designed to be challenging at all. They quickly took care of the remaining assassins with a few Focused Strikes and Mairin’s smoky magic. Then, they stood and observed the situation.
It was indeed a scene of carnage. Only three rear guards remained standing. Four of the mounted guards were still alive, but they had lost all their horses. To Seiki’s surprise, the vicious shadow patches on the ground showed no sign of fading away.
“That was only the first wave,” said Ippei. “They stay for the whole instance.”
Seiki could imagine how it would get more and more difficult to avoid the shadows if more kept coming. The quest progress still had it at Stage 2, so this little break was just to give them time to rest. The guards were regrouping, and some of them took a drink from small bottles that must have been health potions. The street was empty and the Citizens, if they had been there before, had now cleared out.
The Ambassador’s red carriage still had its windows and door tightly shut. Despite the nasty scratches on the sides of the passenger car, it still seemed pretty intact.
“So, you don’t actually have to save the ambassador,” Seiki mused out loud.
“No,” said Ippei. “I think they only successfully break through the carriage if you’re a houshi soloing this, and you have to heal the ambassador and the guards to keep them all alive. Instanced quests are tuned to your class.”
“I gotta tell Kentaro.” Mairin made a note to herself.
Ippei glanced around. “Second wave,” he warned, as if he could sense them.
Guard the Ambassador!
Mairin narrowed her eyes. “How did you know?”
“On my first samurai in Beta, I did it four times. Kept dying when the arrows came.”
They immediately learned what he was talking about, as the second wave was preceded by a hail of arrows from the roofs. The remaining guards quickly formed a tight circle around the carriage, defending themselves with shields.
“You gotta hide,” cried Ippei, running toward the wall of shields while arrows whisked down around them. Mairin popped into fox form and dashed behind him. Seiki rushed after them, turning in time to block one arrow with his bamboo sword before it could pierce his back. Just as soon, he felt a cold stab on his shoulder.
He threw himself behind the safety of the shields before he had time to look at what had struck him. It was a black arrow. Seiki tried to yank it out but, to his surprise, his fingers simply passed through it. That was when he realized it was made entirely out of shadow.
“Double arrows,” said Ippei, perhaps a bit too late. “One real, one shadow.”
The arrow in its initial pierce had done almost no damage, but Seiki could now feel his health slowly decreasing. Mairin moved toward him and tried to grab it, also to no avail. As his health dropped further, she put her three-burst heal on him, which filled up the missing bit but did nothing to stop the slow decline.
“Do you need a Cleanse or something?” Mairin wondered, seemingly worried. “I don’t have anything like that yet. You’ll need a houshi.”
The guards around them were crying in alarm as they held their ground against the arrow storm. One of them fell backward when he eventually got struck by a shadow arrow, which had managed to slip through a narrow opening between the shields.
Ippei was sitting on the ground, as if waiting. With a smile, he leaned back and knocked on the carriage. “Ambassador, it’s your turn now.”
It was uncertain whether Ippei had timed it perfectly or if the Ambassador really reacted to him. The door of the carriage opened.
In the middle of the ornate red interior carriage, the Ambassador of Fuoka sat calmly amid the perfect folds of her long-sleeved blue and white kimono that was spread around her.
“Oh,” said Seiki in surprise.
Mairin turned to look and her eyes widened in delight at the sight. “Oh,” she said too.
The Ambassador was a woman on the far end of her years of youth, and her dark eyes shone with serene authority. Seiki felt a slight melancholic air about the Ambassador as she slowly observed the situation. “This is rather pre-mature, but I have no other option,” she said softly, more to herself than to them.
She reached into her long sleeve and produced a cloth pouch. She slowly undid its knot with her delicate hands.
“You might want to hurry up, Ambassador,” said Ippei. “Another guard is down.”
Mairin shushed him as she watched the scene. In the cloth pouch was a round pearly-white object the size of a pigeon’s egg. Gracefully, with both hands, the Ambassador slid the window of the passenger car open, just enough to let in a beam of sunlight. With the large pearl nested in her right hand, she slowly raised it toward the sun ray.
As soon as the light touched it, the pearl seemed to explode. Both Seiki and Mairin ducked down beneath the doorway out of reflex, when they realized that it was not a physical explosion at all.
Peering back up, Seiki could note that the pearl in the Ambassador’s hand was letting out a kind of radiance that was not exactly light—since it created no shadows—but rather a gentle aura that seemed to dye the air around it a little extra shade of creamy white.
The pearl-colored sphere was quickly spreading out in all direction. As it passed through Seiki, he could feel a mildly pleasant sensation on his skin, like when getting back into bed in the middle of the night and finding it still warm. The shadow arrow in his shoulder dispersed and his health stopped declining. Mairin quickly topped up his missing health again, and Seiki told himself that he definitely liked getting heals.
Around the carriage, the light sphere reached the guards. Seiki could now see that the light was acting as a protective barrier against the shadow arrows.
“Action time,” said Ippei, enthusiastically, as he grabbed his bamboo sword. “They’re gonna run out of arrows soon.”
It was as he had said. After a few moments, the sound of arrowheads striking the metal shields died down. The guards lowered their shields to observe the situation and Seiki could notice that the light sphere now covered an area about ten feet around the carriage. He also remarked that the shadow patches on the ground within the radius of the light sphere had also disappeared.
The attackers jumped down from the roof for physical combat. There were eight of them in total. Half of which seemed to be Demonic Assassins they had fought earlier, while the rest were a different kind and held themselves upright rather than in a semi-crouch. There were slightly fewer of them than in the first wave, and Seiki wondered if the calibration had taken the number of remaining guards into consideration.
“Demonic Archers?” said Mairin, wondering at the label on the new enemies. “Okay, I see. We just fought evil ninjas, and now there are evil ryoushi in the mix.”
Even before Ippei had rushed out, Mairin used her Kitsune Dash and leapt at one of the Demonic Archers. White puffy smoke exploded around hi
m before the kitsune went for his throat and killed him. Another Demonic Archer further away shot an arrow at her. The white fox yelped as she was stuck by both the real and shadow projectiles, but this instance was tuned to her level after all, so it did not do much damage.
The fox dashed back into the sphere of light. The shadow arrow dispersed, while the real one faded as soon as Mairin turned back into human form and broke off its shaft.
“Interesting,” she said as she tossed the broken shaft to one side and filled her own health. “You know, there’s a reason why ryoushi hate kitsune, and I can confirm that these new guys are indeed ryoushi.”
With a battle cry, the attackers launched their assault, and that was a cue for the guards to rush out to meet them with swords. Ippei followed them as they took on one of the Assassins, and all around fights broke out once again in full scale.
To Seiki’s left, a pair of guards was fighting an Assassin. Further away, beyond the light sphere, an Archer fired arrow after arrow at them, which, when added up, were doing quite significant damage to the guards.
Guard [Level 8]. HP 165/220.
Demonic Assassin [Level 9]. HP 247/280.
Guard [Level 8]. HP 114/220.
They only had seven guards left, and could not afford to lose another. Seiki charged at the Demonic Archer, leaping over several patches of shadow that tried to claw at his legs, before landing a perfect Focused Strike on the man.
Demonic Archer [Level 9]. HP 154/230.
Frustrated, the archer grunted and tossed out an object at the ground underneath Seiki. It looked quite similar to Yamura’s trap, which he had seen in action before, though larger and pitch-black. With a sweep of his sword, Seiki knocked it a few feet away, slightly surprised at the heavy impact he felt on the sword.
The Archer tossed out another trap, and another. Remembering how fast ryoushi could do it, Seiki decided to just jump out of the path. To his right, a guard who had been taking on an Assassin on his own let out a scream as the man slashed him across the chest.
The Archer had shot out two more arrows. Seiki managed to block one with his bamboo sword. But he winced as the other caught him in his arm, and both shadow arrows lodged themselves into his side. Following Mairin’s lead, and knowing he could afford to take the shadow drain for a bit, he broke off the physical one and rushed at the Archer, hitting him with another Focused Strike.
Demonic Archer [Level 9]. HP 79/230.
The Archer grunted and, again, reacted by throwing out trap after trap as he backed away. The Archers were weaker than their Assassin comrades, and Seiki knew that his level was just slightly too low to be able to kill them with three consecutive special abilities. Knocking the first trap aside, he ran in, landed a normal hit on the man, before finishing him off with the third Focused Strike.
Demonic Archer slain. 48 XP gained.
Seiki had almost made it back into the light sphere to get rid of the two shadow arrows when he felt a cold pierce between his shoulder blades. Another physical arrow, as well as its phantom counterpart, had struck him. The two shadow arrows had been eating away at his health all this time, and this new damage suddenly brought it below half. Before he could worry, though, Mairin’s three-burst heal filled up his missing health. Just in time as the Assassin to his right, who had killed the guard he had been fighting, lunged himself at Seiki.
The force of the impact brought him to the ground. Out of real experience, Seiki twisted his body to avoid being trapped under the assailant. His left hand shot forward in a strike at the Assassin’s neck, knocking the man off him. At the same time, he felt big powerful teeth closing around his lower body as some Archer tossed a trap right on them. He gasped as two more arrows, one real, one shadow, pierced his side.
Mairin’s heal topped up his health again, as the Demonic Assassin [Level 8] got to his feet, ran in and detached his shadow. The trap expired then, and Seiki rolled out of the way before the shadow patch could cut him. Not in the position to use Focused Strike, he swung out with Sweeping Blade, whacking the Demonic Assassin backward.
A white fox shot past him and leapt onto the Demonic Assassin, who was already missing some health, and finished him off with a bite.
Demonic Assassin slain. 26 XP gained.
“A little help here, guys,” cried Ippei. Back at the carriage, Ippei and the only standing guard were fighting the remaining three attackers: two Assassins and one Archer. At that moment, the guard fell, and Ippei—at a third of his health, out of energy, and too low of a level for his normal moves to do much damage—ran beside the carriage before one Assassin could stab him. Mairin shot her heal at him, using up her last bit of energy.
Seiki dashed back toward them.
Demonic Assassin [Level 8], HP 178/210.
Demonic Assassin [Level 9]. HP 119/280.
Beside the carriage, Ippei blocked an attack by the nearest Assassin, and dived to avoid an incoming arrow from the Archer who had earlier fired at Seiki. The shadow arrow dispersed as soon as it entered the light sphere, and the physical one only grazed him on the side but still did significant damage.
Ippei [Level 6]. HP 48/128. Energy 14/80.
The Demonic Assassin [Level 8] was closing in on Ippei, who had not managed to get up to his feet. Seiki was out of energy, and he knew his companion could not survive another hit. Right before the Assassin could strike with his left, Seiki sprang forward and landed on top of the brute. It was an unplanned move out of necessity, and Seiki struggled with the assailant on the ground. His bamboo sword was quickly gone in the confused tussle and, when he saw the chance, he brought his knee to the man’s stomach. The assassin’s flailing right hand hit him on the arm. Luckily, without a weapon, it did little damage, so Seiki took the chance to throw two punches on his face. The man was trying to raise his bladed left hand when, beside them, Ippei managed to grab hold of the assassin’s wrist and pin it to the ground.
From behind, Seiki heard an arrow whisk through the air. He cursed as he felt its icy pierce once again in his back. Ippei let go of the man’s wrist as the other remaining assassin approached them from the rear. In a desperate Sweeping Blade, he sent the man back. At the same moment, Seiki’s energy recharged just enough. He hit the assassin under him squarely in the chest with a bare-handed Focused Strike, just before the bladed fingers, now free from Ippei’s grip, could reach his chest.
Demonic Assassin slain. 35 XP gained.
Seiki picked up his bamboo sword from the ground beside the dead assassin, thinking how Master Tsujihara would surely disapprove of his method.
“Damn,” Ippei said, as he looked ahead. With the carriage unguarded, the remaining Assassin was now going straight for the Ambassador. “Can’t let the Ambassador die or we have to do it all over,” he said, scrambling to his feet.
The Assassin had already leapt up onto the carriage, but he came tumbling down with an angry growl. Seiki and Ippei made it to the doorway and found the Ambassador still alive, albeit slightly pale. Her right hand was still holding up the light pearl, and her left was clutching the hilt of a dagger, whose blade was dripping with blood.
A relieved smile broke out on Ippei’s face. “Well done, Ambassador!”
Seiki spun around and hit the Assassin in the head as the enemy was getting up to his feet. Joining the fight, Mairin the fox came flying forward to take a rather harmless snip at the man. She had already used up all her energy in killing the remaining Archer. All three of them were now effectively out of points.
Seiki and Ippei exchanged a glance, and went in and finished the man off with some awkward clobbering.
Demonic Assassin slain. 29 XP gained.
“Not the cleanest kill, I’ve got to say,” Mairin said with a grin as her heals filled their health.
“We lost too many guards in the first wave,” said Ippei, exhaling as he recovered from the excitement. “Or it wouldn’t be this close.”
Seiki scanned the area around him. All
the guards were dead, but there were no more living assailants in sight. The sun was still high up in the clear sky and the street was completely empty.
“Told you Seiki is good at not dying,” Mairin said. For some reason, she sounded proud.
“Yeah,” said Ippei, grinning. “Great tanking.”
“And heals,” Seiki added, looking at Mairin.
Ippei jumped up and sat on the floor of the carriage, right in front of the Ambassador, who had now put away her dagger and light pearl.
“You sure you should be sitting there?” asked Mairin.
Ippei shrugged. “Unlike the Shogun, who will throw you in jail for the slightest verbal offense, the Ambassador doesn’t mind. Right, Ambassador?”
The Ambassador said nothing, but gave him one unreadable look.
All around was quiet now, and the bodies of the fallen, both guards and demonic intruders were slowly dispersing or fading away. Still, the shadow patches beyond what had been the light barrier earlier remained.
Before Seiki could ask, Ippei gestured his left hand flamboyantly toward the roof. “And here comes Wave Three.”
“What?!” Seiki and Mairin cried out at the same time.
Mairin’s eyes widened. “This thing is still not over?”
More shadows had appeared on the roof like dark clouds creeping up on the horizon, and soon started to jump down around them. This time, there were more than twenty of them: a mixture of the Assassins and Archers.
They had no guards left. Seiki looked warily at the enemies approaching, who were slowly surrounding the carriage and closing in with calculated steps.
“Relax!” said Ippei, swinging his legs idly as he leaned back.
“Um, why?” asked Mairin.
“Noticed how Lieutenant Kato is not among the dead?”
That was when they heard the cavalry.
Chapter 12
Led by Lieutenant Kato, the forty men strong Shinshioka cavalry stormed down the street. It fell upon the attackers with such fury that the demonic intruders turned to flee in terror as soon as they spotted the horsemen. Arrows, like angered wasps, flew at the demonic assailants before the cavalrymen arrived in a thunder of hooves. Blades flashed, and fierce clanks of metal upon metal could be heard interspersed with valiant cries of “For the Shogun!” and “For Shinshioka!”
