“That sounds wonderful. I’ll hurry then. Talk soon.”
“Okay, soon. Bye,” I said before I hung up.
There was a TV in the room, but I had not bothered to turn it on since I was here. What to do for a few hours? I thought about visiting my parents, and I went to my terminal to check on their schedules. A few flicks of my fingers across the screen brought up their activities, and I saw that they were both supposed to be doing a swimming lesson in this time slot.
I probably needed to work out. I had kind of been avoiding the activity since I realized my strength was all weird, but a short jog probably wouldn’t hurt me. If anything, it would probably relax me for the meal with Zarra.
Leo!
My whispered name cut through my room like a tearing paper. I turned around to see who had spoken to me, but there was no one else in my suite. A cold chill descended my spine, and my mouth went dry.
Leo!
The voice called again, and I turned in my room. It sounded as if someone was whispering in my ear.
It sounded like it was Allurie.
This happened once before when I was eating with Zarra, I thought I imagined someone calling my name, but when I logged in later I asked Allurie, and my elf friend had told me that she called into my room looking for me.
But I hadn’t thought anymore of it.
Leo! We need you!
Her whispered voice sounded desperate, and I pushed my fingers into my ear to see if there was some sort of hearing aid or another device on me. I didn’t feel anything, but the sense of dread filled my stomach.
“You guys still here?” I asked as I walked back into the VRIU room. Ky was crouched next to the machine making some adjustments, and I had caught them in mid conversation.
“What’s going on?” Ky asked.
“Do either of you hear anything?” I asked as I turned to Jennifer.
“Ahh, no? What did you hear?” the blonde woman asked, and the tone of her voice made me think that Ky and Jennifer might have been speaking about something they didn’t want me to hear.
“I heard someone call my name. What were you guys talking about?” I asked. It had seemed as if they were speaking about Zarra.
“Oh, nothing really. Just stuff Ms. Zerne asked us to do.” Jennifer forced a smile to her face.
“Ahh, I get it. Complaining about the boss, huh?” I smiled at them, and both of their shoulders relaxed.
“Yeah, sorry. It wasn’t polite. We love Ms. Zerne, she is just…”
“Really fucking demanding sometimes,” Ky finished Jennifer’s sentence with a laugh.
“I see. Anything I can help out with?” I asked.
Leo!
“There! That! Did you hear that?” I asked both of them.
“Uhhh, no, Leo. You feeling okay?” Ky asked.
“Should I call Docto--”
“No, that’s okay,” I interrupted Jennifer. “I want to play.”
“Now?” Ky asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah. Is it ready? Zarra and I are going to have dinner in a few hours, I’ll play until then.”
“Uhhh, it isn’t real--”
“Get it ready to go. I’m logging in.” I wasn’t used to ordering people around, but I figured that the tone of my voice sounded commanding enough.
“Okay. Whatever you need, Champ,” Ky shrugged, smiled, and then grabbed his paddle. “I’ll be ready in fifteen seconds.”
“I’ll get the client ready,” Jennifer sighed.
“Great. Thanks guys.” I pressed the button to turn on the privacy glass and then pulled my clothes off. I jumped into the tank, snatched the mask from Ky’s hand, and then pulled it over my head before I turned the glass back.
“Let’s go,” I said into my mouthpiece.
“Okay, Leo. Logging in. Stand by--,” Jennifer’s voice came through my headset, and then her words cut off when the game screen played.
I took a deep breath and tried to steady my nerves. This was probably nothing. Just my imagination and lack of sleep playing tricks on me. I’d jump back into the game, make sure everyone was okay, and then log back out. After all, there wasn’t any way that Allurie could call me through the game.
Could she?
I heard screams and opened my eyes. I was lying in the bed in my room. I was still wearing my teal clothes, and I turned to confirm that my armor, belts, and weapons were all hanging on the chair next to my bed. The door to my room was open, and I could see a group of guards fighting in the hallway there. It looked like they were actually fighting each other like a tornado of armored chaos.
I bounced off my bed and landed barefoot next to my gear. It would take me too long to get my armor on, but I didn’t like the idea of running out there without at least my weapon belts on.
“Allurie!” I shouted as soon as I had my belts buckled and my new longsword in my hands. I doubted that the woman could hear me over the screams of the fighting guards, but I didn’t want to wade into combat without knowing where my friends were.
Or who my enemies were. These armored fighters were all wearing the Sanduport burgundy kits.
New Quest: Defend Chrysa and the rest of your friends from the unknown attackers.
“Leo!” I heard Allurie shout. Her voice seemed to bounce into my room with a twisting dance, and the high ceilings almost made it seem like she was behind me.
“Where are you?” I shouted back, and two guards turned toward me. For a half a second they didn’t do anything, and I guessed that they were friendly, but then they stepped through the open door of my room, and I sighed.
They each had curved sabers and small shields. As I studied their faces, I realized that these men weren’t guards. Their cheeks were sunken. Their eyes were withdrawn, and their chins weren’t shaven. These men were probably hired mercenaries who had been given guard armor.
I raised my magical longsword in a two handed grip and pointed the tip at the fake guard on the left. The men split so that they would flank me, but I ignored the man on my right and continued to focus on the left one.
“I’ll kill you first,” I said to the man, and his mouth upturned into a slight smile.
But I could see the fear in his eyes.
I feinted a shuffle forward, and the man brought up his shield to block an attack that never came from me. The guard on the right swung his saber toward me with an overhand swing, but I expected the movement, and I slashed my longsword up to catch his blade. I suspected the man hadn’t expected me to move so fast, or be so strong, and he gasped with surprise when his blade bounced off mine.
I shuffled to the left half a step, brought the pommel of my longsword against the man’s chest, and then kicked forward with my right knee against the back of his leg. He started to tumble backward, but I didn’t pay much attention to his fall. Instead, I stepped into a long lunge and took my left hand off my sword’s grip. This gave me a longer range with my thrust, and the tip of my new sword pierced the man on the left’s armored stomach as if he was made out of butter. The man let out a gasp of surprise, and a blast of cold looking fog escaped his mouth. His skin instantly turned a few shades paler, and I guessed that the chill effect of my new blade had activated.
I turned on my heel and made a downward sweep at the fallen man with my two handed sword. The blade was a joy to use, and even though it was longer and heavier than my broadsword, the extra handle length gave me some variance in the way I wielded the weapon.
My opponent brought up his saber to block my golf club-like swing, but my attack had my full hip and body weight behind the blade. He did parry the blow, but his own blade ripped from his grip, bounced across the room, and slid under my bed. He tried to get his shield up to block my downward thrust, but he was a half a second too slow, and the point of my longsword impaled his neck.
Damn, this new sword was super fun to use.
The second man was attempting to attack me, but his teeth were clenched, and it actually looked like he was trying not to shiver.
I feinted a side swing that he tried to block with a slowly moving shield, but then I stepped forward and drove the point of my longsword into the shoulder of his sword arm. He couldn’t get his arm up in time to block, and my blade tore through the bone, muscle, and cartilage there.
I yanked my blade down to remove the bottom half of his shoulder, and then I kicked my right foot into his still raised shield. His health bar was at half, but it dropped another 10% when I kicked him, and then another 20% when he tumbled to the ground of my room. The man had dropped his sword when he fell, and I kicked the blade to the other side of the room. It probably didn’t matter. I’d almost taken the man’s right arm off, and his health bar was beginning slowly to drain.
“I lied. Sorry, said I would kill you first,” I said to the man as I walked out of my room and into the hallway. There was a group of eight guards fighting a group of ten guards. At first look, it would have been hard to tell who was who, but now that I had fought the other two men, I recognized the unshaven chins, the thinner faces, and the slightly sloppy sword work from the assassins. The guards were holding their own, but I saw one of the good guys get cut with a backhanded attack from an assassin. His health dropped about 20%, and I used Minor Heal to bring him back near to full.
The door to my room seemed to be at the centerline of the battle, and one of the assassins on my right stepped up to swing his blade at me. I blocked the attack quickly, flicked his weapon wide with a jerk of my wrist, and then slammed my bare foot into his shield with all of my strength. The armored man lifted into the air and crashed back into three of his companions like a bunch of armored dominos.
The other guards let out a cheer when they realized I had joined in the melee, and the attackers all glanced at me with surprise. I thought of hitting myself with Spirit of Stone so that I could wade through the crowd of attackers while swinging my new sword around like a scythe, but I realized the attacking men had no hope of getting past the guards to kill Chrysa. This was all probably a distraction, and I guessed the real threat to my beautiful friend’s life had apparently entered through the back window.
The fact that Cornalic and Bolverk weren’t here at the front line of the battle was confirmation of my fear.
I turned to my left and skirted the edge of the guard formation. When I reached the end of the group, I thought about using Mark of Healing Drip on the floor. The glowing symbol instantly appeared on the marble where I wanted it to, and the group of armored guards protecting Chrysa’s room entry all began to glow with a healing light. The area of healing effect only went out 10 feet, and it was enough to only heal the guards and not the assassins.
The door to the brown-haired woman’s room was broken open, and I saw my friends were backed into a corner. Five dark clothed assassins were attempting to get to Chrysa, but Bolverk and Cornalic were keeping them away with surprisingly coordinated defensive movements.
“Leo! My crossbow!” Allurie shouted as she pointed to the table by the door. The silver-haired woman was standing in front of Chrysa and her three handmaidens, but the elf didn’t have any weapons in her hands.
Cornalic’s life was at 75%, and I hit him with a Minor Heal to bring him back to 90%. Bolverk’s life was still at 100% even though he was covered with bloody cuts, and I hit him with a Guardian of Fortune a second before one of the assassin’s tied up his axes to allow another one to cut my friend’s arm. The attack didn’t land, and two of the black garbed men in the back turned to face me.
I took three steps to the table and grabbed Allurie’s crossbow from the top. Then I tossed it underhand across the room. My years of playing basketball when I was a kid came in handy, and the weapon fell right into my friend’s hands.
One of the assassins reached me before I could grab her quiver, and I had to bring my longsword up with my left hand to block a flurry of surgical cuts from his twin short blades. He was good, and I realized that his series of attacks were pulling my left hand away from my side half a second before he made a darting movement toward my exposed side.
I used Guardian of Fortune on myself, but I was half a moment too late, and his short blade cut a long gash in my chest. I did manage to get a palm strike in, and I felt the satisfying crunch of his nose breaking when I hammered my palm into his covered face. The assassin stumbled away from me with 85% health, and I used the free moment to toss Allurie her quiver of crossbow bolts.
“Itis Kay!” One of the assassins yelled as he brought his hands together. There was a sound of thunder crashing, and a wave of yellow lightning erupted from the man’s feet and shot across the room.
I didn’t have any group heals besides Mark of Healing Drip, and I didn’t think it would help with a blast of energy that was probably going to hit everyone. The only thing I could think to do was cast Guardian of Fortune on Chrysa in hopes that it would shield her from the attack, but as soon as the beautiful woman’s skin began to glow, I realized I’d just wasted the ability. Guardian of Fortune’s description said it only worked on attacks that targeted someone; this was an area of effect blast.
That slammed into all of us at the same time.
The sensation wasn’t as bad as when the undead Queen Dorni had used The Darkest Death on me, but the yellow lightning wasn’t exactly pleasant. Both of my legs went numb, and I felt my jaw clench as the pain ran through my spine. All of my friend’s health dropped by 20%, and Chrysa and her handmaidens each let out piercing screams.
I quickly hit each of my friends with a Minor Heal, and my lungs felt as if they were trying to strangle my heart. I almost couldn’t move my sword up in time to block the next flurry of attacks from the assassin whose nose I had just broken. As it was, my arm didn’t seem to move as fast as I wanted it to, and I could only block the first three of his attacks with my longsword. His fourth and fifth passed through my Guardian of Fortune enchantment. His cuts left long gashes in my left shoulder and bicep, and I couldn’t help but growl with the sharp pain.
Then a bolt appeared in the middle of the man’s forehead, and his body crumbled into a spasming heap.
“Meanie! Don’t hurt Leo!” Allurie yelled from the far side of the room. I turned my eyes toward her and saw the beautiful elf girl slip her bare foot into the front strap of her crossbow, yank the cord back with a practiced movement, and then set a new bolt against the string. It would have taken me three or four seconds to load the weapon, but my friend had been practicing all day, and her hands moved almost too quickly to see.
I needed to try to heal my arm, but I didn’t know how much mana fatigue I could handle. I had used Minor Heal nine times in under a minute. I felt roughly a hundred times worse than after I had used the heal seven or so times on Cesnie during the first challenge. It felt impossible to breathe, and just the effort of taking in air hurt more than the gashes on my arm, shoulder, and chest. If I could get off another Minor Heal, I could then use my Broadsword of the Charming Mind to reset all my fatigue and get a bonus use of Minor Heal out of the deal.
But if I fucked up, and this truly was my limit for mana fatigue, I would pass out, get kicked out of the game, and my friends might die.
I didn’t want to risk that, so I dropped my right hand down to the grip of the broadsword Gratia had given me and thought about the weapon resetting my mana fatigue.
My head, chest, stomach, and lungs felt instantly better. My vision suddenly cleared, and the sudden absence of agony almost made me cry out with joy. I fixed my arm with a quick use of Minor Heal, and then I charged the back of one of the men that was attacking my short berserker friend.
The assassin saw me coming, and he turned away from Bolverk. The gnome berserker tried to get a hit on the man’s back, but the other killer stepped in to protect his partner, and my friend had to lock weapons with the much larger man.
I made a horizontal cut with my new blade, but my opponent leaned back a few inches, and my sword passed in front of him harmlessly. He darted forward to try to stab me with his twin short swords, but I kind
of expected the movement, and I delivered a front kick to his right leg when he darted toward me. My foot caught him perfectly, and he couldn’t close the distance to stab me.
Then I brought my longsword back around, and the blade cleaved the man in half at the waist. My weapon didn’t feel any resistance at all from his leather armor, or his bones, and his top half came off his bottom half with a spray of blood. The man realized I had just killed him, and he began to scream with anguish.
The half-man wasn’t a danger to us anymore, and I pivoted to help Bolverk, but my friend had already cut the arm off the man that he was tangling with, and he finished him off with another quick series of chops to his right thigh, left waist, and then neck. The assassin fell over dead with the last blow, and we turned to where Cornalic battled the remaining two assassins.
Allurie’s crossbow sang out, and the bolt caught one of the attackers in the head again. It was an amazing shot considering the elf stood a good thirty feet away and tagged an asshole who was involved in a melee battle. Her accuracy after only a day of training made me wonder how good my friend could get with the weapon if she had another thousand hours worth of practice.
Cornalic blocked the last attacker’s short sword with one of his own dark blades, and then he head butted the man with a blow that sounded like two pieces of wood slamming together. The assassin’s health bar instantly dropped to nothing, and the man collapsed on the marble floor dead.
“Woops. I wanted to ask him some polite questions,” Cornalic sighed.
“There is still fighting out in the foyer. Allurie, come with me. Bolverk and Cornalic, you stay here and keep Chrysa safe.” The orders came to my mouth naturally, and my friends nodded.
Allurie and I ran out into the hallway to find the battle mostly unchanged from how it was half a minute ago. One of the palace guards in the front was nursing an injured arm and trying to defend himself from two attackers, so I hit him with Spirit of Stone and two Minor Heals to bring him back to full health.
Lion's Quest: Trinity: A LitRPG Saga Page 31
