by Edward Brody
I looked down at Adeelee’s arrow to see which man she was aiming at, and I pulled my arrow back hard to aim at the other one. They both wore dark leather armor and had bandanas draped under their chins. It had been a good while since I had utilized my archery, so it felt a little weird, but I still managed to steady myself and focus in on the soft spot right below my target’s ear.
“Now,” Adeelee whispered, and we both let our arrows fly.
The two arrows zipped through the air without a sound and landed square into the necks of our targets. My mark grabbed at the arrow as soon as it landed and turned to our direction. I thought for a moment he wasn’t going to die. But he remained silent, eyes wide, and the only sound was the sound of him thumping to the ground.
No one else came running, so we could only assume that the room ahead was empty or whoever was there didn’t hear anything.
You have gained 1000 XP!
“Check their items,” Adeelee whispered as she scurried over to the fallen bodies in sneak mode.
I ran over to check their bodies, and my stomach turned. Heat was still rising from their corpses, and they were… humans. I had killed a human. It tugged a little at my heartstrings, but I had seen enough death in Eden’s Gate that I was able to swallow the god-awful feeling of murder, telling myself that they were bad guys. I searched the bag of one of the fallen Sparrows and Adeelee searched the other.
You’ve received: Small Bandage. Durability: 5/5. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Useful for healing light wounds.
You’ve received: Minor Healing Potion. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Drink to recover 50 HP over 5 seconds.
You’ve received: Lockpick. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Used to open things that aren’t meant to be opened.
You’ve received: 56 Gold Pieces
Nice, I thought. I was so used to receiving little to no loot from monsters that getting essential items and gold from the dead human was a nice change. Killing wasn’t a great feeling, but the loot was nice.
Since the dead guy was wearing leather, I rubbed my hands over his armor, trying to see if there was anything of interest, and almost all of his gear was slightly better than mine. There wasn’t time for me to have a field day and take it all off, but the boots, in particular, had a magic attribute and were significantly better than mine. I shoved my old boots in my bag, and pull the magic boots off the corpse’s feet.
You’ve received: Assassin’s Boots of Quickening. +8 Armor. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.5 kg. +5% run speed.
The boots were still warm when I put them on, which was really weird, but I tried to bury my disgust. I was doing what I had to do.
“Anything on the other guy?” I asked.
“Potions, bandages, a ruby. Nothing special. Let’s move on,” Adeelee said.
I almost started to explain to her that rubies were quite a find, given how much they sold for, but then I figured she probably already knew that, and there were more important things to worry about other than loot. We both crouched down into sneak mode and continued ‘til we were at the entrance to the brightly lit room.
The room looked almost impossible to exist deep down in the basement cellar. There were several rows of plush, high-back chairs and a small stage with a podium sitting on top of it. On the walls were several large paintings of Sparrows wearing red bandanas and actual sparrows (the bird) in several different poses. There was a large, black rug on the podium, and lanterns were posted in every corner. There was a single door on the far wall.
“There’s no one here?” I asked.
“We just killed the security,” I said. “I suppose there’s tighter security ahead or they’re just banking on no one of importance finding their hideout. Considering door security was rather weak, I’m guessing there’s more up ahead.”
We both stood and entered the room, inspecting it for anything noteworthy. But no sooner had we started looking around, than voices could be heard coming from behind the far door and growing closer.
Adeelee and I jumped behind the high-back chairs, ducking as low as we could right as the door swung open.
“Sorry about that,” someone said. “He’s been really busy today. We should go grab a bite to eat and come back in a couple hours after he’s finished his nap.”
“It’s no problem,” a calm voice said. I recognized it immediately as Jax.
I poked Adeelee on the shoulder as soon as I heard Jax’s voice, and Adeelee nodded, recognizing the voice as well. We peeked between the chairs, and I could see Jax standing there with a man of a similar height and build, scruffy hair and a dark evening shadow. Jax was wearing his usual attire, but he had a red bandana tied around his neck.
So Jax was a fucking Sparrow. I knew it!
You have completed the quest: The Missing Bastard!
You have gained 5000 XP!
“What the fuck?!” the unknown Sparrow cursed. He rushed over to the two dead guards and started checking their vitals, then looked back towards Jax. “We’ve been breached! We need to alert the others.”
Just as the man stood back up, Adeelee shot up from behind the seats. “Jax!” Adeelee said.
I wasn’t sure what her plan was, but I shot up with her as well.
Jax’s brow furrowed, and his eyes widened at the same time, giving off the impression that he was both surprised and worried. “Adeelee?” He turned to me. “Gunnar? What are you doing here? How did you—”
The man turned to Jax and cut him off. “Your friends?”
Jax paused for a moment and shook his head. “You guys shouldn’t be here…” he muttered. He looked to the dead guards. “You did this?”
Neither Adeelee or I answered the question, and I just came at him with a question of my own. “You’re a Sparrow?”
Jax swallowed and then said, “Yeah… I’m a Sparrow.”
“So then you killed me that night in Addenfall?”
Jax turned to his companion and raised an eyebrow, but then he turned back towards us. “Yeah, I killed you.” Jax reached to his side and drew his sword. “And you’ve made a big mistake by coming here.”
“Why, Jax?” Adeelee asked. “Why?”
“Kill them!” the other guy barked and drew a curved cutlass from his side.
Adeelee and I both drew our swords, and the two Sparrows rushed towards us. I already knew that Jax was level 20, and maybe even higher level if he had leveled up since the last time I grouped with him, but I tried to glance at the other man to get an idea of what we were dealing with.
Name: unknown
Race: human
Level: 20
Health/Mana/Stamina: 150/110/200
Status: aggressive
Given that Adeelee was only level 17, and I was several levels below her, I knew that it would take a miracle for us to survive against the higher-level opponents. Perhaps Adeelee could summon Tsarra, and I could summon Sora, but Jax had Fenris, and who knew if the other guy had a counter summon.
I lifted my flaming sword to block and felt the hard strike as Jax slammed his sword down. Even blocking the strike, I still suffered some damage, and Jax held pressure down on my sword as he leaned over towards me.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Gunnar,” he grunted.
I pushed back against him with all my strength, and then managed to slip my hand away from the hilt quick enough to send an Arcane Missile at his chest. The impact rocked Jax back from me, and he looked down at where he had been affected.
Jax looked back up. “You’re stronger, but not strong enough.” He dashed back towards me with his sword raised, and I tried to shoot another Arcane Missile at him, but he just dodged. He launched his tip towards my chest, and I tried to subsequently dodge, but I was too slow, and his sword plunged deep into my shoulder.
I cried out loudly from the pain, and 30% of my health was taken from the blow.
You
are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
Jax pulled the blade out and swung down and then in an upwards, circular motion, cutting me vertically across the chest. For the most part, the blow was blocked by my armor, but he did get deep enough to cut some of my flesh, and another 10% of my health was knocked off.
Why was I holding back while fighting Jax? I guess it was the fact that I had such feelings of friendship towards the guy. But then, I started thinking about the fact that I now knew that he had killed me in the forest that night, and now he seemed to be trying to kill me again. Why wouldn’t I fight back with everything I had?
“No, you shouldn’t be here!” I barked back. I reached my hand out again, sending a Fireblast right at Jax’s stomach. Given that I was much higher level in fire magic than I was in arcane, the Fireblast was much more damaging, and Jax fell down when he was hit with the spell.
His leather armor sizzled as he swatted his hands across the residual flames, and I picked myself up and turned to see how Adeelee was doing. She was blocking and parrying several quick strikes from the other man, but she was constantly fighting on the defensive and couldn’t seem to find any way to strike back. The other guy was too strong.
We were in serious trouble.
I thought about casting Fire Curtain across Adeelee’s attacker, but given the chairs and rug in the room, I might light the place up, and if we somehow managed to survive the encounter with these two guys, we’d immediately be faced with a new challenge once things started burning all around us.
Instead, I just shot a Fireblast at him, catching him on the side and knocking him off balance for a moment, but just as soon as I landed the spell, Jax was rushing towards me again, swinging his blade like a berserker.
The flames on my sword whooshed as I blocked blow after blow from Jax’s attack, but like Adeelee, in straight sword fighting, I was no match for Jax. He swung a hard blow at me, which I blocked, and then raised a quick knee, ramming me in the gut, causing me to keel over and fall to the ground.
I coughed hard as my blade fell to the ground, but I figured a finishing blow was coming my way, and quickly shot another Fireblast at Jax’s foot in an effort to stop him again. The blow connected, and Jax grunted and lifted his foot in pain.
I was down to about 25% of my health, and given how easily Jax was handling me, I knew I wasn’t going to last long.
I glanced at Adeelee’s health bar and she was down to 40% of her health, and when I looked across the room, I saw the Sparrow she was battling with swing his sword hard at her. She attempted to block, but his blow was strong enough to knock her sword from her hand and leave her body exposed. The man jumped a good few feet in the air and landed a hard flying kick at Adeelee’s chest, causing her to fly backwards and scoot across the ground. Her health dropped to 15%.
“Adeelee!” I cried.
I wanted to be a hero, but Jax and the other Sparrow were just too much. Adeelee and I had entered a situation that was a little too far above our levels, and I was going to die and respawn, and Adeelee was just going to die.
That was the hardest thing to accept. Adeelee may have been an NPC, but I had real feelings for her, feelings that rivaled any sort of feelings that I had ever had on Earth. She was a good friend, and someone I felt like I could be more than friends with if I could someday get her to accept me.
I looked up to Jax who was still grabbing at his foot and shook my head. “Why, man? Why?”
Jax looked at me and frowned, then turned to his friend who was swinging his sword around in a circle, preparing to execute the princess.
“These low levels,” the other Sparrow said. “Come in here and think they’re going to do what? Clear our hideout or something?” He shook his head. “And who would’ve thought I’d get to kill the Princess of the Vale.”
Adeelee was bleeding, and I could see her health lower to 10%. I was in such shock at the situation that I had barely noticed my own pain and the fact that I had dropped to 15% myself.
The man held his sword up and then pulled it back for the finishing blow.
“Wait!” Jax said.
The man turned and looked at Jax, raising his shoulders and shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe he was being interrupted. “Yeah?”
“Let me do it,” Jax said. “I’m going to be a Sparrow, so let me do the honors of taking out the bitch sneaking into our hideout.”
The man loosened his shoulders and lowered his sword as Jax walked over to him. “Yeah?” He turned to Adeelee and then back to Jax. “I don’t really think it matters who does it.”
“Of course it does, because—” Jax suddenly silenced and lifted his sword, ramming it deep into the gut of the other Sparrow. He moved his free hand up over the man’s mouth as he twisted his sword back and forth, causing the man to die and slump the floor.
You have gained 1900 XP!
Jax immediately turned to the princess as soon as the man fell and yanked a health potion out of his bag. “You stupid idiots. Why did you come here?” He lifted the chin of the princess and poured the contents of the potion down her throat. “You didn’t even use your healing spell.”
Adeelee coughed and her health bar started rising.
Jax scurried over to me and started using a bandage to stop my bleeding. “You have another health potion, right? That was my last one.”
I nodded and weakly pulled a potion from my bag to drink. I immediately started to feel better, and Jax made quick work of the bleeding icon that was sitting below my health bars.
“It’s kind of hard to find time to cast anything when you’re fighting a guy that fast,” Adeelee finally replied.
“A lot of the Sparrows are quick fighters,” he said. “How did you have any idea that I would be here?”
“Gunnar,” Adeelee said. “He saw a medallion fall out of your pocket.”
“Shit,” Jax spat and tilted his head to the side. “I thought you didn’t notice it, or at least didn’t know what it was.”
“That was a shitty plant you left in your house. It wouldn’t fool anyone.” I looked at Jax sternly as I pulled myself up to my feet and turned my tone serious. “You told me you weren’t a Sparrow. You killed me that night and then lied about—”
“I didn’t kill you, Gunnar.” Jax sighed. “I just said that because I was with him.” He pointed to the dead guy on the floor. “He’s the one who killed you.”
I shook my head. The guy on the floor had the same hairstyle and build as Jax. I supposed in the dead of night and with a bandana wrapped around his face, I could mistake him for Jax. “I don’t know what’s the truth anymore.”
“Nor do I,” Adeelee agreed. “I can’t believe you would join the Sparrows with everything you know.”
Jax lowered his head a moment and then lifted it back up slowly. “My brother Cristo, the Dark Hand, killed my birth mother. You know this, Adeelee.”
The princess nodded. “Which is why it baffles me that you’re here.”
“For as long as I’ve known that fact, I’ve always wanted to get revenge, but I never really had an outlet to do so until now. I didn’t know where Cristo was, and I knew he’d be too high of a level for me to do anything if I did.”
“So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?” I asked mockingly.
“No…” Jax gritted his teeth. “I really didn’t kill you that night in the forest, but I did lie to you about some things. Fenris and I didn’t chase your killer off, but instead I engaged with him in short fight, and when I realized that he was a Sparrow, I saw an opportunity.” He looked down to the body again. “I inquired about how to join the Sparrows, so that I might have a chance to meet the Dark Hand and kill him. He helped me became an initiate, but I wouldn’t become a full-fledged member until they trusted me I and met with the Dark Hand himself.
“But when I found out that the Sparrows had stolen the Fellblade—a risk they’d never normally take—I realized immediately what was goin
g on. My brother Cristo killed my mother—and presumably me—so that he could hold sole claim to the throne at Highcastle when my father died. They know that the King is old and weak now and rarely leaves the castle. They also know that stealing the Fellblade would draw orcs out of the Wastelands. With much of the King’s army occupied with the orcs, security at the castle could easily be compromised.”
Adeelee eyes widened as if she finally understood everything. “They plan to sneak inside the castle to kill the King, so that the Dark Hand can stake his claim at the throne.”
Jax nodded. “Why wait for the old man to die when you can just kill him, right?”
“But that still doesn’t answer the question as to how you’ll get your revenge on Cristo,” I said. “You said that he’s a much higher level than you, and he’s guarded by other Sparrows.”
Jax smiled. “I guess I have a lot to thank you for, Gunnar. When we dove into the dungeon of Gramora, those patches of spider’s silk that I collected are the reason I’m here today. It’s one of the rare reagents that’s needed to create an invisibility potion.” Jax shook his head as he recollected. “I didn’t think my alchemy was high enough to make one, but after a few failed attempts—on the last batch of spider’s silk even—I got lucky and the potion succeeded.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a small vial with a milky white substance inside.
Adeelee swallowed. “So you plan to—”
“I gave the Sparrows the money that I earned from selling Kronos his brother’s sword to pay my way to a faster meeting with the Dark Hand,” Jax interrupted. “Today would be the day. I’d use the potion, slip past all the guards unnoticed, and slit my brother’s throat.”
