The Way of the Clan 6: World of Valdira

by Dem Mikhaylov

  The Baroness nodded. “One with fire, the other with some kind of gray charge. What do you have of the unique cards?”

  Approaching the Baroness, Joe leaned over and whispered into her ear.

  “You brought this here?!” The Baroness roared. “Are you insane?!”

  “I told you— I felt it was needed. Ahem…”

  “You! You… I…”

  “The dispute is not over!” The strong voice of the guard broke up the dispute.

  “When we get back, we’ll talk about a few things, my dear,” promised the Baroness with a smile. “And many of the cards entrusted to you will go into the clan safehold! Then I’ll break off your legs and make you scour the threshold of Barad-gadur with your eyebrows! But for now, go and take him out!”

  “Got it! I’m going! I mean— yes?”

  “Yes!”

  With a smile, the Joker stepped forwards, holding three loaded tubes of Nyusha under his arm.

  The ancient guard didn’t hesitate, and the rock began to incline rapidly. And the joker lifted up his free hand and caught a few playing cards which had materialized there. His opponent smiled back and rustled his deck of a couple of dozen cards in an arc from one hand to the other. The card masters saluted each other.

  The third and final round was beginning…

  The card masters entered into battle simultaneously.

  As soon as the arena was covered with a protective dome, two cards flashed, and the next moment my jaw dropped in surprise— because the two opponents had done the same thing, and had attended to protection. A moss covered boulder appeared before the enemy, with a pained mouth and narrow slits for eyes. I had never seen such an enemy. Never in my life. And he didn’t look particularly dangerous— only invincible. Like any boulder three by three meters in height.

  Before our fighter slumped a giant piece of bright blue jelly, of such a size that it took up a third of the arena, and reached a height of four meters. As if a god passing over us had dropped a giant portion of fruit jelly, making a transparent blue wall before our fighter.

  “It’s a slim,” said Doc with surprise. “A very big slim! Did he make a mistake?! Wrong card?”

  Sh-h-h-hah!

  From the two wands of the enemy came a sparkling stream of deadly magic, hitting hard into the side of the quivering slim. A stream of fire— roaring hungrily, the inferno devoured a large chunk of the slim. And the other stream involved a bunch stone daggers, which almost reached the fearlessly standing card master of the Sleepless. What an attack…

  “No, I was wrong, not he,” the Doctor corrected. “If not for the slim…”

  Right. The actions of the Sleepless card master were correct. The slim absorbed the blows, decreasing a tenth in size, a barely noticeable smiley quavering sadly inside the translucent jelly. Blow followed blow, and the old man danced and laughed, standing atop the gray boulder.

  Why wasn’t our warrior responding?

  As soon as I thought this, a giant yellow-green mantis leapt from behind the slim, with daggers at the ends of his paws. And from under the trembling blue jelly, right out of the stone, another unknown monster emerged, leaving a trail of stone and sand and heading straight towards X.

  I saw a thick tubular body and a toothy mouth. A worm. Just like the worm of Murohrom, but not legendary. The monstrous insect ran into the card master, using his paws so fast that it seemed like it was a spinning aircraft propeller. Rising out of the earth, the worm furiously dug into the side of the bounder and began to eat him like a normal stone.

  “No!” The Baroness shouted furiously, kicking the ground. “Damn it! It’s obviously a trap!”

  The drawn face of the rock contorted, the stone began to crack, and the worm continued to devour the stone, while the enemy card master continued to repel the insect with streams of fire and stone needles. The gladiator arena in all its glory.

  How exhausted was our fighter? I have no idea. After all, I don’t know his skills. I only know that the more formidable the monster summoned, the faster the card master is depleted. So far, nothing looked too serious. The Sleepless warrior was successfully oppressing the enemy. It looks like the battle would be over quickly…

  B-b-b-baa-a-am!

  The old man’s boulder cracked, the drawn on face turned into an angry mask, and then the boulder exploded like a bomb. With a white flash, hundreds of fragments scattered, filling the arena with shells, and filling the slim as though it were a bun filled with raisins.

  The giant praying mantis was hammered into the wall.

  The worm… I do not know what happened to him, but he was certainly gone. The blue slim made a strange sound, and shrank down to the size of a small bull. Then he disappeared in another flash of the enemy’s wand.

  Where before had stood the boulder now towered some kind of bluish crystal prism… installed vertically, on a stone base. And what is this?...

  Above the scene, a long line of stone missiles was released. They killed the praying mantis in a second. Our card master shamefully flopped onto his stomach, dodging the missiles by an inch. He frantically shuffled the deck of cards in front of him. He didn’t dare cast a sideways glance at us, but it didn’t matter— it was obvious by his shaking hands that he had not been expecting such an incident.

  “I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him!” The Baroness fumed. The black panther in a wild rage…

  “We didn’t know what kind of stone it was either!” Growled the Baron. “And it was a bomb…”

  “A bomb?! It’s only a bomb on the outside! And look what’s inside! Just look!”

  At this moment the X walked in front of the lens. Through it one could see his distorted body— proportionally, he was the same, but the horns increased tenfold, and lightening trembled between them, and his chin and arms lengthened. The vile old man bleated, raised his fire wand, and let out a roaring stream of fire from his wand through the prism. Contrary to expectation, it didn’t hit the glass and reflect back, but passed through, at the same time being magnified about three hundred times. A long river of fire escaped the prism in an incandescent flame, and enveloped the arena in a fatal shroud.

  “O-o-oh…” A groan of doom resounded over the arena.

  Across the gladiator pit, the guardian quickly spun around its axis, flashing rainbow light.

  Clutching Doc’s shoulder, I peered into the roaring flames but saw nothing but the jet of fire, and plumes of smoke rising up into the air. The remains of our fighter?

  “The trump card beaten by another trump,” muttered Ul and laughed, ruffling the hair on the back of his head in dismay. He laughed and then paused, seeing the angry look of the Baroness.

  “He’s still alive…” She said loudly, looking at the fire by her feet. “He managed at the last minute… but that prism is a magnifier. X’s love such objects…”

  “At least twenty times amplification,” nodded the approaching Malice. “If I had one— I’d stop a herd of mammoths by incineration.”

  “First learn fire shaft without any misfires, great incinerator,” the Baroness snorted. “There he is! Returned to life!”

  How was the Baroness able to see through the flame?!

  “Alive!” The Baron confirmed, staring through a white telescope with black designs. “And the bloody demon continues using his fire wand! Just blasting like a furnace! Do you hear him? Giggling like an old goat…”

  The horned granddaddy rejoiced in vengeance, filling the arena with searing flames and mocking peals of laughter. And somewhere on the other side of the arena, our card master was fighting to stay alive… cards, by the way, were made of normal paper material. The enemy chose the fire wand for a reason…

  “He hasn’t burnt up yet?” Kaylen asked.

  “He’s alive!” The Baroness repeated. “Oh!”

  From the furnace came the very, very angry voice of the Joker:

  “A ram for you!”

  There was the sound of hooves— and then a loud ringing, as if from sh
attered glass. The flame vanished, as if the curtain of fire was drawn apart. We looked down eagerly into the arena.

  First we saw X, imprinted to the opposite wall and having dropped both of his wands. At his feet was the chopped-up crystal place, over the remains of which jumped the fiery ram— those dwell in the volcanic plateau of Roghalrome, in the fiery mountains and rivers of fire. The evil snout and incandescent horns, fire and smoke emanating from his mouth, and his hooves trampling the crystal plate. And his fleece was of fire, each curl a tongue of red flame.

  And at the other end of the arena stood the Joker— having turned into a black sooty figure with thinning hair. His clothes were in tatters. Gone was the chic purple suit with gold embroidery. He did not look very victorious, and it was his own fault. However, anyone would have blundered in this situation… and he had managed to survive.

  By the way, how was it that he survived?

  I discovered that there was a powerful warrior standing behind him— a figure clad in totally white armor. The head was covered with a visor, which had no slits for eyes. The warrior stepped over the cartridges for Nyusha, the incandescent pipes lying on the ground. The Joker had dropped them after the explosion.

  A warrior in white… completely blind.

  There was a sword in his left hand, divided into two colors— half scarlet and half blue. Some kind of very powerful elemental sword. A very large white shield in his right, with the logo of an open eye. The shield was slightly blackened— apparently, it had defended the Joker from the fire.

  But then it struck me. Mouth agape, I stared at the gaming nickname and level hanging over the head of the soldier.

  The Joker hadn’t summoned a monster!

  He had summoned a player!

  And the gray nickname read as follows: “Orbit Derriano.” Three hundred and thirty third level.

  “Ul… am I hallucinating? What is this?”

  “A dead man,” he grinned, glancing over his shoulder towards the end of the unit, where the carefree bald elf juggled four powerful blast potions at once…”

  “Kill!” The Joker rasped, pointing at the horned devil, throwing another card up into the air.

  A moment… and a white shadow darted forward.

  With an angry squeal, X was thrown into the wall of the arena again, emitting sparks and discharges, as though from old wiring.

  I watched with a completely dumbfounded gaze as the warrior darted forwards, and then looked back at the other Orbit on my side. What was happening?

  Coincidence?

  I think not! I don’t believe it! Nicknames that are so similar cannot be a coincidence. No way.

  X yelled in the arena and I saw his flailing body soar upwards like a rocket. And he smacked into the top of the tournament dome. On his way down, he threw two cards at once.

  Sh-h-h-hah!

  A flying “sausage” with a harness caught the X. And then it took the rider up to the top of the dome, away from the charred stone where stood the silent white warrior. And from the other card… what the hell?!

  Down tumbled a mass of tentacles! There were no suckers, but wiggling whitish tentacles twitching with electricity. It was the size of a solid house.

  “Medusa!” Shouted the Baron. “Medusa!”

  It was a huge jellyfish… a gelatinous body the size of a giant! And where were the white warrior and the joker? I couldn’t find them among the writhing tentacles. From the top of the dome came a muffled shriek and the scene suddenly erupted in a white powerful flash. I went blind for a few seconds, as the gaming system reported to me. And I was protected by the magical barrier. What would it have done if I had been inside? Would I have gone blind for an entire day?!

  The flare subsided only after a full minute.

  A minute of electric hell.

  When it finally cleared, I saw that the jellyfish’s life had gone to zero. The tentacles were still, and the body was deflating like a punctured soccer ball. A couple of agonizing seconds and the monster disappeared, leaving behind some clumps, a strange fog, and a sea of electricity. A few charges slithered across the stones. From above came the malevolent laughter of X, but he didn’t laugh for long, because he was hit by the shield of the white soldier. Moreover, he wasn’t just hit, but hit with a tremendous force. The “sausage” squealed thinly and went into a steep dive, apparently deciding to ram the offender. X sent a few cards up into the air.

  What the hell is this guy’s limit?!

  He keeps pulling aces out of his sleep, the damn goat!

  And the cards are not the usual ones— bright purple with red spots, wrapped in a greenish halo of light. I don’t know anything about them— but, it seemed plausible that the card was harboring some kind of nuclear Tyrannosaurus.

  But our side had decided that it was time to end the fight.

  The white warrior rushed forwards. With a slight hiss, the elemental sword cut through the card, which had not yet activated. Passing between two electric rocks, the Joker stepped forward, holding something with both hands above his head. It was exuding a copious golden glow— gold and white waves of light beat in all directions.

  Is this a card?

  It seems, that it is… but it’s impossible to distinguish a clear outline.

  What’s “inside?” I had only seen this glow in objects the Demons had. But there was no way that one of them had been put into a card… was there?

  But the behavior of the Baroness spoke volumes. Standing on the sidelines, she was cursing heavily:

  “And why does he have that?! Why?! I’ll destroy him! I’ll tie him up! No! I’ll chop him up, make a salad out of him, I’ll take out his eyes and make him eat them! Not here— in real life! I’ll tear out his limbs without anesthesia!”

  I shivered. And Joker also noticed the face of the Baroness and hesitated, looked at the white warrior with the gray nickname.

  The warrior didn’t disappoint. The flying sausage blundered, having failed to dodge the warrior’s thrown shield. From the blow the flying sausage went into a steep dive, and the old man sitting on its back cursed in his own language, ran his hands under his shirt… and then was torn off of the saddle with a tight grip on his throat. The card master dangled helplessly in the grip of the white warrior, having completed his incredible jump. The hooves of X didn’t reach the rocky arena. His lips moved silently, but he was not able to make a sound. The white warrior literally squeezed the life from him, and rather casually too— the warrior did not stand, but walked around the arena, picking up his shield, and then his sword, and sticking it into the back of his victim. What horror…

  Past the two enemies… no, the soldier and his dying victim… a black shadow swept, but the warrior evaded him easily. It was a giant black beast with two meter straight horns like red and yellow spears. The next moment his front legs were undercut by the white warrior, and the beast fell straight onto the rocks. What a spectacle— the silent knight places his armored foot on the neck of the bull, and holds in one hand the horned card master demon, the elemental sword shining in his free hand…

  The Joker hastily lowered the golden glowing rectangle, his face just as agitated, joyous and disbelieving as someone sentenced to death. The shining thing disappeared into his waist bag, and then both enemies— the horned X and the beast summoned by him— abruptly disappeared. A few objects fell to the floor of the arena— among them, I noticed a few playing cards.

  “It’s a Templar,” Kira said quietly, looking at the warrior in white. “A white Templar. One of the most serious subspecies in the paladin class, extremely narrow specialization. Lots of practice, including starting the day with a mandatory twenty-minute prayer in the temple. Which players would be able to do prayers three times a day? And if you are battling during this time, you must stop what you are doing! It’s insane. And if there is a siege of the citadel? Or in one of these crazy raids? Where are you supposed to find the time? I’d never do it!”

  “Why are you so bitter, huh Kira?” I whisp
ered softly. “Jealous?”

  “Because it’s a damn food class!” Said Trouble. “But the requirements are too much! Anyway, you should console me! I would like such skills too…”

  “That I can see,” I nodded, remembering the white shield.

  “A worthy victory!” Bellowed the guard. “A victory worthy of a very great reward!”

  Three colored beams at once flashed into a quarry, leaving behind deep trenches. And they were not empty— there were black stones, oval shaped ones, pink stones, rectangular ones, and ones which were purple and round.

  “A-a-a-ah…” Bom fell to his knees. “Ros, why the hell did we take these freeloaders with us? It would’ve all been ours… I would have killed him myself for this…”

  Our jaws dropped. Just now the orc had declared that the players who had dragged us through all the monsters and obstacles were nothing more than dead weight.

  Bom, I think, had gone crazy in the overabundance of money… and here, indeed, there was a lot. These were rune stones. Ideal amplifiers of defenses and attacks. They could be inserted into equipment or into other items.

  “Should we kick him out of it or something?” Said a warrior dwarf of a rather large level, looking at the kneeling Bom.

  “What are you talking about?!” Yelled the Joker with a wild indignation. “You saw what happened! I ran away! You saw what he did?! Did you?! I’m going to pummel you so hard, orc, that you’re gonna…”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Softly purred the Baroness, appearing behind the Joker and putting her hand on his shoulder. “Soon, I’m going to expand your horizons about thinks like…”

  The Baroness leaned to his ear and began to whisper. I didn’t catch what she said, but could see the face of the Joker turning greenish and his eyes open wide, his jaw agape.

  Behind their backs, the majestic white soldier was already turning into a grayish silver mist. The warrior was “released.” And I was almost certain it was because of the bald elf Orbit, because I saw the Baroness cast a glance towards the back of the troops, where four warriors were keeping him at bay, not allowing him to see the Templar warrior. It was because of this the Templar was released so quickly, though he could easily continue to protect Joker.