Glancing around, I realize that my current pillar is the centermost ones. Being as such, I start another pine cone on the opposite side of the one that I’ve just set.
“Fuck,” I whisper as I fumble the pine cone and it falls into the water. Once it pops back to the surface, I drop down to retrieve it and climb back up to the top. “It’ll dry,” I say as I get the pine cone in place. I cushion it with more Aramis weed, then add some more seaweed and more burn bush.
As I move to the next column, my thoughts drift to the last few days, and how different they’ve been from my life just a few weeks back.
This is one thing I’ve never been able to grasp about humanity – the futility of it all, ha!
Thinks a man permalogged into a digital world, sticking explosive toy-soldier-infused pine cones to the underside of a guildhall filled with the worst Player Killers an online game has ever known.
Once I’m finished, I drop back into the water. I swim to the next one just as a large catfish surfaces at the far end of the columns. It stares at me for a moment, the beast easily the size of a sheep, and I instinctively go for my sword.
“Fuck,” the curse word leaves my lips as I get the déjà-vu feeling. Having had one underwater battle against a sea dragon, I’d like not to face anything else.
My heart settles as the fish drops back in, but keeps its fin out long enough for me to see it swim away from the guildhall.
Still, not taking any chances. I stay frosty – easy to do in frigid water – as I put the fifth, sixth, and seventh pine cones in place.
I climb the eighth pillar and get to it again, affixing two to this one as it faces the back side of the guildhall, and I want to make sure any fuckers standing back there get what is coming for them.
I lower back down to the water this time, cautious of anything that may be swimming around me.
A couple more columns to go.
Chapter Twenty-One: The Fate of Icarus
I wouldn’t say Deathdale awaits me anxiously in our hotel room, her legs wide and ready for more, but she does go for me immediately after I’ve returned, and it doesn’t take her more than two kisses to notice the smell of the ocean on my skin. So we move from the bed to the hot stone bath, which quickly warms (advantage of hooking up with a Solar Mage). Once I’m clean, it’s back to the bed after I’ve lit some candles, and from there, onto the floor.
Animals.
At some point, Wolf gets tired of watching our digital coitus, so he heads out onto the balcony and rests there with his nose sticking out from the bannister.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” I say after everything's said and done. We’re back on the bed, and I’m still breathing more heavily than I would like.
Deathdale, her blanket pulled to her chest, shrugs it off. She rests now with her back to the headboard, her cheeks slightly red, a smile on her face.
“I hope you didn’t, um, lose any energy.”
She chuckles.
“What? We have big plans for tonight.”
“A date?”
“Yes, you could call it that.”
“My energy level is fine.”
I face her, my head propped up on my hand. “So, what now? You hungry?”
Deathdale rolls her eye.
“What? Did I say something wrong? That took a lot out of me. Remember, I’d been underwater for like two hours or something before everything that just happened. It’s been a day.”
I nod to our discarded clothes on the floor as if they hold the answer to some oft-sought-after question.
“Just a little longer.” She sighs and closes her eye.
With little else to do, I move closer to her, pressing my face against her warm chest. She has her gloves on, yet her hands are still warm as they curl around my arm. It doesn’t take long for me to drift off, sleeping heavier with each breath in.
I don’t know how much later it is when I wake, but the sun has set and the sky has gone from crimson to, well, dark crimson. Still a developing augury, still an Armageddon-to-be if someone doesn’t do something about it.
Doomsday.
I’ve grown used to the foreboding sky, and the fact that I’ve become so accustomed to gloom and doom strikes me as odd.
I try to recall my late afternoon dream. Something about Chicago, some colorful graffiti at the 18th Street station, a woman riding the train with striking features, her body that of a gazelle, her shoulders broad like a yogini, her hair decorated with feathers, her features sharp not unlike the Obelisk.
I settle on an image of her dark, lifeless eyes boring a hole in my soul.
Remind me not to take long naps.
After a long yawn, I move away from Deathdale, who has turned to her side with her back to me, the blanket draping over her body and accentuating the curve of her shoulder. Wolf comes in and makes the whining sound he makes when he’s hungry.
It’s dark in our room now, but I don’t need light to take something from my list.
“I’ve got … ” A quick swipe through my inventory and I see I have some jerky left. Don’t know where I got it, as I thought I had eaten it all; but there it is, so I grab it and toss the majority to Wolf.
He leaps in the air to catch a big piece and swallows it down without even tasting. I chew my piece and turn to the balcony, my clothes appearing on my body as soon as I take my second step.
A breeze lifts to meet me, carrying with it the smell of the sea and fire burning in a few fireplaces in the Canal District.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing. Just a dream I had.”
Deathdale steps up behind me, her clothing tight to her body. She seems well rested, happy even. The candles in our room have been lit, likely her doing.
“About what?”
The door smashes open and two Stater soldiers burst into the room.
(^_^)
Stater soldiers!?
My mind can hardly comprehend what’s happening as everything goes to bullet time – my movements slowing, the world around me frozen, my heart stuck in place.
Time speeds up.
“Shit!”
Wolf leaps to tackle the first Stater soldier; my armor attaches to my body and I go for the next man, who wields two short swords.
[Stater Soldier, Level 19]
Two swords lunge at me and I bail left, clipping my shoulder on an end table and crashing into a chaise lounge. Both his swords come down and I roll away just in time.
Focus, focus, focus!
A solar blast from Deathdale sends the man with two swords into the mirror on the opposite side of the room. I go to Wolf, who has his jaw clenched around the other soldier’s wrist and is whipping his head back and forth.
-8 HP! -14 HP! -9 HP!
“Get out of the way!” I shout to Wolf just as another Stater soldier runs in.
How the fuck did they know!?
My Splintered Sword drawn, I drive it into the skull of downed soldier.
Instakill!
Instinct has taken over; the fight for survival has once again beaten the living shit out of the calculating part of my psyche.
We will not go down this way.
Wolf greets the other man as I try to pry my weapon out of the Stater soldier’s face. Shit is harder than it looks! I get a grip on it and yank it out, splashing the wall with blood.
Another blast from Deathdale slices the arm off the man with two swords.
-378 HP! Critical hit!
He cries out, the wound instantly cauterized, as I go to meet the next Stater soldier running into the room.
Our swords clank together; he tries again and I parry, my eyes catching yet another soldier coming through the entrance.
We have the advantage, I remind myself, smiling at the soldier before me. As long as we can pick them off as they come in, the fact that they’re entering a fatal funnel will work to their detriment.
Oomph!
A surprise boot to the gut knocks the air out of me, and
I just barely raise my arm in time to meet my assailant’s follow-up attack. We crash through a small table, shattering the crystal tea set on top. I quickly overpower him, only to be kicked in the back by another soldier.
This one flies across the room courtesy of Deathdale’s power.
She’s wasting her energy.
-96 HP! -111 HP! -73 HP!
I start to bash the soldier before me with the hilt of my sword. His helmet does little to protect him and soon, his face is covered in bloody welts.
I stand, lift the armor on his stomach with my toe, and quickly drive my blade in.
-258 HP! Critical hit!
I go to meet two soldiers Wolf has whipped into a frenzy. They’re trying to strike him, but there’s not enough room. They’re clearly afraid, and having trouble tracking him with the way he moves.
More are coming.
I don’t know how they’ve gotten here, and I get the sense it has something to do with Florin Talonas and possibly Metica, but they couldn’t possibly have moved this quickly. Word doesn’t spread that quickly in Unigaea; the place is designed that way.
Unless they were already en route.
“Do it!” I shout to Deathdale suddenly. “Destroy the guild! I’ll handle them!”
The Solar Mage stands poised at the balcony, the ends of her dress beating in the wind, energy radiating off her body.
She looks at me, and that’s when the fire starts.
(^_^)
The candles near the drapes. The fire flares up just as another Stater soldier runs in.
A candle can’t be that strong … I think as the warmth from the raging flames meets my face. The true culprit comes in the form of a fire-tipped arrow, which sails through the open balcony door and strikes our bed.
“Destroy the guildhall!” I shout to Deathdale as I bring my Splintered Sword up and use sheer strength to knock one of the Stater soldiers backwards. Wolf goes in for the kill and I go in to protect Wolf as he mauls.
Sparks fly as my sword meets the sword of the soldier in front of me, as another fire arrow flies into the room.
A one-second glance over my shoulder and I see Deathdale charging, a spiral of blistering red and blue light curling up her legs and arms as a halo forms around her head.
-148 HP!
Wolf snarls and growls as he shakes the life out of his prey.
I cut one of the soldiers down, my foot moves onto his face, and I press my weight forward, snapping his neck.
-59 HP! Critical hit!
I meet the sword of the last soldier standing. He completely misses my right fist, and as he stumbles back from my punch, I swipe his sword out of his hand. I charge him, get him by the neck and slam him into the wall, knocking his helmet off.
-93 HP!
Another fire arrow comes from the open balcony door and is deflected by a tentacle of light radiating off Deathdale’s body.
I return my attention to the soldier in my grips.
“Who sent you!?” I scream, my hand tightening around his neck. I slam the back of his head into the wall again and lift him.
A wild look paints over his eyes. He spits in my face and I end it right there with my Splintered Sword.
Instakill!
“Fucker!” I shout as I kick his dead body.
Wolf looks up at me, blood dripping from his chin, his eyes beady, and nods. He returns to tearing out the throat of the man on the ground before him.
I make my way over to the Solar Mage and crouch near her, ready to protect her if more soldiers run in. The light radiating off her makes it hard to make out her features. I cover my brow with my hand just as a concentrated beam of energy six feet tall and eight feet wide erupts from her body.
The beam of light hits the Drachma Killers’ guildhall and for a moment, nothing happens.
In that moment, I look at Deathdale, her body nearly translucent as light radiates from every pore. The explosion that follows shakes the ground, rattles the furniture not already toppled over in the room, and fills the Canal District with fire – and rather than drop down, as I expected Deathdale to do, she actually moves higher into the air.
A fire arrow sails towards her and it’s licked out of the air by a tendril of her solar energy as she continues to fry the Canal District.
My eyes settle on a sphere of vibrant energy forming around the Solar Mage’s body, energy coming into her from every direction, as if she were at the core of a plasma globe.
Another explosion rattles the hotel room.
“Enough!” I scream to Deathdale as I come to grips with what she’s doing. I reach for her only to be tossed backwards into the room by her flaming aura of light.
Wolf meets me seconds later and I place my hands on him. “I’ve got to stop her! She’s trying to destroy the entire district!”
I push myself up, the lights before me so bright I can no longer make out Deathdale’s form.
All I can see is a radiating inner sphere, red tendrils of light fizzing out as they add power to the outer shell.
She’s now ten feet above the balcony.
I look away, black spots appearing on my vision pane from staring too long at the orb of blistering light.
“Deathdale! Stop!” My lungs hurt as I scream her name as loud as I possibly can. “Deathdale, please!”
I can no longer make out my surroundings as everything around me is bathed in light.
Something grabs me from behind. It pulls me backwards and I fall.
It feels like I’m falling through a rabbit hole; my sense of space is obliterated, my spatial awareness null.
I feel Wolf tugging at my ankle.
“Wolf!” I turn and grab him by the neck, trying to pull myself up. He snaps his teeth at me as another explosion rocks the Canal District.
She’s destroying everything!
“We’ve got to stop her!” I cry out as globes of energy filter off the sphere around her body.
I pull away from Wolf as the big Tagvornin beast circles around in front of me. He collapses into my arms as if he’s playing with me, as if this is a game.
He pins me to the ground.
“Get off, Wolf!”
Rage.
No! I scream inside my head as I feel my muscles tensing. I swallow hard, try to push Wolf off again without activating my rage.
RAGE!
“No, goddammit!”
Suddenly, as if someone has sucked all the light out of the Deathdale, the energy radiating from her form filters away. Darkness accented by flickering fire returns to the room as the Solar Mage drops to the ground.
“Get off!”
I just manage to push Wolf off me when a blade of light from the sky strikes the Solar Mage, and the sphere reforms around her.
In that instant, with Wolf between us, Deathdale explodes.
I’m tossed backwards into a wall, through the wall, into the hallway, and through another wall, where I’m stopped by a bedpost.
My vision pane flashes. I can barely make out my surroundings.
Rage.
No! I scream in my head. Not now, please not now! Save it!
The words leave my lips before I can even comprehend them. “Wolf! WOLF!”
I press up, dizzy, the world spinning around me, moving from slow motion to an out of body experience and back again. I take a step towards the entrance to the room and drop my hand onto the door handle.
I turn it and shoulder the door open.
Everything in the hallway is black from the blast. The smell of smoke and seared flesh is ever-present. I move to the door of our hotel room, dragging my left leg. The door is locked, so I enter from the hole I just made.
“Wolf!” I cry out again, my throat parched, my voice hoarse as smoke hangs heavy in the air. I feel something at my feet and know instantly it’s not a dead Stater soldier.
I collapse onto Wolf’s form. “Wake up, boy!” I tell him, my hand on his jaw. I press my head into his chest, listening for a heartbeat.
&nb
sp; Nothing.
Even with my ears ringing, even with the sound of flames still burning in the room and the cries from the street below and the smell of burning flesh all around me, I know beyond any doubt that Wolf is dead.
I press my head against his body, sobbing.
“No!” I scream, a sudden burst of strength coming to me. I bend and place both arms around Wolf’s body. A deep breath in, tears still streaming down my face, I try to lift the Tagvornin beast.
I’m able to lift him a few feet off the ground before my knees buckle.
I try again, and as I do, I hear a piercing whisper-scream at the back of my mind.
RAGE!
My muscles tense and harden, my vision pane constricts, and my veins bulge as an intense weight moves through my body, increasing my strength.
Everything is a smoky, flame-licked, blood-ridden blur as I make my way out of our hotel room, Wolf’s dead body hoisted over my shoulders.
The end.
BOOK THREE: The Red Plague
Chapter One: Existence Check
My feet are weighted. Wolf’s body is heavy. The snow swirling around me is cold. The blood running through me is warm, charged. The city of Drachma burns in the distance, its sparks still visible from a mile out.
The city will never be the same, nor will I.
My vision pane is still flashing, my rage ability somehow still working. I should have passed out long ago, I should have fallen at the city gates, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, tried, hanged.
My breath is visible before me, proof I’m still alive.
A terrible image comes. The Solar Mage standing on the balcony awash with color, burning from the inside. Deathdale disintegrating is still fresh on my mind.
It was her choice, she brought this upon herself.
“Deathdale,” I exhale her name, my breath a cloud of steamy smoke. “You killed Wolf,” I say bitterly, another sob coming on as my vision pane flashes red and white.
I fall to one knee, adjust Wolf’s dead body over my shoulders again and take another step forward.
Press onward.
On wolfback, getting to Tael would take me two days tops. In my current state, it’s going to be longer, colder too.
The Last Warrior of Unigaea Box Set: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure Page 38
