“Wolf?” she asks hesitantly.
I answer with a sad nod. “It was … ” I take a look around the room.
It’s a guest room for a giant, but there are some things that Lothar has added to make it more comfortable for a commoner, such as a moveable stairwell that leads up to the bed.
“Let’s take a look,” Lothar says as he moves a giant stool into the center of the room.
“I can’t lift him.” I steel myself to stop a tornado of emotion from swirling in my stomach. “Please … ”
“I’ve got it,” Lothar says, suddenly taking charge. “Gadsaa, if you are going to stay around for this, please sit.”
Gadsaa looks from Sam to Lothar and from Lothar to me. “I have to get back to duty. Goodbye, Lothar.”
With that, and with her chin held high, she stomps out of the guesthouse, the floor shaking with each step she takes.
The clueless giant shakes his head as soon as she’s gone. “I really don’t know why she is behaving so poorly. Anyway, let’s examine Wolf.”
The scholarly giant places Wolf on the stool and removes the cloth that was covering his body. The big Tagvornin beast’s eyes are closed, his body incredibly stiff.
“What the hell happened?” Sam asks, her face a mixture of horror and concern. “And where’s Deathdale?”
I brief them on what happened in Drachma, how we had rigged the Drachma Killers guild to explode and how everything was going to plan until Stater soldiers, sent by Governor Florin Talonas, burst into the room.
“But it wasn’t the Stater soldiers who did this,” I say as my hands tremble. “It was Deathdale.”
“I knew it! That fucking bitch!”
“Please, we have a rule about cursing in Tael.”
“Shut up, Lothar,” Sam snaps at him.
“It was Deathdale’s energy that was used to ignite the explosives, the pine cone IEDs I devised. And rather than stop there, she continued to pour energy into the Canal District until she could no longer control her power. A sphere of energy formed around her and she exploded. Wolf got between us just in time, and took the brunt of the explosion.”
Sam bows her head. “And it killed him.”
“It did.”
Silence stretches between us, only to be interrupted by the giant.
“It sounds like Deathdale, and you as an extension, flew too close to the sun. An Icarus dilemma, if there ever was one.”
“Go ahead and lecture me.”
Lothar shrugs. “That’s not at all my intention, but you were warned about the consequences of riding to Drachma. Revenge is a game without a winner.”
“It wasn’t supposed to go this way. She promised … ” I take a deep breath, knowing better than to argue with a giant fully capable in the fine arts of reasoning. “She said she wouldn’t destroy the Canal District, and she couldn’t have possibly known her ability would overtake her like that.”
“She said or promised?”
“Said, Lothar, fuck. I don’t know. It was ... she agreed not to. That’s it. She agreed not to. And then she did. And this is the result, happy?”
“Why would I be happy that you lost your familiar?”
The giant scratches the back of his tangle of red hair, genuinely confused.
“It’s an expression of speech. Never mind. You wouldn’t get it. And he wasn’t my fucking familiar.”
“Language. They are serious about that here in Tael.”
Sam’s leatherbound Book of Time appears in her hand. She sits on the ground cross-legged in front of Wolf, and begins flipping through the pages.
“You aren’t thinking of using that spell, are you?” Lothar asks.
Sam nods stoically.
“But you aren’t at the right level,” he tells her.
I focus on Sam and her handle appears.
[Sam Raid, Level 6]
“You brought him here for a reason, didn’t you, Oric?” she asks me.
“I … I didn’t know if you could do anything or not. I just couldn’t leave him behind.” I bow my head. “You don’t have to do anything, Sam. Really. This is my fault. Completely my fault.”
“I’m aware.” She raises her hand and a platinum bracelet with blue accents materializes on her wrist.
“What’s that?” I ask as I get on my knees next to her.
“It’s a Blueshift wristband. As you know, I’m a Proxima Smuggler. I was part of the original Pilot Program in the 2050s, and I’ve advanced quite a bit over the last decade.” Sam shakes her head. “Hard to believe a decade has passed.”
“It is year 2069 for you up there, is it not?” Lothar asks.
“That’s right,” she says. “The Blueshift wristband banks all the EXP that I gain from any world I travel. It’s generally a one-to-one exchange. If I gain a level, I have the option of storing the EXP or taking the level. In my former role as an Illusionist, I took some of the levels and stored some of the EXP. But in a few of the other worlds I’ve been to recently, such as the shitty NASCAR world I told you about, Oric, I banked all my EXP. The band is also what allows me to teleport to my ship.”
“So you can insta-level up?” I ask.
“Exactly, and it’s what I’m going to do to get to the correct level to cast a spell known as Reverse Time.”
“Are you sure, Sam?”
Her soft eyes settle on me. “I wouldn’t offer it if I wasn’t sure.”
“What level will you advance to?” asks Lothar.
“Level twenty-one, so fifteen levels up.”
(^_^)
Sam touches her Blueshift EXP band and a prompt appears before her. After one last look in my direction, she accepts the prompt, and her wristband flashes green.
The definition of her cheekbones increases as her hair turns a shade darker. Her shoulders bulk up slightly and her neck elongates.
“Whoa!” she says as she leans forward. Her robes flash through a few color changes before settling on an ivory gray.
“My word! Are you all right, Sam?” Lothar asks.
“The feeling of leveling up instantly. I always forget how crazy it feels.” She fans her face with her hand. “Okay, one moment. Let me deal with my attribute points.”
“Don’t put too much in MIND. Take it from me.”
“I’ll dump at least half of it in MIND. I’m a mage. Being smart helps.”
Sam’s eyes flash as she doles out her points. While she does so, I look up at Lothar, who is entirely fascinated by the Blueshift wristband and its power. I can tell he’s itching to ask questions.
“Tell me you tossed some of your forty-five points in STRENGTH,” I joke.
“I put a few there, but dumped twenty-five into MIND, five into SPEED, five into DEXTERITY, seven into WILL.”
“Feel anything different?” Lothar asks.
“Not really.”
“So it doesn’t feel like your mind has opened up, and all this shit has poured into there?”
Sam looks at me funny. “Not really. I think you’re exaggerating what it’s like to put points in MIND.”
“Honest to God, that’s what happens every time I do it.” I think back to my previous avatars. “But you’re right, not all my avatars have reacted this way. Maybe it’s just me. Any new spells?”
She flips through her Book of Time, nodding her head as she interprets the script. “Several. I now have Spell Surge, which cuts down on the time it takes me to cast something. Time Skip takes me and any object I touch to be taken to the future, like teleportation, but with distance limits.”
“How much of a limitation?”
“About half a mile.”
I nod. “That’ll still be handy. What else you got?”
She peers down at her book. “Light Shadow. This allows for sudden, rapid movement akin to a shadow. It lasts for a fair length of time too, enough to get around a battle.”
“Can you, um, show us?”
“Sure.” Sam lifts her wand, and suddenly, she’s gone. Before I can l
ook around, I feel a tap on my shoulder.
“Damn, that’s cool,” I say as I catch the hourglass on her neck filling faster than it filled before. Her new Spell Surge ability must run constantly.
She sits again, the book in her lap.
“Let me see what else is in here. Ah, there’s also Expedited Retreat, which will definitely come in handy. It allows me, and anyone I’ve deemed as my party, to quickly leave a battle. Let me set it real quick.”
Sam lifts her wand and a static pink sphere appears on its tip. She holds it in the air above her head, scanning the text, and as she does, a sense of warmth trickles down my shoulders.
“That felt crazy!” says Lothar.
“Delay Injury should be self-explanatory.” She flips a page. “There’s also Memory Rot, which drains an opponent's memory, but I’ll have disadvantage when I cast it on someone at a higher level than me. Most of the attack spells are like that. There’s also Obelisk’s Gaze, which allows me to get a feel for future events, something I only felt as intuition earlier, when I warned you against going to Drachma. I fully comprehend this spell now.”
“Fuck me, you’re a powerhouse now! I was skeptical at first, especially with your spell recovery time, but damn, Sam.”
“Language.”
“No one is listening, Lothar.”
“I also have a spell called Chrono Stasis, which stops time for an object.”
“You mean you can stop time and, um, move around or something?”
“Not exactly. It’s like freezing time, but only works on someone else. If I cast it on you, you’d be frozen for a short duration while Lothar and I could move.”
“Do you have one that freezes time completely?”
She flips through the book. “Oddly, no, but there are blank pages at the back. But whatever. Back to the new spells..”
“About those ... ” Lothar starts to say.
“There’s two more and they’re strictly offensive spells,” Sam cuts him off. “Future Encumbrance sends a delayed strike of chromatic energy at an object thirty seconds after it has been cast.”
“What’s the point of that?” Lothar asks.
“It allows for the enemy to try to block the attack,” I tell him. “Once an attack never comes, it throws them temporarily off guard and then the attack strikes.” I mimic what I mean. “Sam attacks me, I go to block it with my shield, and nothing happens. I look around, or start engaging another foe, and boom, it hits me.”
“Powerfully fantastic!”
“What’s your other offensive spell?” I ask.
“Arcane Tide. Casting it creates a wave of chromatic energy that forces enemies to relive past traumatic experiences and causes them damage.”
“Damn skippy!”
“Damn skippy is right,” says the pretty chronomancer. “Now. Let’s do this.” She stands and in that instant, I see the Sam I used to know, before she died and became an Hourglass Mage. It is a fleeting glance tethered to the way she holds herself, and even though she is now alive and well, it crushes me to get a glimpse of the way she was before all this.
And I don’t know why.
She’s the same Sam, but there is something different about her in her new role. Maybe I can chalk this up to her appearance, but I believe it is more than that, that her avatar’s class and subclass have fundamentally changed who she is in the game.
Shut up, Oric.
“Sorry,” I whisper to myself as I follow behind Sam.
The Hourglass Mage stands before Wolf, whose dead body still rests on the giant stool. She holds her Book of Time in one arm, her wand in the opposite hand. A shimmering spiral of pink magic from her hourglass necklace twists up her arm.
It settles on the tip of her wand, dissipates, and flares up again as she aims her wand at Wolf.
I gulp, the tension in the room now palpable.
Pink-hued smoke pours out of the end of her wand as she narrows her eyes on her target. With the flick of her wrist, her magic beams forward onto Wolf’s body, lifting the Tagvornin beast into the air.
Suddenly, Sam falls sideways; her ancient tome slides across the floor.
“Sam!” I move to her instantly just as I hear a familiar bark.
One glance over my shoulder and I see Wolf now standing on the giant stool, looking down at us excitedly.
Chapter Five: Jagraj the Giant Slayer
Wolf leaps down and runs to me. He jumps into my arms and I fall backwards. “Just give me a moment, Wolf!” I say as he licks my face. His big blue-green eyes, the wild grin on his face, his tongue beating out the side of his mouth – Wolf is truly alive. “Just a second, boy!” I tell him, tears of joy blurring my vision.
I get him off me and rush to Sam, who now sits cross-legged again, hunched over with her back to me.
“Are you okay?”
“Oric.” Lothar clears his throat.
I move around Sam to find her clutching her hourglass with trembling hands.
“What is it?” I take a knee before her.
Sam looks up at me and I gasp.
Wrinkles have appeared on her face in the form of crow’s feet and two hard lines on her forehead. The color has drained from her eyes; her skin has lost some of its sheen. Her confident, level-boosted posture from just moments ago has shrunk. She now resembles a woman in her late-forties who has taken good care of herself, yet is clearly reaching middle age.
“The spell aged you?”
Sam nods as she shows me the hourglass affixed to her necklace. The top bulb has developed a crack that resembles a cartoon drawing of lightning. The sand in the hourglass doesn’t change its position, defying gravity to remain stationary at the top of the bulb.
“It’s cracked,” Lothar says, his voice low and thoughtful.
“I knew it would crack,” Sam says with a deep breath in. “A spell like this is incredibly powerful. I couldn’t quite make out the text because it is written in Unigaean–”
“–You should have let me examine it yesterday! We examined the first part of your Book of Time.”
“I know I should have, Lothar, but like I told you before, I have a sense of what this book says and … ” Sam shivers. “Are you two cold?”
“I’m fine,” I tell her as I loosen my lavender cloak. “You can wear this.”
Sam hesitates.
“What?”
“It doesn’t exactly smell very fresh,” she finally says. “Plus the color.”
“What the hell is wrong with lavender?”
“So your sense of smell has improved, but your fashion sense has remained the same,” says Lothar. “How fascinating!”
Sam chuckles. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Well, if you don’t want my cloak, I don’t know what to tell you. But in all seriousness, thank you so much, Sam – Cyn,” I say, using her real name. I feel a wave of emotion come but like any last warrior – ha! Fuck me – I swallow it down. “Really, Wolf is all I have. Well, and you.”
“And me,” Lothar adds.
“I’m not going to say I hardly know you, big guy, but we’ve only known each other for three, four days tops.”
“If tomorrow Unigaea ceases to exist, then these last three days really will mean something. That’s called giant logic.”
Wolf moves over to Sam and starts licking her face. He sits before her and she starts scratching him behind the ear. “I’m glad to see you again, Wolfie.”
Seeing the two together, alive, warms my heart.
Rather than say what I’m thinking and what the three of us know to be true – this is all my fault – I turn away from the scene to the human-sized door. I pause there for a moment, unsure of what I should do next.
Again, Sam intervenes.
“I need to rest,” she says, “and while he seems energetic, I believe Wolf should rest for the rest of the day as well. Lothar, didn’t you have something you wanted to show Oric?”
“Ah yes! My friend, Fafner, at the Tael’s Historical Reposito
ry, has something for you.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay, Sam?”
“It’s fine,” she says wearily. “Wolfie and I will be just fine.”
“I’d like to spend some time with him.” Wolf moves to me and hops onto his back legs. He starts to lick my face. “Easy, Wolf!”
“Please, let him rest just a while. He may seem excited, but he needs rest.”
“If you say so.” I lower Wolf’s two front paws to the floor. “You heard the lady, get some sleep.”
He whines, and I point to the rug. Slowly, with his tail tucked between his legs, Wolf makes his way over to the rug and plops down.
Lothar turns to the door. “Rest well, Sam, and we’ll be back in a little while. We can set off for the Rune Lands in the early morning.”
(^_^)
“It’s nice to have Wolf back,” Lothar says after we’re about a block away from his house. “While I myself can’t possess a dog, it is nice seeing you with one. And really, is there anything wrong with living vicariously through someone else?”
“I guess not,” I say as we take a left onto, well, a giant street. There is a park on the right side of the street with trees covered in cherry colored leaves, and benches around a fairly large pond.
It is afternoon now, and I hear a lunch bell ring in the residential neighborhood west of the pond.
“One could even argue that I’m living vicariously through my avatar.”
Lothar chuckles. “You know, Oric, I enjoy your wit. It is unrefined, but you do say clever things from time to time.”
“Thanks?”
“You’re welcome! Come, the Repository is this way.”
As we pass through the park, Lothar stops and speaks to an older couple sitting on a bench. He chats for a good ten minutes while I stare out at the pond, counting the turtles that have propped themselves up on tree limbs sticking out of the water.
The crimson sky overhead is at odds with this peaceful scene, and I’m yet again reminded that we have a bigger mission we are to attempt to accomplish, something I’m still uncertain about.
“It’s just up there, on that hill.” Lothar points to a building designed to look like a castle, but without the moat or the enclosed courtyard. I’ve been staring at the building since we entered the park, wondering if it was where the city leader resided.
The Last Warrior of Unigaea Box Set: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure Page 41
