There’s not a lot of time to discuss our options. Lothar spots them about twenty minutes later, their forms dark against a snowy hill. The scholarly giant immediately ducks down, even though we’re in a position that will make it difficult for them to see us.
“They’re on horses,” Lothar says, his breath visible in giant clouds of steam. “I believe they are dragging Florin Talonas behind them. Unless that is someone else’s body.”
Sam brandishes her wand.
“Get as close to them as you can,” I tell her and Wolf. “I’ll bail off, and you fire off the first shot. What are you going for?”
“Temporal Decay. I hope to take out their weapons. That should give us some surprise advantage. If you can get a hit in, even a small one, I can work on one of their wounds.”
“Good call.”
“And I’ll be ready,” Lothar whispers, “behind the three of you and ready to offer giant support.”
“I like that, giant support.”
“I thought you would, Oric.”
Pink energy sparks out of the end of Sam’s wand. “I don’t know if this will work on the three of us, but let’s try it anyway. Light Shadow.”
As soon as Sam says the words, it feels as if my lungs have doubled in size. I get the sense that I could run ten miles now without stopping, that I could swim around the continent in a day’s time.
Wolf takes off and I swear I hear a sonic boom as we get moving.
It’s like we’ve entered into a wind tunnel. The Theory of Relativity comes into play – Einstein’s ghost again making his presence known in a dreamworld – and I’ve adjusted to the speed in a matter of moments.
It’s when I leap to the side and hit the ground hard that I realize just how fast we were traveling. I roll like a goddamn concrete tumbleweed tossed from a Tesla eighteen wheeler just as Sam fires her first blast at the two Drachma Killers.
Shit!
The spell doesn’t work, but it does take the Killers off guard.
I hop to my feet, my electric shield on my arm, and my crossbow pistol in my other hand. As Wolf loops back around, I charge – and boy do I fucking charge! – at the Killer with the spiky blond hair.
I slam into his horse.
He flies off as the horse rears up onto its back legs, crying out with terror as electricity courses through its body.
-289 HP! Critical hit!
Sam whips past me; Baldy takes a swipe at her with his morning star and misses.
On high alert is an understatement. If either of these fuckers get a hit on Sam, Wolf or me, we’re fucking toast.
My Splintered Sword in hand and my shield on my other arm, I engage the younger Drachma Killer. He meets me with his staff; I bring my shield up and send him back with a bolt of electricity.
-79 HP!
Confidence swells and I quickly bottle it. If there ever was a time not to get cocky, now is that time.
A grin on the Killer’s face, he swipes his staff at me, and I’m tossed backwards by a purple mana explosion.
“Fuck!” My skin is on fire; boiling water rips through my core and out every orifice of my body.
I stagger to my feet, ignoring the pain, wiping my face to see if I’m bleeding. The blond haired Killer approaches me, his staff at the ready, a giant orb of electric purple light forming at the business end of his staff and a menacing look on his face.
Rage.
“No, not now,” I grit.
I brace myself for what’s to come, pain spiraling up through my body as I get into a defensive position.
The Killer falls, his purple blast goes wide, and I look down to see Florin Talonas, gagged and bound, having just used his legs to take the Killer off his feet.
The horse that Florin is tied to lifts its head and falls back, the electricity I’ve sent surging through it finally killing the magnificent beast.
My opening clear, I stumble over to the Drachma Killer who’s nearly back onto his feet.
Instakill!
+1 Infamy!
I ignore the prompts as I press my blade deeper into the back of his skull.
(^_^)
Florin glances up at me, both his eyes black and his face puffy. Chunks of his hair have been pulled out and his nose has been broken. There’s blood in the whites of his eyes, dried blood on the gag in his mouth.
“Thanks,” I tell him.
He only nods.
Now for the last Killer.
I look right to see Baldy turning in circles on his horse as he tracks Wolf and Sam.
A blue fire lifts from the end of his morning star and cuts into the ground before Wolf, sending the Tagvornin beast to the ground. Sam flies off and hits hard as well, her paralyzed legs sliding to the right in a cringe-worthy way.
Rage.
“Saving it!” I scream at the voice inside my head.
I advance towards the Killer on horseback, my electric shield before me, and I’m just about to slam into his horse when a blazing blue blast tears me off my feet.
It throws me backwards a good five yards. I land next to Florin, the wind completely knocked out of me.
“Fuck!” I cough, tasting blood in my mouth. Shock comes over me as I realize that my arms aren’t working.
My leg muscles balloon and contract in an excruciating way. My biceps feel as if they’re about to burst. It’s as if each rib in my chest is contracting, like a slowly squeezing hand on the stress ball that is my inner organs.
I sense the Drachma Killer hopping down from his horse. He stands over me now, his feet on either side of my head as a sick mutated blade spreads up his arm. Biomatter lifts off the weapon as it spreads; pulsing acid green veins swell on his arm as the blade hardens.
He sneers at me, brings his blade up and …
Florin Talonas rolls over, using his elbows to prop himself up over my body.
The Killer’s blade goes through Florin’s chest, and is just about to pierce my armor when the ground rumbles.
Lothar kicks the living shit out of the Drachma Killer.
So focused was he on growing his mutated weapon that he didn’t hear the giant approach, nor does he stand a chance against Wolf, who has now latched onto Baldy’s throat.
All this happens in the peripheral as I try to process the fact that Florin just saved me.
He’s on top of me now, a gag in his mouth, the life leaving his body, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. I’m still paralyzed; and I’m well aware, listening to the sound of Florin’s last breath, that Sam won’t be able to save him.
Florin bleeds out onto my armor, his face pressed next to mine, his hair sticky with blood.
The sense of feeling returns to my body. I roll Florin off, sigh bitterly and stagger over to the last Drachma Killer.
Wolf has ripped the bald man’s throat to shreds. He steps aside as soon as I approach, saving the kill for me as always, blood dripping from Wolf’s chin.
Baldy spits blood as he curses at me. No fear in his eyes, no trembling. He’s ready to die.
My blade comes up, and with as much strength as I can muster, I give the man the death he so desires.
Instakill!
Infamy + 1
Chapter Nineteen: Predestined Randomness
“Florin’s dead,” Lothar says, now crouched before the former governor of Stater’s body. “We’ve failed.”
“Relax,” I tell the scholarly giant as I limp over to Sam. Wolf joins me in a matter of seconds.
“Let’s get this over with.” Her Book of Time appears in her lap and she flips to a page covered in chicken scratch.
“Here?” I ask, still out of breath.
“Is there any reason we should wait any longer?”
“We should ride to the plague,” I say. “Do it there.”
“No need to ride very far,” Lothar says as he stands. He walks to the top of the hill and looks to the north, his hand shielding his eyes. “I believe it is less than two miles away.”
“You can see
it from up there?”
“I can.”
I join him a minute or so later and gasp when I see a hundred foot high red wall of translucent lava.
It has moved over the crest of a mountain in the distance, and from our vantage point, I can tell that it is quickly spreading down the slope. At the rate it’s going, my guess is that it will be here in the next thirty minutes or so.
“Is it me, or does it look like it is moving quickly?”
Lothar nods. “It is definitely moving faster than I anticipated.”
“Sam, you have to see this,” I call down the hill. She joins us moments later, on wolfback, her Book of Time tucked under her arm.
“Damn.”
“Damn is right.” I place my hand on Wolf’s head and scratch him behind the ears.
“Help me down,” she tells me. “We need to do this now.”
“There’s something else out there,” Lothar says. “Hold on.”
He turns back to his meditations box, which is about halfway up the hill. I help Sam down, and she lifts her own legs and places them before her. Her Book of Time now open across her lap, she returns to the same page she was on earlier, which I can only assume is the Reverse Time spell.
Wolf barks and glances from Sam to me.
After he has rejoined us, Lothar brings his monocular to his face and aims it at the source code bomb. “Just as I suspected.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“People are throwing themselves into the Plague.”
“Wait, did you say throwing themselves?”
“That’s exactly what I’m seeing.” He shakes his head in disbelief. “I suppose this is part of the human condition that NPCs have picked up on.”
“Committing suicide?”
“In a time of great calamity, yes.”
“Get the First Artifact out,” Sam says briskly. “We’re doing this.”
Doubt rises in my chest and I swallow it. This is what we’ve agreed to do. And with this thought comes another: This may be our final course of action.
I equip the scepter and look it over. The primitive design is at odds with the beautiful ruby at its tip.
“Where do you want the First Artifact?” I ask her.
“Just put it on the ground; I don’t want to risk the spell hitting your hand.”
I place it on the ground before her as Sam lifts her wand, glittery pink magic trickling out of the tip.
“Wait.” I crouch before her and swallow hard. “How … if it kills you, how will we get in contact?”
“We’ll get in contact in Tritania, or the real world.”
“But how, Sam?” I ask. “Tritania is a lot larger than Unigaea. Even if this works, how will we get in contact there?”
“By our handles.”
“Oric Rune, Sam Raid.”
“Two short names meant for one another!” We both look up at Lothar and he shrugs. “This is the end of the world as we know it! No time for formalities.”
Holy shit, the giant is right.
I grin at Sam and reach my arms out to hug her.
“Careful with the wand,” I joke.
Wolf barks, walking in a circle, and I swear the only thing keeping him from tackling both of us and licking our faces is the points I put in MIND, which have made him more considerate.
“But how?” I ask as I pull back. “How will we get in touch up there? Or in the next place?”
“Don’t worry, Oric.” She laughs softly. “You act like we don’t live in the 21st century where everything is accessible in a matter of moments. It would take Ramjet all of two milliseconds to find you, in a Proxima world and up there.”
“That’s fast!” adds the scholarly giant.
“And you’ll do it? You’ll try to find me?”
“I already have found you. Don’t worry,” she says, a light behind her eyes I haven’t seen before.
“Maybe we could meet in real life, in Indianapolis.”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t know how long it will take for me to regain my strength after being permalogged in.”
“Let’s not worry about that now.”
“Okay, you’re right,” I say, with regret heavy on my heart. I know I should say more, but this is all I can seem to get out: “But you promise to contact me?”
“I do.”
“I mean, it, Sam. Cyn.”
“You have my word, Eric.”
(^_^)
Sam lifts her wand and points it at the First Artifact. She whispers the phrase, “Reverse Time,” and the light from her wand strikes the scepter.
I step back as the intensity of her magic increases, evident in the way the life is completely and utterly sucked out of Sam’s body.
It begins with falling hair. The effects of the spell appear on her skin as age marks, bruise colored bags sagging beneath her eyes. She loses her luster. Wrinkles move across her forehead, and her shoulders sink, the skin tightens on her frame, veins appear on her hands.
Sam’s eyes roll back into her head and she collapses.
Wolf whips himself into a frenzy.
He barks, nudges her, looks at me with concern in his blue-green eyes, all to no avail. I keep my emotions in check, biting my lip as I hold back tears.
Lothar is the first to speak after Sam has expired.
“Goodbye, Sam Raid,” he says, the sadness in his voice something I’ve never heard from the socially daft giant.
“The scepter has changed,” I manage to say. Not able to fully process watching Sam age to death, I lift the First Artifact and focus on the task at hand.
It’s what she would have wanted, I tell myself.
“What do you mean the scepter has changed?”
I turn away from Sam – out of sight, out of mind. Lothar drops to a knee and I show him the grip of the scepter, which now has carved cubes with numbers on it that can swivel.
“It’s for coordinates,” he says almost immediately. Wolf barks, still not sure what has happened to Sam.
“I know, Wolf, I know. Just … we’ll deal with that in a moment. We’ll see her again, dammit.” I choke back a sob. “I know we will, dammit. Lothar, what are the coordinates to Tritania?”
“Eight, sixty-seven, fifty-three, zero, nine.”
“Eight, six, seven, five, three, oh, nine,” I mumble as I get the cubes in place. “Okay. How do I activate it?”
Lothar considers this for a moment. “My guess would be it has something to do with algomagic, which Sam had but you do not possess.”
“What about my rage ability? Is that algomagic?”
“Brilliant idea, Oric! Your rage, given to you by the Obelisk, is most definitely a form of algomagic. Do it. Activate your ability, see if it works.”
“But I can only activate it once per day …”
“I believe you mentioned back in Tael that it lasted longer than you expected. Is this correct?”
I instantly recall the long overnight journey for which I was fueled mostly by my rage ability and the stamina-boosting Jatla root. “That’s right, it has been lasting longer.”
“Then do it, rage, and open a portal.”
“Um … ?” I glance up at the eager giant.
“What are you waiting for, Oric?”
Rage.
“Well?”
“Let me try again,” I say, steeling myself.
RAGE!
My veins pulse, my muscles enlarge, a million voices scream inside my skull. Everything is jittery now, my vision pane flashing at its edges. I lift the scepter, and as soon as I do, blue energy spreads down my arm.
The blue energy meets the cubes on the grip of the First Artifact. The cubes fill with light, each filling completely before the energy moves to the next cube. The energy passes the cubes, moves down the shaft, and bubbles at the bottom of the red ruby.
A black hole materializes before me, blue energy from the scepter attached to its perimeter.
I take a step back, and the portal enlarge
s. I take a few more steps away, and it’s now big enough for Lothar to theoretically crawl through.
Wolf goes bonkers. He barks, his tail tucked between his legs, and his ears pressed back as he moves away from the portal.
“I’ll test it,” Lothar announces.
I look up at him incredulously. “Are you sure?”
“Someone has to do it, and since this was based on my suggestion, I will be that person.”
“How will I know if it works?”
“You won’t, until you enter yourself.”
I nod at Lothar, proud to know him, proud to be friends with someone so brave. “I’ll go to Tael, I’ll get Gadsaa, anyone else that wants to go. Your parents. Any giant, you have my word, Lothar.”
“Thank you, Oric. You’ve been a great friend.” He smiles faintly, his eyes flickering behind his oval glasses. “I’m glad to have known you.”
The scholarly giant approaches the portal, which has started to suck in whirling snow and any debris in its vicinity.
The wind moving past my head is weak now, but I have the feeling it will pick up in intensity the longer the portal is open. I can still feel my rage ability, but something about it is different, hollow even.
I don’t feel the anger I’ve felt in the past, but I still feel as if my nerves are on fire.
“Goodbye, Lothar!” I call after him.
“Save as many as you can,” Lothar says with a sad smile on his face. “You are, after all, the Last Warrior, the last hero of this dying world.” He turns back to me and lifts his hand to wave. “Please, once you get to Tritania, find me.”
With that, Lothar ducks into the vortex and his body filters away.
(^_^)
I lower the scepter and the portal shrinks in size.
The way it shrinks reminds me of water going down a drain. I don’t know how long the portal will remain, but something tells me it is tied to the fact that I still have the First Artifact equipped.
The soil next to me begins to morph.
I draw my blade, ready for anything. Wolf barks wildly as roots lift from the ground, forming the body of a slim woman. Armor grows over her body, her disco ball eyes take shape, and the back of her helmet elongates until she resembles a humanoid insect.
The Last Warrior of Unigaea Box Set: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure Page 55
