SpeedRunner (Tower of Babel Book 1)

by Adam Elliott

  Cayden knew from Immolatus' eyes that last bit was a pipe dream. Of course, it wasn't his actual goal. Every second spent talking was a second Silver had to breach the defenses and come to his rescue. Time well spent in his opinion.

  “Quite the optimist.” Immolatus scowled. “Tell me then. Surely you have a theory.”

  Before Cayden could speak, the black-robed individual stepped forward from the crowd, whispering a harsh message to Immolatus. Whatever the message, Immolatus didn't approve, flesh stretching revoltingly across his neck as he turned it to speak. "I have suffered for this; it can wait a few more minutes. If you are so concerned, then go watch the perimeter yourself."

  The black-robe frowned and opened his mouth to argue further. Something in David's expression made him realize it was a fight not worth having, and instead, he nodded, stepped away, and incanted the words for the Door Through Dimensions spell, before promptly disappearing. A fourth tier spell, Silver was going to have her work cut out for her.

  “I do." Cayden admitted when Immolatus' attention, at last, returned to him. "You wanted your father and his partner dead, so you brought them into Babel under the guise of your birthday. You picked a fight you knew they couldn't win and hung back so they would have to engage. How am I doing so far?"

  “Adequate." The man shrugged.

  “You probably snuck in the day before, and earned enough to buy a teleportation scroll. You'd teleport out and pick up their bodies. Suddenly you're one of the richest men in America." Cayden continued. "The only problem is that I stick my neck out for you, leaving you to have to kill Qwazy. Then I put up a video contradicting what you said. Eventually, someone is going to put two and two together, and you're going to get caught. You've got no money in Babel, so you panic and do the only thi-"

  Immolatus' wet, thick laughter interrupted Cayden before he could get any further. The ill man seemed genuinely amused as his head shook slowly from side to side. “No, Cayden. You're not even close anymore.”

  Cayden's eyebrows knitted together. There was no reason for Immolatus to lie about this. He was right, Cayden had nothing to record this, and even if he did, David was already a wanted man by anyone who cared. It might turn some guilds against him, but the number of guilds who were okay with his bounty, but wouldn't be okay with it if it was based on murders and a lie were pretty slim. “Then... why?”

  “Strange that you think it's all about you." He coughed a handful of times into a handkerchief, then let the blood covered cloth fall to the sandy floor. "I planned to kill them, yes. I ought to thank you for saving Liam. It was more satisfying than you know to kill him. Though didn't you ever wonder how I killed him?”

  Cayden frowned, not understanding at first what the mage was getting at. Then it clicked, the memory of Celia beating on him over and over again. They would have avoided further fights on their way back, and even if David could have won a fight with a tank, which Cayden was not convinced he could, there was no way he could have done so before Liam managed to call or message someone about what was happening. Even with the element of surprise, it was a big pool of HP to get through.

  “Ah... I can see the gears turning now.” The man snickered. “I had help. A patron.”

  That explained a lot of things. A teleportation scroll was expensive but within the realm of possibility. This place though? Buying access to it with his money would be another Terms and Conditions violation for a man who was already sick to the point of death.

  “And this patron wanted you to kill your father... why? For money?”

  “In a manner of speaking." Immolatus' face spread into a terrifying rictus grin. "Do you know what a short sale is?"

  Cayden shrugged.

  “Figures a video game addict wouldn't know the first thing about what matters in life." David smirked. It hadn't taken much to get him going, the young man was terribly proud of his master plan and was eager to share it with a captive audience, someone who could admire his brilliance without being paid to be there.

  “In finance, you can short a stock. There is a lot of boring minutiae, but the gist is that you bet that a companies' stock is going to fall." Immolatus seemed more animated than his crippled body would allow as his hands moved with the telling of the tale. "Outside of the tower, trading on insider information could get you jail time. But like murder, there is no one to stop you here."

  It didn't take long for Cayden to catch his meaning. “You blew up your own company.”

  “Exactly." He said. "It was never about you, save that you were a mere excuse. An excuse that has become quite vexing."

  Immolatus knew he was going to detonate the stock price of his company with the announcement. With Vitalita unable to buy potions at the promised price the bottom fell out of the market. If you knew that was coming, like David's patron certainly did, you could scoop up thousands, maybe millions of potions and ingredients and sell them once the market stabilized and prices increased.

  “You killed two people to make some Zeni?!”

  “Not some Zeni. Even sharing the profit, I am richer here than I could have ever been out there." Immolatus smiled grimly. "And by the time this is through, I will have killed more than two."

  “But... your father?”

  “Was an idiot. Money is power, he told me. In a gold rush, sell shovels" David spat onto the sand. "I said I would be a player, and he told me I would be disowned. He thought this game was a means to an end, but look around Cayden. It is the end."

  Well, that settles that. Straight out of his damn mind. Cayden decided, staring wide-eyed at Immolatus as the man ranted.

  “You were the only problem.” The man continued, apparently not noticing Cayden's stare, or the increasingly shocked looks his own soldiers were giving him. “You just wouldn't die, would you?”

  “I try not to, as a general rule.”

  “You avoided my employees. You avoided Jerimiah and his group. You somehow got out of Islo and escaped to who knows where.” Immolatus thrust a skeletal finger at Sarah. “She is here because I ran out of options.”

  “Why not rescind the bounty?" Cayden asked, incredulously.

  That seemed to hit a nerve. Immolatus whirled back on him, milky eyes glaring into Cayden. “Enough. I've satisfied all the curiosity I intend to.” He gestured to a callout that Cayden knew floated just above his head. “Now it is your turn to enlighten me.”

  “Fair is fair." Cayden said, doing his best to keep the pang of inner panic he felt from showing on his face. He'd kept David talking for longer than he'd expected, but there was no sign of Silver. No explosions rattled the ruins nor did any lightning crackle overhead. If she had arrived at all, she was awfully quiet about it.

  His right-hand reached behind his body and took hold of the dagger and parchment, pulling the pair out together as he spoke a word of cancellation that Silver had worked into the magic spells surrounding them. The weapon popped into existence in his outstretched hand, prompting sudden panic to Immolatus' eyes and a sudden shriek of metal as swords, knives, and all manner of other weapons were drawn to oppose him.

  “Relax, it is the what he requested." Cayden said, flipping the item from hand to hand before speaking. "Targetted Skill Use: Throw Weapon."

  Before any of his guards could react, the knife had embedded itself up to the hilt in the sand at Immolatus' feet, much to the villain's terror.

  “For a man who wants to live you are trying to get yourself killed." Immolatus snarled, gesturing for one of his men to pluck the dagger. Whether he was afraid it had some curse or the once adonis-like David could no longer bend his knees, Cayden couldn't tell. He hoped it was the latter.

  “Skill Use: Observe.” Immolatus studied the inscribed knife in his hands. The reaction on his face was quite similar to what Cayden imagined his own had looked like after he'd finished his first piece of armor. “This... is incredible. You made this?”

  “I did. Check the maker's mark.”

  He did so, slowly composing hims
elf as he realized he was gawking at the stats. “And you can teach me how to make these as well?”

  “Not really. At least, I don't think so.”

  “Then what use are you?” David snarled.

  “I can still make them." He explained. "It is a unique class, keyword, unique. You let Sarah go, and I'll make you as many knives, swords, blades or whatever else you need. You can even call off the bounty."

  Immolatus stared at him, those clouded eyes lingering as emotions washed across his face. For a moment it looked like he was ready to consider it, then, after a look at Sarah, he shook his head. “The girl stays as long as you do.”

  “She does not.” Cayden countered.

  “Then we have no deal, and my men kill you here and now."

  Cayden shook his head. “How about we ask the boss what he thinks?”

  He was stabbing nerves left and right, hard not to, he supposed, on a man with such thin skin. “I am the one in charge here.”

  “Are you?" Cayden asked. "Because I doubt that mage listened to you because you paid him, not with the disdain he showed you. He's your handler, isn't he? I'm alive because your boss wants to see my skill."

  “Kill him.” Immolatus ordered.

  “Cayden!" Sarah shouted, struggling against her guard. To his surprise, she actually got in a pretty solid punch before two more jumped in to restrain her.

  “Sarah! Let her go!” He cried, his attention on her even though he was quickly developing his own issues.

  Jerimiah had jumped at the instruction, bearing down on Cayden before the young man waved the still bundled scroll to call Immolatus' attention. "Hold on! Hold on! Timeout. I've got one more thing to sweeten the pot."

  Immolatus raised a hand, as Jerimiah looked towards him, halting the berserker's fury. “And what is that?”

  “The class isn't just inscriptions. I can also create these. Even you will want to keep me around.”

  Skepticism washed over Immolatus. Cayden could see that anger at was overwhelming sense in the man, but that fear still held some purchase with him. He wasn't looking at Cayden at all as he made his decision. "Ba-" He began, only to burst into a severe fit of coughing. "My patron wishes to see, even if I do not. Toss it here."

  The bundled scroll flew from Cayden's hand. Immolatus tried to catch it, but his reflexes were as shot as the rest of him. He waited for one of his minions to collect it, then unfurled the scroll.

  “I prepared... This morning?" Immolatus scowled. "What is this nonsense."

  “Right.” Cayden said, making a show of slapping his forehead. “I forgot you can't read runes the way I can. The runes are Karatha Aya. It says: I prepared explosive runes this morning.”

  Immolatus looked to the page, his eyes now reading the sentence in its entirety before his brain could process the dangers of doing so.

  Then his world exploded.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Cayden threw himself to the ground an instant before the scroll detonated. Explosive Runes had been a fun spell he'd toyed around with in theory but had obviously had trouble working in practice. It worked better in practice than in theory.

  That same theory had been what led him to the realization that Rune Spells, just like Silver's invisibility, could have command word triggers. Triggers that worked whether or not the player had a mirror nearby. At the time he'd marked it as a fun tidbit, who knew he'd be using it so soon.

  As he glanced up in the aftermath of the explosion, he saw that fully two-thirds of the ordinary soldiers were down and out. Everyone else had been knocked to the floor and hit with a stun and blind effect that should buy him a decent bit of time. Hopefully even more than expected since the nature of his ruse had focused their attention on the scroll.

  The question was whether or not they'd stay down long enough for him to accomplish plan B.

  “Hevalis Evon.” Cayden shouted the words as he sprinted towards the crumpled form of Sarah, tearing at the front of his tunic as he ran. The two runes he'd tattooed were inked there, Summon Mirror a spell he'd developed and tested in a panic earlier this evening. Between it and the Explosive Runes spell he'd prepared, he'd reduced his maximum mana to almost nothing to give himself a fighting chance in the event Silver could not get through in time.

  As if to punctuate his thought, a low rumble filled the cavern. Dust fell from exposed stones; a few small rocks shook loose of the foundation by the calamity above them. Better late than never, he supposed.

  He screamed in sudden pain as the improvised tattoo evaporated from his skin, the dark ink coalescing itself into the form of the backup mirror he had left on floor forty-nine, complete with the runes of summoning marked on its rear face. Cayden could kiss the stupid thing if he didn't have bigger fish to fry.

  “Command: Full Equip! Command: Quick Item One” He shouted. His armor and weapons materialized onto his frame, along with a small crystal vial in his free hand. “Skill Use: Feed the Soul.”

  All he had to do is reach Sarah. She was close enough that the explosion would have put her into bleedout. All he had to do was get close to her, feed her the potion. That would stop her bleedout and send her back for respawn, no matter how good the wards were in this place. After that, he'd have to do his best to lead them on a merry chase until Silver finis-

  “Jesus Christ, Cayden. How about a little warning next time?” Sarah groaned as she rolled from her side and sat up.

  “No. No, no... “ He wanted to swear, wanted to break something. All the evasive spells of the sort he'd used to dodge Aaron and Vincent affected him and him alone. There was no way he'd be able to ditch all of them while keeping her protected at the same time.

  “How did you?” He started, then shook his head. “Doesn't matter, you shouldn't have all that much HP left. Just hold still and I'll...”

  She was laughing at him then, a soft giggle as she covered her mouth. "Cayden shut the hell up and give me a mirror."

  “Sarah we don't-”

  “Yeah." She pointed at Immolatus and the rest of his retinue who were just beginning to roll around and recover from the stunning effect of his spell. "We don't have time. Give. Me. A. Mirror."

  Her tone brooked no dispute, so he gave her none. What her plan was, he had no idea, but she was sure of it, which was better than anything he had in plans C through Z.

  With a few taps the mirror in his hand began to bubble, a fist-sized lump of material defying reality as it floated up away from the screen like a filling balloon about to take flight. It broke the connection with its twin despite taking no mass from it, then rapidly shifted its shape until it took on the same form and function as Cayden's own.

  “My hero." She said with a playful smile. "Command: Login. Desdemona."

  Beside her, Cayden slipped on his AR glasses and steeled himself for a fight. "Look, if you've got a plan I-"

  Desdemona – Lvl 40

  The callout hovered over Sarah's head as he'd turned to speak to her, its language unmistakable.

  “I do, actually. I punch, they suffer. It is elegant in its simplicity." She smiled cheerfully despite the heavy bags under her eyes. "So, which of you fine young kidnappers wants to... oh, I guess it's you?"

  One of Immolatus' guards had rushed ahead of the group, maybe hoping to gain a little bit of favor with the boss by being the first on his feet. He wasn't wearing glasses and had no idea what he was up against as Sarah rushed to meet him. "Personal Skill Use: Flurry of Blows."

  It was a low-level monk skill, but you wouldn't have known it from the effect it had. The first punch stopped the soldier in his tracks; the second doubled him over in agony. The third tripped his feet from beneath him, and the final, a soccer kick to a steel breastplate reverberated across the entire room and sent the soldier skidding back, toppling two of his comrades as he went. "Oh, right. Command: Full Equip."

  The soldiers shrunk back from Sarah, no, from Desdemona as she advanced. Some were down on the ground, stabilizing their dying comrades, while oth
ers brandished weapons uncertainly. Immolatus, on the other hand, completely bailed. For a man as sick as he appeared to be, he still managed a pretty decent clip out the doorway and back into the complex itself.

  Only Jerimiah and his crew willingly sprung into action. Their spellcaster launched bolts of Arcane power towards Desdemona, while the party archer peppered the monk with more traditional missiles. Their cleric was chanting spells of healing to recover from the after-effects of Cayden's trap.

  Jerimiah, meanwhile, had his eyes on the money.

  “You got that Cayden?” Sarah shouted back to him, catching an arrow out of midair and throwing it back at the archer in the same breath.

  He looked at the hulking berserker bearing down on him, greatsword whirling around his head as he called out for blood. The same man who had nearly killed him not a month earlier.

  “Yeah.” I got this.”

  The words seemed to delight Sarah as much as they infuriated the charging warrior.

  “Skill Disable: Feed the Soul." He said serenely, focusing his attention entirely on the warrior ahead of him as he began to chant individual runes. Celerity, Durability, Strength, Greater Armor. With each rune, he felt a wave of power surge through his body, and a light gleam of magic rolled across his skin as a visible sign of the power running through him. To Jerimiah, it must have looked like he was babbling, but Cayden knew that the spells had increased his Dexterity, Vitality, Strength by ten each, and had almost doubled the defensive bonus of his shield.

  “Skill Use: Runic overload.” The runes in his weapon and armor flared with light as their bonuses quintupled in value. It was an expensive boost, but even with everything else, he was going to need everything he had.

  Jerimiah was almost on top of him, his man-sized sword held up and over his head as he roared in anticipation. "Skill Use: Grasp the World."

  Cayden felt the sand beneath his feet harden as he sunk into it, his body almost fixed in place by the power of his skill. His shield rose, intercepting Jerimiah's Body Cutter skill in mid swing. The room filled with a tremendous crash, as Jerimiah's momentum was halted in its tracks, then forced back a step as Cayden shoved with his shield.