by Adam Elliott
Jerimiah's Body Cutter hits You for 26 Physical. (Perfect Block)
Now that is the good stuff. Cayden thought with a smile.
Cayden tightened his grip on the hilt of the Mage Blade he had received from their dungeon diving. It's unique ability interacted correctly with his Runic Magic, making the weapon a sizeable boost over the Beginner Sword he'd grown so accustomed to. He realized this was his first time using it in combat, and the thought made him smile even as he lashed out with the powerful one-two cut of a Southern Cross.
They clashed again, Cayden's shield arm vibrating from the impact of the enormous blade, but the damage was minimal. Jerimiah was too slow, and his moves were too cumbersome. Cayden had watched videos of well-played berserkers, and he knew that the class had feinting skills, kicks and body blows that could set off his carefully timed blocks. But Jerimiah wasn't throwing them, preferring to just hack away with the most powerful, but most obvious attacks.
A month ago Jerimiah had been a life-ending threat to him, but while Cayden had been struggling for every hint of XP, he could muster Jerimiah didn't seem to have improved at all. He was a sloppy fighter then, and without the overwhelming advantages of higher level and allies at his back, Cayden realized he had probably overdone it.
He blocked and parried, struck and shifted within his little five-foot square as Jerimiah threw everything he had in an attempt to lay Cayden low. But he was a man used to picking on lone travelers with a party at his back or slaughtering distracted parties weak from a recent combat. The sad fact of the matter was, for all the fear the man had instilled in Cayden, he just wasn't that good.
“Why won't you die!?" The man cried. He could see Cayden's HP as easily as Cayden could see his. Already reduced to 1/3rd of his HP compared to the nearly full Cayden, Jerimiah could see the way the fight was going as well as Cayden could.
“Have you tried hitting me?” Cayden asked, swatting away his blade. “Alternatively, surrender.”
“Cayden, don't kill hi-" Sarah shouted from the far end of the room just as Cayden finished embedding his blade through the center of Jerimiah's chest. The man had responded to Cayden's offer by raising his greatsword for an overhanded swing that left him with an opening Cayden couldn't refuse.
Now Cayden wished he had. As Jerimiah crumpled into bleedout, Cayden made the same discovery that Sarah had. The berserker's HP dropped precipitously, falling from the starting one hundred to zero in the time it took Cayden to open his menu and hunt out a healing item.
He'd heard of the item, The Black Dream. It was an accessory worn by certain PK groups as a failsafe to keep a player from being dropped and telling tales upon their resurrection or capture at an unfriendly settlement. If a player wearing the item went into bleedout, they would bleedout at a rate of twenty hitpoints per second, rather than one, almost guaranteeing their death.
That this little band of misfits wore, such an item would have been surprising, if not for what Immolatus had said about a benefactor. Someone willing and able to create a place like this could demand a certain level of loyalty from his more experienced soldiers.
Across from him, Sarah had laid out the remainder of the common soldiery and unintentionally taken the lives of all three of Jerimiah's remaining party members. Their bodies were being enveloped by their cocoons in almost perfect unison. Whatever skill she'd used to bring them down had hit them all at once. Damn.
“I didn't think...” Sarah started, clearly shaken by the issue. “I didn't.”
“I know Sarah; it isn't your fault." He replied, walking towards her.
“Des.”
“What?" He asked.
“I honestly kind of prefer to be called Des." She offered him a weary smile turning away from the bodies as they began to hover. "Looks like you weren't the only one with a secret."
He rested a hand on her shoulder. “Looks like.”
“You should go after Immolatus.” She nodded to the defeated, but still alive common thugs. “I'll heal these guys and be right behind you.”
“Alright. Just... don't go getting yourself kidnapped again, okay princess?”
“Bite me.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Goddamnit!" Immolatus swore as he watched Jerimiah's HP drop to zero. All four of them gone in a matter of minutes. At this rate, Cayden and that damn woman would be on his heels before he could reach the barrier and use a teleportation scroll to escape somewhere that would be safe.
Not even the dark mage Balthazar appeared to be doing well. He'd known from Jerimiah's report of their original tangle with Cayden that the boy had at least one powerful friend, but a friend strong enough to push a level ninety-four guild mage into the red? This was absurd.
At least he wouldn't have to pay Jerimiah and his group. The mercenaries had insisted they be paid in cash if they were the ones to find and kill Cayden, and he had scant little cash left as it was. They'd proven as useless as his master had said they would be, even with the Black Dreams motivating them not to lose again.
The ruins shook again, and he watched Balthazar's HP tick a few more points into the red. If the caster was up there, would he even be able to get out that way? He'd better hurry if he wanted to slip out while the mages continued their duel.
In an effort to speed up his withdrawal, he summoned a potion to hand. He wasn't supposed to take multiple Cure Disease potions in a six hour period, but to hell with toxicity, and to hell with what his patron said. As soon as he got out of this mess he would cancel the cash bounty on Cayden and issue a zeni one instead.
“Drinking too many of those will make them lose their effectiveness." The words resounded from a dark alcove three steps behind him, making his blood run cold. It wasn't one voice, but two, a pair of harmonious voices speaking in near perfect unison. Yet there was no music to the harmony, the words a guttural noise, like a rabid animal speaking English. "And after this debacle, I imagine you will need to rely on them to live for the foreseeable future.”
“Lord Ba-" The words caught in his throat, forcing a coughing spell. He tried again, and the effect was worse, the pain nearly forcing him to his knees as the taste of blood filled his mouth. "My lord. This is as much your fault as mine. I wanted to kill him."
“And I wanted information on him before you did so." The voices replied, their tone measured despite the disrespect. "What you didn't need to do was leave the woman free of bonds, or monolog like a cartoon villain to allow his ally to distract your most powerful asset."
“Respectfully Lord Ba-” The coughing fit started again, and this time the creature floated out into view.
It was shaped like a man and had a player callout visible only to him, but even looking at himself and the changes Babel had wrought to his body, he wasn't sure if the thing in front of him was a player or a monster.
It was six and a half feet tall, though it looked smaller with the way it sat in midair, its legs crossed at the shin with bare feet just inches from the ground. Its feet were taloned and like its hands, contained one too many joints to be fully human. Its skin was red, much of it revealed save for a dark loincloth and a white sash around its neck.
If the thing had once been human, Immolatus would have guessed it was a man, though a thin one. Its appendages were nearly as thin as his own, the hands folded neatly in its lap, framing the ribcage visible beneath its smooth skin.
Atop its head were two horns, that emerged from just behind its ears to circle to a point above its forehead. A jewel had been braced between them, his master's only jewelry, which only enhanced the feeling that overtook him whenever he looked at them, that the spurs of bone were as much crown as they were horns.
“You think I would allow you to speak my name after that display?" Its voices washed over him as a wave of horror as slitted, cat-like eyes found his.
“I will kill him.” Immolatus promised. “I will put such a bounty on his head that players will come from the fiftieth floor itself just to see it done.”
“And you will shout from the rooftops to the whole world that you are flush with Zeni. And the world will wonder why, and that will lead back to me." The thing hovered before him, its head craning unnaturally far this way and that as it continually sought out his gaze wherever he might choose to focus it. "I do not want the boy dead. I want this ended."
“Then I'll cancel the bounty!” He said hopefully. It had been what he'd wanted to do now for so long.
“You will do no such thing. You can do no such thing.” One taloned hand lashed out, tearing open the front of Immolatus' robes to reveal the arcane Geas carved into his flesh. “I warned you when you began to make it quick. I warned you that there were easier ways to collapse your empire without violating the Terms. I told you that if you chose to use him as your foil, that you would never be allowed to withdraw your bounty.”
“But you don't want him dead...” The young man pleaded. “If I can't kill him and I can't withdraw the bounty?”
His patron stared impassively at him, waiting for the slow realization to dawn fully on David's face. "You can't."
“You won't escape this place, but if you do the point would be moot." It shrugged.
“You can't let me... the potions won't work forever. Please!”
“No, I suppose I can't." It raised a finger, a beam of light of violet energy striking David in the chest before he could scream.
“I was always too kind by half.” It whispered in its two voices as the last moments of Immolatus ticked away, and the footsteps of Cayden echoed up the hallway.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“The sign says closed for a private event!"
“I think Cayden will vouch for us.” Shifty replied to Symbal as Celia joined him just inside the door.
“They're fine, if unexpected.” Cayden said with a smile, looking to Silver who shrugged.
“I had to tell them something. They put two and two together and saw you back on this floor.”
“Sarah!” Celia cried, ignoring the conversation between any of the others to run over and embrace the blue haired girl with every bit of strength in her tiny body. “Oh my, you look like you've been through the ringer.”
“Thanks?” Sarah replied with a soft laugh. “I guess you've never seen me without my makeup before, but if you think this is bad, you should have seen me last night.”
“She slept literally all day.” Cayden chimed in helpfully.
“So did you.” She retorted.
“Actually, I slept figuratively all day. I was still up before sundown.”
“Well according to the Oxford English Dictionary literally can now be used to-”
“We can't really be having this conversation right now.” Silver frowned from the sidelines of the debate.
Everyone had laughed, while Celia and Shifty pulled up chairs at the table.
It was weird being at the inn with it so empty. Even in the smallest hours of the night, Cayden was used to seeing at least a few players and a couple of Elan drowning their sorrows or toasting their victories. Instead of just him and his friends.
Friends. The word made him smile briefly. He'd never had a lot of friends as a kid, too wrapped up in his head. The majority of those were internet friends, gamers half a world away who had shared in some great victory or adventure. Sort of fitting that a game like this had produced friends in much the same way.
Silver and Sarah gave a recounting of their version of events, while he chimed in every so often with a correction, dispute or a fact from his telling of the tale, but it wasn't long before everyone was up to speed. Celia was still lingering near Sarah, her arm wrapped around the girl in an offer of comfort that seemed to make the waitress more uncomfortable than anything else. Silver was into her third glass of wine and smiling more than he'd ever seen her smile as she recounted the spell duel that had bested Balthazar.
“And Immolatus?” It was Shifty who asked the obvious after most of the telling was done.
“Dead.” Cayden winced. “I thought at the time that Silver had killed him, but she says she didn't do anything of the sort.”
“Maybe one of his henchmen gutted him in the retreat? You said a few got out while you were fighting, didn't you Silver?" Asked Celia.
“Hmm?" The young woman seemed to startle out of her thought process. "Yeah. Could be. My running theory is that all that running probably did him in, at least, if his condition was as bad as Cayden and Sarah said it was."
“And the bounty?” This from Sarah.
“Looked it up earlier. David had a next of Kin in his mirror, though his mother only identified the body rather than collecting it.”
“Ouch.” Shifty winced. “Hell of a snub.”
“Well, it is to be expected with all the rumors of him killing his father roaming about." Silver shrugged. "But with him dead the bounty is done as well. So Cayden can go back to nobody wanting him."
It was hard for anyone at the table to miss the way the Celia looked at Cayden as Silver made that comment, but they all sure tried.
“That isn't true though, is it?" Shifty asked. "Someone from that group is going to tell tales about Cayden's skill eventually. And there is this patron of his."
“And Luxuria.” Celia said with a frown.
“Your sister and I have already hashed that out at least.” Silver said. “She's not particularly pleased with you for hiding it from her, but we've agreed to let you all just level up as you will for now. Provided that you consider joining a CFC signatory guild. If the CFC still exists by the time you reach the fiftieth floor."
“Would have been nice of her to be disappointed in me directly." Celia grumbled though it was hard for her to be too upset. "That means we can party up as we please?"
“And I don't have to babysit you anymore.” Silver nodded.
“Fantastic!” Celia beamed. “And what about you Sarah?”
The girl looked confused by the question. “What about me?”
“Well... I mean, I know you're a little too high for us right now. But would you consider-”
“Celia, dear, that isn't really...” Symbal started.
“No. It's fine.” Sarah said before turning to Celia. “I'm sorry but, I don't play anymore. I'm happy where I am.”
“But-”
“Celia." Came Cayden and Silver's voices in unison. Sarah hadn't given any explanation for how she was as strong as she was, or why she was working for tips as a low floor waitress. All they knew was that if she hadn't wanted to tell them before now, pressing her on the issue wasn't the answer.
“All I have to say is thank you Des, for being as strong as you were, in every way that you were." Cayden smiled, reaching out the pat the blue haired girl on a tense fist.
Maybe it was his words or just the use of that name, but tension fell off of Sarah in waves at his touch. "All I have to say is that I'm never going to trust another handsome man to buy me a drink for the rest of my days."
The comment earned a little chuckle from the assembled table, despite how horrifying it was.
“Well then, fearless leader, where do you think we should go tomorrow?” Celia asked over Shifty's objection as to why Cayden was the leader.
He leaned back from the table, sweeping his eyes over the friends he'd managed to assemble in such a short period. For so many people, Babel could be a nightmare. But he couldn't imagine any place on, or he supposed, off the earth, that he would rather be.
“Hmm. I do have at least one good lead." He smiled, looking at a pinned icon at the top of his display.
Special Quest
Learning to Run
Requirements: Locate the Entrance to the Throne of Tabbris.
Reward: 35,000 XP.
Epilogue
“You're sure it was there?”
“As sure as you can be. It isn't like the poor bastard keeled over from a heart attack." Silver replied, adjusting her glasses slightly as she squinted at her reflection in her dresser mirror. She needed to get some moisturizer or s
omething shipped in if she was going to be spending any more time on fifty. The weather was just murder on her skin.
“That doesn't sound very sure."
“Look, Luxuria, It was there.” She sighed. There were few things more frustrating in her life than arguing with her guild leader over audio only. At least with video Lux could see her getting exasperated. “The mage I took down, Balthazar, I've been on him as a possible connection for a while. Cayden said he was acting as a handler, which fits the M.O. As do the Black Dreams.”
“But you didn't see it.” She insisted.
“Oh for... Lux, we've never seen it!" She shouted back. "We've got one blurry motion camera shot of it from the raid on the Velsari guild hall, and that is it. It is too smart for us to just blunder across it. But I know it was there."
“Okay, okay! I'm sorry for doubting you.” She frowned “Are you sure you don't want to play babysitter some more? It worked pretty well to cover your absence.”
“Not if it has eyes for Cayden. Either it will notice the simulacrum or Cayden will. Both ways cause trouble.”
“We can call just give you some time off, call it personal days, whatever.”
“No." She replied. "Word would get through, and the thing would know I'm looking for it. It is better to just keep an eye on Cayden. Sooner or later it is going to make a move to take him or recruit him. Maybe it'll be vulnerable."
“Wouldn't it be better to put a guard on him? If it thinks he is that important, maybe he can be useful to us?”
“You're just scared for your sister.” Silver laughed.
“Hardly.” The disdain in Luxuria's voice was palpable. “This White Knight might prove to be more valuable...”
“Lux, How many of our friends has that thing killed over the years. Even just the ones we are sure of?”
