Fantasy Online_Hyperborea

by Harmon Cooper

  By the time Ryuk gets a grip on the melee taking place before him, Zaena has fletched both archers with three or four arrows each – she’s fast and accurate – and is raining feathered death down into the courtyard as fast as she can draw and loose. Stroboscopic flashes from the automatic weapons give the battleground a surrealistic air; the clash and clang of sword on shield tells him that Tammy and Hiccup are fully occupied.

  The rooftop ninjas. Ryuk sinks into his own Extreme Focus to try to locate them. There you are!

  He fires three sword marbles to his left; a katana and wakizashi spin away when they connect with the first ninja.

  -49 HP! -28 HP!

  The gravely injured ninja is down, wheezing and gasping for breath but still gamely in the fight as he brandishes a tanto and drags himself forward.

  Ryuk’s dream armor lifts off his left shoulder and deflects an incoming throwing star.

  The other ninja.

  He twists and fires two marbles to the right – nothing but air.

  Zaena looses her last arrow and draws her four swords. “I’m going down there!” she calls as she leaps off the wall walk.

  Shit. Ryuk glances left and right, aware now that the second ninja is stalking him. He still needs to kill the first one, but that fucker has all but disappeared, red outline and all. The first swipe comes from his left. As his dream armor rises to meet it, the armor briefly exposes his right shoulder.

  -46 HP!

  As soon as the sai digs into his flesh, Ryuk’s dream armor responds and yanks it out. He fires left, right, spins around, elbow sweeps just in case, pops his sword marble magazine out and replaces it with a mixed molten and black magazine.

  A throwing star jams in his calf.

  -11 HP!

  He fires an explosive shot to his immediate right, but there’s no one there. It hits the wall and blasts shrapnel into the downed ninja, killing him.

  -8 HP! -13 HP!

  +1 Luck!

  New skill!

  Skill: Splash Back

  Level One: Damage increases with higher levels.

  Damage: 4% if enemy is less than level 30; 1% if enemy is greater than level 30.

  Odds of instakill: 4%

  Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9

  The stealthier surviving ninja sheds her concealment and charges towards Ryuk. Time stands still as a red targeting dot appears on her forehead.

  Headshot! Instakill!

  New skill!

  Skill: Gory Headshot

  Level One: Odds of instakill increase with level.

  Odds of Instakill: 52% if enemy is less than level 30; 32% if enemy is greater than level 30.

  Caveat: Must be within five meters of an opponent’s head.

  He swipes the prompts away and turns his attention to the courtyard below.

  (0)__(0)

  Ryuk quickly chugs a grenade-shaped bottle of Hopkins’, which restores him to full health.

  He vaults to the ground and sinks back into the shadow cast by the wall. I need to get a sense of what’s happening; I need some range. Difficult to tell who’s doing what to whom; the dust, noise and darkness all contribute to the fog of war. The sentry gun has stopped firing, either out of ammo or out of clear targets as the Mitherfickers are mixing it up with the few remaining hostiles.

  Ryuk waits, weapon up.

  The final barbarian still mounted bursts free of the confusion and gallops for Hiccup, whirling morning star in hand. Without the need of conscious thought or pause to aim, Ryuk points, shoots, and blows the warhorse out from under the charging berserker. He lands badly, and his mount lands atop him.

  “Oh, that’s gotta fickin’ sting!” Hiccup chortles as he neatly decapitates the downed warrior and hocks a gob-gobbet onto his corpse.

  A blazing blue blast a meter wide explodes outward from a knot of armored warriors; sintered metal and seared gobbets of flesh rain down upon friend and foe alike. FeeTwix stands at the apex of the cone of devastation, bowhack in hand. As the smoke clears, the algoweapon returns to its crossbow form.

  Tamana cartwheels into a disoriented soldier of fortune and hacks him in half with her ironing board of a sword. As Tamana turns to seek more adversaries, the Thulean assassin stands off three brawny barbarians, and in a balletic dance of death, quickly and gracefully dispatches two as Tamana hacks the life from the third.

  Helmed Hiccup pulls a healing potion out of thin air, and gets to nursing it. “Fick, that’s some good brew,” he says as he makes his way over to Ryuk. About the only barbarian left tries to lift himself off the ground as Hiccup approaches. The goblin gives him a knee to the underside of the chin, finishes off his healing potion, and smashes the bottle against the back of his head.

  -16 HP!

  “Who wants to kill this last guy?” Hiccup asks.

  “Please don’t!” The mustachioed barbarian hombre boo-hoos. He drops to his knees in front of Hiccup, all teary-eyed and clasped hands.

  “He’s not the last guy – I’m still fighting someone!” Zaena shouts as the next-to-last barbarian charges her. FeeTwix fires half a magazine into him and drops the sellsword like a bad habit.

  “NOW he’s the last guy!” the witty Swede observes with a chuckle. “Thank me later, babe!”

  Ryuk waits for Zaena to rant about alien weapons; instead, she lowers her arms and takes a big breath. Tamana does the same once she’s stabbed her big sword into the ground.

  Hiccup again. “Okay, so who wants to ice Ming the Mercenary so we can get on with this?”

  “I beg you, Master Goblin - please don’t!”

  “That’s Mr. Master Goblin, and boy fickin’ howdy do we got a sniveler here.” Hiccup makes the gesture for the others to gather around. Ryuk is the last to join them, his eyes still trained on the guildhall. He senses something inside, something fueled by green algomagic.

  Hiccup crouches next to the final barbarian. Tamana stands back, her buster sword at the ready. Zaena keeps her eyes on the wall walk and the roof top as she scans for any activity.

  “Never thought you’d see a goblin up close and personal, did ya, pal?” Hiccup slaps the blubbering bruiser with his mechanical hand. “Funny, your mom thought the same thing, but once you go goblin … ” A blank look flashes across his face. “Where … ?”

  “Interrogating,” FeeTwix says under his breath, his M4 trained on the barbarian.

  “This ficker? Easy. Did I already make a mom joke?”

  “You did.”

  “Fick me to tears, then!” Hiccup flicks his mechanical finger against the guy’s nose. “All right, Freddie Mercury, spill the beans or I’ll rip your braided mustache off and stick it up your ass!”

  “I don’t know anything about them!” The NPC barbarian tears up. “My guild was just hired to protect the outside. We didn’t even meet the people inside. Honest!”

  “And they’re in there now?”

  “I … ” he gulps. “I don’t know. I think so. They haven’t left, but they could have spawned somewhere else.”

  “He’s useless to us, kill him.” Hiccup stands.

  “Wait! I’m not useless, I swear! I have more info! Last I saw, last we saw … ” He glances around at his fallen guildmates. “There were two mages, a guy with a black hood that looks like him.” He nods to Ryuk. “I mean, exactly like him. Scrawny, black hair, black hood, Ballistics Mage. No gun though.”

  Exactly like me? Ryuk glances to Tamana, who offers him a quick shrug as if to say ‘I don’t remember seeing someone like that’. Zaena’s story of her first encounter with the Shinigami matches up, though.

  “Just three?” Hiccup asks.

  “That’s all I saw. I swear!”

  “Thanks for the info. Finish the job, Twixy.”

  Hiccup approaches Ryuk and both of them turn to the front doors of the guildhall. After a quick, three-round burst, FeeTwix joins them, followed by Zaena and Tamana, who takes up the rear.

  “How should we do this?” Ryuk asks, looking up at t
he door.

  “Well, there’s no sense in knocking. Twixy?”

  A wrapped demolition charge appears in his hands. “My friend Boomex and I say we make a grand entrance.”

  (0)__(x)

  “You sure are quick to blow stuff up.” Zaena uses her ghost limb to test the door handle. “It’s unlocked.”

  FeeTwix shrugs, his eyes black as ever. “A day without explosives is like a day without sunshine, and I’m sure there’ll be an opportunity for demolitions ahead.”

  “How many?” Ryuk taps the side of his head.

  FeeTwix grins. “The most I’ve ever had, approaching two million. Thanks for watching, everyone! Here goes the grand finale!”

  “For fick’s sake, Twixy, keep it in your pants. Everyone juice up.” Another Hopkins’ Holistic Healing Brew takes shape in the goblin’s grubby palm. He chugs half of it, even though he’s hardly taken any hit point damage. After wiping his lips with his mechanical arm, he hands the bottle to Tamana. “Your turn, Tammy.”

  “I’ll pass.” She lifts a single hand above her head and glittery white specks trickle from her open palm.

  +32 HP!

  “Looks like it’s all you, Marbles.”

  +72 HP! Ryuk finishes the healing potion. As he does so, he hears FeeTwix crack one of the generic healing potions open and share it with Zaena. The Swede’s eyes flash as he reads messages from his fans.

  “Anything?” Ryuk asks.

  “Nothing helpful.”

  Ryuk steps to the front of the group, his marble gun at the ready. He takes a position next to the big wooden door with its black metal framing and motions for everyone to step back and out of the fatal funnel. FeeTwix joins him, his M-4 up and ready to go.

  After a breath to calm his nerves, Ryuk gives Zaena the signal. The door pops open and in he goes, taking the right while FeeTwix takes to the left.

  It’s only after they are in position do they realize how unnecessary their movie-style dynamic entry was. The well-lit great hall that lies before them, with its marble flooring and twenty-foot-high ceilings, is completely empty.

  Hiccup lets loose with a honking, quacking, fluttering blast that echoes most impressively in the great, empty hall. “Fick, that felt good! I was holding that one in since before we hit the front gate!”

  With a sour look on her face, Zaena steps around the gassy goblin. She’s equipped the swords that Dirty Dave gave her, two of which float in the air above her head. Tamana is last in; she bangs the tip of her buster sword against the door and nearly trips over her own feet.

  “Dammit, Tammy!” Hiccup growls.

  FeeTwix keeps his weapon up as he moves to the center of the room, the single door at the other end of the open space is in his crosshairs. “Sensing anything?”

  “Just the magic I sensed earlier, below,” says Ryuk. “Some type of algomagic.” As the others pass around him, he closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing. Random, unhelpful thoughts – from his altercation with his brother to Tamana’s death leap in front of the train – chase themselves through his consciousness and rob him of his focus. He wills them away and concentrates on his breathing; as he does, the outline of a robed figure takes shape at the far corner of the room.

  A targeting reticle appears.

  Without opening his eyes, Ryuk fires four molten marbles at the robed figure – one connects before his shield comes up.

  -45 HP!

  The staccato crack-crack-crack from FeeTwix’s M-4 carbine forces Ryuk’s eyes open.

  Dark Mage Level 35

  HP: 555/590

  MANA: 315/325

  ATK: 19

  MATK: 137

  DEF: 166

  MDF: 283

  LUCK: 22

  Everyone hits the floor as FeeTwix’s bullets are sucked into the shield and projected back out at the Mitherfickers.

  The robed figure, the same they encountered in the courtyard a day ago and the one who brought the cathedral down in the Paradise of the Insane, now has a red shield of blistering energy around him.

  Another mage spawns in the center of the room. Thick bands encircle his upper arms and accentuate his bulging muscles. His face is half-human half-orc; as his form solidifies, two double-bitted axes take shape in his hands.

  Berserker Mage Level 38

  HP: 843/843

  MANA: 81/81

  ATK: 146

  MATK: 12

  DEF: 251

  MDF: 237

  LUCK: 4

  Hiccup, Zaena and Tamana move to engage him; FeeTwix and Ryuk confront the Dark Mage as crimson mana boils from his hands and strengthens his shield.

  Ryuk fires twice and the Dark Mage’s protective sphere hurls the molten marbles back at FeeTwix and Ryuk. The duo dive out of the way as the pair of marbles blast molten craters into the floor.

  FeeTwix’s double-bladed sword appears in his hand. The blades begin rotating Cuisinart-fast; he slaps his palm against the pommel and the two blades leap from the cross-guard on a trail of incandescent cobalt flame. The whirling blades settle in the air above FeeTwix’s shoulders like a pair of drones.

  Ryuk: Holy shit! I didn’t know they could do that!

  FeeTwix grins, his eyes black as ever. He points the hilt of his sword at the mage and the blades streak across the room. They slice through his shield, blast through his chest and out his back, then loop back around to return to their invisible perches above FeeTwix’s shoulders.

  -79 HP! -77 HP!

  A healing potion appears in the mage’s hand and he tosses it back. More red mana boils from his hands, strengthening his shield.

  “I got this!” The Swede nods to the door that leads to the other chambers of the guildhall. “Go get the power source!”

  He points the hilt of his sword at the dark mage, just as the robed figure conjures a boomerang of electrified red magic. Blades and boomerang clash in burst of blue-white fire, and the rotating twin blades return to the space above his shoulders. An AK-200 with drum magazine appears in his free hand. “Go! Ryuk!”

  He hesitates, takes a quick glance back at his guildmates. Hiccup and Zaena tag-team the Berserker Mage, who holds them at bay with his whirling war axes; Tamana conjures a blast of white magic; FeeTwix launches his two spinning swords at the Dark Mage and follows up with a burst of armor piercing goodness.

  They’ve got this.

  Ryuk rushes the door and kicks it open, his weapon at the ready as he charges through. The door slams shut and he stands with his back to it for a moment, his marble gun in close, waiting for whatever comes next.

  Chapter 30: The golden door

  A single stairwell cut from marble lies before Ryuk. He heads down, towards the source of the energy he keeps sensing. Muffled sounds of battle reach his ears, but he doesn’t allow them to distract him.

  Eyes on the prize.

  He reaches a stone door at the bottom of the stairwell and pauses for a moment, taking in the image of the griffin carved into its surface. His Extreme Focus and Magic Eye tell him that an unbelievable source of arcane algoenergy lies on the other side of the wall. It’s practically boiling out of the room, invisible to the naked eye but readily apparent to Ryuk. He calms himself, takes a position to the side of the door, and pops it open.

  He waits for anything to blast out. Once it doesn’t, he sucks in a deep breath, takes to the room, skidding to a halt once he sees what’s inside.

  In the center of the otherwise empty room is a golden door with Thulean script carved into its surface. It sits on a tiled floor, each tile bearing the image of the Eye of Horus over a cube of vertical Thulean script. The golden door is definitely the source of the energy, and as he circles it, he gets the notion that it can be opened from either side.

  Where it may lead is another thing entirely.

  Destroy it. Ryuk takes a position at the front of the room and fires two shots at the mysterious golden door.

  Time stands still as the marbles twist through the air. Suddenly, the door swing
s wide open to reveal a galaxy of stars.

  A portal?

  The marbles fly through and vanish with no effect. From nowhere, wind hisses and screams as it’s sucked into the open door. Ryuk fires two more marbles into the portal and they disappear as if they’d never existed. The temperature of the room falls, and a voice appears at the back of his head.

  “Hello.”

  Startled, Ryuk turns, only to find nothing.

  “In here.”

  The snake-like whisper seems to come from every direction in the room, the voice of a female.

  “Won’t you come inside?”

  The word ‘inside’ echoes in his head on repeat; Ryuk again aims his weapon at the portal. He focuses, but his magical abilities give him nothing at all to work with aside from the faint green glow around the doorframe.

  “What are you?” he asks.

  “Won’t you come inside?”

  He senses movement in the center of the portal, in the nethersphere cast before him. Something large and ominous, its serpent-shaped outline barely visible, twists in the starry darkness. Two green eyes flicker in the center of it all.

  Ryuk unloads the rest of his magazine into the open doorway to no effect – the marbles are sucked into a swirling vortex at the center of the portal. The vortex dissipates and the green eyes reappear.

  “Your weapons are useless against me.”

  Ryuk feels a tug at the center of his chest. He steps closer to the open door, suddenly fixated on the hypnotic green eyes.

  His hands move of their own volition; he reloads without conscious thought.

  “Won’t you join me?”

  The serpent’s voice rasps seductively against his consciousness; he trembles as he lifts his weapon.

  “You will come to enjoy it here.”

  He feels another tug at his chest, resists for a moment, but is pulled forward again.

  “Others have joined me.”

  “Yes.” The voice of a child this time.

  “Please, come to us.” The voice of a sobbing man.

  “Join us.” The voice of an old woman.