“We await your arrival.” A young man’s voice.
The vortex shifts, and the spinning stars reverse direction as they settle.
“Won’t you join us? I’ll make you stronger than you’ve ever imagined becoming.”
An incredible force grips at the center of his chest, pulls at his very core, at his spine, at every nerve in his avatar. He feels as if his soul is being stripped out of his body, his essence peeled from his digital flesh.
“This doesn’t have to end badly for you.”
“Let go!” he shouts, his heart swelling in his throat. “Let go of me!”
“Resistance is futile, Ryuk Matsuzaki, you will be assimilated, and I will make you stronger than you ever imagined becoming, despite yourself.”
His skin begins to dematerialize, to pixilate as his avatar is sucked forward. Everything is blurred now; his head spins and his vision constricts. His arms elongate and it takes every last ounce of strength he has to pivot and empty his weapon at the hinges of the golden door.
-113 HP!
With a banshee shriek, a blast of energy throws Ryuk into the wall; the noise abruptly cuts off as the door slams shut.
He scrambles to his feet as the first tile flies at him and cracks him in the shin,
-8 HP!
More launch themselves at him as the enigmatic golden door in the center of the room vibrates and convulses.
He shoulders the stone door to the stairway, and is surprised when it swings open. Dozens of tiles sail past him, burst into bits and fill the air with stone shrapnel. Two at a time, the stairs fly beneath his feet, and he swivels at the top of the stairs, smacks his back against the wall, and waits with his marble gun at the ready for more tiles to come after him.
As he catches his breath, he tries to recall what he has just experienced. What was inside the door? It was the most evil thing he had ever encountered in Tritania, and even as he reads the flashing message from FeeTwix, he can’t free himself from the hold of the powerful green eyes within the vortex.
FeeTwix: What’s happening? Where are you? We have one mage down, one to go!
Ryuk: Coming. I can’t destroy whatever the energy thing is down there!
FeeTwix: What did you see? What is it?
Ryuk: Whatever it is, it isn’t NPC or human. It’s something else entirely.
(0)__(0)
Ryuk pushes into the main room to find the Berserker Mage at full throttle with his double-bitted axes.
He’s resisted or deflected every attack; not even FeeTwix’s vast array of high-speed low-drag shooting irons has more than inconvenienced him. The room shows the scars of the ongoing battle, and the remains of shielded Dark Mage lie face-first in a pool of his own blood.
“Ryuk!” Tamana runs to join him, leaving Hiccup and Zaena to fend for themselves against the ax-wielding berserker.
“Are you okay?” She wipes a strand of hair out of her face and offers him a soft smile. She shows the scars of the ongoing battle, too, but she’s in better shape than the other Mitherfickers – an unsolicited testament to Dirty Dave’s über armor.
“I’m fine.”
FeeTwix’s shotgun disappears as he equips the dagger mutant hack that Dirty Dave gave him. “Let’s finish this!” he tells Ryuk, his eyes black as ever.
“No!” Ryuk reaches for him just as the weapon’s pulsing symbiose can reach the top of his shoulder. “We need it, for whatever is down there.” He points at the door. “Trust me … I don’t even know if your hack can destroy that thing.”
FeeTwix begrudgingly returns his Colonel Bowie knife to his list and goes with a Kel-Tec RFB instead. He shoulders the weapon, flips the selector to rock’n’roll, and wades back in as Zaena gives him an opening.
“You’re injured,” Tamana lifts her hand and a halo of light forms around her head. Sparkling white shards of light descend like a light snow over Ryuk’s head.
+75 HP!
“Thanks.” Their eyes meet, and for a moment nothing else matters.
Tamana turns back to the battle. “I have to get back.”
As FeeTwix reloads, Tamana runs towards the Berserker Mage, her sword at her side as it charges with a brilliant silver energy. She slides to a halt, strikes the sword on the floor and unleashes a gout of energy that gouges the marble floor to flinders as it rockets at the mage. He’s blown off his feet and loses his grip on one of his massive cleavers.
-49 HP!
“Fick yeah, Tammy!”
Zaena uses her ghost limbs to launch herself into him. She lands on his chest, knees first. Before she can bring a sword into play, he bucks her off and into the wall. The Berserker Mage tries to stand and Hiccup tackles him, only to be thrown into Zaena who’s just regained her feet.
“This ends now!” Ryuk unloads his magazine of sword marbles at the berserker mage, who shields himself with his remaining ax and catches the last sword marble. He snaps it in half and equips a massive mace with a Festivus pole for a haft and an ax head affixed to the bottom of the grip.
Holy shit, he’s fast!
“Wait a damn minute … I’ve got just the thing!” A ten liter plastic bucket forms in FeeTwix’s hands.
FeeTwix: CLEAR OUT! GET BEHIND THE GOBLIN!
Hiccup: THE GOBLIN HAS A NAME!
Tamana and Zaena get behind Hiccup and his biggest shield as the Swede unholsters his Glock, points it the Berserker Mage, and charges. With a grunt of effort, he underhands the bucket; with an evil grin, their ax brandishing foe catches it in his free hand.
FeeTwix fires once, and the bucket flashes into a hypersonic cloud of expanding gas.
Instakill!
The explosion tears through the wall closest to the mage and brings part of the ceiling down. The shock wave bludgeons Ryuk and FeeTwix off their feet.
-65 HP!
Even though the rest of the guild are in the blast shadow of Hiccup’s oversized scutum, they still take a pounding as they’re thrown across the room.
His ears ring and his eyes don’t quite focus, but Ryuk manages to roll to his stomach and aims his marble gun at the debris pile. He knows the mage is dead, but he isn’t taking any chances. He waits, tries to use his Extreme Focus but he’s still groggy and disoriented from the blast.
“Twixy … you son of a wench!” Hiccup pulls himself to his feet and uses his mechanical hand to wipe away the grit. He’s bruised and bloodied, and as he ambles over to the Swede, he yanks a piece of stone shrapnel from his belly. “Fick!”
FeeTwix, his hair and face streaked with blood, laughs as he lets his audience take in the carnage. “We did it! We did it everyone! And sure, I’d like to tell you about today’s sponsor, Carl’s Hardy Jr., and their mouth-watering grilled, bacon-wrapped boneless pork chop stuffed with provolone cheese and topped with buffalo wing sauce, but I’ll save that for later.”
His mirror appears in his hand and he offers his followers a smile. “To the two million plus people livestreaming the action here … ” he bows at the mirror, “thanks! All of you are winners too, each and every one of you.”
Hiccup points his tomahawk at the Swede. “Fick you and your feel good, everybody’s a winner motivational speech – you almost fickin’ killed us!”
“Didn’t, though. And I told you to get back!”
Zaena’s short orange hair has been singed to stubble on one side, which goes well-enough with her nosebleed, dented armor, and a sprained ghost limb. Nevertheless, the Thulean assassin seems to enjoy the all or nothing approach to combat and as she limps over FeeTwix, she offers him a flirty smile. “Just glad for that battle to be over with.” He lifts onto his tippy toes to kiss her.
“I’ll heal everyone.” Tamana dusts debris off the front of her white armor with one hand and keeps the other on her big sword, which she holds at her side.
“I need more than healing, Tammy,” Hiccup yawns, notices another bit of shrapnel sticking out of his thigh and yanks it out. “Yoy! I need a fickin’ gobnap, a hot pink bubbly bath given to me by a hot pink o
rc drazel, a couple of platters of dragon wings, and possibly–”
Instakill! Instakill!
Surprise freezes Ryuk in place; Zaena and FeeTwix slump to the floor as their heads spin away. Gone is the clumsy, awkward Tamana; she whirls out of her decapitating strike and in a blur of motion snap-kicks the surprised goblin square in the chalupa.
“What the fick–!? Yooooy!” Hiccup doubles over; Tamana drives her oversized sword into his back and flicks his body off her blade like an incredulous, pink-tufted booger.
She turns to face Ryuk, the last man standing. Her blank expression is one he has never seen on her before. Her eyes are soulless holes; they hold no remorse, no regret for what she’s done.
What the fuck!?
Tamana moves on Ryuk.
She feints high and swings low; his dream armor lifts to block her cut. It snags the blade, and she reverses direction and hacks the edge into his exposed ribcage.
-95 HP!
Blood flies from the blade as Tamana wrenches it from his body; he clutches his wounded side as blood mists into the air.
Ryuk falls, unable to fully comprehend what has just happen.
As Tamana stands over him, a Ballistics Mage materializes next to her. He’s a commoner, the spitting image of Ryuk. His stats are completely masked. The mysterious player lifts his slingshot and as he pulls it back, a sharp, jagged knife forms in the pouch. With a sinister grin, he points the blade at Ryuk’s throat.
“FICK YOU!” The wheezing, bleeding goblin hacks his tomahawk into the doppelgänger’s back, and as the evil twin stumbles forward, Hiccup charges Tamana with his biggest shield, meeting the first slash from her surfboard-sized blade head-on. He’s knocked backwards, but remains upright and curses her as he equips a double-bitted war cleaver.
Instakill!
On his back and bleeding out, Ryuk cringes as Hiccup’s head explodes; the goblin’s bloodied pink topknot lands in his lap.
Not-Ryuk loads another black marble into his slingshot and aims it at Ryuk. Tamana flicks Hiccup’s blood off her blade. “I want to do it,” she says, her soft voice devoid of any emotion.
“By all means.” The mysterious player lowers his weapon.
Tamana approaches Ryuk with her blade at her side. She looks at him as if he were no more than a pile of goblin droppings as she raises her blade over her head.
Instakill!
Epilogue: Brother’s keeper
Kodai’s hostess bar in Shinjuku is quieter than usual. No matter, what could have been a very troubled day turned out to have a happy ending after all. Kodai settles into his chair, listening to the ambient choons pipe through the bar’s sound system.
A surprise attack on the Shinigami’s rented guild?
Kodai grins down at the malt whiskey from Nikka. Ryuk is an idiot. Kodai knew they would come – Tamana told him –and he was the one who allowed her laughably inept rescue to succeed in the first place. Ryuk and his dirty little band of shitty little fighters never knew what hit them.
Or better perhaps, what instantly killed them.
It was a beautiful thing watching Tamana drive her blade through his brother’s neck. Sure, weak, stupid Ryuk felt pain and suffering through his NV Visor’s haptic response system, but Kodai found this nowhere near as satisfying as he did the look on his brother’s face as his beloved Tamana tore through their teammates, as she approached him with her blade drawn.
The filthy goblin almost spoiled it, but Kodai quickly settled that with a black marble. Truth be told, he would have liked to have finished Ryuk off himself, but letting Tamana do it was even better.
The betrayal of it all …
He takes a sip from his whiskey and smiles. There were parts about the day that he could have done without, but ending thus far has been entirely grand.
Kodai blinks his eyes shut and sees his avatar auto-leveling in the Gristla Sand Dunes. Ryuk is currently at a higher level than he is, has more skills too, but with five more levels, he’ll be much, much stronger. He zooms in and checks his avatar’s stats and skills.
Kodai Matsuzaki Level 10 Ballistics Mage
HP: 196/323
ATK: 112
MATK: 134
DEF: 75
MDF: 83
LUCK: 7
---
Skill: Inquisitor
Level Three: Obtain information through enhanced interrogation techniques. Higher levels allow for more vigorous methodology and more effective deception.
Requirements: LUCK > 9
---
Skill: Mask Stats
Level One: Keep others from knowing your stats. Works on any player either below or within eight levels of your current level. Higher levels allow for customizable stat-based deceptions.
Requirements: LUCK > 6
---
Skill: Control NPC
Level One: Compel any individual non-player character to do your bidding. Higher levels allow for simultaneous control of additional NPCs.
Requirements: Control NPC is an algoskill. The only requirement is that it must be channeled from a higher level player to a lower level player. By accepting the skill, the lower level player allows the higher level player to directly access their D-NAS, creating a symbiotic relationship.
---
Skill: Breath of Fire
Level Two: Place a molten marble in your mouth and use it to spit flames. Damage increases with level.
Damage: 9% if enemy is less than level 30; 6% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Odds of instakill: 6%
Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7
---
Skill: Explosive Blades
Level Three: Use two knife marbles and one black marble to cause confusion and pain through an additional shrapnel bonus.
Damage: 19% if enemy is less than level 30; 8% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Odds of instakill: 3%
Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 8
---
Skill: Crucify
Level Three: Using two jagged knife marbles, quickly pin an enemy to an object. The object must be at least the length of the target’s outstretched hands. High levels allow for longer pinned times.
Damage: 3% if enemy is less than level 30; 4% if enemy is greater than level 30.
He’s with his two higher-level Shinigami mages who were assigned to him, and they’re doing most of the heavy lifting. He was saving his last five auto-levels for later down the line, but seeing his brother at a higher level really rubbed Kodai the wrong way.
I’ll get there soon, he thinks.
Not that level penalties really prevent him from doing anything. He has a growing list of recruits, and most of whom are at a much higher level than his current mage bodyguards. He can already travel anywhere he wants to via her algomagic, so there really is no need for him to level up aside from sheer vanity.
Her.
The mysterious green-eyed woman behind the magical door. He still doesn’t know why she came to him; he’d only logged in to spy on his brother, but her plan was one of the most powerful, marvelous ideas he’s ever heard. She wasted no time, either – the first part happened so quickly.
Even as he sits there and savors his drink, phase two of her plan is already underway.
He blinks his eyes open and takes in the dim red light of the hostess bar. Sarah the Australian is with a patron across the way, the same soon-to-be broke-ass salary man who was here two days ago. The man speaks to Sarah in loud Japanese, his face flushed with lust and alcohol, his tie askew.
Kodai gets the urge to walk over there and choke him with it, but swallows it down. Today was a good day, an uncomfortable day, he thinks as he looks again at his bandaged hand, but a good day indeed. It’d be best to end the day calmly and semi-peacefully.
Ryuk bought it, hook, line, and sinker, and Tamana was key in making that happen. He closes his eyes and the game feed appears in the lower corner of his iNet feed. He enlarges the live feed, watching as his
avatar zips a jagged knife marble into an abominable sandman.
Kodai’s avatar only has three marbles – molten, black, knife – and he’s already experienced distress at the choice of Ballistics Mage as his avatar. It also appears as if his brother has a marble he does not, a clear marble, which would be very useful to a player with a sinister mind such as himself.
But the mysterious woman insisted that I switch, he reminds himself, and she has been right so far.
Ryuk’s weapon was a curious one, a marble gun, and it’s something Kodai had never seen before. He would have taken it from him had he not been so enthralled by the unmitigated look of anguished betrayal on his younger brother’s face.
No one had told Kodai that actual firearms were possible with Ballistics Mages; he’d seen a good variety of slingshots – including a video of someone using an algo variant that allowed for ten marbles to be loaded at once – but nothing as stunning as the weapon his younger brother had. Someone knew where to get them, and Kodai knew that it wouldn’t take him long to find out who had manufactured it.
Even with his victory, however, he still feels deflated from the setback in the apartment. While he may have triumphed in Tritania, Ryuk had clearly prevailed in the real world, at least for today. And how he found out about Kodai dropping out of NYU …
I will beat you in your own game, just as I will beat you here, Kodai thinks, his grip tightening on his glass of whiskey. I will win in both worlds.
The music changes and Sarah stands. All eyes turn to her, the single gaijin in the room. She runs her hand through her hair and sashays over to Kodai.
“Were you watching me too?” she asks as she sits down. She crosses one leg over the other and coyly stares at the brash young crime lord. “Everyone seems to around here.”
“You’re too confident in public,” he reminds her under her breath.
“Are you going to do something about it?” she purrs. “Later, maybe? That’s why you came, isn’t it?”
He raises his chin and looks down at her.
“Relax, Kodai,” she says playfully, but quieter than before. He feels the long heel from her designer footwear dig into his shoe.
Fantasy Online_Hyperborea Page 33
