Devil's Waltz

by Dante Sakurai

  “Goooo! Teddy!” Gabrielle jumped and somersaulted like a cheerleader.

  And Fluffy still wasn’t done. With a third, harsher shriek, she exploded with white yarn, streaks of pink as well. The invisible hands knitted two upright bunny-like things at least a hundred meters tall. The pink wove into curved longswords, like scimitars but straighter. They started hopping toward the city, each jump longer than the maximum range of Rime Blink.

  Gabrielle spread her arms wide and fell backward onto the sand. “I’m in heaven,” she breathed, pure bliss beaming from her cute features. “This is the dark continent I deserve. All mine. And Row’s.”

  Indeed, it was. A dark continent in this virtual world all for the one girl who brought some happiness and meaning to Rowan’s life. It was how it was. Perhaps that would change in time, but right now, it was the simple truth and nothing but.

  At last, Fluffy was done. She bounced back toward the party and settled onto Gabrielle’s belly, purring.

  Rowan didn’t let up his guard just yet. “Get ready to rush in.” He blinked to her and pulled her onto the saddle by the hand.

  She lazily gripped his chest with one arm, cradling an exhausted Fluffy with the other. “Kay.”

  As the teddies marched into the city, the bunnies and pterodactyls went to town on the shield. Each longsword-slash dealt millions of damage, and they could slash at a comical rate; a strike and a half every second. For a billion points, the shield drained as though it only had a million. In less than twenty seconds, it was down to 12%. The crack-webbed dome was on the verge of shattering.

  8%

  3%

  The dome shattered into a trillion twinkling gold pinpricks.

  Rowan gave a forward-charge ping to the raid party but kept the swarm close as a protective buffer. The stuffed toys were more than enough on their own by the looks of it. Not a single teddy had yet fallen.

  The dark couple rode into the humans’ capital upon the back of the Pale Horse’s frosty skeleton, bringing death and destruction.

  * * *

  The teddies knocked over empty buildings one by one into salvageable piles of rubble. The outer streets had long been evacuated.

  This opulent city, miles across, looked to house maybe up to a hundred thousand upper-class and elites. But these neatly-paved streets and splendid Roman-themed architecture had to be demolished, unfortunately. It was nice, yes, except it was a symbol of the past age—the age of annoying righteousness. Keeping these buildings around, apart from that shield-generating castle, would only send a confusing, mixed-message to Rowan’s subjects. The mood of his cities had to be right.

  Gabrielle said, “I think this is it, Row. The start of our reign.”

  “Let’s not grow overconfident. How many spawnpoints here?”

  “One in each compass direction.” She hummed a long note. “And one special spawnpoint by the castle.”

  “Special?”

  Zaine answered, “The humans’ main spawnpoint. It’s in an ancient yew tree.”

  “What happens if we destroy it?”

  Ayla said, “Who knows? No one’s taken out a race’s main spawn yet.”

  Now that was interesting. Extremely so. Rowan nodded and gave out orders: “SoSo, Edward, you’re on spawnstone-hunting duty again. Salvage them for Gabby to use. We’ll go straight for the yew. Something tells me they’re defending that with everything they have.”

  Ambiguous said, “They are.”

  Just as he inferred.

  The twins disappeared with static buzzes, a tad annoyed at the arrangement, but they didn’t let it show too much. They’d just have to suck it up and wait their turn to be in charge soon enough while Rowan and Gabrielle were logged out. They were the de-facto second in command apart from Ambiguous. Ayla still had to earn her place, especially after that lingerie stunt.

  * * *

  The inner buildings were still evacuating, and the wicked few showed mercy for once. Rowan’s Ice Dragonflies were enough to give them quick, merciful deaths, their screams unheard in the game’s smart noise cancellation. He was tiring of their screams anyway. It was all they did in their final moments—scream, cry, yell, and beg. No one accepted inevitable fate in peace. Every mortal would face death eventually, and he was merely here to bring it to them, serve it to them on an icy platter.

  As they approached the inner-walls, Rowan sighed and gathered Fluffy’s stuffed toys with a sweep of their mental leashes… only to find they had none. They were all extensions of Fluffy. He gave her the order instead, and she responded with an upbeat affirmative. She was intelligent, more than she let on. If only she could talk. Oh well.

  The frontline teddies made quick work of the inner walls. The dust cleared and revealed the human elites’ lavish compounds and gardens. Not bad. A dense gold dome shone behind a large pond and pavilion. The ancient yew stood within.

  “Hmmm,” Gabrielle hummed. “This is pretty nice. Let’s not demolish this, kay? Head straight for the spawnpoint.”

  Rowan didn’t mind either way. “Alright, but no promises. This could be messy.”

  “Hmph. Fine.”

  The stuffed toys advanced with gingerly care, and Rowan he looked at Ambiguous. Her sleek features were relaxed, a good sign. “How’s their defense?”

  “A thousand players and a dozen shield generators. Still just the Dusk Elf Queen.”

  Wow. “Why aren’t any other World Bosses porting in?”

  “They’re occupied with various ongoing conflicts. It’s a very big world. Don’t forget.”

  The pirate and bandit raids along with other lesser clashes, Rowan recalled. However, what was happening here was apocalyptic. This was the humans’ end. “So they’ll just let the human capital fall?”

  Ayla huffed a breath. “The humans haven’t been garnering favor for a while now. They demand and consume so many resources but have the most poverty and problems out of everyone. It’s pathetic. They would’ve been wiped out by now if the Dracos weren’t so generous.”

  “I see. No wonder Ione wasn’t sad to see them go.”

  “Yuppers,” Gabrielle chirped. “We’re doing everyone a favor, really.”

  Zaine said in a different tone, “I hope the Dark Humans aren’t as disappointing.” He was hiding something; Rowan couldn’t be bothered to push.

  The stomping teddies closed the gap toward the light players’ defensive formation. Ruthlessly they bashed and thrashed with their mallets. Unwaveringly they tanked thousands of attacks, nigh-impervious to everything apart from fire. And righteous many sadly had almost no fire-type characters. Dorian had to be one of a handful in their ranks; the only Fire Lord. He unleashed his plasma death beam at the nearest teddy—and managed to kill the toy! The brown fabric fell apart, disintegrating into embers.

  Fluffy gave a vexed feeling through her leash, rightfully too.

  Gabrielle asked Zaine, “If Fluffy dies, all of them die too, right?”

  “Yeah, but Primordial Yarns can regenerate even from a small speck. They have to burn every last thread.”

  “How small?”

  “About this much.” His gauntleted index finger and thumb spaced out roughly half an inch.

  Good to know. Rowan made a mental note while their shield generators winked offline one by one. Seven out of thirteen up. Two teddies down.

  The Dusk Elf Queen cut frilly patterns in the air with her staff. The loosely paved ground around her shifted, and the roots of her short-range portal tore through. A retreat. It was over.

  A bunny jumped into the fray and wailed on the dome. Two generators went offline in seconds. Three left.

  The portal finished growing, translucent mana filling the arch. They rushed through with impressive haste as pterodactyls swooped down and dropped bombs. One generator left, and with a final strike from the bunny, the dome shattered into gold dust. The Queen’s portal deactivated. Angry teddies piled in and pulverized the two hundred stragglers into bloody mush. Ouch.

  It was
over.

  “Well that was anticlimactic,” Ayla said.

  Ambiguous yawned. “Yeah, not all battles are nail-biters.”

  “Gooood game!” Gabrielle sang.

  Or so they thought. “Rowan Black,” a composed voice said from behind.

  The Pale Horse’s skeleton trotted around, and Rowan met the sight of Lance Rider coming out of Stealth. Curious about what the guy had to say, he pinged the party to hold back and restrained every minion. “Hey, man. What’s up?”

  Lance fought off a hateful glare as his manly features scrunched for a moment. “What’s up? You’ve gone on a genocidal rampage is what’s up. You’ve ruined the game for thousands of beta testers and countless NPCs.”

  His self-restraint was honestly impressive. Most other light players had little sway over their monkey nature. “I wouldn’t say ruined. We’re going to build a civilization for the Dark Humans. You saw them, right?”

  Lance smirked. “You really think you can build a stable society full of darkies? Don’t kid me, mate.”

  “We get along just fine.”

  Gabrielle added, “We have better teamwork than you, monkeys!”

  “Because you’re winning. You’d be at each other’s throats in any other situation. I’ve seen your violent, childish squabbles throughout alpha and beta. Pathetic. I also heard Edward sexually assaulted Ambiguous the other month. Is that true?”

  Ambiguous scoffed. “That’s none of your business, mate. And don’t believe every last rumor you hear.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Rowan pretended he didn’t hear that. Best to not intrude on another guy’s rapey business.

  Gabrielle pouted. “It’s not true… and those were all healthy squabbles. It’s how we settle differences. You’re forgetting this is virtual reality and we can smack each other around as much as we please! Even Row needs a pounding to the skull sometimes.”

  “She’s right,” Ayla said.

  Lance had no rebuttals for that one. He only stared down the wicked few with intense, unblinking eyes while the night’s wind howled across the gardens. Like what did he want here? An apology?

  Rowan scratched his nose. “Any last words?”

  “Good luck. I only wish you the best… as a fellow gamer. Give us some time to evacuate the surrounding towns and villages—all I ask for.” Before Rowan could consider his request, swiftly, Lance unsheathed his rune-etched sword and slit his own jugular. Blood sprayed. His armored body clunked onto the paved ground.

  “Shit,” Ayla blurted. “That was dramatic. Didn’t think he was that kind of guy.”

  Gabrielle lightly said, “Boys will be boys. Even the less-monkey-like ones.”

  “What’s virtual reality?” Zaine asked.

  “And why do you keep calling us NPCs?” Viola.

  “What’s sexual assault? Is it a dirty game? Sounds fun.” Skylar.

  Ambiguous laughed a few breaths. “I’ll explain it all to you later.”

  Rowan stared at the bleeding corpse with chilly relief, his heart hammering a steady beat behind his trusty amulet, the Jewel of Blasphemies. It was over. Their glorious leader conceded. It was done. Victory never felt more cathartic. “We won,” he breathed, and for the hell of it, he brewed up a minimum-intensity blizzard directly above as an act of celebration.

  Snow fell onto the gardens, painting the greenery white and freezing the pond. The ambient temperature dipped to a refreshing two or three degrees Celsius. Snowflakes glistened in the light of mana lamps dotted throughout the paths and courts, a wintry wonder land.

  Gabrielle’s eyes gradually widened, focused on the frozen pond. “Hey, Row?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Wanna go ice skating with me?”

  “I’d love to,” Rowan said, laughing.

  “Yay!” She flattened the ice with Laceration curses and pulled out two pairs of bladed footwear from her dragonscale pouch.

  Chapter 47

  Quadruple Axel

  Gliding on ice, Rowan shivered—and not because of the frigid air biting his lungs every other second. He shivered at the scene of his beautiful Gabrielle skating upon the frozen pond, her tattered robes trailing eddying blackish-blue miasma in her wake. A ballerina on ice, dancing sensually before him.

  Her flow, grace, and own unique energetic quirky flair was living art to behold, art which Rowan had only seen in internet recordings on the rare occasion when he had randomly browsed the net. Close up, gliding with her, the various figure skating techniques were transfixing. And he knew the terms thanks to these magical ice skates. Her spinning jumps were perfect. One into another, step sequences in between sometimes. Triple Salchow. Double Lutz. Quadruple Axel. Breathtaking.

  Gabrielle giggled as she spun past him. "Heya, Row." Her fingers brushed against his, electricity sparking.

  "Hey." He gave a soft chuckle and didn’t bother to follow.

  She zoomed on with her routine. Her program as it was called, the knowledge at the ready in his mind. She curved around the pond’s edge, dancing, then swerved back into the center with a masterful waltz jump quadruple toe loop combination. She bent over backwards and slid along the ice—and concluded the program with one of those fancy one-legged spins, a vortex of darkness. She raised her arms, spread eagle, and glided back to him.

  "Did ya like it? Think I could win any gold medals with that?"

  Rowan recovered with a subtle cough. His tingling body heated with a mixture of awe and peculiar affection and lust. He offered a wry smirk. "It was alright. Could be better."

  "Nyaaaa… I’d like to see you do bet—"

  He grabbed her shoulders. "That was insane. I think you really would win gold if you can do that in real life."

  She flashed a toothy, sheepish smile. "Nah. The game makes skating easier. I used my Strength and Agility points."

  His eyes rolled. "Knew you cheated."

  "Of course! That’s the whole point of this virtual reality tech."

  "Your uncle said as much."

  "Yup. It’s gonna be a worldwide revolution." She giggled. "Now, come, do a duet with me."

  Rowan blinked as Gabrielle snatched his fingers and led him across the ice. "Ah… sure." He prepared for the worst. There was no possibility he could do any of those jumps or spins. These skates merely granted basic knowledge without accompanying muscle memory or experience.

  Fortunately, she went easy on him with a simple waltz-like program that he could easily follow. Nothing too technical or fancy. Just him and her twirling on the ice going back and forth in each other’s grasp. He stared into her swirling blue eyes and let himself be lost in the dance. It was a waltz to remember. The bringer and death and his devilish princess.

  "So," she said as he embraced her with a gentle hug from behind. "Want to tell me about your rapey mode?"

  That sure came out of nowhere. "What about it?"

  "I dunno. Everything? What do ya wanna do to me?"

  Everything. He carefully thought out the right things to say while they slid across the heavily scored ice. He took a deep chilly breath, her pineapple scent mixed in. He groped her lovely breast, his waist churning with desire, and that was enough for him to slip into a dangerous, primal part of his psyche. He spoke softly at her ear: "I want to hunt you down like a hungry predator… and jump on you when you’re not looking. I want to overpower you while you resist and punch and kick and scream at the top of your lungs for help… and for me to stop. I want to hear your shrieks and cries and feel your shaking body against mine." Her body quivered. "I want to hold you against the wall by the wrists and forcibly undress you… and pry open your legs as you scream louder and your voice breaks. I’d take my time pulling your panties to the side to expose your cherry treasure as you thrash harder. I want to tie you down, pull your head back by the hair, then go to town on your slick, tight—”

  “Row.” She had a palm against her chest, her other hand gripping his. Her exaggerated gasps came slowly. “Sorry, but I�
�m not into that. It’s pretty extreme.”

  He growled in frustration. “I thought you darkie girls have some pretty fucked-up fantasies.”

  “Ayla was being hyperbolic to steal you from me. It’s not that bad.”

  God damn. That bitchy squirrel again! “What about Ambiguous and Edward?”

  “That really didn’t happen, Row.”

  A moment of tense silence passed. “Then I can settle for something normal… as long as you remain my good little fucktoy.”

  She inhaled through her mouth, then blew a long wheeze. She cutely said, “I can do that!” Her tongue clicked. “For tonight, do ya want me to start out almost-naked or play dress-up?”