Monster Hunt NYC 2

by Harmon Cooper

  But as it stood – or better, as he stood – Sun Wukong wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. He still had that grin on his face, an increasingly mocking grin as the minotaur pummeled him to no end.

  With the Ice Mage down, and the Alpha pretty bad off, the fight was pretty much decided.

  Rather than let Iris take the kill for the Alpha, Aya tossed a throwing knife at him that went through the back of his head and came out the front, knocking his spiked helm to the ground.

  Iris turned her attention to the flaming Skeletal Warrior, and increased the sound of her ukulele. I swore it was as if she were strumming a twelve-string guitar by the time she settled on a frequency.

  She formed a giant soundwave of energy that struck the warrior and disintegrated his body, pretty much taking Aya's kill.

  The minotaur.

  The beast was tiring as the two Huntresses approached him, both moving in stealth mode.

  And just as they reached the minotaur, Sun Wukong came out of his trance and delivered a series of blows to the creature’s chest and face using his bow.

  The minotaur took two staggering steps forward, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he fell backwards.

  We had done it again, and the crowd roared in approval as our avatars faded away.

  Chapter Fifteen: Sonic Boom

  “We are going to win this thing,” Aya said once our forms took shape in the skybox.

  Lady C. bit her lip as she considered this. “Yes,” she finally said, “I think you’re right. We have our secret weapons now.”

  “Who? Us?” I asked with a grin on my face as the mustached ball of lightning appeared.

  “Don’t let it go to your head, Chase,” Aya warned.

  “Ahem, congrats and whatever for winning again,” said the mustached ball of lightning, who floated in the center of the room. “Clearly you have a knack for not losing, but that doesn’t mean you’ve entirely won yet, but you’re close, I’ll give you that. But others are close too. Ah… ah… achoo!”

  He slammed into the glass overlooking the crowd below.

  Cursing his allergies, the lightning ball floated back into the center of the skybox. “My apologies. Damn Kingdom Fumus. Went there for vacation with wifey. They have a few outlet malls there on the border between Fumus and Sana. Me? I mostly stick to the spas in Sana, not embarrassed to admit I like happy endings, but I decided to venture out with her and I’ve had allergies ever since. Anyway, enough about my overly domesticated existence: there are two matches left. Win them, or lose them, it’s really up to you.”

  “Thanks,” I told him as he reared back to sneeze again. He caught himself at the last moment and avoided the sneeze.

  “That’s right, I almost forgot. Here’s your reward, and there’s plenty more where that came from if you win the next match. Bye.”

  Fifteen thousand Proxima dollars poured into the bank account, bringing us up to thirty thousand.

  “These tournaments are lucrative.”

  “And we are the ones doing most of the work.” I felt Aya’s ghost limb land on my shoulder. “So you’d better buy us something.”

  “You two just got cabins,” I said half-jokingly. “But seriously, we need to get a mining operation going. Just a small affair. It’ll keep the Proxima dollars flowing in. And trust me,” I said, smiling at Aya’s playful yet harsh expression, “I’m hooking both of you up after this.”

  “More books?” Lady C. asked, looking up from, well, her book. She stood in front of the glass to the right, her reverse harem romance in her hand.

  “Whatever you want.”

  “A trip to the outlet in Fumus would be nice…” Aya suggested.

  “Good idea, Lady Aya!”

  “Okay,” I told the two, “then that’s what we’ll do.”

  A glass took shape in the Thulean’s hand and she took a sip from a red health potion. “Are you fighting with us next?”

  “That’s the plan, Stan.”

  “Aya Duchig. That is the name given to me by my parents.” She took another sip from her glass and grinned. “I can see why Lady C. and Iris both like you…”

  Lady C. looked up from her book again.

  “Dammit, Aya–” I was already starting to say when she finished her sentence.

  “You can be a funny, nerdy cute rockstar man-boy who appeals to Iris’ musician side, and Lady C.’s bookworm side.”

  Lady C. laughed, cutting the tension I was feeling like a knife. “Chase never reads.”

  The Thulean continued to tease me for a little longer, never quite getting to the point that she was making me uncomfortable, but always close enough to make me wary that she’d cross a line and force me to confront my feelings for Iris and Lady C.

  But it never got to that point, and I was happy as hell to respawn on the battlefield, Iris on the sidelines this time.

  I knew I would be able to beat my opponent, but seeing him, and knowing that our little rivalry would only escalate after this, left me with a funny taste in my mouth.

  William stood before us with his two orcs, both lower leveled but wearing some pretty expensive-looking armor. For his part, William held a large sword, not quite the width of a buster sword but not far off, the hilt of which had a double shotgun barrel fused to it, the muzzle ending a quarter of the way up the blade.

  He shot me a cheeky grin, which morphed into a look of pity when he saw my bass guitar.

  “Yeah, keep thinking whatever you’re thinking,” I said under my breath as I brought my pick to the strings.

  “Do we really have to slay the orcs again?” Aya pretend-pouted. “I’m tired of killing orcs.”

  They weren’t close enough to hear her taunt them, but the orcs definitely knew she was saying something of the sort.

  A lightning bolt struck the coin separating us, flipping it into the air.

  It landed one lightning bolt up, which meant that I had to choose a mythcrea to fight alongside us.

  Magnus, I thought, figuring his swordplay would come in handy. But something told me to keep scrolling down until I reached Dalton’s name.

  I glanced to Iris on the sideline; I could tell by the way she held herself that she was anticipating this fight.

  I gave her a quick nod and returned my focus to the selection menu, pressing my finger onto the ink shadow’s name.

  Dalton appeared, and when he saw that we were surrounded by a crowd, the showman in him took over. He grew to six times his size, grooving to whatever music was streaming through his mind, his silky black form moving up and down.

  “Damn, Chase, how come you’re holding out on me?” Dalton asked to the roar of the crowd.

  “What do you mean?” I called up to him.

  “A crowd this large and we don’t have a show? We should have performed!”

  “We, um, are performing? Consider this our performance!”

  I played a power chord on the bass to let him know I meant business. Dalton nodded in approval, a slick grin spreading across his dark face.

  But he wasn’t the only one grinning.

  William laughed as a colossal dragon took shape behind him, its wings flapping in the air. The dragon’s scales were blood red, its tail topped by a sharp diamond. The creature wailed, spikes forming on its neck as it made its presence known.

  [Wyvern, Level 25]

  “Shit,” I started to say as I looked to Iris, only to find she was saying the same thing.

  I knew there was only one way for William to get the dragon: the fucker paid for it, which was by no means against the rules, but there was still something cowardly about it.

  “He’s just playing the game,” I muttered to myself.

  Suddenly, Dalton was the same size as me, a smirk on his face as he said, “Dragons can’t hit what they can’t touch. Leave the big reptile to me; I’ll at least soften him up while you three mop up the others. And don’t forget, after this, you, Iris and I have a date with musical destiny.”

  “Musical
destiny?”

  The timer flashed before us.

  ~~“BEGIN FIGHT!”~~

  Bang!

  Something knocked me backwards, and I felt a stinging sensation spreading through my body, starting at my shoulder.

  My bass guitar was still across my stomach, but what I was more concerned about was the fact that I had just been shot. Bringing back my hand I found that my fingers were now covered in blood.

  The pain was nearly unbearable, I was breathing heavily now, not able to get to my feet. I could hear a fight taking place, swords clinking together, the terror inducing roars from the red dragon.

  But this was all on the periphery, my focus was now on my arm, and the fact that...

  “Chase!” I heard Iris shout from the sidelines. I tried to look over to her, and when I finally was able to turn my head, I got a glimpse of my shoulder to see that it was partially blown off, my arm pretty much useless.

  But that didn't mean I couldn't play bass.

  As I rolled to my side, I use the body of my guitar to push myself up to a seated position.

  I was hyper aware of the fact that I would likely get shot again; I needed to act fast. Hell, if it hadn't been for a string of throwing knives from Aya, and a blast of fire from Lady C., William would have shot his sword gun at me a second time, likely finishing it then and there.

  Acting fast, I cranked the volume as loud as I could make it go on my digital display.

  Aiming the neck of my bass guitar at William, I scraped my pick along the lowest string, the plastic of the pick catching in the ridges as I fired a pineapple yellow shot of energy at the Alpha.

  This took the fucker off guard for sure, and my next shot blew him off his feet.

  Continuing this action, I dialed up the delay as far as it would go and turned the reverb as well, each scrape now creating dozens upon dozens of blasts, as if I were firing at him with an old timey machine gun.

  William tried to fire back, but he was shooting blindly now, his shots going wide as he scrambled to avoid the blast from my guitar.

  His orcs weren't putting up a very good fight. They did, however, have decent armor, expensive armor it looked like, as most of Lady C. and Aya's attacks barely fazed them.

  The Huntresses thoroughly engaged, neither paid little attention to the dragon overhead, which would have been a bad thing if it weren't for Dalton.

  The ink shadow had the dragon spooked; every time the dragon would come in for an attack he would appear before the dragon, growing in size, reminding me of death incarnate as his deeply black arms lifted into the air and his face twisted into a visage of horror.

  I figured that a dragon would be smarter, but maybe this one had a fear of ghosts, something that Dalton was capitalizing on. Eventually, the dragon would break free of Dalton's psychological attacks, and then we'd be royally fucked.

  I also had an urge to face William head-on, to let him know that I meant business.

  So, to scratch both itches, one being necessary and the other being selfish, I changed the trajectory of my weapon to one of the orcs, and to increase the power of my blast, I added a chorus effect to the rapid-fire pick scrapes.

  The blast connected with the orc’s chest plate, sending him backwards, and giving Aya the advantage she needed to drive her sword into an opening in his armor. One orc down, I returned my distraction fire to William, again keeping him from shooting us.

  He was fast, I'd give him that, likely because of the shoes he had on, which had little wings at the ankles.

  No matter; as long as I could keep him from actually attacking, we were good to go.

  Aya and Lady C. tag-teamed the orc, the fugly fucker barely able to fend off the two warriors.

  And that was that.

  A couple of blows to the front from Aya, and the orc completely focused on the Thulean, rather than keeping his eye on Lady C., who awaited her opening, slinking from foot to foot as she moved into strike.

  Lady C. was like a ballerina with swords, on her tippy toes as she spun her blades wide, one, two, three nicks lashing against the Orc’s partially exposed throat, forcing him to the ground as he choked on his purple blood.

  It was William’s turn now.

  “Take the dragon!” I told the two Huntresses.

  Iris and Lady C. turned, and just as Lady C. lowered her sword to get into position to take the dragon, a blast shot through her face and cheek, splattering the battlefield with her blood.

  “Lady C.!”

  I could see Iris on the sidelines jumping, pointing her finger at William, screaming for me to go, but I couldn't do anything.

  I was frozen.

  And even though I knew that she would be okay after the fight, just seeing Lady C. have her face blown off decimated my confidence, tore a cord from my heart.

  I played that note.

  The pick held properly now, my arm still limp, I started strumming an open chord.

  I adjusted the delay, brought the chorus down, turned up the fuzz, and mentally adjusted the equalizer so that the sound was thick, blistering, concussive.

  I walked toward William, oblivious to the battle still taking place, barely registering the fact that Aya had latched on to the dragon with her ghost limbs and was on its back now, stabbing it in the neck.

  My focus was on William, who was firing shots at me as I approached him, his shots ricocheting off the sphere of sound that had formed around me.

  Everything moved around me in slow motion as I moved toward my target, a dull feeling in my chest once I reached William, detonated the shield of musical energy I’d been storing, and killed us both.

  Sonic boom.

  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  We reappeared in the skybox. I glanced at Iris, still not registering the look on her face.

  It was a strange mixture of shock and astonishment, and as Lady C. and Aya’s forms took shape, I quickly realized why.

  Lady C. jumped into my arms, my hands naturally going to the small of her back as I held her up.

  “You did it,” she said, her face dangerously close to mine, her lips puckering ever-so-slightly.

  “It worked?” I asked.

  “It was a ballsy move, Alpha,” Aya said as she turned toward the window facing the stands. “But it was impressive.”

  The ball of lightning appeared, just as I set Lady C. down.

  She remained next to me, her body slightly touching mine. I had the notion to slip my arm around her waist, pull her into a position in front of me, so I could be closer to her, but I refrained.

  “I guess congratulations are in order,” the mustached ball of lightning said. “You four have made it to the final round, and if you win this round, you will be our official representative in the level four to six class range in the Tournament of EverLife, which starts a few days from now. But you still have one more fight, and as you can probably surmise, the other team that has made it this far through the tournament is also well equipped to deal with a variety of scenarios. But I don't know who they are, so don't ask me. I'm more interested in the higher-level battles anyway, they're much more destructive. Before I forget, here’s your prize. Don’t spend it all in one place.”

  Money poured into our Proxima bank account. A quick glance at the account and I saw that we were definitely sitting pretty.

  Proxima Dollars: $60,170

  Spent: $107,500

  Loan: 0

  “Thanks,” I told him.

  He sniffed, and looked for a moment like he was about to sneeze. Once he didn’t, he continued.

  “If you win the next round, you won't be coming back here. You'll stay in the center of the field, where there will be a little mini-celebration, whatever, I've seen it before, maybe some floats, fireworks. You know the drill. Or maybe you don't, but you'll get used to it if you win.”

  He offered us a rare grin.

  “Is that all?” I asked.

  “If you win the next round, you will become an official representative of Kingdom Lu
me, which carries with it a title of Lightning Knight. So, you'll both be Lightning Knights, and well, anyone in your fighting party will also be Lightning Knights. This will grant you access to exclusive places, and other perks, which means the final round doesn’t have a Proxima cash prize. Oh, and one more thing.”

  “What's that?” Iris asked.

  “Good luck.”

  The semi-cantankerous ball of lightning zipped away, leaving the four of us to recap the battle that had just taken place.

  For some reason, I had the feeling that it wouldn't be the last we saw of William.

  “I'm up for the next fight, right?” Iris asked.

  “By all means,” I told her. “That last battle was pretty intense, so I'm definitely down to sit this one out.”

  “So, it's just us three ladies?” Aya asked as she sipped from a health potion.

  “That's right,” said Iris.

  Lady C., who again had her nose deep in a cheap paperback, looked up and smiled at all of us. “Once we win this, Chase is going to take us shopping at the outlet mall. Don’t let him forget.”

  “I won’t forget.”

  “I’ll make sure he doesn’t forget,” Aya said as she took a sip from her health potion.

  Our banter continued for a few more minutes, our conversation underlined by the fact that I was a bit nervous about this last round.

  Still, we had made a lot of money, so if this was it, that was also fine.

  I didn't voice this opinion: Aya would have popped me on the back of the head if I'd said anything of the sort, so I just kept it to myself as the three women discussed strategy.

  Our forms disappeared, and reappeared behind the giant coin.

  The battlefield was set, the crowd around us going crazy, their screams and cheers like something I'd seen for live performances at Madison Square Garden or the Super Bowl.

  The opposing Alpha was a college-aged woman, one level higher than us. She was dark-skinned, her hair braided in an interesting pattern, her outfit bright and colorful, something straight out of Wakanda.