We still had over 12 hours before the sandstorm was due to start, which meant the airship was not where it was supposed to be.
“The Wasteland isn’t really doing what Mordecai claimed it would,” I said.
Katia’s face turned to the sky. “Yeah, you’re right. It looks like it’s headed out to the ocean now. They must have misunderstood its schedule.”
Three flares rose into the air. Two red and one white. All three hung in the sky, crackling. They’d come from the south, in the general area of the Bactrian village.
That’s when I realized the Wasteland was directly over the other village. From behind and within Hump Town, shouting rose. A high-pitched, wailing siren suddenly filled the air. The siren was strangely urgent in its call, like the wailing of a child. Behind and above, on the corrugated metal town wall, the sheet covering one of the large boxes pulled away. Two of the camel creatures stepped into box.
“It’s an anti-aircraft gun,” I said. It had four barrels, turned to the sky.
The whoosh of rockets rose into the air behind us. It was three more flares, this time fired from within town. I looked up and saw these three were red.
“I wonder what the colors mean,” Katia said.
“Let’s get back into town,” I said, jumping onto the back of the chariot. My seat was higher than hers and could swivel, allowing me to see over her shoulder. Once Mordecai and Donut returned, I’d build the Chariot’s defenses. Katia drove down the hill. The vehicle seemed pretty steady to me. It continued to raise a huge plume of dust. I wondered if there was a way to better disguise our passage. Probably not.
We stopped outside the gate and started to quickly disassemble the vehicle. When we were done, I turned one last time to look south.
And that’s when the bombs started to fall on the distant town.
“If they were in safe rooms, they’ll be okay,” Mordecai said as we waited for the recap episode to start. They’d managed to purchase two dromedarian bazooka tubes and ten rocket-propelled missiles. These were straight, line-of-sight missiles. The camels absolutely refused to sell their guided ones. I’d already taken one apart and given the chemical drive mechanism to Mordecai so he could reverse-engineer it. He said he was certain now that he knew how it worked. He could make me some components that I could use to manufacture my own rockets at my sapper’s table. They wouldn’t pack as much punch as I’d like, but their range would be amazing. And once I added a surefire to some of them, I’d have actual guided missiles.
“If the whole town blows up, the safe rooms really are safe?” Katia asked.
“Yes,” Mordecai said. “But not all bars are true saferooms. Generally if the proprietor isn’t a Bopca, then there’s like a 50/50 chance. The Toe is not a real saferoom, but as long as we’re in the personal space, we’ll be fine. I think there might only be one or two other places in town that’ll protect crawlers.
I remembered Growler Gary from the last floor. His bar had not been safe for him.
“So the NPCs will be safe if they’re in the correct bars?” I asked.
From the sheer amount of explosives dropped from the Wasteland, there was no way anything was left in the town.
“Well, it’s actually complicated,” Mordecai said. “Certain NPCs will be safe. I would be safe if I was in a saferoom. The whole room would be protected. If there aren’t any crawlers or basically any former-crawler or off-world NPCs in the room, the room is probably destroyed. There are additional rules if there’s only one saferoom in an area, but it’s pretty complicated stuff. The long and short of it is, Borant-owned NPCs are not protected by the saferoom system if they’re the only one there. They’re only protected if you are there.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” I said. “You’re saying all the NPCs are probably dead unless they were in a bar with crawlers? So saferooms are only ‘safe’ if a crawler is inside?”
He shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah. Again, there are some other rules. The manual on saferoom procedures is like a phonebook.”
“What about that other thing we were talking about? With the primary and secondary zones?”
“That’s different,” he said, shooting me a warning glare. “That doesn’t directly impact crawlers or NPCs at all.”
I sighed. There was still just so much I didn’t understand. And you probably know more than 90% of the other crawlers.
“So there might be a bar that’s just sitting there in the middle of the destroyed town?”
“That’s right,” Mordecai said. “Saferooms are protected spaces. That’s the point. Sometimes during quests and special events, the system prevents access to them, as you’ve seen. But if this town gets that same treatment from the gnomes, just come in here, and you’ll be protected.”
“I hope the poor people in the other town knew all this stuff,” Donut said. She sat on the counter eating a can of Fancy Feast from the food synthesizer. I could tell by the look on her face that she was not pleased. Mongo couldn’t get food from the boxes, so we still had to purchase it for him. But tonight he received a pet biscuit.
We still didn’t know why the gnomes had blown the Bactrian town to hell. From what I gathered based on the frantic activity by the dromedarians, they didn’t know either. We kept sticking our heads out to keep track of the ponderous fortress’s location. So far, it hadn’t made a move in our direction.
The recap show started. It opened with what looked like a giant sheet of bubble wrap. The camera quickly panned over it, showing bubble after bubble. Snowstorms, hurricanes, thick jungles, swamps, mountains, labyrinths, and more flashed by on screen.
But before it moved to the fifth floor, we watched multiple scenes from the end of the Iron Tangle. We watched Miriam Dom cast a spell that knocked out a giant province boss. The debuff only lasted a few seconds, but in that moment, Prepotente hit it with a half of a dozen different potions and spells in a row, causing its unconsciousness to jump from ten seconds to five hours.
“Genius,” Mordecai said, watching the goat work. “He’s killing it with stacking debuffs.”
But they didn’t manage to kill the province boss. On the screen, Quan Ch zipped into the room from out of nowhere. He shot the boss with a blue magical bolt, causing it to wake up. The goat team had to flee, with Prepotente screaming he was going to kill Quan. Quan remained in the room, shot the boss a few times, enough to get its health down halfway, but after the thing swung at him, he ran off.
“He could’ve killed it,” Donut said. “He ran away like a wuss. He’s a menace!”
“That robe of his is something else,” Mordecai said. “It looks like it gives flight and the Shield spell and probably more. I’m not certain what the blue energy bolt is. I think it might be Disrupter, which is a rare but strong spell. It’s similar to Donut’s Magic Missile, but it is good for blowing holes in things. Plus it has splash damage and has a stun effect. The only problem is its short range.”
“That should be ours,” Donut grumbled.
Next, they showed my fight with Grull. They said Grull was being controlled by Prince Maestro, but it was only a quick mention, and they didn’t focus on him. Instead, they showed the teamwork of Elle, Donut, Katia, plus Li Jun’s team. They portrayed the train falling through the portal into the abyss, but they did not show Fire Brandy or Tizquick the dwarf at the controls. Instead, they switched it back to me, showing the experience points get showered onto me as the wall monitors all died and the soul crystals across the tangle detonated, opening up the floor to escape.
Mordecai gave me an appraising look afterward. “You know you’re crazy, right?”
I nodded.
The show abruptly changed, becoming a tribute to the life of the crawler Ifechi.
“So it was Ifechi who died,” I said as they showed the African man hesitantly enter the dungeon. “He was a healer. Poor guy.”
Ifechi entered the dungeon with a group of other men, all soldiers, all wielding AK-47s. Ifechi was the only one who wasn’t
armed. He was also dressed differently than the others, wearing a bright red shirt with a vest. He carried a medical bag over his shoulder with the familiar Red Cross logo.
“Not a guy,” Katia said suddenly, peering closely at the screen. “Ifechi was a woman.”
“What?” I said. “Are you sure? How can you tell?” The crawler looked like a dude to me. He was rail thin, smaller than the others. Everything about him seemed timid and drawn-in, afraid. He kept his head shaved. Not that I was an expert, nor did it really matter, but he looked like a bloke to me.
“Call it a super power. I can tell.”
We watched as Ifechi’s former team, Le Mouvement, got zeroed out by a translucent jelly boss the size of a house. From there, Ifechi, now all alone, stumbled through the dungeon, eventually meeting up with Florin. Florin, as a human, had kind of a mysterious background. He said he was from France, but he had an Australian accent. He was in Africa when it all went down. They didn’t really give the guy’s full story, but he mentioned something about “private security.” I knew what that really meant. He was a mercenary of some sort. He’d also come into the dungeon armed to the teeth, but he now relied solely on his automatic shotgun, which appeared to be heavily modified even before he received the magical, unlimited-ammo upgrade. Ifechi eventually chose a healer class, and Florin picked the crocodilian race. They had been separated when they hit the third floor, but they quickly found one another. It showed them hugging and sobbing as they reunited.
They were more than just friends, I realized.
Florin’s weapon was devastating to most of the mobs, and Ifechi, despite being a healer, had an attack so effective, so unique, I could see how the two had earned spots in the top ten. It was a staff that summoned and flung leeches. A lot of leeches. They’d cover the mob, sucking at its fluids, killing it in seconds. Afterward, the wriggling leeches would be filled with blood and other fluids from the dead mobs, and they could be eaten, giving a wide array of buffs. Florin would gobble them right up, getting temporarily stronger. It was disgusting,
“Fascinating,” Mordecai said. “I haven’t seen anything like that in a very long time. I thought they’d removed that spell. Crocodilians have the ability to triple the effectiveness of any buffs they receive from eating creatures. He probably chose that race just because of her staff.”
And then, finally, we saw the manner of Ifechi’s death.
The two were part of a group that had moved to one of the former ghoul stations after the stairwell station had opened. A line had formed at the stairs, and people were quickly descending. The station was almost empty. Everything was moving nice and orderly.
And then Lucia Mar entered the room.
The number one crawler strolled into the station like she owned the place, flanked by her two dogs, Cici and Gustavo 3. Lucia was in her beautiful, magic-focused form. Her Lajabless species made it so she spent half the day as the beautiful woman. The rest of the day she spent as a strong, melee-focused, female version of Skeletor. The dwindling crowd parted as the child-turned-woman walked through the room, her raven hair sparkling. She walked with a slight limp due to her goat leg. She had a mess of boss kills and player-killer skulls over her head.
Cici the rottweiler had also undergone a transformation, having grown to be almost twice the size of the other dog. The larger dog growled at a random crawler, who scattered back.
Lucia paused, looking about the room. The remaining crawlers scrambled at their chance to hit the stairwell. A glut formed at the exit.
Florin and Ifechi approached Lucia, apparently in an attempt to say hello.
“No. This is mine,” Lucia said, hugging herself. The two dogs growled.
“All right, mate,” Florin said, backing off, arms raised. He turned away and muttered “crazy bitch,” under his breath.
Lucia did not hesitate. She grabbed the closest crawler, a man about 18 years old who was desperately trying not to be seen. She picked him up like he weighed nothing and literally threw the man at Florin. The poor guy wailed as he was tossed, which caused Florin to jump out of the way. The thrown man hit the ground, bounced once, and crashed against the far wall, unconscious.
“What the hell?” Florin shouted as Ifechi rushed to the injured man. “Lady, you’re not right in the head. We’re all friends here.”
“There is nothing wrong with my head,” Lucia Mar said, sounding strangely offended. “Why would you say that?” She pointed at Ifechi, who was shoving something into the mouth of the unconscious man. “Speak no more, or there will be something wrong with your girlfriend’s head.”
“Girlfriend. Told you,” Katia said, as we watched, transfixed.
“Jesus,” I said. “And I thought the goat was crazy.”
“Prepotente is crazy, Carl,” Donut said. “You’re crazy, too. Lucia is something different. She’s insane.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Florin backed away, not saying anything. I could tell the guy was smart. He recognized her insanity. The last of the crawlers pushed their way to the stairs, leaving just the three of them plus the injured crawler. And the dogs.
“That’s sad,” Donut said.
“What?” I asked.
“Nobody stayed behind for that poor guy Lucia threw across the room. Only Ifechi helped him.”
I reached up and patted Donut’s head. The cat’s entire body was taut as she watched the screen.
Florin said nothing as he walked backward, keeping his eyes on Lucia. He reached to tap Ifechi on the shoulder and signaled for her to proceed toward the stairs. She nodded. The injured man sat up, rubbing his head. He gave a terrified glance at Lucia and scrambled toward the stairwell. Gustavo—the regular-sized rottweiler—moved to block his access. Lightning sparkled in the dog’s mouth as he growled.
“What did you say?” Lucia snarled at the fleeing boy. “What did you say about my papa?” Gustavo took a menacing step toward him.
“What?” he asked. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He didn’t say anything about your father, you right cunt,” Florin said, distracting her. “But if I could say something to him, it’d probably be, quit dropping your babies on their heads. It makes them a touch daffy.” He pulled Ifechi up. “Come on, Ife. To the stairs.”
“Don’t take shit from anyone. It’s just a game. It’s not real,” Lucia said. She was talking to someone over her shoulder. Someone who wasn’t there.
Ifechi surreptitiously cast a spell by waving her hand. It looked like a protection spell of some sort. She cast it twice. Once on Florin and once on the other crawler, leaving herself unprotected.
“Why did you talk,” Lucia said to Florin. She sounded curious, her head cocked to the side. “I said I would make your girlfriend’s head not right if you talked.”
“We don’t want any trouble,” Florin said, edging his way toward the stairwell.
“That’s what they always say,” Lucia said, moving sideways to block the exit. She clicked her teeth.
Everything that happened next took place over the course of ten seconds.
Cici the giant rottweiler rushed at Florin, launching herself at him. Gustavo did the same, jumping over the other hapless crawler and rocketing toward the crocodilian. The dog opened his mouth, as if ready to shoot lightning from it.
Bam, bam, bam.
Florin’s shotgun was suddenly in his hand, and he fired three blasts so quickly that I didn’t even see the movement. He sent one shell at Lucia, one at Cici, and one at Gustavo, in that order.
Lucia and the two dogs all flew backward. Lightning misfired from Gustavo, blasting off the ceiling. Florin continued to blast all three in turn. Bam, bam, bam. He took a step toward them. Bam, bam, bam.
Next to me, Mordecai groaned. Katia gasped. And then I saw what they saw.
Ifechi was leaned up against the chamber wall. Her head was gone. The splatter of blood and brains painted the stone.
“What…” I began. Mordec
ai held up his wing for me to be silent.
That fourth crawler cast a spell as he scrambled toward the stairwell. It turned the floor of the room to ice. He rushed down the stairs and disappeared.
Lucia sat up, not injured at all. She grinned at Florin.
“I told you I’d do it,” she said.
“No,” Mordecai said. “No, no, no.”
Florin fired once more, right into the temple of Lucia Mar.
They both flew back this time, spinning and turning like pinballs on the floor of ice.
Lucia Mar ricocheted off the wall as she sat up, again uninjured. She cackled with laughter, laughter that abruptly turned to a strangled cry as she continued her momentum and plunged into the stairwell and disappeared. She crashed loudly to the bottom of the stairs.
Both of the dogs whimpered as they tried to get up, also uninjured. They scrambled, their feet unable to purchase on the slippery ground. They spun and turned and bounced off one another. They clambered, howling and whimpering as they moved to follow Lucia Mar onto the stairwell.
If it wasn’t so horrifying, it would’ve been hilarious.
Florin sat up. His temple and neck was covered in blood, his health mostly gone. He shook his head, confused.
And only then did he notice that Ifechi was dead. He looked at her, bewildered, not understanding what had just happened.
“No,” he said, seeing her body against the wall. “No, Ife, no.”
That’s when I noticed the shining, golden skull over Florin’s head. He dropped his gun, put an arm over his crocodile eyes, and he started to wail.
The show cut away to the smiling host, breathlessly starting to explain the fifth floor.
“What the fuck did I just watch?” I asked as the show went on.
“Lucia appears to have access to a very powerful spell,” Mordecai said. “It probably comes from something she’s wearing. It usually has a long cooldown, but she either has multiples of the spell, or she has somehow defeated the cooldown problem. Either way, it’s ridiculously broken. It’s no wonder she’s so strong.”
The Gate of the Feral Gods Page 7
