The Cheater's Return

by Brian McGoldrick

  "Halt and surrender, heathens!"

  Without replying, I keep advancing on the crusaders.

  The woman's irritation is easily read in her posture, and she takes a step backward, into the safety of the rest of the Holy Crusaders. "If you do not surrender, you will be executed!"

  I halt and stare at the woman in armor. "Ha! Do you really think you have what it takes to execute me? Who the fuck do you think you are?"

  There is no need to see the woman's face to read her anger. "Watch your tongue, heathen bastard! I am Sister Marga of the Sororitas Sanguinis."

  The Sororitas Sanguinis were famous in Primacy Online V . They are a bunch of fanatical, psychotic bitches that get off on slaughter and torture. Their companies would ride into villages and towns, and when they left, there would be nothing but mutilated corpses remaining.

  After Sister Marga carefully appraises us, she looks around. "Where is Crom Cruach?"

  Raven Goddess and I look at one another, and Raven Goddess frowns at Sister Marga. "What are you talking about?"

  The eye-holes in Sister Marga's helm seem to focus on Raven Goddess. "He may not be calling himself Crom Cruach. Was there a gnome with your party?""

  Again, Raven Goddess and I look at each other. Raven Goddess' nonplussed expression should be a reflection of my own.

  A gnome? What the fuck? Why does she think I am a gnome? What the hell is going on?

  *There is something abnormal about this situation. Like Half-Giants, gnomes are not supposed to be a player race.* Raven Goddess' voice reaches my ears through the party voice chat.

  *I think I am having a heart attack! Raven used voice chat!* I do not let any change of expression reach my face, but I am smirking on the inside.

  Raven Goddess' eyebrow twitches, but that is the extent of her reaction. *Insufferable Man, this is a serious matter. The Church's dogs think you should be a gnome, but you are a Half-Giant. That means that someone interfered with the character creation process, or the Quantum Control Program acted in direct opposition to their commands.*

  I deliberately smirk at the Holy Crusaders. "The closest thing we have to a gnome is the aspiring dominatrix in the back, but even she's still a few centimeters too tall for a gnome."

  "FAT PIG!" Chin-Sun's shriek comes out right on cue.

  With her angry, bloodshot eyes just barely visible through the eye-holes of her helm, Sister Marga's glare shifts around between the five of us. At least, she is intelligent enough to understand that I am fucking with her, but she has that typical arrogance that cannot handle anything but abject worship at her feet by those outside the Church.

  The two Church casters are the only ones without helms hiding their faces, and they have a mix of anger and uncertainty, which they are not doing a good job of hiding, on their faces.

  A good thirty seconds pass without anyone doing or saying anything. It is more than a bit disappointing. I was hoping for the rage-driven Sister Marga to go off on a tirade and drop some more useful information.

  "You're awful quiet. Did your tongue get stuck up the Patriarch's ass?"

  "Kill! Kill them all!" Shrieking like a banshee, Sister Marga charges toward us.

  The helms of the other armored crusaders shift around, as they glance at one another, and with resigned postures, they follow Sister Marga's charge. The thick, clinging muck slows the speed of their charge and makes them look like lumbering oafs.

  With frustrated and resentful looks on the faces, the two casters raise their hands over their heads.

  "{Blessing of the Sun} ."

  "{Strength of the Sun} ."

  The chanted spell names from the casters are in High Theran, and I know just enough of the language to pick the names of a sizable number of their more common spells. I can even recognize and understand the names of a few of the more esoteric spells, but I do not know how to ask anything basic and important like 'Where can I take a shit around here?'

  Two spell pattern discs of light, one pure white and one silvery-white, appear in the sky and fall onto the charging Holy Crusaders.

  *Any point in taking one alive?*

  With a frown, Raven Goddess glances at me. *No. Without being in War Mode, it is too difficult to torture any information out of them.*

  *Kill them all!* The party channel seems to reverberate with my shout.

  "{Earthen Spear} ."

  A stream of the disgusting grey muck rises into the air and solidifies into an earth spear in my hand. I hurl the earth spear at the female caster. The force of my throw punches it all the way through the right side of her chest.

  "Aaaaaa!"

  With a mix of fear and pain in her scream, the female caster staggers backward and falls on her ass in the muck. Far faster than it should, the earth spear turns back into grey muck, leaving her wound filled with the reeking substance. If she were to survive, even in the game, it would almost certainly leave her with a serious infection.

  For the moment, the female caster is out of the fight.

  "{Wind Dagger} ."

  With a quick motion, Serena hurls a nearly invisible dagger, made from solidified air, at the male caster. It hits him in the right eye. Serena's aim with both throwing weapons and bows is somewhere beyond impressive. While hunting undead with her, I watched her put both throwing knives, daggers, and arrows through the eyes of ghouls several dozen times, at the very least.

  "Aaaaarrrrr!"

  As blood sprays from his face, the male caster covers his eye with both hands and drops to his knees.

  "{Healing Light} ."

  Brilliant golden light radiates from the man's hands.

  "{Earthen Spear} ."

  Before the male caster can react, my newly created earth spear punches through his throat. I cannot claim that it was skill; I was aiming for his center mass. I am not that good with throwing weapons, or any other ranged weapon, for that matter. My hitting him in the throat was more luck than anything, but it is the kind of luck I will take in a heartbeat.

  "Heathen Bastard Whores!" From the sound of her voice, Sister Marga must be frothing at the mouth, underneath her helm.

  "{Earthen Spear} ."

  With a new earth spear in hand, I step forward into a Sliding Thrust and aim for the base of her throat.

  The clinging mud makes dodging difficult, and Sister Marga does not even try. She raises her shield, easily interposing it between the point of my earth spear and her neck, but the force and momentum behind my attack are far beyond her expectation. She flies backward, with her arms and legs flailing. In the middle of her shield, my earth spear left a 5cm or 6cm deep indentation. If she had the strength and mass to hold firm against my attack, the point of my earth spear would have punched completely through the shield.

  With their heads turning to follow the flight of their leader, the other seven armored Holy Crusaders falter in their steps.

  Taking advantage of their momentary surprise, Raven Goddess, Cavallo, and Serena ruthlessly attack. The clumsy defense of Cavallo and Serena's opponents are enough to limit them to being wounded, but Raven Goddess' target never even touches her blades. With a brilliant blue glow, both of her short swords slip under the lower edge of the Holy Crusader's helm, and his head goes flying through the air.

  As I turn on another Holy Crusader, he viciously hacks at my leg, but I batter his sword aside and kick him in the chest.

  Crackle.

  The sound of the Holy Crusader's breaking ribs is barely audible over the clamor of battle, and he flies through the air, toward another Holy Crusader.

  Seeing his comrade in arms flying at him, the next Holy Crusader in their skirmish line slams his shield into the man, knocking his flying comrade to the mud covered ground.

  "Apostate scum!"

  The Holy Crusader I have my back to lunges at me, but Raven Goddess intercepts him.

  "{Mental Influence} ."

  Chin-Sun's voice rings out in a variant Arcane language that is most commonly used by Necromancers and other Dark
influenced Arcane Casters; Shadow Knights are among the classes that use it for some spells.

  For a moment, a charcoal colored spell pattern appears around the head of one of the Holy Crusaders, and his arms drop limply to his sides.

  "Attack your friends!"

  The Holy Crusader stands in place, without so much as a muscle twitching.

  Raven Goddess finishes off her new opponent and sends his head flying like the first.

  I engage the Holy Crusader that knocked his flying comrade into the muck. His skills are better than any of the others, but he is still battered around under the force of my attacks.

  "Stupid fool! I said to attack your friends!" Chin-Sun's voice practically radiates anger and indignation.

  "Child, he is a Holy Crusader. Holy Crusaders have no friends. You should be able to understand such an existence." Serena's amused voice has a hint of mockery in it.

  Quickly glancing in Chin-Sun's direction, I see her turn a resentful, hate-filled glare on Serena's back. "Oh. Attack the other Holy Crusaders!"

  Dodging around Cavallo and Serena's fights, Chin-Sun's Holy Crusader charges at the back of the one I am fighting.

  Caught between his comrade and myself, the Holy Crusader focuses on defending against my attacks, and Chin-Sun's Holy Crusader stabs him in the back. The pain from the wound makes his muscles seize up for a moment.

  With a sardonic smile, I drive my earth spear through the Holy Crusader's helm, killing him instantly.

  Cavallo and Serena drop their Holy Crusaders in tandem. The timing of their kills is so close, it is almost like they planned it.

  Swaying as she rises to her feet, the horrified look in Sister Mara's eyes is barely visible through her helm's eye-holes. Spinning around, she staggers toward the rift at a dead run.

  "{Earthen Spear} ."

  As I launch my earth spear at Sister Mara, she glances over her shoulder and sways to one side, barely avoiding my spear.

  Cavallo kills Chin-Sun's helpless Holy Crusader.

  "{Wind Dagger} ."

  Even with Serena's terrifying accuracy, Sister Mara jerks her head to the side, and the solidified wind knife barely grazes her shoulder.

  "{Ice Bullet} ."

  Raven Goddess' ice bullet catches Sister Mara in the lower back, but it does not penetrate her chainmail.

  "{Earthen Spear} ."

  "{Wind Dagger} ."

  Using the increased momentum from Raven Goddess' attack, Sister Mara leaps into the spatial rift. As she disappears, both my and Serena's spells are torn apart when they hit the rift.

  "Typical. The Sororitas Sanguinis have always been better at running than fighting." Serena's vicious tone matches the venomous look in her eyes. She must have had some unpleasant encounters with the Sororitas Sanguinis in the past.

  Raven Goddess turns a cold stare on Chin-Sun. "Why did you not use Mental Influence to keep that woman from escaping?"

  Chin-Sun gives Raven Goddess a smile filled with pure condescending mockery. "You said there was no point in taking them alive. Mental Influence wouldn't have killed her."

  Raven Goddess' eyes narrow, fractionally. "Letting that woman escape will be likely to cause us more problems on the other side of the rift. Is putting yourself in danger of being killed, raped, tortured, or more likely, all three worth it just to spite us?"

  For a second Chin-Sun's expression pales, but after a moment, she clenches her jaws. Her eyes filled with hate, she glares at Raven Goddess but does not say anything.

  I go to finish off the female caster, but she is already dead. Laying on her back, with a look of pain and terror forever frozen on her face, her vacant eyes stare at the cloud-covered sky.

  Moving up next to me, Raven Goddess stares at the corpse, with a frown.

  "Suicide?"

  Her frown never wavering, Raven Goddess glances up at me. "It is very likely. Her wound should not have been enough to kill her."

  With a frown of my own, I walk toward the rift.

  "No. Do not!" The severity of the tone of Raven Goddess' voice is a clear warning.

  Turning around, I meet Raven Goddess' eyes. "Why not?"

  "The rift is unstable. As it is, should we enter it, we would be certain to be injured, maybe killed."

  Chin-Sun scoffs. "If it's so dangerous, why are you all bitchy about me not stopping that ugly bitch in armor?"

  Even though Raven Goddess neither turns nor replies to Chin-Sun, I can see the anger in her eyes. If it were not for my promise to Mi-Cha, she would have killed or driven Chin-Sun away, already.

  Crack!

  Seeing Serena knock Chin-Sun sprawling into the mud, with a slap, my eyes widen in surprise.

  "You are a self-absorbed, arrogant, ungrateful, little cunt. I do not know why Crom Cruach tolerates you, but I have no interest in listening to your filthy, ungrateful mouth. If you continue to behave in this manner, every time you irritate me, I will slap you like the ugly, misbehaving, bitch dog that you are." The intensity of the coldness and menace, in Serena's eyes and voice, is enough to leave me a bit surprised.

  Covered in grey muck, Chin-Sun staggers to her feet and glares at me. "Why aren't you doing anything? You promised sis, you would protect me!"

  With a derisive snort, I look down my nose at Chin-Sun. "You aren't in any danger."

  "Fat Pig! Bastard son of a whore! Fucking die! Go to–."

  Crack!

  Despite Chin-Sun's attempt to block Serena's slap, she is still effortlessly knocked into the mud, again.

  "Did you think I spoke to hear myself speak? We have been nice to you, and you act like we are the dirt beneath your feet. Until you can be civil, keep your filthy mouth closed!"

  I stare coldly at Chin-Sun. "I don't like you. I can't remember you ever being anything but a cunt toward me, but when we were young, Mi-Cha was my only friend. As much as we fought, we would have killed or died for each other. On the streets, we came close to dying more than once. The only reason I'm helping you is because Mi-Cha begged me to."

  Turning my back on Chin-Sun, I stare at the rift. "How long until it stabilizes?"

  For several minutes, Raven Goddess stares intently at the rift. "Hmm. Four to five hours. Once it gets closer to stabilization, I will be able to better estimate the time."

  "Fuck."

  "They couldn't have squeezed that many into a little boat like ours."

  Raven Goddess frowns. "No, they could have used two cutters, but more likely they came on a ship. The smallest ships used by the Holy Reclamation Crusade should be about 25m in length. In addition to the crew, they might be carrying about twenty to twenty-five Crusaders."

  "They knew about the rift and about us. This could be a follow-up to Deacon Claudius' mission, but why would they know about us? There were no Church forces in Bone Fort, at least none that were wearing Church uniforms."

  Raven Goddess sighs. "There was almost certainly a Church spy, but was it a player? Or has the Church passed my likeness to all their spies to watch out for?"

  "Does the Church seed their players as spies among the normal player population?"

  Raven Goddess laughs. "Absolutely. They have been doing so, since the days of the first Primacy Online . Nearly half the Earth's population goes to Church regularly. It is very easy for a spy to maintain the religious obeisances without appearing suspicious, so they can use very fanatical individuals as spies. They have spies among all the major guilds and direct city-state forces."

  "We may go through the rift and straight into a battle."

  Raven Goddess nods. "It is possible, but I think it more likely that the rest of the Church forces are guarding our cutter. Without it, we cannot leave Barrow Island. They just need to wait for us, where we landed, and we will come to them."

  "Yeah."

  * * * * *

  "The rift is about as stable as it will ever get. We should go, now."

  Raven Goddess words jerk me out of my thoughts, and I look at the rift. To my eyes, it does not look any d
ifferent than it did five hours ago. I have no idea how Raven Goddess can tell whether or not it is stable.

  I take my quarterstaff out of my inventory. "Is everyone ready?"

  Chin-Sun and I are the only ones without armor, but after the other three adjust the set of their armor and take out their weapons, they all acknowledge their readiness.

  "Let's do it." As soon as I finish speaking, I step into the rift.

  Barrow Island, Toraigh

  First Month 29, 10 RC

  Travelling through the spatial rift does not feel any different than the first time. Just like last time, it feels like both an instant and a long time, but this time I have gone from night to day. The sudden light blinds me, but I do not feel any of the chilling sensations of danger, from my Danger Sense .

  I take a few steps forward, and behind me, I hear the footsteps of the others coming out of the rift.

  As my vision clears, I look around but do not see anyone. Other than a few small animals and birds, there is nothing living in the vicinity of the spatial rift.

  After getting her bearings, Serena walks around the area, examining the ground. When she finishes, she stares in the direction we arrived at the rift from.

  "The Crusaders approached the rift along the same path that we did. The marks of their passage are overlaid on our own. There are two sets of tracks returning the way they came, but one appears to be more than a day old."

  I look at Raven Goddess. "It looks like you are right about them being where we landed."

  Raven Goddess' smile is grim. "I have dealt with the Church for a long time. With the exception of wild cards like the Sisters of the Sororitas Sanguinis, they tend to follow their Holy Manual of War in exacting detail. The Manual says that when you know an enemy has to travel to or through a specific point, you set up an ambush at that point. In this case, their Manual is not wrong. We have to get our cutter to get off this island."

  I sigh. "We have no real choice other than taking back our boat. Maybe, we should thank Sister Marga for her warning, before we kill her, with witnesses."