War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  The demon captain screamed when his lord lifted his other hand and pulled it backward. Seiki involuntarily shivered as the sound coming out of the captain was no longer human, but a demonic squeal, like multiple animals being slaughtered all at once. The captain’s face, too, was no longer human, as it was elongated into a conical snout. With sounds of cracking bones, his back bent up into a hunched arc, his torso bloating up to fill it, while his limbs stretched violently longer and slimmer, and the edges thinned into four sharp blades.

  “Now…” Kagenushi turned towards the group, his voice almost pleasant. “Wouldn’t you say he is of more use to me in this form?” He looked back at the demon still hanging in the air. “Kill them now. With such easy fixed targets, I trust you can no longer fail.” The deformed creature wriggled, as if half in pain and half in delight.

  “Then destroy the temple. Thoroughly,” Kagenushi continued. “There is nothing left there for me, so kill everything that moves.”

  Although frozen with Fear, Seiki directly met the Shadow Lord’s crimson gaze as the demon evaporated into a cloud of dark smoke. For a moment, the demon seemed to be observing him, as how one regarded a fallen enemy: with both disdain and satisfaction. Seiki gritted his teeth as he reminded himself again this was all scripted.

  He had expected the Fear effect to lift once the Shadow Lord was gone, but still found himself unable to move. He noticed that his health had dropped to twelve percent, so it would not be long before he could activate his Strength of Will and break out of it.

  As soon as his master disappeared, the shadow creature thudded to the ground like a giant spider, belly-first, while its blades stabbed down all around to steady itself. Seiki remarked now that it had two long fangs directly under its hollow nostrils, its beady eyes burning like precious gems in the firelight. It lifted its front right limb, which was essentially a sword now, as it started to make its way toward them.

  Fear was still ticking, bringing his health down to eleven percent. Seiki forced himself to remain patient. There was no movement around him, which meant his friends were still stuck in the Fear effect too.

  With an eerie swish-swish-swish sound coming from its four limbs stabbing through the ground, the shadow monster slowly approached Kentaro, and Seiki finally understood what it was meant to be: a rat.

  It paused to observe its prey, before letting out a soft chilly purr. Suddenly, it lifted its leg high and stabbed the houshi through the back.

  Kentaro of the Crafters’ Guild [Level 13]. HP 0/932. Lootable.

  Seiki stared. To the last second, he had expected at least one of them to be able to break out of Fear to fight the demon, but that was proving not to be the case. The monster turned to the white fox next and lifted its leg again, and Mairin let out a defiant hiss as it killed her.

  Mairin [Level 12]. HP 0/677. Lootable.

  A kind of rage, mixed with a touch of despair, washed through Seiki as the monster turned toward him, its crimson eyes burning with bloodlust. The deformed rodent made its way forward until it was almost on top of him. With his health lingering at nine percent, Seiki realized that the situation was entirely hopeless. After all, according to the Shadow Lord, they were meant to be easy targets, and even if he had managed to break out of Fear, he had no doubt the monster would be able to easily do away with his sliver of health. But at least, Seiki really wished he would be in control of himself when that happened.

  The demon’s raised front leg gleamed black like onyx in the pale moonlight. It let out a satisfied purr once more as it brought down its killing blow, and Seiki distracted himself with the thought that he should be grateful not to have been executed by the Rogami Clan at the White Crane Hall under Kojiro’s gloating smirk.

  The blade descended. An icy cold pierced through his upper back and darkness closed in around him.

  Seiki found himself floating in the familiar death void and heaved a frustrated sigh, wondering if the instance would reset once the demon rat had finished dispatching the last of them. Ippei had apparently been serious when he mentioned taking a beating. It was the feeling of hopelessness that was the most difficult to bear with.

  Abbot Arai wants to revive you.

  Seiki accepted faster than he could think. Intoxicating joy flooded him—the sweet, nourishing feeling of life, of second chances, of never being at the end of the road. He had completely forgotten about the old man until now.

  A second later, Seiki found himself lying on the ground in the cold night, with half health and energy, but full of the breathless thrills of conviction, like in those moments when he felt he would be able to make it all work in the end. Being revived did not apply death nausea, and Seiki grabbed his Hikari and leapt to his feet.

  “Hinder,” said the abbot.

  The priest was standing a few feet away from him. In the middle of the clearing, Kentaro and Mairin were already in action, and Seiki could only guess that the abbot went around reviving whoever had been killed first. Heeding the abbot’s advice, Kentaro’s swirling bout of spell hit the demonic rat, slowing it down for four seconds.

  Kagenezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite]. HP 1339213/1339490.

  “I’ll tank,” said Seiki as he rushed toward the monster rat, surprised by how excited he sounded. Behind him, he could hear Yamura gasping as the priest revived him, followed by a string of muttered curses at the Shadow Lord as the ryoushi started letting loose some arrows at the rat.

  “Wait, not yet,” Seiki said as he rushed toward the middle of the clearing. He could still not get the rat’s attention straight away as it was still chasing after the white fox. “Mairin, drop the rat. I’m coming in.”

  With a Slide, Seiki reached the shadow-rat’s side and stabbed it with Focused Strike. Mairin had dashed away from it without doing any more damage, so it immediately spun around, and Seiki had to map a second Slide out of there before it let out a loud paralyzing squeak.

  Apparently, the shadow-rat possessed the same ability as its previous versions.

  “Well, that’s the shadow-rat you asked for.” Ippei’s voice sounded slightly dazed, as he had just presumably been brought back to life.

  “See? See? I told you it was a second secret boss,” said Mairin gleefully.

  “It has a million health,” said Ippei. “It’s impossible.”

  “Um… why?” asked Mairin.

  “Remember that world event skeleton? That thing had three million. It took two hundred people to kill it. In four hours.”

  “You cannot fight this monster,” cried the abbot. As Seiki quickly jumped aside to avoid the rat’s attack, the old priest continued to shout, “Run. I’ll buy you some time.”

  With his black staff raised, the abbot stepped within range. “Go!” cried the old man. “Live to fight for Shinshioka.”

  The priest’s expression was grim in the moonlight. It was clear he was prepared to die, and something in Seiki told him he knew exactly how that felt, and that he was completely over all that now.

  “No, abbot-sama,” said Seiki. He glanced back to establish a quick eye contact with the demon rat to keep its attention on him as he dodged its attack once more. He let out a chortle. “You know what? I’m really done with all these scripted sob stories. I know it’s impossible. But the thing takes damage; it has a health bar, so we’re definitely fighting it.”

  Even if it took no damage and had no health bar, he would still be doing the same thing. He was here to fight after all, and there was always immense relief in being able to act, in not being paralyzed by fear or what-ifs.

  “Run!” cried the abbot.

  The rat swiped once more with its blade, a little too close, and Seiki was forced to Parry. The impact was heavier on his Hikari than he had expected, and the sword felt like hitting against rock. Seiki winced as his energy drained to zero. This meant the elite monster would be able to easily one-shot him if he was not careful.

  “You cannot fight this monster!” the abbot sai
d again. “Run while you still can!”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Seiki said. “Seriously, think about Joji for once. How is he going to feel when he realizes his guardian has died while he’s busy destroying ancient Buddhist scripture?” He had intended it to be a joke, but as soon as he said it he realized he meant it a little more than he thought. “Okay, how about you run? If we’re here to take a beating, we’ll take it straight to the grave.”

  Ippei choked on laughter. “Fine,” he said as he stepped in to join the fight. “You’ve got me.”

  Mairin giggled. “So, we’re going down in a blaze of glory or something like that?”

  “Run!” repeated the abbot as he tried to attack the rat.

  Seiki rushed in and stabbed at the rat’s front legs before its attention could wander. “Oh, come on.” He laughed. “Please don’t make my job harder than it needs to be.”

  Seiki struck away the rat’s bladed leg before it could take a swing at the old man. Abbot Arai straightened himself. “In that case,” the old priest began. “If you’ve already made up your mind…”

  Suddenly, it was as if all sounds had been muted, and Seiki did not know if he was simply imagining things, but he could clearly hear the old man’s next solemn utterance on a background of perfect silence: “Shield your eyes.”

  Before Seiki had time to comprehend what it meant, blinding light burst out from the priest’s staff, brighter than what it had been with the fire-rat earlier. Seiki almost instinctively turned away and buried his face in his sleeves. Even with his eyes sealed shut, he could still see the brilliance exploding from the end of the staff, and for a split second, his ears rang as if someone had painlessly clubbed him on the head.

  The next thing he knew, stillness had fallen once again on the moonlit bamboo forest, and he was staring into darkness. Seiki blinked to readjust his vision, and movement started to return around him. His friends were standing around, with weapons half-raised. Abbot Arai was beside him in the middle of the clearing, and now only a wispy bout of smoke remained where the shadow-rat had been.

  “Uh,” said Mairin after a moment. “That easy?”

  “Dang, abbot,” said Yamura, sounding relieved. “Never knew you were this gnarly.”

  The end of the abbot’s staff was still glowing white, but much more gently now.

  Seiki had seen this before. “A true Seed of Light,” he remembered from a quest. “Like the one that pregnant lady—”

  “Iyo,” Mairin said.

  “You actually remember her name?” said Ippei.

  “Yes, considering that I’m wearing her obi at the moment.”

  “Oh, right,” said the samurai.

  The abbot looked wistfully at the tiny Seed of Light affixed to the end of his staff. “The light is now spent. It will take years until it regains its powers, but life is more important.”

  “Aw, you shouldn’t have, abbot-sama.” Ippei chuckled, almost sounding touched. “We totally weren’t worth it.”

  Mairin blinked. “Does anyone else notice that in all the quests we do, we actually keep destroying these Seeds of Light, whatever they are?”

  The abbot naturally did not respond to that, but continued to go on about how rare true Seeds of Light were and how he had been entrusted to safeguard one. Ippei grinned and turned toward Kentaro. “Well? You can’t deny that the Demonic Clan has the best dramatic quests.”

  “Best graphics,” Yamura agreed, before hesitating. “But I’d say not the best profit. Man, all that and no XP? No loot? What’s the point of the whole thing? And I can’t believe…” He then shook his head and freely expressed his opinion about what the Shadow Lord could go do to his shadowy self.

  “Well, at least it’s a perfect happy ending,” said Mairin. “The temple’s safe. Joji’s gonna become a great cat artist. Master Tsujihara Two didn’t die…” Seiki gave a start, but Mairin did not seem to notice as she continued, “Everyone should be happy. But that demon boss was a bit… excessive, no?”

  “Yeah, what’s the point of him showing up?” asked Kentaro.

  Ippei shrugged. “The Shadow Lord does that once in a while in War Games. He pops in and unfairly wipes your group, usually when you’re winning, too, maybe to piss you off and keep you motivated. It’s a great bonding experience when you have a common enemy.” He clicked his tongue. “Two minutes hate can do wonders in strengthening societal structures.”

  Kentaro cleared his throat. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “But he didn’t wipe us,” Mairin pointed out.

  “Or,” said the samurai with a smile. “It’s to get houshi interested in War Games, since the world can always do with more war healers.”

  “Oh, I’m not so sure about that either,” said Kentaro.

  Ippei pointed a finger at him. “Hey, be honest. Now don’t you wish you were Level 30 so you’d be able to finally go punch the Shadow Lord in the face?”

  “I do,” said Yamura.

  Kentaro grimaced. “Well, I certainly did not appreciate him turning my heals into damaging abilities.” He turned to Seiki. “Sorry about that.”

  Seiki had completely forgotten all about the corrupted Ward, but the houshi was clearly bothered by it. “Oh, it was nothing,” Seiki said quickly. “Felt like, uh, pillows. Not a lie.”

  “I wonder if my Spirit Mend will turn into three shadow daggers or something like that when my light pearl is corrupted,” Mairin mused. “That would be quite interesting to see, actually.”

  “So, what’s with this corrupting of light weapons?” Seiki asked Ippei. Considering that the blade normally did not even cut him, it felt almost like a violation when the Hikari turned against him like that. Seiki was starting to agree with Ippei about being motivated to reach Level 30.

  Ippei shook his head. “Never seen that one before.”

  “Oh, oh, oh, I see,” said Mairin. “The real light weapon the demon captain was looking for was the Seed of Light in the abbot’s staff. The rat captain was wrong about the arrow.”

  Perhaps the mention of light weapons prompted the abbot to respond. “I forged the light-tipped arrow and hid it in the tree as a decoy, in case the demons came for it,” said the priest. “That would perhaps give the young ones time to escape. Now that they found us, I think it is time to vacate the temple for good.”

  That piqued Kentaro’s interest. “Can you forge a light-tipped arrow?”

  Yamura also perked up. “Oh, yeah. Having that would be totally god-tier.”

  “There’s something like that in War Games,” said Ippei.

  “Yeah, right,” said Yamura. “What are the chances of that Card dropping for you? I’m talking about a quiver full of those arrows.”

  The abbot paid no attention to the ongoing conversation, but bent down to pick something up from the ground. He then beckoned Seiki to step closer. “I don’t know what this is that the demonic rat dropped, but seeing that you’re from Shinshioka, perhaps the Shogun’s scholars would have answers.” The abbot held out a small object the shape and size of a cigar. “Take it.”

  The item was cold, hard and smooth in Seiki’s hand, like a piece of carved jade, but it was entirely black. Seiki opened his mouth to ask, but jumped as an involuntary shiver passed through his body.

  You feel evil exuding from the object.

  “What is it?” asked Mairin, drawing up beside him.

  Seiki looked at the carved stone in his palm before realizing that he had no idea. He blinked and stared at it again, waiting for some kind of information to appear. But after a few seconds, he figured, in puzzlement, that it was not going to happen. The object was completely unmarked.

  Kentaro was trying to inspect the object as well. “All right, now that is very strange.”

  “Glitch?” said Yamura.

  Seiki pocketed it and found that it took a bag slot, and after retrieving it back out it still bore no label.

  You feel evil exuding fro
m the object.

  Ippei had joined them. From his expression, Seiki was certain it was futile to ask for his opinion. Before he could pester the abbot for clarifications, something else hit him.

  Quest completed: The Shadow of the Midnight Rodent [Level Unknown]. 49,810 XP gained.

  Seiki almost choked as that instantly filled nearly forty percent of his experience toward the next level. Mairin and Kentaro let out surprised gasps as they unexpectedly gained a level at the same time. Yamura let out a soft groan.

  A moment of silence fell as they were struck by utter confusion.

  “Uh, were any of you actually on that quest?” Ippei finally asked.

  There was no need to answer as they looked around at each other, since they all knew that none of them had been.

  The abbot had turned around and was already making his way through the bamboo woods toward the temple, leaving the group in the middle of the quiet clearing.

  Ippei’s mind seemed to be churning with possibilities. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then decided against it. “Let’s keep quiet about this, all right?” the samurai eventually said. “Until we know more.”

  CHAPTER 04

  The Hall of Fallen Heroes always smelled of incense, a gentle mixture of safflower and sandalwood, and something refreshing that reminded Seiki of the deep Wilderness but which he had not yet learned to name. Unlike the eye-stinging substance of the real world, the incense smoke swirled like lake mist around his feet as Seiki made his way to the small antechamber, the fourth one down the south wall, opposite the numerous spirit tablets honoring Shinshioka’s deceased soldiers.

  The antechamber was a private instance, and Seiki was mildly amused when he noticed that the small altar in the middle of it was running out of space. Apart from the incense pot, the ever-burning candle and the intricately-painted Hanae’s Hairpin [Memorabilia], in front of Master Tsujihara’s spirit tablet now sat: an unopened bottle of Aged Yuzu Wine [Level 26 food], as well as a rare and oddly mesmerizing Shinshioka Eastern Morishige Army Dagger. +25 attack. Damage 2.5. Speed 1.7. Range 0.3, with its black and golden hilt, which was slightly inferior to the Kohagane dagger but which Seiki could not yet bear to part with. There were also a variety of colorful charms that he had gathered from quests and reward boxes, all of which had better stats than the old man’s Master’s Army Plate that permanently occupied one of Seiki’s Charm Slots, which he, for some reason, had not switched out yet.