War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  “Some luck, that is,” said Ippei with a grimace. “Just when we finally have loot.”

  An uneasy shift went through the group. All a Level 29 ninja had to do was cast a few blanket bouts of Shurikens, and their hard-earned rewards would be free for the taking. Even if they ran, ninjas had many ranged abilities that could not be outrun, and Seiki knew well from experience that Parrying very high-level attacks did not always work.

  Koharu, who had been quiet all this time, had an idea all of a sudden. “Okay, guys, instead of running, we just stay quietly here, and use your Cloak of Shadows to hide one more time. That cage room is at a dead end. Once the guy finishes searching that room, he will probably come in here and go deeper into the cave and check. We’ll stand really close to the wall, and wait till he walks past, then we leave quietly. Or maybe just run out and then lock the door from the outside.”

  “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Yamura in relief. “That Cloak thing you did was really good. I didn’t know you could hide from Sense like that.”

  Seiki had to agree that it was a decent idea.

  The White Crane obake pressed her lips together. “Can’t.”

  “Why not?” Yamura said.

  “I don’t have it anymore,” said Kiku. “It’s a consumable.”

  “What do you mean… a consumable ability?”

  “That’s a single-use Free Slot,” Ippei explained. “You learn it from a scroll. It takes up one of your Free Slots, and you can use it once, and it’s gone from the slot, and you put a new one in it.”

  Though surprising, Seiki supposed it was similar to how potions worked in war units’ Consumable Slots. He had not realized there were similar items for player abilities.

  “What?” cried Yamura. “That’s totally… not worth putting in a Free Slot if you can just use it once then lose it!”

  “Well, you saw what it could do. Not many things can hide from higher-level Sense,” said Ippei. “Although it’s expensive.”

  Kiku explained that the scroll for the ability took quite a fair bit of time and ingredients to craft, and went at over a thousand gold on the market.

  Yamura’s eyes bulged. “You’re actually losing money on this run.”

  Kiku nodded. “It’s only for real emergencies.”

  “Well, we don’t know for sure that he has malicious intents,” began Kentaro.

  “He does,” said Mairin.

  Koharu nodded. “The guy has psychotic cold-blooded murder written all over his face.”

  Even when Seiki could not quite see the same thing, he had to agree with her and Mairin about the man’s goal, as people did not sneak into instances with a drawn +102 speed dagger without intention to kill. “Well,” he said. This being his instance, he could not help feeling it was also his responsibility to make a decision. “I think we only have one choice.”

  An excited smile spread across Mairin’s face. “Fight, you mean?”

  Yamura raised his hands up. “Okay, wait. The guy’s Level 29. I mean he’s this close to being Precious High Lord Something. And that dodge on his freakin’ head band? All my arrows are guaranteed to auto-miss.” It was now apparent that Seiki had not been the only one to check the man’s visible gear.

  “Let’s have a vote,” said Mairin. “I know Seiki’s already in.”

  “I don’t think he’ll let us leave peacefully,” said Seiki. “So we’ll fight our way out.” Against a Level 29, he supposed it was a matter of principle more than anything. But, as he had made his decision before, he was completely done with running away.

  “That’s two of us. Yamura?”

  The ryoushi looked at her. “Uh, what exactly are we voting between again?”

  “Either fight, or just give him the loot and grovel on our knees and beg him not to kill us, which would probably end with him killing us anyway.”

  Yamura’s eyes widened in horror. “In that case, then hell, yes, we’re fighting. I’ll… uh, I guess I’ll… uh, stab him with my arrows if they all miss.”

  “And those weren’t one-sided options at all,” muttered Kentaro.

  The kitsune smiled. “Kentaro?”

  “We can log out?” suggested the houshi sheepishly.

  “Logging out doesn’t work against the Rogami,” Seiki reminded him.

  Yamura nodded. “Yeah, and if we log out, when we log back in there’s no guarantee the instance will still be here, so it might be hello Rogami camping team.”

  “You know, I’ve never actually PVP’ed before,” said Kentaro. “And I’ve successfully avoided it so far. And… I can’t really heal you guys if he actually one-shots you through my Ward.”

  “You forget your Reprimand,” said Yamura. “You kidding me? If you can get it off, that’s one of the best Disarms in the game. We’re going to need to unload everything we have on the guy.”

  “We’ll see then,” said Kentaro with absolutely no confidence.

  Mairin turned to Ippei next. “Technically, we’ve already won the vote, but cast yours anyway.”

  The samurai let out a deep exhale. “It’s the Kano Castle.”

  “I know. So? Powerful high-level clan. Doesn’t give them the right to steal our loot.”

  Kiku shook her head as she clarified the samurai’s meaning. “It’s not just about this instance. It’s whether you want to openly go up against the Kano Castle, especially by trying to kill one of their highest-ranking members. Unofficially, Fumiya’s their second-in-command, and that’s not going to be well-received. You might have their army at your clan territory gate the next morning. Your action affects the whole clan, so you want to be careful about these things.”

  “Oh,” said the kitsune.

  “This is how rich people get away with everything,” muttered Yamura. “They know you can’t afford to fight them.”

  Ippei smiled. “Well, fortunately, I don’t do clans.” Mairin lifted her brow, and Ippei continued, “Since you’re all so keen to get yourselves on war lockout from PVP-ing out the West Gate, I might just as well be on it too.” He gave a casual, yet resigned shrug.

  It was perhaps his way of saying something else, and Seiki appreciated it, as he knew this decision would open the door to many unknown consequences.

  Having expected that the samurai would need some convincing, Mairin froze for one second. “The Great War General Ippei signing up for hopeless PVP out of his own volition?”

  “You forget one thing, Foxy,” Ippei said. “I never fight hopeless battles.”

  Mairin brightened. “So you do have a plan.”

  “Not really,” the samurai admitted. “What I do have is numbers.” He then turned to Kiku. “And you know in this case we really can’t do it without yours.”

  Ippei had a very good point. At Level 23, she was perhaps the only one who could do any real damage against the Kano Castle ninja.

  Kiku nodded. “Of course, we’re not going to let you fight what is essentially our war on your own. And I speak for my whole clan.” She thought for a moment. “So I guess we’re lucky that I’ve invested a bit in Life Steal.”

  If Seiki remembered correctly, the ability took a fixed percentage of the target’s health, not a flat amount. Kiku explained that she had enhanced the particular ability with several Modification Scrolls, allowing it to take up to 27% of the target’s health, as well as get rid of the target level restriction—the trade-off being that the lockout was now 45 minutes. “So that means I have one chance.”

  “What? Up from the normal two-minute lockout?” said Yamura. “Is it worth it?”

  “We normally leave the fighting to Hiro and Susumu and Arata, and people who actually like to fight,” said Kiku. “But if they need an emergency raid save, I can come in with something effective. Hime-sama’s idea. It’s worked so far.”

  “I see,” said Ippei.

  Seiki could start to get a feel for the obake’s build now. Since she was rarely on the frontlines herself, she had
modified many of her abilities to lend themselves to significant effect, but with a lot of preparation time.

  “That’s good,” said Ippei. “That’s almost a third of his total health, which, by the way, did anyone get a chance to see?”

  “I did,” said Mairin. “About 20k.”

  “Most of his gear is from the highest Noble Court set and that gives a lot of protection against magic.” Ippei turned toward Kiku again. “So, my best estimate is your Life Steal is going to be able to do around 4K max, which leaves 16K to worry about.”

  “Life Drain works better if I can get close,” Kiku said. “And after the Steal, I can do another 3K. Maybe four or a bit more if I’m literally touching him.”

  “You’d better not get close, as our main damage dealer.” Ippei then addressed the rest of the group. “That leaves 13K to split between the six of us.”

  “Oh, come on, we can easily do two thousand each,” said Yamura, before realizing what the samurai really meant. “Right. That’s if we manage to connect at all.”

  “Yeah,” said Ippei. “And I won’t be surprised if our abilities only do about half the normal damage against him even with a full connect.”

  “And it’s unlikely that he’s just going to stand there and take hits from us,” Mairin said. “How much more speed is he getting from his +102 dagger anyway? I hope he doesn’t just sidestep everything.”

  Every hundred points in speed gave about a tenth faster reaction time, or—as Ippei had once clarified—delayed everyone else by a tenth but without letting them feel the difference. Seiki guessed it would ultimately have the same effect as trying to fight Taka while affected by his Poison Dart, which was admittedly not very fun.

  “Remind me what the last three standard ninja abilities are again?” he said. If he could not surprise the man, the only way was to strategize better. The question earned him slightly concerned looks from his friends, and Seiki smiled grimly. “Come on, guys. Someone’s gotta tank this, right? I’ll make it safer for you to get close.”

  “He’s gonna one-shot you,” said Mairin.

  “I know,” said Seiki. “Which is why I need to know exactly what I need to avoid.”

  Thanks to the endless ambushes by Shadow Manor assassins, he was quite familiar with ninja abilities up to Level 19. And having once experienced the nearly lethal Viper’s Strike that he learned at the last second could not be safely Parried, he also knew first-hand what the Level 21 ability was like. Standard abilities were granted every two levels until Level 12, after which they were granted every three levels, which meant there were a few more he had never encountered.

  “Last two,” Kiku corrected him. “Since no ninja is max level yet, so no one knows what the Level 30 ability is.”

  “Right,” said Seiki, somehow rather thankful for the fact.

  “They have Sprint at Level 24, then Fire Trap at Level 27,” said Kiku. “Sprint is a few seconds of speed to gain distance, with an added regen bonus. It doesn’t break you through anything, so they normally Shadow Strike out of traps and then Sprint. Fire Trap is essentially bombs. Extremely powerful, but requires them to set it up in advance.” She paused for a moment. “And there are Free Slots. Seeing how rich the Kano Castle is, he’s probably got an extra slot or two from gear as well, so ultimately who knows what he can do.”

  “Disarm, maybe,” said Yamura. “Everyone has Disarm.”

  Seiki thought about it. Regardless of the abilities, everyone had limited energy. And with only four or five consecutive moves allowed, even at higher levels, this meant that he could potentially force the man out of the resource and make him much less lethal.

  “How much does a Level 29 ninja hit for?” he said.

  “Nothing you can take at this level,” said Ippei.

  Seiki shook his head. “I mean a normal punch, kick, strike. You know, no energy.”

  Ippei mused for a moment. “Probably about a thousand, taking your gear into consideration.”

  “So I can safely take one hit, then.”

  Ippei chuckled, maybe at his use of ‘safely’, since a thousand health points were more than half his available health. “With my Shout, maybe two, and just glancing ones, but I don’t think that—”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Koharu piped up. She had been quiet so far, lost in her thoughts. But now, she started undoing the knots to remove her cloth pouches from her obi, and plopped them into Mairin’s lap.

  The group looked at her in surprise.

  “Uh, what are you doing?” said Yamura.

  “I’m going to… test the waters,” said the obake.

  Yamura frowned. “Yeah, right. As if that’s going to work. Didn’t you earlier say something about a psychotic murderer look on his face?”

  “If he’s actually willing to talk, we get out of here peacefully and no one has to make enemies of the Kano Castle. If it doesn’t work…” she trailed off. “Well, let’s say I’ll be able to, uh, position him better.”

  “Oh,” said Kiku.

  It took Seiki a moment to realize what she meant. The door was located right at a bend in the corridor. If she could at least lure Fumiya back down the way toward the entrance, the rest of the group could potentially use the bend as a hiding spot for an ambush if they needed to get close.

  Koharu then let out a little sigh. “And there’s this one other bit. Social Guilders don’t PVP unless we really, really have to. Not counting city brawls, of course, where everything goes, but that’s a completely different thing. So, psychotic murderer or not, I kinda don’t want to cause trouble for my guild mates with, uh, intentional PVP.”

  “So you’re basically just gonna let him kill you?” said Mairin.

  Koharu smiled. “Well, the upside of that is it will give you a perfect excuse to retaliate, since he will be the one who started it, and this gives the Kano Castle absolutely no justification for war later on. People question you, tell them to look at the timestamp on the kill logs. Plus, we’re the Social Guild. Starting rumors is what we do, and I’m pretty sure I can start all kinds of rumors about Fumiya of the Kano Castle, especially if I can back it up by the log.”

  The group stared at her, and Seiki wondered why none of these concerns had even crossed his mind before.

  “Come on, it’s a win-win-win for everybody.” Her tone was utterly serious. “He kills me. He’s probably going to kill at least some of you. Maybe some of you can slip out and get away and maybe save some of the loot. But the conflict ends here as nothing more than a normal loot scuffle.”

  “That’s… a lot of wins for not actually winning,” Yamura said.

  Koharu shrugged, and looked at them in a way that challenged them to come up with a better plan. But at the end, even Ippei had to agree that her idea would help their chance in surviving the encounter.

  The obake held out her hand. “Key?”

  When Seiki hesitated, she smiled. “Let’s be realistic here. If we all go out, all he needs to do is cast Shurikens and it will be over. Kiku and I might be able to Fade once, twice maybe, and he’ll still kill us. So unless we can catch him by surprise, we have zero chance.”

  Kiku studied her fellow obake with interest, as if really seeing her for the first time.

  Seiki took a quick glance at the group, before handing her the key. He was not sure if he liked the plan, and at the back of his mind he was certain she had not considered the possibility of Fumiya deciding not to kill her quickly.

  Mairin seemed to have the same concern. “If he tries to grab you, keep Fading and we’ll all rush out.”

  Koharu nodded. Key in hand, the obake started walking off toward the door, before stopping short and turning back toward Mairin. “I just thought of something. Can I have my post kit back for a sec?”

  Mairin handed her a piece of post paper and a bit of charcoal, and Yamura lifted his brow.

  Koharu started scribbling. “I’m going to give him something to loot if he kills
me.”

  “What?” said Yamura.

  “Haiku.”

  Two minutes later, the group was on the narrow stairs, in a single file starting with Koharu at the top, followed by Ippei, Kiku and Yamura—who were to be their main damage dealers. Seiki could now understand what Ippei had meant earlier about a choke point. Even if they wanted to rush an enemy on the other side of the door, the design of the passage forced them to enter one-by-one, which made synchronized burst damage very difficult if not impossible.

  Mairin and Kentaro were behind him, a little nervous and restless.

  With the softest click she could manage, Koharu turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open, quickly slipping through as the metal door moaned loudly on its rusty hinges. Obake had no audible footsteps, and Seiki could not hear how far she had gone down the corridor. He counted four seconds before quick but light footsteps rushed down from the Spearmaster’s room, followed by Fumiya’s voice.

  “Kiku-chan, you’ve—”

  Fumiya paused, most likely because he just realized the obake in front of him was not the one he was searching for.

  “Hi.” Koharu managed to sound perfectly innocent.

  The ninja must have stopped right in front of the door, but fortunately had not checked within.

  “Who are you?” Fumiya sounded cautious. “Social Guild? Where’s Kiku?”

  Koharu’s carefree voice was moving further down the corridor. “No idea.”

  “Stop right there, ojo-san,” said Fumiya, his tone turning dangerous. “You’re going to—”

  Seiki had no idea what the obake girl did, but the corridor was instantly filled with sounds of fluttering sleeves and puffs of abilities going off. The usually soft-spoken Koharu was suddenly yelling at the top of her lungs, “What? You’re going to kill me now? Now? Now?”

  That was her cue that the ninja’s back was turned, and her shouts were helping to mask the commotion. Kiku, Ippei and Yamura quickly disappeared out the door, and Seiki ran up after them, stopping right at the doorway.

  The noises quickly died with an annoyed curse from Fumiya, just as Seiki had a chance to peek through for the first time. About twenty feet straight down the corridor, the ninja was crouching beside Koharu’s spirit orb. He reached out his hand to loot, and the remains of the obake girl dispersed in a bout of white smoke, leaving behind a piece of post paper in the man’s hand.