by Terra Snover
Moments later, there was a hissing sound and at least twenty metal creatures came jumping from the trees. They landed effortlessly, rolling and rushing over to me. All attacking in one coordinated assault. Blades that were built into the wrist of each one were rushing at me in a blinding frenzy. I managed to parry a good number of the blows, but there were far too many to block them all. The ones that made contact hit my new barrier, gold and red sparks flew off the blades as they scraped the invisible barrier and each bounced back. I took the opportunity to stand up and shake off the funk that came from visiting the System Hivemind. One jumped on my back but once again bounced off my barrier. I lifted my hand at them and shouted, “Algid Soul!” A blastwave of snow and ice burst out of me, freezing the wild Machina where they stood. “Huh, that’s new,” I mumbled to no one. It seemed as if that little trip gave me the spell I was looking to get, neat. I looked at the cooldown of my new spell; even with the extreme speed cooldown reduction my Tempest Light item gave me it was still a good thirty minutes before I could use it again.
“Var, we could use some help over here!” Ral shouted to me. I looked to see Ral and Tilln fighting another cluster of the wild Machina.
“On my way!” I started to move over to them when another bunch darted out from behind one of the trees and rushed me. “Firestorm!” I put my hand up and several fireballs went flying at each of this new group. My jaw dropped as each of the Machina jumped about and made the fireballs collide with each other, making them burst in small explosions, each dealing no damage to the Machina. “Son of a b-” I started but was unable to finish as I felt more blades bounce off my barrier, and after a few blows it was gone. My new and powerful barrier shattered like a ball crashing through a glass window. I was shocked. Each of those attacks seemed to be dealing massive damage to have taken down my defenses that quickly.
I saw my cluster of attackers move their blades to me and I blocked two of the blows but the rest hit me and I watched as my health dropped by a third! I flapped my wings and darted back to the rest of my party. The three of us stood back to back to back as our attackers surrounded us. “Any ideas?” I asked Tilln and Ral.
Tilln whispered, “We can’t endure an onslaught like this, we need to break their lines and attack them one at a-” Suddenly all of our attackers rushed at us. “With me!” she shouted and began to rush at the attacking warriors, spear pointed ahead of her. Ral followed behind, her enormous sword glowing blue with her ice magic. I moved behind them, pointing my claw at one of the attackers. “Unholy Lance!” and with my words two dark purple points of energy came jetting from my hand. One of the masked machines managed to jump over my attack, but luckily the second lance hit one in its neck. I didn’t see the effect of my attack because the three of us managed to make a hole in their ranks and we moved past them.
There were shouts of mechanical frustration behind us as we ran deeper into the woods. I turned my head to peek behind us and saw that they were close on our heels; damn, they could move fast. “I don’t think we can outrun them, but maybe we can outmaneuver ‘em!” I shouted as I grabbed the back of Tilln and Ral’s armor. I flapped my wings and lifted us off the ground. I started to fly through the canopy of the tall trees. “Var, watch out!” Ral shouted as there was a flurry of explosions from the trees. I felt a surge of pain in one of my wings and left arm and hip. I screamed, and it took all my might not to drop Ral. I looked over to the trees where the explosions came from to see more of the masked figures kneeling in the large branches, holding huge shoulder cannons! Wait, there was a name for those, my bestefar was a European Warfare historian and I had heard the name of just about every weapon ever, so what were those called again? Handgonne? Hand bombard? Well, whatever they were called, I had just taken three shots from them and had lost a large chunk of my health and was having trouble staying in the air because of it. I clenched my teeth and flapped even harder, trying to get out of the range of the weapons. I heard the blasts from another volley from my other side and felt two more sharp pains, this time in my gut and in my clavicle. Despite the flying lead balls, I burst through the treeline and away from our attackers.
But what was waiting for us above the trees was far worse. Rising from the building-sized trees was a massive mechanical beast. It was shaped like a crab but with its legs elongated to five times their normal length. It had to be more than a hundred meters tall and its massive body could have supported my castle on it. And its glowing red eyes were locked on us. “Well, crap…” I heard Ral grumble.
“Crap indeed,” Tilln added.
Suddenly the claw of the creature came swinging at us, moving far too fast for something its size. I darted up but was unable to avoid the claw and the three of us were hit. The momentum of the hit sent us tumbling back into the trees. I was moving so fast I went right through one of the trunks of the massive trees and then bounced off another, before finally landing face first into the ground. “Ough,” I grumbled. “Are you two okay?” I looked around to find that during that hit I had lost Tilln and Ral, or maybe they had died? All I knew was I was now alone. “Apparently not,” I grumbled and pushed myself off the ground.
I heard the sound of trees getting uprooted, followed by crashing. I looked up to see the crab walking towards me, its eyes somehow still locked onto me. “You gotta be kidding me!” I moaned as I tried to get to my feet. There was no use; seconds later I found myself being picked up by the massive claw, my wings pinned between the tips of the pincer. It moved me right up to its cluster of eyes. “Gee-whiz, Grandma, what big eyes you have,” I yelled to it, wiping blood from my face.
“Creature, why have you come to our lands?” the crab boomed in an ear-splitting bass voice.
“Would you believe me if I told you sight seeing?” I felt the claw tighten on my wings in response. “Ow, ow, ow!” I yelped.
“Creature, why have you come to our lands?” it boomed again.
“My kingdom was attacked by mechanical creatures that come from here!” I tried to wriggle free from the claw but it was no use.
“We did not attack you,” it informed me in a very matter-of-fact tone.
“Didn’t say you did, big boy, but someone did.”
“Interesting.”
“Oh, what’s interesting about that?”
“Four days ago, we awoke to find our empire in ruins and many of our people and technology missing.” It moved its other claw to point to the Wilds.
“Four days ago was when I was attacked.”
“This information interests me. Please stand by for brain extraction for memory retrieval.” And a mouth opened under its eyes and it started to move me closer to its open maw.
“THAT’S A BIG NOPE FROM ME!” I pulled and twisted, trying to get away from the crab. But I may as well have been trying to push a mountain into a lake for all the good I was managing. The crab tossed me to its mouth, like I was a piece of candy and I braced for the, I can’t believe this, brain removal. Knowing my luck, this would be considered a story event and I would spend the rest of my days in AO as a brain in a jar.
I was about a meter away from entering inside of the crab when something hit me in my left arm and I went darting to the side and found myself pinned to a tree. I looked up and saw Tilln’s spear going through my left arm and embedding into the trunk of the tree. “Huh, how about that?” I mumbled as I looked over to see Tilln riding Tundra and flying towards me. It seemed that Tilln had skewered me to stop me from being eaten and lobotomized. I glanced at my health and saw I was so close to death. “No time to hang around, my Queen.” Ral was in the tree, pulling me off the end of the spear. It was an unpleasant sensation and dropped my health so low a mosquito bite could probably kill me. A few things happened all at the same time; Ral jumped into the air where I found Tilln and Tundra ready to catch us. There was a claw moving at high speed to all of us. If I didn’t do something, all four of us were going to bite the dust. I held up my hand and mumbled, “B, Black Hole,” and then there
was a loud crashing sound and everything went black. A few seconds passed and I heard Ral say, “Um, are we dead?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. But we should be,” Tilln added.
“Pocket,” I mumbled.
“Pocket? What do you mean by pocket?” Tilln seemed confused.
“I made a pocket, or hole, or divot in the claw and we’re in it.” I tried to get a better seat on Tundra. “Once the thing lifts its claw we need to get the hell out of here.” As soon as I stopped talking, light began to flow into the pocket I made as the crab lifted its claw.
“Move, girl!” Tilln shouted at Tundra and we went shooting out into the sky like a rocket. The crab screamed and tried to hit us again, but this time it missed, and the masked mechanical people continued to shoot at us but Tundra's thick hide managed to take the damage until we were out of range. The three of us moved back into the sky over the ocean, all breathing hard and full of bullet holes and blunt trauma. “I think I’m going to not go there for my next vacation,” I breathed and lied back on my dragon’s back. That entire thing was insane; first, the trip to the System Hivemind, mannequin Papa, wild Machina, and to top it all off a massive mechanical crab. “I wish this bad dream would end,” I sighed.
“I feel you there, my Queen. I wish-” Ral stopped talking for a second, her eyes locked to my arms folded over my breasts. “Var, where did you get a stuffed tiger?” I looked down to see I was holding Princess Stripes close to my chest. I frowned, I had no idea how or when I got her here. I didn’t say anything and simply shrugged. Ral eyed me for a few moments before she turned away from me and looked over that water. What was going on? How did I manage this one? Thoughts to be had later, at the moment I should just enjoy the tiger in my arms.
Chapter 9
The Tag
I felt miserable. The day in the Wilds had hit me like a truck, or a train, whatever it was it was something heavy and fast. I moaned as I slid off Tundra who herself slumped down in her bed in the stables as soon as we were home. I gave the dragon a scratch behind one of her horns. “You and me both, girl.” Tundra let out an icy puff out of her nose in response. After a minute or two of mindless scratching, I felt someone move next to me. I turned my head ever so slightly to see Tilln standing by my side, she looked just as bad as I felt. “My Queen, I think we need to talk about what happened in the Wilds.”
“We should and will, but right now we are all close to death.” I looked over to Ral who had just slid off Tundra and was laying on the ground in a pile of icy hay. “Could you help your sister off to bed? I don’t want Tundra to roll over onto her as they are sleeping and have her die on me.”
“Yeah… Sounds like a good idea.” Tilln tilted her head left then right and I could hear her neck pop. Tilln slowly walked over to Ral and started pulling her off the ground. “Come on, Ral, time to move.”
“No, I don’t want to,” Ral groaned. “I’ll just sleep here where I don’t need to move.”
“Oh, by the Void, you are such a petulant child,” Tilln grumbled as she dragged Ral across the floor and out of the stables. I smiled at the two, it was such a sister thing to happen. I scratched Tundra a bit more until her eyes closed and I could hear her snoozing. I gave her a kiss on her enormous head. “Sleep well, my wonderful lady.” I then turned and walked across the stables into the main castle.
I rounded a corner and bumped right into Renny. “Watch where you are going, you jackass-” Renny stopped talking when he noticed who he was talking to. His eyes went wide and he froze in fear. I could see the gears grinding to a halt in his little brain. “Renny, is that how you talk to other people?” I gave him a wry little smile. “It’s not very nice.”
“I’m… I’m so sorry, my Queen!” the little Imp shouted as he prostrated himself before my feet. “One thousand apologies. I didn’t know it was you, your magnificent, beautiful, mighty Queen.”
“I’ll forgive you if you do something for me.”
“Anything, my Queen!” Was he crying?
“Bring this to my room and place her on my bed.” I tossed him the stuffed tiger that I somehow willed into existence. Renny hopped up and barely managed to catch the stuffed animal. “As you wish, you splendid, radiant, magni-”
“Renny move, now!” I cut him off. I really didn’t want to hear his inane rambling at this moment. With my words he jetted up, and he ran down the hall, his black hair trailing behind him. I watched him until he rounded a corner and let out a sigh. I didn’t want to move, everything hurt. I had a bunch of bullet holes in me, a lot of blunt force trauma, not to mention the broken ribs and clavicle. It was moments like this I wish I could just use a healing item, but no, N0s couldn't use them. This game was so dumb.
I gathered the willpower to take a step, then a few moments later another. It only took me five minutes to get down the hallway that Renny managed in a few seconds. I stood at a junction pondering what my next move should be. To my left was the passage to my bedroom where I could sleep and be fully healed, feeling completely better. The only problem with that was it was up ten flights of stairs and a few very long hallways. To my right was the path to the hot springs, slower healing and the chance of getting pulled into more shenanigans. But it was on the same floor as the stables and was only two hallways away from where I stood. The hotsprings won out, the less moving I had to do the better.
It took me an agonizing eternity to get to the hotspring door but I managed. With an effort, I pushed the door open and felt the warm steamy air hit me, it felt amazing. I moved into the room and heard some odd sounds coming from deep into the springs. What in the world was that? It sounded like someone had put a cat in a washing machine. I moved deeper into the hot springs and found the source of the sound. It was something I really didn’t need to see. Milly and Alexander- how should I say this- being very intimate with each other, VERY INTIMATE. It seemed as if these two were taking advantage of the 18-plus zone the hot springs offered them. “By the Void, you two, I didn’t need this right now!” I covered my eyes but once I saw that I would never be able to unsee it. The mess of tangled skin and fur would forever be etched into my brain.
“My Queen!” Alexander’s eyes widened and his pupils narrowed as he pushed Milly off him, showing me another image of the furry man I would never be able to unsee. “Ah, Alexander, cover yourself!” I closed my eyes and turned away from the two. There was a flurry of sound, feet and paws skittering across the floor and rustling of cloth. After a few moments, Alexander spoke, “We are so sorry, my Queen!”
“Are you covered?” I asked, not daring to open my eyes again until I knew it was safe.
“Oh yes, we are covered.” With Alexander's words I opened my eyes and saw he had slipped his slacks on and Milly had wrapped a large towel around her. Milly’s face was flushed, either from embarrassment or the strenuous activity she had just been engaged in, probably both. The two of them avoided eye contact with me, instead, looking at the floor. “I saw nothing,” I stated, “If you two get out of here right now.” The two looked at each other and then darted out of the room, grabbing the remainder of clothing that was left scattered on the floor. I heard a slam of the door and I let out a sigh; what was with today?
“Aw, you made them stop. It was getting to the good part.” I nearly jumped out of my skin when Thaz appeared out of the shadows.
“By the Void, Thaz! You creepy, voyeuristic weirdo!” I shouted at her. “I’m surrounded by insane people!” I pulled at my horns in pure frustration.
“Don’t blame me. I’m stuck here. Normally I would just pop into a site and-”
“For the love of the dark gods, don’t finish that sentence.” I moved over to the bath and stripped out of my clothing, or more like tatters of fabric.
“Ouch, you are in bad shape. What did you do? Fight a giant mecha or something?” Thaz placed her paws on her hips.
“How did you know?” I was shocked and genuinely wanted to know how she got that information.
“Wait,
did you really fight a mecha?! I was just joking.” Her eyes went wide and she gave a little hop. “What kind was it? Did it have a huge laser that made a waammmmm~ sound when it shot? Or did it shoot missiles that burst into thousands more missiles that exploded in the air and you had to fly through them barely managing to miss them?”
“It was a big crab,” I informed her.
“Oh.” She blinked and frowned, “That’s so lame.” I just rolled my eyes and sunk into the blissful water. I could feel the injuries slowly start to fade away.
“Where’s Lily?” I wanted to change the subject, there was no good reason to revisit the morning I had had.
“Don’t know. I kind of gave her the slip. Wanted some alone time.” Thaz was pulling off her shirt as she spoke, apparently planning on joining me in my soak. I arched an eyebrow, that was probably not a good idea seeing as Lily was the only person keeping Thaz from death. After a moment I shrugged, it was her life to play with, she could do whatever she wanted. It didn’t take Thaz long to strip down to nothing and slide into the water. I was impressed; normally she entered the water by turning herself into a gray fuzzy cannonball. The looming threat of death must have matured her, or not, seeing as she had been watching a couple during a very private moment. We sat saying nothing, just letting the heat from the water flow around us.
I was starting to feel like myself again, my health was at an eight instead of the hair width that it had been. “Var, can I ask you something?” Thaz didn’t look at me as she spoke, instead moving her hand across the top of the water, making tiny eddies.
