by Zeppy Cheng
I try my best to smile. “Sorry.”
Zac shakes his head.
The door closes. Sebastian drives us away from the HQ and into the street. “We’re going to Crayton’s work office,” he says. “Is this acceptable?”
“Yes. I assume Zac is going to brief the government?” I am feeling a little bit better, enough to where I can think straight about our situation.
“Indeed,” says Sebastian. “Our agents are already scouring surveillance footage and using their contacts to discover where Alice is.”
I sit for a couple of minutes, silently, wondering what is going to happen next. The city passes by, silent, unspeaking. We stop at the entrance to the Esmex tower, where I was just a couple hours ago. For a moment I stand in the bathing glow of streetlamps, trying to decide how to handle Crayton.
Two security guards approach me. “Are you Markus Red?” says one of them.
I nod.
“Mr. Blanche wants to see you.”
Well, that was convenient. I follow the guard into the building while the other continues patrolling. The first guard escorts me into the elevator that takes us to the same top floor penthouse where Crayton first talked to me.
I enter the beautiful, panoramic room. Crayton is sitting on a couch, a bottle of expensive whiskey in his hand. “Hic,” he says. “Ah, my friend, hic, Markus.”
“Um, do you know what happened to Alice?”
Crayton shakes his head. His cheeks are red — he is drunk. “She left me! That darling girl. I spent all my love on her… hic…”
“So you weren’t part of her stealing the key,” I say.
“Key?” says Crayton. “What key? I don’t remember her ever needing to… hic… unlock something. I’d unlock it for her!”
I sigh, sitting down in a plush armchair. “Alice has stolen a key that can open the dormant S-class portal in Wales.”
Crayton takes another swig of whiskey. “Ah, Wales! Her mother was Welsh… hic…” His eyes close. “Just bring her back to me…” He opens his eyes and looks at me. “Can you do it? Can you bring her back for me? Hic?”
I think for a moment. “I can. I can try. I’ll do everything I can to get her back!”
Crayton takes a swig. “Great! The great Adventurer saves the damsel in… hic… distress!”
“I don’t think she’s in distress.”
Crayton shakes his head. “Go find her, my valiant hero! I will reward you with gold! Hic! And silver!”
Looks like Crayton is too drunk to hold a conversation. I sigh, standing up. “I’m going to go look for Alice. Stay here and don’t kill yourself.”
“Ah, yesh,” says Crayton. “The grand hero!”
I back out of the door and, turning to the elevator, rush into it. I jam the ground floor button a couple of times. The elevator descends far too slowly.
When I leave the elevator Sebastian is waiting for me. He bows. “Master, we believe Alice has boarded a flight to Wales.”
Oh, boy. This isn’t exactly the best-case scenario. In fact, it’s probably the worst. I have no idea what Alice’s intentions may be. Perhaps she wants to control the portal beings just like Gena. Or maybe she’s working for Brine Ward. I remember that blackened bone that Gena showed me. Does Alice have that as well?
Sebastian leads me to the limo, where we speed off towards the airport. This is the second time in a day that we’re headed there, this time not so triumphantly. We pull into the airport’s private parking lot. Sebastian bows. “Master, we have prepared for you a private plane. I will be taking my leave here, as I have things to take care of.” Before I can say anything, two of my devils approach. “Tonan and Jozunen will be working with you,” says Sebastian.
Tonan is a beautiful-looking woman with long black hair. Jozunen is a buff military-man looking type with lots of piercings. Both of them salute.
“I will be piloting the craft,” says Jozunen. “Please, follow me.”
The three of us walk through a gate that says Authorized Personnel Only. The two devils lead me to a hangar where a small prop plane is stored. It has just enough room for myself and the two devils. We taxi onto a small auxiliary runway and take off.
I can see the whole of London through the window of the plane. We fly west, towards Wales.
“The portal is in Crickhowell,” says Tonan. “At a small park in the town’s center. We will be making a landing at a local airport.”
I watch the landscape beneath us scroll past. If the boss monster or any number of other monsters escape from that portal, the nation down there will cease to exist. “What if we’re too late?”
“A very real question,” says Tonan. “But one that I cannot answer. We simply don’t know what will happen when the portal is awakened. It could prolapse immediately, or it could be like a normal portal opening and allow us a week to clear it.”
“But it’s an S-class,” I say. “No one has ever cleared an S-class before it prolapsed.”
Tonan shakes her head. “I don’t know. Everything is precariously balanced.”
Jozunen lowers the radio mike “It looks like Crickhowell is being evacuated, as well as other towns in the area.”
“A good move,” says Tonan.
“So Zac did his job,” I say.
Tonan twists around in the pilot’s seat. “The government may send some guilds to handle this. Since you’re an S-class, any guild would allow you into their ranks. If you can’t do anything else, then you can help the response to the portal’s opening.”
“We’re about an hour away,” says Jozunen.
I spend that hour wondering what I’m going to do when we hit the ground. Is Alice already inside the portal? If so, what is she doing there? Is she working with someone else? Who?
One stressful hour later, we land at the small airstrip in Crickhowell. Several other planes are parked on the tarmac as well, making the area very crowded. When I step out of the plane, at least a dozen Adventurers surround me.
“You’re Markus, the S-class, right?” says a man with silver-white hair who can’t be older than twenty-five. “My name is Derwyn. I’m an S-class, too. There’s one other, but he can’t be here.”
“The UK only has two S-classes?” I say.
Derwyn shakes his head. “Now’s not the time. We have a three-guild response team gathering by the portal. It’s been opened. Portal analysis says there’s about twelve hours before it prolapses.”
“Are the Blue Dryads here?” I ask.
“From London?” says Derwyn. “Yes. They’re the second-biggest guild here, out of three.”
“What guild do you belong to?” I ask Derwyn as we walk towards the park.
“The biggest one here, Dungeon Solutions UK.” Derwyn looks at Tonan and Jozunen. “Are these Adventurers with you?”
I shake my head. “They’re not—” But a glare from Jozunen stops me. “Yes, they’re with me,” I say after a pause.
Derwyn begins jogging. “Hurry. The guilds are preparing to enter.”
“Were you waiting for me?” I ask.
“Yes. I got word that a powerful Adventurer with newly obtained S-class was on their way.”
I turn to Jozunen. He nods. I get it; my network is working for me again.
We pass through a fenced area and enter a small rolling green park like any other in a first-world country. There is a small playground, some benches, and a ten-foot tall bluish-red portal. It is open, radiating the most powerful psion emissions that I have ever seen. It’s almost blinding.
“So this is an S-class portal.”
Derwyn points to the gigantic group of Adventurers milling around near the playground. “We have the Blue Dryads, Dungeon Solutions UK, and the Red Crickets.”
“This is the first time I’ve worked with a multi-guild team.”
“In the EU,” says Derwyn, “all portals with a rating of A or above must be cleared by at least two guilds. This is mostly for safety but also helps with the economics.” Derwyn waves to one
of the Adventurers gathered around the portal. “Hey! Kane!”
A red-haired man with a wiry body joins us from the crowd. “Derwyn! Are you ending your vacation early to help out the old guild?”
Derwyn nods, shaking hands with Kane. “Of course,” says Derwyn. “There’s no chance for you lads to clear this portal without your strongest players.” He points to me. “This is Markus. He’s an S-class Adventurer from the States.”
Kane looks taken aback. “A young lad like him, S-class?”
Derwyn shrugs. “He took down a balrog in Manhattan.”
Kane whistles. “You must be brave. I’m glad to have you on our team. What guild are you with?”
“The Blue Dryads,” I say. “Temporarily.”
Kane nods, wearing a knowing expression. “They’re a good bunch. Got lots of funding, and even the apprentices have good gear.”
“I have to tell you,” I say, “this whole thing was my fault. I was the one who lost the key.”
Kane shakes his head. “I didn’t hear anything about this portal being your fault. I don’t know what you did, but we have a job to do, and nothing changes that.”
The members of the three guilds total about a hundred people. I’ve never even been in a C-class portal, and now I’m entering an S-class? This is going to be tough.
The leaders of the three guilds approach the portal’s entrance, and I prepare for the worst.
24 A Small Park
The three guild masters brief us on what we’re supposed to do. There are at least a dozen A-class Adventurers, as well as three dozen B-class and sixty C-class. We’re a veritable army. But this is what it takes to clear an S-class dungeon, and we don’t even know if this is going to be enough. After all, no S-class portal has ever been cleared before, and the only two that were ever made safe were defeated after they prolapsed and caused huge damage.
I am assigned to the Blue Dryads and placed near the front, behind a wall of six tank-class Adventurers. I conjure a compound bow and two dozen arrows to start with.
The Red Crickets enter first. Wave after wave of Adventurers disappear into the portal. Dungeon Solutions UK enters second. Then comes the Blue Dryads, and I march with them. The interior of the dungeon is a sweltering jungle. The sound of a massive monster howling in the distance reverberates through my bones.
“Contact!” yells an Adventurer from the Red Crickets, in the front of the assault. “Two casualties! Three! We need a healer!”
Explosions rock the ground. A wall of fire blasts through the jungle, and is met with a wall of crawling man-eating vines.
“Casualty!” yells another Adventurer. “Man down, man down!”
Twenty B-class monkey monsters are forming a pincer movement around us. The six tanks in front of me form a wall that faces three sides. One monkey throws a crude-looking spear. The spear hits one of the tanks in front of me and a black hole opens at its tip. Half of the tank-class Adventurer’s body disappears into a maw of swirling darkness. The other half spurts blood and falls to the ground.
Damn. Adventurers are dropping like flies.
I hit a monkey right between the eyes and it falls to the ground, dead. The rest of the monkeys retreat into the forest. In any other dungeon, this would be where we would absorb the dead mobs’ Spirit Circles. But now, we have no time. Three technicians suck up the spirits to avoid contamination and we continue on our way.
We took seven casualties, and this was just the opening salvo. Several apprentice porters carry the bodies — at least the ones that are reasonably intact — back towards the exit. Somewhere on the edge of my vision, a smudge of blue dances, tempting me to turn and look at it. But when I do, it vanishes.
An A-class rhinoceros, flanked by ten B-class raptors, charges out of the forest and bowls over our flanks. Two more dead, a dozen injured. I fire off as many arrows as I can and hit the rhino right in its sweet spot. A blast of fire magic hits the rhino when it is weakened. The rhino comes crashing down, throwing up mud and dust.
The ten raptors leap into our lines, their claws ripping through flesh and armor. We fight them down. I take one out with a shot to the neck. We take two more casualties before the raptors are all dead.
“Collection!” yells the Red Crickets’ leader. “Maria!”
Even in a survival situation like this, it would be stupid to leave the spirit of an A-class monster to rot. This rhino probably has a spirit of around a thousand years, give or take a hundred.
The Adventurer who I assume is Maria receives the spirit, and ten minutes later we are on the move.
As we are crossing an open mesa, the sky darkens. A gigantic mushroom monster lands in the middle of our army, spewing poisonous spores. Ten Adventurers get a face full of the stuff. Two seconds later, their entire bodies erupt with mushrooms. The rest of the Adventurers do their best to avoid the spores.
I fire as many arrows as I can at the mushroom monster. Fireballs, acid attacks, ice and lightning. Nothing seems to bring it down. It stomps down another Adventurer.
The five remaining tank-class Adventurers in front of me form a rank. The mushroom monster is heading straight for me, crashing through the battle lines. I can see its thousands of eye holes, each one hosting an insect-like bulbous orb.
I fire arrow after arrow. I conjure fungicide and coat my arrows with them. It seems to work. The mushroom monster, being attacked from all sides, finally falls to the ground. I fire the last poisoned arrow. The killing blow.
The mushroom monster screams, shriveling up to half of its size. A thousand-year Ring rises out of its remains. Since I killed it, I get to absorb it. I’m already powerful, but the rules are the rules. Whoever strikes the last blow gets to absorb the monster. Again, if one absorbs a Ring that is too far above one’s current level, it could cause massive problems. But I am the owner of a ten-thousand-year spirit. This won’t hurt a bit.
I sit down, meditate, and say the mantra. The mushroom’s Ring floats away from the corpse and rotates around me, disappearing into my stomach.
Derwyn claps me on the back. “You’re even more powerful!”
I shake my head. “It was a coincidence. And we’re going to need all the power we can get to clear this dungeon.” I steel myself. “It was my fault that it opened, after all.”
Derwyn shakes his head. “Portals are nobody’s fault.” He flips a long spear around his back.
We continue into the dungeon. Every couple hundred yards, we meet a mini-boss that is at least A-class. Each encounter costs more lives. Two more of the tank-class Adventurers defending me fall before we reach the boss of the first level. “This place has four floors!” says the Adventurer in charge of the Red Crickets. “We need to prepare for that!”
The first-floor boss room is an ancient Mayan-style temple. Heavy footsteps sound from beneath the stone monolith. A giant tiger, maybe ten feet tall, leaps out and glares at us.
“S-class!” yells a member of another guild.
Yes, this is an S-class monster, the first one I have ever seen. Its aura is disastrous. I can feel the huge roiling waves of power emanating from its hide. The tiger roars, sending an almost physical shock wave rushing through our ranks.
“Stay in formation!” yells a commander. “Don’t be intimidated!”
The tiger charges. Three ranks of tank-class Adventurers form a phalanx. The tiger crashes through all three rows. People and bodies fly everywhere. The clash of steel against claw rings. The tiger aims for me. There will be no missile flying in to save me this time.
I raise my bow. The arrow seems tiny, almost pitiful when faced with the gigantic hulk of feline danger in front of me. The tiger hisses. I pull back an arrow and shoot. The arrow embeds itself in the tiger’s hide, and the tiger doesn’t even appear to notice it.
So much for being an S-class Adventurer.
But… I haven’t even come close to my full output. I hold up my hands and conjure a ball of pure fire energy. Power pours out of the red cracks lining my hands.
I almost lose control of it, but keep it contained between my hands. I form the power into a dense arrowhead that I place on top of a strong ash body. The arrowhead gleams with intense, almost nuclear, power.
Derwyn stands beside me. “In the end, it’s just us S-classes, eh?”
The rest of the Adventurers are breaking formation and running past us.
A blinding ball of light forms at the end of Derwyn’s spear. “We aren’t S-class for nothing.”
The nuclear warhead at the end of my arrow simmers. I pull the string back. Even the vast store of infernal energy inside me is straining to provide enough magic to power the warhead I’m about to deliver. The blinding ball of light at the end of Derwyn’s spear shines like the sun.
“On three,” says Derwyn as the tiger tears through the tank-class Adventurers in front of us.
“One.” The tiger swipes its paw and thrashes an entire squad.
“Two.” The tiger rips an Adventurer apart between its teeth.
“Three.”
I release. The arrow streaks through the air, breaking reality as it flies. Derwyn’s spear shoots a bolt of lightning that strikes the tiger directly in the face. My arrow tears a foot-diameter hole straight through the tiger’s body, from its left cheek to its right buttocks. The vacuum created by the arrow’s passage sucks blood and tissue into a vortex of offal. Derwyn’s lightning bolt covers the tiger’s entire outer body, singeing off all its hair. Its eyes explode into steaming jelly.
Derwyn and I stand, breathing heavily. I chuckle despite the disaster around us.
“Now that’s what I call S-class,” says Derwyn.
The tiger’s Spirit Ring rises out of its body. Instead of coming out as one whole ring, it splits in two, one half traveling to each of us.
Derwyn holds out his hand. “I trust thee, god of knowledge. Bless me with this curse.”
I recite my own mantra. “Hey, Dr. Barrimore? Does your potion still affect me?”
It does. I absorb the half-ring without problem.
Derwyn looks over the decimated adventuring party. “I don’t think we can continue, though. I won’t be able to pull off another attack like that for a day or two.”