“What the hell are you talking about?” Anna asked.
“Alkao,” Dave said, defending against a flurry of attacks.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, you like him, right? I don’t know why you haven’t asked him out yet. Has he asked you out yet?” Dave was rewarded by a slight whistling sound.
Dave saw several blue markers, his perception picking up Anna’s Wind blades as he dodged, trying to fight them back and keep Anna pinned back at the same time. He was breathing heavier as he stared at her, holding his own blade.
“We both have our positions. It would not make sense if we were to ‘go out’ with each other. Things are not that simple.”
“They are that simple if you stop trying to complicate them. Ya ask him! If he says yes or no, you at least know and you can go from there!” Dave smiled.
Anna charged in, beating back his defenses. He fought well, but his blade was conjured; it wasn’t Mithril like hers. She cut through it as Dave edged away. She moved to attack him again, finding a gash on her side and his blade next to her gut.
She let out a snort and shook her head.
“I think I’ll take that as a win!”
“You’ve become faster at remaking your conjured items. I have no doubt that you would have been able to recreate your blade through my stomach if you wished. What are your Affinities now?”
“Avoiding the subject much?” Dave pulled up his Affinities.
Affinity Levels
Dark
237
Light
173
Fire
193
Water
142
Earth
213
Air
139
“No avoiding anything if there is nothing there,” Anna shot back as she looked over the information and shook her head. “You know that every time I see your stats, I feel a little chill run down my spine?”
“Cause he’s annoying as hell?” Suzy asked from where she was fighting Induca and Malsour with her creations. They were the only things that were willing to go up against the two. They could actually use all of their powers and not try to hold back. Even against the Players, they were too strong and took them out too quickly for it to be much in the way of training. Deia was the only person who could kind of go toe-to-toe and Steve was a metal punching bag. He couldn’t land a hit on them, though he could take one hell of a pounding.
“Malsour, she’s not paying attention!” Dave said.
Shadows seemed to spawn around Suzy.
“Dick!” Suzy said. Air creations clapped over her like some invisible armor, making her fly away from the shadows as she threw out a Fire creation, bringing light and destroying any shadows that Malsour might use to launch an attack.
“Why don’t you fight Induca and Malsour?” Dave asked Anna.
“What makes you think that I could fight them?” Anna raised her eyebrow.
“You are hailed as the famed ‘Captain of the Wind.’ You made the Beast Kin what they are and scared the ever-living shit out of anyone who came to annoy you and your people. You’ve been around awhile and I know my blades. I didn’t make that thing weak and I can see that you’re still handicapping yourself.”
“Seems that someone is learning.” Anna snorted and dismissed the Affinity levels. “The reason is because it is always good to hold something back. With Malsour and Induca, their true strength is hidden. What do I learn from fighting with all I have? I defeat my enemies fast, yes, but I don’t learn anything new.”
“I was wondering why you reversed the buffs on your armor,” Dave said.
“What were you looking at my armor for?”
“Well, I want everyone to have the best weapons and armor possible. I didn’t know how to ask why you ruined my beautiful Magical Circuits and input your own crude code.”
“It wasn’t crude code!” Anna frowned.
“It was workable but it wasn’t elegant, and the power wastage is annoying me to high hell. Can I at least put in a switch so that it can suppress you and then if you need it, you can turn it off or up the amount of power you have?”
“You can do that?” Anna asked.
“Sure, though I’m making Deia’s twin swords first. Then the others’ rings.” Dave scratched his head, thinking of the other projects that he had in mind. “There just never seems to be enough time in a day or in a lifetime for all these plans.”
“Okay, that would be useful,” Anna grumbled.
“Good! And as a thank-you, you can go and ask Alkao out—see what the big bad Demon dude says!” Dave’s goofy smile made Anna chuckle.
“Okay, if it gets you to stop pestering me, then I will!”
“Woohoo! Suzy, you owe me twenty bucks!”
“What?” Suzy looked to Dave, and got hit in the side by a Fire elemental that Induca had taken control of. It hit Suzy’s Mana barrier and sent her flying across the training area.
“Made you look!” Dave laughed as her Air creations brought her back up into the air. Induca fired all manner of Fire attacks at her.
“What did you win?” Deia asked, coming up behind Dave.
“If I didn’t have Touch of the Land going all the time, I might have just put a hole in the roof,” Dave muttered, turning to Deia, who had a pleased smile on her face. “I just got Anna to agree to ask Alkao if he likes her and then onto a date if he says yes.”
“I knew I made the right choice when I made you my fiancé. So when is your next trip to the Devil’s Crater? I know that Malsour and Induca would be happy to take you there if you desire.” Deia’s smile was predatory, as Anna—for once—was the prey.
“Would we ever. Save my damn back from having to carry her to Devil’s Crater so she can just stand there and pretend to study the craters instead of Alkao. If she looked sideways anymore, I would think that she was more rabbit than human and wolf!” Malsour said, getting an annoyed glare from Anna.
“I do not pretend to look at the Devil’s Crater.”
“Well, you face it while your eyes are running all over Alkao!” Induca chirped in, still fighting Suzy. The two of them flew through the air, using their powers to go head-to-head with each other.
“Well, hate to break this little meeting up, but we’ve got word from Dwayne. The first area is cleared in the housing complex. We’re about ready to move the other fighting parties in and take on the spiders.” Jules tried valiantly to hide her shiver, and failed horribly.
“What is it with fantasy worlds and spiders?” Dave groaned.
“It’s pretty cliché,” Suzy agreed. She and Induca gave up their fight as they lowered themselves down toward the rest of the party.
“Don’t understand what is so bad about them though—just spiders.” Dave shrugged and looked to Deia.
She just smiled and pat his back.
“Why do I feel like I’m missing something?” Dave leaned toward her.
“They’re just spiders.” Deia continued to smile. Anna, Induca, and Malsour had either a smile or an uncomfortable look on their faces.
Deia elbowed Dave and gave him a look.
“Fine, we can go hunting, my dearest firecracker.” Dave smiled.
Deia rolled her eyes and looked away as the corners of her mouth twitched upward.
“Hey you lot, heard that we’re going spider hunting!” Lox said, approaching the group, a wide grin visible through his braided beard. Gurren at his side.
Chapter 8: Housing Complex
“So we’ve found out two things. First, the spiders are really adaptive. Once they are hit with one kind of magical attack, then they adapt outward and become resistant to it. Melee fighting will still tear them apart, though melee fighting isn’t going to deal with the hordes that we’re going to be facing.” Josh looked out over the assembled Stone Raiders within the tower that they had turned into their base.
“Well, this sounds like it’s going to be fun,” Jason said.
&n
bsp; “Dude, you’re a necro. How do spiders weird you out?” Steve asked.
“It’s not the spiders—it’s being swarmed by the little bastards!”
“Have you never played any zombie horde games?” Dave asked.
“Well, sure, though I’m usually running away and screaming like a little girl.”
Steve and Dave shared a look.
“Why the hell are you a necro?” Dave asked.
“Well, coz I want to make my enemies run away and scream like little girls, and they’ll also put a barrier between me and any hordes.” Jason looked at them as if the answer was obvious.
Suzy leaned over to Dave. “I know that there have been a lot of people saying that the Stone Raiders are weird. I never really paid them all that much attention until now.”
“It’s perfectly natural! Use what you hate the most to fight your enemies!”
“Sure it is, sure it is.” Steve gently patted Jason’s shoulder.
“We’re going to be targeting the spider webs. We’ve found out that once you set fire to the webs then they change into a highly conductive material. Once we’ve got it in this state, we can electrify it.” Josh ignored the Stone Raiders’ byplay.
“How are we going to get them all? Are we going to go section by section?” Jocelyn, one of the combat mages, asked.
“No. We’re going to set off massive Fire spells across the web and spread it throughout the housing complex. Once that is done, we’re going to fight our way into the center of the web. Once there, we will electrify the web, zapping any of the spiders touching it, not giving them time to adapt to the lightning attacks,” Josh said.
“Any and all electrical attacks must be held back until we start using them on the webs.” Kim stepped forward. “All other spells can be used.”
“The spider’s venom can be partially cured by healing potions. The venom causes you to lose Health and Mana, and to be paralyzed. Multiple hits stack the effects. Only cure poison potions can get rid of the full effects. With the Health potion, you will stop losing Health from the poison and you will not become paralyzed, but you will continue to lose Mana. All mages will be given a supply of cure poison. Melee fighters, you’ll get one extra cure poison per person. My support people will have additional cure poisons,” Lucy said.
“We’re going to hit with the mages first, then we’re going to have them fall back behind the melee fighters once the spiders show themselves. Scouts and sneak types, you will be their bodyguards—any of the spiders getting past the melee fighters, you take them out before they get to the mages. We’re going to plow through all the way to the center of the web. Support, focus on the Fire mages’ buffs so that they can burn these bastards down and on the mages so that we don’t get steamrolled,” Josh said.
Stone Raiders started checking their gear and looking to one another. They had done this plenty of times. Now, they were just figuring out what they needed to deal with these different enemies.
“Dwayne is over there right now. We’re going to rotate parties through to keep watch of the cleared-out sections of the housing complex. I want everyone good to go in two hours. Log off and log back on if you’re not an E-head yet, so you get a full day of game time.”
Headset VRs enforced a log-out on everyone who used them for more than eight hours. A number of aspiring entrepreneurs had made full-body VR pods that would look after a person’s bodily needs and keep them in shape and good health while they played. There was no forced log-out after eight hours, but rather after weeks, where doctors would check on users before they went back into VR.
These places were populated by E-heads, but getting into a facility was expensive. The Stone Raiders, with their streams and the goods that they were selling, were able to meet the costs of these pods. Many of them were just a few feet from one another in real life.
The Stone Raiders took Josh’s last words as their dismissal. Parties moved away to talk to one another and then the different groups that they would be fighting with for the raid. Others walked over to the board that showed the different positions that the forces were supposed to take, or looked at it through their linked interfaces.
“Well, I guess I’m going to take a nap.” Dave stood and stretched.
“That does sound nice.” Deia looked to Induca and Suzy. “Please, keep it down, will you two?”
“What are you talking about? Have you heard you two going at it? I certainly have!” Induca grinned and looked at Deia.
“What are you looking at me for?” Dave complained as Deia shot him a look. “I didn’t start this! Well, I don’t think I did. I just want to take a damn nap!”
“You better. I swear, if you go off to one of those Dwarven conferences and spend the whole time messing around with your new projects...”
“You still get me as a comfortable body pillow.” Dave smiled and pulled her close as they headed off toward their apartment.
“You think I just want you for a comfortable body pillow?”
“A good-looking body pillow?” Dave said with a roguish wink.
She smacked his chest and their hands snaked together.
***
“Time to get up,” Suzy said.
“Come on, I just fell asleep.” Induca rolled over and pulled the sheets over her head to block out the light coming in from the now open curtains.
“Guild’s orders, lazy butt!”
“You like my butt.”
“Yeah, and the person attached to it is lazy as hell.” Suzy jumped on the bed, sitting on Induca’s butt.
“See, now I can’t get up, even if I wanted to,” Induca purred with a pleased smile.
“Up, you get.” Suzy’s fingers found Induca’s sides.
Induca laughed and bucked, trying to get away from Suzy’s terrorizing hands. Finally, she rolled Suzy over, now the one on top.
“Look, you’re up.” Suzy laughed.
A cruel smile passed over Induca’s face as Suzy’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t even think about it!”
“It’s only fair!” Induca’s fingers tickled Suzy’s sides, making her squeal as it was her turn to try to get away from Induca’s tickling torture.
Finally Induca gave up, pinning Suzy’s hands back, and slowly kissed her bare stomach.
“We’ve got a raid to do,” Suzy pouted, looking at Induca.
Induca pressed her thigh forward between Suzy’s legs as she moved her mouth beside Suzy’s ear. “That’s a shame.” The heat built between Induca’s legs as she kissed down Suzy’s neck.
“Sto-op,” Suzy stuttered, her enjoyment of the moment warring with their responsibilities. Her legs and hips moved on their own, her body wanting more of Induca’s attention.
“Well, now we have something to look forward to later.” Induca nibbled Suzy’s earlobe, her tongue flickering over her ear before she gave Suzy a quick kiss.
She rolled off the bed, now truly awake with longing in her loins as she pulled her clothes on.
“Damn, I was the one waking you up and now I want to stay in bed all day.” Suzy pushed off the bed.
“Well, you’ve just have to find the proper way to motivate someone after they wake up.” Induca winked and pulled her pants on.
Suzy slapped Induca’s butt and then pulled it tight to her. Her hand snaked down the front of her pants; her fingers stroked through Induca’s panties, finding them damp.
Induca made to return the favor.
Suzy slipped away, licking her fingers. “Seems someone is very awake.”
Induca smiled, changing out of her sleeping shirt and stretching like a cat so that Suzy could take in the full view of her curves before she pulled on her underclothes and armor.
“I am so happy that I took this assignment from Grandmother,” Induca purred, kissing Suzy.
“Who is your grandmother?”
“The Lady of Fire. She made Denur and all of the Dragons.”
“So, what did she send you and Malsour here for?”
“Her daughter? The Lady of Fire has a daughter? What would that make her? Like some kind of Demi-God?” Suzy asked. “Why are you still with us? Shouldn’t you be with her?”
“Uh, well, umm, I’ve said more than I was supposed to.” Induca realized too late what she had revealed.
“But then the only person we know who has...”
Induca could only wince as Suzy put the pieces together. She’s too smart for her own good. But I love her for it.
“You’re telling me Deia is the daughter of the Lady of Fire?” Suzy hissed, lowering her voice as if Deia could hear her from her room with Dave.
“Well, uh...” Induca scratched her head. In the end, she couldn’t lie to Suzy and she had all the key points anyway. “Yeah, but you can’t tell her!”
“Why not?”
“Cause Grandmother should be the one to do it. I was going to watch over her to make sure that she had good control of her gifts. Then, we became friends and all of this happened. The Lady of Fire doesn’t mind, but having people know that you have a kid when the Pantheon is filled with people who would do anything in order to get some more power over you? I don’t think it’s exactly something she wants to broadcast to the whole world.”
“But this is Deia! She deserves to know who her mother is!” Suzy hissed.
“Look, if we go to Per’ush after this, then we can set up another meeting between the two of them. I know that they met before but it wasn’t the best time.” Induca winced at Suzy’s glare.
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