by David Petrie
“What makes you think that?”
Max smiled back, finally getting glimpse of her tactical side. She was smarter than she looked, but not so smart to have known everything. “Well, it would be a safe bet, considering that you guys just overthrew their city, that they would be looking for some revenge. But honestly, I just saw Amelia in the crowd over there.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
Nix’s eye widened. “Oh…”
Max’s shoulders relaxed. He had been playing at espionage all week, and frankly, he wasn’t good at it. A fight, on the other hand, especially one in a location as unique as the Catacombs, that was something he could handle.
Nix’s face shifted to one more fitting of a mercenary. “Looks like we’ll be working together.” Her tone grew cold, almost predatory as she released the strap that secured her pistol in her holster. “Watch my back. I’m checking them out.”
Max nodded and raised his house ring. “Ginger, we have company. It’s Amelia’s Moons. Tell Berwyn, and get Farn and Ripper ready to shield him. Kira… just try not to fall down.”
He lowered his ring and locked his attention on Nix as she approached the table of six potential enemies. One question hung in his mind. Would she prove to be the clumsy oaf that she seemed to be, or would she reveal herself as the danger that he had been sensing since they had met?
Then she tripped over her own feet, her arms and legs flailing with an undignified oomph as she crashed on to the table in front of the players in question.
Drinks shattered to the floor.
Max cringed.
It was obvious that she wasn’t a threat, and if the players had only been there for a night out, they would have treated her as such.
They didn’t.
Whether she was a threat or not didn’t seem to matter. She had startled them, and now, they had to act. Two went for their weapons on reflex, Coins by the look of their daggers.
Max reached for his pistols only to hesitate the moment Nix rolled on to her back. Her expression stopped him cold.
The fall hadn’t stunned her. No, there wasn’t even a hint of confusion. Her eyes darted across each of the players. The simple fact that their first reaction to her falling in their laps was to attack spoke volumes.
Two words left her mouth, “Thought so.”
She fired.
Her M9 let out a pair of three round bursts at point-blank range into the two players to her left. Both fell as multiple hits ensured a critical.
Max didn’t even see her draw the gun. She must have reached for it as she rolled over to keep it hidden.
Strangely, she had chosen to take out the two players that had yet to draw their weapons rather than the two at her feet who were already brandishing daggers. They seemed surprised by it as well, and she took the moment to kick one of their weapons out of their hand. It flittered off the platform, catching the light as she fired another burst to her right, eliminating another member of the group.
Max couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was as if she was assessing each of their threat levels by her position and her capability to acquire them as targets. The two at her feet might have seemed like a problem since they’d already drawn on her. Though the fact was, she could see them and, therefore, could take them out fastest. Instead, she focused on the ones that remained in her peripheral.
That’s when a Blade class directly behind her plunged his sword down at her head. She had been ignoring him. Maybe because his weapon was largest and it had taken the most time to draw.
She reacted, only moving her head a few inches as he struck the table at full force, embedding his sword into the wood. It was as if she had kept her head there on purpose to bait him, prepared to move from the start.
Her fingers moved in an efficient blur, switching the M9 out of burst mode. With half of the group handled, she didn’t need the additional firepower. She grabbed the Blade’s shirt as he struggled with his sword and yanked him forward. He fell beside her. She fired two shots, one to his neck and another to his chest as she used his weight to pull herself away from the two Coins at her feet.
Nix slid backward off the table, landing on the floor between it and a chair. With a kick, she shoved table into the shins of the remaining two players.
It knocked them forward, forcing them to use their hands to catch themselves. Their mistake was obvious as they raised their vulnerable heads in surprise. One of them opened his mouth.
“Oh, fu–”
She popped each of them once.
The club’s music pulsed, and for the most part, no one noticed the fight or the shots fired. Hell, it had ended so fast that the first body hadn’t even started to dissipate. Max stood, stunned, his hands still reaching for his guns. He hadn’t even had time to draw them.
Nix was a monster.
There was no grace or style to her movements. Just raw, unfiltered damage. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen.
He finished drawing his pistols. Now wasn’t the time to stand there with his mouth hanging open. There was no way those players were alone. His mind raced forward, connecting the details.
Nix seemed to be doing the same as she got to her feet.
Most likely, the six Moons at the table were a distraction to draw their attention, which meant that the real threat was elsewhere. A dozen Star Wars memes flashed through his head as he looked up.
The high ground.
It made sense for Amelia’s people to take the platforms above. It’s what he would have done. They were probably already surrounded.
He was right.
Ten players emerged from the edges of the platforms above. The fight had only just begun. Max glanced back to the rest of his party to make sure they were ready for what was coming.
Farn and Ripper formed a protective wall in front of Berwyn and Kira, while Ginger pulled up her hood, leaving her face hidden in shadow.
Good idea, Max thought, as he remembered the photo of Kira that had made the rounds online, the one of her dancing with Berwyn. The fight ahead was about to get very public, and the last thing he needed was his face plastered all over the message boards.
He tugged his scarf, the Mantle of Death, up over his mouth and nose, realizing just how convenient the garment was.
The fabric shifted in his hand, clinging to his face to remain in place as if it had always been meant to be used as a mask. At the same time, a system chime sounded in his ear, the same as before when he had received the item. It was heavy, like it carried a weight along with it.
Max suppressed a maniacal laugh as he realized that he had just activated his new sub-class. The Fury emblem on his hand transformed into a simple, black coffin. A banner with the word, Reaper, appeared across his skin beneath it. His health began to tick down every two seconds.
- 20 HP
- 20 HP
He did the math. 3,603 hit points in total, meant he could keep his Reaper class active for around three minutes before it killed him.
Good enough.
Arrows flew down from all sides as Max took in a breath and held it. A blur of spectral steel cut through the air as the sound of snapping arrows met his ears. The players above stood dumbstruck with their heads cocked to the side as five gleaming swords drifted around him.
Max let out an awkward laugh. They were the same weapons wielded by the Nightmare, Death, the year before. “Huh, that was interesting,” Max commented to himself as player aimed a pistol down at him.
“Block this!” the enemy Fury shouted before unloading the gun. He continued to yell until his pistol locked back empty.
“Um, okay.” Max exhaled, prompting the spectral swords of Death's Unbreakable Defense to blink out of existence like a dream.
The Fury above pulled the trigger of his empty pistol twice more, the gun clicking. “What the–”
Max cut off his words with a bullet as the other members of Winter Moon’s ambush team fell back, using the platforms above for cover. They took turns popping up t
o take a shot at him. He fired back and held his breath to block.
- 20 HP
- 20 HP
His health continued to tick down. The Reaper sub-class was keeping him safe, but it was also killing him slowly. Three minutes wasn’t a lot of time, and it was difficult to land a critical on the players above over the distance. Then suddenly, Nix slid to his side on one knee firing up.
“Looks like you could use a hand?”
“I’ll take what I can get.”
She stood and took up a position against his back, her body pressed up against his. “Good because I don’t know what kind of ability you're using here, but I’m guessing the safest place to stand right now is close to you.”
“Glad to be of use.” Max smirked.
A green coil of smoke swirled around them while a Venom Mage laughed from above.
Damn. Wrong time to get cocky.
“So those things don’t block poison, huh?” Nix pointed to her wrist as her health ticked down.
Max glanced at his stat-sleeve.
- 20 HP
- 30 HP
- 20 HP
- 30 HP
Not good.
He turned back to the others. “Hey, Kira? You sober enough to get us a heal over here?”
The fairy answered by opening her spellcraft menu and spinning the rows of glyphs into something that passed for an incantation. The spell danced around them, shifting colors from white to blue to red. Somehow her magic seemed as tipsy as she was.
Max checked his wrist to find the poison cured. He noted the addition of fire resistance and a buff to his melee damage as well. Kira wobbled and gave a triumphant salute.
“Close enough.” Max shook his head at the little drunkard.
“You got Custom Rounds?” Nix pulled a new mag from her pouch and reloaded.
“Yeah,” Max answered on reflex before remembering that his Fury skills were locked by his sub-class. “Wait, no. Not while this is active.” He gestured to the scarf the wrapped around his mouth.
“It’s up to me then.” Nix held her M9 vertical in front of her face and whispered the command, “Fracture Rounds.”
Max arched an eyebrow as she activated the lowest level of the custom rounds skill, meant only for weakening armor … or structures.
His eyes went wide.
Nix took aim at the narrow pillar holding up one of the platforms and fired two bursts. Chunks of stone shattered on impact. She immediately slipped past Max like a dance partner and released another two bursts into the other platform’s support, filling the air with shards of gray shrapnel.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then everything did.
The weakened pillar on the right practically exploded under the weight of the platform, dropping the entire level, bystanders and enemies alike. A chorus of screams passed by as it fell, followed by a deafening crash from below.
The sound turned Max’s stomach.
It was just a game, but killing dozens of innocent players just to take out a few targets was never an option that had crossed his mind. He tried not to think of the swimmers that had been caught underneath.
Then from the other side, came an ear-splitting crack.
Max ducked on reflex.
Unlike the first pillar, the second snapped in the middle. The platform tipped back, slamming into the wall of the cavern just above where he stood. The impact destroyed a carving of a fish spitting water from its mouth. A torrent burst from the wall, gushing down the leaning platform like a waterfall. It poured down on to the floor near where Farn and Ripper stood.
The Shields both wrapped their gauntlets against their chest plates, no doubt activating their Sure-Foot skill to keep from being washed away. Ripper gripped Berwyn’s coat with a firm hand before he slipped. Farnsworth, however, had a little more trouble wrangling Kira. The fairy lost her footing almost immediately, landing on her rear before finally latching on to the Shield’s leg. Ginger let out a groan at the sight of her Archmage before firing her grappling hook into the floor.
Max and Nix dropped to one knee in unison as the wave of water hit their feet. The mercenary leaned against his side for support.
Clubgoers screamed from the platform, struggling to hold on for dear life. Most were washed away along with the Winter Moon’s attack team. All but one enemy fell.
A lone Caldron Mage slid down, jumping from his platform to Max’s. He hit the floor with a splash, his arm thrust out as a circle of power contracted into a single point of yellow light. He slammed his hand into the water, sparks flying from his fingertips as a current of electricity surged across the surface.
Every nerve in Max’s body lit up at once, vibrating in a chaotic buzz that sapped all his strength. He fell forward to catch himself with his elbows. Through blurred vision, he caught the readout on his stat-sleeve.
- 300 HP
- 20 HP
- 300 HP
He checked the rest of his party. They were fine. Out of range of the spell.
Nix wasn’t so lucky. The brunt of the spell hit her along with him. She fell, draping herself across his back.
Max clenched every muscle he had to fight the continuous spasms. The spell didn’t actually hurt, but still, his jaw ached. It felt like his teeth were trying to vibrate right out of his skull.
Nix gripped his shoulder tight and pulled herself close. “Sorry, but I have to borrow you.” Her voice wavered as she pressed her shaking body against his and lowered her gun to rest on his back for stability. She pumped three rounds into the mage.
The vibrations ceased the moment the man’s body washed past Max’s side. Shimmering particles began to float from the corpse just as it slid over the edge.
Nix slipped off of Max’s back and slapped him in the shoulder. “No time to rest. More incoming.”
He raised his head.
A party of six appeared halfway up the stairs to the platform, each wading through the water that poured down the steps.
Max exhaled, his health ticking into the red as he pushed himself out of the water. No time to rest.
Suddenly, a spiral a white light streaked around Nix and himself. Max smiled. He still had the most powerful healer in Noctem on his side. Though, he did wonder how Kira had been able to cast while clinging to Farn’s leg.
The answer slid by a second later along with a slurred, “I’m going with the flow.”
She must have let go.
Kira looked back as the water carried her to the edge. “At least I’m staying current.”
Max shook his head as she vanished over the side. “That makes sense.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Kira tumbled end over end, not really sure which way was up. The world had been spinning long before she had fallen off the platform. If she didn’t do something, she would hit the water below.
It was fine. She had wings. Everything was fine.
She hit the water’s surface with a slap.
“Ow!” Kira blurted, swallowing a mouthful as soon as she did.
Was I not flying?
Apparently not.
Kira rubbed at her side, glowing red from the impact. Pins and needles prickled over her skin. Checking her wrist, her health remained full. She immediately reached to her item bag to check for her bone charm.
It was gone. Sacrificed to take the damage.
At least it saved me from the fall.
For a moment, she let herself drift. The water was comfortable and warm.
She shook off the feeling and flicked a few points of mana into the spellwork rooted in her back. Her wings ignited in a blaze of shining particles as she shot out of the water.
Woah, no! Stop stop stop.
She scrambled to choke off the flow of energy surging from her body as she shot up toward the platforms above. It was hard to do anything gently, like trying to close a door while drunk without slamming it. Instead of a few points of mana, she’d dumped half of it into her wings.
Oops.
>
The cavern lit up as if in daylight as Kira came to a stop and cut off the torrent of pixie dust.
Whew.
Max was staring up at her, wearing his scarf like a bandit’s mask. A pattern of white teeth had formed a wicked expression across his face. Kira checked his health. At least the shower of energy she’d released had topped off his health.
Nix ejected a spent magazine and slapped in a new one before turning her sights to the stairs leading up to their platform. Another party of Amelia’s Moons crept toward her.
Two Shields in front brought up their gauntlets, activating a set of glowing barriers. A pair of Furies aimed their pistols from a position behind them along with a pair of Blades waiting with their swords drawn. They pushed forward.
Nix rushed them without hesitation.
Kira couldn’t help but watch, enthralled by the mercenary as she threw her magazine at one of the Shields.
He raised his gauntlet to block his face on reflex. Nix took the opening, firing two shots low, hitting the man in both feet. He swore and lowered his barrier. She put one more in his head at close range.
Without a railing on the stairs, his body slumped off the side, leaving the other Shield open. Slipping past, Nix fired two in his back from inches away.
One of the Furies behind thrust his gun in her face. She caught his arm with her free hand, yanking him towards her. His gun was left aiming uselessly over her shoulder while his body blocked the line of fire for the rest of his team.
With her attention occupied by the struggling player, one of the Blades pushed past for the kill. She was faster, catching the edge of his sword with the trigger guard of her M9 and twisting to redirect it safely to the floor where she stomped it out of his grip. He looked confused when she shot him in the chin.
The other Blade attempted the same. She dodged by turning into the Fury she still held, wrapping his arm around her neck in the process. For a moment, the player looked like he had just been given a present as he pushed his wrist into her throat. The remaining Blade moved to take advantage of the opportunity. From there, he could run her through easily.
Nix raised her legs as if to protect her chest and stomach while reaching back and putting three rounds in the side of the Fury that held her. They weren’t lethal, but he loosened his grip. She kicked the Blade square in the chest.