Party Hard

by David Petrie

  Corvin let his shoulders sink. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that."

  "It's okay. Max is fine now, but back then, he was just a child, so it hit him hard. And you know how cruel kids can be. Once they sensed that weakness in him, they grabbed on and wouldn't let it go. By the time I started at his school mid-way through third grade, he was alone. On my first day, I saw him sitting by himself outside. I could have gone over to the other kids, but they were all grouped together, and I was afraid to introduce myself. So I just went over and sat with him."

  Corvin looked at the fairy, wishing that he had met someone like her back when he had been alone. Actually, in a way, he was still alone. "And you've been friends ever since?"

  "Yup. He puts up with me."

  Corvin stayed quiet for a while before speaking again, debating on how much he should tell her about himself. He decided to go with vague honesty. "I got picked on pretty bad in school, too. It didn't end well."

  "I'm sorry. That’s crappy," she said with a sincerity in her voice that didn't quite match her words.

  "Yeah, it was. But if Max could bounce back and become the badass that he is now, maybe there's hope for me."

  "That's true." She stroked his tail again.

  He thought for a while. "When this mission is done, I'm thinking of starting over with a different class, something like a Blade or maybe a Shield."

  She went quiet for a few seconds as if weighing his choices. "I think you'd make a good Blade."

  "Why?"

  "The gear would go better with your tail."

  He laughed. "You really like the tail, huh?"

  "I do. I just want to lay down and roll around on it." She lifted the furry blanket and nuzzled it with her cheek.

  That was when a voice called to them from the doorway. "You two are looking mighty cozy over there."

  Corvin looked up in unison with Kira to find Max staring down at them, one eyebrow raised in question of their positioning. His forehead burned as the fairy continued to nuzzle his tail as if completely unembarrassed.

  She buried her cheek into Corvin’s fur. "Don't judge. This is actually quite calming, which is something I need right now."

  Max nodded, accepting that as an explanation. "Well, I'm glad you're calm. But unfortunately, we're all back online, and Alastair has news." He motioned with his hand for them to come back inside.

  They obeyed without question, Kira giving Corvin a grateful smile.

  He smiled back, this time, without his heart racing.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Together once again, the group gathered around Kira at the center of the bridge as Alastair approached. She tried her best to read his expression.

  He clapped his hands together. "Good news, everyone.”

  Kira leveled her eyes at him, not buying whatever he was selling. "And that is?"

  "No one is in any danger at the moment."

  "I'm assuming there is bad news as well," Kira prodded as she folded her arms across her body.

  "Umm, yes." Alastair deflated a bit. "We have no way to log you out properly at this time."

  "Figured that was coming." Kira dropped herself into the captain's chair and slouched, as if sighing with her entire body. Then she remembered that she was only wearing a dress. She sat up straight and crossed her legs the way she thought a proper lady should. She didn’t want to give the crew another show.

  Farn placed a supportive hand on her shoulder, which was appreciated.

  Alastair ignored the fact that she had stolen his seat again. "We can still get you out by cutting the power to your system, but there is a message on your rig's screen that warns against doing that. It mentions consequences, which I assume means that the virus will be released if we forcibly disconnect you. So, the question here is, what do you want us to do?"

  Kira was taken aback by the question. It hadn’t occurred to her that she might have a choice. "What do you mean?"

  Alastair leaned against a railing to the side, looking less authoritative. "I mean, do you want to quit now? Obviously, I'd like to keep going, but I'm not going to force you to. If you want out, it's okay." His expression was sincere, though a bit hopeful.

  Kira looked to Max to ask what he thought she should do, but he gave his answer before she could ask the question.

  "It's up to you. We'll stick by you no matter what you choose."

  Farn gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze in agreement.

  Kira turned back to Alastair. "How long can I be in here before I should start worrying?"

  His eyes glanced up at the ceiling then back to her. "Well, in the test that got Neal fired, he had subjects in for twenty-six hours. So you've got a little under eleven before passing that record."

  She considered the time she had left, which still seemed like a lot. "Can we revisit this when I get closer? Maybe we can finish before then."

  "That's reasonable." Alastair gave her a warm smile before adding, "Now, get out of my seat."

  "Oh, sorry." She hopped up awkwardly and returned to her place at Max's side.

  Alastair reclaimed his chair and proceeded to get himself back into captain mode. He leaned forward to address the crew. "Okay, people, we have just under eleven hours to get this thing done. After that, we'll all be out of a job. It's all or nothing, so let's get down there, and do what we do best."

  The crew's determination grew despite the fact that some of them didn't have much to do other than stand around. Most seemed to be there just in case they were needed. Though the threat was real, and they probably liked their jobs, so it was only natural that they felt invested in the mission.

  Standing out from the rest, Alastair's assistant, Jeff-with-a-three, seemed even more serious than usual, his attention locked on a leather-bound book, its digital ink displaying a list of the party's vitals.

  Kira caught the book’s contents out of the corner of her eye. It didn't make her feel better. Neither did the pitying looks she caught from the crew when they thought she wasn't looking.

  In the end, it didn't matter; she had made her decision. So she just stepped closer to Max and Farn as Checkpoint employees pulled levers and turned wheels, bringing the ship down as they approached the third location. Frost formed on the windows as they grew closer.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Max stepped off the retractable stairs of the Nostromo and onto a snow-covered dock at the end of a long bridge. On the other side stood Castle Alderth. It was a strange place to feel relieved, but for the first time, the quest had brought him to a place he had been before, somewhere he knew like the back of his hand. Granted, it had been a long time since he had last set foot in the place.

  The dungeon, if you could call something so large a dungeon, sat on the edge of a waterfall that stretched wide on either side, its waters frozen in time long ago by ice. The City of Rend, or at least what was left of it, lined the sides of the massive river that once flowed around the castle. In the middle of the river sat the airship dock, held up by a few pillars. The platform was never meant to be used since it was just there to make the place look like it had once been a working city in the past. It was a happy accident that the designers had thought to connect it to the castle’s main gates, giving the team a straight shot into the castle without having to travel through the surrounding buildings and streets. As it turned out, having their own ship was pretty convenient.

  Spires reached into the sky like dozens of upside-down icicles as the castle loomed over the bridge. The sheer size of the place was an impressive feat. Players could spend weeks exploring it and the surrounding city. To many, the enormous dungeon was considered an entire game in and of itself, especially since it had its own storyline, but that was back when Noctem released its first expansion. The castle still saw a handful of hardcore fans, but other than that, it saw few visitors today. Now, most of the players that chose to venture into the difficult area had done everything there was to do. Max and Kira had even run through the place multiple times, trashin
g all of the key items they received each time so that they could start over from scratch. Max breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t thrown away the dungeon’s keys after their last time there. It would suck to have to unlock everything again now.

  As he stood on the far side of the bridge, the castle had the imposing yet somber presence of a tomb. Although, that was probably due to the fact that it was a tomb.

  The castle hadn't always been shrouded with such a heavy gloom. Well, technically, it had, as it had only come into existence two and a half years ago, but according to the lore, it had once been one of Noctem's strongest kingdoms. Ruled by House Alderth, it had been a grand and majestic palace surrounded by a city of loyal subjects. It wasn't easy living in the cold of the northern territory, but its mages had created a spell that made the place livable. Overall, it had been a nice place to call home. That was until the Nightmares were discovered.

  Back in the city’s fictional past, Eustace Alderth, who ruled over the city at the time, had led a group of his bravest adventurers to challenge the Nightmare, Rasputin the destroyer. The intent had been on securing a contract to gain prosperity for his people. They fought hard, and in the end, were victorious. That's when things went south. Eustace betrayed his subjects by offering the lives of his entire kingdom in exchange for immortality. Rasputin had accepted the trade eagerly, and in an instant, ice claimed the city, people and all.

  Thousands of imaginary lives were lost in the trade, including Eustace himself, whose frozen body still stood outside Rasputin's lair in the mountains, not too far from where they were now. He did gain the immortality he sought by going down in Noctem's history as a monster who sacrificed his people for personal gain. It was a precautionary tale about the nature of the Nightmares and an example of the corruption of power. At least, that was what Max and Kira could piece together from notes and the description text of various items found in the area.

  The thing that had kept players interested in the place two years ago was the huge number of secrets and hidden passages. Its mystery had even become a topic for debate, with players arguing back and forth on message boards. One side insisted that the city had been explored in its entirety and were waiting for it to be given an update to add more content to it, while the other side believed that it still hid more that had yet to be discovered. The debate continued to this day, scrutinizing things like markings on walls and courtyards that could be seen from above but no one could seem to find on the ground.

  According to Alastair, Checkpoint did have something planned to bring players back to the area, but the fact that Max and company were there now as part of their quest also meant that there must be something hidden within. As it seemed, both sides were right.

  Snow drifted through the deathly still air as Max walked, all warmth leaving the place as if it didn't want to stick around for what was about to go down, leaving him and his group chilled in the crisp light of a full moon as they traversed the bridge. Shadows clawed toward them from the icy spires. Max couldn't help notice that Farn swallowed hard.

  Kira, however, let out a quiet, "Ahhhh," as she held out her tongue to catch an unsuspecting flake of ice that fell into her mouth. The fairy's spirits were higher than one would expect, considering her situation. She seemed to have moved on rather than dwelling on things, which was how she handled the majority of her problems. For the most part, nothing kept her down for long. It was one of the things that Max had always appreciated about his partner.

  She switched up her strategy from catching snowflakes to straight up biting them out of the air, making ridiculous ‘Chomp’ noises as she did.

  Farn gave a short laugh as Kira's improved demeanor did wonders for the mood of the group, even in their bleak surroundings.

  Max enjoyed her antics but shook his head at her immaturity regardless.

  Kira stopped for a moment. "Hey, when I was stuck getting updated and whatnot in the last dungeon, who got the contract?"

  Max slapped a hand against his forehead, realizing that he had forgotten about it with everything that was going on with her. "Oh god, I can't believe I didn't check." He shoved his hand into his pocket. The item was tiny, which added to the reasons that he had forgotten about it. A second later, he pulled out his hand to see the familiar shape resting in his palm. The moonlight glinted off its silver surface. "Holy shit," Max muttered as he checked its description in his journal. Then he promptly burst out laughing.

  Kira's gaze fell on him. "What's so funny?"

  He responded by holding the book out for her to read, which she struggled to do with him still laughing.

  "Dude, hold still," she nagged.

  He settled down, still snickering as she paraphrased the text.

  Contract name: Silver Bullet

  Type: consumable

  Ownership: unbound

  Usage: one-time only

  Basic enchantment: none

  Advanced enchantment: ability, One-Shot

  Ability description: this bullet can kill any enemy in one hit, as long as that hit deals critical damage. Range, limited.

  "That's freaking awesome!" Kegan jumped to the front of the group to walk backward in front of Max.

  "Yeah, from the sound of that, you might be able to take out a Nightmare," Farn added, sounding hopeful.

  Kira continued to eye him with suspicion. "But why is it funny?"

  Max pointed to the one line at the end that she had skipped since it didn't seem important. Then she tilted her head to the side. "I don't get it."

  Max waved his hand. "You wouldn't; you were stuck in that column of water, so you missed my response when the darkness asked for an offer."

  Everyone fell silent, clearly thinking back to what he had said in the heat of the moment. He read the line out loud. “Item given to form contract: fucks – quantity: zero.”

  The others burst out laughing at the absurdity of the system's wording.

  Kira looked annoyed at being left out of the joke but shrugged and laughed anyway.

  The fun was interrupted by Ginger, who was holding her sides tight and shivering. "Yeah that's all hilarious and all, but can I get a comfort spell here?"

  "Crap. Sorry," Kira said as Max was starting to feel the bite in the air.

  Players couldn't actually freeze to death, but their brains didn't know that, so the cold could get uncomfortable unless they had an item capable of keeping them warm. Fortunately, due to the requirement of keeping her feet bare, Kira had purchased an anklet long ago that did just that. So for her, the system ignored her mind's input for perceived temperatures and loaded a comfortable sixty degrees for the colder environments.

  Kira set up a quick spell exclusive to her class that extended the items protective effect to the rest of the party. It didn't cost much mana and stayed in effect until she canceled it or died.

  "Thanks." Ginger released her grip on her sides and stopped shivering as they approached the entrance.

  The cold, dead hands of the castle's frozen subjects reached out in greeting as Max stepped through the huge doors of the entryway, their blank eyes on him as if pleading for a salvation that would never come. It was a twisted sight. Horror fans must have loved it.

  As soon as he crossed the middle of the courtyard, the still bodies came alive, their icy joints cracking as they dashed toward the party. The area was designed to be difficult but only for low-level play, making the attacking corpses a minor threat, to say the least. They were still unnerving, but Max drew his pistols and took them out without skipping a beat. Kegan didn't even need to help.

  From there, he wasted little time, taking a shortcut and proceeding to the main hall in hope of finding something that would point them in the right direction. All he found was an empty throne since he and Kira had already beaten the bosses that appeared in the room years ago. Max stepped up the stairs toward the ornate chair and plopped down into its cushioned seat to think, slouching with an unintentional swagger, like some kind of dark king.

&
nbsp; Lacking a second throne for a queen, Kira sat down on the step in front of him with Farn sticking close by her side.

  Kegan stood in the middle of the room, his hands in front of him as if framing a picture of Max and the two women sitting at his feet. His eyes lit up with a mischievous sparkle. "Hey, Kira, turn toward Max."

  "Why?" She leaned her chin on one hand and stared at him, her expression incredulous.

  "Just do it; it will be funny," the Leaf insisted.

  Kira rolled her eyes up to Max where they lit up as if realizing what Kegan had been getting at. She smiled in understanding, then placed one hand on his unsuspecting leg while gazing up at him. Her violet eyes sparkling up at him with longing.

  "Dude, cut it out." Max attempted to shake her off, covering his embarrassment with annoyance.

  Kegan interrupted. "Okay, Farn, you too."

  She shot him a look that asked ‘Are you kidding me?’

  He returned it with one of his own that told her that, ‘No, he was not.’

  Max didn't expect her to play along, but when she looked to Kira, who was now getting into it, she must have decided to go with it.

  Suddenly, Ginger ran up the stairs. "Oh, me too, me too!" She dropped down in between Max's legs and leaned against him, her back arched to accentuate her breasts. She let her head rest on his lap and reached back with one arm.

  Max shrunk back on instinct, letting out a confused, "Hey, what …" His voice cracked a little.

  "Just shut up and look badass," Kegan interrupted.

  Max groaned and gave in, taking a breath as he pushed back his nerves, a face of cold determination in their place.

  Kegan took his inspector out of his journal and centered the small glass rectangle on the scene. A small click was audible as the frame flashed, leaving a still image on its surface as if he had snatched it out of the air. He held it up to see it closer. "Awesome. You better thank me, man. I just took your new profile picture."

  Max's harem dissolved and descended the stairs to see the image, leaving the king alone on his throne. Each of them touched the photo, copying it to their own files on contact, laughing as they did. The pleasant notes of Kira's voice echoed through the hall, drawing out even more laughter from the rest. Kegan sent the picture to Max, who glanced at it on his own inspector without taking it out from the back of his journal and being careful not to look too long. He hid a grin and snapped the book shut, dropping the image into his personal gallery. There would be plenty of time to look at it later.