Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  Or maybe their odds of surviving were too low for him to say aloud…

  The AI seemed to pivot to look at him, and Finn forced himself to project confidence. Daniel couldn’t see him faltering right now. The fire elemental’s body flared a bit brighter. “Yeah… yeah, I’ve got this,” he murmured.

  “Okay, let’s get started.” Daniel’s voice echoed through the hallway, his tone more confident, and his body flaring brightly. “You lot try to keep up.”

  With that parting statement, the AI took off like a bullet. His fiery form raced down the hallway, a receding ball of flame that pushed back at the shadowy darkness that lingered in the passage. The group waited a full five seconds before darting after him. They would need to maintain a precarious balance – staying close enough that Finn could block off the various rooms and hallways behind them, but far enough away that they wouldn’t accidentally attract the attention of the corrupted.

  After their encounter with the first mech-human hybrid, Finn didn’t feel optimistic that they could take on these things in a straight fight. As much as he was concerned about the AI’s safety, he likely stood a better chance than they did. If a few of the corrupted caught wind of the group trailing the fire elemental, this would all be over quickly.

  And Finn guessed that dying inside the Forge would be bad… very bad. They hadn’t crossed one of those shimmering blue veils like they had back in the Abyss – that barrier highlighting the edge of a dungeon. If they died, they couldn’t be certain where they would respawn. Worst case, death might be a one-way ticket back to Lahab, Bilel waiting there with open arms.

  He forcefully shoved that thought aside, focusing instead on the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of their feet pounding upon the stone floor… The sound of their ragged breathing… The grinding rumble of Brock’s body…

  Julia had re-equipped her armor, and her plate-clad feet smashed against the stone. The time for caution was now long past. Meanwhile, Finn’s eyes hovered on the glowing yellow line that stretched out ahead of them – the waypoint marker active, guiding them along a predetermined path through the fire section.

  That path twisted to the left, the hall curving and opening into a large chamber. Finn raised a staying hand as his Mana Sight picked up bright flares of mana from the corrupted. As they woke and noticed Daniel flitting through the room in a zig-zag pattern, the mechs’ hazy silhouettes began to swarm after him.

  “Good job, Daniel,” Finn murmured. Then, to his companions, “Alright, let’s go.”

  They entered the room just in time to see Daniel’s flickering form race through one of the exits, a group of corrupted already hot on his flaming heels. The strange mech-human hybrids shuffled forward with shambling, awkward steps – the squeal of rusted metal, and the hiss of pneumatics echoing through the room. Their metallic claws tore at the air, fire rippling along their limbs and lighting the room in a faltering, erratic light.

  As Finn watched, one of the corrupted lunged at Daniel, jumping nearly four feet into the air and its claws stretching toward the elemental. The AI weaved to the side, narrowly avoiding the blow before rocketing further down the hallway. The horde of corrupted soon disappeared as they gave chase, plunging the room back into darkness.

  “Fuck, I hope this works,” Kyyle breathed beside Finn. “That was only the first dozen or so. If they turn around or we can’t seal them in that trap-room...” He didn’t need to finish that thought. They all knew what would happen. This was an all-or-nothing plan.

  “Let’s just keep moving. We need to stay close,” Finn grunted in response. And then the group was running again, following that thin yellow path.

  In the next hallway, Finn noted a waypoint marker. One of the doors he needed to seal shut. He barely slowed, his hand moving in a blur as he cast Imbue Fire, the deadbolts within the doorway soon awash in flame. As they raced past, Finn shoved the door shut, and the reinforced stone soon slammed into the frame with a dull thump and a gust of dust. A jerk of his fingers and the deadbolts slid into place.

  The group hadn’t slowed, continuing their headlong charge.

  As they repeated this process, again and again, Finn forcefully maintained his mana, using the energy to focus and burn away the last traces of his anxiety. There was only the running, the casting, that thin yellow line. Another hallway, another room – another door slamming shut with a flare of flame and a wave of heat.

  The ragged breathing. The burning sensation in their lungs and thighs. The slap of their feet striking stone. And the frustrated, feral roar of the corrupted in the distance – their cries echoing off the walls, growing with each passing second as new members joined the horde. Their metallic limbs skittered and shrieked, scraping against the walls of the facility – an ever-present reminder of what was waiting for them if the mechs slowed or stopped.

  “We’re almost there,” Julia grunted. “Just a few more rooms.”

  Finn spared a glance in Daniel’s direction, removing as many of the intervening layers of mana as he could. He could just barely spot the AI’s glowing form, but it was difficult through the interference from the walls. A wave of multi-colored mana was streaming after him now, dozens of the corrupted in hot pursuit.

  We’re moving too slow, Finn realized. Daniel was getting close to the dead-end chamber, but they were still two rooms and a hallway behind. He spared a glance at his stamina. He was already sitting at half.

  Fuck. He knew what he’d need to do to catch up – what that would cost him… Yet he wasn’t sure he could live with the consequences if he didn’t.

  “We’re too far behind,” Finn grunted, the group not slowing. “Daniel is almost in the trap-room. I’m going to have to cast Haste.”

  “Your stamina must be low by now,” Julia retorted, shooting him a worried glance. “If you don’t manage to close that door or they break through, you’ll be trapped in there.”

  And if he didn’t take the risk, Daniel would be stuck in that room with dozens of the corrupted. The AI’s words still echoed through his mind. What if… what if the corrupted can drain me? Finn knew Daniel was practically immune to physical attacks. But could he die? Could the corrupted drain him?

  Finn couldn’t take that chance.

  “No choice,” Finn grunted, his hand already moving.

  He felt the fire burn through his veins in a torrent, like liquid lava surging through his body. A thin film of flame soon coated his skin, and the world around him began to slow, his teammates falling behind him as though they were sprinting through thick sludge. He didn’t spare them any attention, pushing himself even harder.

  Finn barreled down the hallway, pivoted hard to the left, and kicked off the wall as his momentum pushed him forward. He was a blazing streak of flame racing after Daniel. That alone was risky. If he slowed at all, Finn could attract the attention of any other corrupted that might linger in these rooms. Yet he didn’t have time to worry about that. His attention was focused on that bright pinpoint of fire mana ahead. The AI was just passing the opening into the final chamber, the wave of corrupted chasing him inside.

  Faster. I need to go faster.

  Finn’s feet crashed against the floor, the world blurring past him as he made another turn. The room was just up ahead. He could see the ocean of swirling mana more clearly now – the bright sun-like spot of fire that hovered along the ceiling. His eyes were on the edge of his control range, denoted by a thin orange line. He was just waiting for that line to cross the room’s threshold.

  Just a few more feet…

  Finn abruptly slid to a stop, his hand racing through a series of gestures so quickly that his fingers blurred, and sparks of flame arced through the air. Forced to drop Haste as his stamina bottomed out, Finn sunk to his knees, his vision swimming. Yet he didn’t stop casting, forcing his fingers to keep moving through pure force of will. Flames consumed the entire door. Finn had no time for delicacy.

  “Daniel! Get the fuck out of there!” he shouted.

  Th
e AI somehow heard him over the howls of the corrupted, pivoting in the air, and arcing back toward the doorway. Daniel dipped, spun, and darted through the room as the mechs lunged at him, the AI navigating a mad obstacle course of mechanical limbs, tainted flesh, and flaming claws. Finn started to shove the door closed just as Daniel made a final dash for the exit, flames streaming along behind him.

  The reinforced stone began to slide to the side…

  Daniel’s flaming form rocketed through the air…

  An army of corrupted swarmed after him…

  With a final heave, Finn tried to slam the door shut. However, it stopped before it could fully close, stone grinding against metal as several of the corrupted shoved their flailing limbs into the opening. More were right behind them, and they immediately slammed into the stone, causing the walls to tremble before shoving their limbs into the gap and trying to pry the door open.

  Finn kept up his channel, straining against the corrupted as he tried to will the door closed. The ground shook as even more of the corrupted pushed forward, the momentum of the horde grinding the first wave of mechs against the stone with a discordant shriek of metal. A fine coating of dust billowed out from the doorway, and Finn could feel his spell buckle under the combined force of that many creatures. Several corrupted were tearing at the edges of the door, ignoring the flames that coated the surface; others clawed at the surface of the stone itself – as though they were trying to burrow through the stone.

  But he kept pouring more energy into the spell.

  Close, damn it!

  His mana was dropping fast, and his breath was coming in frantic gasps now. Finn could feel the last traces of his energy beginning to give way, his mana depleting rapidly as he maintained heat rank 4. The deadbolts were beginning to soften and melt, which would make it even more difficult to secure the door – assuming he could even get the damn thing closed. Finn could feel himself swaying in place, barely able to stay upright, and his vision was swimming.

  And then a hand landed on his shoulder, steadying him.

  He saw a flash of emerald energy, and a surge of stone shoved the corrupted back through the doorway, sending them hurtling backward. That was enough to clear a small gap. With one final shove, Finn slammed the door closed. Using the last traces of his mana, he forced the deadbolts back into their original shape and welded them firmly into the sockets that lined the side of the wall – and that damnable door fully and finally shut.

  Task complete, his spell sputtered out, and Finn’s mana and stamina both hit zero.

  He felt himself fall backward, his back striking hard stone as his eyes rolled toward the ceiling. His body ached. His breath came in ragged gasps, and the stump along his left arm burned even more fiercely than before, that same fire now twisting and coiling in his chest like a living thing.

  In that moment, a flickering ball of fire drifted into his vision.

  “Not bad for a human,” Daniel observed calmly. “Hi-five?”

  Finn just let out a hoarse chuckle, letting himself slump back against the stone and squeezing his eyes shut. They were alive. They’d made it. Daniel had made it.

  Chapter 17 - Exploratory

  A discordant, offbeat thumping came from the other side of the sealed doorway, the sound accompanied by the muted shriek of metal striking stone. Even insulated behind several feet of rock and crystal, the noise was enough to send a shiver down Finn’s back.

  “I don’t think that door is going to last for long,” Kyyle muttered, eyeing the doorway nervously as he grabbed Finn’s hand and hauled him to his feet.

  “They should run out of juice eventually…” Finn offered, his voice sounding hoarse and his vision swaying as he leaned heavily against Kyyle. His stamina hadn’t had a chance to regenerate yet.

  “Except that we don’t know whether they’ll breach the door before they shift back into standby mode,” Daniel offered helpfully, his voice unusually chipper. “Or how long it will take the corrupted to regenerate their mana. Or whether they will continue clawing at the door again once they have recharged…”

  “Yeah, we get it,” Finn grumbled, glaring at the AI.

  Yet he knew he wasn’t really upset with Daniel. The frustration simmering in his veins wasn’t directed at the AI… but at himself. That move had cost him dearly – he could already see a familiar notification flashing in his peripheral vision. And for what? The “life” of an AI he’d created and uploaded into the game?

  Or maybe it was the realization that Daniel had started to become something more… both in terms of what he was and what he meant to Finn.

  He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  With a sigh, Finn swiped at that notification.

  System Notice: Infection Status

  Continued spellcasting has caused the magical infection that afflicts your body to spread.

  Current Contamination: 33%

  Intact Najima: 4/6

  Stat Loss: -20%

  Damn it. That notice explained why his chest felt like it was on fire… the infection had spread to another Najima, further reducing his stats. He could only imagine what his Character Status looked like right now…

  He was saved from his dour thoughts as Julia spoke up, “We should back out of this hallway and seal the next two doors,” she offered, her hand flicking at the map displayed beside her and highlighting two more portals.

  A loud slam and a resounding crack had them all turning back to the door. The stone had fractured, a long, jagged fissure now arching through the rock. They were all sharing the same thought. If the corrupted made it through that door, they were screwed.

  “Yea, we need to move. Now,” Julia added, hurriedly swiping away the map.

  The other two nodded, and Finn stumbled back down the hallway with Kyyle’s assistance. For her part, Julia kept her weapons raised and a wary eye on the door behind them. As they crossed the next doorway, Finn’s fingers flashed through the gestures of Imbue Fire, and the door soon slammed shut with a shower of sparks. He then promptly melted the deadbolts into place, fusing them with the wall.

  They repeated this process one more time until the noise had become more muted – merely a dull scratching in the distance. Finn shrugged off Kyyle’s help as his stamina replenished itself and instead leaned a steadying hand against the wall. He peered into the surface with his Mana Sight, peeling back the layers as best he could.

  He soon saw them – the corrupted. They were a multi-colored cloud hovering about fifty feet away now, but he could make out most of what was happening. They’d broken through the first door, and a few of the mech-human hybrids had even managed to make it into the hall – only to be brought up short by the second barrier. The rest were bottle-necked within the first room, fighting against one another to make it through the hole they’d carved into the surface of the rock.

  Their energy also looked fainter than Finn remembered from their frantic dash through the complex, and the mechs’ movements were slowing down, each blow landing with less force.

  “I think they’re starting to run out of juice,” Finn reported. Both Kyyle and Julia let out a soft sigh of relief. Apparently, no one had been looking forward to getting ripped apart by a legion of self-healing cyborgs. “We should still move quickly. Like Daniel said, we can’t be sure how long it will take them to recharge or if they’ll continue the assault.”

  A faint worry also tugged at the edges of his mind. Or what might happen if we manage to bring this section’s power back online, that nagging voice whispered.

  Finn shook his head. That could be a problem for the future. Right now, they needed to find the pylon chamber and figure out a way to break inside.

  Before he could move, a series of notifications popped up in front of him.

  x6 Level Up!

  You have (80) undistributed stat points.

  x1 Spell Rank Up: Imbue Fire

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 10

  Cost: 200 Mana

  Effect
1: Imbues a weapon with fire mana, increasing the weapon’s base damage by INT x 14.5%. Can only be used on unenchanted metal weapons.

  Effect 2: While channeling, allows the caster to increase the heat in ranks, up to a current max heat rank of [4]. Each heat rank increases damage by INT x 5% while increasing the channel cost by 50%.

  Channel Effect: Allows user to control the weapon within his control range at a cost of 25 mana/sec.

  x2 Spell Rank Up: Mana Absorption

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 3

  Cost: 69% of mana drained as health damage.

  Effect 1: The caster can absorb ambient fire mana, adding the energy to their total mana pool.

  Effect 2: Increased absorption range, sensitivity, and area of effect.

  x2 Spell Rank Up: Haste

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 4

  Cost: 200 mana upon activation. 67.5 stamina/second sustained.

  Effect 1: Increases total speed by 37.0%.

  Effect 2: Reduces stamina cost by 13%.

  x1 Skill Rank Up: Flameworking

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 7

  Effect 1: 42% increased power when shaping objects subject to Imbue Fire.

  Effect 2: 22% increased control when shaping objects subject to Imbue Fire.

  x1 Skill Rank Up: Mana Sight

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 4

  Cost: Permanently reduces your mana regeneration by 20 mana/second. You are now blind to regular spectrums of light.

  Effect 1: Ability to view ambient mana. Current vision is [good].

  Effect 2: Ability to isolate mana types. Currently limited to [fire/earth/air].

  “You guys get a bunch of level notifications?” Julia asked, her eyes distant as she surveyed a display that Finn couldn’t see.

  “Yeah,” Kyyle grunted. Then his gaze shot to Julia. “I guess the game is treating that encounter as a combat victory. It feels a little cheap. We didn’t really kill them, but I suppose we accomplished roughly the same result by trapping them?”