by Lucas Flint
“Th-Thanks,” I said as Cy helped me to my feet. I looked around at my Teammates in astonishment. “But I don’t understand. How did you guys get here? Dark Kosmos shut off the Teleportation Pad’s connection to the lower floors. You guys shouldn’t be here.”
“We took the elevator,” said Cy cheerfully, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “It was boring as hell, but at least we got to listen to good music on our way up.”
My mouth dropped when I noticed the open elevator door on the other side of the chamber. “Wait. Are you telling me that you guys took the elevator? But I thought the Teleportation Pads—”
“Are the quickest way up, but certainly not the only way up,” Funky reminded me. “Of course, I did have to hack the elevator system to make it go faster, but it worked.”
“Hey, we’re just as surprised as you are,” said Dillo. “I thought for sure that Dark Kosmos or one of his minions would have slashed the cords, but it looks like they didn’t. I guess Dark Kosmos didn’t anticipate anyone actually using the elevator or something.”
“He’s obviously not very smart, then,” said Cy. He looked around with a grimace on his face. “And he’s got a bad sense of fashion, too. What’s up with all the cages?”
“Those are players,” I said, gesturing at the cages. “Players that Atmosfear and his Team brought to Dark Kosmos. He’s been torturing them to death over and over again, forcing them to respawn here so he can keep killing them as much as he likes.”
“Holy crud,” said Dillo, putting his hands on his cheeks. “I didn’t know he was that crazy.”
“He’s much worse,” I said, glancing at the burning Dark Kosmos, who was still trying to put out the flames. I looked at my Teammates. “Listen, I need you guys to free as many of the players as you can. Get them as far away from here as you possibly can.”
“How many are there?” asked Cy, glancing around at the cages around us. “There could be hundreds of them!”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “As your Team Leader, that is what I order you to do.”
“But what about you?” asked Funky, looking at me directly. “What are you going to do?”
I jerked a thumb over my shoulder at Dark Kosmos. “Cy and I will keep Dark Kosmos busy. He won’t let the other players go without a fight, so if we can keep his attention on us, then we should be able to give you guys plenty of time to get the players out of here.”
I expected Funky to argue with me, but then he nodded and said, “Gotcha. Lennox and I will melt the locks off their cages.”
Dillo raised his claws. “These claws are good for more than just digging, you know. They can also break stuff really well.”
“Excellent,” I said. I looked at Cy. “Cy, I’m going to need your help.”
Cy gasped and rubbed his ears. “Did I hear that right? You’re finally asking me for help? You mean I don’t need to butt into your plans and charm you with my hilarious jokes and clever puns?”
“I’m going to put you on prisoner rescue duty if you keep talking like that,” I snapped, but I couldn’t really hide my smile. “Between you and me, we’re going to teach Dark Kosmos a lesson.”
“You guys will need a Healer,” said Dillo. He looked at Hop. “Hop, I want you to go with Winter and Cyclone to provide backup. Heal them when necessary, but stay out of the way and do NOT engage Dark Kosmos unless absolutely necessary. Okay?”
To my great astonishment, Hop was looking at her phone when Dillo said that. “Yeah, sure, boss. Whatever.”
Just as I was about to ask Dillo if sending Hop with us was really a good idea, I heard a loud roar and looked over at Dark Kosmos. He had finally managed to put out the fires that had enveloped him, but the damage was obvious even here. His onyx armor was even blacker than before, with the red parts nearly scorched black. His cape was in burned tatters on his shoulders, while his armor was even melted in a few places. Smoke rose from his shoulders, smoke so strong I could smell it even from over here.
But though the fire on his body might have been out, the fires of hatred in his eyes burned hotter than ever.
“Cy, Hop,” I said as I raised my fists. “Let’s go!”
CHAPTER FIFTY
Cy and I rushed toward Dark Kosmos as fast as we could. Hop followed behind us, but slightly at a distance, while Funky and Dillo immediately went to work on freeing the nearest prisoners. I paid no attention to their efforts, however. My eyes were fixed entirely on Dark Kosmos, who still hadn’t moved from where he stood.
“Foolish Nyle,” said Dark Kosmos, his voice ragged and full of hatred. He raised his hands. “You cannot defeat me, for I am the cosmos!”
Dark Kosmos’ hands began shining like stars. Above, the ceiling turned into an open night sky, with countless shining stars glowing down upon us. A notification appeared in my vision when that happened:
[Villain Dark Kosmos] uses Shooting Star!
Before I could fully take that in, the stars in the sky began falling down toward us. They came as fast as bullets, forcing Cy and me to separate in order to avoid getting hit. The stars exploded against the floor wherever they hit, leaving deep, blackened craters that smoked profusely. I had to keep using Dodge just to avoid getting hit and more than once I nearly got brained by a particularly quick star I did not notice coming at me until the last minute. Cy handled it better, nearly avoiding the various stars with agility and grace that made me envious.
But the area of effect attack worked, keeping us from getting too close to Dark Kosmos. He was probably more concerned with keeping us at a distance than actually killing us right now, which would have been a good plan on his side if we didn’t have any ranged attacks.
Dodging another shooting star, I fired an Ice Beam at Dark Kosmos. Dark Kosmos jumped out of the way, avoiding my Ice Beam, but then Cy unleashed another Gust that almost knocked Dark Kosmos over. It didn’t seem to damage him too much, but it did break his concentration, because the ceiling above suddenly turned back to normal and the shooting stars disappeared.
Sensing my chance, I ran over to Dark Kosmos and threw a punch at his face. But Dark Kosmos caught my fist and smashed his own fist into my stomach, making me gasp in pain as I lost about 5% of my Health.
But then Cy appeared out of nowhere and slammed his foot into the back of Dark Kosmos’ head. The attack, however, merely banged off of Dark Kosmos’ helmet and he caught Cy with his other hand before Cy could land.
With a grunt, Dark Kosmos threw us both away. We flew crazily in midair for a second before we crashed into the floor, the impact taking a good chunk of Health off of both of our Health bars. But then I saw my Health go back up and looked over to see Hop standing on the edge of the battle, her hands glowing gold as she cast her Healing Power upon us.
I gave her a thumbs up before jumping to my feet and rushing back toward Dark Kosmos. Dark Kosmos once again raised his hands—probably to cast Shooting Star again—but I activated Freezing Touch and slammed my fist into the ground. Ice shot out from under my fist until it reached Dark Kosmos and froze his feet in place, briefly catching him by surprise and interrupting his attack.
Before we could get close enough to start wailing on him again, however, Dark Kosmos snapped his fingers. Six pools of shadow suddenly appeared between us and Dark Kosmos, forcing Cy and me to come to a stop to avoid running into them. As we came to a stop, creatures started to rise up from the shadow pools slowly but surely until we found ourselves facing six identical clones to Dark Kosmos. They all had the same general body shape and outline as Dark Kosmos, except they were completely black with no other colors to contrast. They were also about a foot shorter than Dark Kosmos, though they looked just as strong.
Scanning the creatures, I was surprised to find out that the developers had apparently given these guys information for Scan:
Dark Kosmos Clones
LEVELS: 15-20
HEALTH: 20-30
ALIGNMENT: Villain
CLASS: Clone
WEAK P
OINT: Heart
Clones of Dark Kosmos created by mixing his essence with shadow. Although they may lack most of Dark Kosmos’ Powers and his sharp mind, Dark Kosmos Clones are still a force to be reckoned with in their own right, especially in groups. They are not particularly strong, however, so it is recommended you separate them in order to defeat them in one-on-one battles easier.
“Whoa,” said Cy, looking at the Clones. “That is such a cool Power. Can you do it, boss?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Now stop admiring the bad guy’s Powers. We’ve got to kill these things before—”
As if on cue, the six Clones rushed toward us as smoothly as shadow. They made no noise as they ran, not even their boots making sounds against the marble floor, but that only made them creepier in my eyes.
I fired Ice Beam at them. Despite their lack of individuality, the Clones were smart enough to separate to avoid getting hit by my attacks. I did manage to hit one of them, though, and it died instantly, but oddly I did not seem to get any experience points from that. Regardless, I was glad that they were so weak, because it meant we wouldn’t have to waste time fighting them in order to get to Dark Kosmos.
The Clones were pretty fast, however, and soon they reached me and Cy. They began punching and kicking at us, but I Dodged their attacks quite easily and got in a few good hits on my own. As it turned out, they couldn’t even take a few Super Strength-powered punches, their shadowy forms dissipating after a few good punches. Even Cy managed to take down some of them with a few well-placed kicks.
By the time we killed the last of the Clones again, however, Dark Kosmos’ hands were shining like stars again. The ceiling turned into the night sky yet again as I got another notification:
[Villain Dark Kosmos] uses Meteor Shower!
“Meteor Shower?” I muttered under my breath. “How is that different from—”
“Boss, watch out!” Cy shouted, pointing at the ceiling.
I looked up in time to see several huge meteors—easily twice as big as the shooting stars from before—hurtling down toward us at shocking speeds. Cy and I separated once again in order to avoid the meteors, which we just barely managed to dodge.
But when the meteors hit the floor, the shockwave from the collision slammed into me and knocked me flat off my feet. Dazed, I saw another notification pop up that read:
Hit by Meteor Shockwave! -10 Health and -10% Agility!
Darn it. Now I could see the difference between Meteor Shower and Shooting Stars. Shooting Stars only hurt if they actually hit you. Meteors, on the other hand, could hurt you just from the shock waves created by their impact on the earth. A part of me briefly wondered if I could learn that Power or if it was exclusive to Dark Kosmos.
But I didn’t get a chance to think it through, because at that moment a golden aura surrounded me and I got another notification:
[Sidekick Hop Scotch] cast Healing Aura! Restores Health 1/1 seconds. Duration: 3 minutes.
Whoa. I looked over at Hop, who stayed well outside the radius of the Meteors’ shock waves, and gave her another thumbs up before jumping to my feet and rushing toward Dark Kosmos again. As I ran, I made a mental note to see if I could find out if I could change Cy’s Class at some point, because having a Healer as a Sidekick seemed like a good idea and it made me a little jealous of Dillo that his Sidekick happened to be one.
More Meteors were falling toward us and it seemed like I would not get to Dark Kosmos in time to stop him, but an idea occurred to me and I pointed my hands at the floor. I activated Ice Beam and Freezing Touch at the same time, creating a beam of cold energy that froze the floor wherever it touched. I then began sliding/skating down it, the combination of Ice Beam and Freezing Touch continuously creating a frozen path I could use to move even more quickly than before. A notification appeared in the corner of my vision when I did that, but I ignored it in order to focus on getting to Dark Kosmos.
I must have taken him by surprise, because Dark Kosmos did nothing to stop me as I approached. I slammed into Dark Kosmos hard enough to send us both falling onto the floor. The two of us wrestled for a moment, struggling for dominance before Dark Kosmos managed to throw me off him. I rolled over onto my feet and fired Ice Beam at him just as he got back to his own feet.
The Ice Beam struck Dark Kosmos in the chest, making him stagger back from the blow. Although Dark Kosmos lacked any sort of visible Health bar, I figured that had to take at least a few points off his Health, if nothing else.
As Dark Kosmos staggered from the blow, Cy appeared out of nowhere and swept Dark Kosmos’ legs out from underneath him. Dark Kosmos cried out in surprise as he fell, but when he hit the floor, he disappeared into a pool of shadow and vanished from sight.
“Huh?” said Cy, looking around wildly. “Where did he go? Boss, do you see him?”
“No,” I said, looking around, “but keep your guard up. Dark Kosmos is one tricky son of a gun and he’ll kill us if we let our guard down for even a moment.”
Despite that, I could not help but glance over at Funky and Dillo. I was pleased to see that they were making good progress in rescuing everyone else. In fact, it looked like they had freed about half of the players already. From what I could see, Funk and Lennox were going around breaking locks and freeing prisoners, who they would then point to the line of people forming at the elevator door, which Dillo was directing. It looked like Dillo was sending people in groups of four down the elevator to the lobby. It pained me to see how weak and ragged Dark Kosmos had left all of those players, but it was good to see that they were alive and able to walk, at least.
I also noticed Hop staying on the edge of the battlefield. She looked as alert as a guard dog, her eyes darting to the left and right as she looked for Dark Kosmos. Seeing Hop without her face glued to her phone was practically a miracle in itself. Guess Hop wasn’t a stereotypical teenage girl after all.
That was when my attention was drawn to Cy’s shadow. Cy was looking around wildly, trying to spot Dark Kosmos, but he did not seem to notice something rising out of his shadow behind him. A figure with Dark Kosmos’ outline slowly and silently rose from Cy’s shadow, wielding a wickedly sharp knife that he raised above his head.
“Cy!” I shouted as I thrust my hands forward. “Duck!”
“Duck?” said Cy. “Where?”
“I mean get down!” I shouted. “Now!”
Luckily, Cy fell down to the floor. At the same time, I fired an Ice Beam at Dark Kosmos. The Ice Beam flew straight and true and stabbed Dark Kosmos directly in the heart. Dark Kosmos made no sound as he dropped his knife and fell over onto the floor, but when he hit the floor, his whole body dissipated into shadow and I got this notification:
You killed [Dark Kosmos Clone] in one hit!
“Wait, that wasn’t Dark Kosmos?” I said. “But if that wasn’t him—”
A girl’s scream rent the air, making Cy and I jump. A second later, I heard someone hit the floor with a thump and got yet another notification:
[Sidekick Hop Scotch] has died. Sidekick deaths do not affect the total number of Teammates still available on the Team.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
I whirled around to look at Hop and felt my heart fall through my chest at what I saw.
Hop lay on the floor in an increasingly large pool of her own blood, her eyes glassy and her body as still as a stone. A gaping, bloody hole stood open in her chest, exposing her torn heart to the outside. Her mouth was open in one last scream of pain. And, despite knowing how realistic this game could be, I was still shaken by that sight.
Dark Kosmos stood behind her, holding up his claw, which dripped with her blood. A grimace appeared on his face as he looked down at the now-dead Hop who lay at his feet as if she was a dead mouse he found hidden behind his couch.
“Annoying girl,” said Dark Kosmos, shaking the blood off his claw. “Healers are always the most annoying kind of player to deal with. Luckily, they also tend to be the most fragile.”
My mouth gaped as I realized that Dark Kosmos had tricked us. He had sent one of his Clones to attack Cy, knowing it would distract me from Hop. Because Hop was a Healer, she was practically helpless, especially since she was just a low-leveled Sidekick. I wanted to kick myself for falling for such an obvious trick, especially given how I was already well aware of Dark Kosmos’ manipulative nature.
“Hop!” Dillo suddenly screamed. “Hop, no!”
Dillo was running toward us, having apparently abandoned the line of players at the elevator, which was still growing. He was running straight toward Dark Kosmos, his eyes blazing with hatred and murder as his claws flashed and clicked at his sides.
“Dillo, wait!” I called out. “No, you can’t—”
I was too late. Dillo reached Dark Kosmos in record time and thrust both of his very large, very sharp claws directly at Dark Kosmos’ chest. At the last second, Dillo’s claws began glowing green with energy, and when they hit Dark Kosmos’ chest, a massive explosion erupted. The explosion completely obscured both Dillo and Dark Kosmos, even knocking me and Cy over. The players, both the freed and caged ones, all fell down as well to avoid getting hit with the brunt of the attack.
The explosion ended quickly and left a ringing noise in my ears. A huge dust cloud now blocked both Dillo and Dark Kosmos from view, making it impossible to see the results of the blast. I did, however, get this notification:
[Hero Dillo] used Ultimate Power Exploding Fist!
My eyes widened. Dillo had an Ultimate Power? Even I didn’t have one of those yet. That explained why his claws were glowing, though. It also explained why the explosion was so huge. Most likely, Exploding Fist was an incredibly powerful move that would end the lives of most enemies, possibly even Dillo’s strongest. Whether or not it actually harmed Dark Kosmos, much less killed him … that remained to be seen.