by Jeff Sproul
Crimson Spear and Shadow Witch stepped forward and renewed their attacks on Todd and Erica, but were quickly assailed by exploding lotuses and red bolts, which put them back on the defensive.
Laura’s copies were gone. As were Chase’s robots.
The fight was now between the earth-moving Todd, the vine-manipulating Erica, the two paragons—Carla and Brenda, as well as the ever-firing Seth, along with the power-stealing Riley. Even Laura’s original form was firing off rounds from her revolver.
Aurora kept her healing beam moving from person to person, while her shielding beam did the same. Glint kept emitting a flash from her hands, but there was so much spoke from the explosions, that it wasn’t getting through to Laura’s team to any detrimental effect.
“We have to withdraw!” Glint spoke up, echoing Aurora’s sentiment a few moments ago.
“Damnit!” Shadow Witch shouted. She pulled something out of her inventory with a few quick taps in the air. An orange cube appeared in her hand.
“They’re going to get away!” Riley yelled, noticing the orange glint in Shadow’s hand.
“Grab me!” Shadow Witch called. “We’re getting out of here!”
Aurora, Glint and Crimson, all backed up to Shadow Witch’s location. They continued to deflect incoming attacks, but they all reached out to Shadow Witch’s form. Once all their hands were upon her, Shadow Witch crushed the orange cube. There was a sudden shimmering of orange light all around them. Then, in an instant, they were gone.
Another red bolt smacked into the sand where they’d once stood, and exploded. A white beam sizzled into the blue sand and several orange lotuses floated by, only to explode seconds later.
Riley had just prepared to throw his cord again when the remaining four paragons suddenly withdrew.
“They ran away!” Carla shouted. “Scrubs!”
Laura collapsed to sit down on the sand. “Damn...I lost all my clones!”
“I guess the expense of one of those recall cubes was nothing compared to getting sent back to level zero,” said Seth.
“Those guys were tough,” said Todd as he rolled his arms. “Everyone in one piece?” he asked, looking around, his eyes going to Erica first, despite the fact that she’d been right there with him the whole time.
Chase crept up from the back of the group. “Sorry guys, I don’t think I was much use in this fight. I wasn’t prepared to jump into PVP!”
“You saved my ass with those bots,” said Riley, looking back to Chase.
“Ugh! We only killed one of em!” said Brenda with a growl.
Upon hearing Brenda’s words, Riley looked back to where Glasser had fallen. He took several steps forward as his eyebrows lifted. Laying in the blue sand, was a pair of silver and gold chain bands.
“No way,” he whispered. His focus solely on the two bands lying on the ground. His walk became a jog, his jog became a run as he reached the spot Glasser had died a few seconds later.
“What did he drop?” asked Carla from a dozen feet away.
Riley snatched up the bands. He didn’t even speak as he put them on one at a time. They were a set item and had to both be worn to get the effect.
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Silver and Gold Chain Bands
Increase All healing effects by 30%
Increase Constitution by 4
Increase Toughness by 4
Increase Stamina by 8
-
“Damn I missed these,” he finally spoke as he stared down at his wrists.
A flash of bright gold light blinded him.
He winced and held out his hands to block the light, but realized the light was coming from them. A pair of black tattoos with silver outlining, appeared on his palms around the slits that expelled the two cords. The tattoos looked like circular doors, one half on each side of the line-like cut on his palms.
“Riley?” Carla asked, staring at him.
Riley looked over to her with wide eyes.
“I...I got it!” he gasped. “I got it!”
“No way!” Laura spoke up as she stood and headed over, her feet crunching on the blue sand.
“Oh wow!” Chase murmured as his eyes were focused just above Riley’s head.
“What? Oh! My title! What is it?” Riley asked, but even as he did, he quickly moved his hand to bring up his stats.
“I gotta say, that’s a little cooler than your last one,” said Seth. “Fitting too.”
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Relinquisher
Level: 47
Tier: Two
Status: Healthy
Hit points: 100%
Buffs: Well Rested*, Well Fed* / Debuffs: x
Stats:(+10)
Power: 5
Constitution: 20
Toughness: 20
Mind: 5
Stamina: 12
Dexterity: 26
Luck: 5
-
Riley swallowed. He stared at the name. He looked at ‘Tier: Two.’ He couldn’t describe how he felt. Happy? Thrilled? Amazed? Perhaps a little panicked?
A hand slapped him on the back. He looked over to Seth standing beside him. “How’s it feel, Relinquisher?”
Riley’s lips curled. He dismissed the status screen and looked down to where Glasser had been. He then looked around to the party members around him. There was only one thing he could say.
“Feels like we should go kill something.”
Chapter 29: No Strings
“There’s got to be a monster somewhere!” Riley groaned as his shoes crunched on the blue sand of the crystal fields.
“We’ll find you something,” said Seth. “I wonder what you can do now?”
“I don’t know, I want to find out!” Riley said excitedly.
“If you’re all ok with it, I believe there’s a large sandworm in that direction,” the guy who’d been attacked by Glasser, pointed off into the distance.
“You sure you’re not trying to lure us into a trap, Tyler?” Carla asked from nearby. “Sure is convenient that we saved you at just the right time.”
Tyler looked over to Carla, then to other members of their group. “We don’t have to go over there then, I was just trying to help! Do whatever you want. Don’t listen to me! I’m just happy to still be alive.”
Riley looked over to Tyler. They’d invited him into their party, so now they could see his name and health bar. He wasn’t a paragon, but he said that he was tier-zero and that his friends had been trying to power-level him in this area. Power-leveling was a method that players used to help lower-level players jump up quickly in levels. Essentially you had a party consisting of strong higher-level players, who could defeat bosses on their own, while a lower-level player loomed nearby to soak up experience. It was essentially what he’d done with Seth’s group when he got back into the game, except that Seth’s group was in their thirty to forties when he’d joined them.
“Sorry we couldn’t save the rest of your group,” said Laura. “But don’t worry, I doubt you’re trying to trap us and get us killed. Doesn’t make sense for Glasser to antagonize us like he did. Even if we were the ones...or I guess more specifically, I was the one that fired first.”
“Laura, you’re a total badass,” said Carla.
“I was worried for a bit there,” said Brenda. “That glass guy had a lot of stats.”
“Yeah, even back when I knew him,” said Riley. “He had a lot of stats and gear. I think he had a good ten levels on me, even up at the one-hundreds.”
“Most of them were probably close to a hundred then, right?” asked Seth, looking over to Riley.
Riley nodded. “Pretty close to it I imagine. Glint might’ve been about eighty or ninety, unless she’s closed the gap since I last saw her. I think Witch was usually a few levels behind Glasser.”
“We didn’t even know Glasser was a PKer,” said Tyler. “His group saw ours and even waited for us to defeat a boss. Once we’d killed it and looted it, his group came over and greeted us and wanted to know i
f we’d be willing to trade some items. The next thing we knew, they’d surrounded us and picked us off one by one.”
“That’s really crappy,” said Brenda with a sigh. “I mean, I had no appreciation for the guy, but I didn’t know he was a PKer.”
“I didn’t either,” said Riley. “Makes me wonder if he was killing people back when I was grouping with him. I guess under different circumstances, I could’ve been in his group today.”
Riley’s gaze lowered to the ground, as he remembered his old mentality to the game and how he treated others.
A hand slapped his back.
“Hey!” Seth spoke up. “Cheer the hell up. You’re Relinquisher now.”
Riley smiled and nodded. “You can still call me Riley.”
“I was thinking about calling you ‘relish,’” said Carla.
“Like the chopped-up pickles?” asked Chase, looking over to the lotus-throwing woman.
“Yup!” she confirmed.
A few of the party members laughed as they continued on their way, heading over another ridge.
“Found the giant sandworm!” Laura spoke up, being at the head of the party.
“Are we in any shape to be getting into another fight with the monsters in this zone?” asked Todd from nearby. “Aren’t you and Chase tapped out? I know Brenda and Carla used a lot of their max-stamina in that last fight.”
“I think we’ll be fine,” said Laura. “But to be safe, everyone should eat some food to regain their stamina. That should make this less of a risk.”
“Snack time,” said Seth as he and various other party-members all accessed their inventories and materialized different sorts of foods. He pulled out a candy-bar, while Chase brought out an apple with blue stripes around it.
“Probably a good idea, even with my new paragon status,” said Riley as he accessed his inventory and drew out a can. He popped the tab and drank it down. Based on the imagery on the side of the can, it looked to be some sort of fruit and vegetable based drink.
Once everyone had finished eating something, they gathered up on the ridge to observe the sandworm below.
“Damn, it’s pretty big, isn’t it?” Seth said, as he crossed his arms.
The worm’s pale blue hide glistened in the red-moon light. Its head dove into the sand and the rest of its body worked around the valley below. It was hard to tell just how big the worm was, since a half-dozen of its loops were above the sand, while its tail kept dipping around.
“It’s going to have a lot of hit points, I bet,” said Todd, his arms crossed. “I wish we’d find a zone with harder...ground?” he said as he pulled his boots out of the sand and took a few steps around.
Riley eyed the blue sandworm with intent. “Let’s go kill it!”
“As good as anything else around here,” said Laura. She turned her attention to Riley with a half smirk. “After you, mister paragon.”
Riley didn’t need to be told twice. He took off running, straight for the sandworm. He was the first to engage the monster, as the rest of the group followed close behind.
He threw his spike, attentive to every detail involving his powers. The spear-tip shot from his wrist, as it always had.
But now, the cable was gone.
The spike shot across the distance between him and the worm. It jabbed into the beast’s tough hide. Upon doing so, there was no delay as a glob of pale blue liquid raced towards the palm of his hand in less than a second. His lips curled. He looked over to Laura first. He flung his left hand, but instead of throwing a spike, the small blob of essence rushed from his palm and hit Laura’s arm and was absorbed into her skin.
Having seen the flash of blue gel rushing through the air, Laura glanced over to him. She looked down to her arm as her eyes went blue.
“No spike?” she asked.
“Guess not! I think my powers got streamlined!” said Riley.
“Does that mean you’re not going to hurt us now?” asked Seth, who’d walked up between the two of them.
“I didn’t take any damage,” said Laura. “I’m good to go!” she then created her duplicates, as the worm began to move ahead of them. The name ‘Pale Blue Worm’ already appeared above its head.
“So no more cables?” asked Seth, studying Riley’s powers.
“No more cables!” Riley confirmed as he looked to the spike still lodged in the monster. “It didn’t detach?” he murmured. He lifted his hand, and instead of willing the spike to detach, he focused on draining more essence.
Another helping of essence rushed to his palm.
“I don’t have to retract it!” Riley yelled. “This is amazing!”
“Oh! Try to give someone else your powers, and let me see if I can intercept it!” Seth suggested.
Riley looked to Seth with a nod. He then aimed his hand towards Todd.
“Ready...set...go!” Riley said, as he sent the blob of essence out towards Todd.
Seth threw his hand out and the pale blue glob of essence smacked into his hand and was absorbed.
Seth’s eyes went blue, the same as Laura’s. “Well, I guess it was easier to intercept before,” said Seth. “But I’m sure it’s a lot harder now. Do you still lose health when you send the essence?”
Riley had noticed the subtle flash of red when he threw the essence. “Yeah, unfortunately I still take damage, but it’s fine, since I have an item that helps with that. In fact, if I can throw essence around faster, that item is even better for me now. It won’t be as time-consuming to buff everyone.”
“Awesome,” Seth said with a smile. “Get to work then, paragon!” he said as he turned and started firing on the large worm that had now noticed the group’s presence and was diving into the sand in their direction.
Riley focused on the battle at hand. He found that the rate of essence-siphoning was definitely faster than having to re-hook the target every time. He couldn’t rapidly pull essence from the monster, there was still a small delay and every time he used his powers, it sapped some of his stamina; which meant that there were still limitations to what he could do and for how long, just like any other player. But with the return of his gold and silver chain bands, he had a lot more stamina to work with.
Riley quickly buffed his team, finding that since he could boost everyone so quickly, he was left with nothing else to do for several minutes until Laura’s buff wore off. He’d gotten into the habit (when he could remember to do so) to buff Laura first, so that her clones were all empowered. In a PVP fight, it was harder to ensure that happening, especially if he couldn’t easily steal essence.
Once the blue glow faded from Laura’s eyes, Riley pulled more essence from the monster. He’d already discovered through trial and error, that taking essence didn’t really affect a monster’s hit points all that much. Even if he sat there and did nothing but drain essence over and over again, he’d be lowering his stamina with no actual damage benefit to the monster itself.
With his new powers, Riley found it relatively easy to keep up with buffing everyone, even with twenty copies of Laura on the field.
With more downtime, he was able to keep a closer eye on his surroundings and his allies. Even when the worm released crystalline spines from beneath its hide and shot them out in every direction, Riley was able to keep track of who took the most damage and managed to heal them all appropriately and swiftly.
The Pale Blue Worm had several different attacks. It could shoot crystalline spines all around it, which proved troublesome for the party at first, until Todd erected numerous mounds of sand to absorb the brunt of the attack.
The next ability it used, caused it to secrete a toxic gas from all its pores. The gas loomed heavily in the air, which made visibility on allies rather problematic. Erica used vines to sweep into the air to collect and disperse what fumes she could, but the plant life in the area was still in a state of decay, which made it more difficult upon her.
As the fight dragged on beyond twenty minutes, the worm used the end of its tail
to swipe across large swaths of the nearby fields. Each time it did this, several party members were caught in the attack. Occasionally, a duplicate of Laura was snagged and destroyed. The worm only managed to pull this attack off a few times before its health dipped lower and lower until finally, after a flurry of explosive lotuses, the worm succumbed to the party’s attacks and exploded into dazzling particles.
At the center of the field, two more items sat waiting to be looted.
Chapter 30: Gambit
The group travelled around and eliminated several more bosses in the area, but it was clear that the PVP fight had drained them more than what they’d intended—for a single outing to the Crystalline fields.
It was decided that they’d travel back to Bunker 7 and refuel on food-buffs and replenish their max stamina, and then return through the portals they’d created, since the portals lasted twenty-four hours.
The journey back to the portal was slow and boring. The landscape was beautiful, but it didn’t have anything that could be labeled as an ‘attraction.’ It was much like any desert, but with crystals, blue sand, and the occasional tree.
Chase’s spider-bot was still hiding beneath the sand where he’d left him. He’d switched his vision to check on the portal every once in awhile, to make sure that it was still there. The group returned to Gargantuan City and ended up in the same closed-off alleyway they’d begun in. It was just as they’d left it.
“If Todd tunnels us through this back-wall and then closes it up, we should be able to return here without issue,” said Seth.
“Let’s do that,” said Laura. “We still have plenty of time on the duration of the portal, and while we have a lot of chalk to use, I’d still like to get the most we can out of it.”
“It’s really great having Todd around,” said Chase. “His powers are extremely useful.”
“Didn’t feel useful with all that stupid sand,” said Todd with a mild grunt. He slowly walked to the dead-end of the alley and lifted his hands. He slowly and carefully began to manipulate the ground beneath, to create a loose tunnel for them to travel down and beneath the wall.