by Nikita Thorn
They dashed in after her. Seiki shut the door behind them, grimacing when he felt how flimsy the panel was, not to mention that there was no way to lock it. The room they found themselves in must have been intended as a social area for the Society’s affiliated clan and occupied about a quarter of the whole top floor. It opened into two smaller rooms to their left, which were on the stairs side.
“These panels aren’t Sealed,” Mairin whispered. “Not like downstairs.”
Seiki’s mind raced as he reached for his sword. “What if we just rush it?” He wondered if they could potentially go around and attack the masked figure from behind. The only thing that could work in their favor right now was perhaps the element of surprise.
“Maybe your stun will work, if we’re really lucky.” Ippei did not sound confident, but he also reached for his weapon.
“If I remove the back panels we can reach the…wait!” The kitsune suddenly gasped, paused to look into the air in front of her, before dashing to the middle of the room. “All right. Over here. Help me.”
Without further explanation, she turned into a white fox and started Dashing in a small circle. Smokey Fox Dust burst around her, directed at the floor. There was no time to ask what the idea was, and Seiki and Ippei joined in with their bare-handed Focused Strike.
Seiki strained his ears for the sound of footsteps between their abilities going off, and he thought he could hear the soft rustling of the red kimono against the tatami mat, too faint for him to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from.
The shoji door slid open. Seiki glanced back to see the masked figure in the doorway. Grunting, he grabbed at his energy again and slammed it down with Focused Strike. Mairin let loose her Kindred Spirit phantom foxes to lend them more energy.
“Keep going,” Mairin cried as she turned back into her human form. “I still have Design Rights to the territory. I just made a stairwell here.”
The masked figure raised its arm, and Seiki cursed, just as wood broke under them and they cried out when the floor fell away. Seiki heard Ippei letting out a Battle Shout to boost their defense, before they all crashed on top of wood planks and dust and torn parchment.
The fall was not deep, and took no more than a fifth of their health, especially since they had landed on top of a bookshelf. Seiki had not spared any thought about where they would end up, but now that he remembered the layout of the territory, it made perfect sense that they would be in the third floor library.
The room was empty. The NPC librarian must have been called away to join in the clan’s defense.
“This way!” Mairin was already on her feet, back in human form, and was rushing toward the exit.
Seiki stole a quick glance at the gaping hole in the ceiling as he picked himself up from the pile of debris. The white mask was already in view, looking downward, its carved empty eye slits fixed on them.
It straightened up and lifted its arms as if preparing to jump. Seiki had no plan to find out whether that was its intention, and he dashed after the kitsune out of the library, somehow feeling like they were trapped in a very unsettling nightmare.
Across the narrow corridor was the newsletter room. Mairin slid the door open to look in. Like the librarian, the NPC clerks must have abandoned their work to rush to their territory’s defense, leaving disturbed rows of writing desks and scraps of paper. The windows were now tightly shut, and Seiki could see they had the same protective Seals on them as the walls.
They followed her in. Mairin slammed the door shut, grabbed the nearest floor desk, stepped up on it for extra reach, and started running her palm along the edge of the shoji panel. A silver light glowed under her hand, and a straight line of white formed on the door’s edge, from top to bottom.
Seiki’s eyes widened as he recognized it. “That’s…” He could not recall the name of the enchantment, until the kitsune finished it and an extra label appeared.
Koueki-Sealed Door. The door has been sealed with a powerful enchantment.
Mairin turned toward her friends. Despite the direness of the situation, a tiny smile was now on the corner of her lips. “Captain Tsukuda taught me something, too, you know.”
Ippei stared at the enchantment. “When?”
“Before the demon guy arrived. Captain Tsukuda offered me a tiny ceramic figurine, which gave me a quest, which eventually gave me a Free Slot ability.”
Seiki suddenly remembered the man handing something to them to deliver right before he locked them in the secret panel. It might have had something to do with alternative story lines, which he had for now decided not to know. This was, perhaps, not the time to ask for an explanation. “And… you kept quiet all this time?”
“I was saving it for a prank,” said the kitsune matter-of-factly, before turning to the door. “Well, we’re… safe for now. But, now what?”
Ippei looked troubled. “Let’s see,” he began. “We’re in the middle of an invasion by something that has no label and that can one-shot Level 27s.”
“Is it something to do with the… Shadow Keys?” said Seiki. After all, only he and the Society had the items.
Ippei looked doubtful. “The system treats it like a player. But then again it doesn’t show up on the territory list.”
Mairin thought about it. “Or… can you summon… things? I mean, that Level 4 looter guy is super shady. Maybe he’s doing something?”
“There’s no way he can summon anything stronger than himself. Not to mention that PVP was disabled so he couldn’t have started it.”
“How about… a rare scroll?” said Seiki, but then he shook his head. Rares did not walk around Shinshioka stalking people beforehand.
Now that he had time to think, Seiki could not help wondering if he was somehow responsible. After all, he seemed to have been the only one who had seen the masked figure prior to today. “Was it following me around? Maybe it had the ability to follow me into… places.”
That thought did not make anyone happier, considering they had no clue what it could be.
“So there’s a mysterious invasion going on right now. What could they possibly—” The answer struck Seiki then, making his head reel. He met Ippei’s eyes, and the samurai’s worried look confirmed his guess.
“The uniques,” said Seiki.
Ippei grimaced. “Didn’t I call this?”
Seiki drew in a lungful of air to force his brain to work properly. “They can’t grab the uniques yet, because there are protections around the items and the only way to change that is… to take over the whole territory.”
The conclusion made him feel even fainter and he looked at Ippei again. “So they need to kill everyone?”
The samurai nodded. “Including us, since we accepted the merc deal.”
Seiki fully understood now why Kazuki had sent them the invitation. The ninja had not expected them to fight off the invaders, but as long as there were people alive fighting on the clan’s side, there was a chance for them to recover. It also put extra burden on the invaders to hunt down and kill them all.
“Or, if they find the Territory Deed,” said Ippei.
“What’s that again?”
“A piece of paper you need to hide somewhere in your territory. But we don’t have to worry about that right now. After an hour, the invaders gain a special ability they can use with their invasion resource bar that… kinda scries for it, but I don’t think we’re going to last an hour.”
The samurai pointed to the wall. “During invasions, wall enchants degrade by one rank every ten to fifteen minutes if there’s no activity that charges the resource bar on our side.”
Seiki cursed under his breath. Although it made perfect sense why that would be the case, this was news he did not want to hear right now. “So that means we can’t hide here until the Society figures something out?”
As if in reply, something slammed heavily against the shoji door. They all involuntary leapt back. The whole wall rattled.
The line of silver enchantment glowed bright, but the door held.
Seiki inspected the rest of the enchantments on all the panels. The Nagaishi Wall Seal was still Rank 5, which made the wall indestructible, but the clan had been quiet for a while now, and he wondered how many minutes they had until it dropped a rank and could be broken with massive force.
The door started to vibrate in a violent rhythm, as if someone was mindlessly banging both their palms against it. Seiki could not help imagining the masked figure right outside, trying to claw its way in.
“Hey, you out there, chill!” yelled Mairin.
The banging stopped. They exchanged confused glances, but just when they were about to start breathing again, the banging resumed, louder than before.
“This is just to unnerve us,” said Ippei.
Seiki winced. “It’s kinda working.”
He was sure that the moment the enchantment dropped to Rank 4, the whole wall would come crashing down and they would be face-to-face with the masked invader.
Outside, rapid footsteps sounded from the left side of the corridor, from the direction of the staircase, perhaps from ten or twenty people. There was no way to tell whose side the reinforcements were on, until Ikumi’s voice cried out. “Fire!”
Deafening gunshots rang out in the corridor. “Advance!” shouted Ikumi.
Seiki’s eyes widened. “They have guns?” That was the most heartening development so far.
Ippei seemed equally surprised, but he gave a weak smile. “Guns on our side are the best kinds of guns.”
Busy footsteps drew closer, and the group—presumably armed Clan Attendants led by Ikumi—progressed to the front of the newsletter room. They must have managed to push the masked figure further down toward the dead end of the corridor.
“Reload!” Ikumi’s voice was directly in front of the room. “You know, these flintlocks are expensive, slow, with horrid accuracy, and can’t penetrate any armor above +20 defense,” yelled the houshi furiously. “But this is why you don’t try to invade someone wearing a dance kimono. Fire!”
More rounds shot out and the group advanced further, although not without casualties. Seiki could hear grunts and soft thuds as some of the Society NPCs collapsed onto the floor.
“Reload!” Ikumi yelled. “How many of you? We cleared out the top floor. Are there two identical copies of you or do you keep getting invited back? Fire!”
Fewer rounds sounded this time, as more and more clan attendants died to the invader’s silent attacks. There was something unnatural about how Ikumi was saying all this, and Seiki suddenly realized she was not talking to the invader, but to her three emergency mercenaries hidden in the print room.
“How did you re-enter the territory after I used Amplify Scroll with one of my Expel scrolls?” cried Ikumi.
“Expel scroll,” muttered Mairin as if she was trying to figure it out. “Amplify scroll then Expel.”
Ikumi let out a gasp as if she had been hit.
One of the clan attendants cried, “Ikumi-san!”
More footsteps sounded and more bodies collapsed.
“Not good. She just used her Hinder, and both charges of Reprimand,” said Seiki.
“How can you tell?” whispered Mairin.
“Audio cues.” Seiki was surprised he knew. “She’s out of offensive moves.”
“You’re trying to get to the uniques?” cried Ikumi. The houshi gasped again. “The uniques!”
She was directly addressing them now. Seiki suddenly felt the houshi’s Ward around his body. His friends gave a start as they must have noticed the same thing.
Mairin’s eyes widened. “Okay, we’re going!”
Whoever sealed the door had the ability to instantly unseal it. With a wave of her hand, the silver line faded. The kitsune threw the door open and dashed out.
On the floor in front of the room was Ikumi, one hand on the shoji wall to support herself, her health lower than a tenth. Littered along the length of the corridor were dead clan attendants, their primitive firearms dropped beside their lifeless bodies. At the far end was the masked figure, still standing, its white wooden face locked in its perpetual snarling smile, its arm already raised again.
“Loot,” said the houshi quietly as she raised her hand toward her tiny group of mercenaries.
You are under the effect of Benevolence. All houshi abilities already cast on you have doubled their effectiveness.
The Ward doubled in strength and now glowed warm around their bodies. Still, Seiki felt it was barely withstanding the mysterious freezing effect tunneling down the corridor toward them. The invisible ability hit like a block of ice, and Seiki could feel his health evaporating.
That was Ikumi’s last spell. She collapsed.
“Go!” Mairin shouted, right before she burst into fox form. “I’ll figure something out.”
This was perhaps their only chance. Ikumi had cleared the way to the stairs for them. Seiki turned and dashed down the polished wooden steps, with Ippei right behind him. He could hear Mairin’s Kindred Spirit and Fox Dust activating, and something crashing through shoji panels.
All members of the Shinshioka Scientific Society have died. As no mercenary ranking has been specified, all territory rights are now equally shared between all active mercenaries. You may choose to terminate your mercenary agreement now.
Seiki let out a curse. He pushed the sickening possibility out of his head and he rushed toward the exhibition room. To his relief, the second floor appeared empty, leaving a clear path toward the exhibits.
The displays were all there, untouched, protected by the strength of the enchantments on the surrounding walls. In front of him were the stairway and the wooden landing where the public was meant to gather to view the items.
Seiki froze. Like a recurring nightmare, a figure was once again making its way up the stairs toward the territory: red kimono, white snarling mask, hair of black threads.
He had run out of curses. Ippei drew a panicked breath, his eyes wide. Then he gritted his teeth. “There’s only one way.”
It took Seiki a split second to figure out what exactly his friend meant. He called up the mental blueprint of the territory. With full Design Rights, Ippei had already removed one of the panels around the room. The samurai slammed a Focused Strike into it, breaking the surrounding enchantments.
Ippei ran in, dropping several items from his hand along the way, potions and extra post equipment, as he cleared out his inventory to make room, his other hand snatching up the unique blades and piling them up in his arm.
Seiki drew his sword with a shaking hand as the masked figure reached the landing and turned toward the raised platform. As long as it had not stepped through, they should still be protected by the unbreachable territory boundary, although he hoped they did not have to test it.
“Okay,” Ippei turned toward him. The uniques had disappeared into his inventory. “I’ve unequipped all my gear.”
Seiki met his eyes. The samurai nodded.
Ippei has terminated their mercenary agreement with the Shinshioka Scientific Society.
The masked figure planted a foot on the raised platform, across the territory threshold. Seiki winced as he stepped up to his friend and pulled his Hikari up in the cleanest Upslash he could manage.
Ippei already had half his health missing, and now he had dropped all his stats, allowing the cut to one-shot. The samurai’s lifeless body collapsed onto the ground.
Already, air was freezing around him as Seiki bent down to disperse his friend’s body.
Would you like to loot?
“No,” Seiki cried. Ippei’s body disappeared in a bout of white smoke. By leaving the mercenary deal, the samurai could now choose to resurrect in the City Morgue, away from the clan territory.
Without looking back at the approaching invader, Seiki threw the Protection Shield on himself and broke out in a Slide back into the territory.
There was still damage from the icy ability. Some of it shed off as he reached the stairs. Some of it ate even more of his health. There was no time to carefully calculate anything anymore. He reached for a potion to refill it.
“List,” he cried as he rushed back up the steps.
Mairin [Level 16]
Kojidoro [Level 4]
Mairin was still alive. He reached the third floor, only to find himself staring at a white mask on top of a red kimono. Like Ikumi had warned them, unless the invader had the ability to teleport, there were indeed more than one of them.
Seiki let out a yell as he activated his Crimsonfire Tekko, his right hand lashing out with Sweeping Blade. The sword struck flesh, and that was strangely reassuring. Whether it did any damage did not matter, as it seemed he had caught it in surprise. The figure staggered back, allowing him enough space to turn around the staircase and bound further up to the top floor.
He called up the clan menus and nearly stumbled as information overwhelmed his mind. He had never seen a full menu, and there were more than twenty tabs: Clan Resources, Members List, Clan Quests, Clan Achievements, Territory Inventory…
Grunting, Seiki mentally swiped through them until he found what he was looking for.
Clan Defense Abilities: 13% charged.
- Arm Attendants (Cost: 1%). Ready to use.
- Amplify Potion (Cost: 5%). Ready to use. Requires a potion.
- Life Shield (Cost: 8%). Ready to use.
- Amplify Scroll (Cost: 12%). Ready to use. Requires an area-of-effect scroll.
- Emergency Return (Cost: 4% per member returned).
- Enhance Enchantments (Cost: 16%).
- Mass Revival (Cost: 60%).
- Slow (Cost: 15%).
- Strengthen (Cost: 15%).
There were many more lines, which Seiki ignored. The ability they needed was there. Ikumi had told them exactly what to do, first by example and once again by indirect instruction. In the absence of any other methods, they just had to trust it would work.
“Mairin,” Seiki cried as he reached the top floor.
A white fox dashed out from a side room.