by Max Jager
"That's just not who I am. I can't sit back and do nothing. I'll survive." Carley mumbled.
Jess still did not understand, but she wasn't going to argue it any further. When Carley had recovered, the group resumed their journey. They walked to Oline city again, remembering how easy it was to take shelter inside one of the houses there. The plan was to stop in Oline for the night, then to travel north to the dungeon tomorrow.
Everyone took their own room except Snipes, Inami, Carley, Jess, Brooke, and Elliott. Snipes stayed with Matthew. Inami stayed with Fate. Brooke and Elliott shared a room, where Elliott slept on the floor. Carley and Jess also shared a room.
Next Chapter: Intercepted.
Chapter 9: Intercepted
—Chapter 9: Intercepted —
Brooke ended up sleeping in the next morning. When she woke up she stepped out of her room to see that just about everyone else was already awake. Only Inami and Snipes were still sleeping.
She glanced over to a corner of the room and saw Carley and Jess quietly arguing while Jess put on some copper armor. She was already wearing the copper greaves and chestpiece by now, and Carley was trying to put the arm guards and helmet on her.
"Why did you leave the city without your armor? You can't take it out of your storage room unless you find a door. We are lucky we stopped here." Carley sighed.
"It's heavy! And it weighs a ton!" Jess complained. "Why don't you wear it instead? You seem to need it more than I do."
Carley shook his head and almost laughed. "I wouldn't be able to move while wearing that. I don't have the strength to carry it, just handing it to you one piece at a time is hard enough." He stated. "But you definitely are strong enough to carry it. So you need to use it if you're going to travel with us." He added as he helped her put on the arm guards, then he attached her copper buckler shield to her arm guards and stuck her mace in its sheath on her hip
"But it's so hot and stuffy! It's terribly uncomfortable." Jess complained.
"Better to be uncomfortable then dead." Carley argued.
"Agreed." Sophia cut into the conversation as she put on the last piece of her own leather armor. "You don't want to die out here."
"I won't though. I have Carley here to protect me, and I'm here to protect him." Jess replied.
"There's only so much I can do…" Carley lowered his head. "This group used to be a lot bigger… I couldn't save any of the others we lost." He seemed to stop moving as he spoke, and just stood there with her helmet in his hands, staring off into space.
Sophia took the copper helmet from him and placed it on Jess's head. "Don't put so much on her shoulders Jess." Sophia stated.
"Alright everyone, time to get moving!" George shouted out, snapping Carley back to reality and waking up the kids. "If the map is correct we should head straight north to the dungeon."
Snipes and Inami groggily walked out of their rooms while Sophia walked over to George to look at the map.
"Not straight north." Sophia spoke up. "We need to walk at a mostly north, slightly west angle. It's a little to the left." She reached out to point at the dungeon on the map in relation to the city on the map.
"What? How far west?" George scratched his head in confusion as he stared at the map.
"We are not in the center of the city on the map, we're on the north-eastern corner." Sophia explained. "Just give me the map, I can lead us there." She offered.
"Sure." George replied and handed Sophia the map to let her take the lead.
George, Fate, Matthew, and Sophia walked in the front of the group. Elliott, Brooke, Chloe, Snipes, and Inami walked a few steps behind them. Carley had originally tried to walk with Elliott and Brooke, but Jess pulled him back a little. So Jess and Carley walked a short distance behind everyone else.
After an hour of walking Jess took off her helmet. "Damn, this place is really far away." She sighed, then reached into her bag and pulled her headphones and her MP3 player out of the bag.
Carley glanced over at Jess when she took off her helmet and sighed quietly.
"Hmm?" Jess questioned. "Oh yeah! I have yours too." She added before quickly going through her bag and pulling out a second MP3 player and another set of headphones.
Carley smiled a little. "Oh, I thought I had forgotten it at home." He replied as he took them and put his own headphones on. Although Carley only put one of the headphones in his ear, leaving one ear to listen to his surroundings.
"You did, but I remembered to grab it for you. I know you hate going to crowded places without them." Jess replied. "We just got separated before I could give them to you."
Carley nodded. "Thanks."
Brooke and Elliott slowed down. falling behind to walk alongside Carley and Jess. Jess walked on one side of Carley, while Brooke walked on the other side, and Elliott walked alongside Brooke. "What kind of music are you two into?" Brooke curiously asked.
"That's personal." Carley quietly replied.
Spotting the siblings joining them, Jess switched places, squeezing in between Carley and Brooke. Brooke rolled her eyes and made space for Jess to stand between them.
"Neither of us really focus on one specific genre, but I tend to listen to more upbeat and happy music. Carley tends to prefer darker, depressing themes, for reasons I don't quite understand." Jess answered.
"Jess…" Carley quietly murmured.
Brooke was about to step in and defend Carley, but decided not to. Jess would likely take it the wrong way.
"You don't need to be so shy or reserved Carley. Be proud of who you are and what you like." Jess countered. "If others don't like it, that's their problem. Anyone who has a problem with it doesn't need to hang around you."
"We don't, and wouldn't, have any problems with anything Carley likes." Elliott replied to Jess.
"Yeah." Brooke curtly stated. "As I said before, Carley is a good friend of ours, that won't change no matter what. And it definitely isn't going to change over something as simple as a differing preference in music." She stated, staring straight at Jess as she said that last part.
"I said that for Carley, it wasn't directed at you." Jess snapped back at Brooke.
"Of course not." Brooke rolled her eyes again. "I didn't direct what I said at you either." She sarcastically added.
Jess just shook her head. She took Carley's hand, which seemed to help him relax a little, and continued following the others. The four of them walked in silence for a few minutes before Chloe, Snipes, and Inami joined them.
"What's everyone chatting about?" Chloe asked.
"Nothing really." Brooke replied.
"I was talking to the kids, and Inami…" Chloe paused for a moment. "Well it's probably best to hear it from her. Inami, tell them what you were telling me."
Inami hesitated a little. "U-Um…"
"You don't need to be so shy Inami, these people are all friends you can tell them too. They might be able to help." Snipes said as he gave her a brief pat on the back.
Inami smiled a little, then nodded. "Thomas helping me find mother." She then paused for a moment to think over what she said. "Thomas IS helping me find mother." She corrected herself, then giggled quietly. "Thomas help me speak good too. Thomas is nice, we find soon?"
"So she's looking for her mother?" Elliott questioned. "I had thought she was just an AI, without any of those connections."
"Well, the Alphas did say that we weren't in a game, that these were living beings, not AI." Brooke replied.
"She does seem to be alive, so I am inclined to believe the Alphas. I'm not surprised she has a family of her own." Chloe stated. "We should see if we can find a way to bring her back to her mother, or to this Thomas guy when we finish our dungeon run."
Brooke and Elliott both nodded. "Agreed." Brooke replied.
Snipes looked a little upset with the idea of Inami leaving the group, but he nodded as well. "If she has her own family, it's the right thing to do to bring her back." He quietly murmured.
"Don't wo
rry kid, when we find her home you can probably go visit once in a while." Jess replied.
"His name is Snipes." Carley quietly spoke up.
Jess gave Carley a questioning look, and Carley just shrugged. So she turned back to Snipes. "Ah, Snipes. Alright." Jess replied.
"Speed up guys! You're all lagging behind!" George shouted out from the front, causing everyone to quickly run forward a little bit to catch up with the others. Once they had caught up everyone resumed walking.
However, before they could get much further they heard something growling in the tall grass around them.
"Something is here." Fate called out.
"Arm yourselves everyone." George added, and everyone began grabbing their weapons. Carley and Jess took off their headphones, and Carley made sure Jess put her helmet back on.
As soon as Fate grabbed her rapier, her signet ring flashed and a deck of cards levitated out of her bag. The deck shuffled itself, then dealt her five cards and went back into her bag. The five cards she was dealt levitated just on the edge of her vision.
"Ace of Spades, eight of diamonds, eight of spades, four of clubs, five of diamonds." Fate quietly murmured to herself so she would remember what she had. This was the first time her signet activated, but she had the knowledge of exactly what each card did, as if she always had the power. Fate took a deep breath and started looking around for the source of the growling. "Two days have passed guys! Our signets can activate at any time now. Mine's up. Pay attention to them so you know when you get it."
"I already have mine." Jess spoke up. "They gave me one a while ago."
"I don't have a signet ring." Carley added. "I gave mine to Jackson."
"And you complain about me not using my armor?" Jess turned to Carley. "You need a signet to survive, that's even more important then armor."
Carley nodded. "That's why I gave it to Jackson. I didn't want him to die on whatever journey he was going on. He went pretty much alone, just him and Sarah. He needed it more than me."
"But you're putting yourself in danger doing that! You have to stop putting yourself down for these people!" Jess argued.
"Guys!" George called out. "Now is not the time! Save your argument for later."
Before he could finish speaking a fireball was blasted out of the grass, aimed straight at George. George dove out of the way, but as soon as he hit the ground a fiery, three-headed wolf sprang out of hiding in the tall grass and pounced on George. The cerberus was three feet tall, had black fur, three heads, and was partially on fire.
Fate turned and grabbed one of her cards, and was about to throw it at the cerberus when a second one jumped out near Fate and pinned her to the ground. Before anyone could react to Fate, a third cerberus sprang out and pinned Brooke down.
Seeing everything unfold, Inami started to panic and started backing away from everyone, Jess also started to back away from everyone, leaving both of them isolated on different sides of the group.
Carley hadn't been paying attention to Jess or Inami. As soon as the cerberus pinned Brooke, Carley and Elliott turned and ran at it to try and get it off her. When it saw the two of them rushing at it, the cerberus took a deep breath and then bellowed out a stream of flames at them.
As soon as he saw the fire, Elliott dove to the ground to get out of the way. But Carley didn't, he kept running straight through the flames and stabbed his sword into the cerberus's side. The creature roared out in pain and stumbled off Brooke, then quickly ran a short distance away to hide in the tall grass. Carley looked down at Brooke and held out a hand to help her up. "You okay?"
Brooke took his hand and pulled herself up as quickly as she could. She turned to Carley and was about to answer when she noticed that he had 2nd degree burns over most of his body. "Carley... Jess is right about one thing, you have to be more careful." She scolded. "Thank you, but don't do that."
Carley lowered his head. "I don't mean to. It's an instinct to save those in danger, regardless of personal risk."
A short distance away, Fate was struggling with her own cerberus. The creature was pinning her down and she was pushing back on its chest to try and stop it from biting her, keeping its heads just far back enough so that they couldn't reach. But she couldn't hold it for long. It broke free from her grasp and immediately went for her neck. In a brief moment of panic, Fate activated her eight of diamonds card, and her skin turned to stone. The cerberus couldn't pierce her stone skin. While it was distracted Matthew bashed it in the head and made it stumble off of Fate, then a moment later it was shot in the side with an arrow from Sophia.
George was still struggling with his own cerberus, but he was much stronger than Fate and was able to keep its heads away from him. However the beast was clawing away at his chest while it struggled, and the pain was making George struggle to keep it off.
Suddenly, Snipes and Chloe sprang out of the tall grass beside George. Snipes stabbed his sword into the cerberus's side while Chloe slammed both of her axes down on the beast's head.
"Thanks." George gasped out, cringing in pain as he threw the dead cerberus off himself.
"No problem." Chloe replied, then she held out a hand to help him up.
George laughed a little. "There's no way you can pick me up." He replied as he struggled to stand.
Chloe sighed. She grabbed him by his armpits and pulled him right up onto his feet. "I was a firefighter, remember?" She stated. "And you're only a couple inches taller than me. I've lifted people bigger than you."
George nodded. "Got it, sorry."
"Don't be sorry, you're fine." Chloe replied.
They were interrupted when they heard Jess scream. A cerberus had noticed she was separated from the group and was running at her.
Carley spun around and as soon as he saw the cerberus going after Jess he grabbed his bow and took a shot at it. But his inexperience with the bow made him miss. Carley drew back another arrow as the cerberus lunged at Jess, taking a swipe at her with its claws. Carley trusted that her armor would protect her from its claws, so he took a moment to aim.
Jess screamed in fear, and her signet ring flashed. Carley and Jess both lit up, and before he knew it Carley was standing in front of the cerberus with his back to it, and Jess was standing where Carley had been.
"What?!" Carley shouted out in confusion, right before he felt the cerberus's claws slice through his back. Carley cried out in pain and hit the ground and the cerberus quickly jumped onto his back to pin him.
Hearing all of the shouting, Fate turned to see what was going on and spotted Carley pinned down by the cerberus. She quickly used her 5 of Diamonds on Carley and his skin started to glow faintly .
The cerberus quickly bit down on the back of Carley's neck, but as soon as it did it yelped in pain and jumped off of Carley. Then it spun around to look behind itself, as if it had been attacked from behind. A closer look revealed that the back of its neck was bleeding.
Carley struggled to stand up again, and he stopped glowing as the reflection spell wore off. He stumbled a few steps away from the cerberus and watched as Jess, Brooke, and Elliott rushed towards him to assist.
Once the cerberus noticed that nobody was attacking it from behind, it turned back to Carley who was far too badly wounded to fight back or evade.
Fate rushed over to Sophia and stuck the eight of spades and four of clubs onto one of Sophia's arrows. "Make sure this hits that one." She said as she pointed at the cerberus that their group was fighting. "I am making a risky play, Carley is in danger again."
"Again? What are you doing?" Sophia questioned.
"Placing my bets on Carley being able to handle himself if I give him a fair chance And hoping I draw the right card once I do this." Fate replied, and then she used her ace of spades on Carley.
The cerberus was quickly moving in on Carley, and the others were not fast enough to out-speed the creature. It was no doubt going to reach Carley first.
Carley was trying to move, but his wounds were slowing h
im down, he couldn't move fast enough to evade the incoming attack. Then, suddenly, all of his injuries vanished. In an instant he was fully recovered, however Fate screamed out in pain.
With his wounds healed, Carley was able to quickly sidestep the cerberus's attack. As the beast lunged past him Carley quickly slashed its side with his sword. It hit the ground a few feet away from him.
When Fate screamed Sophia quickly turned to her, only to see that she now had all of the wounds Carley previously had. Fate could no longer stand, but was focusing on her signet. She had used all five of her cards, and was trying to summon another five cards.
Sophia quickly turned to the cerberus that was fighting with Matthew and Chloe. It was putting up a much better fight than anything else they had faced. Matthew and Chloe were flanking it, attacking from opposite sides. As Chloe moved in the beast spat flames at her and forced her to back off, but while it was focused on her Matthew ran up behind it and slammed his staff into its back. The creature spun around and bit Matthew's leg but before it could cause any further damage it heard Chloe moving in with her axes and had to let go to evade another attack. It quickly moved away from the two of them and all three heads began spitting fireballs at them both, striking them with multiple fireballs, badly burning them.