Visceral: A GameLit Fantasy Adventure (Nullifier Book 2)

by J. R. Ford

  I hoped my own reactions hadn’t been as obvious. Who was I kidding? Her gaze alone had inspired me to throw myself into the maw of danger more than once, even after I’d abandoned my infatuation, and Jeremiah was still blatantly rapt. Though, based on the way Ana’s gaze lingered on his stump, his odds seemed even worse than I’d had, at least until she could magic his leg back.

  Troy had tied her black hair in a bun. She narrowed her eyes.

  “What did Edwin teach you?” I asked.

  “Only the basics. Most of our training was Yao’s workouts.”

  Edwin had been a voyeur of Ana’s sword lesson on the second day of the game, but I doubted he could deliver even those basics with the same quality of instruction. Would explain why his apprentices fell before me like wheat under scythe.

  Troy fought with ferocity, seemingly unhindered by her wounds. I was pressed back, forced to parry, parry, parry, with no chance to reply. She whapped me on the shoulder and drew her stick down as if slicing into me. It stung.

  “Is this payback for almost killing you that one time?” She seemed the type to hold grudges.

  “Nothing personal,” she said. “Not against you, anyway.” She resumed the attack.

  She was making me work for it. She overcommitted, and I swept her sword aside and poked her on the ribs.

  “Don’t get cocky,” I said.

  She growled. Three strokes later she overextended again. I smacked her arm.

  “Anger is no substitute for skill,” I said.

  “You think I don’t know that?”

  “Chill out. Think before you move.” This seemed to have the opposite effect. I was discomforted by how well it was working. Only my superior control of the center line kept her at bay — both times she scored another hit, she took a thrust in the process.

  By the end we were both huffing and puffing. “Good effort,” I panted.

  “Not good enough.”

  “Better than when I started.”

  “But I don’t have time. Edwin has opened the Citadel. I have to kill him before he can consolidate even more power.”

  “You hate him more than the orcs?”

  “They’re orcs. He’s supposed to be a human, though I’ve met enough humans like him to know everyone’s better off with them in the ground. In the real world, they’re not worth the trouble. But here, maybe I can make a difference.” She sighed. “Linsey is my best friend, but I didn’t just enter this game because she did. I was tired of being a silent victim.”

  Ah, spite, the greatest engine of humanity. “There’s no shame in being victimized by Edwin. He’s really good at it.”

  “He didn’t get you, or Heather. I don’t know what he did to her, on only the second day, but I know he’s lying about it. And now look at her.”

  I laughed. “She’s something, all right. Me, her, Ana, even Farrukh — each of us would be dead ten times over if not for each other. The rebels are good people. Befriending them is dangerous, but there’s no better way to face danger than with friends.”

  She grimaced. “I couldn’t help Linsey. But I’ll try to help them.” She went back to practicing her strokes.

  11

  I’d learned a lot during my time in-game. I’d learned how to pitch a tent, fight, eat with one hand, unhook a bra. I’d learned the true meaning of friendship. And, underpinning all other lessons, I’d learned the sheer depth of my hatred of walking.

  Climbing was worse.

  Our journey took us over treacherous mountainside paths, though perhaps calling them paths was too generous. The wind was constant, cutting, and cold. Peaks rose sharply to our left; a steep drop fell away to our right, so that any footstep on the loose scree could send us crashing to our deaths. At times, the path was a slope more fit for goats than humans.

  Heather was having a blast, bleating in pleasure and hopping around without a care in the world. Occasionally, a curious mountain goat would approach her, perhaps looking for a new friend, only to be disappointed when she eventually reverted to human.

  She could maintain goat form for a few minutes before she ran out of mana, and it took fifteen minutes to recharge, so she stayed human where the paths were relatively gentle. But each successive goat transformation cost more, so I also saw a panther, bear, and tail-waggling wolf scampering up and down the scree.

  “I love this game!” she said. “It’s a shame none of you get to play as animals. It’s so much fun!”

  A shame indeed. I was no goat, nor any other animal except a one-handed, tired human. Ana and Farrukh chaperoned me, lest I fell. It was almost as humiliating as it was exhausting.

  At least they offered to carry the tent. I wasn’t in any position to reject their pity. Ana or Farrukh shouldered it, except for when Heather was going to transform, at which point they’d offload it onto her. It would disappear to wherever her human body, clothes, and other equipment went. I suspected some possession mechanic behind it, the same that nullified my clothes’ momentum and allocated 100 points to whoever held a magic item. Testing had indicated that it only applied to objects — if I tried to nullify my own momentum while holding onto someone, I’d stop, and they wouldn’t. I had to press the null ring to myself and my companions’ clothes or flesh simultaneously for group nullifications.

  Ana and Farrukh made for distracting company. “What’s with your equity obsession?” he asked her.

  She was sweating and panting beneath her chainmail, though her wide-brimmed helmet kept the sun off her face. “Have I never told you I’m a CEO heiress? Richer than you could dream of?”

  Farrukh kept his cool. “You never told us the company, but now I’m guessing a trading firm. It fits with the attitude. A business that makes money off other people’s success, instead of their own hard work.”

  “Choosing who to invest in is hard work. Most people aren’t worth it. But I think our friends are.”

  “Is that what they are to you? A way for you to prove to your parents what a shrewd investor you are?”

  Heather stood nearby, goat head cocked. So these two trying to rile each other up was as entertaining to her as it was me.

  “I don’t care if my parents trust me,” Ana said. “I need to be able to trust me. And don’t get the wrong idea, they can be both opportune investments and genuine friends. Just look at Pav.”

  I blushed. “You bought me my dagger, didn’t you?” The spare dagger now hung from my belt, since I had no hand to wield it in. “Back when I had two hands, this thing made me the second-best duelist in the greater Bluehearth area.”

  “A gift for a friend, for saving my life, and a solid investment, one that has led to prosperity for all of us. And don’t forget it was me investing my time that made you such a good duelist in the first place!”

  “Do you see everything as a resource to be spent?” Farrukh asked. “Your gold, your time — what’ll happen when it’s our turn to be spent for some greater reward?”

  “It’ll be your decision, not mine. I’m not responsible for your actions, or their consequences. Isn’t that what you keep telling me? Besides, quit acting like you don’t worship money too. I’ve overheard you pandering to your viewers, trying to keep your ad revenue up. I’ve seen the way you salivate over our leavings.”

  “The difference is, my entire life rides on this!” Farrukh was as heated as I’d ever heard him. “And you mock me for it! Call me a butcher, a mercenary! But have you heard me complain that, after all this effort to find the Knucklebones, they and their 500 points are going to you for no other reason than you calling dibs?”

  “I have now. Should’ve known you were the jealous type. What, you think you deserve them for your heroic work hiding in the trees?”

  “All yours. Glory to our noble leader. Just leave me your scraps.”

  As the path dipped into a valley, Ana pulled ahead, and I rocked up beside Farrukh. “You okay?”

  “Just a fucking idiot. You?”

  “Fine,” I pretended. “What’s
got you stressed out? Your poor fishing skills come around to bite you yesterday?”

  He seemed to catch my meaning, at least. “Priyanka and I are just friends.”

  “She decide that?”

  “I did.” He shook his head. “I’m an idiot, Pav. I should’ve said yes.”

  She’d asked him out? I couldn’t believe his luck. Though he likely considered it ill-timed, given his conflicted feelings. “You don’t believe that.”

  My ears strained against the wind to hear his words. “Wanting something to be true doesn’t make it so. Agreeing to go with her would be lying, to her and to myself.” His eyes were on Ana.

  “How’d she take it?”

  He groaned. “That made it worse. She just said, ‘Okay,’ chipper as ever. I don’t think anything could bring that woman down. I need someone like that in my life. Not someone I’m always on the brink of fighting. You remember when Ana got shot? I’m sure she was delirious from the blood loss, but she said she hadn’t been sure if I’d fled. What chance do I have with her? What kind of man am I that she even considered that?”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “You’re a good friend. I know it, and she does too.”

  “I just need to focus on points,” he said. “That’s what matters. Not feelings. Cold, hard cash that can buy me a life, once this is all over.”

  “This is part of your life too,” I said.

  “It’s just a game.”

  “Our experiences are real. What I feel for Heather is real, and what you feel is real too.”

  “Only until one of us dies. Then it’s dust, and all that will be left are the winnings.”

  The path ascended again. I struggled along. It was midafternoon when we heard the first screech.

  We were well into the belly of the mountains, slopes and cliffs stark where they weren’t peppered with dark firs, purple heather, or white caps. Our path had grown ever more treacherous, weaving around precipices and over boulders. The screech echoed through the mountains.

  “That sound like a trollbat?” Heather asked.

  I shrugged.

  “If it attacks, grab a boulder,” she said. “We’ve all felt the winds those things can generate.”

  Farrukh eyed the skies. “We should set a lure. It’s worked well on normal trollbats.”

  “I’m with Farrukh,” I said, because a trap meant downtime my legs sorely needed.

  Ana shook her head. “We have no idea where it is or where it nests, and while we tarry, orcs are marching to raze Bluehearth. We’ll be bait ourselves, only it’ll find it’s bitten off more than it can chew.”

  “That thing could be the Sanguine Knucklebones, but it could just as easily be the death of us,” Farrukh said. “We don’t know what it’s capable of!”

  “We can’t waste time on chances,” Heather said. “If it finds us, good, if not, we can come back for it.”

  We pressed on. Farrukh had no choice but to follow.

  Night had fallen when it sounded again, shrill and distant. We hunkered down in the mouth of a cave that led who knew where. Ana took the lantern and made sure we were alone. Farrukh laid his tarp under the azure expanse and prostrated himself. After he rose, he began his final ritual, saying goodnight to his viewers. Once he’d finished, I settled next to him.

  The sky yawned before us. Were those stars truly suns, or a trick to make us feel at home? What of the crescent moon?

  “Why don’t you ask her out?” I said.

  He snorted. “I don’t think I’d handle rejection as well as Priyanka did. It would be a death knell. For my hopes, or my fantasy, or my…whatever this is we’ve had.”

  “If she said no, would you stick around?”

  “I’d want to. You and Heather are good friends of mine, and even though we don’t exactly get along, I respect Ana. It’s a lot safer gunning for points with a dependable team to draw aggro.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “I’m stupid for letting my feelings grow this deep. I should’ve nipped them in the bud. Now, if she turned me down, tearing them out of myself would hurt. Ugh! I hate that I’ve given her this power over me.”

  I thought back to my verbal duels with Heather. Could I have remained, had she not forgiven me? “I know what it’s like to be emotionally vulnerable.”

  “It sucks.”

  “That’s the truth. But as long as we’re alive, you’ll be my friend,” I said.

  “One of us will die eventually, Pav. Maybe we’ll make it the full five years and be forced out. But this will come to an end, and all that will be left are the winnings.”

  “So you keep saying,” I said. “Do you have anyone waiting for you, when you get out? Friends, or family?”

  He shook his head. “I’ve always looked out for myself. My parents laze around on Standard. I don’t have many friends at school, and if I last any amount of time, they’ll graduate without me. Maybe I’ll be friends with Priyanka, but I’m not sure I’d be able to bear it. Not after I’ve betrayed her like this.”

  “You haven’t betrayed her.”

  “You seriously expect them to survive against Edwin? Even with an extra 6 gold, those rebels are on a path with only one destination.”

  “Any of them were free to come with us,” I said. “They’ve chosen their paths. Just like you chose yours.”

  “On an equally hare-brained mission.”

  “You were the one who convinced Ana!” I said. “Were you lying?”

  “I wasn’t about to follow them to their deaths, and I’d rather none of you did either. I didn’t lie.” His mustache twitched up in a smile. “That thing might be the trollbat boss. About stopping the orcs…we’ll see their army and turn back.”

  “And what if we don’t? Will you abandon us?”

  He scowled. “I hope you’ve more sense than to jump off a cliff, but if you do, I’m not following you.”

  “And if we think it’s our best option?”

  “You’d better not. Trying to stop those orcs is suicide.”

  Great, now I had him on my case about dying, as if Heather wasn’t enough.

  He continued, “All you’ve got are two level 1s and a magic sword.”

  “In the hands of the best swordfighter in the game,” I said.

  “Better than a thousand orcs?”

  He had a point. “So you’ve denied the rebels our support, let Priyanka rush into what you’re convinced is her death, for what? A shot at this trollbat boss and the hopes we’ll run away with you rather than fight?”

  I’d struck a nerve and could hear it in his tone. “What other option do we have? Edwin and Absame each have armies of hundreds. Even with us, we’d have nine, including an old lady and a cripple!”

  “I’m a cripple,” I said coldly.

  “You know what I mean. You can hold your weight in a fight. Jeremiah will just keel over and die.”

  “Is that what you want? You want him to die so you have Ana all to yourself?” My face felt hot.

  He scowled. “As if I’d think of him as competition.” It was a flimsy lie, and he knew it. “But that isn’t why I suggested we come out here. There is nothing for us in that city but death.”

  “I can’t believe you’ve left them to die because you were jealous!”

  “Allah and my viewers forgive me. But what I did was for us.”

  A night’s sleep did nothing to dispel my foul mood. The endless scramble didn’t help, either.

  Farrukh forged ahead. Ana gave me a helping hand atop a boulder. Her glove was rough and scratched from the climbing, and the steel of her gauntlet was chilling.

  “You good to keep going?” she asked. “We can take a break.”

  “I’m good. Don’t let me hold you back.”

  “We said we can talk about our feelings, even if they’re negative.”

  “Screw hiking!” I said. “And you’re up there in full chainmail, while I can barely keep up.”

  But, really paying attention to her inste
ad of the rocks, her labored breaths and sweat-sheened face testified to her own struggle. “We don’t have to rush,” she said. “Better to show up well rested and late than early and exhausted. We need to be in top shape.”

  “We said we can talk about our feelings. Why not just admit you want a break?”

  She grinned. “I can look after both of us.”

  “I’d be salty if you weren’t so good at it.”

  She called at Heather and Farrukh to take it easy, then we plopped down on boulders. I drank deeply from my canteen and stretched out my aching legs. “Maybe we should turn back. We still have time to go help the rebels.”

  She shook her head. “They can take care of themselves.”

  “We don’t even know if we can stop the invasion.”

  “In that case, we’ll settle for the Knucklebones. I made a promise, Pavel Cernik. I’ll get your hand back.”

  Her radiance bolstered my resolve somewhat. “Thanks. You three are constantly risking yourselves for me.”

  “Don’t get started on how you don’t deserve it,” she said, laughing.

  “I’m not Heather.” But the thought had been on my tongue.

  “Rude. But after everything you’ve done for us, how could we not do the same for you? And you know Farrukh is just tagging along for the points.”

  It was true — I’d fought hard for Ana and Heather when they’d needed me. The thought helped me push through the rest of the morning. Heather walked with me for much of it, in human form, saving mana in case whatever had been barking decided to show its bite. How come she found walking so easy?

  When she pulled abreast of Ana, I kept in eavesdropping distance. “I heard what you told Pav,” Heather said. “You’re making excuses.”

  “The rebels aren’t my responsibility,” Ana said.

  “You don’t believe that.”

  Ana sighed. “I know you think you’re invincible. I was the same. Then I got turned into a slug, and then I got shot, twice. Death is always just around the corner. And if I’m our leader, it’s my job to do everything I can to reduce the odds of us getting hurt.”