I trade terrified glances with Mika. What have we let into Lifestream?
Then I curse myself. Why did I tell them its name? Why confirm our connection to it? Surprise isn’t an excuse.
“That’s all beside the point, I’m afraid,” Ajax says. “You have crossed my guild, and so I must bring you in. It’s nothing personal, my friend.”
“Armstrong attacked us,” Mika spits, “after one of your new recruits tried and failed to rob us.” Her face is red with rage, rage I understand. After everything we’ve been through, everything we’ve tried to achieve for these people…
“As I said, I do not care,” Ajax drawls. “In fact, I must say, I understand. Armstrong’s a hothead. Dreadful chap, really. And as for your ‘guest,’ Dusk is…”
“Ain’t she a peach?” Mereta chimes in. “Love to gut that grumpy bitch. She’s no fun.”
Interesting. Obsidian’s not as united a front as they show the world.
I wonder if I’ll survive long enough for that revelation to matter.
“Now, if you’ll come along, Madam Kara awaits,” Ajax says.
“Kara?” Before the word’s out of my mouth, there’s pain, sharp and sudden at my neck.
Akalia. She bit me.
She steps away, all innocence and sexuality melting away. “Sorry,” she says, voice cold. “You seem like a nice guy, but this is business.”
“Whaaa…” I try to say, but all that comes out is a mumble as I fall to my knees. The vibrablade falls from my limp fingers. Something spreads from my neck, poison or a drug or or or… Or something and I… And I…
“Sam!” Mika shouts. “Sam, what’s wrong?”
Akalia reaches into her mouth and pulls out a false fang. Something green beads from it as she squeezes it at Mika. “Don’t worry, sweetie. In a few minutes he’ll be asleep, and you’ll be respawning somewhere far away.” I watch with dull eyes as she saunters toward the Obsidians. “Kara will take Sam somewhere you’ll never find, so don’t bother looking.” She winks at me over her shoulder. “Maybe I’ll still give you that ride. You were so nice to me.”
Bitch, I try to say, but my lips don’t work right.
Mika spits at her as she sways away from us. “Sorry, Sam,” she murmurs. “I knew there was something about her… I just didn’t expect it to go down like this.”
Me, neither, I think but can’t say. I hate that I didn’t expect her to betray us. I knew there was something odd about Kara’s job, but considering how badly we needed her airship, it was a chance we had to take. I just didn’t expect this to go south so soon.
Ajax eyes Akalia as she passes. “You are delicious, dear. Perhaps you’d like to change guilds…?”
Akalia laughs and trails a hand along Ajax’s crotch as she passes. “Maybe. Come find me later.”
“Mmm. All the more reason to wrap this up, then.”
Mereta rolls her enormous eyes. “Put yer dick away, Jaxxie. It’s no fun, and we’ve got work to do.”
“Very well, my dear,” he says. “I know you’re just jealous, anyway.”
“As if,” she taunts, grinning at Mika. “Now, onto business.”
“But this makes no sense,” Mika says, desperate. “Why bring us here? Why the fake job? Why not just take him when he was five feet away from her?”
“Because we get him first!” Mereta laughs. “Oh, he pissed off Avalon, and that’s very bad for him. For all of you, really.”
“For killing one of your asshole guild members that we know is gonna respawn anyway?” Mika says, kneeling at my side. She leans on me like she’s just trying to hold me up, but her hand moves at my back. I don’t know why. Don’t know anything. The world swims, and I have to fight not to pitch over. Fight to be there for… For Mika. I need to stay awake.
“Not at all. Well, that was certainly the beginning of it all,” Ajax says. “But it’s become so much more. You may wonder why I mentioned the beast of shadow, earlier.” He paces toward us and his cane flicks bottles and other detritus away. It seems to have a mind of its own, shunting aside garbage even though Ajax’s eyes never leave us. “I had the most fascinating conversation with a fellow named Dreadpool a few days back. About a missing guildmember of his by the name of Havel.”
Missing?
“You fucked up, kiddos!” Mereta says. She’s also coming closer, her legs stretching unnaturally as each stride eats the distance between us. “Let something real bad into the game, and now you’re gonna pay for it!”
“Yes, it seems you may be responsible for making quite a mess.” Ajax stops a few feet away. “And now we are forced to clean it up.”
Like to see you try… I hate the Shepherd with every fiber of my being, but suddenly I’m kind of rooting for him to take these assholes down.
I want to say this, but I can’t. My eyes droop. God, I’m so tired.
“Why is Kara so interested in Sam?” Mika asks, still fidgeting at my back.
“I have no idea, and I do not care,” Ajax says. “Though, I must admit, I’m rather surprised she came to us in the first place. The rivalry between her little kingdom in Acheryx and our guild has gone on for a long time.” He gives us a predator’s smile. “I’m impressed that you’ve managed something of a reconciliation between them.”
“No more talk,” Mereta growls. “Let’s fuckin’ kill something!”
“We have guild members manning all of the starting zones,” Ajax says, unperturbed by her bloodlust. “Sam is incapacitated. Why make this difficult? Kara waits, but first he will have a little… discussion… with Avalon. Back away from him. Whatever you feel for him, it’s not worth what we will do to you if you don’t cooperate.” He stabs his cane into the dirt, an exclamation point to his threat.
“You’re wrong,” Mika says. “He’s worth dying for.”
With that, she dives behind my back. Something pops, but my mind’s too dull to recognize the sound. When she straightens, grinning triumphantly, she holds the healing potion in her clenched fist.
It’s uncorked. She tips it toward my lips.
“None of that, now,” Ajax says, voice as calm as a millpond. He flicks his wrist.
My mind’s too dull to fully track what happens next. Ajax’s cane seems to lengthen, or maybe he has a whip, too? I don’t know. All I hear is Mika’s grunt of pain as the potion shatters in her hand.
No… I try to shout it. Try to pull myself together, seize my power, anything. But I can’t. I watch in slow motion as the shards of glass stab Mika’s fingers and as the red, lifesaving liquid sloshes into the dirt. Lost to us forever.
“Now that your adorable little last-ditch effort has failed, can we finish this up?” Ajax asks. The asshole is fighting back a yawn.
“Not too quick,” Mereta sings. “I want to have some fun with her after that stunt.”
They start toward us, done with talking. Ajax’s cane is definitely a segmented whip now, and wicked barbs jut from its length. Mereta’s fist grows, doubling in size over and over until it’s as big as the rest of her body. She holds it over her head like a hammer and her manic grin’s fixed on Mika.
No, this can’t happen. Not like this. Not after surviving so much else.
I tear at the wall of lassitude that blocks my power. Claw for it.
I can’t reach it.
Mika turns to me. Her hand is at the back of my head, gripping my hair. Hard. What is she…
She turns my head. Her eyes are wide and terrified, but beneath that’s something else. A message. Get ready.
She leans toward me, lips puckering.
“Aww, ain’t that cute?” Mereta mocks. “Last kiss. How heartbreakin’.”
Mika’s lips press against mine. She opens my mouth with her tongue. Why now? What is she doing?
Liquid pours from her mouth into mine. A single swallow of something that tastes like berries…
The potion. She took a sip behind my back.
Mika. You goddamn genius.
Strength floods me in
a torrent. My mind snaps back from drunkenness and I seize my power. Buoyed on a wave of healing power, it springs to life inside me like a wildfire in my soul and almost overwhelms me.
“What are you–” is all Ajax has time to say before I throw a hammer of power at both of them. It rages from me like a freight train and hits them as hard.
The effect is spectacular. Ajax and Mereta are thrown back like they’ve been slapped by the hand of a god. They impact the wall hard enough to shatter stone before bouncing to the ground like rag dolls.
Well, Ajax does. Mereta splats, cartoon style, her body misshapen and too flat. But neither of them get up, and that’s all that matters.
Mika offers me her hand and drags me to my feet. “Goddamn! Way to hulk out, Sam!”
“Yeah,” I say, staring at the fading red stain on the ground. “Lost the potion, though.”
“Fuck the potion,” Mika says, dragging me back into the city by the hand. “We’re alive. Let’s get out of here.”
“Door’s that way,” I say, hiking a thumb over my shoulder.
“Yeah, but so are they,” Mika says, voice tight with panic.
I look back as I we run.
No way.
Ajax is already on his knees, spitting blood. Mereta’s up faster, her body reshaping as her broken limbs snap back into place.
“Shit! How?” I call.
“Guess level 30’s are durable,” Mika pants.
“Which way?”
We round a corner, losing sight of the Obsidians. “This way,” she says, yanking me to the side. “But first…” She throws out her hand and sprays a jet of fire into the buildings behind us, sweeping from right to left. The torrent engulfs the wooden buildings instantly and they go up like dry tinder; I shield my face against the heat as she pours more and more liquid death down the street.
I have the sudden image of the missing partiers packed into the buildings that surround us like sardines. Maybe forced by the Obsidians before we left the brothel… somehow. “What if there are people in these buildings?” I shout over the furnace roar.
She looks over her shoulder like an angel of death. Even the pupils of her eyes are stained dark red. A shiver of fear worms its way into my heart. “They’ll respawn. We won’t.”
Good point.
I don’t know where the Obsidians are. Probably waiting for Mika to end her fireworks. Right now, they’d have to be made of metal to be able to walk through the jets of fire that still pour from her hands.
Mika’s hair raises like it’s charged with static electricity. “Hey, uh, that might be enough…”
She ignores me. In fact, I think she increases the strength of her flames; the dirt road glows like coals, and though she’s concentrating on the roadway now, the buildings bordering it blacken and char so quickly it’s like someone’s turned the world to fast forward.
“Mika!” I shout, mouth dry as a desert. “You have to stop!” So far, she’s aimed the jets away from our area, and the buildings already aflame are fifty or sixty feet away. But wood closer to us, untouched by her power, is spontaneously bursting into little fires all over the place.
We have to go. She’s going to kill us along with the Obsidians.
I take her shoulders and shake her from behind. “Mika, stop!” I shout into her ear.
Her body jolts rigid, and then she slumps. Her flames die and her body goes boneless. I catch her before she goes her knees.
“Mika. Mika!” I shout over the fires when she doesn’t respond.
Her whole body shudders. It’s so violent her teeth chatter.
“Mika, are you…”
“Thanks,” she whispers. “Hit a wall, there…”
“Is that what you call it?” I laugh, delirious. “Happens with my power, too,” I add when she gives me a worried glance.
I lift her. “You good?”
She stands on shaky legs. “Yeah, just… Gimme a sec.”
“No time. You might be fireproof, but I’m not.” I pull her away from the conflagration that already threatens the untouched buildings at our side. The flames crackle and spit and the heat is so incredible that the road shimmers like a desert mirage. “Jesus.”
“Yeah.” She looks to me as the color fades from her eyes. “That was… That felt good.” She shivers. “Too good.”
“We have to go,” I say, dragging her along. A dagger of worry stabs my heart, but I don’t have time to explore it now. Don’t have time to ask her what the hell just happened.
A building not far off collapses in a thunder of falling beams that throws sparks skyward like a phoenix rising. The heat’s stronger every moment, a wall that pushes us back step by step. The sound is almost more overwhelming, beating at my eardrums like a dragon’s shriek.
Yet somehow, over the top of all that, I hear something.
Laughter. High, maniacal. Insane.
“We have to run. Right now,” I shout.
Our feet pound the dirt as we flee deeper into the city. The flames spread behind us almost as fast; I can hear glass shattering as new building are engulfed. It won’t be long before the entire island is nothing but an enormous bonfire.
If we survive that long.
The laughter’s louder, now. Chasing us. Mereta.
How?
It doesn’t matter. The road doglegs suddenly and we round the curve before skidding to a sudden halt. Another twenty feet of dirt and then the road ends in what looks like some kind of old school mansion, probably the home of whoever owns this estate.
There’s no gate. No way out. And if the backside of the walled island is like the front, no windows or other exits, either.
“Shit,” Mika pants.
“Yeah. Can’t go back.”
She ducks her head, guilty. “Sorry. Mostly trying to keep us away from those assholes. Didn’t mean to trap us.”
“No, you thought faster than I did. Now we just–”
“Look out!” Mika screams.
A fist the size of a bus falls from the sky as the insane laughing reaches a sudden crescendo. Mika flings me to the side, falling over me as it smashes into the dirt like the hammer of a God and barely misses us. Dirt and stone fling to the side as it craters the road, peppering us with dirt and tossing our bodies further in a tangle of limbs.
Mika’s elbow hits me in the sternum, knocking the wind from me. I gasp, clutching my chest as she tries to extricate herself. “Sam, get up! Hurry! We have to keep going!”
“Trying,” I cough, getting to my knees. God, I’m tired of getting the shit kicked out of me. “Where… Where are they?”
“There,” she says, still pulling me up.
When I finally get to my feet and have the wherewithal to take in the situation, I still can’t understand what I’m seeing. But Mika’s right about one thing.
We have to go.
The enormous fist sits like something out of a videogame behind us, half buried in the street. Trailing from it is Mereta’s arm, thrown up and over the buildings at the corner and stretched to impossible length. And attached to the other end…
A ball. It’s at least the size of the fist and is a bizarre combination of Mereta’s clothes and features, just… Stretched. It bounces over the corner we’ve just rounded and slams into the street. We shield our eyes against the spray of dirt as it comes to rest and splits open like a cracked egg.
Ajax steps free of Mereta as her first snaps back to correct size and her body inflates. He brushes off his lapel and plants his cane in the dirt. “Well, that was rather unpleasant.”
“How much do you have left in tank?” I whisper.
Mika licks her lips. “Not much.”
Mereta stands. Her torso’s still pancake thin, but she puts her thumb in her mouth and blows. Her cheeks inflate comically before her body expands into shape like a balloon. Her tits pop back out one by one as her ribcage unfolds like fingers underneath skin that’s more like rubber.
We watch. The process is fascinating, like watch
ing a car wreck in slow motion. You want to look away but can’t. It’d be strangely hilarious if watching her terrifying face reform and focus on us wasn’t pants shitting.
Mereta glares at Ajax. “I fuckin’ hate doing that. You know that, Jaxxie.”
“Apologies, dear, but we don’t want to disappoint Avalon.” He flips his cane over his shoulder. As it arcs through the air, it segments over and over until it’s his terrifying whip. “Now. Sam. You see how pointless this is, do you not?”
“Screw you.” Not very poignant, but I’m too busy trying to figure out how the hell we’re getting out of this. No time for cool action movie quotes.
“Come now, don’t be tiresome.” His whip flicks sideways, and a wooden beam as thick as my body shatter in a hail of splinters.
The message is clear. I’m just not a receptive audience. “Give us your best shot.”
Mereta hunches, ready to spring. “Was really hoping you’d say that.”
Without warning, she launches upward. Her fists quadruple in size until they’re like war hammers at the end of her spindly arms. She raises them high as she arcs through the air before falling on us like a boulder.
A boulder I’m ready for. I’m not dying here, and I’m not being taken.
I meet her just before she lands on us, swinging my gift like a massive, invisible baseball bat. The kind of strike that killed a dragon goddess back on the Citadel. The kind that instantly hammers a spike of agony into my forehead and a gush of blood from my nose.
Mereta’s body impacts the mace of power in midair and she rebounds upward like she’s been shot from a cannon. Her limbs breaks in a thousand places as her cartoon physics shield her from death, and the body that catapults down the road and into the second story window of a smoldering building is unrecognizable.
Ajax raises an eyebrow.
An earsplitting shriek rises from the building as it collapses in a shower of wood and flame. I put Mika behind me as Ajax checks his guildmate with a nonchalant glance. He turns back to us, whip flicking to the side as he smiles a deeply unsettling smile. “She’ll be back. And your nosebleed looks rather painful, old boy.” His smile widens. “I wouldn’t recommend doing that again. Might be bad for your health.”
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 41