“Use it as much as possible,” Gilda said. “That’s the only way to grow accustomed to it, or to master anything in the game. It reveals most things within a certain range, which can get annoying and distracting in places with lots of people. You have to learn how to weed out the unimportant stuff. Takes some practice.”
Gilda bent and picked a few green weeds with red tips. She collected them by the bunches and tucked them into a little pouch on her waist. Then she set about doing the same with a blue bush.
“Dreamweed, I recognize,” Frost said. “But what’s the other one?”
“Bloodroot.” Gilda grabbed another handful. “Considering the danger we’re going to face, and our lack of a mystic, we’ll have to take care of any wounds the old-fashioned way. Pots and what not.”
“I always thought about maxing one of those life skills like herbalism.” Frost shook his head. “I tried, too. But it got boring quick. Even mining. I always preferred to buy what I need. More time to kill stuff and to grind.”
“It isn’t that hard to do.” Gilda stood. “Just takes time. And it’s not like you have to find a skill shard for them. When you start doing certain things, you begin developing the skill.”
Frost made to say he didn’t intend to play for that long, but another plague wolf slunk from behind a tree. Frost took better aim. He squeezed the trigger, shifted the cannon to the left, waited two seconds and fired again.
Two pulses streaked in the plague wolf’s direction. It dodged the first Aether Shot as before but leaped directly into the second.
Frost grinned in Gilda’s direction, proud of his own adjustment. “A few more to level.”
She smiled in turn. “You’re learning fast. I’d expect nothing less from the second-best player.”
Frowning, Frost glanced from side to side. Shading his eyes with his left hand, he peered into the trees. He spun in a circle.
Gilda snatched one of the star-shaped chakrams from the loop on her belt. A red arcane glow lit up the weapon and her right hand. “What’s wrong? What is it?”
“Trying to find this second-best player.” Frost shrugged. He dropped his hand from shading his eyes.
Tension bled from Gilda’s face. She rolled her eyes. The arcane glow vanished. Frost chuckled.
“That wasn’t funny.” Shaking her head, Gilda replaced the chakram.
“Yes, it was. The only reason you don’t agree is because the joke was on you.”
A glint down the hill among the forest’s dappled shadows caught Frost’s eye. He squinted. The glint disappeared.
“Playing your silly game, again?” Gilda asked.
“Not this time.” Frost ducked low among the brush. He signaled for Gilda to follow his lead. “I saw something… like sunlight reflecting off metal.”
“Either someone’s leveling or the Battleguards are on our trail,” Gilda said.
Confirmation arrived moments later. Two Azureguards on crevids worked their way up through the forest. They were still far below and were more concerned with several plague wolves stalking them.
“As much as I’d love to fight them, it’s time to go. There’s bound to be more of them.” Gilda tugged at Frost’s shirt. Staying low, she headed uphill toward the tree line.
Shouts echoed from below. Frost snatched a look behind them. More mounted Azureguards were pointing up at him and Gilda. They dug their heels into the mounts’ sides and bounded uphill.
Despite knowing it was impossible to outrun the mounts on foot, Frost scrambled after Gilda. The tree line and the sunlight’s glare beyond it was a long distance away.
CHAPTER 13
Frost and Gilda burst from the tree line. Branches snapped behind them. The Azureguards’ shouts were close now. Too close. With Noobstick cradled in his arms, Frost dashed after Gilda uphill in the direction of the mines. Saba was galloping toward them, hooves kicking up dust.
“Battleguards found us,” shouted the dresdor marksman as she drew to a halt before them. She pranced impatiently and pointed to their right where the mountain curved away and up. “Your mounts are on the other side of that rise. Go!”
“My sister,” Frost exclaimed.
“Run!” Saba raced in the direction she’d indicated.
From below came the bloodthirsty whoops of their pursuers. Frost ran for all he was worth, his heart a booming drum. Gilda was a step ahead of him. They dashed up the rise.
The moment they gained the top, Gilda halted. She spun and snatched her chakrams from her belt loop. A red arcane glow lit up one weapon. Blue surrounded the other.
“What the hell are you doing?” Frost stopped beside her, chest heaving. “Your spells are useless at this range.”
“But your cannon isn’t,” she snarled.
Frost glanced down at Noobstick, cradled in his arms, as if just remembering the weapon. Hefting it, he grinned. This was the stuff for which he lived. For which he gamed. He lowered Noobstick, waist high, flipped the lever to full power, and leveled the barrel at the tree line. The clop of hooves announced Saba’s return to them. The marksman had a massive bow.
Frost clicked several times, the sound revealing other forms in the forest below. Trees rustled. Brush shook. Frost made out seven erada Azureguards rushing through the spaces between the trunks.
Five were armored reavers, if the two-handed greatswords were any indication. One of the powder blue females wore robes. A caster. The last carried a longbow and handled his lupine as if he were born atop it. They crashed through the brush at the forest’s edge.
Saba’s bowstring thrummed. Three wooden arrows blurred across the distance. Two took one reaver in the throat and eye. He pitched sideways from his mount’s back. The other arrow flew harmlessly by another reaver.
Aiming at the Azureguard marksman, Frost gauged the distance. He breathed easy and squeezed the trigger. Whomp. The pulse zipped down the hill toward the marksman even as he’d nocked an arrow and loosed. Blue energy exploded into the marksman’s chest.
By sheer instinct, Frost dashed to one side. Cannon Kata’s effect saved him from the arrow. It whistled through the space he had vacated. His eyes widened.
Gilda was standing next to him, a circular red Aether Shield about four feet in diameter extending from her chakram. An Ice Pillar the size of a man was on Frost’s other side. A broken arrow shaft was on the ground inches from them. Another was stuck into Gilda’s Ice Pillar. The Pillar dissolved.
“Thanks.” Frost let out a slow breath.
“You’re welcome.” Gilda smiled.
Saba’s bow thrummed as she loosed another Triple Barrage of wooden arrows. She fired two Aether Arrows an instant later, their cyan arcane glow leaving trails in the air. A sudden wind gusted, much too powerful to be natural. It whisked the wooden arrows off target.
The first Aether Arrow streaked into the reaver she had missed previously. He crumpled.
The second Aether Arrow had sped toward the caster. The caster yanked hard on her reins. Her lupine shifted. The Aether Arrow flew into the forest behind her.
Choosing Divergence, Frost fired. The sound this time was more of a whine. Five blue pulses blazed a trail down the slope. Two found their marks, blasting reavers from their mounts. The other three exploded into the trees. Frost loosed an Aether Shot, but his intended target, the caster, bounded to one side and dodged it.
Knowing they were well within range, Frost switched to Korbitanium Projectiles. The barrel spun, issuing the buzzsaw whine. The shots spewed out. A stream of fire. It cut through leaves, brush, and branches, tore into trunks. The Battleguards dived for cover.
Gilda Flickered from beside him. She reappeared sixty feet down the hill.
An armored Azureguard sprinted uphill to meet her, so fast his churning legs and body blurred. His abrupt speed burst was a defini
tive sign he’d called upon Onslaught. A reaver skill.
The enemy caster reached behind and came away holding a warfan the size of her torso. White arcane energy lit up the weapon.
Frost yelled a warning, “Windwalker!” He aimed at the caster and snapped off an Aether Shot.
The white arcane energy had almost finished coalescing around the windwalker’s warfan. The cyan of Frost’s Aether Shot had only covered half the distance.
Gilda swept her left arm up, the blue energy leaving an afterimage, while she made a throwing motion with the red one, unleashing a Flame Globe. An Ice Stalagmite flashed up from beneath the windwalker’s lupine. It burst through the beast’s belly and back and impaled the windwalker. They died in place. Frost’s Aether Shot struck the dead windwalker a moment later and blasted her to pieces.
Gilda’s Flame Globe crackled through the air and exploded into the onrushing reaver’s chest even as he had leaped toward her, sword cocked back to strike. Smoking, the reaver flew backward, slammed into the ground, and bounced several times. He remained where he stopped.
Gilda Flickered back up the hill. Frost and Saba finished off the reavers who had been victims of Divergence but had not suffered direct hits. Breathing heavy, pulse racing, Frost took in the damage and marveled at the rush from the combat, the sense of danger. And the thrill of victory. The fight had been so intense he hadn’t noticed the group exp gained after each kill.
“That was some good work.” Frost gave Gilda a pound, thumping the bottom of his fist atop hers.
She smiled. “No doubt.”
“A little rash on your part,” he added, “but good.”
Gilda shrugged. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. But trust and believe I thought it through.”
A rumble in the direction of the mines made him snap his head around. He squinted, fully expecting Battleguards to come plunging over the distant slope.
“They found one of my Traps.” Saba chuckled. “It should buy us some time.”
“But my sister,” Frost began, remembering Tia and the others.
“She left with Nebsamu and Melori. Either we catch them on the road or we meet them in Soleb, a little-known village well north of here in the Akhmis nome.”
“Suppose they–”
Saba rounded on him, gold eyes ablaze with fury. “How about doing as I tell you? You’re lucky I came for you. And even luckier those weren’t stronger Battleguards. It’s your fault they found us.”
“How?” Frost indicated his weapon. “I turned the power down so as not to make any noise.”
Saba turned away and clip-clopped down the hill toward the two waiting crevids. “The forest is on a slope. Why would someone need sound when they can see the Aether Shots from the plains below us?”
Frost snapped his mouth shut. You idiot. You fucking idiot. With his shoulders slumped, Frost followed the dresdori marksman, cursing himself for a fool the entire time.
A Test at the Mines
Objective Complete
Defeated Azureguard hunters:
2000 experience points
Escape from the mines:
1000 experience points
Rescued entire group:
Fail
Level 4 gained
Gained 200 Khertahka dominion credits
Frost hung his head. He cared little for any rewards. The failure grated at him, the feeling that he’d let Tia down, put her at risk. He took out the Aether Bomb shard and absorbed it.
Skill available:
Aether Bomb
Cast time: 1.5 seconds
Recharge Time: 1 minute
Consumes: Aether
Available shard slots: 3
Effect: Launch an Aether Bomb up to 200 feet. Explodes on impact with enemies or obstacles. Conflagrates enemies within a 10-foot radius of impact, causing disorientation Gain 5 percent aether on a successful direct hit. 1 percent aether for each additional enemy in area of effect.
He nodded, for the moment brightened by the skill. From his memory of the demo, it was potent.
They rode on, stopping only to water the crevids or let them graze for a few minutes. Saba led them from the steep foothills down onto rolling plains.
“I’ll cover our trail.” Saba pranced beside them. “And then scout out up ahead and return.”
“That’s a lot of distance to cover and not be seen,” Frost said dubiously.
Saba puffed out her chest. “Not for a dresdor. Not only are we fleeting like the wind, but my Concealment is sharded. It doesn’t negate my speed. Combine that with Streak allowing me to dash several times my normal speed and the feat won’t be a problem. It’s how I got ahead of you on our way to the mines.”
“Nice.” Frost nodded. He found himself wondering if Saba was a player or NPC.
“Gilda, lead the way until I return.” Saba galloped off behind them, cutting a swath through the grassland.
Frost and Gilda continued on in silence. During the ride, Frost practiced echolocation. Eventually, it came naturally. Not only did he hardly notice the clicking, but it grew muted. A part of him.
He still often marveled when the ability triggered. It gave him an entire new outlook on the world, revealing critters and objects he might have missed otherwise. He also practiced how to focus it on specific things while ignoring others, which proved more difficult than expected.
With the way Total Immersion felt, he began to question the need for real life. His experience so far had surpassed his dreams.
Frost found himself wondering about Gilda’s real-life appearance and where she was from. Was she even a girl? His mind conjured images and scenarios, each more outlandish than the next. She was black; she was white; she was Spanish. She was some tall exotic beauty who just happened to like games. She was a midget. Then she was a three-hundred-pound girl who could barely move off her bed. She was a man.
He grimaced at that last, considering how her avatar made him feel. Although he much preferred to keep to himself, there was something about her that made him want to speak to her, get to know her.
After drumming up the courage, he went for it. “What’s your story in real life? Where’re you from? What do you do? How’d they get their hooks into you?” Almost immediately he cursed himself for sounding like a little school boy.
She chuckled. “Just like that, huh?”
“Won’t know if you don’t ask.” He shrugged, trying to play off his embarrassment.
“No doubt.” She nodded. “I’m a Second Warder. Straight from Downtown Brooklyn.”
Frost whistled. “That means you’ve seen your share of DeGens. I couldn’t imagine living so close to them.”
“Most DeGens aren’t what you think,” she said, scowling. “You shouldn’t believe everything you see on the news or OneWorld.”
“True, but–”
“There aren’t any buts.”
Frost snapped his mouth shut. It was the second time in the last few days a woman had made him feel small with a mere look. He averted his eyes and reminded himself to tread lightly around the topic of DeGens and the First Ward.
Gilda continued, “After my grandmother died, I had to fend for myself. So, I got into Ataxia. I sold gear for IRL credits at first, but that didn’t pay the bills. Then I tried my hand at shevla but wasn’t very good at it. Too many damned rules and cards. That’s when I became a merc.”
“I remember that.” Frost smiled. He recalled seeing her name on the Player Killers bounty list in a few towns. “You had a pretty bad rep as a PKer.”
“I was never a PKer.” She scowled. “I was into PVP. I hate when people confuse the two.”
“Sorry.”
“And If by ‘bad rep’ you mean I was a bad ass who made most players run away like l
ittle boys or shit themselves when they heard I had a contract for them, then yeah, I guess so.”
Frost chuckled. “That’s because too many of those maxed-out players bought their gear rather than earned it.”
“And I made them pay an even steeper price.” A distant look crossed Gilda’s face. “PVP was my thing. If you wanted another player dead, I was the cutthroat to hire. As long as it wasn’t some noob. IRL, I was a thief. It’s mostly how I paid for Ataxia, my apartment… it’s how I survived.”
“You lived by yourself? How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“A seventeen-year-old Second Warder who lives alone and was a thief in real life… I can’t picture it.”
She shrugged. “A girl’s gotta go what a girl’s gotta do. My crew and I had the Downtown Mid Ward shopping zones on lock.”
“Wow.”
“Until I got caught.” Her dainty lips curled. “Some bitch snitched.”
“How much time did you get? Did they send you off to work the smog machines?”
“No. BioGen lawyers showed up at the precinct and gave me a choice. If I became a tester, they’d save me from jail and a long sentence of hard labor that would likely end with a cancer I couldn’t afford to have cured.”
“Not much of a choice.”
“Even offered steady credits doing it. Seemed like a good deal at the time.”
“Equitane has you by the balls, too,” Frost said softly.
“If I had a pair, then, yeah.”
Frost paused and frowned. “Wait. So, you are a girl in real life?”
“How should I take that?” She smirked. “I did say a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. More than once.”
“Sorry.” Possibilities ran through Frost’s head. “I didn’t mean anything by it… like I wasn’t trying to say… when you said a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, I didn’t take it literally… us being in the game and all. I just… forget it. I’m making it worse, aren’t I?”
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