Warsinger

by James Osiris Baldwin

  I put myself between the monster and Suri as it he roared and spun toward me. He put his head down to charge. I hopped out of the way and spun around him, slashing. Karalti flew in from the back, kicking him and flipping off. Pinned from both sides, he threw out his arms and launched into a clumsy, but powerful spinning attack. We dodged back, drawing him away from Suri. She was starting to come to, but shaking and pale as she pushed herself to her hands.

  “Get up on its head if you can!” The thing was monstrously strong, and didn't seem to feel any pain. He swung wildly at me, striking the wall and smashing it to rubble.

  “Right!” Karalti flipped up and landed right on him. She wrapped her legs around his neck, pulled a dagger, and began to stab. “Hey! Ugly!”

  The energy rippling over my spear turned red as I rushed it. The 10-hit combo of Blood Sprint chain was faster than the human eye could follow, crimson flashes cutting air and flesh. The [Rostori Brute] shielded his face with his arms, soaking hit after hit as his Bleed debuff stacked up all the way to maximum. Oily black fluid dribbled from his forearms and neck. He let out a brute cry of anguish, groping back It caught hold of my dragon as she kept stabbing and flung her over its head, sending her smashing into the opposite wall.

  [Karalti takes 1529 damage!]

  [You deal 2500 damage to Rostori Brute! -4% enemy attack power]

  [+20% attack speed, +350 restored HP]

  “HuuuuuRRAGH!” The crimson fire turned black and cold as I built into the final phase of the combo: Death by a Thousand Cuts. I didn't know if the Curse effect would work, but we were about to find out.

  The cold black fire streaming from the Spear of Nine Spheres burst out into a rain of needles that drove into the Rostori Brute’s skin and soaked in. The monster thrashed – and for the first time, seemed to feel the damage.

  [Your attack power +4%, Damage reduction +10%; Enemy Attack Power -4%]

  [You deal 1824 damage!]

  The Rostori Brute banged his fists on the ground and charged me as Suri staggered to her feet. I waited until he was almost on top of me, then Jumped, somersaulted, and came down like a meteor onto the back of his neck. The blade slid home, and I felt something in the Brute's neck pop. He stumbled and crashed to the ground, skidding to a stop just in front of Karalti's feet.

  Chapter 51

  [You deal fatal blow to Rostori Brute!]

  [You gain 950 EXP!]

  [Karalti gains 950 EXP!]

  [Suri gains 950 EXP!]

  “Holy crap.” The Spear of Nine Spheres, in its current form, had a 1% chance to instantly kill an enemy. In all the time I'd been using it since it had gained that ability, Lady Luck hadn't smiled on me - until now. “Suri! Are you okay?”

  The collision with the wall had knocked Suri's helmet off. She was flushed beetroot red, and when she heard me, she put her face in her hand and leaned against the wall. “No. Not really.”

  A dark, pixelating haze crawled through the Rostori Brute's body, gathering into a dark fluxing ball of visual snow. We tensed, weapons drawn, but the ball simply hung a moment before shooting off through the wall, angling up and to the right. As it vanished, a wordless whispering slithered through the air, and then the same woman's voice from earlier spoke.

  “That was a Rostori Brute, the least of the foot soldiers of the Drachan,” she - Sachara? - said to us. “Beasts bought to Archemi in the time of the Ancients. The Rostori who were not imprisoned in the Caul of Souls were enslaved by the Aesari... who wielded them against us. You have defeated but one of them. Imagine an army of these creatures, immune to all but the most powerful of magics and ravaging the land. Such was the trial of our ancestors. Such was the reason for the Warsingers, and the terrible toll we paid for them. Return to the statue; bring with you the greatest weapons I ever wielded. Face your trial, daughter or son of mine. If you are here, it can only be because you are in great need.”

  “Fuck,” Suri gasped. “I'm so sorry. I fucked up. I saw that thing looming over me, and I-I just... “

  “It's okay!” Karalti limped over. “We took care of it! You can get the next one.”

  “Seriously,” I said. “It's okay. Every human being alive freezes in fights sometimes.”

  At our words, Suri's composure completely deserted her. For the first time since I'd met her, she just stood and shivered, her hand clamped over her eyes. But when I tried to go to her, she warded me back.

  “Giants,” she whispered. “I still can't fucking handle them, unless I'm raging.”

  “Then you need to look at it, Suri.”

  “I can't.” She shook her head.

  “It's dead. Look at it. Then look at me and Karalti.”

  Suri swallowed, then peeled her hand back. Something about this creature terrified her - maybe because it had a passing resemblance to Nicolas, maybe for some other reason she hadn't told me. She forced herself to look down at the huge corpse, eyes wide and black. Once she started to stare, she struggled to tear her eyes away. Eventually, she did. She looked back to me.

  “I know what you're doing,” she said hoarsely. “I know the same mind trick. Don't know where I learned it. Maybe my previous life. You see something that scares you... you look at it. Then you look at a photo of someone or something you love. Your mum. Your pet or your baby or whatever. Start associating the bad thing with a good thing.”

  “Yeah,” I said softly. “Helps you get over the hump.”

  Her throat worked. “Guess they taught the same trick to soldiers in the Pacific Alliance.”

  Karalti crooned softly as Suri brought her breathing under control, looking down at the corpse, then back to us. As she did, she calmed... and by the time it pixelated and left its loot bag, she looked better. Steadier.

  “I can't afford to ever do that again.” She shook her head again, nostrils flaring. “You guys alright?”

  “Yeah, we're fine.” I handed Karalti a potion. “The spooky Sachara over-voice sounds kind of ominous. Something about a final trial.”

  “Yeah...” Suri sniffed, and turned her attention to the displays of weapons in the eaves. “The scimitars, right?”

  “Yeah. Withering Rose had a pair of scimitars in all the paintings I've seen of her,” I said. “But hang on a second. This whole clusterfuck is a test, right? The answer can't be that obvious.”

  Suri considered the weapons on display: the swords, axes, spears, and whips. “No. It's not.”

  We watched as she trudged over to make her selection from the display stands. As soon as they were removed, the other weapons dissolved into a shower of golden light.

  “Bugger. I'd hoped we could have snagged those axes.” Suri clicked her tongue. “Well, you guys take whatever's in the loot bag. I didn't do a fucking thing other than fall over.”

  “Sure. Just… try not to be too hard on yourself, alright?” As Suri headed for the door, I went and checked the loot.

  ● Draft of Ogre's Strength

  ● Rostori Blood

  ● Rostori Horn

  ● Lambidium Scrap

  ● Amethyst x 4

  ● Ancient Golden Coin x 500

  “Not bad.” I pocketed it all, and followed Karalti as she padded out behind Suri.

  Wasps weren't known for their attention spans, and by the time we made our way back through the hive and nursery, they had long since returned to their instinctual job of sandworm murder. They completely ignored us, and we reached the statues of the Warsingers without further incident. The statues seemed to track us with their glowing eyes as Suri mounted the dais and placed her selections into Withering Rose's hands: the hammer and the level.

  “You have chosen wisely,” Sachara's said, warm with approval. “And if you pass the Trial of the Warsinger and enter my sanctum, remember this: the power we hold as Warsingers is dazzling, but when the time comes and peace reigns over your land once more, know when to step out of the Heart of Knives. Resign the Triad and trade your sword for the hammer. A thousand years hence, no one will
remember who you slay... only what you build once the ashes of war have settled.”

  The massive doors unlocked with a deep crunch, the sound of huge bolts pulling back into the steel frames. We came around the statue as the doors swung inward, revealing a square black marble room. They came to rest with a rolling boom.

  “Go now,” Sachara urged. “Go and meet your final trial. A test of your ability… and your patience.”

  Chapter 52

  A rectangular frame of lambidium enclosed an arena in the next room, where a small, lone figure sat cross-legged on the floor. Superficially, it resembled a Mercurion, with hard pearly skin of pure white. It sat in the lotus position, its long milky hair spread out across the black floor around it. It wore a featureless polished black mask with no nose and no eyes, just a straight beveled edge down the center. It was slim, with a subtly feminine figure… but no clothing and no armor, other than its mask.

  The black noise from the Rostori Brute and the pulsing white light from the Warsinger statues danced around the meditative figure in a figure eight as we walked forward. I felt - and saw - the doors behind us slowly swing shut.

  Suri drew a deep breath. “Hang back, you two.”

  “Hang back?” I eyed the Mercurion dubiously. It was as still as a doll. No breathing. No motion, other than the spheres.

  “Yeah.” Suri pulled her sword around. “You heard what Sachara said. This is the Trial of the Warsinger. I have to fight her alone.”

  Karalti whined. “I don't know if that's a good idea.”

  “Me either,” I said. “Let us help you.”

  Suri looked back at us over her shoulder, one hand resting on the hilt of her sword. “The Trial of Marantha was your Trial. This one's mine. Besides... I don't think it'll let you help me, even if I wanted you to.”

  As we got close to the line of lambidium set into the floor, I saw she was right. We got within a foot of it before a forcefield sprung up: a field that barred Karalti and I, but let Suri pass through unimpeded. As she did, the twin lights stopped circling the Mercurion, and sunk down into its body.

  Her fingers twitched in her lap.

  Suri bared her teeth and charged in, hoping to get an early shot. But as she brought her sword down, the Mercurion teleported to the side with blinding speed, reappearing on her feet. Suri's sword hit marble, sending splinters flying, while the Mercurion calmly walked toward her.

  Karalti's breath caught as she held out a hand and concentrated. A second later, her Bioscan reading appeared:

  Dark Zarya

  HP: ????/????

  MP: ????/????

  The Artists, twins of light and dark, were so skilled they could bring capture their own shadows inside one simulacrum. If you would see the sun once more, the light and darkness within must be divided, Void returned to Void.

  The simulacrum was mesmerizing to watch, its stately movements graceful and elegant as a swan’s. It effortlessly eluded Suri as she swiped and stabbed after it. When one lucky blow caught up with it, Dark Zarya brought her hand up and deflected the blade with her palm, turning away the heavy greatsword in a shower of sparks with absolutely no knockback, and stepped in to slam its fist into Suri's gut. A visible shockwave of pure kinetic force radiated out from the blow that sent the heavily armored Berserker flying.

  [Dark Zarya deals 896 damage.]

  Zarya kept coming toward her.

  Suri wasn't the sort to make the same mistake twice. She rolled to her feet and circled warily, watching the simulacrum's hands. When it suddenly whipped a pair of energy knives from the air and flung them overhand, Suri blocked them with the broad blade of her sword, sending them ricocheting back at Zarya. We watched as the shards of black energy sank into its armored skin. The simulacrum's head jerked, and it looked down at its torso as two black stains curled out over its pure white skin.

  “Yeah!” Karalti jumped up and down in excitement.

  Zarya was galvanized. In an instant, it lost its demeanor of detached, arrogant stillness, swooping into an exquisitely executed martial art stance before leaping headlong into the fray. Suri smashed her blade into it on reflex, but the blade bounced off and the simulacrum didn’t slow. It was incredibly dense, weathering every blow without almost no change of trajectory, and crashed into Suri like a meteor. Suri got her sword between her and Zarya's fist, but the force of the blow sent her skidding back along the floor. The metal blade glowed hot where it had been struck.

  Zarya gestured with two fingers, and a fan of plasma knives appeared in front of it, flying out in all directions. I grabbed Karalti and dragged her down on reflex as they blew through the forcefield and struck the walls, sending chunks of scorched marble tumbling to the floor. One of them hit Suri and punched right through her armor. She crumpled on that side with a snarl of pain.

  [Dark Zarya deals 1204 damage.]

  Suri was down below half HP already, but there was nothing I could do but stay low and hold my breath as she charged forward in a blaze of heat. Zarya danced back, flinging more knives. Suri was ready this time: she smashed three of them back toward the simulacrum, who pivoted one way, then the other to dodge as it flung a second fan. Suri struck them again, and this time, four shards of simmering force rocketed straight back into Zarya. The creature writhed as black fire rushed over its slim body and left burning, spitting holes in the surface of its skin. It flicked its hands, manifesting a pair of black swords, then charged Suri at speed as the Berserker roared, unequipped her plate armor, and burst into a cloud of crimson heat.

  “She's raging!?” Karalti gasped. “This thing will murder her without armor!”

  “It's okay.” My eyes narrowed, as I tightened my grip on Karalti’ just a little more.

  Zarya flipped and came down with a move almost exactly like Jump, but Suri - lighter without armor, faster, stronger, and feeding off her pain - rolled to the side and came up behind the simulacrum as it drove its energy blades into the floor and slagged the stone there into magma. Suri struck her several times from behind, with such force and speed that it pushed her opponent forward a couple of steps, but that was all she got. Zarya turned on her like a whirlwind, slashing and dodging, driving Suri back toward the far wall. She took a cut here, a cut there... and I began to tense, watching as Suri's HP dropped from orange, to yellow, to red. The simulacrum fought in complete silence with unerring precision, breaking Suri's guard high, low, thrusting for her heart, and barely missing as Suri spun to the side and brought her sword down on Zarya's arm. The blade crashed off it, the milk-white surface not even scratched.

  “Jeez… Is it even taking damage?” I chewed my top lip, brow furrowed.

  Suri, pouring sweat down her face and collarbones, bellowed as she charged in. Zarya moved to unerringly block her heavy strikes, but as she went under for the riposte, Suri caught her saber and pushed it up. She followed with a kick to the Mercurion's chest, aiming for one of the swirling black marks. Her boot connected, and for the first time, the simulacrum stumbled.

  Suri caught the hint: she struck again, ramming her sword in through one of the dark spots. Zarya briefly bent double, fingers contorting in a silent scream as it dropped its swords. Suri roared a wordless battlecry, but Zarya hopped away from her like a fairy. Its body flared with white light, and no fewer than twenty shards of spitting black energy manifested around it before flying toward Suri.

  She couldn't reflect all of them off her sword: five of them struck her, impacting in her limbs, and pitched her gasping to one knee. But she did send some of them back: Zarya staggered, shuddering every time one of the knives struck it and turned patches of its skin - chest, neck, forearm - into a sparking black void that strongly resembled the empty space in my shoulder.

  Suri pressed the advantage as the Mercurion reeled. It barely got its guard up in time to catch Suri's sword, shuddering with effort. As Suri bore down, it couldn't hold the saber up against her raw power: the limb crumpled, and it shoved away from the gridlock. Suri didn’t let up, bringi
ng the huge blade up and down in a series of increasingly violent blows. Sparks sprayed across the floor, Zarya’s inscrutable mask, and Suri's skin. The final strike of the combo was so powerful it drove the edge into the floor and sent cracks careening through the marble – but it missed the agile simulacrum. In one fluid movement, Zarya twirled out of the way and snatched its swords from the floor, somersaulted onto the edge of Suri’s greatsword with the easy poise of a gymnast, and danced up the length of it to drive both sabers down at the Berserker’s head.

  “Dammit!” I instinctively lunged toward the barrier, even though there was no getting through.

  Suri bought her sword up sharply, flexing her enormously enhanced strength to fling Zarya up into the air. Caught off guard, it flipped up and was promptly smacked down out of the air. Suri dogged it as it rolled back, coming up to its knees and raising its forearm up to catch the next sword blow. The greatsword skidded off white skin into black – and there, the blade bit into flesh. Zarya once again dropped its swords with nerveless fingers, scrambling back to hunch and clutch at the wound.

  “Die, you dumb bitch!” Suri picked up the fallen black blade and flung it end over end at her as she landed. The blade took Zarya right in the gut and sent it sprawling. But the blade didn't kill it – the weapon absorbed into the simulacrum’s body, turning its skin and hair a solid glossy black.

  Suri reeled away, panting, as the simulacrum - now radiating an aura of deadly menace - flipped to its feet and disappeared into a cloud of smoke. It reappeared right behind Suri, a knife raised to strike. Suri took the blow to the arm instead of having it driven down behind her collarbone. She shrieked in defiance as she caught the next blow with the edge of her sword, parrying frantically as Zarya slashed at her, jabbed at her, pressured her guard.