The monster snorted, and made a low rumbly sound with its throat.
“It's going to be okay,” I told him. At least I assumed it was a ‘him’; I hadn't quite gotten a shot of its backside to see its balls hanging down or anything, but something told me this creature was male.
I glanced left to Lady C. to see her nursing her arm, a scared look on her face.
“That’s right,” I told the karkadann. “Just relax and let me capture you.”
The light charged up my arm.
The karkadann tensed its muscles as I prepared for the worst; suddenly, it loosened up. The ginormous rhino took a step closer to me, and cautiously lowered its head.
With a deep breath in, I placed my hand on its horn, the net of light transferring from me to the creature.
“I can't believe that worked,” I said as soon as it was gone.
“That was amazing.”
Lady C. turned me to her. She pressed her body into mine and kissed me, both arms wrapped around my neck.
“And here I thought I was going to be the one saving you,” she whispered.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“Iris needs our help,” I told Lady C. as soon as I got the message.
We were already making our way back to the entrance of the tunnel, but now we picked up the pace, both of us jogging as we heard what sounded like Aya's sword.
In truth, it could have been anyone’s sword, but there were tones that I associated with both their weapons: Aya's big-ass sword had a lower noise it made when it connected with armor, or missed and hit a stationary object. Lady C.'s two swords were lighter, almost reminding me of hi-hats when they hit something, so while I couldn't say for certain it was Aya’s sword that we heard, I was pretty damn sure.
Iris had already told me that she had caught something called a cactus cat, which sounded interesting and cute, and we were now at the ten tokens we needed to get to the next level.
That was the good news.
Whatever they were taking on now would be a bonus. We could either sell it, or sell one of the ones we had captured, or put it toward the next level.
Lady C. and I came to the fork in the tunnel and went to the right this time, the sounds of combat increasing as we grew closer.
I saw flashes of light and as soon as we turned the next corner, I could see Iris trying to keep her headlamp on a…
Flying creature? How the hell are these things getting down here? I thought as we neared the melee.
The metallic clinks were coming from the fact that Aya was trying to swipe the bird out of the air, her sword continually connecting with the sides of the subway tunnel. The bird had the head of a woman, and its feathers were multifarious.
The mythcrea’s stats appeared at about the same time Iris gave me an explanation:
“It's a gamayun,” Iris said out of the corner of her mouth. “It's a Slavic mythological creature. And damn if it isn't hard to catch!”
Iris would have continued her explanation if it hadn't been for the fact that the gamayun had turned to Lady C., blasting her with a spherical blue light.
“Lady C.!” Iris shouted just as Lady C.'s eyes glazed over.
Damn these psychological attacks, I thought, as I went to the Metican warrior, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
I felt the sting of a sword as Lady C. quickly spun and drove her sword into my gut, completely skewering me.
It hurt like a bitch – it hurt like being attacked in the Proxima Galaxy – and I staggered backwards, even though she still held the sword in my stomach.
“Damn you!” Aya bellowed at the bird woman.
She sheathed her blade on her back, and from the way she was standing, I could tell that she was going after the creature with her ghost limbs, which was something she should have done in the beginning.
It only took her a few seconds to latch on to the gamayun and start slamming it into the ceiling, to the point that the creature eventually just fell to the ground, halfway dead.
“Catch it,” I told Iris as I tried to pull Lady C.’s blade out of my stomach.
The creature’s collapse caused Lady C. to snap out of her trance; she screamed as she saw that I was on the receiving end of her weapon.
“Chase! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!” she cried as she yanked the blade out of me, which hurt almost as much as it did going in.
“Dammit!”
"Sorry! I'm so sorry!”
As Lady C. apologized, Iris caught the gamayun in her net of light, giving us four catches in a little under an hour.
Once the creature was gone, Iris turned to me. “Let's never come down here again.”
“Deal,” I said as I got to my feet, Lady C.'s arm trying to support my weight.
I even felt that she was trying to support me, which really goes to show you the power of mind over matter.
“Are you okay?”
“I'm fine,” I told her. “It wasn't your fault.”
“Well, at least we reached the next level,” Iris said as we turned back toward the exit.
“That means I might be able to learn a spell from my book,” Lady C. added.
“We should go back to the Dojo to sort all this out.” Aya approached me, a look of concern on her face. “Do you need help? Or will you be Alpha about this and walk yourself?”
I smirked when I saw the grin cut across her green face. “Why? Do you want to help me?”
“You would like being carried out of here by two beautiful warrior women, wouldn't you?”
Iris started to laugh.
“Chase isn't that big of a pervert, just a little bit of a pervert,” Lady C. added, no animosity in her voice at all.
“Is he?” Iris asked as we neared the platform. There was a light ahead, rendering our headlamps unnecessary.
“Hey, why don’t we change the subject here?”
For once, and even though she had started this, Aya came to my rescue by changing the subject. “I hope you like cats, because Iris caught a cat back there. And it's a little bastard of a cat too.”
“No, it's kind of cute,” said Iris as we took the stairs to the top. “It has a cute face at least, but it's bigger than a cat, more like a bobcat.”
“And let me guess, it's a mythological creature too?”
“For sure, and like I said, it’s pretty cute.”
“I hope it’s cuter than the last thing you caught,” I said, referring to Spew Gorge.
“I am in agreement with Chase, there,” said Aya.
“I like Spew Gorge,” Lady C. said. “But I’ve always liked things that were short. That’s why I like you, Iris.”
“She could still grow,” Aya told the Metican warrior. “Maybe. I don’t know the growth ages of humans, but Thuleans can still grow in their twenties.”
“I’m right here,” Iris reminded them.
But the Huntresses didn’t listen; they walked in front of us, talking about Iris’ age and height.
“Do you see why I say that it’s better sometimes when they’re not around?” I asked Iris.
“I can see that, but they’re fun. And I meant it when I said that we should never hunt in the subway tunnels again.” She smiled at me, her cheeks lifting her big glasses. “That was really creepy. There could have been someone down there, some homeless person or something.”
“And we were technically alone,” I said, realizing now just how stupid going down there had been.
“Exactly. So no more subway safaris.”
“Deal,” I said, extending my hand to her.
Iris stopped, took my hand, and held it for a moment as the two Huntresses continued on.
Chapter Thirteen: Musical Swords
We logged back into EverLife and I was immediately prompted with how many tokens we’d received from our captures.
+16 Tokens!
The four new mythcrea had gathered before me, each of them with calm and collected looks on their faces.
Iris was next to me, Lady C. next to he
r, and Aya stood behind us, sizing the new recruits up.
I like it here, the karkadann said as it stepped forward, lowering its head in a submissive manner. Like Rose, his voice existed inside my head.
“So, you’re a familiar? Good. Do you have a name?”
Whatever you’d like to name me.
“You can hear him too, right?” I asked Iris.
She shook her head. “Only you can; he’s your familiar.”
“Do you have a cool name for him?”
“Rambi?”
I started to laugh. “Rambi? Where did you get that one?”
“Donkey Kong.”
“Fair enough,” I said as I turned back to the staggeringly large pachyderm. “Rambi it is.”
His stats appeared:
“And as for the cat, my familiar, I’m naming him Garfield,” said Iris.
I’d been so focused on the mythological rhino that I’d paid little attention to the cat, which was a large orange tabby with a Cheshire cat grin if I’d ever seen one.
“What a cute kitty,” Lady C. said as she crouched to pet the cat. It moved toward her, rubbing its body and tail against her armored boots.
I turned my attention to the kangaroo. The creature was completely translucent, but I could see the slight outline of its body, which was accented by an electric fuzz. The kangaroo was several heads taller than me, and as I approached it, the creature put its little hands up as if it wanted to fight me.
“Easy, big guy,” I told the kangaroo.
“Big girl,” she said, “and don’t you forget it.”
A sassy kangaroo? I turned to Iris, my eyebrow cocked, and found Iris with her hand over her mouth as she tried to contain her laughter.
“She’d better not be laughing at me,” said the kangaroo.
“She’s just laughing to laugh. So, I’m Chase, this is Iris, Lady C., and Aya. There are others, likely back at the mythcrea quarters or in the meadow.” I pointed to the quarters and then to the meadow, where I saw Yaksha sitting in his meditative pose.
Figuring he was no longer needed, Rambi excused himself and turned to the field. He made it a point to go around a patch of flowers, and once he was in thicker grass, he began eating.
“Honey, you can’t just ask for my name with telling me yours.”
“I told you mine; it’s Chase.”
“Oh, that’s right, you said that. Whatever. I thought you were referring to the verb. For your information, I used to be a dragon. So that’s on the table now.”
“A dragon?” Aya asked. “Droga…”
“Please, spare me the Thulean. I’m glad as hell to be out of Tritania. All anyone ever wanted there were my scales and my hot ass to ride cross-continent. If you can’t read between the lines, I was a sexy dragon. With mirrored scales. Filthy orcs took some of the scales, but that was fine. Anyway, my name was Mirror there, so you can call me Mirror here.”
“You were a Tritanian dragon that took the body of a phantom kangaroo?” Iris asked.
“It isn’t that hard to comprehend, is it, sweetie?” she sighed. “It was an option presented to any NPC that wanted access to EverLife. We were allowed to take the form of a mythological creature, but we didn’t get a choice of what form we’d take.”
“Are all the others like that?”
“Some are; others were allowed to keep their bodies.”
“Like Spew Gorge, and me,” Aya said.
“Wait, you were part of this program too?”
Lady C. laughed. “We all are, Chase.”
“But didn’t you say that you came from a destroyed Proxima world?” I asked her.
“Yes, Unigaea, but it still exists in the OMIB, and they even took some of us from there, like me.”
“How has this become about you two when it was supposed to be about me?” Mirror asked. “Anyway, I’m taking a room in the quarters. And no one better say shit about me being a kangaroo. I put in for something closer to human when I asked to join EverLife, but this was the straw I pulled.”
I looked to Iris and she instantly knew what I was thinking.
“We’ll see what we can do about that,” I finally said.
“Sure you will. Now, I need my beauty rest, and if anyone disturbs me, I swear to the Empress I’ll kick a door down.”
With that, Mirror the phantom kangaroo turned toward the quarters.
“Hi,” I told the gamayun. Now that we were out of the subway tunnel, I could see that she had beautiful feathers, iridescent purple with licks of dark green around her neck.
“I’m glad you’ve let me join your guild,” she said with an eastern European accent. “Please call me Anastasia.”
“Glad to have you,” I told her. “Let us know if there’s anything that would make you more comfortable.”
“I will,” she said as she took off into the sky.
“Okay, now our stats.” I focused on our new level.
And from there, I check out Aya and Lady C.’s stats.
“Not bad, not bad,” I told the group.
“Not bad for us, but you two still aren’t ready for tomorrow’s tournament,” Aya reminded us. “And you are forced to compete, meaning we’ll have to play defense more than we’d like.”
“We still have a day to figure all that out.”
“Less than a day,” she told me. “Have you no sense of urgency?”
“I’m sure something will come up. Let’s start training early tomorrow. In that case, I should probably sleep in New York tonight.”
“You’re serious?”
“It’s just a tournament. We win, or we lose. I’m not going to spend the entire night having my ass handed to me. The other Alphas at our level will probably suck at fighting too.”
Aya squinted one eye at me. “You may be right there.”
“So, we’ll get it done, I promise, and I know you’re competitive, so let me just say we will win.”
“Good.”
I lifted my finger to log out and I saw Lady C. glance down, a few strands of her hair falling into her face.
“Wait,” said Iris, “we promised Dalton we’d at least stop by the Midnight Library to jam a little.”
“That’s right. Now?”
“A quick jam.”
“I’m always down.”
I moved my fingers to my mouth and whistled for our lightning horses.
They came a minute or so later, thunder and lightning crackling around them as they descended from the heavens. By this point, Altsoba, Ophelia, and Magnus had joined us, the three eager to get out and do something.
We had just finished mounting up when Spew Gorge came waddling out of the mythcrea quarters. “Don’t you fickin’ dare go to town without giving my ass a ride,” he said. “I’ll make my way back on my own, thank-you-very-much.”
Magnus offered the goblin his horse, and climbed on behind his dead bride, Ophelia, who was glad for him to join her. At least that’s what I took from the cracked grin on her face.
The trip to town this time was a blur; I’d grown used to the route and spent most of my time focusing on my riding. I didn’t know if I got the same horse every time, but I suspected I did, as my particular steed had a way that his body quivered when he picked up his pace.
We touched down at the same place we’d landed last night. The streets were much quieter, no parade, and it didn’t take us long to see the familiar Midnight Library sigh.
Our group entered to find the place just as empty as the streets outside, a slow night if I’d ever seen one. The two elves sat at the piano, each playing a single part of the seedy song.
The waiter walked us over to a table near the front, and Lady C. ordered a set of drinks and a round of books.
“This one is on the house,” the waiter said.
“You don’t have to do that,” I started to tell him.
“The owner insisted as part of your payment. The crowd will start arriving in twenty minutes, and they’re expecting a show.”
The waiter pointed toward a flier near the door that read DALTON AND THE ALPHA DUO.
Dalton and the Alpha Duo? I thought as I took in the flier, which was written in Old English with the name ‘Dalton’ in big, bold text.
“He’s pretty sly,” Iris said.
“That he is,” I told her as I waved her back to the green room. As we passed the stage, the two fairies nodded at us, and returned to their sheet music.
“Been waiting on you two,” Dalton said instead of ‘hello.’
A sexy drow with long black hair sat on the couch, a flirty smile on her face as we entered his dressing room. She wore a tight corset and a choker with a giant red jewel on it.
The drow never said anything as we spoke to Dalton, but her presence was always felt.
“Let’s give this crowd what they want tonight. Let’s build them up and then set them back down lightly. You see all those books in there?”
“Yes,” I said, not sure if he was serious.
“Those books need a show too. Let’s get them flying off the shelves with whatever we play. We’ll go with some of the choons we played last night. You two remember those?”
“Sure, I think,” said Iris.
“We could rehearse too, if you ever wanted to solidify those songs,” I offered.
Even though I couldn’t entirely see his face, I could see that Dalton was giving me a skeptical look. “And take away from the organic creation of the music? Ha!”
“Okay, so no rehearsal.”
“This is rehearsal, my boy! Now get your bass, warm up your fingers, take a hit off my hookah. Let’s make this a night they won’t forget!”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“I’ve got to get some rest tonight,” I told Iris as our NV Visors powered down.
What had started off as a pretty low-key performance ended with a packed audience, the ink shadow stagediving, which made no sense considering he could just elongate his body to the length of the room, and the two fairies on piano inviting another fairy up so they had three playing.
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