Dubstep Succubus

by Aaron Siverling

“Or ‘Act your age’.”

  “Well it's not as bad as that,” she protested.

  “Well, no. If he had said that he would already be on the ground, squealing as his face was getting ripped off. But still ‘Your betters’?”

  We both looked over at the Elf who was growing more and more angry as we spoke.

  Then Cherish said, “The two of us maybe pretty mellow but if you said that to another Fallen then… well…”

  He glared at Cherish and said, "You bumped into me."

  "And apologized," she replied. "What? Are you going to challenge me to a dual?"

  A crowd had started to form and the Half-elf looked around before saying in loud and formal voice, "I, Robert Dedham, have been offended and declare a challenge."

  Cherish stared. "What? Really?"

  He smiled nastily at her. "Since I have issued the challenge the… Lady will pick the time and place of the duel and if she loses she will be obligated to… recompense me for the insult."

  I did not like the way he said "recompense".

  The crowd murmured at this and I glanced at Cherish but whatever I had intended to say died a quick death when I saw the look on her face.

  She was smiling. Sweetly. Too sweetly.

  I've seen carnivorous roses made of meat on Midian that were less menacing. I raised my hands in a "I'm out!" gesture and took several steps to the side.

  Cherish, still smiling, walked up to the haughty Half-elf until she was close enough to stare right up into his face. Then she said in a loud and carrying voice, "Agreed. We fight here and now."

  Robert smiled smugly. "Very well! Draw your aaahheeeeee…"

  As soon as he agreed to the fight Cherish reached forward, grabbed him between the legs and squeezed.

  The scream Robert produced rapidly rose in pitch even as his body slowly crumpled to the ground.

  Cherish waited until his head was level with hers, reared back and slammed her forehead against his nose, spraying blood mist everywhere.

  The competing sources of pain seemed to momentarily shock and numb the Half-elf, his scream ending with a whimper.

  With tears streaming down his face and his blood crawling through the air toward Cherish, he stared into her still sweetly smiling face uncomprehendingly.

  Then she lurched forward, her head slamming into him again while she simultaneously yanked up with the hand gripping him.

  She let go while he was momentary airborne, stepped forward, and helped his head to the street with a booted stomp. The sound of its impact was like a melon being hit with a shovel. His backside hit the ground a second later.

  The people watching were dead silent as Cherish stepped back, looked up at the crowd and asked, "I win right?"

  More silence.

  Then, a slow clap.

  Then another and another, until there was a cascading applause. The roar of cheers all came from women raising their voices in approval. All the males were silent and instinctively cringing.

  Except for me of course. I was the one who started the slow clap.

  She walked back to me all careless smiles on the outside but inside she said, "Okay, we really gotta go before he recovers because I am NOT a direct combat player."

  I sent her my agreement and we quickly, but not too quickly, left the scene.

  We talked as we went but it wasn't because we had something of substance to say. It was to distract each other from our impending separation.

  “So, do you think I was just a tad too violent?”

  "Whaaaat? Noooo." I smiled happily. "You totally had a good reason. Whenever someone tries to make you recompense them. Do that again. I was inclined to do much worse to him."

  "Yes, but you are definitely too violent."

  “What? Me? I'm not violent. Not violent at all!"

  “Uh huh. Sure…”

  “Hey! I am a kind and forgiving person!” I protested. "And anyone who says otherwise is gonna get their skull stomped!”

  “That's not very kind.”

  “I said skull. Not groin. Therefore, kind. In fact! I would go as far to say I am too kind.”

  “I wouldn't.”

  “Its true. People in the past have tried to take advantage of my kind and forgiving nature. But that's all in the past! From now on, the first time someone tries to take advantage of me, the first time! I'm stomping skulls until brains start oozing through the cracks. And then! I'll stomp some more.”

  “But if it's the first time… how is that forgiving?”

  “Simple. First I stomp their skull,” I explained. "Then, I forgive them. Or I could forgive them… and then stomp their skull."

  I paused. "Or I guess I could forgive them while stomping their skull. I mean, at any part of the murderfication and body disposal process I could forgive them for taking advantage of my kindness.” I smiled at her and said, “Thank you! I will remember this for future reference! Wait, what were we talking about?”

  “Ruin,” Cherish said.

  “Well yes, we were talking about me, obviously. Because. I am. Awesome.”

  “We're here.”

  I stopped, realizing that the gate guards were looking at me with concern and I may have gotten a little too loud.

  I looked at Cherish, she looked back. Then she burst into tears and wrapped me in a hug. Her emotions were a tangle of loneliness and loss, fear and frustration, anger and guilt.

  "I should have expected this," I said as I held her close.

  I whispered comforting words, mental and verbal, all overlapping with each other.

  I opened my mind to hers, shared my own fear, my own heartache. I pressed so close to her that our perceptions of each others bodies overlapped.

  We didn't fall down this time, just stood together. Physically and mentally. She felt my own pain, gave me her love and sympathy, while I did the same with her.

  She calmed down quicker than usual, possibly due to the whole shared emotions thing.

  We pulled back our hearts, our minds and our bodies, far enough to stand on our own, without being alone.

  Cherish sniffed. "Sorry about that.”

  I shrugged. "You know what Four says.”

  We smiled as we spoke in chorus, "Never apologize for your tears. Only for being the cause of another's."

  Then I added, “And remember what Three always said.”

  With a silly grin she said, “The neurotransmitter called acetylcholine is triggered by an intense emotional response as a form of nonverbal communication that also assists in expelling intense emotions and is therefore useful in balancing your emotional state.”

  I blinked. "You remembered that?"

  "Well, it was always some variation of that.” Then she made this weird dreamy sigh and her thoughts went kinda…

  I pulled my mind away and cleared my throat. She jumped and smiled sheepishly.

  Then, we looked at each other for a long moment and hugged goodbye one last time.

  Then, I walked out of the gate.

  Then, I clutched me head and screamed, “NOOOO!”

  “What?!” Cherish yelled. “What is it?!”

  I turned around and looked at her in horror. “I missed it! How could I of missed it? What is wrong with me!”

  “What!”

  “Alonzo…” I winced. “It was a perfect opportunity. And I missed it. I should've said ‘Allons-y Alonzo’ but I didn’t think of it! What is WRONG with me?”

  Cherish stared at me for a long moment before glaring at me. “Ruin! You get that scrawny little Elf butt into that forest now! The sooner you do that, the sooner I can tell Five about this and the sooner she will smack you into oblivion!”

  “Well if you put it like that…”

  “GO!”

  “I’m going. I’m going. Jeez…”

  Chapter Eighteen: I'm A Ninja.

  “Wait! Wait!”

  “Oh come on!” I turned around. "I haven't even made it twenty feet yet!”

  Cherish ran up to me and said, “He
re. I forgot all about these. They're health, stamina and magic potions.”

  She pulled out a handful of colored vials from her bag, opened mine and dropped them in. She said they were color coded in the traditional colors.

  "I know you won't need this but…" She handed me a butterfly knife. "I scooped this up when nobody was looking. I thought Five might like it. Give it to her as a present from you."

  I grinned. "Oh, she'll love it! She had one of these on the Outside and was not happy when she had to leave it sticking out of a Punishers body armor."

  "You two have the weirdest stories." Cherish smiled fondly at me before saying, "I also got her a present from me, I found it while looking through the weapon shops."

  She handed me a pair of brass knuckles. Well, steel knuckles. Eh, I'll just call them knuckle dusters.

  "This also has a shock enchantment on it, though its weaker than the one on the knife. Neither are at a high level enough to penetrate armor but on skin it should do some damage."

  I put the presents in my bag and hugged her one last time. Seriously, the last time.

  She kissed me on the cheek, turned around and walked back into the city.

  “Also, I just remembered," she smirked at me over her shoulder, "we can communicate like this. So contact me every night and tell me about your progress.”

  I agreed and continued down the road. We talked for about an hour and a half until it started to be a drain on my magic.

  While we talked I pushed myself hard, alternating between running as fast as I could and walking while sipping on a stamina potion. I made pretty good time until the potion ran out.

  After that I decided to keep the others in reserve and had to go at a slower pace.

  While walking and running I practiced my spells. I tried casting Bounce from my hand while Ghost Fire was already active and I got the same rebounding effect I’d experienced in the alley.

  Doing the same with Force Spike caused the same result.

  I tired casting Force Spike and Bounce at the same time with the same hand and as I did I found that holding two different spells in my mind at the same time was surprisingly difficult.

  When I did manage to cast them there was no rebounding but my hand spasmed with pain and the magic splashed out violently.

  Next I cast Force Spike and Bounce, one in each hand. It was still difficult, but when they were successfully cast everything worked the way it was supposed to.

  The same happened when I tried casting Ghost Fire and the other spells with separate hands.

  Except, even though I had been thinking of Ghost Fire a spell it wasn’t. It was an ability and abilities worked differently. Abilities were all instinctive knowledge we were, not born with but, I guess reborn with.

  I guessed that since Ghost Fire was protective and defended against physical and magical attacks I couldn't cast magic through it.

  I continued practicing, filling the Bounce spell's form with magic, sometimes releasing it and other items just holding it. Tweaking it's form over and over. Trying to find out the best way for the magic to flow.

  I was pretty sure that Force Spike couldn't be improved anymore. I knew I could turn the spike into a spear with a different shape but wasn't sure if I wanted to invest time into it.

  I practiced making my cast time as fast as possible. As well as casting, and holding, multiple spell forms in my head at once.

  My Ghost Fire ability cast at the speed of thought and I had no problem using it with multiple spells.

  I did find out that I could push more energy into it. However, all that seemed to do was make it burn brighter.

  I came to a sign like the one Aeria and I came across before, except this one said town instead of village.

  “They really need to update their signs,” I said, then sniffed thoroughly around.

  Finding nothing, I continued down the road for a few minutes until it happened. It was faint, barely there but it was there.

  Her scent triggered memories that flooded my mind and drowned out the rest of the world.

  Laying on the cold concrete floor. Our eyes closed and our faces inches apart as we feigned sleep but talked and laughed and joked within Midian. A smell that was all her, one of the few real things in a world of plastic.

  Another flashback of us in the tangled underground tunnels. The smell of dust and wet cement mingled with her scent as we huddled together under a grate. Watching the police pass over us.

  Then it was her hand holding mine, running away from the police. From their tasers, their riot guns and their foam spray cuffs.

  We hadn't known each other's names, but we didn't need to. Together we ran and ran and fought and escaped. Over and over until we were exhausted. Then we ran some more, together, until we were cornered and brought down.

  I shook my head and took a deep breath. "Focus, Ruin.”

  I walked in circles, trying to find a trail until I found a pair of footprints, not sandal prints.

  There had been too much traffic down the road to know for sure but I was pretty sure they belonged to her.

  I hesitated, looked around, then sighed as I bent down to one print and took a long wiff.

  "Yep. That's her.” I coughed. "Okay. When I tell this story I'm leaving this part out."

  I tracked her by her foot prints and by scent whenever possible. Running across piles of former Whatsits as I did. Lots and lots of piles. There were even a few Snickersnacks as well.

  That made me worried but the lack of blood smell cheered me. Until I remembered I probably wouldn't smell it unless she was actively bleeding. So the idea just made me worry more.

  I tossed my worry worms into the dirt of my mind and set the Rooster Of Unearned Confidence on them.

  Then I frowned. "Hmm, I have this sudden worry that I might give the figments of my mind too much power over me. Oh look!" I smiled happily. "Mr. Rooster got another worm! Huh, what was I talking about? Eh, probably not important."

  Okay, so I was bored. It happens when you used to live a life of constant mental stimulation. The only thing that kept my empty brain from collapsing in on itself, a brain that was once filled with music, movies, books and conversations, was my constant spell practice.

  At least it wasn't nearly as bad as the first days in the Grey Hell. Being cut off from the internet was like losing a limb that also contained a chunk of your brain.

  Psychotic breaks hadn't been common only because were so exhausted at the time.

  After that, we had to deal with multitasking between the Grey Hell's input and our new life within the game worlds.

  Now though, I was getting really bored and the practice only helped until I ran out of magic.

  I slowed to a jog, made sure I hadn't lost her trail and decided that now would be a good time to allocate my essence.

  Name: Ruin The Heartless

  Race: Savage Kin (Midian Wood Elf)

  Class: Force Mage (Rank: Basic. Level 9)

  Level: 1

  Body:

  Strength - 3.1

  Speed - 3.6

  Agility - 4.2

  Dexterity - 3.8

  Endurance - 3.6

  Vitality:

  Resistance - 2.2

  Regeneration - 2.1

  Spirit:

  Spark - 2.1

  Regeneration - 4.0

  It looked like my speed and endurance went up and I was glad to see that pushing myself was having an effect. Even if the gains were small compared to leveling in other game worlds.

  I looked at the amount of essence I could invest and groaned. I really wanted to be able to transform, but I also needed to get stronger.

  “Okay Ruin, you don't have Three to help you make the best build. You need to be smart about this.”

  Then I froze as a Snickersnack walked out of the forest.

  The creatures head swiveled around on its long neck like the world's most hideous periscope.

  I didn't move, hoping that whatever it used to hunt relied on soun
d or some sort of tremor sense.

  It's head faced me and went still. Then it was charging me and was dumping all my experience into Speed.

  Now, I know what you're thinking because I've heard it all before.

  You're thinking “Ruin! Noooooo!”

  Well, shut up. The last time I fought one of these I needed a healer to put me back together. A healer I didn't have at the moment.

  Which is why I was back pedaling as fast as I could while shouting, “No no no no no no no no!” as all my heroically earned essence I'd stolen from those I'd murdered was spilling directly into my speed stat.

  The creature was too fast and when it got to me I sparked and burned magic to jump a good fifteen feet in the air.

  It skidded to a halt and looked around, its head twisting this way and that, not realizing I was above it.

  It was still looking when my Speed stat finally filled to 4.3 and I dropped the book, letting it fold back into itself and disappear.

  I grinned and summoned Ghost Fire to my hands as I started to fall. When the Nilum did look up its head tilted sideways in an almost comical expression as I fell towards it.

  I was crouched in the air, classic comic book feral hero style. With fangs bared in a savage grin and flaming claws of death about to make a kill. Ya, I looked awesome

  In that moment I was a living, Heavy Metal album cover.

  “Ruin? Is this a good time?”

  “Mother pus bucket!” I jerked violently in surprise.

  The Snickersnack shied to the side and I barely managed a magic assisted sidekick into the creatures flank that sent me into a skidding roll.

  I kept rolling until I came to a sudden stop against a tree with a painful bone jarring thump.

  Luckily the kick seemed to have done some damage because it took some time for the creature to get back to its feet. Enough time for me to get up and charge forwards.

  “Ruin, helloooo? Is this thing on?”

  I felt a thread of worry from Cherish so I sent back a quick confirmation while ducking under a razor toothed strike and slashing at its neck with my claws.

  “Okay. Good. I was worried you were in trouble.”

  “What's wrong?” I sent back as I uncast Ghost Fire on one hand and shoved a Force Spike into one of the creatures front knees.

  “Well I wanted your input about rap and hip hop songs.”