Crystal Shards Online Omnibus 1

by Rick Scott

  NO!!!!

  I act without thinking, flying forward with a Charge Strike. I kick up sand as I sail through the air and slam into the Guardian with my kunai. I land a critical hit, but its HP bar doesn’t even budge. My strike accomplishes what I wanted, though—I knock the huge barrel away from my brother.

  “Reece, be careful!” Rembrandt shouts, already pulling out his pistols. “That thing is seriously high level. It can kill you in a hit!”

  The thought had already crossed my mind, and I pray it’s not too late for Maxis. “Gilly! Get to Maxis! I’ll keep its attention.”

  “I’m on it!” she cries and raises her bow to cast a heal spell.

  I look at the Guardian up close. It’s nearly twice my height, with capabilities yet unknown. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I can’t be bothered to care about that right now.

  I need to save my brother.

  “Fight me!” I scream with a War Cry, and the Guardian turns to face me, its T-shaped visor glowing red.

  Oh crap . . .

  I brace myself for a serious fight as it swings its huge gun barrel in my direction. I cast Shadow Haste and manage to squeeze in a Shadow Copy right before it opens fire. The barrel flashes with bright orange flames, and my adrenaline surges as the world seems to slow. I pop Active Dodge to avoid whatever it’s shooting at me. I’m not sure if it’s the effect of my now 160 Agility or the wild, but I move much quicker than I expect, shifting in a blur of nano-dust as the projectiles pass right through me.

  But then something happens that scares the heck out of me.

  I dodge the shots, but when they land, they explode into balls of fire that wipe my shadow clean.

  AOEs!

  “Reece!” Aiko shouts, spraying a cloud of nano-dust from her palms as she runs toward me. “Get out of there!”

  Aiko casts Shadow Mist!

  The Guardian resists the slow!

  The Guardian resists the paralyze!

  The Guardian resists the poison!

  No surprises there. This thing is probably way too high level for any of our spells to land. My heart jackhammers in my chest as I struggle to plan my next move. I look for Maxis again and am relieved to see Val Helena carrying him away on her shoulder. Gilly casts her heal spell and, while I don’t see the usual white swirls of magic, I do see his HP bar go up to full. A wave of relief rushes through me.

  My brother’s safe, but I still have this Guardian to contend with.

  I swoop in and chop at its armored thigh to keep its attention. I land critical hits, but again, I don’t see it’s HP bar move at all. This thing’s armor is either impenetrable, or it’s got a ton of HP—maybe both! I use Retreat to gain some distance from it, and then sprint away in a zigzag pattern as it opens fire behind me.

  The ground explodes around me, to the left and the right, the projectiles landing where I’d been a split second ago, shooting sand high into the air. It stops shooting and begins running after me. Luring it away worked, I guess, but now I need some way to survive this thing’s attacks. I cast Shadow Copy and get an idea. If the Guardian is shooting constant AOEs, then I need some way to mitigate it.

  I materialize the Witch Spider’s ring in my palm. It’ll drain my HP with poison, but I’ll be able to get Shadow Copy up twice as fast. I’m about to place it on my finger when another round of explosions goes off right at my feet. The first one takes my shadow, and the second knocks me into the air with the force of a truck. Blinding pain radiates through every bone in my body as half my hit points disappear. I land on my back about twenty feet away, winded, my head spinning.

  What the heck just happened?

  I struggle to lift my head from the ground to find out what hit me. It didn’t come from the Guardian. I never saw it shoot another barrage. Thankfully, Aiko has its attention now, tanking it while Rembrandt peppers it with explosive blasts to its shoulder.

  I stand and glance about, only to spot another Guardian running in my direction. It’s all the way back by the carcass of the Builder. Over a half mile away!

  Holy crap! It managed to both see and target me from that far?

  I see more coming behind it, at least two or three, along with a pack of dogs that’s well ahead of them.

  My heart jumps into my throat. “Guys! More are coming!”

  “Bloody hell!” Rembrandt cries, looking back toward the Builder. “We’ve gotta run, NOW!”

  “Disengage!” Aiko says as she uses Retreat and Shadow Cloak to make the Guardian lose sight of her. I run toward Gilly, who’s with Val Helena and Maxis, the giantess helping my brother to his feet.

  “Come on, guys!” I say. “We need to go!”

  My brother focuses on me, but his eyes are unreadable. I can’t tell if he’s mad, or embarrassed, or what. “Rem, get us out of here,” he says, assuming the position of leadership again. He looks over my shoulder to where the dogs and Guardians approach in the distance. “We’ll have to go for broke now. There’s no stopping until we hit the safe zone.”

  Crap! I look to Gilly. “You okay?”

  She gives me a nod. “You don’t look so good, though.” She raises her bow, and I feel the pain in my body ease as my HP goes to full. “There.”

  “Thanks,” I say. “Let’s move!”

  We begin to run, and I get about ten feet before something digs at the back of my mind. Like I’m forgetting something. I look back for Rem, to make sure he’s with us, but the cyberpunker is already running next to me.

  “I managed to land a stun on the Guardian,” he says, taking the lead. “This way!”

  I take a few more steps before my stomach drops through the floor as I finally remember what it is.

  The ring!

  I never got to put it on, and it’s no longer in my inventory.

  Crap!

  I stop dead in my tracks and turn about, helplessly scanning the dunes. “Guys! We need to go back! I lost the ring!”

  “What?” Maxis says, slamming to a halt. “What ring?”

  “The Witch Spider ring!”

  “You’ve got to be kidding!” Aiko suddenly reappears next to me. “You lost it?”

  The Guardian reanimates and my brother lets loose with a curse. “Forget about it! We’ve got to go!”

  “No!” Aiko says. “We can’t fight the Shadow King without it!”

  Rembrandt steps forward, his shades already glowing as he scans the sands. “Keep that thing busy, Max. I’ll find it!”

  “Damn it all to hell!” my brother mutters, but he flexes in a martial pose. “You got 30 seconds!”

  Maxis uses Fists of Rage!

  Damage and critical attacks greatly increased.

  Defense and health greatly reduced.

  Val Helena grips his shoulder with concern. “Maxis, what are you doing?”

  He gives her a tough-guy grin. “Relax. That first hit was a lucky shot. I never lose to these things.”

  I watch, half-mesmerized and half-horrified, as my brother charges across the sand toward the Guardian, just as it raises its weapon to shoot at us. He flies forward with a triple kick, knocking the massive gun barrel into the air. He then wails on its armored leg with his fists, the sounds of ringing metal echoing across the desert like he’s punching a church bell. Its hit points still don’t move, but then its leg explodes and a two-inch-thick plate of armor comes flying off.

  The Guardian falls to one knee, temporarily stunned.

  “Don’t just stand there!” Maxis shouts at me. “Find your stupid ring!”

  I snap out of my awe-induced trance and run toward where Rembrandt is scouring the ground.

  “Do you remember where, exactly?” he asks.

  I look for where I fell and point to that general area. “Around there, I think.”

  We rush over and Rembrandt immediately starts digging through the sand. I look back for the other Guardians in the distance and see that they’re halfway to us. The dogs, however, are nearly on top of us, just a few hundred feet away. Fear
rises in my chest, and I almost consider leaving the ring.

  But I drop to my knees instead, rifling through the sand with fervor. I nearly died for that ring. Aiko, too. It’s the one thing that makes the Shadow King seem a little less frightening than it probably is, at least in my mind.

  “Got it!” Rembrandt shouts. He picks something from out the sand and tosses it to me.

  I catch the ring in the air, thanking the stars. I secure it in my inventory just as an explosion rips between us.

  KA-BOOM!

  I’m blown back in a wave of heat and lose a quarter of my hit points.

  I hit the ground in a daze and then my heart stops when I hear a shrill cry from Gilly. “REM!!”

  Oh God . . . no . . . not Rem!

  I shake my head and am half relieved to see the cyberpunker still alive, but he’s clutching his left shoulder where his arm used to be. Holy crap! “Rem!”

  He grits his teeth in pain, his HP bar barely a sliver and deep in the red. I hear the snap and growl of the sentries as the beasts crest the top of rise, ready to descend upon him. No! I’ve got to keep them away from him. I rush to Rembrandt’s side and cast Shadow Mist at the three wolf-like sentries as they descend down the slope of the dune in a charge.

  The nano-dust falls upon them, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect.

  Crap!

  I shout at them with a War Cry, making sure they attack me and not Rembrandt. I force myself into the zone despite the turmoil running through my mind. I get a quick stab in on each of them with my blades, and then shift on the balls of my feet to avoid the three sets of claws and bites that follow. I don’t succeed at all of them, though, and take a nasty swipe to my leg.

  “Argh!” Searing hot pain runs through my leg and I lose another chunk of my HP bar.

  The Lupine Sentry hits you!

  You take 247 damage.

  “Reece!” I hear Gilly’s voice cry out behind me.

  I turn to see her kneeling down, tending to Rembrandt, her bow raised in casting. His HP bar fills as his arm miraculously reconstructs itself, growing into existence in a line of sparking nano-dust, just like when we were being printed for the first time.

  “Just run!” Rembrandt says, struggling to his feet. “Run!”

  “No, you go!” I shout. “I’ll buy you some time!”

  I use my Active Dodge to avoid the next round of attacks from the three wolves. In my scant seconds of invulnerability, I catch a glimpse of Val Helena and Aiko hammering away at the weak spot Maxis made in the Guardian’s armor. The thing looks stunned, and surprisingly, they have it down to three-quarters of its health. I look for my brother next, but I don’t see him.

  Then suddenly, he appears, landing behind the wolves in a spray of sand as he slams his feet into the ground.

  Maxis uses Floor Stomp!

  A Lupine Sentry is stunned!

  A Lupine Sentry is stunned!

  A Lupine Sentry is stunned!

  “Go!” he screams at me. “While they’re stunned!” He looks back over his shoulder toward Aiko and Val. “I got him! Go!”

  Val and Aiko disengage from the still stunned Guardian and I heed my brother’s words, doing the same. I focus on Rembrandt and Gilly, already running ahead of us. The ground trembles beneath my feet and I sink into the sand a few inches as it liquefies.

  What the heck?

  I look over my shoulder and see Maxis, Aiko, and Val Helena doing the same. What could have caused the ground to shake like that? I immediately think of the Omega, but that thing was over half a mile away. I look toward the skeletal remains of the Builder, anyway, but I don’t see the giant anywhere. I scan a bit further ahead and finally see the hundred-foot-tall suit of armor now almost halfway to us!

  “What the . . . ?” I look to my friends. “You guys see that? How did it move so far so fa—?”

  I stop midsentence as the enormous suit of armor shoots into the sky at tremendous speed, literally disappearing before my eyes. I lose sight of it in the darkened clouds until, a moment later, the Omega comes crashing down on the other side of the sand dune, less than thirty feet away.

  HOLY CRAP!!!

  I’m thrown off my feet as a wave of liquefied sand radiates outward, half burying me as well as the dogs and the damaged Guardian. I try to regain my footing as I struggle to comprehend what the heck just happened.

  “Did you see that?!” Val Helena cries in alarm.

  “Holy crap . . .” Maxis echoes my thoughts out loud. “We need to run. Now!”

  “How?” Aiko says. “That thing just jumped a quarter of a mile in two seconds!”

  The massive being, crouched now from its landing, slowly begins to rise to its full height, stealing my breath as my mind goes blank gawking at it.

  Omega

  Level: 220

  No data available

  Affinity: N/A

  No way . . . something like this can’t possibly be for real.

  “What do we do?” Val Helena shouts.

  I wrack my brain for an answer. We can’t run, but maybe we still have time to hide. It didn’t move until the dogs found us, so they must have alerted it somehow. If we can get away from the dogs . . .

  “Aiko! Use Shadow Wall! If we get out of range of the dogs, I don’t think it will be able to track us!”

  “I hope you’re right!” she says, and the three of them disappear as Aiko casts the spell. I hope I am, too. Rembrandt and Gilly are too far away to gain the effect of Aiko’s spell, as am I. I look for Gilly and see that she and Rem are at a standstill a good hundred feet away, staring up at the Omega.

  “Gilly, Rem, run!” I say through the party chat as I sprint toward them.

  “We’re not cloaked!” Gilly says.

  “I got you,” I say. “Just go!”

  They finally take off running and I pop a Charge Strike, using it for movement rather than attack, skirting across the sand to instantly close the gap. I cast Shadow Wall and envelop us just as the titan stands to its full height. I look over my shoulder at the massive figure now scanning the rolling dunes for us. The dogs seem distracted, too, fighting over what I think is the remains of Rembrandt’s arm.

  “I think we got away guys . . .” I say.

  “Not yet,” Maxis says. “We’re not safe till we hit that barrier.”

  I get a PM.

  Maxis: And when we do . . . we’re going to have a talk.

  Chapter 38: Secrets Told

  We run flat-out for an hour straight until finally, I see the edge of the safe zone come within view. No one talks. The tension is way too high following what we just experienced, and no one can wait to be back in the comfort of a world that doesn’t have hundred-foot-tall monsters that can jump a quarter mile.

  Or at least, I can’t.

  “Just run straight through,” Maxis says without pause. “Keep our Invis up.”

  No one questions it. We just go for broke.

  Rembrandt, however, does change our course a little. He aims us toward a piece of open space as far away from the packs of roaming sentries as possible. I refresh our Shadow Wall right before we hit the line of watch towers. I feel for Gilly’s hand and grab it before pouring on the speed.

  Thankfully, the packs of dogs seem far enough away still, and only a handful of them react to our presence as we dash though the barrier wall and re-enter the safe zone. The sky brightens immediately, and I feel a huge anxiety lift from my chest.

  We made it . . .

  As the Shadow Wall spell wears off and we fade into existence, several messages scroll onto my HUD.

  [Host domain found . . . ]

  [Connecting . . . success!]

  [Your domain is now: Karlis. Certain functions and Quest lines may be unavailable.]

  [Notice: Some Quests have become unavailable/obsolete.]

  [Quest: Defeat Jötunn has expired or become obsolete.]

  Weird. Maybe entering the wild reset a whole bunch of stuff. I look to Gilly, her hand still withi
n mine. I smile at her, and she manages to smile back. She’s breathing heavily, like I am, and we both stumble toward a small outcropping of black rocks to sit upon. The rest of the party does the same, collapsing in heaps of exhaustion.

  I take in our surroundings to determine where we are. The terrain has changed considerably from the other side of the mountains. The mountains themselves jut sharply into the sky behind me, which I guess is to the south. There are more mountains to the north, tall and snowcapped, but where we are is absent of snow, and it actually feels a bit warm for being this far north. The ground, too, looks out of place— black shale covering the ground like chipped asphalt.

  “You okay?” I ask, looking to Gilly.

  She nods. “I am now. That was crazy.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Are you okay, Rem?” Gilly asks the cyberpunker, no doubt referring to his arm.

  Rembrandt wipes a handful of sweat from his bald head. “Good as new, Gills. Thanks for that.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Val Helena says, her eyes staring ahead of her into space. “That Omega . . .”

  “Yeah,” Aiko says. “Good thing they can’t enter the safe zones.”

  “No kidding,” I say.

  As I speak, my brother darts his eyes to me.

  “Let’s go,” he says.

  He stands up, and the rest of the group goes quiet. I sigh and reluctantly stand, as well. Guess it’s time to face the music. Gilly gives me a little nod and squeezes my hand. “You guys will be all right. Just talk it out.”

  “Thanks, Gilly.”

  I hope she’s right.

  * * *

  I follow Maxis around a small bend, out of sight and earshot of the rest of the group. He folds his arms as he puts his back to me. I’m not sure what he’s about to say, but I decide to beat him to the punch.

  “Look, I’m sorry I lied about everything, okay? You’re right to be pissed at me.”

  He doesn’t say anything for a moment, and then he turns around. “You’re damn right I’m right to be pissed. I feel like punching your stupid block off!”