Before the trio could reach the gates, a lone man clothed in a black robe stepped out of a side alley and approached the guards.
“I am the great explorer, Thomas the Shadow,” he claimed, grandiosely flicking out his cape. “Allow me to dispatch these troublesome monsters for you, at absolutely no charge.”
“Hey, it’s that guy from the pawn shop!” Isaac exclaimed in recognition of the player that had been arguing with the shopkeep.
“That noob’s gonna hog all the glory!” Charles groaned, holding a hand to his helmet.
The guards seemed to consider it for a bit, then with a nod between two of them, they unbolted the gate, and stepped back.
Calmly, the caped man strode through, drawing a long rapier as he went and procuring a wide-brimmed hat from under his cloak.
“You show them, Adventurer!” one of the guards yelled, pumping his fist in the air.
“Hohoho, this is but a mere trifle,” the man said, turning around and flipping his hat. “After all, I am…”
A Muggmite charged the man’s unprotected back, spear held high.
“...Thomas the Shadow!” In the blink of an eye, the man vanished from the spot he had stood and was behind the Muggmite, his rapier cleanly piercing the chest of the beast.
Flicking his needle-like blade from the creature, it fell to the ground with a spurt of blood. The player nimbly dispatched the rest of the small party of Muggmites in a like manner, using quick bursts of speed that made him appear to almost teleport.
“Hey, he’s not bad!” Charles approved grudgingly.
Lumbering towards the lone player, a pair of hulking, hairy Muggish brutes grinned in anticipation, one gripping a pair of bladed knuckledusters, the other holding a spear twice the length of the player. Unlike their Muggmite and Mugg cousins, Trallugs stood an easy 9-10 feet in height, and were all rippling sinew under their shaggy grey coats. Also, their lower canines jutted so far out of their mouth that they extended beyond the top of their ashen muzzles, giving them a primal, boar-like appearance.
“Trallugs!” Isaac stated the obvious.
“Two at once, hmmm?” Thomas scoffed. “I suppose I should get serious now.”
Flicking his cloak out to his side, he muttered a skill activation. “CITAR!” he exclaimed, revealing the red lining under his cape.
On cue, the beasts charged the lone man, the first delivering an overhead smash with both hands to where the player was standing. With a tip of his hat, he dropped the cloak, twisting himself out of the way as it was pounded into the dust. Dodging behind the creature, he sprung himself backwards into the air, leveling his blade over his shoulder at the Trallug’s exposed neck. “DESCABELLAR!” he intoned, running the beast through cleanly.
Landing nimbly next to the dying creature, he took off his hat. “BRINDIS,” he declared solemnly, cleaning his blade. “I dedicate this opponent’s death to my onlookers.” With a pompous flourish, he drew a new cape from his pouch and fastened it to his shoulders.
A cheer erupted from the crowd as Thomas made an elegant leg to his viewers. Suddenly, the cheer died in their throats as the second Trallug launched its spear, the weapon slipping through the player and imbedding itself in the ground, propping him up.
Isaac groaned, Charles looked a little sick, and Tenshi simply looked on with rapt attention at the scene unfolding.
As the Trallug moved to retrieve its weapon, suddenly the man moved!
“A fine throw.” He nodded twice, lifting his cape to reveal where the spear had passed by his chest, only lightly clipping his ribs. “Fortunately, BRINDIS protects me from the next attack that would hit me.”
Rising to his feet, he faced the enraged creature, tipping it his hat. “Would you care for a second try, sir?”
With a growl, the monster charged the man, drawing a wickedly curved sickle from a sheath on its back.
“PARAR,” the man intoned, drawing a line in the dirt in front of him and planting his feet firm, the cocky smirk gone from his face.
The creature almost upon him, at the last moment Thomas swiped himself to the side, whipping a spare cape from under his shirt and passing it over the creature’s head. “GAONERA!” he yelled, as the Trallug skidded to a stop, turning around to face him again. “Have at me again, sir. Third time’s the charm, and all that.”
Pawing the ground, the Trallug breathed deep, building up energy. On the opposite side, Thomas leapt back a few paces, tracing symbols in the air with his light rapier.
Finally, the Trallug broke into a charge again, spittle flying from its parted lips, its eyes red with bloodlust. In response, the player surprisingly also charged at it! “ARRANCAR!” he yelled, activating another skill as his legs began to blur with the speed.
“What’s he doing, the fool?!?” Charles moaned, holding his helmet with both hands.
“That’s the starting move of his best combo!” Isaac explained, as Thomas neared the beast.
Flipping his sword from his right hand to his left, Thomas leveled the blade at the creature and held it straight ahead, even as the monster swung down with its sickle, on a direct path for his head. Suddenly, Thomas skidded to the side, twisting himself under his left arm and popping up at the side of the creature as it surged past, his trailing cape sweeping over the beast’s eyes. “CRUZAR!” he yelled, flicking his rapier like a whip as he carved an elaborate cursive “T” on the beast’s flank. Finishing with a flick of his cape, he intoned the third and final command of his combo, his back to his opponent. “SALIDA.”
“He and the Trallug are now marked for death with each other!” Isaac exclaimed, his hands tightening around his weapon with excitement. “No outside help can interfere with either participant now!"
“Time to finish this.” Thomas pressed his hat tight on his head. “One more strike ought to do the trick.”
The Trallug in desperation threw its sickle at Thomas’s unprotected back, just as Thomas muttered his final command. “CAMBIO!” he intoned as the sickle sliced deep into his back.
…Or at least it would have, had he still been there.
The Trallug stared in disbelief at the fluttering cape cloven in two by the thrown sickle, the only visible remnant of the player. The creature was even more surprised as the long end of Thomas’ rapier slipped effortlessly through its back, emerging in front of its reddened eyes, before they clouded over forever.
Standing and bowing once more to his audience, Thomas flicked the cloak he had discarded at the beginning of the fight, fastening it back over his shoulders.
“How did he do that?” Charles asked Isaac. “I blinked and missed it!”
“His skill CAMBIO, or “Change”, is based on when Toreros swap out in bullfighting,” Isaac explained. “It allows him to abandon one of his capes and remerge at the location of any of his other capes, similar to swapping off with a backup. He must have planned to lose his first cape early in the fight all along!”
The assembled crowd showered Thomas with applause as he strode back towards the city walls, the hoard of Muggmites behind him already backing off.
“I’ll leave the rest of this to you guards.” He grinned. “As for me, I think I’ll…”
He paused in mid-sentence, looking down at the deep red patch of blood that seemed to be spreading across his chest.
“AAAAUUUUUUGHHH!!!” he screamed in agony, wriggling while seemingly suspended by an invisible force.
“Never turn your back on the enemy,” Tenshi stated, flicking back her hair.
“Hey Charles, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Isaac gulped, unable to take his eyes off the man now hanging limply in the air, blood dripping onto the field. “What happens if you die in this world?”
“I’ve only seen it happen one other time,” Charles answered, also transfixed by the grim spectacle. “The traumatic agony of experiencing a realistic death aside, once you die BRYZ erases every mention of you from anything connected to it, be it social media, birth record, bank accounts, credit cards, even your citizenship. Everything runs on BRYZ, so when you die in this world, it’s like you never existed in the other.”
“Hold it, hold it, hold it!” Isaac stammered, his eyes wide. “I didn’t design that kind of feature! In my world, if you die, you just drop your inventory, and respawn at the nearest Resurrection Shrine! When I first joined, I spawned next to one!”
“Those things?” Charles scoffed. “Those fountains are pretty much a cruel joke. All they do is record the names of the players that died in the surrounding area.”
“Look there,” Tenshi interrupted.
With a final gurgle, the man went limp, and was seemingly dropped to the ground. However, that was not what all eyes in the area were fixed on. There, materializing out of nowhere stood a lone figure completely shrouded in an ankle-length hooded brown cloak. Flicking the blood off their katana, the hooded figure gave a deep sigh, then turned to face the city.
Hefting their katana, the lone figure pointed it in the direction of Isaac’s party and the gathered onlookers and spoke three words in a tired, empty voice.
“Kill them all.”
With a unified yell, the army of monsters charged headlong towards the city gates!
“What the heck is that?!?” Isaac yelled, pointing at the katana-wielding figure. “Where did they come from? Why are they commanding the monsters?”
“You tell me, Mr. Game Designer!” Charles yelled back. “You made this game, you oughta know what you put in it!”
“We do not have time for this,” Tenshi interjected, pointing towards the gate with her gun barrel.
Through the wide-open doors, the two could glimpse the first waves of a large force of Muggish monsters, armed with polearms, bows, and everything in between.
Looking around, Isaac noticed the gate-guards had vanished, as had the rest of the nearby adventurers and onlookers.
“I see civil servants are just as useful in this world,” Charles chuckled dryly. “Looks like it’s up to us.” Hefting his sword experimentally in his hand, he suddenly broke into a charge straight towards the oncoming hoard. “BY SAINT GEOOOOOORGE!” he yelled, clearing the gates and running madly towards the cloaked figure.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Isaac moaned, cocking the hammer on his pistol and following him.
Wordlessly, Tenshi ran after the two, easily outdistancing both of them and grabbing Charles by the nape of his armour.
“Okay Isaac.” Charles blocked an arrow with his shield as Tenshi dragged him over to the waiting Minioneer by the gate. “What kind of foes are we up against, here? I see some of those goblin-like things we fought earlier.”
“Definitely a group of assorted Muggish,” Isaac asserted, surveying the area. “The little grey nippers are Muggmite Mobs, the same type we’ve fought before, the nasty human-sized burgundy guys are Muggs, equal to one player and known as Commons, and the giant bear-like brutes are Trallugs, classified as Elites and capable of probably taking on two of us.”
Isaac ducked under an arrow and considered the options. “All in all, as none of you guys can use fire, we’re at a major disadvantage,” he continued. “If you weren’t our only melee fighter, I would suggest a melee front line taking the standard foes and covering the ranged line, as Tenshi uses her grenades to take down the minis, while I snipe at the giants.”
“Not a bad plan.” Charles tightened his grip on his sword. “However, there’s no way I can hold off all those front-liners by myself.”
“What up, nerds!” a familiar voice rang out from behind the group. “Need a hand?”
Turning around, the party saw the unmistakable figure of Nor striding up to them, followed by another familiar girl.
“Oh joy.” Charles chuckled dryly, recognizing the second as the very girl that had rejected him yesterday. “I was just thinking how much I needed a gorilla girl to make my day even worse.”
“Oh hell no, did you plan this out too?” Marie asked, looking him up and down. “At least you remembered your shirt today.”
“You don’t deserve me without a shirt!” Charles shot back indignantly.
“You know, I think I’ll manage somehow.” She sighed.
Turning to Isaac, she broke into a broad smile and offered her hand. “We didn't get a chance to properly introduce ourselves yesterday. The name’s Alexandra Lebrun, but my friends call me Marie, my middle name. I’m an Improv-Style Brawler, and I guarantee I can hold my own in battle. I overheard your plan, Nor and I’ll provide you cover, don’t worry!”
“Don’t hold me back now!” Nor called out from behind.
“Oh, cool. My name’s Isaac, a Minioneer,” he replied on instinct, taken aback by the girl’s change in attitude. “Nice to have you on board.”
“Alex?!?” Charles struggled to contain his laugher. “God, that’s such a butch name. Pffft! No really, it’s perfect for you. Khhhhk!”
“Oh, go to hell!” Marie flushed, flipping off Charles. “It’s not like I got to pick it.”
“Alex is a good strong name,” Tenshi patted her shoulder. “It brings to mind Alexander the Great and…Alexander Graham Bell. You should be proud of it.”
“I genuinely can’t tell if you’re trying to razz on me or not.” Marie sighed. “Look, can we drop the name and just get to killing the monsters?”
“Any time you’re ready, Alex!” Charles smiled sweetly.
“I swear, after we kill these baddies, you’re next, bucko.” Marie punched her palm threateningly.
Charles spat on the ground and lowered his visor. “Fine by me, one less person to shield. Anyway, you’re gonna regret not wearing any armour before this battle’s through.”
“Sorry to interrupt.” Tenshi poked Marie. “But the enemies are not waiting for us.”
Marie broke out in a laugh. “You’re damn right, girl.” She turned to Isaac. “Ready to go?” she asked.
“You got it!” Isaac returned, hefting his pistol.
“Then let’s GOOOOOOO!” Marie yelled, charging straight into the fray, unarmed.
“SAINT GEOOOOOORGE!” Charles bellowed, crashing into the front ranks with his shield, activating his electromagnet and disarming a swathe of foes.
“PEPPERMINT EYEGLAAAAAAASS!” Nor bellowed, bounding at the front line with surprising agility, sending Muggmites flying as she lashed out left and right with her armoured gauntlets.
Wordlessly, Tenshi dashed ahead, executing a roll and coming up behind Nor, launching grenades at the Muggmites while blocking arrows and thrown hatchets with her friend’s huge body.
“Wait, but…what about the plan?” Isaac asked the empty air. “Damnit anyways!” he ran to take up the vanguard. Looking across the field, his eyes rested on the brown-cloaked figure calmly standing in the middle of the surging wave of monsters. “I don’t know who or what you are,” he muttered under his breath, “but I’ll teach you not to try and have your way with my world.”
Planting a bullet into the head of a Muggmite Mob that got too close, Isaac began closing the distance between himself and his quarry.
The battle was on!
ns18.216.156.171da2
