Meanwhile, the battle still raged above ground in the courtyard. As Jason and (M)Alice traded blows from the battlements and the air, and Deep6 chipped away at Walter’s energy shield, Charles was using every last trick in his book to keep Ifrit and Rampardner at bay.
“PIERCE!” Rampardner bellowed, charging Charles, his massive lance leading.
“HALLUCINOGEN GAZE!” Ifrit followed up, his sharp eyes glowing as his arms weaved patterns through the air. Before Charles could avert his eyes, he felt his vision dance and shift, until there were three Rampardners charging him, each one seeming to have doubled in size.
“Great, now I’m tripping,” Charles muttered, raising his shield. “Only one thing to do.” Activating his electromagnet, Charles hurtled through the air towards the Rampardner on his left, their combined momentums causing him to completely bowl the player over, his magnet humming to a stop as he tumbled head-over-heels across the courtyard.
"I thought you said he’d be feelin’ totally bass-ackward after yer hypnotism mumbo-jumbo!” Rampardner complained, holding a hand to his head.
“Unfortunately, you can’t hypnotize magnets,” Ifrit shrugged, helping him up. “But don’t you worry, we can do this all day. Him on the other hand…”
He’s right, Charles thought, looking around. We’re in a three-way stalemate here, and as soon as that’s broken, it’ll be over in minutes.
He didn’t realize how right he was.
*******
Up above, Jason quickly reloaded his revolver while (M)Alice re-summoned her illusionary duplicates. Six bullets, he thought. I can make that work.
Dodging the latest wave of kunai with a roll, Jason snapped off four shots, three passing through phantom (M)Alices, one clipping the hoodie of the very real player. As she dismissed her illusions and leapt to a different handhold, splitting in two as she went, Jason fired his last two bullets.
Not at the (M)Alices themselves, but at the kunai they were reaching for.
*Ping!* *Ping!*
The bullets found their marks, chipping the throwing knives and reverting TEMPORALYSIS’s effect, as they tumbled to the courtyard below.
Along with both (M)Alices.
“Shoot! TEMPORALYSIS!” she yelled out, locking her hoodie in place and suspending herself in mid-air, while the illusory duplicated slipped through the stone courtyard below.
“Figured she’d do that,” Jason commented, drawing his twin blades. One, two, he launched the swords spinning towards the young Lurker. One, two, they found her chest, tearing through her hoodie and cutting deep, as they undid TEMPORALYSIS, sending her crashing to the courtyard below.
“(M)Alice!” Ifrit yelled out, ignoring Charles as he dashed towards the girl. “Hold tight, I’ll heal you!”
“Not a chance, pal!” Charles reactivated his shield, launching back towards Ifrit and the Hoplomachus behind him, sandwiching the Fakir between his shield and Rampardner’s spiked plate mail.
“My back!” Ifrit grunted, as the three of them tumbled to the ground.
“Oh, come on guys!” Deep6 glanced back and forth between the trapped Walter and the incapacitated (M)Alice, undecided.
Then, she saw Jason slip down from the battlements and approach the fallen Lurker.
“Damnit, I’ll be back!” she threatened Walter, dissolving into a puddle as she raced to her friend’s rescue.
“Saved!” Walter deactivated his shield as the roiling thundercloud above him dissipated, taking a deep sigh of relief.
“Heads!” Charles called, tossing a loaded shotgun at him from across the courtyard, as he scrambled away from Ifrit and Rampardner.
They were back in business!
*******
Meanwhile, Jason had finally reached (M)Alice.
“Well, you got me.” She grinned weakly. “Cut me some slack and let me go, ‘kay? I’m done for tonight.”
“Sorry, assassins don’t take prisoners.” Jason drove a dagger into her chest. Then, just for good measure, he stabbed her again in the throat. But the first strike had done the job. A look of disbelief and agony on her face, (M)Alice slipped through the ground, as her avatar disappeared.
“Scratch one bandit.” Jason grinned, wiping his forehead.
“Oh my God, you killed (M)Alice!” Deep6 skidded to a stop.
“Wanna join her?” Jason raised his dripping dagger.
“Hell no, I’m outta here!” Deep6 retreated into a puddle as Jason launched his blade at her. Then, slipping through the cracks in the foundation, she was gone.
“Deep6! Get back here, damnit!” Ifrit pounded a fist on the cobblestone floor in vain but was interrupted by a deep growl of rage from Rampardner, slowly growing into an ear-splitting bellow. Tumbling to his feet, the massive player dashed headlong at Jason, swinging his lance in one hand as if it weighed no more than a wooden bat.
“Oh snap,” Jason muttered, intoning a skill. “CLOAK OF THE NIGHT!”
“Don't you dare hide from me!” Rampardner bellowed, cleaving the air with his lance where Jason had just stood.
“There! Running for the gate!” Ifrit’s sharp eyes picked up the ripples in the air where Jason’s invisible silhouette could be seen.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Hoplomachus gripped his seven-foot lance like a javelin, hefted it, and sent it soaring towards the gateway, right on the path for Jason and Walter.
Fortunately for him, Jason had turned at Ifrit’s exclamation, so he saw the lance coming, and leapt out of its path. Ahead of him, Walter barely managed to get his shield back up in time, the orange dome flickering into being a second before the lance hit.
But it wasn’t enough.
Tearing through the weakened energy bubble like it was made of paper, the lance carried on through Walter’s metal bunker, twisting his legs at painful angles as it imbedded itself between them, dislodging his piledrivers as it ground to a halt.
“Holy…!” Walter looked down at the lance with a mixture of fear and relief. “An inch closer, and I’d be singing soprano!”
“Wow, you’re one lucky kid,” Jason commented, materializing out of thin air behind him.
“Incoming!” Charles yelled, as Rampardner began charging towards the two of them in a football tackle.
“Don’t worry, I got this!” Jason pulled out a detonator confidently. “I planted an ability on him at the start of the fight. GUTSPILLER!”
On cue, the small explosive charge on the back of Rampardner’s armour went off, blasting his plate mail in, and causing the resulting cone-shaped indentation to split through the underlying chainmail like an iron stake, driving deep into his shoulder as he dropping to his knees in agony.
“Hell yeah!” Jason pumped his fist.
“Rampardner, look at me!” Ifrit ran up to the fallen man, holding his head between his hands. “Look into my eyes!”
“(M)Alice…” Rampardner sobbed, his massive chest heaving.
“Look me in the eyes!” Ifrit barked, shaking the player’s head until he grudgingly locked eyes with him.
“WOUNDS ARE NOTHING,” he intoned, his eyes flashing like strobe lights.
“Huh?”
“WOUNDS ARE NOTHING.”
“Wounds…”
“WOUNDS ARE NOTHING.”
“Wounds… are nothing!” Rampardner’s muscles tensed, as his armour began to shake.
“That’s right,” Ifrit muttered, clapping the man on the back and slinking into the shadows. “Now go get them.”
“WOUNDS ARE NOTHING!” Rampardner bellowed, spit frothing from his lips as he shot to his feet and broke into a dead run towards Jason and Walter again, ignoring the blood pouring from his shoulder.
“What… the… hell!” Jason fumbled for a weapon. “Give me that!” He snatched Walter’s shotgun, unloading it on the approaching Hoplomachus.
“WOUNDS ARE NOTHING!” Rampardner screamed, eyes crazy, as the shotgun pellets played staccato notes on his armour and clipped his helmet, one even finding his eye.
But he didn’t even slow down.
“Saint George!” Charles yelled, tackling the player, but finding himself dragged along with him instead. Drawing his blade, he stabbed deep into Rampardner’s shoulder, drawing blood like a crimson fountain.
But it had no effect.
Rampardner hit Walter like a force of nature, collaring Jason before he could escape. Whipping the teen in the air like a rag doll, he released him, sending him soaring out the gate and over the bridge, only to crumple to the path beyond, laying quite still. Then, ignoring the knight desperately trying to dig through his back, he gripped the terrified Walter by his anchored legs…
…and tore him out of the ground, pile drivers and all. Staggering over to the edge of the gate, death finally flashing in his remaining eye, he dropped the boy over the edge of the bridge.
“WALTER!” Charles yelled, throwing himself from the Hoplomachus as he caught the boy by one of his metal shoulder-straps, skidding to the edge of the chasm. There they stood, Charles hanging half over the edge of the bridge, one hand suspending Walter from a twelve-story drop to the rocky ground below.
“Give… me… your… hand!” Charles forced out, his face red with exertion, as he reached down at Walter with his free hand.
And then Rampardner began moving again.
Slowly, haltingly, like a toy using its last drops of battery, he approached the pair. Ripping Charles' sword out of his back as he went, he leveled it shakily above his head, then slowly, deliberately, pushed it through Charles’ side.
Charles screamed in agony, his grip loosening as Walter fell down, down, to certain death below.
*******
Meanwhile, Nightslayr and Sicklesoul were speeding after the intruding party, the Gargoyle’s bat-like wings beating the air as he carried the small woman further and further into the base.
Suddenly, Sicklesoul gasped sharply beneath him. “Ohm’gawd, pull up here, Nighty." She groaned at her open menu. “Oh lord, lord, lord.”
“Hmm? Whazzup Sickle?” Nightslayr beat his wings to a halt, releasing her as he dropped to the ground a few paces ahead. “Was I squeezin’ you too tight or some’in?”
“Naw, open yer party menu,” she commanded, shaking her head. “Look here, lil' (M)Alice is dead! Kaput!”
“You mean downed?” Nightslayr fiddled with his menu. “Oh shoot, nope, she’s dead a'right.”
“I dunno about you, but I ain't riskin’ my pension over no piece a' junk game like this, no sirree!” She looked up from her menu.
“Er, what do you think we should do then?” He scratched his head.
“Easy-peasy. Remember that outside contractor the Chief hired? I don’t see why we don’t leave this t’ him and sit the whole thing out!”
“Ooh, great idea!” He grinned. "I’ll message him now."
“You do that. I’ll be over in the next room, loggin’ off. I’d advise you to do the same, young man.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” he muttered, sending the message. “I hope you’re as good as you say, Cassius Marlowe.”
ns18.119.121.190da2
