READ NOVEL ONLINE 91 - Double Booked
I hummed a tune without melody. Ren had asked if I wanted an introduction, but I had declined. Unlike me, certainly, but I didn’t want to be the main focus. Sometimes in an act, getting the sceptics unsettled first made the ground fertile for what was to come. Right now we had to erase five Players who had betrayed the trust given to them, and had desecrated the corpse of one of our allies.
Still, it wasn’t much better than what I was about to do.
“Magnus, throw this.” My new spear dropped to the side of me and slowly tilted toward the lion-man. “Aim for just beyond the pole.”
He grunted and took it from me.
“Everyone else, ready what ranged attacks you have for the shield. We want them hunkered down at first.”
Acknowledgements filtered into my ears, letting me know the stage was ready and rearing to go. I split the cards in my hand. A tough task for them both to complete… but by this stage, we were natural. As one.
My mana reserves hit empty, and I started drawing into my health with
“Now.”
Ren fired an arrow, a second drawn even before the first reached the glowing energy of their tall shield. Quinn fired a crossbow. Fiona leveled an arrow with a shortbow. Ruby sent out a small bolt from her magic staff, accompanied by a tinkle of the bell. Wolf had made it over to the steep rocky side next to the downward path and his feet glowed a bright green.
Magnus threw the spear - and he threw it well.
As the flares of light from the shield illuminated the pathway just before the bridge distracted them, my cards were out. Through the air to the target. One relatively straight to the intended target. The other had a more complicated path to take, but it had a job, perhaps even more important.
The fingers on both my hands clenched as I tried to maintain control of the empowered card. Blood ran down my hands and soaked into the arms of my shirt. I needed the power for the speed. I needed the speed despite the control. I needed the control to fucking succeed.
A second volley went out, slightly staggered to keep their attention.
“Quinn,” Wolf growled. “Hop on.”
If a wide grin wasn’t already painting my face, I would have smiled wider.
The spear struck the trunk-like pole holding up the body and clattered to the cobbled stone road behind the group of Players. Shortly followed by the dead body of Clive, that I had cut loose.
I could hear the gasps and confusion of our allies as their former companion stood up to his feet awkwardly. Bright eyes of purple flowing from his impassive face as two long ears burst from the top of his skull.
Wolf growled and thundered down the rough terrain beside the path, avoiding the traps set. While normally a dangerous route, his skills seemed to make the decline of rough stone and shrubbery nothing but a smooth passage. With the fencer on top, they hurtled down toward the melee about to begin.
“What the fuck…” Fiona whispered, lowering her arrow.
I had already apologized in advance, and didn’t have the faculties to do so again mid-performance. My eyes were burning bright, I could tell. They could hate me or abandon our pleasantries once more after the fact. All I had now was an audience in need of… having the shit murdered out of them.
Roger picked up the spear, just as one of their group noticed his presence. The female paladin turned away from scowling at us to bring her shield up to face the sudden appearance of an enemy behind them. She called out to the thief, who held a crossbow of their own.
My pact demon had no intention of fighting the armored foe in melee, however. At my command he instead lobbed the spear past her, her reactions too slow to stop it.
“As soon as the wall is down, I’m in there,” I said, a card already out.
“I can get the traps, man.” Magnus offered, his jaw clenched.
“You can,” I replied, softly. “It might be over by the time you catch up. I’m sorry for hogging the limelight.”
The wall went down. One spellcaster with a spear in their back. My demonic dove interrupting the other. I switched places before anyone could respond to me.
I arrived in a flash of vertigo beside the wounded caster. They were trying to give themselves a quick heal, confused at the presence of my demon - and now me. I grabbed the back of his brown hair and pulled his head back. Made my dagger vanish within his neck. Ta-da!
Then Wolf arrived. Quinn leaped from his back and caught the crossbow bolt shot by the thief from out of the air in a flash of red. The bear swiped the attacker to the side before turning and charging in a burst of amber into the second spellcaster, knocking them to the floor.
Now up close, I could see the fifth member that we had little information on was a… bugbear? I wasn’t sure how I had that knowledge. They were a head taller than me, hairy, and with excessively long arms. A sword of flaming green in one hand and some kind of spell-casting focus in the other. Maybe a battlemage?
They strode towards me, sword pointed forward as if to cast a spell.
I went invisible.
Confusion went across their thick brow, right before an arrow struck them in the chest. Entangling vines grew up from the floor, pinning them in place. A quick glance to the right showed that the paladin had been stuck only briefly before casting a skill to escape. It had given the wounded Roger some time to back away now. He needed a weapon. No, he needed to assist me now.
The bugbear turned their eyes up toward the Oathwarden at the top of the hill. Their final mistake. Invisibility dropped as my split cards went out, cutting at their face. Blinded them, if only briefly. From my side, the stabbed spellcaster came in with Jokkar’s mace, cracking the skull of my opponent with a heavy downswing.
I turned my burning eyes to survey the battlefield.
“Keep her alive,” I told the bear.
Quinn had killed the almost-disemboweled thief. The bleeding remains of what was the second spellcaster’s pulped skull was Wolf’s doing as well. Now the paladin was laying prone, a heavy paw threatening to buckle her metal armor plate and crush her chest.
“Boss.” Roger kneeled and bowed his head low.
“You may rise.” I ran my tongue across my teeth. “Tell me, Roger. Did you take my commands to heart?”
He stood up, but kept his gaze on the ground. “Yes, Boss. I can confirm I no longer have substance abuse issues, and no longer desire to eat my own kind.”
I wavered in place, some heat of energy dissipating at the show finally wound up. “And your family?”
“Still early days, but things are improving.”
“See to it you maintain that direction.” My tired eyes went to the path, where the rest were carefully making their way down. “You may go now. Thank you for your service.”
“At your command, Boss.” He gave me a bow and vanished, leaving the spent corpse to flop to the blooded road.
A little cold toward him, perhaps. I was all for a little levity, but I needed to keep a firm hand on the rudder. Especially in current company. Once he was more normalized, then we could be a bit more casual. I sighed deeply.
Quinn came up to me. “That was… shorter and more visceral than I had anticipated.”
“Yeah.” I frowned and then snapped back to my normal self. “Players aren’t usually prepared for fighting against other Players. We’re not balanced that way.”
“Your efficiency is-”
“Well practised due to necessity.” I gave him a glum smile and then turned to greet the others.
Fiona’s expression was nothing but a thunderstorm, and she came directly up to me, even ahead of all the others who were still making sure there was no last trap. She didn’t even yell or speak until she was standing two feet away from me.
“You’re a fucking monster,” she said in a hushed tone, so only the three of us heard. “And I’m thankful as fuck that you’re on our side.”
“I’m still sorry,” I offered. Too exhausted to be intimidated.
She looked past me to see the pained paladin and the spent corpse of her fallen friend. “You found his body and got us someone who can talk. We’ll leave the rest in the past, okay?” Her hand extended, and I shook it.
“How do you want to do the questioning? We usually avoid torture.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Usually?”
Fiona worked her shoulders before looking back at the approaching three. “Not sure I trust my temper to do anything other than beat her to death. Can I defer to your experience?”
I smiled. “Let me confer with my protégé.”
The fencer shuffled before whispering. “Is that me?”
Ren approached with the other two, my hell-bird sitting atop her head. I let it go with a thought, to return to mist. The elf’s eyes were… bright and glad to see me in one piece, perhaps. Hmm. My lack of injury was odd. Something felt off here.
“Ren,” I began, “dibs on bad cop.”
“Asshole,” she said, and deflated. “Fine.”
Magnus and Ruby still seemed either annoyed or unsure of me, but were either too emotionally exhausted to engage, or were following Fiona’s lead in this.
With Ren beside me, we stepped over to Wolf. “Thanks bud, you alright to take down this terrible pole and clear the road?”
He growled at the woman beneath his paws, putting his nose up to her face. “Certainly. This one isn’t quite cooked enough.”
I wasn’t sure if he was alluding to the fact that we were about to ‘grill’ her, but it amused me nonetheless. As he backed away, I summed a Hellhound+ beside her, who immediately growled and looked ready to tear her face off.
“Sometimes I wonder if the System gave me ‘speak with dead’,” I began, grinning as I stood over the paladin. “Due to how often I get to chat with walking corpses.”
She glared up at me, but no response.
Ren crouched down beside the woman, her brow furrowed. “The least we could do is sit her up and make her a little more comfortable?” Blue eyes came up to me, an earnest desire in them that I almost believed.
“Why?” I pulled a face. “She isn’t even going to talk. I owe her no leniency.”
“Please, Max? If she agrees to talk?” Her worried expression turned to the prone paladin.
The woman’s eyes went between Ren and I. They were an interesting amber color, and not entirely trusting of either of us. “Let me heal myself and sit on a chair.”
I raised an eyebrow and gestured Quinn over. “Can I borrow your Class item for a second?”
He hesitated at first, but stepped over and withdrew the boomerang. Gently, into my hand it went. I then kneeled down and pulled on the paladin’s armor, lifting her from the floor slightly, so that I could jam the item down the back behind her neck. I let her drop to the ground and stood up straight.
“You may do so.” I placed out a chair. “The item I have put behind you is an explosive that will destroy you if you do anything we do not like. Do you understand?”
She grunted and nodded briefly. Slowly, she moved herself up to her feet, grimacing and groaning from the pain she was in. Gradually, she made it to the chair and sunk into it with a deep sigh. Raising a single hand, letting us see what she was doing, a radiant light pooled down and radiated into her. An icon temporarily appeared above her to show that it was a gradual heal over time. No other icons were present.
It would be a shame for Quinn to waste his ability this soon in the day, against a lone foe, with Ren and I possible collateral. That was a risk I would take, however. The baddest cop.
“See,” the elf gestured. “That wasn’t so bad?”
I clucked my tongue and crossed my arms. “Waste of my time.”
“What did you want to know before you kill me?” The woman lowered her hand onto her lap. Some resignation in her face. Acceptance for picking the wrong side, perhaps.
“I think the branding on your forehead is answer enough as to why you left the camp last night.” I tilted my head. “Was the betrayal worth it?”
She looked past us to her dead Party. “Currently, no.” Her face started to redden as her eyes filled with tears. “They told us we’d be safe. They’d spare us if we left and didn’t tell anyone.”
“The necromancer?” Ren crouched down beside her, sadness in her own expression.
I was more tense, with her being that close to an unknown agent, but I trusted her judgement. Crimson Shadow didn’t usually exhibit this amount of remorse or regret for their choices.
“Yeah.” The paladin sniffed as quiet tears rolled down her cheeks. “We were meant to leave earlier, but we… we struggled to do it.”
“Bullshit.” I shook my head, the outburst surprising them both. “You could have said something at any time. You knew we were at the camp, too.”
She looked at the ground. “Fair. We were told the camp would be overrun, and our silence was the only way for us to live. We had grown so tired of just… struggling to get by in this world.”
“You wanted to be part of the winning team?” Ren asked softly.
The paladin nodded, her mouth down-turned in barely contained misery. “They said… they said if we strung up the corpses after, we could join them…”
“You’re not actual members?” I asked, dropping the act for a moment. “Haven’t drunk her blood?”
Her head shook, and Ren and I exchanged a glance.
The woman was just a normal, misguided asshole.