Darling of Fate 2: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure, page 21
No one wanted to be exploded by an adversary flying in unseen at fifty miles per hour, literally using their body as a weapon and coming out unscathed. That scene would put the fear of God in any creature.
“No time for introductions,” I said once I’d determined nothing was broken. “The bulk of the Jree are minutes behind these guys.” Concerned looks went around the Co’xatl forces, though well-guarded from Umndirop’s gaze. “Both the jungle and the tunnel mechanisms are active,” I continued. “We only need to hit the water mechanism to reach the Hold at the center of the Floor.”
Turning to Lex, I nodded toward the sky and sent him an image. He honked gently and took to the air. No one stopped him.
I waited for Umndirop to respond, but he stood still in thought; his chains tinkling against each other the only sound as his people looked to him for orders.
“Umndirop?” I asked, breaking the silence. “We have to move!”
He turned to me now, his tail swishing violently.
“You ask me to flee!? What of my people in the other Instances, hm? Shall I leave them to their fate?”
Shit! I realized too late the error in my plan. Umndirop wouldn’t rush to the Hold without some way to make sure the other Co’xatl could get through too. Which meant that next time, I’d have to kill the Excavator in order to complete the Skeleton Key set. That had always been my intention, so I could do the same for the humans in the other Instances. But in this redo, things were getting messy fast.
“What do you propose then?” I asked.
If it came down to it, I’d leave the Co’xatl to die. Despite my respect for Umndirop, humanity had to come first. But that was what this redo was all about—play-testing my theory in order to find the holes. This was a glaring fucking hole.
“We break this rabble,” he growled, indicating the Jree who were reforming now that no more Dirk-sized meteors were falling out of the sky. “Then we meet the Jree army in the water.”
I pursed my lips in thought.
“You realize we’ll be useless in a water battle?”
“Aid us in destroying this group, and you may meet your people with no ill will from me or the clans.”
Looking up at the remaining Jree assault force, I shrugged.
“Deal.”
Before the Co’xatl could make a move, I boosted my Agility to the max by cycling my Mass energy and raced up the rocky terrain. I still hadn’t mastered swapping energies fast enough to maintain the benefits of both, so I was missing the surefooted feeling of using my Friction energy on my feet. But my enhanced Mastery was enough.
The Jree noticed my blitz at the last possible moment, a cry of alarm going up. But I was among them now; my Agility tapered down to a level where I still had the Strength and weight to do damage with my strikes. My katana appeared in my hands mid-strike, the blade seeming to materialize from nowhere right before slicing through the first Jree. Swapping Agility for max Strength and weight, I spun with my blade, cleaving the next Jree completely in two at the waist. Red reached out and wrapped around the legless torso, flinging half of the dead Jree toward his fellows.
That all happened in the first second. By the end of the next second, Umndirop was up the hill, an ear-shattering bellow rumbling from his chest. His chains whipped about like serpents, burrowing into Jree eyes, necks, and chests alike—a bit too similar to Kneer’s Mantle for my tastes.
But I turned away from the Co’xatl Prime’s rampage, focusing on the Jree around me. While they had been cautious at my earlier arrival, they never showed fear. And despite throwing a cleaved torso of their fellow toward them, they charged me with fearless vigor.
I kept my mass and Strength bumped to the max, relying upon my boosted Mastery to defend against multiple attackers. Short swords, spears, and even darts blown through a tiny reed came my way, and I deflected them all. My weight and Strength were so overwhelming that I simply battered the surrounding Jree, breaking limbs when they tried to meet me blade-to-blade.
After maiming or killing a half dozen of the aliens, they wizened up, trying to poke me down with longer-range weapons. Cycling my Mass energy through my spirit, I altered the flavor until my Agility shot back up to 150. With a sudden burst of speed, my entire fighting style changed. With a single step, I was behind the approaching Jree, rapid-fire slashes tearing across their defenseless backs in the span of an eye blink. Before they could even turn to defend, I’d slain the six Jree in front of me.
I spun around to find more prey, but the Co’xatl had the battle well in hand, their superior numbers overwhelming the Jree in the wake of my vicious assault.
Umndirop was nearby, his chains wrapped around a Jree dressed in jet black. The chains wrapped around the alien’s arms, legs, and neck and lifted him into the air. With a single, sawing motion, Umndirop decapitated and quartered the Jree, his head and limbs falling to the ground as blood spurted from his torso. With a contemptuous growl, the Co’xatl Prime chucked the torso away, turning to assess the battle.
Slapping his tail against the hard rock with an echoing thud, he reared back and roared. A moment later, every Co’xatl in earshot roared back, the sound loud enough to shake the earth under my feet.
Umndirop spotted me and ambled over, his reptilian body coated in Jree blood.
“I’ll admit it, human. I didn’t think much of your race. But that was an impressive display of violence. You will be a worthy opponent.” He nodded in respect, his tail thudding against the ground once more.
I smiled and returned the nod. “Perhaps we don’t need to become opponents? A Co’xatl-human alliance could benefit us both.”
He didn’t reply at first, turning his head to stare across the region where the Jree army were cresting an island in the distance.
“Though it does me no favors to tell you this, I will out of respect.” He turned to me, his eyes narrowing. “It is a near certainty that only one race shall reach the top of this damned Tower. And it will be the Co’xatl that survive. Even if we have to climb over the bodies of your people.” My eyes went wide at the casual way he described the genocide of the human race, especially when we had been so cordial before. But he swished his tail and smiled. “This… Integrated Universe cares not for our desires or softhearted natures. If I’ve understood my Patron correctly, the only way up is through your enemies. I do not wish to be your enemy, human—at least not in this moment.”
I nodded and held out my hand. “Likewise. How about this? When the Jree are dead and buried, we do what must be done. Until then…” I looked at my outstretched hand pointedly.
Umndirop regarded it for a moment, and I wondered if he would turn me down. But then he reached out with his massive, clawed hand, engulfing mine with his.
“Agreed.”
All around us, the Co’xatl were trudging down the hill, slipping into the water. I watched the crocodile-looking aliens dip beneath the surface and an involuntary shiver traced up my back. The Jree were arrayed on a nearby beachhead, watching the water warily. Just as I was turning to go, a familiar face appeared, parting the Jree forces like Moses and the Red Sea.
We locked eyes, and an invisible charge passed between us. I couldn’t put a name to it—a thread of Fate, maybe? Or something similar but different. But there had been something tangible in that energy, and I felt myself turn to face Kneer, even though hundreds of feet of water and dozens of Co’xatl separated us.
At my side, I felt Umndirop bristle, his body going stock still. The thread of energy passing between Kneer and me dissipated, and I wondered in its absence if I had imagined it. Either way, that pull was gone, and I found that I didn’t care what happened to Kneer in this redo. I certainly wasn’t going to engage in a stare-off while the Quest timer ticked down.
“You see him?” I asked Umndirop, turning away from Kneer.
He grunted, then said, “I would know him if I were blindfolded and cast to the bottom of the Pits.”
Then he stepped forward, a clear determination in his eyes. There were no two ways about it, the Co’xatl and Jree Primes were going to face off today. A small part of me was itching to witness that duel—okay, a big part of me. Maybe if I stuck around for a few minutes…
No, there was no time to indulge my fighting fetish.
“Can I repay your earlier candor with some information?” I asked Umndirop.
He paused but didn’t turn. I took that as tacit agreement.
“Two blades attached to chains come from his wrists—much like Hundirop’s bladed-whip,” I said. “Thirty feet range. He also has a teleport ability that reverts him to his prior positioning of a minute in the past.” Umndirop turned to regard me, an appraising look in his eyes. “But it can be negated by physically touching him.”
“When we meet again,” Umndirop replied. “You must tell me how you came about this information.”
“When we meet again,” I said with a nod.
He took off without another word, his people already circling the waters in front of us. I watched him slide into the water, locked eyes with Kneer once more, then turned and walked away. Walked because I didn’t want Kneer to think I was running, though there was no denying I was definitely not sticking around to fight.
Once I was out of sight of the Jree army, I maxed out my Agility and started sprinting across the island. Judging by my map, I was only a few islands away from the center of the region where the large lagoon lay.
After swimming across a few more channels, the center island came into view. I reached the beach and crested the hill. Through Lex’s eyes, I could see Jerome leading the rest of the humans across an island nearby. They had a handful of Co’xatl with them, but as far as Lex could see, that was it. It seemed Umndirop had sent for every warrior he could muster.
I met them a couple islands over, waiting at the top of the hill leading down to the beach they were climbing onto. Spotting Jerome, Byron, Lacy, Frank, Ally, Colten, and Amos lifted a weight off my shoulders. The seven of them had become the de facto leaders of the human coalition in this Instance, and losing one of them would have been a serious blow to morale.
Now that I knew they were safe, I couldn’t help but laugh at their state. They crawled out of the water, the sand coating them head-to-toe, giving them a bedraggled demeanor. Lacy was the first one to stand, and when she saw me at the top of the hill, she smiled. Then she noticed me laughing at their state, and her face darkened.
“Fuck you! Help us,” she called up, turning to help drag people onto the beach.
“Good to see you, too!” I said as I jogged down the hill.
A Co’xatl stepped from the water and nodded toward me. “You are the human Prime?” I nodded in reply. He waved to the other Co’xatl. “We’ve been instructed to return to the camp once you arrive.”
“I see.” There were still dozens of people swimming in the water, and it would have been nice to get some help. But I suppose they had already escorted everyone this far. “Give your Prime my thanks.”
The Co’xatl nodded, then led his team up the hill and out of sight.
Turning back to the water, I dove in, using Red and my Friction energy to reach the rear of the group in moments. At first glance, it seemed that there were nearly a hundred people in the water, which gave me hope that we hadn’t lost anyone. But those paddling in the back had panicked looks in their eyes, their strokes listless as they struggled to fight the current.
There was nothing more dangerous in the water than a drowning person, but I felt confident that I could ferry multiple people to the beach without issue.
“Grab onto my cape,” I said to those in the back.
There were five people nearby, and they all rushed to latch onto the magical cloth. An indignant feeling projected from Red, but I calmed the cape with an image of us bowling through the Jree earlier, and the sadistic Mantle was mollified as it luxuriated in the carnage.
With the five trailing people holding on tight, I started swimming toward the beach. I glued them to the cape with my Friction energy just in case, my powerful strokes pulling us through the water fast enough to tear their grips away.
When I lapped some of the stragglers, desperate cries went out.
“I’ll be right back,” I called without missing a stroke.
Lacy and the others were composing themselves, dragging people onto the beach, and looked like they were gearing up to go back into the water to help me. As I dragged the five clinger-ons toward the beach, I waved them away.
“I’ll get everyone. Use this time to rest.”
Lacy seemed ready to argue, but Amos was already on his back, a flask to his lips. Byron settled onto his boombox with a weary sigh while the others fell to the sand with relief. Even Colten looked exhausted, and I remembered he had a buff that bumped up his Strength and Endurance.
Once everyone was on the beach, I sat down next to where Lacy and the others were recovering.
“Tough trip?” I asked.
She nodded. “You could say that.”
Amos scoffed, then choked on whatever mystery drink was in his flask. A coughing fit overcame him and he struggled to sit up so he didn’t aspirate. The smell of whiskey floated in the air.
“Had to sprint through the tunnels,” Byron said. “The mobs were going crazy, just like you said. Most of us had to put points into Endurance just not to collapse.”
“The swim was worse, though,” Ally added, taking a swig from a bottle of water.
“We’ve only got a couple more islands to go,”—Groans echoed out from the group— “Hey, it’s gonna be fine. I’ll help anyone that needs it.”
“You’re fitter than a workhorse,” Colten said. “Ain’t you climb a mountain, then run across the jungle to get here?”
“The wonders of clean living and daily probiotics,” I said with a whimsical smile. Jerome rolled his eyes, and Lacy groaned. I ignored them, too engrossed in my theatrics to let their hurtful expressions faze me. “And yes, I did climb a mountain, but no, I didn’t run through the jungle. I leaped off the mountain and glided here,” I added casually.
“Why this boy always gotta make up some bullshit?” Jerome asked nobody.
Lex landed at my side—more like crashed into the sand.
“Oh, hey, Lex. Good of you to join us,” I said as I brushed the sand off his feathers.
“I think I hate landing more than I hate flying,” he complained.
“Speaking of flying,” I said. “Can you tell these good people that I can, in fact, fly?”
“I wouldn’t call it true flight,” Lex replied. “More like gliding—a controlled fall, really.”
“Are you serious!?” Byron exclaimed. “Is it that cape or something?”
Red flared out, forming a rigid plane of cloth. Almost as if it was placing itself on display.
“This is Red,” I said with a wave toward my back. “We haven’t established if it’s a he or a she or whatnot, but it is alive.” I turned to regard the cape. “I really should figure that out, huh? You prefer he or she or they” The cape rippled and sent me a confusing series of images. “Hm, I didn’t get any of that. One tap for he, two taps for she, three taps for who the fuck knows.”
Red reached around and slapped me gently across the face twice.
“She? Wow, okay, then!”
I noticed Jerome and Byron share a concerned look, no doubt thinking I was cracked in the head.
“Your cape is alive?” Ally asked with a skeptical tone.
“Sure is, and you better be careful. She is a real glutton for bloodshed.” A fanciful emotion projected from the cape, and I felt her reach up and wrap around my neck. Then the cape gave me a playful shake like it was throttling me.
“Whoa, down girl!” I called through a constricted throat. Red relaxed, releasing my neck and falling back to the sand.
“He did that to himself, right?” Amos whispered to Lacy.
“I… honestly don’t know.”
I whirled on the two of them, an indignant expression on my face. “It was the cape. I swear. My cape’s alive! It’s alive!” I shouted dramatically, raising my hands into the air like Dr. Frankenstein standing over his monster. When I lowered my hands a moment later and glanced around at the weary, bordering on scared faces, my shoulders slumped.
“Just trying to lighten the mood,” I said.
“Okay, cape boy,” Ally said, prompting fits of laughter from everyone nearby.
“We are so not calling me that.”
Lacy patted me on the shoulder. “Whatever you say… cape boy.”
Another round of laughter infected the group, and I climbed to my feet with an indignant huff. But I couldn’t hide the smile itching its way onto my face.
Mission accomplished, Red.
The cloth flashed out and lightly slapped Lacy on the face.
“You son of a bitch!” she shouted. She was on her feet, charging after me as I ran away.
“It was the cape! I swear!” I called from the top of the hill.
Chapter 23
Chopstick-Fueled Violence
When we made it to the center island, there were no Co’xatl or Jree in sight. It was eerie how empty the region was. I suspected a colossal battle was raging further in the region, but the islands in between effectively blocked our view.
As everyone followed me down the hill to the lagoon edge, I peered into the water’s depths. I realized that I hadn’t asked Umndirop if they had cleared out the Swampers or the Water Guardian. If they hadn’t, it was going to be difficult for my group to make the swim.
Turning to address the crowd, I raised my voice to be heard by everyone. “I’m gonna scout the water. There’s weak mobs swimming below, and they’re aggressive. But if we stick together, we should be able to push past them. Everyone get ready and arm up. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
