Rogue players were running around with their heads cut off, and I had a front row seat from a second story window.
Our enemies had discovered that Ace had escaped, but they didn’t seem to have any idea as to how that happened. However, they were determined to find him and were looking around, searching around all the buildings. There didn’t seem to be any organization to their search, and so far they hadn’t checked the building that Ace and I were actually hiding inside of, but it was only a matter of time.
Wolf was searching as well, but unlike the others, he was merely going through the motions. In fact, I was sure that the reason nobody had checked this building yet was that he’d been playing on our side, subtly directly the others elsewhere.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Ace.
“Better,” the artificer responded with a grimace. “But still not great.” Then he let out a sigh. “I just wish I had a real weapon, at least.” He gestured to the dagger I’d lent him.
“Don’t you have an ability to return your artifacts to you?” I asked. He’d mentioned the ability on several occasions, but I don’t remember ever seeing him use it. This looked like it would have been the perfect opportunity to do so.
Ace snorted at that. “Yeah, but it only works for a short time after I lose an artifact. My scepters have been gone for too long.” He paused at that, looking chagrinned. “When I lost a scepter under that wall, I was too distracted to even think of reclaiming that one until it was too late. Damn. I really regret that now.”
“We make do with what we have,” I commented. “We don’t have much choice.”
He gave me a curious look, then asked, “Have you ever done this before?”
I chuckled at that. “Hide inside a Labyrinth semi-safe area while a bunch of rogue players try to kill me?”
“Something like that,” he responded with a chuckle of his own.
“Nope,” I told him with a grin. “I’ve never really been into the Labyrinth before respawning.”
“I guess this is a new experience for both of us,” he said with a forced grin.
Then I heard a loud ‘thump’ from the floor below, followed by heavy footsteps. Someone had finally come inside this building to check it.
“Positions,” I whispered to Ace, trying to keep my voice down so that we wouldn’t be overheard.
Ace nodded and then position himself so that he’d be seen as soon as someone came into the room. I moved to the side where I was out of immediate sight. I braced myself as the footsteps came up the stairs.
It didn’t take long before a familiar figure emerged into the room. Jace stopped at the doorway, an oversized maul type hammer slung over her shoulder, the kind of weapon that immediately made me think that she had to be compensating for something.
“There you are,” Jace announced, her eyes locked on Ace. She stood there with a smirk, shifting her hammer so that she could properly threaten Ace.
“Here I am,” Ace responded.
“I don’t know how the fuck you got out of that,” Jace said, “but…”
I attacked before Jace could finish, blasting her with an ‘Invocation of Spite’ and then lunging at her with my hammer before she could recover. There was the crunch of ribs cracking as I hit her in the side. She let out a loud scream, louder than I’d been expecting, and fell back to where she tumbled down the stairs, creating even more noise.
“Well, crap,” I commented. Maybe I should have just gone for her throat with a knife. “That could have gone better.”
“Shit,” Ace said. “They’re sure to have heard that.”
“Yep,” I agreed with a scowl. “They’ll be coming soon.”
I looked out the window and saw Mad Mike running towards our building, though I knew it wouldn’t take long for the others to come as well. Jace had made far too much noise for them to ignore.
Seconds later, I heard Mike downstairs, talking to Jace. “What the hell happened?”
“GOD DAMN IT,” Jace exclaimed. “IT FUCKIN HURTS.”
There was more to their exchange, including a frantic explanation, but I didn’t bother paying attention. Instead, I was looking at the window and the drop to the ground. It wouldn’t be much of a problem with me, especially not with my vitality. However, Ace would have a bit more of a problem with it.
“No choice,” I told Ace. “We’ve got to jump.”
“Great,” Ace grumbled, clearly unhappy with that option. He looked towards the stairs and let out a resigned sigh. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
Mike’s footsteps thumped up the stairs towards us. I looked at Ace, then jumped out the window. It was only two stories up, too high to comfortably jump before my death, but with my high vitality it was no longer much of a problem. I hit the ground and rolled, then sprang back to my feet and gestured for Ace to follow.
Ace was a lot more careful about dropping out the window, lowering himself out of it as far as he could before simply letting go. He let out a loud grunt and a series of profanities before he got back to his feet and staggered towards me.
“Damn that hurt,” he grumbled.
Mike stuck his head out the window and stared down at us for a couple seconds before he opened fire with a scepter. A ball of fire shot down towards us, and I barely shoved Ace out of the way before he was hit.
“Come on,” I snarled, pulling Ace to the edge of the building so that we could get out of his sight.
“THEY’RE HERE,” Mike shouted out. “I JUST SAW THEIR INVOKER WITH OUR ESCAPEE.”
“There goes the element of surprise,” I muttered in annoyance. Of course, I knew that we’d lose that as soon as anyone saw me, but I still hated to see it go.
Ace and I moved around the building to the back where we’d be harder to see. This is how I was moving around before I found Ace, but it wasn’t going to work for long, not when the rogues were actively looking for us.
My companion wasn’t in good condition. Ace still hadn’t recovered all the way from the beating that they’d given him, and then the window drop had only made it worse. He was moving slowly, limping with every step.
“We’re in no shape to fight those bastards,” I pointed out. “Not all of them.”
If it had just been me, I would have been confident in my ability to take any one of them by myself, even Raze. Well, Raze might requite a bit of preparation, but I’d be able to handle him as well. But two of us against all of them… Forget it. As much as I wanted revenge against those bastards, I wasn’t suicidal.
“Escape for now,” I mused. “Revenge later.”
“What are you thinking?” Ace asked.
“We have two options,” I told him. I gestured in the direction of the stairway that led back down to the cemetery area down below. “We can go backwards, or…” I pointed towards the other stairway, the one in the middle of the ‘town square’ area that actually went upwards. “Or we can go forward.”
Going back down to the cemetery had the advantage of familiarity. I would know the area and the situation while our enemies would be walking in blind. If we went ahead and up to the next level of the Labyrinth, it would be an unknown situation for everyone involved. Tactically, going down was the smart move.
“Whatever gets us away from these guys,” Ace responded grimly. “And preferably, gets us back with the others.”
“Agreed,” I said.
“Shit,” Ace abruptly exclaimed. “A monster.”
He stood there with my dagger in hand, ready to fight. In spite of his condition, he wasn’t about to give up. I nodded approval.
Then I looked up to where Ace was pointing and a saw the ghostly white bird flying overhead. A faint smile formed as I said, “He’s with me.”
“What?” Ace asked in surprise.
“It’s a good sign,” I assured my friend.
Up ahead of us, a dark-skinned woman turned the corner and stepped into view. It was their shaper, Godiva. She was unarmed, but I didn’t mistake that for her being harmless.
“So, you’re their invoker,” Godiva said with a smirk, her eyes were locked on me. “The one who used to be a Warden.”
I gave Ace a sharp look but he responded with a chagrinned shrug. “She made me talk.”
Godiva slowly approached with a confidant swagger. “Why don’t you put that down so we can talk,” she suggested, gesturing to my hammer.
That suggestion seemed so calm and reasonable that I wanted to comply. However, I’d been expecting something like that so I resisted the temptation to do so. Instead, I clenched my hammer even tighter, especially when I felt her presence begin pressing down more heavily.
You could resist someone’s presence by increasing your own focus and presence, and I’d slotted points into both. But even then, I could feel the emotional pressure.
Suddenly, Godiva yelped and exclaimed, “Something stung me…”
I smirked at that, having seen the red spark. It seemed that my ‘Blessing of Avexis’ took her action as an attack. It was good to know that it reacted to more than just straight-on physical attacks.
Godiva glared at us, then I felt her attention focus on the ground instead. It began to shift and ripple, clear indication that she was about to use her own abilities against us. I backed away, getting a little more distance from the shaper since shapers had limited range.
“THEY’RE OVER HERE,” Godiva shouted.
“Crap,” I muttered in annoyance.
Godiva was blocking our path back to the stairway down, and I couldn’t count on getting around her when she controlled the ground itself. With that in mind, I grabbed Ace’s arm and pulled him to the side, right before a wave of stone shot out and washed over where we’d been standing.
“We’ll hit the stairway in the middle,” I told him. “The one that goes up.”
“Works for me,” Ace agreed.
If I’d been by myself, I would have made a mad dash towards those stairs, but I couldn’t do that without losing Ace. He was limping and hobbling too badly for that kind of run. Then again, if I’d been by myself, I would have probably focused more on sneaking around and taking the rogues out while they were separated from each other.
Once we were back around the building, I saw a clear shot to the stairway. I felt a moment of hope and relief, though it only lasted for a second before the rogue players began to emerge from the buildings around us.
Mad Mike stepped out of a building with his scepter in hand, pointed straight at us. A second later, Jace stepped out behind the corner of another building. She was holding her side where I’d hit her, and she had a look of pain and rage on her face. And then there was Wolf, who looked decidedly unhappy about the entire situation.
“We’ve got you now,” Godiva said as she came up behind us.
“Crap,” I muttered at the same time that Ace exclaimed, “Shit.”
I quickly glanced at the rogue players, then looked at the stairway, trying to determine whether I’d be able to make it or not. However, it was the same as before. I might be able to make it, but not with Ace.
Then Raze emerged from one of the buildings and slowly walked into the center of the open area, his massive axe hanging from his hands. My hopes for escape vanished at the sight of the berserker, because I’d seen how fast he could move. There was no way to outrun him.
I glared at Raze, feeling the familiar rage bubbling up from within. That was a reminder of why we’d come here in the first place, and why we’d faced the Labyrinth in order to chase him down. Even if I had the opportunity to run away, I suddenly realized that I wouldn’t be able to do so. I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to give up this opportunity.
“Get ready to fight,” I told Ace as I shifted into a better position to fight.
My eyes swept the area, taking in each of the rogue players. Plans for how to deal with each of them quickly began to flow through my mind, some of them more likely to succeed than others. This wasn’t the way I wanted to catch up to these bastards, but now that I had them in my sights, I was going to make them hurt.
Raze liked to charge his enemies, which meant that my best chance against him might be sweep. I’d developed that move specifically to deal with players like Raze, though he was faster than anyone I’d dealt with before. That was a challenge because a sweep required perfect timing, and the faster he was, the faster and more perfect I would have to be. As it was, I wasn’t sure that I was fast enough to catch him, no matter how perfect I moved.
“Don’t have much other choice,” I muttered.
“I didn’t see any of the other ones,” Mike told Raze. “Just the invoker.”
“I didn’t see any of the others either,” Godiva added. “Maybe they got separated.”
Raze settled his remaining eye on me. “You idiots actually thought you could take me on?” He snorted dismissively. “I HATE being followed, so it looks like I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”
“You should have run away when you had the chance,” Jace snarled. “Now you losers are dead.”
“You’ve already killed me once,” I said as I stared at Raze. “You won’t do it again.”
The berserker looked a little confused by that, as did the others. I glanced to Ace, who shrugged. “I guess I didn’t tell them that part.”
“Is that why you’ve been following me?” Razed asked with a laugh. “I killed you before?” He laughed again, suddenly looking excited. “I’ve never been able to kill someone twice. This should be interesting.”
“Yeah,” I responded. “You killed me before. Snapped my neck like it was nothing.”
“And you came back for more?” Jace asked. “You’re an idiot.”
“Why throw your second life away?” Godiva demanded with a sneer of contempt.
I didn’t take my eyes off Raze. He was amused by the situation, but I didn’t want him to be entertained. No, I wanted that bastard to act without thinking. I wanted him to charge at me.
“I’m going to pay you back for everything you’ve done,” I promised, my eyes firmly locked on Raze. I began to smile, though I knew that it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “In fact, I’ve already made a down payment when I took your eye…”
Raze suddenly froze, all amusement vanishing in an instant. He reached up and touched his eye patch, a look of rage forming over his features instead.
“The old man,” Raze snarled. “You were that fucking old man…”
“I was,” I responded coldly.
“Wait,” Mike exclaimed, giving me a look of surprise. “This bitch was the guy who killed Zeke?”
“It was my pleasure,” I said with a smirk.
Raze howled in rage and charged straight at me. He would have hit me in a flash if I hadn’t been expecting it, and even though I was, he was still too fast for me to sweep. I tried sweeping him, only to have an axe flying for my face instead. I just barely got my hammer up in time to block the hit, though I was sent flying back.
I hit the ground hard and then slid back a good twenty feet until I slammed into the wall of a building. I let out a groan as the air was knocked out of me, though I struggled to get back to my feet as fast as I could. Sitting still would get me killed.
“Well, that didn’t work,” I groaned.
The raging berserker was coming straight towards me, no longer rushing forward at a blinding pace but still coming with an inexorable certainty. I grimaced and readied myself for round two, silently promising that if I survived this, I’d invest a couple points into agility.
“For Margaret,” I quietly reminded myself.
Raze tensed up for another charge, only to abruptly freeze in place. Suddenly, he was wrapped in ghostly chains, ones which seemed to hold him firmly in place.
“What the…?” Raze started, not noticing the figure that burst out of a nearby shadow and drove a spear straight into his stomach.
“You’re a little late to the party,” I told Maya with a broad grin. “But still a sight for sore eyes.”
“Our invitations got lost in the mail,” Bunny called out as she appeared from around the side of a building, holding her own scepter which was still pointed at Raze.
“We’re just fashionably late,” Turtle added as he appeared as well. “But now that we’re here, the party can really start.”