Chapter 31: Chapter Thirty-one

(okay, since I only received a couple of questions, I'm extending the time to get your queries in for another week! c'mon, let's see what you wanna ask!)

 

Lunch is over quickly, and we resume walking, Thunderbun’s paws making soft thumps on the stone paving-slabs. I stretch, trying to relax my back and loosen the muscles. Flying is awesome, but it puts a lot of strain on my shoulders and back. I’m sure it’d be worse if I was as chestacular as Asteria. Still, it’d be nice to have more up-top than I do currently… I look down at my bust. My armour is form-fitting, so I can sort of tell my size. I’m not flat by any means, but…

I sneak a peek at Marika, before gritting my teeth. Damn it! Why is she stacked too?! This is so unfair!!

Thunderbun bumps her nose against the back of my head. When I turn to look, she baps me on the cheek with her ear and bounds ahead, frolicking in the long grass growing by the roadside. I chuckle softly, putting my insecurity aside for now. It’s a beautiful day, I’m spending time with Astie, and I’ve made amends with Marika, at least for now. 

The strange fear of being watched doesn’t go away, though, and the signposts are growing more common the closer we get towards Vassim. At this rate, we should make it before nightfall, but only just. I’ll be barely able to get a room at an inn or something before I’m going to be forcibly logged-out.

As the day passes, I find myself drawing nearer to Astie and Marika, not keen on straying too far away. The furtive prowler makes no appearance, and even Asteria’s insouciant grin starts to look a little strained. I murmur to the taller Alv, “Why would they do this? All they’re doing is trying to spook us, it doesn’t make sense. The city is getting closer and closer with every passing hour, if they don’t make their move soon, they’ll lose their chance, right? Right?”

 

Asteria chews on her top lip, pondering her answer. “Well, I doubt it’s a stream-sniper like those idiots from before. If they were, we’d have been ambushed during the fight. And, if they caught up with us by chance, they’d have been broadcasting our whereabouts to anyone who wants a crack at us, and we haven’t seen anyone except farmers and fieldhands and the like. The main issue is that we have nothing to go on. How many there are, what they want, or anything! It’s sooo irritating that they’re just skulking around and won’t come at us head-on!”

I giggle, as Marika’s head swivels around, the atmosphere of tension getting to her as well. This could be awful if we get attacked. Mages like my Astie and Marika are kinda… squishy. If they get hit too badly, I’ll be on my own. But I don’t have the offensive power or the range of their spells, which would put me at a disadvantage. This situation is not in our favour.

The first signs of the capital city break over the treeline, the tops of towers reaching into the sky, glinting in the mid-afternoon sun. Still no sight of our creepy ‘friend’ and no sign of… wait. “Where are all the people? If this is close to the city, where are the patrolling guardsmen, the citizens, and adventurers like us coming and going? We’re close enough to see the spires, we should be able to see people, right??”

The treeline ends, leaving a wide sward of farmland before us, with little figures working the fields, smoke drifting from chimneys, the wide thoroughfare reaching all the way to the gates of the city. It’s… awe-inspiring. High walls and watchtowers, siege-weaponry bristling like agitated Needleboars.

I call Thunderbun over. “I need you to take a break, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt!” I dismiss her, and she vanishes once again in a miniature storm. I nod to Asteria. “Let’s get moving, it’s starting to get dark, and we shouldn’t give whoever-it-is the chance, not when we’re so close!”

Marika starts running, with Asteria behind and me at the back, using my body as an armoured shield in case of a sudden attack. My equipment and class is far tankier in terms of pure defence and constitution, so I can at least protect them.

Something blurs through the air, coming down in a field somewhere behind us and to our left. The sound of rapid movement tearing through the crops, another flash of motion as it leaps forward and over us, to our right, now keeping pace with us.

 I push myself, trying to maximize my speed, activating my Overclock ability. Something in my chest trembles, and my body begins shaking, vivid bands of lightning roiling over me. Clenching my fist, I focus on the point ahead, building the power, husbanding it and letting it grow…

Another flash of motion, and something alights on the road up ahead, claws out, and I break. The speed I’d coaxed to life roars through me, and I’m suddenly a dozen metres ahead, two dozen, my fist snapping forward with the force of a mass-accelerator cannon from the fall of Canada. The clawed figure goes tumbling, talons snaking out to dig into the stone and carving deep gouges in the pale stonework, as a backblast of pressurized air slammed down the road in the direction I’d come from.

The scratches in the cold white stone end about thirty metres away, a humanoid figure straightening up, clawed gauntlets affixed to their hands. Another figure emerges from the field ahead. An imperious-looking man in robes with a big nose and a sneer that makes the most of it.

“Ahhh, well done, my dear!” he croons to the clawed… girl?! Aside from her clawed gauntlets, she’s wearing an outfit made of strips of leather and cloth, almost woven, under a cloak that, thanks to Overclock, is in tatters. Her face is blank and impassive, with dull eyes fixed on me.

Asteria and Marika are picking themselves up, after my attack. I must’ve sent them flying, but they don’t seem hurt. I focus on the figures in front of me. “Who are you, and what do you want?!” I ask, as Big Nose places a hand on the shoulder of his companion.

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He bows sardonically, and responds, “and why would you need to know who I am, when you, little Skyborne, will be dead in a few short moments, thanks to my Doll here, and I will have taken that sword from you?”

I tense. “What sword??” If he’s after the sword Harvenhaight gave me, I’m not handing it over!

He snorts. “A feeble tactic. The sword you took up from the animated armour in the dungeon, girl! My allies have been attempting to retrieve it for a while, and now, you will GIVE. IT. TO. ME.”

Wait… is he talking about the Blade of the Fallen King? That dinged-up old thing I picked up as a souvenir? It’s just a battered bit of metal, isn’t it? But, if this guy wants it…

I reach out and call my blade from its pocket dimension. “Come and take it then! Or are you going to hide behind that girl instead?!”

He sneers like he’s being paid to, and shoves the girl forward. “This thing? She isn’t human, just a Doll made to fight and break at her master’s whim. Now, AN-R1, go and bring me THAT SWOOOORD!”

The strange ‘Doll’ obeys instantly, dashing towards me as I whip my sword around, roaring, “Asteria! Marika! Go! I’ll catch up! GO!”

I don’t get the chance to make sure they’re listening, as I’m forced onto the defensive, those long claws slashing and stabbing at me. I’m stuck with using the flat of my blade and wide, quick swings to keep AN-R1 at bay. Even after the direct hit I landed from my Overclock, she doesn’t seem hampered in the slightest! What’s she MADE of?!

I manage to pull off a sword plant, jabbing the blade into the ground and using the long handle to spin myself in a loop, slamming a two-footed kick into the Doll, pushing her back. Using my momentum, I rip my sword out of the ground and bring it down in an overhead smash, triggering Earthshaker’s wide-ranging ground-quake, pushing the weird, emotionless girl back further, her cloak shredding even further as the spikes of rock skewer up out of the ground. Taking the moment, I check. Marika’s running, but Asteria is still standing there! ARE YOU KIDDING RIGHT NOW?!

I yell, “ASTERIA, I TOLD YOU TO RRRRUUUUUNNNN!”

As she takes a step forward, I grit my teeth and start Overclocking. If this guy controls the girl, taking him out might halt her. As the power builds, I take the chance. Just before I release, I hurl my sword like a spear, dropping into a sprinters’ start, and GO. The Doll-girl moves to intercept, her claws flickering out to knock my sword aside. But it’s not her I aimed at. While she’d tried blocking an attack that wasn’t even meant to connect, I warp the air around me with my passage, and bring my left hand forward like a knife.

Big Nose jolts, then looks down at me. My wings extended, I’ve brought myself to a halt, my hand sticking out of his back, clenched. We’re about twenty metres closer to the gates than we were, and I tug my gauntleted hand out, a gaping hole in his chest. In my clenched hand… is his heart. It’s… not human! It’s a ball of gears and cogs, tiny and intricate. Big Nose lurches, falling onto his back. The girl, AN-R1, halts, her head tilted.

“This was unforeseen. You… you terminated my Puppet. I don’t like surprises.”

I drop Big Nose’s mechanical heart, whirling around to face her. She’s glaring at me.  What did I do?!

“Hey, your big-nosed master over here set you on me! Why shouldn’t I defend myself?!” I snap back, and she flushes angrily.

“HE WASN’T the master, just a puppet! I’M the Puppeteer. I am Anri, the Wellspring of Hate! And I WILL get that sword, no matter the cost! You just wait!” she leaps backwards into the field, as Marika returns, a large group of soldiers in fancy armour accompanying.

“I brought… rein…forcements!” she pants, as the guards spread out, hunting for the strange girl. Asteria scowls. “That’s the one who was following us. No wonder my Detect Enemy was on the fritz! Ugh, I hope she comes back, I wanna take a crack at her!”

I pout. “Astie… why didn’t you listen to me? I told you to run! I was going to buy you enough time to get to the city before joining you! But you didn’t run, you put yourself in danger! I… I was slower than that girl! If she’d chosen to go after you, I… I…” I stamp my foot. “You would have been killed! She was too fast for ME! And I’m supposed to be a tank! Even with all your magic, she might have outsped you too!”

Asteria simply smiles, before pulling me in for a hug. “I knew you wouldn’t lose, though. You’re too clever for that. And you took out one of them and forced that creepy girl to flee! She could have killed us both after you threw your sword at her and fisted that guy to death, but she bailed out and ran! Plus, we have a name! We know who she is, and we’ll be on the lookout. Now, let’s get you inside before something ELSE happens, yeah?” she scoops me up, refusing to put me down, as she carries my huffy butt all the way in through the gates and to the door of an inn. I can feel the last few minutes tick away, and, as soon as I’ve paid for a week’s stay, I hug Asteria and Marika, telling them that I’vegottagobutI’llbebacktomorrow! And bolt upstairs to my room. Locking myself in, I sigh with relief, crossing to the bed and flopping down on it. A few quick gestures, and I hit the log-out button just in time.  My body’ll be safe here, until I come back to it…

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