Chapter 4: 4: Eye Contact

** Amelia **

 

The battle front was about an hour’s walk from the city and the NPC Joret military patrols were out in force the whole way. They seemed jumpier than usual today, and when Sang asked why, they explained that the Witch of Chains had been sighted in a nearby skirmish. The Witch was a spirit of some kind, a mob that had been following the war front since the Pagutum invasion. She’d charge into a battle or skirmish and kill people indiscriminately. I’d only seen her once before, but she had a reputation.

We pushed onwards, not bothered by the rumours. We were here to fight! We got directions from the patrols, pointing us towards a section of the lines that needed help. It was always more fun to romp on into an outnumbered fight. Target rich environment and all that. More enemies for my explosive ammunition to kill! The war was almost a casual pastime now for us.

When we arrived, things were looking pretty dire. An organised Pagutum player guild were carving their way through our lines, doing their best to push through to one of the smaller Artifisuki warvillages.

The battlefield itself was an old one, this patch of ground had been fought over once before, scarring it for generations to come. Rising out of the forest in the distance, beyond the enemy lines, I could make out the hulk that was the Baasuto. We’d lost the middling sized warcity a week ago, and its loss had been a huge blow to the war effort. The Taeru, our own home city, was having to pull double duty now, covering both its own section of the front as well as that of the other city.

“That’s a group from the Steel Giants,” Sang said, pointing down at the enemy guild.

“Oh snap,” Amano said, his eyes scanning the field warily. He was your bog standard rogue, and he usually liked to keep an eye on the flow of the battle so he could get out of there when things got too hot.

“Well, I don’t know why we’re waiting,” I said casually, unslinging Jazz from my back and resting her on my hip.

I pulled one of the big spell canisters out of the holster at my hip and slotted it into the breech of my cannon. There was a satisfying click-thunk as the mechanism accepted the potent spell canister, and I felt a cocky smirk load itself into my expression in much the same way. I’d bought this baby from a very high level player. It had seemed like a waste to use it on boring old NPC characters.

Kneeling in a marksman’s stance, I took careful aim at the tightly packed players on the enemy side. They had mages in the middle of their ranks whose sole purpose was to put up shields, which meant I had to be fancy here. I pulled the brass bolt to store the spell I’d just slotted, allowing me to fire a normal spell while leaving the canister inside the gun.

Summoning the mana, I cast a fireball, and smirked in satisfaction as it was accelerated and magnified by Jazz’s mechanisms. The bolt whipped out, targeting one specific mage in their formation. He saw the spell coming, throwing up a casual shield to halt the attack, but he wasn’t expecting it to be quite as potent as it really was. Jazz did her work well after all, and the shield snapped. It hit the mage, who toppled with a look of shock, not a fatal blow, but I didn’t need fatal.

As soon as the first shot had gone out, I pulled the same brass bolt as before, allowing the explosive charge to slot back into the firing chamber. I raised Jazz slightly to allow for the arc of the next shot, and fired. It burst from the barrel and flew true across the battlefield, straight into the recently created gap in their magical defences.

The bolt hit and burst at the feet of the mage who I’d just hit with the fireball, and deep red sparks exploded out in a perfect sphere of destruction. Of the almost four hundred players in the formation, only four or five actually died from the hit. Again though, immediate fatality wasn’t the name of the game here. Those four or five bodies were rapidly consumed by twisting strands of energy until they burst again, killing more of their still living comrades, who were in turn infected by the terrible spell.

The detonations spread through their ranks unchecked for several seconds as the enemy tried to figure out what was happening. By the time the mages were throwing up stronger shields to deal with the spreading explosions, almost forty of their number had been downed, and there was a gaping hole in their formation.

“Oh, now that’s just irresistible,” Bia laughed, raising her hand to begin casting a spell of her own.

“You two have fun now,” Sang chuckled, rushing off towards the fighting, Amano close behind.

Bia didn’t comment for a moment as she concentrated. There was a flash of light from her hand, and a thin line of sparkling blue energy lanced out to take advantage of the vulnerability I had created. Out of the impact point, thin blue and green streamers rippled out, swirling and cartwheeling through the air, tearing apart any flesh and bone they came into contact with.

“Fucking zerg guilds,” Bia said derisively, rolling her eyes. “If any one of their mages had actually been good, none of that shit would have worked.”

“I don’t know, their numbers seem to be working for them,” I said pointedly before giving her a grin. “We have way more fun though.”

“Noooo!” Bia said, her tone a playful warning. “We’re not counting our kills again. You’re a fucking cheat!”

“I do not!” I exclaimed in mock outrage, taking aim and firing off spell after spell.

“Yeah you fuckin’ do too. I still remember the time you tried to count every spider in that summoned swarm as a kill. We’re not playing that again,” she grumbled, fighting a small smile despite herself.

“Thirty one... thirty two… thirty five,” I giggled, counting in a singsong.

“I’m at forty, just so you know,” she told me haughtily.

“Oh really?” I chuckled, loading an explosive spell into the breech.

“Hey, isn’t that one of mine?” she asked incredulously, her hand still raised from a spell she’d just unleashed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said innocently, taking aim and firing. The spell detonated in the middle of a formation of NPC soldiers, blossoming into a pink swirl of fire that engulfed six soldiers.

“That was one of mine!” she exclaimed in outrage. “That’s just insulting!”

“All’s fair,” I said, poking out my tongue.

“Oh I will beat you. You’re a cheeky little shit, you know that? I will beat you despite your cheating!” she huffed, going quiet as she unleashed spell after spell into the battle.

“Oh, that one was a bit hairy there Bia,” I teased, pointing out a spell that had almost clipped one of our team. “Team kills don’t count remember.”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” she said, rolling her eyes.

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“I know a way you can make that happen. Either set of lips will work,” I grinned.

My words caused the spell she’d been casting to misfire, and we both watched as it spiralled up into the air like a popped balloon. It exploded high above with the same colourful streamers she liked to use, raining garish colour across the battle.

“Nice firework,” I deadpanned.

“Fuck you,” she grumbled.

“I mean, that was the invitation,” I said, just loud enough for her to hear.

She didn’t reply, her face bright red now as she tried to concentrate on throwing her deadly spells at the enemy, rather than the sky, ground or our own troops. Teasing her was so much fun, I seriously couldn’t get enough of it. Her reaction to my words was almost always as pretty and colourful as her spells.

“Something’s wrong,” Bia said, changing the subject with a frown. She dropped her arms to stare around the battle warily.

“Are you trying to avoid the fact that your face is tomato coloured right now?” I asked with a chuckle.

“No, there’s something weird in the air. Magic feels… funny,” she said, muttering the last almost to herself.

“I don’t see what you mean,” I said, my tone turning serious when I realised she was too.

Then I saw it, my eyes being better than her’s. There was smoke rising from the ground in little wisps that seemed to behave strangely. The air seemed almost to hang still with anticipation, and the cries of the carrion birds that circled the battle turned frenzied and fearful.

Then, from one moment to the next, she was there among the Pagutum troops. She was beautiful, absolutely stunning in a way that terrified me. Even from this distance I could see the cold and impersonal concentration in her eyes. As soon as the smoke started to pour off her, it was like a goddess had stepped onto the field of battle. Eyes turned to her as a feeling, a wave, or aura of fear pulsed out from her.

Then the singing began. She didn’t use her mouth to sing, or anything like that. No, this was the singing of her chains as she began to dance, the crescent blades on the ends tearing through anything and anyone around her with terrible precision. She’d been wearing a Pagutum uniform when she first appeared, but that dissolved, to be replaced my a dress made of her smoke.

Bia and I stood and watched with frightened awe as the gorgeous woman spun through the ranks of the Pagutum soldiers, leaving streaks of blood and viscera hanging in the air where each blade had passed. The Steel Giants formation pivoted, to their credit, reforming perfectly to face the new threat. The hum of massed crossbow fire rang out, but the Witch of Chains didn’t seem to care. Her form burst apart, leaving a spectre of dark, polluted smoke where she’d stood, and the bolts passed harmlessly through.

Then she was solid again, and continuing her carving. This time, she was scything through human players, but that didn’t seem to register to her. Normally, the NPCs would pull their punches a little when it came to players, something about not causing too much trauma. This one didn’t hold anything back. If anything, she became more vicious.

The Steel Giants didn’t last long, and then she was through and into the Joret ranks. She seemed to have little regard for one side or the other, but every now and then she’d leave an NPC alive, reaching down in passing to plunge an ephemeral hand into their skull. It would come out holding a sort of indistinct grey mass, and she’d then plunge it into herself. I’d heard about this behavior, but no one could figure out what she was doing. Taking something, obviously, but what, and why?

I’d been so lost in watching the carnage, that I didn’t hear Bia yelling into my ear until she shook me. “Sky! Sky! Fuck, AMELIA! We need to get the others out of there!”

“What?” I asked, trying to shake the feelings of fear, awe and… lust? From my mind.

“We need to get Sang and Amano the fuck out of there!” she exclaimed in irritation.

“Right… let’s go down,” I said, not wanting to go down there at all.

As much as I found the Witch incredibly hot, she was also terrifying beyond belief. I had a personal fear of unstoppable monsters like her. Nightmares from childhood had been much the same, no matter how fast or far I’d run, there was always the thing chasing me. I had no idea what the dreams meant, but they had gone away as I entered puberty, replaced by a much more terrible waking nightmare.

Bia was rushing ahead, and I shook myself from head to toe again before I dashed after her. Sang was directly in the path of the Witch, and Amano was foolishly trying to snipe at the monster with his dinky little crossbow. I was about to send a hasty party text message for him to get back, when the Witch got him. Just a casual flick of her wrist sent a crescent blade through his neck with the sound of tearing flesh and bone.

“Fuck!” Bia swore, even as I typed out a message to the party, hoping Sang would see.

Skybloom: SANG! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE, THE WITCH IS HERE!

Sang: I know.

“He’s seen her, he’s not leaving,” I told Bia redundantly, knowing that she could see party chat too.

“Fucking idiot! Alright, fine,” she growled, raising her hand once more to begin a spell.

I did the same, loading one of my high damage single target spells into Jazz with a click. When I looked up and took aim, I found myself meeting the Witch’s hauntingly compelling black eyes. Her expression flickered for a moment, her perfect red lips parting in surprise as she held my gaze. My breathing had stopped, and I wasn’t able to pull the trigger. Wow, she was pretty.

The eye contact was broken when Bia’s spell went off, and the deathly impassive expression returned like a door had been slammed. Bia was gone a second later, the terrible whine of chains marking her death.

I heard the song of the chains again, for a brief moment of time, and then everything went black.

You have Died. You will respawn after an indeterminate length of time has passed. Please enjoy your death dream in the meantime and thank you for playing Cauldron of Realms Ascended!

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