Chapter 42: Blood, Fire & Shadow (3) (Patreon)

World: MSS - Loading...

***

“Y-You’re a slave! Just like us!”

An elf man approached me; I saw immediately that he wasn’t anyone I recognized.  One of Madame Damur’s then.

“You have to help us! Please! They’re slaughtering us without-”

I raised my palm to him, silencing his pleas.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to save them anymore; I still did.  But L’teya’s words had taken deep root in my heart long ago and held strong.  My faith did not waver nor did my conviction in my belief that I was about to say the right thing.  Some might think me cruel or that my definition of ‘saving people’ wasn’t any different than leading them to death.  But I’d imagine that the only ones who could accuse me of those things were those who’d taken the same steps I had and done better.

“I cannot stop you from following me.  But I can’t protect each and everyone of you.”  Despite how strongly I felt about what I was saying, my voice still shook.  “Pick up a weapon.  Fight.”

“What do you mean you can’t protect us?!”  A well-dressed noble.

“...No… all is lost then…”  A beastwoman slave.

“He’s just looking after his own skin then.  C’mon, we’ll fight our own way through.”

Some questioned my decision.  Others wallowed in sadness.  Still others sought to forge their own path.  More than most blamed me.  I had expected all this but it still made me flinch inside; with each word that they threw my way, I felt my resolve grow weaker.

“I’m behind you.”  Kyrian.

“Ssslaveborn.  You ssspeak well.”  Skaris.

And more.

“The lad’s right! Pick up anything you can swing ya sods! He said we can follow behind him! Watch his backs!”  A dwarf who was double the width of his peers yelled, lifting his fist into the air.  It was met with a thunderous cry from the small group; I wondered how such a voice could come from people known for being small.

“Are you of the Deepeater clan?”  A black-haired beastman with dog-ears on his head approached us.

“I am.  Skarisss of Clan Deepeater.”

“Kellin of the Black Dogs.”  He gestured towards me with his chin.  “Do you vouch for this man?”

Skaris smiled.  “I owe him a lifedebt and hisss pricssee was to listen to a story.  Never have I heard a worssee ssstoryteller; I almosst wissssh he’d left me to my fate.”

“But I vouch for him on the name of my Clan, Deepeater.  Hisss blade isss true and hisss heart is clean.  I will follow Ssslaveborn, wherever hiss path leadsss.”

Kellin finally addressed me.  “If you will have my blade, we would fight by your side.”

“Your blades are yours to wield.”  I answered back in Arrosh’s fashion.  “The wind cannot stop where the storm chooses to go.”

That satisfied the man and he gestured to the others.  I counted six of them, all with the same black hair and dog-ears on the top of their head.  Looking closely, they had all been wounded.  These six hadn’t gone into hiding out of fear, but only out of necessity.

“Black Dogs.  We move.”  Then with practiced movements, they looted the fallen Akka Xalud warriors.

“We’ll pay you!”

I turned to see the newcomer.  There was no doubt about it, these were the nobles.  

“I saw you fight! You were like a devil- er, I mean- Just please! Take us with you! We can pay as soon as we’re out of the city!”  

I ignored them and turned to the final group.

Orcs.

Some of them were warriors –the warpaint identifying them as berserkers– and had continued fighting while my party and I fought.  They had been at the perimeter of the battle, until the mages came; then they’d hid.  I didn’t blame them; they had hid with civilians.  I saw orcs, both the elderly and children among them.  Still, more orcs were dressed in plain cloth with no warpaint to speak of.  

Children as well, holding the hands of their parents.

One of them approached me and everyone held their breath.

Click Click

Click

The Black Dogs had finished looting the bodies and each of them held a crossbow, bow or handbow gun aimed at the orcs.  They tossed the Dimension Rings over to the dwarves who failed to find a weapon of their liking.  I saw more weapons start to make an appearance.

“Will you stop us?”  I asked him.

The orc in front of me looked like every other, tusks jutting out from his bottom lip and head shaved all around except a ponytail on the back of his head.  I could tell from his warpaint that he wasn’t a lower-ranking berserker.

“Four? I’m seeing five patterns of the Totemic Possession.  Bear totem.”  He held my gaze evenly.

“...-ith you.”

I didn’t hear him.  He must have realized because he repeated it.

“Take my people with you.”  He pointed at the non-combatant orcs.

I thought I heard him wrong because this went against everything I believed in.

Orcs were supposed to be warriors, unrelenting and welcoming of adversaries.  They weren’t supposed to care about civilians.  Bloodthirsty and hungering for battle, they weren’t supposed to care for innocent people. 

“They’re what? Monsters? Demons? Wake up.”  I looked at my own hand, stained with the blood of the Akka Xaluds.

I think deep inside, I had been demonizing the orcs.  They were my captors and the ones at fault for this whole city burning down.  They had been involved in the slave trade and done all sorts of unspeakable deeds.  The orcs were the ones who forced L’teya, Clover and I into all those situations.

“Not the ones in front of you.”  My conscience told me.

This… was hard.

It was really really hard.

I had been meaning to save the innocent orcs anyways, weren’t I?

So why was this so difficult?

It’s always easy to talk a big game but when the moment comes to choose, that’s when you realize what kind of man you are.

I looked at the orc child, holding hands with whom I assumed was his grandmother.  I think I came to a realization while seeing the two.  What bothered me wasn’t the fact that the orcs were not the evil slavemasters I was making them out to be; it bothered me that they had the capacity to care.  It bothered me that they saw the rest of us as less than people, while taking care of there own.

Just like how I used to see these people as NPCs.

The silence dragged on for two long and the orc grew desperate.

“My warriors and I will be on the outermost perimeter.  We will not retreat, until-”

“I will not harm your people.”  I told him.

I heard Kyrian take in a sharp breath.

“Whether you follow me out of the city or not… do as you will.”  I turned on my heel and saw that those who would follow had armed them selves.

I rummaged around the scene, picking up a sword and shield.  I had to pry it out of the already cold hands of a fallen Akka Xalud warrior.  His helmet had fallen off during the fighting and I saw his face.  He was barely older than me and way younger if I was counting how old I was mentally.

I reminded myself that he wasn’t just a mindless evil monster I had to kill.  He was a man who once had a family.  That he too must have had friends.

Recognizing this about him wouldn’t slow my blade.

But perhaps it would keep me from turning into a monster.

“Lock.”  Kyrian’s voice brought me out of my musings.  “I’m sensing a lot of mana above us… I think it’s the Singularity.”

Damn it, I was running out of time.

I grabbed Kellin, he seemed to have his head on his shoulders.  Considering that his weapon of choice was a bow, I had to assume that he atleast had one Core that enhanced his eyesight.  Perhaps he saw something that could help me.

“I’m looking for an elf barbarian.  Tall, tanned skin and wavy red hair.  Pretty.  And a pink-haired beastwoman.  She has horns like a ram that frames her face.  Average height.  They should both have been here tonight, on auction.”

I saw the blackhaired man frown.  “I have seen these individuals you speak of.  But the pink-haired beastwoman was not a slave, she was a merchant.  She bought the elf-barbarian matching your description.”

My heart did a skip.

“Really? You saw them?  They were here?”  I grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Yes.  They left the temple right as the fighting started.  But Slaveborn, you should know there was a mage with them.  And they were-”

The sky rumbled.

“Lock!”  Kyrian grabbed my wrist, taking my hand off of the beastman.  “We need to move!”

With Skaris and Kyrian next to me, we exited the temple with the survivors right behind us.

The city was still in the midst of war.

The orcs and Akka Xaluds fought for dominance on the rooftops, the sound of clashing blades registering in my enhanced hearing.  I saw groups of Akka Xalud mages, patrolling the skies and skirmishing with Shamans; their orc counterpart.  As narrow as the alleyways were, entire buildings had been blasted away creating haphazard roadways.  But the smoke and debris made it hard to make out more than ten to twenty paces at a time.

Skaris quickly caught up to me and Kyrian trailed behind.  They didn’t bother asking why I was running; they probably assumed that I wanted to get away from the temple.  It didn’t matter what direction we ran in, as long as we ran straight we could escape Samak City.  As long as L’teya and Clover were outside of the temple, their chances of survival were high.

I could meet them outside the city walls and-

“Magesss! Above!”

As soon as Skaris shouted the warning, the Black dogs reacted with immediate violence.  The twang of bowstrings and sound of crossbolts cutting the air filled the alleyway.  I heard men grunting and bodies fall; clad in green robes.  Still, more mages were present in the air and I saw them prepare spells.

One of the mages landed on a rooftop nearby, his shadow growing longer.

I used [Shadow Blink], using the spell that earned Shadow Mimic Wolf it’s nickname.

Mage Killer.

I visualized myself emerging from the mage’s shadow, behind him.  Simultaneously I channeled mana into the shadows flitting around my feet and had the sensation of free fall.  Everything turned black, like I had just been relaxing in a brightly lit room and there was a power outage.  But it didn’t last long, I felt myself rise from the shadow seeing the mage’s cloak in front of me.

I stabbed him in the back with my sword, receving the spell [Flame Wave] for my trouble.

Before the mage could react, I shoved him off the rooftop with my shield.  Whether he died from the fall or not, he wasn’t one for this world much longer.  I waved my sword at the group of mages whom were flying towards me and rewarded their bravery with a wave of fire.  The spell took a moment to charge and then sputtered out, barely hitting the mages.  Most of them created a Mana Shield in front of them; avoiding damage.

The black dogs shot them down.

“Let’s move!”  I yelled at the people still on the ground and began to run across the rooftops in parallel to their path.

These mages were all using [Levitate], probably all rank 7 or above.  Any spell could wipe us out.  But as long as I kept their attention on me, the Black Dogs could shoot them down.  Akka Xalud soldiers on the ground could be taken care of by Skaris, dwarves and the berserkers.  Worst case scenario, I could duck into a shadow and tell Kyrian to hit me with a spell.  That’d allow me to [Shadow Jump] down there.

Kiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The world stopped moving.

Sounds stopped, except the soft crumbling of embers.  Mages stopped mid-flight and berserkers locked in death duels with Akka Xalud soldiers stopped their fighting to look towards the sky.

The sky was covered in clouds green and orange clouds, all swirling above the temple like they were being stirred in one giant pot.  They extended all the way outside the city, gathering momentum and bringing in more and more clouds.  I saw muted lightning run through the atmosphere; followed by the distant rumbling of thunder.  

At the center of the clouds, a monster descended.

At first, my brain couldn’t understand the sheer complexity of this creature that I’d never seen before.  My bones shook and muscles tensed, seeing the closest thing to a god I’d ever had the honor of seeing.  The divine creature resembled the shape of a centipede, but I knew it wasn’t an insect in the same way that I knew that falling off of a cliff was dangerous.  It was large enough to swallow houses whole and I wasn’t even seeing its whole body; half of its body still nested in the clouds above.

“Fucking here? NOW?!”  

Thousands of its legs flailed in the air and centipedes-type monsters began to fall from the clouds into the ruined Samak City.

I saw a Grade-9 Greater Centipede land on a rooftop not too far from me; explode in a shower of green hemolymphs.  More followed, ending up as nothing more than a stain.  

Still others were alive.

Grade-8; Winged Centipedes which flew out from the clouds and swooped down to wrap themselves around unsuspecting victims and carry them upwards.

Grade-7, Centipede Soldiers; landing on legs twice as long as I was tall and walking around with half their bodies upright.  They looted the fallen soldiers and berserkers immediately, arming their dozens of legs with daggers, axes and anything sharp.

Grade-4, Giant Centipede King that dropped on the opposite side of the city, crushing an building underneath it as it landed.

I felt something running down my face and dabbed at my eyes, looking at my wrist to see what it was.

Tears.

And Blood.

I looked again at the living cataclysm.

Kkkiiiiiiiiaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Every one of its legs were covered in protrusions; they were eggs.  Even as I watched, more eggs exploded open and gave birth to more; they’d fall on the city and die or kill the survivors.  My brain was able to undertand more of this creature this time.  It’s carapace were covered with eyes, all different sizes and different colors.

I knew the name of this monster.

[Mother Centipede].  Boss-Class.

Grade 1.

“How many years would it take for me to kill that thing? Is that even possible?”

“LOCK!”  

“SSLAVEBORN!”

I woke out of my stupor and saw the group in the alleyways, fighting the centipede monsters.  I saw men fall from venom and acid, others turning into victims of paralyzing fangs.  Some of them were only grade-9 or grade-8 monsters but there were hundreds of them falling from the sky.

I flung myself over the parapet and leaped off of the walls of the opposite building.  I didn’t think about doing it, I just did.  It was like seeing the Grade-1 monster had awakened a part of myself that I’d been suppressing.  As much as this world was real, it was also MSS and I had the body with three Cores.  I could do things I’d never even dreamed of.

Right on landing, I sliced a Greater Centipede in half; before it could finish squirming on the ground I threw the sword into the Winged Centipede that had been approaching us from the skies.  Before it could do so much as screech, it was riddled with holes from arrows and crossbow bolts.  The berserkers roared in hatred; fighting the Akka Xaluds had given them more than enough hatred of insects to last a life time.

The berserker who had spoken to me wielded a huge Maul, almost comically large even for his orc physique.  He crushed one monster then moved onto another, without checking to see if its was dead.

“MOVE! WE NEED TO MOVE! COME!”

I took the lead once more.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.”  

“Lock, t-that’s a-”

“I know what it is.”  I muttered.  “We need to move before more monsters show up.”

A grade-1 boss-class monster’s presence would attract other monsters like flies to a honey.  If I had never landed in this world, I had thought of it as a game mechanic but now that I saw the thing with my own two eyes; I could understand why.  The monster was a beacon of Mana so pure and dense, you were either cowed into submission or awakened into unquenchable desire. 

 I could only guess at what kind of horrors it would attract.

***

Arione saw [Mother Centipede] show up but didn’t let it bother him.

Jaon had assured him that he had it under control; the item had been passed down from the Patriarch and was attuned to his bloodline.  For a short time, Jason or Maria should be able to control it.  The only worry in Arione’s mind was the potential of a Monster Wave.  Whenever a Grade-3 or higher monster made its presence known, there was the possibility of lesser monsters swarming the scene.

He could feel the mana from the Mother Centipede pulsating out for miles.  Suri, Enla Enla and the Deathworm could would be drawn here; like shoppers at a black friday sale.  The elven mage felt his mouth crease into a grimace.

“We did enough here.  Let’s get out of here.”  This was close enough.  

Even for him, the strongest monster he raided with a full party was grade-2 — that had been after months of preparation – and he had nowhere near a party strong enough for that.  At the end of the day, MSS was a world where you hunted monsters in parties.  Hence, why he wanted to take Clover so badly with him and Scarlet.

“Clover… that’s a grade-1 monster.  We need to get out of here.  Lock is probably-”

“Don’t.  You.  Dare.  Say it.”  Clover snarled.

Blood streamed down her eyes and ears, evidence of the damage that she had suffered from even being near the grade-1 monster.  The lower your level, the more severe the sideeffects would be.  For Clover who probably wasn’t even 20 yet, Arione could only imagine the pain she had experienced.

“Got to give the girl credit though.  She’s still sticking it out for that Lock guy.”  Arione took a breath.

They were close to escaping the city.  While Arione had been aiding the Akka Xaluds, he made sure to massacre survivors who were heading towards the city walls.  So bit by bit, inch by inch, he led his party to closer to escaping without them even realizing it.  The Akka Xaluds wouldn’t say anything; there was too much going on.  

Arione burned a Winged Centipede that was flying towards them and watched absently as another Greater Centipede disemboweled an Akka Xalud soldier.  Such was the way of the Akka Xaluds.  Just like insects, all lives were expendable when carrying out the will of their Queen; Patriarch in this case.

“I’m all for loyalty.  But you have to admit that cloudy with a chance of centipedes aren’t really the time for-”

“...I see him.”

Scarlet’s voice cut the argument short.

Clover’s head whipped towards the direction where Scarlet was pointing.

Near the city walls, running on a wide open road was an assortment of slaves, all armed to the teeth.

Dwarves and orcs fought side by side, cutting down monsters and Akka Xalud soldiers.  Arione saw beastman with ranged weaponry providing support fire and sniping down any flying monster that came near them.  He even saw a mage, probably second-rate, call down lightning time and time again.  

The grade-2 mage could tell that the blonde mage was nearing the end of his mana pool, yet he showed no signs of slowing.  Next to the mage was a tall beastman of red-scaled-lizard lineage.  He swung the halberd in wide arcs, dismembering insects and mages who dared to venture too close.  

Then he saw Lock, in the center of it all.

The man darted like an animal, his sword flashing and cutting down everything in his way.  He was like a fucking demon; wading in towards a group of Akka Xalud soldiers and using half a dozen abilities in a span of thirty seconds or less.  Arione saw him get hit by a lightning spell but disappear; only to appear behind the mage and decapitate him.  Then the slave used the same lightning spell to fry up more centipedes.

He left nothing alive in his awake.

The duality between his wish to protect the people who followed him and the merciless nature with which he executed his enemies was as opposite and white and black.

“...Clover.  How long did you say you guys were slaves again?”

“A litle over a month.  We need to get over there!”

Scarlet frowned at the tone in his master’s voice.

A month.

Maybe two.

Just from Arione’s 10 years of experience; Lock would be around grade 6.  Maybe 5.

Was it possible for a denizen of this world to grow that powerful in that timeframe?  Maybe.

Was it possible for someone to be a slave and named Lock Slaveborn?  Not likely.

What was the chance that someone managed to find the right Cores and recognized the synergy between them and absorbed only the ones that would get him more powerful?

Almost impossible.

No one who was in a position to become a slave should have that kind of knowledge.

Arione was sure of it now.

Lock Slaveborn was a [Player].

Arione stepped off of the disc and took to the skies.

“...Arione?”

“Master?”

｢Arione Popwindale has cast [Fire Ball]｣