68. Goodnight (Patreon)

They’d barely settled the bed before the door clunked against it. Brown eyes and dyed red hair stared at them through the gap. Rowan recognized the woman immediately. Red!

“We’re full up in here, thanks,” Gills said, and slammed the door shut.

“Hey! Let us in! You can’t do this,” Red shouted, banging on the door.

“Anyone have a poison ability? I hate being underhanded, but it’d be nice to smear some on the doorknob to keep people out. Gardener?” Gills suggested, pointing at Rowan.

“I, uh, I have some hogweed sap…” Rowan said, shrugging.

“I can hear you!” Red snapped, voice slightly muffled through the door.

“I know,” Gills replied.

She growled and kicked the door. “I’ll remember this.”

“Please do, and come find me later. Gills is the name, axes are my game. Always down for a good fight.” He winked at her, grinning.

“You’re insane!” Red spat, nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Red,” Blue’s calmer voice cautioned.

“Argh!” With a last kick, Red retreated.

“Dearie me. She wasn’t very polite, was she?” Gills said, mock-concerned, a hand over his mouth.

Unamused, Kaidu glanced at Rowan and Kaidu and tipped his head. “Bedroom.”

Gills smirked. “Thought you’d never ask.”

Kaidu’s eyes narrowed. “I meant my team.” He turned on his heel, jacket billowing behind him.

“Watch the door, alright? And quit teasing Kaidu,” Rowan said, jogging away. Ikara shot Gills a last glance and a nod and followed after.

Back in the bedroom, Ikara shut the door behind them. Kaidu sat cross-legged on one of the beds. “We never decided who to attack for tomorrow.”

“Mmm, about that. I was thinking Red and Blue. They split up from Yellow and Green today, no reason they won’t again tomorrow. They’re strong, but Red has no technique—I mean, even I could beat her, if it wasn’t for the stat gap—and Blue looks to be a mage of some sort. I think we have a good chance against them,” Rowan said, climbing onto one of the beds opposite. Besides, Red is a raving lunatic or sociopath or something. I know the Tower doesn’t care about good and bad, but I do. I’ll feel better taking down her than I did taking down that troupe of men out front.

Kaidu looked at Ikara.

She shrugged. “Works for me. Either that or one of the lone-wolf groups, but if the lone wolves are as strong as Gills…”

“He’s an anomaly,” Kaidu declared.

“Anycase, I’m okay with going against Red and Blue.”

Leaning forward, Kaidu clasped his hands together. “Aside from Red and Blue, the man with the weapons and his daughter seem good targets. Depending on which we see first, either are valid targets.”

Rowan shrugged. “Makes sense, I guess.” I hope we see Red first. I don’t want to fight a father in front of his daughter, or vice versa. “So we’re sticking together tomorrow?”

“Yes. And hunting clones. Now that we’ve scouted the teams, we need the raw numbers to stand on par with them, even a little. It’s time for us to accumulate our stat boosts.”

That’s fair. Red overwhelmed me with her stats the last time I fought her. If she does it again, I don’t have anything to counter that. Don’t even know what I’d do, other than fight it with big numbers myself.

“Most of?” Ikara asked.

Kaidu nodded. “Leave a handful, for emergencies. If you take out all your clones and get your points wiped out tomorrow, the only way to rejoin the game is to take out another player and steal their points, and at that point, you may be injured.”

“Good point,” Ikara said, nodding.

Red only had one clone left, didn’t she? She’ll be real screwed over if we succeed. A pang of guilt bit Rowan’s gut, but only for a moment. Yeah, and she deserves it. She’s too dangerous to let her run free like she’s been doing.

“That was Red just now, by the way,” Rowan added, in case the others hadn’t heard Blue call her name. “There’s a good chance we fight her before we get many points ourselves.”

Kaidu nodded. “In that case, you and Ikara can take her, while I’ll focus on Blue.”

“Huh? You’re the better fighter, though,” Rowan said.

“You almost beat her earlier, right? With Ikara’s help, it ought to be an easy win.”

“I…” Rowan paused, then shrugged. He’s not wrong. I stand a decent chance against her. With someone else on my side… I think I could beat her.

“It’s decided, then.” Kaidu stripped off his jacket and hung it off the bedpost, then laid back. “Get good rest tonight. You’ll need it.”

Ikara rubbed her arms. “I think I’m too nervous to sleep now. Why’d we talk about this right before bed?”

Rowan shook his head, clapping his hands together. He stood and paced the room a little, trying to kill the energy inside him. After a few laps, Kaidu glared at him. “Turn off the lights and go to sleep.”

Taking a deep breath, Rowan turned off the light and chose a bed for himself. He settled down and stared at the ceiling. Darkness stared back at him, a darkness that slowly clarified into a blank white ceiling with a fluorescent light fixture. Watching it, his mind wandered back to the office space and the glimpse of Hannah from earlier. What was that? Where was that? Inside the Tower, but where? Outside the second floor, for sure. How did I get there, and what was Lou doing there? For that matter, how’d we get out?

He shook his head and closed his eyes. Next time I meet Lou, I’ll ask, for certain.