August Intruder- Chapter 73- Forward (Patreon)

It had been a significantly long time since Melmarc had been well and truly confused on what exactly his emotional state was.

Staring at the notification in front of him, he could confidently say that he didn’t know. Naymond was a Player. And as much as he would’ve loved to say it made sense, he couldn’t. None of it made sense.

In fact, of all the impossible things in life this one had not been one of them. It wasn’t even close.

Around him, everyone just stared as if they were witnessing something outrageous. Jude, ever the one to stand out negatively was the one to break the silence.

“What the hell is going on?”

Melmarc ignored him. He stared at the notification in front of him. His interface stared back. The words were clear, and yet blurry somehow.

Naymond’s a player.

Jude looked around, from one person to the other. He gave the rest of his teammates odd looks as if they were the ones who were being unreasonable for not asking questions.

Saxi for his part, stood quietly. He looked as if he wasn’t even here. To be more precise, he looked as if he wasn’t listening to anything that was happening here.

Melmarc gritted his teeth. He’d always hoped to meet a Player one day, but not for any good reason. He couldn’t say he planned on being hostile to them, but he also couldn’t say he planned on being a friend.

He didn’t know what he planned. What he knew was that he just always wanted to meet one.

“Your father says that you should tell me that you are not his commanding officer,” Saxi said suddenly, looking confused.

Naymond’s face fell at the man’s words.

A part of Melmarc had expected the [Sage] to try and persuade him, regardless. To see him so clearly subdued was a surprise.

“So he came,” Naymond muttered.

Saxi said nothing to that. Instead, he walked all the way to one end of the room that had a door and opened it. He stuck his head outside, looked from side to side, then brought his head back in.

“I’m to take you to your father, Mel,” he said calmly.

Melmarc wasn’t sure how he felt being called ‘Mel’ by a stranger. Surprisingly, he didn’t like how subdued Naymond suddenly was. The [Sage] looked worried.

“What happens if I don’t tell you that I am not his commanding officer?” he asked Saxi.

The Delver paused for a moment. Then he frowned as if something had pricked him.

“Nothing happens,” he said after a while. “Saying it is more about him than you. He’s just trying to drag you into something you aren’t really a part of.”

Melmarc looked at Naymond and couldn’t agree with Saxi. Naymond had known something. And even if he hadn’t known something, he’d suspected it. The [Sage] hadn’t tried to drag him into something that he wasn’t a part of, he’d tried to drag him into something that he’d suspected he was a part of.

Let’s leave it for now, Melmarc thought, dismissing his interface with a thought.

Even though Saxi had said that his dad wanted him to deny Naymond, all he had to go on was the man’s words. And he didn’t know the man enough to trust it.

What if it was Deoti’s words?

The answer to that came easily as well. Deoti was nice, but to Melmarc and Ark, she was more like that friend of your parents that showed up once every five years or something. She was always nice to them in that detached way a parent’s friend was nice to their child or you were nice to your friend’s significantly younger sibling. Or even their parents.

She was nice to him because he was his father’s son. So she was nice. But that was all she was.

Besides, she holds no power in this decision. It was less of a thought and more of an instinct.

So, no. He wasn’t going to take Saxi’s word for it.

He did, however, focus on one thing.

“Dad’s here?” he blurted, taking a step forward before he even noticed it.

Saxi nodded. “It hasn’t been long since we got here, but we decided to split up to cover more ground.”

The news did nothing to please Naymond and Melmarc remembered why. Naymond had been afraid of what would happen if his father ever found out about what had happened here, how he had accidentally endangered Melmarc’s life.

It can’t be that bad, right?

“Where’s dad?” Melmarc asked.

“Somewhere in this building,” Saxi asked. “We’ll just need to navigate our way back to him.”

Saxi stared at the air, looked at nothing, yet his eyes moved as if he was reading something.

No, not reading, Melmarc realized.

Saxi’s eyes didn’t move from side to side but around. If it had been from side to side, he could’ve come to the conclusion that the man was reading his interface. But around meant something else.

Saxi frowned before finally looking back at them.

“He’s not very far,” he said.

“Great.” Jude threw his hands up in exasperation. “Kid’s dad’s a Delver, too. And a Raider at that.”

Saxi was already moving. In a matter of seconds, he’d crossed the distance between him and Jude and had the man pinned to the wall by the neck. With his other hand, he held the barrel of Jude’s gun down and away from him.

“Watch your words, Delver,” he said in a quiet, menacing tone. “Words can get you killed in the presence of more loyal men. No one here is a Raider.”

“Put. Him. Down.” Even with Clinton curled up in his hands Nelson remained a terrifying figure with his size.

At least when he wanted to be. And it seemed like he wanted to be a terrifying figure right now.

“No need to stand up for me, big guy,” Jude muttered with a grin.

His hand twitched as the words left his mouth and Saxi was already slipping out of the way. A small shockwave left his open palm and blasted into the wall on the other side of the room.

This was beginning to feel like the time when Jude had accused Melmarc of being a Skin Walker all over again.

Is he always this testy? Melmarc wondered. And what did Saxi mean by more loyal men?

Saxi frowned at the attack then looked back. “Don’t you know that getting on the bad side of an S-rank is never a good idea?”

Jude didn’t respond. He didn’t even look intimidated. From what Melmarc knew, S-ranks were treated with a mix of fear and respect amongst Delvers.

Saxi sighed and released Jude.

“I apologize,” he said. “Old habits made me react.”

Melmarc understood in this moment why Jude and Nelson weren’t afraid of the man. He’s a [Guide].

No one feared the non combat classes. What were they going to do? Support you to death?

“Alright,” Saxi announced, unbothered by the slight chaos he’d caused. “I have orders to bring the kid and his… friend to my superior. The rest of you can do whatever you want.”

“I’m sorry but we can’t allow that,” Jed said simply. “The kid is under our protection. And we really don’t trust you.”

“For fuck sake,” Saxi muttered under his breath. “I just had to be the one to run into them.”

He paused in thought after that.

“Is there a way we can negotiate on this?” he asked nobody in particular.

“We could follow you,” Claire offered.

Saxi pursed his lips in thought, then shook his head. “Nope. I can’t risk one of you saying the wrong thing like your friend over here. It could get real messy.”

“We survived you just fine,” Jude said, voice smug.

Saxi chuckled at that. “He’s funny,” he said to Melmarc, then turned to Jude. “You’re funny.”

“Also honest,” Jude said, simply.

Saxi’s brows furrowed at that. He seemed confused, but his confusion cleared a moment later.

“You guys have no experience with S-ranks,” he said in realization. “You just think that they’re powerful Gifted. Then you met me.”

He let out an amused chuckle. It was almost loud.

“Oh you poor guys.” He shook his head. “I’m S-rank, but I’m a support. Don’t you understand what that means?”

“It means you’re an A-rank, potentially a B-rank when it comes to combat,” Jed said.

“Which means…”

“You don’t hold the level of importance the combat S-ranks hold.”

“Which means?”

“You’re not as arrogant as they are rumored to be,” Melmarc said.

Saxi nodded. “So I don’t look down on people as much.”

“But you do look down on people.” Jude was rubbing his neck.

Saxi walked up to the door and opened it. “Yes. But that’s because I’m rich. Now come along and practice your best behavior.”

The first sight they met when they stepped out was a [Damned] lying dead on the floor. It had lost one arm, severed at the shoulder in one clean cut.

A skill? Melmarc wondered before discarding the thought. The [Guide] class didn’t have any attack skill. At least none that was known to the public or Delano.

He spared it a glancing look as he stepped over it.

They walked down a hallway that turned every now and again in silence. Each time the hallway forked, Saxi simply took any turn without hesitation. He was like a man walking in his own castle, fully aware of where he was going.

“I have a skill for it,” Saxi explained when he made the fourth casual turn at the fourth fork in the road.

Melmarc picked up the pace so he walked beside Saxi, leaving the others behind them. Saxi was busy keeping his attention on the road, although he looked like he wasn’t necessarily focused on it.

He reminded Melmarc of how Delano looked whenever he was typing and talking at the same time.

“How does it work?” Melmarc asked. “The skill.”

Saxi looked back, checked on the others, before turning his sight forward. “It’s called [Wanderer’s Compass].”

Melmarc had a feeling it wasn’t a very complicated skill.

“It’s a bit of a complicated skill,” Saxi continued. “I first have to know where I’m going. I don’t have to know how to get there. Just where there is.”

“What happens if you don’t know where there is?” Melmarc asked.

Saxi shrugged. “Then it won’t activate.”

“Does your interface tell you why it won’t activate?”

They walked past a bump in the wall. [World of Insight] told Melmarc what the bump was but he was still surprised enough that he had to look at it twice.

It was a hand.

A single hand jutted out of the wall, drawing the painting on the wall…

Now that Melmarc thought about it, the wall wasn’t painted. It was just like one massive slab, just like the wall outside that they’d blown a hole into. It was a very dark shade of grey that was almost black.

The hand jutted out of the wall, stretching it as if it was some kind of elastic cloth. Then it just stayed there, reaching out as if in supplication. It was eerie to look at.

“Grotesque piece of artistry if you ask me,” Saxi said, pausing long enough for Melmarc to know he was waiting for him.

Melmarc nodded in agreement and continued walking.

“So as long as you know the location, the skill can guide you to it?” Melmarc asked.

“Not entirely. Like I said, it’s a bit complicated.”

They passed the first door they were seeing in a while. Saxi ignored it even though Melmarc was aware that the man hadn’t missed it. So he ignored it too.

“So you could know where something is but the skill still won’t be able to get you to it?”

“Exactly.”

Behind them Melmarc heard Naymond say, “I wouldn’t open that if I were you.”

Curious, Melmarc used [World of Insight] to focus on what was on the other side of the door. It worked easily and he almost gagged.

Saxi gave him a curious look. To the man it must’ve looked like he’d almost gagged out of nowhere.

“Are you okay?” Saxi asked.

Melmarc nodded. “Just something I noticed.”

The room had bodies, and Melmarc wasn’t talking about the bodies of the [Damned]. There were human bodies in there, most of them adults. There were also animal bodies, though. Melmarc did understand why.

The room was actually stuffed with them, but there was no smell. But Melmarc’s mind was too focused on the bodies and the number of bodies.

Saxi’s brows furrowed in thought but he said nothing further on the subject.

Still curious about the skills of an S-rank [Guide] Melmarc pushed the conversation along. “So how do you work as a guide when you enter a portal with my dad.”

Saxi gave him an odd look.

“I assume you work with my dad, entering portals.”

“How much do you know about your dad’s job?” Saxi pointed to the right as they came up on a T-junction.

Melmarc walked on his right and took the turn easily. “I know he’s a Delver and he works for the government.”

I know a bit more now than before I got stuck here.

Saxi made a sound that came out as a noncommittal grunt. “I work quite well with your dad, actually.”

“And your class usually work as scouts, right?”

Saxi smiled. “You’re wondering how I help if I can’t find what I don’t know the location?”

Melmarc nodded.

Saxi stopped at door. It had the same orange hue as the one Melmarc had seen that had led them to Saxi. Behind them, the others came to a stop, Naymond closer than the rest.

Saxi looked at the door, frowned, thought about it, then moved away. Melmarc moved as well.

“What’s behind that door?” Claire asked. There was genuine curiosity in her voice.

Saxi took a deep breath, then let it out.

“So the reason I’m helpful is because that’s not the only skill I have,” Saxi said to Melmarc, ignoring her.

“You won’t answer her?” Melmarc asked.

“If I answer every question they ask, they’ll be motivated to ask more questions,” Saxi answered. “And if I encourage that, they’ll feel they are free to say whatever they want whenever they want. For their own health, I will not encourage that.”

“And they can hear you,” Jude said from behind them.

“But you answer me,” Melmarc said.

“Yes.” Jude took another turn. They passed another door with an orange highlight. “I answer you because you can talk whenever you want to talk and say whatever you want to say.”

“Oh.” That sounded like Melmarc was more important than he was supposed to be. “Do you work with my dad or for my dad?”

“A bit of both. But more of the second one.”

Behind them, Naymond snorted in amusement. “That’s one way to put it.”

Saxi shot him a scowl.

“What about me?” Naymond asked cheerily. “Do I get to say whatever I want whenever I want?”

Saxi ignored him and returned his attention to Melmarc. “So, the way my skills work together is that I have another skill that kind of works like echo location.”

“So you get a general idea of where something is.” Melmarc could understand how the two skills could create the perfect tracking skill.

“I also have a simpler one,” Saxi continued. “If I already have a location and an accurate enough geography, I can pull up a map.”

“Like a video game map or like you can draw a map?”

Saxi chuckled. “A video game map. It’s actually kind of cool. I still remember how impressed the others were the first time they saw it.”

“Wait, others can see it?”

Saxi scratched his jaw with a finger. “Well… not really. There are other factors in it. We’ve got a team member that has a skill that helps with that one.”

“I knew a Gifted with a tracking skill,” Jude piped up. “She could track something as far as eight blocks away.”

“Deoti wants to know how long you’ve been with these guys?” Saxi asked Melmarc.

Dissonant.

“Does Deoti want to know or do you want to know?” Melmarc asked.

Saxi paused. He looked at Melmarc through narrow lids. “That was very eerie. But yes, you’re right. I’m the one that wants to know.”

“I met them last night. Yesterday evening, actually.”

“Does that one always talk that much?”

Melmarc couldn’t say for certain if Jude talked a lot. One thing he could say, however, was that the man was quite different from the others.

“He’s kind of different from the others,” was the only answer he could give.

Saxi chuckled. “Definitely different from the others. Peacock-y, if you ask me.”

Melmarc looked at him. “Peacock-y?”

Saxi walked up to a door and opened it. There was no orange hue over it. “Likes to show off, draw attention. But with his mouth.”

“He is a bit paranoid,” Naymond confirmed.

The room they walked into was large. It looked more like a hotel suite than a normal room. There were scattered chairs all over the floor. Brown like oak even in the light of the glow stick. Melmarc counted four. They were wooden, like what you would expect from an old movie.

There was also a fire place. It was old and dusty. Ancient from disuse.

A king size bed occupied the center of the room, still neatly dressed, covered in sheets of white and red, even if extremely dusty. It sat comfortably on a beige mattress. Over turned at one corner of the room, as if flung in annoyance, was a brown oval table the same color as the chairs.

“Guest room?” Jed guessed.

His words were followed by a groan that came from Nelson. Clinton stirred in the large man’s arms. It was a good sign. Melmarc realized that he was waiting for the leader of the second team to wake up while he anticipated a meeting with the leader of Saxi’s team.

Saxi didn’t look around.

“We should keep going,” he said, walking over to the other end of the room where another door waited for them.

“Are we going to my dad?” Melmarc asked.

Saxi opened the door. “No. We’re going to Deoti. Deoti’ll take you to your dad.”

Melmarc was glad. True to form, he doubted his dad would’ve ever shown it but he knew his dad would’ve been worried sick since finding out where he was.

“How is he?” Melmarc asked, unsure.

Saxi smiled, then gestured for Melmarc to go through the door. “You know your dad. What do you think?”

“Blank expression.” Melmarc smiled as he walked through the door into another hallway. “Simple words. Grunts.”

Saxi walked after him.

“Intimidating.” Naymond stepped out, too.

Jed was behind them. “Is that how you describe your father?”

Nelson and Jude walked in. Then Claire.

“To be fair,” she said, “he kind of just described himself.”

“I’m not intimidating,” Melmarc muttered to himself.

“Not right now.” Naymond patted him on the back amiably. “But I’m sure you can be when you want to be.”

Melmarc wanted to be powerful but he wasn’t sure intimidating was the word he was looking to be described with. Yes, he wanted to be intimidating to anything that came out of a portal or was inside a portal. But not to people on earth.

Bad guys, too, he thought. He also wanted to be intimidating to bad guys.

But that was the risk of being powerful. If you wanted people not to mess with you, you had to be intimidating in some way. Ark wasn’t intimidating to him but everyone else found Ark intimidating. And because of that, nobody had messed with Melmarc back in school or anything that had to do with Ark.

Melmarc wondered if he could find that line between being powerful and being intimidating. He didn’t want people who didn’t know him to meet him for the first time and find him intimidating.

“Trust me,” Saxi said from beside him. “If you’re worried about the intimidating part, you shouldn’t be. You’re not that intimidating.”

Dissonant.

Melmarc let out a sigh. So much for trying to assure him.

They walked a little longer. They crossed two more rooms and Saxi was telling Melmarc how Deoti wasn’t far now when Jed hurried up to them so that he walked side by side with Melmarc and Saxi.

“I have a question,” he said, his hand casually rested on his side arm.

“I do not have an answer,” Saxi replied.

Jed glanced at Melmarc, then back at Saxi. “How did you do it? In the room. You have the [Guide] class. And if I’m not mistaken, your class doesn’t get any boost to any combat stats.”

Melmarc was curious about that, too. Especially how he’d reacted to Jude’s final attack before the man had even made it.

“I’m… I’m kind of curious, too,” Melmarc said.

Saxi groaned as if he really didn’t want to say anything and Jed smirked.

“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to,” Melmarc added hurriedly. “I was just curious, but it’s obviously not important.”

Saxi was silent for a moment. However, his face went through a few expressions as if he was having an argument in his head.

“We don’t get a lot of boosts in our combat stats,” he said in the end. “But we do get stat boosts. It’s no secret that the [Guide] class comes with a stat boost to perception and speed.”

Naymond slipped in between them. “Don’t forget that one point to intelligence.”

Saxi ignored him. “And I also have a skill that helps with that. But I didn’t have to use it for you guys.”

Melmarc found himself wandering what the skill was. From what he knew, combat skills for guides weren’t a thing. But there was always the possibility of turning a skill that was meant for one purpose so that it was used for another.

Hypothetically speaking, how possible was it for him to use the skill [Wanderer’s Compass] to find how to attack where he wanted to attack. After all, all he needed was to know where what he was looking for was.

If you focused on figuring out where you wanted to strike, the skill might be able to show you how to get there. If it worked like most of the tracking skills Melmarc had heard of, then it was possible for Saxi’s skill to give him the alternative ways to make the attack work.

With a heightened perception it should be possible, right?

Saxi came to a sudden halt. Everyone stopped behind him just as abruptly.

Naymond looked at him. “That’s quite the reach you have.”

“Not the time for jokes.” Saxi looked left and right.

They were at a junction. A path led to the left and the right. One led forward. Saxi looked very uncertain. He scratched his head, fingers scraping through a wooly head of hair. In the end, he ran his hand over it, patting it gently as if trying to arrange it somehow.

He let out a sigh. “This will be a problem.”

“Trouble on the horizon?” Jed asked.

Saxi turned to him, addressing him properly for the first time. “How good are you guys in a combat situation?”

“Not bad,” Jed answered.

“Define not bad.”

“I killed four of those monsters—B-rank—before we got into the building.”

Saxi was quiet again, thoughtful. Everyone waited for him to finish his thoughts. Although Melmarc was of the significant opinion that there were no thoughts to be finished.

“So what did they say?” Naymond asked. “I take it you have a comms specialist on your team.”

“There’s no way around,” Saxi answered, turning to Melmarc. “All the paths to Deoti have monsters in between.”

Melmarc couldn’t sense anything. It meant that Naymond’s reach with [World of Insight] was significantly far as was whatever skill Saxi was using.

“How many are there?” he asked.

“Forward has the least number.”

Melmarc wouldn’t say he was looking for the least number. Now that he knew he would still get [EP] for an assisted kill, he really wanted to go all in.

Don’t risk others, he told himself. Better yet, don’t risk yourself.

It would be stupid if he went and got himself killed when he wasn’t far from his dad. Maybe he could circle back with Deoti and kill whatever [Damned] they couldn’t get this time.

“Please tell me the kid isn’t thinking about it,” Jude said. “There really isn’t anything to think about. We go through the path with the lowest number.”

Saxi let out a tired breath and stepped aside. He gestured dramatically at the path forward like a gentleman opening the door for a lady. “Go on or shut up. I’m here for Melmarc not you.”

Everyone stood quietly. They waited.

Jude looked at everyone. His teammates to be precise. “You guys have got to be kidding me. If we go together, we can make it.”

Jed sighed. “You seem to forget that we’re here for the kid, too.”

Jude paused. “Oh.”

“Good. Now let Marc decide.”

There was no thinking to be done. The answer was clear.

Melmarc pointed. “We’ll go forward.”

Hopefully, there would be enough time to circle back and gather as much [EP] as possible with Deoti. He remembered his mom talking about how strong Deoti was once upon a time.

“Forward, it is.” Jed raised his gun and took aim.

He took two steps forward before coming to a halt. He looked down at his gun, thought better of it and dropped it. He replaced it with a knife and continued forward. Jed followed behind him, grumbling about how he didn’t sign up for this.

Nelson turned to Saxi and offered him Clinton’s sleeping form. “Can you carry him?”

Saxi reached out and took Clinton. He grunted a bit but held the Delver, adjusted a bit, and finally threw him over his shoulder.

“Careful,” Claire said softly. “He might throw up if you move him around too much.”

Saxi craned his neck to look at Clinton. “Why?”

“Because his drunk,” she replied with a sigh. “Drunk on vitality.”

[Vitality of the Drunk], Melmarc thought. No wonder they recovered sleepy. They are drunk.

Saxi nodded. “Got it.”

He didn’t look like he really cared.

Ahead of them, Jed called out. “Contact!”

Melmarc moved forward and Saxi rushed after him.

“What are you doing?” Saxi asked, not stopping him.

“Joining them,” Melmarc answered.

A small smile touched Saxi’s lips. “I get to see the Boss’ kid in action… Nice.”

Melmarc wasn’t sure what that was about, but it wasn’t very important right now. What was important was getting his [EP].

Wait. Melmarc looked at him. "Where's Clinton?"