Lucian tried—he really did—but couldn't shake off the faint twinge of exasperation as he followed along at the back of the group, upper right bicep still lightly stinging after Transient Cardinal levied a far less gentle slap on his flesh the moment she exited out onto the suspended, unsheltered walkway.
He didn't hold the strike against his white-haired partner, to be fair; completely understanding why she had done it.
But still… domestic violence, much?
“Chin up, friend.” Completely out of the blue, Boris’s meaty hand clapped down on Lucian's shoulder consolingly, nearly dislocating his arm as he did. “Things could have been worse. The little albino seems like the feisty sort.”
Lucian scoffed, end table preventing him from combing his fingers through his hair like he wanted to. “She didn’t have to slap me so damn hard.”
Boris chortled shortly, beard shifting about like a living animal as he smiled widely. “Be thankful that's all you got. I have a feeling that if circumstances were different, your ear would have been chewed off – and I don't mean that metaphorically.”
The raven-haired man remained silent, conceding the point but not willing to voice it out loud.
Moments after the duo's conversation ended, Gladiolus-wreathed Queen’s contralto, paradoxically carried on and muffled by the ferocious winds, travelled to the back of the six-person group.
“Look sharp, everyone! We’re coming up on Starburst.”
At the honey blonde's proclamation, the others proffered their acknowledgements – both in the form of wordless gestures and ringing replies.
Silence fell over the group once more after that; only punctuated by the occasional loud cracks of thunder and the consistent howling of the winds.
…
It had taken a fair bit of time, but the others had eventually joined Lucian outside – something he understood the reason for, after Transient Cardinal had slapped him and then told him about the bounty of loot the slain Shadowborn Skullkers had left behind.
While limited to Hollow Vertebrae and pouches of Shadow-imbued Bonedust, the numbers, in and of itself, made the haul a substantial one. In total, the party of six acquired nine of the former and nineteen of the latter from roughly fifty of the serpentine monstrosities; an approximate possibly far off the mark, since some of the creatures had been reduced to what amounted to ebony bone splinters.
According to his white-haired partner, sifting through the carpet of bony debris had been the easy bit, ironically enough.
With 28 items and 6 people, it had been impossible to divide things equally – especially after Diamonddust and Gladiolus-wreathed Queen had refused to take any of the Hollow Vertebra.
After much arguing and some cajoling, the latter of which Lucian joined in on when Transient Cardinal roped him in, a distribution was agreed upon:
Gladiolus-wreathed Queen took possession of four Shadow-imbued Bonedusts, while five of them were thrust onto Diamonddust to stop his whining.
Boris and Cherub received three pouches apiece, the former also gifted with two Hollow Vertebra where the latter only got one.
Last but not least, Transient Cardinal took hold of two grey pouches and three ebony bones, all of it tucked away securely in her coat’s pockets; numbers Lucian matched exactly, item for item.
Only after all that did the others finally pay attention to their surroundings.
While the raven-haired man had been fixated on the sky-piercing central stone tower, the others had found other things of interest that wildly ranged in scope; from the more subtle details to things out in the open.
Cherub, as an example, had brought their attention to the stone planters, solely filled with damp yet seemingly lifeless dirt, fully lining both sides of the airborne walkways. While they lacked any vegetation, it wasn't like they didn't have a function at all, managing to act as mock safety railings – even if rather short ones.
On the other hand, Transient Cardinal insisted that she had glimpsed movement through the miniscule gaps in the dense cover of black-leaved, crimson-thorned briars; something that she was the only one to spot even after the rest tried looking.
While the rest had failed to spot what she had, it didn't mean they disregarded her claims out of hand. With the monsters they had already encountered thus far, it wasn't such a stretch to believe things roamed in something as eerie-looking as the briar maze.
Well… except for Diamonddust, anyway.
Though the effeminate blond was rather quarrelsome, it wasn't like he didn't pull his own weight – especially since he was the first one to figure out the name of the Dormitory the group had awakened within.
Right above the exit they had come from, etched in a conspicuous scarlet font, one sanguine like freshly spilt blood, was a solitary, spiky word:
Galaxia.
…
Soft fingers abruptly wrapping about his right wrist caused Lucian to flinch and get yanked out of his thoughts. His eyes immediately darted down to find the source and saw slim, fragile fingers connected to a delicate, porcelain hand. Following the limb up to the source, his light brown orbs met with Transient Cardinal's pale blues in a flash.
Seeing his attention was on her, the young woman let go while clasping her hands together; table legs held in between. “We're almost at Starburst, for your information.”
He nodded. “I see. Are we still sticking to the earlier plan?”
“Yup~!” She popped the ‘p’ for emphasis. “Like Queen said. It’s best to storm through the entrance without giving anything the time to react.”
The raven-haired man pinched the bridge of his nose between his partially bandaged thumb and index finger, soft sigh gusting against his palm. Seeing the questioning look his white-haired partner sent him, he explained exasperatedly. “I still don't think this will turn out well.”
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
She daintily stuck up her nose at him, questioning look transforming into an incredulous one. “Caution coming from the man who left all on his own? Colour me surprised.”
He raised up his free hand in surrender. “I get it. You’ve already made it abundantly clear I was being an idiot, and I’ve apologised a thousand times. It still doesn’t change the simple fact of the matter, does it?”
She huffed once, but left it at that. “I see where you’re coming from, but it won't change the plan. There's only one entrance into Starburst, so there's no point in trying to be stealthy.”
He spent a moment digesting her words, but was forced to agree with them in the end. “You do have a point. I still have a bad feeling about this, nonetheless.”
Transient Cardinal opened her mouth, about to respond, when she noticed Gladiolus-wreathed Queen entering Starburst's entrance before disappearing in short order; an occurrence she brought Lucian's attention to with a slight wave, bringing a halt to their conversation.
----------------------------------------
A rolling series of thunderclaps followed hot on the group’s heels just as they entered Starburst proper; overcast skies immediately replaced with flickering firelight at the tunnel's end.
A heavy, oppressive silence flooded back in after the thunder petered out, something only punctured by six pairs of footfalls as the group started traversing over marble checkerboard tiles.
Lucian's eyes swept from left to right then darted up and down, hand clenching and unclenching around his end table’s wooden stand all the while. Even though the heavy blanket of silence was pricking at his nerves, he wasn't keen on being the first to tear it away. Who knew what was lying in wait just around the next bend, after all.
“I’m not sure if y’all have noticed, but the size of the buildings and the layout of their interiors ain’t exactly a match for one another.”
Lucian had to choke back a laugh from bubbling up his throat when Cherub decided to speak; the brown-clad man's timing being so coincidental it was as if he had read his mind.
“Your point being?” Diamonddust drawled sharply, voice soft yet biting.
Cherub offered a full-bodied shrug as he spun around, smoothly starting to walk backwards with his hands linked behind his neck; single chair leg pointing at the ceiling. “Nothing really. I just thought it was interesting, so I brought it up. Problem?”
Diamonddust sniffed disdainfully and opened his mouth, but snapped it back shut and didn’t say anything when Gladiolus-wreathed Queen levelled him with a sharp, warning look.
While all this was going on, Lucian was lost in thought; taking Cherub's observation seriously.
After some reflection while looking back on his memories, he realised what the brown-clad man said was true. The raven-haired man was tempted to smack himself for missing something so obvious, but a more realistic part of him understood more was on his mind than thinking over something as in the background as architecture – even if it was clearly supernatural.
The raven-haired man couldn't help himself but start wondering how such incongruent proportions had been accomplished. He supposed it might have been via some sort of space expansion mechanic, or perhaps it was a result of some sort of solid illusion completely beyond his ken…
Eventually, Lucian shook his head free of such thoughts, knowing such idle speculations, while thought-provoking, were useless at this point in time. At the rate things had been going for him, the far more important question to ponder over was how it would be used to kill him off at some future point down the line, instead.
Before he could really think over that last thought, the abrupt increase in the level of ambient firelight spilling from just around the newest turn drew his attention and sharpened his focus on the here and now.
Much like Galaxia, the hallways in Starburst were a tad… odd, the put it mildly. They turned, at almost forty five degree angles, at random and irregular intervals. Luckily for the six-person group, there weren’t any off-shoots leading away from the hallway; giving them a straightforward path to walk down.
Gladiolus-wreathed Queen’s left arm lashed out to the side out of the blue, barring the way and causing those behind her to start before stopping. Before anyone could ask what was going on, the honey blonde turned her head slightly and started whispering.
“I don't see any hovering symbols, but I'm pretty sure the main part of the floor is just around this turn. Let me toss my vase in—”
Her free hand carelessly waved at the jade green backpack strapped onto her back and more specifically, at said vase’s circular opening sticking out from one of the roomiest, partially unzipped compartments.
“—first as a distraction, so that it can soak up any attacks. Objections?”
After a second, everyone gave their whispered assent – even Diamonddust knowing not to be too loud at this moment.
“Excellent.” She softly declared, satisfaction oozing from the three syllables. “On the count of three, then. One… two… THREE!”
Even as the honey blonde was counting down, her free hand reached back over her shoulder, ripped out the hefty vase turned projectile, and then charged around the corner; eerie ornament first to vanish out of sight as it left her hand.
Lucian dashed after her immediately, the sharp sound of shattering porcelain ringing out just before he made the turn…
Only for the raven-haired man to come to a screeching halt just as he turned the corner proper; the nauseating sight of half-eaten human corpses immediately entering his eyes.
…
…
…
He supposed he finally knew where the missing swarm of Shadowborn Skullker's had gone off to, now. He just wished the realisation hadn't come in such a gruesome, bloody manner.
----------------------------------------
Handle – El Knight.
Health: Slightly injured.
G. A. M. E.—#1.
Players Remaining/(128/201).
Lucian's arms trembled violently as he carefully braced his hands against the fragile banister acting as a barricade between the multistorey drop and the rest of the mezzanine balcony.
Desperate hands pushing at ropes of half-chewed entrails hanging out from bitten open guts, lifeless eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling, and puddles of congealed blood everywhere, winding trails and partial handprints stamped into the scarlet liquid… all of that and more played in front of his eyes like a particularly macabre reel.
…
Once Lucian’s shock had subsided, he had gone ahead and examined the corpses.
While an eminently disgusting task, it was something that just had to be done.
After all, if they were going to figure out what had happened here prior to their arrival, there was no way forward except discerning what happened post-mortem. And even if he failed to figure out anything of significance, he could still shut any eyes still open in death, as a final sendoff.
Some disgusted looks had been thrown his way, as a matter of course, but he had gone about the task, nonetheless; an inner fire of grim purpose blazing in his heart and sharpening his mind to a razor’s edge.
Even before his closer examinations, it had been obvious the Shadowborn Skullkers had been responsible for the brutal massacre; seeing the fractured spines and shards of bone sprinkled across the marble, some of it blending in with the similarly hued ebony tiles.
However, it soon became clear that the people had been taken off guard. Some of the corpses had bite marks decorating the back of their knees, something he couldn't envision happening unless the encounter had started off with an ambush. Furthermore, judging from the abundance of Shadowborn Skullker corpses lying in between the human ones, it was clear they weren't incapable or anything, as well.
On the bright side, based on the trail of ebony fragments and congealed blood leading downwards and the lack of any loot, whether Hollow Vertebra or pouches of Shadow-imbued Bonedust, it was clear the massacre hadn’t been absolute; some survivors, numbers impossible to determine, having made it out alive.
…
As Lucian went over his earlier observations once again, the bloody images swimming in front of his eyes were slowly dispelled. Absently gazing at the mosaic of fiery red and pitch black below, he subconsciously traced out the letters hidden in plain sight to further distract himself.
E… A… S… T.
Mind instantly flashing back to the emotionless, mechanical voice’s earlier piece of advice, the raven-haired man made sure to file away the potential, ‘word anointed in blood’, wondering when they would come into play.
Seeing that his arms weren't trembling anymore, he threw a glance over his shoulder and saw that the others were still where he last saw them; scattered across the plentiful pieces of lounging furniture placed on the mezzanine.
After the shock dealt to their systems from the gory sight on the third floor just below, it wasn't much of a surprise that they had unanimously decided to take a short breather before considering any next steps. It was also, unsurprisingly, another unanimous decision to leave said floor behind and take aforementioned breather on a floor lacking such blood, guts, and outright destruction.
At this point, he didn’t know for sure how much time had passed. Either way, without any obviously imposed time constraints, he didn’t feel like it was a good idea to rush any of their next decisions – especially under such emotional duress.
After all, hearing the falling number of players with his Knowledge implant was one thing, but coming face to face with the actual realities of said decrease in numbers was a completely different beast.
Lucian raked his right hand through his hair before bending down slightly and picking his end table back up; a heavy sigh of exhaustion slipping out his mouth as he forced himself not to think such heavy thoughts.
Just as he had straightened back up, soft, deliberate footfalls growing louder broadcasted someone's coming.
“Are you still thinking about the dead people, Knight?” Gladiolus-wreathed Queen asked just as she came to a stop right beside him.
He raised up his free hand, bandaged palm facing the ground, and swivelled it from side to side as he turned to face her properly. “Kind of? It’s finally just hitting me how serious all this is, I guess.”
She wordlessly arched a pale blonde brow, inquisitiveness oozing from her every pore as she clearly asked for an elaboration
Picking up on her non-verbal cue, he continued after a beat's worth of silence. “With so many things pointing at the Dormitories being part of some sort of fucked up game, the implants giving us gameresque powers, and being labelled as a ‘Player’—”
The raven-haired man briefly formed his left hand’s index and middle finger into air quotes.
“—I think… my mindset was subtly influenced to take things more lightly than I really should.”
Instead of replying immediately, Gladiolus-wreathed Queen walked right up to the bannister and looked down at the mosaic. After a brief moment of thoughtful silence, she responded, hand braced against the bannister as she twisted her neck to look back at him. “Maybe, maybe not. At least you’ve started taking things more seriously now, no?”
“You’re… not wrong.” He admitted, before slicing his hand through the air. “Enough about me though. Did you come over for anything specifically?”
She snapped her fingers in realisation, as if his question had rejogged her memory. “Speaking of that! The rest of us are finished with recuperating, so I came over to see if you were too. It's about time we talk about what to do next.”
“Got it.” The raven-haired man nodded understandingly before turning away from the bannisters. Lifting up his foot slightly, he was just about to take a step when he set it back down and threw a glance over his shoulder; light brown meeting verdant green, causing the honey blonde to pause as their gazes locked. “Oh, and Queen?”
She tilted her head questioningly, cascade of hair briefly swaying and catching the firelight, making it look like glimmering, liquid honey. “Yes?”
“Drop the handle. My name's Lucian. If I'm going to take this 'game' seriously, I think it's best to dispense with the use of handles for now.”
Gladiolus-wreathed Queen’s eyes widened in clear surprise, before she graced him with a bright, dazzling smile; orbs sparkling like emeralds from the emotion glimmering in their clear depths.
“If you’re sure… Lucian. It’s a pleasure to properly make your acquaintance, in that case. Please, call me Julia.”