Chapter 31
Lacking Lackey
Logically, I expected our screams to be snuffed out as we were flattened into a puddle of gore. But that didn’t happen. We met the finger… and held. A shockwave rocked the area from the impact but Stephen and I stayed rooted to the spot.
“What… the… fuck!?” Stephen exclaimed.
“Just go with it!” I shouted back.
Stephen kept trying to pull back but I kept us there, pushing against the giant finger. I didn’t know what our battle plan was. Where did we go from this?
The monster decided for us. She roared an earth shaking roar, and swiped with her other hand. We were locked in on the finger, completely defenseless. She scooped us up and flung us aside. We spun around, screaming all over again.
I didn’t know which way was up or down. When I finally figured it out my body slammed into the ground and my vision was instantly ejected out, back to the familiar game over scene. Only this time every bone in my body was broken, my limbs turned in stomach curdling positions.
[ Experience earned! Level up!
{Levitation}: Level 1 -> 3
{Levitation} Cost down:
75 -> 50 per thirty seconds
MP Increased! 100 -> 150 ]
I exited out. Stephen had already invited me to the writer’s nook. I materialized at the door. Stephen was waiting for me, he got right up in my face, completely losing it.
“What in the hell was that, Darcy!? How was any of that possible?” He looked at his hand and, amazingly, the device was still there.
I peeled it off of him. It was a very tiny circle. When I squinted at it I could see some flashing lights, like an old school gamer esthetic.
“I don’t understand…” I said, still looking the thing over.
“Well then allow me to explain!” Angelia said as she materialized into the room. “I sent out a message on you guy’s behalf. A perk of our Party.” She went into her menu and tossed the message in front of me.
[ Hello, fellow Strugglers. Most of you ignored our first message. That’s understandable. Maybe you need more than words to convince you. Meet us in the marked location in today’s match. We will show you what we can do. ]
And there was an attached map, marking the clearing.
I tossed the message aside. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I needed you both to think it was real.”
Stephen rounded on her. “What? It wasn’t?”
“Nope!” She said cheerfully. “I put that little thing on the tree.” She pointed to the device in my hand. “It’s a weight disrupter. You guys made a good effort, but I gave you a little help in the end.” She winked.
Stephens shoulders slouched. “You mean we didn’t actually do any of that?”
“Not the tree throwing or the finger pushing, no. It was still really impressive you were able to lift the tree as much as you did. It was so much heavier than the one yesterday. You two really are improving fast. I just wanted to give them more of a show.”
“I’m confused.” I said. “Shouldn’t they automatically know that you were involved and it was set up?”
“Nope! I made sure to move the tree way befoe anyone came. As far as they know, you guys planned to meet here and show them a display of strength, but there was a little damsel in distress that got in trouble first. So I gave them two chances to be impressed with your displays of strength.”
She grinned, pleased as punch. She pushed past us into the room. “Let’s sit down, I want aother one of those pink drinks.”
She hopped into the booth and flipped though the menus. Stephen and I still stood at the entrance, completely stunned.
Stephen snapped out of it first, he went over to the booth. “Wait a second, but that last part, what the heck was up with that? Why did you put that thing on me?”
The drink appeared and she exclaimed, starting to suck it down. “It had to be you.”
I joined them in the booth. “Why?”
She gently shoved my helmet. “No one will take you seriously in that.”
“What, fuck, are you serious?”
“Dead. So either lose it or Stephen has to be the star of this show.”
“I’m not losing it.” I said as I took it off. “Not in battle, at least.”
“So Stephen will be the face.”
We both stared at him. He stared back, looking like a deer in headlights—another phrase handed down from my mom. He pointed to himself. “Me? The face?”
“Yep. It has to be you.” Angelia took a huge slurp of her drink.
“But I’m not leader material.”
She threw her menu at us. It was her inbox, flashing with a dozen notifications. “Every one of those messages comes from someone who just saw you go head to head with the monster.”
“That wasn’t me, Darcy–”
“You think they could make out exactly what happened? To them, you both did it together. And with her wearing that helmet, they are automatically going to assume she is some lackey. Which means you get all the glory.” Another large slurp.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” I said.
She shrugged. “Lose the helmet.”
I crossed my arms and slumped down in the seat.
“If we want this to work, this is how it’s going to be. Now, who wants to respond to some messages?”
Neither of us jumped up. “Okay, we will split it three ways.”
A third of the messages came to my inbox but I didn’t jump to it right away. I opened my menu, just to make it look like I was doing something but, really, I was just brooding. I thought this would be a partnership. But now I’m the fucking lackey? Just cause of this totally awesome and so not lame helmet?? Why was everyone so noobist.
Should I take it off? I stared at it in my inventory. I remembered finding it the other day, how cool the build up to it was and how awesome it looked from the glow of that chest. It was just too awesome, too perfect. It was destiny. Whatever I accomplished in the Interverse–at least in the combat side of things–would always have me dawning the fish bowl.
Even if that meant I had to be a lackey. I sighed and began responding to the messages, silently vowing that, one day, all these fuckers would take the fish bowl seriously.
Just wait.