Chapter 47

"Darcy!"

The momentum continued as we completed the teleportation. We both went flying into another alley wall, but one possibly very far away from the Writing Nook. I had no idea where I’d been taken to but not enough free time to delve into that mystery. The kidnapper and I were locked into combat, desperately trying to get the other to let go of the fishbowl.

It went back and forth and all over, as we pulled, yanked, and delivered punches and kicks at each other. Sam screamed like mad form within the bowl, his voice echoing weirdly.

“Just let go!” I finally yelled. “I fucking win, give… UP!” With the last word I delivered a kick into the shadowy mask and managed to knock it loose.

For a split second I saw a pair of eyes behind it, open wide in surprise, and the next he dropped the fishbowl to cover up his face.

I yanked the fishbowl above my head. “Ha! Take that you stupid bastard! It’s mine.”

Hard footfalls came from behind me and the shadowy kidnapper slinked back even further. A much bigger foe plucked the fishbowl out of my hands as easily as from a child.

“The fuck–” I turned around and, towering above me was a familiar masked face. With his red skull mask, body mass, and towering frame there was no doubt of who it was: the masked man from the battle royale, the one who, in normal circumstances, looked just like a kindly lumberjack. Right now, all traces of the person he was when I last saw him were wiped completely away.

“Well now, you seem to have brought a tag-along. That was not in the contract.”

The burglar jumped to his defense. “It wasn’t my fault!” The voice that came out was shrill and high, obviously the voice of a woman. She panicked and righted her mask, continuing on in a robotic deep voice. “She isn’t weak like you told me!”

“Weak?” I raised my eyebrow. “As far as I recall, I’ve kicked your ass before.”

The man laughed, the kindhearted lumberjack feel was still there, but there was an edge to it. Of insanity or something worse, I didn’t know.

“Come at me, then.”

Nothing about this situation felt right. Why was he here? Where was here? A weird back alley? I examined him but his level was a mystery. I could only assume it was the privacy settings for this location. But that meant he at least didn’t know how strong I was. And, besides, like I said, I’d kicked his ass before. I could do it again.

I made a grab for the fishbowl but he moved it up out of my reach. I jumped up, put the intent to hurt in my left fist and slammed it into the man’s face.

WHAM! The hit rung out through the small alley. I stayed suspended in air, my fist touching his face, the intent wiggling against his skin… but nothing was happening. The mask stayed completely still, like my blow was nothing. The man laughed some more.

“My turn.” He brought his fist up and slammed it into my gut.

I moved as much energy as I could to soften the blow but it wasn’t enough, a fourth of my HP was chipped off my health and the air was knocked out of my lungs. He kept going up with the punch and flicked me away, sending me crashing back into the wall I’d pounded against before.

The burglar–the female burglar, how the fuck was that possible? I got such a wrong read on her–stared down at me. A robotic laugh came from her mask. Bitch.

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I sat up, catching my breath and rubbing my stomach.

“Confused?” The man asked. “It’s no fun to beat people too easily in a battle royale. I was wearing a level supressor.”

“A level suppressor? What the fuck for? Just fight in battle royales with people around your own level.”

“But crushing noobs is so much more fun.” He said, the mask seeming to grin in the glow of the far off street lights.

“You’re psychotic. If you’re really so strong why did you let me and that psycho girl beat you?”

“I didn’t let anyone do anything. I supressed my levels and you both came up on top. But that was like playtime for me. This is the real deal. And I hold a grudge.”

As soon as he spoke that last sentence, he was a blur of motion–motion that didn’t make sense for someone of his hulking size. I managed to roll out of the way, narrowly missing being crushed to death as he slammed into the alley wall.

The burglar chick went to attack me but the man yelled out, “Stop! She is mine. I will finish what you started.”

The girl scoffed but stepped out of the way. I was glad to have one less person to worry about and put all my focus into the masked man. I put intent in both fists and slammed it into the side of his leg. I bounced off as if it was fully armored. But it wasn’t, just some–admittedly–cool black pants. Nothing about them struck me as extra protective. He was just that fucking powerful.

He swiveled to face me, lashing out with his foot. I managed to roll out of the way. I dropped all further attempts to hurt him–there was no hope of that. Instead, I just had to get to Sam and run like mad. He still had the fishbowl clutched in his oversized right lumberjack hand.

I reached out with my mind and latched onto the helmet, giving the biggest mental yank I could muster and… not a single thing happened. The man still had the exact same grip on the helmet.

“Ooh, your magic has improved quite a bit since we fought last. But that’s not going to cut it either.”

He yanked the fishbowl down and behind him, so fast that I didn’t have time to release my hold on it so I actually was lifted and pulled toward him; he used my own power against me. As I flew forward he brought his left fist up to beat me to a pulp and I knew at this speed it would be enough to kill me.

I rushed all my energy up into my palms and angled myself down, taking the brunt of the hit on my mental shields and using the momentum to sling myself under his hand. I kicked up with my right foot, luckily catching him by surprise and knocking the fishbowl up and above him.

I continued into his chest and kicked off, using my mental hold on the fishbowl to bring it sailing back into my hands as I went flying away from the man.

Oh my god. I fucking did it! I quickly set up a transfer to a public location as I flew, already starting to burst with light as the teleportation kicked in.

“Nice try,” the man said and my stomach went into knots. He couldn’t do anything, I was escaping, he didn’t have any hope of–

He leaped forward and grabbed my legs and yanked up and then down, slamming me into the ground. So hard that the cement shattered. The teleportation died and I was in a crumpled mess on the ground, covering Sam and the fishbowl under my body. My health flashed in the top of my vision. Less than five percent left.

Sam was a blubbering mess. I looked down at him, I smiled weakly. “It’s okay, Sam. I’ll find you again.”

The man grabbed me by the hair and lifted, just enough to snatch the fishbowl from under me and claim his prize.

“Why… do you want him?” I asked.

“All I’ll tell you is that this isn’t a normal NPC quest line that everyone can do. There’s just one. And the rewards might be something too good for you, Fishbowl.”

He yanked Sam out of the helmet and slammed the now empty fishbowl onto my head. “I’ll let you keep that. You know, it fits you. A gaudy pink equip that probably in its own mind thinks it's worth something. Hopefully that false belief dies here in this alley.”

I reached up for Sam, tears streaming down his eyes as he continued to struggle in the man’s grasp, wiggling, kicking and bitting–all to no avail.

“I’ll find you Sam, I promise.”

His eyes were so filled with tears I didn’t think he could see me anymore. But he nodded, again and again.

With his free hand the man lifted me up by the neck, right under the helmet.

“If you know what’s good for you, you won’t go looking. And in the next leg of the tournament? You better pray to God you don’t run into me again. Stay in your little noob fish pond where you belong, Fishbowl Head.”

He hissed the last two words, like it was some biting insult. And then, he twisted his hand the tiniest bit and snapped my neck.

He let me fall to the ground, my helmet bouncing on the cracked cement. The last I saw was Sam screaming, not “Miss,” but my actual real name, at the top of his lungs.

I was waiting for him to say my name. I thought it would be at a special moment, when our friendship had reached a new and beautiful level. To have that moment taken and perverted into this nightmare of a scenario… It was too much to handle.

Sam’s screams followed me in death.