----------------------------------------
Jace looked around for the source of the noise but saw nothing save for the empty dunes of the desert.
“There are 58 dungeon cores left, and a duo in the far Southwest desert tile have 42. The next closest is at 23. If you want to win, you need to kill those two. One is mostly prosthetics, with a strange Cosmic Power symbol not even I recognize. The other is an Oslia from Fernaid. Pulsar Cosmic Symbol.”
“That’s not fair!” Ollie shouted at the sky, shaking one of his curled-up paws.
Priam looked over at Jace and gulped, “What do we do?”
Jace grimaced as he looked up at Ollie. “Can other people track us?”
Ollie looked frazzled and met Jace’s gaze. “Double-A is broadcasting our position right now !”
Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) [Group]. The film surrounded him and Priam, and the two vanished.
“Now they are not,” Ollie stated. “This is a problem. Other Aspirants can hurt us out here – not in the city that Double-A is holed up in, though. We must get back there to be safe.”
“Can he hurt us if we get there?” Jace asked.
“Nope. He is bound by contract with Khrox and The Cosmic System itself to provide the rewards. Until The Dungeon Run has concluded, and the feast has concluded – he cannot take hostile action against Aspirants involved. That is-”
“That’s why he’s sending Aspirant after us,” Priam finished. He looked up at Jace, “We need to travel fast.”
“Yeah, but how?”
“I’ve got a Rare (Equipment Augmentation). Maybe I can give it to you, and you can use it on your legs?”
Jace looked down at his prosthetic feet. I was hoping to replace these on Earth with a Legendary rarity there. But…the Augmentation will transfer. “Do it.”
Bloopa flew over to Ollie, and the two tapped each other. “On the legs?” Ollie asked.
“Yeah, do it. Let’s also use that Epic (Skill Evolution) on Dark Energy Beam.”
<<<<<>>>>>
Skill Evolution
[Using Boon: Epic (Skill Evolution).]
[Applying to Skill.]
[Skill Name: Dark Energy Beam.]
[Evolution Name: Limited Range.]
[Effect: Removes the infinite range and forces a 100-foot range. Drastically reduces energy cost.]
<<<<<>>>>>
Equipment Augmentation
[Using Boon: Rare (Equipment Augmentation).]
[Target Equipment: (Overclocked) Dragonclaw Devastation Legs.]
[Augmenting.]
[Result: (Overclocked / Lightfoot) Dragonclaw Devastation Legs.]
[Description: The Overclocked (Equipment Augmentation) increases the user’s movement speed.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“I’ve been firing beams that go into infinity?” Jace asked.
“Well…yeah, if you do not hit something,” Ollie replied. “But you have not missed a shot yet.”
Priam nudged Jace, “Lift your feet up.”
Jace did so and found to his pleasant surprise that he was no longer sinking into the sand when he set his foot back down. Instead, he stood atop it. “Perfect. Priam, get on. And use that Priest’s Benediction at its highest Rank with [Enduring] on me.”
Priam nodded and the two got him situated between Jace’s backpack and his back – just as they had done to gravity-grapnel around. “Here you go!” he tapped Jace’s shoulder, and the Dark Matter Aspirant felt the world become more vivid. He could feel his legs and arms with perfect acuity, and the connective tissue felt vigorous and full of vitality.
“Hang on,” Jace said as he bolted across the sand, sprinting at top speed as he left an invisible wake in the dunes.
----------------------------------------
Yholl was feverishly trying to find the duo that he needed to die. But those two had vanished. “Damnit!” he shouted as he let loose a blast of flame from a Skill, scorching an entire wall and blackening it. A series of animated cleaning items sprang to action to remove the ash and soot. “How do you disappear like that?!”
He felt trapped. He was, to an extent. He could leave Nihilethelea, but if he did then another Ascendant could come in on behalf of a faction and take control. This was his paradise and his prison. Bound by contract be unable to harm any Aspirants himself. And he had already made a magical declaration for this Dungeon Run that any Aspirant-on-Aspirant combat in the capital city was strictly prohibited.
In other words, he was screwed.
“If they’re smart, they’ll be heading here. Just sit pretty in the city, win the prize, claim it, and then leave immediately.” Part of the contract meant that he couldn’t harm them for the duration of the event – which included the afterparty that lasted a whole day.
“I need to…” he trailed off. I need to get Aspirants here. Man the walls. Make it so that the two can’t get inside. But how can I stop that if they are able to completely vanish? None of the Aspirants could attack them. I could-
He stopped as he saw a System Message pop into his vision.
<<<<<>>>>>
[You have a chat request from Troxanir, the Endless Hunger.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“Accept,” Yholl muttered. I don’t like the Conclave, but maybe they know something.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Ah, hello there, Archmage Ascendant. I presume you know who I am, so I will skip the introduction. You have an Ascendant on your world who goes by the name Flicker. He is a Signer for the Dark Between Stars – a secret faction run by the enigmatic X. His Cosmic Power is Dark Matter, which has a whole host of possible interactions with reality based upon my Signer’s interactions with him…]
<<<<<>>>>>
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Yholl saw an extensive list, but the one that stuck out to him the most was the fact that Dark Matter was undetectable by – effectively – all manners of sensors, magic or otherwise.
“How do I counter this? How do I track him?”
<<<<<>>>>>
[An excellent question. I would recommend some Skill that enables you to sense localized gravitic distortions. That is how one of my Signers was able to detect him. However, it did not actually detect his location. Instead, it detected the sudden absence of the gravitic distortion’s effects. Or, perhaps more succinctly, it detected non-visible matter affected by the distortion. It is complex and scientific – far above your knowledge capabilities.]
<<<<<>>>>>
Yholl didn’t even register the insult, too caught up in panic. “I don’t have any spells that can do that!”
<<<<<>>>>>
[I could…grant you some of my power. But, only if you capture this Flicker fellow.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“No.”
<<<<<>>>>>
[A pity. I will make sure to have Conclave members on standby when you perish to take control of Nihilethelea and send it to Oblivion.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“You…fuck you!” Yholl shut off the connection. Okay. Localized gravitic distortions. He went through every single Skill or spell-converted-to-Skill in his information readout. I don’t have anything like that!
He paused, There has to be a few Black Hole Cosmic Power users here. He began looking through his sensors across the world and used another spell to open lines of communication with the various Aspirants. Out of 7,000 who started, we are down to 1,400. A bloodbath compared to prior Dungeon Runs. They were really out to kill this time.
Thankfully, he did find several Aspirants with the power type he sought. Now to cast the spells to talk to them one on one, explain the situation, and hope they accept my terms.
----------------------------------------
Jace cleared the fifty miles of the desert tile from the far, Southwestern edge of the world’s map just under two hours. I’ve got to be going over thirty miles per hour, he thought with immense satisfaction. He’d always been fast – its why being a courier fit him so well. With the (Overclocked) Augmentation on his legs, and the CIF coursing through his body, he felt more alive than he had in a long, long time.
The runner’s high he got from the sprint was exhilarating, and as he approached this mountain tile he had to toggle the Dark Matter Cloak off to preserve energy. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). He manifested the Skill on his chest and ran up a small incline at max speed. Leaping from the incline, he shot out the Ghostlight Grapnel. Detonate.
The mine went off as his foot speed, combined with the retraction of the grapple line, combined with his headlong launch threw him through the skies. Priam was holding on for dear life as Jace laughed at the sheer speed he had achieved.
Ollie whispered in his ear, “You need to conserve energy for when you arrive. There is no doubt in my mind that Yholl is planning to try and prevent you from entering the city limits. He cannot do it himself as it would violate the contract with The Cosmic System, but I would not be surprised if he recalled several Aspirants to man the fortifications.”
Jace grinned as he kept flying higher into the sky, “It’s fine. I can just go over them and land in the city.”
Ollie nodded and patted Jace’s cheek, “Good. Just making sure we’re on the same page.”
Jace tried to respond, but his lungs found no air. He tried to breathe in, but nothing went in. What the hell?
“Drop the skill!” Ollie shouted into his ear.
Jace did so, and felt gravity reassert itself as he fell at a downward angle. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Falling down at the steep angle, he saw the mountainous terrain below that threatened to impale him and Priam. As the rocks came closer – maybe a hundred feet off the ground – he could breathe again and took in a deep breath. Detonate.
The gravity ceased, and he used his grapple line to latch onto a nearby spire of rock, retracting to it as he dug his leg-claws in. “What happened?” Priam asked. “I couldn’t breathe!”
Bloopa flashed in a series of rapid shapes that fluctuated so quickly that Jace could only keep track thanks to his enhanced senses seemingly slowing reality. Ollie translated in his ear in a whisper, “It looks like a Skill that covers all of Nihilethelea was used. Look up at the sky.”
Jace did, and saw that the golden and silver sand that had once permeated the ochre skies was now gone. He could see the telltale sparkling of some type of Skill. “Double-A removed air high up. He figured out how I’m traveling,” Jace muttered.
Priam frowned and pulled his hat down a bit more, “Then you should run more.”
“If I just run at full speed, I’ll leave a trail of kicked-up ground. And I don’t have the energy to keep Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) up constantly.”
Priam’s face showed a resolute, thin-drawn grimace. “Then we don’t use the Cloak. Let them know we’re coming.”
“It is a bold strategy,” Ollie replied. “Letting them see your approach from a specific direction, then using Dark Matter Cloak and coming from another direction might be enough to move whatever Aspirants the Archmage is using to stop us from entering the city.”
Jace nodded and fired off the grapnel to another spire of rock, clinging from piece to piece as he traversed the rocky terrain. Getting out of the mountain tile was easy enough, and after thirty minutes of grapple-swinging he got to an enormous, cracked plateau. “Give me a quick breather.”
Priam slipped out from the backpack and Jace fished out a survival meal, downing it quickly as he washed it down with some water. “Priam…just be ready,” Jace said softly as he looked out over the terrain.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Priam stated. “I’ve got this. We’ve got this.”
Jace nodded and down another two survival meals before helping Priam get back into position. “Here we go.”
----------------------------------------
“What is that?” Zzhetol whispered to herself. Far off in the distance, she could see an enormous plume of dirt and debris. Something was traveling fast but she had no clue what it was.
“Beats me,” her Wayfinder, Mixie replied. The spectral, floating vine replied from a set of thorns that formed an approximation of a mouth. “But to cause that type of spray, that high? They must be going extremely fast.”
“Where could they be going?” Zzhetol asked.
“I can answer that,” a voice said right next to her, causing her to jump. Looking sideways, she saw a floating face. The Archmage Ascendant. “Sorry for startling you.”
“It is okay,” Zzhetol replied. “Why contact me?”
“Kill that Aspirant. The one running over there.”
“H-how?”
“I don’t care how! Just kill the big one of the two! I’ll give you a mansion! Servants! Whatever you want that is within my power! I’ll teleport you to a spot in front of them where you can ambush them.”
Anything I want? “Deal.”
Zzhetol felt the world shift around her just like it did in Khrox or The Cosmic Corridor. She found herself standing in the lake region that was near the plateau tile she was just on. Far off in the distance, she could see the spray of the plume.
The Archmage’s voice echoed next to her again, “I’ve got another ten Aspirants in the area, all hiding around the lake. Do not fight them. Just the one who is running. Got it?”
Zzhetol grinned, “Understood. Mission parameters?”
“Just kill him!”