The wind whipped through Sally’s hair as her heavy boots took her across the grassy plain. This was one of her long practiced skills - although she usually did it at a much slower pace. Using the charging knight as cover, she was an expert in staying out of line of sight. Not that she’d tell Poppy that she was a larger figure to obscure her better than a zombie ever could - that just seemed rude.
She adjusted her pace as the woman in front of her slowed a little to bring up the shield. A loud clang followed by a second, and then they sped up once more. The arrows laying on the grass were longer and thicker than Sally had seen before, and were currently smoldering with some spent energy. If anything, it just drove home a point that she was starting to suspect…
System-created were more powerful in this world. The hornets had been smart enough to know when to spring the trap, and they had a little more battlefield sense than what she knew from the Monsters in Sanctuary. Perhaps there was a specific reason for it, but she was currently too focused on not catching an arrow to think about it properly.
They were covering good distance, but the centaur would have another two shots at them. She risked a glance behind to see Claude. Much further behind and almost cowering as he trotted after them. Even if the Guardian knew the healer was a higher priority target, picking out the minute figure when the shining knight and hidden zombie were fast covering distance made it almost impossible for them to try to take out the older man.
Shield back up as they slowed. The resounded clang of metal tip against toughened shield. A second strike once more, but this one with a slightly off sound.
Poppy stumbled, but then powered forward once more. With the risk of getting shot lowered, Sally sped up and wavered to the left slightly to see what she had anticipated - the large arrow protruding from the shoulder of the knight. It must have gone barely above the shield. She ducked back into position and gave Claude a hand signal to let him know to heal Poppy as soon as possible.
They were close now - she could see the dungeon looming ahead over the knight. This one was gray brickwork, overrun with vines and intentional abandonment.
Poppy leaped up into the air and landed with both feet parallel, slowing to a halt across the dried dirt and raising her shield up.
Sally slid to the floor, spotting the Monster taking aim just at the entrance to the Dungeon between the knight’s legs. [Chain] shot out, striking the centaur in their chest and bringing them closer, interrupting their next shot. Poppy moved her sword arm back and then lashed forward - a large lance of radiant light flashing out to meet the hapless foe.
There was a hideous crunch, before the impact knocked Poppy backwards on top of the prone zombie.
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With a grin, Humphrey snapped the book shut. “Well then, I think we have a good idea of where to start.”
Edward pulled a face and held out a hand. “You’re not taking the book with you.”
“Are you going to stop me?”
The demon crossed his arms. “You know, you’re definitely not my first choice for a buddy-cop adventure.”
“I don’t even know what that is, but I’m sure you would choose Theo for it.” The Death Knight grinned and handed the book over. He watched as it was put into the storage box, and Edward utilized the dagger to lock it away.
“It’s where two unlikely individuals put aside their differences to solve a case, like detectives. Usually it involves wit and hijinks.” He turned away from the stored book. “And yes, I would choose Theo.”
Humphrey shook his head. “Well. All that I can promise is that we’ll solve the case, buddy.”
“Don’t…” The demon narrowed his eyes.
"Ha-ha. As the most interesting name in the book, let’s go talk to Lucius first.”
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Dent drummed his metal fingers on the table. “Got it - Theo is strong enough for Chat connection.”
“About time.” Chuck sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “There’s an unexpected peak, so take it slow.”
“Always do,” the swordsman murmured, before turning fully to the Architect. “You need a break soon. You look drained. Things are going swell. Let me handle it from here and I’ll do nothing more than get their Chats functional.”
Chuck tilted his head and pulled a face. “You’ll wake me if anything happens, of course?”
“Naturally.”
The Architect looked up at the ceiling and deflated. “Fine, you win this time. I can’t watch things every second of the day. Plus, I’ll need to do this solo when you take the nerds out tomorrow.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Dent grimaced. “Just who came up with that as an acronym, anyway?”
“Oh, I thought it was you?” With a shrug, Chuck vanished in a flash of blue.
Shaking his head, the swordsman sighed and looked over at the transportation machines, both now covered by a sheen of magical energy. It looked like a lot of eggs in one basket.
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Sally groaned and got herself back up to her feet.
[Poppy: I’m so sorry, Sally!!]
[Poppy: Are you okay?]
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath in and then exhaled. “Nothing broken, for a change. Just a little bruised up.” Despite the knight wearing a full set of armor, she wasn’t terribly heavy - her falling atop the zombie had come as more of a shock than anything. “But what about you?”
Poppy looked down at her shoulder, the large arrow still protruding from a split in two of the plates. Streaks of crimson marred her shining armor. While the woman was typing up a message, the pulse of a healing spell illuminated her and the projectile slowly ejected from the wound.
[Poppy: Not terrible! It looked worse than it was.]
Claude huffed as he caught them up, his face flush. “More the fool me for thinking I could keep up with you both. Been a while since I’d had to move so fast.”
She clicked her fingers. “We did it, though, right?” Sally turned to look at the dead Guardian. The sudden acceleration into the extended lance skill of the knight had totally cratered through the horse part of the centaur. Which was… a rib cage? She narrowed her eyes, wondering how they even worked internally.
[Poppy: We sure did!]
[Poppy: That’s a good combo - we’ll have to do that again.]
[Poppy: Don’t forget to loot!]
Sally kneeled down beside the corpse. “What are we in for, Claude?”
[23 Gold]
[Unidentified Armor]
[Mana Potion]
The healer rubbed at his chin as he glanced at the Dungeon. Similar runic symbols ran across the arched entrance. “Hmm. Seems as though we will be dealing with goblins.”
“A classic.” Sally nodded her head, only feeling somewhat guilty that some of her good friends were goblins. “Say, we can’t just smoke them out? Do we need to play by the rules?” She looked down at the cat, who was being a patient observer for the most part.
“Do you ever?” Archie replied.
She stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to Claude. “Got a mana potion and another piece of armor to take a look at if that’s a fair trade?”
“Of course, Sally.” He nodded, and they made the exchange.
[Breastplate of Hardiness] [+2 Endurance +2 Determination]
Sally whistled. “I’ve got determination coming out my ears now. Could you help me with this, Poppy?”
The knight nodded and moved over as the zombie got the new armor from her Inventory. How handy for her to find some protection right after the healer suggested she do just that. Maybe the System could just see that she had no items. It was a similar shade of gunmetal to her boots and covered the majority of her torso down to her waist - the upper part clipping together under her cloak. It even had two side plates that covered her hips.
“Nothing like some optimisticly shaped metal to make a gal feel uncomfortable.” She looked down and pulled a face at whatever the blacksmith had been thinking when he made the armor. Clearly not one size fits all. “Although, usually it’s pointier things like swords and arrows.”
[Poppy: I think you look great, Sally ^^]
“Yeah.” She looked back up at the knight and grinned. “It’s difficult to be too self conscious when I’m a corpse that spends half my time throwing up people, and the other half I have a stud who worships the ground I tread on.” Only a little exaggeration there.
“There should be an option on your Equipment window to… make your armor adjust to fit.” Claude pulled a face and kept a wary eye toward the Dungeon.
Sally looked through her screens and found it. Five gold fee - which sounded like a rip-off. The armor should do it naturally, in her opinion. After spending the necessary gold for both the breastplate and boots, she took a few steps around and gave them a test drive.
“Much better,” she said with a grin. “Still need to get used to wearing armor, but at least I don’t feel like I am inadequately trying to fulfill some odd male-gaze fantasy.”
[Poppy: Ah, you haven’t seen the chain-mail bikinis yet.]
“Gross.” She’d have to take a set home as a souvenir.
Claude cleared his throat, taking her out of a daydream. “Shall we proceed, then? Although it surprises me that you are… married? No offense intended.”
“Not married, no. There’s no tax incentive for it on my home System, and we’re basically life partners already, so…” Sally tilted her head. “Plus, a ring would be a good way to de-glove my finger, given all the things I get up to.”
The healer gave her a very slow nod. “I wholeheartedly regret asking. Let’s go kill some goblins.”
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Lucius blinked his eyes open, the circles of crimson slowly widening to take stock of his situation.
His head felt fuzzy - which wasn’t entirely unnatural, as he was made of shadow. This was different, however. Glass and darkness came into further clarity as he rolled up to a seated position and clasped at the sides of his head with his hands. A ringing in his ears faded away as he frowned at the floor beneath him.
A circle of metal, cool to the touch and barely lit by an odd green hue.
He looked up around him. Glass wall only a foot or so away that… curved… all the way around him. Some sort of tube? Confused, he looked up to see a similar metal circle stopper at the top. Odd grooves decorated it, but there didn’t seem to be any sense to them.
With a groan, the Shade got up to his feet and clutched at his stomach. Still some pain there, but it was recovering. What or who had stabbed him, though?
He pressed his shadowy face up against the glass to glare out, the darkened room beyond now giving him much detail to pick up on much. The occasional light of an electronic panel or button, but little else aside from the shapes of… machinery? Furniture?
Circling his view around, he paused and stepped away from the glass.
Behind his apparent cage were at least another dozen versions of this odd glass tube. Empty, as far as he could tell.
He brought up his Inventory to teleport away, but his STAR wasn’t cooperating. Couldn’t access Chat either. His belt didn’t hold anything useful - and his skills weren’t reacting to his urge to use them.
A brief spark of panic rose up within him before he calmed himself down. He was sure that Chuck or one of the Outsiders would find him missing and track him down.
Lucius froze, and then turned his gaze towards his left, where he now clocked the shadowed figure standing outside his tube, watching him intently with bright white eyes.