I stared out the window of the house we were due to sleep in. I had received my share of Power Tokens - four - after paying off my debt to the Party. Decided to wait until my brain was fresh to put them in something worthwhile. Darkness had now crossed the land, and the moon was full. Trees shook from the light breeze, their illuminated leaves dancing like-
“Come to bed, Max,” Ren whined. “You said we needed the rest.”
My eyebrow raised, and I turned my head back to her. “Sorry, I’m just antsy.”
“Well, at least put some clothes on.” She sighed and rubbed at her eyes. “I don’t think I can sleep either if I have to stare at your bare ass all night.”
“Want to do something instead of sleep, then?” I turned to her fully and put my hands on my hips.
She groaned and pulled a pillow over her eyes. “Again, Max? Have some mercy. I had to spend all afternoon leveling you up.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, not that.” Although… “Actually, I was thinking of something a lot more… dangerous.”
Ren moved the pillow slightly so that she could glare at me. “Max…”
“Just you and me, a little bullshit underneath the moonlight. Burn off some energy and have some fun as the most powerful duo in the world.”
She worked her jaw. “You can’t… it’s not… ah, fuck it.” She rolled up onto her feet, covers clasped in one hand, barely covering her nude form. With a flourish that obscured her, the sheet then fell down to reveal the elf now in her full magician outfit. “I’m in.”
While her vision was blocked by her trick, I had also switched into my clothing. Two peas in a pod, and well worth the bright smile on her face.
I lifted the window from the latch, hoisting it up so that we could escape. It was a foolish thing that could go wrong in so many ways… but while we were young, reckless, and alive… we’d grab out at some escapism. Palette cleanser for what lay ahead.
Switching positions with my hell-dove on the ground, I held out my arms and caught the elf as she dropped. Exchanged a soft kiss, if only so that we could both hide the surprise that I’d managed to pull that off.
“Where to?” she whispered as I lowered her to the floor.
We had kept to the east after finishing off the Hyenids, as it seemed the best bet for staying away from any Crimson. Went a little further south to give us a buffer. Reasonably close to the coast again. I sent across some coordinates.
Her brow furrowed, and head tilted. “Hmm, alright. Lead the way.”
“If this is stupid, we can head back and-” I was silenced as she placed a finger against my lips.
“I like our Party, but us… we never had the chance to properly court. Let’s just have some selfish adventure. Live while we still draw breath.”
I said nothing more, but with a brief bow, I then led us off into the night.
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It didn’t take us too long to reach the destination, only waylaid slightly as we stopped to kiss at certain landmarks that looked particularly romantic under the light of the moon. Our hands holding like we lived in normal times, and this was a slice of soft reality completely separate from the hardships we usually lived in. Could almost believe that things could be like this forever.
But there it was - built into the side of the cliff. A nest of smugglers, not too dissimilar from the bandit cave that we had chewed our way through together in the first area. Not exactly a romantic haunt on the face of things, but the time we had spent alone was miniscule since meeting up with Wolf.
Ren squeezed my hand and let go to draw her bow. “Any plan of action?”
I shook my head and brought her in closer. “Maximum. Fucking. Bullshit.” Each period punctuated with a brief kiss. Her eyes were ablaze with excitement, and I felt the same way. After my revelation yesterday, we needed this.
Rolling out my shoulder, I took the lead. She shadowed me, an arrow up to her bow, already prepared to begin the dance.
“I can hear it again,” she whispered.
The musical tone of our introduction fanfare - I could too. I should have seen that as the sign I had to elevate her up beside me back then. Too proud to share the limelight despite knowing the necessity. But now it was ours.
“It’s showtime,” I whispered in return.
An alcove in the rock face, framed by wooden supports. Dark, but the promise of a lantern or torch on the inside held the briefest illumination and helped pick out the two shadowed figures standing guard.
Purple light painted the surroundings as three imbued cards burst and spun out from my hand toward the one on the right. Silvery-white paired alongside our presence as Ren put a Smite Shot through the neck of the one on the left. Both slunk down to the floor, and we were bathed in naught but moonlight once more.
I strode forth, overconfidence humming within. 10% Power.
Into the cave proper, the roughly hewn tunnel curved to the side around the traditional outpost room where guards would be stationed. Seemed to be a hideout cliche, but we liked that sort of thing. The murmurs of System-created chatter, our audience sitting in warm lantern light around a table. I stepped through, cards already going off for the first.
An arrow to the temple of the second. The first not dead, but severely maimed. The other two drew melee weapons. Oh, no - that was some manner of horn or alarm. Purple card circled from the first opponent and lopped the fingers off my next target, causing the emergency instrument to drop from his hand just as he went to blow it. Ren then shot him through the neck.
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Uninjured smuggler was remarkably quick and darted to swing past me and strike the elf. I spun further to the side and brought up
A card went down into his foot, severing part of it and hobbling him. I lifted my hand up and caught the dagger that Ren had returned, not even needing to look. With one swift motion, I continued into throwing it straight at the smuggler - however, the blade stopped around a foot away from him. Despite being System-created, he flinched from the attack as the dagger just hung in the air. My left hand raised to show the bright red critical card in my grasp.
Ren finished her opponent off with a point-blank arrow shot to their heart, while my target dropped to the ground - part of his head now painting the back wall. I grabbed the hovering knife and spun it in my hand until it vanished, to be replaced by falling flower petals. I turned to the elf and grinned.
She returned a wide smile and gestured for us to continue.
And we did so. Three more rooms of smugglers who fell from our constant assault. I’d spin my spear and Ren would duck beneath it, letting off arrows and moving in perfect tune to my own antics with my tricks. Our dance had synced, but then again - we were both playing to the same tune now.
Both our suits now bore the signs of battle. We had taken a little damage here and there, but other than the lasting signs of blood soaking our outfits, we’d been able to heal through everything so far. In fact, this was probably the most injury Ren had sustained since the Fort… but I didn’t allow it to sway my actions.
While she looked to me to be the leader and her protector, she also needed to be my equal. I wondered if standing at the back and hitting things with arrows without interruption had become as boring for her as I had felt in the beach dungeon just using cards?
Even now, I watched her slide across the dusty ground to avoid the downswing of a wide club. She turned along the way to fire an arrow through the lower leg of the smuggler. As she spun back to her feet, her bow caught the edge of a wooden chair and swiped it towards the pinned man. The elf ran up and placed one foot on the seat to lash out with her boot and kick him in the face. He dropped to the floor, and the chair tipped slowly over while she drew back an arrow.
It was all very elegant and acrobatic. So enraptured with the performance was I that I didn’t even clock the last opponent in the room diving for me, a sword en route to giving me a splitting headache. Instead of following through with his intent, the smuggler stumbled and paused, his eyes turning back in horror to see the tall shadow looming over him. Eyes of deep red burned into him, the only features my Shade demon seemed to have.
It was enough of a distraction, and a trio of cards went through his skull, taking him away from the fright of seeing my new friend.
Ren stretched out her bow arm as she walked back over to me. “New guy is pretty creepy.”
I nodded. “Might have to save my Tokens and see if I can unlock two summons at once.”
“Two pups,” she replied immediately, as a statement of demand rather than question.
“All in good time, moonflower. Let’s continue.”
We did a brief amount of looting, not wanting to ruin the buzz we had going. Another two Tokens each, but little in the way of useful equipment. A few bits and pieces to put aside for props, which was standard procedure at this point-
“Oh,” I said, as Ren stopped abruptly in front of me. There was an opening to our right, and another chamber with a…
[New Monster: Smuggler Elite (15E)]
“An elite,” I repeated, as if we couldn’t see the same message. “Oh, but look at what he is wearing.”
More than a compliment over his fashion tastes, the almost comically large man sitting at a dining table had a brace of flintlock pistols across his wide chest.
“Quinn would love those,” Ren murmured, trying not to get the attention of him and the four other smugglers, for whom we were clearly in plain view at the doorway.
“Agreed.” I ran my tongue across my lips and readied up a handful of cards.
She held her hand out and stopped me from stepping into the room. “Want to break some rules, trickster?”
I didn’t even need to answer that - she could tell from the light blooming in my eyes. Could there be any other way?
A whispered word of elven and a small mote of flame circled the held arrow. Into my hands, I drew a couple bottles of alcohol. Wasn’t as good as oil, but it’d be better than a sack of flour.
Ren shot the arrow out at the right side wall, a cloud of white and red flooding vertically across the stone. Her hand outstretched, arrows then fired horizontally across the chamber. Beams of burning light impaled the confused group or shattered on the far wall, leaving scorch marks wherever they landed. The two bottles left my hand to land amongst the table, bursting and catching the furniture aflame.
The elf grunted as her mana reserves dropped low, some amount of blood starting to run from her hand. I stepped forward toward to burgeoning inferno. As the lesser smugglers dropped under the constant assault, the elite blocked some of them with a magical shield.
He raised a hand up, one of the pistols gripped tightly and aiming for me.
I grinned, wondering if my Card Fan could come up quick enough to block a bullet. All it would take was-
A flash and burst of smoke emerged from the end of the held weapon. The small metal projectile struck me in the throat, piercing straight through my windpipe and whatever the important artery in my neck was called. Didn’t seem to matter right at this moment. I clutched at the wound as warm blood pulsed over my hands. Unable to breathe, I collapsed as Ren canceled the cast of her cloud skill.
“My turn,” I said, as I appeared beside the Elite. A crossbow in each hand, I fired and struck him in the neck with both. As he turned to have one last-ditch attempt at my life, an arrow impaled his head. I looted the brace - as well as spare shot and gunpowder - from him before his body fell to the floor.
“I expected to be more annoyed at your new skill, but given that my Oathwarden sense prickles up anytime you’re in actual danger, I know when you’re just faking it.” Ren wiped her bloodied hand off on her waistcoat and then grimaced at herself for such an action.
“That is a relief.” I hopped over the burning furniture to get closer to her. “It has an hour cooldown, and it’s very tempting to use it constantly.”
“What happens when you upgrade it?” She raised as an eyebrow as we moved back into the corridor.
I shrugged. “Not sure if I’m saving my Tokens or not. If it lowers the cooldown, then I’m sure the others would tire and become numb to me dying.”
Ren shook her head. “True. I’d be the only one wailing when it happens for real, and they’d think you were pulling their leg.”
“So many options for winding them up, though.”
“Right?” She gave me a wide grin. “The fact that it leaves your fake corpse around for ten minutes is super gross and cool.”
I was humming with energy, and it wasn’t just due to how well our date night was going. We’d performed enough tricks that…
We stopped at the next opening. End of the line. Before us was the widest chamber yet. A dozen or so smugglers, another Elite, and the Boss of this whole place. A tough undertaking for just the two of us, even at our best.
But I was at 100% Power.
I held my hand out, which she took without question.
“Ren? Do you want to step out on stage with me?”
There was some apprehension in her eyes, but her heart had lodged in her throat, preventing any words from coming out. Instead, she nodded eagerly.
I grinned and let the pre-show nerves wash away. This one would be special.