We’d planned for this.
Tam let out a weak meow and slowly crept out from where she was hiding, knowing her jig was up. This had been contingency number one, based on Axel’s comment that the reported ability of “perfect aim” didn’t really sound like anything he’d ever heard of in games. Rather, he’d suggested it was something more like keen eyesight—improved visual senses to be able to detect or notice small details, allowing for what might be considered “perfect aim.” It looked like, with their love for cats at the forefront of their mind, the guard had used this ability to catch sight of Tam.
“Hey, kitty, kitty. Here, kitty,” the guard beckoned, their voice pitched up in an attempt to lure the calico bobtail closer.
“Come on, Forsythe, stop embarrassing yourself,” said their partner, their eyes scanning, passing right over us.
Tam weaved around in circles, only drawing closer to the desperate guard by mere inches. I wondered how she felt to be putting on this show. The brunette was probably plotting Axel’s demise since using her cute cat form as a distraction had been his idea. It would only work for a short amount of time before we drew the attention of the unknowns.
Releasing the tension in my grip, I gave Jye a slight nudge, urging them forward.
It was now or never.
We crept closer to the fenced Gate, probably only eight meters away now.
“Please, I just wanna pet you,” Forsythe begged.
Tsss.
Another ability had been triggered! At the very least, hearing the sound reassured me that Axel was fine where he was.
But what had the skill been? I used [Locate] again, checking to see the positions of the guards blocked out of sight, the pulse of the sonar spreading out. Fuck. One of the unknowns had turned around at the other side of the Gate and was approaching. The ability faded away, as the blue of their proximity grew brighter and brighter until they were in my actual line of sight.
“Oh, James, perfect. Use your Tame ability or whatever,” the cat lover said.
Coming around the fenced-off, swirling black mass that was the Gate, James said, “I’d prefer not to. It’s a waste to use mana like that.” They stopped next to the original pair, their hands on their hips. “Besides, how’s a cat gonna help us protect the Gate?”
“Ignore her. She’s gonna get us all in trouble with Damien,” said Forsyth's partner. “Just get back to your post.”
James had moved into the exact spot I’d been aiming for, and I’d had to take a step back, all but yanking Jye with me.
“It could raise morale,” Forsythe said, giving James puppy dog eyes. She turned them to her partner. “Come on, Carlos. If I have to go back to an empty hotel room again, I’m gonna kill myself and then you.”
Carlos rolled their eyes as I guided Jye around, carefully stepping toward the Gate, hoping against all hopes no one would notice us. Please don’t see us, please don’t see us, please don’t see us. In between my begging mantras, I briefly checked my own stamina and mana, and was thankful that I’d thrown all my credits at my attributes. I still had ample amounts left.
“That’s Santiago to you,” they said, folding their arms across their chest with a huff at their partner.
Forsythe ignored them and began to psst, psst, psst to Tam, dropping to a squat.
“What are you all looking at?” came another voice from the opposite side of the Gate.
It was James’s sentry partner, the other unknown.
Fuck, maybe having Damien around would’ve been better! These guys might have had some military training thanks to him, but this was sloppy. Two guards leaving their post to come check out a cat? If I’d known it would be that easy, I would’ve just sent Tam in by herself. (Not that she’d have agreed, since she was averse to throwing her own life away.)
Said cat dipped closer to the three guards, before backing off again to their disappointment. She gave a curious trill and Forsythe let out a charmed “awww.”
Borrowing [Locate] once more, I sensed in real time as the second unknown approached. They took up position next to James. Now there were four people in a row who we had to circumnavigate around. I resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose and pushed on. I had no idea how Jye was reacting, considering they were also invisible, but I could feel the nervous sweat forming under my hand.
“Wow, you don’t see a bobtail every day, huh?” remarked the unknown.
Forsythe nodded enthusiastically. “That’s what I’m saying. Pretty please, Jim Jams, I’ll give you my desert rations for the next two days!”
The guard ran a hand under their chin as Tam curled around coyly on the ground, just out of reach of Forsythe.
“Make it a week and we have a deal.”
“James! You and I both know that’s unfair.”
“Do you want the cat or do you want to die alone?” James asked, uncaringly.
The cutthroat began to pur. Torn, Forsythe pouted. She let out a dramatic sigh. “You win! A week of my desert rations.”
Under James’s breath, he muttered to his partner, “I’ll give half to you, Ira.”
“Hurry it up!” Carlos commented. “We don’t want Damien seeing us faffin’ about.”
Jye and I had almost passed by the second unknown, Ira, nearly to the fence, when the hiss of Jame’s ability sounded.
They frowned. Another tsss. The furrow at their brow deepened. “It’s not… It’s not working.”
Ira’s eyes narrowed, followed by an ability hiss. None of us could know what this guard was doing, but it couldn’t be good. Tam sat up, her green eyes glinting, understanding the risk of the situation to a T. Without a moment’s hesitation, she bounded towards the shadows of the storefronts as fast as her little paws would carry her.
Immediately, the iron bar in Ira’s hands lifted, a shout on their lips, “Trespasser! Guard the Gate! Pursue the cat!”
The explosion of abilities that followed this command burred into my head.
Everything turned to shit.
It was a flurry of sounds and sights, from lightning to frost to the distortion of shadow, all converging in the pursuit of Tam’s tail. Mind racing, I borrowed [Shield Wall] and staggered a short row of them along the walkway in the hopes of granting her some measure of cover, but a few of the abilities were homing, chasing after her as she darted to and fro. The others crashed into the first [Shield Wall] combining into a smokey haze of destruction, obliterating the barrier. One of the guards was behind her in an instant, flash-stepping in, bat raised high above their head.
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We’d been so close! So close to getting out of this without a fight.
Four guards had now tightened their defence, clinging to the unlocked chain link surrounding the Gate, weapons raised and gazes alert and violent.
As Tam’s pursuer’s weapon came down, I took a breath, steeling myself.
We were still invisible. No one had noticed us.
I hadn’t been expecting anything like Ira’s ability. They’d known that beyond Tam not being a beast for James to use their taming ability on, that she was worth pursuing. That had to mean the ability was something that gleaned some player information. That was a dangerous skill to have. Perhaps Ira didn’t even know how useful it was. If they had, they would’ve been in a much higher position than a simple gate guard.
The bat crashed into the concrete floor as Tam dodged, jumping onto the weapon and clawing up her attacker’s arm before launching off them to spring for the cover of another [Shield Wall]. She would not last long, not even if she turned back into a human. Another burst of ranged magic attacks showered down over her, this time tinted with a sickly green glow. I guess that was the acid spit.
Fuck.
We’d discussed what we’d do if this happened.
If they started attacking, we had contingency plan two.
I’d just been praying it wouldn’t come to this.
I didn’t want to kill anyone.
Wren and Gigi would’ve heard Ira’s shout since they weren’t too far away. They knew what to do.
Hoping the sounds raging were loud enough to mask my voice, I pulled Jye toward me, patting them down to find their head so I could whisper into their ear the go ahead. I felt them nod in response, but that could’ve been wishful thinking. Tam began her retreat, having drawn the majority of the guard’s focus, bolting for escape toward where Wren and Gigi would be rushing in from.
Confident Jye remembered what to do, I considered the stamina and mana I had left, ensuring I could pull off the plan, and then summoned a staircase three steps high of [Shield Walls]. Jye’s presence fell away from my hand as they presumably ascended out of my next move’s range.
We needed to get through the cage around the Gate.
Unfortunately, the four guards would be collateral.
Tam was still dodging blows left, right, and center, an arsenal of magic ranged attacks drilling into the surfaces under her paws as she bounced from spot to spot. Her tail was singed, her movements unpredictable, a blur being chased by eight guards. As she darted left, an arrow descended from nowhere, plunging into the shoulder of the one of the guards. The injured soldier staggered with a grunt, hands slapping up to the wound, face crinkled in pain.
They yelled, “Hidden ranger! Anyone have eyes on?!” Others nearby whipped about to identify where the attacker was hailing from, but, of course, they wouldn’t be able to see Jye. It increased the panic and chaos of the attacking guards, and I could feel the tide slipping ever so slightly in our favor.
The redhead was doing better with the bow and arrow than I’d expected.
With Gigi as their guide, who was concerningly trained in all manner of weapons, Jye had spent the rest of yesterday practicing archery out in the trees until they’d been able to at least successfully hit their target two times out of five. When I’d come out to bring lunch and watch, I’d found that their fingers hadn’t stopped bleeding despite our innate regen.
In the flurry of activity another hiss sounded, and as an influx of magical projectiles shot out, they all redirected to the small forms of Gigi and Wren who were now charging closer. A scattering of [Shield Walls] formed horizontally in the air to take the brunt of the current shower of attacks, some exploding into blue motes of light. With the points Gigi had poured into xir attributes, xe could keep the barriers coming all day.
Xe’d also drawn a huge metal shield from xir inventory, courtesy of Axel’s new [Smithing] ability and one of the wheelbarrows Jye had brought back from Bunnings. The aegis was large in comparison to Gigi and formed something of a wall with a slit which xe could peek through.
With a yowl, Tam scurried away from another melee hit but had fallen into range of a different guard, their iron pipe raised high. She wasn’t able to stop her momentum, green eyes wide, hackles raised, as the metal weapon bore down on her.
There were so many abilities activating that I didn’t hear the specific one that went off from Gigi’s [Shield Wall] flashing into existence before her. The guard’s pipe crashed into the blue barrier, clanking against it, the solid material sending reverberating feedback up the guard’s arms, and they shouted a curse, their numb hands releasing their grip.
Their weapon clanged to the floor. They were unarmed. Vulnerable. Even from here I thought I saw Tam’s cat mouth curl into a grin. Now that Gigi was drawing fire, Tam could let loose. Black smoke exploded from her, obscuring a handful of guards from my view, a few tsss layering onto the white noise in my head; Wren’s [Whetstone], no doubt. It looked like the cutthroat was going to have some fun. Tam’s summoned blade, replaced by something much nicer by Axel, began flashing about in the smoke.
An arrow plummeted into a guard who was drawing back to take stock of the situation, tearing into the meat of their thigh. They let out a strangled cry. I didn’t envy them, though I did have to admit it was a good shot on Jye’s behalf.
With Gigi tanking ranged, Jye covering with arrows, Wren buffing, and Tam getting dirty, it was time for me to clear the way.
I turned and stepped toward the four guards. It was Ira and James that had remained, along with two others whose names I didn’t know. Memories flashed of the last time I’d done this. I’d hesitated to use it since; the fear of hurting people with it, as destructive and unpredictable as it was, so strong that I hadn’t tried. I apologised under my breath as [Cloak] dropped under the activation of my chosen ability.
In an instant, as the invisibility dissipated, the four sentinel’s stunned gazes converged on me. The power built in my core, and I brought my foot down, energy rushing into the contact with the stone tile floor. I crossed my fingers that Jye would time their Load right.
A glint on the roof in the distance caught my eye midattack. It was Axel waving his sword at me. The silly little action lightened the burden of what I was doing. And then he was gone, shredding across rooftops and racing down stairs to close the distance to support Tam in the front line.
[Ground Smash] shuddered into the surface beneath me, rippling through the stone and cracking them, thundering into the very ground. The tiling tore, flinging outward, hefty pieces smashing into Ira and James and the two other guards. Jye’s Loads activated. Combined with the quaking floor, the increased gravity of the flying debris shoved their undefended bodies off balance and back into the chain link behind them, hurling the unlocked fence pieces open. Unable to react in time, their weapons, from bats to crowbars, were battered from their holds, clattering the ground, skidding away.
It didn’t look like I’d killed any guards, to my relief. At least not yet. Ira had taken a head wound, the injury bleeding profusely, the guard moaning and clutching at their forehead. The others were all in some state of confoundment, having fallen to the floor after being smacked into the fence, winded and groaning, trying to find their feet.
Axel had made it to Tam’s side, his [Swift Footed] trait making light of the distance he’d had to run, and he was in the thick of it, sword swinging, slicing. The guards, having seen the uselessness of their ranged attacks due to Gigi’s [Focus], had resorted entirely to melee, and the vanguard had joined the fray, using xir shield like a battering ram. Another of Jye’s arrows dropped down, this time missing, but causing the targeted guard to dive out of the way, straight into Tam’s dagger.
It was a little unreal watching the battlefield before me.
Honestly, with the way things were going, we probably could kill all twelve of them.
The amount and quality of abilities we could harvest, especially Ira’s, would give our party such an insane advantage. And these people had killed others, would go on to kill others. If I just let my team continue unheeded, wouldn’t it be a net positive all around?
One of the guards tumbled to the floor, blood flowing from a slash at their neck. It was Forsythe. She’d taken a hit from Tam. Her brown eyes were wide, teary, panicked. The cutthroat loomed over her, a feral expression on her face. Forsythe tried to shimmy back, flailing her bat before her to keep Tam at bay, her other hand pressed to her wound, red seeping out from the gaps in her fingers. Tam brought her own hand up, preparing for the final blow.
I hesitated.
Another guard thudded down, this time Axel’s blade sweeping through their calf muscle in a surgically clean cut. The injured person let out a scream of pain, as blood gushed down their leg, filling their boot, spilling out onto the floor.
No.
We would not become exactly what the Deities wanted us to be.
We’d hold firm to our words.
No mercy but no murder.
Knowing what I was throwing away, I took the last steps toward the Gate and slipped through.
It was worse inside the Dungeon.