Yavin’s Crossing

5:04 P.M.

The remnants of Captain Tantalus’s pistol dropped from his hand. Before it hit the ground, the man in the demon mask had already begun his next attack. In the space of a second, the man swung his curved sword twice from two different directions. Tantalus frantically dodged out of the way of both attacks, completely unable to formulate a battle strategy. The Captain drew his combat knife with his left hand as he dodged the second strike, and he was able to use it to deflect the third strike.

Tantalus backed through the motel room’s doorway. The demon attempted to cut the Captain with a vicious horizontal slash, but the katana struck the doorframe. For a moment, the right side of Tantalus’s body was concealed from the demon. Tantalus used this opportunity to draw a throwing knife with his right hand. He had to grip the well-balanced knife in a way he wasn’t accustomed to due to his missing fingers.

The throwing knife exited Tantalus’s hand a few milliseconds after it entered the demon’s sightline. The man in the demon mask just barely had time to angle his body before the throwing knife struck him. The knife embedded itself into the demon’s chest, but it struck at an angle. What would have been a strike to the heart instead became a glancing shot that didn’t reach the lung.

The demon jerked backward at the unexpected attack. He frantically moved his katana into an ox guard with the blade pointed directly at Tantalus. With the few seconds of breathing room Tantalus had just bought for himself, he drew a throwing knife with his injured hand and got into a defensive stance. The demon removed the knife from his ribcage with a single swift motion, and blood began flowing from the wound. It may have not had the intended effect, but at least it caused him to bleed.

Tantalus used a skill he had not used ever since his time as a professional player of Ninth Oasis. In the space of a single half-second blink, he opened his Menu and burned that brief blue box into his short-term memory. Though he was not able to consider his Character Sheet in that fraction of a second, he was able to examine it using his mind's eye in the seconds that followed.

Character Sheet

Name Tantalus45 Level 13 Blood Points 115/130 Mana Points 32/38 Race Revenant Fortitude 13 Strength 13 Agility 15 Wisdom 14

Attribute Modifiers: Strength Training (3), Mana Training (12)

Tantalus frantically analyzed the situation before the demon launched another withering attack. Assuming that the man in the demon mask was a Revenant, the black aura must have been the effect of his special ability. Somehow, the demon must have been able to strengthen his attacks, but he had only done it once. Tantalus had been able to deflect one of the demon’s subsequent attacks with his knife, and another attack was stopped by the doorframe. The black aura attack either used up valuable resources, like mana, or it had a recharge time. Considering that many Talents used up mana, Tantalus assumed it was the former.

Tantalus considered briefly if he should use any spells. He knew quite a few, but the incantation for any of them would take far too long. The demon could close the distance and hit Tantalus with a killing blow in half the time it would take to say three words.

Given a moment to pause, Tantalus brought his lips together and made a bird call loud enough that he hoped some of Squad T1 could hear him.

Enemy contact.

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Tantalus willed his wounds to be healed. The cut was wide but shallow. It wouldn’t have killed him anyway, but the dull pain throughout his hand and chest made it hard to focus.

The blood pool on the demon’s chest soon stopped expanding. He must have healed his own wounds.

“Who are you?” Tantalus asked the man in the demon mask.

In response, the demon surged forward like a river. He transferred the ox guard into a downward cut a moment before he reached the Captain. Tantalus frantically diverted the attack with his combat knife. The demon was off balance for a mere instant once the strike went wide, and Tantalus used this opportunity to strike at the demon’s side with his throwing knife.

The demon intercepted Tantalus’s attack with a swiftly raised knee. The demon’s raised leg then transferred into a forward kick, and the throwing knife was knocked to the ground. A lethal blow was aimed at Tantalus’s neck, and he was forced to roll backward to get out of the way.

Just as Tantalus raised his head to see the demon, the katana-wielding man took a fighting stance that Tantalus had seen many times before. The demon lowered his stance like a sprinter about to take off. He held his katana horizontally in a tight grip. The puzzle pieces all fell into place a half-second before the demon-faced man launched his attack.

The demon lunged forward at Tantalus, black energy emanating from his katana. Tantalus simply allowed himself to fall to the ground, and the streak of black passed over his head.

“Divine Wind!” the demon shouted as the lethal strike missed Tantalus by a few inches.

Tantalus rolled out from under the cleave in the fabric of GM’s world that his opponent had created. Just as the demon-faced man turned and began to take another attack stance, Tantalus spoke.

“Izanagi?” Tantalus shouted.

The demon stopped in his tracks. A look of palpable surprise appeared on the man’s face. Tantalus had his confirmation. He was being attacked by Izanagi, the highest-ranked solo-player in Ninth Oasis. There was only one man in the world who could somehow manage to simultaneously maintain such an absurd move set, yell out his attack names, and still manage to actually fight effectively.

“It’s me, Tantalus45 from the Scions of the Blue Flame,” Tantalus frantically spoke. He still held his knife forward and prepared for Izanagi to launch another attack.

“Old Stonewall?” Izanagi said, recognition slowly dawning. He spoke with the accent of a New Yorker. "It's been a while."

“Not the most flattering way to be recognized, but yes,” Tantalus said without dropping his knife. Izanagi had also not lowered his katana.

“What are you doing out here?” Izanagi asked.

“I could ask the same thing of you,” Tantalus said.

“Well, I asked first.”

“I’m part of a major military operation that’s trying to reconnect New Arcadia and Osiris. A nearby bridge was destroyed. We’re sweeping the area for enemies.”

“Let me guess, you’re in charge of the attack,” Izanagi said. "You always end up in charge of these things."

“In a manner of speaking,” Tantalus said. “Now tell me, why did you try to kill me?”

“I left New Arcadia to hunt a sniper dressed in a blue uniform and a grey cloak, just like the one you’re wearing. This sniper has been shooting players from New Arcadia over the past three days,” Izanagi said without lowering his katana or taking a step back. “How do I know…”

Izanagi cut himself short. He looked off into the distance and dove to the ground a moment later. A fusillade of gunfire peppered the air where Izanagi had been a moment before.

Tantalus peered over the guardrail and saw the four men he had hand-picked to serve on Squad T1 pointing their rifles at Izanagi. After a moment’s consideration, Tantalus waved his hands at his squad and shouted, “Stop shooting!”

Tantalus turned to Izanagi, who had drawn a jet-black artillery Luger from World War I, and said, “I’ll tell you right now; I’m not the sniper you’re looking for. Either we can talk this out, or you can try your luck at fighting the thousand soldiers I’m traveling with.”

Izanagi took a long moment to consider the proposition. He seemed to be considering whether he could, in fact, beat an army of a thousand men with a katana and a Luger.

After a long moment’s contemplation, the man in the demon mask sighed and sheathed his katana.