I felt my arms suddenly get pinned to my side and my legs pressed together as though I was bound by an invisible rope. I looked down and saw that the bonds that held me were not invisible after all, but seemed to be made out of wispy strands of smoke. Whatever they were, they held me fast and firm.
Derek Smith Affinity: Shadow - Novice Gifts:
Don’t Stop Me Now - Improved mana recovery
Powers:
Gotta Go Through It - Novice: Phase body to become insubstantial
Struggle All You Want - Novice: Create and control affinity ropes
Skills:
Cartography - Novice
Direction Sense - Novice
Knife - Novice
Oh crap oh crap oh crap. The woman came closer, examining me. I didn’t recognize her. And I would’ve remembered her, it would’ve been impossible not to. Even though she couldn’t have been more than five feet tall she stood out in a crowd, both because of her fierce personality and her stand-out appearance.
She was what the Japanese call a gyaru, or in English, a gal. You don’t see many honest to goodness gyarus in Toronto, they’re something quite peculiar to Japanese culture. They have a reputation for dyed-blonde hair, stylish but suggestive clothing, and delinquency, but there’s a whole genre of manga about the gyaru with a heart of gold.
I couldn't tell if it was just her pro-level makeup or her genetics, but she looked a bit Japanese. Her straight hair was dyed an almost white blonde and done up in two high pigtails, which framed a heart-shaped face and drew attention to her bright red lips, almond eyes decorated with long fake lashes and thick dark eyeliner that made them seem much bigger than they were, and a bust so generous it was a good thing her center of gravity was low because otherwise she’d be in constant danger of toppling forward. Her long fingernails were painted glossy purple and covered in bling. For some inexplicable reason, even though she was clearly too old to be in high school, she was dressed in a school uniform complete with a very short plaid skirt and a white shirt with its tails tied up to make it a crop top, showing off a generous amount of tanned skin.
My eyes darted around like houseflies trapped under a glass. From my POV on the ground, I was either looking straight up her much too short skirt, or straight up into her corsetted underboob, or straight up into her smug smile. I wasn't sure where to look, so it was like I was trying to look everywhere at once.
“What do we have here?” she said. I struggled, but it was no good. I wasn’t nearly strong enough to escape those shadow ropes. And it hurt my ankle like crazy. “Another fellow team builder.”
Kiki Duplessis Team Builder Affinity: [Hidden] Gifts:
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
Powers:
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
Skills:
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
Oh craaap.
She walked a slow circle around me. “You just checked out my Status, didn’t you? Let me guess, everything’s hidden?”
I said nothing.
“Here’s another guess: you were playing the God Game at the convention, no?”
Once again I said nothing, but my expression must’ve given me away because her mouth stretched in a thin smile and she nodded slowly. “Thought so. Me too.”
That explains why I didn’t recognize her. Marc too, and that cocky guy I saw in the street earlier, Troy. They weren’t at the convention tables, they were playing the God Game with me.
So it wasn't my fault that everybody was here. Only almost everybody.
“What do you want?”
“What do I want?” she repeated. “What do I want? I want to win, of course.” She’d completed a full circuit around me. “That means assembling the best team.” She patted my cheek. “But of course you’re trying to do the same thing, aren’t you?”
While she and her flunkies had been busy with me, and with the shadow ropes no longer binding him, Marc had clambered to his feet and was limping for the exit. Derek, the one who controlled the ropes, raised a knife, blade between his fingers, ready to throw. Kiki put her hand on his wrist.
“Let him go,” she said. “I think he’s learned his lesson.”
Derek balanced the tip of the knife on his outstretched fingertip, winked at me, then flipped it over midair and grabbed it by the hilt before sliding it into a scabbard strapped to his other wrist in one fluid motion.
“Speaking of teams, where’s yours?” Kiki said, making a show of looking around. “I don’t see anyone but you.” She gasped. “Don’t tell me you haven’t started yet.”
I looked up at her in what I hoped was a defiant way. No need for her to know how frightened I really was.
“As you can see I’ve already collected two for my team.” She stared off toward the exit through which the other man had just disappeared and smiled. “And we were just having a little conversation with that other guy about team building strategy.”
“You’ve made your point,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t think I have,” she replied. “See, as I was just explaining to the other guy, the way I figure it there must be ten of us who were chosen to pick teams, and that’s a lot of competition all hunting for the best Players.”
She turned her back on me and strolled away. As she passed the big guy, Jonah, she nodded and he grinned again and started closing on me. He reached down and grabbed the front of my shirt, stretching it out in his big Yobbo first as he used it to pull me up onto my feet. Then his other fist impacted hard in my abdomen, knocking the wind out of me, he let go of my shirt, and I dropped to my knees like a guilty priest. The shadow rope holding me combined with the searing pain in my ankle messed with my balance and I fell hard onto my side.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“The fewer team builders there are,” Kiki said as I gasped in pain, “the better it is for me.” She turned around and saw me struggling back to my knees. “Jonah, help the poor man up.”
Jonah reached down and grabbed a fist full of my hair this time and pulled, forcing me again, still gasping, to my feet.
“Nobody said this is a cooperative game,” she said, rocking on her heels. “And nobody said we couldn’t reduce the competition. Do you get what I’m saying, Daniel? I know Jonah does, don’t you Jonah?”
Jonah held his fist in front of my face. “See this? This is what I used last time.” I watched as his hand turned from flesh to metal, starting with his fingertips and spreading down to a few inches past his wrist. “This is what I’m gonna use this time.”
I tensed what abdominal muscles I had in expectation of another punch, but this time he hit me with an uppercut to the jaw. There was a sickening crack and my vision blurred, the strobing pain in my face almost making me black out. I was about to topple backwards but Jonah grabbed me by the front of my t-shirt and held me upright. I could feel the fabric stretch.
Dammit, that conference tshirt could've been a collectible, now it was nowhere near mint.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Daniel. Jonah is going to kill you. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll respawn. Well, I’m almost sure.” She approached me again; I knew this because the blurry smudge where she’d been standing grew bigger. “Whenever you do come back, you’re going to do your quest and assemble a team. But the people on your team are all going to have shitty powers.”
My head started to loll and Jonah grabbed my face and held my head up, forcing me to look at Kiki. The pressure of his fingers on my shattered jaw set off new waves of agony.
“Hey hey, don’t pass out,” Kiki said. “Jonah is going to take his time, breaking as many of your bones as he can before he lets you die.” She was right beside Jonah now, directly in front of me. I’m pretty sure she was smiling, some white appeared near the top of the blur. “I want you to remember this suffering. I want you to remember it every time you think about recruiting someone good onto your team. Because if you forget and go and recruit someone good, he’s going to do this again. And again. Until the lesson sinks in.”
I coughed and felt the warm blood in my mouth, tasted the metallic tang of it. I must’ve spit some out because Kiki groaned and swore and moved away.
Jonah paid me back by grabbing my shoulders with both hands and pulling me forward and down as he raised his knee. It connected with my lower chest and there were more cracks from inside me as multiple ribs gave way. I really was astonishingly weak back then. I cringe thinking about it.
By this time all I could do was go limp and pray for it to stop soon. Silent prayer, of course, because my severely broken jaw made it impossible to make any vocal sounds other than hoarse grunts.
I anticipated the next blow, wondering where he’d strike me next, but the blow never came. I heard the “hyah” of several people yelling all at once, then the sound of fighting. The shadow bonds dissipated at the same time Jonah let go of me and I crumpled to the ground in a heap. My chest rattled with each ragged breath, and I could feel fluid gurgling in my chest where there ought not be any.
System: You know Brawling
Too little, too late, System, but thanks anyway.
The noise of fighting was brief, followed by the distinctive sounds of several pairs of footsteps growing fainter as at least two people fled the scene.
I felt something press against my neck then a strange male voice said, “He’s alive.”
“Let’s take him back to Sifu,” said another.
Oh look, I’ve been rescued. How nice.
One of my rescuers put his arm around my shoulders and lifted me up to my feet.
I grunted.
“Shhh, don’t talk,” said the other rescuer as he put his arm around my waist and supported me from the other side.
I grunted again.
“You’re welcome,” said the first, but I hadn’t been thanking them. I’d been trying to tell them they were making it hurt even more.
Since I was unable to do anything about it, together they helped me stagger out through the loose gate, which hurt a lot, across the courtyard, which also hurt, and down one of the streets. That hurt too.
I had no idea how long we were moving. I was barely conscious, my head lolling, shattered chin to my sunken chest, eyes drooped closed, feet shuffling as they half carried, half dragged me along. My foot caught on the raised lip of a cobblestone and I stumbled. Their grip on me tightened for a moment to keep me from falling and I grunted as the pressure sent a shock of pain through me that set a new agony record.
“Hold on, almost there.”
I raised my head and tried to look around. My vision had cleared a bit and I was able to make out that we were far enough down one of the streets that there were no shops, just houses. Cottages would be a more appropriate word, for most were made of rough-hewn boards with thatched roofs. There was the occasional building made of stone, larger structures that may have been something other than a residence, and it was into one of these that my new companions carried me. I started getting dizzy so I closed my eyes again.
We weren’t more than a few steps inside when I heard the voice of an older man. “What is this?”
“This man is injured, Sifu,” said one of my rescuers. “We brought him back to help him.”
“I can see that,” snapped the older man. “This way.”
They followed him, carrying me deeper inside.
“Lay him here,” the older man commanded, and I felt myself gently placed onto a firm surface. As gentle as they tried to be, it still hurt like a son-of-a-bitch and I grunted again.
“Sorry,” one of them said.
I risked opening my eyes again and saw that I was in the middle of a small, square room lying on a hard surface, probably a table. My vision still swam, but I could see well enough. The place was small enough that I could see a desk along one wall, and floor-to-ceiling shelves filling the rest of the space along every other wall that were all packed with bottles of various sizes and shapes, each with a neat label naming whatever strange liquid, powder, or object it contained.
My rescuers were young men, both wearing deep green martial arts gis with a strip of lighter green cloth tied around one arm, just like the ones who’d helped me fend those two creeps off the NPC girl earlier.
The man hovered over me, and he was even older than he sounded. Wisps of snow white hair flowed down from the edges of an otherwise bald head mottled with dark liver spots. His face was lined with the cracks and creases of age, but the gray eyes that studied me under long, wing-like eyebrows were brilliant and alert. For what seemed like several minutes he ran his hands slowly over my body, not touching me, but hovering just above me. I began feeling a calming warmth flow through me wherever his hands moved, and soon the pain ebbed. It still hurt, but it was tolerable.
“Will he be ok?” asked one of my rescuers, sounding genuinely concerned.
“I must wait to continue treatment until the effects of this one have completed,” replied the old man in a voice filled with calmness and confidence. “He should mostly recover by morning. Mostly.” He pulled a bottle off the shelf and handed it to the younger man. “Make him drink this when he is able.”
My rescuer took the bottle and sighed with relief. “Thank you, Sifu.”
“Hurm,” grunted the old man, a hint of menace creeping into his voice. “Now, tell me everything.”
“Yes, Sifu,” they said, both sounding like errant children expecting to get grounded for a month.
I kept my eyes open long enough to watch them file out of the room, then closed them again.
Well, at least I found a place to spend the night.