Chapter 9 – Three Swords and a Knight of Death
Six Hours to Sunrise
A cloaked figure slowly walked down a set of old crumbling stairs into a wide room. The footsteps of the person echoed loudly through the room until they came to a dead stop. Kneeling down, the figure offered a gloved hand up, which was in turn grasped by a slender porcelain white hand from the darkness. A feminine voice spoke to the kneeling figure in a very soft tone.
“Have you something to report Yurei?”
The cloaked figure looked up into the shadows and spoke aloud.
“Yes mistress. It seems that Midnight has still proven useful to us. The girl took the bait and is on her way to find the others at the academy.”
Soft laughter could be heard and was quickly replaced with the same soft feminine voice as before.
“What a persistent young child, hehe. But it is all a part of my plan, and that girl is a small factor within it. If it wasn’t for her, I may never have been able to come to the next step in the link of this world we now live in. Midnight was the beginning to that plan, and her part has yet to come to a close…”
“Yes mistress, her noble cause is almost to an end. It makes me smile that such a person was able to have such a role….”
The hand suddenly let go of Yurei’s hand and retracted back into the shadows, almost snaking its way back.
“It is now time to show the child with true powers in this game Yurei. Little Midnight was only the beginning, but now you will be the second chain in the link Yurei. Feel free to do whatever you want to her, but make sure she lives through it!”
The cloaked figure of Yurei stood up and bowed low to the sahdows. Bringing his body back up, only two bright yellow eyes could be seen from within his cloaks hood.
“It is as you will it mistress.”
Yurei turned around and stalked his way from the room slowly as the feminine voice laughed loudly
xXx
Five Hours to Sunrise
Kazama stood still with her katana held out in front of her as the billowing flames approached her with a vengeance. She simply smirked at the flames and began to swing her blade. As she did, the flame met her blade and bounced back towards the druids, setting them aflame. Within moments their HP bars dropped to the breaking point, shattering them into millions of pixels.
“Well, that really did work!” Kazama gleefully shouted to herself.
The game system responded to Kazama once again.
>> Cursed Fire Druids are weak to their own attacks. The best way to defeat them is to deflect their attacks back at them. Otherwise they can learn their opponent’s moves and anticipate anything.
Kazama smirked at the notion of a bunch cursed magic users being weak to their own attacks.
“This is a game after all I guess, and seeing as anything has a weakness….I guess it would make sense for the druids. They’re just a bunch of magic users weak against magic, what irony.”
Kazama strode past the former space occupied by the druids and made her way to an old stairway, and walked up it. The staircase eventually lead her into a long tattered hallway with old paintings and furniture haphazardly thrown about. She cautiously strode through the hallway until she made it to the end of it. A message popped up alerting her that she was on the first floor of the old central magic division building. Kazama flipped open her map menu and stared at it closely.
“So the only way to go is up huh? Ack! This place really has ten floors? Gwuh, this is gonna take forever to clear!”
Kazama made note of the first set of stairs to the next level and began to climb them when something from the higher levels dropped to the ground.
“Whud!”
“What the hell…” Kazama said loudly as she turned around. Standing before her on the first level was a new NPC creature, and one that was more frightening than the druids she had killed. The game system promptly answered her questions for her.
>> Type Class: Death Knight HP: 1000
Kazama stared with a mixture of horror and wonderment as a giant hulking black knight stood up to its full length before her. Only a chilling set of red eyes could be seen emanating from within the confines of its helmet. The death knight held its giant long sword in both hands aloft in front of it, the tip of the sword pointing upwards.
“Holy shit, that’s a jump in HP for this area don’t you think? Those druids only had 500 HP a pop…..but this guy doubles that amount…”
Kazama was sweating more now and had to clench her hand into a fist to calm herself down.
“What is my current level and HP?”
>> Player Kazama
Level: 19 HP: 950
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Current HP: 921
Current Achievement: In top ten for special class players.
Kazama grinned as she read the last part, at being a top ten player for her Hunters class.
“Heh, I’m already a top player? Well, I certainly won’t let a stupid ass knight stop me from getting to the top!”
Upon finishing her speech, she leapt and swung her katana towards the giant death knight.
xXx
Five Hours to Sunrise
Shohei had finally made it back to the cathedral and quietly crept his way through the main room. After passing dozens of sleeping players, he made it to one of the front pews and sat down, clasping both of his hands in front of himself. He simply smiled as he bowed his head to the main alter, filled with flowers and candles to honor the players that had passed in the game. Shohei closed his eyes and prayed for Kazama and her safe return. The thoughts about a group of in game hackers controlling the game was already a lot for Shohei, but now another separate entity that enabled PC’s to wield the powers of a boss was insane.
“What the hell is going on with this games?” Whispered Shohei to himself. It was already impossible to hack the game, but somehow gaining control of it in the form of boss and mob creation is something new. Normally hacked or not, only the game system of NOW was capable of spawning the mobs, as well as creating the NPC bosses and scenarios within the game. No matter how much the hackers wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to touch that part of the programming.
“So who the hell are these people?” Shohei whispered into the silent room. A moving form startled him as it sat next to him. Looking at him with a frown, the sleepy form on Nabiki spoke.
“Is she out there?”
Shohei gritted his teeth as he got the mettle to tell her everything.
“Yeah….but there’s more to it…”
“Then tell me! Why is Kazama out there?!”
Shohei put a hand on her shoulder to calm her as he began to tell the tale of the other entity running the game.
xXx
Magic Division Ground Level
Kazama was in the midst of battle with the death knight when it suddenly brought more force to its arm and knocked her into a wall. Kazama took the full brunt of the attack and her HP loss showed for it.
>> HP had gone down to 746
Death Knight HP: 890
Kazama slowly moved from the wall she had been thrust into, spitting up blood as she did so. The death knight was tougher then she had imagined and it made all of the previous NPC creatures pale in comparison.
“No matter how much I attack, I only manage to get minimal damage on it. Meanwhile I’m just taking tons of damage from this thing.”
The death knight was beginning to approach her, as fast as its heavy armor could allow it to move. Suddenly it hit Kazama as she watched it move in its ungainly armor.
“Wait a second, I remember playing a classic 2d video game with a thing like this! All you have to is be faster than it and chop off its armor! Then it will take damage faster and harder!”
Kazama sprinted towards the knight, ducking her head just as it brought its long sword down towards her. She spun around behind it and brought the very tip of her katana down, slicing the wires that held the breastplate portion of the armor together. With a loud clang, the death knight’s breastplate fell to the ground, leaving a gigantic hole in its defense for Kazama to chip away at. With another parry, Kazama attacked the new found weakness and chipped more than two hundred HP off of its life. The death knight responded by moving faster and swinging its long sword all over the place, forcing Kazama to parry and avoid it at the same time. Kazama dropped back a bit to regroup herself as well as heal her current wounds.
“Damn, I got the breastplate off, but now it can react to my attacks faster. It’s almost like it know about its large gaping weakness, and is compensating for it with all the wild sword swinging…”
As she was talking aloud to herself, the death knight had finally made it to within sword range of Kazama and began to swing crazily again. Kazama connected her blade with the death knights and lifted her entire body in the air, gliding over the knight until she landed behind it. As quickly as she did, she landed another blow on the back of the knight, destroying more of its HP bar. As before, the death knight responded by going berserk with its sword attacks. Kazama took it as a good time to hightail it and get away from it. Bending down slightly, she huffed loudly for air, as the raging battle was beginning to wear her out.
“Shit! This thing’s getting closer to death, but I’m also getting closer to passing out. At this rate it’s gonna-“
She cut herself off when she saw something in an adjacent room sparkle before her eyes.
“What’s that?” She said as she after it. The death knight hadn’t taken notice of her departure and kept with its same random sword swings. Kazama was in an old teaching room and was looking down at a strange looking device that sat on an ancient table.
“What the hell is this?”
>> Item: Weapon Creation Unit
This item was used by the academy to produce multiple copies of weapons that were needed for learning magic. It is constructed of three mirrors, and you place the original weapon in front of one of these. Then, the device copies the weapon detail per detail. Use?
Kazama quickly looked over its shoulder and saw that the knight was beginning to take notice of its adversary’s departure. She sheathed her blade and placed it down in front of one mirror and shouted, “Well get on with it then!”
>> Begging mirror copy times two
Finishing in 5…4...3…2…1…
Complete!
Kazama gasped in shock as she saw two new copies of her sword laid out in front of her. Hastily, she took the original and placed it on her belt, and then she copied suit with the two new copies. She placed the two copies one over the other on her left side, while the original was now on her right. Turning around, she slowly began to walk her way back towards the main outer room with the death knight. She grinned as she saw the knight get into an attack posture, sword held outwards. Kazama quickened her pace and rushed towards the knight. Once she was within range, the knight swung its blade towards her. In one swift motion, Kazama drew one of her blades on the left and blocked the blade, while simultaneously drawing her right blade and striking the knights weakness again.
>> Death Knight HP: 300
“It’s at the breaking point now!” shouted Kazama with glee as she raced to block another blow from the knight. Just as she connected her blade with knights, something changed. A sickly blue lighting began to emanate from the knights blade and reached towards Kazama. Traveling through her blade, the lightning eventually sparked its way up Kazama’s arms, making her gag. The force of the lightning was unbearable for her and it forced her to her knees.
“Wh-what the hell?! That’s not a normal sword attack!” She shouted in agony, the pain of the lightning digging deeply into her arm. Suddenly a booming voice was heard within the room.
“Your right, that attack was not a part of the death knight’s programming…but then again, this is not a game run death knight!”
Kazama’s eyes widened in shock at the sound of the voice, and even the knight seems to stop attacking as the voice continued on.
“I’m just so glad that you really did come here! It seems Midnight really does prove to be useful to us.”
“U-us? Who the hell are you?!”
“Ah my dear Kazama, you will learn in time. But for now, I am simply the puppet master of these.”
As soon as the voice said “these,” a group of blue and red death knights appeared before Kazama. They quickly flanked the original knight, and even it got its health restored. On top of that, a new breastplate took the place of the old one that Kazama had chopped off. The knights stood ready for their orders from the master that controlled them.
“And these are my puppets, my creations! And now my creations, play with our delightful guest!”
The blue and red death knights began to move towards Kazama, while the black one still remained still and unmoving. All Kazama could manage was a pained smile.
“Well, don’t mind if I do…..”
End Chapter 9