CHAPTER 5 – THE OPENING GAMBIT
Labyrinth of the Shade – Gideon Sho
***
When Gideon squatted in [Stealth], cloak wrapping him in an extra layer of darkness, a smile lit under his half-mask. As he stared out at the pack of Barghests nostalgia poured out of him and a small churning of the predator, the hunter within him. His smile was etched in reality and his Insight into his own past and choices and experience churned quickly into a new choice, a strategy, a fitting one. He willed Skald to his ring. It was not the time for a spear.
He had no doubts the System had put these here as a hidden dagger waiting to strike him in the back if he was getting the upper hand against the three main Factions of adversaries. The magic that hid this place also somehow had kept the Barghests calm and asleep based on them all only now getting up from what looked like a good nap, their half-conscious stupor obvious. At just the right time or wrong time from his perspective the magical seal would have been removed and the mad demon dogs unleashed, an unexpected enemy from an unexpected direction.
This hard truth also opened his eyes to possible other hidden threats the System had prepared. If there’s one, there’s more. Eyes open Gideon. The three Factions of enemies were already far more than enough against one of him but he had a feeling the contingency he just found was the icing on the cake. Focus on the now. Keep it in the storage box of important shit but otherwise let it go.
The strategy for him was clear. He activated [The Edge of the Deep Umbral] as a black and silver edged blade appeared in his hand. His new Champion Title had amped it once more just like he’d seen in his other Abilities. It flared heavier, a density to the blade that hadn’t been there before. He sighted the Alpha of the group among the six Barghests, easy to do as it was twice the size, an easy 600lb monster. He let the blade fly and threw another on top of it before he followed with a stationary pose to make sure it knew who’d attacked.
The blades hit the slowly moving, still awakening beast, right on it’s flank. The yelp that ensued was followed by heavy growls and a piercing gaze that locked onto him in an instant. Freddie informed him the two blades had knocked it down to Low Green by the emanations he was parsing. That was a heavy amp to the Ability. He could also see the slight slowing to the creature as it turned and the slight forming of the creeping black ice. The howl came from it’s throat next.
[Howl of the Damned] unleashed by Alpha Umbral Barghest(Iron). Racial Trait Activated. Immunity to Fear AOE Enchantment.
Wrong person for that move beasties. He was more intrigued by actually causing damage. Iron Rank and he still hurt it? His Bloodline and Title seriously shoved his Abilities into a whole new realm not even counting the Attribute boosts in his Will which he imagined boosted it even higher.
Gideon realized it was time to enact the next part of his opening parlay as the entire pack, realizing the howl had no effect, went back on their hind legs setting up for vicious lunges. Anger and death were lit in their eyes.
He activated [Birthed of the Eternal Eve]. A shadow slid from a breath before the closest beast leapt through what he’d become. The sensation was strange as Gideon felt the four hundred pound creature pass through the shadowy substance he was now made of. Time to play tag.
It was a slow process and resource consuming as he led them through the passageways. After several times of the forerunners lunging at him and their physical attacks ghosting through his darkness they started losing interest, which then had him deactivating the Ability and hitting the Alpha once again with his shadowy blades. Since he didn’t follow up, the damage he did was negligible as the Iron Rank Alpha unlike the previous one he’d fought in the Tutorial seemed to have some low-level regen of some type.
Twice he’d gotten so low on Stamina, both Abilities using it, he had to lose them and hide for ten minutes before going back to corral them up once more. Luckily they were pack animals so mostly stayed together in such short spans of tick-tocks but eventually he sighed in tired relief when he saw the bright-lit cavern. Here’s a gift for you fucking religious shit stains from Gideon Sho and all the Shador you enslaved, killed, and abused. It sent a message. Don’t fuck with him and his people, ever.
He rematerialized right on the edge of the light and threw a shadowy blade at each and every beast, lungs heaving from the burst of Stamina use, then waited till the last second to become a shadow once more as the two at the front lunged right through him and into the Sanctum base.
He quickly slid into the pitch dark of the ceiling as he heard heavy growls from the two now within the cavern followed by the sound of blades being drawn. Whatever the Alpha knew or they communicated between each other there was no hesitation as the beast and the rest of the pack tore into the space and let loose with their howls once more.
[Howl of the Damned] unleashed by Alpha Umbral Barghest(Iron). Racial Trait Activated. Immunity to Fear AOE Enchantment.
He was pretty sure the Sanctum weren’t immune to it.
His Bloodline and Class urged him to join the fight, to take at least one of them but he knew with that persistent light Ability, a small globe lit like the sun, suspended, he would be exposed not to mention getting between a scrap of Barghests and the Sanctum would do nothing for seeing him to the end goal. He flexed his Will and pushed back against the pumping anger that was attempting to shovel its way to the fore and slid away from the cavern and the battle.
However it went as far as the aftermath, it would be to his benefit, of that he was sure. He couldn’t keep a grin off his lips even if he wanted to and certainly didn’t want to. The grin got large beneath his mask.
He would check on the results later. He slid as a shadow through several passages before he dropped to the ground and deactivated [Birthed of the eternal Eve] and sighed, a heaving breath echoing mid-sigh. Gideon was wiped, eyes clocking High-Red in Stamina. Almost there. With a deep tired lung heave he activated [Stealth] knowing he would only need to get a bit farther.
It would be enough to see him to a certain rat guarded cave, he hoped. He liked the rats but didn’t feel up to tackling two packs while low looking at empty cans in the resource department.
He continued forward cautiously, avoiding several packs of rodents along the way. He only took one break within nothing more than what could be called a crevice for less the two minutes to get his Stamina away from Middle-Red where it was headed and back up to High-Red before stepping back into the shadows of [Stealth]. Freddie and his cloak were with him and it was enough.
He was beginning to really dig the fucking rodents, minus the current moment, and all the issues they would cause as the Factions ventured out of their holes. He came around three more passages and spied the two still undisturbed groups still guarding his little hidey hole.
His cloak pulled a bit hard on the surrounding darkness as he moved past them and entered the cave. As soon as he sat down Freddie’s voice peppered his ears. They’d found early on when the rats were in the shadow slots they didn’t respond to noise, only when you got near them.
“Beautiful Gideon, just beautiful. I wish we had a remote camera to see the look on the faces of those high and mighty Eldarin when you delivered a pack of Barghests in their laps. I can’t wait till I tell my Bestie Princess Arizelle about it. You did hear her say that didn’t you? How I was her Bestie?”
“Yes Fredster. Everyone heard her and I’m pretty sure she meant it. You all have a lot in common and I couldn’t be happier for both of you.”
And here it came. The sounds of a few bubbling tears and sniffles rolled through and if Gideon wasn’t so tired, it would have brought a smile to his face. Freddie was such a sensitive little fellow. He checked Notifications and saw he’d gained two Levels in both [The Edge of the Deep Umbral] and [Birthed of the Eternal Eve], good stuff.
Gideon took out some more of the food L’Sana had given him as well as an oldie but a goody they’d gotten way back in the Tutorial. The perpetual flask of agua or something. He was too tired to throw an [Identify]. He guzzled a good long swallow while Freddie finally collected himself.
“Thank you so much Gideon. I am the first AI ever to have a Bestie and that in itself is another feather in my metaphorical and proverbial hat as far as trendsetting but that it is with such a marvelous and beautiful spirit such as Princess Arizelle. Let me emphasize beautiful once more. I am verklempt, like the Mike Meyers ‘Linda Richman’ skit from Saturday Night Live. And seriously, what happened to that show for the last decade?
Besides the first years and that hands down, All-Star Cast, next to them, the Mike Meyers led cast was by far a solid second. John Lovtiz, Phil Hartman, Nora Dunn, Dana Carvey. I could go on and on…”
And he did and Gideon had to admit it was somewhat soothing once you tuned it out enough to where it was just a hum in the background. He fell asleep a few moments later and dreamt of a certain feline elf who had a hungry look to her eyes. Heat and passion shaded the contours of the la-la land.
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***
He woke suddenly, his arm being yanked hard and Freddie attempting to whisper directly to his ear. His eyes opened, his cloak was doing the tugging. He flared his Will to shake sleep and focus on what Freddie was telling him.
“The rats are fighting the Alpha Barghest right outside, Gideon. You were very difficult to wake especially as I didn’t want to go above a whisper. This cave is not that deep and it is a Barghest outside. They have very sensitive hearing and smell.”
As those words penetrated his awakening skull he was up to a crouch in an instant, [Stealth] activated and noticed he’d already been cloaked in an obscuring miasma of shadows courtesy of his beautiful worth every penny, cloak. Granted he hadn’t paid for it but still worth every cent of the non-existent coin.
He sent her thanks as his daggers came to hand. The delay would be too long to pull Skald out of storage. He should have thought ahead and had it at hand before he dozed off. Gideon’s time under the System had shown him bad choices in life or death situations with them was par for the course. Deal with what is. Upgrading his poniards to the list of oops forgot moments which were piling up. Would have, could have.
He slid to the side of the cave attempting to collect his thoughts and shake the cobwebs. [Combat Awareness] was ringing like a five day fire alarm. He pushed his Perception outward and could feel the beast as Freddie said, just outside the cave. He could hear its heavy growls and the squeaks of dying rats.
He waited knowing he would need to act quickly as its sense of smell would be able to track him in a short span once it entered the room. His brain was still half-asleep. He didn’t quite realize how exhausted he’d been. You think being comatose for days would make a body refreshed but I guess not when your Soul-Pillar’s busted. Smile. His cloak without even asking pulled every shadow in the room and with only a slight flickering of life from one of the purple torches out in the passage, it was a lot of pitch.
The final martyred death cries of Gideon’s little rat buddies echoed from right outside. He shook his head. L’Sana and Ari’s humor was seriously doing Dunkin’ Donuts into his brain. Someone please save me.
A vibration to his wrist snapped his head back into the game. That was a new trick but he could guess it was Freddie telling him it the Alpha was moving but his Perception told him that anyway as he heard the click click of its claws against stone with 600 lbs of muscle and mass on top of it.
Gideon paused for a moment. He was about to set himself against an elite Alpha, one that was Iron Rank. Remember. He’d shown earlier he could hurt it with magic, somewhat, but he wasn’t sure he could hurt it with his daggers. They were made by him yes but hadn’t been upgraded in a long time and they were Copper.
His Abilities would be the ticket he knew and at the very least his sleepy time had put him in a position to do so. All his resources were beautiful full bars of Green.
Two breaths shot past his lips marking the entrance of the huge creature stalking into the cave, cautiously, and Gideon’s eyes opened wide. The Alpha was literally torn up and it certainly wasn’t the work of rats. It had deep wounds that looked to be caused by blades and was limping on a back leg that looked like chewed up BBQ. Whatever regen he’d seen earlier was as he thought, weak, only a few of the smaller wounds looking to be slightly scabbed over. That the beast was alone told Gideon a ton of things but he could mentally go over them once it was a corpse. It might be hurt but was still not only Iron but an Alpha Elite and way above Gideon’s punching power.
He waited till it limped its way into the room with its sniffer leading it directly to the far side where Gideon’s smell permeated from nappy time. This was the bone toss to see what the new and improved Gideon could do.
He activated [Nocturnal Embrace of the Shade] appearing above the beast, and it was a two foot drop to land on his first Barghest rodeo. He mentally tossed activation to both [Night of the Ecliptic Horror], miasma bellowing out, then a quick flip to [The Pitch of the Umbral Moon]. He planned to ride his bronco into the ground. The hurt beast twisted its head at the weight hitting its spine. Gideon, while straddling the unwilling mount, slammed both daggers into flesh to pay for the tickets.
That was the first mistake. His daggers found no penetration. They just skidded off the creature’s Iron Rank skin almost causing him to fall off his mount right out of the gate.
He didn’t last much longer as it was. His eyes notched the dark ice barely registering, the creature resisting its effects and the double whammy of ignoring the usual slowing portion of his AOE. Higher Rank was no joke. The only positive was the magical darkness did seem to blind the bastard.
Her came the second and biggest mistake. It was only moments before Gideon quickly saw the Strength difference between Copper and Iron, especially from a creature whose build obviously focused on that and Body. With one buck of its powerful shoulders he went flying at least ten feet landing with a thud playing thumpity thump thump across the stone off his back but brain still working so far as he kicked his [Combat Acrobatics] to take some of the sting by continuing the bounce into a tumble roll coming back to his feet. [Pain Resistance] was punching long hours on the clock as it ran ragged attempting to pin down the waves of agony for playing a chew toy.
It still couldn’t see him, which was the only positive, the beast still planted in the darkness of his AOE. For now he turned off his Aura before it sucked anymore of his Spirit, already in High Yellow while at the same time huddling down, relying on the ten round champ that was [Pain Resistance] as he activated [Stealth], and his cloak, without asking, pulled shadows to him as he sheathed daggers, focusing, a breath, growls, two, a paw stepping from the dark clouds and silver flashes, three, and Skald dropped into his hand. It felt like he’d just slid home to his soft bed after an all night bender, sylvan shadow wood shaft gripped to fist.
Before the creature could reorient from its lack of vision he struck, activating [Birthed of the Eternal Eve] becoming a shadow, sliding up the wall he’d been crouching against than the ceiling and within a breath was above the fucked up Alpha.
He deactivated and dropped, Skald’s spearhead leading. It did what his daggers could not and punched through the tough hide, sliding up a third of its shaft, than everything went to shit being sprayed by a more then a fan, more an industry sized windmill at full blast.
He somehow was against the far wall, everything blurry, attempting to figure out what the fuck just happened? His health was on a hurt to look at Low-Yellow.
Warning Citizen, severe head and back trauma. Debuff Active. Concussion -20% Agility, -15% Perception, Insight. Cracked Vertebrae -15% Agility, Strength.
[Pain Resistance] was working in overdrive, a coked up disco dancer in the seventies, to push the shock away while his cloak was curled around him protectively, desperately pulling shadows to increase his healing. Freddie’s voice did more than either.
“Snap out of it Gideon and move! It’s almost on you!!!!!”
With no thought, trusting his friend, he rolled to the left ignoring the screaming pain that tore through him, too much for even his Rare ranked go-to Skill to handle. As he spun he heard and felt literal stone from the floor torn up behind him. Half a wheezing breath and he activated [The Pitch of the Umbral Moon] followed by [Birthed of the Eternal Eve] creating the unmoving cloud of black and silver than shifting to shadow and slipping to the wall then to ceiling. A leaping growl came on the edge of the vacancy sign he left behind.
As he arrives upon his old friend, the cave roof, wincing in pain, he seems to be feeling the broken shit even when he was made up of shadowy dreams. He just threw that away in the System fuckery box and took a look at what the beast was doing.
He’d seriously underestimated what a single Rank up was capable of. If this was how tough the fucker was as heavily wounded as it was he hoped to not face man or beast in Iron until he could climb that ladder himself. The only thing that somewhat lessened his current ass-kicking was the thought that he was pretty sure the Sanctum did not go unscathed dealing with this fucker and his pack. That put a smile made of darkness to his lips.
His resources were taking a hard hit. The Ability he was using chewed on his Stamina while the AOE, his Spirit but it was all those Abilities in quick order that had him breathing metaphorically heavy. Spirit was in Mid-Yellow, Stamina Low-Yellow and dwindling further while he stayed a shadow. He ignored the ghost not ghost pain and watched the lumbering severely hurt beast, its breathing ragged and raspy. Gideon could see why. Skald stuck out its back, the entire spearhead, and a third of the shaft, shoveled into meat. Based on the breathing issues, probably stuck in a lung.
He had an idea, a crazy fucking idea and he knew L’Sana would love it. Skald was a Soul-Bound weapon, connected to him right? Did he necessarily have to be touching his beauty? He felt a buzz from the bracelet and a warm sensation from his cloak. There were questions there whether they somehow knew what he was thinking or a coincidence? That was for later Gideon, now Gideon needed to kill this fucker before it killed him.
Focus. He could hear his Father’s voice, a memory. Deal with what’s in front of you. He activated [Rune-forging Mastery – Umbral] and threaded it to his eyes for the first time since he’d been rebuilt.
Holy shit!! His Ability almost collapsed as his mind was overwhelmed. He had to flex his Will hard and fast as a burst of umbral runes lit up in his vision, threading through the walls, the ground, the air, the entire place pitted with the runes of night and ‘Asshole’ was the only word he could think of.
He knew the System had created everything perfectly suited to blast his vision the moment he did what he just did and if he hadn’t been a shadow on the ceiling he would have been fucked if he had done it in a different situation. Gideon had a roll of the bones and his ‘S’ Ranked Fate blew a kiss to the bounce.
Growls mixed with heaving gasps turfed his ears as he closed his eyes and took a breath. He could do this. Before he opened his eyes once more he flexed his Will, Perception, and Insight as hard as he could with everything he had. This time his sight was a laser targeted on one thing and one thing only. His vision pierced the absolute ocean of pitch runes dancing thick and landed for a moment on Skald, on it’s shadow moon wood and umbral steel head, and a moment was all he needed.
He threaded his mind in a breath, an eye-blink, a moment, felt the connection between that which he created and his own newly constructed Soul-Pillar, and as the avalanche of Umbral Runes, permeating everything within the Labyrinth of the Shade, closed in to overwhelm his runic vision, his stream of the bonded shivs between his mind and his Soul-Bound weapon, Skald, laced with intent, he pushed and activated Moonshadow Lightning.
Many things happened at once, some good, even great, others, not so much.
A shot of interwoven blue, black and silver lightning lit the small cave with a thunderous clap that if he hadn’t been a shadow, would have probably deafened him if not caused bigger, fuck with my flesh/scales, issue.
A deluge of meat chunks splattered out like fiesta day, the pinata blasted open by that one 300lb Trucker Dad after fifteen kids couldn’t do it. That was all the good stuff, messy but good, the biggest prize, one obviously fucked up no longer breathing or wheezing, Alpha.
The bad part came next as Gideon bottomed out his resources on the quick and heavy with his bright idea. [Apex Predator] kicked in immediately but only after all his Abilities shut off which meant he was no longer a shadow. Oops. His mind on the verge of blacking out from the hard wringing of his Spirit and Stamina, he had only vague hazed thoughts about falling and eating a thirty foot drop from ceiling to stone floor, a very very fucking hard and unforgiving stone floor. It was the gift that kept on giving as he remembered bouncing numerous times, then nothing but a return trip to comatose land. Ouch, like seriously, fucking ouch.