Chapter 21: Wielder

“So, where exactly is the closest tether?” I asked.

“I told you Locke, there are a few in Cairos. But more weapons are not what you need. You’re like a recruit who just learned the basics of using a spear deciding he’s also going to use a sword.” Cal sighed.

Perhaps now was not the time to bombard him with more questions, though the march through deep snow was difficult and boring.

“Alright, alright, fine. If we can’t get more tethers right now, can you at le-”

“Behind!” Cal's voice roared in my head.

I ducked, and something whooshed over my head. Turning, I blindly struck out, both daggers thunked against a wooden shaft, and I created space by hopping backwards.

“Oh. So you’re not one of those damn creatures.” A cold voice said.

A woman in her early twenties - somewhere around my age- stood, long red hair tied back. Her proximity in age was the third thing I noticed about my ambusher. The second thing I noticed was her weapon. She held a staff of gnarled and knotted wood in both hands. Pale green lines were etched all over the weapons, forming complex patterns that had to be runes. Identical green runes marked her face, as well as what I could see of her arms. The first thing I noticed was her face. She glared at me like she’d finally caught up to the person that had killed her entire family and was ready for some revenge.

“I’m a player, not a monster, please calm down.” I said, gesturing for peace with both hands.

Her jaw tightened. A green aura burst in existence around her staff, and she lunged forward.

“So you’re one of them.” She snarled.

I lept backwards, barely avoiding a blow that would have split my head like a melon.

“Who tells an angry person to “Calm down”. Come on, Locke.” Cal said.

“Not helpful Cal.” I replied, narrowly evading another crushing blow.

She growled, and sprung into another strike.

“Maybe, if I kill all the people they send after me, they’ll leave me alone.” The woman wondered out loud.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about! What is wrong with the people who play this game!?” I shouted.

After a particularly close dodge, my vision fuzzed for a split second.

“Locke, you need to check your status.”

“A bit busy right now Cal.” I muttered, eyeing the woman's weapon.

Cal mumbled something about idiot combat junkies, and a window obscured my vision.

Essence Harvest(Debuff): One random attribute point has been temporarily stolen.

“How did you even do that?” I asked, panic growing.

To my surprise, a small “3” marked the corner of the debuff. I had not been hit yet, and certainly not that many times.

“Each time the weapon has passed close by you’ve gained a stack of that debuff Locke. The green aura is likely what causes the effect rather than the actual impact of the weapon.” Locke said.

“How am I supposed to avoid something with such a high effective range?”

The woman's body had begun to glow faintly with the same pale light enveloping her weapon, and the look in her eyes had changed to considering as she glanced at her weapon.

“Kill her before she steals too much of your power. The few attribute points she’s already stolen won’t make a massive difference.”

I activated Twisting Blood for the first time. A small slice appeared on my right wrist, and blood began to flow up my hand and around my weapon. The blood swirled there for a moment before darkening and sheathing my weapon.

My opponent wore an expression of mild disgust while I cast the spell, but didn’t intervene for some reason.

“A good fight is a quick fight.” Locke said.

Pouring mana into my other weapon, I circled the strange woman, weary of any strange abilities she might possess.

When I flung the needle at her, I was unsurprised to see her dodge easily. The projectile thudded into a tree she’d been standing in front of, and after feigning a charge, I blinked behind her.

Before I could plunge both weapons into her side, I was forced to duck as her weapon scythed behind her, applying yet another stack of Essence Harvest. A quick swipe of my dagger allowed me to score a shallow slash across her extended arm.

Content with the exchange, I stepped quickly backwards, weapons held in a guard position.

She glanced at the already festering wound, and her eyes went blurry for a second.

She was reading the debuff.

Cautious of a bait, I did not attempt another attack while she studied the Twisting Blood debuff.

I decided to inspect her during the lull.

{Vanessa}

HP: 80/80

MP: 125/125

Type: Player

Race: Ara’Thad

Level: 5

Class: Balancer

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Vanessa…

The name scratched at the edges of my memory, but I couldn’t quite place where I'd heard it. Her class and race were also strange. I didn’t remember Balancer or Ara’Thad as options during character creation, and she was too low level to have achieved class evolution yet. Trying to inspect her race or class just led to inspect windows filled with question marks.

I looked up at her in time to see her eyes focus, and she glanced down at the blackening wound on her forearm. The calm nimbus of green surrounding her flared, and the green energy surged towards her arm. When the power had calmed enough for me to make out her arm, I grit my teeth.

The wound on her arm had been completely erased. Not so much as a scar marked where my dagger had cut her.

“I do have to thank you.” she said, voice much calmer.

“Despite the trouble you’ve all caused me, I appreciate the fact that you’ve lasted more than a few exchanges. With everything dying after a few solid hits, it’s begun to feel like I'm playing half a class.”

“Again, I have no idea who you are!” I said, backpedaling.

The aura around her ignited. The green cloud around her was burned away in a second. A thick fog the color of fresh blood spun around her, obscuring most of her body. Like water down a drain, the strange power funneled into her. The pale green runes snaking up her arms and weapon darkened to crimson. She spun her staff into both hands, and a scarlet scythe blade glinted in the sunlight.

“Alright Cal, why don’t I get something like that?”

Vanessa swung her scythe in my direction, and a crescent of blood red power arced through the air towards me.

“Have you considered that maybe you don’t deserve a cool ability, Locke?”

I snorted at the annoying spirit and tumbled out of the way of the incoming projectile. Vanessa had closed the distance behind her spell, and a curved blade already hissed towards my neck. Deflecting the scythe blade, I was given no room to plan a counter as another arcing blow came from below. My hasty dodges could barely keep up with her flurry of strikes as her farming implement spun around her in a series of complex maneuvers.

It would only take one of her strikes to end the fight, and Cal would be gone, maybe forever.

“She's using her life force as fuel in order to fight at such a level. If you think you can evade her attacks for another minute or two, she’ll be forced to either revert to her previous form, or die.

My dodge was a hair too slow, and Vanessa opened a line on my cheek.

“Ah. So probably not. Well in that case we’ll try to beat her at her own game. I’m going to temporarily loosen the restrictions on Abyssius. Don’t strain yourself or attempt to use any new abilities you have access to. Bearing this power for too long will eventually shatter your body and mind. Only Abyssius will be able to tighten the restrictions once I slacken his leash. Goodluck.”

I felt Cal’s presence leave my mind just in time for my muscles to lock up. My breath caught in my throat as agony surged throughout my body. The sensation reminded me of bonding with Abyssius’s Soul Tether, only a hundred times worse. Forcing myself to look up at my opponent, I realized she was no longer in her blood red form. She stared at a point just above my head. I glanced up to see Cal's crown of iridescent fragments floated just above my head, blazing with a purple energy.

“You’re.. a wielder?” she asked.

She didn’t sound angry, or even like she was really asking a question. She just sounded confused. She absentmindedly scratched the back of her head with one hand, the other gripping her now bladeless staff.

“So you’re not one of them..” She said.

“I said that! Several times in fact!” I replied.

“I don’t even know who they are!”

She glared at me for a few moments, but there was no heat in the expression.

“Why were you following me then?”

“You’re the one who ambushed me!” I replied incredulously.

She waved my response away as if it were a minor detail.

“You were walking in my direction when I noticed you crashing through the forest like an ogre.” She said.

Her eyes went unfocused for a moment.

“So how about that… L-o-c-k-e”

I rolled my eyes.

“I was making my way back to Terris to tell the guard about the horde of Abyssal creatures gathering near the town.”

“Oh.”

She did not look even slightly regretful or embarrassed.

“What’s a "wielder"? I’ve never heard the term before.” I asked.

“Some important guild leader back in town said they were willing to pay top dollar for any unique armament. The nickname wielder stuck for one reason or another.”

A few puzzle pieces fell into place for me, and I remembered where I'd heard the name Vanessa.

“And so they’ve been trying to player kill you. Surely there are more Vanessas than just you in Daedalus?” I asked.

She looked confused for a moment, but then a look of understanding passed over her face.

“I see your mistake. They didn’t know I was a wielder because of the announcement, but rather because of my glow.”

“What gl-”

She cut me off.

“You can’t see it. Apparently, to those without a unique item, those who do have one glow a faint golden color.”

“So I'm just marked for everyone to see?” I asked.

I must have looked quite dumbfounded by this information, because she relaxed a hair.

“Indeed. We both are, actually.”

“By the way, ever since you manifested that crown your health has been steadily decreasing.” She said, pointing at a spot above my head.

“Cal, cancel whatever you did.” I said.

My muscles creaked under the strain they were experiencing. Remembering Cal's words, I swore.

“Abyssius, stop what you’re doing.” I asked the spirit.

My health dipped below half, and panic began to eat at the edge of my focus.

A moment later the pressure on my body lessened, and I slumped in place.

Another mind immediately joined my own.

“I thought I’d watch you die from the strain, without even fighting.” Cal said.

I coughed, and color tinged my cheeks.

“Sorry. Where’d you go by the way?” I asked.

Glancing at Vanessa, I realized she had said something while I was conversing with Cal.

“Sorry, what was that?”

She raised an eyebrow.

“You’re weird.”

I sputtered. She ambushes a random player that she assumed was associated with her enemies before even checking, and she called me weird.

“You are kind of weird, Locke.”

Enemies in reality, and enemies in my mind..

“How’d you escape the town? I assume Terris is a safezone, but how’d you actually make it so far without being chased.”

“Oh. Some weird humanoid rat creatures started attacking the town. Everyone was distracted, so I managed to slip out.”

“..Ratfolk?” I asked.

“Yea I think they were called that, didn’t stick around long enough to fight any though.”

If it were true that the creatures under Arcis’s house really were some kind of army, then things were much worse than I’d imagined.

“Cal, what are the chances Terris can hold off the creatures from the Abyss, as well as a moderately sized Ratfolk army?”

“Assuming the two forces were not allied? I’d say Terris has a chance. But the creatures from the Abyss have no ill will towards the Ratfolk. Ratfolk were created by magic found in the Abyss, and so are in a way cousins to Abyss dwellers. It is not unlikely at all they band together. If that does turn out to be the case, Terris will likely fall.”

After another moment of hesitation, I got to my feet and left my party with Carrie and Sev. Forming a new party, I invited Vanessa.

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she examined her weapon for damage.

“I’m going back to Terris to warn the guard captains about the second invading force. I’d appreciate it if you came with me.”

Judging by her movement in our fight, as well as the tactics she’d used, she was definitely experienced in VRMMO combat.

“You want to go back? What did you not understand about “guild-leader who wants to kill wielders for their armaments”?”

“They can’t actually kill us in the town, and the second force arriving should provide the distraction we need to leave.” I said.

She still didn’t look convinced. Maybe I needed to phrase my intentions in a way she would appreciate.

“If they do follow us when we leave, we’ll just kill them.” I said.

She gave me a razor-edged look, and a dangerous smile spread across her face.

“Well, in that case...”

Vanessa has joined your party!