“Karl! Fighting retreat! Anchor on the tree!”
Nodding, the Viking leapt onto the patch of ground the tree was floating on, as Kaveh rapidly climbed it. He heard the crocodiles’ deep growl as Karl held them off.
Pulling himself up over the parapet, Kaveh saw Jacob and the [Heavy Swordsman] desperately holding their own against lashing vines that kept trying to latch on to them. The Supports were hacking away with their daggers while sinewy green appendages darted at them, dripping a white, foul-smelling liquid.
The huge flower was seemingly blind, as its arboreal tentacles jerked around wildly, until some of the liquid landed on a [Doctor]’s wrist, on bare skin.
Immediately, all the vines reared back and shot directly at the poor support, who was unsuccessfully trying to get the liquid biomarker off.
Kaveh, having summoned his [Scimitar], activated the blade’s ability.
Time slowed to a crawl as his perception was vastly sped up. A series of illusory silhouettes appeared in front of him, showing him the most optimal path to take to save the doomed man. Guided forward by the perfect steps of [Janna], he weaved through the network of slowly reaching vines to find the point where they clumped together thickest, and with a powerful slash, he severed most of the appendages.
With the successful strike, the world around him lurched back into normal speed, the severed ends of the thick vines spraying everyone on the roof with the stinking sap.
The now-limp vines fell at the [Doctor]’s feet, but he’d already fainted from the stress. Or maybe the sap was poisonous? Kaveh didn’t know.
To his dismay, the rogue plant started rapidly regenerating from the broken ends.
Shit, I already used True Strike.
Kaveh, a die-hard gamer, had given all his weapon skills nicknames according to their effects. His [Scimitar] especially, because it technically had two phases. The first, True Strike, sped up his perception and showed him the best path to make a single, perfect slash. By default, that was a decapitation, but he could change it with a specific goal in mind. The second phase, the Shadowbox phase, kept the silhouettes but because time was moving at normal speed, they flickered and shifted around as the target moved, changing the optimal strike path. Useless for fighting multiple enemies since all the different silhouettes blurred into incoherency.
Still, it was an incredibly powerful skill, even now, as long as you were quick enough to catch the perfect moments. Kaveh usually wasn’t, but now, as he evaluated the situation, he saw his shot. His first pruning of the vines had created a hole in the flower’s defence that he rushed to exploit, efficiently sidestepping all the new growth trying to grab onto him.
Coating everyone in the flower’s sap had sent the flower into frenzy mode, and its remaining appendages as well as the rapidly growing new vines attacked with abandon, using focused, targeted strikes. Luckily, most of them were aimed at Jacob, the [Heavy Swordsman] and Kaveh, being at the forefront.
Quickly glancing back, he saw Jacob cowering behind his shield at the onslaught while the screaming [Heavy Swordsman] had already been grabbed and was being pulled towards the flower’s bright petals.
Not on my watch.
Kaveh, already past the bulk of the vines the plant was using as a bulwark, saw series of movements that would bring him within striking distance of its main bulb, sitting pretty underneath the flower. Crouching to gather energy, he sprang forward, dodging past another green assault, pushing off the wall, twisting to avoid a further assault and somersaulting over the angry blossom.
Contorting in the air, Kaveh coiled up his muscles, allowing himself to dive past the final set of vines, and falling within arm’s length of the fat bulb, he unleashed his massive swing, slicing clean through the plant, before letting go of the sword and arresting his fall with his hands.
The surging mass of vines immediately fell limp as the curved sword dissipated into golden flecks, dropping the armoured swordsman, before their combined weight pulled the flower off its base, bringing it to the ground. The contents of the bulb, a meaty, stinking slurry of half-digested animals, spilled out onto the floor.
Even as he turned his attention back to the situation below, a notification dinged in his vision.
Ding!
You have slain a juvenile Grasper Trap.
Dismissing it with a shake of his head, Kaveh scrambled back to the opposite wall, worriedly checking on Andrew, Karl and the other [Heavy Swordsman] while those behind him rushed to help the fallen [Doctor]. It wasn’t looking good.
Two more crocs had shown up and were content to munch on the corpse of their dead comrade, while the original two were still harassing the three trapped boys. They’d realised they were mostly invulnerable to anything the boys could throw at them and had felt bold enough to leave the water, advancing up on the floating tree island. Karl kept hitting them with [Rönd]’s knockback, but they had so much mass it had minimal effect. The trio were backed up almost to the tree.
Kaveh called out, suddenly frantic.
“Yo! Climb up, quickly!”
Having grabbed hold of the rope once more, he held it steady with all his might, as first the swordsman he didn’t know clambered over, then Andrew heavily dragged himself up the front of the building. But while he was struggling his way up the rope, one of the cannibal crocs noticed his vulnerable position and swam menacingly towards the building.
Aiming for the small canal between the tree island and the building’s façade, the croc suddenly flexed its tail, putting on a burst of speed. Kaveh watched helpless as the beast approached. Either he held on and the croc snatched Andrew from the rope, or he let go and the crocs swarmed him in the water.
Shit, what do I do? What do I do?
Not seeing a way out, Kaveh prepared to leap over the wall after the beast snatched Andrew. He could at least save Karl.
But looking over at the other Ascendant, he didn’t need saving. Karl had seen the crocodile swimming up to Andrew and reacted decisively. Summoning [Forseti], his huge double headed axe, he reached back and brought the wicked blade howling down onto a crocodile’s snout.
With a loud thud the barest edge of the weapon bit into the croc’s thick scales, quivering as it was stuck fast in the beast’s armour. Karl gave an indignant yell before, using the precious few seconds gained as the closest croc shook its head trying to remove the large implement, turning and launching himself towards the tree. The second crocodile, seeing him turn his back, suddenly charged, chasing after him.
The swimming crocodile, gazing hungrily at Andrew dangling from the rope, sluiced through the water like a speedboat, diving for a second before exploding out of the swamp, jaws wide as it leapt at the swordsman.
Karl, in turn, had landed on the trunk feet-first and instantly springboarded off, rocketing towards the hanging rope, the jagged maw underneath him just barely snapping shut on air instead of flesh.
Summoning his [Atgeir], he roared, thrusting with all his strength as he crashed into the breaching crocodile’s belly mid-air, just as its jaws were slamming shut on Andrew. His first strike, with all the momentum of his leap behind it, only cracked a single scale in half, but as the pair splashed into the grimy water, he raised his spear once more, its tip glimmering as he activated its skill, and rammed it home through the weakness. The weapon sank deep into the beast, impaling it until it hit the inner side of its back armour. Giving it a vicious twist, Karl snarled as he severed the hissing reptilian’s spine, then jumped off the paralysed beast’s floating body onto the rope, still dangling under Andrew. The man in question had frozen as the croc leapt, and remained that way, eyes firmly shut as Karl tried to climb up.
Karl started shouting from beneath him as the crocs on the tree island now made their way back into the water, also drawing the attention of the second croc that had been cannibalistically snacking on the drifting corpse.
“Dra åt helvete! Break down on the fucking roof, not now!”
In the distance, Kaveh could see they’d drawn even more of the dark green tanks, as four more crocodiles lazily swam towards the commotion. His eyes widened.
We’re gonna start a fucking feeding frenzy.
Quickly calling out to the others on the roof, they all hauled on the rope together, pulling the two boys over. Andrew, still frozen in place, slid onto the sap-covered floor. Karl, dripping foul water, came upon the scene, seeing the even fouler, thick, white sap that had drenched everything. Taken aback, he let out a chuckle, which turned into a full-on belly laugh.
“I don’t even want to know what happened here!”
This caused everyone to look down at themselves, and realising the implication, start laughing as well, immediately breaking the tension. Kaveh let out a relieved sigh at that. He was afraid the close call would break people’s nerves. But there was no turning back, they had people relying on them.
They’d actually survived that. All ten of them, he’d counted. And that was just step one.
----------------------------------------
“That was quite the scrape, ja?”
The group had taken a short breather before beginning their real mission. Now that they were on the network of buildings, they could hop from roof to roof, or build bridges between distances too far to jump. They were breaking in through ceilings and going from room to room until they hit the waterline, searching for stores of food.
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They encountered more Grasper Trap flowers but learned to simply stay out of a certain range while they were dormant and they wouldn’t unleash their vines.
Many of the buildings still had full tanks of hot water in the solar heaters on the roofs, so they’d all taken a quick break to scour themselves clean of the sticky sap and filthy swamp water. They’d probably get dirty again, but when else would they be able to wash themselves with hot water?
“Yeah bro, great reflexes by the way. That was an awesome save.”
Kaveh was putting his new attire back on, wrinkled and damp, but clean. Karl stood next to him, fluffing the wet fur on his clothes. He chuckled.
“Ja, Andrew has definitely made that clear.”
Kaveh also chuckled at that. Andrew had seemingly gotten starstruck after Karl saved him, loudly swearing he would follow Karl through thick and thin, even getting teary-eyed professing his gratitude and loyalty.
The assassin had felt a stab of jealousy at the adoration, before checking himself and letting it go. Mandla had told him, years ago, to try meditation to get over Nicola. It hadn’t worked, but he’d kept up the habit and was very good at spotting unhelpful thoughts.
Besides, stealth builds are always gimped in the early game. Mid to late game, it’s my time.
He’d never had a controlling streak like Mandla or Nicola, so leading had never particularly appealed to him but he felt starved of purpose here. His time as a basketball captain had taught him that helping your team win was the greatest reward one could ask for, but he couldn’t help but get the sense he was playing second fiddle to the bigger personalities. Mandla and Nicola were wickedly sharp, all the group’s battle plans and organisational feats had come from one of them. Karl was a beast, a juggernaut on the battlefield you could always rely on. What was he?
What he wanted to be, was what Karl was to Andrew. A saviour. An ideal to aspire towards. He didn’t know if it was conceited of him, but he’d always known, deep down, that if he ended up in a position of power, he could do immense good. He’d just never felt the urge to take up the mantle.
But now that it had been thrust upon him, now that he was among the few who could become truly powerful, he felt the pressure to do something with that power. To be someone who makes an actual difference instead of another leech growing fat off the system (in this case a literal system) and giving nothing back.
Cheesy as it was, Kaveh wanted to be a superhero.
“Still, I’m never one to deny a fellow king their flowers, bro. That was some movie shit.”
Karl gave him an odd look.
“You think I’d be good at it? Being king that is?”
Not the direction I expected this to go.
“What do you mean? I’m talking in the ‘All men are kings’ sense.”
The Viking now looked contemplative.
“I’m talking in the pure sense. Like if I was the leader of the group.”
Is this guy secretly dumb?
“What are you talking about dude, you already lead the group. With Nicola, Mandla and me, remember? Did you get hit on the head or something?”
Karl waved the question off.
“You know what, forget it, ja? My brain is still scrambled from hitting the crocodile so hard haha.”
Moving on from the strange encounter, the team, now cleaned up and refreshed, redoubled their search efforts. They were in the singular commercial hub of the town, built around the main road coming up from the highway. There were lots of clothing, accessory or souvenir shops, but not many grocery stores.
Kaveh guessed that it was because they were all mostly on the ground floor and had gotten flooded out. The few caches of food they did find had already been raided by insects or scavenging animals. Jacob suggested they check out the residential areas, as they were more likely to have food stored, assuming they weren’t completely waterlogged.
With no better ideas, they set off, pushing past draping vines to see the writing on the old street signs they were using to navigate.
Making their way across the roofs until they reached the end of the commercial district, the image of the rest of the town spread before them in a depressing vista. The Crocodile River in the distance was clearly swelled past its banks, turning the whole area into this boggy swamp. Luckily the ground wasn’t all flat, so while there were low-lying stagnant swamps, there were also relatively dry hilly areas poking up through the marshy ground.
It was those, and the homesteads dotted around them, that were their target. They had Karl jump down to the waterline and swim across to one of the drier patches. Kaveh threw him one end of their rope, tying his end to one of the concrete crenellations and having Karl tie his end to one of the trees. With the [Sappers] making makeshift handles, they used this poverty zipline to cross the water, landing heavily on the soft ground. Going last, Kaveh untied the rope before also making a mad dash through the water to get to the other side.
Shaking dirty water off his face, he counted everyone again, just to be sure. Still ten, they hadn’t lost anyone. Buoyed by this knowledge, he set them off towards the nearest homestead.
They were all surrounded by fences, but that was nothing a swing of [Forseti] couldn’t handle. Walking into the abandoned homestead, Kaveh wondered where everyone had gone. Had they all died? Fled? Considering they had a whole town within their Partition, there had to be a few other Legends or even Ascendants. They could all join forces and beat this thing.
Entering the large farmhouse, Kaveh could clearly see the signs of people having left in a hurry. Plates were left on the table with insects munching away at the stale leftovers. Small personal objects littered the wooden floor like they’d been considered, but deemed too wasteful. A golf club. A set of comics. A teddy bear.
Don’t think about it.
Mandla had told him about his Trial and the habit his body had of slapping itself when stressed. With his own Trial as well, his body, a young assassin named Payam, had the habit of praying to Allah under his breath in stressful situations. Even now, that idiosyncrasy carried over as Kaveh had to consciously keep his mouth closed.
Unlike Mandla however, Kaveh couldn’t not think about it.
“We have to find out where they went. The people.”
The whole squad stared at him. Karl spoke slowly.
“You know that’s not our purpose here, ja?”
Kaveh frowned.
“Yes I fucking know, but we haven’t seen anyone else in this place since day one! Where are they all? Are they dead? Alive? Whatever it is, we need to know then make a decision about our purpose. There are children’s toys here, people. Look me in the eye and tell me you’ll walk away from this knowing very well you could be condemning kids to death, and I’ll tell you to never fucking speak to me again. We need to know, and if we can, help. What the fuck else is the point of having power?”
Karl raised his arms in a placating gesture.
“Okay. Okay. What say we split up? We leave the Legends here to continue the search and you and me can investigate, ja?”
“I don’t care i- oh. Yeah, that works. You guys cool with that?”
Nods of assent and an especially enthusiastic Andrew promising to step up and protect the supports all assuaged Kaveh’s guilt at forcing their hand for what was really just a feeling in the pit of his stomach. But he had to know.
One of the supports, a [Sapper], volunteered to go with them, in case they needed things built. They all, to varying degrees depending on their specialisation, could soften and mould solid matter almost like clay, merging similar materials like using planks of wood to create a singular, contiguous wall. Like the other Supports, a lone [Sapper] couldn’t do much, their abilities were amplified around other [Sappers], but with a high enough level they could do just enough.
Taking him along, a dude named Ayanda, the trio set out. They wandered aimlessly for a while, spotting the odd dropped artifact, since none of them knew how to track. But after checking out a few more homesteads, eventually Kaveh noticed shallow footprintss converging in the soggy ground. The prints looked old, but they were still visible, as if they’d initially been very deep. Like everyone had left their homesteads at the same time and gone to the same place.
A safehouse? A secret fortress?
They slowly followed the trail until it disappeared as the land dipped, creating a bowl of water that had erased the tracks. They tried going around it but they couldn’t find tracks on the other end.
Kaveh nearly considered turning back from this dead-end excursion, when a flash of motion caught the edge of his vision. He saw… someone running?
“It’s a person, follow them!”
And he took off, sprinting as fast as was possible in the soft ground. With a light step, he managed not to get bogged down as he left Karl and Ayanda, who did.
Chasing after the distant spectre, Kaveh made sure to summon a [Scimitar], which he dragged below him, creating a clear path in the muddy ground for the others behind him. Running for nearly two minutes, he slowed down as he came upon an oddly located copse of trees.
Entering the little forest, Kaveh kept his hand ready to unsheathe his [Scimitar] in an instant. He was optimistic, not stupid. He didn’t know this man.
Stopping dead as he heard a rustling up ahead, he crept behind a tree and peeked out beside it. There he was!
The flash of motion he’d seen was a man, who seemed unaware of his presence. He looked older, like he was in his late twenties. He had an actual crossbow at his side.
More importantly though, he was in front of what looked like a nuclear bunker! He was fiddling with the complicated lock of a door that was built into the hill. Unsuccessfully, if his frustrated cries were any indication.
Taking a breath, Kaveh stepped out from behind the tree.
“Aweh bro.”
The man yelped in surprise as he jerked his head over to Kaveh. He fell to the ground, grabbing at his crossbow and levelling it shakily at the assassin’s chest.
“Whoa whoa bro, relax. I’m not gonna hurt you, see?”
He raised his hands, showing he was only carrying the sheathed sword. The man gulped, standing slowly and taking in his attire.
“Ar-Are you an Ascendant?”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Yes! I don’t want to die!”
“Bro, chill. Seriously. You’re not going to die. I promise. I’m not going to kill you. I just have questions.”
The metal tip of the crossbow bolt gleamed as it quivered in the man’s grip. He looked on the verge of tears.
What the fuck does he think Ascendants do?
“Okay, fine, dude. Look.”
Kaveh opened his hand and let the [Scimitar] fall out, the weapon dissolving into flecks of gold carried off on the slight breeze. He raised his now empty palms.
“Can you put that down so we can talk?”
The man’s frantic breathing slowed slightly as he nodded, lowering the weapon to point at the floor.
“I just want to know what this place is, and where all the townspeople went.”
The man gulped again before responding.
“It- It’s an old apartheid-era bunker. I don’t know maybe it was built to hide from black people, I just heard it was here and was checking to see if that was true. I don’t- I can’t help you about the townsfolk. Maybe they’re inside heh.”
He seems to be telling the truth. But not all of it.
“Okay, can yo-”
“You caught the bugger, ja?”
Eyes widening, the nervous man immediately raised the crossbow once more.
Goddammit.
As Karl and Ayanda made their way into the space around the door, the man’s eyes flicked wildly, the weapon in his hand jerking about to try keep as many of them in sights as possible.
“You- you said you were alone!”
Raising his hands again, he tried to calm the rapidly escalating situation.
“Nah bro, you know I didn’t. Regardless, these are my friends. It doesn’t need to get violent. Just put the crossbow down and let’s keep talking. Like we were, remember?”
Karl turned towards him.
“What’s he saying?”
“He says this is an apartheid-era bunker, built for some unknown, probably racist reason. He doesn’t know anything else.”
Karl glanced at the thick door.
“Ja, I think I know these. We came here because my mother was doing her PhD on relations between Europe and apartheid South Africa. The Swiss government paid for a bunch of these in the sixties, as a refuge in case the Cold War heated up, but they supposedly never got built.”
“See, we all learned somethi-”
“Where are you from?”
Karl asked the man directly, taking a step forward. The man broke out into a cold sweat. He stammered out a barely audible answer, backing away from Karl.
Kaveh jumped in.
“People, can we fucking chill? Karl, step away from him, you’re obviously intimidating.”
Karl raised his open palms, stepping back but staring the man in his eyes.
“He’s hiding something.”
“Even if he is, threats aren’t the way to get him to open up.”
Ayanda piped up for the first time, a normally quiet guy.
“G-guys, maybe we sho-”
With a sharp twang, the crossbow bolt thunked into Ayanda’s head, the boy crumpling immediately.
The man dropped the weapon and turned to run through the gap he’d just created.
Karl, already ready for action, summoned [Rönd] and knocked the man back into the metal door, before jumping forward, [Sverð] already growling in his hand.
Kaveh only had time to shout futilely as the blade tore five jagged rents into the man’s chest and gut with one swing. The man coughed up blood as his entrails slopped out onto the wet grass, then he collapsed forward, dying.
Another flash of motion in his peripheral vision didn’t draw his attention this time. He was hyperfocused on the steaming pile of guts Karl had turned the man into.
I… I promised.