Toni – Citadel #1 ‘Keep Out’
When she woke in the morning, Toni thought the day was going to be the usual hunt for provisions in their home of Beta Zone #75.
It had been a couple of weeks since they had last seen people and she figured that today would be more of the same drudgery of keeping spirits up and finding enough usable monster meat to feed their 52 strong group.
However, when the flash of blinding light came from one of the two visible Outpost clearings from where they had set up, only a scant few moments after the notifications about some Benjamin fella, she knew something big was going down.
When they all could see again, there was a giant bloody white mushroom thing sticking out from the jungles canopy and after a group discussion they’d made haste to the new and now prominent landmark for a closer look.
Before when they had tried to join the outpost two zones over, things hadn’t gone so well.
It wasn’t like they preferred to live out in the wilderness filled with monsters, but when they wanted to charge you an entrance fee after you were already paying rent? That was just daylight bloody robbery!
Over the past year things hadn’t been a cakewalk out in the Zones either, like it wasn’t bad enough that you had to keep a constant eye out for the never ending attacks from monsters, people had to make things worse! More annoying still, it wasn’t just the men you had to watch as women also seemed all too keen to give people a bad name.
Growing up in Australia as a first Australian, she had been taught by Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken, to never trust a smiling white fella who tells you they know what’s best.
But given her run in’s with robbers and murderers of all shapes, sizes and colors of skin in the new world? Well Toni had to revise Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken’s advice to include anyone who wasn’t a young’un.
Oh it wasn’t to say that young people couldn’t be right shit heads too…It was just they were more upfront about it and a fair few of them had come good and joined them in their little community of adolescences.
She was ashamed to admit but she had spent many nights crying herself to sleep as Yerg took watch because she missed her family so much. But no matter how many people she asked, provided they didn’t try to attack her of course…Not one had seen a lick of any of her people.
So whilst she took point with Yerg and Maddy and Otis took up rear guard, they diligently followed the green see-through arrow, as they made their disorderly trek to the giant new white mushroom on the horizon in haste, if only to make certain they reached it before sundown.
By the time they’d reached Alpha Zone #193, it’d started to bucket down rain, but seeing as they had already learned to travel light, their progress slowed from a jog to a fast and slippery walk.
When they eventually got to the edge of the clearing where the white thing had appeared, night was about to take over from the day. So with the last rays of light poking through the giant tree tops, the size of what they had traveled too really began to sink in.
Seeing no harm in taking stock of themselves and their potential play for a place in whatever the heck this Benjamin guy had going, they took a short rest to plan.
The majority consensus of the group landed on negotiating for a permanent position in the army the guy obviously had under him, and if they saw an opportunity to go for more they would take it.
No hesitations.
There was also the unfortunate necessity of thinking on where to head next if it didn’t work out, but she was certain that seeing as they had moved so quickly, it wouldn’t come to having to spend another night in the bloody monster infested hills.
So when the light had all but gone and they were properly drenched from planning out at the jungles edge, Toni led the others toward the giant white walls with what looked like long claws at their top, which towered over the already massive jungle.
On their way across the muddy clearing, they came across a blackened crater that was filled halfway with water, and as they skirted its edge, Toni couldn’t help but wonder what skill would be so powerful that it could make such a large crater.
Putting it from her mind, she led them to a white slightly sloped ramp that led to a half oval indentation the massive white wall. Although she half expected something like it to happen, when she was halfway up the ramp the depression in the wall began to open and she signaled the rest to quickly halt.
Strangely though, there were no guards or people to greet them now that the magic doors had finished quietly revealing the building’s open air interior.
Not wanting to stay standing all night on a bloody ramp in the cold and wet, with who knows what on their heels, Toni led her group past the imposing structures threshold.
When they were all inside and just past the first rectangular row of outer buildings a cry of alarm from the rearguard startled her, and she turned to find the doors had closed behind them.
Telling off Maddy and Otis for being ‘bloody idiots’ and getting spooked by an automatic door of all things, she grumbled to herself whilst leading them down the black central walkway as the clearing night sky bathed them in a weirdly comforting starlight.
It didn’t take them too long to reach the center of the place as the rows and rows of uniform rectangular white boxes gave way to a ring of even taller buildings, surrounding the base of what looked like a giant white tree trunk with large rounded buildings at its base.
Starting to get seriously weirded out by all the silent buildings and no other people insight Toni began to get a feeling that they might have made a mistake.
As if to mirror her own thoughts Yerg began to say as much and a hushed round of arguing broke out while they skirted the base of the large stalk.
That was when things got stranger still.
The guy they met was clearly a few nuts past a fruitcake as he started to cry and then claim he wasn’t, when Yerg tried to get him to lead them to this Benjamin fella.
It got even weirder from there as it turned out the nutter was Benjamin and he claimed to have no army.
Lookin at the fella’s grey skin, white hair and red eyes was another thing to lead Toni to believe they might have made a huge mistake.
Still, having come this far she tried to put aside all the weird vibes he was giving off and just judge him by what he was sayin and doin.
When she actually looked at him without taking into account his not exactly humanness, he had the same look her uncle Johno had after coming out of Silverwater Jail. The look of a sad and lonely bloke who has seen too much trouble and just wanted it to stop, then she noticed the dried blood on his hands and she was back to wanting to pull the plug more then ever!
When he said he didn’t want them in his army though, that stung the worst as it meant they would have to go back out to shitting and pissing in hastily dug ditches while being on constant look out for man and monster alike.
Toni hadn’t realized she was so close to giving up until then and she was about to pack it in when the guy offered them a different job.
Still suspicious but not wanting to let go of the hope of a better life for her and the group, she heard him out and slowly started to warm to the rough details of his offer. Having gotten some clarification that he didn’t want anything strange or nasty helped the others come around as well.
Not wanting to seem desperate however, they put forward their own position after having an impromptu huddle to hash out a new negotiating stance.
Which was why she was left with the horrible feeling that she had made another serious error when she had challenged the guy to a test of strength.
Toni wasn’t dumb. She knew she wasn’t the strongest of the group and was going to suggest Liam the Apprentice Spearman, also the only one of them who had managed to reach level 47 so far, to challenge the guy.
But when he took them to the ‘Training Room’s’ and said that he wanted to take them all on, she could only feel a building sense of dread at the look of joy on the guys face when he suggested a handicap for himself.
Not wanting to back down from a fight and hoping that they might even beat the loon and get this Citadel for themselves, Toni put on a brave face as she led the others into position, for what should hopefully be a one sided fight.
When the guy counted the timer down, then the door to outside the weirdly big room silently closed, the ground shifted beneath their feet, and she signaled the other to get ready for an encirclement with their ranged attack formation.
That was when things went from weird to rigidige bat shit insane.
The guy stood grinning like a maniac and looking at them expectantly as they kept stealing glances to find out what exactly he was doing from behind the as requested, hilly ground.
After a tense few seconds of nothing happening, the guy called out in a far too happy tone.
“Guess I’ll be coming to you then!”
She tensed at his statement and then she heard a *Boom* and he appeared next to Talitha with his right hand behind his back and whist she was being engulfed in a flash of white light, as he shouted.
“ARE!”
Then he disappeared with another *Boom* and rush of wind before he was next to Ralph the Apprentice Man At Arms who similarly flashed out of existence as the guy yelled.
“YOU!”
When he was next to Tyler this time the guy had his shield up and the thing just disintegrated before his horrified face succumbed to the wash of white light, while the madman half screamed.
“KEN?”
Then he was next to another person who similarly was just gone followed by a nonsensical.
“NO!”
Then another person flashed away as he laughed before yelling.
“I’M!”
And another was just gone before the loon apparently answered his own question as he bellowed.
“NOT!”
With yet another whipping winded boom and a flash he continued.
“HA!”
She didn’t know what to do as her friends popped out of existence one by one as the man prosecuted.
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“DOO!”
Her legs trembled as a wash of air closer by this time, resulted in another one of them flashing away as he demanded unrepentantly.
“KEN?”
The others were yelling in distress as they tried to huddle together and at least score a hit on the inhuman grey fella by shooting at his after image, but unconcernedly he was right next to a group as he yelled.
“NO!”
Once more the wind whistled and boomed while the flash of light claimed another of her mates.
“YOU!”
Then he was next to Yerg, before his broken staff clattered to the floor and the light claimed his fear stricken face, the man accused.
“KEN!”
More arrows and spells flew through where he had just been as another boom echoed through the white surrounds. Then he was next to Liam to the right of her, and his spear shattered before he too, flashed away as the man instructed.
“PRESS!”
Tears were dampening her face again as her legs felt like jelly on a central west summers day.
Gripping her mace and shield Toni refused to give up to the guy who was obviously cheating somehow.
She might not be able to save her friends but when he ca-
Her shield splintered and she felt her arm snap and the last thing she saw before being engulfed by the light, was the evilly ginning face of the grey skinned monster as he whispered.
“f…”
After a sensation of her whole body being squeezed through a far too tight hole ceased, she was among her yelling and arguing friends, outside in the corridor where they'd just been.
All of them were suffering from some sort of injury as their only to Apprentice Cleric’s went from one to the other as more of her group appeared in flashes of white in a similar state of distress from her own.
When she found Yerg, she could see his hand was a mangled and bruised mess as approached him.
Feeling responsible, Toni’s words came tumbling toward his pain wracked face.
“I-I’m sorry Yerg, I shoulda listened to you, w-we shoulda run when you s-said.”
His face showed a flash of annoyance as more people flashed into existence around them, before his expression softened as he shook his head while replying wearily.
“No Toni, I don’t think running would have done us any good, the speed he moved, there wa-“
But her own frustration and anger got the better of her as she cut him off.
“But he cheated! He was obviously usin a skill or sumthin!”
Shaking his head again Jürgen replied.
“That’s the thing Toni, I don’t think he was, I didn’t see any skill glow o-“
Before he could finish however the door to the training room telescoped open and the once pain and anger filled corridor fell quiet as the man strode out with a creepy grin on his face as he asked expectantly.
“So when do you guys think you’ll be ready to start work?”
The answer to his question was predictably an increased volume of the previous anger that had just been quelled, as the rest of her group joined her in calling him none too polite variations of ‘a lying cheat’. To which he looked confusedly at the gathering of angry teens before his face cleared in apparent realization as he held up a hand in a universal gesture to stop.
Surprisingly the nonverbal command quelled the gathering far quicker than Toni thought possible, and when silence reigned again, he asked in an inquiring tone.
“What part of what just happened was me cheating?”
Her group looked to one another for a moment, their minor injuries temporarily forgotten before as one they turned back to the man and bombarded him with incredulous questions about the skills he had obviously used to win.
Yet the monster just stood there and took the verbal haranguing, before Toni Stepped to the front while cradling her clearly broken arm and waved them into silence.
Once she had their unspoken agreement she asked the grey skinned, white haired and red eyed freak.
“Look, we aint stupid, we’re all above level 40 an we’ve fought plenty’o people this last year. None of em moved that fast, wiv or wivout skills an crap! Wat part o wat you just dun in there was fair?!”
He sighed as his face worked through a series of emotions before looking to her and offering, in an exasperated tone.
“Look I know you probably wont believe me because your level is so low, but I really didn’t use any skills or abilities, that was me holding back if anything…”
Goosebumps ran up Toni’s spine and she reckoned she must have looked like a complete stunned mullet with her mouth hanging open. At least until her throbbing arm brought her out of her whirling thoughts to ask nervously.
“W-what do you mean low level?! We’re some’o the highest people around! W-we aint the strongest I know of, but no one we’ve met is past level 50 yet!”
His face took on a sad expression before he shook his head and said.
“Trust begins with trust right Bruce…”
Scratching his head for a moment he sighed again and continued.
“So my uh…my level is 99”
The corridor erupted in near every member of their group calling him some variation of ‘a liar’ which she failed to join in, because as she looked into his red eyes, she could tell he wasn’t lying. Turning on her group she yelled.
“SHUT IT!”
Before turning in the shocked silence, she furthered.
“Lets pretend for a sec your level 99-”
As more cries of disbelief rose behind her, Toni gave the decenters a withering glare then continued while gingerly cradling her arm.
“W-what’s the hell is yer class then.”
Giving her a weighing look he then replied.
“It’s a variant of Mage, well uh they both are.”
This time no outcry came from behind and her eye twitched as she thought the fella was now making fun of her when the pained voice of Yerg came to the rescue before she got to yelling.
“L-look we get your strong, and maybe you are at level 99 a-and even have your second class, but I-I’m a mage. I know the amount of attributes I have to commit to my mind based stats to be any good in a fight. There i-is no way you could be strong enough to incapacitate someone with one hit and move that fast, n-no way.”
Narrowing his eyes at her fearful but defiant co-captain, the man shrugged and countered.
“I think we are getting past what is reasonable to tell you, seeing as we apparently aren’t boss and employee yet…but if you guys honor the agreement we made I’ll give you a hint to why I can do what I just did, whilst still being a caster…Fair enough?”
Exchanging a glance with her conflicted co-leader, she looked to the monstrous man still standing expectantly in front of their softly groaning and thoroughly perturbed group and countered.
“We ain’t makin any decision till we’ve hada chance ta talk it over and heal ourselves. You didn’t have to hurt us so much just show off eitha ya sicko!”
Looking guilty at her rebuke, the man sheepishly nodded as he rejoined.
“S-sorry I got a little over exited and well, yeah…But I can help with the healing!...I’ll be right back!”
Then with a *BOOM!* and rush of air, the guy disappeared and she could only share a helpless look with Yerg at what they had led the others into.
Making sure the clerics took care of the less Vitality invested of their number first, Toni made her way back to where Yerg was sat on the ground when she heard a slightly fainter *BOOM!* and with a wash of air the fella was in front of her and her co-leader as his black and red runed robe flapped in the aftermath.
Despite the alarm she knew she should feel, Toni was past the point of putting energy toward shitting herself as she looked nonplussed at the smiling weirdo.
Seemingly impervious to her not so subtle signs of annoyance, a flat disc with blue edges materialized in front of her and Yerg.
This time however she failed to keep her calm as she backed away defensively and her co leader also seemed to think there was no shame in what she was doing as he scuttled backwards in an awkward one handed and two legged speedy shuffle that resulted in the poor guy getting tangled in the tattered remnants of his robe and yelping.
Failing to keep his amusement hidden at their reactions he offered.
“Relax, its not an attack. Just a kind of storage compartment…well a really really big one…Anyway here’s some potions for your troubles.”
She was about to ask what the bloody hell he was on about when a stream of fist sized red and blue bottles clinked onto the floor below the floating disk, eventually ending only after the pile had reached as high as her hip. Seemingly nonplussed at her wide eyed disbelief, he asked.
“You guys do know what healing and mana potions are don’t you?”
Annoyance took root inside her at being treated like a child even after all she’d been through and she threw her hands up in the air as snapped back.
“O’course we know what bloody potions are! Ya just gotta give people a chance ta keep up with yer weird shit is all!”
Clenching her jaw against the jolt of pain her exasperated gesture generated, she re-cradled her arm and stomped over defiantly to the pile of potions and picked up a red one to inspect it:
Health Vapor Potion
Level Requirement: 40
Effect: Restores 150 Health points over 30 seconds.
Restrictions: 1 use per 60 minutes.
Description: Synthesized temporary vital vapor made stable by an airtight stoppered glass bottle, consumed to restore an individual’s health over time. A common yet necessary consumable generated for phase 1 worlds.
Ignoring the half formed protest that came from Yerg and refusing to thank the dumbass who caused the problem in the first place. Toni huffed as used her good armed hand and popped off the cork-like top to the glass bottle with her thumb, and eyed the swirling red smoke that licked at its open lip before throwing caution to the wind and downing its contents in one.
As the vibrantly warm sensation filled her stomach and spread to her extremities, Toni began to feel an itching sensation in her broken arm.
Looking on in morbid fascination, the odd angle it had recently taken on slowly corrected itself and she felt slightly nauseous as fractured bone scraped on fractured bone. Bracing herself against the expected waves of pain, she let out a sigh of relief when the arm, finally looking like it should, produced no such biological complaint.
Failing to keep the joy at her miraculously recovered arm to herself, she turned and waved it at Yerg mischievously and received his familiar glower in response. However he didn’t seem to be above using the same method of respite, as he awkwardly got up and dusted himself off self-consciously. Only to mirror her previous action, under the smiling, red eyed gaze of the freaky bugger who was probably going to be their new boss.
Motioning for the others to come up and do the same, a strange ceremony of tinkling glass on the white floor, accompanied by barely suppressed laughter continued for a few minutes, whilst she replayed the recent events in her mind.
Try as she might, when Toni looked at it with the benefit of hindsight, the Benjamin guy had done exactly what he said he’d do. Could he have been less of a gloating shit head about it? Of fucking course! But when she weighed it all up, the guy might have been telling the truth about…well…everything…
Turning over the implication that the guy had potentially defeated a whole outpost by himself was frightening enough. But when she thought back to a few minutes ago where the guy took her group of level forty plus hardened fighters apart like it was a game, she shuddered involuntarily.
While most people that they’d run across saw them as kids, time and again they had proved to be anything but, and if she was being completely honest, some of her groups number even scared her a little.
Shaking herself as Toni turned back to the problem at hand and a small smile found her lips at the realization that it just might not be a problem at all. As realization dawned, she silently give herself high five at having potentially gained the protection for her friends of the monstrosity standing in front of them.
Mind made up she decided to swim while the creek had water and sidled up the unfairly tall bastard to ask in a quiet tone.
“So ya said ya wanted us ta just watch over tha place yeah? What about fighting?”
Sparing her a sideways glance before returning to looking at the spectacle of her group downing the potions and tenderly testing their recently recovered limbs, he replied off handedly.
“Yeah, just keep an eye on the place, you lot don’t need to fight people or any monsters anymore. If something comes up just let me know when I get back and I’ll handle anything tricky…So you guys in?”
She frowned, as although the idea of no combat sounded awesome, if the new world had taught her one thing, it was that safety and shelter was never guaranteed.
So she countered.
“As long as you give us time off to go hunting in a Gama Zone, you got yourself a deal.”
He turned to look at her in exasperation and asked.
“Can’t you just, you know, stay in the Citadel full time? I’ll cover whatever expenses you guys need. No questions asked.”
Smiling as she shook her head, Toni replied.
“No can do Benji! We still gotta be strong enough ta be able ta survive on our own…ur not gonna be around foreva are ya?”
Groaning he rejoined.
“Finnnne…How about I take you out in teams of 26, once a month…I’m not gonna hold your hand or steal your kills though, because you have no idea how fucking sneaky some of th….anyway….think of my presence as an insurance policy incase shit goes south.”
Grinning at the fact that he cared enough to make the offer, she bartered.
“Once a week!”
Scowling he shot back.
“Once every two weeks. Final offer.”
Grin now creeping up to her ears, she extended a hand to shake on it and confirmed.
“Deal!”
To her delight he huffed and shook it whilst grumbling.
“I’m going to regret this aren’t I…”
Giggling as she slapped him on the back, she swore silently and shook her hand on account of the fact that it felt like hitting a brick bloody wall.
However Toni endeavored to maintain her sunny disposition as she added.
“Just think of it like community outreach! Oh that reminds me! Ya said something about equipment, an we seem ta have recently lost ours so…”
Slapping his forehead dramatically he added.
“Shit! Sorry….I totally forgot!”
She furthered.
“An wh-“
But it was too late as the whip of displaced wind and resulting *BOOM* told her, her demands would have to wait because it seemed that Benjamin was already elsewhere.