Jordan had been a confident person most of his life. His parents were hard-working people who did not coddle him, and if he did something wrong or did poorly in school he would be terrified to go home and deal with his mothers wrath. Whenever he was in trouble, it amazed him that the youthful elven glow she was normally enveloped in could be swapped for the face of a terrifying authority figure at a moment's notice. The moment she felt like he was endangering his future through his stupid actions, she had a tendency to overcorrect through discipline. Luckily, his father managed to calm the both of them down when necessary, and the support his parents gave to both each other and him allowed him to have a stable and safe childhood. He hadn’t truly had to meet the malice of others face to face.
While the incident with the true vampire was terrifying, Jordan felt like an animal being hunted. The vampire had the instinct to kill him, and he tried to do it. The event, while traumatizing, was something Jordan could pass off as essentially a wild animal attack. But as he looked at the blank white eyes of the metal gunman across the room from him, he truly felt intelligent malice for the first time.
The man raised his rifle up and slung it over his shoulder as he slowly walked toward Jordan and Bryn. His stride was relaxed and cocky, and he sighed while approaching as if doing chores. The small cleric following behind him, carrying a staff in one hand and a book with a purple cover in the other. His sharp elven face gave a look of apathy as he leaned on his staff to walk. They oozed with an aura of superiority, as if they had the word bully stamped on their foreheads. As they approached, Jordan could feel his muscles tense, and his hand slowly inched to his bow involuntarily.
“Let’s all relax now, my names Joshua and this is Harry” the gunslinger said as he gestured to the small cleric. He spoke with a calm smoothness that oozed of practiced deception. We heard some new kids were in the area and wanted to see if we could help out.” Joshua’s tone was condescending, speaking to the pair as if they were children who got caught stealing candy. Bryn narrowed his eyes and frowned.
“Why was it necessary to shoot the chest then?” He asked.
“Well I wouldn’t want you getting in trouble. I’m sure you know how dungeons work, the longer tenured adventurers get the loot. If you took that, you might get in trouble with the guild. You could call it a bit of an overreaction, but uncle Josh is just looking out for you” he said with a disturbing, toothy smile that paired horribly with his blank eyeballs.
Jordan and Bryn knew there was no such rule, and it was generally assumed if a party took on a quest, they kept the loot. However, the dungeon was open to anyone who presented a detection stone, so another party could enter the dungeon and go wherever they want. It was frowned upon to steal other parties loot, but not explicitly against Everwatch rules.
Jordan noticed 2 things when Joshua started speaking: he found both of them annoying, and his Sense Weakness skill felt strange. He had taken in his usual breaths to activate it, but nothing was happening. Did these guys not have weaknesses? No, the skill doesn’t work like that. Everything has a weakness, opponents with higher levels still have them, you will just never touch them.
Then a ding sound rang through Jordan’s head, like a bell at a front desk was echoing through his brain.
The skill Smell Weakness has unlocked a bonus ability, Feign Weakness. Using this skill will make your opponents vision of you slow upon activation.
“What the heck was that?” Jordan said out loud.
Joshua scowled at Jordan. “You have a problem with the Guilds rule’s kid?” He asked angrily, moving his rifle from his shoulder back to his metal arm. As they continued walking closer, Bryn looked over at Jordan with confused panic on his face.
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“What are you doing?” Bryn asked in a hushed tone.
“Oh sorry I wasn’t talking to you guys. Someone in my heads ringing bells and…whatever” Jordan said as he pulled Bryn off the platform the chest was on. The effect of the feign skill was clear as Joshua confidently aimed at where Jordan had stood 2 seconds ago and fired. Bryn and Jordan immediately took of for the passageway entrance. They had improved considerably at their jobs in the previous 2 months, and their chemistry while working together was making their party surprisingly successful. Unfortunately, they’re still a ranger and an alchemist. The firepower they possess is nowhere near that of their peers, meaning that evasion and strategy had to be their strongest weapons.
“Do we try to win or bail?” Bryn asked as the pair zigzagged through the mostly bare room. The lack of cover made Joshua’s position enviable, and Jordan knew it as the pair ducked and dodged. He changed the pattern of his run to be able to see his opponents better, and saw the positions they were taking. As expected, Joshua sat crouched next to the chest, aiming his rifle at the 2. The cleric was running toward them, and had tossed his staff to the side.
“Handle “uncle” Josh or at least distract him. I’ll try and take out his talkative friend. If you see I’m struggling, use a smoke potion to bail. I still have outs if I need them, so let’s try to fight.” Jordan said as he barely dodged a shot from Joshua “Plus I have a friend back home named Harry. He owes me money, and this will let me get some aggression out” Jordan said, grabbing his bow off his back. He turned and immediately fired toward Joshua, causing him to dodge and momentarily lose his position.
As he recovered, Jordan sprinted at Harry while reloading his bow. “Find the weakness, hit it quickly, retreat” Jordan whispered to himself. This mantra was repeating in his head whenever he fought, and the illusion of control this phrase provided always helped to calm him. Taking his breaths in again, his normal Smell Weakness activated. While he was happy for that in this moment, he needed to figure out how to switch between the two. The clerics right knee began glowing, and Jordan made note of that as he aimed his bow. Before he could fire, his vision went white.
For 5 seconds, Jordan was blind. He could only see white, and randomly fired the arrow he had ready. He stopped and dropped his bow, as he began touching his eyes frantically. As panic began to set in, his vision returned. He took a moment to adjust his eyes, and the first thing he saw clearly was Harry’s smiling face. The elf’s right gauntlet cracked into Jordan’s side, knocking him several feet over. He landed face down in the sand, his bow clattering to the ground.
Jordan hadn’t felt a pain this intense before. Based on the sound he heard at least 2 or 3 ribs were broken, and his mouth was filled sand as his moans of pain involuntarily left his body. He forced himself to push through the pain in his side and stood up, knowing he would not be able to take another hit like that.
“This should be fun. Or it could really hurt and I’ll die, one or the other” Jordan said as he charged at Harry once again. The pain he felt was intense, but the adrenaline pumping through his body pushed it out of his mind. He unsheathed his sword and lunged at Harry, who quickly sidestepped and went for another blow.
Across the room, Bryn stood in a cloud of smoke. This was a risky tactic considering he had no more ways to cover himself, but his curiosity combined with the effectiveness of a successful result pushed Bryn to use his remaining smoke potion to protect himself from Joshua. The circle was difficult to see in these conditions, but this was the easiest one to draw. Just as the potion began to fade, he drew the final line and immediately drank his last enhance potion. He sprinted out of the cloud, the effects of the potion making him even faster than Jordan, albeit for about 10 seconds.
Joshua fired off several shots upon seeing Bryn once again, barely missing as he adjusted to the Tengrathi’s new speed. The 4th shot he fired hit Bryn square in the head, though it was absorbed by his defense crystal.
“Lame” Joshua said as he reloaded his rifle.
Bryn took notice of the opportunity in front of him and tossed his remaining Doom Cube, the den crackling around it. “He can probably dodge it, but if he loses his positioning, Jordan and I can attack from both sides. We both have our big boys left, this should work” Bryn thought as the cube flew through the air. Before the cube began descending, a loud bang echoed through the room. The cube exploded in the air, the explosion of fire uselessly fading above.
Bryn looked ahead shocked and saw Joshua aim a smoking rifle at him. “That shouldn’t be possible” Bryn thought, swerving sharply in an attempt to throw off his aim. A doom cube was bulletproof, except for the small red button on its side used to activate it. Joshua had to reload, aim, and hit that small of a target in seconds. How skilled of a marksman was he?
“We need to bail” Bryn thought as a shot rang out, and he heard another defense crystal clatter onto the floor. “Jordan bail!” Bryn shouted, sprinting to the passageway entrance they had originally entered from. The more the defense crystals fell, the more Bryn felt his mortality. The fear pushed him forward and tunnel vision took over. He didn’t see or hear anything as he sprinted to the passageway. Arriving at the entrance he saw Jordan was not with him. Looking back to the battle, Bryn saw what transpired while he ran, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Joshua was kneeling in shock next to the chest, Jordan was standing wearing the gauntlets the cleric once used, and the cleric was torn in half.
Holding a half of the cleric in each hand was a Minotaur, its fists along with clerics body engulfed in black flames. Joshua stared wordlessly at the corpse of his friend, and the creature’s blazing red eyes were locked directly on Jordan.