Of What It Takes to Kill

As John headed to the back of the library, Ela and Moira made their way to the front together, each mentally preparing for the task ahead. The Bookworm Knight made another pass over the weapons she’d been given; the weight on the shield was heavier than she was used to, and the blade’s reach and balance were uncomfortable compared to her normal weapon, though she couldn’t complain, given the circumstances. They would have to do.

“Do you have a plan, Moira?” the blonde asked, as they reached the exit doors. Through the tinted glass, she could make out the semi-circle of gangsters waiting for them to emerge.

The Warden scanned the area in front of the library. “We need to avoid letting them surround and overwhelm us. Stay mobile. Stay together.”

Ela nodded, and the two pushed the doors open. Moira led the way as they strode forward into the jaws of their enemy. The blonde’s eyes flew back and forth, examining each of their assailants as she moved on the redhead’s flank. The familiar chill of anxiety rolled down her back as the gang members around them slowly dropped into fighting stances.

The Bookworm Knight did her best to maintain composure, willing away the growing itch on her arm. She’d put up a brave face, but the lack of armor for herself and Moira concerned her a lot. Hopefully John’s mission would go well and be finished soon - they would certainly lose a battle of attrition.

From across the courtyard, the lone guitarist moved from where he had been leaning against the wall. He traced his fingers down the strings of his instrument, fire popping along them. The bushes and trees that decorated the open grass area bent and twisted with the sound waves, and sparks danced among the leaves, setting fire to the greenery.

His voice boomed towards them, echoing off the buildings all around. The amp next to him began to glow as his volume grew. “I take it then that you will not be surrendering?”

“...What is the expression? Drama queen?” Ela muttered, letting out an exasperated sigh. The Bookworm Knight rolled her eyes, ignoring the theatrics of the gang leader. ’If it was not good for us to waste time, I would just start hitting people.’

The Warden came to a stop, puffing her chest out as she called back, “No, though I will extend the Lady’s mercy to any of you who lay down your arms.”

The guitarist smirked, then finally spoke for real, calling to the men around him, “Why would we surrender? We outnumber you more than a dozen to one! Are you mad?

“TAKE THE WARDEN ALIVE!” he called, before continuing in a lower tone. “Do whatever with the other one.”

One by one, the gangsters around them began to close in on the pair of women, moving to cut them off. Swords and spears and spiked bats were all leveled against them. Ela raised her shield, turning to guard their right side as the gang’s leader strummed his guitar properly, a chord of music ripping across the barrier, the temperature rising all around them.

Moira smiled. “Very well.”

She raised her hammer to the sky, golden radiance beginning to swirl around her, kicking up her uniform jacket. Her shield shone with the light of the sun, a light that seemed to blind their foes, while soothing Ela’s nerves. Long locks of red hair twirled in the whirlwind of gilded magic as the Shield Warden cried out.

“The Lady’s light guides us, it envelops us, it protects us,” she chanted, a holy blessing descending upon her and her fellow knight. “Her radiance will guide us to VICTORY!”

A flash of golden light through the windows momentarily startled John as he ran down the halls of Aschroft’s administration building. He stumbled for a moment, catching himself on the sturdy base of his lantern-headed staff. Listening carefully, he could hear the cries of battle from outside - he’d officially burnt up his head start. The faint clattering of steel seemed to ring forever in his mind.

He hoped desperately that his friends would be OK.

The Gamer hissed, starting to move again. Since sneaking out of the library, he’d climbed through a window into the side of the principal's office. Now, he was sprinting through the front building towards the reserved parking area, following his eyes to the barrier’s caster. He was slowly acclimating to the shocks of pain he got every time he used his [Unawakened Eye] ability, though he still couldn’t keep them on for very long.

’What the hell is my best move once I even find this guy?’ John wondered, rounding the corner into the main hall. ’Am I just supposed to… skewer him with an earth spear… or something?’

A shudder ran down his spine. He knew that was exactly what he needed to do. If the level of the barrier controller was anything like the level of the rest of the gang, he was certainly going to be outmatched. The Gamer’s best chance, as far as he could tell, would be to use the element of surprise as best he could and end the fight quickly.

He didn’t even really know how his spells would interact with a real person. The written damage numbers didn’t seem tremendously high, if he were comparing them against his own health values, but, for all he knew, real people besides him didn’t have HP numbers at all. It didn’t really seem likely that anyone could survive a spike through the chest.

’Maybe there’s, like, a weak point system or something.’ That thought sent waves of disquiet and nausea through his stomach, and he shook his head to get away from it.

John slowed down as he approached the front exit, swerving to one side to slip into an office. From within, he peered out a front window, hoping to find his target. A pair of the biker gang were in the lot, though one clearly stood out as the one he’d been searching for.

The suspect at hand kneeled at the foot of some teacher’s fancy sports car glowing with magic. He was of a somewhat slimmer build than most of the other gang members he'd seen, though his crazy litany of face tattoos and bright orange hair fit the bill. The other man lazily rested against a bus off to one side, smoking. He was a huge brick tub of a brute, all meat and fat and muscle. His balding head was badly splotched with sun spots and scars.

John stopped himself from looking them over too closely. He didn’t want to know their faces.

Channeling his [Unawakened Eye] once more, The Gamer quickly verified that the former was obviously the one whose mana was currently being funneled into the barrier.

'Of course I'm outnumbered here, too. Guess they left a guard with him.' John slunk down, hiding himself from view while he considered the situation. A flash on his UI noted that Ela had taken a hit, a fair fifteen or twenty percent or so gone from her health bar. That sparked a fresh sense of urgency as The Gamer’s heart thumped.

'Too far away to cast… need a way out again,' he thought, calling upon his experience in strategy and stealth games. 'Leaning dude is looking this way, so I should look for a window out on the far side. If I can come out behind him, maybe I can… kill the barrier dude first, then maybe I've got a shot in a 1v1.'

"Tch. That dude could probably rip my arms off," he muttered. "Suppose I can always run once the barrier is ours."

Moving as quietly as he could, John snuck across the hall into the opposite set of rooms, trying to get behind the bus parked out front. He had to check a couple rooms before he gauged the space correctly, but eventually he found a room with an unlocked window that exited where he wanted to go. His heart thumped in his ears as he put his hands on the glass.

Was he really ready for this?

The closest he’d ever been to being in a fight with another real person before was the last time Frank had kicked his teeth in and stolen his spare gaming money. Hardly a fight. But, he supposed, he’d been a lot closer to **** the last couple days than he’d ever been before - far closer, far more often. There was a difference between monsters and people though, right?

The Gamer breathed in deeply. ’Rip it off, like a band-aid. People are actually depending on me here… I can’t- I can’t be why they don’t make it.’

Click.

The anxious nerd slid the window open, double checking that the barrier mage was still knelt down. John couldn’t see the brute, but no sounds of movement made their way over to him. As silently as he could, he slipped out the window, doing his best not to crunch his shoes on the mulch outside. He bit his lip, forcing his breathing to slow. Adrenaline surged through his veins as he stalked forward.

’One foot in front of the other…’

The Gamer found himself allied with the shrubbery as he took stock of the situation. He’d emerged on the opposite side of the parking area he’d seen before. The kneeling gangster was facing the building directly, though his eyes were closed. John was now far to his left, behind the bus that his guard was leaning against. Guessing the distances, he figured that he could cast his earth spike from the side of the bus using the pavement, though it would put him perilously close to the guard once the time to escape came.

Cautiously as he could, he crept away from the building, staying in the shadow of the hedges as he made sure to break line of sight using the vehicles. His heart quickened the closer he got. Fortunately for him, the distant sounds of combat seemed to muffle his own limited movements, and he reached the back of the bus without incident.

He peered around the side, confirming that he’d made it in range for his [Lesser Earth Spike] spell. A lump caught in his throat as he moved the targeter over the gangster. It flashed a deep, crimson red as he centered it over the man’s upper chest - a spear through his heart. A life was in John’s hands. Acid bubbled up in his throat as he struggled to will his fist to close.

A mighty boom shook the world.

John nearly fell over as a shockwave of heat ran over him. The barrier itself seemed to rattle as a plume of fire shot towards the sky from back in the courtyard. The Gamer’s mouth fell agape as he looked at the quickly dissipating flames. His stomach spun. Ela and Moira’s health bars sank in unison, though it seemed that the redhead had taken the worst of whatever it was, nearly a third of her gilded red bar gone in an instant.

’What the hell was that?!’ he thought, eyes wide. Whereas before their health had seemed relatively stable, almost immediately chips of small damage began to build up upon his friends. Something had turned the tide against them.

A sharp whistle made John curl back and press himself against the bus.

“Warden must be putting up a hell of a fight,” came a gravelly voice from the other side of the bus. The brutish guard walked past The Gamer’s line of sight, pausing just in front of the school. “Bossman must have let that stupid bird loose if he’s throwing around blasts like that.”

“He better hurry,” responded the barrier mage. The man tensed and sighed. “It was hard enough to carve this barrier around the Witch. I’ve already got a headache trying to hold it.”

“Wah wah wah. You’re getting paid, right?”

John stopped paying attention. His mind, which had been racing the whole time, ceased turning for a moment. Details didn’t need to matter to him anymore; he needed to move. Witch or otherwise, the fight was almost certainly going south. He had to act. Leaning out the side of his cover, his arm rippled with amber-brown energy as he brought forth his Geo alchemy.

He started to cry as he closed his fist.

One moment, the orange-haired man had been exchanging terse words with his comrade. The next, a hideously twisted spike of earth had shot from the ground, skewering him. Concrete from the paved lot had turned to savage ****, willed by John to kill someone. The man hadn’t been prepared; his defenses were not up. Black and gray rock ran red with blood as the man screamed in agony.

Experience was added to The Gamer’s total.

John puked. Stealth fell by the wayside as he emptied his stomach on the side of the bus. He stumbled backwards, unable to get the man’s dying wails out of his head. Tears blurred his vision as he struggled to recall that he needed to get away. He fell to his knees, unable to breathe comfortably as the remnants of bile burned away in his mouth. Shuddering, he tried to pull himself to his feet, only thoughts of Ela and Moira giving strength to his body.

A meaty fist stopped him. John had been seized by the back of the neck. Suddenly thrown from his feet, The Gamer found himself flung back into the side of the bus. He’d lost his grip on his staff, which clattered to the ground in front of him as he flew away from it.

John’s back popped and he felt his whole body seize up as he slammed into the metal side. A hollow gong sound rang out as he crumpled up against the vehicle. His health bar flashed unhappily, a decent chunk disappearing. Warm blood ran down the back of The Gamer’s head from where he’d cracked it on the metal behind him. He cursed himself for being unable to react with his new [Mana Shield] in time.

The exhausted nerd would have slid to the ground, his fading energy depleted, except for a meaty hand grabbing him around the throat and dragging him back up.

The brutish guard was almost glowing red with rage as he held John nearly a foot off the ground. “Now who the hell are you?!”

It was all The Gamer could do to try and pry a couple fingers beneath the hand crushing his windpipe. Bringing his arm forward in desperation, the suffocating nerd tried to cast something, but the gangster effortlessly twisted and snapped the limb, slamming it against the bus, pressing an indent into its side. John struggled and squirmed, trying to muster the strength to escape. He grew light-headed as his air began to run out.

The sudden confrontation with **** had done wonders to restart The Gamer’s mind on the problem at hand. Adrenaline fueling him, he wracked his brain in hopes of coming up with any ideas. The fingers he’d snuck under the **** hand were trapped now, too, as the brute squeezed. Unable to move either hand, he couldn’t cast as he had before.

John lulled his head forward as an old core gaming memory bubbled forth, offering inspiration. He had nothing to lose in trying it. Using all his willpower, he **** the last traces of air to remain in his throat. Momentarily, desperation offered him clarity, and he triggered his [Unawakened Eye]. The overwhelming sensations of mana around him muted the pain for just a second, allowing him to focus on drawing his mana towards his mouth.

The Gamer did his best to hold his lips closed as he built up his mana, vibrant green lines racing up the sides of his neck. The brutish gangster curled his face in confusion. John found himself lifted and slammed into the side once more, nearly ruining his plan as he fought his own pained reactions down. As suddenly as he could muster in the dire situation, The Gamer pressed himself forward, doing his best to unhinge his jaw, revealing the swirling cluster of mana within.

’FUS RO DAH!’ he screamed mentally as he launched the biggest [Lesser Air Burst] that he could form from his mouth, pointed directly at the man’s face.

The gangster’s head snapped backwards as verdant mana exploded between them. The hulking man stumbled backwards, dropping John as he brought his hands to his head, holding his eyes as blood ran down his face. The Gamer gasped for air, gulping down oxygen as [Gamer’s Body] put his arm back together. Crawling away from his wounded foe, he made for his weapon, the familiar warmth of the Lantern-Bearer’s Battle Staff helping ground him in reality again.

I was wondering how long it would take you to try that.

Ignoring the sudden commentary, John rolled over, mana surging. The man he’d been fighting was flailing wildly now, bleeding from his eyes. The Gamer paused for a moment, pity fighting anger and adrenaline. The latter won. He sent a [Lesser Earth Spike] into the man’s side, the yellow metal of the bus warping to his command.

The spike drove itself into flesh, but the wall of meat that he had targeted didn’t fall so easily. Letting out a ferocious warcry, he planted feet and braced himself against the attack. So John cast again. A second spike pinned his enemy from the other side with the concrete of the parking lot, stabbing the man just below his shoulder blades.

With his foe trapped, The Gamer rained [Lesser Air Bursts] upon him, pouring his rage into every cast. He battered the man with explosion after explosion, mashing him into the spikes he’d first cast. The side of the bus was painted red by the time the man finally slumped over, his body bruised and torn apart by earth and wind.

Slowly, adrenaline began to leave John’s body, and the horror of his actions settled in.

He leaned over to one side, emptying the remaining contents of his stomach onto the grass. Tears streamed down his face. He wretched until nothing else came out, then kept going. Crawling on his hands and knees, The Gamer slowly pulled himself away from the scene of his first kills. Rolling over, he looked at the color-warped sky of the barrier, his mind and body disconnected.

That was when he realized that something was wrong. He’d done away with the barrier mage, but no feelings of sickness had run over him. Nothing had changed about the barrier. His heart sank as he reactivated his [Unawakened Eye]. Rather than the simple hues he’d seen in the barrier before, golden mana dueled with brilliant flames all across the sky.

The further the golden energy recoiled, the hotter the barrier became. He was sweating heavily now, though he was too focused on the lightshow above to care. A bird’s cry rang out, followed by a crash of fire back towards the courtyard. What was presumably Moira’s energy dissipated heavily, the Warden struggling and failing to wrest control of the barrier as another chunk of her health disappeared in a flash.

“No. No. No no no no no…” he muttered, forcing himself to sit up.

A fresh wave of fear shot through his body. With all the strength he could muster, John made himself get back to his feet. He did his best to repress everything he’d had to do, trying to hold his mind together. Leaning on his staff, The Gamer dashed back off into the school to help his friends.