Chapter 421: Foolishness
Chinua left his meeting with the young baron feeling…very strange. It was a subtle lightness, like a pocket of helium forming somewhere in his gut. He tried to strangle the sensation, thinking it a foolish kind of optimism.
A lifetime of disappointment had taught Chinua the naive foolishness of expecting improvement.
But the stubborn little pocket of gas remained, roiling his insides all the way back to his people.
“How’d it go?” asked Adela, every eye from the nearby players watching and hiding their emotion. Chinua shrugged.
“He wants soldiers, that is clear.”
“Good. Otherwise he’d be an idiot,” said Julio, to a chorus of grunts.
Chinua had a total of seven players left alive, including himself. Only five of these were real soldiers and powerful enough to be used for much. The other two were weak, one crippled physically, the other emotionally. Chinua and the others would always protect them, but they were no longer fit for the game, and they knew it.
“I gave him the map,” Chinua said, and everyone silenced.
“Well.” Adela blew out a breath. “That’s it, then. Now we get to sit on scout duty and watch the place our camp’s supposed to be.”
“The baron implied he could teleport to us based on the information provided,” Chinua said. “It might be soon.”
“Yeah and then what?” Julio said. “Unless he can teleport us all back, doesn’t do us much good. We’ll still need to build a boat or something.”
“You and your fucking boat,” Adela said for the hundredth time. “We’re in the future. There’s gonna be a fuckin’ teleporter. Or a spaceship. Or some shit.”
Julio rolled his eyes, but Chinua basically agreed. The young baron hadn’t explained how exactly he intended to retrieve the ‘rebel’ soldiers, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have a way. It didn’t bring Chinua much comfort, but he saw no option except to trust the man. At least a little.
Chinua’s only deception and protection was to lie about the location of his camp. It was close by, but old habits died hard. Chinua wanted one last look at the man and whatever he brought with him in the real world before exposing his people completely.
If he was wrong, if the young American warrior had decided to eliminate any possible threat, it would be the last mistake Chinua ever made. He had to be completely sure.
The players silenced as more text scrolled through their profiles, warning of another team match in a handful of minutes. Chinua took a breath and looked at his people.
“Time to impress our potential employer. No deceptions, no screwing around or withholding powers. We go full strength.”
Adela winced. “The emperor’s people will still be watching.”
Chinua knew that, of course. But it was probably useless to try and trick the man anyway. Back before the split he’d seen enough of their powers to get the idea. A held back trick or two wouldn’t save them against him now.
But he knew it helped his people to think they had some control, some possibility of improving their odds in what seemed otherwise a hopeless situation. It wasn’t quite ‘hope’, maybe, but it was better than nothing.
“Let them see us at our full strength. Maybe the first scouts to find us will be afraid.”
The others nodded, and Chinua sat and closed his eyes, moving through his powers and stolen power gems, readying his mind for combat. He meant what he said. Now was the moment to impress, and also to warn.
If Mason actually held some notion of killing Chinua and his people, there was only a chance or two left to change his mind. Chinua needed him to at least doubt the automatic success of that plan.
And they also needed to convince him they could be loyal, that they would join them and weren’t turncoats and spies.
No pressure, he thought, not yet sure how to do this. But weakness was always provocative.
Strength, first. Then, honor. It was how Chinua had lived all his life. He saw no reason to change strategies today.
* * *
Chinua waited with Adela and Julio in the arena holding cell, considering their strategy. Two martial, one divine, read the system screen. Martials were usually good for them, but…
Divines were quite rare, and often dangerous. They tended towards extremes, or specialists, which meant you needed to make sure you exploited their weaknesses and didn’t let them focus on their strength.
“Figure he’s a support?” Adela asked, summoning her chakrams.
“We can’t know. But he’s our target.” Chinua looked at Julio. “You’re on the martials. Keep them busy. Get them separated. But be ready to help us take the divine down.”
Julio nodded and winked. He was always cockiest before a fight, convincing himself more than anyone. His powers were complex but extremely effective if used correctly. And Chinua didn’t begrudge any man who found a way to courage. He’d seen plenty who couldn’t.
There wasn’t much to say in terms of technique or tactics. They had little to do in their mountain hideout, and the three soldiers had fought and practiced together so much they were more like brothers and sister now.
The timer counted down, and the platform lifted them up into a kind of coliseum filled with obstacles like a gym.
“Oh man. It looks like American Ninja Warrior,” Julio said with a grin. “I loved that show. And the Japanese one, too.”
Adela gave him a good 60% of her contempt face.
“You like the stupidest shit. It’s incredible.”
“Focus up.” Chinua channeled the lowest tier of his Mana Shield, the currently small, blue disc of energy forming on his forearm. He held his innate spear in his other hand like a javelin, ready to throw it if a target appeared.
Julio and Adela went silent, professional eyes moving over the terrain as they spread out but kept in power range.
Julio had adaptive ‘team’ oriented powers, with one in particular that had an incredible range of abilities based on circumstance. It took time, but it was always impressive.
Adela was their main killer. Whether in close combat or at range, the focus of their team was to keep her on something until it was dead. If the enemy got frustrated enough and over committed, or tried to take down Chinua or Julio, they usually lost quickly.
When the three of them were working well and in sync, they could prove very difficult to deal with.
The trio moved out and around the various obstacles, avoiding the more involved and larger clusters of ‘obstacles’. It really did look like a game show or something. Though one built by a sadist.
There were slides and spinning shapes that would probably be made of foam or something with a bit of cushion on TV. These looked like hard plastic if you were lucky. Metal tipped with spikes if you weren’t. The few pools underneath more gymnastic like bars or swings bubbled with an acidic, acrid smell.
Chinua was about to point it out when a bolt of energy arced over an obstacle and slammed into his Innate Shield.
Julio and Adela bolted behind cover. The former started his dance-like hand movements, his strange powers almost all requiring an actual physical pattern. Adela just got her back to something and waited, eyes and ears tuned.
Chinua didn’t move. He grew his Mana Shield a little and ducked down a bit, pretending like he gave a shit about the enemy spell. But killing him with projectile magic was a bit like drowning a fish. Depending on the affinity and spell, it often recharged him more than it cost.
Unfortunately, the attacks stopped as he heard the enemy whispering and muttering from behind a kind of tower, and he expected they’d decided he wasn’t worth targeting. Julio was still weaving his opener, so Chinua decided to spice things up a little. Maybe he’d get back their attention.
He charged his Spear with elemental fire, and tossed it hard at the edge of the enemy’s tower with a grunt. It struck and exploded, blasting away a chunk of wood with a spray of cinders.
Then he re-summoned his spear and advanced, not terribly worried about whatever his enemies could throw at him. His classes (including his prestige class) made him both tough and destructive, with a simple answer to most problems.
But his power came with a cost. He was about as slow as any player he’d seen in the post-apocalypse.
His Mana Shield sucked energy all around him. The more he ‘grew’ it, the more it drained, often taking enough heat from the air his breath frosted. And it took kinetic energy, too.
If he only walked it made no difference, but if he tried to run it was like pushing through water. He had to de-activate it to really get around quickly. Which wasn’t a great idea in combat.
But he had encountered very few superior defensive powers in the world. It protected him from almost everything, its only limitation being spatial—the primary protection centered on the ‘shield’ in his hand. Even so, it wrapped him in an invisible barrier that, while weaker, protected him from any threat.
And his enemies, it seemed, had not watched him fight.
As Chinua separated himself from the others, two players stepped out from behind the tower—the first launched another magical projectile, the other a bolt from some kind of crossbow. Chinua raised his Shield and kept walking.
The magic fizzled with no effect, the bolt’s kinetic energy slowed so much it barely pinged. Chinua charged his Spear and threw it again. The caster leapt to cover, the crossbowman stepped away and shot again as his weapon re-armed with a mechanical click.
Julio whistled he was ready, and Adela leapt up and came running full speed. A mixed Arcane and Elemental ‘corridor’ of energy surged straight through Chinua towards the tower, visible only in the air as a soft blue light.
Julio’s powers were basically everything Chinua’s weren’t. Slow. Easy to disrupt. Not built to make the user himself useful. He was a bizarre, sometimes frustrating, almost eye-rolling kind of support. But in the right circumstance…
Chinua ‘grabbed’ the path of energy coursing through him and around him, tethering on like linking a cable with a hook. It could propel even him forward at a sprint, simultaneously filling his already full mana, and charging him with a temporary burst of power.
The crossbowman called out a warning, tossing some kind of disc that hit the ground and exploded as Chinua came in. He flew through the explosion unharmed, activating elemental boosts for every single power.
Fire erupted over his weapon. Shards of ice formed on his shield, and floated all around him in the air.
He tossed another flaming spear, the weapon flashing violently off the caster’s defences and disrupting whatever he’d intended to do. Another crossbow bolt came flying, and Chinua caught it on his Shield before stomping to direct an earth-charged Shatter at the man’s feet.
Dirt and bits of plastic flooring sprayed in every direction, but again the caster’s shield protected him. This time he managed to keep his composure, and he stood his ground and charged some kind of force wave.
Chinua held his ground and pretended he was concerned enough to raise his Shield.
These guys weren’t weak. They were just inexperienced. The worst thing they could do was fight in Julio’s Arcane Wind. All they needed to do was back up, regroup, and keep the hell away, because Julio couldn’t move it without re-doing the slow channel power.
Instead they had apparently decided to try to bring Chinua down. The third player finally made his appearance—some kind of divine rogue flashing from the shadow of the tower with a good thrust of a spear.
It came in shining with white light, sizzling with brutal power as it crashed into Chinua’s Shield. But it wasn’t enough to break his defences.
And Adela was waiting. She leapt over Chinua’s head with her movement power, practically flying in Julio’s Arcane Wind. The faster she moved, the more she hurt. Her Chakram whistled through the air, flashing so fast it might have been a bullet.
The enemy rogue failed miserably to dodge, his arm severing in a spray of blood as Adela’s weapon arced and returned like a boomerang mid-air. She came down and rolled in one swift movement, taking down the weakened caster’s defences with her other ‘punching’ disc, cutting his throat before he could blink.
The trumpet blared, and the rogue tried to run. Chinua drove his Spear through the man’s back, and the trumpet blared again.
The crossbowman fled with impressive speed, and Chinua let Julio and Adela chase him down. They’d enjoy the obstacle course, he decided, taking a seat on the closest block of plastic.
No reason not to let them have a little fun. The short and brutal fight had been an effective display of strength, though they hadn’t really had the time to show off. And he still had no idea how to make this young baron trust him.
Julio hooted as he leapt through some ‘ninja’ obstacle, laughing like a child with a new toy, despite a still dangerous enemy trying to kill him. Chinua sighed.
He had been a soldier long enough to know the battle for discipline was never-ending. And in the real world carelessness might get a man killed. But one problem at a time, he supposed.