Just as the first drops of rain were starting to fall we found a largely intact inn with a fireplace we could use to get warm and plenty of ruined tables and chairs to use as fuel.
With a nod toward the doors I gave the mistguards an order, “Each of you take up a position at the entrances and call a warning if you see anything.”
“Aye Captain!”
With a salute they were gone about their tasks.
Valerie watched the exchange with raised eyebrows and muttered, “That’s new?”
Mystal, who perched on an old table with her legs crossed, clapped lightly, “They call him Captain now!”
Ignoring the comment I stripped off my vest and grimaced. There was a coating of mud and viscera on my bare chest. Thanks to my Essence absorption the blood had long since been consumed.
Nomura, who was at the bar rifling through the inn’s bottles, glared at me, “Dude, no one wants to see that.”
Surveying the back of the vest with a grimace I walked over to a water barrel, “One of those mutants spit something at me and thanks to the damn RIG chip I’ve been smelling it ever since.”
Peering into the barrel it appeared to be filled with dark water. I dunked the foul smelling vest into it and nearly fell in, my feet dangling in the air.
Somewhere behind me I heard a snort and when I got my footing back I turned to glare at the group who sat innocently staring at me, save Valerie who was surveying her blade and working out knicks with a whetstone.
In the midst of the silence I walked to the center of the room with the wet, but now clean, vest and hung it on the back of a chair. A thought struck me and I looked down at my muscled lilac colored chest and muttered, “Guys, do you see any scars?”
Sakurai commented, her skeletal head turned at a slight angle, “I don’t think so.”
Nomura chuckled and said, “I mean… I don’t know. What do you think Valerie?”
Val finally looked up from her blade work and her eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of me there shirtless and wet.
After a long pause she was prompted again by Nomura, “Val, do you see any scars on the fearless Captain?”
She turned back and looked me over quickly before muttering, “Um… no.”
Giving a double thumbs I grinned, “Total regeneration. Chicks dig scars but not too many.”
Looking around I noted the dour mood as the rain started to fall. Sakurai had moved to the kitchen promising to somehow make a meal for both the ‘twins’. Nomura was sniffing a bottle and making his way back to our small blue flamed fire.
Valerie seemed to have finally gotten past her mental blip and started, “So how…”
Cutting her off I shook my hand and waved a hand in her direction, “Gotta think.”
Speaking out loud in both the game and the dark tavern I said, “Lyd, play me some music so I can brainstorm murdering an entire fort full of cultists?”
She answered me, “Shall I choose?”
Mystal spoke with wide eyed wonder, “Who is Lyd? Where is Lyd? Why is Lyd?”
Ignoring her I said, “Yeah, and pipe it into the world. I can’t dance to the music in my head.”
“Dance?,” Sakurai asked in surprise.
“Dance?,” Nomura inquired with interest.
“Dance?,” Valerie asked in confusion.
“Dance?!,” Mystal said with excitement.
A steady intense retro rock rhythm started to fill the empty inn and I started to move back in forth with my eyes closed.
Valerie asked, “Florin, are you sure…”
The singer broke into the growing rhythm and I mouthed the words to the song as I spun in place and danced across the room.
Mystal giggled nearby and I heard Sakurai groan, “Oh no.”
While I originally thought she was mortified by my shenanigans, I felt someone take my hand and Nomura joined me as we spun around each other with grace. Nomura moved his hippy female ghoul avatar with the skills of a practiced entertainer.
He asked, “I thought you hated dancing!?”
“Nah bro, I’ve been dancing since I was twelve!”
The two moved apart and toward the others dancing in time and and mouthing the words to the song. Sakurai held her hands up to her lover in defence as she laughed. When I danced up to Mystal she eagerly took my hand and jumped off her table to join us.
To my absolute shock she moved with the skill of a practiced dancer rolling around me and shaking her hips with a smirk and an even more surprising look that bordered on sultry.
“How the heck can you dance like this?”
We moved our shoulders in tandem and stared into each other's eyes as she said, “I learn so quick!”
We spun away from each other and Mystal hurried to Nomura and Sakurai, who had reluctantly joined the dance.
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Dancing toward Valerie I found her standing and looking confused, a look of breathless confusion or eagerness on her face. I held up a mock microphone to my lips and mouthed the words, “I am dying for you!”
She stammered and I mouthed the next line as I moved close to her, our eyes meeting.
The sonorous singer belted out the next lines, “Hey! Hey! Hey! You’re dangerous like they said!”
She looked down at me with wide eyes. I realized in the heat of the dancing just how close we were. Looking up at her my own eyes widened and my lips parted slightly before I managed to say, “Lyd, pause the music.”
The roar of the retrowave song faded from the run down old tavern and the dancing slowed with giggling from the other dancing adventurers.
Clearing my throat I stepped away and offered up my old standard smile to the others, “Alright, I have an idea.”
Nomura was laughing his ass off and asked, “Holy shit, did you learn to dance like that from this game?”
“No, I used to go to slam metal shows when I was in my teens. My gram heard me call going to the mosh pit ‘dancing’ and was… livid. She demanded that everytime I visited her, which was a lot, that I take dancing lessons from her. She called it a point of pride,” I muttered as I pulled on my vest again.
Behind me I heard Valerie stammer and gather her senses, “Ok.”
The young noble crossed her arms and asked, “How are we approaching this?”
I shrugged and considered what I remembered about the fortress and finally said, “I’m going to go in and scout. I’ll try to find their leaders and wait for the signal.”
Valerie asked, “What’s the signal?”
“That will be you all attacking one of the gates. The distraction will give me a solid moment to strike and cut the head off the leadership.”
Mystal spoke up from behind me, “Won’t that be dangerous for you?”
Looking over my shoulder I saw the clear concern on her face and offered my best reassuring smile, “Don’t worry about me. I’m basically invincible.”
She scowled childishly, “That’s not true.”
Ignoring her, I walked to one of the windows and looked out across the city through the curtains of rain, “Once the alarm is up I’ll hopefully wipe out the boss and kill my way to all of you. We will work clean up together.”
Valerie put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a concerned look, “She’s right. That plan puts you in too much peril.”
Looking to Nomura and Sakurai, the mage just smiled and Sakurai said, “You know your skills best Florin.”
I gave Valerie’s mailed hand a gentle pat and smiled, “Once we split up give me thirty minutes and then attack.”
Turning to survey the team in the shadows of the faintly lit tavern taproom I saw concern but each, save Mystal, nodded. She just stared with clear worry and then looked to Valerie as if seeking her approval for my plan.
The stalwart noblewoman just stared at me for a long moment with an unreadable expression and then nodded.
Sakurai and Nomura, for their parts, looked concerned but both were well aware that I could respawn should things go poorly. This was certainly reckless but I was the group’s rogue and stealth specialist. Turning to look at Valerie and Mystal, one stalwart and the other wide-eyed and fearful, I thought, “The most important thing was making sure they were safe.”
Smiling, I took a deep breath and said, “Alright, let's get going.”
A short time later we were making our way through the debris choked streets toward the cult fortress. The rain was constant and reduced vision to less than ten meters. As we traveled I paused frequently to pick out the hazy forms of my comrades in the deluge. When we had reached a good point I held back and found Valerie emerge from the alley through the curtain of rain. I could just make out her molten golden eyes under the edges of her cloak’s hood.
Putting a hand on her armored shoulder I smiled and winked, “Like we discussed.”
I nodded toward a nearby awning and said, “Thirty minutes from now. Attack the gate.”
Her face was still unreadable but she spoke just loud enough to be heard over the falling rain, “Be safe, Florin.”
My voice echoed out into the dive room in the real world, “Lydia set a timer for thirty minutes. Give me a two minute warning.”
“Sure thing, hun.”
With that I turned away and made my way through the rainy streets silently pausing long enough near a wall beneath a jutting window sill to bound up to the top of the building. I continued my silent rush toward the fortress on the roofs bounding across gaps between them through sheets of falling rain when needed.
When the rain shrouded fortress finally came into view I crouched down next to a chimney and scanned the faint forms of patrolling guards. Most were indistinct forms moving in pairs. I did spy some particularly dangerous looking shapes within the marshaling yard and assumed that they must be some form of mutant we had yet to face.
Analyzing the closest guard, I got a sense of their power level courtesy of my AI:
“Branded Order Guard
Level 21
Weakness: Cold Magic
HP: 880
MP: Unknown
Special Ability
Stunning Shield: With activation can throw a target back and stun them.”
The fortress itself was made up of four buildings surrounding the marshaling yard. The largest was a low broad building that had to be the barracks. The second was a three story structure that currently flew a tattered flag despite the deluge. I couldn’t make out its heraldry due to the storm. The other two buildings were small one story structures near the two gates. A stone moat surrounded the two and a half meter walls and large ash colored wooden spikes jutted up from the bottom amidst the rising water.
A broad avenue surrounded the fortress and it was filled with wagons, carts and other indistinct debris. I picked out a route through the detritus and slid down from my perch hurrying across the avenue toward the moat. Reaching the edge, I slid down, jumping the last moment before reaching the water and bouncing between the heavy wooden logs to the other side.
Hurrying up the slanted stone ditch, I grabbed a cold wet handhold on the stone wall and started to scale it quickly. Wasting no time at the top, I swung my legs over and dropped down and into a roll.
Hearing faint voices over the roar of the rain I thrust my back against the stone wall behind me, sinking down to stay hidden.
A pair of Haithan guards, a man and a woman, emerged from the rain and strolled past on patrol.
The man looked askance at her and spoke just loud enough to be heard, “Can we talk about what happened?”
She growled and glared down at him as they continued, “My faith is the only thing keeping you alive.”
He chuckled nervously and adjusted his shield, “I know you don’t mean that Caitha…”
The towering female soldier cuffed him in the side of the head and sent him stumbling off the path. The man hurried to rejoin her as he adjusted his helmet, “Alright… no more talking about that then.”
Watching them go, I quickly snuck across the path behind them and waited for them to get ahead of me. When they were a reasonable distance, enveloped by the roaring water, I followed them on their path around the keep keeping their indistinct shapes just visible. As I trailed them I learned entirely too much about the two of them. The man’s name was Herick and despite the solid knock to the head that his companion had given him it seemed as if he had not gotten the message. She had to cuff him twice more and threaten to stab him before I left them at the far side of the barracks.
Watching their forms depart and vanish, I scanned the space between the barracks and the three story main structure. Spotting no watchers I hurried across and started my climb up the wall to the roof, “Lydia, what is my counter at?”
She answered promptly, “Twenty five minutes, Mal.”
