Chapter 41: Blue-fire Eyes

William Oh is a master of the reverse-ambush. He once slept on a giant spring-trap and it made him breakfast in bed.

• Jason Salazar

 

Will’s eyes snapped open to the sound of an explosion.

In the dim starlight that filtered through the ornate windows, Will saw a steel blade sink through the mattress above directly in front of his face.

“Traps!”

“He’s not here!”

ZZZ

The hiss of drawn blades and flashes of light from Abilities filled the room as Will struggled to catch up with what was going on.

The bed bucked in place as someone was slammed violently into it.

I can’t sit this out, Will thought, cursing himself for not sleeping in full gear.

He peeked out from under the bed and spotted Loth facing off against no less than five men wrapped in black clothes.

Will grabbed the tomahawk under his pillow and slammed it into the heel of one of the enemies.

The man let out a bloodcurdling shriek and Loth took the opportunity to send an attack in his direction. The beetle bored a hole through the man’s shoulder before it split into five, targeting everyone who remained.

One it killed, while the others managed to avoid it.

One of them seemed to turn into some kind of liquid metal, causing the attack to bounce off, another simply resisted it, while another slapped the bug out of the air with their hand.

Oh crap.

They were already looking at where his axe had emerged from his hidey-hole.

Will pushed his feet up against the frame of the bed and thrust, sliding himself out from under the massive four-poster as quickly as he could.

The bed exploded into a cloud of down as three attacks eviscerated the mattress.

One dead, three whole, one wounded, Will thought, sending his Phantom hand toward the wounded one while he danced backwards, trying to prevent them from surrounding him while giving Loth the opportunity to shoot one or more in the back.

The wounded one fished out a potion, as one does when they’ve been wounded.

Will stole it out of the man’s grip with the phantom hand as he ducked the liquid metal attacker’s arm-blade.

Phantom Hand

25/29 Charges Remaining.

A burst of pain traveled through Will as the speedy one unleashed a series of thrown weapons, half of which buried themselves in Will’s left leg.

Ow.

Crack!

The wounded one, staring at his now-empty hand, was struck in the head by Travis, dropping him twitching to the floor.

 

Jingle Jangle! The decoy’s distinctive tassel-covered whip drew their enemy’s attention against their will, allowing William to slide out of the way of the follow-up Coup de Grace.

“Oh look, amateur assassins.” Travis said, his voice grating, demanding that they punch him.

The liquid metal one swooped toward Travis, his body turning into a streamlined spike.

The fast one’s bangle glowed with Charge and the weird, star-shaped bits of metal tugged themselves out of Will’s leg and flew back into his attacker’s hand.

Will gasped with pain, vision going wonky and skin turning cold as his leg started leaking like a sieve.

Will’s vision of the fast one was blocked as the bulkiest one stepped in front of him, reaching down with a ham-fist.

I’m gonna call you Bulk, Will thought, releasing the stolen potion from his Phantom Hand directly into his mouth.

Sourdough

24/29 Charges remaining.

The stolen healing potion must’ve had a little something extra to it, because Will felt like he was flung from a slumped sitting position into a feral, battering-at-your-face-with-an-axe attack before he even knew what was happening.

“You little-“ Bulk grunted, his eyes widening at the sudden turnaround.

Bulk flung Will off his face, the flurry of hits from the tomahawk bouncing off of him…except for the last few that nicked Bulk a little.

“He’s debuffing us!” Fasty said, pointing at the axe.

Will was too busy worrying about whether the dresser had broken his spine to stop Bulk from grabbing his hand and wrenching the Tomahawk out of it.

Will used the leverage to lunge up and kicked Bulk right in his masked face.

It didn’t do much, since Will wasn’t wearing shoes.

Will’s vision went white for an instant as a massive fist snapped his head to the side, the other locked around his wrist.

Will tried to bite the man’s finger’s off, but just wound up getting punched and kicked around the midsection. He turtled up and tried to shield his face with his truncated arm, but without the actual hand there wasn’t much he could do to break out of the hold.

Will thought he’d turned the tables when he managed to deliver a solid kick to Bulk’s crotch, but the man – presumably a Tank Archetype – simply grunted and continued delivering brutal strikes to any portion Will was unable to block.

Will caught a moment between fists and launched a sling bullet directly into the man’s eye from his Phantom Hand. The eye started smoking merrily as the Greater Sting Ring did its job, but Bulk didn’t even seem to register it, instead slipping his fist past Will’s elbow and knees to deliver a brutal punch to the side of Will’s ribs.

Creak!

His ribs didn’t break because if anything, Resourceful Climber was a tough bastard of a Class, but Will was fairly sure the bruise would be impressive.

I need a way out of here, I need to-

SHHHHH

Boom!

Bulk staggered forward violently as a thunderclap shoved him forward. In the dim light, Will could see an arrowhead emerge from Bulk’s shoulder.

Boom!

Boom!

Bulk released Will as he was knocked around the room by arrows had had no right to cause that much stagger, the second and third arrow lighting him on fire.

“What happened to Seven?” Fast asked, ducking behind some furniture while Will got some distance, sprinting towards his mask, which he’d set on a cabinet rather than wear to sleep, like an idiot.

“They’re gone!” Mercury said peering out the shattered window, mouth momentarily turning back to human to speak.

Will had never seen anyone get shot in the jaw by exploding arrows before, nor did he want to again.

Bulk was down, Mercury was trying to hold his jaw together, and Fast was huddled behind some furniture.

Did the odds switch that fast? Will thought, slapping the goat mask down over his face.

Loth caught Will’s attention with a wave and pointed to Fast, then the door leading to the main hall.

Send her there, she seemed to be saying.

Gravity Charge.

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23/29 Charges Remaining.

Will targeted The Phantom hand and began falling through the room at a zig-zag, both to avoid arrows and to hopefully avoid any thrown weapons from Mr. retrieve-my-thrown-weapons-bangle.

A cluster of those metal stars flew past Will as he charged toward Fast, barely able to avoid them by narrowing his profile.

Fast was forced out from behind the cover of the furniture by Travis, who attacked with his dual-striking shortsword, which was currently switched to offence.

Fast ducked out of the way of the obligatory arrow from the shattered window, holding out a hand towards Will while holding off Travis with the other.

Will only put it together Fast’s aim at the last second, metal stars grazing his back as he swerved out of the way.

Fast lunged towards Travis, who had overcommitted to offense.

Travis reeled back desperately, parried one attack with his whip while his phantom shortsword parried the one he didn’t see coming from Fast’s hidden weapon in his foot.

Will barreled forward, and simply took a throwing star to his left arm to get where he wanted to be: pushing Fast towards the door to the main hall.

Fast caught Will’s attacks, but his wrist wobbled a bit as the Serpent’s axe began wearing away at his strength. He danced backwards as Travis lunged forward with a stab, then swerved out of the way of another arrow from the window.

Fast surveyed the ruined room and bolted for the main hall.

SNAP!

A trap went off as Fast tried to leave the room, a simple rope whipping across the hall and shattering Fast’s kneecaps.

Will pursued, eager to take advantage of Fast’s injury.

Fast tumbled, but managed to whip out a healing potion and down it before he even touched the ground, leaping back to his feet without losing a beat.

Damnit, Will thought, flying into the hall and beginning to chase Fast, who was sprinting past the other rooms at full speed.

BOOM!

An arrow shot through the wall and caught Fast in the side, shoving him violently into the wall as it exploded with thunder damage.

Boom Boom BOOM!

Three more arrows perforated Fast, and he burst into flames, corpse smouldering.

“…Well, okay then,” Will said, aiming to slide his axe back in his belt-loop before he realized he was in his underwear.

Will ran back to his room, where Mercury was already dead, perforated by Loth’s bugs.

As he scanned the destruction, Will asked the obvious question.

“So…what was that about?” Will asked, plucking the throwing star out of his arm while Loth went out into the hallway.

“I’m not sure,” Travis said, eyeballing the shattered window and the rooftops beyond it.

They were on the third floor so whoever had supported them had to have been up there.

“But hey, I know a great place in the Ring to get custom underwear,” Travis said, pointing down at Will’s homespun undies. “Soft as a mother’s love, perfect fit, and best of all…no lint.”

“Sold,” Will said, stepping out from behind the obstructing wall and giving the surroundings a wave and a thumb’s up.

He didn’t know if the mystery archer would take the opportunity to kill him, but it had to be better than listening to Travis criticize his underwear.

Part of him would rather die, while the other part knew he should take every advantage where he could get it, even if it was underwear.

It was just his Party member’s tone that made Will wanna smack ‘em, and that was probably a side-effect of his Class…probably.

Will saw a distant shape begin moving towards them from the rooftops.

It was lightly armored, with a familiar bow over its shoulder.

No…

The figure jumped from the nearest rooftop, up and into the room.

Yes.

“William Oh?” Alicia Zodiac asked, scanning Will and the rest of the room, gaze lingering on the perforated corpses with a hint of satisfaction.

The archer had piercing blue eyes that seemed to glow with an internal light, and brilliant blonde hair in a bob-cut that nearly reached her shoulders.

“That’s me.”