Radical-9

CHAPTER 10: A Dream

February 23^rd, 2022

7:06 pm

“Klein? Sam? Where the hell are you?” I call out.

Athena is pacing back and forth, “They couldn't have gotten far, they were on foot, and I'm sure since Rose was tied up that she wouldn't be running.”

“Maybe she got loose? I don't know, how hard was she tied up?”

“I helped tie it a bit, I doubt she could've gotten out by herself.”

“Maybe she had some sort of skill up her sleeve?”

“And how would she have been able to overpower Klein?”

“I don't know, it could've been some sort of magic, his armor is defenseless against that. It would also explain why she was so willing to give up her physical weapons, she was baiting us,” I say.

“Well, then we need to find them fast, hopefully Klein's still alive,” Athena says.

I get an idea, opening my menu I navigate to the party options and sure enough Klein's name is still visible. “If this is anything to go by he should still be alive,” I say..

“Okay, so where logically could they have gone?” Athena asks.

I look around, all around us the trees stand tall, looking exactly the same.

“I...I don't know, they could have gone anywhere,” I say.

“Wait, let me try something,” Athena says, opening her menu. She opens the party menu and then clicks on Klein's menu. A prompt opens up, Find Player? “Just what I wanted,” she says, smiling.

“You think that'll tell us where he is?”

“Well, it's only in the name,” She says.

“Right...”

She clicks it and then a transparent arrow begins glowing underneath our feet, it shoots out to our right, into the trees.

“Well, I guess we have something to follow now,” I say.

“Perfect.” Athena replies.

We begin following the arrow, starting out at a running sprint. If I knew how much I'd be running in this world I'd have definitely thought about getting a new bike, but I guess there isn't anything I really can do about that right now, right? I feel my legs begin to become heavy. I start breathing heavier and heavier. I shouldn’t be getting this tired this fast, maybe it’s just all the exhaustion of the day catching up with me. I glance at my health bar and it’s going down. I still have about 95% left, it going down sliver by eventual sliver. By this rate, I’d estimate about an hour or two before it fully reaches zero. I stop running, I stop moving. I’m completely out of breath and I can't breath.

Athena stops running and looks back at me, “What are you doing?! We need to-hey, what’s wrong?” She walks over.

I start sweating and fall to my knees, my stomach like a blender set on all of the options at once. I feel a burning sensation on my ankle, the bright white spots from where Rose's whip latched into my skin. Could it have some sort of poisonous side effect? It must be. It hardly did any damage when it struck, so it gets its damage by slowly draining its victim’s health. Athena is helping me up, she must’ve noticed my health dropping.

“Dex?! Dex! What’s going on?”

I struggle to even speak, “Rose’s whip…poison,” I reply.

“What...Oh, fuck,” She says, realizing. “This is like, the worst timing,”

I can’t feel my right leg anymore, it has gone completely limp underneath me, and I'm falling until I hold my arm out to he ground, it supporting me, “Athena, you need to go after Rose. I can barely walk.”

She shakes her head, she moves to help me back up but stops, her hands are shaking something fierce, “I-I’m not leaving you behind.”

I can feel the numbness spreading to my left leg.

“If you don't then Sam and Klein could die and Rose will get away,” I say.

I see her face darken, she frowns, beginning to pick me up by tucking her arms under mine, “You will die if I leave you out here.”

“I know.” I say.

She stops.

“I've kind of accepted that, I keep thinking back to what you and Klein were talking about how I don't have as much fighting experience...and I've been thinking on that ever since.”

“What?” She asks.

“I...I'm not as strong as you or Klein. I don't have the skill to keep up with you guys, you need to go find Klein and Sam,” I say.

“No.”

Tree tops pass over our heads, the sun seems to have returned in its full shining glory. I look over at my health bar, it’s dropped a little bit. There are nothing but trees surrounding us.

“Athena…I'm dead weight.”

She looks at me, tears flood her eyes. “No! Don’t you even say it! Just stop asking me to leave you behind!” She wipes her eyes with her sleeve. “We’ll think of something.” She’s looking around frantically. I close my eyes, an image of Jen pops into my mind’s eye. She looks somewhat angry, she seems to be yelling something at me. I don’t quite hear what she says.

“Jen…?” I ask.

“What? Who is Jen?”

“My...My sister,” I say, staring past her.

Then it comes in with full clarity, a screaming inside of my head, “Hey! You aren’t going to let them get the best of you, are you Cress?!”

Jen’s voice echoes my own and my eyes are open once more. I can feel a new surge of energy throughout my body. My breath returns, my health is still dropping slowly, but I can at least breathe. What the hell am I thinking? I just can't sit here while Jen and Mom are still out there, probably worrying their asses off. And I can't just let Sam and Klein down. I start to feel my legs again, like a connection once lost comes back. It comes back slowly, and then all at once. I begin slowly moving them back and forth. Athena takes notice and props me up against a tree. My health seems to still be gradually dropping, but I can feel my leg again.

“How are you feeling?” She asks, bending down to eye level. Her face creases with worry.

“Like I was hit by a truck, but other than that…” I don’t finish. I sit for about thirty seconds, until I can stand on my own once more. I’m still breathing quite heavily. “Athena…” I say.

“Yes?” She asks, I can tell she is trying to hold herself from crying.

“I'm...ready to kick some ass if you are,” I say, pulling myself up.

Athena smiles, larger than I'd ever seen her do, and we start walking.

Each step is a trial, the pain in my foot lingers, but I move forward with newfound conviction driving every step. It's similar to the boost of energy I've found spring up every so often, except now I feel like I have a grip on the energy from the base, full control over it. Control will keep me alive. We see another clearing, this one perfectly circular with a giant, jagged rock in the middle of it. Behind the clearing is a huge mountain, the slope too high for any normal sort of climbing to be available. The trees to the other sides shield the way from our view. I walk up and lay my hand against the rock. This can’t just be a dead end, there has to be a way out of here.

“Where do we go from here?” I ask.

Athena is looking around and I see her face light up, “Ah! I have an idea!” She jumps onto the rock and begins climbing up.

“I’ll get on top of this and use it as a vantage point to scour the jungle.”

She reaches the top and begins looking outward, trying to see above the trees.

“Not high enough. Dex, come here and I’ll lift you up,” she motions her hands to me.

“Uh, are you sure?” I ask.

“I’m sure as hell not being the one to topple off of this rock.” She says, a smile on her face, laughing.

I groan and climb up, “Are you sure you can hold me up? You could barely drag me through those trees.”

She gives me look, one that isn't quite mad, but not quite approving either. She simply holds her hand down. I grab it and she helps me up the rock. Once on top she kneels down, nodding her head for me to hop on her back. I do, and then she stands. I’m actually surprised she can hold me up. I can just barely see over the treetops. In the distance, at the base of the mountain I can see some sort of cave, it's only I can see what looks to be a mountain and I believe some sort of cave entrance. Then my vision swirls, I see blues and I realize I’m looking up at the sky, I’m on the ground. I look up at Athena, who is panting. I feel for my arm, it is slightly bruised.

“I…I thought you said you could hold me.” I groan out.

She is still panting, “No I didn’t. I purposefully didn’t answer because I knew you wouldn’t like my answer,” She climbs down and offers me a hand up, “But it worked out in the end, didn't it? Here champ, let me help you up.”

I take her hand and pull myself up, I catch a glimpse of my health bar, it's at 88%. I'm going to need to find a cure for this shit quick. Feeling better isn't going to stop the poison.

“There’s a cave about a mile ahead. I bet you that’s where the pedestal is,” I say.

“What about a teleport crystal? We’re going to need one if we want to leave here,” Athena asks.

“We just have to hope that we’ll find one on the way there. I’d assume the game at least put one somewhere here. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to leave. Teleport Crystals seem to vanish after use.”

“Ah, that makes sense I guess.” She says. “Well, we need to hurry, there’s no time to waste, especially if we want to fix your poison problem,”

I silently agree and we’re off running towards the mountain. It isn’t as painful as before, which I'm thankful for. We begin jogging into the woods, the sun above us beginning to set after long.

“You know, in hindsight we came to this place really underprepared,” I say.

“You don't say.” She remarks.

“It was also a bad idea having Klein carry all of the important goods.”

“You don't say?”

“Okay, okay, I get it. A lot of bad decisions were made. Heat of the moment, excitement about this all being real. We're definitely stocking up in the next town.”

“Even if I have to drag your ass there.”

“Yeah, um, please don't tell Klein about that.”

“Why not?” She asks.

“He'd never let me live it down.”

We reach the large mountain, a cave entrance at the base. We walk up to the cave entrance and unlike any other entrance to a new section, it doesn’t ask us for confirmation for entrance. We can enter it as if it was a normal cave. It is so dark I can't even see the outside world. It's as if there's a veil of darkness right at the entrance of the cave blocking off all outside light, I cannot even see my own hand in front of my face. I begin walking straight, no direction, no guidance, just movement.

“It's-”

“I know it's dark, you don't have to say it,” Athena cuts me off.

“I...I wasn't going to say that.”

“Oh? What were you going to say then?”

“It's...okay, I was going to say it was dark, sue me.”

“Gladly,” she laughs.

“That's actually one fight I doubt you'd win,” I say.

“Really now?”

“I was actually studying to be a lawyer for a short while,” I say.

“You stopped?”

“I dunno, everything seems so difficult out there, I wonder if I'd even be making a difference. Part of me wants to, but part of me thinks I'm wasting my time.”

“I think its nice that you have an idea at least, me, well, it's a bit harder,” she says.

“Harder?”

“It's nothing,” she says, her voice strains.

“Really nothing? Or nothing nothing?”

“What?”

“You know, like-”

“What's that up there?” Athena asks, and then I stop, looking upwards. I can tell she said it to change the subject, but up high above us there does seem to be something moving. A small source of light, and then I see it is a bunch of tiny sources. It is a bright purple light shining off of the back of what look to be some sort of bat-creatures with a purple-y crystal attached to their spine. The weird thing is that the bats seem to be disappearing and reappearing all over the place. It hits Athena and me at the same time.

“Teleport Bats?” We both say simultaneously.

“This must be how we’re intended to get out of here, but how do we draw them down?” I ask. I look up again at the Teleport Bats. They seem to be completely oblivious to our existence, flying and teleporting about twenty feet above our heads. I look at the patches of the ground I can see through their light and pick up a small rock. I chuck it high and it manages to connect with one of the bats. It lets out a high pitched scream and it looks straight at me. The rest of the horde follows and there are about thirty teleport bats staring me down.

“Oh...” I say, backing up slowly.

'Shit...” Athena says.

She steps in front of me, Wo Dao unsheathed, “I’ll handle them, Dex. Hey! Fur balls, bring it on!”

The bats’ wings begin beating faster and faster and one by one they are teleporting. I see them each attacking, their lights flashing in and out of existence. Athena’s health bar shows up, going down bit by bit, she ends up around half health from their onslaught. She can’t fight what she can’t see.

Then I realize it, neither can they. I open my menu and pray to any god out there that my shroud’s effect has recharged. It has. I select it and instantaneously go invisible. I unsheathe Elcor and join the fight against the Teleport Bats. The first one falls as it tries to get a sneak attack against Athena. She and the bats become confused, but she looks over where I used to be and realizes. The bats aren’t so lucky, as they are looking around, confused as you can get for a bat.

This leaves them wide open and Athena and I don’t waste a minute in taking down at least five or six while they are still dazed. There are around twenty or so bats left, but they have been shaken out of their trance. My shroud’s invisibility wears off and I can see the bats coming in my direction. Some of the bats manage to nick my arms with their teeth, but they fall to Elcor and Wo Dao slicing in perfect harmony. Our swords shine brilliant shades of blues and greens and our light in the cave diminishes to none once the final teleport bat is defeated. The loot screen comes up, with a reward of Teleport Crystal x4. I smile, but it fades quickly when I notice my health, it’s down to 60%. Athena looks in my direction, but since I’m sure she can’t see my face. I assume it’s my health bar she sees.

“You saved me. I would’ve surely been a goner had you not intervened.”

I look down, “It was nothing, you've saved my ass on several occasions so far.”

She walks over to me and hugs me, “Don’t be so reckless…but thank you,” she says.

I hug her back. It is pitch black, but my eyes are closed anyway, so it doesn’t matter much. This is the best feeling in the world, the smell of her hair, all of it. That feeling instantly diminishes once I realize what’s at stake if we stay here for too long.

“Now, let's go before I get too sappy,” Athena says. I can only smile.

Right now, I'm okay with bending my rule. Just a little bit.