Unreal. He actually bailed.
Confusion interlaced with instinct as I slid between two massive icicles, slamming my elbow into their summoner's nose before Ripple Striding away from a wave of fire that spewed from his wiry comrades eyes. My blades slapped together, the hot-headed swordsman dashing to the side causing my lightning bolt to only graze his shoulder. A heavy crack pulled my attention toward the ice rogue, as dozens of razor sharp ice shards hovered between his outstretched hands. My eyes narrowed on his hips, noticing a flash of his flow streaming up his body. Without thinking, my arm rose toward the rogue, firing my grappling hook the moment my fist was on target. The hook slammed into his shoulder causing him to recoil as the ice shards fell, disappearing silently into the grass.
Whipping around, my blades slapped away the flanking swordsmans overhead slash, twisting to evade his second short sword lunging towards my stomach. Angling wide, my arm swung around for a slash toward his head. The swordsman raised both his short swords, no doubt aiming to disarm me with a stiff parry. With a twist of that wrist, my elbow torqued back in, allowing my fist to slip between his vertically parallel guard. Just as my punch connected, a wave of fire jetted from the swordman's eyes. I recoiled, shaking my hand hoping to put out the fire, only to find my sleeve in perfect condition.
It's an illusion…a lie.
Needles pinned across my back as I felt an unwavering urge to mercilessly rip the fiery fraud in two. To drop my blades, and revoke whatever warmth the abomination truly possessed.
Can't…let deceivers steal th-
My molars pierced into my cheeks as I culled the erratic emotions and irrational thoughts. My focus narrowed onto the fight in time to spot the glimmer of an icicle hurtling toward my skull. My head lunged forward, only to meet the pommel of the swordsman's blade. The blow snapped my head back, causing my vision to tunnel momentarily. The impact sent a jolt through my spine that trickled down to my toes, like he'd hit me with a shot of adrenaline directly into my bloodstream. The pain was dull, stiff, and above all…familiar. My fist slammed into the soft grass as I fell forward, tucking my head and rolling away from another downward slash from the swordsman.
Kicking off the ground, I twisted back toward the fiery illusionist, unleashing a quick four-strike combination that sent the swordsman into a full retreat. His arms awkwardly jutted around trying to trace my blades, to which I merely feigned a double slash from both sides. His arms jutted out wide, leaving his chest wide open for a front kick. The heel of my boot slammed under his chest, the air audibly escaping from his body as he flew several feet back. He slid to a knee, clutching his stomach while retching with both blades still out at the ready.
Before I could finish off the vulnerable swordsman, it occurred to me the ice rogue was no longer in sight. Spinning around, my eyes shot open as the sun was enveloped by a massive slab of thick, translucent ice. My arms shot up, barely covering my face before the ice slammed into me far quicker than my initial scan of its flow let on. The force of the massive slab lifted me off my feet and carried me along its path, as I barely managed to push off just before it tumbled into the tall grass. A deep chill pierced my skin, causing my nerves to go completely numb where I'd been hit.
"LOOK, LOOK HOW MUCH LIFE DOESN'T MATTER!" Korbin's guttural screams echoed across our little system-made haven, as well as the hollow thumps of whatever he was using to pummel the loud-mouthed light rogue. I'd never seen him lose his shit this badly in a situation that, arguably, he took more seriously than I. At this point, I just want to win and get these gods-forsakened Quarterly's over and done with. A pair of icicles shattered at my feet, the rogue still launching their attacks as they sprinted after me, the newly recovered swordsman sprinted tossing a red bottle as he joined the rogue in pursuit. Realizing mana use, and really trying was inevitable, I resolved myself in meeting whatever drawbacks the effects of that fucking 7-year loop head on.
"Fuck it." I muttered, clutching my blade grips hard and channeling my mana into my gut all at once. The pressure instantly filled my body before dispersing through every pour of my skin. Blinding bright blue light engulfed my vision for a moment, as I felt Spirit Of The Storm rampaging through my body. The fire illusionist swordsman didn't flinch, passing his now weary ice compassion with his blades at the ready. I smiled, the circumstances bringing a nostalgic tickle to my otherwise constantly burning gut. Finally, after the equivalent of 7 years locked in an endless hellscape, I've met a challenge that felt real.
The fiery illusionist's eyes expelled another jet of false-flames, concealing himself as he approached. Ripples Stride rocketed my momentum past the swordsman in a blank, extinguishing his fake fire while slashing across his belly. My blade sliced clean through his side, cracking several ribs and sending a spray of blood pouring from the wound. Heavy footfalls caused my eyelids to shoot wide open, a flare of lightning mana pulsating from my body as I ducked under the ice rogues long, newly displayed ice spear. I caught the glimpse of a grin that quickly faded into shock as his eyes traced me ducking under his lung, shuffling around his back with a single hard plant of the foot. My chains wrapped around his neck as I twisted around, pulling him up the length of my back like a heavy sack.
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*CRACK*
*SQUELCH*
My eyes scanned the fields and still ponds in search of Korbin, hoping to confirm it wasn't his body making those noises as the ice rogue thrashed, dangling over my shoulder. Suddenly, an icy dagger pierced into my side as I held the flailing rogue off his feet, the jolt of pain instinctively triggering another massive burst of lightning mana. A heavy emptiness quickly accompanied the surge, though I noticed the rogue was no longer wiggling behind me.
*ding*
Hearing his death notification ring out, I dropped to my knees and let Spirit Of The Storms after effects take hold. My mana was all but drained, sitting at a mere 60/271. Clearly, my new water step evolution wasn't as cheap as its predecessor. Either that, or those pulses are more mana-costly than I thought.
So empty…
A familiar voice, my voice, whispered in the back of my mind.
The pain…so, so cold.
Peering over, the ice rogue's conjured frozen blade remained lodged in my side, as did his body on the grass beside me. Looping ovular charred skin simmered under burned blue cloth, his eyes bulging from his skull, his expression contorted in panic. A palpable aroma wafted from his corpse, reeking of sour iron and burning plastic. Every square inch of my back burned as if I was being constantly branded from hip to neck. For a moment, I felt that same yearning for an eternal warmth, the ultimate reprieve for all this suffering. Then, I watched as his body, and the blade de-materialized into a million tiny purple glimmers, my wound closing itself almost instantly. I smiled, taking in a long breath through my nose as reality blissfully settled in. The rush of combat, the threat of true consequence, it was like the air itself buzzed around me. For seven 'simulated' years, I spent fighting a dull fight, for lives could never have been saved in the first place.
They didn't exist.
Exhaling, a thought crossed my mind as I turned to seek out Korbin, who had chased the light rogue into the rainy forest region surrounding our defense positions.
The warmth…it meant nothing. But, why did I get pulled into that place in the first place?
The memories faded from the front of my thoughts, feeling the rain pattering off my cowl that began forming around my head. That's when Korbin finally emerged, his face devoid of expression as he walked across the moist forest soil.
"Uh, hey Korbi-"
"Don't. Not another word." Korbin interrupted without breaking stride, pacing right past me toward our mini Elysium. I sighed, knowing I should've guessed he'd be standoffish about this. Especially when we both know damn well he lost his cool, and not in the 'theatric necessary force' kind of way. More like I apparently did, or almost had when I finally woke up from my personal super-charged Escaping Fate tenure. All the same, Korbin returned to his chair beside our pylon control and immediately began adding more defensive measures, while I sat down on the floor cross-legged beside him.
"Just so we're clear, I'm really not trying to talk about…all that back there." I offered, after letting him settle into his chair. He glared at me for a moment before pulling his head back, wincing as if fighting off the urge to lose it all over again.
"…not right now. Please." He said, his tone soft but quivering with restraint. My lips thinned before giving an acknowledging nod. I figure he'll calm down to just have a conversation eventually, but until then I'd have to look for my answers inwardly, and alone. Closing my eyes, my shoulders began to sway as I sought my personal beach once more. Without even meaning too, I slipped into my usual Flow induced meditation sinking deep into myself, yet my thoughts raced uncontrollably all the same. Only now, I had nothing tangible to distract myself from their constant loathing.
Why was I in there so long? I mean, Korbin said he got less than 400 days in his?! And what's with the rat thing? Why was I forced to deal with so many rats?
I shuffled, feeling my own skin literally crawling across my back. The subtle burning infuriated me terribly in an instant, but I quickly extinguished that flame with a long drawn breath. I focused on the battle that had just transpired, clinging to the warm embrace of clarity of reality that a true danger provided. The elevated heart rate, the adrenaline rush, everything about it was so real. Yet, even as the cacophony of questions faded into a quiet murmur behind a silent conviction, one single question lingered at the forefront of my thoughts.
Why, why the FUCK was I sucked into that place?
A jolt of boiling hot rage surfaced seemingly from the scars themselves, like my own resentment had burrowed its way deep between the messy, nest-like scabs and decided to surface once more. Dozens of sharp claws dug into my skin, though I knew I'd find no rodents in hand if I were to abandon my meditation and smash my back. Shutting my eyes tightly, I plopped down and immediately forced myself into a true Flow Meditation before my logical part of my brain could get a word in. Almost instantly, I find myself strolling across the shoreline of my internal place of peace, with a dark heavy fog suffocating the sunlight.
Pittering of a thousand of those all too familiar claws scurrying across the sands of my internal shoreline filled my beach, yet only shadows of the rats ever manifested along the sand. I sighed, feeling the intrusive emotions assaulting my mind, like a storm of anxiety, rage, sheer animosity, and a deep yearning to survive had touched down in my skull.
"Hey guys. I take it you wanted to leave too?" I said aloud while stepping over the wriggling shadows, walking deeper into the sandbar. A flicker of confusion tickled the air palpably, only to be abruptly replaced by a spirit-soothing warmth as the sun's rays started truly seeping into my metaphysical pours. It's strange, as much as I resent ever having experienced that hellhole, and even more so that it lasted so, so, so long to escape. Yet, as I step past the ghosts of a colony that never truly existed, all I could feel was a sense of pride, and oddly enough, comradery.
"Well hold up guys, don't leave so soon! I actually had a few que-"
A terrible chill fell onto the wind, as the oceans crashing waves seemingly froze in place and halting my breath altogether. The glowing sun slowly dulled into none more than that of a tap-lamp in an abyss.
"You failed us."
"You let us die."
"And then abandoned us." The sinister false whispers of my friends and family hissed across the lightless beach. Their words cutting deep into my chest, somehow sending literal pain slicing across my torso.
"How could you?"
"How could you?!" The voices insisted, their tones slowly blending into one deep, baritone voice. Suddenly, every agonizing death I sustained during my personal escaping fate event barraged my vision in a bloody kaleidoscope of fire, pain, and rotten fur. I clenched my jaw, feeling my nostrils involuntarily twitching impatiently at the forced reminder. Then, a single face came into focus before me. A woman, the woman I left to be ripped apart by rats on my first day in the tutorial.
"How could you, Tom?" She said, standing before me just as shakily as she had the first I'd seen her. Her hands clutched around a staff far too large for her frame, her eyes darting about like a caged animal. Looking down, blood poured from the chunks of flesh ripped from her exposed belly, her cloak suddenly transforming from beautifully weaved to mangled and bloody. I looked deep into her blue eyes, refusing to look away.
"…I just didn't know any better." I said, choosing my words carefully. Her head tilted to the side, a dark red afterimage following behind her skull.
"You killed us." She said, adopting the voices of everyone I knew and held dear.
"No, I let you die." I replied calmly. Her face twitched violently in spurts before both of her eyes slowly started whiting over.
"And that's so much better? We weren't the only ones." She sneered, as dozens of glowing silhouettes emerged from below the sands. Each reeking of their own terrible emotions and memories. Fear, doubt, hatred, regret, remorse, all bearing down on me in a cacophony of silent misery. I stiffed my upper lip, feeling my fist ball up and relax again.
"..and you won't be the last people I fail. But what would you have me do, shrivel and die with you? Or maybe, just maybe, I can make your sacrifice mean something. Something you might've been proud to see." I said, feeling a smile threatening to crease at the edge of my mouth.
"You have no right to decide what I want, not after what you've done." They collectively replied in an unnerving unison. I shook my head free of the slew of panic and discordant urgency being exerting its pressure on me.
"I never had the right to protect you, either. And yet I chose to try, just as I choose to live with the outcome." I spat out, trying and failing to hold back my anger from leaking into my tone.
"Yes, too late."
"Too many promises."
"Too many will die again."
"And again, hahaha!"
"Can't afford to be weak."
"Always weak." The shadows closed in all around me, flashing into existence one by one, closer and closer. I stood my ground, oddly feeling less and less intimidated the nearer these strange demons of mine approached.
"I may very well fail to hold my promises. But my failures destined, I might as well do it the most Tom-way possible-" I began, extending my open palm out and summoning my twinblades. To my surprise, they actually manifested here, something I wasn't sure was even possible. Grinning, I scanned over the murky crowd of spiraling shadows in anticipation.
"-swinging." I finished, lurching forward and spiraling my connected twinblades into leaping overhead slash. Instantly, the entire fog sunk under the sand with an ear popping thunk.
-"Tom, Tom buddy don't tell me you're having part two of that escaping fate bullshit right now." Korbin said, standing over me and shaking my shoulders. My eyes fluttered open as I pushed away his arms.
"Easy, I'm fine dude." I said, though being careful not to sound too upset at his concern. The guy was just shaking me way too fucking hard, damn-near slammed the back of my skull on my shoulder blade.
"Well shit, no napping without a warning, asshole. I'm not doing the rest of this objective solo." Korbin said, shaking his head and extending a hand. Accepting the help, I glanced at our mini-settlements entrance gate for signs of any attackers.
"Sorry. And yeah, to answer your question. I kind of was having another go around with that…place." I hesitantly admitted.
"Great, this mean you're going to start biting at my neck now? Cause if that's the case let me eliminate you now and save us both the trouble." Korbin snickered, half-jokingly. I paused, realizing I was no longer all that itchy.
"No, no actually I'm good." I replied, rubbing along the wiry crevasses along my back left by the memories of the million members of my old, system-made rat colony. Korbin's brow furrowed as he quickly looked me over with a look of sheer skepticism.
"…yeah, okay. Still no chairs by me until you win a fight without using your damn teeth."