Author's Note:
This is part 5 of my 'Trapped in a Game' series. It's not a self-contained story so you'll be pretty lost if you don't read from part 1. A word of caution; this story up until now has been posted in the incest/taboo category as despite being a fantasy story, the primary love interest of the main character is his little sister. I don't think this overwhelms the narrative, so from now on I will be posting the sections which don't feature intimacy between these two characters, in the fantasy category. Hope you enjoy, and as always, feel free to leave your comments below. :)
Special thanks to CNS for some beta feedback, and Skye4Life for editing this. Any errors that remain are my own.
***
"Heard you were on the West Europe server, Tsun," Serra called, eyeing the man with suspicion, and he brushed his hair back arrogantly as he studied her from far above.
"Keeping tabs on me, are we?"
"It's a bit of a necessity when you're being stalked and all that."
The man, Tsun, as Serra called him, smirked, then without warning he suddenly leapt from the staggering height and landed with a thunderous boom, cracking the stone about him.
A cloud of dust momentarily shrouded him, and as the dust cleared, he stood up and drew the great sword from his back and planted it into the firm stone floor.
"Ahh," he groaned, stretching his limbs achingly as if only just awakening from a long slumber.
He wore heavy plate armour that was a brilliant white, embroidered with the blood red image of a butterfly trapped wickedly in a spider's web.
"Oh my dear, sweet Serra. How long has it been?" he asked, leaning back against his great sword casually and removing one of his gauntlets.
His movements were relaxed and smooth despite the almost palpable tension in the air.
"What are you doing here, Tsun?" Serra asked, sighing as she placed her hammer down on the floor in front of her.
There was a devious smile of his face, and his gaze never shifted from Serra's direction.
"Well... when I heard that a little old vampire lair was giving you trouble, I figured I'd pop over and give you a hand."
She laughed bitterly at the remark.
"How did you get on this server?"
"Trade secret, dove. Though I'm sure you'll hear about soon enough. In any case, enough about the 'hows' and 'whys.' I'm here now, and that's what matters most, no?"
She let out a tired sigh, before retrieving her hammer and weighing it in her hands.
"Well... facing me in a death game. Isn't this your dream come true," she noted, her tone becoming playful as she put a hand on her hip in that typically girlish way before continuing provatively, "Your tiny little cock must be trying it's hardest to stand up straight right now, huh?"
The man laughed as he leaned off of his sword.
"As mouthy as ever I see. Except... from what I remember, when you left us you seemed to have so very little to say, didn't you?"
Serra continued to smile playfully, but I noted that her hands seemed to tighten about the handle of her hammer, and even as she continued to put up a show of indifference, I could see subtle signs of worry in her movements.
Who was this man, and why was he getting to her so easily?
It was such an uncharacteristic reaction that I immediately made to move closer to her side, but Kelly's hands suddenly reached out, stopping me.
I shot her a questioning glance but she merely shook her head in response.
"Still holding onto that, huh?" Serra asked, putting a hand on her hip as she continued, "Well... I guess I've put this off for long enough anyway, huh. So how do you want to settle this? One on one or-?"
A loud, wicked laugh suddenly echoed across the room as Tsun regarded Serra with great amusement.
"Oh, my poor darling Serra. Did you really think I came all this way just to kill you?" he asked, and she bared her teeth for just a second as he continued playfully: "No, no, no, my love. This won't end quite so pleasantly."
Tsun snapped his fingers, and figures shrouded in black robes immediately began to emerge from the walls about us.
The attack was sudden and havoc ensued as the scouts positioned about the hall were suddenly exposed to close range attackers, and having prepared ranged weapons for the engagement, they were quickly overwhelmed.
Kelly quickly fired some waves of fire across the room to help the scouts, and I ducked out of the way of a few arrows, drawing my rapier just as a robed figure emerged from the ground between us.
He drew a longsword and swung at Kelly, but I was quickly on him, and I deflected the blow from the side before turning on him and quickly jabbing at him with my rapier.
My attacks were quick, and just as I slipped past his defences stabbing at his shoulder, a searing burst of flame swept past me.
He leapt away and dodged the initial burst, but the wave burned its way across the ground and he yelped in pain as it tore across his chest.
"Heat metal!" Serra chanted, and I glanced over as Tsun's armour momentarily glowed red with heat, but he cackled gleefully as the spell appeared to have no effect.
"Seriously, Serra?" he asked, "Is that how
lowly
you think of me?"
"Gotta cover my bases," she countered, smirking as she moved in and swung her hammer at him.
"Back up the scouts with Diego and Dana," I muttered, but as I turned to join Serra's side, Kelly pulled me back.
"No. We need you here," Kelly countered, as she waved her hand, aiming a burst of fire at another figure that was shooting arrows at us from the far wall.
"Dana's built her character as a full caster, and Diego has no battle experience. Serra can handle herself," she continued.
A few more arrows fired at us, and as we took evasive action, I did a quick analysis of the situation.
The sentries were being pinned back, and David, Pete and Karn were desperately trying to control the enemy's ranged attackers leaving our own spell casters quite vulnerable.
From a strictly tactical perspective, Kelly was right.
Covering our spell casters was a given.
But was that really the right decision right now?
With me at Serra's side, we should be able to take down Tsun pretty quickly, and given that he seemed to be the leader of the enemy party, wouldn't that be the best approach?
I cast one more worried glance at Serra as she engaged with Tsun, when Kelly shoved me out of the way of an arrow.
"Quit sleeping," she scolded me, and I gulped before responding with a quick nod.
"Okay. Let's do this," I called, and as Kelly nodded back a little smile appeared on her lips for the first time it seemed since I came back from my misadventure with Dana.
"Cover me for a sec," she muttered, and I swung my rapier at a couple incoming arrows as she began to rapidly chant a series of incantations.
I kept a lookout for incoming attacks, but out of the corner of my eye I watched with interest as Kelly excavated a giant stone ball from the floor about us and quickly liquefied the core into molten materiel.
"Nightmare!" I chanted, and a little spark to our left went out just as one of the enemy wizards tried to focus a fireball blast around us.
I deflected another incoming arrow, but the Kelly had begun to move the giant stone ball in a circle about us, and as it picked up speed it began to deflect the incoming attacks on its own.
She shot me a quick glance and I quickly took the hint, leaping to her side and placing a hand on her hip.
"Synergy," I chanted, and as my magic began to flow into her, the stone sphere began to crackle, molten rock now dripping from its hyper-heated core.
Kelly raised her hands and I gasped as she suddenly floated off of the ground, her hair turning red and a fiery aura momentarily outlining her form.
She shot me one more look before swinging her hands and launching the rock in the direction of a group of robed fighters who were locked in combat with Mackenzie and David.
Mackenzie rolled away and David crouched down behind his shield just as the rock exploded into the floor beside them, and I watched with fascination as the impact knocked several enemy players off of their feet, showering some of them with burning hot debris that left them writhing in agony.
"Christ. How many spells did you just chain?" I asked, unable to hide how impressed I was.
"Four," she replied, a little hint of blush on her cheeks.
I studied her with admiration, as even using a single spell while maintaining concentration took me weeks of practice to perfect.
I knew that sorcerers were easily able to cast several spells in succession with their
flexible casting
ability, but I'd never seen anyone chain that many high level spells without complete loss of concentration, and Kelly hardly seemed affected by the effort.
It put out a hell of a lot of damage and quick, but it quickly drew a lot of enemy glances in our direction and I pulled Kelly with me out of the way as a spear came hurtling in our direction.
Two cloaked figures with swords drawn quickly followed in the wake of the ranged attack, and they were on us before I could draw them far enough away from Kelly.
"Fire shield," she chanted continuously, raising little waves of flame to shield us from several attacks.
As Kelly covered me, it was easy enough for me to jab at them with my rapier, but two more figures swept in to join them making the situation a bit more difficult.
As I parried a blow and Kelly's shield deflected another incoming spear, we took a step back.
This was no good.
We were pretty much pinned down.
Kelly could shield me well enough allowing me to counter attack, but as a non-martial class my damage output was scarcely enough to keep our attackers at bay.
My dexterity stat was high enough that it would be easy for me to dodge on my own, but that would leave Kelly vulnerable and she would never have enough room to get enough of her high damage spells off anyway.
Unless...
"I have an idea," I muttered, and Kelly nodded absently as she focused on shielding us.
"Puppet master,"
I whispered, and Kelly gasped, eyeing me briefly with uncertainty before allowing my spell to take effect on her.
