Chương 29: Her Real Target

Ch. 29: Her Real Target I couldn't be there every day for the early days of my sister's sickness, so sometimes she would have to hold her own hair back as she vomited into the toilet. I remember asking her what hurt the worst. She didn't tell me it was the fact that she couldn't keep food down. Or the fact that sometimes only bile would come up. Dory didn't mention the hair loss. She said it was that she felt totally alone. I tried and failed not to take that too personally, but I understood why she felt that way.

Her partner should have been there to hold her hair when I couldn't but he had been touched by the gods. He told her about how it was his calling. Dor was happy for him. But his star rose. The bright light of being a champion made the darkness of my sister's illness that much colder. He stopped contacting her. He stopped responding to her many calls. Eventually she stopped reaching out. He was in my field, so I still had to work with this asshole. But it made me seethe.

When he mentioned her in front of me, I and I had the chance to embarrass him in front of his god, I couldn't help but take it. Franz held his cheek, nursing the punch to the face I had given him, "What the hell, Drake! How are you still alive!?"

"You feel okay, Franz?" I asked. The snake's teeth collided with Kayla. She held her parry, preventing the teeth from snipping at her. Franz got up, gripping his axe tightly. He shook himself off but retreated. He opened his system and fidgeted with it as he said, "Yeah, nice. Glad to see you're okay. Verrrry… sad what happened." He clearly clicked on some kind of buff. Because his skin turned to scales.

"What is even the point of trying to gaslight me now, man? I saw you do it."

"I bet you're wondering why I tossed you down the chute," He said.

"It's your mission," I said, "you're with Sutra, the Basilisk God and you're probably tasked with betraying your teammates or killing champions or something. Is that it?"

"Y-yes. How did you know that?" Franz and I had sort of broken off from where Kayla and the snake were. She held off against it, but since there was no more standoff between the three, they were able to engage in a one on one. Leaving Franz and me to talk.

"It wasn't that hard to piece together. Sutra normally taps the pieces of shit to do her dirty work."

"I'm sorry it has to end this way. But I have to kill you first, and I have to finish off Kayla before the snake gets her." I smiled, "I'm actually really happy you and I could get some face time together." Franz looked taken aback.

"I don't know if your recent wins have given you a false sense of confidence… but I'm still a champ and you're an NPC. This isn't going to end well for you. See these scales? They're armor. Even a champ with a battleaxe couldn't get through these. Just because you've gotten the come up on some mindless monsters doesn't mean the same thing is going to happen now."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

"Okay…" He said it meekly, unsure where I had this endless wellspring of confidence, "I'm going to kill you now."

"Don't sound so cut up about it! I know you've got a real knack for betraying the members of my family."

"That's low."" I'm the asshole?" I asked, "You're about to stab me and I'm the jerk for bringing up what you did?" He didn't respond. He swung his axe, launching a band of fire at me. I dipped below it, and he was on top of me instantly. He dropped with a swing from his axe. The unsteady sand made it hard to move quickly, so I used Cloudstep to form a solid base and leapt backward. A geyser of sand erupted from where his axe landed. I had fallen on my back and he'd taken notice.

He ripped toward me, lifting his axe to strike.

"Sorry for everything," He said, almost remorseful.

"No, you're not." With his full champion strength, he dropped his fiery axe on me. I reached my hand out and grabbed it, stopping its movement dead in its tracks.

"What the-" I kicked him in the stomach, he skipped along the desert floor and rolled to a stop. He got up, dazed, I didn't let him recover. I leapt into the air and guillotined my leg down on his gut. Blood shot out from his mouth.

"How the hell did you-" I grabbed his collar and pulled him up, then punched him across the jaw again. He fell to the ground.

"You're a pawn, Franz," I said, "Just being used by Sutra. You know why she gave you that mission?" Franz stumbled to recover. I looked over, Anubis was still focusing her energy up on the balcony, the ball was as big as a beach ball now. I turned back to Franz.

"Who knows why the gods do anything?" He spit out. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"The gods are playing a game with all of our lives. She just wants you to whittle down the competition. She's just using you to do the dirty work." Franz finally came to a wobbly stand, "You're just an NPC. What do you know?"

"NPCs punches all hurt that bad?" I asked. Kayla screamed, "Snake!" The snake had gotten away from Kayla and made an attack on us. I jumped upward and let it take Franz. Its bite could not pierce his scales but the pressure of the mouth closing still hurt him. Franz took the butt of his axe and slammed it against the snake's eye. This caused it to recoil backward. Kayla's eyes were on me.

"Drake… how did you do that?" I said, "I've been taking acrobatics at the local community college. Franz, you still have a chance to not be a total tool, okay? You don't have to follow through on this mission." The snake had slithered backward to recover from the damage to its eye. Kayla's head bounced between the two of us, and occasionally back up to Anubis. Franz scoffed and said, "You don't know what it feels like. You've always been a loser. You can take it. But me… I was blessed.

I was blessed and it felt good. When Spiros' touch left me… I felt nothing but cold."

"So you're still planning on betraying us?" I asked. He got up and held his axe out, "All the other gods thought I was cursed. I was the follower on the mission when Spiros died. Sutra was the only one who would touch me. But she told me she'd give me her nastiest missions. So yeah, I'm going to finish the job." I showed my teeth when I smiled.

"Good."

"We have to work together!" Kayla screamed.

"I'm going to make this quick!" I yelled at her. She stared at me gobsmacked but I pointed at the snake and she remembered where her attention was needed, she wanted to say more but she ran toward the snake. Meanwhile, Franz made his move. He launched at me with his axe. I dipped behind him and clicked him in the back. He fell forward.

"Did you just shoot me?!"

"I don't know, can you still stand up?" He reached for the spot I'd flicked him in, checking his scales for blood. He faced me. I beckoned him and said, "Try again." Franz threw a band of fire with his axe. He used that as a distraction, jumping into the air and attacking me from the side. I let the fire hit me and grabbed his axe out of mid air, blocking his attack. The axe was around two inches from my forehead when I grabbed it. I then twisted and kicked the handle with my foot, breaking it in two.

His eyes wide he said, "How!?"

"One more chance. I'll give you one more chance then its lights out. Kay?" He scoffed at me as he placed his hand on the knife in his holster, "So you're a champ! Fine. Great, you pulled the wool over some god's eyes and got their powers. You still can't pierce my scales and I'm still going to finish the job. Venomous Cloud!" A purple fume escaped his mouth, quickly filling up an invisible square around him and me. The venom blotted out the sun and covered me completely.

He approached with his traitorous knife, his vision also obscured. It was like a thick abrasive fog had been cast all around us, and we were no longer in the desert but a deadly geyser with sand as our ground. He saw me for a brief second. He ran over and struck in the deep purple haze.

"Hey, I wonder if this box works both ways," My voice called out.

"Where are you!?" He demanded.

"Isn't this supposed to be your trap?" I asked.

"I… I'm still new to these powers," he admitted, "I haven't used this one yet."

"Damn, a new experimental power used on me. I'm flattered. But I've got a powerful breath as well." And I cast Firebreath. Only a little. But the fire overtook the poison and burned him in the center of the square. He howled in pain and the concentration of the spell was broken. I approached him, he turned to me as I struck with my knife. Even on fire, he was able to dodge backward.

"Who gave you this power!?" He yelled.

"You know, I wasn't pissed you left her," I said as I elbowed him in the face. He dropped to the ground. I placed myself on top of him and pummeled him with my fist.

"I'm glad you left her. I thought you were a piece of shit from the moment I set eyes on you. You were the reason I knew the 'touched' thing was all bullshit. No way a just god would give a turd like you such power." I slammed my fist into his face again.

"No, leaving her was a kindness. Frankly, I'm pissed you ever met her at all." I raised my fist again but I felt a prick at my side. There was a knife with a stone handle dug into my stomach. It hurt but what's worse is that the area around my wound was becoming stone. He gave me a shit-eating grin as I stepped backward. I fiddled through my system and used Inspect on it. Stone Knife If hit in a critical spot with under 50% health, the enemy will turn to stone"Huh, this probably would have worked.

But I have a power that slowly heals me when I'm with my party members." His smile faded and his eyes widened with realization. I cocked my head at him as I ripped the knife from my hand and approached him, "Get it?"

"But… but… but… he..."

"Hey… if… I'm Spiros now, doesn't that mean you should worship me?" I stabbed him in the neck with the knife.

"No champ could pierce your skin? What about a god?" As his consciousness faded, the look of horror and realization would be burned onto his face as a statue. I smiled at my handiwork before turning. Kayla was losing with the snake. I would have to handle it quickly, 5000 exp and an evolve point be damned. My teammate was losing. I looked over at Anubis. She was staring right at me. I waved, as I did the first time I'd met her. But her hands were full with the energy ball. Would she use it on me? I'm so close.

She did not change her position at all. Merely kept facing southward.

"What are you aiming at!?" I called to her. She didn't respond. I stood there, looking backwards. There was nothing for miles… the only thing was…. The hellmouth. She wasn't charging her attack to get me. Anubis had bigger plans in mind. She was going to send a bomb to our homeworld.