Chương 65: Said the Spider to the Fly

Entering: A Meal of My Sin's Marrow Danger Level: Low: Act I Low: Act II Room Description: I make room. To die room. No powers, only tapering death. They feel all the death Kettering feels and choke on same fear. Naked together. Shock. Distance. Sorrow. Kettering will dwindle and be forgot but room will only eat and eat. Abilities: Deactivated [Combat Initiated] >>George! There is no shelter in this room. Climb, now! But George didn't move. He looked for Cassie. He thought of his family quest.

The room was like being inside an inverted pyramid with large stone steps instead of smooth walls. The steps formed a colossal four-sided pit descending toward a sunken center in perfect symmetry. Each terraced step was as wide as a street and as tall as a person. The higher George looked, the vaster the room became, as the sloped walls created a large funnel of empty space with each rising terrace. But all the players were together at the bottom of the pit.

[Ability Orb (Sarala) Check Out Any Time You Like: Permanently seal two portals in a hunting room.] [Ability Orb (Sarala) Murk nimbus: Emanate a stream of dense gas from a fixed point for the duration of the hunting round.] [Ability Orb (Sarala) Night Moves: Forgo the current hunting round and teleport instantly to the voting room.] A flash drew George's attention, and Sarala was gone. In her place, a plume of black gas began to slowly billow out from where she had been standing.

"Cassie! Climb!" George shouted. She was across the room. There were a dozen people between them. Cassie said something back, but he couldn't hear what she said over the sound of people shouting and the loud ululating cry coming out of the voidling. The voidling turned toward the nearest person. It was Ezra. It threw itself on the necromancer and clamped its jaws around his neck while its hind legs tucked between them and tore into Ezra's abdomen. He couldn't even scream as the voidling bore down on him.

When the pair tumbled to the ground, George could only see his pale white face above a writhing, growling patch of darkness. [Voidling: Attacks Ezra. Ezra: Heavy damage.] Cassie had her teleport orb in her hands. >>Use the orb! Cassie looked at him and shook her head. —Together! >>George. Shield! >>Raise >>Your >>SHIELD! But George still didn't move. >>Everyone is here but Neco and Sarala. That is why Neco switched his vote to the slime and why Pine changed his.

Neco and Pine are the only ones who weren't teleported here. >>This was a damn good plan. She's trying to end the game right now. The black gas from Sarala's Murk Nimbus orb was spilling over the terrace edge in a slow black waterfall. Greesh disappeared in a flash of green sparks, even though there was no portal anywhere in the lower levels. [Ability Orb (Lady Greesh) Tuck Tail and Run: Create a single-use portal instance that teleports you to the nearest bound hunting room.] Even the two Concepts had been caught in Sarala's summoning. They hovered side by side on a terrace that overlooked the developing carnage below them. Both of them seemed more active than they had ever been in the voting room. The rings around Imbalance were spinning faster, and the metallic rune that represented the Concept of Metamorphosis flashed with bronze light each time it changed. [Ezra: Fatal damage. Ezra: Second Incarnation—Troll Gremlin] TLX had quickly risen straight into the air and hovered high overhead. It floated there above them but made no move to attack. The chaos below was reflected in its bent, mirrored surface. June and Loveland had appeared beside each other. Loveland held his enormous sword in one hand while he helped push June up to a higher step with another. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Tinntannabel was running up tiers of the giant stair in great leaps. Her green cloak and red hair fluttered out behind her, and she jumped up one—sometimes two—tiers at a time. Top hadn't moved either. He was just standing there looking around with his mouth open. Tycho had pulled strange, webbed gloves from his backpack and was scaling the tall steps hand over hand like a lizard. The gnacker was menacing Aeternum, who seemed to take no notice.

The hyena creature raked its claws across Aeternum's crystal skin, but they left no mark. The pair had started on the lowest terrace, and Sarala's black smoke had begun to pool around their feet. A single vordigan had been caught in Sarala's teleport and it leaped onto the gnacker's back and dug in with its claws and tail. The gnacker howled and started to spin in circles. The patch of slime that had been teleported into the room had gathered itself upright into a swaying pile. It looked like a fat, headless snake.

Grey was protecting Misco behind her and drawing a hasty circle on the ground around both of them with a stylus that left behind lines of glowing red light. When she completed the circle, the whole thing—along with the patch of stone they were standing on—rose slowly into the air. Misco's eyes were closed. She was raining down flower petals again. [There are eight blue players in this room. Top of the Morning. Cassie. Tycho. The voidling. Hollywood Cole. Pine. Aeternum. The Concept of Metamorphosis. If we can eliminate enough of them and spare the red players, we will take control of this trial. —TLX]"Cassie! Use the orb now!" George shouted. His shout drew Hollywood Cole's attention.

"Deathmark!" Hollywood screamed and pointed at George.

"Saar!" George had almost forgotten about the brand on his face he'd received after killing Charlie. Pine had said Hollywood might have been able to sense it if they were close. Hollywood held up a black knife that looked tiny in his huge hand and began stabbing himself with it over and over. He stabbed it into his arms, legs, chest, and belly.. Hollywood shouted again, only this time the scream was louder. It seemed to resonate through the whole room. His skin began to bubble and distend.

[Hollywood Cole: Inflicts self with Body Knitter (Lex) (shard fragment).] As George watched, Hollywood began to grow. He walked toward George, still shouting Saar, and grew a foot taller between one step and the next. His voice deepened and his head stretched sideways and forward like an angry bull. [TLX: Attacks with Dart Riffler Multiple targets: Light-Medium damage] TLX sent a spray of shimmering silver darts downward into the mass of players. Many of them hit Hollywood's ever-growing body.

He roared again and shielded his face but couldn't seem to tell where the attack was coming from. A few darts rattled off of George's helmet and armor. Some struck the vordigan and the gnacker. They were still fighting down in the gas. It billowed away from them as they spun, but it was slowly filling the room's lower tier. Several of the darts hit Tycho, and he shouted something back up at TLX.

He took a large metal shield with an ornate insignia out and lifted it over his head, but it meant he couldn't climb and defend himself at the same time. At least one dart had hit Top in the head or neck and blood began to spill down the front of his body. He crouched down next to a wall and put his hands over his head. >>George. The concepts are here! >>Use that flare thing. Cassie said it triggered a boon. >>We need all the help we can get. It is worth a try.

George took the glowing sphere that they had found in their first hunting room out of his storage. It appeared in his hand, sparkling with yellow and blue light, a little smaller than a basketball. Suddenly, George heard a booming sound, and something slammed into his chest armor. The impact knocked him onto his back. The conceptual flair was knocked out of his hand and rolled to the edge of the step. [Pine: Attacks George with sniper rifle. George: Light damage.] George struggled to pull in a breath.

It felt like he'd been hit with a giant hammer. It did not feel like light damage. >>George. Goddammit! >>SHIELD! >>NOW! George raised the arm carrying the Silent Negation shield bracelet he'd chosen from the Trial Nine and activated it. A glowing oval of translucent light sprang out from the bracelet. The shield was weightless and was as tall as he was. He held his forearm in front of his body so that the shield covered him from head to toe as he lay on the ground, trying to breathe.

[Pine: Attacks George with sniper rifle.] George heard the report of the shot again, but he felt nothing when the bullet hit the shield. The bullet sent fractal cracks lacing through the force shield that disappeared in a second as the shield renewed itself. >>I've got his location. Highlighting it on the visor. A glowing circle appeared in his vision highlighting a hidden figure high up on a distant terrace. It was labeled with the word "Sonofabitch" and a doodled arrow pointing at Pine's improvised sniper nest.

>>That's why he changed his vote. Somehow he knew what room this was going to happen in. Maybe he saw something? Or maybe it was a guess? >>Hey, this voidmetal held up to that sniper round like a champ! >>(Thanks, Webb! RIP.) >>Keep that shield between you and—"Where is Cassie?" George said. He'd lost her in the chaos of being shot. He lifted his head up from the ground slightly to look at the room, careful to keep the shield between himself and Pine. Pine fired another shot, but this was aimed at June.

It struck her in the back as Loveland lifted her up to another tier. She screamed and was flung forward. Blood sprayed against the wall in front of her as the bullet passed through her. Loveland climbed up after her and sheltered her with his body. Another shot rang out and sparked off Loveland's armor. His sword was still down on the lower tier. He was trying to drag June's body toward the corner without letting any of it be exposed to Pine's attack and covering it with his own.

—June's hurt bad but she has an orb. —But he's coming for you! It's the only thought in his head. Cassie didn't mean Pine. She meant Hollywood. As the creature that Hollywood Cole was becoming continued to transform, he'd been taking slow steps in George's direction. Cassie had drawn her sword and sprinted up behind Hollywood, though he was now three times her size. She braced herself and swung her sword at the back of Hollywood's leg.

The lightning rapier sliced clean through a chunk of his calf and Hollywood roared again. He glanced down at what had caused the pain and one enormous hand fell toward Cassie, swatting her backward and sending her rolling along the ground. The sword spun out of her hand and fell into the black smoke. He walked over to her in two limping steps. She wasn't moving. —George! —Tycho is Max! —Your son! —Tycho is your son! Hollywood wrapped one hand around both of Cassie's feet and hoisted her up.

He swung her at the wall like a club, and she hit it with the crunch of breaking bones that George could hear over the noise in the room. Cassie's body hung limp as Hollywood lifted her again. He swung her at the wall, and her body left red marks when it hit.

"No!" George shouted. >>Cassie! Hollywood dropped her body and turned back to George. George cast draw on the conceptual flair, and the sphere came back to his hand. He willed it to activate, and it immediately disintegrated into a cloud of lights that drifted off and disappeared.