Trapped in a Game Pt. 04

"Serra," I muttered, half-smiling to myself.

I'd never thought I'd be this happy to see anyone except Kelly, but the situation was as dire as it could possibly be.

On either side of her, there were shadow monsters, and she seemed to be just barely holding her ground with a combination of shield spells and light-based disabling magic.

I picked up the pace, pulling Dana with me, and as we rounded the last corner a thunderclap exploded down the hall.

Figures. Of course she'd figure out their weakness already.

She was Serra after all!

I tore down the corridor and as she came into sight I ran to her side, smiling stupidly, but to my dismay she didn't seem happy, or even in the least bit surprised.

Instead she grasped me roughly by the nape of my shirt and shot me an angry look as she yelled:

"Jesus Christ, Josh. What the fuck took you so long?!"

A spiky protrusion shot out at us, and Serra and I leapt away from each other as it passed dangerously between us.

"Dana!" I called, and as she nodded, I reached towards Serra who instinctively gripped the handle of her hammer tightly.

"Thunderclap!" Dana yelled, and as soon as the echo of sound erupted from the ground at her feet, I steadied my aim at the nearest monster, and as soon as his form wavered into sight, I launched my attack:

"Catapult!" I chanted, launching Serra towards the monster, and a brilliant explosion of light erupted as her hammer crashed full on into the beast, shattering it into a million little shadowy pieces.

Another monster to Serra's right quickly took a swipe at her, and I fired a sonic disruption in its direction as she rolled out of the way then charged at it with a smite empowered swing.

She landed three quick hits, and as Dana continued to back us up with thunderclap, and Serra and I quickly struck at it in harmonious tandem. Another monster or two began to steadily fire shadowy spiked rods at us from the wall to our right, but we were able to dispatch of the monster in front of us as it made a subdued attempt to retreat to the safety of the wall.

"How many were there?" I asked.

"Four," came her immediate reply.

"What's the plan? How do we get out?"

"Get out? What're you talking about?" she muttered derisively, as Dana quickly moved over to join us. "Now that I'm here we just need to get rid of this 'plus one,' then we can live out our days happily in the peace and quiet of this wonderful realm," she continued, waving a hand merrily with her trademark flourish.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Dana muttered through gritted teeth, but I merely rolled my eyes as I waved off the comment.

"She's kidding," I responded dismissively, "come on, what's the plan?"

"Aww... couldn't you let me fuck with her just a little?" she whined with a pout, but Dana didn't seem to be entertained in the least.

"Is she always like this?" Dana asked, and I nodded:

"At least now someone knows what I've had to put up with- ugh, hey!" I complained as Serra quickly nudged me much harder than I'd considered playful, before pulling me in close:

"Could you not flirt with everything that has breasts?" Serra muttered, and a quick blush appeared on my cheeks with the sudden unexpected accusation.

"It's really not like that," I muttered, but her glare didn't waver as she let me go.

"Some thanks I get for saving your ass," she mumbled angrily, "and even when I told you not to do anything stup-!"

I cut her off as I wrapped my arms about her in an exaggerated show of appreciation.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," but even as she shrugged me off, I noted a little indistinct smile appear on her face as she glanced once more at the wall where the shadow monsters had been, before turning her gaze upwards.

"Did they run off?" Dana asked.

"Dunno," Serra muttered distractedly, as she began going through her inventory. "Ah, here it is!" she announced, as she withdrew a scroll from her inventory and held it up proudly.

"Scroll of sending," she chanted, and the scroll dissolved in her hand as she activated the item.

Sending.

It was a spell which allowed a player to send a message to anyone anywhere, even if that person was on another elemental plane or even in an altogether different dimension, and a few moments after the spell was activated, a swirling vortex of energy began to open in front of us.

"Get ready to run," she ordered, but as Dana stepped towards it, Serra raised a hand to stop her.

"Hold on," she muttered, and as we took a few steps back, a huge smile appeared on my face as Kelly stepped out of the portal, immediately followed by a timid looking guy with red hair and square rimmed glasses.

I immediately took a step towards Kelly, but she had scarcely looked at me when she muttered, "you grab Josh, I'll get the other priest."

"Will do," the man muttered, quickly grabbing my hand and taking off for the passage to our rear.

As I followed along with the stranger, I glanced back at Kelly, trying to figure what was up, and as I did I saw a momentary glint of sadness in her eyes.

What the hell was that?

I barely had time to process the thought when we ran head first into another swirling vortex of light, and I gasped as I suddenly felt myself being pulled through a tunnel like vortex, only to be thrown unceremoniously back into the familiar stone walls of the underground vampire lair.

I gasped, my breath caught at the suddenness of the change of surroundings, but as I looked around I saw the familiar faces of Kelly's party and Mackenzie's scouts, and just a moment later, Kelly appeared, with Dana and Serra in tow.

"Rescue complete!" Serra announced, and Pete, Karn and David immediately moved to Dana's side, obviously quite happy to see their comrade return unhurt.

"Your group really cares about you," the man at beside me noted, and I nodded uneasily at him as I once more realized that not only had Kelly not immediately come to my side, but she was altogether avoiding my eyes.

I moved to begin walking over to her, but just as I did, she moved into the midst of her party and joined them in welcoming Dana back.

Dana shot me a questioning glance, and I did my best to stifle my unease as I shot her a quick reassuring smile before slumping to rest on a bit of rocky rubble next to the strange man.

"So you're the infamous gloom stalker, eh?" the man asked, and I rubbed my head bashfully at the mention.

"I- uh, yeah... I guess I am," I muttered bashfully, and he chuckled in response before adding:

"You're nothing like the ruthless daredevil I expected."

I blushed a little, and rubbed my head uncomfortably again.

"I didn't get your name," I muttered, offering my hand and he quickly dusted off his hands before getting to his feet in a huff.

"Oh my, where are my manners? My name's Diego. I'm a contact and friend of Mackenzie's... although I haven't really done anything in the field like this before. Wouldn't have agreed to come out for just anyone, but hell- when the twilight princess messages you personally, it's difficult to say no."

"Oh, I see," I muttered thoughtfully.

"She really cares about you, huh? To be honest, no-one ever expected to see her teaming up with anyone after... well, you probably know..." he added suggestively.

"Uh- yeah, I guess..." I muttered, trying to hide my confusion.

There was so much about Serra that I didn't know.

"She offered to pay me quite a bit. But I refused. I think it's high time we banded together to stand up to these cheats. No-one is safe as long as they keep using their cheat items and murdering players, hiding behind their anonymity."

I guess Serra knows about the cloaks now too, I thought, but as I glanced over at her I suddenly noticed that she was casting furtive glances at Kelly as she disinterestedly chewed on a piece of bread.

Did something happen between those two?

Earlier, there had definitely been a kind of rivalry growing between them, but this was different.

It was a kind of coldness that I'd not seen coming at all.

The matter was weighing heavily on mind, but as I returned my glance to Serra I noticed that Mackenzie had walked over to her and was speaking into her ear in a hushed whisper.

I was contemplating walking over to see what was up when Serra's eyes went wide, and the piece of bread that she had been picking at slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

She immediately looked around until she spotted me, then dashed to me in a hurry, taking my hand and pulling me with her:

"I need you to leave."

"Wha-?"

"There's a passage that exits on the Eastern side of Karach. I'll message you the directions on how to get to it. It's guarded by a Minotaur but you can avoid him if you're careful."

"Serra what're you-"

"Josh! If you don't listen to me ever again, I won't mind, but just this once, I need you to listen to me."

Her tone was serious and pleading.

I'd never seen Serra talk like this before.

"Just tell me what's going on."

"Look, Josh, there's no time. Just take Kelly and leave right now. No-one will take this route because it's inconveniently long, it exits in the middle of nowhere, and the Minotaur is basically a mini-boss. Get out, find yourself a safe zone, then message me and I'll meet up with you when I can."

I glanced over Serra's shoulder where everyone seemed to be moving about in an agitated way.

Mackenzie was directing her scouts to various firing positions about the chamber, and even David and Pete were switching over to full battle armor.

They're preparing for an attack.

But that didn't make sense.

If they were going to fight, then shouldn't I be here to fight too?

Why was Serra sending me away?

"Get Kelly and go! Now!"

"No. You're being ridiculous. Just let me-"

"Josh, just this once? Please!" she pleaded, and I stared at her in shock.

What the hell could possibly make Serra get this spooked?

I was still trying to process the absurdity of it when an explosion erupted from one of the upper chambers to our left.

"Shit," Serra cursed, and as I looked around I noticed that astral prisons were slowly appearing over every exit from the main chamber room.

"Stay with Kelly!" Serra barked, before moving to the fore to stand beside David and Mackenzie.

Diego shot me a nervous look, and we quickly moved to join Dana and Kelly, who were standing in a position of relative safety, a few feet behind the rest of the group.

Mackenzie's scouts were standing about the room with crossbows drawn and ready to attack, and as soon as I got into position I noted that Serra had sent me a quick message, but as I opened it up expecting some instructions or a plan of attack, the note simply read:

"Stay away from me."

Another explosion sounded, and this time a huge chuck of stone came crumbling to the floor from the upper chamber, and a sizeable hole appeared in the upper chamber wall.

I stared up at the wall as a tall man with jet black hair, and wearing brilliant white armor, stepped into view.

"Serrana Mayer," his voice called wickedly, as he looked down at Serra with a devilish gaze, "never in my life have I been happier to see you."

He brushed his hair arrogantly out of his face, and I followed his gaze to Serra, who was staring back at him intently with pure, seething hatred.