Nova terra kingbreaker t.., p.41
Nova Terra: Kingbreaker (The Titan Series Book 3), page 41
“Oh, I’m happy you could help us, as well.” Thorn pulled the dwarven earth map they had agreed to trade from his inventory and rolled it around like a marble. As he was about to hand it over to the beautiful leader of Eastern Alliance, a cough came from behind him, and Velin stepped forward, plucking the dwarven earth map from his large hand.
“Ehem, excuse me.” Velin’s voice was polite, but Thorn knew her well enough to tell that she was annoyed for some reason. With her other hand, she gently pushed against Thorn’s chest, causing him to take a small step backward. Not short herself, Velin seemed to stand straighter than normal as she faced off against the beautiful leader of Eastern Alliance.
“Haha, now that is a pleasant sight, huh, kid?” Cackling, Baxby elbowed Thorn as he pointed toward the Elven War Priestess and BurningCloud. The two women did present a pretty image as they stood together, Velin’s cold elegance contrasting with BurningCloud’s passionate force.
Coming to a stop within half an arms length of Velin, BurningCloud examined her closely, running her eyes up and down the Elf’s slim figure. Velin matched her stare for stare, not giving an inch. The tension that had just drained from the scene reappeared as neither woman spoke. Finally, after looking thoughtfully between Thorn and Velin, BurningCloud’s smile grew even sweeter, and she giggled.
“Protective, aren’t we? Still, I can see why. What do you say, shall we trade?”
If Thorn had been looking very closely, he might have caught the hint of red that sprang to Velin’s cheeks at BurningCloud’s words, but as it was, he was too busy trying to figure out why the two women were standing so close together.
“Of course. That’s why we are here, after all. Here you go.” Velin’s tone was cold as she held out the dwarven earth map she had taken from Thorn’s hand. BurningCloud held out her hand as well, and both women simultaneously reached for the orb held by the other woman. Behind Velin, Thorn tensed slightly as he watched the exchange, ready to charge into action at a moment’s notice should he detect any sort of foul play.
It was not until Velin took a step back, the trade complete, that Thorn relaxed. He was about to take the dwarven earth map from her but the War Priestess handed it to Baxby first. Flipping it over a couple of times, Baxby examined it closely for a few minutes before nodding.
“It’s the real deal, alright. We got the right one.”
“Don’t you have to turn it on?” Thorn whispered, looking down at the inert chunk of metal.
“Nah, when you rotate the plates, it shows you what sections of the labyrinth it covers. Its those runic symbols down there.” Baxby pointed to a tiny row of incomprehensible symbols.
“Uh, sure. If you say so.” Thorn had no idea what the symbols meant, so he just shrugged and patted the treasure hunter on the shoulder. Velin and BurningCloud were still facing off, though they were no longer standing so close together now that the trade had been completed.
“So, what are these things, anyway?” BurningCloud tossed the orb Velin had just given her up and down in her hand. “We’ve done just about everything, but we cannot figure it out.”
Before speaking, Velin glanced at Thorn, who nodded. It had been part of the agreement to explain the Dwarven earth map’s function anyway, so there was little reason to conceal the information now.
“They are maps to the labyrinth. You have to get two of them in order to unlock the full map. We just traded you one of the air maps, but you will have to hunt for the other yourself. Each map activates when you bring it to the correct section, which is why you could not figure out what they were.”
“Oh, wow. Talk about bad luck.” BurningCloud smiled wryly. “I guess what you are saying is that we should have asked for more from you. Hey, relax. We already made the trade, and we won't take it back. Well, I hope it helps you.”
“Thank you.” Walking over to stand beside Velin, Thorn nodded to BurningCloud, his gentle smile back. “This will be a great help to us. Nova Luna will remember this favor.”
“Its nothing, so long as you remember it.” BurningCloud giggled again as her eyes slowly scanned Thorn. Covering her mouth with her hand, the guild leader of Eastern Alliance turned away and led her two companions back toward the Eastern Alliance team, leaving a puzzled Titan and a fuming Elf behind.
“Let’s go.” Under her cold expression, Thorn could tell that Velin was boiling. Or at least simmering. Shooting a curious glance at her as they walked back to the Titan squad, he considered asking if something was wrong. Eventually deciding to let her calm down first, Thorn ordered the Titan squad to move out, leading them back the way they had come.
Winding their way through the dungeon as they walked toward the entrance, everyone was in a good mood. Even Velin stifled whatever was bothering her and joined in the conversation. So far, it had been a smooth trip. Thorn had half expected to have to fight Eastern Alliance for the Dwarven earth map, but they had turned out to be much more compliant than he had anticipated.
*ding*
Friend Request: BurningCloud - Immortal Phoenix Warrior - Fiery Beauty
Accept
Reject
The friend request revealed BurningCloud’s class and her highest ranked title, giving Thorn even greater respect for her. Not only was she the second most powerful guild leader in Nova Terra, but she had a triple category class. On top of all of that, even the game recognized her good looks, an amazing feat considering that the system allowed for a 20 percent improvement.
Without knowing why, Thorn glanced at Velin out of the corner of his eye only to find her staring directly at him. Startled, he stopped walking and met her gaze. Behind them, the whole Titan squad stopped, looking around in confusion. After a moment of staring, Velin snapped out of her thoughts and continued walking as if the strange pause had never happened.
Looking after her, Thorn was about to open his mouth when he thought better of it again. Having lived with Athena for sixteen years before he began to play Nova Terra, he was well versed in dealing with mood swings and had learned that sometimes it was safer to just stay quiet. Resolving to talk to Velin later, he waved his confused guildmates forward and followed after Velin. The blinking friend request caught his attention once again, and he casually tapped the button to accept it.
After traveling for about half an hour, Baxby, who was walking in front of the group with Thorn, suddenly slowed down. The team was just about to enter a large room with a massive open furnace along one wall that spawned fire elementals at regular intervals when he brought everyone to a stop.
“Something the matter?”
“Shhhh.” Holding his finger to his lips, Baxby looked around at the room. A smattering of fire elementals had respawned since they passed by the first time, and looking over the room, Thorn could not spot any issues. Scratching his head, Thorn looked at Velin, who shrugged her shoulders.
“Did you find something?”
“If I did, it is nothing good.” Baxby peered around from under his thick eyebrows. “This room smells dangerous.”
“Uh. Like a trap or something? We cleared it without trouble on the way over here, so there shouldn’t be anything we haven’t seen.”
“No, this is different. Someone else has been here.”
“How can you tell?” Thorn examined the floor closely, looking for footprints. Unable to find anything, he looked at the old treasure hunter again. “I mean, it is not that I don’t believe you, but this is the way we get out of here.”
“I’m telling you, this is dangerous. My danger sense is tingling.”
“You have a sixth sense?”
“I don’t know about sixth, but it certainly is a sense.” Baxby, unable to actually spot any problems, started to take a step forward and then froze, slowly retracting his outstretched leg. “[Prescient Avoidance]. It has kept me alive more times than you can count. Perk of having gone through so many types of deadly danger in my life. This room is bad news.”
“Do we have another path?”
“Nah. Not if we want to leave from where we came in. This is a choke point. We could go around to the water section of the labyrinth, but that exit will drop us far away from the mine where we came in. No, our only real option is walking through.”
His face turning serious, Thorn buckled on his helmet when he heard Baxby’s words. If there was no way around the room, it meant cutting their way through whatever danger the treasure hunter was sensing.
“Suit up, folks. We might have trouble ahead.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
Behind him, the Titan squad straightened up, equipping their armor and readying their weapons. Cautiously, they followed Thorn as he advanced into the room, his tetsubo held ready. Not taking any chances, Thorn ordered three tanks to come with him, the four of them going out ahead of the group to tank the fire elementals. Soon the fire elementals fell to the ground, crushed by the focused attacks of the group, and the Titan squad was left standing in the middle of the room.
“Let’s move, folks. No reason to dawdle here.” The giant gaping furnace on the team’s right was making Thorn nervous.
“Uh oh.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Hearing Baxby’s voice, Thorn followed the old man’s gaze toward the doorway the team was headed for, coming to rest on twenty-five players with gleaming silver armor. Snapping his head around, Thorn could see more silver-armored players walking out of the doorway the team had just come from, trapping the Titan squad neatly in the middle.
“Uh oh is right.”
The flickering orange light cascading from the giant furnace cast a malevolent gleam on the silver armor of the approaching Silver Guard. Stretched across both entrances into the room, the team from Ragnarok had come prepared for war. Each Silver Guard held a tall kite shield in front of them, creating a solid wall of metal between the Titan squad and the exits.
Slowly the Silver Guard closed in, maintaining their perfect ranks, only stopping when they were forty feet away. With a shout, all of the Silver Guard lifted their shields and drove the pointed ends into the stone floor.
*CRACK*
With a loud sound, the shields sank a few inches into the floor, sending a cloud of dust and stone chips into the air. Tightly packed together in the center, the Titan squad shifted nervously as the dust blew over them. Standing head and shoulders above the rest of the team, Thorn stood like a solid mountain, unmoving as he scanned the Silver Guard, looking for Sylith.
As the dust cleared, the shields of the Silver Guard came into view, silver light coursing over them. Evenly spaced, the shields stuck into the stone floor pulsed with energy, creating an ephemeral wall of illusory kite shields that stretched the whole way across the room. Next to Thorn, Velin paled.
“Uh oh is right.” Mina unconsciously repeated Thorn’s words from moments before, her eyes wide as she stared at the barrier. “This is trouble.”
“I knew something was wrong.” Baxby spit on the stone, his saliva boiling as it hit the hot floor.
“What is that?” Thorn had drawn his tetsubo and pointed it at the shield.
“That, friend, is the [Invulnerable Silver Aegis].” From the entrance at Thorn’s back the familiar gold and purple armored figure of Sylith appeared. Walking casually forward until he was right behind the line of Silver Guard, he patted one of his men on the shoulder, the clanging ring of metal grating in the Titan squad’s ears.
“Invulnerable, huh?” Thorn’s voice was heavy as he turned around to face Sylith. About to take a step forward, he felt Velin’s hand on his arm.
“Don’t be hasty, Thorn.” The Elven War Priestess had a serious expression on her face.
“Yeah, Thorn. Don’t be hasty.” Sylith grinned mockingly. “Besides, now that we’re both here and you can’t go anywhere, how about we have a little chat?”
“What would we have to chat about, Sylith?” Taking a deep breath, Thorn forcibly calmed himself down, stifling the burning desire in his chest that was telling him to throw himself at the enemy with abandon.
“You know, I’ve always felt like we were never able to have a real, honest, man to man conversation before.” Oblivious to Thorn’s struggle, Sylith spoke casually. “Our discussions have been so rushed and under pressure. So I thought it would be nice to arrange some time to chat.”
“You could have just called.”
“Haha, funny. You know, that is what I like about you. Your humor. Oh, and your naive optimism. That is quite the endearing quality, as well. If only you could get rid of your annoying habits, you might even be pretty tolerable. What do you say we have a discussion, Thorn?”
“Huh. You trailed us into a dungeon and trapped us here to throw weak insults at me?” Thorn’s eyebrows rose under his helmet. “Even if you don’t have better things to do, Sylith, Nova Luna does. Please move aside.”
“See, that is what I am talking about.” Grimacing dramatically, Sylith shook a finger at Thorn. “This is one of your annoying habits. You don’t listen. No, I didn’t come here to ‘throw weak insults’. I came here to talk. But in a proper forum. See, after meeting you, I realized something. You’re used to being a bully, Thorn. You have strength and size, and you don’t hesitate to throw them around when you are faced with something, or someone, you don’t like. Just like a wild dog, snapping at everything around them.
“Tell me, Thorn, how do you go about dealing with a wild dog? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you.” Holding his hand up to keep Thorn from speaking, Sylith chuckled. “If you want to deal with a wild dog, you have to restrain it first. There is a reason humans invented collars and leashes, you know. If you don’t want to get bit, you start with a chain and maybe a beating or two. If that doesn’t work, you move on to a muzzle.”
“Done yet?”
“No, why would I be done?” Sylith cocked his head to the side. “I’ve got all the time in the world to chat with you now. The [Invulnerable Silver Aegis] is, as it is named, invulnerable, silver, and an aegis. You can see that it is silver, and as for being an aegis...”
“It’s a shield, I get it.”
Ignoring Thorn’s interruption, Sylith just grinned all the wider.
“An aegis, is a shield. That brings us to the last, but obviously most important point in this explanation, doesn’t it? The [Invulnerable Silver Aegis] is, at its core, invulnerable. That means that it cannot be broken. It is impervious to damage or harm. That is straight out of the dictionary, you know.”
“Is he normally this talkative?” Thorn leaned down to speak in Velin’s ear.
“No, something else is going on.”
“Alright, keep your eyes open.” Straightening back up, Thorn waited for Sylith, who was still prattling on about how impressive the wall of energy was, to take a breath. “I get it. The wall is tough. Get to the point, Sylith. What do you want?”
“What do I want? Why don’t we talk about what you have?”
“Here we go,” Mina muttered under her breath. “This the the Sylith we’re familiar with.”
“That is being a bit greedy, don’t you think?” Thorn tightened his grip on the handle of his tetsubo.
“No, I don’t think so.” Sylith shook his head. “I like to think of it as realistic. You and your team are going to die, from natural causes I might add, and I am going to be here to collect that map that you just traded from Eastern Alliance. If we can come to an agreement, you can walk free. You’ll have to leave the map, of course, but compared to losing the map and dying as well, I think it is the better deal.”
“How did you…”
“Find out about the map? Please, Thorn. You can’t be silly enough to think that you are the only one with an information network? Regardless of how we found out, here we are.”
The Silver Guard maintained their vigilant state, each of the silver-armored players holding their planted shield steadily. Even though they were taking no aggressive actions, the pressure they exuded just by standing there was starting to wear on the Titan squad. Thorn could sense the fidgeting behind him as his team tried to keep their composure. Realizing that the situation was starting to deteriorate, Thorn turned to Velin.
“What are the chances we can break out of here?”
“Next to none. The [Invulnerable Silver Aegis] is exactly what it sounds like. They can’t move, or attack, but it is impossible to get through from this side.”
“Have you tried before?”
“I haven’t, but I’ve seen other people try, and nothing can get through it.”
“Well,” Thorn drew his arbalest and leveled it at Sylith’s head. “Let's try it out.”
Sylith stood unmoving, a slight smile on his face as he stared at the massive bolt Thorn had pointed at him. With a whoosh, the bolt shot through the air, covering the forty feet almost instantly. Even with all their training, the two Silver Guard closest to the path of the bolt could not help but flinch as it approached.
