Dream Drive Ch. 10

"You know what I don't understand?" Hale asked.

Jackson slowly looked up. The portal behind Hale was glowing, filling the room with blood-red light. He seemed to have grown taller in the midst of the magic. His face was dark and unreadable, his body a shadow looming over the entrance to the mountain.

Jackson managed a grunt.

Hale spread his arms out. "You were here before me. Why didn't you take the power for yourself?"

For a moment, Jackson was confused, because it appeared that Hale had four arms. And then, as his eyes adjusted to the light, Jackson saw what was causing the illusion. He pointed. "It's behind you."

Hale frowned, and started to turn around. A long arm wrapped around him. The white shielding runes appeared to protect him, but he was trapped, encircled by the long limb.

The gargoyle's other arm waved across the shield. A black pentagram appeared in midair and gently touched Hale's magic. The white runes vanished.

Hale's face was mask of surprise. "Wha –"

The gargoyle's arm crushed inward, pinning him to its chest. The rest of Hale's words left his mouth in choking gasp. The other arm sliced in under Hale's neck, then pulled, decapitating him in an instant. The gargoyle casually tossed Hale's body away.

It was the exact same move it had first attacked Jackson with. As he stared into the beady eyes of the hunter, Jackson had no doubt that the move was quite intentional.

Wispy white smoke drifted out from Hale's corpse and into the gargoyle's long, slender arms. Essence. It just absorbed essence.

Jackson moved backward, away from the rattok, away from the gargoyle, one hand over his burns. The hunter followed casually, slowly, its gaze inspective and cautious. Maybe it suspected a trick. Jackson didn't know, but its hesitation was the only thing keeping him alive.

He checked his minimap. Rachel and Chaki weren't nearby. He was on his own.

His back came up against something. Jackson looked up. Another one of the golems. He was in another corner. The gargoyle bared its teeth and made a low, threatening sound. It paced forward.

He had to buy time. He used Piercing Howl. Essence formed into a cylinder and pulsed out at the creature. A casual swipe of its black pentagram dissipated the attack.

Jackson tried a Cyclonic Shockwave. The essence roared out of him, but the creature stopped it just as easily, swiping back with its opposite hand. Jackson shot a second in quick succession, and it batted it away again, switching off to the other arm.

There wasn't a cooldown time on his abilities, but there was a delay in which he grabbed and gathered the essence together for his attacks. The big combinations were useless. It could erase the magic as fast as he could create it. He needed to think of something else.

Jackson used Spear Wall. It was cheaper, faster – only 20 essence a pop. He cast it five times in succession, burning through 100 essence. Walls of spears made from light appeared between himself and the hunter, creating a layered enclosure that sealed him in.

The gargoyle growled and swiped one of its hands. The black pentagram flashed. On contact, the wall vanished. It paused a moment, then used its other hand, destroying the next wall. And then it removed the third wall.

Jackson leaned back against the statue and tried to think. He had no weapon. His combination attacks were useless. He had no health left. He was reduced to delaying it until help arrived or he could heal himself, and his delaying action wasn't working.

The gargoyle destroyed the fourth wall.

Jackson looked up at the statue. "Hey man. Seriously this time. A little help."

The gargoyle removed the last wall, the final barrier separating it from Jackson. It halted in front of him, breathing heavily between its fangs. It drew back its hand. Long claws extended from its fingers; they gleamed red in the light of the portal.

A fist of stone slammed into the top of the gargoyle's skull. It hit the floor of the cavern. The stone golem leaned over Jackson, then pounded on the creature, alternating its arms like unstoppable pile drivers. The gargoyle tried to raise itself off the floor a few times, but never got far before being hammered back down.

The fists seemed to puncture something, smashing through the monster's outer skin with a sick snapping sound. A sense of the thing's presence that had hung over Jackson vanished. When the fists struck, they began to do real damage.

The golem didn't stop punching until the gargoyle's body was pulped.

Jackson heaved in his breaths. The strong statue's fists halted, then it drew back. It stood straight.

Somehow, the hunter was still alive. Its head twitched slightly, spared from the onslaught of crushing blows. Jackson pushed up against the stone statue. He coughed, then winced. His chest was killing him.

He moved toward the hunter. Its eyes glared at him. Jackson lifted his foot, then stomped down on it as hard as he could.

Something cracked under his moccasin. The hunter stopped moving.

A great white cloud fluttered up above its remains. It rushed into Jackson. His blue bar increased in one enormous jump to over 2000 essence. Soft white light misted from his skin as he entered overflow.

Jackson's eyes turned up to the golem. "Um...thanks."

"It is our duty to guard the portal," the golem said. Its voice sounded like annoyed gravel. Its red eyes bore into Jackson. "Star-marked warrior. Seal the portal."

"I...uh..." Jackson trailed off. "About that. I actually need someone else to help. She's fighting some people that are trying to use the portal. So if you help us with those guys, we can get her in here and shut it down."

"Hmmm..." The golem rumbled in consideration. "Understood. Guide us to those that must be killed."

Jackson grinned, then winced. Moving his face like that made something sting somewhere. "Sure thing. One second." He picked himself up as gently as possible and inched toward where Hale had died. His finger hovered in the air, drawing the beginnings of a healing spell.

Immediately after he sent essence into the runes, he felt better; the pain was the first thing to subside. After a few seconds, his wounds started closing. It was a weird feeling of fleeting, transient itchiness, like little drops of water rolling down his skin. His awkward shuffle turned into a normal walk as he went back to normal. He wasn't certain, but he was beginning to suspect that Spirit Surge improved his magic as well.

After healing himself, he still had about 1600 essence, and it was bleeding off pretty quickly. Jackson put another 200 in Spirit, another 100 in Strength, and 100 in Vitality. After his latest near-death experience, he decided he wanted more health points. His essence stores stabilized at 1202.

Jackson stared down at Hale's headless body. The cut was clean, neat, exposing the round muscle of the neck and a clean white circle of bone in the center. Blood pooled below the wound. Jackson reached down and picked up an onyx cube from the stone. The second cube – one more than he thought he'd find – he had to pry from Hale's fingers.

The power inside the objects practically shouted at him. Jackson juggled them in his hands, almost dropping them before ending up with them cradled to his chest. It reminded him of the voice inside the halberd he'd been using, but this was different. Whatever was trapped in the halberd had been insane, uncontrolled. The voice in each cube was a steady chant. Sometimes it was loud, and sometimes soft, but always a single word, one for each of the cubes.

A Word.

Jackson realized his suspicions were correct. These things were the key to the other half of his magic – Compulsion. If he could figure out how they worked.

"Time...being wasted." A stone hand wrapped around Jackson's waist. For a moment, his brain stuttered to a halt in sheer panic. But the golem gently lifted him up and placed him on his shoulder. "Hold on," it grumbled. "Do we kill the other?"

Jackson frowned, then glanced where it was pointing. He drew back in surprise. The rattok was gone, and in its place was the old man. He wasn't moving, but he didn't look visibly hurt, and the golem implied he was still alive. Apparently Hale's transformation magic had been reversed upon his untimely death.

Hale was dead. The thought sat in Jackson's mind, turning over on slow roast. If he killed Tell'ad, he'd have fulfilled his quest. And thereby earn 5000 essence.

5000 essence.

It was a tremendous number. He killed hundreds of people out on the plains, with his cannon and with his spear. Including everything he'd bled away, he'd earned somewhere upwards of 4000 essence. So, after fighting against an entire army, he still hadn't reached the level of reward for this quest.

Even now, Jackson could use a spear to drill holes in metal armor and wrestle with werewolves. He could only imagine what he'd be like with thousands of points in strength. He'd be miles ahead of every other Isis player. He'd be able to keep the tunnel sealed and halt the progress of the game. He'd be able to experiment, figure out the math behind the Attributes, maybe discover new techniques or combine existing skills.

But Tell'ad hadn't attacked him by choice. He wasn't Hale's friend. He'd been enslaved.

Killing him was the same as accepting an offer from Lucifer. A deal with that thing was no deal at all. It was a trick in disguise. The man could be important in any number of ways Jackson didn't understand. The big number was seductive, but it was no choice at all.

"He's not our enemy," Jackson said. "He wants the portal closed too."

"Understood," the golem said.

And then the three sentinels marched out of the cavern with Jackson carried along for the ride.

Rachel slumped against the side of the cavern and hoisted her sword up again. Her stamina was running low, but the fucking assholes were relentless.

Shaka's magic was done. Rachel had killed at least two dozen of them with the speed boost, but the old lady had practically collapsed at the end of it. Chaki had to carry her back into the tunnel to get her out of the way while Rachel held off the army alone.

Rachel decided that when this was over, she was going to give Jackson a very, very stern talking-to.

Rachel ducked. A pike jabbed where her head was a second before. Rachel swept in toward the dick that tried to prick her, sliding the flat of her sword along his halberd's shaft so he couldn't try to bash her with it. He dropped the weapon and tried to pull his knife, but she closed the distance faster than he could get the blade out.

She activated Incisive and thrust the blade at his shoulder. Her weapon buried itself in the joints of his armor. Another incoming halberd stopped her from finishing the job. She pulled her sword free and stepped back from the axe trying to take her arm off.

The black-armored elites surged into the tunnel, immediately taking up the ground she gave. The wounded man was dragged back into their ranks. She was beginning to suspect that their armor had some kind of regenerative magic, but it was impossible to tell. There might have been 300 or 400 of them, and that was a long line when they were jammed into the tunnel. They were replaced faster than she could hack at them.

The good news was they could only take her on two or three at a time. More than that and they'd just get in each other's way. The bad news was that it was like a conveyor belt of black death. Rachel had Agility, but she didn't have any Vitality. She was getting exhausted. Her sword felt like a hunk of lead; her arms burned with every swing.

Two halberds came in at once, both aiming high. Rachel dipped her head. Another Halberd swept in from below, axe-blade aimed at her feet. She dived sideways and out the gap between the attacks and fell into a roll.

Another man behind those three shoved his way forward and tried to catch her when she got back to her feet. The point of his weapon sliced her ankle, but it was a shallow wound. She spun back to escape a follow-up slice. They all stepped forward.

Rachel wiped the sweat off her head with her free hand. She grabbed her essence to make her sword glow and took a step forward. The soldiers flinched back, raising their halberds up to form a defensive wall of spikes. She held there, keeping them in place with the unspoken threat.

She wasn't sure how long she could keep them pinned. If they all charged forward right now, she'd probably be overwhelmed. The only thing stopping them was her earlier slaughter. With Chaki and Shaka healing and strengthening her at the same time, she'd been able to cut a permanent sense of caution into their ranks.

A white arrow shot out from behind Rachel, sinking into the eye slit of a helmeted soldier. The man's halberd tipped out of formation as he fell to the ground, but the soldiers adjacent pivoted inward and closed the gap, mercilessly stepping over their comrade's corpse.

Chaki stepped up behind Rachel, another arrow already knocked. "She's safe."

"Finally," Rachel said. "My toes are going numb."

"I'm low on arrows," Chaki said. "Two left."

"We'll give a bit more and then rush and take some of the tunnel back. Make your shots count."

"Obviously," Chaki said.

"Getting snippy, are we?" Rachel said. "Good. I like 'em feisty."

"I can't contain myself in the face of your idiocy."

"It finally comes out," Rachel said. "I was wondering when you'd break down. Everyone does, eventually."

"Your jealousy is sickening," Chaki said.

"Jealousy?" Rachel said. "Why would I be jealous of some chunky-ass bitch with arrows stuck up her –"

An incoming halberd cut Rachel off. She swayed out of the way. Two others came in low, going for her legs. She flung herself backward to avoid the attack, then turned it into a roll and popped back up.

Chaki skipped back neatly beside her. Rachel made her sword glow and brandished it across her chest, stopping the halberdiers short again. She planted her foot and cleared her throat. "As I was saying. Arrows stuck up in your goddamn twat."

"I was unsure at first, but you made it pretty clear," Chaki said. "You only started acting like this after you saw me with Jackson."

"Jackson? That dumbass? That loser?"

"Jackson is neither," Chaki said. For the first time in a while, she took her eyes off their enemy. "Don't you dare insult him in front of me, you ungrateful, uncultured little clod of bison shit."

"Get over yourself," Rachel said. "I insult Jackson to his face all the time and he doesn't even care. Hell, he thinks I'm funny."

The halberdiers were getting rowdy, so Rachel dashed forward. One man stabbed for her, but she neatly dodged it. Another man swept his blade at her from the left, so she knocked the halberd that missed her up, intercepting it. The hooked weapons tangled up amongst themselves. They were sharp enough to cut bone, but they couldn't cut each other. Rachel withdrew out of their range.

"You might get away with insulting Jackson, but that's because he doesn't want to bother," Chaki said. She scanned the line of soldiers as they inched forward, looking for an opening. "You aren't funny. You're just annoying."

"Jackson doesn't seem to think so," Rachel said.

"I'll fix that shortly. He really ought to have more pride in himself."

"You can't let people be, can you?" Rachel said. "Always second-guessing, always insisting you know better, always butting in when you don't know shit. I've been around you for what, a few hours? I can already tell you're a grade-A control freak." Rachel snorted. "He's not even that good-looking. I don't care who he's fucking."

"Great," Chaki said. "Then you'll keep your giant nose out of things that aren't your business and clap politely at our wedding."

"Man, I almost feel bad for him," Rachel said. "But if he's dumb enough to marry you, he deserves what he gets."

"You might think you have a talent at getting under others' skin," Chaki said, "but you won't get under mine."

Rachel grinned. "Challenge accepted."

The halberdiers had been quiet while they conversed. Maybe they thought Rachel and Chaki were constructing some grand strategy. Rachel kept her eyes on their ranks; they were subtly positioning themselves, several layers deep. She bent her knees and stepped forward to bait the attack they'd set, trusting that her speed would get her out of the way.

Three halberds stabbed forward, one straight at her, one on either side, trying to prevent a lateral escape. Rachel duly stepped back.

Two men slipped between the three in front, lunging forward with their weapons. Rachel twisted between them and knocked both weapons wide with quick swipes of her sword – but there was almost no resistance. In fact, the two that just stabbed at her had knelt down.

Two more men emerged from the third row. They jumped off the backs of their kneeling compatriots and came down, leading with their halberds from above. At the same time, the three involved in the initial attack raised their halberds up and stepped in, keeping them locked in position like the bars of a cage. She was surrounded on all sides.

Rachel grinned. "Now!"

Chaki fired her arrows, one right after the other. They planted themselves in the armor of the lunging halberdiers, throwing off their thrusts. Rachel sprinted straight forward and dipped beneath the attack.

Rachel activated Chained Offensive Multithrust. The two kneeling halberdiers were caught totally defenseless. Her attack shredded their helmets and their faces.

The others were leaning away, trying to drag back their lone pole weapons to defend themselves. Rachel never gave them a chance. Her chain attacks doubled in strength with each iteration. She killed them faster than they could recover their balance.

After the front line was decimated, Rachel forcibly ended the chain early. It was an attack of opportunity; using it casually was too dangerous. She'd learned that the hard way earlier on.

Rachel took a deep breath, then dragged her sword up high and seized her essence. The blade flickered like a white-hot iron lamp, poised above her head. The halberdiers shuffled uneasily.

When Rachel's arms started whining that they were getting extremely tired, she lowered the sword and stepped back. An audible sigh of relief came from the elites. She smirked.

"Now what?" Chaki said.

"Can you do some more hocus pocus?"

"Some what?"

Rachel snapped her fingers a few times. "Abracadabra. Presto Change-o." Chaki's face was blank. "Magic,", Rachel said.

"Too little essence."

"You just killed those guys."

"I don't get essence that way," Chaki said. "I have to meditate for it. I don't choose where to place it like Jackson does."

"So what you're telling me is that you're a shitty tagalong familiar with no customization options," Rachel said. "He really needs to dump you on the side of the road and step hard on the gas."

"I'm not sure what bothers me more," Chaki said. "Your constant gibberish, or the fact that I know that somewhere inside it is an insult."

"You got that right," Rachel said. "Well, since you're now dead weight, I guess I have to do this all myself."

Chaki put up her fists. "Unlike you, I can fight without a weapon."

Rachel blew a few strands of sweaty hair back out of her face. And matted it down with a free hand. "I'm sure you'll do great against the wall of giant ten-foot scythes. Just get out of the way and let the big girls go to work."

"I'm not a child," Chaki said. "Your arrogance is beyond anything –"

"You don't even have any essence!" Rachel said, turning to her. "We're in the middle of a fucking fight! You know what Jackson said before he ran off? He asked me to hold them off, and you to back me up, because he knew that's all your good for. If Jackson didn't happen to run into you and rub his pentagram off on your hand, you'd be about as relevant as the rest of these fuckheads."