Meanwhile, Isaac had chased Polygraph_Jazz beyond the heavily constructed door and found himself flanked on all sides by barred cells. Most of them showed no signs of being occupied, but that wasn’t what interested him. Turning at the sound of movement, Isaac looked inside the first cell on his left, and found himself face to face with Tenshi.
“Hello, Isaac.”
“Tenshi!” Isaac ran to the bars.
However, before he could say anything more, Tenshi reached out and shoved him back with all her might, launching him into the cell bars on the opposite side.
Before Isaac could ask why, a thrown dagger ricocheted off the stone wall past where he had just stood. Turning, Isaac saw Polygraph_Jazz crouched against the back wall, another dagger ready to throw.
“Right, gotta kill that bastard first. Thanks, Tenshi,” Isaac muttered, aiming his pistol and pulling the trigger.
*Bang!*
The pistol exploded out of his hand, clattering against the floor, which now glowed with luminescent white runes.
“The hell?” Isaac shouted, as a thrown dagger caught him in the shoulder.
“Ah ah ah, no ranged weapons allowed!” Polygraph_Jazz wagged a finger. “You’re on my turf now, kid. You’ll be playing by my rules!”
“Gotcha, so you’re a Diffuser, then,” Isaac concluded, gingerly tugging the dagger out and picking up his fallen pistol. “I figured as much, the way you disarmed me when we first met. And, naturally, daggers are viewed as melee weapons by the game mechanics.”
“Naturally.”
“Alright, plan B!” Isaac shuffled backwards, feeling for the exit behind him, while keeping his eye on the enemy player.
“You think I’m gonna let you go so easy?” He flung another dagger at Isaac.
Not bothering to answer, Isaac dove backwards, dodging the projectile as he slammed his head on the ground outside the passageway.
“Owowowow!” Isaac complained, scanning the room. Over to the right, Marie and Jörmungandr were engaged in heated combat, Marie currently plowing into him with half a shelf. “Well, she looks like she’s in control,” Isaac surmised, chucking his pouch to the side, as he raised his pistol and intoned a skill.
“SNIPE!”
“SWAP!”
Isaac suddenly found himself facing the door at the back of the jail cell passageway, the pistol exploding out of his hands again as the room’s runes glowed angrily.
“Son of a…” Isaac swore, turning around to see Polygraph_Jazz grinning at him from his own former location across the hall.
“I figured you’d try that,” he admitted, drawing a Mauser C96 and resting the broomhandle stock against his shoulder. “Now you’re like a fish in a barrel, kid.”
Scrambling for the door, Isaac found it was locked tight. Diving back against the bars of the adjacent cell, he barely dodged the player’s fire as he unloaded his magazine from outside the runes. Sucking in his stomach and pressing up against the wall where it jutted out from the cell bars, Isaac winced as a bullet grazed his chest. There was a brief break in fire, and Isaac chanced a peak around the edge, ducking back as another two bullets clipped the wall.
“Bet you don’t know how many bullets are in a Mauser,” Polygraph_Jazz taunted. “That means you can’t count my shots. I could always fire one or two fewer before reloading, just to mess up your count. Think about it.”
Unfortunately, he’s not wrong, Isaac's mind raced. Still, I can’t let him think he’s got me on the ropes. “Doesn’t do you much good to keep me pinned here, you know,” Isaac called back. “I’ve got backup coming, even if Marie doesn’t beat your friend there. Do you really wanna be hanging around when they show up?”
“Big deal, I’ll bet the guards are on their way as we speak!” the player called back, snapping off another couple shots. “But you’re right, I ought to be aiming to kill you proper. Here’s what we’ll do. DEACTIVATE!"
In the silence after the gunshots, Isaac heard the footsteps of the bandit approaching.
“I’ve disabled the disarming runes. Your pistol’s lying there, a couple feet from your position. If you can grab it without me shooting you, you might have a chance. But if I can make it close enough to pick you off from an angle…”
*Bang*
Another bullet grazed Isaac’s chest, this one cutting even deeper than the first. Looking up, Isaac saw his pistol, lying scant feet from him. Could he reach it in time? If he took a bullet or two, would he still be able to fight back?
No. No matter how he looked at it, there was no chance.
*Bang*
Another bullet hit Isaac, and he grunted with pain, his shirt front red with blood.
*Clang*
Polygraph_Jazz froze. Clang? That wasn’t the right sound.
“Well, finally!” Isaac exhaled. “Good job, Chip.”
The bandit spun around to see a short-haired minion dangling from the now wide-open door to Tenshi and Riley’s cell, lockpicks still gripped in her chubby fingers.
“Shupau!” She grinned.
“Damnit, no!” Polygraph_Jazz spun back and forth between the cell and Isaac’s corner. “How the hell…?”
“Twitch can do anything I can do, and that includes summoning Minions,” Isaac explained. “Chip was made from the skill SNEAK, so she doesn’t make any noise whatsoever. It was an easy matter to leave my lockpick kit for her to pick up while I was outside the hall.”
“Hey old guy!” Riley’s voice could be heard from the cell, along with the grating sound of metal dragging on stone. “Ready to get yours?”
“No! No, no, no!” Polygraph dashed for the exit, shoving his key in as he rattled the handle. “Where the hell are those guards?”
“Ohhhh no you don’t!” Isaac jumped for his pistol.
“REACTIVATE!” Polygraph_Jazz commanded, as the room’s runes flared to life, and Isaac’s pistol exploded out of his hand for the third time that night.
“Rot in hell!” Isaac screamed, clutching his throbbing hand.
The bandit had just managed to swing the door open when Marie staggered into the room, swaying on her feet. “Huh? Isn’t that…?” she started.
“Baddie escaping!” Isaac hollered.
Before Marie could respond, Riley dashed out of the cell, a katana belted at her waist and her hand ready on the hilt. “Old guuuuuuuuy!” she screamed, sighting him and giving chase. “You rat-bastard, wall-eyed, sap-suckin', soggy-bottomed, three-toed…”
Not waiting around, Polygraph_Jazz dashed out the door, with Riley, Tenshi, and Marie in hot pursuit, the latter still very unsteady on her feet, as she collided with the door on her way out. Tearing off down the hallways, the bandit passed the purple-robed player that had interrogated Tenshi and Riley earlier.
“Okay Nekonečno, they’re all yours!” he called out, passing the player by on the right.
“What? Who? What?”
Ignoring him, Riley, Tenshi, and Marie sped past, still chasing after Polygraph_Jazz, as he rounded a corner deeper into the fort.
His pistol finally in hand again, Isaac emerged from the doorway to find himself face to face with the robed player.
“Oh, come on, they just left you here?”
“Actually, I feel the same way.” The bandit sighed. “Well, one-on-one suits me better, anyway.” He drew a rune-etched longsword. “Care to surrender?”
“Yeah, no.” Isaac aimed his pistol.
*******
Meanwhile, the three girls were still chasing Polygraph_Jazz down the maze of corridors.
“Damnit, I can’t go much deeper!” he muttered to himself, checking over his shoulder. The girls were still hot on his tail, Riley leading, Tenshi only a couple steps behind, and Marie bringing up the rear, looking a little steadier on her feet now.
Thinking quickly, the bandit ducked inside a storage room, barring it behind him. As his pursuers hammered away at the door, he invoked his ability on himself. “NIGHTMARE-TWISTED RAPTURE!” he intoned, the inky blackness rising up his feet and coiling around his ankles. Just a little bit longer….
“DOORCRASHER!” Marie sailed through the door, knocking it clean off its hinges as she stepped to the side to admit Riley.
“Thank ya.” Riley smiled wickedly, advancing on Polygraph_Jazz. “I told ya I’d pay ya back for kidnappin’ me, didn’t I, you scum-suckin' eel?”
“Well unfortunately for you, you’re a little too late.” The bandit shrugged, as the shadows slipped up past his waist. “My NTR's already activated. In under a minute, I’ll be home free, far away from —”
Without hesitation, Riley drew her sword, stabbing it right through his chest.
“AAAAAGH!” he screamed, clutching the blade. “Why…would you…do that? Ahhh, damnit all!”
As the shadows slipped up towards the katana, Riley quickly withdrew it, giving it a sharp twist as she did and causing the man to buckle at the knees. His hit points finally reduced to zero, he collapsed to the ground, his shadows fading away to nothing. “That was long overdue.” Riley spat on him, turning to leave.
“Nicely done.” Marie grinned, knocking a fist against hers as the two left the room. “I think we’re going to get along great.”
However, as the pair exited, they noticed Tenshi wasn’t following them. Turning around, they saw her standing quite still in the room, waiting calmly.
“Uh, watcha doin’, Tenshy?” Riley asked, sheathing her sword.
“Waiting for the game to consider me out of combat,” she explained. “After one minute in which no player around me has attacked or used a combat skill, the game status will change. I need to be out of combat to summon my clones.”
“Oh, right, when we were fighting that Wyrm, you said there was a whole process to it,” Marie remembered.
“Quite.” With a dull flicker, identical Tenshis began to emerge from her, until there were ten extras.
“Each duplicate reduces my max hit points by one, so I cannot risk summoning too many,” she explained. “Further, they are incapable of any combat actions or skills.”
“I swear I’ve seen your clones attack,” Marie scratched her head.
“Well, I do have a trick for that,” Tenshi admitted. She paused. “I never did reveal my class to anyone, but I promised I would trust my friends more.” As she spoke, large milk carton-sized ovoid objects, made of shiny, polished metal slipped inexplicably from under her hair and orbited her, three in all. “I am a Kaiser, and these are my Pods. I can maneuver them at will, and by attaching them to my clones, I can make it appear as though the clones themselves are attacking.
The Pods hovered over the backs of the three closest clones, splitting open and affixing to them like shells. As the clones’ hair fell down over the Pods, they were perfectly obscured from view. Then, with a ratcheting sound, a thin mechanical arm emerged from each Pod, slicing through the shoulder of the clones’ jackets, and threading itself along their arm, emerging at their palm. Activating her rifle’s periapt, Tenshi tossed duplicate rifles to the three clones, the mechanical arms catching them, as the clones wrapped their fingers around both. By the time she was done, Tenshi and the three gun-wielding clones looked identical, and judging by her explanation, were all capable of combat.
“Wow, I… uh… didn’t realize your powers were so involved,” Marie admitted. “I kinda just hit stuff ‘till it stops moving. Still, thanks for sharing. And if those guys we just fought were any indication, we’re gonna need to use all the abilities and cunning we can muster.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with the real Marie?” Tenshi quipped.
“Hey, I’m learning, okay?” Marie laughed. “Just don’t tell Isaac, he’ll never shut up about it.”
“Understood.” Tenshi nodded, as the three of them continued onward into the deepest part of the fortress, searching for its boss.
ns18.219.8.51da2
and then Add to home screen.