Fantasy Online

Polynya

(Book Two)

By Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2017 by Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2017 Boycott Books

Edited by Andi Marlowe @ www.andromedaediting.com

Audiobook Narrated by Jeff Hays

Cover by MILB Art Studio

www.harmoncooper.com

writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Twitter: @_HarmonCooper

All rights reserved. All rights preserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

----Other works by Harmon Cooper---

The Feedback Loop – A LitRPG sci-fi series filled with action, humor, and cyberpunk musings.

Book One – The Feedback Loop

Book Two – Steampunk is Dead

Book Three – High Fantasy

Book Four – Reapers and Repercussions

Book Five – The Mechanical Heart

Book Six – Cyber Noir Redux

Book Seven – Proxima Riven

Three Book Box Set

Three Book Box Set (Volume 2)

The Last Warrior of Unigaea: A LitRPG about a Player Killer and his big bad wolf.

Life is a Beautiful Thing – A hallucinatory cyberpunk series. Book One  Book Two  Book Three   Book Four  Box Set

Dear NSA – A collection of 12 satirical stories about the troubled times we share.

The Zero Patient Trilogy – A literary dystopian thrill-ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Book One     Book Two

Boy versus Self – A psychological, coming of age thriller about an Austin,Texas artist struggling with inner demons.

JOIN THE PROXIMA GALAXY

Reader,

Before you begin, you should know that most of my series are connected through the “Proxima Galaxy,” which is the name for the online galaxy in which works such as The Feedback Loop series, the Fantasy Online series, and The Last Warrior of Unigaea trilogy take splace.

You can join the Proxima Galaxy on Facebook here, or by clicking the image below. The group gets exclusive content, early previews of new works, advanced copies, free audiobooks, and eventually, we will work on a wiki that shows just how intertwined all these series are.

-Harmon Cooper

The Fantasy Online series is dedicated to the memory of Tom Shutt.

Table of Contents

JOIN THE PROXIMA GALAXY

Table of Contents

Map of Hyperborea

Map of Polynya

Chapter 1: A Digital Spider in the Land of the Rising Sun

Chapter 2: Choose a Quest

Chapter 3: Port of Corpses

Chapter 4: Special Delivery

Chapter 5: A Scar is a Success Story

Chapter 6: Chalupa vs. Churro

Chapter 7: The Bronze Crystal Super Package

Chapter 8: Pink Salon

Chapter 9: Relics ‘R’ Us

Chapter 10: Someone’s Little Blow-up Doll

Chapter 11: Surprise Attack

Chapter 12: Wolf Trap

Chapter 13: The Takeover

Chapter 14: Extreme Vetting (For Fick’s Sake)

Chapter 15: Doing Oric a Solid

Chapter 16: Poisoned by a Seagull

Chapter 17: The Empress Speaks

Chapter 18: Cave --> in

Chapter 19: Imp Melee

Chapter 20: Mark of the Beast

Chapter 21: Warm Hands

Chapter 22: FeeTwix “Turncoat” Fajer

Chapter 23: DJ Ride the Lightning Rides the Lightning

Chapter 24: After Party

Chapter 25: Mani-Pedi and a Royal Confession

Chapter 26: Repetition is a Form of Change

Chapter 27: Get Woke

Chapter 28: Friends in High Places

Chapter 29: House Call

Ryuk Matsuzaki’s Character Sheet

Back of the Book Shit

Get connected with other LitRPG readers!

The Last Warrior of Unigaea PREVIEW

Map of Hyperborea

Click to enlarge

Map of Polynya

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“Continents, three,

Float over the Endless Sea,

Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule.”

--A famous Tritanian poem

“Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae,

Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.”

--Written in Romanized Thulean

Chapter 1: A Digital Spider in the Land of the Rising Sun

Ryuk rips the NV Visor off, takes a deep breath, and collapses back onto his pillow. His anger does nothing to warm him; even with the blanket up to his chin he’s frigid, his teeth chattering, his blood cold. He closes his eyes, thinks back to the last thing he saw.

He gulps, swallows the thought of Tamana standing over him with her buster sword.

She killed me.

His doppelgänger is an entirely different issue, something he can theorize over later. What matters to him at the moment are Tamana and her terrible actions. As he lies in his bed, he tries to capture the moment that she changed. Was it in Kayi as they were engaging the zombie orcs? It couldn’t have been. Was it after, during their private conversation in the lobby of the Mondegreen?

It seemed authentic, it must have been authentic. But was it?

“Why did you do it?” he whispers.

Something in the upper corner of his bedroom catches his eye but he ignores it. Returning his focus to his iNet screen, Ryuk watches as his three guildmates pace around their room at the Mondegreen hostel trying to come to grips with what has just happened.

A light flashes into the room as Hajime peeks in.

“It’s too bright, Hajime.”

The humandroid reaches a hand up and turns off the headlamp strapped to his forehead.

“You’ve logged out earlier than I thought you would. Are you hungry?”

“I’m fine … ” He swallows his dismay, tries to bottle it as best he can.

“Is everything all right?”

“Why are you wearing a headlamp?” Ryuk asks.

“I was doing my weekly check of our earthquake supply kit.” The heater attached to the wall kicks on – Hajime’s doing. “You never answered my question. Why are you logged out? What happened?”

“It was Tamana.” The words are harder to push out than Ryuk anticipated they would be. “She betrayed me, us. She killed all of us. Just now.” He chokes on the words. “Stabbed each of us in the back.”

And Ryuk realizes then, saying it aloud in the real world, how stupid this sounds. Yet it was exactly what happened, and regardless of the location, real or digital, the act of betrayal cut just as deeply as her ironing board of a sword.

“I see. Was there anything you could have done to stop it?”

“I don’t know.” Again, the image of her standing over him flashes across his mind’s eye. “It happened suddenly, without warning.”

“You need to log back in and join your guildmates. I’m sure they want answers.”

“We all want answers but … ” Ryuk shudders. “But I don’t want to log back in. I don’t want to do anything. I just want to sit here, to … ”

Hajime is silent for a moment. In his silence Ryuk’s attention again floats over to the ceiling at the far corner of his room. Eight glowing red eyes flicker open, and from the shadows he sees two long, hairy legs dip out.

Attla Spider Level 8

HP: 187/187

ATK: 40

MATK: 8

DEF: 11

MDF: 26

LUCK: 1

“Hajime!” The spider is suddenly on Ryuk’s bed, charging him.

He kicks out of the covers, gets tangled, and falls to the floor, scraping his elbow. He scoots backwards and cracks the back of his head against Hajime’s knee.

The Attla spider drops to its haunches, as if its preparing to leap at him.

“It’s a hallucination,” Hajime reminds him in a calm voice. “Apparently, they’re back.”

“A hallucination.” Ryuk clenches his fists together and relaxes them. “A hallucination … ”

Hajime crouches behind him. “Face it. See what the hallucination is actually capable of. In this way, you will emphasize the difference between you and it.”

Taking a deep breath in, Ryuk turns his attention back to the spider on his bed. His vision blurs and refocuses on the creature’s two largest eyes.

“What’s it doing?”

“It’s not doing anything. It’s just … watching me.”

“Good, are you still afraid of it?”

He slowly nods. Ryuk never liked insects all that much and to see one on his bed that is the size of a bear cub has his skin crawling.

“Reach out for it. See what happens.”

“You’re joking.” Ryuk looks up at Hajime.

“No, see what happens.” To make a point, he clicks the button on the front of the headlamp and shines it onto the bed.

After settling his wits, Ryuk peels some of the tangled blanket off his body and scoots towards the bed. He doesn’t want to do it, can’t even imagine what will happen if he actually puts his hand close to the venomous Attla spider. As he presses his hand to the spider, the creature pulls back, displaying its grotesque fangs. Green liquid appears at the tip of its fangs, bubbling as it prepares to attack him.

“This is the worst idea ever,” Ryuk whispers as his hand passes right through the spider’s snapping fangs.

“What’s happening?” Hajime asks.

“It’s trying to bite me but … ” He looks down at his hand and sees the spider gnashing at his arm. “It’s not real. I know it isn’t.”

“Is it disappearing?”

He shakes his head. The spider eventually gives up. It crawls up the side of Ryuk’s wall and back to its darkened corner. Once there, its eyes flash red as it completely obscures its body in the shadow of the room.

“Well?” Hajime asks.

“It went back to its corner.”

“So it’s still here? That’s odd.”

He shines his headlamp over there.

“No, it’s gone,” Ryuk reports back.

“We can discuss this in detail later,” Hajime says after a moment of silence. “I’ll need to do some research regarding recurring digital hallucinations. For now, I think you should log back in. I’m sure your guildmates want answers. Also, I think you should eat something.”

“I’m not too interested in lying on my bed at the moment.”

“Then dive from the living room. Everything is clean now and you can lie on the couch. And I want you to eat something,” he says, his eyes clearly reading Ryuk’s vitals. “I made some onigiri for later, but since you are awake now … ”

Hajime approaches the single window in Ryuk’s bedroom and opens the drapes. Outside, Tokyo whisks by in a frenzy of light. Aeros move through the air in their appropriate skylanes and the lights of Shibuya, a beacon in the distance, flash and dance across the slick glass of tall buildings.

“Fine.”

Ryuk pushes himself off the floor. He grabs his NV Visor and his Somnium skipbox, and heads to the living room.

Chapter 2: Choose a Quest

While Ryuk’s hunger may be satiated by the two onigiri he swiftly wolfs down, his confusion at Tamana’s betrayal shows no signs of slowing down. With this on his mind – as if there is anything else he could think about, aside from the digital spider that was just in his room – Ryuk lies down on the couch and sets his NV Visor on his stomach. He still needs to order haptic gloves, and as he places the visor on, he quickly makes a purchase over iNet from Rakuten.

And just like that, a new pair of gloves is on the way.

In the carousel beneath his purchase, he sees a more slim-line version of the visor he is currently wearing. It is also possible to dive using a person’s life chip, the chip in the temple of every Japanese citizen at birth. To dive using one’s life chip, an over-the-ear apparatus is necessary, but most people, oddly enough, continue to use the visor as it is the classic way to dive.

The sine waves start up on the inside of Ryuk’s visor, and he closes his eyes, letting the instant neuro-hypnosis begin. Before Ryuk can say or do anything else, he’s given spawning options and, naturally, he selects the current location of his guildmates.

His stats appear and after a three-second check, he swipes them away.

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 13 Ballistics Mage

HP: 378/378

ATK: 91

MATK: 120

DEF: 69

MDF: 42

LUCK: 10

FeeTwix Fajer Level 17 Berserker Mystic

HP: 600/600

ATK: 140

MATK: 28

DEF: 81

MDF: 40

LUCK: 13

Hiccup Level 12 Shield Thief

HP: 525/525

ATK: 76

MATK: 13

DEF: 156

MDF: 74

LUCK: 25

Zaena Morozon Level 16 Brawler Assassin

HP: 563/563

ATK: 165

MATK: 8

DEF: 93

MDF: 28

LUCK: 14

We’re all healed up?

FeeTwix notices the confused look on Ryuk’s face and says, “It was Jim the hostelier. He set the room as a healing space as soon as we respawned here. Another perk of staying at this hotel, or hostel, or maybe it’s a hotel. Who cares? It’s a nice place! How are you doing? You holding up all right?” The handsome Swede walks over to Ryuk and places his hand on his shoulder. “Seriously, how are you?”

“Where the fick have you been?” Hiccup pushes FeeTwix aside and rattles his metal finger at Ryuk. “Your fickin’ wet dream Tammy decided to backstab the hell out of us, and there you go, disappearing like a little emo princess poofter snowflake bed-wetting fickboy back to the shithole from whence you came!” The goblin has already started in on a platter of lemon pepper dragon wings, the sauce of which is smeared across his face. “I’m stress-eating, goddammit!”

“Your face is a mess, Hiccup.”

The goblin uses his brass arm to wipe his lips and somehow manages to transfer some of the lemon pepper sauce to his pink topknot.

Damn goblin.

Orange haired Zaena with her dragon features and slim physique is beside herself. She’s pacing, her shoulders tensing and untensing as she plots her revenge. “We can return now,” she says without greeting Ryuk. “We will kill Tamana. I will personally see to it that–”

“Ha! You already said that, Liz.” The goblin returns to his tray of food and greedily wolfs down another dragon wing. “From what I recall, you were the first one to die, or was it FeeTwix?”

She turns to him and her eyes narrow. “Choose your next words carefully.”

“Yeah? Well fick you too.” He waves his hands in the air, tossing lemon pepper sauce onto the wall. “Any-fickin’-hoo, Tammy will get hers, as soon as I get mine.” He pops another dragon wing in his mouth. “And boy fick, are these good! I’m telling you guys, this place has one helluva chef!”

“Riptak jatla blanktakh boomboom morrha.”

“My mother wasn’t a whore, at least on the weekdays, and a prerequisite for being a goblin is to be greedy and filthy, as I’ve told you. That said, I’m far from stupid, Liz, and seriously, if you’re that fickin’ mad at Tammy, why don’t you walk your scaly ass down to their guild, let yourself back in, and again have your ass handed to you by someone practically half your level.”

Hiccup’s platter of dragon wings flips up into the air, scattering the sauce and the food onto the bed. A short ax appears in his hand and he points it at Zaena.

They hold each other’s gaze for a moment and she’s the first to look away.

Zaena huffs, her eyes turning to little slits. Hiccup starts picking his wings off the bed and eating them. “Got to eat them while they’re hot,” he reminds Ryuk.

FeeTwix: You want to take the lead or should I?

Ryuk: I got it.

Skill level up!

Skill: Inspire Others

Level Two: By inspiring others, you induce them to follow your orders. Higher levels allow for manipulation of enemies and random strangers.

Requirements: LUCK > 8

“There are a number of things that need to be discussed,” Ryuk tells his guildmates, “and before we get to Tamana, and what happened, I’d like to share with you what I witnessed in the basement of the Shinigami’s guildhall. I think it’d be best to start there.”

“I was going to ask about that,” FeeTwix says, his eyes blue as ever.

“It was a door.”

“A door?” Hiccup uses his clawed finger to scoop a hunk of lemon pepper sauce off his chest armor. He sticks the finger in his mouth and sucks on it for a moment. From there, his finger goes into his nose, where he digs around briefly, finds something worth examining, examines it, considers eating it, reconsiders, and flicks it in Zaena’s direction.

“It was a door to another dimension, a portal of sorts.”

“The room was?” Zaena asks.

“No, the room was empty; the door was in the center of the room. Imagine a door right here in front of us.” Ryuk points at an empty space. “The door was open, which is why I could sense so much algomagic. Inside was a completely empty void filled with stars. That’s not all … a voice spoke to me from inside this space.”

Hiccup’s eyes go wide. “Gee fick, Marbles, don’t scare me this late at night!”

“What did the voice say?” asks the Swede.

“It beckoned me forward, asked me to enter the space.”

“For fick’s sake, that’s the last thing I would have done.” Hiccup starts biting the nails of his one good hand. “Fick, I hate ghosts.”

“Don’t worry, Hiccup, I’ll protect you,” FeeTwix offers.

“Yeah? Good. At least someone cares.”

“I don’t know if it was a ghost or not,” Ryuk says. “I couldn’t see it completely, but what I could see looked like a giant snake that for some reason – and this may be my imagination here – she seemed human.”

“The snake was a woman?” Hiccup nods to Zaena. “Everyone knows female snakes are especially evil. Just look at Liz over there. She’s practically half-snake!”

FeeTwix steps in front of Zaena and stops her from lodging one of her throwing knives in the goblin’s throat. “Relax, babe,” he says. “We’re all upset right now in our own ways. Hiccup,” he turns to the goblin, “keep your bullshit to a minimum. Otherwise, I’ll equip the haunted doll I have in my inventory list and let her play with you.”

The color drains from Hiccup’s face. “That doesn’t sound like a good type of play.”

“Believe me, it isn’t.”

After his guildmates have settled, Ryuk continues. “The woman used her power to pull me towards her. I fired a black marble at the doorframe just in time and the door slammed shut. That wasn’t the end of it. As soon as it shut, it was like a hurricane had spawned in the middle of the room or something. Tiles were flying and I barely, barely made it out in time.”

“And then you ran up the stairs and found us battling the final mage,” adds FeeTwix.

“That’s exactly what happened.”

Hiccup grimaces. “And then that bitch Tammy stabbed us all in the back. What, Marbles? I can’t call her a bitch now? Don’t cringe at me!”

“You most definitely can,” Zaena seethes, “and I will call her much worse when I stand over her lifeless corpse.”

“Talk about Viagra for a goblin – I love it when Thulean gals get aggressive!” The pink dollop of hair on his head ruffles. “Not the hair, Liz! Keep your goddamn ghost limbs to yourself!”

“There’s more.” Ryuk steadies his gaze on FeeTwix. “My hallucinations have also returned.”

(0)__(0)

Ryuk takes a moment to tell them about the Attla spider in his room, how his hand passed through it and how the hallucination didn’t disappear this time, as the Thulean warrior did when he had his first hallucination.

FeeTwix’s eyes go wide.

“What is it?”

“How much does Tamana know about NPCs trying to take people’s iNet feeds in the real world? What did you tell her?”

“She knew it was happening through resetters,” Ryuk says. “That’s it.”

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to ask you next: did she know about the experiments in the 2050s? Remember those? The one you told us about in which an NPC actually took a humandroid’s body. Did you tell her this?”

Ryuk shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Either you did or you didn’t, Marbles, answer the man!”

“Stop yelling, Hiccup, and no, I didn’t tell her. I know I didn’t. We were so wrapped up in other things that it never came up. Tamana doesn’t know, unless you guys said something.”

He glances from Zaena to Hiccup to FeeTwix. All three shake their heads.

“Good, then she doesn’t know about that. Thankfully.”

Hiccup finds another dragon wing on the bed, jams it in his mouth, and strips it clean. As he chews he says, “So let me get this straight: there was a crazy fickin’ serpent chippie in a portal at the Shinigami’s place, Tamana betrayed us, and after she skewered your ass, you had another digital hallucination in your world. Sound about right?”

Ryuk nods.

The goblin licks his lips and waves goodbye to the rest of the guild. “This, my friends, is why I’m announcing my retirement from the Mitherfickers as of tonight – shit is about to get crazy.”

“Really?” Zaena looks at him coldly. “Coward!”

He snorts. “Take it easy, Liz, I’m just fickin’ with you. To be honest, kiddos, I’m ready to level up and get the fick to Polynya. We really need to pull some strings with the Knights of Non Compos Mentis, in my humblest of humble opinions. And by we, I mean you, Marbles. You need to get us some face time with Sophia.”

“My old guild.”

“That’s right, kid, you need to get us in touch with the leader of your old guild. I know you said that you didn’t know how to go about doing this, but that was before you took into consideration the fact that you have one of the most dastardly, crafty, bastardly, sly, and handsome mitherfickers in all of Tritania in your guild. Me. I’m referring to me. If there’s a will, there’s a way, and if there’s a fickin’ goblin, there’s usually more than one way. Plus, Twixy and I have sort of become partners in crime. Ain’t that right, Twixster?”

FeeTwix considers this for a moment. Finally, he grins. “I’d say it’s not wrong.”

“Good, in my book ‘not wrong' is technically right, a phrase which will never hold up in a court of law, but that’s beside the point. So we’ll get to the Knights. No problemo. Doneski. Good.”

Ryuk rubs his hands together. “We need to be at level 15 to travel to Polynya, the next floating continent. Zaena and FeeTwix are already able to travel. I’m currently at level 13, and Hiccup is at level 12. We need to level up.”

“I’ve got this. Jim!” Hiccup barks. “We need a case of Hopkins’ Healing Nostrums. Now!”

Not two seconds later, there’s a knock at the door.

“That was fast … ” Zaena says.

“Too fast. I’ll get it.” FeeTwix’s Glock appears in his hand and he approaches the door cautiously. He presses the safety off as he asks, “Jim?”

“Here with your healing potions,” comes the reply from the other side. “Might I ask you to lower your weapon? Thank you.”

FeeTwix clicks the safety back on and stuffs his shooting iron in the back of his pants. Once he’s good and situated, he opens the door to find Jim standing behind a dolly which holds a case of healing potions.

“The potions you requested?”

“Just add the cost to our room.”

Jim nods. “Certainly, Mr. Fajer.”

“FeeTwix, call me FeeTwix,” he says as he bends over to grab the case.

“Or Twixy!” Hiccup pipes up from his seated position on the bed.

“Right, Mr. FeeTwix or Twixy, I will add the charges to the room. If you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to ask me.” With that, Jim turns back to his clerk’s station.

“Fick yes!” Hiccup rubs his grimy paws together. He practically knocks Ryuk to the floor as he makes his way over to the case of green, grenade-shaped bottles.

“No, no, no,” says Ryuk as he places his hand on Hiccup’s shoulder, “our health is already full.”

“Marbles, don’t you fickin’ get between me and my healing potion. It’s a goblin’s Oxycontin, got that? What part of prophylaxis do you not understand? The opioid epidemic is a fickin’ crisis and shouldn’t be joked about. Don’t be an insensitive fickhole and quit bogarting the potions! Gimme, gimme, gimme!”

“At least let me set the case down first.”

FeeTwix places them on the table and Hiccup grabs the first one, pops the top, and gets to chugging. He burps, beats his chest for a moment, and continues guzzling. “Listen, Team MFers, we can’t let the fickin’ bullshit that we dealt with today affect how we handle the fickin’ bullshit we deal with tomorrow, or tonight for that matter.”

A confused look trails across his face.

“That’s right. Okay, pep talk. So let’s get to leveling, and we’ll be on the first airship out of Aramis in the morning. And seriously, let’s open up a serious can of whoop-ass the next time we see the Shinigami, Tammy, or Marble’s evil more powerful twin brother!”

“Aye, aye, aye!” Zaena shouts.

“Whoa, Liz, this isn’t a game of Boaster Toaster. Although a game of Boaster Toaster with healing potions would be a dream to play, a dream! This is a good ol’ fashioned rally the troops speech. Marbles, Twix, Liz – it’s time to quit fickin’ around!” The goblin tosses the depleted Hopkins’ brew to the floor, shattering it to pieces. “Jim! Clean up this mess, and while you’re at it, get us some quests!”

(0)__(x)

Jim stands at the door of their room with a broom and a dustpan attached to the bottom of a long sword. He twists his wrist, letting the light reflecting off the sword shine across the room.

“What’s with the swordpan?” Hiccup asks.

“It’s a reminder to you what will happen next time you decide to break something in your room and/or abuse the waitstaff.” With the click of a button on the handle, the sword separates from the swordpan. He clicks it back into place. “Need I persuade you anymore?”

“Fair enough,” Hiccup hooks a thumb at Ryuk, “but you’ve got the wrong guy. I didn’t break that shit; it was Marbles over here.”

Jim ignores Hiccup as a floating scroll appears in front of him and he reads it for a moment. He folds it up and it dematerializes. “Regarding your levels, I don’t have many options for you to partake in quest-wise.”

“That’s fine,” Ryuk says, “just tell us what you have.”

“Right. The first quest involves defending a shipment of Wizardous set to depart from the Goblin Riviera. The suggested average level is 13, and the bonuses associated with this quest are 1.5 times EXP and a 10,000 rupee bonus for its successful completion. The consequences are incarceration and the potential to make arch-nemeses. There is one more caveat to this quest: it can only be taken by three party members.”

“Fick yeah!” Hiccup counts on his fingers. “Twixy, Marbles, me. Sound about right? You got the night off, Zaena. Spend it in your Sotlian pocket spa or something.”

“Riptak jatla blanktakh boomboom morrha.”

“You already called me that!”

Jim clears his throat. “I’m not finished. There’s also a quest to slay a mysterious land dragon in the Klin mountain range that only comes out at night and has been terrorizing villages, most notably McLeod Ganj, which are situated in the range. The trolls in the Klin Mountains will also keep you busy. The suggested level for this one is level 15. There is no bonus for this quest, nor are there any EXP boosters, but you can bet you’ll get a good amount by defeating the land dragon. Not too many consequences for this one aside from sudden death.”

Zaena nods. “Not bad, gunsyakhai are incredibly difficult to kill.”

“And that’s what attacked Tamana in Tokyo, killed her.”

“So what?” Hiccup tells Ryuk. “Tammy is a turncoat-ass-bitch! You saw it yourself. I don’t want to hear anymore shit about what happened to her up in your world.”

Ryuk clenches his fists together.

“The final quest is in the Cape of Chukchis.” Jim smiles curtly. “It’s a night raid on the orc stronghold there sponsored by Bullbean Energy Drink. From the press release, I mean, quest release: Surge! Get the highest number of orc kills and win schweet schwag in the real world and Tritania! Odds of winning a Bullbean energy ring increase with each kill! The energy ring doubles your highest stat and gives you free entry to exclusive concerts and happenings across all three floating continents of Tritania!” Jim smooths his hand over the front of his tuxedo jacket. “I hope I read that right. There is one caveat to this quest: you’ll be competing against other guilds of varying levels. Last month’s winner was an RPC guild from Ultima Thule with a median level of 85.”

FeeTwix turns to the others. “Guys, let’s do the orc quest. We can get that energy ring and maybe Dory the Weaponsmith knows someone who can replicate it.”

Hiccup scoffs at the Swede’s suggestion. “What part of ‘going up against stronger guilds’ do you not understand, Twixy? We just had our asses handed to us not two hours ago! Let me frame it like this: an RPC guild from Ultima Thule vs. the Mitherfickers, a lowly guild consisting of a guy who shoots marbles and broods too much; Mr. ‘If You Got It Flaunt It’ over here who’d whore out his own offspring if he knew it had a 15% chance of a good ROI; a relatively handsome and intelligent goblin with a good head of pink hair who’s good with an ax and well-read; and the most lizardous of lizard queens.”

“I am not a queen,” Zaena says sharply, her orange eyes narrowing on Hiccup.

“Easy, princess, just trying to make a point.”

Zaena grits her teeth.

“Enough,” Ryuk says. “Let’s take the legendary creature quest. We’ll gain a ton of EXP.”

“No.” FeeTwix shakes his head. “I’ve got a better idea. You three take the Wizardous quest. I’ll log out and get some real world rest. I … ” He thinks for a moment. “I can’t remember the last time I logged out. I’ve got a custom Somnium Skip Box that also keeps my vitals level with IV infused nutrients. Point is – it’s been days.”

“What?” Zaena raises an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll explain later. You three take the first quest, win bigly, and I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

Ryuk looks to the other two. “Well? What do you guys think?”

Hiccup snaps his fingers. “Let’s do it. Maybe we can get a pinch of some of that Wizardous too, you know, to sell if we ever find ourselves in a bind.”

Quest: Will you journey to the Port of Corpses in the Goblin Riviera to defend a shipment of Wizardous?

Rewards: 1.5x EXP and a 10,000 rupee bonus upon successful completion.

Risks: You will be arrested and you may make an arch-nemesis.

Ryuk accepts the quest on behalf of the guild.

“One more thing, Jim,” Ryuk says, suddenly remembering something.

“Yes?”

“Have you ever seen one of these before?”

Ryuk equips the dragon egg they looted from the Bannon’s zombie-filled home in Kayi. With its dark purple color and a tendril of blue spiraling around it, the egg looks like it’d be right at home in an Easter celebration.

Jim raises his hand to his mouth. “Oh my! Wherever did you find this?”

“We, um, found it in Kayi.”

“Good,” Hiccup whispers a bit too loud. “Keep the alternative facts a-coming.”

Jim ignores the goblin as he approaches Ryuk. “Do you mind if I show it to some people I know?”

“We need to get it to a hatchery,” Zaena says.

Jim shakes his head. “Not necessarily, but I would like a second opinion on it.”

Ryuk hesitates for a moment, but something about the innocent look in Jim’s eyes inspires him to hand it over.

“Thank you. I promise I’ll have more information on the egg tomorrow.” With that, and with the egg carefully in his grasp, Jim exits the room.

“Now that that ficker’s gone, let’s get down to business!”

The spawning point takes shape in front of Ryuk. It starts as a golden seed, and as Thulean script twists around it, it morphs into a softball-sized sphere.

“Good luck,” FeeTwix tells the group. “I’ll see you guys here in the morning!” He grabs Zaena, kisses her, and logs out while he’s still in her arms.

Hiccup rolls his eyes. “For fick’s sake … ”

Chapter 3: Port of Corpses

Zaena brandishes her four swords made of depleted Pelosium before Ryuk’s avatar can finish materializing. “Weapons up.” She steps in front of him and scans the dark alleys before them.

Ryuk quickly loads his magazines with marbles, four black/molten mixes and one mag with sword marbles.

He pops a black molten magazine into the back of his gun.

“Something smells fishy!” Hiccup chortles. “Sorry, I crack myself up. That’s just the smell of the fisheries over there.” He uses his mechanical thumb to point to a series of buildings with corrugated roofs. “Whenever you smell that kind of stank, it can only mean one of two things. One, you know you’re in the Port of Corpses. Two–”

“–The Port of Corpses?” Ryuk asks. “I was meaning to ask about that earlier – I’ve never heard of it.”

“That’s because you don’t listen, Marbles, get woke. I’m pretty sure I’ve called it that before, and like most things, there’s another name for it. Ever heard of the Port of Protla?”

He nods.

“There’s revisionist history for you. History is written by the oppressors, am I right? Pretty sure I read that in a history book. Any-fickin’-hoo, the real name is in remembrance of the battle between the goblins and the Lost Boys, those little fickers. Lots of dead bodies fell down the continental shelf into the Endless Sea that day. Damn, were the fish down there happy.”

“Lost Boys?” Ryuk glances over his shoulder and catches a group of beefy orcs loading boxes onto a small airship.

Hiccup shakes his head. “I swear, for someone that used to be level 96 ninja, you don’t know fick all about Tritania. The Lost Boys live on the back of a giant turtle down there in the Endless Sea.”

“Bitakh Morla, the Island Turtle.”

“What Liz said.” Hiccup’s bushy eyebrows narrow on the path ahead. “Quit asking stupid questions, Marbles. Looks like we’ve got company!”

Ryuk keeps his marble gun at the ready as three cloaked commoners approach. The thought strikes him like a sucker punch. They too are on a quest, only on the opposite side – they’re out to stop the shipment of Wizardous.

A scalding blast from a female mage forces Ryuk into a backflip with a belly-flop ending.

-89 HP!

He rolls to his side and gets his marble gun up. The mage blocks all three shots with a shield made of radiant energy.

Her guildmates toss their cloaks back to reveal their faces.

Goblin Thief Level 5

HP: 213/213

ATK: 34

MATK: 12

DEF: 65

MDF: 37

LUCK: 5

Mind Mage Level 6

HP: 240/240

MANA: 201/201

ATK: 17

MATK: 56

DEF: 22

MDF: 49

LUCK: 2

Dark Elf Warrior Level 10

HP: 355/355

ATK: 147

MATK: 12

DEF: 96

MDF: 40

LUCK: 3

“Spew Gorge!?” Hiccup cries from the shadows. “What the fick are you doing on their side?”

The enemy goblin does a double take. “Hiccup?”

“Fick yeah it’s me. Getchur ass over here and I’ll give you a cut of the winnings!”

As he keeps his marble gun trained on the female mage, Ryuk tries to place where he’s heard the name Spew Gorge before. Wasn’t he Hiccup’s cousin who lost his chalupa in a game of Natty Dread?

Ryuk suddenly feels stupid for even pondering such a question.

As if to confirm Ryuk’s thought, Hiccup asks, “How’s your chalupa holding up, Spewy?”

“Don’t you talk about my chalupa, you fickin’ fick-faced fickboy!” the goblin barks.

“Fickboy? I’m older than you, Spewy, by at least fifty years. That’s fickman, you little bitch-titted ficktard and another thing … ” Hiccup grunts and lets loose a string of fick-laced cursing the likes of which Ryuk has never heard before. Finally he pauses, takes a deep breath, clears his throat, and shouts, “The goblin is mine!”

Spew Gorge charges, and the two solid slabs of grade D goblin meat collide.

They bite, they pinch, they scratch, they scrape, they scream like sissies, they seethe, they claw at each other's eyes as they roll around, kicking up dirt and debris, knocking over anything they happen to roll into.

-49 HP!

Using the goblin melee as a distraction, Ryuk cuts the female Mind Mage down with a black marble. She crawls towards a stack of barrels as magic ripples up and down her arms. Before Ryuk can ignite the crates, a giant brawler made of smoke hops out onto the cobblestone street. He flexes, drops to a runner’s stance, and takes off.

Shit! Ryuk hightails it, knowing full well that he won’t be able to go toe-to-toe with the Mind Mage’s magic. He skids to a halt and crouches behind a barrel.

The clink and clank of swords meet his ears as Zaena takes on the Dark Elf Warrior. A quick glance to the northeast and Ryuk sees that the warrior elf has conjured a large purple sword rimmed with bubbling energy. Zaena holds her own, spinning and slicing, the dim lights of the city reflecting off her shiny blades.

He turns his marble gun on the smoky brawler and the whispery behemoth made from gray and black tendrils of oily smoke disappears completely.

Ryuk turns left, right – nothing.

All he can see now is Zaena battling the elf while Hiccup and Spew Gorge continue their violent family reunion.

KO! -100 HP!

Ryuk’s vision is suddenly waxy.

He knows he’s hit the ground; he can see the towering brawler made of smoke looming over him.

He tries to go for his gun but the Mind Mage’s combatant knocks it out of his hand. The smoky brawler brings his foot down on Ryuk’s Dream Armor. -38 HP! Even with the stars and galaxies twirling around his head, Ryuk manages to bring his knees to his chest to protect himself from the next kick.

-17 HP!

“Damn!” Ryuk jams his fingers into his clear marble pouch and manages to avoid the next kick by rolling away.

As the smoky brawler lifts his leg back to give him a football punt to the noggin, Ryuk stuffs the marble in his mouth and spits it at the brawler.

Dispel magic! he thinks, and sure enough, the smoky brawler flashes white and disappears.

Skill level up!

Skill: A Simple Request

Level Four: 1 in 6.25 chance of a request being granted.

Caveat: Only works with a clear marble.

Requirements: LUCK > 9

LUCK +2!

New skill learned!

Skill: Spit Fire

Level One: Stuff a marble in your mouth and spit it at an enemy. Higher levels allow for more control and sustained magical abilities.

Requirements: LUCK > 5

My gun … Ryuk’s head darts left and right.

He spots his gun near a doorstep, and whoof!, the wind is knocked out of him as Hiccup’s thick and sweaty body lands on top of him. Like clockwork, the hit knocks loose a dragon wing-seasoned ruckus from the goblin’s derriere that adds olfactory insult to injury.

“Baka!” Ryuk pushes Hiccup off him and stands. “You stinky little fucker!”

“What!? It knocked the fickin’ wind out of me! Ha! That’s the best one liner I’ve come up with yet! Wait, what the hell did you just call me!?”

Once he’s a few feet away from the gaseous goblin, Ryuk goes for his marble gun only to be trapped by a circle of yellow fire.

Damare! That damn Mind Mage! He turns to the spell-casting woman, who continues to stroke her fingers in the air, increasing the height of the yellow flames that now surround him.

“I’ve got this,” he whispers to himself. He closes his eyes, completely ignoring the heat and the fact that the flames seem to be closing in. His Extreme Focus creates a reticle on the mage and after he’s locked on, up comes his slingshot.

Ryuk zips a molten marble at the female mage.

-100 HP! Critical hit! The woman screams as her flesh and clothing sizzle off her body. She tries the ‘stop, drop and roll’ method to no avail. It doesn’t take long for her to curl up and die a fiery, toasty death.

Level up!

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 14 Ballistics Mage

HP: 223/413

ATK: 93

MATK: 120

DEF: 71

MDF: 47

LUCK: 12

Hiccup and Spew Gorge stop their fight for a moment to sniff the air. Hiccup licks his lips. “Nothing like a good charred Mage, eh, Spewy?”

Spew Gorge licks his lips as well. “It’s been awhile since I had charred Mage.”

The two lock eyes and Spew Gorge’s eyes narrow on his older cousin.

“Fight or feast?” Hiccup asks. “I’m down for either.”

“Bring it on, you fat fick!” He taps his mallet against the side of his leg. “And if anyone hasn’t told you already, your stupid pink hair makes you look like just about the biggest fickin’ poofter this side of the Empress’s fat ass!”

Hiccup spits blood, wipes his mouth with his mechanical arm, and equips his toe knife. “You’re going to regret that!” he snarls.

Instakill!

The hilt of a sword marble appears on Spew Gorge’s forehead and he falls backwards.

“That … Hey!” Hiccup turns to Ryuk and shakes his fist. “I was going to kill the ficker!”

“There are more battles to come. Let’s end this.” Ryuk lowers his slingshot and steps over what’s left of the Mage’s burning ring of fire to retrieve his marble gun.

“Aye!” Zaena drops as the Dark Elf Warrior’s flaming blade connects with one of her ghost limbs.

“Cover me, Marbles!”

Hiccup’s biggest scutum appears in his hands.

The gnarliest goblin this side of Athos takes off as Ryuk’s explosive marbles kick up debris and confusion.

This gives Zaena the time she needs to dip away, and Hiccup the cover he needs to launch himself like a sack of potatoes at the Dark Elf Warrior, knock the big bastard down, and proceed to pound the living shit out of the downed warrior with the bottom of his shield. The crunching sound that follows makes Ryuk cringe.

-86 HP! -75 HP! -30 HP! -9 HP!

Instakill!

“Fick yeah! I got a level up!” The goblin’s shield disappears and he drops to his haunches, checking the Dark Elf for loot. “Make it rain, baby, make it rain.” He finds a small satchel and tears it open. “Only one hundred?” He kicks the elf in the face. “I’ll check the others.”

Zaena approaches Ryuk with a slight limp to her step. “He was strong,” she finally says, leveling her orange eyes at him, “but you two didn’t need to help. I was close to finishing him.”

Thuleans and their pride, he thinks as he takes in Zaena, who is slightly out of breath.

“Ha! Like fick you were, Liz!” Hiccup makes his way to his cousin’s dead body. “Don’t you know the Thulean word for thank you?”

She cracks a grin.

Ryuk glances between his two guildmates. “Is that, um, some sort of joke?”

“There isn’t really a Thulean word for thank you,” she finally says. “There is a tone of voice used when one is showing appreciation.”

Ryuk nods. He appreciates Thulean culture, any culture really, but the lack of an ability to say ‘thank you’ seems foreign to him as a person from Japan.

“A half bottle of a store-brand healing potion, eh?” Hiccup stands, spits on his cousin’s dead body, and chugs it down. “Fick it, that’s not so bad, actually.” He examines the bottle. “HEB Central Market Healing Brew, huh? Whatever the hell that is, it ain’t bad!” He gives his cousin’s dead body another solid kick. “Not bad at all.”

(0)__(0)

Ryuk hears some grunting over his shoulder. He glances back at the pair of muscled orcs sliding crates onto a pallet. “Should we help them?” he asks Hiccup as the goblin approaches.

“Fick me to tears, Marbles, howzabout we let the drug peddlers, I mean pharmaceutical professionals, do their thing, and we do our thing – protect them. Now both of you, heal your asses up.”

Ryuk goes with one of the generic healing potions in his inventory list. He can’t remember how he got it. Maybe Dirty Dave.

+100 HP!

Zaena equips a grenade-shaped Hopkins’ and takes a long sip from it. “In Athos, there is a restaurant that uses Hopkins’ to make a special marinade. I thought you may appreciate this, goblin.”

Hiccup’s eyes go wide. “Gimme, gimme, gimme. You’ve been holding out on me! And the name … ” he growls.

“Hiccupanaratapana, correct?”

“That’s right,” he says, “but your pronunciation is off.”

Zaena scoffs.

“Now stop bogarting the Hopkins’.” He tries to swipe the potion away from her but she uses her ghost limb to lift it higher into the air.

As they bicker over the healing potion, Ryuk remembers his last trip to Athos, the capital of the final floating continent of Tritania.

To reach Ultima Thule, one must be at level thirty-five, that is unless they were an RPC or an NPC born there, like Zaena. In fact, she can travel to any continent she so desires regardless of level requirements, which makes Ryuk wonder again why she chose Hyperborea. She never told him, and she continues to keep quiet about her past.

“Eyes forward.” Hiccup tosses the healing potion over his shoulder and his little tomahawk appears in his hands.

Three players approach, their features covered in shadows.

I get this now! Ryuk thinks as his Extreme Focus skill forms red outlines around the approaching three. Our success in this mission depends upon defending the choke point. In that case…

Ryuk: Zaena, take the rooftop opposite mine and equip your bows. Hiccup, hit the alleys and come around back. We have two incoming Dark Archers, one Ballistics Mage, all below level six. They’re all artillery.

Zaena lifts herself to the top of the fishery using her ghost limbs. Hiccup disappears like a fart during a hurricane. Ryuk glances around and notices that a few crates and barrels are stacked in a way that he’ll be able to scale in no time. He gets to the top crate, and from there, onto the roof of the fishery opposite Zaena.

The enemy Ballistics Mage shouts, “Face us!” He fires a black marble at one of the fisheries, exploding out a window.

No sense in wasting a mag. A smile creeps across Ryuk’s face as he levels the Mage with a couple of sword marbles using his slingshot.

-62 HP! - 38 HP!

“What the hell!?” the Mage bellows.

-53 HP! Another sword marble puts the Mage in a bad place.

The slingshot magic wielder falls instantly and the archers backtrack for cover.

Fwhip!

-56 HP! One of Zaena’s arrows goes through the shoulder of a fleeing archer. He hits the ground hard, and takes cover before she can get him with a follow-up.

Ryuk takes the other archer down with a sword marble to the back as Zaena zings two more into his body.

“Hey! I wanted to kill someone!” The goblin skids out of an alley and drops his hands on his knees. He huffs in big gulps of breath as he realizes that one of the archers is still alive.

He brings his tomahawk up and …

Fwhip!

Instakill!

“Dammit, Liz, I’m the one that needs the fickin’ experience!”

An idea comes to Ryuk. This will totally work.

“Hiccup, want to play a game?” he calls down to the goblin.

“Do I want to play a game … does a Thulean fick in the woods?”

Ryuk considers this for a moment. “I really have no idea.”

“Well ask Liz, go on, I’m waiting.”

Ryuk looks over to Zaena and she shakes her head no. A message appears on his viewing pane.

Zaena: We could both kill Hiccup right now and just handle this ourselves.

Ryuk: Trust me, I got a better idea.

“Well, did you ask her?”

Ryuk points to a place between the two fisheries. “The game is called Honey Trap, or at least I think that’s what it’s called. I might be wrong. Anyway, you get the point. I want you to lead whoever comes down that pathway towards the choke point between these two fisheries. Zaena and I will handle the rest. You in?”

Hiccup’s horned helm appears on his head. “I can’t believe I forgot to equip my helmet. No wonder I wasn’t getting that much loot. Speaking of which … ” He searches the three they’ve just killed. “Sweet! One of the archers has some ink shadow tears. I dunno what the fick he has these for, but with the bearadillo hide I scored and my Tuskarr Tusks, it’s high time I get to crafting something!”

He can craft?

Hiccup stands, scratches his ass and looks up at Ryuk. “What were we doing again?”

“Honey Trap. It’s a fun game. Just walk up there a ways and lead anyone and everyone to this point here.” Ryuk motions with his marble gun. “Zaena and I will take care of the rest.”

The goblin nods as a conniving grin spreads across his face. “Not a bad plan at all, Marbles. Glad I came up with it!”

(0)__(x)

For the next forty minutes or so, the three Mitherfickers whoop the living hell out of a good number of lesser guilds. Their honey trap strategy remains the same: Hiccup lures them in and Ryuk and Zaena pick them off.

The goblin has even gotten a little creative with it – defying all laws of physics and violating international treaties both in the Proxima Galaxy and in the real world, the robust goblin has somehow managed to get a bright pink tutu over his armor, and has taken to mocking their opponents by aiming his rectal turbulences in their general direction.

While Ryuk hasn’t received any new skills,  he and Hiccup have both moved up a level, meaning Ryuk is now able to pass to the second floating continent of Tritania – Polynya – and Hiccup is one level away from doing so. Zaena has also gained a level.

Ryuk quickly checks their stats in a brief break between combat:

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 15 Ballistics Mage

HP: 323/445

ATK: 97

MATK: 128

DEF: 76

MDF: 49

LUCK: 12

Hiccup Level 14 Shield Thief

HP: 579/620

ATK: 82

MATK: 14

DEF: 181

MDF: 85

LUCK: 27

Zaena Morozon Level 17 Brawler Assassin

HP: 580/610

ATK: 180

MATK: 8

DEF: 98

MDF: 34

LUCK: 14

A new group approaches – a Warrior, a Brawler, and a Rogue – and Ryuk thinks, more fickboys, after he sees that the three are all below level seven. Two thoughts race through him at this point: one, he doesn’t like being cocky so he feels a bit guilty for that; two, he actually thought in Hiccup’s bawdy patois.

“Yoo-hoo, boys, it’s your mothers’ favorite goblin treat.” He does a little curtsy and lets loose a squeaker. “One on three? I call those good odds! Whoever dies first gets a tomahawk in the ass!” He brandishes a comically small tomahawk, no longer than an unsharpened pencil. “Bring it, you fickwads!”

Ryuk doesn’t pay much attention to their stats. At their levels, there is no way they’ll be able to take down the Mitherfickers, especially with their artillery disadvantage. He aims his marble gun at the sweet spot and, like the battle before, he waits for Hiccup to scuttle on through.

The three lower leveled guildmates give chase and only the Rogue slides to a halt after he sees the bodies stacked in the shadows on either side of the honey trap. He yells out to his compadres, but by this point Zaena has already taken one down with a well-aimed arrow while Ryuk pumps the other full of black and molten marble.

Instakill! Instakill!

The word appears in the air amidst a misting of blood.

“Sheeeyooot!” The Rogue turns to run the other way and makes it all of four steps before an arrow brings him to the ground.

Hiccup makes a running leap and a large ax appears in his hands in midair. He comes down hard with his knees on the back of the rogue, piledriving his ax into the back of his head and bringing him sudden death.

Instakill!

“Whew!” The goblin waddles to his feet and wipes some blood from his ax onto the Rogue’s clothing. As he has for everyone else they’ve killed, Hiccup grabs the Rogue by the leg and drags him over to the side of one of the fisheries, leaving a trail of crimson behind him. He checks him for loot and kicks the rogue when he finds none.

He does the same with the other two. He then walks over to their blood trails and tries to kick up some dust to cover them.

Zaena: The goblin needs one more level, then we’re good.

Hiccup: THE GOBLIN HAS A FICKIN’ NAME. Why are Thuleans so racist? Why do I always want to go to my safe space after a couple hours with you?

Zaena: Are you not a goblin?

Hiccup: Are you not a lizard?

Zaena: We will discuss this later.

“Like fick we will,” Hiccup grumbles as he gets into position. “And by the way, next time we play this little game, I get to be the ballistics expert and Ryuk gets to be the honey trap.”

“But … ” Ryuk bites his tongue, knowing better than to argue with a cranky goblin with a bright pink topknot wearing a matching tutu.

Zaena: Weapons up.

Three musicians approach, slowly, and after seeing their stats, Ryuk immediately pops his mag out and loads it with more black and molten marbles. The three are all clad in zoot suits and wide-brimmed black hats. Their clothes are tailored and they wear cowboy boots with sharp stirrups. Each has a guitar case clutched in their hands.

Berserker Warrior Level 20

HP: 1183/1183

ATK: 275

MATK: 19

DEF: 140

MDF: 46

LUCK: 19

Berserker Warrior Level 17

HP: 641/641

ATK: 215

MATK: 9

DEF: 113

MDF: 39

LUCK: 15

Berserker Assassin Level 15

HP: 587/587

ATK: 172

MATK: 11

DEF: 94

MDF: 51

LUCK: 8

Boss battle. A reticle appears on Ryuk’s viewing screen and he keeps it trained on the most powerful of the three.

“A trio of crappy busker bitch-serkers, huh? Mother of fick … ” Hiccup grumbles. “All you sorry fickers, the first one that plays Kumbaya gets a tomahawk up the chalupa.”

Zaena: Stop bitching and bait them!

Ryuk: Am I the only one that has looked at their stats?

“Keep your underoos on, Marbles,” Hiccup says as he waves and blows kisses at the buskers. “Heya fellas! Did your dads teach you how to play the skin flute or was it your uncle?”

The three desperados stop. The first places his guitar on the ground, pops it open, and pulls an OFB Amogh Carbine from it.

He pops the magazine in and points it at Hiccup. His pearly whites gleam from the shadow cast by his black hat as a grin spreads across his face.

“FICK ME!”

Hiccup can barely get the next string of curses out before the other two can equip HK416Ns. The goblin’s scutum appears and with his hands over his head,  he covers his back with the large shield as the three berserkers unleash of fury of metal unhappiness at the goblin.

Brrrat! Brrrat! Brrrat! Brrrat! Brrrat!

“We need Twixy!” he shouts, his voice muffled by the bullets dinging off his shield. “YOY!”

No, we need leverage. Ryuk holsters his marble gun and pulls out his slingshot. In the pocket goes a clear marble and he fires it off with the command, “Disable firearms!”

The marble connects with the most leveled of the three and a wave of force boomerangs around him. It skips to the second berserker and the third.

The three of them stop shooting.

Shit!

Ryuk goes with his marble gun and fires off a string of molten and black marbles. Zaena accompanies him with arrows. -45 HP! -39 HP! -58 HP! As they take damage, the three dive sideways and the berserker slides into a wall, where he sticks to the sidewall of the fishery as if the wall were made of flypaper.

It’s at this point that Ryuk realizes just how epic of a fail his Simple Request attack just was.

And as if a light bulb flicked on over their heads, the three berserkers realize that the laws of gravity no longer apply to them.

Guns a-blazing, the three run along the sides of the buildings, matrix-ly defying in-game physics as they leap up onto the fisheries and dip back down into the alley sidewalls to avoid Ryuk and Zaena’s attacks.

As he fires, replaces his mag and fires again, Ryuk catches Hiccup also trying to run up the side of a wall, which ends poorly. The goblin screams his favorite curse word, falls backwards, and immediately starts nursing a healing potion.

Damn goblin!

The high level berserker flips onto Zaena’s rooftop and away go her two bows.

The faceoff begins.

Ryuk watches wide-eyed, sure that the berserker is going to mow her down with his carbine. He gains a sudden sense of respect for the berserker when the guy equips a buster sword instead. The two charge one another, Zaena’s hands and ghost limbs spinning blades as she meets the berserker.

Realizing he’s about to go head-to-head himself, Ryuk gums a few molten marbles and keeps the end of his marble gun trained at the corner of the rooftop. He spins, checks his three o’clock and his nine, spins again and does the same.

The other two berserkers have completely disappeared. His nerves crawl as he whips around, trying to pinpoint them.

Extreme Focus.

Thinking the skill does nothing. The digital adrenaline coursing through his veins has him on high alert and his ability won’t take. He’s so focused on the corners of the rooftop that he doesn’t see one of the berserkers fire on him from the sidewall of a different fishery.

-16 HP! -20 HP! -12 HP! -17 HP!

Even with his Dream Armor taking the brunt of the bullets, he still loses almost a hundred HP. Ryuk hits the deck with his marble gun up.

On his belly now, he awkwardly tries to figure out where the bullet came from. The molten marbles warm in his mouth, Ryuk calms his beating heart with a deep breath and his Extreme Focus finally starts to work.

A red outline creeping towards Zaena’s rooftop.

“Fuck you.” Ryuk unloads the entire magazine on the red outline, ruining his opponent’s surprise attack.

Instakill!

Skill level up!

Skill: Extreme Focus

Level Three: Can detect approach of camouflaged/concealed/stealthed enemies and objects.

Mage bonus: Higher levels allow sleuthing and increased accuracy. Also increases magic detection range when used in tandem with Magic Eye.

Requirements: LUCK > 11

Ryuk pulls himself to his feet, crouching as he desperately tries to find the other berserker.

-62 HP!

BANG!

Ryuk’s spirit is stripped from his avatar the moment the phrase you have died appears across his vision pane. He watches in slow motion as his body hits the parapet again and topples to the street below. The berserker stands behind him, smoke streaming off the end of his handgun.

Ryuk is an apparition now, floating above the battle.  He’s been here before with his last avatar – if Zaena and Hiccup die, the Mitherfickers fail the quest and will respawn back at the Mondegreen hostel. If they win, Ryuk respawns albeit with his life bar half full.

“I’ll fickin’ murder you!”

Ryuk’s spirit turns to find Hiccup embroiled in an epic wrestling match with the berserker who just took his life. Frothing at the mouth, the goblin tries to get the upper hand.

For his troubles, the gassy goblin takes a direct shot to the stomach that leaves him bleeding out.

-200 HP!

“Yoy, FICK!”

Not one to go down without a fight. Hiccup recovers quickly and springs onto the berserker, his toe knife in hand.

“Fick you!” he bellows as he jabs repeatedly at the berserker’s neck.

The furious goblin quickly overwhelms the berserker and soon, the berserker is left marinating in his own pool of blood.

Hiccup removes his helm, runs his hand through his pink topknot, and gives a double thumbs up at the sky in the general location where he thinks Ryuk’s spirit may be floating. “Good job dying, Marbles. Luckily, everyone’s favorite goblin is now at level fifteen.” He cups his mechanical hand at the side of his mouth. “Wrap it up, Liz!”

With the grace of a whirling dervish, Zaena twists around the strongest berserker mage and skewers him completely, separating both his arms from his body. Instakill! His arms fly into the air, blood spraying from the wounds, and the berserker falls from the rooftop.

(x)__(x)

Ryuk respawns at half health.

He stands, blinks, wipes his Dream Armor, and is just about to climb back up to one of the rooftops when he sees a lone figure appear in the distance. As the figure approaches, his outline flashes green.

Algomagic.

“Well, look what the fickin’ lian dragged home!” Hiccup tosses his healing potion aside, hops from the rooftop onto a crate, and from there onto another crate, eventually landing on the ground to the left of Ryuk.

Dirty Dave Level 99

HP: 8999/8999

MANA: 4697/4697

ATK: 3347

MATK: 1679

DEF: 3000

MDF: 3000

LUCK: 115

The immiNPC is in a shiny black suit and a pair of loose cowboy boots. Hung from his neck is a bolo tie shaped into a nazar.

“Dirty Dave!” the goblin says, his arms wide. “Put ’er there, old pal!” Suspicion paints across the goblin’s face as the famed weapons dealer places his hands behind his back.

“Wait a fickin’ minute. You’re not here to fight us, are you? Ah fick, ah fick!” A spiked club appears in Hiccup’s mechanical hand. “It was Ryuk’s idea to fight you!” He bristles, gains his composure and takes a step forward. “But before we battle, I just want to say, I believe whole-fartedly that you, sir, are innocent. I just want that on record.”

Damn goblin.

Ryuk is on the verge of turning to Hiccup and yelling baka when Dirty Dave starts laughing. “You three against … me?”

Zaena lowers herself from the rooftop and gets into a defensive pose. Ryuk reluctantly unholsters his marble gun and aims it at the torso of the powerful Mind Mage/weapons dealer/rumored drug kingpin.

With just the right amount of flare, Dirty Dave releases his hands from behind his back and shakes them out. “Rest assured, Mitherfickers, I may very well fight you one day, when your guild is complete and you actually stand a chance. But now is not that time. Lower your weapons, or don’t. It’s not like you’d hit me anyway.”

A treasure chest falls out of the air and lands in front of the three Mitherfickers.

“I’m here to give you your reward. For successfully protecting a shipment of pharmaceuticals set to ship off to Polynya, here is your 10,000 rupee reward!”

“Fick yeah! All right, Marbles, you and I are getting our chalupas wet tonight!” With that, Hiccup charges the treasure box and jams his grubby hands in. “Love that feeling.” His nostrils flare as he inhales the money. “And the smell!”

“I apologize for him,” Ryuk says as he takes a step closer to Dave. He glances to Zaena, who watches Hiccup bite down on one of the rupees to test for authenticity. “If you don’t mind, Dave, I have some questions for you.”

“Oh?” Dirty Dave cocks an eyebrow at him.

“Earlier tonight, we were tricked by the Shinigami.”

“And the White Warrior betrayed you?” Dave asks, his eyes flashing orange.

He’s a Mind Mage, Ryuk reminds himself.

“That’s right. We want, I mean, we need to get a message to Sophia, head of the Knights of Non Compos Mentis. You said you had some relation with my former guild, if I remember correctly.”

“I do.”

“Can you pass a message along to her?”

Dirty Dave shrugs. “You have learned many things in the last few days, and I’m sure the betrayal you experienced tonight stung. I can tell you this: this is just the beginning. As an immiNPC, I prefer to be a spectator in what is set to take place as it will directly affect me in ways I’ve yet to fully comprehend. I’m sorry for being vague, but this quest is yours alone to take.”

“Is that a no?” Hiccup asks, another rupee in his mouth.

“It is.”

“A lot of fickin’ help you are, Dirty Dave.” Hiccup stands and pockets a few rupees. “My guess is you could easily get a message to Sophia. Dunno why you’re holding back on us, but if it’s rupees you’re after, that’s not a problem. Name a price, pal, we got angel investors!”

Hiccup bats his hands over his head, again terrorized by Zaena’s ghost limbs.

“We still owe 70,000 rupees to FeeTwix’s fan who gave us a loan,” she hisses at him.

Hiccup snorts. “Pfft! Every goblin worth his weight in rupees knows the best way to get rid of debt is to ignore it.”

“I’m not interested in your money,” Dirty Dave says flatly. “The Knights are the most powerful guild in Tritania. As a former, lesser member of the guild, you should know this, Ryuk.”

Lesser member?

“You will need to go to Polynya yourself and try to get an audience with Sophia yourself. That said, you should know: because of an attack that took place an hour ago, entry into Aramis, the capital city of Polynya, has been severely restricted.”

“An attack?” Zaena gasps. “What happened?”

“It seems the Shinigami are stirring up trouble everywhere. Only people that are residents of the city can enter. The Knights are overseeing the investigation, which is how, I believe, you could get a message to Sophia.” A sinister grin spreads across his face. “There may only be one way to truly get their attention, and that may be to do something that warrants them coming after your guild. This is just a suggestion. There may be other ways.”

Hiccup’s eyes flash as an idea takes shape in his head. “So we fick the place up, and the Knights and the city guards come. Easy peasy. But that doesn’t answer the question: how the fick do we get in if there’s a travel ban?”

“The continent is brimming with quests that could grant you entry to the city. I suggest starting there. If not there, at least begin at one of the entries to the catacombs.”

Ryuk nods. More quests, easy. He then looks at his two guildmates, and narrows in on Hiccup, who has a finger up his nose. Well, easier said than done, but still doable.

Dirty Dave turns, stops, and looks over his shoulder at Ryuk. “Do you mind if I borrow four of your marbles. I’d like to run some tests.”

“Um … ” Ryuk reaches into the pouches on his belt and retrieves a single black marble, clear marble, sword marble, and a molten marble. He walks over to Dave and extends his hand. “Here you go.”

“Very good. We’ll be in touch soon, after you’ve completed the next leg of your journey. Good luck, and keep your heads down.”

Chapter 4: Special Delivery

Ambient music by Hiroshi Yoshimura pipes in from the small, cylindrical speakers in Kodai’s kitchen. He doesn’t normally spend much time there as most of his meals are specially delivered for him. Most of his dinners, if he eats dinner at all, are eaten at some of Tokyo’s finest restaurants, or at one of his hostess bars.

Today is different. The Yakuza lord doesn’t feel like being disturbed yet, and as the bright morning sun fills his apartment, Kodai actually feels an overwhelming sense of joy.

Today, in less than an hour, his new humandroid bodyguard will be delivered.

Which reminds me… he thinks as the messenger interface on his iNet screen flashes.

Kodai: Please pack your things and leave.

He returns to his automatic espresso machine, watching as two shots pour into an imported demitasse. Once the tiny cup is full, he throws it back and closes his eyes for a moment, ignoring the bitter taste as he waits for the caffeine to take effect.

His attention shifts to the bottom right hand corner of his iNet screen.

Kodai’s Ballistics Mage avatar has hit the level necessary to travel easily to Polynya, and for Kodai, this means to travel in a way that doesn’t raise suspicion from Tritania’s AI, the Sage of Gotha.

He quickly checks his avatar’s stats and skills.

Kodai Matsuzaki Level 15 Ballistics Mage

HP: 830/830

ATK: 213

MATK: 176

DEF: 98

MDF: 105

LUCK: 7

---

Skill: Inquisitor

Level Three: Obtain information through enhanced interrogation techniques. Higher levels allow for more vigorous methodology and more effective deception.

Requirements: LUCK > 9

---

Skill: Mask Stats

Level One: Keep others from knowing your stats. Works on any player either below or within eight levels of your current level. Higher levels allow for customizable stat-based deceptions.

Requirements: LUCK > 6

---

Skill: Breath of Fire

Level Two: Place a molten marble in your mouth and use it to spit flames. Damage increases with level.

Damage: 9% if enemy is less than level 30; 6% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 6%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7

---

Skill: Explosive Blades

Level Three: Using three marbles, two knife and one black, cause confusion and pain through an additional shrapnel bonus.

Damage: 19% if enemy is less than level 30; 8% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 3%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 8

---

Skill: Crucify

Level Three: Using two jagged knife marbles, quickly pin an enemy to an object. The object must be at least the length of the target’s outstretched hands. High levels allow for longer pinned times.

Damage: 3% if enemy is less than level 30; 4% if enemy is greater than level 30.

He senses a presence and blinks his eyes open.

Sarah the Australian stands before him completely nude, the look on her face the same as the previous night, when he was watching her. Her skin is porcelain, her breasts ample, the look on her face undeniably sexy.

Now isn’t the time.

Kodai’s eyes drop from her breasts to the single slit of hair shaved into her pubes. “Where are your clothes?”

“Ohayo gozaimasu,” she says in a high-pitched voice not her own.

“I won’t ask you again.”

Tension spreads across Sarah’s forehead. “You already had me sleep in another room, which is kind of humiliating, you know.”

“And?”

“I was expecting,” she swallows, “I don’t know what I was expecting, but I figured you’d at least have a bloody robe for me.”

“One wasn’t in there?”

“No. Besides,” she takes a step closer to him, “I thought you liked seeing me like this.”

“I don’t, not right now anyway. My delivery will be here soon.”

“Your humandroid?”

Kodai nods.

Sarah’s eyes fill with excitement. “Ooo, I want to see her. It was a her, right?”

“Yes, it is a she, and absolutely not,” he says firmly. “Now please, get your clothes and leave. I will come see you when I’m ready.”

Sarah starts to say something but stops herself. She turns away and purposefully sashays so he can take a long, hard look at her ass, if he so chooses.

Kodai smiles. The audacity of this one. It’s why he likes her, and it’s why he plans to keep her around for a little bit longer.

(0)__(0)

Once Sarah has left his apartment, Kodai moves to the window to take in the view. He can see the glimmering waters of Tokyo Bay, the tops of the trees in the Imperial Garden, the rooftops of smaller apartment buildings, the daytime running lights of the aeros as they zip through the air.

He stands there admiring it for a good ten minutes until he naturally focuses in on his reflection. Kodai runs his hand through his short black hair, fixes the crease of his collar, and turns away from the glass.

His thoughts shift to his younger brother at the very moment Tamana betrayed his shitty little guild. A natural smile forms on Kodai’s face. It feels good to be in control again, it feels good to remind Ryuk where he stands in the pecking order.

A message from Gorira flashes on his iNet screen.

Gorira: She’s here.

Kodai: Send her up.

“Live feed.” The cameras in the lobby of the apartment complex play out on his retinae.

He purposefully doesn’t zoom in when he sees his new humandroid, hoping to save the close up for when she is standing directly before him. However, through the feed he can tell that she is just under two meters tall, lean, with short black hair pulled into two tight ponytails at the back of her head.

He moves to his coat rack to put on his suit jacket. Kodai checks his tie, makes sure the knot is pulled all the way up, and smooths his hands over the front of his shirt.

A video feed on his iNet screen alerts him that she is now in front of his door.

With a simple thought, the door clicks open, and the thin humandroid enters into his apartment.

She has western features with eastern European cheekbones and dark green eyes. She’s in a tight black bodysuit with the word SECURE in offset gunmetal gray on her sleeve and a slim-line pair of minimal combat boots.

She bows deeply. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Kodai Matsuzaki,” she says in flawless Japanese.

“Your name?”

She smiles at him and his heart flutters. “You can name me whatever you’d like, or you can call me by the name used during my training.”

“Which was?”

“Tesla.”

“After the aeros company?”

“My handler was fond of a Model T from the 2020s that he restored.” She takes a deep breath and steadies her gaze on him.

“Before we go any further, I’d like to test what you can do. Then I have some business to attend to in a Proxima world.”

“Tritania?”

Kodai takes a step back and regains his composure. “How did you know?”

“I was briefed on your recent interests by MercSecure.”

“I see. One moment, please.”

Kodai: Who is on the way out?

Gorira: Of our own men?

Kodai: Yes, best to start there.

Gorira: Yugio. He’s been late twice in the past three months.

Kodai: Bring him up. If he asks any questions, tell him you are escorting the droid back down.

“You are sending someone?” Tesla stands perfectly still, poised on her heels with an undecipherable look on her face. The more Kodai stares at her, the more he can’t tell what ethnicity she was modeled after. While earlier she looked western, she now looks Central Asian with her cheekbones and the cold look on her face.

She is, without a doubt, a most incredible work of art.

He’s startled when Gorira knocks twice and lets himself in. Gorira is joined by Yugio, a thin but muscled thug in a freshly pressed suit. His hair is slicked to one side, shaved on the other. Like the humandroid, the look on Yugio’s face is indecipherable.

Kodai approaches Yugio. “May I have your weapon?”

Yugio double-checks the safety is on and hands his weapon to Kodai, who then clicks the safety off and points the gun at Gorira.

“Give your gun to Yugio,” Kodai instructs his biggest thug.

If Gorira is surprised or scared, his visage doesn’t give it away. Kodai keeps the gun trained on him as the big man hands his firearm to Yugio.

“Good,” Kodai says, “now take off your jacket and kill her.”

“Hai.” Gorira removes his jacket, places it on the coat rack, and rolls up his sleeves. He looks to his shoes.

“You can keep them on,” Kodai says.

Gorira approaches and once he’s just outside of striking range, he lifts his brick-sized fists. He pauses, moves his fist back to his side, and bows. Tesla does the same and as she comes up, her eyes dilate and return back to their normal dark green color. She lifts her much smaller fists as well, and ever-so-slightly shifts one foot behind the other.

Gorira swings, and having seen Gorira kill a man with a punch to the face, Kodai knows just how powerful and fast the big man can swing.

Seconds later, he’s doubled over, trying to move away from the humandroid, who has avoided his swing by meeting it with a very precise knee to the gut.

The big man staggers back, sucks in a big gulp of air, and charges forward. Tesla levels him with a fist to the face. Gorira hits the ground hard enough to shake the floor. Blood dribbles out of his lips as he tries to lift himself.

“Finish him,” Kodai tells his new humandroid, his eyes narrowing on the blood that has started to pool on his floor.

With the speed of a striking cobra, Tesla steps slightly in front of Gorira, lifts her foot, and brings the back of her heel down on the big man’s neck, cracking his chin against the ground and killing him instantly.

“Good.” Kodai turns to Yugio. “Get two of the others and get this body out of my home. Also, don’t be late again.”

Chapter 5: A Scar is a Success Story

Morning comes faster than it should. A flashing icon tells Ryuk that a new episode of Flight Feet,フライトフィート, has been posted. He blinks his eyes open, happy that his room is slightly dark from thick curtains, and rolls to his side.

How did I get back to my bed? he wonders. His thoughts come to a halt as he recalls the Attla spider. A quick glance at the corner of his room and he sees that, at least at the moment, there are no digital spiders waiting to sink their fangs into his flesh.

He takes a breath and sits up, noticing that there is a box on his desk with the Proxima haptic gloves inside.

After a yawn, Ryuk blinks his eyes shut and begins his daily routine of checking Tritanian leaderboards. His attention falls back to Flight Feet. The blue-haired bombshell has recently finished leading her guild through Spider Skull Island. They are now outside the city of Waringtla, home to the Saiduka Giants.

A prompt from Hajime stirs his reverie.

Ryuk selects the strawberry covered honey toast and gets out of bed.

After a quick shower, most of which he spends playing a game of Pong over iNet with someone in his building, he enters the dining room area to find Hajime just finishing up on the toast.

“Did you see your Proxima Haptics? Rakuten delivered them while you were diving.”

“I sure did. I’ll deal with them after breakfast.”

“Good. Care for whipped cream?” Hajime asks, his hair pulled back into a tight bun. The humandroid wears a light blue apron with an image of Totoro on it. Pinned to the front of his apron is a button that says CHEF.

“Please, and where did you get the apron?”

“I’ve worn it before; you’ve just never noticed. I see you’ve slept well,” the humandroid says, his eyes dilating slightly.

“I did.”

He transfers the thick toast from the oven to the plate in front of Ryuk. He returns with the strawberries and whipped cream and adds it to the top.

“I made coffee for a change of pace. Care to have some?”

“Sure,” Ryuk says, just now noticing the smell of coffee. Was I really that lost in my own thoughts?

Hajime returns with a coffee and takes a seat in front of him.

“Um, are you going to watch me eat?”

“What else am I supposed to watch?” the humandroid asks. “Watching humans eat is interesting, to be honest. Some of you become quite animalistic once food is placed before you.”

With what Hajime has just said in mind, Ryuk slowly eats his toast, careful to cut each slice proportionally and making sure not to coat his face with whipped cream. He pauses before finishing the last bite. “What happened to the weapons from yesterday?”

A series of flashes come to Ryuk – Kodai holding a humgun and Gorira smashing into the apartment with a pistol; his brother falling through the coffee table; the scattering glass.

What an experience.

“I’ve put the weapons away for now.”

“In the drawer?” Ryuk looks to the drawer in question. “We may need them if he comes back.”

Hajime nods. “Yes, we may, although I have a feeling that when and if Kodai comes back, it will go poorly for both of us.”

“Then why don’t we leave? Why don’t we run?”

“Run where? It’s an odd situation we’ve found ourselves in. Your family’s men are protecting us downstairs. If they wanted to come at us, they could, right now actually. But they haven’t and they won’t. Similarly, if we leave in a way that raises suspicion, they may come after us. Then again, maybe they won’t.”

“So we are under house arrest?”

The humandroid smiles. “If we wanted to leave, I believe we could. So no, we aren’t under house arrest. I do, however, see this situation escalating.”

“I need to log in,” Ryuk says, in place of anything better to say. When in doubt, escape. There really is no other mantra for a gamer.

“And there goes your monkey mind. Like a monkey, your mind goes from tree to tree, rather than dealing with the situation at hand.”

“I’m dealing with stuff in there too, in Tritania. You, of all people, should know this.”

Hajime nods, considering what Ryuk has just said. “Okay then, what are your plans for today?”

“To get to Polynya, the second floating continent, and try to get into contact with my old guild. It’s not going to be easy. For one, there’s been an attack on the capital city of Porthos so the gates are closed.”

“And what do you hope to gain from contacting them?”

“Advice and hopefully some assistance before things really get out of hand.” Ryuk’s face hardens. “Tamana doesn’t know about NPCs being able to take humandroid bodies. I never discussed this with her when she was with us. But if the Shinigami find out, I do believe our world, this world, will be in for some real trouble.”

“I see.”

Ryuk recalls the serpent woman behind the golden door. “There are other things happening in Tritania too, which may relate to all this.”

“And so the ultimate quest becomes even more intriguing.” Once Ryuk is finished eating, Hajime looks at down at his plate. “Are you going to read your note card?”

Ryuk moves his plate to the side and flips the placemat to find a card with a phrase written on it: the most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten – breathe.

“So breathe more?” He takes a deep breath to make a point. “How’s that?”

A rare grin spreads across the humandroid’s face. “Before you log in, I’d like you to join me in the living room for ten minutes of breathing. Turn everything off. Disconnect from your world. It’s a breathing exercise.”

“Hajime … ” He stops his protest. The person just about to protest was the old Ryuk, the Ryuk that didn’t emphasize differences, the Ryuk who was weak and feeble. “Sure,” he finally says. “Give me a second to disable my iNet feed.”

(0)__(0)

That was troubling, is the only thing Ryuk can think as his avatar takes shape in their room at the Mondegreen Hostel. He had done as Hajime instructed, and he’d been able to maintain his relaxed breathing for a good five minutes until the image of Tamana came to him, hovering over him holding her ironing board of a sword.

It was too hard to concentrate after that with his “monkey mind,” as Hajime put it, running rampant in the jungle of his skull. Still, the breathing exercise was good while it lasted.

“Phew!” Ryuk shudders as the wretched stench of goblin meets his sniffer. Hiccup snores loudly, his arm hanging off the bed and the blanket barely covering his dimpled ass. After a squeaky poot, the goblin blinks his eyes open for a moment, turns, and falls back asleep.

Damn goblin, Ryuk thinks, for old time’s sake.

Hiccup has grown on him, and however vulgar he is, the goblin always seems to come through at the very last moment. And even if he can be quite critical of the guild members – Ryuk especially doesn’t like being called “emo” or “snowflake,” whatever the hell that means – Hiccup seems as if he would literally die for the Mitherfickers.

The Mitherfickers.

The guild’s stats appear and he swipes them away as he sees a flashing message from FeeTwix.

FeeTwix: He has arrived!

Ryuk: Let me guess? The room upstairs?

FeeTwix: Close, but no cigar. We’re in the lobby.

Ryuk tiptoes out of the room, careful not to wake Hiccup. He finds Zaena sitting on the couch while the Swede stands before her, twirling a staff. Jim the Hostelier is behind the front desk, reading a Hotel Managers Quarterly scrollazine.

“Isn’t that the … ?”

“Yes,” FeeTwix says, “it’s the shaman staff we got from the Tuskarr back in the Hills of Hillshire. Our very first hard fight! As you know,” he says, his eyes black as ever, “my subclass is Mystic, something which I haven’t really done anything about. My fans sent me tons of suggestions – pretty sweet stuff, really. So I figured I’d work on enhancing those skills.” He shrugs. “Or I’ll just stick to firearms. We’ll see. It is nice that all the mystic abilities are natural extensions of an avatar’s being, meaning they don’t use Mana, which is useful as fick. Speaking of fick, we let the goblin sleep in.”

“I noticed.”

“And we’re out here because of the smell in there.”

“I noticed.”

Zaena laughs. “I don’t know how I ended up in a guild with two commoners and a goblin, but as we say in Thulean, chekchek tranaikh roonana marfakh.”

“Which means?” Ryuk asks.

She thinks for a moment. “The best way to translate it would be a scar is a success story.”

“Wonderful.” FeeTwix claps his hands together. “Now, how we practiced … ”

Zaena looks him dead in his black eyes and slowly parts her lips. “I know what many of you are thinking, I know that you’re worried that Valentine’s Day is less than a week away and you have nothing, nothing, to give your sigother. Well, your problems are solved!” Her orange eyes twinkle as she crosses one leg over the other. “TwitchTube Red is partnering with the Proxima Company to offer you and your sigother matching TwitchTube Red NV visors that come with a two-year discounted streaming membership. These limited edition visors will surely be collector’s items.” She gives FeeTwix the double thumbs up. “They’re kind of cute too.”

“Great work, babe!” A mirror appears in FeeTwix’s hand and he angles it at his face. “Okay, everyone! I’m stoked to see you all here, ready to venture with us to Polynya in the next hour or so. Keep the mystic hints coming in – I want to be full-on trancing out by the end of the day! Oh, and don’t forget: I’m announcing the winner of the TwitchTube Red lifetime membership at the end of the day, so get your entries in now while I discuss a few things with the guild.”

The mirror disappears and he claps his hands together. “All right, team, how should we wake the goblin?”

Jim the Hostelier stands. “If the goblin is waking soon, I’d better have breakfast ready. And you three? What will you be having?”

“Konakhchani Rohva.”

“Ah, over easy then?”

Zaena nods.

“And what do you think your goblin companion would like?”

“No telling, but make it as greasy as you possibly can.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged.” With that, Jim promptly steps into a different room.

“So the plan,” Ryuk says. “We need to take the next airship out of here.”

“Not a problem,” says FeeTwix. “I’ve already booked one.”

“Can you go blue for a moment?”

His eyes flash blue. “They really hate it when I do that. There are close to two million people livestreaming my feed, which isn’t the largest number I’ve seen, but it’s pretty damn good.” He sighs and runs his hand through his blond hair. “They are exhausting me a bit, to be honest. But no matter. I had a full night’s rest. I’ll get over it!”

“There are several things we need to discuss, the first of which is payment to your banker friend for the loan he gave us.” Ryuk takes a seat on the arm of the couch. “We’re up about fifteen thousand rupees. I know that isn’t enough, but … ”

FeeTwix snaps his fingers.

“What did you just do?”

“Check the coffers.”

A number appears on Ryuk’s display: 75, 309. His eyes light up. “Where did you get this kind of money?”

“A check came in and I converted it to rupees.”

“A check for how many days?”

“How long have we been associates? Three or four days now?” He counts on his fingers for a moment. “Okay, there was the first day at the Hills of Hilshire. The second day in Aramis. The third day at the zombie kill-for-all and the betrayal. Okay, four days. This is the fourth day. It was a check for the ad reads and stream views from just before our first meeting to the fight last night. Do you want me to transfer the rupees to my fan?”

“Yes, please,” Ryuk says, “and if you want to keep track of guild finances, by all means. That’s a lot of rupees!”

“It won’t always be this high of a payment. TwitchTube Red included a 25% bonus for having so many unique views in such a short time.”

“I see. Well transfer it, before he-who-shall-not-be-named gets word.”

“Done. Zaena updated me on everything that happened last night. I ran a few polls from my fans and they are suggesting we land in the city of Talini. The people that inhabit that city are the same people who built the catacombs beneath Porthos. They’ll know something, although they are notoriously religious and pretty uptight.”

“Been there,” Ryuk says, recalling the people prostrating around a stupa with a square top. The Talinians would prostrate themselves for several days straight, ripping up their arms and legs.

“My guess is that we’ll likely have to do a quest for them to cough up the info we need. At least we’ll get some levels by doing so and explore Polynya, another plus. Anything else we need to discuss before I go live again?”

Ryuk moves closer to FeeTwix and speaks in a low voice. “We have sensitive information we need to protect. The Shinigami, or whoever else is trying to come to our world, doesn’t seem to know about coming through a humandroid’s body.”

FeeTwix raises an eyebrow. “I’d forgotten about that myself.”

“We didn’t tell Tamana, thankfully, but we need to be careful who we disclose this information to. Our main goal needs to be to get in touch with the Knights, and not just any of them – with their leader, Sophia.”

“We’ll get their attention,” FeeTwix says with a grin. “Just get me in the city and let me do the rest. I already have fans there willing to help out, if we want to go that route. Now, for the goblin!” His eyes flash black. “Hey, everyone! Okay, reading through some of your responses, okay, yes, good idea. Hot water? No way. The room already reeks. Leave the goblin here? Not a bad idea, but he has been useful in the past, I think.” FeeTwix looks to Zaena who shrugs.

“What the fick are you going on about, Twixy?” Hiccup stands in the doorway armored up with his golden helm tucked under his arm. His pink hair is slicked back over his head and his mechanical arm gleams as if it’s been polished. He yawns and burps at the same time, which throws him off balance.

“Hiya, Hiccup!” FeeTwix shoots the goblin his biggest shit-eating grin. “Good news! The Fickers, aka your fan club, have reached thirty-three thousand members, just like you told them to do yesterday!”

The goblin narrows his eyes at the Swede, and as he does, he brings his finger to his nose and digs around for a moment. “Come again?”

FeeTwix clears his throat. “Remember yesterday? You said you wanted thirty-three thousand members, and boy fick, here they are!”

“Boy fick? What did I tell you about stealing my line, Twixy? If the Fickers really want to impress me, they’d bring their numbers up to fifty thousand. If they really, really wanted to impress me, they’d stop watching your feed and go out there and get themselves a piece of prime cooter.”

“You heard the goblin! Bring those numbers up to fifty thousand and get yourselves some cooter!”

Hiccup pinches the bridge of his nose for a second, doing his best to hold in his early morning disdain. He points his brass finger at Jim, who has just exited the back room, and gives him the lasso signal. “Get our fickin’ breakfast to go, Jimmy. Two dozen dragon wings with garlic honey pepper spice this time. There’s an airship going out at the Morning Hour of the Faun and the captain owes me a favor. And one more thing.”

Hiccup moves his brass finger from Ryuk to Zaena to FeeTwix.

“When we find Tammy and New Marbles, I get to be the one that kills New Marbles. We clear here? Sure, our Marbles here probably wants revenge, but that kiddy ficker exploded my head and I’ll be damned if I ever die that way again! I’ve been having ficked up nightmares all night, believe you me.” His eyes flash with concern as he mumbles, “Fickin’ hell if I’d put my chalupa anywhere close to an ink shadow, and I don’t know what the fick it kept trying to do to my bunghole, but it was … Fick me, what the hell are we doing here?”

“You, um,” FeeTwix giggles.

“What? I was what?”

“You were talking about killing New Marbles then you went off on a rant regarding a weird dream you had about an ink shadow coming close to your chalupa and it doing something to your goblin hole,” Zaena says.

“The fick you say, Lizzy? Why the hell are you talking about ink shadows, chalupas and bungholes? You’re really ficked in the head, you know that? Back to New Marbles. That little marble flinging bitch’s bitch is mine.”

“Only if I get to kill Tamana,” Zaena grits.

Ryuk starts to say something, but lets the moment pass. It is useless defending Tamana, and maybe a bit stupid as well. He saw what happened, and even though he knows there may be more to the story, his guildmates are right to feel vengeful.

“Which reminds me … ” The goblin digs around in his back pocket for a moment and produces a yellowed piece of parchment. He unfolds it and walks it over to Ryuk.

“And that is?”

“Well, if you’d take a clear look at it, you’d see that it’s our new fickin’ logo.”

Ryuk takes the piece of parchment with two fingers and turns it over. Hastily drawn on the document are two skulls, each with a pair of wings. The skulls hover in the air just over the hilt of a sword facing downwards.

“Our logo?”

“Yeah, the Mitherfickers. Everyone needs a logo. Where would Horse Piss be without that picture of the big horsey dong filling a mug with beer?”

“Let me take a look at that.” A plastic glove appears on FeeTwix’s hand and he takes the parchment from Ryuk. “Always keep a pair in your list,” he says under his breath.

“Real funny, Twixy, but I’ll forget the fact that you’re being a racist fickhole. Regardless of your racial biases, what do you think of the logo?”

FeeTwix scans the drawing for a moment, letting his fans have their say. “I’m definitely down with it, but I’m still trying to figure out why you think that two skulls with wings trying to deep throat the hilt of a sword would make a good logo for the Mitherfickers.”

Hiccup’s face flashes red. “Trying to deep throat the hilt of a sword!?” He jumps up and snatches the picture out of FeeTwix’s hand. “You know, both you and Liz have your minds in the fickin’ gutter.”

Jim clears his throat. “Sirs and madam, before you start adventuring, or planning people’s deaths, or coming up with poorly thought out guild logos, I think it is important that you see something. Follow me to the greenhouse, please.”

(0)__(x)

Jim leads the four Mitherfickers through the kitchen, where they see a heavyset chef and his saucier working on Hiccup’s breakfast request. The chef flours the wings which he then hands off to the saucier, who dips them and tosses them into the frying pan.

Hiccup stops griping about the Mitherfickers logo as soon as he takes one big whiff of the dragon wings. “Hurry it up, boys! Uncle Goblin is hungry!”

“Nique ta mere!” the saucier grumbles. “Casse-toi!”

“Sheesh, what’s gotten into that frog ficker?” Hiccup asks as they step out of the kitchen and into a narrow corridor.

“He doesn’t like to be rushed,” Jim explains hurriedly, “and I would suggest you not make eye contact nor speak to him on the way back through the kitchen. He’s been known to throw his cleaver at demanding customers.”

The hostelier pulls a key from his belt and unlocks a large green door, letting light spill out into the narrow hallway.

The greenhouse faces the Bonsor River, which sparkles in the early morning sun. Herbs and other edible plants reach to the glass ceiling. The small space is incredibly humid, and as Ryuk scans it, he spots the makeshift crib in the center of the greenhouse.

Hiccup buries his head in his mechanical hand. “Dragon ficks!” His hair lifts as Zaena ruffles it with her ghost limb.

“It hatched?” Ryuk asks as he approaches the manger.

About the size of a pug, and equally fat and round, the dragon has large ruby red eyes and icy blue skin. Its wings are about the size of the dragon wings that Hiccup is set to enjoy for breakfast, and the end of its tail is barbed.

The dragon yawns, and rolls onto its other side.

Infant Ice Dragon Level 1

HP: 100/100

ATK: 3

MANA: 10

MATK: 7

DEF: 1

MDF: 4

LUCK: 0

“He’s adorable!” Zaena approaches the baby dragon, which rests on a pile of freshly cut fern leaves. The Thulean makes a cooing sound from her throat and the dragon immediately awakes, yawns again, and blows a single snowflake into the air.

“Am I the only one here who knows what raising a baby dragon entails? There are so many factors, from psychological to socio-economical,” Hiccup grumbles. “And it’s an ice dragon? We already have one fickin’ snowflake in the group – you, Marbles, I’m talking about you – we definitely don’t need another!”

“Baka,” Ryuk whispers under his breath.

“Relax, buddy! This is going to be fun!” FeeTwix claps his hand on Hiccup’s shoulder. “A baby dragon, everyone! You saw it first here on my feed!” FeeTwix gets in closer to the dragon and holds his mirror out, so they are both in the frame. “Take your pictures now!”

Jim says, “She should have fully functional wings in about a week. It will, however, take her a bit longer to be large enough to take you from continent to continent.”

Hiccup gulps. “It’s a she? Have you guys ever dealt with a female dragon in heat?” He catches Ryuk’s gaze and nods over at Zaena. “They can get pretty crazy.”

“Watch it, goblin.” Zaena’s eyes flare and then soften as she again takes in the cute dragon. “And it’s a boy,” she corrects Jim. “Hard to tell at this age.”

Hiccup slaps his mechanical hand against his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this a day ago. Let’s fickin’ sell it! An ice dragon on the black market it worth at least, at least a hundo-K rupees, at least. Twixy?”

FeeTwix shakes his head.

“Marbles?”

“Um … ”

“Dammit, you’re a pussy. Jim?”

Jim bites his lip and looks away.

“Fine, fine.”

Ryuk gets on his knees next to Zaena, who now cradles the dragon. She lifts her green finger in front of the dragon’s face and it blows a small cloud of icy mist at her. “It’s so cold,” she says as she pulls her hand away.

“Do you have experience with ice dragons?” Ryuk asks her.

“No, contrary to popular belief, or to goblins who don’t know anything about my species, Thuleans don’t have too many dragons. Royalty does, but I’m not royalty.” She makes cooing noises and the baby male dragon makes the same noise back at her.

For someone with no experience with dragons, she sure knows how to communicate with them, Ryuk thinks.

“This is very wonderful,” Jim says, his eyes filling with joy. “I’ve never heard this language communicated before!”

“Language?” Zaena looks away from the dragon. “It’s not a language. Just making baby noises! All Thuleans do this.” She turns her head to Ryuk. “You’re the leader of our guild; if we are to fully bond with this dragon, it’ll be up to you to form this bonding relationship.”

Leader? Bonding?

Ryuk nods and scoots a bit closer to Zaena. “How do I bond with him?”

“Fick me to tears,” Hiccup laments, “this gets gayer by the minute.”

“You’ve never had a dragon before?” FeeTwix asks.

“We didn’t have dragons last time around,” he tells the Swede. “We rode griffins.”

“Those things smell like fickin’ booty tang.” Hiccup digs in his nose for something, finds what he is looking for, and flicks it at FeeTwix.

“Thanks for the reminder!” A mirror appears in FeeTwix’s hand after he’s dodged the nasal projectile. “I just want to take a moment to thank everyone watching this incredible moment! The Mitherfickers are about to dragon up, and after last night’s terrible betrayal, we can use all the help we can get. Speaking of betrayal, have you ever lifted your arm to find that your deodorant isn’t working? Or maybe you’re tired of greeting people with a friendly smile and a pair of epic sweat stains!”

With one eyebrow raised, Hiccup takes a sniff at his underarm, shrugs, and lowers his arm.

“Well, if you have, Arm and Speed Stick Spice has you covered! Sweaty and unbearable? Booty tang out the wazoo? Slap on some D-O for your B-O and finish with a quick Arm and Speed Stick Spice’s Freshen Up Body Spray. Got a date and didn’t have time to shower? Arm and Speed Stick Spice’s Quick Shower wipes got you covered! Okay, so you guys gotta try this stuff, and when you do, mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout to receive 20% off your first order. Free shipping for all online orders! Terms and conditions apply. Love you guys and remember, smell good for me.”

The goblin shakes his head. “I’m not going to say the string of curse words running through my disproportionately large brain at the moment. Let’s wrap this up, kiddos. My homie’s airship is leaving soon.”

“How do I bond with him?” Ryuk asks.

Hiccup snorts. “Fick me, Marbles, you make it too easy.”

Still cradling the baby dragon, Zaena turns it to Ryuk. “It’s simple. Just reach your finger out to him. You’ll know if he decides to bond with you or not pretty quickly.”

“And he can’t just bond with you?”

“I’m not the guild’s leader.”

Ryuk lifts his hand to the dragon’s muzzle. The creature’s eyes narrow for a moment as he suspiciously sniffs at Ryuk’s finger. He opens his mouth, and exhales a soft cloud of blue icicles.

New skill learned!

Skill: Bonding Trust

Level One: Bonding trust creates an everlasting connection between you and another creature. Higher levels allow for direct communication between you and other animals as you instantly understand their languages and demeanors.

Requirements: There are no requirements for bonding trust. This skill is tied directly to your D-NAS, digital neuronal autoconstruct system, and based on your interaction with others up until the point at which you met the creature.

“Wonderful!” Jim claps his hands together. “You’ve bonded with it!”

Ryuk turns to see FeeTwix come in closer, his eyes black as ever as his viewers take the moment in.

A bell rings in the other room, signaling that food is ready.

“Fick yeah! Later, haters.” The goblin exits leaving the three of them with the hostelier.

“What am I supposed to do with him?” Ryuk asks as he cradles the dragon.

“Well, he’ll need a name,” Jim says. “Everyone needs a name.”

“Yangukuchipatchi,” Ryuk says almost instinctively. “Yangu for short.”

“What’s it mean?” FeeTwix asks.

“It’s the name of a famous Tamagotchi.” Ryuk pets the dragon on the head. It smiles, closes its eyes, and relaxes.

“Tamagotchi?” FeeTwix’s eyes flash. “That’s a clever name!”

“Yangu, huh? I like it,” Zaena say. “Once he can fly, he’ll come to you when you call him. Until then, we’ll have to look after him. Jim, do you have a backpack of sorts?”

“No worries, babe, I have one.” A custom Voodoo Tactical Level III assault backpack with a water reservoir and the phrase #FeeTwixRox embroidered across the front in big white letters appears in the Swede’s hands. He opens it and Zaena carefully sets the dragon inside. She zips up a portion of the backpack, allowing Yangu to peek its head out the other side.

The Thulean assassin coos some more as she helps him put the backpack on. Yangu naturally rests his neck on Ryuk’s shoulder.

“You ready?” Zaena asks him.

“Sure.” Ryuk nods as a soft smile forms on his face. “Let’s grab the goblin and get to Polynya.”

Chapter 6: Chalupa vs. Churro

The four Mitherfickers quickly make their way to the south side of Aramis and its sprawling port, which is situated between a string of tributaries, the water from which flows over the continental shelf.

The ships docked in the Aramis port range in size from small fishing vessels to cruise ships, the rotating oars of which keep the ships floating in the air. A container ship with the name Maersk Alabama is currently floating into the port, the crew busy pulling up the ropes that will hold it down. Regardless of how far down the Endless Sea is, the smell of ocean is heavy in the air, the squawk of seagulls cantankerous.

Yangu makes a barking noise, briefly interrupting the seagulls above. “Shhh,” Ryuk tells the dragon as he reaches back to pet its head. The dragon’s skin is ice cold, the scales on his head smooth to the touch.

Zaena and Hiccup walk ahead of Ryuk, arguing in Thulean. The odd couple to end all odd couples, Zaena is twice Hiccup’s height, slender, and moves with the grace of a runway model. Hiccup is vertically challenged, robust, and slightly bowlegged, his walk more of a waddle.

FeeTwix, between Ryuk and the other two, busies himself by speaking to a few of his most loyal fans.

He really does care for them, Ryuk thinks, which reminds him of the reason the Swede came to Tritania in the first place – to find out what happened to Tomas, one of his earliest fans. We’ll figure this out, Ryuk thinks, and he wants to verbalize this to the Swede but, as they have before, silence and shyness get the best of him.

“Stop her!”

A female elf shoulders through the Mitherfickers, tossing Hiccup into a stand outside of a souvenir shop.

“Fick!”

A machete-wielding hairball with a distended belly turns the corner, his eyes angry and bloodshot. He raises his weapon into their air, stomps his foot and bellows, “STOP THAT THIEF!”

Before she can get any further, the elf lifts into the air like a marionette. Ryuk looks to Zaena, and she nods.

“I have her,” Zaena says as the female thief struggles to free herself.

High Elf Level 15

HP: 411/435

MANA: 251/268

ATK: 63

MATK: 78

DEF: 55

MDF: 106

LUCK: 19

A high elf? Ryuk slowly brings his marble gun out and trains it on her. FeeTwix has done the same with his SPAS-12 shotgun.

A Player Character too, Ryuk thinks, referring to the icon above her head.

The elven female’s hands begin to charge with blistering white energy.

With a pumping action, FeeTwix loads a round into his shotgun. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

A crowd has begun to form, but it isn’t as large as one would expect. This area is accustomed to street brawls, thinks Ryuk as he takes a few steps back, just to give himself some range. Proximity is important, and he quickly pops the molten black mag out of his Marble Gun and goes for his mag of sword marbles instead.

The high elf and Zaena share similar dancer bodies with thin torsos, larger hips and muscled calves. Where they differ is skin tone. Zaena’s green color is a far cry from the elf’s pallid skin tone. Her orange hair and slitted orange eyes are at odds too with the elf’s blonde locks pulled into a single large braid and the elf’s soft blue eyes.

“You’ll be coming with me, missy, and I can’t wait for my boys to have their way with you.” The hairy, machete-wielding man produces a pair of handcuffs and licks his lips. “But daddy gets to go first.”

As if on cue, Machete Man’s three sons slide to a halt behind him. The family shares the ugly gene, and it appears to get worse as they age.

The oldest brother has a braided mullet and a beard peppered with bits of dried food. The middlest brother, sporting a Captain Kangaroo hairdo, is missing an eyebrow due to a scar that runs from his forehead to his pockmarked cheeks. The youngest has yet to grow facial hair, but what he lacks in beard he makes up in missing teeth, pus-filled zits, and a harelip. All three of them have primitive swords, wooden shields, and old leather armor.

Ryuk has been around Zaena long enough now to know when her konoshlo are retracting into her back. There’s a subtle change in the way she holds her shoulders, akin to the way a person with two arms looks when they lower their arms to their sides.

She’s letting her go … Ryuk slowly aims his weapon from the female elf to the machete-wielding father and his butt fugly sons.

“Who the fick tossed me into the souvenir stand?” Hiccup pushes his way past the family of miscreants and growls when he sees the elf. “Some thief you are!” he tells the elven female, oblivious to the man directly behind him holding a machete. “Next time you run through a crowd, remember not to plow through them, rather roll off them.”

“Move it, goblin!” Machete Man growls.

Hiccup’s tomahawk appears in his mechanical hand. “Is it you who said that to me,” he says, pointing the little tomahawk at Machete Man, “or was it one of your fickin’ inbred kids? Look, boys, you see now what happens when you fick your sister after your mom had you by fickin’ her brother? Bad idea, huh? When does the chain of inbreeding end? Sad!”

Hiccup’s face morphs from anger to general confusion.

“Where the fick was I? Where’s Twixy?” He turns his back to his opponents and gives FeeTwix a big grin.

Dammit, Hiccup!

“Twixy! You won’t believe what I stole from that souvenir shop!” He produces a miniature gold statue of Empress Thun as he makes his way to the side of the Mitherfickers. “And look at the gazongas they put on this one!”

FeeTwix’s shotgun disappears and he steps forward with his shaman staff. “Not now, Hiccup.”

(0)__(0)

“I cannot allow you to take the elf,” FeeTwix says, his eyes black as a starless night. “Leave now, before this gets ugly.”

Machete Man Level 5

HP: 150/150

ATK: 36

MATK: 18

DEF: 54

MDF: 32

LUCK: 3

Piece of cake. Ryuk quickly glances at his sons’ stats to find that they are all equally leveled or lower.

“What are you going to do with that staff, part the waters?” Machete Man asks as his sons cackle behind him. “Ha! The Endless Sea is down there!” He flips the bird at FeeTwix and points it downward.

FeeTwix starts whispering some mantra as he steps forward.

“What the hell?” Machete Man asks as FeeTwix nears him.

“McStarbuck’s Twonicorn Frappuccino, on sale; McStarbuck’s Twonicorn Frappuccino, on sale. #FeeTwixRox at counter; #FeeTwixRox at counter. McStarbuck’s Twonicorn Frappuccino, on sale … ”

Whack!

-52 HP! Critical hit!

FeeTwix knocks the living shit out of Machete Man with the end of his shaman staff. He twists the staff, dips back on his heel into a warrior pose, releases a gut-wrenching war cry, and drives the staff into the big man’s gut.

-29 HP!

“Fick yeah, Twixy!”

Zaena brushes past Hiccup and spins forward to meet two of the three brothers with her wall of blades.

Seeing his opening, the gaseous goblin goes to meet the youngest of the bunch. His tomahawk smashes into the young man’s shield, splintering it to pieces. The youngest swings his crappy sword overhand. Hiccup sidesteps his attack and brings his ax into an exposed bit of flab sticking out of the guy’s loose leather chest plate.

-38 HP!

The Mitherfickers have this, and just to make sure that the high elf doesn’t go anywhere, Ryuk trains his marble gun on her for the second time in the last few minutes.

She glances at him, sees the weapon, and from there turns her attention to Yangu the dragon.

“You have a dragon?” she mouths.

Sure enough, Yangu’s neck is extended over his shoulder, the dragon’s gaze honed in on Zaena, who continues to toy with the two inbred brothers.

With a smile on her face, the Thulean assassin slices through space and time, giving them two small nicks and avoiding their swipes at the very last moment. Her plan comes to fruition when the biggest of the two rears back with his sword and brings it down on his brother, Zaena stepping aside just in time.

Fratricide!

She quickly takes the head of the bigger one and it flies into the stand outside the souvenir shop.

Instakill!

“Hell yeah, babe, fatality!” FeeTwix delivers the finishing blow to Machete Man around the same time Hiccup finishes bashing the youngest brother’s skull in with his tomahawk. It is a bloody, gory mess by the time the Mitherfickers have finished cleaning shop.

“Now,” FeeTwix turns to the high elf as EXP is doled out, “tell us why we just protected you.”

Hiccup immediately begins checking their corpses for loot, cursing and rattling off about Hyperborea country folk each time he comes up empty-handed.

“My name is Enway Zoltan.” The elven woman’s ears press back and she moves closer to Ryuk. “Is that really a dragon?”

“No, it’s a baby Thulean. Why the fick haven’t we killed her yet too?”

“Relax, Hiccup.”

“Just disappointed. These fickers don’t have shit!”

Zaena approaches, all but one of her swords sheathed. She sizes Enway up – she’s only a few centimeters taller than the high elf – and takes her place next to FeeTwix.

“Cheap ficks,” Hiccup laments, “where’s the family fortune?” The goblin kicks one of the bodies he’s just checked. His stomach grumbles, and an eruption from his nether cheeks quickly follows.

“You won’t find anything on them aside from a few rupees, goblin,” says Enway. “If you’re looking for their loot … ” She raises her finger to access her inventory list and thinks otherwise.

Hiccup points his tomahawk at her. “First – and I’m fickin’ serious here, people – the name is Hiccup. Spell it out with me now:  H-I-C-C-U-P. Ha! You ever heard this one, Twixy? I-C-U-P, get it?” He glances to FeeTwix for approval and gets a tight nod.

“Don’t mind him,” Zaena says.

“It’d be in your best interest to mind me.” Hiccup’s tomahawk disappears and he approaches the elf with his hands outstretched. “Now if  you have some loot, cough it up. Otherwise, I will personally see to it that your body is left here with the other bad hombres.” He turns to Ryuk. “These fickers were bad hombres, right?”

Enway giggles. “Where did you learn Spanish?”

“Spanish? What the fick are you going on about?”

Bad what? Ryuk considers for a moment that for an NPC, Hiccup sure uses a lot of words, either correctly or incorrectly, that even he has never heard before. Something cold brushes against his neck, interrupting his thought. “Relax, Yangu,” he whispers. The baby dragon yawns and blows a needle-thin icicle into the air.

“How cute! Can I hold it?” Enway takes a step closer to Ryuk.

“Finish answering his question first.” Ryuk nods to FeeTwix.

“Yeah,” the Swede says, “why were they chasing you? What is it you stole from them?”

“They stole from me and I stole it back from them.”

“What did they steal exactly?” Out of the corner of his eye, Ryuk sees Hiccup giving him the ‘wrap it up’ signal. The goblin points to an invisible watch, he then makes the hand gesture of a bird flying.

“We need to get to Polynya,” Ryuk says.

“And quick too!” Hiccup adds. “Captain Rehab doesn’t wait for anyone!”

“What are the odds? That’s where I was planning to go! I need to return to Katiyana, my village.” Her nearly translucent blue eyes lock onto Ryuk. “Would you guys care to join me there?”

Quest: Will you accompany Enway Zoltan to her village?

Rewards: Possible level-ups and the other benefits associated with companionship.

Risks: Typical risks associated with joining up with an unknown traveler.

With a flick of his finger, the map of Polynya pops up. Katiyana isn’t far from Porthos. The original plan was to head to Talini, but this could work too …

Ryuk fires off a message to the guild.

Ryuk: What do you think?

FeeTwix: My fans have pulled some data on her. She seems genuine. We’ll keep an eye on her.

Zaena: I’m fairly certain the catacombs connect Katiyana to Porthos, so there’s bound to be a way to the city through there.

“Fine, fine.” Ryuk accepts the quest.

Enway Zoltan, Level 15 White Mystic, has temporarily joined your guild!

“She’s part of our guild now?” The goblin turns to Ryuk and shakes his head bitterly. “I’ve said this once, and I’ll fickin’ say it again until it sticks: whatever happened to extreme vetting?”

With that, Hiccup throws his hands into the air and presses forward.

(0)__(x)

Hiccup’s relation with Captain Rehab of the Pequod offers the goblin yet another chance to prove his worth to the Mitherfickers.

As soon as they approach the ship and the captain spots them, he welcomes the goblin with open arms. Captain Rehab is a portly fellow with two peg legs, two parrots, and no hooks. That said, he does have small brooch featuring a pair of crossed hooks pinned to his lapel.

The Pequod is ramshackled and pieced together, with patched over dents in its hull, a deck in need of a good scrubbing, and a rudder that flaps in the wind like the tail of a fifteen-year-old pooch.

The private suite given to the Mitherfickers, however, is “the cleanest on the ship” according to Captain Rehab, and he isn’t far off. The suite is comfortable and clean, with a hint of lemon in the air.

Ryuk takes a seat on a bench beneath a porthole and Enway soon joins him. He places the backpack containing Yangu between them, and she goes to town cuddling and tickling the baby ice dragon.

Meanwhile, Hiccup sets up shop at a table at the far end of the room with his partner in crime, FeeTwix. Zaena joins them, taking a seat on FeeTwix’s lap.

“Get your jewelry out,” Hiccup announces. “You too, Marbles.”

“I don’t have any jewelry,” he reminds the goblin.

“Like fick you do. A nancy boy like yourself probably has a toe ring, at the very least.”

Ryuk clenches his fists together.

“Whatever, suit yourself. What about you, Elfy?”

“The name is Enway, goblin.”

“The name is Hiccup, Elfy,” he growls. “We clear here? Or do I need to spell it out again?”

Enway gives Ryuk a pained expression.

“He grows on you, trust me,” Ryuk assures her.

“Sorry, Hiccup, fresh out of jewelry.” With that, Enway returns her attention to the baby dragon. “You’re a cutie, yes you are!”

“For fick’s sake.” A pair of cards appears in Hiccup’s mechanical hand. “What about you, Twixy? You got anything?”

George the Fourth’s State Diadem appears on the table. The crown is covered in over 1,000 diamonds, all of them Proxima cubic zirconia. Of course, Hiccup doesn’t know this. He’s practically drooling on the crown as he snatches it from the Swede and turns it over in his hands.

“This is fickin’ beautiful, Twixy!” Hiccup places the crown on his head. “Fick you, Liz. I’m king around here. Take your reptilian ass below deck!”

Zaena pinches Hiccup’s cheek with her ghost limb and he cries out in pain.

“Fick, that stings!”

“Viewer surge!” A mirror appears in FeeTwix’s hand while Hiccup tries on the crown. “Hey peeps, speaking of diamonds, if you’re into conflict-light diamonds, check out De Beers latest collection! What’s conflict-light, you ask? These diamonds are mined in areas that have 50% less conflict than other parts of Africa! What says ‘goodbye life savings’ better than a diamond? De Beers is proud to offer fans of my channel 3% off at checkout and free shipping, just mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout. Don’t forget – they now sell high quality cubic zirconia pieces too! A jeweler can’t even tell the difference on these ones!”

“Wait a fickin’ minute … ” Hiccup removes the diamond studded crown from his head and examines it for a moment. His pulls his toe knife from the shiv on his belt and points it at FeeTwix. “You tryin’ to pull a fast one on me, pretty boy?”

FeeTwix looks to Zaena and they both laugh. “That’d be such a funny fight,” Zaena says, practically beside herself. “You’d kill him nine times before he could even jab at you with that pathetic little knife!”

“I already have my weapon out, Liz.” Hiccup stabs the toe knife into the table so it sticks vertically out of its surface. He tosses the crown to the floor. “If we’re going to play this game, I want some real jewelry.” He looks the Thulean over for a moment. “Howzabout your necklace, the one from that other world?”

“Unigaea,” Ryuk says. “The necklace is from Unigaea.”

“Sounds like a good name for a nancy boy club. Necklace or no game, Liz.”

“Fine,” Zaena says, suddenly growing combative.

She whips off the necklace given to her by FeeTwix, which was a hand-me-down from Hiccup. As she dangles it in the air above the goblin’s head, Ryuk recalls the two gnomes in Kayi who gave it to them..

“What do you wager, goblin?” asks Zaena.

“Are they always this tense?” Enway rocks the baby dragon in her arms, tickling its belly.

“Yes, but I can never tell if they’re playing or not.”

A jewelry box appears on the table. “How’s that?”

The jewelry box floats off the table as Zaena examines it with her konoshlo. “This … is ancient.”

“Fick yes it is, and some poor sap is going to be missing it once they respawn in Kayi, but that’s beside the point.”

The thought strikes Ryuk. If Hiccup stole both items during the zombie outbreak in Kayi, that means … Ryuk chuckles to himself. The damn goblin.

“What about you, Twixy, whatchoo got?”

“Fine, fine. I have something that I think you especially will find valuable.”

“Better be shiny.”

FeeTwix turns his palm around and a small, wooden horse pixilates into shape.

“A horse toy?” Hiccup glances at the toe knife. “Do we need to go over this again?”

“Not any horse. Remember this one, from when we faced off against the ink shadow?”

“Nope, and fick ink shadows. You know how I feel about those fickers.” The goblin plays his best poker face. “You got me, Twixy. What’s with the horse toy?”

“If there is magic at play, the horse’s mane will melt away.”

Hiccup’s eyes go wide. “You mean like … like it is now?”

The three of them turn to Enway. Zaena is the first to have her swords up.

“I just wanted you guys to get along better,” Enway says, her eyes completely white. She still holds Yangu, who is oblivious to the fact that Zaena has pulled her weapons.

“No mystic shit, Elfy,” Hiccup says, Frank’s toe knife in his hand.

“So this is mystic magic,” FeeTwix mumbles. His eyes flash as he reads messages from his closest fans. “It’s similar to mind magic but more … spiritual.”

Enway’s eyes return to their natural blue color. “Sorry. It was just a little spell I’ve been playing with that makes people feel lighthearted.”

Zaena nods and returns her focus to the game. FeeTwix does the same after holding Enway’s gaze a moment longer.

“Whoopty-fickin’-doo. Let’s get this party started.” Hiccup stabs his toe knife back into the table. “You should be sorry, damn near ruined a game of Three Cards. Also, I need you two to get out some knives.”

Zaena produces a throwing knife and FeeTwix produces his mutant hack Bowie knife.

“How’s this, Hiccup?”

“Fine, Twixy, let’s just get started.” Hiccup flutters his finger along his neckline. “I really, really am hoping for a new necklace.”

(x)__(x)

The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten – breath. Ryuk remembers Hajime’s oblique quote as he thinks about the mystic class. Tamana was a White Mystic in her previous incarnation, but like FeeTwix, she ended up focusing on her main class more. It appears that Enway may be different.

“I’m checking the deck again,” FeeTwix says.

“You’ve already fickin’ checked it twice!”

“You’ve also won twice.”

“Yeah, but we’re not playing for keepsies yet! Lighten up, Twixy.”

Zaena throws her head back and laughs.

“Sheesh, Liz, keep your cackle below two hundred decibels.”

The game of Three Cards is goblin logic in a nutshell. First, you take all the even cards and Queens out of the deck. Jacks count as eleven and Kings as thirteen. The two Jokers in a deck clear out all the cards currently in play.

The players take turns placing cards side by side. As soon as the combined total of cards in play adds up to a number divisible by three, the first player to stab their knife on the last card in play gets all the cards. If the first card is a three, it doesn’t count. If you run out of cards, you lose. If you win all the cards, you win. If you lose a hand, you lose.

The game, while incredibly dangerous, is also incredibly loud. It’s also known to ruin a new table relatively quickly.

“Another thing,” Hiccup says. “If I win bigly, we are reopening the discussion about our guild’s logo.”

“Oh?” Ryuk asks.

“I’m thinking of a tattoo on my arm, hell, maybe my forearm. Now that I’m no longer a security guard and don’t need to keep to a formal attire, I can get all the tats I want.”

FeeTwix grins. “Which arm?”

“What the fick kind of question is that, Twixy? The only arm I have, not the steamed up mechanical monstrosity you handed down to me. And another thing – this mechanical arm warms up the side of my body if I keep it at my side. I think it’s fickin’ with my digestion.” He releases a cloud of evidence and sighs. “See what I mean?”

“Did he just fart?” Enway is still next to Ryuk, but she has since returned the sleeping baby dragon to Ryuk’s backpack.

Rather than answer, Ryuk pops open the porthole. The fresh air does little to cut the peppery stench from the little cabin, but it was worth a shot.

“Where are you from, up there?” Enway asks as the other Mitherfickers return to their game of Three Cards.

“Japan. You?”

“Ooo! I’ve been to Japan. Are you from Tokyo or, um, what’s the other famous place?”

“Tokyo, and there are many famous places. Where are you from?”

“Mexico City.”

“In Mexico, huh?”

“No, Ryuk,” Hiccup calls over, “Mexico City, Texas. Of course Mexico City is in Mexico. Or is Texas part of Mexico? No? It was, though, right? Fick, I hate cowboys. I’m sorry, Elfy, he’s way less cultured than me.”

She giggles and Ryuk feels his face go red with embarrassment. The thunk from a knife stabbing into the table disrupts his thoughts.

“Fickin’ cheater, Twixy!” Hiccup grabs his toe knife and points it at the Swede.

“Cheating? How the hell am I cheating? Three plus one plus three plus five is twelve!”

“You are supposed to let me play the last card before you stab the table!”

“You did play the last card, Hiccup!”

Zaena cracks up again.

“Shut your mouth, Liz, unless you’d like your boyfriend to lose his chalupa!”

Enway turns slowly to Ryuk. “Chalupa?”

“It’s what he calls his penis.”

Enway bursts out laughing. “You are the funniest goblin I’ve ever met!”

Hiccup, still with his knife trained on FeeTwix, turns to Enway and grins. “Go on ... ”

“You call your dick a chalupa!”

“And?”

“Do you even know what a chalupa is? How do I explain … ” She thinks for a moment and says, “A chalupa is a fried tortilla in the shape of a boat with a spicy filling. If anything, it is the exact opposite of a penis.”

“Are you saying that my chalupa is … ?”

“You should call it a churro!”

Hiccup slowly turns his knife from FeeTwix to Enway.

It’s FeeTwix’s turn to crack up as his fans send him pictures of chalupas and churros. “Ah, I get it now! A churro is like a long cinnamon stick that looks way more like a dick than a chalupa.”

“What the bloody fick is going on here!?”

“See for yourself, Hiccup!”

“Holy fick! I’ve had it wrong this entire time.” He gnaws on his lip for a moment and considers this. “Nope, alternative facts. Not gonna buy it, assholes. I know fake news when I see it. Anyone can generate some art featuring a churro and a chalupa. Hell, even my inbred-ass cousin Spew Gorge can do that.”

Ryuk drops his head in his hand and Enway laughs.

“Keep it to yourself, Elfy.”

“You could actually fit a churro in a chalupa, if that helps you better understand your confusion,” she offers.

“What the fick ever. Fake news. Shuffle the desk, Twixy. Liz, keep your ghost limbs to yourself.”

Chapter 7: The Bronze Crystal Super Package

Surprisingly, no one loses a hand or a chalupa in the hour it takes to fly from Aramis to the continent of Polynya. The game of Three Cards ends abruptly after Hiccup accuses FeeTwix and Zaena of ganging up on him, and forfeits, and since he forfeits, everyone keeps the item they wagered: Hiccup his jewelry box, Zaena her Unigaean necklace, and FeeTwix his wooden horse.

All portholes in the small cabin are now open, a testament to the power of Hiccup’s potent flatulence. Ryuk can see that the ship is lowering, and the creaking sound of the oars powering it makes him question the ship’s craftsmanship.

Because of the blockade, the Mitherfickers are forced to land in a city known as Clim, west of the capital city of Porthos. Ryuk has visited the city once before, which is known for the friendly deer that populate the place. Unlike the other deer in Tritania, the deer in Clim will eat out of your hand. There’s also a popular zoo in Clim which contains some of the rarest animals in the world, including a tame land dragon that is available for rides and a tardigrade petting zoo.

“This way,” Enway says as soon as they’ve exited the ship.

Ryuk feels a tug on his sleeve.

“You sure I can’t stay back and pound some drorikh and later some orc chippies with Captain Rehab?” Hiccup rubs his grubby hands together.

“I never said you couldn’t.”

“Someone needs to be the role model for the guild. Fick, with the vain Swede, touchy Thulean, and your emo ass, not to mention the fact we now have a snowflake of an elf fond of alternative facts, there is absolutely nobody for any of you kiddos to look up to. Guess I’ll stick around.”

“And you’re the role model?”

“I’m the hero you fickers deserve, not the hero you need.”

Ryuk shakes his head and Yangu wakes. The ice dragon looks down at Hiccup, pulls its neck back, and fires a cold blast at the goblin’s head.

“Fick!” Hiccup pats his head to make sure his pink hair is still intact.

FeeTwix laughs as he wraps his arm around Zaena’s waist. He kisses her on the cheek and she smiles softly.

“We will need to get a wagon if we hope to get to Katiyana by nightfall.”

“When the fick did we agree that we were going to Katiyana?” Hiccup asks.

“That’s why she joined us,” Zaena reminds him. “Also, we talked about it in the ship, after you left to go to your ‘safe space’ after being ‘cheated,’ as you put it.”

“You two were cheating,” he says bitterly, “and I didn’t go to my safe space. I went to the latrine, or whatever the hell the bathroom is called on a ship.”

“You’ll love Katiyana,” Enway calls over her shoulder. “It’s a quaint mountainside village. So pretty at night, especially with all the stars.”

“I fickin’ hate elves, those hoity toity high and mighty fickers,” Hiccup grumbles. “Drows, I can get down with, but fick high elves.” His expression suddenly changes as a sly grin spreads across his face. Again, he tugs at Ryuk’s sleeve. “You don’t think there’s a whorehouse there, do you? ‘Cause that’s something I can totally get behind! Get it?”

Hiccup snorts at his own crude joke and Ryuk pulls his arm away. He steps to the front of the group, and keeps quiet as Enway leads them past a small roadside stand manned by a short gnome with a long white beard and Buddy Holly glasses.

“Hey!” the gnome calls after them.

He reaches his hand around and beats it on the front of his stand. “Young adventurers! Slayers of dragons, um, never mind that last part! Yes! Yes! Yes! Rescuers of the imprisoned and handsome commoners! Goblins galore, do I have a deal for you!”

Zaena stops and the short gnome’s eyes lock onto her Unigaean necklace. “Me-oh-my-oh-me, it’s really a piece of Olivas, isn’t it? Marvelous!”

Ryuk quickly reads the sign on top of the gnome’s stand: Marty the Gnome’s Overland Tours. He glances at Enway and she shrugs. “Works for me.”

“Works for you? Not yet I don’t! I must prove my worth, young adventurers! Please, allow me … ” Marty the Gnome hops off a stool and comes around to the front of his stand.  “I’ll start with admiring your necklace, Thulean beauty.”

Zaena smiles. “It was a gift.”

“A gift from Unigaea,” he says as a memory sweeps over his face. “I am from Unigaea, I’ll have you know. I came here several years ago. I love Polynya, mind you, but one can never forget their homeland.”

Hiccup takes two steps closer to the gnome, sizing him up. He’s two heads taller than the immiNPC and at least two sizes larger.

“And this chic goblin. What might I ask is your name?”

“Chic?”

“Chic! A great name!”

Hiccup bares his teeth. “The name is Hiccup.”

“Short for Hiccupanaratapana, correct?”

Hiccup’s snarl turns into a slight grin. “Yes, that’s … that’s my full name.”

“And may I say, I love what you’ve done with your pink hair, neat arm too. And you, marble slinger, put your hood on and let me see how cool you look.”

Ryuk gives him a funny look.

“I’m waiting,” Marty the Gnome says, his voice pitching up.

“Don’t keep the man waiting, Marbles.”

“Fine.” Ryuk pops his brown hood up and quickly pulls it back down.

“Astounding! And you, the black-eyed blondo hero of the group, put ‘er there!”

Marty and FeeTwix bump fists. “Pleasure to meet you, Marty!”

“The pleasure is all mine. Ah yes, finally we come to the elf, a tall and beautiful elf if I’ve ever seen one! With luscious locks and pointed ears and skin the color of cream, you must be, without a shadow of a doubt, royalty.”

Zaena’s smile shatters and she covers it by looking away.

“Just any old elf,” Enway says, kicking at the ground.

“Why good! Good! And you are in need of transportation, are you not? Might I suggest Sulitlana, where you will find the most delectable treats? We could also head to Talini, if you’d like to see ancient Tritanian culture in practice. How about Naklan, home of the infamous game of Natty Dread!”

Hiccup whips his finger out of his nose. “Fick no! You see this tin can of an arm? This is what happens when you play Natty Dread, that or you lose your chalupa.”

“Churro,” Enway corrects him.

“Ah, then I know the perfect place for you, Hiccup, a city to the far east called Bluwid, which is a goblin hotspot, as I’m sure you know!”

“Second only to a goblin wetspot!” Hiccup chortles at his own joke and Marty joins him.

“Okay, okay, enough silly talk, let’s talk business. I’m going to be honest with you five because I like you. I love the diversity, from a goblin to an elf to a Thulean to a couple of pretty standard commoners.”

“Pretty standard?” Ryuk asks under his breath.

“And the ice dragon! How can I forget that cute little ice dragon. You guys have some quest ahead of you, I’m sure, which is why I think we should start with my very best tour package, the Diamond Platinum Plus Package, which gets you passage to any city in Polynya aside from Porthos as it is closed down, but including Waringtla, the Saiduka giant city. This all-inclusive package includes complete protection against any enemy forces, a covered wagon with an open bar inside, a full body massage, as well as a Unigaean lullaby that will put you to sleep immediately, so you awake in the new city well rested.”

“The cost?” Hiccup asks, suddenly growing suspicious.

“For you five, the cost is significantly cheaper than the other adventurers I meet. I love the diversity, like I said, but let’s not talk cost first, let’s talk needs.”

“No, let’s talk cost, Marty,” FeeTwix says, taking the lead. His eyes flash blue and he offers the gnome a smile. “We’ll start there, then we’ll get to needs.”

“The cost is a low, a very low, forty-five thousand rupees after a ten percent diversity and inclusion discount.”

Zaena gawks at the cost. “For passage to any city? We could walk to the next city for free!”

“But my dear! There are all sorts of enemies that, ahem, adventurers under level twenty will not be able to face. That said, there are two more exciting packages I can offer.”

“Or we can find another wagon.” Enway nods to a few more wagons down the way with their drivers out front, calling out costs.

“By the Empress’ impressive stature and humorous musings! Those wagons?” He laughs. “Paltry, pathetic, pacifistic drivers who, by the way, actually work with many of the bandits that frequent the wagon paths. So sure, go check their prices, be my guest.”

“Enough with the fickin’ shilling, gnome, what’s your next package?”

Marty the Gnome takes off his glasses, wipes something off the lens, and returns them to his face. “My next package is a dang good deal if I do say so myself! The Silver Ruby Bonus Package is similar to the Diamond Platinum Plus Package in the sense that it provides transport to any city in Polynya, aside from Porthos. This package includes protection from enemies as well as a covered wagon, but it doesn’t include any of the amenities of the Diamond Platinum Plus Package.”

“Got it, got it,” Hiccup places his hand on his toe knife. “The cost. How about starting with the cost.”

“A low, low price of thirty thousand rupees,” Marty says. “With a diversity discount of three thousand rupees.”

“Fick no, I could buy a new arm for that price, Marty. What’s your most affordable package?”

“Ah, the pleasant peasant package, as we like to say around here.” He glances around and laughs as if others are joining him. “The Bronze Crystal Super Package includes transportation to anywhere on Polynya, aside from Porthos. The wagon is not covered, and no protection is given. The cost is eight thousand rupees.”

“Done.” FeeTwix claps his hands together. “We can provide our own protection!”

“Are you sure? There are Magic Gorgers along the way. They don’t always come out, but when they do, it can be quite terrible.”

“Pfft! It’ll be a cold day in the Goblin Riviera when I’m afraid of a Magic Gorger. Any way you can throw the massage in there for 2k more?” Hiccup squeezes his trapezius. “I think I fickin’ slept wrong, that or bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders has finally paid its toll.”

“Not in this package, I’m afraid.” Marty turns from them to ready the wagon. “But I’m sure one of your guildmates would be happy to give you a massage!”

(0)__(0)

As the Mitherfickers ride in their uncovered wagon towards Katiyana, Ryuk turns his backpack around and admires Yangu. He’s been so distracted since getting him, or bonding with him, that he hasn’t really had a chance to just look the baby ice dragon over.

Yangu’s blue skin tone lightens as it moves from his head, arms and back to his stomach. His scales aren’t yet sharp, especially the ones on the back of his neck, and his ruby red eyes are nearly shiny enough for Ryuk to make out his reflection.

The baby dragon coos as Ryuk touches his muzzle. It blows out a single snowflake, which melts before it can reach Ryuk’s face.

He sits closest to the driver, Marty, and next to him is Enway. Across from them are FeeTwix, Zaena, and Hiccup, who is currently using FeeTwix’s mirror to make sure his pink hair looks okay.

I wonder how long it will last. Ryuk thinks back to his botched Simple Request that gave the cantankerous goblin his pink topknot. His thoughts then move to his clear marbles, the wild card marbles, and if there will ever be a way to better utilize them.

A time marble would be helpful, and he’s been lucky enough to get several of those through his clear marble, but some of the other things the clear marbles have done, such as increasing his enemy’s attack power, make him wary these days of using them.

His sword marbles, black marbles, and molten marbles all seem to do the trick, leaving little to chance. And maybe that is the best strategy for him going forward, short and sweet, black and white. Eliminate the chance of failure.

Ryuk tunes back in to what Enway is telling the group.

“ … That’s why those men were after me, because I stole this.” She brandishes a little metal heart with gears inside. “It’s a mechanical heart. They stole it from this dealer who specializes in items from Steam, and I stole it from them. Pretty sure it’s worth something.”

“Thieving from a bunch of inbred thieves,” Hiccup murmurs. “I like it!”

“And what do you do with the artifacts that you steal?” Zaena still hasn’t warmed up to Enway, and Ryuk senses that it’ll be a while before she trusts any newcomers to their group.

“I run a rare artifact shop in Katiyana,” she says, “and I don’t steal everything. Lots of the stuff I find, other things I buy, and still other things I trade for.”

“Any weapons in your shop?” FeeTwix asks.

“None at the moment, but I recently traded a Metal Chocobo for a Cape Feather, which seems to be broken as I’m not able to fly when I equip it – but anyway, yeah, sorry. No weapons. There aren’t a lot of weapons in the town, mainly due to our ability to perform magic, none of which seems to have any effect on the wolf.”

“The wolf?” the Swede asks.

She hesitates before she says, “We have a wolf.”

“Just one?” Hiccup asks.

“Yes, just one, but it is a big one, I’m talking pony-sized here, and it has been terrorizing the town mostly for food.”

FeeTwix and Ryuk trade glances. FeeTwix asks, “And the elves aren’t able to stop it?”

“Not yet. High elves are high elves for a reason.”

“And that reason is?”

“Well, in Tritania, it means we mostly stick to nonlethal magical classes, like white magic or mystic. There are a few other incarnations, but you get the picture. Plus, and this is a big plus, everyone is scared of it.”

“And pussy poofters can’t kill a fickin’ wolf?” Hiccup laughs. “That’s about the most pathetic thing I’ve heard all week, and remember, I’m in a guild with a dude that shoots marbles.”

“Quiet, Hiccup!”

“Easy, kid, I’m just fickin’ with ya.”

“It’s a big wolf,” Enway says, her face hardening.

“The big bad wolf comes to town and suddenly all the little Keebler elves are pissin’ their pants. SAD!” Hiccup slaps his leg with his mechanical hand, winces as he realizes he’s hit himself too hard, and goes about rubbing the spot he’s just slapped to alleviate the pain.

“Let’s go, boys!” Marty the Gnome flicks the reins on the two shire horses pulling the wagon and they pick up their pace.

“Rid the town of the wolf, huh? It sounds like something we’d be able to do,” FeeTwix says.

Ryuk agrees with him. “We need to get to Porthos. We originally thought we’d see what we could do in Talini. I’m sure they have access to the catacombs, but Katiyana does as well.”

Enway’s brow furrows and she bites her bottom lip.

“It’s possible, right? We can use the catacomb entrance in your village, can’t we?”

“Access to the catacombs from Katiyana isn’t something that is ever granted to outsiders,” she says firmly.

“Well, if we kill the big bad wolf you elves are too lily-livered to handle yourself, I’d fickin’ bet my chalupa that everyone, including all the haters ‘cause lord knows there are a ton of haters in Elftown, will consider us heroes, which trumps the ‘outsider’ moniker.”

Enway cracks again. “Really, calling it a chalupa just sounds so strange. Where did you learn Spanish?”

“I don’t speak Spanish,” Hiccup growls, “I speak Mexican.”

“Mexicans speak Spanish.”

Hiccup raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

“Have you ever even seen a map of our world, Hiccup?” FeeTwix asks.

The goblin blinks his eyes rapidly. “What was that? What are we talking about? Shit, I’m thirsty.” He equips a healing potion and starts unscrewing the cap.

“Faker!” Zaena points at Hiccup’s face. “You know exactly what we’re talking about!”

“Jeez, Liz, get off my sack already, and no, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Ever heard of the Tritanian Disability Discrimination Act? You’d better read up, ‘cause fickin’ with someone with early onset Goblinheimer’s is a form of discrimination. So watch it, or lawyer the fick up, Lizzy!” He guzzles the healing potion and throws the bottle out of the wagon.

“No littering!” Marty calls out.

Zaena laughs. “You lying sack of goblin shit. You know exactly what FeeTwix asked you.”

“Maybe I did, but I don’t now because we started arguing. Okay, so I was faking, you got me. Fine. But seriously. What the hell were we just talking about?”

“I’ll show him a map of the world, our world,” FeeTwix says, and before he can lift his finger to access his list, one of Marty’s horses neighs, rears back, and shits himself as a large black ghoul swoops over the wagon.

“Fick me!” Hiccup screams like a sissy and tries to crawl under the seats. “Magic Gorgers!”

The gorger cries out like a banshee, its face a visage of pain and suffering as it comes back in towards the wagon.

FeeTwix leaps out of the moving cart, hits the ground, rolls once, and comes up with a R201 Carbine. The stock goes in his armpit and he unleashes a hail of bullets at the flying wraith. Another wraith appears and once his mag is spent, FeeTwix tosses it aside and quickly goes for another.

“Whoa! Whoa!” The horses neigh and kick their feet as Marty tries to get hold of them. “Stop shooting your damn alien weapon!”

From her place in the wagon, Zaena tries to swipe the Magic Gorgers out of the air with her swords.

Hiccup screams again. “Fick me, Liz, you’re going to take someone’s head off!”

Rather than respond, she steps onto the goblin’s body and up to the bench to give herself more leverage.

“Hey!” Hiccup shouts as she springboards off his body and out of the wagon, performing an advanced display of aerial swordsmanship. The Thulean performs a superhero landing, and her limbs whip into the air as she goes for her patented blade-nado.

“Stay here!” Ryuk shouts to Enway.

“Fick!” Hiccup cries as a Magic Gorger shrieks past his face. “This isn’t the time to be a hero, Marbles!”

“I can heal you guys,” Enway says, “just keep fighting!”

“Fick no! That’s what they’re searching for. They’re Magic Gorgers, they thrive off magic power!”

Ryuk strains to hear her reply over FeeTwix’s deafening metal percussion. The Swede finishes his mag and takes cover for a moment so he can go for a new weapon.

“What about your slingshot?” Enway yells.

“Fick, Marbles, you’re a magic user too, you dimwit!” The goblin looks up at him with panicked eyes. “But do something, kid, because … fick! Ghosts!”

Another shrieking ghoul flies overhead followed a blazing green trail of energy. FeeTwix has a Proton Pack on his back now, and is trying to blast the Magic Gorger with a weapon Ryuk has never seen before.

The Gorgers are fast, and as more start to arrive, it becomes increasingly apparent that nothing the Mitherfickers fling at them is going to stick. Ryuk again goes for his Marble Gun, only to have it swiped down by Hiccup.

“What part of they’re magic gorgers do you not understand, Marbles!? They … thrive … off … magic!”

FeeTwix dodges a Magic Gorger and leaps behind a small mound of dirt. He comes back up with a BT X-42 Heavy Flamethrower and attempts to toast the swooping wraiths. The Swede burns through the tops of the trees as he trails two of the deathly ghouls.

“Enough!” Marty the Gnome hops down from his seat and walks around to the back of the wagon. “You were smart not to use any magic,” he nonchalantly tells Ryuk and Enway, who are still ducking down to avoid the wraiths. “Had you used magic, these creatures would have eaten you from the inside.”

Why’s he so casual? Ryuk thinks as a terrifying Magic Gorger comes inches away from his face, gnashes its teeth, and continues on.

“Now, are you ready to upgrade to the Silver Ruby Bonus Package?” Marty asks over the mayhem. “The diversity discount no longer applies – sorry, time sensitive – but I could keep the cost at thirty thousand rupees because I’m not able to cover the wagon remotely, nor do I have time to set up the open bar. How does that sound?”

Another ghoul passes in front of him and Hiccup fires off a squealer.

“Fine!” Ryuk coughs as he’s enveloped by a spicy goblinic aftermath.

“Transfer money first, then the enemies will be dealt with!” Marty places his hands behind his back and smiles smugly. “Sorry, business is as business does!”

“I’ll fickin’ kill him!” Hiccup scrambles to get out of the wagon but Ryuk and Enway hold him back. A Magic Gorger spins just above Hiccup’s head, and he screams out and drops another trouser bomb that can be heard over the screeching gorgers, Zaena’s swordplay, and whatever weapon FeeTwix is currently firing.

“Yoooooy!” Hiccup cries out in anguish at his painful flatulence.

“Fuck!” Ryuk can damn near taste the peppery dragon wing stench that now befouls the air. Enway starts to gag and it’s not long before she’s ralphing over the other side of the wagon.

“Feetwix!” Ryuk cries out. “Transfer thirty thousand to Marty now! NOW! He’ll handle the gorgers!”

FeeTwix lowers some advanced shooting iron. “You sure?” he calls over the schwing of Zaena’s swords.

“Do it, dammit!”

Marty’s face suddenly lights up. “Good!” The gnome shoots Ryuk the thumbs up and takes a few steps away from the wagon.

“What the fick is he doing?” Hiccup asks, his lip quivering. “We’re all gonna die! And did you dumbficks actually pay him thirty thousand rupees? Do you know how much Wizardous–?”

His budding diatribe is interrupted when Marty begins to unhinge his jaw and stretch it away from his face. The gnome’s friendly eyes roll back into his head and he puts both hands on either side of his cheeks and opens his mouth until he can no longer stretch his hands wide.

“What in the actual fick!?”

Marty spreads his legs wide, curls his body backwards, and after a thunderous exhale, he begins sucking in air rapidly. The Magic Gorgers closest to Marty zip into his mouth, and soon, a whirling vortex has opened before the gnome, as everything is sucked into his waiting maw.

The air whips all around the Mitherfickers.

FeeTwix has to hold onto one of the trees he’s scorched not to be sucked up. Zaena stabs two swords into the ground and uses all her strength to keep from being ripped away from the soil. Hiccup covers his head with his smallest shield and Enway grabs onto Ryuk’s arm, anchoring herself for dear life.

Dirt, rocks, twigs, and small woodland creatures continue to be sucked into Marty’s gaping mouth until finally he starts to close his jaw. The Magic Gorgers gone, the gnome licks his lips, burps, and turns back to his wagon.

“Good,” he tells the group as he brushes his hands together. “Now let’s get to Katiyana!”

Chapter 8: Pink Salon

Kodai’s aerosSUV lands on top of his pink salon, Jan Hinamaru, which is located on the outer rim of Roppongi. What better place to attract customers than Toyko’s vibrant club district?

Aside from the usual haunts of the water trade like Shinjuku and the area southeast of Ueno Station, the outer rim of Roppongi has taken off over the last twenty years, especially as Japanese sex trade managers relaxed their self-imposed ban against gaijins.

As it turns out, there’s a lot more money to be made by opening all the otherworldly Japanese sex offerings to foreigners. From cuddle bars to delivery health services, Japan’s sex trade has become a multibillion dollar affair, fueled by globalization and faster modes of travel.

All of which is good news for Kodai and his family’s operations.

The young Yakuza crime lord waits for Tesla to give him the go ahead. The lean humandroid bodyguard now wears a slim-fitting trench coat to better hide her weapons. She’s still in her MercSecure outfit, which is tight and form-fitting yet made from a special type of non-Newtonian fluid.

It is a cloudy day, chilly too, and as aeros pass above them, Kodai senses that it may sleet later. Prompted by his thought, the weather forecast appears on his iNet screen next to the icon of a kawaii cloud that grimaces as sleet falls from its body.

“Kodai.” The door guy, ape-like with slicked back hair, bows long and respectfully. Behind him is a holoscreen showing which girls are on offer. Of the six currently at the pink salon, only two are available, Aimi and Kotomi.

Since they are the only two available, their images are the only ones moving on the holoscreen. Aimi, in a reflective silver bikini top, opens her mouth wide, showing the back of her teeth. She licks her soft lips, winks, and blows a kiss.

The other girl, Kotomi, bends just enough to show the bottom of her ass cheeks. The video cuts to a close-up of her mouth and lips. The camera pulls back, allowing the viewer to see the top of her ample tits.

The sign advertises the cost for the double service, which consists of two women working in shifts over the span of thirty minutes. It’s a long blowjob, but this type of service is pretty much standard across the pink salon landscape of Japan. Most men blow their wad during the first ten minutes anyway, and a few of the more vigorous ones are able to blow a second by the thirty minute mark.

Kodai looks to Tesla’s face. The humandroid is expressionless as she waits for him to pass in front of her.

Good, he thinks, because the oddity that is a pink salon only gets stranger.

Having grown up in Japan, but spent several years in America, Kodai now has a new perspective of his homeland, even with the fact that his businesses are a thriving part of the oddities that a typical foreigner would find strange or perverse.

She’s not a foreigner, he reminds himself, but damn if she doesn’t look like one with her features, though.

He’s been trying not to gawk at Tesla all morning. She seems so real, everything about her is identical to a regular human aside from her eyes. Tesla scans people she meets and as she does so, her eyes dilate big and black.

If it weren’t for that, and the fact that he has paid for her and knows what she is, Kodai would assume she’s human.

He walks down a stairwell with liquor and pollute advertisements flashing on the wall.

A particular Suntory Whiskey ad catches his eye, an ad in celebration of their former televised commercial ads. It’s a clever marketing scheme: piece together your old marketing campaigns to remind the public just how long you’ve been at it.

The names of the foreigners that have advertised for Suntory appear in katakana next to their pictures – Sean Connery, Bill Murray, Francis Ford Coppola, Sammy Davis Jr. – before the collection of clips switches to people who have become famous over the last thirty years, from Korean pop stars to Chinese actresses.

~~Celebrate whiskey. Celebrate Suntory.~~

The commercial ends as they hit the second floor.

Kodai walks into a dimly lit room filled with slurping sounds. He sees the back of the first man, a Japanese native, who sits on a couch while a woman on her knees goes at it. The man faces another couch also turned backwards, where another man gets the same treatment, his face filled with ecstasy.

This one finishes with a groan, and once he’s done, the woman stands and walks to a little sink behind a thick curtain and flicks the water on.

Kodai stops for a moment, watching the topless woman add toothpaste to her toothbrush and quickly go to work on her teeth. Meanwhile, the door on the other side of the room opens and another woman goes to the man who has just orgasmed. She cleans him off with a wet napkin, unsnaps her top, and drops to her knees.

Kodai waits at the other side of the room for Tesla to catch up with him. He takes the next round of stairs, to another room, on the bottom floor, which is arranged in the same way as the top floor. From there, they head to the office, where they find a short balding man eating from a bowl of instant ramen.

“Kodai!” Rin stands and quickly tries to hide the ramen on his desk.

“Did you not know I was coming?”

“I was just trying to finish up before you got down here,” he says with his mouth full.

Kodai raises an eyebrow at the man. He keeps it raised long enough for the man to see his life flash before his eyes.

“I’m sorry!” Rin stands and bows as respectfully as he can while his teeth chatter.

Kodai lets him stay on alert for just a bit longer until he finally says, “It’s fine, Rin, but you’ve now been warned, and anyone who works for me knows what it means when I warn them.”

“I understand,” Rin mumbles, his head still bowed.

“I’ve come here to talk about profits from the last three weeks.” Kodai places his hands behind his back as he walks towards a holoscreen on the far side of the room.

A calendar appears on the screen, detailing work schedules. From there the profits and losses of the last three weeks take shape. Kodai verbally instructs the holoscreen to expand to the profits from the last two months, and once the line chart is visible, he points at the dip.

“This is what I’d like to discuss.”

“Yes, Kodai.” Rin wipes his hands on his pants and nods to Tesla. The humandroid’s eyes flash black as she scans him. “This is because of Neon Cats, N-Cats, run by Gintoki Sakata.”

Kodai clenches his fists together. “That’s Gintoki’s place?”

Rin nods. “N-Cats is a new salon that opened up just a few weeks back. If I may … ” Rin approaches the holoscreen and gives a series of commands. The line chart expands to show the profits from the last year. “I’ve been steady, you can see that, Kodai,” the sniveling man says with a grin on his face. “Business is good – was good – until N-Cats opened up.”

“And what makes them better?” Kodai asks as pictures of the new pink salon in question appear on the holoscreen, each accented by a popping sound. “Younger girls?”

“That would be illegal,” Rin says.

“And?” Kodai smiles faintly. “I’m joking, Rin, I know we’re not going to get much younger than the eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds we have.”

Same age as my brother, Kodai thinks as he says “nineteen.” Hard to imagine making the life decisions one would have to make to wind up at a pink salon just out of high school, but their decision-making processes and the future futility of them is of little concern to Kodai.

Once they’re too old, or if they start having children and gain weight, he’ll move them to the salons he manages in Nakano, if they still want to do this for a living. The old fucks that frequent those places don’t care about appearances anyway.

“Are their girls prettier?”

“No, of course not,” Rin says.

“Then what is it?”

Rin’s voice softens as if he’s in on some big secret. “I had the door guy, Akira, visit the place two nights ago as a civilian.”

“And?”

“Humandroids. They are employing humandroids.”

“So are we.” Kodai looks at Tesla, who stands at the doorway practically at attention.

She turns her head to Kodai and smiles. “Is there something you’d like me to do?” she asks.

“There is.”

His mouth still agape, Rin looks askance at the humandroid and finally turns back to Kodai. “She’s … a humandroid?”

“Yes, a newer model. You couldn’t tell?”

“No, I thought … ” He shrugs. “I thought she was your girlfriend, or something, but then I was wondering why you didn’t have your normal security detail with you, but then I assumed they were on the rooftop.”

“Wrong on all counts and yes, Tesla, I would like you to see about the humandroids they are employing.”

“And who will provide security for you while I’m out?”

“Give me a moment.”

Kodai’s iNet screen flashes on his pupils as he fires off a message to Yugio, Gorira’s replacement.

Yugio: I can be at Jan Hinamaru in thirty minutes.

Kodai: Make it twenty.

“Yugio will come with a few men. Once he’s here, I’d like you to see about the humandroids at N-Cats,” Kodai tells Tesla.

(0)__(0)

Yugio and his men arrive, and in the meantime, Kodai has Rin order each of the female employees to come to the office and speak with him. He gives each of them a small bonus, and tells them what a good job they’ve been doing. At the same time, he comments on their weight, tells the one named Aimi to get a different haircut, and reminds the women that they are always able to interview for jobs at his other establishments if they want to try something else in the water trade.

The water trade, mizu shōbai, is the euphemism used exclusively for the nighttime entertainment business in Japan. This euphemism encompasses everything from hostess bars to cabarets, and while Kodai has businesses that fit under the general mizu shōbai umbrella, his most profitable subcategory is fūzoku, the sex industry. Soaplands, fashion health shops, pink salons, image clubs – sex is a cash cow, and it always will be, which is why Kodai is excited to deal with the competition.

Kodai and Rin now sit on two chairs in front of the holoscreen. The holoscreen broadcasts Tesla’s iNet feed. The humandroid is in the alley outside of N-Cats, walking casually up the street.

“In position, Rin,” she says, her voice coming out of a sleek rectangular speaker over the holoscreen.

Kodai smiles at Rin and returns his gaze to Tesla’s feed.

“Good,” Rin says, clearing his throat. “Stick to the plan.”

Tesla approaches the front door of N-Cats and is stopped by an older man in a black suit.

“Can I help you?” he asks warily.

“I’m here from Walliburton subsidiary, WallRep,” she says, flashing her humandroid ID.

“Subsidiary?” He studies her ID for a moment longer.

“Please, get your manager if you must,” she tells him.

The man fires off a message to the manager of N-Cats, who struts out a minute or so later. The man is in his early thirties and he is dressed in a tacky white suit, a black shirt, and a white tie. He chews on his toothpick for a moment as he looks her over.

“What is this about?” he finally asks, his voice scratchy and harsh.

“Are you the manager?”

“I am.”

“And how many humandroids do you employ?”

“Two – wait, what?”

“Routine maintenance check, WallRep.” Tesla hands the manager her humandroid ID.

“It doesn’t say anything here about WallRep,” he finally says. “Hey!”

Tesla’s right hand chops at the security guard’s throat and she uses her left to coldcock the manager in the face. The manager comes up, nose gushing blood, and by this point, she’s already behind him, dragging him inside the club.

“Who the fuck are you!?” the manager screams, snot and blood flying onto the floor.

She pushes him to his knees and takes a small device about the size of a Tic Tac box out of her pocket and places it against his temple. Once his iNet feed is overridden, she pulls his head back and slams it into the wall.

“Fuck!” Kodai says, punching his fist into his other hand as he watches the live feed. He glances at Rin. He had mixed feelings about allowing the pink salon’s manager to watch this, but he decided to allow it for two reasons: one, he wants Rin to know what he’s capable of; two, he wants Rin to be part of the crime in some way, in case he ever tries to rat him out.

He returns his attention to the holoscreen, watching as Tesla now drags the security guard in, who is still choking from the chop she gave him.

The humandroid tosses him on the ground next to the manager, wipes his iNet feed with her little Tic Tac box, brings her foot back and kicks him hard enough to shatter his jaw.

Rin winces at the sound and Kodai hisses at him, “Speak.”

“Good,” Rin says, his voice wavering, “um, continue forward.”

“Will do, Rin.” Tesla makes her way from the lobby to the main room of the establishment, and as she walks, she quickly unholsters her sidearm.

She stops behind a woman kneeling in front of a porker of a man.

The humandroid sex worker looks up at Tesla and suddenly stops sucking the man’s cock.

“Leave,” the sex worker tells him, pulling away.

“What?”

Tesla fires a shot from her weapon directly into the side of the humandroid’s metal skull.

The topless woman spills left, and as the man tries to pull his pants up to scramble away, Tesla steps over to the humandroid, presses her weapon into the woman’s shoulder and fires, so the bullet passes all the way through her body, shoulder to shoulder, and tears out the other side of her e-skin.

“Humandroids have unique points on their body where they can be neutralized,” Kodai whispers to Rin matter-of-factly. “Simply shooting their head off doesn’t always work.”

“Will … the others fight her?”

“Actually, I don’t know,” Kodai says. “From what I’ve read, humandroid sex workers have their violence governors adjusted, otherwise they may try to defend themselves if someone performs a deviant behavior they deem to be a threat.”

A naked brunette with her hair tied into two pigtails swings at Tesla.

“Does that answer your question? Tell Tesla to neutralize all humandroid targets.”

Rin clears his throat. “Neutralize all targets, Tesla.”

“Will do, Rin,” she says as the brunette comes in for another swing.

Tesla pistol-whips the woman and sends her stumbling backwards. She unloads the rest of her magazine into the nude droid, who keeps coming at her, crawling on the floor and dragging her lower body.

Tesla steps around her, places the bottom of her heel against the back of the woman’s neck and stomps. She stomps again and again, until the humandroid is twitching.

From there, Tesla loads another mag into her gun, yanks the woman up so she’s sitting, and fires a shot sideways through her body.

Kodai claps his hands together. “Tell her to come back.”

“You can, um, go ahead and come on back.”

“Roger, Rin,” Tesla’s voice echoes out of the speaker.

“Now to see about something else.” Kodai’s iNet desktop comes alive on his pupils and he pulls up the live feed from Tritania to find Tamana standing on the rooftop of the Shinigami’s rented guildhall in Aramis.

(0)__(x)

Tamana has been leveling since the betrayal yesterday, aided by a dark spell that increases the EXP doled out at night. Now up to level fifteen, Tamana isn’t strong enough to do as much damage as he’d like her to be able to do.

But psychological damage can sting far worse than physical damage.

Tamana Nakamura Level 15 White Warrior

HP: 410/410

MANA: 389/389

ATK: 117

DEF: 134

MATK: 149

MDF: 108

LUCK: 6

She stands in her alien Tagvornin armor custom fit to her shapely form. The armor is black, with red accents that run up the sides of her body. The collar extends up to the bottom of her elven ears and her white hair has been cut short to better fit the helmet.

Tamana places a skull-shaped helm on her face and locks eyes with Kodai’s feed.

She knows, Kodai thinks. He admires her armor for another moment. It was incredibly expensive, and without the serpent woman behind the door, he wouldn’t have been able to procure it.

The armor is from an extinct Proxima world known as Unigaea, and the weapons of Tritania are all but useless against it. Even if they weren’t, it would still be hard to put her down, as the enchantment on the armor adds any damage to the wearer as extra HP.

Kodai is hoping to get some of the Tagvornin armor himself, but this armor previously belonged to a woman, and unlike much of the armor in Tritania, it didn’t mold to fit his form.

No matter.

Kodai watches as a dragon takes shape in the air above the rooftop.

The mirrored female dragon is a new addition to their ranks. The irony is that it was his younger brother’s guild, most notably a letter sent to the dragon by the filthy goblin, that turned the dragon to the serpent woman’s attention.

It wasn’t long before the serpent woman had one of the stronger RPCs go to the Cape of Chukchis and take the dragon. And now the mirrored beast has a golden collar around its neck preventing it from getting away. If it so much as tries to attack any of the Shinigami, the collar will decapitate her with its inner blades.

Riding the dragon is an RPC named Tomas, who wears Tagvornin armor and a Corinthian helmet. Tomas was one of the serpent woman’s first converts, and from what Tamana said, Tomas is the reason that the Swede has come to Tritania, which turned out to be completely true.

FeeTwix Fajer.

Kodai shifts his gaze from the dragon and Tamana to FeeTwix’s livestream, which shows the Mitherfickers moving in a wagon towards Katiyana. He has been monitoring the feed on and off since yesterday, after he became aware of who the Swede actually was.

So far, FeeTwix had been good at covering his tracks, but he’d let lots of stuff slip too, like the sign fucking pointing to Katiyana.

Then there’s the high elf that’s with them, another telltale sign of where Ryuk’s guild is heading.

It’s too easy, Kodai thinks, refocusing again on Tamana, who waits patiently on the rooftop of the Shinigami’s guild. Once the mirrored beast has settled, Tamana climbs onto the mirrored dragon’s head. The mirrored female dragon is older, overweight, and not so glamorous with all the scales that have been plucked from her stomach, but she’ll work as transportation for now, until they can get some griffins in Polynya.

After Tamana secures her seat, the dragon begins flapping its wings.

This should really kick Ryuk in the nuts, Kodai thinks as the dragon lifts into the air. Tamana will prove a formidable foe for his younger brother’s guild, and Tomas, at level 51, will seal the deal.

They’ll respawn, and she can kill them again once they do.

It’s too easy, he thinks as he focuses on Tamana. She’ll never break from the trance put on her by the serpent woman.

Kodai laughs aloud and Rin looks at him.

“Everything okay, boss?” the pink salon manager asks, swallowing hard.

“Yes,” he says sharply, “you’d know if things weren’t okay.”

A message flashes on Kodai’s iNet screen and he flinches.

Satomi: Your mother requests to see you and your brother at noon tomorrow. There will not be food, so eat before you come.

Kodai’s recent happiness shatters into a million pieces. He closes his eyes, bites his lip, and finally fires off a message to their mother’s assistant.

Kodai: Tell her we will be there. Has she contacted Ryuk?

Satomi: I will contact him next. If he is diving, I will relay the message to Hajime.

Kodai: Of course he’s diving; he’s always diving.

Satomi: Then I will relay the message to Hajime.

Chapter 9: Relics ‘R’ Us

It’s early evening by the time the Mitherfickers pull up the long and winding road that leads to Katiyana. The setting sun cuts through the peaks of a few of the more jagged mountains that surround the elven village and the air is crisp, less humid than the air closer to the continental shelf.

The Silver Ruby Bonus Package was worth its weight in, well, bronze, and Marty the Gnome did his ‘get in my belly’ move at least six times along the way, clearing out any Magic Gorgers in the vicinity.

Wish we hadn’t lost that EXP though, Ryuk thinks as the wagon bumps up and down. He might be at the right level to travel to Polynya, but like always, they’ll need to get much stronger if they hope to face off against the Shinigami.

And some faceoff that will be.

There’s no telling what the Shinigami will throw at them next, and thinking about that again reminds him of the serpent woman he encountered in the basement of the Shinigami’s rented guildhall.

“Still daydreaming about Tammy, huh, kid?” Hiccup asks as the wagon grinds to a halt.

“Baka.” Ryuk hops out of the wagon without responding to the goblin.

“What the fick, Marbles?” Hiccup calls after him. “Is that anyway to treat your only friend?”

“I’m his friend too, Hiccup!” The Swede stands in his big overcoat and fingerless gloves next to Zaena, who hasn’t taken her eyes off the surrounding mountains since they approached the city.

“Two friends then, and a dragon, and I’m not talking about you, Liz, I’m talking about this third wheel.”

Hiccup approaches Yangu, who is still in the backpack slung over Ryuk’s shoulder. The baby dragon hisses and spits a fairly large cloud of icicles at the goblin.

“Hey!” Hiccup waves his brass hand in front of him. “Keep it up, Snowballs, and you’ll find out what it feels like to become a dragon wing! Wait a damn minute … that’s a great nickname! Snowballs!”

Zaena ruffles the goblin’s pink topknot. “Behave around the young dragon, and Snowballs? Is this really the nickname you’ve chosen?”

“You catch on quick for a lizard, Lizzy. Let’s see, we have Marbles, Twixy, Elfy – although she’s not really part of the guild, and seriously, Marbles, if you want her to join up, we’re going to need to do a number of things as part of the Mitherfickers’ new extreme vetting rules, including a fickin’ polygraph and a palm reading because, believe you me, a lot can be discovered about a person via their palm, but that’s beside the point – where was I?”

His eyes start to glaze over but light flashes behind them. “Snowballs! Marbles, Liz, Twixy, Uncle Goblin, and Snowballs.”

Zaena mutters something in Thulean and Hiccup responds with an equally guttural, indecipherable response.

“Snowballs is a fun name!” FeeTwix announces. “My fans are loving it! Any chance of a name change, Ryuk?” The Swede looks at him with big, puppy dog black eyes. “You know, for the fans.”

Zaena scoffs. “We should let the dragon decide when it is older, once it can speak.”

“Snowballs is a fickin’ good name, Liz, and you know it. Maybe even better if we add a ‘z’ to the end, Snowballz. No, too buzzy. Too douchey. Snowballs it is.”

“Come on, you guys! Do you always argue this much?” Enway beckons them forward.

“Who the fick is she to judge us?” Hiccup glances to Zaena for support and for once the Thulean nods.

An odd couple if there ever was one, Ryuk thinks.

A passing elf, an older man in purple robes with golden trim, sticks his nose up as soon as he spots Hiccup.

“Yeah? Fick you too, mister.”

“Excuse me?” A glowing orb appears in his hand.

“I got two glowing orbs for you,” Hiccup tells him, grabbing his proof of goblinhood with his mechanical hand. “If you want it, bring it. It’ll be a cold day in the Empress’ expertly trimmed snatch before I let a fickin’ elf scare me!”

“Cállete la pinche boca!” Enway steps between them and apologizes to the older elf, who smooths his hands over his robes, grunts, and moves on.

“The fick did she just say?” Hiccup huffs. “Sounds like gibberish. Teachable moment,” he tells himself, “teachable moment. All right, Mitherfickers and Elfy, what you just witnessed there was an example of goblin discrimination. The elf saw me and he immediately turned his nose up. See, Liz? Told you it’s a thing.”

“I think he raised his nose at you because you farted.”

Hiccup nearly loses his balance. “Farted? I haven’t farted as you so crudely put it since we got out of the wagon.”

“I know,” she says, pinching her nose, “it lingers.”

“All right, all right,” FeeTwix tells his fans as a mirror appears in his hand, “now is as good a time as any.”

“Boy fick, here we go.”

The Swede smiles at his own reflection. “Do you have a gassy goblin in your guild? Maybe your uncle eats too much spicy food or maybe your IBS comes with an odorous stench the likes of which could kill flowers, deplete what’s left of the ozone layer, or peel the paint off an aeros! If so, you need Gassy Assy Boom Time Bum Defuser from Johnson & Pfizor! Get your dignity back, and stop scaring away the locals! Eat whatever you’d like and avoid the consequences! And for the next twenty-four hours only, mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout to get a packet of equally useful Shart Brand Backfire Diapers. Terms and conditions apply. See web store for details.”

Hiccup takes a deep, angry breath. His face turns two shades redder, and just as he’s about to reach his breaking point, the goblin’s nose twitches. “What the hell is that smell?” His eyes soften and his nostrils flare up.

“Probably you,” Zaena says as they continue up the small hill lined with quaint shops including a place where one can have their ears expertly cleaned.

A smile forms on his face and he licks his lips, instantly forgetting what has just transpired. “Smells fickin’ yummy!” He drums his fingers on his belly. “My god, I can taste the dragon wings! Hear that, Snowballs? That’s what you’ll become if you don’t keep your ice bullshit to yourself!”

“That’s the local barbeque restaurant.” Enway points to a sign in the distance. “DD’s BBQ. It’s new, and very popular.”

FeeTwix’s eyes flicker as he scans messages from his fans. “Dirty Dave’s Barbeque? He’s a marketing genius! He’s got weapons covered, comfort food, illegal substances … Boy, does Dave have his hands in a lot of pies!”

“They don’t sell pies, Twixy, you vain fickwad. And say it with me, innocent until proven guilty. Any-fickin’-hoo, it’s time to slam! I’ll catch up with you fickers later,” Hiccup says as a bib appears around his neck. He shoulders past the Swede, a proverbial fire lit under his ass. The robust goblin moves faster than he’s ever moved, as if he’s suddenly dropped a hundred years, a hundred kilos, and picked up a pair of expensive DisNike tone-as-you-walk shoes.

“You guys have never heard of DD’s BBQ?” Enway looks at the four with disbelief on her face. “It is everywhere in Polynya, practically on every corner.”

“Like McStarbucks in Tokyo,” Ryuk says under his breath.

“And McStarbucks in Sweden,” FeeTwix chimes in.

“And McStarbucks in Mexico City,” adds Enway.

The three look to Zaena. “I don’t drink coffee,” she says, “but I have been to the new McStarbucks in Athos. They make tea out of Aramis weed that is very, very potent.”

(0)__(0)

“Again, I apologize for, um, our goblin,” Ryuk says, as the four approach a shop with a red door with the bright turquoise words RELICS ‘R’ US carved above it.

They stand at the top of the hill now, and from his vantage point, Ryuk can see very clearly how the village is built on the slopes of the mountains. The rest of the mountain village is scattered into the valley below, its most remarkable feature the dozens upon dozens of bell towers that crowd the airspace.

Enway produces a keychain and as she goes to jam it in the keyhole, all the bells of Katiyana ring simultaneously. They keep ringing, a cacophony of bright metal tones.

“What’s that?” Ryuk asks as she finishes unlocking the door.

Before she can answer him, a wave of green magic lightly spreads over the streets. It glitters as it touches the soil, disappearing into the ground.

“The high elves of Katiyana set up a series of hexes to protect the town from evil forces and algospells.”

“And they do nothing to this wolf you are dealing with?” FeeTwix asks.

“No.” The tall elven woman grins softly as she watches more of the green magic. Her long ears flatten a bit and perk back up as she inhales deeply. “I love this time of day. Can’t you feel it?”

Zaena shakes her head. “I can’t feel anything, but magic has never been my forte.”

“Come,” Enway says as she swings the door wide open, “I will make you some tea as we await the wolf and the goblin.”

“Do you think he’ll find the place?” Ryuk asks. “Not that it’d be bad thing to have an evening without Hiccup. It would at least smell better.”

FeeTwix laughs. “Ryuk is becoming funnier, everyone!” He aims his black peepers at Ryuk and stares just long enough to make the Ballistics Mage uncomfortable.

Enway leads them into a cramped shop filled with all sorts of trinkets and gadgets. It’s cramped yet organized, not quite a hoarder’s den but not far off.

FeeTwix’s mirror comes up. “Okay everyone, we have some top secret business to get down to so I’m going incognito for a moment! I’ve got a new contest up, see if you can figure it out. Hint – check my videos from Dead City. That’s all I’m saying! I’ll announce the winner of the three month TwitchTube Red subscription in the next thirty minutes, so stay tuned!”

His eyes flash blue and he exhales audibly. “Whew, it does get tiring though. I’m always, always on.” A look of realization flashes across his face. “Sorry, where were we?”

Zaena grabs his hand and kisses his cheek. “Relax, dear,” she whispers.

“Please join me in the back, there’s more space here.” Enway leads the three into a small room with a few old sofas pressed against the wall. Ryuk sits down and a cloud of dust rises off the seat cushion.

“I really need to clean,” she says, “but I’ve been busy hunting relics and artifacts.”

“Do you do this full time?” FeeTwix plops down and lays his head back. Zaena curls up next to him like a cat.

“I do,” says Enway. “I have some other associates as well, mostly in Hyperborea, but also one in Bluwid. We trade stock, share profits, but we stick to Tritania, unlike other Proxima Smugglers.”

“But with your network of smugglers you can get anything, correct?”

“Within reason.”

FeeTwix’s shattered Reaper skull takes shape in his hands.

Ryuk remembers him using it back in the Jatla Forest, and he knows enough about the Reapers to know that they have something to do with the Knights of Non Compos Mentis, his former guild, but that’s about the extent of his knowledge.

Zaena steps back and crosses her arms over her chest. She has grown more comfortable with the alien weapons FeeTwix is fond of, but she was never a fan of the strange skull, which allows FeeTwix to see the very gridlines that make up Tritania.

“I only have half the skull,” FeeTwix tells Enway. “I’ve been meaning to get a strap for it, so I can at least use it in a combat situation if necessary, but I’m hoping to get the other part if I can.”

“Where did you pick that up?” Enway asks, her eyes narrowing at the partial skull.

“A Proxima world known as Steam,” FeeTwix says after he hands it to her. “Specifically, in a contraband shop in the prison city known as Akrasia.”

“Interesting.” Enway runs her fingers along the jagged edges of the skull. She brings its single eye up, takes a look and nods. She places it on a table and moves to a back room. After rummaging around for a moment, she returns with a small wooden box.

Enway opens the box to reveal another piece of a Reaper’s skull, this portion a cracked frontal bone that is connected to a parietal bone with a reinforced hole drilled in it. “It’s not the full piece,” Enway says, “and you’d still be missing an eye and the other side of the skull, but I think if we connect yours to this one and get a leather strap made, it’ll be more usable. Actually, I already have a strap that will work.”

“Sure! Let me know what I owe you.”

“Consider it a gift to your guild,” she says, “for helping me back in Aramis.”

FeeTwix and Enway work on the skull for the next thirty minutes. They use a bottle of Gorilla glue that the Swede procures from his list to attach the two skull portions and as it hardens, Enway works on adding some holes to the short leather strap she found to use as the headband. Once it is finished, FeeTwix places the half-skull over his face.

“Pretty fickin’ cool, eh, Ryuk?” he says, bowing to Ryuk.

“It looks pretty creepy.”

“What are you talking about? It looks fierce! And boy, do you look crazy through this thing!”

The skull mask now covers the left side of his face, à la the Phantom of the Opera. His overcoat completes the look, especially if he ever decides to pop his collar. “What do you think, babe?”

“Please, no skull masks in the house.”

“I’m just testing it … ” He leaps back. “Holy shit! You were just about to slap me with your ghost limb, weren’t you?”

Zaena looks away. “Maybe.”

“I can … I can see them with this on! Ryuk, check this out!”

Ryuk glances at Zaena, whose stone-cold visage isn’t very hard to decipher. “I believe you.”

“I need some air.” Zaena storms out of the room and FeeTwix follows after her, his mask suddenly off his head.

“Wait, babe. Don’t get offended!”

Yangu, who now rests in a basket provided by Enway, rolls over and comes alive. The baby dragon yawns and exhales a big cloud of blue smoke.

“Let’s take him outside to go potty,” Enway says, “while those two finish their discussion in private.”

(0)__(x)

Yangu, or Snowballs as Hiccup has started calling him, rummages around in Enway’s small backyard. The cute baby dragon flaps his wings, goes after a small mountain beetle and freezes it solid.

Instakill!

“Wow!” Ryuk says, picking up the beetle.

“Just wait,” says Enway. “He’ll be a big dragon sooner than later, then he’ll be able to freeze an entire army solid. I’d say he’ll be speaking in a week, and then you’ll know more about his personality. A dragon’s youth is short-lived in Tritania, mostly because of player impatience. Imagine having to have a dragon for three real world years as it matures into an adult.”

“That’d be a while.”

Cold air blows over her yard. Ryuk shivers and Enway places a friendly hand on his shoulder. “You want a jacket?”

“Me?” He kicks at the ground. “No, no, I’m fine. No worries. Just wasn’t expecting the coldness.”

“The mountains get very cold at night,” she says, turning away.

Ryuk changes the subject away from his sudden display of weakness. “Are you sure that the city elders will allow us entry to the catacombs if we kill the wolf?”

“I never said I was sure, but a few of the elders owe me a favor, so yeah, I wouldn’t worry about getting permission. That wolf has been terrorizing us for three weeks now and there’s nothing anyone has been able to do about it. But let’s make it official.” Enway reaches into a pouch on her belt and unfolds a piece of parchment. “Here.”

The words take shape on the piece of parchment, drying as soon as they appear.

Quest: Will you drive the wolf from the city of Katiyana in exchange for access to the catacombs?

Rewards: A back way into the city of Porthos.

Risks: Being mauled to death by a wolf.

“That’s one way to put it,” Ryuk mumbles.

“Well, do you accept?”

“Definitely, we need this.”

“What is it your guild is up to anyway?” she asks. “You haven’t been very clear about that, only that you want to get to Porthos.”

“Well, I can’t really quite answer that question. Just trust me, we need to get there.”

Yangu’s stomach grumbles.

“Have you fed the dragon?” she asks suddenly.

“Ummm … ” Ryuk shrugs. “It’s the first dragon I’ve had; I was unaware I was supposed to feed it or what I was supposed to feed it exactly. You’d think someone would have reminded me to feed it.” He suddenly feels incredibly stupid. “Yeah, I probably should have figured that out on my own.”

She laughs. “You’re cute, you know that? I’ll make him something.”

Cute?

As Enway reenters her home, Zaena exits, still a little peeved about FeeTwix’s Reaper mask.

“I just don’t like it,” she tells Ryuk. “All this alien technology is … ”

“It’s helpful,” he tells her. “Usually.”

She sighs, somewhat defeated. “I know it is.”

Ryuk glances over her shoulder and sees FeeTwix inside doing an ad read.

“What’s he advertising now?” Ryuk asks.

“I don’t think it is an ad this time. Something about a TwitchTube Red subscription winner. Your world,” Zaena’s slitted orange eyes widen, “sounds like it would be very, very crazy to visit.”

Ryuk half-smiles at her. “Not as fun as this world.”

FeeTwix is interrupted by a knock at the door, and lo and behold, Hiccup enters, his belly looking a good forty centimeters girthier than it normally is. FeeTwix greets him with open arms and the goblin bats him away. The Swede points out a barbeque smudge on the goblin’s cheek and Hiccup uses the end of FeeTwix’s overcoat to wipe it off.

“That damn goblin,” Zaena says as she takes a few steps in front of Ryuk. “I don’t know what it is I like about him.”

“I don’t think any of us do.”

The Thulean walks like a tigress, slinking her shoulders as she moves. She drops to her haunches in front of Yangu and coos at the baby dragon for a moment. “Do you remember what happened yesterday,” she asks, “at that Player Killer guildhall?”

“You mean when you were poisoned by that old mage?”

“Yes,” she says, not taking her eyes off the baby dragon. “Are you sure I didn’t say anything to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did I say anything about, um, anything about my life?”

Ryuk thinks back, skipping over the painful memory of Tamana slaying him. He rewinds all the action, from the fight with the ninjas on the rooftop to leaping between the two walls separating the guildhalls and being caught by Zaena’s ghost limbs. He arrives at poisoned Zaena just before Hiccup appeared and rescued her.

“Nothing,” he says. “All you said was ‘there are things about me you don’t know,’ or something to that effect.”

“Good.”

He cracks a half-grin. “Are you, um, trying to tell me something?”

“Let’s go inside and pester the goblin.” She picks up Yangu and cradles the baby dragon in her arms.

As Ryuk turns to the back entrance to the house, he receives a message from Hajime.

Hajime: First, you were supposed to log out to meet with me.

Ryuk: It’s been a longish day. Got into some things.

Hajime: That’s fine. I will wait for you to log out tonight to speak with you. Satomi contacted me.

My mother’s assistant? Ryuk stops dead in his tracks.

Hajime: Your mother would like to meet you and your brother for lunch tomorrow.

Chapter 10: Someone’s Little Blow-up Doll

“Fick no, Twixy, I’m not dressing up like a fickin’ sheep.” The goblin points his brass finger at the Swede. “I don’t know why the Mitherfickers keep getting the idea that I’m someone’s little blow-up doll that they can dress however they’d fickin’ like. I already wore a fickin’ tutu yesterday!”

FeeTwix laughs. “I don’t think you know what a blow-up doll is.”

“Like fick I do!” Hiccup plops down onto the couch, evacuates his colon, widens his eyes as he scoots around to see if he made a mess in his britches, realizes he didn’t, and equips a dog-eared copy of The Well of Loneliness. “This conversation is over.” A pair of reading glasses appears over the bridge of his nose and he focuses on the book.

“Fine, fine.” FeeTwix looks around for a place to lay out his weapons. Enway’s home is cluttered, full of books and small boxes covered in a layer of dust. He wipes away the surface of a side table and equips two shooting irons, one of which Ryuk has seen before. “Remember this one, babe?”

He places his bolonet rifle on the table. The blunderbuss fires a net made of diamond razor wire, which they used back in Sotla to pin Zaena down before she joined up.

“How could I forget the time you netted me?”

“Is that like ‘you had me at hello?’” FeeTwix asks. He smiles at her, and she returns his smile.

The next weapon is shaped like a primitive arcade gun. It’s orange, appears to be made of plastic, and as FeeTwix loads the magazine in, a circular light above the grip flashes blue.

“And that is?” Ryuk asks.

“This something I had custom made in Dead City. It’s supposed to look like the Duck Hunter gun. It fires a bullet that imbeds a GPS tracker in the assaultee’s body. Then you run your finger over the blue light to track it. Hiccup, care to test this out with me?”

“I swear on the Empress and her oversized mammaries,” Hiccup grits, “if you shoot me with that thing, we’ll have real problems, Twixy.” He looks at the Swede over the rim of his reading glasses. “I’ll split your chalupa with my tomahawk while you sleep.”

“Chalupas are already split,” Enway says as she enters the room. “I’ve fed Yangu–”

“Snowballs!”

“And he fell asleep next to his food bowl.”

“Young dragons always need more sleep than older ones.” FeeTwix’s bolonet lifts into the air, seemingly of its own volition.

“Careful!” he tells Zaena as she aims the muzzle at Hiccup.

“Liz, same thing I told Twixy applies to you,” the goblin growls without looking up from his book. “Now quit distracting me, I’m trying to read about lesbians. Everyone in this guild needs to get woke.” He waves his copy of the Well of Loneliness at her.

Get woke? Ryuk shakes his head. The damn goblin is always rattling off about something.

“What about the gun you had that shoots automatically?” Zaena asks.

“Ah, my remote sentry weapon.” FeeTwix shrugs. “I’d love to use that, but there could be friendlies in the area, sheep too. So we’re going to go old school!” A pizza box-sized electronic device materializes in front of him. It features a single unit in the middle anchored by four downward facing propellers. “A drone from the 2030s!”

“That is old school,” Ryuk says as he approaches the drone.

FeeTwix sets it on the ground and produces his remote control and presses a big red button labeled “auto.” The auto-drone lifts, accompanied by a buzzing sound. “The Eye in the Sky will help us spot and track the wolf. And you can be our other eye in the sky, Ryuk, by going to one of the terraces that surround the farms and using that Extreme Focus skill of yours. I’ll stay more or less in the center and when we see the wolf, I’ll try to bolo it. If that doesn’t work, I’ll peg it with a GPS bullet. Then we’ll follow it back to its lair and slaughter it.”

“What about us?” Zaena asks.

“I’m good here,” Hiccup says.

“He’s right. You two stay here for now, as soon as I net the wolf or peg it, spawn at my location and help me take it down.”

Zaena’s face hardens. “I want to be part of the hunting party.”

“You are, dear, trust me, but too many chefs spoil the soup.”

“He has a point.” Hiccup closes his book and yanks a healing potion out of thin air. He pops the top off the generic healing potion, takes his first sip, and cringes. “Oh yeah, that’s right, these ones ain’t half bad. Not Hopkins’, but what the fick can you do? Gotta save the good stuff for later. And don’t you say shit about me wasting a potion, Marbles, it’s prophylactic.”

The goblin guzzles the potion, jams his tongue inside to pick up any leftover residue, and once he’s finished, drops the potion onto the couch and returns his focus to his erotic novel. “Love me some lesbians,” he says as he licks his lips.

“We’ll be ready to spawn as soon as you give the signal,” Zaena nods. “I look forward to it.”

“Speak for yourself, Liz, although wolf meat ain’t half bad. You have to cure it right, but that’s a cinch.”

Enway clears her throat. “I’ll come with them as well – this sounds like it will be interesting!”

“Last thing.” FeeTwix equips a spray can called No Odor and gives himself a thorough spritzing. He tosses the can to Ryuk and tells him to do the same. “Before you ask, this eliminates our scent. Used it all the fucking time in Dead City. The damn zombie dogs there retain their sense of smell; this stuff works like a charm.”

“Um.” Ryuk points the spray nozzle at his body and gives himself a good coating. The spray, not surprisingly, doesn’t smell like anything.

“Between the legs too,” Hiccup comments, not taking his eyes off his text. “Nobody likes swamp ass.”

“Last thing, I swear!” Night vision goggles attached to an elaborate geared head mount form over FeeTwix’s eyes.

“You a jeweler now?” asks Hiccup.

“A jeweler? No, no, my troubled goblin amigo. These NVDs are a replica of the ones used by the United States Marines!”

“NVDs?” Zaena asks.

“Night vision device, or better, an optoelectronic device, which produces a monochrome green image in even the darkest of dark situations. Cool, huh?”

“So you are like an elf then?” She nods to Enway. “Elves can see in the dark.”

“That’s one way to look at it, babe. I’m like an elf, which reminds me … ” He pops the goggles up, equips his little mirror, and his eyes flash black. “And we’re back, people! Hello America and all the ships at sea! Are you clean enough? Are you moist enough?”

Hiccup shoots FeeTwix a suspicious glance.

“Well, if you aren’t, and hell, even if you are, Unilever & Gamble’s moisturizing aloe berry crisp hand sanitizer with added vitamin E kills 99.99% of germs in less than ten seconds and adds moisture to your skin in a fresh and revitalizing way. You’re gonna love it! Mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout to get a bonus pack of Clean Me Up and Wipe Me Down sanitary wipes! Hiccup the goblin is hooked on these wipes! Just ask him!” He swivels to Hiccup and the goblin gives FeeTwix the finger.

“Just imagine how clean that filthy goblin finger would be if he used some moisturizing aloe berry crisp hand sanitizer and followed it up with a Clean Me Up and Wipe Me Down sanitary wipe! Don’t miss out on this special offer today. Love you guys.” He blows kisses at the mirror in his hand. “Now let’s go catch us a big, bad wolf!”

(0)__(0)

Ryuk gets into position on one of the lower terraces. The night is cool, the moon barely visible. The grains are high, and out of respect for the farmers, he tries his best not to trample any of their handiwork.

FeeTwix’s auto-drone buzzes over a flock of sheep to the south.

After a deep breath to settle his nerves, Ryuk’s Extreme Focus skill kicks in. With his skill’s tunnel vision effect, he can see the Swede creeping around, his bolonet rifle at the ready and his GPS gun at his hip.

Remembering Hajime’s oblique quote, the most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten – breathe, Ryuk hones in on the movement of air in his body until he can feel the breath move from his lungs to his blood, and from there, to his appendages.

His focus pulses with each breath in. Minute details become increasingly apparent, from a ladybug crawling on a stem of wheat five meters away to the plinking sound of a droplet of water from a leaky pipe two fields over.

There.

His ears twitch slightly at the sound of an animal moving through the wheat on the northern terrace.

He readies his marble gun.

Ryuk: The wolf is approaching from the northern terrace. I’m out of range.

FeeTwix: Copy that. I’ll get him with the GPS bullet first, just in case I can’t get him with the net.

Ryuk focuses on FeeTwix for a moment.

The Swede has taken a position behind a barrel, using the barrel to steady his arms as he waits for the wolf to approach. The night vision goggles are on his head, and he’s as still as a frozen cactus as the canine slowly makes his way to a pen filled with sheep.

The sheep bleat and a few shuffle around, but other than that, they seem completely oblivious to the predator.

Ryuk: Damn, the wolf is big.

Hiccup: That’s what she said.

Ryuk: I thought you were reading.

Hiccup: Goblins excel at multitasking.

FeeTwix: How big?

Zaena: Do you need us yet?

Ryuk: The wolf is the size of a donkey, at least that size.

FeeTwix: Roger.

Hiccup: Who the fick is Roger?

Ryuk ignores the ensuing conversation as something red catches his eyes. He looks up at the approaching red outline. A dragon?

Ryuk: A dragon is approaching.

Zaena: We’re coming to you!

FeeTwix: Everyone stay cool just for a moment longer.

Shit, Ryuk thinks as two other forms appear on the dragon. He can’t make out the details of the riders yet, but there are definitely two.

~~POP!~~

The mahoosive wolf yelps and scurries away as FeeTwix pegs him with his GPS bullet.

Just in time, too.

The dragon is now directly over the Swede’s head, and before the man with the near limitless inventory list can equip another weapon, two armed warriors drop from the dragon.

Ryuk: Zaena, Hiccup, get here now! NOW!

Chapter 11: Surprise Attack

It can’t be, Ryuk thinks as he scrambles to get closer to the action. The Mitherfickers have spawned, Enway too, and they are currently going toe-to-toe with the two warriors, whose dragon circles in the air above them. He hears the clank of swords meeting as Tamana and Zaena go at it, the Thulean in her death dance and Tamana the betrayer using her buster sword to block each incoming attack.

Tamana Nakamura Level 15 White Warrior

HP: 410/410

MANA: 389/389

ATK: 117

DEF: 134

MATK: 149

MDF: 108

LUCK: 6

She wears a type of red armor he’s never seen before and a skull-shaped helmet. It’s clearly her, from her ironing board of a sword to the way she swings her weapon at Zaena.

Ryuk swallows the emotions coursing through him, hits another terrace, and drops and rolls.

He comes up with his triggerless Marble Gun aimed and ready. He’s almost in range, and as he scissors towards the final terrace, he changes his trajectory to the other fighter, the one currently engaging FeeTwix and Enway.

Tomas Romero Level 51 Shield Warrior

HP: 2167/2167

ATK: 593

MATK: 10

DEF: 740

MDF: 555

LUCK: 21

The Shield Warrior has a weapon that looks like a cross between a trident and a double-bitted ax.

Where do I know that name? Ryuk stops dead in his tracks. Isn’t that …

“Fick you, Tammy!” Hiccup runs at Tamana with his spiked club. While blocking the latest attack from Zaena, she manages to fire off a white magic missile at Hiccup. His shield takes the brunt of it, but the gaseous goblin is tossed backwards into a well, where he cracks his lower back, and nearly falls in.

“Yeooooooy!” He balls up like a baby and jams a healing potion in his mouth.

The mirrored dragon screeches and comes in to lay down some fire. It suddenly jerks up, spitting a mirror-like substance to the right, where it melts through FeeTwix’s hovering auto-drone and also melts a single black sheep too foolish to run to the other side of the pen like its brethren.

What the hell? Ryuk notices a collar around the dragon’s neck, a collar akin to the handcuffs Tamana had when they went for her at the guild. Knowing that he’ll get a better shot with his slingshot, he holsters his Marble Gun, comes up with his slingshot, and makes the split second decision to go with his molten marble over an explosive or sword marble.

Steadying his breath, Ryuk tracks the mirrored dragon as it circles overhead. A red reticle appears, he takes a short breath in, steadies the reticle just a bit longer and …

The dragon flinches and dips towards the ground as the molten marble strikes the collar around its neck. The lava spreads instantly and the collar snaps off and crash-lands in the midst of FeeTwix’s battle.

Free of its restraints, the dragon rears back up just in time, releases a burst of silvery fire, and flaps its wings, whipping dust and debris around the battlefield. Once the mirrored dragon has steadied itself, it spirals higher into the air and gets the fuck out of Dodge.

New skill learned!

LUCK +1!

Skill: One in a Million

Level One: Use your slingshot and any marble of your choosing to take an impossible shot. Odds of connecting increase with each point you gain in LUCK.

Requirements: Level 10 Mage, LUCK > 10.

“Wait a fickin’ minute! Mirror!” Hiccup uses his arms to press himself up. “That’s the dragon, Marbles! The one we sent that bitch Tammy’s handcuffs to! Mirror! Shit, she’s gone. Wait … You don’t think we sold her out, do you? Well, if we did, she’ll be pissed. Better to have her fly off, in that case,” he says under his breath. “Okay, back to nursing my healing potion. Fick you, Tammy!”

Ryuk glances from the goblin to FeeTwix and Enway. The Swede has equipped an ax made of machine parts that is easily the size of Tamana’s buster sword. He uses all his might to swing it at Tomas, and even though his eyes are black, Ryuk can tell by the look on his face that he doesn’t know what to think. Tomas was the reason FeeTwix logged into Tritania in the first place.

And to face him like this …

FeeTwix swings again and cracks his machine ax against the ground, sending more dirt into the air.

For her part, Enway stands back as white magic ripples around her hands.

As soon as Tomas lands a strike on FeeTwix, Enway heals him. Seeing an opportunity here, the Swede with the damn near infinite list of killer toys brandishes two Uzis and unloads a wall of metal fury at Tomas, who narrowly blocks them with a red scutum that matches his armor.

“I’ve got this!” Ryuk fires his entire mag of molten and black marbles at Tomas. He starts high and brings his trajectory down a couple of centimeters, the results of which create a solid line of fiery unhappiness that throws the Shield Warrior off his feet.

-39 HP!

That’s it? Ryuk pops the clip out and loads another. He turns his head as he hears Zaena release a war cry as she charges Tamana, bends her slender body backwards, and uses her ghost limbs to whip her over Tamana’s form, where she stabs the turncoat White Warrior with two blades from behind.

+79 HP! +84 HP!

Ryuk stares in horror as Zaena stabs Tamana again, this too adding to her hit points.

Crack!

Tamana uses both hands to baseball swing the broad side of her blade into Zaena, who is tossed into a patch of wine apples. She brings her ironing board of a sword down onto the ground and the Thulean just barely manages to get out of the way in time.

Ryuk lowers his Marble Gun for a moment as the thought dawns on him. He’s seen this very thing before, in a foe that Tamana and he encountered outside of a city known as New Gotha. He quickly fires off a message to the guild.

Ryuk: Her armor is enchanted! FeeTwix and Hiccup, take Tomas! Zaena distract Tamana and I’ll try to remove the enchantment.

Hiccup: Who died and made you boss?

Ryuk: Move your ass, Hiccup!

To encourage the goblin, Ryuk, before holstering his Marble Gun, fires a shot one meter away from Hiccup’s feet. The goblin launches into the air, propelled by both flatulence and the explosion, and in a twist that Ryuk couldn’t have even seen coming, the portly goblin bounces once off the ground, equips a shield midair, and brings it and his sizeable goblin girth down onto Tomas.

-45 HP!

Zaena has turned up her slice and dice attack, completely engaging Tamana. Her blades spinning around her body, she occasionally tries to get a lick in, which Tamana blocks. The ones she misses are instantly returned to Tamana in healing points.

Ryuk holsters his gun and again goes for his magic slingshot.

He pockets a clear marble and walks towards the two blade mistresses, ready to cast A Simple Request. His Extreme Focus kicks in and he becomes completely oblivious to what’s happening on FeeTwix, Enway, and Hiccup’s side of the equation.

His slingshot aimed, he waits for the moment in which Zaena is far enough away for him to get a clear shot, waits a moment longer, and lets loose the clear marble.

“Remove enchantment!” he bellows.

The clear marble strikes Tamana and her arms begin to bulge.

A large bubble forms under her alien armor and begins moving around her body, growing every body part it comes into contact with. Her arms go to four times their size, her legs, her torso, her skull-helmed head, and finally, her buster sword.

(0)__(0)

“Dragon ficks! Marbles, you fickered fick-laden fickbag! What the hell did you just do!?” Hiccup uses a heater shield with an image of a nude mermaid inlaid on its front to block a thrust from Tomas’ double-bitted ax trident.

Tamana, now five times her normal size, brings her buster sword back and takes out a farmhouse. Wood and debris spray into the air. With a grunt, she brings her sword down, cuts through the fence penning in the sheep, kills a few sheep in the process, and those that aren’t killed by her blade quickly scramble out, bleating as they ram into each other and add a fluffy white visual of chaos to the battle.

A white magic surrounds Enway and she lifts into the air. The magic spirals around her, forming a vortex between her floating body and the ground. She claps her hands together and the vortex whips towards giant Tamana, where it takes her off balance.

Tamana falls to one knee, her blade jabbing into the ground, and Zaena comes in for more swordplay. With her giant hand, Tamana bitch-slaps the living shit out of the Thulean, sending her flying into the air.

Zaena’s ghost limbs react just in time, saving her from crashing into a shed outside of the now defunct sheep pen.

Taking a deep breath in, Ryuk pulls back the clear marble and issues his command.

“Remove enchantment!”

Remove enchantment!

LUCK +1!

Ryuk pumps his fist in the air. “It worked!” he yells to Zaena. “The enchantment is removed!”

While she still may be giant-sized, Tamana’s ability to heal with each attack is gone.

“Everyone focus on Tamana,” FeeTwix shouts. “I’ll take care of Tomas!”

As much as it pains him to do so, Ryuk unholsters his Marble Gun and begins firing black and molten marbles at Tamana’s giant feet as she tries, and fails, to squish Hiccup.

-15 HP! -23 HP! -24 HP!

Just as she’s taken off balance, Enway pegs Tamana with a translucent cube made of white magic. The cube anchors itself over Tamana’s chest as lightning bolts ping from corner to corner inside the cube.

-81 HP!

Tamana’s hand comes up to heal herself and Ryuk takes aim at it. He fires at the back of her hand, just as Zaena uses her ghost limbs to hoist herself onto Tamana’s big arm.

Unable to finish her healing, Tamana tries to swat Zaena off; the Thulean leaps over Tamana’s incoming hand, scurries up the armor covering her upper arm, and arrives at her shoulder.

Meanwhile, Hiccup has taken to beating his spiked club against Tamana’s armored ankle. Hit after hit, he takes big sips from a healing potion to keep himself going.

Ryuk pops his spent mag out, loads another, and continues firing at Tamana’s free hand. In the blink of an eye, Zaena throws two of her blades forward, grabs them with her konoshlo mid-flip, and drives them into the side of Tamana’s thick neck.

-130 HP!

She uses her forward momentum to bring her body even closer to Tamana’s neck, where she stabs her repeatedly with all four blades.

Instakill!

“Fickin’ kill that giant bitch, Liz!”

Tamana drops her ginormous buster sword, which ruins what’s left of the sheep pen. She falls to her knees, her neck bubbling with blood as she sucks in air.

“Everybody out of the way!” Zaena takes a running leap off Tamana and propels herself to a rooftop.

“Fick!” Hiccup shrieks, his little goblin legs carrying him as fast as they can. He gets his leg caught under a piece of fence, flies forward and faceplants hard.

Tamana follows suit, landing with her head on her arm just a few meters shy of Hiccup, who screams, pisses himself, realizes he’s safe, gets to his feet, and runs towards Tamana’s face with his spiked club.

“This ends now!” the Swede bellows.

Ryuk glances right to see a battered and bruised FeeTwix holding a rather large Bowie knife. Tomas comes in for an attack and the knife starts to bubble up FeeTwix’s arm.

His mutant hack!

Symbiose overlaps itself as the mutant hack increases in size, portions of the biomatter lifting off and slapping back onto the outer shell to increase its girth.

A watermelon-sized barrel forms on the other end of the weapon; FeeTwix uses his other hand to hold the bottom of the barrel and takes a step back, waiting for the weapon to charge.

Just as he gets within striking distance, Tomas is met with a blast that tears the top half of his body off.

The blazing, concentrated beam of vibrant green energy keeps spewing out of the weapon long after Tomas has been separated from his body.

As soon as the mutant hack stops firing, the Swede collapses backwards, his chest moving up and down as he sucks in air.

(0)__(x)

“Stop kicking Tamana’s face!” Ryuk is next to FeeTwix now, watching as Zaena comforts her man. Enway stands to their right, ready to heal at a moment’s notice. What’s left of Tomas’ body isn’t too far away either.

“I’ll keep kicking her face until her avatar disappears.” Hiccup produces a healing potion, guzzles it for a minute, burps, beats his chest at the sudden heartburn, and returns to kicking Tamana.

Ryuk looks away. It’s easier to ignore her giant dead avatar than to come to grips with the fact that just a few days ago, everything was normal.  They were friends and there was the hope for something more.

But now …

He swallows hard. Zaena looks at him with her slitted orange eyes and they soften. “I am very glad you have those clear marbles,” she says. “Even if they do things like turn our enemy into a giant.”

“A giant bitch!”

“Goblin, stop harassing the dead or I will see to it that you join her!”

“Fick you, Lizzy!”

“We’re just lucky that it worked the second time,” says Ryuk. “It usually takes a few shots to get it right. Maybe once it levels up, I’ll be able to get it every time.”

“That’d make you god-like,” FeeTwix says, still out of breath. “Which has its advantages.”

Ryuk switches to the messaging system to keep things private.

Ryuk: How many viewers?

FeeTwix: Approaching 3.5 million. Giant warrior women sell, but I need to take a break. I still need to unpack what happened with Tomas. That was hard.

Hiccup: Boo-hoo. Why don’t you get Liz to let you use her pocket spa for a safe space?

FeeTwix: My work here isn’t finished!

FeeTwix equips his mirror and gives it a grin, his teeth a bit bloody. “I’ll heal up after this, guys, don’t worry. Now that all of you are here, I want to say that I’m so very glad for you to be part of what just happened! The intrigue! A giant Tamana! Be sure to share the video with your friends and neighbors and neighbors’ neighbors! And don’t forget to tell them about McStarbucks’ latest offer. You guessed it, the Twonicorn Frappuccinos and Twonicorn Big Mac are back! Holy Howard Schultz in a boner cap with a stick up his ass!”

FeeTwix wipes sweat from his brow.

“Ever had a genetically modified blue burger with a pink bun with sesame seeds that changes colors and fizzles as it reacts with your saliva? Well, if you haven’t, now’s your chance! And did I mention the Frappuccino has 100% of your daily recommended intake of vitamins and minerals, plus, and this is a big plus, it comes with the limited edition McStarbucks’ Mermaid in front of the Golden Arches self-applicated barcode tattoo that gets you a 3% discount for life. For life!”

“What in the fick is he going on about? Why do I hate him so much right now?” Hiccup asks as he walks over to the group. “Did he say self-applicated tattoo? I liked the twonicorn part, though, that’s good eating. A unicorn? Yeah, one horn, we get it. But two? Fick me, that’s dinner! Great for gnawing on.”

“... So mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout to get a small Twonicorn McNuggets free with your purchase of the Twonicorn Frap and the Twonicorn Big Mac. Don’t forget, you’ll get the McStarbucks’ logo tattoo free with purchase, and just think, you’ll save, save, save!”

FeeTwix drops his mirror, his eyes flash blue, and he collapses again.

Chapter 12: Wolf Trap

Ryuk waits for the sine waves to stop rippling. That familiar tone chimes, and after letting the static settle, he takes off his NV Visor and removes his haptic gloves.

His eyes dart to the corner of his room. No digital spider, which is reassuring, but also troubling seeing as his hallucinations seem to come and go. Thus far, they’ve only been in his room, but if they were ever to come to him in public …

The heater kicks on above and as he relaxes into the body of his ‘real world avatar’ – as he’s heard it called before – his thoughts circle around Tamana and seeing her turn into a giant. Somehow this image, and the mayhem that resulted, does little to quell the pain he felt watching her fight against them. She would have been a great member in the Mitherfickers, was a great member, and it’ll be a long time before he gets used to seeing her fight against them.

And as a giant …

He bottles the thought as an advertisement for Doutor Coffee flashes on his iNet screen. In the ad, Ryuk is told of a new Super Special Set,スーパースペシャルセット, that comes with a hot dog, a green tea latte, and a red bean biscotti all for under a thousand yen.

He mentally swipes the ad away and it appears again, flashing this time.

“Come to get some rest?”

Ryuk nearly flops out of his bed, so startled is he by Hajime’s voice.

I’ve got to remember he does that!

“Relax.” Hajime sits seiza with his back to the door. Ryuk can barely make him out in the dark, and as he considers this, he glances back to that far corner of the room just in case.

Lights.

Just thinking the word causes a dim orange light to come on overhead. Nope, nothing in the corner, but Hajime has changed into a red robe that Ryuk hasn’t seen before.

“So, how goes the ultimate quest?”

Ryuk rolls out of bed and takes his Somnium Skip Box from his desk drawer.  He attaches the DHDM interface to the crescent-shaped Proxima tower as he considers the best way to answer this.

“I see you’re breathing.”

“I’m thinking.”

Hajime nods. “That works too.”

“The ‘ultimate quest,’ as you put it, is off yet again to a rough start.”

Giant Tamana, seeing his guildmates attack her, attacking her himself– none of it was easy.

“Oh?”

“Tamana and a guy named Tomas attacked us.”

“Who is Tomas?”

“Tomas is the reason FeeTwix logged into Tritania in the first place. He was one of FeeTwix’s earliest fans.”

“I thought he logged in to make money.”

Ryuk smiles. “Well, that too, and it seems like he makes a ton.” He finishes setting up the Skip Box, returns to his bed and grabs his NV Visor. “Anyway, to give you some backstory, we arrived in Polynya, the second floating continent, after meeting an Elf named Enway.”

“Okay.”

“She took us to her hometown because Polynya’s capital city is locked down.”

“You mentioned that earlier. Why is the city locked down?”

“There was an attack last night, so no outsiders are allowed in. Luckily, Enway’s hometown, known as Katiyana, is connected to the catacombs beneath Porthos.”

“An easy way in.”

“Not exactly, they don’t just grant access to those catacombs to anyone, so to gain access, we planned to rid the city of a wolf that had been attacking livestock.”

“And did you?”

“We were in the process of doing so when Tamana and Tomas attacked us. So I’m logging back in right now to go after the wolf.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“FeeTwix shot it with a ‘GPS bullet.’ I believe that’s what he called it.”

“That’ll do the trick.” Hajime takes a deep breath. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m fine, but I’ll be hungry in the morning.”

“Good. I’ll make you something at that time. It’s better to see your mom and brother with a full stomach.”

Ryuk places the NV Visor over his head. It’s still warm from wearing it just moments ago. “Thanks for understanding, Hajime.”

(0)__(0)

The first thing Ryuk hears after his avatar has taken form is a squeaky mouse fart from Hiccup. The goblin has his golden helm under his arm and a healing potion in his brass hand. An empty, grenade-shaped Hopkins’ Holistic Healing Nostrum is at his feet, and not far from him, FeeTwix is using a primitive AppleSoft iWatch to track the wolf’s movement.

“You ready?” the Swede asks, his eyes two little black coals.

“Let’s do this.”

He glances back to Enway, who now wears a glimmering shawl, and from there to Zaena, who has an indecipherable look on her face. Ryuk wouldn’t describe it as thoroughly pissed, but there’s definitely some edge to it and he’s pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that she wasn’t granted a fair battle with Tamana.

“Finally your ass is back,” Hiccup says. “I was just telling everyone how I was friends with that mirrored dragon, who, coincidentally, is named Mirror. Too bad she flew off. Anyfick, thanks for making us wait.”

“I was only logged out for a moment.”

“Yeah, yeah, well when you were gone, Liz over here made a big stink about not having an honorable battle. Ha! This from the lady that went along with FeeTwix’s automatic gun thingamajiggy at the Shit-agami’s – see what I did there? – guildhall back in Aramis. Fick. Do we really have to track the wolf now? I mean, it is practically the Hour of the fickin’ Llama. Let’s get some rest.”

FeeTwix approaches him and laughs. “You sure are a grumpy goblin sometimes, you know that?”

“Yeah? Well, the minute you stop shilling to your tweeny snowflake followers, I’ll stop grumbling.”

“How many healing potions are you going to drink?” Zaena asks, narrowing her eyes at the goblin’s gut, the bottom of which sticks out of his chainmail armor.

“You know, we got a word for fat shamers in the goblin universe,” he says, turning his back to her.

If there is a word for ‘fat shamers,’ he doesn’t say what it is.

“Everyone is a little pissed off after that last fight,” FeeTwix says as he throws his hands in the air, “I get it, but we can’t forget, there’s a wolf to be captured! And to answer your question, Hiccup, I’m afraid if we wait until morning, the wolf may be able to get the tracking bullet out.”

“How the fick is he supposed to do that? You see an arm and a hand sticking out of his belly? You think he has a fickin’ grip’n’grab reach tool?”

“Dogs are clever!”

“Which way?” Ryuk asks, putting an end to the banter. “Let’s get this over with.”

Without another word, FeeTwix takes off towards one of the terraces. He walks fast, excited to finally be getting back into the action. If he’s experiencing any feelings regarding battling Tomas, he’s hiding it.

Typical, Ryuk think as he watches the Swede in action. He has a role to play.

As they follow him, Ryuk gets in line next to Enway to confirm with her that there is an actual reason they’re going after the wolf. “Just to make sure: you’re certain that the city officials will allow us access to the catacombs if we catch the wolf?” he asks.

“I’ve already told you. Outsiders aren’t usually allowed in, but outsiders don’t normally help us rid ourselves of our little canine problem. So you all will get in.”

“It seems to me, and correct me if I’ve mentioned this before,” Hiccup says after he’s scrambled up one of the terraces, “that someone in this town could have taken out the wolf on their own. Are you telling me you aren’t able to light a wolf that big on fire with your wowsie wow magical powers? Give me a fickin’ break.”

Another healing potion appears in his hand and he pops the top.

“Where do you keep getting those?” Enway asks, a grin spreading on her face.

She really is lighthearted, Ryuk thinks as he listens to Hiccup lay into her.

He mostly ignores the goblin, especially after he gets in a heated discussion in Thulean with Zaena. At least it sounds heated.

The mountain air is cool on his skin as they move from the terrace to a path cut into the rock face. From there, they scale a short slope, which proves challenging for Hiccup. Once they arrive at a winding mountain pass, they follow it until the goblin announces a discovery.

“Hold up, Mitherfickers!” They turn just in time to see Hiccup stick a bloody finger in his mouth. He nods, licks his lips, and drops to his haunches to have another taste. “That’s not like any wolf blood I’ve ever tasted.”

“Ewwww,” Enway starts to comment.

“Yeah, Elfy? Well fick you too. Here I am trying to be useful and you have to go and turn up the racism.”

“She wasn’t being racist,” Ryuk says. “Tasting dog’s blood isn’t really, um, something people do.”

“Something people do. You hear yourself?” Hiccup asks as they continue along the dark path. “Well, no way I’m going to educate you fickers, so I might as well tell you about my other cousin, Spew George.”

“I thought it was Spew Gorge.”

“Listen, Marbles, I know it’s hard to pay attention to the words of a handsome goblin with an equally healthy amount of pink hair and a vocabulary that would make me perfect for public office, but if you had paid attention, you would have heard me say George, not Gorge.”

“So you have cousins named both Spew Gorge and Spew George?” FeeTwix asks over his shoulder. He now wears a headlamp illuminating their path. Ryuk steps a little too close to the wrong side of the walkway and some pebbles fall.

“Spew is a common goblin name, for your information.” Hiccup stops, beats his chest for a moment, swallows, and scrunches up his face. No sound this time, but anyone standing behind him, including Ryuk and Zaena, instantly suffer.

Ryuk swallows the urge to vomit, and moves to the front of Hiccup, so he is no longer downwind. Zaena whops the goblin on the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward and shout ‘Yooooy!’ when he trips on a rock.

“Son of a ficklord, Liz! Keep your fickin’ konoshlo to yourself. Fick! I thought it was a ghost!” Worry spreads across his face and Enway laughs.

“Tell us more about Spew Gorge, or was it George?” FeeTwix asks, entirely focused on tracking the wolf with his watch.

“George, rhymes with norge.”

“Norge?” Ryuk asks. “Is that a Thulean word?”

“No, Marbles, it’s the Norwegian word for Norway.”

“How do you even know that?”

“I drink healing potions and I know things, is that what you want me to say?”

“Sweden, my home country, is next to Norway,” FeeTwix adds.

“Are you guys enemies or something? I’ll tell you what, if anyone named Norge says anything funny to me, I’d fickin’ cut their balls and their chalupa, fry them up, and feed them to a troll.”

“Churro,” Enway giggles.

Hiccup tenses, takes a deep breath, and continues his story about Spew George. “Anyway, Spewy– ”

“I thought you called Spew Gorge ‘Spewy?’” Zaena inserts.

“For fick’s sake, people, let me finish my goddamn story. I swear to the Empress’ milk-filled fun bags of epic proportions that babysitting the four of you is going to be the death of me. Now where the fick was I? Marbles, I need you to start taking notes … ”

“Quiet!” FeeTwix hisses. “We’re getting closer.”

“So,” Hiccup whispers, “Spew George came across this ink shadow in Tlapa, on the far western side of Hyperborea. Tlapa is far from the Goblin Riviera, but Spewy was always a traveler and he loved adventure, unlike yours truly.”

“Spew Gorge, right?” Zaena snickers.

“Ignore her,” Hiccup tells Enway and Ryuk, both of whom are definitely not listening. “Spewy had this bright idea of challenging the ink shadow to a game of punch chest. Now sure, an orc, even a big orc– I’d challenge that ficker to a game of punch chest. But an ink shadow? Fick that. Speaking of which, you know who I’d really like to play punch chest with? Ryuk’s little fickboy doppelgänger.”

“Quiet!” FeeTwix says again.

“Anyway, like a real ficktard, Spewy swung at the ink shadow and passed right through the no good fick-faced jizz farming son of a boar turd. So then it was the ink shadow’s turn. He swung at Spewy and knocked the living goblin out of him. So now he’s dead. George, not Gorge. Funny, that. Spew George was killed by an ink shadow. The ficker not only made a necklace out of his nails, he also made a pair of cowboy boots out of his skin. I’m telling you, they’re sickos, real sickos.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Ryuk asks, suspicious of the story.

Hiccup rolls his eyes. “You never asked me.”

“Let me see,” FeeTwix whispers, still tracking the wolf. “You’ve mentioned that an ink shadow took someone’s chalupa, I think that was Spew Gorge, and you mentioned that he cursed another relative and I believe a dyck byter snake got to him.”

“Yeah.” After scratching his ass, Hiccup starts counting. “One, two … you’ve mentioned two stories I’ve told you about ink shadows and goblins related to me. Now I’ve told you three. What the fick do you want from me, Twixy, the children’s book? Do I need to add subtitles? Ink shadows are bad news, people. I don’t want to sound racist like Liz over here, but fick each and every one of them sideways. If ever there were a reason for eugenics, ink shadows would be one of them.”

“So this is about ink shadows being bad news?” Ryuk asks. “This whole story?”

“Oh come on, you act like I don’t have to listen to you whine about how you almost got to first base with Tammy back there in the Mondegreen or how you once saw a little sideboob.”

“I never said that!” Ryuk says too loudly.

“Shhhh!” FeeTwix turns to Ryuk. “We’re close,” he whispers. “Shut the fuck up, Hiccup.”

“He’s right, goblin, there is no point nor moral to your story and it’s probably made up. I think all goblin stories are made up, or at the very least, hyperbolized to an extreme degree.”

“The fick you say!?” Hiccup starts to growl.

“Here! Weapons up!” FeeTwix has out just about the biggest gun in seconds flat. “Spitfire LMG,” he tells Ryuk before he can ask. “From a mech world called, well, Mecha XXE. No short bursts here,” he grunts as he pops the mag in the weapon. “High recoil reduced by fifteen percent every 1/9th of a shot … best for long bursts.”

The Swede aims the gun in front of him. “Let’s fuck this wolf up.”

Hiccup shoulders past him. “You and your damn guns. You know, if you want to really kill a wolf, all you need … ” The goblin yelps as a man leaps down from a higher rock.

The warrior, his body covered in scars and mud, brandishes a huge sword splintered into three distinct peaks. He takes a step forward and drops to a knee, lifts himself, and tries to hold steady again.

“It’s … you!” Ryuk says, after he sees a glimpse of the Unigaean tattoo on the man’s chest.

Chapter 13: The Takeover

Kodai swivels his haptic chair so he can get a sparkling view of nighttime Tokyo. He takes a deep breath, places his NV Visor over his head, and after the familiar tone, he waits for the sine waves to start up. A message from Sarah the Aussie piques his interest.

Sarah: You want me to come over tonight?

He thinks about this for a moment as he watches the twinkling lights of the city. It would be interesting to see her reaction to Tesla …

Kodai: Yes, in an hour.

Sarah: I won’t be off until one.

Kodai: You’ll be off in an hour.

With a deep breath in, he settles into his haptic chair and chooses a spawning point, the rented guildhall in Aramis, and after a few moments, he steps out into the large banquet room.

His stats appear and away they go.

Kodai Matsuzaki Level 15 Ballistics Mage

HP: 830/830

ATK: 213

MATK: 176

DEF: 98

MDF: 105

LUCK: 7

“You’ve both failed,” he tells Tamana, who stands before him with her head bowed. Next to her is Tomas, who looks equally troubled. “And at your levels and with the armor we’ve given you, this is totally unacceptable.”

Kodai takes his magic slingshot from its holster and pouches two knife marbles. He adds a black marble on top, pulls back, and fires the three marbles directly into Tomas’ neck and face.

-321 HP! Critical hit!

Skill level up!

Tomas is blown back a good five feet. With his body now smoking, he tries to pick one of Kodai’s blades from his cheek.

A skill level up?

Skill: Explosive Blades

Level Four: Use two knife marbles and one black marble to cause confusion and pain through an additional shrapnel bonus.

Damage: 25% if enemy is less than level 30; 9% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 3%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 8

“Good,” he says as he walks past Tamana, who still stands facing him with her head bowed. He approaches Tomas, and after equipping a knife marble, brings his slingshot up to the side of the RPC’s head.

Instakill!

Kodai turns back to Tamana just in time to hear Tomas’ body slap against the floor. He slowly walks towards her from behind, a new knife marble in his pouch.

Kodai.

The voice rings out in his head and he pauses. Even though the woman behind the door has spoken to him like this several times before, it still takes him off guard.

“Yes?”

Come to me.

With a grunt, he slowly lowers his slingshot. Not done yet with Tamana, Kodai brings his foot down on the back of her knee, sending her sprawling to the floor.

“Failure is not an option.”

“Yes, Kodai,” she says as she scrambles back to her feet. “It won’t happen again.”

Once he reaches the door at the far end of the room, Kodai takes the stairs down to the basement. While the room upstairs has been repaired, the basement is still in disarray. Shards of broken tiles litter the ground, portions of the wall have been ripped apart and the front door lies flat on the floor, its hinges broken.

The golden door in the center of the room, however, is in as perfect condition as ever, and as Kodai approaches it, the door cracks open revealing the galaxy inside.

Kodai.

The serpent woman stands before him, her image the clearest he’s ever seen.

She has dark hair with hints of purple, orange eyes, and faded Thulean tattoos along the side of her neck. She’s nude from the waist up; the scales from her lower half form a point at her sternum. Her scales are a deep shade of blue and dark green, the ventral scales a dark shade of yellow.

Kodai takes a knee before her and bows his head.

You’re angry.

“I am,” he grits. “They failed.”

I am aware, but it was you yourself who suggested sending Tamana and Tomas, and while they did little to stop your brother’s guild, they were able to add some psychological damage to the equation. Too bad we lost the dragon, though.

“Yes, you’re right. I’m sure my brother wasn’t happy.”

And his unhappiness will only grow with what I have planned next.

“Oh?” Kodai stands and raises an eyebrow at the serpent woman. “What is it you have planned? I’m aware of what we discussed, the larger plan.” He can’t help but grin. “The takeover.”

It will be glorious, but we cannot and have not yet been able to fully take over a person’s life chip.

Kodai nods.

This isn’t the first time he’s heard the woman mention ‘we.’ She has told him some of what she, or better, they, are trying to do. It seems easiest with RPCs, as their D-NAS has already been registered in Tritania’s system and when they take an avatar, small slivers of their original avatar remain with them, which is how the infection seeds.

But all they’ve been able to do with this infection is briefly modify a person’s iNet display. They still haven’t worked the kinks out in actually controlling the person, and for the most part, people that don’t immediately die after they see Tritania play out on their real world feed seem to recover. Well, sort of. They generally end up going insane, which doesn’t help to build an army at all.

An army of people who are controlled from within the game.

The thought only increases the size of Kodai’s grin.

They will work the kinks out. Kodai knows this, and he has already begun to plan how to control this army of mind-zapped denizens in the world out there. When they first met, it only took the serpent woman thirty minutes of explaining how it would work to completely sell him on the idea.

Still, he had questions, and for the most part, she deflected any question that dealt with specifics or reasons as to why he was chosen for this task.

“What is your plan?” he asks. “Should we attack them again?” A sinister grin spreads across his face. “I’d love, love, to lead an attack.”

Come here.

Kodai takes a step towards the open doorway in the center of the room. He reaches his arms in, moves closer, and breaches the game-time continuum.

His body and lower torso are still firmly planted outside the golden door, but his upper body is now inside.

He blinks as he takes in the starry galaxy in which the serpent woman stands.

She moves closer to him and a forked tongue extends from her mouth. It touches the bottom of his chin and pulls him just a bit closer to her.

The woman kisses him, as she did before, and as they kiss, images flash in front of his mind’s eye.

He sees a man in a robe; a white mage floating in the air with her nose upturned; a clean cut guy pursuing him around a circular hallway; a man in a life vest with arms that have turned into two grotesque weapons surrounded by throngs of screaming people; a war viewed from a perch in the sky; a faun flying through the air with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he unloads an ungodly amount of bullets; a black man pleading with her in the very space in which they currently stand.

Kodai just barely manages to pull away.

I believe you will really enjoy our next move.

“Sure, but,” he tries to recall the images as they slowly burn out, “but … what was that? What did you just show me?”

My past. Once you leave here, you will spawn in Porthos. Her eyes soften as she takes in Kodai’s face. You will mask your handle, and you will wreak havoc.

So transfixed is he by her gaze, Kodai doesn’t see the tendril of green magic moving to his temple.

“And the authorities will think it’s Ryuk,” he says.

And you will continue to disrupt his guild, preventing him from furthering his endeavors.

“What makes you think he’s going to Porthos?” Kodai asks. “He’s way out of the way.”

Your brother may not be as smart as you, but I’m assuming he’s smart enough to know when he is in over his head. I believe he is hoping to contact The Knights of Non Compos Mentis, specifically Sophia.

“Then we can bring the battle to them.”

The serpent woman smiles. The knights are the most powerful guild Tritania has ever seen. Bringing the battle to them, as you have suggested, will not only result in the Shinigami being destroyed, it will also tip them off to our plan.

“How would they know?”

They’ll know. In Porthos, you must make it so no one trusts Ryuk and his guildmates so that even if they’re telling the truth, the Empress and Sophia will find it hard to believe. Of course, after you’ve caused some havoc, you can continue leveling up and building our group. You’ll get your chance to battle, but first, the psychological warfare continues. Their confusion is our victory.

“How did you get in here?” Kodai asks suddenly. “Who are you really?”

We will speak soon.

Kodai tries to fight a force that pushes him back out of the open door. As soon as he’s out, the door pops shut, and to the right of it, a blip of light that he recognizes as a spawning point appears.

Kodai reaches out for it, and everything time warps.

(0)__(0)

Kodai’s avatar forms on the top floor of a building near a great dock.

The sky is dark, but he can see the faint outline of a magic half-sphere covering the city of Porthos, the capital of Polynya. The serpent woman’s magic still dissipates off him as he takes a step forward, and he instantly senses a few others around him.

He sees the two NPCs, the Berserker Mage and his Dark Mage companion. He also sees Tomas, who has respawned quickly, and Tamana, her head still bowed in his direction. The NPC owner of the establishment has been stretched out over a table with his arms and legs tied to the table’s legs.

A rag is stuffed in his mouth.

The man’s eyes go wide as Kodai approaches him. Curious as to how he’ll react, Kodai takes a small blade from his inventory list and runs it along the man’s jawline. The man tries to squirm, but is prevented from doing much more than shifting his body ever-so-slightly.

Kodai grows bored quickly and stabs the blade into the man’s open palm.

-82 HP!

The man screams a muffled shriek, pisses himself, and passes out.

The Berserker Mage lowers the hood covering his head and steps forward. He takes a knee in front of Kodai. “Empress Thun is having a procession tomorrow at noon. It would be a great place to be disruptive,” he says with a grin. Kodai has seen the mage do this before; the only time he speaks is when the serpent woman speaks through him, same with the other mage.

“Then that settles it. Each of you draft up a plan. In the afternoon, we will see that Empress Thun hears from Ryuk and his band of fucking losers.” Kodai lifts his finger and the logout button appears. “I have to go,” he says hastily, “I’m expecting someone.”

Chapter 14: Extreme Vetting (For Fick’s Sake)

The warrior is muscular, with dark eyes and long, brown hair. He holds a huge sword that is splintered into three distinct peaks. A Unigaean tattoo is etched across his chest, visible due to the way his armor is cut.

Ryuk recognizes the man at once. He saw him once before, at a distance, while he was near the Mines of Rotlana with Tamana. It feels like ages ago now, and he doesn’t remember seeing a giant black wolf with the man.

The man’s stats appear:

Oric Rune Level 58 Warrior Berserker

HP: 104/3,104

ATK: 554

MATK: 11

DEF: 467

MDF: 389

LUCK: 31

Oric Rune points his Splintered Sword at the group and drops to a knee. Ryuk notices a scar on his neck, a bite mark, but he quickly returns his attention to the black wolf that snarls next to him, ready to pounce.

“All right, sheeples,” says the gaseous goblin with a hint of caution in his voice, “Twixy and Liz take Conan with his broken-ass sword; the rest of us, you too, Elfy, take the green-eyed wolf. Marbles, see if you can’t fire a shot right in his ass, like you did that bearadillo. Right in the pocket.”

Hiccup’s face morphs from serious to comical as he imagines the bearadillo crying out in pain after Ryuk popped him in the sphincter with an explosive marble. “Fick that was funny! Let’s get ‘em!”

“I’ll kill you first, goblin.” Oric stands and lifts his sword, only to fall to a knee again. The veins on his arms bulge, and even in the dim light, Ryuk can see that the warrior’s skin has a green tint to it.

“Like fick you will!”

“I think he’s been poisoned,” Enway says, but no one really pays attention to her.

Hiccup smacks his spiked club against his shield. The wolf bolts forward, nips at the goblin, and returns to Oric’s side after the warrior whistles for him.

“Fick!” The goblin lets loose a squeaker that instantly befouls the air. The wolf’s nose twitches at the smell, but it isn’t long before he quickly returns to his aggressive stance.

“You won’t like him when he’s angry,” Oric coughs. The Unigaean warrior is back on his feet now, just barely, and it takes him longer than expected to lift his sword.

Ryuk’s eyes return to the wolf’s stats.

Tagvornin Wolf Level 38

HP: 2296/2296

ATK: 679

MATK: 0

DEF: 521

MDF: 236

LUCK: 19

The wolf will be difficult, Ryuk thinks, but this guy only has 100 HP left.

Zaena steps to the front of the group with two of her four swords drawn. The wolf growls at her and she ignores him. “I respect a warrior who will fight to the end,” she says, and just as Ryuk is thinking Zaena has turned over a new leaf, the Thulean asks, “How would you like us to bury you and your dog?”

“Fick yeah!” Hiccup calls out from the back of the group. Somehow, the goblin has managed to weasel his way behind Enway, so he is the last person in line, furthest away from the action.

“Easy, babe.” FeeTwix places a hand on her shoulder and she bristles. “Let’s not handle this that way.”

His weapon zips away and a bag of Purina Taste of the Wild Lamb, Buffalo and Rice formula appears in his hand. He steps around Zaena, rips open the package, and proceeds to pour it out in front of the Mitherfickers.

“Is this a fickin’ ad read or something?” Hiccup asks.

“Are you hungry?” FeeTwix asks the big wolf. The beast looks from his owner to the Swede.

(0)__(0)

“His name is Wolf,” Oric says, as the pony-sized canine goes to work on the pile of dog food that FeeTwix has laid out.

“That’s like Liz’s mom naming her Liz!” Hiccup snorts. “Fick me, I’m funny. Hey!” He swats at the air, hoping to catch Zaena’s ghost limbs in the act. “Enough with the konoshlo, Lizzy, it’s late and I’m already creeped out.” He shivers, looks around, and eyes a particular shrub suspiciously for a moment. “Better not be any ghosts up here.”

“Wolf loves the food,” FeeTwix says, “but most dogs do. I, um, need to get my GPS bullet out of him. Unless you want to.”

Oric gives him a funny look. “You shot my dog?”

“Well, yeah. But it’s pretty easy to get this particular bullet out. Painless really, you just have to flash this little device I have … ” FeeTwix rummages around in the pocket of his overcoat. “Ah! Here it is. Flash this over it and the bullet will release its barbs. Then you just push it out. I can do it, but you probably should, seeing how you’re his owner and whatnot.”

Oric limps forward and takes the small device, which is about the size of a credit card.

“Know where you shot him?”

“In the hind leg – right leg, I believe.”

Oric presses a button and red light appears. He runs it over his wolf’s right leg as it eats, and sure enough, a beeping sound lets him know he’s found the bullet. Once the barbs have retracted, he smooths his hand over Wolf’s fur and the bullet drops out.

“You want the bullet back?”

“Um, sure.”

Ryuk switches to instant messaging.

Ryuk: He’s level 58. Everyone saw that, right?

FeeTwix: Noted.

Zaena: He is very powerful.

Hiccup: That’s what she said. Fick me, I’m funny.

Ryuk: This may be a little presumptious, but what if we ask him to join us? I mean, he needs to heal up, obviously, but you saw what we just went up against back there. Tomas was in the fifties, and I’m guessing the next enemy the Shinigami throw at us will be equally leveled. Tamana is leveling up too.

Hiccup: The fick you just say?

Zaena: We’ll need to be careful, but I don’t see any problem with improving the strength of …

Hiccup: The Mitherfickers. We have a name and if I’m not mistaken, I’ve never heard you use it.

FeeTwix: Not a bad plan at all. Plus I like dogs.

Ryuk: Is that why you had dog food in your list?

FeeTwix: Damn skippy. I had a dog named Rex in Dead City. He was one killer Pomeranian!

Ryuk feels someone tug on his hand. He turns back to see Hiccup scowling at him.

“Marbles, I swear to the Empress, kid, I like you, I really do, especially after your balls dropped a few days back, and sure, you need to visit a whorehouse with me to keep those nuts hanging, but that’s beside the point. Where was I?”

Ryuk starts to sigh and Hiccup cuts him off.

“No, don’t remind me. I remember– extreme vetting. Whatever happened to extreme vetting? Remember the ban? I’m calling it a ban, there, I said it, and don’t for a minute think that a mangy wolf the size of a Chiup hog and fickin’ He-Man over there with his dumbass sword of doom are going to pass the test.”

“Test?” Ryuk shoos Hiccup away.

“I’m not finished! After what your bride-to-be Tammy did back at the Shinigami’s guild quarters, we need a test to vet, extremely vet, anyone that we offer membership to.”

Ryuk raises an eyebrow at him. “What if one of your cousins asks to join?”

“Why would we need to vet one of them? They’re good people. Except Spew Gorge. He’s a real little ficker. He’s possibly my son too, but you didn’t hear that from me. But yeah, fick Tarzan over here and the wolf he rode in on.”

“Your goblin is a real asshole,” Oric says after he’s heard Hiccup say all this.

Ryuk’s face flushes red, embarrassment writ large. “Don’t listen to him,” he tells the poisoned warrior. “He can be … ”

“I can be what?” Hiccup presses past Ryuk and points his mechanical finger at Oric. “And for fick’s sake, what is with all the racism in this guild? I’m nobody’s goblin, I have a name. What’s with you people?”

“You people?” Zaena asks.

Ryuk interjects, “Hiccup, relax, ‘goblin’ is not a racial term.”

“Yeah, when we use it, but if others use it … you know what? Fick all of you, especially Liz.” He shoulders his way to the back of the group again.

“Fick you too, goblin!” Zaena laughs.

“Hey!”

“Is he always like this?” Oric asks.

“Not always,” says FeeTwix, “but usually. Anyway, ignore him. It’s late, and if he’s not gambling or visiting the hen house, Hiccup likes to get to bed early.”

“Damn straight, Twixy!”

“We may not seem like we get along,” Zaena says, “but we all generally like each other, some more than others.”

Enway chuckles. “Don’t look at me. I’m not part of the group yet. I haven’t been vetted either.”

Hiccup throws his hands in the air. “Fick it, he can join the guild. I give up. Not on Elfy though, she’s still getting vetted.”

“Baka!” Ryuk whispers under his breath.

“Join your guild?” Oric’s expression turns dark. “Not interested.”

“Good for me. Fick you and your dirty mutt. Twixy, got another headlamp?”

FeeTwix nods and the headlamp appears in his hand. The goblin waddles over to him, swipes it out of his hand, and once it is secured and he has made sure his pink hair doesn’t look bad, Hiccup goes over to the cliffside, finds a perch, and pulls a copy of the Tritanian Times out of thin air.

He makes a point to open to the jobs section and starts perusing the “Help Wanted” page.

A sudden realization flashes across Enway’s face. “You … you have Emil’s Sickness, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” says Oric. “I’m not familiar with many of the sicknesses of this world.”

“Do you mind if I examine you?”

Hiccup laughs from his perch. “Hell no he doesn’t!”

“Um, sure.” Wolf looks up at Enway as she circles around the pile of dog food and over to his master. “Relax, boy,” the warrior says under his breath.

“Let me see your arm.”

Oric shows her his exposed arm. Healing magic sprinkles from her fingertips as she touches him, and as she predicted, her healing power has no effect on him.

“I’m sorry,” she finally says, her eyes filling with concern, “I don’t know how to cure this.”

“Look no further!” FeeTwix points a finger in the air. “First person to tell me a cure for Emil’s Sickness gets an exclusive selfie of me and a one hundred dollar gift certificate to McStarbucks!” His eyes flash as he begins reading messages. “I see! Interesting. Ooo, risqué – can’t do that one! Uh-huh … uh-huh … that’s not too hard! Boom, done! All right, everybody, it looks like the Mitherfickers are heading to Lake Klattenhoff!”

“Lake Klattenhoff?” Ryuk asks.

“It’s where we’ll find the cure to Emil’s Sickness, according to, oh, about two thousand of my fans.”

“What? Are you out of your mind, Twixy? We’re helping this fickin’ jabroni?”

“That’s just the kind of Mitherfickers we are!” FeeTwix offers Oric his biggest, most sincere, shit-eating grin. “Give me a moment as I consult with my colleagues.”

“By all means,” Oric says, still hunched over. Ryuk senses that he’s still ready to pounce if need be, but he also appears relatively happy that he won’t be forced to fight.

“Ryuk. Babe.” FeeTwix waves the two over to Hiccup.

Meanwhile, Enway stays near Oric, still examining his illness. Ryuk stops and admires her for a moment, appreciating that she’s trying even though she knows all hope is lost.

Tamana is like that.

‘Was’ like that, he reminds himself bitterly.

“What the fick, Twixy?” Hiccup asks as soon as the Swede nears him. “Back me up here, Marbles, the Mitherfickers got places to go and people to see. We’re not taking on charity cases. If we were, hell, there’s a lot of work we could do in Jatla.”

“My goblin friend,” FeeTwix says, taking a seat on the rock next to Hiccup. He places his arm around his shoulders.

“It’s Hiccup and, well actually, I don’t mind when you say it like that. All right, Twixy, you fickin’ charmed me over. I’ll give you my wallet and a handie if you’re nice. Joking, Liz, don’t get pouty. I’m not touching his chalupa. Give me the lowdown, Twixy.”

“So it’s like this,” FeeTwix explains. “That man’s wolf–”

“The wolf’s name is Wolf,” Ryuk reminds everyone.

“Wolf is going to keep attacking Katiyana if we don’t do something about his injured owner. So even if he won’t join us, and I have a sneaking suspicion that he will, we’ll still be handling the town’s affair and then we’ll be granted access to the catacombs, and then we’ll get to Porthos, get the Knight’s attention, and save this world and our world.”

“Just like that?” Hiccup asks.

“Just like that.”

“I like the plan.” Zaena uses a ghost limb to fondly lift FeeTwix’s face up. She smiles down at him for a moment, before they’re interrupted by Hiccup’s belch.

“Fick, sorry, guys. DD’s BBQ is burning a hole in my gut.”

With his eyes burning, Ryuk waves the rancid, peppery stench away. “FeeTwix is right,” he says, once it is safe to breathe again. “It seems like the only way forward. If we cure him, we’ll stop Wolf from raiding the town. Everyone wins.”

“Cool, cool, cool,” rattles off the goblin, “you three go, and Enway and I’ll stay back here. Someone has to watch Snowballs, that’ll be Enway. And there’s a little room above DD’s BBQ, a perfect place to take in the sights and smells, if you get my drift.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” says the Swede. “If you come with us, a fan of yours, one of the Fickers, is promising you a specially delivered box of Hopkins’.”

“What size box?”

“A big box.  How does that sound?”

Hiccup grabs FeeTwix by the cheeks with his grubby hands and stares into his jet black eyes. “Are you telling me that I can barter with these fickers?”

The Swede nods.

“In that case, fick yeah I’m going! Also, Marbles, I still want my eight percent cut of the final loot.”

“It’s one percent, just like we agreed.”

“No, that’s the people who benefit most from the Empress’ most recent tax cuts. Ha! See what I did there. Fick rich people, that is, until I become one. Then fick the poor.”

Ryuk sighs audibly. “Two percent.”

“Three.”

“Fine.”

“Then it’s a deal! Glad I put all this together.” There’s suddenly pep in the goblin’s walk as he struts his way back over to Oric and Enway. “Good news, kiddos, the Mitherfickers have reached a compromise! Gladiator, expect to have your ass healed by morning.”

Chapter 15: Doing Oric a Solid

Rather than take Marty’s crazy ride again, the Mitherfickers decide to brave the night and walk to Lake Klattenhoff, which is a couple of hours north. As they walk, Hiccup and Zaena get into a heated debate on what racism is and how, while he accuses everyone else of being a racist, Hiccup is the most racist of them all.

“What? Just because I don’t like elves? I mean, Enway is okay, but most are shady magic wielding poofty little kiddy fickers. They have dumb ears too.”

“See? Racist.”

“Don’t like Thuleans neither, although you’re not bad either, at least when you’re not messing with my hair. And seriously, Liz, there was a fickin’ hotbody back at DD’s BBQ who was all over me because of my good features, so don’t go saying I’m some sort of chubby little fickbag because I got the looks, the attitude, and the know-how to land a number of babes.” Hiccup grins at FeeTwix. “Boy fick, Twixy, you should have seen the mammaries on that one! Mamtacular!”

“A female liked you?” Zaena asks, skeptically.

“Why is that so hard to believe? Yeah, she was a bit of a porker, not my kind of halfling. I’ll be honest, for halflings, I like them thin. Orcs? Jelly rolls, at least six. Elves? Don’t like them, especially their ears, but I already said that. Humans? Depends on if they’re commoners or not. Also, I don’t like immiNPCs, but I do like Dirty Dave, because what the fick can I say? He’s a high-quality guy.”

The goblin stops, scratches his ass, and continues.

“Who else don’t I like? Beastkins? Fick no. I hate women with furry tails. Drows? Refer back to my opinion of elves. Dwarves? If they’re not too short. No one likes a shorty. Gnomes? If they don’t have hats. Thuleans, yeah, no. Sorry. Too hoity toity. Too tall. Too green. Kind of hot, actually,” he licks his lips, “but way too dangerous. Commies? Fick them. Ink shadows? Fickin’ ghost face killers if you ask me, fick them to hell.”

“And that, goblin, is why I believe you are the most racist of the Mitherfickers.”

“Whatever, Liz, there are people I like too. Like that halfling back at DD’s BBQ I was telling Twixy about. If this were any other night, I’d be knee deep in–”

Ryuk tunes Hiccup out at just the right time.

Instead, he focuses on the path that lies ahead, noticing little flickers of green magic lifting from the grass into the air. The entire place is magical, he thinks. With a deep breath in, he recalls Hajime’s oblique quote about forgetting his breath.

He turns to Hiccup and notices that the goblin is red in the face from so much talking. Talking, talking, talking – it seems that Hiccup speaks just so there’s someone speaking; that, or he’s uncomfortable with silence.

I wonder what would happen if I showed Hiccup what Hajime showed me? he thinks, remembering the way Hajime told him to visualize his breath. Breath in, bring in the color green. Breath out, exhale red.

Of course, Ryuk can hardly focus long enough to even visualize the color, but he did feel better after the breathing exercise, and he will definitely be doing a breathing exercise before he meets his brother and his mother tomorrow.

He shudders.

It’s going to be an awkward meeting that will likely revolve around what happened in the apartment. Their mother doesn’t normally put her fingers in their day-to-day affairs, but when she does, she has a habit of quickly taking over and crushing any opposition that stands in her way.

“So anyfick, like I said, Lizzy, I’m not a racist.”

“You just spent five minutes telling me all the types of people you hate for a variety of petty reasons such as the color of their skin or their general height, yet you say you aren’t racist.”

Ryuk fires off a private message to Zaena.

Ryuk: It is impossible to argue with a goblin. You’ve been warned.

Zaena: Let me try this then.

She snaps her fingers in the air. “You know what, Hiccup, you’re right. You aren’t racist. I was wrong. Everyone else is racist,” she says in a way that actually sounds sincere.

“Pfft!” Hiccup laughs long and hard. “You’re an idiot, Liz, everyone knows I’m racist. Did you hear all that shit I just said? ‘I don’t like giants because they are big and the color of their skin reminds me of the diarrhea that happens after a night of guzzling drorikh?’ I hate to break it to you, but that’s racist!”

FeeTwix turns to Hiccup and his eyes flash blue. “Enough, Hiccup. You’ve really set off a huge discussion about race on my feed and if you didn’t already know, when any online discussion of race comes out, there’s bound to be a troll lurking.”

“You guys have trolls too?” Hiccup’s eyes go wide. “Fick those guys. All of them are lazy, and most have poor personal hygiene.”

“Yes, we do have trolls, but not in the way that you think.”

The goblin continues. “Are your trolls greasy little-minded fickers that like to fick with people just to see their reactions and actually do this under the guise that they are being serious yet on some levels, they are being serious? Are they fat? Generally less educated? Of questionable hygiene?”

FeeTwix considers this. “Well, I don’t know if all of them are, but that’s definitely a subset.”

Hiccup pauses to consider this. “Damn, everything I learn about your world up there makes me hate it more. At least trolls here are pretty easy to kill.”

He goes from a conversation about trolls, killing trolls, best torture practices for trolls, to a conversation about the various ways he’d cook Oric’s big black wolf if he were allowed to kill it. By the time the goblin reaches this topic, Ryuk has long since tuned him out.

Breathe, he thinks.

It’s a nice night, cold and breezy, and after he’s lifted his brown hood over his head to block the wind, Ryuk slows his pace so the three can walk ahead a bit.

His Extreme Focus kicks in, and he keeps his eyes on their surroundings just in case.

(0)__(0)

The four Mitherfickers arrive at Lake Klattenhoff, which is smaller than the lakes Ryuk is used to seeing in the real world. Lake Okutama, Suwa Lake, Lake Kitaura – the lakes in Japan are large and plentiful, places to spend vacations or to take short weekend trips.

Ryuk has taken a few of those, mostly when he was younger, when his family actually traveled together. He recalls biking around Suwa Lake with his brother, tailed by two of his father’s hired muscle. Not until he was older did he realize how odd it was to have security everywhere he went.

But that’s a different life, a life far removed from where he currently stands, in front of quaint Lake Klattenhoff surrounded by sand dunes licked with frost.

It’s noticeably colder here, and Ryuk comes up with the clever idea of palming a pair of molten marbles to keep his hands warm. It works, and he keeps the marbles gripped tightly as he approaches the lake and looks to the northern shore.

A series of tents lit with lanterns are pressed up against the shoreline. A few herders sit around a campfire warming their hands. On the far side of their camp are several griffins, their feathers reflecting the light from the lanterns.

Griffin herders, he thinks.

In the spring, once the frost melts, griffin herders hold an epic race that spans from the top to the bottom of the floating continent. The winner gets an audience with Empress Thun and rare sponsored items. Last year, it was a Wendy’s Hut stuffed crust bacon burger helm that gave the wearer plus fifty defense and also allowed them access to exclusive eateries all across Tritania, famed for their food which permanently increases HP.

“So where are the herbs?” Hiccup yawns. “I’m ready to cure Conan’s ass so we can get this show on the road.” A devious grin spreads across his face. “Plus, there’s still the issue of that halfling back at DD’s BBQ.”

FeeTwix’s eyes flash as he scans messages from his followers. “Ah! Here it is. We’re not looking for herbs, we’re looking for lily pads. Apparently, these lily pads are baked and then beaten to a fine powder. Then we mix it with some food and BOOM! We have ourselves a cured warrior that can take care of his pooch. Strange guy, by the way. Something different about him.”

“That’s because he’s not from here,” Ryuk says as he takes a few steps closer to the water. His Extreme Focus kicks in and it takes all of three seconds for him to catch some of the lily pads in question.

“Not from here?” Hiccup asks. “Like one of you fickin’ commoners? I knew I smelt something funny about the guy!”

“From another world?” Zaena asks. The Thulean has moved to the edge of the water and in a swift gesture, plucks one of the lily pads from the surface. She flips it up and over, and it lands square on Hiccup’s head.

“Fick me, Liz, careful with the goods!” he growls, and the way he fixes his pink topknot tells Ryuk that the goblin is referring to his hair, not the plants to be collected.

“Oric is from Unigaea,” Ryuk explains. “It was a fantasy world popular in the 2060s, so he’s a Player Character and, in a way, an immiNPC.”

“That would explain the tattoo on his chest,” says the Swede.

“Unigaea was a special fantasy world because of its mechanics, which made it quite frustrating. If you died in Unigaea, you died. That was it. You had to start over with a different avatar.”

Zaena turns to Ryuk and eyes him curiously. “I’m guessing that doesn’t apply to my kind.”

He shrugs. “I don’t know how it applied to NPCs, but anyway, to finish the story. Something happened, a source code bomb, and some people from Unigaea came here. Remember those two gnomes back in Kayi?”

“No,” she says.

“That’s cause you and Twixy were too busy killing zombies while Tammy – fick her by the way – and Marbles and I were busy looting. That’s how you got your necklace. The gnomes gave it to us. I forgot their names. Anus and Chippie. That might have been it. You’re wearing your necklace, right?”

“Arun and Chantrea. They were married,” Ryuk interjects.

“Close enough, and that’s their damn fault.”

Zaena pulls it out from the front of her armor. “I’ve been wearing the necklace since it was given to me.”

“We should see what Oric says about it,” Ryuk suggests. “He may be able to read it or tell us if it has some type of power. There’s no telling.”

“Good idea.” Zaena lifts another lily pad from the water and flings it over her head. As she does so, a great beast, easily the size of a city bus, pulls out of the center of the lake, flapping its enormous wings.

“Holy fick!” Hiccup shrieks, and lets loose a squealer.

The great beast cries out, shakes more water from its gigantic wings, and lifts into the air.

“What the hell is that thing!?” FeeTwix shouts, his eyes black orbs. “A what?” he asks his fans.

“Charochakcha!”

“WE’RE FICKED!” Hiccup dives for cover just as the great bird-like creature swoops down and grabs the goblin with its talons.

It screeches and the crimson wattle beneath its neck expands in size as it lifts back into the air.

(0)__(x)

“It has Hiccup!” Ryuk charges after the giant bird and as he does so, its stats appear before him.

Charochakcha Level ??

HP: 2000/2000

ATK: 348

MATK: 0

DEF: 407

MDF: 386

LUCK: 25

Her ghost limbs propelling her forward, Zaena hurls herself into the air and latches on to the feathered creature.

She hits the dirt as she’s dragged forward, and she collides with a thick bramble that definitely gives her some nicks and scrapes. From there, she’s airborne, propelling herself closer to the flying monstrosity in her mad dash to save Hiccup.

Save Hiccup? Even Ryuk takes a split second to consider this and its implications. They may be a motley group, half NPC and half commoner, but the Mitherfickers are the best damn guild he’s ever been part of, well, sort of. Well, at least for entertainment value, Ryuk thinks, and while they bicker and disagree, everyone has each other’s back.

Case in point: FeeTwix, who has equipped the bazooka he forced Ryuk to use against the Cherry Blossom Ninjas. With a squeeze of the trigger, the rocket whips into the air and collides with the great flying beast’s tail.

-110 HP!

“Fiiiiiiiicccckkk yoooooouuuu, Twixxxxxxyyyyyyy!” Ryuk hears Hiccup shout, as the bird drops towards the ground. Soon, it’s trying to again pick up speed, forcing the goblin to run like a madman through a patch of prickly bushes. “Fick, fick, fick!” he cries, running and simultaneously trying to wiggle out of the bird’s grip.

Ryuk leaps over a bush, nearly trips, gets his footing, and keeps his marble gun trained on the bird’s ass. He’ll take any shot, but his Cherry Poppin’ Daddy Skill would definitely leave the bird begging for mercy.

He keeps his Marble Gun trained on the bird, and he’s just about to fire off a round of molten marbles when the creature turns, pulls back, and screeches, sending a tunnel of wind in Ryuk’s direction.

Whack!

-69 HP!

He hits the ground hard after colliding with a tree branch. Another rocket sails over his head. Ryuk looks up just in time to see it pass right next to the bird, who has veered off to the left, Hiccup in its grip and Zaena trying desperately to climb up to its neck.

“I’m going with a hack!” FeeTwix announces.

Ryuk stands, rubs his temples for a moment, and takes off the other way once the bird has swooped back around.

“Shit!” He pops his molten mag out and replaces it with sword marbles. He keeps running, aimed directly at the shore of the lake. He glances over his shoulder, back to his path, and over his shoulder again.

The bird is gaining on him.

If I can just …

Ryuk takes a deep breath and increases his speed. The bird chases and just as it is about to snap at him with its ginormous beak, Ryuk drops onto his back, slides forward, and with his marble gun aimed over his head, fires all eight sword marbles at the approaching bird.

-85 HP! -106 HP! -32 HP! -66 HP!

The bird lifts and drops Hiccup, who lands on Ryuk and for once doesn’t let loose a cloud of putrid fecal fumes.

“Get off me, Hiccup!”

“Shit, Marbles! Fick this! Fick this! I’m going back to Jatla!” The goblin pushes himself off Ryuk and accidently stumbles over him again as he tries to flee. This time he does remind Ryuk what DD’s BBQ must have tasted like, and it takes all of Ryuk’s willpower not to pistol-whip the living shit out of the gaseous goblin.

Zaena flips off the flailing bird and superhero lands next to Hiccup.

The charochakcha hits the ground, scrambles to its feet and …

Schoooom!

A bolt of green energy at least two meters tall rips through the soil. It connects with the large bird, rips its head and shoulders off in a spray of blood, and continues past the now dead creature, where it eventually takes out a large oak tree.

Instakill!

Level up! LUCK +1

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 16 Ballistics Mage

HP: 426/495

ATK: 103

MATK: 134

DEF: 81

MDF: 56

LUCK: 14

Ryuk feels a pouch form on his belt and a prompt appears.

New marble acquired! Gravity marbles change the gravitational pull of the object it connects with. It will pull a flying object to the ground, and move a semi-stationary object to the nearest surface. It can also be used to hurl an enemy into an object.

A new marble?

“Hey, I got a new marble,” Ryuk informs his guildmates.

“What kind?” Zaena stands near him now, brushing off her armor. There are a few scrapes and nicks on her, but the huge smile on her face tells Ryuk that she lives for this kind of action.

“A gravity marble.”

“We’ll have to test that out.”

“Fick!” Hiccup says as he watches the bird’s body continue to burn with a green fire. The goblin looks down the line at FeeTwix, whose mutant hack crossbow has already returned to its original shape. From there, he looks back at the bird, nodding as he takes in the Swede’s handiwork.

“Not fickin’ bad, Twixy,” he says as a large knife appears in his hand. “Liz, set up camp by the water. Marbles, get out my sleeping bag. We can fick with your new marble later. Let’s carve this bitch up while the meat is still smoking.”

“I don’t have your sleeping bag,” Ryuk says, still unsure if it is a good idea to breathe after the foul stench that the goblin just bequeathed onto the digital world.

“FeeTwix does. That reminds me.” Hiccup takes a cherry-flavored, generic healing potion out of thin air and downs it. “Fick me, that’s the good stuff.” He reviews the label. “Cherry Apollos, huh? Fick, this is a good potion. I’ll have to write this one down.”

He burps, and tosses the bottle over his shoulder. Another potion appears and he savors this one, doing his best to clean inside the bottle with his boily tongue. “Yeah, it’ll give me heartburn later, and if this doesn’t, this oversized pigeon over here definitely will. But them’s the ropes. Come on, Mitherfickers, let’s camp.”

“I’m not eating that.”

“You know what, Liz? Normally, I’d argue with you, but Uncle Goblin is tired right now and all I really want to do is eat something, drink something, relax under the stars, think about some of my past loves and see what arises if you get my hint, and sleep in tomorrow. So, just to show you how big of a gentleman I am, I won’t respond to your clear and bigoted hatred towards good eating.”

The two lock eyes.

“And one other thing,” says the goblin, “um, thanks for saving me back there.”

“It was my pleasure, Hiccup.”

“Although it was actually Marbles and Twixy who saved me, but you were the first to go for it.”

“You’re pushing your luck. And seriously, I’m not eating charochakcha.”

Hiccup snorts, “Fine, fine, Your Highness, the kid and I will catch some fickin’ fish for you. Ain’t that right, Marbles?”

“Um … sure.”

“Fickin’ fish – that has a ring to it!”

Chapter 16: Poisoned by a Seagull

After waking at the crack of dawn, Ryuk looks up at the ceiling of their yurt, something FeeTwix apparently had stuffed in his inventory list, and from there, he glances around the circular tent to find the Swede and Zaena cuddled up under a blanket. A glance to the door and he sees the goblin with his back pressed against the wall, snoring loudly.

Hiccup wears a soiled bathrobe and a pair of, oddly enough, Japanese clogs, called geta. Where the goblin gets his odd clothing is beyond Ryuk. Further adding to Hiccup’s general air of bodily excretions is an actual snot bubble expanding and contracting as he snores.

Ryuk chuckles. He’s only seen that before in manga and anime, never in real life.

Real life? Ha!

He gets out of the small bed and makes his way to the front door of FeeTwix’s yurt. The cool morning air greets his face as he steps past a pile of discarded fish bones. He remembers catching the “fickin’ fish” by firing an explosive marble into the water. It was, of course, Hiccup’s idea, and it worked brilliantly.

After stretching his arms overhead, Ryuk walks down to the water and sits on a flat rock with some Thulean writing etched into it. There’s a sweet scent to the air, and while the chill is there, it shows clear signs of disappearing in the next hour or so.

As he stares out over the misty water at the herders on the other side of the lake, he runs his finger along the etching. A deep breath in and he notices the smell of the lake, and with it, a sweet smell that reminds him of watermelons.

Ryuk takes his slingshot off his belt and pouches one of his new gravity marbles. He was so distracted last night that he forgot to give the marble a test. With everyone sleeping, he now has the time and quiet to see what it is the marble actually does.

The gravity marble is clear with a cream swirl running through it. It is slightly warm to the touch, and even as he holds it in the pouch of his Magic Slingshot, he notices that it adds an odd weight to his wrist. He aims at the water, pulls back and …

“Hi.”

He hops off his rock at Zaena’s voice and nearly lets the marble fly. The Thulean takes a few steps in front of him, her orange hair disheveled.

“You scared me,” he says, a bit too late.

She shrugs. “I figured squeezing your shoulder with my konoshlo would have scared you even more. Let’s see it.”

“My new marble?”

“Please, you said it was a gravity marble, did you not?”

“Yep.”

“Fire it.”

Ryuk aims at the water and zings the marble away. As soon as it touches the surface, a large scoop of water lifts several feet into the air and hovers there.

“Whoa,” Zaena says. “How long will it last?”

Ryuk palms another marble. “No idea; that’s the first one I’ve shot.” He glances around for a moving object. “I need to test something in motion.”

“Test me,” Zaena volunteers.

He hesitates. “You sure?”

“I’m sure. Let’s see what it does.”

They both watch as the floating scoop of water loses its shape. Droplets form on its underbelly and plink onto the surface of Lake Klattenhoff.

“I don’t want it to hurt you.”

“Come on.” Zaena leads Ryuk to a clearing. The Thulean runs a few paces away from him and drops to a battle stance. “Do it.”

“Um … ” Ryuk aims his magic slingshot at her. He doesn’t like the idea of firing on Zaena and is in the process of lowering his weapon when she shouts out to him.

“Do it, Ryuk! Don’t be a little bitch!”

Fwwhip!

The gravity marble strikes her in the sternum and sends her flying backwards, not by explosion, but by something that reminds Ryuk of a clear bubble.

“Shit, Zaena!”

The Thulean zips backwards until she smacks into a tree.

“Damn!” she shouts out, baring her teeth as she laughs. “That was crazy!” Zaena tries to squirm out of her pinned position. The tree branches above shake as she attempts to use her ghost limbs to pull herself up. “It’s like glue!” she says, once she realizes she’s unable to move.

Ryuk looks down at the gravity marble in his hand. He turns to see that the scoop of water hovering over the lake has dissipated.

It doesn’t last very long …

He approaches Zaena, and as he does, she starts to shake her shoulders loose. “It’s freeing up!”

So like thirty seconds?

She drops and quickly moves over to him. “Wow! Your new marble is very, very interesting. Just think of what you will be able to do!”

“Do you think … ?” Ryuk places the marble in his mouth and feels gravity tug at his stomach.

“Amazing!”

New skill learned!

Skill: Levitate

Level One: By placing a marble in your mouth, you can levitate for thirty seconds. Higher levels allow for longer levitation.

Requirements: Level 15 Mage, LUCK > 12.

Ryuk now floats about a meter off the ground. He looks down at Zaena with a huge grin on his face.

“Do something!” she calls up to him.

“What do you mean?” he asks, the marble still in his mouth. He notices that it has started to dissolve. It fizzles on the back of his tongue and is completely flavorless.

“Um, fly or something!”

“I’m not flying, I’m floating!”

“Then float.” She moves her hand in a swimming gesture. “Like this.”

“It’s not like that, it’s like … ” He thinks of the best way to describe it. “It’s like I’m on solid ground.” He takes a step forward to demonstrate. “An invisible plane.”

“Can you go higher?”

Ryuk falls back to the ground. “No idea,” he says as he pops another marble in his mouth. He resumes his floating position and places his hands before him. As he does, he feels what seems to be an invisible ledge. He scrambles up onto it, and now he’s about two meters up. “Apparently, I can!”

“Let me try!”

Once he’s back on the ground, he hands Zaena a gravity marble. She places it in her mouth, holds it there and ... nothing happens.

“Well, it was worth a try.” She spits the marble into her hand, and rather than give it back to Ryuk, she uses her ghost limb to pop open the pouch on his belt.

“That’s the wrong one.” He says as a tingling sensation comes over him.

“Well, which is the right one?”

“This one,” he says, pointing at the new pouch on the left. He awkwardly waits for Zaena to finish putting the marble in. Once she’s done, they turn back to the water.

“It really is a pretty lake,” he says. Secretly, he’d like to test out a few more gravity marbles, but now that Zaena’s around, he feels a bit self-conscious about it.

Why? he asks himself in his head. Humans have the weirdest emotions. He’s pretty sure she wouldn’t mind watching him lift things into the air and play with gravity for the next hour, but to be polite, he lets her take control of the conversation.

As if on cue, Zaena sighs, her eyes transfixed by the water. “This reminds me of a small pond near my home in Athos, back in Ultima Thule,” she finally says, her mood suddenly the polar opposite of what it was just moments ago.

“Oh?”

“My tutor, Clemon, would instruct me along the shoreline during the warm months. We’d start with Thulean texts, then mathematics, then combat, then lunch, and we’d usually dedicate the afternoons to studying your world.”

“He taught you all that?” Ryuk tries to remember if he’s ever had a professor who taught such a wide variety of subjects. He comes up flat.

“He was an RPC who held several doctorate degrees and studied at all the great universities across the three floating continents. He’d won awards, given lectures, had been asked to run for various offices but always declined, and in retirement, he taught me. My siblings too.”

“In combat?” Ryuk imagines an old man teaching Zaena how to swing her blades.

“Can the elderly kill just as easily as the young?” she asks.

“It sounds like it.”

Zaena’s face hardens. “But that was then, and this is now.”

“Okay?” Ryuk looks up at her, not sure of what she means by her statement.

“But he did teach me a lot about your world. Still, there are many things I don’t understand. It is odd to think we were created by your kind, yet your kind comes here to escape there. I’d love to see it, though, your world.” The smile returns to her face. “I can only imagine what it’d be like driving in an aeros, shopping, visiting other countries, using crazy technology that most of you seem to barely understand … ”

“It is definitely something else.”

Silence grows between them for the next few minutes, and Ryuk, rather than try to awkwardly force a conversation, allows the moment to happen.

“Shall we wake the others? I would keep your levitation act from the goblin for the time being. It may be useful in scaring him later on.” She grins wickedly. “I can think of a pretty funny prank we could play with a white bed sheet.”

“Yeah, that’d be good.” Ryuk laughs as one of the herders across the way mounts his griffin. The griffin flaps its wings and soon the herder is airborne.

“Let’s wake them; I’d like to be in Porthos by this afternoon if we can manage it.”

As they approach the yurt, the strong smell of coffee meets their noses. They enter to find FeeTwix in an apron with a box of cereal across the front that reads, ‘Cereal Killer.’ He points to a tray of pastries now sitting on a foldable table and a French Press filled with boiling hot coffee.

“Breakfast is served!”

“Where did you get the pastries?” Zaena asks as a small croissant floats into the air.

“Just something I keep in my list,” he says.

“And they stay fresh?” asks Ryuk.

“You tell me.”

Zaena takes a bite and nods. “This is so good!” she says with her mouth full.

“For fick’s sake, people, it’s not even the Hour of the fickin’ Faun.” The goblin stirs and once he’s able, he slips into his Japanese clogs.

“Wow, Hiccup!” FeeTwix moves over to him. “I didn’t even see those sweet shoes, buddy! Why in the hell are you wearing those?”

“They help with my posture, Twixy!” Hiccup turns and gives the Swede a side view. “They’re supposed to help me get taller too. Anyfick, gotta take a piss and we’ll see what else comes up. Ha! Back in a jiffy, fickers. One more thing, if you’re making breakfast, Twixy, try to boil me up any of the parts you can find from the big ass bird we killed last night. There’s got to be some organ meat left over. That’s good eating!”

With that, the goblin clomps out of the yurt, and for once, doesn’t do so with a parting poot.

(0)__(0)

It takes a little over two hours for the four Mitherfickers to reach the place they left Oric, Enway, and Wolf. The walk over is nice, even with Hiccup and Liz arguing this time about Dirty Dave’s innocence, the best way to skin a cat, discrimination in the goblin community, the uppityness of Thuleans, and a bunch of other topics that Ryuk tunes out.

“Finally,” Hiccup says as they see Wolf in the distance.

“He’s actually waving his tail this time,” FeeTwix comments as the big black canine comes towards them. “I don’t know what has come over him, but somehow, I think it has to do with food.”

Wolf merrily leads them along the path and Ryuk quickly sees why. Up ahead, Enway stands before a fire, grilling a Chiup hog on a rotisserie.

“Get in my belly!” Hiccup licks his lips and practically joins Wolf in the mad dash back to the side of the grill. “Gimme, gimme, gimme,” he says to Enway.

The elf laughs and pats him on his head. “Soon, Hiccup, and you can thank DD’s BBQ for setting this up. Funniest thing happened,” she says as she tilts her head to the right. “I was sitting in my living room minding Yangu ... ”

“Snowballs,” Hiccup corrects her. “The name ‘Yangu’ means nothing to me.”

“... And I heard a knock at the door. The manager from DD’s BBQ was there with a whole crew, telling me that someone had booked the rotisserie and a hog for our breakfast meeting. They even carried it up here! Talk about getting hooked up!”

Enway turns and Ryuk spots Yangu in her backpack. The baby dragon locks eyes with him and yawns.

The goblin pumps his mechanical arm in the air. “Shit, fickers, we got a mysterious sponsor!”

“It may have been one of my fans,” FeeTwix says as a mirror takes shape in his hand. “If you’re the person who oh-so-generously hooked us up, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” He bows at the mirror.

“Fick them,” Hiccup says, inching closer to the spinning hunk of pork, “it was probably Dirty Dave. I had a feeling he’s a fan. See, Lizzy, I keep telling you he’s a high-quality guy.”

“It’s not ready yet,” Enway tells him.

“I like my pork rare!”

Oric Rune leans against the rockface, his long brown hair covering the side of his face. He smiles at the bunch and takes a few hobbling steps towards them. “Were you able to get it?” he coughs.

“We certainly were,” Zaena says. Once she’s pulled it out of her list, she places the lily pads on a flat rock.

“Keep an eye on the pig,” Enway tells FeeTwix, who immediately gets the double-meaning of her statement. The Swede looks from Wolf to the goblin as a flyswatter materializes in his hand.

“Hands off, Hiccup!” He swats away Hiccup’s mechanical fingers, allowing Enway to move over to the lily pads.

Enway takes off her bag and hands it to Ryuk. Yangu coos as his red eyes spot his master. “Do you mind holding him for a moment?”

“Sure.” Ryuk steps away from the group, not sure of how he should be interacting with the baby ice dragon. He’s never been around babies, human or animal, and he’s anxious for the dragon to grow larger and start to communicate with him.

But just staring into the dragon’s deep red eyes softens his heart. The creature makes a soft sound with its throat, parts its lips, and blows a curl of icy cold air at Ryuk.

“You’re not too bad, you know that?” He pats the dragon on the head and smiles. “I have a feeling you aren’t going to be so cute when you get older, though.”

Zaena joins him. “He won’t be cuter, but he will be fiercer,” she says. “He will also be large enough for us to ride, which will give us great mobility. And he can aid us in battle, if it ever comes to that.”

“That reminds me …” Ryuk puts the backpack on, signals for Zaena to follow him, and moves back over to Oric. “Since you are from Unigaea,” he tells the muscular warrior, “I was wondering if you could look at her necklace and possibly tell us what it means.”

Oric’s eyes go wide as soon as he sees Zaena pull the necklace out from her armor. “I’ll help you in any way I can,” he says suddenly, his face white.

“You recognize it?” She removes the necklace with her ghost limbs and lifts it up into the air and over to Oric.

He holds it in his palm for a moment, closes his eyes and sighs deeply. “Another time,” he mumbles, “another place.” He dangles it in the air and she takes it back. “I have one just like it, but its powers don’t work here in Tritania. It used to modify speed, now it just looks pretty.”

A matching necklace appears in his trembling hand.

“It looks almost the exact same,” Ryuk says as he comes forward to examine it.

“Both were made by Olivas, a famous poet and jewelry smith from Unigaea, my world.” Sadness paints across his face. “Ah, but that was then, and Tritania is a great world too, if one isn’t sick.” He hands Zaena’s necklace back to her. “My offer still stands – I’ll help you in any way I can.”

“Not anytime soon you won’t.” Enway has begun laying out the lily pads to dry them. “Emil’s Sickness will take at least a day, if not more, to go away.”

“I can make the medicine myself,” he tells her. “I used to be an herbalist.”

“I used to be a fickin’ male model,” Hiccup calls over, “but you don’t hear me rattling off about my glory days.”

“Ignore him,” Zaena says, her eyes suddenly orange slits.

“You can hardly stand,” Enway tells Oric as she flattens out another lily pad. “Like I said, it’ll take up to two days for the medicine to completely heal you. Until that time, you should rest. Emil’s Sickness poisons the blood, which in your case directly affects your D-NAS. It prevents a player from ever regaining their stamina.”

“So he has an STD.” Hiccup laughs and gives FeeTwix a conspiratorial look. “Big fickin’ whoop. Shit, if we goblins gave up after getting an STD, we’d never get anything done!”

Oric glances from Ryuk to the goblin. Ryuk gives him the face the whole family makes when grandpa is drunk again.

“It’s not an STD,” Enway says, “but he did come into contact with something, likely in these mountains. It could have been something he ate. Did you eat anything odd?”

Oric glances over to his big wolf. “We eat whatever we can find.”

“I realize that, but anything out of the ordinary?”

He thinks for a moment. “We recently ate seagull.”

Hiccup snorts. “Macho Man over here can’t even afford to go down to DD’s BBQ and get himself some choice bits!” He looks to FeeTwix for support. “Can you believe this ficker?”

Wolf approaches Hiccup and the goblin suddenly shuts up. The towering canine paces around to the other side of the hog and licks his lips, in an action that could be interpreted as being either directed at Hiccup or meant for the pig.

“A seagull up here?” Enway asks.

“We thought it was odd, too,” says Oric, “but it was a fat seagull and we were hungry. So, two days, right? And you’re certain it can’t be any sooner?”

“I wouldn’t go anywhere if I were you. You need rest, Oric.”

He presses his back to the rock wall and slides down to the ground. “Then Wolf can go with you.”

“Your wolf?” Ryuk asks.

“His full name is Wolf Ruffian. He can be helpful, and I’m sure he’ll help you in the catacombs. Enway here told me about your trip to Porthos, and I don’t know exactly what you are up to, but I would at least like to offer you something. And as I stated earlier, I would like to join you when I am well.”

“Sounds good,” says Ryuk. FeeTwix and Zaena nod in agreement.

Hiccup glances from the rotating hog, to Oric, to Ryuk, to FeeTwix, and back to Ryuk. “Nope. No way I’m adding dog-sitting to my resume. And besides that, this fickin’ mutt won’t be let into the city limits of Porthos. Hell, we’re stretching it just by bringing Liz in.” He points his brass finger at Ryuk. “Marbles, you and I, we go way back, but trust me on this one, the pup stays.”

“He wouldn’t be going with you all the way to Porthos, just escorting you through the catacombs,” Oric says firmly.

“He’d be more helpful than you, goblin.”

“Fick me to the moon and back, Liz, how many times do I have to tell you … ” Hiccup takes a deep breath, turns away from the Thulean, and scratches the back of his head with his middle finger.

“Of course we’ll let Wolf come with us!” FeeTwix announces as his eyes flash blue. “I only have a few seconds here so I’ll make this quick: views are surging at the moment, and adding a wolf and an elf to our group will surely, surely give my viewers something they’ve never seen before! I swear we’ll end up on an episode of Flight Feet if we keep this up!”

His eyes flash black again.

“Hello, everybody! I talked to the gang – by the way, Hiccup says ‘hi’ to all you Fickers – and we’ve all agreed to allow the big bad wolf from Unigaea to accompany us! Now that I have your attention, have you ever found yourself in need of some epically good choons? Well, look no further!”

Oric raises an eyebrow as FeeTwix launches into his spiel.

“DJ Ride the Lightning is teaming up with the holo-Beatles to bring you a Proxima concert the likes of which you have never experienced before! The Proxima Company has actually built a custom world with a concert venue that can hold up to thirty million avatars. Tickets are on two-fer if you mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout or purchase redemption codes at any 7-11 or McStarbucks in the world. They’ll take any currency, in-game, crypto, or actual money, and the only stipulation is you won’t be able to bring or equip weapons. I’ll be there, the rest of the Mitherfickers too!”

“What the fick did he just say?” Hiccup asks.

“That’s right! The Mitherfickers will be there on the Tritania platform!” FeeTwix brings his mirror back and forth from his face. “Hopefully I’ll see you guys tonight!”

His eyes flash blue and he speaks twice as fast as he normally does.

“Sorry, guys, there’s a concert we kind of have to go to tonight. I knew I was forgetting to tell you something! It’ll be a quick appearance, don’t worry. We can head through the catacombs, and once we reach the exit point, we can head to the concert. It’ll only take thirty minutes to an hour, then it’s back to the quest!”

“A concert on another world?” Zaena asks. “Is it possible?”

FeeTwix laughs. “Of course it’s possible, babe, the Proxima Company has already provided me with a port. It’s kind of like your Sotlian Spa Ring – we’ll go there, and come immediately back.”

“Will there be girls?” Hiccup asks.

Wolf barks and wags his tail at Hiccup.

“We’re not bringing you, pooch, but I like your thinking. If there are girls, there’s room for a goblin!”

“So many ladies, Hiccup,” FeeTwix says, “and I’m sure the Fickers will be there as well! What do you think, Ryuk? Can we carve out a little time tonight for a quick gala?”

Ryuk glances at Oric, who has a look on his chiseled face that screams ‘I don’t do galas,’ to Zaena, who is nodding in excitement. “Sure, let’s do it, after we get through the catacombs. And Wolf is welcome to join us in the catacombs. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

Skill level up!

Skill: Inspire Others

Level Three: By inspiring others, you induce them to follow your orders. Higher levels allow for manipulation of enemies and random strangers.

Requirements: LUCK > 10

Ryuk ignores the prompt for a moment as Oric says, “Good, I’ll be better in two days. I expect you four to come back here.”

“We will,” Ryuk assures him, “I have to get Yangu.”

“And me,” Enway says proudly. “I want to join the Mitherfickers.”

“Bandwagon fickgirl!” Hiccup coughs into his hand.

“Two days should be plenty of time for you to perform your extreme vetting,” she teases Hiccup. “I have nothing to hide.”

“You just want to join us so you can come to the concert tonight, admit it, Elfy!”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m already going to the concert tonight.” She produces a single ticket. “Need any more proof?”

“Then you just want to come to the fickin’ VIP section. I know your type.”

“Enough,” Ryuk cuts the goblin off. “Please eat for the second time this morning and then get to the entrance of the catacombs. I’ll need to log out for a bit, maybe an hour and a half. We can hit the catacombs after that.”

“Why’s that?” FeeTwix asks.

“I have to meet my mother.”

Chapter 17: The Empress Speaks

Kodai stands in the shadows of a monument to the Sage of Gotha. Jutting off from one of the branches of the tree monument is a cherub holding a book with Cyrillic scrawled across it. Kodai has no idea what it means, or who the figure is, and he really doesn’t give a shit.

His eyes are trained on the procession about to take place.

Hundreds of people have gathered in a small square on the side of Valhalla closer to downtown Porthos. Security is tight, and the Empress’ guards, known as the Knights in White Satin because of their white capes, stand at every corner with broadswords and stern looks on their faces.

Those gathered range from big half-orcs with pig faces to well-dressed maidens with golden locks. There are elves, dwarves, elven dwarves, commoners, NPCs, RPCs, goblins, and even a few Thuleans who occupy the upper right quadrant of the crowd and sit in nicely carved chairs on a raised platform.

The doors of an expansive balcony open up and the crowd grows quiet.

Two attendants come out with two baby griffins perched on white pillows. The attendants wear white robes with a thick black line down the middle. This black line extends onto their faces via a four-inch-wide strip of black paint. The sides of their heads have been shaved, and they wear dangly earrings shaped like crescent moons.

The attendants place the pillows on raised columns and the griffins stay put, oblivious to the crowd below. Next out of the doors are two male Thuleans in equally impressive white robes. They don’t have the black stripe painted on their faces, but they do have purple ponytails and sharp widow’s peaks.

Kodai smirks at the symmetry of it all. He does appreciate things like that, and order and balance is important, but all of the pageantry is utter bullshit.

His hood over his head, he steps out of the shadow of the tree statue and makes his way to the back of the crowd. He sees Tamana and Tomas on his left, the two mages on his right. Each has fanned out and blended in to the crowd.

A flash catches his eyes and he looks to the balcony to see four attendants completely in head-to-toe gold. The only part of their bodies not covered in gold are the two circles around their eyes, which are white.

The four step up to the balcony, open their mouths, and their tongues spill out.

People in the crowd gasp and murmur as their four tongues elongate. The attendants’ tongues start to expand in size, keeping their thinness. It doesn’t take them long to form a large, golden curtain descending from the balcony all the way down. The four get on their knees and bend forward to rest their chins on the balcony.

Kodai pushes further into the crowd.

He takes a place directly in front of where he assumes the Empress will emerge. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the Shinigami get into place, their handles flashing over their heads.

Now, we wait, he thinks as a grin spreads across his face.

Trumpets sound as six men exit the balcony’s double doors.

They carry a vantablack palanquin with beaded tassels hanging from its bottom, and each bearer wears a sleek set of charcoal robes that match their black face paint. A four-inch strip of white down the middle of their faces is the only contrast with the black.

They turn, lower the palanquin, and after a moment of abject silence from all in attendance, Empress Thun steps out.

Interesting, Kodai thinks, watching the woman walk up to a crystal dais that wasn’t there just moments ago.

In contrast with her dark skin, white dots are painted above her eyebrows. Her eyelashes are long and white, and her lipstick is a soft shade of gray. The Empress wears an open-fronted gray robe with a V that dips all the way down to her waist and is tied off with a long, gray sash.

She raises her hand, and all in attendance bow their heads. Once they’ve done so, she begins speaking. “As many of you witnessed,” she says, her voice amplified by magic, “there was an attack yesterday in Porthos.”

She glares at the crowd.

“Let it be known, by the power invested in me by the Sage of Gotha, I will protect the three floating continents of Tritania. Working in conjunction with the Thulean Elders, and the government of Aramis, we will see to it that these types of attacks, against the very freedom granted to us by the Sage, will be crushed. All opposition will be crushed, and those that have any ties to these attacks will learn very quickly the extent of my power.”

Empress Thun scans the crowd, and for a moment, Kodai gets the sense that she’s looking right at him. His nerve is suddenly shattered; the Empress locks eyes with him and he swears, for that single moment, they are alone, just the Empress standing at the top of the balcony and Kodai below her.

His breath cut short, he exhales audibly when she turns to another quadrant of the crowd. After she’s finished acknowledging all in attendance, Empress Thun parts her lips into a half smile.

“Nearly two decades ago commoner time, we came together to stave off a terrible infection that would have taken all Proxima worlds had it not been dealt with. There were many a guild involved, and as all of you know, the Knights of Non Compos Mentis led the attack. I’m afraid to say that this force is back. It isn’t the same force as before; no, the Reapers of old have long been vanquished. This is something entirely new, but its ties to the past threaten Tritania, other Proxima Worlds, and the world of the commoners.”

Kodai slowly places his hand on the pouches attached to his belt. He palms two knife marbles, and an explosive marble.

Only one chance, he reminds himself, and as he does, he feels a force come into his body.

I’m here, the serpent woman whispers in his ear. I will guide you.

Good, he thinks. Thank you.

Empress Thun raises her finger and begins to make her final point, and as she does, Kodai fires off all three marbles at her.

His explosive blades tear into the front of Empress Thun’s chest, her body disintegrates, and her robes drop.

Run! the serpent woman shouts in his head.

His four henchmen kick it into high gear as Kodai races through the crowd, the masses swelling around him, shouting, terror-stricken.

One of the Empress’ knights appears in front of him with a lance and goes to peg him. He stays just long enough for the knight to get a glance at him.

A sudden flash and Kodai is in a darkened galaxy, the place behind the golden door.

He takes a few slow-motion steps, control of his feet no longer his own, and as he does he steps back into the guild quarters they are secretly staying in near the Port of Porthos.

That fast, he thinks, marveling at the serpent woman’s teleportation powers.

He hears the cries in the distance, senses the chaos, and knows without a shadow of a doubt that when Ryuk does get to Porthos, he’ll be hunted down.

Tamana spawns first, badly bruised, but still at decent enough health. The two mages come second and third is Tomas, who has an utterly wicked grin on his face.

“Good,” Kodai tells the group. He takes a deep, satisfying breath, already regretting the fact that he’ll miss most of the chaos. “Now I have some things to attend to in the world up there.” His finger comes up and the logout button appears.

(0)__(x)

Kodai waits for the sine waves to settle on his NV Visor. It’s morning and he can hear Sarah rummaging about in the kitchen. A beeping sound tells him she’s made herself an espresso; the trickle that follows from the machine soothes him in some way.

He smiles, his visor still over his head.

He’s sure the Empress will recover but the shock of what he’s done, and the fact that so many people saw him do it, will be something the holy bitch will have to deal with for quite some time.

So much pageantry, he thinks, and for what? To celebrate that you’re a fucking NPC?

Kodai shakes his head bitterly. The autonomy of NPCs is something he’ll always find idiotic. They are created for our enjoyment and our usage, he thinks as he removes his visor, nothing else.

“You finished yet?” Sarah asks from the kitchen. He waves his hand over his shoulder to silence her. She laughs, and he hears her footsteps as she comes closer to him.

Tokyo, when viewed from his penthouse, is a city of towering scale and grandiosity that continues to capture the imagination, no matter what he sees in digital worlds. He doesn’t take his eyes off the rising sun over the massive city until Sarah steps in front of him.

“You’re blocking my view,” he tells the lingerie-clad Australian.

“I’m sorry.” Sarah glances across the room at Tesla, who stands near the door with her arms crossed over her chest.

That’s right, Kodai thinks, seeing the sudden flash of fear in Sarah’s eyes.

There’s something completely intoxicating about fear when viewed in others. It has become one of Kodai’s favorite fetishes, something he looks forward to every time he has to exercise his force.

Sarah gulps and steps aside.

“Go get ready for work,” he tells her. “I need to speak to Tesla alone.”

“Um.” Sarah clears her throat, and opens her mouth to say something but stops herself.

“Anything else?” Kodai asks.

She bows her head and returns to the room he’s assigned to her. Tesla approaches him once Sarah has gone. He admires her for a moment, and suddenly finds himself curious about what is under her blue MercSecure field outfit.

I wonder if …

Just the thought sends a bolt of electricity to his lower half. He pushes it down, tells himself he can explore it later, and smiles up at Tesla.

“How are you?” he asks, standing. “Did you rest well?”

She smirks. “As well as an artificial being can. I spent most of the time reviewing some of my training videos.”

“Exciting,” Kodai says as he steps towards the kitchen. “I’d offer you an espresso, but, well, you know.”

“You should drink two then, one for me.”

“I’ll be sure to. About today … ” His eyes narrow on the humandroid. “I want you to size up my brother’s humandroid, Hajime. I want you to really watch, to find out the best way.”

“The best way to what?”

Kodai locks eyes with her. “To end his existence.”

Chapter 18: Cave --> in

As soon as Ryuk logs out, he gets a prompt from Hajime asking what he’d like for a late breakfast.

Eggs or a smoothie?

He chooses the smoothie, mostly because it looks like it’ll be sweet and after being logged in for so long, he’s craving something sugary. Plus it’s the color of a Chocobo, which seems fun.

He yawns, and an icon appears on his iNet screen updating him on a few Googleface messages he still has yet to respond to. One is from an acquaintance at Waseda University, asking him if he’s planning to enroll for the summer. Another is from the Proxima Company telling him that he’s been given an exclusive ticket to tonight’s collaborative performance between DJ Ride the Lightning and the holo-Beatles.

FeeTwix is well connected, he thinks as he slowly gets out of bed.

After grabbing his towel, which is folded and placed on his desk thanks to Hajime, Ryuk heads to the bathroom. He barely pays attention to taking a shower, so busy is he playing a game of pong with someone else in the building.

Part of him wants to know who he always plays against; the other part of him is perfectly happy remaining anonymous. It could be anyone, really. Well, not anyone, it definitely isn’t a salaryman – he’d already be on his way to work.

Maybe it’s a housewife, he thinks as the player yet again hands him his ass.

Once he’s toweled off, Ryuk heads to the kitchen just in time to hear the blender roar to life. He can smell a bit of pineapple in the air as soon as he enters the space. Hajime stands before it, his hand on top of the blender as it pulverizes fruits and vegetables. In front of him is a cutting board with gooey residue on it.

Ryuk’s eyes jump from Hajime to the drawer that he stored the weapons in – a humstunner and a gun, taken off his brother and his thug. Curiosity tells him to check the stuff out, but he’s also afraid of the weapons.

“Sleep well?” Hajime asks after he’s finished blending the concoction.

“Is that a joke?” Ryuk sits at the table, well aware that there is likely an oblique quote beneath his placemat.

“Using your Skip Box is a form of sleep, so no, it’s not a joke. How’d it go?”

“We’ll get to Porthos later today, and from there, we’ll try to get in touch with the Knights, my old guild. We also have a concert to go to.”

“Sounds like you have a fun day ahead. How did you kill the wolf?”

“We didn’t. Instead, we cured its owner. The wolf’s our friend now, sort of.”

“So the ultimate quest has become canine friendly?”

“Um … ” Ryuk considers this. “Something like that. Sure.”

“And what’s up next?”

“We have to make our way through the catacombs to Porthos.” Ryuk yawns as Hajime sets the smoothie in front of him. “It should be fun and we’ll definitely be leveling along the way.” He takes a big sip from the shake. “Wow! What flavor is this? I thought it was pineapple.”

“Passion fruit, pineapple, half a banana, an apple, strawberries, a little spinach, yogurt and three peaches.”

Ryuk nods, impressed. He takes another sip from the smoothie, feeling good as it slides down his throat.

“So before we get ready to meet your mother, I think it’d be best for you to read your oblique quote for the day.”

Ryuk takes another slurp. “At least let me finish my smoothie first.”

“By all means, finish.”

Ryuk takes his sweet time finishing the smoothie, and once he’s done, he sets the beverage aside and lifts his placemat to find the new message: Repetition is a form of change.

“Repetition is a form of change … ”

“I want you to stare deeply at me for a moment,” Hajime says.

“Stare at you?”

“Yes.”

“Um, okay.” Ryuk settles his gaze on Hajime, taking in his perfectly formed features, from his sharp nose to his dark eyes to the single strand of hair that isn’t tied back into his manbun. Hajime’s eyes dilate, akin to the way FeeTwix looks when he goes live.

“Now center yourself, focus on your breathing. Really focus on it. Don’t take the shallow breaths you normally take, the breaths that most humans live on. Take a deep breath, a breath that moves past your lungs, see that breath move all the way down to your stomach. Now hold it.”

Ryuk stops the air from going out.

“Hold the breath in. Longer … longer … ”

Ryuk does as instructed.

“Now I want you to let it out slowly and then tighten your stomach, completely squeezing all the air out. Now do it again, without my instructions this time.”

With a nod, Ryuk takes another long breath, holds it, keeps it there, and tightens his stomach as he lets it out.

“Do four more,” Hajime says, his eyes still dilated. “If you break your focus, start over.”

To his surprise, and likely to the surprise of the humandroid, Ryuk does exactly as instructed. Something about it reminds him of his Extreme Focus skill in Tritania. He doesn’t get the tunnel vision, nor can he see colored outlines, but there is something about it that feels the same as Extreme Focus.

“Good, you did well. It’s a breathing exercise that I’ve created based on Kundalini yogic texts, which I translated myself, and a practice done by Milarepa. Heard of him?”

Ryuk shakes his head.

“He was a Tibetan buddhist, a direct disciple of Marpa Lotsawa, who is considered the founder of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Milarepa used a similar technique for a spell in which he existed only on tea made from nettle leaves, which is why there are many depictions of him with a green skin tone. Alongside the tea leaves, he also subsisted on air, deep breaths to ignore the hunger pangs.”

“Air and tea, huh?”

[Accept image from Hajime?]

Ryuk selects yes and an image of a green Buddhist appears in the lower right hand corner of his vision. He’s seen similar images before, but the image has always been of a female, Tara Bosatsu, or Green Tara.

“What’s he listening to?”

“He was an advocate for the teaching of Buddhism through song. As you know, most music, at least memorable music, plays into repetition heavily.”

“So what are you trying to say? And what was the breathing practice for?”

“A minute of breathing could hardly be considered a practice, but my reason for having you do it, and my hope that you will continue to do it for longer stints, is for you to realize the meaning of your oblique quote for today: repetition is a form of change. Can you think of any other way this could apply?”

“Leveling,” Ryuk says almost immediately. “I mean, there are variations, but leveling can be repetitive, especially if you are doing something such as casting a necromantic spell on a certain creature that gives out EXP, killing it, casting it again. I guess the quote is more about the long game, like writing a novel maybe. You just keep doing the same thing, which may bore many, but there is reward in the end and that reward is change in, um, the thing you originally started.”

“Good, go on, explore that a little more. Tell me of a time in your life not game-related that you grew through repetition.”

“Coming home from Waseda University, I always logged in right away, before doing anything else, you know, to see Tamana.” He swallows the memory down. “We did this every day for the first semester, even if we had a test the next day, even if it was just to do some bullshit in Tritania, like going fishing or going to a drama in Porthos. I liked that repetition.”

“And was it a form of change?”

“I don’t know, well, yes, sure, it was. It increased our closeness.”

“So then, do you agree with the phrase?”

Ryuk considers this for a moment. “I agree with the aftereffects of repetition, the change that comes over time. Repetition itself isn’t a form of change, it is an, um, instrument of change, but I guess referring to it as a ‘form’ works too.”

Hajime lifts an eyebrow. “Good, Ryuk! Repetition can inspire the most profound change known to man. Just think of the social changes and the repeated behaviors that led to them, and think about those oppressed people, the many that there have been, and how iniquitous repetition led them to sudden, often violent, change both to their betterment, and sometimes, their detriment. Many find repetition the epitome of boredom, but I find it fascinating.”

The humandroid smiles, completely enthralled by the subject. “But we can discuss this later. We should leave soon. We’d better not leave your mother and brother waiting.”

(0)__(0)

Ryuk can barely focus on the way to his mother’s office located in Ikebukuro, Tokyo’s famous commercial and entertainment district that has grown up around the fourth-busiest transit station in the world. Outside the sprawling entrance to the station, one can find everything from department stores to Nishi-Ikebukuro, a pleasure district well-known in Tokyo’s water trade.

But none of these things are on Ryuk’s mind as he rides in the backseat of an Uberyota aeros.

He pays little attention to the Bic Camera electronic megastore across from his mother’s building as they land, a place he frequented as a child, nor does he notice the towering height of the Sunshine 60 building, which looms over the Toshima Ward.

His thoughts circle around what his mother may say – that, and seeing his brother again.

“We have to be careful,” he whispers to Hajime.

The humandroid responds with a low grunt.

“I don’t know what Kodai is planning,” Ryuk continues, “or why mother wanted to see us both.”

“It seems that Cain and Abel have reversed roles, or are at least in the process of doing so,” Hajime muses, “although I don’t see you killing Kodai.”

“I’d never,” Ryuk says, shocked Hajime would even mention that.

Silence permeates the cabin of the Uberyota as it lowers onto a clean rooftop.

There’s an arcade to the northeast, a place he frequented as a child with the hopes of winning prizes, and later, a place he visited on occasion with Tamana. They’d play combative games – Takio: Drum Master, Dance Dance – the archaic arcade games were fun, plus they were a great way to get exercise. He recalls a particular time in which she won him an Empress Thun doll in a claw machine, which he subsequently regifted to her.

“Kodai’s already here,” Hajime says as the doors unlock.

Ryuk sees his brother’s aerosSUV, which is black with sleek chrome features. Already inside, he thinks as he walks towards a door on the rooftop. A man steps out, nearly the size of Gorira with the center of his hair slicked back and the sides shaved.

This gets Ryuk wondering, where exactly is Gorira?

Whenever he’s seen his brother’s aerosSUV at his mother’s office before, Gorira would wait outside, keeping the vehicle running. The man nods and Hajime nods back.

Ryuk doesn’t have much time to consider where Gorira is, as they take a flight of stairs down to the top floor.

After Ryuk’s retina is scanned, a door slides open and he’s greeted by a remote sentry attached to the ceiling. The red light on a clear lens between two short barrels blinks as it takes in Ryuk and Hajime.

As the two pass under it, the barrels swivel and follow them towards the reception area, which definitely makes Ryuk uneasy, as it has in the past.

What if it malfunctioned … ?

Up ahead, they see his mother’s personal assistant, Satomi. She’s a clean-cut Japanese woman with impeccable skin, her bangs cut at a sharp angle. She nods for Hajime to move to the reception area, and instructs Ryuk to enter.

It’s then that Ryuk sees a woman sitting in reception, a beautiful brunette with high cheekbones and a dark bodysuit. Hajime steps in front of Ryuk as messages appear on Ryuk’s iNet screen.

Hajime: She’s a MercSecure humandroid, like me. This must be the reason for the absence of Gorira.

Ryuk: Are you saying Kodai got a humandroid?

Hajime: That appears to be the case.

Ryuk takes a step back and peeks over Hajime’s shoulder at the droid. Her eyes flash as a curt smile paints across her face.

“Go in,” Hajime says, “I’ll keep my eye on her.”

“You can sit in reception,” Satomi tells Hajime.

“I’ll stand.”

The tension in the room palpable, Ryuk slips past Kodai and stops before a large door made of bulletproof motoglass. After a decompression sound, the door opens, and after one more sidelong glance at the mysterious female humandroid, Ryuk steps in.

“You’re late,” his mother says instead of hello.

Ryuk gets the sense that she’s had some work done. He doesn’t remember his mother’s eyes being so wide, nor does he recall her ever having a large chest. The next emotion is one of shame – did I just check out my own mom? He chastises himself, but then again, she’s wearing a low-cut blouse and clear, clearly, she’s had work done.

Kodai turns to him, and when his face is clearly out of his mother’s pane of vision, he gives Ryuk a sinister grin.

“Yeah? Fuck you too,” Ryuk says, surprising even himself. He feels adrenaline burst through him and quickly subside once Kodai doesn’t say anything back.

“Ryuk!” His mother snaps her fingers, something she did when he was a child that always got his attention. “What is going on between you and your brother?”

“He attacked me,” Kodai says as Ryuk approaches them. “He pushed me through a glass table.”

Their mother narrows her eyes at Ryuk as he steps up to her big mahogany desk. “You did what?”

“He came over to intimidate me,” Ryuk explains, “and I did what I had to do.”

His mother looks in horror from her youngest to her oldest son. Her face hardens. “Kodai, you weak, stupid boy.”

Kodai gulps, and runs his hands along the front of his suit.

“You let your brother, practically ten years younger than you, push you through a table? You’ve had training! Your father paid for that training and to hear that you’re … ” She steels herself. “I can’t believe that you are as weak as you are. I have one son who is an utter failure, one who is a weakling, and I don’t know which is which at times!”

She returns her focus to Ryuk. Next to him, Kodai fumes, his head bowed and his fists clenched tightly together. “Why would you push your brother through a glass coffee table?”

“Like I said, he attacked me first. He beat me up outside the hostess bar in Shinjuku. Hajime saved me.”

“Oh, that,” she says flatly. “I’m aware that he roughed you up a bit. I told him to beat some sense into you and, apparently, he took this literally.”

“You told him that was okay!?”

Their mother ignores him. “But now that you’ve both gotten your revenge, petty as it is, it is time for you to bury your aggression towards each other. What is done is done. There is no need for this matter to continue any longer and what I need you both to do, Kodai, Ryuk, is to realize that this family business hinges on three people, you,” she points to Kodai, “me and you,” she nods to Ryuk.

“I don’t want any part in it,” Ryuk grits.

She exhales audibly. “You’ve told me that before, and I’ve told you before that it isn’t really a choice. But I believe you’ll understand this with time. For now, I need to make it crystal clear to you that you will enroll in university this summer.”

“No.” Ryuk stands defiant, his chest slightly puffed out.

Kodai glances at him out of the corner of his eyes. He tries to contain his shock by clearing his throat.

“What … did you just say?” Their mother narrows her perfectly manicured eyebrows at him.

“I’m enrolling in a Proxima trade school. I’m going to tell you the same thing I told him.” He nods to his brother. “I want you both to leave me alone. I want nothing to do with what our family does business-wise. And if you cut me off, I’ll just apply to the JUBI program. That’ll cover the costs of me being permalogged in.”

“JUBI?” Kodai scowls at his younger brother.

The Japanese Universal Basic Income program is partially run by the Proxima Company. It keeps people logged in permanently and performs various tests on their bodies as they’re logged in. They can log out if they’d like, but the funds for the program are set so they just barely cover the cost of domicile at one of the Proxima facilities.

“You heard me! I want to be left alone,” Ryuk seethes. “This, all of this,” he says, waving his hand around the room, “has come from blood money or money built on the backs of … backs of other people, mostly women! It is not a business!”

His mother lets him finish huffing. Finally, she says, “You poor, stupid boy. Were you always this daft? Was there ever a time that you sounded less educated than you sound now? I cannot remember you ever speaking to your brother or me in such a way.”

Ryuk starts to bow his head but stops. No, he thinks, be a man.

“This little fantasy of yours, that you’ll live your life in a make believe game world and that you will be of no concern to society will end as you get older.” Her voice thins. “I am highly disappointed in you, Ryuk, and you will do as I say. Understand? This isn’t a negotiation. Summer. If summer comes and you aren’t enrolled at Waseda … ”

“What will you do? You can’t kill me! You can’t intimidate me like you do your business partners. There is nothing you can do!” He carefully enunciates the next words, even though his voice quivers: “You have no power over me. None. I will live my life my way and there’s nothing that you,” he points at Kodai, “or you,” he turns the finger to his mother, “will do about it.”

She stares him down for a moment and as he keeps his finger in the air, pointed right at her, he suddenly feels like she’s looking through him, and from that feeling, he gets the notion that she’s actually proud of how he is misbehaving.

Proud? Even lightly acknowledging the way he’s reading her visage throws him off guard. How could she be proud after what I’ve just said? He swallows hard as he lowers his finger.

“If you aren’t enrolled by the summer, I’ll take Hajime away from you.”

“Hajime?”

But how does she know? he wonders. How does she know about our relationship?

Kodai grins cheek to cheek. He starts to say something, but stops and waits for his mother to speak.

“You enjoy Hajime’s company, do you not?”

“Yes,” Ryuk says softly.

“He’s your only friend, admit it!” Kodai blurts out. “Especially now that your girlfriend is dead.”

“Enough,” their mother tells him, not at all concerned by the death part of Kodai’s statement.

“Fuck you,” Ryuk hisses.

“You’ll need to learn a better way to tell me off than that,” his older brother says out of the corner of his mouth.

Their mother folds her hands together on her desk. “Ryuk, you may go now. Remember what I’ve said: enroll, or lose Hajime’s services. I could use a humandroid; it seems everyone is getting one,” she says, again focusing on Kodai.

Ryuk turns and he’d slam the door on the way out if it were the type of door that slams. Instead, he waits for it to open, turns, and kicks it once it has closed behind him.

Chapter 19: Imp Melee

Ryuk can’t log in fast enough.

He’s so consumed by anger on the way home that he hardly says anything to Hajime, who seems to be in a very reflective mood as he stares out the window at the city below. The city is suddenly dead to him, suddenly empty of its millions upon millions of inhabitants, all going about their lives oblivious to his own personal drama.

Ryuk smirks at this thought. How is it that so many things can be happening all at once, most of which will never affect the person one room over, or walking across the street, or in a different booth at the same coffee shop.

It’s amazing we keep it all together, he thinks, as the vehicle lowers into a different airlane. In the aeros immediately to their right, a woman in a little sailor hat sits in the back seat using her reflected image on the seat in front of her to put on makeup.

To the left of their aeros, two teens dressed as characters from a popular anime make a beeline to Harajuku, famous as a place where anyone can dress in any way and not be judged for it.

Harajuku. Ryuk wishes he could simply step out of his apartment, take the subway, and arrive at Harajuku Station. What a day that would be! He’d have some coffee, walk the back alleys that lead to Omotesando, have some okonomiyaki at Sakuratei, head to Yoyogi Park, and hell, walk a mile south to Shibuya and take in all the sights and sounds.

But for someone like him, someone that can barely get out of the house without security – and for what? Why all the security, especially as of late? – the best Ryuk can do is park his ass in his bed and log in.

Some life, he thinks bitterly.

Hajime finally speaks up as the Uberyota lands. “I will assume that the meeting went poorly.” He clears his throat, a very human gesture for an android that has no reason to do such an act.

“I hate them both.”

“Hate? What did they say that made you hate them?”

“She threatened to take you away if I don’t enroll in university.” Ryuk swallows hard. “She threatened to take you!”

Hajime considers this for a moment. As he does so, the vehicle informs them that they are now clear to exit the cabin. “Well, is university that hard?”

“It’s not that; it’s that I’m not interested in going there, it’s not me, it’s not who I am. I told you what I want to do.”

“What if you enroll and don’t go to any classes and fail? What would happen then?”

“She didn’t say.”

“Did she say what you needed to study?”

“She didn’t, but I assume it’s business, like before.”

“We’ll continue this discussion in a moment.” Hajime exits the vehicle. Once he’s checked the surroundings, he opens the door for Ryuk. They both ignore the thugs in the lobby as they make their way up to the top floor.

“If I were you, I’d enroll,” says Hajime, “and this isn’t about job security for me. To me, higher education is something that I can get in an instant, yet a human takes years to fully appreciate and comprehend. That said, if it weren’t for those years of comprehension, and the subsequent writings that came from them, I wouldn’t be able to enlighten myself as quickly as I’m able to. It’s important that you go. There’s a reason to get smarter and you are looking at one of the many reasons.”

Ryuk shakes his head. He’s not in the mood for riddles, or double entendres, if that is indeed what Hajime is hinting at.

“Anyway, we can discuss this later. My guess is you are interested in logging in. Before you do so, are you hungry?”

“Not in the least bit,” Ryuk says.

“Good, eat anyway.” Hajime’s eyes flash black. “It’ll make you feel better.”

They enter the apartment, Ryuk slips into his house shoes, and after he’s done so, he immediately moves to the kitchen, where he toasts himself a piece of bread with a slice of cheese on top. “I forgot to ask you … ”

“What’s that?” Hajime’s eyes dilate and return to their normal color.

“What happened between you and Kodai’s humandroid?” The toaster oven dings and Ryuk slides the bread out onto a plate.

If the look on Hajime’s face is generally indecipherable, it becomes more so after Ryuk asks his question.

“What is it?” Ryuk asks as he chews the toast.

“Her name is Tesla and I believe that your little conundrum with university enrollment may be solved by her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it is clear that your brother has hired her to see to it that I am eliminated.” Hajime says this in a calm way, a way that is totally at odds with the implications of the statement. “So you may not have to choose between university and me.”

“She can’t … ” Ryuk shakes his head. “She can’t take you out. You’re the best humandroid there is!”

Hajime’s face softens. “There is no way for you to actually know that.”

“You’re the most enlightened one I’ve ever met.”

“I was designed by the creator of humandroids, Richard Hewman. The others are replicas of me, but many, especially newer models, have been highly tweaked. She is faster than me, deadlier, and stronger.”

“She can’t be stronger.”

“Yes, she can be.” Hajime takes a seat at the table. “But don’t worry about that for now. If she comes for me, I will meet her with extreme force. If she attempts to disable me permanently, I will make sure that it is the last thing she does.”

Ryuk swallows hard. “Did … did you two say anything to each other?”

“Not verbally, but there are other ways to communicate, especially for my kind.”

(0)__(0)

When in doubt, escape.

Ryuk’s avatar takes shape at the entrance to a large cave. Hiccup is reclining on a lawn chair, which could have only come from FeeTwix’s list. Across his chest is a copy of House of Holes, and two empty healing potions aren’t far away.

Across from him, Zaena talks with Enway, while FeeTwix stands near them, petting Wolf. The pony-sized beast has taken a liking to FeeTwix, evident in the way he wags his tail.

As if on cue, Hiccup lets out a low rumble from his nether-cheeks that forces him awake. “Shit!” he says, looking around angrily. “Keep the racket down, Marbles.”

“I didn’t make any noise. It was you,” he says sternly, “you woke yourself up, again.”

“Like fick I did!” The goblin yawns. “It’s about goddamn time you showed up. We’ve been sitting at the entrance to the catacombs for like three hours now. Fick, am I glad DD’s BBQ delivers.” He tosses his finger at a series of greasy sacks. “Good eating. Twixy can attest.”

“It didn’t give me any buffs, but it wasn’t bad!”

“Twixy here wouldn’t try the deep fried cat tail, but I won’t hold it against him. Fick if cats aren’t good eating. Kittens are better though, and don’t tell me you need to go to your safe place after hearing that.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Ryuk turns away from the goblin, hoping that will shut him up.

“Hey! I’m not done telling you about eating cats. Fick, I bet Lassie over there would love himself a nicely marinated slab of feline meat.”

FeeTwix approaches Ryuk and puts his hand around his shoulder. “Everything all right in the real world up there?”

“You two are some real poofters,” Hiccup chortles. Wolf approaches the goblin and they both growl at each other for a moment.

“It was … fine.” Ryuk smiles briskly.

“Well, you’re developing quite a good number of fans.” FeeTwix points at his black eyes. “Say something to them!”

“Hi.”

“Fick me, Marbles, you really need to figure out how to turn up the charisma. I used to have a copy of How to Make Friends and Influence People, but I loaned it to Spewy. Anyfick, it’s no wonder Tammy never let you get past first base.”

“Leave him alone,” Zaena says, interrupting her conversation with Enway.

“You’ll have a chance to see some of your fans tonight at the concert,” FeeTwix says. “And from what I heard, there will be close to a thousand Fickers there.”

“How many people are going again?” Hiccup asks.

“Usually these concerts have up to thirty million people in attendance.”

“Well, it sounds more like there will be up to thirty million fickers there. Ha! See what I did there?”

“No, Fickers,” the Swede says, “your fan club. Lots of people are coming out!”

“Do they have drugs?”

“Maybe?”

“Good, come on over here, Twixy, so I can give them a piece of my mind.”

“Okay, but after this it’s time to head to the catacombs and kick some ass! One more thing–”

“Twixy, let me say my piece before you start doing an ad read.”

FeeTwix stops in front of Hiccup, giving his viewers a nice, downward looking view of the chubby goblin sprawled out on a lawn chair. Hiccup points a dirty finger at FeeTwix’s blackened eyes. “Listen, Fickers, all thousands of you that are coming. Drugs and booze, capiche? Not necessarily in that fickin’ order, but bring what you got and pay tithe to your favorite cantankerous goblin. I’ll bring the Wizardous, ouch!”

Hiccup dives for cover as Zaena whops him again on the head with her konoshlo.

“Don’t encourage people to do drugs,” she says as she approaches.

“What the fick are you, the T-DEA or something? Fickin’ shit, Liz, nothing wrong with experimenting!”

Enway laughs. She has Yangu in the backpack slung over her shoulder. The dragon sleeps, as always, and Ryuk wonders if the dragon will be this somnolent when he’s older.

As Hiccup and Zaena bicker, Ryuk approaches Enway and thanks her for looking after the baby dragon.

“Ahem!” FeeTwix announces, but everyone's too busy holding their own conversations to hear him.

“Really, thank you,” Ryuk says, bowing his head. “And thank you for looking after Oric. I believe he will be a great addition to our group.”

“What makes you think that?” she asks.

“Just something I’m intuiting, I don’t know, we were pretty badly betrayed, like I sort of explained on the way to Katiyana, but we can’t let that stop us from adding new members.”

“Hiccup had me fill out a stack of forms, by the way, so extreme vetting is apparently in full effect.”

“He did?” Ryuk shakes his head. That damn goblin.

“It’s fine,” she giggles. “The questions were pretty easy, stupid too.”

“Like?”

“Um, let me think. Okay, there was one about your opinion on Thuleans.”

“But we have a Thulean in our guild.”

She winks. “I excel at test taking, so I wrote what he wanted to hear. There was also a question on who you voted for during the last Tritanian election. I played it safe there and said I sat that one out. Let me see … oh yes! There was another question about my opinion of goblins, harems, and a question about my opinions on healthy heads of hair. That one was odd.”

“He actually made you fill all that out?”

She touches Ryuk lightly on the shoulder, sending a spark down his arm. “It’s fine, I did it so I could join you guys and he can’t claim that I wasn’t vetted.”

“I’m sure he’ll figure out another way to hate you.”

She shrugs. “Maybe, but I think he means well. He really seems to like you.”

“Like me?” Ryuk starts to shake his head.

“Yeah, I think he just gives you a hard time.”

Ryuk hits the deck at the sound of machine gun fire. He glances to see FeeTwix standing with one of his shooting irons, the receiving end smoking. “Sorry, everyone! Just needed to get your attention.”

“Fick me, Twixy, you do that shit again and you’ll be sorry!” Hiccup shouts from behind a rock.

Wolf barks wildly.

“The mutt agrees!”

“Mitherfickers gather ‘round, I have a gift from a fan.” As they gather, FeeTwix produces a small medicine bottle. “This, my friends, is a bottle of Fat Tony’s Go Juice!”

“Fat Tony’s what?” The goblin looks from the Swede to Ryuk.

“It was delivered to me by an EBAYmazon dragon.”

“When?” Hiccup asks. “I haven’t seen any dragons!”

“You were snoozing when it came. Anyway, this stuff will give us times 1.5 EXP for the next six hours, plenty of time to get through the catacombs.” FeeTwix takes a small quaff from the bottle. A green light slithers up his arms and legs, forms a halo over his head, and disappears. “So drink up!” He tosses the little bottle to Ryuk. “It’s time to kick some ass!”

To prove his point, FeeTwix charges forward, the first one into the catacombs.

(0)__(x)

The catacombs are surprisingly damp. Cold too, Ryuk thinks after they’ve been inside for a few minutes. They’ve already moved from a cave to a large clearing big enough for a land dragon to nap.

Hiccup is at the back of the group, Wolf and Zaena at the front, and Ryuk is keenly aware that the goblin is close enough to him to jump into his arms if need be.

“It could be a ghost,” Zaena says.

“Gee fick, Liz, you know that’s my trigger word.” Hiccup steels himself. “Not scared – hungry as a fickin’ tardigrade, though.”

“You just ate,” she tells him.

“Yeah, but that was more of an appetizer.”

“I believe we were delivered three kilos of meat and you ate two,” FeeTwix adds.

“Like I said, appetizer.” The goblin looks around at the large, open space before them. “You know, this place wouldn’t be too bad for the upcoming Cave Edition of Wet Goblin Holes. I should write to the editor.”

A bat flies past and Hiccup shrieks.

“Easy,” FeeTwix says. “It won’t take us long to get there now that we have a handy dandy map!” A backlit map appears in the air and twinkles out of existence. “Thanks goes out to Jack S. for his stunning cartographer prowess! If you need a map of a cave, dungeon – or hell, some of the flea markets in Hyperborea – look no further than Jack!”

Hiccup groans and Wolf makes a noise that sounds like a groan.

“Is he fickin’ mocking me?”

Ryuk laughs. “It sounds like it.”

Wolf starts sniffing the path up ahead. Once he’s sniffed off into the wall of the catacomb, he lifts his legs and takes a long, splashy piss.

“You think he could have done that back there,” Hiccup says with a cringe.

“Since when did you start hating the smell of piss?” Zaena asks. “I thought goblin mothers bathed their babies in piss to ward off ticks.”

“They do, and goblin piss smells way fickin’ nicer than Wolf piss, believe you me, Liz-tard. If you want proof, next time I need to drain the chalupa I can do so in your general direction.”

“I like you, goblin, I do, but if you value your chalupa, you will never, and I mean never, pull it out in any way that I could see it, even if by accident. If you haven’t already noticed, I’m very fast with my swords.”

Wolf barks and runs ahead into a room with a low ceiling. He emerges seconds later, an imp gripped tightly in his jaw. He snaps the creature’s neck, Instakill!, and shakes what’s left of the life out of it.

“Fick yeah!” A shield shaped like a triangle appears in Hiccup’s brass hand, his spiked club in his other. “It’s imp-killing time!” he shouts as dozens of tiny, devilish creatures crawl out of holes at the top of the big opening.

-169 HP! Critical hit!

Ryuk pings one of the imps with an explosive marble, sending a chunk of its shoulder and wing flipping into the air. More imps pour out of holes in the ceiling, cackling and screeching as they dance around. There are too many to tell their levels, but seeing how easy it is to kill them dead, Ryuk assumes they’re all around level seven.

Phwwoom!

FeeTwix’s double-bladed sword is already off its hilt, the rotating blades slicing through the imps and spritzing the air with blackened blood. Zaena is his back up act, her blades a flurry of metal death as she minces, stabs, and filets anything with wings, a devil’s tail, and a scowl on its face.

Damn! Ryuk thinks as he watches Wolf leap through the air, take out two imps just by landing on them, and lunge for another.

Insta-Instakill!

Hiccup is clobbering imps likes he’s auditioning for a part as The Thing; he pauses once, just in time to bash an imp with his triangle shield. Ryuk sees an imp coming at the goblin from behind and his Extreme Focus skill takes over.

Instakill!

He pegs the imp between the eyes with a molten marble and it falls backwards, dead before it hits the ground.

Hiccup shoots Ryuk a thumbs up, winks in a way that makes him feel a bit uncomfortable, licks his lips, and gets back to fighting imps. Once he clears a few out, his shield momentarily disappears and a healing potion takes shape in his grubby paw.

He throws it back, finishes it, wipes his lips, and tosses the empty bottle at an incoming imp. The goblin uses the non-spiky end of his club to scratch his ass and then charges back into the fight.

A big black form moves in front of Ryuk as Wolf leaps to take out another imp.

Ryuk again realizes the problem with his weapon – range – and the fact that it’s easier for him to be further back if he really wants to get a shot off. To accomplish this, he moves through the fight, his Extreme Focus turned up to eleven, and gets into a position south of where the main fighting is taking place.

He aims his Marble Gun, focuses his breath, and starts popping explosive and molten marbles at the imps raining down from the ceiling. The fuckers are everywhere, giggling, crying out, lashing their tails at the Mitherfickers as they try to scratch them with their sharp claws.

-166 HP! Critical hit!

FeeTwix’s blades whirl around in the air overhead, taking out anything that makes the unfortunate mistake of getting in their trajectory.

After growing bored with this attack, the famous Swedish gamer equips a golf club and tees off at the nearest imp. He bashes, bangs, and once he finishes his double eagle, he tosses the club over his head and goes for his Glock, which was conveniently tucked into the back of his pants. The ends of his overcoat flicker in the air as the Swede does the patented dive and shoot.

Insta-Insta-Instakill!

Spent shells zip through the air as he lands with a sweet, clearly mastered, roll. Once he’s up, FeeTwix pistol-whips the living shit out of a purple imp with a white Thulean tattoo across its back, and sends the little bastard flying into Zaena’s waiting blades. Instakill! Bifurcated, the top of the imp flies left, the bottom flies to the right.

“Level up!” FeeTwix announces. “Fuck yeah, people, up to two million! Gotta do this … ” He shoots another imp and the bullet passes through the little monster into the wing of another. “Okay, everyone, now that I have your attention. You won’t believe the sale that EBAYmazon is having right now on adult novelty toys! Now, I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of what they have … Fuck you, imp!”

FeeTwix elbows an imp in the face, sending its teeth flying. He doubles back with a pair of brass knuckles, takes the imp to the ground, and finishes the job MMA style. “Whew!” He wipes his brow. “Where was I? Ha! I practically have early Goblinheimer’s, am I right?”

“Fick you, Twixy!” Hiccup bashes an imp with his spiked club.

“Ah yes, novelty toys!” The Swede’s slice bang appears in his hand and he comes up and takes an imp’s head off. Instakill! “Damn right that’s an instakill!” he says, slightly out of breath. “So, adult novelty toys. People, you know you want them, and hell, if you need them, you need them. No shame! Don’t let oppressive laws stop you from putting whatever you’d like in your ass!”

“What the fick are you going on about?” Hiccup shouts. Ryuk pegs another imp, but is now keen to hear FeeTwix finish his adult-themed ad read.

“All I’m saying is everything is somebody’s something, if you get my drift! And right now on EBAYmazon, all adult novelty toys are a whopping twenty percent off with the promo code #FeeTwixRox! Get it delivered by drone in an unmarked package and have some fun with your sigother! Hell, go at it alone if you have to, but do not let anyone tell you how to live your sex life!”

“Give me a fickin’ break!” Hiccup shouts.

FeeTwix tosses his slice bang away, equips a mirror, and points to it, his eyes as black as the holes that will soon be filled by discounted sex toys. “You do you,” he says in all seriousness, and with that, a baseball cap appears on the Swedish huckster’s head. Not seconds later, a baseball bat materializes in his hands, and after a practice swing, he gets to Babe Ruthing the imps that have surrounded him.

Hiccup rolls his eyes, slams another healing potion, uses the bottle to beat in the face of an imp that has jumped onto his back, and after he’s thrown the imp off, Zaena gives it the Cuisinart treatment.

“That was a strange advertisement!” she calls over to FeeTwix.

He laughs like a madman. “All in a day’s work, babe! Now get out there, people, and get your jollies!”

Ryuk goes for his slingshot and zings one of his new gravity marbles at an imp descending from a hole up top. Suddenly, the imp’s body is flung backwards and it sticks to the ceiling.

Interesting. He pings another one dancing around Hiccup and the imp flies to the side wall, taking out a couple of dancing devils like they’re pinballs.

“Fick yeah, Marbles!” Propelled by a blistering blast of barbecue afterthought, Hiccup springs forward and knocks the socks off a hopping imp.

-144 HP! Critical hit!

Ryuk recalls the skill he learned leveling up in Port of Protla and jams a molten marble in his mouth.

Spit fire!

He sprays an incoming troupe of little winged fuckers and accidently singes Hiccup in the process.

“Yeeeoooooy!” The goblin hightails it, trying to bat out the fire raging on his lower back that is now being fueled by his near limitless stream of natural gas. The fire spreads, and as soon as he gets his wits about him, he drops to the ground and starts rolling.

“I’ve got you, Hiccup!” His recently equipped baseball cap now on backwards, FeeTwix yanks a fire extinguisher from his list and hoses the goblin off. It doesn’t take much longer for the Mitherfickers and the big bad wolf to clean up what’s left of the imps.

As the battle finishes, and Zaena starts moving all the dead imps to one side of the chamber, Hiccup equips Frank’s Toe Knife and marches right over to Ryuk.

“Look … ” he says, tears in his eyes as he points his knife at Ryuk. “Look what you did to my fickin’ hair!”

Sure enough, the goblin’s pink topknot has been singed to a nearly nonexistent state. It’s still there, but the parts that are visible are now black. “Fix it, goddammit!”

“Um … ?” Ryuk looks to FeeTwix, whose black eyes are taking in all the goblin action. From there he looks to Wolf, who has started gnawing on one of the imps’ legs, and from there to Zaena, who is still, oddly enough, stacking bodies. “You want me to shoot you with a marble?”

“No, I want you to stick a marble up my ass.”

Ryuk gives him an uncertain look.

“Yes, dammit, shoot me! Do your little wish spell thing and get my fickin’ hair back. I swear to the Empress’ liquid-gold-producing mammaries that if you have somehow ficked up my hair, I’m going to make my grievances known, bigly.”

FeeTwix equips a towel and uses it to wipe some of the black imp blood off his body. “You already air your grievances bigly. I can let you borrow my hat.”

He tosses the hat over at Hiccup and the goblin kicks it. “Fick no!”

“Babe, you want?”

Zaena takes the towel, spot wipes her armor, and finishes up on her blades. Once she’s done, she hands it back to FeeTwix and the towel disappears.

“Whatever, Twixy. Marbles, I’m warning you … you’d better not fick this up!” Hiccup turns, his ass now facing Ryuk. “Do it. Peg me.”

FeeTwix cracks up again. “This will be good!”

“Um … ”

“Less umming and more shooting, Marbles.”

“I’m just trying to think of what I should say.”

“How about ‘repair hair?’” Hiccup lifts his right hip slightly and lets out a squeaker. “Fick, that barbeque has come back to haunt me. You see me launch myself into the air earlier propelled solely by flatulence?” he asks over his shoulder. “Not gonna lie, that was cool as fick.”

Damn goblin.

Ryuk pouches a clear marble, pulls back on his slingshot, takes a few big steps back, and fires it at Hiccup’s lower back. “Repair hair!”

“Yooooy!” Hiccup hops into the air, his hands on his lower back. “That fickin’ hurt!” He immediately pats his head. “What … what the fick!?” he asks as what’s left of his topknot disappears and two side curls take shape, curling even more as they extend in length. They’re yellow, and once they’re done growing, they hang well past the goblin’s double chin.

“Payot!” FeeTwix cracks up. “How orthodox of you, Hiccup!”

“Twick you, Fixy! Fick, you know what I mean!” The panicked goblin looks at Wolf, who has sat down on his haunches and is watching him with his head twisted to the right. “You too, Scooby!”

Scooby? Ryuk thinks.

Sometimes it seems like Hiccup has taken bits and pieces from what he assumes is the world up there and put them into usage having little or no knowledge of what the word means, how it is used, or who uses it. Then again, Ryuk has no idea what “scooby” means either. “I’ll try again.”

“Fick yes you will!” Hiccup growls. He tightens his grip around his toe knife. “You’d better not fick this up, Marbles.”

Ryuk places another clear marble in the slingshot, pulls back and … “Hey, what kind of hair do you actually want?” he asks, lowering his weapon.

Hiccup’s about to mouth off at him, but then he realizes the question is actually something he needs to consider.

“Same style as before?”

“Give him a faux hawk,” Zaena laughs. “A real douchey looking one.”

“Pfft, everyone knows faux hawks are cool,” Hiccup replies. “I’d be so lucky for Marbles here to give me one – talk about pootie tiz-ang out the wazoo next time I hit the club scene in Jatla – but he’s an amateur and it’s amateur hour so I’ll take what I can get. Same as before.”

“So a dollop of pink hair?” Ryuk asks.

“Did I stutter?” Hiccup nods and raises his nose. “And for the record, Marbles, ‘dollop’ is the pooftiest word you’ve said all day.”

“Fine,” he says under his breath. “Pink hair!” Annoyed with the goblin, Ryuk pulls back as far as he can and zings the marble right at the back of his head.

A Simple Request!

Hiccup screams like a hairy man getting a Brazilian wax as long, lustrous pink locks sprout out of the back of his head and thicken. By the time his hair is done growing, and the goblin is done bitching, he has a fabulous full head of pink hair which hangs well past his shoulders.

By this point, Zaena is rolling on the ground laughing, FeeTwix can barely stand he’s laughing so hard, and Ryuk is laughing harder than he’s laughed in weeks. Even Wolf has joined in; he now gives the goblin the queerest look he can muster.

“It was supposed to be a fickin’ dollop!”

“You told me that word was … how did put it?” Ryuk asks.

“Pooftiest,” FeeTwix says, still trying to stop laughing. “Don’t worry, Hiccup, we’ll get your hair fixed right up.” The Swede grabs a pair of clippers from his inventory list. “If it’s a topknot you want, it’s a topknot you’ll get!”

Chapter 20: Mark of the Beast

“Fickery, why do we always get caught up in fickery?” Hiccup laments as they continue down a narrow passage lit by torches. FeeTwix has given him what he wants – a topknot – and he’s even shaved a lightning bolt on the side of his head, just to give the goblin a little more flare than a goblin with pink hair and a mechanical hand could possibly need.

“Relax, Hiccup, I think we’re a pretty good group to be in, am I right, guys?”

“Yes,” Ryuk says.

“Fick me, Marbles, you have about as much personality as a blow-up doll, and those are at least useful. I’m not one to get Goblinholm’s Syndrome like Twixy over here. I’m a free thinker, a big league type of guy.”

Zaena chuckles. “Play nice, Hiccup. You’d be an ugly, bald goblin without Ryuk and you’d look like a poofter, as you say, if you had kept your pink hair long. Now you’re just an ugly goblin.”

Hiccup equips a healing potion, pops the top, and starts chugging. “Damn, love these Cherry Apollos.”

“You need to conserve those,” FeeTwix reminds him.

The goblin belches and throws the bottle over his shoulder. “They help me deal with stress, the kind that lizards and wolves give me. Fick.” He beats his chest, hiccups. “Give me heartburn too. Shit, is that big mutt pissing again? I haven’t seen him drink something yet. Where the fick do dogs get so much urine?”

“He’s marking his territory,” FeeTwix explains as Wolf catches up to them. “Haven’t you ever seen a dog do that?”

“I’ve seen a goblin do it. Fick, most of the dogs in Jatla become dinner before they have the time to properly piss on anything.”

Ryuk notices a wall up ahead at least five meters high. He walks ahead, letting Hiccup explain more in depth his knowledge of goblin vs. canine micturition, his Marble Gun at the ready. To the left of the wall is another pathway that he assumes wraps around to the top.

Without saying anything to the others, he pops a gravity marble into his mouth and floats into the air.

He takes a step up to the next invisible ledge and pops another marble in his mouth just to sustain his power. The marbles fastly dissolving, Ryuk takes a few more steps up until he reaches the top of the wall. From there, he hops over and sits, his feet dangling over the ledge.

“Fick, Marbles, since when could you fly?” Hiccup calls up to him.

“Gravity marble,” he shouts down.

“Hell yeah, toss me one!”

“Doesn’t work like that, Hiccup.”

“He’s right,” Zaena tells him, “I tried.”

“Ah, fick.”

Not one to be overshadowed by a guildmate’s power, FeeTwix equips a pair of heavy boots each with canisters latched above the heel. “DisNike steam boots,” he says, “straight from Steampunk Santa’s shop in Morlock.” He bends over to make sure they’re properly attached. “Akrasia to be exact, the prison city, but that’s a story for another day! Okay, hop into my arms, Hiccup, and I’ll carry you up.”

“No fickin’ way, Twixy, I’m not your little stuffed trash panda!”

Zaena chuckles and uses her ghost limbs to lift herself up. Once she’s next to Ryuk, she calls down to the gassy goblin. “I can give you a lift, if you want, goblin.”

“I don’t fick with konoshlo, Liz, so no. Fido and I will go the long way,” he says, pointing at the alternative path. “Come on, pooch.”

Hiccup makes a kissing sound with his fat lips and Wolf gets the hint that he should follow. Meanwhile, FeeTwix has finished strapping his DisNike steamboots on and is gearing to go. He bends, presses two buttons on either side of the boots, and takes to the air like a bat out of Hades. “Shit!”

-56 HP!

FeeTwix slams into the chamber’s ceiling, a cloud of steam trailing after him. He’s tossed backwards, and just when he’s about to lose it all, he shoots forward and smacks into Ryuk.

“Sorry!” he says as he scrambles to his feet.

Ryuk rubs the back of his head. He didn’t lose any HP, but suddenly he feels like he’s been shaken like a can of soda. “No problem,” he says as he pushes himself off the ground. He dusts his Dream Armor off and smiles at the Swede, who looks genuinely concerned. “No really, I’m fine.”

He turns in the other direction to see a hallway lit only by the room on the other side. The hallway is narrow enough that they’ll have to go through it in a line, and the larger members of the group, Hiccup and Wolf, will definitely have trouble squeezing through.

FeeTwix’s eyes flash. “There are lots and lots of tunnels attached to this main path,” he says. “Good map, Jay!” He gives his own face a thumbs up. “People, I’m serious here, this isn’t a paid endorsement. Buy Proxima Maps from Jack S. if you get the chance. He has a shop in Ertla, but he also delivers via EBAYmazon dragons. Not a paid endorsement, either!”

“Let’s go,” Zaena says, stepping forward. “I would like to be done with this damp, dark place.”

“Same here! I’m ready to dance my ass off.” FeeTwix raises his hands in the air and shakes his hips. “What about you, babe? Got any sweet Thulean moves to show me?”

She laughs nervously. “I don’t know about that.”

“But you’re excited, right?”

“A little.” Zaena narrows her orange eyes at Ryuk. “What about you? Are you excited to come?”

“I don’t really know if I should … ”

“You have to come,” FeeTwix says, “Enway will be there.”

“So?” Ryuk looks away, just in case his face has turned red.

“She’s pretty cute for an elf,” Zaena comments. “Much better than that bitch Tamana.”

Ryuk swallows hard. Remember, he thinks, the Tamana in here is an RPC that betrayed you. The Tamana up there was … different. Even with this thought, he still finds it troubling to hear his teammates talk ill of Tamana.

“Now where has that goblin run off to?” FeeTwix asks, looking down the adjacent hallway. “It shouldn’t be taking him this long.”

“Do you think he ran into trouble?” Ryuk asks the Swede.

“I think if he did, we’d hear him scream, fart, the clink of weapons, or at the very least, we’d hear Wolf bark.”

“He may have stopped to drink yet another potion. Who is keeping track of his potion consumption? He’s lucky we don’t need those!”

“Don’t worry, babe, the Fickers have been donating tons of potions. I’m just slowly giving them to him, almost as rewards.”

The three stand there quietly for a moment, listening for any indication that Hiccup has got into some shit. What they hear, after about a minute of listening, is the increasingly loud patter of paws.

“Is that … ?” FeeTwix steps back just in time.

Wolf bursts out of the opening, a smug look on his face. Sitting on top with his legs clamped around the wolf’s body is the cantankerous goblin.

“What?” he asks as he scratches Wolf behind the ear. “That fickin’ pathway was practically vertical. So I took a ride. Why are you all looking at me like that? He doesn’t mind, hell, if anyone else wants to hop up, you’re more than welcome too. But I get to sit in front. I’m nobody’s little lap bitch.”

FeeTwix nods, clearly impressed. “Now I can add ‘seeing a goblin riding a giant wolf’ to the list of things I never thought I’d see. Bad news, though, that path ahead looks really thin. I don’t think you can both get through there in your current form.”

“Fine, fine.” Hiccup pats Wolf on the head. He lowers his body, and the goblin hops off. “But I got first dibs on the canine taxi once we’re in the clear again.”

(0)__(0)

“This place is practically bristling with treasure!” FeeTwix announces, his finger raised in the air. “Seriously, guys, if we didn’t have a mission to handle, or a concert to get to, I’d say we hang back here and get as much damn treasure as our lists can carry.”

“I’m with Twixy,” Hiccup says at the back of the line. “Fick the Shinigami, fick Tamana, Marbles the Second, and the Knights for that matter. Fick the concert too. With money, all our problems will be solved. Hell, we can just rent a place in Jatla, you know, one of those high end apartments on the upper west side of the city, and have our own concert!”

“Those apartments?” Ryuk asks, imagining the run-down, two-story buildings on the upper west side of Jatla. Most of the places, from what he could tell, were missing walls and ceilings. A few were without doors and the public urinals that surrounded each building only added to the eyesore.

“What? Fick, Marbles, not all of us can afford the nicer things in life, but if we get that treasure, these four fickers – notice I said four, I’m not done vetting the elf – would be living high on the hog. Or horse. Is it high on the horse? Fick, you know what I mean. Damn, it’s bright ahead. Howzabout one of you bend a little so Uncle Goblin can take a peeksee? Fick, why am I at the back of the group again?”

“Because you were too scared to be the first,” Zaena calls back to him. “Now shut up for once; your constant rambling is driving me insane.”

“It looks like some sort of … of statue room,” FeeTwix says. “Yes! A room dedicated to the goddesses. This should be interesting! Everyone get ready for screenshots!”

The four Mitherfickers and their big bad wolf enter a chamber with impossibly high ceilings.

Light from outside comes in through slits in the ceiling revealing eight female statues, each chiseled into the rockface. The gothic statues fall somewhere between beautiful craftsmanship and horror, especially the statue of a woman with her arm outstretched holding her fist through a skull.

Hiccup immediately moves to a statue of a woman with piles of rupees around her feet. He places his mechanical hand on the rupees, bows his head, and starts to pray in Thulean.

“Don’t mind him,” Zaena tells Ryuk after she catches his confused glance. “That’s the Goddess of Luck.”

“Zip it, Liz, I’m trying to pray,” Hiccup says before launching back in. “Boom nana boom rana boom lana boom pokhla; boom nana boom rana boom lana boom poklha.”

The air on Wolf’s neck stands to attention.

“What do you see, boy?” FeeTwix asks, but before he can say anything else, Wolf takes off down another hallway.

“Boom nana boom rana … all dogs have a mind of their own, Twixy, parsing matters … boom lana boom pokhla … ”

Ryuk steps in front of a statue of a naked woman, her belly cut open and a dragon’s tail slipping into it. “This one is very interesting.”

“I like this one.” FeeTwix stands before a statue of a woman with a giant hammer slung over her shoulder. She’s muscular, buxom, and she wears a crop top and a pair of tight shorts, the only one of the statues not in some sort of dress.

“That’s the Goddess of Tradeskills. She’s popular, especially amongst the various smiths across the continents. Let me see your Marble Gun, Ryuk.”

Ryuk unholsters it, pops the mag out for safety reasons, and hands it to the Thulean, the business end of the gun pointing downward.

“See here?” she says, touching the Thulean carved into his weapon. As she does so, the words light up green. “That’s her name there, and this part is asking for her blessing.” Her ears twitch. “Do you hear that?”

Wolf’s yelps ricochet down the long tunnel ahead.

“Heads up!” FeeTwix shouts.

“Goblin, right; FeeTwix, left; Ryuk, back as far as possible!” Zaena calls out. The Thulean quickly hands Ryuk’s gun back to him and positions herself in the center of the chamber. She rises into the air, suspended by her ghost limbs.

The rest of the Mitherfickers take their position, Hiccup grumbling at Zaena’s perceived racism. They hear Wolf’s yelps growing louder, accompanied by the patter of hooves against the stone floor.

“Whatever it is, it’s fucking big!” FeeTwix, in his element, has one of the largest weapons Ryuk has ever seen in his hands. It’s silver, with a Kevlar tipped base handle attached to the central power unit and a plasma shell counter flashing red on its side. “BFG 9000-S12B,” the Swede tells his audience as it powers up. “Don’t leave home without one!”

“Fickin’ hell, Twixy!” Hiccup calls over the rumble coming from the tunnel. “That thing is going to fick up your life bar, tactical vest or not!”

A healing potion appears in the Swede’s semi-gloved hand. He quickly stuffs it in the pocket of his overcoat. “That’s what this is for!”

Wolf blasts out of the hole with true fear in his eyes. He blazes past Ryuk, and as he does, Ryuk sees the horns of a dark-skinned bovine.

Underground Auroch Level 20

HP: 666/666

ATK: 221

MATK: 0

DEF: 342

MDF: 119

LUCK: 1

Hiccup screams like a sissy as the muscled auroch tears into the chamber. The beast immediately tosses FeeTwix off his feet, who just so happens to squeeze the trigger of his futuristic weapon, blasting the Goddess of Luck statue to kibbles and bits and leaving a hole in the wall big enough to fit a dumpster.

“For fick’s sake, Twixy, get something less destructive!” Hiccup shouts as a large piece of the ceiling falls between him and the auroch.

The beast snorts smoke, scratches its hoof against the ground, and takes aim at Ryuk.

His marble gun trained before him, Ryuk just barely manages to fire off an explosive round before the underground bull connects with him.

-166 HP!

Up in the air Ryuk goes, where he’s immediately caught by one of Zaena’s ghost limbs. She brings him to the ground safely enough, swings around, and tries to come down on top of the auroch, who is making a circle around the chamber looking for targets.

The auroch bucks and groans as Zaena’s blades connect with its thick hide.

-14 HP! -24 HP! -8 HP!

Ryuk looks at Wolf, who’s in the hallway that they came in from, tracking the creature with his blue-green eyes. From there he looks to Hiccup, who has produced his largest shield and is hiding behind it, nursing a healing potion.

“Are you guys serious!?” FeeTwix asks as he swipes a poll away.

The Swede equips the boombox and House of Pain’s “Jump Around” starts up. Before it can get past the trumpet intro, the auroch charges him and he tosses the boombox at it.

KA-BOOOOOOOOM!

-237 HP! Critical hit!

The explosion that follows takes down more of the ceiling, rattles the walls, and sends a shockwave through the chambers, taking a bit of everyone’s life bar.

“What the fick was that!?” Hiccup yells. “Fick!” The auroch is in the center of the chamber now, bleeding heavily as it tries to get its bearings.

“What? You thought I’d toss an ordinary boombox! That’s my BOOM boombox! Has Boomex Super XXL inside, the most powerful dynamite in Dead City!” FeeTwix gets back to his feet and dusts off his overcoat. “To everyone watching the feed right now, all three million of you, good choice!” As the smoke clears, he launches into a quick ad about a breakfast cereal that meets FDA requirements and is kid-tested, stepmother-approved, whatever the hell that means.

The auroch shakes out its confusion, finds a target – Ryuk – and as the pissed off bovine charges, Ryuk unloads an entire mag of molten and black marbles into the beast’s thick skull.

-86 HP! -75 HP! -30 HP! -9 HP!

“Whoa!” Ryuk’s body is launched into the air by an invisible force, just in time for the auroch to smash into the wall.

Zaena sets him down nicely on the other side of the chamber.

“Thanks!” he shouts to her.

Wolf comes dashing out of nowhere, slams into the side of the auroch, gets his sharp teeth around the beast’s jugular and gets to killing.

“Fick yeah!” Hiccup tosses his shield aside. “This is better than a ponytail race!”

“If you’re squeamish, look away!” FeeTwix tells his viewers. “It’s gonna be gory!”

Wolf brings the auroch down and continues ripping its neck to shreds until his snout is covered in blood.

Instakill!

He stands over his prey for a moment, making sure it is indeed dead. Once he’s certain, Wolf sits on his haunches and begins licking his maw.

“Whew!” FeeTwix wipes his brow. “That sure was something!” The Swede licks his finger and cleans a black smudge mark on his arm. “Stoked that I got to use my boombox, though.”

“See, that’s why we need a couple of these big fickers,” Hiccup says, walking over to the dead auroch with a long knife. “We let our wolves do the fighting, then we get the spoils. This is the best plan I’ve had in weeks, so I hope you’re taking notes, Twixy.”

“I thought Ryuk was taking notes.”

“Ah, nevermind.” The goblin cuts the beast’s stomach open, jams his mechanical arm in, and at this point, Ryuk looks away. “Marbles, you are such a pussy … fick! Fick!”

Hiccup yanks his arm out of the bull’s guts; a two meter long worm comes with him, gnawing at the goblin’s brass arm as he tries to beat it off with his other fist. “Fick! Get it off me!”

Wolf barks and tries to nip at the worm’s tail. Ryuk trains his Marble Gun on the writhing worm, waiting to get off a shot.

“I’ve got it!” Zaena brings two blades down onto the large worm, severing it into two halves. The second half, which apparently has a head on its receiving end lined with teeth, goes after Zaena.

Clickety-boom! Clickety-boom!

Instakill!

FeeTwix lowers his sawed-off shotgun, watching as the second worm dies. Meanwhile, Hiccup has pulled the worm’s other half off his mechanical arm and is in the process of stomping it to death.

A generic healing potion appears in FeeTwix’s hand. “That was some fight, everybody! I’m so glad you could all join us!” he tells his legion of followers. “And I’ll see some of you at the concert later. Get ready for DJ Ride the Lightning!”

“I got a level up,” Zaena announces. “Anyone else?”

Ryuk shakes his head as he walks over to FeeTwix and Zaena. He crouches near them and starts reloading one of his magazines.

“I was just trying to check it for loot,” Hiccup mumbles as he kicks bits of the dead worm away. “But fick that. I’m not putting my hand back in there, hell, this isn’t even my hand.” He says, reminding FeeTwix of his mechanical appendage. “But you get the point. Where’d that towel you had earlier go?”

“Here’s another,” FeeTwix says. “A fan transferred a fickton to me. Did I do that right?”

“Fickton, yup,” the goblin says as he towels himself off. “Hey! This is moist, which just happens to be my favorite adjective.”

“It’s an extra-large moist towelette for cleaning up after battle, among other things,” the Swede says, winking at Zaena.

If the Thulean gets his innuendo, she doesn’t let on. Instead, she flicks the blood off her sword, turns to the next chamber, and asks over her shoulder, “Are we resting here, or are we getting through these damn catacombs?”

“I’m with Liz. The sooner we’re out of here, the better!”

Chapter 21: Warm Hands

Kodai keeps his eyes trained on the seat in front of him. He suddenly craves his favorite whiskey, that or pollutes, anything to decompress after dealing with his overbearing mother.

The bitch.

Why she always has to push buttons he didn’t know he has is beyond him. It’s like she’s testing me, he thinks. She wants me to go off the handle, like Ryuk. But why?

Well, at least his brother will have some shit to deal with soon enough that will stop him from getting any closer to the truth.

He smiles.

At least that’s how the woman behind the golden door put it. She told Kodai what she’d give him if they were able to pull it off and he’s not one to turn down unlimited power, as she said.

“That’s the first smile you’ve had since we left your apartment,” Tesla says, the humandroid’s features outlined by the bright winter sun. Kodai reaches into his jacket pocket and places a pair of Tom Browne sunglasses on.

“What are your thoughts on Hajime?” he asks as the self-driving Uberyota slows, waits for an opening in a higher airlane, and ramps up its speed almost immediately. The vehicle curves around an oddly shaped SoftBank building, under a sky pass filled with pedestrians.

From there it hugs a Nomura building, and as it passes, Kodai briefly sees the employees inside, sitting at their desks and working obediently.

The sedentary life.

“Hajime is powerful,” she says, “but he is an older model.”

“And you could overpower him, yes?”

“He was designed by Richard Hewman.”

“Who?”

“The creator of all humandroids.”

“Is he still alive?”

Tesla shrugs. “No one has seen him since his disappearance.”

“That’s right, Lorem Ipsum told me Hajime was a one-of-a-kind,” he says, thinking back to his rooftop breakfast with the head of MercSecure. “But you are newer, better, faster, stronger, are you not?”

“We have the same capacity for combat. He may know more about it, even with all the protocols I’ve uploaded along with the training and experiences I’ve had.”

“But you can match him?” Kodai asks as the aeros picks up speed. He feels the effects of gravity in his chest; the feeling subsides almost instantly. The smell of flowers meets his nostrils as a fresh floral fragrance is pumped into the air of the vehicle.

“I believe I can.”

“Good. Then you will crush him.” He grinds his fist into his free hand. And at that statement, the thought comes to him that he will thwart in his mother’s plan to use Hajime as a carrot on a stick for Ryuk.

Good, fuck her.

He remains silent, his thoughts on the future, as his vehicle nears the skyrise condo he calls home. Once they land, Kodai hardly pays attention to the pair of thugs in the lobby or the single bonsai tree on display as he follows Tesla to the elevator. As soon as they reach the top and they’re in his home, he slips into his house shoes and announces, “I need a nap.”

“Do you want a massage?”

Taken by surprise, Kodai turns to Tesla.

“You give massages?”

She tilts her head and offers him a soft smile. “I do, any type you’d like.”

Kodai gulps and slowly finds himself nodding his head. It’s been years since he had a massage, mostly because he doesn’t like people touching him, especially people he doesn’t trust.

And why do you trust her? he asks himself in his head.

With no answer, Kodai simply waves her into his bedroom.

After removing her boots, Tesla follows close behind him as he walks down a long hall to his bedroom at the very end.

The defining feature of Kodai’s bedroom is an eight by eight Rorschach ink blot above his bed. The black stain matches his sheets, also black and freshly pressed, which he has changed daily. The only other thing in his room is a sleek, gunmetal dresser across from his bed with an obligatory holoscreen above it.

“Take off your shirt,” Tesla tells him, “and lie down on your belly.”

Kodai removes his jacket, his thin black tie, and slowly unbuttons his dress shirt. He moves to the closet to hang everything, and once it is hung, he reenters the room in a white tank top. “Pants too?” he asks.

“Up to you.”

He returns from his closet moments later in a pair of boxers.

“Lie down on the bed.”

Kodai does as instructed, not sure why he’s following the humandroid’s commands but also not opposed to it. Once he’s good and comfortable with his head turned to the side, Tesla tells him to relax his arms and open them slightly.

He does so, and she quickly climbs onto his back, her thighs straddling his thighs.

Kodai feels an erection coming on and tries to will it away.

As Tesla kneads the muscles on his back, he focuses on her hands instead, noticing how much they feel like a human’s hands. Warm to the touch, soft, yet massaging his muscles firmly, Tesla keeps up her pace as a host of sensations wash over Kodai’s body.

“This is … great,” he mumbles, completely overcome by the experience. She seems to know every muscle to hit and the pressure necessary to stimulate it. Tesla moves down his spine, massaging around each bone and scratching her fingers down his back.

“You carry a lot of stress here,” she says, refocusing on his neck muscles.

“You’re right.”

“Your mother stresses you.”

“She does.”

Tesla laughs softly. “What will you do about it?”

Kodai opens one eye and tries to look back at her. “What do you mean?”

“Will she always control you?”

“No,” he subvocalizes. “I will be in control one day.”

And just saying that makes him feel petty for thinking of things in such a black and white way. Is it better to be controlled and powerful or be the one controlling those with power? Aren’t the outcomes similar, the chance for demise intertwined?

Tesla keeps massaging his back and Kodai gives in to her.

He relaxes more than he’s relaxed in years, putty in her hands. Minutes pass, minutes in which he is lost in the ocean of his past trying to focus on a single notion of what he is, what he is meant to be, why it matters, and how things may turn out.

His whirlwind of thoughts eventually leave, yet the feeling of euphoria remains. The urge to turn to Tesla and pull her into him waxes and wanes.

Kodai does his best to suppress it. The spark of something entirely alien to him looms on the horizon, to be visited at another time.

Chapter 22: FeeTwix “Turncoat” Fajer

The Mitherfickers are leveling up nicely, Ryuk thinks as he checks the team’s stats.

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 18 Ballistics Mage

HP: 569/583

ATK: 112

MATK: 142

DEF: 88

MDF: 67

LUCK: 14

FeeTwix Fajer Level 20 Berserker Mystic

HP: 446/789

ATK: 161

MATK: 29

DEF: 85

MDF: 43

LUCK: 13

Hiccup Level 17 Shield Thief

HP: 800/814

ATK: 108

MATK: 16

DEF: 226

MDF: 103

LUCK: 28

Zaena Morozon Level 19 Brawler Assassin

HP: 619/735

ATK: 205

MATK: 9

DEF: 113

MDF: 43

LUCK: 14

Fat Tony’s Go Juice, or whatever the hell the stuff that boosted their EXP was called, is definitely worth its weight in rupees. Ryuk has leveled up twice, although he hasn’t learned any new skills. He has, however, moved to level two with both his Spit Fire and his Splash Back skills.

“Viewers are surging!” FeeTwix calls out, his voice echoing down a long corridor.

“Fick, Twixy, I think you just woke my dead cousin Spew Gorge up.”

“I thought it was Spew George,” Zaena says.

Hiccup stops and considers this. “Yeah, it was George that died, not Gorge. Good catch, Liz. You may come in handy when I’m older and unable to properly clean my grundle or speak coherently.”

“Grundle?”

“I’ll tell you what it means when you’re older, Marbles.”

“Can we reach four million in the next five minutes?” FeeTwix asks the mirror in his hand. “I feel a boss battle coming on … Hey! Now that I have your attention, I wanted to remind all of you that Spider-Man Middle School Dance is out now! A prequel to Spider-Man Origins, which itself was a prequel to Spider-Man College Doob, an alternative universe Spidey flick about a stoner Peter Parker and his number one gal, Mary Jane. Heh, I liked that one! So be sure to catch Spider-Man Middle School Dance this weekend and get caught up on the backstory to the backstory!”

“The backstory to the backstory?” Ryuk shakes his head incredulously. “I can’t believe they’re doing another Spider-Man. I think the last one came out in 2074.”

“Yup,” FeeTwix says, “that was Spider-Man College Doob.”

“Why would a man want anything to do with a spider?” Zaena asks.

“Taste-wise, I’m more of a fuzzy caterpillar guy. Joking. Just ‘cause I’m a fickin’ goblin doesn’t mean I eat bugs. But I do eat fuzzy caterpillars. Because they are nutritious. Fick you, Liz, for judging me.”

“You’d like Spider-Gwen, Hiccup,” FeeTwix tells the goblin. “Definitely a babe. She was, how would you say in goblinese, a steaming sack of hotness?”

Hiccup grumbles. “The only goblin word I’ve told any of you about is drumpf, which means something that smells worse than shit. We don’t classify fickin’ sacks by their hotness. Now, coldness is another story, but not hotness.”

“Pretty sure Jatla is a steaming sack of coldness.”

“Cut Jatla a break, Marbles, and really, don’t quit your day job. You ain’t funny – Hey!”

Wolf barks and pushes past Hiccup.

“He senses something ahead,” FeeTwix says as his double-bladed sword materializes. Wolf barks again, more high-pitched this time, as if he’s scared.

“Let’s go!” Zaena charges ahead with her four blades drawn. She slides to a halt once she gets to the end of the tunnel.

“What is it?” Ryuk says as he catches up with her. “Whoa!”

His eyes take in an arena-sized chamber complete with stadium seating lit by at least a hundred torches, their fires burning green and yellow. Zaena and Ryuk are at the top of the stands looking down, and from what he can tell, there are dozens of entrances cut into the rockface.

To the north is a primitive skybox likely reserved for royalty, although Ryuk doesn’t know which royalty lived underground or why there are catacombs beneath Porthos to begin with. To the south is an elaborate door cut into a half-oval shape.

“It’s an underground arena!” says Zaena. “Most of these were destroyed eons ago.”

“Lemme see, lemme see.” Hiccup shoulders his way forward and stops dead in his tracks. “Yowza!” He brings his brass hand to his brow and searches the stadium floor for Wolf. “Where the fick did the mutt go?”

Wolf barks and comes running from the left, moving diagonally up the carved stone benches.

“Would you look at that,” FeeTwix says with a wide smile on his face as he takes in the arena. “That’s one thing I like about Tritania, you never know what you’ll discover!”

Zaena mumbles in Thulean as she takes the steps down to the center of the arena. She hops over a barrier, and stops to admire some of the nicks and slash marks in the stone. From there, her attention turns to the skeletons, all of which have been swept to the side of the battleground.

“Tons of loot,” she calls back to Hiccup, who practically rolls down the stairs in anticipation of treasure. He hits the barrier, scrabbles over it, and immediately goes to the skeletal bodies to check them for goods. Wolf follows after him and leaps over the barrier, landing gracefully.

“Why do I have the feeling things are about to heat up?” Ryuk asks as he and FeeTwix take the steps down.

“Because it’s a boss battle!” the Swede says, a smile on his face. “Everyone juice up!” He grabs a healing potion from his list, drinks half of it, and hands the bottle to Ryuk, who takes a small swig.

+70 HP!

“Potion time? Don’t have to tell me twice,” Hiccup says once Ryuk and FeeTwix are over the barrier. “All the loot is shit anyway.” He kicks an ax and it crumbles to dust. “Gimme, gimme, Marbles.”

“Hiccup,” Ryuk starts to say, “you’ve only lost fourteen HP … ”

“Gotta go with the good stuff, then.” The goblin equips a grenade-shaped bottle of Hopkins’ Healing Nostrums, guzzles it, and throws the bottle over his shoulder, where it pings against the skull of a fallen warrior. “I would have saved you some, Liz, but I needed to top off fickin’ the tank. No sense taking a gamble!”

“Someone say gamble?” A loud, syrupy voice echoes through the arena. “Shit, ‘cause you in the right place for that, if that’s what you lookin’ for.”

“Who the fick was that!?” Hiccup’s tomahawk appears in his hand. He scoots around, trying to find the source of the voice.

Smoky black liquid comes from all four corners of the arena, traveling along the top of the chamber and forming a bubbling mass in its center. Before Hiccup can shriek, the inky black shadow descends from the ceiling into the center of the arena and presents itself.

Ink Shadow Level 31

HP: 1121/1121

MANA: 316/316

ATK: 134

MATK: 320

DEF: 169

MDF: 235

LUCK: 26

“Fick no. No, no, no, no!” Hiccup starts to backpedal. “No more fickin’ ink shadows!” Wolf growls, drops to his haunches, and oddly enough, makes his way in front of Hiccup to separate the goblin from the ink shadow.

“No more ink shadows? The fuck you just say, cuz?” The lanky creature laughs. “Now who’d say something for real ignorant like that?”

“I’m not playing Natty Dread!”

“Natty fucking Dread?” The ink shadow’s face forms, long and angular, especially his chin, which extends outward like the end of a banana. He moves closer to the Mitherfickers, his wispy body slinking up and down.

“You heard me!”

“Shit, I ain’t ever been one to turn down a game of Natty Dread, especially from a goblin that I know will cut me a cool fitty … and then there’s my collection of fingernails and other assorted goblin parts. Always lookin’ to upgrade, you feel me? What you say, goblin, how about a game of Bet ya Penis?”

“Shit! I told you guys they were some fickin’ sickos! Blast his ass, Twixy! Zaena, attack! Go! Go! Go! Ryuk, shoot some marbles at him. Let me spell it out for you: up the ass! Zing him before he zings us!” Hiccup beats his tomahawk against his shield, doing his damndest to pump himself up.

“Damn, that’s one fiesty goblin you fools got.” A slimy black tongue drops from the ink shadow’s dark maw and he licks his lips.

“Relax, Hiccup,” FeeTwix says, “let me handle this.” The Swede steps forward, his chest puffed up. “First, hello, Mr. Ink Shadow, I notice you have a very peculiar accent.” His eyes flash as he reads more messages from his fans. “That’s who he sounds like, Snoop Dogg! I went to his holo-concert with Dr. Dre two years back. Snoop Doggy, dooooogg! Dude’s an icon. Four-twenty, everyone! How I could not place that accent?”

“Who is this Snoop Dogg?” Zaena asks.

“A hip-hop star, super famous, babe. He’s dead now, but his holo-concerts are crazy! Lots of ganja! I’ll take you next time he’s doing a Proxima World tour!”

“Hip-Hop?”

“Rap?” he asks.

“Rap?”

“A type of music. I played some earlier on my boombox before it, um, blew up.”

“What in the fick are you going on about, Twixy!? Snoop Dogg? Who the fick is that? This is serious!”

“Right! Sorry, Hiccup. Ahem, Mr. Ink Shadow, we have important business to attend to in Porthos,” he says firmly. “Either step aside, or … ”

“Let us pass or else!” Ryuk says, pointing his Marble Gun at the ink shadow.

Hiccup goes from scared shitless to shitting his pants with laughter. The ink shadow joins him. “Fick me to tears, Marbles, you have got to step up your tough guy act.”

“Shut up!” Ryuk hisses over his shoulder, trying to silence the goblin’s laughter.

The ink shadow wipes inky tears of laughter from his cheeks. “Can’t say I disagree with the goblin, this fool really needs to step up his game. Shit’s straight pathetic, feel me, playa? Look at your raggedy ass.”

Hiccup shakes his head at Ryuk. “Oh, I feel you there. Fick, I’ve been trying to encourage ball droppage since I met the poor bastard.”

“Shut up!” Ryuk fires three shots at the ink shadow, who slinks out of the way just in time.

“Damn, boy, that’s how we gonna play?” The ink shadow pulls an arm back and swings it at Ryuk.

-100 HP!

Ryuk is tossed backwards into a pile of bones, almost as if his legs were lassoed from behind. Wolf growls and snaps his teeth.

“Boy, you ain’t faster than me,” the ink shadow says, his voice growing serious. “Aim your weapon again, fool, see if I don’t strip your soul from your body and use it as a goddamn wipe for my ass!”

The ink shadow’s visage moves from sinister to jovial. “Now where were we? A game of Natty Dread, huh? Nah, that ain’t my thing, man, I told you fools. Besides that, my Wheel of Dread is broken as fuck.” He thinks for a moment. “Don’t y’all worry, I got a game we can play, playas, your canine too.”

“So it’s a game you want then?” Zaena asks.

The ink shadow shrinks in form, disappears into the arena floor, and then lifts up from the ground directly in front of the Thulean. “The Thulean likes games, huh?”

“No, nor do I like pathetic pissants like you.”

“Fick yeah, Liz, tell that fickered fick twat!”

“Konoshlava doka duchaka!” Zaena grits, bearing her teeth.

“Prepare my ghost limbs to die … ” The ink shadow considers this for a moment. Two fingers form in the air and he snaps them together. “Damn, girl, that ain’t a bad idea! A winner takes all fight that pits one of you against ya homies.”

Hiccup gasps. “You mean ... Frenemy?”

The ink shadow snaps his smoky fingers again. “Yeah, that’s what it’s called – Frenemy. My bad for forgetting the name. Thought it was something like Friend Killer. Shit, but you right, Frenemy, that’s what we’ll play.”

“Take Marbles!” Hiccup points his mechanical finger at Ryuk. “He’s our strongest!”

“Frenemy?” Ryuk asks, glancing between his guildmates. “Don’t volunteer me!”

Hiccup continues, “Trust me, pal, you’ll want to go with Marbles here. Real tough guy over here.” He steps behind Ryuk and pushes him towards the ink shadow. “He’s the strongest of all of us, believe you me. I was just joking earlier. He’s built as fick under that emo hood of his.”

The ink shadow’s semi-visible face contorts. “Damn, you think I was born yesterday, playa? Nah, I got bigger plans.”

The ink shadow moves over to FeeTwix just as Zaena steps in front of him with her blades drawn.

“What the hell is going on?” Ryuk asks Hiccup, who still cowers behind him.

“Frenemy. It’s the fickin’ worst game, kid,” he says as the ink shadow sizes FeeTwix and Zaena up.

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“Choose the wolf!” Hiccup shouts. “He’ll be the easiest to kill,” he stage-whispers to Ryuk.

“Shit, sorry, goblin, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, well, you ain’t gonna fool me twice.” The ink shadow laughs. “Y’all fools ever heard that one? Anyway, I got my choice. The commoner with the blond hair.”

With that, the ink shadow lifts into the air and torpedoes into every open orifice on FeeTwix’s face.

Wolf barks like crazy. Zaena grabs the Swede’s hands, trying to drag him away.

But the force is too great.

FeeTwix yanks his hand away, his eyes murky black as he turns to his guildmates and drops into a battle stance.

“We’re so ficked,” Hiccup laments.

(0)__(0)

“Kill me and y’all can pass,” FeeTwix says, his voice suddenly the ink shadow’s. “But if I kill y’all, then you got to restart at the beginning of the catacombs. That’s a long ways away, trust that.”

Ink Shadow FeeTwix does a series of back flips and a few aerials that even the showboat Swede wouldn’t perform in a real battle. Once he has some distance, he tosses his double-bladed sword aside and begins scrolling through his list.

“Hiccup, cover Zaena! I’ll lay down some distraction. Wolf!” The canine looks over to Ryuk. “Um, just hang on a second!”

Ryuk fires the rest of his black molten mag at FeeTwix’s feet to lay down some cover.

“Damn, boy, best be careful with that gat!”

Debris kicks into the air; in the time it takes for the dust to settle Ryuk already has another mag loaded and ready to go.

“Liz, we’re going to need you here!” Hiccup says as his largest shield, his scutum, materializes in front of him.

Zaena swallows hard and gets behind Hiccup, just as a large wave of metal unhappiness berates the Mitherfickers.

Ratatatatatata!

Ryuk hits the deck as the bullets chip away at the bleachers.

“Damn! Never shot one of these before, shit’s got some kick!” the ink shadow says in his syrupy voice.

Ratatatatatata!

His Marble Gun up, Ryuk empties his mag in FeeTwix’s general direction. Meanwhile, Hiccup charges forward, bullets pinging off his huge shield. Zaena hunkers down behind him and Wolf has raced to the outer edge of the area, hoping to come around back.

“I see how it is! Y’all ‘bout to die!” FeeTwix switches to a weapon that sounds even crazier than the one he was just shooting.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

The ink shadow laughs, his voice filling the arena and nearly drowning out the sound of gunfire as it ricochets off Hiccup’s scutum.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Hiccup shouts over his shoulder, sparks flying over him. “Marbles, get the ficker!”

“Trying to!” Ryuk goes for a mag of sword marbles, hoping to get off a tonsil shot or something equally gruesome that will end the fight before FeeTwix can get to any of his mutant hacks.

“Hold your fire, Marbles!” He keeps his weapon trained on the possessed Swede as Hiccup comes in charging with his biggest shield.

The shield connects, Hiccup goes over with it, and Zaena flings herself into the air with her ghost limbs. She comes down behind the Swede, and folds backwards at the waist to avoid the swipe from a giant ax made of cobbled together gears.

Seeing an opening, Hiccup goes in with a tomahawk. He swings down, FeeTwix blocks just in time, and for a moment, the two have a standoff to see who will give first.

My turn. Ryuk’s Extreme Focus warps his vision. Suddenly, there’s a reticle on the back of FeeTwix’s head, and with a steady breath out, he mentally fires two sword marbles.

FeeTwix pivots at just the right time and the two sword marbles go straight into Hiccup’s back.

-116 HP! -134 HP!

“Yeeeeeeooooooy!”

“Damn, y’all some stupid motherfuckers!”

The momentum sends Hiccup stumbling forward and he’s nearly decapitated by FeeTwix only to be rescued at the last minute by Zaena, who throws him a good fifteen feet away with her ghost limbs.

“Fick!” He smacks his back into the stone barrier that surrounds the arena grounds. A healing potion instantly appears in his hands. He falls to his side, and nurses it like a baby with a bottle as he watches Zaena zip around FeeTwix with all four blades.

“Argh!”

He gets a hit in on Zaena that cuts through her armor. She hits the ground and uses her ghost limbs to scurry away in regroup.

Come on. Ryuk is just about to fire off more sword mags when a shoulder mounted grenade launcher forms next to FeeTwix’s head. “Shit’s about to get real! Just squeeze the trigger, right, cuz?” A wicked grin spreads across the Swede’s face as tendrils of smokey liquid drip down his cheeks.

“Fuck!” Ryuk shoves a gravity marble into his mouth and leaps into the air. He hits an invisible airlane and jumps to another just in time. The blast sends splinters of stone into the air. Ryuk is only in the air for a moment longer before the gravity marble loses its juice.

-39 HP!

Not a graceful landing, but Ryuk recovers quickly, watching as Wolf leaps into the air and tackles FeeTwix. The two roll around for a moment.

Bang! Bang!

The Swede manages to get one of his shooting irons out and fires two shots directly into Wolf’s belly.

“Wolf!” Hiccup shrieks. “That’s my ride!”

The dog howls, and FeeTwix is just about to finish the job when Zaena hurls two of her blades at him.

She missed? Ryuk think as one of the blades barely nicks his left cheek. She can’t do it!

FeeTwix touches his face, examines the blood, and flicks it away. “Damn, girl, can’t kill ya man, can you? Guess he gonna have to kill you.”

The Swede’s bowie knife mutant hack appears in his hand and quickly bubbles up his arm, forming a cannon easily the size of trash can opening. Using his other hand to stabilize the bioweapon, FeeTwix aims the biomatter weapon at Zaena and smiles. “Bye, Felicia.”

“Zaena!” Ryuk shouts as the blast tears through her, completely disintegrating her body.

Instakill!

Ink Shadow FeeTwix turns to Ryuk now with his other mutant hack, the bow hack. “You just gonna sit there and take ya licks, or you gonna face me like a man?”

Before Ryuk can even get his weapon up, the Swede’s mutant hack has morphed into a full-fledged triple barrel mega blaster covered in writhing green veins and bits of drippy biomatter.

-215 HP! Critical hit!

FeeTwix falls forward to one knee. He coughs, blood dripping from his mouth.

Ryuk has to blink twice to see Hiccup behind the Swede, his jagged toe knife gripped tightly in his mechanical hand. His face filled with remorse, but determined to end the mayhem, Hiccup grabs FeeTwix by his blond hair, tugs it back to expose his neck, and finishes the job.

Instakill!

The Swede falls forward and the ink shadow lifts out of his body, his head hung low.

(0)__(x)

“Damn, y’all, I was just tryin’ to have some fun.” The ink shadow sulks until he is, well, a shadow of his former self. An inky foot forms and he kicks at the ground. “Fine, whateva, y’all win. That backstabbing shit is some straight up bullshit, though.”

“I’ll show you some ‘straight up bullshit,’” Hiccup growls.

FeeTwix sits up and rubs his eyes, which have flashed blue. They turn black again just as a respawned Zaena gets to him and helps him to his feet. A healing potion takes shape in FeeTwix’s hand and he offers it to her. As she drinks it, he grabs another and he throws it back.

His eyes go wide, the cuts on his face start to heal, and soon, he’s smiling, his cheery self again. “Sorry, babe,” he says as they embrace, “didn’t mean to kill you back there.”

“You saw it?”

“I was possessed, watching it all. That’s some heavy stuff. Don’t hold it against me.”

“I’d never.” Zaena turns her nose up at the ink shadow. “I know whose fault this is.”

Hiccup goes with two healing potions, a Hopkins’ and a generic one. He takes a sip from each, cringing at the flavor of the generic one. “We really need to get some more potions, maybe some more of those Cherry Apollos. You guys are drinking too much. And why the fick are you still here?” he asks the ink shadow. “Be gone with you!”

The ink shadow lowers his head even further. “Damn, for reals y’all, this is the first time I lost in, shit, at least a thousand years. At least!” He throws his finger into the air and increases in size only to shrivel up as soon as he started.

“Them’s the ropes, fickhole, now if you don’t mind we’ll be getting the fick out of these catacombs.” Hiccup tosses the generic healing potion over his shoulder and jams his tongue into the grenade-shaped Hopkins’, hoping to get any last drops. “Damn good stuff.”

Wolf hobbles to the right of Ryuk and sits on his haunches. “You want some potion, boy?”

“Ah, don’t waste that … okay, at least give him a generic one.”

“FeeTwix, got a dog bowl?”

“Yeah, a nice one.” A tin bowl appears in the Swede’s hand. He sets it before Wolf and Ryuk pours the potion in. Wolf sniffs it once.

“Yeah, it’s generic, just drink it, Fido.”

He obliges and the wounds still on his side heal up.

“A game of Three Cards?” the ink shadow suggests. “What you think, pimp? If you win, well shit, I’ll give you all the treasure of the catacombs, I’m talking everything from the bling to the killer legendary weapons.” He grows in size as the spirit of gambling returns to him.

“A game of Three Cards?” Hiccup nods his head.

FeeTwix walks over to the goblin and places an arm around his shoulder. “That’s not the best idea, now is it?”

“Pfft! All the treasure in here, Twixy, did you not hear the fart cloud?” Hiccup’s eyes flash rupee signs. “There could be so much! Fick this quest and the Shinigami. We could buy our own floating continent!”

“That’s right, playa, Three Cards. Let’s do this shit.”

“Absolutely not.” Zaena says so firmly that everyone turns to her and cowers away a bit. “There will be no more gambling. You may point us to the exit; that’s all.”

“Point? Damn, girl, you really is harsh. What kind of gracious host would point?” A grin spreads across the space where the ink shadow’s face should be. “I will lead you there myself!” He sluices away joyously, completely at odds with how disappointed he was just moments ago. “Don’t worry, y’all can trust me.”

“Fickin’ poofty-ass mitherfickin’ jolly boy octo-squirt over here thinks he can just blow some smoke up our puckered bungholes and everything is hunky funky dory. Fick that! I’m not going anywhere he goes!”

FeeTwix: Ryuk?

Ryuk: What’s your map say? Is he heading in the right direction?

“I’m waiting!”

“Yeah? Why don’t you fick off to whatever sinkhole you seeped out of!” Hiccup growls.

“For once, I’m with the goblin,” Zaena says.

Wolf stands and barks.

“Smart fickin’ dog!”

FeeTwix: He’s headed in the right direction …

“Why should we follow you?” Ryuk calls to the ink shadow. “You tried to kill us.”

The ink shadow is suddenly behind Ryuk. Wolf freaks out and snarls at the living shadow.

“Can I tell you a secret?” the ink shadow asks.

“Fick no!” Hiccup starts to make his way over to them, reconsiders it, and grabs his toe knife from its sheath.

“Shit gets lonely down here, y’all. I’m terribly lonely.” The ink shadow is now close enough that Ryuk can make out the outline of a deformed old man hidden in the ghastly being’s murkiness.

“Woe-is-me, huh? Can you guys believe this mentally deranged dotard?”

The ink shadow raises his chin. “Man, I’ve spent a long time in these catacombs waiting for some fool to come along that I could actually communicate with.”

“Why don’t you leave, then?” FeeTwix asks as he approaches.

“We all got jobs, pimp. Me? I’ve been tasked by the Sage of Gotha to guard this here arena. No need to start tripping; ain’t no more surprises. Just being neighborly, that’s all.”

Ryuk looks from FeeTwix, who’s nodding and livestreaming, to Zaena, who has her arms crossed over her chest. Messages appear on his dashboard.

FeeTwix: Fans are saying to go for it. A few are offended by his accent, but they’re dealing with it. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t like Snoop Dogg? Dude is a legend!

Zaena: This Snoop Dogg, as you say, just possessed you and killed me.

FeeTwix: But you’re back now, right? No biggie, babe!

Hiccup: Twixy, you’re a dumbfick. Marbles, don’t you dare agree to letting that Gutenberg orgasm lead us anywhere. Say it with me: EXTREME. VETTING. This is why Tammy backstabbed us. You didn’t let me vet her.

“So what’ll it be, homies, we doing this? I ain’t got all day.”

Ryuk glances one last time to his guildmates and back to the ink shadow. “Fine, but no funny stuff.”

Hiccup slaps his mechanical hand against his forehead. “You’ve got to be shitting me, Marbles! Have I taught you nothing?”

The ink shadow struts forward like a drum major. “All right, y’all, follow me!”

As the ink shadow guides them across the arena, he launches into an explanation of the history of the catacombs. “Shit, I’m gonna be straight honest with y’all, these here catacombs were started way before the monarchy was in place. The eastern quadrant, that is. The western quadrant, our current one, this shit was built later, like way later.”

“The catacombs go all the way to the east?” Ryuk asks, as they move into a corridor with stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

“That’s right, lil’ homie. Them catacombs to the east turn into the sewers beneath Waringtla, stinky as fuck in my opinion. Glad my ass ain’t over there.”

“Waringtla? That’s the giant city, right?” FeeTwix asks. “Some of my fans were telling me that I should enter a tournament there … WAIT A MINUTE! The dots have been connected! Is that the same tournament you were telling me about, the one that Quantum Hughes cheated?” he asks Zaena.

Her orange eyes narrow. “Yes, your hero cheated, and through his cheating, he bested Queen Renata, the Thulean head of state, but she was only a princess then. Still, it was a despicable act. You should never look up to this type of man.”

“Agree to disagree, babe, Quantum is a legend!”

The ink shadow pauses to consider the name. Finally, he shrugs it off. “Never heard of no Quantum Hughes; must not be that big of a legend.”

Hiccup snorts. “If it sounds like Thuleans are sore losers, it’s because they are. Hey! Hands off the hair, Liz!”

As they come to another chamber, the ink shadow grows in size and scares off an approaching group of imps. “Little fuckboys, if you ask me. Can’t tell y’all how many imps I kill on a weekly basis. Them fools breed quick,” he says as they move into the chamber. “But back to the history of the catacombs, ‘cause I can tell y’all are interested. Anyone know who built this shit?”

“Don’t care, but I agree with you on imps. Those little naked fickers are always down for an orgy.” Hiccup yawns. “That’s it, I’m taking a load off. Wolf, get your ass over here.”

“Thuleans built the catacombs,” the ink shadow says as they move into a wide path that slopes to the right. Odd faces are carved into the walls, their chiseled features accented by the torchlight.

The smell of brimstone makes Ryuk’s nose twitch. It’s the first time he’s smelt anything aside from stale air since they entered the arena space.

“Thuleans built this?” FeeTwix asks. “Interesting!”

Zaena smiles at him.

“While they might be cool now, the first Thuleans, called Thules, were straight warring with their dragon ancestors. And dragons ain’t no one to fuck with. Tired of having their villages burnt up, the Thules built the catacombs on Polynya to stop the dragons from attacking them. Boom. Problem solved. Dragons ain’t goin’ underground, feel me?”

“I feel you!” FeeTwix announces.

“Um, yeah cool. So the Thules joined with the Saiduka giants of Waringtla to build the catacombs, which as I told you, stretch all the way from the east to the west coast. But it was started in the east.”

“Hold the fick up.”

Everyone turns to see Hiccup mount Wolf, who doesn’t seem to mind that the only thing separating him from the goblin’s poop chute and frequent wind tunnel is a thin layer of fabric.

He pats his mechanical hand on Wolf’s neck. “If Conan and his mutt pass the system of tests I’ve devised, I’ve got first fickin’ dibs on the wolf. We clear?”

Dogs, they’ll put up with anything, Ryuk thinks as they continue onward.

The ink shadow laughs. “Damn, ya goblin–”

“I have a name!”

“–Makes me want to hit up Bluwid one day. Might as well pump up my collection of goblin fingernails. Used to have the biggest collection this side of Porthos.”

Hiccup shrieks and a message appears on Ryuk’s dashboard.

Hiccup: Ink shadows love goblin body parts. Don’t ask me fickin’ why. I’ve been telling you guys this forever. Now do you finally believe me?

Ryuk: Yes.

Hiccup: Marbles, you have the personality of a steamed cabbage.

“Why do ink shadows like goblin fingernails?” FeeTwix asks. “I think they are too brittle.”

“Hey!”

“Damn, you ain’t never seen jewelry made from goblin nails? Shit is nice. You can also grind them up into a fine powder and snort ‘em. Talk about a boner for days.”

“Don’t you come near my nails or my chalupa!”

The ink shadow comes to a stop at the bottom of a long stairway. “Chill, goblin, I don’t want your nails. Believe me, I checked, yours ain’t my style. Too thick and yellow, playa. Not worth anything.”

“That’s not what the ink shadow in Sotla said!” Hiccup examines his one good hand.

“That’s another problem.” One of the ink shadow’s tendrils clearly forms a single digit.

“Oh, because I don’t have two hands, I’m suddenly not good enough for you, huh?” Hiccup starts patting Wolf on the head, clearly trying to cope with the recent insult.

“That’s ‘bout right. And your chalupa? Too small. Ain’t worth my time, fool.”

(x)__(x)

“Ahem, anything else we should know about the catacombs?” Ryuk asks, hoping to steer the conversation away from a debate centered upon goblin penis sizes.

“Anything else … ” The ink shadow strokes the place where his chin should be. “Y’all fools ever heard of the Runestones of Tritinakh?”

Ryuk shakes his head and looks to FeeTwix, who after scanning messages from his fans also doesn’t have a clue.

“I have,” Zaena says.

“Damn, girl, you well read. You want to explain or should I?”

“Go ahead.”

“Aight, so there are three Runestones of Tritinakh. One is in the east, if you follow the catacombs all the way to their natural endpoint. The other two are hidden across Polynya, one in the Sabors, from what my homie told me.”

“And the other Runestone?” FeeTwix asks.

“Fuck if I know. Rumor is you’ll be strong as hell if you can find all three, though.”

A prompt appears and Ryuk quickly reads it:

Quest: Will you find all three Runestones of Tritinakh? One is located at an eastern exitpoint to the catacombs. Another is possibly located in The Sabors. The third location is unknown.

Possible Rewards: A great power.

Risks: A lifetime of searching for a legend that turns out to be false.

[Yes/No?]

Ryuk glances from FeeTwix to Zaena, both of whom nod. He selects “yes” as he makes the instant decision to place the quest on the backburner, to be handled later.

“All right, pimps,” the ink shadow says. “That’s the entrance to Porthos.” He nods to the top of a long stairway lit by torches. “And this is where I peace out.”

“Thank the Empress’ bosom of ambient bear’s milk. Fick off, shadow boy.”

“Be cool, goblin.”

“Is it guarded at the top?” FeeTwix asks.

“Not this one. The other entrance to Porthos, the one likely on your map, that’s the guarded one. Y’all would be walking right out of a door guarded by Thun’s knights if you followed ya map. See? Told y’all it pays to trust ink shadows.”

“Like fick it does!”

Wolf barks and goes in a quick circle.

“That’s right,” FeeTwix says, “Wolf has to get back to Oric.”

Ryuk nods. “Think he’ll be okay?”

“Don’t worry; I’ll keep my eye on him.”

Hiccup leads Wolf as far away from the ink shadow as he can. “You leave his chalupa alone!”

“Please,” the ink shadow sighs, “ain’t nobody want no dog chalupa, as you call it. But if you ever see to your fingernail fungus and get your other hand back, hit me up.” With that, and punctuated by a long, sinister laugh, the ink shadow disappears completely.

“Whew! Boy fick am I glad that bad hombre is gone.” Hiccup points his mechanical finger at the top of the flight of stairs. “Come on, Wolfy, take me to the top.”

Wolf looks at him skeptically.

Zaena laughs. “You sure are lazy!”

“Lazy? It’s called smart, Liz, and once I’m at the top and you three are still walking your way up, we’ll see who’s fickin’ lazy then.”

“You’ll still be lazy then.”

“Wolf can’t come with us,” Ryuk reminds the goblin.

“Damn, Marbles, you act like I’m suffering from Early Onset Goblinheimer’s or some shit. I’m aware. Once he gets me up there, he can run his happy ass back to his owner. Let’s go!”

Wolf lugs Hiccup up to the top of the stairs, panting all the way. Once they arrive at the top, the goblin gets down and gives the big black canine a slap on the ass. “You’ve been real helpful, now git!”

Wolf looks at him, looks down to the three others, and sits on his haunches as they make their way up.

“Or rest. You do you, Wolfie,” Hiccup says as he pets the big canine with his mechanical hand.

It takes the Mitherfickers another minute or so to reach the top.

Hiccup yawns. “Glad you could join me. Whatever is behind this door,” he tosses his thumb over his shoulder, “better be worth missing a gobnap. I’m fickin’ pooped.”

“How?” Zaena asks incredulously. “You have barely done anything for the last hour.”

“Yeah, I barely did anything, aside from saving our asses by knifing Twixy.”

“No time for napping, Hiccup.” FeeTwix places his hands on his sides and stretches. “We have a concert to get to. It’s starting soon, and we promised to be there!”

“You promised for us to be there,” Ryuk reminds him.

“A promise is a promise! It’ll only be for an hour; plenty of time to meet and greet and then get our asses to Porthos.”

“Shit, you three go to the concert, I’ll stay here and guard the entrance. Don’t want any fickers figuring out about us.”

Zaena shrugs. “Fine, have it your way, goblin, but I’m pretty sure a lone goblin in the catacombs will attract more ink shadows. But you seem confident with ink shadows anyway, and you’re definitely a better gambler than most of them are.”

“Most? All, Liz, all.” Hiccup looks at Wolf. “Well, he could stay with me.”

“No, he needs to get back to his owner, Oric.” Ryuk approaches Wolf and places his hand on his snout. Wolf’s tongue comes out of his mouth and he licks at Ryuk’s hand.

“Hey, how come you never pet me like that?” Hiccup asks. “Fickin’ with you, Marbles, I’m not your little fickboy; I already told you that.”

“You tell me that a lot. You say a lot of stupid shit.”

“Well, that’s the best way to get one’s point across. Just keep saying the same stupid shit over and over until it sinks in. It works for politicians, and it’ll work for you if you ever hope to dampen your chalupa, if you get my drift.” Confusion paints across the goblin’s face. “Fick me, where was I?”

He glances to FeeTwix for help.

“You were, um, talking about how excited you are to come to the concert with us!” FeeTwix grins from cheek to cheek.

“Was I?” Hiccup shrugs. “Welp, that doesn’t fickin’ sound like me, but if there are babes, booze, and drugs – in that order – I’m down to get down. Now git, Wolfie!”

Wolf stands, stretches his front legs, and trots to the edge of the stairs. He looks back at the group one more time, nods his head at them, and takes off.

“I guess that’s his way of saying goodbye,” Zaena comments. “Cute.”

“Think again, Liz.” Hiccup’s nostrils flare. “You smell that?”

She cringes as the foul odor reaches her nose. “Filthy goblin!”

“Damn, Hiccup,” Ryuk coughs and tries to get as far away from the goblin as he can.

“Ha! That wasn’t me, fickers, that was Wolf!” Hiccup takes another big whiff and coughs. “Smells like DD’s BBQ, if you ask me.” He grins at his guildmates. “And that, Mitherfickers, is what’s known as a ‘parting poot.’ Damn, he even got me with that one!”

“All right, all right,” FeeTwix says as he waves the stench away. “Let’s get to the party!”

Chapter 23: DJ Ride the Lightning Rides the Lightning

FeeTwix presents them with a spawning point, and as soon as the four Mitherfickers touch it, they’re whisked away through a tunnel made of light, accented by sparks of lightning.

This, Ryuk knows, is purely for show. They are OMIB-porting, using the backbone of the Proxima Galaxy to travel. Bells and whistles such as this are added only to add a little flare, flare that a particular goblin seems to like.

“Fick me!” Hiccup says before he can even take in his surroundings. “That was fickin’ sweet!” The goblin takes one look at the screaming crowd beneath them. “Fick yeah!”

The Mitherfickers stand on a platform, one of many raised platforms in a concert space that spans as far as the eye can see. To the north is an elaborate stage surrounded by large holoscreens broadcasting a mirrored, pyramid-shaped DJ booth.

Their images quickly appear on the holoscreens and the surrounding crowd roars.

“For us … ?” Ryuk asks, butterflies whipping around his stomach.

“Fick no,” Hiccup says, “for Twixy!”

“And Hiccup too!” FeeTwix points at a group below their raised platform. Above the group, the letters F - I - C - K - E - R - S sizzle and flash.

The group cheers as soon as Hiccup spots them. He waves with his mechanical hand, and after he does so, he quickly smoothes the same hand over his pink topknot.

“Damn! There are some real hotties down there.” Hiccup licks his fingers and smoothes out his bushy eyebrows. He grabs his junk, adjusts, sniffs under his arms, and makes a “not too bad” face.

With a snap of his fingers, Hiccup is suddenly shirtless. He now wears a pair of what Ryuk would describe as boy shorts – which is just about the most unsettling thing he’s seen from the goblin – and for shoes, he’s gone with his normal battle boots, which are bulky and covered in nicks and scratches.

“What?” Hiccup asks as Zaena gives him the hairy eyeball. “It’s a concert, Liz! Let your fickin’ hair down, and stop, for the love of the Empress’ perky mammaries, STOP FAT-SHAMING ME!”

“He’s right!” FeeTwix adds, his arm around Zaena’s shoulder. “But not about the fat shaming part because you have no shame, goblin friend! He’s right about changing and getting some choon-ready clothes.”

The Swede is suddenly in a white sleeveless overcoat with matching distressed pants rolled up at the knees, and a pair of Boba Fett DisNikes. His tactical vest disappears and his blond hair slicks back. “Got anything white, babe?”

In the blink of an eye, Zaena goes from battle-ready to prom night in her tight, strapless one-piece white dress and a pair of bedazzled gladiator sandals.

“Hubba, hubba, Liz! You clean up nice!” Hiccup says.

“Thank you, goblin.”

“I’m going to let that little racist epithet slide on account of your sudden hotness. What about you, Marbles?”

“Um … ” Ryuk’s Dream Armor disappears and is replaced by a black t-shirt, black jeans, and a pair of black Vans with Flight Feet written in cursive along the toe caps.

“Going for the Bramtoker look, huh?” Hiccup asks as he rubs his hands along his considerable girth.

“No, I just like black.”

“I think there’s a saying about liking black … never go back … can’t remember it all. Anyfick, I’m out, bitches! Time to finds some chippies and some booze.”

The goblin sits on the platform and calls out to the people below, who respond by reaching their hands up to him.

“Not so fast!” FeeTwix rushes over to Hiccup and slaps a small square on his pimply back.

“What the twick, Fixy!? Shit, you know what I mean.” Hiccup tries to reach the little square affixed to his back but fails.

“In case you’re wondering, this will make sure we can’t lose you!”

“It’s GPS?” Ryuk asks as he walks over. Once glance down at the raging crowd and he suddenly feels nauseated.

“You mean PPS, Proxima Positioning System, and no, it’s not that type of tracking.”

Hiccup again tries to swipe the square off his back but his reach falls short. “You can’t just tag me like a fickin’ animal. Take it off, Twixy!”

“Relax, Hiccup, I’m not tagging you at all, friend!”

“Then what the fick is this shit?” Too bulky to properly twist his body, about the only thing Hiccup can manage is the slight tilt of his head.

“There’s twenty million people down there,” FeeTwix shouts over the roar of the crowd, who come to life after another Proxima celebrity appears on a platform not far from the Mitherfickers. “I’ll never be able to find you, but you’ll be able to find us.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Watch.” FeeTwix walks over to Zaena and shows her a bulky calculator watch now on his wrist. He presses a button, and the goblin slides across the platform against his will.

Ryuk and Zaena crack up; Hiccup is much less amused.

“You got me on a fickin’ leash?”

“It’s magnetic!” FeeTwix tells the goblin as he walks back over to him. “And trust me, it won’t hurt a bit. I’ll just press the button when we’re ready to go and you’ll be dragged up here.”

“What part of ‘I’m nobody’s fickboy’ do you not understand? You’ve got to be fickin’ kidding me with this thing. I’m not someone’s chia pet!”

“Chia pet?” Ryuk asks.

The Swede smiles big. “Just get down there and have fun!”

“Fine, fine, but we’re not through discussing this.”

Hiccup approaches the ledge of the platform and calls for people to catch him.

The people below raise their hands and the goblin, a sour look on his face, turns his back to the crowd, scowls at the three Mitherfickers, lifts two middle fingers up in the air and stage dives backwards into the crowd.

(0)__(0)

Enway’s form takes shape on the platform. She’s in a black body suit and her hair has been pulled to the side, forming a short, tight ponytail. The zipper on the front of her body suit is open just enough to draw eyes.

“Hey!” Ryuk says, swallowing hard. “Glad you could join us.”

“Wow!” Enway walks to the platform and looks down. “The Mitherfickers really are famous!”

“It’s just FeeTwix.”

“With fame and fortune comes great responsibility!” FeeTwix sticks a finger in the air. “Or, um, something like that. Hey! The concert is starting soon!”

Sure enough, smoke has begun puffing out from the corners of the stage. Lightning from the dark sky overhead strikes the base of the mirrored pyramid on stage. Fire appears at the edges of the pyramid and slowly burns its way up to the DJ booth at the top.

“Bravo!” Zaena claps her hands and FeeTwix comes behind her and wraps his arms around her waist.

“So, what happened in the catacombs?” Enway asks, moving closer to Ryuk.

“A lot of battles, and eventually, an ink shadow with a strange dialect.”

“Those things are icky.”

“Yeah, just a word of advice,” Ryuk says over the roar of the crowd, “you’ve heard Hiccup go on and on about chalupas versus churros–”

“If he has a penis, he should call it a churro,” she says firmly. “I’m not backing down on this.”

“Right. I don’t know what he has, or at least, I’ve tried to wipe what I’ve seen of his anatomy from my mind.” Ryuk shakes his head. Nope, the image of Hiccup’s ass is still there. “Anyway, what I was getting at: do not, do not ever, get him started on ink shadows. Trust me on that. If you value your sanity, never ask him about ink shadows.”

She laughs. “Noted.”

A man with long hair and a line shaved down the center of his forehead flies over them. He lands on another platform, kicks off, nears another, and bounces off again.

~~DJ RIDE THE LIGHTNING!~~

A booming voice says it again, and as it does so, a slow motion bolt of lightning descends from the sky. Seeing his opening, DJ Ride the Lightning takes a leap, twists, and with his arms stretched in front of him, he latches onto the bolt of lightning.

“That’s so stupid!” Enway says as DJ Ride the Lightning whips around on the lightning bolt. He’s giving it his rodeo best, and as it nears the stage, he swan dives off it and lands at the top of the mirror pyramid just as the music starts up.

“Woo!” Zaena calls out, her fists in the air as she rocks to the music. “So great!”

“Aren’t you going to dance?” FeeTwix calls over to Ryuk.

“Um … ” Ryuk starts grooving as best as his hips will allow.

“Not bad,” Enway says as she does the same. “Oh! I forgot to tell you, I finished the ten page essay.”

“Ten page essay?”

“Yeah, as part of Hiccup’s extreme vetting. It’s a ten page essay on why I’d like to join the Mitherfickers and what I’d bring to the group. It’s the last part of the vetting process.”

“I didn’t … ” Ryuk shakes his head. Damn goblin!

“It’s fine. There was also a multiple choice test too.”

“When did he have time to make all this stuff?”

“I think he made some of it when he was at DD’s BBQ, and well, honestly, I have no idea.”

“What kind of multiple choice questions?” Ryuk yells over the loud choons radiating from the stage. DJ Ride the Lightning is currently suspended upside down from a dark cloud, his hair hanging as he presses buttons on his rig.

“There was one that showed a poorly drawn picture of a penis with two answer choices, chalupa and churro.”

“And which did you choose?” Ryuk looks up to see FeeTwix grinding against Zaena, who beats both her arms in the air.

“I chose churro! I’m not going to let that damn goblin intimidate me in my native language!”

“Fuck him, we need a healer. You’re in!”

Ryuk fires off messages to the others.

Ryuk: Enway is joining the guild.

FeeTwix: I’m game.

Zaena: YEAH!

Hiccup: What the fick, Marbles!? I haven’t graded her essay yet!

Ryuk: Fick you, Hiccup!

Hiccup: Hey!

FeeTwix: YEAH FICK YOU, HICCUP!

Zaena: MITHERFICKERS FOR LIFE!

DJ Ride the Lightning explodes into a million tiny neon bolts.

The multifarious bolts zip around the concert grounds, merge into a single sphere over the audience, and within that radiating sphere, the DJ’s body reforms. He throws up two peace signs à la Nixon and the bass drops.

And boy does it drop.

Ryuk can feel the concussion in his chest; it’s almost as if he’s been struck by a gravity marble the size of a wrecking ball. The crowd below responds, their hands moving in great waves above their heads as they dance their asses off.

The sphere above the crowd explodes, showering the concertgoers with sparkling blips of light.

DJ Ride the Lightning is suddenly at the top of the pyramid again in the form of a nude woman with her nipples covered by flashing stars.

More stars spiral out of the rafters and the music moves accordingly, the percussive snare hitting the off beats, the full synth filling out the midrange, the high end covered by a vocoded female voice screaming in ecstasy.

The bass builds again, the crowd readies for the drop, and the drop that follows rattles the very core of Ryuk’s avatar.

Their platform trembles as if it were struck by a mini earthquake. As soon as it passes, Ryuk looks to see Zaena’s jumping in the air with a huge smile on her face, using her ghost limbs for stability. FeeTwix points both fingers to the sky, nodding and occasionally picking out his fans below and shooting them a thumbs up.

Once the bass filters out, Ryuk turns to Enway.

“I checked with the others. You’re in!”

“I can join?” she shouts over the brassy, ear-shattering choon.

Ryuk nods and extends membership.

Enway Rosa, Level 15 High Elf, has joined your guild!

Chapter 24: After Party

The four Mitherfickers respawn at the top of the stairs. It’s been an hour, they’ve boogied down, and after bidding his fans farewell, FeeTwix gave the “wrap it up” signal and used his magnetic device to call Hiccup back to their platform, much to the goblin’s chagrin.

Ryuk is practically giddy as his avatar takes shape.

He danced with Enway, it was nice, they were close, and he had a fucking good time, the best time he’s ever had at a public gathering.

“I’ve got to go to more of those,” he says under his breath. He suddenly wishes Enway could join them, but he knows that someone needs to look after Yangu and take care of Oric.

He smiles. The guild is really shaping up.

A bit of light peeks in beneath the door leading to Porthos, but with all the neon accoutrement Hiccup is wearing, the four could have spawned completely in the dark. The goblin has green glow sticks twisted into his pink hair, bright reflective paint covering his mechanical arm, neon handprints over his hairy nipples, and for some bizarre reason, a pacifier hanging from his neck.

“Fick you guys and your Cinderella deadline. I was having a fickin’ blast! And get this damn tracking device off me!” He points a mechanical finger at FeeTwix. “But seriously, we NEED to get back there pronto!”

FeeTwix laughs and uses a small rod lit by a blacklight to remove the square he slapped on Hiccup’s back. It was a good thing he put it on there too; they would be goblin-less if it weren’t for that thing.

Then again, Ryuk thinks, goblin-less isn’t such a bad thing. He tosses the thought away; he feels too damn good to give Hiccup a hard time.

The goblin pops the pacifier in and gets to sucking.

“What?” he asks his guildmates. “This shit is laced with something! I’m fickin’ on fire over here. Fick yeah!” He throws a couple of punches, pacifier in his mouth. “Let me at ‘em!” He gives Ryuk a sour look and spits the pacifier out. “And what in the actual fick were you thinking when you let Enway join the guild? Seriously, Marbles, this is why we can’t have nice things.”

“The conversation is over. She’s in.”

Hiccup takes a deep, angry breath. “Fine, fine, fine. Whoo!” He claps his hands together. “Let’s go introduce ourselves to the Knights and then get back to the concert. I got fans to please and habits to appease! I saw some orc chippies there; you guys see them?”

“We came all this way to get to Porthos,” Ryuk reminds him, “not party all night.”

“Fick, kid, I’m telling you. While Tammy may have let you grab a titty every now and then, you’ll never, and by never I mean never, get yourself a choice bit of poontang if you don’t let your hair down. Live and let live, Marbles. You’re worse than a millennial, whatever the fick that is.”

To emphasize what he means by ‘let your hair down,’ Hiccup shakes the three glow sticks out of his pink locks. The three glow sticks plink down the stairs, tiny beacons in the darkness.

“This may not be as easy as we think, goblin.” Zaena says as she approaches the stone door. “And I am as disappointed as you that we had to go. But there will always be another party, and time is of the essence.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get on with it!”

The Thulean smoothes her hands across the stone door as she looks for an opening mechanism. As she does this, FeeTwix thanks his fans for joining the Mitherfickers at the concert and reminds them that KFC Bell now has a new burrito stuffed with spicy fried chicken that comes with a Cheetos dusted ball of fried mashed potatoes and a thirty-two ounce fountain drink of your choosing. Once he finishes, he returns to Zaena’s side.

“Want me to blow it open, babe?”

“Blow it! Blow it! Blow it!” the goblin chants.

She laughs. “Not all puzzles in Tritania can be solved with alien tech.” Blue Thulean script flashes on the face of the stone and the door pops open. “See.”

The four enter into a long, underground storage space filled with barrels of green leaves, some sealed and others open, their scoops sticking out of them. Ryuk recognizes the logo on one of the barrels almost immediately.

“I know where we are,” he says before FeeTwix can figure it out through messages from his fans. “This is the Morla’s Place! We’re in Valhalla, not far from the Knights’ guild.”

“Morla’s Place?” Zaena asks. “The teashop? I thought they were all pop-ups.”

“They are, on the other continents at least. This is their headquarters.”

Ryuk points to the ceiling of the cellar. The sound of people talking and walking across a creaky floor suddenly becomes apparent. “They have a huge, three-story tea shop upstairs. All we need to do is slip out of here, and we’ll fit right in with the crowd that’ll be up there.”

“Fit right in?” Hiccup asks, still in his concert attire.

“After you change,” Ryuk says firmly.

“Fine, but I’m keeping the pacifier and as soon – and I’m talking as soon – as we see the Knights’ guild, I’m fickin’ out of here. Twixy, we cool? Can you port me back to the concert?”

“No problem, Hiccup!”

“Good.” The paint covering Hiccup’s body and the glow sticks sticking out of his pockets all disappear. After his armor has appeared, he equips his golden helm, places it on his head, and pops the pacifier back in. “Fick yeah!”

“I’ll go first,” Ryuk says as the four approach the stairs that lead up to the main floor of the tea shop. “Follow me and slip out quickly. Don’t be an idiot either,” he reminds the goblin.

Hiccup flashes Ryuk the one fingered salute.

“Go on, Ryuk, we’ll be behind you,” Zaena says.

Once he gets to the top, Ryuk places his ear against the door to hear if there is any activity on the other side. Too hard to tell, he thinks as he steadies his breath and pushes the door open.

A hobgoblin in Thulean gauntlets drops his mug of Horse Piss Tea as soon as he spots Ryuk. “It’s him!” he shrieks in a high voice.

The large room that was bustling just moments ago goes absolutely silent as the patrons and waitstaff all turn to see what the hobgoblin is pointing at.

Him? Ryuk actually glances around to see if there is someone else the hobgoblin could be pointing at.

“Get him!” A spellsword shouts as he unsheathes an icy blue blade.

Spell Sword Level 13

HP: 425/425

ATK: 96

MATK: 136

DEF: 76

MDF: 74

LUCK: 6

“It’s him!” More people stand from their tables and equip their weapons.

“He’s the guy who attacked the Empress!” a low voice yells out.

“Out of the way!” Zaena slips past Ryuk and unsheathes four swords. She breathes heavily, waiting for the gathering crowd of combatants to make a move.

“What the fick is happening up there?” Hiccup shouts, his voice muffled a bit because of his pacifier. He spits it out. “Seriously, what the fick is going on? Let me up there!”

“They found us!” FeeTwix shoulders past Ryuk with a kunai attached to a chain. “Get over here!”

The Swede, his eyes two black holes, is the first to strike.

His kunai stabs into the spellsword and yanks him over to the Mitherfickers. FeeTwix finishes with an uppercut that sends the guy straight into a wall.

-87 HP!

“Shit, Twixy!” Hiccup pushes out, his spiked club in his mechanical hand a dinner plate-sized shield gripped to his other forearm. “Let’s fick them up! Whoo!”

“Shoot first, ask questions later!”

“Fick yeah!”

“No!” Ryuk shouts, as FeeTwix goes with two comically large Sandalwood Guns.

Bang! Bang!

Instakill!

The report sends shockwaves through Ryuk’s core. He bends for a moment to gather his thoughts, as Zaena runs forward to engage a mage and FeeTwix keeps laying down .45s.

“We shouldn’t be fighting them! The Empress’ guard will come!” he yells up to FeeTwix.

“Preemptive strike!”

Bang!

FeeTwix fires a shot directly into the face of a barbarian with braided pigtails.

Instakill!

An idea comes to Ryuk, the only thing that would make sense. Covered by FeeTwix’s gunfire, he moves to the right, where he knocks over a table and gets behind it. He fires off a quick message to FeeTwix.

Ryuk: Have your fans shared with you any info coming out of Porthos?

FeeTwix: There’s been an information freeze. Nothing is allowed to get out of the city.

Ryuk and FeeTwix lock eyes for a moment, only to be interrupted when Hiccup shouts, “Fick it’s him!” They look to a wanted poster pinned to a messageboard not far from them. Sure enough, it’s a picture of Ryuk, a bit of hair sticking out of his hood.

“I’m wanted … ?” Ryuk connects the dots almost immediately. The only way this is possible is if his doppelgänger did something sinister.

“You’re ficked, Marbles. Nice to know ya!”

“Incoming!” FeeTwix dives next to Ryuk just in time to miss a flying table.

Ryuk peeks around their cover to see an orc easily twice as tall as Zaena. The shirtless orc’s considerable girth hangs over a loincloth that barely covers his twig and berries. He roars, his manboobs and nipple rings flapping as he goes for another table.

No time to think, Ryuk grabs his magic slingshot and a gravity marble.

The marble strikes the orc’s body and the big bruiser is instantly thrown backwards to the entrance, bringing the structure supporting the front of Morla’s Place down.

Using her ghost limbs to get out of the way just in time, Zaena skids to a halt next to Ryuk and FeeTwix. For his part, Hiccup beats the shit out of the hobgoblin that sold them out, who was in too much of a stupor to get out of the way in time.

“This the one who squealed?” he calls over to Ryuk.

“We’ve got to get there before they get here,” Ryuk says quickly, his mind going a million miles an hour.

Hiccup kicks the cowering hobgoblin once more and pops the pacifier in his mouth. “Let’s get the fick on with it then!”

A message appears on Ryuk’s viewing pane.

Hiccup: Stop judging me. Like I said, the pacifier is laced.

“Whatever.” Ryuk pops a molten marble in his mouth and cautiously moves to the front of the tea shop. A few NPCs that have been pinned by the rubble whimper as the Mitherfickers step over them.

The silhouette of a woman takes shape ahead and Zaena bristles.

“She’s mine.”

Mind Mage Level 16

HP: 388/388

MANA: 400/400

ATK: 42

MATK: 193

DEF: 59

MDF: 61

LUCK: 14

To their left, the towering orc from earlier lifts himself out of a partially crumbled fountain. He scowls, locks his eyes on the Mitherfickers, and roars.

“Fick!”

Ryuk feels the goblin get directly behind him.

“Dammit, Hiccup!” he says as the goblin grips his waist and tries to make sure that Ryuk is directly between the big orc and the small goblin.

He spits his pacifier out again. “How the hell are we supposed to take that thing out!? It’s too big!”

“Don’t you worry, Hiccup,” says the Swede, “that’s what steamsuits are for.”

“Steam-what!?”

It takes all of ten seconds for a five-meter-tall exoskeleton suit to take shape in front of FeeTwix. The phrase YoRHa A-2 is stenciled across the chest of the exoskeleton. As it settles, a valve jutting out of its left shoulder produces a cloud of steam.

A Gatling Gun starts to rotate on the right arm even before the chest can clamshell open to allow FeeTwix to get inside. Once the Swede is in, the locking mechanisms sound off as the Swede is secured into place.

Attached to his left forearm is a jagged buster sword; as FeeTwix gets used to the feel of the suit, its shoulders lifting up and down and its legs lifting one at a time, he brings the sword before him and says, his voice suddenly metallic, “The orc is mine.”

“Holy fick yes! Yes! Yes!” Hiccup shouts. “That’s the most stupid-tacular thing I’ve seen all fickin’ week!”

A guild of lower level scouts and warriors come charging out of an alley. They skid to a halt when they see FeeTwix’s steamsuit.

“Good!” Hiccup spits his pacifier out as he’s suddenly filled with confidence. “Lizzy, get the mage; FeeTwix, get Bitchtits McSTD; and Marbles and I will mop up any of the fickboys left!”

(0)__(0)

A dapper man with the face of a cat appears out of nowhere. He leaps from behind some covering to the spot directly in front of Ryuk. Before Ryuk can even take in the man’s stats, he’s pulled to the ground, his Dream Armor combating the man’s rapid claw strikes.

“Dammit!” the man shouts as he tries again and again to get a swipe in.

Ryuk grins, and as his mouth opens, a massive fireball engulfs the catman. He leaps off Ryuk, his whiskers sizzling, and runs to the partially crumbled fountain to duck his head in.

-31 HP!

Now aiming his marble gun, Ryuk nearly splits the catman in half with his Cherry Poppin’ Daddy skill.

“Yeeeeeeooowww!” he shrieks.

-154 HP!

Skill level up!

“Fickin’ nice! You got him in the starfish, Marbles!”

Catman’s clawed finger comes up and he logs out.

There’s no time to read Cherry Poppin’ Daddy’s skill update prompt. Ryuk pops a gravity marble in his mouth and hits the air.

He throws in another until he’s on top of the building next to Morla’s Place. His Marble Gun up, he waits for his opening as two staunch warriors descend upon Hiccup. The goblin holds his own, giving Ryuk time to fire a shot at one of the warrior’s feet.

-207 HP! Critical hit!

The second warrior’s leg goes flying and he logs out in a panic.

“What a bitch!” the goblin shouts as he ducks an incoming blade. He comes up with both arms on the handle of his spiked club and brings it down onto the warrior’s exposed side.

-112 HP!

The guy buckles and Hiccup swings back and brains the brawny swordsman.

Instakill!

“Fick yeah!” Hiccup’s celebratory end zone dance is cut short when he glances right to see Zaena screaming and grasping at her arms and legs. The Thulean’s swords lay in a heap at her feet and the Mind Mage isn’t far off, magic rippling up her arms and her eyes ablaze.

Hiccup looks up to Ryuk, points at an incoming group of fairies, points back to himself, and points at Zaena.

With that, the goblin nonchalantly grabs a brick from the rubble and keeps to the shadows as he walks around the twitching Zaena, the Mind Mage so enthralled with watching the Thulean bug out that she’s completely oblivious to the creeping goblin.

Once he’s in range, Hiccup pitches the brick at the back of the Mind Mage’s head and knocks her out cold.

-266 HP! Critical hit!

Ryuk unloads an entire mag on a guild of archers as the Swede cracks his giant buster sword against the orc’s equally matched shield.

The bulky steamsuit may give him some leverage, but Ryuk can tell by the way FeeTwix is moving that he’d like to take to the air and lay down some firepower. But every time he tries to move away and activate his flying capabilities, the orc lunges for him, and tries to pry the front of the steamsuit open.

Finally, FeeTwix gets the opening he needs.

He kicks off the orc’s chest, blasting the mahoosive son of a giant with a cloud of steam out of the bottom of both his feet. Once in the air, his Gatling gun starts rotating as he fills the orc with lead.

We’re winning! Ryuk thinks as he goes for another mag of black molten marbles. He takes a step back, and as he does, someone grabs him from behind, disarms him, and cuffs his hands together.

“Hey!”

Ryuk is pushed to his knees by a man wearing sleek black armor and a facemask.

Before he can make out his features, the man grabs Ryuk’s cuffs and disappears. They land amidst the mayhem below and Ryuk’s tossed to his stomach. The man flashdances away, and soon Hiccup meets the same fate.

“What the fick?” the goblin cries out. “Who the hell is that?”

Ryuk’s heart stops.

Aiden? He recalls the immiNPC who was one of the first members of the Knights of Non Compos Mentis. He’d only met Aiden once or twice, but he’s the only person that Ryuk has seen move in that way.

Zaena, partially recovered, starts whirling her blades around her body to prevent the masked man from cuffing her.

Ryuk pushes himself up as best he can just to see Aiden’s handle appear as a peculiar rifle takes shape in his hands.

Aiden Level 99

HP: 6969/6969

ATK: 6,888

MATK: 313

DEF: 3,320

MDF: 2,459

LUCK: 119

Aiden pegs Zaena with a netgun, which Ryuk instantly connects to the weapon FeeTwix first used to stop the Thulean back in Sotla.

FeeTwix zooms towards Aiden in his steamsuit and the masked man is gone in a flash. A series of explosives at FeeTwix’s big brass feet toss him backwards and Aiden takes shape on top of the steamsuit as it crashes to the ground, causing a small crater and creating a small cloud of dust.

Before FeeTwix can swipe Aiden away with his buster sword, Aiden uses a sword that looks suspiciously like the Swede’s slice bang to crack the steamsuit cabin open.

He reaches in, yanks FeeTwix out, and golden cuffs appear on the Swede’s wrists. FeeTwix struggles, tries to access his inventory list, and as he does, Aiden grabs him by the top of his overcoat and pulls him over to Ryuk.

From there, Aiden drags Hiccup over, who kicks, screams, and farts the entire way, and he keeps Zaena pinned with the bolonet.

“Aiden!” Ryuk shouts. “It’s me! I was a Knight!”

“You know this ficker?” Hiccup yells incredulously. “What the fick, Marbles, I thought the Knights would receive us well!? Fick! I lost my pacifier too! Coming down over here … this is shit, real shit.” The goblin starts to shiver. “Someone find my pacifier! I was a Knight too!”

The Empress’ royal guard, known as the Knights in White Satin because of their long white capes, take shape around the pinned and cuffed Mitherfickers. The captain of the guard turns to Aiden and growls, “We got it from here, immiNPC.”

“It’s Aiden,” he says, “and I was here first.”

“You’re out of your jurisdiction, immiNPC,” the captain says. “That’s right, the Knights have no jurisdiction because you’re a fucking guild. Did you somehow forget that?”

The captain looks from Aiden to the four Mitherfickers.

“That’s the one who attacked Empress Thun earlier.” He points at Ryuk. “Like I said, we’ll take it from here. Pay my regards to Sophia.”

A wolfish grin appears on Aiden’s masked face. He nods and dematerializes one pixelated line at a time.

“This is for Empress Thun!” The captain approaches Ryuk, pulls his armored foot back, and kicks him square in the jaw.

Chapter 25: Mani-Pedi and a Royal Confession

“Fick you!” Hiccup screams as he’s tossed into a damp and dirty cell.

The wall of the cell has a single bench on it large enough to fit two people. Next to the bench is a bedpan with a steaming pile of shit in it, and resting on the floor next to the bedpan is a pillowcase that looks to be filled with rocks.

There are no windows, the only light available comes from between a series of slats on the ceiling.

Ryuk is the last to go in.

The guard throws him in the hardest, and he stumbles forward and faceplants on the rock pillow, where he’s gifted a whiff of the bedpan.

He dry heaves, again tries to move his hands to log out, and once he realizes that he can’t, he uses his chin to push himself back to a kneeling position, and from there, he stands.

FeeTwix’s eyes flicker as he reads messages from his fans. “Shit!” he laments. “No one knows anything about what’s going on outside of the city.”

“And inside?” Ryuk asks.

Zaena plops down onto the bench, just about as furious as Ryuk has ever seen her.

To control her ghost limbs, they’ve outfitted her with special Thulean restraints and cuffed her wrists at her side. She doesn’t struggle to get out, she already did plenty of that while they were cuffing her and managed to toss a few of the Empress’ guards in the process, but if the look on her face were enough to cut through the cuffs, the four Mitherfickers would be halfway to Aramis by now, a trail of dead bodies in their wake.

Hiccup paces back and forth nervously, his big paws cuffed behind his back. “Fick! We don’t want to be anybody’s bitches so look tough!”

“We’re the only people in here,” FeeTwix reminds him.

“Pfft! In case you didn’t know, goblins excel at counting. Aware, Twixy, that’s what I’m saying, and to quote myself, I’m not going to be anybody’s little bitch, especially Marbles’!”

“Why are you dragging me into this, Hiccup?” Ryuk asks, angry and annoyed.

“You’re the one that got us in here!”

“But what does that have to do with being ‘someone’s little bitch,’ as you put it?”

Hiccup goes from hyper-tense to full-on panicking. He runs to the cell door. “Fickers! Someone get me my lawyer! Goes by the name of Solon!”

“No lawyer for wankers,” an inmate across the hall calls out.

Hiccup bangs his head against the bar. “Fick you! I’m crazy, you hear me!? Come over here and I’ll be dining on your chalupa while I make you watch, you little fickered pinko twat!”

“What the bloody hell is a chalupa?”

“Fick! Fick!”

“Quiet, goblin,” Zaena says.

“We’re going to die! Shit. They’ll take me first. Always do. Racism and heightism and I’m the shortest and I’m a goblin. FICK! This is bad; Marbles will be next, then Twixy, then Liz. Shit! They’ll learn about Wolf and go get him and Conan. Enway too, but I don’t know her so well so that’s fine. But fick, Snowballs! He’s so young!”

FeeTwix approaches the goblin. “Holy hell, Hiccup, get a hold of yourself! Your fans are watching! Don’t act like a little fickboy in front of your people.”

“This is bad!” Hiccup grinds his teeth together and moves over to the bench. He plops down and lets one rip.

“Gross!” Zaena stands.

“Stress related flatulence, Liz. Fick! We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die … I’ll never see my son again!”

“Your son?”

“I told you!” he screams at FeeTwix. “Spew Gorge may be mine. Dunno. Doesn’t matter. Well, it matters because if I die, I want him to get the five percent Marbles promised me.”

Ryuk sighs. “It’s two percent.”

“Three, but you get the picture!”

“Hiccup, I think you are overreacting,” FeeTwix says. “And if Spewy is your son, why do you call him your cousin? A cousin means your father or mother is related to his father or mother.”

“What? You’ve never bumped nasties with your aunt? I find that hard to believe, especially coming from a Swede. But that’s not what is at stake here, Twixy! We’re fickin’ doomed!”

“Relax, I think you are coming down from your concert high.”

“Fick! Why couldn’t we have just stayed at the concert. It was so beautiful there! All those choice bits of ass, and that DJ Ride the Lightning ... I’ll have whatever he’s on, am I right? Ha!” Hiccup frowns miserably and lies onto his back. “Son of a ficklord, we’re beyond ficked.”

FeeTwix walks to the cell door, turns, and uses his cuffs to make a ruckus. “Guard, I have a question!”

“Shut up!” a guard yells from down the hall. “And stop running your cuffs along the bars!”

“What’s the bail looking like?” he calls back.

“No bail!”

“Ah, don’t be like that. What’s it going to take, buddy? Work with me here. We got loads of rupees, coming out the wazoo if you ask me.”

“Are you bribing me!?”

“No, sir! I’d never do that, kind sir!”

“Twick, Fixy … shit, you know what I’m trying to say. Dammit, how many times do I have to tell you to let me do the talking when it comes to negotiating?”

FeeTwix ignores Hiccup and turns to Ryuk. “Well, okay, get lemons and make lemonade. Something like that. What I’m trying to say here is that it looks like we’ll need to think of another way. Come on, guys, we’ll think of one! We’re the Mitherfickers! Hell, I’ll bet we can just message Enway to break us out once Oric is better.”

“We can’t use our dashboards or log out,” Ryuk reminds him.

“But I can still livestream!”

“Fick your followers, FeeTwix, they won’t be able to get us out of here.” Hiccup grows tearful. “I never would have thought that I’d be incarcerated at the young age of 154.”

He blows his nose, and without anything to blow it onto, snot just dribbles onto his lips. He wipes it on the bench and continues sobbing. “Fick me. We’re going to die, and when we do, they’re going to rape our corpses. That’s what happens in these places, you know. I read, I know things. You can learn a lot from the ‘letter to the editor’ section of Wet Goblin Holes. I don’t want anyone to rape my corpse, especially one of those inbred guards we saw back there. You see that one with the overbite?”

“Enough whining. I will get us out of here.” Zaena hops up from her bench.

FeeTwix steps aside and looks at her questioningly. “How? You’re just as cuffed as we are.”

“If not more,” Ryuk adds.

The Thulean assassin approaches the bars and looks down the hall. “Guard. I demand your audience, now.”

“Ha! Demand!”

“Yhai blahte charotakh lavaka.”

Hiccup’s ears twitch. “What the fick did you just say?”

A guard approaches moments later, his clubbing stick at the ready. “Say that again and see what happens!” he growls.

A tear-shaped light forms under the skin of Zaena’s forehead. As soon as the guard sees it he drops to one knee. “What is it you’d like, milady?”

“I demand to be removed from this prison and I demand an audience with Empress Thun.”

Ryuk glances at Hiccup, whose jaw has dropped open, and back to FeeTwix, who’s still trying to figure out what’s going on.

“Yes, milady!” the guard says as he goes for his keys.

(0)__(0)

The Thulean restraints are quickly taken off Zaena and she’s ushered out of the cell. “Not without my companions,” she tells the guards and they begrudgingly comply.

“But they must stay cuffed,” the head guard says, the one with the overbite. “At least for now.”

“That’s fine, as long as they’re with me at all times.”

“Seriously,” Hiccup grumbles as the guard guides him away from the bench. “You could have told us, Liz! No wonder you’d always bristle when I called you princess.”

Ryuk stops dead in his tracks. “You’re … a Thulean princess?”

“That’s right, Marbles, Liz has royal blood.”

“How come none of you knew?” the Swede asks his audience as he’s led out of the cell. “And why didn’t you tell me?” he asks Zaena, suddenly a little hurt.

“We will discuss this later.”

A thought comes to FeeTwix. “Wait, if you’re a princess does that mean you’re related to the Thulean queen that Quantum Hughes took out in the giant tournament?”

“No, she’s related to another queen, Twixy. Of course she is! Fick me, you’re daft.”

“Queen Renata is my older sister, so yes, I am related to her.”

“I’m just pissed that her royal highness over here hasn’t used any of her power to a) get us better hotels; b) better guildmates, sorry Marbles; c) rupees galore and the working gals that follow; or d) fund the Mitherfickers’ extreme vetting program. Hey! Watch the fickin’ hair!” he barks at the guard steering him.

“A goblin with pink hair?” an inmate calls out. “I got dibs on that little pink-haired fuckboy!”

“Fick!” Hiccup shoulders past Ryuk. “Get me the hell away from that pedo! Talk about some bad hombres! Whew! Glad we’re getting the fick out of here!”

“Enough, goblin,” Zaena calls over her shoulder. “You are a noisy pest.”

“Well, she is royalty,” the goblin starts to tell Ryuk, “so that would explain some of the racism. I agree,” Hiccup says even though Ryuk isn’t responding, “she should call me by my proper name, but hey, like I said, she’s royalty. Can’t live with them, and we aren’t allowed to kill them.”

“Where are they going?” one of the inmates cries out as they reach the stairs. “Not fuckin’ fair, mate!”

“Quiet, Luke!” the lead guard shouts. “Or it’s another flogging for ye!”

“Oooo! Flog me!” screams another inmate.

“Keep your mouth shut, Bobby!” growls the guard.

They’re led up a flight of stairs to a long corridor, and from there, they head back down another flight of stairs to an underground passage.

Ryuk’s mind reels as he tries to piece together all the times Zaena hinted that there was more to her story. But to find out that “more” is the fact that she’s royalty is something that he is pretty shocked to hear, especially Thulean royalty.

As they walk, Ryuk recalls the couple of times he visited the city of Athos, the capital of the third floating continent, Ultima Thule. The mostly Thulean city filled with yurt-like buildings is unlike any place he has visited in Tritania.

“Shit, Marbles, you look like you’re lost in thought.”

“I sort of was, until you interrupted it.”

“Yeah? Well how ‘bout less daydreaming and more fickin’ team leading.”

“Zaena is at the front of the group,” he reminds the goblin. The guard behind him laughs.

“You two always this friendly to each other?”

“We have a special relationship, if that’s what you mean,” Hiccup grits. “And I’m not saying I’m his fickin’ lapdog here either. He comes when I tell him, not the other way around.”

FeeTwix starts laughing so hard that the procession has to stop. “Really think about that last line, Hiccup. Just … really think about it.”

“Fick you, Twixy!” Hiccup’s face turns red as he scowls. “You know what I meant.”

“Quiet back there,” the lead guard shouts as they enter into a comfortable room with white marble flooring. Folding screens divide the room.

At the far end of the room, near the other entrance, are four chairs suitable for both washing a person’s hair and giving them manicures and pedicures.

“The four of you will now get ready to meet Empress Thun.”

Four clothed mannequins magically appear in the center of the room, three male and one female.

“This is great!” says the Swede as his eyes take in the clothing on the mannequins. Two white suits with embroidered silk lapels; a dazzling silver dress with long sleeves and embellishments on the collar; a white potato sack with tiny silver spikes that form a circle around the neckline – the Mitherfickers are about to get decked the fuck out.

“Whose idea was it to give me a potato sack?” Hiccup moans as a shoe rack appears – two white leather loafers, one pair of high heels. “And why don’t I get shoes?”

“We didn’t have a lot of time!” A short designer with light brown hair walks into the room. She’s followed by another designer who is taller, quiet, and carries on her face one of the warmest smiles Ryuk has ever seen.

“Come, it’s time to get dressed,” the second designer tells him, her black eyes sparkling under her bangs.

“I’m cuffed,” he reminds her.

“About that … ”

Their cuffs disappear, replaced by thin golden bracelets. The guards surrounding them suddenly disappear, as if they were never there in the first place.

“Better?” she asks.

“Glad those fickers are gone, especially the one with the overbite. He was eying me funny!”

“We still can’t log out or equip anything,” FeeTwix says, “but I guess it’s a little better.”

“Who’s ready to play dress up?” Hiccup grumbles as his armor falls to the floor, revealing a chest still covered in blacklight-responsive paint.

“Please!” the brunette designer says, horror painted across her face, “we have screens for you to change behind.”

“Halfway there, lady.”

Ryuk looks away as the goblin goes full commando.

As FeeTwix films the scene for his audience, Hiccup marches right up to the mannequin and pulls the potato sack over his head.

“Your hair and nails too,” the brunette designer says.

“Mani-pedi?” Hiccup pumps a fist in the air. “Fick yeah! We doing it up, kiddos! Lead the way and make sure to really work my big toenails. It’s been months!”

“We are designers,” the brunette tells him sharply. “They will be giving you mani-pedis.” She nods as four NPCs, three women and one male, walk into the room.

The male stylist pats his chair and Hiccup rushes over there like a kid to Santa’s lap. “Now this is what I’m talking about!” he says as he wiggles his ass into the chair, getting comfortable.

“I’ll help you,” the other clothing designer, the one with the bangs and a warm smile, tells Ryuk.

She leads him behind one of the screens, waits with her back turned away for him to change, and immediately starts adjusting the suit once it’s on.

With a pin in her mouth, she pinches bits of the fabric where it’s too loose, marks it, and the fabric instantly tightens. She pins the front of his pants, takes a step back to see what it looks like from afar, and once she’s certain, Ryuk’s pants instantly tighten.

Meanwhile, the other designer helps FeeTwix get dressed.

The two come out from behind the folding screens, which Ryuk knows as byōbu, and greet each other.

“Not bad, cuz!” FeeTwix says, giving Ryuk the thumbs up. “You dress up nice. Now it’s time to get mani-pedis with Hiccup.”

“Just manis for you guys,” one of the stylists calls over.

“Fine by us!”

The two designers turn to Zaena. They lead the princess – still hard to imagine she’s a princess, Ryuk thinks – behind the folding screen and begin dressing her.

“Ah, the good life! From cell to mani,” FeeTwix says with a sigh. “All in a day’s work. This is a perfect time to remind all of you watching that Office Hallmark Depot is having a big sale right now on all papers, office supplies, and greeting cards!”

His mirror appears in his hand, and as the NPC goes to work on his left hand, FeeTwix offers the mirror a dashing smile.

“The Mitherfickers are living it up now so you can stop worrying! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t worry about your loved ones. Get them a card, hell, get them a stapler, or double hell, prank your brother by getting him a card and stapling it shut! Ha!”

Hiccup snorts. His pink hair has been magically washed, dried, and is now in curlers.

The male stylist works up a sweat trying to trim down his toenails. He stops, wipes his brow, and Hiccup tells him to get back to it. “Those nails aren’t going to trim themselves!”

Ryuk sits and the female stylist starts in on his right hand. She starts with a massage, and once she’s quickly done that – everyone seems to be moving at warp speed – she trims his nails, adds a clear coat to them, and starts on the other hand just as Zaena comes out from behind the screen.

“Wow!” FeeTwix gasps. “That’s twice you’ve impressed me in one night, babe! You look hella good!” His eyes flash blue.

“Why did you go blue?” she asks, approaching softly, one heel in front of the other.

“So I could have you all to myself.”

“Fick me, that’s the lamest thing I’ve heard all day,” Hiccup comments. “It’s also sweet. You two are made for each other, just like me and Spew Gorge’s mom.”

“But that’s your aunt,” Ryuk reminds him.

“And? Jon Snow ficked the living shit out of his aunt and no one gave two flying ficks!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Why is it so hard to believe I’m a relatively well-read goblin, Marbles? You see me reading all the time. It’s what security guards do. We read. And sleep. And play with our chalupas if no one is watching. How do you think I got the fickin’ job that led me to meeting you in the first place?”

“I thought you came with the guildhall in Jatla,” FeeTwix says. “That’s what you told me.”

“Pfft!”

“Besides that, you were terrible at your job,” Ryuk says. “Tamana was kidnapped while you were sleeping!”

“Alternative fact alert!” Hiccup locks eyes with Ryuk and the stare-down begins. Knowing better than to get into it with the goblin, Ryuk looks away.

“Whatever, Hiccup.”

“That’s what I fickin’ thought, Marbles. Hey! Careful with the pinky toes,” the goblin tells the male pedicurist. “Keep those ones long. It’s a style in Jatla.”

Zaena sits, careful not to wrinkle her dress. Her stylist begins working on her toenails almost immediately.

“So,” Ryuk asks, “were you ever going to tell us you were a princess?”

“I was,” she says, “when the time was right.”

“Well, fick, Liz, we really could have been living it up, not going to lie to you there, but you did drop the truthbomb at a pretty good time, so good job there. I was afraid Marbles was going to lose it back in that cell.”

Ryuk rolls his eyes.

“But seriously, seriously. Next time give us the heads up. Shit, I’d love to be living like Thulean royalty. I mean, I’m not gonna lie, I knew you were a one-percenter … Hey!” Hiccup yanks his hand back. “Careful, that’s my picking finger!”

“Picking finger?” The male stylist raises an eyebrow of disgust at the goblin.

Hiccup demonstrates what he means by jamming his pointer finger in his nose and digging around. “I need to keep this one long too. I have allergies, sinus issues, and my brain needs scratching. We clear?”

The man swallows hard. “Yes, we’re clear.”

“Good. Now, chop chop! I got a feeling this next meeting is going to be one for the record books and I can’t have my nails in disarray.”

(0)__(x)

The Mitherfickers, looking just about as dashing as they ever have and possibly ever will, follow two of the Empress’ Knights in White Satin through a long hallway lined with tapestries and elaborate oil paintings.

The paintings depict famous battle scenes, some of which Ryuk recognizes from Flight Feet. They’re arranged in a way that gives the viewer an overwhelming feeling of the Empress’ accomplishments, which is augmented by the fact that she’s been added to all the paintings as either the main focal point or as an overseeing influence.

“Damn, there’s a lot of fickin’ propaganda posters in here!”

Ryuk snorts. Hiccup gets it, he thinks as Zaena hushes him.

“Liz, you and I have a relationship. You’re kind of like my kid sister and I’m kind of like your well-educated uncle. But just ‘cause you’re a princess doesn’t mean I’m going to start kissing anyone’s feet. I know for a fact the Empress, bless her motherly mammaries … ”

“Watch it!” one of the guards growls.

“Easy, big ficker, that’s a compliment in Jatla!”

“I’ve got this,” FeeTwix says as he slows to walk beside the goblin in the potato sack. “How about this? Behave yourself and I’ll see to it that you get a fucking kiddie pool filled with Hopkins’ Healing Nostrum. How’s that sound?”

Hiccup straightens up in a matter of seconds.

He files in line in front of Ryuk and doesn’t comment, scheme, tease, lament, complain, or chide any of his guildmates as they continue into yet another long hallway filled with Empress Thun’s imaginary exploits. He even practices a little self-control when it comes to flatulence.

The group finally stops at the foot of a flight of stairs and look up to a final chamber marked by two enormous sitting griffins carved from Thulean granite. As they pass them, Hiccup reaches out to touch one and whips his hand back to his side.

Ryuk mentally makes a note to bribe the goblin with high-end potions next time it comes up.

Messages flash on Ryuk’s iNet screen.

Zaena: Empress protocol – get to the ground to bow. She will then place her foot on the top of your head.

Hiccup: That’s hot!

More guards greet them as they enter into a circular space accented with pillars and built beneath an elaborate image of the various goddesses of Tritania. Ryuk senses that the space was designed this way for a particular reason, and his intuition is rewarded when his Magic Eye skill kicks in and he notices a faint green outline spiraling up the pillars and radiating off the throne at the back of the room.

Algomagic …

Pressed up against a back wall, the Empress’ throne has been cut into the trunk of a tree made of gold. A lion’s face is carved above the seat, its eyes open yet its pupils missing. The roots of the golden tree spread far past the throne and down the three steps.

A door at the far end of the room swings open and two male attendants walk out, their necks elongated by metal rings and their nude bodies covered in white paint.

They take their places on either side of the throne, and as they do, their legs widen and they suddenly begin to shrivel and shrink. They form two cylindrical tables, and as the tables harden, their colors morph from white to gray and finally settle on a shade of Charleston green.

Two attendants, these two female with robes that stretch several meters behind their bodies, walk out with their hands beneath lush cushions. Sitting on the cushions are two small griffins, both fast asleep.

“Ah, how cute,” Hiccup says, breaking his silence.

Zaena glances over her shoulder at him and he snaps his mouth shut.

The two sleeping baby griffins are led to the cylindrical tables and are placed on top. The two attendants carrying them roll their heads back and melt into the floor, adding to the golden roots of the tree.

As if she had been sitting there all along, Empress Thun is suddenly on her throne, in evening wear that is neither revealing nor modest. The white makeup normally on her face is gone and her hair is relaxed, pulled into a tight turban.

She lifts a single hand.

“Down we go, Mitherfickers.” Hiccup prostrates before her, grumbling about the pain in his back as he does so. “Yoy,” he whispers as he gets into a full blown child’s pose. “Mother of fick, this hurts! Marbles, get your ass down here!”

“Um … ” Ryuk drops to his knees and extends his hands in front of him. FeeTwix does the same and Ryuk turns his head to see Zaena still standing. I guess this only applies to commoners and regular NPCs, he thinks as he watches the Thulean princess.

Standing before him now, Empress Thun places the sole of her foot to the back of his head.

As she digs her foot in, Ryuk feels an overwhelming sense of calm spread through him. This is followed by a tingling sensation, and by the time she leaves, all the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck are standing to attention.

Level up! +10 LUCK! New skill learned!

Having never actually met Empress Thun before, Ryuk is unaccustomed to the ritual associated with the monarch of all of Tritania. The only entity more powerful is the Sage of Gotha, and while the Thuleans in the north are allowed to have their own royal system, the Empress still holds some sway over them.

New skill? He waits for her to move on to Hiccup before he checks the prompt.

Skill: Knights in White Satin

Level One: Call upon the Empress’ guard to aid you in a battle.

Caveat: Can only be used once per day.

Requirements: Gifted by Empress Thun.

“Fick yeah!”

Ryuk’s train of thought is interrupted by Hiccup, who is absolutely thrilled to have the Empress place her foot against his pink topknot. The goblin is practically thumping his leg as the Empress finishes her bizarre ritual and moves on to FeeTwix.

Once she finishes with the Swede, her form takes shape back on her throne.

“You may now stand,” she says firmly. “I don’t normally meet and greet after hours, but I owe Queen Renata a favor, and besides that, I am very interested to hear why you tried to kill me earlier.” She narrows her eyes at Ryuk.

“Kill you?” He takes a step back. Is that why everyone was after us? he thinks. “It wasn’t me!”

“It was the fickin’ one-armed man!” Hiccup adds, chortling. “Wait, that’s me!” He laughs even harder. Zaena shoots him a glare that could peel the lead paint off a Chinese action figure. He gulps, glances down at his feet, and looks to FeeTwix to see if he still gets the pool of healing potion.

FeeTwix shakes his head, and the goblin curses under his breath.

“I will speak for my guildmates from here on out, Your Highness,” Zaena says, stepping forward. The way she holds herself, her chest out and her shoulders broad, is something Ryuk has seen from her before, but only in fleeting glances.

“Go on.”

“Less than a week ago, I left for Hyperborea in search of my brother, Prince Charo Boldrom.”

A message flashes on Ryuk’s vision pane.

Hiccup: His name means Bloody Freedom. Fickin’ cool name if you ask me! If I ever have another kid, that’s definitely a name I’ll consider.

Ryuk ignores him and tunes back in to the conversation.

“I was in the Jatla Forest when I was attacked by Ryuk’s doppelganger and his sellswords. They were transporting a captive, Ryuk’s former guildmate, Tamana.”

Ryuk swallows hard at the word former. He knows it’s over, he knows Tamana has turned. But like so many before him and so many after, the writing on the wall and its legibility are at odds.

“So he has a lookalike?” Empress Thun nods.

“He does, a player who masks his handle and all identifying marks.”

Empress Thun grins. “Please, go on.”

Zaena continues the rest of the story, how she met Ryuk and FeeTwix, their adventures thereafter, Tamana’s betrayal, their trip to Polynya, the attack by the Shinigami in Katiyana, the wolf and his owner, the catacombs, and their arrival here.

Throughout the explanation, Empress Thun keeps the grin on her face. Once Zaena has finished, she turns to Ryuk. “I apologize for imprisoning you earlier,” she looks at the rest of them, “to all of you. But precautions had to be taken, and I wanted to be sure your group was authentic before I had the cuffs removed.”

“Are you saying you knew all along?” Hiccup asks.

“Some parts, yes. And this doppelgänger, as you put it, isn’t the only one who has been running around under false pretenses.” She narrows her eyes at Zaena. “You weren’t being truthful, to yourself or your guildmates. I am sure Queen Renata and the rest of your family are worried regarding your whereabouts. I know for a fact they are, as I spoke with several of them earlier today.”

Zaena bows her head. “It was a decision I had to make.”

“I understand, and you can explore your decision more as your guildmates adjust to the significance of your origin. But that’s not what I want to say. Ryuk.”

“Yes?” he asks, his eyes going wide in anticipation of whatever she may say.

“This doppelgänger, this leader of the Shinigami … that is their name, correct?”

Ryuk nods.

“He is your brother, Kodai Matsuzaki.”

Chapter 26: Repetition is a Form of Change

Kodai is anxious to get the drop on Hajime, but he knows that it will be best to attack later on in the evening, when most of the people in the condo have gone to sleep. He’s already had his thugs secretly relocate the people that live on the floor below his brother. This family, the Ogawas, will spend the night at an exclusive onsen in the hills near Saitama.

His brother will be none the wiser.

The serpent woman’s spies saw him get arrested by Empress Thun’s royal guard. Ryuk won’t be able to log out, providing the perfect opportunity to ambush Hajime.

“You’re smiling.” Tesla sits across from him at his most frequented hostess bar.

“It has been a fine day,” he says, thinking about the massage she gave him earlier.

Tea candles in red glassware make the hostess bar feel both mysterious and shady. The mirror-colored pillar in the center of the room sparkles and shines as a waitress walks past. She stops in front of Kodai, bends just enough to give him a peek at her breasts, and places his glass of Nikko whiskey before him on a napkin.

As soon as she’s gone, Kodai waves Yugio over. “See to it that the new waitress doesn’t flirt with me.”

Yugio nods and turns towards the bar.

“I’m excited,” Kodai tells Tesla after he’s taken a sip from his whiskey. He sees Sarah over at the pollute bar, flirting with a customer, and he waits for a reaction to come to him. It doesn’t. He suddenly doesn’t care if she’s flirting or if she’s under his control. As his gaze returns to Tesla, he comes to understand why this is. “You look beautiful tonight.”

Kodai doesn’t see the three men enter the bar with weapons drawn.

Tesla jumps to cover him. The sound of shrieks meets Kodai’s ears as he scrambles to the floor, his ears ringing, his heart ready to explode.

A beat of silence and then more gunfire, this time from the bar.

Sarah! he thinks, suddenly feeling terrible, suddenly knowing all too well that she may have been caught in the crossfire.

He swallows his terror down.

As his employees scream, as his thugs return fire, as people scramble to get out of the hostess bar, Kodai’s feelings shift from fear to anger mixed with a notion to survive at all costs.

Bits of wood and glass spray through the air as more shots zip around the room. Kodai curses himself for not bringing his sidearm in. He keeps low to the ground, wondering where Tesla has run off to, trying to keep it together and stay alive.

I’m not going out this way, dammit!

His wits come to him and he sends a message to Yugio.

Kodai: Update me!

No answer.

Kodai hears the moan of a man not far off, he hears the grunt of another man who has had the wind knocked out of him. He hears sobbing, more scrambling to get away, glass shattering on the floor. A gun being reloaded. He shakes his head at his stupidity – why didn’t he just message her?

Kodai: Tesla! What the fuck is happening?

Tesla: Both gunmen down. I’ve kept one alive. Three hostesses have been killed. Two patrons are dead, three have flesh wounds. Yugio is dead. Yagami has also been shot and will die shortly. It’s safe to stand now. There are no additional enemy combatants outside.

With a deep breath in, Kodai pushes the table away to get to his feet.

He smooths his trembling hands down the front of his suit and makes sure his shirt is still tucked in out of habit. He looks left to see Sarah slouched forward on the bar; a splatter of blood on the wall near her head tells the story of her final moments.

“They got Sarah?” he asks, his throat suddenly constricted.

“One of the hostesses that was shot, yes.”

“Damn.” Kodai slips around the table, steadies himself, and turns to Tesla who stands behind a Japanese man with long hair, the muzzle of her gun pressed into the back of his head. The man defiantly spits blood as Kodai approaches.

“Give me,” Kodai tells Tesla.

“Your fingerprints,” she reminds him.

“Right. Good.” He clears his throat, steadies his gaze on the defiant man whose suit is slowly becoming saturated with blood. “I’ll make this unbelievably quick,” Kodai grits.

Fuck if he doesn’t want to kill the man himself, especially since he was clearly the target, not to mention they attacked him at his favorite hostess bar and killed his gaijin fuckbuddy along with several others.

And he’s already, in the time it took him to walk over to the man, calculated just how much this would cost. Damage control alone is going to be a bitch, and once other hostesses get word of this, it could definitely cause some distress and high turnover.

“I’m not saying anything.” The man bares his red teeth at Kodai contumaciously.

“I figured as much. Is he going to die soon?”

Tesla’s eyes flash black as she scans him. “The authorities will be here before then.”

“And if I try to disable you permanently, you’ll just become a cyborg and will remain a thorn in my side.” Kodai shakes his head. “No, no, that’s not going to do. Any ideas, Tesla?”

She lowers her gun so it now points at his back. Tesla shoots her hand out, touches his temple with her other hand, and smiles. “Got it.”

She fires the first shot into the man’s back and another into the back of his head.

Before Kodai can say anything, Tesla explains her actions. “Since he was shot, his life chip was put in a distress mode, which can be accessed by any humandroid who may arrive on the scene without his verbal or digital approval. His name is Itachi Uchiha, and his known associate is Gintoki Sakata, the owner of the pink salon that you had me put out of business earlier today. I believe this was retaliation.”

A moving image of Tesla entering N-Cats and taking out the humandroids comes to him. Gintoki Sakata acted fast. I should have been ready, Kodai thinks as he surveys the damage again.

“Is there any way for the authorities to trace that you accessed his chip?”

She shakes her head. “Everything I do is masked. All MercSecure agents are fashioned in this way.”

“Good. Please kill anyone else that is alive and delete all surveillance that links you and me to the scene. I will meet you on the rooftop.”

“Understood.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“Two minutes, tops.” She points her gun at Kodai’s thug, Yagami, who’s pressed against an overturned table and breathing heavily. One headshot later and he’s done for good. With a quick swivel, she does the same for anyone in the room that is still alive.

“Ready?”

She nods, and they head to the kitchen.

“Anyone in here?”

Tesla does a quick scan of the room. “Clear. Let’s check the freezer.”

Kodai opens the freezer door and the chef runs out wielding a knife. Bang! He’s dead before he can take two steps back into the kitchen.

“There will be other witnesses,” Tesla says. “You will likely appear on their feeds, but I don’t believe there will be anything incriminating in them.”

“Anyone who exits through the front or back and isn’t an authorized employee has their feed wiped.”

Tesla turns her head to him as they exit. “Wiped completely?”

“No live feeds allowed in the hostess bar. This is common in these types of establishments; it prevents someone from coming here and reliving or sharing what they experienced at a later date.”

The door of his aeroSUV opens on its own and Kodai gets in the back. Tesla gets in the front and speaks to the vehicle for a moment, instructing its auto-drive functions.

“Where to?” she asks.

“Our plans have not changed,” Kodai says bitterly as the vehicle lifts into the air. “Ryuk’s place.”

Chapter 27: Get Woke

Ryuk is beside himself as his mind jumps from Tamana standing over him with her blade, to his doppelgänger looming over her shoulder.

It was Kodai all along.

“Your brother is the twat running around parading as you? Fick me, Marbles!” Hiccup throws his hands into the air. “What in the actual fick is going on here!?”

Zaena harrumphs.

“Sorry, Princess, like any normal mitherficker, I’m just a bit shocked by this sudden revelation.”

“Craziness!” FeeTwix says. “So that means … ” His eyes flash blue. “Your brother has something to do with NPCs coming to our world.”

Empress Thun stands from her throne.

Her guards and her attendants turn to ash and a lock appears on the large door behind them. Even though there are no windows in her throne room, thick velvet curtains fall from the walls, further insulating the space.

Her two baby griffins remain on their pedestals, sleeping as if nothing is happening.

“We need to speak to Sophia,” Ryuk says, his throat suddenly parched. He takes a deep breath to steel himself, to remind himself of where he is and that there are people looking to him for guidance. “Sophia will know what to do. That’s why we’ve come here, Empress, we’ve come to Porthos to meet her. We didn’t know Zaena was royalty; we didn’t know that my brother, as you say, is the one that is parading around as me. We came here simply to speak to Sophia.”

Empress Thun locks her dark eyes onto Ryuk. “If it is Sophia you need to speak to, I will call her here.”

A blinding spark in the center of the room gets Hiccup bitching about UV rays.

“Sheesh! Warn us next time!” the goblin growls. Before he can say anything else, an outline of a woman bathed in light takes shape at the center of the spark.

Sophia Wang Level 99

HP: 7399/7399

Mana: 3976/3976

ATK: 751

MATK: 1983

DEF: 1341

MDF: 4485

LUCK: 108

Sophia has elven features and puffy black hair. Her flowing white dress is embellished with golden thread and her feet are encased in a pair of sandals adorned with fluttering Pegasus wings.

Sophia performs the same full-body prostration the Mitherfickers suffered through earlier. Empress Thun places a foot on the top of her head, and once she’s done, the Mind Mage turns to them. “Hello, Ryuk.” She offers the others a tight grin. “You all may call me Doctor Wang.”

“Finally,” Hiccup says as he rubs his hands together, “we get to meet the good doctor! Fick, we’ve heard a lot about you, lady, believe you me. Probably enough to make your elven ears twitch even if we were a continent away. Hey! Dammit, Liz, keep your fickin’ ghost paws to yourself!”

Sophia gives the goblin a troubled, distasteful look. “I thought that removing the word ‘fuck’ from the goblin vocabulary would be a good thing,” she says to herself, yet loud enough for everyone else to hear. “Apparently, I was dead wrong.”

“Hold the fick up. You’re the fickin’ Mind Mage who did this–” Hiccup keeps speaking, his jowls flapping up and down as no sound emerges from his mouth. His face grows red as he points a finger at Sophia and starts silently yelling.

FeeTwix laughs. “You have got to teach one of us that spell!”

“You’ll have to be a much higher level to learn Silence of the Fools,” Sophia says.

Hiccup stomps his feet and crosses his arms over his chest.

The Mind Mage shrugs. “I can permanently take away his ability to speak, if you’d like.”

Ryuk looks from Sophia to FeeTwix. Next to the Swede, Hiccup is making an X with his arms as he looks to Ryuk with pleading eyes.

Hiccup: Don’t do me dirty, kid. I’ve always been there for you, thick and thin. Hell, I’m practically your fickin’ wingman! I’m the one that got you off those training wheels and put you on that fat hog. Now look at your ass, all grown up. A couple of fickin’ hours from now and you’ll be knee deep in Enway’s churro!

Zaena: You are a despicable creature.

Hiccup: Love you too, Liz.

“That won’t be necessary,” Ryuk tells Sophia, instantly regretting the words that come next. “Please restore his ability to speak once we’re finished here.”

Hiccup: Thank you, Marbles! See, Liz, that’s called chivalry. Get woke!

Sophia’s eyes flash white. “What is it you’ve called me here to discuss? If it is easier, I can simply read your thoughts.”

“That won’t be necessary, Sophia,” the Empress says. “Ryuk can explain.”

Ryuk steps forward and swallows down the nervous energy swelling in his stomach. This is it, the moment he’s been waiting for, and his thoughts race as he thinks of how he should begin. An image of his brother flashes before him and he casts it away.

There will be time to deal with that later.

(0)__(0)

“Everything started with Tamana,” he explains, and beginning with that statement, he concisely recaps all that the Mitherfickers have been through. He touches on wanting to get in touch with Sophia, and mentions her guild rule that former members aren’t able to freely contact current members, which has made it difficult.

“Rules are in place for a reason,” she says firmly, shooting him down. “So you were betrayed by Tamana, and before this, both of you had a digital hallucination in the real world after becoming resetters. Also, from what you can tell, these digital hallucinations are only happening to people from Tritania.”

“Exactly.”

A burp gets caught in Hiccup’s throat. He pounds his chest, and in the process, triggers a sharp toot that sounds like a bike tire popping.

Sophia floats into the air and hovers there.

“To be frank with you, I’ve already heard some about these digital hallucinations. I haven’t looked into it because I’ve been busy with other things. Now that the city has come under attack, and the fact that I believe an old foe may once again be making its presence known – although I can’t be sure – I haven’t spent as much time looking into the issue as I would have liked to. Chuntao,” she says aloud to some invisible entity, “compile all data related to Proxima-related hallucinations. What is your humandroid’s name?”

“Hajime.”

“Is that all you know? Do you know his handle? Most humandroids have a handle. For example, oh, I dunno, FDA Monitor 1351885. Something like that.”

“He works for MercSecure. He was created by the creator of humandroids.”

She scoffs. “I highly doubt that.”

Hiccup: Damn this one is, snooty! You didn’t tell us your old guild leader was a fickin’ biotch, Marbles. Actually, I kind of like her. Reminds me of Spewy’s mother. Real sexy broad.

“Really, that’s what he told me. Which brings me to the other thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Hold on. Chuntao, attempt to contact a humandroid named Hajime who works for MercSecure in Japan. Tokyo, right? Near Shibuya?”

Mind Mage, Ryuk reminds himself. “Yes, that’s right,” he says. “I’d give you my family name, but … ”

“But I can read it here and since this is a MercSecure humandroid, the name won’t necessarily match. I won’t pry deeper, but I do find it odd that you have one of these private security humandroids assigned to you. They’re dangerous.”

“You have a MercSecure droid?” FeeTwix nods, clearly impressed. “Those things are badass!”

“A humandroid?” Zaena tilts her head. “That’s right, your world’s version of NPCs, like me.”

“You’re not just any NPC,” FeeTwix tells her, even as Hiccup rolls his eyes.

“Good,” Sophia says as she reads a message that no one else can read. “Chuntao has established contact. If your humandroid can share their data with my AI, it will speed up the process.”

“He will,” Ryuk agrees, “but there’s another, related thing that Hajime suggested and I think it’s even scarier than the hallucinations that are taking place.”

“By all means, tell us,” Empress Thun implores.

“I know you don’t believe me,” Ryuk says to Sophia, “but my humandroid really was created by Hewman, that’s his name, I think.”

“Dr. Richard Hewman, the creator of the humandroid. Yes, it’s his name, and now that Chuntao has verified what you’ve said, I believe you.”

Ryuk glances at FeeTwix, who nods for him to continue. “Hajime mentioned that there was an experiment in the 2050s in which an NPC took a humandroid’s body. Know anything about that?”

Sophia lowers herself to the ground. “Ahem. Aiden?”

“Yes, Sophia?”

Hiccup nearly does a backflip when the masked man steps out of thin air next to the goblin. He’s the same guy who cuffed them in the courtyard earlier, the NPC member of the Knights of Non Compos Mentis.

Hiccup: Holy fick! It’s the ninja guy!

Ryuk looks at Aiden, who has a slice bang strapped across his back. “He’s been here the entire time?”

“We spare no precautions,” Sophia says. “Not after what we’ve been through. Regarding what you just said about an NPC taking a humandroid body – look no further.”

Aiden steps in front of the group and pulls his mask down to reveal a wolfish grin. “What? Were you expecting someone else? I’m not the only one who did it.”

Sophia cuts him off. “Before we continue this discussion, I need to know a bit more of why it is your humandroid mentioned this to you.”

“I think Hajime’s point was this: whatever is trying to come through to our world using people’s iNet feeds hasn’t discovered that it could be done via humandroids,” Ryuk says. “I wanted to bring this information to you, because I had a feeling you’d know more about who performed this experiment and what became of it.”

Sophia bites her lip, nods, and looks at the four of them, double-checking with FeeTwix to make sure he isn’t broadcasting anything. “It was me,” she finally says. “Through what I called ‘R-diving,’ reverse-diving, I was able to bring an NPC, Aiden, to a humandroid’s body.”

“So he could actually function up there?” FeeTwix asks.

“Yes,” says Aiden, his eyes suddenly sad. “And it was marvelous.”

“I was also able to do it with an RPC,” Sophia says. “But we shut it down not long after that. It was too dangerous.”

“Then you see where this is going,” Ryuk says. “If whatever force is causing these digital hallucinations discovers that it is possible for NPCs to take humandroid bodies, then it could … ” He shakes his head. “It could be the end of the world as we know it!”

“And you’re saying a Reborn Player Character can do it too?” FeeTwix asks. “What about just a regular Player Character? Could I take my avatar, and then using my avatar, R-dive, as you called it, and return to the real world?”

The look on Sophia’s face sours. “One of the founders of the Knights, um, got stuck in a Proxima world known as Cyber Noir – the second time he was stuck, I should add. Anyway, long story short, we used this technique to temporarily bring Quantum back to our world. He was in a humandroid’s body for several days.”

“Are you talking about Quantum Hughes?” FeeTwix asks. “Big fan over here! I’ve based my playing style off him and haven’t looked back!”

Sophia curls her lip for a moment. “We can speak more about Quantum later.”

“I hope so!”

Ryuk asks, “I get NPCs and RPCs being about to theoretically come … ”

“There is nothing theoretical about what I’ve just told you. Aiden actually came through to our world.”

“That’s right, and it was pretty kickass.”

“What I don’t get is why a Player Character would come,” Ryuk says.

“Because he was stuck, like I told you. It was quite a complicated situation, and I don’t believe any of you, especially the goblin, would be able to comprehend the details. But imagine a fully submerged person in a Proxima dive vat coming into a world such as Tritania, and from there, diving back to our world into a humandroid’s body. Of course, reverse diving, or R-diving, is much more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of how it works.”

“Craziness,” FeeTwix says.

“So I could go to your world?” Zaena asks FeeTwix.

Sophia shakes her head. “No, no, you couldn’t. No one can. I never told anyone how to do it and I plan to keep the secret to my grave because of situations like this.”

She approaches the Empress and they speak quietly for a moment. Once they’re finished, she turns back to the Mitherfickers.

“I need an hour or so to look into things in the world up there. I also don’t want any of you to go anywhere, just for safety purposes. I will see to it that you can’t log out until I’m back.”

“Nothing will happen to us up there,” FeeTwix assures her.

“What you four now possess is sensitive information. Once I’ve logged back in, your dashboard will be restored and you’ll be free to do what you’d like.”

“Fine by me,” Ryuk says, “but I need your word that we now have a direct line to the Knights.”

“You do. In fact, if it makes you feel any better, Aiden will keep you company.”

Hiccup throws his hands up in the air and fires off a message to Ryuk about extreme vetting and how the “balaclava boy” isn’t joining the guild.

(0)__(x)

Empress Thun stands, and as quickly as she appeared, she’s gone.

The room elongates, spins, and the Mitherfickers find themselves in a bedroom with six beds and a griffin tapestry on the wall.

The room is nearly the same size as the throne room, meaning it’s just about the biggest bedroom Ryuk has ever seen. Aside from the beds, there are tables, plush sofas around a fire, and a stack of board games in front of a floor-to-ceiling bookcase.

“He’s back!” Hiccup pumps his brass fist in the air. The goblin glares at Aiden. “So it was that Sophia of yours all along that cursed us goblins. What a fickin’ hater.”

“Call her what you like, but I wouldn’t do so to her face. I’ve seen her cast Skin Crawl on someone, and trust me, you don’t want to experience that.”

“Right, I’ll be a good little ficker when she’s around. Welp. Twixy, Liz, I mean Princess, Marbles, and um, ninja man.”

“If you must call me a nickname, ‘Morning Assassin’ will do.”

Aiden snaps his fingers and his medieval ninja getup is suddenly gone, replaced by a red Hugh Hefner Robe and a pair of fuzzy slippers. His hair is suddenly slicked back, and the look on his face is as wolfish as ever. “Feel free to get comfortable; we’re in the new wing of the Knights’ guildhall, FYI,” he tells Ryuk. “Just finished it actually. Me and the Brits and a few others took care of the construction.”

Ryuk recalls the six British members of the Knights.

When not farting around, fighting, fucking, or getting arrested – a feat in itself considering the Knights’ status on the continent – the UK crew generally hung out in a little castle they constructed for themselves in the courtyard outside.

Ryuk walks to one of the windows to confirm this; sure enough, the new wing of the Knights’ guildhall is on the top floor, and below, he can make out the Brits’ castle, a blacksmith’s shop, and a pen with a single sheep inside.

Ryuk has only been to this location once or twice, as it is the Knights’ headquarters, and from what he remembers Tamana telling him, it exists in the OMIB, not exactly accessible by just any member of the guild. His branch’s guildhall was in Porthos, near the piers.

It was much, much smaller than this.

“Shit, has it been an hour yet?” Hiccup yawns. “I’m already bored.” He pulls a healing portion out of his list and chugs it. “That’s right, let’s get comfortable.”

The goblin goes with the same outfit he was wearing at the DJ Ride the Lightning concert – a pair of boy shorts, a pair of boots, and nothing else. He plops down onto a couch and a scrollazine copy of Wet Goblin Holes: Sewer Edition appears in his hands. “Nope, still bored.”

He tosses the scrollazine over his shoulder.

Ryuk sits at the table and FeeTwix comes to his side. “You holding up all right?” the Swede asks.

“I still can’t believe it’s my brother that did this,” Ryuk says, his thoughts drifting away from the real world implications of today’s discoveries and settling back in on his family drama. “And he is clearly working with the Shinigami. I mean, he was there. So he knows about this. He must! It has something to do with the woman behind the door that I saw, the serpent woman.”

Zaena sits across from Ryuk. “My brother is still missing, unfortunately.”

“I’ll bet they have him.”

“We don’t know that,” FeeTwix says.

“We need to find the serpent woman and we’ll definitely need the Knights’ help to defeat her.”

Hiccup snorts. “Marbles, you always seem to be having women problems. A word of advice from a 154-year-old goblin with a penchant for being right and a track record to prove it – get yourself an orc girlfriend. They’re the best. They’ll clean up after you, cook for you, and keep you in line.”

Aiden smirks as he moves over to Hiccup. “Down for a friendly game of Three Cards?” he asks. “I’ve gotten hooked on it lately.”

“What’s at stake?”

“Five hundred rupees to start.”

“Pfft. I wipe my ass with five hundred rupees. You see the Swede over there? That Mitherficker is loaded, and you see the emo snowflake with black hair in his face? That dude promised me six percent of all the loot we find. So if you want to play with Uncle Goblin, raise the stakes. I’m no cheap ficker.”

“Two percent, net,” Ryuk sighs.

“Three percent, gross.”

“Fine.”

“Fick yeah!”

Ryuk returns his focus to FeeTwix and Zaena. “I’m trying to put all this together, and while a picture is forming, it’s just not … not clear like it should be.”

“Do you have a rivalry with your brother?” Zaena asks. “Maybe this is why he has come here and taken a copycat avatar.”

“I don’t know why he’d come here and take the same avatar as me or why he’d … ” Ryuk gulps. “I don’t know why he’d take Tamana.”

“Tammy made a choice, and we’ll keep killin’ her dead until she ficks off for good,” Hiccup says. “Now fick, stop distracting me, we’re negotiating terms here.” The goblin narrows his eyes at Aiden and says, “All right, ninja warrior, howzabout five thousand rupees on your end, and a case of Hopkins’ on my end to start? Twixy over there owes me a case.”

“I do not owe you a case. You didn’t behave, so no case.”

“Fick. Can I borrow five thousand rupees then?”

Ryuk looks to FeeTwix “You’re in charge of the finances.”

“Fine, five thousand, but nothing more than that. And start with smaller bets so you don’t lose it all at the get-go. Sorry, go on, Ryuk.”

Ryuk drums his fingers against the table. “I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why my brother is doing this.”

“All of this will make more sense in the coming days,” Zaena says. “For now, let’s relax a bit. I believe there is food and beverages available.”

“Sure are.” Aiden says as he moves a card table between Hiccup and him.

The door swings open and two faeries zip into the room. “Dragon wings,” the goblin says before the faerie can ask what he’d like. “Lemon pepper, demon berry, and fried griffin eggs if you got it.”

“And you for, Aiden?” the faery asks.

“Horse Piss and pancakes.”

“Pancakes?” Hiccup asks. “Go on … ”

“Something a buddy of mine used to eat every morning for two subjective years. Good stuff.”

The goblin licks his lips. “I’m down.”

“Two orders of pancakes,” he tells the faery.

Zaena places an order in Thulean and FeeTwix orders a horse piss. “What about you, Ryuk? What do you want? Shit! It’s been an hour since I did an ad read.” His eyes flash black and his mirror appears in his hand. “WalMacy’s sale-o-rama, people! Sorry, it has been a fickin’ – ha! Hiccup’s word – long day but that doesn’t mean your local WalMacy’s isn’t open and ready to sell you anything you need. You won’t believe how much they’ve rolled back prices! Okay, people, listen in close … ”

“Sorry about this guy,” Hiccup groans to Aiden, “he’s a real huckster.”

FeeTwix brings the mirror even closer to his face as he whispers, “Super super super SUPER FLASH SALE! Mention #FeeTwixRox at checkout and save 2% on your purchases for an entire year! Next twenty minutes only, guys. Terms and conditions apply. See store for details. Offer only valid in the United States and any of its territorial holdings. Whew! It’s a deal, people! Ryuk will have a pint of Piss,” he tells the faery waitress point blank.

“Yeah,” Ryuk says, “beer me.”

Everyone in the room, including Aiden, who hardly knows Ryuk, turns to the Ballistics Mage with surprised looks on their faces.

“What?” he asks.

Hiccup uses his mechanical hand to dab at his eye. “My young Marbles finally, finally got woke. Shit, better make it a Horse Piss for me too.” He snaps his fingers at the pint-sized waitress. “You heard me, lady, a Horse Piss and a warm Cherry Apollos with a little whipped cream on top. Bill it to Doctor Wang.”

“Right away, sir!”

Chapter 28: Friends in High Places

It doesn’t take long for Hiccup to lose the five thousand rupees loaned to him by FeeTwix. As another round of horse piss comes and goes, he borrows another five thousand, and once he loses all that, he promises Aiden double or nothing.

“You already owe me ten thousand,” Aiden reminds him.

“Fick you, Balaclava, I’m taking it all back!”

“I told you, if you want a nickname, it’s Morning Assassin.”

“What gives with that anyway?” he asks. “Why not Evening Assassin? Fick, it’d be much more fun to kill someone in the evening. We goblins have a phrase for that.”

Zaena, who sits at the table near Ryuk, laughs. “A phrase for killing someone at night?”

“Yeah, it’s called an After Supper Mint.”

“So you think that should be my new nickname?” Aiden rolls his eyes. “It’s too long.”

“No, I’m just saying that Morning Assassin sounds like something that happens to my bunghole the night following a couple rounds of dragon wings. It has a ring to it too, After Supper Mint.” Hiccup licks his fingers and goes for another wing. He dips it in white sauce and sucks it down. “These things should come with a warning: WILL BURN SPHINCTER. Something like that.”

Zaena cringes. “Then why do you eat them?”

“Yeah,” Ryuk asks as he takes a sip from his second pint of Horse Piss. “What gives, Hiccup?”

“What gives? Shit, you drunk, son? When’s the last time you spoke to an elder like that? What the fick, Twixy, I thought Japanese people were obedient or something!”

FeeTwix says, “You know, if NPCs ever do come to our world and stick around, I believe one of the first to come should be you, Hiccup, just so you can get a sense of things and so you can, um, stop using words and concepts incorrectly.”

“What have I used incorrectly?”

Ryuk laughs. “I believe you suggested we eat monkeys up there. And then there’s chalupa, and that’s just off the top of my head. Pretty much everything you reference from our world is skewed somehow.”

“Whatever,” Hiccup growls. “Are we doubling down, Afternoon Assassin? Or are you quitting like a fickin’ pansy?”

“We don’t have to bet, you know,” Aiden suggests. “You already owe me everything you have.”

“See, he’s scared! Third time’s a charm – that’s another goblin saying, Marbles. Keep up the fickboy act and I’ll have you be my note taker.”

A flash in the center of the room signals that Sophia has arrived. Her form appears alongside that of a short, muscular faun in a tactical vest. An extinguished cigar rests in the faun’s mouth, a golden medal is pinned to his chest, and two firearms with polished grips are holstered at his side.

The RPC icon flashes over his head and his stats appear.

Doc Level 99

HP: 7499/7499

ATK: 5,554

MATK: 1128

DEF: 8330

MDF: 4532

LUCK: 102

“What’s up, Doc?” Aiden calls over to the faun.

“Aiden.” The faun’s hooves tap against the ground as he takes a few preliminary steps.

“Having fun in Barbie World?”

“You betcher ass I am. Then Doctor Wang gets hold of me and tells me what’s going down. I got here as quickly as I could. So, is this the guild?”

“We have another member,” Ryuk blurts out. “Three other members, actually.”

Doc places his extinguished cigar in his mouth and bites down on it. “I’ve seen worse.”

“Marbles, Enway is not a member.”

“She is, Hiccup,” FeeTwix says. “She’s our new cleric.”

“Note to self: figure out a way to add a veto procedure to the vetting process.” Hiccup’s eyes flash. “Not this time, Goblinheimer’s! And we don’t have three other members, FYI. Conan and Dogbert haven’t been properly vetted. It really depends on if we have room. Four’s a company, five’s crowd. Or something like that.”

“We have plenty of room.” Zaena stands to greet Doc. “Ignore the goblin.”

“There’s a goblin in the room?” Doc asks with a twinkle in his eye.

“Hey!”

“I can silence him again,” Sophia says.

“Not a bad idea,” says the Thulean assassin as she approaches Doc. He extends his hand and they greet each other.

“You in charge?” Doc asks, his little goat tail twitching.

“Nope, he is.”

Ryuk feels something tap on his shoulder and ruffle his hair. He stands, and sheepishly makes his way over to Doc to meet him. “Ryuk Matsuzaki,” he says. “And this is FeeTwix Fajer.”

“Hiya, Doc!”

“And the goblin? Or do you guys just call him ‘goblin?’”

Hiccup crosses his arms over his bare chest, which still has blacklight-responsive paint smeared across it. “That settles it. I’m getting a fickin’ nametag. Hell, a tattoo, old English letters, right over my belly button. The name is Hiccup, which is short for–”

“–Hiccupanaratapana,” Sophia says, her nose held high. “I speak Thulean.”

“Cool, then you can fickin’ take the medal off the faun’s chest and stuff it in your mouth.”

Doc laughs. “Sophia has an Order of The Red Flag of The Hero of Socialist Fraternal Labor of The Peasants and Workers of The People’s Democratic Republic of Tritania medal too, Hiccup. We both have one. But I like the idea.”

“Doc!”

“Kidding, Doctor Wang,” the faun says, straightening up. “This is your show now, so let’s get down to brass tacks.”

“Right.” Sophia smooths her hands over her white dress and lifts into the air a few inches. “Ryuk, I need to meet you in person.”

Hiccup snorts, but doesn’t say anything else.

“In … person?”

“Yes. As your humandroid reported, there have been multiple attempts from NPCs to come through to our world using resetters. Since you are still experiencing digital hallucinations from time to time, I believe it is best if we meet. I will leave the US for Japan later tomorrow morning.”

“Just you?”

“I will have my AI Chuntao with me as well.”

“I’m dead, an RPC,” Doc says, “in case you didn’t already know through context clues. I’ll be overseeing the Knights in the meantime. Your guild – what was the name again?” he asks Sophia.

“The, um, Mitherfickers.”

“Got it. The Mitherfickers will act as a satellite of the Knights. It’d be best for the Shinigami to believe that you are all still in trouble. We can easily mask your handles and get new looks for you, hell, new avatars, but one of you livestreams so that’s a no go.”

FeeTwix says, “I can stop streaming temporarily, if it means I’ll avenge Tomas.”

“He’s the reason he came here,” Sophia informs Doc, again using her advanced abilities to read the Swede’s mind.

Doc considers this for a moment and says, “No, no. It would help, but your fans would come looking for you, especially if you just dropped the stream. No, the Shinigami should know we’re up to something. It’ll make them think twice about whatever they do next.”

He looks from Sophia to the Mitherfickers. “You all are running the show here and you really need to start grinding and level up. I’ve had my time in the sun. But if I can help in any way, let me know.”

“Thanks, Doc,” says Sophia.

“Yes.” Ryuk bows. “Thank you.”

“Later.” The faun waves and slowly fades away.

“So what now?” Hiccup asks after Doc is gone. “I don’t feel like fighting shit at the moment.”

“We will get levels later, starting tomorrow,” Ryuk says. “I believe we should go after the three Runestones of Tritinakh.”

“The what?”

“What the ink shadow told us about back in the catacombs.”

“Oh, fick that guy!”

“That’s a good idea,” Sophia says. “Going after the Runestones will at least bring you to a level that will allow you to travel to the next continent. You’ll still need to keep grinding, and if I were you, I’d do whatever I could to use EXP boosters.”

“You don’t happen to know Dirty Dave, do you lady?” Hiccup asks.

Her face hardens. “Yes.”

“Well, first off, lady, he ain’t fickin’ guilty. It’s the media out to get him.”

Sophia rolls her eyes. “No, he is guilty. Dave created Wizardous years ago based on a drug from Cyber Noir called Riotous. That said, he has proven useful in the past, and it is the only reason that he keeps evading authorities.”

“Welp, sorting that out is above my paygrade.” Hiccup glares at Ryuk. “Any-fickin’-hoo, that guy not only knows how to make good barbeque, he also seems to have all sorts of shit that can help us level up.”

“I’ll get in touch with Dave now,” Aiden says. He’s gone before anyone can say otherwise.

“Good. Then we have a plan. Ryuk and I will meet come tomorrow and your guild can get to leveling up. You two are free to log out,” Sophia tells FeeTwix and Ryuk.

The Swede shrugs. “Nah, I think I’ll stay logged in. Actually, if you are meeting Ryuk in Tokyo, do you think I could come? I could take a quick flight from Sweden.”

Sophia glances at Ryuk and shrugs. “What do you think?”

“Honestly, I rarely meet anyone.”

“We know you’re a loser, Marbles,” Hiccup says, “you don’t have to remind us. Hey! Who did that?” He bats his hands over his head. “Phew! It was Liz. Thought it was a ghost. I fickin’ hate ghosts.”

“I have no problem with you joining us,” Sophia says.

“Ryuk?”

“Sure, FeeTwix. Just for the day then, right?” Ryuk asks Sophia. “I’m assuming you two wouldn’t be staying for long. I don’t have much space. Well, I have some, but … ” He thinks of the thugs hired to protect him. “My life is a bit complicated on the outside.”

“The day works for me, Ryuk. I want to stay in one of those Proxima capsule hotels. They seem legit. Hell, maybe I’ll stay two days if it’s comfy. I have a ton of frequent flier miles.”

“Mile high club!” Hiccup adds.

“Do you even know what that is?” Sophia asks, baring her fangs.

“It’s when you get high a mile up. Like if I did some Wizardous while we were riding a dragon. Shit, we have a dragon. Forget to tell you that, lady. The dragon’s name is Snowballs, but as you can see, Marbles is an absent father.”

“Enway is taking care of Yangu,” Zaena reminds the goblin.

Sophia sighs audibly. “So it is settled then. I will be in Tokyo tomorrow and I will meet you both then. Chuntao, my AI, will get in touch with both of you to arrange the meeting. Because I’m not able to simply give you levels, you will need to grow stronger here. Searching for the Runestones of Tritinakh should help. In the meantime, Aiden will arrange another meeting with the Mitherfickers and Dirty Dave, but not here. It’ll need to be somewhere far from any guild quarters associated with the Knights.”

With that, Sophia spins and is gone before she can make a full rotation.

“I’m going to log out for just a second,” Ryuk tells his guildmates. “I want to tell Hajime what’s happening. I need to tell him about my brother.”

He lifts his finger, and as it has countless times in the past, the logout button appears.

Chapter 29: House Call

Ryuk wakes to the sound of something crashing in the living room. As the sine waves filter away, he becomes aware that he is now in his real world avatar.

He gulps in a fresh breath of air and removes his NV Visor. His bedroom is warm, the red light on the air conditioner signaling that the heater is on. His haptic gloves off, Ryuk first glances to the corner of his bedroom, looking yet again for the spider.

Nothing.

As his vision blurs into focus, more signs of a struggle meet his ears. His first thought is that his brother’s henchmen have come and that Hajime is handling them.

His heart pounding against his chest, Ryuk quickly casts this thought aside when a new, more sinister thought comes to him.

Kodai’s female humandroid.

As soon as his eyes adjust to the darkness of his room, Ryuk slips out of bed and crouch-walks to his bedroom door. Every nerve in his body firing, he closes his eyes and tries to discern what could possibly be happening in the other room.

His mind a whirlwind of fight or flight thoughts, Ryuk breathes as deeply as he can, hoping to center himself, to prepare for what may come next.

He doesn’t believe that Kodai is trying to kill him; something at the back of his mind assures him of this, but at the same time, he wouldn’t put it past his older brother.

Another loud crash shakes Ryuk to the very core.

His feet are suddenly Jello, his knees wobbly, his stomach in a knot, his ribcage barely able to hold in his beating heart.

Open the door, fight back.

Ryuk has never been a fighter, not in the real world, but as this thought comes to him again, he makes the brash decision that this is the only way forward.

One more breath in and he goes for it.

Ryuk cracks open the door to find Kodai’s female humandroid on top of Hajime, punching him repeatedly in the face.

The light from the kitchen gives Ryuk a glimpse of how bad off Hajime is. His face has been crushed and swaths of his face hang from his cheeks, revealing a mesh-like covering intercrossed with wires.

“Dammit, no!” Ryuk shrieks at the humandroid female.

“Stay where you are,” she tells him firmly, her eyes dilating as they take in Ryuk’s features.

One sickening crack later and Hajime has the upper hand as he punches the humandroid in the throat. Her boots screech against the ground as she struggles to get out from her pinned position.

The humgun.

Ryuk takes off towards the kitchen to the drawer where he knows Hajime stashed the weapon.

“Ryuk, go! Leave!”

The humandroid female leaps to her feet and produces a small blade from her belt. She swipes at Hajime, cutting into his chest.

“Hajime!” Ryuk reaches the drawer and shoves his hand in. He pulls out both the real gun and the humgun, and in his dash to get the right weapon, he drops the real gun to the floor.

He cringes, but once the gun doesn’t fire, but rather spins a few times, Ryuk places both hands on the humgun and points it at the two humandroids.

“Stop!” he shouts, his finger instantly finding the trigger. Having never fired a weapon, he tells himself it is just like his Marble Gun in Tritania, that all he needs to do is aim and fire.

It can’t be that difficult!

The female humandroid, the left side of her face twitching, looks at Ryuk and back to Hajime. One roundhouse kick later and Hajime’s knees buckle.

She steps on his already crushed face and digs her heel in further.

“No!” Ryuk screams as he hears a snapping sound. He triggers the weapon and …

… Nothing happens.

The female humandroid turns to him.

“Put it down,” she says firmly, “and let me finish what I came here to do.”

As she takes a step closer to him, a message flashes across Ryuk’s iNet screen.

Hajime: I am not dead, but she has shattered my vocal folds. If you plan to use the humgun, you need to turn the safety off. Use your thumb to do it. It will be on the right side of the weapon.

Ryuk feels around on the side of the weapon and notices a small, square button. He presses it and steadies his aim on the female humandroid, who is about three meters away from him.

“Put it down,” she tells him, one of her hands in a fist and the other wrapped around her blade.

“Nope. And fuck you.”

Ryuk squeezes the trigger and the humandroid drops instantly.

No flash, no bullet, no blowback or report. She simply drops, as if someone had flicked an off switch on her back.

Ryuk lowers his weapon, not sure of how he should respond next. He waits to see if she’ll move. She doesn’t. And after he waits another minute just to be sure, he clears his throat and asks, “Um, is that it?”

A message appears.

Hajime: Yes. You’ve completely disabled her.

“What now?” Ryuk places the weapon on the counter. It is cold; there’s no sign that it has even been fired. There’s something completely eerie about it.

Hajime: I need to visit a humandroid engineer. I was weaker today than I would have liked to have been, and I believe it has something to do with robosynthesis, and the fact I haven’t been recharging properly.

“Okay.”

Hajime: We need to call a taxi to take us to a repair facility. Before I do this, I want you to go to your room, get your sweater with the big front pockets, and grab the real gun. Kodai may be coming soon with backup.

“But I don’t … I don’t know how to use it.” Ryuk glances at the black gun on the floor of their kitchen and swallows hard.

Hajime: It is a precaution. I can tell you how to use it if it comes down to it.

“And what about her?” Ryuk asks, suddenly overcome with panic. Seeing two deadish bodies, even though they aren’t human, is really doing a number on him. He feels like he’s part of a crime scene, that the police will be there any minute to arrest him for shooting her.

Hajime: Leave her. My guess is that Kodai will be up here pretty soon with his thugs. Grab what you need. It’s time we find a new place to live.

“Where?”

Hajime: Let me worry about that. Grab some clothes, call a taxi, and let’s get out of here.

Ryuk bends to pick the real gun off the floor. He looks again at the bodies and at his bedroom door. A wave of anger rolls over him as he thinks of his brother, and how his own flesh and blood could possibly do this.

First in Tritania, now here.

A deep breath in does little to cool his anger. Kodai will pay, of this he is sure, but it will take a miracle for this not to end in a way that will adversely affect them both.

Hajime: Hurry. I’ve gone ahead and called the taxi. It will pick us up on the rooftop.

Ryuk moves to his room and grab a duffle bag. He places a change of clothes, his haptic gloves, and his NV Visor in the bag. From there he goes to the bathroom for a few toiletries.

He returns to the living room, his bag slung over his shoulder.

“How do I carry you up there?”

Hajime sits up quickly, which sends a bolt of shock down Ryuk’s spine. The damn near faceless humandroid turns to him and a light flashes behind one of his eyes.

Hajime: Sorry to startle you.

“It’s fine,” he says as the humandroid stands. “Can you see?”

Hajime: My sensors will do just fine.

The humandroid takes a step forward and his foot scrapes against the overturned couch.

“Let me help you,” he says, rushing over to him. Hajime lifts his arm and places it around Ryuk’s shoulder.

Together, the humandroid and the Tokyo youth make it to the rooftop. A cold rain picks up, the water beating against their two forms as the taxi lowers.

After he’s safely inside, and Hajime is next to him, Ryuk takes one more look back at his apartment, knowing all too well that this chapter of his life has come to a close.

Ryuk Matsuzaki’s Character Sheet

(*as of the end of Book Two)

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 19 Ballistics Mage

HP: 602/602

ATK: 118

MATK: 149

DEF: 89

MDF: 73

LUCK: 24

---

Skill: Tonsil Shot

Level Three: 1 in 9 chance of connecting.

Damage: 28% if enemy is less than level 30; 15% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 11%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9

---

Skill: A Simple Request

Level Four: 1 in 6.25 chance of a request being granted.

Caveat: Only works with a clear marble.

Requirements: LUCK > 10

---

Skill: Cherry Poppin’ Daddy

Level Two: 1 in 10 chance of connecting. Enemy’s backside must be exposed. Higher levels increase damage and chance for an instakill.

Damage: 45% if enemy is less than level 30; 15% if enemy is greater than level thirty.

Odds of instakill: 16%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7

---

Skill: Extreme Focus

Level Three: Can detect approach of camouflaged/concealed/stealthed enemies and objects.

Mage bonus: Higher levels allow sleuthing and increased accuracy. Also increases magic detection range when used in tandem with Magic Eye.

---

Skill: Inspire Others

Level Three: By inspiring others, you induce them to follow your orders. Higher levels allow for manipulation of enemies and random strangers.

Requirements: LUCK > 10

---

Skill: Magic Eye

Level Five: A colored glow indicates that magical properties are present. Higher levels allow for more detail and access to the Wikipedia of arcane knowledge. A red outline signals that a hidden enemy is near. A yellow outline signals that an object is enchanted. A dark blue outline signals that necrotic magic is being used. A green outline signals that algomagic is being used. An orange outline indicates a hidden trap is present.

Requirements: Level 13 Mage, LUCK > 8.

---

Skill: Splash Back

Level Two: Damage increases with higher levels.

Damage:  5% if enemy is less than level 30; 2% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 4%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9

---

Skill: Gory Headshot

Level One: Odds of instakill increase with level.

Odds of Instakill: 52% if enemy is less than level 30; 32% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Caveat: Must be within five meters of opponent’s head.

---

Skill: Spit Fire

Level Two: Stuff a marble in your mouth and spit it at an enemy. Higher levels allow for more control and sustained magical abilities.

Requirements: LUCK > 7

---

Skill: Bonding Trust

Level One: Bonding trust creates an everlasting connection between you and another creature. Higher levels allow for direct communication between you and other animals as you instantly understand their languages and demeanors.

Requirements: There are no requirements for bonding trust. This skill is tied directly to your D-NAS, digital neuronal autoconstruct system, and based on your interaction with others up until the point at which you met the creature.

---

Skill: One in a Million

Level One: Use your slingshot and any marble of your choosing to take an impossible shot. Odds of connecting increase with each point you gain in LUCK.

Requirements: Level 10 Mage, LUCK > 10.

---

Skill: Levitate

Level One: By placing a marble in your mouth, you can levitate for thirty seconds. Higher levels allow for longer levitation.

Requirements: Level 15 Mage, LUCK > 12.

---

Skill: Knights in White Satin

Level One: Call upon the Empress’ guard to aid you in a battle.

Caveat: Can only be used once per day.

Requirements: Gifted by Empress Thun.

Discover more about Oric and Wolf in the Last Warrior of Unigaea Trilogy. Set in a different Proxima world, this trilogy see Oric as a Player Killer on a mission to save a dying world.

You won’t want to miss this, and it ties directly into the Fantasy Online series.

Download Last Warrior.

Be sure to check out the preview at the back of this book!

Back of the Book Shit

Reader,

Damn it feels good to be a Mitherficker. When I first released book one in this series, I was quite certain people would hate Hiccup, but my biggest fears weren’t realizes, so, I doubled down for this one and let Hiccup pretty much be himself to the fullest extent. If you haven’t listened to the narration by Jeff Hays yet, do yourself a solid and get both audiobooks (or as whispersync). Jeff’s Hiccup is just about the funniest thing I’ve heard in years.

Regarding the next installment, book three will be called the The Runestones of Tritinakh, and it will be released in the spring. I originally anticipated three to four books in the Fantasy Online series. Now I envision five. The characters are too fun and the world is too big not to add another book. Also, I don’t want to cheat you, the reader. The Mitherfickers have a long way of leveling to go to reach the third floating continent of Tritania known as Ultima Thule, where the Sage of Gotha lives, and I didn’t want to brush over this fact in the third book.

Plus, I have some ideas for Tokyo that I’ve yet to orchestrate …

So look for The Runestones of Tritinakh in the spring. Before I release it, I’ll release the final two Last Warrior of Unigaea books, a surprise release. Join my mailing list here to find out about that as soon as I drop it (and by joining, you’ll get a FREE copy of the Feedback Loop Box Set).

    Click here to join my email list and get your FREE box set. 

-----

Fantasy Online is connected

Okay, so if you haven’t already started in on my back catalog, now is the time!

Oric and Wolf and the necklace

Oric and Wolf have their own trilogy which takes place in Unigaea, another online fantasy world, six years BEFORE the Fantasy Online series. In this trilogy, Oric is a Player Killer on a quest to save a dying Proxima World. Some of the things Oric says and does in Fantasy Online are directly related to the next book in the series. The necklace he has and the necklace Zaena have also find their origin in the Last Warrior books, namely book two. A character from Fantasy Online Three, named Lothar, is also a character from Last Warrior (starting in Book Two).

Add this to your reading pile because it plays a role in the next Fantasy Online book. Get The Last Warrior of Unigaea here.

Quantum Hughes, Sophia, Doc, Aiden, Empress Thun, Jim the Hostelier, Dirty Dave, Bramtoker, DJ Ride the Lightning

The Feedback Loop series contains the origins of the characters listed above and more, including the French chefs at the Mondegreen hotel. Aiden, Quantum, and some of the lesser NPCs are introduced in the first Feedback Loop book, Dirty Dave in the second (mentioned in the first), Doc in the third, Sophia and Empress Thun in the fourth. DJ Ride the Lightning is mentioned several times in the Feedback Loop series and makes his epic debut in Fantasy Online.

An example of the connections to The Feedback Loop series (and how deep they run) can be found in a line in which Hiccup calls Ryuk “Bramtoker”. Bramtoker is a Player Killer who appears in the Feedback Loop books 3 and in a tournament in book 4. Quantum beat Zaena’s sister, Queen Renata, in tournament in book 4 and some of the locations, such as the guildhall at the end of Polynya (and the “Brits castle outside”) are from The Feedback Loop.

You can jump right into the Feedback Loop series with the box set here on Amazon, also available in audio narrated by Jeff Hays.

You can also get the box set (books 1-3) free by joining my mailing list.

Proxima World locations

There are subtle mentions of locations from a Proxima World known as Steam. These locales are first introduced in The Feedback Loop Book Two (Morlock) and Book Seven (Akrasia). There is also mention of Steampunk Santa, who appears in both those books as well. I will use the Proxima World “Steam” for a new series next year (2018// first book called Imperium and Beyond) starring “Sam Raid” who appears in the Last Warrior of Unigaea series.

Seriously, if you haven’t started the other stuff, now’s the time! I am planning a wiki in the future, alongside my facebook group (which you should join) to help people more easily jump into my Proxima worlds and see their connections.

REAL world locations

I lived in Japan off and on in 2014 and 2015 for a combined length of about 10.5 months. Many of the locations I mention, I’ve personally been to. This includes Ikebukuro, the location of Ryuk and Kodai’s mother’s office. I actually lived in Kami-iitabashi, which is about six or seven subway stops away from Ikebukuro.

Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to visit Japan to write any of the Fantasy Online series, using memories for inspiration. This may change with the last two books, as I truly miss living in the country.

All that to say – most of this book was written in Texas. I created the map of Polynya and outlined the final chapters in Chicago, and I reread/edited my final version of the book during an “Evacu-cation”.

What’s an Evacucation?

During the writing of Polynya, I lived an hour north of Houston. My wife and I evacuated the area because of Hurricane Harvey, which soon became a road trip vacation as we traveled to Santa Fe, Denver (do not eat the gummies!), Wichita, and Oklahoma City.

The “Snoop Dogg” ink shadow scene, as an example, was edited and improved upon after a discussion with Jeff Hays – Fantasy Online’s narrator who asked for the shadow to sound like Snoop – at a 24-hour donut shop in Wichita, Kansas. Other parts were edited/fixed/conceived in Santa Fe, at an airbnb near downtown Denver, at a Kroger’s knock off in Oklahoma City, and at a stinky hotel in Lubbock, Texas.

Thank ye!

Thank you, reader, for taking this journey with me and enjoying the Proxima Galaxy. I will continue to expand it going forward, so watch this space for exciting news and hopefully in the next year or so, a wiki page on the Proxima Books (Thus far: The Feedback Loop series, Fantasy Online Series, The Last Warrior of Unigaea series) and how they are connected.

Special thanks goes to Kay Smilie for killing the beta read of the book, to my editor Andi Marlowe @ Andromeda Editing for tackling this crazy book, to my ARC Team for taking a chance with this one and helping me spread the word, to my wife for letting me talk to her about goblins, Jeff Hays for voicing said goblin, to the members of the Proxima Galaxy on Facebook for making me laugh, the authors I know and enjoy speaking (here’s looking at you Luke Chmilenko, Apollos Thorne – Cherry Apollos!) and to my cover artists in Ukraine, who made Hiccup just as I had imagined him.

Mother of fick, I’ve said enough.

Harmon Cooper

Writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Join the Harmon Cooper Reader’s group here on Facebook.

Get connected with other LitRPG readers!

To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group!

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The Last Warrior of Unigaea PREVIEW

(aka, the back story of Oric and Wolf)

Out on Amazon now.

Chapter One: Cliffhanger

A small pebble bounces down into the valley.

I look up at the ledge to see my muscles bulge, my vein pulsing with blood. Digital life force. There’s a slight chill in the air but my body is warm from exertion. I’ve been hanging on the side of this cliff for twenty minutes now, waiting for my prey to walk along the mountain pass.

The things you can do in an online world …

My vision pane flashes and a couple pebbles skip past me.

I originally came to the Farthing Mountains to look for sunset roots so I could craft a few potions. I found one, but then I saw the orcs coming and figured at least one had to be a Player Character. If I’m lucky, two.

My grip loosens and I dig my fingers in tighter.

Don’t look down, I remind myself.

I still need to assign the attribute points from my last level-up – three points to be exact – and as I hang, I use the interface to transfer all three points into STRENGTH. My muscles expand and my chest plate made of Solidus steel tightens.

I feel myself get a little heavier, stronger, and more aggressive.

My character sheet appears:

Oric Rune

Class: Level 8 Player Killer

Subclass: Level 3 Herbalist

INFAMY: 38 Players killed

HP: 869/869

HP recovery rate: 2% per minute

ATK: 133 +51

DEF: 114 +30

Attributes

STRENGTH: 10

WILL: 4

DEXTERITY: 7

MIND: 4

SPEED: 5

I hear voices and mentally swipe away the interface. There will be time to pat myself on the back later.

(^_^)

Here they come.

The three orcs chortle as they make their way around the bend. They’re merchants, hopefully Player Characters, and if I’m ever going to get some loot and attribute points the old-fashioned way, it’ll be by killing these three.

I tighten my grip on the ledge, pull my knees up, and press the balls of my feet into the rock face. The red outlines of their bodies appear on my vision pane even though I can’t officially see them yet.

If I time it just right …

Almost there …

Now!

I latch onto the cliff’s edge and do something I would never be able to do in real life – bounce my feet off the rock face and use all my power to backflip up to the mountainside pass.

“Hey!”

I grab the first orc by the front of his chest plate and toss the slack-jawed bastard off the escarpment.

Instakill!

+1 Infamy!

A Player Character. Yes!

My sword comes out, as do the swords of the two other orc merchants. Their levels and anonymous handles appear next to their names.

Two level sevens? Damn.

“You’re going to pay for that!” the first orc seethes. A green icon over his head flashes.

An NPC.

The other has a blue icon.

Another Player Character, hell yes.

“Some good that shitty sword will do!” he screams.

I grin at him. If you only knew …

All avatars start in Unigaea with a legendary weapon that needs upgrading. This “diamond in the rough” approach gives new players something to immediately see to. Either sell the weapon for instant funds, or get it repaired and reforged. Hell, some even learn to reforge it themselves.

I’ve done neither.

I turn my sword over in my hand, waiting for one of the orcs to come forward. My legendary weapon was once a full-fledged buster sword, but the blade has since splintered into three distinct peaks. It’s still large – about as long as a skateboard – and sharp as hell too, but the blade’s odd form has taken many an enemy off guard.

Much to my advantage.

“You’re dead!” The NPC orc charges me and brings his smaller sword up to meet mine.

Our weapons clink together and I quickly overpower him, using my leg to sweep his feet out from beneath him. The other orc merchant attacks as his counterpart rolls away, spraying dust into the air on his approach.

“I’ll kill you!” the Player Character shouts. He’s much better with his sword than the NPC; still, I manage to get in a brushing swipe that connects with his shoulder.

-145 HP!

Thick ichor spritzes from his wound. He screams like a sissy and disappears in a flash.

I stupidly turn to figure out where he went and my vision pane flashes.

A rogue orc?

While my armor protects me from the NPC orc’s stab, I do receive some blunt damage. The other orc comes in for another swing; his blade lands perfectly in one of the valleys of my splintered sword.

This was why I hadn’t had my buster sword reforged.

The NPC orc growls, presses his weight forward, seethes, and tries to free his sword from the groove in my blade. I twist my wrist and grin at my unsightly assailant. He pushes his weight forward again, and I reward his efforts with a boot to the chest that sends him straight to the ground.

I come down hard with my three-pronged, splintered sword, tearing through his cheap leather armor and piercing his lung. I twist the blade, he cries out in pain, and I yank it out, arcing the air with blood.

-286 HP! Instakill!

I take a step back to catch my breath.

Wham!

The next sound I hear is my body hitting the ground.

(^_^)

My head stops spinning moments later and I find the rogue orc standing over me with his sword at my throat.

His face is covered in blotches, his teeth misshapen, pointy, and yellow. The other trait that defines him – aside from his poorly armored man tits – is his festering stink, one part sulfuric urine and two parts Limburger cheese.

I don’t know why a Player Character would want to play as a rancid orc, and I really don’t care.

Spit flies at my face as he shouts, “I wanted you to watch me kill you. This is what thieves get! This is what Player Killers deserve!”

I keep my eyes trained on him as I slowly pat my hand against the soil, desperate for the hilt of my weapon.

The orc kicks my Splintered Sword away. “Your broken-ass sword won’t do you any good now!”

He presses the tip of his blade into my Adam’s apple and snarls.

“Do it then,” I grit. “End this.”

“If you die, you have to start over completely. Level one,” he reminds me with a sneer. “You’ll lose your busted-ass sword too.”

This is the one thing that makes Unigaea one of the most addicting and most frustrating Proxima worlds in recent memory. It doesn’t matter what you do, nor what level you're at – if you die in Unigaea, your narrative ends. No respawning, no save points, no being brought back from death.

You start over with a level-one avatar, if you decide to start over at all.

A strand of my long brown hair falls in my face and I blow it out of my pane of vision. I smile at the filthy orc. “Do it.”

He’s just about to pull his arm back when an enormous black wolf tackles him, going straight for his jugular. The wolf whips his head left and right, sinking his teeth deeper into the orc’s neck.

-79 HP! -56 HP!

The huge wolf stops just before snapping the orc’s neck. The majestic beast, a deep shade of shadow and large enough for a human to ride, turns to me.

He bares his teeth and his ears flit back. Behind him, the orc chokes on his own blood.

“Easy,” I start to tell the beast.

The big wolf approaches me slowly, locks his big, blue-green eyes onto me and …

I reach my hand out to him. The wolf relaxes immediately and starts panting.

“Thanks for letting me finish the job, Wolf,” I say as I push myself up and run my hand behind his ear, scratching his favorite spot. He thumps his leg, sighs, and makes the cute whimpering sound he always makes when he’s happy.

Once I’m on my feet, I move over to the rogue orc and squat in front of him.

His eyes quiver as he takes in my form. His neck has been torn to shreds and the front of his armor is covered in blood, with a couple of bloody dog footprints. He coughs as thick crimson ichor boils from his lips.

I drive my Splintered Sword into his neck and twist.

Instakill!

+1 Infamy!

Bonus attribute point received!

I stand and wipe my bloodied blade onto his pant leg, suddenly disgusted at myself.

Wolf sits on his haunches and begins licking his paws. I walk over to the ledge for a moment and stare out at the magnolia pines below. I have to remind myself why it is I’ve chosen to do this, to go against everything I ever thought to be true and become a Player Killer.

I’m not yet strong enough yet, but I will be soon enough, I think, as a vulture lifts into the sky, screeching to signal to its brethren that dinner is ready.

My mantra for the last month still doesn’t change what I am, or what I must do to become who I’m supposed to be.

After another moment to collect my thoughts, I turn back to the two dead orcs, steeling myself for the troubling, uncertain journey that lies ahead.