66 – Champion
Andy looked at the slowly swaying rope, scanning the cliffside above, but he didn’t see anyone. Either the team that had somehow deployed the rope had already ascended, or the defenders had chased them off with arrows and thrown objects. He could see plenty of evidence of the latter—arrows in the dirt and heavy objects like a dumbbell and a shattered microwave. He was contemplating climbing up the rope when the System made its first appearance of the night, flashing a message across his vision:
***Andy! As the leading defender of your settlement, you’ve been selected for the following quest: seek out the Hardhead’s champion before he infiltrates the Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park. Behind the veil of water lies a mouth of stone. The path is narrow, the air is still, and none who walk above know what lies beneath.***
Andy immediately understood the System’s rather obvious riddle. The veil of water had to mean the waterfall, and the mouth of stone was the tunnel that Omar had shown him earlier in the day. He turned away from the rope and began loping through the desert, his mind racing with the implications. How could the “champion” infiltrate the trailer park through that tunnel? They’d searched the grounds for an opening and come up empty.
“Gotta be something hidden up there,” he muttered, sprinting past the disastrous result of the defenders' dropped vehicle; there were at least six bodies pinned beneath the pickup truck, and bloody trails that indicated other serious injuries among the survivors who’d fled. As he hurried toward the ribbon of water coursing down the side of the mesa, he racked his brain, trying to think of a way someone in the tunnel might reach the top of the mesa. He came up with two possibilities: the exit was obscured by dirt or grass and wouldn’t be visible until it was opened, or it was underneath one of the trailers.
As soon as he had the idea, he thought it was obvious. There were fifty-seven lots in the park; he didn’t know exactly how many had trailers in them, but it had to be more than forty. That was a lot of real estate covered by people’s homes. Could they have searched under them all? He wasn’t sure, or even if the opening would be apparent. It was too late to worry about, anyway, so he focused on the waterfall and recast Twilight Steps.
Thanks to his Reaper’s Senses, he could hear the sounds of people all around. Most of them seemed to be moving away, some stomping in a panicked rush, some slinking carefully, and others gasping and whimpering in pain. Whatever their state, it seemed like most of the Hardhead invasion force had been routed, though Andy could still hear distant sounds of conflict. He wondered if the defenders at the front gate had been able to hold the trailhead, or if the attackers had managed to rush enough people up to break through.
When he came to the little pond at the base of the waterfall, he didn’t have to wonder if he’d gotten there before the Hardhead “champion.” His enhanced vision made the waterfall look like a magical, glowing thing—gleaming and sparkling in the moonlight—and behind it, he could see a long, dark line swaying with the passage of the water. It was a rope, and it was affixed to the stone of the cave mouth. Andy didn’t hesitate, sliding down the embankment to the pond’s edge, then running around until he was beneath the cool, falling water.
There wasn’t much space behind it, and he was quickly soaked, but before he started climbing, he knelt and tied the bottom of the rope around his spear. He couldn’t climb with it in his hands, but he figured he could pull it up behind him. That done, he looked up, blinking as the water sprayed his eyes, then leaped, catching hold of the damp rope in his gloved hands. With his feet against the cliff, he started climbing, surprised by how easily his mana-enhanced muscles carried him upward.
When he reached the cave opening, his arms were getting tired, but he felt like he could have easily climbed twice as far, which was good, because that had been his original plan if he’d needed to retreat. Dwayne was waiting up there, or he should be, listening for Andy’s whistle in the event he’d need him to lower a rope.
The rope to the cave was fixed to the stone via some kind of spike, and Andy had no idea how anyone had gotten there to plant it. It didn’t look like something that could have been fired by a bow or thrown, but, then again, with magic added to the list of considerations, he supposed anything was possible. He hung there, just below the cave opening, for a minute, listening, and he thought he heard some scuffing in the distance, but nothing close by.
Convinced that nobody was waiting there to stab him or throw him off, he grabbed the stone edge and hauled himself up, scooting into the opening before rising to a crouch. The tunnel leading into the darkness was narrow and low, but the floor was flat, smooth stone, which strengthened his earlier suspicion that the System had designed the cave; it didn’t look natural. Hastily, he turned and grabbed the rope, hauling it up and piling it on the stone by his feet until he'd reeled in his spear.
Gripping his weapon, leading with the smoke-shrouded blade, he started forward into the darkness. Even with his enhanced vision, it wasn’t easy to discern the shape of the tunnel past a dozen feet or so, which, as far as he could tell, meant there wasn’t any sort of light. Did that mean his quarry could see in the dark, too, or did it mean he was a lot further on? The question increased the urgency in his mind, and Andy picked up the pace.
It might have seemed reckless to hurry through a dark, unknown tunnel in pursuit of a dangerous enemy, but Andy was cloaked in shadows, and his steps were muffled by his talents. When the stone walls began to glimmer with a faint glow, and he realized there was a light ahead, he was reasonably sure he’d arrived undetected. Even so, he slowed a bit, stalking forward carefully, and it probably saved his life.
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His spear was extended three or four feet ahead of his body, and when the darkened blade pierced the air at a rounded curve in the tunnel, a shimmer of silvery light bisected the air with a metallic hiss, clanging against the metal part of his spear, knocking it up so that the blade drew sparks from the stone ceiling. Andy was startled, and he stepped back, fighting to hastily bring the spearhead back down ahead of him.
He'd just managed to reset his weapon when the tunnel flared with light and a man came around the corner, a sword in hand and a glowing orb of orange light floating by his head. The guy was dressed in a silken black outfit that reminded Andy of a martial arts gi, and the sword looked like it was straight out of a samurai movie. Even so, it was the floating orb of light that stole Andy’s attention. He supposed he still wasn’t used to magic, and the light was a very in-your-face example of it.
“Ah! The ghost! Thanks for saving me the trouble of finding you.”
Andy shifted his gaze away from the floating light to the man’s face, taking in his wispy mustache, his sardonic grin, and his crooked nose. He had a pair of long scars that ran from his left eyebrow down to his jawline, and his light-brown eyes were sharp, focused, and hard. “Let me guess”—Andy tensed the muscles in his arms, preparing for a surprise attack—"you must be Chavez.”
The man lunged forward, slashing his katana in a quick feint, testing Andy’s reflexes. Andy pulled his spear back, allowing the metal of the two weapons to clang hollowly in the tunnel. “My legend precedes me, hmm?”
“Nah, I just heard some rapists talking about what a creep you were before I killed them.”
Chavez scowled, and Andy felt the weird sensation of mana gathering before the man exploded into motion, his sword darting out too fast for Andy’s eyes to track. Andy didn’t panic; he didn’t need to track the sword. He could see Chavez, and he knew he had the reach advantage, so he just extended his spear, thrusting it at the other man’s face. Chavez reeled back, growling as his lightning-fast attack failed to do more than shave a sliver of wood off the side of Andy’s weapon.
“Quick,” he grunted.
Andy didn’t want to play defense, so he pressed the attack, driving forward, feinting low, looping his spear up and to the left, and then driving it toward Chavez’s chest. He was fast, and something about his Smoke Lance enchantment made the spear cut the air even faster. To his surprise, Chavez failed to parry, but just before the tip of Andy’s spear hit home, another surge of mana filled the air, and Chavez flickered and instantly seemed to shift backward two full feet, avoiding the blow.
“Fast,” Chavez growled. “What’s your name, Ghost?”
Andy didn’t reply, but pushed his assault, this time performing two feints before committing to a stab at Chavez’s face. The swordsman discerned Andy’s feints and saved his response for a proper parry, knocking Andy’s spear toward the ceiling. Rather than try to attack him with his sword, Chavez flicked his free hand forward. Andy barely caught the flicker of something shiny in the air and tried to dodge to the side, but he was just a little too slow, and a sharp metal spike, about the size of a large nail, skittered against the hard plastic plate on his chest before falling to the stone with a clatter.
“Almost got you,” Chavez said, grinning.
Andy wanted to tell him he talked too much, but then he’d be guilty of the same offense, so, instead, he attacked again. He had a plan, but he wanted to make sure the moment was perfect. He wanted to lull Chavez into thinking he understood Andy’s abilities. He needed to give him a false sense of confidence. That said, he went back to his first move, feinting low and then stabbing at Chavez’s center of mass. Again, Chavez parried, and this time he didn’t try to throw something; he lunged forward, trying to slip past Andy’s guard to drive his sword into his guts.
Andy had figured something like that was coming, so he was ready to backpedal. The section of tunnel where they fought was about fifteen strides long, so there was room for some back and forth before either of them might get caught off-balance by running into a corner. When he’d safely avoided Chavez’s counterattack, Andy pushed another attack—feint, feint, stab, retreat. They went back and forth like that several more times, and Andy continued to repeat the same three patterns of attack.
Chavez threw another metal spike his way, but Andy saw it coming when the man extended his arm and ducked to the side, completely avoiding the missile. When Chavez seized on Andy’s somewhat awkward position after the dodge and pushed another attack, Andy implemented his plan.
Chavez drove forward, and when his sword was raised, ready to come down, Andy cast Shadow Cloud. Chavez’s light exposed the fact that he couldn’t see in the dark. Andy also knew that his Shadow Cloud spell created magical shadows that would persist “even in direct sunlight,” meaning Chavez’s light wouldn’t negate them. So, when the inky black shadows burst outward, Andy stepped to the side, grinning as the darkness continued to expand, enveloping his foe.
Chavez’s sword cleaved empty darkness, sparking as it skittered against the stone wall. His eyes flew wide with panic, and he started to retreat, but it was too late; Andy had already begun his lunge, and the tip of his spear punched through the man’s silken gi, burying six inches into Chavez’s exposed side. The caustic smoke enchanting the weapon’s blade poured into the open wound, and Chavez screamed, flailing against the spear, swinging his sword frantically. Andy drove forward, shifting his grip toward the back of the spear haft to avoid the clumsy hacks.
Chavez couldn’t keep his feet as the weapon continued to dig into him and the infectious, burning smoke spread through his flesh. Screaming with panicked agony, he tripped and fell. Andy knew better than to assume he’d won, not when he was dealing with an enemy who had unknown magical abilities. As soon as Chavez fell, he pulled his spear back, drawing it out of the man’s flesh and then immediately stabbing him again, this time aiming for a critical spot on the inside of Chavez’s right thigh.
He opened his enemy’s femoral artery, and, as blood poured out of him, Andy’s spear sent more caustic smoke into his flesh. Chavez gasped, dropping his sword and scrabbling backward. He was still inside Andy’s shadow cloud, and his face was twisted with terror as he tried to get away. “B-bastard!” he managed to gasp before his breathing grew too shallow for him to speak.
Andy knew he would die. He was bleeding too much, never mind the smoke spreading through his flesh, burning its way through his vessels, and searing his muscles. Even so, he didn’t see any reason to wait for the inevitable. He drew his spear back and lunged again, burying the blade into the Hardhead champion’s throat.
***Congratulations, Andy! Your victory has thwarted a Hardhead scheme; however, their leader and a sizeable assault team have breached the perimeter of your settlement! New Quest: Stop the Hardhead leader and his elite fighters from killing citizens of your settlement. Success criteria: no more than 20% of your citizenry can perish.***