Chapter 18

The enthusiasm had burned out; Amy knew she was still running, but she couldn’t feel her legs. Her tank was empty.

“Huff! Huff!”, Amy panted laboriously.

Amy anxiously stopped to look around her, she had been caught up in the emotions of the moment, and completely forgot her surroundings. She worried that maybe Minerva would be trampled under the feet of the masses.

Amy felt a hand tug her shirt, she turned back to find Shatira standing there breathing heavily.

“Where is everybody?”, Shatira asked, with her arms crossed, “Not like I’m worried, or anything”.

“I dunno”, Amy responded as she searched the people around her in hopes of finding one familiar face, “Oh well let’s meet up at our rendezvous, we’ll meet them there”.

“Hpmh, I’ll do what I want”, Shatira said, marching off leaving Amy to catch up, a sour expression on her face, but nonetheless advancing towards the afore said destination.

Meanwhile Amy said, “Activate display”.

Her vision filled up with different numbers, words, icons, and menus. It overlayed her view like she was wearing a virtual reality headset to play real life.

Liam had cautioned her, ‘Out there in the wilderness, out there in the space between territories, keep your tablet’s display on. You never know what you will encounter’.

In the top of her right vision, she could see a square, it was a map that showed around thirty meters of her current location. Her marker was a pale blue arrow, while Shatira up ahead was displayed as a green arrow. The thirty or so white dots were the people around her. In her top left was her level. Now she had risen to level five, but after seeing Glyn’s level of 180, she felt that she was lacking. She had a mana bar that was a deep blue, and a health bar that was red. Everything about her body and abilities was quantified, and displayed. It really looked like some of the games Jeremy would play; but, she realized, that was not the case. In fact, it was the opposite, the display in the games were inspired, fashioned after, had been based off of the system of the Waga tablet.

She looked at the inventory icon in her bottom right, she read the app came with a plug in that would overlay on her interface. At first it took some time to adjust but Liam had stressed how important the quantification was, the information, was crucial when faced with an unexpected situation.

Amy began to take in her surroundings, as she followed Shatira silently. The grass under her feet was soft, supple. In front of her was rolling hills of vibrant green, as if massive hands were unfurling the ground beneath her like a rug. Some of the hill tops had congregations of trees, while off in the distance the hills grew higher, steeper, giving way to the forested costal mountain range of Dyladir.

They had not followed the road, like most of the participants; instead, the group had decided on going through the wilderness away from the roads to a further isolated locale. Liam had told them it was a strategy to gather more points, in the beginning while others went to the nearest settlement to stage their month-long journey. They were to travel through the back country defeating whatever foul creature appeared, collecting more points, as opposed to the safe roads and byways.

Amy looked back behind her; a certain anxiousness crept in to her otherwise cheerful mood. The sprawling city of Arbellorn behind her, rose from the ground majestically. The high spires, contending with the clouds, the massive walls, that kept the 20 million or so population safe. The flocks of dragons, and other winged creatures, filled the airspace above the city. She looked up above her and even now, the sky was filled with dragons, large enough to cast cloud like shadows upon the pedestrians below.

Shatira slowed down her pace to match Amy’s, “I’m bored, entertain me”.

“How much longer until we arrive at our first rendezvous”, Amy asked.

“Your no fun!”, Shatira complained, “At our pace we should reach it in about two hours”.

Amy began to feel anxious; she enlarged the map with a gesture of her hands; she scrolled along the dotted line that showed the route as the dragon flies. Finding the waypoint marked in a cluster of trees on a hilltop, Amy looked forward trying to identify it, but gave up, she wasn’t accustomed to such things yet. There was no choice but to continue walking.

Thirty minutes had passed and still no sight of the party was found.

With tension in her voice Amy asked again, “Seriously, where is everybody?”.

To which Shatira shrugged her shoulders in response, and just kept pushing forward, “We’ll find out when we get there”.

That’s right Amy was overthinking, she chided herself for overreacting. They were only a few miles from the city, surely, they wouldn’t encounter anything dangerous. She began to calm down and hummed as she walked.

“What song is that?”, Shatira asked.

“It’s that song from that video Veve posted”, Amy responded in between notes, “You know the karaoke she sang, from the famous Elven singer”.

“Who sang it?”, Shatira asked with a smirk that Amy did not notice.

“I think his name was Beanif”, Amy answered her finger on her chin in contemplation.

“Let’s keep it that way then”, Shatira said with a chuckle.

Amy was dumbfounded, ‘that was rude’, she thought. Her happy humming had ceased. ‘Dou ma’, she cursed inwardly. She glared at the back of Shatira as she strutted forward. Even though, they were still in a safe zone, Shatira had equipped her leather armor.

“Dou ma!”, Amy shouted and marched forward past Shatira, she wouldn’t allow this awful woman to gloat about arriving first.

Amy could feel Shatira’s gaze as she began to match Amy’s pace.

One hour later Shatira exclaimed in Italian, dropping to her knees at the empty rendezvous, “Ragazza Puttana!! Why do you have to walk so fast?!”.

Amy’s eyebrows twitched as she was also on her knees desperately trying to fill her lungs with air.

From beside Shatira who shared her misery, Amy retorted, her eyebrow twitching, “Why did you have to speed up?! And what did you call me?!”.

Amy felt something was off, Shatira didn’t respond to her outburst, Amy looked at her face to see her looking around furtively, she held her finger to her lips, and spoke in a subdued voice, “We’re being watched. These fuckers, it’s a perfect spot really; a grove of trees obscuring the view of the officials, even though we’re in the safe zone. Amy, do you know the phrase ‘duel for spot’?”.

Amy nodded, she heard it from some of Jeremy’s complaining as he played his MMORPG. Apparently, it was a common occurrence, to be hassled by some hyper person insisting to hunt in the location you were at, and would refuse to find another hunting ground, instead insisting on your spot.

“Well, the raid especially, this portion is supposed to be a competition, we can challenge a party for a hunting spot, or be challenged for a spot. And that’s not supposed to happen inside the safe zone, but it seems, this could be dangerous. They wouldn’t be following us hiding themselves, if they were friendly; and they wouldn’t give a fuck about the rules if they ambush us here, only about getting caught. ”.

“Magic detection”, Amy whispered to herself as she continued to stay kneeling.

Over the past two weeks, as excruciating as they were, Amy had grown mentally. Sure, she was still doubtful and afraid, really who isn’t, but she also began to feel out her powers a little deeper. She learned to be calm or else…she shuddered as she recalled a horrifying memory she very much wanted to avoid.

‘So, the raid is like this?’, Amy thought to herself.

Amy gestured towards her right hand, after she saw five yellow circles on the map flash and then disappear. She closed one fist, and held out five fingers.

Shatira nodded, Amy was apprehensive. ‘Could I hurt another person? Would I accidentally kill someone?’, she thought to herself.

Then a voice came from behind the trees surrounding them, covering the view of the sky, “This is our spot!”, he proclaimed with an Italian accent, and a confrontational tone, “Oi Oi, who do we have here, the little Puttana from the ghetto”.

The man was middle aged, around forty-five or so, grey had already begun its assault upon his dark brown hair. Despite going through bushes and over twigs, his steps were silent, refraining to utter even one note. His face had a grim look, and stress wrinkles around the eyes from a hard life. Amy could tell he did not have benevolent thoughts, his expression was tight, and his eyes menacing.

Amy’s heart began beating rapidly, Shatira looked at Amy before standing up to respond, “Look at the little dick swinging on you, Piera”, Shatira replied with a defiant dangerous glint in her eye as she coldly measured the man appearing, “What you came with three guys just for two girls. You’re the piccola puttana. How about I cut off your little piccolo cazzo and feed it to you”.

“You bitch!! My name is Piero, and you killed my brother! I’ve waited for this day, this is sanctioned by the boss, we can’t allow the little girl that killed a made-man to live free. It would tarnish our reputation. It’s business, but I’m going to enjoy this”, He said with his face red from anger, and a malicious smirk.

Three guys, but Amy told her there was five. What’s going on who are these people, are they really going to attack us. It was a shock for Amy. Shatira looked back at her with an apologetic look in her eyes that said, ‘sorry for getting you mixed up’.

“Then I guess this is business, it is what it is”, Shatira said as she stepped into an archer’s stance clutching air like she had a bow.

Then to Amy’s surprise a green bow of pure energy filled, her clutches, it had a glowing elegant recurve shape, and a thick green arrow nocked. ‘Mana Weapon’, Liam had told her before as he discussed various styles, and weapons.

“Pussies”, she said angrily as she fired at Piero.

He avoided the speeding arrow, and swung a bat made from some exotic wood, “Don’t worry I won’t kill you, just smash that face and then that pussy”.

Amy was astounded, she had never encountered such vulgarity and hostility, it was far removed from her sheltered modern life. Amy was alone, there were still four hiding; she heard a rock tumble. ‘Magic Detection’, she thought in her head. Amy was afraid. While the assailants assaulting her may think she was easy prey, a petite girl holding a white wand. But the truth was, she was actually afraid of killing them after tasting her own strength. Her adrenaline had long since diluted her bloodstream. She acted.

As the yellow circles on the map neared her, she chanted, “Do Re Drae Ngun Dar und”, and swept her wand in a half circle specifying the targeted area.

The ground around her began to shake violently, she had used the earthquake barrier spell Liam had taught her. She heard three distinctive confused yelps, as three men broke from cover struggling to stand. Still, one had managed to gain some footing and dashed forward.

“She’s a wizard, take her out!”, the man yelled as he seemed to fly above the ground.

Amy felt relieved. The man met her eyes a puzzled expression on his face, as he saw her relaxing expression. ‘I can do this’, Amy thought to herself, confidence slowly building. Her screen flashed red as the tablet sensed an attack. It was a function of a passive detection app Sean had shared with her. Sean in his wry humor dubbed it, ‘F.M.L.’. She turned away from the one charging at her to avoid the two daggers silently speeding by her face. She felt a burning sensation from her face. Shocked, she held her hand to her cheek, and felt a warm liquid run down her wrist. She spun around realizing she exposed a gap to the man behind her. A night stick filled her vision then, Amy fell back, holding up her hands… Clang!

“Oi Amy, you better pay attention you fucking idiota”, Shatira said with a growl, clenching her teeth as she held off the attack with two daggers.

Her long sleeves had been ripped showing her built, but shapely shoulders. Amy stood and faced the two men behind her. They were in their thirties, one was pudgy, crooked mean eyes, and a wicked lustful expression, the other skinny. They had black suits, and black hats.

With a grunt Shatira pushed the man back, and said, “I took care of that putta over there, don’t hold back! These assholes wanna fuck us up, then fuck us, do you understand? They’re earthers related to the mafia, they are doing the raid for only two things: money, and a grudge”.

They waited outside of reach, “We’ll treat you real good, little China girl”, the thin weasel like man said looking at Amy with lust in his eyes.

Amy pressed her back against Shatira, as Shatira said, “Come on Amy, I’ve seen you fight five ogres at once, these cunts are just trash”.

The wand in her hand began to vibrate, out of all the swirling emotions in her heart anger was extracted, and surfaced seemingly propelled by the wand’s agitation, making her face flush, but her eyes turn cold.

Amy touched her bleeding cheek, and growled in a sharp soprano voice, pointing her wand menacingly, “Then these assholes will die. Magic…”.

Suddenly, a shot rang of in the distance, red splattered Amy’s face as she blinked.

The man let out profanities holding a ruined shoulder, as Amy heard a familiar voice, “Woah there, Amazon warrior! Don’t waste your time wee lass, these thugs are through!”, Sean said as he stood looking down the smoking barrel of his oversized magic hand cannon, exhaling a dense cloud of cigarette smoke.

Soon all the guild members emerged from their spots, like wraiths appearing through the mist and surrounded the attackers. Osgur flung a full-grown unconscious man from ten feet away, to in front of the trio: the fifth lying in wait. Fear filled their surviving, still conscious faces, and regret for being caught, displayed itself instantly in their eyes. They dropped their weapons, and knelt down.

“Saw them we did, following you so we hid, sorry we are”, Minerva said as she smacked the skinny weasel with her hard dwarven hand with unforgiving eyes.

He instantly fell, incapacitated.

Amy’s mind began to slow down, Glyn approached her holding a hammer as long as she was tall, “You hesitated, but it’s understandable, you did good Amy”.

Her killing intent subsided and vanished; Amy felt like herself. She didn’t doubt herself; she knew she was just influenced by the wand. She nodded silently, and stared puzzled at her wand, because she never thought about, even thinking about, killing anybody in her life.

“So, this is what a raid is like”, Amy muttered to herself.