Sam frantically looked around for Rondo as he scrambled to his feet. This time the Cutthroat wasn’t in his face. He was at a distance, chugging from a similar silver container as the one Sam had frequently used. When he was done, he looked at Sam and chuckled.
“This little gem here has saved my hide more times than I can count. I pilfered it from some undead hero long ago. It has quite the revitalizing effect. Funny, I’ve heard it said that these things are reserved for some kind of chosen one. Hehehe, looks like I chose myself, hehehe,” Rondo explained, unable to control his laughter.
“Seems like you’re more of a thief than anything. It explains where you got all that stuff for your store,” Sam accused.
“I am whatever I need to be to survive. Roles are as interchangeable as clothes and there are enough fools out there for me to live a long and prosperous life. The role I’ll play next is that of executioner,” Rondo replied, grinning at each pause.
Rondo put his shortsword away and pulled out another dagger. The second dagger was as brightly silver as his other blade was deeply black. Rondo spun both of the blades around in his hands then pointed the silver one right at Sam. This time, with his left hand he threw the three knives.
Sam was again forced to block as the blades crashed against his shield. Rondo had closed the distance much quicker than before and broke Sam’s defenses by kicking his shield and pushing him away. He stabbed Sam’s shoulder once and nicked the side of his neck before Sam was able to recover and block again. One of the daggers was building up his bleedout gauge like mad.
Sam was forced to use an ability he hadn’t often used before by stabbing from behind his shield. He stabbed Rondo twice as the Cutthroat stabbed at his shield. Each of Rondo’s attacks with his silver dagger had done a tiny portion of damage even though it only struck Sam’s shield. There had to be some sort of magic effect behind it. When he looked closer he saw that the blade had sparked each time it struck the shield.
Lightning, he thought as he struck out with a heavy thrust. The Rapier’s blade went right through Rondo, dazing him and Sam was able to follow up with charged thrust. Rondo lost over a third of his HP from all the combined attacks Sam had inflicted. Every one of those blows had found their mark. Sam had lost a fourth of his health from one clean hit, a small nick, and a few blocked blows. Rondo clearly had the DPS (damage per second) and HP advantages in this contest.
I’ll need to play smarter, he thought.
Rondo threw his three knives again. This time Sam waited until the first knife nearly collided with his face to dodge out of the way. He managed to avoid all three knives and was even ready to meet Rondo when he approached. Rondo slashed out with his silver dagger once and was blocked. Sam took the lightning damage and continued to block when Rondo tried to stab him with the black dagger. There was a sharp clang when metal struck metal then Sam was again pushed back by the force of Rondo’s boot kicking his shield. Rondo followed up with two clean dagger strikes that took Sam down to below a fourth of his maximum HP.
Shit, he thought as his brain scrambled to create something resembling an effective strategy. He raised his shield and backpedaled. All his brain kept telling him was to get the hell out of there.
Rondo advanced on him with his super quick dagger strikes. His blows rained down so fast that Sam wasn’t able to ascertain the origin point of either strike. He didn’t think he could parry either of Rondo’s daggers. Sam anticipated Rondo going for the kick, so he rolled away.
He raised his shield again and struck from behind it doing very small damage, but he valued his safety more than he valued doing oodles of damage at the moment. Sam was able to see the origin of the kicking attack and was able to avoid it when Rondo immediately attempted it when he approached. He stabbed Rondo twice again before repeating the same tactic.
This time when Rondo approached, Sam stabbed only once then surprised his opponent with a kick of his own. Instead of following up with an attack on his stunned opponent, Sam opted to heal to full before rejoining the fight. He felt comfortable again now that he had the HP advantage. It didn’t deter Rondo though.
Rondo again tossed out his knives. Sam had the timing, so he dodged again. When Rondo came near, Sam stabbed him twice from behind his shield again. Instead of attacking like he usually did, Rondo appeared at Sam’s side. It almost looked like he came out of the very shadows. Sam had barely seen him move from behind his shield.
“How in the hel—”
Rondo stabbed Sam right in the chest. Sam coughed, spluttering blood as he lifted his shield and deflected the second dagger. He rolled away, nearly collapsing as he did. Rondo’s attack wasn’t a critical strike, but it was very damaging. Sam had lost over a third of his HP. Sam retaliated with a throwing knife of his own. Rondo faded into shadow and effortlessly dodged to the side of the blade.
“What the hell was that?” Sam involuntarily asked aloud.
“I am a master of my profession. These last hundred years or so has allowed me to hone my skills to perfection. These are true shadow skills and they are the difference between you and me, upstart.”
“Is that so? Well Rondo, I’ll give you props on having some cool abilities, but I don’t need gimmicks to beat you. I am Sarem the Sanguine, an oddity among Cutthroats. You may be the master of assassins in this place, but I am a prodigy amongst my peers. You are not in my league, lowly old man.”
Sam didn’t know what he was saying. He only knew that it felt good to say it. When he saw the bubbling anger in Rondo’s face, he couldn’t contain his giddiness. He threw his head back and laughed at his opponent. It was a poor idea, but something was causing him to simply not care. Was it the adrenaline?
“What, did I piss you off? I suppose a guy that hides and plays different roles would be mad at something as inconvenient as the truth. But that’s the least of your issues buddy. You see, I’m going to kill you and take that which you hold dear, your precious Quintessence. A low life like you has no need for it. It’s much better in my possession. I might even do something special with it, like feed it to a demon or something. I can’t think of anything else YOUR rotten Quintessence would be good for. Good riddance, right?” Sam said while laughing.
“You impertinent bastard. I can’t wait to see what Caesar will do to you once I give him your worthless corpse. You better pray someone takes your Quintessence. It won’t be me. I’d rather watch you helplessly rot away as you lose your wits at an agonizing rate. You’re nothing to me but a bloodstain on my sword and once I’ve killed you, you’ll be a distant memory!”
Rondo dashed at Sam and tried slashing him with his black dagger. Sam stabbed at Rondo from behind his shield and missed when Rondo again faded away into a shadowy form and appeared at his side. Sam rolled to the other side to avoid a close range attack, but was at a disadvantage when he recovered. Rondo was able to stab him in his upper arm. Before Sam could retaliate with a light blade thrust of his own. Rondo then countered with a vicious combo. The first two slashes cut Sam cleanly, but by rolling away he was able to avoid the spinning twin bladed lateral slashes that Rondo used to end the combo. He thanked his lucky stars that the first two attacks hadn’t stunned him. His evasion had left Rondo open. Sam held his Rapier in both hands and stabbed right through him with a heavy thrust. Rondo reeled backwards briefly stunned and Sam saw his opening. He was on a steep enough incline that his next attack should hit all the way. He built up the power needed for it then unleashed the Skyward Thrust on a stunned Rondo. Rondo’s body jerked and reeled with each of the rapid thrusts and he was knocked back unto the ground by the final one, but he still wasn’t dead.
“Dammit. You persistent asshole! Just die already!”
Rondo had but a sliver of HP left. Sam threw another knife at him when he got up, but Rondo managed to evade it. Sam pressed his advantage and tried poking at him as he retreated. Rondo’s quick knife throwing caught Sam off guard and locked him into place in a block. He waited for all three knives to colli
de before moving forward again.
“Shit!” he yelled as more knives came aim towards his head. He lifted his shield and yelled, “Rondo, you fucking spam!”
Rondo had moved a considerable distance from Sam and had his stolen Soul Fire in hand.
“Shit! No you don’t, you cheap asshole!”
Sam quickly equipped his bow and lined up a quick shot.
“Come on, come on, come on! Don’t miss, don’t miss, don’t miss!” Sam offered up his prayer to the gods of fortune and loosed his arrow. He watched its trajectory and silently cheered when it found Rondo’s eye socket. The malevolent Cutthroat fell to the ground, dropping his ill-gotten container to the ground next to him. The ghostly Soul Fire spilled out of its container and covered the ground in a brief azure glow before fading out completely. The silver container was left barren and began to slowly crack and wither away into dust. Rondo began to fade away as well.
“This can’t be ... all because of ... his family ... never liked killing ... children. Can you really ... call me evil?”
Rondo faded away completely leaving Sam with his soul mist which engulfed him and increased his soul count by five thousand. He also left Sam with a unit of solid Quintessence and a glowing black orb had floated where he had died. It looked like some kind of spirit. Sam quickly went over to pick it up and gained all of the gear that Rondo had previously equipped. He didn’t have time to read it all, because he wanted to get over to the king as soon as possible.
The king and Caesar still looked to be in a deadlock. They were both breathing hard and looked heavily damaged. The king’s armor was dented all over, bloodied, and sliced open in more than a few places. Sam could now see Caesar’s pale flesh as his armor was also riddled with many more large cuts and gaping holes thanks to his reckless style of fighting. Both combatants swung their massive swords in one hand and clashed blades. They pushed forth in a test of strength with neither gaining an advantage.
“Your skills, they are better than my soldiers’, murderer. I am impressed. You can take that to your grave at least,” said King Herke.
“I am not impressed by you old man. Is this all you can muster?” goaded Caesar.
The king took the challenge to heart and came at Caesar with overwhelming force. He bludgeoned through Caesar’s single sword defenses with a series of brutal overhead two-handed strikes that Sam knew he himself could not block. Caesar backed away from the king’s fury and fell to one knee.
“You sealed your fate when you associated yourself with that devil Rondo, though your deeds were enough to ensure you’d meet your end by my sword.”
Caesar lifted his sword to block as the king swung his sword downwards. Caesar displayed a crazy level of strength when his sword block slowed the king’s finishing blow down enough so that he avoided being split in half. The blow had only managed to split Caesar’s vulture skull helm in half.
Blood flowed down Caesar’s face from the top of his head and he looked up at the king with the same icy blue eyes and a look of pure hatred on his face. The king looked surprised and for the first time scared. Sam wondered if the last blow had tired him out too much and put him at a disadvantage. He got his Rapier out and ran towards the pair. Something was off. For some reason the king looked completely stunned in place. Did Caesar activate some kind of Spellcrafte with his stare?
“My boy ... you—”
Caesar pushed the king’s sword aside and knocked him backwards as he rose up to his feet. He brought his sword down across King Herke’s left shoulder, chest, stomach, and right side. The king’s blood spilled forth as he fell backwards to the ground and landed on his back. His crown fell off and rolled to the side and the once mighty king looked up at Caesar, tears in his eyes, and held his hands up into the air longingly.
“My boy ... my heir ... my little king ... Caesar,” the king said as he faded away into a white mist that was absorbed by Caesar.
Sam couldn’t believe what he had just seen or what he had just heard. The whole situation was fucked up. Sam healed up with his Soul Fire and walked up to the madman. Despite Caesar’s overwhelming power, Sam knew he was on his last legs thanks to the king’s valiant efforts. All he wanted now was an explanation of what had just occurred.
“Caesar!” Sam yelled. The bloodied blood knight didn’t even acknowledge him. “What the hell happened here, Caesar? What did the king mean?”
Caesar stared at the spot where Herke had fallen. Now that Sam was this close, he saw it. Caesar’s brow, the way his jaw was set, the blue of his eyes and the harshness in them and even his fierce expression had all strongly resembled King Herke’s.
“Regrettable. It was all truly regrettable,” offered Caesar. Sam didn’t know what was going through the man’s mind, but he wanted to make sure he knew what had happened before he moved on. What surprised Sam was that Caesar honestly seemed to be grieving.
“Why were you friends with, Rondo? If you are who I think you are then he killed you, did he not?” Sam asked.
When Caesar finally turned his attention to Sam, he looked disgusted. Sam could suddenly feel waves of fury emanating from him.
“No! Rondo killed my little bastard brother, Philoke and his baseborn whore of a mother,” he spat at Sam.
“So you were the one that the king shipped off to this place, makes sense.”
“I WAS THE REAL HEIR! IT WAS I, WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE NEXT KING OF ASCHELUND, NOT HIM!” yelled Caesar who was now practically foaming at the mouth. “I WAS CHEATED, BY THIS LUDICROUS CURSE, BY THOSE DETESTABLE NOBLES, AND BY MY PITIFUL FATHER WHOM I HAVE JUST SLAIN!” He began laughing so hard that his whole body shook. “Yes, I have killed that fool. The look in his eyes when he saw me was so priceless, so worth the patience I have endured for so long in this place. Even better was the look he had when he knew his death was approaching. Oh the feeling of my greatsword cutting through his flesh! There has never been a better feeling. What gorgeous art I had created with his body, with a slash that opened him up for the maggots! How I wish that he was here now so that I may do it again and hang him up when I am done. His body would have been worth more than his wretched soul,” he said with a rapturous whisper.
“Ooph!” he wheezed as he looked down at the thin blade protruding out of his chest. His blood cascaded down his armor and dripped down to the ground from his armored faulds.
“Your joy doesn’t compare to what I feel right now gutting you, you sick fuck. Now, go rot in hell, where you belong,” Sam hissed into Caesar’s ear. “And tell all the demons and devils that Sarem sent you.”
He kicked Caesar off of his blade and watched him writhe on the ground until he eventually faded away into a cloud of white mist that was absorbed into Sam’s digital body. Sam’s soul count had increased by ten thousand and he was given a unit of solid Quintessence.
“Justice has been met. In honor of the king.” Sam bowed and picked up the floating black orb that Caesar had left behind, which contained his weapon and armor. “Now, let’s get the hell out of this place.”
29 Special Announcements
“Way to go, Sam!” Alex cheered quietly to herself as she watched Sam finish off Caesar on her monitor. Sam’s victory over him and Rondo and his subsequent completion of King Herke’s questline was an extremely impressive feat. It was even more impressive that he had managed it in Survival Mode. The other testers had largely decided to proceed forward slowly. Most of them were still grinding souls and leveling themselves, their weapons, and their armors, but Sam was actually ready for the next area of the game.
IMMORtAL_Kalika and SwordWrenchMan had done all this before Survival Mode was active and Justinian89Thrills had completed the quest early by killing the king. Regal Deego had yet to finish. She was glad that she decided to stay up for the extra hour to see it. The fatigue did finally seem to be getting to her though. She could barely keep her eyes fully open after her latest cup of coffee.
It was strange though, there was a brief shift in Sam’s brai
n patterns as he watched King Herke get killed by Caesar. There was some sort of attachment there and a real feeling of loss when the king was killed. It wasn’t strange for players to be so immersed in the game that they get attached to characters, but the extreme spectrum of feelings that Sam was feeling was abnormal.
She saw intense rage, melancholy, vindictiveness, and joy when he vanquished Caesar. Of course, it all made sense considering what he had dealt with in the last few hours. He’d been betrayed and thanks to Milner, he ended up killing his best friend. There was no way that Sam was in a stable mental state right now, and her data was screaming at her, that that was the case. She only hoped that his mental state would stabilize soon, for his sake.
She looked around and saw Milner enter the room once again with Stephen at his side. He had been recording himself and projecting his image into the games of all the testers, talking to them, and apparently motivating them like he had done for Sam and her other testers Jake and Dan. The only place he could do that was in the Scan Room. She had no clue what technological voodoo he pulled to get that thing working as smoothly as it did, but she had to admit that it was impressive.
It didn’t require any further rendering from the programmers whatsoever. They were all focused on the shit-show that was Phase 2. Milner wouldn’t be impressed by Sam’s results in the least. He would be more so looking for a perfect run from Sam, meaning that the fact that Sam wasn’t able to keep King Herke alive or kill both Caesar and Rondo effortlessly would be held against him. The man’s standards were impossible to achieve and it made her really fear for everyone involved in his test.
Milner and Stephen walked past her talking ardently. She caught them saying something about the bodies of the testers.
“They’re already dead, but we tapped them again as a precaution. A standard procedure,” Stephen said with a grimace on his face.