NOVEL WEB Chapter 118: From Ruby to Ruby
Chapter 118: From Ruby to Ruby
Having barely moved more than a hundred feet from where they started, Zach was annoyed to find himself in yet another fight as he and Kalana, for the third time, unavoidably aggroed a group of level-27 Marauding Avislicers in this incredibly packed section of her island. The mob density was simply absurd, and there was no way to get around these things. This group in particular had been spread out along the pathway as well as the nearby grass, making it impossible to sneak around their approximately eighty-foot aggro radius. They’d just been standing by idly as though waiting for him and Kalana to stumble across them, and when they did, they raised their katanas and charged.
Now, as Zach cleaved a mob called “Marauding Avislicer F” in half from the point of its hip, dealing 28,200 damage and earning him +2500xp, he raised his blade and prepared to take down another of the bird-faced, two-legged creatures. Yet he stopped as his attention was drawn to the sound of a persistent, loud ding from somewhere in the distance; the noise came across as something of a mix between a gong and a triangle dinner bell.
Ahead of him, the road split off into three directions, with the middle path heading to the city along with two more paths: one that curved off to the left and one that went right. Turning his head, he realized the sound was coming from the left, where the gravel-covered road ran upwards on sort of an incline before leading into a fenced-off village about a half a mile away. Yet it was just to the side of this village where the sound originated. Specifically, atop one of those watchtowers.
“Uh oh,” Kalana said. She’d darted into the grass and had begun engaging three of the creatures, and it had been right around that point when the ringing had begun.
“What happened?” Zach asked.
“We just triggered the alarm. Or rather, I did. Shoot!”
“Did you say the alarm?”
“Yeah, I’ve done that before,” she said with a sheepish laugh. “It happens when you get too close to the village and the Avislicers in the watchtower see you.”
“And…and what happens when you trigger the alarm?”
With lightning-quick flashes of her hands, she sliced apart the three mobs around her, earning him +7500xp then pointing her dagger in the direction of the hill that led up to the village to their left. “That,” she answered.
Zach looked in the direction indicated—then groaned, even as he raised his smoke-emitting hands to guard against a spinning attack, having to twist his blade to repeatedly block against the rapidly advancing and spinning Avislicer. Right now, racing down the hill were about fifteen more of the creatures, only not all were Marauding Avislicers. About five of them were a bit taller, bulkier, and had thicker wings. They also carried a shield and an axe as opposed to dual katanas.
HP
45,200/45,200
Name
Avislicer Guardian A
Level
35
With a sense of urgency, Zach stepped forward and thrust his blade right through the belly of the mob before him, dealing 16,511. Then he ripped it free and immediately brought it around for a decapitating slash, watching as the Avislicer’s head was not only taken off its shoulders, but was actually flung a good dozen feet or so off to Zach’s right. Like one of the Marauding Slicers he’d killed just before, this one, too, did not manage to fall to the ground. It began to do so, but before its body landed on the gravel, it had crumpled into nothing more than a clump of steam that was quick to disappear.
+2500xp
Now, turning his body in the direction of the oncoming rush of mobs, Zach gripped his blade more tightly and said, “That’s a lot of them, Kal.”
“It’s okay. We can handle them. As long as we—”
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
Zach took a deep breath, held it a moment, and then released it, slowly. “Kal?”
“Y-yeah?”
“Was that another alarm bell.”
She gulped. “Mhm.”
Glancing over his shoulder, Zach saw another fifteen mobs rushing along a field, wading through the two-foot-high stalks of grass as they charged him and Kalana. This, as a loud neigh from ahead caused him to look in the direction of the city, where he realized a wagon was rapidly approaching. Yet it was moving much faster than he’d seen from any of the wagons so far, and the horses steering it had changed somewhat; their eyes were now glowing red, and they were salivating.
Damn! We aggroed that too, didn’t we?
Inside the wagon were three more Avislicers, though they were different from the ones Zach had seen so far. They were shorter and thinner than the Marauders and the Guardians, yet they were higher level than both, and they wielded long, single-bladed spears.
HP
65,000/65,000
Name
Vengeful Avislicer
Level
40
Zach scowled. “We’ve got thirty-three mobs heading towards us. Are you sure we can—gah, shit!”
Following a brief whistling on the air, pain flared in his shoulder as an arrow—no, a crossbow bolt—struck him with enough force to plant him onto his back. With a cry of warning, Kalana ran over to him even as he was scrambling up to his feet. Though he’d been hit hard, he was okay thanks to his 112 constitution and 88 armor; from the looks of it, the bolt had not fully penetrated his skin, only managing to sink about three or four inches deep. Switching to a one-handed grip, he used his opposite hand to rip it out of his shoulder—then cried out again as another bolt he didn’t see coming struck him right in the middle of his back, sending him down to his knees. Then three more came in, hitting him in his left knee, his left shoulder, and his chest. A fourth also whizzed by overhead, though he only knew that much because he’d heard it rather than seen it.
“Zach!”
“I’m okay!” he called. “Don’t waste your stamina healing me. These aren’t serious wounds!”
“B-but you’re bleeding.”
“Barely!”
He rose back to his feet, yanked out all four bolts, then leapt to the side the moment his ears detected the sound of more bolts sailing through the air. Unable to see where they were coming from, he moved in a more or less random direction, and thankfully, it worked, and he avoided them—assuming there was more than one. He didn’t even know. Right now, he was doing his best to avoid entering into a panic and becoming reckless.
“We need to reset,” Kalana said. “There’s too many coming at us.”
“Reset?”
“Yeah. Nothing here will chase you out of the Avikin Grounds. Let’s leave, lose aggro, and then try not to aggro them on our way back in.”
Zach shook his head. “The ones we’ve killed have already respawned. Retreating means”—he dodged again in the instant he heard the sound of bolts traveling on the air towards him—“starting all over. We’ll never get anywhere.”
“But Zach, even at my level, I dunno if I can handle this many—”
“Just answer a question for me,” he interrupted. “And please, do it quick. Is it okay if I destroy some of these structures?”
“Destroy?”
“Yes, Kal!” he shouted, becoming frustrated. “Like, blow things up.” When she gave him a blank look, he struggled to hold back his anger, which was truly not directed at her, and he explained. “Because it’s your island, and you might not want me wrecking it.”
“Oh,” she said. Then her expression lit up. “Ohh! No, don’t worry about that. Spawn points always regenerate the land back to its default state over time.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Yup. Even if you blew up everything here and then incinerated it, within a week, it would go back to just the way it was before.”
Assuming Kalana was correct—and he had no reason to doubt her—Zach found that fascinating. More than fascinating, even. It implied so many things about the world and the way it used to be. It also invited a whole lot of thought about the nature of spawn points. Unfortunately, now was not the time for him to ask her any follow-up questions. And so, relying on his 114 points in dexterity to do right by him, he waited a moment for the sound of whooshing in the air. As soon as he heard it, he once more jumped off to the side. Immediately after, he extended his palm, aimed, and activated his newest ability, Phase Cannon, aiming at the watchtower near the village to his left, consuming 1:30 of his current duration of Unleashed Phase and leaving him with 19:11.
Here goes nothing, he thought.
There was a boom: a loud, deep boom. Though not quite as loud as the sonic boom from Phase Blink, it came pretty close, but it was also far lower in pitch and came across as greatly more ominous. It also caused the ground to vibrate, if not outright rumble, and for a moment, Zach was blinded by a flash of light many times greater than the muzzle of a gun. With that, a spiraling, flashing, and burning ball made of a pure white fire burst out of his palm and ripped through the air, moving at an incredible speed—one he estimated to be about three quarters as fast as what his Wave Slash could achieve after reaching its maximum speed, which was the point at which the double-bladed disc typically erupted into flame.
Zach watched, amazed, as in just five or six seconds, the Phase Cannon he’d fired crossed the half a mile’s worth of distance between where he stood with Kalana and the watchtower he’d fired at. This meant it must’ve been traveling around 400 miles per hour, and when it struck, even from all the way over here, Zach could hear the collective series of snaps and cracks as the entire structure exploded, sending wooden chips and logs shooting in every direction. He saw something else, too.
+16000xp
Even as he saw the increase to his experience, it struck him as both odd and funny that he didn’t even know what the hell he’d just killed: not its name or its level. Yet based on the number of bolts and the direction they were traveling, he did at least reason he’d killed two mobs with that one attack. And as if to confirm this, he ducked down to his knees as more bolts tore across the air above his head, and this time, paying closer attention, he was sure he heard two distinct thuds as each struck the grass-covered ground ahead of him.
Now, spinning around, he extended his palm and fired off another Phase Cannon, which caused his entire hand to recoil like a gun and swing upwards and towards his shoulder as the white, spiraling ball of light blasted across the world before detonating another watchtower in another explosion of wood, which resulted in the exact same gain of xp.
+16000xp
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Zach returned to a more defensive stance with both his hands gripping his blade as he awaited the rush of enemies, which were coming at him and Kal from three separate directions. Even with all that he’d been through, he didn’t think he could handle thirty-three mobs at once, not even with Kalana here. This meant he had no choice. He had to either retreat with Kal, wasting time and effort, or he had to bring in some help.
“You know what? Screw the xp,” he said. “At this rate, we’ll be lucky to live, let alone make it to the city in time—assuming that’s even where the quest is.”
She opened her mouth, likely to question what he was planning, but she let any words she might have been about to speak fall away as Zach made his intentions obvious as he activated Summon Active War-Mount. At the same time, he removed his left hand from his sword, raised it above his head, and called upon Bank and Storage. Grabbing his card from the box, it appeared in his hand, and then he dismissed the ability. Now, he activated Card Summon.
With that, standing side by side before him were his saber-toothed, level-75 war-mount and his viciously carnivorous, level-90 card, Cursed Defender of Ziragoth.
Though his war-mount was limited in the commands he could use, Zach had far more options with his cards, and so, mentally, he used the Defend command, ordering the Cursed Defender of Ziragoth to defend Kalana. Immediately, it ran across the gravel until coming to her side. She took a step back as though in hesitance, and it took one much forward to match her movement.
“It’s defending you,” Zach said.
For some reason, Kalana’s cheeks puffed up and she said, “Aww! Cute!”
“It’s not cute, Kalana. It’s a disgusting lizard thing. I’ll hate it forever even though it’s useful to me.” He frowned. “Are you seriously petting it? It’s not sentient.”
“I know,” she said, “but it’s so cute.”
He sighed. “You take the fifteen on the left, I’ll take the wagon, and I think my war-mount can handle the ones on the right. If it dies, I don’t care. But try not to get the card killed, because I lose that for good if its HP goes to 0. My war-mount I can always get back by just waiting twenty minutes.”
“Don’t worry,” Kalana said confidently. “Ruby isn’t going to die.”
“Who?”
“Ruby.”
“Did you seriously name my card?”
“Yes.”
He laughed of all things, but said nothing else. Then, with a mere thought, he ordered his Kralzek’s Beast to attack the fifteen mobs coming from the right, which were nearly upon him. This, as he bent his knees and readied himself to take on the wagon and its occupants. For a moment, the only sound other than the grass rustling from a quick breeze was the sound of the wagon’s wheels rolling over the gravel as it approached nearer. But then there was a gagging and choking that came from his war-mount, causing Zach to wonder if the thing was okay. And it was only then that he recalled the beast having a cannon of its own.
From within its opened mouth, it vomited up a metal, tube-shaped object, and then, without any warning, it went off with a tremendous bang that was both louder and higher-pitched than Phase Cannon and resulted in an even louder explosion. Before Zach’s very eyes, four of the Marauding Avislicers were blasted into hundreds of pieces, scattering into the air along with a giant clump of grass, dirt, and dust.
+833xp
+833xp
+833xp
+833xp
The spectacle of it all both impressed yet disappointed him, because Gods, he was losing a lot of experience points. It was a shame, too, because he’d been making incredible progress towards his next level up until this point. Things had been sailing along quite nicely, in fact.
To Next Level
49,232/215,000
Oh well. We can’t do this without the mount and the card.
With 17:22 left on his Unleashed Phase, Zach wondered if he should start thinking about conserving some of his time as the wagon drew nearer. Right now, he had a perfect opportunity to hit it with a Wave Slash, which would take him down to 16:07. But that wouldn’t be so bad, would it? That was still a minute and seven seconds longer than its starting duration of fifteen minutes.
I can spare it!
“Wave Slash!” Zach cried out, swinging his sword downwards and causing a green, patchy, cloudlike clump of energy to form in the air, which soon coalesced and changed into a double-bladed disc that took off slowly then rapidly gained speed as it moved towards the oncoming wagon. With a satisfying crack, Zach watched as it split apart the wagon while skewering both horses, earning him another four-hundred experience points. What it did not do, however, was damage its occupants; all three of the Vengeful Avislicer mobs leapt out, flipped several times in the air, and then landed in a crouch.
Not only were they shorter than the other Avislicers, but they were actually shorter than Zach. And they were scrawny, too. Somehow, he did not think that meant it was wise to underestimate them: and so he didn’t. Raising his guard, he studied their movements carefully as all three darted forward at him with their spears held out as if to impale him. While this was happening, he heard a loud, cat-like growl as his war-mount leapt into action, then a chirp as well as a grunt, as Kal and his card did, too.
“Fucking mobs,” he growled. “Why can’t you just leave us alone so we can rescue the king of the slug clan!”
Then something happened. Something strange. Something he had never anticipated. As if reacting to his very words, everything came to a sudden, abrupt halt. All the mobs charging from the left and the right halted at once, and so too did the three, level-40, spear-wielding “Vengeful Avislicers” running his way. Even his card and his war-mount stopped short despite him not giving them the command to do so. Kalana, too, came to a sudden stop, though in her case, it seemed due more to confusion than anything else.
“Uh…what the hell is going on?” Zach asked, having become anxious, worried, and very confused.
“I dunno,” Kalana replied, sounding just as unsettled as Zach felt. “Why’d they stop?”
“I was hoping you could tell me that. I was about to fight these three things, when all of a sudden, they just—”
“Frrragh!” shouted the mob named Vengeful Avislicer B, who began separating from the other two to walk closer to him. “Frrragh!” it shouted again. And then it spoke: it actually spoke. Its voice was patchy, high-pitched, and not all that dissimilar from that of a parrot, only it was more intelligible and Zach did not have to struggle to understand what it was saying. What he did struggle to understand—at least at first—was how and why it was even speaking at all.
“Frrragh!” it cried. “So, if it isn’t—Zachys Calador, the human male—and if it isn’t—Kalana Vayra, the Elvish female—frrragh! You will not stop the Avislicers, frrragh!”
A: “Oh yes we will, Avislicers! The king will be freed. Now die!” [Attack]
B: “Perhaps we can resolve this in a way that helps all of us.” [hands over 25,000 gold]
C: “I don’t care much about the king. How about I work for you instead?” [Quest failed. Gain 25,000 gold and begin Quest: Betrayal on the Avikin Grounds].
D: “I believe in a world of peace. Let’s resolve this diplomatically.”
Time Remaining to Decide: 0:40
Zach’s heart lurched in his chest as these words popped up into the air in front of him while what appeared to be “seconds” counted down one by one, beginning with 0:40 and getting all the way down to 0:29 before he realized just what in the hell was actually happening. When he did, he wasn’t surprised to see Kalana storming over to him with her eyes wide and practically sparkling.
He sighed. “I know what you’re going to say, Kal.”
“You do?” she asked, her voice absolutely teeming with excitement.
“Yeah. You want to pick, don’t you?”
“Can I…baby? Please?”
He laughed. “Sure. I really don’t care. Just don’t pick B.”
She clapped. “I won’t, promise! And oh my Gods, this is so cool! I’ve never seen anything like this before. I bet even Alex and the adventuring guilds haven’t.”
Given that the adventuring guilds did nearly all their adventuring in dungeons, then the only way they’d have ever seen something like this was for there to be quests of this nature inside dungeons. For some reason, Zach doubted that there were. He wasn’t sure what gave him that idea, yet it just sort of “felt” like this was more of an “out in the world” type thing, whereas dungeons were more of a “push forward and keep going” type of affair. But what did he know? There were at least some quests in dungeons. He himself had witnessed that much. But were they like this? He couldn’t help but doubt it.
“This is so incredible,” Kalana said. “I can’t believe this.”
“It is actually pretty cool,” he agreed.
Of all things, Zach felt a sense of longing in his heart, one that sought to experience Galterra the way it was thousands of years ago. He could only imagine how spectacular it must have been. This kind of extraordinary thing…it could’ve happened anywhere, no? This was just a slice—the tiniest taste—of the Galterra that had once been and was no more. Yet even still, he refused to support an abrupt return to those ways. Adamus was wrong. Anything that caused the death of countless innocent people was wrong.
As Kalana read over the choices, she seemed to make her decision rather quickly yet still waited until they were down to ten seconds to make her selection. And when she did, Zach was totally unsurprised to see that she’d gone with option D, as that choice just screamed “Kalana.” If it had been up to him, he’d have chosen A—and then attacked immediately.
Raising her hand, she touched the spot in the air where the option was given, and then the choice, along with all the others, vanished. And Kalana’s eyes widened first in what looked to be shock and fear, but quickly changed to delight, as she began to speak. “I believe in a world of peace. Let’s resolve this diplomatically. Oh my Gods, Zach! It made me say that!”
He chuckled. “You sounded so convincing.”
The mob that had spoken to them, Vengeful Avislicer B, made a series of loud, angry squawking sounds before responding to Kalana. “Frrragh! Spare me your sentiments—Kalana Vayra, the Elvish female—we are not going to be swayed by appeals to morality!”
A: “Give us the king of the slug clan or draw your last breath.” [Attack]
B: “I want no further part in this conflict. Please, at least spare us our lives.” [Retreat. Quest failure. Title Unlocked: __the coward]
C: “If you step aside, you will not be harmed, and no one will know that you or your men ever encountered us. You have my word.”
D: “You will step aside right now and give me your rarest item, or I will kill every last one of you and your families.” [18% chance of success. Failure = T1 consequence]
Time Remaining to Decide: 1:10
“Okay, now it’s my turn to pick,” Zach said, wiping his lips as a sudden trickle of drool slid down his mouth.
Kalana folded his arms. “I can see the greed. You better not pick option D.”
He snickered. “Oh, I’m picking that one.”
“Zach, no. Don’t be a dork.”
“Kal, the worst that happens is we get a T1 consequence.”
“Okay, and um, what’s that do?”
He shrugged. “No idea. But who cares? It’s only T1.”
She glowered at him. “Don’t do it. You know better than this. Anyone can see how this is gonna end.” Zach raised his hand and extended it, even as she began to scowl at him. “Zach, this is why we always get into trouble. You know it’s not gonna work out well.”
“I’m sorry, Kal,” he said. “I have to. It’s just a T1 consequence. There’s no way we can’t handle it.”
“Zach, please. What if it puts us in danger.”
She had a point. If it turned out to be worse than he thought, and if Kal got hurt because of it, he’d never forgive himself: ever. If only there was a way to know what he was dealing with.
Wait, isn’t there?
He gasped as he recalled one of the effects of Unleashed Phase, which he never seemed to have the time to use: his glossary. There had likely been so many times where, if only he’d had the opportunity to do so, he could have learned critically important information by calling upon it. And while time was still very valuable right now, this was not quite a high-stakes, life-or-death situation like those Zach usually found himself in. This was something they were doing by choice. Thus, while failing might cause some rain, they didn’t absolutely have to succeed. Realizing this, he relaxed somewhat and took the time to call upon his glossary so that he could see if there was any information about this. And as it turned out, there in fact was!
Glossary Entry: Quest Consequences
Certain non-dungeon quests will have branching choices and possibilities; occasionally, the user may be allowed to make a gamble in exchange for something beneficial. Failure is often—but not always—punished with a consequence. When assigned a consequence, the following tiers represent some possible outcomes, of which the user will receive at LEAST one.
T1 Consequence
These consequences will NEVER increase the risk of injury or death to the user(s) and/or their party. Among others, list of possible consequences may include: reduced quest rewards, loss of gold, the blocking off of certain quest branches, and diarrhea.
T2 Consequence
May contain any T1 consequence. MAY also contain the following: automatic quest failure, mob ambush, debuff for the user and/or their party, an increase in quest difficulty, viral or bacterial infection, or a trap.
T3 Consequence
May contain one, none, or multiple T1 or T2 consequences. MAY also contain the following: bodily mutilation, cancer, 1-to-50-year dungeon imprisonment, permanent blindness, permanent deafness, permanent loss of taste or other senses, and a T5 unremovable gag debuff such as Justin Bieber’s “Baby” playing in the user’s ear for the rest of their life.
T4 Consequence
Death
“Whoah,” Kalana said.
“See?” Zach asked. Externally, he behaved confidently and acted like this was exactly what he’d expected, but internally, some of those things scared the absolute shit out of him. Luckily, T1 didn’t actually seem so bad. There was no chance of causing any harm to him or Kalana. It outright said so.
“It’s still a bad idea,” Kalana said.
“Why?”
“It’s ‘cause we might lose gold or quest rewards.”
“That’s why it’s gambling. But we’re going to win. I have a feeling.”
“We won’t.”
“We will!”
“Zach, don’t be stupid!”
Zach grinned, and with that, he pressed the option D in the air, even as Kalana slapped her own forehead and began muttering about how dumb he was being. Then the options disappeared, and Zach lost control of his body. All on its own his mouth opened, and with a tone and inflection that he did not choose, he said, “You will step aside right now and give me your rarest item, or I will kill every last one of you and your families!”
Based on the mob’s reaction, Zach couldn’t help but feel a pinch of fear, though not because of the mob itself, but from the grief he knew Kalana was about to give him as the mob widened its eyes, raised its spear, glared intensely at Zach, and then said, “F-fine, you Gods-damned barbarian! Frrragh! But don’t think you can just talk your way out of it once you get closer to the city. You might’ve intimidated me, but my brothers will have your head. Frrragh!”
With that, there was a loud popping sound like a balloon being burst—many of them, actually—and every single last mob they’d aggroed vanished into nothingness, leaving behind nothing more than a white cloud where they’d resided that disappeared in less than a second; this, as a shining, purple light came from the gravel-covered ground before Zach’s foot.
“Yes!” he shouted, raising his sword into the air and releasing an even louder cheer. “Yes! Yes! Oh, Gods! Do you see, Kal? Do you see what gambling just did? I’m so glad I gambled. It’s not even gambling when you know you’re going to win! Ahahaha!”
“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled, looking unimpressed. “You’re totally taking the wrong lesson away from this, you know?” With a hint of curiosity entering into her voice—which she clearly tried to hide—she asked, “So, um…what did you get?”
“No idea, Kal, but it’s an Epic Rare! Gods, I can’t believe that worked. I was so sure I was about to royally fuck us!”
Bending down, he picked up a beautiful, dark red, rectangularly shaped gemstone that was large enough so that it took up half the space of his palm. “Whoah,” he said. “It’s some kind of ruby.”
It was strange to the touch. It was extremely sticky and soft despite being a gem, and it left a gross, slimy residue on his fingers. It felt as disgusting as it looked beautiful. Without wasting another second, he called forward the information on it, eager to see what the Vengeful Avislicer B had given him. Surely, it had to be good, because it was an Epic Rare item.
Name
Enchanted Awakening Gem of Authentic Cognition
Rarity
Epic Rare
Item Level
N/A
Description
N/A
Zach frowned. “The hell?”
Kalana also frowned. “I don’t get it. What’s it do?”
“Nothing, apparently.” He looked around. “Where is that piece of shit mob? I’m going to kill it! We got screwed. It’s a Gods-be-damned fake!”
“Nah-uh. It has to do something. Can I see it, please?”
“Yeah, sure, whatever. But it’s mine, Kal.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Greedy boy. Let me see it.”
With a gentle underhanded throw, he tossed her the ruby-like item, and she caught it. “Eww, gross!” she shouted. “It’s wet and sticky. Yuck!” As though it were an insect, she flicked her wrist and threw it behind herself.
“Dammit, Kal! Don’t just throw my—n-n-no! Stop! What are you—no!” Zach yelled, his eyes widening and his lips peeling back in horror.
He watched helplessly as the ruby, thrown carelessly by Kal, ended up hurtling right towards the face of his card. Only, instead of bouncing off its mouth and then landing onto the gravel-covered road, his Cursed Defender of Ziragoth, for a reason he could not possibly understand, opened up its mouth, revealing its razor-sharp, predator teeth, and then slammed them back down, devouring the item before his very eyes, visibly swallowing it.
“N-no!” Zach screamed, as Kalana held her hand to her mouth and began apologizing profusely to him. “Kal, look what you did! That fucking thing ate it. It ate my Epic Rare item. Gods, I’m going to cut it out of its stomach. Get over here, you useless little—”
“No! Mommy, he’s going to stab me!” the Cursed Defender of Ziragoth cried out in alarm, running behind Kalana and sending such confusion through Zach’s brain it nearly caused him to faint from the shock of it.
“Did it just speak?” Zach cried.
The avian-lizard hybrid began hiding behind Kalana, whose expression mirrored the abject confusion that Zach was currently experiencing, having no idea just what in the name of the Gods was happening here. With a childish, female, and squeaky voice, the creature said, “Zach is mean. Mommy, don’t let him kill me!”
Kalana’s jaw dropped open, and amid all this confusion and chaos, the words that came out of her mouth were not a question. They were not a cry of surprise. They weren’t even an appeal to calm or to think about this rationally. Instead, she glared at Zach, protectively wrapped her arms around the Gods-cursed thing and said, “You better not!”
Zach moaned out of both frustration, disappointment, and a general sense that things had just become so perplexing he could barely withstand them. “Kal, what the fuck is going on?”
“I dunno. But you better not be mean to…umm…”
“What’s my name?” the creature asked. “Mommy Kalana hasn’t given me a name. Can I please have a name?”
“I can give you a name?” Kalana asked, her expression lighting up with glee.
“Yes. What’s my name?”
Kalana beamed. “Ruby,” she said without another moment’s delay. “Your name’s Ruby.”
“I’m Ruby!” Ruby shouted as the name popped up above her head in bold, green letters, the sign of a friendly NPC. Only, for some reason, she was now level 66, the same as Kalana, and not level 90. Why? What did that mean? What did that even imply? Hopefully, it wasn’t what it seemed. Gods help him if that was the case.
Please, no, Zach thought, horrified. Did Kal just steal my card AND my item?
Immediately, he activated Card Dismiss, yet nothing happened. Then he activated it again. And still, nothing happened. On the third try, the creature made a frightened moan, and she said, “Mommy, he’s trying to make me go away. Please protect me.”
“Zach!” Kalana hissed. “What are you doing?”
“What am I doing? That’s my card, Kal. Why can’t I take it back?”
“I’m not a card,” Ruby growled, adding an angry chirp. “I’m a raptor! And I belong to mommy now, not Zach.”
“You’re a what?”
“A raptor.”
“What in the fuck is a ‘raptor?’”
“I’m a raptor. And I’m Mommy Kalana’s raptor. I’m not a card anymore.”
“That’s right,” Kalana said, scratching the creature’s rough-skinned chin as its tail began to thud appreciably against the gravel with enough force to destroy some of it in the process. “You’re my little raptor baby, aren’t you?”
“Yes I am! I will hunt for mommy, and I will protect you, too. Can I have meat? I like steak the most even though I never tried it. I know it’s my favorite. Raw, please.”
Zach was so confused it took a real effort for him not to whimper from the shock of all this. Maybe gambling didn’t pay after all.