End Online: Volume 4 (22 page)

“Fen, take out the
spellcaster at the back first,” I say to my companion as soon as the match
starts.

No more words are needed
as we sprint forward in unison. I leave an afterimage in my wake and reach the
enemy first. The spellcaster hasn’t even finished chanting her spell when I
appear from nowhere and deal a significant amount of damage to the defending
knight. The knight is startled at the sudden damage just as I had hoped,
leaving the spellcaster exposed to Fen’s attack.

The wolf girl raises her
hand into the air and forms a dozen stalactites of ice above her that startle
me. They are not the usual rustic cones of ice, but thin, seamless javelins of
ice. They produce a high-pitched whistling noise as they tear through the air
toward the mage. The crowd roars in excitement at the attack, but the mage also
finishes her spell incantation as well.

The woman points her staff
forward as soon as she finishes chanting, swinging it in the air three times
consecutively to produce the arcs of blazing flames. The first bursts of fire
pass through the incoming ice spears, instantly turning them into steam, while
the third races toward Fen.

Fen stands her ground, one
arm still in the air forming more ice spears while she raises her other hand in
front of her to create ice walls to guard against the flame. The walls form an
arrowhead in front of her that slowly melts from the heat of the attack, but
manages to disperse the flames enough to leave her unharmed.

My heart races at the
sight and I am distracted long enough for the black knight to catch me unaware
with his blade, gouging it deep into my shoulder as it glows as black as his
armour. The arm attached to the shoulder with the blade in it goes limp and an
icon indicating that one of my arms has been disabled appears. The attack does
a lot of damage to my health pool as well.

The knight mutters
something under his breath, but I do not catch what it is. Just as he is about
to attack again, I use ‘Multi Mirage’, and turn into a dozen figures
surrounding the two. Keeping my distance, I use my remaining arm to launch five
throwing knives at the mage. The black knight attempts to block some of them,
but the real five throwing knives come from a different direction and stab into
the mage.

The woman’s chant is
interrupted and her next spell fails at a critical moment. Fen’s next volley of
ice spears whistle through the air and pierce completely through her and into
the ground. The crowd shouts like wild animals as she is impaled by a dozen ice
spears and dies on the spot. The attack was completely without mercy and
containing a power I have never seen Fen wield before. I am befuddled mainly
because I can see her stats and her level has not increased in the past few
days.

The black knight is also
shocked, shouting in anger and rushing at the nearest mirage of me. His charge
isn’t without sense or made in blind rage. It is a calculated attack without
any unnecessary movements that quickly disperses some of the mirages. He then
glows black and suddenly appears blurry. His body splits and forms into three
separate, identical figures.

Each one rushes at a
separate image of me and quickly makes short work of it considering my mirages
can’t actually attack. The most surprising is that his clone technique creates
bodies that can actually attack. Fen launches several ice spears at the three
black knights, but only manages to hit one while the others dodge and escape
the projectiles. The impaled knight struggles for a while to free himself, but
two more ice spears cause it to dispel into shadows.

The remaining two don’t
even need to finish taking care of my mirages as one of them luckily attacks my
real body. The blade of the knight only glances me, but it is enough to tell
that I am the real one. The other knight, which I suspect to be the real body,
takes note of how my mirages are incapable of dealing damage and rushes toward
me.

“Minor Dire Flame,” I call
out, forming a small fireball in my hand which I immediately throw at the black
knight attacking me.

My fireball hits the
knight, causing the undying flame to latch onto him and start dwindling his
health. I only need to maintain my distance until this clone vanishes as well.
The real black knight turns around and uses his shield to defend against Fen’s
ice spears at the last moment. While each of the spears shatter upon impacting
the shield, the force of each one pushes the knight back a step.

I close the distance
between the clone and I, using my dagger to slash across a small opening in its
defense and finish it. At the same time, Fen creates a different type of ice
spear that is as thick as a man’s head and tapering down to a strange
clover-shaped head. With the flick of her finger, the small missile of ice
flies toward the black knight at a frightening speed.

Seeing the incoming
attack, the knight falters for a moment but does not have time to dodge after
just defending against the last attack. He raises his shield up higher and
positions his entire body to receive the shock of the attack. Unexpectedly, the
missile of ice does not strike the knight at all, but the ground in front of
him.

All I hear is the sound of
a thousand pieces of glass shattering as a large bush of spear-like branches
and thorns made from ice erupts like lightning from the missile’s impact site.
Some branches hit the shield and break into pieces, but most pass underneath and
directly assault the knight. Due to his heavy armor, the knight isn’t impaled,
but still blown backward toward me in a critical condition. I take the
opportunity to critically strike the knight’s back and finish the match.

The crowd shouts in
excitement and a several wolf whistles also carry across the wind. It isn’t
just my match they are cheering for, but the majority appear to be looking at
Fen and I.

‘That knight was much
stronger than the mage! No, the mage never got the chance to show off her
skills. I should be more shocked at Fen. How did she get so much stronger?’

Just as I am wondering
about the changes in my companion, a victory message appears in front of me. I
am awarded two points of fame and two pieces of bronze ore. The moment passes
and I assume Fen’s increase in strength to be some kind of training that she
has done over the past three days.

“You have become so
strong, Fen!” I say to my companion while we descend from the stage and leave
toward the arena exit.

The wolf girl looks at me
strangely, but doesn’t reply and only twines one arm around mine and pulls us
close together. This causes the crowd to start calling out again, this time
with many jealous jeers aimed at me. I block the voices out and continue onward
into the bowels of the colosseum.

I meet up with the rest of
the party who congratulate us on our victory and also take note in Fen’s
increased strength. They see Fen and I so close together but pass it off as
nothing out of the ordinary, only Verde continues to stare with a strange
intensity that makes me look away. To everyone’s surprise, Verde then
approaches closer until she is standing directly in front of me.

“C-can I help you with
something?” I ask her awkwardly while still looking away.

“No. I just suddenly felt
an irritation and a strange sense of deja vu when I saw you just then.”

“So why are you standing
so close to me?”

“I thought there was
something on your face, so I came closer to look.”

I turn back to look at
Verde, who is not staring into my eyes but instead at the lower half of my face
with a complex expression. When I realize she is staring at my mouth, I feel my
cheeks flush from remembering that embarrassing moment in the cave back in the
Kingdom of Glace.

Out of the corner of my
eye, I notice Fen is glaring at Verde with what seems to be irritation. Verde
also notices it, and moves back away from me before suddenly speaking again.

“I have a few things to
do, so I will be logging off for now.” She doesn’t even wait for a reply before
disappearing.

“We will be off, too.
Judging by how many people went through the first round today, I suspect the
second round won’t start until a little after lunch tomorrow. We will be back a
little after that.” Mason speaks up for him and his brother, who both log off
after I say farewell.

I look toward Sir
Laurence, who is looking at me with a grave expression. This may be the second
time seeing him with such a serious look, but I am still just as surprised as
the first time.

“Lost, tell me what is
going on with Verde.” He doesn’t move, but he still seems to loom over me.

“W-what are you talking
abo-“

“Don’t waste my time,
Lost. What is going on with her?”

“I only have thoughts on
the matter. Nothing concrete.”

“I don’t care. Tell me.”

“I think… she might have
amnesia.”

“It’s just as I thought,”
He lowers his head while pinching in between his eyes.

“What? You knew?” I don’t
understand why he would press me so hard if he already knew.

“Just like you, it has
only been speculation. How could I not possibly notice something like that when
I spend so much time with her? I just wanted to hear it from someone else
before I was sure.”

“What could have caused
this?”

“I have no clue. All I
know is that is must have something to do with her disappearance. I did some
investigation around Grenton, but found nothing.”

I let my mind wander,
trying to think of anything that happened at the time which could be a clue.
Unfortunately, I can’t come up with any helpful ideas, either.

“So what should we do
now?” I ask Sir Laurence, hoping he has some insights.

“We should try to recreate
familiar scenes when we get the chance in the future. Hopefully, she will
recognize one which should trigger a memory. Perhaps she will be able to tell
us what happened then.”

“That… that is a pretty
good ide-“

“YOU! What are you doing
here?! How is this possible?!” An incredibly noxious voice that I was hoping to
never hear again sounds from beside me.

I turn around, making eye
contact with Chronix who looks like he is seeing a ghost. Of course, how could
he possibly expect me to get back to Swordbreak so quick? Behind Chronix are
eight of his lackeys, all of them within the group of players who attacked and
killed me the other day.

“You are interrupting.
Leave.” Sir Laurence speaks up and takes a step forward toward Chronix.

Despite Chronix’s well-built
figure, Sir Laurence is still larger and manages to make Chronix shrink away
from him. As if his pride would not allow him to falter, he quickly recovers
and steps forward while drawing his sword and pointing it toward me.

“I warned you, Lost. The
next time I see you I am going to make you suffer! You even brought that pretty
girl along with you. She escaped last time, but that won’t happen again.” He
glares at me with hatred before turning to face Sir Laurence with bravado. “And
you! Who do you think you are?! You are nothing before me: the guild leader of
the Swords of Light and the sole heir to the Munro Corporation! Learn
your place and leave before I decide to bring you down as well.”

Sir Laurence doesn’t say
anything but turns his head toward me.

“Sorry, Lost. I will be
leaving first. I just remembered I have some business to attend to. We will
continue this later.”

Chronix has a look of
victory and his cronies laugh out loud as Sir Laurence logs off, but I saw the
furious glint in the prince’s eyes moments before he left. The look causes a
chill to spear up my spine.

“Even your companions
ditch you. You have nothing to protect you.” Fen suddenly moves in front of me
in response to his words and stares at him dangerously. “Oh, you want to
protect him? It doesn’t matter, you will both die.”

“You can’t touch us in the
city. Not without the guards interfering and arresting you.” I rest a hand on
Fen’s shoulder to hold her back from assaulting Chronix and his lackeys.

“No, but the moment you
step foot outside, I can. I will always be watching and waiting. Just try it.”

Chronix raises a hand and
waves it sideways to direct his henchmen to follow him. He walks off in the
opposite direction with an obnoxious grin on his face. I contemplate methods to
trick Grael into stepping outside of the city with me. If Chronix even attempts
to attack Grael, I have no doubt he will be instantly turned to ash.

Round two in the arena
begins to grow closer as I explore Swordbreak with Fen. I visit Mouse early in
the morning, who is exceptionally pleased about my participation in the
tournament. I question why he is so concerned with me entering the tournament,
but he gives me no answers. After a little while, I find a quiet spot in some
alley where I practice my ‘Smithing’, creating a large number of various
throwing daggers for my personal use.

When most of my ores are
gone, I switch to cooking some food. I try something completely new, cooking a
large ‘Grizzly Boar Meat’ along with a random selection of mysterious herbs
that I could not yet discover the use for. Cooking inside of Swordbreak proves
to be a poor idea, the smell alone attracting a large crowd five minutes into
roasting the meat. Even Fen betrays me, joining the crowd in wanting the food.