Spiteful Healer

Chapter 267: Preliminary Results

Arms crossed, standing shoulder to shoulder at the back of the arena. Aegis, Lina, Darkshot, and Rakkan held their poses unflinching, watching Pyri manipulate her Cinderbolts rapidly around the battle arena. Darkshot was putting a much greater effort into trying to look as cool as possible, while the others kept blank, emotionless stares at their opponents anytime their eyes happened to meet.

Pyri stood at the center of the arena, waving her hands around in all directions. Her feet remained planted firmly on the sandy tiled floor of the arena, but her head and eyes continued to turn and dart in various directions, keeping track of the movements of her opponents as best she could. The Vindicators utilized formidable formations and strategies, attempting to break through Pyri’s defenses by making use of various combinations of their class abilities.

It wasn’t that the Vindicator’s party was weak, it was that they had no direct answer to Pyri’s spell control given their party composition, and that was enough of a weakness for Pyri to exploit. Starting with the healer, she eliminated them one by one while Aegis watched every movement made by both her and her opponents.

In truth, despite keeping a straight face, Aegis became nervous after seeing how skilled these opponents were. In the back of his mind, he worried that they’d have lost without Pyri on their team.

“Stupid bitch.” The final opponent, Xiao Bai Mao the Bloodletter, shouted angrily as he gave up trying to attack her, watching his 4th companion fall to Pyri’s burning flames. He had several cinders already glued to his body, dealing a constant stream of damage, and accepted his fate. He instead took the time to stare her down and point his weapons at her.

“You should control that mouth of yours. Learn to mind your own business more. It’s unsightly.” Pyri smirked. Xiao Bai Mao answered by letting out a mocking laugh.

“You are lucky to face us. We are the only team you could have faced that does not prepare for this style of play. You will not be so lucky in the finals. If you even make it there.” He said with a smile growing from behind Pyri’s blazing cinders.

“We’ll see.” She answered with a glare. Xiao returned it in kind for a moment, before eying his health bar as it diminished and neared empty. He then took a moment to step forward and look over Pyri’s shoulder, to the line of her party members standing behind her.

“You won’t be able to hide behind your mommy much longer.” Xiao’s final words before his body began to disintegrate.

Aegis’ team has won the match. Now exiting the arena…

“Yes! Don’t mess with momma bear!” Hae-won squealed from her broadcasting simulation. She could see the cheers flowing by in Aegis’ livestream chat, mixed with emotes of bears and hearts as a tribute to Pyri’s performance. “With that, Aegis and his party are guaranteed a spot in the finals of this month’s Gladiator tournament. Since that was the only match still in progress, the brackets will be forming shortly…” Hae-won said as she began manipulating the interface of her broadcasting simulation.

She had a menu floating above her face, transparent and only visible to her as she began navigating through it to get at the information she was seeking - an updated listing of the brackets for the upcoming tournament. More importantly, though, she sought information on where the tournament would be hosted. She wasn’t able to immediately find anything, though. She glanced between her interface and the chatlog of Aegis’ livestream floating past, all of the chatters eagerly awaiting Hae-won to inform them of the bracket information. In the background, Aegis’ live stream showed him and his party warping out of the Preliminary arena and reappearing in the entrance hall of the Kordas Arena. They started out cheering and congratulating Pyri, but that only lasted for a bit before they curiously looked around for Quinn - noticing that not just her but the other onlookers were all missing.

Hae-won paid no mind to this, she instead desperately tapped her ear implant to connect a call with Tommy and Shinji, and muted herself on the broadcast.

“Tommy, I’m not finding anything. Have you got information for me yet?” Hae-won spoke on the call once she confirmed it’d connected.

“VGN is broadcasting it now. The bracket won’t be decided until the location of the tournament has been chosen. There seems to be some dispute on where it should take place.” Tommy replied as he, too, was in a simulation, though his was very different than Hae-won’s. In his, he had dozens of floating screens in front of him in an otherwise dark open space with distant dull gray walls. Some of the screens were showing livestream broadcasts, and others had graphs, charts, and open conversations with various contacts.

He focused on several broadcasts which he was able to manipulate to the center of the other screens - focusing on a VGN news broadcast, Makaroth, Feng, and Seraxus’ livestreams.

The audio from the broadcasts was jumbled, overlapping in some cases, forcing Tommy to mute some of them to get a clear idea of what was happening.

“It’s a pain, right…” Seraxis smirked at his camera, with Hajax and Zuon standing on either side of him with their own devious smiles. “Just ‘cause we’re a part of the same network, you think you’re gonna boss me around and tell me where to host the tournament?” Seraxus spoke to his camera, and it was clear to Tommy immediately that his voice was being sent to the VGN News broadcast, which was holding a shared call between Feng, Makaroth, and Seraxus. The news broadcasters themselves were staying quiet, sitting in their chairs with anxious faces - expressions one might have when they felt they were at risk of losing their job on live television.

“We both agreed to this showdown, did we not? Or are you backing out, afraid?” Makaroth answered in a less patient-than-usual tone than his viewers were accustomed to hearing.

“Oh, I ain’t backin’ out. I’ll crush your guild's best PvPer, but does the venue really need to be the one you chose?” Seraxus raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think so. Just cause you got a cute lil’ bard en-route, don’t mean she and all your buddies can’t just make a few left turns. The island I got in mind ain't much of a detour, don’t worry.”

“You wanted an audience for our showdown, didn’t you? If you host it in Puagas, no one’s gonna show up. You destroyed that island and drove everyone away.” Feng sighed back at him.

“Oh nah, nah, you misunderstandin’.” Seraxus shook his head. “Not Puagas. But, also, not Savringard, or Lanusk. I ain't stupid.”

“Yeah, no thanks to walkin’ straight into your territories. You PvE players don’t respect honorable PvP.” Hajax joined in.

“We’ve got more honor than you do.” Feng snapped back at him. Makaroth took a deep breath and let out an elongated sigh, pondering for a moment.

“What island did you have in mind, then?” Makaroth asked.

“Tarolas.” Seraxus answered him quickly, with excitement in his voice that he attempted to hold back, but failed. Feng and Makaroth both went silent for another few moments, Makaroth looking away from his own live streaming camera to someone or something out of view of his livestream. After another few moments, he looked straight back at his camera again as if to stare at Seraxus.

“Fine. Tarolas it is. We’ll be there, ready to put an end to you and your sword of hatred.”

“You’ll try.” Seraxus replied coldly, before pressing a few buttons in his interface. The moment he had finished interacting with his interface, he’d locked in the location of the finals for the gladiator tournament, and notifications were sent to all 16 participating team’s leaders - including Aegis. In addition, a listing of the brackets that was accessible online through the Shattered World’s database was immediately updated with the first round matchups.

The news broadcasters, sensing the tension growing from the three big VGN streamers, quickly cut off the call and leaned forward in their chairs.

“There we have it, the location of the tournament is decided. And with it, the brackets are now available for our viewing.” The broadcaster spoke as a transparent screen appeared in their studio, floating behind them.

Tommy eyed it quickly and carefully, taking in all the information that it provided. He began waving his fingers around to capture the source of their display, then quickly sent the information over to Shinji.

“Got the bracket. Get it over to Hae-won, Shinji.” Tommy said into the call.

“Done,” Shinji replied a few seconds later.

“Thanks, guys,” Hae-won said once she’d gotten the information and was able to set up a transparent screen of the bracket behind her. Shinji edited Aegis’ footage to put a bigger focus on Hae-won and the bracket than was on Aegis’ actual livestream as they had begun wandering around the empty streets outside of the Kordas arena, just now spotting the rising smoke from both the Kordas Shipyard and the Skyport tower.

Hae-won began going into a detailed discussion about the bracket placement that Aegis was given, while Tommy went back to paying attention to what VGN and several other networks were saying about the situation. A few moments passed before he realized they’d completely blurred out the section of the bracket that showed Aegis and his opponent.

“They’re still really trying to shut him out? He’s in the finals. How are they planning to keep their broadcasts relevant? We’ve got 2 million fucking viewers. Fuck this network, I dunno how you ever worked for them.” Tommy shouted angrily into the call.

“They’re gonna keep trying to suffocate us out of relevancy like this. They’re most likely not done trying to stop Aegis from participating.” Shinji replied with a pondering tone. “We’re not the first network they’ve done this to. Bigger ones than us have been put under this pressure. Somehow, VGN kept coming out on top. That’s why they’re number one.” Shinji shrugged.

“Yeah. Well…” Tommy leaned back from the screens directly before him, turning his head to Aegis’ broadcast, where Hae-won was shown talking about the brackets. “They haven’t faced us before. We aren’t folding under pressure.” Tommy locked his fingers together and cracked them. “Hae-won, you’re still on the call, right? Listen up. They can edit out Aegis’ matches by not displaying them, but they can’t ignore you if you’re live in the arena, shoutcasting all of the matches. You can do it, can’t you?”

“Do what?” Hae-won stopped talking to Aegis’ livestream to answer him by tapping her ear-implant.

“Make sure everyone notices him? Outshine the VGN shoutcasters?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Hae-won smirked in response.

“Good. Log in, and hitch a ride to Tarolas with Aegis. We’re going to live report the tournament ourselves.” Tommy said.

“Yes, sir,” Hae-won replied before exiting the call.

“That’s not looking good,” Darkshot said as Aegis and his companions stood side by side in the streets of Kordas, their heads craned to look upwards at the destroyed Kordas Skyport, which was lacking any Airships.

“Come on, let’s see what happened,” Aegis said before sprinting. The others quickly ran behind him, arriving at the tower's base within a few moments to see cleric players tending to wounded NPCs as they stood amongst broken fragments of multiple airships. Large chunks of wood, destroyed hulls infused with island stone, and other discarded crates and barrels that had been shattered and scorched black. The scent of sulfur and burnt wood filled their noses, and the air was heavy and thick to breathe.

They continued past to enter the tower and ascended up the long winding ramp to the top, coming up onto the main floor to see Yuki, Tullan, and Quinn standing around with a few others, looking on at the destruction.

“What happened?” Aegis asked her worriedly, rushing over to stand closer to the three.

“A lot.” Tullan sighed.

“I’m sorry, Aegis.” Yuki apologized with a look of regretful sadness in her eyes. She could only bear to meet Aegis’ eyes briefly before glancing away.

“Even though you made it through the preliminaries…” Quinn sighed, staring at her feet.

Aegis saw their reactions and took one more long look around at the destruction. Even without them properly explaining it, he already had an idea of what transpired.

“They destroyed the Sky Darling? Who?” Aegis asked.

“Shattered Pirates.”

“They got through Kordas’ defenses by themselves?” Rakkan asked in disbelief.

“No, not by themselves. They had help. Christoph and Artaphernes. Both their guilds helped ‘em.” Tullan explained.

“What? What the hell? Seriously?” Darkshot shouted. Tullan only gave a slight nod in response. “But why? I thought we were friends. Weren’t we?”

“Not enough to refuse the sum of money that was thrown at ‘em, apparently.” Tullan shrugged.

“Where are they now?” Aegis asked.

“Gone. I banished the leaders and arrested the remaining members.” Quinn replied coldly as she looked up to meet Aegis’ eyes for the first time.

“I can’t believe this…” Lina mumbled to herself, looking to see Aegis’ reaction with worried eyes.

“I can,” Pyri replied calmly, drawing attention to herself. “What?” She shrugged at their stares. “Many people give into the temptation of money. I almost don’t even blame them for doing it… the only pathetic one in this scenario is the one who bribed them in the first place.” She continued with a blank stare.

“What are our options? Can we build another one in time?” Aegis asked.

“I doubt it.” Tullan sighed.

“But you’re not sure?”

“Well… the leader of the carpenter’s guild is online. We could get a better idea of what’s possible by talkin’ to him. Want me to tell ‘em to meet us at our guild hall?” Tullan asked.

“Yeah, as soon as possible.” Aegis nodded back. Tullan immediately began fidgeting with his interface to send the needed messages, and not more than a minute later did he have a response.

“Alright, he’s on the way. Let’s go.” Tullan motioned the others towards the ramp leading down from the tower.

Together, the group quickly traveled through the city to arrive at the Night Hunter’s guild hall, all remaining relatively silent. The frustration that they all held was palpable, but they were all holding onto the small hope. By the time they reached the gate leading into the garden surrounding the Night Hunter’s guild hall, there were two other players already waiting for them. Hae-won, and Jorik.

“Aegis, it’s a pleasure to see you again.” Jorik smiled and reached his hand out to shake his. Aegis responded in kind.

“How is the mithral hacksaw working out for you?” Aegis replied politely, remembering Jorik as the number one contributor to defending Kordas during the invasion, thanks to the rapid construction of siege weaponry near the walls.

“It’s wonderful. But I suppose we ought to skip the small talk. Tullan has informed me we’re limited in time.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“C’mon, let’s use our crafting hall and figure out what we can do.” Tullan motioned them all through the gates towards the double doors, and everyone quickly moved behind him.

“Oi.” Hae-won shouted angrily after having been completely ignored. “I come all the way here in-game just to see how you’re doing, and not even a hello?” She hissed while stomping behind the others.

“Hi, Hae-won,” Lina said politely.

“Hi, Lina.” Hae-won changed her tone briefly before turning her attention back to Aegis and growling. “What’s limited in time? What’s going on? Did you even look at the bracket yet?”

“Nope. The bracket’s not important right now. Did you?” Aegis answered her without turning back around to look in her direction, which annoyed her further.

“Of course I did.” She grumbled back at him.

“Which island is the tournament being hosted on?” Jorik asked as they entered the building and began walking through the marble halls. Their shoes echoed off the floors and walls around them as the atmosphere shifted from the cool night air to a warmer, calmer interior.

“Tarolas. You didn’t even know that yet?” Hae-won huffed back at him. “It’s pretty far away. Shouldn’t we be getting ready to leave?”

“We can’t. Sky pirates destroyed our airship.” Darkshot replied.

“WHAT?” Hae-won shouted angrily, her voice carrying through the building with an echo. “Are you shitting me? You mean you can’t get to the finals even after you qualify?”

“That’s the situation,” Pyri smirked at her, enjoying her over-reactions.

“Why’d I even bother logging in and dressing up?” Hae-won sighed, which prompted Aegis to glance back and see her wearing her red V-neck dress, as she always did.

“You call that dressing up?” Aegis scrunched his eyebrows at her, causing her to throw him a death stare.

“I don’t want to be told that by you.” She snapped back at him. “I assume you’ve got a plan, though, right?”

“We’re workin’ on one now,” Tullan said as he pushed open the doors leading into the crafting hall. There were several Night Hunters already inside, making use of the crafting stations, but they were left to their business as Tullan, Jorik, Aegis, and Yuki all quickly approached a large workbench in the center of the room, and Tullan pulled out a large crude scroll that he quickly unrolled out over the table. The four crafters leaned over the table while Quinn, Pyri, Hae-won, Rakkan, Lina, and Darkshot hung back, with Darkwing curiously cooing from his shoulder.

“Alrighty.” Tullan traced his finger over the parchment which was revealed to be a map of the known Shattered World islands, each labeled. He traced his finger between Kalmoore on the far western side of the map, a good distance from all the others. He then made a line towards an island labelled Tarolas, floating in a cluster of islands to the northeast. Among the cluster was Savringard, and Lanusk - both of which dwarfed Tarolas in size.

Aegis looked at the island in question curiously, noting that it was almost purely mountainous, with depictions of snow and ice on the areas not marked as mountains.

“It’s an arctic island?” Aegis asked.

“I think so, mostly mountains and caves. Homeland of the dwarves.” Tullan nodded back at him.

“It’s the most popular crafting island. Almost all the big-name crafters are there, including the number one blacksmith player.” Darkshot explained proudly.

“He’s only number one for now.” Tullan scoffed at this.

“Based on Leonard’s top speed, using Airburst on cooldown, it’s possible he could get to Tarolas in 2 and ½ days,” Aegis said while tracing the distance and doing quick math in his head.

“That’ll depend on the size of the ship. How much time do we have before the final rounds start?”

“Check-in is exactly 72 hours after the final preliminary match,” Hae-won answered.

“That gives us 12 hours to build an airship,” Tullan said.

“Can it be done?” Aegis asked as all eyes fell on Jorik.

“I’ve looked at the plans given by Leonard, thanks to his newfound knowledge on building ships without island stones… but, truthfully, we’ve never built one to completion yet, so there aren’t any direct crafting recipes to follow. Until we’ve built one successfully, the process will involve a lot of experimenting and trial and error. It’ll slow the process down.” Jorik explained as he, too, pulled out several parchments from his inventory and unrolled them atop the map.

The parchments he displayed for the others to see were blueprints of various ship designs, with detailed measurements of parts and raw material requirements.

“What about this small one?” Aegis pointed at one of the designs.

“It’s possible, but it'd be using sails too small to achieve the speeds you’d need to reach Tarolas in time. Even with an airburst spamming pilot.” Jorik shook his head and crossed his arms. “I’m sorry, but… this time frame, it’s just too small. There’s no way.” He sighed.

His words brought silence to the room, and as all heads turned downward, an aura of defeat filled the air, which was carried on to Aegis’ viewers, who now number 1.8 million and was dropping.

“There’s another way,” Quinn said, breaking the silence. “I could banish you all using Royal Banishment.”

“Quinn…” Tullan looked at her with eyes of concern.

“You’d be removed from Kalmoore permanently, unable to return ever, but, simultaneously, be forced to choose a new island to start playing on. If I banished all five of you, you could restart in Tarolas.”

“That’d bankrupt us completely, though,” Tullan replied.

“So what? The gold is only here because of all of Aegis’ mithral, right? It’s the least I can do.” Quinn replied to him, then turned to Aegis as he looked at her intently. “This is our fault anyway. There was only one airship here because Kalmoore is a poor unpopular island. And I failed to protect it.”

“It wasn’t just you…” Yuki tried to reassure her, but Quinn shook her head at her.

“It was. It’s been me from the beginning.” Quinn replied quickly. “I… I’ve played plenty of MMORPGs before. Even VRMMO-RPG’s. I’ve seen the paths they go down, everyone who plays always ends up following the top streamers, or the elitists. The ‘right’ way to play each game. But I wanted something different with this game. I knew it’d be something special, so I tried to make an island free of this mindset.” Quinn said as she pointed out Kalmoore’s isolation on the map.

“A place where people can just play freely and enjoy the game. Without having to worry about elitists and the sort coming in and taking over, pressuring them to play the way the streamers play. I thought that Christoph and Artaphernes were on the same page as me, but I was wrong.” She began fidgeting with her fingers as everyone listened silently.

“Christoph just wanted to be the biggest, toughest raiding guild on an island where he had no competition. Artaphernes wanted to run all the gambling and black market business of a guild where it was easy to keep a handle on it all. They didn’t share my mindset, they just used me to have it easy, and barely stepped up to help unless they absolutely had to. The only people who truly were with me were my guildmates. And, you.” Quinn pointed at Aegis, causing him to look at her confused.

“Without even trying, probably unintentionally, you inspired so many people to play in a way that they embrace the world to get stronger. Follow in the footsteps of the divine gods, stand up for the NPCs, and push away everyone who thinks they know best because they’re following a ‘Meta.’ You stood for exactly what I wanted Kalmoore to stand for and made it grow, unwavering in your beliefs the entire time.” As Quinn explained this, Aegis looked to his companions with a confused expression, to which he got shrugs and smiles in return.

“But, I can’t keep depending on you or being naive. Now, for the first time, the rest of the player base feels threatened by you and Kalmoore’s actions, and they’ve started attacking us. Trying to sink our island, burn Rene, and destroy our Airship. And I can’t just be complacent and rely on you to protect it. I’ve got to step up myself. So, we’ll be okay without you. I promise.” She took a deep breath, and tears built up in her eyes. “Let me banish you so you can destroy that sword of Hatred. It’s the only way you’ll make it to that tournament.” She finished.

All eyes fell on Aegis as he looked intently back at Quinn, pondering her words. He knew she was right, that her method would guarantee that they could make the tournament in time… but…

“No,” Aegis answered after a long silence. “I don’t want to be banished. I like Kalmoore.” Aegis shrugged and smiled at her. “You forget how much you helped us out as well, right? I wouldn’t have gotten very far without you. We’re sticking together.” Aegis said, causing Yuki to let an excited whimper while Tullan let out a sigh of relief.

“But what about the tournament?” Quinn asked worriedly.

“Forget about it. There’ll be other opportunities to take out the sword.” Aegis shrugged. “Let's first focus on building up Kalmoore’s defenses so we’re prepared for whatever the rest of the islands bring.”

“You’re sure about this?” Pyri asked.

“What the hell? You’re just giving up!?” Rakkan shouted at him. “What about Seraxus?!”

“We’re not giving up. We’re just delaying our plans.” Aegis tried to calm down.

“He’s about to step foot on a new island, thanks to your dad. He’s gonna destroy that one, too, if we don’t stop him!” Rakkan shouted.

“What choice do we have?” Darkshot stepped in on Aegis’ behalf.

“Makaroth and Feng want to stop him by themselves so badly. They can handle it.”

“THEY CAN’T HANDLE SHIT!” Rakkan shouted and stomped his foot down. “I told you, didn’t I? It ain't just the sword. They just toyed with us in Rene. And forget hoping that those Vindicator idiots zerg him down, he’s got warpstones out his ass. Anytime he’s outnumbered, he’ll just teleport away. The only way to stop him is in those tournaments, in a fair fight where he can’t flee. The only way is that shield. It HAS to be US!” Rakkan roared.

“Then it will be, but I’m not abandoning everyone on Kalmoore for it, using banishment. What happens if we go to Tarolas, and he decides to skip the tournament to attack Kalmoore? We won’t be able to do shit about it anymore because we’re banished.” Aegis shouted back. Rakkan’s expression made it obvious that this was a scenario he hadn’t considered, and he slowly quieted down.

“Whatever happens in Tarolas, it’s not something we can help with now. We lost this round.” Aegis shouted while clenching his fists, tears building up in his eyes as well. “I don’t like losing either, but I underestimated the power of VGN, and what they were willing to do to stop us. I thought playing the game would be enough, but I was wrong.” Aegis slowly calmed himself down.

“It’s disgusting, honestly. I wouldn’t feel too bad about it.” Hae-won mumbled.

“Yeah, can’t believe he’s gone from bribin’ Finley, to pirates, to our own companions.” Tullan sighed.

“Yumily is very disappointed with the Network,” Yuki added.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll prepare and make sure we’re ready for next time.” Aegis sighed. “I’m going to take a break. Sorry, you came for nothing, Hae-won.” Aegis added while fidgeting with his interface and closing off his livestream.

“It’s okay. We’ll figure out ho-” Hae-won began to reply, but Aegis cut her off.

“Good acting. That was convincing stuff.” Aegis turned to Rakkan and smiled.

“Huh?” Rakkan looked at him, confused.

“Mom, can you protect us from scrying?” Aegis asked, and without replying, Pyri began to cast a spell that promptly formed a transparent dome around them.

“Done,” Pyri said once the spell had finished casting.

“Good,” Aegis smirked.

“What’s going on?” Quinn looked on in confusion.

“You’ve got a construction plan?” Jorik asked excitedly, seeing the enthusiasm on Aegis’ face.

“No, you’re right. We can’t build an airship in time to get to Tarolas.” Aegis shook his head at him. “But there’s one more way that might work that doesn’t involve banishment. We’re still going to Tarolas, but we can’t let them know we’re coming, or it'd be too easy for them to interfere.” Aegis explained.

“How?” Darkshot asked eagerly. Aegis didn’t answer at first but instead just grinned mischievously at Darkshot.

“You’re not gonna like it.”