Nexus Games [Chapter 35] The First Key

Hey peeps!

Sorry for getting super sick. o.o (Hopefully it never happens again, right?)

—Chapter 35—

—The First Key—

Kellan withdrew the dreamweaver sheets. He kept the other items in his backpack and returned it to his shoulders. Careful not to hold the sheets too long, he set it down on the ground.

“You can make illusions, right?” he asked.

Xiang forced a smile. “I consider myself competent.”

“Do your illusions have smells?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Of course. My illusions even have tactile sensation—I can trick the brain into thinking its feeling something. I’ve taken every improvement for my illusions that arcana can purchase.”

“Fantastic.” Kellan spread the sheets out across the dirt and then backed away. “Can you create some rabbit food? Preferably something odiferous?”

Sen glanced from the sheets, to Kellan, back to the sheets again. With a sneer, he walked over, glared at the black cloth, and then crossed his arms. “What’re you…?”

“We’ll put the food on the dreamweaver sheets.”

Both Sen and Xiang had a look of realization the moment Kellan uttered the words. Which meant they were familiar with the effects of the magical sheets. That saved Kellan the hassle of convincing them that his plan would work.

It was simple, really. If the inky bunny got onto the sheets, it would be subjected to the dreamweaver powers. If the bunny’s willpower was low—and according to Xiang, animal willpowers were—then it would quickly fall asleep. Kellan had experienced the sheets in the AVU Palace. At no point did he feel the magic taking hold of him. Which meant the bunny would likely be taken by surprise, but by then, it would be too late.

Then Kellan could retrieve the key.

From… inside of it?

He wasn’t sure.

“I approve of this plan,” Xiang said.

Sen scoffed and looked away. “It’s a decent plan, I suppose.”

Xiang twirled her hand. A pile of leafy greens appeared in the middle of the silky black sheets. Their odor was enough for Kellan to smell from afar.

“There.” Xiang smoothed her suit. “These should do the trick. Animal noses are keen to the smells of fresh vegetation.”

Kellan motioned them away from the sheets. The three walked further around the bizarre elementary school in the middle of the public park. Once safely behind a pale tan wall, Kellan glanced around the area. The red hue of the Net overhead gave the park a sinister glow.

He had, sadly, gotten used to the horror show atmosphere.

Rumbling caused the ground to shake, but only slightly. Kellan kept his rifle close. The other Nexus Games participants didn’t seem to be nearby. In the distance, he heard their shouts, their gunshots, and their burst of magic, but near the elementary school, it was mostly still.

He could thank Xiang for that. Her initial distraction—creating hundreds of bunnies—really had worked in their favor.

Maybe we can win, Kellan thought to himself. If we avoid most of the other competitors, and Xiang continues to use her illusions in clever ways, it seems logical we could win…

Then again, every time he thoughthe knew what was going on, Kellan always found himself discovering something new. And not in a pleasant way.

Kellan glanced around the corner of the elementary school. He could just barely see the black sheets with the piles of greenery on top. He wasn’t sure where the inky bunny had gone, but all they had to do now was wait.

Sen’s drone hovered overhead—far above them—but Kellan could still hear the buzz of its motors.

“Could you turn that off?” he asked.

Sen frowned. With a wave of his hand, the little machine twirled down to the ground, growing louder and louder as it got close. When it finally landed, the motors instantly shut off.

The drone sat on the ground, unmoving.

Sen picked it up. The machine was as large as an old-fashioned phone book.

“That’s not really a puppet,” Kellan muttered.

“Anything you control is a puppet.” Sen pursed his lips. “Most of my magical abilities revolve around fleshcrafting, healing, clairvoyance, and physical manipulation. I specialized in creating puppets with enhanced capabilities—like draining the physical lifeforce of others—but since you smashed them, I wasn’t able to bring them along in the games.”

“You’re the one who sent them into my apartment. What did you expect me to do?”

Sen glared. “I had hoped you would be too mentally frail to handle the situation. And my puppets would’ve incapacitated you, and then I could’ve brought you to the Nexus with little trouble or backtalk.”

“Mentally frail?” Kellan had never felt his blood pressure rise quite like with Sen. The child-man had a way of getting under his skin like a bamboo shoot.

“Enough,” Xiang said, her tone harsh.

Kellan returned to observing their surroundings. They weren’t out in the open, but they weren’t hidden, either. Standing against the front wall of an elementary school was not how he imagined getting the first key of the competition.

Sen and his sister said nothing. They waited with patience and poise, never once complaining or fidgeting.

“Why do yami have arcana?” Kellan asked, breaking the silence. “You said yami were born of corrupted magic. But when we destroy them, arcana comes out.”

Sen went to answer, but Xiang lifted an elegant hand. She answered with, “Arcana is magic. Yami are either born from corrupted arcana, or they’re made by the failed rituals of mages, or occasionally by the Arbiter himself. In all three instances, the arcana is the heart source of the creature.”

“Someone else’s soul?”

She nodded.

Kellan wrestled with the concept for a long time.

“This is it,” Xiang whispered. “The creature is nearing our trap.”

After a deep breath, Kellan glanced around the corner of the building. Sure enough, the void bunny was at the edge of the sheets, staring at the illusionary food. It looked so realistic, Kellan didn’t blame the creature for being fooled.

When the bunny stepped onto the sheets, Kellan held his breath.

He watched it move forward. One step at a time.

And then the inky bunny stretched and laid down. Even before it reached the food.

It was asleep.

“We got it,” Kellan whispered with a smirk.

He stepped into the darkness, snaked across the ground, and then stepped out of the shadows right next to the sheets. The bunny didn’t move. It had practically become a puddle of ink while it slept.

Kellan knelt to grab the creature, but then something strange happened.

The shadows lifted from the ground, becoming tendrils and tentacles. With surprising speed, the darkness grabbed the inky rabbit and lifted it up before Kellan could grab it.

Kellan lunged, hoping to wrestle the bunny from the shadows, but he was too late. The darkness lifted the creature to the roof of the elementary school.

A haunting laugh filled the area, and Kellan actually recognized the voice.

Jace, the man with the machine-eye, dropped his invisibility and showed himself. He stood at the edge of the roof, one foot on the ledge, one foot down. The shadows grab him the inky bunny, and the man crushed the creature between his fingers, the black ooze gushing over his hand.

“I knew you’d find one of the keys first,” Jace called out with a smile. “Thank you for this.”

Kellan’s heart practically stopped. He had considered Jace to be an ally, but he quickly realized the man had been following him this entire game.

Just to steal whatever key they found.

Kellan rapid-fired his rifle, but the shadows flared up to block the bullets. Each tendril and tentacle were a physical object that blocked the bullets, shielding Jace from the shots. They became damaged, but it would take too long to chew through the barrier of darkness Jace had created.

Frustrated, Kellan slipped into the darkness and darted for the roof. When he emerged from the shadows, he witnessed Jace pluck a piece of electronics from the bunny. It reminded Kellan of a USB drive, but smaller.

That was the key?

The moment Jace had the electronic key in hand, he offered Kellan a smug smile. “My team wins this game.”

“No!” Xiang shouted from the ground.

She lifted her hand and the force of her telekinesis ripped down half the wall of the school. Kellan and Jace almost fell off of the roof, but Xiang’s attack hadn’t been fast enough.

Jace disappeared. All that Kellan heard was a pop of air as Jace teleported away in an instant.

Kellan cursed under his breath. Then the ground rumbled harder than ever before. Worried about the others, Kellan leapt into the shadows and snaked his way back to the group. When he emerged next to the others, Xiang was glaring at the ground.

“I can’t believe him,” she said, venom in her words. “That ingrate.”

“I think we should go.” Kellan took hold of Xiang’s arm and urged her away from the building. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.”

“The Net is shrinking,” Sen said through gritted teeth. He dropped his drone. “And the yami underground are on the move… Every time one of the keys are found, that entire process accelerates.”

More fun news.

“We should get out of here,” Kellan said, waiting for Xiang to teleport them to a new location.

But she shook her head and glanced over at the other teams in the park. They were hundreds of feet away, yet she still didn’t want to risk them seeing her use her abilities. Kellan didn’t know what else to do but run.

He turned to face the tree line when creatures emerged from the ground. The beasts burst out of the grass and soil, all while hissing like only insects could. It reminded Kellan of cicadas, or a whole hive of angry crickets.

To his horror, centipedes the size of people clawed their way out of the dirt, each with three eyes. The eyes seemed more human than insect, but Kellan didn’t have time to give a damn.

Name: Quixit #5

Race: Lesser Yami

Magics: Magma, Body

Rank:Impossible

Armor Rating: ---

Health: 10

Stats:

Strength—4 [Strong-Jaw]

Dexterity—4

Fortitude—2 [Slender]

Intelligence—1

Perception—2

Willpower—1 [Animal]

Abilities:

Centipede Toxin—The yami inject toxin into the victims it bites. If they fail a fortitude check, they lose 2 from all physical stats (strength, dexterity, fortitude).

Their red bodies and black underbellies reminded Kellan of the Nexus itself. Their long legs ended in sharp spines—sharp enough to rip through the ground and carry them forward. Their giant maws were filled with pincers, and when they came for Kellan, he groaned.

He leveled his rifle and fired at the first one to cross his path. They had low HP compared to some of the creatures they had fought, and when Kellan unloaded, his various bonuses with the rifle more than gave him the advantage.

With a few carefully aimed shots, Kellan blasted the heads off two. They screamed and collapsed to the ground, but four more erupted upward, all hissing into the air.

It was like with the ravens…

There had been dozens of “baby” yami nearby, and one large “mama” yami spawning them all.

If we fight here, we’ll be mired in enemies. We either need to get out of the park or destroy the mother.Kellan glanced around, his heart racing as the earth tore open all around them. Ten more centipedes were jutting out of the dirt. I have no idea where the mother is…

Xiang nimbly avoided the pincers of a centipede and headed for the trees, her sights focused, but her expression set to an icy anger. She still hadn’t gotten over Jace taking their key, apparently…

When Kellan glanced over his shoulder, he noticed Sen was having more difficulty. He was too small to outrun the centipede beasts, and he was generally uncoordinated. When one centipede lunged for him, Kellan whipped around and fired his rifle, blasting a hole clean through the insect’s chest.

When the yami hit the ground in a pool of its own blood, the shimmering glitter of two arcana appeared.

“Help me!” Sen commanded.

Kellan’s muscles tensed on their own.

The Tyranny Worms gripped his insides, compelling him to fire on the next centipede that rushed for Sen.

“I was already helping you!” Kellan shouted through gritted teeth. “Ordering me to do it isn’t beneficial!”

Sen ran to his side and grabbed the side of his cargo pants. “Like I would trust you to stay! You’ve already betrayed Xiang and I once before. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Kellan grabbed the kid by the shoulder and then ran around two more centipedes emerging from the ground. As he ran, Kellan knelt and plucked the two arcana he had spotted out of the pool of blood.

[Alex   Kellan] absorbed 2 arcana.

“I’m not that other Alex Kellan.” Kellan pulled Sen toward the trees. “I’ve never betrayed you!”

“It’s only a matter of time,” Sen growled. “You’re just like him!”

Xiang had already made it into the trees—even in heels. Kellan was mildly impressed, but he couldn’t dwell on it long. The ground rumbled, and the dirt shifted.

I need to use the shadows…

Kellan held onto Sen and then dove for the darkness.

And then they both crashed into the ground like bumbling baseball players looking to eat some dirt. Kellan felt the pain of the crash in the back of his neck. He groaned and rolled to his side, baffled by the turn of events.

He hadn’t slipped into the darkness at all…

Why not?

Sen coughed out grass and then rubbed at his face. “Did you try to shadow-step with me in your arms? You’re not strong enough for that! You’re just a D rank mage!”

Kellan stumbled to his feet just as a centipede caught up with him. The beast lunged and caught Kellan’s ribs with one of its pincers. Kellan cried out as agony burned through his system.

[Quixit   #7] sliced [Alex Kellan] for 4 damage.

[Alex   Kellan] reduces damage of each hit equal to his armor rating of 2.

[Alex   Kellan] takes a total of 2 damage.

[Tyranny   Worms] restore [Alex Kellan] for 1 damage a round.

Kellan grabbed at the injury, the wriggling of the Tyranny Worms almost a welcome sensation. Ironically, they’ve been my most reliable ally, he thought bitterly.

When the centipede went to attack a second time, Kellan brought his rifle up and fired, damn near point-blank. The creature’s chitinous armor shattered, and the beast hit the ground in a splatter of blood and innards.

Kellan grabbed Sen and hauled him to his feet. “Look, since I’m literally the only one fighting these things, cut me some slack. I thought I could take you into the darkness.”

“Just don’t—” Sen gasped and grabbed onto Kellan arm, similar to an actual child.

The ground cracked and then sagged, opening wider as the hissing of the insects intensified. Kellan slid toward the crack in the ground. Unable to use the shadows—at least, not if he wanted to keep Sen—he tried to run for the trees, but he lost his footing.

Kellan half-tripped but stayed upright. Sen was throwing off his balance, as was the constant and ever-growing earthquake.

Then the ground opened up fully, revealing sewer tunnels that ran underneath the park.

Kellan and Sen tumbled down into one of the tunnels filled with darkness and beetles.