Blood and blue light filled my vision briefly as my blade sliced through the archer's belly with a Lightning Strike. The heavy thud that followed was not my fallen opponent however, but Cassi slamming her own down hard on their neck. Korbin…well, he eliminated the tank member of this squad and went ahead to scout while we 'earned our station' as he so crudely put it. Seeing as though Cassi was finishing up with the last living member of what was a brutal 15+ man battle until we arrived, I decided to check in with our wonderful Kill And Be Killed objectives live feed.
[ KILL & BE KILLED ] - Final Event (LIVE)
Remaining Participants: 2,328,918
Titan's Path: Northeast (37,945.8 m)
Eliminations: 134
Time Until Catastrophic Tectonic Shift: 2:06:49
Damn, I thought there'd be less by now.
"Hey, where's Korbin?" Cassi asked as the blood disappeared from across her thick metallic armor.
"Last I checked he was headed that way." I said, pointing through the brush toward the steep, red bluff covered in iron according to Korbin.
"Come on, we should keep up just in case." Cassi said, walking briskly after him.
"In case what? Korbin's a big boy, he can handle himself." I said, jogging after her to keep up with her long strides.
"I wasn't worried about him." Cass replied with a raised brow. Not entirely sure what she meant, hollow booms and faint metallic clashes caused both of us to hurry after Korbin.
"Hey, you guys really should see this view." Korbin said as we eclipsed the top, my vision immediately consumed in bright colorful flashing lights.
"Woah. That's…unexpected." Cassi said, slowing to a stop. Being nearly half a foot shorter, it took me a few extra steps to really get a good view. Or maybe it was the sheer scope of seeing…probably thousands of people fighting one another. Our bluff turned out to be a rather high hanging cliff, overlooking a valley divided in several sections by biome and intense, large-scale battle alike.
"Why…I don't understand?" I found myself mumbling aloud at the scene. After all, how the hell did these people get along long enough to even form these armies?
"Nobody wants to die, Tom. What would you do if you were too weak to win alone and humble enough to recognize it?" Korbin asked as if reading my mind, yet never once taking his smiling eyes off the combat ensuing in most any direction moving forward. His words rang true as I spotted a much smaller militia of roughly 20 mages unleashing constant barrages of skills, utilizing a variety of affinities to wipe out dozens of fighters of all types at a time. They stood atop a steep canyon, firing down at the waves of apparently alleged fighters pouring in from a cave. The natural route uphill was winding with a subtle elevation everywhere but the steep mountains surrounding it, forcing every member to take the 'long way' while being pelted by magic.
"So then by that logic, we don't want to go that way, right?" I asked, pointing out the ensuing slaughter. Korbin sighed.
"Sure, that checks out." Korbin said before throwing himself off the cliffside and punching his fiery fist through the stone to slow his descent. I peered over at Cassi, who for the first time looked more concerned about Korbin than I.
"What the fuck is up with him lately?" I asked her, mutually approaching the ledge.
"Yeah, that was…a normal response. He only gives that to people he's manipulating in a bad way."
"Wait, there's a good way?"
"You know damn wel-, whatever. Keep an eye on him, let's try to just get this over with." Cassi said with a sigh and an eye-roll, sliding off the edge and using her watery movement skill to slide down the steep face.
'Whatever.' Why are they both so fucking crotchety?
Digging my hook prong into the leg and rappelling my way down, I noticed Korbin at the bottom heading toward a much larger scale battle further northeast than the mages elevated murder-spree. Chuckling at the odd display of indecisiveness, the strain from using the full length of my grappling hooks line halting my momentum queued me to kick off the wall and free the prongs. The rest of the 12-foot fall was less than bothersome, quickly catching up with Cassi chasing after Korbin through the mountainous winding canyon.
"Is there a reason you two are so fucking touchy right now? I mean, aren't we almost out of this hellhole?" I asked Cassi, vaulting over a massive cracked slab of rock. The jagged webbed cracks in the hardened stone ground surrounding it implied this stone had fallen, though I wouldn't be surprised if that was due to the tectonic shift a few hours ago.
"I can't speak for Korbin, but personally I'm pretty tired of being teleported around to complete some random objective. It feels like it's already been a month of this."
"HAH! 'A month', try 7 years of the most creative suffering you can personally imagine happening in one of the only places on earth you feel truly safe? Now THAT was a fuckin' drag, let me tell you." I replied with a chuckle, shaking my head recalling the experience. I looked over to find Cassi's eyes now facing straight forward.
"Looks like he's about to make contact, let's try to keep him moving linearly so we don't run out of resources." Cassi hollered through her lower, more authoritative 'General' voice I'd heard bark orders countless times.
"You're asking me to corral Korbin?!" I asked with a scoff as Korbin tossed two more fireballs into the crowd of warring bodies.
"Either that or we risk being outnumbered and outgunned without his area zoning capabilities." Cassi replied before gliding ahead with her water movement skill, bashing her bo staff into a pair of combatants skulls with two consecutive strikes.
"Fuck it." I said with a shrug, remembering why everyone is being so open to things like allegiances and massive combat…it doesn't really matter to most. Barring factions on the brink of some higher tier Quarterly rank, this entire Kill And Be Killed event is more a violent formality for most, marking the end of a longstanding test of strength and resiliency. One I personally won't mind seeing the end of, nor the rewards for my efforts either. The vast majority I'm sure only sympathize with half of that sentiment, making inconsequential violence a reasonable outlet in my mind. And if they don't care, why should I refrain from firing a Lightning Bolt over Korbin's shoulder, beaming through a pair of combatants?
Of course I shouldn't, and so I didn't for another full hour while cutting through the chaotic clash of steel and mana, the heat from the sheer quantity of active killers at work finally pushing me to a heavy sweat for the first time in as long as I could remember. Cassi and Korbin had to take several breaks, holding their ground at the center of Korbin's fiery dome that doesn't allow anyone to leave. Oddly enough, after I'd wiped out the remaining survivors as they tried in vain to fight or flee, most of the other fighters tended to just migrate around us. This also allowed Korbin to throw his ranged skills indiscriminately as he pleased during their breaks, giving no refrain from the colorful flashing pulses that followed every death in the process.
Finally, after killing several mages and activating Spirit Of The Storm to quickly wipe out the concentration of combat bottlenecking at the natural stone pathway to the very top. It took much longer than I anticipated to do so with Korbin and Cassi holding off any pressure from behind us as I worked, though the constant supply of mana and health points made my boosting skill feel limitless. That's until we succeeded in clearing our path, where we found a massive cave mouth to rest in…and I deactivated the skill.
"Ahhh, shit!?" I said, clutching the cramp locking up my entire leg. The pain washed over so suddenly that I turned back with my blades in hand, expecting to find an arrow in my hamstring.
"Hey, you alright?" Cass said, jogging over and snatching me under my arm before my leg gave out.
"Yeah…yeah I'm just really feeling the backlash from that skill." I said, trying my best to keep my legs moving under me. It wasn't even an exhausted feeling, it was more like every muscle in my body was…sore. Like really, really fucking sore.
"Come on, Sparky, you did too good to get lazy on me now. Just a little further and we all get to rest." Cass said with a chuckle, basically carrying me with her shoulder as we slowly crept into the cave. My eyes adjusted quickly to the change in lighting, especially with Korbin holding his fiery hand up like a torch peering around the cave.
"'Bout time. Come on, this place is special." Korbin said, rubbing both his burning hands along a blue crystalline wall in the back of the cave.
"Hold the fuck on, that looks like the ones I found in that Galenthelos grotto. Last time I went in one, there was more than just a tsunami. There was a sentient wave protecting the place, one that saved me thinking I was that dickhead for having his blades. Just like everyone else at this fucking point." I said, catching myself venting old frustrations from dealing with the simulation of Phanthu and his faction on Xernilia by the end.
"Make no mistake, the system's blatant misrepresentation…" Korbin began, having to pause and take a couple deep breaths.
…the accessibility of these places are purely by design. You were given a vision of a god and usurper being born, right? You're telling me you knew that was a possibility before then?" Korbin finally asked.
"No, but I know that I'm tired. If you think it's so harmless. I'm not stopping you." I replied, sitting down and painfully stretching out my knotted muscles.
"…right. I suppose I could use some rest for now as well." Korbin said, sitting down against the crystal wall. He let out a long sigh before closing his eyes, either trying to meditate or napping upright. His breath wafted the smell of stone, oddly mixed with the air atop towering mountains. Cassi sat down beside me, briefly opening her eyes wide with her back turned to Korbin.
"I know right." I said with a grin as she finished plopping beside me, earning a light chuckle.
"Hey, you said something a bit ago about your Escaping Fates situation…did it really last 7 whole years to you?" Cassi asked, leaning back against her extended palms on the cold stone.
"2,582 days so…yeah, give or take." I replied with a shrug after doing half the math with my fingers.
"Really?! Well…what exactly happened to you?" Cassi asked, her brows furrowed hesitantly.
"Ah, haha. Well, it really depended on the day from what I remember. Sometimes I was me, aware that I was stuck in some hellish replica of Elysium surrounded by fakes. Those days were the least fun, especially around year 2 when the loops got more varied and ferocious. It was also when I had to collect myself as best I could." I replied, catching myself scratching over my shoulder and pulling the hand down.
"Other times I was incapable of memory, wandering through a forest filled with sharp silver wire that lassoed my feet. And the voices…I'd hear everyone dying over and over, blaming me every step of the way." I replied, feeling my head tilt as I reminisced over those days.
"Everyone? As in Lonni, Korbin, Derrick, and me?" Cassi asked with a probing glare. One ridden in curiosity, though her eyes wore a subtle remorse.
"Yeah…among others, but yes you included. And no, I don't hear those voices anymore if that's what you're thinking. They stopped when the day ended." I clarified in response. Cassi smiled with a furrowed brow, slapping my arm rather than actually denying it.
"But 7 years of that? There's got to be more, I can't imagine you wouldn't have figured it out sooner otherwise." Cassi asked, narrowing her eyes trying to imagine the situation. I let out a single heavy exhale, smiling remembering a few looped days in particular.
"Oh yeah, I also occasionally woke up as a full blown rat among an endless colony. The very things that killed each and every one of us over and over and OVER again. It honestly got obnoxious before it got better." I replied, pulling my leg back behind me to change stretched.
"What the fuck? Well, what was that like, being a rodent for a while?" Cassi asked, quickly sitting up straight and leaning in curiously.
"Actually pretty nice at first. Something about not having any skills or responsibilities other than 'bringing warmth to the colony' was shockingly cathartic. At least it was, until I found myself chewing through my friends' faces." I replied, wincing at a few gruesomely relevant memories.
"You didn't have control over yourself?" Cassi asked.
"I did, but not me. It was like I was one of them, and shared their priorities. Yet there were small moments of clarity as well, where I was truly aware of what I was doing." I answered, no longer fighting from itching my lower back with both hands.
"I'm sorry. This is probably really not cool of me to ask about so soon." Cassi said, her curious expression dropping into a concerned grimace.
"Got used to things around halfway through year 4. Don't worry, I'm fine." I replied.
"I mean, when you came out you were absolutely feral. There's no way that new scar will be irrelevant anytime soon either." Cassi replied, sounding far more concerned.
"Probably not, but me and my rats made peace. I'm not afraid of them dropping by anymore." I replied, hesitant to admit that I actually welcomed their presence.
"They weren't real, Tom." Cassi said.
"The pain was." I knee-jerkingly shot back.
*CRACK*
Cassi and I both kipped up to our feet at the sound of shattering stone, only to find Korbin standing before a walkway with shattered crystal fragments at his feet.
"Oh good, you look rested. Time to move." Korbin said with zero tonal change while stepping through the natural stone arch.
"Welp, time to roll." I said, walking after Korbin.
"Hey wait, real quick-" Cassi said, putting her hand out in front of me.
"Whatever happened in there, just know we got your back. All of us, including Korbin on his best day will agree that you've earned that much in this event." Cassi said, patting me on my shoulder before jogging after Korbin. I smiled, wondering if time would merit her words. And…it's nice to know my efforts for my friends hasn't gone unnoti-
"TOM! TOM GET DOWN HERE!" Cassi's hurried voice echoed from the new cave entrance. I sprinted down the uneven stone, winding down the corridors until coming upon another pool of sentient waves circling a desk, this one covered in crystals. At the shoreline sat Cassi, trying desperately to hold Korbin's head from slamming down as his body violently convulsed.
"Help me keep his tongue out his throat!" Cassi frantically ordered.
Fuck, he's having another one NOW?!