The scavenging took a while longer than expected but we almost hauled all the items. But the moment we returned, something had turned horribly wrong.
Every one was beaten up and lying on the beach, guarded by the female spear wielder player against one of her own kind, and the one from earlier lifted Gabby's bruised and unconscious body by the hand. And the other player behind him had Archie's partner in captivity.
"What are you doing, Vince!? They are the young miss' companions!" the spear girl retaliates, pointing her spear at the man.
"Who gives sh*t about them? They are just exp. points." he replied, as the other men behind him wickedly grinned in agreement. "Oh, lookie here. I was wondering where you've been, you little brat."
He suddenly tossed Gabby into the sand, then blurred out of existence.
"I'm still pissed off about earlier" a voice spoke shifting from my side to my back.
"Yeah? So am I." With a quick movement, his head and hands detached before his body could dissolve into light. Before I fully grasped the situation, he transformed into nothing more than a cluster of fading lights, dispersing into the atmosphere, and I found myself clutching the silver blade.
** Critical hit **
It somewhat startled the other players and their grip on Kate gets firmer as she tries to break free. In her struggle, she escapes and Ice suddenly encases the other player who was trying to recapture her.
Ellie had made her appearance, and to her side, was her father furiously glaring at the players.
"What do you think you're doing? I didn't pay you to attack my daughter's companions!" he scolded then went on a spree, sending the other players back into the cathedral.
Ellie was already someone I was unable to catch up but her father was in a different league. With his mastery over swords and swiftness over his every slash, it would be no doubt he was someone who was an S-class player.
People who had more talent and power than other players who just use us as cannon fodders. But what made them worse was the fact that they were strong enough to keep everyone safe including us but didn't try to.
They just focused on getting stronger and left us to our deaths.
"Cipher! Are you alright?" Ellie asked.
"Don't mind me. I'm not hurt. Prioritize the others." I noticed the spear girl was observing me for a while, cautious and anxious rather than enraged at killing her kind.
"F-Father!" Ellie called upon seeing Gabby's condition.
Scrapes, cuts, and lacerations, everyone's wounds disappeared in the magic Ellie's father had cast. A light shining upon the area then fades with everyone back on their feet.
Her father soon sets off with a furious expression, adamant about scolding the others while the spear girl follows him back into the base. Meanwhile, Ellie stayed, ensuring everyone was safe until her father comes back.
Nothing bad happened since then and the others went back to their usual activities at the beach. Ruri's making sandcastles with Sam and Tatiana, Josie and Roy started their own longest-time underwater contest, while Nate and Simon were playing spar.
And the two couple were leisurely enjoying their own company on the sidelines, shaded from the sun's light.
Meanwhile, I found myself stuck staring at the colossal golem again as if something about it drew me.
"Cipher, look! I caught a fish!" Gabby bragged as she plunged out of the water and headed in my direction. But it didn't look like a normal fish at all. Or at least not one of this world's amphibious species.
"Y-yeah, congrats… what are we doing with it?"
"I would suggest making a fish soup out of it. Would you let me do the honors, young miss?" Carl asked.
"What? No! It's mine! I'm raising it." Gabby adamantly claimed.
"H-Hold on just a second there! It's definitely from the other side. It may be dangerous!" I claimed, but she just ignored me and took it to Simon to brag. "Oh, what am going to do with her…"
It wasn't the first time I heard someone try to raise something from the other side and not everyone had huge success. The worst case scenario was the owner gets eaten.
"Sigh… guess I'll have to watch over her more…"
"Cipher…" Ellie reluctantly called as grabbed the ends of my shirt. It took her a while before words again came out of her mouth. "… thanks…"
"... thanks for everything til now…" she added.
"What's with that statement? Are you going somewhere?"
"Yes… Father wanted me to return to Fitalica by dusk."
"Return? I thought you said you live in this city?"
"That's half true. We originally came from Fitalica, and only moved here a year ago due to some circumstances…" she sighed then averted her gaze to the horizon. "But with the rift destroying our new home, we're bound to move back."
"So… sorry. I might not be able to stick around a while longer…" she added and in return, she received a flicker in her head.
"What do you think you're saying? You aren't the only one moving out of this place." I scolded. "I'm helping everyone get away from this place as soon as possible. Gabby and Nate needed to experience normal life too as the others need their second chances."
"T-then I'll try talking to Father about your plan," she claimed. "Although I don't think the other people at the terminal nor the train captain would agree. There's still discrimination against the slums even to this day"
I couldn't help but grin upon such reasoning and reply. "Don't worry. I'll make this do the talking."
From within the storage, I took out one of the goblin rucksacks we filled with gold coins then she let out a light giggle. "I see. I remember now. But what about my share? You're not taking it all, are you?"
"Geez, what a distrustful lass…" I groaned then tossed the sack. "Here, put this in your storage."
The item quickly disappeared as if it was being consumed by an invisible flat wall as she threw the bag of treasure to her side.
"He-he. Thanks for that! I'll let my Father know your plans and maybe he could help you find a place to settle in the city. Fitalica is a large city and there's a lot of empty lots you guys can take." She then waves her goodbyes, returning back to the city in such haste.
"The City of Fitalica, huh?" Something about the city's name caught my attention but the memories of what it was, were blurry. Though I haven't been there before, I've already heard it somewhere yet I couldn't remember where or when.
"Cipher! How long are you gonna stand there?" Gabby called as everyone was already in the water, including the couple. She was holding a volleyball I didn't know she had and kept tossing them back and forth with the others.
"Hold on, wait for me!"
***
It was night in the country of Dualteah, and the most horrid criminals gathered to pillage and commit crimes like addiction. Cries of the innocent howl through the horrid night while the laughter of the oppressors resonates and buries their cries.
And in a dim-lit chamber somewhere in the country, specs of lights gather. Forming the shape of a human until the light turned into a furious man in plain clothes.
"Damn that brat!" he cursed as he grasp his neck, remembering the moment his head separated from his body. He was killed by an unarmed child who instantly pulled a weapon out of thin air.
Even as the fastest of their group, he couldn't evade a child's swing nor notice the sword cutting through his neck. And it alone was enough to make him furious.
"Those fr*king beggars and the Hunters' household… I'll make sure to kill them all!"
"My… why such face, Vince? Was your first death that embarrassing?" A long-haired man standing by the chamber's entrance mocked, only adding fire to the revived man's anger.
"What do you want!? And what the hell are you doing here, Alfred? You died as well?"
"Oh, never once such thing happened to me, silly boy." he laughed. "I'm here to retrieve you. There's a change in plan and the guild master is summoning all the members of Crimson Valley back."
"Tsk. Took them long enough. I'm done playing charade with these petty weaklings." he claimed, spitting on the sacred floor of the cathedral as more of his men revived from the specs of light. "So, where are we gathering this time?"
"To where the Hunters' residence resides. The city of Fitalica." As he assured it, the man wickedly laughed and the corridors of the dim cathedral became like a monster's haunted church.
"Finally, I get the chance for my revenge sooner than expected," he claimed, taking the red cloak the long-haired man had brought and wearing it with a vicious grin. "I'll make that brat pay ten folds."