One by one the others appeared in the same general spot they'd all arrived at the first time. Mona practically sagged with relief, and the mixed group looked around the beach with variously confused expressions.
"How did we all get here?" Hank squinted and stared out at the water.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Blake asked without expression.
The former corpses glanced at each other with the same general confusion, then nearly all at the same time their faces slackened in a kind of stunned horror.
"The bogloks," Mbopi practically whispered. "They came from the water. We fought them. We lost."
Blake nodded but said nothing, giving them a moment to come to terms with their new reality.
"Where the hell were you?" Pam suddenly turned on Blake and Mona.
"Yes," Mbopi eagerly took up the anger. "Where were near half our players when the rest of us were fighting for our lives? Eh? Fucking on the beach?"
Mona went red at that, but Blake held his ground. There was a reason politicians never accepted guilt or blame. Pretty soon that's all anyone remembered.
"We were too far away to help," he said coldly. "You should have waited to put the boat in the water."
Mbopi went red, spear clutched firmly in his grip. "I should kill you. You useless woman. You damn child. You don't even have a weapon! What good would you have been?"
Blake wasn't entirely sure, if he was being honest. Whatever the strengths and limitations of telekinesis, he had yet to test them. But he couldn't back down.
"Attack me, and you might find out. But win or lose, you'll probably never get off this island."
Mbopi clearly rode the edge of violence. Mona had stepped beside Blake with her own spear. And neither Rajesh nor Pam moved to do anything. His chest heaved as he stared and controlled his breathing, and finally Blake sent a small injection of Calm with Mental Influence. The big man finally spit and turned away.
"Let's get this over with. Now that we're all here, and ready. You civilians, stay in the back."
Blake frowned. There'd been damn near a dozen of the creatures. And he saw no rule that prevented citizens from fighting. As far as Hank had told him, they could certainly be killed by the creatures. Surely, they could fight back.
"We should make the civilians spears first. Just in case. At our low level, I suspect they can help us."
Mbopi spun back with his already kindled rage renewed, but Blake ignored him.
"Doug? You think you could whip you and Hank up a couple spears?"
The man nodded, clearly not opposed to the idea. "Sure. There's plenty of branches that'll do. Just give me a minute."
Hank went to help him, and pretty soon they were whittling away while the players all stood awkwardly on the sand.
"We should come up with a plan," Blake said finally.
"OK," Mbopi practically snarled. "I will fight up front with Rajesh and the women. You stay back and do whatever it is you do with the stick-wielding civilians."
Blake refrained from pointing out that every nation on earth, including Mbopi's ancestors, had done rather well with wooden sticks. Instead he accepted that the unfortunate events thus far had damaged morale too badly to do much in the way of planning. He would just have to hope the others held their own, and that he could protect them somewhat with telekinesis.
They largely sat around in silence until Hank and Doug came back with their spears.
"Alright, kid," Hank winked. "I made one for you, too."
Blake gave the older man a genuine smile as he took it, not particularly expecting to use it.
"Very thoughtful of you. Well, are we ready?"
Mbopi snorted and walked towards the boat. He glanced back to make sure the others were close by, then shoved it into the water.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. Bubbles formed in the shallow water. Then short, crab-like creatures emerged with two pincers and blue colored carapaces covering roughly humanoid bodies.
Mona struck first. She threw her javelin with a few strides and a grunt of effort, and the spear pierced straight through a boglok and vanished into the water. She opened her hand, and the weapon re-appeared. Blake had to admit, it was pretty bad ass.
Two more bogloks emerged to take its place. Mbopi and Pam leapt at them, axe and longspear stabbing and slashing to break the creatures apart and hold them at the waterline.
Another three splashed out and charged at Rajesh.
"Help!" the sword-armed Indian cried, backing away and swinging to try and keep the creatures back.
Mona ran to his defense, using her javelin like a spear, but clearly wasn't as confident in close combat. Blake decided it was time to intervene. He focused on his wooden spear, then activated Telekinesis. The whole world practically altered in his view. Suddenly everything became targets and possibilities--greens, blues, and reds coloring everything to signal what he could lift and what he couldn't. There was a kind of 'meter' that he could control without much thought--deciding how much strength to use. He slid the meter nearly to the top, focused on the spear, and then the boglok. In less than a blink, the weapon practically launched towards its target.
Blake's spear skewered his target through the throat, and it dropped instantly, clutching at the wood.
Holy shit, he thought with a smile, temporarily ignoring the rest of the battle. His mana bar had taken a fair hit, but he was far from done.
[Title earned: Killer. You have killed your first enemy. +1 to a related statistic.]
Mona had managed to stab her foe but only kept it away. Rajesh had severed one of his enemy's arms but was still fighting. Mbopi and Pam were bogged down but keeping the advantage against two more of the creatures. Blake decided things were going rather well.
Water bubbled and splashed as three more bogloks charged towards Rajesh and Mona.
"Hank!" Blake called, and the two civilians ran forward with their spears, crying out to boost their courage as they took turns stabbing to keep the beasts at bay.
Rajesh screamed as a pincer snapped at his arm, and blood sprayed to the sand. Mona skewered her target and tried to help him, but Rajesh was panicking. He turned and tried to run, and the creature gripped his arm and pulled him over as two more of the creatures grabbed him and pulled him into the water.
Blake used Telekinesis and lifted the man's sword. He slid the meter all the way and used it to slash again and again at every boglok nearby, cracking carapaces and chopping flesh to slop to the sand.
Mbopi and Pam brought down their side, and came charging over.
"Mona, fall back!" Blake called, and the ex-gymnast actually listened, jabbing at any creature that followed. Hank and Doug held back two more, making no attempt to kill them but just keep them busy. Blake slashed Rajesh's blade with his last bit of mana, cutting a boglok's head from its shoulders.
Then Mona, Pam, and Mbopi were side by side stabbing and hacking at the last creatures, carving a path towards the civilians. The last bogloks turned and fled back to the sea.
[Ten bogloks slain. Group experience awarded. You have earned enough experience for level three.]
"Run you bastards!" Mbopi cried. "You run from me!"
"Get Rajesh!" Blake shouted angrily, running towards the water. Mona was ahead of him, grasping in the bloody surf. She came up with a severed arm, crying out as she went pale and threw it away.
"It's too late," Mbopi said with a tone that really meant 'I don't care about him'. As if to confirm it, he added. "He was weak."
Blake stared, but sighed. He suspected they could wait two hours for the man to spawn, but would that mean they had to fight another wave of bogloks?
"We aren't waiting," Mbopi said, as if reading Blake's mind. "Whoever is going in this boat, get in it now."
The others looked vaguely ashamed, but not in disagreement. One by one they climbed into the boat.
Blake picked up Rajesh's sword, and thought of a line from the Hindu's Bhagavad Gita. "The embodied soul is eternal, indestructible, and infinite," he muttered as if in prayer, "only the body is perishable."
Mona and Hank looked at him like he'd grown a second head, but he just shrugged. In his mind he said: goodbye, Rajesh. Thank you for the sword.
Then he joined the others in the boat, they hoisted the makeshift sail, then paddled their way towards the coast.
* * *
"Get out," Mbopi turned and stared at Blake on the other side. "I am keeping the boat. Anyone who wishes to stay with me can do so. But not you, you must leave."
Blake raised a brow. Frankly the boat wasn't much use now and he saw no reason to keep it. But he looked at the others, who mostly all stared at their shoes or the bottom of the hull. Blake hopped out with a grin. He didn't expect anyone to follow him, but Hank did immediately, and Mona a few moments later.
Pam looked at them, then shrugged. "Sorry guys. But, it looks like strength is what matters now. And well, I want to live. You should come with us, Mona."
Mona shook her head, and Mbopi started paddling away in the shallow water. They looked a little ridiculous, to be honest, and Blake couldn't help but wave.
"Don't follow us!" Mbopi shouted, and Pam and Doug the carpenter just sat there and looked away.
"They're going the wrong way," Blake announced, then turned down the beach in the other direction.
"How do you figure?" Hank looked genuinely curious, and Blake shrugged.
"Because it's not the way I'm going."
Hank and Mona exchanged a look, but Blake didn't expect them to understand. He started walking until Mona called to his back.
"Blake?"
He met her eyes, recognizing the awkward expression of a girl who wasn't sure how to handle a post coital relationship. He sighed. "Hank, could you give us a sec?"
The old fisherman looked between them and shrugged. "Sure, kid. I'll be over there."
When he was suitably out of earshot, Mona lowered her voice and stepped closer to Blake's side. She took a breath.
"We're a good team. We complement each other." She went red just at this, and Blake smiled encouragingly. "I mean your class and mine. Our strengths and weaknesses should be a good match. I can only grab my javelin once every minute or so, but you could probably toss it back to me."
"I agree," Blake said, though he was really thinking I could toss it without you, too.
"So," she shrugged. "It makes sense that we stick together. I just don't want you to expect…"
"The other thing," he interrupted.
"The other thing," she agreed.
Blake made no expression and said nothing. Despite what Mason frequently swore was true, Blake was quite good with silences—when to avoid them, when to let them linger. A small, potentially evil part of him remembered he could certainly use his mind power to push her one way or the other whenever he wished, but he stood perfectly at ease and did nothing.
"I'm not saying I didn't like it," Mona added, clearly flustered at Blake's lack of response. "I mean I obviously…did. But I'm not saying I want more, either. It's just one has nothing to do with the other. I don't want any confusion."
"No confusion," Blake assured. "Stronger together. That's what matters for now." He paused. "If all our friends get murdered by fish monsters again and maybe we have an hour or two to live, we'll revisit the other thing." He grinned, and Mona visibly sagged in relief.
"My feelings exactly."
Who needs mind powers, he thought, looking out towards the coast. "Good. Then that's that." He raised his voice so that Hank could hear him. "Now might I bring back the ancient fisherman? The old man by the sea? His common services are required."
Hank walked back with a raised brow, then bent slightly at the waist. "Can I assist thee, m'lord?"
"I'm thinking we walk…West," Blake looked up at the thick clouds and frowned. "Now which way is West?"
Hank squinted and looked out at the woods moving inland, then down the coastline in both directions. "I suggest we follow the coast," he pointed. "If we move inland, we risk getting lost."
"My dear fellow," Blake put a hand on the man's shoulder. "A man can't get lost when he has no idea where he is, or where he's going."
"No," Hank agreed. "But he can wander the same damn woods in a fool circle until he starves to death right enough."
Blake gave that some consideration, and found it rather sensible.
"Follow the coast it is!" He smiled. "At least we'll know we're going somewhere new."
"Unless it's another island," Mona added. "Then we'll just wander in a really big circle."
"An additional reason to hope we never see the unpleasant Mbopi again," Blake agreed. "Now come along, loyal squire, and my warrior princess. Destiny awaits."
Mona and Hank exchanged a pained look of shared suffering, but followed in Blake's footsteps along the rocky beach.
"Let's just hope," Hank said without whispering, "we grow a tenth of fond of him as he is of himself."
"Unlikely!" Blake called over his shoulder, stooping to lift a piece of driftwood as a walking stick. Then, far more quietly, and without the mask of charm. "I'm coming, brother, wherever you are. We'll find each other. That's a promise."
He decided it was time to do his level, and pulled up his profile.
Blake Nimitz
Level: 3
Class: Arcanist
Strength - 2
Dexterity - 2
Vitality - 2
Intellect - 6
Will - 5
Presence - 8
Luck - 42
Titles: Alpha01, Alpha Tester, Patron, Killer
Powers: Mental Influence, Telekinesis, Meditation
[Please select a new power, or one will be chosen for you shortly.]
Blake clicked the list of available powers, and as usual his options were damn near endless. He was tempted to choose something 'defensive' sounding, like Shield or Mana Barrier. But for now that was loser thinking. Better not to have to fight at all, he decided. And certainly not to get hit. Better to build power as quickly as possible, and that meant not losing friends and allies to idiot players who wanted to paddle down a shore full of waves.
He found a new spell—an offshoot of Mental Influence, and knew he was taking it before he read the description.
[Mind Bend. Stop convincing, it's time to order.]
Yeah. That might as well have had Blake's name on it. He picked it without a second thought, then picked up his step, too. He thought of all the various multiplayer games he'd played over the years, with one resounding truth ringing in his mind: it was almost always a race.
"Come along!" he shouted. "We're in a hurry!"