The goblin snorts. “She’s growing on me too – like a rash. Ha! I kid, I kid – even though she just called me a bloody fick stain. Another choice bit of Thulean I’ll have to use.”
“You liked that one?” Zaena smiles over to Hiccup.
“If you’re asking me if I give credit where credit is due, the answer is ‘yes’. Now we’d better be quiet because Marbles up there thinks we’re making too much noise.”
Zaena stifles a laugh.
Damn goblin.
FeeTwix joins Ryuk near the top of the steps. “We’ll need to head to a town after we loot the temple,” he says in a low voice. “I’ve noticed that the enemies are getting stronger.”
“That’s because they adjust their strength in relation to our level. The only way to combat this is to armor up. The enemy level gauge used by the Sage … ”
“The Sage?”
“Tritania’s AI,” Ryuk says, “the NVA Seed. The enemy’s levels are tied only to our physical levels, regardless of what we’ve equipped.”
“Sweet.” FeeTwix places a friendly hand on Ryuk’s shoulder. His eyes flash blue. “Did you see anything up there?”
“No, it’s extremely quiet, even with all the noise.” Behind him, Hiccup and Zaena are conversing in Thulean. He can’t tell if they are arguing or swapping Sotlan macaroon recipes – the guttural sound of Thulean makes everything sound aggressive.
“Let me take a look.” A portion of a mechanical skull takes shape in FeeTwix’s hand. The jaw bone is missing, as is the entire right side of the skull. The left eyehole is intact, and covered by a ruby red lens. “I keep meaning to get a strap added to this so I can at least wrap it around my head,” he says as he lifts the skull to his face, “but this will do.”
“What is it exactly?” Ryuk asks.
“A Reaper skull,” he says. “I picked it up in a world called Steam. It may be one of the rarest items I own. It allows me to see beyond the grid lines of the world. It does other things too, but that’s mostly what I use it for.” He holds the mask to his face and takes a slow look around.
Reapers? Ryuk considers this for a moment. He’s heard of the murder guild before – one cannot be in the Knights of Non Compos Mentis without hearing of the battles they waged with the Reapers – but he knows little about them or if they still even exist.
“Nice one, Yorick.” Hiccup remarks as he passes. “You look like a fickin’ Terminator’s migraine with that thing on, Twixy.”
“What alien device is this?” With her ghost limb, Zaena snags the partial skull from FeeTwix.
“Careful with that!”
She holds the mask to her face, gasps, and hands it back like it’s covered in flaming radioactive Thulean Ebola. “I’d … I’d rather not be reminded of what I am,” she says under her breath.
The phrase loops in Ryuk’s head for a moment: I’d rather not be reminded of what I am. If there were ever a quote to describe the way he feels about the real world …
Mask back in hand, FeeTwix finishes his scan for hostiles. “Nothing,” he shrugs, “no enemies lurking anywhere, and no booby traps either.”
“Regardless, everyone keep their weapons up,” Zaena says, “there are some things your alien attachments can’t sense.”
(0)__(0)
“Talk about anticlimactic.” Hiccup reaches the top of the stone stairs and stretches his arms over his head. About the only thing the Mitherfickers battled on their way to the top were a stubbed toe and Hiccup’s gaseous eructation that followed.
“I don’t know about you three, but I’m ready for a proper fried gob-brekky with a side of Yoshi McNuggets and a McStarbucks pumpkin spice half-caf soy latte, extra foam, and steamed to 130 degrees Fahrenheit thank-you-very-much. I didn’t have time to have a proper gob-nosh this morning.”
Zaena gives him a queasy look.
The devious goblin drums his fingers across his belly. “So what do you say we use the cashola from raiding this temple to have ourselves a fickin’ epic feast? I’m talking the works: meat, meat, meat, some dairy, and more meat. And ale. Dessert too – candied meat, if they have it.”
FeeTwix turns to Ryuk. “Seen a set up like this before?”
Ryuk nods. There’s a stone wash basin to the right of the entrance and an old donation box on the left.
Wrapping around the temple walls are a collection of short stone lanterns, known as tōrō, many of which have lost the integrity of their original forms. Ryuk has seen this type of thing a thousand times – one doesn’t have to look very far to find a similar temple in Japan.
The Swede pushes the wooden door open and the sweet fragrance of cherry blossoms wafts out. The pink, white, and red cherry blossoms swirl around the four, inviting them in.
“It’s so beautiful!” Zaena gasps.
With Ryuk at the rear, they enter the courtyard and trample through a pink blanket of blossoms. Another breeze picks up, lifting the blossoms and cartwheeling them towards one of the thatched buildings in the far corner of the courtyard.
Cherry blossoms – sakura in Japanese – are thought of as a perfect metaphor for life and death. They bloom for one week, fall from the trees, and are mercilessly tossed around in the wind until they are swept up and disposed of. Ryuk has never really thought of them this way, and seeing them in their digital form gives him no more pleasure than seeing them in person.
Besides, he’s much more focused on the giant stone statue of a warrior in the center of the courtyard.
A stereotypical Western appropriation of Asian iconography, to be sure, but Ryuk can’t help but feel intimidated by the ominous conical jigasa on the statue’s head; or the yellow magic that lightly skirts along the rim of the hat; or the angry Tengu mask on his face; or the two stone swords sheathed at its side.
Just to be on the safe side, he loads two knife marbles into pocket of his slingshot and scans the rooftops. “The statue is an enchanted object,” he tells everyone.
“Yellow magic?” Zaena asks.
He nods as cherry blossoms lift into the air as a light zephyr picks up.
The wind carries them to the four corners of the courtyard, depositing the petals along the interior walls of the temple. Oddly, none of the flowers come remotely close to the colossal warrior statue, which stands a good five meters tall.
FeeTwix snaps his wrist and the two blades on his sword shift to thirty-degree angles. His eyes have darkened again, black enough to reflect the whites of the flower petals floating in front of him. “What about a preemptive strike?” He asks. “Let’s take out the statue now, before the cavalry arrives.”
Zaena shakes her. “Not a good idea. Attacking the statue may bring it to life.” She spins left, her four swords up and ready. “I could have sworn I sensed something over there!”
Why are all of our senses fuzzy? Ryuk tries to use his Extreme Focus skill, but the sheer number of cherry blossoms now spinning all around him block his ability to see.
Out the mess of spinning petals comes a shuriken. It sticks into the chest plate of his dream armor and explodes before he can yank it out.
-25 HP!
Ryuk gets off two knife marbles in the general direction of the attack as he’s hurled backwards.
He smacks into a stone pillar and slides to the ground. To his right he sees Zaena death-dancing with the blossoms, cutting them out of the air and creating a whirling wall-o-blades to ward off more projectile attacks. FeeTwix and Hiccup are somewhere around her, but not visible from his location.
He crouches, places a clear marble in the pouch of his slingshot, and aims it ten feet or so above Zaena’s head. As he looses the marble he shouts, “Reveal enemy!”