The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

Hunter and those who had fought beside her at Port Laudable were the only ones, she reflected, that had been truly prepared for tonight. They understood how merciless the enemy was, how quickly they themselves could be cut down, and how terrifying it was to have an enemy that could appear anywhere around you. Justin, the first to be outright killed at Laudable, had told her later that it had been terrible. As he was waiting to respawn he had been left by himself to think about how easily he had been killed. How awful he felt because he knew that Hunter and the others were still fighting and he had blown it by being overzealous. Most of all he had told her and the others how it had been when he was ripped to pieces with no chance of saving himself. There was no pain, but he could see his limbs disappearing from his body as the dark creatures had swarmed him and torn him apart. While they were fighting in the tomb underneath the Silf tree, he had been one of the more resolved. He fought every enemy dedicatedly, with purpose, and with vigor. Even though she and the others had been more prepared than most, decidedly as prepared as one could be mentally, they still weren't ready by a long shot.

Tonight would be different, they had all thought. Or it should have been at any rate. She and a close shell of her Shadow Fall supplemented the northern part of the outskirts of Blutonsi now. They used the lanterns and the buildings as support to make ranged attacks, and the streets as killing corridors for their melee.

Tonight should have been better, she thought. Instead, there was so many visage that even though they were killing the enemy at an alarming rate she felt nothing but despair. Momentarily wiping them all out had given the illusion of hope earlier. Worse, the visage showed signs of rudimentary learning. Where once they mindlessly attacked, now when one was about to be slain it would try to escape instead, to lick its wounds and wait for an opportunity to rejoin the fray.

Arrow after arrow came from her magical bow. If she had an ammunition limit she would have long since reached it. Her friends and fellow guildmates fought stoically at her side, and she was incredibly proud of them. They weren't a raid guild, just a guild who had followed an idiot guild leader who told them they had a chance to make a difference. They killed enemy after enemy but there was no end.

It was never Shadow Fall style to do the traditional shield wall, and they fought with individual strength and courage. She was losing friends at an alarming rate. Already 10 people who she would have sworn would never have been killed had been sent to death. They would be respawning about now a continent away, doomed to the same sort of helpless rage that Justin had experienced when he had died early and knew that his friends were still fighting. It wasn't the loss of level, he had explained, but that horrible time when he was waiting to respawn and he knew his friends could have used him. She prayed that there was a lull soon so she could message them and tell them they had fought well.

The only bright light was the man who stood beside her. She had never really viewed him as strong before Grimgrieve. Especially compared to the outlandish and flashy company he kept. Indeed, he was by far the most normal of the bunch. He cooked, and he rarely smiled, and he didn't give off the feeling of a swordsman. Yet here he was, near her, destroying visage after visage with seeming ease.

Forsythe was simply a force of nature that could not be killed. An NPC or Resident with the immortal status that was part of the encounter. She didn't understand his style. In this game you benefited from large weapons or a single weapon and the defense of a shield. He simply used one sword and danced through the enemy like he knew instinctively what they were going to do. He never struck without maiming or outright killing the dark shapes that climbed the walls to the roof she was shooting from.

Elisha, of course, had told her every night what an amazing swordsman Forsythe was, but it was different to see it firsthand, to depend upon it, to be in awe of it. Elisha had told her that Forsythe simply moved through the enemy regardless of where his allies were. He struck them down with what looked like simplicity, and always looked confused when they were having problems. Never though, Elisha had cautioned her, should you think that Forsythe looked down on his allies.

Hunter had always wondered, until now, what Elisha had meant. Now she knew Forsythe was simply the god of death. There was no other way to describe what he did. Systematically he cut down visage after visage as if he had done it a thousand times in his life and would do it a thousand more. He never looked startled or surprised when one appeared near him. It was just another variable to be taken into consideration. Twice now he had left her side only to return just in time to push a visage that had gotten near her back off the roof. Despite all her allies, she felt that, to Forsythe, there was only him, and there was only her. The enemy was simply something he had to deal with, like a chore, until he could continue on with what he loved. It made her feel like her cheeks should be reddening and her breath quickening.

"I'm getting hungry." He noted once, while she was frantically shooting arrows at half-effect at a swarm that had tried to start clawing its way up the wall toward Justin who was nearby.

"I hope we finish this before dawn. It would be awful to miss breakfast too." He had declared sourly. He was in the process of killing a visage she had just ground to a halt with a special ability.

"Hey, I've been wondering. Are you maybe amazing?" Hunter had finally been forced to ask.

He had smiled at her then as if she had said something he thought was amusing. It was so beautiful that she almost tripped off the roof.

He didn't reply, further indicating that he thought she was kidding. She hadn't been kidding. It was like the battle had no purchase on him. Like if he chose he could just walk from one side of the conflict to the other and never be touched. He was still at 100%. It had been over an hour now since Grimgrieve and he had not even been struck with splash damage.

Unbeknownst to her, MKC Online had continued to take her stream after what they were starting to refer to as 'The Raven Drop', switching it to other streamers to show the scale of the battle now and then but keeping her as the primary feed. They had just been about to switch over to someone else when Elias called for them to stop and keep Hunter's feed for now. Elias must have seen into the future because it was just in time to see Hunter turn to Forsythe as he said the most incredible thing as if it were nothing.

"Hey. I think I'm going to just head straight out and see how many I can kill. At this rate we'll be doing this all night. Might as well see what's out there a bit. Do you think we'll get exploration experience?" He asked, pausing for a moment to lift his saber up so he could brush some hair out of his face with the back of his hand.

Forsythe had then hopped down from the roof lightly as if it were natural that his thought was correct, and began cutting a path through the monsters that clamored to get into the city without looking back. It didn't matter that the light provided by lanterns had ended. When the visage teleported behind or around him he simply turned and dealt them deathblows. It looked like choreography, like a dance, like something that he and the bad guys had rehearsed and agreed upon beforehand with the understanding that he was the hero.

"Shadow Fall! With me!" Hunter decided that if she was going to get killed here she wanted to do it next to Forsythe. She and a dozen others formed a tight group behind him fanning out even as he led them out into the darkness. Amazingly it was getting easier as they went.

"We're leveling up!" Justin said, shock in his voice. "This almost feels like we should have been doing it all along! Just go through them, huh?"

The numbers of the enemy had seemed overwhelming, and they were. Instead of dread, however, now there was an air of opportunity. Incredibly she heard her friends start laughing even as they advanced surrounded on all sides. They were beginning to compare the number of enemies they had slain with each other!

"124 Justin! I mean so far. I can die if you want, make us more even?" Pip, a human member who didn't typically talk or joke much snickered, enjoying the reach of her halberd in this particular formation where she could poke in any direction and hit something nasty.

"Oh shut up!" Justin managed breathlessly.

An angry swarm of visage struck at their group again and again and was repulsed, again and again. After about an hour it didn't seem like they could have ever lost. Forsythe simply cut his way forward, seemingly having no destination in mind other than through. Amazingly they even broke through the legion at some point, finding the end to the enemy. They all stood together, watching the swarm of thousands upon thousands assaulting Blutonsi with wonder. They had really cut their way through. They were miles away and the true scope of the enemy was finally present. There were holes in the ground where even more visage swarmed up from in the middle of the fields. There must be millions below the surface.

"What do you think? Dinner or do another lap" Forsythe asked her suddenly, totally unconcerned with this new and alarming realization.

A dozen eyes followed the question, sudden and unreasonable hunger in their eyes. Not for the food though. Hunter started laughing then. There was nothing else to do. Somehow she had surrounded herself with the craziest of the lot. Determined to not be left out, nor to be the ones who regretted their part in the battle.

"What do you think? Think we can get all the way back to town and back out here again?" She demanded.

"Shadow Fall victory!" Came the return cry.

"Late dinner." Forsythe finally acknowledged.

"I'm going to kiss you so much when this is over." Hunter declared.

"I was thinking I need to go to Australia," Forsythe admitted with another smile.

"Wow," Gilduirn commented. "That group really pushed through to the other side." Aidan was just grateful he had stopped complaining about how his sister shouldn't be here. It had been a source of constant contention since the warrior had learned that his darling sister, (more like flake) Aidan thought, was on the frontline. She had no business being here, etc, etc. Aidan was already tired of Gilduirn. He really wished the guy would just get killed already. Every time he turned his head away from Aidan it was only by the greatest of restraint on Aidan's part that Gilduirn wasn't pushed out into the mobs and left to perish. Really, Aidan was starting to keep track of how many times Gilduirn owed him. For not killing him.

"Forsythe doesn't think like a human being. He sets unreasonable goals and then is annoying enough to achieve them." Aidan acknowledged. They had been talking at small intervals between waves. There wasn't a lot of time between waves. One of the few times that Aidan had been grateful for non-stop enemies.

"I'm really glad you jerks joined us," Gilduirn said for the thousandth time. "Hey, did Khiafin tell you..?"

"Yes," Aidan answered sullenly. His mana was somewhat depleted and he'd never been a try-hard like his companions so he was letting the warriors do the fighting for him while it regenerated. Thus far he had been frustrated because of his deficiency in dealing decisive blows. The visage were largely resistant to magecraft, other than giant flaming rocks, and it had been a long bit for him. Aura was about to wear off, and he was secretly hoping that Amelia would return and rescue him from Gilduirn. He vaguely wondered if she would be amenable to premeditated in-game murder together. A sloppy smile started to cover his face as he fantasized about fictional homicide.

"Sorry about that. It was really a poor decision. I was just kind of mad at you for that outburst in the Silf kingdom." Gilduirn said, trying to smooth things over.

"Water under the bridge. Khiafin killed YOU not me. So let's call it even." Aidan declared, hoping that his admission would shut Gilduirn the hell up. This man was stripping his will to fight the more he talked.

"Yeah. Afterward, we had a meeting about it and everyone pointed out that I'd wasted time and that it was stupid to pursue grudges through 3rd party means." Gilduirn didn't take the hint.

"Khiafin! Please come and kill Gilduirn again!" Aidan beseeched over the party channel.

"Why?" Khiafin sounded amused. "He sounded really sorry when we talked about it."

"You don't have to listen to his prattle!" Aidan said crossly.

"Aww. You know I'm going to try and take your life after this right Aidan? You're very plucky when it comes to combat. I can't wait to see which of us is better." Khiafin confided.

"Please. You have no chance." Raven chimed in.

"Everything okay there?" Aidan wanted to know.

"Yeah, Amelia showed up at the last minute and I got a powerup. Then I was all fwoosh and bang and yay." Raven answered.

"So Amelia saved you," Forsythe added. "Figures. Long way to go Raven."

"Oh shut up! I'm the hero you know!" Raven said derisively. "You're probably with that group of idiots that cut through the bad guys and is on its way back."

"I'm one of those idiots," Hunter said dryly.

"Well everyone has an off day!" Raven insisted. "Aidan! Do that thing."

"The thing I couldn't do on your boat?" Aidan asked, amused despite himself.

"Ship!" She corrected.

"Yeah. It's about time for that." Aidan said. "Why am I so tired? It's only been a few hours but I feel like we've been fighting for forever."

"What thing?" Amelia suddenly asked.