Chapter 10:
The group retreated from the jailblock in search of better light, leaving Ivan in charge of protecting the newly-freed students. After Max caught Nino up to speed on the logistics of the game, including the caveat that their foe may alter the rules in unexpected ways and the resulting curse on Marinette, he had begun to explain the mechanics of the bard class.
"So," Nino repeated, making sure he understood, "you're saying that the songs that I play make you guys better fighters?"
"Essentially, yes," Max nodded, "but each song is limited in its effect, and of course you can only play one song at a time."
Nino looked puzzled. "But… what songs do I play?"
This question stumped even Max. "I'm… not entirely certain. I assumed that, as a Bard, you would simply know songs, just as Alya inherently knows archery."
"Maybe just try playing that guitar thing while reciting a poem?" Kim offered. "Bards always seem to talk like Shakespeare, maybe that will work?"
Nino seemed deep in thought while the group watched him with interest.
"I got it!" Clearing his throat for effect, Nino strummed a few chords on the lute as he began. "There once was a man from Nantucket, whose—"
"NOOOOO!" Alya, Kim, and Adrien all dove for Nino in an attempt to shut him up, knocking him to the ground, as Max stood bewildered. As Kim and Adrien stood, brushing the dust from themselves with matching crimson cheeks, Alya knelt over the startled bard, her hand clasped to his mouth.
"Sing about an effect that HELPS us, Nino!" Alya hissed through gritted teeth. She had noted the mischievous glimmer in his eyes, and was none-too-keen to be surrounded by hideously disfigured men.
Chuckling lightly, he pushed her hand away. "Well I would say that's a matter of opin—" Alya clamped her hand down again with a fierce glare. He sighed, raising his palms in a defeated gesture. Against her hand, he mumbled, "Fine, fine. Let me think." Narrowing her eyes warily, Alya finally released him, allowing him to stand.
More contemplative silence, although the group was now on high alert to intervene if necessary.
"Oh!" Nino's expression lit up. "I got something good!"
Adrien quirked a brow at him, afraid to ask.
Waving off their misgivings, the bard set to his instrument. As he began to strum the melody of a familiar song, the group exchanged expectant glances. Apparently Nino's bard skills granted him the ability to play this strange instrument, and play it well. They all recognized the song immediately: an R. Kelly ballad from before all the drama.
After playing through the first verse, Nino began to sing, using the instrument to accompany his vocals.
"If I can see it, then I can be it. If I just believe it, there's nothing to it…"
Alya's mouth hung open. His voice was a smooth timber that reverberated through her, making her want to sigh. Had he always been able to sing like that? Or is it an effect of the character? She hoped it was the former, because she would happily listen to that voice until the end of time, and she hoped to do so outside some creepy akuma dungeon.
"I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky. I think about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away…"
As Nino started into the chorus, Alya's heart did a flip, similar to the feeling she got when an airplane lost altitude suddenly. The unexpected feeling caused her to shudder a bit. Just as she affirmed to keep a level head, her feet solidly on the earth, and not be swept into his song like some swooning lovesick preteen, she had another revelation: her feet were not on the ground at all, but several inches above it.
The group exchanged amazed expressions as they effortlessly hovered; all except Nino, who seemed too lost in the song to realize that anything out of the ordinary was happening.
"I believe I can soar, see me runnin' through that open door. I believe I can fly…"
Max stepped through the air as if ascending a staircase. While he felt no resistance under his feet, he ascended as if climbing through nothing. His mouth moved to make some remark, but no sound came out. Even Xantemak the Enlightened was at a loss for words.
"I believe I can fly."
Kim used his ax to push off the ground, sending himself careening toward the far end of the room as if entirely weightless. Adrien moved several feet straight up by performing what looked like a midair breaststroke, and Alya stretched a toe toward the ground as if to test its temperature.
"I believe I can fly."
As the last notes hung in the air, Nino finally opened his eyes. Seeing his friends at various elevations scattered throughout the room, he let out a whoop.
"AWESOME!"
Nino and Alya settled to the floor, having not gone far, as the others crashed to the ground.
Nino brought his clasped fists to his face, trying to stifle his laughter, before choking out "Sorry, dudes!"
Adrien laughed. "That's one hell of a party trick!" He punned.
Max shook his head, chuckling lightly. "Now if we can only transpose that skill into battle…"
Kim, the only adventurer who did not manage to land right-side-up, rolled into a sitting position. "I was just getting the hang of it! I want a redo…err, Encore!" He exclaimed.
A short while later, the group gathered, heads bent, around Max's dungeon map to work out a plan. The kwamis had emerged to peer at the map as well, Tikki on Alya's shoulder and Plagg on Adrien's, to offer any aid they could. Unfortunately, Tikki was out of her element, and Plagg wasn't too thrilled about the situation in general. Adrien again took note of Tikki's particular inclination toward Alya before reminding himself that she had been disqualified as a potential Ladybug.
"There appear to be two separate routes to the Chamber of the Beholder, located near the entrance to the third floor. The main access route leads us through here…" Max traced the route with his finger, "past a few goblin sentries, into the cursed backwards room that perplexed us last time, through the Pit of Mire, to meet the guards, here." Max tapped a room marked 3rd Floor Entrance on the map.
"Does that mean no more enormous rats?" Alya asked hopefully.
Max shook his head. "At this point, rats and kobolds spawn randomly in each room based on a dice ro—" he paused. "Based on luck," he amended. "It is in our best interest to assume each room will have such lower-leveled enemies in addition to those indicated. Which brings me to this route's obvious drawback: it is long. Nino and I will certainly have to rest at least once along the way to recover our magic, leaving us vulnerable to ambush from the many adjacent rooms and prolonging the time to reach Marinette."
Adrien winced. He hated the thought of her, cursed into eternal sleep, completely at the mercy of whatever demons happened to come across her. If anybody, or any thing, lays a hand on her…
Kim pointed to a long, thin hallway depicted on the other side of the map. "What about here? This hallway bypasses all that stuff," he waved his other hand to gesture to the majority of the map, "and leads to another staircase: this 'Back Passageway.' It's only a few rooms away from the Beholder's Chamber."
"And the Goblin Archers that apparently chill in that hallway don't bother you?" Nino asked.
Alya peered at Kim's indicated route as well, seemingly unfazed by the threat of archers. "And what does this double bar on the door mean? With a leaf next to it?"
Max's mouth tugged into a frown. "The double-barred doors usually indicate an impassable route unless a certain condition is met. What the leaf icon indicates, I couldn't say. Perhaps a druid skill of some sort?"
Adrien finally spoke up. "If we only have to get through that hallway, can't we just see for ourselves? If it's truly impassable, we can just turn around and go the long way… if we have to."
Max glanced up from the map to meet the questioning eyes of a dwarf, an elf, two humans, and two fairies, each of their expressions hopeful. In truth, Max was anxious to get out of this dungeon as well. As much as the others seemed to be rising to the various challenges, he just couldn't seem to shake this sense of lingering dread, of imminent failure, of their impending doom. Willing the trepidation out of his voice, he replied simply: "I supposed it would be prudent to investigate."
"Alright!" Kim exclaimed with a pump of his fist.
With a wide grin and a few strokes of his lute, Nino belted, "Luck be a Lady tonight!"
Alya giggled and shoved him playfully.
"Hey, it's working!" laughed Nino, casting Alya a goofy grin.
Max sighed, wishing that Nino had continued playing. If they were going to face the Beholder, they would need all the luck they could get.
The group had no problem reaching the long hallway, defeating the weak enemies in the rooms leading there easily while Nino serenaded them with an instrumental version of "We Are the Champions." Pushing open the doors to the hallway, Alya gasped.
The long, narrow room reminded her of a literal gauntlet. It must have stretched for at least 30 yards, flanked on either side with countless tall, narrow windows that allowed bright white light to pierce the darkness. Above each window, near the domed ceiling, jutted a small wooden shelf, upon most of which sat sallow-skinned goblins, bows at the ready.
As Kim walked up to stand beside her and gaze into the room, Alya noticed another detail: movement. It appeared that the small ledges may have been connected by passageways behind the walls, as she would watch the creatures slink backward, disappear from view, and reappear at another lookout. Moving targets with hiding places would be difficult to hit, especially considering she would have to look directly into the sunlight to do it.
"Sheesh… there's like a million of them." Alya lamented.
Kim sulked. "They're too high up…" Then his eyes lit up. "OH, Nino you can fly me!"
Max chuckled. "You'd look like a pin cushion before you get an inch off the ground!"
Adrien glanced into the room. "I might be able to sneak in… with Plagg's help. Ignore them all and walk right through!"
Alya shook her head. "No good. Even if you do make it, there's some sort of barricade on the far door, remember?"
Adrien hadn't forgotten, he was just hoping he could Cataclysm whatever it was and call it a day.
"And besides," the archer continued, "Even if you did get the door open, how would we follow you? Unless you know a catchy teleportation tune Nino, I think that's a no go."
Max's hands began to sizzle as he called his fire. The huddle gathered at the doorway separated, allowing him to pass, as he turned his palms around each other, gathering the fire that built.
"I do love when they build things out of wood…" Max said under his breath with a decidedly wicked tone. With that, he threw both his arm in front of him and into the room, sending the fireball toward the nearest lookout perch.
Even before the spell could reach its destination, a volley of arrows rained down from above. Max jerked his hands back just in time to save them from being skewered. The fireball did, however, make contact with the wooden platform, causing it to burst into flame. The creature perched atop it let out a shriek, scrambling back in toward the wall. A moment later, a somewhat charred-appearing goblin emerged on the next platform, a scowl on its face, as it spat angry hisses toward the door.
"I dunno dude, that seemed kinda close," Nino said sheepishly, hesitant to admonish Max on his gaming prowess.
"Even if you were able to destroy every platform, they would just run back into the tunnels and shoot from there," Adrien noted.
Kim glared up at the array of connected lookouts. "If only we could get a melee fighter up there," he pondered, a note of longing in his voice. "Adrien, your class is agile, right?"
Adrien nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know if I can climb those walls. There aren't any holds to speak of, and besides…. Archers."
Max nodded. "Alya and I could mount a strong offensive from the ground… were we not forced to face that volley of arrows in the process."
Kim shook his head. "If we only had Marinette's shield, this would be cake. Man, I miss that chipper little cleric at times like these!"
Unbidden, an image arose in Adrien's mind: Marinette's smiling face, her clear blue eyes twinkling, a hint of a blush touching her freckled cheeks. His heart ached.
Nino cleared his throat. "I… may have a solution. To the arrows I mean. But it's going to take a lot of focus…"
They all turned to face him, but Nino locked eyes with Alya. "You're gonna have to trust me. And… no gloating OK?" A blush burned his features as he held her eyes.
"O..K….?" Alya said hesitantly.
Nino broke eye contact and fiddled with the pegs on his instrument. "So… do you remember that movie you made me watch, about the girls' a capella group? The one that you thanked me profusely for sitting through with you even though it was a 'chick flick?'"
Alya was officially confused. "You mean Pitch Perfect?"
Nino glanced at Adrien, as if ashamed to be confessing in front of his best friend, before returning his gaze to Alya. "Well I might have actually really liked it and bought the sound track and anyway I think I have a song!" Without waiting for her response, Nino tenderly plucked out a slightly altered version of David Guetta's "Titanium."
"I shout it out, but you can't hear a word you say. I'm talking loud, not saying much…"
Alya's eyes widened. "Wait… you learned Titanium?"
As the bard continued to sing…
"I'm criticized, but all their arrows ricochet. They shoot us down, but we get up…"
…the entire group watched in fascination as the tips of Alya's boots appeared to be engulfed by liquid mercury, the metal ascending past her ankles to her calves, coating her in a metallic sheen. Soon, the tips of her fingers were similarly enveloped, the liquid metal traveling with quickening speed up both arms to converge on her torso. Her body entirely encased, the metal continued to consume her face, coating even her hair, ending at the tips of her long, elven ears. Alya blinked, looking very much like the elvish version of Metal Mario. Titanium Alya.
As Adrien and Max stared wordlessly, Kim murmured: "I take back every bad thing I ever said about bards."
Nino's eyes, still focused on Alya, cast her a more determined look.
"You're arrowproof, nothing to lose! Fire away, fire away!"
Turning on her heels, Alya took several strides forward until she stood in the open doorway. Her keen ears could appreciate the quiet irk of several dozen bowstrings pulling taught in unison. With only the briefest hesitation, she stepped through the threshold.
Whoosh. Dozens of arrows were released from above. Alya, standing her ground just inside the door, closed her eyes. Trust.
Tink tin-tink tink tink! The arrows bounced off the metal-encased archer, falling harmlessly to the ground around her.
"Ricochet! Now take your aim…. Fire away, fire away!" Nino's voice encouraged.
Opening her eyes, a victorious grin on her gleaming silver face, Alya bent to pick up a handful of arrows from the ground. Depositing all but one into her quiver, she notched the remaining arrow into her bow and drew back the string, raising the weapon toward one of the befuddled goblin archers.
"My turn!" She declared, firing the arrow to strike the creature between the eyes. The room fell into a stunned silence ,save Nino's singing, as the creature lulled backward, its lifeless form crashing to the ground below.
All at once, a cacophony of panicked shrieks echoed through the hallway as the goblins launched into a flurry of motion. Some fired more arrows in Alya's direction, but as before, those that struck were deflected harmlessly away. Alya countered with a barrage of her own, firing arrow after arrow in rapid succession as she strode down the length of the hallway. With plenty of arrows littering the ground around her, the elvish archer no longer worried about conserving her ammunition. Most of the creatures retreated into the hallways hidden behind the walls, but their numbers overwhelmed the limited space, forcing several of them into Alya's deadly range. As she struck down enemy after enemy, Alya delightedly sung along with Nino—
"You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium!"
Soon, the creatures abandoned their futile offense altogether, climbing over each other in an attempt to escape through the single, small exit passage tucked into the far corner of the room beyond the last lookout. The threat of the arrow barrage quelled, the rest of the party entered behind Alya, their weapons at the ready, as the kwamis phased into the safety of the satchel at her hip.
With no other course of action, a few of the goblins turned to attack the vulnerable party members. Those that attempted to fire from the windows were quickly picked off by Alya and Max, with Kim and Adrien swiftly dispatching those foolish enough to drop into the hallway. With each enemy felled, the party members felt a little stronger, a second faster, an ounce more powerful… and increasingly more like the warriors they embodied.
By the time Nino's song concluded, dissolving goblin bodies littered the floor and clogged the passages, the last living goblin having sealed the tiny passage exit behind itself. As the last note faded, so too did Alya's metallic sheen, returning her to her former flesh and leather form. Nino wiped the sweat from his face, looking like he had just run a marathon rather than sung a song.
"Dude," the bard exhaled, "magic is like… hard."
As they approached the far side of the room, taking in the expansive doors indicated by the double bars on the map, Adrien said, "Well, I don't think you're going to be able to rest just yet."
Although the frame of the massive doors was visible, the doors themselves were overgrown with writhing, thorny vines, slithering over each other like snakes. In several places, bivalved appendages resembling Venus fly traps opened wide at their approach, the purple-red centers oozing some viscous yellow liquid and rimmed with wicked-looking teeth, each one easily large enough to swallow a human whole.
"Yuck, no thank you!" Alya remarked, firing a steel-tipped arrow at one of the waiting traps.
The jaws of the appendage clamped on the arrow like a bear trap, withdrawing slightly into the mass of wriggling vines with its catch. After a few moments, the trap emerged again, easing open. The shaft of the arrow was completely dissolved, leaving only the arrowhead, which dropped to the ground in a glob of the yellow mucous-like substance.
"Alright then. Who's up next?" the archer questioned the stunned group.
Author's Note: Sorry for the update delay all! I started writing some content for future chapters as the mood struck and ended up working backward a little... Good news, the next chapter should be out relatively soon! PS I have too much fun writing Bard Nino XD