Chapter Seven

The mysterious Hiro

August 21, 2009

It's been over a month since Dractaros' tip on finding Helba, however I think it's a waste of time, after all, how can we trust a character that we don't even know. The character Hiro is hard to find, we've not had any luck finding him, for all we know, he may have quit playing. We may be on a wild goose chase with this character, however, until we find out for sure that he is still playing, I'm not to intent on finding him, even though Dractaros wants to. We are meeting in the alley at Mac Anu, we planed it around the nighttime setting, so less people will see us.

Mac Anu was silent tonight, most people were raiding dungeons, not very many people liked the nighttime setting, too dark to see, and PKer's thrived at night, a perfect setting for our meeting. Fireflies were flying low, however, there were few around the city, I proceeded towards the meeting spot. I saw only two people in the city right now, both were heading towards the Chaos Gate. I turned around the corner to the alley, we were meeting at the back of the alley, few people would see us or hear us. When I turned the corner, I made out the figure of a blade master with wings leaning against the wall, "Dractaros?" I asked.

"Yep, your right on time"

"Tell me why it's darker then usual"

"Draconair remoded the setting so tonight would be darker then normal, it's very unlikely anyone will see us"

"What about Draconair, where's she?"

"She had to complete a report, and she needed sleep, she, did however give me the info I asked for"

"The information about the character Hiro?"

"Yes, the information she sent me is as follow, He's a Twin Blader, level 85, form the records she gave me, he is usually in the root towns when it's night time, he rarely groups, and the records she sent me say, to your dismay, he's a Player Killer, his records show he's killed a ton of characters, my guess is he's like a ninjas"

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"If he hangs around the root towns at night, doesn't group, and is a PKer, like a ninja, one with the shadows"

"Just what we needed, to talk with a Player Killer, a nemesis to me and what I do, I won't talk to someone who gets there jollies off killing other players"

"Plz Drako, he's the only link we have right now"

"…" I didn't know what to say, he wants me to negotiate with a PKer, a ninja no less, what am I suppose to do, I want to help, but I can't ask a PKer to help us.

"Plz Drako, don't do it for me but for my brother"

"I'll think about it, but you got to remember who I am, I will not stand for any Player killer"

He nodded, "I'll go search Sigma, it's almost night time there, maybe he'll appear there" He got up and moved past me, he didn't say anything as he left. Shit, he's pissed at me, what the hell do I do now, do I let my pride get between my friendship, between helping his brother. I turned around, and headed out of the alley, and decided to sit in the square, then again, who's to say that this guy even knows anything about Helba, she may know something about what's happened, maybe she doesn't know shit about it. I suddenly had a strange feeling, like someone was watching me, I listened for something, all I heard at first was crickets, then …

I barley had time to evade an attack from above, I looked up and saw someone run and hide in the shadows. "Who are you?" I asked, I knew he had to be close by still.

"The shadows don't revile themselves to those of the light, the shadows will take you" he said in a mysterious and dark voice.

"Ok then shadow, why do you strike me?"

"You are my target, I'm here to assassinate you"

"Well, good luck," I thought for a moment on how to kill him, then thought of it, "Ok shadow, lets fight then, but not here, on a field"

"Very well then, Lambda Detestable Vengeful Messenger, you'll go first so I know you won't duck out"

"Fair enough" I headed towards the Chaos Gate, keeping my guard up just incase he decided to ambush me again. I selected the Lambda Server and prepared to select the field, Lambda was light, I half thought of waiting for the Ninja, but decided to go to the field. When I arrived at the field, first thing I noticed was it was raining, I walked forward ready to engage in combat, after five minutes of walking around, I noticed something wrong, there were no monsters, no dungeon, no portals, no nothing, just a field, and the "Shadow" hadn't attacked yet, I started to wonder if this was a hoaxes.

At that moment, a blade just passed by a centimeter of my cheek, I turned around and swung my sword, but all I saw was an illusion, an afterimage of a Twin Blader wearing a blue kimono, his eyes were cold looking, his hair was long and dark, tied in a pony tail, wielded the rare Prepare to Die twin blade weapon, I looked around, but no one was there, I looked atop one of the pillars were a giant skeleton was, I saw him, he stood there looking ready for anything.

"The shadows will consume you", he jumped down and charged me, I raised my guard, but soon realized that it was an afterimage also, where is he, wait, I turned around and just barely blocked an attack. He's very quick, this isn't good, He backed off and left another afterimage, I turned to my right and blocked his next attack, he again disappeared I turned to my left and swung my sword, this time he blocked the attack. He backed off and jumped up to the top of an arch, looking at me. I started to fell nerves, he's fast enough to leave an afterimage, and his attacks are strong to, I barely guarded against his last attack.

"Impressive, you are a target worth fighting" He readied himself for his next strike, I wondered what am I suppose to do, wait a minute, his fighting style, it's like that of a.

"Tell me shadow, is your name Hiro?"

"You must strike me first, if you want to know,"

"Fine then, if you want" I readied my blade for an attack, so how do I hit him, think, wait I got it, I prepared for his next attack.

He jumped down and again made an afterimage of him, I turned around, swung at him, as he appeared trying to get me from behind, I hit his after image.

"Here we go", I stuck my blade out and began swinging myself in a circle, as I started to gain speed, I started to see him, just barely, I jumped and slammed my blade down with a loud Slam. The attack made a huge splash, I waited for the water to settle, though dizzy, I saw him, against the cliff wall as if he was thrown at it hard.

"Got you" I said, I walked over to him, he looked up at me.

"Can't believe I fell for that, a simple plan that a child would have thought up"

"Only person you can blame is yourself, you were following the same pattern of attack this whole time, now we had an agreement didn't we?"

"Fine, Yes my name is Hiro"

"Excellent, I have a few things to ask you"

"What can I help you with if you were able to beat me, I'm about 20 lvls higher then you?"

"I've been told you know where to find Helba"

"The legendary Hacker, I know where she hides out, but how to get there is another thing"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The Keywords are Lambda Pulsating Worst Core"

"So what's the hard part?"

"The first floor in the dungeon is a maze, no matter what you do, you can't pass the first floor, I tried for hours"

"Is there any other way there?"

"Not as far as I know"

"Dam, this won't be as easy as I thought"

"Anything else, cus I have to go, shadows don't reveal themselves in the light"

"Go shadow, but next time we meet, I'll kill you"

"Why?"

"You're a Player Killer, The PK slayer won't stand for PKing"

"You think I kill for fun, I was hired to kill you"

"What?"

"A man named Skain found me and asked me to kill you for quiet a price, He mumbled something about luring you out from your friends"

"That low life, fine, but it still stand if your killing players, got it"

"Fine, but the shadow won't get caught again"

"Go then before I change my mind"

He gated out, I decided to log off, and write the lead to Dractaros, now we just needed to figure out the puzzle.

A maze that is impossible to transverse, that is all that stands between us and Helba hopefully, I can only hope that I wasn't lied to, and that this wasn't suppose to be a trap. The next step is to solve the puzzle and hope we will see Helba, I only hope that she can answer Dractaros' question, and how to fix it.