The Balaur were an invading race, an threat meant to unite the two warring factions of the game against one larger threat. They were not a playable race, just enemies of all players, which meant that they behaved in particular patterns, that their dredgions appeared in certain places at certain times of the day or night, and that there was generally no guesswork involved in engaging or avoiding them.
Which made their newfound autonomy all the more peculiar. Green sat on a bench in the Sanctum library, a pile of books and reports spread out all in front of him. The reports had come from garrisons all over the land, throughout many different zones - the Balaur threat was growing, and quickly too. Requests for more troops, more supplies, more support ... everything was funneled through Sanctum and then archived here.
He was having little luck on finding lore about players imprisoned in the game - daeva, which was the term used for the players by the NPCs, were imprisoned all the time but not in the sense he was looking for. It was slow and frustrating, and as Green skimmed through report after report he began to see a pattern, and a larger picture of something happening that was beyond the boundaries of the game itself.
Elysea was falling, slowly but surely, to the Balaur.
One of the outposts was wiped off the map entirely. He'd had quests there, still had quests to turn in, but it was gone. Reports from NPC garrison soldiers on the devastation sat before him. Green took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes sleepily, felt the burn of staying awake for too long behind them. There was no night in Sanctum, and even twilight was as bright as the morning.
He'd been in the game for three days.
That was two too many.
Green set his glasses on his nose and squinted across at the papers spread all in front of him. What did it all mean? If he didn't find out soon, more people would be trapped. That alone was keeping him going. Green yawned, rubbed his hand over his mouth and leaned forward, pulling a bundle of unread scrolls toward him. He couldn't stop now.
Gotou woke slowly, drowsily. He was warm and comfortable, but the ceiling above was different. There wasn't daylight creeping in, but a faint, unnatural glow that made him sit up slowly, rubbing his eyes and squinting across the room. There was an unhappy murmur from beside him as the sheet was pulled up by his movement, and Gotou glanced over at Masayoshi in half-awake confusion.
Oh, bed. They'd shared a bed because there wasn't any other place to sleep. Gotou leaned over to nudge Masayoshi awake, one hand braced on the mattress between them, but Masayoshi wrapped his arms around Gotou's and turned his face down, eyes squeezed tight. "Oi," Gotou said, slightly aggravated. "Masayoshi."
"'f I 'pen my eyes this has t' end," Masayoshi mumbled, and curled in to himself just a touch more, pulling on Gotou's arm a bit.
His brow furrowed, Gotou leaned over, about to shove Masayoshi in the shoulder when Masayoshi chose that moment to roll onto his back, Gotou's arm still clasped tightly in one hand. This knocked Gotou completely off balance and he fell forward, right across Masayoshi on the bed; which made Masayoshi squawk and squirm in surprise.
He wasn't the only one, Gotou push off of Masayoshi, one hand on his face, and managed to get himself physically off of Masayoshi, shrugging off the tight grip Masayoshi had. "What the fuck," Gotou gasped, fists in the mattress, "is wrong with you?"
Masayoshi's mouth opened just slightly, blue eyes large and dazed as he looked up at Gotou. Abruptly Gotou realized that he had his hands on either side of Masayoshi's head now and shoved off again, sitting up properly, shifting and putting his back toward Masayoshi. "This is why I didn't want to share the bed," he muttered loud enough for Masayoshi to hear. With his back toward Masayoshi at least he couldn't see how pink Gotou's face had turned, or even sense how hard his heart was beating. What the hell, Masayoshi hadn't looked cute like that, or ... or worse...
"Sorry, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said earnestly, and sat up as well. "Did you sleep well at least?"
"We're not talking about this," Gotou said, but didn't move to get out of the bed yet, the chill of the room biting at his bare chest.
"Talking about ... what?" Masayoshi asked, hands in his lap and staring at Gotou, clearly confused by Gotou's tone of voice. Gotou glanced back at him, saw his wild hair and expression, and then curled his hands into fists, before throwing the sheet off and hauling himself out of the bed. It wasn't like there was any place to go in the single-room studio, so instead Gotou stomped over to where he'd left his armor in an unceremonious pile by the table near the entrance.
"Greetings, daeva!" the Shugo butler said from just outside the door, leaning his head into the room.
"Shit," Gotou said, jumping in surprise. "Goddammit, don't do that!"
"Don't yell at the Shugo," Masayoshi said, still seated in the bed and watching Gotou with an unfamiliar expression. Gotou took a deep breath and grabbed his breeches from the pile, slowly getting dressed. If he focused on how angry he was, and if he got dressed quick enough, maybe that would be enough to forget the sudden painful ache in his lower half.
Masayoshi was his friend, fucking hell.
"Why are you so upset?" Masayoshi asked, scooting to the edge of the bed, lower half still covered by the twist of sheets. Gotou refused to look at him. "Gotou-san."
"I need-" coffee, ten cigarettes, and to pin you to the bed right now "coffee," he said. He could tell Masayoshi didn't quite believe him, but he didn't question it. "I'll wait outside, c'mon, haul up," he said. "We've got a lot of ground to cover before dark tonight, if we want to get home."
"Yeah," Masayoshi said, still seated in the bed as Gotou, fully dressed and armed, stepped out of the studio.
"Greetings, daeva-!" the Shugo butler said desperately as he disappeared.
Masayoshi twisted his hands in the sheets and tried very desperately not to think about how Gotou's weight had felt across him, heavy and comfortable, hot and right. It was hard to swallow around the strange lump in his throat, or deal with the strange hollow ache that contact had left him with, but he was going to deal with it, then he was going to get out of this bed and get dressed and follow Gotou-san in his quest for a stimulant.
He pressed his hand over the outside of the underwear he had on, felt the warmth and the hardness there, then bit his lip and glanced to the door. It wasn't like there were bathrooms here he could lock himself in and deal with this, because ignoring it was not an option as much as he was thinking about how close Gotou had been.
Masayoshi slid his fingers into the waistband of his underwear, started to pull it down and thought; quickly.
Gotou stood at the end of the row of studios, hands on his hips, and sighed heavily. He was being a dick, he knew he was being a dick, and he needed to apologize to Masayoshi. Odds were good that Masayoshi had just flopped back over and gone to sleep, because if he didn't oversee Masayoshi stumbling out of bed he would do just that - unless they were so fortunate that Ishihara was waiting on him, in which case Masayoshi would be bright eyed and bushy-tailed with very little prompting.
The Shugo butler still stood outside of Masayoshi's studio, dressed in his little tailored suit, wringing his paws. "Nyerk," he said, when he spotted Gotou, eyes wide.
"You're not saying your script," Gotou accused, and the Shugo shuffled and avoided eye contact. "Whatever," Gotou said, and stuck his head back into the door. "Oi, 'yoshi, get a move on-..."
Masayoshi was indeed still in bed, but he was at least sitting up. However, he had his underwear around one ankle and his hand fisted around his dripping cock, his eyes wide and horrified, not that Gotou spared the second for his eyes to drift in that direction.
Gotou closed his eyes, then spun and wordlessly headed back out.
"Gotou-san!" Masayoshi wailed, and he heard him very loudly get out of bed, trip in the tangle of sheets, and scramble to his feet. He glanced over his shoulder to see Masayoshi fling himself out the door, underwear left on the floor somewhere and Gotou's eyes snapped immediately to his face.
"Don't chase me naked!" he yelled.
"But Gotou-san-!"
Oh god, he was still hard. Gotou turned and faced forward and stormed down the row of studios, Masayoshi on his heels. "Fucking put on some pants, don't point that thing at me!" Gotou yelled without turning around, hearing Masayoshi's bare feet behind.
"Gotou-san, please come back, we'll talk-!"
"GET DRESSED WE'LL TALK THEN!" he bellowed, and this time someone stuck their head out from another studio. Gotou turned bright red, turned around and pointed back toward Masayoshi's studio. "GET. DRESSED."
The player who stuck their head out looked between Gotou and Masayoshi with the most peculiar expression. "Sorry," Gotou said, as he shoved Masayoshi back in the direction of his own studio. "I've - sorry."
"Yeah, okay," the other player said, and disappeared back into their own studio.
Gotou was standing outside the building the housed the studios, across the path from some vendors who had set up shop where the players passed by. He watched the warehouse vendor talk animatedly to a Shugo, only stopping when a player stopped by to check their inventory or make a sale. The warehouse vendor had tried to engage with Gotou, a bright "hail, daeva!" as he settled in across the path, but Gotou just gave a small wave and glanced back at the studio, waiting for Masayoshi.
It took him a good few minutes to appear - probably trying to figure out how to deal with clean-up without the aid of running water. Gotou shuddered at the thought, and made a mental note to remind himself that he was sleeping in the chair tonight if they hadn't figured a way out of this game by nightfall. Or, he could always just do the fucking studio quest himself and get his own damn place, but that also required figuring out how to get furniture, and right now that time was better spent figuring out how to escape this fantasy hell.
Masayoshi appeared in full armor, carrying his halberd. He only looked a little sheepish, not nearly enough, his ears still pink. "Gotou-san," he started, and Gotou held up a hand.
"No," he said. "We're not talking about it now."
"But you said when I got dressed-"
"I lied," Gotou said, and crossed his arms. He glared up at Masayoshi as Masayoshi stopped in front of him, hated looking up at him, and instead shifted his attention back to the warehouse attendant, who was watching them both a little too brightly. "The NPCs are doing their own thing," he said in an effort to divert Masayoshi's attention, because Masayoshi was gearing up an indignation at Gotou-san lying, how could you lie and thankfully that distraction worked. Masayoshi glanced over at the warehouse attendant, who waved at Masayoshi cheerfully. "Arieluma," she called over.
"Arieluma," Masayoshi called and smiled. He glanced back to Gotou. "What does that mean?"
"Well, it seems to be a common greeting of the land-"
"Not that, Gotou-san, I meant the fact that they're acting..." Masayoshi frowned, one hand on his hip, staring at the ground and clearly searching for the terminology he wanted.
"Like real people?" Gotou murmured, and Masayoshi's head snapped up. He looked at Gotou, startled.
"Oh," Masayoshi said.
"Yeah." Gotou watched as the Shugo vendor walked around out of his booth and over to the warehouse vendor carrying a large box. "It's like, the longer we're in here, the less like a game it is."
"That's kind of scary," Masayoshi said softly.
"No shit," Gotou said. He inclined his head toward the path that curved away from the building, around a row of neatly trimmed hedges. "Shall we hit up the food vendor and see if there's something equivalent to a coffee, because if not I'm going to scream." Maybe he'd scream anyway, it seemed like it might help things.
Masayoshi agreed to this, at least. He gestured in the air thoughtfully. "I'll try to get in touch with Black and Green, see if they've gotten anywhere."
"Right," Gotou said, and they started at a steady clip down the path.
Whatever's going on, it affects the Balaur, Green's voice said, as clear as if he was sitting at the table with them. Gotou stared down into his flagon, it was steaming, full of something that the cook swore was rejuvenating but tasted suspiciously like leaves boiled in grass.
"Tea is just leaves in boiled water," Masayoshi reminded him when he complained.
"This isn't tea, though," Gotou muttered, hands folded around the flagon, his gauntlets sitting on the table top beside him.
"How is it affecting the Balaur?" Masayoshi asked. "They're just ... not NPCs, but like, enemy NPCs right? They shouldn't be doing anything they're not programmed to."
Well, unless they're programmed to actually wipe existing bases off the map entirely, they're definitely doing whatever the hell they want right now. Green's voice was tired, and Gotou wondered if he'd been up all night researching. Black is actually scouting one of their Balaur strongholds now, he hasn't found the others yet.
"How long have you been in here?" Gotou asked, lifting his head. "In the game, I mean."
This'll be the fourth day.
Masayoshi glanced at Gotou, eyebrows up. That long? "And we're the first ones you've run across since you were trapped."
Yes. If it's happening on a pattern, another two people will be trapped tomorrow. Green was silent for a moment. If it's not a pattern, there are already others who are trapped that we haven't run across.
"Well we just need to get to the bottom of this before then," Masayoshi said simply. He glanced at Gotou. "We're headed to Arbolu today, right? See what the old tree has to say?"
Gotou nodded. "What about you, Midorikawa-kun?" he asked.
You can just call me Green, it doesn't bother me, you know.
Masayoshi glanced at Gotou, a small smile on his face. Gotou sighed, it wasn't worth the fight right now. "Fine, Green. Have you even slept?"
I don't need to sleep, this is more important. There was a stutter to his last word, as if it was broken off by a yawn.
"You do need to sleep, Green!" Masayoshi said. "It'll help things! Just a small nap, you'll think clearer!"
"I agree," Gotou said, and Masayoshi beamed. "Take five, Green. We're gonna run by this Elim, we'll message you once we've talked to him."
Fine, Green said, but he didn't sound too upset. Black will contact you once he's done reconnoitering. There was a long silence as Green presumably disconnected, and Gotou took another pull of his drink and shuddered.
"Leaf-water," he grunted.
The food vendor was located in a small village, surrounded by ornate looking houses. "Houses," Gotou said. "You can spend your actual fake-money on a house." There was a teleportation pad near the entrance, and plenty of vendors wandering about, along with a hand full of players. There didn't seem to be much of any idle animation, though - if the vendors weren't speaking with players, they were talking to each other or tending to their wares.
"Let's use the teleportation pad," Masayoshi said.
"I'm not flying on that fucking bird-"
"It teleports here, Gotou-san. No bird."
Gotou chewed on his lip, then sighed and nodded. "Fine." He followed Masayoshi to the man, who was dressed in white robes, leaning against one of the two pillars on the pad. "Arieluma," Masayoshi said perkily, and the man straightened, tugged on his robes so that they sat better on his shoulders.
"We meet in Ariel's light," he said grandly, gesturing with his hand.
"The plaza, please," Masayoshi said. The transporter nodded and after an exchange of gold, a small portal opened, not nearly as ornate as the one Masayoshi had summoned to come here. Masayoshi glanced back at Gotou, smiled again, and then stepped through. The portal closed after him.
"Me too," Gotou said. "Plaza, please." As he stepped through the summoned portal, he thought he heard the teleporter grumble behind him. "Wish I could travel more..."
The plaza was exactly that, a large open area with a fountain in the center; an obelisk and more vendors. "Now, to the zone that Arbolu is in," Masayoshi said, and Gotou heard the strain in his forced-cheerful voice. He pretended not to.
"Another teleporter?" Gotou checked his coin pouch, but he wasn't in any danger yet.
"Another, and another," Masayoshi said airily. "We gotta hop a few times to get there." They teleported again, this time into another zone, another fortress - and as they stepped through this teleporter Gotou was greeted with a fortress easily three times the size of those previous. He felt the thin air, the wisp of chill that greeted a high-elevation area, and looked around, and up. "Whoa," he said as he stepped forward, off the teleportation pad.
"Arbolu's Haven," he heard Masayoshi say. Gotou glanced behind himself but Masayoshi was already gone. Gotou looked around again, then stepped back onto the pad. "Arbolu's haven," he said, as a woman took his gold.
"Safe journeys," she said, as the green bird appeared.
"You tricked me!" Gotou yelped once his sabatons were on the ground again. He took two steps off the transportation pad and sat heavily in the lush, dark green grass that surrounded the pad. Masayoshi was standing there waiting for him.
"I didn't," he said innocently.
"You said were were teleporting!" Gotou heaved a few breaths, dizzy and mildly ill, he swore he could feel the leaf-water sloshing around in his stomach even now. He crossed his legs and braced his hands on his knees. "Liar," he seethed.
"I didn't lie!" Masayoshi insisted. "I just ... neglected to say anything."
"Liar by omission," Gotou muttered. He could imagine the face Masayoshi was making even if he didn't look up, he had seen it enough already. Gotou rubbed his hand over his face, and back through his hair, before taking a long deep breath and then glaring up at Masayoshi.
Masayoshi had looked away, staring instead at the immense foliage the spread above their heads. The area was dimly lit, the sunlight that trickled through the leaves above them was watery and pale. There were several of the tree-beings, the Elim, shuffling around. Gotou looked well above their heads at their names. "Arbolu's gotta be a bigwig, if the place is named after him," he said.
Masayoshi pointed up. "That's Arbolu."
Gotou looked at the network of branches stretched above his head and frowned - then followed the branchs along with his eyes as they grew into trunks that sprouted from a massive growth in in the center of the outpost. "That-" he said, and stood. "That is fucking huge."
"Yeah," Masayoshi said. "Let's go talk to him."
The Abyss was once the center of the planet. When the great cataclysm rent the world in two, shattering the land into a mere shell of what it was before it created this aether-filled realm, where large rocks and floating platforms housed outposts and fortresses. It was a bit like a miniature asteroid belt, Black thought as he crouched on a shard, behind the decimated ruins of an ancient statue, watching a slow-moving rock the size of a city bus float casually by. Because the realm was aether-filled, it meant that all daeva could fly, at any time - which meant one had to not only be aware of everything around them, but also above and below, as well.
He was watching a group of enemy players. Every so often they would shift, and trigger his enemy alert - which meant that he as well would show up on theirs. However, none of the blue-skinned, equipped players even so much as turned in his direction. They stood between him and the fortress he had been hunting.
The crumbling heap was not located on any map. That wouldn't surprise him normally, because ruins usually weren't marked unless they were campaign-oriented ... but this entire island was not marked on the map. If he glanced at it, it looked like he was standing in the nothingness of the aether-filled space, just hovering there. This curious fact was bringing sightseers, looking for high-level quests and just the general old thrill of PVP.
There was also the warning sign that the supposedly-abandoned ruins had the occasional Indratu patrolling the broken walls. There were Balaur in the Abyss.
Black exhaled and closed his map. Green was right, the Balaur were acting outside the constraints of their game programming. It wasn't that he doubted Green, but he hoped it wasn't the case. It was hard to ignore the fact that programmed NPCs had started acting out in all sorts of ways, and it was only a matter of time before the largest invading enemy force decided to change its tactics.
When he glanced back over the statue, the group of enemy players was gone. He rested one hand on his pistol, just in case, and crept over the statue. He would get as close as he could get, see what he could see - and just as he moved the enemy alert blared and he had both his pistols out, half-turning to meet his attacker instead of fleeing. The enemies clearly expected him to run, and Black grinned, spinning the guns in his hands once as the enemy players bore down on him. He didn't run.
Arbolu was massive. Masayoshi had not been to this zone yet, but he'd seen pictures. The Elim was ancient and old, he'd gone rooted to his spot and the diameter of his trunk was larger than any tree Masayoshi had seen in reality. You almost couldn't comprehend his girth, and the face of such an old sage was tired and still, eyes closed and unmoving. Masayoshi climbed ahead of Gotou, up the rocky ledge that led toward the Elim's face and was almost attacked by the creature.
It was a gnarled thing, not an Elim, too small to be so - it looked like an uprooted trunk of a long-felled tree. It moved on several spindly, insect-like legs, and its front legs were clasped in front of it like a praying mantis. "Who goes, who goes," the tree-thing hissed, waving its front legs at Masayoshi, practically in his face. He staggered back a step, and Gotou almost collided with his back.
"Enemies of Arbolu will be destroyed!" the creature snarled.
Masayoshi had his halberd in his hand before he realized that the twisted thing was not doing him anything resembling damage, so he stood down, one arm out for the creature's tiny stump-arms to ping against. "We're not enemies!" he cried out.
"Lies!" the creature howled. "All daeva are enemy to my Lord Arbolu!"
Gotou touched Masayoshi's back. "Do you speak for Arbolu?" he challenged the creature, who made a hissing, clicking noise like an insect. "Do you speak for the Elim?"
"I am the voice of Lord Arbolu!" it proclaimed, scuttling back a few steps, climbing up the difficult rock face to be closer to the trunk of the tired old Elim. "You daeva are enemies, and must be destroyed!"
"Pleasant fellow," Gotou said. "I bet I can kill it in one hit."
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, scandalized. To the creature that called itself the voice of Arbolu, he half-bowed. "We do not come as enemies of your lord, but we come seeking knowledge. Lodas sent us."
It moved back and forth for a moment quickly, considering Masayoshi's words, legs waving intermittently. Finally, it capitulated. "Speak your piece, daeva - but speak quickly! Lord Arbolu's temper burns short."
"Is he sure he's talking about the tree?" Gotou murmured, and Masayoshi elbowed him hard.
"Lodas spoke of cataclysm," Masayoshi said. "That there was a bigger danger now, bigger even than the one that destroyed this land. He said you would help us."
"Keh!" the voice of Arbolu said, scuttling around, back and forth, never turning its back on them. "Lodas speaks too much, talks too much." He clicked his pincher-like legs together. "This threat is no business of the daeva, the aether streams are drying, it is daeva's fault."
"This guy isn't gonna help us, 'yoshi," Gotou said. He took a few steps back, hands on his hips. "This is a waste of time."
Masayoshi stared past the creature, at the great tree. Then he glanced back to it. "What do you want us to do, to speak with Arbolu?" he challenged suddenly. The creature paused, hesitant, then clicked its pinchers again.
"Essences," he said. "From the zombie horde. Fallen daeva, they still contain aether. Bring me twenty of those, and Arbolu will bestow his wisdom upon you."
He nodded. "Understood. We'll be back soon." Masayoshi turned, and Gotou stared at him.
"Zombies?"
"It's a quest," Masayoshi murmured. "It's not going to talk to us until we fulfill its requirements. This can't be too hard, c'mon." He didn't look back at the creature, although he heard a strange hissing laugh from behind him.
"Where the hell are we going to find zombies, here?" Gotou said as they stood on the path that led out of the glade protected by Arbolu. A few tamed earth spirits floated by, brown silt bodies sprouting green leaves along their heads, cleansed by Arbolu's presence. "You should have just let me rough it up a bit."
"Gotou-san, we've got to play by the rules so long as we're here." Masayoshi took his halberd in one hand. "Look, on my map it's got the zombies not far from here. This won't take long, okay? Let's just go get those essences and see what all the old tree has to say."
Are you two even aware of how much like an old married couple you sound? Green's voice came out of nowhere, and it surprised them both.
"How long have you been listening in?" Gotou demanded angrily, as Masayoshi looked away, trying to obscure his blush. "That's a little rude, you know!"
Well, it's a little nauseating to watch you two have constant lovers' spats in the group chat," Green said. The group chat doesn't close so long as everyone's connected, you guys should know that.
Gotou slapped his face with one hand. Masayoshi cleared his throat. "Did you at least get some sleep, Green?"
Not much. Listen, Black is gone.
"Gone?" Gotou looked at Masayoshi. "Gone how?"
I don't know. I can't contact him, and he's not showing as a member of our group any longer. There was a long moment of silence while Gotou and Masayoshi looked at each, then each opened their respective menus.
"He's still showing as logged in," Masayoshi reported, as if that fact wasn't plainly obvious. He tapped the 'call' button - and a red circle with a slash through it appeared. "I can't contact him either," Masayoshi said.
"What the hell," Gotou said. "His location is listed as 'unknown location.' What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
I don't know. Something strange is going on.
"You mean stranger than being trapped in a cheap video game?" Gotou said. Masayoshi threw him a glare.
"You want us to go to the Abyss, see if we can find out what's up?" Masayoshi asked, hesitating on the call list. "Look, Blue and Pink are available to call. And Pink's in Sanctum."
What? There was a pause, a long moment of shuffling. I'll be damned. I'll see if can find her.
"So, the Abyss?" Masayoshi said, looking at Gotou.
What did Arbolu say?
"Dead end," Gotou said. "He wouldn't talk to us."
Weird. Maybe I'll try, see if I can get anything from him. Lodas had no problems talking with me. Don't go to the Abyss, leader.
"Aww," Masayoshi said, glanced at his weapon.
We'll go as a group. It looks like Blue is in your zone, over by the research lab. Think you can dig him up?
"We'll be stronger as team. We can at least handle that." Masayoshi glanced to Gotou, who nodded. "Let us know if you find Pink."
She's probably crafting. I'll start there.
"Yeah, and don't listen in on us when we're having private conversations," Gotou added. "You never know what you'll hear."
I already have enough material for several weeks of nightmares, I don't need your help for more, Green returned snarkily, and then clicked over to silence.
"Well," Gotou said. "So much for zombies, then."
They stepped off the path in Arbolu's haven, and walked into a gloomy mire. Masayoshi hesitated, halberd in hand, as Gotou continued down the path for a few strides. There was a shivering, hunched creature in the dying grass not far from them, and Masayoshi stared at it, chewing on his lower lip. Gotou half-turned and looked back and him, then saw where he was looking. "That's a zombie," Gotou said, and Masayoshi took several steps toward it.
"It's pitiful," he said.
"Masayoshi, leave it. We've gotta find Blue, right?" Gotou drew his sword anyway, just in case. "What are you going to do, anyway? Kill it?"
Masayoshi stopped walking. The grey creature lifted its head and stared at Masayoshi – still too far to consider attacking him – but its eyes and sallow face didn't even look human. The zombie shuffled forward on all fours, away from him, attention drifting elsewhere. Masayoshi shifted the grip on his weapon, then turned back toward Gotou. "You all right?" Gotou asked as he joined back with the path.
"Yeah," Masayoshi said, a strange queasiness settling in his gut that he couldn't quite explain. "…yeah. I'm fine. Let's go find Blue."
It was different, with the wind-spirits and the frillnecks … they were monsters, they were animals, they weren't… Masayoshi shifted his attention away and forward and was aware that Gotou kept looking back at him, concerned. He didn't say anything, though.
The longer they walked, the less marshy the ground became. The area was still dim and felt decayed, but not actively … now it just looked like a few good days of sun would settle things. Masayoshi looked into the heavy gray sky, overcast, and felt like the oppressive cloud cover would smother him.
They passed a group of creatures like the voice of Arbolu, gnarls, and they hissed and clicked at their passing. They stuck to the path though, and nothing attacked them there. Masayoshi stared at them a little too long, brow furrowed – and then Gotou yanked his arm and pulled him straight off the road and into the long grass. "Gotou-san-!" Masayoshi yelped, and Gotou yanked him into a crouch, using the scrub that lined the road as cover. "What are you-!"
Gotou covered his mouth. "Shut up," he hissed.
Masayoshi thought about how much more effective licking Gotou's palm was when he was bare-handed, and kept his tongue where it was supposed to be. He glanced back up at the road, through the scrubbrush – and saw two masked people saunter slowly up the road. "Lephartists," Gotou said, and Masayoshi remembered the robbers's guild from previous missions. "They're all around the research lab. We'll have to be careful."
Gotou sat down in the grass, and wondered for a moment if there was a potion or something that cured his poor, aching feet. Hiking around most the day through swamp and mire had worn him out properly, and they still hadn't found Blue. Gotou exhaled, cracked his neck, and then leaned back, putting his weight on his hands as he sprawled. Masayoshi was standing on a white rock not far from him, staring out west, where the swamp slowly transitioned into dense, almost tropical forest.
He could hear the cries of wildlife, undoubtedly things to fight. Gotou sighed and shifted his weight slightly. "SIt down for a few, 'yoshi," he said. "Blue will respond when he responds."
Masayoshi had his halberd out - he was leaning on it, using it to support his weight. They'd had to beat a hasty retreat away from the research lab - even with the two of them, there were too many enemies, and the stealth stats on their chosen class was much lower than any of the other classes. "Maybe I should have gone with assassin," Gotou said speculatively. "Sneak would be really useful right now."
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, scandalized, half-turning to look back at him. Gotou sighed again, but it was with a smile on his face. "You have to uphold the ideals of justice, and an assassin goes against that!"
"It's a class, Masayoshi," Gotou reminded him. He was a little grateful for the familiar response, if nothing else - Masayoshi had been acting a little funny for most of the day. "They just equip different weapons and have different skills, you know that."
Masayoshi puffed out his cheeks, glanced back toward the expanse of forest as the general noise suddenly took a pitched turn of shrieks, pained and surprised before it faded back into the regular background hum. "What was that?"
"Player, probably." Gotou sat forward, leaned all the way forward, felt his back crack just a little. "Is it me or is the armor heavier today? I feel like I'm lugging around a full kit and I'm out of shape."
"I hadn't noticed," Masayoshi said idly, and Gotou remembered he wore lighter armor anyway, as a gladiator. "Probably isn't any heavier than my costume."
"Yeah, but you don't wear your costume all day every day," Gotou said.
"I would if I could!"
Gotou waved his hand in the air to dismiss the conversation. "Think Blue might have gone south? Or further west?"
"There isn't much further, according to the maps," Masayoshi said. "Just the forest, and the crab area." Masayoshi gestured, and this time an actual map appeared out of the air, in his hand. He blinked, a little startled by this, almost dropping his halberd. "Gotou-san!"
Gotou hauled himself to his feet. "What, what is it?"
Masayoshi thrust the map at him. "The MAP!"
Gotou stared at him blankly, then at the aged brown scroll in his hands - then back up to Masayoshi. "The map is ... a map, Masayoshi?" He wasn't entirely sure what the issue was with that, maps were maps.
Masayoshi stared at him, really stared. "Gotou-san, the map was a, a screen before! Like the chat function, remember?" He waved the map at Gotou. "And, and inventory!"
It was a strange feeling, the way the knowledge switched back on in his head. "Holy shit," Gotou said softly. "I'd completely forgotten." It wasn't even like it was something he'd managed to remember, it was like the information wasn't there, and then it was. "It felt like that was the way it was supposed to be," he said, staring at the map in Masayoshi's hand, and back up to him, brow furrowed in concern.
"Like we're becoming part of the game," Masayoshi said, almost reverently.
"Don't say that," Gotou snapped. "Midorikawa will figure something out." The panic beat under his lungs again, things that he'd all but forgotten. Why was it only when he thought of reality that he craved the cigarettes, that he remembered the cell phone that sat at his elbow, that everything fell across his shoulders like a lead weight...? Gotou looked away from Masayoshi, out over the stretch of trees, the forest that sprawled away and down, and at the uniform white rocks that jutted at angles from the dirt.
That distracted him away from the other thoughts, the horrible ones - and he stared at the rocks, then at the one that he'd stepped up on beside Masayoshi.
Masayoshi was ignoring him, studying the map he now held in his hands, a look on his face of intense concentration. "Yeah, to the west is this forest - says manduri, on it but there's a bit up here that was scribble out or smudged, I can't-" he squinted at it, drew the scroll up to his face. "Can't quite make it out, says go-something, nest - figure it's the birds, if it's a nest. Further out than that is the Klaws."
Gotou slid down off the surface - this in particular wasn't far removed from the ground, the ones further away showed more surface, showed the curve and shape of them. Gotou pinged the finger of his gauntlet of of it. "Masayoshi," he said, interrupting Masayoshi mid-stream. "I think this is a bone."
There was a moment of silence. Masayoshi lowered the map he held in both hands, halberd held in the crook of his elbow, resting against his shoulder. "...what?" he said.
"It's a rib. Look at it, look at the others. It's a ribcage, the entire scooped out section of the earth down there, I bet that's all part of its ribcage." Gotou pointed along the row of white columns, and now that he was looking for it, saw matching ribs jutting from the dirt, mostly covered, across on the other side of the depressed ground. "Holy shit, this thing was huge."
Masayoshi vacated his perch atop the newly-revealed bone and stood beside Gotou now, map in one hand. "What do you think it was?" Masayoshi said, eyes big.
"I don't know, but it would give Godzilla a run for his money, if a single rib is big enough for both of us to stand on." Gotou let out a low whistle, and edged to where the dirt and sod crumbled off before the drop to the hard-packed earth below. He crouched and looked - the trees overtook the bones, and leaned in toward each other, great large trees that were just oddly-colored enough to remind him that this wasn't earth. "I wanna see if there's a skull, somewhere around here," Gotou said.
"We should wait here," Masayoshi let the scroll snap back into its rolled form, and as he held it in his open palm it vanished, presumably back into his inventory. "We're a much lower level - while I think we'd manage it, why take the risk?" He was staring at Gotou, almost uncomfortably intense.
"Masayoshi," Gotou said. "Even if we get nuked, we'll respawn, remember? As much as I don't want to get the HP knocked out of me, it's not exactly a life-or-death situation here, you know?" He stood up and shrugged his shoulders, loosening them.
"What about what happened to Black?" Masayoshi asked him, and Gotou hesitated, glanced back over his shoulder. Masayoshi's intensity was dialed up again.
"We don't know what happened to Black. He's in Reshanta, remember? It's totally possible that he decided to check out an instance or something, and you can't chat out in those. Anyway, it's unlike you to be so reserved," Gotou said. "What happened to charging into the fray, huh? I kinda figured I'd be hanging on to your buttcape there to keep you from running headfirst into mobs above your skill level."
"It's not a buttcape," Masayoshi said indignantly, protective of his armor.
"It's a cape, and it covers your butt," Gotou said. "I'm going down there, you can wait up here if you want. Sitting here fretting isn't gonna help us find Blue or Black any faster."
He felt Masayoshi's eyes on him as he jumped down, off the cliff's edge.
The crafting guilds made their home in Sanctum, the core capital of the 'light side' of the world. Green stood outside the massive hall - players streamed in an out, dressed in a wide variety of gaudy outfits, from armor to swimwear to servant's uniforms. It was a cacophonous arena, and while for most players all they needed to do was keep running forward because they'd phase right through another player standing immobile in their way, it wasn't quite true for Green. After the fourth time of having another player run headlong into him and backpedal, stunned, he decided it was best to go the long way around, as it held the least impacts.
There were half a dozen studios laid out in the main hall of the crafting guilds - the steady clangor of a smithy pounding hot ore against an anvil as apprentices worked on armor almost deafened him when he stepped into the wrong studio.
He found the tailor not far from the smithy - the room looked different from when he checked out guilds in the game, debating if it was worth the time investment to craft his own consumable goods or if he would rely on the broker and quest rewards. He had opted for the former, mastering his craft at alchemy to creation potions and potent magical weapons - but the studios all looked the same, before. Crafting tables and vendors to purchase items needed.
Now, the tailoring studio looked entirely different. Large machines and presses, and long tables to set up at and work on handicrafting. There were only a few players around, and fortunately one of them was exactly who he was looking for. "Momoi-san," Green said formally, unable to miss her hot-pink ensemble.
Pink held up one finger delicately, and did not look up from her work, counting tiny stitches in soft fabric. Finally, after an interminable amount of time she stabbed the fabric, and looked up at Green, brown furrowed. "What?" she asked, clearly annoyed.
Green folded his arms into the sleeves of his robe. "Are you in the game, Momoi-san?" he asked, and she looked down at her handiwork, then up at Green as if he had grown a second head.
"Am I ... are you stupid?"
He blinked. That was not the response he predicted her to have, even if she had been exactly where he expected to find her. "I feel that response is uncalled for," he said, as Pink patted out the fabric in front of her.
Pink smoothed her hands over it. "What do you think?" she said. "I've been working on it all day. Once I've got it sewn up I can enchant it over armor, to give it the attributes of armor without any of the ugly, clunky bits." She grinned sharply, and as she smoothed it out further Green could see she was working on a kimono.
"It's ... nice," he said, slightly distracted. He'd never once bothered with how the armor looked, more concerned with its stats.
"I've been here most of the day," Pink said, plucking her needle out of the fabric. "There's some magic about this, because this isn't how you sew or craft a kimono, but it's coming right along so I'm not complaining."
"You are in the game," Green said.
"Yes, dumbfuck," she said casually. "Now go away, I'm working."
"I'm adding you to group chat," Green said, taking a large step backwards. "All of us who are here, then, including leader and his friend..."
Pink's head shot up. "Leader's boyfriend is here too? Oh, I bet he's pissed." She looked forlorn for a moment. "Imagine if we convinced dearest to join too, then that she-bitch wouldn't be here and I could have him all to myself."
Green sighed. "We all need to get together, at some point, figure this out," he said. "I've been researching-"
"Whatever, you're talking again, I don't care." Pink looked back down at her work, and Green turned toward the door. "The NPCs acting funny - you've noticed that too, right?"
"Yeah," Green said.
"Don't trust them," Pink said, and didn't lift her head again.
Masayoshi stood in the grass and watched Gotou glide away, white wings unfurled. The sky was overcast here still, the gloom of the mire seeping in to the tropical forest, and it seemed to almost threaten rain with the humidity in the air. He gripped his halberd tightly and made to follow.
Gotou hadn't remembered the map function until Masayoshi reminded him of it. He'd out-and-out forgotten it, like it had never existed for him. That thought scared him, more than anything - integrating into the game wasn't so bad, but what if that meant disappearing into their characters? What if it meant Gotou forgot about him, or he forgot about Gotou or the Flamengers or ... even worse, forgot about his life's calling, the pursuit of justice...?
Gliding here was different than when he did it sitting at a computer, and because he was entirely too lost in thought Masayoshi managed to slam halberd-first into a low-hanging tree branch. It caught and he hung suspended for a moment, wings flapping frantically, as he tried to backpedal and free himself.
"You're a moron," Gotou called from the relative safety of the ground, hands cupped around his mouth.
Masayoshi struggled himself free and coasted down, circling Gotou and aiming a kick at his head (that missed, because he was way off and not because Gotou had better reflexes) as he passed. "You could have helped," Masayoshi said, once his feet were on terra firma once again.
"Yeah," Gotou said, "except I can't take off from here. Can't fly, can only glide."
"That's just a game mechanic, I can-" Masayoshi tried to bring out his wings again and flap, but all he achieved was a meter off the ground. "-the hell?"
"Must not be enough aether in the air to sustain the flight ability," Gotou said, and patted Masayoshi's arm. "Just enough to coast."
"That is ridiculously unscientific, Green would have a field day with you."
Gotou shrugged. He pointed to the canopy though, now high above their heads. "It's a lot more open in here than I thought, looking down on it from out there."
Masayoshi nodded. He could hear the soft trilling cry of something, and didn't like that he couldn't see it. If the map function had gone ... what of their enemy alert? "Loads of room to move around and avoid enemies, too," Gotou continued, already walking forward, hand on the pommel of his sword. "Though the uneven ground makes things a bit interesting."
He paused, and glanced back at Masayoshi. "So, with the map being a real, physical thing now I guess it isn't possible to locate Blue on it."
Masayoshi shook his head, he had tried when he was standing on the rib earlier. "Last bit of info I saw put him somewhere between the Manduri Forest and the research labs," he said.
"That's a lot of ground to cover," Gotou said. "I have an idea." He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, as loud as he could. "Red Axe sucks!"
"HEY!" Masayoshi said, scandalized. "Master does not-"
There was a faint, enraged shout. "He's in shouting distance," Gotou said cheerfully. "That's better than what we knew before, right?"
"I don't like this plan," Masayoshi said.
"Didn't say you had to believe it," Gotou said, and slapped Masayoshi's arm. He frowned up at Masayoshi for a second, and then huffed out a sigh and pointed forward. "The hills frame us, so we gotta go forward anyway. You're an actor, and you're taller than I am, so your voice will carry better, you shout it."
Masayoshi gaped at him. "I will not-"
"Just pretend Blue's, dunno, brainwashed or something and you have to lure Blue into a trap by saying things that you know are untrue in order to save him." Gotou gestured grandly.
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said. "You're full of shit."
Gotou blinked at him, then grinned and smacked him again. "C'mon, we gotta find Blue, right? I still wanna see if there's a skull around here, I wanna know what this fucker looked like."
They found Blue - and the skull that Gotou had been looking for - in approximately the same location. The skull was enormous, on its side and half-buried in the ground, its jaw unhinged and open. "You could drive a car through this thing's eye socket," Gotou said, standing inside the skull and staring up through the empty socket. "You could drive a city bus through this thing."
Blue was actually sitting on one of teeth, feet dangling. "Leader," Blue said, disappointment in his voice. "Master does not suck."
"What the fuck even gets this big?" Gotou said, amazed. "Like, what's the value? This is bigger than a fucking dinosaur, I'm calling it. Godzilla is real and he comes from a fucking video game."
Masayoshi ignored Gotou, halberd planted in the dirt. "You've changed classes," he said to Blue, observing his lighter, leather armor.
"Yeah, I went with ranger this time." Blue said. He glowered at Masayoshi for a moment, then grinned. "You pulled off the gladiator thing better, anyway, I don't know why, I've been playing this game longer than you."
Masayoshi scratched his head sheepishly. "Listen, stupid question time, but-"
"Hey," Gotou said, coming up next to Blue and smacking him hard in the back with one hand. "You feel that?"
The force of the smack made Blue lunge forward, slide off the tooth and land on his feet. "What the hell?" he yelped, half turning and assuming a fighting stance, fists up.
"No need for a stupid question then," Gotou said, leaning his hip against the tooth and setting his hand down on it. "You're here too, right Aoshima?"
"You didn't have to whap me, I think I actually took damage from that!"
Gotou shrugged loosely, grinned at Masayoshi who was looking at him disapprovingly. "Hey, don't scowl at me," Gotou said. "He's fine, now you've got everyone all accounted for and we still don't know what the fucks' going on."
"Everyone?" Blue straightened, looked to Masayoshi. "The whole team's in here?"
Masayoshi nodded his head. "Green is in Sanctum, trying to figure out why we're trapped in this game - he said he saw Pink there. Black is ... well, he's in the game, he went to Reshanta and suddenly he's non-communicative."
Blue tapped his mouth with one finger. "The Abyss is a pvp zone, I wonder if he got ganked."
"Even if he did, he'd respawn," Gotou said. "That shouldn't knock him out of our group, or the group chat." He pushed up off the tooth, looked at the person-side row of teeth, all filed down to points as they arced up over their head, and down along the rest of the jaw until they vanished in the dirt. Then he glanced over to Masayoshi, who was deep in thought. "So," he said finally. "Any ideas?"
Masayoshi chewed on his lip, considering. "We can still get those essences, take them to Arbolu, see what he has to say," he said finally. "I want to go look for Black, but if we go, we should all go, because ..." he shrugged. "What if whatever happened to Black, happens again? We don't know what's happening here, really."
"Okay," Blue said. "I'll go along with whatever Leader says, I just wanna turn in my quests first, get the points for those. I'm close to leveling. We can fly back to Arbolu from the campsite, here in the forest."
Gotou sighed loudly, and Masayoshi laughed. "Lead the way," he said to Blue. "We've not been through here, before."
"The campsite's not hard to find, it's on the map." Blue made a gesture familiar to the both of them, and then his mouth opened in surprise when the aged brown scroll appeared in the air and feel into his palm. "What-"
"Yeah, we discovered that already," Gotou said, and patted Blue on the shoulder. "So, lead the way?"
Somewhere, in the depths of the Abyss, Black woke up.
He didn't respawn - he'd done that many times the first few hours here, figuring out what the heck had happened and where he was, testing the limits of the world; he was familiar with the blanked-out sensation, the ethereal feeling of coming together, existing again, awakening under the winged obelisk - this was different.
He sat up slowly, rubbed a hand over his face. Still his avatar, long dark hair swept into a single ponytail worn high on his head, female form - he reached for his weapons, but of course they were gone. He looked up along the wall, cracked stone, solid to the ceiling. Solid walls on three sides, unbroken except for a single slit high near the ceiling, far above Black's head. The fourth side was open, unmarred - and if the wall of the hall opposite his cell didn't flicker slightly, wavering, he would assume open and unguarded. He got carefully to his feet, reached out a hand and jerked it back sharply when he felt the solid shock of a most-invisible field.
Black took a step back and gestured, moving to open his support menu.
Nothing happened.
He blinked, and tried again - nothing. Brow furrowed, Black let his arm drop, and looked back around at the cell walls. He stepped to one blank, bare well, put his bare hand against the stone and felt it, cool to the touch. As he put his other palm to the wall, he saw movement and glanced toward the open side of the cell. Two Balaur - large, reptilian beasts wearing a mismatch of jagged armor - were walking idly past, on a patrol. Black stepped away from the wall, and his movement caused one to glance at him, but it was an idle glance, empty - it did not see Black.
It was the look of an NPC. Black walked to the energy-field that served as a barrier, as close as he dared to get, and they did not look at him again. He watched them walk the same slow, shuffling pace, along the curve of the brig's wall. None of this made any sense to him at all - he had been set upon by the enemy race, the Asmodae; those were actual players, not NPCs. There were three of them, he held his own but got overwhelmed - but he didn't die, and didn't respawn. His memories just ... stopped.
"Hey!" Black called impulsively, his voice echoing down the corridor. "Ugly!"
Neither Balaur acknowledged him, or turned to look at him. They continued at the same meandering pace out of sight. Black exhaled through his teeth. Definitely NPCs.
However, his experiment provided a different result than he was expecting. "Hey!" another voice called, not far away, but still out of his sight. "Hey, are you real? Are you a player?"
Black got as close to the energy field as he dared, turning his head, but he couldn't see much of anything. "I am. Are you?" he called back.
"Yeah! I just woke up in here, what the hell!" There was a moment of silence, and then the female voice called back to him. "Are you really, real though? Are you really here?"
Black's heart sank. There was no chance that this was Pink, so this was the first person that any of them had encountered within the game that wasn't affiliated with them being drawn into this. "I am," he said.
The silence following his response was lengthy, and for a moment he was afraid that something had happened to the other player. "I'm glad," he heard her voice, soft for a moment. "We're not alone."
"I've decided," Masayoshi said, sitting next to a root almost as big as he was. "I'm not entirely fond of monkeys."
Gotou was standing, a new sword in his hand, a weapon that the manduri had dropped as loot. "This is really nice," he said, a little awed. "Its stats are much better than my current sword, it's lighter, it has better balance -" Gotou shifted his stance and performed some kind of practice maneuver with the sword as Masayoshi watched, a little impressed at his dexterity. "We should kill more of them, see if we can get any other drops."
"They throw their own feces," Masayoshi said.
"You're just upset that you got hit," Gotou said. "At least it was just your pauldron, and it was easy enough to clean off. You could be Blue, he took it to the face."
Blue made a forlorn noise, standing in the waist-deep, still water collected into a small pond. He was scrubbing his face with both hands, bent down and ducking his head under the water, running his hands through his hair.
"Shouldn't you have gotten hit, shield-boy?" Blue called up wiping water from his face as he stepped up and out of the pond.
Gotou shrugged loosely. "Luck of the draw," he said, sheathing his new weapon. He glanced up through the dense canopy of tree limbs above them - while it was woven tightly together, every so often there'd be a break and he could see the sky beyond. "I think the sun is setting," he said. "I'm famished, we haven't eaten since breakfast, and the transporters stop working after dark."
"Really?" Blue gathered up his armor and starting pulling it back on. "I haven't noticed ... but I think I've spent most of my time over in Oriel running around before I came over here."
Places shut down in the evening, like in the real world, Green's voice surprised them all.
"Hey, Green!" Blue said cheerfully.
"Glad to see chat at least still works," Gotou said, folding his arms and glancing at Masayoshi.
So what's the plan? Green asked. I found Pink, I'm not going to be able to pry her out of the tailoring craft hall until she's done, but that's fine, we know where she is. After a long beat, in which Gotou watched Masayoshi squirm, Green asked again, a little more terse, or do we even HAVE a plan?
"Leader will come up with something!" Blue said, and glanced to Masayoshi expectantly.
Masayoshi leaned back and closed his eyes, clearly thinking hard. "We'll all meet up in Sanctum," he said. "Tomorrow. Once the teleporters get running. Then we're going to the Abyss to find Black. All of us," he added. "Once we've found Black safely, Green can get back to researching, and finding out if there is a way to get us home."
Gotou nodded his head, looked over to Blue, saw that he was nodding too. "Sounds about as solid as anything else," he said. "Whatever Arbolu was on about can wait until after we've located Black too."
"Yeah," Masayoshi said. He rubbed his hand over his jaw. "Any objections?" he asked into the chat.
There were none.
"Once you've turned in your quests, we're headed to Oriel," Masayoshi said once Blue was fully dressed. "You're welcome to come with us, I have a studio."
Blue shrugged his shoulders. "I've got my own studio," he said, glancing between them, "I don't need a place to stay. I don't really need you escorting me either, Leader - I've been running about this territory both before and after I got into the game, I know my way around here and what I can and can't handle on my own."
"You say that after getting us soundly lost," Gotou said, arms still folded.
"It's a little different when you're actually here versus running around from a third-point perspective," Blue defended himself. Gotou nodded his head, accepting that was a fair enough point and not pressing it. He walked over to the small pond.
"We'll cut out, then," Masayoshi said, then frowned. "Did it suddenly get very quiet?"
Both he and Blue raised their heads, looking at the canopy ceiling of the forest. The steady background chatter of creatures, both large and small, had tapered off dramatically. Gotou was ignoring them both, walking around the bond and tilting his head, seeing the glint of daylight off water further on, through a very large cleared space. He squinted at it and walked forward, as something in the distance seemed to shimmer. "Oh," Gotou said, remarkably calm.
"Hey, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, index finger held up. "It's something bad when everything stops making noise, right?"
Gotou's gaze had gone up, and up, and up - neck craned back. "Well," he said, as the enemy alert tone sounded. "At least that still works." He threw a glance across the clearing at Masayoshi. "Guys? Run." Without another word, Gotou turned, and sprinted away, faster than Masayoshi had seen him move.
Masayoshi was on his feet, halberd in hand, as it came crashing through the trees. The enormous frillneck was a baby in comparison to the skeleton they'd seen, but it was still large enough to crush them in a single step. Its jaw was open and frill was down, and it was clearly chasing Gotou. "Holy shit," Blue yelled. Masayoshi's mouth sagged open in shock.
Blue's yell actually drew its attention, and it turned its gigantic head toward them. Masayoshi didn't even check to see if Blue followed him, he leaped over the root, halberd in hand and head down, as he ran as fast as he could away.