Double-Blind: A Modern LITRPG

The tide was already turning.

I caught glances of it in the vertical windows that lined the building’s stairway. Groups of armored and armed Users, strategically picking apart Chimeras.

Whoever the necromancer was, they didn’t have much of a plan B. They’d doubled down on plan A, hiding a few dozen powerful—and undoubtedly expensive to produce—chimeras in our region to sow chaos and cover the assassination attempt. The remaining chimeras had more or less accomplished that initial objective. Problem was, even on an ordinary day, Region 14 belonged to the cross-categorization of well-defended and not to be fucked with. And assuming that the members of the Order fighting alongside Adventurer’s Guild mainstays meant the deal had gone through, that listing had just been bolded and under-lined.

I took time to re-summon Talia before Astrid and Astria met us at the base of the stairs.

As they shared the same half-shaved light hair and ensemble down to the golden-wood wands and dark mages’ robes, it was almost impossible to tell them apart at a glance. Astrid stood with her back-straight and was acerbic, the clear leader, while Astria lurked in the background, meek and lilting. But they both looked and acted more alike than they once had—Astrid losing some of her innate confidence, and Astria finding some to speak of.

“Sorry. Lot of stuff to wade through out there.” Astria said, her voice low and shy.

“Don’t apologize to them! We’re the ones out here risking our butts for some spoiled asshole.” Astrid’s eyes locked on mine as she barred the door.

Sae snorted and elbowed me. “Second part anyone would agree with, but spoiled? Girl’s gotta recalibrate her people senses.”

It was amusing, seeing this side of them.

You’d never know it, witnessing the headless-chicken-hustle to secure the perimeter, but the girls were stone-cold hitters. Some of the best I’d worked with.

I’d found them for the second time in the sewers. Nick and I were chasing down a lead—our resident deity directed us there hoping to lock down The Queen, one of the five remaining members of the Order’s Court, a key piece in Hastur’s win condition. Why we’d find royalty mixed in with sewage and shit he never answered. Never found her, either.

What we had found, huddled together inside a makeshift lean-to cobbled together in one of the many maintenance runoffs, were the twins.

The two of them had been lying low ever since the events of the transposition, unsure of whom to trust—understandable, given the confusing detonation at the end—and had been operating mostly on their own, exploring the sprawling subterranean sections of the city and delving into dungeons that appeared there. Which apparently, were not infrequent.

Nick encountered them first, and they’d almost immediately run him off, sporting a battered ego.

When I followed up as Myrddin later, I’d received a much warmer greeting. Astrid had apparently connected with me over the events of the transposition. From her account, what had happened to me was apparently an influence in their ongoing refusal to sign with any large guild. I got the feeling they wouldn’t have, anyway. Aligning with any large group went against a core tenant of the transient code.

Trust individuals. Never institutions.

I owed them both. And even if I hadn’t, they were too powerful to leave on their own. My solution to Astrid’s problem was the Strike-team. It was, functionally, a small group of Users with varying alliances and backgrounds that took on contract work I was mostly self-funding. Myrddin provided access to the Merchant’s Guild site at the Allied Guild discount, sniffed out jobs, and the strike team carried them out.

Astria glanced at Sae. “Do you want to say the thing, or—”

“Right.” Sae cleared her throat. “Report.”

“Not fucking good.” Astrid said. She grunted as she finished the barricading, stumbling back as something slammed against the door hard enough to leave an imprint.

“Bunch of lizard people chased us here. We thought about diverting to lead them away—”

“—and that we’d go at least another decade without muttering about lizard people, but with the way you were hollering, Exo, figured we should just push through.” Astrid finished.

Sae bristled at the tag, doing her best to ignore it and nodding. It was an unfortunate nickname, mercifully limited to the strike team, more unfortunate that it was accurate enough to stick. Whatever she said went when Myrddin wasn’t present, and well…

She had an exoskeleton.

“Thought it was clearing up out there.” Sae said, perturbed.

“It… was.” Astria said. She hesitated. “The ones clawing at the door were being pushed back by a larger group, then they spotted us and peeled off. Just dropped what they were doing.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Sae’s brow furrowed. “Were you the only mages in the area?”

“Not even close.” Astrid groused. “There was several levitating in the group they abandoned.”

Icy fingers tightened around my spine as I realized why the twins had been targeted. They were both female, and despite their power, diminutive. Closer in size to a child than an adult. Just around Iris’s height.

The necromancer hadn’t bothered with a detailed description for his rank-and-file. Judging from Sae’s grimace, she’d reached the same conclusion.

Whoever you are? Congratulations. You’ve cemented yourself at the top of my to-do list.

Sae glanced at my back, where my sister was still silent and restless, then back to the twin mages. “For now, just assume that these things are going to act like idiot magnets and plan accordingly.”

Astria angled her head toward Astrid. “Is she just calling names as usual or giving genuine advice?”

“Yes,” Astrid said.

“So, what now?” Sae elbowed me. “Back up to the second-floor so we can recon and kick out a window?”

Maybe I’d recognized the civilians most likely to be targeted if we bypassed these things. Maybe I was just pissed. Either way, I didn’t feel like taking a detour.

“Mages pack a punch?”

Sae chewed her lip, probably annoyed at me for asking questions I already knew the answer to. “When they need to, yes.”

“Why bother finding a way around, when they’re all grouped up and vulnerable?” I said. All heads slowly turned to look at me.

“Claiming this region must have fucked up your—ow.” Astrid cut-off mid-sentence as Astria smacked her upside the head.

Instead of squabbling with her sister, Astria waited, watching Sae attentively. “Orders?”

Sae thought about it. “Depends. Got anything heavy and directable that’ll blast through but won’t bring the building down around us?”

“Boreas’ embrace?” Astria looked over to Astrid.

Astrid raised an eyebrow. “High profile… but it’ll work. Mana’s about equal between us. Prep or incantation?”

“Prep. You’re the better shot.”

“Yeah. That’s why. Nothing to do with being nervous you’ll miss.”

“Hush.”

Though I’d seen it before, and was too distracted to properly appreciate the moment, it was great to see how far they’d come as a duo. When I’d met them, between Astrid’s hovering and her own social anxiety, Astria had barely strung together sentences. She’d hidden in her sister’s shadow to the point she almost faded into the background entirely. Some of that still lingered, but for the most part, she was far better at taking initiative.

We moved towards the rear of the stairwell, as far back as we could go without pressing our backs against it. Sae took the stairs two at a time, checking windows on the second floor and confirmed it was clear of anything beyond monsters.

Astria knelt, reaching down with glowing hands and pressing against the concrete. Two curving lines extended from beneath her gloves, forming a perfect circle so bright it was difficult to look at. The longer she maintained it, the more complicated it became, a mess of undecipherable runes scrawled within smaller circles. Two imprints formed in the center, one slightly in front of the other, oblong and asymmetrical compared to the rest of the circle until Astrid stepped directly onto them, obscuring them from view.

I shifted Iris to my front.

Astrid raised her wand, pointing it at the door. It had dented inward enough that we could hear the scrabbling of the chimeras on the other side who were picking up the pace now that they were making progress, scaled fingers and flicking tongues pushing inward, trying to widen the gap.

Shatter

Astrid mouthed the word, and all the considerable mana from the circle drained into her, leaving only dull etchings and the imprint of a circle on the ground. She floated upwards around a foot, braced her wand with both hands, and loosed.