Valkyrie's Lament

Gate #6 - Day 2 (Part VI)

“Okay, before we run around the whole city looking for him, where should we even start?” Brianna asked. She was not too hyped about searching every crevice of the whole city just for one person. To her it was like looking for a needle in a haystack and the haystack was the city!

“That….” Silver thought it over. Finding him is one thing, but to look for him throughout the whole city was another. Even still, she needed to ask him questions, so she didn’t abandon the thought of not finding him.

“We are literally trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

“You got a point.”

“Just start somewhere.” Sam replied not caring where.

“Do you know what he likes or something?” Brianna asked.

“That’s a good question…” Silver did not know anything about Ronfonso. All she knew was that he was a Game Master that changed himself into a human. He was a rabbit in the first place so all she could think about was the stereotypical carrots and bunnies. “He might like bunnies.” Silver threw out that answer knowing full well it was just up in the air.

“He ‘might like’ and ‘likes’ are two different things.” Sam replied. “We can’t just go off on a maybe.”

“Yes, we can.” Brianna replied. “It’s something that’s better than nothing.”

“I don’t like going off of ifs and maybes. It could be a waste of time.”

“Oh my god. You're so difficult.” Brianna fumed. She was looking at Sam as if he was the biggest annoyance in the world.

“Let’s just start with a pet store.” Silver sighed. Getting a yes with these two was simultaneously harder than finding Ronfonso. Every single moment they were contradicting each other like an old couple.

“Whatever.” Sam was not pleased with the answer.

The three of them were walking side-by-side, looking for a pet store. Sometimes they would go into a store that has pets for sale. Other times they would peek through the window, trying to see if he was inside. Every single time they would find no one that was present except the locals.

It finally became night and they still haven’t found Ronfonso.. Even finding another player walking around in the streets was difficult in itself. The street lights flickered on, turning on the busy nightlife of the cat city. Majority of the cats were out and about more than during the day light.

From what Silver could see, the disasters that had happened for the past two days had so far not seemed to bother the city people at all. It was almost as if nothing happened and they continued on with their lives.

“This city is too weird.” Brianna spoke with a bit of unease. She glanced around at the Cat people who were walking around with glee. “I mean look at them, how are they so whimsical after what has happened these past few days?”

“Because they are cats.” Sam replied. “They’re not human so why put them in the same category?”

“Still? Shouldn’t they be upset about their friends dying, their homes destroyed, and possibly have more of those monsters springing up in the next few days.”

“Cats are whimsical. It’s in their nature not to dally too long in the past.”

Brianna was not completely in agreement with Sam. Silver on the other hand did kind of think the same way as Sam. They just did not seem to be sad about the whole thing, making it to them strange, but to the cats this was just a normal attitude.

“It’s getting late. We need to rest or we’re going to be too tired for tomorrow.” Silver interjected.

“You’re right.” Brianna nodded her head. “Why don’t we go into that hotel to sleep tonight.” She pointed up towards them and ran down to a hotel that was not too far away from them.

Silver shook her head. “No, I know a place that we should go. I told Ronald that I would meet him there after we split up from the chase.”

“Wait, you met Ronald?” Brianna asked. “Is he even trustworthy?”

“Another fodder to the fire.” Sam rolled his eyes.

“He’s not that bad.” Silver replied.

“Well you do have quite a bunch of people who seem to be good at what they do, especially that brat. I wonder if he wants to slug it out.”

“You muscle head.” Brianna slapped him on the head. “Is all you think about is fighting?”

“No. I also think about how to kill you for hitting me on the head.” Sam growled. He rubbed his head in annoyance at her sudden strike.

“Oh please. That’s what you always say.”

“Exactly and that’s what I will do when the time is right!” He retorted angrily.

“When is the right time huh? Now? Come on brat! Kill me now!” Brianna egged him.

Sam swung his fist in anger towards Brianna. Brianna just dodged it like it was air. He continued to strike at her in the hopes of getting a hit in, while Brianna completely moved out of harm’s way as if it was nothing. Brianna had footwork that easily passed Sam as if it was nothing, but Silver could tell that Sam had power behind those punches even though he was not considered a martial artist. To her his action reminded her of a street brawler that had picked up some moves out on the street.

“I have watched you fight since you were a kid.” Brianna spoke with a snicker in her voice. “I know your typical patterns. Do you think you can get one up on me?”

“Yes.” Sam growled. He did a spin kick connecting with a jab and another powerful punch.

With a woosh, his first cut through the air, creating a small push of wind to brush past her face. Sam was getting annoyed, very quickly, that he could not land a perfect hit, but at the same time Silver could tell that he was not focusing much on harming Brianna. The amount of pressure and skill that he was showing was not even 40%.

“Okay enough.” Silver stepped in and grabbed his fist, stopping him from pushing any further.

Sam was surprised that Silver stepped in harm’s way, and easily stopped his fist from connecting into her face. Instead he felt her squeeze her hands, causing him to feel pain from her grip. His face did not show much pain, but he pulled back from Silver. With a gentle rub, he brushes his injured hand.

“Look, I understand your married life is not going too well, but must you always bicker?” Silver was getting a headache from those two. They reminded her of Tyler and Rose, but then again they were completely different. The intimacy of their bickering was on a whole different level, making it that much more annoying.

“I’m not sure about you, but you’re attracting way too much attention. Do you want an ‘it’ player to find us?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Once again their contradiction set in. Both Sam and Brianna glared at one another, but they did not bring up their fist to fight it out. Instead Silver felt as if static electricity was zipping through each other’s eyes, clearly telling one another they are ready to fight.

“I wouldn’t mind another challenge.” Sam spat out those words with an arrogant voice.

“You’re crazy.”

“I know how to have fun.”

“There's a difference between having fun and trying to kill yourself. This game is not fun but a death trap!” Brianna threw up her hands.

“Sweetheart, you’re just missing out on life.”

“Don’t sweetheart me.” Brianna stormed. “Do you know how disgusting that sounds coming from your mouth?”

“No.” Sam turned around and shrugged.

“I give up.” Brianna sighed. “The fool wants to kill himself. I’ll just let him.”

“Good.”

“Argh!” Brianna shouted in annoyance. Her hands were clenched and stomped on the ground.

“You guys.” Silver voiced her concern.

Cat people were staring in their direction as more and more came into view. Silver noticed that the group of cats were surrounding them into a circle. She couldn’t help but feel like something was strange with these cats. They had a blank expression on their face, making Silver feel unease.

“You're so difficult!”

“Oh please. You’re the difficult one. I’m very simple, you know.”

“Guys!” Silver exclaimed to get their attention. Both of them stopped and turned towards Silver wondering what was up. “We got company!”

Sam and Brianna saw what she meant. They were all around them getting ready to pounce.

“What the heck is wrong with them?”

“Don’t ask. Just kill them.”

“Are you out of your mind?! Do you want to go to jail?”

“They’re not human; what does it matter?”

“It does matter. We have about three days. Being stuck in jail for three days is a very bad idea, especially in this game!”

“Oh, please. Just don’t get caught!” Sam dashed forward. His hand swung with power as a gust of wind coated his fist.

Bang!

The power from the fist connecting to the cat’s face caused the cat to go flying into other cat’s. A large gust of wind pushed outwards from Sam’s hand and pushed back any other cats that were nearby.

“Seriously?!” Brianna stated in alarm.

The sudden attack from Sam, caused all the other cats to run towards all three of them.

“Damn it!” Brian pulled out her weapon. She swung her tonto around her, keeping the cat away.

Silver danced out of danger from an oncoming male cat that tried to grab her from behind. She got a feeling that these cats were not trying to harm her but catch her. Their hands outstretched towards her arm and legs, she swatted them away with a punch or kick.

The swarm of cats continually barraged them from all sides, Silver dodged and even pranced around trying not to get swallowed up by the zombie-like swarm. At the rate they were going, she knew that they were all going to go down, possibly even killed if they weren’t careful.

“Move back!” She raised up her hand, willing a large amount of ice energy into her hand, she threw it downwards. A flash of blue spike outwards, causing every cat in the vicinity around her to freeze up. The most difficult part was keeping the ice energy under control without icing her companion as well.

Brianna stared dumbstruck at the scene before them, she didn’t know what to say, instead opening and closing her mouth like a fish.

“Move!” Sam yanked her by her arm, pulling her towards the direction that Silver was running.

Silver didn’t know how long the ice magic would stay frozen, and staying here any longer just to see how long it would last wasn’t something that she wanted to find out. Instead, she bolted, zigzagging through the buildings until finally, all of them went inside.

“That wasn’t what I expected.” Brianna huffed, leaning over trying to catch her breath. “Silver you're a beast, how the heck did you do that?”

“Practice.” She quickly replied. Her head perked up, searching for any possible enemies. The reason why she chose this building to run into was because she had the feeling that the enemy was here, and she wanted to make sure that she took out the enemy that meant to harm her. “We need to move.”

They nodded and followed closely behind, climbing up a couple flights of stairs until they made it to the third floor. Suddenly, Silver felt the ground tremble, she searched around until finally she saw what was rushing towards them. It was a large sumo-looking cat, and it wasn’t stopping.