Valkyrie's Lament

Final Day

Silver spun around a second too late. What she saw happen in a blink of an eye surprised her and it wasn’t often that she got startled. A large six foot rabbit with a demonic looking war paint smeared on its face from right to left. It grinned evilly as he swiped the tag off her shoulder.

“Too bad human!” The rabbit sprung forward, leaving Silver behind in seconds. He jumped out and left her completely behind, leaving her temporarily dumbstruck.

At that moment, Silver felt a sudden shift of magical power that she hadn’t expected. She could feel that her magical power was expanding, giving her a better control of her magic. Not only that, her clothes and ears changed to black rabbit ears, a fluffy back tail that twitches by itself.

“Silver!” Jasper ran up towards her, but Silver summoned ice magic from her fingertips, stopping Jasper’s advance. He halted, completely struck in stupor by her action.

“You stupid! She’s been tagged!” Brook roared.

“Run!” Rook stumbled backwards, trying to get away.

“Calm down!” Briana called out towards the rest of the group, but one could tell that her voice cracked out of worry.

“Yes!” Sam roughly spoke out, but he was getting hyped at the thought of battling her. He rushed up towards her to clash with her head on.

“Damn it Sam! Stop!” Jasper ran in front of Sam, blocking his path. He stopped Sam’s punch with his own fist, pushing Sam backward.

“What the hell! Why are you blocking my path!” Sam growled, giving Jasper an evil eye.

“Don’t antagonize her!”

“Are you kidding me? This is a once in a lifetime chance!”

“This is not the time to waste her time!”

“Waste her time?” Sam was annoyed at Jasper’s words. “What the hell are you talking about? She’s been tagged and now she’s our enemy!”

“No, she’s not! Think before you cry out loud!”

They were both heated and ready to brawl right on the spot as they were eyeing each other intensely.

“Have you seriously gone senile? Look at her! This is a life and death situation! There is no pity party right now!”

“But Silver’s is our Guild Leader! She’s not going to kill us to survive by herself.” Jasper sternly replied, believing in his own words.

Silver didn’t move. Her eyes were focused somewhere else. Suddenly in her retina, she could see a sudden map of the city. A red dot was traveling away from her and she knew that this was the rabbit that stole her tag. Even on her map where blue dots that were her guild members' location all bundled up in one area. There were no other players near her except her guild members.

What surprised her as well was that they were also a small timer counting down. A ten hour countdown was ticking away, making Silver wonder what it was. Quickly deciding what to do, she pulled out her sword.

“Silver?!” Alarmed Jasper stared in shock.

“See, I told you!” Sam roughly pushed Jasper aside, causing him to stumble. Jasper turned around just in time and grabbed him by his shirt, almost ripping it off of Sam..

“Keh-”

“Jasper!” Sam roared in anger. He threw a kick towards Jasper’s small body.

Jasper gritted his teeth. He was already pulling a large amount of magical energy into his fist to counter Sam’s kick. With a teeth grinding spin kick, Sam’s attacks were blocked by the sheet of Silver’s sword. Even Jasper’s attack was directed away from her, causing Jasper to stumble forward, missing her entirely. With a splat, Jasper fell face forward onto the ground.

“So, you decided to fight?” Sam grinned at Silver. Even though he was shocked that she jumped in-between their attack, their attack didn’t even phase her at all.

“I’m only going to say this once.” Silver let out her breath that she held in and let out a frightening aura that made Sam back off.

“W-what?” Sam pulled back his kick.

“Stay out of trouble.” She spoke coldly.

“Tsk. That’s something you shouldn’t be saying.”

“I’m leaving.” Silver relied, shaking off the impact that the two have given. “Watch each other’s back and I’ll come find you guys later.”

“What? Wait, are you sure? We can help!” Jasper quickly got on his feet, and stopped in front of her. “I know this is unheard of but going against that rabbit is not simple. They are even more powerful than that giant rat monster that we fought yesterday.”

“You're kidding right?” Rook spoke out in disbelief.

“No. If I was, I wouldn't be saying it.”

“That sounds insane. I thought the giant rat monster was a beast in itself and Silver just cut off the monster’s head like it was nothing. Do you think you even have a fighting chance?” Rook looked over towards Silver, waiting for an answer.

“I’m not sure,” Silver said. She knew that the rabbit was considerably strong. They were game masters for a reason and right now they were working directly under Kushiel. She was not looking forward to facing head on collision with the rabbit, but she knew that she had too.

“Look, you need us. Fighting alone is just simple suicide. All you're going to do is get back your tag. Not go to full war to fight to kill.”

“He’s right, you know. Having a plan to fight against the rabbit to steal the tag is the best course of action. We are your friends, though this guy..” Briana locked her hands over Sam’s head. “Is a retard that is only out for blood lust. So please forgive him this once and I’ll make sure to put him in place.”

“What the hell Briana! Let me go! I want to fight against her!” Sam was trying to pry himself away from Briana, but she was not letting him budge a single bit.

“Shut up you hooligan!” With a sharp hit, she smacked him on the head.

“That hurts!”

“Good.” Briana gave out a satisfying reply. “Silver is not our enemy. She helps us quite a bit. Are you the type to go back to favors?”

Sam went silent as he grinded his teeth. He spat on the ground and broke from Briana’s hold. “Fine. Do what you want.”

Briana let out a grateful smile and turned towards Silver. “Well then, you don’t need to worry about him anymore.”

The twins came forward embarrassed. “We don’t know you like that, but from seeing your friends we’ll take a chance to believe in you.”

Silver felt a warm tingle in her heart. She never had companions that stuck to her even if she became an enemy. Honestly, she did have a dark thought to take one of her companions tags, but she quickly threw such thought away. Guilt filled her heart, when such thought crossed her mind.

“Thanks.” Silver quietly worded. This whole time her hands were sweaty from being tensed. She didn’t realize how nervous she was until now.

“Silver, where did he go? I know you have a map function.”

“Wait, there’s such a function?” Briana asked, surprised. The other was shocked to hear such words as well.

“Yes.” Silver started to walk towards the direction of the red dot that was going away quickly. Not even a second later, she saw the red dot stop at one of the buildings. She had a hunch that the rabbit had stopped moving because he was at the edge of the boundary.

“Where are you going?” Brook asked. Silver walked past him without stopping.

“I’m getting my patch back.”

“Are you serious?”

“If I wasn’t I would’ve taken yours.” Silver sharply replied.

Brook became silent as his hands unconsciously raised up to hide it from Silver. The others started to follow her, wondering where she was heading towards.

“Tch.” Sam spat in annoyance. He grumbled underneath his breath as he sulked. “This is stupid.”

“Quit your complaining.” Briana frowned as he crossed his arms. “We’re doing this for our guild leader.

“Whatever.” Sam walked ahead.

“Where the heck are you even going?”

“Away from here.”

“Hah? Are you an idiot? Why would you leave?”

“Because there is no point when I can’t fight.”

Briana sighed. “Didn’t you listen to Silver? We’re going after the rabbit. He’s a GM and they are hell’va strong.”

The word strong suddenly perked Sam’s ears. “Strong?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Then I’ll come along.” Sam replied without a second thought.

Brook and Rook’s jaw dropped when they suddenly heard Sam’s change of opinion on the whole matter. They couldn’t help but think that he was a muscle head for sure. Even Jasper understood what Briana was doing, She was goading him in to take part in the hunt that Silver was going to partake in.

“Really? You’re not going to run away?”

“Run away? Me?” Sam huffed and gave her a glare. The word run away made him want to ball up and throw a fist at the person who said it. “Hardly.”

“Good. Then let’s go.”

“I’ll go at my own pace.”

“Fine with me, but you’re going the wrong way.” With a smirk, Briana broke out into a large grin.

Sam froze when he heard her words and snorted. He sharply turned to the left, and followed behind them.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Brook whispered over towards Briana. “I mean he’s not going to stab Silver in the back right?”

“Stab Silver? ” Briana pushed back her hand and gave out a hearty laugh. “Hardly. He’s the type of person who will go after a strong opponent. If you dangle some kind of bait to this idiot, he’ll chase it.”

“I’m not so sure….he looks evil. The type that will for sure stab you in the back for su-” Rook coughed hard as Brook elbowed him hard in the stomach.

“Keep quiet you idiot. Do you want to get killed?” Brook hissed, grabbing his brother’s mouth to be quiet and dragged him away.

Silver sighed at her guild members. They were all a colorful group of people, but she knew that they were all rough on the edges and needed polishing. Sometimes during times like these, she couldn’t help but have a headache. Tuning out their chatter, she walked forward towards the direction of where she needed to go. Cutting through buildings, passing through tight alleyways until she took a right in between two large buildings.

“Jasper.” Silver softly called out towards only him to hear.

Jasper cocked his head, wondering what Silver had got to say. The soft night breeze pushed his hair back, showing his large eyes.

“Quick question, why is there a countdown timer?”

“Countdown timer?” Jasper was lost in what Silver had said, but then realized what she was talking about. “Oh, you mean that. I heard of two things. The first is that it’s the countdown for the time you have to get back your tag. The second is if you took a tag from a player, it’s a countdown to your change into a monster. I recommend that you watch that timer. A lot of people had wasted their time not watching what they were doing and lost their chances.”

“I assumed it was something like that.” Silver did not like how dire this was. She had never been tagged before and was lucky enough to survive this portion of the game by sheer luck in the past, but now she was tagged and needed to quickly solve this problem before the time goes out.

“Don’t worry too much. We’ll get it back.”

Silver was silent. “Why are you willing to go so far to help me?”

“Because we’re friends.”

“But friendship can be easily broken.”

“That’s only if you make it that way. The answer to friendship is simple. Always stay hundred percent with one another.” He gave off a beautiful smile towards her. She couldn’t help but think that his smile was adorable.

“Thanks.”

“You don’t have to thank me. You’re my friend. No, I take it back. You’re someone….” Jasper's voice became so soft that Silver barely caught his words. “Special..” He blushed red and casted his head down.

“Special huh…” His words were like a soft warm feeling in her heart. “Thanks.”

“I-” Jasper bashfully replied.

“Yea, being friends has a nice ring to it.” Silver ruffled his head and picked up the pace.

“She doesn’t get what you say, does she?” Briana came up next to Jasper. “You have it hard don’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You like her don’t you.”

“What?!” Jasper turned completely red from ear-to-ear. “What are you talking about?” He replied again with a little more force than before.

“Yep.” Briana smacked him on his back. “Though, I suggest you grow up at least to her level.”

“Hey, I’m working on it. I’m just a late bloomer! All my family members are tall and I’ll become like them.”

“Really? But you're almost 17. People usually stop growing, you know.”

“Well, my family is special. So you don’t have to worry about me.” Jasper was peeved at Briana’s words. Instead he went ahead, leaving her behind.

They continued forward through the quiet street. Street lights flickered on and off as half the city was out of power from the destruction. Large gaps in between the lighting created dark spots that made her eyes have difficulty adjusting. Soft buzzing sounds could be heard from the light post as they passed through.

Partial buildings destroyed from the rat monster's attack were apparent all around them. Cars were turned upside down, while half of them were flatten into pancakes. Debris was everywhere, making it an obstacle to jump over and maneuver. At times, Silver had to climb over large piles of debris that were scattered all around them. The whole area reminded her of an apocalyptic ghost town.

“Is it me or is it too quiet?” Brook whispered out loud to Rook.

“Yea, I thought I was the only one.” Rook nodded slowly looking side-to-side, looking for others but found no one.

“It’s creepy. Usually there would be a lot of cats out this late at night. Do you think something happened?” Briana asked.

“I know. Even though they are quite a few during the day, they are more nocturnal you know. But then again what happened yesterday did quite a number on the city.”

“True. True. The monster did devastated half the city. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all didn’t leave the town already.”

“Well it's better that no one is here as much any more. After all this game of tag is literally becoming a death to all the citizens here as well.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. Almost every day the monster’s have been cropping up and destroying the city. I have to wonder why they haven’t evacuated the city yet.”

“I’m not sure, but maybe it’s because this is a game” Rook pulled up his hands over his head.

“Disposable play pieces should be thrown away.” Sam worded without a second thought.

With a heavy smack, Briana came over and smacked Sam on the head. “Don’t say that. All lives are precious. This game is just wrong entirely.”

“That hurts, damn it.”

“Good. You should dispose of those bad thoughts. It's unbefitting of you. At the rate you’re going, you’re becoming a scum.”

“Look, it’s not your problem.”

Briana grabs his ears and pulls on it. “It’s my problem. Who else will have the galls to put you in place? Huh?!”

“Let go!”

“No!” Briana pulled even harder. “Your damn attitude needs to be fixed and one of these days I'll succeed!”

“You guys are like lovers. Are you guys going out?” Brook asked, curious about their relationship.

Briana blushed.

“No.” Sam flat out spoke.

“You’re not? I thought you were. Then can I have her?”

Sam gave him a glare. “She’s my sier.” He pulled Briana back away from Brook.

“You’re siblings? You don’t look anything alike”

“Half.” Sam retorted back.

“There's something here.” Silver stressed her words strong enough for them to suddenly stop and look over towards her.

Everyone froze and scanned around themselves, wondering what Silver was looking at. Silver could feel that they were something in the rubbles above them inside the broken building. On her map, they were three green dots inside the building not moving.

“Jasper,” Silver called out to him. “What is the green dot?”

“Green dot?” Jasper was gazing outwards towards the darkness. “Wait, did you say green dot?”

“Yea. Is there something wrong?” Silver tensed as her hands rested on her blade. She was ready to use.

“We need to get out of here. Where are they?”

“At the building to your right.”

Jasper looked towards where Silver had pointed out and found no one present. “I don’t see anyone. Are they inside?”

“Yea. Who are they?”

“Enemies that you don’t want to mess with.”

“Details.”

“If we get spotted by them we’re going to die. No time to explain.” Jasper was slowly stepping backwards away from the building with worry.

“Are they strong?” Sam asked with his ears perked up and excited at the thought of strong enemies.

“Yea.”

Swoofph!

Something blew past Jasper’s head and hit the ground. Everyone turned to look at what it was and they saw black goo on the ground. Silver wondered what the goo was for, but it didn’t take long for her to figure out that it was dangerous. A hot sizzle could be seen eating away at the ground, leaving behind a large hole the size of a baseball.

“Quickly head into covers!” Jasper yelled as they all bolted towards the nearest building.