Valkyrie's Lament

Final day (part III)

“So we're done?” Sam rudely stated. He was itching to pick a fight with Silver. It was as if he didn’t have enough of his blood lust quenched from that fight just a moment ago.

“Yes.” Silver bobbed her head slowly. “That was the last one.” The ice coated sword melted away, leaving behind metal. She walked over towards the dead carcass and examined their bodies.

The twins were giggling like little girls as they watched Silver with glee. One would’ve thought they were slightly touched in the head if not for Jasper who side kicked them in the butt. “You twits. What are you giggling for? Do you want to see a fight?”

“Wouldn’t you?” Rook snickered. “She’s freakin cool. I swear she could have her own superhero comic book series.”

“I agree with you there. Maybe even a movie too. We’ll be the producers.” They chortled in glee.

“Who would be the villain?” Briana joined in on their little talk that seemed to slowly blow out of proportion.

“Who else?” Rook wiggled his eyebrows and nudged his head towards Sam.

Briana became serious when she saw who they were nudging at. “Sam is not a bad person.”

“No, but a battle freak.”

“Yep, and a battle freak needs an enemy. With eyes burning with passion, he challenges the hero to numerous duels to prove that he is best.” Rook sang his words.

“Oh come on. It’s not like that.” Briana was getting annoyed at the twins' words.

“Who knows, maybe he will one day turn into one.”

“What a spectacular fight that would be.”

“Right? Right?”

“You have a brilliant mind, brother.”

“You as well, brother.”

The twins clasped their arms together and bumped their chest.

“Please, joking aside. There could possibly be more monsters nearby.” Jasper called out towards Silver, who was hunched over the dead Piscine, rooting out the small red crystals embedded in their core. When he saw she was not phased by what he said, he was a bit shocked that she was calm and collective.

“What is she doing?”

“I think she'd pick out the crystals.”

“Oh? Then we should go help.”

“You're smart, brother.”

The twins scuttled over towards the dead Piscine on the ground and watched Silver dismantle them one-by-one. Her hands were quick as she threw away the unnecessary part, but she especially collected the acidic goo into small vials. She knew that she was taking up time in harvesting the Piscine’s crystals, when a chase was ensuing, but she knew that to get stronger and faster to survive they all needed more crystals. This was not a waste of her time at all and she would do it again.

“Fight me.” Sam strongly voiced his opinion.

“Why, should I?” Silver stopped what she was doing and glanced up as if he was a nuisance

“Because you promised that you would.”

“You haven’t even defeated Jasper and not held up on your side.”

Sam threw a dirty look towards Jasper. Jasper shrugged it off as if it was nothing and squatted down to dig out the crystals that head killed personally.

“Scowling like that is going to get you nowhere. Come over here and help pick these crystals out.”

Sam grunted and didn’t move.

“You’ll get stronger if you eat more crystals or have you forgotten?”

The words stronger pushed Sam forward. He walked over towards a dead corpse and started to cut through the sticky flesh of the Piscine.

“All you help out as well. You get one crystal for every three that you dismantle. While the others who killed their own, get their own crystals.”

Briana, Rook, and Brook, who didn’t take part in the skirmish, squatted down to take part in dismantling the Piscine. They were hyped that getting a crystal without fighting was a pleasant surprise. The dismantling didn’t take long, because there were six of them working quickly to harvest the body.

Silver felt wiped the slime off her hands on the nearby broken debris. She couldn’t help but be slightly disgusted at the slimy texture of it rubbing against her hands. “Let’s go.”

“Do you have a fixed location?” Jasper asked as he pushed himself up onto his feet.

“Yes, we’ll be going north. It seems the rabbit had stopped moving.”

“Wait, how are you so sure?” Rook was confused where the confidence in Silver’s voice was coming from.

“She has a GPS signal on her target.” Jasper answered Rook's question. “It’s what all tagged players are allowed to use when their tag gets stolen.”

“That’s quite useful. I was wondering why she wasn’t in a hurry to chase after her assailant.”

“Lead the way.”

“Gladly.” Silver marched forward. They continued through the fallen debris of broken buildings. The quiet street was ghastly quiet, making them feel alone.

“So..Silver.” Rook spoke up. “Where did you learn your sword skill from?”

Silver thought it over, she had learned her skills from an old man during the time of the game. She couldn’t tell them that and instead fabricated her facts. “Learn it from an old martial art master for a few years.”

“Few years? You look like a complete master.”

It wasn’t that she wasn’t considered a master swordswoman, but the time using the sword was used everyday, making it almost impossible not to be a master. Her skills were considered top notch, but even still she had quite a few areas where she needed to perfect, though her body right now couldn’t keep up in what she wanted it to be done. Drawing the sword from her sheathe was something that she still needed more practice and speed. She was not as fast as the old man, but was considered decent enough to be able to pull out her best.

“Practice.” She simply said without revealing anything else.

“You must’ve had a lot of time to get that good, but my hypothesis is that you must be a genius.”

“No.” Silver shook her head. Her body could not hold up to the level of her past self, and instead she was a lot slower and weaker. This frustrated her immensely, but even still she continued to practice whenever she had the time. “I just worked hard for it.”

“There is that too.” Rook did not believe her words at all.

Silver couldn’t do anything about it and just silently trudged forward. She didn’t have to prove anything to him about anything. For the next hour they passed book shops and music stores, hamburger shops and cinemas, but nowhere did they find any clue of the whereabouts of the rabbit that was blinking on the map. They stopped in the middle of the street, a little away from the rubbled building in front of them.

Was there even the rabbit? She was literally stepping on top of the blinking red dot, initiating that she was where she needed to be.

“What’s wrong?” Jasper spoke, wondering why she stopped.

“He’s supposed to be here.”

“Where?” Looking around in alarm, he was tensed ready to fight.

Silver lightly tapped her foot in front of her, but peek over her shoulder lost. The others were staring at her feet as if she lost it and wondered where exactly she was talking about.

“Underground?”

“Ah.” Silver felt silent, embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that.

“Maybe he escaped through the manhole?” Jasper was walking around, trying to find a possible place for the rabbit to escape.

“I didn’t see one anywhere while we were walking.” Rook replied, shaking his head slowly, understanding what Jasper was looking for.

“Same.” Brook crossed his arms. “Though, I did see something out of the ordinary awhile back.”

Silver ears perked, when she heard Brook’s words. “Such as?”

“I thought I saw something glimmer in the alleyway a couple blocks back. I just thought it was just a metal sheet, but it still caught my eyes.”

“Go check it out.”

“Are you sure? I mean it could just be a metal sheet that caught the glimmer of the moonlight.”

“ Usually when you have a gut feeling that it's not normal it means something. Right now, we need to find our way underground. We’ll split up and search around. It’ll be best if we go by pairs. In the next thirty minutes if you don’t find anything just come back here.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. The group splitted up into pairs; the twins, Sam and Briana, and finally Jasper and Silver together. Silver went ahead, leaving the others to split ways.

“Where are we going?” Jasper asked curiously. He was half skipping and half power walking trying to keep up with her.

“I remember seeing something close by around here.”

“What would I be looking for?”

“I’m not so sure about myself.”

“That’s a bit….vague.”

“I know, but it’s the best I got.”

Jasper was confused at what she meant. Even Silver felt a bit stupid in stating such a vague answer.

They quickly walked towards the river that cut through half the city and around it. Eventually they came up under the bridge, where the water was muddy and brown. They were a slight sulfur smell mixed in with burning metal that she remembered. It was faint, but not strong.

What was it? She was not so sure, where in her memories this distinctive smell seemed to shake her mind, telling her that it was important. She hated how this partial amnesia was hindering what she needed to do.

“I’ll look down this way.” Jasper left her behind allowing Silver to go the opposite direction. “If I find something odd I’ll holler.”

“Okay.”

Carefully walking over, she looked for some kind of odd protrusion under the bridge. Her foot caught on metal, causing her to stop. She bent over and brushed against the ground, wiping away the dirt that covered the metal.

She found what she was looking for as she pulled up the handle that was on the ground. A grinding of metal and rock was heard as she moved the heavy lid. Strong smell of sulfur escaped out of the hole, temporarily knocking away at her senses. For a second, her eyes became blurry and her nose stuffy from the heavy smell.

“You found something?” Jasper came over and halted. He cringed at the heavy smell.

“Yea. I think we found what we are looking for.”

“I’ll go grab the rest of the team. Wait here.”

Jasper turned around, leaving Silver behind before she could say anything.

Instead of waiting, she peered down the dark hole. She summoned out the lamp in her watch and casted down into the hole. They were stairs that led her down into the darkness. With one foot after another, she began her descent.

Silver feet touched the bottom of the stairs, she brought up her lamp and examined around. It was an underground tunnel hidden away from prying eyes. She knew something special was down here, but she just didn’t remember what.

With slow steps, she advanced towards the direction of the red blinking light. Carefully listening to any peculiar sound that approached upon her. She continued forward through the long winding hallway, twisting and turning towards an unknown destination. So far nothing came out in the dark, though water seemed to drip down her lamp, causing it to spark out. Pitch black darkness was cast all around her, making her movement into a standstill.

Her hands reached out in front of her, touching the wall for support. This was one time, she wished that she had waited for Jasper. He could use his light ability to light this wretched darkness, but now she was all alone, walking aimlessly in the darkness. All she could see was the red dot that blinked in front of her, telling her that she was getting closer.

Silver’s eyes were finally adjusting in the darkness, allowing her to see a bit inside the dark hallway. What was more surprising was that the more she walked through the long hallway, she saw small glowing green mushrooms illuminating the darkness.

Only one thought crossed her mind, she was getting closer to the water source that fed the growing mushrooms that seemed to sprout, continuously all around her. The further she went through, the more bizarre the plants seemed to grow.

They were thin strings with beads, hanging from the wall to large floral plants that reminded her of flowers. Crystal rocks with dazzling formation of stalagmite and stalactite forming above and below her. If she didn’t know better, she thought she was in a whole different world because of the unique plants that she had never seen before.

Until finally, she came out into a wider area more exquisite and unique than she had ever seen before. Soft cascading waterfalls fell on both sides of her as a thunderous roar continued to roar through the ground out into an unknown area. Beautiful and exquisite plants dangled down walls and flourish near the waters, giving off a bioluminescent glow that lights up the dark room.

“I've been waiting for you.” A calm, but rough voice called out towards her.

Silver froze, her eyes darted towards the sound.

In the middle of the cave was the rabbit that she was hunting for, but what surprised her was that it was a rabbit that she was familiar with. The patched up face that reminded her of a Frankenstein monster, elegant but simple attire of a butler that completely contrasted his look, stood sitting in a lotus position in the middle of the small pond on top of a rock.

“Ronfonso?”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” Ronfonso opened his eyes and glanced at her.

“Did you join back into being a GM?”

“Well no actually, this is just another quest specifically for me.”

Silver frowned. “So you stole my patch.”

“Actually no, but I do have it here.”

Ronfonso right hand was raised up in front of him as her patch appeared in between his two fingers.

“Wait, you didn’t steal it? Then how are you going to explain that you actually have it?”

“Simple really, my game has just started you know and this time it has something to do with you.” He got up onto his legs, brushing away the dirt on his pants.

“What do you want, Ronfonso? What game are you trying to pull now?”

“Simple really. I just need to return this to you.” Ronfonso hopped off the rock and landed in front of her. His hands were behind his back, walking proudly forward, deciding what he should do next.

“There must be some kind of catch.”

“You’re absolutely correct.” Ronfonso bluntly replied.

“Then spit it out. I didn't go all day.”

“You’re quite an impatient one aren’t you.”

“You know me, I don’t have much time.”

“I know. I’ll make it simple for you to understand. My game started the moment I got your patch. I hand you your patch completing the first test, but your second is a bit more exciting. Six people you must tag in eight hours, gathering all eight patches. With this the last three hours would be the most exciting game you ever played.”

“Why must I tag eight people? Aren’t there other tagged ‘it’ players out there? Can’t they do the job?”

Ronfonso chuckled. “You can’t get out of this one my friend.”

“I don’t believe I stated I was your friend.”

“True, but you see the only tagged player today was you.”

“Me?!” Silver was completely startled by the words that she had stated. “What the heck aren’t there usually more?”

“Yes. Usually three or more.”

“Then why only one today?”

“That my silly little human is the best part of this whole game for today. It seems you have been honored to be the one who will become the instigator of many deaths to come.”

“What if I say no.”

“You wouldn’t be able to. You see, I told you there is a time limit. If you fail, you take their place and die. Maybe even become a monster yourself.”

“So you’re saying my life or there’s.”

“Exactly.” Ronfonso said with a smile. “This is just a game.”

“A game that I do not like.”

“I know. All humans say the same thing when it’s not in their favor. To weed out the weak and bring forth the strong.”

“But why did they choose me?”

“Why else? You are the strongest out of this group.”

“So they knew…” Silver mumbled.

“Did you think that the angel’s were not keeping tabs?”

“I assume that they were.”

“Then it shouldn’t be such a big surprise.”

The thought that she had tagged the people in exchange for her life left a bad taste in her mouth. She disliked doing something like this, but it did not stop her here. She had a mission to accomplish and she was not going to stop and die now.

“I am a player that will guide you to your third test when you complete your second. With it now you and I are intertwined in this game.” Ronfonso throws the patch towards her and she snatches it in the air.

Silver opened up her palm and she found the patch that she was looking for. Her sticky fingers placed the patch onto her shoulder. A sudden strong force of magical energy swirled around her. The black bunny ears and vest changed to pure white.

“I would like to make a proposal.”

“What would that be?”

“Join Valhalla and work for me when we come out of this alive.”

Ronfonso was stunned when he heard those words coming out of Silver’s mouth. Instead he burst out laughing as his ears flopped side-to-side in jitters. “I assume that you have made your decision.”

“I have and what of it?”

“Nothing. Nothing. This is why I like you humans. Such a firm resolution.” He replied with glee at Silver’s words.

“Look bunny don’t do something stupid.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Silver and Ronfonso heard the sound of footsteps coming towards them in a rush. Both Ronfonso and Silver were quickly on their feet ready to fight.

Ronfonso switched over to his human form and smiled. “So the hunt begins.”