Valkyrie's Lament

Final day (part VIII)

Silver gazed down from the roof with, she waited as she looked off at the distance, watching the group of five people walking towards them with weapons in hand. She could see that quite a few of them had weapons that one would normally find in the city, luckily none of them had guns. Unlike her who did have one, she was going to use it when necessary.

Everyone of them walked towards her as if they were ready to go into battle, the majority of them had a large sledge hammer like weapon over their shoulders. Four of them were males who looked like they were in their early twenties, a couple of them were quite buff looking.

The one who came up to the front was a lean man that looked like he was fit to be an olympic runner. He was wearing one of his pant legs on his right rolled up to his knees, while both of his sleeves on his arms were rolled up haphazardly as well. He strutted over towards them, pushing back his nicely made hair as he glanced up at Silver who was standing on the roof.

“Hey, girl with the silver hair!” The man shouted, pointing at her with his fingers. “I want to speak with the guild master of Valhalla or whatever crap she calls it!”

Silver glared down at him, not budging by his shout. “I’m her. Who are you and what do you want.” Her words cut through the tensed air like a knife filled with bloodlust. The man took an unconscious step backward, but stopped himself from going back any further.

“I’m Tenma. My demands are simple. Forfeit your life or join me.” Tenma tried his best to arrogantly speak out towards her without wavering, but Silver was putting out more and more of her blood lust to harm him for demanding something that she would never do.

“You got five minutes! Decide to become my girl or die by my hands!”

His girl? The words were like acid to her ears, making her cringe at the thought of even becoming one. She wasn’t going to be that type of girl, hanging on a man and mooching off him as if she was some kind of leech. Yes, she was like that in the past, but not anymore. She threw that weak self of herself and changed her whole outlook and persona.

For this stupid man to think that she will be happy at such a thought. Never. In all honesty, she believed that he would kill her for the crystal or maybe end up being raped. There was a high possibility that this was the case, especially because such cases were rampant in the game.

“No.” Her words were sharp, almost to the point where it made Tenma's eyes suddenly become wide.“Leave, before you regret what will happen to you.”

Tenma snorted at her threat, he brought up his bat-like weapon on his shoulders and rolled his eyes. He let out a gruff sigh, pulling back his hair backwards.

“Look girl. I’m doing a service to you by giving you my protection. This is a one time thing. You can’t beat this offer.”

“Do you not understand the word no?” Silver was getting annoyed at this man’s persistence.

“Whenever girls say no, it usually means yes.” Tenma said with a grin, showing off his straight teeth. “Any woman would love to be next to me.”

“I highly doubt that.” Silver wanted to punch this man and his pearly white teeth, it was starting to irk her seriously that he didn’t get the clue. Why were some men so difficult? Do they think that she’s weak and can’t take care of herself? She gritted her teeth, trying not to blow up in steam.

“Are you doubting the great me? You don’t know what you are missing, you know.”

“I don’t care.” Silver crossed her arms. Who does he think he is?

“Leave. Now.”

“You're a difficult lady aren’t you? I’m being very considerate. Not only that, we can win this game if we join together. Fighting against Kushiel’s games and winning!” He spoke with conviction, telling her that everything was going to be okay if she only joined.

Silver didn’t believe in a single word, she was no fool to fall into such a trap and get her whole guildmates killed. There were things that she understood of human mentality and the will to survive and preserve oneself was a high priority in oneself, especially in a game like this. Kushiel’s words were law and she knew that these foolish idiots only could live either with her or her whole guild was dead.

“Hah,” Tenma gave out an exaggerated sigh. “You’re a tough lady aren’t you?”

Silver crossed her arms not buying into his goading.

“What are you going to do?” Jasper whispered next to her, he was just as not pleased at him as Silver. “Are you going to let that kind of douchebag join?”

“No.” Silver whispered back that only a select few could hear. She wanted him gone. At first, she thought she would offer him to join, but after he spoke to her, she got the feeling it wasn’t going to work out the way she wanted.

“Good,” said Sam. “Let’s go and bathe our weapons with their blood.” He replied with a sinister chuckle.

“He’s right. There is always a time for peace, and right now it’s not going to be a peaceful resolution.” Jasper agreed with Sam wholeheartedly. Silver was quite taken aback by the blood lust that both of them were giving off, making her feel a bit weird. Especially from Jasper who had the appearance of a twelve year old kid now. The word of death coming out of his mouth was really surreal.

“Not yet.” Silver held up her arms to stop them from doing anything stupid.

“So, we’re playing the stupid waiting game now huh. So be it. If you're not going to bow down and ask to be saved then you leave me no choice.” Tenma said arrogantly. With a snap of his fingers, the shadows behind his groups started to move and form into the large silhouettes of humanoid beings.

Silver tensed knowing full well that this wasn’t a good sign, she checked her map and noticed three out of five people were it players, but instead they look quite normal as if they weren’t one in the first place and Tenma was one of them. She cursed in her mind for not checking her map sooner, she should’ve known better that Kushiel would play such a trick. What was worse, they had the ability to mind control the shadows like how they controlled the cat citizens of this city.

Each of the silhouettes were turning into a catlike appearance and eventually turning into a solid doll like being. Silver was completely shocked, how were they even allowed to have such powerful ability as an it player, while she barely had anything of that nature. It was as if Kushiel was favoring one group more than the other, just to see her people being killed off.

From how many she had counted, there were about twenty including them, making the fight more unfavorable. Still, Silver didn’t panic, she knew that they were going to be in an unfavorable fight in the beginning.

“Do you know what these are?” Tenma pointed over his shoulder. “These suckers are state of the art servants, and you won’t believe how useful they are.” His smile became an ugly grin that went from one corner of his mouth to the other.

Silver honestly didn’t know much about these servants but the facts that they are strong, powerful, and annoyingly persistent. If she could, she would not deal with them at all.

“Just because I’m a tagged player, I get this cool ability called mind control. Do you not see how powerful this ability is?” He chuckled with glee, puffing up his chest towards her to brag about his luck. “I am going to become the king of this game. Nobody can stop me, and all I need is a lovely lady to attend to my needs.”

Silver blanched. Really? Really?! Okay, that’s it. No way is she going to be anyone’s bed warmer.

“Kill them.”

With a snap of Tenma’s finger, the black cats charged forward. He backpedaled backwards towards his guildmates. Sword-like spears appeared out of their hands as they ran towards the building.

Silver hand brought out her gun from her accessory. She used the normal bullets to save the magical ones for possible later use. She steady her aim, breathing in deeply. She didn’t want to miss, no, she wouldn’t miss. Then she aimed at the streaming shadow cats that came towards her.

Silver braced forward, using both hands to steady herself. She could tell that they were about a half a football lengths away, giving her sufficient distance.With a solid breath out, she pulled back the trigger, her mind became focused as her sight picked out her targets. Her aim hit either their head or their chest, never straying from her target, the shadow cats fell onto the ground, dissipating back into the darkness itself.

She knew the kickback of the gun still annoyed the crap out of her, especially using the magic bullets from the regular. The regular had a bit more kickback to it, throwing off her shots a couple of times before she got used to the gun itself. Sliver didn’t stop, her aims were fluid, moving from one opponent to the next. All twenty dark shadows collapsed onto the ground dead.

Everyone was silent, completely shocked by what they just saw. They couldn’t believe what just happened. They look at the gone shadow cats and back at her, just wondering what just took place as a whole.

Tenma's eyes scrunched, trying to decipher what just happened. Usually people would’ve ran away from cover when he brought the shadows out into existence, and none would ever retaliate. Now there was someone who could do something about it without a hint of fear. He had never seen someone so fearlessly shot down his minions without much trouble.

“You think that can stop me!” Tenma yelled angrily, he stomped in frustration, while he was slowly moving backwards. “I can bring more!” His eyes turned suddenly black, making him look like some kind of demon himself. More shadows appeared out of the ground, taking shape all around him with just the same number of shadows on the ground.

Silver didn’t hesitate, her aim was true and abnormally fast. She single handedly pushed back the back shadows a second time, frustrating Tenma even more.

“What the hell are you all gawking at! Hurry up and bring out yours!” He commanded with a fury.

“B-b-but Tenma, she just killed them all by herself!” One of the girls with brunette hair cried out in fear as she watched how ruthlessly Silver was aiming her shot. Compareto Tenma, she looks like a shy girl who didn’t want to fight in the first place. Silver was sure that she wasn’t a tagged player, that she had personally stolen a tag, from her guess she probably had her tag stolen by someone else.

“She’s going to kill us!” The girl whimpered, she glanced up at Tenma, hoping that he understood what she meant.

“Shut the hell up, Ariel! We’ll be dead either way if we run away now if we don’t kill her and everyone else that associates with her.” Tenma turned around and smacked her across the face, jarring her out of her hysteria. She stumbled backwards as she held up her hands to her cheeks as tears started to stream down her face. “You listen to me, I am your boss and I said to call out your slaves!”

With a half hearted nod, she gave into Tenma’s demand. Her eyes became black just like Tenma’s and she too summoned up her shadows. It wasn’t as many as Tenma, honestly it was pathetically small.

The shadows were dog size bunnies that hop cutely towards Silver. For a split moment, Silver hesitated because of how cute it looked. Cute fluffy tail that was perfectly round, blue eyes compared to the red that Tenma shared were slightly sparkling with light, and the small hops that went up and down as it ran towards the building. It was so cute that her eyes momentarily sparkled.

Oh no. Silver thought, shaking her head harshly from side-to-side. Her cuteness detection meter was going off the chart, just like how she thought of Jasper. Cuteness is life! With a roar of her thoughts, she missed the bunny that seemed to lazily hop towards her.

“You missed?” said Jasper, his head tilted and turned slightly towards her a bit confused on why she missed such an easy target.

“Huh?” Silver squeaked. She was caught red handed and felt ashamed at her hiccup. Her pale cheeks turned slightly red, while she started to sweat.

“Why did you miss that shot?” Jasper leaned over on the rail lazily, staring into the field as if nothing bad was happening before them. He was way too relaxed, she also noticed that her other guildmates were less tensed out as well.

“I….uh….”

“Hmm?” Both of them made eye contact, trapping her eyes into his as he demanded for an answer right there and then. Silver’s shots cleared away Tenma’s shadows without a single problem, leaving the three large dog-shaped bunnies without harm.

Jasper gave her the most adorable look with a hint of what-the-hell-are-you-doing-Silver that shook her very core. It was like being scolded by cuteness itself, making her feel like she was doing something terribly wrong.

“Cute.” She breathlessly muttered under her breath.

“Que?” His voice went up and down in a questioning manner with one of his eyebrows slightly up. “What do you mean que? Don’t you see how serious this is?”

Silver straightened up with her heels clicking together. “On my que, we’ll….” She slightly stuttered. “A-a-a-attack.”

“Are you okay?” He pushed back from the rail, placing his hand on his hips.

That questioning face! The cuteness overload! Someone save her! For a moment there she swooned.

“Hey, Silver. Silver?!” Jasper snapped his finger continuously in front of her. “The enemies are coming! What are you doing?!”

“Ah.” The momentarily dazed was snapped by Jasper’s angry voice, bringing back to her cold self. Her hand raised up steadily, she breathed in to steady her shot as she exhaled, then she stood her ground, shooting at the three bunnies one after the other without a single bat of her eyes.

“Nooooooooooooooo!” Ariel shrieked, sobbing at her shadows. “My friends!” She dropped to her knees, crying on the floor.

“Shut up!” Tenma stormed over and punched her across the face.

Ariel head flung to the side as Tenma continued to wail his frustration on her. She doubled over into a fetal position as he continued to pummel down on her with no remorse. The other three guys didn’t come forward, and instead laughed at the predicament of Ariel.

“Why are you so pathetically weak!” Tenma fumed, the only reason why you are still alive is because of your shadow ability!” He was breathing hard, beating down on her until her face was bloodied.

When he was finished, Ariel was on the ground barely moving as she coughed up blood. Tenma got up with his fist bloodied, and let out a satisfied sigh. He flicked his bloodied hands and stood up straight.

Silver couldn’t hear what the shriek was about, but she saw what Tenma had done. The distance between her and Tenma was about a football field or more as they had stepped further back in the hopes of not getting shot in the head by Silver.

“That scum!” Jasper hissed furiously. “Why in the world is he beating her?! Is he a retard!” He threw up his hand in frustration.

Even Sam snorted with disdain towards Tenma’s action as he scowled towards him with disgust. He hacked and spit in front of him, while his cold expression became even darker.

Anger laced Silver’s heart and stomach, her wrath was silent but deadly. The air around her started to ice over as Jasper and Sam, who were next to her, stepped backwards out of surprise that they would get frozen by her emotions. Even her Silver hair started to lightly frost over, giving a slight twinkle to her hair.

Her appearance slightly changed from a calm beautiful lady to a deadly ice queen. The more Tenma beat Ariel up, the more pure malice filled her heart.

Scum. The words were laced with deadly poison as she focused her sight at Tenma. Her hand changed out the magazine to ice bullets. She was going to save it for later use, but she changed her mind.

Scum. Scum. Scum. Scum. Scum. The words were like a chant that continued to rise around her mind in a deadly breath. Tenma was a scum, and his existence was best ridded of this world.

A corner of Silver’s lips slightly turned upwards into a sinister grin and with a light lick of her lips, she felt for any air currents that would either go against her or for her. She felt the slight breeze, quickly adjusted, and looked straight through the sights. Breathing in gently, she then let out the air in her lungs as her trigger finger pulled back with deadly intent. With a click, the sound of her gun shot bangs out loud. Without completely letting the trigger go forward, she pulled back once more.

The first bullet flew true, when Tenma was about to turn back and face Silver’s group, the bullet landed on his right foot as ice erupted outwards freezing his whole leg into the ground. With a painful howl Tenma stumbled forward, buckling forward onto his knees. When his left hand came forward towards the ground, the second bullet pierced through as the blood iced over, pinning him once again into the ground.

When the other three stood there completely slack jawed at what just happened before them, completely unsure what just transpired. Seeing Tenma stuck to the ground unable to free himself from the ice, their hearts dropped to the floor in fear. The distance between where they stood and where Silver stood was considered pretty far, and for Silver to accurately hit Tenma made them realize that the distance between her was still not enough. It wasn’t until now did they realize how crazy good her sharp shooting was.

The three stumbled backwards and sprinted away from Tenma.

“Help me, you fools!” Tenma screamed out in pain. Roaring at the cowardly appearance of his teammates.

None of them listened as they scrambled away, leaving the howling Tenma behind.

“Fuckkkk!” Tenma yelled in pain, anger, and tears all washed up into one.

Silver lowered her gun in front of her as she watched the whole scene play out before her.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” Sam interrupted Silver’s moment. “If you can shoot accurately that far, you should’ve had a perfect head shot or a couple of chest shots. Gluing him to the ground is not going to solve anything. Are you a pacifist or something?”

“No,” Silver replied. She was still looking off into the distance.

“Then why? You have so many opportunities.”

Silver's head creepily turned slowly towards Sam, the sinister smile still plastered on Silver’s lovely face. “Simple really, our first boss monster is here.”

Just on que, hundreds of green ghastly eyes could be seen in the dark. Hungrily staring at the trapped prey before them.

“Shit.” Tyler cursed, “What the hell are those?” He gripped the rail tightly, while he leaned forward, hoping to get a better glimpse of the monster to come.

Suddenly, the three guys that ran away out of fear screamed in horror. Their ear curdling screams brought shivers and fear in almost all of her guildmates' hearts. They knew what was up ahead was coming towards them in full force.

“How many hours are left until the end of the game?” Jasper quickly asked. His voice was slightly strained, his body tensed at the hundreds of eyes that stared at them.

“One hour and fifteen minutes,” said Salphie as she grabbed her brother’s hand in fear. Her small body shuddered at what was to come.

“There’s more!” Rose gasped, bringing everyone’s attention towards her. “We’re fucken screwed!”

“Don’t say that!” Tyler hissed, but he too understood the very bad predicament that they were in.

Silver turned around and saw more monsters around them, they were corner on all sides. She knew that this was going to happen, her memories served her correctly, the first monster came in large exploding numbers. Her first time she lived, she ran away by herself, hiding until the end of the game. She was very lucky to survive the horrible attack that wiped out almost all one hundred of the people who started in the game. Only four people survived the attack and lived to continue forward in the game.

Running now was suicide, she knew these for a fact, because the monster that was to come had an uncanny ability to find their prey.

“Hold your ground!” Silver shouted. “Do not run away! There are expert trackers, meaning splitting up will get you killed. Watch each other’s backs! Work in pairs! It’s either fight now and live or die rolled over and I’m not going to die!” Silver roared, snapping everyone’s attention towards her. They could all feel the burning passion to survive through Silver’s words as they started to simmer down. Each one hardened their expressions, understanding full well that Silver wasn’t going to give up as they all braced themselves for the impact of the enemy forces.

Then they all heard the sickening sound of bone breaking, followed by a piercing scream from Tenma’s mouth.