The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — Chapter no 27

[ 27 ]

NDD

ECEMBER 22.

Time until Phase Two. 40 hours.

Carl: Whatever you do, don’t trust her. Ever. In fact, try not to talk to her at all except to give her orders during battle. She’s plotting against us. Also, don’t tell her that Larracos has been flooded. Don’t mention it to Samantha, either because she might say something.

Donut: THE SPIDER LADY IS A CARD NOW. I’M NOT GOING TO TALK TO HER ANYWAY. I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE LET YOU DO THAT.

Carl: She has a plan I don’t see. Our only advantage is that she doesn’t know we’re immune to most of her abilities.

I hope, I didn’t add.

Donut: SAMANTHA ALREADY KNOWS LARRACOS IS FLOODED.

Carl: Yes, she does. But we don’t need to remind her. She doesn’t realize that means the mage who might be able to transfer her to the

body is probably dead.

Donut: OH NO. THAT’S REALLY SAD.

Carl: I’m sure we can figure something else out for her. In the meantime, we want Shi Maria on our side long enough to get off this damn floor.

Donut: I DON’T LIKE SPIDERS, CARL. NOT WHEN THEY’RE BIGGER THAN I AM. THEY GIVE MONGO NIGHTMARES.

Out loud, I added, “We need to get back to that one saferoom near the Desperado Club. I want to do some practicing with our deck, and Katia and I

have a thing we need to do.”

“Ooo, that sounds exciting,” Samantha said. She rolled between me and Mongo as we trudged back north. “I want to do something exciting.”

“I got good news for you, then,” I said. “You’re gonna get to do something really fun. We gotta get you into the Desperado Club first, though.”

“Goodie,” she said. She growled and rolled off, chasing after a frog.

She’d floated for a while, but had grown tired and reverted back to rolling.

Donut, Mongo, and I were spending the time grinding on monsters. The crabs were gone, off to the coast, and we didn’t see any more bats, but there were bird mobs everywhere, and sometimes they’d just swoop in on us without warning. Thankfully, Donut could see them coming, and she usually managed to knock them out of the air before they got close.

We did manage to come across a strange entity that might’ve been good to flag, but Mongo killed her before we could even examine her properties.

Samantha said she smelled something off the path even though there were no marks on the map. This was just past the marshland, so I figured we would humor her. We followed her snuffling form until Mongo suddenly pounced on a pile of dead undergrowth at the base of a kapok tree.

The thing was a hairy woman with backward feet, and she’d been asleep under the pile of foliage. Her dot showed up red in that last moment before she died. Mongo chomped her to death before she fully woke up. Her name was La Ciguapa, and there was an entry about her in the Bahamas book. She had a special ability to lure opponents with charm, and she was hard to kill… except by familiars and pets.

Unfortunately, she was of Legendary rareness, and it was unlikely we’d run across another one. It was a wasted opportunity for the deck, but the good news was that she dropped two cards. An uncommon snare card and a mythic special effect card.

The snare card was called Damnation. It didn’t kill the monster, but it made it so an enemy’s totem card would be discarded once it timed out, whether it was dead or not. That was a good card to use against powerful monsters we might be otherwise unable to kill.

The special effect card was interesting. It was a consumable card called Glow-Up, and it wasn’t on the list of known card types. It could be cast on any active card or totem, yours or the enemy’s. It changed the card itself, altering it so it permanently reflected the item’s current state. So if we had a

totem with a summoning time of 120 seconds, and we buffed it with a time extend, and then we cast Glow-Up on it, the totem would permanently summon for 240 seconds in future battles. We could only use the Glow-Up card once, so this was something we’d have to think about. If we used it properly and were smart about how we stacked the buffs on it, we could turn an already-strong card into something practically immortal.

While we grinded our way back north, I managed to fill up and drain my Scavenger Daughter’s patch three more times. I learned a few things along the way.

The power of the Daughter’s Kiss special attack was much more potent if the captured souls in my back patch were all of the same species. If I killed nothing but Howling Gulls, and the soul essence bar was pure, when I unleashed my melee attack, it was almost twice as powerful than it would be otherwise. Plus, the residual effects of the attack were stronger. Howling Gulls used a scream attack, and when I dispersed the charge, it not only obliterated the monster, it unleashed a scream multiple times more powerful than what the Howling Gulls usually cast. I tried a charged attack on an iguana thing called a Yuanat, and the dog-sized mob turned into literal dust when I punched it, causing a crater ten feet wide.

Other than the monster Mongo killed, nothing was flag worthy. We now had a full deck, but I did want a few backups just in case some of our totems didn’t work out. I suspected our strongest card, Shi Maria, would do what we asked. For now, at least. But I just knew Asojano was going to be an ass, plus Uzi Jesus would probably also be too much to handle. And I had no idea what was going to happen if Geraldo the Monk Seal and Raul the Crab were summoned at the same time.

We could now use the deck in real combat, and Donut wanted to try it, but I told her to hold off until we got to a simulation room. Even though the environment could hurt us in the simulation room, Uzi Jesus couldn’t shoot us in the head. We needed to get some serious practice in before I’d be comfortable with Donut using the deck.

On top of all of that, Zev was indicating we’d be going on Odette’s show soon. We needed to be ready for that.

It took us almost three times as long to get north as it did for us to travel south, as we stayed on foot and stopped to kill everything we encountered.

We didn’t quite make it back it time, so we stopped at a roadside saferoom to listen to the daily update. This was a small, traditional style saferoom with a

bopca, who was a good-natured guy named Pahzi. Donut demanded a crab dish and a bowl of meat for Mongo, while I ordered a pork sandwich.

We settled into a small booth as the show started. We watched a group of crawlers in Tokyo as they ran from a woman wearing a surgical mask and carrying scissors. One crawler turned and hit her with a spell that caused vines to grow from the ground, and the woman ripped through the vines easily. She slashed the throat of the crawler.

I hadn’t heard from Katia in a few hours. We’d been going back and forth on our plan to deal with Astrid, but she’d stopped responding after saying she was going to do some reconnaissance inside the club. I was actually starting to get a little worried.

Carl: Hey, Katia. Are you back yet? We’re at a saferoom, and I wanted to send Samantha out into the guild. I’ll leave the tattoo kit on the counter for you. I hope you’re doing okay.

She didn’t answer. Next to me, Donut was grumbling while she cracked open the crab legs herself. The bopcas used to do it for her, but not anymore.

Mongo finished the meat in about two seconds and was now screeching for more. Samantha rolled off and was inspecting a jukebox in the corner of the room. She was smacking into the side of it, demanding it work.

The screen depicted Osvaldo in a sprawling city. He was doing some crazy parkour shit, bouncing off walls while chasing a monkey thing that was swinging back and forth on electrical lines.

He was wearing the memorial crystal around his neck.

The program then moved to Florin, who’d gotten his hands on a tank. It was small for a tank, and it looked like it was maybe built in the 1940’s, but it was still a goddamned tank. He managed to get it moving and drive it to the bank of some river. He was using the big gun to take out a serpent as wide as a school bus. I already knew he’d managed to snag this particular monster as a card, but I hadn’t realized he’d done it that way, nor had I realized how big the creature was.

I sent a note to Bautista, asking if he knew where Katia was.

Bautista: She’s okay. She’s asleep. She found some secret merchant in the Desperado Club, and she’s out of sorts. But she’ll be okay in a bit.

That… that didn’t seem right. A new wave of worry hit me.

Carl: Out of sorts? What does that mean? Does she need healing?

Bautista: No. She’ll be fine. But I think you’ll have to wait a day for your operation. She’s not going to be ready.

Carl: We can’t wait. We don’t know if we’ll have access to the Desperado Club in phase two. Are you sure she’s okay? She’s in your personal space? I’m going to come over.

Bautista: No. We’re still in the Desperado.

Carl: She’s asleep inside the Desperado Club? Do you need help?

We’re still an hour away from a club access, but I know Imani’s team finally found an entrance. I can send her in there.

Bautista: Just leave it, okay? She’ll be fine.

That was even more alarming. I moved to a new chat and sent a message to Imani. I was in the middle of sending another to Li Na when Cascadia’s daily update interrupted me.

The kua-tin admin was back to her regular, chipper self. Or at least, she was pretending. I did catch a hint of tension there, hidden there in the back of

her voice.

Hello, Crawlers!

We are just a day away from phase two. Most of you have filled your squad, and that’s great. Some of you have even started to battle each other, which is even more exciting!

We definitely encourage this behavior. Starting tonight, the prices in the mock battle arena are going up. However, if you beat the simulation at challenge level, new arena options will open up.

Here’s what to expect when phase two starts. thWhen the timer hits 12:01 AM on December 24, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing, you will be teleported to a room similar to the one you started in on this floor. Here, your squad leader will be given choices on where to go. You will have sixty seconds to make a choice.

Once a location is chosen, you will immediately transfer there.

Every totem in your possession that is not in your active deck will be lost. Other cards will not be lost, so feel free to keep and collect as many of those as you want. If you do not have a full squad, a random totem from your starting area will be chosen for you and automatically added to your deck.

This new area will be another memory simulation. In addition, it will be populated by intelligent mobs who carry decks. If you kill these mobs, you will be able to take their cards. You will be allowed to take any of their totems as well, but if you do so, you must choose an existing totem in your deck to lose. Once phase two starts, you may never have more or

less than six totem cards in your possession.

Your map will be marked with a key location that will be approximately ten to fifteen kilometers away. You will have 48 hours to get to that location and retrieve the key. This key can only be used to open the stairwell location that was adjacent to your original starting area. Once the door is opened, only squad members of the keyholder may pass.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered. I could already see where this was going. thAt midnight, just as the clock turns to December 26, phase three begins. All keyholders and their squad will teleport back to a random location within your original area. From there, you may proceed to your starting point and exit to the ninth floor.

If you do not manage to collect a key during phase two, all is not lost.

You will be able to transfer to a new location for phase three. Again, you will be given at least two choices.

You will transfer to the doorway of the stairwell location of someone who has collected a key. In other words, you’ll be blocking their path. If you can kill them before they exit, you can take the key to save yourself.

And yes, it is possible for multiple keyless squads to transfer to the same location. So the potential of crawler on crawler violence is quite high.

Doesn’t that sound just great?

Of course, you can avoid all this if every squad manages to get a key.

Good luck with that.

Now get out there and kill, kill, kill.

“Goddamnit,” I said. I took a deep breath.

“Carl, does that mean we’re going to have to fight people to get out?”

“Maybe,” I said. “If we get a key, there might be squads who didn’t get one blocking our path to the exit. They’re gonna be desperate, and we might have to fight them. They’re gonna use this to set up some pretty awful battles.”

“What if we can’t get the key?” Donut asked.

I put my hand on Donut, and I rubbed the side of her face. “Then we’ll do what we have to.”

She pressed into my hand. “I don’t want to fight other people.”

“I know,” I said. I thought of my back patch, and of the mysterious bone key benefit. “There might be a way to avoid it. I really don’t want to use it, but I will if I have to.”