35 Rush (1/2)

”d.a.m.n it!” I heard Jensen cuss loudly when I slowly came to.

I chuckled when he slammed a heavy wad of daro in Ryoko's hands. She was gloating shamelessly over her wins. Her long blond pony tail swished back and forth as she cradled her currency to her bosom.

”What was the bet?” I weakly asked Death when he helped me out of the booth.

Death smiled. ”Jensen underestimated you by thinking you'd be more than ten minutes. So, Ryoko took a punt for less than a minute.”

”You were 35 seconds.” Ryoko slapped my back with her winner's hand.

I groaned. My head felt like it had been whacked with a heavy hammer, and ears were ringing. I gingerly redressed and noticed Leinard wasn't in the room.

”He was recalled to an urgent matter.” Jensen soberly answered to my questioning stares of Leinard's whereabouts.

On cue, we heard a jarring boom and felt the room's tremor. Some dust from the ceiling's plaster showered on us. Our chatter fell to silence. My heart raced when the light bulbs of the ceiling lamp flickered and went out.

Ryoko said a light spell to bring us out of the darkness.

”Let's go.” She opened the door and led the way out.

The hallway was a mad activity of running knights who were geared up in their uniforms and weapons. They were rus.h.i.+ng for the exit with task focused expressions.

”Andy!” Ryoko called out to a burly knight who went past her.

He stopped to fill her in on what was going on. It seemed there was a ma.s.s attack happening in Eros Lane. Ryoko pulled out a silver-grey maplink coin from her pocket and slapped over her right eye. The coin softened so it covered her entire eye area as a veil.

She nodded her head to acknowledge what she was seeing and hearing from her maplink's connection. After a few head nods, she pried off the maplink turning it back to a hard coin again.