156 The Ocean City Of Atlantis VII : Acheron (1/2)

I had watched Raven Song's performance, and quite frankly the guy had battle instincts that could rival my own, not to mention he's been playing the game for a lot longer than I have, which meant he was more familiar with his skills and the effects they had, and also how to control a fight to go his way, playing to his strengths as opposed to me going wherever the wind blows me. I pulled the strings on Sky's how form, and released an arrow towards a guy with a shield in his hands, he raised his shield to block the arrow, but the impact from the arrow pushed him off his feet, sending him rolling down the slowly crumbling hill.

The next arrow went through the neck of a caster, followed quickly by another that hit said caster on the forehead, flipping his body upside down, as another arrow went right under his still airborne body to hit a bully orc like dude with an axe. There were two more players heading for the edge, but when I placed my hand into the quiver to pull back an arrow, it came up empty. I was so shocked by that, it gave them enough time to jump and zero in on my location, a spear and a great sword heading for my chest. I threw Sky into the air and placed my hands on the Kusanagi, with one foot placed behind the other and my body lowered.

(DIVINE WIND DRAW!)

*FWOOOOOSH* *CLICK*

In one smooth motion I had unsheathed and sheathed the sword, moving so fast that even to my eyes all I could see was a flash of steel and light coming off my blade. Two decapitated bodies fell besides me, their heads nowhere to be found. This skill was shocking, the cut around their neck was so smooth and the speed used was so much that I could feel abrasions on my palm. My current body was not yet strong or fast enough to properly handle and bring the full effect of that skill out, or rather it was going to take a little time for me to become familiar with the sword and it's skills.

I turned around and ran up the hill towards Raven Song and Persephone, they were trying to pull the cart holding the metal boxes up the hill, but that was just a waist of time. I swung the Katana at the larger box, destroying the lock on it just as Sky came down from her short flight, situating herself on my head in her helmet form. I pulled open the door to the box, and came face to face with the massive head of a wind dragon, however this dragon wasn't as big as it should be, leading me to believe that it was just and adolescent.

There were a couple of chains binding the dragon down, a swing of the Katana destroyed them, leaving the dragon free to hastily crawl out of the box, however it crashed on the ground immediately after. It must have been stuck in that position for a very long time, and with how cramped hat box was, with no room for movement, it was possible the dragon's muscles were in a state of atrophy, or at last extreme weakness for not using it in a long time.

Raven Song took a play out of my book and smashed open the smaller box, he picked up the moon elf from within and made a rush for the top of the hill. I looked at the dragon who was still incapable of moving and gave a glance at Persephone who quickly shifted into her massive blue and white dragon form, and then she carried the much smaller dragon by wrapping her limbs around it. And then she flew away, heading towards the sea, probably for the Acheron.

Which was a good idea seeing as without the chosen sacrifice, it was possible for the so called ritual to fail. I spread my wings and took to the air, following after Raven Song who quickly made it to the top of the hill, and just in time to as it's incline completely collapsed, now the hill was just a tall pillar of earth on all sides, with no way to come up or down except by flying or maybe falling to your death from a 100 meter tall cliff.

I guess I'm not the only one on the crew who has an appetite for destruction, Raven Song had talent that was for sure, very scary talent if I do say so myself. He came to a stop at the entrance of the temple, the ongoing sounds of a battle still resounding from within, and Zareth's ferocious roars adding a more brutal feel to the atmosphere. I turned to the obviously frightened and weakened moon elf, and used the most gentle of voices I could muster.

”You don't have to be afraid anymore, Raven here will protect you and make sure nothing happens to you.” I smiled at her and was about to move into the temple when I headed her whisper to me, but loud enough that both Raven Song and I could hear her.

”I'm a… … I'm a player… … …I'm a player too. Please help me, I'm stuck, I can't get out, please!”

The look of shock on my face was beyond anything I've ever faced, I was so shaken by her words that it finally dawned on me that he feeling other players get when they come across each other was coming from her, but then there was also the feeling gave of by the Game's AIs, almost as if she was stuck in between our world and theirs. I looked up at Raven Song and he looked back at me with as much surprise on my face as it as on his, then he said to me.

”It doesn't make any sense! Do you think it's a bug?” but I said nothing, the only answer I gave to him as an order.

”Keep her safe until Persephone gets here, then have her take the elf to the ship. We'll talk about this later.”

Did I look confused? That's probably because I was, let's not even talk about how terrified the f would have been, or how much shock she currently was in at the moment. The bad publicity that imperium industries would get from this alone would be so large it could bury the company...what the hell am I even talking about, who cares about the company, someone had been stuck in the game for quite a while from the look of things, and I didn't doubt that it was the truth, of all I've seen within the game, it was more than possible for such a thing to happen.

But at the moment I couldn't deal with such a reveal, not when the literal gates of hell were about to be torn open, I could find a way to face and deal with it once all this trouble with hells and demons we're done and dusted with. I turned Way from Raven Song and the priestess and broke into a run through the entrance of the temple. There was a long hallway flanked on both sides by pristine white alabaster pillars, their edges were lined with gold and pristine golden symbols were all etched on their form. But apart from that, what came next was the intense feeling of heat in their air, obviously, Zareth had let loose on the players, but the fact that this entire place was not yet in shambles and cinders; spoke volumes of how powerful these crows of nine circles guild was. So apart from the fact that they had a crappy name(in my own opinion), they could actually put up a fight.

I went past the hallway and came up into an arena of sorts, right behind a small army of players 50 strong or maybe more. but that number wouldn't matter as with each second that passed I could see them dropping like flies from not just Zareth's assault, but the assault of the 20-foot tall giant man decked head to toe in golden armor and swinging a massive kite shield with blades stretched out from its edges. It was a fearsome looking weapon, both a shield and a sword, but part from that he was holding a Warhammer as tall as he was, with a very bloodied head and golden shaft. I only needed to take one look to notice that Zareth was actually facing off against the players in a bid to help the giant, which seemed quite obvious to me, to be the boss of this temple.