Chapter 443: Amazing!

“Okay,” Alex said as they all made their way along the ropey white roots and toward the next platform in the Cracked Steps. “Quick rundown for you, Amelia. This is a giant arena. Anyone we run into on these platforms is an enemy. Your main goal is to protect me and Claire.”

“How fun,” Amelia said from in front of him. Princess’ huge porcelain claws dug into the roots and the wood creaked dangerously beneath her as she ambled along casually. She didn’t seem even slightly concerned by the storming Riftwarped Qi stretching out to infinity below them. “It’s like a giant game of tag. I played this once or twice with my father a long time ago.”

“You did?” Claire asked.

Alex felt her surprise.

“That does seem a bit surprising,” Alex said. “Not to be rude, but I didn’t get the feeling that your father was the… uh, play games with someone type. Was he not always like that?”

“Oh, no. Your previous read was definitely pretty accurate. He was never much for games or anything familial.” Amelia shrugged, which was fairly impressive given that the motion didn’t slow her down in the slightest. One of her three heads swung back to look at them. “We only played once. I was the seeker, and he hid. I never did find him. That was the last time we spoke in person.”

“Oh,” Alex said.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Alex caught Claire’s eye and cleared his throat awkwardly. Not even Glint said anything. There really wasn’t much that anyone could say in response to such a comically depressing line.

Only a few steps later, Amelia burst into laughter. “Wow, you guys actually believed that? That’s really sad. I never played games with my dad. I was just pulling your legs.”

“You can’t joke about that,” Alex said, joining her in laughter. “ It could have been real! I mean, it’s completely diabolical, but given how I found you, I wouldn’t exactly put it past your dad to do something like that. How were we supposed to know if it was fake?”

“Maybe it wasn’t.” Amelia’s laughter evaporated in an instant. There was a short pause. Then she turned all of her heads back in the direction they were heading, looking up to the platform as they grew closer to it. She let out a small snicker. “Maybe it was. Who knows.”

Alex stared at her for a second. Then he shook his head, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

Oh, boy. She’s nuts. I suppose I should have expected at least a bit of that.

They all reached the end of the roots, falling silent as they pulled themselves up onto the second platform. There fortunately wasn’t anyone waiting for them when they arrived upon it. The platform had yet to form a connection with the next chunk of the Cracked Steps.

“There’s nobody here,” Amelia said, sounding disappointed.

“That’s fine,” Claire said. The air above her palm shimmered as she activated her Spatial Ring and plucked free one of the Cracked Coins. “We can wait here for a moment or wait until someone ends up reaching out to us. Depends how much initiative we want to take. Alex?”

“We can wait for a bit,” Alex said after a moment of thought. “I’d rather get the extra coin for defeating someone rather than spend our own and end up net zero. There isn’t anything specific I want right now anyway.”

“You can control what kind of reward you get from this place?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah,” Alex replied with a nod. “Was there something you were looking for? We can basically ask the Cracked Steps to direct us toward someone or something. I don’t thin kit’ll just guarantee we get exactly what we want, but it’ll get close.”

“Doesn’t that mean you can just ask for a stupidly easy fight?” Amelia asked. “And doesn’t that mean someone really strong could just ask for the same and end up with us?”

“Doubtful,” Claire said. “This whole place is about challenge. I don’t think it would encourage setting up battles where people just crush their opponents without a fight. Nobody would use it. Though the first time we came here, we did get put up against Zeal…”

“Zeal was holding back, though. The Cracked Steps probably knew,” Alex said. At least, he certainly hoped they did. It would have been really awkward if they just got put up against some peak Master Stage monster who had a perfect understanding of all their abilities and had filled their Mind Palace to the brim with every advancement. That would probably end well for them.

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He didn’t get a chance to think about it too long.

In the distance, worming through the crackling purple-red storms, he caught a flash of white. Claire saw it at the same time. There was a root path twisting in their direction.

“Looks like the decision was made for us,” Glint said. He let out an eager laugh. “Finally. Should luck smile on us, this will be a powerful enemy that you can feed this body. Feed all of our enemies to me. I wish to grow stronger.”

“Hey,” Amelia protested. “I want to get stronger too! That’s not fair.”

“I’ve been here longer. Superiority rules,” Glint said, his gray lips splitting in a hungry smile. “You can have the scraps when I’m done. Anything that steps onto this platform is mine.”

“Don’t worry,” Claire said. “He tends to get himself killed pretty quickly. You’ll have more than enough to fight yourself.”

“I take offense to that,” Glint said. “It’s happened once or twice at most. You have given me a brand new body. One that is far weaker than I. You cannot take a sword master’s blade away from him and expect him to perform equally as well.”

“It’s precisely because you’re strong that I expect more from you,” Claire said with a smirk. “Because I’d expect much more from said sword master than I would a different individual. The experience doesn’t just vanish when you’re in a new body… unless you aren’t taking the fights seriously, of course.”

Glint glared at her.

Alex shook his head, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips as he tracked the root path heading toward their platform. It was close enough that he could make out five forms upon it. They human as best as he could tell. All of them were running just behind the foremost roots. They wore silvered armor that caught the flashes of Riftwarped Qi in the storms surrounding them and had their weapons drawn.

The three closest to the front bore swords, while the two at the back were clearly ranged fighters. One of them had a staff, while the other had a bow held in one hand and an arrow in the other.

“Here they come,” Claire said, lowering her stance. “Don’t expect a chat this time around.”

“Well, you never know,” Alex said, peering past Princess’ form at the people running toward them. He was even more certain they were human now. Their opponents had gotten close enough that Alex could make out the expression on the lead man’s face. His teeth were bared, mouth open in a roar that the Mirrorlands swallowed well before anyone could hear it. Alex cleared his throat. “Okay. They might not be friendly.”

“What did you expect?” Glint asked with a hissing laugh. “Obviously not. The purpose of this place is to kill. I will eliminate the three at the lead. Amelia, you can finish off the stragglers.”

“Remember,” Alex added. “Your goal is to keep them from getting to me and Claire.”

“Got it,” Amelia said. She nodded with all three of her heads. “I’m the guard. Don’t worry. I understand my role perfectly.”

“Then we’ll stand back for now,” Alex said, exchanging a glance with Claire before looking back at the group of people charging toward them. “So you two can—”

A streak of magic flashed toward Alex. His eyes widened and he dropped to the ground a moment before a screaming white bolt of ice cut through the air where his head had been a moment ago. His eyes snapped back to their soon-to-be opponents.

There was magical energy radiating from the end of the staff wielded by one of their back-liners.

They attacked before they even got here? I didn’t even realize that was a thing. I’m kind of pissed I didn’t think of it myself. Then again, fighting on the platform is kind of dangerous. Good chance to get knocked off. Not the route I’d go with.

Alex shoved himself back to his feet. The path of roots reached out, the first strands extending to connect with their platform. Its combatants were only a few seconds away. Their mage was gathering more magic at their staff and the archer had drawn her bow back, starting to take aim.

Glint lowered his stance.

He shifted forward, preparing to strike as soon as the attacking group reached the edge of the root platform. Alex readied his magic while Claire drew her whip from its resting place in her tattoos. Just because they weren’t planning on letting Amelia and Glint handle the fight didn’t mean they were going to leave themselves undefended. That was just asking for trouble.

Their enemies raced up to the edge of the platform. Another bolt of ice screamed out and the whistle of an arrow pierced the storming skies.

Amelia lurched forward.

Her huge form launched into the air — and right past both of the attacks.

Alex’s eyes widened. He hit the ground in a roll, barely dodging the arrow, and Claire leapt out of the path of the ice bolt just in in time.

They both spun back to their attackers just in time to see Amelia — bearing the full weight of Princess’ massive form — slam down into the path right in front of their attackers before any of them could make it onto the platform.

The closest man skidded to a halt. He yelled something out, rearing back as his back-liners aimed attacks at Princess and his allies raced up to join him.

Amelia raised her right hand. Sludge raced down her body to twist along her arm as she transformed into a long, misshapen blob.

“Isn’t this amazing?” Amelia asked as maniacal laughter bubbled up from all three of her masked heads. And then, as everyone watched in stunned disbelief, she flung herself off over the edge of the path.

Her arm slammed into all five of their opponents, none of whom had managed to make it down yet. There was only a brief moment for the shock to play across their faces. Then the immense weight behind her arm ripped them right off their feet. They, along with Amelia, plummeted into the crackling depths of the Qi storm below.