Another Online: Clockwork Page 15

  “Well, that’s because you are dumb. The things you don’t know could fill a city!” She giggled at her bad insult.

  “I’m still not opposed to eating you,” I shouted, recalling my threat from days before.

  “Gotta catch me first.”

  “Ugh… You are the worst,” I mumbled and leaned my chin in my hand. “I’ve talked to you for a total of a few minutes and you are already giving me a migraine. It takes most people weeks or months to do that.”

  “What can I say, I have a gift.” There she was! I managed to spot Badger darting around the room, examining everything.

  I wracked my brain, trying to remember everything I could about Fae for a way to calm or get rid of this little creature. When I was little I was super into mythology, especially Celtic and Scottish, and the Fae played a heavy part in those myths. No doubt AO would have their own take on fairies, but I have found that AO stole a lot of their lore from all kinds of places. After a minute, it came to me. I waved my arm and a bunch of baked goods, bread, pastries, spawned. And then I sat there doing nothing. After a minute, I slowly closed my eyes, tilted my head back, I slumped over in my seat and pretended to fall asleep. The trap was set, now all I needed to do is wait. But apparently not long, seconds after my fake snore I heard the flutter of wings and clink of little feet on the silver plate. I slightly opened one of my eyes and saw Badger gleefully gobbling down the sweets, her back turned to me. My guess was right, in a lot of myths Fae loved baked goods and it seemed that AO in their infinite laziness just copied the lore. And if she craved baked goods the way I craved blood, her falling into this obvious trap was understandable.

  With all my speed, I moved my hand and snatched up Badger. “Got ya!” I smiled and held her tightly enough so she couldn't get away but not hurt her.

  “Damn it.” She sighed, her mouth full of muffin. “You gonna’ eat me?”

  “Maybe,” I snarled. With my other hand, I moved the plate off to the side and stood up. “That all depends on if you are willing to make a deal.”

  “Deal?!” She looked at me more wide-eyed than ever. Ah, so my other thing I pulled from my brain about Fae was true. Deals were a big deal, a promise from a Fae was like an iron clad contract.

  “Yeah, a deal. Your life for your service. You work for me now or I’m going to head over to the kitchen and toss you on a skillet.” Her tiny eyes widened as she looked up at my mouth.

  “You, you would really eat me?”

  “Yes,” I lied.

  “I, I, I…” The color drained from her face and she looked around the room frantically. It looked like she was looking for any other option. But it would seem she couldn't think of anything because she slumped in my hand, no longer struggling, and sighed. “My life, to survive. You have a deal.”

  I slid down into my seat and dropped her on the plate of sweets. “You can eat as much as you would like from that plate. A vassal of mine will be well taken care of.” I peeked over to her and saw the color return to her face and her wings perk up. Without another word, she dug into the sweet roll and was making a hell of a mess.

  The door burst open and Leon shouted, “You are doing a mass attack?!”

  “Intruder! I’ll protect you!” Badger’s tone was ominous and, well, scary. Nothing that small should be able to sound like that much of a terror. She waved her hands and started to mumble. Then Leon stopped in his tracks, grabbing at his chest and choking. I moved my attention from Badger to Leon and sat up straight. There were plants growing out of his mouth- wait, no, I could see a bulge in his throat, a big one. By the Void, she had grown a mass of plants inside Leon, cutting off his air supply. “Badger, stop it right now!” I looked at Badger whose look was one of a predator. From her lack of response, she either didn’t hear me or was ignoring me. “BADGER, STOP IT NOW!” I spread my wings and spat a bit of embers from my mouth. That seemed to catch her attention because she stopped casting her spell and turned to look at me. I heard Leon retching and coughing as he spat up a mass of vines like he was a cat getting rid of a furball. “What? ” Badger gave me an incredulous look.

  “He’s a friend… Well, he’s not an intruder anyway!” I thrust my hand to point at Leon.

  “Oh, my bad.” She crossed her arms and looked at Leon. “Sorry.”

  “Why didn’t you do that to me when I had trapped you?”

  “Uh, you had my arms pinned, I can’t do magic without my arms.” Again giving me that look like I was an idiot.

  “What the hell was that!” Leon shouted, still retching some.

  “A misunderstanding.” My eyes were locked on Badger who seemed to grow bored of this and returned to her sweets.

  “Next time you have a misunderstanding, please leave me out of it.” Leon glared at me.

  “I assume you heard about the upcoming attack?”

  “Yes. I think it’s a mistake.” Of course he does… anything I do is wrong in the world of Leon. “Their defences were too strong for us before they had gotten unknown allies. We have no idea what their forces look like now.”

  “You are a spy, go find that out.” I crossed my arms.

  “I was doing just that until I was called back here.” He looked livid.

  “But because you came back, you will have an army of little creatures to be your eyes and ears.” I smiled at him.

  “What?” He looked absolutely confused.

  “You still have the Fae you have been setting free from the suits?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then press them into the Empire. Their lives for servitude. I will put you in charge of them so you can have eyes everywhere.” I crossed my legs and leaned into the armrest.

  “ Var, shouldn't we set them free?” For some reason it looked like the idea of using the Fae was abhorrent to Leon.

  “Not if we can use them.”

  “I…” He trailed off and looked off to the middle distance, a clear sign he was reading text from the System. “Yes, my Queen.” He sounded more angry than I have heard him in a while.

  “As soon as you finish drafting the little ones, head out, I want intel from the Alliance as soon as possible.” He didn’t respond with words. Just a small nod, an angry look and a quick exit from the throne room. “And you go with him.” I gave Badger a look.

  “Ugh, fine.” She lifted off the plate and slowly drifted down the throne room and passed Hell’a who was now entering.

  “That son of mine, impetuous as always.” Hell’a’s high heeled shoes clicked and echoed on the stone as she entered the room on the other end that Leon left from.

  “I was wondering when you were going to show up. You do know there was an attack on the castle?”

  “I noticed.” She clicked her way over to my throne. She leaned down and gave me a soft kiss that lingered for a few seconds.

  When she pulled back, I softly spoke. “What was that you called Leon? Why did you call him your son?”

  “Well, because he is my son.” She smirked and slid onto the throne next to mine. “If you recall, I was the one who turned him into a Vampire, thus making him my child.”

  “Wait, Vampires see the ones they turn as their children?”

  “But, of course. The day they turn, their old life ends and the new one starts. Like being reborn to their new family.” Hell’a reached out and grabbed my hand.

  “Does that mean when we get married I will have a ton of step-kids?” I mused jokingly.

  “But, of course,” she said again. I slowly turned my head to look at her. “Really, Var, sometimes you can be so obtuse it’s charming.”

  “Sigh, whatever.” I stood up. “Come on, I need to get to the war room to start strategizing the attack. We can talk and walk.” I started to make my way to the war room, Hell’a right at my side. “Lily and Thaz found out about everything and they are going to help us take over, but the price for their help was that everyone involved is equals. That means Lily, Thaz, Amber, Alexander, you and I are on the same ground when it comes t
o this.” Hell’a made a face, I knew she couldn't respond to out of game stuff. “Amber and I are still the only ones that can make the items that power the DoS. You need us. So this is less of a request and more of a demand.”

  Hell’a frowned, let out a sigh and risked a small head nod. She couldn't respond without getting punished by the System. “Hell’a, I need you to go and start mustering your army, like, right now,” I told her as we got to my war room door. “We have a lot to do and not much time to do it.”

  “Sigh, well, no rest for the wicked.” She turned and gave a wave. “I’ll be seeing you soon, my pet.” I didn’t wait for her to get far before I entered the room.

  I spent the rest of the day planning with Amber, Tilln and Drac. It was nice, the four of us worked well together now, seeing as we had come up with the strategy from the first day of the war until now. By the time we ended, it was dark out. Tilln and Drac portaled to meet up with Tyn and let her know what the navy needed to do, and I went back to my room to get some much needed rest, after all I was still damaged from the fight at the start of the day. I flopped onto my bed, not bothering with undressing. I was expecting the normal prompt asking me if I wanted to sleep but instead I got the message, ‘can't sleep with enemies nearby’. “What in the hell?” I asked myself. “That’s new.” Not more than two seconds after I spoke there were the sounds of ripping wood and metal, feathers flying around the room like a fluffy explosion, and I was tossed into the air. Instinctually, I flapped my wings and flipped over to see eight limbs ripping my bed asunder with a porcelain mask on the head in the limbs’ center. Oracle, the Clockwork Princess, was literally a monster under my bed trying to kill me.

  Chapter 13

  The Monster

  I still wasn't in good shape after the fight I had with the Crimson King and his dragon. Low on HP and mentaly drained, but right here right now that didn’t matter. This was a fight I really didn’t have much of a chance avoiding. I flapped backwards, sending a whirlwind of feathers in my wake. Four of her eight claws pushed her up through the wreckage of my bed and the other four slashed at me with fierce intensity. Lucky for me, my shield rings that I made did recharge where my health couldn't. Her claws bounced off the barrier, adding momentum to my trip backwards.

  I crashed into my makeup desk, shattering the mirror on its back. “Damn it, seven years bad luck.” I frowned at the shards of reflective glass.

  “You won't last long enough to experience any of that.” Oracle raised to full impressive height, two claws on the floor and two on the ceiling.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are the big and scary spider robot. I’m shaking in my boots.” I settled on the ground, ready for her next strike.

  “You may have managed to survive last time, but this time you won't be so lucky!” She took a menacing step forward.

  “Cliché much?” I rolled my eyes. “I mean, if you are going to go with the whole time to die speech, maybe make it your own instead of just using the same old line.” It seemed that I pissed her off because one of her claws went flying at me. I parried her claw with my own, managing to take a step to the side as I did so.

  “Will you please be quiet?!” She scrambled across the room, quickly closing the distance between us.

  “Don’t think I can. You see I’m a bit of a talker when my energy gets pumping.” I moved to the door and knocked it off the hinges. “I get it now, it was you. You were the one who let the Crimson King capture an Elder Dragon and attack here. You needed a distraction so you could get into the castle.” I took a step into the hallway and readied a spell for when she tried to go through the opening. To my surprise, she didn’t go through the place where the door once was but through the wall a few meters away from it. I jerked my hand to point at where she was. “Dark Lance!” It seemed my aim was a bit off, the lance went a bit wide and instead of hitting her it blasted another hole in the wall to my bedroom. The castle wasn’t having a good day. Oracle came clambering to me, her movements jerky and hard to read. One of her claws darted right for my face. I managed to block the blow but that attack was just a faint, the real attack came from below me. Two of her limbs wrapped around my legs and the rest braced themselves on the walls to either side of her. Then the world went spinning. I flew into the ceiling, bursting through it with an insane amount of force. I continued the spin and I cracked through the ceiling from the other side. And once I was speeding to the floor, she let me go and I continued down through three floors, my momentum slowing with each hit. By the time I slammed against the ground of the dining room, my barriers were gone.

  “By the Void…” I coughed, looking through the long hole that I just made. Oracle poked her head into view to look down at me. “If we’re going to fight, can we move this outside to where we won't damage my home?” She didn’t respond, she jumped down the hole, getting ready to pile drive me into oblivion. I rolled out of the way and felt her slam into the ground beside me. I rolled and did a kip up to get back to my feet quickly. I turned to face Oracle and instead of seeing her I saw the huge dining room table come flying at me. This thing was designed to sit a good twenty people, so there wasn’t much of a chance of me avoiding it, but maybe I could slow it down? I shouted, “Entangle!” and made a mess of strong webs. The table’s speed was downgraded from a magrail to a raging bull. The table shattered as it hit me and the force sent me through the dining room wall into the kitchen. I looked over my shoulder and saw I was careening towards a confused looking Milly. I flapped my wings to change my trajectory from the girl to the stove that she was cooking on. I felt a burning pain as whatever soup she was making went spilling over my guts, hip and left leg. Milly shouted and jumped away from the scolding liquid, managing only to get a burn on her right arm. I coughed up a mixture of embers and blood. “Sorry about ruining dinner, Milly.”

  “No problem,” she managed to squeak as her eyes moved from me toward the hole the table and I had just made in the wall. “Look out!” she shouted and dived out of the way as a cluster of heavy chairs came flying through the hole. I rolled and watched as my beautiful chairs collided with the heavy cast iron stove. “Okay, enough is enough…” I grumbled and pushed off the ground, back into the dining room. What I saw on the other side took me aback a little, Renny was fighting with Oracle. No joke, the little Imp was currently beating Oracle upside the head with a serving plate and avoiding her torrent of flailing metal limbs. I was always surprised how fast Renny could move around the castle, but after seeing him dodge Oracle's attacks I would never be again. He moved like a fly avoiding getting swatted. He weaved and ebbed with every attack, making Oracle look like an inept fighter. She was so engrossed in the fight with Renny that she didn’t see Xor, my freaking handmaid, dropping from the hole above holding a dresser in her arms. And not one of those small dressers where you keep a few items of clothing, I’m talking a full wardrobe. Xor slammed the thing right into Oracle’s head. Oracle slammed into the ground, bounded off the floor, took a serving plate from Renny, and then was bashed towards me with what was left of the dresser from Xor. Oracle went flying at me like a softball coasting across home plate. “Surge Claw!” My hand arked with energy and I swiped at Oracle’s limbs, managing to cut one off and sending her flying to the other end of the room.

  “Xor, Renny.” I nodded at the two while there was a respite in the fight.

  “My Queen,” they said, returning the nod.

  “You weakling!” Oracle shouted as she scrambled to her, um, feet, maybe tentacles is the better descriptor?

  “What, I have people that can give me a hand. Don’t see how that is weak.” I smiled at her. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted movement, Milly was tiptoeing towards Oracle with an enormous cooling pot. She obviously had an idea for the pot and I really wanted to see what was going through her head. So I had to keep Oracle talking and distracted so Milly could get closer. “I have allies because I am powerful and trusted. I have those who would follow me to the ends of the world. You, on the othe
r hand, need to make people to surround yourself with. It's so sad.”

  “I don’t need help! I am so powerful that I will take over this world without an-” And then there was a clanging sound as Milly forced the pot over Oracle’s head. There was no pause from any of us. Milly darted out of the way as all three of us rushed at Oracle. A lot happened at the same time. Renny went low, well, he didn’t have much of a choice with how short he was. He bashed at her feet, claw, things. Xor grabbed two chairs as she ran and slammed them together, sandwiching Oracle between them. I clawed with my energy infused hand right where Oracle’s tentacles met her center. And because of Milly, Oracle couldn't see any of it coming. Renny’s hits made her go off balance, Xor stopped any momentum or movement away she had going, and I sent her right into the ceiling ripping another tentacle off. The pot and her head made a sound like a brass bell in a paint can shaker. It was an immensely satisfying sound.

  Oracle hit the ground again and all three of us hit her as hard as we could, sending her crashing through the wall right to where the greenhouse stood earlier that day. Then suddenly Hell’a came springing off a balcony and pounced on Oracle like a cat pouncing on a ball of yarn. Hell’a’s movements were smooth and precise, just like everything she did. Hell’a grabbed one of Oracle’s limbs and proceeded to spin her around, sending the other tentacles out with centrifugal force. Xor, Renny and I used this opportunity to step outside. “Xor, grab that support beam.” I pointed at one of the broken and bent metal support beams from the greenhouse. Xor nodded and rushed over to the rubble. “Renny, how good are you at lassoing things?” I pointed at some loose rope.

  “I guess we’ll find out.” He rushed over to the rope and began tying a knot.

  “Hell’a!” I shouted as loudly as I could. “Batter’s up!” I pointed to Xor who was holding the beam like a batter waiting for a pitch. It seemed that Hell’a understood because moments later Oracle came flying towards Xor, who proceeded to bash Oracle with all her might. Again, the clanging sound was magnificent. Oracle would have gone flying into the back wall if Renny hadn't managed to lasso her and use the momentum to send her flying to me. I then pointed my hand at Oracle and shouted, “Black Hole!” The swirling black mass collided with Oracle and engulfed her.