Valkyrie's Lament

Chapter 10

Castle Invasion III

She bolted up, her hands itching to pull out her weapon. Her gaze glaze around her surrounding for any possible enemy. She noticed that she was on the beach. Not to far away from here were a thick forest that impede her from seeing more deeply into the forest.

Was someone out there? Who? And if there is, she was ready. Her eyes became slits, she focused all her attention to all of her senses. She listened to any movements, and especially searched for any hidden killing intent.

A couple minutes later, she heard a loud gruff sound from behind her. She twirled around and saw Tyler to land safely, without falling, onto the beach. For a man his size and bulk, she thought he would’ve at least stumbled once, but instead he was quite light on his feet.

“You’re alive.” Tyler gladly spoke.

Was she supposed to be dead? Silver tilted her head confused. Her body relaxed, realizing who it was, but even still she didn’t put down her whole guard, yet. She knew that being alone with a man could go a couple of ways: either talk with them in a social manner without or with a hidden agenda, or go through a very dark route that would include possible rape and then to death. She has seen the second one more often in her past memories, even almost being in one, but luckily she wasn’t the type to lay down and get beaten.

“I thought you were a goner when that giant fish took out that platform. Seriously, that was one hell of a jump.” He chuckled, his whole body was relaxed as he came forward. ”At this rate becoming the famous italian plumber brothers in the fictitious game wouldn’t be a lie. I can pass for the green dude. All I need is the mustache.”

Silver relaxed even further, realizing that he was just the first case and quietly listened to his ramblings. She wasn’t sure what else to say. The concept of video games sound so foreign to her that she forgot that just couple days ago people were playing it. The garbled up memories were making her feel like she had lived longer than she had usually lived. All those memories were in the back of her head with dust collecting on them.

Tyler sat onto the ground exhausted and tired. “Damn, I’m hungry. I should’ve bought something, but I left mine behind at the Inn, thinking that we might have to go through that rough ordeal again.” He let out a tired sigh as he leaned backwards. “Though, I wouldn’t have been able to carry it anyways.”

She suddenly had the urge to talk, maybe even get to know him a little bit. So far, she didn’t feel any hostility coming from this man. “If you are still alive you should buy yourself a backpack or a pouch with the money you gain later.”

“They have such things?” Tyler brightened at the thought of having a backpack to take with him for emergency use like now.

“Didn’t you check the listing?”

“I-” Tyler were embarrassed. He didn’t look to long at the listing because he didn’t have any Angel Coins with him and just brushed it aside. “I just didn’t think those were real. The so called magic sounds a bit too far fetched.”

“After what you saw in the past few days, you don’t think there might be magic?”

Tyler coughed as he brought up his hand to cover his embarrassment. “Unless I see proof, I won’t buy it.”

“Your loss.” Silver shrugged her shoulders, knowing full well that having such narrow minded thoughts could kill her.

“You make it sound like it’s real.”

“You can believe whatever you want to. Honestly, my problem is not the same as yours.”

“You sound like you’re going through something rough, huh?”

Silver uncomfortably glanced towards him. She felt his gaze swept over her, prodding to get an answer out of her, but she did not budge from her stoic expression. Instead, she gave him a frown, telling him to stop searching.

“It’s written all over on your face. You must be carrying some kind of dark secret.” He winked at her.

“Everyone has some sort of secret that they harbor.” Turning her gaze away from him, she sat down next to him.

“Alright. No big deal. I was just asking to see if your doing well. To see someone pushing themselves so hard to the point of death, usually means that they got something that they desperately need to obtain. At the rate you’re going, you’re tinkering on the edge of death doors every second, though I must say that we all aren’t we?” Tyler shook his head at his words. His shoulders slouched as he glanced out into the distance.

“You could say that.” Silver thought over what Tyler said.

“Well then, we should rejoice and greet our first step towards success in making our way across that wretched bridge.” Tyler smacked his leg heartily, but then his stomach angrily replied back with a rumble. “Though, I wish I had something to drink or eat right this moment.”

Silver pulled out a water bottle from her accessory storage and handed it to him. “Here.”

He glanced towards her in complete surprise when he was given the water bottle.

“Where did you get this?”

“Magic.” Silver gave him a mischievous smirk that yelled that she had more up her sleeves.

Tyle was momentarily silent,  seconds later he burst out into laughter. “You got me.”

Silver couldn’t help but feel a bit more ease around this man. He wasn’t as bad as she first thought he was. She took out a couple bag of chips and another water for herself. She handed him one and started to eat leisurely as she watched the others.

She saw Rose and Kathy struggling to get across. A large fish splashed out of the water and jumped up towards them in attempt to eat them alive, but luckily, so far none of them got eaten. Her eyes trailed over towards Jasper, who was hopping from one platform to the next. She could see that he was struggling to stay on the platform, but he was doing a lot better than the rest. Not only that he was a lot further, especially for someone of his size that was quite an accomplishment.

“That was a close one.” Tyler whistled, his hand patted his belly. “I’m glad I’m not on that anymore.”

“You’re quite relaxed at all this.” Silver was surprised that Tyler was adapting to this so easily.

“Aren’t you as well?” He looked over his shoulder towards her.

Silver was silent for a moment. It was true, everything horrible that was happening in front of her did not phase her at all. The large number of experience of going through hell and back again felt less frightening. She knew if she ever did feel fear again, to the point where it froze her, it meant one thing. The opponent was someone or something that was almost impossible to defeat. She also knew that when one let down their guard it meant that the one life was over.

“If there were no deaths and stuff, this whole game would be a great T.V show. Don’t you think?” said Tyler, breaking his concentration.

Silver wasn’t sure what to say.

“Ah well, a man can dream can’t he?”

“He can.” Silver softly spoke. “Look at that.” Tyler got up and laughed. “The bitch is actually holding up her own end. I thought that she would’ve died by now.”

Silver faced over towards where Tyler was looking and noticed Rose dangling by her fingers. She frantically pulled herself up as her messy hair was frayed all around her. With painful breath, she hunched over to catch her breath. When she momentarily caught her breath, she once again continued forward.

“I got to give that girl credit, she’s stubborn as a mule. If she didn’t have that foul attitude and dislikable attitude, she would be likable in a good sense. But that wretched mouth of hers drives me up the wall. I had a momentary relapse where I wanted to punch her face. ”

“You sound like you might like her.” Silver jokingly stated. A sly smirk erupted on her face, while she wiggled her eyebrow.

Tyler stiffened at Silver’s words and stared at her horrified. “Where do you get that preposterous idea? Did my body language give off that impression or something? I know for sure I didn’t, though I did have a thing for her exquisite body. I won’t lie on that.” Tyler smugly replied.

Silver couldn’t help but find out that Tyler was a blunt guy. He would speak his mind without any censoring of his thoughts and tell it as it was. She found him quite refreshing from the majority of the people that she had met in the past. “Then what kind do you like?”

“The cute and fragile looking one.” Tyler chuckled. “Like that Kathy girl.”

Cute and fragile? “I think you should stop, you’ll get handcuffed and taken away by the police.” Silver jokingly stated.

“Bwah, at this time and age. Impossible. I’m just stating my mind you know? Not like I’m going to molest her or anything.”

“You sound like a pedofile.”

“What? I wouldn’t dare. I have my morals.”

“I think even the little girls should stay away from you as well. I’m afraid for Jasper.”  Silver lightly teased him with a straight face.

“Wait, he’s a girl?”

Silver tried her best not to smirk, but she failed.

“You gotta be kidding me. Are you serious?” Tyler stated flabbergasted. The whole time he thought he was a boy, even though he did look a bit feminine for a boy.

“Who’s a girl?” A familiar voice could be heard from behind them. Silver didn’t realize that Jasper had snuck his way over. She was too busy enjoying her conversation that she didn’t pay attention.

Jasper eyes were spearing into Silver like knives. She could feel his emotions running around rampant, wanting to throttle her for what she had said, but instead he kept his cool with a straight face. “I’m a guy.” He bluntly stressed the words.

“You must look nice with a dress.” Tyler caught on quickly, winked towards Silver and chuckled.

“You kidding me right? Say that again and I’ll stab you in your balls.”

Tyler gasp half-heartedly and bleated with laughter. “I like my manhood thank you very much.”  He even crossed his legs unconsciously. “I need it for the future.”

“And you!” Jasper pointed towards Silver, chastising her. “What are you doing just lazing around as if this is some kind of vacation?”

“Me?” Silver gave him the I-don’t-know-face and crossed her leg, leaning back. She stuck her hands in the apple chips that she took out, on her lap, and ate as if nothing was wrong.

“Is that apple chips?” Jasper glanced at the chips in Silver hands. He hungrily gazed at the chip in her hand. The whole jumping through hoops, rocks, and platform burned through his calories. Even though he ate the crystals, they were just empty calories that temporarily kept his hunger at bay. It couldn’t replaced actual food at all.

“Yea.” She crunched it and made loud smacking sound of her lips to emphasize how delicious it was.

“Why do you do this to me?” He whinned. Drool appeared at the edge of his lips.

“Because it’s fun and your reaction is so adorable.”

“I’m not adorable!” Jasper fumed. He clenched his fist and stomped into the ground loudly.

“Mhmm.” Silver ate the whole content in the bag. She put away her trash back in her ring and got up. “You can always daydream about being tall one day.”

“I swear, I’ll remember this. Mark my words!” Jasper waved his finger in front of him, emphasizing his few words. .

Silver laughed. All the tension that was in her body was gone, and she felt as if a bits of her energy was rejuvenated. She knew she shouldn’t pick on him, but she couldn’t help it. He just gave her the most cutest reaction, for someone his size, that she couldn’t help but think he look like a harmless bunny.

“Looks like the others made it,” said Tyler. He got up and wiped the sand off his pants.

Rose, Cole, and Kathy was weakly truding over with barely any strength left in there body.

“Finally.” Rose fell onto the ground exhausted. She couldn’t move because of the aching pain.

“We should continue.” Silver spoke. She was ready to go. Her senses were telling her that when the last person landed safely onto land that the next possible obstacle were underway. The sky itself started slowly turn into night, telling her she should also find shelter. Though the open space of the beach was a great place, but the thought of the piranha that could come on land made her not want to stay.

“Are you crazy?” Rose spoke out in protest. “We just completed a difficult obstacle. I don’t have any energy left to continue on.”

“Then you can stay, but I must warn you.” Silver got up, shaking the sand off her skirt. “Those bigger fish might actually crawl out of the water and hunt you down. Animals are more active during the night, and right now it’s getting dark.”

Everyone eyes clouded over with a hint of fear, they knew exactly what she meant. Not only that they noticed that the light started to slowly get dimmer. Worried expression plastered on their face at the thought of possible night attack by the piranhas.

“You think it would actually turn dark?” Kathy squeaked. She glanced around nervously at the sky, hoping the bright light wouldn’t disappear completely.

“I don’t know nor do I want to find out. I’m not staying near the shores, plus this is just my opinion. You guys could stay if you want.”

The others became quite. They knew that Silver was somewhat strong. She had proved herself against the piranha’s countless times without even getting injured. When she turned to leave, everyone followed behind her. They made their way towards the thick forest.

“I was wondering,” Cole spoke up from the group. “Why are you still with us? You seem capable without us tying you down.”

“Who are you talking about?” Rose cut in and spoke. “Me?”

“You? Do you seem like the person who would stick around? Look at you.” Tyler pointed towards her up and down. “You’re a selfish brat that only knows about herself.”

“What’s wrong with me? You got a problem with it?”

“Everything. You have a stunning body that any man would like to fuck, but a horrible personality.” Tyler stated it without a hint of lustful feature on his face, but stated with a serious expression. Everyone was shocked to hear him talk so bluntly towards her except Silver. She just quietly nodded her head as if she was agreeing, but she wasn’t.

“How vulgar.” Rose spoke with disgust in her voice. She gave him the most vile looking expression that she could muster. Sparks were flying amongst each other like cats and dogs.

“She’s talking about Silver.” Jasper quickly tried to change the atmosphere.

Everyone look towards Silver, wondering what she would say. She felt a bit uncomfortable at the sudden stare that everyone was giving. It was like she was the sheep and everyone was the ravenous wolf, keeping her on edge. Being under the scrutiny of so many eyes wasn’t helping her calm down her heart either. She had to take in a deep breath, and let it all out.

“Does it matter?” She was only staying with the others, because she staying together in the god forsaken forest alone could kill her. Strength in numbers right now were the reason that she stayed. Having multiple eyes looking for trouble was better than having one. Especially during the night, she needed the extra wink of sleep if she wanted to keep surviving. Going off of fumes was an easy way to end up dead in matter of seconds.

“Well, I was just curious.You’re doing so well without us. You were the first to get to the middle, ate the most crystal, killed the most piranha, and finished the first obstacle course. without much problems. I feel like you would do fine even without us dragging you down.”

“I am only human.” Silva spoke, and her words cut through their mind. The other four that just met her saw her as an existence that seem too spectacular, only Jasper took her in as she was and did not say anything about it. She started to once again walk forward, leaving them behind with that simple phrase.

“So, what do you think will happen next?” Jasper walked up next to her. “Kushiel isn’t here to dictate what would happen next, right?”

“I get the feeling that it’s not over. Why stop here? Right now, there really hasn’t been a ‘safe zone’ except the inn. From our last game, we had a run in with the Behemoth. Kushiel rules the games with an iron fist,” Silver momentarily paused, “but I’m not quite sure about these mini-games. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s watching us now to spring in more traps.”

“I keep forgetting that she is an angel. I swear that she’s more of a demon than anything else, the so called Demonica looks like a puppy compared to her. Just the thought of her, getting serious terrifies me.”

“You don’t know the half of it…” Silver mumbled. Kushiel getting serious was something she didn’t want to see happen anytime soon. She heard the amount of power an angel had and it didn’t compare to what a high level Demonica possessed. With such a ferocious power to reckon with, how were the other contestants even going to win if she joined in on the game. The thought actually terrified her and that meant a lot.

“Did you say something?”

“No, nothing.”

“Hey, wait up!” Tyler jogged over with heavy breath. “It’s crazy that you’re not even winded. Even after that short break, I’m still so tired.”

“You better get use to it quickly. I don’t know for how long, but it’s possibly going to get worse.”

“I was worried about that, but it’s something I’m trained in, so it’s not much of a problem.” Tyler reassured her, even though he didn’t look like he could run another mile.

A chilling, multiple voices rung outwards as it wrapped through the whole forest. Everyone tensed as they look around. Even Silver couldn’t help but feel unease at whatever made that noise, knowing full well that was trouble.

“I’m not liking the sound of this.” Tyler was nervously glancing around, hoping that whatever that howled wouldn’t come bursting out from behind the trees.

“It sounds close to a dog mixed with a dying cat or something.” Cole spoke out. His voice lowered to a whisper, fearing that his voice would bring unwanted attention.

“That sounds horrible.” Kathy spoke. She was fidgeting left and right to the point where it was getting annoying.

“I hate this stupid forest. I hate all of this!” Rose grumbled and motioned her hands in front of her. “This is a Death Game. Why the hell are we being all friendly for? We should be getting out of here and heading back towards the inn.”

“Why shouldn’t we?” said Kathy. “Isn’t helping each other out to get out of this whole predicament our priority? Our chance of survival significantly increases.”

“As you can see for yourself, this whole game hasn’t been a single co-op type.Where’s the co-op. This is all man and woman for themselves.” Rose shrugged it off as she didn’t care about anything about her saver.

“She saved you. You should be grateful.” Tyler spoke with a disapproving tone of voice. He saw what happened when Kathy save her, and he didn’t like how negative she was talking towards her.

“I don’t care.” She pushed past them roughly with her shoulders in between Kathy and Tyler.

“Bitch, what’s your problem?” Tyler was about to grab her shoulder, but Rose swatted it away before he could even grab his shoulder. She stormed forward ahead of everyone else, leaving majority of them behind.

“Don’t listen to her Kathy. She’s not worth your time.” Cole consoled her by placing his hand on her shoulder, but Kathy was down from Rose’s statement. She reached up and laced her fingers around his, nodding her head to his words.

Sliver continued onwards with careful and quiet steps. She wonder what she would face against in this mini-game. In her memories, she didn’t head into many higher level mini-games, but stayed in the lower level mini-games, just barely surviving. All she knew was that they were something special in this game called the Moonlight Gaze that she wanted.

They continued forward deep into the thick forest, every step, every howl of the the unknown beast continued to sing their song, keeping everyone on edge. No one spoke for the fear of possibly drawing the creature’s attention.

“Is it me or is this forest just keeps on going? I mean, I didn’t think it was this deep. The castle just seems a lot closer from the beach.” Tyler spoke with confusion. “Don’t you think so as well?”

“Yea, I thought something was weird.” Cole nodded. There were something going on that none of them understood. It was as if the forest was enchanted to keep them here forever.

The tree branches eerily whistled letting, them know that what was in this forest didn’t want them here. Dim light filtered through the thick branches, creating a pocketful of holes that gave the light a staccato like effect. Even she could tell that this forest gave her an eerie feel, telling her, no screaming at her that she was unwanted here.

Her hands clenched as she continued forward. She couldn’t just stop here, hoping that things would get better. She had to trudge forward in the hopes to find what she came here for. The bush rustled and everyone froze. Silver dropped to the floor and hide behind a bush. Others followed her example, except Kathy who froze like a deer.

“Kathy!” Cole hissed, motioning towards her. “Get down!”

Kathy was too afraid to even take a step backward. The wind howled and the bushes shivered. Out step, from the bushes,  a large feline looking monster that look like a mix between an dog, cat, and a lizard. It’s front were scaled with green snakeskin. Teeth that were the size of her arms that protruded out of its lips. Its face were diamond shape like a cat, but its ears were lopsided like a dog’s ear. Mangy mane decorated its body making it look shaggy.

Silver stared at its eyes, and saw how it didn’t move its head from side-to-side. The snake like iris barely changed from the moonlight. Half of its body was covered in the dark as the other half was shown more clearly by the filtered light that came through the trees. She noticed that it was blind, the grey film that covered its eye.

Silver knew that this was going to be a lot more difficult fight to survive than the Imps, and possibly equivalent to the Baphomet or lower. Another one stepped out from behind the same bush, this one a bit smaller than the first. A flash of memory dashed through her mind, she remembered one thing about this mini-games and they were the Kilkenny.

Tyler slightly shifted, and the Kilkenny whipped its head towards him. Teeth baring, it slowly slinked forward.

“Ah, shit.” Tyler cursed and both Kilkenny rumbled teeth at both him and Kathy.