Surviving Arkadia

“Oh it is all over for you bitches now,” said Sarah.

A glowing purple circle, about two metres (6’6”) wide, appeared on the roof of the train with Sarah at its centre.

The man who’d shot her started to take a half step backward but she slapped him so hard that he disappeared from the top of the train like it was a badly edited special effect.

ADDITIONAL +1 REGENERATION AURA said the notification. So at least that was still running and now up to ten stacks.

A couple more of the riders dropped soldiers in our midst. I drew my Messer but before I could do anything with it a third one fell on me and knocked me off my feet.

With my free hand I grabbed for one of Sarah’s boots, knowing that she was currently the most secure object on the train. I succeeded in not sliding off the slick surface of the roof and turned my attention to the man who’d knocked me down.

He was unsteady but he was still on his feet. He was wearing heavy knee-high boots and armoured greaves. They did him no good. I slashed at his shins with all my force. I expected more resistance but my blade went right through. I cut him off just below the knees and he vanished over the side of the roof in a spray of blood. When Asser Motram said a blade would cut through anything he was not messing around.

One of his friends stamped on my wrist, pinning the Messer down. He raised his rifle and he might have shot me if I hadn’t kicked him right in the crotch, claws first. That distracted him for a moment while he worked to un-cross his eyes so he could aim. While I struggled to pull my wrist from under his boot I heard a familiar skill level ding. Probably CLAWED KICK but I wasn’t going to check.

Before either the soldier re-aimed, or I got my wrist free, Amris grabbed the man by the belt and threw him from the train.

I staggered to my feet, rubbing my wrist, trying to get the circulation going again.

The last two soldiers were inside the purple ring with Sarah. She was holding each one up, off the roof, with one hand on their throats. They were large men. Even allowing for the IMMOVABLE OBJECT skill that had triggered it was an impressive feat of strength. That’s the other unique skill of the JUGGERNAUT class.

IMMOVABLE OBJECT TRIGGERS WHENEVER THE WOUNDS TRACK IS AT MORE THAN 95% CAPACITY. THIS INCLUDES WHEN TAKING DAMAGE THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE FATAL. THE WOUNDS TRACK RESETS TO 90% AND A TWO METRE WIDE IMMOVABLE OBJECT ZONE IS CREATED, CENTRED ON THE JUGGERNAUT.

AS LONG AS THEY REMAIN INSIDE THE ZONE THE JUGGERNAUT:

CANNOT BE MOVED UNLESS THEY CHOSE TO MOVE.

TAKES NO DAMAGE FROM MAGIC OR PROJECTILES.

ADDS THE SKILL LEVEL OF IMPENETRABLE OBJECT TO STR, AGL AND MELEE SKILLS

THE SKILL LEVEL OF IMPENETRABLE OBJECT IS APPLIED AS A MULTIPLIER TO ANY EXISTING STACKS OF REGENERATION AURA AND TO THE BLOCK AND PARRY SKILLS.

ON A SUCCESSFUL BLOCK OR PARRY ALL DAMAGE IS REFLECTED

Which was all great for Sarah but now Amris and I had to work hard to keep her between us and the enemy. I wondered how much longer we’d have to keep it up for. Surely we would eventually be too far away from the hospital for them to keep ferrying passengers to us?

There were four riders left circling us. One of them shouldered his rifle and tried to shoot Sarah. Amris and I sheltered behind her as the IMMOVABLE OBJECT perimeter flashed purple with each round that tried to pass through it. The glowing red pellets stopped dead when they reached the perimeter and hung in the air as the skill absorbed both the kinetic energy they’d carried and the tiny amount of source imbued in the Assassin runes. Then the rounds dropped to the roof of the train with a metallic “plink” sound that was somehow much louder than it should have been. As if the skill was trying to make a point.

I leaned out from behind the perimeter of IRRESISTIBLE FORCE and shot the rifleman with my crossbow. The bolt hit him in the chest. It was a solid hit, not lethal but he didn’t look well and he started coughing up blood. He grimaced at us but turned his mount and flew back in the direction we had come. Hopefully he had decided that getting some help with his wound was more important than trying to kill us.

I was still looking after him, and listening to the clockwork of my crossbow reloading itself, when Amris grabbed me and pulled me around the perimeter. Just in time to avoid the spell that one of the other riders had thrown our way.

It was something flashy and explosive and probably would have messed me up but instead it hit the perimiter and spread round the cylinder shape, sparkling and crackling, as the skill absorbed the spell.

Amris shoved a black vial with a greenish and purplish sheen on it into my hand. “Can you read that?” he said.

There was a tiny label with scratchy, angular letters on it. After a moment of squinting the letters resolved into, “Poison cloud,” I said. “Can’t you read it yourself?”

He turned and hurled the vial at the rider that had cast the spell. The man had no time to dodge and the vial hit him in the face and shattered, releasing a cloud of greasy looking vapour and badly scratching his face.

“I would have read it myself,” said Amris, “but I got shot right in the reading glasses.”

Almost immediately the rider began simultaneously coughing and retching. He too turned and rode back in the direction of the hospital.

Indeed there was a bullet hole in Amris’s waistcoat right where the tiny pocket he kept his tiny golden pince-nez had been.

The remaining two riders also fled, but they fled in the direction the train was heading, pushing their flying metal ponies as hard as they could to outpace the train.

“Don’t relax yet,” said Sarah. “I think they’ve just had a clever idea.”

Sure enough they overshot the front of the train then turned on the spot and charged back towards us at full speed, lances lowered. They didn’t even have to aim. As long as they were above the train they would hit at least some of us.

My crossbow dinged with the good news that I had another bolt available. I aimed as best I could with the time I had and my aim was true but the bolt was deflected by a shield spell one of them had put up. If that was a kinetic shield, which it looked like, they would just snowplough us right off the train. If the impact didn’t kill us first.

“Get behind me,” said Sarah.

I didn’t see how that was going to help but there wasn’t any time to argue and I had no better ideas so I just did as I was told.

My heart was beating faster than I think I’d ever felt it beat, in either life. Everything seemed to slow down as the two riders approached. My mind raced, searching for some solution that would get us out of this.

Sarah seemed calm. She drew herself up. Feet together, back straight, standing at the back of the perimeter and staring down the two riders and their lances.

At the last possible moment before the lances pierced the perimeter she stepped forward with all the force and inevitability of continental drift. She brought her arms down, deflecting the lances and grabbing one in each hand.

Time slowed further as the two riders stopped dead. I saw the purple glow of the JUGGERNAUT SKILL gather in sharp lines and spread outward from Sarah’s hands like glass breaking in extreme slow motion. The lines spread along the lances and the metal shattered according to those lines. Then the lines met the arms of the two riders and only slowed a little as the pattern spread up the arms, stopping at the shoulder.

Then time snapped back to normal.. Both the riders hit the train roof and rolled. One rolled off and I got what I somehow knew would be the last additional stack of REGENERATION AURA. The other ended up between Amris and I, screaming.

Sarah stood still for a moment longer, surrounded by chunks of lance, littering the roof of the train. The two black metal horses lay on the roof in front of her, their lights extinguished. She stepped beyond the purple line on the roof and it vanished. She picked up the two horses and turned back to us.

“I’m going to see if Asser wants these. You two had better bring chuckles there inside if he’s still breathing.” She turned and jogged away in the direction of the train engine.

“If he’s still breathing?” said Amris over the sound of the man screaming. “He’s doing nothing but breathing.”