Dungeon Sniper

What Alstair gifted me was a 'perspective.'

In flashes, I saw my childhood, alone in the house. I saw my mother, drunk and exhausted from her night shifts. I saw my first three-hundred-yard sniping shot in a tournament. I saw my first girlfriend, and what a bitch she really was. I saw Kyle, and also the look of greed on his face that I had tried to ignore in the name of friendship. I saw the empty wine glass on the floor. I saw the dead women at the Goblin Lair. Mataki, Nasty, Gimford, Ramsis, Mosez, and Elysia all took turns to pass before my eyes briefly—

"We face the reality," Alstair had said, eyeing me with hope, and also concern, while my petulant face looked back at him—me.

The repressed feelings of remorse that only surfaced as aimless anger, the weight of all the deaths that I justified in the name of petty justice, the reluctance to take a single responsibility seriously, not then, nor now, all took shapes, only to disintegrate.

What came over me was not a wave of epiphany, but more of a gentle wind softly whistling through cracks on the shell I had hidden under, within, and behind, of the faked callousness, bravado, and apathy.

I was looking at the world with fresh eyes. Clear, wide eyes that could tell the black from gray, and gray from white. The tears were gone, as were any hindering, extraneous thought.

"Let's move," I pulled the dagger out from Alstair's c.h.e.s.t and flung it back to Elysia, who snatched it in mid-air adroitly.

I got up and scanned the empty corridors.

"That way," Elysia tapped my shoulder and pointed to the way she had come.

Elysia walked ahead, but I did not follow. She turned and eyed me impatiently.

"What?"

"You're not hearing that?" I nodded to the closed exit ahead.

Seven Elves. Armed. Behind the exit. Waiting.

"Hear what?"

"How did you escape from Ramsis's watch?"

"Really? Now?"

"When he was absent, here with us. It's too convenient. You were tailed, Elysia. You fell for a trap."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm just saying Oren did not keep his end of the agreement. He wanted you to let us free. That's how he operates. He baits, and he waits."

Elysia blinked and looked between the exit down the corridor and me. Her perfect eyebrow twitched as she did indeed sense something behind the door.

"It's not your fault, Elysia."

"It is. What was I thinking?"

"Thinking about saving us. First and foremost. And we are grateful, El."

Only Alstair called Elysia in such a way. But Elysia was too concerned about the guards on the other side of the door to notice the change right away.

"That means we're trapped," Elysia bit her lips in frustration.

"Not exactly," I said as I ran my fingers on the moist brick walls of the prison cell.

The Perk from Alstair did not grant me his knowledge of, for instance, the blueprint of the prison building we were in. It did, however, make me think like someone who was smarter and wiser than me.

"Humans built this place, under forced labor."

It was my voice, but I was not the one talking.

Elysia had her eyes fixed on the exit, as if expecting the Elf guards to barge in any moment.

"Relax, Elysia. They won't come in. They want to catch us escaping through the door, to implicate you," I assured Elyisa.

It was then Elysia noticed something different about me—more specifically, the grace with which I talked.

"You sound different... you sound like Alstair," frowned Elysia nervously.

"I'll explain everything, once we get out of here," I said reassuringly.

"And how are we doing that exactly?"

"I was about to start. Cover your ears. It's going to get a little... noisy."

Elysia covered her pointy ears tentatively, and I clicked my tongue using the Reflect Voice in combination with the Echolocation. The ringing echo of continuous click sounds reverberated around the hollow cell and throughout the walls of the corridors.

Elysia, hands on ears, blinked confusingly at me, but she was prudent enough to keep her mouth shut. And I was glad for that because her voice, albeit as beautiful as her looks, would have ruined the whole 'search.'

The search for the Human mistakes.

Several spots on the wall and the floor had flaws in them. In other words, the Humans messed up. It was only two years ago that the Humans were recruited against their will to build not just Castle Deltaris but every building that stood on the island of Deltaris Complex. Even the island itself was an artificial collection and acc.u.mulation of dirt and stones.

The palace of victors was built on shaky grounds to start with. The Elves wanted Castle Deltaris to withstand thousands of years. The Humans wanted the opposite of that, naturally.

Everything Human-made was never meant to last forever. From simple buildings to civilizations, Human creations were imbued with the same quality as their mortal creators: transience.

Humans lived to fear having to count the days left in them. Some Humans aspired for immortality through their works, legacies.

But to build a lasting disgrace of a monument to commemorate an immortal race's triumph over them?

Only two years had passed since construction, but a particularly keen Elf noticed the damages taking tolls already. And what that Elf was telling me, in a gist, was this:

The Humans did their best to f.u.c.k up good.

The last line was my own. Everything else was Alstair's living memory of how he deemed us Humans.

Even then, Alstair did not look down on the Humans. I could tell. He thought our flaw, our jealousy, shortsightedness, and inevitable mortality as some kind of charms, an overall appeal, the core identities that defined us.

And I was thinking, he would have loved to see Brooklyn someday.

I stopped the Reflect Voice and went to the nearest, weakest block of bricks on the floor. I tapped it, felt certain I found it, and looked back at Elysia as I pointed the fine, barely visible cracks on the surface.

Elysia came forward and squinted her eyes at the block.

"Construction errors?" she gasped, a sign of delightful surprise.

"This whole building is covered with cracks like this that would turn it into crumbling dust with just the right explosive."

"But we don't have an explosive."

"Just making a mental note for future uses."

In other words, explosives incoming. Fried Elves on the menu, soon.

Elysia kicked on the cracks. Dust arose as the block cracked even more.

"The Humans did this on purpose, didn't they? A silent protest against the slave labor... the denial of the city itself, it seems," she stared down at the flawed block thoughtfully, sadly.

I could only imagine what was going on through Elysia's mind right now. The entire city of Deltaris was built like this. Cracked, imperfect, and unstable. The outward glamour of the decorative exterior designs and the ever-bright lights that never went to sleep and lined the clean, beautiful streets? All lies.

Depressing, admittedly, but kind of fitting for a city that came to be in the first place through lies and deception. One could even say the Elves had it coming.

The Elves got a fragile city waiting to collapse for their first betrayal against the Humans. One could only guess what they would get for the second betrayal. Hint: he was about to escape their prison and come back with lots and lots of explosives.

"Well, now you know never to hire Human construction workers," I shrugged, hoping to put some smile back on Elysia's face.

"Now you sound like yourself again," scoffed Elysia, but not in a mean way.

"Do you need help breaking the thing?" Elysia kicked at the block again, but her lean, deer-like legs could do only so much.

"You can help by staying far away. You could get hit with the debris. Take Al with you to the other end."

After I saw Elysia move Alstair's body gently to the side, I began the work.

I kicked on the cracks, weighing down with my Hyper Hind Leg with conscious effort. Then I began to really Burrow. Granted, it was not as easy as digging up dirt. The processed blocks felt as hard as cemented bricks I had come across in everyday life on Earth, and the Thick Skin Perk did not extend to protect my nails from bleeding.

But the bricks came off after a few layers, and I finally found the soft, damp soil underneath.

Meanwhile, Elysia kept looking behind her back, to the exit.

"If they came in right now—"

"I told you, they won't."

"Look, it's been ten minutes since I got here. And I wasn't exactly 'careful' when I was coming down to get you."

"If you're worried about the dead bodies, they've found them a long time ago."

"I didn't kill all of them."

I could not see because I was already eight feet down the hole, but I imagined Elysia was pouting like a sullen kid.

"The fact that they're still waiting behind the door despite having found the bodies is exactly why you can let your guard down as long as we keep them thinking we're trapped in here."

"I know you said they're waiting for me to walk out that door to implicate me, but that noise you made, that would've raised some alarm and still no one's come in to check what that was all about!" Elysia quipped hysterically.

The Elves were indeed a meticulous race. Another word for 'meticulous' was 'fussy,' and right now I wanted to add another 'f' to the word.

"They're just waiting on orders. You, them, all the same. We can be like that. Too frigid at times, inflexible, fastidious beyond means—"

"Wait. Did you just say we, as in 'we Elves?'"

I looked up from the hole, spitting out the dirt from my mouth.

"I don't know. Did I say that?"

"All right. I get that something happened, and a part of Alstair's with you, not to mention how freaky that sounds—"

Elysia was clearly losing it, so I had to cut her off.

"Can it wait? In case you didn't notice, I'm busy trying to get us out of here alive."

"How far off are we?"

"You said it yourself. It's only been ten minutes."

"Anytime now. The guards will definitely know something's up," Elysia paced around the cell impatiently.

"Like what?"

"How would I know what they think?" Elysia shrieked back at me.

"Oh, El, you typical Elf. All the tools in the world and still lacking imagination. Or maybe it's just your generation, not ours."

I never asked, but I knew now. Alstair was an old Elf, despite the timelessly beautiful face he had.

"Stop talking like you're one of us!"

"You know what I'm imagining right now? I'm imagining that the guards are imagining that you and I are making out in real life, not just in my imagination right now. Did you understand what I was saying, or was that too imaginative for you?"

That shut up Elysia for a long, good five seconds.

"Our friend is lying next to us, dead, and you're thinking that crap in your head?" growled Elysia threateningly.

"Yeah, well, Alstair would've laughed."

Or he would have gone on another lecture about the power of imagination or some other crap. Oh man, I missed Alstair.

"Just, hurry up," Elysia frowned, looking like her former self that used to hate me just for existing next to her.

It only took a couple of more minutes until I hit the end. The fresh air slapped my face, with a hint of humidity.

My little tunnel led to an edge of the island, twenty feet above the water.

I crawled back and popped out of the hole to see Elysia looking down at me worriedly.

"Well?"

"I found a way out. You can swim, right?"

Elysia understood the context of the random question right away. The Elves were a smart race, even though they could be a pain in the a.s.s sometimes. More than sometimes.

"Don't worry about me. Alstair, on the other hand..."

Elysia and I both stared at Alstair's peaceful face.

"Oren may have hated Alstair, but the other Elves still respected the leader of the Runnels. I don't think they would treat Alstair badly, especially now he's dead."

Elysia was suggesting that we left Alstair here, relatively unscathed. But it was clear that she did not want that. And neither did I.

"No. I'm taking him with me," I said, checking the width of the tunnel to make sure it could work.

"Are you sure?" asked Elysia, unable to hide the hopeful elation.

"These Elves here in Deltaris, they don't deserve him. He needs to go back to his friends. His family."

Elysia beamed, her face brightening up for the first time since she came down here.

"The bad news is that he's going to bump his head, like a lot. The good news? He can't complain about it."

I grinned back at Elysia, only to receive the icy cold stare in return.

"Seriously?"

"Again, Alstair would've laughed."

"Move. I'll carry him. I just know you're going to bump his head on purpose on the way down."

"What? That's ridiculous."

"I know you were thinking about it. 'Sorry for the bumpy ride, Al!' or something like that."

"What a horrible thing to say, Elysia!"

I was thinking about it.

In the end, I let Elysia carry Alstair's body down the hole like a good boy.

A minute later, three bodies, two alive and one dead, jumped into the river, unnoticed and unceremoniously.

.

.

.

We swam along with the current of the river and floated out of the city. There were not many eyes looking down at the river at such an early hour into the daybreak, but I was not sure we were completely unseen in our three-mile-long swim in the river. We arrived at the miniature dam that controlled the flow of river going out to the east end. Elysia knew her way and we navigated through the simple structure, and we were out in the open, a couple of thousand yards away from the East Gate we had entered Deltaris a day ago.

"Do you think Illisiv is still waiting at the gate?"

According to my Vivid Memory, Alstair ordered the entire Runnels to gather at the East Gate, in case a need for assistance arose.

"Illisiv is too smart not to catch the words around town that Alstair was captured. He should be back at the camp with others," said Elysia.

"You know what this world really needs? Cellphones, and Uber. I could really use an Uber-horse right now."

"I didn't understand any of what you just said."

"It's only the future, Ellie."

"But I can see that you're exhausted, but it's only a few more miles' walk. Come on. Let's get moving."

This was the first occasion there was a genuine sympathy and gratitude on Elysia's face while looking at me. As heartfelt it was to see a change in Elysia's attitude toward me, I was not looking into Elysia's friendly eyes. I was looking over her head, at the dust storming behind a speck on the horizon.

Elysia noticed I was staring far ahead, so she turned and saw the approaching figure too.

A smile broke on her weary face.

"I don't know what a 'cellphone' is, but the Runnels have something better."

"I doubt it, because if you ever saw a smartphone, it would literally blow your mind, but I'll pretend to believe you and ask what you have."

"Companionship," said Elysia excitedly as she waved her hand to the approaching horseman.

"That's... corny," I frowned.

"Uber-companionship?" added Elysia hopefully?

"Stop," I shook my head with a grunt.

"Yeah, well, Alstair would've agreed," Elysia lifted her chin up like a little girl. Adorable, but sill corny.

"Actually, I think I heard him groan just now."

"No, he didn't, Beta," smiled Elysia softly.

This was also the first time Elysia called me by my name. A code name, but a major upgrade from a 'nutcase' or a 'crazy man.'

At this rate, I did not know which would come sooner: the fall of Deltaris or my marriage with Ellie.

The gray horseman had come within the distance where I was able to recognize his face. He was not Illisiv. He was bigger, more muscular, and the skin barely visible behind the scowl had an undeniable hint of green.

The Orc Runnel came to a stop before Elysia, me, and the now stiff body of Alstair leaning against me. He lowered the mask to show his tusk-like teeth protruding from the mouth. He looked formidable, but when his eyes fixed on Alstair, his slitted red eyes narrowed even more, and came down the tears.

"Beta, this is Baraka. Baraka, Beta was with Alstair... at the end," Elysia looked up at the Orc rider, who did not wipe away his tears as he extended his hands silently. I understood the gesture and helped him place Alstair's body between his arms on horseback.

"I will return first and prepare for the funeral," said the Orc with a deep, growling voice.

Baraka took off his cloak and covered Alstair gently with it. As he did so, his eyes had fixed on me. They were looking at me curiously, but not hostilely. Appraisingly, but not intrusively.

"Strange. I sense Alstair in you. What have you done, Human?"

Elysia started and so did I. But I understood right away, thanks to Alstair's memory within me. Orcs in general had strong instincts. Baraka, a rare Orc scout, had even keener instincts than his brutish, warrior brethren.

It only took a second for me to process the information, and by then Baraka's sharp gaze did not intimidate me anymore. Not exactly feeling friendly either, but baby steps first.

"I owe everyone an explanation," I looked at Elysia, who nodded back encouragingly, "so I'll explain everything at the camp. Alstair would have wanted that."

Baraka stared back at me silently for a while.

"Alstair, he was a talker, but kind," said Baraka finally, slow and deliberate.

"He was," I said solemnly.

"But the funeral comes first. I care not much of explanations, and I would rather talk about the 'plan,'" Baraka turned the horse completely and pulled the reins expertly with Alstair's body securely held between his strong arms.

"What plan?" I asked.

"Of revenge," answered the Orc, riding off, with the simple, staunch emotion in his voice ringing steely cold to the ears, and boiling hot to the heart.