Seeds of Discordia: New Arrival Mayhem

 

“Run Liam! – Eri.”

 

“Get back here!” Nalia shouted as she sprinted for the window. She popped her head out to see he was already turning from the alleyway into the street. She jumped out and started her chase.

As Liam turned into the main street he was surprised to see the scene before him. The street wasn’t as empty as it normally was around this time in the morning. It was full of people walking on foot or filling up carriages with boxes or other containers. The large Yooperlite overhead had started to brighten up bringing light upon this small town.

He turned around to look back into the alleyway and saw Nalia jump out of the window.

“God damn it,” Liam cursed before he started to sprint through the ever changing obstacle course that was presented in front of him.

As he ran in and out of the traffic, jumping to the side of the people that wouldn’t get out of the way, Liam tried to get his bearings and figure out where he was in the town. After a few seconds he figured out he was close to the middle of the town.

Shouts escaped from the lips of people he was trying to pass by as they noticed him running.

“Watch it!” a man shouted.

“Slow down!” A woman yelled.

“Get out of the way!” Liam heard Nalia yell out.

He turned around to see she was shoving people to the side, trying to make them get out of her way. The people that weren’t being pushed by her as she made her way to Liam noticed what she was doing and yelled at her to stop causing a scene. She glared at them, but didn’t stop to give them a piece of her mind. Instead, she kept her eyes on Liam.

 

“Liam, look out! – Eri.”

 

Liam spun his head back to look forward. He let out a yelp as he almost ran into a stack of boxes sitting in the middle of the road. At the last second, he stomp his foot down and spun around the right side of the boxes. Right into a person who was carrying a barrel.

Both Liam and the man collided and fell to the ground.

Liam shook his head as he tried to get back up.

The person who he had ran into was already on his feet glaring down at Liam.

“What the hell is your problem,” the man scowled as he looked down at Liam.

“Sorry, I’m in a hurry and I didn’t…,” Liam tried to say until the man reached down and gripped the collar of his shirt.

 

“She’s closing in on you fast. – Eri.”

 

“I don’t care about your excuses mate. You just destroyed my barrel full of cab…,” the man roared. He had a fist form and was ready to throw it at Liam.

Liam didn’t wait for him to finish as he felt Nalia closing in on him.

Liam gripped the man’s wrist with his left hand and twisted it. He felt the man release his grip, which surprised him. The man was even more surprised as Liam grabbed and pushed the inside of the man’s bicep, spinning him around right into Nalia, sending them both to the ground.

“Sorry!” Liam shouted as he started to run again.

Nalia growled as she pushed the man off of her and got back up onto her feet. She restarted her chase for Liam shortly after that, leaving the confused man on his back.

“Quit fucking running!” Nalia yelled.

“Hell no!” Liam shouted back before seeing a group of people wearing a uniform he didn’t recognize not too far ahead. They wore a white shirt with a golden eye on it with chain mail that poked out from the bottom and the arms of the shirt. They had plate mail looking leggings and a helmet.  They didn’t look like people from the Training Hall or the Magic Tower. They looked more like security of some sort.

Who the hell are these guys? Liam thought as he saw them slowly turn their heads to look at him.

 

“They are a group from the All Knowing Eye. A group of trained warriors who worship Isis. – Eri.”

 

“Stop that man!” Nalia yelled out to the new group of people.

The group of men didn’t hesitate as they rushed towards Liam.

 

“Turn down the road to your right. – Eri.”

 

Liam listened and turned down the street Eri suggested.

This one was just as busy, but a lot narrower. This was the road that held majority of the stalls where people sold their items and food products. Now it was full of people tearing down the stalls. Poles, tents, boxes, and more littered the road.

“Shit, this was a bad idea,” Liam said as he tried to make his way through it without running into anything or anyone.

 

“Stop complaining and keep moving forward. – Eri.”

 

Liam let out a displeased grunt as he pushed his way through the crowd.

People yelled and scowled as he tried to push through them.

Liam heard someone complained that young people these days were always in a hurry.

As he made it to the middle of the roadway the crowd had started to thicken. He tried to push his way pass someone, but failed. It felt like the person was a boulder. He tried to move to the side, but more people got in his way.

“Fuck, come on people. Move!” Liam shouted.

The people around him turned and glared at him. They didn’t say anything, but instead continued to stand there.

He turned to look behind him and saw the people from the group Eri had told him about were quickly moving people to the side and getting closer to him. He then looked back at the crowd in front of him and noticed more people wearing the same uniform coming down from the other side of the road.

“Shit, I’m trapped,” Liam muttered to himself.

 

“Liam, do you see that stack of boxes and barrels to your left. The ones next to the stall that hasn’t been torn down yet. – Eri.”

 

Liam turned his head and saw what she was talking about. Yeah I see them…why?

 

“Climb up them and try using the tarp above the stall as a trampoline to launch yourself to the roof. – Eri.”

 

Liam looked at the building close to the tarp. It was a two story building. The stall was only half of the building and looked flimsy.

You’re kidding right? That thing will break once when I try to bounce off of it. Liam complained.

 

“No, it won’t. Trust me. – Eri.”

 

Yes it will. This isn’t a movie. The tarp wont magically hold my weight like its made out of some magical material… Liam started to argue until he realized what kind of world he was now in.

 

“*Raises one brow* – Eri.”

 

Liam was about to say something again, but then heard one of the men chasing yell out, “Stop where you are!”

 

“Quit your bitching and just do it. Now! – Eri.”

 

Liam grumbled as he made his way to the wall where the boxes and barrels were stacked in a way that allowed him to climb up next to the stall.

Once when he made it to the top he heard someone shout out, “What do you think you are doing? Get off of that right now! Guards!”

Liam ignored the salesman, took a couple of breathes and then jumped.

He felt his legs push down onto the top of the stall and for a moment he truly believed he was going to go right through. Then all of a sudden he was shot up into the air, arms flailing around as his body sailed towards the top of the building.

He was almost within reaching distances of the ledge and was reaching both arms out to grab the edge, but then his speed slowed down. He felt panic rise as the tips of his fingers were inches away from the ledge. The panic rose immensely as he felt his ascent momentum stop and was starting to fall back down.

“Shit!” Liam yelled as he started to fall.

His descent stopped as two pairs of hands suddenly reached out and grabbed his.

He looked up to see Blair and Avery pulling him up to the roof.

“Thanks,” Liam said as he planted his feet down on the side of the building and moved them to help push himself up. He was panting a bit. Once when he was fully on the roof he added, “I thought I was going to fall back down there for a second.”

“No problem,” Blair stated. “We were told to get up here and try to catch you.”

“We need to move. Those guys are still pursuing us. I think I hear some coming up the stairs to get up here,” Avery announced

“Where do we go from here?” Liam asked. “If their coming up the stairs then our escape is cut off.”

Blair looked around. After scanning the area she said, “No it’s not.”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked as he looked in the direction she was staring at.

It was the other roofs of the buildings.

“You don’t mean…,” Liam started until Eri popped in.

 

“Start hopping those roofs. – Eri.”

 

“God damn it,” Liam complained as he took in some air before following Avery and Blair.

The roofs of these buildings were close enough to each other that hopping over to the next ones wasn’t that hard.

“I thought you guys would have left by now,” Liam said as they ran and hopped.

“Nabal had come by each of our rooms and informed us about what was going on,” Blair started.

“However, as soon as we walked out of the building we saw those golden eye bastards making their way to us,” Avery continued. “That was when Eri warned us about them and that you were being chased by Nalia.”

“And since we were closest to you, she told us where to go and to catch you,” Blair finished before she skid to a halt.

Liam and Avery came to a stop and looked at the reason why Blair had.

The next roof was across the road and the gap was not a small one.

Liam heard the shouts of men as they ran out of a door a few buildings down. They looked around and spotted the three they were pursuing and started for them.

“What do we do now?” Liam asked.

“We need to get over there,” Blair stated.

“How?” Liam asked.

“By jumping of course,” Blair smiled.

“I don’t know if you know but…,” Liam started to complain. He hadn’t told them about the Stat Shatter Debuff that was still plaguing him.

“We know about your predicament,” Avery stated. “Just trust us.”

Liam let out a gust of air before calming himself down. He then looked at her and said, “I trust you guys.”

“Good,” Avery smiled before she started chanting, “Wind, light and ferocious. Aid and help me. Gather around and cover me. Lighten the gravity that defies you. Light as a Feather!”

Liam watched as a small gust of wind outlined Avery’s figure. Her hair flitted and fluttered as the wind moved around her.

After she finished she took a few steps back, gave him a wink and said, “See you on the other side.”

She then sprinted as fast as she could towards the edge of the building. Once when she reached the ledge, she bent her knees down and then pushed herself as hard and far as she could.

Liam watched as she soared through the air. Her body launched up in an angle. Once when it reached a certain altitude, she started to descend. However instead of falling straight down fast like a rock after being thrown, her descent was angled like the wind lightened her mass and allowed her to fall at a thirty-five degree angle. This trajectory allowed her to land her feet right on the edge of the building she aimed for.

Liam was shocked and surprised at what he saw. He knew Light as a Feather helped lighten the body but he didn’t know it could do something like that.

“She must have leveled it up and got it to add some new thing to the ability or something,” Liam muttered as he tried to think about it.

Blair suddenly grabbed Liam’s arm and pulled him back some. “Come on. We need to hurry as well.”

Liam was brought out of his thoughts and looked at her. “I still don’t know how I’m going to make it ov…”

“Don’t think about that for now. Just go!” Blair shouted.

Liam looked behind him and saw the men chasing them getting closer.

He looked back at where Avery was, took a deep breath, let it out, and yelled as he started running, “Fuck it! Don’t think, React it is then!”

He mimicked Avery’s movements as he ran towards the edge. As soon as his feet touched the ledge he bent his knees, and then jumped.

He didn’t make it far before he started falling.

However, before he could drop straight down like a stone, he felt something hook under his armpits and was yanked back into the air.

He let out a surprise yell before looking up to see Blair right above him. Her wings stretched out as wide as she could.

They were gliding in the air.

Liam let out a short laugh before yelling out, “God damn it. You should have said you were going to do this in the first place.”

Blair smirked before she commented, “A girl has to make surprises here and there every now and then.”

Liam shook his head as they approached the roof of the building they aimed for. As soon as they reached it, Blair let Liam go allowing him to land on his feet before folding her wings and making them disappear.

“Okay, that was cool,” Liam smirked.

“No time to be amazed we still need to get out of here,” Avery said as they made their way to the door that led to the stairs.

Avery, Blair, and Liam reappeared out from the building as they rushed out and looked around.

The road was packed with people making it hard to tell if there were any more of the people from the All Knowing Eye around.

“Jesus, how are we supposed to make it through this giant crowd of people?” Avery complained as she tried to figure which way to go.

 

“Taking care of it now. – Eri.”

 

Liam made a confused look as he looked at the other two and noticed they had the same expression.

“What does she mean by…,” Blair started to ask until a scream suddenly filled the area.

A few more screams were let out as the crowd of people from their left started to move back.

“What the hell is that?” someone yelled out.

“Who let their pet loose!?” another shouted.

“Hey! That’s my roast pig!” another complained.

“Run its coming this way!” a female screamed in fright.

Avery, Blair, and Liam watched as the crowd start to make its way to the right, clearing a path and revealing a white crocodile like creature with six legs hissing and snapping its jaws. It would have looked menacing to the trio if they didn’t know who it was.

A voice called out, scolding the creature, “No, bad Barty! You weren’t supposed to steal that man’s food. If you were that hungry I would have bought it for you.”

Liam looked at Bartholomule. He noticed a part of a bone sticking out from the side of his mouth with some type of sauce smeared around his scales near that area.

It let out a happy trill as it opened its mouth and sucked the rest of the bone in before chomping back down and swallowing. It padded its feet merrily before spinning around. Liam wasn’t sure, but it looked like it was some sort of happy dance.

Liam let out a small chuckle before the three made their way over to Ariyana and Bartholomule the Albino Crocolisk.

Liam was about to say something until his Danger Sense suddenly flared up covering his entire head.

He looked up to see two rocks flying right for them. The speed they were falling was too fast for them to respond. However, right before they could land right on top of them two arrows collided and made them burst.

Liam saw Mercer a bit further down the road waving his arms telling them to hurry up and head towards him. Liam then turned around and saw Nalia was running through the panicked crowd with a group of men from the All Knowing Eye.

“Shit, time to go!” Liam called out.

Ariyana recalled Bartholomule back into his tattoo form before she started to run with them.

As soon as the four of them caught up with Mercer, he scolded while running, “God damn it Ariyana. You were supposed to just disperse the crowd not attract attention and alert them to where we are.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault Barty was hungry. Plus that man was an asshole. He tried grabbing my ass. I am not sorry for my little man stealing his food,” Ariyana pouted as they ran.

Liam shook his head and let out a small laugh.

The others looked at him and after a brief moment laughed with him.

After his laughing died down, Liam took in his surroundings. He knew where they were now. They were on the main road that led to the Portal Area.

They were almost there. As soon as they made it to the edge of the town all they had to do was run up the slope and rush through the portal.

However, as soon as he saw the edge of the town he noticed a group of men wearing the All Knowing Eye uniform standing in a line, blocking their way.

“Shit! They’re blocking the way out. What are we going to do? I don’t think we’ll be able to get through,” Liam called out.

Mercer grinned as he responded, “Don’t worry about that. We have two who are especially suited for something like this.”

Liam looked confused and was about to ask what he meant until he heard someone let out a loud battle cry.

On the right side of the group of men, a large figure suddenly plowed right through them from behind, causing them to fall face first into the dirt.

On the other side, flashes of light sparked before a group of men tensed up and arcs of lightning bounced around them.

It was Artem and Roman.

The rest of the men who weren’t affected by the attacks turned around with surprised looks on their faces.

They weren’t able to react before Liam, Blair, Avery, Ariyana, and Mercer shoulder chucked them as they passed, causing them to spin and lose their balance before falling to their sides.

Roman let out a laugh as he and Artem joined them in running.

“What took you so long? Did sleeping beauty here not want to wake up or something?” Roman teased playfully.

“Hey, when the nap is so good you just don’t want to get up,” Liam commented back, huffing as he pushed forward.

He really didn’t like his Sub-stats being halved like this. It made him feel like when he had just entered this new place and his stamina was so low. He pulled out a Weak Orange Stamina Potion and drank it to replenish his Stamina Bar. He felt the exhaustion that was piling up slowly disappear as he started his climb up the slope.

Halfway up, the group saw a dirt wall suddenly appear, blocking their path.

“Roman, Artem. Alleyoop!” Blair called out.

Roman turned around and clasped his hands together allowing Blair to place a foot on them without stopping and launched her up high enough for her to step on Artem’s shield. Artem gave her an extra boost up in the air.

Blair spun fast in a front flip motion. Her axe suddenly appeared in her hands spinning along with her as she appeared above the dirt wall.

She used the momentum as she came down to slam her hard covered scaled axe right through the middle of the wall. The force of the spin and the hard scales destroyed a big enough gap for them to squeeze through as she placed her weapon back into her inventory.

After they made it pass the wall they saw a group of people lined up waiting to enter the portal. Standing next to a person in front of the large multi colored portal was a familiar figure. It was Phorge.

He saw them rushing up and was about to wave until he saw a group of men yelling with Nalia in front of them.

“Stop them!” Nalia shouted.

Phorge grew even more confused as he watched this. He then noticed the direction of where the group of seven were running towards and they were not slowing down.

The official standing next to him started to panic and shake as he took a step forward and threw his arms out, hoping the running group of seven would slow down.

Phorge didn’t know what was going on, but even he knew what the outcome would be if he didn’t move the scared person next to him.

“Get out of the way you idiot,” Phorge stated as he grabbed the person by the shoulders and pulled him out of the way.

“Hey!” the official complained as he was thrown to the side.

He then watched and listened as the group approached and said something to him before running through the portal.

“Thank you for everything, Phorge!” Artem yelled leading the pack.

 “You’re the man Phorge!” Roman stated before diving into the portal.

“You’re awesome Phorge!” Avery shouted before sprinting through.

“You’re amazing, thank you for everything Phorge,” Mercer smiled as he waved at the Goliath before running through.

“Thank you for your guidance Phorge,” Blair stated as she nodded at him before entering the portal.

“Thanks for everything Porgy,” Ariyana smiled as she winked at him before hopping through the portal with her feet tucked under her.

Liam slid to a halt in front of the portal and looked at the tall muscular man. Out of breath and breathing deeply, Liam gave the man a grin.

“You lot look like you’re having fun,” Phorge stated as he looked down at the small male. He gave him a smile.

“Oh, you know how it is. If we’re going to go out then you might as well do it with style,” Liam stated as he brought a fist up and left it out in front of him.

Phorge looked at it with a confused look. A light bulb popped in his mind as he said while gently tapping his own fist against Liam’s, “You must be from that Earth planet. I don’t know any other planet that does this.”

Liam grinned widely before saying, “It wasn’t long, but thank you for all that you have done. Also apologize to Adva for me please.”

Phorge gave him a confused look as he asked, “What for?”

Liam turned his attention to Nalia who was speedily approaching them.

As she was running as fast as she could, Liam yelled out, “Hey Nalia…”

She gave him a confused look, but before she could say anything Liam lifted both his hands up and flipped her his middle fingers as he shouted before jumping backwards into the portal, “Fuck off you Weasel Bitch.”

Phorge let out a loud bellowing laugh as he watched Liam disappear into the portal.

Nalia came to a stop right in front of it. She turned her attention on to the tall muscular male and glowered, “What the hell did you let them through for? You worthless piece of shit!”

Phorge looked at her and noticed her entire face was beat red with rage.

As his laughter died down he said, “I don’t remember taking orders from someone like you. They have the right to leave. They have not done anything wrong, so why should I have stopped them from leaving this place?”

“They had information on what had happened inside that portal. We needed to…,” Nalia started to argue.

“You need to leave them alone,” Phorge cut her off. All laughter ceased to exist from his face. “Look, I want to know what happened in there just as much as you do, but the way you went about it was not correct. I would run too if an army of men started chasing me.”

Nalia was about to say something but was cut off once more.

“Also, when did these men come in? There's no record of them coming in when this portal was created.” Phorge eyed the beast-kin woman who was glaring at him. “And I would know since I was in charge of guarding this place and taking in any and all personnel using this portal.”

Nalia didn’t say anything. She just kept staring at him.

Phorge then said in a low threatening voice, “That tells me that there is a chance they were here the entire time. Hiding. Which begs me to ask…why was there a group of your men hiding here in this Tutorial Dungeon Area without the proper authorization. What is that goddess of yours planning Nalia?”

Nalia kept her gaze on the man. After a moment of silence had passed, she responded, “The actions and plans of a goddess more dignified than yours is not for you to interpret.” She then turned around and ordered, “Let’s get out of here. I have work to do before we leave this gods forsaken place.”

Phorge eyed the woman with suspicious eyes as she and the large group of men followed her away from the area before turning back to his duties.

Before Nalia started down the stairs, she turned her head and eyed the portal. She then looked back at the Black Tutorial Dungeon and thought about the events that happened the other night.

When the black portal started to go haywire and changed she stared at it with not just shock, but with a hint of recognition. She had never seen this portal before. She knew she hadn’t. But for some reason, she felt like she had. No. Not her, but the one she shared a connection with and who was able to see through her eyes at any given time.

As she stared at the portal during that time that night she felt that person’s rage and…fear. What that person was afraid of she didn’t know, but lately Nalia has found out there has been a lot of confusing things happening that left her confused. The most recent thing that left her confused and enrage was the one she was trying to get her hands on the most. That Liam guy.

She let out a breath of frustrated air before turning back around and walking away. I’ll find you out there. Just you wait. And when I do no one will be able to save you from me.