Young Writers Society

Getting ready for action! Stories and plots at McBernic's

“In fifth, we have the Mystik-inspired Styles.

First, the Shamans. They are powerful healers, and they can also summon spirits and acquire their forgotten skills to empower themselves or selected allies.

Then come the Inquisitors: these Humanoids are specialized in stats-hindering curses, usually called Punishments, but they can also perform devastating spells, though these require long chanting preparations in order to be triggered.

Next, the Phantoms, which are Humanoids who fully embraced the Mystik path, abandoning their physical bodies to become living spirits, able to use various supernatural abilities.

And finally, the Soothsayers. Natural owners of a Third Eye, these humanoids can use a variety of psychic powers to create illusions or attack opponents, as well as boost their own power through meditation.”

Lionel Raikanj, during a presentation of Project: Muster Heroes.

“One, two three, four, get my shoes and out the door...”

J stepped forward and struck a bandit with a vicious thrust, sending him flying towards two of his comrades.

“Five, I'm alive, six, seven eight, feeling great...”

A fourth thug rose up from the ground, desperately trying to keep his balance atop the loot pile. J walked by and pushed him from the tip of his rapier, and the poor bandit unleashed a terrible scream before crashing on the ground, joining six other bodies at the base of the mountain of items.

“Nine, gotta shine, life is good...”

Weapon Thruster! Execute!

With a quick dash, J reached for the remaining enemies and unleashed her skill.

“...I'm doing fine; ten, gonna do it right and do it again, yeah...”

Only two of them were thrown out of her sight: the last one had rolled away, his dagger in hand, gaze focused on his foe. J walked towards him, head bobbing softly.

“With another sun rise, it's a brand new day, so gonna make a little list to keep the worries away...”

She finally reached the enemy's side, and the latter attempted several swift attacks with his weapon. J promptly bent her knees and hopped away, moving along with the energetic rhythm in her ears.

“I gotta dance just a little bit, move to be free; keep my head up, don't forget to be me...”

For a long time, it was the only thing she focused on: avoiding the hits of her opponent while stepping to the beat of her music. But unfortunately for her, the little game she was playing ended abruptly when a small scratch finally made its way on J's armor. She frowned and immediately countered, sending the last bandit flying away with the tip of her blade.

“Shit.” she spat before accessing her menu. J clicked on a message, re-reading it with utmost care.

Training Duties:

- Fencing Mastery – good precision, lack of power (prior to stats boost). Aim for the Sweet Spots.

- Footwork Mastery – Twirl Pattern mastered, Hop Pattern failed – against NPCs.

- Counterattack Mastery – Not started

- Rhythmic Fencing Mastery – Not started

- Rhythmic Dodging Mastery – Not started

Training Needs:

-Several fast combos;

-One or two damage-driven Skills;

-Something to make up for lack of overall power;

-A battle partner.

Objectives:

-Getting ready for the Round of the Arcade;

-Revise dancing moves.

J let out a little sigh. She'd really have to speed things up if she wanted to be ready for the next Arcade. But then again, no one would suspect that she'd train here of all places, and at least she could practice at her heart's content.

“Uh, J?”

“And then there's this guy.” The Fox Lady lowered the volume of the virtual musical player to the minimum, closed her menu and turned her head: Fulguro and Yatsu were standing beside her, uneasy. She stared at the duo, awaiting for one of them to explain their reasons for bothering her training.

“We're done farming for now,” Fulguro continued. “I sent the message to Mettrick, and he wants us to meet him at Vick's place. I've warned Exceedjinn, too, so his group will be there. You're coming?”

“Shit.” “Sure.” J sheathed her rapier and followed the two players towards the exit, her feet still following a set rhythm as she walked down the loot pile.

“Never stop training,” she whispered to herself like a gentle lullaby. “Never stop training, and the claps will be raining...”

Fulguro turned his head. “Did you say something?”

J walked past him, not even bothering to give him an answer.

“Walking down the sidewalk, kickin my feet, as I'm movin' to the music, step to the beat...”

******

“...So that's the plan,” Mettrick concluded, leaning against the bar of Vick's Inn. “I hope you've got everything covered.”

“Mostly my bits, 'cause they're the best,” Kamikaz answered, grinning. “I get to train a lot, fight a lot, and impale lots of peeps. That's perfect!”

“You also get to die a lot, if you're not careful,” Mettrick warned. “Which means you'll be late in terms of EXP. That's why I also want to make sure you farm in between missions. We'll need you to test the waters most of the time.”

“Right! Nothing I can't handle,” she assured.

“We'll see about that.”

“Yuh-huh! So, what do we do now, Lil' Met?”

Before the boy could answer, the door to McBernic's Tavern opened. Fulguro crossed the entrance, followed by Yatsu and J.

“Oh look, a ghost!” Yatsu exclaimed upon seeing Kamikaz. “Should we stab her to make sure she's actually dead or something?”

“Well I missed you too, Maskreep,” Kamikaz said. “But I swear, if you make one joke about spikes, you're the one getting' impaled next time!”

“Impaled?! I wanna see! I wanna see!”

Diabolsaur flew through the doorstep and stopped his race with a perfectly executed slide, a large smile stuck on the face. “Somebody's getting impaled?”

“Calm down, Diab.” Sheenobi said, entering along TriggerZ and Morkant. “I'm sure she was just joking.”

“Not really. And I did got impaled,” Kamikaz said, shrugging. “It tickles.”

“Oh really?” Exceedjinn interrupted, entering the area with a satisfied smirk. “Such a shame. I was under the impression that whatever Mettrick had schemed, it would've allowed all of his teammate to survive. I'm curious to know what went wrong.”

“What went wrong is that Kaz pretty much chose to die,” Mettrick said, shrugging as well. “That's one of the few things that can happen when you let her improvise a strategy.”

She glanced at him. “But... it worked, right?”

“Not the point, Kaz.”

“Well,” Exceedjinn continued, “that at least is something I can relate to. I had… quite some issues with improvising teammates as well.” He gave an accusing stare to Diabolsaur and Sheenobi. The latter smiled uneasily.

“Um… But… it worked, right?" she whispered. "And, um... I didn't die.”

The two strategists shared a look of equal concern for future plotting sessions during Boss battles.

“So, what happened on your side, Exceed?” Fulguro asked, changing subject. “Last time we saw you you were running after some pirates.”

“Quite right, Fulguro. My group and I were chasing after a henchman of Irvin Squaldon – one that Diabolsaur had forgotten to do battle with. Then we–”

“Wait,” Yatsu interrupted. “Irvin Squaldon? The guy who wants his daughters back?”

Exceejinn glanced at him, slightly confused. “I don't follow. He never mentioned anything about his relatives.”

Yatsu and Fulguro shared a look. “Looks like the lore is connected,” the latter realized, smiling. “Keep explaining, Exceed, we'll tell you everything.”

Frowning – was there something they knew about this he didn't...? – Exceedjinn obliged, explaining the details behind the side quest his group had completed. Morkant intervened several times, telling the group how him and TriggerZ struggled against Irvin Squaldon's powerful henchmen.

“The pirate woman was… kind of an excited freak, heh,” Morkant said. “She had that thing called the Powder Cannon, and each of her shots had different effects on you.”

“Oh yeah, that was insane!” TriggerZ added. “She had like five different powder stuff to shoot! One of 'em could blow stuff up, another could stun ya, she had all kinds of side effects. And then there was that Octopus guy! Dude could pull out tentacles out of his hat, and all of them had weapons tied at the end of 'em. And if you shoot 'em down, they regenerate after a few seconds!”

“Luckily,” Morkant continued, “we beat Octopus Stinks – 'cause yes, that's his name – without much trouble. All we really had to do was keep Powders away long enough to beat her partner, then deal with her. And that crazed gunman over there gatling gunned her down like a maniac, heh.”

“C'mon, I was just enjoyin' myself there!” TriggerZ exclaimed, grinning. “And at least I didn't literally bite the dust. Am I right, Flame Head?”

“That was totally your fault, Trig.”

“Bite me.”

Morkant chortled. “Rude!”

“In any case,” Exceedjinn interrupted, “when we reached their side, TriggerZ and Morkant were busy finishing off the rest of Irvin Squaldon's teammates, as they just explained. After the battle, we took our well-deserved loot and went on our way. That was when Fulguro contacted us, so we directed ourselves here.”

“Wow,” Kamikaz exclaimed, unable to divert her eyes away from Sheenobi. “So you outran sharks, fought the pirate master of said sharks twice, burned his robot pets, and then blew up the entire field he had created to trap you?! That's crazy! You should be a turned into century ninja, not a Summoner!”

“Um, thanks,” the latter answered uneasily, “but I couldn't have done that without my Spells and my Spirits. So I think I'll keep my Style.”

“You sure about that? Mr.Rusty told me that after we reach the Citadel, we'd meet some special blacksmith that could make us change Class and Style. You could actually turn into a badass ninja!”

“I'll… look into it.”

“Now it's your turn!” Diabolsaur suddenly shouted, gazing at Mettrick and his group. “What happened to you guys? Who did you fight? And why did one of you got impaled? I wanna know!”

Fulguro stepped forward as Exceedjinn and his group approached to listen. “We started by separating,” he began. “the Loot Shell's a pretty big place, so we had to try and locate the Boss first.” He explained how J met the enemies first, before being joined by Kamikaz and Yatsu, and finally, Mettrick and Fulguro himself.

“Yeah, then it really got weird,” Yatsu said, joining the narration. “Apparently, that Bygorn kid really likes weird animals, so we had to fight a rabbit who could multiply, a giant crocodile, and a… hen-thing that could fly, talk like a parrot and throw poisonous eggs. Kaz and I took the rabbit, Fulguro and Mettrick took the hen, and J destroyed the crocodile. But you did joined her for the last couple of hits, right?”

“Yeah,” Fulguro confirmed. “And after that, Bygorn himself came to fight us. Which is when things went from weird to crazy.”

Fulguro, Yatsu and Mettrick stared at Kamikaz, who gazed back at them, grinning. She stood up, momentarily abandoning her chair. “The countdown is ready to go: may the massive corruption begin!” she chanted. “Confess your wrong conscience: for His justice is sin! See the rebels tremble before His devilish might, for all souls shall crumble at His mere sight!”

“Uhh, you know,” Yatsu whispered, "you don't have to–”

“He incarnates pain beyond description!” she continued with dramatic gestures from her arms. “He'll mark your grave with His inscription! Make silence, fool, and freeze! All must hear the sound of the Devil's Breeze!”

She sighed joyfully, sitting back on her chair. “I freakin' love this incantation!” Kamikaz said. “That's what I used to blow up everythin' when we started fighting the boss!”

Enthusiastic, the teenage tomboy pridefully described her action against Bygorn and the Squaldon Twins.

“Oooooh!” Diabolsaur exclaimed, clapping. “You can call a demon to blow up people? That's awesome!”

“D'aaaaw, thanks! Your slimy dino-thingies I saw at the Saloon Brawl are pretty cool too, y'know. We should make a combo out of that!”

“To come back to the bossfight,” Fulguro continued, “we had to separate again, since it was three bossfights in one. Me and J had to fight Carnat and Azuria, while Mettrick, Yatsu and Kaz fought Bygorn.”

“They were a pain.”

Every head turned to J, who had finally spoken, slightly away from the gathering of players.

“They can summon Iron Maidens and hide in them.” she said. “The empty ones shoot lasers. The other ones shoot traps and supportive stuff. It's annoying.”

“Well lucky you, my Helmetons were there to destroy a couple of them!” Mettrick exclaimed nonchalantly. “And that's when Kaz got the idea to attract Bygorn out of the Iron Maidens' supportive effect by fighting him on her own while the rest of us beat up the Twins. By the time we did that, she managed to fall in a spike trap and got herself impaled. Then we finished off the boss. The end.”

“You mean you finished off the Boss, right?” Yatsu corrected. “Because you really went berserk against the poor kid with that pickaxe… hammer thing of yours. Talk about brutal revenge kill. Please remind me to never anger you.”

Kamikaz's eyes widened and she stared at Mettrick, a slight smirk making its way on her face. “Huh. Didn't know that. Neat.”

Mettrick slowly turned his head towards the masked player, glaring at him with the exact same angry scowl he had against Bygorn.

“I… I, uhh… I was just sayin'.” Yatsu whispered pitifully.

“So that's how it happened,” Mettrick muttered. “Then I had to go get Kaz to fill her in on the details, while Fulguro, Yatsu and J stayed to ask Bygorn some questions. That's when we learned that Carnat and Azuria were Irvin Squaldon's daughters, and that that pirate wanted to get them back.”

“That is quite odd,”' Exceedjinn said. “So far, the only data we managed to gather was that Irvin's men were after valuable information about the Citadel of Ire – he was in fact about to get it before Diabolsaur defeated them.”

Mettrick leaned over, a spark of interest in his eye. “So, like… He was trying to steal some kind of document? Do you still have it?”

Exceedjinn opened his menu and, seconds later, a white letter closed by a red seal appeared in his hands. The words “From V.M.” were written on the back of the document.

“We decided not to open it yet because of the seal,” Exceedjinn continued. “By this point we already noticed that a lot of interesting choices can be made in Muster Heroes, and I have the distinct impression that our tiniest of actions can great affect the next events.”

“AKA,” Sheenobi intervened, “We're not sure if the lady that wants this letter back will trust us if we read what's inside. But we might get her trust and get even more info if we don't. So um, we're not sure what to do with it.”

“We noticed similar things, actually,” Fulguro exclaimed. “Or at least I think I did.”

Exceedjinn raised an eyebrow. “Do go on.”

“It's Bygorn. Him and the Twins seem to be really close friends, and he doesn't seem to want Irvin to get them back – that and Irvin and Vick are apparently big rivals,” Fulguro explained. “But I've noticed that every time we mentioned Bygorn's father, him and the Twins looked super worried. Like if they didn't want him to discover them or something.”

“I see,” Exceedjinn said, impassive. “And what does this have to do with choices we may or may not have to make?”

“Don't you get it?” Mettrick interrupted, jumping down from his chair. “The keyword is blackmail. We now know that Irvin's at the Filibuster's Bridge, trying to get something from Boil Harbor. But we also know that he may want his daughters back – which is the complete opposite of what Bygorn himself want. All we gotta do is tell him that we do have ties with Irvin, and that we could just bring him to the Loot Shell to get the Twins unless he decides to give us things.”

“And what would Bygorn have that would possibly interest us?”

“Oh gosh!” Fulguro exclaimed, gazing at Mettrick. “I get it! An alternate way! Bygorn said that the only reason he and the Twins could pass without fighting the Witch was because she knew her grandmother. But there's a big chance that he didn't tell us everything!”

“So if we blackmail the guy,” Yatsu completed, “He might actually give us even more info. Or even some kind of shortcut.”

“Actually,” Mettrick interrupted once more, “as much as I'm happy to see that you guys got it, I should probably point out that I already found what the shortcut was. I asked Fulguro to gather everyone here because I wanted to tell you all what it was, and make sure that you'd all understand why we shouldn't take it.”

The players gave a united confused stare to the boy.

“I love it when you talk like that, Lil' Met,” Kamikaz said, giggling. “Please enlighten us with your genius!”

“I wouldn't call myself a genius for figuring that one out, Kaz,” Mettrick hiding his growing smile with a modest shrug.

“Well you sound quite overly confident all of sudden,” Exceedjinn commented. “What is this shortcut?”

“Handbagg.”

Even more confused by Mettrick's answer, the Enchanter frowned and put a hand to his face. Without looking, Sheenobi immediately grabbed his arm, intercepting his movement. “Do… Do elaborate,” he continued awkwardly while Sheenobi smiled to herself.

“Mentor Ferrust warned us that some cultural references were placed all around Muster Heroes,” Mettrick explained. “To make us think and learn, and all that. I don't think we're supposed to discover any of these yet, since we're still doing the test, but I remember a tale I read a few years ago. It was about a crocodile who's river was being taken over by humans. To defend his kind, that crocodile found some kind of magical power that allowed him to eat anything. Thing is, he abused of it and the humans managed to kill him anyway.”

“Curse of the Scaly Eater,” Yatsu said, snapping his fingers. “Darn, I should've known.”

“That's the one!” Mettrick said. “The crocodile got himself killed, and one of the humans decided to take his scales and turn them into a fancy magic bag that could contain virtually anything.”

Exceedjinn nodded. “Including ten players willing to cross the Chimerical Plains, in our case,” he said. “Handbagg is the crocodile, and we can ask Bygorn if he can temporarily eat us. Then, the Witch will not see us pass, and we would not have to fight her to cross the plains.”

Mettrick nodded. “See? I'm no genius for figuring that out. I just had to remember the tale.”

“Well now I see why we wouldn't want to take that shortcut, heh,” Morkant said, attracting several curious gaze towards him.

“Why not?” Diabolsaur inquired. “I really wonder what a crocodile's insides are like!”

Morkant smiled. “And I wonder if you'd be happy to get less experience points from not fighting a Boss. And that's why Mettrick said we shouldn't take the shortcut, right? We don't know what enemies we'll have to fight in the Citadel of Ire, so we'd better not be underleveled.”

“Good thinking, I must say,” Exceedjinn admitted, gazing back at Mettrick. “However, since we indeed intend to fight the Witch, this means that we must get ready as soon as possible. I believe this is the part where we split up again and organize our activities.”

Kamikaz chose this moment to rise up and stretch her arms, her usual grin stuck on the face. “Finally!” she exclaimed. “The part I was waitin' for. You guys have fun with your strategy thingies. If you're looking for me, I'll be farming at the Loot Shell! There's a kid I need to impale there. Later everyone!”

With that said, and with a last sign towards Mettrick, Kamikaz brandished her oversized trident and marched out of the inn, her cape floating with determination behind her back.

“Well that's one activity down,” Mettrick said, filling the short silence that had followed Kamikaz's abrupt exit. “Anyone else got plans or things to do somewhere?”

“Oh boy!” Diabolsaur exclaimed, overjoyed. “Boss?! Can I follow her?! I really wanna see Bygorn! And I didn't fight in the Loot Shell yet! Can I? Can I?”

“Um, you sure you want to follow this girl?” Sheenobi inquired, slightly concerned. “I mean, I don't want to order your around, or anything, but be careful.”

“Let him do as he pleases,” Exceedjinn intervened. “He enjoys fighting more than any of us anyway. Go to the Loot Shell, Diabolsaur. And when you come back, I want you to have learned at least one new skill. Understood?”

“Yay!” the latter replied. “You got it Boss! And don't worry Sheen, I'll be fine! Hey, Kamikaz! Wait up!”

Diabolsaur rushed towards the exit, screaming something about impaling.

“I shall go back to the Filibuster's Bridge,” Exceedjinn declared. “There are always ambushes there, which is perfect for farming. Besides, if Irvin or his crewmates appear once more, I would be delighted to face them again. Sheenobi, would you care to accompany me for this task?”

“Um, yeah sure,” she agreed. “I don't mind.”

“Well I'm going back to Turbulence Market,” Morkant said confidently. “I didn't get to explore everything about it, and I really want to know what the letter's about, heh. Speaking of, Exceed? Can I have it, please?”

Exceedjinn gave the letter to Morkant, who put it inside of his pocket.

“I guess I'll tag along,” TriggerZ said, shrugging. “Trigger Finger's not itchy anymore. 'Sides, we might get to buy some awesome stuff. Really don't wanna miss that.”

“Wait, I didn't get to explore that place,” Yatsu intervened. “Can I join in? Didn't get much items from the Loot Shell. And I want to know what's in the letter too.”

“Sure thing! Uhh… Maskreep, was it?”

“Yatsu, cowboy. It's Yatsu. Don't mind Kamikaz: she comes up with the weirdest nicknames.”

“Tell me about it…” Mettrick muttered to himself. “And what about you two?” he added, gazing at Fulguro and J.

“I didn't get to fight in the Filibuster's Bridge, so I think I'll go there.” Fulguro replied. “You coming, J? We might have some neat ambushes to deal with. It could be fun.”

“Mm.”

An awkward silence followed J's short answer.

“I'm… staying behind for a while,” Mettrick said. “I just wanna ask a few questions to Vick and his family. Then I think I'll go back to the Loot Shell too, I didn't explore it entirely. We'll probably have to switch places to farm in, so let's keep contact with each other as we do. Whenever we're done, let's all meet up here again, alright?”

The remaining players nodded in agreement. Save for Mettrick, they all left the inn and went on their separate ways once more, eager to attend to their respective activities.