“Station coming up!” Eva cried. “I’m going to slow down!”
“Not until Katia is healed again,” I yelled. “Where the fuck is Silfa? Is she down?”
“She ran,” Donut said, breathless. She’d raised a pair of clockwork ghouls to fight for us, but Hekla killed them both in the confusion. “She ran away into the apartment!”
Katia: Carl. Where am I? Why isn’t Eva answering me?
I whirled back to Katia. Fucking hell. How was her health so low?
We’d almost pushed through the horde, and only a few ghouls remained on the exterior. I dodged and swung, punching over and over, killing monsters while keeping an eye on Katia’s constantly dwindling health. Was she getting shocked again? There was so much gore and bodies out there, surely she was getting blasted. But it was going down even faster than before, and I didn’t feel anything. It was like she’d been hit with a debuff, but it didn’t show on her status. I read another heal scroll, then another. I’d soon be out.
Donut: CARL! CARL! HEKLA SHOT KATIA WITH AN INVISIBLE ARROW! I SAW IT WITH MY SUNGLASSES! SHE DID IT EARLIER, AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A MISTAKE BUT SHE DID IT AGAIN. IT WAS MIXED IN WITH HER REGULAR ARROWS. IT WENT INTO HER SCOOP. THE ARROWS ARE STILL STUCK IN HER! I THINK SHE DID IT ON PURPOSE!
Carclass="underline" Katia! Disengage! Lose your mass! Now! Now!
The train continued to slow, the brakes screaming. We were free of the crowd. Eva was also screaming. She’d been injured, blood spewing from one of her four hands. Hekla continued to kill the ghouls in the cab. She’d fallen back from the window, standing, thankfully out of reach. She’d slung her crossbow and had a short, curved blade in each hand and was twirling about, slicing and killing. Her shield was gone, and she now had Enraged flashing over her head. The tall woman screamed as she fought. While this subway car was a little wider than usual, it wasn’t that big, and I had to duck several times to avoid her frenzied slashes. I stayed back the best I could.
The scoop at the front of the train vanished. Blood and guts showered onto the track. A lump of flesh plopped onto the floor of the cab, disappearing into the gore. A moment passed, and Katia reappeared, her health still plummeting. She popped up gasping. She started to collapse again, and I grasped her with my arm, pulling her up. Unconscious reappeared over her.
“The arrows are still there! They’re sticking out of her shoulder!” Donut cried. “Pull them out!”
There was no visible wound on Katia’s shoulder. She appeared to be wearing her regular, red leather outfit. I unsummoned my gauntlet and reached over, scrabbling until my hand grabbed onto something invisible.
“That’s it! Pull it! Pull it!”
I yanked, and Katia screamed in her sleep. Only then did the hole in her leather appear. Donut healed her. I pulled the invisible bolt into my inventory and grasped until I found the second one. I could feel that the shaft was splintered. I yanked. I quickly examined it.
Dirty Little Phased Bolt.
This item is broken. It must be repaired before you may use it.
This is a Phased item. It is invisible. It will hide its entry point and will only be discovered if it is physically touched.
The perfect ammunition for the discerning crossbow assassin. This item will cast both Temporary Amnesia and Suffering Bleed onto its victim, draining them of health until they are at 10%. A second bolt will lower the victim’s health to 1%. Victims who subsequently perish will be listed as dying from an alternate source. You will not get credit or experience for the kill. Nor will you get one of those nasty skulls by your name if you happen to kill a fellow Crawler. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
What the actual fuck? Why was she trying to kill Katia?
Out on the platform, a mass of crawlers surged toward the now-stopped train. On the periphery of my map, I saw what had to be 500 red dots pushing the mass of blue dots back.
Hekla finally looked up from the gore. The Enraged buff blinked a few times and disappeared. She had a wild look to her eyes. She focused on the still-unconscious Katia hanging on my arm. She frowned. It was as if she hadn’t even noticed that we’d saved her until that moment. Eva had healed herself, but she had lost a hand. She stared at it stupidly, as if she was surprised it hadn’t grown back.
I stomped down on one last ghoul head.
Everyone just looked at each other, not sure what to do next.
Carclass="underline" Donut, be cool. This doesn’t have to turn into a fight. She was trying something, and whatever it was, it didn’t work. We don’t want to fight her.
“You tried to kill Katia you fucking bitch!” Donut cried. She blasted a full-strength Magic Missile right into Hekla’s face.
23
Hekla flew back, eyes registering shock as she slammed into the sidewall of the car. At the same moment, Eva flew at me—or Donut, who was perched on my shoulder—swords swirling in the air. The back of the cab opened, and two more daughters rushed in, hands glowing. Silfa rushed from the apartment, eyes wide as she took in the scene.
I dropped Katia and dodged back as I re-formed my gauntlet. My feet scrambled through the slippery muck, and my back slammed against the train wall. I caught a vicious slice of the saber with my armored hand. I need more fucking armor. I kicked up into Eva’s stomach, and she rocketed back. I cast Wisp Armor on myself just as a magic missile and an electrical bolt slammed into me, one each from the two newcomers.
“Hold!” Hekla cried, pulling herself to her feet. She’d been fully healed by Silfa. “Everybody hold! Cease!”
I’d dropped Katia, but her health had stabilized. Her head remained above the line of body parts and gore, like she was treading water. She remained unconscious. She’d awaken on her own in thirty seconds. Eva stood and hissed and lunged at me and Donut. Hekla held her back. Then she grabbed Eva’s wrist and pulled it up, eyes going wide at the injury.
“Did I do that?” Hekla asked.
“Yes, you did,” Eva growled. “I have three more hands. That little bitch shot you. Let me kill her.”
“You tried to kill Katia,” Donut yelled. “I saw it! You used invisible arrows! I thought she was your friend! We don’t shoot our friends!”
“Bolts,” Hekla said. “They’re called bolts when they’re from a crossbow, Donut.”
Donut spit and growled. Her claws dug into my shoulder. I was painfully aware of how small this train really was.
“What’re we doing?” I called. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but everyone needs to calm the fuck down. This is bullshit. We’re all on the same goddamn side.”
Hekla turned to the two mages. “Out. You too, Silfa.”
They started to protest. “Out!” she yelled. The three crawlers reluctantly fled. They remained right outside the door. It was me, Donut, Katia, Hekla, and Eva.
Outside, the crawlers continued to swarm onto the train. They didn’t all fit into the passenger cars, so they were moving to the cargo containers. A group of crawlers were at the top of the stairs to the platform, making a stand, protecting everybody else’s escape. We didn’t have much time. An ungodly roar filled the platform. A group of five blue dots at the top of the stairs turned to Xs.
“I made a mistake,” Hekla said once the others were gone. She shrugged, as if it was nothing. “I can’t take it back, but there’s no reason for it to snowball. We need a pause and a reset. We can discuss this after we get out of here. We need to work together.”