Sell you a Bridge chapter 60

The Cathedral July 25th 2010 12:00 PM EDT

I'd  gone home last night and wanted to immediately buy myself a new power.  Of course, then I realized that I couldn't do that because I didn't have  the points. So I decided instead to bank as m,any as possible while I  was in the early levels so I could hopefully afford something nice once  things got harder. Despite having played Diablo a few times, I still had  zero idea how it scaled against real space. A level might take us days  or hours.

I was kind of hoping  we might be able to get some magic gear for me and the others to make up  for the lack of powers and maybe even use as a fake reason for new  abilities but I knew it was rare on level one so if I did I'd probably  just give it to Kit or Artemis. My cousin and both my friends had come  with me, which I had been expecting, I had not been expecting to mention  our trip into the Labyrinth to my girlfriend and get railroaded into  adding her to our party. Not that I was complaining about an excuse to  introduce her.

Plus, with an Archer,  a Thief, a Mage, me for up front fights, and Reggie playing support we  had almost a whole party. We hadn't seen anyone else, which implied to  me that this place was instanced, which at the very least meant no one  following us around and trying to kill us for treasure when our backs  were turned. I'd made sure everyone had blunt weapons and I was pretty  positive we were in zero danger on the first level with a group like  this. Our biggest problem would be when we got to level two.

I  turned to the others. "Ok, like I said before we came down here. I'll  be up front. Zee, you stay behind me." She opened her mouth and I  glared, cutting her off. "No! I don't want to hear anything about me  being patronizing of babying you. I told you I would bring you along if  you listened to my set up and I meant it. Mages at the back." I shifted  my gaze to my best friend "Artemis, for now you'll be with her playing  bodyguard. Arrows don't really work on skeletons sad to say but your  close combat experience will make you a good protector."

Artemis  raised an eyebrow and smirked "Oh that's fine. From what I've seen the  skellies are weak anyway, I'd much rather tel embarrassing stories about  you to your lady love." I tried desperately to conceal my look of  horror, but judging by the way they smiled I didn't manage it. She  shrugged "As long as I get first dibs on any bows, magic or otherwise  I'm all good." I nodded at that. It only made sense for her to have  first crack at ranged weapons. I had dibs on and short swords and Zee  would be getting any staves we found.

She might need some supplementary gear to use one if we found it, we  couldn't level from what I could tell but we did have stats. Not ones I  could actually see though, so we would have to estimate based on the  effect of new gear as it came in. Zee was staring at me and I nodded for  her to go ahead, figuring it would be best to answer questions for  everyone. "So, you said there was magic down here. Do you know how that  works? Like can I even use it?" I'd done some thinking on that and I had  a basic idea.

I  paused for a second, trying to formulate my response "I think so. I'd  have to test it, but it probably works like the games. Scrolls have  magic in them anyone can use. I'm guessing mana is based on the  intelligence stat like it is in the game. Everyone should have a bit and  some people will have more. Gear that increases intelligence will make  magic easier to use and learn. New spells can be learned from tomes, and  some staves have them built in." I could see the excitement in her eyes  and I felt it too, but I had to add some context.

I  held up a hand "Not all good news. Some skills and spells are supposed  to be innate and you can't learn them. There's a possibility they'll  drop tomes anyway to compensate for the lack, but if not identify  scrolls are going to be worth their weight in fucking diamonds. And  staves of identify even more so. Speaking of which recharging staves is  going to be an issue for most people, but with how flexible your magic  is you might be able to do it yourself which would be a huge advantage."

She  seemed to be drinking in all the information, nodding eagerly. She shot  me a brilliant smile "Sounds good. I can't wait to start learning some  new magic. The tomes sound amazing, they just beam the information on  the spells into your brain, this is going to be amazing." She was  gushing, bouncing up and down on her heels in excitement in a way her  very tight shirt made slightly distracting. "So can we start?" Everyone  else looked just as eager to get going as she was, and on level one we  should all be fine.

I  nodded grudgingly holding up my hands to stop them "Before we go  though. Just want to go over the important stuff. Level one is easy  enough, just a few weak monsters, but be careful, some of them can still  hurt you. Watch out for skeleton captains, they're stronger than your  average skellie. The falled are little imp demon bastards with big  swords, and scavengers and weird demonic hound things. Zombie's carry  plague's I think so Artemis will drop them with her arrows if we see  one."

The  more I talked about it the more worried I became, but they wouldn't  ignore this so we had to go anyway. Best to be prepared. We stepped out  into the first room of the Cathedral, which of course was full of  skeletons. Four normal skellies that were no threat and one big son of a  bitch with somehow thicker bones I knew was probably a skeleton  captain. I charged forward as the captain, hoping to engage him first,  and the Reggie and Kit spread out to try to attack the others with their  clubs.

Zee  spat out a word and a fireball arced out and smashed into one of them  and did...nothing. I cursed and called over my shoulder as I dodged a  sword blow "Zee, I forgot they're immune to magic. Try throwing rocks or  something with spells, that should work." I hoped. I was a bit busy to  check because the captain was on me and the son of a bitch was fast.  Only my training with Blood and my reflexes let me avoid the attacks he  was sending my way.

I  glared as I dodged and weaved, my club blows deflected expertly with  that fucking shield. "How are you so fast? Hell, how are you moving, you  don't even have muscles!" The captain of course, did not answer,  swinging his sword at me. I didn't even try to parry that huge fucking  weapon with my tanto, and could only dodge and knock it aside with my  club, trying to find or make an opening. It took me about five minutes  to finally kill the fucking bastard, and everyone else was finished  before I was.

Of  course, they didn't just stand around watching while I fought, they  spent the time doing the favored activity of adventurers everywhere.  Looting. Bags of gold and a few random weapons a dagger or two and a  sword. We also found a short bow, which Artemis was over the moon about,  cooing over the workmanship even if it wasn't magic. Of course her  current bow was better, but the short bow was the bitch tier beginner  bow so that wasn't shocking. She put it over one shoulder and we moved  on to the next room.

The  next room we got ambushed. My reflexes saved us all and I was glad I  went first, because the fallen ones that jumped me was fucking FAST. I  barely managed to parry their oversized (for them) blades as the two  imps engaged from both sides. My tanto was pretty much perfect for this  however, and despite being fast as fuck they weren't very good with the  weapons. I managed to keep them busy while the others took out their  skeleton backup and then Artemis put an arrow through ones throat and  Zee caused the other one to slip right into my blade.

Again  we looted the corpses and again we moved on. We found some potions as  we went, a few healing and mana, and we tried them out. Zatanna was in  love with the mana pots, magic power being pretty much her only real  limitation even if she didn't have any big ticket damage spells yet. The  healing mostly went to me since I was up front, and I had to admit it  was almost addictive going from being in pain to being in perfect  condition with a single pull. Shame they tasted like fucking boiled mud  though.

We  spent three hours going through the rooms, killing anything we ran into.  The others didn't seem upset about that since these were all monsters  and they were trying to murder us, but I made a mental note to talk to  them about what we were doing, just to check in. Eventually though we  had to turn back. Zee had to get home, her dad had been called away for  an emergency, probably for THIS emergency actually but the instancing  meant we wouldn't run into him. Despite that he wouldn't be out forever.  Though I was curious if Batman would even let the rest of the League in  to help.

Some  of the lower levels had truly horrible beings in them that would  probably pose a threat to even some of the Leaguers. With powerful magic  and waves of dangerous demons. I hoped they proceeded with caution, but  who knew. Zee promised to bring it up and try to feel her dad out. On  the upside the fact that he was going to be so busy meant more time with  my lady, which was a definite plus as far as I was concerned. We  eventually stopped and I turned to the others. "Ok guys, I think it's  time to turn back."

Reggie  nodded "Agreed. This place is fucking huge. I don't know how big but  the hours we've spent down here don't seem to have put much of a dent in  the first level. I say we head back and reconvene down here in a few  days. We should take a look at the situation up top, this kind of stuff  spreading around Gotham is going to be pretty rough, and we need to see  how things have changed." He was right, on the upside I hadn't needed to  use any points so far, so I was going to be able to keep banking them.

Everyone  agreed that we should head back up and we made our way back through the  Cathedral with my perfect memory, re tracing our steps. Zee hadn't  found any tomes, but we had found a staff of town portal that she was  giddy about in one of the chests, and she had a small collection of mana  pots she was going to hide in her bedroom. 

When we made it topside  everyone scattered, Artemis, Kit, and Reggie heading back while I with  Zee back towards the tower on another route. We stopped behind a  building and Zee smiled at me. "I have to head back home. Gotta hide all  this stuff before daddy gets home. Before I do though, I wanted to  thank you again for bringing me to do this."

She  reached up to stroke my hair. "I know you were worried and it means a  lot that you trusted me to take care of myself. Even though we had  people with us I consider this our second date. So I wanted to get a  proper good night kiss." She grabbed me and slammed me against the wall  molding every inch of her body against me and kissing me desperately.  

When she pulled back her face was flushed and her eyes were unfocused.  She licked her slightly swollen very shiny lips and gave me a wink  before turning to walk away. I couldn't tear my eyes off the extra sway  in her hips as she walked down the alley, making sure to give me a nice  look before she teleported. God that girl was amazing.