Chapter 27 #3
“Aye, aye, captain,” Joshua says, then bites into a wedge of cheese.
“Miko,” Guy says, “do you have any spells that draw on anything to do with water?”
Miko taps at the menu only visible to her and frowns. “Not really.”
Guy sighs. “Well, that’s not great.”
“I can summon elementals, but I’m not sure a water elemental will be that effective against a monster that lives in the water.”
“Maybe an earth elemental?” Sylvia suggests.
Miko tilts her head side to side in consideration. “Better than nothing, I guess.”
“Okay, that covers that, then.” Guy turns his attention to Sylvia. “Obviously, just keep the arrows coming, but this time I also need you to stick close to Lauren. She’ll need someone to defend her from attacks. That’s usually Cait, but we really need our barbarian pulling aggro.”
“What about you?” Sylvia asks him.
“I’m going to get up as high as I can and blast as many ice daggers as possible before I run out of energy,” he answers.
“No, I mean, why can’t you stand with her,” Sylvia says. “It would be best for me to have the high ground.”
Guy looks at me, and I can see the answer in his eyes. After the kisses we shared last night, he’s afraid I’ll distract him during an attack. Just the feel of my body near his might be too much for him.
Might be too much for me, too.
“We both have really low strength,” I say for him. “Having us together is a sure way to make sure we’re both wiped out in one blow.”
I know I’ve said the right thing by the relieved expression on Guy’s face.
“Well, my strength isn’t that high either, but I guess it’s a lot better than yours,” Sylvia says.
Alexander chooses that moment to walk over to the table. “Can I share breakfast with you?” he asks.
I’m not the only one whose jaw drops at the question. Not once has Alexander eaten around us. I’m not sure he ever eats at all. He certainly never asks if he can hang out with us.
“Um…sure,” I say.
Alexander nods in thanks and sits down across the table from me before taking a chunk of bread. We all watch in equal parts fascination and unease as he chews his food thoroughly. When he finishes, he wipes off his lips with a napkin and says, “I’ve decided I will fight by your side.”
“Who are you?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
“I am Alexander,” he says.
“But you can’t fight,” Cait says. “You’re cursed to never lift a blade again, remember?”
“Yes, but Aphrodite says that this doesn’t apply to other weapons,” he counters. “So, I will use this.” Alexander pulls a shotgun out of a pack on his back and holds it up.
We all scream and duck.
“Put that away!” Cait yells.
Alexander cocks his head in confusion, then shrugs and puts it back in his pack. With it out of sight, I feel safe to raise my head again.
“Where the fuck did you get that?” I ask.
“Aphrodite,” Alexander answers.
“She gave you a fucking gun?!” I pull my fingers through my hair and shake my head. “What kind of fucked up game is this? They didn’t have shit like that in Greek myths. Hell, they don’t have them in fantasy RPGs!”
“Well, actually firearms are in many Final Fant—” Joshua starts.
“Stop,” Cait says, holding up a hand at Joshua. “I can’t deal with a ‘well, actually’ when there’s an NPC sitting at the table with a Benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun in his pack.”
“A Benelli what?” Sylvia asks.
“It’s a kind of semiautomatic shotgun,” Cait says. “One of my dad’s favorites, actually.”
Although Cait is our barbarian, she usually looks so prim and proper—maybe a little snobby.
It’s strange to hear those words. There’s something absurd about it, really, causing a giggle to bubble up from my chest. I slap a hand over my mouth to stop.
We were just discussing some pretty serious stuff after all.
But it’s too late; everyone heard it, and now everyone else is also laughing. Well, almost everyone else.
“What?” Cait asks. “He’s a cop.”
I don’t know why, but that makes me laugh even harder.
Cait crosses her arms. “Stop making fun of me!”
I shake my head and swallow down another laugh. “We’re not. It’s just…” I don’t know how to explain to her.
“It’s just that if I was going to guess which of us knew that much about shotguns,” Guy says, “I would have chosen Joshua.”
“I would have said Miko,” Sylvia says, pointing at our new teammate.
That really has me roaring with laughter because Sylvia is absolutely right. Miko would look completely natural with a gun. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked to see her with a machine gun.
Miko shrugs in response. “If I’d known they were an option in this stupid game, I probably would have tried to get one.”
The entire table really is laughing together now, including Cait and Miko. That stops immediately when everything goes sliding off our table and crashes against the wall behind Alexander.
“Shit,” I say. “What was that?”
An echoing grunt followed by an ear-splitting squeal rattles everything around us.
“Is that a pig?” Miko asks.
“A boar,” Sylvia answers, then sighs. “And from what I’ve heard, this one has the body of a whale. Good thing we already have a plan for our fight with Cetus.”