Chapter 11 – The Rockers


    Arge group of leather d thugs poured into the hallway. They were, in every sense, the stereotypical disy of a biker gang. Rough faces, leather jackets, torn yet sturdy pants and heavy boots were the default. Their hair was a bit more diverse, ranging from mohawks toplete baldness. A guy with short, spikey hair led the group. Annoyed, he clicked his tongue when he saw the four of them standing there.


    “Hey, Hey, Hey. You mean the Wall Shadow still didn’t take you out? And we even paid our guy extra to rent that thing.” He scratched the side of his head with a wand that ended in a crystal ball. John looked over their heads. Their levels ranged from 8 to 10, not a threat to the three people currently with him, would it not have been for their sheer number and the Wall Shadow still hiding somewhere.


    “Who are you?” Moira demanded to know.


    “Ja, out with it.” Rave added and started tapping her foot to some rhythm.


    “Just a Bunch of Rockers.” The spikey haired leader said. “Who need some money to tune their bikes. See, flying tires aren’t cheap. And there’s only one step up from feeling the wind in your hair on the road, you know?” He said and giggled. Then he pointed at John with the wand he was holding. “But a little birdy at this school sang us a song that there’s a valuable asset to steal here. You’ll get us good money if we sell you to a Mana Factory, John Newman.”


    Rave wrinkled her eyebrows. “There is an information broker at our school? For real’zies?”


    “Rave, you useless piece of garbage, why don’t you notice such things?!” Travolta cursed at her.


    “Stop yelling at me, Baldy.”


    “Will you both shut up and deal with the situation at hand?” Moira intervened, in response Travolta punched in her general direction. Dodging aptly, the Warden followed the fist as it sailed past where her head had been and into that of the Wall Shadow. The monster screaked and pulled back into the wall.


    “Seems like ‘Baldy’ has the situation covered.” The spikey haired leader said.


    “Oy, that’s my way to tease him, get your own!” Raveined and shook her fist. More curses were exchanged until the biker finally stopped and said. “Enough of this, give us the Gamer or we’ll take him.” He raised the wand and the Wall Shadow peeked from the ceiling and hissed at the smaller group menacingly.


    “I found the interesting thing first!” Rave dered.


    “I will never let the innocent be tortured in one of those factories!” Moira stated at the same time. The two got into their respective battle stances.


    Travolta on the other hand turned to John. “Yo, Gamer. Can you confirm that the wand is what I think it is?”


    “Already have – a-and it is,” John stated. Observe had been used the moment heid eyes on it.


    <b>E-Rank Monster Controller</b>


    <b>This item allows the user to gain and maintain control over a Level 30 or lower monster. Attached to a mundane handle.</b>


    “It’s the monster controller,” John confirmed.


    “Fucking annoying, the Wall Shadow would immediately turn on the weak prey if they didn’t have that.” The massive man cursed. “Bah, seems like we’ll just have to try and punch through.”


    Travolta got ready to join the frontline. Across the divide, the gang leader raised the wand. The Wall Shadow peeled out of the ground, unfolding a total of four thin arms. In their totality, they spanned the width of the hallway. The trio of fighters would have to get through that monster and beat the entirety of the gang.


    Quickly, John grabbed Travolta by the arm. The older guy turned his steel eyes onto the Gamer, who flinched back. Gathering his courage, he quietly said, “Let me try something. I might be able to destroy that wand if you protect me.”


    “Fucking fine. Rave, Girly, distract them for a bit,” Travolta whispered further down the line.


    “Don’t ya tell me what to do,” Rave shot back, but changed her stance ever so slightly. The beat she tapped with her heel was a little slower.


    “You won’t attack or hand him to us? Fine, then we areing to get him.” The spikey haired leader said. “Get them!” On themand several of the bikers rushed forwards. The Wall Shadow dropped back under the floor.


    Moira and Rave met the Rockers halfway. Shield raised, the Warden mmed into them. Their advance stopped the moment they witnessed one of their own get flung back down the corridor. The one guy further ahead took a swing at Rave with a crowbar. A sidestep, then a flying knee to the stomach, and the assant stumbled back into the crowd. Other members of the gang cautiously advanced. Individually they could do nothing to the two women, but together they could overwhelm them.


    Travolta stomped on the ground. “Sneaky fucking insect,” he cursed under his breath. It seemed the Wall Shadow was set to get John first. The Gamer himself was lost in different thoughts. His body was with his temporary allies, but his mind was in the sweaty palm of the enemy leader.


    ‘Gross and advantageous,’ he thought and carefully went about his work. While the enemy leader concentrated on the fight, he was slowly, gradually, wiggling out of his hand. All he needed to do was get the guy to drop the controller. Vaguely, he was aware of the game of cat and mouse Travolta and the Wall Shadow were ying. Whether it was the control or John’s clear vulnerability that made the monster so focused on him, the Gamer wasn’t quite sure.


    With as much force as he could produce, John ‘shoved’ the controller out of the biker’s hand. Immediately, shocked eyes of the holder turned downwards. ‘This must be what a dropped smartphone feels like,’ the Gamer considered, while shifting the weight as much as magic allowed. Desperately, the biker reached down, but he wasn’t fast enough. The ss top of the wand, that actual control focus, mmed on the ground and burst like a bubble.


    The cracking sound vibrated through the hallway. Fighting stopped for a moment. Everything went silent. John returned to his body in full. For a moment, he only felt satisfaction.


    Then four arms ripped out of the wall. Vengeful ws gripped the spikey haired leader. They sunk through leather, pressed crimson out of holes punched through the jacket. The thug screamed, screamed louder than John had heard any man, woman, or child scream ever before. It was a terrible sound and it was still more pleasant than the silence that followed.


    After pulling his target against the wall, the Wall Shadow wrapped its arms tightly around his former master. The biker struggled to breathe. His bones popped and broke. His ribcage became thinner and thinner, his face first red, then a disgusting shade of purple. Blood spurted from his mouth. John could see, in every vivid detail, how a man died when his organs were slowly squeezed and ruptured.


    A sound like a spider’s giggle escaped and the gang leader was released. He copsed, no life left inside him. The clothes prevented the true extent of his mangled state from showing but John knew. The sounds still bounced inside his mind. Blood pooled underneath the body.


    The Wall Shadow turned to the other Rockers and made a hissing sound. Menacingly, it disappeared back into the wall.


    One of the rockers screamed and finally broke the silence. He ran away, others closely following him. They realized that they were now stuck between three stronger opponents and a monster that could strike from anywhere at any second. What they forgot in their panic was that a shattered retreat made it so much easier to pick them off one by one.


    “Good job, kid,” Travoltaplimented calmly over the screams of the fleeing gang.


    “Thanks…?” John mumbled, eyes glued to the corpse.


    “’Course we still have to deal with that thing,” therge man said and rolled his shoulders. “Seems like it got control over the barrier.”


    “It will thin the numbers for us,” Moira stated, as the shouts of terror grew fewer. “Fitting for a bunch of sinners. Undone by their hubris. A life lived beyond the Lady’s grace is a life ended gracelessly.


    John swallowed. ‘Abyss,’ the word was stuck in his mind as he looked at the deep crimson staining the clean hallway of his school.


    “Ya fine, Latebloomer?” The question caught him unprepared. “Ya gonna see a whole lot more corpses now that your name is out there.”


    “Yes… my name is out there now, isn’t it?” John realized. There was no choice anymore. He was part of this world now. Either they got him or someone else would. As the realization kicked in and thest screams died away, he focused his mind on the present. It was… surprisingly easy. Wisdom advised to deal with these facts after he was safe. “We should relocate.”


    He turned to find Rave’s hand near his shoulder. The pink haired woman raised an eyebrow, then smiled.


    “Good idea,” Travolta stated. “Too many fucking walls here. Where to?”


    “The roof,” John answered immediately. “It needs shadows and walls. The roof has the least of both.”