Bloody Melody?!
While my mother continued to fume quietly on the other side of camp, I took my time pulling my new beige tunic over my head and down my torso, then pulled my trousers up and tied them off at the waist.
Ugh. The clothes felt just as cheap as they looked, if not more so. I may not have been rich back on earth, but at least I could afford decent clothing...
"Alright, shall we get this show on the road?" I clapped and spun on my heels, trying to inject some more life and energy into the air around us.
"Be careful, Lord Kenneth. We do not know what kind of weapon this skill will summon, Lady Pan is somewhat notorious for being fickle with her graces..." Iros explained cautiously, his left hand gliding defensively over the hilt of his strange gourd-weapon.
"Wait a second, Kenny. I'll cast some defensive buffs to make sure we don't all blow up or something." My mother said as she raised an open palm before herself.
"Defense up! Regen! Resist Magic!" She shouted one after the other, and her brown hair flittered about as if blown by a strong breeze. Blue light erupted from all of our feet, followed by green then turquoise. Suddenly I felt not only a little bit tougher, but also extremely energetic.
In my periphery I noticed three glowing dots that matched the colors of the auras that had just enveloped us.
'Those must correspond to the effects and buffs she just cast on us...' I thought with intrigue.
"Excellent thinking Lady Lucy. Now. Use your skill, Lord Kenneth." Iros ordered as my mother gave a vibrant thumbs up and wink.
"Alright... Here goes nothing..." I murmured as I swallowed my pride and shot my right fist up high into the air.
"Lucky Slots!" I cried out feeling more like a power ranger than anything else... Immediately and out of nowhere, a lightning bolt shot down into my arm painlessly. The unexpectedness of the bolt caused all three of us to jump with fright.
A sensation of spinning gears rolled within my outstretched right forearm, and as I peered up I found three windows rolling with numbers inside it.
"Aack!" I yelped with surprise as I slapped my other hand over the spinning slot machine within my arm, however I could still feel it spinning within...
"Are you okay sweetheart?!" My mother bellowed as she came sprinting past Iros to save me from some unknown threat. Except there was none.
"Yeah, mom, I'm fine-" Then the slot machine came to a staggered numerical halt
1, 2, 3.
I looked down, peeling my arm away to see three windows in my forearm. Much like the skill had said, there were three numbers, each of which said the number 6, currently. 666....
A cloud of smoke burst forth around me, and my fingers instinctively wrapped themselves around a foreign object that appeared within my right palm...
As the smoke dissipated, I was met with the stunned gazes of both Iros and my mother. Following their eyes downward, I found a rather large and brilliantly red... Guitar?!
In my hands I held what was obviously an electric guitar. It was bright red with thick black strings that practically buzzed with energy, begging me to play them. Two sharp blades protruded from both the top and the bottom of the body of the instrument. Running up along the neck were shiny silvery fret wires that I assumed were to help me play notes... At the head of the guitar was the face of a skull, for which the neck and body seemed to be erupting from the mouth. X's crossed the eyes comically.
As I inspected the strange skull, I noticed a string hanging out of the left eye, and mundane... price tag? That hung from its end.
Pulling the tag, it snapped from the head with ease, a small fire burning the string up to the skull.
"What does it say?" My mother asked curiously as she tiptoed beside me.
"It says..."
*****
Congratulations!
You are now the proud owner of - Bloody Melody - The Axe Guitar!
Play a riff man! Or just use the sharp ends to cut someone up. Either way, its your bloody show now, big boy!
Break a leg! Or ten...
*****
The world fell into stunned silence as I regarded my new weapon with both abject shame and embarrassment.
"Awe, I think it's kinda cute! And I love the message!" My mom said, breaking the silence cheerfully, her previous anger seemingly forgotten.
"Cute?!" I countered, flabbergasted. "How am I supposed to fight anything with this?!"
My mom merely shrugged. "I dunno, read the card. 'cut someone up' Sooooo, pointy end." She said gesturing with her index finger at the bladed body of the guitar, then gesturing to Iros. "Fleshy bits. Mix and match, right? Not too complicated."
"Not too complicated?! It's a guitar! C'mon!" I practically shouted, feeling equal parts uncool and useless.
"Kenneth, don't you yell at your mother!" My mom scolded in a harsh tone that only mothers could give which made me recoil on instinct.
"Sorry..." I mumbled, not yet accustomed to having a mother around to speak to me in such a way.
"Apology accepted!" She said with an innocent smile. "Now, don't forget, Ken. Being a god touched means something here on Erobos. It means you have access to skills that ordinary folk could not even begin to imagine. As a champion of Themir I can use a skill known as 'Judgement'. Here, look." She added as she pulled up her skills window and turned so I could see.
*****
Judgement
Skill - Unique - God Touched - Activated
Mana Cost - 500
Stamina Cost - 0
Description: Momentarily divert the eyes of Themir, the god of justice, onto your target. He personally weighs the essence of their soul upon his grand scales of justice and judges them, good or evil.
Be they evil: Themir grants the user his personal weapon, the Hammer of Righteousness to enact his will in bringing about their eradication.
Be they good: Themir grants the target a boon of absolution, healing and preventing all damage from being afflicted upon the target for one hour.
(Hammer of Righteousness) A weapon of pure energy that deals 5x bonus damage to evil aligned foes. Ultimate ability: Shatter Sin - Throw the Hammer of Righteousness at your evil aligned enemy. The hammer will spin violently through the air, crashing into them with the weight of their sins. The more evil the foe, the more damage dealt.
*****
"Wow..." I breathed, no other words coming to mind that spoke to the sheer awesomeness of her skill.
"I told you, your mom's a badass..." She smirked as she closed her skills window. "As much as I don't like Pan... She was the only god capable of helping me who was willing to listen, and not only that she actually went and helped me get you here, so I owe her that I suppose..." She proffered a glance skyward at that, and for a single moment I thought I saw a star twinkle in response.
"And now you, Ken, you owe her this skill. Which I am sure -in its own unique way- will become just as powerful as mine." And with that, my mother kissed my cheek and returned to the campfire, happy as a clam.
Iros, who had made his way lazily over to us, now pointed down at the price tag still resting between my forefinger and thumb.
"My Lord, I believe there is more written on the back side." He said as he squinted in the dying light.
I turned the card over, and to my surprise he was right!
*****
Ultimate Ability: Rock out - Play the below set of riffs correctly and let out a thunderous jam that rocks the dead from their slumber, creating a mosh pit of bones at your feet that both carries you, and swallows your foes.
e|-----------------------------|--------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|--------------------------|
G|-------7h8-7---------------|--------------------5-----|
D|--------------------7h8-7--|(7)-----------5--------7--|
A|-0--0------------0---------|-----0--8--7-----7--------|
E|----------------------------|----------------------------|
e|--------------------------|-------------------------|
B|--------------------------|-------------------------|
G|--------------------------|-------------------------|
D|-------------5--7--5--7--|-------------------------|
A|-------------5--7--5--7--|-------------7--5--------|
E|-0--0--0--0--------------|-0--0--0--0-------7--6--|
*****
"What am I supposed to do with this?! I don't know how to play any guitar riffs!" I exclaimed in frustration, my face bleeding into a bright red that matched the color of the guitar resting comfortably in my hands.
It was Iros who chuckled aloud this time, beginning quietly and turning upward into a bellius laugh that was as startling as it was contagious. Before long we were all laughing right along with him, our camp morphing into a misfit of raving clowns, no one but Iros aware of why.
Finally the tittering died down, and as my mother and I wiped tears from our eyes and caught our breath, Iros opened his inventory busily. The pale blue opaque screen flittering into view and rippling as he stuck his arm in and pulled out a rather worn down and old lute.
"Perhaps the goddess Pan truly does look favorably down upon you, for I DO know how to play, and can teach you. Come, let us sit and play under the fire light together." His tone was changed now, and seemed to carry the ring of a much younger man within it. As if just carrying the old instrument brought him back to a gentler time.
Nodding, I stepped over to the camp and sat down next to him, careful not to cut myself on the sharp edges of my bladed instrument, and watched with increasing interest as he set his fingers upon the frets, and began to play.