Chapter 36: Regret is a powerful thing
With the battle between Donovan and Sullivan now over, many of the attendees in the audience proceeded to leave the Quarreling Quarry and go about their day. There were some other matches later on, but they weren’t as interesting as this particular brawl. Just as a certain young couple and their “pet” hippo was about to leave, the hand of one of them began to act funny.
After that announcement sounded off in Zhen Liu’s head, his marked hand began to glow with light. It was a good thing that it was sunny day, otherwise people would’ve noticed.
‘What the what?’ Zhen Liu lifted his now subtly glowing left hand to see what had set it off. A moment later, it flashed red as a horn honked in his head.
‘Ow. That was loud.’
The light of Zhen Liu’s mark suddenly lifted itself off of his hand and condense into a holographic, pulsating arrow that began to point in a direction like it was compass needle. As he moved his hand left and right, he noticed that the arrow would always maintain a particular direction, but the pulsating increase or decrease depending on the position of his hand.
‘Oh joy, looks like I’m playing hot and cold today,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as memories of aggravating search and find quests where they give you the general location to find a small detail, popped into his head. ‘Granted, this will probably be easier…I hope.’
Zhen Liu’s strange action and glowing arrow escaped the notice of most of the crowd who were in the process of leaving, but it didn’t escape the notice of Jin Fang. She was a bit preoccupied holding a snoozing Mini, but that didn’t occupy her eyes.
“Zhen Liu, what’s going on with your hand?”
“I think it has something to do with my formula,” Zhen Liu explained without hiding anything. Jin Fang had already met Nepherage so lying would serve no purpose. “I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to follow this. Wanna come along?”
“I’d say yes, but I don’t think I’d be able to tag along with Mini sleeping like this. Someone needs to keep an eye on her.” At this exact moment, Mini let out a cute little yawn in her sleep, as if punctuate the point she was making.
“You go on ahead, I’ll catch up with you at the stables.”
“Meet me outside the arena, this won’t take long.” With that declaration made, Zhen Liu gave Jin Fang a quick kiss on the cheek and proceeded to follow the arrow to wherever it may lead.
Jin Fang was left standing there in the stands, stunned as her face turned beet red once again.
‘Twice…in one day? When did he…get so bold?!’
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Zhen Liu did his best to navigate through the crowd while periodically checking his new compass hand. Surprisingly his issue with navigation didn’t come from his target moving about, which was stationary, but from all of the people in his way. It’s one thing to leave with the flow of a crowd, it’s another having to go against it.
“Excuse me. Pardon me. Coming through. I have a thing to do over there, sorry!”
Eventually, Zhen Liu managed to get through the sea of people and got to a point where the arrow in his hand began to pulse like crazy.
Looking about, he discovered that the arrow had lead him to the fighting floor of the arena. When he turned his face towards the direction of the arrow, he saw who had set off his mark.
“Ah…that makes sense.”
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‘Seriously? I lost? Just like that?,’ Sullivan thought as he laid on the cold, dusty floor, ‘I couldn’t even land a single blow on that hateful mutt?’
The sun was beating down on Sullivan’s skin, burning his arms, legs, face and torso, but he didn’t care. Right now, his mind was on other things.
‘Mickey…Ichi…Nichi…Rose… I’m so…so sorry…I couldn’t even get any payback…I shouldn’t have…taken that bogus job…’ Tears began to stream down his face as he thought of his fallen friends and the circumstances that lead to their demise.
By Digger Union rules, all miners at the Acolyte level and below could only take jobs if they were part of a team, with the strongest Acolyte serving as team leader.
Being at the Fourth Ring of the Acolyte level, Sullivan was more than qualified to lead a team of four other diggers. Sullivan’s case was a bit more intimate in this regard in the sense that all four of his teammates were people he had grown up with prior to joining the Union. While this sounded like a good idea on the surface, such a practice was frowned upon by other Diggers for one simple reason: One in five diggers would die per month.
Sullivan and his friends thought that they had beaten the odds when they managed to go three years straight without a single incident…but then they took a job for the Wolfe Family.
Six little Acolytes went down a hole, in search of fame and fortune.
All they found was disaster that was clearly misproportioned.
Six became five when one had fallen down a crevice, eaten by the things below.
Five became three when two had lost their lives, crushed by dirt and stone.
Three were left to try and escape, but lo and behold, they woke something that they shouldn’t have and suffered for their troubles. And so three became two, one ensnared by ash and smoke.
One had lost his friends and lover, the other lied about what happened.
One swore revenge upon the other, the other laughed at his resolve.
And now the one was lost, having failed to take what was owed.
Sullivan took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. After exhaling, he pounded his chest and steeled his resolve.
‘Guys…I swear, I will get back at him! One way or another, I swear it!’
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