The Shadow Keeper (A Land of Shadows Novel- Book 1)

-12-

September 7th

The town of Grounder

Town Square, Leo's Weapons store front

"Look at this Masa! Look at this," Rin said quietly, the excitement sounding odd in her usually calm voice. She held up a new type of blade. "It's a Taro Blade! I had heard that Taro had created a blade, but they don't have them on the UK's server! It looks so cool!"

"Yeah, it has changeable strength requirements so the weight isn't all that important when considering getting a new blade. And the shape makes it easy to activate and unlock sword skills. Taro made it with really good, but affordable, metal and then sent the directions to all of the blacksmiths on the US server, but the head guilds on other servers didn't want some foreigner to become more of a leader on their servers, so they refused the release of the Taro blade." Masa watched as Rin swung the sword around, testing it. Rin's face lit up.

"It changed its weight! It's just... right now!" Masa smiled at her and nodded. "Have you tried one, Masa?"

"I own the original, so yeah."

"I thought Taro would have had that one," Rin said, placing the sword on the counter and paying the smith for it. "Why doesn't she?"

"Taro has had the same blades and weapons since the end of Day Zero. She refuses to buy any other weapon because she believes they should be used by the players who could actually make a difference out in the field. I told her that she made a difference out there too, with her leading a lot of the alliance's raids, but she shook her head and ended the conversation there," Masa said smiling.

"I think we're all done here," William said, throwing his hands into the air and folding them behind his head as the rest of the group gathered around them. Fang pulled up the clock from his settings.

"It's been just a little over an hour since we left, so Taro and that group should still be fighting. Hey Masa, want to go help them out? Do you know how to use Taro's transportation trick without a portal?" Masa shook his head.

"I think a hunt would be a good idea, but Taro kept that little trick a secret," Masa said with a frown. "But, Taro did set up a portal a little further into town from this shop. We can take that if you guys want."

"Let's do it! It's a monster hunt, right? I don't do MG raids," Korey said, toying with a strand of her hair. Will nodded along.

"They said it was a monster hunt, let's get going!"

-.-.-

She was gone. Her avatar was gone. It disappeared into thin air.

"Taro!" Benji fought against the arms that held him back, kicking and scratching in an attempt to go to the place where she had been, ignoring the grunts from Soren and Collin after each blow. Karla screamed out, collapsing into her brother who had froMasa in his shock. Ryuu fell to his knees, Kei bending down to check on him. Tohma, Saki, and Nanami rushed toward the player who still had Taro's dagger sticking out of his shoulder, holding him down when he tried to crawl away. "Taro!"

"Turn off the damn link, Sam! They don't need to hear this," Porter shouted at the other end of the link. His voice wasn't the only one that could be heard. Both Soren and Benji, who had met him over a link before, recognised Makoto's frantic voice screaming for his sister. The monotone straight line beep of the heart monitor was just as loud in their ears. Then, the link went dead.

"Taro! Taro! Taro, quite playing around," Benji cried hysterically. A portal opened not far behind them, allowing the group that had been in town through and into the treeline. Masa looked around.