Chapter Sixteen: Raid Breaker Part One

By nighttime, we arrived at the Party King’s castle. The girls wore knee-length dresses, blue for Katie and white for Alex, though Katie tied her bushy hair into a bun. Wilt, Brock, and I sported coats and jeans while Li added a longer robe to his attire. According to the locals, Rad’s parties were the best of the best ever since the Boston Tea Party’s founding. Due to the power of Dionysus, he and his guild were in charge of every event in the city, including Christmas, giving them tremendous influence in the Great Blue Zone.

From sundown to sunrise, “It’s a little paradise here in this world,” they said, and people would pay gold to get into one. Since our invitation was free, this was a better choice to celebrate completing our first high-class quest instead of eating in a pricey Chinese restaurant.

We went to a Victorian-era department store this afternoon, finding a perfect outfit for each of us. The place had almost every piece of clothing from different timelines. We were fortunate to find a robe similar to that a Shaolin wore. It was Alex’s idea that we had to look presentable when meeting the social elites in this city.

“You sure there’s a party going on here?” Brock weaved his head around the courtyard.

“That’s what it says here.” Wilt pulled out the invitation from his coat. “Why do you ask?”

“Listen.”

After a brief deafening silence, Wilt said, “I hear nothing.”

“Exactly,” he said, then lowering his voice in a hushed tone, “everything’s quiet.”

“It is quiet, so what?” Katie snarled. “It’s not like we’re….” She paused, noticing something wrong here. “Oh, there’s no music.”

“You’re right,” Wilt affirmed. “No music, meaning no party.”

“And no chocolate?” Li murmured, almost as if he was about to cry. He was like a kid who went to a candy store for the first time, only to realize that there was no candy.

Katie patted his back. “We’ll get that chocolate, big guy.” Determined, she placed her fist on her chest and made a solemn vow. “And we won’t go home without tasting one.”

“And twenty-seven other flavors.” Li reminded her.

“And those too.”

I did read the invitation. I was sure we were at the correct address. Hmm, maybe….

“Sam?” Alex noticed the pondering look on my face.

“Well, um.” I pointed at the castle. “We could ask the people inside.”

“Good idea,” Wilt agreed.

We stood in front of the doors. As our leader stepped forward to knock, a tall, grizzly Chinese warrior popped on the wooden surface like a moving picture, battled-geared and armed with a glaive. We were intimidated when he observed us with his fiery red eyes before gesturing to hand over something from us.

“Invitation, please.”

He must be the castle’s bouncer. Wilt was still holding the letter, but we had no idea how to give it to him. There was no mail slot or an actual hand in sight.

“Stick the invitation on the door, please.”

We were puzzled at first, but Wilt did what he was told. When the edge of the letter touched the door, we were amazed to see ripples on the wooden surface, like a leaf falling into a pond.

As soon as the letter pushed halfway, the bouncer seized it. After opening and reading for a minute, he called out our names. We answered either yes or here.

Once finished, the bouncer cocked a grin. “Welcome, enjoy the par-tay!”

When the double doors swung open, a flash of golden light and booming music blasted on our faces. Once our visions and hearing became clear, we were amazed to see multicolored lasers flickering and waving throughout the Marble Hall. Our gazes drifted around in awe, ignoring the doors behind us banged shut.

On the right side of the hall, there were guests from different guilds mingled. There were also circus performers and serving girls. Strangely, they all had animal appendages, just like the goat-headed DJ performing again on stage under the balcony. There were canines, felines, rabbits, birds, horned animals, and one elephant. On the dance floor — well, people were dancing.

“Li, look!” Katie pointed at the long tables of refreshments and food from our left. Behind them, twenty-eight towering chocolate fountains with all of their sweet glory and twenty-eight flavors of aromatic fondues.

The Shaolin’s widened eyes shone as if he had found heaven. Eager to join the fun, we were about to move forward when Zeki appeared.

“Welcome!”

“Oh, hey, Zeke,” Brock greeted him first.

“It’s Zeki,” Katie grunted to correct the jock without moving her teeth.

“It’s alright… oh, my.” He gazed at the girls with awe. “You look lovely this evening, my ladies. Especially those dresses, dashing. Tonight, I will indulge you like the noble maidens on their first royal ball.” He grasped Katie’s hand and kissed her knuckles. Then he moved to Alex’s turn. The two giggled with their cheeks flushed.

“My, you’re quite a charm, sir,” Katie flattered with a French accent, sounding like she was speaking in French, even though her words were English.

“Smooth, Zeke, smooth,” Brock said.

Wilt, on the other hand, was grunting in disapproval.

“Is this how you greet your women in the West?” Li asked. “By kissing their hands?” Of course, the monk was from the other side of our world. He was unaware of most of the Western cultures.

“Not in our current year,” Wilt grumbled.

“Oh, don’t be jealous, Wilt,” Katie said. “He was just being nice.”

“Forgive me if I dishonored you, Mr. Wallace,” Zeki apologized. “I was raised in a noble court. I assure you, my intention is that I am a gentleman.” He then smiled. “But never a courtier of someone’s courting.”

Wilt broke into a cold sweat. “Okay, let’s go grab some bite, shall we?”

“Good, I’m starving,” Katie exclaimed. She and Li set their sparkling eyes on the chocolate fountains.

“Desserts later,” Alex stated with furrowing brows.

“Aw,” both of them groaned.

“Let me escort you to the tables, my friends,” Zeki offered with his smile widened. “I trust you will enjoy our finest delicacies. They’re all concocted by the power of the Party King himself. Don’t worry if you bring them home or gorge to your heart’s content as many as you want. As long as there’s a par-tay, the food here is limitless.”

From what he said, I could hear my friends’ gulping their saliva.

“Um, Zeke,” Brock mispronounced our host’s name again as we headed for the tables, “I was wondering if you could tell me where Andromeda —”

“Forget it, Mr. Tannen. That girl has a thing for strong men then moves on to the next one. And she’s a bit of a ditz too.”

Katie was stroking Brock’s back when he began to mope. “You heard him, dunderhead. That girl is not worth it,” she said with a sympathetic voice, which shocked me. Her attitude towards Brock had changed ever since we got home. Perhaps that time when he saved both of our lives from getting struck by that hurling boulder.

While we were walking, Zeki spoke about the guests here. Among the ordinary folks, who were able to get in, the people he talked about were the stars in the hall. They were from Jormungand, Dragonheart, Wolf’s Reign, Blue Bucephalus, Valkyries, Golden Griff, and Union. All of them were platinum-class guilds. Zeki said that the Blood Eagle used to be one of their regulars, especially their Guildmaster. He was a favorite in all of their par-tays.

“He’s a real party animal,” Zeki said. “Although, things have gotten quiet thanks to his — sudden departure.”

There were also gold-class guilds like the Crimson Shadow, Argus, Citrinitas, and Libra. Although the Boston Tea Party was one of them, they were the hosts of this par-tay. The Green Bit was the only silver-class in the hall. Anne of the Crescent Moon and her little flag-bearer were among them, so was Lucas from the Wolf Reign; both guilds distanced themselves about half of a dance floor away with their backs facing each other. Lastly, Zeki mentioned the big-time non-guild members like the Head Chef of Zhang Lang’s, the Merryweather Troupe, top-class artisans, wealthy tech experts, and radio personalities.

“You don’t know much about these people, do you?”

“We knew Anne from Green Bits,” Katie admitted sheepishly. “These people, um….” We had never been starstruck since we didn’t know much about the celebrities here. In mere minutes, many of their names had been thrown off from our heads.

“I understand,” Zeki chuckled. “You’re newcomers, after all. I really want you to get to know more about these stars. Half of them are legends. Like that mohawk guy in a fancy suit, for example.” He pointed at the person on the other side of the hall, sitting on a cushioned chair while conversing with a small crowd. He had a red mohawk, a chiseled jaw, and icy blue eyes, and he wore a dark blue tux and three gold earrings on his right ear.

“Who’s that?” Brock asked.

“That, my friends, is Magnus Redshield, Athena’s Brave and King of the Dragonheart Guild.”

“Dragonheart?” we all gasped.

The Dragonheart was the number one guild in this world, commanding twice the numbers and territories than the Blood Eagle. Learning that Magnus was the brave of a Greek goddess of wisdom, crafts, and war, I reckoned that was how he became their leader.

“That king is even more famous than all the bunch here.” Zeki smiled. “Do you want to hear his tales while you eat? A dinner with a show would be most pleasing.” Our host stated he was, in his own words, a magnificent storyteller back in his days on Earth. We wanted to know more about the prominent figures in this world, so we accepted his offer.

Once we were at the tables, Zeki was about to begin until his face frowned when Rad appeared with two beautiful girls around his arms. They were different from the ones when we first came to this castle.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome.” The Party King enthusiastically approached me and shook both of my hands. “Big fan, big fan, Raid Breaker.”

“Raid Breaker?” we said, bewildered.