Wrath

by Nicholas Knight

  Level 2

  HP 4

  Attack 16

  Defense 6

  Special Attack 12

  Special Defense 5

  Speed 16

  Special Ability: Desiccation Ray

  Interesting. Speed and Attack had both gone up noticeably more than my girl’s other stats. I’d been right. The system rewarded specialization. Halira was still fragile, but the best defense was not getting hit in the first place. Combined with her weaponry, we’d be able to eviscerate our opponents before they ever landed a hit. Especially if we utilized our Desiccation Ray to soften them up. Ambush predator, indeed.

  I wondered though how the progression would work over time. If Halira’s stats continued with this trend there would eventually be a massive gap between her stats. It locked her into a certain fighting style. Not that I was complaining about that, I liked how she worked, I just didn’t want to give my baby a handicap if she didn’t need it to be awesome.

  Stat progression is locked until level fifteen, Mr. Australia informed me. You will receive a bonus attack at that point and be free to allocate your progression points as you see fit among Halira’s statistics.

  Thank you, Mr. Australia.

  You are welcome. Would you care to accept Keuketon’s friend request?

  It took me a moment to place the name, because it was so alien. Then again, I’d named my kaiju Halira, so who was I to throw stones? A moment later, the memory of the serpentine black rooster kaiju surfaced. He’d seemed alright. Sure, I’d accept his friend request. I could always block him later if he turned out to be an asshat.

  I withdrew from Halira’s window and selected HUB. This wasn’t something I’d tried before, and I was more than mildly surprised when selecting it resulted in a rush like when I’d logged in to play the game itself the last two times.

  I was Halira again, and this time I was in a faintly transparent jungle. The trees were nearly as tall as my monster, but I could pass right through them. They had said the game was still in beta. This part must not be finished yet.

  “I see you named your kaiju,” a voice said beneath a cawing shriek and Keuketon emerged from the transparent foliage. “Good to see you again, Halira.”

  Chapter Seven

  A giant chicken shouldn’t be intimidating. Keuketon was. In all fairness, he was as much snake as rooster, dripping with what I was sure had to be venom from his glossy black feathers. A pair of appendages rose up from his back, like a pair of spider legs trying their best to be angel wings and failing horrifically. Each was capped with a nasty-looking stinger.

  He was just so weirdly alien. Combined with his size, which I could now appreciate in the stillness of the semi-transparent jungle was significantly greater than Halira’s, gave him a seriously scary vibe. He had to be several levels higher than me to be that big. That struck me as odd. Anyone could tell how strong you were at a glance.

  It made me more appreciative of Halira’s build. The long, crouched frame would make it more difficult for other players to gauge my girl’s exact size at a glance. Just another example of how my baby was perfect. The thought made me rustle Halira’s scything claws. How easily would they cut through Keuketon here?

  He must have understood the thought because he cocked his head in a gesture that combined the jerkiness of a bird with the smoothness of a reptile. It was inquisitive and unnatural. Things on earth did not move like that. And yet the motion somehow seemed natural to this particular creature. The programmers had really outdone themselves making our monsters come alive.

  “There’s no PVP in Monster Land,” he said through his kaiju’s shrieking caw. “Go ahead, try.” He spready his scaly arms wide, exposing his long, narrow chest.

  I didn’t hesitate. I would have in real life. Here, though? I was free to be as savage as I was meant to be, and there was nothing to hold me back.

  Halira moved like a samurai. One cut. One kill. Her glittering claws flashed as we leapt, struck, and landed behind Keuketon in a single fluid motion. There’d been no resistance. Either our claws had passed through him like a hot knife through butter, or…

  His laughter sounded behind me. People cut in half didn’t laugh. Too bad. I’d have liked to see his monster fall apart.

  “You really are fast,” he said, through the odd hissing sound that was his monster’s laughter. “Glad you accepted my friend request. Halira, huh? I like it.”

  I shrugged and the game translated the gesture into an odd shifting of Halira’s crystals. I liked how it looked, all casually threatening. Like, hey, I’m covered in a bunch of sharp points that I could skewer you with.

  “What does naming her have to do with anything?” I asked.

  Another one of those slithering head-quirks. “The implants are smart, they know who we mean when we direct our attention at someone, but without a name, you can’t send a friend request or do much of anything with someone in Monster Land.”

  “I thought this place was called the HUB,” I replied.

  “Sure, that’s what the menu calls it. But all the players call it Monster Land. It’s where we come to socialize. No rampant destruction here.”

  I snorted, and Halira made the sound much more impressive. “What’s the point of it then?”

  Keuketon seemed taken aback. “What do you mean, what’s the point? Think of how much more destruction a pair of kaiju can unleash. Plus, teaming up keeps player killers like Ursavore from sniping you.”

  Ursavore hadn’t been all that impressive. Then again, if he’d hit me just a little bit harder while I’d been lost in the destruction of the city, he’d have taken me out. So maybe there was something to be said for having others to play with.

  “Plus,” Keuketon said conspiratorially. “There’s rumors that the aliens have their own kaiju.”

  “Just rumors?” That was disappointing. The idea of fighting other monsters was a lot more appealing than just wrecking shit.

  “The game’s still in beta,” Keuketon said. He seemed amused by my disappointment. “We’re finding new things every day. For instance, it doesn’t seem like any of the city levels we destroy ever get repeated.”

  That was kind of cool, but it was probably just some algorithm designed to generate random level layouts. Not so cool as fighting other giant monsters. God, I was becoming such a nerd.

  “Whatever,” I said, more sulkiness slipping into my tone than I’d intended. The game was really lowering my defenses. “I only logged back in because I had to.”

  Keuketon’s head bobbed. “I know what you mean. The guys behind this game are weird. You get offered one of their special missions yet? I mean, you look pretty low level, but there’s no predicting those weirdos.”

  “I did,” I admitted. “But I’m not going to take it.”

  “Why not?” Keuketon asked. “Seriously, their rewards are ridiculously disproportionate to what they ask you to do.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t care for what they were offering,” I replied.

  Keuketon stared at me.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “You know you can request specific rewards, right?” he said. “You don’t have to just take the first thing that they offer you.”

  I gave him a flat look. Obviously, I hadn’t known. Dickhead. Who thought to ask for an alternative to the stupid sum of money the game designers were offering?

  “Message them back and ask for something else,” Keuketon said. “I’ll wait.”

  I did. The response came back almost instantaneously. Just as quickly, I accepted, then returned to Monster Land to tell Keuketon.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  It was hard to tell with his fanged beak, but I think he grinned at me. “What did you ask for?”

  For the money to be put into an untraceable account in the Caiman Islands that only I could access. They’d countered by agreeing to set up the account and deposit future payments to it. I had no problem with tha
t. The way it would be set up, I’d be able to deposit other sums there as well and draw on it at will. Without any oversight or interference from Daddy.

  It might not be loaded with money, but it was mine. All mine. It was the single largest step I’d been able to take in insuring my escape. All it required was for me to play a game I already enjoyed. I was almost giddy.

  Not so giddy that I was about to share. “A year’s supply of ice cream.”

  “Seriously?” Keuketon asked.

  “Seriously, I’m not about to tell you,” I replied.

  Keuketon was quiet for a moment. I don’t think he cared for that response. It was a reminder that I wasn’t the only one with anger issues here. Hell, it was the primary prerequisite for the game. But Kaiju Wars Online must have given him a similar control over his emotions as it had given me, because the moment passed, and he nodded. “Fair enough. What’s the mission though? Maybe I can help.”

  “I doubt it,” I said. “It’s basically a race. I’ve got to destroy this city before another player can.”

  I swear Keuketon grinned. “Oh, I can definitely help with that.”

  A short time later, Halira and I were in a sprawling alien city. It looked like several cities connected by superhighways with collections of tall buildings springing up like forests with smaller buildings scattered about them and around large, oddly shaped roadways lined with their hovercrafts.

  There was an enormous amount of detail applied to the level.

  I took absolutely none of it in. I was here for a purpose and on a timer. The goal was to destroy everything before another player could, and I set about my goal with childish abandon.

  Crystalline claws extended, I raced forward, slicing through the elevated highways and into the nearest cluster of enormous buildings. They fell like wheat beneath me but collapsed with enough force to shake the earth underfoot. Smoke and dust billowed up and the highways crumbled where the buildings fell upon them.

  Distantly, I heard screaming. If the game designers ever asked for my opinion, I’d tell them to leave that part out or make it a little more cartoonish. The whole thing was just too funny for that level of realism. I mean, come on. The game was fun but more than a little absurd.

  It took me less than thirty seconds to reduce the entire building cluster to nothing more than a pile of smoking rubble, and I sprinted for the next patch.

  An orb of white energy larger than Halira and so bright it burned my eyes swept through the section I’d been running at. In its wake was left smoke and some ashes. That was it.

  I redirected my course. Whatever the hell that thing was I definitely did not want it to hit me. The energy dissipated and I traced the trail of destruction, the ground abnormally flat below where it had passed, back to an absolutely enormous kaiju. He was bigger than Keuketon. Bigger than Ursavore.

  The thing put me in mind of a massive beetle, with three gigantic horns, one curving up from its small head and two curving in the opposite direction from its hulking shoulders. It was covered in green and black exoskeletal armor and that added to its insect-like aesthetic. The actual build, though, was more mammalian. Two arms and legs with hands and feet that no bug would have. If anything, those claws belonged on some burrowing animal like a wolverine or a badger. Or something bigger.

  His health bar was full, but his rage meter was empty. Over his head, I could see a name: Xenatlas. Weird that I couldn’t see the names before. Maybe it was because I hadn’t named my own kaiju yet?

  Exactly, said my sexy Australian AI. So, there was that answered, as well as who my competition was.

  That ridiculously huge energy attack must have come from Xenatlas, which seemed damn unfair. How did someone make something that could bench press a mountain and still have a special attack that freaking overpowered? Then again, I’d killed a kaiju multiple levels higher than me my first time out with my girl, so maybe I couldn’t throw stones. Oh, who the hell was I kidding, of course I could. That cheating bastard!

  This had to be a race between my maxed-out speed and attack against his stupidly big energy blast. Which was really a race between how fast Halira was, and how quickly his rage meter could fill up. A few more blasts like that and there wouldn’t be anything left for me to cut down.

  I poured on the speed, tearing down raised highway as I went, and tore into another cluster of buildings.

  “You’re fast,” Xenatlas bellowed. Actually bellowed. His voice beneath the roar of his kaiju matched the monster. Big.

  He lumbered forward, crushing the smaller buildings and aliens beneath him as he went, and he didn’t so much attack the taller buildings as walk into them. He didn’t need a high attack stat, just his mass.

  “You’re not, Dickface,” I called back.

  He cocked his head. “Really?”

  Keuketon struck.

  We’d discussed how to go about teaming up for this. If the competition was taken out, then all I had to do was destroy the city. I’d created a distraction, and my partner in crime took advantage of it. The stingers on tips of the segmented wing-like appendages flashed with golden light, and then released twin streams of liquid-energy that struck Xenatlas’s carapace from behind.

  The huge kaiju roared and spun around to face the threat. His health bar had only lowered a little. Either he had a lot of HP or the attack wasn’t all that effective. Keuketon wouldn’t be able to do much more than distract him, it seemed. Oh well, that was all I needed him for.

  The two kaiju ran headlong into each other. Keuketon struck first. Despite being smaller, the segmented black bone-wings gave him a longer reach, and the stingers lashed out like spears. One glanced off Xenatlas’s carapace, but the other found a soft spot where two different plates came together at a joint and sank home.

  Then their bodies met and the ground shook.

  I very nearly lost my footing from the force of their impact—which took Keuketon completely off his feet. Xenatlas struck like a freight train. Keuketon struck wildly with talons and beak but his attacks glanced off the armored form of his opponent before he was simply flung free. He soared through the air and smashed through another clump of tall buildings. They exploded.

  When he emerged an instant later, he was smoking and the amber gloss that usually coated his feathers was gone. So was half of his health.

  “Mother-fucker,” I gasped.

  Xenatlas looked back and forth between us. “So, that’s how it is.” His rage meter flashed, once again full, and his trio of horns glowed with white light in time with it. “At least you’re an easy fix.”

  Chapter Eight

  I hit Xenatlas full on, leaping through the air to collide feet first into his armored shoulders. The talons on Halira’s feet sank into his armor but didn’t reach the body beneath. The force of the impact knocked him off balance, and he staggered. The horns blazed with light and the building-sized orb of energy flew from them.

  The heat of it washed over me, but Halira’s HP didn’t drop. The blast went wide, only taking off the top of a single building before vanishing into the air.

  We fell, and I struck with Halira’s primary weapons, using the force of our fall to drive them home. Xenatlas hit the ground. My claws hit Xenatlas. The combined force drove the points through his armor despite the thickness and they sank home. I could feel the soft meat of him through my talons beneath the carapace.

  He struck. Those heavy digging claws hit my side like a spade. Crystalline armor shattered, and Halira was knocked free, claws ripping out of Xenatlas’s armor. Or, in a few cases, not. I regained my feet and discovered that three of my scythe claws were broken, two on one hand and one on the other, and that most of the smaller talons on my feet were chipped and broken.

  I’d done a decent number to his health bar, though. It was down a full quarter from that attack, putting him at about two thirds of his starting point. Only, as I watched, it seemed to continue to drop. Not by much, but steadily.


  He noticed as well as he climbed to his feet and glanced at Keuketon. “You’re venomous.”

  “Yup,” Keuketon said, raising his bone-wings and firing his golden steams from the stingers. Venom Beams. Yuck.

  The beams struck Xenatlas to apparently no effect and he charged, aiming for Keuketon. Keuketon made a squawk and fled toward the cleared-out area of the burning city and drawing Xenatlas away from the fresh buildings.

  Right. I had a mission.

  Still, for good measure, I blasted Xenatlas with my Desiccation Ray, shrinking his HP bar as I took off for the next cluster of buildings. I caught a glimpse of his HP dropping even faster as the overall total drained away.

  That made me take stock of my own HP. That one hit of his had knocked me down to two thirds of my health. It hadn’t even been a particularly good hit. Damn. Halira really was a glass canon. Fortunately, that didn’t matter. She was fast, and with her, I set about completing the mission.

  Buildings fell.

  Flying saucers arrived, and I let out a torrent of curses that had Keuketon laughing.

  I barely avoided the alien’s bombs, catching only the periphery of their explosions which still managed to drop my HP, already lowered to dangerous levels from the single hit Xenatlas had landed. Fury swelled in me and as I sprinted for a new section of city, I let fly another Desiccation Ray at Xenatlas. It struck, and the venom ate away at his HP even faster.

  We just had to outlast him.

  His rage meter flashed. Damn. This bastard was angry. He launched a glowing white orb of energy that nearly killed Keuketon. It missed, barely, and continued travelling to eliminate an entire section of the megacity. So much for luring him away. Even tag-teaming him, he was keeping pace.

  Sure, we were whittling him and the city both down, but all he needed was one good shot and either of us were done for.

  Keuketon and Halira’s special attacks were attrition weapons. Together, they were doing serious work to Xenatlas. It just wasn’t enough. The asshole was too big and strong, and his own special attack could simply wipe us out. Halira might be able to avoid it. Keuketon couldn’t. He just wasn’t fast enough.