Party Hard

by David Petrie

  For a moment, Max thought he was dead as he floated in a void of endless gloom. Then, a fraction of a second later, his feet hit the ground. He lost his balance and fell back on his rear. His stomach lurched from the poison status. He glanced around, finding Farn standing in the space where he had been a moment before. He watched in confusion as she took a hit to her shield. Then it dawned on him. He held up the bracelet that she had given him just as one of the beads faded from black to red. She had used her newfound Shift ability to get him out of danger. They must consume a bead each time they activate, he thought, understanding what the item’s limited-use description meant.

  Max relaxed as Farn stood, stopping the creature from getting anywhere near the fairy behind her, still helpless on the ground. Then a heavy blow impacted with the light of her shield, sending sparks flying as it pushed her off balance, leaving her side open. She tried to deflect the next attack with her sword, but it grazed her in the ribs, putting her in the same position Max was in a moment before. She needed help.

  He pushed himself off the ground and pulled a health vial from his bag with the intent of tossing it up to the Shield. Then he stopped and burst out laughing.

  Kira gave him an annoyed glare as she squirmed around on her stomach and struggled to get to her feet. Once upright, she wasted no time, her free hand swiping her spell-craft menu open above her head. She must have selected the glyphs from memory because she couldn't have seen the menu at such an odd angle. She tossed out a quick heal spell to get both Farn and Max out of danger and followed it with a more complex combination to remove the poison and stop them from getting it again.

  Farn smiled back to Kira as the poison's effect faded but had trouble containing her laughter at the sight of the uncoordinated fairy hopping around with one arm flailing over her head.

  Kira attempted to cast another heal but fell over, a short, "Yarr," escaping her mouth as she dropped to the ground.

  Kegan fired several shots, failing to get a critical, then erupted in full guffaws when he saw Kira inching toward Ginger like a worm trying to escape a bird. Instant karma kicked in as the spider took a swing at him while he was distracted.

  "A little help?" Kira called to Ginger who lent a hand in freeing her, laughing the whole time.

  Even Corvin let out a chuckle at her expense.

  Clearly, the fairy was not pleased. "You're all massive jerks, and I hope a spider crawls in your mouth while you're sleeping!" Kira shouted as she got to her newly freed feet, one arm still stuck to her back. She threw out another light spell to replace the first, which was beginning to die out. Then Ginger continued working to release the impatient fairy's arm.

  Kegan, still chuckling to himself, called out a warning, "I'm using a silver arrow."

  Max ducked his head and fell back to a safe position just in case the Leaf's new item turned out to be some kind of explosive.

  Kegan stood proud, taking aim at the spider’s weak point, just beneath its head. He drew back his bow and held it to make sure his aim was true. Then he fired.

  In the moment that followed, a few things happen. First, the arrow flew straight into the spider’s underside. Next, the same arrow bounced off harmlessly just before coming to a stop on the floor beneath the monster. Max shifted his view back to Kegan, who looked back at him, equally confused as his body began to glow before imploding into a single point of energy that streaked straight toward the spider. The terrified Leaf burst back into existence under the spider holding the fired arrow in his hand, its silver feathers fading back to a dull gray color.

  "Huh," Max mumbled as he realized that Kegan had both discovered his own shift ability and teleported himself directly into danger.

  Kegan let out a string of sounds, none which formed any words, though Max assumed from the Leaf's flailing limbs that, if translated, he was saying something close to, "Eek! A spider!" He followed this up by stabbing the beast with the arrow. It was obvious he was out of ideas. Fortunately, he hit its weak point, causing the spider to rear up in an attempt to impale him with its legs on its way back down.

  Max took the opportunity to fire two rounds into the soft spot on the creature’s underbelly. It reeled from the damage, giving Kegan an opening to roll to the side out of danger.

  From there, the Leaf scooted back on his rear, repeating the words, "Oh shit," as he fired arrows one after another, landing a respectable amount of hits before getting to his feet.

  Max reloaded. "It wasn't pretty, but you did some solid damage there."

  "Yeah, well, I try," Kegan replied, failing to convince everyone that he had done it all on purpose.

  Farn could really give him lessons.

  Complete once again, Max and the team fell into formation around the spider. It hit hard, but Farn was doing an excellent job of keeping it focused on her. It was tough, but with an organized party, it proved manageable, provided no one else teleported into the thing’s face.

  It‘s fights like this that make it clear why we’re the right team for the mission, Max thought. Not long after, they brought down the beast, Ginger snatching an item from the thing as it fell. She inspected her prize as Kira recovered everyone back to full health.

  "Oh, gross," Ginger commented as she read the description of the spider egg that she now held in her hand. She wasn't about to throw away a rare item, though, gross or not. She shrugged and placed it in her pouch for later, regardless of the ick factor.

  Max holstered his pistols just as the game’s system played a few happy sounding tones in his ear, inaudible to the others. "Yes!" he shouted. "I just leveled."

  "Seriously?" Ginger asked, sounding surprised. "The experience has been terrible all night."

  Max grinned and took out his journal. "Yeah, but I was close to begin with. Now let's see …" he trailed off, adding, "Well, crap," a moment later. "I've been saving my points to learn a new skill, and I just got enough."

  "So? That sounds like a good thing," Ginger commented.

  "It is. But now I'm torn. I could just dump it all into dex to boost my damage instead. I'm not really sure what I'm gonna need tonight."

  "What skill is it?" Corvin asked.

  Max flipped a page. "It's just level five for Custom Rounds. It lets me make explosive bullets. It would be good for crowd control, but it's not really ideal for single bosses like the Nightmares."

  "So just save the points and decide later," Kira chimed in. "That's what I do."

  "Yeah, maybe," Max accepted.

  "Oh, speaking of," Kegan took out his own journal. "I have an item to name."

  He spoke aloud as he wrote.

  Item name: Shift Arrow

  Type: Consumable

  Description: Do not shoot at spiders. That is all.

  He snapped his journal shut and shoved it in his bag before gesturing toward Kira. "You got a thing in your hair. I think it's webbing,"

  "Oh," she responded, running her hand through her hair in an attempt to find it. "Did I get it?"

  "No, the other side," he answered.

  She tried again. "How ‘bout now?"

  "No, it's higher."

  This time she brushed past it, removing some but not all. "Good?"

  "No, there's still some."

  She let out an aggravated groan and squirmed in a ridiculous but adorable manner. "Would someone just get it out," she cried, issuing an order rather than a request.

  "Come here," Farn said in a warm tone that shut down the fairy's attitude as she beckoned her closer. Kira shuffled over, head lowered to give a better angle. She looked up with her huge blue eyes, drawing a smile out of the Shield that Max found charming.

  Ginger interrupted the moment, "You know I love you, Kira, but there are times when I really hate how cute you are."

  Turning around so that Farn could check the back of her head for more of the dusty webs, Kira wiggled her butt in a sort of dance. "Sorry, can't help it."

  Ginger stuck out her tongue. "Ugh, now I'm gonna be sick." Then she
smiled reluctantly. "But I'm glad to see you’re back to normal. Now, if only I could convince you to put that ass to work at the club."

  Kira froze at the implications on the statement, probably regretting the butt wiggle.

  Max shook his head and shoved his journal back into his bag. "Come on; we got Nightmares to kill, people." He walked toward the room's exit, followed by the rest of the party.

  Kira hurried back to his side, her face still a healthy shade of pink.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Kirabell followed Max deeper into the labyrinth, fortunately not running into any more giant spiders. They did, however, come to another dead end in a large room, complete with another slab of stone blocking their path.

  "Okay. This is getting old." Kira sighed as the dungeon began to feel a bit repetitive. It seemed like it had been hours since they had left Alastair back at the lagopin stable. She looked at the mission clock. "Crap, I've been logged in for twelve hours, this one better not take much longer."

  "All the more reason to get this over with." Max stepped up to the single lever to the side of the door. He pulled, probably expecting it to move like the last one. It didn't. The others piled on to the device. Again, it took all but Kira to budge the thing. Not that she would have been any help.

  As the lever clicked into place, she held her breath and watched the door, hoping that it would at least open all the way. It didn't. In fact, it didn't open at all. Instead, she heard the sound of stone moving against stone, followed by the sound of water coming from behind as a small square hole opened in the floor.

  Still holding on to the lever, the others craned their necks back to face the opening, puzzled expressions all around.

  "You mind checking that out? We kind of have our hands full." Max grunted to Kira.

  She sighed and begrudgingly stepped over to the hole, water sloshing around inside it. "It's just a hole." She dropped to her knees and dipped her fingers in to splash around a bit.

  It was warm, almost inviting. She reached in with one arm to see how deep it was. The thought crossed her mind to pretend that something had grabbed her. She decided against it. It wasn't that the situation was too serious for the prank, that she was too mature, or even that she wasn't in the mood after going through so much, but simply because she felt it was too obvious.

  "Anything?" inquired Max.

  She felt around. "Yeah, one side is open a couple feet down, I think it might be a tunnel. Maybe the way through," she said with little enthusiasm.

  "Okay, get out of there. We're gonna let go of this," he instructed. They released the lever, and the hole closed again.

  Max turned back to Kira. "Man, this dungeon has been hard on you."

  "Yeah," she answered, rolling her eyes. She could guess what he was going to say next.

  "I am really sorry," he prefaced his next sentence.

  "I know, just say it," she got straight to the point.

  He sucked his teeth and made a face prepared for the worst. "Yeah, we're gonna need you to go in there."

  "And there it is." She dropped her head in submission. "Sure, why not?"

  Corvin folded his arms, looking pensive. "I'm guessing that this is another one of those things where Carver is forcing our weakest player into something traumatic like before."

  "Well, the joke’s on him. I'm a fantastic swimmer." Kira stood with her hands on her hips and puffed up a bit. "I did swim team all through high school."

  "That's right. Although, you didn't win much," Max added.

  "Well, win or lose, what's important is that you play the game. Also, shut up. I seem to recall someone trying out for football and getting their ass handed to them."

  "That's fair." Max shrugged.

  She started to say something back but stopped as a thought occurred to her. Horror fell across her face as her body flooded with nervous tension.

  "What?" Max asked.

  She paused before speaking, "I'm gonna need you guys to turn around."

  "Why?"

  The question annoyed her. "Because I don't know how far that tunnel goes, and the amount of time I can stay underwater is limited by how much gear I have equipped. Plus, it's hard to swim while fully clothed." She fidgeted with her dress. "I didn't exactly think to pack a bathing suit in my item bag before we left."

  A laugh erupted from Kegan. "Oh, no way. I gotta see this."

  She shot him an angry look. "I'm not kidding."

  "Seriously? It's an avatar?" Max held out a hand in her direction. "Who cares?"

  Kira avoided making eye contact. "Look, it weirds me out, okay. And the fact that it weirds me out weirds me out even more. So just turn around, and let it go," she demanded in a tone that made it clear that she was quite serious and did not want any further discussion.

  Ginger stepped in, waving her finger in a circle. "You heard her, guys. Turn around. This ain't no burlesque show."

  Corvin did so without comment while the other two groaned in protest as they complied.

  Kira mouthed the words, "Thank you," to Ginger before starting to disrobe. A moment later, she handed her item bag and pants to the Coin, who folded them neatly. Now standing there in just a dress, Kira couldn't help but feel a bit vulnerable, the high slits on her sides revealing her hips and thighs. She continued, taking a deep breath as she pulled the remaining fabric up and over her head.

  She had never gone through the trouble of customizing her avatar's underwear as she had not expected anyone to ever see them. This left her in the fairy's default garments that some game designer thought would be appropriate. As such, they were nothing fancy. On top was a simple rectangle of white fabric attached to thin straps that looped around her back and neck to conceal her chest, the size of which didn't require anything more in terms of support. On the bottom was just a plain white pair of panties, cut low to a point where they were almost scandalous. It was worth noting that the word ‘panties’ was one that Kira had never felt comfortable saying and therefore avoided at all costs.

  Overall, as far as undergarments went, they were nothing fancy, but they were also more than a little revealing. So if she felt exposed in just a dress the moment before, she was pretty much on display now, her face showing as much of her emotions as her lack of clothing showed skin.

  Farn let out a surprised, "Oh," and glanced around, eventually resigning to turn around and stand with the guys. They looked to the side at her in question, but she just gave them an awkward shrug.

  "Hey, no peeking over there," Ginger commanded, noticing the guys’ heads turning.

  "Hey, Kira," Kegan said without looking back.

  "Yeah?" She held her arms at her sides, unsure what to do with them.

  "I just want you to respect the restraint that I'm showing by not turning around. Because I really want to."

  Ginger smacked him on the back of the head before giving her attention back to Kira. "Alright. I'll hold your gear for you since you won't be able to get it back out if you put it in your inventory."

  Kira thanked her before turning to the men. "Okay, let's hurry up and pull that thing and get this show on the road," she said, referring to the lever.

  "That's what—" Kegan started to say but was once again smacked by Ginger before he could finish.

  The others converged around the lever, being careful not to look in Kira’s direction. With some effort, the stone panel in the floor slid open once again, leaving her to stare at the water's surface.

  The warm, moist air caressed every inch of her, sending a tingling sensation through her body that was a little too intimate. "Have I mentioned that I hate this place?" Kira added before dipping one foot in the water. At least it wasn't cold.

  She threw another ball of light in first, feeling relieved when she saw it reflect off the walls of the inside of the underwater tunnel. It looked big enough to move around in without trouble, so her newfound claustrophobia shouldn't be an issue. She sat down on the edge, letting her legs dangle in the pool. The stone f
loor beneath was uncomfortably warm against her skin. She slid into the water up to her neck, holding on to one side with her hands.

  Now that she was submerged, Max looked back to her. "Be careful."

  She nodded back, biting her bottom lip, then ducked under. The darkness was chased away by her light spell and the soft glow of her casters which were now the only pieces of equipment she had on other than a few rings and an anklet on each foot.

  She’d gone swimming once before in game. It had been in a dungeon that required the entire party to traverse a small underwater cave, which she had done clothed since it wasn't that far. Despite that, she almost hadn’t made it back then. For the most part, swimming in Noctem was the same as swimming in the real world. Well, almost the same. The major difference was that she didn't feel the pressure to breathe since the system governed the need of oxygen differently while underwater. The main reason being that if a player was down for too long without the system's help, they could literally drown. The mind would create a realistic sensation of their death before disconnecting them. Kira assumed it had been decided that would be too traumatic for a game. Instead, they had an imposed simple time limit. Once it was reached, she would just lose twenty percent of her hit points every ten seconds until they hit zero. So, in total, she could stay under for about three minutes while unencumbered before resulting in an instant death and disconnect.

  Back when she had swum through the cave before, she only had a minute of air since she had worn her full gear in. Now, wearing almost nothing, she had plenty of time which took some of the pressure off. She swam well, and there were no monsters, so for once, things were easy on her. She actually kind of enjoyed herself.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The lever was heavy. So heavy, in fact, that it took everyone to hold it in place - some even holding onto each other like a human chain when room on the handle became limited. It was a point that made Corvin more than a little uncomfortable as Ginger wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her breasts against his back. He understood that she didn't really care about that sort of thing, but still, for him, it felt weird.