Beyond the Boss

by Drew Seren

  Tufkakes shook her head, making her black furry ears wave back and forth. “Wrong. We talked about this, even bounced it past a few of the others, and they’re cool with it.”

  A chorus of “Right” and “Yeah” rang out.

  “We’re the rescue squad here,” Baladara continued. “Nobody else is going to come into this game and save Slasher and the others. Their fate is in our hands. In Halfworld, we are the ones putting out the AI’s fire.”

  “I like it,” Bigdaddybear said, patting Horc on the shoulder. “And they do have a point. Look at it this way, ever since Steelmaiden and Slasher got taken by the pirates, your thing has been saving people. Our party started out to keep you alive, and now you’re returning the favor. If anyone in this game has the true spirit of a first responder, it’s you.”

  Titanya patted his other shoulder. “And don’t think any of us are about to forget what you’re doing for us. You’re awesome Horc.”

  A lump formed in Horc’s throat. He wasn’t used to people looking up to him the way the party was. He was just a simple lead in tech support for Total Immersion Systems. In the game, like in real life, he was just trying to do what was right. The people gathered around him were acting like he was a hero or something.

  “Thanks.” He swallowed back the lump.

  Tufkakes ruffled Horc’s hair with a hand that was as much paw as hand. “Good. Now let’s get in there and set up this guild so we can all sign the charter and get on with this game.”

  He turned and walked into the small shop, that turned out to be too small for everyone to get into, so Horc and three others at a time made it up to the Guild Master who stood behind a counter full of papers.

  “Hello,” Horc said.

  The short Orc in bright stylish leathers jumped slightly as he suddenly focused on Horc. He looked like he was ready for a night in a disco rather than helping players organize groups. “How can I help you?”

  “We’d like to form a guild,” Horc said.

  “Fabulous.” The Orc’s name, in yellow text, read Harvey Unionman, Orc, Cleric, Level 50. “I just need a few papers filled out. This requires five people to sign the initial guild charter, and you’ll have to stop by the bank with it and open an account there. If you want, you can also design a guild logo to put on your guild tabards, and all Warriors, and Paladins will be able to get the logo on their shields.”

  There was more to think about than Horc had planned. But, if they were just going to rescue people and then the game would reset, would any of it be things they needed to worry about?

  “Right now we just have a name,” Horc said as he accepted the papers.

  “A name is a good place to start.” Harvey pointed to a spot on the top of the first paper. “Right there. You can add the rest any time at any of the other Guild HQs. We have offices in all the major cities, or you can send me mail and I’ll get back to you with more forms.”

  Forms felt like work. Horc picked up a long black quill from the corner of the counter and set to work filling out the first page.

  “This’ll be fun,” Baladara said. “We can design logo, tabards and shields. I might actually roll up a fighter of some sort if we got cool customer shields.”

  “I’ve done a bit of graphic arts,” Tufkakes added. “We’ll make sure it looks awesome.”

  Horc put his own name down as Guild Head, then listed Baladara, Titanya, Bigdaddybear, and Tufkakes as guild officers. He started to add Slasher, since he was part of the original party, but he wasn’t sure if doing something like that might alert the AI to what they were doing, if the AI didn’t already know by them interacting with Harvey.

  “Sounds like you’ve got a good crew here,” Harvey said. “Every guild needs a good crew, particularly if they’re going to survive.”

  A chill went through Horc and he stared at Harvey. There wasn’t any sign on his face that said he was anything more than just the NPC in charge of a small shop, but something in the way he’d said “going to survive” made Horc wonder if the AI was going to manipulate everything in the game to make their quest next to impossible.

  Tufkakes, Baladara, and Bigdaddybear put their signatures on the guild charter.

  “Let’s go out and let three more come in,” Bigdaddybear said, waving toward the door.

  Horc stood there with the charter as three more came in and added their signatures to the charter. After five people had signed, Horc had to turn to the next page to get the rest of the signatures. When Rambull, the last one, signed the charter, Horc slid the papers back to Harvey.

  “Other than stopping by the bank, is there anything else we need to do right now, while we’re in town?”

  Harvey glanced at the papers, reading over them several times. “Looks like you’ve got a very powerful guild here, Horc007, Half Orc Ranger. That’s good. You’re going to need it.” Harvey picked up a different quill and made an official flourish at the bottom of the last piece of paper. “Now, once you get a logo figured out, please let me know. You’ll only be able to purchase your guild-specific equipment from a Guild HQ office, open in any of the major cities, or order through the mail by sending me a message.”

  “Thanks.” Horc gestured for Rambull to follow him out of the office. He still felt strange about the way Harvey acted. Sometimes it felt like he was working off a script, and sometimes it was like he was either warning, or threatening, Horc couldn’t decide which.

  Horc breathed a little easier as he stepped out into the bright sunshine and fresh air. He hadn’t realized how stuffy it was in the guild office until he was free of it.

  “Okay, let’s stop by the bank real quick,” Horc said, then chuckled. “Not sure we really need to since none of the recent mobs are doing drops.”

  Baladara laughed. “Who knows, maybe we can get a huge deposit after this adventure is over. I wonder how much gold the AI is worth.”

  “More than you’ve got in your account,” Tufkakes replied.

  Remembering the way from his own wandering quest in Red Wind Terrace, Horc led the way to the bank. Setting up the guild bank account made First Responders even more real. IRL, Horc had never set up any kind of business or joint bank account. He just had the one account for him. He thought it was weird to have more in a game than he had IRL.

  The bank was larger than Guild HQ had been, so the entire group was able to fill the space while Horc got it opened and got everyone able to access the account. At Baladara’s prompting, he added a daily withdraw limit for everyone but the officers.

  “Ah, guys, there’s something happening,” Jamica called from the back of the group.

  “What?” Baladara turned as Horc slipped the paper back to the head banker, the only one who’d responded to them.

  As the banker took the paper, the two other bankers behind the bars of the counter came over to him and glared at Horc through the iron bars.

  “Ah geez. Guys, I think I’ve seen this movie, but the zombies looked a little deader.” Tufkakes pulled daggers and jumped up on the counter.

  Horc spun and looked toward the opening that served as the door, since there didn’t appear to be any actual doors in the place. NPCs jammed the opening. They all had various weapons out and looked like they were ready to end the First Responders before they really got a chance to complete their first official adventure as a guild.

  6

  As Horc reached for his bow strung over his shoulder, a hand closed over his wrist and yanked him backward.

  “No you don’t.” Tufkakes slashed at the banker’s arm, severing the hand from the body.

  Horc stumbled against the bank counter, but managed to get his bow unslung and an arrow nocked. The NPC townspeople were turning against them. He didn’t know how many people there were in Red Wind Terrace, but he had to get his guild out of the town as fast as possible.

  Baladara was already casting a spell, her hands glowing red as she stared toward the opening leading out into the lane. “Everyone hit them as hard as we can.”


  “Get away from the counter.” Tufkakes said as he jumped off the counter. The iron bars that were effective at protecting the bankers, worked both ways as the two uninjured clerks pulled their swords and started stabbing through the bars.

  Several spells went off at once, blowing holes through the NPCs trying to get to them. Horc fired arrows as fast as he could, hoping to bring down an adequate number of opponents to let them get out of the bank.

  For several minutes, spells, arrows, and daggers flew as they fought to clear the doorway sufficiently to get out. The NPCs were hard to bring down. They all seemed determined to keep the guild in the bank.

  “Press forward,” Rambull shouted. “I’m using my Charge attack. It’ll be five minutes before I can do it again, but I should leave them stunned long enough for us to make it out.”

  The guild formed around the big Minotauren as he lowered his head. His long horns looked even more dangerous as they spread out to the sides of his skull. Then Rambull bellowed. Magic glistened in a gray glow around him and he Charged.

  His horns were almost too wide to clear the opening and one of them scraped orange dirt off the side of it as he went through like an armored bovine freight train. NPCs went down under his hooves or fell back against the wall. None of them moved as the rest of the guild dashed along behind him. Rambull made it halfway across the main square, stunning and stomping NPCs as he went. Then the gray glow around him faded.

  Rambull paused, his breath heaving.

  “Cover him!” Horc shouted, running as fast as he could to get between Rambull and the NPCs who’d managed to avoid his Charge.

  A Fireball shot past him, hitting several NPCs hard, flinging them back into a building across the square.

  “I like this upgrade stuff,” Baladara said. “Didn’t have area of effect spells before.”

  “It is nice,” Bigdaddybear agreed as a brown wind howled around them, blowing NPCs out of the way.

  “And why didn’t you use those earlier?” Horc asked as he got off multiple arrows in a single shot.

  “Some things only work outside,” Bigdaddybear said as his paws glowed with his next spell.

  “Let’s get out of the city,” Tufkakes shouted from the left.

  Horc took a big guard out with a Fire arrow. A notification of loss of reputation with the Orcs flashed on his screen. They weren’t getting XP or loot, but their reputation was being impacted by attacking guards… the AI was definitely not playing fair.

  “Everyone follow Tufkakes.” Horc put a hand on Rambull’s shoulder. “You ready to move?”

  Rambull let out a long heavy breath. “Don’t really have a choice now, do I?”

  Horc shook his head. “Not really. I can help if you need it.”

  “No.” Rambull shook his head. “The nice guy thing is why people follow you, Horc. Don’t lose it.” His hands glowed blue and seconds later a wave of water erupted from where they stood and washed the townsfolks out of their path.

  “Thanks.” Horc stayed by the big Shaman’s side as the guild splashed through the wave’s watery wake. The opposition was limited, and the guild members were doing their best to not kill any of the NPCs as they fled the city. It went pretty well until they reached the bottleneck that led to the desert beyond the canyon. Five guards in full armor with huge swords stood there, waiting for the guild to reach them.

  Titanya charged to the front of the group. “Tanks, form on me, everyone else stand back and hit them with everything you’ve got.”

  Horc readied arrows. He held his multi shots that would’ve hit several targets, focusing on the guard on the far left. They only had three tanks. Titanya and the two others raced down the center of the bottleneck. With their unwieldy swords swinging easily, they slammed into the three guards at the center. Horc unleashed his arrow with a Flame spell on it as the casters’ spells zipped through the air between the guild and the guards.

  Rambull stood near the center of the guild chanting a spell that spread out over the party. Horc’s next arrow seemed to hit with more force. It knocked more of the guard’s health down, but he still didn’t get a critical hit. He’d looked at the stats while waiting for Rick to get everything ready so he could log back in. With his level increase, his chance to crit was really high, especially when he fired slowly, focusing each hit.

  One of the guards in the center went down. Titanya shouted a war cry, and the other tanks answered.

  “We’ve got incoming from behind,” Baladara shouted as she spun at Horc’s side. “Guess it’s time to see how this new Flame Wall spell works.”

  “Hurry up guys, we’ve got to get through this.” Horc launched another arrow, this time choosing one of his impact arrows and adding a Poison spell to it. The guard flew backward when the arrow struck him in the chest. He slammed into the side of the bottleneck and his health dropped below a half.

  “That should’ve been a crit,” Horc muttered.

  The guard’s health dropped into the red even as Horc sent his next arrow. Jamica appeared out of the shadows with a bloody dagger in her hand. Horc’s arrow put the guard down. He tapped his hair with his bow as a salute as the Troll Rogue disappeared into the shadows again.

  With the guild working together, six guards didn’t stand a chance, even as their reputation with the Orc faction started sliding toward the negative. Horc told himself that it didn’t matter. The odds were that after they defeated the AI and freed everyone, the servers would be reset and they’d have to start over anyway. Everything they’d done would be erased.

  “Need a bit of help back here,” Baladara said.

  Horc turned. A large wall of townspeople were heading their way. It spread across the far end of the bottleneck. They were throwing themselves into the flaming wall that separated them from the First Responders.

  “Let me,” Scarletcrest, a Gnome Witch with wild vivid red hair and a huge nose for such a little guy, stepped up beside Baladara. “My specialty is ice, but if I can get it far enough from your fire, it should help.” He pulled something out of his pouch, muttered something over his hand and as soon as his hand started to glow white, threw it with all his might.

  The glowing ball soared over Baladara’s Flame Wall, and struck the ground a short distance away from it, landing in the midst of the NPCs. Seconds later the white glow spread out and created a massive barrier of ice, plugging the end of the bottleneck.

  “That’s great and all,” Baladara said. “But there’s still a couple dozen between our walls.”

  “Two more to go here,” Bigdaddybear hollered.

  “So you don’t have long to hold our rear.” Horc turned back to the tanks taking down the guards. He loosed an impact arrow with Fire on it at the one closest to Titanya. It caught the guard in the chest, knocking him off his feet. Titanya and Rambull slammed it to the ground. Its health bar flashed red and it disappeared.

  Tufkakes and Jamica flashed into sight as the final guard who had been holding off the other two tanks straightened, screamed and fell to the ground. He pixelated in seconds.

  “Okay folks, run!” Horc readied another arrow and dashed for the opening the tanks and Rogues had just created.

  “Right behind you,” Baladara replied. “Come on little guy, we’re outta here.”

  Horc didn’t need to turn around to know she was talking to Scarletcrest. He was the only Gnome in the guild, and the only one of them shorter than Baladara.

  The bright desert awaited them as they rushed through the open end of the bottleneck. Titanya and Rambull stood with the other tanks. Rambull was casting healing on them.

  When Stanoran joined them, he finished healing Titanya, then sighed. “Okay, are we safe enough here to pause and replenish our mana?”

  Not knowing how long Scarletcrest’s ice wall would stand, Horc shook his head. “Sorry, we need to keep moving.” He pointed to his left. “Let’s head east until we can’t see the edge of the canyon, then we’ll head north.”

  “So that�
��s the direction we need to go?” Stanoran asked.

  Horc shrugged and started walking east. “Not exactly sure. We haven’t heard back from Rick, have we?” He glanced over his shoulder at the guild members following along behind him until he spotted Bigdaddybear on his right.

  “Not yet,” Bigdaddybear replied. “Let’s get somewhere safe and I’ll send him a message. This game needs voice chat with the outside world. That would make this easier.”

  “Not going to hear me complain about making communications easier.” Horc turned his attention to the white sand dunes in front of him. He hadn’t expected the NPCs to turn on them like that. The village folk in Tragiczan had been stuck in something similar to a stunned state, except when asked questions. He’d been hoping the other NPCs they encountered would do the same. With the NPCs becoming hostile, the group was in a bit of a pickle. They’d have to rely on their environment for nourishment. They wouldn’t be able to stop at an inn or food vendor to get food and drink for healing and mana replenishment.

  It was fifteen minutes later when Horc decided they were probably safe to stop. None of the townsfolk had pursued them past the canyon walls, and so far, they hadn’t encountered any scorpions, sand worms, or other monsters in the desert. “Okay. Let’s pause for a little while.” Horc held up his hand for them to halt.

  Around him, his guild members dropped to the sands. Several of them lay back and closed their eyes. It was obvious that everyone was beat. Not the most auspicious start to their quest.

  “Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll check with Rick on how they’re coming about locating the AI and the hostages,” Bigdaddybear said.

  “Sure. Let’s hope that they aren’t on an island or somewhere we can’t get to by walking,” Horc said, a gut wrenching realization coming on him. “I doubt we’ll be able to ride on boats, blimps, or anything like that without having to fight our way for control.”