Beyond the Boss

by Drew Seren

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Miranda said with a scoff. “It’s superior to humans, why would it want to be more like us?”

  “Why would it want to make itself a dragon body and become real in the game?” Horc asked as he waded a short distance into the lake. The ripples he created broke the surface for a while, then faded into the distance. It made him wonder if he was the first thing to ever break the surface of the water. What was the AI planning with something like the lake?

  Bigdaddybear waded out next to Horc. “If it’s creating things like this lake, has it become real in the game, or is this something it did before getting to that point?”

  “Maybe it made the dragon body but is still keeping its fingers in the godlike stuff, like this lake,” Tufkakes said, walking out to them. “Guess we really don’t have much option than to swim, do we?”

  Horc shook his head. “Not if we want to keep going. We can’t go back the way we came, there’re crystals blocking the way.”

  Their guild chat beeped.

  Guys, I think we finally beat back the Trolls. Stanoran

  At least there are no more of them currently coming at us. Theodore

  Good. Horc grinned as he replied to their message. Although he’d been monitoring their health and mana as they traversed the tunnel, it was good to hear from the others. Unfortunately you can’t catch up with us, there’re some crystals blocking the way. We can’t come back that way either.

  Then we’ll see about finding another way around. Stanoran

  Be careful. It looks like the AI is creating environments now. Horc

  Not good. Theodore. We’ll keep our eyes peeled and let you know if we encounter anything else odd.

  Horc waited a minute or two, but nothing else popped up.

  “Sounds like the First Responders are being a super-kick-ass guild,” Baladara said.

  “Yeah.” Horc nodded and stared across the quiet lake. He wished they could see the far side of it. That would make him feel better about it, or at the very least give them a goal to shoot for. “Okay, so I guess we should break down and swim for it.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that,” Miranda muttered before wading out toward them.

  “At least you’re not the one covered in fur,” Tufkakes replied. “I hope our packs are waterproof.”

  That was something Horc hadn’t even thought about, but figured the magic of the packs would help keep their stuff safe as they swam. They hadn’t noticed any damage to things after their fight with the sea monster. He pulled his bow off his shoulder and slipped it into the pack, something he wouldn’t be able to do IRL with most bows and most packs. Then he pulled his dagger out of his belt and did the same before repeating the maneuver with his quiver. When he turned his attention back to the lake, the others had done the same with their weapons. Titanya also took off her armor and added it to her pack. Seeing her do that made Horc thankful their bags were magical and didn’t add weight to the players no matter how much was put in. As long as they didn’t fill up all their bag slots they’d be fine.

  Wolf stood quietly at Horc’s side, looking out across the lake.

  With a heavy sigh, Horc resumed wading out into the water, thankful it wasn’t ice cold like he expected, but somewhere shy of comfortably warm. He walked as long as he could. Wolf was the first one of them to start swimming. Baladara followed him. As Horc lay across the water and started swimming without really thinking about the action, he wondered if some of the guild who’d been lost, Scarletcrest and Rambull would’ve been able to swim. The Minotauren seemed too big and bulky to do it easily, although the Gnome might’ve done it with no problem, he’d have had to do it for longer than the larger Humans, Elves, and Ursans would’ve had to.

  Keeping the cave walls on either side of them as long as he could since the distance seemed to get greater as they swam along, Horc did his best to keep everyone moving the direction the tunnel had been leading them. The arrow on his mini map was helping him more with that than it had any time since they entered the tunnels.

  Horc wasn’t sure how long they’d been swimming. His arms and legs were starting to burn. None of the others were complaining, but when he glanced at the group icons, it was obvious Baladara and Miranda were starting to have trouble. Both of them were starting to lose health and there wasn’t anything attacking them except for the water, and it wasn’t doing anything but sliding away under them with each stroke of their arms.

  “Can everyone stop and tread water for a moment?” Horc pulled up and lifted his head clear of the water.

  Around him, the others did the same.

  “You know, it’s a good thing our toons innately know how to do things like this,” Titanya said. “Swimming has never been my strong point.”

  “I hear you,” Horc agreed. “Some of us are starting to show signs of fatigue. Bigdaddybear, can you please hit everyone with a round of healing? Then get a mana potion. I doubt we can eat while swimming.”

  “Health potions work,” Tufkakes said. “I used one a few minutes ago when I noticed my health dropping. Thought it would be a good idea to stay maxed out in case we have something hit us when we’re not looking.”

  “Good thinking.” Horc’s arms burned more from the treading water, even though he wasn’t putting as much effort into it as he had swimming.

  “Yeah, give me a second, and I’ll hit all of us.” Bigdaddybear’s hands started their blue glow. “I keep hoping we’ll hit the end of this thing soon.”

  “Me too.” Horc glanced around and fought back a slight wave of panic. He couldn’t see the cave walls, and the ceiling seemed to be closer than it had when they started out. The crystals that were still providing light looked almost close enough to touch. If they hadn’t been in the water, most of them would’ve been stooping to avoid hitting the crystals. He wanted to keep moving and reach the far side of the lake. Logic demanded that the lake had to end at some point, it couldn’t just keep going and going and going.

  The warmth of Bigdaddybear’s healing spell swept over Horc and the burning in his arms and legs stopped. He felt like he was ready to swim the rest of the way, no matter how far it was. “Thanks.”

  Bigdaddybear smiled and nodded. “No problem. That’s why you keep healers in the party, right?”

  “Definitely,” Tufkakes said before Horc could. “Now let’s keep going. I’m ready to get my fur dry.”

  “Me too.” Bigdaddybear accepted the potion Baladara handed him and downed it quickly before putting the vial in his pack.

  Horc lay across the water again and resumed his easy strokes toward the distant shore. He told himself the shore was there, they weren’t going to just swim and swim until they ran out of mana potions and Bigdaddybear couldn’t heal them anymore. Since they’d given half of their potions to the rest of the party, that might happen sooner rather than later. Horc wasn’t keen on asking Miranda for her unlimited supply. It felt too much like cheating, even if the AI was already cheating.

  “Hey, is that what I think it is?” Baladara paused and pointed while treading water.

  Horc pulled up alongside her and followed her finger. It looked like a cave wall ahead of them. He couldn’t tell how far, but seeing it there encouraged him. “Looks that way.”

  “Good.” Tufkakes huffed. “Maybe we can all hold out until we get there and then collapse on the beach. Now if we just had some sun and surf, I could pretend we were on Padre and take a well-deserved nap.”

  Baladara laughed, it was the first cheerful sound out of the group since they entered the water. “I’m with you there. Maybe when we get out of this game we can go hang out on the beach for a month and recuperate.” She sighed. “I think when I get to the beach, I’m passing things over to Lisa for a bit so I can go take a nap. Who knew swimming was such a pain in the ass?”

  “You deserve it,” Horc said as he pushed himself toward the distant shore. He couldn’t recall when Mike took back over Baladara, after recovering from the s
pell feed back, but the two had to keep working together to keep ahead of the real-world fatigue that hit them from using gloves and goggles.“We all do.”

  Bigdaddybear swam next to him. “It might be a good idea for us to take a rest when we get to the shore. If it looks safe, we can leave Lisa to watch over us.”

  “I should be able to help with that too,” Miranda said. “I made sure to give myself max stamina, so I’ll be good longer than you guys will.”

  Horc nodded slowly. “Of course you did. Sure that sounds like a great plan.”

  Then they were all swimming again, and they weren’t able to continue talking.

  As the shore drew closer, Horc thought about just telling Mike to log out and let them finish up the rescue, but he knew his friend wouldn’t do that. They were all in the game together. They would all see it to the end or die trying and not be able to log back in and help finish off the AI. They were living up to the name they’d chosen for the guild. First Responders didn’t stop until everyone was safe. The energy the others were giving their efforts to get to shore and continue their quest pushed Horc on.

  18

  Horc sank to his knees when he reached the beach. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so tired. His health was down to below half, but they’d been determined to get to shore and not ask Bigdaddybear for more healing, hoping they could get some rest and recover their hit points naturally.

  “Ah guys, I think there’s something coming,” Miranda sounded almost scared as Horc came awake with a start at her voice.

  Horc glanced around. They were still on the beach of the massive underground lake. Light still radiated out from the numerous crystals in the ceiling. Around him, the rest of the party jerked awake.

  “Where?” Horc looked around but couldn’t see anything coming down the tunnel they had slept near.

  “Over there.” Baladara pointed out into the lake.

  Horc stared out across the lake. Ripples danced across the water as something swam toward them. He glanced at his and everyone else’s health bars. They were all full, as was everyone’s mana. They were ready to renew their battle with the AI.

  “Okay, how come there’s something in the lake now and there wasn’t earlier?” Tufkakes pulled his bandolier out of his pack and slung it across his chest before pulling out a pair of daggers.

  “No clue.” Titanya replied as she scrambled to get her armor on and her weapon out.

  Bigdaddybear frowned. “This isn’t good. I sent Rick a message as we were getting comfortable on the beach and so far there hasn’t been a response.”

  “Do you think you can focus on the situation at hand?” Miranda snapped. “We’ll worry about the outside world later.”

  “It’s not here yet.” Horc stared as hard as he could toward the wake that was coming at them. He couldn’t make out anything in the water, and from the width of the waves, it looked to be made by something rather large. “Our connection to the outside has been important.” He didn’t want to feel like they’d been cut off. Being trapped with no way to reach out for help would make the situation that much more dire.

  “She’s right.” Bigdaddybear set his jaw, looking grim. “We have to focus on the here and now. I just sent another message, just in case there was a technical hiccup with the previous one.”

  “Okay.” Horc pulled his bow out of his pack, and then slung his quiver over his shoulder. He felt better with weapons in his hand and at the ready.

  “Ah man, why does this look like something out of a Godzilla movie?” Tufkakes asked as he backed up a couple of steps.

  The water rippled and a huge, green, smooth head appeared out of the water. It was broad with large bulbous eyes that looked a lot like a frog, if a frog had a head that was six feet across. It didn’t hop out of the water, so much as wade rapidly. It had humanoid shoulders and body with webbed hands. The water sliding off its body made it look slimy as it rushed toward them.

  The red text above its head said Friggispiran, level 50 with three stars next to it.

  “What is that?” Miranda shouted as she swung her club and shot flame at it.

  “No clue,” Horc replied as he unleashed a Flaming razor arrow. The Friggispiran was easily the most powerful thing they’d faced in Halfworld. Everyone got in solid hits on it before Wolf reached it. Their attacks only dropped its health a little bit, not as much as Horc would’ve liked. Particularly since they weren’t getting any XP for any of the monsters they were fighting, he didn’t like major fights. If the AI hadn’t screwed with things, he’d have reveled in the major battle, but he wanted to get done and rescue people before things turned nasty.

  The Friggispiran make a sound that was a lot like a cat heaving up a hairball. Seconds later it spat a huge ball of slime green goo at Titanya. She tried to dodge out of the way, then at the last second brought her massive manga sword around and sliced the goo ball in half. It didn’t slow down the slimy attack, but it did lesson the amount of it that splashed on her armor.

  Where the ball struck, smoke instantly started billowing up from her shiny protections.

  “Get in the water!” Bigdaddybear shouted. “Try to wash it off.”

  “Great, not only is it a giant toad of some-sort, but it spits acid,” Tufkakes said as he threw two knives at the thing, catching it in the throat. The drop in its HP was barely noticeable on its health bar.

  Horc got off an impact arrow. “Then let’s take it down quickly.”

  Steam rolled up out of the water as Titanya rushed in and tried to get the goo off her armor.

  Bigdaddybear launched a spell at the Friggispiran, turning the ground under it to mud that the great toad-like creature mired in. Seconds later, the beach sand re-solidified and the Friggispiran was slowed down even farther as it struggled to get free of its gritty prison.

  Horc threw a trap at the Friggispiran, placing it between the beast and the party. It continued to fight to get out of the sand.

  “Water’s not helping!” Titanya shouted as she rushed back toward the shore, her armor still smoking, leaving steam trailing behind her as she tore at the straps of the armor to get it off.

  “Let me help.” Tufkakes hurried over to her and began aiding her in getting out of the armor as Horc, Baladara, Wolf, Bigdaddybear, and Miranda continued their assault on the thing.

  With a yelp, Wolf went flying over their heads and crashed into the cave wall after the thing stopped trying to get out of the sand, and grabbed hold of him to throw him away.

  “This abomination shouldn’t exist,” Miranda said as she rushed forward and actually hit it with her club. The physical blow finally dropped the thing to just under three quarters health.

  “It appears to be more resistant to magic,” Bigdaddybear shouted. “We need to be more direct with it.”

  The Friggispiran batted Miranda away and somehow managed to free itself from the sand holding it down. It stumbled slightly and landed a foot in Horc’s Flaming Pit Trap. The damage from the magical instant hole wasn’t nearly as much as Miranda’s club attack had been.

  “Then let’s do that.” Baladara finished the spell she’d started, then as the Friggispiran caught fire, clutched her staff and charged forward.

  Horc wasn’t sure he liked the idea of getting close to the thing, so he stopped worrying about magical buffs to his arrows and stuck with basic shots to hit it as hard as he could from a distance.

  Titanya got her smoking armor off and left the pieces smoldering in the sand. In just her tunic and armored pants, she picked up her massive sword and rushed the Friggispiran.

  Close melee did a lot more damage to the thing, and they kept it up, with even Tufkakes getting in and hitting it hard and fast. Horc would’ve closed ranks if he had still had a hand-held weapon that could do as much damage as his arrows.

  For several minutes they fought with the Friggispiran who tried grabbing them and throwing them away like it had Wolf. Bigdaddybear was nimble enough to avoid the attacks. Baladara man
aged to cast a floating spell of some sort each time she went flying so her damage was minimal. Miranda suffered the most from the blows. Titanya always met the grabs with blocks from her sword, sending the Friggispiran back a couple of steps.

  “Guys, we’ve got something else heading this way.” Tufkakes pointed out to the lake.

  Horc frowned at the sight of the new wake making a line straight for shore. He pulled out an impact arrow. The first one he’d tried had at least slowed the Friggispiran down, even if it hadn’t done much damage to the thing. “Hit it hard and fast when it slows down. We need to take this thing down and make a run for it.” The idea that the AI was generating giant frog beasts to keep them from their objectives pissed him off. He fired the arrow, catching the Friggispiran in one bulbous eye.

  The damage was impressive, even if it didn’t flash critical strike on his screen. The Friggispiran roared and spat another glob of acid goo, this time toward Horc.

  Jumping out of the way. Horc fired another arrow as the goo hit the sand and instantly started smoking. The smoke was thick enough to quickly obscur his view of the beast, although the sounds of his party beating on it continued to be loud.

  On his screen, the Friggispiran’s health was flashing orange. Horc fired arrows as quickly as he could at where he’d last seen the thing.

  “This smoke is getting obnoxious,” Baladara shouted, then coughed.

  “Noxious is more like it.” Bigdaddybear replied. Then a wind whipped up and started blowing it away.

  “Don’t worry about the smoke.” Horc kept firing arrows, thankful for his ever-full quiver. “Let’s get this thing down and make a run for it before the other one gets here.”

  “Definitely.” Tufkakes appeared out of the smoke and hit the thing from behind. Again, there was no sign of a critical hit, but its health dropped into the red and it roared in pain. Suddenly the Friggispiran turned and headed back into the lake.