Beyond the Boss

by Drew Seren

  Then the warm blue magic engulfed Horc.

  “That was close,” Bigdaddybear said. “You should’ve shouted to get my attention.”

  Horc shrugged as his health went up while the spell ran its duration. “You were busy, and these things are loud.”

  Bigdaddybear offered him a paw up. “That they are.”

  “I think we’re done with this group,” Titanya announced. “At least no more coming at us that Tufkakes and I can spot right now. He’s off checking the village. Hope they’re all down.”

  “Got my fingers crossed,” Baladara said. “Those things looked, smelled and sounded nasty.”

  Horc glanced around and there was Wolf trotting toward him. Blood matted his black fur, and feathers clung to his face. His health was low, but not dropping. Horc cast a healing on him, then tossed him one of the few remaining chunks of meat for good measure.

  Wolf came over and licked Horc’s hand after finishing the meat. The matted blood disappeared as his health maxed out and he looked fit as a fiddle again. Horc smiled slightly as he rubbed Wolf’s head. He didn’t want anything to happen to his companion.

  Tufkakes stepped back out of the shadows. “Village looks clear. There’s a passageway out the back of it.”

  Horc shook his head. “I take it this passage continues past the village too.”

  “Yeah.” Tufkakes rubbed his hands on his knees, then shook his hands out. “Man, holding those daggers starts cramping after a while.”

  “That’s odd for a game too, isn’t it?” Horc asked.

  Bigdaddybear shrugged. “Yeah, but they are trying to make this as real as possible.”

  “I’m beginning to wonder if there’s such a thing as too real,” Baladara said. “We could use a rest.”

  Horc shook his head. “We’ve got to be getting close.” He glanced at the map. The arrow they’d been following looked a little larger than it had earlier. He’d noticed before that the quest arrow normally got larger the closer they got to the quest. It made him feel like they’d made the right choice by following Wolf’s suggestion.

  21

  They had been walking so long that Horc’s feet were starting to hurt again. He was torn between calling a rest stop and pushing on. It amazed him that things like foot pain were a part of a game, and wondered how many people would find that as a drawback to the game, or if the reality of it would draw more people in. There was an attraction to a lot of people to have a level of pain and discomfort that wouldn’t carry back to their real bodies.

  “I think there’s something up,” Baladara muttered as they hiked along.

  “What do you mean?” Horc asked, thankful for the breaking of the monotony of just walking along the fairly nondescript tunnel.

  “It’s been a while since we had any encounters.” Baladara spread her arms and waved her fingers at the uniformly smooth walls. “It’s like there’s nothing down here, or up here, depending on which direction we’ve been traveling.”

  “Up,” Bigdaddybear said. “We’ve been going up this whole time.” He shrugged his broad furry shoulders. “Okay, most of the time.”

  “Sounds like we’re going the direction we wanted to,” Horc said without breaking his stride. “But you’re right. It’s been a while. Could we have entered a section of the tunnels the AI hasn’t populated yet?” There was too much they didn’t know about the AI and how it operated. He glanced over at Miranda.

  She shook her head. “Don’t look at me. I don’t totally understand the AI, I just know that it’s not working the way it should be. Beyond that…I think we need to get done with this game. It’s taking too long, and trying to figure out why a stupid program is malfunctioning isn’t why we’re here. Right now, we’re here to save people. The AI programmers will work out why the thing got buggy. I’m just glad the pods are working the way they’re designed to.”

  Horc shook his head. “Not helpful.”

  “Hey, I’ve been thinking,” Bigdaddybear said as they continued down the passageway. “We can’t reach the chat functions, but has anyone tried to do web searches, or even check news sites while we’ve been walking?”

  Tufkakes laughed. “Sweetie, why on earth would we be checking news sites while we’re in a game? I don’t know about you, but I game to get away from the crazy-ass world we live in, not keep tabs on it.”

  Baladara chuckled. “You know TK, sometimes your woman just shows right through.”

  Titanya joined in the merriment. “And sometimes your misogynistic ass comes out, Bally.”

  “I never thought of it that way—” Tufkakes laughed harder “—is that why you went with Baladara…Balls A Daring?”

  Baladara flushed. “Ah…no…it was just a coincidence, honestly.” She looked at Horc and Bigdaddybear. “A little help here guys.”

  Horc shook his head and held up his hand. “Nope. I’m staying out of this. I’m the guy who randomized his original toon, remember.”

  Tufkakes stopped laughing and stared ahead before jerking his head from side to side as if trying to see something.

  A weird tingling sensation danced across Horc’s skin, feeling like the light touch of hundreds of electric feathers, barely touching him, but definitely making their presence known.

  “What was that?” Tufkakes asked, a note of concern in his voice that wasn’t normally there.

  “No clue.” Baladara frowned and stepped up next to Tufkakes, her hands looking tense, like she was ready to start throwing spells at the slightest provocation.

  “Some kind of magical field,” Bigdaddybear said. “I don’t think we walked through it. I think it went over us.”

  “You mean like some kind of scanning beam or something?” Even though Horc was throwing in sci-fi terms, he didn’t care. He couldn’t think of any fantasy equivalent.

  “Yeah.” Bigdaddybear said. “Exactly like that.”

  Miranda shook her head. “But the game doesn’t have that kind of capability.”

  Horc sighed. “It might not have had that when the beta testing began, but with the AI growing and learning, we don’t know what it’s capable of.”

  “You think this was the AI?” Titanya asked, her hand tightening on her sword hilt.

  “It wasn’t a Druid spell,” Bigdaddybear said.

  “Not a Mage spell,” Baladara agreed.

  “We don’t have our other casters right now,” Horc said. “But it didn’t feel like any magic I’ve felt so far. In my brain, that leaves the AI.”

  Miranda huffed and walked a little faster. “You know how ridiculous that sounds? How would it even be possible for the AI to get an understanding of something that we don’t currently have in our world?”

  “Maybe when the programmers figure that out, they can figure everything else out too,” Bigdaddybear replied.

  Wolf whined and nudged Horc’s leg.

  “What’s wrong, Boy?” Horc rubbed Wolf’s head.

  Since he was bent over, the lack of light behind them caught his attention. He straightened and turned. The tunnel behind them was completely black. For the longest while the strange crystals in the ceiling had been lighting their way. He couldn’t remember the last time Baladara had to cast a light spell to illuminate their passage. Glancing up simply revealed that the crystals were still in the rocks above them and glowing softly as they had been.

  “Guys, I don’t know, but this might be important.” Horc gestured back toward the darkness.

  “Okay, that’s weird.” Bigdaddybear took a couple of steps past Horc toward the darkness. “It’s about the same spot that we felt the magic.”

  Tufkakes shook his head, moving up alongside Bigdaddybear. “But we just agreed it went through us, and not the other way around. If that was the case, it shouldn’t have impacted things behind us.”

  The Rogue reached the spot the darkness started first and put his hands out, then ran them along like he was touching a barrier of some kind. He frowned. “This isn’t good. Solid barrier from what I can tell
. Give me a second.” He closed his eyes and moved his hands like he was casting a spell. Then he shook his head. “Nope, no sign of traps. This must be something else.”

  “I don’t know what a force field would feel like, but this is more like some kind of dark wall,” Bigdaddybear said. “Feels acrylic, of all things.”

  “I keep telling you guys, this stuff isn’t possible.” Miranda stomped up to the darkness and smashed at it with her club. Fire flew across the wall, but when the flames stopped, there was no obvious damage.

  Tufkakes was the first to touch it again. “Not even hot. Yeah, this is weird.”

  The group chat window popped up on the side of Horc’s view. He moved the window to center view while the others continued to poke at the dark wall.

  Guys, I don’t think we’re getting there from here. Stanoran

  What’s happening out there? Horc

  There was some kind of earthquake and now we’ve got new peaks to deal with. Stanoran

  New peaks? Horc replied and tried to understand. Previously when the AI had constructed something it had taken time, building a wall brick by brick. True they hadn’t actually seen it construct the crystals and tunnels, but that showed a definite level of growth on the AI’s part.

  Yeah. We’re trying but can’t find a pass to get through to the big one. We can still see it, towering over the others, but right now, there’s no way we’re getting through to it. Stanoran.

  We just got cut off from going back by a shadow wall of some sort. Horc wondered if there would be another dark wall, or other impassible barrier they’d encounter to keep them from getting to the AI and rescuing the hostages. He didn’t like the idea they were being outmaneuvered by a machine.

  We’ll keep looking for a way through. Stanoran

  Don’t kill yourselves. If you can’t get through, log out and let the developers know what’s going on in here. Horc.

  It suddenly made sense for them to log out to get word to the people in the real world to let them know what was going on. He just hoped the AI would let them all log out. With that thought, he brought up his system menu. The log out button was there. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. The button hadn’t been there when he’d been trapped in his pod. He still had an out, and he hoped everyone else did too.

  I’ll let you know before we do that. If we can’t get there to help you, save them all for us. Stanoran

  Will do. Horc closed the chat window. Things were looking more dire for the hostages, but if Horc and the First Responders couldn’t find a way to get to them, they’d rely on the programmers to do something that would rescue everyone.

  “Things aren’t looking too good for the guys on the surface,” Horc said.

  “Well yeah,” Titanya said. “New mountains, and at the same time this wall appears. It’s all got to be the AI. This thing is one of the most erratic bosses I’ve ever had to deal with. At least it didn’t outright try to kill us this time.”

  “Let’s stop pissing around with this thing and get moving before it cuts us off from the other direction,” Miranda said as she turned from the wall and stomped down the tunnel.

  “I hate to say it, but I think she has a point,” Tufkakes said.

  Horc nodded. “Then let’s pick up the pace and see where we end up.”

  The tunnel continued to slope up, and the air grew colder, like they had less rock between them and the frigid air outside the mountain peak. With everything the AI was throwing at them, Horc wondered what they would find when they got to the end of the tunnel. Would any of the hostages even still be alive?

  22

  A cold wind coursed through the tunnel. Horc wrapped his arms across his chest and once again wished they either had winter gear or had been able to speak to a vendor to be able to aquire some. The temperature had started dropping the farther they went down the passageway, still without encountering any mobs, or barriers to impede their progress. More walls of darkness kept popping up behind them, an obvious show that the AI wanted them to continue the direction they were going.

  “This is getting old,” Miranda complained as they rounded a slight bend in the tunnel and another dark wall appeared behind them.

  Horc wasn’t sure if it was a new wall, or just the AI moving the same one as they went along.

  “Yeah, but we really don’t have any options,” Tufkakes said. “We’re being herded along, whether we like it or not.”

  “I for one, say not,” Baladara announced. “If this bloody AI is doing all this, why can’t it make it warmer in this tunnel? Doesn’t it know that underground passageways normally have a constant temperature of around seventy degrees or so?”

  “Maybe it hasn’t read that book or website,” Bigdaddybear said. He’d been more than a little put out that he hadn’t been able to get out to a website after Horc had suggested they all try to reach the outside world using an indirect route the AI might not have thought about. It had been a good idea, but apparently one the AI had already blocked. None of them could access anything outside the game. The AI had taken control of everything.

  The wind got colder and the tunnel ended in a set of steps that led down into a huge central cavern. More crystals filled the ceiling, providing soft white light for the sprawling area below.

  “Wow—” Baladara stopped at the top of the stairs and stared down. “—I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  Horc paused beside her. The place looked like a medium-sized underground city, complete with houses, parks, and other buildings he could not identify. Some of the larger buildings were fairly nondescript beyond being huge blocks that looked like they’d been pulled out of the ground. People of various races moved among the buildings; they all seemed to be in armor, but none of them had text above their heads to give an indication if they were friendly or hostile.

  “I don’t like this,” Titanya muttered.

  “We don’t know what we’re going into,” Bigdaddybear added.

  The wall of darkness moved to just a few feet from them, leaving them with no choice but to go down the stone stairs into the town.

  “Me neither, but we don’t have many options here, unless we want to log out.” Horc stared at Miranda for a moment, hoping she’d take the easy way out of the situation and flee to the relative safety of the real world.

  “Let’s see what it’s created.” Miranda pushed past Baladara and started down the stairs.

  Baladara leaned close to Horc as they followed after her and whispered. “I really hope the dragon eats her. Is that wrong of me?”

  Horc shrugged. “Not really.”

  Wolf bounded into the spot between them and the pod admin. Horc had no idea why his companion was so eager to get down into the city. Was there something down there he could sense that the rest of them couldn’t?

  “We need to be careful,” Horc said, pulling his bow off his shoulder and nocking an arrow.

  “With you there.” Titanya already had her sword free of its scabbard, but seemed to be having trouble finding an easy position to hold the massive blade while descending the stone steps.

  “How are we doing this?” Bigdaddybear asked from right behind Horc.

  “Tufkakes, disappear into the shadows, see if you can determine if we’re in trouble here or not.” Horc stared at the village people and still couldn’t tell anything about them. They all reminded him of how Miranda had appeared early on in the game, and how Rick had looked when he’d interacted with the party. The whole town seemed to be admins, without any text over their heads.

  “Got it.” Tufkakes faded into the first shadow they passed.

  “Everyone else, weapons at the ready. It’s been a while since we’ve encountered friendlies, so presume everyone here is hostile.” Horc hated the idea of going into the place with guns out and ready to blaze if necessary. It was one thing to head into a village or town of NPCs with red text above their heads, ready to start shooting as soon as they got close enough, but this wa
s something different. He didn’t want to risk hurting someone by accident.

  “Oh my god!” a toon shouted from a short distance away from the bottom of the stairs. “They came for us!”

  “What?” Another came rushing toward them.

  The first one pointed up. “Look. They have text above their heads. Green text. They must be here to rescue us.”

  Miranda reached the cavern floor first. She put away her club and walked up to the first toon, a male Human who had fighter armor and carried a large sword across his back. “Who are you?”

  “Clyde Rassman from the LA office,” the man responded. “Oh, wait. We’re still in the game. I’m Clydemore.”

  Horc and the others reached the cavern floor.

  “Clydemore, I’m Miranda, chief pod tech, we’re here to rescue you.”

  A bit of anger flared in Horc, it was the second time Miranda had stolen his thunder. It wasn’t as bad as her killing the Gnoll King before he could finish the boss off, but it was close. He was the Guild head. He should’ve been talking to the survivors first, but then she had been the one to go rushing down the stairs ahead of the rest of them.

  “So, you can get our log out button working again?” Another toon, an Elven woman in either Mage or Witch robes asked as more people showed up around them. “I need to get out of the pod and back to my family.”

  “We have to defeat the dragon first,” Miranda said. “Do you know where to find it?”

  Her direct response got a variety of responses.

  “Why do you have to kill the dragon?” Several people asked at once.

  “What did it ever do to you?” was prominent, but not quite as loud.

  Before any of them could answer, a Paladin pushed his way to the front of the group. Even without the text above his head, Horc recognized Lefthandofgod.

  “Where’s Stanishollysmite?” Lefthandofgod demanded. “He wouldn’t desert us. I know he wouldn’t. We haven’t seen him since the arena.”