“Just fucking great!” he shouted, wondering what other fresh hells he could find tonight and having a feeling he was about to discover it and it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
He thought he could almost hear faint laughter in the back of his head. Fuck. If he was the best player this crazy woman had ever seen then she sure had a funny way of showing it.
28
Artifact
Mike continued hurtling through the air for some time. It was actually surprising to him how much time there was between getting tossed off of that strange cloud with the inexplicable hot tub and hitting the ground.
Though when the ground got close it started coming up far faster than he cared for. Like one moment it was this vast expanse that seemed like it would never get any closer, and the next moment it was an even vaster expanse that got entirely too close for comfort far too quickly.
“Motherfucker!” he shouted as he had a brief glimpse of the apartment parking lot with one of those apartments spouting flame and smoke, though oddly enough none of that flame and smoke seemed to be moving.
He could also see his friends standing around the parking lot, though they were frozen too. Huh. Time really had stood still while he was up there on that strange cloud ruining the moment with the nice hot goddess who’d been about to show him what the Greeks and Romans were on about with all their stories about divine beings getting freaky with mere mortals.
Then he slammed into his body. Because his body was still down there in the parking lot too, staring at a spot that had been occupied by a goddess but was empty now.
He stumbled back. Maybe he hadn’t landed with enough force to break any of the asphalt beneath him, but having his out of body experience suddenly become an in body experience was disorienting enough that he almost fell on his ass.
The only thing that saved him was a powerful arm that pressed into his back. Even then, Ron grunted in surprise at the amount of force Mike hit with.
“What the hell just happened to you?” he asked.
“Not much time to explain,” Mike said. “Out of body experience. Almost banged goddess chick then pissed her off with my big mouth. Have to fight werewolves with the power of friendship and find the other artifacts on campus. Big deal. Werewolves coming now. Fight to live.”
It spilled out of his mouth in a confusing jumble, but he really did want to get everything out before they fought off the werewolves. After all, he thought it was the lamest fucking cliche when a hero told his friends there was no time to explain anything.
He figured if his friends from game night had been dragged into this through their acquaintance to him then the least they deserved was an explanation. Even if he was more worried about the shadows moving through the darkness towards them. Shadows he was sure belonged to some of those armored and armed werewolves who were looking to kick some ass.
“The power of friendship?” Sean asked. “Seriously?”
“What was that about banging the goddess chick?” Gwen asked with an arched eyebrow.
“I can totally believe the part where you put your foot in your mouth before you had a chance to enjoy yourself with her,” Lisa said, her eyes twinkling with barely concealed amusement.
Though there was something about her tone that said she was also less than amused by the thought of him almost banging that goddess. He couldn’t win tonight.
“I was more interested in the part where the werewolves are coming for us,” Ron said, his voice grim.
He looked to the big hulking werewolf shapes advancing on them. It’s not like they were getting zerged by werewolves, there was a phrase Mike never thought he’d think, but there were enough of the fuckers moving in on them that it was going to mean trouble.
“Fuck,” Mike breathed.
The apartment spouted flames that backlit the werewolves in a pretty intimidating look. Though oddly enough there weren't lights coming on in the apartments around it. Either they didn't realize the apartment building was on fire or, more likely for a Friday evening, everybody was out at someone else's apartment partying.
That was good. Being out partying might save their neighbors’ lives tonight. Then again considering this game seemed to encompass the entirety of campus he also wasn’t sure there was going to be any safe place around campus tonight.
Mike really hoped there weren't many pets in that building. He didn't want little Fluffy to suffer a horrible fate because he'd accidentally set a fire with a critical failure on the magical dice he didn’t even know how to use.
“Hold onto your butts!” Ron bellowed, staring at those shadows. "Here they come!"
Though, thankfully, as they stepped out of the darkness it looked like there were only five of the creatures trotting in a weird two footed lope that looked both wolfish and human at the same time. Which was really eerie and creepy.
Of course "only" five of them was still about five more of those things than Mike would ever want to try and face down.
"Forget everything about fighting fucking werewolves without any fucking weapons,” Lisa said.
She whirled around and stormed off into the parking lot. Mike watched her go. There was a part of him that didn’t mind watching her go. She wore a pair of shorts that were every bit as tight as anything she ever wore in the gym, and she was the epitome of that cliched phrase about hating to see someone go but loving watching her leave.
Not that he’d say anything considering she was Sean’s sister. Though what that goddess had said about what he could expect with the fairer sex was running through his head, and he found himself wondering just how awkward things might get before this was all over.
Awkward? More like awesome. Though how awkward to awesome his experience with Lisa was depended a lot on whether or not Sean survived this next encounter.
Either way he didn't want to see her walking off and potentially putting herself in danger. After all, if she was stalking across the parking lot she was putting herself in danger of getting hit by one of those werewolf things. They had no way of knowing if there were any lurking, and it didn’t seem like a good idea for one girl to go wandering off by her lonesome.
"Where the hell are you going?" he shouted after her.
"I'm doing what has to be done!"
Mike wanted to go after her, but Gwen shook her head and hefted her shotgun. It was the kind of modern weaponry that looked like it could punch a few holes in a werewolf, even one that was wearing leather armor and wielding a sword, and Mike was both a little intimidated and a little turned on watching her carrying the thing.
"I'll go after her,” Gwen said. “You guys take care of the assholes coming at us.”
Take care of the assholes. He looked down at the dice bag in his hand. It was glowing again. He thought about the spectacular failure back in the apartment. How it had nearly killed his friends.
He didn't want to be responsible for another failure. He didn't want to accidentally kill anyone. Though of course they were already smack dab in the middle of a situation where they could be killed at any moment thanks to all the supernatural bullshit coming at them.
It was weird. On the one hand it pissed him off that this was even happening, but on the other hand he figured if they were going to get stuck in the middle of a game between gods and goddesses then it was better to be a player with some magical abilities than one of the many people who’d been relegated to the role of the NPCs suffering at the clawed hands of the big scary monsters moving through campus.
Ron didn’t seem to have any issue with being an NPC. Or a sort-of NPC considering he was in Mike’s party. He charged towards the werewolves holding his sword above his head like a madman. Only as Mike watched the impending disaster unfolding he knew it wasn't going to end well for his friend. Ron seemed to be hell-bent on dying a heroic death tonight, and he didn't seem to care that his heroic death was probably going to be pretty painful when the things started hacking him to pieces.
Ron had been lucky so far using his sword t
o fight off these things. Maybe he thought he truly was invincible because he’d managed to live so far. Mike was well aware of players who tended to get in over their heads because the dice worked in their favor until they didn’t and everything rapidly went to shit around them.
There was only one way his crazy friend was going to survive going up against five of those things at once, and that was if their numbers were thinned out at range before he got there with his melee weapon.
Mike sighed. There really was nothing for it but to take a chance on the dice. To throw them and hope for the best. Even though he was expecting the worst after he'd accidentally blown up an apartment.
He thought back to the game earlier that evening. Specifically to how he’d called out an ability his character didn’t have but could still roll for. So far tonight he’d only used the fireball because that’s what came out the first time he tossed the dice.
Now he wondered if there was more he could do with this artifact though. Could he take other skills and apply the probability of the dice to them by calling them out and tossing the dice?
He figured it was time to test out that little theory. The world was slowing down around him, and he figured that meant the magical dragonbone artifact was starting to do its work. The five werewolves in front of him glowed faintly to show him they were part of the game and could be interacted with, and he needed something that would hit all of them at once.
He held the d20 up. Whispered into it and prayed that this would work.
“Lightning.”
29
Dice Mage
Mike tossed the d20. Time went from slow to a standstill as the die tumbled in the air in front of him.
The die glowed, only this time tines of electricity arced around the thing rather than the flames he’d seen the last time he used them, which he figured meant there was something good happening here. Glowing lines shot out from the die to several of the wolf creatures at once, and he hoped that meant he was targeting several of them at once.
He imagined hitting all of them, but the glowing lines would only hit three at a time. The werewolves in the center would be the first to hit Ron, so he imagined selecting those three and the lines went to them.
It wasn’t all the wolves, but whatever. He’d take it. The die finished tumbling and came to rest on fifteen. That must've been enough for it to work. His bag was still pulsing with that glow, so he pulled out his hit die.
He tossed in the air and it rolled a couple of times for damage. There was nothing fancy this time. Nothing like the critical hit he'd gotten the first time he’d thrown, but at the same time it was also nothing like the critical failure that nearly took him and his friends out back in the apartment.
On balance he figured he’d take it.
The damage die came to rest six times, which seemed to make sense considering he was selecting multiple targets. That’d make two damage rolls for every monster which was promising. It flew through numbers faster than he could see, and then bolts of lightning shot out to the werewolves he'd targeted.
Ron stopped in the middle of his attack and stared in astonishment. Mostly because the bolts of lightning were streaking through the air all around him. Mike figured if he suddenly found himself in the middle of a weirdly unnatural lightning storm he’d probably stop and stare in astonishment too.
The werewolves he hit flew back. They even did a cool thing where for a moment he could see their skeletons through their skin. It was a little cartoony, but whatever. If magic worked like that in the real world then it worked like that in the real world.
He figured if magic really was real then it was the special effects artists who’d been getting it wrong all these years. Not the other way around.
They skidded to a halt on the pavement with dark charred spots on the front of their armor and smoke rising from those charred spots. One of them didn’t get up at all, its hit points were well and truly depleted, but the other two were starting to stir.
One that hadn’t been hit stopped and stared at its companions, but the other one was still advancing on Ron. Still, Mike figured he’d just evened out the odds by a hell of a lot.
Mike grinned. That was what he was talking about! The die flew back and he held his hand up. Caught it over head. His hand was wreathed in magical energy for a moment as he held the die, and then the glow went out.
"Holy shit,” Gwen whispered.
Mike whirled around. On the one hand he was elated that Gwen had seen all of that. After all, what was the point of doing something spectacularly impressive if there wasn't a pretty girl around to watch him do that spectacularly impressive something?
On the other hand having a pretty girl around to see him do that spectacularly impressive something meant that pretty girl wasn't watching the other pretty girl in their group who'd gone stalking off through the parking lot where she could potentially be killed by werewolves lurking in the parking lot.
"I thought you were going after Lisa?" he asked.
Gwen shrugged. "I did, but she yelled at me to get back here and help you guys.”
"Fine," Mike grumbled. He still didn’t like it, but he knew better than to argue. "Now can we please go take care of the scary werewolves attacking us?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Gwen said, hefting her shotgun and getting a look in her eyes that was similar to what he’d seen in Ron’s crazy eyes when he was yanking giant replica swords off the wall and turning to face an honest-to-God real monster that’d come to ruin their night.
He wondered what kind of crazy nutjobs he’d surrounded himself with, but at the same time he figured he needed a healthy dose of crazy on his side right now.
Ron reached the one werewolf still standing after Mike’s devastating Pikachu impression. He brought his sword down, but it brought its own sword up. There was a clang and some sparks as they fought, but it looked like that fight would keep for the moment. Ron was big enough and crazy enough to hold the fort with one werewolf. For the moment.
Which meant it was time to thin out the other three who were still moving. Ten minutes ago Mike would’ve thought that was two and a half more werewolves than he could handle on his own, but as he looked at Gwen and Ron he realized he didn’t have to handle them on his own. Not when he had his friends there and they had his back.
“I can’t believe we’re about to kill a bunch of werewolves with the power of fucking friendship,” he muttered, hating how hack and cliched it sounded.
It was time to see exactly what he could do with this magic artifact. He figured it was safer to experiment out here in an open parking lot where they had a better chance to get away before any critical failures really caused them trouble.
"Fireball," Mike said as he tossed the die again.
The die tumbled, fire spouting off the thing, but this time he didn't manage to get a high enough number to break through the werewolf armor. The thing sputtered and flew back to his hands.
It was better than the critical failure, at least.
"That thing seems like it's kind of a mixed bag," Gwen said.
"You're telling me," he said. “The dice giveth, and the dice taketh away.”
The three he’d knocked over without killing were back up, and they looked good and pissed off. They were snarling and closing in on Ron. They didn't seem all that interested in getting close to Mike, they'd seen what he could do with his dice, after all, but then they saw Gwen.
She saw them giving her the once over and turned to Mike. Winked. Before he could figure out what the hell she was doing she let out a blood-curdling shriek and ran. A run, incidentally, that took her away from Mike and the zone of exclusion around him that might've protected her from the things.
One nudged the other and they started into that weird two legged lope that looked so much like a human running and yet at the same time so much like a wolf. Clearly these wolves were looking for a snack. They raised their swords as they closed in.
Gwen grinned and held out a
hand to stop Mike before he could bring his die up to teach them a lesson. She turned, whipped up her shotgun at the last moment, and fired two blasts point blank into the wolves.
Suddenly that wink made a hell of a lot more sense. The mad woman ran to trigger a prey response and draw them into a double barreled death trap.
He'd never been more attracted to a woman in his life. Or more terrified, for that matter. He also had the most confusing hard on of his life.
If the stopping power Mike’s dice was impressive, well it was nothing compared to the stopping power of some good old-fashioned lead being pumped into leather armor that had been designed for a high fantasy setting where modern weaponry wasn't a concern.
Two wolves went down with huge holes in their armor while the third suddenly decided it’d rather take its chances with Ron.
“Ron! Incoming!” Mike shouted.
Ron looked up and nodded, turning without missing a beat and slashing at the new challenger to keep it from getting too close. The thing snarled and jumped back. That fight would have to keep for the moment. He had to help Gwen.
The two on the ground writhed and howled and snapped at each other as they flailed their swords around, but it didn't look like she'd gotten in a killing shot. The hit points hovering over them as they writhed and snapped at each other was proof enough of that.
"Damn," Mike said. "Remind me to never get on your bad side!"
Gwen’s grin only got wider. She gave him a wink. "A good thing to keep in mind."
Then she nodded behind him. "Could you take care of that?"
Mike whirled around in time to see one of the werewolves scrambling to its feet. Which wasn't good considering Gwen was in the process of pulling out some shells to reload.
Dice Mage: A GameLit Adventure Page 20
