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Gamers and Gods: AES

Page 38

by Matthew Kennedy


  Part of her mind told her the thrust was sloppy; she had forgotten to turn the blade to avoid it getting stuck in his ribcage. Another advantage of fighting imaginary enemies, she thought, making a mental note that Am-heh might actually have ribs.

  A third Jerx had noticed her; she felt the impact and heard the sitch! of his knife going into her right side as she withdrew her blade from the falling guy. No pain, of course, but her health dropped. Hopefully Aes was paying attention. She dropped her right gladius and grabbed the knife hand, trapping it so her foe couldn't pull the blade out to strike again, yanked at it to expose his back, and brought her left sword around to stab, then slash at the back of his neck. Three down. A flash of green healed her stab wound as she retrieved her other sword.

  Sherman was sitting on the bodies of the other two, looking at her curiously. “Taking your time, are you?”

  “Very funny. Good job, Aes. A few more of those should level you. Let's go. I think the first elevators are just around the corner.”

  As Sherman led them to the elevators Aes caught up with her.

  “I hate staying back while people hurt you,” he said. “It feels like cowardice.”

  Darla sighed. “Oh, Aes, what am I going to do with you? You're doing it exactly right. If either of us gets hurt you can heal us. That's an advantage most enemies don't have. But if you're hurt, there's little we can do to help you. You might be able to do some attacking later, after you've leveled. For now, we really appreciate what you're doing to help us. You're doing what no one else on the team can do, and it's an important job.”

  He smiled grimly. “I've never done it in the middle of a fight, before I met you. But I'm getting used to it.”

  “You guys ready?” called Sherman. He was standing by a framed metal wall with a vertical seam down its center. When they approached, he slapped a panel set into the wall and the two metal halves slid apart sideways. Beyond them was a very small room completely bare of furnishings. He stepped in, Darla close on his heels. Confusion plain on his face, Aes joined them in the little room.

  The doors closed, then opened again. The carpeting and walls had changed color, to orange and brown. Aes was about to ask what the point of it was when Darla told him they were on the second floor. “This is where we started to have problems last time,” she informed Aes. “because we didn't have a healer.”

  “It wasn't my fault!” Sherman growled.

  “I know that,” she said. Although it mainly was, she thought. No time for battling egos now. “Just remember to let me pull, okay?”

  “Kaykay. As I recall, the first pounce point was the cafeteria ahead on the right.”

  “Right. Aes, each floor is harder. This time some of them will have handguns. Remember what I told you about them? Stay well back. One shot from them could blow a hole in your head. I've seen your blood on a knife, I don't want to see your brains on the floor.”

  “Yes ma'am,” he said, imitating Sherman, which made her smile.

  Sherman chuckled, sounding like an amused grizzly. “Hur hur! He learns fast. Maybe he'll survive after all.” He swung his massive bulk around and began stomping toward the cafeteria door.

  This time, they had no Rita to hold the Jerx by freezing them; one got away, tearing off down the hall to the staircase. Darla flung out a hand, pressing the flat of her blade against Sherman's midsection. “Wait. He might pull a group back with him and save us some time.”

  She was right. Six Jerx scrambled up the staircase with an assortment of weapons. When they reached the top, one of them leveled a pistol at Sherman and squeezed off a couple of shots. One missed, but the other smacked him in the shoulder. Quickly Aes thew a heal on him to counteract the damage.

  As the Jerx came forward, the tank charged, bringing both head-sized fists forward and together. He stepped between two of the attackers, sweeping his fists outward and dealing backhand blows that slammed them to the left and right, but not down the stairs. Apparently, he was learning too.

  As the two Jerx were getting up, she engaged two of the other four, turning her wrists and giving each a pommel in the face, then crossing her arms to stab them both in the chest. Grimly, she shoved both hands forward, jerking each blade sideways through them to do more damage, then uncrossed her arms to deal a killing slash to both throats simultaneously as she came back to her ready position. Two down, she thought with satisfaction, as Sherman gave off another flash of green. One of the two he had must have scored on him.

  The two remaining Jerx aimed and fired at her and Sherman. They were too close to miss. Darla caught one in the chest, jerked with the impact, and felt herself falling, seeing Sherman spun slightly from a shoulder impact between his two enemies. Time to choose, Aes! she thought. There was no way he could heal them both. She had to hope he got it right. Her health dropped dangerously from the mortal wound as she fell forward.

  Green fire surrounded her. Snatching up her swords, she snap-kicked the pistol-wilder in front of her in the belly, then skewered him with both blades as he bent forward. Three down. Health back up to 45 percent, she ducked out of instinct. Sherman banged two heads together, then punched through each of them (five down) as they fell. She did her best McCormick Reaper, an attack as dizzying as it was damaging, on the remaining idiot.

  She looked over at Sherman. “Are they better shots this time? You didn't adjust your difficulty settings, did you?”

  “Nah. They just got lucky. My bad for not slapping all of them at the beginning, like I did before.”

  She turned. “Nice job Aes! You had to choose, and made exactly the right decision.”

  “Well,” he said, “you did say that you were easier to hurt than Sherman the Tank. I thought he could hang on longer than you.”

  “And you were right,” Sherman boomed. “It takes a lot to take me down. Ready? There are at least three groups left down there.”

  They went back to work.

  Chapter 33: Aes: every journey begins with a single step

 

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