Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds

by Wade Adrian

  She lifted her hammer and moved it slowly. Nothing happened. Then she raised it over her shoulder and swung it swiftly straight down in front of her. Light appeared before the hammerhead as it moved, and a burst of air shot out when it stopped.

  “An incorrect movement gets you nothing. A correct movement keys the ability. As you advance, how you use those four together can create additional effects, but for right now just concentrate on hitting things.”

  He held up his sword and took a swing. Nothing happened.

  “Before I was duped into rolling a cleric…” She muttered, “I used to run a warrior. For them, horizontal, vertical, and stabbing were the keys. Bringing up the shield set off the final ability.”

  Amos leaned in. “Without a shield, his forth ability will probably be keyed to diagonal attacks. Not the same as horizontal or vertical, so you need to get good at having your intent come across to the censors. It takes some practice.”

  Paul’s voice could be heard from the front. “Well good news. There’s plenty of practice just ahead.”

  6

  Goblin eyes turned to them as they approached. They lifted crude weapons and gave wordless cries as they ran headlong at the party.

  A window popped up in front of Toby. “The Goblin Menace: Rank 1.” Huh, it offered him boots once the camp was cleared out. Neat. He hit “Accept.”

  Paul held his shield high, his sword standing out over the top. “Claire and Jesse, keep an eye on Tobin’s health. Barbarians don’t start with much. He’ll get better, but he needs to live long enough to get there.”

  The druid nodded. “Ayup.”

  Claire rolled her eyes as she hefted her hammer. “Fine.”

  Toby readied his sword. He’d never actually used it… but he felt a smile creep onto his face just the same as the dark metal gleamed. “Soulbreaker hungers.”

  The rogue beside Toby shook his head. “Don’t start that shit. We’re supposed to be the good guys.”

  “That’s not what everyone else out there thinks.”

  “Hmm. You have a point.”

  The druid shook her head. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not evil. Chaotic neutral at worst.”

  “That’s still really bad.”

  “But it’s more fun.” She smiled as she made a quick gesture with her fingers and the nearest goblin burst into flames. It screamed… but it kept coming.

  Toby stared at her for a moment. “Wow, glad I didn’t pick a caster. I’m not sure my fingers can do that.”

  “You get used to it.” She repeated the gesture, throwing fire at each goblin as it moved into range. “Less carpal tunnel issues than all the clicking.”

  She was probably on to something there.

  Toby leveled his sword as one of the flaming goblins charged in screaming. He raised his sword high over his head…

  Paul bashed it away with his shield.

  Toby let the sword down again. It wasn’t that Paul was doing something wrong… he was the tank after all… but still. It seemed clear he still intended to make sure Toby didn’t suffer so much as a scratch, but in the end that would mean he never took part in anything.

  And that just wouldn’t do.

  Claire knocked a charging goblin into the air with an uppercut strike before crushing it into the dirt with an overhead blow from her hammer. Tim the rogue flitted about the goblins knifing them in the back. Jesse kept them all on fire. Amos peppered those closing in with arrows.

  And Toby… stood around.

  He ground his teeth. Even the alternates who weren’t in their party were fighting. Granted, they knew how, but he wasn’t going to learn anything by taking coffee breaks in the back.

  He charged out past Paul when the next few goblins pressed in. They were already on fire and screaming as they brandished weapons at the shield before them. They seemed preoccupied with him. Good.

  Toby held the sword out behind him to his right and swung it forward with all his might.

  He almost dropped the weighted rod.

  The sword before him cleft the space where three goblins stood without stopping. A bright red trail of light followed the arc of the blade.

  The goblins ceased their attacks, their voices falling silent as the upper halves of two fell away from their lower halves. The third was not cleanly cleft, and the whole thing flopped to the ground.

  He blinked at the sword in his hands. They had not exactly been fresh, already some hit points burned away by Jesse, but those that came before had taken a few hits to drop.

  Soulbreaker. Amos had said it was a thing that should not be. He’d meant it in jest… but as far as the game’s rules were concerned, it seemed he was proven right. It seemed to be well beyond the power curve.

  The others were staring at him. Or were they looking at the sword?

  A goblin cry went up behind him. He turned and held the sword aloft. “I got this.”

  He charged it even as it ran at him with its crude cleaver sword raised. He leaned to the right as the jagged blade swept toward him... it sailed by harmlessly through the open air.

  He lifted the sword up over his shoulder. Might as well test both unknowns at once.

  The blade whistled through the air as the red trail followed it down diagonally.

  The goblin’s head and right arm fell away while the rest of it crumpled to the ground.

  This one had been fresh.

  Huh. He held the sword up and looked back over his shoulder. “Yup, diagonal.”

  Paul was scowling as he closed the distance between them. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Helping.” A quick glance showed no other goblins close by. Those they could reach with minimal walking were outside their aggro range, and thus blissfully unaware of their fellows being bisected and burned.

  “Good. Fine. Successful test. Now stay where we can protect you.”

  Toby leaned a bit. He could see Claire and Jesse just fine. “I don’t think I’m out of range of the healers.” He looked up at Paul, a taller man only a few feet away. “Especially not out of your range.”

  “You think this is funny? We only get one chance here, kid.” Paul didn’t seem very amused. His eyebrows were drawn low.

  “Yeah, and when the time comes I have to be the one to swing this thing. So I need to know how. I’m part of this party, and I clearly have the power to help us progress. I don’t have any intention of sitting back there and leaching experience for everyone else’s work. I don’t do that.”

  Paul shook his head. “We don’t have a safety net, here.”

  Claire stepped out of the group and faced Paul. “And we won’t have one at the end, either. He needs to be capable of standing with us, of being a full member of our raid. We could barely clear it with everyone working as a unit. We can’t do it carrying someone we coddle to the cap.”

  Jesse and Amos stepped away from Paul and stood beside Claire. The druid lifted her chin. “She’s right. And he was never out of our reach anyway. Do you think one pidly level one goblin is going to do him in? Have a little faith in us.”

  Amos nodded. “Really, man, he can probably regenerate health faster than that thing could take it.”

  Paul lowered his head.

  Tim patted Paul on the shoulder as he stepped up beside him. “They’re right, you know. He’s got to learn and the danger here isn’t that great. This is a place he could solo at his level if he was patient, and he’s got a solid group of the most experienced players around backing him up. Better to let him go hog wild now than toss him into the deep end later.”

  Paul nodded a few times. “Yeah… okay.”

  Tim punched Paul in the shoulder. The others were already moving toward the closest goblins.

  Jesse lifted her hands. “Burninating the goblins.”

  Toby lifted an eyebrow as he walked beside her. “You know, you come across kind of aggressive for a druid.”

  She raised her chin into the air. “I am nature’s unbridled wrath
.”

  Claire shook her head. “You are nature’s pyromaniac.”

  “Also that.”

  Amos lifted his bow, an arrow already resting on it. “Speaking of which…”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Jesse twisted her hand into the symbol she had used to throw fire and the tip of the arrow burst into flame. Amos drew back the bow and fired, striking a distant goblin. The arrow pinned the creature to the ground while the fire effect burst out from the arrow on impact. Several goblins screamed and turned to face them, fire dancing over their skin.

  Toby stood staring at the carnage. “Whoa. You can mix abilities across classes?”

  “Uh… yeah?” Jesse tilted her head. “Right, right. Nubsauce.”

  Amos nodded. “One of the main reasons to group up. Casters all have some built in support. It’s only guys like you and Tim that are pure damage.”

  “Huh.” Toby’s eyes widened as a humming sound grew around him. He held up his arms to see blue light swirling about them. The light coalesced into the shape of plate armor, the parts standing open and floating in the air before clamping shut around his arms. He could still see his arm through the clear blue armor, which faded from sight after a moment. An icon appeared next to his name in the group list.

  A shield. One just like it was beside Paul’s name, and a bright blue line linked them.

  Claire gave Paul a level stare. “Shouldn’t the tank be guarding the main healer?”

  Paul nodded. “While that is standard practice… you already have a higher defense than he does. He’s melee DPS, so taking hits is largely unavoidable. Barbarian’s aren’t designed to be marathon fighters. He needs all the help he can get right now.” He held up a hand. “I know, I know, he has to fight, too. Fine. But lets have an ounce of caution, at least.”

  Claire shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  “That does mean you need to be a bit more mindful of your healing aggro.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She waved dismissively as the goblins started to close. She held the hammer’s handle in one hand and bounced its head on the open palm of her other hand. It didn’t appear she had much intent to heal anything.

  Tim appeared out of nowhere and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hold up. Let’s test this sword of his.”

  “Beg pardon?”

  He shrugged. “We have plenty of time here, and he needs to get some batting practice in anyway. Let me and Amos go at a few, then send him. Our weapons have stats so it should give an idea of how much stronger his is.”

  Paul rubbed at his chin. “I guess… healers-”

  Claire rolled her eyes. “I’m watching, I get it.”

  Jesse sighed. “I’m not healer speced…”

  The cleric looked aside at her. “You’re level one. You’re not anything speced. And you do have a heal.”

  “Blah, blah, blah.” Jesse held up a hand with a ball of flame above her palm. She moved her fingers about causing the flames to dance.

  Amos and Tim charged toward the flaming goblins approaching. The rogue cut a pair down with a few strikes each, clearly not showing much effort. The ranger plucked them with arrows from afar, dropping each with three or four shots.

  A loud gong sounded behind Toby and light washed out his screen. He held up a hand to shield his eyes, but it didn’t help at all. The lights passed after a moment on their own.

  The words, “Level 2!” floated before his eyes.

  “Wow.” He shook his head a few times. “That was loud. And bright.” He glanced around to see everyone else tapping spaces in the open air before them.

  He held up his empty hand and pressed on the happy “Level 2!” lettering. His character sheet opened showing stats and his equipped items. He had five stat points to spend.

  Hmm.

  His barbarian brain was arguing that improving his strength was all that mattered. He had a visible carry weight on the sheet, and hovering his finger over strength said it improved that as well as his physical damage.

  But… he also needed to survive what the world was going to throw at him. The sheet listed his health at one hundred, with an additional twenty added when he leveled for a new cap of one hundred and twenty. But he could get five more for each point placed in stamina.

  He knew what Paul would say about surviving and all, but he needed to carry his weight and hit Miller as hard as he could.

  Hell with it. He went for a three two split, strength and stamina. One hundred and thirty hit points, and his carry weight improved by fifteen pounds. Groovy.

  Where the estimate of his physical damage should be there were only a few characters of gobbledygook. Random characters and symbols when he was pretty sure that spot should have discernible numbers.

  He hefted his sword as he closed the window. Only one way to find out what it could do. “My turn?”

  Amos lowered his bow and Tim vanished from the front line in a burst of black smoke and appeared beside the rest of the group. “Go for it.”

  Paul raised his voice as Toby walked away. “I trust you put your points into stamina to make all our lives easier?”

  “I totally put some points into stamina, yes.”

  Paul sighed.

  A blinking light off to Toby’s left was bugging the hell out of him as he walked. He stopped and turned his head a bit, but the light moved with it. He shifted just his eyes, and then swept his empty hand that way.

  Oh. He had received a skill point when he leveled, too. Okay.

  He blinked at the list before him. There were tons. Way to many for him to read through or weigh the pros and cons of right now. Umm… he glanced at the first row. An icon with a sideways V stood out.

  Duo: the second attack in a chain causes additional damage and has greater range.

  Perfect.

  He tapped the icon and closed the window.

  Toby swept the sword through the air before him a few times as he approached a group of goblins. There were red trails arcing behind the blade sometimes, other times nothing. He carefully lined up a horizontal swing with the sword behind him and to the right.

  “Let’s do this you Gremlin knockoffs.”

  The green critters charged in screaming.

  He let loose the horizontal attack. Two of the goblins were caught in its glowing red wake.

  As soon as he sword stopped, he swung back the other way, careful to keep the sword level for a second horizontal slash.

  What followed the blade the second time was different. The red effect grew brighter till its center was tinged with white. The arc behind the blade stretched out beyond the reach of the sword. The blade cleft two more goblins that charged in, but the red energy arc the sword created struck a third that was too far for the metal to touch.

  It fell down in two parts as well.

  Toby stood up straight and looked down at the five dead goblins. He had only swung twice. Everyone else had needed multiple strikes to drop one.

  Tim was the first to appear beside him. “Well, that was a hell of a thing.”

  Toby nodded.

  Amos and Jesse followed. The ranger knelt down and started poking at the goblins.

  “Oh, score.” His hands came up holding a thing made of leather and scraps of fur. “Who wants a hat?”

  Jesse gave Toby a mild glare with narrowed eyes.

  “What?” He glared back at her.

  “We use similar gear. Wanna roll on it?”

  Paul and Claire showed up last. The tank raised a hand. “We should give it to Tobin, he needs-”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Jesse crossed her arms. “But we all need gear, and it doesn’t seem like he’s so fragile as you feared.”

  Toby shrugged as he looked her over. He had a chain shirt along with his leather armor and fur mantle. She had nothing metal on her. Just leather and pelts. “Take it.”

  She shook her head. “No, no. We need to be fair about this. We should roll on it.”

  Amos muttered. “Claire and I can wear it, too…”

  “Oh pleas
e, as if either of you would be caught dead with a rotting animal on your head. It’s clearly meant for we outdoorsy types.”

  “I am a ranger. I practically define outdoorsy types.”

  “Yes, but it’s visibly unrefined. You have such nice and clean armor.”

  “I really don’t care how I look. Stats are important.”

  “Hush, now. The adults are talking.”

  “I am older than both of you!”

  She ignored Amos as she held up a closed fist before Tobin. “Best out of twenty.”

  He shrugged. “Shoot.”

  She shook her fist as one does with dice, though she hadn’t taken one from a pouch or anything. The game just seemed to understand her intent. More of the gesture reading. She opened her hand and a twenty sided die fell from her grasp.

  He was concerned it would be lost in the grass under their feet… but it struck a glowing flat surface that appeared about a foot off the ground.

  Seventeen.

  She raised an eyebrow at him.

  He mimicked the gesture, completely sure nothing would happen, but a die appeared when he opened his hand.

  Five.

  She smiled and cheered. “Awesome.” She held out her hands to Amos. “Gimme.”

  “Not-uh.” He shook his head and a closed fist. He opened his hand and a third die landed on the flat surface.

  Fifteen.

  Amos’ shoulders slumped. “God damn it.”

  Jesse stood with her arm held out to Amos, her hand opening and closing repeatedly.

  “Yeah, yeah.” He handed her the hat.

  She wasted no time plopping it onto her head. Her blond hair, still containing a few sticks and leaves, stuck out around the edges. “Victory!” She held up her hand, her fingers making a V.

  Paul shook his head. “Yes, yes. We’re not done here, though it looks like we cleared out the north end. Lets press south to the center and see how everyone else is doing.”

  7

  There were a few more items to distribute from the pile of dead goblins. Paul got a set of bracers and Claire ended up with a belt. Both were plate and had stats weighed to the given class, so no arguments were necessary.