Project Alpha_Book 1

by R. A. Mejia

  Auden however, has other ideas. He blocks my path and pokes me in the chest. “Look, new guy. I’m not going to tell you again. Step away from my ex. Or you’re going to regret it.”

  By now, the people around us have noticed the incident and formed a circle of onlookers. Glancing around, I’m puzzled why no one else is standing up to this guy. Isn’t this group supposed to be full of high level users with a bunch of badass powers? Is he so rich that he can get away with doing whatever he wants?

  Still, I’m not powerless anymore. I have skills and abilities that give me a shot at beating this guy.

  I look up at Auden and say simply and with as much confidence as I can muster, “No. If you start something, you’ll be the one that regrets it.”

  Jeremy starts to laugh, and I can’t help but think that the guy sounds like a hyena. “Poor little newb thinks he can take on All-Star Auden Arschloch III. Winner of the Inter-High Dueling Championship?” Then getting right in my face, he adds, “You must be a delusional kid. No one. I mean no one challenges Auden and walks away a winner.”

  I can hear Lillian yelling for me to let it go, that I don’t know what I’m doing. But I just can’t, this guy breaks my phone with his stupid coffee, then trashes my work, and now he thinks he can harass my date?

  I turn to look up at Auden and say, “Well, I do challenge the high and mighty Auden.”

  The smile that appears on Auden’s face instantly makes me wary.

  Rothfus seems to appear out of nowhere with a microphone in his hand and announces over the speaker system, “Anthony Tinoco has issued a challenge to Auden Arschloch III.” Then speaking to Auden he asks, “Do you accept?”

  Auden smiles wider and answers, “Hell yeah.” A cheer goes up from some of the crowd, and I see people whispering and taking bets on who’s going to win.

  Rothfus addresses Auden again, “As the person challenged, you have the right to choose the type of duel.”

  Auden grabs the microphone from Rothfus, faces the crowd and announces, “I choose a no limits duel. To. The. Death.”

  Another loud cheer erupts from the crowd, with more bets exchanged. Lillian pushes past Auden and Jeremy. She grabs my arm and pulls me aside.

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

  “Honestly, no. I thought I was just standing up to a bully, not challenging him to a duel. But what’s done is done. I mean, the worst that happens is that I die, right? I’ll just lose some XP and respawn at my home base.”

  “No. That’s not the worst…”

  Whatever Lillian was going to say is lost to the booming voice of Rothfus over the speaker system. “All personnel not participating in the duel, please leave the dueling circle.” Everyone scrambles back as the floor under our feet turns red and begins to grow outward in a circular pattern. Lillian pats my shoulder once before scrambling back with the rest of the crowd.

  After a few minutes, a circular area with a radius of fifty feet is cleared around Auden and me. Then the ground rumbles and begins to transform. A chain-link fence rises from the ground around the perimeter of the red circle. Beyond that, raised seating appears, and the crowd quickly takes seats to observe the duel. Lights appear above us, illuminating the red dueling circle and darkening the area beyond it. Just past the chain link fence, I see the silhouetted form of Rothfus, tapping a blue screen. He must be modifying the space to accommodate the duel.

  Rothfus’ voice comes from all around us, “Duelists. You have two minutes to prepare yourselves. When the buzzer sounds the fight will begin; This is a duel to the death. Two men enter, but only one may leave.”

  Auden walks the edge of the circle and leans casually against the chain link fence. He smiles at me as if I’m just some bug he’s going to squish.

  I smile back and give the guy a wink just to show him he can’t psych me out. Internally, however, I am panicking. I have no idea how fighting another User works. I mean, fighting zombies or monsters in the dungeon is one thing, but fighting another person with System powers is a whole different ballgame.

  I pop open my inventory to see what I have in there.

  Portable Class B Trap Construction Bench

  Small Laser Pistol

  Simple Hammers (20)

  Floor Spike Trap (3)

  Wall Nail Shot Trap (2)

  Flash Grenade (1)

  I’d forgotten about the traps. Since I’d gotten the trap construction bench, I’d been experimenting with several trap recipes and practicing the skill. The traps plus my Hammer Time skill give me a pretty good chance to beat this guy.

  I grab one of the hammers and the flash grenade from my inventory.

  Rothfus’ voice begins to countdown to the beginning of the fight: “Nine...eight...seven...six...”

  The crowd starts to count down with him, “Five...four...three...two...one.”

  I pull the pin on the flash grenade and toss it at Auden the moment the crowd says ‘one’ and the buzzer sounds. I close my eyes but get to see the surprised look on Auden’s face as the grenade bounces twice and comes to a stop at his feet. There is a popping sound and a flash of light that hurts my eyes even through my closed eyelids. The moment the flash is gone, I go to work, knowing my time to prepare is limited. I grab the floor spike traps and toss them on the floor around Auden. I try to install the wall traps, but the curved chain link fence won’t accept the square wall trap. I abandon the attempt and instead begin tossing hammer after hammer at Auden using the Hammer Time.

  Hammers fly from my hands as I scan the ability and small red tens float away from him with every successful attack. The red health bar that appeared above Auden’s head once I attacked him only goes down a small fraction even after several hits.

  Auden, temporarily blinded, tries to swat away the hammers but can’t see where they’re coming from. He realizes the futility of trying to block what he can’t see and instead runs towards where he thinks the hammers are coming from. With his first rushed step, his feet run into the floor traps I’d laid on the floor and spikes impale his feet, causing two red fives to float away. Auden screams in anger and pain. He pulls up a blue screen and taps a button there, and suddenly he’s holding a large silver Gatling gun.

  My eyes go wide, and I dive for the floor as Auden pulls the trigger on his weapon, and it begins to spit out a flurry of red laser bolts. The watching crowd yells in a panic until the red bolts hit the chain link fence and disappear. Apparently, there’s some innate defense in the fence that protects the crowd from whatever is unleashed in the ring.

  I activate Hammer Time from the floor, and another hammer goes flying from my hand. It arcs through the air and hits Auden in the head, causing a red twenty to float away from his skull. Auden resumes blindly firing his weapon. I’m hit a couple of times by the random shots but continue to toss hammers from my position on the floor until I run out of hammers.

  The red health bar above Auden’s head is still a third full. What the hell? I know I must have done at least 150 points of damage. How much has this guy invested in his constitution?

  The random firing stops and I hear Rothfus’ voice, “It appears as if the blinding effects of the flash bomb are wearing off ladies and gentlemen and may be a turning point in the fight.”

  Auden rubs his eyes and blinks a few times. His vision must be clear now because he looks right at me, still lying on the floor, and smiles wickedly. He points his laser Gatling gun at me and pulls the trigger. I activate Roll to avoid the fire but am repeatedly hit before I can get out of the way of the lasers. From all the red 5s that float away from me, I’m sure I’m at least down to half health. As I get to my feet, I expect to be blasted apart. Instead, I hear a clicking sound and look up to see Auden looking down at his gun which is out of ammunition.

  I take the opportunity to open my inventory and grab the small laser pistol there. I only have a skill level of two in Handguns and nothing in lasers, so I don’t expect to hit very often. But it’s sort of all I have
left.

  Auden in the meantime has dropped the massive two-handed gun and equipped a large double headed hammer. Smiling at me he says; “Now it’s time to show you a real hammer.”

  He raised the hammer over his head, intent on smashing my skull in, and takes a menacing step forward, only to impale his right foot on another floor trap. Auden grimaces and small red five floats away from him.

  I smile at Auden, raise the laser pistol, and pull the trigger. A green bolt of energy flies from the pistol and races right past Auden to hit the chain link fence behind him and disappear.

  Auden laughs at my poor aim, and I see his feet glow red, then he bends his knees and jumps into the air. I watch him fly into the air, and the hammer in his hands glows red. I recognize a special attack when I see one and activate Roll. My body flies backward, and I feel myself rolling backward along the ground. Even as I’m rolling, I feel the impact of Auden’s hammer as it hits the ground where I was just standing. The floor shifts under me, and I’m knocked out of my roll.

  As I get to my feet, I see Auden pulling his hammer from the small crater it created as he slammed it into the ground. Ouch, that must have been one powerful special move. Auden turns his head towards me, the vicious smile still on his face, and I squeeze off a few more shots at him as I back away.

  Unfortunately, I have some stormtrooper level shooting skills apparently because only one out of ten shots seem to hit where I’m aiming. Auden seems to shrug off even those rare hits as he chases me around the ring. I realize I’m about to run into my floor traps and I leap to my left onto the chain link fence. The move reminds me that I absorbed the Spider Climber ability from those zombie scalers. I feel a steady drain on my TP but disregard the pull as I feel myself stick to the fence. I crawl along the chain fence like your friendly neighborhood spider-man until I’m on the other side of the traps where Auden started the fight.

  Now sticking to the wall, I continue to shoot at Auden from an elevated position as he stares incredulously at me from the floor below. A few red fives float away from him as a couple of green lasers hit him. The small pains snap him out of his surprise at my mobility, and his feet glow red again. I’m ready to crawl out of the way when I feel my feet slip from the wall.

  Time seems to come to a crawl as I slip from the wall and I realize that with all the abilities I’ve used, I must have run out of TP and the spider climber ability turned off. As the floor approaches, I catch movement in front of me and see Auden flying through the air, his red hammer raised above his head for a deadly blow.

  As the hammer strikes, time returns to normal, and bones break as my body caught between the hammer and the floor. A red fifty-nine floats away from me as I lay broken on the ground and the edges of my vision redden. I know that I’m dying and it’s not pleasant. Pain radiates through my entire body, and it’s even worse when I feel my limp form being picked up.

  Auden’s face is mere inches from my face as he taunts me, “You thought you could insult and challenge me in front of all these people? Now I’m going to show you why everyone is afraid of messing with me before I kill you.”

  Rothfus’ voice reaches my ears over the speaker system, “Oh no, folks. The fight isn’t over, and Auden doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to let it end.” Auden’s hands glow a sickly green, and I hear Rothfus continue, “And…yes, he’s activating his family’s signature ability—Steal.”

  Auden looks around at the crowd while still holding me up and yells, “Steal: Hammer Time.”

  The crowd gasps as a green glow envelops my body, and I feel something being torn away from me. The glow travels along Auden’s arms and flows into him. His eyes glow green briefly, and his grin only widens as he sees the realization dawn on me of what he’s done.

  I feel myself drop to the ground and can barely raise my head enough to see Auden walk away from me to the other side of the ring. Holding his large hammer in his hands, Auden looks at me and yells, “Hammer Time.” Auden’s arms swing automatically, and they throw the large weapon. The last thing I see is the hammer arcing through the air, speeding downward towards my face. I hear a sickening crunch, and then everything goes black.

  Chapter 31

  When I next open my eyes, I find myself staring up at the ceiling of my bedroom. I wonder for a moment how I got there; then the memories come flooding back. I sit upright, and my hands grasp my head, frantically searching for the damage caused by that massive hammer. I breathe a sigh of relief at not finding my skull crushed. Standing up, a quick examination of my body assures me that I’m whole and unharmed.

  That’s one thing I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. Dying and respawning. It’s happened a couple of times now. Every time I wake up in a state of shock and I have to reassure myself that I’m not still broken and bleeding. It must have something to do with the sudden change in stimulus in my mind. One moment I’m in pain, dying. The next I’m whole and unhurt lying in bed.

  I shake my head to clear the cobwebs and sit back down on the bed. I pull up my most recent notifications to see what finally got me.

  Hammer Time has been removed from your ability list.

  Auden Arschloch III has killed you.

  Respawn in 3...2...1.

  You’ve respawned at your default location, your home base.

  You lose 1920 XP. XP needed to next level: 4913.

  After I read the notifications, a burning sensation begins to grow inside me. My fists clench, and my face feels hot.

  Dammit. That rich ass knocked me back to the beginning of level 7. I lost the same amount of XP that I earned fighting that zombie boss.

  As the pressure builds up inside, my vision goes red. When it clears, the room is trashed. My mattress is leaning against the wall. My dresser is knocked over, and my clothes are thrown all over the room.

  I feel my phone vibrate. Checking it, I find that it’s Lillian calling. I automatically tap the red button and send her to my voicemail. While I don’t feel nearly as angry anymore, I don't feel like talking either.

  There’s a flash of light, and my bedroom door turns green. It opens, and there stands Lillian, still in her party dress. She walks into the room, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. I can see she’s holding her cell phone in her right hand. Lillian looks around the room. Her gaze pauses on the overturned dresser and the clothes everywhere and looks at me questioningly.

  Shrugging I answer her unasked question, “I got mad after I respawned and took it out on the furniture.”

  Lillian’s face softens, and she sits down next me. “I didn’t notice.” She looks around the room again then tells me, “It actually looks cleaner than the first time I came here.”

  Recalling the crusty socks and moldy food that Lillian found on her first visit, I can’t help but laugh.

  Lillian’s shoulders seem to relax, and she smiles at me. “I just wanted to check in on you after that fight.”

  The reminder of my humiliating loss puts a damper on my laughter and a little of the heat in my chest returns. But a single look at Lillian’s concerned expression smothers that fire.

  With a fake smile on my face, I tell her, “I’m fine.”

  With a single gesture of her hand towards the trashed room, Lillian points out the lie of my statement.

  The smile slips a little, but I’m used to holding in my feelings. I’ve had to be strong for my family since my dad left. Being there to listen to my sister about her school and social drama. Being there to help my mom pay our bills or reassuring her when she would lose a job.

  “Lillian, I’m fine. I know I blew up, but that’s over now.”

  Lillian sighs and takes my hand. Her gentle touch stirs something in me. “Anthony, it’s ok to be angry or sad or frustrated or whatever. But it’s not ok to hold in those feelings. It’ll eat you up from the inside.”

  The anger starts to return. What does this rich little girl know? How often has she had to walk somewhere because she couldn’t afford to take the bus? Did the
kid’s in her school ever make fun of her and call her trash because she had to wear holey hand me down clothes two sizes too big? Were there ever days when she wasn’t sure if she was going to eat? I doubt it.

  Some bit of the anger must leak through the careful mask I’ve tried to put on. Lillian squeezes my hand, “I won’t claim to know how you feel or know what you’ve been through in life. I’m just saying that I’m willing to listen.”

  And with that small bit of empathy, the misdirected anger vanishes. How can I be angry at someone who looks like she’s about to cry because she cares so much? I sigh and decide just to tell her how I’m feeling. One, it’ll get her to leave and two, maybe it’ll help me feel better.

  “Ok, you win, Lillian.” She rolls her eyes at the inference that she was looking to win something. I turn and sit so that I’m facing her. Taking an honest look at how I feel, I find a weird mixture of anger at Auden, anger, and disappointment at myself, and the frustration at life that rich people just seem to win all the time. I find that it’s difficult to find the right words to describe these feelings, So I just blurt out, “The fight with Auden sucked big, hairy sacs.”