Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  The motion of the vodka bottle moving away caught his attention, and his entire world seemed to stutter and slow for a split second as his head began tracking the clinking glass.

  In that stuttering moment in time, he realized he had landed on his forgotten spear stick and his eyes locked on the five torches he prepared earlier.

  It couldn’t be that easy, could it?

  Rocky quickly grabbed the bottle of vodka from beside him, uncorked it, and took a mouthful of the liquid. The next instant, he snatched up a torch and dragged the end through the sputtering fire.

  As Rocky attempted to stand up, he was forced to double over to avoid the approaching kayak paddle aimed at his head. The paddle end whizzed by, bending the shaft as it fought the air. He looked up and saw the painted green chest of the creature and a glowing marble similar but smaller than the cottage’s. With as much pressure as his lungs could muster, he spewed the vodka and blood from his mouth. At the last moment, he slid the torch into the bloody spray. A massive amount of heat scorched his face as a fireball ignited between him and Gumby. The smell of burned hair assaulted his nose as his eyebrows were scorched away in the flash.

  The maniacal Gumby began to burn furiously, letting out an eerie high-pitched whine like a lobster in boiling water. The creature attempted to turn and stumble back to the water. Rocky swore and winced, knowing what he had to do next. He glanced longingly at the longer wood axe, but it was too far away currently to be useful. Instead, he retrieved the hatchet from where he had exchanged it for the vodka, then violently slammed the short-handled blade into the back of the retreating, burning golem, knocking it to the ground.

  Heat from the conflagration singed his arm hair, and his teeth grit in determination as the skin on his hands began to burn. Rocky couldn’t stop, though. With the creature’s blatant aggression, if he let it get free, it would kill him. For the next half minute, he stood sentry over the struggling kayak as it was consumed by flames, repeating his attacks as necessary to keep it grounded. Finally, there was a sound of cracking glass, and the creature went still.

  Rocky sighed, but his relief vanished as a crack behind him reminded him of the other threat in the clearing. He snapped around to look at what used to be the cabin. There in the quickly shrinking structure stood a nearly fifteen-foot giant. Its arms were formed from amalgamated wood that had been stuck together at the joints with tar and concrete. At the end of each hand, the creature had massive, metal nails that were easily the size of mining picks. Its right leg was wood until it reached its calf, at which point the appendage became a massive, bell-shaped piece of hardened concrete, perfect for pancaking anything it stepped on. The final appendage, its right leg, seemed to be stuck, half-formed inside what remained of the converted building.

  Rocky spat out what remained of the blood in his mouth and narrowed his eyes. This thing would soon be fully formed and probably be coming to kill him as well, so with only a moment’s hesitation, he retrieved the vodka bottle and the makeshift torch from near the fire. Lining up his shot like it was a buzzer beater to win the finals, he wound up with the vodka bottle and threw it. The bottle tumbled end over end. He followed up by sending the torch after the bottle just as the sound of tinkling glass from the collision with the creature’s chest reached his ears.

  The golem glanced up. The newly formed, glowing eyes were locked on Rocky. He could swear they narrowed before the torch connected and the creature lit up like a massive bonfire. The beast stood up straight and began tugging on his final, unformed leg, attempting to free it from the foundation that still was forming on to it.

  Rocky’s heart hammered in his chest at the display of strength. Each herculean pull was shaking the remains of the three-bedroom cabin. Desperately not wanting this creature to finish its transformation or make it to the nearby river, he ran to his earlier discarded wood axe.

  Wrapping his burnt and bleeding hands around the shaft, his vision darkened. Rocky’s energy began to fade as the pain began to overtake him. Screaming to stay conscious, he closed with the struggling giant; he swung a desperate blow with all of his might, aiming at the place where the completed leg met the hip joint.

  The good news was the blow hacked off its one freed leg. The bad news was that Rocky quickly realized he was under the massive, burning, tree-sized monster, and it was going to fall on him. The enormous conflagration of wood and tar fell ominously towards him in slow motion. Screaming out his rage, panic, and multitude of other emotions, he took two steps before launching himself into a somersault directed at a pile of debris that was all that remained of the cabin.

  A moment later, Rocky heard a massive crack of glass, and then his head collided with one of the remaining concrete footings of the cottage. The impact combined with his already pain-racked body sent him into blessed unconsciousness.

  Chapter Three

  Rockland slowly woke for the second time that day. He couldn’t see any hint of sunlight in the dark sky above him. He felt like he had been lit on fire and then stomped on repeatedly by the asshat who did it.

  He desperately built up his resolve and attempted to sit up, knowing that he was still in immense danger. Unfortunately, his attempt to sit up only managed to lift his head off the dirt and then was met with such protest that all Rocky accomplished was a mild whine before giving up. His head touching back down to the ground sent such a massive spike of pain through his head that he feared he had suffered a serious injury or at least some severity of a concussion.

  Using his burned and numb hands to feel around his head provided him with little to no feedback, and so he chose to lay there and try to use his other senses to assess if he had a severe brain injury. Since it was night, he turned his head minutely to face the moon and realized his eyes weren’t overly sensitive to its pale light, which was a good sign but not a perfect test as his four corners were flashing at him already. The rustling of leaves blowing in the calm wind let him know his hearing was also unimpeded.

  Rocky wrestled with his sanity. It was one thing to see a floating screen, adjust his stats, and then feel a change. He could easily explain that as imaginary. But everything that had come after? Cabins and kayaks don’t try to kill people on a regular basis. At least not in the method he just experienced.

  Do people who are insane question their sanity? Does it really matter? The pain I am feeling now is pretty damn convincing.

  It really didn’t matter. He was in this position, and whether it was imagined or real wouldn’t reveal itself to him if he didn’t help himself. Not to mention that through helping himself he may be able to save his family and others if this turned out to be as desperate a time for everyone.

  Swallowing a lump in his throat, he decided to check those flashing four corners. Some of the corners had changed from yellow to an ominous red, and that had his heart clenching in his already tight chest. He selected the bottom right again knowing it was for notifications, and it was only flashing a slightly less ominous yellow.

  You have slain a level 3 wood golem! Quick thinking often triumphs in the face of overwhelming odds.

  Congratulations! You have reached level 2! You have been awarded 1 stat point and 1 skill point.

  Congratulations! You have reached level 3! You have been awarded 1 stat point and 1 skill point.

  You have slain a level 10 wood composite golem and even managed to survive yourself. Some would call that luck. Others would also call it luck!

  Congratulations! You have reached level 4 (Stasis Entered - Excess Etherience banked)! You have been awarded 1 stat point and 1 skill point.

  Rocky swore internally; he had assumed every level would give him five stat points, and he had thrown all of them into Agility before fully contemplating his decision. Now he might have just unbalanced himself before he chose to assign his skill points. What if his skill points were based on another stat?

  Maybe you should have thought of all that before assigning the stat points, you idiot! How could you forget some
thing like skills and classes!

  Unable to move, he glared at the shadowy canopy above him before a deep, strained breath centered him. In the end, it didn’t matter anymore, what was done was done. After brief consideration, he realized he was barely alive and had probably been saved by the very same stat points he was angry at himself about.

  Still pissed but with firm control on it, he chose the other yellow corner and mentally opened it, which again populated his character sheet.

  Rockland Barkclay

  Level 4

  Class Selection: Pending

  Class Skills: Unassigned (Waiting on Class)

  Health Points: 5/100

  Ether Pool: 100/100

  You have 3 stat points and 4 skill point to distribute.

  Stamina

  10

  Strength

  12

  Agility

  11

  Dexterity

  9

  Intelligence

  10

  Wisdom

  6

  Charisma

  8

  Luck

  5

  Would you like to assign stat points now?

  Yes

  No

  Stasis

  Rocky mentally chose Class Selection from the three tabs, noticing that it was highlighted yellow as the current bottleneck in his leveling. Skill selection was also highlighted yellow but when he had tried to mentally open it, the Class Selection had flashed red angrily and nothing had happened.

  Did the knock to your head dislodge what little brain you had?! Skills don’t come before a class. Come on. You need to be better than this to make it back home and protect your family!

  Class Options

  Listing 1-10 of 3,005

  Oh great, let's make it so it will take me all day to choose a class!

  He did notice there were filter options that he could use but what in the hell did he even want to filter out? In an attempt to brainstorm ideas he read the first ten.

  Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Mage, Priest, Warlock, Death Knight, Shaman, Holy Knight, Paladin

  An excited gasp escaped Rocky; it seemed like it was going to start out with all the basics from any game he had played.

  With a childish glee, he considered what he normally played in games. His usual preference of healer because of its ability to protect and keep people alive was his first thought. Rocky sighed with disappointment when he was forced to dismiss a pure healer class. Since he was all alone, he was going to need to be able to kill enemies that were trying to kill him. With no one else in the vicinity and no clue when he would find another player, playing a class that relied on others around you to do the dirty work would not be a good idea.

  After dismissing healer, he examined his feelings about his second favorite class—a hybrid healer, like a Paladin—and considered its viability. These classes often were great compromises in that they could deal out damage and also heal themselves and others, adding some amazing survivability to characters. Rocky’s heart fell shortly after considering survivability because in most video games, Paladins and other hybrid healing relied strongly on heavy plate armor which he was fresh out of.

  Yeah, I will just pop over to my other campsite and pick up some medieval armor …

  Internally, Rocky struggled with himself, trying to silence the inner voice telling him he was a coward for wanting to avoid damage. However, another surge of pain racking his body managed to silence that nagging, testosterone-fueled inner self. That internal debate instantly decided, he was left with a few options: a fast melee fighter that focused on dodging and high damage output to end fights possibly before there ever was a threat of damage, a pet intensive class that relied on strong pets to tank damage and allowed Rocky the luxury to fight from distance or cover , or a ranged fighter who avoided getting in close.

  If Rocky were honest, he would prefer a ranged fighter, but his roiling gut told him that the weakness of an archer was the inability to prevent a close combat monster from closing. If the skills and space weren’t available to kite, he would be extremely vulnerable. A further tremble of nerves shook his body, and he mentally added that he could be facing an opposing ranged creature, which would again put him in a dangerous situation with a purely ranged class.

  The final straw was that few weapons short of an RPG, which he only possessed in his dreams and only after watching action movies, could have destroyed the massive house golem. He reluctantly shelved pure ranged damage, for now, his twisting stomach hoping to find something with a bit more survivability if creatures got in close.

  He did like the idea of pets or summoned minions to increase his survivability. Diving into that thought deeper, Rocky realized he would much rather have summoned creatures that were disposable. A pet had feelings and would become extended family. The idea of tactically choosing creatures for specific tasks and knowing that he could fail and resummon them somehow made him feel less anxious.

  Looking at the filter options, Rocky noticed that the options were broken into overall categories on the left, then further into sub-categories in the middle, and finally into specific classes on the far right. Fooling around with the overall options, he realized that the first two columns acted like a folder and selecting it would add any of the sub-categories and specific classes automatically to his intended filtering. Sub-categories, the second column, worked the same way but were like folders within folders and only contained the specific classes that it would add or remove. The last thing he discovered was that mentally clicking on the empty box would add a green checkmark to its face, and mentally clicking on it again would add a red X through it. The third click would blank it back to an empty, faded out checkbox.

  · Melee

  · Range

  · Healer

  · Defender

  · Summoner

  · Cook

  · Construction

  · Crafter

  · Alchemist

  · Guide

  · Explorer

  · Stealth

  · Warrior

  · Fighter

  · Brawler

  · Archer

  · Ballistic

  · Laser

  · Mage

  · Holy

  · Divine

  · Earth

  · Medicinal

  · Champion

  · Tank

  · Guard

  · Escort

  · Magic Summoner

  · Pet Summoner

  · Demon Summoner

  · Tamer

  · Saucier

  Rogue

  Thief

  Shadow Walk

  Outlaw

  Scoundrel

  Ninja

  Gaiden

  Shadow

  Predator

  Hitman

  Assassin

  Ghost

  Prowler

  Special Operative

  Spy

  Speed Demon

  Trapper

  Killer

  Bandit

  Burglar

  Nightblade

  Deathdealer

  After fooling around, he blanked the filters and sucked on his teeth in consideration. Rocky then went to the filter feature and checked off three overall categories: melee, range, and summoner. He had removed defender from the listing because in every game he had played, tanks relied on healers and groups, and groups relied on tanks.

  I’m so lonely… I’m Mr. Lonely… with nobody to call and group… At least your sense of humor is still as bad as ever, dumbass.

  Additionally, he had also removed all major categories that seemed to be crafting based in nature. While he couldn’t be certain that was the case, he knew next to nothing about any professions they alluded to and felt his best chance of survival was utilizing his natural size and athleticism.

  The melee decision seemed sensible to him because it encompassed rogue-like classes, and Rocky believed those would be speed-based classes with high dodge an
d an excellent ability to stay hidden or avoid fights if necessary. He had left ranged because if he combined a long-range option with some dodge and stealth survivability, it would be well within his comfort level. The good thing about these three overall categories was that the “ranged” folder seemed to also consider mage classes to be completely within its purview. While he really had no idea what to expect from a mage class, he did feel his heart flutter in excitement at the thought of casting spells.

  Quickly clicking on accept, he watched through narrowed eyes as the list shrunk.

  Listing 1-10 of 481

  Ranger, Spell-sword, Scout, Blood-monk, Death-Shaman, Space Singer, Time Warp, Messenger, Noble, Lord

  Looking at the list, he realized that of the ten options available, he really only could recognize a few of them from games he had played. Ranger was often a class with heavy range damage while still having some effective close combat fighting. Spell-sword was effectively the opposite with strong martial skills paired with long-range spells.

  Then he considered that another sort of filter must be at play as it wasn’t just listing classes in alphabetical order or in the order he had just seen them appear in the folders selected. A quick perusal yielded no further answers to this mystery, and he dismissed it with a quick thought.

  Maybe it picks a random assortment for the first page? It doesn’t really matter. Get moving, moron.

  Out of what remained, Rocky wanted to check the mage class options because he really had no idea how magic and spells would function in this world. The Time Warp class had a name that implied a power that could control time which would be extremely potent and powerful, so he clicked it first.