Know Thy Enemy

by Dawn Chapman

  It got a bit easier as he went on and grew accustomed with the playability of the game. It’s true that a good player could get used to even the shittiest gaming system. The easiest way would be to go slowly and carefully, but that’s not how you win a game. Pierce was starting to like it, which was the truth. The hardship made the whole thing quite fascinating.

  He learned again how to jump the mushrooms, how to sense the monster and to avoid them. When he picked a coin up, it felt like putting a grain of sugar on his tongue. It wasn’t as overwhelming as before, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  It was all about focus now.

  Pierce almost fell into the abyss again, he almost got shot at and almost didn’t see some of those monsters before it was too late.

  Almost - that was the important world. Almost winning was still winning. If that was the only way of thriving, then so be it.

  By the time he had crossed half of the dungeon, Pierce secretly thanked Mr. Kaleidoscopius for making such a primitive game so interesting.

  This is what I’m made for, asshole! Jumping over a pit of fire and landing just a couple of pixels away from it on the other side. This is what I’m here for.

  Pierce thought again of his broken body, of the surgeries and months of physiotherapy, of the pain, the sweat, everything he had gone through to do something as basic as taking a crap by himself. Only now, Pierce realized this was what he did best.

  Not playing the game, or shooting at people. Rebuilding himself. That was what he was doing right now. It was a continuation of everything he had done before, and Mr. Kaleidoscopius hadn’t counted on that.

  Pierce finally got to a large room in the dungeon, and a door shut behind him. There were no other monsters, no blocks to jump over, no coins. Pierce knew what this was: the final boss room. And even though he was still confident, he couldn’t avoid the chilling sensation growing up his pixelated spine. He had been good enough till now, but it was never a simple task to defeat a final boss without dying at least once, and a life was something he couldn’t spare.

  Pierce stood there, preparing himself for anything.

  A huge octopus with blades on his tentacles.

  A seven-headed dragon with sharp teeth.

  A giant people-eating cyclops.

  Instead, a door appeared in the other corner of the room, and a little girl in a yellow dress walked out of it in his direction.

  Okay, she’s going to turn into a giant something, said Pierce to himself, though deep down he suspected that wasn’t the case. It never was with Mr. Kaleidoscopius. In the short period of time Pierce had known that creep, he always had a way of turning things even weirder.

  “Hello, Pierce,” said the little girl. “You can speak now.”

  “Can I?” said Pierce, and his voice sounded clear and sharp coming from his avatar. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  “You’ve already done it,” said the little girl. “You did something that few before you could. Or I’d have eaten you like I ate them. So now, I’m going to give you this.”

  She reached inside the basket and pulled out a diamond. “This is for you to go back there and finish him.”

  “Him? You mean Mr. Kaleidoscopius? Am I supposed to kill him with this diamond?”

  She wagged her head. “The diamond is just the key for you to go back there and finish him off. I’ve been waiting a long time for someone who could do this. Someone who I didn’t have to eat!”

  Pierce was confused. “Who are you?”

  “I’m a huge octopus with blades on her tentacles,” she said. “And a seven-headed dragon with sharp teeth. And a giant people-eating cyclops. I’m everything you thought I’d be. I’m the final boss. I’ve eaten many people, and squashed them and twisted their necks. But I’ve never respected anyone. That’s what you did: you earned my respect. And you’re so much more than that disgusting beast who imprisoned me.”

  “But how can I kill him?” asked Pierce. “He said the next time I hit him it has to be the last one, so I need to be sure before I do anything.”

  “Didn’t he tell you the riddle?” she asked him. “Between I and I, you can’t break it?”

  “And what the hell does that mean?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, but, you’ve gotten so far. Come on, take the diamond and go back there to do what you have to do.”

  Pierce didn’t reach for the diamond immediately. He remembered what had happened the last time he trusted a stranger. How could he be sure that the little girl wasn’t Mr. Kaleidoscopius in disguise?

  “Think about it this way,” said the little girl. “It’s not like you have a better choice. You’ve been very brave, but I don’t think you could fight me in the condition you are in right now.”

  “I’d like to have tried that,” said Pierce reaching for the diamond. “Maybe next time.”

  “Maybe,” she said with a wink.

  The door behind the little girl opened, and she went through it. Before Pierce could follow her, the door shut and disappeared. For a moment, he thought he was going to be trapped in that room, but the ceiling started crumbling, the blocks falling down one by one, forming a ladder. He didn’t need any instructions.

  As he got to the top of the ladder, reality started changing again, but this time the other way around. His body wasn’t flat anymore, and he could feel his muscles and bones moving with each step. Pierce knew exactly where he was going, but wasn’t sure what to do once he got there.

  “You were supposed to amuse me!” said Mr. Kaleidoscopius in that squeaky voice Pierce hated so much. He still sat on his stone throne, with an angry look on his face. “Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you amuse me?”

  Pierce took a second to cherish the feeling of reality. It didn’t cross his mind he was still in a virtual game, and then he considered his friends. Leenz and Chopper were still trapped, completely defenceless, and he was aware they weren’t going to escape by themselves.

  He had to kill that awful demon — but how? All he had was a stupid sentence. Between I and I you can’t break it! What in the world could that mean?

  “Are you going to amuse me now?” asked Mr. Kaleidoscopius. “Are you, Mr. Pierce? Remember I know everything. Right now, you’re trying to find a way to release those two so they can escape my dungeon after I kill you.”

  “If you kill me,” corrected Pierce.

  “When I kill you,” reiterated Mr. Kaleidoscopius. “It’s not a possibility, it’s a fact!”

  “Can you see the future too?”

  Mr. Kaleidoscopius jumped from his throne and walked in Pierce’s direction. He held his sceptre like a walking cane. “I don’t need to see the future. I see enough already. I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

  Pierce instinctively reached into his pocket and pulled out something he knew would be there. Mr. Kaleidoscopius pulled the diamond from his hand before he offered it to him, and fitted it on the tip of his sceptre. “Does this add anything to your almighty powers?” he asked.

  “It’s a trophy,” explained Mr. Kaleidoscopius. “A gift from my new slave.”

  “Is that what I am now?”

  Mr. Kaleidoscopius grinned and nodded. “Yup!” he said. “You’re in my collection now, Pierce. I’m gonna make you the new big boss of my game. You’ve played better than anyone before you. So, I’m going to keep you.”

  “What about them?” Pierce asked, pointing to his friends.

  “I’m thinking of eating Leenz for breakfast,” said Mr. Kaleidoscopius. “And Chopper for supper. It’ll be the greatest honour they’ve ever had in their lives.”

  “Unless I kill you,” stated Pierce.

  “Yeah, but you’re too dumb to do that. If you knew how close you’ve got…”

  “What do you mean?” asked Pierce. For the first time Mr. Kaleidoscopius seemed to have done something stupid, and his expression was proof of that. “What do you mean how close I’ve gotten?”

  “Fuck you!” said
Mr. Kaleidoscopius. “You’re too stupid to realize it even if I said the words for you. You’re…”

  He didn’t see that punch coming. In the middle of the sentence, Pierce shut his fist and hit Mr. Kaleidoscopius in the nose with all his strength. It was so hard that Pierce’s own fist ached. That big red pointy nose exploded and threw both of them away.

  A bright yellow light blinded Pierce for a second, but when he opened his eyes, everything seemed different. The shackles holding Leenz had vanished, as well as the cage where Chopper had been trapped. Mr. Kaleidoscopius had vanished too, leaving only a small red cockroach that ran around trying to find a hole in which to disappear.

  Pierce got up and walked in the cockroach’s direction. It had a human-like face, but no nose. “Between eye and eye,” said Pierce, stepping on the cockroach. “I just broke it, motherfucker.”

  Leenz put her hand on Pierce’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “Been better,” said Pierce, picking up his equipment from the floor. He took a ration bar out of his pack and offered it to Chopper. He was blue now, maybe a bit traumatized, but Pierce figured he’d be okay after they had some fresh air. “We still have a mission to fulfil, don’t we? So, let’s go.”

  “But where?” she asked. “We’re trapped in here.”

  A rock moved by itself in a corner, revealing a stone corridor. The little girl in the yellow dress stood in it. “Come this way,” she said. “You’ll find what you’re looking for.”

  Pierce nodded at her and turned back to his crew. “Let’s go.”

  “Can we trust her?” asked Leenz. That wasn’t the strangest thing she’d ever seen, but it was in the top three.

  “What’s the worst that can happen?” Pierce asked her. “I mean, that hasn’t happened already.”

  “Fair enough,” she said with a shrug.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Drayk

  The next morning Drayk helped Graylin pack up their stuff, and from the remnants of their fire, he made them both something hot to drink. While the big guy still snored, Drayk picked up some local fruits around them and managed to rustle up enough breakfast for them.

  He also scaled one of the larger trees near him, so he could get a better layout of the land. Ahead of them wasn’t just the lead to the mountain, but a fairly large river to cross, he didn’t know of any way around it. Maybe Graylin didn’t either, so that was going to be a very entertaining swim, which he wasn’t looking forward to.

  The hot fluids warmed their bones after breakfast and then it was a short trek to the outskirts of the river. Once across, they’d have an easy journey to the mountain there. The fact was, you could see the mountain’s entrance, and he loved that. It also looked pretty darned scary, dark, and creepy. There were plenty of tracks around, also bones; not dead animals, but real bones.

  Drayk thought it was a bad sign all around.

  “The water won’t be deep,” Graylin said, “but the current is fast. It will sweep you away if you aren’t careful.”

  “Can you swim?” Drayk asked.

  “I learned as soon as I got here,” Graylin said. “You?”

  Drayk shuddered. “No, I can’t swim. I couldn’t even swim back home.”

  Graylin frowned, a constant thing with him lately. “You’ll get me killed if I can’t get you across. Look, I’ll carry you.”

  Drayk felt his cheeks flush. This was so embarrassing.

  “I want to think we can get across the easy way, but there’s no way that’s going to work,” Drayk said. He managed to climb onto Graylin’s back, but no sooner had they reached the river, there was a problem.

  On the river bank ahead, appeared two creatures and Drayk froze.

  The first had a large head, and five legs, the second one had two heads and several more legs. Was nothing ever going to be easy here? “Do you think we can swim down river, cross over somewhere else?”

  “No, they’ll just follow us. They have our scent.” Graylin pointed to the creatures as they bounced up and down on the riverbank, growing excited for them to cross.

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  “I get us across the water, and then we have to take these monsters down.”

  “What are they?” Drayk asked, clinging to Graylin as he made his way to the edge of the river.

  “They’re called Mkrol, they’re a guardian of dungeons that are worth a lot. Whatever is in that place has a lot of loot, and a lot of monsters to kill. It may be many levels deep.”

  “I really wasn’t coming back from this was I?”

  The big man shook his head and Drayk felt every muscle beneath him move. The man was a giant, more so than Haal ever was. He took some comfort in that.

  The water reached Drayk’s ankles, and he gasped. It was freezing. “Are you going to be all right,” he said.

  Graylin coughed. “I’ve been in colder water than this. I’ll be fine. Just need to make sure we kill these creatures quick or I might freeze first.”

  That wouldn’t be good.

  The river dropped in the middle, and the water was suddenly up to Drayk’s thighs. It dipped, and Drayk almost went under with Graylin beneath him. “We can do this. I might have to swim a bit. I think it will be easier than trying to walk. The bottom is so uneven now.”

  Drayk nodded, but Graylin couldn’t see that. Drayk was only concerned that the creatures ahead were getting agitated. The closer he got, the more he could see of them. They both had blood red eyes, slimy, scaly skin and an awful smell he could almost taste all the way over here.

  There was also something rumbling in the background. The sounds were eerie and as close as they were, Drayk could make out the words. Graylin said, “They’re chanting. A spell. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s not good. They’re not mages, so that means there’s someone else nearby. We need to target him. Do you think you can throw one of your daggers?

  “You sharpened it last night, if I can see where they are, I might be able to get in a shot, I’m not a master dagger thrower though.”

  “It’s okay, I have something just for that, I used to buff Zelak’s strikes. That was another reason he used to keep me around. I could extend his mage powers.”

  Drayk pulled his daggers out, and as they stepped even closer to the river’s edge, the creature lunged at the water but didn’t enter it. Drayk spotted the mage, at the edge of the forest his arms raised, flailing backward and forward. He drew symbols that made no sense to Drayk, but he noticed the skeletons at the cave entrance starting to move. The mage was raising the dead. No way! This can’t be happening.

  Drayk had one choice: he had to let his daggers go, and hope for the best. Tightening his grip on Graylin with his legs, even though the pain ripped through his cold and wet muscles, he shouted, “Whatever you’re going to do, you’re going to have to do it now. I only have two shots at this.”

  “On my mark, One. Two. Three.”

  And then he threw the first dagger. It didn’t hit anything but the second one struck the mage full in the face. The Mage’s eyes went blank, and with a wet gurgling sound he fell to the ground. With the mage dead, the skeletons stopped. The odds were now in their favour; it only left the two monstrosities at the water’s edge. Drayk pulled Graylin’s’ sword from his back, and as they reached the edge of the water, he had no choice but to fight the smaller of the two creatures.

  Drayk had never fought with a sword before, and it showed. It was a clumsy effort, and each strike he made, the creature countered. Drayk kept his focus and was rewarded with a hard cut that chopped off one of its legs. Nice! Drayk glanced over to see Graylin really tackling the larger creature. It had lost a few legs by now, and that meant they had a chance.

  The creature in front of Drayk got in closer and slashed at his chest. Pain ripped through Drayk’s body. He’d no idea it would hurt so much. Glancing down at the exposed flesh, he cringed. Blood started to pour, and his stat screen flashed up.

  YOU ARE BLEEDING

>   TWO MINUTES UNTIL YOU BLEED OUT. UNLESS YOU BANDAGE YOUR WOUND

  HEALTH—50%

  There was no chance of doing that, so he carried on. Drayk bit down on his tongue, causing blood to fill his mouth, and he fought stronger and harder than he ever had. This made the blood loss worse. He started to feel weaker, and his legs give out.

  There was no time, he was almost gone. The creature was winning, and he was going to die.

  That was when Graylin hit home. He lunged for the creature and knocked its head clean off its body. With a thump, it crashed to the floor and blood sprayed Drayk’s face. Graylin held his hands up, but he was too late.

  Drayk tasted the blood of the creature, rusty and yet rotten.

  Another pop up came across his view -

  YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3

  YOU HAVE 5 STAT POINTS TO ALLOCATE

  TOTAL STAT POINTS TO ALLOCATE = 10

  The extra stat points building up excited him, but that fight had almost cost him a life, and he was still bleeding. Graylin got him to kneel, stopping the bleed with his bare hands.

  “Did you swallow any blood?”

  Another screen popped up.

  YOU’VE BEEN INFECTED WITH THE KISS OF THE MOONIN. YOU HAVE FOURTEEN DAYS TO FIND A CURE

  Drayk had begun to turn white. “What does that mean?”

  Another timer ticked away in the corner of his screen.

  This place was ripe with enough monsters and dangers to kill anyone, let alone someone with a seasoned player.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get it to you in time. What else is it saying?”

  The screen continued, “The blood poison in your system has been blocked.” A blinking icon appeared. “Wait, this is weird. Graylin, I’m getting a chat window. What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never known anyone want to chat with a player they don’t know.”

  “Should I answer?”

  Graylin shrugged. And Drayk took the incentive. “Who’s there?”

  A small picture of his nanite appeared.

  “You’ve a blood infection,” this creature inside his mind said. “I can fix it, but that violates where we are at this moment in time. I have a request for you.”