by Dante Doom
“No, that’s silly,” Savannah said. “If they were players, they’d be gone by now. I can’t seem to loot them, either. Look! Notice how you can’t select them with your UI?”
“That is exceedingly strange,” Fingers agreed. “So if they aren’t players, then what are they?”
“Maybe they’re Aspects? Can Aspects die?” Timon asked. Savannah looked up to see that Timon was standing a ways away from the body. He looked uncomfortable and was clasping his fingers together tightly.
“No, Aspects can’t die. At least, I don’t think they can,” Savannah replied, her brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”
“You guys are kinda freaking me out,” Timon said. “I thought the Grind was safe, but you’re saying these could be players?”
“Oh, we’re only speculating,” Fingers replied. “It could be a glitch. One time, I saw a glitch make a man’s legs look like cans of tomato soup for the entire time he was in the game.”
“Yeah, a glitch!” Savannah repeated, hoping to calm down Timon. She wasn’t convinced this was a glitch, but Timon didn’t need to worry about some random aberration.
“Oh… oh, okay.” Timon didn’t look or sound convinced, but he let go of his hands, resting them at his sides. “I suppose we should keep moving, then?”
“Yeah,” Fingers and Savannah said at the same time. She could feel the tension in the air. Fingers didn’t look any more convinced of the idea of these bodies being a glitch than she was. But what else could they do but move on?
“Let’s get those spiders!” Savannah said, abruptly switching gears. Maybe some good, old-fashioned fighting would calm everyone down.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Timon said, his voice quivering a little.
“Load up!” Fingers cheered, spinning his revolvers in his hands.
Savannah took a deep breath and readied her energy shotgun. “They’re only spiders. Shoot the large eggs on the ground, or they create more. We shouldn’t have a problem with them as long as we do that.” With that, Savannah took a mighty leap off the platform, sailing down to the bottom.
Fingers was falling next to her, upside down and arms stretched out, firing bullet after bullet at the spiders. 175 damage hovered above the largest spider and it fell to the ground, writhing from the damage.
“Nice shooting!” Savannah said as she prepared to activate her third power slot – Tough Enough. This would boost her health by 100 for 30 seconds, which was great for dealing with swarm enemies. She fired with her shotgun a few times, but the spread of the Energy Rifle meant she was only dealing 5 damage each time she hit a spider.
Timon was still up on the platform, and he wasn’t even peering over. Maybe he was still freaking out, Savannah rationalized. It didn’t matter, though; he would probably have gotten in the way anyway. By the time she landed on the ground below, half of the spiders were already dead. Fingers was a madman, shooting and reloading faster than she could follow.
“Hahahahaha!” Fingers yelled as he stood in the midst of the spiders, blasting away. The large, crawling monsters would leap at him, but he was faster, shooting the ones behind him without even looking in their direction. Savannah rushed the eggs while he was busy drawing all of the Aggro.
She reached the first egg and blasted at it with her shotgun. The warning, The Queen has been Angered, hovered above the egg as it wilted away and died. The ground beneath Savannah rumbled a little then, and she grinned. “Looks like killing these eggs will summon the boss!” she shouted as she reached another egg and blasted clean through it. The ground rattled some more.
“Great, I could use a real challenge,” Fingers called out as he paused to reload his guns. One of the spiders took the opportunity to blast a web out of its mouth. The web opened like a net and wrapped around Fingers. You are Immobile hovered above him.
“Gee, because nothing gets worse after you brag about things being easy,” Savannah laughed as she ran to his aid. Two spiders were encircling him, but they became distracted once she slid in front of them. She went to activate her extra Health Boost then, but realized that it would be better used when the pissed off Queen arrived. Instead, she blasted at the first beast. 100 damage hovered above the spider’s head as green energy coursed out of her shotgun. The spider shrieked and melted into the ground, vanishing.
“Come on, man, why is this so sticky?” Fingers grunted as he tried to wrestle his way out of the bindings wrapped around him.
“Haha!” Savannah cheered as she shot a round into the second spider, killing it. Her gun had been a little off-center, however, and one of the rounds missed the spider’s head, sailing into the third and final egg. “Oh, are you kidding me?” she shouted as the ground began to rumble. The words The Queen’s Rage Burns Eternal hovered above the withering egg. “It only takes one damage to kill it? That means it’ll summon something once they’re all dead!”
“I’m still really stuck here,” Fingers said. “I don’t see a timer—try shooting it.”
“Shoot the webs?” Savannah repeated. “You’re in the webs.”
“Just don’t hit me,” he replied as he struggled.
“How can I shoot a thin film of silk without hitting you?” she demanded.
“Aim well!” Fingers grunted. The ground continued rumbling and she could feel the earth beneath her beginning to move. Savannah glanced down to see an enormous crack in the ground, splitting the earth in two.
She hopped out of the way, making sure to grab Fingers by the head and pull him away from the opening as she moved. There was a deep, guttural “Eeuuuurugheeeeee” ringing from the hole.
“Timon, a little help?” Savannah yelled out as she tried to grab the web and pry it from Fingers, only for her hand to get stuck. Your Hand is Ensnared hovered above her. “Crap! What in the hell? Why is this stuff so strong?”
“Any time, Timon!” Fingers yelled as a large, reddish head emerged from the hole in the ground. It was like a maelstrom of red and yellow, pulsing and blinking with the trademark chaos of a Viral. The head towered six feet above them, its large mandibles jutting out and its many eyes staring at them.
Timon landed next to them. “Sorry about that, I didn’t think you’d need my help,” he said as he rushed to grab Fingers. His hands turned blue as the words Status Heal appeared above him. A surge of blue energy wrapped around Fingers and Savannah, breaking them free from the webs.
“Nice work! And I didn’t have to tell you which card to use!” Savannah said.
“Status Heal is pretty self-explanatory,” Timon replied as he dodged out of the way of one of the limbs of the Spider Queen. The Viral was beginning to pull its long arms out of the earth.
“This thing is getting scarier by the second,” Fingers said as he finished reloading. “Let’s not give it a chance to emerge fully.” He spun his revolvers while activating his Frantic Firing power. True to the name, he began to shoot frantically, firing hundreds of shots without having to reload. The DPS was so fast that Savannah could barely keep up with the numbers hovering above the Spider Queen’s head. 150! 150! 150! soared upwards, fading rapidly as the Spider Viral soaked up the damage.
Savannah ran forward with her shotgun, blasting off in order to catch the attention of the Spider Queen. The shots hit were dealing 50 damage each but the Aggro was captured immediately. The spider hissed at her and swung its second free limb at her. She dodged out of the way and began to shoot at the joints in the creature’s limbs. The blast of her shotgun cut into one of the weak points, tearing the long, shadowy limb of the spider off. Disabled hovered above the broken limb and Savannah could see that its health was dropping quickly from 3,000 points to a mere 1,050.
“Nice work, team!” Savannah encouraged the men as the Spider Queen retched for a moment. Suddenly, it spat out a much larger web at Fingers. The web spread out as it flew through the air, covering the entire area.
“Ah, no, no, no!” Fingers yelled as he tried to dodge out of the way, but he had no chance. The web wrapped around
both him and Timon. The words You are Immobilized, hovered above both of them. “I was just freed!” Fingers moaned.
“Hang in there, guys,” Savannah shouted as she rushed to get the Spider Queen’s focus back on her. Her shotgun blasts weren’t doing a lot to penetrate the thick armor of the Viral, though. Each shot read 50 damage, but her damage per second was far too low to bring it down quickly. The spider brought out three more limbs from beneath the earth and they began to swipe and smash at Savannah. She dodged and rolled out of the way, timing each leap expertly.
“How long until your Status Heal is ready?” Fingers asked Timon.
“My timer says 30 seconds,” Timon replied.
“An eternity in game minutes,” Fingers grumbled.
Savannah kept the creature occupied, but it was beginning to pull itself wholly free from the crack with its other legs. The torso of the Spider Queen was impossibly long, and several writhing egg sacs were attached to her stomach. Savannah was stuck with the realization that, if she didn’t shoot the limbs out, it would be able to pull itself free and would then be unrestrained—able to climb up the walls of the pit and attack them from a safe distance. If she focused on blasting more of the limbs, though, the egg sacs would be free and more spiders would join the fight. Who knew how many were in there? She had to make a snap decision, and she had to make one quickly.
Savannah aimed her shotgun low and began to blast at the egg sacs. Destroyed hovered above each sac as she blasted at the Queen over and over again. The Spider Queen shrieked in rage at the attack, but continued to pull herself out until finally she was free. The Viral towered nearly twenty feet above Savannah and her team.
“How the hell is it that big?” Timon shouted.
“No kidding!” Fingers said. “Well, we’re dead.”
“Its health is still low,” Savannah said. “Keep it together.”
The Spider Queen began to climb up the side of the cavern wall, turning itself so that its large head was facing them. It was far out of reach of Savannah’s gun, so she switched to the Rocket Launcher and began to load. 1/30 appeared as the gun clicked, readying to launch. Each second was painfully slow. Above the head of the Spider Queen appeared the word Charging.
“What’s it doing now?” Timon asked.
“Probably getting ready to shoot more webbing,” Fingers said. “Because that’s been effective so far.”
“Timon, is your power ready yet?” Savannah asked as the gun reached 5/30 rockets. Using this thing in combat was so painfully slow that she almost regretted pulling it out. She kept the Overdrive power on, however, knowing that it would be the key to taking this thing down once and for all.
“One more second… now!” Timon yelled as he activated his freeing power. A blue burst of energy wrapped around him and extended towards Fingers, melting the webs from their bodies.
“Nice!” Fingers said as he began to reload his weapon. “But that damn thing is far too high up there. My guns aren’t that good at this range.”
“It won’t be far away for long!” Timon yelled. Spring Attack hovered above the Spider Queen’s head as it came crashing towards them far faster than Savannah had realized a Spider Viral could move. It was sailing right towards Timon.
He aimed his rifle up and took a few shots, but he missed each one, with the words Dodge Bonus hovering above the spider’s head.
“Timon, use your Swap power!” Savannah yelled as she glanced at her Rocket Launcher’s 15/30 read-out—that was good enough. Timon complied and, in a split second, Savannah was standing right in the path of the enormous spider sailing towards her. Its jaws were open and all of its limbs were pointed downwards, ready to grasp her as soon as it could. She waited a beat and then released the payload of the Rocket Launcher. Sixteen missiles fired upwards, crashing into the spider’s head all at once. The announcement 66 damage X16 hovered above the Spider Queen’s head. 1,056 Damage! Overkill!
The spider creature faded away into nothing, but thousands upon thousands of golden points showered down. The orbs all went sailing right to Timon. 37,000/1,500,000 hovered above his head briefly before vanishing.
“Haha, we did it!” Fingers shouted as he put his revolvers back into their holsters. “That was quite the fight! Man, I forgot what a good boss battle felt like.”
“You don’t fight bosses anymore?” Savannah asked.
“Nah, we got bored with fighting monsters and started focusing on building stuff—at least until my gang vanished,” Fingers said. Without elaborating, he suddenly pointed at a small glowing key that was descending from where the spider’s body had been.
“Hey! There’s the key!” Timon announced as he walked up and reached out his hand. The Purple Key gently landed in his palm and he wrapped his fingers around it. “Man, that was some fight. Sorry about showing up late.”
“You showed up at the right time,” Savannah said as she high-fived him. “Take some of your points and invest them into decreasing the refresh time on your Status Heal power. That’s probably going to be handy.”
“Okay,” Timon said. He began to fiddle with the chip from his satchel.
“Just like that?” Savannah asked.
“I’m sorry?” Timon asked as he looked up at her. “What?”
“Nothing… it’s just, clients usually hate spending points on power card upgrades,” Savannah said. “I was expecting a fight.”
“Oh, I see. Well, Miss Savannah, I was raised to believe that, when you have a leader, you are to trust them. Even if you don’t know what their plan is, or what their ultimate goal is. If you chose to put them in command, then you are saying they know more than you do,” Timon said. “I trust you enough to know that this is the best decision that I can make. Or at least, you believe this is the best decision that I can make.”
Savannah blushed. Such respect. Was this how all Nobles talked to one another? It felt great. “Well, thank you for listening. Anyway, if you put five k into it, that should drop the recharge down to ten seconds, which is going to be a lot more useful in later fights.”
“You got it.”
Fingers glanced at Savannah. “So, you’re Grinding for him, eh? How much you pulling?”
“Enough,” Savannah said, with a stupid grin on her face.
“Come on, I know the trade well enough,” Fingers said as he pulled Savannah aside. Timon was still busy fiddling with his power chip. “How many points are you skimming?”
Savannah couldn’t help herself from bragging. “We’re evenly splitting a nobility score. We’ll be aiming for three million total.”
“Hah,” Fingers said with a chuckle. “You sure are pulling one over on him. You mean to tell me that he’s willing to spend one-point-five million more points for your services?”
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Savanah asked, darting her eyes over to Timon. “Plus, he’s a nice guy.”
“Nice guy? Lady, you think you’re getting a deal, but he’s the one scamming you,” Fingers said. “Are you really that dense?”
“What are you talking about?” Savannah growled. “He’s not scamming anyone.”
“Really? So you’re meaning to tell me that you honestly believe that, once he hits one-point-five million, this fancy boy is going to be perfectly fine with waiting God knows how long to get one-point-five million more for you? That’s absurd.”
“It’s a fair deal, Fingers. I have the skills he needs, and–”
“Grinders are a dime a dozen, Savannah,” Fingers said. “Don’t think that just because he’s handsome, well-mannered, and friendly, that he won’t screw you over. Nothing good comes from the upper class. They’re a bunch of wretched bastards thieving from the populace and each other.”
“Hey!” Savannah snapped. “That’s not a fair assessment. Nobles might be a pain sometimes, but they worked to get where they are.”
“Sure, they did,” Fingers said. “I’m sure he worked really hard to be able to afford the money he’s paying you. Or are you only doing
it for points?”
“He’s paying me in cash, too,” Savannah said. “I can trust him.”
“Why? Look, I’m not trying to give you the business because I’m a jackass; I’m trying to warn you, here. I’ve seen a lot of good Grinders get in trouble because of people like him. A good con always exploits the greed of the target. And you? Your eyes are wide with the glitter of gold. Don’t be dumb. He’s gonna take the points and run.”
Savannah glanced over at Timon. He was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the cavern now. His eyes were shut and he was gently dozing. He was charming and kind, but the deal did seem too good to be true. At the same time, he had already paid her in silvar. That wasn’t a small amount of money.
“I have no reason to mistrust him yet,” Savannah said. “Besides, what am I going to do? Bail on him and exit?”
“You could always kill him later on and steal his points,” Fingers said. “Ghosts can do that, you know.”
“If I kill one client, my Grinding days are over,” Savannah replied.
Fingers grinned as he leaned close to her. “Yeah, but if you steal enough of his points, you won’t have to go back into the Grind illegally ever again. And you want that, right?”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Savannah asked as she took a step back from him. She felt a shiver run down her spine then, as she realized the implication of what he’d said. She absolutely could simply rob Timon of all of his points. He’d have no legal recourse, and she wouldn’t have to worry about her reputation as a Grinder because she wouldn’t have to work anymore. Still… that was incredibly dirty.
“You saw those bodies up there, right?” Fingers asked. “Things are getting weird in the Grind. If I… oh, and this is the worst thing that I can utter, if I end up having to leave the Grind, then I want to know that there are going to be people who can take care of me. You’re not like the rest of them, you know. A Grinder who wants to be an aristocrat? That’s quite the ambition, and I like it. So, I’ll look out for you here and, in return, when you end up sitting in your big mansion with fawning servants, maybe I’ll get a nice little room for myself? I’ve heard that Nobles even have air conditioning.”
