by Vic Connor
Niko nodded to the creature in the mask. Upon agreement, the gold in his inventory counted down, and a heavy, clinking bag appeared in his hand. He dropped it on the counter beside his brass knuckles. The creature swiped all the items up and went to work. Not half a minute later, he returned with new, tiny bat wings—now red-colored and curlier—and a pair of fingerless gloves with spikes coming from the knuckles. Niko slipped them on as the creature reached under the counter, then handed over a glass bottle of red liquid.
Niko was still achy, so he picked up the bottle and prepared to guzzle it down. Cal grabbed his wrist, and not nicely. “Save it,” she said. “Hunk will get you. Pots are for fights. Now stay here, I’m going to scout outside the instance.” Cal disappeared, and Niko waited awkwardly beside the shop with its beeps, clicks, and whirs.
Then, in a snap, one of the clicks screamed at him in a long, repetitive wail. Startled, Niko looked over at the storefront, and noticed the shopkeeper was frozen in place, arms extended out, facing forward. Then, its animations played at double speed, as if to catch up. It leaned forward.
“Nikolai,” it said, but the voice wasn’t the same voice the gear-goblin had used earlier. It was graceless, slurred, syllables lifting and falling at wrong times. “Recover the next memory. 22d, 9:58PM. Library basement X985Y789Z-018.”
Niko recognized the strange cadence from his afternoons in the public school’s computer lab. He remembered sitting at the ancient Macs, typing out filthy words and laughing his head off at the weird pronunciation coming from their crackling speakers. This was a computer-generated, text-to-speech voice.
Niko scrambled in his pockets for something to write the number down on when Cal’s husky voice startled him. He looked up, and she was right beside him. “We’re clear. Come on, before anyone shows up.”
Niko opened his mouth to protest, looking over at the gear-goblin. It froze, then snapped back to its routine, humming in the usual, squeaky voice. Cursing under his breath, Niko followed Cal into the underbrush.
They ran into one more monster on the way, a serpent that Cal dispatched like she was stomping an unpleasant bug. Niko got in a lucky punch to its tail, gaining a share of the XP—enough that he leveled up.
BATTLE COMPLETE!
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Black Cobra x1
100 EXPERIENCE GAINED
GOLD: 100 GP
PASSIVE EFFECT: 100*1.5 = 150 XP
3100/3000 XP
DING! YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3
HEALTH: 145 HP (+25)
ATTACK: 65 (+15)
CRIT RATE: +0.65% (+0.05%)
ATTACK SPEED: 1.6 HITS/SECOND (+0.1)
DEFENSE: 6 DAMAGE MITIGATION (+1)
ARMOR: 30 (+5)
“Grats,” Cal said. Niko looked for his next ability, but the icon remained grey.
Instead, two options appeared on his UI.
NEW SKILL POINT
Increase the rate of repetition on ABIL_RecursiveFunction by 15%
—Or—
Your ABIL_EditValue can affect a member of your team instead of yourself
Niko mulled over the options. More hits meant more damage, perfect for his role. But the other offered an array of other possibilities.
“Take that.”
Niko looked up from his UI. Cal was pointing to the loot box, glittering on the ground. Niko walked over and picked it up. The box opened, becoming a black snakeskin hood.
Hood of the Black Cobra
Head slot
DURATION: Current Hunt
EFFECTS:
+5% Critical Hit Chance.
Niko frowned at the UI. “My gloves have this too. Critical Hit Chance.”
“Crit chance?”
“Yeah. I don’t know what that is.”
Cal pursed her lips. “It’s like stacking a bet. Every now and then, you hit a vital area that does way more damage than usual. That’s called a critical hit. Crit chance effect betters the odds that you’ll get a hit like that. Basically, it’s better damage.”
Niko liked the sound of that. He went to pull the hood on, then hesitated. “Don’t you need this?”
“Not as much as you do, comrade,” Cal said.
He looked at the level on her character sheet: 12. Comparing their base damage numbers, Niko realized she was right. Even if he altered his damage, his own statistical limits wouldn’t get him anywhere close. But if he could, say, up her rate of fire or crit chance, Cal wouldn’t need his extra damage. He placed the hood over his head with one hand and confirmed the second choice with the other.
A woman’s voice, with the cadence of a computer, came over the loudspeaker that apparently reached across the entire Hunting Ground. “Twenty-minute mark. Ultimate Abilities are now unlocked.” Niko looked down at his UI, but of course, his Ult remained grey. Cal was already leaving, and Niko jogged to keep up with her. He had to stay on her heels because if he didn’t, he was sure he’d lose her in the dark forest. She was so quiet.
After an abrupt left turn, the forest broke into an open, rocky heath, edged on one side by a steep valley and on the other by a crystalline lake that reflected the surrounding mountains. A tall tower jutted up from the side of an outcropping, overlooking the entire valley. Hunk emerged from a scraggly bush at the base of the tower and gave them a shy wave. He was speaking before Niko and Cal even got to him. “The Namazu spawned at Iris Lake, so Jeny went to grab it before someone else could.”
“Good,” Cal said. “Heal Niko up, then we’ll—” She stopped mid-sentence, looking over her shoulder. The tips of her pointed ears twitched. She looked up at the sky, then to the tower. “Look out!”
Niko saw it a moment later, blue light winking up from the tower’s window right above them. Niko, Hunk, and Cal dove out of the way, just before a beam of energy crashed into the ground, leaving a crater of scorched earth.
“It’s Alonso,” Cal said, ducking under one of the tower’s awnings. “Black Fire were waiting for us here.”
“Jeny, we need you—” Hunk started into the comm, but Cal cut him off.
“Belay that order, Jen. Their vantage is too strong here, they’ll take you out as soon as you enter the clearing.”
“Why didn’t they do the same to us?” Niko asked. Another beam of energy crashed down, making debris fall around them.
“I’d bet they wanted to know where Jeny was first,” Cal said. “We shouldn’t have rendezvoused here. I should have known someone would set up shop in the tower. Let me check inside. If we’re lucky, they won’t be waiting for us in there.” Another beam crashed down, cutting a hole in the awning, leaving a scorch mark on the ground right beside Niko’s hip. He looked up. The vague shape of Alonso appeared looking out the window right above them, his gauntlet flashing with energy.
Niko hadn’t seen when Cal had disappeared, but she was gone. He grabbed Hunk by the shoulder and pulled him around to the opposite side of the tower. They ducked as another beam pulverized the rocks right behind him. Alonso had been trying to lead the shot. He wouldn’t miss again. They stopped, huddled against the castle’s outcropping, safe beneath the jetty. Niko’s skin crackled with a familiar electricity: Hunk was weaving his golden light, leaving little sparks around his body. Niko’s health bar steadily went up.
“Thanks,” Niko said, just before another beam crashed down on the architecture above. Niko covered his head, stone and mortar falling around them. Out in the distance, three tiny figures emerged from the forest, marching across the expanse toward the tower. Niko squinted, then recognized a pair of horns curved in a heart shape. Erica.
“Uh, Cal? The rest of Black Fire is here.”
“Location?”
“North-Northwest,” Hunk cut in.
A pause. “Get inside the tower.”
Niko and Hunk dashed from cover, rounding to the tower’s double doors. Hunk grabbed the brass hand and tugged. “It’s…” he grunted, “stuck!”
Above them, the energy crackled from Alonso’s gauntlet. Niko sucked in
a breath, grabbed Hunk by the shoulders, and pushed him. In the same moment, he focused on activating ABIL_EditValue to alter his location to inside the tower.
Hunk disappeared with a snap, and Niko dove. It wasn’t quite far enough, and searing energy spattered onto his leg, blackening his foot and burning his flesh. Niko hissed, grabbing it and rolling onto his back. He heard Hunk’s muffled voice from inside the tower but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“Somov!” Alonso’s voice came from the distance, his head sticking out from one of the top windows. He crawled out, then leapt. Niko turned as he watched Alonso fall, shoot straight underneath to slow himself down, then land hard in a crouch, making the ground shake and leaving cracks of blue energy around the crater left by his gauntlet. He stood, brushed dust from his shoulder, then turned to face Niko. “There’s no reason Cal should have picked you over me,” he snarled as he approached. “And no reason it should have cut so close in the duos either. Well. I don’t have to carry Erica this time. I’m going to crush you.”
With a groan, Niko pushed himself up, using the side of the tower to balance on his scorched leg. EditValue was still on cooldown. A barrage of punches would damage Alonso, sure, but it wouldn’t knock him out. There was no way Niko could outdamage him.
“Niko!” The familiar voice came from above him; Niko looked up. Hunk was leaning out from a window.
“Hey! I’m talking to you,” Alonso growled, blasting Niko in the chest with a bolt of energy, knocking him to the ground. Niko’s health bar drained like a wound, leaving him at a scant 13 health. He couldn’t take someone coughing on him, much less another hit like that. It looked like Alonso knew it, because he was charging another bolt in the palm of his gauntlet.
Then, with a jerk, Alonso’s hand dropped and he roared with anger, grabbing it by the elbow with his other hand. A red-tipped crossbow bolt had lanced through his forearm. Alonso looked up. Cal was leaning full out of the window beside Hunk, dangling by one foot.
“What a dumb move, Allie,” Cal called, unloading another round from her crossbow. It stabbed cleanly into Alonso’s clavicle. “High ground’s mine now.”
Alonso gurgled around the bolt. “That’s cheap!”
“You were up here a moment ago. I seem to remember a colloquialism involving pots and kettles.” Cal kept the crossbow trained on Alonso with one hand and tapped her comm with the other. “Jen? We’ve got the tower. Get over here.”
“Fine,” Alonso growled. “Shoot me from up there if you want. But my team’s here.” He pointed north-northwest, and indeed, Tim was barreling across the open space. He was wearing armor made of craggy, brown rock, and a mighty hammer to match. Jacob was close behind, flail at the ready, in a panoply of gold and white steel. A glittering light shone from beneath his hood. Erica took up the rear, unfolding a pair of leathery wings.
Alonso gave a pained grin. “I’ll take you first, then we’ll have numbers advantage.” He pulled his fist back, readying one of his charged punches. “Not that you counted for much in the first place.”
Niko watched the cooldown on EditValue’s counter. It was too close—he wouldn’t be able to move before Alonso flew at him. He’d have to dodge. He pushed away from the tower, jumping as far as he could with one burned leg.
Blue energy exploded across his vision, spraying before his eyes like rain on a windshield, but his health stayed exactly the same. Alonso’s fist was less than a foot from his face, pressed against a clear wall, shimmering with golden light.
“Get into the tower, Niko!” Hunk cried from the window, his fingers still glowing gold from the cast spell. Around Alonso’s fist, the glass of the bubble started to crack. Niko scrambled to his feet, daring a look past Hunk at the window to something floating at the tower’s main turret: a health bar.
“We need to get to the lake,” Cal said over the comm. “We have the high ground in the tower, but if we get pinned down, Jeny will be alone out there.”
Niko tugged and kicked at the door as the glass bubble around him spiderwebbed under Alonso’s powerful thwacks. The damn door wasn’t just stuck, it was locked. How had Cal even gotten in? He looked again at the tower’s health bar, doing some math in his head. Black Fire were to the north, closing in. Jeny was to the south, at the long, thin lake in the center of the map. Alonso was right behind him, pounding on the bubble. It would shatter any moment. “Hey, Cal? How fast can you get down from there?”
“Fast,” Cal said warily.
“Good.” Niko pulled his potion out, thumbing the cork out. “Hunk?”
Hunk poked his head out from another window as Alonso’s next hit made the bubble crash and fall away, like a dozen tinkling bells.
“Jump,” Niko said, guzzling the potion while stepping back from Alonso. He turned his back on him to face the tower’s foundation.
“Wh-what?”
“Trust me,” Niko said, dropping the empty potion bottle and wiping his mouth. He activated his second ability. “Jump, now.”
Niko punched the tower’s stone face once with each fist, then the ability took over, repeating the action in rapid succession, pummeling its foundation. The tower’s health bar steadily drained. Stone crumbled and sprayed into his face, until the tower started to creak; waver; tilt.
“Oh, no…” Hunk cried, squeezing through the tower’s tiny window. Niko estimated his steps, held out his arms, then caught him. They both toppled to the ground, Niko’s leg searing with pain as it took the impact of a falling person. If not for that potion, it would have knocked him out. Above them, the tower crumbled and creaked. Even Alonso had forgotten the fight, staring up at the spectacle.
Cal hung out from the top window. “Rendezvous at the lake’s northern tip,” she commed, then backflipped off. As she did so, her arms turned to wings; her feet to talons. In a haze of red sand and feathers, she transformed into an owl. She gave the tower one beat from her massive wingspan, and the building began to collapse in earnest. She whirled away, speeding off toward the lake as the huge structure crashed down. Hunk and Niko scurried out of the way, hit with a cloud of dust and debris. When it settled, there was a wall of rubble blocking Black Fire from the lake.
Alonso, now separated from his team, roared with anger, turning toward Hunk and Niko.
“Run,” Hunk said, grabbing Niko by the arm. A crackle of healing rushed through him, making it easier to stand on his leg. In fact, as both of them bolted for the lake, he felt as if he was running faster.
“I’m gonna kill you, Somov,” Alonso roared behind them. There was another charging sound, this time louder and more frantic, like bees in a hive.
“It’s his ultimate ability,” Hunk gasped as they ran. The lake raced up to meet them then, and Niko slowed, his feet splashing on the shore. He turned. Alonso was channeling a massive ball of energy in both hands.
“Cal,” he commed, “we’re, uh, at the lake. How are we, I mean, what do we do now?”
Alonso’s face was a mask of rage, uplit by the devastating spell he was about to unleash on both of them. Water splashed, quiet beneath the thunder of the spell. Alonso aimed both arms at them, and the beam exploded, wide as a bus, lancing toward Hunk and Niko. Without thinking, Niko jumped in between the beam and Hunk, waiting for the searing pain. Blue light exploded around them, turning night into day. Niko grit his teeth against…nothing. There, blocking Alonso’s deadly beam, was a massive shield, built of four floating, conjoined tusks.
Waves crashed behind them. Niko turned. A massive beast exploded from the water and smashed onto the shore, shaking the ground. It was a full story tall, with sleek, spotted grey skin and hollow eyes. The bottom of it was kind of wavy, y’know, like billowing fabric, or like a Photoshop overlay. Its chest was split open down the center like parted curtains, and in the space between stood a girl. She had strong shoulders and an hourglass figure that Niko could now see that she wasn’t wearing her speckled leather jacket. And yes—how had he not seen it before?—she was beautiful.
<
br /> “Quit yer gawkin’ and get behind me, ya wee git!” Jeny roared. Niko started, realizing that Hunk had already moved to the back line. He ran to join his friend, sparing a look over his shoulder. Alonso stood there infuriated, gesturing and spitting curses at them as the rest of Black Fire showed up. Erica was helping Jacob pull red-tipped crossbow bolts out of his shoulder.
An owl whirled overhead, then dropped in a cloud of feathers and black sand beside Jeny’s hulking form. Cal stood to her full height, emerging from the mist like a cobra from a basket. “All right, Sevens,” she said, priming her crossbow. “Let’s see if they feel lucky.”
16
Stabilized
“Kick us off, Jen,” Cal said, with a smile in her voice.
The shield made of tusks flew back to attach itself to the beast’s forehead—Jeny’s skin, he realized, the mythological Selkie skin that gave her this power. She charged into Tim’s entire team, bringing a wave of water with her. It crashed down on them. The whole of Black Fire staggered.
“Healer,” Cal called, disappearing in a mist of black sand, then reappearing behind Jacob, burying a dagger into a gap in his armor, a hollow between his gorget and pauldrons. He cried out, turned, and swung at her with his flail. Niko used EditValue to follow Cal in, snapping into the backline, standing on Jacob’s side. He punched him in the arm, activating RecursiveFunction, so the punch repeated again and again, faster and harder than he could remember ever hitting.
A beam of blue energy crashed into Niko’s spine, knocking him forward and sending searing pain across his shoulders. Alonso marched toward him, punching his fist into his gauntlet. A roar of electricity shot through Alonso’s entire body, crackled around him, making his blond hair stand straight up.
His third ability, Niko thought. A steroid. I remember going over this in drills. Makes him stronger for a few seconds.
