Warwick: Galactic Arena

by Michael James Ploof

  “A gift from the game masters,” Gray said with a sneer. “But alas there are only twelve, and there are twenty-four of you.”

  There was another flash of light, and giant metal balls appeared at the top of the hill. Gray snapped his fingers, and spikes protruded from the balls.

  “Let the games begin!” His hologram winked out, and all hell broke loose.

  Half the aliens started running up the hill, and the balls of death rolled down in a crisscross formation. I caught movement in the corner of my eye and turned to find Sasquatch Dude rushing toward me, metal club held high.

  I pulled my side arm, disengaging the safety with my thumb, and aimed for the Sasquatch alien’s chest. He didn’t heed the threat at all, and I squeezed off two rounds. The slugs slammed into his thick chest and sent up tufts of bloody fur, but he gave no indication that the rounds had pierced the flesh. He kept right on coming as the world turned to chaos around me. I took careful aim at his face and squeezed the trigger again, this time shooting him square in the right eye.

  He staggered drunkenly, took two more wobbly steps, and dropped dead at my feet. A notification popped up on my interface.

  Attention Warriors!

  An opponent has died!

  23 Remain.

  The notification became smaller, and was replaced by another.

  First Blood!

  Congratulations, you have scored the first kill!

  Nanobot Bonus: Enhanced Endurance

  Duration: 10 minutes

  Would you like to use NOW or LATER?

  Enhanced endurance? How the hell was that possible?

  I was in a fight for my life , so I tapped the NOW button.

  I felt like someone put my dick in a wall socket. A zap surged through my brain, and my heart sped up. I felt like I was a kid again, and I had the urge to run like the wind.

  I hauled ass up the hill faster than I had ever moved in my life. I don’t know what was in that cocktail the nanobots put in me, but it was working wonders.

  You know how awesome it was in Captain America when he’s running at top speed and doesn’t so much as break a superhuman sweat? Yeah, that’s how I felt.

  Attention Warriors!

  An opponent has died!

  22 Remain.

  No sooner had that notification popped up than a second and third quickly followed it.

  Blue-skinned Chick caught my eye as she ran up the hill with a few others. We knew we had to get to one of the revered prosthetics before they were all gone. Anyone left without one would be at a huge disadvantage.

  The spiked balls were about halfway down the hill, and they had already claimed two aliens, who were still stuck to the giant spikes. Some of them were powerful enough to leap over the balls safety, but I was only human, and I couldn’t clear the seven foot high obstacles, not even with my enhanced endurance.

  I watched the pattern of the rolling deathtraps closely and maneuvered around them as they bounced off each other. Without looking back, I continued up the hill, my heart and lungs working overtime.

  I reached the top of the hill and grabbed one of the metal objects. It was cylindrical and about half the length of a soup can. The grooves in it were similar to the cap on my forearm. I quickly pressed the object to my stump and gave it a twist, and it suddenly morphed into a right hand identical to my old one, only silver and shiny.

  A new image and words appeared on my interface as I opened and closed my robotic fist.

  Congratulations, Warrior!

  You have discovered an Energy Shield Nano Arm!

  Enable it with a thought.

  With a thought? What the hell did that mean?

  I imagined an energy shield suddenly appearing, and to my surprise, a blue umbrella-like shield of translucent energy erupted from the back of my metal hand.

  And just in time….

  I heard a growl and turned as gunfire erupted on the hillside. Bullets ricocheted off my shield, and a horned gorilla creature rushed toward me. The bullets didn’t come from a handgun but from the nano arm he had grabbed.

  I was about to shoot the bastard with my Glock, but he was tackled by a stalky little red alien who looked like a frigging demon. The two rolled down the hill as the big metal balls were coming back up, and they were both impaled on the gleaming spikes.

  Attention Warriors!

  A player has died!

  19 Remain.

  I saw another nano arm cylinder on the ground and snatched it, put it in my pocket, and raced down the hill with my shield in front of me. Others were still trying to fight their way up to the top. There were bodies and blood everywhere, but I blocked it all out and focused on getting to the forest.

  I finally reached the bottom of the hill, and found Blue-skinned Chick locked in mortal combat with a muscular green alien with thick tufts of black fur all over its body. I recognized it as the one with the limp dick protruding from his forehead. He was choking the life out of Blue-skinned Chick, and for some reason, the sight of the beautiful female alien being treated like that really pissed me off.

  “Hey, dickface!” I said and aimed my gun at him from ten feet away.

  He turned his ugly face my way, and I put a bullet through the flaccid growth between his eyes.

  Congratulations, Warrior!

  You have killed another opponent!

  Nanobot Bonus: Enhanced Strength

  Duration: 1 hour.

  Would you like to use NOW or Later?

  I tapped on NOW and felt a surge of energy rage through me. I felt like I had been working out two hours a day for the last three months and injecting a steady stream of steroids into my ass.

  Dickface fell over dead and Blue-skinned Chick coughed weakly and rolled on the ground. I made sure I wasn’t in anyone’s crosshairs before rushing over to her.

  “Are you all right?” I asked as I held out my hand.

  She scowled at me and sprang to all fours. She searched for something, and then crawled over to her misplaced sword and stood at her full height.

  I glanced at the sword.

  She glanced at my gun.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I said, keeping one eye on the battle around me.

  “I would kill you if I didn’t owe you my life,” she said.

  “Nice to meet you too,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Since we aren’t going to kill each other right now, let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  Machine gun fire erupted on top of the hill, and we turned to see a huge cyclops alien blasting the shit out of everyone around him with a badass nano-arm.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled at her.

  She grimly nodded and raced toward the forest, and I hurriedly followed.

  We sped through the woods, and had I not been high on nano drugs, I don’t think I would have been able to keep up with the nimble blue hottie. The alien forest passed by in a blur of color as we maneuvered through it like parkour champions. After about ten minutes, we slowed to catch our breath, and I took a better look at the world around me.

  The forest consisted of plants both vaguely familiar and completely alien. There were big blooming black flowers growing out of bamboo-like reeds, tall red trees with purple leaves, clumps of translucent ferns, and moss that glowed when you stepped on it. I tried not to think of what kind of creepy killer bugs were lurking in the woods and focused on finding some kind of shelter.

  “I smell something!” Blue-skinned Chick said and stopped.

  No sooner had she said that than a four-legged creature who looked like a cross between a panther and a porcupine sprang from the bushes on our right. It leapt right at me, and I quickly brought up my shield and shouldered into it. The beast bounced off gracefully, rebounded off a thick tree stump, and came at me again.

  I fired twice with my side arm, and the creature leapt into the air, clawing wildly. It landed and made a horrible sound as it writhed and thrashed, then with one final twitch it lay motionless.

  Congratulations, Warri
or!

  You’ve defeated a caypine!

  Nanobot Bonus: Enhanced Hearing.

  Increase: 50%

  Duration: 5 Minutes

  Use NOW or LATER?

  “This is so weird,” I said and tapped LATER.

  To enable at a later time, select from interface,

  or simply say Enable Enhanced Hearing.

  “What do you see?” she asked and followed my gaze.

  “Oh, it’s a nanobot bonus. Haven’t you gotten one yet?”

  “No.”

  “I got one earlier for the first kill. It gave me enhanced endurance. I just got one that enhances hearing, but I decided to save it for later.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Yeah. You’ll get one sooner or later, and you’ll see how it works.”

  “Interesting,” she said, and we continued through the woods.

  The sounds of battle became distant as we crossed a trickling stream, raced down an embankment, and climbed a hill leading to the mountains that encircled the arena.

  We climbed for a while, putting some distance between ourselves and the rest of the players. A rocky bluff surrounded by dark pine-like trees offered some shelter, and I halted to catch my breath.

  “Why do you stop?” she demanded, looking down at me as I rested my hands on my knees and sucked air.

  “We need to take a minute and figure out the best course of action.” I was amazed that she didn’t seem winded at all.

  “The best course of action,” she said as she put one leg up on a rock and stoically looked out over the valley, “is to hunt down our enemies and kill them all, one by one.”

  She had a wicked rack, and it was hard not to stare. I mean, it’s not every day you meet a smoking hot alien chick.

  She wore dark green knee-high boots that looked like they were made of reptile skin. Her sleek blue-skinned legs shone between the boots and a skirt that ended a few inches above the knee. The skirt had dark blue and green lappets hanging down the front, and between them I could see a hint of upper thigh. Her legs were toned and muscled like a runner’s, but they ended in an ass that belonged to a twerking champion.

  Where a human’s tailbone would be, she had an actual tail.

  It wasn’t pointed like a demon or succubus’s tail is portrayed, but ended in what looked a lot like a rattlesnake rattle. At the moment the tail hovered over her right shoulder as though it was eavesdropping on the conversation.

  Her midriff was bare and her waist incredibly small, but she had a faint six-pack and lean muscles that wrapped around the tops of her hips and disappeared under the skirt. Her back arched in a way that made her ass stick out like a sore thumb, while at the same time thrusting forth her incredible tits.

  And when I say incredible, I mean they were like a piece of art.

  A tight black and green halter top covered them. It looked like it was made of some kind of latex, because it expanded when she breathed, and her perky melons jiggled when she moved. It looked like her nipples were going to poke through the thin material at any minute, and considering how warm it was in the arena, I wondered what they would do in the cold.

  Her long arms were toned and sleek with sweat, and in the sunlight, her skin seemed to almost glow. Her shoulders smoothly transitioned into a long neck, and her sharp, raised chin suggested a noble air.

  As beautiful as her body was, her face was even more breathtaking.

  Her full lips were a darker shade of blue than the rest of her, and she had big violet eyes that I could have stared into forever. She had a small nose, high cheekbones, and sleek black hair pulled back in a long pony tail that was wrapped in leather and almost touched her ass. Her ears were long and pointed like an elf’s, and they were pierced with golden studs and a few small gems.

  “Your name is Ellaharilad—”

  “Ell’Aharadia’Aquisaria,” she corrected sternly. “Leader of Tai’Ak’Tuun Tribe, daughter of Kell’Ok’Aquisaria and “Haro’Zen’Aquisaria. Forger of the Forever Blade. Protector of the Sacred People.

  “Die Forever, Live Today, U’Rok’Mek!”

  “Uh, do you mind if I just call you Ella?”

  She just stared at me.

  “All right, Ella, first thing’s first. We’ll need a home base of operations. I’m not wandering around in the forest forever, waiting to catch someone unawares or falling into a trap. We need a base camp we can easily defend, and preferably one close to water. You drink water, right?”

  “I do, and that sounds good.” She nodded at me respectfully. “What is your name?”

  I was a little bummed that she hadn’t read my stats. “Where are my manners? I’m Sheriff Harry Warwick of Garrison County, New York.”

  She smiled and waited like she was expecting a longer title.

  “Uh, son of Arthur and Mary Warwick, Call of Duty Champion, Defender of America and the Free Peoples of Planet Earth. Semper fi!”

  “Greetings, Sheriff Harry Warwick from Earth,” she said with a small bow. “You saved my life from that alien back at the hill.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not the type of guy who stands around and does nothing when they see a lady treated like that.”

  She cocked a brow. “As is customary on my planet, I now owe you what is called oh-rah-ah.

  “Your life?” I guessed.

  She shook her head and looked me up and down. “My body.”

  I stared and wondered if she meant what I thought she meant.

  “Sorry?”

  “My body,” she repeated. “You saved my life, and now I offer myself to you.”

  “As in, like, you are my slave?”

  “No. Now we will have sex.”

  “Oh.” I said with a laugh. “Well, that’s a hell of a tradition, but I—"

  “Here is a good place?” She pointed at the rock beside her. She even bent over the damn thing, offering me a front-row seat to the booty show.

  Her tail was mesmerizing as it slowly curled from side to side.

  “I’m going to have to take a raincheck on that, Ella.” I tore my eyes away from her plump rump. “We need to find a suitable camp.”

  She let out a deflated sigh and tossed her whip-like hair over the other shoulder. “Is it my hand?”

  “What?”

  “You are not attracted to me because of my missing hand,” she said, glancing down at it with a frown.

  “No. That’s not it at all. But now that you mention it, let’s see what this other one does.”

  I grabbed my nano arm and gave it a twist. It detached from my stump with a hiss of decompression. The little nano machines in the hand morphed back into a cylinder, and I put it in my pocket. I fished out the other one, attached it to the metal cap, and my interface flared to life.

  Congratulations, Warrior!

  You have discovered Laser Sword Nano Arm!

  Enable with a thought.

  I made a fist and imagined a sword shooting out of my nano hand. A hilt formed on the back of my hand and then a three foot long laser beam erupted at the end.

  “No way, this is the coolest shit ever.” I looked around for something to try it on.

  “It is cold?” She frowned at the laser sword. “That is strange.”

  I zeroed in on a small tree. “No, I mean it looks awesome. But let’s see how it performs.”

  I made sure she wasn’t within striking distance, then I swung the weapon with all my might. The sword cut through it like it was made of Styrofoam.

  “Oh shit, look out!” I said as the tree fell toward us.

  We hurried out of the way as the tree crashed to the ground, and I stared at the sword in amazement.

  “If you want to team up,” she said and eyed my laser sword, “you should give me one of the nano arms.”

  Well, lady, you sure as hell aren’t getting the lightsaber. “You’re right,” I said and tossed her the shield arm.

  Ella caught it in her left hand, and I told her how to put it on.

  She
twisted the thing into place and smiled when the nanobots morphed into the shape of her missing hand.

  “The gray aliens have miraculous technology,” she marveled as she flexed her new hand.

  I was about to tell her how to enable the shield when it abruptly flared to life. She dismissed the shield with a thought and nodded happily. “Now that I am no longer disfigured, would you like to mate?”

  A quick laugh escaped me. “You’re kind of crazy, did you know that?”

  She cocked her head, confused. “You are afraid we will be ambushed, I see. Let us find a shelter, then I can repay my flesh debt.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said and offered her a crisp salute.

  We continued along the perimeter of mountains that surrounded the arena. I was searching for a place where we could get around the tall ridges and higher up into the hills, but so far I hadn’t found one.

  Occasionally we heard distant gunfire or a bloodcurdling scream, but nothing that seemed too close.

  Ella followed about ten feet behind me most of the time, and I was surprised I didn’t feel uneasy with her at my back with that big sword of hers. I figured that, since she thought she owed me a “flesh debt,” she wouldn’t try to kill me. Once the debt was paid, however, I didn’t know if she would want to continue our little partnership.

  “Harry, look!” Ella pointed above the trees to my left.

  Hanging on a big parachute, a crate floated down to the ground. The crate was about the size of a smart car, and as it disappeared behind a tree about a half a mile away, we took off after it.

  “Be careful!” I yelled to her as she raced toward it in front of me. “Others will have seen it fall too.”