Warwick: Galactic Arena

by Michael James Ploof

  She shrugged and surveyed the valley below.

  From our vantage point up in the short, gnarled tree, which was high in the foothills, we had a panoramic view of the surrounding arena. Behind us were the looming, white-capped, seemingly impassable mountains. They tapered off to desert-like butts and looming red stone structures like the hills, which then suddenly and dramatically turned into lush forest. There was a huge meadow in the middle of the distant valley, and the hill where we all started was at the center. The river we had crossed ran in a circle through the woods, which made no sense, and further proved we were in a fabricated landscape.

  “Look, there.” Ella pointed. “I think I see a fire.”

  I spotted it easily. It was all the way across the arena on an adjacent hillside.

  “Must be one of the other players is having a campfire. That’s ballsy,” I said.

  “A fire would be nice right now.”

  “Are you cold?” I asked, sensing as much.

  “Just a little,” she said with a small shiver.

  “Come closer.” I reached out to her. “I’ll keep you warm.”

  She moved over, and I wrapped an arm around her. “That’s better, thank you.” She relaxed and snuggled up to me, her feet propped up on a nearby branch.

  We sat in the tree, our backs against a thick branch behind us, me with my human arm around her and my nano arm ready to blast alien hostiles to hell, and her with her goose-bumped blue skin and eyes that made me feel strong.

  I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, Ella and I fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  We awoke violently when Purshia ran into us, then we were falling out of the gnarled tree. The air exploded from my lungs when we hit the ground, and it took a moment for me to catch my breath.

  The tree we had been in exploded, and the heat of the flames sent us scrambling.

  “What the fuck was that?” I enabled my laser gun nano arm and ducked behind a boulder with the girls.

  “Someone is shooting at us,” said Purshia matter-of-factly. “I saw a laser beam tracking you, so I intervened.”

  “Thanks, Purshia.”

  “I am in your debt.” Ella sketched a bow to the cat woman and then winked at me.

  We were behind a big boulder near the cave entrance, and on the stone wall in front of me I saw three triangular laser beams. I popped up quick and found the source. A moment later there was an explosion high on the rock wall. The bastard was trying to cause an avalanche.

  “I know where the source of the laser targeting system is,” I told them. “He’s on the other side of the cave mouth, low in the bushes.”

  “I’ll flank him,” said Purshia, and before either of us could say Meow Mix, she bounded off into the night and disappeared.

  “Shit!” I prepared to cover her with gunfire.

  “Wait.” Ella grabbed my arm. “You should enable one of your nanobot bonuses. You must have picked up something useful.”

  “Right,” I said and tapped the skull to open my interface. “Thanks for the reminder.”

  The interface popped up, and it was super distracting, so I hurried through the menu and tapped on Nanobot Bonuses. I only had two: Enhanced Sight and Sense Danger.

  Since I already knew there was danger, I ignored that one and selected Enhanced Sight. I instantly had the best night sight ever imagined.

  Twin moons hung in the sky, and they quickly appeared brighter, casting more light on the world around me. Ella’s skin wasn’t just blue, it was the most magnificent, deep rich blue I’d ever seen. The mountains in the distance seemed so close, if felt like I could reach out and touch them. I even saw bats flying around the cavernous hills, as clearly as if it was daylight. Hell, better than that!

  I popped up from behind the rock and unloaded a dozen glowing rounds into the bushes where I thought the laser lights had come from. Then I ducked back down and regarded the smoking barrel on the back of my nano hand. “This thing is sweet!”

  “Did you see him?” Ella asked.

  “No. but we need to keep moving.”

  She nodded and dashed down the slope between the gnarled trees. I followed, thinking that at any moment our attacker would blast me to smithereens, but no explosions ensued.

  I hoped that my high-powered nano gun had scared the assailant away, but seeing as he was lobbing bombs, I doubted we would be so lucky. It became startlingly apparent to me that our attacker might be using nanobot bonuses as well, and he might have even better ones.

  An explosion rocked a mound of earth behind me, and I felt the heat of the blast more than thirty yards away. The bastard somehow knew where we were, but we still didn’t have a bead on him.

  Ella hunkered down behind a small ridge that protected us from the north side of the hill, and another explosion lit up the night. I barely caught sight of it as I dove for cover beside Ella.

  “That one was way up the hill,” I told her. “He must be firing at Purshia.”

  “She’s causing a distraction. Smart woman.”

  “We need to split up,” I dared a peek, but I didn’t see him. “I’m going to go along the ridge above us toward his last location. You follow this ridge and get beside him. With any luck we can corner the bastard.”

  “Okay, Harry.” Ella suddenly kissed me. Her lips tasted like oranges.

  “What was that for, luck?”

  “I wanted to taste you.” She licked her lips and her eyes lingered on mine. With a whimsical hum she dashed off.

  I watched her tight ass bounce down the trail, then I snapped myself out of it and focused on the task at hand.

  Another explosion erupted on the northern face, about two hundred yards from me, and I wondered what the range was on the dude’s bomb-lobbing nano arm. I’d seen the explosive arch toward its target like a glowing Nerf football, which suggest it wasn’t a missile, but with alien tech, you never could be quite sure of anything.

  I thought about spraying the distant shrubbery with bullets, but I wasn’t sure of Purshia’s location, and I didn’t want to accidentally hit her.

  “Here goes nothing.” I leaped up over the ridge and hauled ass toward a big boulder.

  I ducked behind it seconds before a bomb hit the ground in front of it. Pebbles and sand rained down on me as I huddled, and my ears rang maddeningly.

  Another bomb exploded, this one far to my left, and I assumed the attacker was shooting at Ella. Somehow he seemed to know our general location. I peered around the boulder and waited for the bastard to shoot again. With my enhanced sight, I thought I might be able to see it coming in time to duck.

  It was nerve-racking waiting for the attacker to shoot again. What if he had another nano arm? What if he had one with a sniper rifle?

  Unable to take the suspense any longer, I dove around the boulder, rolled, then came up and sprinted across the hillside. I weaved and bobbed, searching for my next hiding spot, and that’s when I saw a bomb shoot out of a thick copse of dark purple trees about a hundred yards from me.

  I raced toward the trees with every bit of energy I had left in my hungry body. The bomb arched toward me in a low lob. I leaped off the ridge and the explosion erupted behind me. I hit the ground and rolled, scratching the shit out of my shoulder on some pointy rocks.

  But that was the least of my worries.

  I thought that another bomb would land by my feet any moment, and that would be the end of Harry the Space Gladiator.

  A scream tore through the hills, and I recognized Ella’s war cry. I sped into the trees along a length of flatland and finally saw our attacker.

  He looked like a cross between a goblin and a leprechaun, with red skin and a blunt horn protruding from a bulbous head. He wore impressive armor, but it seemed to hamper his movements as he stalked across a small clearing.

  My heart dropped when I saw Ella lying in the dirt by the other edge of the clearing. I raced toward the goblin alien and unloaded on his ass, my nano gun smoking. To my frustration, m
y bullets bounced off his thick plate armor. He looked like a little frigging tank; only his head and hands were uncovered.

  He turned and aimed his nano arm at me, palm open and glowing like Iron Man’s. Before he could get off a shot, however, I dropped to one knee, took careful aim, and squeezed off five rounds.

  His nano arm was knocked aside by my laser bullets, and a bomb lobbed out of it lazily and exploded ten feet away from the alien. He was launched through the air like a golf ball and landed in a smoking heap in the trees at the northern edge of the clearing.

  I fired as I ran after him, wanting to put him down quickly.

  He was down, but apparently he wasn’t out. He flailed like a turtle on its back, and when he finally got to his feet, Purshia jumped from the trees like a panther and landed on his back. She tore at his face with her wicked claws, and he let out a high-pitched howl.

  He finally threw her off, and she landed in a crouch. I was still only halfway to them, and I called out a warning as he turned his nano gun toward her.

  He fired.

  I screamed for her to look out.

  She held her ground, enabled her nano shield, and batted the bomb into the woods.

  The goblin looked about as shocked as I was when the bomb exploded harmlessly in the trees.

  I fired at his head but missed, and he turned furious little beady eyes on me. He ducked down and barreled toward me like a bull, but I calmly stopped and took up a shooting stance.

  My bullets sparked off his heavy armor, but one caught him in the top of the head and blew it off like it was a toupee. The goblin staggered, touched the injury in confusion, then pointed his gun at me again.

  I aimed for the nano arm, and as soon as the bomb emerged from the glowing palm, it exploded in a massive fireball. The shockwave took me off my feet and put me on my ass, and I rolled over, face down, to avoid the heat.

  Attention, Warriors!

  A player has died.

  16 Remain.

  Congratulations, Warrior!

  You’ve defeated another opponent!

  Nanobot Bonus: Hyper Nano Healing

  Duration: 1 Hour

  Activate verbally

  Would you like to use NOW or LATER?

  Damn, that was a keeper. I tapped on LATER and the icon disappeared into the gray skull.

  I got to my feet and ran over to Ella and Purshia. The cat woman was bent over the blue-skinned bombshell.

  I prayed for the best.

  “Is she okay?” I skidded to a stop beside them and knelt.

  “I’m fine.” Ella extended a hand.

  I pulled her to her feet. She was a little wobbly, but she remained standing. Purshia looked super concerned, and Ella touched her face lovingly.

  “I’m all right, little Purshia, really I am. It’s just my shoulder.”

  Ella turned it toward us, and I winced when I saw the shrapnel embedded in it. I had the urge to use my nano healing bonus on her, but I hadn’t seen that option on my interface.

  “Let’s get you back to camp,” I said and took her hand.

  Purshia led the way, springing from tree to tree, then bounding across the rocky hillside. She scoped out the cave before we got there and gave us the all clear. I led Ella to the trickling spring and took off my outer shirt. I peeled my T-shirt off and tore strips of cloth, then set about the arduous task of pulling the shrapnel out of her shoulder.

  It proved to be a bitch, and Purshia said she could do better with her long claws. I didn’t argue and went to keep watch while the cat woman tended to Ella. I thought I saw Purshia licking Ella’s wounds. When I asked what the hell she was doing, she turned my way and spit blood on the floor.

  “My saliva helps disinfect wounds,” she said with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’m not eating her.”

  “That’s what she said.” Ella regarded me excitedly. “Did I use the saying the right way?”

  I laughed uproariously. “Yeah, babe, you nailed it. Michael Scott would be proud.”

  “Who’s Michael Scott?”

  “Oh, just the best boss on Planet Earth.”

  I chuckled. Ten minutes later Ella and Purshia joined me at the entrance, and I inspected Purshia’s work. She had bandaged Ella pretty good with the strips of T-shirt, but blood was already seeping through.

  “You’re going to need stitches,” I said. “Or a nanobot healing bonus. Hey, did you girls get one for killing the goblin dude?”

  “Yup,” said Purshia.

  I looked at Ella, and she nodded.

  “Then you’re saving yours?” I said to Ella.

  “Yes. There is no need to use it for a few scratches. If it gets infected or otherwise becomes a problem, then I will use the bonus.”

  “That’s smart.”

  “You will not get an infection.” Purshia purred. “I cleaned it goo—”

  “Look!” Ella pointed at the sky.

  I turned in time to see a supply crate drop into the forest.

  “Can you fight?” I asked Ella.

  “Does a murgock have two tails?”

  “What the hell is a murgock?”

  “Who cares?” she said. “Let’s go get that crate!”

  We took off to the forest. The going was slow, due to the thick brush, but we were hungry as hell, and nothing was going to stop us from getting to that damn supply crate.

  I wondered if another apex predator would be inside it. The grays were kind of dicks like that, and I could imagine gaggles of them watching us and suppressing giggles as we raced toward our doom.

  The scent of exotic flowers floated on the muggy air, and the sounds of creatures I didn’t recognize filled the night. I knew we were taking a chance going after the crate, but we needed supplies if we were going to last over the long haul.

  Ten minutes into our trek, gunshots tore through the forest and bats erupted from the trees. We dropped to the ground and saw gunfire flash down by the river. Slowly we made our way closer, expecting every second the gunfire would stop, but it never did.

  It sounded like a war zone, and the sound could probably be heard across the entire arena. Soon others would be coming, but I couldn’t lose out on this supply crate.

  “We’ve got to get there before more players show up,” I told the girls. “But we’re doing this one together. No more running off and doing your own thing, got it?”

  “Okay.” Purshia smiled innocently and did a little spin, unable to contain her excitement. “You’re the leader.”

  “We will do it your way,” said Ella.

  “Take this,” I said and detached the laser gun nano arm from my stump.

  She offered me a beatific smile that suggested I had won her heart over. “Thank you.” She detached her sword arm and swapped with me.

  “Hey, what about me? I can’t exactly shield someone to death,” said Purshia.

  “The laser sword is for you. I’ll take the shield. I’ve got a sidearm.”

  “Perfect!”

  When we reached the stream, we turned right. The noise was coming from the other side of the river and to the south, and the canopy lit up sporadically, the voices of growling and hissing creatures filling the silence between blasts.

  Attention, Warriors!

  An opponent has died!

  15 Remain.

  I swiped the notification aside. We crossed the river in a low crouch, and suddenly the gunfire stopped. We paused, and I glanced at Purshia, whose big ears moved around like little satellite dishes, searching for a signal.

  “They are still fighting, but one of them sounds fatally injured,” she reported.

  “Okay, ladies, time to rush these fuckers. Ella, you’re on my right. Purshia, you’re on my left. Spread out fifteen paces. If you get a clear shot, take it.”

  We fanned out and moved through tall exotic ferns, mushrooms the size of rose bushes, and trees with bark colored orange, deep brown, and dusty green. A scream echoed through the wood and then another. Someone laughed boisterously, and a v
oice cried out in anguish.

  Attention, Warriors.

  An opponent has died!

  14 Remain.

  The metal supply crate came into view. Half of it was in the river, and the other was up on the bank, leaving it leaning at a sharp angle. It wasn’t shaking or bouncing around, so I assumed there were no predators inside.

  I pointed at my eyes, then at the crate, and indicated for Ella to move over to the tall orange reeds and cover me.

  She seemed to understand my gestures, because she squat-walked over to the reeds and took aim at the area. An alien body floated down the river, and as it passed, I realized it didn’t have a head. There was another body leaning up against the crate, and this one was headless too. At the far end of the crate—the part sitting on the bank—a tall, rock-skinned alien in a black spacesuit with no helmet was standing in front of a door.

  Both corpses’ nano arms had been smashed to pieces, and the rock man didn’t have one on him, just the metal-capped stump.

  I gestured for the women to wait.

  If there was an apex predator in the crate, we wouldn’t have to do much.

  Stone Man suddenly dropped to one knee, and I saw him touch his lower back. There was a long gash there, and it was terribly deep. He fingered the wound and regarded his blood-soaked hand. He threw something in the water, most likely a bullet, and stood up on shaky feet.

  Stone Man reached for the door, but something erupted from the canopy, and the biggest, ugliest spider I have ever seen in my life landed on his back.

  It wasn’t a spider you would find on Earth. This one was about the size of a pony, with ten legs armored like a crab and a single eyeball on its hideous face. The pincers by its mouth looked like rusty cutlasses, and it struck with ruthless precision.

  I watched in amazement as Stone Man beat the giant spider into submission in front of the crate. He got on top of the spider and tore off legs like the Hulk at a crab-eating competition.

  When Stone Man finally killed his opponent and got up, he staggered drunkenly. The spider had bit him numerous times, and bright red blood was pouring out of his wounds.