by Rick Scott
But at least there’s plenty to do before then.
“Fair enough, mate,” Rembrandt says with a chuckle. “Looks like we have our marching orders. Best to go to bed before we get any more assignments from the little task master here.”
I grin good-naturedly while everyone laughs again. A mild sense of accomplishment and satisfaction runs through me as I watch my friends nod to one another and mentally prepare for the challenges ahead. Before it was a source of anxiety and dread almost, but with just one meeting, I turned our hope for success into a plan set in reality. It doesn’t feel like I’ve done anything quite special either, more something I felt we just needed to do. But I suppose I’m more conscious of doing it now.
Guess Queen Angela was right yet again. I would need to step up as a leader to make this all happen. But at least tomorrow I get to focus on being simply a Dodge Tank again, and I’d better be good, because apparently, I’ve got an Overlord to kill.
Chapter 28: On display
The buggy jostles over the golden dunes of the Badlands, kicking up dust in its wake. Remnants of skyscrapers and long-forgotten monuments poke through the surface of the desert, half buried in the sand. Seeing them reminds me of that huge tank we found out in the wild. But where the sky there was darkened and stormy, here it’s a brilliant blue and cloudless—a perfect backdrop to the morning sun. It pelts down on me through the open carriage of the buggy and despite the chill to the air, the sun warms my skin nicely.
I glance at Gilly, sitting opposite me across the large crate sitting between us in the back of the buggy. She smiles and gives me a thumbs up.
“Don’t worry,” she yells over the rush of the wind and the roar of the engine. “You’re gonna do awesome!”
Easy for her to say. I glance behind me and grimace at the caravan of vehicles following in our wake. “How did so many people find out about this?”
“My fault probably, mate,” Rembrandt says from atop the engine, clinging to it with his gyro-stabilizer ability. “I mentioned it to Angela in passing and well…I guess the word just spread.”
“Can you blame them?” Lexi says from behind the wheel, a wicked grin on her face. “Not everyday someone volunteers to solo an Overlord. Half the faction wants to see if he can actually do it.”
Just great…figuring out how to fight a mob I’ve never seen before is bad enough. But now I’m going to have to do it in front of a live audience?
“There’s one!” Lexi says, pointing. “Three o’clock.”
I turn to my right, dread and anxiety building in my stomach as I finally see the thing I’m destined to duel. It stands at least 20 feet tall and is roughly humanoid in shape. Its head is a horned helmet made of well-worn metal, with a glowing horizontal slot to serve as eyes. Its body is mostly covered by a ratty, dark cowl, which drapes over one of its broad shoulders. From what I can see beneath, the Overlord’s body itself looks like a patchwork of cybernetics and rusted robotic parts. But what truly catches my attention, is the array of bladed weapons wielded in each of its four arms.
Its two upper arms carry curved scimitars that glow cherry red and billow with heat, its two lower arms a matching set of moon-shaped sickles. As we get within range I focus on it to brings its stats on my HUD.
Name: Overlord
Level: 85
As the war drew on, mankind, having long since put their faith in machines, created Overlords to defend their great cities from the oncoming scourge. But it didn’t matter. Now, eons later, these master-less defenders still repel all who lack the encoding of their creators…the Protocol Gene lost to antiquity.
Affinity: Lightning
We pull to a stop a safe distance away from the towering mob and I disembark quickly to buff myself with Shadow Haste and Shadow Copy. With my close proximity to the buggy and the mana tree within, the spells go off perfectly.
At least that’s something I can rely on.
More vehicles arrive and I groan inwardly as everyone from Lance to Queen Angela herself pulls to a stop next to Lexi’s buggy. There has to be at least thirty people, including the rest of my friends who opted to rent a jeep to allow us more room in Lexi’s buggy to carry the mana tree. Then, to add to my chagrin, I see even more people running across the zone towards us, no doubt drawn by the gathering crowd.
Perfect.
If not for all these people, this would have been a rather low-key affair, with Gilly and I perhaps duo-ing the first one and backed up by the rest of my friends. But now that the word has spread, everyone is expecting a solo act.
And as messed-up as it seems, deep down, I don’t want to disappoint. I guess Queen Angela really knew what she was talking about when it comes to social pressure. Seeing all these people, the last thing I want to do is punk out in front of all of them.
“Any tips?” I ask Rembrandt as he sidles up next to me.
“Pretend nobody’s here.”
I give a mirthless chuckle at that. At least he’s caught the vibe of the situation.
I eye the Overlord and try to predict what kind of move set it might have. It’s big, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fast. And by the looks of those four weapons, it might be more Agility-based than Strength.
“It has one AOE move that’ll instant kill you,” Rembrandt says. “Can’t recall the name, but it’s a shared-damage attack. 10k or something. That’s why these normally get taken down by large teams. But with your Shadow Copy, I think you’ll be able to avoid it.”
I nod, getting my mind into the zone. The logic makes sense. If that’s the worst it has, I should be able to do this. Assuming I can Dodge Tank its normal attacks that is.
“Anything else?” I ask.
“Yeah,” someone says in a gruff voice. “Don’t embarrass us.”
I glance over my shoulder to see the blond-haired bioroid, Lieutenant Lance standing next to Queen Angela. He smirks at me and although he’s the one who spoke, by the no-nonsense look on the Queen’s face, she clearly shares the sentiment.
“I’ll do my best,” I say curtly. Jerk…
I look to Gilly and give her a nod. “Think I’m ready.”
“You’ll be fine, Reece,” she says and gives my hand a little squeeze. She then casts Favor of the Gods and buffs me with a Stamina regen spell. “I’ve got faith in you. I’ll hang back just in case and heal you if I see you getting into trouble.”
“No,” I say. “I don’t want you pulling hate. I’ll manage.”
Somehow…
Lexi gives me a wink and a thumbs up. “Don’t make me lose my money, you punter. Kill it dead now.”
I chuckle and return the thumbs up. “Thanks for the pep talk, coach.”
I avoid making eye contact with my onlookers as I stride down the dune towards the Overlord, measuring the size of the growing crowd in my peripheral. There has to be over a hundred people here now and they appear to be from all factions. I suppose this is somewhat of a double novelty in that sense. Rembrandt said the only reason this is even possible is because of the amnesty. Normally they’d be way too busy killing each other, to watch some idiot take on an Overlord…by himself.
“Okay let’s do this,” I say to myself as I square up against the towering android.
I draw my kunai, and cast Shadow Cloak to open with a Backstab.
I creep forward with Sneak and get about halfway when the Overlord flashes a beam of light from its Cyclops-like helm.
Overlord notices you!
Your Sneak increases by 0.3!
“Protocol Gene not detected!” it announces in a robotic voice. “Extermination authorized!”
Overlord attacks you!
Crap!
I prepare to go on the defense, slipping into Dodge Tank mode. But instead of charging forward and attacking with its weapons, a gem on its chest begins to glow. A huge vortex of wind rushes towards the gem and sucks me right off my feet!
Overlord uses Cyclone!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
Yo
u are drawn in!
I find myself pulled towards the Overlord despite losing my shadow. I tumble forward uncontrollably and then a new message appears on my HUD.
Overlord uses Pulse Wave!
A brilliant ring of white energy emanates from the gem and radiates outwards, flying right at me! I instinctively try to recast Shadow Copy, but I’m too late. I cry out as the ring slams into me with an explosion of white-hot pain.
ARGH!!!!
You take 10000 lightning damage!
You are defeated!
Chapter 29: Come Back
I’m in nothing.
That cold place between life and death, between reality and the Planet Hell.
I gasp as my corporeal body takes form, pulsing through the familiar swirl of kaleidoscopic lights. I’m back here again…but why? Did Gilly have trouble reviving me? Could the rules in New London be different even for using the Raise spell?
The terror of that thought takes hold as I gaze out into the vastness of space. I’m among the stars, the twin moons of Planet Hell hovering in the blackness—two malformed crescents above a dark-red orb. I’m falling slowly towards it, the planet where those monsters throng in the thousands, no, millions.
I sense something.
Something oppressive, hostile…and familiar.
A horrid screech rips through my mind as something thuds into an unseen wall a few feet from me, flashing with polygons. I jerk away from it, and see one of the demons glaring at me from the outside. Its inky skin blends with the surrounding backdrop of space. Only its skull-like head and fiery throat give it form in the darkness. I expect it to claw and fight its way through the barrier to get to me, but it just hovers there, waiting perhaps, for me to descend to the surface before devouring me alive.
But it’s much smaller than the giants I’ve seen down there.
The recognition and familiarity hits me again when the monster slowly stretches its spindly arm towards me, its bony finger pointing at me threateningly. Can it be? Is it the same one? But that was on the surface, in the real world and this place is…I’m not sure quite where.
But one thing is for sure. This thing recognizes me.
And is stalking me now.
Anger and loathing builds within my gut as I ball my hands into fists. “What do you want? To die like the others I’ve killed?”
It hisses and I sense something new from it, a curiosity almost, keen interest and then a feeling of excitement and…glee? I’m suddenly propelled upward by an unseen force, leaving the monstrous creature behind. It screeches up at me with rage at having lost its prey. A multicolored light engulfs me, soon to send me back to the world of the living.
The Other screeches loudly again and a single phrase enters my mind…thoughts not my own and not words exactly, only an impression.
But the meaning is clear.
* * *
I come to with a gasp, my heart beating like a jack hammer.
Holy crap…what the heck was that?
Both Gilly and Becky are hovering over me, looking worried. Gilly rests a soothing hand on my chest, comforting me.
“It’s okay,” she says. “You’re safe now. Did you see them again?”
I sit up on a bed of cold sand, clumps of it falling from my back and hair. It takes me a moment to orientate myself after what I just experienced and by the looks of things, a good measure of time has definitely passed.
“Yeah,” I say absently, still coming to grips with what I saw. “Kind of…what’s happening?”
There’s a mass of confusion going on around me, people shouting and yelling from the top of the dune. The Overlord is nowhere in sight and half the crowd looks to be gone as well. But those that are left whistle and call out at me jeeringly, giving golf claps as they laugh at me in mockery.
“You died right in front of it,” Becky says, “so we couldn’t raise you right away.”
“How long was I out?”
“Twenty minutes maybe?” Gilly says. “We had to figure out what to do. No one wanted to fight it, even though we had like a hundred people here.” She rolls her eyes disgustedly. “Rembrandt decided to snipe it from long distance to pull it away. It took a while since it has some kind of long-range defense thingy, but he was finally able to do it. When it left to chase him we moved in to raise you ASAP.”
“So he’s soloing it now?” My heart thunders in my chest at the thought of Rembrandt getting hit by that AOE. Just thinking of that thing has me reliving the pain in a brutal flashback. “Where is he?”
“Out there,” Val Helena says, pointing into the heart of the desert as she stumbles down the side of the dune along with Aiko and my brother. “About a quarter mile. He’s keeping a good distance from it. He’s going to bring it in and then we’ll take it down together. We’ll split the damage on that AOE.”
I glower inwardly at having failed so quickly and publicly. I look up and see Queen Angela gazing down at me along with Lance. The bioroid shakes his head with a smirk. I feel like cursing him, but after that display he has every right to think of me as a bad bet. Even Lexi, who smiles at me good-naturedly from the side of her buggy, looks disappointed.
I think back to the monster I just saw: a creature now waiting for me as soon as I die. If I’m ever going to be strong enough to beat that, then I need to be able to wipe any mob I meet on my first try, because I won’t be getting a second chance with the likes of them.
But I have a second chance with this.
“Tell him to bring it in,” I say. “I’m going to finish my job. I’m soloing it.”
“Hey, don’t worry about these stupid people, man,” my brother says. “You’re not here to impress them.”
“Yeah,” Aiko says. “Screw them. Take your time. We’ll figure it out.”
I shake my head. “I don’t have time to learn like that. I need to learn a lot quicker.”
My brother shoots me a confused look.
Gilly senses the change in my mood as well and rests a hand on my forearm. “You okay, Reece?”
I hear what they’re saying but there’s only one thing on my mind right now. “I saw it again, Gilly. The same one that pointed at us, I think. The one from down in the ancient city under the wild.”
Her eyes go wide. “What?”
“I don’t know how,” I say. “But it was waiting for me. They all are.”
“You’re talking about those demons again?” Aiko says.
“Yeah,” I say and fish the Witch Spider’s Ring out of my inventory. “Hit me with a regen, Gilly. I’ve got this.”
My friends all look at me like I’ve gone crazy and maybe I have a little, but seeing that Other appear unexpectedly like that has taught me a new lesson. I don’t just need to step up my game when it comes to leading, it’s with everything. I need to switch my thinking from reactive to proactive. I should have been quick thinking enough to counter that blast attack from the Overlord, to anticipate and expect the unexpected.
I don’t just need to move like lightning; I need to think like it too.
And I can’t always rely on my friends being here to help me when I fail.
“He’s on his way back now,” Becky says, shielding her eyes as she peers across the dunes. In the distance I spot Rembrandt kicking up dust as he Sprints across the desert, his silhouette dwarfed by the hulking form of the Overlord lumbering behind him, still at 100%. The Halfling looks up at me with a worried frown. “Are you quite sure about this?”
I don’t look down at her as I answer, but instead address the entire crowd. “Hey! You all came to see a show, right? So get ready to see one!”
Murmurs and gaggled laughs ripple through the scores of people that are left.
But I can barely care about any of them now.
I take three huge breaths as I force my mind into a new state of being. No more hoping for the best and fearing the unknown. I need to embrace it…beat it. I buff myself as my friends take a step back and feel the bu
rn of a hundred stares as the crowd of onlookers focus on me, gawking with bemusement and skepticism as I prepare to do the impossible in their eyes.
Impossible is what I need to become.
I release a cry and take off in a Sprint, heading straight for Rembrandt.
The cyberpunker nearly slows to a stop when he sees me coming.
Rembrandt: Reece, what are you doing?
Me: Finishing this. I’ve got it from here!
I dash past him and slip on the Witch Spider’s Ring, enduring the bite of poison, as it courses through my veins. I scream at the pursuing Overlord with a War Cry and then cast Shadow Cloak before flying at it with a Charge Strike. My permissive for Backstab goes active mid-flight and I mash the activation for it as the distance between us closes in an instance.
I slam into the charging behemoth with a massive clang! of metal as our combined momentum sends a shockwave radiating across the desert, my shadow vanishing in the process.
Critical Hit!
You Backstab the Overlord for 975(452) damage!
Overlord take 534 additional impact damage!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
Overlord is stunned!
I flip into the air, spinning like a top, ridding myself of the excess kinetic energy as the Overlord slides to a standstill. My feet touch the ground and I launch into it without hesitation. I chop away with every ounce of my Agility, firing off as many attacks as possible in the brief moment of opportunity the Stun has created.
I weave my debuff casts in between each one, taking advantage of the lowered activation times the Witch Spider’s Ring has allowed. I never thought to do it before, but I can literally cast spells mid-swing, creating a flurry of sparks and kanji to swirl around me in a machine gun-like barrage.
