Proxy War

by Adam Sampson

  It screeched and charged directly at them. Many monsters on this world had the convenient lack of self-preservation and would charge at their prey regardless of the odds.

  With long leaps forward the saber-tooth monkey charged right at them. Jonas still had time to say, “Good shot,” before it got close. Peter took the opportunity to headshot the beast with a fireball right before it reached the group.

  Helpless and blind, the saber-tooth monkey thrashed around but was quickly dispatched by Dima. Three orbs flew to Peter and were absorbed by his cuff.

  “Well, that was easy,” Jonas said, “I wish I could shoot fireballs.”

  “Funny that one of those almost killed me just a few weeks ago,” Peter said.

  “Don’t get cocky, that was just the beginning,” Lola said, “Now comes the fun part, its troop will be coming for us after that screech. Should be anywhere between five to eight of them.”

  Sure enough, a few minutes later, six beasts appeared at the edge of the forest. Peter urged them to stand up, to give them a target to attack, which they quickly obliged.

  Leading the charge, the largest one screeched and clawed at the air and leaped forward.

  “Lola, Dima, focus on the big one, everyone else just hold the little ones off.”

  Lola shot twice and caught two limbs of the large beast. Peter repeated his trick of fireball to the face, and Dima attacked with a stab. The large one didn’t go down as easy as his smaller troop mate, and was up and attacking moments later. Lola and Dima were able to hold the leader off, but just barely.

  At the same time, Yoon, Emma, and Jonas were holding off five saber-tooth monkeys at once. The soldiers were able to block the monkeys at first, but soon the monsters were working together to counter-attack each slash they made at the monkeys.

  Everyone but Peter was engaged and none of them were making much headway. Peter quickly threw up a shield to help Jonas, stunning the monkey he was fighting and leaving an opening. Jonas took advantage and with a glowing strike, killed that monkey.

  Peter then switched over to the large monkey and blasted that one in the face as he leapt forwards towards it. Despite being blinded from the second blast, the hulking monster still managed to hit Peter’s shield with his forearm. Reflexively, Peter triggered the biter part of his shield and two blades snipped out and dismembered it.

  It shrieked in pain and left an opening for Dima to decapitate it. The largest one down, the three could turn to the remaining four saber-tooth monkeys and made short work of them.

  Everyone fell to the ground panting as the last orb was absorbed. Peter pulled himself back up and went around healing. Everyone had gotten scratched, Dima’s arm deeply cut. But Yoon had gotten seriously injured, a large stomach wound that was bleeding freely. Peter told Lola to put pressure on Dima’s arm while he rushed over to Yoon. Focusing where he applied the heal skill, Peter slowly closed her wound with three applications. He took his canteen off his harness and had her drink deeply. Once he knew she would be fine, he turned to Dima and fired off a few heals to close his cut. But since everyone had been cut, Peter’s healing job was not done and he kept healing his teammates.

  Once everyone was poison free and whole, Peter laid down, exhausted. From the ground, Peter said, “Sorry about that guys, I think I positioned everyone all wrong. We should have had a tank take the big one and the rest of us should have burned down the little buggers.”

  “Don’t worry about it Peter, we are all learning,” Lola said as she rubbed her shoulder Peter had just healed, “But I think next week we should try your new plan.”

  They all sat there resting for a bit before Peter sat up and said, “Do we have to wait until next week?”

  “Well, we have enough orbs for the week, they only want us to get three each, and I think we are over that,” Lola said.

  “Well sure, we could leave, but I know there are more saber-tooth monkeys in this area. If was wait until next week, it will just make us more timid. I think it would be better practice if we killed some more right away so we can learn from our mistakes.”

  “Your mistakes,” Jonas said.

  “Yeah, my mistakes,” Peter admitted.

  “The longer we are out in the field, the more danger we are in. Do we want to risk our lives more than we have to? Base is the only safe place,” Dima cautioned.

  “Yoon almost died, Peter. And Dima was hurt bad. I don’t want to die out here,” Jonas said.

  “I would like to hunt more right away, it would be good to grow stronger faster,” Yoon said.

  Peter was surprised at her statement because Jonas was right, Yoon had gotten seriously injured. But he also knew that Yoon wanted to get stronger so she could get back to her son. But Dima had a good point, going back now was the safer option.

  “I know it is scary out here, I am terrified of this freaking death planet. But I don’t want that fear to control me. I want to hunt more, even though doing the bare minimum is probably safer. I am not talking about just today, I mean in general when we go hunting. We all know why Yoon wants to get stronger, but maybe you don’t know why I want to hunt more.

  “I told you all that I could read the galactic writing on the cuff screen, right? Well, I want to get extra orbs to try out some of the options I discovered. I believe they can make us stronger, tougher, and deadlier than if we just follow what they tell us to do. Jonas could get his fireball, we all could get the fireball. Imagine all six of us shooting a once, how easy would that make our hunts?” Peter failed to mention the other reason he wanted to get stronger, quicker, he wanted to join Humans First and do something about the trolls that killed his friends.

  “Well, shooting fireballs sounds fun, but I don’t want to die out here. How do we know that the next group of evil monkeys isn’t way stronger than this bunch?” Jonas said.

  “Well, as a ranger I know what sabertooth monkeys are out here, they are all the same level as the ones we just killed,” Lola said, “But fireballs? Are we even allowed to buy skills outside of our role?”

  Dima stood and started walking back and forth, “It isn’t strictly forbidden, but it is heavily discouraged. The leadership has spent years to optimize and maximize the utility of the benefits of the orbs. Some skills actually have bad interactions. Our warrior trainer told us that the strike skill we have with swords won’t work if we get the block skill, the two skills can’t be active at the same time. Basically, upper management doesn’t want us to do what Peter wants to do, adding skills recklessly,” Dima held up his hand to Peter’s protests, “But, but, but that does not mean I think we shouldn’t do it. Rex is a ranger and he has fireball after all. Rex is a badass that I don’t mind copying. We just need to be careful about it.”

  “We can be careful, and I think the rewards will outweigh the risks,” Peter said.

  They sat there thinking for a while, the wind gently blowing through the blue trees they sat in. This was an important decision, not just for today.

  “I am in,” Jonas said. Peter was surprised Jonas talked first, but he guessed that Jonas just really wanted to throw fireballs.

  “Me too,” Dimas said.

  Emma had been quiet up to this point, but she looked Peter in the eyes and said, “Me three.”

  “Yes,” said Yoon.

  They all turned to look at Lola. She was looking at Peter with wide eyes. Had she gone too far with the pep talk earlier? This was crazy. Seeing the look in his eyes, she knew what she had to say. “Well, as long as we are careful, I am in too. We can always run if we get in too deep,” she said.

  Peter steepled his fingers and said, “Excellent,” in a very Mr. Burns way. They all laughed and walked to a different part of the forest to hunt.

  It was another stan before they were able to find another troop of saber-tooth monkeys. Peter was quietly talking about different options he found in the menus, and what they could spend their orbs on. All of a sudden, two of the blue beasts appeared a short distance away. Both Lola and
Peter shot the left monkey right away, the right one jumping right for them.

  Yoon caught this one on her shield, and they were able to kill it quickly before the other saber-tooth monkey came screeching at them. This one died even quicker than the first, already having been injured.

  In short order, five saber-tooth monkeys appeared at the edge of the forest and charged at the group.

  “Yoon, take the big one, Emma tank the rest. Everyone target the one Emma is tanking, we will burn them down one at a time,” Peter said, reiterating what they had discussed earlier.

  Yoon engaged the biggest one, jumping a little to the side to separate him from the rest. Emma went into full defensive mode, blocking and sometimes stunning the remaining four smaller beasts. One by one, all were killed, and then they all ganged up on the final troop leader.

  This time only three were hurt, Jonas had a small scratch, Emma had several, and Yoon had a few deep cuts that were obviously poisoned. The poison of the big beast was much stronger, they could see the poison eating away at her skin as they watched.

  Thankfully Peter was able to quickly stop the spread of the poison. It took three applications of the light heal skill to fully heal her.

  “What do you think about that strategy, Yoon?” Peter asked, “It worked much better on the little ones, but you got beat up again.”

  “We must do better next time, but we are on the right path. I am done for today though, I am very tired,” she replied wearily.

  “Yeah, me too, healing takes it out of me,” Peter said.

  They ended up with a total of thirty-eight orbs, which Peter quickly distributed. It left him with two orbs more than the rest of his team, and he understood how easy it would be for a squad leader to hoard more than his share. Checking his balance on his cuff, he saw he actually had two extra from previous trips, putting him at four more than their averages. He decided he would distribute the extras when it got to six.

  With the team having double the orbs they were required to collect, they decided to head home for the day. Peter convinced them to keep their extra hunting quiet, he had a feeling that the by the book Ensign Butters wouldn’t appreciate their extracurricular activity.

  As they re-entered the south gate, Peter was met with an unpleasant surprise. As he entered the gate, four orbs streamed out of his cuff into the alien box.

  “What was that?” Peter asked.

  The guard gave him a bored look, “Just your gate upkeep cost. Your squad has to pay your level in orbs when you re-enter. It’s how we power the defenses.”

  Peter frowned at the unexpected cost. There went all his extras. No one had told him they would straight up steal his orbs at the gate. They had gotten seriously injured to earn those orbs, why did that guard get to steal away their hard earned loot?

  Still, the squad was excited to try out learning a new skill and went straight back to their room in the barracks.

  The other squad was there, packing up.

  “Frank, what gives, where are you guys going?” Peter asked.

  “After those Humans First assholes got Simon and Chris killed, command asked us to split up and join other squads. The four of us are going different directions, mostly to higher level squads,” Frank replied.

  “Humans didn’t kill them, trolls did,” Peter said with quiet anger.

  Frank waved his hand, “Trolls are a force of nature, level one hundred monsters. You don’t blame the hurricane for killing those boys, you blame the jerks that put them in the path of the storm. If those little pieces of zergling shit had just stayed on base, my boys would still be with us.”

  It occurred to Peter that Frank had been grieving all this time too, they had lost good friends, but he had lost people under his watch. Still, “When the trolls kill people, that isn’t an act of god. They are evil, and we can’t just stand idly by,” Peter replied.

  “We don’t have a choice, the trolls are in charge and that is just the way it is. Besides, have you ever talked with those Human First folks? They are violently xenophobic, they are going to get a lot of innocents killed. That kind of thinking is ‘America First’ kind of thinking,” Frank said.

  Peter paused, the “America First” slogan had been co-opted by racists years ago and led to violent riots that killed thousands. He shook his head, “That’s different.”

  “Is it?” Frank said. He shouldered his trunk and walked out.

  Peter watched them walk away, thinking about what Frank had said. Aliens controlled his fate right now, and Frank was suggesting they do nothing about it. If they just rolled over and let them do whatever they wanted, humanity would be enslaved.

  Lola put her hand on his shoulder, “I think he wanted to leave anyway. This building was just a constant reminder for him.”

  “I think Frank leaving was partly your fault too, Peter. That alien bush smell almost drove me away too,” Jonas said. Everyone laughed. The wonderful smelling bush that Peter had given Lola for their first date had not stayed wonderful. After a few days the smell morphed into a slightly sweet, putrid smell reminiscent of rotting seaweed. It was a while ago, but they were still teasing him about it.

  Chapter 18

  Having the room to themselves was strangely lonely. The two women had curtained off a section of the room and the four men had the rest of the room to themselves. The extra space left by the other team just reminded them of why they had left, and the two boys who would never return home.

  Instead of moping around though, Lola brought them to the shooting range after hours. She had convinced the range master to let her have some extra time on the range, as long as she used her own weapons and cleaned up afterward.

  Once assembled, the five turned towards Peter, who was steepling his fingers and saying, “Excellent” again.

  “You are starting to creep me out, man,” Jonas said.

  “I will have you all saying excellent within a stan,” Peter said with a smile, “Now, screens up, I will go around helping you unlock small fireball.”

  As he went around the room, he noticed that everyone’s screen was slightly different. He surmised that the trolls must have created it that way on purpose to make the screens harder to use. Either that or they were just weird.

  “The activation sequence for this one is to hold out your hand, palm first, and think fireball in your head. It also works better if you are in the right emotional state, in this case anger. Or righteous anger to be precise,” Peter said. He stretched out his hand and shot out a fireball that zoomed across the room to hit a target dead on.

  The five of them stood along the range’s counter and held out their hands. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then Yoon was able to shoot a fireball that made a long arc and hit the floor near the targets.

  Not to be outdone, the rest of the group shot out a fireball themselves. None of them hit a target. Jonas managed to hit the ceiling.

  “Shit Jonas, we won’t be allowed back if we burn the place down,” Lola said.

  “It is alright, that was a good first try. My trainer let us flounder for a while before he started giving advice, but I actually want you guys to succeed. So, here is what I do.

  “Before I fire, I get in the right mindset, righteous anger, and push that emotion towards your target. Don’t imagine an image of a fireball hitting your target, feel the fireball hit your target. Your hand has to be facing the target, but the exact position does not matter. It is intent that directs the fireball,” Peter said.

  It took them a few more tries, but soon all of them hit a target. After a stan they were getting better and faster at it. Lola started hitting the bullseye, and then never missed after that.

  “How are you doing that, Lola?” Emma asked, after completely missing her target.

  “I think it is my sharpshooter skill, it works well with the fireball skill. With the sharpshooter skill, you get a feeling where your shot will land, and you can just adjust things until it feels right. With my slingshot, I still miss sometimes,
but these fireballs seem easier,” Lola replied.

  “I think that's because the skills have synergy. Dima warned us about skills that work against each other, skill discord, but the opposite happens too. Fireball and Sharpshooter must have synergy, meaning the sum is greater than the parts. I bet Lola will eventually be able to curve her fireballs around obstructions and still bullseye targets,” Peter said.

  They all looked at her with renewed appreciation and spent the rest of their time practicing. Peter took the opportunity to practice as well, and found that Lola’s aim was slightly better than his, even though she had just learned the skill.

  As they walked out, heading back to bed, Emma turned to Peter and said, “So what are you going to do with your extra three orbs? Are you going to unlock sharpshooter like Lola?”

  “I don’t know. There are a lot of options that I want to look into. Sharpshooter is certainly a useful skill, but I am not sure how much shooting I will be doing aside from fireballs. I am going to look into it tonight,” Peter replied.

  Once in bed, Peter opened his screen and flipped to magical skills. He knew that logically it would be a good idea to emulate his squad mates since their skills had been proven to be useful. The lure of new and exciting magic was too great though, and he eagerly examined the options.

  Available Skills

  Frost

  4

  Lightning

  3

  Glass

  2

  Hydromancy

  6

  Regeneration

  3