Proxy War

by Adam Sampson

  Sealing

  3

  Blink

  6

  Telekinesis

  3

  Time

  4

  Mind Manipulation

  4

  Flower

  2

  Animancy

  16

  Alchemy

  8

  Light

  4

  Venom

  2

  Void

  8

  Next Page⇒

  It looked like a lot of the good skills started with four orbs, Mind Manipulation, Frost, Light, and Time all looked like they could be very useful. But he only had three orbs available to him, so if he wanted those ones, he would have to wait. Besides, he hadn’t figured out how to select the skill descriptions yet. Who knows what those skills actually did.

  Looking at the ones he could afford, he was not encouraged. He didn’t understand what Sealing meant, and Flower sounded like a terrible skill. Venom could be useful, but probably took a while to take effect. Telekinesis sounded good, he had always wanted to throw things around like a Jedi.

  He really should wait for Blink. If his gaming years had taught him anything, Blink would be a short-range teleportation skill. That would be extremely useful. He resigned himself to waiting another week before he picked up the skill.

  ...

  The salt and pepper shakers bowed to each other and started dancing around the table. They tapped a little beat and acted like extras in a live action Beauty and the Beast. Peter had gone with the Telekinesis skill and was trying it out. Blink was probably great, but waiting was boring. At this level of telekinesis, those two objects were the max weight limit of the skill. He was saddened by the meager power available, but the range and dexterity were much better. Peter could move things up to eighty feet away and could move them with precision. He just couldn't move much weight at once.

  “See, this is why they don’t want us messing around with our skills, that power is almost totally useless,” Jonas said as he watched the condiments waltz around the table.

  “I am sure this will be useful, you never know when a small nudge can turn the tides of battle. Plus, it’s fun,” Peter said as he put down the salt and pepper shakers and levitated his fork and knife instead. He had them battling, not quite a food fight.

  Lola reached out and snatched the cutlery out of the air, “What happened to keeping this on the down low?” she hissed.

  Peter heeded Lola’s warning, but continued to play around with his telekinesis when no one was watching. Tissues would flutter themselves to the trash, smart glasses would float to his face, cups would move just into his reach, and his weapon strikes grew more precise. He was particularly proud of that last one, it was a great way to practice his telekinetic skill with no one the wiser.

  As much fun as he was having, Peter was still planning on picking a more combat oriented skill like Frost or Void next time. Jonas was right, weak telekinesis didn’t lend itself to death-dealing. Their next hunting trip changed his mind though.

  Chapter 19

  Standing in line to exit out the south gate, Peter was holding Lola’s hand. They had been going on dates every weekend since the first one, and things were going well. Peter had wanted to keep the relationship away from the rest of the team and stay all business. As a squad leader he didn’t want anyone to think he was giving her special treatment. But he couldn't help himself and would often find excuses to be near her. They had talked about it with the rest of the squad, and the squad said their relationship didn’t bother them. Emma made a point of saying they should keep the public displays of affection to a minimum, but holding hands was fine.

  “I think I see something,” Lola said and she stared out past the gate.

  After a moment the rest of them saw it too, something was coming this way fast, kicking up red dust. As it drew near, it resolved into several people, running flat out towards the gate. Looking behind the group, there were several somethings following them, hidden in the dust. It was hard to make out what, they could only see flashes of gray hidden in the red dust.

  As the group grew near they started shouting, “Clear the gate! clear the gate!” Those waiting in line backed off.

  The guard at the gate immediately closed the exit gate and moved to hold open the person-sized entrance gate.

  With superhuman swiftness, six soldiers entered the gate and slid to a stop. The guard slammed the door shut and the gate was fully shut.

  Directly after, a thud was heard as a monster collided with the gate. With a zap, the gate electrocuted the monster, killing it in less than a second. Shortly after, the rest of the pursuing monsters attacked the gate. It was a large group of saber-tooth monkeys and a few big head snakes. Shrieks and howls accompanied them as they attacked the gate en mass. Several thunderous zaps later, most of them were dead. Only a few realized that the gate was an enemy too strong for them and fled.

  One of the soldiers that had just escaped this crowd of monsters walked up to the gate and absorbed all the orbs of the monsters. It was a lot of orbs. As he turned back around, Peter recognized him. It was Flynn, from his Mage class.

  “Flynn, what was that all about?” Peter asked.

  He shrugged and said, “We accidentally pulled a train, twelve monkeys was too much for us to handle at once. It happens, no big deal.” Flynn turned to walk off but the guard at the gate stopped him.

  “Hey, you can’t keep doing that. This is the third time you have ‘accidentally’ pulled a train, I will be reporting you to your superior. Who is your commanding officer?”

  “Ensign Butters,” Flynn said, cowed.

  “No it isn’t,” Peter said, causing Flynn to turn to turn and scowl at him. Peter knew all the squads that reported to Ensign Butters and Flynn’s squad was not one of them.

  The guard rounded on Flynn, who put up his hands right away.

  “I mean Ensign Frink, sorry I got confused, Ensign Butters was my old CO,” Flynn said.

  The guard grabbed Flynn by the upper arm and started walking him away. As he left he called back to the line waiting there, “Gate’s closed for the next half stan.”

  Flynn’s squad awkwardly followed the guard as well.

  “What was that all about?” Emma asked.

  Most of them shrugged, not knowing what was going on. Yoon knew and spoke up, “He was pulling a train. That is where you anger a bunch of monsters you couldn't kill on your own, and have them follow you to the walls. He knew the gates would kill the monsters and he could collect the orbs without doing the work. It is a common tactic in video games.”

  “Why would they do that on purpose? If any of your team falls, the mob of monsters would probably kill them right away.” Emma said.

  “Well, it is obviously not allowed,” Yoon said, gesturing in the direction the guard had gone, “But some are still tempted. A favorite of the lazy, they get many orbs in little time.”

  “What a bastard,” Dima said.

  They sat and waited for a while. Jonas kept trying to convince Peter to open the gate, but he refused. Peter had recently figured out that telekinesis was a great tool for opening locked doors. But after they were caught in the sake bar at midnight he swore off rule breaking. He never wanted to clean out the latrines again. Ever. Never ever.

  . . .

  The soft bushes rustled from three different directions, movement drawing closer. The squad stood in the middle of a field of pale red bushes that looked like washed out cotton candy. Back to back, they observed the waist-high bushes moving in from three different cardinal directions. The rustling was clearly homing in on them, all shaking bushes painting a straight line to them.

  As the shaking reached them, three monsters leapt out at the squad all at once. The monster in front of Emma had an enormous mouth stretched wide, almost able to swallow her shield all at once. The mouth was full of teeth, not just around the edges, but layers of teeth across the roof of its mouth pointing in
wards all the way to its throat. The head was scaled with three small eyes along the edge of each mouth, and a flat head. The top of its mouth latched onto Emma’s shield, but the bottom half went around it and pierced her side. Her weapon arm was held out against the bottom jaw to keep it from crushing her.

  Emma grunted and tried to back up and thrash at the snake, but the rest of its body held her back. It had a snake-like body jutting out of the back of its head. The snake part was much smaller than one would expect given the size of the body, but it was strong and very long. The beast used the bushes behind it for leverage and kept Emma in place while she struggled.

  No one used the official name for these beasts, Dilli Anguis, so there were a few different names floating around. Big head snakes, lollipops, legless crocodiles, broom snakes. Peter decided to add a name to the mix.

  “Hold on Emma, while we dispatch these other two crocodile snakes,” He said from his position in the middle of the squad.

  Lucky for Emma, that did not take long. Peter had found a use for his weak telekinesis skill, he was holding the other two monster’s mouths shut. Much like the animals they resembled, these crocodile snakes had formidable bite force. But that only applied to closing their mouths, the muscles to open their mouths were very weak. So weak that Peter was able to keep their mouths shut with his telekinesis. This always confused the beasts and made them easy to dispatch. A few well-placed strikes to the brain, or decapitation, and they were done with the beast.

  Peter was quite proud of his technique, but it did have a few limitations. He could only hold two objects at once, and if he got bumped or injured, it would dissipate the force. This is why Emma was battling her crocodile snake with its mouth wide open, Peter could only handle two at a time.

  Dima and Jonas finished their snakes as one and flipped around to decapitate the snake Emma was battling. Yoon and Lola had to help pry the jaws off her as it still had some strength after death.

  “Too bad we can’t fireblast these annoying snakes,” Emma said as Peter healed her.

  They had tried fireballs when they had first got to the hunting grounds, but unfortunately the bushes were almost completely fireproof. Since the crocodile snakes hid among the bushes until they attacked, any ranged attack was mostly useless. Lola could occasionally hit one on its approach, but often wouldn’t hit anything vital. These monsters would just have to die in melee range. Thankfully the soldiers were well versed with that technique.

  They got their minimum four orbs each and decided to call it a day. The business at the gate had delayed them and they needed to get back to base. On the way back, they walked across the edge of the knife forest where they had hunted the last time they had been out.

  Skirting the forest, their path led them right by were they had killed the two troops of saber-tooth monkeys. The bodies were long gone, forest scavengers having quickly disposed of the remains. Everything was faster on Omicron, faster growth of the monsters, and faster scavenging by the carrion eaters. Peter stopped them on their run because he thought he saw something.

  Farther back from the path, hidden in the sapphire knife leaves was a saber-tooth monkey. It was slightly smaller than the ones they had killed last week.

  “Peter, I see it too. But don’t we need to get back?” Lola said.

  “It won’t take long. We can kill this one, and if no more come in the next quarter stan, we can just leave,” Peter said.

  “Oh, Oh! Can we use fireballs?” Emma asked.

  “Yes, of course, this is a great use for them. Lola, can you draw it in for us? Once it is close, everyone can fire at will. It should be fairly weak by the time it gets to us,” Peter replied.

  Lola shot with her slingshot and wounded it on the shoulder. The saber-tooth monkey shrieked and dashed at them. When it was about ninety feet away, all six of them released their fireballs. The flaming globes streaked towards their target and impacted the monster, one after another. Five fireballs hit, only Dima’s missing.

  The monkey tumbled to the ground, instantly dead.

  “Oh yeah! That is how it is done,” Emma said while strutting around, “Bring it on evil monkeys, we got your number right here.”

  They didn’t have to wait long, more shrieks were heard and three more monkeys appeared at the edge of the forest.

  “Everyone fire at the left one and work our way right,” Peter said decisively.

  They fired all as one, six golden globes arcing away towards the beast on the left. Hitting all at once seemed to stop the saber-tooth monkey in its tracks. It fell over dead. They switched to the middle one, burning it down in a similar fashion. The final beast was only twenty feet away when it leaped at them. All six shots hit at point blank range and blasted the saber-tooth monkey back a few feet, dead too.

  Four smoldering corpses lay before them, the forest quiet.

  Emma barked out a laugh. She started dancing in place and singing, “Oh yeah, we bad. Oh yeah, we bad” over and over again.

  Jonas struck a pose and said, “Fireballs rule!”

  “Nice shooting squad!” Peter said and joined Emma in dancing.

  No other monsters appeared, so they turned and ran back to base. They were on cloud nine after their two hunting successes and didn’t pay attention to the weird look the guard gave them on the way back in. He frowned and stared at them as they re-entered, but said nothing.

  That afternoon, Peter made a suggestion for their extra orbs, “I found a good one that I think we should all get, it is called ‘Premonition’ and I think it will be super useful.”

  “What does it do?”

  He was glad he had figured out how to read skill descriptions now, since this one had an ambiguous name, Premonition. Peter read off the skill description to everyone.

  Premonition

  Enhances reflexes to double current level. Battle computer observes and predicts enemy movements. 0.4 seconds Premonition. Higher levels of this skill predict more in advance with more accuracy.

  (Unlocking Skill costs 2 Orbs)

  “So like you can predict the future?” asked Emma.

  “Kinda. I don’t think it can actually predict the future, I think it means that the onboard battle computer observes the moves and attack patterns of everyone around and helps you predict what their next move will be,” Peter said.

  “Point four seconds, not even a half second. That is not a lot of prediction,” Emma said.

  “It is in the middle of a fight,” Yoon said.

  “Yes. In the middle of a fight, point four seconds is a long time. I will get this skill. Peter come. Show me where to press,” Dima said and waved him over.

  Peter had just barely bought the skill, so he quickly showed Dima where to hit on his screen. Yoon was next.

  The rest of the squad was undecided until Dima asked Jonas to spar. Since they both were in Warrior training together, they had often sparred and knew that they were equal in skill. Usually they would both get strikes in, neither gaining the upper hand.

  The impromptu match in their room started off as expected. Both had their guards up, and they traded hits for a minute or so. Then Dima exploded in a flurry of hits. Each hit knocked Jonas back, not a single one was blocked. Jonas was soon beaten on the floor. Peter walked over and healed him.

  “Wow, I guess it works. What was it like, Dima? Could you see the hits coming?” Emma said.

  “No, nothing visual, I could just feel what he was going to do. It was like my subconscious really wanted to talk to me. It just felt right. I didn’t know what he was going to do next, I just felt when a hit was coming, or when he was going to drop his guard.”

  That decided the rest of the group, the remaining three had Peter show them how to gain the skill. Jonas and Dima were already planning on how to take advantage at their next warrior class, and Emma was excited about not getting hit during her next tank class.

  Later that night, Peter sat dangling his legs off the roof of the barracks. He passed Lola the ice cream cone he
had just bought for her from the commissary. They often came up here to sit and talk during the week. It was one of the few places they could find some real privacy. They would spend stans just sitting and talking. There weren't any stairs leading up here, but it was an easy jump with their current strength levels.

  Turning to her, Peter asked a question that had been on his mind for a while, “Why do you like me? I mean, I don’t know how I got so lucky. You are beautiful, smart, and brave. I obviously am getting the better end of this deal. I don’t understand why you wanted to date me, let alone why you still want to, now that you know me better.”

  Lola smiled and threw one arm around his shoulder, “Don’t sell yourself short. You are pretty awesome yourself. You are cute and brave, a hero really. You saved us all that first day. And you have good taste in movies. I love that you love The Office Dragon,” she took a big bite of her ice cream and said, “And you bring me ice cream.”

  Peter smiled and kissed her ice cream lips.

  After she finished the cone, Lola lay her head on his shoulder and said, “I knew I wanted to date you the second day here. Rex took us out hunting and was trying to give us all heart attacks. You were just as scared as the rest of us, but you still were kind and brave. When Emma was freaking out you stopped and helped her calm down. I liked it when you asked her to kick the zergling in the balls. That was the moment I knew I wanted to date you.”