Proxy War

by Adam Sampson

  Then maybe his squad would stop making fun of him for picking up the explosives skill. It cost him 12 orbs to unlock, and he had been looking forward to sending out magical explosives. But he failed to notice that it was a utility skill, not a magic skill. So instead of a magic power, the unlocked skill just downloaded information on how to create explosives. Peter was devastated. Not only was it just information, the explosives were only ones he could create with alien materials, nothing they had lying about on base. It was a waste of orbs and his team teased him about it mercilessly.

  As they got to the gate, the guard derailed their plans though.

  “Hold on here, looks like you guys are up for cuff retrieval. A squad of sixes fell in F29 last night, dead before a rescue party could even leave the gates,” said the guard as he turned to Peter, “You ever do a cuff retrieval before?”

  “No,” Peter said with a frown.

  “Take these,” the guard handed him rolled up thick plastic, “Your job is to follow the homing beacon I just sent to your cuff and retrieve the six cuffs. Does not matter what happened to the cadets, your job is to get those six cuffs, no matter where they are, even inside some monsters belly,” he pointed to the thick plastic, “But if you can, we would appreciate you bring the bodies back too.”

  Peter looked at what he now understood were plastic body bags rolled up. He turned to the guard and said, “Anything else I should know?”

  “Nope, that is it. Just bring the cuffs back and you get an orb reward. If you get in trouble and have to get rescued, your rescuers get all of the reward. But don’t be overconfident, make the call if you have to.”

  In a somber mood, they set out. They ran, as usual, running at about thirty-five miles an hour to conserve energy. But it felt like they were plodding along. No one talked, they just ran along in tight formation. They passed a squad of fives heading back into base, but they didn’t stop to talk.

  Once they got to section F29, they slowed to a walk and Peter used his cuff to get them closer. They walked into a field of the cotton candy bushes, nestled in between three tall hills.

  “Be on the lookout for anything guys, cuff says all six are around here somewhere, within a thousand meters,” Peter said.

  “What are we looking for? What is usually in this section?” Jonas said.

  “Should be crocodile snakes, but my bet is on an out of bounds beast. Level sixes wouldn’t normally have many problems with snakes,” Lola said.

  “Out of bounds beast? What is that?” asked Jonas.

  “The monsters aren’t here naturally, they are placed here. Genetic markers in the plantlife keep them in a small area, where they can grow super fast. It’s why we never see saber-tooth monkeys in the rino-ape areas. Whoever set all this up obviously wanted to make it easy for us to train and gain orbs. This whole area is engineered. But sometimes monsters will leave their area, and we call them out of bounds. Whatever killed these soldiers was likely an unexpected out of bounds monster. I would guess hippo worms or lurkers,” Lola said

  “Huh, I never knew that,” Jonas said.

  Lola shrugged, “They teach us a lot about the monsters in ranger classes.”

  After ten minutes of searching, Emma called out to the group, “I think I see something, over there in the cleared patch.” She started walking over there. A collection of weapons and cuffs were laying in a pile in the middle of the cleared patch.

  “No, wait! Let me go first to check,” Peter said.

  But it was too late, a dusty red lurker tentacle whipped out of the ground and wrapped around Emma. She triggered her stoneskin skill, making her skin much more durable at the cost of flexibility. But the lurker wasn’t trying to hurt her just yet, the tentacle jerked her into the air. It was following a path to the lurker mouth in the center of the clearing. This lurker was enormous, at least thirty feet wide. The six tentacles bursting out of the ground were at least as wide as a human and the mouth of long jagged teeth looked like it could swallow Emma whole. Like an octopus crossed with a sarlacc pit, the creature was overwhelming.

  Peter triggered his time skill to give himself a moment to think. The skill stopped time completely, everything was frozen in place, not just the world, but himself too. He couldn't move at all, but he could think. It was a useful skill that gave him twenty seconds to think before he reacted in stressful situations. He looked at Emma suspended by the lurker tentacle and tried to think of a plan.

  The tentacle was moving too quickly for a fireball, too strong for telekinesis to stop, and it could probably just whip around any shield he created to slow it down. Perhaps he could put a shield covering the maw of teeth, but that still left Emma in the clutches of the beast, and those tentacles looked like they could easily kill. With two seconds left, he thought of an idea.

  The world jerked into motion and Peter put his plan into action. Concentrating with all his might, Peter placed a razor thin blade of telekinesis in the path of the curling tentacle, just below Emma. With a shlorp sound, the telekinetic blade bit deep into the tentacle, more than halfway before the blade disintegrated. White blood spurted from the deep wound. Emma fell out of the suddenly lax tentacle ten feet to the ground. The lurker screeked, the air vibrating with the force of its pain.

  “Emma! Run!” Peter yelled.

  Emma collected herself and ran towards the rest of the squad, just barely avoiding the flailing tentacles all around. Arms out, Peter pushed back the rest of the team so they wouldn’t get any closer to the lurker. It looked like he was just trusting that she could make it, but Peter placed shields in the way of the tentacles to protect Emma as she ran. The shields shattered with the first hit they took but slowed the lurker down enough for Emma to run to safety.

  “Are you ok?” Peter asked Emma as she ran into his arms.

  Emma took a second to turn off the stoneskin and examine herself. Realizing how awkward it was, she stepped out of Peter’s arms, “Yeah I am fine. Thanks for saving me,” she said as her eyes watered.

  “We aren't safe, the lurker is going to unbury herself in less than a minute and we don’t want to be around when she starts rolling this way,” Lola said.

  “This thing is way too big for us to take, let’s run and call in the cavalry,” Jonas said.

  “No! We can take it. I want revenge, and besides one tentacle is already down,” Emma said.

  They both turned to Peter. He stared at the gargantuan lurker. It was much larger than any they had been told about, at least three times as big.

  “Lola, how fast can they roll? Could we get away if we had to?” Peter asked.

  “Well the regular sized ones roll kinda slow, but I have never heard of one this big,” Lola said.

  Rumbling sounds came from the ground as the lurker started bringing its main body out of the ground. Its main body was half as large as the rest of it and was fully underground when acting as a trap. It would wrap its durable tentacles around the main body and roll away for a new hiding spot now that this one was compromised.

  “We can’t run if there is a chance we can kill it now, we don’t want anyone else dying to this lurker. If it does get out of the ground though, we run anyway, agreed?” Peter said. When they all nodded he continued, “Yoon and Emma, set up on opposite sides of it, just outside its range. Hit it with fireballs, take turns. You won’t hurt it much, but it should distract it, go now. Dima and Jonas get those rocks over there and see if you can get the tentacles to grab it. Once it is grabbed, powerstrike off the tip of the tentacle. Don’t get closer than you need to, just take the tip off. Lola, do you still have explosive shots?”

  “Yeah, just two though,” Lola said, reaching into her ammo pouch.

  “Ok, save them for now, shoot out its teeth until I tell you to use the explosive ones, right in its mouth. I am going to focus on cutting it up so it will bleed out. let's go.”

  Everyone sprang into action. Lola ran up a hill to get a good angle on the mouth and Dima and Jonas had already returned with roc
ks half their size. Yoon and Emma were already shooting fireballs at it, and the lurker had stopped getting out of the ground to flail around searching for them. Keening sounds filled the air, fire hurting the lurker more than expected. The warriors gave the lurker something to grab, large rocks getting sucked up as soon as they hit. Jonas was able to use the powerstrike skill to make his sword glow in a large arc and slice off the tip of that tentacle. White blood pumped onto the red sandy dirt from the fresh wound. Dima used his powerstrike too, but the tentacle pulled back just in time. Sensing that the rock wasn’t a meal, it reared back to throw the rock at Dima.

  Predicting this move, Peter had a set of telekinetic blades ready, and the lurker sliced off its own limb with the throw. They had three limbs down, three to go. The wounded limbs still flailed about, but without a grasping tip the limbs weren’t as dangerous. White blood covered this side of the lurker.

  Meanwhile, Lola was shooting out teeth, one at a time. The gaping maw of the lurker had plenty foot long teeth to spare though, so its mouth was still dangerous.

  Peter was able to take out a fourth limb, this time very close to the body before the lurker stopped attacking and focused solely on getting out of the ground. Yelling over the rumbling ground, he said, “Lola, explosives now!”

  Both explosive rounds were shot out of her slingshot in quick succession, the second one in the air before the first one hit. Both disappeared into that large mouth, exploding one after another. A deep whump was heard as the lurker fell to the ground, motionless. Silence was deafening with the absence of the creature’s keening.

  “Is it?” Lola asked, walking down from the hill.

  Just then, a tentacle twitched. All limbs moved slowly, lurker stirring.

  “We gotta kill it now, pick a limb and attack, right at the base. Jump in there,” Peter said.

  Peter followed his advice first and took a long jump right to the base of the limb closest to him. A fireball preceded his warhammer and telekinetic blades, pummeling his tentacle right in the thick of things. This close, the tentacle was wider than Peter was tall. Jerking back, the lurker tried to get away from Peter and attack at the same time.

  It didn’t have a chance though, the rest of the squad was already there, each attacking a tentacle with all they had. Shaking and thrashing, it tried to fight back, but the lurker was too wounded. Once Dima and Jonas used their exploding strike skill, it was all over. The lurker sunk back, dead.

  Everyone looked at each other over the lurker corpse. This close they could see the mouth could fit three of them in there at once. Covered in white blood and red dust, they stood there motionless. A collapsing lung sounded like a burp and five orbs flew out, followed by one enormous orb. As big as his head, this orb was sucked into his cuff with the rest.

  “Woo hoo!” Emma yelled and threw her hands up in the air.

  Laughter filled the air as everyone backed up and walked away from the lurker. Emma grabbed the six cuffs laying near the base of the monster. They agreed that it must have been using the cuffs and weapons as shiny bait. The level of intelligence needed to do that made them all nervous.

  “I am calling this one in, an out of bounds this big needs to be reported,” Lola said and stepped away to make a call.

  After she came back, she turned to Peter and said, “They are sending some fire mages to torch the place. So, how many orbs was that big one worth?”

  Peter pulled up his cuff screen to check.

  Peter Grey

  Level 7 Mage

  Cuff age 4 months

  45 Squad Orbs

  9 Self Orbs

  Previous page

  Next page

  Magic skills

  Summon Shield level 2

  Fireball level 3

  Fire Wave level 4

  Void Bolt Level 1

  Weak Heal Level 2

  Lightning Bolt level 1

  Frost level 1

  Upgrade list here

  Time

  Map

  Phone

  Squad Locator

  Previous page

  Next page

  Passive Skills

  Strength level 4

  Speed level 4

  Constitution level 5

  Premonition level 3

  Upgrade list here

  Active Skills

  Sharpshooter level 1

  Stone Skin level 3

  Stealth level 2

  Vision level 1

  Sense level 1

  Upgrade list here

  Utility Skills

  Telekinesis level 7

  Cleanliness level 1

  Time level 1

  Explosives level 1

  Translation level 1

  Upgrade list here

  “Forty-Five orbs? That big orb was worth forty orbs? Daang,” Peter said.

  Jonas and Dima both cursed in amazement.

  “Language!” Emma scolded.

  Everyone laughed, knowing that she didn’t really care about the swearing. Emma always did that when someone swore, she said it had something to do with her idol Captain America.

  “Forty-five orbs off one creature, that is amazing. Makes me want to hunt the big ones more often,” Lola said.

  “Not me, I am fine with staying alive. If you guys hadn’t cut me down, I would have been dead two seconds later,” Emma said.

  In a somber mood, they walked off. Only to have Lola send Peter back to the corpse. Lurkers had a gland she wanted him to harvest. Big, bloody and oozing, the gland was unwieldy. He had to put it in a body bag so they could carry it back to base. He was worried about it leaking, but the plastic bags were thick and built to contain liquids.

  Chapter 21

  At the gate, they returned the cuffs to the guard and collected their reward, half the orbs in the cuffs. They had been mostly quiet on the trip back.

  Emma broke the silence.

  “I feel kind of icky, using their orbs. I don’t like getting paid from their deaths,” she said. Their reward was a cut of the orbs the dead soldier’s cuffs had stored. It was an extra forty-two orbs for the team.

  “It is not like we volunteered. They assigned us. And we had nothing to do with their deaths,” Peter said, trying to reassure himself as well.

  “Still, I don’t want to ever do that again,” Emma replied.

  “We won’t. Not at this base anyway,” said Jonas.

  The guard had given them a commendation to Ensign Butters for their quick work. Which had the unintended consequence of letting the Ensign know that they had enough orbs to advance to level eight. Most groups tried to train as much as they could at level eight before graduating to Base Beta because the monsters there were much more dangerous. But that plan was dissolved when Ensign Butters calculated what they all needed to advance. They were scheduled to leave with the next graduation in a week.

  Peter still had eight orbs after advancing his telekinesis skill to level eight. He took the time to research new skills available to him, several more had opened up once he had a skill at level eight. The rest of the squad told him he was spreading his skills too widely, each of them had spent their orbs on just a few extra skills Peter recommended and boosted their passive skills. He knew they were probably right, but he loved trying out new skills, and he was still above the basic requirements the trainers set. He had narrowed his choice down to a few tasty looking options.

  Laser Eyes

  Shoot lasers out of the user’s eyes. Half second burst, once every two seconds. Minor Damage at first level. (Skill unlock costs 8 orbs)

  Weaken

  Target of skill is temporarily weakened against all other magic skills. 8% weakness for 30 second on level 1. Does not stack. (Unlocking skill costs 7 Orbs)

  Dome Shield

  A sphere barrier forms around the user, all sides covered. Particularly effective against ranged attacks. Cannot move from spot while in use, cannot fire out of shield. Superior Defense, lasts 12 seconds at first level. (Skill Unlock Co
sts 8 Orbs)

  He wanted Laser Eyes mostly because he wanted to shoot lasers out of his eyes. Peter told himself that it would be a useful attack if his hands were full or pinned down. But really, he just wanted to feel like Superman. He would have already bought it if it wasn’t for the Minor Damage rating. Minor Damage meant that it was weaker than his fireballs started out as. The description indicated that it would get stronger in later levels, but that might take a while.

  Weaken was interesting. Making a monster eight percent weaker wasn’t much, but it could be useful. It made the monster weaker to all skills, not just fireball and telekinesis, but also the skills of the other squad members, like powerstrike and deadshot. He wished he knew if the upgrades would increase the percentage of weakness or the length of time the skill worked. Unfortunately, there was no way to know until he bought the skill and looked at the next upgrade available.

  The high level protection from Dome Shield was tempting from a practical standpoint. Although it had some serious drawbacks while in use because he wouldn’t be able to move or shoot, he suspected he could still use telekinesis when encased in the shield. What made it really tempting was the Superior Defense. That was a defensive rating above even the shield mages in his Mage class. The shield mages could create several shields and move them slowly, but the best one was only Great Defense, and this was a step above that.

  Choices, choices. He could just save the orbs for later, but he wanted to spend them now. He loved trying out new skills. He pressed the button for Weaken, hoping that this skill would pay off.

  Graduation day came and the expected ceremony full of pomp and long speeches did not materialize. Captain Mason just verified everyone was present and eligible, and they were all loaded onto an alien transport. Four squads were loaded up and sent on their way. Two squads were from the month that Peter got there, his and Flynn's. The other two squads were from the month before, graduations happen just once a month.