RTU- Robotic Transfer Universe

by Randy Thao

  "I didn't want to give you all my toys," smiled Derma.

  "Is that so? What else you got hiding there?" Dee replied.

  "Oh nothing else," yawned Derma as he unsheathed his scepter. "I call this my Kaboom stick."

  It had a black iron handle with red crisscross designs. A white tassel hung at the bottom with a magical glow. Infused at the top was a crystal stone with a tint of fiery red. It shot a blinding light at certain angles.

  "Impressive. So you're a caster?" Dee asked.

  "Yes, with my inability to move much, I can only fight at a distance. With this scepter, I can transfer my energy through it and shoot fireballs," Derma explained. "Don't underestimate my hover chair, it's got a sport mode."

  "That's a rockin-chair!" exclaimed Dee, and they both chuckled to ease the nervousness.

  The march only took about thirty minutes to get there. Compared to in game time, it would feel like hours especially if returning from a death. The respawn spots were most likely in nearby towns or cities outside of the battle area. Even then, a lot can happen within the five to ten minutes running back to the main battle if even one member of a group was returning from a death.

  It was pretty obvious that they had reached the location as they set focus on the gigantic opening to the cavern. "Black Hole Cavern" appeared in their view. Behind it towered the mountain that seemed to go up into the heavens. Some of the other players pulled off their helmets to get a better view at the area and advantage points, if there were any, to defeat Aftmantu. As they stood at the mouth of the cavern, Dee knew it was time. He walked up to the front of his raid group.

  "Everyone assemble!" Dee shouted. Quickly, all the players gathered into formation. "Remember the training. Tanks prepare yourselves."

  Dee and Derma's group proceeded up front while the rest were set in the back. All tanks stepped forward ready to take on first aggravations on Aftmantu where ever he may appear. They slowly entered into the cavern where crystals and precious stones lit up a pale blue. It provided their only source of light. The natural lighting from the outside had been sucked out and could no longer be seen. As they got in deeper, another source of light reflected in their eyes. Molten lava seeped and poured out from the walls that went up as far as the eye could see. It flowed down into a ditch dug along the wall creating a ring of fire around the battle area in which the fate of their battle lay. They had made it to the end of the cavern.

  Bu looked around observing the walls. "Be careful guys. Don't want anyone of you guys to fall into that. Instant perish for sure." He watched as the thick blob of lava slithered into the open ditch. The intense heat could be felt even at the distance he was at.

  "Where are you Aftmantu," Dee whispered as they made their way to the center of the circular island surrounded by lava. He turned to look back at the rest of the members who were on high alert.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Rocks crumbled and fell from the walls. Reaching the center must have activated the battle sequence. Suddenly from the far back, an opening in the wall broke in. Everyone's focus shot in the direction of where it came from. It fell silent and eerie. Moments later, a howling roar came rushing through it that shook the whole cavern.

  "Here it comes!" Derma warned as they all braced themselves.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump! They could feel the giant footsteps of Aftmantu vibrating in their chests. There it was, bigger than any other monster they had ever fought up to this point; terror struck each and every one of them. The possibility of defeating a giant like this seemed impossible. Aftmantu towered over them exactly how Keeper described it. Dee set focus and it read, "Aftmantu the Cave Dweller". Dee could only describe this being as that of a huge crouching earth monster. It had two red rectangular slots for eyes. Cracks of dry clay and rocks spread across the surface of its body in shades of brown and reddish brown. Both of its arms hung between its legs. Every time it moved, stone pebbles and sand piled below it. Where the fore arm started and down to where a hand should be, were large rounded boulders instead. It had an expressionless face. Across it was a defined line that ran from one side to the other suggesting an opening for a mouth.

  "Don't be afraid. Get ready to engage!" encouraged Dee.

  As soon as Aftmantu made it to the center of the battle field, Derma shouted, "Attack! Give'm everything you've got!"

  Aftmantu, seeing that his trespassers were making the first move, cracked opened its mouth with a loud roar beating the ground like a giant gorilla.

  They all charged with weapons drawn as Dee and Derma's groups made first contact. Chuck took first aggravation while Kong stayed near until the switch out. They turned Aftmantu around facing away from the cavern opening. The other three groups stood back attacking from behind. It was a show of colorful magic spells flying from all around Aftmantu. The combat DPSers ran circles hitting anything they could get their weapons on slashing, striking, stabbing and performing their own unique attacks.

  Aftmantu swung its arms like wrecking balls smashing the tanks with unimaginable force. He occasionally tried to turn back, but Dee and Derma's groups kept aggravation on it. Chuck and Kong took turns being main tank, but they were losing health way faster than expected. Healers thought they were doing fine, until they noticed that they were starting to slip little by little.

  "Dee, there's something wrong. The in game win percentage calculates that at our current rate of damage, we are not going to outlast it. Let's hope that the extra items donated will help carry us through," shouted Derma.

  "We will have to swap out with the main group taking on Aftmantu. That will give each group time to regain without having to use too many of our resources," replied Dee. "Mara! I need your group to get ready for the swap."

  "Right, coming over. You heard, let's go!" demanded Mara.

  While Chuck took aggravation, Derma and Mara's group swapped positions. Somehow, Aftmantu ignored Chuck's War Cry therefore losing aggravation. It stalked Kong instead.

  Shocked, Dee shouted, "Bu, Tim watch out!" Aftmantu unleashed a back hand sweep with one arm counter clock wise aiming for Kong and instead knocked back Bu's entire group.

  "What just happened?!" Tim shouted in confusion.

  "Ahhh!" Bu cried. "Is everyone ok?"

  Dobson didn't see it coming and landed on his back perishing away while gripping his chest. Jones, Dubby and Akira were slow to get up. Bu had to move the battle away from his group to buy them some time to recover. The spell buffs were still active on him, so he took aggravation and directed Aftmantu towards the back again.

  "This can't happen guys! My healer is down. My group is going to wipe. I'm sorry, after my buffs run out, I won't last long after," apologized Bu huffing to control Aftmantu.

  "Don't worry, I got you covered. Just hang in there for a bit longer," assured Dee as the raid menus appeared before him. Bu's group had shown red all over except him who was now yellow. His DPSers were slowly recovering. "Tim, have Lei rebuff and heal Bu. Derma I need Fero to start casting revive on Dobson now. I know the casting time is a bit longer, but we can hold Aftmantu until then."

  "Life Return!" Announced Fero. "This is going to take a thirty second cast."

  Bu and Dee's tanks had taken Aftmantu back in control facing the back. Slip ups like these happen all the time in MMORPGs. The greatest challenge is how fast raid leaders can recover from it while maintaining the boss at bay until then.

  Dee watched as Fero's casting timer reached the thirty seconds. "We got this. Keep it up guys!"

  "Done!" signaled Fero raising her hand in front of her.

  Dobson appeared from the ground up. He opened his eyes and quickly located his group again. "What the heck happened? One second I was healing, then boom!"

  "Slight hic up," Bu replied. "Alright back into formation position."

  Dee glanced at the raid screen. They had gained control over the battle again and were reaching the 70% mark soon. The groups fought on swapping in and out when needed being careful to make
sure full aggravation was on Aftmantu.

  "Good job everyone! 70% approaching in less than five minutes. Watch for it!" Dee reminded them. How Aftmantu was going to transition, they had no clue, but since their adjustment earlier, they were doing fine for now.

  "We got the last hit!" Mara shouted. As soon as Aftmantu's health hit 70%, it returned to the middle of the battle ground losing all aggravation from the tanks. Everyone followed behind. It then leaped up into the air and came smashing down. The ground shook and Zeys came crawling out from the cracks below them. They appeared everywhere from in front and behind them. The Zeys were also earth monsters of all sorts of deformity. Some were tall and skinny, but no bigger than they were. Others short and stubby with one eye, two eyes or no eyes.

  "Puny little things, but annoying as ever," struggled Tim as he smashed one on the head. The Zeys came from all directions.

  Dee started to worry as each group was being overwhelmed by the mass amount of Zeys. With everyone being too occupied defending and staying alive, Aftmantu pounced around continuously summoning more. If the first wave was not destroyed, the next wave just added to it leaving no time to actually deal with the source. Dee's head jerked left and right taking out as many Zeys as possible and at the same time the raid options were beeping and flashing everywhere as damage was being dealt to everyone.

  "Pesky little guys aren't they?" Mara managed to say while trying to stay out of direct combat. "Seems like everyone is losing health points, everyone. What do we do now Dee?"

  "Just a bit longer guys," Dee whispered to himself as he fought on.

  No one had notice that Jessie had removed herself from the fight, so she could start to cast a spell. She had been at it since the first perk started. At the entrance of the battle field, Jessie erected an enormous spinning ice shard wheel above her head. With a forward motion of both her hands, it shot across the battle ground decapitating all the Zeys in its path. Piles of rubble lay everywhere and quickly perished.

  "Nice Jessie!" acknowledged Tim. "Now, can you do that again?"

  Jessie shook her head. It took a lot of energy to get that out especially a spell of that magnitude. She would have to wait for there to be enough energy before she could do it again. The other players didn't specialize in large area damage spells. They only had spells meant for small mobs to get by in a five-man group. Lilli, Shaoli and Bone tried to do as much as they could, but they were too overwhelmed by the Zeys who kept on interrupting them during their chanting. With the little time they had, they spent it recovering to prepare for the next wave.

  "This isn't going to work," spoke Derma. "This will continue on until we perish. Unless we can take care of these Zeys, we will never get to Aftmantu. Cosmic wave!"

  The attack took out a line of Zeys, which were just replaced by more. Again, Aftmantu hopped up and down shaking the ground summoning yet more. Then it did the unexpected, Aftmantu lunged at Bu. It had put itself back into battle.

  Bu blocked the hammer fist attack from above falling to one knee. All the while, the Zeys were throwing Stone Clap attacks on him from all directions. Akira picked off a few of them to help Bu out, but she herself was receiving too much damage from the ones that were pursuing her.

  Dee fell back trying to buy time. He ran around without aggravating any Zeys as much as possible. His raid was falling apart. He heard everyone calling for back up and support and direction on what to do next. He didn't have an answer. There was just too much happening now that Aftmantu had rejoined the battle.

  Dee then stopped at the entrance to the battle field. He looked at his raid options. He shifted Mara's group to his right. Another group appeared, joined and locked in. Everyone stood in confusion as to what Dee was doing. They quickly pulled up the raid groups. To their surprise, Dee had added a new group to the raid.

  "Welcome to the party boys!" exclaimed Dee.

  Group six. Leader, Gen.

  Chapter 28 - The Fall

  "Rain of Fire!"

  Fireballs came crashing down on every Zey on the field freeing everyone from torment.

  "Hello" Gen spoke gently.

  Four casters also appeared before them. Yin, Oman, Cecil and Karry were already chanting away. Gen then set a trap in front of each of them in the case that they might get interrupted.

  "Gen?!" exclaimed Derma. "I thought you left for good?"

  Commotion fell upon everyone.

  "I suggest that we focus on the mountain standing in front of us. Shall we?" Gen casually pointed. He shook off some dust from his armor.

  Everyone stared at Dee for a brief moment. Dee nodded towards Gen who was waiting for his command. Meanwhile, Aftmantu furious at what just happened, was once again summoning his pesky boulder friends.

  "Everyone! Focus all attacks on Aftmantu. While summoning the Zeys, he will not engage in battle. This means we will have to do as much damage as we can during that time. When he breaks from it, Bu, you be our main tank. Gen, continue to take care of the Zeys," directed Dee.

  The dread had lifted from everyone as they shouted with confidence. Now all attacks were finally being placed on Aftmantu as it summoned without retaliation. Great damage was dealt, and the Zeys stood no chance against the rain of area damages that Gen and his casters were able to do. Dee couldn't believe it; they were gaining ground. He peered at the raid options and menus. All groups were sustained. Observing the health of Aftmantu, it was reaching the 35% mark.

  After it pounced on Bu, it did not return to the center. This time it stepped to the back wall. With both its arms, it banged on it causing the whole cavern to shake violently. Then everyone fell in silence. The rough sound of air being cut came from above like a faint hiss. As it got closer, it was now that of a rushing wind. One, then three and now four stalactites came swooshing down one after the other. It separated the battle field as well as the group members. Everyone moved out of the way to different areas to prevent from being impaled, but by doing this, they were all separated.

  When the stalactites stopped plunging to the battlefield, it was like a maze with dead ends everywhere they turned. Everyone was yelling out to each other, some just on the other side of the now wall of stalactites and others farther away. Dee had escaped somewhere on the west side of the area. He called up the raid options. Everyone still looked like they were in perfect health, but for how long was that going to last, he didn't know.

  Pow!

  The loud noise made Dee jump. Then a light flickered red on his raid options and Sunny's name beeped twice and flickered out of site.

  "What the?!" whispered Dee.

  "What's happening?" yelled someone from the distance. Ponto's voice echoed bouncing off the stalactite walls. "What's going to happen now?"

  Crunch, crunch.....Pow!

  "Ahhh!!" screamed Pronto.

  Dee watched as Pronto's name turned red and with two beeps it flickered out of sight.

  "What the heck is going on? It's like bad horror movie," shouted Bu.

  "What to do, what to do," Dee thought out loud. After a few seconds, the stalactites dissolved. There behind Melic, Aftmantu towered. He turned around to block just in time and aggravated it. Everyone looked at each other trying to figure out where they were in the battle field. When they finally realized it, Melic had already taken a lot of damage.

  "I need healing now!" Melic hollered as best as he could while trying to stay alive. Lei was not too far away and was able to cast a healing spell just in time. Some of the others were able to get there in time to deal some damage on Aftmantu, but for only a short time before it started again. Aftmantu jumped to the back and banged the walls. The stalactites now back again creating a new maze.

  "What the hell. We can barely make it in time to attack before it resets. Also, we are down two members now," Tim spat as he moved about.

  Dee didn't have time to breathe. Coughing he said, "It's picking us off one by one. It knows that as a raid we can defeat it. Dividing us out to one or two, we stand no chance."
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  Kaboom!

  "Ahhh!" Clink, clank. Smash!

  Everyone sat listening to the one sided battle from where they were. Dee pulled the raid options out again. Beep, beep –beep. Karen's hit points fell to zero, and her name flickered out of sight.

  "AFTMANTU!" screamed Dee in frustration. He tried thrashing his sword through the wall in anger. To his surprise, the stalactites crumbled and perished away leaving a gapping open space. On the other side was Mara. "Mara!"

  "But, h-how did you?" stuttered Mara staring back at Dee.

  Dee slashed at another next to him. The deep gash caused it to crack and crumble perishing away.

  "Everyone attack the walls," shouted Mara. One by one the stalactite walls disappeared revealing Aftmantu's location. It jerked in circles as the raid surrounded it finally able to do damage once again.

  "Amy, revive Fero, Karen, Sunny and Ponto. Everyone else, let's take it down!' exclaimed Dee charging in.

  They came from all directions attacking at Aftmantu's health points. Calling down the stalactites was only a diversion to separate them, but now they had figured out a way to use it to their advantage. By destroying only a few of the stalactites, they hide behind some of them forcing Aftmantu to guess where everyone was positioned. The "Peek-a-Boo" assault was genius and from there they took Aftmantu down to its last 10%.

  "Well done everyone. Now prepare for the end of RTU," announced Derma. He made eye contact with Dee in which Dee nodded in return. This was the last stretch.

  Dee watched as the percentage of Aftmantu's hit points fell to 12%, 11% and finally 10%. Something strange started happening to Aftmantu. Chunks of rock and clay broke off from it revealing underneath a black rough surface. Everyone moved out of the way of falling rocks. It was shrinking in size tremendously.

  "What's happening? Is it perishing?" questioned Derma.

  "No, it definitely isn't dead yet. I can see that there is still ten percent remaining," replied Dee.

  "Hah!" Gen interrupted. "Metamorphism."

  "Coal," added Tim. "It's changing. From tremendous pressure and heat, it is the process of how diamonds are formed from coal."