Party Hard

by David Petrie

  The trailer showed the dragons clashing in the center of a broken and devastated city as the earth around it began to shake. The ground puckered and cracked until shards of rock ripped through the surface, surging up and to the center as they crashed into each other. One piece after another layered together until a shell formed over the dragons, trapping them below the surface, only letting one final burst of flame escape. All that remained was a barren scar on the landscape, a mountain of lifeless stone. The video held its view and the scene aged before Max's eyes as it was reclaimed by nature, becoming an innocuous piece of land covered with flowers and trees.

  Thus, the entire deru race and the War Dragons blinked out of existence. The screen went dark. Then the words, ‘until now’ appeared in sync with the voiceover. A short shot of the two dragons rushing toward each other flashed, then it cut to a party of adventurers, not unlike themselves. They stepped up at the end to signify the players of the world facing the return of the creatures. The camera rotated around them to show a sky growing dark with swarms of smaller dragons clashing, their winged corpses falling like meteors across the land. Fade to black.

  "Okay, the point is?" Kira inquired.

  "That's where your next waypoint is. Sierra, the lost city," Alastair explained.

  "If it's lost how do we go there?" Ginger asked with her arms folded.

  Alastair rolled his eyes. "Well, it's not actually lost. We know where it is. It's been in development since the beginning. The story was going to be that it had been hidden, sealed inside a mountain."

  "Not one full of lava this time, right?" Max butted in.

  "Umm no, there's no lava?

  "What about magma?" Kira joked.

  "What?" Alastair asked before adding a frustrated, "No," and continuing, "but it is almost a functioning city at this point. We've been building it little by little with each update to avoid downtime when we launch it. Otherwise, we would have to shut down the servers for over a day to load a whole city at once. We were going to unveil it this November as a new kingdom to be claimed, along with the deru as a new playable race."

  "Oh cool," Corvin said, leaning forward on a railing.

  "There is one small problem." Alastair held up a finger.

  "Of course there is." Max threw up his hands.

  Alastair’s face grew serious. "The War Dragons are still in there."

  Max raised one eyebrow. "Like, tearing shit up and what not?"

  "No, no, nothing like that. They're petrified in the city's center, like statues, but …" he exhaled and took a step forward, "my guess is that they won't stay that way once you get in there. I mean, they are called the ‘War Dragons,’ so they have to be the horseman of War."

  Max nodded, expecting nothing less. "Okay, that isn't so bad. At least, we know what we're going up against, which is more than we can say about everything else we've faced so far. And we've fought dragons before." He turned to Alastair. "What kind of weaknesses do these things have?"

  "Umm, none." He dropped his hands to his sides.

  "Of course." Max rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Any other helpful tips then?"

  Alastair leaned his head to the side and folded his arms. "They aren't really fightable creatures. They don't even have health bars. They're meant to fight each other indefinitely. We were going to have them get free and wreak havoc around the world for a few months. When that got old, we planned a small expansion of quests to craft more crystals and seal them away again. It was supposed to be an event to bring players from all over together for the good of the world with multiple parties wielding their own crystal. It was going to be awesome." There was a sparkle in Alastair's eyes as he spoke. Then his expression changed as he sunk back into the peril that the world was currently facing. "But if you do have to fight those things, I don't really see a way that you can win by normal means. I mean, one hit from them does at least a hundred times all of your hit points combined."

  Max sighed. "So what you're saying is that it will come down to Kira's willpower. That is what Carver wants, right?"

  Alastair nodded. "I agree. This is the last of the horsemen; I think he's betting everything on pushing her far enough to take control of the system." He turned to Kira. "If you can do that, you shouldn't have trouble killing them."

  "Well, crap. No pressure." She plopped down into Alastair’s chair. "I don't even know what I'm doing."

  The group fell silent. She was right. Talking about bending the game world with her mind was one thing, but actually doing it was something else entirely.

  Farn spoke up. "I think you can."

  Kira bobbed her head in a mixture of nodding and shaking back and forth as if trying to nod but not having the confidence to commit to the gesture.

  "I do, too," added Corvin. "You're forgetting that you still have that pendant, and it's still running all kinds of stuff that we don't know on your rig. My guess is that all of that might help you."

  Max considered it. "True. I can't imagine Carver making us come all this way, only to have us fail and send it all crashing down."

  The others agreed.

  "Alright, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So how do we get to this place?"

  "That's going to be a bit tricky." Alastair shoved his hands into his coat pockets. "Normally, we just teleport there, but since you can't right now, you'll have to use the back entrance."

  "And that is where?" Max asked.

  "Well, it's invisible, so that's helpful. I'll have to go down with you and show you exactly where it is." Alastair waved his hand. "It will make sense when we get there." Excitement returned to his eyes at the prospect of getting to help.

  Max let his hands fall to the butts of his pistols. "Something tells me we're not going to like this."

  Chapter Forty-Six

  The Nostromo groaned with reluctance as it flew low into an area between two nameless mountains, letting the team out as close as possible to their destination.

  Alastair climbed down the rickety rope ladder, feeling uncomfortable asking Kira for a Flight spell after being caught in a lie that affected her. She didn't seem mad about it, but then again, she didn't seem like the type to get mad in the first place. Either way, he didn't want to press his luck.

  As soon as his feet touched the ground, he sent out a couple party invites to his two Shields, SpoilerAlert and FireDrill, who were both employees like Farn, each having characters unrelated to the company.

  Jeff-with-a-three brought up the rear, looking just as boring as usual. The severe elf had a habit of bringing the mood down, and if Alastair was honest, he'd always felt like the guy didn't like him. His eyes always seemed to be judging him, though he'd never said anything to confirm the theory. Despite that, Alastair couldn't argue that he was easily the best assistant that had ever lived. His memory was perfect, and he simply owned the position, like he had been born for it. So when he thought about it, the elf's performance was worth a few judgmental looks and a sour disposition. That didn't stop him from adopting Kira's new name for him with enthusiasm, though.

  Max took one look at him and his small party and laughed. "What's with the red shirts?"

  Both of his Shield's eyes widened at the implication, but Alastair waived his hand to reassure them. "You're just here to help out. You'll be fine."

  Each of them stood completely rigid, like they'd been lashed to a pole. If anything, his interaction with them only made it worse, which made sense. He was their boss, and there was always a little fear in that relationship that he had a tendency to forget about. There wasn't much he could do about it, so he started up the mountain.

  Alastair led the two parties up a path that, at some points, grew so narrow that they could only pass in single file. He apologized for the difficulty on reflex. It had actually been a deliberate choice to keep people from finding the place while it was still in development. The odds were low that anyone would be exploring the area to begin with, but they weren't taking any chances. They'd even taken the
effort to place a high-level monster further ahead to act as a guard.

  Kira glanced at the mission clock, then stared off into nothing for a moment, eventually letting out a sigh along with the word. "Seventeen." She must have been adding up her total time.

  Farn stepped close to her and nudged her in a playful manner. "How you holding up?"

  "Okay, I guess." Kira folded her arms. "I'm assuming I peed my pants back in the real world by this point, though."

  Farn laughed, then looked to Alastair as if asking him to confirm.

  "I assure you, you haven't," he promised.

  "What makes you so sure?" Kira questioned.

  He paused. "Well, when I was logged out earlier, Max told me to have nurses put in a catheter before that happened."

  Kira stopped in place, all the color draining from her face. "What the hell, Max? Don't tell people to do things to my bathing suit area without asking."

  "Take it from someone who knows, it's better than waking up with a surprise," Max said, his arms folded in front of him as he walked. "Plus, I thought it would be funny when you found out." He leaned his head to the side as if pondering the humor, then he nodded to himself.

  Kira placed a hand on Farn's shoulder. "I need you to do something for me."

  "Sure, anything," the Shield said without hesitation.

  "When this is done, I need you to log out before me and tell them to take it out before I wake up. I'm going to pretend it didn't happen."

  Farn nodded.

  "Okay, great. No need to speak of this again." Kira picked up her pace.

  Alastair smiled a little at the exchange. That fact that they could joke around with each other in such a tense situation made him a little envious of the camaraderie that the party had with one another.

  He hung back so he could walk side by side with Max as if leading the others together as a team. The Fury seemed to have committed to getting things done rather than fighting, a fact that Alastair appreciated. "Thank you," he said in an attempt to mend things between them.

  "For?" Max said without taking his eyes off the path.

  Alastair kept his view on the ground as well. "For doing all this. I know things haven't gone entirely to plan, but you and your team have been amazing."

  "Well, you are paying us." Max kept up a business-like front.

  "True. I guess as far as mercenaries go, you're worth every penny."

  Max let out a single laugh. "I hadn't thought of us as mercenaries, but I guess it fits."

  Alastair chuckled as well. "Sounds kind of cool, too."

  "I'll add it to my resume."

  Alastair smiled, feeling a little better that he at least got a laugh out of the Fury. He really did appreciate everything they'd done for his company, and he hadn't meant to lie to them. He had a legal team telling him to keep his mouth shut after all, so it hadn't been up to him in the first place. At least, that was what he'd told himself. Only part of him believed it. In truth, he wasn't sure how far he would go to save Noctem. He loved the players, and Max and Kira were perfect examples of who he cared about, but it was his world. He couldn't just let it be destroyed, and now, with Kira’s neck on the chopping block, he wasn't sure what he would do if he had to choose between his life's work and her. That sobering thought left him wondering if he was as good a person as he had thought or if he was just as bad a Carver. He shook off the question, leaving it unanswered as the path came to an end with a small cave in front of them.

  The entrance was nondescript. In fact, it didn’t look like anything at all. It wasn't supposed to, so in that regard, it was perfect. If Max or the others had come across it at any other time, they probably would have kept walking. Upon entering, the cavern inside was far larger than one would expect, the path leading to a wide rock bridge cutting through the center. Dangerous looking stalagmites covered the floor far below.

  Kegan let out a slow whistle as he looked over the edge. "My money's on one of the red shirts falling. Any takers?"

  "Seriously?" Alastair glared at him as the two Shields exchanged looks that one could only describe as regret.

  "I'll take you up on that," Ginger joined.

  Alastair crossed his arms and tapped one foot, making sure she noticed.

  Ginger shrugged at him defensively. "What? I'm betting they'll live. That's good, right?"

  He rolled his eyes and continued along the path.

  At the end of the bridge, the cavern wall split into a large opening, a soft glow coming from within. In front of it sat a small furry creature. Alastair hadn't seen it in a while, not since they had first started building the city in secret.

  It was hard to tell what it looked like until they moved closer. It sat with its legs crossed and its head down, its face covered by two bat-like wings that topped off the creature's head in place of ears. As he approached, it stood. Its movements were sloppy, almost like it was drunk. The wings parted and flopped back revealing two enormous bulging eyeballs and an equally large mouth. A wide toothy grin took up most of the thing's head. Its bluish fur was speckled with gray and covered a small potbelly that stuck out as the creature stood upright on its hind legs. It cocked its head from side to side like some kind of fidgety mental patient. It was hard to tell if the designer who'd created it meant for it to be scary or cute. It seemed to be both.

  "We've been calling it a misfit," Alastair said behind one hand, leaning toward Max as if trying to keep the creature from hearing him.

  "Is that the guard you were talking about?" he replied.

  "Yeah, it's supposed to be a standard cave dwelling enemy that comes with the expansion. But this one is a little different."

  "How so?"

  Alastair smiled. "For starters, it has about twenty times its normal health and attack values, which makes it appropriate for a party of players at around level one hundred and ninety. It will attack anyone that tries try to get past it, which is what we're doing."

  "What the hell, man?" Max shouted, before hushing his voice back down when it echoed through the cavern.

  Alastair dismissed his concerns with another wave of his hand. "Don't worry; this is why I came along. You guys just need to sit back and relax for once. I have this." He patted his cleric armband and winked.

  Max paused for a second, then shrugged. "Okie, dokie. Have fun." He stepped back to stand out of the way with Kira, who was tilting her head from side to side, mimicking the misfit's movements.

  Alastair stepped forward, grinning wildly as he called to the Shields in his party. "Here's the plan. I just need time to set up one cleric ability, so I need you two to keep it off me." He motioned to the two guards who were both equipped with pretty standard armor around level seventy.

  The expression on both their faces made it clear that they were able to do simple math, and any way they added it, seventy was never going to equal one hundred and ninety.

  "Oh, relax. I've done this before," Alastair said in an attempt to reassure the two men.

  Jeff-with-a-three said nothing but gave him a look that felt just as judgmental as usual.

  FireDrill didn’t know SpoilerAlert well. Sure, they had met at an office holiday party two years ago, but that was pretty much it. Although, when they ran into each other in a conference room the previous day, along with several other employees from all over Checkpoint, they had sat next to each other regardless. He had feared the worst since talk of the controversy with Carver, and the possibility of layoffs was heard around the room. He hadn't thought the conflict between creators had affected the company that much, but there he was. What else could it have been?

  A moment later he was shocked when Milo Parker himself, a man that he had never met in person, had entered the room. He was even more shocked when he had asked the room's employees to work on a special operation within the game as the characters they played in their off hours.

  He’d signed the nondisclosure buzzing with eager excitement, especially since they came with a generous bonus for participation.
Then Milo played a video on the conference room's projection system. Well, it didn't work at first, which required IT to come in and mess with the connections. Milo had brought in muffins and coffee while they waited. Eventually, the projector was up and running, and Carver's face appeared on the screen. That's when he learned what they had all signed on for. He was horrified. Layoffs were the least of everyone's concerns. Instead, the collapse of the entire company was on the line. Failure wasn't an option for him or the world, for that matter. He had to do his best.

  Out of the chaos that followed, he had found a friend in the Shield that stood by his side as SpoilerAlert, the two of them bonding over the course of the night. They even found out that their wives knew each other, both working in the human resources department. Plans of double dates were made, provided they made it through the mission and still had their jobs.

  They cheered together when Alastair made his first speech on the bridge. They laughed together after that ridiculous fairy had caught Spoiler checking out her ass, and they felt the virtual loss of friends when the Horseman of Death shot down their attack ships only an hour before.

  Now, standing side by side with his new friend in front of his company's CEO, FireDrill activated his shield gauntlet and drew his sword, a cold sweat on his brow and conviction in his heart. He glanced to Spoiler, getting a nod in return. They were ready.

  Alastair set his target, the misfit responding in kind with a focused glare. FireDrill braced himself as the strange monster rushed forward, determined to stop it at all costs.

  His boss wasted no time in opening the special menu linked to his cleric's armband, which essentially made him a GM on top of his class as a Cauldron mage. FireDrill assumed the man would never use it during actual gameplay, giving him the benefit of the doubt since that would be cheating, but now, it was the only way to move forward.