Level Up

by Craig Anderson

  “Is that so?”

  I get hefted into the air. I just have time to see that my opponent is a level 35 Big Brother before he tosses me over to where Carlos and Sarah are standing. They help me up. Carlos says, “I thought this was supposed to be an easy fight?”

  He has a point. All three of them are massive. It’s a bloody bonanza of bros.

  “I tried, ok. Just follow the plan and we will be fine. Sarah, get behind them and cause a distraction. Carlos, suppressive fire. I will get in close and see if I can wear their health bars down. Lets do this. Go team!” I hold my hand in the centre, but the other two just stare at me like I’m an idiot.

  Sarah teleports closer to the attackers just as Carlos fires his first volley of arrows. One of them hits Sarah square in the shoulder, chipping off her health. Friendly fire is still on. She says, “Hey! Watch where you’re aiming!”

  “Sorry, I didn’t know that’s where you were going to be.”

  Carlos pulls out a blue arrow and fires it at one of the larger guys. The moment it hits he starts to shiver and he freezes on the spot, but just then Sarah tosses a fireball into the group and the blue slowly fades away again as he warms up.

  Sarah is trying to pull the arrow out of her back when one of the big bros charges at her. I zoom in, planning to intercept him and save the day. Instead, he scoops her up and throws her right at me. I’m going too fast to course correct and we collide head on. She pins me to the ground, her bosom landing squarely on my face. The chain mail is scratchy, but for some reason my brain isn’t too focused on that fact right now. She says, “what is that sticking in my hip?”

  “Sorry about that. It’s my gun.” I draw Waterfall and aim it at the nearest Big Bro. I’m hoping it is enough to scare him, but he stands there unperturbed. I have him lined up in my sights, but just as I pull the trigger he takes a hit from an arrow and staggers backwards, out of the line of fire. This is getting ridiculous. We are supposed to be on the same team!

  The big bro stalks towards me, ready to teach me a lesson. I wield Showstopper, expecting him to back down, but he keeps coming. I take a swing and he deflects it effortlessly and punches me hard in the face, taking my life bar down by almost a third. We can’t get into a fist fight with these guys, they will eat us for lunch. That goes double for Carlos.

  Speaking of which, he’s not looking too hot right now. Two of the big bros have broken off to go after him. They must sense he is the weakest. He’s firing arrow after arrow, but they aren’t doing much good. One of them lunges at him and Carlos rolls out of the way just in time as the fists crash into the spot where he was just standing. He shouts, “Little help here guys?”

  Sarah flicks her wrist but nothing happens. She says, “Weird, my spells aren’t working?”

  I try to run over to help Carlos, but I run straight into an invisible wall. I try to go around it, but I bump straight into another one. I run in a circle, but my new invisible prison is only a few feet wide. It wasn’t there a second ago? Is this some kind of magic? The Big Bros certainly don’t look like magic users.

  I look up and Carlos is doing a very convincing impression of a mime, pressed up against a wall that isn’t there. Sarah is too. What is going on? Are we just going to have to stand here, trapped, while the Big Bros beat the snot out of us?

  Just like that, the Big Bros freeze. Then one of them runs at Carlos and swings at him. Carlos doesn’t even try and block it. The punch hits him hard, but he stays in the same spot, losing most of his health in the process. I watch as the second big bro does the same thing and Carlos falls to the ground. There is nothing I can do while I’m stuck here.

  The third Big Bro runs straight at me. I cower, waiting for the attack, but he stops a foot away from me and just stands there. None of this makes any sense. That is when the message pops up:

  Player’s Turn

  The floor is suddenly covered in a white grid that wasn’t there before. As I move my gaze around, the square I am staring at is highlighted. If I stare at the spot next to Carlos the square lights up red. I try several other squares around him, but it doesn’t change to green until I am only halfway. I can’t get to him this turn.

  At least I can do some damage. I pull out Waterfall and check. It is ready to fire. I aim it point blank at the Big Bro right in front of me and pull the trigger. I feel the recoil, but he doesn’t go down, or even show any damage. Instead I get a notification.

  Miss

  Miss! It was pressed against him. How the heck did I miss?

  I shout over to Sarah, “Can you hear me?”

  I’m expecting it to echo off my invisible walled chamber, but instead she shouts back. “Yes. Can you move?”

  “I can. What is going on?”

  “I think the game has glitched out. The game used to be a turn based strategy game before we moved it to VR. It looks like it has flipped back into the old rules. It’s a known issue.”

  “Turn based? Awesome!”

  I love turn based games. No reflexes to worry about, no pinpoint accuracy required, just a distilled set of rules that determine the optimal strategy.

  “I don’t know how to make it stop. In the game it usually resolves itself if you get to the end of the battle. I have no idea what it will do in the real world.”

  “Ok, well there’s really only one way to find out. Step one is to get to Carlos. Can you check your movement? You should have a grid on the floor that changes from green to red.”

  “No, nothing like that. Have you handed the turn over to me?”

  “Handed it over?” I stare at Sarah and with a chime the grid disappears. She says, “Ok, I see it now. What do you want me to do?”

  “Can you make it to Carlos?”

  “No, but I may be able to protect him. Hold on.”

  She waves her hands and projects an ice spell towards Carlos. At first I think she is going to freeze the Big Bros, but instead a pillar of ice forms, lifting him up off the ground. When he is several feet in the air she says, “That won’t hold them forever, but it should let you get to him. The problem is, now I can’t attack, and you already attacked this turn. We are sitting ducks. I’m going to get as far away as I can, but we need to take these guys out.”

  She turns and runs in a straight line away from the Big Bros, but it’s not very far. The grid reappears as she hands the turn back to me.

  We need to revive Carlos. Without him we are losing out on an entire attack every turn. If only there was a way for me to move quicker, to get to him this turn.

  Wait, move quicker? Why didn’t I think of this sooner? I flip on my speed shoes and my movement range doubles. There’s even space at the top of the ice pillar for me to stand. I select the space and without conscious effort my legs start pumping and run me right up next to him. I skid to a halt the moment I reach him. It’s almost as if someone else has control of my body. Creepy!

  An option appears to revive him. Apparently it will use up the rest of my action points for the turn. I click on it and place my hands on his chest. There’s nothing more I can do, so I select End Turn.

  The Big Bros immediately start punching at the bottom of the ice pillar. The sounding of cracking ice fills the air and the pillar starts to tilt, but it stops moving just before it topples. I’d love to dart away, but I couldn’t run off even if I tried. I am stuck in my invisible cube.

  The other Big Bro runs towards Sarah. I’m hoping he can’t reach her, but at the last moment he lunges and gets to the square next to her. He pulls back his fist in a leisurely haymaker. I just have to stand here and watch, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t even want to think about how much damage it is going to do. Am I going to be reviving Sarah next turn?

  The punch misses. I have no idea how, but he whiffs it over her head and Miss pops up. That was close. Too close.

  It is our turn again. The moment it starts Carlos opens his eyes and leaps to his feet. He says, “What happened? Why can’t I move?”

  “It’s a lon
g story. Somehow we are in a turn based fight.”

  “Turn based? You must be thrilled! So how do I attack?”

  “I just have to hand control over to you.” I’m just about to do that when I say, “So what is your plan exactly?”

  “I’m not sure yet, I will figure it out when I get there. I just know I really want to punch the guys that knocked me out.”

  I take a deep breath. “That didn’t work out so great for you last time. You need to keep your distance. They don’t have ranged weapons, you can sit back and pick them off.”

  “But that’s no fun. I want payback. Those guys killed me!”

  “You were barely dead, it doesn’t count. You need to think more strategically. Whether we like it or not, we have a lot of time to make our decisions at the moment. Let’s practice working together.”

  I’m expecting a fight, but Carlos starts to nod. After a few moments he says, “We can totally humiliate these guys!”

  “Sure, if that will make you happy. So how do we get off this ice pillar without taking a beating?”

  He thinks for a moment. “Let’s bring it down on top of them.” He shouts, “Sarah, can you get a fireball this far?”

  I hand her control and she says, “Yes, only just. Where should I be aiming?”

  “Bottom of the ice pillar, between the two Big Bros. Can you get them both in the area of attack?”

  “Yes I can, but won’t you two get burned?”

  “I have a plan for that. Fire away.”

  She runs away from the Big Bro next to her. As soon as she is in range she throws a fireball and it immediately engulfs the bottom of the pillar. The two enemies start losing health and the ice pillar drops, bringing us level with them. Carlos says, “Ok, let’s focus fire on the guy with the lowest health. Can you reach him?”

  “I can, but he’s currently on fire. Won’t that be a problem?”

  “Trust me.”

  The grid reappears and I run up to the guy. I take a swipe with Showstopper and it removes the rest of his life bar. He immediately faints, but my arm bursts into flames where it touched him. It stings, but my arm stays intact. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to leave it like this. I shout, “Now is a good time to fill me in on the rest of that plan!”

  I hand him back the turn, hoping he has something up his sleeve. He pulls a blue arrow out of his quiver and turns to face me. Before I can ask what he is doing he fires it right at me. I flinch as it hits me in the shoulder, but the flames are immediately extinguished and I haven’t lost any health. Then he moves several squares away from the remaining Big Bro.

  It’s a great start. Now we are only facing off against two enemies, so we already have the advantage. The first one runs over to me and punches me, which unfortunately connects. I’m back down to one hit. I don’t know how we eat in this game, and if it will take up my turn.

  I wait for the other Big Bro to chase Sarah, but instead he moves over and picks up a dustbin, hiking it above his head. He looks ready to toss it, but instead he freezes.

  It’s our turn again. Sarah eyes the guy behind her and says, “Can one of you take him out? I’m out of MP and it will use up my action points to drink a potion.”

  I try aiming Agile. It can reach him, but it’s not going to do enough damage to finish him off. I shout at Carlos and he checks too. “Looks like I can take off about half with a fire arrow. If we both concentrate our fire on him then it might do it, but we’d both have to hit. It’s risky. What about the other guy?” says Carlos.

  I check his stats. “I can take him out with Agile in one burst, but then we’d be leaving Sarah vulnerable.”

  “Ok. Take that shot. If you miss I can try instead. If you hit I will make sure Sarah is ok. If she gets taken out we’ll easily be able to revive her next round.”

  “Guys, I am right here! You’re talking about me getting killed like it is a mild inconvenience.” She doesn’t look super impressed.

  Carlos is right though. We have to play the odds. I line up my shot and pull the trigger. The hail of bullets whittle away the Big Bros health bar and he drops to the ground, with a whoop from Carlos. I turn my attention to him, “Ok, now what?”

  “Do you think that bin counts as a projectile?”

  Before I can answer he flicks his hand and a bubble shield envelopes Sarah. Then he moves to make sure he can get a shot off next turn, and just like that our turn is over.

  The Big Bro springs to life and immediately throws the bin at Sarah. It bounces harmlessly off the bubble shield. He stares as it rolls away, and then turns and runs right at me, but he has no attack points left. There’s no-one else left to move, so it is back to us, and I smash the Bro with a swipe of Showstopper.

  Carlos says, “ice or fire Sarah?”

  “Let’s ice him.”

  Sarah flings an ice blast his way. Carlos follows it up with an ice arrow, freezing him solid. He skips his turn due to his convincing impression of a popsicle. Our turn pops up again and I say, “do the honours Carlos.”

  A headshot finishes the Big Bro off with a satisfying twang. The moment he falls to the ground, we can all move freely again. I take a deep breath. It feels nice not to be cooped up in an invisible cell. Sarah strolls over and says, “It is a good job that worked! I thought I was in big trouble there.”

  “Did you ever doubt us?” says Carlos.

  “Of course not.” If her tone was any more dripping with sarcasm we’d need a lifeboat.

  “Question, what are you both spending your skill points on?” I ask. I’m really tempted to put them all into my health bar, but that’s not very exciting.

  Carlos leaps into the air, then jumps again mid air as if there is an invisible spring board. He throws in a flip in for good measure. “Agility all the way baby.”

  “That’s really impressive and utterly pointless, unless we have a quest to grab something off a really tall shelf.”

  “I can’t lose health if they can’t hit me.”

  “If only that were true. Literally all I have done all day is revive you. A fat vampire caught you and the only thing he ran for was the mobile blood bank.”

  “We’ll see who gets the last laugh on this one.”

  Perhaps he’s right. Sarah says, “Magic is obviously my focus. It’s hard to choose between making my current spells stronger or buying a new spell. I think I’m going to increase my fireball.”

  Ok, well that settles it, everyone else is getting cool stuff. I browse through my skill tree. There are all kinds of new combat moves I can get. I see a really cool one and purchase it before I can change my mind.

  Move unlocked - Flaming Uppercut.

  That’s surely going to come in handy. I test it out and leap into the air, my fist suddenly ablaze. The moment I land the flames go out. Carlos says, “Wow, pretty cool! I can’t wait to see that one in action.”

  “Speaking of action, that went pretty well. At least we worked together. Now if we can just learn to do that in a real time fight.” I give Carlos a glance so he knows who I believe to be the key barrier to that particular milestone.

  Instead of acknowledging it, he changes the subject. “Ok, so what is left? We must be getting pretty close to the end game now.”

  I check the timer. We only have five hours left.

  “The only quest item remaining is to face a final fear, but I don’t know which one that is. I also haven’t completed my legendary armour set yet. I am missing a legendary helm. Any idea where I might pick one of those up?”

  Sarah thinks for a second and says, “Actually I do, but you’re not going to like it.”

  “Why do you keep saying that?”

  LEVEL 22: HATS OFF

  “Are we absolutely certain that this is our best option?” I stare down the open manhole cover and try to hold my breath.

  Sarah nods, “It is the only legendary helm that I know for sure was implemented. We were still building out a lot of the armour sets. We decided that the dwarves would be the race
responsible for crafting the best helms.”

  Carlos’ voice sounds funny as he pinches his nose. “Makes sense, but why exactly are we jumping into the sewer?”

  “Dwarves live underground. This is the only underground area in the city, so by that logic, this is where they would live.”

  “You’re certain? Some of the older pubs in the city have cellars, perhaps they would live there?”

  “Not big enough. Trust me, this is where we are going to find them.”

  There’s no time for further debate, the clock is ticking. I tuck my arms and legs in like a pencil and jump into the hole, landing at the bottom with a splash. It’s dark down here and hard to see, but I hear a lot of critters scurrying away.

  There’s a loud splash and some sputtering and Marcus says, “I think I swallowed some water.” This is followed by dry heaving.

  Sarah lands far more daintily. After a few seconds a small flame appears in her hand and the tunnel lights up. It stretches as far as I can see. We look both ways down the tunnel, but there is no obvious sign of which way to go. I pick a direction and set off walking.

  We’ve gone round a few blind corners when we round one and I almost fall off a very steep drop. Carlos bumps into the back of me and we both teeter, but a prompt flashes up and I select it quick enough that I manage to right myself, dragging him off the edge in the process. I carefully peer down into utter darkness. “That doesn’t look promising. Sarah, can you get the light up here? I think I can see something out there.”

  As Sarah gets closer the outline of a ledge appears. I could leap up, but I have no way of knowing what I am letting myself in for. Sarah realizes the same thing and casts the fireball onto the ledge, illuminating it. It’s a tiny platform, barely big enough for the three of us. I can’t see where it is being held up by anything, it appears to be floating unsupported in the air. Just as quickly the fire goes out.

  I turn to Sarah. “Do you have platforming in your game by chance?”

  “Only in a few of the temples. The beta players hated it, it was horrible to play in first person. We had to implement a 3rd person view just for the platforming sections. We were actually considering dropping it.”