by R K Billiau
You have been offered a quest! Quest: Follow your Hunch! - Reward: Unique skill to help you in combat.
You have a Hunch you know where something is!
Congratulations! You have increased your Hunch skill!
My Illusory map activated and deep in the black fog of war to the east of the valley a red glowing X pulsed.
That was a nice surprise. “Wow thanks!” I would have to make sure I came back here to talk to the Adjudicator often. Well, as often as I died, anyway. Which I wanted to avoid.
I ended up selecting, Hunch, Lucky Find, Throwing Mastery, and Illugraphy as my class skills, Driven as my personal skill, and Camouflage as my secondary skill. I nodded to the Adjudicator. “My apologies, I would stay longer but I fear I must get back.”
It smiled. “Yes, I have been watching,” it said. “You are quite entertaining! I must ask though, what does ‘Train to zone’ mean?”
I kept forgetting about that whole ‘livestreaming to an audience of one’. Well at least I haven’t done anything embarrassing. Yet. “Ah, it’s just a phrase meaning ‘lookout, here come a lot of bad guys.’”
“Interesting. I look forward learning more of your colloquialisms.”
“Well, I’ll be happy to share more with you, but for now, I’ve got to get back.” I thought of something just as I was about to leave. “Hey, can I ask you? I saw some world announcements about people reincarnating, were any of them from my tribe?”
It nodded at me. “Yes, there have been eight now from your tribe that have reincarnated. They have chosen other lands to be reborn in.”
“You can do that? Could I do that?” This must be what that world message meant. Reincarnating is like a way to start over.
“Yes, an aspect of reincarnation is being able to start elsewhere to learn and grow in different ways. Would you like to do so?”
The Adjudicator has offered you the chance to reincarnate in another zone, do you accept? YES/NO
I selected NO. While I couldn’t fault anyone for leaving to start over away from this death trap, I wanted to free my tribe and stop it. “No, thank you. I have work right where I am at.”
“As you wish.”
I clasped its hand and shook. “Thank you for all your help.”
It held its hand up in front of its face, looking at it. “Strange, this must be another of your customs.” It bowed its head. “I wish you luck!”
With that I embraced the light and got the menu I had been expecting, offering me my choice of spawning locations. I found a good spot next to the first spawn point and selected it. The world spun around me in a cascade of lights that reformed into the spot I had chosen.
When I materialized, I activated my mini-map and pinged my location so the party could see me. As great as this Prime power was, I was getting sick of losing XP. This Tim situation had to be dealt with so I could get some real game play time. I zoomed my mini-map out but still couldn’t see my party. On a whim I opened my Illusory Map and focused, trying to incorporate where my party was. They showed up as small, slow-moving yellow dots heading in my direction.
Congratulations! You have increased your Illugraphy skill!
The party auto populated as chevrons on the directional ring of my mini-map. I grinned, pleased with how I was really getting the game to work for me. No time for that now, though, so I turned to face the spawn point to assess the situation.
A point of XP popped up while waiting, so the party must have killed something. A hundred yards ahead of me was the small copse of trees with the spawn point inside, surrounded by zombies milling around. If eight people had left the tribe that meant there might be lag between murder times. It also meant that there would be fewer to save and fewer to attune, to get the clan its own spawn point.
The woods were not thick here, giving a clear line of sight. I toyed with the idea of drawing the zombies off by myself, but I had a feeling we might have to do more than just distract them. When I got sight of my party I pinged my location on the mini-map over and over just to be annoying. I got what I can only describe as a single angry ping in return. Hah.
Steve was still running point in the formation, but now Madison was with him, probably because she had the highest HP of the group. I waved as they approached and noticed they had a few more with them. “Damn man,” Steve said when he got close, “you took out that whole camp! It was sick! You charged in there all ‘blaaaar!’ and the zombies followed you all ‘waaaaaagggh!’ And like they totally killed you and Cora, then like a bunch of the others man, these guys escaped though. It was AWESOME!” He waved his hand towards the four newcomers. I waved back.
“Hah, that was a crazy plan. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier.” I approached the group. I recognized some new people from my short time in the cave but had never had the chance to get to know any of them. I was grateful three of them were Hunters and even though they were all in their underwear because of their equipment being trashed, I hoped they could be helpful.
I walked over to Madison and might have blushed a little. As awesome as my exit had been, I had no idea how she would take it. She gave me her adorable smirk and grabbed my hand. Not a bad sign. “I’m glad you did that; it was brave and stupid.”
I coughed. “Well, that’s me in a nutshell, I guess.” I kissed her hand that was in mine and winked.
“Hey, speaking of stupid, I have another plan. We don’t have much time.” I looked toward the newcomers. “Does anyone have any kind of crafting skill? Maybe something we can use to get you guys some spears?”
One Hunter raised his hand. A huge man with an even huger bright red beard. “I have Carpentry as my carryover skill. I could make something, but I’ll need some tools.”
“Great!” I said, “What’s your name?” I reached my hand out to him.
He took it shaking hard, not hard like testing my strength, just hard like a man who had natural muscle tone. “I’m Mason.”
I would have scanned him, but I had already changed my title from ‘Vassal of the Adjudicator’ to ‘Prime’ in case I had to use my Prime power again.
“Steve can you give Mason your knife so he can try to make some spears while I explain the rest of the plan to you guys?”
“Sure man, I’m like, totally excited to get this over with, man!” This guy was nice enough, but man he got on my nerves. He handed his knife to Mason who left to find branches.
“Okay guys here’s the plan. First off, we have to act fast. We don’t know how long Tim will be out hunting or whatever and I want to do as much damage as possible before he gets back. We’ll form a line of people leading from the center near the spawn point with a person spaced every 4 or 5 yards out. At the end of the line we will have the new Hunters with some spears as a stop gap. I’ll Stealth in and try to draw out the zombies and get them to follow me. You guys lie in wait, Stealthed, using Camouflage when you have the spirit for it and chuck rocks at the zombies as I kite them by. We can pop off a lot of Sucker Punches and take them out.”
“Why don’t we just lead them away?” Madison asked.
“That was my original thought, but I learned something when I died last time. The Archon told me that eight people from our tribe died so many times from the death trap that they got to reincarnate and chose somewhere else to spawn. That means there will be eight fewer people going through the death trap, which could slow the process down.”
“That’s kind of sad, but I can’t blame them,” Sarah said. “Anyhow, the experience from killing the zombies will be helpful too, provided your plan works.”
“It’s not the best plan, but I think we have a chance,” Madison said.
I nodded in agreement, then looked at Madison. “Brave and stupid, remember? Stupid like a fox. Can you add the new folks to the party?”
She frowned. “No, I wish. There is a maximum of eight I can have in a party at my current level.” I sighed.
“That’s fine, I guess. I wanted to get these new guys some XP as I
’m sure they are all still level 1. Speaking of which, so am I, now that I reincarnated. So once again, I get to level up from 1. Yay. But maybe we should drop me to help level one of the new folks.”
“That’s a generous idea Hudson,” Madison squeezed my hand, “but we kinda need your mini-map.”
Damn that was right. “Oh yeah, that. Okay well, we will just have to roll with it. If everything goes well we can form parties and gain XP like we were meant to.” I looked at the three underwear clad tribe members. “I’m sorry we can’t get you into the group, but we will figure out how to level you guys soon.”
“That’s fine. We’re just happy to be away from that ass who made us slaves and his psycho woman.” The only Gatherer, a bald black man, said. “I’m Tyler. I don’t know any of you folks, but the way you took out Cora makes me happy to get to know you.”
I smiled at the shared dislike of our ‘friend’. “Tyler are you part of the tribe?”
“No, I never joined a tribe. I went through that damn starter level, then got sent here just to get killed over and over by those zombies. I got let out by Tim for a while, and when he found out my gardening carryover skill gave me a bonus to Gathering, he kept me out to get supplies for him.”
I took my hand back from Madison and offered it to him to shake. “I’m sorry about that. We’re trying to turn this whole thing around so that doesn’t happen anymore.”
About then Mason came back holding a long branch with a sharpened point. “I was able to make this, it’s a ‘Crude Spear’. I tried using Carpentry, but it didn’t work. I got the skill whittling though, which I did a fair amount of back on Earth as well. I don’t know how long it’ll last, the durability is crap, and the damage is barely above punching, but here it is.”
He offered me the spear, and I pushed it towards one of the other Hunters. “Think you can make more? One for each of you, then hang out here?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said and left the way he came.
“All right guys! Stealth up and let’s get into place! When everyone is ready, ping the mini-map, and I’ll pull.” There was a flurry of crouching as we all entered Stealth mode and moved into the trees.
Chapter 29
I walked toward the zombies, my Stealth and Camouflage both active. They were milling around bumping into each other, some running into the same thing over and over and over… I was happy they were too stupid to see through Stealth. I waited for everyone to ping the map telling me they were in place. I had no idea what level the Party skill had to be to get a group chat going but it sure would have been nice. As it was, we relied on ping signals to figure everything out.
When I got the last ping, I pulled my arm back as if it were an arrow in a bow, ready to launch my rock at the nearest zombie when someone materialized out of the spawn point. I hesitated... the zombies all went into a frenzy charging in to get their feast on. I stopped hesitating, narrowed in on the closest one and threw my rock.
Sucker Punch! Your attack catches the opponent off guard!
It didn’t kill the zombie, but it also didn’t attract it. I guess a live meal was more interesting. I threw another rock. This time when it hit, it crushed the zombie’s skull and ended it. One down, lots more to go. I threw at another one.
Sucker Punch! Your attack catches the opponent off guard!
Critical hit!
You have slain a zombie!
Congratulations! You have increased your Agility attribute!
Bam! That’s how it’s done! I chucked another rock at the poor, unsuspecting fools, but this time, precisely half a second before it hit the zombies skull with a satisfying crack, they had finished their meal and like a flash mob in perfect unison all snapped their heads in my direction.
Sucker Punch! Your attack catches the opponent off guard!
Every zombie was shuffling over to me, like a bunch of old men who had forgotten their walkers. Same smell and everything. It was not a pleasant sight. I knew I could outrun them, but these things would just keep coming forever. They were the penultimate persistence Hunters. Was that the right word? What the heck did it even mean? I don’t think it’s the right word. I shook my head to focus and threw another rock at the zombie I had already hit.
You have struck a zombie for 15 points of damage!
You have slain a zombie!
You have gained 10 XP; you gain a party bonus of 2 XP!
I took off at a fast walk. A power walk, leading the zombies like a mama duck towards the first tribe member. As I suspected, they struggled to navigate through the trees. The herd was slowed and thinned out considerably. I pinged the mini-map, letting my party know that there was incoming. As I made it past the first tribe member, a damage notification appeared in my party battle log.
Maria has inflicted 26 points of damage to a zombie!
I stopped and spun around just in time to see Maria fade out of view as she popped Camouflage. I targeted the zombie I thought she hit and threw another rock.
You have struck a zombie for 15 points of damage!
You have slain a zombie!
You have gained 10 XP; you gain a party bonus of 2 XP!
One more down. Maybe we actually did have a chance! I continued to weave my entourage through the waiting tribe members, as we reduced the herd one by one. I wasn’t paying good enough attention because all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I was sucked up into the air and exploded in light. Level 2 flashed across my vision. Finally! I didn’t get to bask in the glory, though, because the second my light-ride landed, I was zombie meat. Being the brave zombie slayer that I am, I ran like hell and hid until they were distracted by other meal opportunities.
Now came the hard part. There were still too many zombies and they had all clumped together again. I couldn’t bring them to the new people; they would be overrun and killed in an instant. I would have to double back and lead them towards the spawn point. I pinged multiple times on the map, hoping my team would understand my signal. Thinking of some other mini-maps I had seen in games, I tried something; I activated my finger like I would when archiving in my infinite notebook, and I drew a crude arrow on the map pointing back the way I had come.
It worked! Well fancy that. At least now I could communicate with everyone even if they couldn’t do the same with me. I chucked a rock at the group of zombies, once again training them on myself. Making a wide circle and dodging trees, I realized I was out of rocks. Crap. I grabbed the closest thing that had a little weight to it, and threw it at a zombie, damaging it but not by much.
Branches weren’t as effective, but I probably should have thought of that before I started this little venture and neglected to stock up on rocks. I made it around the zombies without incident and got back on track. Running them back towards the spawn point was also producing fantastic results as my tribe mates took them down one by one.
My heart sank when I neared the spawn zone with my zombie parade and saw two new people laying on the ground splayed out like they had given up hope and were waiting to die. “Get up!” I shouted. “We’re trying to save your asses! Get out of there!” Their heads popped up to look at me. When they saw the zombies coming behind me, they both screamed and ran.
“Get outside the trees!” I yelled after them. “There’s more of us here, we are here to save you!” I lost tabs on them after they ran off, but I hoped they would make it to the group. Once again, I doubled back going through my line of attackers. It was like soccer teams that ran by each other in opposite directions after a match, mumbling good game and high-fiving. Except instead of high-fives we bashed in heads.
When we once again arrived at the end of the line, instead of doubling back, I jotted ‘All Fight’ on the mini-map and pinged over and over where the new people with spears were. I watched the dots of my tribe moving as they got the message. If I counted right, there were only eight zombies left, and I was banking on us having enough level ups in the party to make us a force to reckon with. Or at least an even match. I wasn’t
too picky.
As soon as the zombies saw the tribesmen with spears, they wasted no time rushing them. The spear wielding Hunters took one down, but it was already apparent they would be overwhelmed. Perhaps I had misjudged how many we could take at once. I launched myself into the melee at that point, using Brawling as best I could to knock them down, or at least back.
“Get back!” I shouted. “Hit them from the sides!” My tribe mates were gracious enough to allow me to take the brunt of the attack for a while, giving them the chance to circle to the side and skewer another zombie to death.
I knew I was going to die. I cursed myself for not taking another pass down the line when Steve showed up screaming like a wild man, stabbing right through the eye of the furthest zombie. I died happy as I saw the rest of my tribe catching up and laying into the few remaining zombies.
“Ah back so soon,” the Adjudicator said.
“Sorry can’t stay!” I embraced the light and spawned right where my tribe was. There goes my XP.
As soon as all the pixels of the world fell into place, I saw everyone high-fiving each other over actually dead zombies and talking to the two new people that had come through the spawn point.
“Hudson!” Madison ran over, embracing me. “We took them all out! It was great! I think everyone leveled up too!”
I wasn’t one to turn down the embrace and tried to make it last just a little longer before letting her go without it encroaching on awkward. “I leveled back to 3, but if I keep dying that won’t last long. I see we got some new people! I’m glad they made it out. We should head back to the spawn point and see if anyone else shows up.”
We gathered everyone and walked to the spawn point. “What are we gonna do now man?” Steve asked.
“Well, we have a couple options, the way I see it. We could just wait here for more people to come through and try to gather them all, or we could press on to the next one and repeat what we did here.” A high-pitched scream cut through the air as another person appeared in thin air.