“What the hell!” I shout as he attempts to hit us again. “Dean, hit him.”
“It’s nothing personal.” He scowls.
I hit the brakes and Paul swerves past, nearly falling off the edge himself. His fairy apprentice opens fire on us with a giant boulder from the earth elemental. Dean blasts it with fire and molten lava coats our shield, ticking down its health by the second.
Paul is beginning to pull away when Dean lands an ice beam. He must know he can’t escape while slowed, because he shifts into reverse and tries to ram us again. I activate speed boost and hit reverse at the same time, blasting us out of the way. Dean hits him with another slow as I shift back to forward and use a second speed boost. Our shield continues to crack as we’re hit with more and more boulders, but our increased speed rockets us around Paul before he can run us off the road.
“What an ass!” Dean yells at Paul as we pass.
Karma strikes hard when a cluster of cars emerge from the portal on top of Paul. I use the final speed boost to put as much distance between us as possible.
As we exit the rainbow bridge, we’re in ninety-seventh position.
A blood-caked body smashes against the front of the car, and I fight back the urge to scream. We find ourselves in a desolate city, fires raging all around. Overturned vehicles are scattered across the road. The entire scene is gray and haunting. Dark figures shamble across the street, forcing me to slow to avoid them.
There’s something very familiar about this level. As we pass an overturned semi-truck, I realize what it is. This track is based off of Apocalyptica, the first stage of the Developer’s Tournament.
“Hey, Dean, I need you focused up front. We’ve got zombies.”
He shoots a fire blast at the nearest zombie and it turns to ash. “Try to get me another fire charge, we’re running low. These guys should burn like tinder.”
I hit several item spawns, but the elemental spawns are nowhere to be found. A shield cell replaces the damage from the first two zombies I hit. The more noise we make, the more zombies turn in our direction.
I slow down slightly in an attempt to mitigate the sound from the thrusters. “Dean, hold off. We’re drawing more to us.”
He stops firing, but the undead are already shambling in our direction. Up ahead, a swarm of them have at least five cars pinned in place and unable to move. Each time they respawn, the zombies swarm them again.
“Help us!” someone shouts when they see us.
It’s the two gnomes who made it through stage one without fighting.
“Help us and we will owe you one,” the second gnome pleads.
“Should we help?” I ask Dean.
Every second we wait, more zombies enclose around us.
Dean grimaces as he thinks it over. “Do it. We might need help getting through this.”
I look over our elemental charges again. We have fire, poison, and ice.
The first zombie reaches us and starts beating against our shield. One zombie isn’t enough to break it, but more approach by the moment.
I call out to the gnomes. “Do any of you have a wind charge?”
The gnomes shake their head, but one of the other cars, the two pink-skinned cyberpunk girls, Annabelle and Kristen, I believe, say that they do.
“Alright, next time you respawn, shoot a gale in our direction. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Here we go,” Annabelle shouts.
Their car and bodies dematerialize and hover in the air. A moment later, they’re dropped to the ground and nearby zombies swarm them again.
“Shoot them with poison,” I order.
A stream of green liquid fires across the street. It’s feet from hitting the cars when Kristen fires a wind charge. The two elements converge in midair, forming a green blob of gas that hovers around them. The zombies charge at the cars again, but the toxic gas eats through their bodies like acid, leaving nothing but a pile of bones.
With the threat neutralized, we pass by the other cars as they wait for the zombies to fully decompose. I zone in on the track, avoiding broken-down vehicles and more zombies.
Dean discovers that shooting them with ice freezes the zombies in place, so that if we hit them with the car, they shatter like glass.
We travel a lot faster once we start smashing the zombies instead of trying to avoid them.
All of a sudden, our speed is cut in half. Ice crystals cover our shield.
Annabelle smirks at us as they creep closer. “Thanks for the help back there, but we didn’t make any promises.”
“Yeah, but we did.” The gnomes hit Annabelle and Kristen with an ice beam of their own. “Hit them with wind if you have it.”
Dean fires a gale of wind at the same time as the gnomes shoot a stream of water. The two elements combine as they hit the slowed car and a hurricane engulfs them, twisting them through the air and tossing them back a hundred yards.
The ice melts from our shield and we regain speed.
“We’re even now.” The gnomes nod to us as they use a speed boost and zoom by.
Soon, we hit another portal and emerge in a world of mushrooms. Shrooms of all shapes, sizes, and colors stretch for as far as the eye can see. Some are as tall as trees, other not much bigger than shrubs. Wooden fence posts separate the track from world beyond.
We pass too close to a mushroom that hangs over the railing, and it releases a toxic cloud that obscures my vision and damages our shield. Unable to see, I crash into the fence post and spin out.
As the smoke fades, a car comes passing by. It glows a bright pulsing yellow, and when Dean fires upon it with an ice blast, the beam has no effect.
“Suck it, loser!” The car swerves in our direction.
It crashes into us, knocking us into the railing again, but their vehicle takes no damage. They speed off like they hit nothing at all. Another mushroom explodes, cracking our shield and forcing a respawn.
“What the hell was that?” I hit the steering wheel as I wait for us to drop.
“No idea. Looked like invulnerability of some sort. Dammit!” Anger coats Dean’s voice. “We’re out of placing again.”
We drop in the middle of the track and I do my best to stay far away from the fences. We’re currently in position one hundred two. So close to placing, but there are still two stages left.
There’s a loud doink and suddenly we’re flying through the air. I look behind and see a mushroom that just sprouted on the track.
Our hovercar lands without losing much speed and I notice a dark spot on the track. A moment later, another mushroom sprouts up.
This is it! If I can hit the mushrooms as they sprout, then they’ll speed us through the stage.
I hit the next two I see, and we’re in ninety-ninth position.
We soar over a pileup of four cars caught in a toxic cloud. Dean hits the cloud with a fireball, setting off an explosion and forcing all four cars to respawn.
“Nice one!” I pound my fist in the air.
Something intense must be happening on one of the other tracks, because by the time we reach the portal, we’ve moved up another forty places.
My neck whips forward when we exit the portal and slam into a wall of gray.
“Geez, what was that?” Dean grimaces.
The wall slides across in front of us and morphs into a tail fin. It’s not a wall at all, but some giant fish.
When the fish is gone, a sandy track stretches before us. Coral reef and anemones grow on both sides and hundreds of tropical fish swim about. Sparks flutter from the tentacles of a nearby jellyfish and I stomp the gas before it catches us.
We’re in an underwater track and our shield functions as a bubble dome to keep the water out.
If not for the fact that we were fighting for position, I could probably sit here and watch the fish swim by for hours. Even in the coral and anemones, there are hundreds of tiny colorful fish darting between them.
For a moment, I follow a yellow fish as it swims thro
ugh the coral. It disappears into the depths of the tentacles, and two red eyes peer out from the darkness.
Sparks ignite around a long snake-like creature before something smashes into our car from the other side and I lose all steering. The car drifts across the track until we crash into the anemone’s tentacles. The stinging tentacles damage our shield by half before I’m able to pull away.
“Dude, eel!” Dean yells, and I see his arm waving out of the corner of my vision.
A long eel hovers across the track, electricity coursing down its body into the depths of the coral.
I activate a shield cell and curse myself for the distraction. That was a rookie mistake. I need to keep my focus on the track and save the sightseeing for when this is over.
The eel bares its teeth before recoiling back into the coral to wait for its next victim.
I speed down the track. Dean scares off a very dangerous-looking hammerhead shark, and I weave between a group of jellyfish.
Not far ahead, there’s a gap in the coral where the water appears to be moving differently. A stray fish swims into it and then disappears in an instant.
Jackpot!
“Hold on tight. I think I found a shortcut.”
I aim for the gap, and the swift-moving current whisks us away. Everything blurs as the current rockets us across the track. We gain four more positions, putting us in fifty-first.
The current spits us out back on the track and I slam on the brakes. Fifty yards ahead, a half-dozen cars wait for a group of jellyfish to cross the road. The jellies are moving at a snail’s pace, but they’re packed so tight that they leave no other option. I wait back, not ready to reveal our position.
Deep within the group, sparks zap out. A car respawns above them only to be immediately trapped inside again.
We’re too far away to tell who it is, so I creep up as quietly as I can. As we get closer, I notice laughter. Several drivers gesture at the car as it respawns over and over again.
“Hey, that’s Talia and Chadwick.” Dean points over my shoulder. “We need to do something.”
I focus on the vehicle and even though it’s far away, I can make out Talia’s dreadlocks and Chadwick’s afro. “What can we do? There’s at least six of them against us. If we try to help, they may all turn on us.”
“We have to do something.” He pleads. “You know they would do the same for us.”
He’s right. Talia would do the same for us. But this is Dean’s future on the line. Is it worth risking that for someone we’ll have to fight against in the end anyways? I’ve never been one to stab someone in the back, but Dean is my priority here.
A crack forms in the wall of jellyfish, and the group begins passing through one at a time. I could easily activate invisibility to pass through behind them. Talia would be none the wiser.
“Get closer. I have an idea,” Dean orders.
I push my thoughts of subterfuge aside and do as he says. This is Dean’s show, for better or worse.
Once we are close enough, he shoots an ice beam at one of the jellyfish. It freezes in place, and even the tiny sparks of electricity turn to ice.
He blasts the entire row in front of us. “Now go through. I’ll hit the other side.”
I pass through the crack in their wall, only inches away from the frozen tentacles. Talia and Chadwick respawn overhead, and Dean freezes the jellyfish just before they land.
“Thank the gods for you two!” Talia beams. “I thought we were going to be stuck here forever.”
They hit the frozen jellyfish and bounce off before landing in the sand next to us.
“No ally left behind. Now, let’s get moving.” Dean taps me on the shoulder.
We lost four positions during our rescue attempt, but we still have plenty of breathing room.
“I agree. Only one more stage after this one.” I get straight to business. “What item and charges are you working with?”
We go over everything we have, and luckily, we have a couple of charges that synergize together. Talia has been holding on to an invisibility item as well, so there’s a good chance we can coordinate them if an opportunity presents itself.
The group that snuck through before us is long gone. For the rest of the stage, we fight through sharks, jellyfish, and the occasional eel before we hit the portal for the final stage.
Position: 55/163
Stage: 10/10
This is it. As long as we don’t screw things up, we’ll be into the final round.
We pass through the portal and emerge into another medieval town. My jaw drops to the floor and I slam on the brakes. Talia crashes into our rear and a crack forms in our shield.
“Esil, what’s going on? Why did you stop?” Dean’s voice sounds distant over my shoulder.
Talia says something, but I ignore her.
To my left, smoke emerges from inside the city walls of the town. A drawbridge hangs open and two guards stand sentry outside. Above the walls, a massive pine tree towers over everything, white flowers dancing on the end of its branches.
Florian.
My pulse races. We’re in Carolton, but how could that be? This isn’t full-immersion. That’s not coming until next round. Or did I completely misread everything? Is this what the Broken Lands have become, a sideshow track in Raceworld?
And what about the NPCs?
Carter steps into the archway of the drawbridge, and I instinctively jump out of the car. The red timer flashes across my vision, counting down from thirty.
“What are you doing?” Dean calls after me.
“Just give me thirty seconds!” I take off sprinting. “Carter! Carter, over here!” I wave my hands until I get his attention.
Carter doesn’t acknowledge me. His face is contorted as he looks on in confusion.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“Carter, it’s me, Esil.” I grab his shoulder and he recoils, pointing his trident in my direction.
“I’m sorry, adventurer, but I don’t believe we have met. You must have me confused with someone else. Good luck with your race.”
The timer hits fifteen seconds. I don’t know what has happened to Carter, but it’ll have to wait. I sprint back to the car, climbing inside right as the timer hits two seconds.
“What the hell was that? We’re in a race, and you almost got us disqualified.” Dean scowls at me. “We lost two positions while you were gone.”
“You’re right. I’ll explain everything later.”
I’m flooded by memories as we follow the dirt road that leads away from Carolton. We pass the farmhouse where I first spawned in the Broken Lands. The scarecrow I robbed of its clothing still stands perched above the cornfield.
A group of bandits block the roadway up ahead, but a toxic cloud allows us to bypass them with minimal damage.
In the distance, the black leaves of the forest loom ominously. Some dark challenge will certainly be waiting with the depths of the Cursed Oaks.
Soon, we cross the border into the forest. Broad-antlered deer roam across the road, forcing us to slow down. I dodge what we can, and attack what we cannot. A particularly tough buck runs along beside us, ramming its antlers against our car before Dean is able to take it out.
I turn a sharp corner and slam on the brakes once again. A wall of vines blocks our path. A high-pitched laugh echoes from the other side, sending a chill down my spine.
The laughter fades, and a green-skinned woman appears on top of the vine wall.
The dryad.
Vines wrap down her arms and several branches protrude from her shoulders and back. Moss covers her chest and drapes down her legs like a dress. Her long emerald hair is dotted with crimson flowers and the black leaves of the cursed oak.
I remember battling her with Carter and Kindra. Carter’s fire magic set her ablaze like dry kindling.
“Hit her with fire! That’s her weakness.”
Dean doesn’t hesitate, unleashing a maelstrom of fireballs at the dryad and her vine w
all. Chadwick follows suit. The dryad bursts into flames, her screams echoing across the forest as the wall crumbles to ash.
“How did you know that would work?” Dean sounds astonished. “We never practiced this track.”
“I’ll explain everything later. For now, just do what I say and we’ll get through this.”
We zoom through the ash, leaving a smoky trail in our wake. The forest fades, and we find ourselves in front of sweeping wildflower-covered plains. My haptic suit does its best to mimic the aroma, but it doesn’t compare to what I remember.
We grab new charges and a speed boost as they appear. Talia has a speed boost as well, so we activate them on the stretch of open road.
In the distance, there’s a multi-car pile-up. Something darts through the air around the downed cars.
Fairies.
If it’s anything like the Broken Lands, then the drivers have all been put to sleep with fairy dust.
At the front of the pileup, a hulking black figure abruptly turns a pulsing yellow before leaving the others.
I point in his direction. “It’s Ryken. He must have used one of those invulnerability items.”
“What’s going on up there?” asks Talia.
I slow down so that we are side by side. “Fairies. They have a sleep debuff.”
Some of the other cars begin moving again, so the effect must be wearing off.
“Still have that invisibility item?” I ask.
She nods.
“Good. I think it’s time to use it. We can bypass the others and avoid the fairies. Once we are in front, Chadwick and Dean can coordinate an attack and slow the other cars down further.”
Once we are close enough that the fairies become visible, I activate invisibility. A countdown appears, telling me I have ten seconds before it quits working.
The fairies dart through the sky. Several dozen of the small, winged humanoid creatures with pale blue skin fly through the air, sprinkling glittery dust beneath them. The creatures aren’t bigger than the size of a kitten, but they fly with great speed.
We pass around them, avoiding the fairy dust. The other drivers begin to regain their composure, but right as we become visible again, Chadwick and Dean unleash their attack. Wind and earth charges combine, forming a tornado. The tornado rips across the road, melding with the fairy dust and knocking the drivers out again.
Pangea Online: The Complete Trilogy Page 68