Gamers and Gods: AES

by Matthew Kennedy

They cleared the big room downstairs without any serious problems. Darla made the pulls by using her throwing knife attack. Usually she pulled only one or two Jerx, whittling the groups down to manageable levels for her and Sherman. The last pull brought three, but she and Sherman dispatched them easily.

  The mission was disturbing for Aes on two levels. As he had mentioned to Darla, it was hard on his manhood to watch a woman fighting and not leap in to defend her. He was aware there had been Amazons north and east of Hellas, but had never seen them in battle. The only woman he had seen with her ferocity was Atalanta, the female fighter who had come along with the rest of them to hunt the Calydonian boar.

  And that was the second problem: it was disquieting to see just how good she was at killing. He knew, from her explanations, that the Jerx she was slaying were not living beings, but it didn't help much, as he saw their snarling and leering faces contort with simulated agony when her blades ripped through nonexistent internal organs. He wasn't bothered by Sherman's battle lust. He knew how men were, being one himself. Despite everything, he wished Darla was the healer and he could be the warrior with a sword defending her, rather than the opposite.

  On the other side of the large room was another set of elevators.

  “This is where it gets interesting,” said Sherman the Tank.

  “You mean, this is where it gets dangerous,” Darla retorted. “We never got this far before, Aes, so we don't know how much harder this floor will be. All we know is it will be harder. Be extremely careful.”

  The carpet and walls were red-and-yellow this time. “Are we still in the same building?” Aes asked the two of them. “Or is this like jumping from Realm to Realm?”

  Darla explained the elevator. Apparently they had special boxes on cables to pull them up to higher floors. These 'elevators' could take you down as well. He could visualize how to make them, more or less, with big wheels to wind the cables around as the rooms were hauled up. He was less clear, however, how they made the winding wheels turn. From what she said, it sounded like they were powered by tamed lightning. He couldn't imagine any mortal taming Zeus's thunderbolts.

  There was a group of four Jerx a little way down the corridor from them. A couple of them were holding objects that looked like the stocks of crossbows, but he saw no bows across them. “Are those things bigger 'guns'?”

  Darla nodded. “Shotguns. Not as easy to maneuver and aim, but they pack a more powerful punch. One shot from those can knock you off your feet and almost kill you; two direct hits and you're dead. Please don't let them shoot you. If something happens to you now, we'll never beat Am-heh.”

  “Who?” said Sherman.

  “Later,” she told him. “Let's just get through this alive.”

  Aes was glad for the reminder. As grim as it was watching her kill bandits and ruffians, it was apparently necessary to get him ready for the attack on that monster in Egypt.

  “All right, she said. “Wait a minute. I almost forgot to tell you, Aes. If you get hurt bad but you can still move, or they get both Sherman and me, you run back into one of the elevators and push the down arrow. That way you can get away from this floor and heal yourself without getting shot while you're doing it.”

  He was not sure that he had heard her correctly. “You want me to just run away and abandon you?”

  “No, I want you to run away and survive, hero. Until we go after Am-heh, this is just a game for us – it can't hurt us. But it might be able to kill you. Don't sell your life cheaply. Run away and survive. No matter what you see happen to us, Sherman and I will be all right in the real world, and we will come back good as new. The rules are different for us.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” demanded Sherman.

  “It's a long story, Sherman. Aes is....different. When we have time to talk in a safe place, I'll explain better. For now, please take my word for this: Aes is the healer, but keeping him alive is more important than worrying about you and me.”

  Sherman gave Darla another look. “Whatever. Let's go.”

  TZING! Darla whipped out her blades again and Sherman the Tank charged down the corridor, making the floor shake with each step.

  He went straight for one of the men holding shotguns. Aes did not understand how they could not know he was coming. The man was a portable earthquake; perhaps he was dedicated to Poseidon, the god of oceans and temblors.

  Sherman's first punch literally lifted the Jerx off his feet; his head bounced against the wall with an audible thump and he fell, stunned. The other one leveled his shotgun and returned the favor, knocking Sherman down with a powerful blast that sent echoes down the hall. His health went down by one-third; apparently he was tougher than average. Aes threw a heal at him and watched Darla while his power recharged. She went straight for the one that had shot Sherman, stabbing and slashing him from behind as Sherman jumped to his feet. He fell as Sherman finished off the first one.

  The other two only had knives; Darla and Sherman the Tank finished them off in short order.

  When the second-to-last enemy from the group fell, Aes heard a roaring in his ears as if he were approaching a waterfall. To his consternation, he found himself lifting off the scarlet carpet and hanging in the air as an overpowering burst of rainbow light exploded off him in all directions with a mighty chord like a chorus of demigods. Dazed, ears ringing, he fell back to his feet, feeling as if he could barely stand. He was tingling all over, as if his entire body were ringing like his ears.

  “Grats!” Sherman boomed at him. The word meant nothing to him.

  “Congratulations, Aes,” said Darla. “Welcome to level two. You just leveled.”

  About to move on forward, Sherman the Tank turned at this, disbelief plain upon his face. “Level two? You mean to tell me you brought a level one healer into this mission with us? Are you mad at Aes for some reason? Or do you just not care? Sorry, Aes, I had no idea. I should have checked your level before bringing you into this.”

  “He'll be all right if we're careful,” Darla argued. “He's made it so far, hasn't he? Healers at his level hardly draw any aggro at all, and Aes needs to level as fast as he can. We're getting him ready for a special mission. And we're doing better with him than we did before.”

  “Well, yes, that's true,” Sherman admitted. But he didn't sound happy about it. He shrugged. “You got guts, Aes, I'll give you that. We'll do our best to keep you alive, pal, if you really want to keep going.”

  “I think I have to,” Aes replied. “Darla is right. I need to get as much experience as I can. My enemy is leveling; I cannot let him gain the upper hand.”

  “Some kind of grudge match? You're rolling a new toon for the Arena? No problemo. We'll both level. Just watch your back, okay?”

  Aes tried to do this, but there was no way to see his own back. After some thought, he decided that it was some kind of general warning to be careful.