* * * * *
“Time for the boss fight,” said Sherman, as the elevator doors opened again. He didn't sound worried. They had cleared the third floor without catastrophe.
This time the carpets and walls were green and purple. “What do you mean?” Aes asked him. He was getting tired of always being the beginner of the group, not knowing what was next.
“Aes, a boss is more powerful than ordinary enemies,” said Darla. “He will be harder to kill and may have special powers the lower level Jerx don't have. He's like a general of the bad guy army. He'll usually have several Jerx protecting him, so we have to try to pull them and take them out before we take on the boss himself.”
Darla went to the corner of the corridor, looked around the corner, and came back to them. “Uzis,” she muttered. “There's three baddies around the corner, all with Uzis. No sign of the boss yet.”
The word was only a sound to Aes. “Uzis?”
“Guns that fire many bullets in a row, Aes. Each bullet might do only a few units of damage, but the cumulative effect is devastating. Imagine if you had a thousand slingers or peltasts lined up swinging, and then they all let their pellets fly, one after the other in quick succession.” She did a drum roll on her sternum with both hands. “Maybe we should let this mission go until we get Rita and Sam back with us.”
More barbarian names. “And give Am-heh more time to eat more avatars, growing stronger with each hour?”
Sherman gave Aes a funny look. “Are we still talking about the game?”
Darla held up a hand. “Whatever. Kaykay, we go on, but Aes, remember what I told you about the elevators if it goes bad.”
They proceeded around the corner. Aes saw three Jerx holding things barely related to crossbows. Longer than a 'handgun' but shorter than a 'shotgun', these devices had their trigger grip nearer the middle rather than at one end. The three Jerx were engaged in a conversation about women of negotiable virtue.
“Wassup?” boomed Sherman the Tank.
The three Jerx turned.
“Tell me something. Does this suit make me look fat?” asked Sherman the Tank, bounding toward them. Darla watched and waited.
“I thought we were going to pull.”
“Not this time,” she said. “They were too close together. We would have gotten all three. And guys with good ranged weapons don't need to chase you; they can just shoot you.”
By this time Sherman the Tank had reached the three. Their weapons converged on him, and his health line by the portrait in Aes's roster began dropping rapidly. Aes reached out mentally and healed him.
Now he finally saw Darla go into action. Running toward them, she activated her power that made everything slow to her; her form became a blur of arms, legs, and swords as she flashed toward the Jerx like a human meteor and began scything into them. He threw another heal onto Sherman the Tank.
A stinging in his side made Aes look down. A couple of stray bullets had gone into him. Trying to ignore the pain, he concentrated and healed himself.
Sherman was down to one-third health now but still soldiering on. In the seconds since he had engaged the Jerx he had disabled one and was giving another trouble. But Darla was collapsing, her health nearly gone: the third had changed his aim from Sherman to her.
Desperately, Aes sent her a heal, pushing her health back up to one-third. Without her speed advantage, now spent, she launched herself at the third while Sherman punched the second Jerx so hard the man flew up, bounced off the wall and continued up, bounced off the ceiling and fell to a crumpled heap. Aes tried to send Sherman another heal but it was too soon; nothing happened. He swiveled mentally and sent a heal to Darla.
And then it happened. Hardly a second after he healed Darla, her Jerx turned his gun toward Aes and spewed leaden death as she double-stabbed him. The floor tilted up to hit Aes and everything went black for a while.
Gamers and Gods: AES Page 40