Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds

by Wade Adrian

  They lined up as ordered with shield bearers at the front. There were a few heavily armored types with two handed weapons but they formed up behind those with shields. Claire stuck close to Toby and was joined by a few other robe wearing types. One looked to be decked in leather with a staff. A druid? He wasn’t familiar with all of the classes in this game yet.

  Amos readied his bow and stood off to Toby’s left as others moved to surround him. He was beginning to feel a bit claustrophobic…

  The doors opened inward, which is why people lining up against them on the inside had been able to keep them closed. It meant there was a narrow opening before them that had to widen before they could move as a unit.

  Paul stood at the front, his shield up and his sword drawn.

  There was no one outside. No one Toby could see anyway. He stood up on his tiptoes and was a bit surprised when his character actually did so. He moved his head back and forth, glancing between those arrayed before him.

  “Slowly.” Paul nodded and took a step. The others moved up and reformed the shield line with him.

  There was no one outside.

  No one at all.

  They all looked around expectantly. Weapons were still held at the ready. Heads swiveled back and forth.

  The sound of a single pair of hands clapping was all that could be heard.

  “Bravo.”

  Toby shaded his eyes from the sun as he turned to see the small bearded man sitting on what little was left of the roof of the ruined church.

  5

  The formation loosened up as the group shifted to move the front line to the back, shields held high toward the little man.

  He smiled down at them. “Oh please. Don’t look so shocked. What fun would it be to let the world know you were here? Honestly I don’t know who told people you were here in the first place, but I’ve been keeping tabs since they did. So I locked up the church and sent them to the other side of the continent with bogus updates on your position.”

  Paul shifted his eyes back and forth among a few members of the front line.

  The little man leapt from the roof and landed in the dirt between the shield wall and the building. He stood up with a smile already plastered on his face. “And just look at you. Already off to such a great start.”

  “Stand down, Miller.” Paul didn’t so much as lower his shield. He spoke over it. “Your little stunt downtown earned you attention from the federal government. Our building is crawling with representatives from every agency you’ve ever heard of, and probably one or two you haven't. They’re going to find you. If you give up this farce now they might go easier on you. Maybe get you a cell with a TV. Or a window.”

  The little man endured his words with an unshakable smile. “You’re trying to get me to give something away. I won’t. My only concern is what’s happening in here.” He pointed to the ground beneath his feet. “And so far, I like what I see. Organization. Formation based on useful skills.” His smile widened when he caught sight of Toby. “And a fully participating VIP. Good, good.”

  Toby raised his hand. “Hey, is this sword broken? It doesn’t have any stats.”

  Paul’s head slowly turned to look back at Toby. His face was unreadable. Devoid of emotion.

  The little man shook his head. “Oh, no. It’s not broken. That is fully capable of harming anything and anyone in this game, but its strength is based on yours. Take it up against any sort of boss or elite at your level and you’re toast.”

  “Cool, thanks.” Toby charged to the side, moving through the loosened ranks. Once he was beyond them he held the sword up high and threw it directly at the little man.

  His eyes widened as he vanished from sight in a flash of electrical energy just before the sword flew through the space he had been standing in an instant before.

  The little man reappeared on the roof, but his smile had been left behind. “How dare you!”

  Toby held up his empty hand as he swung the plastic club around his wrist by the lanyard. He grabbed it as it went by and the sword reappeared in his hand, awash with electricity for a moment. “Can’t blame me too much. I’m just an uncultured barbarian. Shortest path between two points and all…” He shrugged.

  The little man stared a moment before his cheek lifted on one side in a fake smile. “I see you’re not the dullard I expected of one who chose such a class.” He nodded a few times before his smile resumed in truth. “But that only makes things better for me. A dullard probably didn’t have much of a chance, but I’ll be watching your progress with interest.” He turned his face back to Paul. “The best place for you to start is just over there.” He pointed to the west, if the sun was any indication. “You shouldn’t have much trouble getting your party rolling there. Best of luck. I’m counting on you.”

  He vanished from sight in the same electrical flash that he had used to appeared on the roof.

  All eyes turned to Toby, but no one but Paul moved. He stood before the much younger man. “Nice throw.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t ever fucking do something like that again.”

  Toby blinked. “It could have worked, if he hadn’t-”

  “And he could have killed you. You were safe in the middle. You are not safe out here on your own. You only get one shot, kid. One. You fuck it up and we are all in trouble. No more showboating. Do I make myself clear?”

  Toby nodded.

  Paul nodded. “Good.”

  Claire and Amos had moved out of the group now. “We did learn something from that.” Claire nodded to Toby. “The sword Miller made can hurt him, even now.”

  Amos nodded. “We learned more than that. Given what he said, I doubt he’s even in the states. He’s not concerned at all about being found. He’s that confident in his hiding place and who is hiding him.”

  Claire tilted her head. “But he heard the explosion. It was only a few blocks from us.”

  “Maybe he didn’t hear it, so much as gauge our reactions to it.”

  Paul rubbed at his beard. “It’s not much to go on.”

  Toby held up the sword a bit. “Also this comes back when I throw it.”

  All three sets of eyes turned to him.

  “You see, two of you had tried to take it and not been able to. And when I was looking at it in the inventory I clicked it a few more times than necessary trying to figure out what I was doing. I can’t unequip it even if I wanted to. So, putting two and two together…”

  Paul was staring at him now. “You just thought you’d risk losing the one item key to our already minuscule chances of success.”

  “Er… yes?” Toby shrugged. “I was pretty sure…”

  “Pretty sure doesn’t cut it.” He bit off the end of each word. “We got lucky that the bomb he already set off didn’t kill anybody. We have no idea where he is or who he is working with. There’s no room for ‘pretty sure.’ There’s no room for anything beyond certainty.”

  The gaze was unsettling. It was one rendered 3D character looking at another… but Toby felt small under that gaze. He nodded as he lowered his eyes. “Okay.”

  Paul shook his head and moved back to the others. “Alright, form up and get ready to move out. I want someone to check in with our remaining GMs. Don’t let them do anything crazy, just have them hover and keep tabs. I have a sneaking suspicion Miller has a plan for them if we don’t keep them on a leash. We’re breaking into four groups as planned. Six per group and two alternates. For now, all four groups are moving together. Myself, Mark, Kelly, and Mike are still the group leaders. Get it done.”

  A window popped up in the center of Toby’s vision. He accepted the group invite without reading it.

  The name “Celan” appeared over Paul’s head in a shade of green. His name appeared to the far left of Toby’s vision as well, with a health and mana bar beneath it. The icon beside his name was a helmet with wings.

  Well, that was a surprise. Paul wasn’t happy with him at all… but then, he was the linchpi
n of this whole train wreck.

  The name “Kelara” appeared below Paul’s on the side as Claire joined them. Her icon was a sun symbol laid over a squared off cross like paramedics wear. He blinked at her.

  “You’re a cleric?”

  She looked mildly confused. “Uh, yeah?” She held up her hammer. “Not really by choice. I usually roll fighter or rogue, but they needed a cleric this morning for a dungeon test and I was game to give it a try… and now it’s what I’m stuck with.”

  Paul gave her a nod. “We make real clerics here. Your hammer will break things just fine, and your armor isn’t for show. You’re no clothie.”

  Amos joined the group next. His icon was a bow and arrow. No surprises there. He had all the trappings of a ranger, aside from a few scimitars and a cougar.

  The next name to appear was Amallia. She walked through the crowd to stand by them. She was the girl in leather with a staff from before. Her blond hair even had a few leaves stuck here and there.

  Claire narrowed her eyes. “We already have a healer.”

  Amallia waved and gave her a smile. “And now you have a backup healer. Don’t fret, I run damage.” She pointed a finger at Claire like a gun. “Boom.”

  “Tch.” A hooded man walked up behind her as his name was still changing color. Killian. His icon was a Zorro mask and a dagger. Rogue. No doubt. “More like sizzle sizzle, Jesse.”

  Amallia, Jesse, narrowed her eyes at him. “I have lightning, too.”

  Paul held up a hand. “Yes, but you’re here because you can heal if the situation is dire. So I can I. We’re hedging out bets that way.” He gave them a nod. “We have solid melee DPS with Toby and Tim. Solid ranged DPS with Jerry.”

  “Amos.” Jerry / Amos sulked a bit.

  “Okay, Amos. And support and ranged DPS from Jesse. Claire is our main healer and I am the main tank. Welcome aboard. We’ll work out the alternates when we find someplace we can work with.” He raised his voice. “For now, the alternates should group up for safety’s sake. We’ll all move together, but they’ll be out ahead doing their job. We don’t have time to waste.”

  The people standing around broke into four groups of six and two groups of four. Groups five and six moved out ahead while the others took up position behind.

  Paul nodded. “You all know what we need to do. None of you are new to this. I want you to exploit every bit of knowledge you have. You see a quest appear in your region, you take it and you do it. You find mobs that give better than average experience or rewards, you let the rest of us know. We need to do our best to level in a hurry without triggering any blow back from the dynamic event system. Lets avoid monster invasions if we can. The risk is too high.” He turned to the front and gave a nod to the scouting group.

  They started ahead at a brisk pace, the other groups tailing behind them.

  Toby stood behind for a moment as most of his party got moving. Claire stopped beside him. “Something wrong?”

  “He hates me. We just got this thing rolling, and he already hates me.”

  She smiled and took a step back. “He doesn’t hate you. You just need to be more mindful. Miller made you the VIP. The VIP can’t be taking risks.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I just thought…”

  “That you could win on the first day? I don’t think Miller would allow that.”

  “Guess not.” He started forward. The rest of the party was waiting on them.

  She walked beside him and leaned in close. “But you did surprise him. He clearly wasn’t expecting you to act out, or to be a threat. Not sure if it’s a good or bad thing, but he’ll probably be more wary around you.”

  Toby smiled a bit. “Crush your enemies.”

  “He was certainly driven before you.” She nodded. “Come on, we need to stick together.”

  Killian was standing at the rear of the group a few feet away as they approached. “I’m pretty sure his wife left him, so she probably won’t do much lamenting. Let’s get moving, Conan.”

  Miller’s information seemed to be on the up and up. The fields ahead were overrun with short green creatures with lanky limbs and ridiculously long ears. Goblins, though a less civilized version than Toby was used to seeing. Masters of commerce and explosives these were not. They wore scraps of cloth and armor made from bits of wood and rough metal. Some moved about on foot while others rode on wolves or commanded them as pets.

  The group stopped on top of a hill and watched the scene below. The goblins were setting up a camp for themselves. A few ramshackle buildings but mostly crude tents. They had scouts wandering the edges of their camp and more moving about into the trees north and south of the camp. The six parties stood to the west.

  Paul nodded. “Good. This will do to get us started. We need to advance and break up that camp, but don’t get reckless. We take them all out in a hurry and it might trigger an invasion. Just clean house.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Alright, for now keep the alternates together, but figure out where they are going to go after. Bill and Carol, after this you’re with us.”

  Amos raised a hand. “Uh, bit of business first.”

  “Eh?” Paul already had his shield on his arm and was drawing his sword.

  “We should form a guild.”

  “Hmm.” Paul left the sword at his side and rubbed at his chin. “I forgot Miller disbanded the last one.”

  “Yeah.” Amos nodded. “But we need an appropriate one, now.”

  “Appropriate how?”

  “Well, we’re part of this event thing, right? So we need to work that up. Don’t get me wrong, the old ‘Deviants’ name was fun, what with us being the Devs and all, but it doesn’t really show allegiance here.”

  “Right.” Paul nodded. He glanced around. “Suggestions?”

  Claire raised her hand. “The Royal Guard? Miller did set Tobin up as a dictator, and we are guarding him.”

  “Ehhh…” Amos shrugged. “He’s not really royal, though.”

  “No, but if he takes over the place that would make him the king.”

  “I like that better… King’s Guard.”

  Paul shook his head. “The ‘Guard’ part is a bit on the nose. We don’t want people targeting us until we’re capable of holding our own.”

  The druid raised her chin. “Kingsmen.”

  Amos narrowed his eyes. “Isn’t that a band? Or, like, three bands?”

  “The ‘King’s Men’ was the play company Shakespeare belonged to.”

  “How do you even know that?”

  “English lit minor. Does it matter?”

  “I guess not. Whose going to tell us we can’t use it? Us?”

  Paul rubbed at the back of his neck. “Eh, it will do. It’s a bit more low key, anyway. Alright, I’ll set it up and we’ll add everyone. Invites are open, feel free to add anyone you think is helpful.”

  Toby frowned. “That seems like it could snowball. What if one of them is just getting close to knife me in the back? If I was one of them, I’d consider it.”

  “They can’t. People in your party as well as those in your guild can’t hurt you, open PVP or not.”

  Claire nodded and bonked Toby on the head with her hammer. “It’s an allegiance thing. The PVP rules are designed around guilds fighting each other. If members could hurt each other, intentionally or not, nobody would bring mages or anyone with strong AOEs.”

  Nothing on his HUD had changed. He didn’t even see where his hit points were listed. It must not be visible when his health was full.

  “Huh. So just add everyone we meet then. Blind invite spam.”

  Paul shook his head. “Not only do people hate that, but we have a head count to consider. We can only have five hundred members. Not a small number, and it’s unlikely we’ll see that many together at once, but it is the hard limit.”

  A window with the guild invite popped up. Toby accepted. The names of those around him didn’t change, but those beyond started to. The names of the members of the oth
er groups appeared in green over their heads now.

  “Cool. Somebody trick that Miller guy into accepting so he can’t kill me.”

  Claire tapped a finger against his forehead. He could almost swear he felt it…

  “If we did that, you couldn’t hurt him either. Besides, when the time comes for his endgame to play out, he’s not going to show up as the little bald bearded guy.”

  “No?” Toby hefted his sword. “What is the boss of the raid he took over?”

  Paul shook his head. “Not good.” He wandered a few steps away, waving to the other groups. “Alright, group leaders over here. We need to talk.”

  Toby raised and eyebrow and looked aside at Claire.

  She sighed. “It’s a dragon. I know, I know, cliche. But it’s no slouch of a dragon. We put months into tweaking that raid. It was only just possible with careful organization and the best gear in the game… and that was before Miller decided to make it his clubhouse. We don’t know what’s in there now.”

  “Bummer.”

  “Yes, bummer.”

  Paul returned a few moments later. “Okay, we’re going that way.” He pointed to the goblins north of the camp. “Group two is heading south, groups three and four are going to try and thin the resistance on the way into the camp.” He nodded to the two most recent additions. “The alternates are involved in this, too. We should all get a few levels here. Once it’s clear, we’re going to split into two parties, each with two groups and four alternates.”

  They nodded and Paul started them moving down the hill as he drew his sword.

  “Confession time,” Toby leaned aside to Claire. “I didn’t actually get to play this morning, and you know I wasn’t in the beta. So… the hell am I doing?”

  She gave him a level stare as they walked. “Okay… everyone has four basic abilities as part of their class. I think all of yours involve hitting things, but that isn’t surprising. If you still had your controller, you probably wouldn't be surprised to find the four face buttons issued those four commands. But here with us, with those gloves on, it’s based on your movements.”