Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds

by Wade Adrian

  Paul let out a sigh. “Okay, lesson learned. We shoot gates from now on. Hell, anything that can be trapped.”

  Green light played over Paul as Jesse approached with her hand raised. “That would include floors. We don’t have that kind of time.”

  He shook his head. “I… okay, yeah. Sure. But doors and chests we bash from a distance.”

  Claire glanced back as she lowered her hand, white light fading. “No lasting harm done.” She nodded. “Don’t usually have to be so careful.”

  “But we do now. Watch for plates, tripwires, damn well anything.”

  Tim patted Paul on the shoulder. “On it boss man, but we need to keep moving.”

  “Right, right.” Paul drew his sword. He narrowed his eyes “Looking forward to this now.”

  Tim bamfed along in front of them as they charged the gate. His eyes were low and his head jerking about as he looked for traps. He stopped twice well ahead of them to kneel down and fiddle with something. When they caught up Toby could see a wire lying in the dirt.

  The second gate opened without incident, breaking into a pile of scrap and splinters.

  They climbed to the top of the ruins, clearing out bandits as they went. There were fewer up high than down below.

  The AI must have assumed the exploding gate did more harm, because most of the bandits left were on the other side of the ruins firing at group two.

  Tim and Amos made them regret that. By arrows or disappearing and reappearing daggers, many of the defenders at the back were thinned out without those in front becoming aware.

  Toby heard a voice… outside the game. “Oh what the shit?”

  It was Jesse.

  He turned to see her lying on the ground with a large bald figure standing over her brandishing a club. Her health bar was low, but not empty. There was an icon beside her name depicting a head with stars circling it like an old cartoon.

  Paul’s eyes went wide. He glanced aside at Toby. “I’ll get him. You get her out of the way.”

  He nodded and raised his sword.

  Paul threw himself forward, bashing his shield against the man and sending him back a few steps.

  Toby followed, but grabbed hold of Jesse and pulled her away from the fight.

  Claire was already casting when Toby got close. He gave her a nod and charged back to the fight, hefting his sword.

  The large bandit didn’t fight like the others. They tried to move and avoid melee. This one reveled in it. He bashed Paul’s shield with his club repeatedly, never letting him lower it long enough to attack. It was visibly misshapen when Toby ran past and swung backwards.

  The club made a wooden thunk sound as it stopped the sword.

  But it gave Paul a moment. His sword cleft the open air but gave another wooden thunk as the club intercepted it as well. Paul retreated a step, but the bandit stayed put as he glanced back and forth between his attackers.

  “Tch.” The man scoffed. “Cowards.”

  Toby adjusted his sword stance. “Says the guy that knocked a girl senseless. Let’s dance, Tiny.”

  “I didn’t attack two on-”

  The bandit’s voice cut off as he moved to parry Toby’s strike.

  He swung again, and again. Red arcs appeared behind the second and third swing as ever, though the bandit managed to keep the club between himself and the black steel.

  That was fine. All part of the plan.

  The club stopped one final attack before Toby backed up a step and swung the sword dramatically. The club was looking like a poorly logged tree at this point. It had chunks missing everywhere, splinters standing out of many of them.

  Meanwhile, Soulbreaker still looked pristine and new. The broken thing that should not be, created by a rogue GM. Durability was one more thing he couldn’t see listed for the weapon. It either didn’t have one, or it was ridiculously high. The sword looked just as it had when he first picked it up.

  Toby feinted to the man’s left to try and get him to lower the club, but he didn’t go for it. Instead he turned and swung with all his might at Paul, who had been approaching as quietly as his armor allowed.

  His shield crumpled as the club struck it soundly.

  He dropped the shield and raised his sword with both hands. He couldn’t hope to defend as well without the shield.

  A red shock wave struck the bandit’s legs from behind. He gave a cry and dropped to his knees.

  Paul thrust his sword ahead with both hands.

  The bandit ‘s wooden club struck the ground as he fell over dead.

  Toby leaned on his sword. “Whew. Well that sucked.”

  Paul gave him a nod. “Well done.”

  Green light played over Jesse as she walked up, hand raised. “This whole bandit excursion has sucked. Tricky opponents, explosions, this asshole.” She twisted her hand into the fire gesture and set the bandit corpse alight.

  The bright light show and loud gong of a level up surrounded each of them.

  Toby blinked. “Was it delayed?”

  Paul nodded toward the fight still going on below, where Amos and Tim were helping the others. The yard had thinned out considerably. They were cleaning up the last few. He looked back with a sigh. “More close calls than I like this time.”

  Claire nodded. “Definitely.”

  “Psh.” Toby waved dismissively. “We had it.”

  Jesse and Claire both stared at him with narrowed eyes.

  “What? We won. Seems like what we’re after.”

  Tim appeared beside them in a burst of black smoke. “Hello my fellow level 10 brethren. What’s happening in this chat room?”

  Toby pointed down at the fallen bandit. “We kicked some ass.”

  “Sweet.” Tim ducked down and brought up the bandit’s loot window.

  Amos had to climb up the old fashioned way, finding the stairs. He blinked at the corpse. “Is that a bandit lord?”

  Paul nodded. “A dead one.”

  “Wow.” Those are like level twenty something, right?”

  “Yes. Almost killed Jesse just with his sap attack. But we handled it.”

  Jesse the wolf was growling and chewing on the bandit’s foot.

  Amos nodded. “I see.”

  Tim laughed. “Oh, no way.” He held up a white bit of cloth. “That’s rad.”

  Toby tilted his head. “You surrender?”

  He smiled. “Nope. And never again.” He reached up and pulled his hood and cloth mantle off his head. He had short hair reminiscent of his actual hair. Seemed he and Paul didn’t go in for altering the given characters much. He held up the white cloth and pulled it over his head. Once it was on, it looked practically identical to his old hood, aside from being white instead of black. “Ta-da.”

  “Uhh…” Toby looked him up and down. “So what?”

  “What’s my name, kid?”

  “Umm, Tim, duh.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “What’s my name here?”

  Honestly, it had been awhile since Toby used it. He glanced up over Tim’s head to see… nothing. No name, no guild tag, no nameplate at all.

  “Huh.” He glanced to the party names on the side. “Killian.”

  “Right. Now do a /who search for that.”

  It took Toby a moment to bring up the menu to type, a virtual keyboard appearing in front of him. He input the command and…

  Killian

  Huh. That wasn’t much. He tried it on himself.

  Tobin Ironblood Level: #&%&0 Location: #%%^@$%@

  Well, that wasn’t exactly normal either, but that was probably Miller’s fault. It still showed just how much the hood was hiding.

  “Neat. But what is so special about that? I can still see you.”

  Paul shook his head. “Sure, but you’d see him through stealth anyway. With that, no nameplate and no discernible data when searching, he could be standing in a bush or up a tree, or in a river, and you’d have no means of finding him without your eyes. There’s no nam
eplate to spot as an odd color against the terrain, and you can’t even check what zone he is in.”

  Jesse spit out the boot. It was still a bit unnerving to hear words coming from the wolf’s muzzle. “It’s a PVP item. For ganking. Not sure what use it is to us. No stats on it.”

  “Pfft.” Tim turned away. “Stats aren’t everything. What can this do? How about keep me close by, functionally invisible while people try to murder you. I can pop around knifing them and they won’t be any wiser. They couldn’t even search for me without knowing my name.”

  Toby nodded. “I see. So we need… like thirty of those.”

  Paul shrugged. “No such luck. It’s a pretty rare drop, though I seem to recall bandits do have the highest chance for them.” He swung his arm, taking in all the dead bandits. “Even for this many, getting one is a pretty lucky drop. And we’re fresh out of bandits.”

  “Dang.”

  “It does give me an idea, though…” Paul scratched at his beard and nodded a few times. He opened the main menu. “Wow, didn’t realize it was so late.” He glanced about. “Level ten… not bad. Not bad. Means we’re catching up with the power curve.”

  Jesse reverted to her human form. “Wait, you mean we’re calling it?”

  He nodded. “It’s already pushing midnight.”

  Claire’s jaw dropped. “No way.” She opened her menu. “Holy shit.”

  “Back to the church for now. We’ll start up again first thing.”

  The trip back to the church was uneventful. A few random wolves, a bear, and a handful of bandits. Nothing they couldn’t handle now. All of it together didn’t move their experience bars much.

  The church was even nicer than it had been. Most of the roof was covered now, though it was rough wood. There were new buildings going up outside. Mostly wooden skeletons at this point, but the area was growing. And Toby received the message about being in a safe area when they were still more than ten yards from the church. The safe area had grown.

  Still, with a character that was going to be vulnerable while he slept, he would take his chances with four stone walls around him.

  The interior of the church had some furniture now. Chairs, tables, shelves… people were stockpiling papers and books inside the game the same way the staff was collecting information outside.

  All of their hard work made his occasionally swinging a sword less impressive. He seemed like quite the slouch.

  Characters began to vanish around him one at a time. He sat in a large chair opposite the entryway and brought up the logout menu.

  His hair was a mess when he took the headset off. It was matted to his head. Sweaty. Maybe they needed some fans or something.

  Claire appeared to take the headset and help him out of the rest of his gear. He collapsed into a seated position where he had been standing. He was more tired than he would have thought.

  She gave him a nod. “Good work in there. We’re making solid progress.” She glanced aside at the projections. “We should catch the power curve tomorrow, start breaking away, get out ahead of it. Make it harder for people to come after us.”

  “Cool.”

  She smiled. “It really is. It’s the only way to pull this off.”

  “Right now I’m more concerned with finding a quiet corner to sleep in. Maybe under a table. Don’t want to get kicked.”

  “Hardly.” Paul’s voice closed in from behind. He had a phone against his head. He glanced away from the pair. “Uh-huh. Good. You’ve got us on record, I’m sure we’ll have a few.”

  Toby turned his head up to Claire.

  She wiggled her eyebrows.

  “Alright, thank you.” He pulled the phone down and tapped it with his thumb. “Rooms across the street for whoever wants them.”

  Toby blinked. “Eh?”

  Claire held out a hand and helped him up. “I told you, we can have some crazy hours. When that happens, we can either stay in our offices, which is okay if you’ve got one, or sometimes they offer to put us up at the motel across the street. We’re on good terms and get a bit of a discount. They get paid, fill empty rooms, makes them look more busy, and we get a hot shower and a place to sleep.”

  “Seems warranted.” Paul nodded. “You all did well, and they’ve got space.”

  Tim was shaking his head as he approached with Carol. “Nuts to that. I’ll take my own bed.”

  Carol shrugged. “He’s my ride.”

  “Fair enough.” Paul tapped his watch. “Back here at eight.”

  Tim rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. We got this.”

  “Confidence is good. Overconfidence is bad.”

  Carol shrugged. “He’s not likely to change, I’m afraid. His mother tried to warn me.”

  Claire waved. “Good night.”

  Jesse was wrangling her hair as she appeared. She waved to the pair as well. “Night.”

  Carol waved back as they left the pit.

  Jesse looked at Claire hopefully. “Rooms?”

  “Rooms.” The other woman nodded.

  “Awesome. I’ll get my bag.” She started toward the door.

  Toby glanced down at his own bag. “And here I thought I was special and super prepared.”

  Clarie shook her head. “As I keep saying, long hours.”

  Paul nodded as he flipped through his phone. “Certainly some sacrifices. Though I assure you they are appreciated, and I work to ensure you’re compensated.”

  “Pfft.” Claire shook her head. “Suits me that you’re here. But you really shouldn’t be. Your wife is going to be pissed.”

  “Nah… she’ll be pissed tomorrow when I get up at six and come back.”

  “That too.”

  He sighed. “I’ll… try to explain the situation. She won’t like it.”

  “Sorry boss. Have Sandra call me. Character witness.”

  “She doesn’t trust my ‘minions’ to be honest with her.”

  “I’m a minion? That’s rad.”

  Toby had his bag slung over his shoulder. “What does that make me?”

  Paul turned his eyes to the younger man. “More like a hostage.”

  “But I like it here.”

  Claire shook her head. “Stockholm syndrome. So sad.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Toby stretched his neck. It ached. “What’s the plan here?”

  “We’ll meet up at the elevator in a few minutes then walk over. No reason to try to find a parking place over there only to drive back across the street and try to find another one here tomorrow morning.”

  He nodded. “Aight.”

  Paul glanced up from his phone. “Don’t stay up too late. I already told the front desk to do wakeup calls.”

  Claire sighed. “You monster.”

  He shrugged. “Business.”

  Toby waited by the elevator. He didn’t have reason to head upstairs like everyone who had to grab things from their offices.

  He awoke to find Claire shaking him.

  “Hey, more comfortable soon. I promise.”

  He yawned and stood up. He didn’t recall falling asleep… or sitting down, for that matter. He recognized a few of the people. Claire, of course. Jesse. Jerry. Bill, one of their alternates. And a number of faces from the break room.

  They moved as a herd. A group of migrating desk workers. There was no traffic to speak of at this hour, so they had no trouble crossing the four lane street.

  It was a nice motel. It didn’t really seem “open” so much as not closed. There was only one woman working behind the desk who handed over a number of key cards.

  Toby managed to stay conscious and upright the entire time, though it was a near thing. Walls were leaned upon.

  He ended up on the third floor with a number of familiar faces turning in in rooms further down and across the way. Claire was next door. That made him feel a bit better… he’d have a better chance of running across her in the morning. He didn’t have a card to get into the building, and he didn’t know the rest of them very well. Hell, they
might have no idea who he was.

  Well, Jesse knew. And Jerry. And Bill. A few anyway.

  Worrying over nothing.

  He plugged his phone in and dropped his things on the bed. He made it through the shower before turning the TV on, but that’s all he remembered.

  11

  His head shot up when the phone rang. Who could be calling at this hour? Goddamn rude. He’d just gotten to sleep and…

  “This is your 7 a.m. courtesy wakeup call.”

  He set the phone down gently.

  “God damn it.” He slumped out of bed. His feet were unsure beneath him. It took his muddled mind a few moments to recall just what had happened. It all seemed strange. He’d wanted to play the Proving Grounds for years… now he was, with developers no less, but Miller’s threats and the feds picking him up had turned it from entertainment into something of a chore.

  Granted, it wasn’t that bad. He was starting to enjoy the barbarian class, and his clearly broken weapon was entertaining in its own right.

  He ran his comb through his hair… though he didn’t spend much time on it. The headset was just going to screw it up anyway.

  His phone was charged. No new messages. He shoved all his things back into his backpack and headed downstairs.

  He was about two seconds shy of falling asleep again when he smelled coffee brewing. The machine was unguarded and had cups set out beside it.

  The fools.

  Two cups later he almost felt human.

  He was the first of the party from across the street in the dining area. He stuck his head out into the lobby. No one there either. He stepped forward and looked out the large front windows. No one was crossing the street. The building was crawling with suits, but none of the more commonly dressed folks.

  Hmm. He rang the bell at the desk. “Have you seen any of the Brave New World folks from across the street head over yet?”

  The woman shook her head. “They aren’t usually very punctual. I’d give it a half hour.”

  Heh. He nodded. “Thanks.”

  He gnawed on a bagel and watched the TV in the dining area while he waited. They were talking about the explosion downtown. Which was only a few streets over at the moment. The authorities were claiming it was caused by faulty wiring on a recently replaced air conditioning unit for the building.