Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds

by Wade Adrian

  “We don’t have to be in here, you know.”

  He nodded. “I know. It just feels like… I should be. Doing more. Better. Trying at least.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “All fine and good. But you need rest, too. We’ve been on a harsh schedule for days now. Come on, lets go watch something stupid on TV or something. Just relax. It will do us all good to let go of some stress.”

  There really wasn’t much more he could do. He had spent all his skill and stat points, his gear was better than it ever had been, and Paul would be super pissed if he tried to wander off and level on his own. Far too dangerous.

  He nodded. “Alright, you’re on.”

  She was waiting again before he finished untangling himself from his gear. She had a knack for it that he just didn’t possess.

  He picked up his backpack and they headed for the door. Jesse was heading toward them in the hall, her arms loaded with paperwork.

  “Hey.” Claire waved. “We’re going to find something stupid to watch to unwind. Wanna come?”

  Jesse smiled slightly then shifted her eyes about. She looked down at the stack of papers. “Nope, sorry. Totally booked.”

  Toby held open the door while Jesse wandered in.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” He let the door close. “Was that weird? I think that was weird.”

  Claire shrugged. “She’s a little weird. It’s part of her charm.”

  “Uh-huh.” He nodded as they started forward again. “Like her desire to burn things.”

  “Just like that.”

  They stood in the hall as she opened the door to her room in the motel. It was right next to his, and he had his key, but going into his own room would sort of defeat the purpose of taking part in a group activity.

  Of course, it was only a group of two. Still more social than one.

  The door opened and she wandered in and held it open for him behind her. “Come on in. It’s not much, but right now it’s home.”

  He closed the door and followed her in. He set his backpack down next to the dresser no one ever uses… to the best of his knowledge. “Like being in a strange mirror world. Everything is backwards.”

  “Pfft.” She shook her head as she set her own bag down on the couch. “You’re backwards.” She picked up the remote and sat on the edge of the bed before turning on the TV and flipping through the channels.

  There was a couch in the room, but she had stuff laid out on it. Not to mention the bag.

  He sat on the foot of the bed and plucked up the channel guide. He looked it over. He hadn’t spent much time watching TV the last few days so it was all still a mystery to him.

  “Oooh.” She stopped. “People buying houses.”

  “Ugh.” He shook his head. “Those people are always so whiny. The wall is blue, the bedroom faces the wrong direction, there were too many murders here. Never happy.”

  “Pfft. Duh. It would be boring otherwise.”

  “I guess. But they come across so… pretentious. Besides, ‘foyer’ is not pronounced with an R. Stabs my soul every time they do it.”

  “It’s not?”

  “ ‘Foy-yay.’ It’s French, I think.”

  “Hmm.” She nodded a few times. “Foy-er.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Oww. My soul.”

  She smiled and continued flipping through the channels.

  He laid back and stared up at the ceiling.

  She glanced back over her shoulder. “You okay? I won’t say foy-er again.”

  He shrugged, which was an odd gesture while lying down. “I dunno. Don’t feel like I am cut out for this. Nothing seems to be going right, we just keep hanging on by a thread.”

  “Maybe. But it’s not your fault. We’re all in this together. Pass or fail as a group. As a team.”

  “Except for Tim.”

  She set the remote down and turned to face him a bit better. “He doesn’t blame you. Why should you?”

  “Because I did it. I knew I shouldn’t have used Rage, but I did it anyway. I wanted the benefit, and ignored the risks.”

  “There’s a pretty solid argument to be made that we wouldn’t have lasted if you hadn’t gone medieval on them.”

  He tilted his head a bit. “You think?”

  She nodded. “They had hidden troops. You found them, and it was you, mostly, that dealt with them. Yeah, Mitchel showed up blaring the cavalry horn, but that was after you weighed the risks for us.”

  “It sounds better from your point of view.”

  She smiled. “You’re too hard on yourself.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Definitely.”She flipped another channel and her jaw dropped. “Look!” She pointed.

  Big Trouble in Little China was playing on the TV. It was early into it, too. The truck trapped in the alley during the funeral procession.

  When the Chang Sings saluted each other she mimicked the gesture. “Oh that is totally the same thing. That’s awesome.”

  Toby chuckled. “Told you.”

  “I haven’t seen this in years.”

  “Always worth the time.”

  She smiled. “Sounds good.”

  They ended up seated at the back of the bed, leaning against the wall with pillows propped up behind them. Toby took his shoes off to not get the bedspread dirty. He hadn’t really been traipsing around in mud… but they had walked across a four lane street a few times today. Messy.

  He lost track of time while they watched a move he could practically recite. Sitting still proved to be an issue. The long days were getting to him.

  He woke up a few hours later, still seated against the wall. He had a bit of a crick in his neck. It popped when he stretched his head the other way. There was a weight on his side.

  Claire was asleep beside him, her head resting on his shoulder.

  He stopped moving. He didn’t want to disturb her. The clock said it was almost 2 a.m. Damn. He hadn’t showered or plugged in his phone or anything.

  And yet… he was perfectly happy to stay where he was. She seemed to have positioned herself more comfortably.

  He settled in a bit more, trying to move as little and as slowly as possible. He… liked it here. It was nice. He hadn’t been close to a woman like this since Molly had gotten over the cutesy cuddly phase of their relationship. And that had been long before she had told him he was a loser that would never amount to anything and walked out.

  Claire smelled nice. Better than him at any rate. Did she wear perfume? He hadn’t noticed before. He liked it.

  The TV had run out of badass old movies at some point. It was replaying news from earlier in the night. There was no mention of the explosion downtown at all.

  Odd.

  He laid his head back. The accursed wake up call would sound in a few hours. He wanted to stay here as long as he could, but he was going to need his rest tomorrow.

  The clock said seven when the phone rang.

  Claire’s head popped up as she swung her arm and knocked the phone over.

  Toby could hear it from where the receiver lay on the table. “This is your 7 a.m. courtesy wakeup call.”

  “Oww. Damn it.” She sighed. “Hate that fucking phone.”

  “You okay?”

  She turned back and blinked a few times. “Yeah.” She nodded as a small smile played over her lips. “I’m good.” She set the phone back upright and hung the receiver up. “Kinda thought I dreamed us hanging out last night for a minute there.”

  He held up his hand in the Chang Sing salute.

  She smiled and did the same. “Oww.” She twisted her neck. “Might not have been the best idea to fall asleep like that.”

  He nodded as he leaned forward and rubbed at his neck. “I know what you mean.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. You’re totally welcome in my bed any time.” She frowned a bit. “That sounded kinda bad, didn’t it?”

  “Not to me.” He smirked. “But I should probably head next door and ge
t a shower in real quick. We can trade double entendres over breakfast.”

  She laughed… and she was blushing a bit. “It’s a date.”

  He picked up his backpack and his shoes. “Thanks, by the way.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Sore neck and all, best night I’ve had in a long time.”

  She smiled. “Me too.”

  He waved like a goofball and opened the door. He was fishing in his bag for his own key card before the door shut behind him.

  Jesse was in the hallway.

  She was grinning at him. “Hi.”

  “Uh, good morning.”

  “Sup?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Uh-huh.” She looked at Claire’s door. “Kay.” She smiled and waved before heading for the elevator.

  Yeah, that was going to be a problem.

  He opened his door and plugged in his phone first thing. The room’s phone wasn’t ringing. One must only get so many rings before they gave up on you.

  He hopped in the shower and was ready to head down by seven thirty. His phone had only picked up another 10% charge, but it was better than nothing. Maybe there was a plug at his station in the pit.

  Claire met him in the hall and they wandered down together.

  Jesse was the only one there so far. She sat with her orange juice, the weirdo, and stared at her phone.

  Toby and Claire made their way to the coffee pot and stopped by the breakfast buffet, a generous title, before sitting opposite her.

  “So…” Jesse didn’t look up from her phone, “what happened?”

  Claire scowled at the other woman. “Nothing happened.”

  Jesse’s head shot up. “What? Why not?” The look on her face was one of confusion and… disappointment.

  Toby blinked a few times. That wasn’t exactly the response he had expected.

  Claire shrugged. “We watched a movie, and we fell asleep. That’s all.”

  Jesse shook her head. “Fine, fine. Take it slow. Not like we’re on a deadline here.”

  Toby raised an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Claire nodded. “We live in the same city.”

  Jesse’s eyes were fixed on her phone once more. “On opposite ends of a big city. Took a cop with lights and sirens to get him here in a timely fashion. That’s inconvenient. If you want anything to happen, you’ve got X amount of time to be serious about it.”

  Claire frowned.

  Toby hadn’t considered that. He did live rather far away. He’d never even really been to this part of town before.

  And he got around on a bike.

  Claire had a car but it would be unfair to expect her to travel out to see him all the time, especially given the hours her job involved.

  There were certainly hurdles… but he hadn’t been exaggerating about the night before. It had been the best he could recall. He felt comfortable and safe, which his apartment provided, but also that someone actually wanted him around in private hours. That had been lacking for some time.

  And he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it.

  He shrugged. “I’m happy to work at it if you are.”

  Claire smiled beside him. She nodded.

  Jesse rolled her eyes and shook her head… but she was smiling. “Right. So, am I supposed to keep this quiet? Cause I’m not so good at that.”

  Claire shrugged. “It’s nobody’s business but ours. And we don’t need to be distracting anyone.”

  Toby nodded. “What she said.”

  “Okay.” Jesse managed to sound disappointed. “Not like anything happened anyway. Freaking PBS afternoon special over here.”

  Claire leaned forward and punched Jesse in the shoulder.

  Jesse fained grievous injury. “Oww. The hell?”

  “You be nice.”

  The other woman tilted her head. “But I’m not nice. Id’ have to go out of my way.”

  “Then please do. You’re my friend. Act like it.”

  Jesse rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

  Toby nodded. “And we’re badass outfit siblings.”

  Jesse nodded. “Indeed.”

  22

  The new gear proved to be a distinct advantage.

  The party tore through even leveled mobs as they wandered in search of something more meaty to help them advance. There were too few alternates left for them to safely scout on their own, though a number of guilded players that weren’t in the building had taken up the cause instead. They spread out across the countryside in a dragnet looking for events and reporting mob levels.

  It was kinda crazy. Paul had been keeping them hidden away and working quietly, but all the while support had been building for them anyway. It was with them now, and the whole dynamic of leveling had changed.

  They had not run into an event yet, just followed the breadcrumbs of level appropriate enemies and those just beyond their own level.

  They were four levels up this morning. Thirty four. Of fifty. Crazy.

  And on a weekday. Didn’t these people have jobs?

  Not that he was going to bring that up. He was happy to have them out there.

  Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of amazing new abilities waiting for Toby up the barbarian advancement tree. His last and potentially best one was damage resistance. It was enough to give him some pause when he considered advancement moving forward. Increase damage resistance marginally to try and shrug off weak attacks entirely, build up the chance of Uncanny Dodge and how often it could proc, or keep dumping points into his combo and shock wave abilities to make his damage output better. After all, if everyone else was doing their job correctly, he shouldn’t be getting hit in the first place. Of course, that meant nothing at all against the players who were gunning for him. Decisions, decisions.

  He wasn’t entirely sure, and he was sitting on points because of it. Damage was the classes very point, but if he was dead his damage output was going to be zero.

  On the other hand, while the defenses were a bit sub par but were helpful out here, they might not help at all in a raid situation which was undoubtedly where Miller was going with this top of the mountain hardest content play.

  So he kept close to the group. He chopped things that needed chopping and spent his stat points with the usual stamina bias. He knew first hand how hard it was to take down Bulorn and his pile of hit points. He wanted anyone that came up against him to have the same problem. Only worse.

  Let them swing, he would stand there and laugh.

  Well, he would probably swing back, but he would have the option of standing there and laughing.

  They had fought with Carol before so it wasn’t terribly strange to have her along… but he was still getting used to Tim not being there. He was still in the pit, of course. His new responsibility was monitoring the screens and feeding them information.

  Super useful.

  Still not the same.

  Paul raised a hand to shade his eyes. “Mobs are thinning out. We’ll need to move on again soon. Lets do a clean sweep, though. Feel free to spread out a bit, but stay in sight.” They were only a sliver away from thirty five, but Paul didn’t ever seem to weigh things in such terms.

  At least not openly.

  He nodded to Claire. “You’re with Toby. He’s more important than I am and I’m sure Jesse can keep me alive for a few minutes.”

  Jesse shrugged. “I dunno, you’re totally reckless. I saw you eat an Oreo one time.”

  Paul ignored her. “And everyone else will be free of her commentary for a few minutes. The sacrifices I make for my people.” He shook his head.

  Claire nodded and stepped over to stand beside Toby. They turned and started off toward a few of the straggler mobs. Bandits. Not nearly the threat they once were.

  “So,” he raised an eyebrow, “you wanna hit them with your hammer?”

  “I do. I really do. All this healing… ugh. Mind numbing.”

  “Well I am a fair and benevolent dictato
r. You may hit them with your hammer.”

  “Hmm.” She nodded. “I think I’ll support your administration in the days to come.”

  He drew his sword and nodded. “Appreciated, though as a dictator, it’s an empty gesture.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Remind me again why I like you?”

  “I’m awesome?”

  “That must be it.” Her hammer careened into the face of a standing bandit. He gave out what little of a surprised cry he could with a face full of hammer. He tumbled away, but got his hands and feet under him and made to stand.

  Toby buried Soulbreaker into his back while he was still on the ground. The bandit fell limp to the dirt.

  She was no slouch in a fight, then. The bandit had already lost a considerable amount of health before Toby even touched him. Maybe she was wasted on all the healing.

  He threw Soulbreaker into a distant bandit who fell down as the sword struck him. He got back up and charged them as the sword reappeared in Toby’s hand.

  Its appearance hadn’t changed any more… but it was still strange to his eyes. He readied the sword to parry the bandit but Claire stepped in front of him and bashed the poor man into the dirt with her hammer. He gave a whimper and moved to try and stand again but Claire rained blows on him until he stopped.

  Toby raised an eyebrow. “Yeesh.”

  Claire smiled at her hammer. “I might have put a few points into combat abilities.”

  “No complaints here.”

  “Keep it under your hat. Hood. Thing.”

  His hood was resting on his back. There were times it was a boon, but having no name plate at all made him stand out from the crowd in some ways, making him more of a target, especially given a casual glance that didn’t involve reading everyone’s names.

  The helmet might have provided more defense… but it also narrowed his field of view. He really wouldn’t have time to swap it out in a crisis either, so the hood remained. He liked the hood better anyway, and not just because it belonged to his friend. He intended to give it back when all this was done. He was just holding it. Keeping Tim’s presence alive.

  “Remind me not to piss you off.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows at him. “I do know where you sleep.

  “About that, I’m game to spend tonight like last night, but can I argue for lying down? My neck is still bugging me.”