Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds

by Wade Adrian

  The creature gave an ear piercing cry as it raised its eyes to the ceiling above.

  “Get back, people!” Mark shouted as he waved his arms.

  They scattered as a large red circle appeared on the ground around the creature. Fire burst forth from its ghostly shape as it faded away to nothing. The wave of fire erupted in a circle that stopped just at the edge of the red outline on the floor.

  Toby let out a breath.

  One down.

  The others were already moving across the room. He turned and followed.

  That creature was likewise engulfed in flame. It was easily swinging twice as fast as it had before. New circles appeared on the ground before the last set had erupted in flame yet.

  Paul was weathering the onslaught but he couldn’t get a swing in edgewise. Everyone that could heal at all was doing so. Claire’s hands glowed like the sun, Jesse’s were awash with green, and half a dozen others were doing all they could.

  Advantages to the magic group.

  Mark pointed his sword ahead as the physical damage group closed. “Kelly, give him a breather.”

  She nodded and charged across the room faster than Toby’s eyes could follow, her shield held high. She bashed into the creature’s leg and sent it reeling a step before it turned on her.

  “That’s it, come and get me, ugly.” She banged her sword against the edge of her shield.

  The aggro list was a mess if one big taunt caused the boss to change its target.

  The others from their side engaged shortly after, trying to fit into the group without crowding them on the glowing disco floor of doom.

  Kelly moved to keep the boss looking into the corner Paul had vacated. He gave her a nod as he started healing as well. Mark moved in to join her.

  Toby swept his eyes around. He saw Claire, still in the midst of casting, her glowing hands held before her eyes…

  Which might have been why she didn’t see the red circle around her feet.

  Toby ran as fast as his legs would carry him. The circles had a set duration before the fire effect went off. Her health was already low. She had probably weathered more than one of those.

  He wrapped his arms around her as the circle began to glow brightly.

  “What?” She raised her eyes.

  He cast his eyes back the way he had come and touched the raven head clasp at the throat of his cloak.

  The world was awash in black smoke for a moment. When it cleared it seemed like he was suddenly wearing glasses with a strong prescription… everything was closer. He swept his gaze, realizing he had in fact moved across the room.

  Fire was gushing out of the floor where they had stood, the black smoke at their origin point being washed skyward by fire.

  Claire blinked at him a few times before nodding and turning her eyes back to the fight. Her hands aglow once more.

  He charged past her into the fray.

  Soulbreaker bit into the creature’s side… and its hit point bar budged. He could hurt it. Good. He didn’t know if that meant his attacks were somehow magical, or that the damage resistances were removed when the other boss died.

  It didn’t matter.

  He could hurt it.

  The circles continued to move, nearly coating the floor in red for seconds at a time. He focused on the boss, but kept his eyes low as he shifted his feet. The circles seemed to appear less up against the boss. Fortunate, since that was where he needed to be anyway.

  The timer had long since run out, but they were holding on. The enraged boss grew stronger by the second, but the four tanks had set up a rotation and used hard taunts to swap him after a hit or two. The healers would patch up the one who suffered the blow before moving onto the next tank.

  He swung with reckless abandon. Nothing existed beyond the boss’ shin, his sword, and the red circles at his feet.

  He could do this. He had to do this. Everyone was counting on him.

  Toby was genuinely surprised when his sword passed through the boss without slowing or triggering any blood or particles.

  He stared dumbfounded for a moment.

  “Clear out!” Paul’s voice rang across the room.

  Oh. Right. They exploded when they died.

  He turned and ran. He was breathing heavily… but fortunately it didn’t impact his running, as his feet in the real world were resting in place as he leaned forward.

  Orange light washed over him from behind. He saw the world before him speed up as he landed on the stone floor.

  Toby closed his eyes for a moment to let the spacial dissonance pass. Sad as it may be, he was almost getting used to it. Maybe he wouldn’t end up being one of the people that threw up whenever it happened.

  When he opened his eyes again he was lying on the floor, the ceiling overhead. The edges of his view were red. His health bar hovered around twenty percent. He leaned forward to make his character sit up.

  “Oww.”

  He glanced up.

  The place was a mess. He had not been the only one to not get away from the boss in time. There were half a dozen still forms of player corpses lying further back the way he had come.

  He blinked as he stared out at them.

  Why was he still alive?

  He checked the combat log… the explosion had hit him for a ridiculous amount… but Uncanny Dodge had gone off, negating all of it. The damage he had suffered was from the fall after the explosion threw him.

  And a couple of flame gouts, but who was counting?

  He noticed Claire shaking her head as she approached, her hands already glowing white.

  Apparently she had been counting.

  It took her a few casts to refill his health bar. She gave him a weak smile before moving on to healing other people. All the healers seemed to be busy.

  Toby’s arms ached but there was no amount of glowing healing magic that was going to fix that.

  Paul was frowning at the fallen raid members. “Kelly, would you mind terribly heading back out and bringing in some replacements? We’ll shift members around once they get here.”

  She nodded and headed for the doors leading back the way they had come.

  Paul’s hand moved through the open air before him. Names on the list of raid members shifted about, filling up the three groups still inside and leaving Kelly in a group by herself as she left.

  Toby shook his head as he stared at the fallen. “So, we just replace them and keep going?”

  “That’s why we brought alternates. Less reliable members, sadly, but there’s just one last push. Pass or fail.”

  “It still seems… cold.”

  Paul shrugged. “Any other day, we’d simply res them or wait for them to run back. This isn’t all that different. Whether we win or lose in the next room, everyone that has fallen will be able to log in again.” He shifted his eyes to Toby. “Do you think it was wise to teleport? You could have kept that ability a secret to use against Miller. He’s bound to be watching us.”

  Toby shrugged. “Claire was in danger. A healer was in danger.” He corrected himself. Paul was playing a numbers game now. It was all he could do. “We DPS might be a dime a dozen, but healers aren’t. Healers that know the raid are even more rare.”

  Paul was silent a moment. He nodded. “I suppose you were right, then.”

  “How do you see this going down?” Toby stood up… with some effort. “Miller is going to be in control in there, so what you know about this fight probably doesn’t amount to much. What’s the game plan?”

  “From what we have observed, there’s only so much he can change while the game is running. He essentially just gave every mob in here a damage resistance buff. GMs have access to every spell in the game, so that’s not terribly surprising.”

  “Wait, why not make them all cast chain lightning or something, then?”

  “He can cast any spell in the game. He can’t gift them to mobs, and even if he could, they couldn’t be added to the AI’s action tree without a programmer doin
g it manually and a server reset.” He nodded a few times. “We feared he had some greater set of special admin powers from working in a back door during his time here, but that isn’t panning out much beyond your sword and a few parlor tricks. Beyond those he’s just a hostile GM. We know what GMs can do, so we can plan a bit.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear. Because I’m not exactly in the know about all of this.”

  Paul smiled a bit. “It’s not the fight we know, but that works out to our advantage.”

  “Uh, how’s that?”

  Paul grinned. “Simple, really.”

  31

  Kelly returned with a fresh set of group members a few minutes later. The fallen had been stripped of their gear, something guild members could do if permission was given. Everyone had set it up before Toby had ever arrived. There wasn’t much point in him setting the option. The idea behind it was saving someone a run back to their corpse in some of the harsher PVP settings, though that didn’t apply here.

  The new members were outfitted in their black armor and given vials like everyone else had been. Paul had told people to preserve them before, and everyone had. Toby wasn’t really part of that particular play, but even before it had been explained he could clearly see those weren’t pots to heal or regain resources. They would have long since been downed if they were.

  The groups were rearranged to get back to the standard one tank, one healer, and four DPS setup. Toby’s normal group was reformed with Paul as his tank, Claire as the healer, and Amos, Jesse, and Carol as the other DPS.

  It was nice. Familiar.

  Though he’d just been getting to know his new friends on team “Hit the thing as hard as you can, preferably in the face.” They were good people too.

  The groups formed up outside the last door.

  Paul stood before them with his back to it. “Well, this is it. Beyond this door lies the last challenge we face under the rules we never intended. Win or lose, they should go away and we can all go back to skipping quest text and comparing gear scores.” He tried to keep a straight face, but he failed.

  There were chuckles among the crowd.

  “I’m not going to lie. This won’t be easy. He’s going to use every trick he can to try and screw us over. We weren’t supposed to get this far, certainly not this fast. But we’re better than Mr. Miller would give us credit for. Much better. In the months to come we may not be the top raiding guild, but you can be sure no one else has made it this far today. We’re the first. And all of us are here because we worked for it. So, good on you. You put in the time and the effort, and you managed to make it through in one piece. Given the number of people that didn’t, that’s no small achievement, whether you work with us or not.” He nodded aside. “Jesse?”

  She stepped up beside him. “This is the big bad. A dragon, in case some of you hadn’t heard. Avoid standing in front because of breath attacks, but also avoid the back because of the tail swipes. Your best bet is to stand on either side between the front and rear legs. Too far backward or forward and you’re liable to get kicked away.

  “The dragon has a gust attack it can use, lifting off the ground and sending down gusts of air by beating its wings. It will throw anyone in close away and cause damage when you hit the ground. It’s only supposed to go off at set percentages so we can anticipate it, but with an actual person controlling the dragon you’ll just have to keep an eye out for it. It has a cooldown and a warning indicator on the ground. If you don’t notice that, just hightail it out when it lifts off the ground.

  “Other than that? At 50% it’s supposed to do some stomps that raise rocky outcroppings to make it harder to maneuver, but you can duck behind them for cover from the wind and fire. Not sure if that’s going to happen at all this time.”

  Paul nodded. “It’s entirely possible he’s planning to cheat. One of two things will happen: we go in and fight the dragon as usual, burn him down, swap tanks, dance out of circles, etc. Or, we go in and find he’s immortal and you can’t harm him at all. If thats the case, use the flashiest abilities you have. We’ll keep him blinded and distracted because that means his GM status is active.”

  Which meant Toby only had to hit him once. Soulbreaker was anathema to GMs.

  That was why Toby would be going in last.

  It had taken them a few minutes to convince him.

  Paul turned and laid his hand on the door. “We’ve got this. I’ll see you at the loot rolls.”

  Dust fell from the edges of the door as it shifted. The door leading ahead was part of a pair of doors, again much larger than a normal person would need. There was no reason to open both, so they didn’t. It took a moment for the door to move far enough for them to see inside.

  The round stone chamber beyond was empty.

  Paul spoke aside to empty air. “Alright Tim, go tell them.” Then he glanced back and nodded over his shoulder. “Alright, form a circle around the edge. It minimizes what the dragon can do when it lands. I want people to line up sprawling out in the order their names appear in the group window. Tanks, healers, then the DPS. There are some pillars left, it’s a good idea to use them as cover until the fight gets going in earnest. And if you’re close, duck behind them for the wind gusts.”

  They filed in one at a time. The four tanks went in first, fanning out with their shields held high. Well, the ones that had them. Mark had a big sword, but he was holding it defensively.

  The others followed and moved as they had been told, forming a half circle in the room, spreading out so they were not easy targets for cone or area attacks.

  Toby was the last one in the door.

  It shut behind him with a boom.

  All eyes turned to him. He shrugged. “Wasn’t me.”

  Paul shook his head as he looked back into the center of the room. He kept his shield up.

  The place was empty. Toby had to shade his eyes from the light entering via a large hole in the ceiling. He glanced about.

  “Looks clear.”

  Mark kept his sword up but cut his eyes about the room. “Where else would he be? This was the challenge he issued. What does he gain by fleeing?”

  Kelly frowned. “Targets. He could be out slaughtering cities with that dragon.”

  Paul shook his head. “No. He tried to cast us as the villains. Flying around burning cities isn’t something he can pin on us, and he could have done it at any time. Besides, he set events in play as soon as we entered. Everyone else is busy with those. Maybe losing. He doesn’t need to see to it personally.”

  A loud boom sounded from the roof and the room shook. A shadow passed over the hole in the roof. Shining talons appeared at the edges of the hole. Bits of stone and masonry fell down into the chamber as an elongated leathery snout filled with fangs appeared before the opening. Nostrils flared before an eye finally appeared as the head moved.

  “Ah, there you are.” Miller’s voice was the same, though it seemed lower and… gravely coming out of the dragon. “Took you long enough.”

  Toby tilted his head. Not exactly the demeanor he would expect from a dragon. Then again, Miller had no cause to humor them.

  The dragon barely fit through the opening. It kept its wings tucked in close as it slithered its head in first, its long sinewy neck snaking back and forth while the rest of it followed. Its four feet crashed down onto the the stones as one, leaving long claw marks a few inches deep. The head raised. “Cramped in here.” The dragon’s head shifted back and forth like a man trying to get a crick out of his neck. “Besides, I figured you were done with the extras outside.”

  Paul’s eyes narrowed.

  Toby blinked.

  Damn.

  Of course, he was right. The door was shut. It wasn’t like someone could run out and add them to the raid group.

  Either way, this was the end.

  The dragon’s mouth managed to turn up as Miller chuckled. “Aww, did I make you angry?”

  Toby didn’t know if anyone else was looking…
but he could see a bit of the dragon’s health missing.

  The reserve members had fought it and hurt it. Standard dragon fight, then.

  Toby drew his sword. He had his instructions…

  Paul was the first to pull a vial from his inventory. He glanced over his shoulder and gave Toby a nod. Others were already taking out their own vials.

  Miller tilted his dragon head, seemingly amused.

  Once everyone but Toby had a vial in hand, three members of the raid group shifted around a bit. All of them were rogues. They looked back and forth at each others, spread out as evenly as possible, and all lifted their hands at the same time. They threw… things down at the floor, causing smoke to cover the raid group.

  Miller laughed. “Really? That’s your strategy? One gust of wind and it’s gone. And you have too many melee DPS for that to work anyway. They’ll need to come out eventually.”

  It only took a few moments for the smoke to clear… a distraction tactic the rogues would typically use to get away or pop into stealth.

  But not this time.

  When the smoke cleared a full raid group of twenty four Tobin Ironblood’s faced Miller.

  Toby had shifted a few feet in the smoke. Everyone had. He didn’t need to go far, he just needed to not be standing precisely where Miller had seen him.

  He grinned a bit in spite of himself. Fortunately the helmet hid it.

  Toby was Miller’s target. His only target. If he died the game was over, so Paul’s plan was to drag that conflict out as long as possible to give them a chance.

  It was Miller’s fault that he was facing this. His time impersonating Mitchel had given Paul the idea. It was why he had switched all his apothecaries from making healing items the night before. They had toiled away all night making minor illusion pots.

  The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, very clever. But useless, really.” Its head reared back as firelight appeared in its mouth.

  The raid group divided, half moving to the left and the other half to the right. The groups had been set up to break that way before they ever came in. Miller was a thinking enemy, so the old rules for the fight wouldn’t apply unless he wanted them to.