Shard Warrior

by Rick Scott

  The Guardian falls to one knee, temporarily stunned.

  “Don’t just stand there!” Maxis shouts at me. “Find your stupid ring!”

  I snap out of my awe induced trance and run towards where Rembrandt is scouring the ground.

  “Do you remember where exactly?” he asks.

  I look for where I fell and point to the general area. “Around there, I think.”

  We rush over and Rembrandt immediately starts digging through the sand. I look back for the other Guardians in the distance and see they’re halfway to us. The dogs however are nearly on top of us already, just a few hundred feet away. Fear rises in my chest and I almost consider leaving the ring.

  But I drop to my knees instead, rifling through the sand in a fervor. I nearly died for that ring, Aiko too. And it’s the one thing that makes the Shadow King seem a little less frightening than it already is in my mind.

  “Got it!” Rembrandt shouts. He picked something from out the sand and tosses it to me.

  I catch the ring in the air, thanking the stars. I secure it in my inventory just as an explosion rips between us.

  KA-BOOM!!

  I’m blown back in a wave of heat and lose a quarter of my hitpoints.

  I hit the ground in a daze and then my heart stops when I hear a shrill cry from Gilly. “REM!!”

  Oh God… no… not Rem!

  I shake my head and am half relieved to see the cyberpunker still alive, but he’s clutching his left shoulder where his arm used to be. Holy crap! “Rem!”

  He grits his teeth in pain, his HP bar barely a sliver and in the red. I then hear the snap and growl of sentries as the beasts crest over the top of rise, ready to descent upon him. No! I’ve got to keep them away from him. I rush to Rembrandt’s side and cast Shadow Mist at the three wolf-like Sentries as they descend down the slope of the dune in a charge.

  The nanodust falls upon them but doesn’t seem to have any effect.

  Crap!

  I shout at them with a War Cry, making sure they attack me and not Rembrandt. I force myself into the zone despite the turmoil running through my mind. I get a quick stab in on each of them with my blades and then shift on the balls of my feet to avoid the three sets of claws and bites that follow. I don’t succeed at all of them and take a nasty swipe to my leg.

  “Argh!!” Searing hot pain runs through my leg and I lose another chunk of my HP bar.

  The Lupine Sentry hits you!

  You take 247 damage.

  “Reece!” I hear Gilly’s voice cry out behind me.

  I turn to see her kneeling down and tending to Rembrandt, her bow raised casting a spell. His HP bar fills as his arm miraculously reconstructs itself, growing into existence in a line of sparking nano dust, just like when we were being printed for the first time.

  “Just run!” Rembrandt says, struggling to his feet. “Run!”

  “No you go!” I shout. “I’ll buy you some time!”

  I use my Active Dodge to avoid the next round of attacks from the three wolves. In my scant seconds of invulnerability I catch a glimpse of Val Helena and Aiko hammering away at the weak spot Maxis made in the Guardian’s armor. The thing looks stunned and surprisingly they have it down to three quarter health. I look for my brother next but I don’t see him.

  Then suddenly he appears, landing behind the wolves in a spray of sand as he slams his foot into the ground.

  Maxis uses Floor Stomp!

  A Lupine Sentry is stunned!

  A Lupine Sentry is stunned!

  A Lupine Sentry is stunned!

  “Go!” he screams at me. “While they’re stunned!” He then looks over his shoulder towards Aiko and Val. “I got him! Go!”

  Val and Aiko disengage from the still stunned Guardian and I heed to my brother’s words, doing the same. I focus on Rembrandt and Gilly who are already running ahead of us. The ground suddenly trembles beneath my feet and I sink into the sand a few inches as it liquefies.

  What the heck?

  I look over my shoulder and see Maxis, Aiko and Val Helena doing the same. What could have caused the ground to shake like that? I immediately think of the Omega, but that thing was over half a mile away. I look toward the skeletal remains of the Builder anyway, but I don’t see the giant anywhere. I scan a bit further ahead and finally see the hundred-foot-tall suit of armor now almost halfway to us!

  “What the…?” I look to my friends. “You guys see that? How did it move so far so fa—?”

  I stop mid-sentence as the enormous suit of armor shoots into the sky at tremendous speed, literally disappearing before my eyes. I lose sight of it in the darkened clouds and a moment later the Omega comes crashing down on the other side of the sand dune less than thirty feet away.

  HOLY CRAP!!!

  I’m thrown off my feet as a wave of liquefied sand radiates outwards, half burying me as well as the dogs and the damaged Guardian. I try to regain my footing as I struggle to comprehend what the heck just happened.

  “Did you see that?!” Val Helena cries in alarm.

  “Holy crap…” Maxis echoes my thoughts out loud. “We need to run, now!”

  “How!” Aiko says. “That thing just jumped a quarter of a mile in two seconds!”

  The massive being, now crouched from its landing, slowly beings to rise to its full height, stealing my breath as my mind goes blank gawking at it.

  Omega

  Level: 220

  No data available

  Affinity: N/A

  No way… Something like this can’t possibly be for real.

  “What do we do?” Val Helena shouts.

  I rack my brain for an answer. We can’t run. But maybe we still have time to hide. It didn’t move until the dogs found us so they must have alerted it somehow. So if we can get away from the dogs… “Aiko! Use Shadow Wall! If we get out of range of the dogs I think it won’t be able to track us!”

  “I hope you’re right!” she says and the three of them disappear as Aiko casts the spell. I hope I am too. Rembrandt and Gilly are too far away to gain the effect of Aiko’s spell, as am I. I look for Gilly and see her and Rem at a standstill a good hundred feet away, staring up at the Omega.

  “Gilly, Rem, run!” I say through the party chat as I sprint towards them.

  “We’re not cloaked!” Gilly says.

  “I got you,” I say. “Just go!”

  They finally take off running and I pop a Charge Strike, using it for movement rather than attack, skirting across the sand to instantly close the gap. I cast Shadow Wall and envelop us just as the titan stands to its full height. I look over my shoulder at the massive figure now scanning the rolling dunes for us. The dogs too seem distracted, fighting over what I think is the remains of Rembrandt’s arm.

  “I think we got away guys…” I say.

  “Not yet,” Maxis says. “We’re not safe till we hit that barrier.”

  I then get a PM.

  Maxis: And when we do…we’re going to have a talk.

  Chapter 38: Secrets Told

  We run flat out for an hour straight and finally I see the edge of the safe zone come within view. No one talks. The tension is just way too high following what we just experienced and everyone can’t wait to be back in the comfort of a world that doesn’t have hundred-foot-tall monsters that can jump a quarter mile.

  Or at least I can’t.

  “Just run straight through,” Maxis says without pause. “Keep our invis up.”

  No one questions it, we just go for broke.

  Rembrandt however does change our course a little and aims us towards a piece of open space as far away from the packs of roaming sentries as possible. I refresh our Shadow Wall right before we hit the line of watch towers. I feel for Gilly’s hand and grab it before pouring on the speed.

  The packs of dogs thankfully seem far enough away and only a handful of them react to our presence as we dash though the barrier wall and renter the safe zone. The sky brightens immediately and I feel a huge anxiety
lift from my chest.

  We made it…

  As the Shadow Wall spell wares off and we fade into existence, several messages scroll onto my HUD.

  [Host domain found…]

  [Connecting…success!]

  [Your domain is now: Karlis. Certain functions and questlines may be unavailable.]

  [Notice: Some Quests have become unavailable/obsolete]

  [Quest: Defeat Jötunn has expired or become obsolete]

  Weird. Maybe entering the Wild reset a whole bunch of stuff. I look to Gilly, her hand still within mine. I smile at her and she manages to smile back. She’s breathing heavily like I am and we both stumble towards a small outcropping of black rocks to sit upon. The rest of the party does the same, collapsing in heaps of exhaustion.

  I take in our surroundings to determine where we are. The terrain has changed considerably from the other side of the mountains. The mountains themselves jut sharply into the sky behind me, which I guess is to the south. There are more mountains to the north, tall and snow-capped, but where we are, is absent of snow and it actually feels a bit warm for being this far north. The ground too looks out of place, with black shale covering the ground like chipped asphalt.

  “You okay?” I ask looking to Gilly.

  She nods. “I am now. That was crazy.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Are you okay, Rem?” Gilly asks the cyberpunker, no doubt referring to his arm.

  Rembrandt wipes a handful of sweat from his bald head. “Good as new, Gills. Thanks for that.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Val Helena says, her eyes starting ahead of her into space. “That Omega.”

  “Yeah,” Aiko says. “Good thing they can’t enter the safe zones.”

  “No kidding,” I say.

  As I speak my brother darts his eyes to me.

  “Let’s go,” he says.

  He stands up and the rest of the group goes quiet. I sigh and reluctantly stand as well. Guess it’s time to face the music. Gilly gives me a little nod and squeezes my hand. “You guys will be all right. Just talk it out.”

  “Thanks Gilly.”

  I hope she’s right.

  * * *

  I follow Maxis around a small bend, out of sight and ear shot of the rest of the group. He folds his arms as he puts his back to me. I’m not sure what he’s about to say, but I decide to beat him to the punch.

  “Look, I’m sorry I lied about everything, okay? You’re right to be pissed off at me.”

  He doesn’t say anything for a moment and then he turns around. “You’re damn right I’m right to be pissed. I feel like punching your stupid block off!”

  A river of guilt runs through me, but a twinge of defiance as well. “Hey, I said I was sorry, okay? I can’t take back what I did. You think I enjoyed seeing you nearly get killed just now? Because you were pissed off about something I did?” The memory of seeing Mike getting hit by that Guardian replays through my mind and a hard lump forms in my throat. “I thought you were dead, man! But if you want to keep punishing me for doing something I—”

  “Just shut up, all right!” He cuts me off and a silence falls between us.

  I don’t know how to feel right now. Angry, ashamed, relieved, guilty? All of them could apply. “Mike, I lied because I—”

  “I’m not pissed off at you about that,” he cuts me off again. And then he speaks, but more calmly this time, his tone soft. “I’m more pissed off at myself.”

  He goes quiet again and stares up at the now mid-afternoon sky.

  “What are you talking about, Mike?”

  He releases a sigh and sits down on one of the blacked rocks. “Take a seat, man.”

  I hesitate for a minute, but then he gives me a stare.

  “Please?”

  I release a sigh of my own and then walk over to plop down on a rock next to him. “What?”

  “I’ve had a long time to think about all this while we were running here,” he says. “Yes. Me getting pissed off nearly got me killed. Nearly got us all killed. And I don’t like that. But that was my fault, not yours.”

  Wow, I wasn’t expecting this from him. “So you’re saying you’re really not mad that I kept all that stuff a secret?”

  He releases a guffaw. “Of course I am, you idiot. But probably not for the reason you think.”

  Now I’m really confused. I furrow my brows at him. “What?”

  “Look, we’ve both been keeping secrets,” he says turning to me. “I admit that. Heck I’ve been the king of it the last couple years. And I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’re good at it too. It’s pretty much in our DNA. And I guess I can understand why you did it too. Because honestly, I think you were right.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t get mad because of what you did, Ryan.” He then pauses, looking skyward in reflection. “Well maybe initially I did, I guess. But I really got mad because you were right.”

  This was a turn of events I didn’t expect. “Right about what?”

  “About how I would have reacted,” he says. “I would have done exactly what you said. I would have told Val we got higher priorities and gone down to check out that mine. And in hindsight it probably would have been the wrong call.”

  I wonder if he’s just saying it to make me feel better or something. “You really think so?”

  “I’ve been to the surface four times now,” Maxis says. “And I haven’t been able to save anyone. If we have a shot at saving Val’s sister, then we should take it. Like you said, she could have minutes left to survive. We still got six months to try and save everyone else.” He then looks at me and frowns. “Which I still don’t have a clue how to do, by the way.”

  For the first time I see my brother looking dejected and unsure. He’s always so full of confidence that I guess I kind of take for granted that he knows what he’s doing. I never considered that maybe it was more bravado than self-assurance. “I’m pretty sure everything I discovered will help all that,” I say patting him on the shoulder. “Once this is over, we can all sit down and puzzle it out together. That’s what I’ve been itching to do, honestly. I just didn’t want it distracting us from what we need to do for Val.”

  Maxis lets out a chuckle. “Yeah, I get it.” He then looks at me with a squint in his eyes. “You got good instincts, Ryan. Judgment too. Something I don’t, apparently.”

  He kicks at the black shale looking disgusted.

  “Hey, don’t say that.”

  “Nah, it’s true, man,” he says. “You’re like Mom. You think things through. Weight the options and consequences. Use wisdom. Make good calls. Me? I’m just a stupid hot headed punk reacting with my gut. It’s no wonder I’ve been out here failing all this time. Filling up on nano just to go back empty handed each run. I got no idea how to figure this stuff out.”

  Whoa, I never expected my brother to say something like that! I feel a warmth grow between us as he actually opens up to me. Not just as an older brother, but almost as an equal. Like someone he can actually talk to on the same level now.

  “Even back when we were in Stormwall, I did the same thing,” he laments. “I’ve been so caught up in this ‘us’ versus the AI’s crap that I didn’t even consider how much of a prick that guy Braxus could turn out to be. I let my prejudice blind me; expected him to get onboard just because he was a human. And we paid the price for it.”

  I think back to the whole Braxus situation and a sickness gnaws at my gut. “Hey, you’re not the only one who made mistakes.” I think of Diana and my promise to her. “We still need to do something about that guy too. I promised Diana I would.”

  Maxis releases a scoff. “Another one I misjudged. Who’d have thought an AI could be more decent than a human being?”

  I stay quiet as we both digest that one.

  “Hey, it’s not your fault, man,” I say eventually. “About you failing out here, I mean. You’ve been going this pretty much alone. Maybe all this happened for
a reason? Maybe we’re all here so we can help you?”

  He shakes his head a little. “I don’t know. Gilly’s Dad puts so much faith in me, but sometimes I wonder if I’m really the guy for the job.”

  “Are you kidding me, man?” I balk at him. “After seeing you take on that Guardian, there’s no doubt!”

  He just shrugs.

  “Yo!” I slug him hard but playfully in the shoulder. “Stop with that defeatist BS, man. You’re like the coolest most badass guy I know. Honestly. And I’m not just saying that because you’re my brother.”

  He laughs rubbing his shoulder. “Yeah whatever, man.”

  “Seriously, you got what it takes, Mike,” I tell him honestly. “You just need a new perspective. And maybe what I found can provide you with that. We’ll find Citadel. We’ll save everyone. We’ll save Mom. And we’ll do it together.”

  He chuckles and gives me a nod. “All right. Together.”

  “Plus you’re dating one of the coolest and hottest chicks I know, besides Gilly of course.” I give him a grin. “That’s got to count for something.”

  That gets another laugh that we both share.

  “Thanks, Ryan,” he says and extends his hand. “For everything.”

  I clasp it and we embrace in a hug. “No worries, man.”

  “I love you, bro.”

  “Love you too.”

  We pull away with a laugh and I feel an even stronger bond grow between us.

  “I do wonder how you kept come back here four times in a row, though,” I say. “After seeing that Omega, I would have called it quits for good!”

  He just laughs again.

  The thought does remind me of something else though. Something I had wanted to ask Mike before, but I’d have to reveal another secret to do it.

  “Hey, I never told you, but…” I say, lowering my tone to become serious again. “Back in the hab I followed you one night. To your meeting with Gilly’s dad.”