by Dawn Chapman
“I hope he can, or I’m going to be the biggest pain in the ass you’ll ever know. And I failed my planet by being like this.”
Pierce hadn’t wanted to admit it, the words, or the truth, had sputtered out in a splurge of emotion, his frustration evident. “I need to speak to Wayne,” he said. “This thing isn’t working, I don’t even know if Earth is watching anymore.”
“You mentioned that name before. Your close friend? Is he the one who stuck by you?” Leenz asked. Chopper stood drooling behind her.
Against his protests, she’d plopped Pierce just inside the mouth of the small cave. “Yes, he’s my friend. I wish he were here. I think he’d make more sense of this world than I ever could.”
“You’re supposed to be the best player on your planet.”
Pierce felt his chest heave, breathing almost too difficult to comply with as well. “They thought I was, but now I’m not sure. I know what I can do; I can keep going. I’ve beaten worse odds and games than this. If I have to do it in a wheelchair, then by dammed I’m going to!”
“That’s the spirit,” she patted his back. “Drayk won’t let us down.”
A crack up ahead. Pierce turned to see four masked men step out from the treeline. Instantly he panicked. He couldn’t get up. Stuck! “Fuck,” Pierce cursed, slapping his legs, feeling nothing.
Leenz whispered, “Do what you can to help, but I’ve got this.” She grabbed for her weapons.
Pierce raised the rifle to his shoulder. Pierce positioned the rifle at the man farthest away. He fired, but his shot went wide. Still, it struck a shoulder.
All hell broke loose as the four men lunged. No choice but to fight, and this was no ordinary fight. These men were trained in close hand to hand combat. His heart leaped.
“I can’t do anything with you guys spinning around so much!” Pierce shouted, but he did exactly the opposite. Pierce managed to line up a shot. He pulled the trigger.
The plasma burst flying past Graylin’s ear and took out one man.
Graylin turned back to glare at one of the other men as he tried to slice his head off.
Leenz offset, then parried with the other two. They had only a short blunt sword each. Although Pierce had tried to see what level stats these guys had, the pain in his head stopped him from seeing who or what they were. Bandits for sure, but nothing else he could see.
Drayk should have been here by now! Pierce cursed under his breath once again and he lined up one more shot. That took out a second man with Leenz shouting her thanks. So the fight became one on one, more evenly matched, but Leenz took a good slash to her upper arm, rendering it useless.
LEENZ—HEALTH—50%
Pierce worried. The bleeding continued. Graylin’s health dropping all the more.
That was when four more men ran at them from the woods. Now they were vastly outnumbered.
An energy blast hit the dirt before the four men; Pierce looked to where it had come from. A small man in grey stepped to one side, revealing the largest Maxol he’d seen in his life. Someone Pierce recognised, the one who’d run from their earlier altercation. “Drayk!” Pierce shouted, “thank God.”
Despite four more fighters spilling from the trees, Drayk rushed to the cave where Pierce lay panting and sweating, though he’d done nothing but fire his weapon.
“I didn’t think you were coming.”
Leenz and Zelak exchanged a look as the mage hurtled blasts at the four trying to get in closer.
The remaining assassin turned to fight solely with Leenz, but soon took off running. The others scrambled after him. Pierce breathed a sigh of relief.
Bahol’s lumbering form moved in close. The two exchanged a look.
“Been a long time, Master Bahol.” Graylin said.
Bahol laughed. “Good to see you again,” he stepped into an embrace, their large hands patting in a way that might break most men’s ribs. “I think we’ve all got some talking to do, but for now…”
“Drayk!” Pierce let out a scream, a gurgle so pained, that Drayk rushed over, kneeling beside him.
“We need to get him home now.” Altus said.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Drayk
“No,” Drayk held a hand up for Pierce to see. “I’m going to have to do this here,” he said to Altus. “He’s too weak.”
“How? There’s no major computer system.”
Pierce’s brow dripped with sweat. Zelak moved in closer to apply some healing magic. “I can’t see if anything I’m doing here is helping.”
“But you can keep me energized. I need a sharp knife, something so sharp cutting won’t hurt.”
“You plan to cut him one?”
“No, I need to cut my hand, and Pierce’s. Our nanites must merge. It’s the only way.”
Zelak caught on, murmuring, “So they can re-program inside, now in a subtler way.”
Haal handed over his knife then Drayk did what he had to, sliced open his palm. The blood spurted into the ground, mixing with the dirt beneath them. The puddle sparked, then what looked like horrible patterns formed. Drayk wanted to see closer, decipher what it meant, but he had no time. He turned to Pierce, reaching for his hand. He cut deep a second time, then held on tight.
“Master Nanite, can you hear me?”
Drayk’s call was answered with a Yes.
“Then you know what I’m asking.
“Yes, I’ll allow you to take over my body, to win this fight.” Drayk closed his eyes, and internally he started to see what was going on inside.
“There’s something else; this fight will not be easy.”
“I’ll do what I can, but within the confines of my programs, and the game statistics.”
Blood rushed through Drayk’s veins. Millions of tiny robots rushed to heal the wounds he’d created. But then, seeing the other nanites’ army hold still, they faced off. Now we truly will see what I can do.
None of them turned to run; they stayed fast. With the master nanites orders, they were his to command. And in a rush, the power flooding his system ached to order them into battle. He felt as if he’d be smiling, but inside a computer system, all he saw were codes, thousands of them.
Now, Drayk recognized the master nanite inside Pierce. Much larger than all the others, like a giant spider with only six appendages. Each leg was a different size, it could fix things or easily pull them apart. Drayk felt a huge pull in his mind. The battle then took a different path. As their blood mixed inside his body, a war raged on.
The master nanite met Pierce’s head on, and they fought. The robots clunked, like mini mech machines, to a full-on scrum for supremacy. Fighting for everything. Tiny metallic arms clashing, striking, trying their best to pull the others apart.
Drayk watched as the stats of his nanite dropped.
MASTER NANITE
LEVEL—UNKNOWN
HEALTH—UNKNOWN
MISSION—UNKNOWN
Yet there was nothing he could do to stop it. This fight could be to the death.
Then a burst of energy carried through his veins, and a voice came with it.
I’ve seen nothing like this in my life, ever. But, they run on a certain energy. Yours is on a slightly different frequency than the other. With some help I can buff your mechanical friend.
The message popped up:
YOU’VE RECEIVED A BUFF—INCREASE IN ENERGY FOR TWO MINUTES
All around him, his master nanite glowed with renewed energy while others started struggling. They grappled to the floor. Drayk took a double take. The floor was his vein after all; he could see through it to his body’s internal organs. Fascinating, but now wasn’t the time to focus on that.
Then with a pop, the other nanite went down. He wasn’t trying to kill it because he needed the control, nothing more.
Drayk’s fingers wouldn’t work, now inside here. One thing left to do now, hit it with the new codes: my codes. So Drayk focussed his mind.
BUFF—ONE MINUTE REMAINING
&nbs
p; With Drayk guiding it internally, the master nanite sprouted two more long metallic arms, hands and then three digits; it started to tap the codes into his enemy. They worked fast together, two minutes whizzing by.
The fighting around him stopped. All the nanites changed colours from the enemy’s orange to the blue that flowed through Pierce’s and his veins.
“Amazing,” Zelak’s voice echoed from inside, then everything else stopped as the buff vanished, leaving Drayk exhausted. Drayk’s mind focused on leaving the master nanite.
“Thank you.”
There was no reply.
Drayk turned to Pierce who’d passed out. The others smiled as Pierce came around. His first words were, “I saw the battle. That was something else.”
Drayk smiled, “Yeah, it really was.”
“I didn’t know you could do that; defeat an AI.”
“Neither did I,” Drayk said, “but I’m glad I could. I think we both did well.” Drayk unclasped their hands, wincing once at the pain. He looked to Zelak who handed him a bandage, then a healing potion.
“It’s a small wound, but best to sort it out now.” Zelak did the same for Pierce, who downed a liquid with a cough.
Sputtering, Pierce said, “That’s disgusting.”
Drayk laughed, “But it works.”
Leenz helped Pierce to his feet. Although he wobbled slightly, he steadied himself and stepped forward. “The pain’s gone.” He raised his rifle to a better position. Did someone say there’s a monster to fight?”
Drayk grinned. “What are the stats of this creature?”
Haal read out: “A forest Molki. Ahead, he’s brought a smaller army of creatures with him. We might struggle taking this one on. Usually, they’re way above us, but that’s not at all what bothers me. The bandits around him might join in to either hound us or stop us from winning. They could even pick us off.”
“We can combat that,” Leenz opined. “There’s eight of us now.”
“Yeah, but that’s leaving us still short on a monster that big.”
“I think we should try,” Pierce stated. “That way through the next pass is easier on us than heading through several bandit packs. I think we’d be worse off there.”
“You think?”
Drayk agreed with Leenz. “We go in, deal with the little monsters surrounding it then take on the big one.”
“You’re sure?” Altus asked.
“Yes, we’ve got several great fighters in here, weapons from a future world we don’t know everything about, and a mage who happens to be pretty darned good.” He held out his hand for Zelak.
Zelak took it in a shake. “Thanks, means a lot. There’s only so much fighting you’d want to do before you get hurt badly yourself.”
“Why were you injured?” Drayk questioned, the last puzzle hadn’t fallen into place yet.
“A story for another day. Bandits are on their way in. We need to leave, now.”
Leenz, started to move off, her swords clinking slightly as she walked. “There’s some distance to walk before we reach this forest monster let’s get going now. Not letting it come to us is our best fighting option. That way we can eat before we tackle it, renew our strength.”
Drayk agreed with them, but only thing left on his mind now, surviving the monster and the bandits. Then he wanted to rest. To think. Decide what all these things mean for my future, for Cale’s.
Rounding the corner, Drayk noticed the different smell in the air.
Once the small Molki troop saw their party, it rushed toward them, skittering, jumping several feet to hound its new enemy. Drayk stepped back. The Molki looked to be the strangest creature he’d ever seen. Long spindly legs shouldn’t have been able to support such round tiny bodies and huge heads. The others moved to hit back, but the tiny Molki were quick. Sharp dagger-like spikes struck just as fast.
Drayk’s parties’ health stats dipped with the small but deadly hits.
Zelak positioned himself as far back as he could, hurtling healing blasts and buffs to those who needed it. That helped. Health stats didn’t lose much more, but they all knew the creatures were too many.
Bahol took on the most, his raw power slaughtering them left to right. Drayk grinned as each creature fell at his feet. Then he saw the Boss take note, its head forward, close enough to strike out.
Drayk screamed “Watch out!” but Bahol took a strike to the chest off one of its legs. A massive hit.
BAHOL
LEVEL—UNKNOWN
HEALTH—65/100
Drayk swallowed. He wanted them to pull back, to run. The battle had taken a turn for the worse. They were penned in.
Then there were several noises all at once, shouts to his left. The bandits had shown up. They hit out at Drayk’s party. Leenz and Haal struggled, fighting them off. Two attacked Haal at once. Massive damage.
HAAL
LEVEL—17
HEALTH—30/100
Drayk couldn’t take any more; he had to stop this to try getting the bandits to help. Frantically, he waved his hands. A couple looked his way, some with pure anger in their eyes. Others seemed unsure. So, Drayk had to go with his gut. “We don’t want you dying here! You can have safe haven! With us. Come live a real life, earn respect!”
Most jeered at this but others listened closer. He could see he was getting through to some, as they lowered their weapons, edged nearer.
Over the grunts of the skirmish, Drayk tried again. “Stand with us! Defeat this monster, keep the loot. We just need safe passage, so we can prepare for the war. You do know the army of Grolon is coming. You know he’s out to destroy this part of the world. Don’t let the wrong side win! He’ll take everything from those who’ve loved and grown up on New Ararat.”
At that some bandits turned to join and fight off the Molki.
He’d done it! Drayk breathed in, glancing to Pierce who was still firing at anything he could. With the tide turning, there was only one more thing Drayk could say. “I’m opening my stats as a player. If you’re not NPC’s you can see who I am, what I am. Stand with me. With us!”
The bandits turned, only a few stopped, several stared, as he granted them access to see; their hands raised to mouths.
One called out. “You’re not OP or a Paragon!”
Another shouted, “But what are you?”
“I am not here, that’s what! In this game, if you follow us you can do or be anything you want!”
Smaller melee weapons and magical blasts fired from the bandit’s mages. But he had them. His own troop took charge. That was what he needed; he needed to see everyone working together.
Drayk checked his stats, they were falling rapidly now. He was almost down to 60%
The Molki let out a wail as its health dropped to 40%.
With that, or whether it was sheer luck, his own stat increased. Maybe something else going on but we’ll win this.
But then something started. The lead creature suddenly split into four, then the four smaller creatures rushed his friends. Drayk couldn’t really do anything. Each smaller creature was still eight levels above Drayk’s highest fighter. They struggled to fight hand to hand.
Leenz whirled around and around, striking in several locations. To her right, Zelak also dealt out death blows. Eventually, the creature’s health fell lower than 15%.
Leenz stumbled which wasn’t like her. Drayk saw the reason why. Several smaller creatures had come at her heel. She took a slash to the chest. Fell backward, just as the creature struck out, taking her arm clean off.
The split Molki loomed, about to kill.
A blast struck the creature’s head, with a cry from Pierce. “Take that you bastard!”
It fell, dead.
Leenz nodded her thanks, Zelak sent a buff her way, the arm started healing, she raised it at him, then went in after creature number two. It wove and ducked, fighting Haal with everything it had. He couldn’t keep up. Haal’s health was down to 30%.
Pierce came up beside
Drayk. “You did a great thing there, turning the bandits against it. I hope they follow through and join us.”
The troop coalesced, their final few hits focused at the creatures surrounding Haal. That all started making a difference. Within seconds, they were shrieking for all the right reasons.
There was no enemy left.
Just lots and lots of loot.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Drayk
The battlefield massacre had hit: bodies, wounded, blood everywhere. Some bodies started to vanish, leaving a bag. But, no one moved to grab anything. Yet.
The bandits clumped together, all looking toward Drayk, but not wanting or knowing how to approach.
“You really think they’re good?” Pierce asked.
“They can be. They’re not bad people just like Zelak wasn’t, and they just needed a little push in the right direction.”
Pierce shrugged, “Maybe.”
Drayk moved to Leenz, who stood panting, her arm still badly wounded, dripping blood everywhere. He pulled off his shirt to wrap it before Zelak could finally work his way over to her for healing on a deeper level.
“Really, it’s not needed,” she protested, “I don’t feel as much pain as some others.”
“There is a reason why that is, though. You’re an elder, correct?”
Leenz nodded.
“You really know both species well.” Zelak now stood with Drayk by his side, and she looked to him. Drayk could see the human, Pierce, had grown on Leenz in more ways than she wanted to admit. Drayk caught Leenz looking toward Pierce more often than not. She liked him, but didn’t want him to suffer because of this game.
“Yes, there are many things we’re not sure of, even now. And the best can still learn. Drayk comes from a totally different world. Your human, Pierce, seems broken in more ways than I’ve ever seen, yet your strength, and resolve to continue is more than I could ever think possible.”
“Sweet on him?” Zelak asked.
Leenz laughed, “As a species, we’re incompatible, but I want to know him as a friend and warrior. I respect a man like Pierce for all the right reasons.”
Drayk risked asking, “You did something, to help him. Pierce mentioned you’d removed part of his brain?”