The Grind

by Dante Doom

  Timon sighed deeply at the reminder, and his shoulder slumped a bit in defeat. “There’s nothing I can say to dissuade you?”

  “Look, we’ll tag along with her for a little while. Okay? At the first sign of things getting weird or shady, we’ll bail.”

  “That… do you promise?” Timon asked as he looked deep into Savannah’s eyes.

  She felt a little jolt of electricity run through her stomach as she met his eyes. “Yeah, of course,” she replied, quickly looking away from him. “I promise we’ll bail as soon as it looks like she’s going to be a problem. But for now, let’s use her to get to the top of that mountain.”

  “Well… I trust you,” Timon replied. “And against my better judgment, I’m going to trust you on this, as well.”

  “Great,” Savannah said as she turned to face the group. “All right, people, let’s get up that mountain!”

  “He’s coming in hot!” Fingers shouted as the Giant King sailed through the air. The low gravity mixed with the giant’s powerful legs meant that he could stay in the air for quite some time while he generated large swirling boulders of energy and threw them down with all of his might.

  “Shoot it!” Timon yelled as another boulder came hurtling towards them.

  Savannah leapt up to meet the boulder head-on, firing her shotgun rapidly into the center of it. The energy bursts cut into the stone, breaking it in half.

  “Over there!” Elanor yelled as several giants emerged from the cavern. Savannah and her team were at the top of the mountain, on a ridge right by the peak. The Giant King had been waiting for them and was now fighting with everything he had. And every three minutes, more giants poured out of the cave.

  “I’m on it!” Fingers replied as he spun around and began to fire on the giants. 100 damage hovered above the minions’ heads as they rushed forward to attack. They were wielding large clubs that glowed with red energy, but they weren’t invincible.

  The battle was pure chaos, and Savannah was having trouble keeping track of everything. The minions kept coming and the Giant King didn’t stay still long enough for her or Timon to hit him. Again as she watched, the Giant King crashed to the ground hard, causing the ground to shake. Savannah landed next to the Giant King and took another shot at him.

  The energy blast crashed into the giant’s silver armor and the notation of 50 damage hovered above its head. The giant swung his massive fist at her, but she was able to dodge out of the way, rolling out of his reach before she landed on her feet.

  “Get on him!” Elanor yelled as she tried to leap onto the Giant King’s back, but he was too fast. He was in the air again already, readying another boulder to hurl at them.

  “Need some help!” Fingers shouted as two of the minions came forward to lay the beat-down on him. He was frantically trying to reload his revolvers and dodge their energy clubs at the same time.

  “Elanor, take care of the giant minions!” Savannah ordered. “You can’t seem to catch the Giant King anyway!”

  “Sounds like a plan!” Elanor shouted triumphantly as she charged into the center of the minions and began to blast at them with her electrical gloves. The word Overcharge hovered above her silver hair as she clapped her hands together. A pulse of blue energy crashed out from her, knocking the lesser giants to the ground and dealing 150 points damage to each one. Fingers was quickly able to dispatch them as they began getting up.

  “Three minutes until they respawn,” Ten-Thirty said as it aimed its railgun at the Giant King, waiting to get a clean shot.

  “Let’s kill it in three minutes, then!” Savannah shouted. She glanced at Timon, who was busy watching Elanor instead of fighting. “Hey, Timon, snap out of it! Get your head in the game!”

  “Oh, uh, right, sorry!” Timon said as he fumbled with his Sniper Rifle, aiming it up at the Giant King. The king was plummeting to the ground again, boulder in hand. Above his head read the word Charging.

  “I don’t think he’s going to throw that boulder this time,” Savannah said as she switched to her Energy Rifle. She fired off a few dozen shots at the Giant King, but the boulder was too big and it was soaking up all of the blows. The words Damage Shield hovered above the boulder as the green blasts of energy crashed harmlessly into it and were absorbed away.

  “If I can grab onto him, I can use the higher level DPS of these gloves,” Elanor said. “But he keeps moving too quickly for me. How can something this big be so fast?”

  “I’ve got an idea!” Savannah said. “Ten-Thirty, let Elanor climb on your back. The giant can change directions in mid-air—that’s how he keeps dodging us. So if we let Ten-Thirty jump at him, the giant will move out of the way–”

  “And then I springboard off the robot!” Elanor exclaimed. “That’s brilliant!”

  “Incoming!” Timon shouted as the boulder sailed right towards Savannah. She tried to snap off a few more shots with her shotgun, but it was useless. Next, she tried to dodge out of the way, but she wasn’t fast enough. The boulder crashed into her hard, pinning her against the ground.

  “Ahhhh!” she grunted as the alert 50 damage, Immobilized hovered above her. She could hear her bones cracking and crunching as the boulder pressed down onto her. She tried to press against it with her hands, but the force was too great. The Giant King was probably standing on the boulder, she realized, though it was too big for her to be sure.

  Injury! Broken Rib said the display above her. All Agility and Strength Skills at Half-rank. That was just great; an injury like this would effectively take her out of the fight. She needed her strength skill to lift the boulder off of her.

  “A little help!” Savannah wheezed, but no one came. Fortunately, the boulder wasn’t dealing anymore damage to her as it sat atop her body; she was simply immobilized and injured.

  There was the muffled sound of fighting and, within a minute, the boulder was rolled off of her. Ten-Thirty was standing next to her. “Are you functional?” the Machina asked.

  “I can barely walk,” Savannah wheezed. “Where’s the giant?”

  Ten-Thirty pointed to the sky. Savannah could see that both Elanor and Fingers had managed to grab onto the Giant King and were fighting him in mid-air. Fingers fell off even as she watched, and began drifting slowly down to the earth, firing his pistols as rapidly as he could up at the giant and using his special ability to ignore reload times. The Giant King’s health had dropped from 5,000 points to a measly 750. This fight was certainly going to be won.

  Savannah grabbed Ten-Thirty’s extended hand and hoisted herself up from the ground, wincing as she felt pain surge through her entire body. They would need to go to a Med Center to fix this injury. That was going to be a big waste of time.

  She opened her inventory and activated her Rocket Launcher. The secondary fire mode was a guided missile, meaning that she didn’t have to rely on her ability to aim accurately. She pointed the weapon at the giant and fired a rocket off. The missile sailed through the air and crashed into the Giant King, dealing 150 damage.

  Between the rockets, Fingers’ rapid fire, and Elanor’s electric bursts, the Giant King didn’t last much longer. He was dead before he reached the ground.

  Savannah glanced over to see that Timon wasn’t shooting anymore. Instead, he was staring up at Elanor. His reluctance about working with her seemed to be getting worse and worse. This wasn’t a good sign. Savannah didn’t want to lose her client, but at the same time, how much of that concern was realistic, and how much was just related to the fact that she liked him as a person, and wanted to please him? Could she lose him? He had already paid her a lot of money, and they were spending plenty of time in the game. If he walked away, he would be screwing himself over, really. It wasn’t as if he could find another Grinder. He was in the Grind, and there was no leaving until he got the rank he wanted or he died.

  She didn’t want to bully him, though. Feeling so torn over what to do about his reluctance was enough of a conundrum that she wasn’t sure what to do with i
t, or even whether she should just keep going in circles and hope it took care of itself. If she didn’t have an answer, what else was there to do?

  As the giant’s body melted away, thousands of point orbs went rushing to both Timon and Elanor. Savannah grinned as she watched the points increase Timon’s rank. 65,000/1,500,000.

  “That was very well done!” Elanor said. “I believe, since we started working as a team, the encounters have gotten harder and, as a delicious result, we’re getting more points.”

  “Yeah!” Fingers said. “And the loot is good, too. Look at what I found!” He held up a revolver that had an extra-long barrel. “This is called the Hand Cannon! It’s got piercing damage—does 50 points a shot and can shoot six before needing to be reloaded. Only problem is that the fire rate is low, but whatever; I like it.”

  “It’s working out great,” Savannah said with a smile. Then she looked over at Timon. He wasn’t smiling.

  “Well, now what?” Fingers asked.

  “We head into the next zone from here,” Elanor said. “If my sources are correct, the path to the King-Maker Zone can be found–”

  “Nowhere, cause it ain’t real,” Fingers interrupted her.

  “You keep saying that, but you do realize there is a King, right?” Elanor shot back at him.

  “Yeah, but the King gets that way because he ranks up like anyone else; it just takes a crap-ton of points to get there. There’s no mythical fairyland where you can suddenly get as many points as it takes to become a King. Someone made that rumor up and folks ran with it because they liked the idea that you can get rich quick,” Fingers replied.

  Elanor growled, “Listen here, Wild Card, I know what I’m talking about. I’m a woman of great esteem. I’m not some trifling fool who’s wasting her time looking for fairy tales. This place exists, and I intend to find it, with or without you.”

  “Well, whatever…” Fingers trailed off, backing off somewhat. “Your delusions seem pretty profitable so far,” Fingers said. “So, then, where’s the next zone?”

  Elanor pointed to the cavern which the giant minions had been pouring from. “The Dream Lands. From there, we go to Fieros, and then I’ll depart from you all to embrace my destiny.”

  Fingers went to open his mouth, but Elanor’s glare shut him up before he could.

  Savannah shook her head. “Well, we weren’t headed to the Dream Lands, so we should probably part ways. There’s plenty of good hunting over here where we are.”

  Timon seemed shocked, but his face softened considerably at the comment.

  “Nonsense, my dear! There is far better hunting inside of the Dream Lands!” Elanor exclaimed as she walked over and put her arm around Savannah’s shoulders. “It’s one of the more adaptive parts of the Grind. Waves of enemies are created out of the ether, their being known as Viral Nightmares.”

  “I’ve been there,” Savannah said. “It’s a pain to traverse.”

  “Maybe, but if you have the right kind of crew, you can rack up a fortune in points. Isn’t this what you’re here for, little Grinder?” Elanor teased. “You want points, right?”

  Savannah frowned. The Viral Nightmares were usually tough to fight, but the current makeup of their group was incredibly efficient. There would be a lot of points to earn. She glanced over at Timon, who had crossed his arms again. It was clear that this would be too much for him to take.

  “Sorry, but I think we’d better–”

  Her words were interrupted by Elanor. “Fine—if you don’t want to rank up as quickly as you can, that’s up to you. Fingers, are you coming?”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Fingers said as he moved to follow after the silver-haired woman.

  “Hey, I thought you were with us!” Savannah said.

  Fingers turned around and looked at the two of them. “Look, uh, Savannah, I think you and Timon are great, but frankly, it would be a terrible idea for me to pass up on heading into the Dream Lands with someone as strong as her. The gear those nightmares drop is incredible! It’s mostly consumables, but hey, potions are useful any day of the week. And, who knows? Maybe my gang is trapped there and I can ride in to the rescue, guns blazing.”

  Savannah sighed again. It was clear that Fingers had taken quite a liking to Elanor and wouldn’t readily abandon her. Still, he was a very effective fighter, and losing him would be painful. Their point acquisition rate would slow to a crawl without him. But Hem had never mentioned the Dream Lands before, so she had no idea where to look for him or if it was even the right direction to go in, one that made sense. Plus, that Aspect had told her that Elanor was important, but she’d never said why. Could she actually lead Savannah to her dad, or was this all about accruing more points? Thinking about all of the questions, she looked at Timon regretfully—she needed to play this out, and hopefully things would become more obvious soon enough. She shrugged at him in apology, and then called after Fingers and Elanor.

  “Well, I don’t want to lose you, too,” Savannah said. “Come on, Timon—let’s head to the Dream Lands!”

  “Perfection!” Elanor exclaimed as she clasped her hands together tightly. “I knew you wouldn’t pass up this kind of opportunity.”

  Timon said nothing, but followed alongside Savannah and the rest of the party. The expression on his face indicated that he wasn’t happy with her, but he kept silent. She could feel the tension in the air, though. On some level, she even felt disappointed in herself. She felt bad for letting him down. But at the same time, she was trying to get him as many points as possible.

  He was the client. And Savannah was the one who knew best… right?

  Chapter Nine

  “This place is so big,” Fingers said, his voice echoing throughout the cavern in the Spiraling Mountains. Their shadowy figures were illuminated by the light panels on the sides of their arms. “I never would have thought it was so big from the outside.” Tilting his head up, he added, “I can’t see the ceiling, it’s so high up. I mean, there is one, right? There’s no stars, so there must be something overhead. Everything is so black, it sort of reminds me of—”

  “Home,” Timon finished for him as he looked around the cavern. “It’s like the night sky at home without the stars.”

  Savannah looked at Fingers in surprise. “Haven’t you been everywhere?”

  “You know, that’s kind of the funny thing,” Fingers replied as he ran his hand alongside the black cave wall. “I’ve been here for so long that I’d assumed I would have had time to see everything. I rarely ever ventured past my home territory, though. I’m not much of the exploring type.”

  Savannah stared back at him for a moment, wondering how one who didn’t like to explore could have ended up deciding to live in the Grind, but then moved on to focus on the immediate concern, investigating the cavern. Slowly, the five of the spread out to see what they could find.

  “Where is this portal to the Dream Lands?” Timon asked.

  “That’s the thing about the Dream Lands,” Savannah replied. “The portals are all over the Grind, but they’re hidden. Finding them is like activating a bonus level.”

  “They shift, too,” Elanor added, investigating a giant’s skeleton in the corner of the cave. “Every few weeks, they change locations. Finding them isn’t easy.”

  “So how do you know there’s one here?” Timon asked. “It might have shifted.”

  “My intelligence is only a day old, which should give us plenty of time to find it,” Elanor replied.

  “Aha!” Fingers said as he pointed to a large stone carving on the wall. The carving was an elegant half-circle, with dozens of different, ancient runes carved inside. It towered above them, encompassing nearly half the wall. It was faded in shape, however, blending in with the wall, which made it difficult to see from a distance. “I think I found something.”

  Savannah inspected the runes. They were definitely some kind of puzzle. She touched her finger against one of the carvings and it began to glow red brightly. As she pulled her f
inger away, the light faded.

  “So, how does it work?” Elanor asked as she ran her hands along the wall. “They told me that the portal was here, but they didn’t mention a puzzle.”

  “I was with a group last time I went to the Dream Lands,” Savannah said. “That was a long time ago—I can barely remember the journey, let alone details.”

  Savannah glanced back at Timon, who was standing away from the rest of the group, quietly watching them. She pushed down the pang of guilt rising in her at his stern expression. “Can you make sense of this?” she asked him. “You’re probably the smartest one of us.”

  Timon shook his head, ignoring her comment.

  “What is that guy’s problem?” Fingers asked as he tried poking a few different runes, causing them all to light up in different colors at once. “I mean, the moment Elanor shows up, he gets all pouty.”

  “He’s probably threatened by me,” Elanor replied as she knelt down to touch one of the runes near the ground, which glowed a bright green. “He wants to be a Noble, doesn’t he?”

  “He sure does,” Fingers said before Savannah could stop him. She wasn’t comfortable with Fingers sharing Timon’s life story with the woman.

  “Let’s change the subject and figure out how to activate this puzzle,” Savannah said.

  “You can never be too careful of other Nobles,” Elanor continued. “He clearly knows my status, and is probably terrified that I’m going to kill him in the game.”

  “You want to become the Queen? Why?” Savannah asked.

  Elanor smiled dismissively. “It’s rather rude to discuss politics with a stranger, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,” Savannah replied.

  “No offense taken.” Elanor fiddled with the puzzle.

  It seemed that a certain combination of runes being touched would elicit different colors—from red to blue and black or green—but Savannah still wasn’t sure what they were trying to accomplish, and it seemed that Elanor was in the same position.