The Grind

by Dante Doom

  Elanor went on after a moment, adding, “You can’t be too careful in the Grind. This place is dangerous for nobility. There are a lot of people at the bottom who want to get to the top the fast and easy way,” she commented, giving Savannah a side look that made her squirm under her perceptive gaze.

  “Why tell me who you are, then?” Savannah asked.

  “Because I could kill all of you without breaking a sweat, my dear,” Elanor replied with a chuckle. “However, I’d rather you liked me. It never hurts to have too many friends when the time comes.”

  “True that,” Fingers said. “But, man, I am stumped. This puzzle is freaking confusing.”

  Once again, Savannah saw a shimmering out of the corner of her eye. She glanced upwards to see Kireen floating by a stalactite. The translucent woman waved to Savannah.

  “Hey!” Savannah shouted. “What are you doing here?”

  Kireen giggle and gently descended down in front of Savannah, her feet never quite touching the ground. “I’m here to watch you all struggle with a very easy puzzle.”

  “This unit is confused,” Ten-Thirty said as it pointed at Kireen. “What is that?”

  “I’m an Aspect, you dummy!” Kireen said as she floated up to the Machina. Up until this moment, the android had been content to silently follow the team and attack anyone who was nearby. It had rarely spoken, and failed to show any signs of a personality. Yet, it was clearly interested in Kireen.

  “This unit does not recognize what you are; you are neither organic matter nor part of this game system’s central coding,” Ten-Thirty said.

  “Well, I don’t know what you are, either, if that helps,” Kireen chuckled. She tilted her head and looked at the android. “There’s something right with this one.”

  “Don’t you mean something wrong?” Fingers asked. He had both his hands resting on his holsters, clearly waiting for an opportunity to start blasting at the Aspect.

  “Nope! There’s something very right with this thing, but everyone’s gonna say there’s something wrong!” Kireen said as she turned to face Elanor.

  “Begone, Aspect,” Elanor said, waving her hands to shoo the creature away from her. The yellow woman ignored the banishing and instead moved closer, passing through Elanor several times—seemingly to annoy her.

  “Stop it!” Elanor tried to move out of the Aspect’s way, but Kireen persisted.

  “This is fun!” Kireen giggled. “But enough of the jokes. If you can answer me a question with truth and honesty, I will open up the portal to the Dream Lands.”

  “Don’t do it!” Fingers warned them. “It’s gonna be a trap.”

  Savannah grimaced. A long time ago, she had taken an Aspect’s directions and it had been a huge mistake; the results of her trust had knocked her out of the game. Still, this one seemed different. Instinctively, Savannah felt Kireen had a purpose beyond maliciousness. Her telepathic waves had been trying to tell Savannah something vital—for some reason, Savannah simply wasn’t able to understand it.

  “Let her speak,” Timon said. “The faster we can get moving along, the better.”

  “Great!” Kireen giggled as she hovered above the group. “My question is quite simple. What do you want the most? Be warned, for I can see into your hearts and souls, so be truthful!”

  “That’s an easy one,” Fingers said. “I want to have fun for the rest of my life and live without a worry.”

  “You speak truth!” Kireen said as she clapped her hands together. “Who’s next?”

  “I… I want to watch after my family’s safety,” Timon said. “No matter the cost.”

  “Ooooh, so noble and valiant!” Kireen said. “You also speak the truth!”

  Elanor crossed her arms. “I want you to leave us alone.”

  Kireen frowned, but nodded. “You also speak truth, but it is not the thing you want the most!”

  “I want to be the sole ruler of Verre,” Elanor replied quietly.

  “That’s what you want!” Kireen said with another giggle.

  “Sole ruler? That means you’d have to figure out some way of getting rid of Leopold,” Fingers replied. “Good luck with that; he is one mean son of a bitch.”

  “And now it is your turn!” Kireen said as she looked directly at Savannah. The Aspect’s eyes seemed to pierce through her very soul, and Savannah nearly took a step backward.

  “Uhhh,” Savannah stammered. “I want to be a Noble!”

  “That’s a half-truth!” Kireen said, looking her up and down. “But I think I’ll let it slide. This time. You may all pass into the next area!” With a wave of her hands, the runes on the cavern wall lit up in a series of different sequences. The half circle began to glow bright yellow and a tear appeared in the side of the wall, pulsing with a bright yellow energy.

  “I don’t trust this rift,” Fingers said. “I say we send the robot in first to make sure it’s not a trap.”

  “Good thinking,” Elanor said. She turned to face Ten-Thirty. “Machina, go into the portal.”

  “Negative. This unit only accepts orders from Savannah,” Ten-Thirty replied.

  Savannah raised an eyebrow at that. Why did it only take orders from her? Maybe because she was the one to pull the pipe out of its brain? Still, it wasn’t bad that she now had control of a Machina. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about someone else trying to take control of it at some later point.

  “Do what Elanor says,” Savannah said as she looked back at Kireen, who was slowly fading away. She didn’t like the fact that Kireen had almost ruined her cover, but no one else seemed to care about the remark.

  “That was more of a hassle than I expected it to be,” Fingers said as the group finally teleported to the Dream Lands. “What took that damn robot so long to come back?”

  “This unit was attacked by several human players,” Ten-Thirty explained as it materialized next to Savannah. “They wanted to extract metal from this body. They were dispatched.”

  “This place is so weird,” Timon said as he held his hand up. “I can’t see anything past my hand other than shadows.” The air of the Dream Lands was cool and refreshing, but there was also a thin mist surrounding them. The mist caused refractions and distortions in images, making it hard to tell how close or far away someone was.

  “It’s like being in a funhouse,” Elanor murmured as she waved her hand around. “So very interesting.”

  “Heads up!” Fingers shouted as he pulled out his pistols. “We’ve got Nightmares coming in hot!”

  A large cloud hovered above the party with the word Darkness hanging above it. Black, shimmering Virals began to fall out of the cloud, crashing onto the hazy landscape. As they landed, the world around the party began to shift until they were in total darkness.

  “I can’t see a thing!” Timon shouted. “What’s moving around out there?”

  “Stay calm,” Fingers said. “We should all have flashlights on our wrist panels.”

  “My light isn’t working,” Savannah called out. “I think we have to fight these creatures in the dark!”

  “Ahhh!” Timon shouted. “Something hit me!”

  In the blink of an eye, Savannah was standing somewhere else. There was rustling and hissing around her.

  “Hello?” she asked, but there was no reply. Whatever was rustling around her wasn’t friendly. She couldn’t see her hand in front of her face, but knew that if she didn’t start attacking, she would quickly be overpowered and killed. She shoved her Electric Glove forward and unleashed a powerful bolt of energy. There was no light emitted from the attacks, nor could her UI inform her of anything. It was total darkness.

  Gunshots were going off, though, and Savannah could hear the shouts of her teammates. She swung her electric fist around, striking something. All she could hear was the hissing and howling of these shadow beings.

  “Oh, this Dream Land sucks!” Timon yelped.

  “Keep it together!” Savannah shouted. “We should be able to kill these things;
everyone keep talking to give away your positions.”

  “I have nothing interesting to say!” Fingers replied.

  Savannah felt something strike her gut hard, but she wasn’t sure how much damage it had dealt to her because of the manufactured darkness.

  “Help! Help!” Timon shouted.

  “Wait a second!” Savannah realized as the memory came rushing back to her. “Guys, these nightmares aren’t random! The machines are hooked up to our subconscious, so they can figure out what we’re afraid of. Who’s afraid of the dark?”

  “I would wager to say it’s the idiot grabbing onto my leg and screaming for help,” Fingers said.

  “Oh, that’s you?” Timon replied. “Sorry.”

  “Okay, Timon, take a deep breath and fight your fears!” Savannah said slowly. “That’s the only way out of this. This isn’t a fight; it’s a puzzle. You’ve gotta be willing to overcome your fear.”

  “How?”

  “Let go of my leg for starters,” Fingers said. “You’re digging your nails into me.”

  Savannah felt another sharp sensation stab her in the back, but she kept herself composed and simply ignored it. The pain vanished the moment she chose not to think about it. “I don’t know… try to, uh, think about something else.”

  “Think about the daytime,” Elanor suggested. “Or kittens or something.”

  “Okay, okay,” Timon said.

  The darkness began to shift and shimmer then, the world around them growing just light enough for Savannah to see the outline of the shadow creatures working to surround them. She whipped out her shotgun and began to blast at them. The shadow beings faded away as soon as they were struck with the energy.

  “Keep it up, Timon!” Savannah said. “Keep focusing on something else!”

  “Hey, I see the cloud!” Fingers announced. “Time to test that hand cannon!” Savannah could vaguely see his outline in the shadows as he pulled out his weapon and fired at the air. There was a loud hissing sound, followed by the rushing of wind. In response, the darkness dispelled and light gradually returned to the area.

  “That was… different,” Timon said. His breathing was rapid, and he was pale and shaking, but Savannah noted with relief that he looked uninjured.

  “Nice work,” Fingers said, clapping Timon on the back. “I never would have taken you as someone who’s afraid of the dark.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not like it’s something I chose,” Timon said as he tried to regain his composure. “All right, where to?”

  “Hey, what gives?” Savannah asked as she looked around. “Why didn’t we get any points?”

  “Uhhhh, cause we still ain’t won yet!” Fingers replied as he pointed at a shimmering figure in the distance. There was a large ogre with two heads, stomping towards them. Its right arm was a cannon and its left arm was wielding an energy sword.

  “Well, I’m glad we defeated the darkness before that thing showed up!” Savannah said as she switched to her Energy Rifle. Hovering above the monster’s head were the red words Shadow Ogre. Red was a dangerous challenge rating, and would certainly be worth a lot of points, but it was also telling of how difficult this next fight might be.

  “Let’s do this!” Elanor cheered as she went running toward the ogre. It swiped its energy sword at her, but she was able to dodge out of the way. She began to blast at it with both her gloves at the same time, sending arc after arc of electricity at the creature. 250 damage hovered above the ogre’s head in response, dropping its health down from 8,000 to 7,750. This was going to be a long fight.

  “Okay, so the monsters are separate from the nightmares, I think,” Savannah said.

  “I’m seeing another cloud heading our way!” Timon yelled out as he pointed to the sky. Savannah glanced over to see that the cloud had the word Buried floating above it.

  “Whose fear is that?” Savannah asked as the cloud began to alter the landscape around them. The shimmering world warped and contorted, creating large walls of dirt rising all around them. No one answered, perhaps out of fear of embarrassment.

  “What’s going on?” Fingers shouted out as he began to fire his pistols at the Shadow Ogre. His rapid-fire bullets crashed into the creature, dealing 50 damage with each hit and totaling up to 600 damage.

  “I don’t know!” Timon said as the walls of dirt grew taller and taller, until the entire party was trapped in what seemed to be a small area of land. The ogre had closed in on them as the ground shifted and changed, moving upwards. Everywhere they looked was dirt. The walls towered nearly 60 feet above them. The tight quarters also meant there was less room to dodge the ogre’s attacks. The beast loomed above them, barely ten feet away from them.

  The big creature roared as it fired a cannon blast directly at Elanor. She caught the blast to the face hard and was thrown back into the wall. As she hit the wall, though, dirt began to pour from the walls, landing upon everyone.

  “You okay?” Savannah asked as she watched Elanor’s armor rating drop down to 500 points.

  “I’m fine, but, uh, what’s going on?” Elanor asked as she swallowed hard.

  “I think we’re being buried alive,” Savannah replied.

  “Oh, wonderful, I believe that fear would go to me,” Elanor said as she dodged the ogre’s second cannon blast. She rushed forward, but the tight quarters made it hard for her to get past the monster’s laser sword. The creature swung its glowing red energy blade at her, slashing across her stomach and taking another 150 points off her armor.

  “How can we overcome this fear?” Timon asked as he shot at the ogre, drawing the monster’s attention so that it began to stomp towards him. The blue bolts of Timon’s Sniper Rifle crashed into the creature’s head, dealing a Critical Blow: 300 Damage. The ogre’s health dropped down to 6,175 points.

  “Let’s kill this thing first!” Savannah shouted as she rushed between the monster’s legs, blasting at it with her shotgun and hitting the creature for 50 damage with each blast. But as she ran and dodged its stomp attacks, she suddenly noticed that Ten-Thirty was standing still.

  “Why aren’t you fighting?” Savannah demanded. “Kill that thing!”

  The ogre swung its club at Fingers, narrowly missing him.

  “This unit does not understand why you are all running around fighting the air,” Ten-Thirty replied.

  “What are you talking about?” Fingers asked as he paused from his firing to reload his revolvers. “There’s a giant ogre thing right there.”

  The ogre stomped both of its feet, causing the ground to rumble and nearly knocking Savannah down.

  “This unit sees nothing,” Ten-Thirty replied.

  “Well, uh, aim your Rail Gun three feet above Timon’s head and shoot!” Savannah instructed the Machina as she switched to her Rocket Launcher and began to load it with rockets.

  “Copy that,” Ten-Thirty said as it aimed its Rail Gun carefully. The chu-klink of the Rail Gun echoed upwards it sent a high-powered projectile crashing into the back of the ogre. 1,000 damage hovered above the ogre’s head.

  “Holy crap!” Savannah and Fingers yelled at the same time.

  “Fire again?” Ten-Thirty asked.

  “Yes!” Savannah said as she felt herself switching places with Timon. The teleportation was immediate, but she was used to the switching by now. She dodged out of the way of the ogre’s arm cannon and took a few more pot shots at the ogre’s body. Another blast from the Rail Gun dropped the beast’s health down to 50 points and Elanor came in next to deliver the killing blow.

  The beast let out a defiant roar as it faded away into nothingness, and orbs of energy poured out from the creature, splitting between Elanor and Timon. Watching the allotment, Savannah noticed that Elanor had her score set to private, which Savannah hadn’t realized was an option in the game, while 80,000/1,500,000 soon hovered above Timon’s head.

  “Nice work!” Fingers said as he reloaded his guns once more before putting them back in their holsters. “Now, what about thi
s death trap?”

  “I have no idea how to get us out of here,” Elanor said as she ran her fingers across the dirt wall. “My uncle was actually buried alive, you know. He was robbed by some ruffians who thought they had killed him, so they threw him in a shallow grave… goodness me, it was a horrid affair. He climbed his way out, though. Fought his way out tooth and nail, but never stopped rambling about it when he visited. I was terrified of being buried alive, but that was my fear as a child. It’s not like I’m worried about it now.”

  “Well, maybe you still are?” Savannah offered. “What if you repressed those fears?”

  “Are you a psychiatrist now?” Elanor snapped at her. “I’m fine.”

  “Well, the Grind clearly thinks you aren’t okay,” Fingers said. “But enough of this jibber-jabbering; let’s climb up the sides of the walls.” He pulled out two knives from his belt. “I’ll climb to the top and then throw down a rope.”

  “Yeah, that should work,” Timon said as he glanced around at the rivulets of dirt trickling down the walls like rain on a window. “Hurry it up, though. I don’t like being down here, either. These walls might come down on us at any minute.”

  “Yeah,” Elanor whispered. Savannah could see that even though the woman was trying to put on a brave face and play it cool, she was still distraught.

  In the next moment, Fingers began to scale the dirt wall, but it was like climbing a powder-fresh snowbank. For every three-to-four steps he climbed up, he slid back two, which also brought fresh dirt down upon them. Savannah began tapping her foot impatiently, knowing that, at this rate, they’d never make it out before the walls collapsed.

  “Admit you’re afraid!” Savannah blurted out to Elanor as she watched Fingers slide down another few feet. “It’s going to take Fingers all day to get to the top, so admit that you’re afraid and then deal with it!”

  “How would I even deal with it?” Elanor asked. “Even if I were afraid, how would I overcome this? It’s not like I can say, ‘I’m not afraid anymore.’”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Timon said. “When I was covered in darkness, all I had to do was think about the opposite of the dark. I had to think about the light and things that were bright. Lanterns, lighthouses, beacons, et cetera. Maybe you need to do that?”