The Grind

by Dante Doom

  “It’s some kind of puzzle,” Fingers said. “So, I’m willing to bet the answer is that we should put it back because puzzles are boring.”

  “Maybe it’ll lead us to the superweapon,” Timon said. “Tear it in half; what’s the worst that could happen?”

  Savannah shrugged and grabbed hold of the parchment paper with both hands. She ripped the scroll in half, causing a strange yournk sound to emit from the paper.

  “What a weird noise,” Fingers said as they all backed away from where the scroll had been torn. There was a small purple rift of energy hovering in the air, and it was slowly starting to grow as they observed it.

  “Is that a portal?” Timon asked.

  “Not the normal kind,” Savannah said.

  The words Summoning the Minotaur hovered above the purple swirls.

  “All right, some action!” Timon said as he pulled his pistols out. “It’s about time we got something exciting going on!”

  “Get ready for a fight!” Savannah said as a thrill rushed through her. As much as she didn’t particularly care for working in the Grind, it was nice to experience new things. This level was a secret one, which meant few people had ever accessed it, and it was exciting to get the chance to fight against a secret boss. Maybe defeating the Minotaur would bring the Arc Rifle to her.

  A large bull’s head emerged from the portal, roaring at them. Its right horn was made out of brass and its left horn of copper. Its eyes were robotic and smoke was pouring forth from its nostrils.

  “Who dares enter this realm?” the Minotaur growled out as it fully emerged from the portal. It had the head of a bull and the body of a man, but its torso was covered with metallic armor. In its right arm, it held a gigantic club, and in its left arm it had a spiked flail.

  “What a weird-ass creature,” Fingers said as he began to fire upon the Minotaur. This drew the monster’s Aggro immediately, but Fingers’ bullets bounced off the Minotaur’s plate armor as the word Deflected hovered above the monster. It roared and took off running towards Fingers with startling speed. While the creature was about eight feet tall and rather bulky, Savannah wouldn’t have guessed it could move that fast.

  Fingers apparently hadn’t known that it was a fast moving monster either, for he had no time to react to the storming creature. It smashed into him hard, forcing him backwards into one of the brass and copper walls. “Oof!” Fingers shouted as the word Pinned hovered above his head. His health bar had also dropped from his new armor level of 750 down to 550.

  “Seriously, Fingers?” Savannah shouted as she rushed up to the exposed back of the Minotaur. She fired a few rounds of her shotgun, hitting the beast square between its shoulders. The Minotaur’s back was nothing but flesh, and the damage read 100 damage! A health bar appeared over the Minotaur’s head, though—it had nearly 3,000 points of health. “You gotta stay alive!” she yelled out.

  “Pull it off me!” Fingers yelped as he struggled to shove the beast away. The Minotaur had shoved Fingers against the wall with one arm and was pounding away at the Wild Card’s face with the butt of its flail.

  “I’m on it!” Timon said as he rushed in next to Savannah. He extended his hands and a blue flash streaked across the entire area, circling in a sixty-foot radius. You are Free hovered above Fingers as he scrambled out of the way of the Minotaur.

  “I’m so glad you upgraded the range on that Freedom power-up,” Savannah said, but even as she spoke, the Minotaur spun around and let forth another roar. More smoke poured from its mouth as it lowered its head, readying for a charge.

  “Ten-Thirty!” Savannah yelled, “I need you to block it from running—you should be strong enough to hold it off!”

  “Copy that!” Ten-Thirty said as it leaped in front of the team. Timon, Fingers, and Savannah were having no trouble hitting the Minotaur, but most of the damage was bouncing off the creature. Fingers had switched to explosive rounds now, but even those was doing minimal damage.

  “We gotta figure out a way to get past its damage reduction,” Fingers shouted as he paused to reload his guns.

  “If we hit its back, the damage is full,” Savannah said. “Just wait for Ten-Thirty to block its charge.”

  “Graaaaahhhh!” the Minotaur bellowed as it ran at full speed towards the Machina. Ten-Thirty held both hands out and grabbed hold of the Minotaur’s horns, trying to wrestle it to the ground. The Minotaur didn’t go down as expected, however, and continued moving forward, sliding Ten-Thirty backwards. The android held on, but the Minotaur continued to run, pushing it along in front.

  “Now’s our chance,” Timon said as he and Savannah leapt to the right. Fingers rolled to the left and, as soon as the Minotaur passed them, they opened fire on the creature’s back. 500 damage hovered above the Minotaur’s head, dropping it down to 2,200 hit points.

  “Ah!” Ten-Thirty shouted as it was slammed against the wall again. There was an earth-shattering boom that seemed to echo through the maze.

  “Keep shooting!” Timon yelled as he fired another sniper round for 100 damage. The Minotaur grew distracted from the damage it was taking from behind and it threw Ten-Thirty aside.

  “I am functional, but immobile!” Ten-Thirty reported as it fell to the ground. It aimed its Rail Gun at the Minotaur’s back and began to fire, though, dealing nearly 250 points of damage with the sudden burst.

  “We’ve got this one!” Savannah cheered as she moved forward to draw Aggro from the Minotaur. It bent its head down and charged straight for her, roaring and billowing more smoke from its nostrils.

  Savannah waited a beat, timing her jump just right. As the Minotaur came barreling towards her, she leapt to the right, narrowly avoiding the attack. She felt the tip of the Minotaur’s copper horn strike against her cheek, but it wasn’t enough to deal any damage to her body.

  “Fire!” Savannah shouted as the exposed back showed itself to them again. They made short work of the Minotaur then, and it fell to the ground dead. It vanished as several thousand orbs moved to Timon. 204,000/1,500,000.

  “That wasn’t so hard,” Fingers said.

  “Are you okay?” Savannah asked as she walked over to the injured Ten-Thirty. The health bar of the Machina was at 1,100 and its legs were sparking.

  “I seem to continue to take damage to my legs,” Ten-Thirty said as its elbow extended a blowtorch from a secret panel. “I shall repair myself.”

  “Nice work trying to wrestle that thing,” Savannah said.

  “I find… I am not as efficient as I once was,” Ten-Thirty replied. “In previous battles, I always made the best decisions based on a series of calculations. Now… now I find that I am in somewhat of a state of doubt when fighting. Sometimes I do not make the right decision, or sometimes I… I feel that one idea is better than another is. My calculations are always precise, but I don’t always know how to follow them in the heat of battle.”

  “We rarely make the best decisions in a fight,” Savannah said with a shrug. “It’s part of being intelligent, I guess. I mean, don’t ask me.”

  “Sometimes, I worry, too,” Ten-Thirty said. “If I were destroyed, that would be the end of me. I am not in the game like you. I am not connected to anything. I am nothing more than an automaton and… I am well aware that my destruction would delete my programming.”

  “I’m sorry,” Savannah said, but she was at a loss as to what else to say. Ten-Thirty was growing more self-aware with each passing hour. She wondered how long it would be before it had an existential crisis.

  “I understand what you meant before, about selfishness. If I can be destroyed, then it would be my primary duty to protect myself no matter what,” Ten-Thirty said. “And that is what you are all so worried about, isn’t it? You are worried about being destroyed by each other.” “Savannah nodded in agreement. “In the Grind, staying alive long enough to gain the points we need is how we win. But hey, we’ve got your back.”

  “Please expound on your colloquialism,” Ten-Thirty said. �
��The logical meaning of that statement is ludicrous.”

  “It means that, even though you may be in danger, we’ll be here to protect you. In exchange, you protect us.”

  “If you are destroyed, then you stand to lose a lot,” Ten-Thirty said. “So why risk yourself to save me? Why should I risk myself to save you?”

  Savannah shrugged at that. “It’s called friendship, I guess. Loyalty. Kindness. You do things for other people because you hope that they would do the same for you.”

  “Even if it would cost you everything?” Ten-Thirty asked. “Loyalty would cause someone to risk themselves to save you?”

  “I guess,” Savannah said. “No one’s ever really been that loyal to me, but that’s how it’s meant to work.”

  “Hey, the portal’s summoning something else!” Fingers called out. “Which is good because that last fight was over far, far too quickly for my taste!”

  “I could use the extra points, too,” Timon said.

  “How does someone become loyal?” Ten-Thirty asked.

  “You take care of your own,” Savannah said. “Like, you, uh… I guess you treat your friends with respect and you know that, in the end, they’re going to treat you with respect, too.”

  “What if they don’t?”

  “That’s the crazy thing about loyalty; it takes trust. Someone’s gotta be the first one to do the right thing, or else no one would ever get along.” A voice inside Savannah’s head told her that that was what Elanor was trying to do, but she pushed it aside. The middle of a boss fight was not the time for existential thoughts.

  “Trust,” Ten-Thirty echoed.

  “Here it comes!” Fingers shouted.

  “Stay out of this one—we should be fine,” Savannah said as she pulled out her trusty shotgun and turned to face whatever was emerging from the portal.

  This time it was a terribly ugly woman’s head. Her face was wrinkled like folds of leather layered over skin, and her nose was hooked and covered in giant warts. A golden halo hovered above her head and she wriggled out of the portal. Rather than touching the ground, however, she began to fly upwards, for her entire lower half was that of a bird. The word Harpy hovered above her head.

  “That is one ugly bird!” Fingers exclaimed as he began to shoot at the creature. The Harpy was fast moving, though, and easily dodged out of the way of the attacks by doing barrel rolls in mid-air.

  “Eeeeighhh!” the Harpy screamed as the word Charging hovered above its head.

  “Great, it just got here and already it’s going to be using a special attack,” Timon groaned. “What even is that thing?”

  “Hey, all of this is new to me, too,” Savannah said. “So, for once, you’re not a fish out of water.” She fired a few shots with her Energy Rifle, but the bird-woman was far too quick to hit. She darted back and forth while charging on with her attack.

  “We need a weapon that has some kind of lock-on ability,” Timon said as he pulled a Beam Pistol out of his inventory. A yellow beam cut through the air as he swung the pistol around, trying to hit the Harpy.

  “Wait! That gives me an idea,” Savannah said as she opened her inventory and selected one of the grenades.

  Web Grenade

  Radius: 60 feet

  Detonation Type: Impact

  Description: This grenade causes a web like substance to cover anyone within a 60-foot radius. Any player or Viral caught in the web must struggle in order to escape. Struggle time depends on the size of the Viral or player.

  “I’ve got a plan!” Savannah said as she pulled the grenade out. It was a steel ball with a glowing white core in the center. “When it gets close, I’ll hit it with this! Then we can beat the crap out of it while it’s immobile.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Timon said. “Here it comes!”

  The Charging meter above the Harpy reached 100% and its wings transformed from soft feathers into razor sharp, metal wings. “Eiiigh!” the Harpy shrieked as it swooped downwards. Its wings were almost as long as the corridor they were in. As it charged towards the three players, Savannah pulled the pin on the grenade she held and threw it right at the bird-woman’s head.

  The grenade made a loud splotch noise as white webs wrapped around the Harpy’s wingspan and body. The word Bound hovered above the creature then and it fell to the ground, shrieking and hissing.

  “That was surprisingly easy,” Fingers said as he began to shoot at the trapped creature. “Like shooting fish in a barrel!”

  Savannah dashed in close and unloaded her shotgun into the creature, killing it without even having a chance to see how much health it had had total.

  “Well, that was underwhelming,” Timon said as a few hundred orbs rushed over to him, getting him to 204,200/1,500,000. “I was expecting something great.”

  “I don’t know if the portal is finished quite yet,” Savannah said as she pointed to the swirling mass. It had changed color from purple to orange now, and the word Summoning hovered above it again.

  “Great, because I could still go for some more fighting,” Fingers said. “Although, from my experience with these kinds of dungeons, it looks like we’re going to have to be fighting some kind of boss soon.”

  “Well, hopefully this leads to the Arc Rifle,” Savannah said as she waited patiently for the new creature to emerge.

  “Yeah, that would be great,” Timon said with a thick tinge of sarcasm. It was clear that he knew what Savannah was planning for the weapon, but she ignored him.

  “I see something!” Fingers shouted. A large snakehead emerged from the portal and it immediately began to hiss and shriek at them. Three more snakes emerged, as well, all of them the same green color.

  “Gross, I hate snakes,” Timon said as he backed up.

  “Keep it together, Timon, it’s not real,” Savannah said. “Just tell yourself you’re lying in a catatonic state inside of a pod, that nothing can actually hurt you.”

  “Except for ultrasnakes! They’re so powerful that, if they kill you in the game, they can kill you in the real world!” Fingers taunted him.

  “Is that real?” Timon asked.

  “Does it sound real? Does the word ultrasnake sound real to you?” Savannah asked as she paused to look at her companion. While she should have been focusing on the fight, she couldn’t believe that Timon was so gullible. His face was white as a sheet.

  “You, uh, you might need to do this one without me,” he said as he continued to back away. The snakeheads were growing taller as a bearded man emerged from the portal. His entire left arm was composed of four snakes, all of them hissing and snapping at the group.

  Timon ran out of Savannah’s line of sight. She wanted to run after him, but Fingers was already starting to take damage.

  “Why the hell do they always attack me first?” Fingers complained as the snakes rapidly lunged at him, biting at his armor. The snake monster was six feet away.

  “Because you shoot them first,” Savannah replied as she began to fire her shotgun at the strange creature. The word Snakelord hovered above the man and he looked as if he were made of stone. His right arm carried a golden scepter that glowed with a purple hue. She took a shot at the statue and the words Damage Resistance hovered above the Snakelord next.

  “Ahhhh!” Fingers shouted as he rolled out of the attack range of the snakes. Their bodies were incredibly long, and thanks to the mobility of the Snakelord’s legs, they were able to pursue Fingers without much of a problem. He backed up and fired a few shots, but the snakes were bobbing and weaving too much for him to hit them.

  Savannah rushed up and fired a blast with her shotgun, hitting two of the snakes in the head. The notice 50 damage hovered above each of the heads, and the necks of the snakes were severed.

  “Nice work,” Fingers said as he began to shoot at the torso of the stone man. The bullets bounced off due to the damage resistance, though. “Crap, let me switch ammo—I think I have something that can help,” Fingers said.

  The Snakelo
rd raised his golden scepter high and the purple energy began to reinvigorate his left arm, causing the snakeheads to regenerate. The snakes began to hiss and snap at Savannah then, biting at her armor.

  100 damage hovered above her as the fangs bit through her armor, dropping her health down to 750 points. This was more of a puzzle than a straightforward boss was.

  “We gotta grab that scepter!” Savannah said as she tried to run closer to the Snakelord, but he raised the scepter high again and created a pulse of purple energy. It crashed into her and threw her into the wall, dealing 50 damage.

  “Grab it!” Savannah said as Fingers was thrown into the wall next to her.

  “Bit busy getting thrown around,” he groaned.

  “I’ve got an idea!” Savannah said as she rushed forward, blasting at the snakes again. They went to bite at her, but the shotgun spread was the perfect size and the blast did enough damage to take off all three heads.

  “Now!” Savannah shouted as the Snakelord raised the scepter to create more snakes.

  Fingers dashed up and grabbed onto the scepter. “It’s stuck!” he shouted. More snakes burst forth from the left arm of the statue man and they wrapped around Fingers’ body as if they were tentacles. The snakes lifted him up and slammed him onto the ground repeatedly.

  “Ahhh!” Fingers groaned as his health dropped down to 350. “This really freaking hurts!”

  The scepter was on the ground about ten feet away from Savannah. The statue man was walking towards it slowly, and the snakes were busy attacking Fingers. She took a deep breath and made a run for it, diving down to grab the scepter. She snagged it and rolled away just in time to avoid a swipe from one of the snakes.

  “I’ve got it!” Savannah said. She looked up to see that there were six snakeheads now, and two were rushing to grab the scepter from Savannah. Fingers took advantage of the distraction to wriggle free from the constriction and he scrambled away, desperate to avoid being wrapped up again.

  “How did more get there?” Savannah asked as the two necks wrapped around the scepter. They began to pull back hard, but she kept her grip firm.