by Vic Connor
Hunk walked with him part of the way to class, hunching against the drizzling rain, before splitting off to go to his healer class at Quartz Lake. Left alone, Niko walked the pathway along the ridge, examining his abilities again. He had learned how to use ABIL_EditValue to his advantage, “snapping” from one spot to another instantly. His level two ability, ABIL_RecursiveFunction, however, was still a mystery. He’d activated it once, and after waiting a few seconds for it to do something, he coughed quietly, as if to push it along. Instantly, his throat cleared over and over again, a dozen times as blazing speed, as if it was stuck in a loop. As if it glitched. It was sore for hours afterward. He hadn’t tried it again since.
As he got closer to the great, stone spires where the DPS class was held, Niko’s attention drifted from his UI to the forest of ghost pines below. They were shrouded in blue fog. He was alone. It would be easy to disappear and look for the edge of the world again. Leaving now would leave Tim’s team high and dry, but leaving the game was always the plan, wasn’t it? Still, Niko caught himself feeling a little bad. Sure, it was just a game, but they didn’t know that, and they were real people under their avatars, after all. At least, he assumed so.
Across the lawn, Erica was heading for the sky lift; the rusty elevator that took them to the top of the platform designated for the DPS training. She had on high-heel boots and a sweater that showed a spare inch of her flat stomach. When she spotted him on the pathway, she held the lift for him. Niko decided it might be worth going to class after all. He picked up the pace and ducked onto the lift. It was hardly more than a rickety metal cage on a pully system, set up on the side of the main spire.
Erica slid the gate shut, then pulled a rusty lever. The metal wailed, and the lift began its ascent. She leaned back against the grate as the lift trundled up the side of the rock pillar. “Hey, teammate.”
“Hey,” Niko said, folding his arms.
“I’m glad this charade is finally going to be over.” She breathed out. “Freshman year, team forming was this huge thing because no one had a team. And last year, people had experience, and a ton of teams shuffled around. But this year, there’s only two new people and two vacancies, so it’s like, so pointless. I’m excited to peep in on your Mythic abilities though.”
“You…can see my abilities?”
“Not until we’re on the same team, you noob.” She’d said it playfully, like a gentle nudge of her elbow. “It’ll be interesting, seeing the moves for a rare Mythic.”
Niko rolled his shoulders, puffing out his digitally-enhanced chest. “Yeah?”
“Mmhm,” Erica purred, strutting across the lift toward him. “What about you, Nikolai? You ready to see what I’ve got?”
Niko’s heart beat in his throat as her fingers played with the collar of his jacket. He nodded, because his brain couldn’t manage much more than that.
The lift came to a stop, and for a moment, Niko had forgotten how high up they were. He took a stomach-lurching step from the metal grating onto the surface of the natural rock pillar, then he and Erica joined the chattering throng of the DPS class. Niko still wasn’t entirely sure what “DPS” stood for, but close as he could tell, it meant Mythics whose primary purpose was to deal high damage. Most of the students, about a dozen in total, had already arrived and split off into their usual groups, waiting for their teacher, Ms. Gyatso, to arrive.
One person there wasn’t actually part of the class: Tim. Normally he was in the Tanks class over in the Razor Fields, but he had told Niko he’d be here today. Officially, he and Cal would observe the class, then choose the replacement members for their teams. It seemed unnecessary, since the decision had already been made.
When Erica spotted Tim on the other side of the plateau, she darted off to meet up with him. Niko followed after her until he saw Alonso with them, standing beside Cal with his usual smirk. Niko stopped in the center of the pillar, rolling his shoulders, putting on a pissed-off face. It felt like preparing for another duel.
A falcon’s cry rang out above him, and his crowd of classmates scattered to the edges. Above him, Ms. Gyatso’s winged steed dove like a bullet. Niko barely managed to dart out of the way. The DPS teacher dismounted with a leap, light as a breeze, just as the horse swept up from its dive. Its hooves nearly brushed the students’ heads as it departed. Ms. Gyatso landed with a gust a few scant feet from Niko, the crimson flesh of her exposed thighs shuddering from the impact. She straightened to her full height—nearly eight feet—and brushed her pale braid over her shoulder.
“All right, groundwalkers,” she barked, her long, white eyebrows pushed together. “For today’s lesson, we’re doing twos, battle royale style. Now, there’s a limited team selection today, but that only applies to our two transfer students, Alonso and Nikolai. The rest of you will train as usual. It also means the captains are going to observe on the sidelines, so too bad for anyone hoping to snag Cal as their partner.” Ms. Gyatso scanned the classroom, then pounded the butt end of her spear on the ground, making the bells on it jingle. “Now double up!”
Niko locked eyes with Erica on the opposite side of the spire. She winked at him, then looped her arm into Alonso’s, whispering in his ear. Tim moved to the sidelines next to Cal. Niko frowned, looking around again.
Three people were left: A kid with glossy, spotted skin, whom Niko had seen use fire abilities; a tall, knobby-boned girl with blonde hair and bark for skin; and a hunched girl in an oversized sweater wearing an array of dripping, beaded jewelry. Niko was already marching toward the fire-user when Hunk’s words that morning popped in his mind.
A team can be the best players in the world, but if they don’t work together, they’ll lose every time.
Niko paused, taking an extra moment to study his three options. Then, he approached the girl in the big sweater. She smelled like swamp gas. “Hey?”
His greeting pulled her attention away from the tree girl, who she was obviously sizing up as a potential partner. “What?”
Her sharp tone made Niko hesitate. “We should, that is, would you want to partner up?”
The swamp girl curled her full, chapped lip, showing Niko a tooth like a lotus petal. “Why should I?”
The other pair were talking now, but Niko refrained from pointing out her swiftly shrinking options. He leaned in, lowered his voice. “Because if we force fire boy and tree girl together, it’s one less team to worry about.”
The swamp girl grinned, showing off rows of jagged, crocodilian teeth. “I like the way you think, Somov. But you’re still a total noob.” She looked over at the remaining pair. The tree girl was patting out a tiny ember that had caught on her fluffy, straw-blonde hair, as the fire-boy apologized. “All right. Just do what I say, and maybe we won’t come in last.” She extended a visibly sweaty hand to Niko. He cringed, then shook it. It squelched. A UI popped up in his vision.
YOU HAVE TEAMED UP WITH:
KIELE MARAUTA, LEVEL 12 MATABIRI MYTHIC CLASS
Passive: All enemies within a 20-meter range of you have 5% slower movement speed
ABILITIES:
Swamp Gas — Target is charmed for 0.85 seconds
Swim — Become untargetable and move 25 meters in a chosen direction
Crocodile Snap — Deal 140 damage to chosen target within 8 meters
Ultimate: Mire — Creates a deadly mire with a 10-meter radius, which slows & deals 20 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy targets. Lasts 5 seconds.
“Level two?” his new partner Kiele squawked. “You’re level two?”
Kiele’s stats faded, leaving only Niko’s HUD, showing his abilities and health, as well as a health bar above Kiele’s head. “Uh…yeah. I’m new.”
“Your abilities don’t even have icons! Did you dig this ‘rare’ Mythic out of a dumpster?”
Niko shrugged. Ms. Gyatso yelled for all to get into starting positions.
“Level two. Hasn’t even unlocked his Ult yet,” Kiele grumbled, approaching the battlefield with Niko.
“Mythic Zero. I’m an idiot.”
“All right, you worms. Let the games begin in 3… 2… 1… Go!”
The teams scattered. Some flew at one another. Others bided their time, circling the outside, waiting for an opportunity. Niko and Kiele already knew their first target.
“I’ll take the hothead. Distract him,” Kiele said, then dove…into the ground. It rippled like water, and she swam through it in a serpentine motion, her eyes peeping up over the surface.
Niko shook off his surprise and turned to the fire guy. “Hey!” He bit his lip, no idea of how to distract someone. He looked across his two paltry skills. They were unpredictable, at least, considering they were totally new to the other students. That gave Niko an idea. “Hey! Fire kid! You ever seen this before?”
Niko activated ABIL_EditValue, focusing on changing his position. In a snap, he popped into the fire kid’s face, startling him a few steps back. The tree girl, who had been eying up Erica and Alonso, turned and rushed back to her partner’s side.
“Wha—how did you—” The fire kid didn’t get to finish his sentence, crying out as Kiele flew out of the ground like a shark and crunched her rows of sharp teeth into his shoulder. They steamed, her teeth. The fire kid stumbled back—directly into his partner, the tree girl. She burst into flames. As the fire kid sputtered an apology, Niko decided now was as good a time as any to try his second ability. He activated it, then clocked the fire kid across the jaw.
Niko wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t close to what actually happened. After the first hit, his arm became a rubber band, bouncing back and slamming forward over and over in rapid succession.
When at last his arm stopped, the fire kid went down with a sizzle. A knockout counter appeared above his head—an opportunity for his teammate to revive him—but Kiele was making short work of the tree girl, whose health quickly burned to nothing, like a lit fuse.
Two notifications appeared in Niko’s UI in fast succession:
PLAYER DEFEATED! 300 EXPERIENCE GAINED
PLAYER DEFEATED! 300 EXPERIENCE GAINED
“Third team out,” Ms. Gyatso barked. “Step out of the field.” Fire boy and tree girl limped away, arguing, as they joined two other duos who had already been KO’d. Niko and Kiele shared a moist high-five, then turned to the other teams. Hot on the heels of their victory, Ms. Gyatso called another two knockouts. Four people limped away from Erica and Alonso, who had apparently taken both teams out at the same time. Alonso caught Niko staring, and laughed.
Niko started toward him, but Kiele held him back with a clammy hand. “Easy now, newbie. This is going to be tough. We’re only going to win if we think it through.”
Alonso turned his palm up, crackling with charging energy.
“I don’t think he’s going to give us time for that,” Niko said, and snapped away as a beam of energy exploded from Alonso’s gauntlet. He saw belatedly that Kiele had dodged too, by diving forward into the earth and swimming through it. She turned her body in a great arc, moving around Alonso and getting behind Erica. Then, she burst out of the ground, jaws opened wide, and bit down on Erica’s shoulder, taking out a big, bloody chunk.
Erica shrieked, casting something quickly with one hand. Kiele’s eyes got glassy, then she released her, smiling dopily. Erica moved in intimately close to her, apparently not dissuaded by the smell. The health bar above Kiele’s head began to drain. Niko was still trying to run back toward them, when Alonso wound up a punch. He charged, flying across the map, his gauntlet slamming into Kiele’s midsection. It took out a fair chunk of her health, but also knocked her out of her stupor.
“What are you doing?” Erica squawked, putting up her hands. “I needed that lifesteal after the hit I just took.”
Alonso sneered over his shoulder at her. “She was an easy target. Might as well take her out fast.”
“Yeah, and meanwhile leave me at a quarter health,” Erica snapped. “Why don’t you go fight Niko, since you love to trash-talk him.”
Niko was nearly on them now.
“Niko isn’t a problem,” Alonso said, charging up another beam.
“Aren’t I?” Niko snarled, bringing up his fist, getting ready to activate his second ability. Best he could tell, it would let him repeat an action—and he’d love to punch Alonso about twenty times in a row right now.
“Somov, wait!” Kiele cried. “Get Erica!”
Niko glared at Alonso’s smug face, wanting nothing more than to slam his fist into it. But Kiele was level 12—experienced. She’d told him to do what she said. With gritted teeth, he held his fist back, and turned to Erica. But Alonso was bodily in between the two of them. His first ability, EditValue, was on cooldown. How did Kiele expect him to get to Erica?
Kiele sucked in a deep breath that made the breast of her sweater swell comically, then breathed out a dancing, glowing will-o’-the-wisp, that swayed out in front of Alonso’s eyes. They got big with a sort of dumb wonder that made Niko wince. As the light hopped away, Alonso chased after it like a schoolboy, leaving Erica alone.
“You idiot!” Erica yelled. She turned toward Niko, giving him the most seductive smile.
Before she could do anything, Niko grimaced again, activated his second ability, then punched her in the shoulder. Just as before, it unleashed a flurry of punches, far faster and more powerful than Niko could have done consciously. Erica fell to the ground, and the knockdown countdown appeared above her head, descending from ten.
The will-o’-the-wisp dissipated, and Alonso snapped out of his stupor, surveying what had just happened. “You…” he snarled, marching in Niko’s direction.
Before he got there, though, Kiele snuck up and punched him in the back of the head.
A new notification popped up in Niko’s UI, indicating Erica’s defeat:
PLAYER DEFEATED! 300 EXPERIENCE GAINED
“Come on, it’s two against one, De Luca. You might as well give up at this point.” Kiele punched him again for good measure. Niko smiled smugly, expecting another knockout, then he saw Alonso’s gauntlet glowing.
“Kiele, look out!”
Niko’s warning came too late. Alonso spun around and unleashed a beam of energy right into her chest. She croaked and crumpled to the ground, her health dropping to ten. A countdown popped over her head.
Niko dashed to her, but Alonso put himself in the way. “Just you and me now, noob. Let’s see how many cooldowns you got left.” Alonso spread his arm, and electricity sparked all around his body, making his blond hair stand on end. He went after Niko, throwing punch after punch. Niko parred and blocked, but his health was swiftly chipped away, and neither of his abilities were ready yet.
In the last ditch effort, Niko ducked under Alonso’s gauntleted fist and went for a right jab into his ribs. Alonso grunted, then grabbed Niko by the collar, holding him back. With his opposite hand, he cracked Niko square in the jaw, making him see stars.
Distantly, Niko heard Ms. Gyatso’s voice, then cried out as knuckles collided with his temple. Niko blinked away the haze for long enough to see Alonso bring his fist back for a third hit to the face.
“That is enough!”
Wind whipped across the open surface of the spire, brushing against his already bruising skin. When the blurred, double images in his sight came together, he saw Ms. Gyatso’s red hand holding Alonso’s fist at bay. “You won, groundwalker. Now restrain yourself.”
Alonso grunted, shrugged Ms. Gyatso’s hand off, then straightened his back. “Pff. Easy.” He stalked off to stand beside Cal.
BATTLE COMPLETE!
PLAYERS DEFEATED: 3
WIN BONUS: 0%
900 EXPERIENCE GAINED
PASSIVE EFFECT: 900*1.5 = 1350 XP
1750/3000 XP
Kiele jogged over. She kneeled down to hand Niko a little glass bottle of red liquid. “Here. Real battle requires real healing. We get XP though, at least. You totally need it, level two.”
Niko snatched the bottle from Kiele’s
hand. He was frustrated, angry that he’d lost, most of all to Alonso. “I did everything right,” he snarled. “I listened to everything you said, and we still—”
“Whoa, easy, Tiger,” Kiele said. “Most of the people in this class are level 11 or 12. The fact that we beat anyone at all is a miracle. Not that I didn’t do most of the work, mind you, but all things considered, we came out all right.”
“We lost,” Niko insisted. “That’s not coming out all right, y’know. And now Cal is going to pick that jerk first.” Not that Niko especially wanted to be on the team with her and Jeny, but it was the principle of the thing.
“You know what, fine. I tried being nice.” Kiele got to her feet, jewelry clicking. “You wanna know the only way the jerks really win? It’s when they turn you into a jerk.” She stabbed her moist, clawed finger into Niko’s forehead. “Drink your stupid potion.”
Kiele stalked away, and Niko sulked on the ground for a few moments before pushing himself up. He felt like he’d been run over by a car. Niko checked his health bar. Alonso had taken him down past the ten-health cutoff, leaving him at just two. As he nursed the contents of the red bottle, he wondered what happened if you dropped below zero.
“All right, worms,” Ms. Gyatso crowed, marching into the center of the spire. “Lesson over. Now it’s time for Calloway and Timothy to shore up their teams for the year. Nikolai, Alonso, get over here.”
Niko skulked over to the group, glaring at Alonso, reminding himself not to start another fight. Ms. Gyatso turned to Cal. “Calloway won the captains duel, so she will get first pick.”
Niko expected her to answer right away, to look assured, but she didn’t. Cal seemed to have the same suspicious curiosity she’d had when watching his duel with Alonso on orientation day. Finally, she raised one hand. “The thing is,” she began, “Tim’s been so sore about that stupid duel, done nothing but wah wah wah at me about it for weeks. I really don’t want to hear it the rest of the year. So, how about we let him pick first.”