by Prax Venter
They both thanked Demi and left the inn together. Once they were outside, Lex turned to face Jack.
“We go to Floor 5 and then Exit. You never leave my side or my sight.” Her golden eyes searched his, daring him to argue.
“Today, you’re the boss,” Jack said, giving her one sharp nod then bounced his hip against hers. “We’ll be attached at the hip.”
She gave him a half smile and then he watched as all of her clothes were replaced with tight-fighting black leather armor. Her golden eyes lost focus and then he saw a new interface panel open in front of his vision.
Group Invitation - Lex: Bastion
Jack could either accept or decline, and he quickly accepted. As soon as he did, a new piece of information inserted itself in his heads-up-display, causing the whole list to flash once.
JACK HP 35/35 MP 37/37
LEX HP 270/270
ALT HP 10/10
Coins: 32
Inventory Value: 0
Together they walked toward the Tower door, and Jack wondered how he was going to explain his talking spaceship friend to Lex.
- 22 -
The flash of light receded, and Jack was back in the Tower facing a new Floor 1 layout. At first, he thought he was back home in some alley in an unknown city, but that familiar feeling faded quickly. Red brick walls with white mortar stretched up about 12 feet to either side. The flat ground was unmistakably asphalt, but it was pure black and soft- as if it had been poured recently. Although there was ample space between the walls and nothing but blue skies above, the maze-like nature of this Floor still made him feel claustrophobic.
The blonde Bastion was next to him, and the Exit Orb was in its standard place behind them, nestled into a dead end.
“Follow me and stay behind,” Lex said as she held her shield out and crept forward.
“Actually,” Jack began, and the Bastion spun on him, her straight hair flipping out from the motion. Her golden eyes bore into his. He held up his hands.
“Whoa, it’s not what you think- I’m totally going to listen to you. Lex, I need to tell you that I recently acquired a third Path.”
Her expression softened, and she lowered her shield arm.
“What? That’s not possible…”
“It’s probably easier if I just show you,” he said and then addressed an empty space ahead of them. “Come on out, Alt.”
The air shimmered for a moment before the miniature spaceship named ARV Alternis appeared.
Lex’s small mouth hung open, and Jack got to see her tiny teeth again. He really couldn’t help but be constantly distracted by how cute she was.
“Greetings, Lex. I am ARV Alternis, but as Jack has already denoted, you can call me Alt.”
“What… how…” Lex began to stammer, and the tiny badass spaceship adjusted its thrusters to float a bit closer to the group.
“Allow me to dissolve some of your confusion, my dear Bastion,” Alt began, and Jack crossed his arms, glad that he didn’t have to do this.
“I am an intelligent energy that has been helplessly watching over Subroutine Sana from the outside, like a guardian sprit, and bound to not interfere as the corruption spread and destroyed the universe that I hold dear. As Jack fell into my domain, I was able to attach a part of myself to his soul, in the form of his scabbard, and now finally have some impact on the destiny of this existence. My purpose here is to help Jack push out the tendrils of corruption strangling your world.”
Lex slowly turned her big eyes from the spaceship to Jack. He gave her a shrug and nodded. Everything he said was relatively true.
“W-why are you made of metal?”
“This is my true form,” Alt said.
Jack jumped in. “To me, he looks like a tiny vessel of war. And he can shoot orbs of light that deal damage… damage that grows with my cheating sword.”
Lex took a few steps back and leaned against the red brick wall near to where she was standing. She didn’t take her eyes off of the spaceship, and Alt spun to track her movements. Jack continued.
“I wanted you to know all the tools at your disposal because you are going to be calling the shots. I can only summon my minion once per day.”
Lex shook her head slowly. “No wonder you’ve been climbing so fast.”
Jack put his hands on his hips. “This is actually the second day I’ve had him. Alt has been gaining abilities as I feed blades to my scabbard, and this little guy popped out yesterday.”
“It’s the same principle as feeding the Town,” Alt quickly added. “Though my upgrades are permanent.”
“So, you can serve as a long-range damage dealer?” Lex asked, a dark eyebrow raised.
“Correct. 5 Damage every 5 seconds, at the moment.”
Lex pushed off the wall and started firing off questions.
“How many Hit Points? What’s your defense? Any other abilities?”
Jack spoke before his minion could answer. “Alt, can you fix up her interface like mine?”
“My what?” Lex said, alarm evident in her voice.
“Yes,” Alt said, turning back to face the Hero in question. “Lex, if you don’t like this I can always remove it again.”
The leather-clad blonde woman flinched, and Jack saw her eyes focus on something up and to the left.
“Jack… I can see your current Hit Points, and Alt’s…”
“You okay, Lex?” Jack asked, taking a step closer to her. Was this too much?
But a warm smile broke out across her face as she locked her eyes on his.
“It’s good, Jack. This should make keeping an eye on your HPs much easier. Oh, and it’s going to be so useful as a healer.”
“Glad to be of service,” the miniature spaceship said as its nose dipped slightly.
“This… you,” Lex stammered again. “Alt, you’re amazing. I’m having a hard time making sense of what you are, exactly.”
“Now, he’s here to help us shoot stuff,” Jack said. “After we feed him a bunch of blades and get him to the next level? We don’t know, but what I do know is that we have a real chance here to loot the Tower and get out safely. I’ve been pretty good at that first part, but you’re going to have to help with the second part.”
Jack reached out his hand toward Lex. She looked down at it, then stepped forward and took it with her own. This time, Jack wore cloth gloves, and she wore leather, but the physical connection still felt marvelous on his fingers.
“Are you ready to clear the first floor?” he asked.
Her beautiful face hardened, and she nodded.
“Great,” Jack said, letting her hand go. “Lead the way, Bastion.”
“Follow me, stay behind,” she repeated and then began moving down the only open path. Jack looked up and saw what seemed like a typically blue sky. There were wisps of clouds and a bright, yellow sun straight above sending down a blanket of warmth over the black asphalt. Nothing changed for a while as they moved through the high brick walls, and his eyes were drawn to Lex’s shoulder-length blonde hair as it cascaded over her dark, leather armor, shining brightly under the sun. He felt a wave of happiness wash over him to be with her today.
Then she stopped abruptly, and Jack looked up. A wall was straight ahead, and the path split to the left and the right.
“Wait here,” Lex said. “Let me scout.”
Jack really wanted to tell her that this was only Floor 1, and between the three of them, it shouldn’t be a problem, but he nodded instead.
The short Bastion crept forward, peeked along both options, then came back to Jack and Alt.
“The path on the left holds a chest, the path on the right continues but is blocked by a monster.”
“Might I suggest taking the first shot?” Alt suggested. “Drawing it to you?”
Lex considered and then nodded. She turned her eyes to Jack.
“Okay but let me take the front when it comes. I am built for defense. You two flank it after I have its attention.”
&nbs
p; “You got it,” he said.
“I understand this is overkill, Jack. But if we are to fight together, we need to practice together. No baking in bad habits. I’m a Bastion, and you’re… You’re the damage dealer, Alt’s… a damage dealer. I block and heal, you both will bring them down. This is the way we’ll survive higher floors.”
“I obey Jack’s commands,” Alt said.
Jack waved his hand, dismissing her fears. “Hey, I get it. You’re the Tank of our group.”
“What’s a tank? Like a tankard?” she asked, confused.
“No, never mind.” He turned to his minion. “Alt, when Lex says, ‘attack’, you shoot whatever is around the corner and then come back behind me. Auto attack after.”
“Understood,” he said.
Lex faced forward, pulled up her shield and then said, “Attack.”
The miniature spaceship silently glided forward and turned to the right after hitting the intersection. Two orbs of light blooped out and raced ahead to impact the monster blocking the path.
Living Kite -5 | Defeated
“Oh- what was that?” Lex said, straightening up. “Was that its name?”
“Yeah,” Jack answered, disappointed he didn’t get to see the Living Kite. “It’s a damage display. If Alt hadn’t killed it, we’d see how many HPs were left.”
“So sorry to disappoint with my one-shot kill,” the spaceship said sarcastically as he floated back to the group. “But he’s right, Lex. It’s similar to an ability you might have heard about called Scan. I’m able to grant the ability to anyone in Jack’s party.”
“This is madness,” Lex said, questioning her sanity again.
Jack crossed his arms. “That’s what I’ve been saying- but let’s go loot that chest, what do you say?”
“Yes,” Lex said, blinking away her swirling thoughts. “Here’s what we should do for loot: Upgrades have priority, and you obviously will have all of them for quite a few levels. Once your inventory fills up, I’ll start holding the overflow. Then we start replacing the lower-value items with higher ones until we leave.”
“Uh, Lex…” Jack said. “I may have yet another mind-blow for you. I can hold over two billion items.”
Her dark eyebrows came down. “Two what?”
Jack was worried she might have never heard of a number that big, and Alt thankfully stepped in to explain.
“Jack could pick up every item dropped in the Tower up to Floor 100. Even if he did that 100 more times without emptying his Inventory, he still would only be filling a small fraction of the item slots he has available.”
Jack gave her a big smile. “Merging with this benevolent entity here really gave me some nice gifts.”
Lex sucked in a deep shuddering breath when she realized she had stopped breathing.
“Jack…” she began. “You’re an impossible person. You shouldn’t exist.”
“Not Irrelevant, you mean?” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, that was my fault,” Alt said, hovering close. “I wish I’d picked something that sounded… more appropriate. I was in a rush, and creativity really isn’t my strong suit, but I might be able to change it at some point.”
“Maybe,” Jack said, feeling like it was the wrong thing to do. “But, let’s not worry about that now. Now we loot.”
They continued to sweep the maze-like floor, and Alt was sent out to destroy all the enemies they came across.
The next one they found, Jack had to sneak a look at what they were killing. Bobbing over the asphalt, he saw a rainbow-colored kite with humanlike eyes and mouth. There was no wind in between the brick walls of this Floor, but the diamond-shaped stretched fabric bounced along, tracing a small path as it guarded its small section of Floor 1.
With Alt taking the lead and autonomously destroying everything in their path, Jack and Lex had time to just stroll behind and talk.
“So,” Jack began, “this random layout isn’t so bad.”
“I’ve seen worse,” Lex agreed.
“I’ll bet. Can you top floors and walls made of human skulls and giant plague rats everywhere?”
She looked up at him. “I came across a Floor 4 once that was nothing but waist-high blood. The wandering monsters were balls of pus infecting me with a negative status that slowed movement, and the boss appeared to be a demon fetus.”
“Damn,” Jack said. “You win.”
“I’m more interested to hear about where you’re really from,” Lex said, looking straight down their path again. “This whole time I thought you were unstable and odd, but I’m beginning to realize you really are from… somewhere outside of this world.”
Jack considered her question carefully. Telling her the reality of this situation was probably a bad idea. One, because he wasn’t really sure what was real, and two, it wouldn’t help anything. Telling Lex that he was from the real world and she was just a character in a videogame would only anger her. Or if she believed him, send her into a spiral of self-doubt and depression.
No. At that moment, Jack vowed to never tell her or anyone the real story about what was happening until this world had been scrubbed of all corruption- maybe not even then.
He felt a small flutter of agreement from Alt within his mind. Jack took a deep breath and looked down into Lex’s golden eyes.
“I am from a whole different universe- a place where there was no corruption, no monsters or magic abilities. I was a surveyor, a cave mapper in a silver mine. I had a sister and a mother and a father that I chose to be far away from because I always needed to be moving- always looking for something interesting to do with my life. There’s not much to tell, really. My world was boring.”
“Sounds peaceful,” she said after a moment. “No corruption constantly pressing in, no demons raiding your Towns. Jack, why did you leave?”
“There was an accident, and I believe my real body may have died. Alternis here intercepted my soul somehow and used my energy as a Trojan Calf- wait, you don’t know what that is…”
Lex shook her head, her eyes intently on his.
“Alt hid his energy inside mine and dropped us both into your world.” Jack looked up at the spaceship hovering a few yards ahead of them and then lowered his voice. “At least that’s what he told me, if he can be believed.” He waggled his eyebrows at her to show that he was just kidding- mostly.
“With the gifts you have and how you’ve already helped Blackmoor Cove… this mysterious energy must be on our side.” Lex reached over and put her hand on his arm. “I’m very glad he brought you to us, Jack.”
“Me too,” he said, returning her deep gaze.
“Me three,” Alt said, quietly approaching them. “Sorry to interrupt, but we have arrived at this Floor’s Boss Chamber.”
Jack and Lex shared a look, then both crept to the opening in the wall to take a peek. The Boss Chamber was a much larger opening with a single dead tree bursting through the black asphalt. Nestled into one of the corners was the throbbing Exit Orb.
“This one will be tougher,” Lex said, peeking into the Boss’s area. “I’ll go in first and test the Floor Boss ability.” The Bastion turned back to face the others. “Alt, then you come in and start shooting. Then you, Jack.”
He fought his instinct to protect the woman and insist that he go in first, but he had to be realistic here. Not only was she running this show, her armor and stats probably made her impervious. Jack nodded and drew his sword.
Lex spun away from them and stalked up to the Floor 1 Boss. Jack leaned out to keep an eye on her and saw the dead tree spin in place to reveal a carved face. It looked like an old man frozen in a terrible scream.
The Bastion in black leather armor lifted her shield as she continued moving in closer to the stationary creature. It was no surprise when the limbs swung down to whip at her when she drew into range, but that didn’t stop her.
In a magnificent display of martial prowess, Lex blocked some of the branches with her shield and parried
others with her sword, spinning and twisting inside the onslaught. Not a single one touched her. One small, black leather boot after the other, Lex moved in close to the trunk and slashed at the monster’s face.
Floor 1 Boss -45 | Defeated
The dead tree exploded into a shower of glittering light around the Bastion, and no one had lost any Hit Points or spent a single point of their Mana.
Jack and Alt moved out from behind the brick wall to join her.
“Those were some super impressive moves,” he said.
Lex blushed as she sheathed her sword behind her back without looking, and Jack had a feeling her soloing tactic was all for show. The better move would have been to have Jack and Alt shoot the Boss from a distance. The thing probably didn’t move, and they would have possibly killed it with very little Mana spent. Besides, he’d get more Mana as they dispatched more foes on the next Floor- but Jack kept all this to himself. She was amazing to watch, and if she wanted to show off for him…
The blonde Hero put her hands on her hips and said, “You going to stare all day or are you going to loot the Boss chest?”
Jack blinked a few times and then pulled the items into his inventory. After Floor 1 was said and done; Alt received one blade with +2 Value, bringing him to 38/350. He asked Alt to add his personal growth value to the peripheral HUD.
JACK HP 35/35 MP 37/37
LEX HP 270/270
ALT HP 10/10
Coins: 32
Inventory Value: 15
Alt Value: 38/350
The next two floors went smoothly as Lex continued to lead the group. Floor 2 was an open wheat field with huge grasshoppers that attacked with sonic waves, and Floor 3 was a dimly lit rocky cave system filled with monsters made of pure hair. No Floor had been pure darkness, and Lex explained that there had always been enough light on every Floor she had seen but reiterated the fact that she didn’t trust in any repeating pattern.
The Floor 3 Boss was a cloud of whirling teeth, and Lex asked Mark and Alt to ambush the crazy thing with long-range attacks first before she came into contact with the amorphous monster.
When the bits of bone closed the distance to the group, Lex dashed up to block its path. The Bastion was only able to deflect some of the wind-whipped teeth while others took off little chunks of her life as they bit into her flesh.