Worldshift- Virtual Revolution

by Scott Straughan

  Grunting sourly, Ethan drew his pistol and ran closer to get a better look at the door. Once he had a clear view, he ducked behind another pillar and peered out from behind it. Immediately, he saw two long shapes burst out of the darkness behind the rising gate. The new opponents were large and fast. Ethan studied them for a moment and realized they were beasts the size of lions, although they were shaped more like wolves. They were also wearing armor. Steel helmets covered their heads and thick plates had been strapped to their bodies. Grey fur stuck out from between the armor, and the beasts’ eyes were red like those of the combat mutants. Obviously, they were mutants too, just hunter-killers instead of infantry.

  Ethan grimaced as the creatures ran out into the arena. These hunter-killers wouldn’t be easy to take down. They were alarmingly fast, despite their thick armor. He didn’t like his odds of damaging them with his pistol, and they’d be upon him in seconds if he didn’t take them both down at once.

  Suddenly, one of the beasts veered in Ethan’s direction and roared. He’d been spotted! Almost instantly, the other beast swerved to flank its prey.

  “Shit,” Ethan swore as he tried to think of a plan. He didn’t have much time. These enemies were tough and fast, even if they had no ranged weapons.

  Turning away from the mutant monstrosities barreling toward him, Ethan looked toward the cluster of pillars he’d just come from. Some of them were rather tall, much taller than the hunter-killers. A plan formed in Ethan’s mind, and he sprinted across the arena floor. Behind him, the heavy thud of the beasts’ feet hitting the ground rapidly grew closer. Ethan felt his heartbeat pick up. The hunter-killers were catching up quickly.

  Bursting forward, Ethan neared the pillars. He immediately raised his arm and activated his hookshot. A line shot out, whirred through the air, and slammed into the top of a pillar. Its hook stuck fast to the stone, so Ethan activated the crank and jumped. Just as he reached the top of his leap, his line went taut and he was pulled higher. As his body swung toward the side of the pillar, he cushioned the impact with both feet, and then ran up the side of the column.

  Ethan’s hook was several inches from the top of the pillar, so as he neared the peak, he pulled out a spike with his free hand and pushed off with both legs. Letting momentum help carry him upward, he flew above the hook and slammed the spike into the rock on top of the pillar. The moment he felt the spike catch, Ethan pulled himself higher, using it as a grip, and then he rolled onto the small flat space atop the column of rock he’d just climbed.

  Below, the two hunter-killers reached the stone pillars. As the other circled, one beast rushed the column. The doglike creature’s claws dug into the rock as it tried to climb. The pillar shook beneath Ethan as the force of the hunter-killer’s jump carried it more than halfway up the pillar. Hurriedly, Ethan tried to keep his balance and stood so that there was as much distance between him and the hunter-killer’s jaws as possible. Geez. Why had the game designers given these things such big teeth?

  A horrible scratching noise filled the air as the hunter-killer scrambled toward Ethan, but then it stopped. The huge beast lost its grip and slid back down. As Ethan held his breath, it hit the ground with a crash, although it quickly got back onto its feet and glared at Ethan with malevolent red eyes.

  “And stay down,” Ethan yelled as he planned his next move.

  He was safe for now, but he needed to defeat these huge hounds before the next timer ran out and the next wave of opponents was let loose. It would have been much harder to deal with both the combat mutants and the hunter-killers at the same time, since the mutants could have just shot him if he’d climbed a pillar and getting the drop on the mutants would have been next to impossible with hunter-killers running around. The third wave of enemies would probably also cover some of the hounds’ weaknesses.

  Ethan stared at the circling hunter-killers. A direct attack on them would probably be a bad idea. Thrilling, but stupid. They were armored enough that pistol rounds were unlikely to hurt them, and the two of them were fast enough to swamp him if he tried to get in close and use his sword.

  Keeping one eye on the hounds in case they tried anything, Ethan opened his inventory and scrolled through it. He had some powerful weapons, but most of them had limited uses, and Ethan didn’t know how the event worked when it came to resupplying. If he used an item or some ammo, he might not be able to replace it. However, he might not have much of a choice. It was better to lose an item than to die and be kicked out of the tower. Was there something he could use to defeat the hunter-killers that was quick and powerful? Grenades would probably work, but he didn’t want to waste them. Ethan dismissed his inventory and studied his surroundings. The machines were still running around the nearby pillars as they circled him and looked for an angle of attack. Ethan smiled to himself as he watched them. Maybe he didn’t need to use an item. A simple trick might work.

  Working quickly, Ethan detached the line he’d shot into the rock below him and clipped it to his belt instead. He then shot a new hook into another pillar that was about thirty feet away. With his pistol in hand, Ethan then jumped out into empty air.

  Immediately, the hunter-killers rushed to intercept his fall. One of them was much closer. It managed to dash forward and leap at him before he’d even fallen too far, which was what Ethan had been hoping for. An instant mental command activated his reel, and he immediately stopped falling. Instead, he hung suspended between two taut wires.

  Unable to stop in midcharge, the hunter-killer jumped at Ethan but came in too low and missed. The beast’s slavering jaws snapped shut a foot from Ethan’s nose. That was when Ethan retaliated. With the pistol in his free hand, he unloaded a quick burst of bullets into the hunter-killer’s face from point-blank. Several projectiles were deflected away by the thick metal of its helmet, but one of them pierced the transparent material covering the beast’s red eyes.

  Ripping through the helmet and past the eye socket, the bullet tore into the hunter-killer’s brain. From his perch in midair, Ethan watched the beast’s body go slack and fall. A heavy thud was followed by a series of metallic clanks when the body hit the ground, and a small cloud of dust billowed into the air.

  The first hunter-killer was dead. Ethan threw a quick glance toward the remaining beast. It had stopped its charge and was veering off to duck behind a pillar. Ethan looked toward the closest wall-mounted video screen. There was only thirty seconds left on the timer. He needed to act quickly. There was no time to come up with a complicated plan or bait the beast in. He needed to go to it.

  After a quick command, the lines holding Ethan snapped free, and he dropped. The moment he hit the ground, the last hunter-killer made a sharp turn and veered right toward him. Propelled by its powerfully muscled legs, the beast’s long claws scratched the stone beneath it as it built up speed. Its red eyes were locked on Ethan, showing its instinctive intent to hunt and kill.

  When it was thirty feet away, Ethan emptied a clip of pistol rounds into the charging hunter-killer, but all the shots missed or bounced off its armor. Grunting, Ethan holstered the useless weapon and drew his sword. He was going to have to do this the hard way. Yeah!

  With its toothy jaws wide open, the beast lunged at Ethan. The creature’s fangs were more than capable of taking a huge chunk out of him, so he dodged. At the last minute, Ethan threw himself sideways and spun around. He gripped his sword with both hands, and as the hunter-killer barreled past him, he planted both feet firmly on the ground and slashed its flank. It was a perfectly timed maneuver that was only possible after extensive practice, but that was easy enough to get in virtual reality. This was far from the first time Ethan had fought creatures like this hunter-killer.

  The incredibly sharp energy blade slashed through the beast’s lightly armored side. There was a hiss as it cut through wires and steel, searing the flesh beneath. Then the hunter-killer flew past. As it came to a stop, the beast stumbled. It tried to readjust its footing and turn back toward Ethan, b
ut one of its back legs was unstable and spasming and couldn’t hold any weight.

  Feeling the rush of combat, Ethan grinned and charged after the wounded hunter-killer. Confidently, he sprinted over and slashed its damaged side again. There was a loud hiss as his blade tore through the beast’s armor. It tried to snap at him with its jaws, but he kicked it, and it toppled over sideways instead. Both the legs on its wounded side were useless now, but it could still lash out. Ethan dodged a clumsy swing of a claw and jumped. Landing on the beast’s exposed underbelly, he slammed the point of his sword into its guts.

  There was a pain-filled howl as the beast flailed and writhed beneath Ethan. The jerky movements forced him to pull his blade out and jump away, lest he fall. He landed in a defensive stance with his blade held high, but the hunter-killer didn’t get up. It continued to flail, but its frantic movements grew slower until they stopped altogether.

  “Two waves down. One to go,” Ethan remarked as he looked toward the closest video screen. The hunter-killers were far less human than the mutants, so killing them didn’t affect him the same way.

  There was only five seconds left on the last countdown, so Ethan hurried to a stone pillar to observe the opening of the third gate as he had the other two. As the buzzer sounded, signaling the arrival of the third wave, he watched the final gate open. What would it be? Another type of mutant? He hoped it wasn’t humanoid…

  As the door rose and more light invaded the shadowy space within, the contents of the room on the other side were revealed. There was one big shape. It was squarish and floating above the ground, with several odd protrusions. Ethan’s eyes widened in surprise when it was fully revealed. He was looking at a hover tank drone. Oh, shit! This was far more firepower than he’d been expecting.

  There was a soft thrum as the tank’s engines kicked in, and it moved out and into the arena. Ethan was very glad he had already eliminated all the other enemies. A dangerous-looking, heavy machine gun protruded from the top of the tank, and at the back, it also carried a small mortar. The drone was much smaller than a manned tank but was still almost the size of a car. It was skinny and flat, but it floated several feet above the ground to make up for that. Dust blew out beneath the drone as its jets kept it in the air. Instead of camouflage, the tank’s armor plating had been painted red and white, as if it were a sports car.

  Ethan crouched and leaned warily out from behind his stone pillar. Hover tanks were heavily armored, although they had prominent weaknesses, such as their jets. The real problem was their firepower. The stone columns that filled the arena would provide little to no protection from that mortar, and the heavy machine gun would tear him apart out in the open. At least the countdown on the screens had stopped and remained at zero. It seemed he didn’t need to worry about running out of time while he dealt with the tank.

  As Ethan watched, the hover drone headed toward the center of the arena, which was off to his right. Good, the drone didn’t seem to know where he was. A plan was forming in his mind, so Ethan took a moment to open his inventory. He pulled out several items he thought would be useful and checked over his gear. When he was ready, he drew his pistol and took a shot at the tank. With a loud clang, the bullet hit the armor just below the drone’s turret and ricocheted off. Instantly, the tank’s turret sprang to life and oriented its barrel toward Ethan. There was a loud series of whirring and bangs as it opened fire, and a swarm of bullets slammed into the ground and stone around Ethan.

  “Crap on a stick,” Ethan swore as he ducked behind the pillar and shielded his head with his hands. Shrapnel and debris zipped through the air around him.

  The firing stopped a second later, and the hover tank headed straight for Ethan’s position. This was followed by a muted poof noise. Ethan didn’t waste a second. He immediately dashed toward another nearby stone pillar. Just as he dove behind it, there was a load roar, and the ground behind him exploded. Ethan fell and covered his eyes as dust and debris flew past him. The tank had dropped a mortar on the spot he had been occupying a moment ago, obliterating it.

  Staying still was suicide, so Ethan sprang into motion. He jumped up, and using the dust cloud as cover, dashed to another stone column. Although it slowed, the tank continued to advance. Its turret swiveled back and forth as it looked for Ethan. Meanwhile, Ethan kept low and waited for the drone to get deeper into the cluster of columns. When it began to pass by the first pillar he’d hid behind, Ethan took out a small steel cylinder and pressed the red button atop it. It was a detonator, and the signal it sent out caused the bombs Ethan had left at the base of the rocks to explode. There was a boom and another blast of dust as the tall pillar of stone toppled over.

  Like the machine it was, the tank reacted quickly to the detonation. It veered away to the side to avoid the falling debris, but the column hadn’t been about to hit it anyway. It came tottering down off to the drone’s left, creating a long wall of shattered stone and another huge cloud of dust. Using the dust as cover, Ethan ran to the newly created wall. Its length blocked the drone’s sight and allowed him to get close. The tank was only about twenty feet from the fallen rocks.

  Peeking up from behind the fallen rocks, Ethan studied how the tank was positioned. Its turret was facing the fallen column, but its body was perpendicular to it and pointed deeper into the cluster of pillars. Ethan ducked again and crept toward the back of the tank, using the nearby rocks and dust as cover. When the turret was no longer pointed in his direction, Ethan jumped onto the fallen pillar and shot the back of the tank with an adhesive grappling hook. As soon as it hit the armor and attached, he reeled the line in hard.

  Sensing motion, the turret spun around and oriented on Ethan as he slid toward it, giving him a great view of its muzzle.

  There was a loud chorus of bangs as bullets zipped through the air around Ethan. For a moment, he felt exposed and thought he was about to be shot, but then he was pulled in too close to the tank for it to aim at him properly. A wild grin appeared on Ethan’s face as he hopped onto the back of the tank. He’d made it! The drone had tried to drive away from him, but that was pointless since they were tethered together by a line.

  As Ethan reached out to get a good grip on the tank’s armor, he was suddenly thrown sideways as it spun around in a circle. The motion was slightly disorienting but couldn’t dislodge his hook.

  “Ride ’em, cowboy!” Ethan laughed as he held tightly to his line and drew his sword.

  Confident in his victory, Ethan leaned down and looked up under the bottom of the spinning tank. There was a grate there that was sucking up air. It was an intake for the drone’s jets. Smiling, Ethan hacked at the grate. When his blade had cut through the metal and opened a small hole, he sheathed his sword, pulled out a grenade, and jammed the explosive into the grate. There was a rattling noise as the grenade bounced around inside the drone’s innards.

  Wait a second… When the grenade went off, how large would the explosion be? The smile faded from Ethan’s face as he realized he wasn’t sure what would happen next. He couldn’t jump off the drone until it was no longer a threat…

  “I should have thought this through,” he mused to himself. “I’m riding a tiger full of explosives.”

  The left side of the tank exploded. Ethan was thrown sideways. Fire and shrapnel burst out of a jagged new hole in the tank’s side, but none of it hit Ethan. As he bounced off the drone’s armor, the tank jerked hard and slowly fell. Ethan didn’t stick around. He detached his line and jumped off the back of the drone. Off-balance, he hit the ground and rolled away. Up ahead, there was a crash as the tank hit the ground and dug into the dirt. Then, a new explosion ripped out of the front of the drone, sending a blast of flame up into the air.

  “Ha, I knew that would work.” Ethan picked himself off the ground and dusted his armor off. He then quickly moved farther away from the drone, in case it exploded again.

  Before Ethan had gotten very far, a familiar buzzing filled his ears. He looked up toward the neare
st video screen and saw a new message there spelled out in flashing red letters.

  Congratulations!

  You have passed this stage. Please proceed through the open door to reach the next.

  CHAPTER 6

  THE GREEDY GAMBLER

  Looking around, Ethan saw that the previously open doors, where enemies had emerged from, were now closed, except for one. The small chamber on the other side of that door had been dark, but lights had come on inside it, revealing an empty room with white walls.

  Instead of heading for it, Ethan took a moment to think. Was there another secret key hidden in the arena somewhere like there had been in the last test? He glanced around, but he saw no hints or anything that suggested there was. Searching the entire chamber seemed like a huge waste of time. It contained a lot of rocks and unremarkable pillars.

  “At least this test was more like what I expected to find in the tower,” Ethan thought aloud.

  A good old-fashioned test of combat skills against monsters was more in line with the normal Worldshift game, and he’d enjoyed thrashing them. Hopefully, that meant the weird—and frankly intrusive—tests were over.

  Feeling optimistic, Ethan walked to the illuminated doorway. Inside the room, there was another door on the far wall. It was a simple thing with a normal-looking door handle, so Ethan shrugged and opened it.

  A moment later, he stepped through into a small square room with grey walls, and the entrance vanished behind him, leaving him stranded. Scowling thoughtfully, Ethan examined his new surroundings. There were two dozen plain-looking doors all along the exterior of the room, which led who knew where. The floor was smooth cement, and there was a pentagram etched into the center of it. The symbol immediately drew Ethan’s attention. It looked important, mostly because there were murky black shadows floating above it. Cautiously, Ethan watched as the shadows shifted and twisted into the form of a blurry humanoid with two short horns jutting out from its forehead. Huh, someone sure had a flair for the dramatic.