“I could really use some help,” Michael informed his allies. “This gentleman is tenacious. Are any of you still capable of fighting?”
Michael was running from one pillar to another while dodging aether blasts. The golden warrior suddenly flew straight at him and reached out to grab him. At the same time, he suppressed Jude by throwing a lightning blast her way that forced her to duck behind a pillar. As the flying figure lunged at Michael’s exposed back, a grenade flew right in front of him. The boss was forced to come to a sudden stop and push the grenade away with a shot of aether.
The grenade bounced away across the ground and exploded a second later. It was too far away to harm the golden warrior, but it had given Michael enough time to get away. Scowling, the boss floated above the ground and looked toward the grenade’s source. It was Lily. She’d gotten back up and rejoined the fight. Ethan was glad she wasn’t seriously hurt.
There was a groan from Kyle as he climbed to his feet. “I’m fine now. Just give me a second and I’ll come help.”
“I’m ready to go too,” Ethan said. He wasn’t going to let a little pain stop him from helping Lily and his friends, or a lot of pain either. Ow, his ribs really hurt. Stupid tower removing the pain limit.
“Then we need a plan,” Michael said as he turned to shoot at the boss again. “I must admit that I can’t think of anything too promising right now.”
Frowning, Ethan took a moment to think. The last hit he’d taken seemed to have knocked some thoughts loose in his head. “I think I may have an idea. I’m going to need everyone who’s free to head my way and support me.”
“On it,” Kyle replied right away as he began moving.
“Sure, I hope this is a good idea,” Lily stated.
Jude grunted sourly over team speak. “I’ll cover you guys and buy you some time for us to attack in harmony. Just don’t frak this up!”
“I’ll try extra hard not to, just for you,” Ethan replied as he headed to join Lily and Ethan. At the same time, Jude opened fire with everything she had. A hail of bullets washed over the boss, forcing him to come to a stop and focus on defending himself.
Ethan quickly met up with his two teammates behind a pillar and they huddled to talk.
“Here’s the plan. I need you two to rush in and draw the boss’s fire while I follow behind you. If we stay close together, he will probably use his lightning attack to scatter us, and I think I can use that against him.”
“I hate this plan,” Kyle remarked with a grimace.
“If Ethan thinks he can do it, we should trust him,” Lily replied. “He hasn’t let us down yet.”
Kyle sighed in resignation. “Fine, then let’s go. I don’t have a better idea, and Jude can’t hold the boss forever.”
The three players rushed into action. All together, they charged straight toward the boss. Lily and Kyle were both up front, while Ethan stayed behind them. As they closed in on the golden warrior, Jude’s suppressive fire faltered, and the boss turned to face them. Lily reacted by firing at him with her rifle as she ran, but he blocked her shots with an aether barrier.
Then, the Golden warrior’s eyes narrowed, and he raised a hand to point in their direction. Two aether blasts formed and shot toward Kyle and Lily. They both dodged the attacks and then jumped back closer to Ethan, as per the plan. Still floating above the ground, the boss threw another barrage of aether blasts at his attackers and then created a shimmering ball of electrical energy. Lily managed to dodge the attacks aimed her way, but Kyle took a glancing blow.
“Ow, frak!” he cursed as he was knocked aside again. Thankfully, he didn’t sound too hurt.
This left Ethan exposed as he continued his straight-on charge. That was fine though. Ethan grinned in anticipation as the golden warrior hurled the electrical orb straight at him. It was do-or-die time. As the crackling ball zoomed toward his chest, Ethan reached for the Origin. His own attacks were far too weak to hurt the boss, but there was one thing he could do. Summoning his own orb of attractive force, Ethan placed it right in front of the boss’s attack. When the two evoking attacks collided, the lightning ball came to a sudden stop. It was caught. Success! Ethan laughed in excitement and whipped his orb around so that he could hurl it back at the boss with as much power as possible. At the same time, Lily opened fire with her rifle again.
The golden warrior flinched in surprise as his own attack was thrown back at him, and he quickly raised a hand to create a defensive barrier. This deflected Lily’s bullets, but then the lightning orb hit. Crackling electricity washed over the barrier, stinging the golden warrior, and then the lightning slashed from above, bypassing most of the shield and tearing through the rest with ease. The power of the lightning blast threw the golden warrior backward, and there was a loud thud as he hit a pillar and fell to the ground, stunned.
That was all the time Ethan’s team needed. Lily threw another grenade at the fallen warrior. A moment later, Jude ran over and opened fire with her heavy machine gun. The grenade landed right next to the boss and exploded, throwing smoke into the air that was instantly pierced by a stream of bullets that plowed into the boss and the ground around him. Despite her lack of clear vision, Jude kept firing for a good ten seconds, pumping countless bullets into the dust and smoke.
“I think that’s enough,” Michael remarked as he walked to Ethan’s side.
“There’s no such thing as overkill,” Jude replied, but she stopped firing a moment later.
The players waited anxiously for a few more seconds as the smoke cleared. They soon relaxed when they got a good look at the fallen boss. Not only was he lying unmoving in a small crater, but his golden armor was basically scrap, and silver blood-like fluid was leaking from several places. The stuff was splattered across the ground around him.
“Yep, I think he’s dead,” Kyle observed jovially. He’d gotten up and walked behind Ethan while everyone had been focused on the fallen boss.
Before anyone could reply, there was a loud grinding noise as the doors to the chamber opened, and the players all got a system message.
You have defeated the guardian of the temple. Insert the key into the lock to travel to the next floor.
“Hmm, I don’t know about the key, but I think the lock is over here,” Michael told his allies as he pointed toward the statue in the center of the room.
Looking the statue over, Ethan realized it had slid backward to reveal a small circular hole in the floor. It must have moved at the same time as the doors had opened, which had masked the noise. Everyone walked to get a closer look at the keyhole. It was about an inch across and perfectly round.
“So now we need the key. I don’t see any hints as to what it is around here,” Kyle said in a disappointed tone.
Jude turned to scowl at Michael. “Coming here was your idea. I’m going to be really mad if you made us go through all this for nothing.”
“And if we need to fight the boss again, I’m not being the meat-shield. Once was enough for me,” Kyle said.
Lily sighed and deactivated her helmet so she could look everyone in the eye. There was a tired but determined smile on her face. “Let’s not give up. Surely, there has to be some sort of clue. This floor is a test? What was it testing us for? We need to think. The key won’t be something random.”
Michael looked thoughtful, but Jude shook her head dismissively. “It could be anything."
Ethan didn’t agree with her. He’d noticed a very obvious theme to the entire floor.
“It must be tied to evoking. This whole place seems to be one huge training area for it,” Ethan told his allies.
Michael nodded. “You could be right. Try doing something with it.”
“All right, here goes nothing,” Ethan said as he walked toward the hole and summoned the Origin.
Concentrating, Ethan attempted to create an orb of force within the lock. He easily succeeded, but nothing happened, so he dissolved it a few seconds later.
“Maybe it needs to be
a specific type of evoking?” he mused aloud.
Michael looked up at the crystal built into the ceiling overhead. “The boss used electricity. Maybe it needs to be hit by lightning.”
“I have no idea how to do that,” Ethan said as he looked at Lily. Did she know anything helpful?
“I can’t summon lightning either,” she replied with a chuckle.
Kyle stepped forward. “I could try some fire. I’m not very good with it, but I can create some heat for a few seconds.”
Everyone agreed it was worth a try, so Kyle stepped forward and placed his hands over the keyhole. After several seconds of trying, he managed to create a small flame, but the lock didn’t open. Apparently, fire wasn’t the answer either.
“What’s left to try? What else can you do with evoking?” Michael asked as Kyle stepped back.
“You can create all kinds of energy and aether, but we already tried aether,” Ethan replied and glanced at Lily again. She just shrugged.
Kyle stepped forward again and looked into the keyhole. “Spellsmiths are sort of evokers, and they use crystals for stuff.”
“Yes, our guide did mention that evokers collected certain crystals. Everyone take out the ones you have,” Michael agreed enthusiastically.
The entire team quickly rummaged through their inventories and pulled out all the crystals they’d collected. They’d each found a few in the forest, and Kyle had bought a few as souvenirs. The crystals were all quite different. They ranged from finger to fist size and came in several shapes and colors.
Unceremoniously, Kyle tried ramming them into the keyhole, but none of them did anything.
“Another stupid idea and a waste of our time, as expected,” Jude remarked when he was done.
Ethan ignored her and stared at the crystals Kyle had piled next to the keyhole. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were missing something obvious. Wait, his javelins were crystals…
“I think I’ve got it,” Ethan said as he crouched and picked out a crystal from the pile. It was one of the one’s they’d found in the ruined forest temple during their first journey out of the city.
As his allies watched, he cleared his mind and reached for the Origin. He thought he could dimly sense an aura around the crystal. It was hungry. Thus, he placed the crystal in the lock and attempted to open the Origin within it. Instantly, he could feel something odd happening. The crystal seemed to suck up all the power he drew. No orb formed, and there wasn’t even a hint of kinetic energy. Instead, the crystal glowed for a second and then grew explosively. Branches of glowing minerals shot out in every direction. Surprised, Ethan stumbled backward and released the Origin. The crystal had grown into a tree-like shape that was chest high, and some of the branches were over two feet long.
“Wow, awesome,” Kyle remarked.
As everyone stared at the small crystal tree, another system message appeared.
The way has been unlocked. Moving players to the third floor.
Then, a flash of white light enveloped Ethan, and the temple disappeared.
Part 4
CHAPTER 24
WATCHERS IN THE MAZE
When the light receded, Ethan found himself standing in a large square room with concrete walls. Pipes ran along the ceiling and there were no windows. It looked like an industrial basement of some sort. There were florescent tube lights hanging from the ceiling as well, which allowed Ethan to see that his teammates were all here. Relief washed over him when he realized he hadn’t been separated from them. He’d been a little worried about that. He wasn’t sure what he’d do without them.
“This is a pretty bleh place to be,” Kyle observed with a grimace. “Looks like an empty storage room. I was definitely expecting more from the third floor. I mean, it took some mad effort and leet skills to get here.”
“Ya, it’s sort of disappointing when compared to the view we got at the second-floor entrance,” Ethan replied. From atop the cliff, the city vista had been quite something to look at.
That was when they all got a system message. It flashed into existence in front of their eyes.
Welcome to the third floor, players. You have done well to make it this far. This stage is known as The Metropolis. To pass beyond it, you will need to collect three data keys and challenge the floor lord at the center of the floor. Be advised, you should proceed with caution. To log out, you must build a beacon and be unobserved. Drawing attention to yourself here is dangerous, and there are no safe zones.
“How ominous,” Jude remarked with a confident smirk. She seemed eager rather than nervous.
“I think I already have two data keys,” Ethan stated as he scrolled through his inventory. “I also have a blueprint for that beacon thing, but it requires some materials I don’t have.”
Michael nodded. “It’s good to see that our bet paid off for us. Now we need to find one more data key.”
“Which probably means we need to find some other players and steal it from them,” Kyle replied.
“Then let’s go find some newbs to blast,” Jude suggested gleefully.
Lily frowned and shook her head. “I doubt any newbs made it this far up the tower. It’s more likely we’d run into people like those players in black. That could end badly for us pretty quickly. Besides, it’s probably possible to find the data keys we need another way.”
“Regardless, our first priority should be reconnaissance,” Michael informed everyone as he pointed at the room’s only exit. “This starting position has me concerned though. As the system pointed out, it’s not a safe zone, but it is a dead end. If we aggro any mobs, we could easily end up trapped in here without anywhere to run. Thus, we should proceed with extreme stealth and caution. We don’t know what’s out there.”
Jude was impatient and wanted to get moving, but the others managed to calm her down, and they then carefully planned their next move. It turned out that Kyle and Lily both had stealth cloaks packed away, so after switching his jumpjet out with the cloak, Kyle was selected to be their point man. As their team marksman, it made no sense for Lily to go out first.
“It’s not a fancy invisibility field or anything, but this stealth cloak will protect me from sensors and make me harder to see, especially if I’m not moving,” Kyle explained as he headed toward the door. The long cloak fell to the floor, and it automatically shifted color to match its surroundings, like adaptive camo. With the hood up, it covered all of his armor except his visor and made him quite difficult to see.
“Do either of you have the blueprints for the cloaks?” Michael asked.
Kyle shook his head, but Lily nodded. “Yes, I have them. I can even make them if we find the right components and a workshop.”
“Good to know. Yes, that could come in quite handy later,” Michael told her.
As Kyle headed into the long hallway beyond the exit, Lily donned her own cloak and took up position at the door, to watch for danger. After only a few minutes had passed, Kyle reported back.
“There’s a whole bunch of twisty hallways out here, like a maze. There’s also a ton of cameras. I almost stumbled into the first one, but thanks to my nice cloak, I don’t think I set anything off.”
“Maybe Ethan should go out there. He’s our trap guy,” Jude stated.
“Well, I’m more of an expert on primitive devices or explosives,” Ethan quickly replied. “Cameras seem more like something a good hacker would be better at dealing with.”
Instantly, everyone turned to look at Michael, and the older man rolled his eyes. “I might have a trick or two. We’ll have to wait and see what else Kyle finds.”
“Wait, there’s movement up ahead! It’s coming my way, so I’m taking cover,” Kyle suddenly told them over team speak.
“What is it?” Jude asked.
“Huh, it looks like a humanoid droid. It’s just walking down the hallway, like it’s on patrol or something,” Kyle replied. “I’m hiding behind a pipe, and it doesn’t look like it’s seen me. Yeah, it’s gone
now. It just walked right past me, so I’m going to keep exploring a bit.”
“So we have to deal with patrols by security bots and static camera positions,” Michael mused aloud.
“What happens if we aggro something here though?” Ethan asked him. “I doubt a single droid is all we’d have to worry about.”
“Probably not. I’d bet there are ample reinforcements waiting to rush in if an alarm is tripped,” Michael said.
After a bit more waiting, Kyle reported back again with more details about their surroundings. There were stairs leading up to the surface, but he’d barely managed to stick his head up to look around before being forced to duck back down. There was some sort of high-tech city up there, but the first thing he’d noticed was more robots, lots more. The surface was swarming with both humanoid droids and hovering surveillance drones. There was no sign of living people though.
Since going up was obviously problematic, Michael ordered Kyle to focus on exploring the underground. They needed somewhere to go and a safe route to get there, so while Kyle was scouting, everyone discussed their options.
“We can’t stay here, and we have to assume that if we take out the cameras, drones will come to investigate, which means I have to hack them,” Michael admitted reluctantly. Ethan wasn’t sure why he was so against showing off his skills. Maybe he wasn’t as skilled as they thought?
“Can you take out the cameras without being seen?” Ethan asked Michael.
Michael sighed. “It most likely won’t be a problem, but I can’t be sure until I know what level the security code for the cameras is.”
The older man then reached into his inventory and pulled an item out. It took Ethan a moment to figure out what he was looking at. It was a small mechanical bug, shaped like a beetle.
“What is that?” Lily asked. She sounded slightly disgusted. Apparently, she wasn’t a fan of bugs. Good to know.
Worldshift- Virtual Revolution Page 27