Glitch Boxset

by Victor Deckard

  Chapter six

  Both the PKs discharged their grenade launchers the moment they saw the door of the pod flip open. But after a moment they went completely still as I employed the Stasis. The two grenades the PKs had gotten off slowed down to an almost imperceptible crawl, having gotten no farther than one yard or so away from the business ends of their rifles.

  I was about to vault the nearby window when a thought crossed my mind. I stopped in my tracks and looked over my shoulder at the petrified PKs. They didn’t budge, yet their eyes filled with sincere hatred followed me. I directed my gaze toward Frozen clad in my biker leather outfit. I wondered if I could take it off him. What if I could even take their weapons, ammo, and armor while the PKs were immobile? Then the tables would be turned on them!

  My heart pounding, I walked over to the translucent, silvery dome and tried to step into it. No dice. It felt like a concrete wall. I couldn’t get inside the dome.

  Well, it stood to reason. Guessed if the Warlock could’ve entered the Stasis field, the class would’ve been mighty overpowered. The Warlock wouldn’t even have bothered with defending themselves against aggressive player killers. All the Warlock would’ve had to do was to freeze up the PK, who dared to assault him or her, with the Stasis and then just relieve the unfortunate PK of all their stuff, weapons, armor, stimulators, and whatnot.

  It might’ve even reached the point where the newbie Warlock having just unlocked the Stasis psi-power could’ve stripped even a high-level player down to their underwear. So yeah, it was very understandable why the developers had prevented the Warlock from entering the Stasis field.

  Nevertheless, I was a little disappointed. After getting outside, I saw the bodies of my two previous characters. Naked now save for underpants, they differed from each other only in degree of mutilation.

  I scouted around for any things of mine the PKs might’ve forgotten to pick up, yet I found nothing. Zip, nil, nada. Which meant that while Croc had been pointing his assault rifle at the Resurrection Pod I’d been in, Frozen had been gathering every single one of my items dropped from both of my previous characters. Frozen hadn’t even disdained picking up level 2 “white” fabric clothes and level 2 “white” pistol Conqueror!

  That made me even angrier with them. I glanced back over my shoulder in the direction of the building I’d just split. My common sense shouted at me, “Run away, you dummy! Run away while you still can!” Yet I stayed on staring at the two immobilized PKs that could be plainly seen through the doorway.

  The Stasis field finally wore off. The twosome wasted no time bursting out of the house. Noticing me, they whipped up their assault rifles. I broke into a run, having turned on the Acceleration. All the PK’s shots were wild.

  I raced away glancing over my shoulder from time to time. Although the PKs ran pretty fast, they couldn’t keep pace with me. The gap between us was getting wider. By the time that the Acceleration wore off, my chasers lagged five hundred or so yards behind me. I could’ve easily given them the slip if I’d wanted to. Instead I slackened my pace and consulted the map to make sure I headed in the direction of the vending machine. Then I moved on.

  I knew why I didn’t use the Acceleration once more. Not because I wasn’t keen on squandering my mana points. No, I just didn’t want the two PKs to lose sight of me. I planned on getting to the vending machine to buy some armor and weapon and picking a fight with them again. They’d already offed me two times today, yet against my better judgment, I was intent on getting even with them. I shouldn’t have messed up with them again, but I just couldn’t help it.

  Nothing befell me on my way to the vending machine. When I finally made it to it, the two PK were nowhere in sight. Perhaps I ran too fast for them to keep up with me. I sincerely hoped they hadn’t lost me. Or they might’ve figured that they’d never be able to catch up with me and decided to drop the chase.

  Walking over to the vending machine, I opened the Armor tab and went over the list of armor. All the items were “white”, i.e. common. Not a single one of “green” stuff. I found only one outfit suitable for the Warlock class. The rest of the armor for sale was for Soldiers of Engineers. I had no choice but to buy the outfit. It was level 5 and consisted of a T-shirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of shoes. After getting dressed, I switched to the Weapon tab. The vending machine had lots of weapons for sale, ranging from heavy rocket launchers to handguns. Still, all the weapons were of the common rarity.

  There were a few “white” pistols for sale. At first, I planned to buy a pistol dealing as much damage as possible, regardless of all the other attributes. But then another idea occurred to me. I switched to the Other tab and after a couple of moments found what I looked for.

  > Name: Pistol bullets

  > Type: High-velocity

  > Level: 2

  > Damage: –25

  > Bullet velocity: +250

  > Special quality: None

  I’d bought the armor-piercing bullets the last time I’d dropped by the vending machine. That hadn’t gone too well. Maybe I should try out something different. What if I bought a pistol having a high fire rate attribute and load it with the high-velocity bullets? Guessed it was worth a try.

  I switched back to the Weapon tab. After examining all the weapons available, I found two handguns fit for my strategy. Essentially, they were the same. Both of them were level 5 and both were “white”. Their stats were almost identical. These two pistols differed in only one respect. The Fire Rate attribute of one of them was somewhat lower than that of the second pistol, whereas the Damage attribute of the first pistol was a tad higher than the second one’s and vice versa.

  I wasn’t sure as to which one I should buy. After a moment, a thought struck me. Maybe I should buy both. The Warlock could wield only handguns, yet no tip told me that I couldn’t use two handguns at the same time. If I got it wrong and it was forbidden for the Warlock to dual wield handguns, then I’d sell one pistol later on.

  So I acquired the two pistols, a belt, and two drop leg holsters. I also bought a few magazines filled with the high-velocity bullets and a small satchel bag for carrying ammo. After inserting a mag into each purchased pistol, I threaded the belt through the loops of my pants, strapped a drop leg holster around each thigh, and attached the holsters to the belt. After holstering the two pistols and stowing away the remaining mags in the bag, I returned my attention to the vending and opened the Other tab. Bought three vigors.

  > Name: Vigor

  > Level: 1

  > Restoring mana: +250

  > Price: 500

  There were a few cheaper vigors for sale in the vending machine, which restored Mana over some time. Yet during a fight with PKs you couldn’t wait for your Mana to restore itself, so I’d bought more expensive vigors that instantly restored two hundred and fifty mana points.

  Three cylindrical objects materialized on a platform that jutted from a left side of the vending machine. They looked almost exactly like stimulators. They differed from the latter only in color. Stimulators were white-colored while vigors were blue.

  I had about seven thousand bucks left. I bought a cheap tactical vest and put it on. After securing spare mags and vigors in the pockets of the tactical vest, I finally exited the building.

  Out of habit, I turned my head this way, then that. Nobody was around. Having chosen the random direction, I set off. I covered only several yards down the street when something made me look over my shoulder.

  Slowing down, I glanced back. The street was still empty. Yet after a moment, I realized what it was that had alerted me. Sounds of approaching footsteps. Somebody was running this way.

  Rounding a bend in the road, two players showed up, their assault rifles in hand. They stopped in their tracks the moment they saw me. Sure enough, it was Croc and Frozen. The PKs took a couple of wary steps forward toward me and came to a halt again. They were one hundred or so yards distant from me.

  So
they’d actually been able to track me down. I wondered how come they knew where I was. Perhaps they’d just assumed that I had some money and decided to check on the nearest vending machine to see if I’d headed for it.

  Or they might’ve learned some skill to mark a player to track his or her movements on the map. Whatever the case, they’d hunted me down. They seemed to be in no hurry to attack me though.

  The twosome took a few more steps up the street and came to a stop again. They seemed hesitant. Perhaps they’d hoped to catch up with me before I could make use of the vending machine. But seeing that I’d already bought some armor and weapon and was ready to fight again, they got reluctant. They’d overcome me two times already, yet it was hard-fought victories. The second time we’d fought, I’d even managed to wear them down using only my psi-powers. So yeah. I wasn’t an easy target. The twosome had learned it the hard way. Probably it was the reason why they were unwilling to engage me now.

  I could only guess at why they didn’t charge at me yet. But anyway, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Getting even with them was all I could think of at the moment. Sure, it wasn’t very smart of me to mess with them again, but I was boiling with anger that rendered me unable to think clearly.

  “All righty, let’s do this,” I mumbled under my breath before activating the Acceleration and charging at the two still immobile PKs.

  They both flinched as from surprise and for a moment it even seemed as if they were going to turn around and run away. Still, it never happened. Instead the PKs fanned out and opened devastating fire on me.

  It was no use fighting both the PKs at once. I had to deal with them one at a time. I’d be inevitably defeated otherwise. Croc seemed to be stronger and more robust than Frozen was, so I decided to deal with the former first. Which meant that Frozen had to be rendered knocked out, so to speak, for some time.

  I looked at him and employed the Disarming. Dark energy yanked at the weapon he held in his hands and tore it away from him. Cussing, Frozen dashed in the direction his weapon had been thrown. After taking two steps toward it, he skidded to a halt. Guessed he remembered what had happened the last time. He wasn’t all that keen on getting into another vortex trap. Not knowing what to do, he just stood there glaring at me.

  As for me, I didn’t stand still for a second. Croc fired away in a futile attempt to croak me. My incredible movement speed notwithstanding, a couple of bullets grazed off my sides. My sheer fabric clothes couldn’t provide any protection against them.

  Grating my teeth in sharp pain, I used the Blow to lift Frozen off the ground. He wallowed in the air like some animal in water, his arms and legs flailing. He wouldn’t pose a threat to me for some time. With that done, I set a vortex trap over his weapon so that it overlapped it. Whatever cautions Frozen would exercise wouldn’t fend off his getting into the vortex trap.

  With Frozen out of it, I could turn my full attention to Croc. I turned on the heat, circling around him and alternately discharging my pistols on him. What with the high Fire Rate attribute of my handguns and the lighting velocity of the bullets, I released two ceaseless streams of lead. After the Accelerated ended, I reactivated it at once and cast a glance at my HUD to check on my mana.

  > Mana: 250/800

  I kept on racing around Croc, dual wielding my pistols, firing them alternately. My lame “white” pistols did little damage and the bullets more often than not went wide. I aimed for Croc’s head, yet I my aim was off.

  Some of the bullets pinged off his tough helmet. Only two or three bullets actually punched through it, leaving small holes in it. A few rounds ripped into Croc’s bare throat and the others lashed out at his shoulders.

  Blood fountained from his wrecked neck. His shoulder armor got crazed due to constant bullet hits. Blood also trickled out of the holes in his helmet. Nevertheless, Croc continued to fight as if nothing bothered him. I started to doubt my ability to take him down.

  Suddenly Croc let out with an enraged shout. He was so livid extreme anger saturated his voice. Which gave him away. I realized that I was winning. Croc was losing the fight, which was why he’d gotten so pissed-off. That hyped me up a great deal. My misgivings vanished without a trace as I went on circling around Croc and unleashing a fierce stream of fire on him.

  Eventually, Croc decided to blow me up. He surely remembered my Telekinesis skill, yet he discharged his grenade launcher anyway. Perhaps, he just couldn’t think of any other way to deal with me.

  I employed the Telekinesis psi-power to grab the grenade racing through the air and send it flying back toward Croc. It exploded throwing the player to the ground. I looked at him to see he was now sporting a huge nasty wound on his left side.

  Yet I wasn’t surprised a bit when he stirred. The guy was exceptionally robust. The Acceleration wore off, but I didn’t reactivate it yet. After reloading my pistols, I aimed at the Croc to finish him off. Before I could get off a shot, something struck me against my chest.

  Having turned around, I saw Frozen firing at me. He was still trapped by the psi-power in the air. He wasn’t tried to get down anymore, instead he hovered in the air, holding his pistol in front of him and squeezing one shot after another. Seemed like he’d been firing on me for a while, but it wasn’t until after the Acceleration wore off that he was able to hit me.

  My attention was diverted from Croc only for a second, yet he instantly took advantage of it and fired his grenade launcher. I was thrown to the ground, regretting not buying some stimulators. They would’ve really come in handy right about now. As I was getting up, I noticed the second grenade flying toward me and turned on the Shield. Pain racking my entire body notwithstanding, I managed to concentrate on the approaching grenade and send it back.

  My accuracy was lacking. The grenade detonated some way away from Croc. If he took damage, then it must have been superficial since the player didn’t show any signs of being injured.

  I glanced at Frozen. The Blow had already worn off. The player raced toward his weapon, weaving his way from side to side for fear of stepping on a vortex trap he was sure I’d set somewhere. He didn’t have the slightest idea about the vortex trap that I’d set near his weapon. Frozen was surely going to trigger it if reached for his assault gun.

  And this was exactly what happened. After the player tried to snatch up his gun, he accidentally set off the vortex trap and was hoisted up in the air.

  Croc still lay prone on the blacktop, firing at the power dome. I glanced at my HUD.

  > Mana: 135/800

  One after the other, I administered two shots to myself. They restored two hundred and fifty mana points each. This done, I dashed over to Croc and opened fire on him once again. Once the Shield ended, I activated the Acceleration.

  Croc didn’t discharge his grenade launcher any longer. Either he didn’t have any more grenades or he didn’t want run a risk of being exploded once more. He struggled to his feet, took aim, and opened up with his assault rifles. Yet he couldn’t hit me; not only because I circled around him too fast for him to take careful aim, but also because he was completely exhausted. The assault rifle trembled in his hands and he was barely able to stand himself.

  Taking another bullet to his head, Croc lowered his rifle. Holding it with his right hand, he took a stimulator from a pocket on his vest with the left one. It revealed the decrepit state of his HP to me.

  I had to thwart his attempt to treat his wounds. I used the Disarming. Yet it didn’t work out the way I’d expected it to. His assault rifle was yanked away from his hand, but the stimulator wasn’t. Guessed only weapons could be subjected to the psi-power.

  Croc was in a haze for a moment, seemingly unable to come to grips with what had just happened. As for me, I came up with an idea. What I was going to do might be too hazardous and hairy, but I was eager to do it anyway.

  I burst into a run and crashed into Croc, knocking him down. The momentum carried me forward as I tripped over the player
before plumping on top of him. I straddled him pinning down his arms with my knees. He strained to break free but to no avail.

  I pointed my pistols at his head and set about firing at him almost at point blank range. With every single one of bullets hitting his helmet, it took only a couple of seconds to finish the player off. The PK went still and quiet. Lots of various loot appeared all around him on the ground. His mask was totaled. Huge holes with jagged edges revealed the player’s gory mutilated face.

  I got to my feet, staring at the spread-eagle body before me. I could hardly believe my eyes. Hooray! I made it! I’d whacked Croc!

  However, it was too early to greet my victory with glee since Frozen was still alive. Croc had revived in a nearby Resurrection Pod and was surely racing over here to his pal’s aid. So I had to deal with Frozen before Croc made it over here.

  The Vortex Trap was no longer active. Frozen slumped to the ground with a loud plop. I wasted no time activating the Acceleration and dashing over to the player. I unleashed devastating gunfire on him as he strained to get to his feet. As soon as he would stand up, another bullet would slam against the player, whipping him to the ground. In the end, he gave up trying to get up and just crawled on his stomach toward his weapon. I employed the Telekinesis to shove it even farther down the street.

  What happened next amazed me a great deal. Frozen rolled over on his back, sat up, and put his hands in the air. Then he shouted, “All right, you won! I surrender! I give up, ya hear? Don’t shoot! Don’t kill me!”

  I ceased fire. Not because the PK begged me to do so, but because my pistols had run out of ammo. I kept my eyes peeled as I reloaded my handguns. Frozen had realized that he wasn’t able to defeat me on his own. So he decided to give up. Yet I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was stalling. He waited for his partner to show up so that they could attack me again.