The band stopped playing, but the notifications kept appearing. The cheer that arose was a solid thing: a monster of blood and victory standing over the fallen Thiorons, a sound-track to the scrolling windows flashing past the eyes of those still standing.
[Level up! You are now level 2]
[Health -11/10]
[Level up! You are now level 3]
[Health 3/15]
[Berserker Death Rage is no longer active]
Chezzo slumped as the pain finally hit home. "Fucking OW!"
[New Title! Progenitor Una: Your
[New Title! Prime Voice of the Starry Heavens: Your
[New Title! Executioner Una: Your
[New Title! Reaper Una: Your
[New Title! Giant Slayer Una: Your
[
New Title! Impossibly Alive: You have taken damage greater than your total Health from a single attack, and lived to tell the tale. +50% Vitality, +50% maximum Health]
[Health 3/22]
[New Title! Trailblazer: You are one of the first 100 on your planet to learn the Skill: Technomancy. +1 to all Attributes, +1% to Technomancy.]
[System Message: The Thioron Challenge for Planet Number 227,736,002 has failed! Remaining Thioron Participants have 30
[Authority Claimed! By Right of Challenge, this Sector is now under the control of Manchester United Taylor of Earth]
[New Title: Sector Commander: You, Manchester United Taylor, are Commander of this Sector for as long as you protect and defend its lands and its people…]
Those closest to Chezzo ignored the rest of their own notifications. They were too busy trying to calm the enraged lead singer, who’d gone berserk again at the use of his real name. They missed the new block of words:
[Entering Debug Mode… This planet is now in Debug Mode.]
[Loading Your Finger You Fool…]
[...Please Wait…]
♩♪♫♩♬♪
Katalin was in the cluttered tent that housed the big circus generators and electrical equipment. Her head was aching, and resentment was seething at the back of her head over Serzei’s refusal to invest in basic safety equipment like nets for the trapeze artists. That was very much secondary to the more immediate threat of the alien monster also in the tent, which had already ripped away the canvas door and was now prowling down between the racks towards her. Tiny, the guy usually left to keep an eye on the generator and lighting boards, was standing rooted to the spot, staring at the arrival of the shadowy monster known as a panthyruxi.
Katalin had flung a car battery at the monster’s foot.
[Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 10%]
[Skill Specialisation avail…]
Katalin impatiently closed the message window.
[Panthyruxi Health ??/??]
The panthyruxi was limping, and now it was out for revenge. Katalin grabbed and threw more of the large batteries, dodged, threw up (again), ignored yet another message window, and when she ran out of batteries she closed her hand on a big flashlight, shoved it in the monster's face, and switched it on.
[Skill succeeded: Improvised Weapons]
[Panthyruxi Health ??/??]
[Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi is Afraid]
Whining, the monster began to retreat. Katalin was hurting, and angry, and not about to let it get away. Grabbing the rickety, overloaded shelving, she heaved. “Tiny, help me!”
The tall man was frozen in terror, and no surprise. Two more of the creatures were in the doorway, trying to push past their fearful packmate. Tiny’s help wasn’t needed after all. The heavy rack tilted and the boxy, sharp-edged and- above all- heavy equipment started sliding from the shelves and falling. Katalin leaped over the first rack and hauled at the second as the three monsters began yowling. Before they could claw themselves free of the mess of fallen electronics, spare parts and twisted shelving, Katalin yanked free the trailing electrical cable labeled “Danger! Do Not Touch This Wire!” and dropped the bare copper ends onto the heap of monster and metal.
There was a flash, a bang, and a lot of messages. A bolt of jubilation shot through Katalin’s entire body, a vaguely invasive sensation. She was willing to forgive it for that because her head cleared, the pain gone.
[Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 11%]
[You have killed Panthyruxi]
[You have killed Panthyruxi]
[You have killed Panthyruxi]
[Level Up! You are now Level 2]
[Health 10/10]
[Level Up! You are now Level 3]
[Health 15/15]
[Level Up! You are now Level 4]
[Health 20/20]
[New Title! Underdog Who Bites Back: You have solo killed an opponent more than five levels above you. +1% to Weapon Skill or Unarmed Skill whenever facing any higher level opponent.]
[New Title!
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
[New Title! Heavy Hitter: You have solo killed an opponent more than five levels above you with only a single attack. +10% to Damage against any higher level opponent.]
[New Title! Creative Fighter: You have killed an opponent using only improvised weapons. +5% to Improvised Weapons.]
[New Title!
[New Title! A Light in The Wilderness: You have killed a creature of Corruption without becoming Tainted. +5% to Corruption Resistance.]
[New Title! Warrior of Purity: You are the first on your Planet to kill a creature of Corruption of level 10 or higher. +10% to Corruption Resistance, +10% to Weapon Skill or Unarmed Skill against creatures of Corruption, +10% Damage against creatures of Corruption.]
[Entering Debug Mode… This planet is now in Debug Mode.]
[Loading Your Finger You Fool…]
[...Please Wait…]
“Wait for what?” Katalin paused, wondering what had changed. Her ears were still ringing from the bang earlier. She’d thought her eyes were dimmed from the flash, but then it dawned on her that everything seemed dim because the only light was from moonlight filtering through the torn tent doorway. There was no sound, because the generator had stopped. All the lights were out. The big floodlights had gone dark…
…and, outside in the darkness, the screaming started.
Katalin whirled to face the still-frozen Tiny. “You need to get the generator working again," she told him with urgency.
“Monsters,” Tiny whispered. “They were monsters!”
Katalin didn’t spare the bodies a glance. “There’ll be more if you don't get the generator working, Tiny! What’s your job?”
“I…” Tiny’s eyes finally lost a little of their glazed terror, and his gaze drifted to the big, silent builk of the generator. “I keep her working, no matter what.”
“The show must go on, remember? You have to get it working again! I’ll keep watch,” Katalin promised, picking up the big flashlight again and finding its weight comforting in her hand.
“The fuse has gone, I expect,” Tiny muttered, fishing out a dirty plastic box and rummaging through the contents.
“Sooner rather than later would be good, Tiny,” Katalin said tensely, spotting shadowy shapes moving beyond the doorway. That awful purring growl was rolling in from the darkness outside, along with shouts, screams, and the sound of running feet.
“Yes, yes," Tiny grumbled, distractedly. He shambled over to the generator and pulled something small from its workings. "The old fuse looks good?” He held it up to his nose and squinted in the second-hand moonlight. “That’s mighty strange.”
Katalin counted four or five shapes coming her way. The messages helpfully identified them as panthyruxi. “Just get it working, Tiny. Change the fuse. Whisper to it or whatever. Sing it a song. Just get it fucking working, now!”
“You shouldn’t have touched that wire,” Tiny chided, patting the giant gas-guzzler. “It’s put her out of sorts. Come on, my girl.” He switched off the ignition, then tried to restart it. It remained silent.
“NOW, Tiny,” Katalin growled through gritted teeth, “or we’ll have more of those monsters in the tent, and I only have one flashlight!”
Tiny’s hands started shaking, his throat bobbing as he gulped. “Come on, old girl, please. Please!” He rested his forehead against the metal, closed his eyes and tried the ignition again. There was silence for a moment longer, and then the generator coughed into life. Light flooded the circus ground, pouring over the chaos and the panic. Humans and panthyruxi ran in all directions. Squeals from the monsters were added to the cacophony.
Katalin blinked, puzzled by the absence of message boxes. Tiny was waving a hand in front of his face. Katalin considered him for a moment. “Did you just get a lot of messages about improvised weapons and panthyruxi?”
Tiny shrugged, and patted the generator again. “Dunno. I can’t read.”
♩♪♫♩♬♪
A single piper stood at each of the four corners of the field, the strains of Amazing Grace both mourning the dead and protecting the living. Several of the survivors sat in a daze, unable to take in what just happened. Others sobbed uncontrollably, distraught at what they had lost. The rest found solace in action, helping to collect and identify the bodies, bringing hot drinks and comforting words to the inconsolable, and setting up a rota of pipers to form a defensive perimeter. There weren’t any dead ant-beetle-beasties to clear up. They’d turned into smoke and ash, and blown away.
Effie had done her bit in the clean up, and now slumped with most of the surviving Pipes and Drums. None of them had let their instruments out of arm’s reach, even when helping carry the injured and dead. Others had joined them. Nobody had said anything, but somehow those who had made a stand against the beasties ended up together, a quiet and introspective group. David Canmore sat among them, a full head taller than anyone else, twice the weight and three times the muscle, with the throwing hammer at his feet. Jamie Simpson and Malcolm Gunn sat side by side on the weighty wooden length of the caber. Sergeant William Tait and Lance Corporal Alistair Bain were new to Effie, both home from the Army on leave, looking battered but not seriously hurt. Strangest was the small group of Vikings. They were some sort of amateur archaeologists whose show-and-tell had become more real than they could ever have dreamed, but who turned out to be quite handy with the spears and swords they’d brought.
“Effie?” Young Angus waved a phone in her face. “My phone’s not working. Can I borrow yours?”
Edffie pulled her mobile from her sporran and tried to turn it on, but the screen remained dark. “Huh. Mine’s not working either. Fergus, is your phone working?”
Fergus’s surprise turned into worry. “Funny you ask that. I thought I must have knocked it. Is nobody’s phone working? We’d best send someone into the village to try a house phone. People need to know.”
“Aye, they do,” Neil Munroe said, gravely, as he joined them from across the field. “This isn’t over yet. Nobody can get their car started, nor the trucks. They’ve sent the Mackay brothers over to Skalderton on their bike for help. Rory’s a fast rider, and young Callum has his tin whistle. There’ll be no help from Haldoun village. The beasties got there first.”
Effie’s heart fell at that. Everyone in the village who’d not been at the Games… dead? Her thoughts skimmed over all that had happened, afraid to look too closely. Afraid that if she did, that would make it too real, and that would mean the life she’d known until then had been shattered so badly it could never be repaired. A flash of memory flitted past, the coloured windows of light with words in that had appeared before her eyes. Picturing one brought it up before her again.
[Skill learned:
[Skill increased:
[Skill increased:
[Skill learned:
…
[Skill learned: Identify Monster 1%]
[Identify Monster has the following effects:]
[Upon successful use of the Skill, user gains knowledge of one or more from: a monster’s name, level, class, alignment and weaknesses. The closer a monster is in level to the user, and the better the user’s skill, the more information is revealed.]
[Identify Monster is an Active Skill]
[Antbeetle]
[Level 6 Insectoid]
[Alignment: Entropy]
[Weaknesses: ?]
…
[Skill increased
[Skill increased
She refocussed on the others sprawled tiredly around her. “Did anyone else see messages in the air?”
“Floating in the air? Aye.” “Yes?” “Yep.” “Yeah.” “Oh God I’m so glad it’s not just me!”
Neil Munroe cleared his throat. “Angus? Not you, Ross. Young Angus.”
Angus “Old Angus” Ross scratched his head. Young Angus looked up cautiously. “It wasn’t me!”
“I know, boy,” Neil replied heavily. “Not even you could call up an army of beasties. But you’ve a way with computers, and those messages looked like these video games I see sometimes.”
Young Angus stared blankly at Neil for several long moments. Effie waved her hand in front of his face.
“Stop it, I’m thinking.”
“About time,” Neil grumbled.
Angus took a breath and nodded. “Okay, so if you look at someone and kind of… think who are you, you’ll see their Name. Their… game name, I mean, I know you know our names already,” he added before Neil could comment again. “If you think Character Sheet, it will tell you what the game thinks your abilities and stuff are like. Except the skills are broken.”
“That sounds bad,” Effie said. “We’ve been sucked into a computer game without being asked, it’s full of killer monsters, and our skills are broken.” She paused as a new window appeared. From the way everyone else reacted, they were all seeing something similar.
[Entering Debug Mode… This planet is now in Debug Mode.]
[Loading Your Finger You Fool…]
[...Please Wait…]
“Debug Mode?” Someone voiced the question that everyone was thinking.
Everyone except Young Angus. He pumped the air, a gleeful grin splitting his face. “Yesss! Debug Mode! Ay kay ay Cheat Mode. Bring it on!”.
♩♪♫♩♬♪