The world dissolved around Rick and he found himself standing on a round platform floating in open air.

[Welcome to the Healing Trial]

He was at least a thousand feet above the land far below. The platform was connected to a series of others that formed a kind of floating lattice in the air. What took his breath away was the horizon. Rather than curving away, it curved up in front of him until it vanished into the far distance. When he looked over his shoulder behind, it curved upward there too. He craned his head; the arc of world turned into sky, and a red sun floated in the center of it all.

Rick gaped. It was a ringworld. A big one, too. More Larry Niven than Halo. Slate had said that he would be taken somewhere from an earlier instance. Had this been a real place? Were there actual ringworlds somewhere out in the universe?

[Healing Trial One begins. This phase will test your ability to use standard healing effects on a party.]

Four brown-and-gray robots appeared in front of him, each about shoulder-height. They didn't look like cyborgs; there was nothing organic about them. They felt like they’d been stamped out in a factory, not grown. They had heavy metal joints and spindly limbs. One carried a glowing mace; two others had heavy barreled guns. Rather than a magazine or a belt of ammunition, they had a cable running from the back of the weapon, connected to the robot bearer’s forelimb. Their heads were smooth ovals with a glowing purple crystal set in the center; they turned their eye-faces to Rick and sat there, humming quietly.

Rick’s ability bar was empty but even as he noticed, one appeared.

[New ability: Shield recharge]

A glowing translucent ball snapped into place around each of the robots, surrounding them with a sphere just slightly higher than their head and merging with the floor at their feet.

One of the robots turned its glowing eye towards Rick. "Incoming! All units prepare!" it announced in a monotone from a speaker he couldn’t spot.

Off on the left side of his vision, five sets of two bars appeared, one green, one red. The top set of bars had a shield icon beside it; the bottom bar, a healer symbol, and swords for the other three. Health bars, and the other ones were for… ability powers?

The platform under his feet trembled, then rotated. Another platform was sliding closer to them. Half a dozen green undulating creatures swarmed over its surface. The platform stopped 30 yards away and a shimmering bridge of light snapped into existence.

"Battle formation!" the robot with the mace called. Apparently, this was the leader. It was the same one who had warned of incoming enemies. Rick mentally tagged it as the tank, at least for now.

Rick lifted his hands like he would for Soothing Mist. It might not be needed for the ability he had, but it made him feel ready. For the first time, he noticed his hands were robot limbs.

Rick glanced down. He was a robot, identical to the others, except for devices mounted on his forearms that glowed with white light. They were like long flashlights fastened to his wrists, gleaming faintly silver.

"Open fire!" the lead robot called as it stepped forward. The two with weapons lifted their weapons and moved to the left and right, slightly behind the tank. The fourth robot raised its hands, which crackled with red energy.

A group of eight-legged caterpillars creatures were lurching down the rainbow bridge. They held an assortment of knives, axes, and pistols in their front hands and walked with the other six, undulating up and down like living sine waves. At their front, each had a gaping toothy mouth and on stalks above it, three eyes waving in the air. They chittered to each other as they wiggled down the ramp.

The two gunners opened fire. Their rifles fired balls of distortion that bent light and space around them as they flew. The first distortion ball struck one of the caterpillars straight on. It stumbled but continued on. A curved health bar appeared over its head like a halo with a chunk out of it.

The next caterpillar in line raised a flintlock pistol and fired. Its shot was hasty; it ricocheted off one of the gunner's shields. Two nested bars appeared above the robot’s head, both curving like the caterpillar’s. The outer bar was blue, the inner one green. The blue bar had a chunk out of it.

Right. Shields and health, and his spell recharged shields. Better not let the shields go down. That explained what the blue bars paired with the green on the left of his interface. This was handy. He didn’t have to physically turn and look at his party members to see their health.

The other centipedes were firing now. The first gunner-robot was hit again. The next shot hit the leader with the mace. Each shot chewed a small chunk out of their shield arc, maybe ten percent at most.

Rick targeted the gunner and activated Shield Recharge. The translucent ball of light around the robot flared briefly and the shield arc filled back up. The Shield Recharge ability had no cast time and a half-second cooldown. Rick activated it a second time, targeting the leader whose bar also filled completely.

Then the caterpillars were upon them. The lead robot waded into the pack, swinging his glowing mace. It hit one of the caterpillars with a squishy thud and sent the creature tumbling across the platform. It toppled over the edge, screaming as it fell into the void beyond.

Two more of the caterpillars attacked the tanking robot. Its shields flared again and again as they swung axes and knives. Rick fired his heal off and topped the leader's shields up. One of the gunners was now grappling with a caterpillar, so he healed that one next. He experimented by focusing on the bars on the side of his vision, and found he could pick his target that way. Excellent, this was going to make triage a lot easier.

The final two caterpillars rushed past the lead robot and headed straight for Rick. The first took a hit from the gunners and stumbled, while the other was torn open by a blast of red lightning from the caster robot.

The one who stumbled rose again instantly and lunged for Rick. His shields flared as its grasping limbs and stabbing knives scrabbled against the barrier. The knives glowed as they sank into the dome and pushed inside. His shield arc plummeted quickly.

Rick targeted himself for a Shield Recharge. Its power washed over him, refilling his bar almost completely, but it dropped quickly again as the caterpillar continued to stab.

There was a blast of red lightning, and the caterpillar exploded. Gore splattered on Rick's face and chest.

"Oh, come on, it can keep out the knives but not the guts?" He couldn’t help exclaiming aloud. Fortunately, the robots didn’t seem to care.

He hit himself with another Shield Recharge. It only filled his bar halfway, but there weren’t any more caterpillars attacking him, so he focused his next two heals on the team before finally topping himself up as the last of the caterpillars was blasted to bits.

[Healing Trial One complete. Healing Trial Two beginning. This will test your ability to use diverse healing abilities tactically.]

The platform the attacking centipedes had come from tilted suddenly and then dropped away. Two more platforms floated down from above. Rick thought they might hold the next round of attackers, but they dropped past his own floating platform without slowing. He could see squads of robots like him and his allies on them as they passed. Then his own platform dropped without warning. There was a brief sensation of falling, and Rick's platform slammed down onto a large plane of metal.

It stretched away in all directions, a field of overlapping metal plates. Antennas and other instruments thrust up from the surface in the distance.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Forty yards away, the plates that made up the ground swung up, and a flood of caterpillar warriors poured out of the hole. Another flying platform landed just to Rick's left, and a squad of robots leapt off. They charged the caterpillars, guns blasting.

"Forward!" the leader of Rick's squad called.

Rick's squad surged forward, gunners in the lead, caster robot just behind. Rick hurried to follow. His interface flickered as he gained a new ability.

[New ability! Nano Heal. Heal over time. Target up to two allies and heal them for five percent of their health per second. Continues until spell is cancelled.]

The tanking robot caught up with the others and took the lead as the squad bore down on the horde of centipedes. The leggy monsters were still emerging from their hole. They hopped up, waved their weapons, shrieked, and then charged forward.

Another robot platform arrived on Rick’s left. The squad riding it leapt into the fight. An instant later, another hole erupted, and caterpillar monsters swarmed the newcomers.

Rick had no time to see how they fared. The leader of his squad slammed into the horde of centipedes. The glowing plasma mace swung. Burning caterpillar bodies flew in all directions. The gunners slowed but continued pouring fire into the horde.

Many caterpillars turned their guns on Rick's group. A rain of bullets splattered across their shields from various caterpillars in the horde. The damage his allies’ shields had taken was less than Rick’s shield recharge, so instead he targeted his new ability on one of the damaged gunners and triggered it.

His right arm tingled and came up. The forearm device had changed. Now it had twin muzzles that sprayed green liquid across the robot he had selected. The substance sizzled and popped as it hit the robot's body, but it did nothing to fill up its shields.

Damn! It must only affect health.

He quickly targeted his Shield Recharge on the lowest of his allies, then set about hitting each of them with it in succession, always trying to target the one with the lowest shields.

"Aid me!" the leader called.

Rick turned. Their mace-wielding captain had gotten deep in the melee. Rick could barely see him past a wall of caterpillar bodies, but his indicators at the side of Rick’s vision told the story. The captain’s shields were gone, and his health was nearly half down. The bars had an odd grayish overlay on them, unlike everyone else’s.

Rick raised his right arm and targeted the nano-beam.

[Target is out of range.]

He could feel just how far out of range. It was a strange sensation, like how when reaching for something and feeling your fingers just brush its edge, you instinctively knew just how far to lean forward to grasp the object.

Rick dashed forward four steps. The party health indicator on his interface lit up nice and bright as the leader came in range of his abilities. He triggered the beam again. The green spray shot out across the bodies of caterpillars and hit the squad leader square on. The leader's health stabilized, then dipped further as another wave of caterpillars leapt on him, knives and axes flashing.

Rick raised his left arm and fired his Shield Recharge ability. The shields popped up 20%. As the sphere of energy flared back into life, it knocked caterpillars back in all directions, momentarily disrupting their attack. While the shield took damage immediately, the captain's health bar rose as the nano spray took effect.

The caterpillars renewed their attack and Rick triggered the Shield Recharge immediately. The shields hadn't dropped to zero, so there was no knockback effect this time, but the bubble flared. The caterpillar's attacks were relentless, but as long as there were shields, the boss wasn’t taking HP damage. By continuously firing off shield recharge, Rick gave time for the captain's health bar to crawl back up to full.

Now shouts were coming from the rest of his team. One of the gunners was struggling with two caterpillars as the caster robot fired his red lightning to protect him. The blast knocked one of the attackers away, but the other still grappled with the gunner. The gunner's shields were almost gone. Rick targeted him with a shield recharge.

After that, things descended into a wild melee. Rick shot shield regenerations as fast as he could, targeting every other one on the captain, using the rest on the gunners and caster, and once on himself when a caterpillar got too close.

The damage dealers moved forward, but too slowly. Rick was having a difficult time staying in range of the captain with his nano-heal. Every time his shield dropped, the damage the captain took wasn't getting healed back up.

Time for a new plan. Rather than hit the captain with every other shield regeneration, Rick waited until the captain's shields dropped and then targeted him again. Each time when the shields reappeared, it knocked back a wave of caterpillars and bought him a little more time.

The captain shouted encouragement to the others while plowing ahead without them. His health arc was down to half, and Rick was well out of nano-heal range. This was freaking impossible. The damn tank wouldn’t wait up, the damage-dealers were cowards, and if Rick stayed with one, the others would fall.

He was starting to think failing the trial was inevitable when the caterpillar attacks slowed. The damage dealing squad regrouped and started pushing forward. Just as Rick was almost back into range, the leader stood up to his full height and waved his plasma mace in the air.

"For Opticon and Chromius and the glory of Metallia!” he called, and then dropped from sight.

Oh shit! Rick dashed forward, jumping over the corpses of caterpillars. The hole they had come out of yawned ahead, and he could hear the captain yelling curses at their foes from down below. He sprinted faster. The damage dealers better be following, or this was going to go bad really fast.

Just before Rick reached the hole, the announcement popped up.

[Healing Trial Two complete!]

A deep roar shook the air and shivered the metal deck plates under Rick's feet. He stumbled. The hole yawned before him, and he threw himself into it.

[Starting Healing Trial Three]

Rick fell farther than he had expected, dropping into a vast chamber. The walls, hundreds of yards away, were covered in a green fungus. And he was still falling.

He twisted in the air. He had no idea how many points this body had into acrobatics, but it flipped easily and landed easily on its feet with a clang of metal.

The captain was fifty yards away, shouting defiance at a caterpillar the size of a sandworm. The captain’s health indicators were grayed out, out of range.

A second later, the damage dealers landed behind him. Rick ran forward. An icon popped onto his bar.

[New ability! Shield overload!]

The captain’s health was deep in the yellow as Rick sprinted for him. The colossal caterpillar reared back. Its nameplate was superimposed with a casting bar as it prepared to hit the captain with Overwhelming Crush. Rick had no time to read what his new ability did, but when indicator bars lit up to show he was in range, he triggered it. Just as the caterpillar's cast completed, the captain's shield flared bright, and for an instant, went completely opaque. It looked like the robot had been replaced by a two-meter tall white pearl.

The caterpillar's attack slammed down. The chamber rang like a gong, the sound echoed back and forth from the distant walls. The attack had an illusionary effect of giant bent metal plates shooting up into the air, fading a moment later to reveal a slightly dented but otherwise intact metal deck.

The damage dealers planted themselves, pouring space distortion balls and bolts of red lightning past him into the boss. The giant caterpillar’s health bar took a barely noticeable hit. How much health did this thing have?

The white pearl faded, and the captain was there again. His health was still deep in the yellow, and his shields were once again depleted except for the tiniest sliver. Rick's ability had absorbed the entire attack.

He started firing his Shield Recharge immediately, hitting the captain over and over again. Each hit took him up around 25%. The caterpillar's attacks came in hard and fast, not channeled, just regular melee swings of its legs with no casting bar. The attacks were fast enough that the shields kept dropping back down. All the while, the damage dealers stood back and threw attacks at the boss. At least nothing was attacking them; Rick was too focused on the captain to bother healing anyone else.

Rick cast Nano Heal on the captain, and the robot’s health bar started ticking up, but Shield Recharge Shield Recharge was not large to keep the shield from being zeroed out.

The situation was dire. The caterpillar’s attacks were relentless, and the captain's health was slowly creeping down under the onslaught.

Rick needed to buy more time. He checked his Shield Burst ability and saw the cooldown was almost done. When it was ready maybe the time it bought would let him get the captain's shield and health to a safe level.

Rick targeted Shield Burst as soon as it was ready and fired. Once again, the captain's shields turned into an invulnerable white sphere. The boss’s next several attacks bounced harmlessly off. Rick kept up his nano-heal, and blasted Shield Recharge after Shield Recharge into the sphere.

When the effect faded, the captain's health was three quarters full, and his shields were over half. Rick felt a thrill of elation. The boss reared back, and the Colossal Smash casting bar appeared.

Oh shit! He should have saved the Shield Burst!

Rick desperately mashed on the Shield Burst ability, but the cooldown was nowhere near complete. Just as the Colossal Smash cast bar reached full, the captain held his mace high overhead and let out a tremendous shout. "Rally!"

A wave of power rippled out from the robot leader to hit Rick and the team. He felt himself crackle with energy and instinctively knew his heals would be more effective. More importantly, his ability bar flashed, and all his cooldowns were reset. He hammered the Shield Burst ability just as Colossal Smash crashed down.

The world flashed and was gone.

An instant later, Rick was standing in the encampment. He was panting. His limbs trembled as if his human body had been doing the trial instead of a fake robot one.

Everyone stared at him.

"Did you win?" Gambit asked. Then the announcement appeared.

[Healing trial complete! Congratulations!]