Reese vaulted over the low concrete wall in the parking garage and grabbed the digital icon of a hammer and anvil from the air. A notification appeared in the upper left of his AR-goggles stating that he had acquired bonus weapon fortitude. He smiled to himself and kept on running past the parked cars toward the next objective.
"That was my power-up you jerk!" a female traceur called from behind him.
“Snooze you lose,” Reese called over his shoulder playfully.
Reese tapped his ring finger to his thumb on his AR-glove hand twice to select the newly acquired powerup, then swiped his thumb across all his fingers from pinky to index, sending the bonus to his long-term inventory. He didn’t need it for this race and didn’t want that girl to steal it from him.
He rounded a concrete pillar and was met with two obvious exits. He double-tapped his thumb and index finger, activating his Pulse ability to scan the building. The game system beeped in his ear and the schematics for the parking garage overlaid in his vision in blue. Reese kept a slow jog past parked cars while he ensured he had the best route to the final boss.
Two highlights appeared in his AR-goggles; one veering left and one going straight down the stairwell. He was on the third floor of a parking garage, which was common fighting grounds for the game Street Heat; the most popular AR racing game around.
Reese moved toward the open stairwell, picking up speed. He flexed his hands nervously and prepared to drop from ledge to ledge in what was called a Cat Wall Descend. He’d only gotten the hang of the move a few weeks ago, and the consequences of messing up from this height was going to be more than a bruised ass.
Reese took a deep breath then leapt up onto the first ledge. He turned, grabbed the concrete lip, and braced his feet on the wall. His AR vision highlighted with the distance to the next ledge down. His ungloved hand was sweaty against the white stone, loosening his grip on the wall.
“Just do it!” Reese said to himself, then jumped.
He twisted mid-air, catching a glimpse of the ground level forty feet below. The view in his AR goggles blinked a warning as he came in to the next wall. He grabbed the ledge with a palm stinging slap, but missed the landing with one of his feet. His treadles left shoe slipped off the wall, but he stuck it with the right and scrambled to recover.
The sweat in his palms intensified, making his glove-hand slick on the inside. He chuckled at his success—albeit less graceful than he’d wanted—and without hesitation, made the next leap, and the next, until he reached the bottom level. Another notification flashed in the corner of his vision.
~[Entertainer Passive Bonus: Sick Moves!]~
You wowed the crowd with a Cat Wall Descend. Get +5XP toward your final score.
--
Reese had been fresh into the game when he’d picked up the Sick Moves skill, which generated XP for performing cool parkour tricks. There was an XP modifier for how many Peeps were following the racer’s stream, but it seemed Reese had only gotten the base bonus for that last move.
He’d thought he would have a thousand Peeps by the time he was ready to enter the Rank 1 League and be generating hundreds of XP with every move… oh how wrong he’d been. But every bit of XP counted to get him closer, and he wasn’t going to turn it down.
The dungeon wasn't far now, but Reese didn't feel like he had enough of the right bonuses to take it on. He knew that the boss mob was just a projection in his AR-goggles, but the consequences of losing to that boss were real. Though losing XP and currency was only digital, it had serious implications for whether he would be able to buy an essential upgrade at the next Rank—or even get into the Ascension Heat.
He jogged along the sparsely populated sidewalk in the parking garage and checked the timer in the top right of his vision: 10 minutes 14 seconds. He knew that the race length was intended for twenty minutes, and he had to save at least three minutes for the boss itself, but he could spare a quick detour for another powerup.
Reese followed the highlights in his vision through the door and onto the street. Random strangers yelped in surprise as Reese ran past them dodging and weaving, some of them even shouting, “Street Rat!”
Reese slowed his run, then tapped his index finger to the side of his goggles to bring up the race route. He scanned the information of the path they’d already run, looking for the likely location of the dungeon. He used his thumb and middle finger to activate a small cursor, highlighting the most probable location for the dungeon: Squires Park. With a smirk, he dismissed the map overlay and returned his focus to the path ahead.
A digital checkpoint appeared in his vision just ahead and he bounded off the wall of the building, and over a couple of boxes to slap the blue sphere. It burst in a shower of golden sparks and Reese fell back to the ground, tucking into a roll. Checkpoints were only really important for multi-day races, but they did give a small number of additional Rank Points, which would be critical for Reese to buy his ticket to the Ascension Heat.
Reese approached a red light on a busy street and slowed to a jog, letting his heart rate come down a bit. His throat was dry and his muscles chattered with adrenaline. The body feel of the race, especially being first place, had a strong effect on Reese. He pulled up the real-time race chart with a tap to his goggles and saw another racer was close to his score, Samantha H.
Reese bounced from foot to foot with unease, begging the red light to change. Pattering feet overcame the sound of the traffic and Reese turned. A girl with bright red hair and a rainbow trail zipping out in her wake charged past Reese.
“It’s red!” Reese yelled after her as she ran out into the street.
She dodged honking cars and leaped clean over the construction barrier on the other side. She turned back with a broad grin. “Snooze you lose!”
The race chart in Reese’s vision showed Samantha H. passing him in time, lifting her to first place. Reese bounced back and forth on his anxiously. He didn’t have to get first place—though it would be nice—he only had to get third to get enough RP to enter the Ascension Heat.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The light turned green and Reese bolted on the spot charging out in front of the pack of pedestrians. He kept to the curb, making sure there was enough space for him to blast by anyone else on foot, and then rounded for the park.
A notification blinked to the left in his vision, and there, across the street Reese had just crossed, was a double damage multiplier hanging twelve feet in the air. If he timed it just right, he could use Mage Hand to grab it as he ran by on the other side!
Reese had been saving up his Spark—the spell currency—for the final battle, but getting a two-times damage multiplier was going to be far more important than being able to cast an additional spell on the boss. He didn’t have many offensive spells in any case, and Mage Hand was an easy 35 Spark.
Just before he was in range, he triggered the spell with a double tap of his thumb and middle finger, and selected the powerup as his target. The glowing red Mage Hand appeared in the digital world inside his AR goggles, and Reese threw his real hand out toward the collectible to cast the spell.
The red hand landed on the powerup and closed around it. Reese smiled, thinking about how bad he was going to out-damage that Samantha H. in the final battle. He double tapped his fingers to grab the item and bring it back to him, but the sensor in his glove didn't detect the input.
The Mage Hand hung in the air, wrapped around the power-up and Reese was almost out of range. He double tapped, his heart racing in a panic, but the glowing hand hung in the air uselessly.
“Damn old glove,” Reese said with a curse and double tapped again. There was a beep in his ear and the red hand zipped back toward Reese just before he moved out of range. He sighed as the icon appeared on the top of his notification bar showing he had the double damage bonus.
The park was just down the block, and Reese could see the other racer put on a burst of strength. He did the same, knowing that he if he gave her too long with the boss on her own that she could score major critical hits that he could never make up.
When the bright red shield went up around the park ahead, Reese knew he’d made the right choice. To keep snipers from stealing the last hit and scoring twenty RP without risking a thing, some race-makers put damage shields around the boss pit. Reese didn’t mind. He wasn’t a distance damager anyway—at least not yet. He still had to rank up to pick a class.
Reese pulled a bladeless hilt from the holster on his side belt. The plastic dagger hilt was solid in Reese's hand, and he appreciated the feel of the real, though it wasn’t necessary for gameplay.
When he crossed the border into the boss’s pit, the monster appeared in his vision. The boss mob materialized in the digital glitch, and Reese laughed. The 10-foot-tall squirrel with red glowing eyes roared, and the speaker plugged into Reese’s right ear it came alive with a high-pitched chattering.
"Really, giant squirrel?" Reese laughed again.
“You gonna gawk, or help?” the other racer, Samantha H., asked in a sarcastic tone. She summoned a blade of living flame and charged the squirrel.
Reese scoffed. Like he was her assist in this battle. No way. Reese was getting the final blow, and pulling ahead in this race. Second place would get him the RP he needed, but he wanted first, just to show that cocky Samantha H. up.
The giant squirrel lashed out with a clawed paw the size of semi tire and cut his train of thought short. Reese rolled forward into the grass and stabbed his dagger up along the squirrels arm. The monster reared back, and a damage counter popped up over its head.
Reese dashed left, trying to get around the backside of the squirrel. He jumped over the creature’s tail, landing another devastating blow across its spine. Red filled Reese’s vision and he realized he’d jumped right into Samantha’s attack!
He tucked and missed her incoming sword by mere inches. The speaker in his right ear rippled with the sound of flames and ten percent of his Health leaked out of the bar at the bottom left of his vision.
"Watch where you’re swinging!" Reese retorted.
She growled and stabbed her blade into the squirrel’s side. “Next time I won’t bother trying to avoid you then!”
The AR simulation of her fiery blade reflected in Reese's glasses as it disintegrated in a shower of Spark. Samantha opened her arms and pulled the spare Spark back into her.
The squirrel turned and whipped its bushy tail and Samantha leapt backwards. Reese dodged left again, directly into the squirrels waiting paw. It wrapped around him like a vice and the diode on Reese's spine fired, sending jolts of pain down his legs.
Reese jabbed his dagger into the squirrel’s hand. Over and over, he stabbed the plastic hilt against thin air, the monster only visible inside his goggles. Finally, the creature released him with a howl, its Health at just above fifty percent.
The momentary distraction had given Samantha what she needed to circle around back and lay into the creature. She’d summoned her equipped weapon, some rare axe, and chopped into the squirrel’s hindquarter like a lumberjack. Her massive blue-glowing axe dealt far greater damage on a single hit then Reese's little dagger would, but he knew he could still out DPS her.
Two more racers entered the ring, and Reese knew it was time to use his double damage. With four racers all assaulting the boss, it would be down in no time. He pulled the damage icon up by tapping his middle finger, then activated it a double tap. Deadly red light washed over him in the AR vision, and a positive beep rang in his ear.
It was time to go ham on this little rodent.
Reese dashed to one side dragging his blade through the squirrels armpit to its hip. The digital projection howled in pain. Its life was dropping in 5% chunks every second now. Reese wasn't a let anyone else get the final blow, he couldn’t. The boss was just hanging 20% when it reared back and howled at the top of its lungs. Reese's AR projection of himself paused in place and refused to move no matter how wildly he waved his hand. Then, a notification appeared in his vision.
~[Monster Squirrel Howl]~
You and anyone else in a ten-foot radius has been stunned by the squirrels howl. Effects: Stunned; 10s, Armor Weakened by 30%; 30s.
--
Then, as if by some cruel chance, skull-sized acorns blasted out of the squirrels back and hit all of them straight in the chest.
Red flashed all around Reese's vision in the AR goggles, and a Low Health warning blared in his ear. How had an acorn done 50% damage? It must’ve been considered bludgeoning damage—the thing Reese’s avatar was weakest to.
The AR projection of his avatar snapped back over Reese’s body as the timer on his debuff ended, a full two seconds sooner than the others. Reese had his Bangle of Disruption to thank for that. It was the only gear he’d ever acquired in Street Heat, but he was betting this squirrel boss would have something new for him—if only he could get the killing blow!
Reese’s Stamina dropped as he jabbed the dagger into the squirrel’s spine over and over. He was nearly out of Stamin, but the boss was almost out of health, just ten percent to go. With a pop, the other racers AR projections jumped back onto their physical bodies. They were scrambling to get the final hit.
Samantha appeared out of nowhere, shouting like a battle crazed warrior as she leapt through the monster’s back. The squirrel gave a final death squelch, then the digital pieces of it disintegrated, revealing Samantha at the center, panting.
She grinned. “You thought you were getting the final hit?”
Heat filled Reese’s cheeks. “Whatever. Enjoy your loot.”
The blue winner’s chest appeared on the ground and opened at Samantha’s touch. Golden sparkles burst into the air and showered down around a wicked looking shoulder-pad with three spikes. Reese crossed his arms. It probably had some great stats.
Winning chimes blared in their ears. Samantha cheered when the scoreboard displayed. She had beaten Reese by just for rank points. While it peeved him, especially since he didn’t get that sick loot, he'd still done what he needed to. He had earned enough Rank Points to apply for the Ascension Heat.
Sirens blared through the air and the speaker in Reese’s ear and two cop cars pulled up to the park. Reese looked at the other racers, bewildered. Who had called the cops on a sanctioned race?
“Drop the weapon!” One of the officers yelled and Reese through his plastic dagger hilt to the ground.
“Turn around and get on your knees!” another officer shouted.
Reese groaned and did as he was told. His mom would never let this one go.